Voyage to Saga: Character Assassin (Part VIII)

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The Shepherd was sitting in a chaise in the corner of the suite when Vearden woke up a few days after his last challenge. “What are you reading?” he asked.

“This little story called Seeing is Becoming.”

“Is it any good?”

“Not as good as the sequel...which isn’t as good as the third one.”

He nodded politely, but she surely knew that he was just making small talk so that he could get into something more serious. “What was that?”

“That was a dark reality. You saw the beginnings of the end of the world on that plane earlier, but you didn’t really see an apocalypse scenario. You didn’t see what people become when they lose everything they have, including their sense of truth.”

“Is God real?”

She squinted and tilted her head. “God and reality are tricky things. You’ve seen first hand that other realities exist. Other universes, that is. Each of these potentially follows a different set of physical laws...but they can’t be too different, can they? I mean, laws are laws not just because that’s how it happens to be, but also because they follow a certain level of logic. Gravity pulls things together. No universe exists without it. Well,” she amended, “not habitable ones. What I mean is that it wouldn’t make sense if gravity pushed things apart, because then nothing would be there at all. So that’s a constant. It may be stronger or weaker from one universe to another, but it’s always there. What other constants may there be? Well, when molecules speed up, heat is released, and when they slow down, that’s what we perceive as cold. There’s no way there’s a universe where the opposite is true. Check off another constant. What about life? Well, you’ve met aliens. Hell, you were dealing with humans in the universe where you donated blood, but they too were aliens, because they weren’t from Earth. Is life any more different across universes than it is within them? Not really. Those constants I was telling you about can have different properties, and that can alter evolution, but in the end, life is life.

“So when you ask me whether God is real, you might as well ask if ghosts are...or if there’s a universe out there where little boys and girls ride a train to a school that teaches them how to do magic. Or if there’s a galaxy far, far away where people—mostly men—have space magic, and fight each other for no fucking reason. Yes, these things are real. Of course they’re real. But some things are less real than others, because they’re formed uniquely by a different variable. Some of these variables are strong, while others not so much. Some God variables make magic, but others make time travel.”

“God variable?” Vearden was more confused than ever.

“Yes,” the Shepherd confirmed. “That’s the best equivalent I have for your linguistic comprehension. God as the rule-maker.”

“Are you a God?”

She smiled. “No.” She closed her book and set it on the ottoman. “But I am a variable.”

“So, what now?”

“You just saw first hand how strange other universes can be, and I’m glad we had this conversation, because it actually fits quite nicely with where you’re going now. The world you are about to enter is not unlike the one you lived in before you found out that you were a salmon. There is one person in it, though, who is...different.”

“How so?”

“He perceives fictional realities as real. He superimposes his corrupted perceptions onto his environment.”

“But you’ve said that fictional realities are real.”

“They are...and they aren’t. He’s managed to pierce that veil, so to speak, and it’s driving him insane. He’s hurting people because of it.”

“And you want me to stop him?”

“I want you to do whatever you can do when you get there.” She climbed onto his bed and gently pressed his shoulders back down. “For now, I just want you to count down from ten.”

“What?”

“Just do it.”

“Okay. Ten.” He was starting to feel sleepy. “Nine.” He could barely keep his eyelids open. “Eight. Saga, Saga...”

Vearden felt like he was dreaming, but he knew that this was all as real as anything he had experienced in the last however much time had passed. At first he couldn’t move. He was just sitting and staring forward, drool dripping out of his mouth. He could hear two people talking—no, arguing—somewhere to his left.

“No, you have to let me go so I can help this man.”

“You were supposed to help people, but you were selfish. You only thought of yourself. You can’t make up for it now.”

“Please, he needs medical attention.”

“He’s had it. And you are about to experience the same thing. You deserve worse. I hear the procedure is quite peaceful.”

“I don’t think that’s true, and I don’t deserve it. I did nothing wrong.”

“You hurt people. I’ve seen it.”

“That was a TV show! That’s not really me!”

“You think I don’t know that! I know that! But...but, you—this has to be done. I’m sorry it has to be you, but you’re the closest thing I have to the real thing. Ian is real...and I have to get rid of him for you, so you’re just Jason. You can be a doctor again.”

“I’m not a doctor, I’m an actor!”

“Yes, but you are quantum entangled with your character. Look, I know you can’t see it, but I can, and you have to trust me. You’re the only one I can actually help. The others were evil, but you’re both evil and good. I can make you whole again.”

“You’re gonna tear out my brain, how is that gonna make me—” They stopped talking.

Only then did Vearden realize that he was standing up. In fact, he had been slowly trying to regain control of his body the entire time.

“Let me out of here so I can help him, ‘cause I know you’re not gonna do it,” said the one who was clearly the good guy in this situation.

“I’ve already helped him. I told you this. I will not say it again.”

Vearden was able to finally turn his head and assess the scene. Things were a tad bit blurry, but one of them was strapped to a medical table of some kind, while the other was wearing a labcoat. Vearden couldn’t speak.

The fake doctor smiled at Vearden as he approached. “The procedure went better than even I could have hoped. You were an excellent practice run. For an invader, you’ve actually helped our reality immensely. If only you knew.”

“Sir, sir!” the hostage yelled. “If you can run, just go. Get out of here before he hurts you again. Don’t try to help me.”

Vearden tried to speak again, but more drool fell out. The fake doctor pulled a towel from his pocket and wiped Vearden’s face. “There, there. Why don’t you sit back down? You obviously have an innate urge to see what’s going on around you, so I will let you watch me work.” He helped Vearden back down, then turned the wheelchair towards the hostage.

“No! Just run!” the hostage pleaded again.

“Quiet, Ian!” the fake doctor ordered.

“I’ve told you as well. My name is Steven Pasquale. I played a character named Ian Price, but none of that is real. And even if you’re right, and he’s real in some other reality, how does that have anything to do with me?”

“You two...well, three, have been infused with each other.”

“Wh—” Vearden struggled to say. “Wha—who?”

“You can speak,” the fake doctor said with excitement. “A little. Well, if you wanna know, I’ll tell you.” He walked back to the hostage, who was apparently named Steven Pasquale, and gestured towards him. “This man portrayed a character on a television series called Do No Harm. But this wasn’t just any character. It was about a man with a split personality. He was actually two people. One was evil, and the other good. Now people think that none of that is real, but it is. They all exist in a different universe, and for some reason, our universes have collided. Some of the evil people from those other universes have possessed the bodies of their doppelgängers; the actors who played them. I call them the avatars.”

“That’s insane!” Steven argued.

“Of course you would say that,” the fake doctor argued back. He looked towards Vearden once more. “You see, my friend, this is not your universe. You belong somewhere else.” He looked back down to Steven. “And so does he.” He reached behind him and grabbed a long tool that looked like an ice pick from the little surgical table.

Vearden tried to scream no, but nothing came out. Or very little, he couldn’t really tell the difference at this point. The fake doctor had really messed up his head. Was this permanent? Seems cruel, even for the Shepherd.

The fake doctor wasted no more time, and started slowly aiming the long tool at Steven’s left eye. Steven protested and yelled for help as loud as he could, but no one came. The room didn’t look particularly sanitary, so it was probably in an abandoned building on the edge of town. Vearden certainly couldn’t help. He felt like he would have trouble keeping his tongue from the back of his throat if he were lying down.

He watched as the fake doctor reached over, presumably trying to find another tool. Suddenly, he turned the sharp tool around, and jammed it straight into his own eye. Blood spurted out and onto Steven’s face.

“Oh my God!” Steven screamed, but his cry was no match for the fake doctor’s howls of agony.

“I did not think it would hurt that much!” the fake doctor yelled. “Dear God, I think I pushed it too far in. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah! I need to leave! Get me out of here, I’m done! Oh wait, no, that’s right. He pawed at Steven’s wrist restraint with his one free hand, while the other kept pressure on his eye. After some struggle with the restraint, he was able to pull it loose enough so that Steven could free himself even more. “Please get him out of here,” the fake doctor asked Steven, pointing to Vearden.

“Uhh...okay?”

“One more thing,” he approached Vearden a little, but didn’t seem to want to be too close. “Vearden. A word of warning, do not accept anything from The Superintendent, except for Saga, and the car. Remember that. Saga and the car. Those are the only things you want. Anything else is straight out of a say no to drugs ad, you hear m—?” The fake doctor jumped a little, interrupting his own sentence. “What the hell is going  on, what just happened to me?”

Steven still hadn’t gotten himself quite out of the restraints.

“How did you get out of that?” the fake doctor demanded to know.

“Shit,” Steven muttered. He grabbed a hammer from the surgical table and bashed it over the fake doctor’s temple.  “Ah, damn, I didn’t like that.” He went back to undoing his second wrist restraint before moving on to his legs. He then hopped off the table, and took hold of Vearden’s wheelchair. “Let’s get out of here, buddy.”

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Microstory 535: Suspended Animation Essentially Achieved

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For decades now, many science fiction stories have attempted to tell stories about the unreal through a lens of realism. Writer take a hard position on what’s possible, and try to include real scientific data as much as they can. Sure, for every realistic portrayal of advanced technology, there is an example of something ludicrous. I think we all don’t remember the short-lived series Thunderriders, wherein the characters travel to other planets using inexplicably instantaneous interstellar lightning. Bear in mind that this wasn’t released in the seventeenth century, or something. This was only about twenty years ago, when such nonsense would have been easily debunked by any preliminary school student. There is some fiction, however, that is so revolutionary and innovative that they inspire real inventions. Some have been minor, like the fact that television sets themselves used to be perfect squares, until the primary director of the android matriarch series Motherboard, Osildr Herro—no scientist herself—pointed out that human eyes are evolutionarily designed to see the horizon. She’s famously [mis]quoted as saying, “kaida are too dumb to watch TV...why do we design it for their vertical eyes!” Other fiction-inspired inventions include the use of radar for driverless vehicles in the Whirly Anthology, flexible computer screens from Red Balm comics, and the prediction of a particle accelerator in the 1175 epic, Two Hearts by a River.

The most recent of these extraordinary advances comes in the form of something called suspended animation. While certain astrophysicists are working hard on both discovering, and developing, faster-than-light technology, others are solving the problem of isolation without it. Instead of traveling to an exoplanet using a tensor drive (or with interstellar lightning) a team of researchers at Pathelay-Alben University propose remaining within subluminal speeds. Travelers could theoretically reach the stars in a more realistic timeframe, but not have to actually experience the time it takes to do so. It’s called a sleeper ship, and it keeps its passengers in a deep state of hibernation. While in stasis, travelers do not age, or metabolize. They do not exercise, or interact with each other, or do anything other than sleep. Perhaps they dream. This concept has been a staple in harder science fiction for decades, and the truth is that we’ve been able to put humans in stasis for awhile now. The only problem...is getting them back out. “Cryopreservation,” according to lead scientist Haxel Jones, “is just a fancy way of saying death. That’s the easy part. Our kind has been killing since literally the very beginning. What we couldn’t always do was prevent tiny ice crystals from forming in the body’s system, which ultimately ruptures tissue, and leads to irreversible damage. Now we can.”

Though the team is keeping details secret for now, so as to protect their intellectual property, there are a few things that we know. They have created a perfect formula that places the traveler in suspended animation. One vital role it plays is protecting the body from ice using an otherwise completely harmless new chemical antifreeze. But that can’t be all there is. Different parts of the body will freeze at different rates, and simply injecting the formula into the traveler would never work. And so the team has also devised a delivery system ,with very little room for error, that transforms the body at the exact right pace. While travelers are asleep, an artificial intelligence (one that does not yet exist) would carry the vessel on the journey on its own, and revive them at the right time. More information will be published scientific journals starting next month.

Microstory 534: Cause of Strange Weather Events in Bellevue Found

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The day that the computer was officially invented is hard to pin down. It was a long and difficult process, with little solutions happening in succession. Most historians and other authorities on the matter agree, however, that the most vital breakthroughs occurred in the year 1724. And what everyone can agree on is that it changed everything. Not too terribly long after, the personal computer was invented, which allowed the common person to learn at literally the speed of light. After that, we started connecting these machines to each other, further allowing data to be transferred instantaneously. Suddenly, you didn’t have to live near Deko Garden Library to read anything you wanted. Philosophers and economists refer to this as the flatworld phenomenon. Whereas before you were limited by your geography, financial station, and access to education, you could now become anyone. Entire nations were lifted up to the level of prosperity previously relegated to the elite few. This was a slow and treacherous journey; one that we are still on, but for the most part, things have become better.

Unfortunately, the simplicity of data-sharing comes also with danger. Yes, if you aspire to become something greater, you can find the resources you need, even on your own. But this also means if you aspire to become something wrong, it’s difficult for anyone to stop you. For the last few months, the city of Bellevue—the so called heart of civilization—has been experiencing erratic, and sometimes deadly, weather events. Miniature tornadoes have appeared out of nowhere in the middle of a busy city street. Lightning has struck the exact same spot hundreds of times. It has not stopped raining in the Meltousey District for four weeks. The situation grew so out of hand that residents and visitors started evacuating. In fact, the more people who left, the more the weather calmed. There seemed to be a positive correlation between the number of people within Bellevue’s borders, and the intensity of the weather. This meant that the weather wasn’t so unpredictable...it was actually being controlled, by someone. Now all that was needed was to find out who these people were. A brave team of Detectives of Science reentered Bellevue. Apparently sensing their presence, the weather events increased to the highest magnitude than ever before, presumably in an effort to force the SDS back out. Yet they, equipped with specially designed protection, persevered. They were able to trace the source of the weather problems to a location, and quickly made an arrest. What they discovered was that the machine causing all this havoc was being operated by a single individual. Little is known about this person, or her motivations, at the moment. The only information on her that has been released has been a name. She calls herself...Meteora.

Microstory 533: Man Claims to Know Where Flipcoats Come From

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Approximately 117 years ago, something extraordinary happened. Now historical figure, Dooney Parks became the first flipper in the galaxy. He had just gotten out of the shower when he felt a searing pain all over his upper body. At first he thought he was having some kind of delusional episode, but then the shock subsided, and he realized that some kind of torture device had been wrapped around his torso, and embedded in his skin. He couldn't remove it, his doctor couldn’t remove it, and scientists could not explain it. By the time the story became interstellar news, a second individual, Mercy Grace Hillsboro found herself experiencing the exact same thing. She too was unclothed at the time. No one knew what to make of these developments, even after more and more people unwillingly became flippers. After a while, however, these flippers began to notice some changes in their lives. One of them happened to be a gunner during a war with a rival nation on her home planet. She discovered that she could not be hurt. No matter what, her fighter jet was never damaged enough to cause a crash, not even following a direct hit by the enemy. Another won the planetary lottery twice in a row, that is, before a law was hastily passed that disqualified all past winners.

Things were just working out for these people, if only despite the constant pain they felt from their flipcoats. Still, scientists were completely baffled as to how these seemingly magical devices worked, where they came from, and why these particular people were chosen. This ignorance has continued up to today, but if we are to believe one man, the wait is partially over. Alberto Kussen is not a formally educated scientist, nor does he have any connection to a flipper, past or present. He has, however, been studying the flipcoat phenomenon for practically his entire life, and has dedicated that life to understanding it on a metaphysical level. He believes that there is some kind of shadow reality that lies just beyond our perception. This reality contains alternate versions of everyone in our reality, and they are all aware of us. Perhaps they are able to perceive events as they occur for us, and maybe even influence them. Kussen thinks that society in the shadow reality has developed some kind of merit-based reward system. Those who prove their worth to the authoritative body are awarded a flipcoat. For whatever reason, though, they are not capable of wearing flipcoats themselves, and so their doppelgänger in our reality is given it instead.

Of course this theory can’t, or has yet to, be proven. And of course, it still doesn’t explain how they operate, and why scientists are prevented even from examining one without suffering fatal consequences. It doesn’t even explain the logical reasoning behind a society that would reward alternate versions of its denizens. All it does is provide one among many possibilities that have appeared over the years. We may never know the truth regarding flipcoats, or what would happen in a galaxy full of flippers. All we know is that they hurt to wear, and it’s hard to live without one.

Microstory 532: Government Approves Flashbacking Interrogation

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When people with special abilities were first announced to the world, there were mixed reactions. Some were hopeful for a safer future, while others were more skeptical. Some felt that time had been wasted while these people could have been doing extraordinary things for their communities, and some found interest in being part of it. One thing the primary organization responsible for these anomalies, Bellevue seemed to want to make clear was that their goal was not to save lives one at a time, but to do so on a global scale. They were concerned with improving the world through technology and enlightenment. They were actively working on ways to synthesize abilities, or at the very least, understand them, so that they could be replicated. Many such technologies exist today, and others are on the way, but we are already in the midst of experiencing a second—albeit smaller—wave of anomaly abilities. Odalis Salomon has been working with the Kansas City Police Department for a few years now. His job is simple. After a suspect submits to what has been deemed flashbacking interrogation, Salomon reaches into their memories, and determines whether they had any ties to the crime in question. There are regulations and privacy laws regarding this practice so that personal irrelevant personal details are not revealed. This doesn’t always lead to an arrest, but what it does do is allow detectives to rule out suspects with haste, leaving them free to chase down more pertinent leads. While he was working with the police, his ability was being studied by scientists and engineers.

A couple months ago, these researchers perfected a new technology that allows anyone to become a flashback interrogator. After much deliberation, certain policies were decided to protect civilians from potential abuse. Flashback interrogators, like Salomon, are only permitted to initiate approved flashbacks, and to only reveal relevant information, and to only reveal it to a particular chain of command. Details on education are still being worked out, but the researchers and government policymakers want to assure the public that every step in safety is being taken into consideration. Proper training and an intensive screening process will be required for anyone seeking to enter this new profession. Other limitations have been placed on these non-anomaly flashbackers. Artificial flashbacking ability wears off after several hours; about as long as necessary to finish a workday shift. Only flashbackers are capable of utilizing the daily medical doses. Not only are these doses heavily monitored, but anyone who did not undergo the initial modification procedure will experience no change in mental ability, if they were to happen to get their hands on the doses. This compartmentalization leads to a more robust level of security. For further information regarding the Usonian government’s approval of flashback technology, please contact your local legislative branch. For information regarding applying for a position as a flashback interrogator, flashback technician, or related field, we recommend you contact local law enforcement.

Microstory 531: Special Devices Allow Elves to Swim

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While some scientists are working to cure cancer, or send man beyond the solar system, others are working on more practical needs. One thing that makes humans so special when it come to the animal kingdom is that we’re not physically great at anything in particular, but we can display a middling performance in just about everything. Humans are not the fastest, largest, strongest, most agile, or swimmiest. We can’t jump all that high, we don’t always land on our feet, and we definitely can’t fly. Some individuals are more adept at certain skills than others, but in general, we’re all about the same. But what does that mean for human subspecies, like vampirs, dwarves, or the subject of our story today, elves? These other types of humans have their own advantages, but they also have some disadvantages. The most obvious of these is that vampirs have a less efficient oxygen-carrying system in their blood, but one that may be looked over is an elf’s inability to swim. Elves have denser bones, and a disproportionate weight distribution, favoring their upper body. They can’t swim, because just like standard humans, they still need to be able to come up for air, which is something their bodies won’t let them do. There are exceptions, of course. The Ferene Prince, for instance, is known for having succeeded in a sacred and dangerous rite of passage underwater that not even non-elves on their home islands were able to master. Unfortunately, most elves were not able to experience the joy of swimming through the water...until now. An eclectic group of scientists gathered at an old submarine base in Alabama’s Jouri Bay, and remained there for weeks, perfecting a technology the industry had never thought was necessary. Details on the design have not yet been released as patent proceedings are still underway, but these scientists have confirmed that their technology works. Special devices allow a wearer to both move through the water, and surface for breath, when needed. As previously stated, intellectual rights first have to get situated. After that, the device needs to go through rigorous safety standards with the Usonian government, and also with the Confederacy, if they wish to enter the global market. A spokesperson for the group has stated that they expect to put these devices on shelves within the next year.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: July 2, 2117

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Over the course of the last however long it had been, Mateo learned to ignore his timejumps. This allowed him to sleep through the night without freaking out. Sometimes, however, it was beneficial to him to notice it, and his body seemed to just understand that on its own. He returned to the timeline at midnight central on the second day of July in the year 2117. The man he last saw the year before was hovering over him. He must have been trying to put his arms back in the cave wall restraints, which Mateo would have incidentally broken free of due to the jump. He instinctively, stuck out his feet and swept his opponent’s legs. The man fell to his side, but was still in control enough to drag Mateo down with him once Mateo tried to hop over him and run away. They struggled like rival weasels in mating season for a bit before Mateo managed to build distance between them. He got himself up to his feet and was about to run away when he noticed Xearea chained to the wall. The pain in the back of his head suddenly jumped to eleven.

When Mateo woke up yet again, he immediately looked over to find Xearea, but she was no longer there. He called out to her a few times, but she didn’t answer. Did the man kill her? Why? She had done nothing wrong. Then he realized that she was not like him. She didn’t skip an entire year at a time. She presumably just spent the last 365 days with this new opponent. What did he do to her? What did he want? Was there anything that Mateo could do to help?

He watched with relief as Xearea finally appeared from behind vegetation, holding a wooden bowl. “Here,” she said. “I’ll help you drink.”

Mateo hesitated. “Is this...?”

“The water from the magic immortality puddle? No,” Xearea confirmed. “It’s just regular water from a nearby lake. Either way, you have to drink all of the ingredients to change.”

He accepted her help, finishing the entire bowl. It wasn’t until the water touched his lips that he realized quite how dehydrated he was.

“I’ll go get some more.”

“Wait.” He tried to take her by the arm, but his chains gave him very little give. “What did he do to you?”

“Normal hostage stuff. He just kept me chained up like you are for a while, then he felt comfortable giving me some room to move around. Eventually, I had a radius of several meters. A couple months ago, he took them off. He knew I couldn’t leave after he drove both of the cars into the ocean. When there aren’t any cars to drive on the ocean highway, it disappears on its own.”

“The others,” he suggested. “They didn’t come for you?”

“They know nothing about this place, or how to activate it from their end.”

“My God, you’ve been through so much. I was the age you are now before any of this even started for me.”

She nodded. “I accepted who I really was a long time ago. I knew this wouldn’t be easy. My only regret is that I’m not a real Savior. I’m not actually helping people...like my predecessors.”

“That’s not true. You helped Baudin, and Gilbert, and Samsonite. And now you’re helping me. And you will continue helping people until we get through all these expiations, and you get to go back to Earth, at which point you’ll continue to help others. I wouldn’t hope for anyone better for the job.”

“Thank you, that’s very nice of you. It’s not quite enough, though, is it? Especially not since we don’t even know when I’ll be torn out of time, like your friends.”

He became more somber, and chose not to argue, so that she wouldn’t feel invalidated. “I know.”

They were silent for a little as she sat next to him and let him rest his head on her shoulder.

“Who is he?” Mateo finally asked.

“He is very old. He learned of the immortality water from a choosing one who just, like...automatically knew how to do it. It was her only temporal power, and she explained to him the ingredients he would need. Together, they found a chooser who could jump through time and retrieve these ingredients for him.”

“He became the first immortal.”

“That’s right,” she said. “But he’s different than any of the others. When he took the water, he became one of the ingredients. His saliva tops of the new recipe.”

“Well, what makes that recipe different?”

“When someone drinks it, they became immortal for, well...ever. He, on the other hand, must continue collecting and drinking the water if he wants to survive. He can only last about a half lifetime before he needs another dose.”

“So that’s why he’s here, to get what he needs from the star puddle.”

“That’s why he came here, yes, but that’s not why he’s here now. Over the months, I gathered more and more information from him. What I’ve learned is that the person who was taking him across time and space betrayed him, and trapped him here. I guess they didn’t want him making any more immortals. He’s destined to die here, taking the good recipe with him.”

“Can’t someone just jump back in time and get his saliva in the past, before all this?”

“I asked him that, but he didn’t answer. You can’t push him too hard or he’ll pull away into his shell.”

The man walked up from the side. “Time travelers can’t drink the immortality water, except under very specific conditions.” He started talking with his hands. “If you want my water, you have to come to me at the exact right time. The amount of time you’ve lived has to match up with the amount of time that has passed since your birth. For instance, if you’ve been jumping through time, and while doing so, you experienced ultimately twenty-eight years of living, you have to come back to the time period exactly twenty-eight years after you were born.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Mateo argued. “The Cleanser offered me and The Navigator a drink when I was thirty-five, but it had been over a hundred years since my birth date. It had been centuries since The Navigator’s birth.”

The man smiled. “Then he was lying. Or he was giving you the base recipe, which would mean you would have to keep drinking it, just like I do.”

“So what do you want with us?” Mateo asked of him.

“I want you to get me the hell out of here.”

“There was a highway, you could have left when we arrived.”

He shook his head indignantly. “I can’t leave by a highway. It’ll loop me back. They didn’t just..abandon me here. They trapped me here. I can only leave one way. I need a time traveler.”

“Well, sorry to disappoint you,” Mateo began, “but the two of us are salmon. We can’t go anywhere unless the powers that be want us to, and my pattern wouldn’t help you anyway.”

“Which is why I don’t need you.” He violently pointed towards Xearea, “I need her! But she said she wouldn’t help until you came back!” He moved violently in her direction. “Well, he’s back, so get me out of this hellhole!” He stared into Xearea’s frightened eyes, waiting for a response, rather slowly realizing that he already had one. He looked back at Mateo. “The powers that be. Salmon. Did you say that she was a salmon too?”

He didn’t want to answer. The possibility that she could help was the only thing that was keeping her alive.

“Ah, she is, isn’t she!” He got in her face again. He was totally insane. Centuries, possibly millennia, of obsessing over his own immortality had caused him to come completely unhinged. There was no reasoning with a man like this. “You lied to me! You said that you could help, but you can’t! You said we had to wait, so we waited! I gave you food, I let you roam free, and you betrayed me! Just like him! Just like aaalll of them! You’re all a bunch of liars!” He started raging out, tearing at his hair and shaking air molecules around.

“Run,” Mateo tried to whisper, but she was frozen. “Xearea.” He grew louder, “Xearea, run. Run! You have to get out of here!”

“Nooo!” the man screamed. “If you can’t help me then I have no use for you!”

She finally found the strength to leave, but it was too late. The man quickly overcame her and tackled her to the ground. She tried to fight him off, but was just not physically capable. She was clearly malnourished and tired. She cried and screamed and pleaded for her life, but he didn’t care. He reached over to a loose limb and angrily drove it into her stomach.

“No! Mateo cried out. “Somebody help! Arcadia, help her!”

Arcadia teleported in and swiftly kicked the man in the face. “Fuck you!”

“Arcadia, please,” Mateo begged. “Save her.”

“I can only do one thing for her.”

“No, not that. You’re so powerful. I’ve seen you people heal injuries. Just wave your hand over the wound and fix her.”

“I can’t do that. I’m powerful, but I don’t have every power.”

“How could you let this happen?”

“I can only come when you pray, and when you really need me. I have my own limitations. Look, I didn’t tell you this before, but I was never planning on taking her out of time. She’s...different. I can’t do whatever I want with a Savior. I struck a deal so that I could bring her to the island, but I had to keep her in the timeline if the powers were going to let me do that. If I rip her out of time now, someone will have to pick up the slack.”

“Fine, I’ll do it. Just...end her pain, and give her a chance to come back from this!”

“It’s not simple. You can’t be a savior. You’re just...you. But I’ll need all of your friends. You can help on certain days, but not the rest of the time. They’ll all have to agree to it.”

“I’m sure they will. Just please, before she dies.”

Arcadia took a deep breath. “All right. She will live...eventually. But you’ll have to stay here for now.”

“Fine.”

Arcadia knelt down and lifted Xearea in a hug. Xearea was coughing up blood, and close to her last breath. They both disappeared.

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