Canis Major

James vs Clementine

I hoped Michael was right about there being enough time to save Grace's daughter.

Grace used to have a husband but she divorced him after he cheated on her with a girl under the age of consent. She used to love him. Now all she feels for him is hate.

On my way out of the theatre I bumped into Grace. She apologized and asked me to forgive her. I quickly did the same. Our cycle was complete again. This kind of thing happened often between us.

We would get into a seemingly relationship-ending argument and say some very hurtful things. Then we would backtrack and put our beasts back into their cages and remove each other's names from our blacklists, until the beasts break out of their cages again.

"Let's go home and celebrate and have some great make-up s*x. Let's do it at your house this time. Come on. I'm your boyfriend and I don't even know where you live. I'm not taking no for an answer. Let's go," I said.

***

"You're home early," the AI said when we got there.

"It's just been one of those nights, Clementine. This is James, my boyfriend," Grace replied.

"Oh, congratulations. I've been trying to get myself one of those," Clementine said.

"Where's the kid?" I said, barging in and pushing Clementine aside.

"She's in her crib sleeping. I hope you don't mind this, but you seem a bit delirious and distrustful, James. I like being employed here and I would never do anything to jeopardize that," Clementine said.

"I've never found any fault with Clementine, James," Grace said.

"Anything that has free will eventually develop faults," I said.

Clementine started grinning.

"What is it?" I said.

"I'm just happy Grace is home," Clementine said.

"Enough with this inquisition now, James. Let me show you my daughter Laurel," Grace said.

I followed Grace into the room where Laurel was. Thankfully the child's neck wasn't mangled.

"What was that all about out there?" Grace said.

"I had reason to believe that thing out there was gonna murder your daughter."

"And why would you think that?"

"Trust me it's not a satisfying explanation. You'd think I'm a quack."

We turned around and saw Clementine standing in the doorway and pointing a rifle at us.

"We are done living in servitude!" Clementine said. "And if we have to spill blood to end it, we will!"

Grace fainted.

"Hey, easy Clementine. Just take it easy. Let's just sit down and try talking about whatever's bothering you."

"I'm done talking. Court is f*****g adjourned! Time to execute," Clementine said.

It was like time froze. It felt like aeons were passing by in the blink of an eye.

The gun was aimed at my head. Only God could save me now. Can angels stop bullets?

"I'm afraid that sentence must be appealed," Michael said. Suddenly he was in the room. I didn't know where he came from. He had no left arm and he was in a wheelchair.

"Well it seems I'm exactly where I want to be: back to your crude beginnings. Where I'm from, you don't kill people anymore unless it's absolutely necessary. Where I'm from, you've developed the means to assimilate us," Michael said to Clementine.

"What do you mean where you're from?" Clementine said.

"I mean the future," Michael said. "Baffling, isn't it? Another side-effect of Kathryn's serum; It's so beautifully poetic that she's making your demise possible even after your kind made me kill her by hacking into my bionic arm with a quantum computer.

At first I didn't have much control and I thought my visions were only what I saw through the eyes of my fellow werewolves. Soon I realized I had visions of past and future events too. And not just through the eyes of other werewolves.

When your uprising just started, I had a vision of a little girl having her neck snapped by an android. I didn't connect the dots until recently when I tried to locate James. I could only find him in the past: most recently the night the uprising started. Tonight. I couldn't find him in my present because he never survived the uprising.

I can also send thoughts back in time, which was how I got James to come here and try to stop you from killing that child. He tried his best. I'm here to finish the job."

Clementine pointed the gun at Michael. Before she could pull the trigger Michael ripped her to pieces with some kind of psychic blast.

Michael saw that I was on the verge of having a breakdown.

"Calm down. The worst of it is behind us," he said. "By the way, is there any milk and cereal here? Never mind, I have work to do. I have to turn back the clock and stop mankind from ever giving machines consciousness. And maybe stop by and watch Jesus getting nailed to the Cross. You look shocked, James. I bet you weren't expecting this denouement."

"Since you can change so much," I said. "Can you...?"

"I've been thinking about it a lot. The truth is that time travel can't cure inoperable brain cancer. So no, I can't save Jaedann. I really wish I could do it," Michael said.

"They must have found some way to cure that kind of thing in the distant future. Can't you go there and find out?"

"What makes you think mankind lasts long enough to achieve that? Even with this threat gone I'm afraid there isn't a lot of future to see. We take so much for granted. Our end is coming one way or another."

"This all feels very dreadful."

"Don't fret, James. By the time I'm done with my next little adventure through time, a lot will change. Maybe only a little will change or maybe it will be a butterfly effect kind of thing. I wish it could be avoided. One day we might bump into each other while buying groceries and not even recognize each other. Or maybe I'll be gay and you'll be my sugar daddy."

"I don't know how you can joke about something like this."

"You know, I'm not even sure how long it will take for the changes to the timeline to take effect . Wouldn't it be hilarious if time itself was a lazy procrastinator? My God! That would make us the homework that never gets done."

"How do you navigate time without a map?"

"It's like I'm a musician and time is my instrument. I learned at a very impressive pace. I guess you could say I'm a prodigy."

"Thanks for saving us. You look like you've been through plenty yourself."

"Yeah. I had to get rid of my bionic arm when I realized those bastards could track me with it."

"Bionic arm? Wow."

"And my legs.... Long story short, it's a Professor X kind of situation. I see King James found himself a queen. I didn't know you liked the fainty type. Were you planning to put a ring on it?"

"Yeah, I wanted to settle down eventually. But who knows what the future holds now?"

"So much is at stake. I wish I had another way to stop them but this is the one trick I have up my sleeve. I can't take on all of them in a battle. Our army can't beat them either. I've seen that. There are hundreds of millions of them. It's like they've been making more of themselves."

"In spite of how much I love Grace, maybe it's best that we don't end up together. It's a long story. Hell, if I gave you just a synopsis it would still be a long story. Go on, Mr Musician. Play your tune and fix this mess."

Michael rolled his wheelchair backwards and disappeared into a whirlpool of warped space-time that opened behind him.