Crossroads

By: Deathstrike

Kirk and Indy stumbled through the nighted woods…pursued by a darkness that echoed through the trees with mocking, chittering cries.  Indy panted and wheezed…in his day he was in excellent health, but now, aged and long-retired, he was having trouble.  

"Kirk, I can't keep up…you'll have to leave me…"

  "Not a chance, mister!" Kirk shot back.  "We'll fight right here if we have to."

"There might…be…one other way…" Indy reached into his old jacket and withdrew a crystal.  "Old Gandalf gave this to me, a long time ago.  He told me I'd know when to use it.  I'd say now is that time…'cause we'll die right here if we face Bugg-Shash alone." Indy rubbed the crystal, while Kirk saw behind them a patch of blackness, blotting out the dim outlines of the trees as it rushed toward them like liquid midnight…

  Gandalf's head shot up like he'd heard someone scream his name.  He looked at Q and Hyuj.  "Indiana Jones has activated some kind of homing crystal, attuned to my mental wavelength.  I know where he is…and Kirk is with him! How he got that crystal, I have no idea…perhaps something in my future is Indiana's past…whatever the reason…we must make haste!  Follow me!"  He vanished in a temporal rift.

  The massive tendrils of inky, black protoplasm rose up around Indy and Kirk…the blazing eyes and snapping jaws with needle teeth looming closer.  Kirk grabbed a thick branch and smashed it into the nearest black mass, but the wood simply mushed into it and did nothing…this looked like the end…

  Suddenly, a blazing white light erupted around them, and Bugg-Shash screeched and bubbled, ripping down trees in its haste to get away from the deadly illumination.  As Kirk's vision cleared, he saw Gandalf, his arms raised, staff in hand, driving back the living shadow-thing.  The glow faded, and Gandalf winced, fighting back the Grey's poison.

"Gandalf, you came!" Indy smiled.

  "This may sound strange Indy, but how did you summon me?" asked Gandalf.

"Oh, that's right…you haven't given it to me yet because we haven't time traveled to…" Indy looked up.  "…we haven't gotten the box back from the Greys…"

  Kirk felt totally clueless, probably because he pretty much was.  How could Indy know more about temporal events than Gandalf?

  The cosmic cycle had finally come full circle.  It had taken uncountable millennia, but like an unstoppable pendulum on its arcing swing, the stars were right again.  The Great Old Ones were free to spread terror and madness throughout space and time.  The motions of solar systems, galaxies, even entire universes and timelines had brought forth this emergence, while the ebb and flow of unknown energies (perceived by entities of far greater sensitivity that most humans) had announced Their coming.

  Advanced races of all types, across space and time, felt the surging energy that meant their doom.  Primal fears and vestigial instincts leapt forth with such intensity that doubt was impossible.  They knew what the ignorant and savage creatures of the multiverse would soon discover themselves: that something horrible had been awakened…and that hope is dead.  And in its place begins an era of insanity and darkness that no creature in existence could possibly understand or conceive.  There is no way to describe it, for once one finally sees and hears and knows, there is no mind left to form any rational thoughts at all. 

  Mighty Hastur, Lord of Interstellar Space, welled up to reclaim his domain, while Tsathoggua burst from lightless N'kai.  And Great Cthulhu, freed from his eon-long imprisonment, had amassed a horrific armada of his Spawn.  The Deep Ones, bred in staggering numbers and augmented with Octorg technology, were linked directly to Cthulhu through sub-space, thought impressions, dreams and a common lust for destruction.  It was better now than it had been before.  In the past, Cthulhu's link to his minions was mental power alone.  Now, they were joined directly with his blighted consciousness, and acted not only as his slaves, but as extensions of his mind and body.  The time had come to punish the Elder Gods for imprisoning him, and rend the very cosmos, which dictated the cycles of his existence.  He would not dream in his deathless slumber again. 

  Ever. 

  Avalon looked out upon the members of the Time Council with a somber expression.  Ultra-powerful entities from many timestreams were present, awaiting his plan.  Not that he thought it would make much difference…even a TimeGuardian, with all his strength, was nothing before the might of Cthulhu or Yog-Sothoth.  And of course, they probably wouldn't like the dark secret he was about to expose…

  "Members of the Time Council, we face a dire peril.  As you are aware, the Great Cycle has begun again.  The Great Old Ones and the Elder Gods are about to renew their eon-dead war.  We must do what we can to ensure that neither of these blasphemous foes destroys our realities.  The Elder Gods are oblivious to us…we are dust to them.  The Great Old Ones see our worlds as a means to amass enough power to defeat the Elder Gods.  And, of course, other players have their own schemes and motives."

  "Among these third parties, the most consequential are the Greys.  Thought destroyed, even by me, they have returned to enforce their own rule upon Time.  I will not underestimate them again, I should have known that anyone able to curse me, turn me into Sauron, and nearly manipulate me into destroying countless worlds should not be discounted so easily.

  "But all is not known to you, members of the Time Council.  Have you never wondered why the Greys did what they did?  Were their motives ever truly understood?  I now know what their dark plan was: it was to gather enough power to destroy the Great Old Ones when they arose from their cosmic slumber.  For the Greys were actually a race created by the Old Ones.  They were the first race besides the Old Ones themselves to populate the uber-cosmos…created as playthings or slaves.  For whatever reason, the Old Ones grew tired of their toys and discarded them, moving on to create more amusing creatures, such as humanoids, creatures they could more easily mold, torture, and destroy.  Eventually, the Old Ones decided that the meddling, MasterPlotting Greys were a nuisance, and began a savage war of annihilation upon them.  It was at this time that the Old Ones were imprisoned.  The Greys knew that they would one day be set free again.  After summer is winter…after day is night.  The Greys saw that when the Old Ones awoke, they would attempt to finish what they had begun and destroy their race.

"So the crafty fiends used their Time wisely, building a fleet huge enough to take on the Old Ones, and manipulating the timestreams to optimize their chances of victory at the time of the Awakening.  This was the true cause of their Space/Time Bubble experiments, why they interjected into the Earth universe…they were trying to act like their Creators, to understand them.  Gathering knowledge they would one-day use against the Old Ones.  But they lost control, and the products of their own experiment, the mighty fleets who engaged in the Great OmniBattle for the Continuum, thwarted their plan.  "For unknown reasons, the main events which play out in space/time occur in the Earth dimension.  Perhaps it was destined to be this way, or perhaps it is a side effect of the Greys' meddling.  In any event, I believe that this reality is the key to avoiding a macrocosmic war and to defeating the Greys again.  The Greys themselves see this, hence their recent efforts to enslave, kill, or drive insane the primary players in this reality."

"We must assist them with all the power at our disposal, or we will be enslaved by Cthulhu, or utterly destroyed by the formless, fractal madness which exists beyond all rational, organized realities.  Our choice is simple: we must face these foes, or everything that is will be lost."

The chaos known as Azathoth churned and roiled, almost as if it were excited.  The greatest battle of all loomed ahead, with the prize being the multiverse itself.

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