11: And Spaces Between Us
Previously on 2.17 Seconds Into Never, kinda-dead Meg Atomic chased the failed Antichrist Ben, ex-boyfriend of Constance the Angel, away from the Pearly Gates and returned back in time to Liz Flask’s house at the point before she left into time in the first place! Meanwhile Gaseous Girl, the Wombat, the Green Moth, and Ron Raven find themselves on board the Titanic, and it’s headed straight for the you-know-what…
Somewhere in the North Atlantic, April 14, 1912
“Oh, crap, there it is,” Gaseous Girl said. “Look, that chunky bit way out in the dark, you see?”
“Yeah, I see,” the Wombat said grimly. “What do we do?”
“I melt the thing, that’s what I do!” Gaseous Girl exclaimed. She had seen the film more than a few times, and had never entirely gotten over the one bit with the mother holding her baby on bridge and asking Captain Smith where to go, or the Irish mother tucking her two small children in for the last time-
That did it; before the Wombat or anyone else could object Gaseous Girl shot away into the sky, fire screaming behind her. Then she dove down straight for the iceberg.
“Should we stop her?” Ron Raven asked.
“How?” the Wombat wanted to know, quite reasonably. “I got no ground to burrow through, you have an animal or something to commune with? Moth, what about-”
It was too late. The night sky lit up with a blinding flash. Then the flash rippled backwards, as if someone had pushed a gigantic rewind button on the universe. It stopped. Inched forward. Then back. Then it stopped. Then inched forward. It scooted back, then forward, then skittered back and forth a few times.
“Moth…” the Wombat said slowly. “What’s going on?”
The Green Moth’s eyes were closed, her fists clenched, her face showing signs of tremendous strain. “I am trying…” she said,in a voice just above a whisper, “to keep Time Itself from changing and also keep Gaseous Girl alive. That requires me to hold the entire universe and all of reality very very still. It is not easy. Please do not speak.”
The Wombat accordingly waited. The flash in the sky hopped and danced back and forth. The Green Moth did not move.
Present Day
“They’re on the Titanic?” Meg Atomic said. “As in the movie?”
“As in the real thing,” Constance said. “They were in a post-apocalyptic Edison City but apparently they fell through a hole in time or something, Communications is still trying to sort it out, but anywhere now they’re back in 1912.”
“Well, excellent,” Meg said, and her other self nodded in agreement. “Maybe you can take me back to collect them and then we can all go back to our proper timelines, all right?”
“Fine with me,” the other Meg chimed in.
“Well, no,” Constance said, rolling her eyes, “Apparently your friend the Green Moth went and locked up the timeline because your other friend just had to go and melt the iceberg because you’re all still stuck on the movie. Honestly, just go ahead and break the universe, why don’t you.”
Meg winced. Liz’s eyes went very wide. She inched over to Meg’s side and whispered, “Meg, what on earth is going on and why are there two of you and why did she just say to break the universe and who is she anyway?”
“I told you, I’m Constance, I’m an angel,” Constance said. “As for the rest-”
Her halo chirped alarmingly. She tapped it. “Yeah, me, what’s up?” A short pause followed. “Oh…. potato.”
“What?” the two Megs and Liz said all at once.
Constance chimed off. “Well. You remember my ex-boyfriend Ben, last seen spinning off into infinite space, all that? Remember him? Well, apparently he went back in time too. It’s the going thing now. Anyway. They just found him. Guess where.”
“Oh no,” said Meg.
“Oh yeah,” Constance said. “The Antichrist is on the Titanic.”
Well. Oh potato.
The Antichrist is King of the World!