THE NATIVE SON

By Wesley Overhults

Somewhere, A Lifetime Ago

The thing that John always noticed about the Axis was how huge it was. It was like someone crammed a whole country into the thing but it never felt cramped at all. There were endless, rolling hills full of the greenest grass he had ever seen in his life. There were gleaming skyscrapers that towered over everything in sight. There were oceans and mountains. Everything anyone could want was all in the Axis. Yet the thing that always concerned John was that there were no animals. There were no fish in the rivers or small animals for children to chase through the forests. There were only Timebrokers in the Axis and nothing else.

John wasn’t born in the Axis. He came from a world far away. John’s world was a violent one where men would kill each other just to survive. Food was scarce on that world so John and his clan would kill almost any animal they came across just to get some meat in their bellies. Yet somehow, through some quirk of fate, John had evolved. He had ascended and had become something more than a man, something more than he or anyone else of his kind could understand. That was when the Timebrokers came and took him to live in the Axis. John liked it in the Axis but he missed the animals sometimes.

“We’re going to be late,” reminded Jules. “I mean it’s not like I care but I just thought you’d like to know.”

John looked at his companion, turning his gaze from the sprawling vistas he was admiring. Jules was almost John’s opposite. Jules was born inside the Axis, meaning that he was part of the race of beings who discovered the place long ago and colonized it. Both of them had heard the history of the Timebrokers so many times during school that they could recite it in their sleep if need be. Eons ago, a race of beings discovered the Axis, the center of all time, during their research of temporal phenomenon. They developed technology that allowed them to enter the Axis and decided, as any sentient race always decided, that colonization was the best course of action. However, during their first attempt at that, the party of first settlers discovered something horrific. They entered the Axis but an equipment malfunction resulted in their inability to ever leave it. The Axis became their prison but those settlers and would-be conquerors turned themselves into temporal custodians, guardians over all of space and time. With their consciousnesses expanded, they set about building an entire society inside the Axis dedicated for one purpose only. They would monitor all of reality but the only interference they could create would be pulling those who had ascended out of their realities and into the Axis. In their time spent watching, the Timebrokers, as they came to call themselves, realized that no world or mortal creature was ready for that kind of power. It was their job to train such individuals and help guide them in the use of such power.

“You’re right,” agreed John as he and Jules walked down the hallway towards their class.

Though Jules was a native of the Axis, and as such was afforded more luxuries than outsiders like John, the two Timebrokers were friends. Their friendship started the day John was brought to the Axis and placed into the Timebrokers’ school. The two of them were roughly the same age so they were placed in the same class. John discovered though that Jules could be an obnoxious brat when he wanted, a quality that led to Jules having a reputation as a troublemaker. By contrast, John was always more thoughtful. He was a bright student who always excelled at his work whereas Jules struggled in class mostly because of his attitude and discipline problems. The two boys were an odd couple but somehow they had struck up a friendship long ago and it held fast even now.

“I say we just skip class altogether,” decided Jules. “It’s nice outside and I don’t feel like being cooped up in that room for so long.”

“It’s always nice outside, Jules,” reminded John. “Trust me, we have it lucky in here. On the world I came from, the weather could get pretty harsh.”

“All the more reason to take advantage of what you have now,” suggested Jules. “Look, maybe you like staring at your textbook all day but I get claustrophobic. Tell the professor I’m sick or I got sucked into a wormhole or something.”

“You’re skipping again?” asked John skeptically.

“Not if you cover for me,” replied Jules with a grin. “Take good notes. I’m going to need them later.”

The two young Timebrokers were about to go their separate ways when they heard the crackle of energy emanate from down the hall. It was coming from the breach room and the noise was always so thunderous that everyone could hear it. The breach room was the room where Timebrokers brought those who had evolved from their home realities. Though it was expressly forbidden for anyone but those who had been properly trained to be in the breach room with the new Timebroker, that never stopped Jules before. The native-born Timebroker was the first one sprinting down the hall to get a look at the newest arrival to the Axis. John was hot on his heels if only to keep his best friend out of the trouble he constantly seemed to crave. Class was an afterthought at this point.

“You know we’re not supposed to be in there,” huffed John as he and Jules finally stopped at the entrance to the room.

“You always think too much about rules,” countered Jules with a devious grin, pulling a piece of metal from his pocket and using it to pick the lock on the door. “No harm in taking a peek. I always wanted to see what was in there anyway.”

He seemed satisfied when he heard the lock pop open and he cracked the door open, cautiously peering into the room. He couldn’t see anything except what looked like a glowing crack in the empty air of the room. That didn’t seem right. There was supposed to be at least someone in the room to monitor the mission while the other Timebrokers retrieved the evolved being. The room should never be empty when there was a reality crack like that in it.

“There’s no one in there,” realized John as he also took a peek inside the forbidden room.

“There’s about to be,” retorted Jules as he saw that something was trying to come through the crack. “C’mon.”

Jules led the way into the room, the wild arcs of energy from the reality crack doing nothing to scare him away. He stared into the crack and watched the being on the other side struggle to come through. He looked to find John at his side as always and for a few moments neither of them knew what to do. They weren’t trained for breaches nor had they even seen one performed. This wasn’t an ordinary breaching though. It was like the thing on the other side wanted to come through of its own free will without any other Timebroker’s knowledge or permission.

“We need to get one of the elders,” decided John.

“It’s not going to make the breach unless we help it,” realized Jules.

He saw the thing get its hand through the crack in reality and on instinct he grabbed its wrist, yanking it through the crack. He wasn’t strong enough to do it on his own though. The crack was starting to close and it was going to cut the ascending being in half if they couldn’t get it on one side or the other in time. No one else was around so Jules decided it was up to him to get the job done. John, however, had other ideas. Jules heard the alarms above the spark and pop of the crack. John had activated the safety protocol in the room, letting everyone in charge know that there was an unauthorized breach occurring. Jules wondered for a moment where John got the knowledge to do such a thing but it didn’t matter. The elders wouldn’t get there in time.

“We can’t leave that thing halfway out of the crack,” said John.

“So help me then,” retorted Jules, tugging with all his might as he tried to pull the being to safety.

Both young Timebrokers latched onto the being’s arm and pulled. They managed to get the thing halfway through the crack but the rift in reality was dangerously close to closing. With one mighty pull, they got the young girl through the crack. Both Jules and John got to their feet but while John seemed more eager to attend to the young girl they had saved, Jules stared at the crack. Something else was inside that thing, something he had never seen before in all his relatively young life. He continued to catch a glimpse of it even as the crack closed and winked out of existence. The elders arrived seconds after that and Jules knew he was going to catch the brunt of the punishment, as he always did.

“Thank you,” said the girl to both of her rescuers. “Where am I?”

“You need to come with us,” said one of the elder Timebrokers, his stern visage saying more than his words ever could. “The girl will be fine but you two need to come with us.”

Two of the elders entered the room to attend to the girl while Jules and John nodded silently and exited. Both of them turned and gave the girl one last look. Whatever her species was, she was humanoid and quite beautiful. Her golden-blond hair reached well past her shoulders, flowing and cascading down her body like a waterfall. Her eyes were a brilliant blue and both Jules and John had seen the spark in them, the spark that all Timebrokers possessed that hinted at the power they carried within. All Timebrokers had an intimate connection to the power that resided within the Axis. Though the power they wielded was only a small fraction of the total power the Axis had, it was enough to put them in the realm of gods according to all mortal cultures. Yet even with that power, the Timebrokers still didn’t know the full capabilities of the Axis, nor did they want to. Cracks in reality happened without rhyme or reason, such as the one Jules and John had just witnessed. Though it seemed as if they were gods, the Timebrokers couldn’t completely control everything. The true abilities of the Axis were still mysteries to them but The Council and the elders were satisfied with what power they possessed now. On that day, however, Jules realized the true power of the Axis when he took a glimpse into that crack. That was the day he stopped settling for anything less than having it all.

Earth-32, Now

Peter Parker wasn’t allowed out of his cell. He had his meals delivered there and spent the rest of his time scribbling mathematical equations on the floor with a piece of chalk he had taken from somewhere in the prison back when he had been allowed to roam its halls. Ever since that incident with Juggernaut though, he had been in solitary. He rather liked it that way. At least in solitary he couldn’t be bothered by the idiots that populated the Vault. He missed the sky though. He missed soaring through the air on his weblines, traversing from one corner of New York City to the next with an ease that defied comprehension. Most of all, he missed the smell of blood on his hands. He missed the clammy feeling of it as it soaked through his gloves and into the pores of his skin. It felt like ages since he killed someone. It was starting to vex him.

“I know the people who put you in here,” said a man as he appeared in Scarlet Spider’s cell. “It’s a shame really. You have so much potential.”

“My aunt and uncle used to say the same thing,” commented Peter, not batting an eye at the man. “You’re not supposed to be in here.”

“Neither are you,” retorted Jules. “Don’t bother calling the guards. Time around this cell has stopped for the moment. Today’s your lucky day though. Thanks to your little skirmish with the Exiles, you’ve become unhinged from time. I can get you out of here but you’ll have to do some things for me.”

“I’ve already calculated at least five different ways to break out of here,” retorted Peter. “If you see Tony Stark, tell him that he needs to upgrade the security in this place. Either that or maybe I’m just smarter than he is.”

“Yet here you remain,” noted Jules. “As I said, you just have to do me a couple of favors and you’ll be completely free of this place.”

“Do I get to kill people?” inquired Peter.

“Oh yes, lots of people,” assured Jules. “When you’ve done enough for me, you’ll come back to whatever reality you like. How does that sound?”

“Sounds like I’m going to need my costume and some more web fluid,” said Peter with a malicious grin. “I don’t like to run out of it when I’m in the middle of suffocating someone.”

The Axis, A Long Time Ago

Her name was Eterna. No one knew if that was her real name or simply the name she chose for herself. All Timebrokers who weren’t native to the Axis had the option of retaining their original name or choosing a new one for themselves. The girl that John and Jules had saved that day years ago was named Eterna. She was placed in the same class as both of her rescuers but the winds of change were blowing through the Axis. Cracks like the one that brought Eterna to the Axis were starting to pop up with more frequency. They were occurring across the multiverse though they were imperceptible to anyone but the Timebrokers. To all the mortal beings, nothing was out of the ordinary. Perhaps disasters both small and large would occur but they took no notice of the warping of reality that was going on around them because they lacked the ability or the consciousness to perceive it. The Timebrokers took notice though and The Council made a decision. It was time to employ these mortals to fix these cracks. The Timebrokers still retained their pacifist beliefs but they could at least employ these mortal beings as agents.

Cracks weren’t just forming in reality though. Eterna quickly became friends with Jules and John, due in no small part to the fact that they had saved her life. Though John always had feelings for Eterna, his timid nature kept him from expressing such feelings. Thus it was Jules who made the first move because it was customary for him to leap before bothering to look. John was consumed with regrets about his silence, still keeping company with his two friends through their time at school and even after they graduated. Times were changing though.

“I don’t see why The Council decided to waste time on this,” said Jules, looking at the monitors and watching people from all realities suddenly disappear. “These people aren’t smart enough or good enough to do this job. We would be better off doing it ourselves.”

The Timebrokers realized that these cracks could take more than one form. They could cause a myriad of effects including unhinging certain individuals from time itself. It was these individuals that The Council kept their eyes on because they would be the agents that would help fix reality. Each of them would be assigned a team and each team would be handled by a Timebroker. The three graduates found themselves in the monitor room awaiting their assigned teams.

“You know that fixing a crack can be lethal to us,” pointed out John. “They’re pure temporal energy and we don’t have the power to close them on our own. The only thing anyone can do is set certain events in motion to help diffuse the crack’s energy or stop it before it fully forms. The Council felt that using these agents was the best way to hold true to our pacifism while still helping the continuum run smoothly.”

“John’s right,” agreed Eterna. “Besides, he and I were both mortals once. Did you forget that, Jules?”

“But you’re not anymore,” countered Jules. “I still say this is a waste of time.”

“Your teams have been chosen,” said the elder Timebroker managing the monitor bank. He handed each of the younger Timebrokers a folder full of files they had compiled on the various individuals who would make up their teams.

“They’re in the Axis now,” said John as he saw his team on one of the monitors. “I suppose it’s time to see how well I can work with them.”

“Good luck, John,” offered Eterna. “Jules?”

“Good luck,” he said to her, giving her a light kiss on the lips. “You too, John. I, on the other hand, don’t need luck. I’m better than that.”

Eterna playfully rolled her eyes at her lover before the three of them departed through different doorways to meet their respective teams. Eterna could smell the salty sea air as she stepped out of the doorway. As a child, she had loved the ocean. Her original people were seafarers by trade, traversing the oceans of her world in their ships made of wood and metal. She loved the sea and it was why she had chosen this location to meet her new team. It made her comfortable to hear the waves gently rolling onto the shore. She missed her old life from time to time but the fact that she had chosen a new name signified that her old life was over. She had found a new life with Jules, though he was reckless and arrogant at times. She wondered on occasion if that recklessness was what made him attractive to her in the first place.

“I’m sure this is all very confusing for you,” she said to the group of individuals before her. “I must admit this is my first time doing this as well. You’ve all been brought here because you’ve become unhinged from time. I need you to help me make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

“Why should we do anything for you?” questioned a man, stepping forward to indicate he had already taken charge of the group.

Eterna had to admit that he was handsome. His well-built frame was hidden under combat fatigues and the patches on his uniform marked him as a master sergeant in the US Army Rangers. None of these things meant anything to Eterna but it was his eyes that intrigued her. There was a quiet, hidden pain inside them that she doubted many could see.

“My name is Eterna and everything I’m telling you is the truth,” she assured the military man. “I understand your confusion and your anger. I felt the same thing when this happened to me. I need your help if we’re going to stop this from happening to others. If you can manage to repair the crack in your own personal timelines then you can go home safe and sound. I give you my word.”

She sighed as there was bickering among the group but she noticed that the man in the army dress continued to hold her gaze even as his teammates squabbled with one another. Somehow he knew deep in his gut that she wasn’t lying. It didn’t matter to him anymore though. He had already lost both his wife and his son in the same tragedy. He had nothing left to really live for and, consequently, nothing left to lose by doing what Eterna wanted him to do.

“Everyone shut up and listen,” ordered the man.

“Thank you,” said Eterna. “What’s your name?”

“William Stryker,” replied the man with a smile. He looked down at a flash of light and found himself wearing a strange watch.

“That watch is called a Tallus,” explained Eterna. “It allows me to communicate with you and also for you to get to where you need to be. I think you’re just the man to wear it, William.”

Earth-112, Now

She was going to die. The armor on her costume wasn’t enough to save her from bleeding to death due to her internal injuries. The ambulance would be too late to save Kate Bishop. Why would they even bother to save a criminal like her? Yellowjacket was a wanted felon, especially after tonight when she tried to rob that bank. That was before she met that weird other version of herself, the one who got everything that Yellowjacket never got. Kate felt the rage at that, at the fact that somewhere there was a version of her that became everything she wanted to become. It galled her and that rage and hatred made her want to hold on to her life just so she could get another chance to end Wasp’s.

“I can arrange that,” said Jules, giving voice to Kate’s thoughts of murdering her carbon copy. “You poor thing. You had a run-in with Wasp, didn’t you?”

“I hate her,” rasped Yellowjacket with as much venom as she could muster.

“Then you can’t die just yet,” said Jules. “I have so many plans for you, Kate. I can save your life and give you another shot at her. I’m sure you’d enjoy killing her. Right now, you’re unhinged from time not that it will matter in a few moments. I believe you mortals would put it this way. Come with me if you want to live.”

“Okay,” agreed Yellowjacket and both she and Jules disappeared in a flash of light as time resumed its normal pace.

The Axis, Some Time Ago

“She’s gone.”

The words echoed in John’s head even as they rang in his ears. He looked at Jules and watched his best friend struggle not to cry. Eterna had disappeared, choosing to inhabit a reality outside of the Axis. She hadn’t given anyone any notice of this other than the note she left on her bed. Life was hard for the three of them now that they were responsible for the lives of those on their teams. The pressure had taken its toll on all of them and on the relationship between Eterna and Jules. John was angry with his best friend because he knew why Eterna left. Jules was an arrogant and reckless ass. He always had been ever since John knew him and he probably always would be. It was that arrogance that had driven Eterna away before John ever had a chance to express how he truly felt about her. Now the only thing he could express was his anger and his regret.

“This is your fault,” he said to Jules, the two of them standing in Eterna’s room that she would never inhabit again. “You always do this, Jules. You always have to be an ass to everyone you come in contact with and now she’s gone because of you.”

“It wasn’t me!” snapped Jules defensively. “You know it was that guy on her team. She never could stop talking about him. She left me for him, for that disgusting mortal.”

“Stop shifting the blame to everyone,” ordered John. “She and I were mortals too once, Jules. That’s something you could never understand and I’m tired of listening to the crap you spew about it. Get it together or Eterna will be the least of your worries.”

John left the room, unable to say the rest of what he wanted to say. Jules stayed, not having the energy to leave. He tried to dismiss what John had said. Eterna left because she chose a mortal over him. What was so special about them? What was so wonderfully amazing about them that they were the ones chosen to be the agents of the Timebrokers when the Timebrokers could easily do the job themselves? The Council was too scared. They were too afraid of knowing the truth about the cracks, the truth that Jules had discovered years ago when he stared into one after pulling Eterna from it. That was why they used the mortals because they didn’t have a true understanding of the power the cracks possessed. The Council was just like the mortals, always fearing what it didn’t understand. He understood though.

“You think they’re so damn great,” muttered Jules to himself, hastily moving out of the room and into the communication room that let him get in touch with his team.

He would show her how great they were. He would show her that she made the biggest mistake of her life by choosing some filthy mortal over him. He would show The Council how wrong they were. Jules flipped through the mission listings and couldn’t find what he wanted. He clicked a few keys on the keyboard and called up a section of the list that The Council wouldn’t touch. These were the missions deemed too dangerous for the mortal agents to complete. He let his eyes rest on one, a particularly dangerous one that had been immediately discarded by his superiors. That was the one. That was just the mission he needed.

Jules plugged his hands into the console after typing in the reality’s coordinates. The special conduits on the keyboard channeled his power through the system and into the Tallus that shared his power signature. Once the Tallus received the new coordinates, it would jump his team to that reality and from there all he had to do was talk into the microphone and tell them the mission. He watched the monitor as his team touched down on the God-forsaken reality that would be their final resting place.

“This is your mission,” spoke Jules into the microphone. In the back of his mind, he knew he was sending all of them to their deaths. He just didn’t care.

Earth-171, Now

She had lost all of them. Alex, Nico, Gert, and Chase were dead. She and Karolina were the only ones left and now Karolina had taken her Majesdanians into space, escaping the confines of the prison that was Earth. That’s what Molly Hayes thought Earth was, thought what life was. Life was a prison she couldn’t escape from, just like she couldn’t escape from the prison that was social services. She hated the orphanage, hated the foster families that thought they could replace her real parents or even her friends. They didn’t know the first thing about her. Everyone she had ever cared about was gone. Nothing mattered anymore.

“I wanna go home,” she whispered to herself in the darkness of her room. “I just wanna go home and see my friends again.”

She was never very religious. Her parents took her to church a few times when she was young but it was out of obligation and pretense rather than any real faith in God. Molly didn’t pretend to know what was out there beyond the realm of her understanding but she hoped there was something out there that would hear her, something out there that would make the pain and the loneliness end.

“I can do you one better than that,” promised Jules as he ran his hand through Molly’s hair. “You want revenge on those who wronged you, who took away your family. What if I said I could help you with that?”

“Go away,” hissed Molly. “Please, just go away. I just want to be alone.”

“We both know that’s not what you want,” reminded Jules.

Molly hated the fact that this stranger was right. It was all the fault of those people, of that other Nico that wasn’t the one who betrayed her but who had hurt her much more deeply than the first one did. It was their fault that her friends were dead and she wanted to hurt them for it. She wanted to make them suffer just like she had suffered every day since they blew into her life and turned it upside down.

“What do I have to do?” asked Molly hesitantly.

“Just take my hand and I’ll make sure you get what you want,” promised Jules. “When this is over and you’re not unhinged from time anymore, I can take you to a reality where your friends are safe and sound and you can be with them forever.”

“Okay,” whispered Molly as she took his hand and made a deal with her own personal devil.

The Outlands of the Axis, Years Ago

The sun shone harshly in the sky, beating down with unrelenting mercy on Jules. After the incident involving the slaughter of his team, The Council banished Jules to a barren portion of the Axis that was a desert wasteland. He wandered through the land like a ghost, a mirage. During the day, the sun scorched his skin and left him so weak that he could barely move. When night came, the temperature dropped and he experienced cold that chilled him to the bone. A mortal would’ve died a hundred times over but Jules was a native of the Axis. He needed no sustenance and he couldn’t die the way mortals could. He was stronger than them, better than them. Eterna couldn’t stand that and so she left him. John was always jealous of him, always trying to shed his mortal origins but it was a stain he couldn’t remove. Jules was better than both of them, than all of them. The Council knew it and they were scared of him. Like their precious mortals that they were so fond of, The Council condemned and feared any being that was more powerful than them.

“You look ghastly,” said a voice.

Jules looked around for the origin of the voice, trying desperately to find its source. There was no person in sight for miles and that fact made Jules nervous. It was obviously some trick by The Council, some new torture designed to torment him even further.

“Show yourself,” ordered Jules to the barren wasteland around him.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” said the voice. “I have a proposition for you though. I will help you get back what you once had and in return you’ll do some things for me.”

“You’re not real,” declared Jules, clutching his skull and trying to block the voice out.

“I’m afraid I am,” said the voice. “I know about Eterna, Jules. I know how much you hate The Council and hate the mortals for what they’ve done to you. I offer you salvation from them. I offer you the word of a higher power. Mark my words, if you agree to do some things for me then I tell you that you will soon be released from exile and be able to resume your duties.”

“The only thing I want is revenge,” stated Jules. “Can you offer me that?”

“I offer you the chance for it,” said the voice. “What you do with that chance is up to you of course.”

“What do you want me to do for you?” inquired Jules.

“Be my eyes and ears inside the Axis,” explained the voice. “Inform me of what’s going on with The Council. Position yourself correctly so that you may prepare the way for my coming.”

“You’re going to overthrow The Council?” said Jules skeptically. “There’s no way anyone outside the Axis can do that.”

“Give me time and I will,” assured the voice. “Be my eyes and ears and prepare the way, Jules. When the time is right, I will make my presence known.”

“You get me out of this wasteland and then I’ll tell you whatever you want to know,” promised Jules.

Earth-2, Now

Things were progressing well from Charles Xavier’s viewpoint. He had gathered together a group of likeminded individuals, those who had felt the scorn of humanity and were eager to embrace his philosophy. Using the special gifts of those individuals as well as his own, Xavier gained a foothold in the American government. Things were going well until he hit a snag in his plan. A man named Erik Lehnsherr knew of mutants too and had assembled a group of young ones to challenge Xavier’s Brotherhood. Lehnsherr’s X-Men managed to unravel Xavier’s scheme and now he found himself hiding out like a common criminal and planning his next move. He had managed to evade the authorities so far but he knew it wouldn’t last. Secrecy was the key part of Xavier’s plan and now that his identity was known to the world he couldn’t operate in the shadows anymore.

“The X-Men,” he muttered to himself. “I have fought too long to see my dream destroyed by such naive upstarts.”

“But they’re not really the cause of all your problems,” said Jules, appearing before Xavier like a ghost. “You know what happened all those years ago, Xavier. You know how Moira died.”

Xavier had never forgotten how his beloved Moira met her end at the hands of Bastion. It haunted him in his sleep every night since then and though Bastion was destroyed, he hadn’t forgotten about the other strange people he had encountered that day. They were just as responsible as Bastion was for the death of his love. If he could find them again, Xavier would make sure to twist their minds inside out and make them scream for mercy as they relived every painful memory and nightmare they ever had. He would reduce them to quivering masses of human jelly with mere thoughts and he would relish every second of it.

“I can’t read your mind,” noted Xavier. “Who are you?”

“A man who enjoys giving people what they want,” replied Jules. “Just so long as they give me what I want in return.”

“What do you want?” asked Xavier.

“To see you destroy the Exiles and the X-Men that were there that day that Moira died,” explained Jules. “Do that and then I will place you in a reality where she is still alive. I consider that a fair bargain.”

Charles Xavier looked at Jules and realized that somewhere inside of the Timebroker he felt the same way Charles did, had suffered the same tragedy he had. Broken men had a habit of recognizing one another by sight, of having a connection that bound them together no matter their differences. Pain united men even under the strangest of circumstances. With his Brotherhood incarcerated, Xavier didn’t have many other options. He decided that it would be best to take what this stranger, this kindred spirit in some sense, offered him.

“I believe you have yourself a deal then,” decided Xavier as he extended his hand. “May I ask your name?”

“Jules,” replied the Timebroker while shaking Xavier’s hand. “My name is Jules.”

“Jules Verne was always one of my favorite authors,” noted Xavier. “He was very forward-thinking, always looking towards the future.”

“A trait both of us share,” said Jules. “Trust me, I always have my eye on the future.”

The Axis, Not So Long Ago

“You’re looking . . . soft,” noted Jules as he saw John for the first time since his return from exile.

The voice had kept its promise. A few weeks after first conversing with it, Jules found himself returning to the nerve center of the Axis where he belonged. The Council had decided that he had served his debt to society and had granted him his release from exile. Jules didn’t know how the voice accomplished such a feat but somehow it had. Now Jules was set to return to his old job of handling agent squads just as he, John, and Eterna had done so long ago.

“You haven’t changed,” realized the pudgy Timebroker, who had apparently let himself go a little while Jules was gone. “The Council has you on probation, Jules, and I’m the one they put in charge of keeping an eye on you. Please try not to repeat your previous error.”

“You were always a good friend, John,” noted Jules. “Thank you for testifying on my behalf during my trial.”

John didn’t consider that action his finest moment. It was true that he still felt a certain loyalty to Jules but that wasn’t what had spurred on his defense of his friend’s heinous actions. Truthfully, John felt responsible for what Jules had done. If he hadn’t have yelled at him then Jules wouldn’t have done what he did. However, now John felt a new weight of responsibility because if Jules screwed up again then it would be because John wasn’t doing his job correctly.

“We’re going to extract your new team in a few moments,” said John, handing Jules a folder with some files in it. “Take the time to pick a landing point and then get yourself cleaned up for your meeting with them.”

“The outlands will be just fine,” assured Jules as the two Timebrokers walked into the monitor room. “Somewhere less harsh than where The Council put me. We wouldn’t want the poor mortals to get hurt, would we?”

Jules looked at the files and then watched the monitors as his new agents were extracted from their realities and sent to a point in the Axis that he knew very well. This group of people sought to be heroes but Jules would show them right from the start exactly where such ideals would get them. They were mortals, nothing more. Their lives were inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Jules hadn’t forgotten his deal with the voice. He would be the eyes and ears but he would also do something else. First he would show The Council exactly how diseased the mortal race was then he would overthrow The Council and claim the power of the Axis for his own.

“Are you sure about the landing point?” asked John skeptically.

“Put a door there that leads to one of the conference rooms,” ordered Jules. “I’ll make myself presentable and then meet them there.”

John did as Jules instructed while Jules excused himself and retreated to the room he once inhabited so long ago. He looked at the files on his way there, making plans for his six new charges as he scanned through their personal histories. He opened his door and stepped into his old room automatically, looking up and staring at the inside of it with a perplexed look on his face. It had been a lifetime ago that he called this room home. He wasn’t the same person anymore. The voice had continued talking to him after their initial conversation, telling him of a prophecy and his place in that grand design. Jules would help restore order to this chaotic multiverse but it had to begin first with the Axis.

He looked at the door inside his room that connected it to the one was once Eterna’s. She had made her choice to live her disgusting mortal life with her disgusting mortal lover. He wasn’t going to waste time thinking about the past when the future was still so full of things to do. He stepped into the bathroom and pulled his razor out of the cabinet. After a few minutes shaving, Jules looked more like himself. He went to the closet and pulled out a nice suit, realizing he needed to make a good impression. John would only cover for him so much so he had to play his part at least for a little while. He would show The Council though. He would show them that their dependence on mortals was their fatal flaw because the mortal race as a whole was filthy and needed to be wiped from the face of creation. It was time to restore order to his life, to the Axis, and to the multiverse.

“I’ve got to meet with my new team but I’ll have people watching you,” warned John as he poked his head into the open doorway while Jules was straightening his tie. “Don’t screw this up, Jules.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, old friend,” assured Jules with a smile as he picked up his briefcase and made his way to the conference room. “I wouldn’t dream of it for the world.”