Ch.32

I returned to the B&B after a brutal day out followed by a boring meeting with the regents. I was exhausted when I saw the kid Claudia and Artie brought back. I ignored him except to say hi and bye because I headed upstairs for a shower and rest. I put special DNA locks on my door and Claudia's so while we weren't in there the rooms were impenetrable thanks to the force field covering the doors themselves.

Even when we were in there the force field was on while we were asleep. It was one way so we could still hear anything on the outside. A few days later the kid, Nick, used DB Cooper's rip cord to break into the warehouse and Franz Mesmer's Magnets had Claudia and Jinx fooled into thinking he was me while I was in the labs in Colorado working on the next big discovery, cryogenic sleep to save peoples lives who were dying from incurable diseases and needed more time.

By the time I'd returned to the warehouse, Nick had made off with Paracelsus stuck in a levitation chamber unable to fully de-bronze him without the device I made. Unfortunately Paracelsus had been in the bronze sector where I'd built the first bronzing device and explained to Miss Frederic how to use it to de-bronze them. Claudia was bronzed by the stele while Jinx was unconscious until they called which brought me there.

The little brat used the original doorstep to open a portal out of the warehouse. On the downside, they'd taken all three pieces of the philosophers stone using Jinx to open the case and keep the Tesla turrets from firing on them. Paracelsus had guided the little bastard into escaping with the bronze stele and the philosophers stone pieces so he could be freed. I called the regents and told them we needed to know about Paracelsus who wasn't on any records in the warehouse to my knowledge.

When I saw what was done to Claudia, I broke Nick's mother, Charlotte's neck and every bone in her body. I told Claudia I'd find Paracelsus and free her before she degrades or I'd die with her and take Paracelsus and everyone that helps him with me. I told Pete, Myka, Helena, Jinx and Artie to speak with Abigail Cho and Miss Frederic who are waiting for them at the B&B. I told them I was going after Paracelsus myself and warned them not to let him in the warehouse while conscious because he was the warehouse nine caretaker who went bad.

I disappeared in a wind gust and hunted down Sutton, Nick's father and Paracelsus's brother. I took his immortality from him with my own powers and gained the more formidable immortality myself. I told him to tell me where Paracelsus's old lab was and took him to Constantinople, Istanbul. I called Joshua and told him to take a teleporter with Claire to the warehouse because Claudia needed a bone marrow transplant to slow the bronze degradation.

I broke us into the lab and called the team telling them where we were. I tossed down a teleporter pad that expanded and told them to use it before heading further in. I found the bronzing stele while the count ran off and the others arrived. I gave the Stele to Helena to get back to the lab and use it to free Claudia.

I went after Paracelsus while Helena went back to the warehouse. Unfortunately the others got there first and the place was collapsing around us thanks to their stupidity. I saved the female and healed her before bringing Sutton's family out of there before going back only for Paracelsus to be gone. I raged and nearly killed them before leaving and heading to the warehouse in time to be there as Claudia was de-bronzed.

Miss Frederic was getting worse and I told Claudia I'd find him and make Paracelsus pay dearly. I told her he wanted immortality and if he got it before I got to him I would make him regret being unable to die. My eyes turned black briefly and the warehouse shook before I calmed down and breathed at her insistence. The next trace of Paracelsus was in San Francisco and I was forbidden to go by Kosan and Claudia both.

Kosan told her in my state I might become volatile and extremely dangerous which would give the suppressed power of the music box a way to take control of me. He told Claudia the best thing she could do for the warehouse and the world was to keep me calm and away from Paracelsus. Claudia took that as dragging me to Pete's clubhouse in the stacks and dragging the sex out of me to calm my rage with herself. When we returned to the world, Paracelsus was captured by Pete, although immortal and having killed hundreds of sick cancer patients.

When he was brought back to the warehouse, I disappeared for a bit and came back less immortal than before. I then stripped him of the philosophers stone I passed to Kosan and stripped Paracelsus of his immortality. He screamed and I told him that he may have injected the right minerals to prevent being bronzed temporarily, but I can pull them out of him forcefully and bronze his now mortal ass regardless.

I put a hand on his chest and growled that I wouldn't be nearly as gentle for what he'd nearly done to Claudia. He screamed as bloody sweat covered his body and water washed it away. I moved back and told Kosan it was done. He fired the gone and bronzed Paracelsus who screamed until his mouth was bronzed with him.

I turned to Claudia and held her before telling her I couldn't lose her like that and still go on. Kosan asked him how I striped him of his immortality and I grunted. "The painting is a divine artifact meant to represent immortals, all immortals. I simply used it's power to suck the immortality out of him into the painting. It can pull anything inside, even something from someone once the user knows what the nature of it is or holds it in his hand. I like to think of it as my own closet of skeletons I don't want to think about right now."

I waved a hand and a disk flew over, scooping Paracelsus up and putting him back where he came from. Miss Frederic recovered almost immediately and the regents decided a week later that the philosophers stone was too dangerous so they made me put it in warehouse 2. Six months later I'd taken Claudia to the private island I owned and after a week of on and off while they had things handled at the office, I shared everything with Claudia.

I showed her the past lives, shared all my secrets with her and showed her the past lives I'd lived in this world without even realizing it up until the day I'd been reborn thinking it was a normal world. I shared absolutely everything with her including the fact that my women in the painted world were immortal and had pieces of my soul in their original bodies. I told her that my best vary being was far more complicated than the warehouse because even if I die I can't seem to stay dead forever.

I told her that if she came with me when our time was up on this planet she'd be connected to warehouse two as it's caretaker and if she chose, she could walk eternity with the me of this reality while the all knowing part of me would split off and move on. I told her she could see life as few in all of eternity ever had and only gods amongst them. I told her she'd be immortal and forever loved solely by the me she has now, forever into eternity. I told her she'd see worlds and things only read about or seen on tv.

She said she could see that with the Game of Thrones life I lived. I grunted. "Yeah, not all of me is such a great guy. I've been a lord, a king, a god, a deity by power alone and nearly a god of destruction. I've seen and done things you haven't seen because I fear you'd hate me for them. I-I just can't-"

She put a finger to my lips and told me. "You warned me before that I'd regret ever being with you, but for the life of me I couldn't understand why. Until now, I understand why you said those things, though even with all this all I can think is my man is a bit of a drama queen."

I frowned lightly and she smiled, sighing. "From what I can see you've always done the best you could to help whatever world you've been to. Even when you were a not so good person you only did what you had to survive. Honestly you're a bit of a bad ass and I love it. Though still dramatic."

I grunted and kissed her before falling to one knee and asking for her to marry me. I told her that it didn't have to be soon or even this century if she becomes the caretaker or immortal, but I wanted the world to know she was with me and I belonged with her. She bit her lip and agreed before saying in a decade or so for the first real marriage.

I more than readily agreed and put the ring on her finger, kissing her and hugging her before swinging her around and landing on my back in the sand. The swimming trunks and bikini came off making it a nude beach from then on. The next day we came in to the warehouse at a special request of Miss Frederic. She showed us the round table and told us about it with Artie.

When Myka said the host country supplies the new agents, I stopped Pete from talking and spoke calmly. "All of you can relax, the warehouse isn't going anywhere anytime soon."

Pete tried to talk and I raised a hand, sighing. "The warehouse follows humanity's progress and focal point of dreams and power. That spark of inspiration, that will the US had to be the world's police during the world wars. All of it is a factor that influences the warehouse. Why else do you think I'd make a company that focuses on inspiring humans to do better, to be better and to achieve what no one else has?"

I looked to each of them and sighed. "The warehouse itself decides when to leave and only when that flame of hope that burns in all of us, that passion that moves people to act and be the impossible dims, does the warehouse truly move to the next country. In point of fact from the moment a warehouse is built, it's sole efforts of growth is determined by the artifacts that power it and are added to it. Artifacts made from that same spark it follows. To that end the warehouses are technically moving from the moment they are created."

I leaned back in my seat and smiled sadly. "The warehouse won't move within any of your mortal lifetimes. As Winston Churchill once said: The United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate. I lit the match with my company and soon the stars themselves will be within our grasp so yes, the warehouse will move eventually in a century or two, but for now, rest assured, it won't be going anywhere."

They calmed down and I turned to Claudia. "And when it does, if and when you've decided to stay caretaker, I will go with you and it as it's immortal guardian and shield to defend you and it for all my days."

Claudia took my hand with a smile and I turned to Miss Frederic. "I think I'll go first then, since I think at least two people here share my my choice in memory I'd like to share."

I closed my eyes and touched the center tile, giving it my memories and time in the warehouse. The memory was a silky forty-second street tap dancing memory that happened almost a year ago. It showed it to the end where Claudia finished the two dancing off with a shower of glitter. I smiled softly at her and saw her get serious.

I pulled my hand back and told them. "The warehouse gave me a lot more than any of you in many different ways, but in that moment I felt it, hope, true hope that I could have a life without regrets here with friends I'd fight for and a woman I'd die for or with, completely, utterly and forever. In that moment I felt the hope that I'd never be alone again and trust me when I say you can't fathom what that meant to me."

I kissed Claudia's hand and told her. "That's when I knew I had to reveal everything to you snd the warehouse gave me the strength to do it with the hope that you would accept me for everything."

She smiled and sighed, saying it was the moment she realized she wanted to be an agent and not a caretaker. I chuckled. "Why not both? You'll be the caretaker if you want and it's your choice what that means to you. Don't let anyone tell you what you can and can't do or be, love. If you don't want to be the caretaker then that's fine, if you change you mind in a few decades if you change your mind, so be it. You can be an agent or you can be a caretaker, but I say why not be both? I'm a regent, the guardian and an agent bundled in one. Screw what anyone else says, you do you."

She laughed lightly and agreed, saying she'd figure it out later. I nodded and she put her hand on the wheel, surprising me. It showed us in a blanket under the first glow in the dark galaxy stars and me telling her my theory that the first warehouse was the library of Alexandria and what it contained, the seed of the tree of knowledge. I told her my theory was that core of the warehouse was a spark or seed from the tree, grown and pollinated as each warehouse moves on and that's why the warehouse smelled like apples, because they were the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge.

In the memory I went on to say. "It makes me feel humble to be one small facet of humanity's progress, all our knowledge and wisdom passed down and gathered, protected and nurtured with our own hands. How many people in the world can say they saved the world and humanity's legacy on a daily basis? And here being with the smartest sand most beautiful woman of them all beneath the stars and the tree. Imagine the irony that Adam and Eve had fig leaves on and we still have less than they did on."

Claudia snorted and laughed before smiling and laying against my chest as she said she smelled apples. One fell and I caught it, handing it to her and asked. "Do you think this is how it happened?"

She took a bite and smiled before the memory ended. Pete made jokes and walked off while while Miss Frederic showed us a few until it was Myka's turn. She learned she loved Pete and went to see him while we learned Artie had a son. Then it was Steve and HG's turn which ended with me reviving her daughter and Pete going next, showing all of it, every memory.

I smiled as he said it was all of it, every minute of endless wonder. I sighed as we got a ping and told them. "It's a dragon artifact, a mask from the zodiac that turns the wearer into a dragon, side effects include stealing virgins and hoarding gold in caves along with the slow uncontrollable transformation of course."

Pete asked how I knew without even checking and I told him. "This is a world of endless wonder. Anything I'd possible and that's what makes it so great."

Decades later humanity had colonized the Milky Way and yet here Claudia and I were together in black and watching newbies with old Jack from Interpol showing two of them around. Claudia spoke to them while I remained invisible before she caught herself, remembering the past. We teleported to the stone table and she touched it smiling. Pete and Myka were happily married with HG and had grandchildren.

Jinx and Joshua were married with three adopted children who were mostly grown and Claire had moved off world to travel and see the stars. All of them had retired and Artie was in the painted world with Miss Frederic in the immortal city. They couldn't leave and remain immortal and with their advanced age they would pass quickly outside the painted world, but they loved it there. Every advancement humanity will make through me or has made is in that city.

Old Sword married Irene after realizing he'd rather have love than lust. As for Christina, she was one of the two newbies Jack was talking to. While the stone table lit up, I held Claudia and asked if she regretted anything. She shook her head and replied. "Not one moment."

I nodded and smiled while we watched the memories of endless wonder change before us. I sighed and told her the warehouse would be moving soon because the company was moving off world thanks to my having had to leave it to Joshua who thought it was time. Claudia sighed and asked if Abigail was still waiting for us in the immortal city. I nodded and told her she was a very patient woman when she wanted something as real as what we'd shared with her for decades.

Claudia had wanted to experiment and we'd only had one volunteer because HG was in a serious three way relationship with Pete and Myka. They had a dozen kids combined and three times that in grandchildren so far. She sighed and within the next six years Christina became ready as the warehouse moved officially to warehouse 14 in Japan. Claudia gave over her place as caretaker and took over as caretaker of warehouse 2 in the painted world.

It was just as massive though not nearly as active thanks to having only the artifacts I'd found on my own and the regents declared too dangerous for the regular warehouse to hold. As for myself, I transferred guardianship and my immortality to a regent the others had selected. I told them it was time I live out my days off world and see the galaxy I'd helped humanity reach for.

In truth Claudia and I saw it within a decade thanks to the wormhole device I'd been forced to figure out. They'd been installed on every inhabited world and it took time for us to see it all, but we were welcomed guests as the founders of Solaris technologies and institute, the galaxy's largest and best company that always seeks to make life better for everyone. The AI's kept the company honest so there was little to worry about.

We met aliens and made friends with beings we would've missed had I not come to this reality including several people who'd reincarnated and transmigrated. Some of which joined warehouse 14 before we moved onwards. When it was time, I cloned my body and left the part of me that wished to stay with only Claudia and Abigail. The clone me or I rather, destroyed my own heart and moved on.