The enemies of Dillon were the enemies of mortality. You didn't get on the man's shit list for trading handshakes and respect. You got there because you crossed a line somewhere that was drawn deep in his soul. You hurt those without the power to defend themselves. You bullied those you thought below you. You made the man react.
The difficulty came with the fact that a lot of Dillon's enemies, the enemies of mortality, didn't understand the concepts that drove the man in what he did. They didn't see power or powerlessness, they saw things to take. Even concepts such as property were so foreign to their ways of thinking it was beyond impossible to try and explain them. Some only saw strikes and retaliation.
They were the most dangerous. Not because they were original, they were very easy to read. But because they sometimes made horrible mistakes.
When the changes in time and reality began to affect Rhydin they didn't see it as something to be wary of, or investigate. They saw it as a weapon to be used against a threat.
1.
"Dillon?"
The name came with the casual call that was out of place for The Company, but Dillon forced it out of the first face he saw each day. The easy going smile of an Artificial Intelligence greeted him in the half there transparency of a hologram.
"Yes, good morning Talos. Report."
The first cup of coffee, the first stack of digital files transferred from there to the man's mind in a lightning quick instant. Different problems and areas that needed his direct attention. The Company dealt with everything, from the smallest disappearance to the largest invasion of the realm. They considered everything to be under their eye. After all, no one had told them otherwise.
The day was not unique in any way this time. It was a normal day for a man who sometimes had to deal with squid face things beyond his comprehension. It did run late. As he was in his office gathering up his things when the analog clock on his desk ticked over from 11:59:59 to midnight. One tick, and everything changed.
2.
"Dillon?"
The shock hit him like a wave. Strangely in the depths of his mind it harkened him back to the old days when he drank way too much and blacked out. A hand reached out and fell to the chair nearby. Easily found with the morning light streaming in from the wall of windows in his office.
A heavy blink and a deep breath. His mind went to terrified mode, reaching out for anything he could grab. The collection of intelligences watching over him reacted as well. An alarm rang out silently. The building was locked down. In an instant forms clad in that deep black armor were snapping into existence in his office with their weapons trained outwardly, looking for something to shoot. They were soon followed by more armored men and women, who looked over Dillon medically.
By the time he had calmed down, everything else had as well. Dillon leaned back against his desk and slowly rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt. This was definitely a no-cuff link type of day.
"I remember yesterday. Today is supposed to be today." He spoke out to the small gathered crowd. Of people and artificial representations of the artificial intelligences listening in. They all looked at him with varying degrees of annoyance and confusion. Dillon sighed as he realized how that came out.
"The clock struck midnight, I returned to the beginning of that day. A time loop?" A pause in his words as he let that sink in. They were starting to get it, but it was taking too long.
"Groundhog day with Bill Murray." He finally relented and said it.
"Oh." It came half collectively from the crowd.
"Or Stargate." Dillon added as well. "Twilight zone did it originally. It's an old trope."
"It had to happen before the Twilight Zone. But they did everything."
"Supernatural did it too!" Came from the back of the crowd, desperate to add something in.
"Okay, we all get it. Enough with the tropes." There were a small murmur of conversation still, but it was enough to talk over.
"Since no one else seems to be affected by this but me, I am going to take lead on this. But that won't matter because after today, you won't remember what?s going on." Dillon still leaned a bit too casually on his desk as he explained this all to the crowd. Some already realized that, most were just coming to that conclusion. For a while, their lives didn't seem to be as important.
"I've been on your side of a time loop before. Don't worry, it's pretty easy for you all. Weirdly. I am going to be allocating resources into investigation. And I am forwarding orders to all of you, so get to work." A final clap of his hands before he hurried people along and out. Time was of the essence.
But it all still ended with him in his office as the clock counted down closer and closer to midnight. The last person filed out after giving him bad news. They all said the same thing. Even The Company couldn't figure out what was going on.
There was nothing left to do. He created a phone out of thin air, atom by atom in his hand. Holding it up to his ear even as it began to dial a number. Candy picked up. His heart felt a thousand times lighter.
"Hey there Beautiful" Just calling to see what you wanted me to bring home for dinner." Spoken into the mic calmly as ever. A grin curling his lips as she spoke to him.
"Alright, I'll pick it up on the way home. I should be there a bit after Midnight." A rumble, a pleased sound. "I love you."
The conversation ended and the phone was sat down on his desk calmly. Nothing left to do but stare at the clock until it hit twelve and it all shifted.
3.
"Dillon?"
There was no panic this time. Just a blink and a frown that crept over his features almost subconsciously.
"I'm taking the day off."
That was it. For then and some time longer.
104.
The eggs cooked in the pan easily enough. The trick was cream, but that meant he had to go to the store every week, so it was still a rarity left over from his younger days. But the smells and sounds were enough to wake her up from upstairs. She moved down the stairs quite fluidly even for just waking up. Expecting to see the room mate, but it was Dillon standing there at the stove cooking.
"Dillon' Thought y'were at work." She stated, half curious, half suspicious. It was a wise thing to be suspicious around him, even for the woman he dated.
"I was, I decided to take the day off." He's said it so many times before, but every time he looked over at her then he always grinned so broadly.
316.
"I always hated water. I think it's just something left over from my people, but in my youth I had some weird issues with drowning." They spoke in front of a wide panel of glass of an aquarium. The Chicago aquarium. She stood there illuminated blue from the water that all the fish swam in. Half watching him, half watching everything swim by.
"I c'n understand that. Bein' round t'much water isn' great f'r humans either." Candy responded to him with a soft private smirk after a moment to two of consideration.
"And yet we always are. I wonder if that's just necessity or how we are?" The question was partly to her, partly to nothing. The cup of soda was lifted to him mouth and Dillon drew some out from the straw.
"I think y'think t'much, Mad Man."
"Part of the reason why you like me, Candy."
1084.
The crowd surged, cheering a great hit that resulted in the runner taking two bases. Dillon clapped for no reason other than because it was a good hit, he rooted for neither team. In the box he had paid for it was oddly quiet and calm though, a stark contrast to being part of the crowd outside. But Candy was beside him, sitting in one of the comfortable leather chairs. She didn't look interested in the game, Dillon reminded himself not to do this again.
"I've really liked this time with you." He spoke in much broader terms than the day, but she didn't know that. He tried to explain it to her a few hundred times before. And while she understood it, it didn't change much.
"I liked it too." She spoke over to the man, wearing that private smile, before she took a swing of her beer. Dillon even brought Badsiders in from Rhydin for this game. It was the little touches that made everything perfect.
"I'm afraid it's going to have to end though, soon. I'm going to have to go do something, to change all this." His fingers interlocked into her own. Lifting her hand up to kiss at her knuckles.
"I just wanted you to know how much I've liked this."
It confused her. But it didn't matter when the clock struck 12.
1085.
"Dillon?"
It was a long while before he found enough strength to speak up. But eventually he got his feet under him and gave an order he knew he would have to say quite a few times.
"Activate the Omega Protocols. Today, The Company invades Hell."
14,509.
The last battle of mortality always began the same way. It was Dillon's armored form that stepped from his reality into the reality of Demons. An armored boot crunched down on the ruined ground that rebelled for a moment against his touch. He almost lost it, almost wasn't strong enough to hold on to what he was, here. But his form solidified and stood there defiantly.
The entire realm noticed his arrival. It was as much of an enemy as each singular demon was. Many eyes turned to this one mortal's arrival in a place where he should not have been. They watched him stand there, gathering power. Then he just lifted his hands up to the sky.
Impossible math flowed in his brain. Equations that dealt with his knowledge of his reality and his knowledge of this one. But it was enough. In the sky great rips tore open space. Bridging the two realities in a dozen of places. And from those places fell entire buildings of metal. Towering spires that fell quietly but impacted the ground with devastation that changed the entire landscape. But it never affected Dillon. Those metal spires disgorged their cargo once they were settled. Thousands and thousands of weapons rolled out the wide doors that opened up silently. Tanks, and planes, and things that had no words to describe them yet but a deathly hunger. But those numbers were small compared to what came next.
As Dillon turned around and seemingly reached his fingers through realities. Ripping open a huge gash there as his hands yanked aside of each other. From this fresh cut spilled more metal on tracks and wheels. On armored feet or engines soaring them through the air.
Mortality did not deal in thousands after all. It dealt in billions. And billions suddenly descended on Hell.
And in the middle of it the armored form of Dillon laughed.
40,133.
The hours long war waged around him. Incalculable numbers fought incalculable numbers. One would slice down another just to see that enemy replaced by ten more. It wasn't combat, it was an endurance match. To see who would blink first. But it was all a distraction.
The armored form of Dillon had long since broken off from fighting once he got close enough to his destination. The black citadel. It was a structure so large it defied even Dillon's comprehension, though today it was a lot smaller from the repeated attacks it had come under from the man's military forces. In the very middle of it, Dillon moved quickly. Armor beat up and chipped here and there, definitely not looking new, but he was moving smoothly enough.
It was quiet here, a stark contrast to what was going outside. Once in a while the sharp whistle of incoming ordinance brought a virtual smile to Dillon's lips, but other than that it was a quiet run to the deeper recesses of the citadel. No combat, even when he entered the last room and saw the numbers awaiting them.
The room was large, but it felt a lot smaller around Dillon. Each inch was taken up by flesh of many numbers. Many claws and teeth were gnashed his way, but it did not slow the pace of the armored form as it moved deeper. The crowd parted open to let him move deeper, but closed up behind him him hungrily. It all only ended when the man's steps did. Golden visor of his face looking up beyond all the chafe to the wheat over looking them. A collection of demons that watched him with pure disdain.
The one in the middle of them all spoke first. Wearing armor that was a mockery of Dillon's. Black and technological, but much changed from demonic influence. The same golden visor looking back to Dillon.
"This is pure foolishness Dillon. You have no chance to win. It's impossible."
A long moment of silence from the surrounded form of Dillon. Before he began to vocalize his laughter out to the gathered mass of demons.
"And there in lies the difference between you and me Drake. You see impossibility. While I know I have a chance, however small."
In Dillon's hand, a blade grew. Four feet of sharpened metal against the last stand of the Infernals. It whipped out to point towards the other armored form.
"Let's begin this."
And it begun. Again and again.
168,974.
"You will slash under, I will parry. Come in sharp, take out your knee, you scream, I impale the blade through the back of your head."
It was strange to watch by any means. Dillon speaking out exactly what was happening as he did it. Fighting off demon after demon and leaving ichor and ruined flesh in his wake. Now oddly enough in the realm of everything, he was pacing himself. He didn't want to show of his best tricks before he needed to.
"I duck, you move in close, now I don't know what?s going to happen but I am going to play it by ear." It always ended the same way. He messed up or someone got lucky. Form left scattered in this last combat. Looked over by arrogant grinning faces.
"You always have the same douchey look on your faces" Detonate code Authorization, Dillon Jones...." And every time he overloaded what power was left in his armor. It was always enough to annihilate everything around him for a few miles.
Every time he lost, he won.
No wonder he paced himself so easily.
400, 312.
The last one of the chafe fell to his blade, sliding off of it with the same stupid surprised look they had when he killed him. Now it was the time for Generals. Now, it was just Dillon and Drake.
"Wait' I can really do better than this. I am kind of beat up. Detonate Code Authorization, Dillon Jones." And his armor detonated again. In front of a very surprised Drake.
401,899.
The last one of the chafe fell to his blade. Same stupid look. Dillon gave the face a booting afterward for good measure. Armor looked much cleaner than it had normally. Blade came up and pointed over to the last being present, Drake.
"Now?" Dillon's voice came out easily from the armor. "...Where were we?"
The confusion from Drake didn't last long as the battle was joined. Dillon used nuclear weapons first. Nuclear weapons were always a good way to start things off.
460, 333.
It was hard going fighting a God. It took time, endurance, patience. But Dillon was on a time table. He cheated as much as he could and dragged Drake down to his level. There, he beat him with experience and as much sand in the eye as possible. It usually ended the same way. Sometimes he was still fighting when the clock struck 12. But then Dillon found an opening, and wormed his way in there over a thousand tries.
And once, a lucky blade struck Drake in the neck in the middle of the too-fast melee. Dillon pounced on the lack of balance from the God. He poured fire of all kinds into him.
The God broke.
And when it happened" nothing changed.
487, 044.
"Ahh, the conquering hero comes into our realm straight from his victory over the Infernal realm. What do you have for us, Mortal Dillon Jones?"
"I am going to offer you the same thing I offered them. Never enter our realm again without our permission. Any unsanctioned entrance will result in your realm forfeiting all it is, was, and ever shall be to Mortality.."
"...Why would I ever agree to such you arrogant Mortal"!"
"Because, if you do not I will show you two great things from Mortality. Interest, and Black Holes."
488,324.
"Ahh, the conquering hero comes into our realm straight from his victory over the Infernal realm. What do you have for us, Mortal Dillon-AHHH!"
"I'm done negotiating."
499,745.
"I am going to give you the same offer I gave the last one hundred and twelve realities I have visited. Never enter our realm again without our permission. Any unsanctioned entrance will result in your realm forfeiting all it is, was, and ever shall be to Mortality."
"...The Hive agrees Mortal."
"Good."
500,000.
The face was displayed where ever it could be displayed. The voice played out of billions of speakers even if there was no one to listen to it. This was a message that was played from one corner of the known reality to the other. It was a message that could change everything.
In times square it was played on the large screen that was over a clock that read 11:42 and counting.
"Greetings Sentient beings. My name is Dillon Jones."
"I am sure you have many questions about how I am doing this, or who I am, but that is not important. I have come to deliver you a simple message. All this, is now yours and yours alone."
"One day you will reach out further than you have, as we always do, and you will find that your reach can go further then you ever imagined before. When that day comes, you will find a place at the table waiting. You will find that place peaceful, with no danger save what you make with your own kind."
"You might not understand what I am saying now. But one day you will?"
"...Just remember. It's all yours now. The only ones who can stop your ascent, is you."
And it was over. Leaving Billions confused, but the truth of the message was still there. Nothing shall bother mortality again.
?"..
It was about the same scene in Dillon's office, after he spoke the message and looked over to the only person in the room with him, Candy. Silence was thick there for a long time until she spoke up.
"What does all this make you?" The edge of something in her voice, he easily picked it out. He looked down out of sharp sort of shame.
A conquerer. A murder of a number that will never be counted. The greatest beast mortality has ever made. He sighed.
"The same thing I always have been I guess. A monster" This is bigger than me and you though. This is about, them."
She didn't say anything back. She didn't need to. He heard it in her voice" This aspect of him terrified her more than she wanted to acknowledge.
They stood in silence until the clock struck 12.
500,001.
"Dillon?"
The artificial intelligence spoke to him, once again, in the light of the Rhydin morning. It smiled it's easy going smile at him like it did every time. Dillon sighed deeply.
"I'm downloading my neural net. Please see it gets saved as my back up." That was all he said this time, then he was gone. Blinked out of existence.
It wasn't hard to find out who was behind all of it. The only constant was the place it all began, Rhydin. Working your way back from that and you could unravel things very easily. It was only a few minutes until Dillon moved from his reality, to the reality of the creatures who were behind the time loop he was affected by.
Something he could of done so long ago. Something he should of done so long ago before the time loop to his own advantage.
It was quite a bit different than what he was used to, but the armored form of the man hung in space there until it was noticed.
Human.
"Threat" ...Dillon Jones"
...He is here"
...Loop ineffective"
"I have been learning." Dillon spoke through the armor as normal as ever. He left it to the others to figure out what he was saying.
We have been learning.
...Dillon Jones will break"
...Will go on forever.
"No, it won't. For two reasons. A. Fuck you. And B. I needed about 20 seconds to prime up my self destruct mechanism on my armor, so me talking has just been one long distraction.....Detonate authorization code, Dillon Jones."
He had time to laugh before the light coming from his body became too much to handle and he exploded with the force of a hundred thousand times what was dropped on Hiroshima.
No one really knows how it affected the creature's reality. No one was there to witness it. But Dillon suspected it would be the same as everywhere else a large explosion went off. It affected it badly.
".
"Dillon?"
It almost made him cry when he heard it again. But then he realized he was wet and covered in something he was currently in the process of throwing up. A medtech was beside him with a towel, already covering up his shoulders as he got the man fully from the medical tube that had been rebuilding his body, atom by atom.
His mind was the last to be uploaded. Filling the form with life and thought. Slowly the man was coming around. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew, but he had to make sure.
"Did I die?"
"Yes, General. You just, left this morning. We couldn't track you eventually, but the armor read out did register your self destruction a few hours ago. We just brought you back around?"
"Leave the room, now. All of you."
His orders were sharp, and it got people moving. Eventually he got to his feet, wrapping the towel about his still dripping form in some effort of modesty. He walked over to the nearest console and tapped it awake.
"Medicus." He called out to the medical artificial intelligence who responded with a cheery beep from no where.
"The last five hundred thousand and one days in my memory. Remove them from my neural net and eliminate the synapsis in my brain that house the memories." It was as simple as that. Steps were already in motion to wipe his memory of the last five hundred thousand days. The entire time loop.
The AI began to work. But as it went over what happened, it had to ask, curious.
"General. Are you sure you want to delete this?" The information was beyond it's weight in gold. It was, immense.
Dillon only laughed hoarsely as he sparked up a cigarette. Taking a deep breath to enjoy it fully, it was enough to bring a shudder from his shoulders before he spoke up.
"I am sure Medicus. Delete it all. Leave two written notes on the file as I have requested."
Another breath of his smoke before he hooked the cig in the ashtray that was created on the nearby counter even as the man reached over it.
"Mortals might be cheaters of a masterwork quality. But, we earn what we get?" Another shakey breath before he nodded.
"Execute."
And it all faded to black as parts of his brain were cut clean.
"..
"Dillon?"
He awoke roughly, on the floor of the medical bay. At least his towel had stayed on. His memories were gone, now he was just a very groggy man who had a confusing day.
"...What the fuck just happened?" Called out from his spot on the ground.
"A memory wipe General. I apologize, but it was on your orders."
"A memory wipe" What the hell Medicus." Slowly he climbed to his feet, managing to keep the towel about his waist. "What did I wipe?" Asking as if he would get an answer.
"The file has been sealed General, by your own orders. I couldn't tell you if I knew. There are however, two notes attached to the file. Would you like me to read them?"
"Please." Dillon rumbled as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose.
"The first one reads: It's possible, not probable. That's all it says Sir."
"Alright, and the second one?"
"All it says is: "Her favorite fish is a grouper". That is all General."
"Mmm, thank you Medicus." Rumbled out as eyes tracked the ribbon of smoke back to it's source. The cigarette in the ashtray. Left there from another man to this one. With a small laugh, he picked it up and put it into his lips.
"I'm taking the day off."
?"
"Dillon?"
Candy's voice called him from where ever his thoughts had taken him. Most likely curiously searching for whatever he had given up in his memory. It was like losing a tooth, the tongue just found itself poking at the hole that was left. When he looked over to her he found her right beside him, holding out a plate of food that he took with a thankful smile.
"Thank you Firecracker. Come on, sit down." Boots were drawn off the coffee table so she could find a place to sit on the couch. It was a spot close to him. He had to eat one handed, but it was a nice trade off.
"Y'have a good day' Didn' seem like y'were at work f'r very long." She asked in the flow of normal conversation between bites.
Dillon snorted a laugh out. A lot of responses flew through his mind. The oddity of it all, the loss he will never understand.
However, at the moment only one thing really stood out.
"It's getting better now. And your favorite fish is a grouper." A simple remark that meant so much more offered back to her with a loving grin.
She looked back confused. More that the man knew it, rather than he brought it up. The man just went about eating with a false face of normality, like he wasn't weird.
On the counter below the TV. The clock turned 12:01.
Epilogue.
It wasn't impossible, nothing is for mortals, but it was very unlikely that anything survived the explosion of Dillon's suicide bomb. Especially anything of Dillon. But something did. A single nano machine. Smaller than an atom, it rode the waves of time out of place but not out of a plan. Dillon planned for the highly unlikely too, after all.
It found its self far from home, in nothingness unlike anything before. For many years it thought its self at the end of time, but after many more, it found out it was at the exact opposite. Close to the beginning, watching over the one thing in the black sky. The large ball of matter that made up everything before the big bang.
With nothing left to do, it fell back on old habits. A distress code echoed out through the nothingnes for many years as it waited for it's power to finally die.
But it didn't die, it got the attention of something watching. It was the first interesting thing the attention had seen in quite a long while. The being didn't even pass into the physical realm, it just located the tiny machine and watched. It learned its language from the call it was echoing out. And finally, the being spoke to it.
"Hello there small one. I do not think you should be here." The first language spoken was English, not that anyone would ever know such a fact but the one who spoke it.
The Nanite responded furiously with simple speech. Explaining what it was, and who it served, and what it's plans were.
"Oh". Well" You'll want to go that way. I have a feeling the explosion from that large ball of matter will be quite impressive."
The nanite chirped digitial happiness at the being.
"Oh, yes. Good luck to you too. I am sure I will see you in a few years."
Who knows if Nanite recognized it's master, even without a physical form, long before he would become to human the nanite knew so well. And who knew if the being recongized where the nanite had come from, or from whom. Both went their separate ways to do their separate duties, like good soldiers.
However, Dillon always would say he picked Mortals because of their intelligence and tenacity. And some say out in the darkness of space, something waits for a moment that both man and machine desperately need.
The difficulty came with the fact that a lot of Dillon's enemies, the enemies of mortality, didn't understand the concepts that drove the man in what he did. They didn't see power or powerlessness, they saw things to take. Even concepts such as property were so foreign to their ways of thinking it was beyond impossible to try and explain them. Some only saw strikes and retaliation.
They were the most dangerous. Not because they were original, they were very easy to read. But because they sometimes made horrible mistakes.
When the changes in time and reality began to affect Rhydin they didn't see it as something to be wary of, or investigate. They saw it as a weapon to be used against a threat.
1.
"Dillon?"
The name came with the casual call that was out of place for The Company, but Dillon forced it out of the first face he saw each day. The easy going smile of an Artificial Intelligence greeted him in the half there transparency of a hologram.
"Yes, good morning Talos. Report."
The first cup of coffee, the first stack of digital files transferred from there to the man's mind in a lightning quick instant. Different problems and areas that needed his direct attention. The Company dealt with everything, from the smallest disappearance to the largest invasion of the realm. They considered everything to be under their eye. After all, no one had told them otherwise.
The day was not unique in any way this time. It was a normal day for a man who sometimes had to deal with squid face things beyond his comprehension. It did run late. As he was in his office gathering up his things when the analog clock on his desk ticked over from 11:59:59 to midnight. One tick, and everything changed.
2.
"Dillon?"
The shock hit him like a wave. Strangely in the depths of his mind it harkened him back to the old days when he drank way too much and blacked out. A hand reached out and fell to the chair nearby. Easily found with the morning light streaming in from the wall of windows in his office.
A heavy blink and a deep breath. His mind went to terrified mode, reaching out for anything he could grab. The collection of intelligences watching over him reacted as well. An alarm rang out silently. The building was locked down. In an instant forms clad in that deep black armor were snapping into existence in his office with their weapons trained outwardly, looking for something to shoot. They were soon followed by more armored men and women, who looked over Dillon medically.
By the time he had calmed down, everything else had as well. Dillon leaned back against his desk and slowly rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt. This was definitely a no-cuff link type of day.
"I remember yesterday. Today is supposed to be today." He spoke out to the small gathered crowd. Of people and artificial representations of the artificial intelligences listening in. They all looked at him with varying degrees of annoyance and confusion. Dillon sighed as he realized how that came out.
"The clock struck midnight, I returned to the beginning of that day. A time loop?" A pause in his words as he let that sink in. They were starting to get it, but it was taking too long.
"Groundhog day with Bill Murray." He finally relented and said it.
"Oh." It came half collectively from the crowd.
"Or Stargate." Dillon added as well. "Twilight zone did it originally. It's an old trope."
"It had to happen before the Twilight Zone. But they did everything."
"Supernatural did it too!" Came from the back of the crowd, desperate to add something in.
"Okay, we all get it. Enough with the tropes." There were a small murmur of conversation still, but it was enough to talk over.
"Since no one else seems to be affected by this but me, I am going to take lead on this. But that won't matter because after today, you won't remember what?s going on." Dillon still leaned a bit too casually on his desk as he explained this all to the crowd. Some already realized that, most were just coming to that conclusion. For a while, their lives didn't seem to be as important.
"I've been on your side of a time loop before. Don't worry, it's pretty easy for you all. Weirdly. I am going to be allocating resources into investigation. And I am forwarding orders to all of you, so get to work." A final clap of his hands before he hurried people along and out. Time was of the essence.
But it all still ended with him in his office as the clock counted down closer and closer to midnight. The last person filed out after giving him bad news. They all said the same thing. Even The Company couldn't figure out what was going on.
There was nothing left to do. He created a phone out of thin air, atom by atom in his hand. Holding it up to his ear even as it began to dial a number. Candy picked up. His heart felt a thousand times lighter.
"Hey there Beautiful" Just calling to see what you wanted me to bring home for dinner." Spoken into the mic calmly as ever. A grin curling his lips as she spoke to him.
"Alright, I'll pick it up on the way home. I should be there a bit after Midnight." A rumble, a pleased sound. "I love you."
The conversation ended and the phone was sat down on his desk calmly. Nothing left to do but stare at the clock until it hit twelve and it all shifted.
3.
"Dillon?"
There was no panic this time. Just a blink and a frown that crept over his features almost subconsciously.
"I'm taking the day off."
That was it. For then and some time longer.
104.
The eggs cooked in the pan easily enough. The trick was cream, but that meant he had to go to the store every week, so it was still a rarity left over from his younger days. But the smells and sounds were enough to wake her up from upstairs. She moved down the stairs quite fluidly even for just waking up. Expecting to see the room mate, but it was Dillon standing there at the stove cooking.
"Dillon' Thought y'were at work." She stated, half curious, half suspicious. It was a wise thing to be suspicious around him, even for the woman he dated.
"I was, I decided to take the day off." He's said it so many times before, but every time he looked over at her then he always grinned so broadly.
316.
"I always hated water. I think it's just something left over from my people, but in my youth I had some weird issues with drowning." They spoke in front of a wide panel of glass of an aquarium. The Chicago aquarium. She stood there illuminated blue from the water that all the fish swam in. Half watching him, half watching everything swim by.
"I c'n understand that. Bein' round t'much water isn' great f'r humans either." Candy responded to him with a soft private smirk after a moment to two of consideration.
"And yet we always are. I wonder if that's just necessity or how we are?" The question was partly to her, partly to nothing. The cup of soda was lifted to him mouth and Dillon drew some out from the straw.
"I think y'think t'much, Mad Man."
"Part of the reason why you like me, Candy."
1084.
The crowd surged, cheering a great hit that resulted in the runner taking two bases. Dillon clapped for no reason other than because it was a good hit, he rooted for neither team. In the box he had paid for it was oddly quiet and calm though, a stark contrast to being part of the crowd outside. But Candy was beside him, sitting in one of the comfortable leather chairs. She didn't look interested in the game, Dillon reminded himself not to do this again.
"I've really liked this time with you." He spoke in much broader terms than the day, but she didn't know that. He tried to explain it to her a few hundred times before. And while she understood it, it didn't change much.
"I liked it too." She spoke over to the man, wearing that private smile, before she took a swing of her beer. Dillon even brought Badsiders in from Rhydin for this game. It was the little touches that made everything perfect.
"I'm afraid it's going to have to end though, soon. I'm going to have to go do something, to change all this." His fingers interlocked into her own. Lifting her hand up to kiss at her knuckles.
"I just wanted you to know how much I've liked this."
It confused her. But it didn't matter when the clock struck 12.
1085.
"Dillon?"
It was a long while before he found enough strength to speak up. But eventually he got his feet under him and gave an order he knew he would have to say quite a few times.
"Activate the Omega Protocols. Today, The Company invades Hell."
14,509.
The last battle of mortality always began the same way. It was Dillon's armored form that stepped from his reality into the reality of Demons. An armored boot crunched down on the ruined ground that rebelled for a moment against his touch. He almost lost it, almost wasn't strong enough to hold on to what he was, here. But his form solidified and stood there defiantly.
The entire realm noticed his arrival. It was as much of an enemy as each singular demon was. Many eyes turned to this one mortal's arrival in a place where he should not have been. They watched him stand there, gathering power. Then he just lifted his hands up to the sky.
Impossible math flowed in his brain. Equations that dealt with his knowledge of his reality and his knowledge of this one. But it was enough. In the sky great rips tore open space. Bridging the two realities in a dozen of places. And from those places fell entire buildings of metal. Towering spires that fell quietly but impacted the ground with devastation that changed the entire landscape. But it never affected Dillon. Those metal spires disgorged their cargo once they were settled. Thousands and thousands of weapons rolled out the wide doors that opened up silently. Tanks, and planes, and things that had no words to describe them yet but a deathly hunger. But those numbers were small compared to what came next.
As Dillon turned around and seemingly reached his fingers through realities. Ripping open a huge gash there as his hands yanked aside of each other. From this fresh cut spilled more metal on tracks and wheels. On armored feet or engines soaring them through the air.
Mortality did not deal in thousands after all. It dealt in billions. And billions suddenly descended on Hell.
And in the middle of it the armored form of Dillon laughed.
40,133.
The hours long war waged around him. Incalculable numbers fought incalculable numbers. One would slice down another just to see that enemy replaced by ten more. It wasn't combat, it was an endurance match. To see who would blink first. But it was all a distraction.
The armored form of Dillon had long since broken off from fighting once he got close enough to his destination. The black citadel. It was a structure so large it defied even Dillon's comprehension, though today it was a lot smaller from the repeated attacks it had come under from the man's military forces. In the very middle of it, Dillon moved quickly. Armor beat up and chipped here and there, definitely not looking new, but he was moving smoothly enough.
It was quiet here, a stark contrast to what was going outside. Once in a while the sharp whistle of incoming ordinance brought a virtual smile to Dillon's lips, but other than that it was a quiet run to the deeper recesses of the citadel. No combat, even when he entered the last room and saw the numbers awaiting them.
The room was large, but it felt a lot smaller around Dillon. Each inch was taken up by flesh of many numbers. Many claws and teeth were gnashed his way, but it did not slow the pace of the armored form as it moved deeper. The crowd parted open to let him move deeper, but closed up behind him him hungrily. It all only ended when the man's steps did. Golden visor of his face looking up beyond all the chafe to the wheat over looking them. A collection of demons that watched him with pure disdain.
The one in the middle of them all spoke first. Wearing armor that was a mockery of Dillon's. Black and technological, but much changed from demonic influence. The same golden visor looking back to Dillon.
"This is pure foolishness Dillon. You have no chance to win. It's impossible."
A long moment of silence from the surrounded form of Dillon. Before he began to vocalize his laughter out to the gathered mass of demons.
"And there in lies the difference between you and me Drake. You see impossibility. While I know I have a chance, however small."
In Dillon's hand, a blade grew. Four feet of sharpened metal against the last stand of the Infernals. It whipped out to point towards the other armored form.
"Let's begin this."
And it begun. Again and again.
168,974.
"You will slash under, I will parry. Come in sharp, take out your knee, you scream, I impale the blade through the back of your head."
It was strange to watch by any means. Dillon speaking out exactly what was happening as he did it. Fighting off demon after demon and leaving ichor and ruined flesh in his wake. Now oddly enough in the realm of everything, he was pacing himself. He didn't want to show of his best tricks before he needed to.
"I duck, you move in close, now I don't know what?s going to happen but I am going to play it by ear." It always ended the same way. He messed up or someone got lucky. Form left scattered in this last combat. Looked over by arrogant grinning faces.
"You always have the same douchey look on your faces" Detonate code Authorization, Dillon Jones...." And every time he overloaded what power was left in his armor. It was always enough to annihilate everything around him for a few miles.
Every time he lost, he won.
No wonder he paced himself so easily.
400, 312.
The last one of the chafe fell to his blade, sliding off of it with the same stupid surprised look they had when he killed him. Now it was the time for Generals. Now, it was just Dillon and Drake.
"Wait' I can really do better than this. I am kind of beat up. Detonate Code Authorization, Dillon Jones." And his armor detonated again. In front of a very surprised Drake.
401,899.
The last one of the chafe fell to his blade. Same stupid look. Dillon gave the face a booting afterward for good measure. Armor looked much cleaner than it had normally. Blade came up and pointed over to the last being present, Drake.
"Now?" Dillon's voice came out easily from the armor. "...Where were we?"
The confusion from Drake didn't last long as the battle was joined. Dillon used nuclear weapons first. Nuclear weapons were always a good way to start things off.
460, 333.
It was hard going fighting a God. It took time, endurance, patience. But Dillon was on a time table. He cheated as much as he could and dragged Drake down to his level. There, he beat him with experience and as much sand in the eye as possible. It usually ended the same way. Sometimes he was still fighting when the clock struck 12. But then Dillon found an opening, and wormed his way in there over a thousand tries.
And once, a lucky blade struck Drake in the neck in the middle of the too-fast melee. Dillon pounced on the lack of balance from the God. He poured fire of all kinds into him.
The God broke.
And when it happened" nothing changed.
487, 044.
"Ahh, the conquering hero comes into our realm straight from his victory over the Infernal realm. What do you have for us, Mortal Dillon Jones?"
"I am going to offer you the same thing I offered them. Never enter our realm again without our permission. Any unsanctioned entrance will result in your realm forfeiting all it is, was, and ever shall be to Mortality.."
"...Why would I ever agree to such you arrogant Mortal"!"
"Because, if you do not I will show you two great things from Mortality. Interest, and Black Holes."
488,324.
"Ahh, the conquering hero comes into our realm straight from his victory over the Infernal realm. What do you have for us, Mortal Dillon-AHHH!"
"I'm done negotiating."
499,745.
"I am going to give you the same offer I gave the last one hundred and twelve realities I have visited. Never enter our realm again without our permission. Any unsanctioned entrance will result in your realm forfeiting all it is, was, and ever shall be to Mortality."
"...The Hive agrees Mortal."
"Good."
500,000.
The face was displayed where ever it could be displayed. The voice played out of billions of speakers even if there was no one to listen to it. This was a message that was played from one corner of the known reality to the other. It was a message that could change everything.
In times square it was played on the large screen that was over a clock that read 11:42 and counting.
"Greetings Sentient beings. My name is Dillon Jones."
"I am sure you have many questions about how I am doing this, or who I am, but that is not important. I have come to deliver you a simple message. All this, is now yours and yours alone."
"One day you will reach out further than you have, as we always do, and you will find that your reach can go further then you ever imagined before. When that day comes, you will find a place at the table waiting. You will find that place peaceful, with no danger save what you make with your own kind."
"You might not understand what I am saying now. But one day you will?"
"...Just remember. It's all yours now. The only ones who can stop your ascent, is you."
And it was over. Leaving Billions confused, but the truth of the message was still there. Nothing shall bother mortality again.
?"..
It was about the same scene in Dillon's office, after he spoke the message and looked over to the only person in the room with him, Candy. Silence was thick there for a long time until she spoke up.
"What does all this make you?" The edge of something in her voice, he easily picked it out. He looked down out of sharp sort of shame.
A conquerer. A murder of a number that will never be counted. The greatest beast mortality has ever made. He sighed.
"The same thing I always have been I guess. A monster" This is bigger than me and you though. This is about, them."
She didn't say anything back. She didn't need to. He heard it in her voice" This aspect of him terrified her more than she wanted to acknowledge.
They stood in silence until the clock struck 12.
500,001.
"Dillon?"
The artificial intelligence spoke to him, once again, in the light of the Rhydin morning. It smiled it's easy going smile at him like it did every time. Dillon sighed deeply.
"I'm downloading my neural net. Please see it gets saved as my back up." That was all he said this time, then he was gone. Blinked out of existence.
It wasn't hard to find out who was behind all of it. The only constant was the place it all began, Rhydin. Working your way back from that and you could unravel things very easily. It was only a few minutes until Dillon moved from his reality, to the reality of the creatures who were behind the time loop he was affected by.
Something he could of done so long ago. Something he should of done so long ago before the time loop to his own advantage.
It was quite a bit different than what he was used to, but the armored form of the man hung in space there until it was noticed.
Human.
"Threat" ...Dillon Jones"
...He is here"
...Loop ineffective"
"I have been learning." Dillon spoke through the armor as normal as ever. He left it to the others to figure out what he was saying.
We have been learning.
...Dillon Jones will break"
...Will go on forever.
"No, it won't. For two reasons. A. Fuck you. And B. I needed about 20 seconds to prime up my self destruct mechanism on my armor, so me talking has just been one long distraction.....Detonate authorization code, Dillon Jones."
He had time to laugh before the light coming from his body became too much to handle and he exploded with the force of a hundred thousand times what was dropped on Hiroshima.
No one really knows how it affected the creature's reality. No one was there to witness it. But Dillon suspected it would be the same as everywhere else a large explosion went off. It affected it badly.
".
"Dillon?"
It almost made him cry when he heard it again. But then he realized he was wet and covered in something he was currently in the process of throwing up. A medtech was beside him with a towel, already covering up his shoulders as he got the man fully from the medical tube that had been rebuilding his body, atom by atom.
His mind was the last to be uploaded. Filling the form with life and thought. Slowly the man was coming around. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew, but he had to make sure.
"Did I die?"
"Yes, General. You just, left this morning. We couldn't track you eventually, but the armor read out did register your self destruction a few hours ago. We just brought you back around?"
"Leave the room, now. All of you."
His orders were sharp, and it got people moving. Eventually he got to his feet, wrapping the towel about his still dripping form in some effort of modesty. He walked over to the nearest console and tapped it awake.
"Medicus." He called out to the medical artificial intelligence who responded with a cheery beep from no where.
"The last five hundred thousand and one days in my memory. Remove them from my neural net and eliminate the synapsis in my brain that house the memories." It was as simple as that. Steps were already in motion to wipe his memory of the last five hundred thousand days. The entire time loop.
The AI began to work. But as it went over what happened, it had to ask, curious.
"General. Are you sure you want to delete this?" The information was beyond it's weight in gold. It was, immense.
Dillon only laughed hoarsely as he sparked up a cigarette. Taking a deep breath to enjoy it fully, it was enough to bring a shudder from his shoulders before he spoke up.
"I am sure Medicus. Delete it all. Leave two written notes on the file as I have requested."
Another breath of his smoke before he hooked the cig in the ashtray that was created on the nearby counter even as the man reached over it.
"Mortals might be cheaters of a masterwork quality. But, we earn what we get?" Another shakey breath before he nodded.
"Execute."
And it all faded to black as parts of his brain were cut clean.
"..
"Dillon?"
He awoke roughly, on the floor of the medical bay. At least his towel had stayed on. His memories were gone, now he was just a very groggy man who had a confusing day.
"...What the fuck just happened?" Called out from his spot on the ground.
"A memory wipe General. I apologize, but it was on your orders."
"A memory wipe" What the hell Medicus." Slowly he climbed to his feet, managing to keep the towel about his waist. "What did I wipe?" Asking as if he would get an answer.
"The file has been sealed General, by your own orders. I couldn't tell you if I knew. There are however, two notes attached to the file. Would you like me to read them?"
"Please." Dillon rumbled as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose.
"The first one reads: It's possible, not probable. That's all it says Sir."
"Alright, and the second one?"
"All it says is: "Her favorite fish is a grouper". That is all General."
"Mmm, thank you Medicus." Rumbled out as eyes tracked the ribbon of smoke back to it's source. The cigarette in the ashtray. Left there from another man to this one. With a small laugh, he picked it up and put it into his lips.
"I'm taking the day off."
?"
"Dillon?"
Candy's voice called him from where ever his thoughts had taken him. Most likely curiously searching for whatever he had given up in his memory. It was like losing a tooth, the tongue just found itself poking at the hole that was left. When he looked over to her he found her right beside him, holding out a plate of food that he took with a thankful smile.
"Thank you Firecracker. Come on, sit down." Boots were drawn off the coffee table so she could find a place to sit on the couch. It was a spot close to him. He had to eat one handed, but it was a nice trade off.
"Y'have a good day' Didn' seem like y'were at work f'r very long." She asked in the flow of normal conversation between bites.
Dillon snorted a laugh out. A lot of responses flew through his mind. The oddity of it all, the loss he will never understand.
However, at the moment only one thing really stood out.
"It's getting better now. And your favorite fish is a grouper." A simple remark that meant so much more offered back to her with a loving grin.
She looked back confused. More that the man knew it, rather than he brought it up. The man just went about eating with a false face of normality, like he wasn't weird.
On the counter below the TV. The clock turned 12:01.
Epilogue.
It wasn't impossible, nothing is for mortals, but it was very unlikely that anything survived the explosion of Dillon's suicide bomb. Especially anything of Dillon. But something did. A single nano machine. Smaller than an atom, it rode the waves of time out of place but not out of a plan. Dillon planned for the highly unlikely too, after all.
It found its self far from home, in nothingness unlike anything before. For many years it thought its self at the end of time, but after many more, it found out it was at the exact opposite. Close to the beginning, watching over the one thing in the black sky. The large ball of matter that made up everything before the big bang.
With nothing left to do, it fell back on old habits. A distress code echoed out through the nothingnes for many years as it waited for it's power to finally die.
But it didn't die, it got the attention of something watching. It was the first interesting thing the attention had seen in quite a long while. The being didn't even pass into the physical realm, it just located the tiny machine and watched. It learned its language from the call it was echoing out. And finally, the being spoke to it.
"Hello there small one. I do not think you should be here." The first language spoken was English, not that anyone would ever know such a fact but the one who spoke it.
The Nanite responded furiously with simple speech. Explaining what it was, and who it served, and what it's plans were.
"Oh". Well" You'll want to go that way. I have a feeling the explosion from that large ball of matter will be quite impressive."
The nanite chirped digitial happiness at the being.
"Oh, yes. Good luck to you too. I am sure I will see you in a few years."
Who knows if Nanite recognized it's master, even without a physical form, long before he would become to human the nanite knew so well. And who knew if the being recongized where the nanite had come from, or from whom. Both went their separate ways to do their separate duties, like good soldiers.
However, Dillon always would say he picked Mortals because of their intelligence and tenacity. And some say out in the darkness of space, something waits for a moment that both man and machine desperately need.