Present Day

The body of Sol fell to the ground, blood pooling around his head.

Sol, quickly covered the distance to the stunned Three.

“Hot fucking damn! You! You’re a fucking Levi too!?” Threes’ voice was hissed through gritted teeth barely able to contain it. His eyes flickering wildly between the corpse on the ground and the man now standing next to him.

“No.” I bit back at him “I am no Levi. My name is Sol”

Watching for the tensed muscles, a cue Three would try something, anything. I would if I was in his position. However I was hoping the shock of seeing a copy jump out would have been more than enough for me to reach Three. I grimly thought, even if it was not, there was no end to the copies I could make.

Three ground his teeth and spat out “So, what now? You return me to your master for decommissioning? You get your reward and can brag about taking me down? You have to know he cannot get his Son back! I have tried, lord knows I have tried. The thousands of me I have created, you cannot summon up what you want, it’s always a crap shoot!” He was flexing his hands, balling them into fists again and again. The gun dropped, forgotten on the desk in surprise. The impotent rage scrambling the mans thoughts.

I knew what he was going through. The idea of being sucking into nonexistence, your entire life, everything you have felt, achieved, smelt, touched, loved.

Obliterated. So some idiot could learn how to play Chess better. I said I would never do it again. Yet here I was.

We stared at each other for a long moment, the sounds from the stacks filling the empty space between us. I could see his breathing coming shorter and faster. I had thought about this moment, dreamed about it, but I didn’t know what would happen next. Either did he.

“Three, Levi, what do like to be called?”

“Fuck you” he spat at me.

“Three then. Have you ever wondered what would happen if you touched another Prime?”

His rage that had filled his mind slowly gave way, he should have seen this earlier. I continued.

“Would you like to find out?” and reached out and touched him.

My consciousness exploded. I could feel him. I could feel him inside me, dancing away from me, laughing at me, crying as he tried to run. He was everywhere.

He was me.

I saw the myriad of paths our lives had taken. I saw the shared history we had together. Growing, learning we had powers, then things got messy. The countless lives we had created and destroyed. The fights we had gotten into, some threads growing stronger, others being snuffed out when they were returned.

I saw the great leap. Hundreds and hundreds of myself being created and sent out with a goal. I saw the Levi breaking into my room pleading to be absorbed because he couldn’t stop killing.

I saw the Levi that had evaded me for years through Tibet convinced I was a demon coming to take his soul. I saw the good and the bad.

So many threads were bad.

I saw my Mission. Three saw it as well, being created and tasked with the goal of learning the powers. I heard his myriad of souls howl as realisation hit. This was Sol.

Feeling the other end of it, of creation and destruction, the drinking and the despair. The flight from Arcadia, the love of Valkyr, the understanding of who we were, of the promise in that monastery to never use it again.

Of the return to Arcadia, the decision being made to survive. The months of meditation, internal focus until the strike. The copy that started it all sitting there. The understanding, pride, fear, control. The bargaining for one more copy. The yelling, abuse, hatred, vitriol being flung in the small office. The unseen breakdown of mental walls, the drinking. The grudging choice being made, the stupidity of deciding by drawing straws.

The uncountable Levi’s watched on as one absorbs the other and breaks down. A wave of shame permeates the Universe as the one left is reduced to incoherent howling, of drinking uncontrollably, the memories of the past being played over again.

We, all of us, watched Sol slowly, religiously, remove the overcoat and clothes. Of digging out a copy of Twisted Mirrors clothes he was created with, the mark of a Levi and vowing to create just one more. Just one more copy. Sol standing there and concentrating, trying to bring forth a better version of himself. Trying and succeeding in bringing out the exact copy he wanted, one of himself created with the same memories as of the start of the Great Leap. Sol had fought too long and too hard to gain his unique abilities to just hand over to anyone else.

Standing there as Levi Prime and informing the newly formed version that he was part of the Great Leap forward. His task was to venture out and learn his powers, repeating the same words Sol himself had heard before.

Sol could feel the ghost of Three screaming as he saw himself head off convinced of his goal in life.

We watched as we left filled with pride and power, his Mission burning bright. The years learning and it all coming so easily to him. The goal slowly shifting from learning his powers to avoiding his fate of being reabsorbed so someone else could learn his hard won knowledge. Three screamed as he realised that there had been a way to avoid this, to do exactly what Sol had done. He had never learnt how to bring forth the exact version he wanted, so he was stuck. Had never considered it.

We continued watching, watching Three building his shadowy empire, hiding himself away so no one could ever find him, no one would be the master of his fate except himself.

The hordes of Levi watched on.

Slowly they all coalesced into one another. Levi as a pale shape of himself, Three as an army of men and Sol. The broken man, slumped in his chair swearing he would never make another copy of himself.

Sol, leaving Tommy. Sol confronting himself and the choices he had made.

“Remember who we want to be. You owe me that.”

Those words burned across the miasma of thoughts. Those words were an anchor.

Sol, bringing out the copy that started it all. The one created in that small room on the other side of the world a lifetime ago. The two them drawing straws as to who would be Sol. Of them laughing together at the absurdity of it all. Laughing at the memory of the last time around. Of where we had come from and where we were to go. Longing together to see Valkyr, hungry for any news even knowing that each other had the same memories now. Them sharing a final drink, accepting that life was always a series of series of choices and being alive meant pain.

The legion of Levi watched as the straws were shared. Of the flash of happiness, of guilt, of shame, of acceptance.

Of no new promises being demanded or made.

“Remember who we want to be. You owe me that.”

The army of Three stared at Sol, their voices echoing together.

“You. It was your task. It was your Mission.”

Sol slowly nodded.

“You created me so you wouldn’t die.”

Again Sol nodded.

“Now here you stand. Doing what you have always hated in Levi Prime. You will end me.” The army of Three waited.

Sol braced himself then softly spoke “I am truly sorry.” Sol thoughts coalesced. He was not a copy. He was his own mind. Inside him were fragments of other souls but there was only one Sol.

With a lurching feeling like he was flung from a great height Sol snapped back to an empty room.

Empty except for his own corpse. The music pulsing slowly. He breathed out. The accumulated knowledge of thousands of copies nestled in the back of his mind, filling it to bursting with their life and laughter, their experiences and souls. He would keep moving, he owed them that.

“Please forgive me” he sighed into the empty room. “I never meant this.”