Soul Searching

<infobox>

 <title source="title1">
   <default>Soul Searching</default>
 </title>
 <image source="image1">

</image> <label>Posted On</label> <label>Author</label> <label>Music Theme</label> <group collapse="open"> <header>Order</header> <label>Previous Suggested Manuscript</label> <label>Previous Suggested Story</label> <label>Next Suggested Story</label> <label>Next Suggested Manuscript</label> <label>Chronologically Previous Manuscript</label> <label>Chronologically Previous Story</label> <label>Chronologically Next Story</label> <label>Chronologically Next Manuscript</label> </group> <group collapse="open"> <header>Series</header> <label>Series</label> <label>Previous</label> <label>Next</label> </group> <group collapse="open"> <header>About the Manuscript</header> <label>Type of Story</label> <label>Canon Status</label> </group> <group collapse="open"> <header>About the Story</header> <label>Date</label> <label>Location(s)</label> <label>Characters</label> </group> </infobox> by talmid.

1

When ten thousand citizens across the Crux System were surveyed to describe, in a single word, how they felt about the Nexus Force’s return to the transdimensional frontier, the majority responded with terror or other derivatives of fear, for with renewed transdimensional operatives came renewed confrontation with the Maelstrom Dimensions.

Their incursions were pointed, their targets specific, their motions precise. The first casualties were the so-called sojourners, travelers from other dimensions stranded locally nearly three years ago when their ability to traverse Unverse was lost. The next targets were the local counterparts of both the original targets and any other persons of interest to the Maelstrom Dimensions.

At first, the victims shared an obvious trait, that being the criticality of their roles in decisively resisting the Maelstrom Dimensions during the last war. Such specificity made the First Darkitect’s direct motives clear. He would not tolerate these characters stopping him again. From this, his indirect motives were deducible as well. He would be invading again, hence society’s terror.

Necessarily, the Nexus Force responded. Those of the aforementioned targeted groups who so far survived the attacks or were not yet attacked were relocated to defensible positions, as much as they could be called defended, in that they were under constant manned guard. Those who could assist in improving defenses were tasked as such, and with the nature of the situation, it so happened those two groups overlapped.

…

Torture.

That singular word reflected Tiberius Talmid’s general sentiment about working for the Nexus Force. Locking him up was bad enough, be it in a correctional facility for society’s protection or in the Nimbus Station Sentinel Command Base for his own protection, it didn’t matter. Both took him away from the work he was supposed to be doing, which certainly wasn’t brainstorming transdimensional defenses, in his own opinion.

What had happened to his nephew rested heavily on Tiberius’s mind. Not the part about Aiden’s death at the hands of the Song Stealer, tragic as was, but the part about his return to life, truly fascinating in its means. The tests of the young man resoundingly confirmed what he’d suspected occurred, given the symptoms observed. A merging of Creative Sparks!

The more Tiberius considered it, the more it made sense to him that it could be the key to solving the problem of Project WCWJST.

Tiberius pressed the buzzer on his work desk to page his handlers. It wasn’t them he wanted to speak to, of course, but his nephew. Aiden needed to hear his breakthrough. He pressed the buzzer again. “Pick up, bastards,” the man muttered.

“They won’t,” the intruder laughed behind him. “Any last words?”

Tiberius bristled at the sudden, recognizable chill in the room, that of Maelstrom. “Thank you for letting me know,” he managed, before shutting his eyes and sighing, as he knew it was too late for him. Then he cursed himself, for not thinking to make his words a hint for Aiden, unless-

The man did not finish the thought.

2

Under an overcast sky on a dreary world, alongside an unswept and weather-beaten road, stood a man called Sky. Also known as Agent Sky, despite looking rather shabby himself, he stood pondering a most peculiar of coincidences, one of proximity in this case. Different perspectives may see nothing or everything, little or a lot between the numbers 55 and 56, such as fractions or decimals. Agent Sky’s chosen profession was not mathematics, however; his title rather suggested more secret agency things. But surely anyone else could also see the mighty improbability that two very separate organizational entities just so happened to base themselves in two very neighboring locations.

Clicking his tongue, Agent Sky aimed into the alleyway to the entrance of number 56 Unemployed Road. Consumed by his passing thoughts, he was almost hit by a passing car, not that it deterred him. Funny, that was the only car he’d seen all day. Inside the alley he passed dumpsters, crates, boarded up windows, and rusted-shut doors of long-abandoned institutions until he reached the one labelled Laundromat, a misnomer for its current institution which also began with an L. Another coincidence? Likely.

He raised his hand to a rusty doorbell, and after seeing its snipped wires meandered instead to give the door a good old fashioned knock. His knock could be heard resounding into a hollow space on the other side. He knocked again with purpose. Occupants, if any, were sure to have heard him. There were occupants, he was sure, as he trusted his source of this address.

In short time, a lock clicked and a door cracked open, the one behind him. Nice deflection, thought Agent Sky as he turned to face a young brunette standing in that doorway, noting the combination of her Sentinel Knight armor and a blue-painted Wormholer aimed in his general direction. Despite the weapon, she wasn’t in a combat stance and wore no other combat gear, making her appear less threatening to him. When she didn’t immediately speak, he figured he should break the silence.

“Who are you?” they both said at the same time.

“Sorry,” they both apologized.

“I’m Agent Sky!” he exclaimed. After an extra second’s silence, when she seemed sure to not respond, he continued, “I’m here to talk to Sir Talmid.”

The girl cocked her head. “Aiden?”

“I can think of no other here at this time,” Agent Sky answered.

“Did you say your name was Sky?” the girl asked.

“Agent Sky,” Agent Sky sighed.

“Oh,” a look like recognition crossed her face. “I know your name. You can come in.” She stepped back to give him room to enter, but he didn’t immediately.

“I hope I give you no intentions to use that,” he pointed with his eyes to the Wormholer. She traced his aim to the chain gun in her hands before dropping the barrel quickly. Despite its blue paint job, it was still a Paradox weapon, which carried implications to him.

“Oh, of course not! Sorry,” she said again, shaking her head and letting the weapon tap the floor. “I’m just scatterbrained, that’s all. We all are. A lot has happened, so much has gone on. Transdimensional travel, the looming threat of dimensional war, Rogues...” She looked back to him. “You were part of it.”

Agent Sky regarded her evenly. “You weren’t.”

“Not on the surface,” she said with a shrug and extended her hand, which he took and shook firmly. “I’m Bridget. I’m still kinda new to Leek Works, but you must be too, since you didn’t just come in through the secret entrance.” She stepped back and waved for him to follow.

“There’s a secret entrance?” Agent Sky repeated, closing the wooden door behind him. She led him through the building’s unlit main section, past booths and a counter, as it was formerly a diner, and into the backroom, where inside one of the disabled coolers a hatch in the metal floor yawned open to reveal a laddered tunnel.

“Exits and entrances, there’s actually a few of them,” Bridget told him.

Agent Sky stared into the dark opening. “Are you sure it’s wise to tell me all about your base’s securities?”

“It hardly matters anymore,” Bridget said, beginning down the ladder. “Really, you’re lucky you showed up just now, instead of yesterday.”

“Why’s that?” Agent Sky called after the girl.

Her brunette head popped back up into the room. “Been under a rock lately?” she asked ironically. “Nimbus Station has been evacuated for weeks. We’re here to bring everyone back.”

3

“If this works, we can finally go back home,” grunted the blond haired fellow.

“And get back to business,” grunted his dark-haired friend.

“I’m with blondie on this one,” their red-haired compatriot squeaked. “Where’s a Figdroid when you need one?”

“Stop!” Luke exclaimed. “Now, lower!”

“Wait, no, a little farther,” Aiden protested.

“Letting go!” Mara announced.

“No, I said further, no, Mara, no!”

The three jumped backward as the hefty device they’d been carrying slammed into the floor with an anticlimactic thud. Its base was cuboid shaped, of a metallic cast material, and atop it was a smooth prism of glass-like construction, with an opacity much closer to frosted glass than window glass. There was no apparent damage from the short fall, yet.

“Well,” Luke smirked, “that wasn’t too bad.”

“The thing better still work,” Aiden scowled, scrambling for a large power cord coming out of the wall and dragging it toward the device. “You’re kidding me! The socket’s wrong.”

Mara wiped her forehead. “There’s an adapter eerk.”

“Eerk?” Luke repeated.

“I, I, R, C.” Mara spelled out.

“If you’re just gonna stand around you could at least stand guard,” Aiden huffed.

“We’re not just gonna stand around,” Luke said while Mara said, “We’re not just gonna stand guard. We’re checking the truck, homie.”

 “And leaving me here?” Aiden squawked.

“You could come with us,” Luke suggested.

“And leave this here,” Aiden said, “this very important and experimental piece of Nexus Force tech that is potentially the means to our continued free existence?”

Mara nodded devilishly while Luke shook his head. “In that case, guard it,” the man said, turning on his heel to follow the lady as she danced up the stairs. “We’ll be right back.”

With a sigh, Aiden unholstered a gun and centered himself in Leek Works’s basement. He’d already been the target of one assassination attempt, so being alone still irked, but at the same time that was already a month ago and they hadn’t come for him since. The hits per capita had been single for the others as well. Some had been offed, some hadn’t, some were unaccounted for.

That included presumed targets, who were known persons of import – in both meanings of the word – but had gone missing, for various durations of time. The man called the Janitor, the one from the so-called Janitor Dimension, came to mind, although he’d been missing since the end of the last war. Also coming to mind was the young lady called Kate, who an outpost on Jirdia reported missing just within the last month.

An interesting thing about them, aside from their importance to First Darky, was what happened when attempts to transdimensionally maneuver to them were attempted. What actually happened was nothing. Nothing happened. The same thing happened with a few other persons as well. Charles Bradfordson, of the Future Dimension, for instance. Rowana Talmid, of the Future Dimension, as well.

 At least for the latter, Aiden knew she didn’t want to be found, and figured some sort of localized transdimensional block had been instated to impede such measures. He had some experience with that at Macabross. For the others, there wasn’t enough information to conclude if they personally desired their inaccessibility, or others desired it for them… or against them.

At least it proved that transdimensional blocks were possible, which was the key to restoring security to the universe and ending the Maelstrom Dimension’s personalized attacks once and for all.

“We’re back,” Mara sang. “And you have a visitor.”

After the red-haired woman, who tossed the socket adapter Aiden’s way, came Bridget and a scruffy looking guy, probably leaving Luke to guard the primary level.

“Stop being negligent, Mara,” Aiden chastised while plugging the adapter into the device’s port and then plugging the other end of the adapter into the power cable, which in turn, on the other side of the wall, was plugged into the output port of an Imaginite converter harnessing the power of several tons of blue Imaginite.

“Voila,” he said as the device began to hum, and did a double take when he recognized Agent Sky. “How’d he get here?!”

“I let him in,” Bridget said.

“I meant how’d he get passed the checkpoints,” Aiden clarified.

Bridget shook her head. “Apparently there’s no more checkpoints.”

“Been under a rock too, eh?” Agent Sky said. “Although personally I was wondering that myself, as well. I still recall what the Nexus Force tried doing to me the last time I showed up here. But that didn’t stop me from trying again.”

“The madman!” Mara crowed.

“He’s here for you,” Bridget relayed to Aiden as Agent Sky stepped forward.

“I bring a message,” the man began, “from your daughter.”

4

Before Aiden thought to ask, “Which one?” Agent Sky continued with the message itself.

“‘Return.’” relayed Agent Sky. “That’s the message.”

Now Aiden had more questions. “Return where?” he asked.

Agent Sky shrugged. “I’d presume she’d presumed you’d already know that. Of course I’d have asked for clarity, but she was gone in less than five seconds… if she was even there to begin with. I just kind of felt her presence, heard her voice, then poof. Quite spooky.”

“Well,” Aiden gave the predicament some thought, “that’s not really a problem, now that I think about it. There’s only two places it could mean, depending on who gave you the message. The problem is, we just turned this thing here on.”

He gestured to the device humming along beside him, casting its multicolored glow across the lighter surfaces of the room.

“If it’s working,” Aiden explained, “we can’t transdimensionally maneuver from anywhere in the Nimbus System or around it by a lightyear or so. No one can.”

“Oh, so you’re saying she’s in another dimension,” Agent Sky realized. “That explains the spooky factor.”

“And you were on Elistra when this happened?” Aiden deduced, to which the agent nodded.

“Lost,” Mara said.

“Grace,” Aiden muttered. “So, return means we’re going back to Elistra.”

“Rocketing back to Elistra,” Mara specified while grabbing Agent Sky’s shoulders. “And you’re coming with us.”

“Hold it,” Bridget jumped in front of the doorway. “What about the meeting tonight?”

Aiden paused. “Juiliet’s already going.”

“But she’s not the leader of Leek Works,” Bridget pointed out.

“I’ll eat my hat if she is,” Mara remarked.

“The point is,” Bridget continued to Aiden, “someone like you has the potential to drastically affect the outcome of this meeting, for the better. And some people will only get onboard if they’re also listening to you,” Bridget sidelonged Mara, “this one at least.”

Mara tossed her head. “Puhlease. I’m only here because it’s interesting.”

Aiden scratched his head. “I get what you’re saying. But we can’t leave Grace on read either.”

Mara snickered. “Ghosting the ghost.”

“I can go back with Agent Sky,” Bridget said.

“I was just thinking that,” Aiden agreed. “You know, see if you can grab Tiberius, too.”

The girl nodded, Mara released her prey, and Agent Sky gave a little bow, before he and Bridget departed.

“Meeting tonight?” Mara echoed.

“Nexus Tower, in two hours,” Aiden filled in. “It’s a big one. Faction Leaders from our dimension, Faction Leaders from the Janitor dimension, and representatives from the Nexus Republic. No one told ya?”

“Nah,” Mara replied. “It don’t matter anyways, I ain’t going.”

“Of course not,” Aiden sighed. “But I’m going.”

“Sucks to be you.” Mara waved. “See you on the telly.” Then she left too.

Aiden nodded to an empty room.

5

Aiden knew one thing as he stepped onto the Nexus Tower landing platform. He wasn’t looking forward to this.

“Clear out, fellas!” Shard pressed ahead, splitting the throng of news crews and bystanders so his companions to pass unscathed. “You don’t want to make us late to saving the multiverse!”

“This historic meeting doesn’t start for another fifteen minutes,” pointed out one reporter.

“I said move it!” Shard shoved him.

“The public should never have been invited,” Juiliet muttered.

“It’s for optics,” Aiden said. “The Force wants them to see we have a solution. No one likes being locked down.”

“We’re working on a solution,” Juiliet corrected. “This is just the beginning. And on the other matter, there should never have been a public in this warzone to begin with.”

“I like your zingers,” Aiden said, “and nothing against keeping your teeth sharp, but I don’t think this meeting is the place for those politics. Them bureaucrats get really virtue-signally when offended.”

“Oh, I know,” Juiliet agreed. “That’s why you’re doing the talking tonight.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Thanks to Shard’s lead, they made it off the landing platform relatively intact and through the checkpoint into one of Nexus Tower’s quadrants. Traveling up two more floors brought them to the antechamber of the night’s historic meeting. Sentries scanned and cleared them for traces of Maelstrom before opening the doors to the massive conference hall.

It was an arena reserved for only the grandest of public occasions, and as such it was set up like a stadium, with rings of elevated seating overlooking the room’s center, and capacity-wise they were nearly completely occupied too. The hall was also built right up against the central support beams of the Tower, with full height ballistic window panes installed in the interior wall so those present could personally view the energy beam of the Nexus itself, swirling and spiraling up and out of the tower.

Aiden, Shard, and Juiliet barely registered it, though, as their guards escorted them to their positions in the room’s centerstage, an elevated platform with the rest of the meeting’s participants. There were the Faction Leaders, of course: Duke Exeter, Albert Overbuild, Hael Storm, and Vanda Darkflame, in the center seats of the long horseshoe table in the room’s center.

To their right were more Faction Leaders: Duke Exeter, Albert Overbuild, Hael Storm, and Vanda Darkflame, from the version of reality known as the Janitor Dimension. To the untrained eye, they looked exactly the same as their local counterparts. There was only two years, give or take a few days, between the two sets of them, with the Janitor Faction Leaders being the younger set.

Opposite them were three representatives from the Future Dimension, the most imposing of which was Lord Brocktree, a mountain of a man even without his famous armor. If anything, twenty years had grown him bigger and stronger than the version of Brocktree they remembered, who was still MIA as of six years ago. Alongside him was his recognizable right hand man, Suave Able Cat, and to his left, a bespectacled blond fellow.

“Our man Sandy Studs,” Shard identified.

Although transdimensional blockers had been installed and activated throughout the Nimbus System only that afternoon, they’d been disabled in Nexus Tower for a scheduled window of time to allow the entrance of extradimensional parties.

“Looks like we have more visitors after all,” Juiliet said, even after the three of them had taken their seats between the local and Janitor Faction Leaders.

As they watched, sentries escorted another pair to one of the table’s ends, a blond woman and a dark haired man, dressed in vaguely Sentinel armor with components of other kits mashed between. Their suits were freshly shined, and their hair recently cut, suggesting this was not their usual level of upkeep.

Juiliet sucked in her breath. “The registrar says they’re from… the Blaona Dimension.”

Shard made a face, “What kind of idiot came up with that name?”

“Hold on,” Juiliet kept reading. “That’s one of the Maelstrom Dimensions.”

Aiden shifted in his seat. His suit was itchy, especially around the legs. “There’s non infected people there?”

Juiliet narrowed her eyes. “More like there used to be. But there’s a lot we don’t know.”

“Well, well, well,” Shard said.

They followed his gaze to another delegation entering the hall at the opposite side, except this time it was a delegation of one, a woman in a Sentinel peacoat, her red hair styled back in a bun so her adult face was clear to inspect the world, and be inspected, as the Leek Works crew transfixedly did.

“Like seeing a ghost,” Shard marveled.

“Is that… Kate?” Aiden guessed, as the woman looked like her, but not exactly. Older, maybe, by about twenty years.

“If she’d lived,” Shard said. “She’s got to be from another dimension.”

“No need to spell it out, Captain Obvious,” Juiliet commented.

“Got a name on it, Juiliet?” Aiden asked of that dimension.

“Does Helterskelter ring a bell?” Juiliet informed, before muttering, “Who the heck is coming up with these names?”

The hall lights began to dim, casting shadows upon the occupants lit otherwise solely by the glow of the Nexus, and a cued hologram of Nexus Naomi projecting into the room’s center.

“Let the history books remember,” her voice began, “at the 20^th hour, of the fifteenth day, in the sixth month of the 3031^st year after Figoranos, local-time of course, an historic assemblage occurred: The First Transdimensional Conference of Nexus Forces.”

The lights returned to the hall’s center to illuminate the five parties: the local Faction Leaders and Leek Works, the Janitor Faction Leaders, the Nexus Republic, the Maelstrom Dimension survivors, and Future Kate.

“Let the saving of the multiverse begin,” Naomi announced.

6

Duke Exeter of their own dimension spoke first. “I am pleased to announce that we have equipped every world in our Nimbus System with transdimensional blockade devices, in full operation at this very moment. The intrusive attacks that we have endured this past month will not occur in this dimension again.”

Nexus Naomi signaled to the audience, who began clapping.

The Sentinel Leader continued. “We owe our gratitude to our very own team of transdimensional operatives.” He opened a hand toward Aiden, Juiliet, and Shard. Aiden slunk into his seat, Juiliet gave a curt smile, and there was Shard just waving giddily into the applause.

Leek Works had produced the prototype transdimensional blockers, but not from their own designs. Part of it came from Aiden’s head, now that he had Future Intrepid’s memories. The rest came from long nights scouring the old Future Leek Works files given to them by Rowana so long ago. Despite prototype versions of the devices failing, they kept pushing, and with the Faction Leaders themselves demanding results, the entire economy of the Nexus Force was at their bequest.

Eventually it paid off.

The Nimbus System was secure, and soon the rest of the Crux System, and the rest of the core worlds.

For now.

A new sort of device was in the works; instead of a general blocker, a diverter, so inbound traffic could be sent and screened through secure areas. Rowana’s files revealed that Future Leek Works had done it, and it was only a matter of reengineering it for themselves.

Or, Aiden glanced at the Future Dimensional trio, ideally they could just get it from them. He tried reading their expressions, which were neutral, purposefully so. Even with the spotlight on Leek Works, Brocktree was avoiding staring at them. The man was different than his local counterpart, an honorable and valorous man. This Brocktree was petty and vindictive.

Well, conversation would occur eventually. As Duke Exeter gave speaking rights to the other Duke Exeter, announcing the Janitor Dimension’s planned receipt of the transdimensional blocker tech, Aiden shrugged to face the rest of the delegations. The Maelstrom Dimension pair still looked out of place, and Future Kate was staring straight at him, until he made eye contact and she looked away.

“I am proud to relay the Republic’s willingness to unite against our collective enemy,” Brocktree was speaking now. “To the Maelstrom, we are all the same, one target to be vanquished. So we face them as one today and until our victory. As one, we will prevail.”

It was a moving monologue, if Naomi’s orchestra was any indication.

“An era of cooperation is upon us,” Brocktree continued on. “More accurately, it has befallen us. I’d like to say it’s out of courtesy, but admittedly our track record betrays that. It’s out of criticality. Recent points of divergence are the clearest indication: We are not all the same, we each have our own talents, and we need each other to survive.”

Naomi’s crowd took it in stride while Aiden just rolled his eyes. The spotlight then fell on the blond woman and her companion, who both looked surprised for the moment, as if they weren’t quite sure what to say, or why they were there.

“Uh, hi!” the man grinned. “We’re just happy to be here! We’re from the Nexus Force, or, uh, she is, still, at least. I retired.”

“We are the survivors,” the woman picked up, “of the first Nexus Force to fall to the Maelstrom, thanks to the forces that have become known to you as the Maelstrom Dimension. We are here to help make sure that what happened to our dimension, happens to no other again.”

She looked at the floor as the audience proceeded to applaud, while the local Duke Exeter looked up and down between the registrar in his hands and the two survivors. “You reportedly came from, uh, I’m not going to read this out loud, it sounds ridiculous…”

“D-NS-1M?” Brocktree offered, but Duke waved him off.

“Oh yes, here’s some English: ‘The Maelstrom Dimension.’ If it truly is entirely infected, how did you make it out?” the Sentinel Faction Leader asked.

“Oh,” the man responded, “we didn’t just come from there.”

“We were sent here six years ago,” the woman said, and like Duke Exeter she checked something on her notes before reading, “to this dimension, apparently called ‘Flumberfluff.’”

“These names again,” Juiliet murmured beside Aiden.

“We call it D-NS-3.” Brocktree translated.

“And who sent you?” asked Duke.

The woman seemed like she wanted to respond, but wasn’t exactly sure how, when the man just replied, “Well, you did, sir. I mean, your counterpart from our dimension, of course. Sorry if we seem awkward, it was just awhile ago, is al!”

“You’re not awkward,” the woman hissed.

“Let me share the punches,” the man sighed.

Duke folded his arms. “Okay. I’m sure he had a good reason for choosing you.”

“I take it he doesn’t recognize us,” the man continued to the woman. “Or more specifically, you.”

“On that note,” barked Hael, waving his own copy of the registrar, “who even are ye? It doesn’t say here.”

The man squinted across the table at Hael. “It doesn’t? Oh, it would appear it doesn’t,” he observed while his companion doublechecked their own copy with a scowl.

“The Janitor said he’d take care of all that!” she said. “He’s probably laughing at us now.”

Across the table, Shard stopped snickering at the callout. “Say what?” he mouthed, while Aiden and Juiliet thought the same thing. The other Janitor.

“Anyway!” the man clapped his hands. “Sorry for the late introductions, but better late than never. I’m Aaron Wilder and this is my girlfriend Plue Abernathy. As she said earlier, we’re here to save the world, supposedly, allegedly? As for how we’re supposed to do that, I just want to put it out there right now, I have no idea what we’re going to do!”

7

Aiden was caught by surprise when his own cough was repeated across the entire hall, because Shard had activated their microphone.

“I want to make this very clear,” the Janitor was saying, “I never promised these people anything! Actually, I’ve never seen them in my life!”

Aaron and Plue gaped at him. “Well, the same goes to you!” Aaron responded. “I have no idea who you are!”

Shard puffed his chest. “I am the Janitor.”

Everyone looked confused.

“He’s the other Janitor,” Juiliet cut in. “You obviously had contact with a different Janitor.” Then she turned off their mic.

Shard gave her a bewildered glare. “Did you just call me the other-”

“Forgive my incredulity, which I’m sure is shared among many of us,” Albert Overbuild’s voice of reason came in, “but is there some significance to be understood about this particular occupation of Janitors?”

Future Suave responded. “It’s a person. We have had limited contact with a certain transdimensional traveler calling himself the Janitor. Quite a peculiar fellow.”

Shard wrestled the microphone from Juiliet. “Again, it is critically imperative you understood that wasn’t me!”

“Shard, stop!” Juiliet grabbed it back with a glare that read, What is wrong with you? Then she grabbed Shard’s shoulders and with surprising strength hoisted him out of his seat.

“If you’ll excuse us,” she mouthed to Aiden, before leading her companion out of the arena.

“Since we’re allies now,” inquired Vanda, “could we be told what this Janitor wanted with you?”

Brocktree and Suave whispered something, before the former nodded and the latter replied, “All he told us was that we should come here.”

“That’s what he told Aaron and me, too,” Plue spoke up.

“Signed us up and everything,” Aaron added. “Okay, maybe not everything, considering he didn’t put our names in, but you get the picture.”

Future Kate spoke for the first time. “He came to my Nexus Force as well.”

Also for the first time, the Faction Leaders from the Janitor Dimension turned on their speaking light. “So let us get this straight,” asked the Janitor Duke Exeter, “this whole meeting of dimensions has been orchestrated by this so-called Janitor?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” local Vanda countered. “It’s our Nexus Force who sent out the invites.”

“We were going to come anyway, Janitor or not,” Brocktree assured.

“So what does he want?” Janitor Duke asked again. “Aside from us all being here, which is obvious, but then what? What does this do for him?”

“We probably have to ask him ourselves,” Plue suggested. “Or we’re just going to get lost speculating.”

“That’s unless any of you guys know about him?” Aaron challenged. “Anyone?”

“He’s from the Janitor Dimension,” Aiden posited.

Everyone’s eyes boggled. “A whole dimension of Janitors?” Janitor Duke gaped.

Aiden realized all those eyes had turned to him, and he hurried on, “No, that’s what we called the dimension he’s from. Yours, actually, sirs and madam,” he addressed the Janitor Faction Leaders.

“Just dandy,” Janitor Hael groaned, “he’s one of ours.”

“The Republic’s wanted his apprehension for years,” Brocktree’s voice cut in. “Admittedly, he’s managed to evade us, despite popping in and out of the known multiverse several times.”

“You’ve been tracking him,” Local Duke paraphrased.

“Only in the known multiverse,” Brocktree repeated. “There’s a lot out there we haven’t reached yet… it’s not a question of if, by the way, but when, and that’s only a matter of our politics.”

“I ask only because you brought it up, but perhaps there is an ulterior relevance to your politics that we should be informed of?” local Overbuild suggested.

Brocktree smiled thinly. “Perhaps. But don’t worry, I will keep it my concern.”

Aiden sighed and positioned his mic. “If I may disagree with you Lord, anything that concerns any of us, concerns all of us. And if I may posit,” he leaned forward, “the politics of the Nexus Republic are definitely of our concern.”

“What would you know of our politics?” asked Suave, until Brocktree whispered something in his ear. “Oh.”

The exchange did not go unnoticed, what with the spotlights and everything. “Perhaps you have something ulterior to share as well, Mr. Intrepid?” asked Overbuild.

Aiden shrugged. “I just know some things, is all. I spent a lot of time there two and a half years ago.”

“He was in contact with his counterpart from our dimension, during the war.” Brocktree stated. “They collaborated to end it.” He waved to both sets of Faction Leaders. “And we believe they are collaborating still, now.”

Aiden harrumphed. “For the record, that’s ridiculous, the guy got totally obliterated at the end of the war.” He noticed some questioning stares and paraphrased for them. “He’s dead.”

That seemed to pacify them, while Brocktree’s eyes had only narrowed.

“There are definitely ulterior things occurring here,” remarked the Janitor Overbuild.

“I concur, my colleague,” quipped his counterpart.

Nexus Naomi reappeared centerstage then. “The conference has reached the half hour mark, and the participants are now invited to adjourn for our first break session. Those who are exiting the arena, please move in an orderly fashion towards the clearly marked exits…”

8

Aiden made to do as such, turning from the centerstage and descending the platform, hoping to catch up with Juiliet and Shard. He was admittedly not that orderly in rushing to the exit, but he was itching to find out what was up with the Janitor. As vain a fellow as he was, he’d never seen him this disturbed, although that wasn’t considering Future Intrepid’s memory banks…

Aiden prevented himself from going there. It was an overwhelming endeavor, when he wasn’t fueled by adrenaline, which he didn’t want to be at the moment.

A gloved hand gripped his arm.

“What I said earlier is true,” Lord Brocktree said in a low voice, but not softly, to quite the contrary. “Any matters between us have been suspended, potentially permanently.”

Aiden shrugged out of his grip. “By the Council’s bidding? I’m honored.”

“What would you know of the Council?” Brocktree reared. “Never mind, it doesn’t matter. The decision was made at my discretion. I’m not as beholden to the Council as you think. Given what we’re up against, I’ve been willing to put things that would stand in our way behind us. I suggest you practice the same.”

He slunk back and Aiden angled away, resuming his escape. It was a nice proposal, actually. He didn’t see anything bad about accepting it, except that it was difficult to let things go, even things that were gone forever.

Some people had assembled in the break room and lobby outside the hall for refreshments, but Aiden didn’t see Juiliet and Shard among them, which was concerning. Pulling out his comm to try reaching them that way, he found a message from Bridget waiting for him instead.

I’m so sorry, followed by an attached report from the Sentinel Command Base on Nimbus Station, where Tiberius had been detained.

It was a report of much template and little substance, as most were, but as he read it, found the critical words, and understood them…

The environment around him began to blur. Isolated snippets of conversation faded into a low, droning hubbub. His left hand went to his jaw, the other to his heart, but through a sudden numbness he barely felt any of his finer details.

“Are you alright?” a familiar voice snapped him out of his trance.

“What?” Aiden looked up, confused to see Kate standing over him, but she looked different. Of course she did, since this woman was Future Kate, from wherever she’d shown up from, Juiliet had said Hickenlooper Dimension or something like that? Apparently he’d slunk to the ground, as the Sentinel woman had extended her hand to him. He graciously accepted her help in pulling himself up.

“Thank you, I’m alright,” he managed. No, he wasn’t. The words of Bridget’s message smashed against his forehead, trying to be unread, unbelieved. They couldn’t have… Not Tiberius… Not when they were so close…

“How are you?” Aiden asked.

“Excited,” the woman responded with a beam that jogged somethings in Aiden’s memory, both his and his counterpart’s. He courteously stretched his face into a little smile of his own as Future Kate went on.

“Collaboration across dimensions is something we always talked about where I’m from,” she said, “but to see it for real, after so long...” She looked down with a bashful smile. “I’m sorry, it’s rude of me to go on like you know what I’m talking about.”

Aiden pocketed his comm, the damned bearer of bad news. “Maybe I know more than you think.”

“That would be convenient,” Future Kate considered. “What do you think you know about my dimension?”

“Judging solely by appearances, I know it’s one of the advanced ones, like Brocktree’s, relative to this one…” Aiden trailed, noticing Future Kate’s tepid expression.

“Your perception’s correct,” she confirmed, “but it’s rude to judge anything off a woman’s appearance.”

Aiden shrugged. “Okay. It’s not like I’ve got more to go by. But as you said, I’m correct.”

Future Kate looked him over a moment. “How advanced do you think my dimension is?”

Aiden chuckled awkwardly. “I thought that’d be rude to judge.” Inwardly, he echoed the Overbuilds’ sentiments of ulteriority at the possibly flirty look on her face.

“Not when I’m asking,” she assured. “Give it your best guess.”

“Alright, I’m guessing we’re something where you’re from,” Aiden switched gears. “But we’re not here. It’s one of those points of divergence.”

“The point in which the histories of two or more dimensions diverge,” Future Kate elucidated.

“Apocrypha of Unverse,” Aiden identified. “Author unknown.”

Future Kate raised an eyebrow. “Another point of divergence. In my dimension, the author is known. Guess who it is? Trust me, this is relevant.”

Aiden chuckled again. “You got me there. You?”

“Rowana,” she said.

“Rowana who?” Aiden responded quickly. Too quickly, since Future Kate looked at him funny.

“My daughter,” she said seriously. “But I think you already knew that.”

“Maybe I did,” Aiden replied.

“Then maybe you know she’s your daughter, too,” she told him.

Aiden made a face. “Well yes, but also no, and now it’s your turn to guess which side I’m leaning to.”

“As fun as this is, I’m gonna cut to the chase.” Future Kate said flatly. “My daughter’s missing.”

“Oh.” Aiden remarked. “Yours too?”

She was frowning. “Are you always this dismissive? You’re like, nothing like the Aiden I knew.”

Aiden responded automatically. “Another point of divergence,” he suggested.

“You’re lying,” she challenged. “I know you care about her.”

“What, did you talk to Brocktree or something? Whatever you’re heard about me,” Aiden dismissed, “it’s wrong.”

“No, I said I know,” Future Kate repeated.

“You know,” Aiden echoed with a quizzical stare, when she suddenly hunkered close to him.

“I’m giving you another chance, because I have no other choice,” Future Kate said hushedly. Did her voice crack there? “Ever since she disappeared, I’ve had this sense, like nothing I’ve felt before, that I need you to help me find her.”

“Okay…” Aiden straggled. “And this, sense, has been going on for how long?”

“Two weeks,” she whispered. “Since she’s been missing for two weeks. Do you have any idea how relentless the time has been?”

“Past two and a half years, it doesn’t hurt so much,” Aiden said.

She ignored the remark. “My Nexus Force has a transdimensional division too, and this whole time, it’s been looking for you, too,” she said with desperation in her voice. “And we finally found you here. Alive.”

Aiden turned to her, concerned by the relevance of that descriptor. “Why is that word important?”

He realized she was staring at him like he was a ghost, which he already knew in a way he was, and Tiberius knew- had known. But that couldn’t be all of it. Nor was it enough to shake him, until she said her next sentence.

“You’re the only Aiden Talmid left in the multiverse. Everyone else is dead.”

9

“How is that possible?” Aiden asked blankly, while considering the meaning of her statement. Absent any reason not to believe her, that meant Janitor Aiden was dead… Future Intrepid was already, for all intents and purposes, dead… he hadn’t yet met any other counterparts, but now he never would, if they were all dead…

“Come with me,” Future Kate beckoned. “You look like you could use some air. I know I could.”

Aiden agreed.

Future Kate and he exited to a balcony, the wastelands of Crux Prime spread before them. If they went to the edge and adjusted their field of view downward, the construction of Nexus City would be in sight. Instead they kept their heads high, taking in the night sky, filled with stars and world chunks and faraway galaxies, and the Maelstrom Vortex, spiraling away as it always did.

“It’s a big multiverse,” Future Kate said, “not just the four or five dimensions represented here. Since the inception of our transdimensional division, at least thirty other unique dimensions have been observed, just by us.”

“Sounds about right by our observations,” Aiden thought of the Unverse maps in Future Leek Works, both the one hastily drawn by the Janitor, and the one projected by Rowana, so long ago.

“After Rowana disappeared,” Future Kate said wistfully, “we sent a team to each one, even the Maelstrom ones…”

“And not only didn’t you find her,” Aiden finished, “you didn’t find me neither.”

“You never existed to begin with in a lot of them,” Future Kate stated, “and in the ones were you had, which we’ve counted seven so far, you don’t anymore. Always just killed, always just within past few weeks. Except for the one you call Future Intrepid, who died in the war. And except for mine, who died longer ago. And except for you, of course.” She allowed a small smile.

“Maelstrom assassins have been around,” Aiden affirmed. “One did try to off me, for what it’s worth. How about Rowana?”

“She only existed in three dimensions so far,” Future Kate continued. “One of the Maelstrom Dimensions, my dimension, and the one you call the Future Dimension.”

“The Maelstrom one’s dead,” Aiden shivered. “Been so for a long time.”

“Your doing,” Future Kate said curtly.

Aiden grimaced. It was gonna be her or him, leaving that mine. “I never reported that. How’d you know?”

Future Kate frowned. “We just know.”

Aiden shrugged. “Alright then, keep your future dimensiony secrets.”

“I didn’t mean it that way,” Future Kate cocked her head. “But no matter. Do you think it means she’s dead, Aiden?”

“Maybe she doesn’t want to be found,” Aiden suggested.

“I can understand a lot of things, but that I can’t,” Future Kate objected. “We’ve always been so close for so long…”

“Lucky you,” Aiden said, turning back to the balcony doors as a chime began sounding from the way they came. “I’ll say, I think we’ve got a meeting to return to.”

“Do we really?” Future Kate suggested.

Aiden looked back. “What do you mean?”

“I mean we should get out of this place,” Future Kate clarified.

Aiden shook his head. “I’m still not getting it.”

“There’s a lot I want to show you, more than I can relay in words,” the woman continued urgently, “so we can actually work together. All this time I’ve been thinking, and now I think I know why I need you to come with me.”

“Hold on,” Aiden protested, raising a hand, “It’s not just this godforsaken meeting I’ve got going on, but my uncle just died, and my other daughter wants me for something, and-”

Then she grabbed his arm, and before Aiden could get free, the world around them disappeared.

10

The ringing in Aiden’s ears ceased, to be replaced with one word that he exclaimed at an ungracious volume. “How?!” he yelped, leaping out of Future Kate’s grasp and naturally smashing into a table. Of course their surroundings were new and unfamiliar to him. Of course they’d transdimensionally maneuvered into some foreign room, a sort of laboratory it seemed, by the charts and screens and terminals all about, almost like Leek Works.

“I had someone turn off your blocking device,” Future Kate explained. “But only for the moment we needed, then they restored it. Your world is still protected.”

“Ah, forget my world, I only care about myself,” Aiden laughed, going for his own Unverse Manipulator. Until he saw Future Kate was holding it, and she shoved it in her coat. “Oh, come on.”

She was desperate, her actions betrayed it so clearly, but what gave Aiden pause was her face. After all this, her expression still seemed to be saying, silently but certainly, please help me.

It wasn’t a bad idea, actually, Aiden considered. He only wondered why, in all the time he’d been looking for Rowana himself, the same thought hadn’t occurred to him: asking for help.

Because no one else cared as much so to them it was stupid, he answered himself. He was just supposed to let go and move on, do nothing. Being the only person who had cared, what other choice did he have once, after so long, he’d convinced himself that even he barely cared anymore?

Yet for all the time he’d refused to accept it, two and a half long years, he’d soldiered on, made some progress, experienced some setbacks for sure. Yet he was still closer than ever before. He hadn’t cared that his goal was by all conventional means impossible. He hadn’t care that nobody else cared.

He could go back to that, if he allowed it.

He had just wanted to know why Rowana left… and how could he help her.

And now it would seem he wasn’t alone.

“Alright,” Aiden decided. “What do you want me to see?”

Future Kate exhaled in obvious relief. “Oh, thank you. Okay, so, what I’ve got for you is right this way.”

She made for one of two doors in the room, secured by keycard, very Future Leek Worksesque. It opened to a stairwell which she took two steps at a time.

“We’re at the Nimbus Transdimensional Division,” Future Kate introduced a familiar curved hallway, “in Nimbus Station, 56 Unemployment Road. Same as the two Leek Workses.”

“A point of… association?” Aiden tried as they proceeded. “The opposite of divergence.”

“How about consistent reflection?” Future Kate suggested.

“Too artsy for me,” Aiden shook his head.

“Me too,” Future Kate admitted.

“So neither of us have developed a term for this,” Aiden noted. “Another point of untermed terminology.”

“We definitely need to come up with one,” Future Kate decided. “After we find our girl.”

Like Future Leek Works, the halls they navigated were decorated in general Nexus Republic coloration and images, with a noticeable absence of anything identifying it to the vegetative name. “Why the name change?” Aiden asked.

“It didn’t stick after our nationalization,” Future Kate explained.

“Oh yeah, something like that went on with our Leek Works,” Aiden caught himself, “I mean Future Intrepid told me about that, with his Leek Works. His Republic wanted something less discrete, more centralized. I take it your guy wasn’t around to do the same here.”

“Not since 21 July, 3034.” Future Kate stated somberly. “He saved us all that night.”

Aiden nodded back, waiting for her to say more, but she didn’t.

Apparently she’d said enough.

21 July, 3034, was the night Future Dimension’s Kate had been killed. But in this dimension, instead of her dying…

He rested a hand on her shoulder, hoping to be reassuring. “It must have been tough.”

“I apologize,” Future Kate responded with a small smile, almost encouragingly, perhaps to herself. “I’ve had a lot of time to cope, and just keep going with what he’d have wanted. Defending our world, keeping our dimension safe… and protecting our girl was the most important thing. But now…” Her countenance waned.

“We’ll bring her back,” Aiden said determinedly. “Honestly, this is important to me too, and I’m glad you came to get me.” he offered.

“That’s really sweet,” Future Kate accepted for a moment, “if you really mean it.”

With another scan of her keycard, they entered another conference room slash lab, already set up with some folding data plaques on the round table and several powered on wall displays.

The doors to an adjacent room slid open for another woman to enter, carrying in her bounding stride an energy as distinctive as her pretty face, and the beaming smile that appeared when she sighted Aiden.

“Intrepid Fusion Eclipse,” Verbina greeted him. “It’s good to see you again.”

11

Aiden rubbed the back of his head. “Uh, thanks. You too.”

Verbina stopped to lean on the end of the table, propping herself on her hands while cocking her head at the pair across from her. “This is just perfect.”

“Uh,” Aiden repeated, “thanks? I didn’t even come here voluntarily-”

“It’s the two of you together, that’s it,” Verbina concluded with a knowing nod to them, or to herself. “That’s the vibe. Can’t you feel it?”

Future Kate stepped between them, giving Aiden what seemed like an apologetic glance over her shoulder. “She’s just ethereal like that. Been for a while,” she whispered.

“Uh huh,” Aiden nodded back.

“But still the greatest brains we’ve got on Unverse,” Future Kate admitted. “I hear Rowana could’ve really known it, too, if she’d gotten into it.” She shrugged. “Mine didn’t.”

“Ever try Tiberius?” Aiden asked.

“The name rings a very tiny bell,” Future Kate said. “Like, really, really, tiny.”

“Guess he did other things here too.” Aiden realized, leaning against the table as well. “So what’re we looking for?”

Future Kate let her fingertips dance over one of the plaques and all the screens began to scramble and refresh. They settled on an animated display recognizable as a visualization of the multiverse, with each dimension represented by circles. But there was more detail too, things like numbers associated with each dimension, and larger cloud-like forms connecting certain dimensions.

“This is a historical animation,” Future Kate said, “now watch.”

As the playback activated, things began to move in the chart. Most of the dimensions had a wobble or bounce to them, with those clustered within clouds dancing almost in harmony, all wiggling and jumping with some symmetry.

“Look closer here,” with her pointer digit Future Kate encircled a section of cloud with three dimensions clustered tightly within, and the rest faded from view. “We’re coming up on August 3048, local time of course… now.”

A fourth circle suddenly appeared. If they’d blinked just then, they would have missed it.

Aiden blinked after instead. “What?” The circles represented dimensions, meaning… a new dimension?

“Spontaneous, isn’t it?” Future Kate commented.

Aiden pointed a quivering finger at the largest screen. “Go back, play that again.”

“Oho, this is just the beginning,” Verbina had a devilish smile.

Aiden willed himself not to blink and miss anything, when as anticipated a fifth circle appeared within the other four. “It’s getting crowded.”

“Just the beginning,” Verbina repeated.

Then there was a sixth. A seventh. An eighth.

Aiden rubbed his temple. “Does this stop?”

“Watch,” Future Kate instructed again. “February 3049, this starts happening.”

The fourth circle suddenly vanished.

Then the fifth.

Then the sixth.

Seventh.

Eighth.

“All gone,” Verbina quipped.

“I can see that,” Aiden said emptily, turning to her. “Those represented dimensions, right?”

Both women nodded. “Those were dimensions,” Future Kate emphasized, “And all in the same cluster. Our cluster,” she stated.

“So like,” Aiden rested his chin in his hand, but really wanted to pull his hair out, “literally like, our dimensions? Mine? Yours? The Future Dimension? Janitor Dimension? Maelstrom Dimensions? Just coming and upping and going?”

“And coming and upping and going again!” Verbina echoed.

Looking back at the screens, more dimensions had appeared. Now there were seven. Then eight. Nine. Ten.

Then nine. Eight. Seven. Six. All the way down to the original four in that section of cloud.

“We’re almost at the present day,” Future Kate informed, as the third round began. But more dimensions kept showing up, even as some of those same new ones began disappearing.

The animation suddenly stopped.

“Why’d it stop?” Aiden demanded.

Future Kate gestured at the date. “7 June 3051.”

“Today,” Aiden grimaced.

“We have something else to show you,” Future Kate pushed off the table edge and went to a cabinet. From it she placed on the table a peculiar device, about twenty centimeters wide and shaped like a prism, like a fancy paperweight, but with a small internal vacuum between two apparent electrodes, currently disabled.

She slid the device over to Aiden with a spin, bringing to face a user interface strip with a single switch and a wide display panel, also currently disabled.

“Turn it on,” Future Kate ordered.

“Bossy much?” Aiden quipped, but he did as she told.

A brilliant blue arc bridged the gap between the electrodes, and just as instantly the display panel lit up, in less brilliant lighting a set of six integers, followed by four decimal numbers, and then a superscript symbol of two overlapping circles. “What is this?” he asked.

“It’s a precise measurement of the polar orientation of the atomic Imagination fields. Read the numbers,” Future Kate instructed.

“There’s no way I’m memorizing this,” Aiden disclaimed with a shake of his head. “But fine. 1-0-6-8-3-4 point 5-8-1-3.”

“Now look at this,” Future Kate motioned for the chart to zoom in on the cluster of dimensions that had so enraptured them a minute earlier. By now, the number of dimensions had trending down, now at seven. She drew another illustrative circle around one of the circles.

Aiden squinted at it, noting the numbers superimposed over it. “1-0-6-8-3-4 point 5-8-1-3,” he read. “Wait, that’s the same as-” He looked back at the device.

“It’s us,” Future Kate confirmed. “The Imagination fields being measured were generated in this dimension, when you turned the device on. So it’s measuring us objectively. Identifying us.”

“Wind the chart back two weeks,” Verbina spoke up.

“Just getting to that,” Future Kate affirmed, and Aiden looked back at the screens. The date changed to 23 May 3051 before the animation resumed. When the clock rolled over to the 24^th, the dimension numbered 106834.5813 appeared.

“Go back,” Aiden said, and this time she listened to him, setting it back to 23 May, and dimension 106834.5813 was gone.

“Go forwards,” he said.

23 May, no 106834.5813.

24 May, yes 106834.5813.

“What is this?” Aiden pushed back from the table, stepping backwards until he brushed the wall. Both Future Kate and Verbina stared back at him, reflecting what had to be his own incredulous expression. “So you are showing, saying, telling me, until two weeks ago, this dimension didn’t exist?”

“It sure looks that way, doesn’t it?” Verbina said innocently.

“Well then how did you even track all the time before then?” Aiden spattered.

“We didn’t,” Future Kate said. “That’s not to say we- gods, this sounds so weird to say, it’s not that we didn’t exist before two weeks ago. I for one remember existing before then. Maybe we just weren’t on their radar until then?”

She sounded hopeful saying that last bit, Aiden realized. Of course she sounded hopeful, discussing the plausibility of her own existence and the existence of the entire world around them.

“The radar of who?” Aiden asked.

“The one you call the Future Dimension,” Verbina answered. “We got this chart from them. Actually, it was given to us, along with this device for measuring atomic rotation.”

“The man called the Janitor gave them to us,” Future Kate said. “You can see his organization etched on the edge.”

Aiden followed her pointer, and indeed, engraved on one edge of the prism, was one letter repeated five times. It may have made more sense to him if he could read cursive, such as identifying what letter it even was, assuming it was derived from a charset he already knew - assuming it was even a single letter being repeated.

He picked up then on what she said. “He has an organization?”

“There’s another thing we picked up from this intel,” Verbina said, suddenly serious, and apparently Future Kate also knew where she was going, betrayed by her now very obviously troubled expression.

“Do tell,” Aiden requested, looking between the two of them, “I wasn’t taking notes.”

“The transient dimensions only stay, on average, for eleven days.” Verbina stated.

“Transient…” Aiden echoed. Transient. Temporary. Temporary dimensions. “And since you showed up fourteen days ago…”

“We’re on borrowed time,” Future Kate said. “And it’s running out. I’ve already told you how frenzied the last two weeks have been, what with my daughter missing - this entire reality is about to go who knows where, statistically speaking very soon. And if she’s not here when-” Her chest heaved as she slumped against the table. “I’m not ready for another loss, Aiden. First you, now her-”

Aiden’s ears were ringing too, and normally he wouldn’t know what to say or do that would help… but he did know. “I said I’d help you,” he said. Move, man, he yelled in his thoughts. So he did, to Kate’s side of the table, to Kate’s side, to hold around her shoulders, to strengthen.

“Hey,” he repeated, “I’ll help you. We’ll find her.”

Kate looked up at him, then past him.

Someone else’s hand clamped down on Aiden’s shoulder.

“Mister Aiden Talmid,” their voice addressed him.

Aiden had had enough of surprises for the day, but with a roll of his eyes he obliged.

The woman facing him down had blond hair cut short, and very green eyes. As interesting was her attire, titanium in color and in some places bulky in shapes reminiscent of the Assembly Inventor kit, but with exposed gears, cogs, sprockets, and tensioners everywhere else. In the center of her chest gear was a single embossed letter - the same letter that was repeated fivefold on the Imagination field measurement device.

“Who’re you?” Aiden asked.

“Just come with me,” the woman said.

“No,” Aiden refused. “I’ve taken enough orders today, and I’m on a mission.”

“And I’m on a mission to save you,” the woman retorted, “but if you refuse to come with me, so be it. Enjoy the lightshow.” Then she pressed a button on her forearm and with a blinding flash, she disappeared as spontaneously as she’d shown up.

Aiden shook his head. “Alright, where were we?”

“I think it’s happening,” Future Kate said quietly.

Verbina nodded. “I can feel it.”

“What are you talking about?” Aiden mouthed.

Future Kate hauled herself up, slinging Aiden’s arm off her in the process. “That woman said she was saving you. You have to go.”

“Me?” Aiden was stubborn. “What about you?”

“My place is here,” Future Kate resolved, “whatever the place may be, wherever it goes. It is going, Intrepid.” She took a shuddering breath and retrieved his Unverse Manipulator. “We’ve run out of time.”

“So I’m gonna just up and leave like that?” Aiden said. He accepted the Unverse Manipulator, then tossed it behind him where it clattered out of view. “Let’s face the unknown together.”

“Then turn around,” Verbina said. Again, she and Future Kate were looking past him.

Aiden did, out one of the room’s windows, then he saw it, as far as his eyes could see, in every direction, a wall of energy rippling and banding in the full spectrum of color, rushing towards them until it was all he could see. It was on him in seconds and surrounded him for an instant, before it was gone, and everything with it, leaving nothing.

Nothing but him in the void of Unverse.

12

The first thing Aiden became aware of when he came to was a man speaking nearby.

“Well, well, well,” he heard the man first, as his own eyes were still dysfunctional, “I can see now your hypothesis was correct, as the subject has been relocated, alive and seemingly unharmed, to… what was it again…? No. No! Foolish assistant, I didn’t just say your name, I was asking-! Oh forget about it. What measurement was it…”

By that point in the man’s diatribe, Aiden successfully cracked his eyes open, letting in the dazzling illumination of LED lights, which he could not escape anyway he looked as they bounced off the many reflective surfaces around him back into his face. His face, yes. He could see many reflections of his personal visage as well, some clearly, some twisted, some distorted.

Mirrors, that’s what they were, all around him, on every wall and ceiling but not the floors. A fun house of mirrors of all places, that’s where he was, and if his ears were not deceived as well, he was not alone.

Never one to suffer Unverse sickness, Aiden was on his feet quickly and scanning for the other man.

“Yes, of course I’m going to try speaking to him!” the voice carried on, along with pacing footfalls. “If the circumstances allow, of course, which means you need to stop chattering my ear off…”

His voice came from around a corner, which as Aiden got closer to, he began to sight the man’s reflection in the mirrors rounding it. They were unfortunately the wacky type, so he could discern no finer details yet other than light colored clothing, light skin, and dark hair. Despite himself being able to see the other man, the man either hadn’t noticed Aiden approaching yet or didn’t care.

Once upon it Aiden swung around the corner and paused, taking in the man’s full undistorted presence. He was already facing away from Aiden, with a mobile phone against his ear and his back to him, both explaining his lack of response so far, and showing Aiden the long broom hanging off his back, which could only mean…

“Oof!” the Janitor also known as Strange Odd Shadow huffed as Aiden tackled him. The phone left his hand as they went down and would have clattered away if Aiden hadn’t grabbed it in mid-air. Triumphantly while digging his elbows into the Janitor’s back, Aiden turned the mobile over to reveal a shattered screen, and no tapping or button pressing elicited any response from it, like it was a broken phone.

“The hell, I thought you were just talking into this?” Aiden demanded, turning to the man beneath him.

“Dismount me, you imbecile!” yelled the Janitor, scrambling out from under Aiden with surprising strength and speed, and then kicking him in the chin for good measure, snapping his neck back so all he saw was darkness again.

At least it wasn’t Unverse nothingness, just good old unconsciousness nothingness, thought Aiden as he came back to a second time.

This time it was to a cool liquid splashing in his face, poured from a flask of super soda, held by a girl with copper red hair and a beautiful face that looked very familiar to Aiden, but also unfamiliar for some reason, but still more familiar, since he’d just spent the last hour in the presence of someone who looked like her, if she was twenty years older-

“Found you, dummy,” Kate snorted. “That was the last of my soda, too. Awake now, I hope?”

Aiden blinked multiple times.

“If that’s Morse code, I’m not reading it,” Kate replied.

“It’s not,” Aiden sputtered. Despite the Janitor kicking him hard enough to see stars earlier, if his voice still working was any corroboration, he trusted his eyes to be accurate as well: This Kate was young.

“I’m just, surprised, is all,” he went on. What was Kate, of this age, around his age, doing here? Wasn’t she left on Jirdia the last time he’d seen her? Hadn’t she had her memory wiped of him, the last time he’d seen her? Actually, going back to his first questioning thought, where even was here?

“Surprised, why?” Kate echoed. “That this dire situation has befallen you? Though it’s more accurate to say you’re the one who’s befallen the floor. What happened, anyway?”

Aiden declined her help hauling himself back up to his feet. “This may sound outrageous, but I tried fighting a Janitor.”

“That does sound outrageous,” Kate agreed, “probably from hitting your head. You don’t have to be so embarrassed about it to make up stories,” she chastised, and without warning she slipped her hand into his.

“Did you see him?” Aiden asked, looking past her.

“What?” Kate asked back.

“The Janitor,” Aiden clarified. “He was just here.”

Kate started walking, yanking Aiden after her towards the exit. “I literally waited five minutes outside for you before coming back in here just to find you conked yourself out. Fighting a Janitor is just nonsense, Intrepid, and not funny.”

Intrepid. That was his name, once upon a time, and not for a while… yet it didn’t sound wrong, it sounded right, like he’d been called it many times before, recently even, by the girl in front of him in fact, the one pulling him with her out of the house of mirrors.

The reflections all around them showed him a sight uncanny yet also not unfamiliar, the boy and the girl together, like they were supposed to be, as if they’d been so for a long time.

Aiden shuddered. The experience had to be messing with him. He had no history here, wherever here was, but it was really beginning to feel like he did.

“For real,” Kate turned on him once they’d exited the mirror halls, into a grassy space surrounded by large tents and stalls and colorful mechanical contraptions, a fairground, “are you okay? I’m serious. We can get your head looked at.” She reached up around the back of his head.

Aiden brushed away. “I’m fine, thanks.”

Her narrowed eyes seemed to study him for a long moment.

“We can go home,” she tried.

Part of him wanted to say he needed to find the Janitor, but another part of him stopped him. The way those brown eyes stayed on him, he couldn’t help but stare back, into them, and the person with feelings behind them. He didn’t want to disappoint her. Apparently he’d done so enough already.

Stupid Janitor, Aiden thought. “Kate,” he began. “I’m just… I’m sorry. You’re right-”

He was cut off by her face coming in close to his, then lips finding his, pressing softly against him- she was kissing him.

When she broke off, he had no idea what he’d been saying, but she did. “I love it when you do that,” those lips were saying. He could barely comprehend it.

“Thanks, and I love it when you do that,” he repeated numbly.

She found that amusing. “I say let’s get out of here.”

That seemed like a good idea, Aiden agreed. Again with her hand slipped into his, he could only follow along.

13

The night air was already cold enough, so being on a balcony in a Nimbus City high rise forty stories up, subjecting himself to the additional chill of high altitude winds, certainly didn’t help against Aiden’s bare skin. But the air, and the space, helped him think.

He needed to think.

His head hurt like hell when he considered everything he felt was wrong.

First he felt like he’d always been here, here being the new reality he’d been launched into. Accordingly it was not true that he’d always been here.

But it felt so right to say he had been.

He remembered everything that his identity had experienced in this life. These memories were strong, they made anything else feel like dreams.

Eventually, he began to think he was right where he was supposed to be.

Aiden looked down, regarding himself, this mostly bare body, this person. It was still the same one he’d always known. At least that stayed a constant in this multiverse.

Someone threw a shirt at him.

“You dropped this,” came the Janitor’s voice, “and this,” a pair of jeans, “and this,” an Unverse Manipulator, “and lastly, this.”

Aiden caught sight of the glass prism-like object arcing past him before it struck the balcony floor and shattered. Then he turned to the Janitor, who was in the midst of pulling his hair out. “Damn it all, you were supposed to catch that with your hands. Lucky for you, I’m not one to go without spares.”

The Janitor laid out a folding table to set another electrode prism upon it.

“It’s called the Unverse Spherometer,” the Janitor introduced, “for measuring the precise angle of locally generated subatomic Imagination Fields relative to an arbitrarily declared true north. When you last saw it, you were in dimension number 106834.5813. Activating it now will reveal to us,” he described before flourishingly toggling the single switch, “we are now in dimension number 008573.9925.”

Aiden nodded courteously. “No offense to you, strange broom man,” he expressed, “but I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about. Really, no idea.”

The Janitor’s gaze bored into him uncomfortably, almost enough to inspire the redonning of some clothes, if Aiden wasn’t too drunk to try.

“So you have forgotten who you are,” the Janitor tsk-tsked, before bringing the apparently dead mobile phone back to his ear. “Yes, what was it? The osmosis has indeed succeeded in bounding him to this dimension. Yes, I know that was one of your hypotheses. Now if your other hypothesis is correct, he will evanesce in the next cycle if not recovered.”

Aiden yawned. “Who do you think you’re talking to, man? Can’t you see your phone’s dead?”

The Janitor looked between the phone and Aiden and back to the phone. “It’s alright, little one,” he cooed to the phone, “the subject doesn’t know you’re only playing dead.”

Crazy, Aiden thought.

The Janitor rolled his eyes back to Aiden’s direction. “You may think I’m a mad man. Maybe I am, after all that I have been through. Nothing is easy in life. But never once have I forgotten my mission, which remains saving Unverse, which right now requires saving you. So I encourage you to come with me.”

Aiden shook his head. “Hey, I’ve got this inkling of a dream that may or may not have happened in real life. It goes like this, I’m on some other plane of existence, then some chick from the future drags me off to another some other plane of existence, then some other chick shows up and says we gotta go, but I say no way, then this super colorful wave washes over everything, and then you and I are in the mirror halls and I’m tryna fight you but you totally beat me - then I wake up, it’s the present day, the first chick’s here, her name’s Kate, and she’s my girlfriend. But get this, she’s been for a couple years now, we got history, we’re in love. But the most important thing is this: we got a future here too.”

The Janitor sighed. “I know- already knew, in fact, not just from what you’ve told me now, that this all feels real to you. But I must correct you on your last statement. There is no future here, Aiden, not beyond two weeks from now, when the barrier wave will have surely completed its rebound and nullified all that has ever taken place here. This is a transient dimension, just like 106834.5813 was. You may have heard it called Helterskelter, as some of us, namely me, still like to use subjective names. You survived that dimension’s collapse because you were an outsider to that dimension, a foreign object - when the barrier wave came through, you were ejected into Unverse, and then inserted into the new dimension formed in its place. But you seem to have become an integral component to this one, which so far is a duplication of Teenyweeny but set nineteen years in its past. In itself, taking the place of the Intrepid Fusion Eclipse that ‘existed’ in this dimension’s history wouldn’t condemn you, if not for the fact that you have accepted this role. Accordingly, it’s a credible theory that when the barrier wave rebound inevitably occurs here, collapsing this dimension and destroying all within in, you will be voided as well.”

“Run that by me again?” Aiden asked.

Again the Janitor moved faster than Aiden could react, not like his inebriated state helped much. The man came in close until his fingers were pressed taut around Aiden’s eyelids, holding them open so he could peer inside. “Ah, does it be that I actually have your attention?” he said with visibly expressed glee. “Your true attention?”

“Get off,” Aiden shoved him back. “I still have no idea what you’re talking about, but I’ll freely admit that doesn’t mean you’re not credible, so I’ll further admit you’ve got me spooked. You say we got two weeks ‘til dimensional collapse, and you want to save me? What about the rest of us?”

“Been there, tried that,” the Janitor said. “It won’t work. Everyone other than you originated within this dimension. When it collapses, they go with it. I’ve seen it firsthand.”

With his head still hurting as badly as it was before the Janitor showed up, Aiden already had enough trouble facing the man notwithstanding his spontaneous dimensional lingo. So Aiden allowed a few moments of shuteye to rub his temples, until he could think clearly again. “Alright then, what about Kate? You can save her too, right? ‘cause there’s no way I’m leaving without her.”

“I’m not usually one to mince words, but I suppose given your sense of attachment to her, some moderation is warranted,” the Janitor accepted. “Fine, I shall proceed. Like everyone else here besides you and me, the Kate you know here also originated in this dimension. Unfortunately, the same adage for everyone else here therefore also applies inclusively to her. As there’s nothing we can do to save them from the incoming dimensional collapse, there’s nothing we can do to save her either. As I mentioned before, I’ve seen firsthand what happens when you try to save someone so doomed. As soon as their source dimension collapses, the excerpted person disappears, regardless of what you do with them or where you bring them. That’s even with trying to stabilize them-”

“Then you’ll try harder,” Aiden interrupted, “because I refuse to leave Kate to die.”

“But you must understand she will die whether you come with me or not,” the Janitor remonstrated. “The only choice we have is whether or not you die with her.”

“That’s my choice to make,” Aiden declared, “and I won’t leave her.”

“Then you choose death,” declared the Janitor, turning on his heel and striding away, collecting the Unverse Spherometer from the folding table as he went. “Enjoy your life while it lasts.”

Taking the reprieve, Aiden got back into his jeans and went for the shirt. He paused when the Janitor brought the broken phone back to his ear and spoke into it. “What was that, you say? Keep trying to convince him? This is madness and you know it, you didn’t even put up with one iota of what he’s putting me through!”

So the Janitor came back to Aiden, hiding the natural scowl on his face with an artificial grin. “My assistant,” the Janitor enunciated, “despite being the one to ditch you so expediently in the last dimension, remains adamant that I bring you with me, whether you want to or not.”

“Good luck with that,” Aiden said, withdrawing the revolver from his pants pocket and pressing it into the Janitor’s stomach.

“Touché,” the Janitor acknowledged. “Then I suppose, lest I be murdered in cold blood in this dreadful dimension by you, or by my assistant after I fail to secure you, that I must return to attempting to convince you.”

“I really doubt you can,” Aiden forewarned.

“Try and hear me out,” the Janitor held his hands up placatingly. “Let’s say, theoretically, I agreed, foolhardy as it may be, to bringing Kate with us. Then would you come?”

“Only if you’re bringing her in good faith,” Aiden said. “So, first, stop acting like she’s already dead. You say we’ve got two weeks ‘til dimensional collapse? Use that time to save her and we got a deal.”

The Janitor sighed. “In preservation of my own integrity, I’ll be transparent with you. We, my assistant and I, have tried, time and time again, to save excerpted persons. Thirty-seven different methods already, each has failed. For example, transfusing Imagination from stable dimensions. Sound like a smart idea? It failed. Targeted infection with Maelstrom? It failed. Relocating them to the Flumberfluff-Elistra Pocket Dimension? It failed. Everything we’ve tried has failed, it’s as if death is hardcoded in their souls. I refuse to lie to you because the sooner you realize this, the easier it will be to move forward and do what needs to be done. Trying to save her will fail.”

“Shadow,” Aiden’s voice cracked. “She’s carrying my child.”

“What?” the Janitor’s expression betrayed surprise.

“We’re the real deal,” Aiden reprimanded. “A unit, a family. We’re in this together. Now you see why I won’t leave her?”

“May I reach for my phone?” the Janitor asked, mindful of the deadly weapon still pressed against him.

“This broken thing?” Aiden asked, retrieving it from the Janitor’s pocket himself, and placing it against his ear. “Hello, is this thing on?”

A woman’s voice came through it, but not from the phone’s destroyed speakers - the words transmitted straight into Aiden’s head.

“So Kate’s pregnant?” the woman from 106834.5813 stated. “You sure it’s yours?”

“One thousand percent,” Aiden responded.

“Put Shadow on.” the woman demanded. “But first, for the record, my name is Watt Wuzzit and I am not his assistant.”

“Duly noted,” Aiden responded, before placing the phone in the Janitor’s hand, who then listened to Watt speak, surprisingly without talking back

He held the phone aside as he turned to attention back to Aiden. “I hope you will trust this is in good faith, or I would otherwise not bother telling you: My assistant theorizes that the active gestation of your prenatal daughter may be a solution to preserving Kate’s existence through this dimension’s collapse. Accordingly, Kate will come with us.”

“You better hope Watt’s right,” Aiden said. “Wait, did you say daughter?”

The Janitor brought his phone back to his ear with a laugh. “Oh, this is too funny. Hey Watt, our subject has actually forgotten his entire basis for embarking on his dimensional journey- no, no, no! Yes, I know, not just this specific one at Future-Kate’s demand. Yes, his entire efforts with Unverse for the past nearly three years! Too funny indeed, if weren’t so sad! I should tell him? Alright. Aiden Talmid,” the Janitor addressed him, “I must ask you this.

“How could you forget Rowana Talmid?”

His words were like a bomb dropped on his head, sending Aiden staggering as her face flashed back into his mind’s eye, where it had been for so long - she had so many features shared with his own visage, he realized now. His eyes, how did he not see she had his eyes? And so perfectly framed by red hair from her mother Kate, normally recessive but activated thanks to pairing with the same gene passed down through him from his own mother Hafwyn. How could he forget indeed, Rowana, dear wonderful Rowana…?

I’ve made you a part of me for so long, Aiden thought, and I still forgot you. He laughed bitterly, beratingly, into his knees, pulled up against his face as he slouched against the parapet. The revolver clattered next to him. I failed you!

And after Rowana came the rest of his memories of his true life.

Remembering her made him remember himself.

“Aiden,” the Janitor spoke. “As I promised, we will bring Kate with us. But you must know that for our mission to succeed, we must start moving quickly. Time is of the essence.”

Aiden acknowledged, briefly drying his face with the shirt and standing back up to face the Janitor, whose hand was outstretched for him to take the Unverse Manipulator held in it.

Aiden hesitated. “Where are we going?”

“Retrieving you is only one part of my mission,” the Janitor said. “Retrieving Rowana is another.”

Aiden’s laugh came out more like an injured cough. “You know I’ve been trying to do that for three years. What makes you think we’ll suddenly find her now?”

“That’s the opposite approach to what we’re doing,” the Janitor said “We’re not going to find her. She’s going to come to us.”

“What makes you so sure?” Aiden asked.

The Janitor smiled. “I’ve witnessed this same cycle, each time a dimension is born. It’s just a matter of time, but she always comes.”

“So she hasn’t come here yet,” Aiden deduced.

The Janitor nodded. “But she will, and we’ll be waiting.”