The Adventures of Goldfish and Geneva

The Five Goldfish (Part 5)

Dave Goldfish moved through the ship to find his friend. Unless he could figure a way of saving Blaquesmith without creating a serious disruption to the time stream, he'd never be able to reunite his remaining selves. Then he thought for a moment. Maybe it was supposed to happen this way. Blaquesmith had always known more about Dave than Dave had told him and this had come out after the crystal wave, Dave's vacation and Blaquesmith's wedding.
"Bugger," he said as he wondered what to do. Time was a fragile thing to mess around with and without his cosmic knowledge he had no chance of working out the right way to make time go. However it was clear that he had to save Micah and he set off again. By chance he opened a door to the security bay. It was deserted as the aliens attempted to repel their borders and Dave smiled as he found the location of the aliens and their prisoner. "Hang on," whispered Dave to an imaginary Blaquesmith. "I'm on my way." He moved quickly to the location of his teammate and jumped the aliens holding him captive. Blaquesmith wasn't hurt too badly and Dave's surprise attack had taken the aliens unawares and he had quickly dispatched them. He helped his friend up. "Hello, Mic.. Blaquesmith. How are you feeling?"
"Goldfish?" asked Blaquesmith, as if seeing Dave properly for the first time.
"You were expecting Cable?"
"I thought you were in trouble."
"More than you know," muttered Dave.
"What?" asked Blaquesmith who whilst not hearing him properly, he had sensed Dave's thoughts.
"Aw, hell," said Dave, not knowing how much Blaquesmith had learnt, and was reluctant to tell him more.
"Oh, sod it." He decided that he had to do this anyway. "Come with me," he said, a touch of melancholy entering his tone. "I've something, or rather someone, to show you."

"By the Bright Lady!" said Blaquesmith as he saw Dave Goldfish chained to the wall. "Who the flonq is this?"
"It's me," said the Dave who had brought him here. "Or another me from a different part of the time stream."
"What is going on here?"
"Don't ask," said the Dave chained to the wall. "We don't have time to debate things."
"Look in to our minds. Learn what is going on. Find out a few more bits and pieces." Dave freed himself and looked at his friend. "Trust me."
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" asked Micah.
"Is it something about my tone when I say that?" asked Dave.
"No," said the other. "Maybe we're not that trustworthy?"
"As if. Micah, just do it. We don't have time for a committee." Blaquesmith looked at Dave, wondering how he knew his name, he hadn't told him. There weren't enough records for Dave to find out otherwise. Was he from the future? Had he brought them here by the crystal wave? How badly had he messed things up? He had to know, so he looked. What he found wasn't exactly to his liking.
"So you came joined the team to kill them?"
"Yes."
"And me." Dave nodded. "Yet you kept saving us." Dave nodded again.
"I thought there might have been another way. Things just got out of hand."
"And we're friends?"
"I'd like to think so," said Dave. "Otherwise we keep saving each other for no apparent reason." He looked at Blaquemsith and grinned. "I do have other things to do than pull your fat out of the fire all the time."
"From what I gather, I save you more than you save me."
"At this point, you owe me. Apocalypse, Mephisto and the aliens. I owe you my alien thing. Except I'm already rescued. So, technically, it doesn't count. A for effort though."
"So what now?" asked the other Dave.
"One of us stays the other goes in to the future to finish the quest. There's one more part of myself that has to be reclaimed."
"Aughoti."
"Dead on."
"The guy who orchestrated your attack on the Fringe. Where was I whilst this occured?" The Dave's looked at each other.
"You'll find out," said Dave. "And for what will happen in the days ahead, I'm sorry and I wished I could have helped you. But things are going to change. As far as everyone else is concerned, this never happened. You escaped the aliens and then freed me. Take me back to the Bar and Grille, so Fever can discuss why teams have hierarchies and stuff."
Blaquesmith nodded. "I can send you to the future," he said. "No one will know you we're ever here. Apart from us."
"Good enough," said Dave.
"G'journey, my friend," said Blaquesmith.
"Thanks," said Dave. "For everything." Micah nodded and Dave vanished from the temporal continuum.
"The final battle," said Blaquesmith.
"No," said Dave. "Someone did this deliberately. Once I'm whole again, then I will be able to finish this. I hate time travel. Plays hell with grammar."
"And you'd know," said Blaquesmith, who had picked up a bit more from Dave's mind than the situtation. The avatarr, the altering of the past, other realities. For now he'd keep quiet, releasing a little information at a time. It'd be fun.
"It'd be better if I didn't remember this," said Dave. Blaquesmith nodded.
"I'll do a partial mind wipe. Then we'll face the music." Dave closed his eyes in agreement and Blaquesmith did what he had to do.

Meanwhile, on the surface of the moon, another Dave Goldfish stirred, awaiting resuce from Jo. He didn't know how he got here, or where he had been. Then he remembered another reality and he collapsed again, after sending out a distress signal to Jo, via the telepathic bond he had learnt in the other reality. Over the next few weeks, things happened and the climax was a nightmare shared by both Goldfish. It convinced the shard from the future to wander the world, leaving the other to his own devices. He watched Dave develop and watched the future alter around them. He watched as Dave died to save his friends not once but twice. There was nothing keeping him on Earth after that. It had been a unique experience watching himself grow from another angle, but it gave himan insight on the human soul, and when he reclaimed his avatarrship, after Dave died at the hands of the Daleks, he had a new insight in to the dealings of the universe. What was altering though was the future. Something, somewhere, somewhen, had gone horribly, horribly wrong and with all his powers he couldn't find out what. That meant it involved him and for the first time in a very long time the avatarr was afraid and soon enough he would find out why.

Dave arrived at his destination just outside the Bar and Grille. He wasn't certain of how to handle this one. He knew that the transfer of information would occur between the real Dave and Aughoti, but how could he get what he needed to regain the part of his being he needed before going on to the final conflict which awaited him. He looked through the window of the Bar and Grille. As it was night and the team members were otherwise occupied, he would be undetected. Even here he could sense the tention in the air. How easy it would be to burst in and fix everything, denounce Aughoti as a liar and try and convince the Fringe that it was all a hoax. Maybe then Jo wouldn't die. However whilst he was debating the pros and cons of altering the timestream he forgot to watch the events and by the time he realised he wasn't watching things had just gotten out of hand.

"No," said Jo as her hand fell from her husbands. "NO!" she slapped Dave hard across the face, and ran from the Bar. Something in Dave snapped and the look on his face now was that of pure rage, directed at his counterpart.
"Excellent!" said Ricardo. Goldfish's powers reached out to Ricardo and snapped his neck, killing him instantly. He turned to the assembled members of the Fringe.
"Make peace with whatever gods you have, for you are all next!"
Outside the B&G, Dave screamed inwardly, as Jo ran past him though not seeing him as her eyes were full of tears. He looked inside and saw the contact made, the transfer made, overwhelming the real Dave with an extra portion of himself entering him. The darkness that he strove to keep under control had broken loose and now the genie was out of the bottle there was little that could be done to put it back. In fact Dave knew of only one way, and it would break his heart to do it. He ran after Jo as he knew what was about to go down in the B&G. He didn't need to see it. However he did need to stop it.
"Jo!" he called. "Wait up!"
"Leave me alone!" she said lashing out with her teleporting power, creating a chasm in front of Dave. He leapt, and reached out with his powers to take him across, just making it.
"Will you give me a chance to explain?" Jo turned around, fury in her eyes, and Dave wondered if he were doing the right thing.
"You betrayed me. You betrayed us. After all the crap we've been through together, how could you do it?"
"I don't know," he said. "Ever since it happened, I've wondered that. And after years of wondering, I still don't know."
"Years?" she asked incredulously. "It wasn't that long ago."
"It was for me. I'm not your Dave. Well, I am..."
"The hell you are. Not to me. Not any more."
"Look," he said, grabbing her by the shoulders. "I am from the future. I am here to stop Goldfish from making the second biggest mistake of his life." And make him commit the greatest tragedy. "Can you say after all we've been through that you don't love me? That you don't love him? Look me in the eyes and tell me that." He looked at her dead on, but Jo gave no reply. "I am sorry it happened, but it did and I'd love to change the past, but I'm altering it too much already. Do you love me?" Jo didn't answer. "Dammit, do you love me?"
"Yes," she whispered. "But I don't know if I can forgive."
"Give it time," he said, closing his eyes. "We always have time." The lie stabbed at his heart.
"I can't promise anything, though you already know this. How do things... no I'd better not ask. What can I do?"
"Stop Dave killing Stout."
"WHAT?"
"Dave's lost it. Seeing you leave has pushed him over the edge, and he's succumbed to the darkness within us all. You have to get him back."
"But how?"
"Go back, save Stout. With luck it isn't too late."
Jo looked in to Dave's mind. "It's gonna be close. He's about to strike. I've got to move. I'll see you later," she said, with a faint smile at the irony in her statement, and teleported out. In his mind Dave could remember exactly what happened next.

"Say goodnight, Gracie!" Then everything happened at once. Dave let loose his powers a fraction of a second before Stout vanished in a flash of light, Jo appearing in his stead and Stout appearing by Fever. "NO!" cried Dave but it was too late to stop it and Jo took the blast full on. "No," he whispered, shocked back to reality, filled with remorse at his actions and disgust at how far he had fallen. "My God, what have I done?"
"I love you, D," said Jo, and then she was gone.

The cry of Goldfish was echoed by Dave, knowing he had done more than kill her. He had sent her to her death. Tears in his eyes he walked away from the Bar and Grille, knowing that he could never forgive himself. He had hoped that was possible after all this time, but now he knew it wasn't. He sighed, resigned to his guilt then looked at his watch. It was nearly time for the death of another he called friend. He had missed it the first time around, but he needed to see this out of respect. He knew where and when. He opened a C&C bunker, which was near to the B from when he was building a USA branch of C&C. In it he kept a multitude of equipment, including a car. He had to use it to get to the Brotherhood, the team to which Blaquesmith now belonged. But not for much longer. He got in the car and put his foot down.

Blaquesmith kicked down the stairwell door and stepped through. Clutched in one hand was Packrat's neck. In the other was a hypodermic needle. Packrat was not in a pleasant mood.
"Please don't kill me! I... I'll do anything! I'll tell you how to beat my Master! I'll take ytou to my treasure! I'll..." The pressure around his throat tightened and the needle got closer.
"I suggest you shut up." Blaquesmith's voice was a hiss. He was mighty intimidating for someone bleeding from a dozen wounds. "Allow me some exposition."
"Hey, hey, I really don't want to see you nak...aggh!" Packrat's eyes bulged. "Nev'r min... go h'd..."
"Smart." he looked both ways and took the corner carefully. His weapons were gone and his power was low. He was in bad shape and getting worse. But he didn't show it. "This morning, someone on my team shut down all the security systems here in the Brotherhood Mansion. We were soon overrun with bigot militants and evil mutants, including your boss The Collector. Now, I had to get my friend safely to the tunnels with our research, so I made a sidetrip when the others got clear, but now I'm after the big game and if you give me away I'll give you what's in this needle."
"Wh't..."
"Good question." He took the left passage and looked both ways before ducking into a room. "My friends and I isolated the cure for the Legacy Virus. And it hasn't been tested. Impulse has the data, but I have the first vaccine in my hand. You could be safe from it forever, or..."
"You wouldn't!! You're a good guy!!"
"I ran under Darkside. I grew up as a thief. You're the lowest scum on earth. Who's to say if I'd be wrong? Who's to say I'd care?"
"B...But..."
"Let's go." He bolted out of the room and took the hallway at a brisk pace. Packrat swung back and forth under his arm, whimpering. Then the wall burst open. A man in smashed and torn armor pointed a laser at him, and he grinned.
"Got no time for you, Denti. I've got debts to fullfill." H lanced out with TK and crushed the man's skull. "Oops. That was overkill even for me. My powers are fluctuating. Ah, well." Packrat shrieked, and Blaquesmith bolted. "C'mon. I'll show you my room."
"Please... I don' wanna die.."
"You won't." Blaquesmith pressed againt the wall. "He killed, you haven't. But you're coming with me until I get the gauntlet from my room and make it back down to the tunnel. I don't trust you." Packrat's moans accompanied him down the corridor.

Dave put his foot to the floor. He had to get to the Brotherhood mansion. He had to find out what had happened to Blaquesmith, how he had died and how his body had ended up in a godforsaken town in the middle of nowhere strapped to a cross, in a strange religious ceremony. He owed him that much. He looked at his watch. It was getting close and he wasn't sure he was going to make it. It was quite a journey from the Bar and Grille to the mansion. He was lucky it was late at night and the roads were fairly empty at this stage of the day.
"C'mon, you useless pile of crap," he said to the car as the car pushed the 200mph limit. He had avoided the police so far travelling at this speed, and he would have to take out any car that tried to follow him. He was tired and been travelling a long time, but 1407 Graymalkin Lane was in sight. He had been there a few times, and he knew the area fairly well. At the beginning of the lane he slammed the brakes on and the car screeched to a halt.
"Okay, Dave," he said to himself. "Remember, no matter how painful this is going to be you MUST not interfere. You have to watch your best friend die." Seeing him dead was bad enough, but to see him die was another thing entirely. The way the people had reacted in the village had shown his powers were raging when he died, and being dead he couldn't shut them off. It had to be something to do with his being in the wrong time period. But what if Dave dceided to screw it and save him? Make sure he didn't die? Then things would be fine and this would probably never happen. But if this never happened how could he stop Micah from dieing. Dave was immune to paradox, or mostly immune, but Blaquesmith and the others weren't. He would alter things badly. How would Blaquesmith recat to the Fringe betrayal, his killing of Jo. To be honest it had been a relief when he found out he was missing, presumed dead as Dave had known he would never have to face the man when he first learned the news.
There was nothing he could do. For all the possible good it would do, more good would come if he let Blaquesmith die. And that would be two. He had to get this overwith and he never wanted to think of this time period again. It would forever cause too much pain, and a lesser man would kill himself with the guilt. However he was Goldfish, and he could take it. He did before and thought now the pain would be doubled, he would deal with it. He sped on to the mansion, knowing the security system was off line. he would not be detected and Micah would be too hurt to detect him watching. He sighed and pushed his remorse and regret behind him. Like everything he'd done so far, it needed doing.

Blaquesmith threw Packrat on his bed and threw open the trunk. The gauntlet. He had gone back as a promise to his best friend, and he intended to keep that promise. He strapped the glove on carefully, making sure not to press the buttons, and glanced at the wall.
His paintings. The Askani markings that told his life story piece by piece. It was an empty tale. Lost faith and shattered dreams. And love lost. Always love lost. He closed his eyes as the final buckle snapped into place. He had to be better than this. What is, is, flonq it! Why could he never remember three simple words?
He thought of his daughter's face, and how lost it looked when Bug had to pull her away from the door. The tunnel sealed as he sealed his own fate. He knew what was gonig to come. So he stood straight and turned as Reverend William Stryker raised the pistol in his hand and fired.

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