It was the most beautiful sunset she'd ever seen.

 

A purist might have complained about the garish colors: the brightness of the orange, the lurid red, the pinks fading to purple along the horizon. Even the severest critic would be forced to confess that, judged purely as a light show, it was nothing short of spectacular.

 

But that's not why she was watching it.

 

* * *

 

She was young and lovely, but something about her eyes was ancient. She sat alone on the edge of a high bluff overlooking the ocean, feet folded beneath her lotus fashion. Her left hand kept straying to stroke the pendant beneath her silk blouse, a long crystal on a chain if you judged by its shape. Her eyes constantly scanned the brilliant display in the sky and its reflection in the ocean beneath.

 

After a few minutes, a young man with oversized ears and a prominent Adam's apple came along and plunked himself down beside her in the boneless manner characteristic of those of his type, rather like a marionette cast aside by a petulant puppeteer. His hands, large and calloused, flopped loosely in his lap. The only part of his anatomy that appeared capable of intentional motion was his head, which swiveled back and forth between horizon and woman. She had eyes only for the sky, but it was evident that of the two he much preferred watching her.

 

After a moment, her right hand found his left. He returned her gentle grasp. They didn't speak for the longest time. They didn't really need to.

 

Either could have broken the silence, but it was she who did. "I love this view, this sunset."

 

"I do too," he said.

"What do you love most about it?" she asked, just as she had countless times before.

 

He pondered the question as one deserving of thought and an honest answer. "I love most that you love it," he finally said. "Anything that can make you look like this, I love for your sake, because I can watch you watching it."

 

Still she did not look at him, but a faint smile blended with the rapture suffusing her face, and he delighted in that too.

 

"You're staring," she said after a minute. "Watch the sunset."

 

"I'd rather watch you," he admitted frankly.

 

At this she turned to look him fully in the eyes, and her smile was radiant. A lone tear fell and started down her cheek; he intercepted it with a thumb and wiped it away.

 

"Where did that come from?" he wondered. His hand stayed where it was, heavy palm lightly cupping her pale cheek.

 

She looked down, then back at him. "Just the dry breeze," she lied quietly.

 

They kissed, gently at first, then with an increasing passion that spoke of barely banked fires, of a deep abiding hunger, a thirst that could not be quenched by the waters of any spring.

 

A blinding white flash appeared from behind them, but neither noticed. Their backs grew warm, then all at once painfully hot.

 

"What—"

 

"Sh!" she said, then kissed him again.

 

The blast wave passed over them, instantly turning them to ash on the scorching wind.

 

* * *

 

The crystal pendant was her prized possession, the one thing she would never be parted with, not to sleep or even in the shower. It was a Moment of time, her Moment. Within its eternal lattice was captured a brief period of real time, the last fifteen minutes from a past she'd never lived, one where she'd never been recruited by the Time Corps, never been gifted and cursed with the twin burdens of immortality and responsibility.

 

It was a past that could not be allowed, for in it humanity had been wiped out before they had the chance to escape their one basket and climb, first to the solar system and thence to the stars. Her own role in preventing that terrible fate had not been a small one, but no one could ever know. Her entire existence outside of the Corps had been erased from the timeline. It was as if she'd never lived.

 

Soon she'd need to get back to work, the endless duty that had become her entire life. On her and those like her rested the awful purpose that was ending the unspeakable disasters before they could happen, and also sometimes, regrettably, ensuring that some very few bad things would happen in order to serve the greater good. Mere humans were not meant for such power, yet she carried it every day.

 

Which was why she insisted on her time alone. She had twenty more minutes, and she was determined to use it.

 

Her left hand closed on the crystal pendant, and her thumb just touched the metal stud on its base...

 

* * *

 

It was the most beautiful sunset she'd ever seen, but that's not why she was watching it.

 

She was young and lovely, but something about her eyes was ancient. She sat alone on the edge of a high bluff overlooking the ocean. A young man was hurrying up the hill toward her. She didn't turn to look.