The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 26, 2399

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Leona is grateful for the delay. It gave her the time she needed to practice Alyssa’s illusion power. As a bonus, with their relationship with her patched, Alyssa herself was able to teach her what she needed to know. It’s crazy that this is the same young woman they met less than a year ago. She was so ignorant, but so patient and welcoming, and now it feels like she gets this stuff better than they do. How much did Dalton tell her?

The sanctuary is packed. No, they don’t call it that. It’s just the auditorium. This religion thinks it’s different than the others, as if using more generic terminology somehow makes it less demanding of blind devotion. But they’re all the same. This, Mormonism, Christianity, Scientology. The details in their stories are irrelevant and interchangeable. Any wisdom or truth in their claims are overshadowed by their insistence that this is the only path to righteousness. That’s why Leona is choosing to reveal herself to this audience. While anyone will be able to log on and watch, this audience here is going to see what she can do in person, and they will instantaneously switch loyalties. Imani Pettis doesn’t think that’s going to happen. She thinks it will only strengthen their faith in Dalton. That’s just because she’s been too close to it for too long. These people are here because they don’t think for themselves. It’s not that they can’t; it’s that they don’t want to. Leona is going to wean them off of that mentality, but first, she needs their attention.

She’s sitting on the stage, watching the church leaders go over whatever garbage they’re trying to convince of the congregation. This is an introductory meeting house, so there is a lot they don’t know about the faith yet. Most of the agenda involves simply encouraging them to stick around and find out, rather than actually telling them something that helps them live better lives. Anyway, who is Leona to judge their methods? It obviously works. It’s probably not doing much today, though. Everyone knows that Leona is here, and that she’s here to do something big. Some in the audience may have no intention of converting to Daltomism. They just want to watch the big show from up close. A show is what they’ll get.

Now it’s her turn. She swallows her stage fright, and stands when Imani introduces her as the current leader of the new nation of Arvazna. “Thank you, Madam Pettis.” She turns towards the audience. “As she told you, I’m Leona Matic. What she didn’t tell you is that I...am from another world. I mean that literally,” she adds through the muted whispers of the doubters. “We call it the main sequence. Your world is the Third Rail. Over the next week or so, I’m going to be getting deeper into the secret truth, with the help of my new publicist team.” She smiles, and gestures towards two other people sitting downstage. “But I wanted to give you all a taste of it first, because I want you to understand something. Dalton Hawk...is a man.” Apparently, he’s never actually gone by his last name here, but they seem to understand who she means. “He is a man of immense power, but he is not a god. I should know...we were once friends. I honestly don’t know what happened between us. A lot of time has passed since we last saw each other. More for him than for me, I imagine.

“I know that this is hard for you to believe, especially those in the smaller congregations, who are watching from your own meeting houses. Some may have already turned off the feed, and I suppose I won’t be talking to you. I’ll be talking to the rest of you, who are open-minded, thoughtful, and interested in learning the truth. Now. Speaking of those watching from home, and other places, what you see here today is real. You may assume it to be nothing more than camera trickery, but I assure you that these holograms are powered by me, and me alone. What I’m doing is reaching across space and time, even to other realities. I’m copying photons of light from these places, and displaying them before you. The images I’ll be showing you really exist, somewhere, somewhen. Dalton Hawk has a different ability. He can conjure physical objects from these other realities that I mentioned. Again, it’s not that he is not powerful, but be wary of the tales the Word of Dalton tells you. They are not all true. He is trying to get you to believe in something, and he figured that something may as well be him. I’m just trying to show you the truth.”

That said, Leona turns herself into the accepted likeness of Dalton. The audience’s interest is piqued, but a sophisticated enough holograph machine could project such an image. This is why, after showing them a few more images, she recruits some help. Alyssa appears out of nowhere, and takes hold of Leona. She transports them both to a meeting house in New Orleans. This was part of the schedule, so the feed automatically switches to this new stage. She releases a few new holograms: of a giraffe, of a whale, and of the moon. Each time, she turns herself into a different celebrity that anyone from the Third Rail would recognize. She then hops off the stage, and starts shaking people’s hands. All of this could be fake unless tons of people can corroborate that they made physical contact with an individual. Alyssa teleports them again, this time to a meeting house in Vancouver. They repeat the bit all over the continent, and then all over the world.

The last location they go to is the largest meeting house in Kansas City. It’s the one where Heath started when he was a child. The crowd is cheering, ecstatic that their church was chosen to become part of the big show. They’re starting to believe too. It has to be real. It has to. After she’s done shaking hands, Leona climbs back on stage, and prepares to finish her speech from here. The back doors open suddenly, loudly like in a movie. Their ploy worked. She was confident that it would, but she never thought that Dalton would show up this quickly. They all assumed he would try to reach out to them covertly afterwards. But here Dalton is, walking down the aisle in his billowy robes.

He steps onto stage, and approaches her. “You got my attention.”

She tries to hand him her microphone. “Care to speak to your congregation?”

Dalton looks out over the audience, and into the main camera. “Did you notice I don’t have my cane?”

“Yes, Alyssa said she lost it.”

Dalton eyes Alyssa, who’s remained downstage and quiet this whole time, until it’s her cue to transport them to a new location. She’s scared of him. “Yes,” he confirms. “That seems to have led you to believe that I have now been stripped of my power.”

“Well, we know you have some level of mastery over the Omega Gyroscope too.”

He nods. “This is true. but that’s not my power. This is.” He raises his hand.

“Oh, shit.” Leona doesn’t know what’s going to happen, but it won’t be good.

“I am...inevitable.” Dalton snaps his fingers, and everyone in the auditorium disappears, except for him, Leona, and Alyssa. A bunch of new people are here now, though. Some of their friends have come, but so have the resurrected people who are supposed to be locked away in the black site. Heath and Vearden are notably absent. It’s nighttime. “I just undid everything.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 25, 2399

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While Alyssa teleported rather randomly around the area, Mateo and Tarboda started hunting for the secrets of Daltomism the old fashioned way. They looked for hidden ruins, secret hatches, visible temporal anomalies, and anything else out of the ordinary. This is one of the remotest regions of Madagascar, known as Tsingy De Bemaraha National Park. The terrain is rough and unapologetic. It would be a great place to hide a real life god, and they’re pretty convinced that someone is here, or there wouldn’t be a tractor beam under that lake. They also don’t think that whatever they’re looking for is located too close to the lake. The tractor beam is trying to keep away from it. They’re focusing their efforts on the part of the jungle where Vearden first suggested they try. When they didn’t find anything by nightfall, they decided to make camp there. Alyssa offered to just take them back to civilization, but what if Dalton showed up overnight? What if his most devout followers build a ritualistic bonfire to worship the lunar demons, or whatever the hell else they believe in? They didn’t want to miss it.

The next morning, they go back to work. They’ve found it. It’s a half hut, but not the half you’re thinking of. The bed is part way on the wood floor, then hovers over the missing floor at the foot. The roof is over the missing part of the floor, and not over the actual floor. The window ought to have four quadrants, but the only two quadrants visible are diagonal to each other. The wall that it’s been placed on works the same way, but exists only by the missing quadrants. The nightstand is missing its legs, and the lamp is missing every other slice of its shade, as well as the entire bulb, though the light emanating from it shines as if it were there. A man steps in through a door, which only has a top half.  If this weren’t a transdimensional structure, or something else crazy and weird like that, they would have seen him walk up from the side. He came from another place. This...is a permanent portal.

The man starts to set his belongings down on the bed, and then finally notices Mateo and Tarboda. He stares at them and blinks like he’s never seen another human being before. “Crap.” He looks back at the door, likely weighing the pros and cons of running. He doesn’t budge, which suggests that anyone can walk right on through, without a key, or some time power form of it.

“It’s okay,” Mateo says, dropping his pack to the ground, and holding his hands up to show that he’s unarmed. “We’re not here to hurt you.”

“I don’t suppose any of you are one of the keys,” he asks.

“No, but we know two of them. Are we allowed to mention their names, or is there some sort of compartmentalization rule against it?”

He narrows his eyes. “Which ones do you know?”

“Iris Blume and Summit Ebora.”

He perks up. “My wife and child.”

“Does that make you a key?”

“Hm. We’re called keyholders...the co-parents.”

“Do you know who the other keys are? We might know where they are.”

Cheyenne comes through the portal door, and places a hand on the stranger’s shoulder. It’s okay, Rino. They’re friends.”

“Are we?” Mateo questions.

“What my husband did was reckless, but necessary. And what I did was meant to protect him, and therefore also necessary.”

“We understand, we just...don’t know who you are.”

“I’m the Fifth Key.”

“What does that mean?” Tarboda presses. “What are the keys? “What do you do?”

Cheyenne ignores his question. “Did you find The Arc yet?”

“If you mean the weird building thing that’s actually a ship, then yes.”

“Good, you’re on schedule.”

“We’re using it to house refugees,” Tarboda explains. “If you have plans for some other group of—”

“No,” Cheyenne interrupts, “that’s who it’s for. Whoever needs it can live there.”

“What happens to those who don’t get on it? Does everyone on this world die?”

“Heavens, no. It’s a...bellwether. They built it for the Third Railers to show them what wonders are possible, to give them a technological boost.”

“Against the other realities in the war,” Mateo guesses.

“That’s Aldona’s job,” she says. “The Arc is a message of peace.”

“From who?”

Cheyenne smiles. “From you.”

Mateo sighs. “Don’t say anything else about my future, please.”

She keeps smiling, and nods in agreement.

Mateo takes a beat. “What about Dalton Hawk?”

She looks somewhat uncomfortable. “What about him?”

He eyes the magic door. “Is he in there somewhere?”

“I don’t know where he is now. He and we came to an understanding. We get to live here with no risk of running out of temporal energy, safe until it’s time to come back out. In exchange, we don’t interfere with his plans.”

“Are his plans...”

“Noble? Good?” Cheyenne thinks about it. “They’re not bad. They’re also irrelevant. If I were you, I wouldn’t waste your time with him. The Reconvergence is coming, the Keys will be turned, and the Reality Wars will begin. They can’t be stopped, and nothing he’s tried to do with his little religion is gonna make one goddamn bit of difference. Eight billion people live on this planet, and even less in the Fourth Quadrant. That is a rounding error compared to the vast populations of the other three parallel realities. People will one day know who he truly is, and they’ll stop following him, because others will show their own power, and they won’t be dicks about it. He only has so many followers because he’s the only one on stage right now.”

“You know a hell of a lot more about this than you let on before. When Danica and I first happened upon you—”

“That was not a coincidence. I was told to find my future there. I’ve learned a lot more about it since then, but the only lies I ever told were to protect everyone’s future.”

“Okay. Just tell me, who are the other keys?”

She frowns at the lost puppy. “Very well. Iris Blume of the Parallel, Summit Ebora of the Fifth Division, Kyra Torosia of the Fourth Quadrant, Cheyenne Duvall of the Third Rail.” She bows gracefully, then pauses. “Cedar Duvall of the Sixth Key.”

Cedar is not surprising. “Wait, you skipped one. Who’s from the main sequence?”

Cheyenne hesitates, but is preparing to answer. “Vearden Haywood.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 24, 2399

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During World War VI, Captain Tarboda Hobson was an active member of the air force, serving by dropping supplies into quarantine camps so no one would actually have to go inside. When a new vaccine was released, he would drop that in too. Of course, a new strain—or an entirely new pathogen—was coming into power seemingly every day back then, so he never took any time off. Even that seems like nothing compared to what he’s doing now. He’s taking advantage of his new chance on life, and trying to help as many people as possible. What he’s been doing is technically against global law, but it’s a gray area when it comes to Leona’s nation. Of course, he’s utilizing resources from the U.S. government, but he’s just pretending that that’s not really happening. It’s not his job to be concerned with the politics anyway. He and his new team have one objective, which is to rescue people who are being trafficked all over the world, and to relocate them to Leona’s magical new building. He forgot how much he loved doing this, not worrying about making the decisions. He flies, that’s what he does. It’s all he does. Well, he sometimes pilots in boat mode.

Today is different. He’s being temporarily reassigned to a new mission. While Leona does whatever it is she’es doing stateside, he’s on his way to the Island of Madagascar. The religion of Daltomism supposedly originated here. According to Mateo, who’s here with him, this might not be completely random. If you drew a line from Kansas straight through the center of the Earth, and came out the other side, Madagascar would be the nearest landmass. These are called antipodes, though the place where they’re going is not the exact opposite point. The exact opposite would be in the middle of the ocean, as it usually is, since the Earth is mostly water. This was close enough, and it is Leona’s belief that Dalton chose this region because it was the farthest from The Constant in what is now Kansas. That’s where all the mysterious immortal people live that Tarboda hasn’t dealt with directly yet.

“Don’t we think this is all happening a little too quick? Word around the government water cooler is that Leona’s about to announce something big.”

“It has to happen fast,” Mateo explains. “The Reality Wars are starting early next month. Dalton Hawke is the last piece of the puzzle. If this is where he founded his religion, we have to know about it.”

“How did you find this place specifically?”

“Our new friend, Imani gave us a copy of Word of Dalton, Book II, which she can evidently get in a lot of trouble for. Vearden was researching it for us before his...” Mateo trails off. “He thinks it describes this part of the jungle.”

“What do we think, there’s a hidden temple somewhere around here?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, we may find out soon.” Tarboda slows down, and shifts into hover mode. “We’re at the coordinates you gave me.”

“Is there, like, a camera on the bottom of this thing?” Mateo asks, looking at the floor. “I would like to see what’s directly below us.”

“Is there a camera?” Tarboda echoes with a laugh. “Ha!” He engages erasure mode, removing the floor entirely, showing them what it would look like if it didn’t exist, and they could just float in the air.

“Whoa. I’ve seen stuff like this before. I have an idea of how it works, but it’s still trippy to stand here. Can you scan for structures, or whatever?”

“Uhhh...” Tarboda taps through the manual on the built-in screen. “Scan. Here we go.” He presses the button. Nothing happens that they can see, but the computer says that it’s scanning. “It didn’t find anything. No ruins.”

“That’s not surprising, or someone would have found it a long time ago. I’ve always wanted to do that thing where we—”

“Wait.” He looks at the screen. It’s detecting radiation from that body of water.”

“Bad radiation?”

“Slight radiation.”

Mateo has to duck his head down to see the lake through the floor. “Does that mean we can’t do the thing?”

“What thing?”

“Sliding down to the ground on ropes hanging from the helicopter.”

“No, we definitely can’t do that.”

Mateo hangs his head.

Tarboda smirks. “Because this is not a helicopter. I’ll get the gear. That button over there will open the center floor hatch.”

Mateo goes over to open it. The floor reappears, but only in that spot. The hatch drops a little, then slides under like a pocket door. Tarboda drops the lines, and starts to get himself fitted with the climbing gear. He looks over the edge to see that the lake is closer than it was before. “What the hell? The jet has been moving on its own.”

“It has? You didn’t move it?”

Tarboda drops the gear, and runs back over to the cockpit and looks at the screen. The scanner didn’t find much before, but it’s found something now. All sorts of debris and wreckage is down in that water. It’s much deeper than it looks from a distance. “Close the hatch!”

Mateo slams on the button again. The floor starts closing back up. Just as it does, the jet tips over, sending him slamming against the back wall.

“You okay?” He asks.

“I’m all right!”

“I’m tryin’ to get us out of here!”

“Something’s pulling us down?”

“Yeah,” Tarboda calls back. “Hold on, we’re gonna start pullin’ some Gs!” He engages the thrusters, but whatever invisible force is tugging at them is reacting in kind. It won’t let them go, and it’s stronger than his beautiful new plane is. They gave this to him to please the team. They’re not going to give him a second one. “Try to climb back up here! I can’t get us out!”

“No! Jump, Tarboda!”

“What!”

“Jump down here! Trust me!”

These people brought him back to life; he has to do whatever they say. He undoes his belt, hangs between the seats, then lets go. They’re not perfectly vertical, so he slides on the floor, heading right for Mateo, who has his wrist up to his face. Suddenly, the jet is gone, and he’s tumbling on the ground. He gets himself to his feet and looks up to see the jet being sucked into the water, but not before it implodes.

Alyssa’s here with them. “Crushed it.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 23, 2399

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Vearden has done his best to stay out of all the time travel stuff, just like Arcadia wanted. It’s triggering for her, and he doesn’t like it all that much anymore either. He has occasionally done the team a favor, though, because they’re still friends, and he wants them to be okay. It’s mostly been research, but there have been requests that were a little more involved. He’s not asked for anything from them in return, though, so maybe they owe him. Hopefully they won’t make him resort to pointing that out. Hopefully Leona just does as he asks.

“You want me to make her look like herself?” Leona echoes.

“Can you do it?”

“Yeah, an illusion is an illusion, whether it’s superimposed over me, or someone else. Just give me a second.” Leona thinks back to how she remembers Arcadia. It’s been a long time since she’s seen that face, but she can still picture it pretty well. And anyway, Alyssa’s ability is so powerful that she doesn’t have to recall every single detail. It’s in her brain somewhere, and Arcadia herself is somewhere in time and space, and that’s really all that matters. She’s not magically generating a hologram that looks like someone else. She’s stealing light from somewhere else. “There.” She opens her eyes to see her success. There Arcadia is, lying on the bed before her. She’s still in a coma, but she looks like her old self again.

“Great, thanks,” Vearden says, admiring the real look of the love of his life. “You can go now.”

“Don’t you want to look upon her a little longer?”

“What do you mean? Are you saying this is gonna wear off?”

“It’s going to disappear as soon as I leave,” Leona explains. “I’m sorry, I thought you realized that.”

He stares blankly into space, and sits down. “No, I didn’t.”

“I’m sorry,” she repeats. “I would hold it here permanently if I could, but I can’t figure it out. I know that other illusionists have that power, but if Alyssa’s old body did, I’ve yet to learn it. We never asked her to try it when she was using it.”

“What about her new body?” Vearden goes on. “Would she be able to do it now?”

“She may,” Leona answers as she’s taking out her phone. “There’s still a lot she doesn’t tell us, and she may have just not thought to mention it.” She waits for the phone. “Aly? Can you teleport here? I need to...”

Alyssa appears before Leona can even finish her sentence. “Is everything okay?” She’s looking at Arcadia anxiously.

“It’s all right,” Vearden answers, realizing that she thinks this is a medical issue. “I was just hoping that you could make that permanent.”

“Yeah, of course, I can. Leona, could you...”

“Oh, okay.” Leona drops her illusion so Alyssa can make her own. She does it a lot faster, and doesn’t struggle with it at all.

“When you leave, she’s going to stay like that, right?” Vearden asks.

“Absolutely. I’m the only one who can get rid of it. If she wakes up, and wants to look like the other Leona again, she’ll need me. And if I die before she can do that, she’ll be stuck like this forever. So if you want to see what it’s like to be married to a human-sized mouse, or a monster truck, now’s your chance.”

“Why? Are you going to die?” Leona asks her.

“I...don’t want to be married to a mouse in a monster truck,” Vearden says as he’s admiring his love some more.

“That’s not what I said.”

“Whatever.” He stands there for another minute before looking up at them. “Thank you. Now you can go.”

“Come on, I’ll take you back to New York.” Alyssa offers a hand.

“I have a rental car. The reason I’m in Kansas City is because I had business to attend to in the lab, and I wanted to visit my friends.”

“That’s okay,” Vearden counters. “She can’t talk, and I don’t want to anymore.”

The two of them nod and respectfully leave through the door. Vearden sits down next to Arcadia. He doesn’t want to be married to a mouse, but he would like the chance to marry her. If she would just wake up, maybe he would be able to ask. They actually did discuss it before this happened. These were just preliminary talks; nothing concrete, but he’s confident that it would have ended up in a proposal. Now who knows how she’ll feel when she finally awakens? She may be in a weird sort of limbo dimension between life and death right now, having adventures with a stranger, and falling love with them instead. Vearden falls asleep thinking of a future that may never come to pass.

He doesn’t wake back up until it’s dark so when he tries to stand, and slips on the floor, he can’t see what it is. He tries to make his eyes adjust to the moonlight, but it’s not enough. “Hey, thistle, turn on the lights.” His eyes don’t even have to readjust completely before he can see what it is. Blood. Arcadia is bleeding. He reaches over and slams on the big mauve button. The alarm goes off. An army of nurses rush into the room. “She’s bleeding all over the floor! Something’s wrong.”

The nurses stop and stare.

“It’s her. This is what she’s supposed to look like.”

Two of the nurses start examining her while another checks the equipment. The fourth doesn’t move. “How did you make her look like that?” she asks him.

“It didn’t cause this,” he promises. “It’s a sophisticated hologram...just light.”

“Are you sure?”

“I guess not.”

“Who do you need to call?” she questions.

Vearden fumbles around, looking for his phone. It’s almost dead, but it has enough power for one call. “Leona? Get back here. Now.”

Five seconds later, Leona and Alyssa appear in the corner. “What’s wrong?”

“Take down the illusion,” Vearden demands. “It’s hurting her.”

“Impossible,” Alyssa insists, but still, she waves her arm, and drops the illusion. She looks like Leona again.

The real Leona takes Vearden by the upper arms. “Come on. Let them work.”

“Where’s the doctor?” he asks the head nurse.

“He’s coming,” she replies.

“I can bring him here faster,” Alyssa volunteers. “Where is he?”

“He’s coming,” the nurse repeats.

Dr. Cenric Best comes in right after that, and begins his own examination. He’s being frustratingly quiet about it. He looks very concerned, though. He’s moving his stethoscope around Arcadia’s belly. He’s moving it too much.

“What is it? Can you not find a heartbeat?” Vearden is on the verge of tears.

Now Dr. is just feeling around on Arcadia’s belly. “Nurse, get the echouterograph.”

“What is it? What’s wrong!”

Dr. Best pivots to face Vearden. “I don’t want you to worry. We don’t know what this is yet. I need to do one more test, and then I’ll try to explain it, okay? At this point, I’ll admit that I’m worried about the baby, but I’m not worried about Miss Preston. She’s exhibiting no signs of distress. The blood and amniotic fluid leakage is alarming, but there could be any number of benign causes that I’m not ruling out just yet.” He washes his hands, and then begins the ultrasound.

While that’s going on, Leona makes Vearden sit down, and try to relax. His agitation isn’t helping the situation. These people know what they’re doing. At least they do to an extent. Dr. Best keeps looking over at Vearden and the other three time travelers. He seems rather confused by what he’s seeing on the screen.

“I need an update, Doctor,” Vearden urges.

“Nurse, can you hold the wand in place?”

“Yes, Doctor.”

Dr. Best stands up, and removes his gloves. He stands in front of the travelers like a PhD candidate at the beginning of his presentation for the dissertation committee. “I’m going to ask you a few questions, and I want you to answer them in order, so I can get an idea of what’s going on here. Is that okay?”

“Go ahead,” Vearden replies, trying to be patient.

He points to Leona. “She’s not your twin sister, correct?”

“Correct. She’s in the body of my alternate self. The other Leona went through a traumatic experience in her twenties. Someone went back in time and changed it for her. Normally that would erase her from the timestream, and I would replace her, but she was somehow rescued by your world. Then Arcadia’s mind was placed in her body.”

“Okay, that tracks with what I’ve learned of you people. And what, uh...what powers do you have?”

“Well, right now I can create illusions by stealing photons of light from elsewhere in time and space.”

“And can she do that too?” Dr. Best points over at Arcadia.

“No. She doesn’t have any powers.”

He’s confused.

“But she had a pattern,” Leona amends. “She would jump forward in time. At the end of every day, at midnight, she would skip over a whole year. I was like that too.”

“That might explain it,” Dr. Best thinks.

“Explain what?”

“Your baby is gone. It wasn’t born, it wasn’t taken out by a laparysterotomy.” He tries to show them what he’s talking about on the monitor. “It’s just disappeared. Could it have...gone into the future?”

Leona looks nervously at Vearden, but he doesn’t look back. He doesn’t speak.

“Vearden?” Alyssa asks, waving his hand in front of his face.

Dr. Best checks his pupils with a pen light. “I think it’s psychological shock.”

Psychological shock. Sounds about right. His mind probably just can’t figure out what it’s supposed to feel about this. Obviously it feels bad, but it’s feeling all of the bad feelings all at once, and people aren’t built for that. He’s certainly not. “Fuck you all.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 22, 2399

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Labhrás Delaney steps into the apartment behind Winona, and looks around with a frown on his face. It’s small, and it could do with some cleaning, but he’s lived in worse. He did not exactly grow up rich. That’s why he did what he used to do, because he had to. He’s trying to do better now, but he certainly wouldn’t say that he regrets his past transgressions. That’s not true; he literally said that he regrets everything, but he didn’t really mean it. He just knew that the only way he was ever going to get back to the surface of the planet was to tell these people what they wanted to hear. Luckily, lying is his specialty. He steps a little farther into the unit. “What’s this?”

“It’s your new place,” she tells him.

“I thought we were just stopping by to run an errand. You bought this for me?”

“Well, the government did; not me personally, and they rented it. Surprise!”

He shakes his head, looking at the mold on the wall, and incessant leaky faucet.

“Mateo taught me a phrase from his reality. He said that beggars can’t be choosers. This is what’s available. The government’s not going to spring for a penthouse apartment overlooking the water.”

“No, it’s not like that. I thought I would be living closer to my granddaughter.”

“She’s not your granddaughter yet, and I don’t think she thinks of you that way. And anyway, she lives in New York now, and I don’t think that she’ll be coming back anytime soon. There’s something there that cannot be moved.”

“Oh, you gave me access to the news down in the prison. I heard all about it. Which is why I was hoping that you would relocate me there.”

“That’s not a thing,” Winona says apologetically. “We don’t move people around. You began your rehabilitation in KC, because that’s where the person who was in charge of it—i.e. me—needed to be. We only relocate through the witness protection program.”

“I witnessed a murder,” Labhrás discloses.

“Are you talking about your own murder?”

“Would that not count? Hold on, I can think of another crime...”

“I’m sorry, Mister Delaney, but if you don’t want to go back to the black site, this place is your only option. You’ll also need to fulfill the requirements we spoke of. You need to check in regularly, stay sober, earn gainful employment by the end of April—”

“You don’t think this is going to last another month, do you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Word has spread, Miss Honeycutt. The world is ending.”

“Who did you overhear discussing that?” she questions.

“The guards never told me their names.”

“So it was a guard.”

“Don’t get anyone in trouble on my account.”

She sighs. “Leona is going to reveal herself to the Daltomists, and therefore the whole world, on Friday. The last thing she needs is a presumably dead future relative of hers showing up to make things even more complicated.”

He seems to get it now. He throws his knapsack onto the counter. “Thank you.”

“Try to find some joy here. This is the kind of second chance that no one else has ever received. I’ll come by to take you shopping tomorrow.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 21, 2399

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Alyssa left for a few hours, claiming that she was going to ask Dalton to agree to a meeting with Team Matic. When she came back, she apologized for not being able to make it happen. He was apparently still upset with her for losing the Dilara Cane, and only maintains any sort of relationship with her because he still needs her to be in charge of the Omega Gyroscope. The good news is that Alyssa has so far been able to keep to her word. She didn’t leave the Superscraper ship after relaying the news, and spent the night here. She had a lot of work to do before, but most of that is over now. Things should be working on their own without requiring constant attention.

“Thank you for trying,” Mateo says to her during breakfast. “I’m not sure I said that to you yesterday.”

“I’m sorry for how I behaved. That’s not me.”

“It literally wasn’t. Don’t worry about it. We’ve all done stuff like that. Ramses sacrificed himself out of his guilt for what he had done. Don’t let that happen to you. We’re a team, and we can get through anything. Together,” he adds.

She smiles. “Where’s Leona.”

“She’s getting ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“For our response to Dalton.”

“Hmm. What response would that be?”

Leona walks into the kitchen in her Shabatica best. She’s wearing a pretty floral dress that shows off her figure, but isn’t revealing or distracting. Her hair’s been done up all nice, and she’s wearing a modest amount of concealer makeup. “You told me to not wear blackface, so I’m not.”

Mateo shakes her head. “I still think it’s going to work. They just need to see what you can do.”

“Who needs to see what she can do?” Alyssa questions nervously.

“The Meeting House,” Leona replies. “I’m going to reveal myself as an illusionist.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“You’re right. I hadn’t given it any thought. I’m just doing this on a whim.”

“I thought we were friends again now,” Alyssa says.

“That’s how I talk to my friends sometimes. You’ll learn.”

“She’s anxious about it,” Mateo tries to explain. “It’s kind of a big deal.”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Leona says dismissively. “People already saw this building appear out of nowhere magically. They just need some details.”

“She’s too anxious to be honest with herself about it,” Mateo adds.

“That may be, but do you think your remarks are helping?” Leona asks him.

“What exactly is the purpose of this?” Alyssa asks.

“Do you think that Dalton would change his mind if you asked about us again?”

“No.”

“That’s why.” His initial reaction was totally predictable. She didn’t think that he would go for it. If Dalton wanted to talk to them, he would have shown up anytime in the last year. This was just a wave hello. It was pleasant. It was nice. He’s going to wish he had answered it. The next move might hurt a bit. He’s the god here, and if someone makes an appearance, claiming to be just as powerful, that would cause quite a stir.

“I don’t understand,” Alyssa admits.

“We want his attention,” Mateo elaborates. “We’ll get it.”

“Are we not worried about the repercussions?” Alyssa presses. “The side effects?”

“It’s like the man said,” Leona begins, “they’ve already seen the building. If a house had appeared out of nowhere, we could have chalked it up to a magic trick. But a gigantic spaceship that’s taller than any building in the world by a hundred meters? In the middle of downtown New York City? Try explaining that away. The secret is out, and even if it wasn’t, it soon will be. The world is about to be destroyed, and everyone here is going to need to be moved to an entirely new universe. We have a term for that in the main sequence. It’s called The Edge, and it marks the year when everything changes. I think it was off by a few months, because this is happening, and it’s happening soon.”

“Okay,” Alyssa decides. “You do you. Can I come, though?”

“Absolutely,” answers a voice in the doorway.

“Imani Pettis, meet our good friend, Alyssa McIver. Alyssa, Imani.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Imani says, stepping into the room, followed by Heath.

“Likewise,” Alyssa returns.

“Do I look okay?” Leona straightens her dress at the hips.

“You look perfectly acceptable,” Imani says, but she doesn’t sound happy.

“Oh, no. What’s wrong?” Mateo asks.

“I’ve been praying on it, and I don’t think this is a good idea anymore.”

“To be quite frank,” Leona begins, which is never the best way for her to start a comment to someone of which she is asking a favor. “Assuming Dalton is a real god who can hear your prayers, he’s the one we are trying to summon. If he doesn’t want to be summoned, of course he’s going to tell you that we shouldn’t do it.”

“First of all,” Imani replies, “Dalton is not a god. He’s a leader, and his power is undeniable. Secondly, what Dalton would want is paramount. If he doesn’t want to come, that is his prerogative, and nothing we do can alter it. Especially not you, since you are an unbeliever. That is why I’m allowing you to do this, because if he appears, our prayers will have been answered in that regard. If he turns out to be a fraud, then we will welcome this revelation, because it will be the truth, and the entire purpose of our religion is to seek the truth. That brings me back to my final point, which is that I’m not canceling your appearance. I’m merely postponing it. I was worried about it before, because it was such short notice. I realized that it will be better for us to do it on Friday. That will give us time to spread the news, and for people to make arrangements.”

“Oh,” Leona says. “Thank you.”

“Plus,” Imani continues, “we only broadcast services for the occasional very special event, usually to turn unbelievers such as yourself towards the light. We need time to test the system before we do that, because it has been some time.”

Leona lowers her head. “This was very thoughtful of you,” she says contritely. “I apologize for my outburst.”

“It’s quite all right. I would ask you, however, if you could...maybe...?”

“Show you again?” Leona guesses.

“If it’s not asking too much,” Imani says, uncharacteristically shyly.

“I’ve been practicing.” Leona winks at Alyssa. A beam of light shoots out of her chest, followed by another, and many more. She’s a humanoid beacon of light, and then she’s just the light. When it recedes, she’s made herself look like a growing oak tree.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 20, 2399

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When the surgeon attempted to remove the foreign body from Alyssa’s brain, she went into autopilot and warned them not to do that. She spoke in monotone, and it was clear that she was only reciting a script rather than speaking from the heart. When the doctor let go of her brain, she was able to give him consent to remove it from her, but every time he tried, she would protest again. Under normal circumstances, no means no, whether or not it’s preceded by a yes, but in this case, it was obvious that the implant was speaking for her, and that the real her wanted the thing gone. The surgeon removed it, and then the anaesthesiologist put her back to sleep so they could seal up her head. If her substrate is anything like the ones that Ramses built for the others on the team, her skull should heal up completely. There shouldn’t even be a scar.

“Why not?” she asks. She’s woken up now, and asked to see herself in a mirror.

“I can actually answer this,” Mateo says. “I had a friend when I was younger who kept getting hurt. He ended up with this huge scar on his neck, and he explained that when the body is injured, it produces collagen to repair the damage, but it’s better to produce too much than too little, because too little would result in it not healing all the way. Too much ultimately creates extra skin. It’s evolution’s way of making sure that the healing finishes all the way.”

“Yeah,” Leona agrees, “but the medical nanites that you have now can gauge exactly how much collagen they need to order to get the job done, so there’s no extra.”

“Oh. And the hair?”

“Don’t know about the hair,” Leona replies. “Ramses may have included a subroutine that would command the nanites to activate the right protein growth factors, or it didn’t occur to him. If he did think to include it, it may still take a while. Hair treatment isn’t bad in this reality, though. We can sign you up for follicle stimulation. In the meantime, we’ll buy whatever wigs you want.”

“Don’t bother,” Alyssa says. She uses her illusion ability to generate a hologram of her original hair. “I may just leave it shaved. I’ve found it easier to produce an artificial image from scratch than to superimpose it on something else.”

“True,” Leona says as she’s waving her hand through the hair, and touching nothing. “However, the hair’s not really there, and people can tell.”

“Right.” She frowns slightly.

“I’m sorry we had to do this,” Leona said. “We just...”

“We just wanted you back,” Mateo finishes.

“Yes, and I appreciate that,” Alyssa tells them, “but there’s something you should know. “I am still bound to Dalton’s commands.”

“What? You are?”

“I’m sorry, the surgery didn’t do what you thought it would. That’s not what the dot was for.” What that thing did was block her from remembering certain things from her past. Removing it didn’t reprogram her. It’s just that now she knows what’s at stake, and understands why the Gyroscope must stay active. Fortunately, she can explain it now too. “It was just a...uh—what would you call it? A memory inhibitor. I still want to keep the Omega Gyroscope working, but now I know why.”

“Why?” Leona presses.

“Someone is trying to get into the Third Rail. They have been trying for ages. The original programming was enough to prevent that from happening, but things have changed in recent days.”

“What’s changed?” Mateo asks.

“You,” Alyssa says. “You, and the team. And Aldona, and everyone who came from the Insulator of Life. Everyone who disappeared into the Livewire. Every time you tap on the glass to the Fourth Quadrant, and every time you teleport, you’re pushing the boundaries. You weaken the system. Luckily, Dalton broke the rules, and looked into the future to see all this coming. He set in place a series of events that would put me in charge, and I have been this world’s protector ever since.”

“Well, he was late. All those versions of Constance managed to come through. I suppose, if it had to happen, he should have made it happen sooner.”

“Those Constances were about as threatening as a lone ladybug compared to the one who’s trying to get in now.”

“Wait, are you talking about Constance!Two, or someone else entirely?”

“Both,” Alyssa answers. “She’s the most dangerous, not because she’s inherently different than the others, but because she’s formed a relationship with the Superintendent’s alternate self.”

“The Superintendent has an alt?” Mateo questions.

“I don’t have the details, but yes. He has a...more local form of the real Superintendent’s power, but if you’re in the same universe as he is, he can do a lot of damage. Evidently, you were this close to meeting him a couple times. From what Dalton has discovered, he was on the Stage at the same time you were, before you came here. When we ran into your friend, Meliora by that river? He was there too.”

“Was Constance!Two there too?” Leona asks.

Alyssa waits a moment to respond. “She was Meliora. Or rather, she was impersonating her. Dalton thinks she started to try to break through just after you, but luckily the Superintendent’s alt stopped it.”

“So what do we need the Gyroscope for?” Mateo asks.

“I think he stopped it by distracting her. She ends up trying anyway. The good thing is that the portal she sent you through closed up, so she missed the only opportunity she had...unless you force me to take the barrier down.”

“It has to come down eventually,” Leona points out. “Certain things have to happen. This world is ending.”

“Dalton is aware, and has accounted for that. He will let Constance!Two in at the right time, on the right day, to destroy her before she can do any damage. That time is not now. That day is not today. You just have to trust us.”

“We can do that,” Leona begins, “but Dalton has to give us two things in return.”

“I’ll talk to him about Angela and the immortality waters.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Leona says. “We want to talk to him ourselves.”

“I’ll try, but he hasn’t been very inviting with me. Our relationship is one-way.”

“I see that. He took your fancy cane back.”

“He didn’t take it back. I lost it,” Alyssa admits.

“Lost it where? How?”

“What’s the second thing?” Alyssa asks, avoiding the question.

“We want you back,” Mateo says. “No more short emails. You stay with us.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 19, 2399

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Alyssa teleports herself into the center of the bottom floor of the Superscraper. It hasn’t been that long since she last saw Mateo and Leona, though longer for them than for her. She assumed this place would be virtually empty, but there are a few dozen people around. A few are moving furniture and indoor plants into place, while others are just sitting around and conversing. There are even children, so they’re probably not movers. Are they residents? Do people live here? How much did she miss while she was off-world? They’re regarding her curiously, but they’re not shocked, so maybe they’re from other realities, and they’ve seen this sort of thing before.

A little girl runs up, and tugs on Alyssa’s shirt. “Hi. Where are you from?”

“I’m from a black hole that’s so far away, if you flew there going the speed of light...it would take you more than a thousand years to get there.”

“Wow,” the girl says. She runs off to tell her friends the news.

Alyssa notices one of the adults on a phone that’s attached to a support column. He hangs up. “Mrs. Matic is on her way.”

“Thank you,” Alyssa replies. She stands there awkwardly while she waits.

A few minutes later, Leona comes down the elevator. “Alyssa, you’ve returned. Is it by coincidence, or did you finally receive our messages?”

“I was indisposed. Is there somewhere we can talk?”

“Here’s fine,” Leona tells her.

Alyssa looks over at the people, who are watching, but not staring. “Privately?”

“Oh, please,” Leona says. “Look around. Everyone knows about time travel now. They may not understand it, but the world has been deveiled. I’m working with a publicist, and will be making a streamed statement regarding the secret at a later date.”

“I see, and who are these people; part of your new publicity team?”

“They’re helping us put this place together, and in return, we let them live here. They have nothing to do with the statement.”

Alyssa nods. “Well, I’m sorry I didn’t respond earlier. I was orbiting a black hole. Those things slow down time, did you know that?”

“I did,” Leona confirms.

“Well, I wasn’t there long, but apparently I was.”

“What were you doing there?”

Alyssa keeps her mouth shut.

Leona breathes deeply through her nose. “Very well. Would you be willing to help us with an issue that we have?”

“I can try. What is it?”

“Angela will be returning soon, and if she doesn’t drink all of the immortality waters soon, Marie is going to die. Now, we had Tarboda go out and scoop up some Bermuda Triangle water. It’s...it’s just water. There is no temporal energy in it.”

Alyssa nods. “Because the Omega Gyroscope is suppressing it.”

“That’s right. It would be incredibly helpful if you could...turn them back on for us, and then teleport us to each location, so we can procure the samples we need to save Marie’s life. Otherwise, everything that the two of them did after Marie was attacked with a DNA bomb will have pretty much been a waste of time.”

Alyssa closes her eyes to think. She desperately wants to help her friends, but nothing she does can interfere with what her brainwashing demands, and it is not always obvious where the boundaries are. She sometimes has to sort of…ask herself about it. She doesn’t realize that she’s been holding her breath too. She gasps for air. “I’m sorry, I can’t do it. I want to, I hope you believe me. I just...”

“It won’t let you,” Leona says. “I get it. Which is why we’re gonna help you.”

“How?”

Mateo creeps up behind her, and injects her with a powerful sedative.

Alyssa wakes up strapped to a chair. She can’t move her head. It’s strapped against the headrest. She reaches up to feel.”

“Don’t, don’t, don’t,” Leona urges softly.

Alyssa tries to turn to face her, but she can’t even do that, so she just moves her eyes, but it’s not enough. She looks to her other side. Mateo is in her field of vision. He’s wearing a bracelet attached to a wire, which is connected to Alyssa’s wrist. “Is that the Livewire?” she questions.

“Yes,” Leona’s voice comes again from behind.

“You’re going to force me out of my body?”

“Absolutely not,” she replies. “If you should suddenly get the urge to teleport away, the wire should allow my husband to travel with you. It’s just a precaution.”

“Could y—could you step in front of me, so I can actually look you in the eye when I’m talking to you?”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Mateo?” Leona asks.

Mateo reaches over somewhere behind Alyssa, and comes back with a tablet. He holds it so she can see. There’s a video showing someone performing brain surgery. “Can you see okay? I think the brightness isn’t all the way up.”

“What is this? Why are you showing me this?”

“That’s you,” Leona replies. “That’s your brain.”

“You cut open my brain?!” Alyssa exclaims.

“Not me,” Leona answers. “I’m holding the camera, and the scope. A neurosurgeon is handling the actual surgery.”

“And what exactly is the purpose of this?”

“Well,” Leona begins. “While you’ve been swimming in black holes, Mateo has had his hands full with the ship—”

“The ship? Which ship?”

“Oh, you didn’t know that the Superscraper was a ship? Hm. Well, it is. Anyway, I’ve been dealing with the public in that regard, Heath’s been trying to find Dalton—”

“Heath is trying to find Dalton?”

“Yes. Would you please stop interrupting me? You don’t want me to poke your brain, do you? As I was saying, Tarboda is handling transportation, so everyone’s been pretty busy. I had Vearden look into your history, since he’s not really doing anything while he sits by Arcadia’s bedside. Turns out, you had surgery when you were a baby.”

“Yes, they had to remove a tiny benign tumor. It hasn’t been a problem since.”

It sounded like Leona was looking at something as the surgeon was digging around. “I don’t think they took something out. I think they put something in.”

Alyssa watches in horror as the surgeon separates a brain fold to reveal a black dot tucked inside. “What the fuck is that!?”