Before (Part 2)

"Maxwell! Stop playing around, we are going to be late!" Aneko, a single mother of two shouted at her lover. 'He always does this. And then, yup here it comes.'

"Sorry kids, but mom said playtime is over," Maxwell spoke loudly enough for Aneko to hear, her cheeks burning up in rage.

'Just how did I ever fall for him?' She questioned, knowing that it was because he had a brilliant mind and body. He was also magnificent in bed. Thinking of the night before Aneko's cheeks flushed pink, no longer burning in rage.

With her declared the bad cop, the rest of the morning moved on faster. Especially when Maxwell saw how much time had actually passed. After they dropped the kids off, he leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"Sorry about earlier, they are just too cute. I don't want them to resent me for taking their mother away."

Aneko wanted to be angry, but she could not stay after hearing that. Her two sons were truly too precious. Truthfully, she loved that they liked Maxwell so much, she was preparing to tell them. Him making her the bad cop might just make that easier.

Though that thought irritated her quite a bit, she made sure to add a mental note that once the news was out, he had to be the bad cop for a while.

...

"Ghakarhi!" Amahle shouted, stopping her brother who was already halfway through the door.

"Yes?" He tilted his head and looked at her questioningly. Not sure why she had stopped him now as he was heading out.

"Good luck for today. Show them what you are made of!" Amahle rushed in and gave her brother a big hug right after saying this. Tears of happiness forming as she felt everything they had worked for was paying off. Years of hard work, finally yielding results.

Their lives had never been easy, now it seemed that their luck was finally turning. Their parents had died early in their lives. Reportedly in a mugging, but Ghakarhi knew this was not really true.

Only their dad died in the mugging, their mother had taken her life as she watched her husband bleeding out. Overcame with grief, she had not spared a thought for her children.

Ghakarhi had never been able to forgive her. He hoped today's project would help him finally move past it. It was a rock in his heart that stopped him from ever getting close to anyone but his sister.

Returning the hug Ghakarhi lovingly patted her back, softly saying, "Good luck with your exams today. I hope to hear good things when I come back."

Amahle nodded into his chest, only letting him go once she settled her emotions. Looking at his departing figure through the door she pumped up her chest.

'I won't disappoint you!' She swore to herself, wiping the tears from her eyes as a magnificent smile blossomed. 'I want to live up to what you taught me…'

...

"Ven" Edvard tipped his head slightly in greeting to his boss and the leader of their project. She acknowledged his greeting with a smile as she headed directly for her office.

'Always straight to work.' Edvard sighed as he turned to Yawen, giving her a final hug before they had to depart for their different stations.

"Remember to get out as soon as something goes wrong," Yawen whispered into Edvard's ear and tried to pull back from their embrace, only to be pulled back in.

"I can't do that, I have to ensure everything goes well. Even if…" He trailed off as his voice broke. He hoped that the 'if' would never come, but everyone here knows it is a possibility. This is why today had been so hard on everyone with loved ones.

Tonight they might not come back to them.

Today was the day... The day they had worked for since they finished university. The day which the entire world had been working on for decades. So many tests, so many simulations. All coming together for this single project.

Yawen simply enjoyed the hug as she prayed that nothing would go wrong. That the 'if' would stay just an if. 'Certainly, it will all go well. Hundreds of different departments have checked the calculations, we have run millions of simulations.' Even knowing this, Yawen still felt something was amiss.

Finally, they separated and headed in different directions, Maxwell catching up to Edvard as he was checking in.

"Edvard, how are you feeling?" Maxwell asked, full of excitement.

"Hey Max, worried. You?"

"Worried? For what? This is going to be an awesome day. We are going to make history." Maxwell replied with glory on the mind.

Edvard shook his head, wishing he could also think so positively. But his job was making sure that if something went wrong, it would not go too wrong. Hence his job was literally to never let hope cloud his mind, to always stay the pessimist.

"How many years has it been?" Maxwell asked as they passed security.

"Decades… The first researchers are retired, some even died of old age."

"Right!" Maxwell grasped Edvard's shoulder bringing him close, "Thanks to them we are here." He pointed to the massive reactor right in the center of the lab.

They stood currently on one of the many balconies surrounding the massive contraption. Only a small part of the whole was visible even from their vantage. And this was just the core of the reactor.

The lab itself was massive, kilometers upon kilometers. Going from room to room, the one they were going towards was the heart of it all. Where the actual magic would happen.

The place where nothing was allowed to go wrong, as there was just one core. One heart. Other chambers and sections all had redundancies, but not the core.

It was time to try and manipulate the quanta. To change the very fabric of matter. Of existence.

The largest turning point in human history, if it succeeds.

…

Ghakarhi arrived after the others, along with most of the non-leading figures. Unlike the department leaders and senior researchers, they could not drive here with their cars. The parking was very limited.

Instead, they had to make use of the shuttle busses. Ghakarhi having missed the first had to rushed to make the second a few blocks from where he stayed.

Greeting the security guard at the entrance, Ghakarhi rushed to the core reactor where Maxwell was waiting for him. He was lucky enough to be selected to be part of the action.

He was in such a rush that he forgot to store the small good luck charm his sister had given him. It was a pebble they had picked up on one of their few holidays. One which their school had arranged for all the orphans.

The front of the pebble looked like malachite, the back instead like a pearl.

There was technically nothing wrong with taking the pebble inside. There were rules on making sure you had no unnecessary items on you. However, this was more just a precaution with the reason being it might fall from your pocket into a vent or something.

The likelihood of this however was minuscule. All the possible areas where this could happen have multiple covers to make it impossible for something small to enter and cause trouble.