The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 3, 2399

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Leona asked Alyssa for help with a new special project, and told her about how someone had stolen every weapon from the Parallel, at which point Alyssa admitted that she was involved in the major heist, at the behest of Aldona, who was apparently trying to prevent the devastating Reality Wars of the future. She evidently didn’t think that the Parallel would be able to retaliate against this clear act of aggression, but she was wrong. There is no such thing as a ship without any weapons, for the ship itself is a weapon. At high enough speeds, any object can wreak havoc on another, and according to Parallel!Ramses, that is precisely what an army of angry militants are intending to do. They will be here tomorrow.

“I’m sorry,” Aldona says. “We had it all planned out. This was supposed to save us. There’s more than one reason it took me as long as it did to carry out that mission. We didn’t think they would be able to find me, and even if they did, we didn’t think they could amass a contingency that fast, and even if they did, they’re aware of the Reconvergence as well, and we assumed they would be too busy preparing for that.”

“Who is we?” Leona asks. “Who are you working with?”

Aldona shakes her head. “You don’t know them. They weren’t originally in the time traveling world. We got together because we thought we could change things.”

“Change things, you did,” Leona notes. “Our orbital defense grid. How close is it to being finished?”

“It’s finished, as is the one here in the Fourth Quadrant” Aldona says. “But neither would be enough. It can’t handle the onslaught that Mister Abdulrashid is claiming to be headed to the Third Rail. I really am sorry.” She means it.

“However big their fleet is, we’ll just have to be twice as big,” Leona says, looking at Alyssa as if she can do anything to help this situation.

Alyssa nods, but only because she’s listening intently, and expecting Leona to elaborate on her plan. She doesn’t actually know how they’ll accomplish such a thing. “Wait, me? Am I meant to do something? Oh, I have no idea. Where do you get an army on such short notice? Can the main sequence help us?”

“No, the two of us can,” Leona tells her, just as vague about it as before.

“I don’t understand.”

“We don’t have an army, but we can make it look like we do. We’ll make it seem as though all of their efforts will be futile. I’ve seen it done on TV before.”

Long pause. Alyssa is half-grimacing. “We don't have enough power between us to pull that off.”

“'We don’t draw temporal energy from ourselves; we draw it from other sources, and what does this world happen to have a whole hell of a lot of right now?” Leona poses. They may even be able to siphon the temporal energy from all the new people.

“That’s a crazy idea,” Aldona says, hoping this doesn’t make Leona more mad.

The truth is, Leona isn’t all that mad. They did what they thought they had to do to make the universe safer. They didn’t have all the variables. No one but someone like Bhulan Cargill can see the timeline branches like that, and she’s had every chance to use her powers for good, but she’s wasted most of them. Leona also wants the Reality Wars to be stopped before they begin. They’ll get through this. Leona’s plan is crazy, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work.

“It won’t work.” A young woman is approaching from inside the Kansas City bubble. Voices don’t normally pass through the dimensional barrier, but for her, it’s like it’s not even there. She proves as much when she steps through it without issue. “Hello, all, my name is Kyra Torosia. I’m glad to finally be meeting you, Mrs. Matic. You and your husband played a significant role in the history of my planet.”

“Durus,” Leona acknowledges. “How did you get it changed?”

Kyra laughs. “Most of the residents escaped to Dardius when Durus was finally deemed uninhabitable. Time powers were gone, and there seemed to be no hope. But a few of us stayed. A Nexus explosion imbued me with a great and terrible power. I have been fighting many wars on many fronts ever since. This is only my latest. Your plan is very creative, and I commend you on that, but I have a better one.”

“I sure hope so,” Aldona begins, “because if we can’t find a way to save every single Third Railer, I won’t be able to live with myself.”

Kyra nods. She’s very regal for her age, probably as the result of being treated like a god by whoever renamed a whole planet after her. Not that she doesn’t deserve it; what does Leona know about it? Kyra smiles at the small group. “How would you feel about initiating a little convergence of our own?”

“How would we do that?” Alyssa questions.

Kyra breathes in. “You’ve heard that I belong to a bloodline of Keys, but have you ever considered why the bloodline has anything to do with anything? Sure, any child of a  Preston is going to be immensely powerful, but Arcadia is not even a Key; she’s the Keyholder. Curtis is a Keyholder too. So why? Why us?”

“Is it because of you?” Leona guesses.

“I can move planets,” Kyra explains. “I can move them through the bulk, and by extension, across realities within a single braine. The Reconvergence will be difficult, and my biggest feat ever, what with the trillions of worlds I’ll be expected to move, but it’s doable, thanks to my family. Transporting your one planet to another reality ahead of schedule is practically nothing compared to that. If there weren’t already another version of Earth here, the residents of Earth!Three wouldn’t even notice.”

“Are we really talking about doing this?” Aldona asks. “Are we going to move the planet? What will the other Keys and Keyholders say about that?”

“They’ll say, thank you...more please,” Kyra replies.

Just then, they hear a rustle in the bushes. A man rounds the bend. Kyra reaches out to help him through the barrier. “Ah, Ansel. Come meet my new friends. Leona, Aldona, Alyssa, this is Ansel Haywood.” Vearden’s father.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, sir.”

“Likewise,” he replies. He seems rather shy.

Another rustle, and then a woman about Kyra’s age appears. “And this is our daughter, Allison. Don’t let our similar ages fool you, she’s my little baby.”

“Mo-om,” Allison complains.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Leona says, “though I’m not sure how accurate Vearden’s stories are, since I’ve known multiple versions of him.”

“Speaking of which,” Kyra goes on, we were all hoping to meet our granddaughter-slash niece. Could you transition us to the Third Rail? I could technically do it myself, but I think I ought to save my energy.”

“Certainly!” Leona agrees. She takes out her device. “Everyone take an arm.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 2, 2399

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Leona is in the Third Rail, knowing full well that Trina is not going to like it. Well, they didn’t give her a way to contact the Keys and Keyholders that are living in that white pocket dimension, so if they want to file a formal complaint, they can figure out how to do it, and let her know. As it turns out, Mithridates was completely right. After the initial shock of millions of people all over the world suddenly developing time powers, patterns, and afflictions wore off, the Global Council held an emergency meeting. It was decided that everyone exhibiting temporally unusual signs and symptoms would need to report to their local government offices. It wasn’t a done deal yet, but it was looking like they were intending to round everybody up, and stick them in protective custody somewhere until they could figure out what to do with them. Leona’s independent nation of Arvazna may indeed have a very specific purpose. The refugees already living in the Superscraper could find the place to be pretty crowded soon.

Leona is trying to keep in the loop with what’s going on with everything, but so far, the U.S. is the only government cooperating with her and her requests, because she has a preexisting relationship with them. While Senator Morton awaits further orders, he’s actually been incredibly helpful in this regard. He’s outed himself to the world as just another one of these weird time people, and no one has had the time to investigate his claims in particular since there are so many others to deal with.

She’s getting a call from one of the other parallel realities. It’s from the Parallel. “Hello? Can you hear me?” Tarboda asks. “Is this thing working?”

“It’s working. I read you five by five,” Leona answers. “Is this important? I’m a little busy at the moment.”

“I assure you that it’s vastly more important than whatever it is you’re doing. I have someone here who says he knows you, and he also says that if you don’t come talk to him, my whole planet is going to be destroyed.”

Argh! Leona actually doesn’t know too many people from the Parallel, but she can’t say she’s a fan of that reality, as a general rule. “Okay, I’ll be there in a minute.” She turns the dial on her device accordingly, and transitions over.

Ramses is standing next to Tarboda and Fairpoint. “Thank you for coming.”

“Report,” Leona says plainly.

“I’m the Ramses that lives here, in case you didn’t realize,” he begins. “I’m a powerful leader here, but I am not omnipotent, nor universally revered. I experience political opposition, and other obstacles.”

“Cool story, bro. Get to the point,” Leona urges.

“A vast army is planning an assault on your reality, the Third Rail.”

“Why?” she asks.

“Because you stole every single weapon in the entire universe capable of killing more than a few dozen people,” Parallel!Ramses explains.

Leona just stares at him. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“We don’t know how you did it, but you did it,” Parallel!Ramses goes on, “and various scientific groups were able to trace the destination. You probably thought they wouldn’t be able to, which was not a crazy notion. It took them a long time to figure out, but now that they know, there is no stopping them. Not even I can prevent the attack.”

“Ramses, I can honestly say that I have no clue what happened to your weapons. It wasn’t me, and if they were anywhere near Earth, I would know about it. There are quadrillions and quadrillions of people living here, which I imagine amounts to an unholy amount of weaponry. That’s not exactly something I could hide in my basement.”

“There were fewer weapons than you may have guessed,” Parallel!Ramses says. “We do not fight with each other. We only prepare for outside attacks.”

“If there weren’t too many, then why don’t you just manufacture more?” she asks.

“They’ve tried,” he clarifies. “They get stolen too. Time, right?”

Leona takes a deep breath in, and holds it there for a moment before letting it out. “If the weapons are gone, how do they intend to attack?”

“They’ll dispatch unmanned ships to act as relativistic kill missiles,” Parallel!Ramses answers. “They’re not technically weapons, which is why whatever you used to accomplish this feat did not take them as well.”

“I told you, I had nothing to do with this. Wait.” Leona looks down and away to think. “There may be an answer to this.” She looks at her transitioning device. “He can’t hide from me anymore.” She looks back up to Parallel!Ramses. “Can you stall them?”

He nods. “I’m already doing it. There are some legal hurdles before they can transition to other realities, but those will not stop them forever.”

“I just need to find some answers. I promise you, Ramses, I have far too much on my plate to even consider executing a plan to take your wee guns away. But I’ll tell you this—and you can relay it to your little buddies—the Third Rail will defend itself, and I’ll serve as the spearhead, if I have to. I’m certain that this vast army is severely underestimating the forces at my disposal.”

“Are you just posturing?”

Leona turns the dial. “No.” She jumps back to the Third Rail.

She’s standing before Dalton Hawk, who is sitting on a hammock, enjoying a bowl of fruit, like a cliché. “Madam Matic! How did you find me?”

She waved her hands in front of her chest, and whispered, “magic.”

“Want some raspberries? They’re really good for you.”

“I would have thought that you would be freaking out right now. All time powers have been unleashed in the Third Rail.”

He laughs. “I know. It’s great, right?”

“This is what you wanted all along?”

“All part of the plan.”

“Everything you’ve done up until this point has been in opposition to this situation. You’ve been suppressing temporal manipulation in all its forms.”

“Or is that just what I wanted you to think?”

“Explain,” Leona demands.

Dalton struggles to get out of the hammock, and set his bowl down on the table at the same time. He notices that she doesn’t budge to help him. “No, it’s all right.”

She just clears her throat.

He makes it back down to the ground, and adjusts his clothes. “Let me tell you a little story.”

Leona can practically feel the flashback trying to take over. “No, I don’t wanna hear your life story. Just tell me what you want, and why it appears to be the opposite from what you wanted before.”

“You’re bossy.”

“I’m the boss.”

“Fair enough. But this will require some background information, or nothing I say will make any sense.” He waits for her to protest, and when she doesn’t, he goes on. “As you know, temporal energy explains why some people have time powers, patterns, or whatever. The thing is, though, everyone has access to temporal energy. If they didn’t they literally wouldn’t exist. When you met Alyssa, you discovered that she was born with her ability to generate illusions, but she had spent all of her life without the ability to tap into that gift. You changed that when you gave her the energy to process. There was a reason you were able to do that. Danica could have turned off all special temporal energy, and left just what people needed to exist from one second to another. Instead, she left certain sources available, like the immortality waters, to relieve the pressure.

“If she had stopped it all up, and the Omega Gyroscope failed, what happened the other day would have happened without my help, and of course, she didn’t want that. I did. Well, I mean, I didn’t want all that death, destruction, mayhem, but it was a necessary evil. The Gyroscope is good at bending, but it does have a breaking point, and I had to reach that, so I employed Alyssa to modify it to halt all special temporal energy, and when Cheyenne was born, she released it all at once with a force so powerful, the dam burst. Now not even the Gyroscope can put things back as they were.”

“And why do you want people with powers?” Leona asked.

“Why did you come to me today?”

“The Parallel. They’re coming to attack this planet.”

“That’s why.”

“Why, what? You want people with powers to fight against them?”

“If that’s what it takes. Someone, or someones out there can protect this version of Earth. Aldona’s orbital defense grid will be great for the Reality Wars, but not this. These people aren’t ready. The world needs heroes. Over.”

“They won’t have time to figure out what they are. They won’t have time to train,” Leona argues. “You took too long.”

“Oh, they’ll have time,” Dalton replies confidently. “They’ll have more than enough time.”

“How? A time bubble?”

“You get them all into that giant ship of yours, and I’ll teach them everything they need to know, and I’ll take however long I need.”

“So, you built it?”

He shakes his head. “No, I don’t know where it came from, but it’s yours, ain’t it? So let’s use it to do some good.”

Leona scowls at him and seethes. For the most part, they don’t want to give the antagonist what they want. If the team can find another way, they should. She once again has to take a detour from her work, but it must be different than the other times she broke Trina’s rule to only focus on the Keys. This has to qualify. The Reality Wars are supposed to start after the Reconvergence. And that will never happen if these rogue Parallelers kill everyone in the Third Reality first, including Cheyenne. Let's just say that that’s who Leona is protecting. And hey, a whole planet gets to reap the benefits. Bonus. “I’m not going to help you do anything. You could have brought me and my team on this, and made things a whole lot easier. Now I have to clean up this mess myself, like I always do. You can choke on those grapes for all I care.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 1, 2399

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Winona needs some company to deal with all the testosterone in the air from Mithridates Preston and Hamilton Burr, but that’s not the only reason that Leona wanted to contact Dilara Cassano. The cane that Dalton Hawk was using, and which he gave to Alyssa before she lost it, was named for her. Leona isn’t sure if Dilara made it herself, or if someone like Holly Blue or Weaver made it for her, but it is based off of her power, and utilizes a gigantic synthetic diamond that Leona procured for her a long time ago in another timeline. They may require Dilara’s help with Dalton in the coming days, so it’s time to bring her back into the fold. Until then, there doesn’t seem to be much for anyone to do. The task force teams are in place, and awaiting Leona’s orders, but she doesn’t have any orders to give, because she doesn’t know the specifics of what they’re going to do. Trina said that the Keys and Keyholders would reveal themselves soon, but they still haven’t gotten a solid date on this whole Reconvergence thing.

For now, Aldona is the only one with a job to do. If Ramses were around, Leona would ask him to reverse engineer the inter-reality TV that Mithri let her take from the Fifth Division. Without him, Aldona is their best bet for on-the-fly inventions. Leona herself is smart and well educated, but she’s not an inventor. She understands how to use technology, and she loves to tinker with stuff that already exists, but she was never all that great at making something from scratch. In a day, Aldona is done. The Fourth Quadrant had all of the raw materials that she needed to make enough communication devices for everyone, and the potential to make more.

Leona is distributing them now, and teaching the teams how to work them. They look like the Farnsworth communicators from Warehouse 13, which Aldona may have been subconsciously inspired by. She doesn’t have time to figure out the network protocols, so each reality has one phone number, which everyone in that reality shares. If multiple people in one reality answer their devices when they receive a call, the video and audio will be mashed together in a confusing and incoherent mess. That’s why she had to include a sort of ultra-advanced squelching knob that will focus the signal between only two devices. Perhaps with a little time, she could modify them to handle full three-way communication, but again, they don’t know how long they have before the event goes down. Trina and Cheyenne should have reached out to them sooner.

Leona is in the main sequence now. Mateo nods, grasping the basics, and obviously not worried about it. “Do you know what day it is?” he asks her.

“Thursday,” she answers, though she knows why he’s bringing it up.

“Yes, but...”

“Mateo, I’m a time traveler. This may technically be 399 years since I was born, but I’m not 399 years old, and I’ve not experienced any significant interval of time since then. In fact, I don’t even know how old I am.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he replies with a slow shake of his head. “It’s your birthday, so we’re celebrating it.”

“You can’t make me.” She threatens him with her reality-jumping dial.

“You would abandon me on this, the day of your birth?”

“Mateo...”

“Come,” he insists. “Let us eat cake.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 31, 2399

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An interesting thing that Aldona and Erlendr learned is that they are capable of traversing the boundary between the domed over Kansas City, and the rest of the Fourth Quadrant. The only thing is that they have to do it together. They have to be touching each other in order to pass through the dimensional barrier. It’s sort of weird, after all this time, with so many people working on the problem, that the barrier remains. The man who built it is pretty powerful, and maybe only he can one day bring it down. He’s reportedly not been involved in any of this since he did it as a favor for a friend, and they don’t have time to try to find him now. It’s great that Aldona and Erlendr can do it, but that doesn’t help Leona. They can’t take anyone else through with them.

Leona originally assumed that the reality dial that Trina gave her would always jump her to the alternate version of wherever she happened to be at the time, but it seems that she can go wherever she wants...as long as it’s not the Kansas City bubble in the Fourth Quadrant. Anywhere in the galaxy but there. She may even be able to travel anywhere in the universe, but there has been no need for it so far. What she really needs is a way for her new task force to be able to reach out to her, and maybe even to each other. She wishes she had asked Trina about that, though she probably would have said that Leona is just meant to hop between realities regularly so nothing falls through the cracks. Team Keshida doesn’t have a solution for this either. The special bi-fold and tri-fold mirrors can do it, but that’s not enough to go around.

“Talk to my son.” Erlendr is on the other side of the barrier, while Aldona is discussing matters with the presidents. He can’t come back through to Leona’s side, but they can communicate using the interdimensional radios that Ramses designed. They only work between the Third Rail and Fourth Quadrant since they’re so close together.

“Zeferino? Do you know where he is in the main sequence?”

Erlendr shakes his head slowly. “Not him. My other son, I know you met him.”

“You mean Jupiter? You can’t call him your son.”

“No.” He sighs. “The other, other one.”

“Mithridates.” Leona didn’t want to say anything that she wasn’t supposed to.

“He has a way to reach across realities. I don’t know how, but he knows things.”

“Yeah. He can reach further than that.” Leona takes her reality transitioner out.

“One more thing,” Erlendr says when he sees her prepare to leave. “I know that you and I don’t get along, but we’re on the same page here. I wanted to create a perfect reality, and now it’s happening.”

“The Sixth Key is not perfect,” she argues. “Even if I knew absolutely nothing about it other than that it existed, I would know that. There is no such thing. You should understand that better than anyone. Either way, do your job.” She turns the dial.

She thought it was going to take some time to find the long-lost Preston, but Mithri happens to be hanging out with Winona and the Fifth Divisioner by Earth’s one oasis. They’re enjoying each other’s company. Well, the two of them are. Winona looks uncomfortable as hell, but she’s trying not to rock the boat.

“Thank god,” she mutters under her breath. She stands up, and places her lips against Leona’s ear as they hug. “Can you get me out of here?”

“I really can’t. I think it’ll be a lot worse if you try to leave. I may be able to bring someone else here to sort of...make this easier to deal with, however.”

“Enough hugging!” Mithri exclaims. “Come have a drink with me and Hamilton!”

“Hamilton?” Leona questions. “Your name is Hamilton? Surname, or given?”

The man who tried to kill her not two months ago stands up, and presents his hand to shake. “Hamilton Burr, Madame. What are your orders?”

“Oh my God, this reality is so weird.” She shakes off the bit of silly trivia. “I don’t need to talk to you. I need him.” She points to Mithri.

“What can I do for ya?”

“Number one...what is your stake in this? Do you know what’s happening?”

Mithri smiles, and looks around behind him as if there’s something to see but barren desert. “Why do you think I was building that Hyperalpha Collapsis?”

“I don’t think you can take it with you into the Sixth Key.”

Mithri smirks at her. “Yeah, I can.”

“Bottom line it for me. Are you going to help us, or hurt us?”

“Oh, I’ll definitely help,” he assures her.

“Great. Then I need inter-reality communication technology. Your father thinks you have it, and you’ve mentioned things you know regarding other universes.”

Mithri scowls now. “Don’t ever listen to what my father tries to tell you.”

“Answer the question,” Leona demands.

He sighs. “In this case, he’s right. I do have such technology, but it’s not what you think. You can’t chat with whomever you want. They need their own devices, or it’s only one way. And unfortunately, I only have the one. I can spy on anyone, but they can’t talk back. I’ve never needed them to.”

“Give it to me. I’ll make it work,” she tells him.

“I believe it.” Mithri turns around, and enters his little hut.

Leona looks over at Winona, then at Hamilton Burr. “You there. I also need to communicate across vast distances within this reality as well.”

Hamilton pulls a device out of his pocket, and tosses it to her. “Call the operator, and tell it who you want to talk to, and which habitat they’re on.”

“I know how this works, thank you.”

“Leona!” Mithri calls out from inside. “You might wanna come look at this!”

Leona steps into the hut, and crosses to the other corner. She’s never been in here, but she would have expected this place to be bigger on the outside. He doesn’t live luxuriously, which is odd for a Preston. He’s got his hand on top of a box television set with all sorts of funky dials and buttons on the side. It’s retro-futuristic, and it seems to be showing the news. The reporter on it is discussing a mysterious bubble that spread all over the globe, and started making people disappear. “Which reality is this?”

“It’s the Third Rail,” Mithri says. “I think we’ve figured out the true purpose of that ship that someone built for you in New York.”

“How do you know about that? Ya know what, never mind. I can’t do anything to help with this. I’m meant to focus on the Keys, and nothing else.”

He smiles knowingly at her, but doesn’t speak.

His face says everything, though, and he’s right. Who decides what pertains to the Reconvergence, and what doesn’t? Trina and her band of Keys and Keyholders took people from her that she needs to help her get shit done. Then she remembers that she’s never followed the rules before, so why start now? She tosses him Hamilton’s communicator. “Ask Dilara Cassano to come here. I have to go.” She picks up the TV.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 30, 2399

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Vearden is sitting next to Arcadia, as he does all day every day. He doesn’t even go to bed anymore. He just reclines the chair, and stays there, only getting up to get food, or get rid of it. In this reality, the vital sign monitor keeps track of all the usual suspects, like heart rate and oxygen levels, but it also logs the weight. The doctors didn’t explain why, but it’s apparently what first alerted them to the fact that the baby was gone. Now it seems to be back. Arcadia’s weight has just suddenly gone up by eight pounds, seven ounces, which Vearden noticed, because they programmed the system to alert them to any further changes in weight. Just as he’s calling for help, she starts to tremble, then shake, then scream. She’s awake.

“Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia. Shhhh. Shh, my darling, it’s okay. It’s okay. You’re okay. You’re back, everything is gonna be fine.” 

She pulls the oxygen tube out of her nose. “I’m back? Where did I go? Where was I? Tell me! Tell me what happened! Did I jump through time!”

He keeps trying to reply, but she’s not really letting him. She’s hyperventilating. A nurse steps into the room. “Put the oxygen back on, please,” he asks of her.

“No!” Arcadia cries. She starts ripping out the other medical things attached to her. That’s when she seems to first notice her belly. “Wha—what the hell happened? She looks up to her love, tears in her eyes. “Vearden? How long have I been away?”

“You haven’t been away, dear. You’ve been in a coma. At least that’s the best diagnosis that the government doctors could provide.”

“How. Long.”

He frowns at her. “Two and a half months.”

“The baby? How’s Kendra?”

“She’s perfect. She’ll be coming soon, Dr. Best thinks.” No need to mention the part where the baby disappeared for a week.

Arcadia nods. “What happened to Mateo? Where is he? He’s dangerous. There is something wrong with his mind.”

“That’s all been dealt with,” Vearden assures her. “You don’t have to worry about anything except taking care of yourself, and our little girl.”

She nods again. “Hey, Vearden.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s happening.”

“What’s happening?”

“The baby. She’s coming.”

“Now?”

“Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaargh, right now!”

Vearden reaches up and pushes the big mauve button, which indicates an emergency, and sounds an alarm to wake everybody up. More nurses flood into the room. “She’s going into labor!”

They all move to their stations, and start getting things ready. One of them checks under Arcadia’s gown. Another handles the IV bag and monitor. A third leaves again to retrieve the doctor. It takes a really long time for him to return. When he does, Dr. Best is not the one following him. It’s a doctor that they’ve never met.

“Where is Dr. Best?” Arcadia demands to know.

“I’m afraid Dr. Best is trapped in an elevator, and won’t be able to help you. It’s my first day at this facility, but I’ve been a gyniatrician for eighteen years, I have full clearance, and I’ve been fully briefed on your situation.”

“Someone needs to teleport to Dr. Best,” Arcadia begs Vearden.

“That’s not possible,” Vearden replies apologetically. “Not these days.” He looks back up at the new doctor. “What’s your name? It’s important.”

“I’m Dr. Suggitt. Dr. Cheyenne Suggitt.”

Vearden and Arcadia share a look. “You see?” he begins. “This was always meant to happen. Our child has a future, and while we know her life won’t be easy, we also know that she survives at least into her thirties, and becomes a beautiful, powerful woman. “We have nothing to worry about.”

Arcadia has been listening, but she’s also clearly in an incredible amount of pain. It takes everything she has to nod her head at him between contractions.

Dr. Suggitt takes her stethoscope out of her ears. “Okay, this is happening, and it’s happening now. I’ve never seen someone in labor for such a short period of time. Sorry, no time for drugs. Dad, if you want to stay here, I’m going to need you to clean yourself up, and put on that set of scrubs.” She jerks her head towards one of the nurses.

The nurse shakes the scrubs to show that he’s ready to help Vearden put them on.

Vearden leaves for a moment to wash his hands and arms. By the time he gets back, little Cheyenne is already crowning. Arcadia no longer seems to be in any pain. She’s resting her head against the pillow, and appears to only be experiencing a little bit of pressure while the head slips out. In under a minute, their baby girl is out and in the world. She’s cooing, and not crying. At first, she looks pretty normal, but then she begins to glow. The nurses exchange nervous looks. They obviously know that there’s something special about the girl, but they weren’t warned about this. Probably because no one else was aware that it was going to happen.

The glow intensifies, and spreads beyond her tiny body. As it grows like a bubble, the light fades, but a strange visual distortion remains, like the heat shimmer from a flame. Once it passes through Vearden’s body, he begins to feel a calmness, and a strong sense of relief. It reminds him of what it feels like to teleport or travel through time. No, it feels like it does once the pinch from doing so is over, and he’s reached his destination. He watches through the window as the bubble accelerates, and starts to roll over the lands, so far into the distance that it disappears over the horizon. 

The nurse in charge of tracking Arcadia’s vitals disappears, but only her. Her clothes remain, suspended in the air for a split second before collapsing to the floor. They hear a crash outside. Two cars have collided with each other in the parking lot. One of them starts to slip over the edge of a dark hole that appeared out of nowhere. People are screaming down the hallway. It starts to snow over a small area down the street.

Vearden looks down at his precious girls. Back in the main sequence, when he was resisting finding a partner to settle down with, people would tell him that a baby changes everything, as if telling him a scary story would somehow convince him to go for it. They had no idea how right they were. “This is her. This is Cheyenne’s doing.”

“No.” It’s his supposed future son-in-law, Curtis Duvall. “People are getting hurt, and that’s sad, but this is not your fault, and it’s certainly not Cheyenne’s. It’s Danica’s. She didn’t stop time powers from existing, she just pent them up, and now they’re coming out all at once. Chickens. Roosting.” He pauses for effect. “Temporary.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 29, 2399

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The first reality that Leona goes to with her new toy is the Fifth Division, where Winona and the violent Fifth Divisioner are. This version of Earth is mostly dead and barren. If there’s any water on it, it’s not being stored in vast surface oceans. Madagascar has become the summit of a mountain. There’s no civilization around here, and none of them has a communicator capable of reaching out to anyone they know. Trina told Leona not to use her gizmo to start a ferry service, but this has to be official Key business. She briefly transports Winona and the Fifth Divisioner to the Parallel, where they catch a taksi to the Kansas City area. Then just transitions them back, and leaves it at that...for now. She proceeds to travel to the other parallel realities to make sure that no one is in any immediate danger, and to explain to them what’s going on.

She’s in the main sequence now with her husband, but they’re not just spending time together. There’s work to do, and they need help to get it done. They sent a quantum message to the Jameela Jamil.

“Can you get to the Earth Nexus?” Kestral asks through the quantum messenger.

“You can teleport again, right?” Leona asks Mateo.

“I can.”

“If we can get into the building,” Leona says through the radio, “we could be there in seconds. “If not, we’ll come back and make a new game plan.”

“Roger that,” Kestral replies. “I’ll text you our term sequence.”

Mateo teleports them to Antarctica. He wanted to jump straight into the Nexus building, but it’s evidently not possible. He tries to open the door manually, but nothing.

“Let me try.” The door slides open smoothly for Leona. “I’ve told you, these machines love me. I don’t know why.” They step in, and just to check, Mateo tries to open the door to the control room. It doesn’t work for him either, but it does for her.

She doesn’t cross the threshold, though. She pulls the door halfway closed again, and takes a step back towards the steps. “Hey, Opsocor?” she asks, on a lark.

“Yes, Leona?”

“Have you heard of a ship called the Jameela Jamil?”

“I have. Would you like me to transport you to their Nexus?”

“That would be lovely.”

“Who needs term sequences?” Leona asks her husband rhetorically.

They both step down into the machine, and let it whisk them away.

Kestral, Ishida, and Vendelin are there. The former two welcome them with big hugs, but the latter hangs back. Kestral looks back at him. “Oh, he’s fine now. It’s been years. He’s as much part of the crew as anyone else.”

Leona smiles, and goes over to give him a hug as well.

“Who else is on the crew then?” Mateo asks.

“Tons of people. Everyone is on mission right now,” Kestral says. “This is a hub for a whole organization dedicated to interplanetary aid.”

“We’re working on building out the Nexus network,” Ishida adds. “One day, we’ll be able to travel from one world to the next in seconds without transferring substrates.”

“I would hold off on that,” Leona warns. “The main sequence is...shifting.”

“What do you mean?”

The two of them start to get their friends up to speed with what they went through after disappearing from here a couple decades ago. They go over the Omega Gyroscope and hundemarke, and discuss the impending Reconvergence, and what that may mean for the interplanetary political climate of this reality. The Nexus network is special, and reaches beyond the confines of this universe. Making any changes to it in the middle of this crazy transitional period could cause some errors, like trying to move a file to a different folder on a PC that’s still open and locked. It’s really not a good idea to make any major moves in relation to time or time travel until after the dust settles.

“So, what do you need from us?” Vendelin asks.

“Right now?” Leona asks. “A body. Arcadia Preston’s body, to be specific.”

Ishida pulls out her tablet. “Character parameters?”

“Now, hold on, “Captain McBride slows her down. “Why does she need a body?”

“Her mind is in an alternate version of me at the moment. She has a part to play in the upcoming event, as does Vearden. I think it will help get them to separate if they understand that we now have the power to reunite them when it’s done.”

“I thought the baby was...missing,” Mateo says.

“She’ll be back,” Leona insists. Arcadia giving birth to a child is predestined. According to those who were already aware that this Reconvergence thing was coming, it’s going to happen soon, so if Arcadia and Vearden’s baby has to be born before that, it will be any day now. But that’s not going to make her job with Vearden easier. “When she returns, they’ll never want her to be out of their sight. They’ll need assurances.”

Ishida puts the tablet down, and thinks about it. “Ven, go search the inventory for something called the Triune Mirror, then retrieve it for us.”

“You have a warehouse of temporal objects, don’t you?” Leona guesses.

“More like a vault,” Kestral clarifies.

Ishida pulls up a hologram in the center of the table. She searches for what she’s looking for, then brings up an image of what looks like a tri-fold mirror. “Three way communication,” she begins to explain. She demonstrates how the mirror can be broken apart, each operable separately. “They’ll be able to converse with each other whenever they want, and see their kid too, assuming someone is available to babysit, and they want to keep it away from all the action. Otherwise, I would just give you the bi-fold.”

“Will this suffice?” Kestral asks. “We’ll build any substrate that you want, but based on what little I know of the Prestons, she’ll want one that comes with power, and I don’t feel comfortable authorizing such parameters without even meeting her.”

Leona thinks it over for a second, then she points at Mateo. “He can teleport. I’m asking you as a friend to design a clone of Arcadia Preston with all of the characteristic parameters that he has except for teleportation. Don’t worry about trying to include other powers, or whatever else you think she would ask for. Keep the file on hand, but don’t grow it yet. She’s giving birth in the body of a Leona, and she may develop a bond with her child that is so strong, she won’t want to transfer. Will that be okay?”

“That will be fine,” Kestral responds.

“Got it,” Vendelin announces as he’s coming back into the room. It’s not that big of an object; only about twice the size of a tablet when collapsed.

“Great, thank you,” Leona says, accepting the gift.

“Wonderful.” Kestral sighs. “Now we can move on. You’ll recall that our ship can traverse the galaxy in two days. Use us for something. What can we do to help?”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 28, 2399

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Everyone tumbles out of the portal. They’re still in Madagascar, crowded in the hut, but it’s no longer only part of it. Every part of it is here and unbroken. Everyone seems to be pretty tired, but otherwise okay. “I left something by a particular tree,” Tarboda announces. “If it’s there, we’re still in the Facsimile.” He steps through the door, and disappears. He doesn’t just blink out of existence, though. The faint hologram of two parallel lines appears at his back, and fades away shortly after he does.

“I don’t think this is the Facsimile,” Leona looks around to make sure no one else steps out of the hut. “It’s the Parallel. Is this where Cheyenne wanted us to go?”

“I don’t care which reality it was, as long as it gets me away from you people.” Erlendr huffs, and steps through the door. Instead of parallel lines, his hologram is of four quadrants.

“Okay, we’re all going to different places, it looks like. No one leaves until we can figure this out,” Leona orders.

“Screw that, I’m outta here.” Fairpoint runs out of the door. Two parallel lines. He appears to have gone to the same world as Tarboda.

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do to stop this,” Aldona says. “I have to get back to work, so hopefully I’ve been assigned the Third Rail, and if not, I’ll make my way back. It’s what I do.” She leaves, ignoring Leona’s protests. She goes to the Fourth Quadrant, which is sad for her, but at least someone is there to keep Erlendr in line.

“Dad!” Bridget shouts, but Senator Morton is already too close to the edge. When she tries to pull him away, they both end up returning to the Third Rail. So that’s...good?”

“I’ll follow your lead, Leona,” her future grandfather, Labhrás promises.

Leona shakes her head. “She’s right, nothing can stop this. I’m feeling a pull to leave anyway, like being here is making me ill. Anyone else experiencing the same?”

There aren’t many of them left, but they all nod.

“Still,” Winona says, “on your orders.”

“Cross the threshold, soldier.”

Winona walks through, leaving behind a fading hologram for the Fifth Division.

Labhrás nods cordially, and leaves right after her, and ends up going to the main sequence, which may be the only one that makes sense since he’s supposed to go back in time and father Leona’s father.

Mateo frowns at his wife. “Winona’s alone.”

“I know.”

“So is Labhrás.”

“I’m not so worried about that.”

I’m just saying...”

“That either you and I are going to different places, or the math isn’t going to work out very well,” she figures.

He sighs, and holds out a hand. “Let’s try to stick together.”

She takes it. “Okay, we’ll try.”

They walk through the door side by side, staring into each other’s eyes. Leona’s hand slowly collapses into a sort of fist as her husband disappears. “Were I you,” she hears his voice call out to her from the aether. She echoes the words, but can’t know whether he got them.

She’s back in the white, where they were between leaving the Facsimile, and ending up back in that limbo hut. If this is what either the main sequence or Fifth Division look like right now, they could be in a lot of danger. That’s probably not it, though. Aldona was right. These are not random; they’re assignments, and Leona apparently doesn’t have one, which would have pissed her off if it had happened to her when she was in school. Another blur forms before her, and is taking a long time to solidify. It’s not Cheyenne this time, though. She looks a little bit like Alyssa. “Are you...Mrs. McIver?” Leona guesses.

She laughs, and holds out a hand for Leona to shake. “Ebora.” They  shake. “Trina Ebora.”

“Oh. All growed up. I kind of thought you led a normal life.”

“Pretty much, but I’m still a Keyholder, and I still have a destiny.”

“Are the keys...”

“A bloodline?” Trina assumes she was going to ask.

“Yeah.”

Leona starts listing them off. “So Iris is Summit’s mother, and Summit is....someone’s father.”

“Kyra Torosia,” Trina fills in.

“My husband went to a planet called Torosia once.”

Trina nods. “Named for her. It’s Durus. Well, it’s what Durus becomes. They put the past in the past, and start a new chapter, which is why it needed a new name.”

“I see.”

“Go on,” Trina encourages.

“So Kyra is—I’m guessing—secretly Vearden’s mother. Then Vearden is Cheyenne’s father, and Cheyenne is Cedar’s mother.”

“You got it.”

“So the Keyholders are you, your dad, whoever Vearden’s dad is, Arcadia, and Curtis,” Leona finishes.

“Perfect.”

“What do the Keys do?”

“The realities are collapsing, every single one of them. You have met, and will meet, those who claim that it’s inevitable, and they’re just helping it along, but they are the ones instigating it. The reason they don’t want to take the blame is because no one knows whose idea it was, but it doesn’t matter, because it’s happening, and in order to prevent quadrillions and quadrillions of people from dying, the Keys are going to transport everyone to a new universe.”

“The Sixth Key.”

“Right again.”

“What do you and the other Keyholders do?”

“The Keys need to welcome everyone in the Sixth Key. The Keyholders need to hold open the doors that will let everyone through.”

“And what is our purpose; me, my team, and...the others who aren’t on the team? It seems like they were split up across the realities too.”

Trina nods. “The Keyholders need protection while they’re fulfilling their destinies. Your friends and enemies are going to have to work together, but I believe they can do it. We couldn’t just choose any random ten people. They had to already have been involved in all this stuff. We don’t have time to explain that time travel exists, or that the Sixth Key does. You’ve all been hearing the rumors for a while now.”

“Where is Mateo?”

“Main sequence.”

“Who’s with Winona in the Fifth Division then?”

“You’re not gonna like it.”

“Who?”

“Someone you know who is from there.”

“Oh, that guy who tried to kill me. I still don’t know his name.”

“It doesn’t matter. He’ll do his job, or I’ll leave him in that reality, and close the door behind me and Winona.”

“That’s ten protectors for five Keyholders for five Keys in five realities. What am I meant to do?”

Trina reaches into her bag and retrieves a wrapped gift that fits in the palm of her hand. “You have the most important job of all.”

Leona accepts it, and starts to unravel the ribbon.

“You’re the Captain,” Trina finishes.

Leona opens the box. Inside is a metal plate. Engraved on it are the symbols for the six realities, and in the center is a tiny little wooden boat helm with six spokes. “Does it allow me to travel between them?”

“Yes, it will be your responsibility to make sure that everyone does what they must to make all of this happen. You can travel freely between realities, and you’ll at least have to do it once, because Vearden needs to get in place after his baby is born.”

“How does it work?” Leona asks. “Each of the spokes is pointing towards one of the realities.”

“See that red thing sticking out of the very center? Pull that off, and place it over one of the spokes. That will activate the device. You have five seconds to turn it to the reality you want to go to, and then five seconds to pull the tip back off once you arrive.”

“Or else what?”

“Or the device will deactivate permanently, and you’ll be stuck wherever you are.”

“How do I get back here?” Leona questions.

“You don’t,” Trina answers.

“Are there any limits, and are there any other rules?”

“You can take two people with you from one reality to another, just like regular teleportation mass restrictions. Don’t do this unless it’s necessary. You are not a ferry service. This is not meant for you to rescue people in trouble. It is not to be used for anything but official Key business.”

“No abuse of power. Got it. Anything else?”

“Yeah, take everything you know of your past and future, and throw it out the window. “Literally everything is in flux right now. You could hypothetically let everyone die in the collapsing realities, and it will not create a paradox. Your grandfather doesn’t have to survive, the Keys don’t have to survive. Success is not certain. We all have to put in the work. If we fail, you specifically will survive to remember what happened...alone in the infinite void. So don’t fuck this up.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 27, 2399

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Mateo is closest to the window. He looks out of it to see whether it explains why no one else is here. Based on what they’ve learned from Heath and Imani, even on the off hours, the auditorium is never empty. Whether the speakers are rehearsing, or worshipers are praying, this place is never as dead as it is now. It’s also falling apart, as is everything outside, which can really mean only one thing. “We’re in the Facsimile. Did we just skip over the entirety of Saturday?”

“Why did you bring us here?” Leona demands to know from Dalton.

“I just reset the timeline,” Dalton begins to explain. “Anyone who was still in the Third Rail has forgotten everything that’s happened in the last few days. Well, they didn’t forget. To them, it never happened. I brought everyone here so you will remember. This is not a gift. I did this so that you will know for the rest of your few remaining days that you did this to yourself. When the Reconvergence comes, you will have no hope of escaping. Reality will collapse, and you’ll just blink out of existence.”

“We’re supposed to be friends,” Leona reminds him. “Why are you doing this?”

“We’ve  not been friends for a long time,” Dalton argues. “As for why I’m doing this, I’m not. I told you, you brought this on yourselves. All you had to do was build your little satellites, and save your little refugees, and leave the rest to me.”

“So you’re just going to kill us,” Leona states.

“Alternate versions of most of you will remain. For the rest, you’re collateral damage. I’m sorry it had to come to this.”

“We know how to get out,” Mateo contends. “You’re not dooming us.”

“I am, though. The door in the un-Salmon Civic Center has been closed. It’s technically still there, but I filled it up with cement. You could try to chisel through, I guess.” Dalton looks at his watch. “I don’t like your chances.”

“There’s still time,” Leona pleads. “Don’t do this. When we get out of here another way, and we will, because we always do, you’re going to regret it.”

“Whatever. I’m not too worried about it.” Dalton reaches out towards Alyssa. “Come dahling,” he says in a British accent.

“I’m not going with you,” Alyssa spits back. She takes Mateo’s hand, but she’s not doing it just because they love each other. She’s slipping him a note.

“This is non-negotiable. You’re gonna give them false hope that all they have to do is teleport to the Constant, or something.” He takes her by the hand, and whisks them both away.

“I don’t understand,” Senator Morton says. “What is this place?”

Leona explains to all those not already in the know where they are. If they don’t find the exit by midnight, they will be stuck here for another week, and that’s assuming they can make it by the time it hits midnight again. That may be what Dalton wants. His primary objective seems to be getting people out of his way. As far as they know, though, he doesn’t kill people. This seems very unlike him, and unless he’s just another version of Constance, there is another way out of here.

“There is,” Mateo jumps in after Leona’s done. He holds up Alyssa’s note. Scribbled quickly in god-awful handwriting, it says BACK DOOR. “There’s another exit.”

“Great.” Aldona throws up her hands. “There’s a back door somewhere, but we have no clue where.”

“Aldona,” Leona begins, “if you know something about the future that will help us, now is the time to ignore my rules of time travel, and just tell us.”

“I would tell you if I did,” Aldona replies. “I was not aware that this would happen. If Dalton has the power to reset the timeline, maybe nothing I knew of the future has done us any good. I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore.” She’s distraught.

“We don’t have time to search the whole planet,” Leona complains, “even if he let us keep our trusty teleporter. I have access to an aircraft. Ramses specifically designed it to be duplicated into this dimension, and be ready to go if and when we ever needed it, but where are we going to take it?”

“I know where we need to go.” Tarboda looks at Mateo. “We’ve been there.”

Mateo looks puzzled. Then he starts to think. “The antipodes,” he realizes.

“Which antipodes?” Leona asks.

“What is an antipode?” Labhrás asks.

“Kansas and Madagascar,” Tarboda answers Leona. “I don’t know for sure that it’s right, but there’s a weird dimensional thing out there, and if I were to install a back door, the first place I would think is the opposite of where I put the front door.”

“That makes some sense,” Winona encourages.

“It’s our only hope. Can everyone walk? Our aircraft will fly, not none of the other vehicles in this dimension are operable, and the Lofts are about an hour away.”

The group starts the hike northward from the Plaza to the Crown Center area. They don’t slow down, and they don’t make any stops. Their destination being very intentionally the farthest point on Earth from where they are now, it’s pretty much the longest flight they could possibly have to take. The jet is small, and barely big enough to fit all of them. Not everyone has a seat, but they’re not exactly worried about federal regulations at the moment. There is not enough time to make more than one trip. Ramses engineered it to be fuel efficient, and that meant sacrificing speed. It takes them the entire rest of the day, placing them within minutes of their midnight deadline. They don’t even have time to find a landing spot in all this dense vegetation. There aren’t enough parachutes for everyone either, so they have to triple up, which is also extremely dangerous, but they don’t jump from very high. Leona and Tarboda go last after gaining some altitude, and making sure the jet flies off into the distance.

“Leona takes out her phone. “There’s no GPS here, but the terrain is the same as it is in the Third Rail, so I can get us there.”

“I can get us there,” Tarboda insists. “They were walking before, but now they’re running. With only a few minutes to spare, they find the half-hut. From the looks of it, it’s the other half. This is obviously not where Cheyenne and her key friends are living, though, because they were able to access the portal on a day other than Salmonday.

“Okay,” Leona says. “I’ll go first, and if I don’t come out in one minute, assume this is a one-way trip, and just follow me. If it’s killed me, well...you would have died in a matter of weeks anyway, right? All right, see you on the other side!” She runs through. Thirty seconds later, she peeks her head back through. “It’s two-way. Come on in.”

Everyone files in, with Mateo as the caboose. They’re in a world of white, like the Construct from The Matrix. A vague blur appears before them like a TV with a bad signal, then solidifies into Cheyenne. “You’re back.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Mateo begins. “We wouldn’t have come, except—”

“I was just gonna say that you’re right on schedule.” She points. “Walk that way.”