The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 19, 2399

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Ramses was given a new lab to work in on Mangrove One. There’s nothing wrong with the emergency pandemic facility back in Kansas City, but nearly everyone has moved here at this point, because this is where everything else is. Vearden and Arcadia are still in the hospital, but the former checks in via text, sometimes audio, and the occasional video to update the team on the latter’s progress, or lack thereof. She’s still in a coma, and her child is still growing rapidly in her body, but mama and baby are otherwise both very healthy and stable.

Leona enters the lab. “How is it going?”

“It’s not,” Vearden replies. “It can’t be done. There’s a reason that darkbursting and darklurking exist. If you’re invisible, then everything else is invisible to you.”

“Can you siphon the radiation to another dimension?” Leona suggests.

“Yeah, in the Parallel, maybe the main sequence. But we don’t have other dimensions in this reality. Our only advantage before was a lack of technological advancement on this culture’s part. That is quickly changing as Aldona provides them with something new each day to maintain her value on the global stage.”

Leona nods as she scans the room for no particular reason. “Then bring it online. If they attack again, we’ll respond again. We’ll remain vigilant, and update the defense software regularly. I’ll deploy a second satellite to watch for imminent threats if I have to. I’m going to find Alyssa, and I’m going to find the volcano where my husband died.”

“I’m sorry that I don’t know where it is,” Ramses apologizes again. “He navigated. And when I left, my subconscious just sent me to Egypt.”

“I know. We’ll figure it out, we always do.”

“What about the Nexus? I never really heard why you left, but that would be a great resource, right?”

“Um.” She scratches at her ear awkwardly. “I can do anything I want with the Nexus, and its computer. It will respond to any request I make for a task that it is capable of performing. I appear to have full administrative privileges.”

“That sounds like a good thing.”

“It’s too good,” she replies. “They didn’t want me there, I’m too powerful. My comrad in The Highest Order, Iris Blume made me leave.”

“Well, by your own admission, you probably could have let yourself stay by locking up the Nexus computer, or something.”

“These are our allies, not my subjects. The Nexus may help us return home one day, but I don’t see much use for it at this point. I would rather focus on relationships than technology.”

“Except for right now,” he muses. He’s hovering his hand over the execute button.

“Except for now. Do it.”

Ramses reawakens the satellite, and watches the data pour in. “All systems online, and operating at optimal efficiency. No hyperadvanced alien technology detected. Apparently Aldona’s tech doesn’t qualify under my parameters. I’ll tweak that so we always know what she’s up to as well. Let’s see, brain scanner operational, no errors yet. Temporal anomalies, zero. Temporal energy, zero, even though we all know it shouldn’t be.”

“Vanguard scope?” Leona asks.

“On the lookout for incoming vessels. We won’t have much warning; I couldn’t make it too big, or we wouldn’t have been able to launch. Oh, there. There’s an error. No, two actually.”

“São Paulo, Brasil. That’s in the top ten densest cities in the world by population.”

“Oh.”

“Wait, how long before you can scan the Philippines?”

“Maybe a half hour, thought it may not find any errors until it gets straight overhead, which will be closer to forty minutes.”

She shakes her head as she’s staring at the map. “It has to be them. Other than Antarctica right now, the only travelers we’ve found have been loners. Roeland and his daughter,” she says with airquotes, “are the only pair we’ve met.” Their original plan was to hide out in a remote spot where no one would think to look, but that obviously backfired when Leona showed up. He probably believes that no one will find them in the new city, not with such a dense population for them to blend in with. He doesn’t know that the brain scanner ignores all those other people. He doesn’t even know about the scanner in the first place. He’s probably going to be so pissed when she shows up again, but she still doesn’t know who this other person he’s with is. If it’s not Alyssa, then she’ll leave them alone, but if it is, she’s going to bring her home. Then again, could it really be her? She would look like Leona herself, and he didn’t bat an eye when she answered the door at that quarantine hotel. It doesn’t matter, nothing is certain. She has no choice but to try to find them again, and this time, not let any bureaucratic bullshit get in her way.

“You think they moved?” Ramses assumes.

“I think Tarboda and I spooked them, so yeah, it would stand to reason.”

“We won’t have to wait that long to confirm. Let’s give it the full ninety minutes before you rush off to get answers.”

“I won’t be rushing off anywhere. Not without you, anyway. You’re the only one of us who can teleport, remember?”

“As long as that shipment of Existence water comes in,” he points out.

“I’ll go check on that now.”

“Thanks.

Leona heads out, and goes straight to Winona, who is in charge of supplies. “Honeycutt, I have a question.”

“Let me guess, you’re a little thirsty,” she guesses suggestively.

“Is it on its way?”

“I just got off the phone with the Navy. There’s a major delay. Evidently the local governments have noticed that we’ve found something special in the Bermuda Triangle, and they would like to get in on the action.”

“It means nothing to them, it’s just water.”

“That’s not something that we can explain,” Winona reasons.

Leona sighs, annoyed. “Yeah, I know.” Her watch beeps. “Motherf—.”

“What is it?” Winona asks worriedly.

“They’re firing another goddamn missile.”

“What are ya gonna do, teleport it away again?”

Leona scowls, and considers her options. “No, they’ll just send another.” She thinks some more. “I’m gonna steal it, and drop it in their backyard. Let’s see how they like it.” She races out of the room.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 18, 2399

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Since Leona is no longer in trouble, Ramses wanted to stay gone, but Kivi knew that Leona wouldn’t want that. They had some things to work out with each other, and he did not have the right to keep running from that. She escorted him out of the Great Pyramid of Giza, and they went on their way to Balikpapan to rendezvous with everyone else. Fortunately, the guards at the entrance to the pyramid had switched shifts in the intervening time, so while the new one was told that only two people would be going in, he figured he had heard wrong, and there were actually three. The original guard would have remembered there actually only having been two, and wondered how the third man got in there in the first place. That, coupled with the fact that Ramses is Egyptian himself, was enough to prevent any further questions.

Everyone left is back in the executive conference room on Mangrove One, including Kivi and her whole SD6 team. They’re regrouping, and laying all of their cards on the table. Leona no longer has anyone that she truly trusts, now that Ramses has betrayed her, so she needs friends and allies. She’ll do what she must to make and keep them, no matter the cost. She would cut a deal with Erlendr Preston if she thought it was the only way to get Mateo and Alyssa back. She’s desperate enough to try any strategy.

The meeting started with introductions, and now they’re over, so the real business can begin. “It’s nice to meet you, Nakia,” Aldona says. “Welcome to the fold.” She takes a preparatory breath. “Thank you all for being here. I would like to update you on our progress to defend this planet, and the next one over from a future and inevitable war. We’ll get the newcomers up to speed, but first, it’s important that you understand what has happened to the program in the last few days. I have initiated a...declaration of independence. We are no longer working under the world’s governments. We maintain a healthy relationship with Indonesia, but we are not officially affiliated with the Global Council. Don’t worry, we’re not at war. This was always part of the plan. We are the defensive military branch for two worlds, and not even the GC is expansive enough to contain us, so it had to be done.

“The Council as a whole does not recognize us as an independent state, but the majority of its member nations do. They have taken up that position because they understand that we are the only ones who can save them. Even those who don’t believe that are under the impression that we can hurt them. We would never do that, but we’re not going to go out of our way to alleviate their concerns. From my perspective, being afraid of us will translate extremely well to being afraid of the Reality Wars, and a healthy fear of that is a good thing. Again, for those of you just joining us, there’s a war in the future, I can’t stop it from happening, but I can protect the worlds who suffered the most losses. We’ll go over more in the next few days. Winona and Alserda have graciously donated this team to Radifor. That is the name of this nation. Please note that you have not defected from the United States, and may return to your posts whenever you would like, including...” She checks her watch before adding, “right now.”

No one leaves, which only sounds improbable when not accounting for how much loyalty Winona instills in her people. She doesn’t recruit the best fighters and investigators. She fosters true believers. They’re less with the government, and more with her. This is something that Leona has had to pick up on over the time she’s been involved with the organization. Her superiors didn’t realize that she was doing this, because she’s never been overt about it, and her off-the-books operations are so rare. No one has shown any signs of treasonous tendencies, because that’s the whole point. She takes true patriots, and cares for them so they start to consider her the embodiment of the U.S. She doesn’t want radicals; they’re too volatile. It’s easy for Kivi’s team to switch allegiances, because they don’t look at it that way.

“Great,” Aldona decides. “That’s it for the sweeping proclamations. I still see some confused faces. I believe some private conversations need to happen now, so before we start the full debrief, anyone who already knows this stuff can leave.”

Leona looks over at Ramses, who is keeping his head hung low. With a sigh, she stands up, and pulls him to his feet by his arm. “Come on. We need to talk.”

He doesn’t respond, but he doesn’t resist either. He’s a doll now, incapable of making his own decisions, and doing whatever anyone asks of him.

She drags him several doors down so no one can hear them. “All right, let’s talk.”

“About what?”

“You know what about. You feel guilty about what happened to my husband.”

“Yes.”

“Why? What exactly did happen? Your message didn’t give any details.”

He stays silent.

“Ramses,” she says, firmly but not angrily. “Speak up now.”

He waits to answer a little, but does finally go into it. “Mateo and I decided unilaterally that we were going to destroy Constance!Five. We thought it was too dangerous to just leave her there. It’s a remote island for now, but that could change in the future for all we know. We got there just in time to find out that she figured out how to escape. I guess a plane flew close enough that she was able to send out a signal, or maybe an EMP. The plane went down, and then she reprogrammed some of the parts to assemble themselves into a quantum skeleton key. It plugged itself into the stasis pod keypad, and eventually cracked the code. Mateo lured it into the Bridgette. He then teleported it to a magma chamber in a volcano, and set off the self-destruct.”

“I didn’t know it had a self-destruct.”

“It’s not technically a bomb. What it did was overload the teleporter by firing temporal energy into the distributor coil while it was closed, so it couldn’t actually distribute the energy throughout the vehicle.”

“I see. And where were you during all of this?”

“At first I was almost dying at the hands of Constance!Five. Then I was being helped into the crawlspace by Mateo, who had me teleport to safety while he blew it up.”

“Why did he set it off instead of you?”

“Constance!Five was upon us. He was closer to the teleporter. He demanded that I leave, and I...I shouldn’t have listened to him.”

“Ramses Abdulrashid, I’m not happy that my husband is dead, but I’m glad that you’re not. What he did in that magma chamber was solve a math problem. As you know, that is not his strong suit, so I am proud of him. It was either the both of you, or just him. You shouldn’t have gone into hiding. I still need you. We all do.”

“I’m sorry,” he replies sincerely.

“I appreciate that. Now is the time to work. I brought your satellite online in the hopes of finding Alyssa, but it was attacked, so I darklurked it. You need to figure out how to reactivate it without anyone else being able to detect that it’s up there.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 17, 2399

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Of all the least stable regions in the world, one particular small so-called nation located in Central Africa may be the worst. On the borders of Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad lies a terrorist-controlled area that was once split between those four original nations. The historical events that led to this secession are too complicated to spell out in a few paragraphs, but the bottom line is that the terrorists operating there were building out their offensive strategies, and worsening a war that they would ultimately lose, but not before thousands—if not millions—died in the ensuing conflict. The only way the four countries saw to end the bloodshed was to simply let them take formal control over the land and lakes. Their only significant condition was that the terrorists allow anyone living within the new borders to migrate out if they wished.

People fled in all directions, and were accepted as refugees or preexisting citizens in the four countries. They were also accepted in a few farther countries, like Libya, and even Egypt. Hostilities from Fadi have not ceased since the borders were redrawn, but the violence has subsided, and fewer civilians are caught in the crossfire than before. One issue is that only these four countries acknowledge Fadi as an independent state, stifling its voice and influence on the international stage. They also experience extreme sanctions, which limits the resources that they can import. For this reason, they will take payment from anyone for literally any reason. As long as the price is right, they’re willing to agree to any deal. They’ll commit acts of violence against their own people if the result is the persistence of the state as a whole. One resource they have to export are fossil fuels, which some aircraft can use to fly. They don’t require filing flight plans, so many criminals use it as a layover. Fadi will usually ask them to transport goods back and forth for them as part of the deal.

It was hard for SD6 to find the plane that left Dublin Island after it made a stop in the completely inaccessible Fadi, but they think they’ve done it. A plane matching its characteristics was tracked leaving the area, and landing in North Sudan, right on the border with Egypt. Once there, Kivi began to feel a draw even farther northward, suggesting that they are finally on a hot trail to Leona. They still don’t know who took her, why, or what condition she’s in, but she has to be alive, or Kivi wouldn’t be feeling anything. As they drew nearer to Cairo, Kivi realized where they must be headed, and it makes a lot of sense. She and the team were in Egypt once after the whole Birket issue, but were unable to stay and investigate one of the most important locations in the world when it comes to temporal anomalies. From what she recalls, they were going to go back at some point to check out the pyramid, but there were political issues with that, so they placed it on the backburner. Then when they became teleportation-capable, they had sort of forgotten about it. There were other things to worry about by that point.

“There’s someone here,” she says, holding up the portable temporal error detector.”

“Here where?” Alserda asks. She looks around at the crowd enjoying their tours.

“Inside,” Kivi says, nodding towards the pyramid.

“You can’t go inside,” their tactician, Hartwin points out.

“No,” Kivi says. “You’re not allowed to go inside. That doesn’t mean you can’t. Team Matic doesn’t do well with rules.”

“Can you...” They’re in mixed company, so he just mouths the word teleport.

“No.”

“Then when we use the word you, we’re not just talking in generalizations, are we? SD6 has no official jurisdiction on these lands.”

“Perhaps I can help?” Most tack teams have seven members, but this one often travels with a rotating list of eight member consultants. Their guide while in country is a man by the name of Nakia Mounir.

“Do you have that kind of pull?” Alserda asks him.

“Unofficially, no,” Nakia begins, “but my sister’s husband’s brother runs a tourism company for the Nile. I’m sure he has ties to the Great Pyramid.”

“That’s a lot of degrees of separation,” Alserda says.

“Let me try. It can’t hurt to make some calls. Worst that happens, they say no.”

“Go ahead and make your calls.” Alserda turns to admire the craftsmanship. “I’ve always wanted to see inside anyway,” she says, mostly to herself, but loud enough for others to hear.

A few hours later, they have permission to enter the pyramid, but not the entire group. Only two people will be allowed in, and one of them has to be of Egyptian citizenship, so obviously that’s Nakia. “Can you do this?” Alserda asks.

“Me?” Kivi questions. “You or Klein should go in. I don’t have any diplomatic training. Besides, you said you wanted to.”

“You know her best,” the leader reasons. “She needs to see a face that she trusts, not just one she recognizes.”

Kivi holds up the error detector. “Alserda, this thing detects...” She trails off, looking over at Nakia, who has not been read into everything. “Ugh. Time travelers. That’s all it can see. It doesn’t show me how many other people are in there. It doesn’t even tell me that it’s Leona. It could be anybody.”

“They’re only letting in one of us,” Alserda states the obvious. “You’ve had enough training. Stay on radio, and if it goes bad, we’ll breach. I would rather deal with the socio-political fallout of an unsanctioned tactical action than go in there without you. It’s your job to be the Spotter, so enter the pyramid and spot.”

Kivi sighs. “Well, if it’s an order...”

“It definitely is. This is not a voluntary mission.”

Kivi and Nakia make their preparations, then step through the entrance a half hour later. The guard lets them in without seeing any credentials, confident that no one who hasn’t been authorized would so much as attempt it. They’re not wearing full tactical gear, but they’re not dressed in their civies anymore either.

“I wanted to ask you a question,” Nakia whispers as they’re walking through the darkened maze.

“What I said about time travelers?”

“Are we hunting them?”

“No, this is a rescue mission. We didn’t lie about that, we just didn’t tell you everything.”

“Good.”

“Why is that good? You don’t even know who we’re here for.”

“I would always rather be on a rescue mission than a hunt,” Nakia explains.

“Fair enough.” Kivi checks her detector again. They can’t just go straight for the ping. They have to find their way there, and the corridors will probably lead them in the wrong direction many times. They were not provided with the floor plans.

“Please tell me that time travel does not explain how the pyramids were built.”

She waits a beat to answer. “The way I understand it, time travel doesn’t explain how they were built, but it does have something to do with why. It’s a special place, which helps facilitate space travel. I don’t know; they didn’t tell me that much about it.”

“How did you meet them?”

Kivi decides to answer honestly. “I’m one of them. Technically, I’ve never actually done any traveling personally, but my alternates have.”

“So you’re a traveler in other timelines.”

“Other realities, but that’s not why I have alternates. I just do. It’s called spontaneous reemergence. Different versions of me have been, and will be, born in different moments in time. We have different origins and different lives.”

“How did that happen to you?”

She chuckles a little. “That’s how this works. Things just happen. There’s not always a reason to it. Why were you born with dark hair?”

“Genetics.”

“That’s the cause, not the reason.”

“I understand,” he says in a way that suggests he doesn’t. But that’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it? No one truly understands it. It just is. That’s her whole point.

“We’re closer,” she says. “I think she’s right on the other side of this wall. If we just go that way, I’m sure we’ll find a way in.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

Kivi turns around to find Ramses having appeared out of nowhere wearing shorts and a t-shirt. “We’ve been trying to call you.”

“I didn’t wanna be called,” Ramses replies.

“That’s not really your right to decide that.”

“It is.”

“Leona is missing.”

“What?”

“She was taken. We don’t know by who, but she was brought here.”

“I’m the only one here,” Ramses insists.

Kivi isn’t sure that she believes him. She looks down at her detector. The dot that was once on the other side of the wall is now on the other side of them. “Oh my God. We’re been on your trail?”

“I guess. I’m sorry. I thought I successfully shielded myself, but I guess it was only good enough for satellite distances. The portable detector is able to get through.”

“That’s not how I found where you were. It’s just how I pinpointed your exact location. We used detective work to track you from Ireland to Fadi to here, and then my psychic ability to find you in the Cairo area.”

“Uhh...I was never in Ireland, nor Fadi. I teleported straight here after Mateo died. I’ve been here the whole time.”

“So it was Leona,” Kivi figures, “but then our intel went bad, and we followed the wrong third flight.”

“I apologize for pulling you off mission for nothing, but now you know I’m here. I’m never leaving, so if your ability ever takes you this direction again, you’ll know that it’s wrong, so just ignore it, and try again.”

“You’re living...in here?” Nakia asks.

“There’s a modern apartment hidden in here. It took me some time to find the secret entrance, but it’s just as Leona described how it looked in the main sequence.”

Kivi shakes her head. “No, you’re still a part of this. I don’t care if you’re having a midlife crisis, or whatever. I need you to teleport to Leona using your superempathy.”

“I don’t have either of those things,” Ramses counters. “I ran out of juice.”

“Then I’ll get you some more temporal energy,” she argues. “Let’s go!”

“I really want to keep myself out of it now. I’ll just make things worse.”

“I don’t care what you—oh, hold on.” She answers her phone. “Hello?”

“I have Leona on the line for you,” Winona says.

“What? You found her?”

“Kivi?” Leona asks. “Stand down, I’m fine.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 16, 2399

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Leona tried to think about what the code to the computer would be. She realized that it wouldn’t just be something that she would choose, but something that Coronel Zacarias would know that she would choose. But that’s ridiculous, because he doesn’t know her well. That’s not the right way to put it. He barely knows her. He could not have come up with a password for her to use, and even if he could, he would know it too, which would not alter the chances of the Fifth Divisioners from getting their hands on it. This must not have anything to do with him. So she decided to just sit down and see for herself. She tried to access the computer, and was met with a question. What was the name of your first pet? A security question, like what a bank might use to verify a customer’s identity? How would anyone involved know the answer? She answered it with an N/A, because she’s never had a pet before, but the window trembled, and switched to a different question. Where did you go to high school?

“How many are there?” she asked Summit.

He was reluctant to answer. “Hundreds. When you get one wrong, it skips it, and comes back later. We’ve actually gotten a few right just by guessing, but as soon as you answer one wrong, the cycle will start over.”

“And they’re all about me?”

“None of them appear to be specific to you, but when you consider them as a whole, I was able to detect a pattern, and determine that you’re the admin.”

“How did these questions get here?”

Summit lifted his chin and rolled his eyes around. “This place is incredibly mysterious. Maybe it can read your mind.”

She looked back at the screen. “That’s not unsettling.” She cleared her throat, cracked some joints, and got to work.

It’s been hours. A lot of these questions are really tough. For one, she has to be perfect with her syntax, and even capitalization. She has to word it the exact right way, even if a normal person would accept a variation as close enough. Secondly, some answers are completely wrong because the answer is only located in her subconscious. She took a few naps to spark her memory of a few of them. For instance, she technically never had a pet, but when she was little, she found a rabbit with a broken leg in her front yard. She tried to nurse it back to health without telling her parents. This was before her mother died, in an old timeline. Secret. Goddammit, no. Secret Delaney. That’s it.

Even with her naps, she’s tired as hell. It’s stressful, trying to run through the whole thing with no mistakes. She’s almost there. If she can only remember her first license plate number, it will be over. It actually says that on the screen; that it’s the final unanswered security question. She’s already messed this one up twice, but she has to be able to remember it. Summit was right, they have to be coming from her own mind, which means that it’s in there somewhere. She just has to access it.

Summit is nodding in the periphery. “You got this.” He slaps her in the back encouragingly.

Leona breathes in through her nose, and out through her mouth. She closes her eyes, and types, trying to let her subconscious take the reins. She opens them to make sure she didn’t accidentally press the equal sign, or something, then submits. “We’re in!”

“Great job!”

A hologram is projected on the view window that shows the Nexus machine in the other room. It’s streaming the security feeds from the exterior cameras. “I’m glad we shut the doors. They’re trying to get in. They’ve probably been trying the whole time. They’ve resorted to explosives.”

“Should we be worried?” Summit asks.

“My understanding is that the walls and doors are virtually indestructible. I’m not worried, but they should be. I don’t think this material is designed to absorb the blast. I think it reflects it.” She swipes the feed away, and returns the glass to normal window mode. “Who cares. The computer is unlocked now, so we can go wherever we want.”

“Maybe later, but I need you to bring my mother here.”

“Right, we haven’t talked about that. Who is your mother?”

“Unlock the address, and you’ll see for yourself,” Summit says.

“It’s the Crucia Heavy, isn’t it?”

He just bobs his head, and gazes through the window.

“Yeah, it’s the Crucia Heavy.” It must be, or he wouldn’t be acting so cagey about it. “How does this even work? There’s no Nexus on Flindekeldan”

“Is there not? Hm. Then you may as well unlock it, because it doesn’t matter, does it?” He doesn’t look at her.

She narrows her eyes at him. “I’m trusting you.”

“Good. I trust you too, Madam Matic.” Still no eye contact.

She sighs, and checks the slip of paper for the term sequence. “Computer, unlock this terminal for passage, please.” She holds the paper out so any of the many hidden cameras can see.”

“Designated terminal now open,” the computer responds. No sooner does it finish its sentence does the Nexus begin to power up.

“Unscheduled offworld activation!” Leona shouts as a nod to a TV show that no one on this planet has ever heard of. She laughs and steps out of the control room, to the top of the stairs

Technicolor lights fill the portal, then fade away. A young woman is standing in the pit, but it’s not who she thought it would be. When Leona and the team—which back then included Olimpia and Jeremy, but not Ramses—first arrived on Flindekeldan, they were greeted by the Crucia Heavy, Zora Loncar. It wasn’t long before Leona found herself training with The Highest Order to be a warrior capable of protecting herself, and dedicated to defending others. It’s a highly rigorous training program, but it is not a formal school. Students graduate when they’re ready, at whatever level of skill and expertise that they feel comfortable moving on with. Most of the time, Leona was training with Ellie Underhill. One person came and went, choosing to only learn enough to fend off any attackers in darkened parking garages. Besides them, the only other student she ever knowingly met was a woman by the name of, “Iris Blume.”

Iris smirks back at her. She lifts her brace, which is just what the Highest Order calls a bo staff. Before Leona can react, she brings it down, and smacks her in the face. Leona falls to the floor, but catches herself. She does one push up, which gets her back to her feet. Iris is in the middle of trying to strike again, but this time, Leona is ready. She fights back, and they go at it for the next few minutes. Iris is not holding back, and Leona can’t tell if this is some kind of progress report, or if she’s truly trying to hurt her. The fight ends when a powerful concussive force sends them both flying to the opposite side of the room. The two of them land on the accessibility ramp, while Summit lands under them on the floor.

Leona leans up against the wall, and looks over to the door. So maybe it doesn’t reflect all of the blast, but can send part of it through itself. Even so, the door has held, so that’s something. “Computer, show me the outside.”

A hologram appears over the pit, showing the Fifth Divisioners coming back from their hiding spots to examine the damage, of which there is none.

“How many?” Iris asks.

“Two hundred and sixteen,” Summit says as he’s pulling himself up to the ramp.

“How many innocent?”

“Twenty-four.”

Leona looks over at him. “There were more than that when I left.”

He hangs his head. “I know. I tried to keep the death to a minimum, but they really wanted access to this computer, and the Coronel wasn’t cooperating.”

Leona hops off the ramp, and picks up Iris’ brace. “Computer, open the door in thirty seconds. Once we’re through, close it up again, and don’t open it for anyone but me, Coronel Zacarias, or any of his trusted people, as long as they’re not requesting entrance under duress. Does that make sense?”

“Understood,” the AI replies.

“That’s not Constance, is it?” Iris asks.

No one replies, so the computer answers for itself. “I am not Constance. My name is Opsocor.”

“What’s the game plan?” Iris asks.

“We’re going to go out there and take this facility back. Do you have a problem with that.” Leona asks.

“Nope.” Iris hops off the ramp. “I just wanted to make sure that we were on the same page.” Stakes her brace back. “You’ve fought well, but this is mine.”

“Computer, give me a weapon, please.”

The Nexus powers up. Her own brace appears on the floor.

“You can just...do that?”

“We have a good working relationship,” Leona explains.

The door opens up.

“Let’s go!”

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 14, 2399

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It was clear to Leona that Connell was never in the military, nor law enforcement. He was a wretched shot. He was just holding up his gun, and waving it around aimlessly, hoping to eventually hit something. She took it from him, and shot all of the henchmen in the legs. “I’m letting you live,” she announces, “not so you can come after me later, but so you can lick your wounds, and move on with your lives. Your boss is dead. He betrayed me, and karma paid him for it. Leave me alone, or the next time I’m holding a gun, I’ll aim higher. If I later decide that Labhrás is entitled to vengeance, I’ll take care of it myself, and send you the bill.” Satisfied that the firefight was over, Leona went with Connell to Dublin Airport. So they were in Ireland, or at least what’s left of it since most of the North Atlantic Isles were transported to the Fourth Quadrant.

The flight was the longest she’s ever experienced. After a long layover who knows where, it’s turned out that they’ve flown all the way down to Antarctica. Specifically, they’re landing at the Mozambican Naval Fleet Base. This still doesn’t explain who this Connell is, or who his boss might be, but it’s a lead. Technically, it’s not impossible that Coronel Zacarias is the one who is responsible for the bounty, but it’s pretty far-fetched. They left on great terms, and she gave him her contact info, so he would not have needed to set up this crazy elaborate plan to get someone else to kill her. Her guess is that she was right when she thought it was possible that someone had invaded and taken over the Nexus research facility. She’s proven right when they walk inside, and see the people milling about. These are definitely not Mozambican sailors. They’re dressed funny, but not unfamiliarly. She’s seen this kind of clothing before. Where was it?

“Oh, Christ, you’re from the Fifth Division.”

“Precisely, my dear!”

“How the hell did you get here?”

“That is not my right to tell,” Connell replies. “The boss will want to speak with you. It could be today, it could be tomorrow. It could be years from now. You’ll just have to hang out in hock and wait until he’s good and goddamn ready.”

They’ve just entered the hock section when a man jogs up. “Sir. It’s for you?” He hands Connell a comms device.

“Yes?” he asks the person on the other end. “I understand. No, right away, sir.” He hands the device back, and tries to say something to Leona, but she’s distracted.

“I’m okay,” Coronel Zacarias tells her from his cell. “I’m gonna need you to put on a brave face for me, okay?”

“Why didn’t you call?” Leona asks him.

“We’re leaving,” Connell insists, trying to pull her away.

“Get your hands off me,” Leona demands. “I won’t ask a second time.”

“I’m taking you to the boss.”

Leona twists his arm, and flips him onto his back. She steals his gun, and shoots the nearest other Fifth Divisioners. She hits him in the legs again, but she’s prepared to aim higher, like she promised the Irish gangsters.

“Stop!” Connell orders his men before they get the chance to shoot her back. “Stop! She must live!”

Leona lowers the gun to train it on Connell’s forehead. “I left you my number.”

“There was nothing that you could do,” Coronel Zacarias explains. “You would not have been able to come in time.”

“I could teleport.”’

“You can?”

“Well...not anymore, but when this happened, it’s possible. You should have reached out,” Leona reasons.

Zacarias shakes his head. “It would have only placed you in danger along with us. They didn’t know we knew each other. I never told them. They only know now because we’re talking.”

“I’m here now. I’ll get you out.”

“Don’t worry about us.”

She is worried about him. She feels like this is her fault, and it probably is. It usually is. Can she break him out? She could take out all these guys like John Wick before even one of them gets a shot off. The Crucia Heavy doesn’t like firearms, and taught her and Ellie to dislike them too, but she trained them on targeting anyway. It doesn’t matter how good of a fighter you are, you’re not faster than a bullet, and sometimes the only way to stop them from flying towards you is to send your own. Still, even if she got these people out of the cells, what would they do then? Would they escape? That would be a tall order. She has no way off the continent. She doesn’t have any control over the base’s systems, and Zacarias almost certainly doesn’t either. It is as they say, the only way out is through. She’s going to have to be diplomatic. Ugh. She’s no good at that anymore, especially not since her training on Flindekeldan. She carelessly drops the gun on Connell’s chest. “No! Touching!”

Connell is winded. “Yeah. Never again.” He struggles to get himself back to his feet, but slaps the guy who tries to help him away. “Never again,” he repeats. He brushes the dust off his pants, and takes a deep transitional breath. “Now, if you’ll follow me...” He holds his arms out to indicate the direction they’ll be going.

She lunges towards him by only a few centimeters to test his reaction. He flinches, so that’s good to know.

Connell leads her down the corridors, and up the elevator to the top level. It’s above ground and on the far end, allowing them to see the cliff and sea before them on one side, and the snow covered land on the other. “This is as far as I go.”

Leona looks at the ominous door. “Sleep with one eye open,” she warns.

He’s unable to hide a shiver. He starts to walk back the way they came.

Leona readies herself, then opens the door without knocking. Time freezes in her head as she considers who may be on the other side of it. If she didn’t know that this had something to do with her time in the Fifth Division, she may have guessed past and future greatest hits, like Erlendr or Zeferino Preston. Or maybe it’s someone who was actually a friend before, like Serkan Demir or Pribadium Delgado. Those being so random, and having nothing to do with any of these other people here, she dismisses them. She has narrowed it down to Mithridates Preston, Xerian Oyana, or that security guard that they left at the entrance to the time machine that ultimately led them here. They all have beef with Team Matic, or could have conceivably developed one in the meantime. They parted on all right terms, but who knows what has happened since then? The suspect is standing behind a desk, his back to her. She approaches him as he turns around to face her. She winces when she sees his face. “Who the hell are you?”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 13, 2399

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Labhrás moved Leona and Tarboda to a much nicer room, with cots to sleep on, clean running water, and control over the lights. They also allowed them to have a shower, and eat some real food, instead of this reality’s version of hard tack. The door was still locked, but he promised to let Tarboda go at the right time so as to avoid any run-ins with the authorities. The exchange was on, so they all had to get a good night’s rest. It was hard to tell when it was bedtime since Leona had yet to see a window, so they just turned in when they felt tired.

It’s the morning, and Tarboda is gone. Leona is at the exchange with her future grandfather, the two smelly brothers, and a few other goons. Or maybe they’re henchmen. There’s a difference, apparently, and they would probably be offended by being called the wrong one. Labhrás altered the conditions a little bit. Leona is in chains, and she is wearing a hood, but the shackles were bought at a magic shop, so they only appear to be locked, and the hood is see-through. They still want to make it look real while Leona finds out who’s really after her, and why. They’re standing on the docks, which is a truly unique locale for a ransom exchange. Really, no one has ever thought of that before. Why don’t criminals meet at the docks more often?

Leona still doesn’t know where she is. It’s cool, which implies they’re still in the northern hemisphere, and she can taste the salt in the air, so the body of water to her left is an ocean, rather than a lake. That tells her that she’s not in a landlocked region, which rules out places like Kansas. She never thought they were in Kansas, but it would have been nice. As far as she’s aware, her grandparents emigrated out of Ireland, and went straight to Topeka, so it wouldn’t have been the craziest of developments. Then again, they’re in a completely different reality now. Labhrás has probably never even heard of Topeka, and maybe not even Kansas City. None of that has happened yet, and all this timey-wimey stuff is weird and complicated, so maybe it never will. Maybe everything they’re doing now will negate her existence, kind of like what Mateo did to himself when he killed Adolf Hitler, but worse because it would happen in every timeline for her, and she wouldn’t even have the satisfaction of killing Hitler.

“Are ya still with us?” Labhrás asks.

Even with this hood on, he could tell that Leona was stuck in her head. “I’m fine. What time is it?”

“Half past they’re feckin’ late,” he answers. “Pardon my English, Madam.” Hm. What is England to him?

“Doesn’t bother me. That’s not even a real word,” she jokes.

The smellier brother waits for a solid minute before responding with, “yes, it is.”

We don’t wait much longer before a well-dressed man carrying a cane shows up. He’s kempt and confident, and does not seem embarrassed by his tardiness. Leona doesn’t recognize him. Now that doesn’t mean he’s not the one who put a price on her head, but she’s still getting the impression that the true force behind this mess is still living incognito. This guy’s just a lackey. “My name is Connell Arrington,” he announces. British accent; British name. Where are these people from? Happy cliché day, anyway.

“You don’t look like you’re carrying very much money on you?” Labhrás notes.

“Everything is electronic these days, my dear.”

“That’s not what we agreed on. We want untraceable bills.”

“Impossible. You’ll take what you can get, or you’ll get nothing.”

Labhrás just fumes.

Connell goes on, “you identified yourselves as the Bounty Hunters of the Old World. As a result, we are unaware of your specific designation. What is your name?”

“Labhrás Delaney.”

Connell’s eye twitches. He looks over at Leona. “You would give up your own kin for a bit of cash?”

Labhrás looks over at Leona as well. “We are not related.”

Connell twitches again. “You expect me to believe it to be a coincidence that you are both named Delaney?”

“Her name is Leona Matic,” Labhrás tries to clarify.

“Pull the hood off, please,” Connell requests.

Smelly Goon One does so without waiting for Labhrás’ go-ahead.

“Did you not tell him your unmarried name?” Connell asks Leona.

“Do we know each other?” Leona asks, undeftly changing the subject.

“You and I have never met,” Connell begins. “Neither have you and the man I work for. Yet you have wronged us both, and we are here to collect on your sins.”

Leona narrows her eyes at him. “Which sins?”

“All of them,” Connell replies.

“Who are you to make me answer for all of them?”

“We are...in a great position to do so. That is what gives us the right.”

“How are we related?” Labhrás questions, frustrated at the tangent.

She’s been avoiding eye contact, but that’s no longer viable. “It’s complicated.”

“Is it?” Connell asks. Then he has a realization. “Ah, I see. Who is he, then; your son? Great great great great great grandson?”

Labhrás is super confused now.

“You’re my grandfather,” Leona corrects while continuing to look at Labhrás.

“How is that possible? You may be older than me!”

“Time travel, old chap!” Connell says jovially. “She’s from the future.”

“I’m not from the future,” Leona contends. “You are. I don’t know why you go back in time, or how you do it, but it has to happen, or I never exist.”

“Is that all it would take?” Connell asks. “I believe we’ve found our solution.” He twists the handgrip of his cane, and pulls out a gun, instead of the usual sword. He shoots Labhrás in the chest, and then ducks away to avoid gunfire from the henchmen.

Leona catches Labhrás as he’s falling to his back, already coughing up blood. She removes her shackles, and tries to apply pressure to the wound, but he’s not going to make it. “I’m sorry. I would have told you if I thought that this might happen.”

“I’m sorry,” he struggles to say. “Ta...Ta...”

“Thanks? Are you trying to say thanks?”

He shakes his head. “Tarboda. Tarboda is dead.”

Leona’s face falls. Tarboda was not a great friend, but he could have been one day, and he did nothing to deserve that. “You’re no grandfather of mine.” Connell is still in a firefight with the rest of Labhrás’ people. She stands up, and ignores the flying bullets. She walks across no man’s land, and approaches him.

“I thought you would disappear before our very eyes,” he says to her.

“That’s not how it works, you bleedin’ eejit. Now take me to your boss.”