Chrono Voyage

Chapter 7: Christmas in Russia

     “Saint Petersburg nineteen o eight,” Elizabeth looked around as Benjamin was coming out of the machine and looked at the grey sky.

     “What are we doing here?” he asked.

     “To stop the cult of course,” she looked at him and pulled out two letters from a compartment that she had installed in the machine it was sort of a mailbox, and they started descending the hill and into the city.

     “What is going on here?” Benjamin looked around, the pavement was covered with snow, people around them minding their own business, he rubbed his hands he was cold, what he was intrigued about was the Christmas decorations and it was normal it was December, or rather it was December 30th – 1916. “What are we doing here on before New Year?” Elizabeth simply did not answer that she spotted two guards with their blue uniforms on horses and pulled Benjamin inside a clothing store, they had to blend in. She grabbed a grey fur coat as Benjamin had a black coat, but both of them grabbed an ushanka, black leather boots, and gloves of course, but as well as that they also grabbed a tuxedo and a red dress for the ball.

     “To get into the Russian spirit,” said Elizabeth as she put on the hat on her head. “Now that is settled,” Elizabeth led the way again.

     “Where are we going?” asked Benjamin.

     “There,” Elizabeth looked in the distance as Benjamin looked in the same direction. The Winter Palace in all it`s glory, the green façade, the white columns and the gold decoration on the walls, what took Elizabeth`s attention away was the iconic angel that stood in front of the palace, except this time instead of holding a cross it waved a golden flag, not just any flag, but the same one that was almost everywhere in New York and London, the Prophet`s flag. “We are in the right place,” she walked toward the Palace and handed one of the letters to Benjamin. The letters were an invitation to the palace.

     “When did I receive this?” asked Benjamin reading his name on the letter.

     “You haven`t yet, you are going to receive it in about twnt e time,” Elizabeth lied to him, both of them were never going to receive an invitation to The Winter Palace, but the good thing about time travel is that you can forge anything in the future and use it in the past and they wouldn`t know the difference.

     Elizabeth walked up to the guard and handed him the letter as he inspected it and nodded with his head letting them inside. Both of them made their way on the marble stairs and into the main hall, with white walls, a white ceiling with decorations carved into it, the big candle chandeliers, and the aristocrats that enjoyed the cocktail party. Benjamin and Elizabeth took off their coats and revealed the proper clothes worthy of an aristocrat. They mingled with the guests chatting around and whatnot, Benjamin was blown away by the fact that he got to meet the likes of Nikolai Gogol. 

     “My lady,” Elizabeth bowed down to a woman that walked past her with a white dress and a crown on her head.

     “Who was she?” Benjamin had no idea.

     “That was Alexandra Feodorovna,” Elizabeth searched for Nicholas.

     “You mean… that`s the tsar`s wife?”

     “Yep, and there he is,” Elizabeth looked at Nicholas the second, his golden handlebar mustache and his golden beard, blue eyes and flattened short dark hair, his black uniform with every medal possible attached on it. Benjamin just couldn`t wrap his head around why Elizabeth was starring at him so much, perhaps she likes him? In all honesty, Elizabeth just followed his every movement he constantly kept checking his watch until eventually he greeted the guests, smiled at some of them, and left the room. The tsar used the same route his wife used and exactly five minutes have passed since Alexandra left.

     “Come on!” Elizabeth pulled Benjamin to follow Nicholas, he walked down the halls constantly checking behind his back that he wasn`t followed. He walked to the end of the hall where he took the stairs down to a secret room where two guards stood in front of it.

     “Damn it!” Elizabeth was disappointed, she really wanted to find out what`s behind that door, it probably held the secrets for the cult. Even if it may have been just a hunch. Before she knew it Benjamin tore up his tuxedo and messed up his hair. “What are you doing? That is expensive,” she looked at him with disbelief.

     “Trust me,” he looked at Elizabeth as he walked in front of the guards. “Izvinite, pozhaluysta, pomogite mne, on napal na menya, on ubezhal,” he talked to them in Russian as he pointed them in a direction to where the mysterious evil men attacked him. Both of the guards had the honor to fulfill and that is not to have any incidents in the palace, they ran after the made-up evil guy and left the door unguarded. “We open this door and we might get ourselves killed,” Benjamin stopped Elizabeth.

     “It`s worth it, we have to do what`s right, stopping the cult is one step closer to the Prophet,” she moved past Benjamin and opened the door, being killed was the least of their worries if anyone even cared about them. To their surprise this wasn`t just a small secret room, it was the whole bloody auditorium filled with people from all around the world. You had the common people sitting in the seats and the aristocrats on the balconies of the theater and on the stage the man himself, the man that Elizabeth was hoping to see, the man that confirmed her hunch, the man with dark hair parted in the middle, with a long dark beard, big nose, cold blue eyes, and that stare that unsettling stare something out of a horror movie, it was none other than Gregory Rasputin. Elizabeth was going to leave right there and then but seeing as Nicholas approached Rasputin on the stage took her attention.

     “What are they talking about?” she looked at Benjamin.

     “Nicholas is saying that he should have picked a better time for the cult to meet, and Rasputin says that they don`t care which time is best,” Benjamin tried to focus as much as possible.

     “They? Who are they?” Elizabeth was confused even more.

     “Tell them that I have a reputation to keep up and if this gets out in public we are going to be assassinated says, Nicholas.

They are the ones that granted me these powers, don`t forget who cured your child it is only by their powers Alexei lives, the powers of…”

     “What powers? Whose powers?” Elizabeth was getting uneasy.

     “He said Nablyudateli,” Benjamin looked at Elizabeth. “The Watchers,” he translated, but little did he know Elizabeth had no need of translation, she knows them very well even to know what their name sounds in Russian, she never said a word and just left the auditorium with Benjamin following behind her who was now the confused one he had no idea what is going on or who The Watchers were. “Elizabeth hold on!” he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her back. “What is going on? Who are they?” but Elizabeth simply ignored him and made her way toward the exit of the Winter Palace, where she grabbed the coat and came out on the giant Palace Square and looked past the angel at the curved building in front for the General Staff Building. “Elizabeth…” Benjamin came out running, it was dark and it was snowing, there was no way they are going to the machine now as she intended. “Mind telling me what is going on,” he looked at her.

      “You are not ready for this,” she looked at him. “Come on let`s get somewhere safe,” they started walking down the square and moved toward the city.

     They booked a room in a hotel with two beds, of course, there wasn`t going to be a romance between them anytime soon nor there will be any in the future. Benjamin sat down and waited for Elizabeth to also sit down and begin explaining, she placed two glasses on the table and a bottle of rum. “It was the only thing they had,” she looked at Benjamin but it didn`t matter that was his favorite drink.

     “What`s the occasion?” he asked.

     “You are gonna need it,” Elizabeth sat down across from him and poured the drink into the glasses. “The Watchers,” she looked at him as he nodded and leaned on the chair. “There`s a movement in the future, the belief of twelve deities that created all of existence and thirteenth being the evil one, his name is Ox,” Elizabeth looked at him but Benjamin remained normal, no outburst nor panic, he only took a sip from the glass and leaned forward.

     “A religious group?” he asked, he couldn`t believe it, all those things, all that fuss for a religious movement? At this rate, he will never get to drink the bottle of rum. 

     “Except it`s much more than a religious group,” continued Elizabeth as Benjamin became intrigued again. “Think about it, all those things about every religion, the same story, twelve good guys against the thirteenth, Judas, Loki, the number thirteenth considered to be unlucky in most part of the world. It`s one story Benjamin one story that has been re-imagined in time over and over again. Always has been,” this time he finished the glass with one sip, the things he heard are not to be taken lightly anymore.

     “They created all of existence?” he asked as Elizabeth nodded. “Are they…?”

     “God? I don`t know. The cult in Monte Carlo had twelve main priests each of them wore a mask of a famous person that correlated to something they`ve done in the past, all of them had something unique: Light, Time, Nature, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Math, Life, Philosophy…”

     “Art, Music, and Invention…” interrupted Benjamin, he remembered that he saw the last three priests wearing a mask of VanGogh, Mozart, and Tesla, he understood the pattern faster than Elizabeth had anticipated as he poured himself another glass drinking it in one gulp and leaned on the chair.

     “The thirteenth, that came out afterward and that wanted to kill the bartender, he had a sinister mask he represents Ox, the one to bring all pain and suffering, the one to bring balance to all the good and to keep it that way.”

     “The last priest, he carried a portrait of Rasputin…” Benjamin looked down on the table. “Is it the reason why we…?” he finally understood why they came into this year as Elizabeth just nodded at him.

     “The movement shows up in the distant future, and people start believing in them, but not now, so tell me how does Rasputin of all people know about them?” Elizabeth asked but knew that she wasn`t going to get an answer.

     “The way that he talked, he said he healed the prince…”

     “History has it that he healed Alexei`s hemophilia with nothing but divine intervention…” explained Elizabeth as Benjamin drank another glass of rum.

     “Do you think… I don`t know… The Watchers granted him powers?”

     “No… The Watchers never mess with fate and how things should play out, they always stay out of conflicts, they only observe hence their name.” 

     “So what is going on? Is The Prophet working for them? Is he one of their pawns? Does this even have anything to do with him?” Benjamin had a lot of questions that even Elizabeth didn`t know the answer for, but it was good, he finally understood to ask the right questions.

     “Get some rest, we got an assassination to pull off tomorrow,” Elizabeth launched herself on the bed and fell asleep instantly.

     “Elizabeth…” Benjamin shook her on the shoulder but to no avail, he started hyperventilating, what did she mean by assassination? Was she serious? There was no way that he is going to sleep now.

     Morning came over Saint Petersburg and the sun shone through the curtains. “Benjamin…” Elizabeth woke up and looked at him as he starred outside, he didn`t even blink nor did he hear her. “Benjamin,” she touched him on the shoulder as he jumped. “What is going on? Why are you acting like this?”

     “I`m sorry, I can`t do this anymore, I`m not cut out for this,” Elizabeth just sighed and used the old cliché of saving the world and restoring it to what it once was, but nothing worked, she couldn`t believe they were going through this, she wasn`t going to bother herself a lot with whether Benjamin does and does not want this.

     “Alright then suit yourself, I am leaving you here, you know the language, you could get a job make some money, eventually find your way home, except you`ve been missing for a couple of years and maybe presumed dead. Imagine the headlines: “Ghost returns to life,” eventually all the attention will be at you and what do you know you are surrounded with conspiracies again,” finished Elizabeth as she walked out of the door.

     “Elizabeth waits…” he chased after her. “Where is our next destination?” she smiled and led the way.

     They climbed the hill and entered the machine. Elizabeth entered the tunnel of time and now landed in the year 1916 on December 30th.

     “We are at the same place,” Benjamin recognized the St. Petersburg, it was cold again and snowing, this time it was decorated with Christmas decorations, Elizabeth pulled out a bag with bartender clothes and walked down the hill. They snuck their way inside Yusupov`s palace and entered the kitchen, they blended right in with the clothes.

     “Get these to Felix right away!” one of the chefs ordered to Benjamin, but he had no idea what was going on, he just accepted the plate of pastries and walked away. Elizabeth took one and ate it, she liked how they tasted, except there was nothing happening to her, you would expect that pastries full of cyanide would kill you, but perhaps the chef was too kind to take a life away or rather was a member of the cult since so many men couldn`t take Rasputin down, makes you think did they even want to kill him? Or were they a part of his cult?. She pulled out a vial from her pocket with invisible liquid and poured it all over the pastries.

     “What are you doing?” Benjamin asked as he held the plate.

     “Go!” Elizabeth pushed him through the door as he entered inside and saw Felix Yusupov being accompanied by Gregory Rasputin and other aristocrats, he placed the plate on the table and backed away.

     “Thank you…” Felix nodded at him and looked back at Rasputin. Felix was a clean-shaved man with, small nose and big eyes, and short dark hair. “Is there anything I can help you with?” Felix looked at Benjamin who still remained in the room, but then remembered and left right away. Elizabeth was eavesdropping on the door when Benjamin opened it and closed it right away.

     “What was that? What did you do?” Benjamin asked her.

     “Quiet!” she kept listening on the door as something thumped on the ground, she opened the door and saw Rasputin down on the ground dead.

     “Good work, comrade!” Felix walked toward Benjamin and tapped him on the shoulder as he walked away from the room.

     “You`ve done a great service to Mother Russia,” said one of the men that accompanied Felix.

     “What did I do? I killed him!” he pulled his hair as he started panicking.  

     “Listen to me!” Elizabeth grabbed him by the shoulders. “You didn`t do anything, you couldn`t have known the poison was there.”

     “But you…” he pointed at her.

     “I didn`t do anything…” she looked at him with an angry look. “Isn`t that right?”

     “What…?” he had no idea what she was talking about, she was the one that put the poison in the pastries what is she talking about now, but the guards walked in and turned his body around.

     “Did you do this?” asked one of them in Russian as Elizabeth moved away and they picked him up from the ground, the guard looked at him seriously and anytime now he will be handcuffed and taken to prison, but the guard just hugged him and congratulated him. “You`ve done Mother Russia a great service, the Bolsheviks thank you, comrade, next target the tsar,” said the guard as they took Rasputin`s body and threw it into the river.

     Elizabeth and Benjamin left the palace and quietly walked toward the machine as they sat down and took a breath.

     “I hope you realize that it had to be done,” spoke Elizabeth.

     “Had to be done?” Benjamin looked at her with anger. “We just killed an innocent man, and for what?”

     “Rasputin was everything but innocent, he was the root of the cult, and that cult will never exist in the future, that bartender will never get in trouble, the Bolsheviks will assassinate the tsar his kids and his wife, and history will get back on track as it was, at least part of it,” finished Elizabeth.

     “What do you mean assassinate?” asked Benjamin.

     “History however cruel and evil it may be we have to restore it, and I hope you remember that next time,” she looked at him with seriousness in her eyes.

     “Next time?” he looked at her. “There won`t be next time for me,” he looked out of the window now.

     “That means bringing the black plague to Europe, making sure Adolf Hitler survives…”

     “You are not hearing me… there won`t be next time for me, I am done after this, now can you please take me home?”  

     “The Prophet knows we are in action, he knows we restored history, and he is going to be moving against us, that includes you, he knows your identity now and he is going to hunt you down.”

     “That can`t be real, I refuse to believe that…”

     “Hah… as if it matters what your beliefs are,” she pressed a couple of buttons on the console. “Once he is dealt with we are gonna return to the earliest point of history where it all went wrong and restore everything, once we do that you would have never killed anyone, I will stay out of your way and we will never meet each other. You would forget everything as I did back in New York, but for now, we have to change certain events in the history to lure him out and see what exactly we are dealing with.”

     “Is that even possible?” his eyes sparkled with hope.

     “As I said we have to get him first.”

     “Cool, cool…” he nodded.

     “Cool?” she looked at him.

     “It`s a word I picked up when we were in the future in Monte Carlo,” he answered.

     “Okay just keep it to yourself don’t bring it back home ahead of its time,” Benjamin nodded. “There is one more thing you need to keep in mind, everybody thinks that seeing the future and going back in time to win the lottery is what time travel is all about, but Benjamin this is the dark side of time travel, don`t forget that.”

     “Yes but… Elizabeth… Who is Adolf Hitler?” she looked at him and sighed, she didn`t even bother to answer him as she just started the machine and entered the tunnel of time.