The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 15, 2399

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“Do you not recognize me?” the stranger asks. “We met once...when you killed my superior officer, and drove me from my home.”

“You’re gonna hafta be more specific,” Leona jokes.

“Rorkele Mast.”

“Is that your name, or your boss’?”

“It was his.” The still unnamed man turns back around and gazes out the window. He was a brilliant tactician, a powerful leader...” He faces her once more. “And someone I was proud to call my friend.”

“Still nothin’.”

“You killed him in a coup for the detachments, along with several other people.”

Leona thought back to that event. They were trying to stop a war, and the people in charge of it weren’t listening to her, so she felt she needed to just steal control from them. Nearly all of them decided to select champions to fight in their stead, and—believing that it would dissuade her from going through with it—chose Leona’s friends. The only person she killed was Mateo, which was fine, because all they had to do was upload his consciousness to Ramses’ lab on their ship, the Suadona. That’s what they did for Angela, Marie, and Olimpia as well. They were all killed by, “Rorkele Mast. He was the original leader of the Dominion Defense Detachment, right. I remember.”

“Yes!” He’s relieved that she finally remembers.

“I didn’t kill him, my husband did, and then I killed my husband.”

“Yes, we were surprised by that, to say the least. Of course, now the survivors know about cloning, consciousness transference, and all that stuff, but it was a harrowing time in our lives. And anyway, we still blame you for this, because you are the one who issued the challenge. Your husband was as much of a victim as my boss.”

“This is what this has all been about?” Leona questions. “You’re here for revenge? You’re just an action movie sequel villain? Oh my God, wake me up when cliché day is over already! He chose to fight. He could have chosen his own champion. He could have chosen you, in fact.”

“Rorkele never asked anyone to do anything he wasn’t willing to do himself.”

“You’re preachin’ to the choir, buckaroo billy. If you’ll recall, I fought for myself as well. I don’t understand why you’re all butthurt about this. If you thought your boss was going to win without question, what did you think the point of any of it was?”

“You still have to follow through,” he reasons.

“It doesn’t matter. He lost.”

“You cheated!”

“How the hell did I cheat?” Leona questions.”

“You uploaded all of your friends to new bodies!”

“So the hell what! Rorkele still died, and nothing would have changed that!”

“Yes, it would. If you hadn’t been capable of switching to new bodies, you wouldn’t have even considered challenging the detachments!”

Leona goes quiet. She’s right, but so is he. This man’s mentor may be alive today if Team Matic had not been able to subvert death in the way that they did. They would not have even considered the challenge as an option. She breathes deeply, and decides to take a page from her late husband’s book. “This is true. I’m genuinely sorry for your loss. I was trying to end a war, and I wasn’t thinking about the collateral damage.”

“That sounded sincere.” He shakes his head. “You continue to surprise me.”

“Friends?” She extends her arm. “Most of my enemies are my friends now.”

He takes her hand, but doesn’t shake. “Not on your life,” he mutters in disgust.

Leona pulls away when something stings her palm, leaving a tiny bloody mark.

He smirks and waves at her, but only to display the pinprick that’s coming out of his ring. “I didn’t want to take any chances. You’re dead, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. He takes a deep breath, and collapses into his chair. “It’s finally over. You have no idea how hard I worked to get to you. I found out that the time machine in my reality was a bastardized, partially working replica of an incredibly ancient version that was once on what you would call Earth. It was reportedly still there, so I scoured the land, and finally found the Constant. It was there that I met an intelligence aptly named Constance. We hatched a plan that would see her getting whatever it she wants from this world, and me getting my revenge on you. It was tough. There were so many moving parts. But she figured it out, and while it was not without its obstacles and complications, I’m happy to say I’ve finally done it. Did she get what she wanted too?”

“How long do I have?” Leona asks, ignoring his question.

He’s still reveling in his victory. “What? Oh, uh...a day, maybe two.”

“I’m going to survive this.”

He leans forward to place his arms on his desk, and rest his chin upon his knuckles. “Oh, because of the extraction mirror? Yeah, no, that was part of the plan too. You didn’t think I knew about the other Leonas, did you? Nah, we knew you would eventually find yourself in that body, so that’s where we have forced you to stay. The extraction mirror is gone, the loop is over. When you die, your body will jump back to that reality, where you’ll be declared dead on impact. There is no getting out of this.”

“I always get out of it,” Leona argues. “I beat Rorkele, I’ll beat you too.”

He’s still smiling. “In the meantime, why don’t you save your energy?” He presses a button on his phone three times. “My man will take you too your deathbed. Don’t worry, I’m not a savage. It will be a comfortable place to end your life.”

Leona follows the guard who comes into the room to her new quarters. A feast has been prepared for her on a cart. They put everything here, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner foods. They probably just didn’t know what she would like, so they threw it all in so no one would have to come to her door later. She eats a little of almost everything, then goes to sleep.

When she wakes up the next morning, the door is open. It’s not just unlocked, but ajar. Either someone is helping her, or the boss man just doesn’t care. She is sorry for what happened in the Fifth Division, but this guy murdered her immediately after she apologized, so she holds no sympathy for him. She starts to wander around. The last time she was here, she was mostly in the Nexus chamber, so she doesn’t know where she’s going, but who cares? The guards apparently do. Word got around that she doesn’t like to be touched, though, so they escort her back to the top office at gunpoint only.

“How did you get out of your room?” he asks when she arrives.

“I have my ways,” she answers vaguely. “Hello,” she says to a man sitting in one of the guest seats, but her face drops when she sees who it is.

“Yes, I believe you know Summit Ebora,” the boss says gleefully. “You abandoned him at the time machine, and he vowed to assist me in my quest.

Summit had a slight look of embarrassment when they locked eyes, but he replaces it now with an evil grin. “You should have figured out how to take me with you.”

The boss comes around the desk, and places an affectionate hand on Summit’s shoulder. “He’s the one who first gave me information about you. He sparked my curiosity about your whole team.”

Summit places his own hand upon the boss’. “I barely did anything.”

“Oh, don’t be so modest.” The boss goes over to the bar. “Would you like a drink?” she asks Leona. “I have the best bourbon in five realities.”

Summit follows him over to the bar to help make the drinks. He playfully tosses the chain that’s around his neck over the boss’ neck too. Leona assumes that he’s symbolizing their bond.

The boss giggles. “What are you doing?”

That’s when Summit twists around, and holds their backs together. He leans forward, holding the chain away from his own neck, and preventing the boss from doing the same. The victim gasps for air, but he’s running out quickly. Summit continues to lean forward, picking his once-lover up off the ground. His strength increases at the same rate that the boss weakens. In one final motion, Summit drops to his knees, and ends it once and for all.

Leona helps gently turn the both of them to their sides so Summit can remove the chain from his neck. “Why did you do that?” she asks him.

“The war ended, Leona. What you did for my reality worked, and I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that.” He scowls at the dead body. “He was weak and selfish. All he could see was what you did to his mentor. He couldn’t let it go, and I couldn’t stop him. My only option was to stay by his side, and keep him away from you as much as possible. I hoped that it would never come to this.”

“Do you know what he poisoned me with? Is there an antidote?”

He laughs. “I’m not sure if there is an antidote to saline. Maybe...river water?”

She’s confused.

“I’m the one who provided the poison. Trust me, you’re fine. I tested your blood last night, just in case he suspected me of being a mole, and you’re clean.”

“Great. Well, that solves that problem, but do you have a way out of here?”

“I have a way to take back the base, but I’m gonna need your help.”

“Help with what specifically?”

“I need you to bring my mother here,” Summit requests.

“Your mother? Ya know what? Doesn’t matter, if that’s what you need, you got it.”

He leads her into a secret passageway, all the way back down to the bottom of the facility, and into the Nexus chamber. They sneak up to the control room, but no one else is here, so it’s okay. “After a fraction of the DDD army came through, Coronel Zacarias managed to lock the computer. Only one person has the code, and it’s not him. I’m the only one who realized that it must be you. I need you to unlock the system itself, and then I need you to open travel from all addresses, starting with this one.”

Leona accepts the slip of paper that he hands her. “Wait, I recognize this term sequence. This goes to Flindekeldan in the Parallel.”

He nods. “You’ve heard of the Sixth Key, right?” Summit asks rhetorically.

“Yeah...?” she answers anyway.

“I’m the Second Key. My mother is the First.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 11, 2341

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There were eleven Cassidy cuffs, and twelve people. The time of requirement was over, though, so no one had to put one on if they didn’t want to. Leona grew to be quite comfortable with the Bearimy-Matic pattern, but there was no guarantee Jeremy would want to have anything to do with them anymore. According to their calculations, The Warrior was the last person with the power to transition them back and forth between the main sequence and The Parallel. It hopped from Jupiter to Nerakali, but seemed to end with him. Kivi pointed out that this didn’t mean no one could control them anymore. He didn’t use that power very much, and it wasn’t the only use of the primary cuff. Before they made the jump to 2341, Leona and Ramses worked on the cuffs to make sure no one could use them without their full authorization. Someone had to take ownership of the primary in order for them to function properly, so it had to be someone committed to the pattern, and to the team.

Bran, Aeolia, Siria, Dalton, and D.B. had never become full members of that team, and didn’t express any interest in joining officially now. So their numbers problem was instantly solved right there. Now they just needed to pose the question to the others. Ramses said he was tired of being left behind, and going off on tangents. He wanted to stick to his best friends, and not let anything take him away again. Jeremy also wanted to keep going like this. He didn’t know what they were going to do with their time, but it didn’t make sense to live one day at a time, and his original pattern forced him to isolate himself from others. This was the best solution. Olimpia said she had to stay, so her voice wouldn’t have to echo anymore. Leona explained that this didn’t mean she had to stay on the team. She could wear her own cuff, and just go off to live her life. Each one was perfectly capable of operating on its own. Her reaction to this truth made it clear that the suppression of her time illness wasn’t the only reason she wanted to stay, so they dropped the subject, and pretended like this was her only choice. Angela and Kivi didn’t give reasons, but they too chose to remain.

So now they were seven. After saying their goodbyes to their other friends, who had their own lives to lead, they synced up the cuffs, and made the next jump. It was February 11, 2341. Leona revealed that they were now back on track. Had Anatol never pushed them back to the 16th century, based on the number of temporal jumps they had since made, this was the date they would have ended up on. The question remained, what were they going to do? The pattern was one thing, but were they just going to relax by the sea for the rest of their lives? The primary reason they wore the cuffs before was because someone had intel about people needing saving, and how to go about doing it. Even Anatol had served them in this capacity, in his own twisted way. Now they had no purpose. Now they only had time.

Near the end of the day, they were still sitting around the table in the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which was parked on an ocean cliff. They weren’t saying anything. They expected to start discussing their plans for the future, but no one seemed to have any ideas. “Did Anatol have any friends or family?” Olimpia asked finally, breaking the silence.

“Well, not that we know of,” Leona answered. “Why?”

“I’m thinking about retaliation,” Olimpia furthered. We defeated him, so who might come for revenge? Isn’t that always what happens?”

“It was a draw,” Mateo reminded her. “Yes, we convinced him to give up, but he still made his own choice. I don’t think anyone would have anything to be vengeful about, it’s not like we killed him with the hundemarke. Like Lee-Lee said, he seemed to be rather alone. As far as I can tell, Juan Ponce de León was the closest thing he had to a friend. The Sergeant was a rival, and we all know how complicated frenemy relationships are. But still, if he was as close to someone as we are to each other, they haven’t revealed themselves yet.”

“That is who I’m worried about, someone we don’t even know exists,” Olimpia maintained. “You didn’t know how many Prestons there were in the beginning, did you?”

“I can’t recall,” Mateo said honestly. “I think I met Nerakali without knowing she was related to Zef.”

Leona stood up, and addressed the aether. “If anyone has anything against us, they might as well present themselves to us now! There is no point in dilly-dallying!”

They all looked around, waiting for a portal to open up. None did.

“I believe all of our enemies have been defeated,” Ramses figured. “Or turned to our side. I don’t think there is anyone left.”

“We are rather close to The Edge,” Kivi said casually, but also made it sound like she was talking about a capital-e edge.

“Is that a concept we’re supposed to know about already?” Angela questioned.

“The edge...of time travel?” Kivi put forth, thinking it would trigger something in their memories. “The year 2400?”

“What are you talking about?” Mateo asked.

“Is there some sort of event in 2400 that prevents time travelers from existing?” Ramses continued. “Like the Panikon?”

“I don’t know what that is, but it’s not some kind of temporal barrier. It’s just kind of...the end of our history.”

“Explain,” Leona pretty much demanded.

Kivi laughed. “People travel through time for what they believe to be various reasons, but it really all comes down to the one reason. They wanna see something interesting. They wanna save people’s lives...or troll on them. They like being around people who don’t understand what the universe is really like.”

“That changes in fifty-nine years?” Angela guessed.

“I don’t have all the details about how it comes to pass, but more than one version of me lived naturally on the other side of 2400. The humans become aware of advanced temporal mechanics, and begin to use it to develop their technology. Travelers don’t often visit the timeline past this point, because they’re not unique anymore, and life isn’t as exciting. Death has been conquered, and from what I gather, the reframe engine becomes public knowledge, and then ubiquitous. It’s not illegal to jump as far into the future, but it’s not done very much, as far as I can tell. I hear they call it the Edge.”

“Love, how quickly will we get there?”

“Assuming we stay on the Bearimy-Matic pattern?” Leona assumes. “Eight more jumps.”

“Is that bad?” Angela asked the obvious question.

“No,” Kivi said confidently. “The world changes in that year, but the world changes every year, doesn’t it? It never stops changing. It’s easy for a traveler to forget that normal humans still experience time travel. They watch the shaping of the timeline as well, they just see more detail.”

“We still need to figure out what we’re doing with our lives. This changes nothing,” Olimpia noted.

“It changes everything,” Leona contended. “We came here under the assumption that our problem is that there could be people out there who need our help, but we don’t know where and when. But this new information is suggesting that they probably don’t exist. Even if they do exist, they’ll probably not exist by next week. We have eight more jumps before the humans start taking care of themselves completely. We’ve always known about this. That’s why the Savior of Earth program was shut down a century prior, and why Anatol sent us back several centuries.”

“Are you suggesting that we recreate what he did to us?” Ramses asked.

“Maybe not quite as far as that,” Leona thought. “But there must be some time period that isn’t protected by someone else. The Salmon Runners have the end of the 20th century, and beginning of the 21st. Camden and the IAC are in the middle of that, and Mercury’s crusade is near the end of it, parallel to Serkan, Ace, and Paige. I’ve never heard of anyone protecting the mid-20th century, though.”

“Except for the Saviors,” Mateo said.

“Right,” she admitted. “I suppose the whole timeline is covered; that’s what the powers that be do. We keep having the same conversation about what we’re meant to do with our lives, and it never gets resolved. We just end up being distracted by some new or old antagonist.”

Angela spoke, “I think we all need to acknowledge the fact that life was a lot easier when someone was telling us how to live it. If we’re right, and there are no more bad guys, angry at us for what we did to someone else, then it’s up to us to come up with ideas. And I believe what we’re saying now is that those ideas don’t come from this region of the timeline.”

“Unless we go to other planets,” Jeremy said as if everyone was thinking the same thing.

“Those are pretty well taken care of too,” Leona tried to explain. I think there’s at least one traveler in every colony in the stellar neighborhood.”

“So we go beyond it,” Jeremy offered.

“Leona shook her head. “Operation Starseed launched in 2250, which means it’s nearly a hundred light years away from Gatewood by now. While that is indeed beyond the neighborhood, there hasn’t been enough time for a culture to develop to the point where they need our help. If they’re young enough, and expected to advance on their own, they’re probably being secretly protected by the artificial intelligence assigned to their planet. If they were made aware of their own Earthan origins, then they probably don’t need to be protected. We would be looking for a culture in the middle, who was eventually left alone by its AI, and is still struggling to learn from their mistakes. I don’t think those cultures exist yet.”

“Then we’re already on the path to reaching them,” Jeremy argued. “The Bearimy-Matic pattern should get us there pretty quickly according to the dimension of time, and the AOC should get us there quickly in the dimensions of space. We just need to wait, and then find the right planet. Maybe we look for a world that looks like a less advanced version of Earth.”

“I know exactly where you can find a world like that.” A man was standing at the bottom of the steps. No one seemed to have seen him arrive, suggesting he teleported in. He had a gun trained on them.

“Milford?” Angela asked, fear in her voice.

“I have been looking a long time for you.”

“How did you get out?” she asked him. She stood up, and backed away. Ramses stood as well, and made sure he was standing between them.

“There was new management in the afterlife simulation after you left,” Milford explained.

“Ellie Underhill, yes,” Angela said, thinking she understood.

Milford shook his head. “She and her friends disappeared. Someone else took over after her. He found me in the red, woke me up, and gave me the gift of resurrection.”

“What was the red level again?” Kivi asked the group.

“Static,” Milford answered instead. “People think that being shelved is the worst punishment after the black death, but nothing is compared to the torture of being in a room for centuries, unable to communicate with anyone, or do anything. That is the true hell, and I will never forgive you for putting me there.”

“I didn’t put you there,” Angela shouted. “You murdered me, and then when you died yourself, you suffered consequences for it. I had nothing to do with that decision. That’s on you, buddy. What are you even doing here? This has nothing to do with you!”

“You’re right,” Milford agreed. “I don’t care what’s happening here. I’ve only come to put you back where you belong. I regret accidentally killing you. Don’t forget that I didn’t mean to do it, and now I have the chance to undo it. I’m sending you back to 1816, so we can restart our lives together.” He shot Ramses, knowing he would fall down, and give him a clear shot at his true target. Unfortunately for him, Ramses wasn’t the only one who wanted to protect her. While Mateo was going after the shooter, Jeremy stepped in as the new shield. Whereas Ramses was hit in the shoulder, Jeremy’s bullet landed right in his chest. He didn’t die, but it didn’t look good.

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Microstory 1706: Upon Altar

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Arms and legs tied down, stretched across the altar, I don’t scream or cry. I get the feeling that these people consider the struggle to be part of the ritual, and I can’t give them the satisfaction. There are dozens of them, chanting and watching me. There is no escape, even if I were to have broken free of the two people who were leading me down the stone path in the first place. I don’t know where I am, so where could I even go? No, this is where I die, and if I can’t go out on my own terms, I at least can’t give my killers the satisfaction of knowing they were responsible for my last words. The last time I spoke was to my daughter as I headed into the fields for the day. They were loving and kind, and that is what the universe will remember of me; not this. The guy who seems to be in charge of the cult, or maybe just in charge of the ceremony, approaches from the steps on the other side. He’s holding a goblet with both hands, a knife placed precariously over the lips, threatening to slip off to the ground. No one would get hurt from this, but it would probably be pretty embarrassing for him. Hoping to make this happen, I jerk what little of my body I’m still able to move towards him, and sort of chirp. He’s startled, and almost loses the knife, but he manages to grab it in time. I return to my stoic nature, unfazed and quiet. The leader clears his throat, and recovers. He speaks in tongues, or perhaps just a language I don’t so much as recognize. He’s praying to his god, or the demonhorn, or some nonsense like that. I just lie there and reflect on my life until he seems ready to finalize the sacrifices. His minions lift up my torso and place the goblet under my back. Okay, I thought it was uncomfortable before, but this is insane. He’s obviously planning to stab me, and let the blood fill the goblet, but he doesn’t get a chance. An arrow suddenly pierces his neck, and he falls over.

I wiggle until the goblet tips over, but I can’t get it out from under my back. Still, it’s enough for me to face the action. Everyone in the death cult is fighting one solitary warrior. They manage to get in a few good hits, but he’s powerful and relentless. I get the sense that he’s not here to save me, but that he has some kind of personal vendetta against these people, and I just happen to be in the right place at the right time. They probably sacrificed his spouse or child exactly one year ago, just like this, and he’s finally getting his revenge. He’s nearly gotten it. Only he is left standing, but then the leader gets back up. He breaks the arrow apart, and then stabs it right into the lone warrior’s eye, twisting it with a fiery anger. Just for good measure, he pulls the arrowhead out—a little bit of the eye comes with it—and stabs it in the other. The lone warrior falls down, and begins to die. The leader takes a moment to catch his breath before returning to me. Even without his followers, the ritual must continue. He retrieves the goblet from under me, and restarts the chanting; or as much as he can without a voice. He’s more just moving his lips around, and wheezing. Blood from his own neck wound leaks out, and drips into the cup. Able to stand the blood loss no longer, he falls on top of his enemy, leaving the goblet at my side. Blood red smoke begins to rise from it, and swirls around above me. The particles coalesce into a form, and then a figure, and then a man. He’s straddling me and grimacing. He looks over at the carnage, pleased to see so much pain and death. He looks back at me. “You have freed me from the void. I am forever in your debt. What would you have me do for you first, master?”

Microstory 1307: Metal Thief

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Property Crimes Detective: All right, Metal Thief. Tell me what you know about the Twin Hillside Burglary.

Metal Thief: I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Property Crimes Detective: You expect me to believe that? It was all over the news.

Metal Thief: I’m not really into the news. I like history.

Property Crimes Detective: And money.

Metal Thief: Doesn’t everybody?

Property Crimes Detective: And metal.

Metal Thief: Metal makes money.

Property Crimes Detective: What did you do with everything you stole from that house?

Metal Thief: I told you, I didn’t do it.

Property Crimes Detective: Then who did?

Metal Thief: How the hell should I know?

Property Crimes Detective: Well, you must have contacts, what with everything we know that you’ve stolen.

Metal Thief: What did they take?

Property Crimes Detective: Everything.

Metal Thief: Everything?

Property Crimes Detective: Everything but the kitchen sink. They did take the workshop sink that was in the garage, though.

Metal Thief: They literally cleaned it all out? But just the one house?

Property Crimes Detective: Yes.

Metal Thief: You didn’t call me in because you think I did it. You called me in for help.

Property Crimes Detective: [sighs] Where would someone go to unload all that? I’m talkin’ bookshelves, couches, televisions, frickin’ photo albums. They took a lot of junk that was personal; I honestly don’t get it.

Metal Thief: They took photo albums?

Property Crimes Detective: Yeah. What does that mean to you?

Metal Thief: There’s always someone willing to take the valuable stuff. You don’t even need to go to the black market. All you would need to do is haul that stuff to your own house, and sell it on your lawn.

Property Crimes Detective: A garage sale?

Metal Thief: As I understand it, confidential informants get paid.

Property Crimes Detective: You give me something I can use, we’ll talk.

Metal Thief: [...] Detective, this crime is personal. Like you said, they took junk. Anyone willing to go to that much trouble is doing it for one of two reasons. A, it’s a prank, in which case it’s gone too far by now. Or B, the victim just went through a bad break up, or fired a disgruntled employee, or something. Find someone your victim has wronged recently, and see if they have a garage sale goin’. Or see if they’ve just purchased storage space somewhere in the city. They may not want, or need, to sell it at all, and it’s really just about hurting the victim.

Property Crimes Detective: That was actually kind of helpful.

Metal Thief: Next time you want a favor, don’t drag me into an interrogation room. Just ask.

Property Crimes Detective: Oh, it’s a favor? I guess we don’t need to pay you then.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: December 3, 2271

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Mateo Matic: Oh my God, it’s frickin’ freezing out here.

Leona Matic: Where are we?

Nerakali Preston: This is Peter Island. We’re about three hundred and fifty kilometers from mainland Antarctica, and a hundred and sixty from the prime location to see a partial solar eclipse.

Arcadia Preston: Why do we want to be here for that? It’s a partial eclipse; that doesn’t sound very impressive.

Nerakali: It’s not that big of a deal on its own—though, it is happening pretty close to midnight central, which is a little interesting. The reason we’re here is because this is the site of a hundemarke murder. In the next few minutes, after the eclipse begins, someone is going to be killed here, and someone is going to be doing the killing. It’s up to us to find exactly where that is, who that is, and get the hundemarke from them.

Mateo: We can’t just take it. If we try, a magical force field will throw us against a wall, and knock us out.

Leona: How do you know that? You act like you’ve tried before.

Mateo: No, I just...I must have heard it.

Nerakali: Well, you’re right. We can’t take it until it’s been used. We’ll have to let the murder play out.

Arcadia: That’s not entirely accurate. We can’t interfere as long as the hundemarke is active. While it’s operating, it’s maintaining a moment of fixed time, which cannot be altered. It doesn’t matter whether you kill someone during that moment, or not; it still can’t be changed.

Leona: How will we know when the user deactivates it?

Mateo: Is there a time limit, or a power threshold?

Arcadia: That I do not know, but it’s actually likely. I’ve never heard of a hundemarke event lasting more than a few minutes. What would the world look like if someone went back to prehistoric times, and just never turned it off? It would erase time travel.

Mateo: What would the world look like? Normal. You were born with the knowledge of nonlinear time, but most people have no idea that it’s real. They go about their days, thinking everything that happens—good or bad—is just the way it has to be from now on. If you used the hundemarke to erase time travel, the world would just look like that, but for everybody.

Arcadia: Are you sure about that? Just because people don’t know about time travel, doesn’t mean they aren’t impacted by it. You saved thousands of lives when you killed Hitler, which went on to affect millions more. Few are aware of your involvement, but billions are aware that it happened. Without time travel, would humanity have survived up to today? I’m not convinced.

Mateo: Wull...

Nerakali: No, don’t try to deny it, Mateo. Everyone knows you killed Hitler, then went back in time in someone else’s body, and killed him again. Old news.

Leona: We don’t have much time now. How are we going to find the site of the murder. Could it be anywhere on this island?

Nerakali: The coordinates aren’t precise, but I know it will be somewhere on this side.

Mateo: Is there a feature on these time power cuffs that would allow us to scan for life signs? I imagine there aren’t any other people here.

Nerakali: No one has so much as stayed at the resort since the 22nd century, but unfortunately, no. There is no way to seek the murder. We’re going to have to split up to cover more ground. When the time comes, I’ll initiate burst mode.

Leona: Won’t we all just teleport to the same place each time? That’s what the cuffs do.

Nerakali: I’ve programmed them to be almost as imprecise as the coordinates themselves. We technically will be teleporting to the same places, but instead of being a few meters close to each other, it’ll be measured in acres.

Arcadia: It’s almost time.

Nerakali: See something, say something. You all know how to use the intercom system. Let us know where you are, and we’ll come to you.

Arcadia: Okay. Break!

Mateo: Guys, I see it.

Nerakali [through the speaker]: Where are you?

Mateo: The screen says subduing.unpraised.soreness. What the hell does that mean?

Nerakali: Exactly what you would think: a coordinate system that designates three random and unique word combinations to each nine square meter tile on a map of the whole globe.

Mateo: Makes sense.

Leona: Who’s that?

Arcadia: Whose job was it to bring the binoculars?

Mateo: Will this thing work?

Leona: Where the hell did you get that thing?

Mateo: What’s the big deal? It’s just a spyglass.

Leona: It’s the Jayde Spyglass. I used it to bring you back from nonexistence.

Mateo: Oh, cool. Well, as long as I can see what’s going on over there...

Nerakali: No, don’t!

Stan Humphrey: What the hell just happened? How did you get here?

Arcadia: Dammit, Mateo. You can’t just start running around with temporal objects. You have to ask an adult first.

Stan: I mean it! Who the hell are you people?

Nerakali: You don’t get to talk. Arcadia, temporarily remove your cuff, and try to disarm this man for me.

Arcadia: Oh, you want us to be unlinked, so if the attempt kills me, I’m the only one who gets hurt?

Stan: Hey! Stop!

Nerakali: Exactly. See? You get it. She gets it. Leona, could you remove his future victim’s gag, so he can talk?

Leona: What is this all over you?

Vasanta Gadhavi: You need to wash your hands. He retched on me. He thinks it’s poetic justice.

Stan: It is! Give me my gun back!

Arcadia: Do you have to yell everything you say?

Stan: I do! It’s a medical condition called go screw yourself!

Arcadia: Oh, I have that. Yelling is not a symptom, faker.

Nerakali: Arcadia, please. Now. I don’t understand what’s happening here. This is meant to be a hundemarked moment, but you were able to take his gun.

Leona: Maybe it hasn’t been activated yet.

Mateo: Or this is part of the fixed moment. Maybe we were destined to come here and attempt to stop him.

Arcadia: Mateo...that..actually isn’t the dumbest thing you’ve ever said.

Leona: We need more information. Who are you, and why does this man want you dead?

Vasanta: My name is Vasanta Gadhavi. I’m a member of the rescue division of the salmon battalion. Stan here is all butthurt about a time when Saga and her then fiancée, Andromeda threatened his worldview by marrying each other? I don’t really understand his position. He’s basically a nazi, though. He’s just spent a decade of his life hunting the people who wronged him. Andromeda’s already dead, and Saga’s impossible to track down, but he found me.

Stan: It was eight years; don’t give yourself so much credit.

Vasanta: You’re the one who deserves all the credit. You walked through the haze on Durus, and got yourself transported to Ansutah. Then you traveled through time, so you could become a Comronian refugee, and be rescued by Gatewood. Then you made your way back to Earth, where you hunted me down throughout the timeline. That’s impressive. If you were a good person, you could have done great things with your skills. I could have used someone like you on my side. We could’ve even been partners.

Stan: I would never. I would sooner throw up on you again.

Vasanta: Oh no, I wasn’t offering. Vasanta Gadhavi is a good man, and you tried to kill him.

Leona: Why are you talking in the third person?

Vasanta: Am I?

Nerakali: I’m still confused. How have we interfered? This makes no sense. Arcadia, see if you can take the hundemarke from him. It’s probably inside of his shirt.

Stan: What are you talking about? Stop touching me! What the hell is a hoondamarka?

Arcadia: He doesn’t have it. How did you find out about this moment? We’re in the middle of nowhere, quite literally. People can get away with murder these days in a location this remote.

Nerakali: It was pinged. I don’t know what was meant to happen here, but it is a hundemarke moment. It has to be.

Vasanta: Oh, it is. You just frisked the wrong person.

Stan: Oh, shit! No, please! I’m sor—

Vasanta: Uh-uh-uh! Back up. If I shoot any one of you, the other two die. I only came here to kill him, and it’s done.

Arcadia: If you shoot me, you’ll die. My sister won’t stand for that.

Vasanta: I’m not worried. Mostly because I’m not going to shoot you. I would never. I was asked to get you to Mateo’s memorial services, and this is how I do that. You’re coming with me, Salvy.

Arcadia: What did you just call me?

Nerakali: Who are you?

Vasanta: I think you know. Goodbye!

Nerakali: Wait! Stop! [...] Oh my God.

Mateo: Where did they go? Can we track them?

Nerakali: Not a chance. He’s too smart for that. He won’t take her anywhere I would think to look.

Leona: It’s not a he, though, is it? That name, Salvy. What does it mean?

Nerakali: It’s short for Salvador, as in Salvado Dalí? Arcadia was the only one of us up in the Gallery dimension who legit loved art. Dalí was her favorite artist, and that makes sense, because he was a surrealist with a thing for clocks. Her whole thing is manipulating reality.

Leona: So, your mother always called her Salvy.

Mateo: I’m confused.

Leona: It’s an illusion. That wasn’t Vasanta Gadhavi. It was Savannah Preston in disguise.

Mateo: How’s that possible?

Leona: It’s like how Vito Bulgari can make things invisible, but instead of making it look like something isn’t there, she can make it look like someone else’s face is where her face actually is. The precision of such an endeavor, though; I can’t imagine how much concentration that requires. You didn’t know she had that ability?

Nerakali: No one does, throughout all of spacetime, as far as I know, except one person. He would have to be using some kind of temporal object that was imbued with Alyssa McIver’s power.

Mateo: Why do you keep calling her a he? I thought we concluded it wasn’t really Vasanta.

Nerakali: No, that wasn’t Vasanta, but you were wrong, Leona. Our mother never called her Salvy. We’ve been wrong this whole time. Savannah Preston probably has nothing to do with it. That was Erlendr Preston, our father. He’s the one behind all the hundemarke killings.

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Microstory 1291: The Rooster and the Wolf

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A wolf was walking through the woods when he came upon a farm. He was so hungry, and hadn’t found food in days, so he thought this was the perfect spot. Unfortunately, the farmer had placed traps on the edge of his property, and one of them caught the wolf before he was able to even get close. This was very early in the morning, so only the rooster was awake, patrolling the grounds. When the wolf saw him approach, he knew he had to come up with a story. If he freely admitted his intentions, the rooster would cause a ruckus, and the wolf would surely be done for. So he spun a lie about how he hadn’t even noticed the farm, that he was just passing by on his way to a watering hole, and that he had no plans to harm anyone there. As convincing as the wolf was, the rooster knew that he was lying. He did what he believed to be his job, and woke the whole farm, particularly the farmer. Well, the wolf, knowing this would be the end of him if he didn’t do something, focused all of his attention on the line he was tied up in, and gnawed it apart as quickly as he could. He didn’t make it into the treeline before the farmer managed to fire his shotgun, though, and hit him with a couple shots. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but it did damage his right ear enough to cause permanent hearing loss. And that was enough to anger him greatly. Yes, the wolf was indeed planning to invade the farm, and take some chickens. But he wasn’t going to be greedy about it. Now things were different. Now he had a vendetta, and he felt that he had no choice but to make things so much worse at the farm. At the time, he was a lone wolf, but that didn’t mean he was an omega, or that other wolves wouldn’t help him. So he gathered up all the others he could find in the area, and galvanized them into warriors. Then they attacked the farm together, and killed nearly everything there. But they left the rooster alive.

This story was inspired by, and revised from, an Aesop Fable called The Cock and the Fox.

Microstory 1276: The Dingo and the Crane

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Years ago, a dingo and a crane were drinking from the same watering hole, and got to talking. As different as they were as animals, and as unrelatable as their lifestyles should have been to each other, it turned out they had a lot in common. The dingo even agreed to limit her meals to rodents and lizards, which didn’t bother the crane at all. Birds were out of bounds, though, and the dingo was fine with this. One thing they did both enjoy, however, was a tasty fish stew. For one evening, the dingo decided to play a prank on the crane. She invited him over for dinner, like she had so many times, but the crane soon realized that he would not be able to eat the stew. She had placed it on an only moderately deep platter. The dingo was perfectly capable of lapping up the stew herself, but the crane couldn’t manage to get any into his beak. The dingo apologized for this, claiming that none of her other dishes was clean at the moment. A couple of days later, the crane invited the dingo over, so that he could host his own meal. They would have fish stew again, because it was easy, and agreeable for both. The dingo knew that the crane was planning on getting her back, likely by giving her a long jar in the same way that she had given him a platter. But she was wrong. The crane recognized that what the dingo had done was nothing more than a joke. He was able to find some fish on his way home the other day, and since he was not the vengeful type, he didn’t need to get her back. They remained friends, and one day laughed together about the silly platter prank.

This story was inspired by, and revised from, an Aesop Fable called The Fox and the Stork.

Microstory 677: Punishment for Thieves?

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Theft is not illegal throughout most of Fostea. All planets and system civilizations are free to make their own rules, and devise their own punishments for “crimes” but they don’t necessarily have to, which is why we tend to not use that word at all. Instead, we have the term aggression. When you carry out an act of aggression against someone, they will generally be completely within their rights to respond accordingly. Even murder is legal in most states, but the punishment is more often than not death, and is usually executed by the victim’s family. That’s why people don’t just go around killing anyone who done them wrong. When Sotiren Zahir was structuring the galaxy, he questioned this, though. All prior civilizations had some centralized adjudicative system in place, and that seemed to work out for them, for the most part. He was, in particular, concerned with theft. His family had experienced a long history of theft. For many generations, this was how they made their money; by taking from others, and selling their possessions. He was ashamed of his family’s past, spoke little of it in his memoirs, and didn’t mention it in the Book of Light. Still, logic prevailed, and all aggressions were deemed lawful to the galaxy. In the taikon, however, he left the window open for this to be altered, should his contemporary’s descendants feel differently. Eido Tamsin’s replacement, Sanctius Viktorov was chosen to manage an interstellar vote while the last several taikon were taking place. About half the galaxy decided that they would like theft to be punishable unilaterally, while the other half liked things the way that they were. So a compromise was made that hopefully serves both sides equally. Theft, like all other aggressions, remains legal. The difference now is that if any victim wishes to relinquish their personal justice in favor of a new committee designed to punish aggressors, they may do so, for a nominal fee. Technically businesses such as this one already exist, however, in this case, compensation will be set at a fixed price. The committee will operate outside the general market, and will be required to accept every case that comes to them, regardless of its worth. This is a new thing we’re trying here, and we’ll have to see if it works. The Sacred Savior has left for us another window of opportunity to repeal this decision later, if need be.

Microstory 635: Justice of the Free

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Perhaps one of the most controversial aspects of our great galaxy is our justice system. Or rather our lack there of. Our ancestors decided long before Fostea was seeded that they didn’t want to be told what to do. Too long had they lived under the boot of the establishment, which regulated everything from business to health. Honestly, the bureaucratic nonsense sounds exhausting, and many modern-day Fosteans can’t understand how anyone lived like that. Still, and this may be an unpopular opinion, a lot can go wrong when anyone is free to do whatever they want. Though, most would argue that no one is truly free as long as they are opposed by others. Everyone suffers consequences for their actions, but those in power always exercise more autonomy and discretion. You have every right to cause harm to someone else, for whatever reason. What you must also remember, then, is that they too carry with them this same privilege. Up until now, however, these adjudications were processed on an ad hoc and individual basis. People enacted their revenge against those who had somehow wronged them, only if they had the power to do so. No single body has ever been responsible for such a thing, but Lightseers see things a little differently. We too believe in natural—rather than arbitrary—justice, but we believe that only the Light of Truth has the right to make these decisions. Since light obviously can’t presently vocalize its thoughts on any given matter, we lowly humans take the next best thing; Sacred Savior Sotiren Zahir. The taikon prophesies that he will take his place as First Judge, creating a new institution of justice, called The Court of Light. It will be signed to bring justice upon all who are free that he believes should not be. And he will hold this position until such time when the Light of Truth can manifest itself in a more comprehensible form.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: May 27, 2081

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The void that Mateo and Leona jumped through was literally endless. It didn’t feel like they were falling, more like they were stuck in place and feeling it fly around them. Leona darted her eyes around like she was searching for her car keys. But she wasn’t searching for anything, she was painting the scenery around them with her mind. The land and other objects faded into view incrementally. The more she painted with her thoughts, the faster their surroundings appeared. It was shaping up to be the side of a nice and quiet hill. He couldn’t remember when, but he knew he had been there before. Once everything was in place, she gently removed her hand from Mateo’s and took in a much-deserved breath. “Are you okay?” she asked with little actual concern.

He just stared at her. If felt like he hadn’t seen her in years, and he technically hadn’t. But she had changed too much in that amount of time, because it should have only been a few days from their perspective. Did The Cleanser place her in a temporal bubble like the one Mateo had been in during the Cast Away, Life of Pi, and Gulliver’s Travels tribulations? Did she fall out of their pattern? How long had it been for her, and what had changed. Did she even still love him? “I love you.”

She laughed at the response. “I love you as well. It has been much longer for me, though.”

“What happened?”

“I’m from the future. A lot has changed since then. Being away from you for twelve years has turned me into a different person. You wouldn’t like me anymore.”

“Twelve years,” Mateo repeated. “You mean...”

“Over 4,000 jumps, yes.”

“You can manipulate time now.”

“That’s...complicated. I know you’ve been trying to figure out how to do that yourself, but trust me that it’s best if you don’t. I paid a price for these powers. Or rather, others did. There’s a reason I brought you to this hill; the one from our shared dream during the kidney transplantation.” Her voice was darker in tone, and much scarier. She really wasn’t the same person, and he feared she was right when she said he wouldn’t like her.

He was reluctant to ask, but did so anyway, “what happened to your eye?”

“Oh, this?” she asked, knowing the answer was yes. “This was stupid of me. I thought it would be a funny joke, but...I don’t think you ever watched Andromeda or My Little Pony so it just...doesn’t execute well.”

“What?”

She removed the patch to show that her eye was perfectly intact. “It was a joke. Not a good one, I see that now.” She laughed once. “No pun intended. Anyway, I really am from four thousand years in the future, though.”

“Okay, well I’m sure you’ve grown tired of explaining things to me, but...”

“Actually,” she corrected, “I’ve missed it. Like I said, you weren’t around. I’m from an alternate future. You were placed in the pocket dimension, which meant that you were stuck in a single moment in time. Your pattern ended, and I never saw you again. I continued on the pattern on my own. I’ve seen a lot, learned a lot,” she began before lowering her gaze to the ground out of shame and finishing, “and I’ve done a lot.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Mateo said. He had met someone from an alternate timeline before, but Horace Reaver was only a few decades off, and felt shame for nothing. “But you’re back now, and we’re together. Now that you have new powers, we might actually have a fighting chance against the Cleanser.”

“I’m afraid that I cannot help you with that. The other Leona, the younger Leona, your Leona is still waiting for you. She’s the one you need to be reunited with. I returned to this moment in time so that I could extract you from the pocket dimension, but now I must go. My work here is done.”

“Well where are you going to go?”

“That’s not something I’m ready to explain to you.”

“Oh, please do,” the Cleanser said in a disrespectful manner.

Future!Leona smiled at him like seeing an old friend she had always hated. “Hello, Zeferino.”

“Wait,” Mateo started, “your name is Zeferino, but you go by a nickname? I don’t think you understand how cool your name sounds.”

“I don’t think you understand anything,” Zeferino said.

Future!Leona kept smiling. “I’m gonna let you do what you need to do with Mateo, but I know more about the timeline than you do.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“You would. But know that I’ll be monitoring the stream. You do something I don’t like, I’ll be forced to step in.”

“Leona, why don’t you just stop him now? If you can?” Mateo pleaded.

She looked at him like he was a child. “I can’t. Zeferino’s methods are deadly and wrong, but he was given a job, and I’m not allowed to instigate his replacement, for any reason.”

“You’re telling me he’s actually doing what he’s supposed to?”

“Oh, definitely not. It’s like this...they can’t fire him without cause. And he hasn’t given them cause, at least not one outlined in the hypothetical human resources handbook of choosers.”

“Hell you talking about?” Mateo was angry, and was starting to like her less and less by the second. “Just end it! Right here, right now! Use your new powers!”

“I can’t, Mateo,” Future!Leona said.

“Yeah, Mateo,” the Cleanser mocked.

Mateo’s rage had grown dramatically throughout the short conversation, and in keeping with his plan to be unpredictable, he decided to punch the Cleanser, Zeferino in the jaw as hard as he could.

The Cleanser was notably hurt, and not just physically. He probably wasn’t used to people working so hard against him, because of how powerful he was. He wiped his face and looked at his hand like he had never seen his own blood before. He may not have. “You’re going to regret that.”

“Prove it.”

“Mateo, leave it alone.”

“No,” the Cleanser said, never breaking the lock his eyes had on Mateo. “He thinks he’s above consequences, even though I’ve shown him time and time again that he’s not. I can’t let that stand.”

“Please let it go, Zef. He’s just a kid.”

“Yes, and this is going to be a lesson.”

“I can stop you!”

Without looking, the Cleanser placed his hand on Future!Leona’s chest. When he removed it, a gaping hole was left in her body. As her knees bent, her legs twisted and pulled her towards the ground on her back, head pointed towards them.

Mateo was, understandably, horrified. “What did you do to her?”

“I sent part of her through time. I left the rest here for you to admire.”

He couldn’t help but think about how this was a different Leona than he knew. She had been through so much. Alone. Which was not something he could truly relate to, so on one side he felt bad for her, but on the other, his Leona was still alive. This was more like a clone, a backup. It was hard for him to be too terribly upset about Future!Leona’s death, and that made him feel terrible. But it was done, and if anyone could prevent it from ever having happened, it certainly wasn’t Mateo. So he chose to use it as an opportunity to protect his true love. “You’ve gotten revenge now.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You were mad about Darko’s death, and bent on killing Leona for it,” Mateo explained. “I don’t know why you cared about Darko so much, and I don’t need you to tell me. That’s your business, and you can tell me when you’re comfortable. My point is that you’ve completed your mission. You killed Leona.”

“That was a different Leona.”

Mateo shrugged. “It was an older one. So think of it this way...it took you four thousand years to get your revenge, but you didn’t have to perceive that much time, and you did finally succeed. Think of the woman you killed as the Leona. Think of mine as the other one, and don’t worry about her.”

He didn’t respond.

“If you choose to feel satisfied, I think you’ll find closure.”

“This is very clever of you. I must say, it’s rather heartless, though. Pun extremely intended.”

“I’m desperate.”

“I would sure think so,” he said. Then he added, “I would hope so.”

Mateo closed his eyes and nodded towards Zeferino, like an academic receiving minor recognition for his work.

“It would appear that you are learning.”

“Your lessons are...” he trailed off unable to find the right words. “You make quite an impression.”

He seemed pleased by this, but was not done. “I will accept your loophole, and I commend you for coming up with it. Once you are finished with the Gladiator II tribulation, you may reconnect with this other Leona, and I promise that no harm will come to her. Not by my hands, anyway.”

“We already did the Gladiator II tribulation,” Mateo pointed out, very confused.

“Yes, but you remember reading about all those crazy ideas people had for the sequel? You completed the most normal sequel plotline, but we’re going to go after the others as well.”

“You mean the weird resurrection-time travel storylines?”

“Yes, which of course, we’re fully capable of doing. I’m pulling you out of your pattern using my loophole powers. You’ll first be going to April 30, 1945.”

Mateo knew what that day was, as poor a student as he had been.

“I guess I have no choice.”

“You don’t.”

“Okay, I suppose we’re done here.”

“Not so fast. There’s still a matter of punishment for you punching me in the face.”

“Are you really that upset about it?”

“I am. But I’ll let you chose. Either I kill Present!Leona, or I torture you with the timestream.”

Mateo laughed. He didn’t know what that second one meant, but nothing could be worse than being responsible for Leona’s death for what would be the fourth time. “Second one.”

“I thought as much,” he said before a quick pause. “You were only in the pocket dimension for a few seconds, which was just enough to let Future!Leona slip in and get you out before The Merger closed it off.”

“Right,” Mateo agreed patiently.

“But that’s only in this timeline. In the timeline that Future!Leona experienced, you were in there for four thousand years, repeating over and over again the same moment. You don’t quite understand what she saved you from by coming back in time and pulling you out before the reality was sealed.”

“Oh no.” Mateo knew where this was going.

“But you will.” He took Mateo by the head and flooded his brain with the memories of an alternate version of himself. He could suddenly remember what it was like to repeat a single excruciating moment billions of times. The Cleanser removed his hands from Mateo’s head and popped out of the timestream mid-laugh.

Mateo just stood there stunned. He now knew eternity. He had gone to hell and come back, and he didn’t know what to do next.

A bloody heart appeared in midair over Future!Leona’s body, exactly where it had been moments ago when it was still in its rightful place. The Cleanser had only sent it a few minutes forwards in time. It fell towards her and reestablished itself within her chest cavity, which closed up and healed completely. She got back to her feet, brushed herself off, and said with a smirk, “he shouldn’t have taken the heart.” Then she smiled at Mateo and asked dryly, “what? Is there something on my face?”

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