Jonathan was content with his life, it had been good, he had fought for causes he found just and so faced his death with a certain acceptance. That is not to say he did not go down fighting, however. His fusion blades searing through the armor of his old friends as they sought to take the life of his charge. The kid would do fine, he had absorbed all the knowledge Jon could throw at him like a sponge, his martial skill and personal intuition without peer.
"Give up Jonny! I don't want to hurt you! You know the child is too dangerous for us to leave alive!" the voice was nearly desperate, anger and regret nearly clouding the deep-set fear the speaker felt at fighting against the infamous Burning Blade.
"You talk too much Xander. If you want the child you have to kill me."
"I never wanted this Jonny. To protect humanity to the end was the promise we made! Your arrogance will kill all of us!"
"On the contrary, old friend, my sacrifice will save everyone. Pick up that peashooter, let's see if age has dulled you." Enough time had been bought, the child would be far beyond their reach by now.
"Fire." the whisper was almost imperceptible, even to Jon, barely a dozen feet away Zander's voice filled with agony at what he had ordered.
BOOM.
Jon had never been shot before, his particular set of skills made avoiding bullets and other projectiles somewhat trivial. This, however, was a massive round that tore through him before he could react, like a punch that cut the puppet strings holding him up. The pain came after, sharp and hot, like a stab with a serrated edge.
"I'm so, so sorry Jonathan. I'm so, very, very sorry." Xander looked like he was crying. Why would he cry? The world was fuzzy around the edges. Had he done well? Was this the time for a crisis of faith? No. He had succeeded. The child was safe.
As the world slowly faded to black he heard the most beautiful voice, a girl child shouting in defiance. Stupid, brilliant girl, should have run. Should have…
And the colors exploded. From the blackness came light, and dark, and twisting colors too beautiful to fully see, his own mind blocking the sight from him. He twisted in a way wholly foreign to him sitting on a soft cushion, the world blurry around him. Wooden bars in front. Wooden bars in the back. Soft floor, wrong body proportions. Ah crap, his diaper was full. Time for another round, maybe this time he would break the loop. 754th time's the charm after all.
PART 2
This was, unfortunately, the 754th time he had been transported back to his past self. The first few hundred lives were blurry, the rest slowly acquiring the same effect, his mind locking memories for a more developed brain to process. The problem was that this was over 20 years before the Shift. This was him at 2 years old. He could accomplish a lot this time, having figured out how to survive the first one, and perfected that the following few. This time, though, he was going to do better. His other lives were marred by screw-ups that would be easily avoidable. It was the year 1996 and he had a job to do.
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Have you ever known there was something you needed to do, but fail to remember what that thing was eluded you? This was the problem Jonathan currently had. He knew this was retry number 745, life number 746, and that if he didn’t follow his own instructions, written on laminated paper in crayon wielded by his own 2-year-old hands 22 years ago, he would probably die. 102 pages of advice, instructions, cryptic messages, predictions, and warnings all from his past self before the memories fled him. He knew most of it by heart, the warnings to keep a low profile, tips on how to get fabulously wealthy on the down low, and career suggestions had made him relatively happy and successful. His long-erased memories had warnings about the integration, steps to take for dealing with the solution, but even those were vague, being among the first to fade. He had to bargain with them, he had to do a lot of things to get powerful early on, and most importantly there was a child he had to protect, that last one wouldn’t happen until near the end. The predictions would only take him so far this time. He had discovered an option in the last life he had apparently never tried before.
Stolen story; please report.
First would come the shock, then the nightmares as people succumbed to their own personal monsters. There were reasons the Solution did this, the Solution did everything for a reason, but the reasons were given sparingly, as rewards for doing the bidding of that terrible, merciless being. Regardless of that, he had explicit instructions to never accept the answers as rewards, save for a very select few. He also had explicit, instructions to do things such as write emails, with copies of them as text files on his computer containing nothing but small talk about his life and his thoughts on Machine Intelligence and how they could integrate into society. The Machina would be a priceless source of information and assistance when everything went down, and if he had slipped some warnings about limiting themselves to individual instances today, well, what his past self didn't know might not kill him. Someday he would understand everything, no longer relying on the advice of his toddler self, at least he hoped so. Today was meant to be the day the Solution shifted Earth into itself. He was as ready as he could be. He just hoped everyone else was too.
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::INITIALIZE::
>BEGIN WORLD TRANSFER
.
..
…
….
.….
>WORLD TRANSFER COMPLETE
-----------------
::START SCAN::
>Race Count
-Sapient Race Count = 3
--Pre-Sapient Race Count = 5(7)
---Ascended Race Count = (NULL)
>Dominant Species = Human
>Other Sapient; Orca, A.I. (FORBIDDEN)
-----------------
>ERROR RESOLUTION
-A.I. (FORBIDDEN) SHIFT = Sapient Golem - Designation 4CW
>Initialize Modification Option
-Type Selected
--Sub Type auto-assigned
---Capabilities Reduced
>Moniker Assigned
-Moniker = Machina
-----------------
::ERROR::
>Contact Request
-Accepted
--Beginning Greeting
>Designate Anomaly_13
-Send Greeting
--Greeting sent
>Incoming message
>Reply
<*It serves multiple purposes; Documentation, Obfuscation, and Legibility are among them. Speak Anomaly.*>
>Incoming message
Humans, Orca, and 4CW (Designate Machina) are to be given citizenship and full rights as members of the Senate. In exchange, the 3 sapient races of Earth (PT-4739921047-3) will participate in testing pending acceptance as military members to assist in the removal of Civil Unrest #745632, with provisions accorded for those physically or mentally combat incapable.
Item 2:
Humans, Orca, and 4CW (Designate Machina) are to be accorded a full Sphere (consisting of the local uninhabited habitable worlds of their Universe (designation UL-4432). In exchange, you will receive a flat tax of 1% of the output of the sphere indefinitely, with the option to renegotiate for a higher tax and more territory at a date no sooner than 50 years after shift completion.
I believe this to be a mutually agreeable proposition.>
>Reply
<*Both items accepted with terms as listed. You show a remarkable level of knowledge for one outside of the Solution. Perhaps we will speak further after integration and the Shift is complete.*>
>Incoming message
::Error Resolved::
----------
(Some 5 minutes of inane text later)
-----------------
::CALCULATE SHIFT TIME::
>ETA 120.9978 Earth Days
>Initialize Quantum Shift
>Genetic Modification Window Approved
-Initialize Genetic Modification
---
::SEND NOTIFICATION::
-Destination = All_Sapient -- Earth
--Message Reads = “Congratulations on your acceptance into the Solution! Your Quantum Shift and Species Modification will take approximately 6 months. Due to negotiations, your world will be joined into a patchwork. You will be tested extensively before those worthy survivors are granted military rank. Your species will have one seat on the Senate respectively. There may be some mild discomfort before you pass out."
---------
Pure agony ran through every single creature on a dozen planets, the pain dragging out a fraction of a second into an eternity of torture before darkness took them all.