Chapter 5

Mary couldn’t believe it. Her brother had gone almost completely native, but he had starting wearing the traditional clothing of the Aztecs with a Jaguar pelt and some loincloth. He looked ridiculous.

She finally met the other pilot. Joe had a mustache, apparently was apathetic according to Juan, and he was the whitest guy she had ever met. Apparently, he was just Juan’s friend, and he went along with everything that he did.

Wearing a jumpsuit like Circe and her, Joe didn’t seem to care about the struggle. He looked at her. “I’d watch out for Juan; he tends to like them younger.”

Juan looked hurt. “You sting me, brother, but the time is coming when you are going to need to care.”

They were discussing things in a tent as Circe and Bill watched in the back. Those two seemed to be plotting something. Since getting back from meeting the floating head that called itself Chronos, Bill had become distant and almost calculating. And for some odd reason, the Aztecs that they traveled with had become incredibly reverent towards him where as before they just thought him to be some sort of oddity.

Circe had called him a prophet to Mary.

“All I am saying is that we all have to be loyal to Juan’s plan,” said Jesse.

Mary reluctantly had been volunteered to fight with the three. Circe would be on standby, and she was just happy plotting with Bill on something.

However, dealing with Jesse had gotten to her. “We don’t even know which tribe that we come from, Jesús. Other that we are part Spanish, and dad was . . .”

“It’s Jesse, Mary!” he responded. Anger lined his face as his skin took on a color of beat red. “And you better be careful with your accusations.”

“Well, it’s true, brother. Other than our great grandfather on mom’s side being from Mexico, our father’s family came from Texas, and dad’s mom was Irish,” she stated plainly.

Jesse about to respond stopped when Juan raised a hand from his small chair. “Mary, and I am going to call you Mary since that is the name that you call yourself. I wouldn’t worry according to Circe if we remain in this time; we will not be erased from history.”

Joe shrugged as he spoke. “That’s how she won me over, but then again, we were brought here by some sort of magic. Arthur C. Clark, an author, said significant technology is no different from magic, but here we are with more powerful tech, and we all got drawn through a magical portal in both cases which kind of defeats Clark’s point.”

Circe spoke up from the back. “No worries. Even those of us from ancient civilizations realize that some things are beyond rational control.”

Bill nodded with an odd smile. “My communion with the Ancient Chronos taught me many things. And he supports your plan, Juan. And if we stay in this time, we will not be altered by a changing time stream.”

Mary realized that something was off, but the fact that Bill spoke up and seemed to know things still felt wrong; he’d often suggest things to her brother only for the young man to call it stupid. He had always been odd in some ways just being a toady for her brother, but now, Jesse acted as a henchman for Juan while Bill plotted and seemed to manipulate both.

Bill spoke further at that point. He spread his arms out. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are the vanguard of the restoration of the important work of Atlantis. That is all aligned currently with Juan Hans Deikum’s goals as well. Mary if you will help fight this battle, it will get us one step closer to a better world.”

A frown and furled brow crossed Juan’s face as Bill mentioned his full name. He balled his fist, but then he let the anger dissipate. “I am Juan Marco De Anna not Juan Hans Deikum.”

Mary hated feeling pressured to do something that she felt was not right. After meeting whatever Chronos was the day before, she had rubbed the cross that she had received from Father Mayo at her first communion. This wasn’t what the priest would argue is the right path, but what was the correct path? That dogged Mary at the moment as her mind turned.

A thought occurred to her as Juan shouted at Bill the name that he used.

‘Joe mentioned some old wizard. If I find him, maybe I’ll find a way home. Maybe Ashton is still alive.’

Holding the cross in her right hand, Mary rose and looked at the room. “Okay, I will sortie with you.”

Bill smiled, and then he crossed the room and hugged Mary.

“Excellent, that will help us more than you realize. It will free up Circe to help in another mission. And I can start repairs on the spare machine man.”

Jesse smiled as well. “Sis, no worries. It is incredible easy to control one. I’ll give you all my wisdom of how to pilot it like a master.”

Juan laughed as he slapped the back of Jesse. “Do not listen to a word that he says.”

The commander of their little group laughed. “He barely knows how to stand straight up with it. I’m going to assign Joe to instruct you.”

Joe nodded. “The best aspect of the machine man is that it has air conditioning as well.”

Mary nodded as Joe leads her out to the machines. Juan shouted at him. “And no worries. You are too thin and young for Joe’s tastes.”

“Juan, you didn’t have to do me dirty.”

Juan laughed. “I just want your sister to get better training even if it is from a chubby chaser like Joe.”

As the pilots left the room, Bill and Circe stayed behind. “You know what you must do, Circe. Collect the remaining priests. The Aztecs do not know the spell to open the portal again. Though I am sure that you could teach them as well. Take whatever assets you need.”

Circe smiled. “No worries. I’ll collect them. I already know where they are. This battle will distract all sides easily enough.”

Bill nodded. “However, we must be prepared if it comes to past that we must have separate plans if one is not available. The spell requires the nine who know the spell.”

Circe smiled. “We have many distractions, young Bill. Do not worry. I have not survived as long as I have by not realizing that things take time.”

Bill laughed. “You have survived as long as you have because you are an abomination, Circe. We both know that I know the truth.”

Circe laughed. “Remember we still have a deal. I need that part, and you need a way back to Bill’s home, love.”

Joe laughed as he got Mary situated in the cockpit. Adjusting the cockpit and straps, Mary was amazed by how much the cockpit reminded her of some fighter jet.

From the exterior, the thing looked like it was failing apart, but inside the cockpit looked brand new. Joe explained what the various buttons and how the handles worked. “Now, the easiest mistake you can make in this cockpit is think that there is a button for controlling the arms.”

Joe then pulled what appeared to be a hat from a compartment behind Mary’s head. “This one is size fits all,” he says. “So, whatever you do don’t shake your head too much.”

“According to what I learned from the old wizard, he said that this was machine was designed for construction work.”

Joe tried to adjust the receiver. “Whatever you don’t move your head too much. If you lose your helmet, you will lose the ability to swing the club. It’s a crude weapon, but this is not an era that will be known for the weapons.”

“So where did we get the clubs?” asked Mary trying to look interested.

Joe laughed. “The wizard provided the one that you carry. He said that nothing would work too well. And of course, when we left him and his allies, Juan broke his club against the one guy who didn’t betray the wizard.”

“Frank was cool, but he didn’t want to go along with Juan’s plan. After Juan took out Frank by stabbing him in the back since he realized was going to stop us from leaving. I was left with no real place to go.”

Mary looked at Joe as he continued to talk. “Honestly, I have no place in this world. I could take this machine man and start walking, but where would I go. I am stuck to North and South America without one of those devices that can translate language. Sure, I know a bit of Latin from High School, but I doubt that I could even get a church in the 13th Century Western Europe. I know how to code and design chips not how to build a boat or speak Latin.”

Mary looked at Joe. “Then why don’t you leave. You can’t like being just . . . controlled like this by Juan.”

Joe sat down in the cockpit. “I don’t care. I am stuck. There is no way forward or back for me. I lost everything when I got made to be a traitor in era not my own. And when I lived as a computer engineer, I had a better life, but I was bored. I didn’t care about politics or simple things, and now, I am being led around by someone who wants to alter all of reality just because someone use to make fun of him for being Spanish-German.”

Mary remembered when Bill had used Juan’s full real name. “He is not Mexican. I know that, but why is he doing all this?”

Mary spread her arms while still balancing her crown.

Joe laughed. “He apparently got kidded all his life either in Chile or in LA by people either calling him a Nazi or spic. He is about as Indian as my grandmother with her high cheekbones.”

Joe then checked something about Mary. “And if you see this button blazing red, you are about to go up in an atomic fireball.”

Mary realized that Joe was a defeated man. It didn’t matter if he cared about Juan’s cause because he had nowhere to go. “Well good fighting out there, Miss Mary.”

He left her as the cockpit enclosed with armor. Alone in the circular cockpit, Mary had just her thoughts to herself. She had learned some details along with the basics on how to control this machine man.

Around her the cameras that created a three-hundred-degree view around her. However, the fake head seemed to cause strange distortions in the picture. The problem appeared to create some blind spots. Mary realized that probably allowed Juan the ability to backstab those other pilots.

Mary gripped the controls as she made sure that she kept steady. It felt taxing especially to keep the crown level. Otherwise, she might lose balance. However, the worst aspect was that to get commands, she would have to listen since none of them had working radios.

Mary realized that this was going to be another long night.

Marching towards the city, Juan knew that he could finally end Spanish eventually occupational of Mexico and probably the new world. When Tlaxcala fell, that would have a cascade effect. No longer would the Aztec would be satisfied with the petty ideas of just sacrificing to few people to satisfy the hunger of their gods.

Instead, the crafty priests who control the Aztec would want to expand their borders and understand the weapons that they control. Advancements would be made, and then the world would change where his damn mother’s family would never rise to power. He would never be called horrible things by kids because of his German mother, and he’d never face the jeers of speaking broken English like a lower-class commoner because his father got kicked out of a helicopter.

No, he’d be free of both.

Juan knew this true, and he didn’t care if he lived or die.

“Hey Bro, shouldn’t we get on the march?”

The speaker shook him as he sat back in the uncomfortable chair in the cockpit of the worker machine man. “Then let us start marching towards the old wizard and his allies.”

But suddenly thoughts caught him in fear.

What if the old wizard had found a pilot for the one that he had never seen? The machine the old wizard said was only reserved for the nobles and kings of his blighted ancestors. How could he Juan Hans Deikum not be a noble of the lost people of the wizard?

That is why the wizard had to die. That’s why the Spanish needed to be eliminated as well. It didn’t matter if he died. Altering history to undue the rise of new Murau Empires was the only way to prevent the foul names that he had been called to never occur.

“Let’s do a tight formation. We are just going to breach the walls, and then once that occurs, we will hold back and let our allies do the rest,” stated Juan.

And the microphone on his machine man suddenly picked up something coming from the defenders of Tlaxcala. “Quetzalcoatl!” These were cheers of joy.

And then he picked up other voices screaming from the Aztec warriors. They stated, “Quetzalcoatl,” as well. Some were already running.

And then Juan heard a voice as well. “Stop I am protecting this city.”

Juan boiled as he saw the machine man more like a machine knight. It stood there glistening white with metallic armor that looked like scales. A mechanical human face more like an ancient death mask with glowing red eye stared at him. The face seemed to be enclosed in a hood with what appeared dragon eyes on top of the hood. Those eyes glistened with red light.

The arms were well proportioned along with large shoulders that seemed to jut inward at the arms. And then there were wings that probably could be used to fly. The legs were equally proportioned to be like a human’s leg.

The machine knight stood there with a sword that seemed to be glowing with fire, but Juan hated that thing before him. And before Juan could respond, it was Jesse who spoke up.

“Ashton, you think that you are so bad with that machine, but you are a little boy.”

Jesse than pushed his machine forward. Juan screamed into his microphone, “Hold back bro!”

However, it was too late.

Jesse had his club ready to come down on Quetzalcoatl, but the machine side stepped Jesse’s machine. Unfortunately for Jesse, the only damage that came from Jesse’s attack had been Aztec warriors being thrown into the air and then dying rapidly, and Juan just shook his head slightly as not to lose the crown.

Watching the bodies hit the ground caused Juan to realize that everything was starting to go wrong. He heard Joe start to talk. “We should retreat. Our so-called allies just lost three hundred guys. We are cut off from the assault.”

Juan considered it. He willed the machine man to hold the club in front of it, and the Chilean realized that he was facing a losing proposition. Jesse kept attempting to fight the more war like machine.

Trying to instead of getting the club loosened from the ground, Jesse now looked like a drunk wrestler trying to grapple with Quetzalcoatl. Each time, he tried to get ahold of the other ancient machine, it avoided getting pulled in.

The third attempt ended with the clay fake head getting partially chopped off. Jesse willed the machine attempt to touch his head leading to the rest being ripped off. The triangular head appeared.

Jesse then lost an arm in his confusion. The sword sliced straight through any armor. It slid to the ground.

Juan had no choice. “Retreat, Jesse. Joe, pull him out of there. This battle is over.”

Aztec warriors were already retreating in fear as the arm had landed on more of them. However, as Joe pulled Jesse out. Someone wasn’t moving. It was Mary.

“Mary, this is over for now.”

Her machine man dropped the club which landed on more Aztec Warriors, and it walked towards the Quetzalcoatl machine man. Jesse struggled with Joe to the point where Juan also went and helped him out. Damage was all over the machine.

“Mary, this is over. Retreat now. You can’t fight Quetzalcoatl at this point.”

However, the answer that Juan received shocked him. “No, Juan. I am going with Quetzalcoatl as you put it.”

It was Jesse who screamed curse words ending in “. . . whore!” Juan turned off his speakers since it was ruining his hearing listening to the cursing of an angry brother. However, something was worse as well as the word seemed slurred as well.

And the word drowning out even the cursing added to his decision.

Quetzalcoatl!

Inside the city of Tlaxcala, six men sighed. One spoke up. “The gods are good. Hear how the men scream the name of Quetzalcoatl.”

“The god of war should not be praised,” said another adding, “Bringing those men from the future has been nothing but trouble. This has only intensified the war with Tenochtitlan, and the sacrifices make us no better than those murderers.”

“And you wanted to never do the ritual that brought both sits of people to our aid. And now we have a living god on our sides. This will bring the Aztec to heel and bring us victory.”

And then another voice distracted the meeting as he noticed something in the shadows despite his eyes weakened. “The horrid woman has returned.”

The woman laughed as she unleashed a smoke grenade as she placed a gas mask on her face. The warriors that she had brought already wore wearing masks already. This was not a good day for her as the priests coughed.

“I need nine of you, but I’ll find them eventually,” the witch said as she surveyed the situation.

Circe looked around her in the open stone room. ‘No doubt, Juan currently losing now that Merlin had found a pilot for the machine that he coveted. He is such a little man,’ thought Circe.

The warriors were already getting them into her ship where they’d be held in a suspension chambers. She had told the Aztec not to push the Tlaxcala too much, but men rarely listened to her.

She knew that this had to be done ever since the Maya made a mistake by disrupting Chronos. ‘It was especially true for them,’ thought Circe, ‘But men always make mistakes, and they never listen when someone knew better.’

Circe looked at the place, and picked up the gas canister. There should be no evidence that anyone had been here. Best to not leave any behind. That was how things get out of control. For Circe the Witch, it was best to not allow people to realize who did something.

Sure, her beloved Merlin would realize that she was involved, but that would allow her to find the rest of the old priests, and then all these problems would go away. For Circe, she realized that this would be more twist and turns.

Looking one last time at the opened air room, she wondered if Merlin would find her again. ‘It’d be nice to see his face again.’