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Echo Cloudbearer explained his mysterious origins to the team, giving a
brief overview of his life. When Olimpia screamed to create the Sixth Key
parallel reality, she also created him as a conscious component. The theory
was that the DNA in the saliva that came out during her scream somehow
rearranged itself, and gave birth to a new living being. Exactly why this
being wasn’t a perfect clone of Olimpia herself was the least insane
unanswered question about this whole thing. As a lone entity in the center
of reality, Echo had to raise himself, absorbing random psychic energy from
everywhere in the galaxy to even grasp the concept of survival. His mind
conjured memories that were not his own, or maybe not even real at all, to
explain to himself where he had come from. Years later, members of the Rock
peace talks spontaneously sprouted from a magical tree, headed by an
antagonistic godlike woman named Clavia.
Clavia wanted to use Echo’s powers for nefarious purposes, so he regressed
her to a childlike state, with no memory of her past. To protect the future,
he had to do the same to himself. The two of them were raised as siblings by
the Sixth Key leadership, and eventually ascended to power themselves. They
used their reality-warping abilities to create another universe called The
Eighth Choice. The Reality Wars had been subverted, hopefully forever. There
was now more than enough room, and enough resources, for everyone.
After the rundown, Olimpia and Echo stepped away alone with each other to
have a more private conversation, though they could still be seen. They were
all kind of watching the two of them, but Ramses was paying especially close
attention. Mateo walked over to him. “Are you worried for her? Do you think
this Echo guy is lying?”
“If he’s gonna try to hurt her, we’ll be here to stop him,” Ramses said.
“That’s not what is on my mind, though.”
“What are you thinking about then?” Mateo asked.
“He looks Sri Lankan, right?” Ramses asked.
Mateo nodded. “I would say he does. I don’t understand how he was...created,
but he looks like he could be her son.”
Ramses nodded. “Do you think he perhaps...could also be something else?”
“Something else, like...a vampire?” Mateo had no idea what he was driving
at.
“No. I mean...” He shook his head. “God, maybe I shouldn’t say it. It’s
nuts. But then again...I was there. I wasn’t there when she created
the Sixth Key with her scream, but I was there just before she did it.”
“Wait. Are you saying you think he looks Egyptian?”
“I....maybe.”
Mateo tilted his head as he was looking at the mother and son. His
resemblance to his supposed mother was undeniable. Echo was definitely Sri
Lankan, even if that meant he bioprinted a fake body just to sell a con. But
he could be half Egyptian. That was harder to see, but absolutely not
impossible. “Well, you have a DNA testing kit in your lab, don’t you?” he
figured.
“Yeah, but he would have to consent to it.”
“Why don’t you ask him?” Mateo encouraged. “We don’t have to do the thing
where we give him a cup of water, and then steal the cup, or pull a hair out
from his head. He might not be trying to hide the truth about you from us.
We may not know. Like you said, if you left before she made the Sixth
Key—and him—Echo might not have any reason to suspect a connection. If your
hypothesis is true, we would have to figure out how your DNA ended up
there.”
“Well, I did give her a hug while she was trapped in the proto-Sixth Key,”
Ramses explained. “We couldn’t actually touch each other at the time, but I
guess if you can make a baby without having sex, it turning out that the
dimensional barrier separating the mother from the father was
semi-permeable—allowing a second sample of DNA to pass through—isn’t any
harder to believe.”
“Why don’t you go get that kit, and then let’s have an open conversation?”
Ramses knew that there was no point in wasting time. He jumped into his
pocket dimension lab, found what he was looking for, and returned. Only
Mateo went with him up to the mother and son. The rest didn’t know what was
going on, though they might have spotted the scanner, and guessed. Or
guessed part of it.
Echo’s eyes darted down to the scanner as Ramses approached. “You want
proof.”
“I don’t think it’s too much to ask. It will barely hurt.”
Echo chuckled. “Pain isn’t a problem. But my origins are bizarre, as you
heard. I’m not sure what that test will say. I’m not a Boltzmann brain, but
I’m not a normal person either.”
Ramses shook the scanner gently. “I designed this myself. It accounts
temporal anomalies, and looks for signatures of cloning or bioprinting. It
will tell us if this body is her genetic son. Even if you’re an evil
psychopathic killer who stole her DNA to infiltrate our team, it will know
if it’s even worth trusting you in the short-term.”
“I understand why you need this. I have no problem with it.” Echo made a
fist, and presented his arm. He didn’t flinch when Ramses placed the top of
the scanner against his skin, and pierced it with a tiny little needle.
Ramses then did the same for Olimpia, but against the side of the scanner.
He made a fist and lifted his own arm up. “I have a hypothesis. I don’t know
if you know the answer to this question, or if you had even considered it,
but this machine is designed to capture both parents, and a child. That’s
why there are three needles.” He placed it against his arm, but didn’t prick
himself yet. “Do you see why I feel like I should be doing this?”
Echo narrowed his eyes and studied Ramses’ face. He looked over at the woman
he was certain was his mother, then back to Ramses. “I see it. If it’s true,
I want you to know that I didn’t consider it. I never thought much about
whether or not I had a father, and it did not occur to me that it might be
you. But you should also know that if that comes back positive, I’ll be
twice as happy as I was when Olimpia finally showed up.”
“Okay.” Ramses pierced his own skin, and captured the final blood sample.
The results came in within seconds. After interpreting the data alone, he
showed them both the screen. “Mother, father, and offspring. It’s struggling
with your sex, but leaning masculine. If you didn’t know before, you are
intersex in a way that does not exist in the natural world. Your sex appears
to be rather fluid, in fact.”
Echo nodded. “That is not surprising.” He took a deep breath, then let his
body transform. In only moments, he had fully transitioned into a more
feminine form. “My pronouns are whatever you feel like. I spent most of my
childhood masculine, but I have taken this form from time to time.” She
pulled her shirt collar away from her body, and looked down, widening her
eyes at the sight. “It’s been a long time, though.”
“You get those from me,” Olimpia told her daughter.
Ramses looked at his scanner again. “Hm. Fascinating.”
“What is it?” Mateo asked him.
Ramses looked back up at his daughter. “The sample you gave me, it’s leaning
more genetically female now. You didn’t simply transition yourself. You
changed blood that wasn’t even in your body anymore.”
Echo shrugged. “It’s still a part of me.”
Ramses sighed, and dropped his arms.
“Wait, what just happened?” Mateo questioned. “That sounds cool, why are you
upset now?”
“Oh, shit,” Echo began. “That means I could be lying entirely. I could be
some untrustworthy shapeshifter.”
“I don’t believe that,” Olimpia promised, entangling her daughter’s arm in
hers. She looked over at Ramses. “We still don’t understand how this is
possible, but I’m choosing to believe that it’s real. Rambo, you can think
what you want, but we have met more good people in this universe than bad
ones. The odds are in our favor.”
Ramses exhaled before wrapping his arm around Echo’s shoulders to bring her
into a hug. “I choose to believe as well.”
Echo went back to his masculine form as the four of them were returning to
the rest of the team to explain the most recent news. Then all eight of them
walked back up to the reality portal, and slipped back over to the main
sequence version of this planet. Echo didn’t know what he was going to do at
the end of the team’s day in the timestream, but he was going to stick
around at least until then. Romana knew of a perfect spot for a picnic,
having spotted it during her surveys. While they were eating, Echo gave them
some more details about his life. They were less factual, and more personal.
The team talked about the things they had been up to as well, but he had
kept up with their dealings, so there was little that he didn’t already know
about.
While they were in the middle of dessert, a woman walked up to them. None of
them had seen her appear, but Echo’s face fell when he noticed her. He tried
to cover up his emotions. “Sister,” he said, standing up. He wrapped his arm
around her waist. “Everyone, this is Clavia...what’s left of her, anyway. I
told you, it was complicated.”
They all stood up respectfully. “It’s nice to meet you,” Olimpia said,
trying to shake Clavia’s hand.
Clavia didn’t accept right away. “You didn’t tell them?” she asked Echo.
“I was trying to have a nice time with my family,” Echo argued.
“Nice to meet you too,” Clavia finally said, taking Olimpia’s hand.
Ramses pushed himself forward. “What is this?” He pulled Olimpia back a
little in case he needed to protect her. “You really are evil, aren’t you?
This was some kind of terrible plan?”
“It’s not a terrible plan,” Echo defended. “I’m not evil. But I was sent
here. I really am your son. I have not changed my DNA in any way, but the
person I work for needs something, and realized my connection, so we decided
to use it to our advantage.”
Off with the sundresses and casual picnic clothes. The team armored up, and
prepared to fight.
“That is not necessary,” Clavia contended. “You are friends with this
person. One of you has already promised to help them. It has just taken this
long from your perspective for them to collect. We are cognizant of present
and future events in this universe. We are taking you out of this brane at
this particular juncture because we know that doing so will not cause
problems. The rest of the team will remain here to build a home. Once you’re
done, you’ll reunite.”
“You’re being so vague,” Mateo argued. “Who are you talking about? Who made
the promise, and who did they make it to?”
“Leona?” Echo said simply.
“Me?” Leona questioned. “I don’t remember making any sort of promise.”
“Senona Riggur,” Clavia clarified, “at Origin. You said you would help them
fulfill other people’s wishes.”
“Oh, right,” Leona recalled. “I did say that, and it was a very long time
ago for me.” She looked amongst her friends. “They’re right, I have to go.”
“I’m going with you,” Mateo insisted.
“So am I,” Olimpia added.
“Mother, you can, and I was hoping you would say that,” Echo began. “Uncle
Mateo, you can’t.”
“That’s not true,” Clavia said to him.
“I really wanna spend more time with both,” Echo snapped back in a whisper.
“Share with the class,” Mateo urged.
Echo sighed. “Only two of you besides Aunt Leona can come. If it’s Mateo
then it either can’t be Olimpia or Ramses. I have a personal stake in which
two it is.”
“How long will they be gone?” Angela questioned.
“Interversal travel is complicated,” Clavia said. “Based on your patterns,
it would be a matter of days. Whoever goes will experience years of service,
but we will not be able to return them to a few minutes from now.”
“I have to stay here,” Ramses said sadly. “The two smart people can’t
separate themselves from everyone else. We realized that a long time ago.”
“I’ll take care of the dummies,” Clavia revealed. “Your tech isn’t that
hard. I’m smarter than all of you combined, including Echo.”
“Debatable,” Echo said.
They continued to discuss the plan, running through a few contradictory
scenarios, but only one made sense. In the end, Ramses and Olimpia chose to
aid Leona in her duties, along with Echo. The ladies said their goodbyes to
their husband, and everyone else. Then they returned to the Sixth Key, where
a Nexus would evidently be waiting for them.
“That’s a good idea,” Marie determined. “Are there schematics for a Nexus in
Ramses’ forge core? That should be the first thing we build.”
“All in favor, say aye,” Mateo prompted.
“Aye.”
