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  However, William, who is still holding onto the stone, can travel through those spiderwebbing timelines. He meets dozens of versions of “himself” all across the universe and learns that he is the “Prime” version, the version that kicked all it off. Various other Williams introduce themselves as Beta, Charlie, Delta… Scar (because he has a horrible scar on his forehead)… you get the idea.

  Just as there’s an Alpha and a Prime, there’s also an Omega – a pure evil version of William who seeks out to kill all other versions of himself and unite the time-traveling stone so he can escape. During a battle Christina is killed by Omega, and William (along with Scott and Scar and another version of William named Beta), chase Omega across the same 15 minutes of time for months (in book time) trying to save Christina from getting killed, and keeping Hong Kong from being destroyed.

  Eventually, William realizes that the only way to stop Omega, is by becoming him. He manages to kill Omega, freeing Hong Kong from being wiped off the map for good. Everything is restored to normal and Christina is alive (yay for a father’s love for his daughter!).

  Ash finally makes it to the house of his Patron – which turns out to be the naval observatory – or as you may know it, the house of the Vice-President. The VP (who also happens to be in deep with Kline), has been using the government’s resources to find the twelve stones for themselves ever since they intercepted Kline’s communication. The VP found out and assigned Ash after his rogue agency went down, thanks to Alex’s interference at his base at Diego Garcia. Ash only accepted the deal if he could use the stones for himself. The VP agrees, because he only cares that Kline does not have them.

  The VP tells Ash that after Kline took control of New York, it’s only a matter of time before the Joint Chiefs will want to nuke the city. He won’t allow that, not while Kline still has a hold of the stones he does have. The VP says he wants to send Ash in, even though he knows he’s undergunned. Ash tells the VP that he feels confident, despite Kline having a two-to-one advantage on him with the stones.

  Ash and a division of troops begin their attack on New York City – what they didn’t count on, was the unholy walls Kline had summoned using the stone of stone, and the people defending it, who were zombified by Kline and his stone of control. With the impressive amount of weaponry available to the average New York City civilian, they take on the invading hordes with no fear, and beat back the invasion. Ash barely survives the incursion, landing with his two stones in the middle of Central Park. Kline senses him, and seeks him out for a fight.

  Alex, Emily, Chrissy, and the Old Man appear on a beach on the small island where Ash had once had the headquarters of his rogue agency, and where Alex had burned it to the ground. He leads Emily through the winding caverns back to where the crystal chamber is, and finds it. After an intermission (in which we discover people who are holding onto stones cannot enter crystal chambers), Alex enters the crystal chamber for the first time.

  However, instead of a vague mysterious voice, and a podium for him to take a stone from, he’s surprised to see The Old Man, who takes him on a journey to the alien world. Alex learns about the stones, the alien species and where they come from. Alex learns that the aliens that sent us the stones are currently all plugged into a “Matrix-like” simulation, where they can completely control the world they inhabit. IT’s like their very own personal holodeck that they use to live out thousands upon thousands upon thousands of lives. Unfortunately, they’ve forgotten what it’s like outside that matrix and are stuck, adapted to it, and unable to do anything about their dying star. Their only hope is for someone like Alex to collect the twelve stones, and revive their star, preventing the star from going supernova and saving both of their worlds. If he fails, it doesn’t matter to the aliens – they can stretch out the time lines they live inside the matrix for eons upon eons. Even if their star were going to go supernova in the next week, the speed of their simulation would allow them to live for billions of more years.

  Alex decides that the stones are more than just about him and defeating Kline. He sees what it might mean to be a part of something bigger and agrees to help the Old Man and accept whatever danger and responsibility that comes his way. The Old Man reward him with a stone – Alex uses it, and decides he wants to summon anything at all he wants with it – that is, create matter out of nothing at all.

  Alex, confident with his newfound power, decides to launch his attack on Kline. Alex, Emily Chrissy and the Old Man all teleport to New York, intending to stop Kline before he becomes too powerful.

  After a quick fight, Ash is caught by Kline, and the two stones he held, taken from him. Kline now has six stones in his possession including the stones of strength, control, water, stone, healing and fire.

  Geoffrey Tate, tired of being pushed aside and increasingly worried about the amount of power Kline has in his possession decides to quit Kline’s rebellion and flee New York City, away from Kline before things get even worse. Before he leaves, he’s stopped by Alex, who threatens his life, which turns out to be unnecessary. Tate tells Alex about a secret safe Kline has in his office downtown, and that the documents inside would interest Alex a great deal. He also tells them about Ash and what Kline is out doing and they let Tate go.

  Alex and Emily head for Kline’s downtown office while Chrissy and the Old Man go try and find Ash, before Kline can. As if already knowing what was going to happen, Chrissy and the Old Man split up – the Old Men heading for Central Park and Chrissy for parts unknown.

  Kline stumbles upon the Old Man, and kills him, in a moment of supervillain bravado. The Old Man is revealed to have no stones on him at all. Kline is somewhat taken aback, but takes the victory for what it is.

  Alex breaks into Kline’s office in One World Trade Center and finds the notes Tate was referring to. Turns out, one of the notes is a message from Scott – from the year 1987! Alex quickly puts the pieces together, and understands how Scott had appeared and where Chrissy had come from. Somehow, they had been thrown back into the past. And here was Scott’s letter telling him all he needed to know about the stones and his future. But, the letter had somehow ended up in Kline’s hands. How?

  Kline appears in his office, carrying Nathaniel Ash (who he intends to turn into a zombie using the stone of control, to use him as a new “right hand man”), and finds Alex and Emily stealing the notes from the safe. With all the stones available to him, Alex and Kline begin battling. However, Emily is too late, and Kline, using his stone of control, summons it out of her possession, giving him seven total stones.

  Alex realizes how outclassed they are, and despite what he knows about the dangers of the paradox in Hong Kong, he teleports him and Emily there anyway (this all takes place at the same time as the other climax of Scott’s b-story with William Ip in Hong Kong. It’s all very exciting. If Scott doesn’t fix the paradox in time before Alex shows up, the whole world is destroyed. Alex teleports just moments after Scott, and William kill Omega and save Hong Kong from the explosion).

  Just as Scott finishes saving Hong Kong from William’s paradox, Kline is teleported along with Alex and Emily to Hong Kong.

  So, now the timelines and the stones are getting a bit confusing. I’ll take a moment to explain. Kline now has seven of the stones, his original stone of strength, and control that he found in the first book. He also has the water and earth stone from Lorelei and Johan. He has copies of the Healing, fire and shapeshifting stone, courtesy of Scott who brought them through time after being thrown back to 1987 at the end of this upcoming confrontation with Kline.

  A big fight ensues and William shows back up as Omega, finishing the job for Alex. However, Alex quickly realizes that he has set up another paradox by leaving Chrissy behind in New York. The time-traveling stone and the reality stone had gone missing during his fight with Kline.

  Alex, Emily, Christina (the person brought back to life thanks to Scott’s intervention with William Ip), and Scott are thrown back in time. Kline, sensing he
can find the last two stones fairly quickly on his own and can do without the time-traveling stone leaves.

  Reality itself tells Alex he’s dead, but Alex (who is hallucinating during his trip through time) asks for another chance to make things right. Reality says yes, and that he needs to correct the paradox created.

  A heavy price is paid for Alex’s second chance however, when Alex and Emily reappear on a highway in Southern California in 1987. Alex pushes Emily out of the way of a truck at the last moment, which causes the truck to get into a wreck. Turns out, Alex caused the accident that killed his mother so long ago. An accident to be sure, but, Alex blames himself.

  Alex takes out the time-traveling stone and it tells him what he needs to do. Accepting the enormous responsibility now on his shoulders, he gives the stone to Emily, and tells her to stay out of history’s way for now, he’ll be right back. He opens a portal to one-million years ago BC and disappears into it.

  Scott and Christina awake on the side of a highway, and Scott gets the bright idea about sending Alex a message warning him about the future and how he can avoid it. He takes the original shapeshifting stone (that he has had since Petrichor) with him, and Christina comes along with him. He calls her Chrissy for the first time.

  Alex appears in an ice-covered wasteland. He approaches a boulder and begins digging. He’s soon rewarded with the door of a crystal chamber. Without anything on him, Alex steps through, and into the chamber, leaving us for the last book in the series… the book I’m here writing…

  Chapter One

  The frowning face of the White House Chief of Staff was grayer than normal as she hustled through the corridors of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave heading for her bosses’ private office. With most of Washington D.C. on lockdown, the urgency that normally filled the White House had been racheted up by a factor of 100. It seemed as if every employee at the most famous address in America was there, working hard. Most of them seemed fine with that decision. This was a situation unlike anything they had ever experienced in their lives and they had no desire to miss out while the fate of civilization hung in the balance.

  Over the last week, reports had been trickling in about strange events. Starting with the explosion in Joshua Tree, to the sightings of genuine dragons flying about in the West Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, the whole damned sequence of events had felt like a surreal dream, easily laughable and dismissed by skeptics.

  But it wasn’t until that madman billionaire Rupert Kline appeared on TV and took over New York City that people finally began paying attention. With most of the nation now in a state of panic, there were few palatable options left to the President.

  Shauna Lassiter pushed her way into the reception area of the Oval Office, barely acknowledging the President’s secretary, Ms. Gingham. Ruth Gingham had been with the President from the very first race the President had won and nothing seemed to rattle her.

  Not even the appearance of mythical creatures and strongmen with seemingly unlimited magical powers had rattled the 70-year-old.

  “She ready?” Lassiter asked.

  “Is anyone ready for what’s happening out there?” Gingham asked without looking up. “She’s still reading the research you sent.”

  Shauna shook her head, “Too bad. After Hong Kong, the world can’t wait for us to act any longer.”

  Ms. Gingham shrugged, finally deigning to look up at Shauna, “She’s not happy with the lack of prep, I know that much.”

  “Get in line,” Shauna muttered. She moved past the receptionist’s desk and into the Oval Office where President Charlotte Carson was sitting behind the Resolute Desk reading the material Shauna had sent up only a few minutes ago. The President looked up to see her chief of staff and smiled.

  “Not a lot of encouraging information in here.”

  “There’s not a lot to know,” Shauna said. There was no way to sugarcoat it. Intelligence agencies all over the world hadn’t seen this coming. They knew less than nothing. And all they really had was rumor innuendo, and a lot of frightened citizens.

  “The Vice-President?” Carson asked, thumbing through the intelligence reports.

  “Still in transit.” Shauna replied. Her face softened, looking down at the President. “Continuity will continue in case anything happens.”

  “Good,” Carson said. “The American people have to know someone’s in charge.” She sighed, “Even if we don’t know what the hell is going on.”

  Besides, Carson had been threatened before. After all, you didn’t become the first female president without making enemies. But, those were usually notes, social media, drunken idiots with too much time on their hands and too much anger in their hearts. Harmless – especially after a visit from the Secret Service who would usually remind them that they took those threats seriously.

  But Kline and his army of true believers was different. The stones that seemed to grant him unbelievable powers was a legitimate nightmare that had the entire Secret Service on edge.

  “They’re ready for you,” Shauna said, looking at the President.

  “All of them?” President Carson replied without looking up.

  “Everyone that hasn’t already promised to throw their lot in with Kline.”

  The President looked up at Shauna over the pince-nez glasses hanging precariously from her nose. “Who?”

  Shauna swallowed and pointed to the report the President was reading, “It’s in there…”

  The President sighed, and took off her glasses, running a hand over her face, “It was Russia, wasn’t it?”

  Shauna sighed, “There are some sources who say President Yuri has already met with Kline and promised support.”

  “Goddammit Yuri…” the President swore. “Who does that leave?”

  Shauna checked the notes, “Most of the G-10 is still with us, but I don’t think they understand the magnitude of the threat. Most of South America and many African leaders have already sworn fealty to Kline. Many of them have done business with him in the past and…”

  “They’re worried about what they’re seeing on CNN,” the President finished for her Chief of Staff. Shauna didn’t reply, only nodding in the affirmative.

  The President sighed and rubbed her temples promptly Shauna to briefly wonder when the last time her boss had gotten any sleep.

  Then again, she hadn’t had the chance to sleep much either. No one had ever since this whole insanity with Kline had begun.

  “They’re waiting for us…” Shauna said. She knew the President wasn’t looking forward to this meeting, but they didn’t have any other choice.

  Losing New York City to Kline would not be a knockout punch to the United States, but it had certainly hurt the nation’s psyche. Some of the country’s population was already calling for the President to negotiate with Kline. Some of them believed the last few days of the world were upon them. Shauna herself had grown up without much religion in her life, but after everything that had happened over the last few days, it did look as if the apocalypse was nigh.

  Which meant it didn’t matter what they did next. Their fate was sealed and all they had left was the journey.

  However, the President still had a country to lead and couldn’t allow for that sort of defeatist thinking. Now that Hong Kong was dealing with what appeared to be a black hole stationed within the center of the city, the President felt there was little choice other than to bring historically opposed nations together if they were going to defeat the man responsible.

  The President stood, gathering the materials on her desk. Shauna opened the door to the hallway and they began walking toward the Situation Room.

  “Are they on the line?”

  “They are Madame President,” Shauna replied. She brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes, and looked down at the secure Blackberry in her hands.

  “And we’ve shared everything our intelligence agencies have been able to gather, yes?”

  “Over the Defense Secretary’s strenuous objection
s, yes ma’am.” Shauna said, struggling to keep up with the President’s long strides.

  “Good,” the President murmured. Showing the rest of the world what they had on Kline and the stones was an act of good faith. She had authorized their distribution hoping that it would start a conversation with other, less historically friendly countries. The President felt it important to communicate to her fellow leaders that no matter the history between them, if they failed to unite against Kline, it would the very last thing they did.

  The President nodded to the rather large Secret Service man stationed outside the Situation Room as she moved briskly down the stairs to the secure room.

  “Are we all connected?” the President asked.

  “Once again Madame President,” the Defense Secretary spoke up. “I have to object to allowing our enemies this vital intelligence. What if they use it against us? What if one of these other countries gets their hands on a stone? What then?”

  “Chuck,” the President said exasperated, “Anyone who’s even heard of YouTube has seen the footage by now. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hong Kong, and now New York City have all been attacked by Kline and his stones… or whatever the hell they are. I don’t think telling them that all we know is what we’ve seen on the internet will harm us.”

  The Defense Secretary narrowed his eyes, “On the contrary ma’am. That’s exactly the point. It calls into question our ability to respond and…”

  The President waved him off, “I think the fact that we’ve already lost one of our major cities has already demonstrated our inability to combat this threat.”