Echoworld

The Alpha universe was speeding ahead so quickly that it would end up in the Ancient Times. If they were in the Ancient Times, he wouldn't have to worry about inter-universal travel. "Which wouldn't be so bad at all," he muttered.

"What?" Wren asked, confused.

He sighed and shook his head, scattering his thoughts. "Nothing really. I was just realizing how my universe made some serious mistakes. I'm not going to kill you."

"All right. Do you have any other ideas?" she asked calmly.

He scrubbed his hand through his hair. Nothing. If he wanted to return to his world, he would have to get rid of the problem. Was there any way he could get rid of Wren without having to kill Wren? He smiled sarcastically at that thought. When he realized there was no other alternative, he frowned. "I don't see another way about it."

She stood. "Keep thinking. I need to do something before we go on our next suicidal 'adventure'." He nodded vaguely. She walked into the bathroom and the door clicked shut.

There had to be another way. He just wasn't seeing it. They'd always told him in the training camp that there was an infinite amount of solutions to any given problem - he only sees the obvious. And the obvious answer was to kill one Wren, thus ridding the world of all the others. He supposed he could take Wren to the Alpha universe. Let her see the state of the world and see if she had any ideas.

Maybe they could get into Wren's castle. Maybe they could kill her by overwhelming her. And while you're dreaming, he sneered, why don't you think about owning a Cruiser. If they had a Cruiser, it would be a much shorter and easier trip to Wren's abode. But there was still that small problem of killing the woman.

He knew it was impossible for only the two of them to overwhelm her. It was impossible for a small army to overwhelm her. She was the strongest sorceress in the world since Jasmina, 300 years before Wren was even born.

There were two ways to go about this. Kill Wren now, or take her with him and try to think up a plan from there. It was obvious which one he was going to choose. All they had to do now was wait for Eric to resituate himself.

The bathroom door opened and Wren stepped out. She held her gorgeous auburn hair in one hand while replacing the knife. She walked across the room and threw it in the trash.

She turned and saw Shaun's wide-eyed stare. She nervously ran her fingers through her hair, which was now even with the bottom of her ears. "It was bugging me. Besides, I'm less recognizable now, right?"

He only nodded. Then, clearing his throat, he said, "I think -"

"I had an idea, she interrupted. "Sorry. Anyway, you said that if one echo meets another, one of them would die. If one of them dies, then all of them die. So I figure all I have to do is meet this Wren. Problem solved."

He mentally slapped himself. He'd been too focused on the problem that he didn't think of all the possible solutions. Outwardly, he nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. But you do realize that this will very likely kill you."

"Very likely? I thought it was certain death."

"There've been cases where one echo kills another, thus killing of the entirety of that person, in every world. It's always been a universe-traveler from the Alpha universe meeting his echo, though.