Chapter 11

After getting back that night, Mary and Ashton had been ushered to bed. Mary had enjoyed the kiss that Ashton gave her which then Merlin had ushered them off away. A machine lead her down the corridor towards the secret door which lead to the Avalon.

Quickly, she went and took a shower. The body suit that they wore inside the machine men tended to have an odd smell after being worn. It was an odd combination of sweat which was cooled almost instantly combined with the material. Hopefully, the wizard didn’t know what they did in the cockpit.

Before they separated, Mary had sniffed Ashton. His suit didn’t smell like Mary’s which made the teenage girl wonder about things. She had put on the sleeping robe that she was provided.

Putting over her head, she was glad that Merlin provided fresh underwear as well. There were things that Mary wandered about the ancient like how he knew preciously her undergarment sizes. The sleeping dress was also comfortable.

Sitting on her bed in the robe, brushing her long hair. Mary suddenly heard a tapping on the door. “It’s Merlin; we need to speak.”

Mary spoke up as she continued to brush her hair with a trudge of hair tangling in the end. “Come in,” she said.

The wizard walked in wearing his white robes. He stood with his staff held out front. “Mary, I have to ask this question, and I want you to be truthful.”

Mary looked a bit shocked. “I have nothing to hide, so go ahead.” She added a brief chuckle.

Merlin the ancient man who looked like he was in his thirties and not some untold age that no one particularly understood sighed. “I have already asked Ashton, but have you and he had . . . sex?”

Mary blushed shockingly. She tried to speak, but she couldn’t get the words out. Finally, she drank some water. “I’d like to especially with Ashton. He’d make a good father.” Mary hoped that the wizard didn’t go farther.

Merlin shook his head- he knew something had happened in the cockpit of the mecha knight. “I know I shouldn’t be so suspicious, but it’s been a long time since I had to deal with teenagers. The last time that I dealt with teenagers was King Arthur Pendragon though I suspect that Arthur would barely count as a king even in this age. Though he was a much more of a king than most of the petty warlords after the fall, he only really had the East of England.”

Mary looked confused and a bit miffed. “Why did you think that we were . . . doing that. Ashton is a good boy.”

Merlin nodded. “I know that, but . . . it is a question that I had to even ask of Arthur knowing who his father was. However, it all didn’t matter. Arthur loved a woman that he should never have, and it all went wrong.”

Mary tried to figure out what was truly bothering the old man. “This isn’t about Ashton or me; something else is bothering you.”

Merlin nodded. “Call it just being here when I’d rather return where I typically spend a full century asleep. It’s a strange sensation being awake for several centuries only to get weaker and must sleep for a century or so. My hundred-year sleep isn’t natural, but it is part of the curse on me for living as long as I have. I have seen so many disasters trying to guide humanity back to the wonders that it once was. Mary, do you know what it is like to lose everything that you have built several times?”

Mary didn’t have an answer for that, but she thought about her father Tom Smith. “My father was a man named Tom Smith. He married my mother and then got sent to war in Vietnam. He apparently had many plans, but then he died in combat before his deployment ended. My mother doesn’t like to show it, but I know she looks at a picture of my father a lot.”

Merlin nodded. “War never results in a perfect outcome; I am sorry about your father.”

Mary looked down at her feet as she felt the hairbrush. “My brother tends to ignore our mother. He hangs out with our drunk uncle a lot who lives off our father’s pension and mother working two jobs. Mom never cares, but she thinks it helps Jesse to have a father.”

Merlin looks at Mary. “Does your brother tend to listen to your uncle’s ideas?”

Mary at first didn’t answer, and then she looks at Merlin. “I hate my uncle Jorge. He thinks all

of his problems stems from a war a hundred and fifty years ago because the Texans won even though uncle Jorge doesn’t seem to realize that our ancestor fought for the Texans. We are what is called Tejanos in the future because we didn’t show up after the Texas War of Impendence.”

Merlin nodded. “So, I am assuming Texans are more like Ashton of English descent?”

Mary looked at Merlin. “Yeah, but I just wish that my uncle and Jesse didn’t think that they stole the land. Mexico didn’t care about the land, and then a lot of Anglos show up and make it valuable. My uncle took us to Mexico to learn about our rich Mexican heritage, but it was really so he could drink. Jesse seemed to be amazed even though he didn’t notice that the Mexican kids hated him just because they thought that he was an upper class. Jesse is lighter skinned than me. I didn’t like Mexico. It seemed dirty and corrupt just like my uncle.”

Merlin didn’t know how to respond. “Mary, do you know that Circe was once my lover. I am cursed to live forever because of her. She did it as an act of love. She was an outcast of Atlantean society because she was born to the religious caste right as the Archons decided to eliminate that caste. Atlantean society was built on the concept of rings as much as that makes any sense. Each ring is supposed to support the other in their world view.”

Breathing in, Merlin talked about something deeply. “Circe grew up hating her homeland because she had been exiled. I chose to be a priest because I didn’t want to be a shepherd. My father said that I’d regret it. I once watched her dance thanks to being a diplomat with a man that I despise from Atlantis.”

Mary looked at Merlin. “Let me guess, Chronos was in the inner ring.”

Merlin nodded. “The Archons were at the center of the ring, and they could at any time decide someone from another ring was unessential. This contrasted with my people, the Murau. We encouraged free choice- Circe weaseled her way back to Atlantis by attracting the eye of Chronos. That hurt more than I will ever know.”

Mary looked at Merlin. “What were the Murau like?”

“We liked cattle. That’s the thing that I recall more than anything,” said Merlin.

“What you were a bunch of cowboys?” asked Mary kind of confused.

Merlin laughed. “I guess you could say that. That’s what has been the funniest aspect of traveling the word after the fall of my civilization. You find the threads of my culture in the survivors just as I see the influences of Atlantis as well. With the descendants of my culture, I see the first thing in the ideal of shepherds and ranchers. My culture was built on farmers and ranchers plus land ownership. That was how Murau rose. Atlantis rose in assigning position, and you lived that way your whole life.”

Merlin looked at the lights of the room. “Circe was forced as a child to live in Murau territory since the Atlanteans destroyed her people. The religious caste were supposed to be as close to possible to the Archons. It was rumored that caste had developed a time travel spell using forbidden knowledge from the great enemy which was apparently true. The Archons felt that the witches and great warlocks of Atlantis were going to use the spell to undue their rule.”

“Wait, so that was an Atlantean spell that brought us here.”

Merlin nodded. “I tend to think that the spell costs the castor more than I have ever seen. The Tlaxcala priests who cast the spell both times suddenly aged decades. Both times. I suspect that Chronos is playing a strange game.”

Mary looked confused. “Why do you suspect that Chronos is behind the leaking of the spell?”

“Atlantean like Murau magic was controlled by the religious caste. When the Archons destroyed the religious caste, any remaining spells especially the powerful and dangerous would have to be held by the Archons, and Circe never knew the spell since it was only known by their religious council’s highest levels before their fall. The Archons especially Chronos who achieved the immortality from technology hated the possibility that they could be undone, but they always kept information with them.”

Merlin suddenly stepped his hands, and he laid his chin on them. “Chronos needs a means to escape from accidently being trapped. That is where releasing the spell to Circe makes sense. He knows that Circe is skilled enough to teach it to the Tlaxcala priests especially after she reveals to them where to find a jettisoned Murau pod with machine men.”

“So, you believe everything was part of a plan to just get Chronos an escape route? That makes a lot of sense actually. Merlin, I met Chronos, and he took one of our friends into a chamber. The friend came back different, changed. He was Bill as I told your before.”

Merlin fell back. “You mentioned that before. Chronos found a descendant of the scholar caste of Atlantis- they were developed to allow easy mind transference. To my Murau ethics, it’s all so disgusting. Why didn’t I put it together before?”

“So, Bill is now Chronos? I just thought he had become a prophet or something.”

Merlin nods as he closes his eyes. “Unfortunately, I now know why six of the priests disappeared. The last three were talking to me the night the other six disappeared. I will have to move them some place where Huitzilopochtli can protect them.”

Mary looked at Merlin. “Do you have the power to do so?”

Merlin sighed as he shook his head. “Unfortunately, it may already be too late, but I will seek an audience with the teteuctin again. I now understand what the goal of this whole play has been. And it may already be too late, but I thank you for bringing this to me attention, Miss Mary.”

Merlin rushed out of the room.

Soon, Merlin found Huitzilopochtli looking at the machine knight that stood in the former theater. “We have a bigger problem than I realized,” said the ancient.

Huitzilopochtli got up from where he had been staring at the machine knight. “Ancient, how bad could it be?”

“My great enemy may have already possessed a body, and if that is true, I suspect what all of this had been about,” said Merlin as he raised his arms.

Huitzilopochtli looked at him. “So, the mysterious woman who the priests believed was a goddess is making her move?”

Merlin stamped his staff that released a purple light from the tip. “No, but no doubt she is involved in this catspaw.”

“Then who is the true enemy?” asked the warrior in the armored fatigues provided by Merlin.

Merlin spoke the Archon’s name. “Chronos is making his move, but I doubt that you’d know that name. He most likely has been sitting and waiting for an opportunity to find a suitable vessel for him to escape; I had hoped that I had destroyed his final foul vestige.”

“Will this Chronos use the witch to capture the remaining priests? What if I am unable to catch the witch before she abducts the last priests?” asked Huitzilopochtli.

Merlin nodded. “Then we will need to figure where the witch escapes to.”

From a pocket, Merlin produces a gun with a strange end piece. “If the witch escapes, I will need you to fire this at the witch or her means of transport as quickly as possible. Do not try to aim for a killing move. I just need to be able to track her.”

Huitzilopochtli nodded. “I will put more guards near the priests, but she is a witch.”

Merlin nodded. “I do not hope for you to end her. Just make sure that she can be tracked if nothing else. That is the most important part.”

Merlin then started to walk away. “Also, I want you to stand watch over the priests yourself, so I’ll need you to assign someone else to help Lord Ashton with the patrol tonight.”

The warrior nodded.

“It shall be done.”

Merlin nodded, and then he walked away leaving the warrior to do what was necessary. However, the ancient realized that he was playing a dangerous game now, and in his mind, he feels more hesitation that he first felt the night that Murau died. Something horrible was about to happen.

What little sleep he was about to get probably would not be enough for his nerves. Merlin felt fear that he would be facing Chronos again especially since he now knew that most likely his old villain had gained a body again. This would be a tough fight especially if he suspected what was occurring.

Joe hated sitting in the jungle. He hated being given the chubbiest women that the Aztecs could find because Juan told him that he liked them larger. Every once and awhile, they sent him an actually attractive woman, but for the most part, he just went through with it anyway. He was miserable.

In the early morning, he wished that he was back in Los Angeles working for Amiga. ‘They were doing amazing things,’ thought Joe. He had been working on redesigning a transistor that kept on overheating in the prototypes.

“I shouldn’t have gone drinking with Frank that night,” lamented Joe. He just wanted to get away from an overheating transistor with his old friend Frank, and then they ended up at the tar pits. Juan had betrayed Frank, and in the aftermath, nothing made sense. For Joe, he still couldn’t figure out why he had stuck with Juan since all the self-hating German wanted to do was work on destroying everything that Joe had been happily working on.

The saddest aspect is that Joe during all of this had figured out a way to reduce the stress on the transistor by adding a secondary transistor that costs a penny. He’d be praised hopefully for the redesign, and he’d be recognized for his abilities. That’s if he could just get back there. And then maybe he could buy a house, find a wife, and have a couple of kids. But nope, he was stuck in Juan’s zealous war against himself.

Juan’s War felt worthless. It would be so much better to be just eating at a Pizza Hut. Or even just a Taco Bell. And that was better than currently being sitting in a jungle with snakes and various animals with his boots currently in a puddle next to his machine man. Waiting for the signal to just go back into the machine man to get some rest.

That was when he was surprised it was that kid Bill with probably Jesse. Jesse stood in the shadows of the early morning. Joe spoke up.

“What are you guys doing here?” said Joe.

It was Bill that spoke up. “I just wanted to come and make a proposition. As you can see Jesse is now back with us. Along with his machine man, it has been upgraded by our patron at a record rate. Some parts from Circe’s machine helped immensely.”

Joe rolled his eyes at the mention of the patron. He had met the talking head once, and he hated that stupid talking head that had encouraged Juan in his stupidity. For Joe, he just wanted to go ask for forgiveness from Merlin. Maybe the wizard could send him back to the future.

“So, what does the patron want?” asked Joe just wanting to get something on his mind.

The teenage boy laughed while the other teenage boy just stood in the shadows more like a guard. Jesse no long was wearing the Aztec warrior style clothing, but instead, he was wearing something similar to Bill: a jumpsuit with the rings on either side. That green jumpsuit unnerved Joe’s mind. It was bright green almost sickly green. And there was that odd circle symbol on the shoulder just like Bill’s just not golden.

Circe didn’t have the symbol on her jumpsuit. She had symbol that was beige with an emblem that looked like a trident. Joe noticed an odd red dot in the middle on Bill’s symbol.

Joe wasn’t sure, but he thought that one of Jesse’s eyes glowed. This was directly after the computer technician gave a stern look at Bill. Apparently, Jesse didn’t like it.

Bill finally spoke. “Go along with the plan, but when the key moment happens, I need you to pull back. You will know because Jesse and his new machine will enter the combat zone in the aftermath of the signal. You will rendezvous with him at that point. This retreat will make Ashton overconfident and fall into a much better trap.”

“So, you want me to betray Juan?”

Bill nodded. “Chronos isn’t as down with Juan’s plan now. He thinks it best if time continues as it was always intended.”

Joe shook his saggy blond-haired head that seems to be thinning at the front. Joe looked at the black teen. “And then what do you intend? I pull back and just let something horrible happen.”

Joe sitting in the machine man at about tree level. Even there, he could see that Jesse’s eye flinched with a red dot, and he still didn’t speak. There was something unnerving about both teenagers.

Bill smiled. “When the signal occurs, you just simply pull back. That’s all. When it is all done, we will all get sent back to the future.”

Joe chuckled. “That’s not how it ever works. You make it too easy. So, you give me the signal, and what if Juan is totally brutally beaten?”

Jesse started to move forward, but Bill held out his hand. “He meant no disrespect Jesse just asking a question.”

Bill put down his head while Jesse move backwards as Joe spoke. “Fine, you expect me to betray Juan. That’s how I got stuck in this situation when I left Frank die. How do I know that I won’t be in a worse situation than I am now.”

“It’s how all of us got stuck in this situation,” said Bill. “If we want to get back to the future, we will need to work together. And of course, the more zealous of our group will need to fill a bit betrayal for the greater good of all of us. However, that doesn’t mean death. If you work with us, it will all come together, and you will be home again. Far away from all of this insanity.”

Joe thought about it. He was tired of sitting in places where he didn’t understand what was going on. He was tired of all this stupidity. He was tired of not working on circuit boards anymore.

“Fine, but what is the signal?”

Jesse smiled. “I will fire a shot in the air from my new machine man.”

“So, the bodyguard can speak. Okay, I will pull back when I hear a shot of some sort from behind me.”

Joe pulled back as Bill and Jesse nodded. “Then we have a deal,” said Bill. “I’d ask you to come down, but I get that you prefer to stay in that Murau machine.”

Joe nodded. “There is something not quite right about you or Jesse. I never got to really meet you before, Bill, but if the devil himself came out to tell me that he’d get me back to my normal nine to five just to fix transistors in a computer, I’d take him up on the offer. Besides, it’s muggy out, and it is easier to stay in the slight air conditioning of the machine man.”

Jesse turned around, and walked away. Bill stood there. “I’ll keep you to that deal.”

Ashton woke up early that morning. He ate the strange rectangle breakfast, and then he noticed a new pair of clothes. He often wondered what the old wizard did to get these clean clothes in his ship. Going for the shower, Ashton quickly got clean.

He then went and walked out into the hall. He thought about visiting Mary, but his own experience with his sisters told him that it was better to avoid disturbing girls when they were sleeping. Christmas morning had become a long morning waiting for the two to wake up. He just wanted to avoid waking them up in the morning after that Christmas.

Walking up the hallway. He went to the door that led to the chamber where the machine knight stood. Merlin’s guards were still on the outside keeping the people of the city from seeing the machine knight. The oddest aspect was that Huitzilopochtli wasn’t standing guard at the moment.

Standing there, Ashton turned around to see Merlin standing there. “You know it is sad that this machine was only meant for war. The Machine man helped to build the great citadels of Murau, but the machine knights barely had a chance to do anything. You never know what you will miss until it is gone; I guess. I remember seeing thousands of them lined up in the great capital of Avalon next to Mount Adama.”

“Merlin, you are up?”

Ashton noticed the man nodded. “Sadly, I barely sleep. You slept seven hours, but it was exciting day yesterday as you told me. Hopefully, your experience flying the machine knight got your curiosity sated.”

Ashton nodded. “It was appreciated. However, how is a machine like . . . that able to survive for centuries to millennium.”

Merlin laughed. “It wasn’t out in the open. Oxygen and rust would even destroy a machine knight.”

“So how did it not happen?”

Merlin smiled. “I like teaching,” said the ancient.

“You remind me of Arthur when he’d ask me questions,” he added.

Ashton blushed a bit.

“Don’t take that as much of a compliment,” said Merlin after noticing the redness on the boy’s face. “Arthur too often didn’t listen to my lessons, and in the end, it all came to a horrid end too quickly.”

Ashton looked at the man who didn’t seem old, but there was so much regret in his voice. “Did the fall of Camelot or Murau hurt more?”

Merlin didn’t answer for a moment. He then looked up at the machine. “Murau was my home, but I was always detached from it trying to chase a dream. I chose the priestly path to escape being a shepherd, and then became a diplomat of Murau because I didn’t want to teach a religion that I really didn’t believe till it all came crashing down.”

Chuckling, the wizard turned his head. “An ambassador mage, but I never really loved Murau. There is a great joke in there. And then in a day and a night, it was all gone. My family, friends, and even enemies that were my countrymen were mostly gone. What was left of Murau leadership lay dead inside what is now my ship used in a spell that I had no idea about that still gives me nightmares. And my nation no longer existed on the planet. Just a couple of lordlings and a Prince that the court had disowned.”

Merlin lamented. “I can’t even find pieces of my culture in the seabed. I think the last example of anything is off the coast of Nipon as the inhabitants now call it, but it is so warped that no one could ever identify it as Murau.”

Then he looked up as the rays of the new day started at the ceiling. “Camelot was something that I built with my own wisdom and talents. Was it perfect?”

The ancient answered his own question. “No. It wasn’t, but I had hope for Camelot. It meant something. I helped to create the church in fact, but Camelot was more hands on. I cared to help Arthur. That is why he rests inside a small island in Glastonbury until I can find a better spot. Some called it Avalon. I put out a fake grave or two as well to keep anyone from finding the stasis pod that he is in.”

Ashton looked at Merlin. “So, Arthur is in a statis pod?”

Merlin nodded. “It is well buried on that small island. Some call it the isle of Avalon as I mentioned, but my hope is someday that Arthur’s wounds can be cured when technology gets better on Earth. He was like a son to me in a lot of ways, and I don’t really want him to be king again. I just honestly want him to just experience a good long life without the disappointment that he experienced.”

“What would that take?” asked Ashton.

Merlin sighed. “His wounds were grave, but it will take things that I do not have access to on my ship or magic. All I could do was put him into statis.”

Merlin then added. “The stasis pod that the mecha-knight is just a larger version. It basically makes a statis field around the object. In fact, the pod still works. That’s my objective with the machine men is just to put them back into the pod and rebury it.”

“What about your allies?”

“They’d rather that I just have you march on the Aztecs and put fear into their hearts and slaughter them all, but I feel like this might be the final day of this whole situation. You will need to be careful in tonight’s patrol. Something is a foot, and I will have to make a move tonight most likely. Be ready for anything tonight.”

Ashton looked a bit disturbed.

“Do you think that I might die?” asked Ashton a bit worried.

Merlin sighed. “I don’t know the future. That was an Atlantean spell. I can’t decern the future with a vision. I can shoot lighting and heal minor injuries. However, I cannot read the future. We were always guided by prophecy not trying to see the future when the whole thing was spoiled if we just listened. And I was never good at prophecy either- in Murau that was a curse to be given visions of the future. If I was, I would have seen the signs of Jesus Christ appearing.”

But the ancient put on a smile on his face. “We can only pray that the Creator guides us this day.”

Then he starts to walk away. “And remember to get in some practice in the simulator. I have to go check on something today. So, I may not be back until after you get ready for the patrol tonight.”

Ashton nodded and mulled on what the ancient had said.

The ancient walked off muttering something about foot traffic.