Burning Slow

Going Back

Greyson carefully assessed each and every one of the chemicals in his lab, being as meticulous as he can possibly be. "Mix this with this, this one with this." He continued to mumble as he continued to keep on mixing chemicals that he knew would surely save his daughter.

"Greyson, I found them. Why do we need these? Which one do we use?" Nathan entered the room holding a tray labeled #307 . It was containing vials that were all filled with blood.

"Lay that down somewhere safe and grab that red folder that I was holding before we left. I placed it somewhere near Ember." Greyson said without even being able to transfer his attention away from the mixture and his chemicals, afraid that he might lose his train of thoughts and ideas.

Nonetheless, Nathan nodded at his father figure even though he knew that he couldn't see him.

He was able to find the folder that Greyson held moments ago on the stack of papers that was conveniently placed next to Ember's confinement in only a bit of time.

"I'm so sorry my power is completely useless right now, Em. You have no idea how powerless I feel right now." He whispered, getting choked up as he stared at Ember's lifeless body laying peacefully inside the room. He quickly shook the tears away. "But I promise that we'll save you." Nathan vowed as he placed his hand on the cold wall, longing to hug his best friend again.

"Got it!" He announced once he wiped the very few tears that managed to slip from his eyes.

"Good." Greyson momentarily praised. "Now find a person named Rocco Caiola." He instructed, ignoring the fact that he had heard the whole speech Nathan told Ember.

Nathan gently flipped the pages, afraid that he might tear it apart.

"Have you found it yet?" Greyson asked, putting pressure on Nathan.

"Is this even in alphabetical order?" Nathan snapped, starting to flip the flimsy pieces of paper frantically, completely stressed out, but still with the same amount of care.

"Nope." Greyson answered, popping the p, as he continued to mix a couple more of his chemicals together. "Nathan, you already know that I'm the most disorganized scientist on the planet? Why do you still bother to ask every time?" Nathan only groaned once again as a response.

"Is it possible that you can hurry it up? I am almost done with this." He said as a small puff of green smoke exploded in his face when he mixed the blue and yellow chemicals. He should have been wearing some sort of protective gear but he opted against it, quickly getting started on the chemicals and the mixing once they got home after they went shopping.

"Found him!" Nathan announced, laying the folder carefully next to the vials of blood. "So are you finally going to tell me what exactly are we doing?'

"I already told you, we're going to bring Ember back to life." Greyson answered the young adult's question as he read through Rocco Caiola's file.

"Yeah." He groaned out the word. "I already know that but how?" Nathan waved his arms in the air, getting tired of all the vague answers he's been getting from him all day.

"I'll tell you when she wakes up again." Greyson cleared his throat,  closing the folder shut. "This will bring her back. I'm sure of it." He laughed almost manically.

"Vial number three hundred and forty nine." The scientist recited, running his hands over each vial on tray number 307. "Ah, here it is." He picked up vial three hundred and forty nine, lining it up with the only light source in the room.

"Look at this." Greyson took a step beside Nathan and positioned the vial of blood so they could both see it, the light still shining through it. "See that?"

"What? What is that?" Nathan asked, weirded out but also fascinated by one small vial of blood that Greyson was showing him.

"Out of the light," Greyson moved the vial away from the light and handed it to Nathan, "it's just plain old blood."

"And when light shines through it," Nathan then moved the vial back to their light source, holding the vial carefully, letting light shine through it again, "It's plain white liquid with black blobs."

"What? How? Greyson, what even is this?" Nathan exasperated, handing the vial back to Greyson, waving his hands- gesturing to the blood.

"It's blood of a necromancer." Greyson answered, already getting excited, his bones jumping at this particular experiment.

A smile fought its way to his face at the realization. Just the thought of seeing Ember's eyes again. He's finally going to see his daughter's beautiful dark brown eyes once again.

"What?" Nathan's voice brought him back to reality. "How is that supposed to help us? How is that going to work?"

"If you can recall," Greyson popped the vial open with his thumb, the satisfying pop sound resounding in the room, "necromancy defies the natural order of the universe by creating the undead- or in this case, revival."

Nathan's eyes widened, involuntarily taking a step back. "So we're going to bring Ember back as a zombie?!" his voice continued to rise at each word that escaped his mouth.

"That would be the situation if we saw pure black blood in the light. I repeat, it would be." Greyson started to slowly pour the blood in the green elixir, turning it a light shade of pink. "But it wasn't pure black."

Nathan started thinking, the wheels in his head turning. They've been trying to revive Ember all this time. He was actually going to be able to hug his best friend again and have her hug him back. They could make more memories together now that-

"There might be a slight problem though."

The smile dropped from both Nathan's and Greyson's face.

Aside from their smiles dropping, Nathan felt a cold chill run up his spine at Greyson's previous statement. "Problem?" His voice cracked.

"Well, there wouldn't be any problems at all if we saw pure white blood in the light..."

"But?"

"But- you saw- there were black blobs in the blood." He said. "We only have a fifty percent chance that we'll have Ember alive and well with us in this timeline." He answered as he swirled the elixir, creating a dark blue color.

"And the other fifty?" Nathan was almost afraid to ask as he followed Greyson, walking over to the other side of the lab.

"The other fifty would be Ember being reincarnated to a timeline where she died but still with the same events- the only difference is that she died probably years ago." The scientist broke it to him in a not so gentle way.

"Holy shit."

"It is worth a shot, Nate." He added another chemical to the mix. "This is our only choice. If she's reincarnated back, we will still be with her- well, our past selves- and she can stop the events prior to her death in this timeline." Greyson patted his shoulder before walking over to Ember's confinement.

He unlocked the door and slowly approached his daughter.

Nathan swallowed the lump in his throat, walking behind Greyson. "Can I do it?" He managed to whisper out.

"Sure, son." Greyson handed the blue elixir to Nathan then he took a step back, giving the young adult some space. He walked out of the room, to his messy desk, ripping a piece of paper that wasn't covered in formulas, and quickly returned to the room.

Nathan approached his best friend, staring at her peaceful face. 

"This is it, Em." He whispered. He took a deep breath before slowly pouring the blue elixir in her pale mouth.

He quickly held on to her hand that was as cold as death, waiting for a response; waiting for something to happen, anything to happen.

A couple of minutes passed and he felt Ember's hand slowly start to warm up- still cold as usual but not as cold as when she was dead- and her eyes finally started to slowly flutter open.

Nathan released a sigh of relief, "Oh my God. Thank you." He breathed out, quickly pulling her in for a hug.

"Didn't I tell you that we would save you?" He whispered into her ear while she coughed and gasped into his.

Nathan pulled away and took a step back so Greyson can also hug his daughter.

"Dad!" Ember mustered all the strength she had, throwing her arms around her father's shoulders, crying- sobbing in his arms. "I was so afraid I'd never be able to see you again."

"Ember..." Greyson hugged his daughter as tight as he possibly can, fearing that he might lose her again. "It worked!" Greyson laughed, pulling away, wiping his daughter's tears away with his thumb. "Thank God, it worked!" He pulled her in again in a much tighter hug, completely overwhelmed with joy.

"Do you feel anything wrong?" Greyson asked after hugging his daughter, basking in her natural scent, in her whole presence. "Anything at all?" He grabbed onto her shoulders, twisting her from side to side and inspecting his daughter's being.

"Just a little throbbing in the stomach. It's not that bad. It isn't painful but it's kind of burning though." Ember responded with a smile but the huge grin on Greyson's face dampened, dropping slowly.

He tucked the piece of paper he scribbled on earlier in Ember's right pocket.

"Dad? What's the problem?" She asked as she tried to pull out the piece of paper that her dad tucked in but he quickly held her hand, stopping her.

A gust of wind passed through the room even though all of the windows were closed shut.

"We'll see you, my love." Greyson kissed Ember's forehead one last time in their timeline just as his daughter lost consciousness again.

"What happened?" Nathan approached Ember's suddenly still body. "Ember?!" He yelled as he tried to shake her awake. He released a sigh of relief after a moment when he saw Ember's chest starting to rise up and down.

He tried to shake her awake again. "Why isn't she waking up?" He panicked.

"There's something I haven't told you and Ember." Greyson sat down properly beside his daughter, gently stroking her face, his eyes slightly glazed over with tears.

Nathan released a huge breath before asking, "what is it?" He calmed down a bit, seeing Greyson's solemn face.

They both looked extremely drained but they were not done yet even though they'll be resting soon. not by choice.

Greyson sighed as he stood and took a step back, just as a soft glow started emanating from Ember, from his daughter.

"Ember can see the seconds of her life fade away, right?" Nathan nodded. "If she explored her power a bit more, she can see all the time in the world." Greyson placed all his attention on his daughter who started to release multiple dates and time from her body, encasing her in a circle of letters and numbers. "I found out that she can do this a couple of years back. But only in one of her very deep sleeps."

"In her sleep?" Nathan repeated. "But isn't she dead?" His voice broke as he said that, still not believing that they succeeded but lost her again.

"She is. But at the same time she's not. Her being is already travelling through time- to her past self."

"What?"

"Look at the time, Nate." And so the 21 year old looked at all of the letters and numbers floating around Ember.

Every piece of information only showed the same thing.

"October 13, 2230- 03:49 p.m." Nathan recited. "That's today. " He recalled.

"Those are the end dates of everything." Nathan raised his eyebrows at him, his mind wasn't processing any information at the moment.

"The apocalypse." Nathan visibly paled. He whipped his head to look at the clock.

03:46 p.m.

"Holy s**t! Can we stop this?" Greyson shook his head, his focus still on his daughter's peaceful face wondering how she feels at the moment.

"We predicted that it was today. But with the lack of scientists and equipment? We don't know how to stop it nor how it happens." Greyson said, looking completely defeated.

The letters and numbers around Ember slowly faded and her chest stopped heaving up and down.

It brought on a small smile on her father's face, knowing that her daughter was already reincarnated back.

He laid down beside his daughter. "C'mon, Nathan," he patted the empty space beside Ember, "might as well be peaceful before the remaining ten percent of humanity is wiped off the face of the planet."

Nathan didn't want to give up, but he knew that his father figure was right. He was cornered, defeated. he felt so powerful despite having physical powers. He didn't want to give up on the world but he had no choice.

He eventually laid down on the empty space beside Ember, holding her once again abnormally cold hand.

"Save us, Em." He whispered into her ear before all hell broke loose."