It Ain't Easy...

[Jack Ryder]

"Indeed... even if most of them have teamed up... so... I suppose our mission should we choose to accept it... find the good versions of us." Jack said and winced slightly. "Although father isn't the only one with an evil counterpart and where there is a Jackson there is a K'n'zy..." he said as if he had knowledge of more pairings like his own.

[Rebecca Talon]

She shrugged, she was still in shock. Absently she wondered how hard this would hit her. "Life is far too short. Even for people like you, your father and myself. I guess the worst possible fate is to die senselessly. To be shot in the back by a sadistic fuck," the anger was rising in her, "while retreating no less!"

[Jack Ryder]

"She was saving us." Jack said calmly. "Sometimes... that is the only way, to be the shield." he put his hand on Becca's. "Wasn't senseless in that we survived."

[Rebecca Talon]

"No, she was just trying to get into this pod," Rebecca said defiantly. "That Dominus just killed her out of spite. But, perhaps I know what she meant by 'destiny'. I think she knew she would die today."

[Jack Ryder]

"And sometimes there is no escaping it, the reaper will find you no matter how hard you run." Jack replied. "My brother... I tried to go back and prevent it, maybe give him something to let him escape K'n'zy's influence, fight back against a mind controlled Clint, but fixed point. Other realities he didn't survive either. Sometimes it can be rewritten sometimes it can't."

[Rebecca Talon]

She shrugged, "Destiny is all eh? No possibility of free will? I don't believe that, and I don't think you do either. There are dark forces out there trying to destroy us, and everything we hold dear. We will either defeat them or they us. But, it's not predetermined either way. This darkness clouds the future. The ijulna won't show me how things might be. But, if I could it doesn't mean we can't change it. That's the funny thing about the future. It's a fickle friend, and will betray you as surely as your worst enemy. That's why no one should put much faith in prophecy."

[Jack Ryder]

"This IS a time machine after all... we could attempt to go back, perhaps arrive a split second before and take out the Dominus that shot her before he can fire, but there is manipulating and there is altering. We would manipulate time, somehow give her a bit of SKIN armor to put under her cloak. Altering it... means creating a new reality. And it is clear that Dominus can not only travel between those, but there is communication between them. Always felt like I was speaking to a different version of him, yet they all had common knowledge. I saw grotesque sculptures made out of the twisted parts of my wife, my sisters, my brother, if someone failed, they were killed and another was pulled out from somewhere. That place was a bloody social experiment in pain and torture and manipulation." Jack said and staggered up from the couch he laid on and walked over to J'Larin. "My father has known her for decades, they knew each other longer than I was alive. She knew things and survived things that should have killed her hundreds of times over, yet today... she either let it happen or she no longer had that sight to stay a step ahead."

[Rebecca Talon]

Rebecca shrugged, "It's hard to say. Master Ja'larin was one of our most exceptional maters. She knew something no doubt. As to what I just don't know. Perhaps she saw an outcome where she lived, and we all failed."