Microstory 2287: Didn’t See Anyone’s Face

< > Table of Contents

Generated by Google Gemini Advanced text-to-image AI software, powered by Imagen 3

I’m sorry to depress you all yesterday. Kelly called my therapist for an emergency session, so I was able to talk through some of my issues. It’s been frustrating for me. I often don’t realize when I’m being grumpy, and even when I do, I don’t always know why. It was what those people did to me, taking my organs. It’s not just about that, though. They didn’t know that I would be rescued. They didn’t even bother to covertly drop me off at the nearest hospital, or send an anonymous tip. They just left me there on the table, assuming that I would die by the time anyone caught wind of my location. I don’t think they care that I was rescued, because they were all pretty much apprehended by then, and I didn’t see anyone’s face anyway. Which is weird, when you think about it. Why did they hide their identities from me if they didn’t think I would make it? Maybe I’m overthinking it. I mean, they did take my kidneys and liver because they thought I was immortal. Well, maybe they didn’t. Maybe they only took them because they knew that other people believed as much, and that was enough motivation for them. My therapist says that there are truths about this case that I will never know, and I’ll be doing more harm than good by running my own little investigation on the side. For the sake of my mental—and physical—health, I’m better off looking for ways to put it all behind me. We don’t know how I’m gonna do that, but it’s my first priority right now. I just have to remember that they can’t hurt me anymore, nor anyone else. And I’m not going to give up on my writing, even though I offered that suggestion last night. If I do that, then they win, and we can’t have that, can we? I have to toughen up, and hold firm.

Microstory 2273: Skipping Out of the Building

< > Table of Contents

Generated by Google Gemini Advanced text-to-image AI software, powered by Imagen 3

Against all odds, the organ donor network was able to find two matches for Nick. One person gave him a lobe of their liver, and another one of their kidneys. I couldn’t tell you anything about them, even if I knew myself. They’re not necessarily anonymous, but the information hasn’t been released yet. Some of their respective families may not even know what they did. There was apparently a really short, but really intensive, vetting processing. Normally, a person would have weeks, or even months, to prove that they understand what they’re doing, and what they’re giving up. But in this case, it was an emergency. I wasn’t part of any of that, so I don’t know how it went down, but I’m grateful to them just the same. All three surgeries are now finished, and they’re in recovery. Nick still hasn’t woken up yet. Well, he has, but he hasn’t been at all lucid. During what little time he was somewhat awake, he didn’t seem to really know where he was, or what was going on. It will just take time, but I’m choosing to be optimistic. We’re still not out of the woods, so I’m not going to break out the celebratory balloons just yet, but he has a chance now. We will know more when he wakes up, and he can tell us how he feels. That’s a very important metric that doctors can only guess. They’ll continue to keep him here for quite a while. They still couldn’t do anything about his spleen or gallbladder, so I imagine his hospital time will be on the upper end of the typical estimate. Once he is healthy enough to be discharged, he won’t be skipping out of the building, though. For the next few months, he’ll be in a state of recovery, gradually getting better and stronger. Dutch and I will be with him the whole time. Even though the surgery is over, he’s still opening doors, hoping to speed up the process, but a part of me is worried about that working. If he becomes immortal again, the donors’ sacrifice might seem to mean a little less. I dunno. I guess in that scenario, they still bought him time, and it was still a profound thing to do. I shouldn’t be thinking about any of this. I just need to go back to making sure he wakes up feeling safe and comfortable.

Microstory 2272: Tested For Compatibility

< > Table of Contents

Generated by Google Gemini Advanced text-to-image AI software, powered by Imagen 3

People are coming in from all over the country, and maybe even beyond, hoping to donate a lobe of their liver, or a kidney, to Nick. That’s very sweet of all of you, and trust me, I wish it gave us more hope, but he’s in really bad shape. If this were the future, the hospital might be able to hook him up to machines to keep his whole body alive. They could replace every vital body part and organ temporarily until a more permanent solution could be found. I like the way you think. With all these volunteers, there’s surely a perfect match for him somewhere out there. The problem is that it will take too much time to find that person, and in the meantime, Nick’s body is shutting down. He’s being kept alive by the machines that are available today, however, they are limited in scope. I don’t want to discourage you from hope, but what do you want me to say to you? Do you want me to lie, and claim that he’s going to get out of this because he’s survived so much until now? I’m sorry, but I don’t see how we could succeed. They just took too much from him. He probably won’t survive the week, let alone major surgery. From my perspective, I am willing to try, but the donors would be risking their own health on a huge gamble. Believe me, he’ll be the first to promote living donorship. He thinks that it shouldn’t be so stigmatized, that signing up to donate should be an obvious choice that any healthy person should make. The fact of the matter is, though, that we don’t live in that world. We’re not ready for it. Perhaps one day we will. Perhaps this will galvanize society into making changes, not because we’re bad people now, but because we can always improve ourselves. Unfortunately, Nick is not going to be able to benefit from such a world. Like I was saying, the hospital is doing everything they can, and it’s not like I’m stopping people from reaching out to the administrators with their inquiries. I just feel the need to manage your expectations. If this crazy plan works out, it’ll be a miracle, and how many of those does one person get in their life. Dutch and I have already been tested for compatibility, and we’re no good, so it would be up to you. Sadly, I don’t like our odds. His luck and time are both running out.

Microstory 2271: It Won’t Be Long Now

< > Table of Contents

Generated by Google Gemini Advanced text-to-image AI software, powered by Imagen 3

It’s so much worse than we had imagined. After everything Nick has been through; traveling through time, bouncing around the multiverse, being trapped away from his friends, getting sick over, and over, and over again. At worst, we thought that he would be dead. That would have been horrible, but at least he would no longer be suffering. There were consequences to this blog that none of us foresaw. Learning that Nick’s organs fetched such a heavy price from a reputable and trustworthy businessman, an as-of-yet still at large basket of deplorables abducted my friend, and took him to a makeshift surgical theatre. You heard that right. There was clearly an audience to this thing. It was put together quickly, but it was made with great purpose. A surgeon tore into his body, removing both of his kidneys, his liver, his spleen, and even his gallbladder. I don’t know how much they intend to make for these stolen organs on the black market, but there’s no way these assholes aren’t going to be found. The authorities don’t have to sift through dozens of other dark web postings for organs. They only have to find the one that’s advertising miracle organs for an insanely huge amount of money. They’re going to get nothing, and then they’re going to jail. Meanwhile, my poor Nick will be dead. He’s not immortal anymore, and no one can survive losing that much of their key organs. The doctors have placed him on life support, but there is only so much they can do. These five organs are literally vital to the proper functioning of a human being. It’s true, you can donate half a liver, or one whole kidney, and be fine. Yes, you can be suffering from kidney failure, and be kept alive through regular dialysis. With the proper lifelong treatment, you can even live without your spleen or gallbladder. But you can’t survive if all of these things are ripped out of you all at once. He’s going to die if another miracle doesn’t happen, but I really don’t see that happening. Dutch is running around in a panic, opening every single door that he can find. He has even demanded keys from hospital staff for locked doors. He’s trying to make another connection to the bulk to restore the magic of Nick’s immortality for but a few minutes, just like he did when he came back here from another world. Needless to say, it isn’t working. What happened that day was a fluke. If an angel is looking out for Nick, I can’t imagine they have the inclination to do it a second time. Even so, I’m letting Dutch try, because it’s not hurting anything. Well, it is, he’s causing a disruption, but everyone here has been pretty cool. They know why he’s doing it. Me, I’m sitting at Nick’s bedside, holding his hand, and hoping that he can hear me. It’s really sad to say, but...it won’t be long now.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: July 20, 2398

« < » > Table of Contents

Andile didn’t want to say much else after dropping that bomb on them about the alternate version of Leona. She said that it wasn’t her place to explain. The other Leona’s flight would come in the next day, and they could ask their questions then. So that’s what they did. They went back to the condo to fill in the rest of the team, and waited. The others wanted to come too, but the other Leona apparently didn’t know them at all, so it would probably just be overwhelming. The next morning Alt!Leona answered the door, not surprised, but yes, unnerved at the sight.

“Thank you for coming again,” Andile says once they’re seated.

“Thank you for having us,” Mateo says.

It becomes evident that Alt!Leona wants to talk first, but she needs them to be patient with her. Lips closed, almost pursed, she stares at the space between Mateo and her alternate. “I trust you’re doing well?” she asks Mateo.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Mateo answers.

“It’s nice to know there’s at least one Mateo out there who didn’t die.”

“Actually, he did die,” Mateo’s wife, Leona clarifies. “A few times.”

Now Alt!Leona purses her lips fully. “Well, at least he came back.”

“Leona, what happened?” Leona asks her self.

“I’m going to tell you my story,” Alt!Leona begins, assuming nothing about what you’ve been through. I may tell you things that you already know, and you’re just going to have to accept that, and be patient. I also don’t want any commentary about how things played out for you, or anything like that.”

“Understood,” Leona says.

Alt!Leona begins. “When I was nearing my sixteenth birthday, a friend of mine suggested I try alcohol, because drinking alcohol is the type of thing that normal teenagers do. So I did, and it went poorly. It made me sick—not enough to have to get my stomach pumped, but I had to go to urgent care just the same. I was sitting across from a man in the waiting area, trying to retch into a bag, when I ended up getting some on him. Long story short, I figured out who he was, and went to his house to apologize. That’s when everything changed. I learned that he was a time traveler, but not in control of his own life. I don’t know who was in control, if anyone, but I, admittedly, fell in love. He and his situation were fascinating, and I couldn’t just let that go.

“I probably would have become a film student in college if not for him. Instead, I pursued a physics degree. I wanted to understand what was going on with him. We met another; a teleporter, and she led us to believe that there were others. There was this one other guy too, but we weren’t really sure what his deal was. Anyway, I learned that an organ transplant might allow a normal person to take on the temporal characteristics of a traveler. Lucky for me, I was suffering from some kidney problems, which I might have been able to deal with, but I didn’t want to, so I started to not take very good care of myself. I needed a kidney transplant, and as luck would have it, Mateo was a match.

“Obviously, this process normally takes a long time, but we couldn’t wait for the bureaucracy. Mateo only existed one day out of the year. Through my connections, I was able to find a surgeon who was willing to perform the surgeries under unusual circumstances. Let’s just say that he had lost his license for a similar infraction years prior. This was the biggest mistake of my life, and seeing a version of Mateo sitting here hasn’t helped, like I hoped it would after Andile called to tell me that he was alive. The surgery went bad, and Mateo died. After a year of mourning, I discovered that his death didn’t prevent me from becoming like him. I guess it just delayed it. I only made one jump before I was approached by a stranger with an offer.

“She told me that it was her job to rescue people from the timeline. She said that I was in a different reality completely, and I could stay here, and not be on my pattern anymore. I only did it to be with Mateo, so that seemed like a good deal. Before she disappeared, she reintroduced me to Andile, and I never saw her again, so I never got the chance to ask her why it didn’t work. Instead of freeing me of my pattern, I just ended up taking Andile with me. I didn’t mean to. It’s not like I gave her my kidney too. At most, I touched her during a hug. Maybe you have an explanation for it.”

Leona and Mateo nod reverently, as they have been during the story.

“Do you?” Alt!Leona asks.

“Oh, sorry, we didn’t want to comment.”

“It was more about not being interrupted,” Alt!Leona straightens out.

It was hard for Leona to hear that story. She has met other versions of people before; even of herself, but this one is a lot different. This Leona didn’t spend hardly any time with Mateo, and never built a team. She and Andile have pretty much been alone this whole time. That changes a person. “Everything happened to me just as it did for you, until the surgery. A time traveling doctor did it for us, probably following what went wrong in your reality. Someone must have wanted things to play out differently, so they altered history. Normally, you would cease to exist as the result of that, but when you’re dealing with parallel realities, that all gets more complicated. Who was this stranger who told you this would free you of the pattern?”

“Her name was Olaya,” Alt!Leona answers. “I don’t know if it was a first or last name, but she didn’t give me any other.”

“Never heard of her,” Mateo says.

“Nerakali did say that there were other teams, but I don’t remember if Jupiter did. That was back during his era,” Leona says.

“So, do you know the answer?” Alt!Leona asks again.

Leona shakes her head. “Olaya should have been right. This place doesn’t have time travel, or at least not much of it. We don’t think it ever did. My theory is that that’s why it was created in the first place.”

“You did eventually lose it, though,” Mateo says. “When did that happen?”

“It was about three months ago,” Alt!Leona replies.

“Three months and twelve days.”

Mateo and Leona exchange a look. “That’s when we arrived. We did this to you.”

“You helped us,” Andile corrects. “We don’t want to time travel. We just want to stay put. I mean, we could do without the shady government people chasing us all over the country, but that could have happened either way. People crave power.”

“Do they know about you?” Leona asks. “If anyone would recognize you, then they probably know that there are two of us. And they know that there are two Angelas, so all in all, they know too much.”

“I don’t think they know about me,” Alt!Leona tells her.

“They only caught me,” Andile says apologetically.

“And you’re one of a kind.” Alt!Leona reaches over to take Andile by the hand.

“Look,” Leona begins, “I know you don’t want to have anything to do with this stuff, so we’re prepared to leave, and never mention you again, but I don’t feel like that’s enough. If you want to be somewhere safe, it’s not in this city. I don’t know where it is, though. I don’t know how to help you.”

“We don’t need your help,” Alt!Leona claims, “but we may be able to help you.”

“How might you do that?”

“I heard them talking while I was being transported to the fishbowl,” Andile says. “They’re looking for someone more valuable than any of us. And I know where he is.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: December 9, 2277

« < » > Table of Contents

The new Cassidy cuffs that Ramses made for them didn’t seem to work as they were meant to. It was unclear at first exactly what went wrong. All Mateo knew was that the six of them were sitting in a room together in 2276 when midnight struck, and when he returned to the timestream a year later, he was alone. Not even Leona seemed to have made it through. The old Mateo would have freaked out at this point, but he developed a sense of clarity after he was brought back from total nonexistence two months ago. Things became even clearer after he was brought back from death three weeks ago, and this all came to a head when he witnessed his own funeral five days ago. Leona wasn’t dead; the powers that be wouldn’t have let that happen. She might have been thrown off her pattern temporarily, or accidentally teleported somewhere else, but she wasn’t gone for good. He could figure this out, but only as long as he stayed calm. He lifted his arm, and started looking through the data on his cuff.

Ramses said that he was giving him the primary cuff, which gave him some level of control over the others. He could evidently take everyone’s powers away, or geotag them to a certain location, or any number of things. That was probably best on the wrist of someone intelligent, like Leona, or experienced, like Nerakali. They had spent yesterday on a sort of break. He couldn’t call it a party, per se, but they weren’t allowed to discuss business either. All of them had recently experienced Mateo’s memorial services, so this was a celebration of his life, but with less focus on him. They just forgot about Mateo’s special status as the one in control. Perhaps that was why he was the only one who made the jump. The problem now was that he didn’t know where the others were. There had to be some kind of way of tracking his friends through the cuffs, if not a way to teleport directly to them.

He wasn’t much into manuals, so he just started tapping through menus, hoping to find something that could help. His efforts were not wasted as he soon found precisely what he was looking for. The cuffs were still connected to each other in terms of the passage of time. Three minutes had passed for Mateo since midnight central, and the system indicated the same went for everyone else. The bad news was not only were none of them in the present day, but they weren’t even in the same moment in time. The cuffs, for whatever reason, scattered them all throughout time and space. There was a time map, which told him both when and where they were. It didn’t say what they were going through while they were there, however, so Mateo had a decision to make. Who was in most need of rescuing, and more importantly, was he competent enough to do it? Nerakali. He wanted to save Leona first, but that was an impractical choice. Time travel was Nerakali’s arena. The responsible thing to do was to get to her first. He was also curious to find out why she was in March 21, 2014, because that was the day Mateo first started traveling through time.

When Mateo arrived in the past, he saw two different versions of Nerakali. They were arguing with each other, and he couldn’t tell which was which. The other one was presumably from the past, rather than the future, so he decided to call her Past!Nerakali.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Yes, that was almost certainly Past!Nerakali, the one wearing a blue shirt.

The other one looked back at him. “What year are you from?” she asked.

“I’m from when you would expect; 2277. What happened to you?”

“I don’t know,” Present!Nerakali spat. “I can’t jump through time. And this bitch won’t give me a ride.”

“Past!Nerakali,” Mateo began like the father of both of them, “why won’t you give your alternate self a ride to the future?”

“Why the hell would I help her?” Past!Nerakali questioned. “I’m just tryin’ to get back home. If she’s here, it means whatever I try doesn’t work, and I don’t want to encourage her to exist.”

“Going back to The Gallery is impossible,” Present!Nerakali explained. “You know this. You wouldn’t exist if it were possible, because then dad would have hunted the original Gallery workers down, and forced them back.”

“No,” Past!Nerakali said in denial. “There’s a way. There has to be a way. There’s always a loophole.”

Present!Nerakali shook her head. “There’s not. The moment the Gallery doors are opened is locked in time. Not even The Arborist can get to it. Believe me, I’ve tried. You’re a baby, but I’ve been down in this dimension for centuries, and I have tried everything.”

“Is this the day you fell from the Gallery?” Mateo asked.

“Yes,” the Nerakalis replied in unison.

“Is that a coincidence?” he asked. “The date, I mean.”

Present!Nerakali seemed to know what he was asking. Was it somehow connected to him? “It’s not a coincidence, but only inasmuch as the powers that be like to make important things happen separately, but at the same time. Our fall has nothing to do with you directly.

Mateo nodded. “I have to get you back to the future, so you can help me get the others.”

“Can you do that?” Present!Nerakali asked him.

“I’m here, ain’t I? My cuff still works.”

“What are those things?” Past!Nerakali asked. She clearly felt entitled to an answer.

Mateo ignored the question. “Do you want her to remember that this happened?” he asked Present!Nerakali.

“I don’t remember it.”

“I guess we have to erase her memories then.”

“She doesn’t have powers,” Past!Nerakali threw at them, pretty proud of herself. “So she can’t erase jackshit.”

He released an evil grin. “I have her powers. I can erase them.”

Per Nerakali’s suggestion, he left her in 2277 when he went off to retrieve Leona on June 30, 2027. She suspected everyone had been transported to defining moments in their own lives, and it was best to limit the number of people who were involved in those fragile moments. He found himself in a hospital, but not just any hospital. He had been here before. After he broke Horace Reaver out of Beaver Haven Penitentiary, he brought him to this place to show him how his goodness had inspired a former villain to become a better person. She had just donated her kidney to save a younger Leona’s life. Mateo looked back at the time listed on his cuff. His own past self would be arriving in a few minutes. They had to get out of here to avoid altering the timeline too much. Rule number four; avoid alternate versions of yourself.

He walked down the hallway, and stepped into Jesimula Utkin’s recovery room. Leona was sitting in a chair next to Jesi’s bed. They were holding hands.

“Oh, hey,” Leona said. “Could you give us a little bit? I know I need to go back to the future, but I was hoping to get to know my donor a little better.”

Mateo looked at his cuff agan. “I’m afraid we’re out of time. Past!Me and Ace Reaver are going to be here any minute.”

“Ace?” Leona asked. “Not Horace.”

He shook his head. “He doesn’t have his brain blended yet.”

Leona frowned, and looked back at Jesi. “I just...there’s so much I needed to tell you. I mean, all this time traveling, this might be the only time we ever cross paths. What can I do? I can’t repay you, but there’s gotta be something I can do for you.”

Jesi smiled kindly. “There’s one thing that will help make up for the loss of my kidney.”

“Name it.”

“It has to be in the next two minutes,” Mateo warned them reluctantly.

“I can walk that fast,” Jesi said as she pressed the button to lift the head of her bed up. “It would mean the world to me if you helped me get on the toilet.”

Leona hesitated for a moment, not because she didn’t want to do it, but because it would only be a small gesture, and she wanted to do something grand. She recognized the time constraint, though, and knew this was the best they were probably going to get. She helped Jesi walk over to the bathroom, and sit down. And that was it. The two of them jumped back to the future just as Mateo saw his past self heading towards them from down the hallway, Ace in tow.

Mateo found Present!Ramses sitting next to his own past self at a skatepark. His eyes were closed, and he was pinching the bridge of his nose. “Oh my God, you are not getting this.”

“No, I get it. You betrayed our people,” Past!Ramses argued.

“No, I didn’t! You get new people! Better people!”

“All right,” Mateo tried to mediate again. “There’s no need to yell.”

“Who’s this guy?” Past!Ramses questioned.

“You don’t need to know that, because I’m going to erase your memories anyway,” Mateo explained.

Present!Ramses stood up quickly. “No, don’t do that. I’m trying to get through to him.”

“You can’t,” Mateo said to him apologetically. “Everything you went through for us to become friends, and everything you did for me after that, he deserves to go on that same journey.”

“What the hell journey are you talking about?” Past!Ramses asked rhetorically, because he didn’t care about either of them.

“I know you wanna change things,” Mateo said to Present!Ramses. “I know you regret how long it took for you to see the error of your ways. You can’t change the past, though. I mean, you can—we’ve seen it—but you shouldn’t. It’s been too long, and you’ve seen too much. No one can see the variables, and predict what will change about the timeline.”

“What if this saves your life? What if Briar never kills you, because Leona changes her plans, and they just straight up never meet each other, all because I was a better person before I met Étude and Vitalie?”

“My death is predestined. It can’t be changed, no matter what you do. You know this as well.”

“If I can’t make myself a better person, then what am I doing here?” Present!Ramses asked.

“It’s a glitch; one which you will repair when we get back all the others. You’re not here for any reason at all.”

Ramses kept his angry face on as he absorbed what Mateo was trying to tell him. Then he looked at his arm, and over at his past self. “That’s bullshit. If I can’t change everything, then I’m at least gonna change one thing. Go ahead and erase this asshole’s memories, but you can’t erase this!” He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a little pocket knife. Before anyone could stop him, he dragged the blade across Past!Ramses’ arm. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but he cut real deep. As he was doing so, a painful scar appeared on Present!Ramses’ arm, in the exact same place. As Past!Ramses was pulling off his shirt to apply pressure to his arm, Present!Ramses was holding his own scar. Even though it was many, many years old for him, the pain still looked like it felt new. He breathed in, and tried to move past it. “I guess now I finally know where I got this scar.”

Mateo helped Past!Ramses by tying the shirt off, so it would stay in place on its own. He then did his duty by erasing his memories, so Ramses would literally never see this moment coming. “We’ll talk about this later, he said to him as he was taking him by the arm.”

They went back to 2277 together. Mateo then went off to retrieve the remaining two members of their group. Both of them understood how causality, the butterfly effect, and paradoxes worked, so they came quickly and easily. When all was said and done, this was but a slight detour from their mission. It didn’t even take an hour of their time. They would still have plenty of time to discuss what they were going to do when J.B. returned tomorrow with Erlendr and Arcadia. It did inform their plan, though. The cuffs were obviously far from perfect. A few glitches had reared their heads since they started wearing them; enough to cause significant concern. The point was that, if this could happen to them, it could happen to the other three too. They could move forward with no plan until they made sure nothing else would go wrong with them. They were less worried about the glitches themselves than they were scared of how the Prestons were going to exploit any vulnerability they discovered, and how pissed they were that anyone tried to corral them. There was only one person who could help them now. They had to find the cuff’s inventor, Holly Blue.

« < » > Table of Contents

Dardius: Horace Reaver (Part X)

< > Entire Story

Horace Reaver was in prison. It wasn’t the first time being locked up, but he still had not gotten used to it. A bunch of stuff went down when an unhinged reality manipulator came to town, and started wreaking havoc on his and his people’s lives. Ace, as he was called at this time, and in this reality, submitted himself here somewhat voluntarily, in order to free a friend of theirs who never should have been here in the first place. It was under duress, though, so voluntary was probably the wrong word to use. He had so far been in here for six days, knowing full well that this didn’t mean his family was off schedule. They could get him out if they completed a mission for the prison, and their new partner advised them that it would take at least a week just to plan it. So he wasn’t worried, but he was already sick of it.

This place didn’t have yard time, cafeteria time, or anything. Prisoners remained in their cells permanently, because it was safer that way. Most of the inmates had special time powers, and The Warden said it wasn’t worth the risk to let anyone out for anything but medical or logistical reasons. Fortunately, each cell had access to its own pocket dimension, full of creature comforts, and wide open spaces. It wasn’t the same as being free, but it was better than a six-by-nine. To be clear, the six-by-nine regular cell did exist, and the pocket could be closed to punish prisoners for bad behavior, but according to a man named Tracker, that was rare, because prisoners knew there was no escape, and there wasn’t any point in causing trouble. Ace liked to spend time up in the front, outside of his pocket, because it allowed him to see outside the cell, into other people’s cells, and at the guards patrolling the area. It made him feel more trapped to be in a windowless room with low lighting, even if that room had a couch, bed, and entertainment. He ordered a lot of books. At the moment, he was sitting in his chair, reading one about bunnies, when he heard a commotion beyond his field of vision.

“Sir, please.” It was the Warden. Who could she possibly need to call sir with such deference? Was it possible there was someone even more powerful around here than her?

“You can’t stop me,” came a voice Ace didn’t recognize.

“How do you know that?” the Warden asked as they were just coming into view.

“I spoke with Meliora. She told me everything.” The two of them stopped at Ace’s cell. The man was smiling as deeply as the Warden was frowning. “Hello, old friend.”

“Do we know each other?” Ace asked.

“Mister Matic,” the Warden began, “those contingencies were designed to get you out of prison, if a mistake like that ever happened again. They were not meant for you to come in, and break someone else out.”

“I’m doing it anyway.” He reached up with both hands, and grasped the bars. While a lot of the security measures here were time power-based, it was still fitted with good ol’ fashioned cement blocks and thick metal gates. It looked like this kind stranger was preparing to rip them off with brute strength, which should have been impossible. Then again, time travel should have been impossible too, but that was quite clearly real.

“Wait,” the Warden said desperately. “If you do this, you effectively declare war on Beaver Haven.”

The man stopped to think about it for a moment, but less like he was considering changing his mind, and more like he was working out how he was going to combat this new threat. “Then I better make it count.” He tightened his grip on the bars, and pulled at them. They didn’t tear off like rice paper, but they did come completely off, leaving about a foot of space for Ace to slip through. Some of the other prisoners saw what happened, and began to make a ruckus. This drew more out, so that everyone could either see what was happening, or was close enough to hear others yelling updates.

“Are you going to stuff me back in there?” Ace asked the Warden once he was free.

She shook her head. “He’s made his choice. I can’t undo it any more than he can.”

“It’s not the last choice I’m gonna make,” the man said. He walked over to another cell, and tore the bars off of that one too.

A man named Curtis came out of it, and tipped his head cordially.

The man stepped one cell over, and did it a third time. “Oh,” he said when he saw Lucius just stand there. He pulled off two more bars, because Lucius was big as hell. That wasn’t it, though. Lucius still just stood there. “You can’t be put back in here. These people can’t move against me in that manner.”

“I deserve to be here,” Lucius replied in his low sexy voice. This guy was a god. If Ace weren’t with Serkan...

“No, you don’t,” the jailbreaker said. “You and Curtis have a destiny. I need you to take care of him.”

Lucius looked over at Curtis. Neither of them knew what he was talking about, but they trusted that the man was telling them the truth about their future together.

The Warden was extremely displeased. “Anyone else, Mister Matic?”

“Are Missy and Darko here?” Mr. Matic asked.

“Not in this reality,” the Warden answered, seemingly truthfully.

“Then my work is done here.” He pointed over to Curtis and Lucius. “You take them wherever they want to go. I’ll be taking Horace myself.

The Warden reluctantly looked up and over her glasses at a guard on the second level. She raised her hand, and gestured for him to come down, and presumably help transport the other two empardoned ones. Is empardoned a word? Well, it is now.

“Hey, Mateo,” Lucius called up to them as the mysterious savior and Ace were starting to leave. “I owe you a favor.”

Mateo smirked. “Nope. Now we’re even.” Time, right?

“Not that I’m not grateful,” Ace said as they were winding their way through the corridors. Guards were letting them through with no question. Who the hell was this guy, and why was everyone so afraid of him?

“Why did I break you out?” Mateo presumed. “You and I have had a complicated multi-timeline relationship, but I need to make sure you understand who you are.”

“I don’t understand.”

“One day, someone is going to come to you, and restore your memories. You will remember how much you hated me, and the terrible things you did to express that hate. I got you out of there, and I’m taking you to see something important, not so that you’ll remember how good of friends we are, but so that you’ll remember how good of a person you are.”

“Huh?” They opened the exit, and started to walk away from the secret prison. Ace chose to not look back. That was in his past, and he needed to get back to his family, and move forward. Mateo opened the back door of a car, and ushered Ace in. “Dave?”

“I’m not meant to be a literal chauffeur,” the driver said as Mateo was getting in as well. “That’s just a nickname.”

“Meliora agreed to help me get to either 2027, or 3413. I chose to come here, so you could help me with both missions. And you’re gonna do it, because this is your boss’ father. He’s your grandboss.”

The Chauffeur rolled his eyes, and restarted the car. “That’s not a thing.”

“You know Meliora?” Ace asked.

“Not super well, but yes,” Mateo confirmed.

“And you know me too?”

“From other realities, and the future in this reality, yes.”

“But you’ve seen my darkness.” Ace didn’t know it had anything to do with alternate timelines, but there were some things about himself that he couldn’t explain. He sometimes experienced...outbursts of violence that didn’t make any sense. They didn’t feel like him, but at the same time, they felt more like him than anything else. This all scared him a great deal, and if this Mateo guy could save him from that, he was willing to try just about anything.

Dave drove them to a hospital, and waited in the parking lot while Mateo took Ace up to a room. It was empty, but lived in, and the bathroom door was closed. They heard a flush, and a hoarse voice Ace thought he recognized. “Can I get some help here?”

“Stay here,” Mateo instructed. He slipped into the bathroom to help, and came out two minutes later with Jesimula Utkin.

“Thank you,” she said graciously. “Ace! What are you doin’ here, man?”

“Uhh...I’m here to see you.”

“Oh, that’s cool. I’m on drugs.”

“It sounds like it. Are you okay?”

“Oh, I’m great! I’m on this new diet, and just lost three ounces in a few hours!”

“Her kidney,” Mateo clarified as he was helping Jesi back into bed. “She just donated her kidney.”

Jesi placed her hand to the side of her mouth. “It was anonymous,” she told him in a loud whisper.

“I don’t understand,” Ace repeated. “Who did you give it to? Or was the recipient anonymous too?”

“The hospital thinks she was,” Mateo began to explain, “but we know who it was.”

“Yes,” Jesi agreed. “Leona Mulaney.”

“Delaney,” Mateo corrected.

“Right. Delaney Mulvaney,” Jesi said.

“She saved Leona’s life?” Ace asked. “She’s my daughter’s friend.”

“She’s my future wife,” Mateo said. “I mean that literally. I couldn’t give her my own kidney in this reality, so Jesi stepped up. How can you prevent her from adapting your time power, though?” he asked Jesi.

“I don’t have any powers anymore,” Jesi explained. “I assimilated myself into my alternate, and used her body as primary. I’m just a normal forty-five year old now.”

“You don’t look forty-five,” Ace pointed out.

“I still got friends,” Jesi argued. “Damn, man!”

“I’m sorry.”

“Forgiven. No, you’re threegiven, because I’m still a little mad.”

“Jesi, your light’s on,” Mateo informed her.

Jesi smiled, and lifted a little button. “Cool.” She started pressing it over and over again, still smiling dumbly at it.

“Don’t worry,” Mateo said. “It won’t give her more pain medication than she’s allowed to have.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“You did this,” Mateo said as Jesi was falling asleep. “You saved Leona’s life, because you didn’t give up on Jesi. You helped her become a better person, and I’m trying to keep you the same way. When someone comes to blend your memories with those of your alternates, focus hard on this moment. You’ve done a lot of good in your life, even in the other timelines. But let this memory be your anchor. I was told to come here to take you to my funeral. Don’t ask how that works, it’s complicated. The point is that I’m not going to do that. If you make it to the service, then great, I have a job for you. But I can’t let you do that job if you don’t remember everything about what we’ve been through together. So after they blend your brain—and once you’re ready—come to Dardius in the year 2263. Can you do this for me? I don’t know when it will be for you, but I want you to be prepared for it.”

“I can do that. I don’t really get what’s going on, but I will do my best.”

Mateo smiled softly, and placed a hand on Ace’s shoulder. “I know you will.” He took him into a warm hug. “I gotta get to Stonehenge, but be careful. I hear this Omega Gyroscope thing is a real threat to the universe.” And with that, he left.

Not two seconds later, someone else came into the room, and for a moment, Ace couldn’t believe it. Then he recalled Serkan’s advice to act like ya been there, and contained his confusion. It was another Horace Reaver.

Future!Horace reached into his shirt, and retrieved the hundemarke; a special object capable of creating moments in time that cannot be changed via temporal manipulation. He handed it to Present!Horace.

“What am I meant to do with this?” Present!Horace questioned.

Jesi woke up, but just long enough to cry, “throw it in the portal!”

Future!Horace shook his head no. “She’s talking about something else.” Then he just walked out of the room without another word.

< > Entire Story

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: September 18, 2092

« < » > Table of Contents

Mateo didn’t know for sure what had happened. The assumption was that, upon transfusing his blood into Leona’s body, she would become like him. It seemed, however, to have had the opposite effect. He was instead transformed into a regular human. For four months, he and Leona lived together on Tribulation Island. They chose to leave the remaining MREs stored away for a time when that was all they had to eat. They subsisted on berries, bass, boar, and bananas. Well, the fish weren’t really bass, but they sure did look like it. Leona explain that the island must be on a different planet altogether—one strikingly similar to Earth in atmosphere, gravity, flora, and fauna—but different nonetheless. This would certainly explain why The Rogue had been able to scatter airplane parts, and commission replicas of the Colosseum and a stargate, without anyone noticing. Surely by the end of the 21st century, satellites and other exploration projects would be able to spot any settled island on Earth, no matter how remote.

Following his first timejump, and his introduction into the world of salmon and other time travelers, Mateo had experienced breaks in his pattern. He had been caught in temporal bubbles, skipped over many hours of a day at a time, and even gone into the past. This, however, was different. They were experiencing the world in real time. The sun came up and went down every 24 hours, birds didn’t get stuck in time, and storms came to torment them. Unless the act itself of stargating to the island caused some sort of temporal shift, it was presently September 18, 2092 on Earth. No version of Boyce showed up to interact with them, and neither did The Cleanser. They just spent their days maintaining Saga and Vearden’s little cottage, hunting, fishing, and relaxing. Mateo did get into running, and could often be found running up and down the steps of the Colosseum.

Leona chose to spend a lot of time exploring the rest of the island under the assumption that Boyce would have hidden treats or traps all around, possibly even something left for tribulations they would never see. She did find a few supply caches, but nothing to write home about, and the last thing she found was weeks ago. Tonight, however, she returned with something she claimed to be quite interesting.

“Oh yeah? What is it?”

“I want you to guess.”

“A box of tissues.”

“What?” she asked. “Why would that be interesting?”

“Because I could have used that last month when I had that cold.”

“No, Mateo, it’s not a box of tissues.”

“A dinosaur.”

“You think there’s a dinosaur in my bag?”

“I saw tiny dinosaurs. After going to 3118, my dad jumped in and took me to the past where Sarka fixed me up. There were tiny dinosaurs running around me.”

“Fair enough, but no.”

“Those were my only two ideas.”

“All right, all right.” She removed something of zero relevance from her bag.

“It’s a mirror.”

“No, it’s not a mirror.”

“It sure looks like a mirror.”

“It’s a time window.”

“You mean like that thing underneath Easter Island that kept showing us the sky from different times and places?”

“Exactly. Smaller, of course.”

“I just see my face.”

“Well, you have to activate it.”

“With what, the magic words?”

“More like magic thoughts. Just concentrate on when or where you want to see.”

Mateo accepted the time mirror and gazed into it. “Mirror, mirror, in my hand, will I ever again eat food that is canned.”

“Why aren’t you taking this seriously?”

“It’s this tiny little hand mirror that can show me the past, or whatever. What are we supposed to do with that?”

“It doesn’t show you the past,” Leona tried to explain. “It shows you the whole universe, and the whole timestream.”

“I still just see my face,” he tilted it a little. “Oh, that’s better. That’s much better.”

“Why, what is it? I can’t see anything. Maybe only the holder can see it.”

“No, it’s just the angle,” Mateo clarified. “Here, look.” He tilted the mirror more so that Leona was looking right at it.

“No, I just see my own face.”

“Exactly. Much better than mine.”

“Oh, shut up. Cute sentiment, poor execution.” She gently nudged the mirror away from her. “Really try to use the mirror as it was intended.”

“Okay, I’ll give it a shot.” He adjusted his stature a bit and shrugged. “Show me the Colosseum right now.” She was right. The glass rippled slightly then refocused to reveal an aerial view of the Colosseum replica. “Interesting.”

“See what I mean?”

“Show me a wide view of the planet we’re on,” he requested the mirror. The view zoomed out quickly, past clouds and out of the atmosphere. It settled on a perfect image of their little marble. It was much greener than stock photos of the Earth. There were oceans, of course, but it seemed to be mostly land. It was beautiful. “Switch to a view of Earth.” It did so. “Show me my parents.” The screen went black.

“What does that mean?”

“Show me my mother,” Mateo amended. The screen blinked slightly, but remained black. He sighed. “Show me Aura Gardner.” It changed to the sight of Aura, Samsonite, and Téa reading independently in their home.

“How are you feeling?” Leona questioned with the soothing voice of a good therapist.

“They look peaceful.”

“I bet I could get the stargate to operate. We could go back to Kansas.”

He took another deep breath and admired his kingdom. “No. This is home.”

“I am inclined to agree.”

He wrapped one arm around her shoulders so that they could both have a good look at the mirror. “Show us the future.” The mirror began to vibrate like a cell phone. The glass began to show a tunnel of light, like some kind of hyperspace or warp speed. Images flickered on and away in such rapid succession that it was hard to tease anything specific from it. He was only able to remember a few of the images. They saw the two of them fishing together. They saw the Cleanser showing his face once more. They saw Mateo hanging off the edge of something. They even saw Darko appearing out of nowhere and shaking their hands. They saw the interior of an advanced spaceship, a young Horace Reaver, some kind of dark object barrelling towards what looked like Earth, an explosion, Leona on an operating table, the faces of many salmon and choosers, the Easter Island Agora filled with people. Blood, a pile of rocks, two birds, a sword shattering in pieces, a star going supernova...

“End program,” Leona ordered. The images disappeared.

Mateo set the mirror down on the floor and walked out of the cottage.

Leona waited a few minutes to come out and see him. “What’s going through your head right now?”

“This isn’t over.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Was that our future? Or just a general future.”

“I don’t know.”

“Leona, what’s going to happen to us on June 8?”

“I don’t know that either.”

“We could prevent this future from happening if we just never went fishing again.”

“I don’t think that would make much difference,” she said, almost coldly.

“We have to do something.”

“Mateo.” She waited a long time to continue, “we know that the future can be changed. All that we saw may not come to pass. But the only thing we understand less than those images is what kind of things we’ll actually see once the future arrives. We don’t know why a sword is shattering, but we also don’t know what happens if we stop it from shattering.”

“So, what are you saying? That it doesn’t matter?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. What we saw changes nothing. We still have to try to make the best choice possible in any given moment.”

“Horace Reaver was there.”

“I know, I saw him.”

“He was younger. Even if he’s alive in this timeline, he couldn’t be that young.”

“With longevity and rejuvenation treatments, he might could be.”

“Is he good or bad?”

“That’s the 64,000 dollar question.”

“It looked like you were having surgery,” Mateo said.

“I must have missed that one.”

“You’re not supposed to be a salmon.”

“What do you mean?”

He turned his head so that she was completely out of his line of sight. “In the other timeline, I donated my kidney to you.”

“I remember.”

“After you had fully recovered from the surgery, you started traveling through time with me.”

She said nothing.

“I now understand that receiving something physically from a time traveler will cause you to absorb their power, if only temporarily. I became more like Meliora when her blood landed in my eyes. You adopted my pattern upon receiving my kidney. And theoretically the same thing will happen again. I lost too much blood from the transfusion, and it is my theory that this is what kept me in the timestream, but it will not last.”

“Yes, I have always believed that we will restart the pattern once the year is up.”

“That’s not my concern, though.” He finally turned to look at her straight on.

“Do I want to know what is?”

“You remember the other timeline, right? I mean, you remember everything. You don’t have any gaps or fragments.”

“Well, I don’t have perfect recall, or anything. Those memories were tacked onto the back, not where they belong according to the standard timeline, but according to my chronology. They feel like they happened thirty-five years ago, and beyond.”

“Try to concentrate on your memory of the original 2020s.”

“Where are you going with this, Mateo?”

“You were suffering from kidney disease, so I gave you my kidney,” he said accusatorily.

“I know, I remember! What are you trying to say!”

He was growing more tense. “Did you contract kidney disease natural, or did the powers that be give them to you so that you would fall onto my pattern...”

“I don’t—” she began to say, but was interrupted.

“Or did you somehow give yourself kidney disease so that I would unwittingly make you like me?”

No answer.

“Leona.”

“How dare you?”

“That’s not an answer.”

She started to back up carefully, like she had encountered a snake.

“Leona, tell me what you did. Explain yourself.

She just continued to back up.

“There’s nowhere to go. Just...just tell me what happened. Tell me the truth. Do I not deserve that?”

She spun around and broke into a run.

Mateo chased after her, knowing that his training would pay off, and that he would easily catch up with her. But this was not what happened. She jumped through the ring of the stargate replica and disappeared through a portal. When he ran through, he just fell off the edge and landed on the sand on the other side. He did not know how to open a portal, so he just stayed on the island alone for the next eight months. He did still have the time mirror, though, and was able to keep an eye on her. She was not doing well, but he had no idea where she was, or how to get to her.

« < » > Table of Contents