Threads of Fate Across Universes

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Xoxo

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Weeks have passed since the small group of four—Elio, Shane, Carol, and Sophia—came to stay at the Greene farm. Over time, they seamlessly integrated into the Greene family's way of life. Their days were structured: mornings were dedicated to training, which Beth and Maggie eventually joined. The afternoons were spent on farm chores—weeding, clearing debris, and harvesting crops. They only paused for meals and bathroom breaks, their days filled with purpose and routine.

After the first week of training, Elio assessed everyone's basic capabilities: strength, speed, stamina, and quick thinking. Satisfied, he moved on to combat training, helping each person choose a weapon that suited their skills and temperament.

Carol excelled with a combat knife for close-quarters combat and a suppressed pistol for mid-range engagements. Her adaptability and survival instincts made the knife a perfect fit, allowing her to move stealthily and strike silently. Her calm under pressure and practical mindset made the pistol an ideal secondary weapon.

Sophia, still young and inexperienced, wielded a baseball bat. It was straightforward and required little skill, making it a great starting point for her. Her small stature made her appear unthreatening, often causing others to underestimate her—a mistake they would regret when she focused her hits with precision.

Maggie, already a skilled marksman, chose a rifle for its long-range accuracy. She also carried a reinforced sickle she had modified herself, its blade sharpened and engraved with the words Family First. The sickle complemented her straightforward fighting style, while her rifle ensured she could handle threats from a distance.

Beth, not physically strong, opted for a compact crossbow. Its lightweight design and silent operation made it perfect for stealth kills, allowing her to contribute effectively without relying on brute strength.

By now, all four were capable of taking down at least one walker on their own, a testament to the effectiveness of their training.

It was a- I don't know what day it is but it feels like a Sunday.

It was Sunday, and everyone decided they would like a roast. Otis went out to the woods to hunt for the main component of the meal: meat. Preferably, not squirrel; I could do with something that had more meat on its bones. 

A gunshot echoed from the woods, followed by distant shouting. "How far? How far?" Otis's voice rang out, panting, "About half a mile, that way!"

Elio froze, the familiarity of the situation hitting him like a ton of bricks. "Oh shit," he muttered under his breath. Shane, standing beside him, sensed something was wrong. "Otis shot Carl," Elio said, his voice heavy with dread.

Shane's face paled. Carl was like a son to him, and the thought of the boy being hurt was unbearable. "Where is he?" Shane demanded.

"Follow me," Elio said, already moving. The two of them disappeared into the woods, reappearing moments later in a clearing where Rick was running, Carl limp in his arms. Otis trailed behind, shouting, "Hershel! Talk to Hershel—he'll help your boy!"

Rick noticed Shane and Elio appearing out of nowhere. "Shane? What are you—? Elio too?" Shane was frozen, unsure of what to do. Elio snapped him out of it. "Shane, Carl's hurt. We need to get him back to the farm. You take him—you're faster than me."

Shane hesitated, looking at Carl's lifeless form in Rick's arms. "Go!" Elio barked, breaking Shane's trance. Shane took Carl from Rick and vanished in a blur, leaving Rick stunned.

"Shane! Where the—? Carl! Carl!" Rick shouted, on the verge of breaking down.

Elio approached Rick, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Rick, don't worry. They've gone to the farm. Carl's gonna be fine, you hear? He's gonna be fine." Rick's hands were covered in blood—his son's blood. He was on the brink of another panic attack when Elio reassured him, "I'm gonna take you to him now, okay?" Using his telekinesis, Elio lifted Rick and carried him toward the farm, shooting Otis a disapproving glance as they left.

Maggie was standing outside the house on the front porch looking out to the fields, when she felt a gust of wind next to her. And then the sound of the door coming off its hinges. Shane's voice came from the house, shouting, "Hershell! Hershell." 

Hershell came quickly into the foyer to see Shane standing there with a panicked face and a boy no older than Sophia slack in his arms. "He was shot, please help him." Tears started pouring from Shane's eyes as Hershell took in the situation before him.

Maggie and Beth appeared next to him with concerned looks.

He walked into the sitting room, rolled up his white cotton sleeves, and turned to look at Beth. "Beth, I need my full kit. Maggie, painkillers, coagulates. Grab everything."

Everyone scattered to do their jobs as he said, "Clean towels, sheets, Alcohols." He continued into the next room with a bed adorned with white sheets. He lifted the duvet off and threw it to the side as Shane followed him in. "Put him on here." Shane did as instructed.

"Pillowcase"

"Is he... Is he alive?

"Pillowcase, quick."

"Is he alive?" Shane asked as he made his way around Hershell on autopilot to the pillow behind Carl and removed its case.

"Make a pad. Put pressure on the wound, not too hard though. Just nice and firm"

Hershell took his stethoscope from Beth and checked his chest. Seconds went by until Hershell confirmed, "I've got a heartbeat, It's faint."

Beth said beside him, "Shane you need to get back. We need some space."

"Maggie, IV."

"Shane we are gonna do everything we can, Okay?" He turned to shane and looked at him blankly, "You need to give us some room. Now."

All three of them stood around Carl, performing different actions. Maggie was pumping Carl's IV. Beth was Cleaning the blood, and Hershell was checking for Carl's pulse again. 

Shane stood outside the room and couldn't bear to look in. He heard shouting coming from outside. Elio was running at a decent pace for himself, just fast enough that Rick who was floating in midair above him wouldn't get hurt from the speed. 

They made it to the front porch where Elio lowered him onto the ground, when he was around a foot from the floor, Elio dropped him. 

Elio walked into the foyer to stand against the wall next to Shane, walking over he sees Shane give him a look from where he was standing. 

"What? As much as I like Carl, I sure as hell don't feel great with him."

Rick stood up of the ground and walked around like he'd seen a ghost. His face was white and he was dripping sweat. He moved to rub it off, and in it's place appeared a red liquid coating his skin.

Seeing the scene Elio felt bad, he had been in both Rick and Carl's places before and used his ability to move water from a clear vase on a table by the door, splitting it in half, one half going to his hands and the other going to his face. 

After seconds of rinsing, he pulled the water away and put it back in the clear vase. Rick was now sobered up and clean.

He walked over to Shane and stumbled over his words, "Is he ok? Is- Is he alive? Where is he?" 

Shane walked back over to the room Hershell was attending to Carl, followed by Rick and Elio.

"Do you know his blood type?" Hershall called out from where he was putting pressure on the wound.

"A-positive, same as mine."

"That's fortunate, don't wander far. I'm gonna need you."

He looked over to Rick and asked "What happended?"

Otis appeared across the room and said "I was tracking a buck, the bullet went right through it, it went clean through."

"The dear slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved his life. But it did not go through clean, it broke up into pieces. If I can get the bullet fragments out, I'm counting six"

Otis moved of and started crying to himself in a corner.

"Lori doesn't know. My wife doesn't know." Rick repeated.

Shane pulled him into a hug and whispered to him, trying to reassure him.

After he calmed down and stopped crying, they moved into the lounge. Shane and Rick sat on the sofa with a large gap between them. And Elio sat opposite them on an armchair with his legs crossed and arms folded like he owned it.

After minutes of silence, Rick opened his mouth and said. "Why did I let him come with us? I should have sent him with Lori."

Elio and Shane looked at each other.

Rick continued, "A little girl goes missing you look for her. Simple." 

It was like he was having a conversation with someone, but they weren't responding back.

"You said call it head back." There was a pause, "Carl got shot because I wouldn't cut bait."

Elio's eyes burst wide open. The familiarity with the words Rick was saying made him shake his head. "Rick, who said to go back?"

Shane looked confused at the interaction and then saw Elio's worried expression and started to feel that something wasn't right.

"Why'd you wa-"

"Just answer the question Rick." Elio spoke with concealed annoyance.

"Shane did" He looked at Shane who had a confused expression.

At that moment, Carol's voice rang out from the Foyer. "Elio? Shane?" She made her way into the sitting room, Sophia following behind her, her little baseball bat hanging over one shoulder. "What's going on why is there blood everywh- Rick?" Rick's face spun round to see Carol, and then down to the small figure behind her. 

"Sophia?" He ran over and knelt down in front of her meeting her eyes. Her big innocent child like eyes, the same eyes that Carl has. 

He reached out to hug her, but the next thing he knew everything went dark.

Sophia had hit him across the head with her bat.

Rick fell backwards onto his back.

On the other side of the room Elio's face went pale as he started to understand the situation, "Oh for Gods sake"

"Elio? What's wrong?"

"Carl wasn't supposed to be shot, It was supposed to change." Elio's mind was running through the beginning of season 2, and his brain worked at a million miles a minute. "The only reason they were meant to go into the woods is that Sophia got lost, so Carl shouldn't have been in the forest." 

Shane looked at Elio, he was starting to worry. Although Elio doesn't like Rick all that much, Elio knows how he feels about Carl, and that would stop him from letting him get hurt.

"Those words he said about a little girl going missing, they are from the tv show. Unless." Elio stopped in his tracks.

"Unless what?" Shane said from the side

"Unless someone is guiding them to this spot making them follow the timeline on auto-pilot. Only a few should have the strength at that level and even less who could control a timeline."

"A few like who?" Shane was starting to get worried because he knew what that meant: An obscenely powerful being had come into town.

Elio looked at Shane, his eyes darting around the room. "Minimum, Universal level 3 entity" He went silent momentarily. "Maximum, Chronos of the Greek Pantheon."

"Holy Shit", Shane started pacing, too shocked at the thought of an entity taking an interest in this world.

Carol noticed the tension that appeared as Elio mentioned the level 3 entity. "Does anyone want to fill us in?"

Elio looked at Carol and decided it wouldn't hurt to explain. He sat down in his chair and began, "In the multiverse, there are countless powers and entities. These entities can be born, created, or simply exist, but they all operate within the same power system. However, some can gain an affinity after reaching a certain level of power. An affinity is like a specialized connection to a specific force or concept—Wind, Skies, Love, Space, or even Time. But to unlock an affinity, you have to reach a threshold. I believe that threshold is achieved after breaking through to the Planetary Level. Shane and I will likely gain ours when we leave this world. We're not far from it now. Currently, we're at Superhuman Level 10. At this level, we could destroy a city if we wanted to, but our bodies are constantly evolving. That makes us beings with some of the strongest potential, so in the future, we'll be capable of much more."

He paused, then continued, "The power system is structured like this:

Mortal Tier (1-10): Ranges from ordinary humans to peak human potential.

Superhuman Tier (1-10): Covers enhanced abilities to borderline planetary threats.

Planetary Tier (1-5): Beings capable of affecting or destroying entire planets.

Galactic Tier (1-5): Entities with command over entire star systems and galaxies.

Universal Tier (1-5): Reality-warping beings with control over universes.

Multiversal Tier (1-5): Beings that transcend all universes and realities.

Right now, everyone on this farm, aside from Shane and me, is between Mortal Level 1 and 3. But here's the thing: beings at higher levels—Planetary and above—can't directly interfere with mortals or superhumans. It's part of the rules that govern the multiverse."

Suddenly, as if a realization struck him, Elio shot up from his chair and started laughing. The others exchanged confused glances, unsure what had triggered his reaction. Shane, however, knew better. "What is it, Elio?" he asked, his voice tinged with concern.

Elio's laughter subsided, and he looked at the group with a mix of relief and determination. "I just realized why we're still alive. If a higher-level entity is trying to manipulate the timeline, they can't kill us directly. They're bound by the same rules. They're trying to force the timeline back on track without breaking the rules."

Elio walked out of the living room to the front door, and off the porch, Shane, Carol, Sophia and Rick who had just crawled off the floor followed him out, he spread his senses out for miles, far beyond the forests and into the cities. That's when he noticed it. "They can't kill us themselves; that's why there have been so few walkers around here recently; they're controlling them, making them gather in one spot." He pointed over to the direction of Atlanta. "Over there, Atlanta. It's gone, The entire place is crawling with walkers getting ready to launch an attack." Shane walked over to where Elio was standing and spread out his senses, listening to the thunderous movement of millions of walkers pacing around what was once the city of Atlanta.

"Holy shit" Shane gathered himself and looked over to Elio, "You've felt it haven't you?" Elio looked into his face with a question mark in the centre. "Like we are getting pushed away from reality." 

Understanding washed over Elio as he had felt the same thing, "It's the rules. The reason the being can't enter this world. It is suppressing us from getting any stronger. But it can't stop us, so it wants us gone."

Everyone went silent. Elio and Shane seemed to understand that their time in this world was coming to an end. They looked at each other with a grim determination. They couldn't take Sophia and Carol with them, but they would make sure the world was safe enough for them. 

The herd from the city would come, and when it did. They were going to obliterate it.

The silence was broken when Maggie called for Rick. Rick and Shane's head spun round acknowledging Maggie. She walked back into the house towards the door, and everyone followed. "He needs blood." 

As the six of them walked towards the room, they heard quiet whimpers coming from behind the door. 

As Carol followed with Sophia in hand she questioned "Shane, who is that?" As she got closer she saw the little boy who used to play with Sophia around the camp, now lying on the bed sobbing in pain. "Oh my God, Carl." She pulled Sophia towards her, not wanting her to witness the sight.

Hershell looked at Shane "You, hold him down."

Seeing Shane walk over along with his dad, Carl started screaming, "It hurts. Dad!"

Carl's screams got louder as Hershell pulled out a pair of clips to pull the shrapnel out. He was about to put them into Carl's belly as Elio moved towards the bed and threw Hershell a few feet back without touching him. Hershell caught himself against the wall to look up at Elio, "What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you think he can handle that sort of pain?" Elio's face was red with anger for the first time. Seeing Carl laying on the bed screaming in pain had uncovered buried memories that he would rather stay buried.

Hershell looked pissed, "What do you expect me to do, leave the bullet fragments in there? I don't hear you coming up with any ideas"

Elio went quiet and spoke with a cold, sharp voice, "Because you didn't ask."

Elio stood above Carl with his hand inches in the air over the wound, Carl screaming intensified. 

Rick not able to stand hearing his sons cries anymore yelled, "Stop. You're Killing him!"

He charged at Elio, but the only answer he received was an invisible wall that made Rick land on his ass.

Maggie shouted over the screaming, "He needs blood now." 

Rick hadn't moved still listening to Carl's screams. Shane's voice boomed across the room causing it to shake "Do it now!"

He shot up of the floor and gave Maggie his arm, she stabbed Rick's arm with a needle, drawing his blood.

Moments passed, and the screaming stopped. 

Shane looked between Carl and Hershell with a worried face, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, hey."

"He's just passed out"

Seconds later, one by one, 6 bullet shards came floating out of Carl into Elio's hand. Saving Carl from endless pain.