The Advancement of Mateo Matic: December 7, 2275

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Mateo immediately regretted bringing Leona and Nerakali back into this. They didn’t know they were going to be suddenly transported underwater, so they didn’t hold their breaths. Nerakali was immortal, so she was fine, but Leona wasn’t moving. She was lying on the ground, and she wasn’t moving. “No, no, no, no, no,” Mateo cried. He rushed over to her and started performing CPR. He probably wasn’t doing a very good job, but he had to try something. Erlendr pulled him off of her, literally kicking and screaming.

“I got this,” Arcadia said. She removed Leona’s own Cassidy cuff, and placed it on Leona’s chest. She pressed a few buttons on the screen, but Mateo couldn’t see which ones. As soon as she pressed the last one, a shapeless blob of water appeared in midair, and fell to the ground.

Leona woke up, and coughed, but only a little. When she saw who was hovering over her, she crabwalked backwards until she found Nerakali, who cradled her protectively.

Arcadia stood up, and remained stoic. “We will not hurt you.”

“Mateo, what the hell is going on?” Nerakali demanded to know.

“What’s going on is I’m finally here.” A middle-aged man appeared from the trail above them. He jogged and slid a little down towards them like they were all just hikers passing each other on the mountain. When he finally landed in front of them, he stuck his thumbs underneath his backpack straps, and smiled at the group. “Hi.”

“Uh, we’re doing okay here, sir,” Erlendr said. “We slipped in the water, but we’re all good now. You can move on, and...find yourself in the beauty of nature, or whatever.”

“I’m not a hiker,” the man said. He dropped his pack, and started rifling through it. “Let’s see, we got water, protein bars, duct tape, of course. Here it is; a notepad to keep track of other people like me that I meet.” He flipped through until he found the page he wanted. Then he started pointing at them, and listing them off. “Mateo Matic, Erlendr Preston. You can let go of him now. Arcadia Preston, Nerakali Preston, and Leona Matic. You’re a sandwich! The Matics are the bread, and the Prestons are the meat, cheese, and potato chips.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Nerakali exclaimed.

“You put potato chips on your sandwiches?” Arcadia asked, searching for answers on the ground before her. “Oh my God, where have potato chip sandwiches been all my life?”

“Who are you?” Erlendr asked calmly.

The man stretched his arm out. “I’m Jeremy, but all my friends call me J.B.”

Erlendr rolled his eyes. “Not what’s your name. Who are you?”

“Oh. I’m a time traveler.”

“We kind of guessed that,” Arcadia said. “Chooser or salmon?”

“Salmon,” J.B. answered. “I only live on Tuesdays, and July.”

“Why does that sound familiar?” Mateo asked.

“It’s from The Good Place,” Leona said, finally feeling safe enough to stand up. She stepped forward and studied his face. “Is your last name Bearimy?”

“It is, yes.”

“That’s a stupid name,” Arcadia pointed out.

“It is, yes,” J.B. repeated. “It’s not a coincidence. I was born on Tuesday, October 23, 2018. One of the firefighters at the fire station where I was abandoned happened to be watching the latest episode of that show. They didn’t know what my real name was, so Jeremy Bearimy seemed fitting. I guess the powers that be liked it, so they tailored my pattern to make it—I guess ironic, or something. At the end of the day, I disappeared from the station, and I didn’t come back for a week. Then it just kept happening, and the firefighters knew they had to keep me a secret.”

“You live on Tuesdays and July,” Leona said. “Like the dot on the i.” She nodded understandingly. “I suppose it was bound to happen to someone.”

J.B. smiled wider. He seemed like a delightful fellow, who despite his unusual upbringing, had a really nice life.

“Wait,” Arcadia said, eyes narrowed. “It’s not Tuesday. It’s Sunday.”

“I don’t think so,” J.B. disagreed.

Leona checked her watch. “It’s 2275.” Mateo must have accidentally jumped to the future. “We came back exactly when you said to, Mateo. Now I know why.” She turned to face their enemies. “You cut a deal with these two, and you didn’t want us knowing about it.”

“It’s complicated,” Mateo tried to defend himself.

“All those deaths,” Erlendr began. “All those people I killed, I can bring them back. I can undo all of it. But I had to make them happen first, or it wouldn’t really be a paradox.”

“You’re trying to make a paradox?” Nerakali questioned. “Why?”

“To save your life,” her father answered. “Some universes can maintain multiple concurrent timelines. Despite the fact that our whole thing is time travel, we only get one. If you go back in time and change the past, the reality you came from collapses. The only way time can justify allowing two timelines to exist is by paradox. The new timeline can’t exist unless the old timeline stays in place alongside it. They depend on each other. I call it...The Parallel.”

“Why didn’t you just go back in time and change one thing?” Leona asked him. “Why didn’t you just stop the hundemarke from existing?”

Nerakali closed her eyes and sighed. “Because of all of your friends.”

“I don’t follow,” Mateo said, which was normal for him.

“The hundemarke has been used for more than just death,” Arcadia began to explain. “It has also been used to create life. Leona, Darko, Quivira, Lincoln, and many others owe their lives to it. No salmon does—the powers that be will always make sure any salmon they want to be alive is born in any new reality—but plenty of choosing ones and regular humans are only here because of it. If you removed the hundemarke from history, you could lose all of those people, and with it everyone whose lives were impacted by those people. You would have to undo the deaths, and only the deaths.”

“Why didn’t we hear about any of this before.” She scowled at Nerakali.

“I didn’t have the whole picture. Zeferino tried to tell me once that the hundemarke has sometimes protected life, but I didn’t believe him. That was centuries ago, so I forgot about it.”

“Dad just explained it to me,” Arcadia said. “He would have brought you in too, but...you’re kind of too far gone.”

“I’m not gone,” Nerakali argued. “You are.”

“What do you have to do with any of this?” Mateo asked J.B. “Why did you come find us?”

“My father was friends with a time traveler from the future. He sent me off to find you and Leona, to protect you from harm whenever I can. By the time I was old enough to handle this mission, though, you were impossible to find; off on other planets, and whatnot. Like I said, I’m not always around. My operating windows are very small.” He tilted his head towards the sky in reflection. “Oh, how I love July. You know, I’m fifty-eight years old, but I’ve only had thirty-six birthdays.”

“Tell me about it,” Mateo said with an agreeable scoff.

Leona reached down and retrieved her Cassidy cuff. After she put it back on her wrist, she pressed a few buttons. “We three need to talk,” she said. “Alone.”

Before she could teleport them somewhere, Mateo felt compelled to take hold of newcomer J.B.

“Why did you bring him?” Nerakali asked. They were now standing under the foothills of some other mountain range. The weather was cooler and dryer. “We don’t know if we can trust him.”

“I didn’t want to leave him with your family,” Mateo defended.

“Good point,” Nerakali admitted.

Leona pointed towards the hills. “Go that direction, please.”

“Certainly,” J.B. said, still smiling, and not at all offended. He started walking in one direction, while they walked the opposite way.

Once the stranger was out of earshot, Leona resumed the conversation, “I don’t want to say the b-word.”

“Bearimy?” Mateo hoped.

“Betrayal,” Nerakali corrected.

Mateo sighed. He knew this day would come, but he hoped it would be in the new timeline, once they were finally free of the powers that be. He had already spent several tortured days on this. What was he going to say to Leona once she found out? How could he justify it? Perhaps it wasn’t possible. “I won’t apologize for trying to save you.”

“When did you even talk to them?”

Mateo didn’t say anything.

“I guess your memorial service was a busy day for everybody,” she presumed.

“Ten days,” Mateo said.

“I’m sorry?”

“I was there for ten days,” he expanded. “The powers that be let me stay that long, so they either don’t get what’s going on, or they’re fine with it.”

“You spent more than a week being indoctrinated by my family?” Nerakali asked him.

“I wouldn’t call it that, obviously,” Mateo argued. “It—it’s just...”

“It’s just what, Mateo?” Leona spat. “It’s just what?”

“We keep going up against these villains, and you know what happens—it. Dammit.” He was flustered, and very unable to vocalize his position.”

Leona was surprisingly calm. “It’s okay. Just relax, and take your time. I want to hear what you have to say. I’m sorry I attacked you. Go on when you’re ready.”

Mateo took a breath, and tried to lower his blood pressure. “Everybody we’ve gone against has been bad, ya know, until they weren’t. I guess Ulinthra never turned good, but maybe you and Reaver never gave her enough time; I don’t know. But Zeferino, Boyce, Nerakali! Even Arcadia has helped us sometimes. I’m sick of having enemies. What if we stopped being enemies with people? The heroes in movies are always worried about teaming up with the bad guys, because they think it’ll turn them bad. But what if it’s the opposite? What if we can turn them good? We’ve done it before.”

Leona patiently listened to his logic. “Mateo, Erlendr Preston has killed people.”

“So has she!” Mateo volleyed, indicating Nerakali again. “Probably.”

“Actually, no,” she said. “I’ve hurt people...emotionally, but I’ve never killed.”

Leona stayed calm, and directed her attention to Mateo. “You spoke, and now I am. Erlendr has killed. It doesn’t matter that he intends to create a reality where they never died. Those people will still be dead, because his whole goal is to create a parallel timeline, which means this one will still be here. It was bad enough when Baby Reaver and Baby Ulinthra were murdering people, then sending their consciousnesses back in time, and not murdering them again. That was sick, but it’s even worse that Erlendr can’t even do that. He’ll still be a serial killer, and there’s no way around it. There’s no loophole, no justification. He didn’t kill Hitler, which is sort of...ya know, an exception.”

“You’re just saying that because I killed Hitler.”

“I’m not, it’s a rule. My point is that you aren’t trying to turn those two good. You’re doing what they want you to do. Now, I don’t know if that’s making you a bad person, but it doesn’t make you a saint. It can only do harm.”

“I was just trying to get us out of this.” Mateo shook his head. Everything she was saying made a whole lot more sense than what he was saying, and not just because she was more intelligent, and better with words.

“I thought we stopped doing that,” Leona said. “I thought we long ago accepted where we were...who we were.”

“I guess we did,” Mateo agreed. “I just saw an opportunity.”

“I can appreciate that, but I don’t think it’s worth it.”

He exhaled for the first time in a few millennia. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Leona echoed. “We’re gonna move on from this, and find a way to bring that man to justice. We have help now.”

“Yeah, I was wondering about that,” he said. “I thought you were bringing recruits back with you.”

Nerakali jumped in, “we have a plan. They’ll be here next year.”

“But I won’t.” Jeremy Bearimy had snuck up next to them.

“How did you catch up to us so fast?”

J.B. held up a cube, inside of which was another cube. “This tesseract can fold space for me.” It might have been a wondrous thing, but temporal manipulation was common, so a tesseract would just be one more way of doing it. He nonchalantly plopped it back into his bag, and smiled once more. “Now.” He clapped his hands together. “You better make good use of me. I won’t be back for another three years.”

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Dardius: Leona Matic (Part XI)

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It was time for Leona to finally go to her husband’s memorial service. It wasn’t easy, but they did make it. She and Nerakali first tried going back to 2263, and catching a ride with the Great Pyramid of Giza, which acted as a way to focus and boost travel to other star systems. Unfortunately, that was only one ingredient. They also needed the Cosmic Sextant, which had been lost somewhere in outer space for decades. No one had bothered attempting to retrieve it before, so they had to request help from Darko Matic’s mother, Catania Porter. She was more than willing to find it, and before they knew it, the three of them were on Dardius together. They were the first to arrive for the ceremony. Over the course of the next hour or so, everyone began to trickle in, including the man himself, Mateo Matic. While he was busy on his own missions, Leona and Nerakali started theirs. They decided to recruit people for the big mission with interviews. They weren’t doing this to be exclusive and mean-spirited. They didn’t want anyone getting involved in their problems if they couldn’t protect themselves against the threat. Erlendr Preston was one of the most dangerous people they had ever gone toe to toe with, so they couldn’t accept just anyone. They erased the memories of anyone they rejected, so they wouldn’t know what had happened. Only the few they accepted remembered anything about the recruitment process, or why it was happening.

“I’m in.”

“Ramses,” Leona began, “you’re a brilliant engineer, but you’re no match for Erlendr and Arcadia. How did you even get into this room?”

“I don’t care,” he replied. “Mateo’s one of my favorite people in histories. I want to be there for him.”

“You’ve already done so much for the timeline,” Nerakali pointed out.

“I’m not done. This is happening.” He knocked on the top-right side of his head. It sounded like metal. “You can’t stop me.”

“What is that?” Leona asked. “Do you have a metal plate in your head?”

“You could call it that, yeah. It’s a little gift from my Maramon friends. You can’t erase my memories, so if you don’t let me go with you, I’ll find my own way to your time period, and help anyway.”

“You had major brain surgery?” Nerakali questioned. “How did you know that this was going to happen?”

Ramses chuckled. “You humans think you have a monopoly on time powers. It’s true that they’re incredibly rare in Ansutah, but a Maramon will be born with abilities from time to time. I was friends with a seer.”

“If we don’t let you come back with us, are you going to blab to everyone at the memorial what we’re doing?” Leona asked him.

“Of course not.” Ramses seemed offended.

“Then it’s fine that we can’t erase your memories, because we know you would never do anything to compromise the mission. That doesn’t mean we have to let you come.”

“You should anyway,” he argued. “Like you said, I’m a brilliant engineer. So were you, but your time has passed. You no longer fully understand how modern systems work. You could do with someone like me. What about those fancy cuffs you’re sporting there? You know how they work?”

“No, do you?”

“No, but if their inventor isn’t around, you might need someone to fix them. You’re also gonna need more. If you let me study one, I can replicate them.”

Leona looked over at Nerakali. “You only got four, didn’t you?”

“It might not be a bad idea if we let him take a look at the one Arcadia used briefly,” she said, only half-reluctantly.

“Great!” Ramses exclaimed.

“You stay out of the fight, though,” Leona warned. You’re still just a human. You don’t have powers, and you don’t have protection from the powers that be.”

“Totally agree,” he said sincerely. “I ain’t got no interest in butting heads with this Erlendr guy.”

“Your name is Yadira Cordoso?” Nerakali asked. “And you worked with Camden Voss at the IAC? What is that?”

“You don’t know?” Leona asked her partner. “I thought you knew everything.”

Nerakali shrugged. “I guess it isn’t that important.”

“Most of the agents aren’t choosers,” Yadira explained. “It was mostly just me, and Camden, who’s a salmon. The rest of the agency just carried out regular ol’ human missions.”

“Did you know my husband?” Leona asked.

“Mateo?” Yadira confirmed rhetorically. “No, we’ve never met. I’ve never heard of him. Director Sands asked me to take some time off, and suddenly I’m here, on this other planet, in the future. I honestly don’t understand what’s going on. Someone else just ushered me into this room.”

“Oh. But you’re a fighter?” Nerakali asked.

“Yes,” Yadira said. “I can see up to two seconds into the future. Fighting is really the most useful thing I can do with that. I simply can’t be beat.”

Nerakali shrugged at Leona. “We could do with some muscle. Since Slipstream has to take care of that kid now, she can’t help us.”

“Whoa,” Yadira stopped them from discussing it further. “I haven’t agreed to anything. I don’t know what we’re talking about.”

“There’s a man named Erlendr Preston,” Leona started. “He’s using his time powers to kill people throughout the timeline. We’re trying to find him.”

“And stop him,” Yadira figured.

“Well, he can’t really be stopped,” Nerakali said. “What he’s done, he’s already done. You can go back and change the past, unless you’re doing it the way he is.”

Yadira scoffed. “You expect me to accept that? I’m in the corrective division, working directly with Centurion. My whole job is creating new realities to replace the ones where bad things happened.”

“You see, it’s this thing called the hundemarke,” Leona said, worried no matter what she said, it wouldn’t be enough.

“The hundemarke?” She seemed to have heard of it before. “Agent Cabral has mentioned it. That thing was responsible for...” She was too upset to finish her own sentence. Agent Cabral, a.k.a. Ecrin. That’s right, she went back in time and lived for decades as an agent. “Okay, I’ll help, but only if we come at this thing with the intention of destroying that wretched object. I don’t want to hear any bullshit about fate and paradoxes.”

“We’ll do what we can,” Leona reasoned. “It’s not a paradox if you don’t know what’s going to happen, right?”

Nerakali sat there, like she hadn’t heard what Leona said.

“Kali!” Leona prompted.

“Right.” Nerakali finally said. “Yes. Death to the hundemarke. Welcome to the team.”

“Tonya Keyes. Your name is Tonya?” Leona asked.

“It is, yes. What, did you expect something exotic, like Paarhathi? Or something stupid, like Laurel Soulfate?”

“No, I just didn’t know.”

“You can call me The Stitcher, if you want.”

“Have we worked together yet?” Nerakali asked her.

“From my perspective, yes,” Tonya said. “Yours?”

“Yep.”

“I heard you died. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Nerakali said. “I’m here now.”

“When and where, is or was, your memorial? I’ll be sure to get myself then and there.”

Leona shifted in her seat, and looked at her friend. “That’s true. You didn’t get one of these.”

Nerakali laughed uncomfortably. “You’re right, I should have a gigantic memorial that literally billions of people come to see. After all, I was so loved.”

“Well, no, I know that,” Leona stumbled. “But you should have something. You deserve something.”

“Gee, thanks. Don’t oversell it.”

“I’m serious. We were assholes. We didn’t do anything on The Elizabeth Warren when you sacrificed yourself. We could have at least held a moment of silence.”

“I didn’t sacrifice myself,” Nerakali contended. “At best, I boosted morale by taking myself out of the equation.”

Now Leona shifted more dramatically, and forced her good friend to to do the same, so she could take her by the hands. “That’s exactly why it was impressive, and severely underrated. Anyone can shield their child from a firefight with their own body. It takes a level of audacity possessed by few to let themselves die just to make their frenemy feel a little bit better.”

Tonya was smiling and nodding her head as Nerakali was speechless. “This is nice. This is lovely.”

“They both cleared their throats, and turned back to the table. “Well, we could do with a good reality manipulator, and you’re the best.”

“That’s not true,” Tonya said of her own skill, “but what is true is that I never liked that man.”

“You met my father?” Nerakali asked. Yet one more thing she did not know.

“In another life, yes. Literally!” she joked.

Just then, a breach in spacetime appeared over near the corner. Two hands appeared from it, and pulled space apart, so the man they were attached too could hop through. “Okay, I’m sorry. I messed up. I get it. That’s what happens. I will help you.”

“I’m sorry?”

“No, I’m sorry. I—I just..said that. Jesus.”

Nerakali held her hands up demonstratively, like she was holding a football in front of her chest. “Who are you?”

The man looked around, confused. He noticed Tonya sitting in the chair. “Oh, you’re here. That might mean that...I think I’m early.”

Nerakali kept her hands in position, and shook her head rapidly, trying to elicit a deeper explanation.

“Okay, now I really am sorry. My name is Vidar Wolfe. I’m frrrr...umm. I knew Slipstream and Horace Reaver. We didn’t get off on the right foot, but I’m not a bad person. Okay?”

They didn’t say anything.

“Okay?” he repeated louder.

“Okay, fine,” Leona promised. “We still don’t know what you’re doing here.”

“I’m The Tracker. I can find Erlendr Preston for you like that.” He snapped his fingers at the final word.

“Oh.” Nerakali said, happy. “Well, that’s exactly what we need. Thank you for changing your mind, and coming back in time to fix the timeline.”

“No problem. Except. It is a problem. I didn’t mean to come back this far. I thought I was just going to close my loop.”

Leona nodded. “So, now there are two Vidars in the same timeline.”

“Yes, I have to go assimilate with my past self. He’s not going to be happy.”

Tonya stood up, and took him by the hand like they were old pals. “I can help with that, and make it easier on the both of you.”

“Cool, thanks.”

“Wait,” Leona stopped her. “Tonya, are you in?”

She forgot she hadn’t officially agreed. “Oh yes, of course. We’ll be back. Don’t worry. Continue with the interviews.”

They did continue with the interviews, and in total, they were only able to find five people to help them with their mission. Lots of people wanted to contribute in some way, but it was too dangerous for them. Neither of the two of them wanted to admit it—which was impressive for Nerakali—but everyone they chose was...expendable, except for Ramses. He was important, but he was also right that he and Mateo deserved to be fully reunited. Everyone they lost and got back during the Arcadia Expiations ultimately went back to their own lives. The whole corrupted reality thing during the late 22nd century made asking them to join in really awkward.

Eight was enough, though. A team of eight was good. Ramses never explained how he was able to replicate the Cassidy cuffs so quickly, but he had their inventory doubled by the time they saw him again. This was no longer what they needed to think about, though. It was finally time for Mateo’s actual services. Leona was getting a stomach ache because of it. She found herself being far more emotional than she wanted, as if she was pregnant, or like something else was causing her hormones to be out of balance. She went through the gamut in under a minute. Sadness that her husband was dead. Happiness that they were time travelers, and he was still alive. Anger that his death was inevitable. Fear that they still didn’t know when it was he would actually die. Ugh. She just had to recognize that this was how normal people lived when she was first growing up. No one knew when their loved ones were going to die, but they always knew it was going to happen. This was normal. Still, she needed to level herself out, and to be there for her husband, but she was starting to feel like that was never going to happen. It was their fifth recruit who came through for her, which was weird, because even though she had indeed seen him before, he was a complete stranger. Until now.

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Microstory 1320: Team Dynamics

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Food and Health Department Head: Thank you for coming in one more time. I know it’s been a long process.

Communications Major: It has, but it’s okay. I only a few days ago gave my current employer my two weeks’ notice. Though, to be honest, I’m a little worried. I was told unofficially that I had a position here already. Should I...contact my boss again?

F&H Head: Oh no, definitely not. You have a position here. We just need to find you a good fit. That’s what this final step is for. It’s a suitability interview.

Comms Major: I’m not a hundred percent sure what that means.

F&H Head: We presently have four teams you could be placed with. You might be working in the Agriculture section, or with the Biomedical section, because of your scientific background.

Comms Major: I wouldn’t say I had a scientific background. I took a few science classes in college.

F&H Head: Did you take any engineering or robotics?

Comms Major: No.

F&H Head: Then F&H it is. Did the other interviewers tell you a little bit about how we do things here?

Comms Major: Only a little. I understand you operate in small teams, each of which is always the same size?

F&H Head: That’s right. There’s a reason why the few science classes you took are relevant. We want you to be able to communicate effectively with the rest of your team. You don’t have to be a field expert, but you have to have some idea what the others are talking about when you’re discussing the topics. Each team is composed of a Leader, a Researcher, a Communicator—that will be you—a Mediator, and a Writer.

Comms Major: Oh, okay. Interesting.

F&H Head: They did studies, and found that the best teams are based on diversity of skill. There are five skills, so each of them plays to the strengths of each team member. If you were particularly good at researching new topics, but also a really great leader, you might not do well in this organization, because we’re designed for permanent placement. There aren’t a whole lot of promotions going on here, because everyone is assigned to contribute in a particular way. I believe you went over that in the other interviews?

Comms Major: They did. I found that quite intriguing. It sounds like you have a robust merit increase program, but people aren’t meant to move up the ranks.

F&H Head: This is true. I was hired externally, as is most of the other higher level leadership. Some people don’t really care for that. They’re ambitious, and they think, if they’re good enough, they should be able to move up. But all you should truly care about is the success of the magazine, the positive impact we have on our readers, and the money you make that allows you to be happy in your personal life. It’s a radical stance, but it’s been working for us for the last three years.

Comms Major: Yeah, I love this magazine, but I had no idea it was organized so differently. Can you tell me more about how the teams work?

F&H Head: Well, obviously the Researcher and Writer are responsible for laying out the content in each article. They’re the ones who have to be field experts. The Communicator and Mediator have similar duties to each other, but we think you’re better suited to round up all the experts your team will have to talk to, while someone else handles the discussions themselves. We’re not opposed to you and the Mediator trading responsibilities now and then, though, or blending them together a little. It all depends on which team you’re on, and who you’re working with. This is all about group cohesion. Like I was saying about those studies, teams aren’t successful as long as everybody is smart, or even qualified. The most successful teams are the ones where everybody is good at something the others are not. Does that make sense?

Comms Major: It does. So, how do we decide which team I would be able to help the most?

F&H Head: We have to go meet them. Follow me.

Microstory 1319: Perfect

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Homicide Detective: I know this is a difficult time for you and your family, Madam Grieving Mother. These questions are going to be really hard to hear, and even harder to answer. They are important, though. Please understand that I mean no disrespect to your daughter. I have to ask these to get a clear picture of who she was. I don’t care what mistakes she made in the past, or what things she was caught up in. I only care about catching the person who did this. Does that make sense?

Grieving Mother: I get it. And I know you’re expecting to find out she wasn’t as great of a person as people thought she was. She secretly did drugs, or she had a gambling problem, or a boyfriend convinced her to break into that museum. That wasn’t her, though. I know a lot of parents are delusional when it comes to their children, but she really was perfect. It was actually kind of annoying sometimes. Kids are supposed to mess up, and disappoint their parents, so when the parents mess up, they retain the moral high ground. She never gave us that luxury, though. When we screwed up, the whole family felt it, because she put forth a standard that no one else could have reached.

Homicide Detective: Okay. Well, that answers a lot of the questions I normally ask, but it doesn’t answer all of them. You’re right, TV shows like to depict flawed victims, because it makes for compelling storytelling. It often, though, detracts from the fact that the perpetrator is the one at fault here. Unless it was an assisted suicide, your daughter could never truly be at fault anyway, because everyone knows murder is wrong. So, I’ll focus our efforts on criminology for now. Can you think of anyone who had a problem with her.

Grieving Mother: No, everyone loved her, like I said.

Homicide Detective: You also said it could be annoying. Perhaps there’s someone out there who took unreasonable offense to her, not despite how good she was, but because of it. Maybe someone at work didn’t like all the praise or attention she got?

Grieving Mother: I see what you’re saying, but I can’t think of anyone. Though, I probably wouldn’t have heard about it if there was someone. You would have to speak with her colleagues about it, because she never would have complained to others. Not only was she a little too perfect, but she also thought everyone else was perfect. That was also a little annoying. I guess that was her one flaw; she could only see the good in people, which is, of course, unrealistic.

Homicide Detective: So, maybe she did associate with the wrong person, but she didn’t realize it until it was too late.

Grieving Mother: It’s possible.

Homicide Detective: Tell me about this break-in at the museum. What was stolen?

Grieving Mother: Oh, I don’t really know. It was a lot of different stuff, and I don’t think any single item was all that valuable. The police thought it was—not quite a crime of opportunity—but also not extremely well planned out. They missed some big ticket items, so they think the thieves were just grabbing what they could, and hoping to get lucky.

Homicide Detective: Did the detectives on that case have any reason to believe it was an inside job, or that your daughter knew anything she wasn’t saying?

Grieving Mother: Why would my daughter have covered up a crime?

Homicide Detective: If she knew who the thieves were, she might have been protecting them; urging them to do the right thing, and turn themselves in, but protecting them nonetheless.

Grieving Mother: That’s a fancy story you’re weaving. It assumes a lot that you can’t possibly know.

Homicide Detective: I’m just gathering a suspect list right now. I only need to prove what happened, not what didn’t.

Grieving Mother: Just...be careful with your accusations, okay?

Homicide Detective: I will. Say, that’s an interesting little elephant ornament you got there. My grandmother used to have just one like it. Funny enough, I think she found out it was worth something, and ended up donating it to the museum. They weren’t on display yet, though. They’ve just been sitting in storage for a couple years.

Grieving Mother: Oh, that’s interesting.

Homicide Detective: Yeah, she actually donated a few...other...umm. Where did you get that little wooden teapot? And those glass insulators? Wait.

Grieving Mother: Your grandmother was the thief! My mother spent years curating this collection! It belongs to us!

Homicide Detective: All right, turn around.

Microstory 1318: Self-Representation

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Accommodating Judge: Mr. Self-Representing Defendant, I feel compelled to remind you that you did not finish law school, nor did you pass the bar exam. You probably know—though you may not—that you have the right to waive your opportunity at a closing argument.

Self-Representing Defendant: I understand, and I shall proceed as planned.

Accommodating Judge: If you choose to waive it, I will strongly encourage the prosecution to waive theirs as well.

Accommodating Prosecutor: We are prepared to waive it, Your Honor.

Self-Representing Defendant: I’m fine to go ahead.

Accommodating Judge: All right, then.

Self-Representing Defendant: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client—which is me, of course; I will be referring to myself as my client. My client has done no wrong here, and I believe the trial I conducted adequately demonstrated this fact. As you already know, though I came close, I am no lawyer. I dropped out of law school for personal reasons; not academic issues, but I do recognize what I am lacking. I chose to represent myself, because I’m confident that the evidence speaks for itself. Do not fault the prosecution for the conclusion it came to. They have every reason to believe that I am guilty, but that does not mean that I am. It is true that I knew the victim, and I will admit that I became a little obsessed with her. I wouldn’t lie to you, even if I were not under oath. But there is one bit of evidence I wish to reiterate now. Miss Stalking Victim’s house was broken into. Anyone could have done that; my client is but one in a billion. Well...one in eight billion, more like it. There is one thing that my client had that no one else did, and though the prosecution used this fact against me, I consider it contradictory when taking the break-in into account. I—my client had a key. I know I shouldn’t have made a secret copy, but I did, and the past cannot be changed. Now, why would I—dammit—my client need to shatter a window to get into Miss Victim’s house if he had a perfectly good way of getting in without causing a stir? And why is she not here today? It’s because she did not press charges. Even she isn’t convinced that my client is guilty. Whose word are you going to take? If not mine, then at least respect hers. I certainly trust her; I always have.

Accommodating Judge: Mr. Defendant...

Self-Representing Defendant: Apologies, Your Honor. My point is that my client is not a perfect man, but that does not, on its own, lends itself to such grotesque violence. Yes, I had access to the lab where they keep the acid, but it was locked up in a chemical cabinet to which I did not have access. My client missed her deeply, but that is not enough to prove his involvement. If we were in the real world, I might have sided with the prosecution. But we’re talking about a college campus, where security is lax, at best. You cannot just limit your suspect pool to a handful of people. It’s too easy to frame somebody.

Accommodating Judge: Careful, Defendant...

Self-Representing Defendant: Apologies, apologies. I will say nothing more about it, but I urge you, good people of the jury...to wonder why it is that the police only questioned one other person regarding the horrible incident. It’s always the jealous ex, they say. Well, I say that’s a dangerous sentiment. Everyone is an ex.

Microstory 1317: First Resort

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Resort Supervisor: Well, Mister Retiree, this is quite an impressive résumé. You have done well for yourself, haven’t you?
Retiree: Well, I wouldn’t have been able to retire here if I hadn’t.
Resort Supervisor: Yes, Panama is a beautiful country. We’re happy to have you. The question is why are you here, at this resort?
Retiree: Well, I stayed here once a couple years ago, and in fact, that’s why I fell in love with this country, and why I decided to spend the last of my days as an expat. I had such a lovely experience for that first week, so I already knew this would be a great place to work.
Resort Supervisor: It is indeed a great place to work. Our people are very happy here. But they are also—shall we say—less fortunate than you. They work here, because this is where they’ve been able to make their money. We can’t all have run multi-billion dollar companies in the states.
Retiree: It was only multi-million dollar. Not that that matters to you, I see your point. I don’t want to take a job from anybody. I’m just looking for something to do. I spent my whole life on the grind, and didn’t ever find any hobbies, so now I’m just bored out of my mind. I need something to keep me busy.
Resort Supervisor: We definitely don’t have any full time positions available right now.
Retiree: That’s okay. I don’t have to stay busy all day. I just need a few hours to feel like I’m contributing positively to society. I’ll still sleep ten hours a day, and read my books. You know, I have no intention of breaking my back at this.
Resort Supervisor: Right. Well, like I said, people come to me because they need to. I’m not saying they can’t get work anywhere else; we only hire the best. But I’m not sure I can justify giving something to a millionaire. I mean, it just wouldn’t be fair.
Retiree: I understand. I just don’t know what to do.
Resort Supervisor: Well, just because you haven’t had any hobbies before, doesn’t mean you can’t have them now. You can try bird watching, or hiking, or maybe something with arts and crafts. We do all those things here, so you are not wanting for options, I’ll tell you that. You could also look into some volunteer work. Panama has hungry people, just like the U.S., you know. There are plenty of options out there. I don’t believe paid work is a good fit for you anywhere. I know at least that this resort is out of the question.
Retiree: Okay, I understand.

Microstory 1316: Wags For Days

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Local Anchor: That’s right, Co-anchor. Some of those dancers probably do have children of their own, who would enjoy it just as much. Well, it may not be as controversial as a park being built next to a strip club, but a new planned development in Twin Hillside has caused quite a stir. Local Reporter has more on the story.

Local Reporter: Thank you, Local Anchor. It’s called Wags for Days, and it’s a new pet care facility that does not yet exist, and if some of the neighbors have anything to say about it, it may never.

Local Anchor: Oh, that sounds interesting.

Local Reporter: Pet Expert was smiling on his way from the bank, where he managed to secure a big enough loan to found his own animal boarding-slash-groomer spot, but things quickly took a dark turn when he continued the process, and found himself butting heads with people he hoped would be his neighbors. They didn’t want him there, and at first, he didn’t understand why. For more, I’ve found a few residents who have a few things to say about Pet Expert, and his plans for Twin Hillside. Hello, and what’s your name?

Angry Resident: Hi. I’m Angry, and I’m angry. Pet Expert thinks he can come in here and ruin our quiet little neighborhood, but he doesn’t know who he’s messin’ with. We’re gonna fight back, and we’re gonna win.

Local Reporter: What exactly are you worried is going to happen if Pet Expert succeeds in his plans?

Angry Resident: He won’t! We’re gonna fight back!

Local Reporter: Right, but why are you fighting? What do you not like about Pet Expert’s plan?

Angry Resident: We’re upset about the noises.

Local Reporter: You mean you think the pets, particularly the dogs, will bark too much.

Angry Resident: Yeah, that’s it.

Local Reporter: Have you read Pet Expert’s proposal?

Angry Resident: Why would I do that? We’re gonna fight back!

Local Reporter: Yes, you’ve said that. What if I told you that Pet Expert’s development plan includes a soundproof simulated outdoor area where the dogs can do their business, and see the sun?

Angry Resident: Uh...what?

Local Reporter: The dogs won’t ever be outside. You shouldn’t be able to hear much barking.

Angry Resident: We still don’t want it, and we’re gon—

Local Reporter: Okay, thank you, Angry Resident. Let’s talk to someone else. What about you? Are you aware that you shouldn’t have to hear too much barking when this development goes up?

Annoying Resident: I don’t care about that. I got seven dogs myself, and my neighbor’s got pet squirrels, so my dogs don’t ever stop barking.

Nasty Resident: It’s true, it’s really annoying!

Annoying Resident: Shut up, Nasty! Your leaves fell on my lawn again!

Nasty Resident: I can’t control where the leaves fall! The wind takes ‘em!

Annoying Resident: Oh, you listen here, buddy!

Nasty Resident: Ya know, she only doesn’t want Wags for Days, because she’s trying to start her own doggy daycare place.

Annoying Resident: I’m not trying to start; it’s already started, I just can’t find any customers.

Nasty Resident: Gee, I can’t figure out why.

Local Reporter: And what about you, Nasty Resident? Why do you not want Wags for Days to be approved?

Nasty Resident: I ain’t got no problem with Wags for Days. I got a problem with Pet Expert.

Local Reporter: And why’s that?”

Nasty Resident: I heard he’s a homo.

Local Reporter: Okay, thank you, everybody. Please remember this is live. For ZZZZ News, this is Local Reporter, keeping you updated on everything you care about. Back to you, Local Anchor.

Local Anchor: Thank you, Local Reporter. Well, it may not be as divisive as a new pet care facility, but diners at a certain fast food restaurant are protesting its new menu, claiming its new Vietnamese owner might be feeding them dogs. In related news, I took a job in Kansas City.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: December 6, 2274

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Most of what Athanaric Fury told them about Erlendr probably wasn’t all that useful. If the killer they were after was some kind of complete mystery, they probably could have used their knowledge of him against him in some way, but a lot of it Nerakali already knew. Even for the things she didn’t know about her own father, there was one important thing that made all of it obsolete. Erlendr Preston did not respond well to emotional appeals. He was driven almost exclusively by logic. Now, whether that logic was reasonable was an entirely different issue, but the point was they wouldn’t be able to stop him by bringing up all the people the hundemarke has hurt. Nor could his mind be likely changed by presenting him with new logic, because he was also stubborn, and he didn’t really believe that other people in the world were worth listening to. He was sounding a lot less like Nerakali and Arcadia—who were, even at their worst, always willing to listen to the other side—and more like their brother, Zeferino. They were only able to stop him because Gilbert Boyce protected them from the violence. That was no longer the case, so if brute force was the only option, would they be able to stomach it?

They still didn’t know how they were going to find the guy, even if they came up with a decent plan of attack. Then Leona seemed to come up with an idea. “We need help,” she began. “That’s been our problem this whole time. We keep trying to go out and find people one by one, and they’ve never been enough. They’ve also been very hard to track, especially since we’re getting so late in the timeline. From everything I’ve seen, time travelers seem to stick predominantly to the centuries surrounding the turn of the millennium. No one seems to know why—”

“I can kind of explain why,” Nerakali interrupted. “Well, I have a theory, because I have talked to people about it. Movies and the computer. People in the advanced age are more intelligent, and less superstitious. Mateo, when you first disappeared from the timestream for an entire year, your parents were very upset, but they didn’t freak out, and they didn’t try to exorcise a demon from your body when you came back. They figured it out, because humanity as a whole was capable of recognizing its own ignorance, and not attributing every good thing to God, and every bad thing to the devil. They wanted to understand, and that was enough to keep things sane until they did understand. Imagine going back to the seventeenth century, and explaining yourself. Why, a lot of people wouldn’t even be able to grasp the concept of time travel itself, so you’ve already lost before you began. Of course, that doesn’t mean time travelers can’t go back that far, or that they don’t. But a lot of it is uninteresting to them. They do it mostly to gain a rare perspective on history, and not everyone cares about that. There are just more things to do in the future.”

“That doesn’t explain why there are fewer travelers in the 24th century, and later,” Leona pointed out. “It’s even more advanced then.”

“Right, well now it’s too advanced. Now, it’s boring because everyone’s immortal, and life’s not as dangerous, so there aren’t as many people to save. A lot of entertainment exists in virtual constructs, which time travelers tend to shy away from, because again, it diminishes who they are. You control the laws of physics in a virtual world, which means anyone and everyone can have powers. No, it’s better to stay in the middle; not too early, and not too late. It’s a temporal goldilocks zone. If travelers were more aware that they were limiting themselves, they would probably deliberately stop doing it, but we’re mostly talking about the subconscious.”

“Okay, okay,” Leona said. She wasn’t upset about having been interrupted, and was genuinely interested in Nerakali’s tangent. It actually seemed helpful. “Well, regardless of how time travelers act normally, we know of one moment in history where a whole hell of a lot of them are going to be gathered, right? And though it’s happened in the past, it takes place in my future. I haven’t experienced it yet, but it is there that I can find help. I’ll have the pick of the litter.”

“You want to recruit from Mateo’s memorial service?” Nerakali questioned. She wasn’t reluctant, but she wasn’t quite on board with the idea either.

They looked over at Mateo, who had already experienced the memorial. He could give them insight into whether this was a good idea, if he were so inclined to divulge such information. “Uhh...careful, spoilers?”

“Is that a question?” Nerakali prodded.

“I don’t have a problem with him not being able to tell us,” Leona said. “My only problem now is I have no apparent way of getting to Dardius in 2263. Well, I guess Nerakali and I could jump back in time, and then use the Great Pyramid to jump there.”

“Great. It looks like you have it figured out.” Mateo released his Cassidy cuff, so when the other two started jumping through time, he wouldn’t be tethered to them. “Don’t worry, you’ll see me soon,” Mateo told Leona after she frowned at him.

“I’m worried about you being alone after I leave.”

“We’ll be gone and back in a blip,” Nerakali said. “And who knows how many friends we’ll have with us?”

“Go,” he said kindly. “It was a nice ceremony. I can tell you that it didn’t turn into a red wedding situation, or anything like that. It happened, and then it ended.”

“Were I you,” Leona said.

“Were I you,” he returned.

They both disappeared.

“God, I thought they’d never leave,” came a voice behind him.

Mateo wasn’t surprised to hear it. “I was worried they would stay too long, and you would get impatient.”

“No, that would screw up the timeline. I’m immortal. I have all the patience.”

Mateo turned around to face Erlendr Preston, who he met officially at the former’s memorial, just the other day. “Screwing up the timeline; isn’t that what you’re doing anyway?”

“You mean what we’re doing. And no, of course not; we’re fixing it.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

“You agreed to the deal.”

“So, I can’t back out now?” Mateo asked.

“No, you can,” Erlendr assured him. “You can remove yourself from the equation, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening. It just means you and Leona won’t be part of it.”

“I just want her to be safe,” Mateo argued. “You promised me that.”

“I can make her safe. I can’t get you away from the powers that be...but I can render them powerless. They’ll still be able to watch, but they won’t be able to change anything. No one will be able to change anything.”

“Then why are you changing things?” He still didn’t understand what Erlendr was going for here. Why was he sending the hundemarke all over time and space if he was ultimately planning to use the hundemarke against itself, and undo everything it had ever done? Arcadia seemed confident it made sense, but Mateo wasn’t much smarter than he was when this all started.

“I have to use the hundemarke a lot. I have to create so many fixed points in time, so when we finally screw with that, the universe will have no choice but to split in half.”

“Is it gonna be destroyed?”

Erlendr shook his head. “You can’t destroy a universe. This will work, Mateo. I’m going to create a world where time travel doesn’t exist, but I can’t do that without a paradox. The hundemarke, and the nonexistence of the hundemarke, have to be at profound odds with each other. If it’s not like that, one of the two realities will simply concede to the other, and collapse in on itself. If you want them both to exist at the same time, each one’s persistence must depend on the other’s. Does that make sense?”

Mateo didn’t start out with the intention of betraying Leona and Nerakali when he went to his memorial. He was hoping to get close to their enemy, so he could defeat him without involving either of them, or any of their other friends. Erlendr and Arcadia’s pitch was too compelling, though. He had long ago surrendered to the idea that there was no escape from the powers that be, but this was his opportunity to change that. Perhaps Leona would never forgive him for it, but at least she would be free. There was still one question, though. “Why did I get Bhulan to go to 2027? Your plan doesn’t work if she destroys the hundemarke.”

“It’s a contingency,” Erlendr explained. “If this doesn’t succeed, at least there’s a world where all those people I killed stay alive. I was only able to do this knowing it could all be undone, even if it’s not the way I wanted.”

“But it’s another paradox?”

“Yes, a third paradox. It’s not safe, I’ll tell you that.”

There was a brief pause in the conversation.

“So you’re sure Leona and Nerakali won’t be back until tomorrow?” Erlendr went on.

“Nope. I mean, yes, I’m sure. I told them to come back in 2275. I didn’t explain why, mostly because I don’t have a real explanation. I just needed to make sure you, Arcadia, and I have some time to discuss this in more detail. Where is she, by the way?”

“I think she’s here,” Erlendr replied cautiously, “watching us.”

“You can never tell with her,” Mateo noted.

“No. She’s, uh, wily.”

“She is coming, though, right? Whether she’s here now, or not, she’ll join the conversation soon?”

“Yeah, I’m sure she’s on her way.”

Arcadia suddenly appeared, but she wasn’t alone. Tons of water flowed out of her portal, and filled the room. It didn’t look like she had done this on purpose, because she was struggling to stop it. Back at the turn of the 22nd century, the Earthans were in the middle of a process to destroy all of their cities and towns, and replace them with arcological megastructures. Each tower was capable of housing tens of thousands of people, and though these towers were meant to be constructed in clusters, they still took up a whole hell of a lot less land than the metropolises of before. They were incredibly efficient, and were designed with emergency protocols in mind. Small ships were kept in vast hangars underneath the towers, which would allow the whole human race to evacuate within a single day, should a massive external threat come upon them, such as an alien invasion.

This wasn’t good enough for the humans, though. They wanted to be safer, and they wanted to be able to do it faster, so they repeated the process. For Project Airtight, they replaced every megastructure with a nearly identical one right next to it, and moved everyone over to it. Most of the look of the new structures remained the same. A time traveler from the past would have a hard time telling the difference just by looking at them. There was one extremely important difference, though. Instead of running drills every year that saw everyone rushing down to the bottom level, so they could enter their respective escape modules, and evacuate the planet a handful at a time, they just turned the whole thing into an escape pod. Each tower was a spaceship in its own right. Accounting for technical delays, and residents who were on safaris hundreds of miles away from the nearest arcity, the planet could now be evacuated within a few hours. This all meant the room the three of them were standing in now was completely sealed up. If someone didn’t figure out how to close the portal, or just teleport them out of here, they would drown. Even if they did escape themselves, what did that mean for the integrity of the room, or that of the rest of the ship?

Mateo looked around, but couldn’t lock eyes on his allies. He saw legs and heads thrashing about, but neither of them were making an effort to reach the surface. Had they both been knocked out? My God, this was up to him, and there was only one way out of it that he could think of. He reached into his bag, and pulled out his Cassidy cuff. Then he reinstalled it on his wrist, punched in the necessary sequence of buttons, and held his breath, because the water had reached the ceiling. He activated the instructions, causing Leona and Nerakali to appear, confused and scared. Now that he had the latter’s teleportation powers back, he prepared to use them. As he was swimming over to take hold of Arcadia’s body, Nerakali was swimming over to Erlendr’s, though there was too much chaos for him to know whether she knew who it was she was trying to rescue. Once they were all ready to go, Mateo teleported them all out of there, and dumped them onto the bank of a rushing river. He didn’t really do that on purpose, but water was kind of the only thing he could think about at the moment. Now the truth of his betrayal would have to come out. Oh, boy.

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