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Mateo’s eyelids feel as heavy as an elephant. They tug themselves down so
hard, they take the rest of his head with them. He barely keeps himself from
falling flat on his face. It’s a symptom of his pattern, which he has had
since he was first starting out, and it even continued on through his
multiple deaths, and body transferences. It hasn’t happened since shortly
after his arrival in the Third Rail, and only then when he happened to be
close to a point of strong temporal energy, such as the parking lot in Crown
Center where they first came through.
“Whoa, what was that?” Labhrás asks. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, something’s different. What year is it?”
“It’s 2399, I would assume. Should it not be?”
Mateo takes out his communicator and tries to contact Leona in the Third
Rail, but no one answers. The line’s completely dead on their end, which is
not a good sign. Tarboda answers when he calls the Parallel, and Winona when
he reaches out to the Fifth Division. Aldona in the Fourth Quadrant confirms
what the first two said, which is that it’s April 5, 2399 for everyone.
Whatever he felt, it was limited to him, which isn’t surprising. He’s the
only remaining member of the OG team still accounted for. Marie and Angela
are still traveling at relativistic speeds, and they still don’t know where
Olmpia went. Ramses is dead, and now Leona is missing. He’s all alone.
The time zones are a little weird, but the Key Protectors generally try to
stay on the same schedule as each other, so everyone goes to sleep
afterwards. Mateo can’t do it, though. He’s too worried about Leona, and
everyone else in the Third Rail. What happened? Why can’t he reach them? And
why has she not shown up to tell him that everything is okay? She checks in
with everybody physically at least once a day, and comes to the main
sequence a few times, because this is where her husband is.
Things begin to happen late the next morning. Winona calls back first to
announce that she, Hamilton, and Mithridates are no longer alone. Summit
Ebora and Trina McIver suddenly showed up. They’ve been preparing to protect
the Key all this time, and now it’s their chance to prove that they can do
it.
“No, you’re not protecting the Keys.” Trina has forced herself into frame.
“Hi, Trina. You’re older now,” Mateo says.
“It happens. There seems to be some confusion. You’re protecting the
Keyholders. The Keys won’t be anywhere near these realities. That’s the
whole point.”
“Who’s protecting the Keys, then?” Mateo asks.
“Don’t you worry about that. It’s not your issue.”
“I’m not worried about it, just curious,” Mateo admits. “What I’m worried
about is my wife. Do you know where she is?”
Trina sighs. “Yes. She’s fine. She’ll be back.” She’s reluctant to elaborate
when he asks her to. “She’s...in the future.”
“How far in the future?” Mateo presses.
“I’m sorry, I can’t say any more than that. Goodbye.”
“Wait!” Mateo tries to stop her, but she’s gone. If she heard him, she
doesn’t care. She hangs up, and doesn’t answer when he tries to call her
back. She may be ignoring him deliberately, or she’s in the middle of
another call. Aldona didn’t seem to include call-waiting or voicemail on
these things.
One by one, the other parallel realities call in to let everyone know that
the Keys and Keyholders are here. At some point, the Keys will leave, but
they won’t say how they’re going to accomplish that. If Leona won’t be back
in the timestream until later, they must have some other way of traveling to
the Sixth Key. Trina was the one who gave Leona The Helm of Reality, so they
could easily have another one just like it. Once everyone’s spoken their
piece, Mateo waits a good hour, and then tries to call Trina back, but she
won’t come to the phone. Hopefully she’s trying to respect Leona’s Rules for
Time Travel, and is not just being an asshole.
Nothing else interesting happens for the rest of the day. No one shows up
for them, which is a bad sign. If the whole Third Rail is missing, they
could be in really big trouble. A part of him hopes that he’ll jump to the
future come midnight central. No, that could be bad. If Leona comes back
after, say, two months, they’ll end up on different patterns. He doesn’t
know what to do but stress about it. Labhrás tries to take his mind off of
it with a new game of RPS-101 Plus, but it’s not working. Is this what it
feels like for Leona every time he’s died or disappeared, and she’s the one
who doesn’t know whether she’ll ever see him again? He must say, he does not
care for this.
Fifteen minutes before midnight, he starts to get a weird vibe, like maybe
he will actually jump to the future, as if the whole Omega Gyroscope thing
were over. It couldn’t be, could it? Two people suddenly appear before them,
one of them being Summit Ebora, and based on context clues, Mateo guesses
the other to be his mother, Iris Blume. “I was not told that you would be
here,” Mateo says as Summit is checking the perimeter for threats. “It’s
nice to meet you, though.”
Iris shakes his hand. “Likewise.”
“The plan was kept secret intentionally, to prevent interference. We need
your help, and you’re the only person in five realities who can do it.”
“Shoot,” Mateo offers.
“Can we borrow your communicator?” she goes on.
“We’re clear,” Summit informs his mother.
Iris takes the device, and selects a recipient. “Bring the rest over,” she
instructs.
“Got it, boss.” That sounded like Alyssa. “Red rover, red rover, send the
Helm of Reality on over.” Yeah, it’s definitely Alyssa.
Iris widens her arms, the communicator in one hand, and the second Helm of
Reality in the other. She smashes them together. A flash of light shoots out
from the small blast, and when she’s done, only the communicator is left.
“Neat trick,” Mateo says.
Seconds later, Alyssa appears with Vearden and Arcadia, holding little baby
Cheyenne in her arms. Neither of them are surprised to be there. Alyssa
disappears, and returns quickly with someone who looks a little bit like
Vearden, so it must be his father, Ansel. She leaves again to retrieve
Trina, and then another man that Mateo doesn’t recognize. He gives Iris a
kiss, so it must be her husband, Rino. None of the protectors is here,
except for Mateo and Labhrás—or maybe not. Where’s Labhrás?
“Where’s Labhrás?” Mateo asks.
“He’s not a part of this,” Iris answers. “Now give me your arm.” She takes
blood from him to fill several vials. Once one is full, her son takes it,
and begins to inject it in one of the others, even little Chey-Chey. When
midnight central hits, they all jump to the future together, except for Alyssa. It’s now the
year 2400, a.k.a. The Edge.
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