Chapter 4 ( Part 1 )

Three years later, suddenly being chased by guns and bullets, Aniket barged into the pod. His blood soaked vest enveloped her as he brought her away.

'It's starting.'

'What?! What happened Nikki!'

'Niti, they are folding the space. They're eliminating the witnesses.'

'You mean…' Niti was alarmed badly as she ran.

'Pod Sun is pretty much destroyed. All the time servants are dead.'

'Oh my god!!'

'Pod Deva's time servants are in a better condition. But I'm afraid there won't be any left by the time we go there. Nate is defending pod Deva at the moment.'

The Bareclaw Tigress silently growled. 'Why are they doing this!'

'Don't you remember the rule of folded space?'

'Observer, event.'

'There can only be those two things. They cannot control the event. So they control the observers.'

'Nikki, but we are timekeepers! Timekeepers are righteous!'

Anita turned to see red embers glowing in Aniket's eyes. It was like the blood of the battlefield was flowing in the depths of his eyes.

'Don't worry, mummy. They'll pay.'

Anita shivered at those words and that call. It was like he was finally calling her that with the intention to part with her.

Anita clutched his biceps tightly, refusing to let him go. Aniket kept his promise three years ago. Nate had to work hard on him, but he really did listen. He really did change.

He was precious before, but he was more precious now. Anita couldn't control her tears.

'You need to go to pod Deva now. You know the underground route from here, right? Niti, find something called the egg maker. I don't know what it is. You must find it. Nate and you must get into it. I'll wait for you signal.'

'Wait! Aniket. What are you planning to do?'

Aniket leaned down and grinned, 'Put a twist in their panties, that's all.'

'Nikki…'

Aniket straightened up. His hands were folded and legs were apart. He looked to the side, listening to chasing cars.

'Niti, we won't win this one. Instead of dying, since they're dying to fold the space, let's fold it for them first.'

Anita gasped. She looked around in the dark parking lot and leaned in, whispering, 'Nikki, does that mean, time travel?'

Aniket showed his teeth and nodded. 'There is something called a virgin harbour inside pod Dharma. Its what they used,' he meant, mothers. "I am going there now to fold the space. You and Nate must be in the egg maker!'

'What about pod Sun, what about our home?! What of the numerous people loyal to us?'

Aniket didn't know how to reply to that. The two received a message on pod sync,

Wife, I am the one who chose this direction for the pod. Let Nikki do his job. I'll explain everything later.

Nate, when is 'later'?

….

Seeing Anita get disappointed, Aniket promised her he will merge the Sun pod into pod Dharma. He told her to get Nate to change the pod's name to Surya.

If matter is inertia, life is energy, then wisdom is harmony between the two. Names and language is the form taken by wisdom to spread. Therefore, names also matter in the folded space.

But Anita still didn't let Aniket go. He dug her nails into his skin in tension as she fixed him with a white, terrified, gaze.

Aniket down to his knees and ankles and touched her cool feet. Looking up, he said plainly, 'I promise. I won't lie. I'll be there, the moment you open your eyes.'

Anita let go of the breath she was holding and touched his head. 'Go. I give you my blessing.'

Seeing him run away, Anita quickly yelled the name like a slogan. 'One!'

I know. I know. Duplex mirror. This one remembers Maa Lelise.

One had already constructed a duplex mirror with various spatial complexes using the visual background of the holy book, Indhan. He basically fit all the information regarding XO in a visual diagram, or a movie. He compressed it until it fit into his own subconscious. All that gigantic sky of information in a single subconscious pattern.

This became the mirror that he reflected himself upon and constructed the duplex mirror. Aniket had not yet built this mirror, but he should have the skeletal framework for doing so. In his subconscious Aniket and One are the same person. He should be able to replicate this process even after seventy years.

But to fold space instead of himself was also something Aniket and she discussed over the last few years. They have collected all the duplex mirrors Anita's father left behind and reconstructed them. If Aniket can build the needle, the 1 and 0 that One built, he too can fold space, using all timekeepers themselves as nodes.

The only piece of puzzle was the thread of divine consciousness that folded One and folded the 'womb' called the Russian doll.

As a person present in both these instances, Aniket should've figured it out by now.

Anita followed his instructions and entered the pod Deva. She had not trained in combat for nearly a decade. She didn't take the risk, avoided all the hotzones and ran to the laboratory wing of her father. There, she proceeded to search for this 'egg maker'. After a prolonged search, she didn't find it. But some curious clues led her to her parents' bedroom. A polygamous pod normally has three separate bedrooms and two couple rooms. A total of five bedrooms. But the pod of her parents had only one couple room and two additional bedrooms.

Her father called it non-complication. Even after his mothers died, her father lived in the couple room. As if living in wait until he united with them.

Anita rushed into that room and the other two rooms looking for the egg maker. For some reason, she was convinced this contraption is in one of these rooms.

After looking everywhere and not finding a thing, Anita's brain felt very heavy. Because of her tense state, she was unable to think properly. She went to the couple room and lay on her parents' bed. Just like Aniket's parents, her parents also used to create a womb for her. It was roomy and triangular. Right angled with her father, the hypotenuse.

And Anita used to sleep in the middle, crying about one nightmare or another. She was a perfectly healthy newborn who never knew the horrors of war. But she had many friends and she would have nightmares because of the stories they told her.

So every night, her parents used to put her in the middle and sleep like this, until the 'womb' became too small for her.

Anita's body moved on its own to fit into the centre of the triangle. Instead of lying straight like her parents taught her though, she curled into a ball and hugged herself.

Instantly, the entire bed beeped loudly and changed into the egg maker.

Anita heard her father's voice giving out instructions and setting off the device. She panicked.

'Father! Father wait! Nate is not here yet!'

It was just a recording, but Niti yelled as hard she could. She had always relied on him like that.

As if to reward her devotion, the recording stopped. The machine stopped too.

She heard Nate's footsteps coming closer in the hallway when her heart stopped. Her father walked out of the mirror and stood in front of the bed.

Anita didn't know if it was an illusion. Or…

A fucking prank?!

'It's not a prank. Don't come out of the soft shell…' Sahoo didn't touch her, but stood a bit remotely, with a bitter smile.

'Must be a hologram.'

'No, listen.'

'A secret spray that induces a designed hallucination.'

'Baby girl, won't you listen to your father anymore?'

'Who is your fucking baby girl? Your daughter is thirty-five years old! Barely few years younger than you when you fucking disappeared!'

'I was drawn into the time continuum. I had no choice but to follow its rules.'

'Fuck you!'

'Niti. I'm losing my patience.'

Anita shut up. Children naturally have awe and fear towards parents. Her father was friendly, but she would've never dared to talk to talk to him like this ten years ago. She didn't need much to become quiet. But her anger suddenly turned into panic when the soft shell closed on her face and suddenly enclosed her whole body like a vacuum wrap.

She wanted to struggle, but she was very sure she would break the fabric.

'Daddy! Father, Nate isn't here yet! Please stop this machine.'

'As the name suggests, the soft shell is like the shell of an egg while in the formation stage. It's very fragile and it will break if you resist.'

'But father. Nate…Nate is almost here. Please stop it!'

Anita's father sighed. He shook his head. 'Dear, I'm a timekeeper. Timekeepers do not participate in events until they want to change the time continuum.'

Anita stopped struggling. 'Is this the time to make a new definition, Papa?' there was a barely hidden snarl in her throat as she looked at Sahoo from under the soft shell.

Sahoo laughed and shrugged. 'Perhaps it is the new definition?' Seeing that his daughter was crying, he slowly relented. 'Have faith.'