It wasn’t easy, but Arcadia was able to work her replicated body in a matter
of minutes. She was still too weak to do very much on her own, but it was
nothing that a good meal, and some peaceful rest, wouldn’t be able to solve.
Someone so powerful couldn’t be kept down too long. She did have to sleep
all day, though, and by the time they saw her again, it was March 23, 2017.
She had just spent the entire year living a somewhat normal life, staying
with Declan and Ramses in Fletcher House. Nerakali, on the other hand, had
grown used to being on Mateo and Leona’s pattern, so she asked them to
replace their Cassidy cuffs, and kind of go back to the way things were.
They were fine with it, because it gave them a little extra power they
didn’t otherwise have.
As it turned out, the replacement body that The Artist built for Arcadia
wasn’t exactly like the first one. It didn’t have any powers at all. Well,
it might have let her retain her immortality, but there was no healthy way
to test that. Either he didn’t want her to be as threatening as she had been
before, or it was some kind of mistake. Either way, she almost seemed
relieved by it. People in her position would relish the idea of being
normal, at least for a little bit, Mateo imagined. He, at least, would kill
to shed his pattern, and live the rest of his life right here. It probably
wasn’t going to happen. His pattern was his, and though powers could
evidently be added, there didn’t seem to be any way of changing it.
“You’re back,” Arcadia said. “I have been spending this whole time
rebuilding my support network.”
“What?” Nerakali looked nervous.
Leona seemed concerned too, but Mateo didn’t really know what this meant.
“Yeah, well, it was a lot harder than before. I don’t have anything to
offer, and I can’t threaten to annihilate anyone who doesn’t agree to help
me, but I guess I just used my wiles. It isn’t what it used to be, but I can
get by.”
“I’m not certain what’s happening,” Mateo said. “Who did you threaten?”
“I’ve told you this,” Arcadia began. “I don’t have many powers myself. I
have to ask people to help me, and usually they do it in the background. I
plan it out so carefully that you don’t actually see it happening, so it
looks like I really can travel through time on my own, or merge two points
in spacetime, or whatever.”
“Yeah, you did say that. It’s your support network. Why did you rebuild it?
What do you want?”
“I just want it to be over,” Arcadia said cryptically.
“What does that mean?” her sister asked.
Arcadia flipped her bag over, and dumped a bunch of broken glass onto the
table. “Here lies Erlendr Preston. He was a terrible father, and a terrible
person. He made me who I am, though. If he hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t have
killed him. This is on you, dad.”
“You can’t destroy the Insulator of Life,” Nerakali argued. “By its very
nature, it protects itself from death.”
“Oh, this is just a prop. I gave the Insulator to Bhulan. She destroyed the
hundemarke, just like we wanted her too, as a backup plan. Unfortunately,
for our father, I had a backup plan of my own. Don’t freak out, Mateo; I am
better. I’m doing this for you. I’m creating a safe reality where you’re
free from the powers that be. I did not mean for all that to rhyme. Jesus.
Anyway, Erlendr killed all those people with the hundemarke, and his plan
was to paradox those deaths by saving the victim’s lives. Something
that...dramatic, though, can’t just be undone. The paradoxes can only hold
if they simply create a parallel reality.”
“We know all this,” Leona argued.
“Yes, but what Erlendr didn’t understand is that he never had to go back,
and just save everybody’s life. The idiot was going to steal Jupiter Rosa’s
power, quantum replicate himself, and send each copy to their own points in
time, so he could essentially create the paradoxes at once. That’s too much
work, and completely pointless. The only reason he would need to do that is
if he wanted the hundemarke to exist at all. I don’t need that.”
Nerakali stepped forward. “Sister, I’ve been through the timeline. The
creation of the hundemarke first occurred in one the oldest timelines ever.
It predates the timeline where you and I were created in The Gallery. If the
hundemarke doesn’t exist, neither do we. Arcadia, you would be erasing
yourself from history.”
Arcadia smiled. “That’s the part that proves I’m a better person. We were
indoctrinated into believing the Gallery was vital to protecting the
timeline, but we’re just erroneous. Left to their own devices, the choosing
ones police themselves. The Stitcher and The Repairman do everything we can,
The Warden imprisons any who would dare expose them, and others help out in
their own ways. So many of them have jobs and responsibilities that no one
asked them to do, and they often don’t even get paid. They don’t need us. We
just made things worse. I’m proof of that. I can fix it, though. All I need
to do is go back to one date.” She opened a small pocket on the front of her
bag, and removed the hundemarke, so she could place it around her neck. She
opened a third pocket, and took out the primary Cassidy cuff. People can
only be redeemed if that’s what they want for themselves.
“Don’t do this, Arcadia,” Nerakali pleaded. “You’ll be erasing me from time
as well.”
“You’ll be fine,” Arcadia promised. “You’ll continue on in this reality. I’m
just trying to make a paradise, not so that I can live in it...just so that
it exists.” She tapped on her cuff screen. “You’re the only one who can stop
me, so I gave one of the cuffs to Serkan Demir in 2019; the power-blocking
chosen one version of him. I just need to switch links, and you’ll be stuck there
with him, and you won’t be able to follow us.”
“Please,” Nerakali said.
“You’re welcome,” Arcadia responded. She pressed a button, and forced
Nerakali to disappear.
“I can’t tell if what you’re doing is evil, or good,” Mateo said honestly.
“Yeah,” Arcadia replied with a nod. “Me neither. Let’s go. You have to be
with me when I go back to prevent the hundemarke from ever existing. Rama
Lama Ding Dong, you’re coming too.”
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