Ascension - Book Eight - Man x Man

Chapter 25

(Please bare with me as this is a rough draft and this idea has been TOUGH to work out. Thank you for your patience! ) 

"There's two?" Lotta poises her gun, climbing from the wreckage of the blast. The younger versions of my husband and his companion hunker together. 

"Four..." I correct, exhausted as I place my hand over my temple. My body shivers, struggling to recover from the exertion of using an ability I thought was lost to me. "Two Verandos... Two Caspians." I should know, I yanked them from their time period with my bare hands it felt like.

Quickly, Tiberius pushes her gun down, aiming it towards the ground. "Don't kill them. What if it somehow influences the future?"

Taken aback, Lotta raises an eyebrow with a look of disbelief. "We don't know anything about any of this, we have no idea what those things are or if they're even... copies?" She demands, gesturing as the younger Caspian flashes his teeth. Tiberius makes her lower her hand once more, attempting to not frighten the shell shocked youths. 

"They don't look like copies to me..." he murmurs. 

Tyler slips out from under a table with a groan, dabbing at the blood under his nose with the back of his hand. The pair wheels around to face him and he stumbles backward. "Oh. Oh, this is not good."

"Dónde diablos estamos?" The younger gray-haired man whispers to the darker one.

I run a hand through my hair, glancing towards my warlord then back at the two. "They're from the past. I pulled them out when I yanked Verando and Caspian back from the portal." The pair face me, crouched, ready to defend themselves as I say their names. "I must have..." Pinching the bridge of my nose, I exhale roughly. "We can't go over this now. You two need to come with us."

"Like hell." The younger gray-haired man spits. "I don't know who the fuck you people are, but you'd be best to be keepin' your magic to yourselves," Caspian murmurs something to him, gesturing him to settle, shouldering closer to him. If I wasn't reeling from the catastrophic nature of the event, I'd be utterly fascinated. 

Lotta presses a button on her gun, taking aim and firing a shot that hits the younger dark-haired man in the shoulder blades. He spasms with electricity, screaming as he writhes to the ground in a heap of agony. Verando crowds over him, trying desperately to comfort him without touching him for the risk of being shocked himself after the initially shared jolt.

Tyler rushes her, shoving her gun towards the ceiling to stop the second shot.

"If one more person touches me-" She scowls towards him, jerking her hands away from him. 

"Don't! They're from the 1800's, they're not lycans yet, they're werewolves! You could kill them!"

"Good!" Lotta takes aim again and Verando yanks the bow off of his back, firing an arrow at her faster than any of us could prepare for in our battered state. Taking an arrow to the shoulder, she cries out, dropping to her knees as she fires a shot at him. 

It narrowly misses, he springs out of the way, bolting for one of the windows. "Let him go!" Tyler pleads only for Tonic to scramble to his feet. 

"He's working for the mafia and a street rat, you will never find him again if you let him out of your sight! Lotta, get your men to go after him!" Tonic shouts, earning a disgusted grimace from the woman. 

"The fucker shot me, let him rot!"

 Tiberius rolls his eyes heavily, "Children!" He declares, racing after the man. 

I crawl towards my warlord, pulling him into my lap. "Randy," I whisper, brushing some of the soot of the impact from his cheek. What had I done? What were the repercussions for having two of the same being on the same plane? "Randy, can you hear me?" Shutting my eyes tightly, I ball my hands into fists before turning towards Tyler. I needed to get this under control, we had come too far for this to all be unraveled by a single event.