This is the end
The Beginning
The End
What it all means is not for us. It is for history to decide. All we can do is play the parts as written. All we ca know is ourselves.
A baby stands in its crib, reaching out for a mobile. A boy grows up. David tries to kill himself. David continues with his life.
David meets with Charles and pulls a fish out of his ear, and stares at it in surprise. He tosses it away and pulls out a blow of glowing light that becomes a mace. Charles pulls a smaller light out of his ear, and it becomes a bullet which he loads into a ground. Jia-Yi lies on the couch and calls to her father, and David says that he will fix it soon. He and Charles then leave to find Amahl.
The two men arrive at a door, and David says that he likes the two of them together. They go into the room and find the past and Farouk, together. Charles says that he broke their boy, and Amahl says that David always blames himself. David teleports over and attacks Amahl, and Charles shoots Farouk.
Syd runs downstairs with Gabrielle and the baby, calling to Kerry. Kerry and Cary are frozen, and the Time Demons appear around them. Time unfreezes around the Loudermilks, and Syd warns that there are too many of them. They try to leave and find themselves in the basement. Kerry tries to get through to Cary, who says that his brain is filled with spaghetti. Time destabilizes among them, and Cary finally tells Kerry that someone with twice the temporal identity would be twice as difficult to consume. He says that he has an idea that will confuse them.
As Syd finds a shotgun, Cary tells Kerry that they should be together one more time. Kerry takes his hand after a moment, and the two of them merge. Kerry gets up out of the wheelchair and draws her sword, runs forward, and attacks the Time Demons. She's able to stab them and they disappear, while others advance on Gabrielle and her baby and Syd shoots at them.
David tells Amahl that he is Legion and they all share one thing. Amahl stands in a room of doors, David's voice echoing around him, all saying that they hate him. David runs out of one door and lunges at Amahl, who blasts him back. More Davids charge Amahl and he blasts two more of them back. More Davids come out and advanced on Amahl, finally overwhelming him through sheer numbers.
The wounded Farouk lies on the ground clutching at his side, and Charles looks down on him. Farouk pulls colored silks out of the wound and stands up, unharmed. The gun becomes a knife, and Farouk says that he's disappointed that all they can create are weapons of war. He teleports the knife from Charles' hand to his and transforms it into one of two bottles of beer.
Kerry tells Cary inside of her head that she's too busy killing to talk. She hesitates briefly and then continues fighting.
Amahl blasts all of the Davids away, and the core David finds himself in a straitjacket sitting in a black void. Farouk tells him that he failed because there is a scared and unloved baby under all of his rage. David insists that he's a good person and deserves love, and Farouk tells him that he doesn't. Catatonic, David stares off into space and sings to himself. Other straitjacketed Davids, all part of Legion, appear around him and sing. Gabrielle sings to him assuring him that she'll keep him safe.
Kerry and Syd continue fighting.
The Davids in David's head scream in rage and rampage through the void. The claw at David, who continues singing with Gabrielle. She holds Baby David as David looks on, and he frees himself from the straitjacket. It turns into Amahl, and David tells him that it's time to die and starts choking him.
In the house, Jia-Yi hears the Time Demons laugh. The house shakes and the walls crack, and Jia-Yi finds herself back in the Time Hallway. She spits out dozens of her teeth and turns to see the Time Demons coming. They surround her and she puts on her headphones before passing out. Her father Xiu arrives and strokes her face, and says that now she understands that time is a force she can't control. He disappears and Jia-Yi becomes her younger self. She wakes up to find Xiu sitting next to her, and he congratulates her on her baby teeth falling out. Jia-Yi has wisdom teeth, and she hugs Xiu.
Charles and Farouk drink and Farouk says that he lived in David's mind for 32 years. He thought what David was, and the prison eventually became a person. Amahl says that he loves David and considered him his son, but admits that fatherhood isn't in his nature. He says that Amahl brought Charles there intending to punish and dominate because he was weak. Now Farouk is tired of the churn, and has come there to help David on his quest. Charles has a proposition for him.
Cary tells Kerry that he doesn't feel so good, and she assures him that it's only arthritis as she ages.
Xiu tells Jia-Yi that the Time Demons guard the tributaries of time, but they're well-trained. He blows a whistle and orders them to go, and says that the Time Hallway is their native home and they have both shed their screens. She asks Xiu what they are, and he tells her that he would like to call her "Daughter". Xiu invites her to come with him to see untethered existence, but Jia-Yi says that there's one thing she has to do before going.
David chokes Amahl, and Charles and Farouk arrive. Charles makes Amahl disappear, and says that David never had a chance because of him. He insists that war isn't the answer, and he's made a deal with Farouk. David insists that he can't leave it up someone else. His father says that he wasn't there for him, and figures that he left to protect David. He admits that he'll never know the pain of being abandoned, but is there now and wants to make it right. Charles asks David to let him be his father. Crying, David falls into his arms and Charles hugs him.
Amahl tells Farouk that he has become weak in his old age, and Farouk realizes how petty his younger self was. He gives Amahl his sunglasses to show him what he's learned. Amahl dons them and relives everything that has happened to him in the future as part of David's mind. Shocked, Amahl removes them and thanks Farouk, and says that he's sorry as he weeps.
Jia-Yi appears in the basement as an elderly Kerry crawls along the floor. She blows the whistle, bringing the Time Demons to heel, and they finally disappear. Jia-Yi says that the universe acknowledges all of them, and wants them to know that they're suffering means something. Syd asks if David did it, and Jia-Yi tells her that the David she knew is gone because his past changed. Now Syd's past will change as well and everything will be new. Syd wonders if she dies, and Jia-Yi tells her that the does but the new Syd will be glorious. She gives Syd time for one last thing and thanks Syd for helping her when she was human.
There's a flash of light and Jia-Yi disappears. Kerry wonder what happened, and Syd tells her that she thinks they saved the world.
Amahl asks David what he will do, and he says that he will live a life. Chuckling, Amahl says to look him up when he's an adult again and they will rule the world. David says that they won't, and Amahl takes his hand. There's a flash of light.
In the Time Hallway, Jia-Yi tells Xiu that now she's ready. He opens a door to existence, and Jia-Yi puts on her headphones and follows him.
In the house, Syd looks at the elderly Kerry. After a moment she turns and leaves. Cary appears and remembers their childhood when they were separate beings. He helps his now equally-aged sister up off the floor and she asks if she can call him brother. Cary says that it works.
Charles returns home and finds Gabrielle sitting in the sunroom. She says that Baby David is upstairs in the nursery, and that he has friends. Gabrielle talks about seeing demons, and Charles says that he saw their son as an angry adult, and together they fought a tyrant. His wife says that David needs them both, and Charles promises no more travel or bloodshed. Gabrielle asks if he's going to kiss her and he does.
In the nursery, Syd looks down on Baby David. The adult David joins her and wonders if she's surprised to see him. Syd explains that Jia-Yi told her that she would live a new life, and David figures that she will be extraordinary without him around. She agrees and David apologies. They figure that they will just fade away, and Syd tells David that she helped Baby David, not David. Syd tells him to be a good boy and they disappear.
Written by Gadfly on Aug 13, 2019