Echoworld

I don't doubt that the result will be the same whether you came to her or she came to you."

"Why would a universe-traveler intentionally meet himself, if he knew what would happen?"

"Suicide."

She sat down on the bed and pulled her legs underneath her, so she was sitting on them. "Why would he have to go to a different universe to kill himself?" Why not just do it at home?"

"Suicide brings great dishonor to the entire family. The good spirits won't allow him into their graceful presence if he kills himself. However, if he's killed by one of his echoes..." He shrugged. "That's what I hear, in any case."

Wren nodded. "And then there's the question of who gets the bed." She grinned wolfishly. "Do you have cooties?"

"Coo-ties?" Shaun asked, perplexed.

"Wren stared at him in open amazement. "You don't know what cooties are?"

He merely shook his head.

"It's something I grew up with, but I think its dying out. Boys always had these germ-like creatures that would attack you if you got too close. Sometimes they could kill you"

"You grew up with tales like this?" he asked incredulously. "No wonder your universe is in such a state of turmoil."

"Your's isn't doing much better," she pointed out.

"Good point. In any case, no. I'm cootieless."

She nodded in satisfaction. "Then I see no reason why we can't share the bed. I don't bite," she added coyly.

"Damn."

She laughed and removed her shoes. She then crawled into the small bed, fully clothed, looking at Shaun to do the same.

He, too, climbed into the bed and turned out the light. Awkwardly, he turned onto his side with his back to her. Soon, she followed suit.

He could hear her breathing. Every breath pounded in his ears, like his heartbeat. He told himself over and over again that he'd known the girl for less than a day. And besides, love was an emotion to be avoided at all costs.

But was he supposed to be a warrior full-time? Was he not allowed to be human? He continued to listen to her breathing, trying to see how his heartbeat and her breath synchronized themselves. He longed to hold her, if only for a moment, before she had to die. Ah, one of life's great ironies, a nasty voice in the back of his mind taunted. You learn how not to feel emotion through all of your jobs, and because you've lacked emotion, you've been very successful. But now, you've finally found the woman you're sworn to kill on sight. And why haven't you killed her yet? Because of emotions. Oh, I'm loving it. Continue on - this is quite amusing.

He tried to ignore the logic of the voice and concentrated on her breathing. It was slow and even - she'd fallen asleep quickly. He turned onto his back, hands behind his head, staring at the dark ceiling. How could his training fail him now, when it had been so faithful, so useful, the last four years?

In the training camps, it had been beaten into their heads that emotions were weakness. He'd always believed it, too. But beauty tends to cut through all reason.

Another question came to him. Why was she a different age from the rest of her echoes? She was a full fourteen years younger - the universes didn' t vary that much in time. He'd heard of very rare cases similar to this. Anomalies in the time continuum - each universe is attached to every other one. There was a one in trillion chance that she was one of these glitches - it was that rare. But these people, they weren't related to their echoes. So if you killed on of their echoes, they would remain unaffected.