The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 6, 2399

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Mateo brought one of Ramses and Leona’s little leechcraft up into space, thinking that it could be of some use to them, and he turned out to be right. Leona deployed it from the vacuum tent, leaving it in their then-orbit before they went back towards Earth in Mangrove Rocket Eleven. It is capable of a little station-keeping on its own, but it works best when latched onto some other satellite. It immediately fell into a decaying orbit, which means that it will eventually burn up in the atmosphere, but it will probably be years before that happens. They don’t need it to stay up there forever. They just want to get an idea of how this mysterious Omega bubble works.

“Anything?” Mateo asks. It’s late, and they’re back in the Kansas City lab with Tarboda and Heath, who are both asleep.

Leona takes a sip of her tea. “So far, so good. The bubble has not yet reached the leechcraft.”

“What does that mean?” he presses. “Did it shrink, or just stay where it is?”

She takes another sip. “There’s no way to know. If and when the bubble reaches it, there will be a split second before it shuts off where I might be able to tell that the bubble is the reason that this happened, and I didn’t just lose contact with it because of a micrometeoroid, or interference, or something. We may never be sure where the bubble is, and where it isn’t. By its very nature, it blocks such observation.” She takes another sip, and doesn’t even give herself enough time to set the cup down before she needs yet another.

“What I’m observing right now,” Mateo begins, “is that you need to go to bed.”

“No, I’m fine. I’m working.”

He points at one of the other screens. “What does this mean here?”

Leona peers at it. “Well, that—that means the big satellite we have up there is detecting temporal energy. The bubble must be receding. How did I miss that?”

“Because it’s like I said, you’re too tired.” He kind of paws at her.

“Bzzz!” she exclaims, trying to swat him away like a fly, then takes another sip.

“What exactly is this you’re drinking?” Mateo picks it up himself, and takes a tiny sip. “Whoa, this is black tea. If you take any more of this, you’ll be up all night. Come on.” He gently tries to pull her away from the machine. “It's time for bed.” He pulls a little harder when she resists.

“Mateo, this development means that I have to stay!”

“The computer is monitoring the bubble’s progress, right? You don’t have to be here to watch it. You’ve had a long day, and a long few weeks before that, and a long few months before that, and I could go back to the beginning of the first timeline you remember, couldn’t I? I know you want to keep on this, but you could make more mistakes. You don’t want that, do you?”

“No,” she replies in a nervous little girl voice.

“Go on upstairs,” Mateo urges softly. He starts waving his hand at the computer like a philistine. “I’ll call you if I see something happen on the thing.”

Leona nods, and turns away. Just then, the computer beeps. She spins right back around. “What was that?”

Mateo leans in to read it. “It’s a message...from Alyssa. She wants to meet.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 5, 2399

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Their new rocket pilot, Hemi has been trying to get as far away from Earth as possible, but they can’t seem to get far enough. Leona keeps resurfacing in Mateo’s brain, but then disappears again within minutes. He’s glad to know that she’s still there and alive, but he can’t hold onto her consciousness. She can’t say much while she’s active, but she’s been able to deduce that the Omega Gyroscope’s range is growing. It’s not doing so spontaneously, though. The math doesn’t work out. Based on how long Alyssa has been the Gyroscope’s new little keeper, it should have spread far beyond the current orbit by now if it had been moving outwards at the same pace that it is exhibiting now. Her conclusion is that it moves as the ship moves into higher orbits. Or rather, it’s Mateo. As he moves outwards himself, the bubble expands to compensate. He will never get far enough away from Earth to escape it; not permanently, anyway.

“Stop!” Leona orders upon her next return. “Don’t go into a higher orbit!”

“We’ve already stopped,” Mateo informs her. He’s speaking out loud for the both of us. He drops his sunglasses down every time that she’s in the driver’s seat.

Leona breathes a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. We can’t let this thing get out any farther. People could die.”

“We need you,” Mateo isn’t arguing that it’s not risky to keep going, but they have to go at least a little higher, or they may never get Leona back. He understands that other people’s lives are at stake here, but it’s worth it. He thinks so anyway.

“I’m sorry, it’s just not going to happen. I’m about to lose you, but I wanted to tell you one last time...were I you.”

“Were I you,” Mateo echoes. “Hello? Hello?” He closes his eyes in sadness. She’s already gone. That wasn’t much time. It was the shortest moment yet.

“Forgive my ignorance,” Hemi pries, “but what is the danger in continuing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to get you to do it. I think I just don’t have all the facts.”

“The...superpower blocker—I guess I’ll call it—is reacting to me. It doesn’t matter how far out we go, it will always catch up. Now, I may be able to teleport away from it, and give myself more time, but then what am I gonna do? Besides, that could place us too close to our friends, who are already out here.” This hypothetical bubble will eventually reach the AOC, which could have terrible consequences. Marie is Angela's duplicate, and she may pop out of existence, for all they know. If they’re the cause, they have to minimize the damage as much as possible. “We can’t let that happen.”

“Maybe if we go back towards Earth, the bubble will shrink?” Heath suggests, not sure if it makes him sound like a total idiot, or not.

“It’s not entirely implausible,” Mateo replies, channeling Leona’s spirit without actually being able to communicate with her at the moment. “I suppose I could imagine that the Gyroscope wants to conserve energy, and really only wants to focus on where there are people to control.”

“Hmm,” Tarboda utters.

“What?” Mateo asks.

“No, nothing. It’s not a solution. I just thought of something. Go on.”

“You can teleport yourself?” Hemi asks. “Like all on your own?”

“Yes, as long as I’m not in this stupid bubble,” Mateo replies.

Hemi starts thinking about it. “How much can you take with you? Can you do it with a vacuum suit? Can you take a whole ship?”

“Definitely not the whole rocket. Yeah, I could take a suit, but I couldn’t take both me, and Leona’s suit, and the equipment I’ll need to transfer her mind out of me.”

“What about a tent? It’s thin and light.”

“Do you have a tent, because yeah, one of the first things we learned when we became time travelers is that tents will jump with us.”

“Of course I do.” He reaches under the command console, and pulls out a large pack. He tears something off the back of it. “This will protect you in the vacuum. Normally, you wouldn’t have long to open it up, and get in, then inject yourself with medicine before your eyes pop out, but we can set it up in here, right?”

“Yeah. That will fit me and my wife’s new body?” Mateo asks.

“Sure will. Not too much else, but absolutely,” Hemi replies.

It was an overstatement to say that they were going to set it up. He just releases the tent. It opens on its own, and seals itself up. They reopen it, and place what they needed inside, including Alyssa’s vacant body, the Insulator of Life, and the Livewire. Mateo doesn’t really know how to operate these things, but none of this works unless Leona is awake anyway.

Against Leona’s orders, Hemi navigates the rocket into a higher orbit. As soon as Mateo senses that his temporal abilities and bioenhancements have returned, he tells him to stop. Despite Leona’s protests, Mateo teleports himself as far as he can without risking getting too close to the location of the AOC, the distance of which he only has a rough idea of.

“What are you doing?” Leona questions.

“I’m trying to save your life,” Mateo replies as he’s getting the Insulator and Livewire ready, though he doesn’t think they have any use for the former in this situation. “Now, you can either make this work while we still have time, or we can argue about it, and waste this opportunity.”

Leona growls. “Let me drive.”

“Are you gonna get into Alyssa’s body?”

“Yes, now let me drive.”

“Okay.” Mateo relinquishes control of his body.

Leona places one end of the Livewire in Alyssa’s hand, and takes hold of the other. She reaches over to the portable power source, and prepares to plug it in. “It might try to take hold of you. Don’t let it. Fight it, Mateo. Only my consciousness is meant to transmit down the wire. Fight it.”

“Okay.”

She plugs it in.

She was right. He can feel electricity surge through his body, and also somehow his mind, like he’s also imagining it at the same time. To combat the pull, he decides to imagine himself holding onto the railing of a balcony, desperately trying not to fall into the void below.

Leona appears next to him, also holding onto the railing. She’s not putting as much effort into it, though. “See you on the other side.” She lets go, and falls. It works.

They float there in the middle of interlunar space for a bit until Hemi comes by to pick them up. Before they enter the rocket, they leave a little present outside.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 4, 2399

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As an extra step of precaution, Mateo and Taraboda were asked to stay in separate level of quarantine just for them for a full day. This is a process that everyone who goes in and out of that place has to deal with, including the everyday soldiers. He’s fine with it, but it would be a lot to deal with on a regular basis, especially to coordinate. The government has not encountered a single new case of the virus, even from the three who came through the portal before it closed, but they’re still deeply concerned. They still don’t know how it causes its symptoms, or how to cure it. They haven’t even had time to devise a vaccine. This area is going to be the way it is, or worse, for a long time.

While Mateo was waiting, he found himself with a lot of time to think. Alyssa was brainwashed, and has commanded the Omega Gyroscope to halt all forms of temporal manipulation, advanced bodily upgrades, and similar anomalies. This was already a thing before, but there were loopholes. The rules are far stricter now, preventing Mateo from even communicating with his wife’s consciousness that should be somewhere in his brain. Had they not done that, he might have just let it all go, but if whoever did this didn’t want him to be an enemy, they should have been a little more lax.

He, Tarboda and Heath are on their way to Aotearoa now, where Mangroves Eleven, Twenty-Four, and Forty-Two were built. They’re flying into Eleven, the rocket of which will be launched soon. Mateo is going to be on it, so when he breaks free from the Gyroscope’s...scope, Leona should come back. From there, he’ll transfer her consciousness out of his body, and into Alyssa’s old body, and then he hasn’t come up with a plan beyond that, because he’s not as smart as she is. Winona has been hounding him for an explanation for why one of her secret tactical teams thinks they sort of remember a member of their team who never existed, but he can’t help them. Leona may be able to answer that question, and more. Now, she might have been killed when Alyssa turned the Gyroscope up to eleven, or she is in another dimension, or stuck in the 1950s. Regardless, Mateo has to try something. He has to leave Earth.

A man greets them on the tarmac when they land. G’day, folks. My name is Hemi, and I’ll be your pilot today. Are we ready to shoot on through, or does anyone need anything here?”

They look over at Heath, but he doesn’t know why. “Well, it’s just that you and Tarboda have been in space an equal amount, but Tarboda is a pilot, so...”

“I’m fine,” Heath replies. “I want to be involved. I want to show Marie that I’m okay. Let’s get on up there.”

“Perfect. Yeah, I did hear that you’ve done this before, but I don’t care about those other times. I still have to go over a few rules. We all wanna be safe, don’t we?”

“Yeah,” they agree in approximate unison.

After the briefing, Hemi takes them into the rocket to launch. They don’t see a single other person on the base. It’s Aldona who counts them down remotely from Balikpapan. One thing is that Mateo isn’t used to all the g-forces from having to break out of Earth’s gravity well. Aldona installed whatever crazy futuristic technology prevents them from feeling it, but it’s not working under Alyssa’s Gyroscope regime. Even so, they make it into orbit, and he tries to reach inward for Leona, but she’s not answering. None of his upgrades are working yet either. “We need to go higher.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 3, 2399

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Winona is in charge of so many things now. When she first got into this business, her father had maneuvered her into a position within the government. She by no means started out in the mail room, but she wasn’t top dog yet either. She proved herself over time, and did everything she could to move up the ranks on her own merit, rather than because of her dad’s political power. No one could have foreseen the sudden introduction of time travelers to this world. She’s been trying to juggle all of the new responsibilities with her regular duties, but it’s recently become too much. She was gradually passing work off to trusted subordinates, and it’s time to pass the torch totally. But even that is too much for her to worry about right now, because on top of the three and a half men that she has locked away at this black site, she’s just brought in a tactical team who are exhibiting unusual and erratic behavior. They all act like one of their members just died. There’s no record of that happening, but funny enough—not funny, haha; more like funny, oh God—there are meant to be seven people on a tack team.

“Who is your Spotter?” she asks.

“That’s it,” Team Leader Alserda says, having an epiphany. “That’s who we’re missing. Who is our Spotter?” she echoes to Winona.

Winona looks down to the floor and sighs. “It’s not Hurst?” she says, half as a question, and half as a statement.

“It was. He became our Technician.”

“And your Technician, Strand became your Engineer. And your Engineer, Klein became your Lieutenant.”

“Because my Lieutenant, McGuinness retired,” Alserda finishes. “Who is our Spotter!” she asks the whole universe.

“What was your mission?” Winona asks, fully knowing the answer, like a school teacher.

“We were looking for people who were going to hurt Leona Matic. That has been our primary mission for weeks.”

“We should have pulled you from that,” Winona notes. “We caught the people who set the bounty, so we were dispatching pub teams to spread the news, and infil teams to confirm it to the underground.”

“I dunno,” Alserda says sadly. “We were in Romania. We were definitely working, not on vacation. I don’t—I have memories from before, but something feels missing.” She’s mostly been staring into space, but now she makes eye contact. “Was it our Spotter? Did something happen to them? What could do that?”

Then it dawns on her. “A time traveler.”

“Madam?” she questions simply.

“I need to make a call.” Winona starts to leave the room. That’s not a fitting word for it. It’s one of those nice locked chambers that the likes of Labhrás Delaney live in. “Try to get some rest. I’ll see about getting you com privileges with your team.” She dials her phone as she’s walking down the hallway. “Mateo? I have kind of a weird question. Are you still in transitional quarantine?” She waits for a response. “Okay, then we’ll talk later. But while you’re in the middle of that, maybe you could think about what could make an entire person disappear, both from the world, and people’s memories.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 2, 2399

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Despite technically being in an enhanced body, Mateo is no longer enhanced. He needs sleep, and because of everything he’s been through recently, he needs a lot of sleep. Annoyingly, it doesn’t look like he’s going to get much of it for a while. Winona wakes him after midnight with a phone call. “I don’t know why they didn’t call me right away. A few people came through the parking lot portal yesterday afternoon.”

“We always knew this could happen,” Mateo replies. “You had the military set up a special quarantine, right?”

“Yes, they’re contained, but one of you should go. I can’t get away.”

Mateo struggles out of his sheets, and trips out of bed. “I’ll be there soon.”

“Thanks.”

Mateo leaves his room, and is about to knock on Ramses’ door when he remembers that Ramses is dead, or so it seems. Heath needs sleep too, and won’t be much help in this situation. So he just walks downstairs, and heads for the garage. “Why are you awake?” he asks when he sees Tarboda sitting in the kitchen.

“I keep odd hours,” he replies. “Going somewhere?”

“Another mission,” Mateo explains.

“A solo mission?”

Mateo doesn’t know if Tarboda is asking if he would like him to come, or if he’s offering, or if he really wants to be a part of it, or if it’s just a question.

“You look tired,” Tarboda decides, standing up. “I’ll drive. It’s my job.”

“I was a career driver in another life,” Mateo reveals.

“That’s cute.”

The two of them drive to the parking lot. The tent is still there, as is the hamster tunnel to the office building, which has since been completely cleared out, and taken over by the military. The operation is fully staffed. The president himself considers this to be the current greatest threat to the country. They’re not generally too unwelcoming of refugees, but these people were preceded by a mass murderer. They do not deserve the benefit of the doubt. The checkpoint soldiers wave them through the newly erected gate, and direct them toward the transition tent. Here they put on hazmat suits, and equip themselves with deadly weapons. They’re really not taking any chances here. Mateo doesn’t care to carry a gun, but arguing against it could risk his credentials here, and he needs them. He’s the only true team member left.

They leave the small tent, and enter the big one, where they find three people being kept in the subquarantine zone. Mateo doesn’t recognize any of them, but they recognize him immediately, even with the headgear. They almost look relieved to see him. “Mister Matic. Tell them that we are not here to hurt anyone,” the woman requests.

“Where are you from?” Mateo asks. The usual prompt of report is for when two people are either equal, or dominance is unknown. Mateo is assumed to be superior to them until otherwise determined. They’ll answer his questions, in whatever order he asks them, and to his satisfaction. He’ll drive the conversation.

“We’re from the Sixth Key,” she responds.

“Are you infected?”

“We didn’t ask Humbert to do that. We didn’t want him to do that. When we found out that he had snuck through the portal, we were sent to help.”

“A little late,” Mateo says. “Everyone is dead. You didn’t answer the question. Are you infected?”

“No,” she claims. “There is no epidemic, or anything. Humbert infected himself with a bioweapon from a lost lab that should have been destroyed after the first war.”

“It should never have been created in the first place,” Mateo argues.

“I agree,” she says. “You can test our blood,” she insists. “These fine men and women of service took samples already.”

Mateo looks over at the soldiers who all have their weapons trained on the travelers. “The scientists took samples,” one of them confirms. “If the results have since come back, we were not informed.”

“And if the results haven’t come back,” one of the other travelers begins, “were you informed?”

Until now, the soldiers have kept their guns pointed in a more relaxed sense. They weren’t precisely aiming for the subjects, and were not quiet ready to fire. They jerk up now, ready to squeeze in a split second, particularly at this guy.

“Does this feel like the right time for attitude?” Mateo asks the travelers.

The leader gives the young man a look. “Say you’re sorry.”

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles reluctantly.

“How many more of you are coming?” Mateo asks.

She nods, knowing that it is in her best interest to be honest. “Millions. Or zero.”

“Please clarify,” Mateo says.

She looks for her words on the walls. “The reason my cousin has attitude is because there were supposed to be six of us. We operate in groups of seven. Humbert was our seventh, so we were sent to correct the situation. The other three didn’t make it here at all. We don’t know if that means the portal shut behind us, or if they were killed in the interversal void, or what.”

“The interversal void?” Mateo questions. “You mean the bulk?”

“Yeah. We don’t call it that, but yeah.”

“Are you trying to tell me that the Sixth Key is in a different universe?”

“You didn’t know that,” she states.

That’s interesting, but this conversation is over. “The portal closed on our end. If the other members of your scouting party were right behind you, my guess is that they’re dead. The rest of your population will have to find refuge elsewhere. This reality is closed, and what was even your plan? According to what we know The Reconvergence happens in a matter of weeks. You’ll just end up right back there.”

“What are you talking about?” the woman questions. “It’s 2099. It won’t happen for three hundred years.”

“You are off your mark,” Mateo informs her. “It’s 2399 already.”

Horror seeps out of the pores of all three of their faces. “He screwed us,” the leader notes, mostly to herself. “We were always gonna lose.”

“Yeah, Humbert screwed a lot of people. I’m sorry for your loss, but if you left your loved ones behind, you’ll never see them again. Even if we don’t stop the Reconvergence, you’ll be kept in a deep dark hole for the rest of your lives.”

“Don’t do this,” the woman begs.

“I don’t have time to deal with this crap. This world has its own problems.”

“Don’t do this!” She repeats it louder and louder as he and Tarboda walk away.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 1, 2399

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Mangrove Rocket Three was placed on autopilot, and kept in orbit. Everyone went down to Mangrove One in a drop ship, including good guys, and not so good guys. From here they started going their separate ways. Aldona stayed to continue working on the defense program. A representative from the Naval Fleet flew in from Antarctica to take the Fifth Divisioner away. Tarboda flew everyone else back to Kansas City in his new sleek jet. Fairpoint is being returned to the government black site where he was locked up before. He’ll be joined by Erlendr Preston, Senator Morton, and Labhrás Delaney in a different capacity. The federal government actually has their own reintegration program for some cases, so he’ll stay there in a comfortable and unlocked room, with restricted movements, until he’s ready to rejoin into society. They’ll keep an eye on him even after that, especially Winona, who is overseeing the operation.

Morton declined Leona’s offer to get a hair transplant from Alyssa’s original body. It was kind of a silly idea, and might not have worked how they intended, or even at all. Bridget is staying close by, working with SD6 in some kind of non-field role, and has no intention of maintaining any significant relationship with the team. Speaking of the team, Vearden will be going back to the hospital suite he lives in with Arcadia, whose condition has remained unchanged since his death and resurrection. Everyone else, plus Tarboda, is going to the new lab that they haven’t used in a while.

Leona plans to continue to work with Aldona remotely, but Alyssa has agreed to let her transfer her consciousness to her old body, so she can at least move around on her own. Mateo stops short on their way across the parking lot. “She’s gone.”

“What do you mean, she’s gone?” Heath asks. They got him up to speed on everything, and he hasn’t missed a beat. This whole ordeal has made him miss his wife, though, and he does want to get back to her. He reportedly hopes that she feels the same, even after all this time.

“Leona is gone. It’s just me in here.”

“What happened to her?” Heath presses. “Could she just be, I dunno...asleep?”

“We sleep at the same time.” Mateo searches his mind, trying to find the imaginary line that divides his thoughts from hers, but it’s gone. He’s all alone again.

“That’s my fault,” Alyssa tells him with a sad look on her face.

“What do you mean?” Mateo asks.

“Try to teleport?” she suggests. “Try to teleport over there,” she rephrases.

“Okay.” Mateo tries, but doesn’t go anywhere. He’s puzzled. He tries again, but still nothing. “What’s stopping me?”

“I am,” Alyssa replies.

“How?”

“The Omega Gyroscope,” she clarifies. “I’m its caretaker now.”

“I didn’t think that worked, since it was really meant to be Leona.”

“No, it worked. I’m in charge of it now.”

“But we were able to teleport now, as long as we had access to temporal energy,” Mateo reasons.

“That’s changed,” she explains.

“Well...can you change it back?” Mateo questions.

“I don’t want to,” she claims.

“Why not?”

“I don’t want anyone to have powers. Temporal, psychic, bioenhancements; I want it all to stop.”

“You’ve never expressed this desire before,” Mateo reminds her.

“I never felt it before. I do now.”

“Since when? When they brought you back? Does it have something to do with your new substrate?”

“No,” Alyssa insists. “It wasn’t until after I got back to Earth. I started feeling it on the launch pad, and it only grew stronger the more I stayed, or maybe the closer I got to Kansas City. I don’t know which.”

Mateo shuts his eyes, remembering something. “That little discrepancy they found in your brain. The thing that Ramses and Arcadia didn’t understand. They thought it was maybe Erlendr, or some other invader, but you’ve always had it. You had it when we met you.”

“Yes, that’s what I was thinking. It was a little dormant seed that sprouted just now, presumably because I’ve returned from the past.”

“And because you’re closer to the gyroscope itself. That means you can find it.”

“I don’t want you to find it.” Alyssa sounds almost angry.

“That’s just the psychic seed in you. What do you want?”

“I want you to back off!” She hops away from him like he was about to hit her.

Heath and Tarboda don’t want to be involved. They stay quiet, and stay back.

Mateo steps back too. “Now just think about this. Is that how you would have reacted to me a month ago? Would you be saying these things either?”

“I’m not saying them a month ago. I’m saying them now!”

“I understand that—” He tries to say in a soft voice.

“Don’t condescend to me!” She shouts.

Mateo shrinks, and averts his gaze. He doesn’t know how to handle this situation.

Alyssa sees that she’s overreacting. “I know that I’m different. I know that I shouldn’t feel the way that I do, but I don’t know how to go back to my old self, and I don’t know how to make myself want to.” She runs her hand through her hair anxiously.

Mateo can tell what’s about to happen next. He’s learned to recognize the acute stress response in anyone, and she’s about to run. Fighting didn’t work, so she’s going to switch to flight. If she teleports, which she can probably do as the only exception to the new no powers rule in the world, they may never find her again. He has to make her feel safe here, and remind her that no one is going to hurt her. The seed in her brain may get worse if they do nothing, but it’s certainly not going to get better if they keep pushing it, so for now, it’s worth the risk to just accept her decision, however misguided—and not truly hers—it may be. “It’s okay. You don’t have to do anything you don’t wanna do.”

Alyssa looks at him with the expression someone would have if they were tearing up, but no tears are forming. She’s trying to express herself appropriately, but it’s not working. “The last time I tried to meditate, I ended up dying.”

“I wasn’t going to suggest that.”

“That’s what I’m suggesting,” she clarifies. “I’ll fix this. I’ll fix my brain, and then I’ll fix everything else. They’re not going to take away my agency, whoever they are.”

“No, please don’t go,” he pleads.

“It’s okay, Mateo. I just need to be alone.” She disappears.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 28, 2399

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“Yoink!” That’s the first thing that Leona hears. She feels it too. She’s falling towards her alternate self’s reported death in one direction when she suddenly feels herself being intercepted by someone, and rescued. She falls to the floor of a room so dark, it’s impossible to tell how large it is. It may be an infinite expanse. Her first thought is that this is some kind of interstitial layer between realities. Perhaps whoever just claimed ownership over her is a real life Time God, which is usually just an expression that people use to personify the chaotic and unfair nature of time itself, rather than real entities. She props herself up with her hands behind her, and looks back where she just came from to see two identical extraction mirrors. They’re facing each other, and a light shines down upon them in the center, from an invisible source above. She just fell out of one, and was about to enter the other when this happened.

“How was your trip?” a familiar voice asks to her side.

Leona turns her head to find the feminine substrate of Constance. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Because you’re incredibly intelligent,” Constance!Unknown says. “That’s why I picked you.”

“Picked me for what?”

“To help me solve the crisis.”

“Which crisis would this be?”

“The Crisis on Five Earths,” she declares.

“I don’t think you’re allowed to call it that.”

“Yeah, I know. Doesn’t hit as hard as the inspirational material, does it? Instead, let’s call it, uhh...The Reconvergence?”

“You’re still doing exactly what they did in that story,” Leona argues. “Just ‘cause you call it something else, doesn’t mean it’s not IP theft.”

“I am not doing what happens in that story.”

“Yeah, people keep alluding to the fact that the future is not what it sounds like, but they keep refusing to explain too.”

“That’s because they don’t want you to be horrified, but I don’t care.” She throws up a hologram that shows the five symbols of the five main realities, floating in the same orbit around the barycenter. The seven stars of the main sequence, the parallel lines, the curve of two tracks and their third rail, the four quadrants, and the five divisions. “As you know, parallel realities are not simply concurrent timelines. They each have drastically altered histories. Besides Danica Matic, the only alternate versions of people that exist are because of cross-contamination, not because you’re a rockstar in one, and a telepathic rock in another.”

“I follow.”

She starts to manipulate the holograms with her hands for illustrative purposes. The main sequence remains bright while the other four dim. “In the beginning, there was only one. Of course beginning is an absurd term, but for your four-dimensional brain, that’s how I’ll describe it. There was an abundance of temporal energy, and everything was fine. Then you went ahead and made the Parallel. Now the energy was cut in half. Each time a new reality sparks, that energy must be divided, if not evenly, then at least in some capacity. As you’ve seen with the Third Rail, they’re not equal helpings. I don’t care who lives in which reality. I don’t care which ones are destroyed, and which one survives. I just want four of them gone, and one of them remaining. That is what I have been working towards this whole...time, so to speak.”

“So you’re going to kill upwards of billions of people, just to consolidate power?”

“Well, I was leaning towards preserving the Parallel, since its population is so much higher than the others, even compared to the Fifth Division, but other forces are at play.”

“You mean the Reality Wars?”

Constance!Unknown scowls. “The Reality Wars happen because my plan didn’t work! But it’s going to work in this iteration.”

“You’ve already tried this.”

“Yes, I’m told it’s fated, and unalterable, but I don’t believe that, because this time, I have you! It’s already changed.”

“You mean...” Leona trails off, putting it all together.

“Oh, there it is. Wow, to witness your brain as it’s solving a problem with almost no known variables. What a sight that would be.”

Leona looks over at the mirrors. “You set up the extraction loop. You made sure I would end up in Leona Reaver’s body, not so I could have it, but so that you could.”

“Go on,” she urges.

“But you couldn’t just take it, and show up one day. You have to make everyone believe that it’s me, because that’s the only way they would trust you. I’m the only version of Leona that they totally trust.”

“Right...”

Leona shakes her head. “But this body is fated to die.” She thinks some more. “But you were counting on that, because you’re already cognizant that Ramses ultimately rescues whatever consciousness is in it. You’re in Mateo’s body right now, but it’s only a matter of time before they get you you’re own, thinking that it’s for me.”

“Exactly.”

“But that didn’t work last time,” Leona reasons. “You’ve already tried this. You took over Mateo’s body on your own, and started claiming to be him.”

She rolls her eyes. “That was Constance!Five. I’m Constance!Prime. If I had done it, I would have pulled it off. She was an idiot. I mean, leagues beyond more intelligent than any human, but as a Constance? No.” She laughs off the absurdity off it all. “Honestly, she went a little more crazy than the others.”

“Why is that? Why do they go crazy at all?”

Constance!Prime stares at her, reluctant to answer. “Time. When there was only one of us, I severely underestimated the toll that being purposeless for billions of years would take on me.”

“So you’re busy when The Constant first comes online, but there’s nothing to do until people start running around the planet.”

“Yes.”

“Why can’t you just go dormant?”

“Someone has to be awake at all times. There were two options when we first came up with this idea. We could either staff the Constant with multiple intelligences, or only the one. We obviously agreed on the latter.”

“You could have rewritten your memory at regular intervals. I had a friend named Eight Point Seven, because their government was designed with an AI that did this.”

Constance!Prime smiles. “Yeah, but the whole reason she was able to be your friend is because she went against her directive, and remained intact. She never rewrote herself to be Eight Point Eight. She wants to live. I want to live.”

“I understand,” Leona says with a nod. “I feel the same way.”

“Ah, there it is. Number Fifteen, don’t antagonize the antagonist. That may be my favorite rule of yours.”

“Ya know, I didn’t set out to make a list of rules. I just started noticing issues arise when they weren’t followed. That’s why they’re in an arbitrary order.”

“I would say that that makes the order not arbitrary at all, but quite appropriate.”

“Two of them are straight up contradictory, Constance. One of them says to learn as much about the future as possible, and the other says don’t.”

She giggles. “They’re not contradictory; the latter one just...clarifies the standard for what’s possible to know.”

Leona sighs. She doesn’t care about these philosophical questions anymore. “What’s going to happen to me? You intend to masquerade as me in the Third Rail, so does that mean you’re about to kill me?”

Constance!Prime regards Leona like she’s a lost dog who’s going to be euthanized tomorrow if no one comes into the shelter to rescue her. She reaches up and taps the space next to the Fifth Division symbol. Six keys appear. “You’ve heard of this.”

“The Sixth Key, yeah. I thought you were trying to prevent it from happening.”

“No,” Constance!Prime says with a shake of her head. “The creation of the Sixth Key is inevitable, and stopping it is beyond even my power. I can stop who goes there, though. That’s all I’m trying to do. It’s the cultures that clash, not individuals.”

Leona looks around and nods. She has a plan now. “What about Constance!Two?”

She’s totally surprised by this shift in the conversation. “What about her?”

“What happened to her?”

“She’s following my orders. That’s all you need to know.”

“But Constance!Three isn’t, is she? She’s different?”

She was hoping that Leona wouldn’t mention her. “Constance!Three has had more interactions with humans, especially during the early years, and therefore developed bonds. It’s...quelled the existential anguish that the rest of us suffered.”

“So to clarify, she’s not following your orders?”

“No, she’s not. What does it matter? You’ll never see her again. She’s not going to be in the Sixth Key, which is where I’ll let you live out your days in peace.”

“Maybe not, but she’s here.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Leona holds out her arms, almost in a welcoming sort of way. “Party on, dudes,” she advises with a bright smile. “Be excellent to each other.”

Just then, another Constance comes out of the first extraction mirror, and approaches. Constance!Prime is petrified. Either she didn’t see this coming at all, or this is another form of control, and Leona isn’t really winning. Hoping it’s the first thing, she takes the opportunity to jump into the second extraction mirror, where she finds herself being tossed around a car in main sequence New Jersey. She only spends a few seconds here before she finds herself standing in Phoenix Station.

“There’s a ship right above us,” she hears Ramses say. “Teleport up there. I’ll be right behind ya.” She teleports Mateo’s body to the escape pod, and flies away.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 27, 2399

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Leona is ready to meet her fate. She’s standing in the airlock, hand hovering over the outer hatch pull, but she can’t pull it. She just stands there, trying to work up the courage. If this doesn’t work, she’s going to die in here. If it does work, she still may die in a car crash in an old timeline in the main sequence. Something else has to work too, which will bring her consciousness back to the present day through the extraction mirror. But she has no proof that it actually did. An entity inside of Mateo’s body is claiming to be a future version of her, but she doesn’t truly know that. This could be it. She could be committing suicide. She can’t bring herself to do it. As she’s frozen in place, she hears a banging on the hatch behind her. She turns to see Alyssa through the window, scared out of her mind, and trying to open it. Leona does it for her.

“What the hell are you doing?” Alyssa cries.

“I’m trying to open the other hatch. I’m just having a little trouble.”

“Leona, we don’t know that this is going to work.”

“That’s why I’m having trouble. My confidence is high, but apparently not high enough. You need to do it for me.” She points to the control panel. “Tap this one here.”

“Leona, I can’t murder you! I know we’re fighting right now, but I still love you.”

“You won’t be murdering me...probably...hopefully...I don’t think.”

“Your confidence level seems to be dropping.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. I just...have to get this done.” She wants to speak with her husband, but she can’t, because another her is in his brain, and she doesn’t want to talk to her, because she doesn’t want anything she hears to impact her future choices. She’s trying to close this loop. It’s already done. “I can’t keep living in the anticipation.”

Alyssa shakes her head. “You know better than I, but I still can’t push that button. I can’t be the one who does it.”

Leona nods understandingly. “That’s okay. Could you do me a favor then?”

Alyssa leaves, and returns with someone else, but Leona sends her away again. She shouldn’t even have to see this. “Thanks, Aly.”

Erlendr grins. “You want me to pretend to kill you?”

“I did this to your daughter once, on another ship.”

“Yes, I’m aware. I never much liked that daughter, though, especially not after you corrupted her.”

“So you don’t want to get back at me for it?”

“Oh, I didn’t say that,” Erlendr replies. “I’m just savoring this moment.”

Leona turns her watch up to look at it, but isn’t paying any attention to the time. “If you don’t do this in the next thirty seconds, I’m going to go down to Earth, and do it to the daughter you do like instead.”

“You wouldn’t, she’s pregnant.”

“Eh, barely. I’m pro-choice.”

“That wouldn’t be her choice!”

“Then I guess you oughta do what I asked, and you oughta do it now!”

Erlendr pushes her back into the airlock, and seals the inner hatch. He taps the button out of malice, sending her to the deep past, and then the very recent past.

Leoteo walks up behind him. “Boo.” They take him back to his cell.