Where they were was arguable. When they were couldn’t be measured by normal human measurements, but at the same time, it could be said to be after Magnus’ death and as all the mortals returned to their lives.

Govan, Nataw, Lee, and Kee existed in a space that could be perceived as a giant room with red suns glowing in the middle of the room.

For beings that existed as energy, taking bodies in an infinity of worlds for their convenience, it appeared differently.

No room existed. The red suns, molten balls of glowing energy that sometimes solidified on the outside before being absorbed, turned into liquid, and recirculated through the core. Connected to each other, they also connected to the device’s power, the suns of a galaxy’s core.

The small red suns in the control room weren’t power so much as a user-interface, a way to help control the power.

The beings within the room knew it and could use it to pull of visions of the future, windows into other universes, or to destroy worlds, galaxies, and other beings, including beings like themselves.

Lee called up a vision of the humans (and their dog) as they appeared back in their own world and their own times, both the present and 1959.

Letting the vision go, Lee said, “Everyone’s been sent back to when and where they belong and I’ve shut down access to the outside. We can talk without worrying that someone will overhear.”

They weren’t embodied, but for convenience, let’s pretend that their energy based forms loosely approximated a human’s. It will be easier.

Kee looked up from a collection of small lights that acted as a user-interface and monitor. “If you give me control, I can set permissions so that from this point forward time moves normally in here. So no one can make changes that affect people from the past.”

Raising an eyebrow, Lee asked, “You need me to give you permissions?”

“Not really,” she said, “I have a backdoor, but if you give me permission, I won’t be annoyed by having to go around my security.”

Lee shrugged. “Sure.”

“I don’t suppose that you could give me permissions,” Nataw said, staring up at the glowing suns above. “I spent a lot of time imprisoned here, but I never got to truly understand this thing. It’s a beautiful piece of work. I love that while Destroy asked for a weapon, they also got an object capable of creating and terraforming worlds.”

Kee smiled. “I’d been planning to create a device like this for ages, but I knew that collecting the materials wouldn’t be easy. The visions and the split happened around the time that I was finished with the design, a few proofs of concept, and a weaker prototype. All I had to do then was persuade them that I’d created a super weapon—which I had, but more by accident than intention.”

Floating across from her, Govan looked up. “Is that why you joined Destroy? I never felt it was a good fit for you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I never joined Destroy. I just didn’t withdraw into the shadows. You all assumed I was one of you, allowing me to watch and even recruit. I organized the Live faction. I helped my friends and allies hide. There’s no one more responsible for creating the Live faction than I am.”

Govan nodded as she talked. “That fits the woman I remember better. I’m sure it sounds ridiculous coming from me, but I was disappointed.”

Kee laughed. “I was disappointed in everyone, including myself. We didn’t have to split after the visions. We could have talked about them and what they meant. We could have acted together to change the future we were seeing. We could have done so many things. All futures are changeable. None are inevitable. Instead we all ran off and formed our little cliques. Then we fought each other. There were never very many of us in comparison to the younger races. Why kill each other?”

With a smirk, Lee said, “Fear. You love change. Nataw loves change. A lot of other people don’t like it so much.”

In reality Govan made no movement noticeable to human senses, his form dense with energies gathered from other worlds and their universes, but we’ll say he nodded. The movement of his energies meant assent, possibly acceptance or agreement. It’s close enough.

He said, “I agree that it was fear, but I blame communication from their future selves. What did you see in your visions?”

Nataw stared off into space and smiled. “I didn’t see anything special. I saw myself among friends. I’d come back to join them with new friends I’d discovered among the stars. Yes, there was conflict and sometimes I saw former friends on the other side, but we stood together. You were with me.”

Govan twitched. “Was I? Was that true from the beginning? Because my visions weren’t the same.”

Isaac Cohen, alias the Mentalist, shook his head. “No. I don’t even know why they come, but I assume it’s your people.”

He nodded toward Gunther.

Gunther smirked, “That’s not a bad guess. We tend to mess up clairvoyance of all kinds, including prescience.”

Chuck eyed Isaac, “You’re sure that they’re our grandchildren?”

Isaac nodded, “They’re our grandchildren if we don’t do anything that changes the future. If we do, they’ll be different.”

Chuck stared at him, “Well, how the fuck are we supposed to avoid that?”

“Now that,” Reg said, raising his index finger to emphasize it, “is a good point. I’ve been wondering what we’re supposed to do now that we know this.”

Turning to look at Reg while stepping sideways to avoid shattered bits of Dr. Madness’ lab equipment and an unconscious lab assistant, Joe said, “Shouldn’t it be simple? If the people we saw are the grandchildren that should come into being if we keep on doing what we’re doing, all we should have to do is whatever we would have done if we’d never met them, right? Whatever makes the most sense in the situations that we’re in.”

Isaac shook his head. “It’s not that simple. By meeting them, we now know more than we did, so we might make different decisions.”

“Unless,” Joe said, “meeting them is what makes us make the decisions that create the version of the future that creates them.”

John shook his head. “I’m going to get a headache if we go too far into this.”

Folding his hands over his chest, Chuck said, “You and me both.”

Romy shook her head. “As Joe said, it’s not that complicated. We simply need to act without second guessing ourselves.”

Speaking up for the first time since they’d returned, Giles stopped looking over Dr. Madness chemical storage shelves to say, “It’s a fascinating topic. Joe, doesn’t it remind you of the pulps? Or that new TV show? The Twilight Zone, I think it is. Of course, in that show, you’d discover that in order to keep the future on track, you’d have to do something terrible.”

With a shake of his head, Isaac said, “Let’s hope not. I can guide the group through it and Joe’s likely right. Doing what you do naturally will keep us on track. It’s when we get off track that I’ll be able to push us in the right direction. I may have to withdraw and meditate… I’ve been working toward a process that shows me more than before. It’s more than the strongest danger. It shows me possibilities. I’ll have to go deeper into it than anything I use while fighting, but it creates a much richer understanding of the future.”

Romy took a look around the lab, the shelves of chemicals, Madness gas in different stages of creation, the tanks of finished gas, different devices for dispensing it from capsules to guns, and the unconscious and dead people lying on the ground in the cave. “I think we might want to take this conversation somewhere else in case they wake up.”

“I’ve been checking them,” Isaac said. “I’ll sense it if they begin to wake up, but you’re right we shouldn’t stay. There’s a chance that allies of Dr. Madness will show up and it’s growing—not to mention the vampire.”

John took a step toward the cave’s exit, turning back to say, “Time to bug out. Why didn’t you mention that earlier?”

Isaac shook his head but began to follow. “We only just got out and we’ve been talking. Besides, there’s a significant chance that if the vampire shows up, he’ll be on our side against Dr. Madness’ allies.”

Sniffing the air, Chuck stopped to say, “He’d be fighting on our side?”

Already a few steps in front of John, Reg turned back. “He’s helped us before—not with this, but he has lines he doesn’t cross. Remember the kidnapping operation?”

Scowling, Chuck said, “I can’t forget it, but I always thought Dr. Transylvania had another motive. I’m sure it helped him when we took out a competitor.”

Reg shook his head, “The vampire doesn’t sell people. I checked into it. He hates it and anyone involved in it and has for at least 300 years.”

Gunther started walking after them. “He’s not bad for the undead. I’ve encountered him in a few different identities over the years. He takes care of his people, even the ones he’s not feeding on. That country he owns? I forget the new name, but it‘s well run. You should let him take over the world once. He might do better than you’d think.”

Nodding as he stepped over a body, Joe said, “His inventions are a fascinating blend of magic and technology. If he’s as good at ruling as he is at inventing, it would be different even if it’s not better in ways we like. But, I have a question about something else. What happened to the rock you used to open the portal?”

Gunther smiled, “I left it back there. Dr. Madness will tell Dr. Mind about this cave in a few years. Dr. Mind will discover the rock and try to send it to Magnus, but it won’t arrive because a guy named Urin will steal it. It’ll eventually get to the second Rocket. Meanwhile some Russians will pick another one up on their trip to a base my people placed on Mars. That one will make it to Magnus, allowing him to get this party rolling. See, I’m already doing my bit to keep the future on track.”

Chuck frowned. “Are you sure that’s all you’re doing?”

With a grin, Gunther said, “It’s not, but be assured that everything I’m doing ultimately helps humanity, you, your grandchildren, and puts me closer to finishing a personal project of mine that will ultimately benefit everyone.”

Giles raised an eyebrow as he looked at Lee. “As much as I want to find out more about your personal project, I’m curious as to how you know what will happen to your rock in the future.”

Swaggering forward, Gunther gave no impression that he felt any anxiety about another fight. Joe envied him that. Everyone else on the team needed a rest, perhaps especially Giles. He’d taken a nasty hit at the beginning of the last fight. Still, it was nice to see him interested. He’d been distant lately.

Turning to Giles, Gunther said, “It’s easy. My future self passes on information he thinks I might need. I share it with the group whenever I think it might help.”

Giles nodded. “I wish it were so easy for me. My grandson told me that the future he lived in was a good future. I don’t know anything about it, but we need to make it the best future we can.”

Seconds after they’d stepped into the portal, they stepped out. Brazil’s heat and humidity hit even in the cool darkness of the cave around them.

Joe noted for the future that he needed to improve the Rocket suit’s climate controls. Then he checked over the rest of the team. Except for Captain Commando, everyone appeared worse for wear and even John’s costume showed burns and rips. Unlike everyone else, healthy white skin showed through the holes without any sign of damage.

Turning toward the group, John said, “I never planned to have a child, and there she was. I still don’t know what to do with that.”

Joe nodded, feeling the helmet nod along with him. “I was surprised too. Finding out Dr. Mind cloned a female version of you… Well, then it made sense. He’s been obsessed with destroying you since the war.”

John threw back his head and laughed. “That’s exactly the way I’d end up with a kid. I’ve seen all of you with them and it looks like a helluva lot of work. Maybe he gives up on killing me and decides that instead he’ll make sure I don’t get a decent night’s sleep for the next two years, right? That’s revenge.”

Then John stopped, staring into nothing for a moment, but adding, “We’ve been talking about a sword off and on, something sharp enough to cut through metal when Reg isn’t available to rip it to shreds. She had one. That means that you figure it out.”

Raising an eyebrow (uselessly inside his helmet), Joe said, “It was broken. That should tell you something.”

John shrugged. “Everything breaks eventually, and then you fix it or come up with something better.”

Romy crossed her arms over her chest. “You break everything eventually. Joe should teach you how to fix it.”

Shaking his head, John said, “I don’t have the patience for that.”

Standing a few inches taller than everyone else, his purple costume scraped, but less torn, Reg said, “We know.”

Turning toward Gunther, who stood next to where the portal had been, Reg added, “Did you miss us?”

Gunther smiled a little too wide, “Not in the slightest. I was with you the entire time, more or less. At least, I will be.”

“What was the point of all that?”

Joe turned toward the source, knowing what he’d see.

Chuck started suspicious and didn’t give it up quickly. He’d never fully trusted Gunther just like he’d never fully trusted Romy. It didn’t surprise Joe at all to see Chuck staring up toward Gunther, hands at his sides. 

It fit their lives perfectly to find Chuck confronting Gunther while wearing a torn gray costume with a wolf head emblem on the chest. The fact that Gunther wore khaki fatigues and had the looks of a perfect Nazi only added flavor to the scene.

“It made no sense,” Chuck continued. “You wanted us to go in there to scout things out and shut it down. We followed your directions, started to leave, and then we were yanked back into a fight over the fate of the universe. And who yanked us into it? Our grandchildren, if they are our grandchildren. You weren’t straight with us. I know you’re not always straight with us, but dammit, this time takes the cake. What was this?”

Gunther smirked, “I think you explained all of it. I needed you to scout the GCD out and shut a few things down and handle whatever problems you found there. You found a few problems. You fixed them, and because you fixed them, you’ve met your grandchildren. And now that you’ve met your grandchildren, you know they’ll be facing foes that exist on an epic scale. Not only that, it’s only the first step in their journey.

“Before it’s all over, they’ll be fighting in my species’ civil war. Knowing that, you’ve got a choice: help them survive to reach the battle you fought in or ignore it and let it all fall apart before they’re even born.”

Chuck growled, “Oh, come on. How are we supposed to do that, assuming we can believe you? What else are you doing?”

The Mentalist, his top hat lost in the fight, touched Chuck’s shoulder with his hand. “Chuck, he’s telling the truth. I may not be able to read his mind, but I can sense his effect on the future. If we work with him, our children, grandchildren, and the world as a whole have a better chance to survive.”

Chuck turned to look at him, “And if we don’t work with him?”

The Mentalist’s eyes lost focus, and he stared into nowhere. Then he shuddered, the loose threads of his torn tuxedo dangling. “I’ve told you there’s a point in the future where everything turns into screams? If we don’t work with him, it comes sooner.”

An early diversion from the main topic came when I asked Grandma, “What happens with the house? It’s right above HQ and I’ve been living there. Are you going to want to move back in? I inherited it assuming that you were dead and you’re not.”

Grandma shook her head. “I think you’ll find that you inherited all of it when Grandpa died. By the time David wrote the will, we knew I’d be leaving for space until after you’d visited the device. Selda and I own a house near Grand Lake that we’ve been staying in when we visited Earth. You’re all welcome to visit now. I’d like to make up for the time we’ve all lost.”

She’d started the last sentence with a pause and a lower voice. 

I got it. I couldn’t remember exactly the date she’d been born, but I knew she was in her 90s. Reverse engineered Cosmic Ghost DNA might keep her younger, but not forever.

Mom said, “We’d love to, Mom.”

My implant registered a communication request from Daniel and I accepted it.

“Nick, Grandpa Cohen is talking normally again and he’s told me it’s permanent. Honestly, I’m not convinced that he’d know after all this time, but maybe.”

As used to the implant connection as I was, hearing Daniel’s voice in my head without sensing his feelings felt sterile. To be accurate, I could feel him a little, but only a touch, not enough to pass thoughts or feelings. I could tell he was in range even if it was only barely true.

Still, I didn’t need that to hear the flatness in his voice, as if he didn’t believe it or wasn’t sure he dared to believe it.

“Whoa,” I said, “did he tell you why?”

“Well, he said it was a partly fake and partly a side effect of how much time he spent searching possible futures. According to him, he spent every spare moment following down trails of what we were doing and its consequences.

“I don’t think he’s lying, but I can’t do anything like that when I’m nowhere near the action. When he wasn’t using his powers, he actually was confused about when he was because he was so tired he couldn’t turn his prescience fully off. The rest of the time he was faking dementia so people would write him off if they ever figured out where and who he was.”

“That worked out,” I said, remembering the attack on Daniel’s family and how the Nine’s people had absolutely no idea what they were walking into.

“I know,” Daniel said, “and he told me so himself, but that’s not the only reason I’m calling. He wants to drop by and talk to your grandmother, but he doesn’t want to interrupt your conversation. He wants to drop by when there’s a natural break.”

“Coincidentally, we seem to have just reached one,” I said, not thinking that it was any kind of coincidence.

Daniel laughed, “It’s almost like he can see the future. He’d also like it if the old League members plus Gerald Cannon could visit before we watch the movie.”

“I don’t see any reason why not as long as the rest of the team’s okay with it. It’s not just my decision, but it’s probably fine. I bet they could stay for the movie if they wanted to.”

I doubted anyone would have an issue with it.

Daniel paused before he responded, but then said, “Zayde’s okay with that, but it might make it harder to pick a movie if it’s got to pass muster with everyone.”

“The last time we were doing regular movie nights we took turns, but I don’t remember who had the last pick.”

Looking around my family room, I realized that I’d stopped talking and spaced out enough that everyone could tell. Rachel said, “Don’t worry about it, he took a call.”

“We’ll work it out,” Daniel said. We agreed and disconnected.

I’d barely finished when Haley called. “We’ve planned the service out as far as we can go without holding it. Do you mind if I come over? I need to be somewhere else for a little while.”

“No problem,” I said, and she did.

It wasn’t that long before we left for League HQ. It felt a little different to have the surviving League there and a little less different to have Chris’ grandfather and former supervillain there as well. He’d dropped by a lot.

Grandma liked the renovations we’d made—organizing the trophies and adding carpet to the section with the League’s table, desks, and the giant screen.

We ordered pizza like we always had, brought our surviving grandparents on a tour and introduced everyone. It wasn’t quite the same as the picnics when we were children, but we were all older and we were hosting now.

It felt good anyway. As the group began to figure what movie we’d watch, I found myself wondering if there were any more side effects to what we’d done.

We’d changed whether my grandmother would die of cancer and allowed Ray to survive as a Xiniti soldier. That hadn’t had any effect on us because we’d experienced the same way up until today. Still, it might have a larger effect on the future. It would almost have to. 

For all I knew, the future I’d seen had all been wiped away as a result of unforeseen side effects of killing those Abominators. 

The future version of myself that I’d met might no longer be out there or might be different now. I couldn’t even guess what might have changed.

A voice sounded in my head, my own voice, but different. You’re right. There are changes you don’t know about. Don’t worry about it. You’ve reached a good moment. Let yourself enjoy it.

I thought back, What kind of changes?

I didn’t get any response and decided to take my own advice. Problems would show up soon enough. My friends were here. I could hear them talking, laughing, and even arguing about the movie options.

The future would take care of itself. It was time to appreciate the present.

“It worked, for the most part,” I said as both Dad and Mom looked on, “but we weren’t perfect. We were good enough, though. If we’d really messed up, we might not have been born. So far, the only changes are improvements—like Grandma being alive.”

“Oh, that explains that call.”

I turned to see Uncle Steve stepping out of the bathroom in the hall behind me. Dad and I stepped into the main area of the family room, giving Uncle Steve the space to follow us in.

He smiled through his beard. “I got a call from Isaac Lim, who I gather you know, to check on a couple of your grandfather’s devices and get some readings. He designed a couple of different systems related to time and alternate worlds. Some of the technology made it into the systems for navigating Infinity City. Anyway Lim wanted to know if there were any big changes this morning and there weren’t.

“There were echoes of changes from the late 50s, but nothing directly connected to this morning.”

He grinned, laughing as he said, “You hid your tracks well—not that you were trying to. Lim’s had to deal with some strange situations and they left a mark. It gets weird when two universes combine and form a new one. You wouldn’t believe it if you haven’t gone through it. I have and he’s right to want to know as soon as possible.”

Dad looked around at everyone. “I’m still trying to get my head around the idea that you, all of you have been involved, and I didn’t know anything. I know you couldn’t tell me. I know you tried more than once.”

Mom leaned over the counter to see him from the kitchen. “I tried, but I didn’t know either at first and you know that.”

She turned to Grandma. “Mom, I know you meant this for the best, but couldn’t there have been another way? We didn’t know anything. We couldn’t do anything and… I killed someone to keep Nick alive. I don’t regret it, but the only reason it was possible was because the block fell apart.”

Grandma glanced at the floor and seemed to shrink. In that moment, I felt that I could see every year she’d lived.

“I’m sorry, Joanie. After we left the inside of Lee’s weapon and came home, we had to figure it all out. We knew we wanted our children and grandchildren to live. They’d done their best to keep us alive and we had to do our best to prevent them from disappearing from the future. Between what Lee knew would happen and possibilities the Mentalist could see, we created a plan, and at every major decision point, we chose the one that would keep our children and grandchildren alive.

“Maybe there was a better plan, but we couldn’t see our way there. Whether we didn’t ask the right questions or asked them at the wrong time, this is the best we could do. I couldn’t be here or I’d risk destroying everything. If I could have, I’d have killed that man for you, but if I’d come back then, it would have changed everything for the worse.”

She let out a sigh, “I wish we could have done everything differently, but I don’t know how.”

We all stood without saying anything. I didn’t have anything to add. The League’s board had told us, probably because the Mentalist knew, that we were all at risk of dying before the age of 20. Instead, all of us had made it past 20 and only Travis had died so far.

While I couldn’t be happy about his death, knowing what I did, I suspected we might be living in one of the better options.

I glanced over at Mom, wondering if she wanted to argue. I couldn’t read her mind, but even though her mouth wasn’t open, her lips quivered.

I didn’t know exactly what she was feeling. I’d killed people before, but I hadn’t felt much when I did it. Instead, it lingered in my mind and came back later. I’d never killed anyone that I’d felt guilty about, but I still had dreams about the fights.

It might well have been that some of them had been mind-controlled by the Dominators in some way, but I didn’t know it for sure. That made it easier in a way, and honestly, it wasn’t as if I hadn’t tried to avoid it.

I felt confident that Lee and no doubt others would say I’d been overly scrupulous about avoiding it, but I’d tried to do the right thing. If I’d made a few mistakes in the process, I’d done my best and I had training to fall back on to give me options.

Mom didn’t have any of that. She’d seen me in danger and killed someone for the first time in her life and didn’t have training to prepare her for it.

Also, all of that had to be mixed with whatever abandonment she still might be feeling since Grandma had disappeared for around ten years and reappeared only now.

In that moment Dad said, “Thank you. I can’t imagine the choices that you’ve had to make and I know I wouldn’t want to make them myself. I’m sure they haven’t been easy for you. I know that we’ve all had challenges to face because of events that are out of anyone’s control. How about we all sit down? I have questions for Nick and Rachel. I’d like to understand the last few years from their point of view. I feel like I don’t understand anything and I’d like to.”

With that, Dad started asking about how it all got started. Rachel and I answered questions and after a few minutes it all came out, starting from when Cassie started bugging me about the League.

It reminded me a little of when I told it all to Govan, but now we were at home. Coffee and hot chocolate were in the cupboard in the same places they’d always been. There were snacks. We had comfortable chairs and no apocalypse hanging over our heads—at least for now.

Having a bit of the Rocket suit’s strength available because all of my clothes were now hidden stealth suits didn’t hurt. It made it easier to move the door around at least.

With that done, we shut the door behind us and walked down the hall past the living room and dining room and into the back of the house where the kitchen and family room were.

Passing the stairway, I noticed that our cat had taken up residence on the steps, watching Dad and I as we walked past.

Inside I saw Mom filling the coffeemaker with water as Grandma and Great-Aunt Selda sat on stools in the family room side of the counter. They both had empty mugs sitting on the counter next to them.

Rachel sat in the family room drinking something out of a can.

Seeing all of them together, it struck me how similar they all looked. Every one of them stood only a little shorter than I did. Thin with round cheeks and blue eyes, anyone who looked at them together would assume they were related.

Though I knew Great-Aunt Selda and Grandma had been blond when they were younger, their hair had turned white long ago. Mom and Rachel both had brown hair. Out of the group, only Mom had let her hair grow past her shoulders. The rest had short hair.

I knew Grandma and Great Aunt-Selda weren’t twins, but if they lied, they could have gotten away with it.

I wondered if their Ghost DNA brought along side effects that had nothing to do with superpowers, but Grandma interrupted my speculation by standing up and hugging me as I stepped into the room.

We’d greeted each other as I helped Dad with the door, but now she said, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to leave, but I couldn’t stay and simply watch. I had to be too far away to help or I would have.”

Grandma’s voice held only a hint of a German accent. Trained to be a spy, she didn’t have to even allow that tell. She could fake accents from all over the country and other countries. It wasn’t hard to guess how she’d used that skill during war, but in my childhood, she’d only used it to give characters in books silly accents for Rachel’s and my entertainment.

“It’s okay,” I said. “It all worked out in the end and you’re home now. Unless Godzilla steps on the house, we’ve still got time.”

Grandma laughed and let go of me. “We do have time for now, but not forever. I’m not one of the Ghosts. I’ll only live as long as any other person and I’ve been away for so long. I’m not afraid of a movie monster, but I’ve seen the Hundred Handed Ones and they’re terrifying. Disasters do happen in your job.”

Rachel looked up from her chair, “The hundred handed giants from Greek mythology are real?”

Great-Aunt Selda said, “They’re more than myth and more than simple giants. They may live forever.”

Her English was good, but no one would confuse her for a native speaker. Grandma had told us that Selda had been a child during the war and had never been trained as a spy. In fact, the Nazis used her to control Grandma’s behavior by claiming that they’d kill her if Grandma disobeyed.

It was only after they’d freed Selda that Grandma could help Grandpa without worrying that her sister would die.

I remembered back to Grandpa telling that story both before and after our changes to the past. Whether he was telling it as a man whose wife had died from cancer or as someone whose wife had gone to the stars rather than risk causing her grandchildren’s death, I couldn’t tell the difference in my memories.

Either way, you could hear his pride in who she was and that he’d felt her loss.

“Regardless,” Grandma said, “I won’t leave again. I never left fully. I visited Joe and looked in on the two of you. You grew up to become everything I hoped you’d be. The Mentalist said you might be different from the version of you we met in Lee’s weapon, but from what I’ve seen, you grew up to be every bit of the people I remember.”

Looking at Rachel, she said, “Thank you for saying something. I don’t know if I ever would have quit smoking if you hadn’t.”

“You wouldn’t have,” I said. “Rachel changed history by telling you so. Lee’s machine said it didn’t mess anything up. So it’s okay. I mean, it’s definitely better. I’m glad you’re alive. We grew up in a world where you weren’t.”

Grandma nodded, “The Mentalist told me when I needed to disappear to make everything work out the same way.”

From behind me, Dad said, “You changed history?”

Rachel smirked and said, “I hope you’re not going to ground us.”

Unlike the Xiniti message, hers came with video. 

She appeared as I remembered her: long, black hair, light brown skin, high cheekbones, and brown eyes. Unlike the last time I’d seen her, she wasn’t wearing a silver Xiniti armored suit—at least not visibly.

She wore red and white robes with golden trim. My implant decoded the symbolism for me. Though the robes were in the style of a traditional Ascendancy planetary governor, the traditional colors were black robes with trim made of bluish-green metal.

Red was the color of the rebellion against the Ascendancy.

Sitting at a desk in the same massive bedroom she’d messaged me from earlier, she said, “Nick, I know I sent you a message only a day or two ago, but I thought you’d find this interesting. I met a guy who knows you.

“One of the Xiniti’s human soldiers stopped by on the way back from a mission and as the official figurehead, I greeted them. You’ve got to help people feel like the movement cares and that the hell they went through matters.

“These people were special forces. We’d sent them behind enemy lines and they did everything we needed them to. The Xiniti auxiliary who’d led the raid was the most impressive of the bunch. From what I heard, he was incredibly meticulous and effective. When I asked his name, he said Ray. I knew that was an Earth name and I know you mentioned him.

“When I asked him if he’d heard of the Rocket, his eyes bugged out. I mean, you’ve met him… He keeps things close to the chest, but that was not a question he expected. He asked me how I knew the Rocket. The Xiniti must not have passed that on. Whoops. I told him I’d been to Earth and knew the whole team.

“He said to tell you that as far as he was concerned, you’re even. It all worked out for the best and he’s got nothing against you. He hopes it’s the same on your end.

“I hope that makes sense to you because all I know about him is that he went after your families and that he’s dead. I thought you ought to know that he’s not dead and he’s not coming back to Earth. I checked with Katuk. The Xiniti don’t intend to ever send him back to Earth. They’re aware of who he is to you.

“I hope you’re all alive. Everything seemed to be coming to a head when I left. I would have stayed if everything here wasn’t also blowing up. We’re in a calm moment, though. I might even be able to take a live call if I’m not in the middle of a meeting, other affairs of state, or planning an invasion. There are more of all of those than you’d think.

“You know what? It’s nice to send a message where I don’t have to hold back because I’m afraid of destroying someone’s morale. It’s going well, but being publicly upbeat all the time will kill me for sure. Anyway, don’t be a stranger and don’t worry about the revolution. It‘s not your problem. As for myself, I’m grateful I don’t have mushroom zombies. Your planet is completely insane. Later!”

I laughed as the picture faded out, hoping no one on the street thought I was crazy. On the other hand, it was fall in the late morning. Kids were in school and adults were at work or helping with the mushroom goo cleanup.

No one seemed to be outside. I composed a message to Kals complete with video and managed to send it off before I reached my parents’ house.

Two stories tall with brown bricks, the fall leaves on the lawn needing to be raked, it looked almost the same as it always had. The “almost” spanned a few terrifying minutes a few days back where we fought members of the Nine on the lawn and in the house’s basement.

The grass still bore scars from the fight and I noticed silvery streaks in at least three front windows. Those would need to be replaced. I hoped that wasn’t my fault. On the bright side, with the League’s policy of paying for our damage, I could get this fixed without raising suspicion. 

As Rachel had mentioned, Dad was at work on the front door—sort of.

The new door lay on the front walk in its white cardboard box. The old door, still twisted and warped from when I punched it, leaned against the house to the left of the front porch. A pile of tools lay next to a red, metal toolbox that Grandpa may have left here.

Dad stood on the porch, staring at the door frame with a frown on his face. Between the toolbox, jeans, and the thick flannel shirt, he looked like someone who should be good at fixing a broken door.

Dad was a good therapist. I’ll stop there.

He saw me as I started walking across the lawn, avoiding the new door. “Nick,” he said, “Rachel told me you were on the way. Do you mind helping me put the new door in? Grandma Vander Sloot is inside, but it shouldn’t take too long, should it?”

Cassie said nothing for a moment, but, letting out a breath, said, “How about we fix it for now? I like the idea of an upgrade, but I’d like my dad’s sword to work again before we start something new.”

I nodded. “I get it. Uh… So, I’m guessing that Tara’s going with Amy now. It makes sense and not just because Lee says to buddy up. If anyone’s got a background in switching worlds, Tara’s the best choice. Plus, if you want someone to who’s going to be good at gathering intelligence, she’s also one of the best options.”

Nodding, Cassie said, “Exactly. That’s what I was saying as you walked up. Are you going somewhere?”

Watching for their reactions, I said, “Home. It turns out that Grandma Vander Sloot isn’t dead and she’s back from power space.”

“Of course she’s not dead—” Cassie began and then said, “That’s a change. Do you know about any more?”

I shook my head. “None that matter, apparently. A couple of politicians didn’t get killed and replaced by shapeshifting aliens, but they voted for the same stuff anyway.”

Tara smiled, “Shapeshifters are like that. Infinity City had a few different kinds. The smart one replace their targets perfectly. Sometimes it takes years to know the difference.”

Amy smirked. “You met the nice ones then. Where I come from, they’re more likely to replace you and start eating your friends and family.”

Cassie caught Tara’s eye. “Are you sure you want to go with her?”

Shrugging, Tara said, “We had that kind too. My parents killed a few.”

Tara didn’t show any special emotion on her face. Her parents were dead but not from that.

I took a step toward the elevator. “I should probably go.”

“You should,” Cassie said. “Take advantage of every moment you have with her..”

She glanced down at the pieces of her sword in my hands. I’d forgotten that I had them. Pointing at the hilt and blade shards, she asked. “Do you want me to put them in the lab?”

“Please do,” I said, handing them back to her.

“By the way,” she said, “I think upgrading is a great idea. I wasn’t blowing it off just now. If you want, we can talk about it tonight or whenever, I guess. We have all the time in the world now—at least until the next crisis.”

I laughed, told everyone I’d be back for the movie, and took the elevator up to the house, grabbing a jacket from the closet, and stepping out into the fall weather.

Everything with the mayor had started in the fall of my senior year of high school, not long after my grandfather’s death. If I traveled back in time, the house and the neighborhood wouldn’t have looked much different.

The grass might be a little longer than Grandpa would have kept it. Between the Nine and the vast mushroom zombie army, mowing hadn’t been my highest priority.

There had to be more cars in the driveway than there had been when my grandparents lived here. Vaughn’s sports car might be gone, but Amy, Tara, and Cassie all had cars that they used for getting around town when they weren’t in costume.

Not to mention, of course, that I still owned the white van that could be transformed into a catmecha if needed. As I walked away down the sidewalk, it sat in the driveway, stuck between the garage door and Cassie’s Honda.

The neighbors weren’t all the same. The people who’d owned the house where I’d accidentally shattered the picture window by throwing Future Knight’s gun had moved out years ago.

They were also the sort of people who would have complained to the city about my lawn being overly long, so no great loss.

I started down the block, sometimes noticing shriveled or rotting mushroom goo in strips next to the road. The plows couldn’t get everything.

Behind the fence next to the entrance of Veterans Memorial Park, I noticed a 20 foot long sheet. It wasn’t the only one on the grounds.  The 30 to 40 degree weather must have kept it cold enough that it hadn’t separated into smaller rotting bits.

I didn’t look forward to when it did, but I supposed the city would get to it after clearing downtown.

No one sat at the picnic tables or used the playground equipment. So, the city probably wasn’t getting enough complaints yet. I wondered if the beach was mushroom goo free, but I didn’t have time to check. 

From this distance all I could see were trees and the dark waters of the lake behind them.

As I walked, my implant notified me that I had messages that had arrived via the ansible network. One of them was from the Xiniti high command, notifying me that Xiniti soldiers would be returning to the station at the Mars LaGrange point. When they did, we were no longer the only Xiniti in the system and solely responsible for the weapons designed to exterminate humanity should something go wrong.

The other message was from Kals.

At that point, I would have said that my grandmother, Romy Vander Sloot had died when I was ten or eleven. She had lung cancer from a lifetime of smoking. Despite that, she’d been healthy until the last year or two of her life.

After she’d died, Grandpa had lived alone in the house they’d shared for almost another decade, spending most of it teaching me his technology and creating tools for other heroes.

My new memories told a different story.

Grandma gave up smoking in the 1960s. When asked why, she’d said, “Because I wanted to live to see my grandchildren,” and ruffled Rachel’s hair.

Grandpa never had to live without her. She was there throughout middle school and high school, giving her several more years to teach Rachel about her abilities as well as birthdays and holidays to spend with all of us.

In the middle of all of those small changes, I also remembered one that cast a big shadow. After fighting the Abominators, the League visited the Reclamation Alliance, encountering the Cosmic Ghosts on the way.

They’d recognized themselves in her. She didn’t have enough of their abilities to join them, but had trained with them for a time. She’d always wanted to go back, but between supervillains, children, and grandchildren, she’d never had time. 

When Grandpa died, she did and she wasn’t alone. 

She left Earth with our great aunt Selda, her younger sister. She’d said they’d come back, but we’d heard nothing from her since they’d left.

As that wave of information passed through my mind, I paused, taking it all in, and finally came back to reality.

“Wow,” I told Rachel. “I hadn’t thought about Grandma yet. This would be a crazy coincidence, but is she back?”

“Good guess,” Rachel replied. “And it’s not as much of a coincidence as you’d think. The Ghosts have been watching for the GCD to show up and everyone knew that I’d left for home.”

Other possibilities popped up in my head—messy possibilities. “Did you see her when you were with the Ghosts? At least in the new version of history?”

“No,” she said, her voice carrying all of the disorientation I felt. “And it would have been a lot of work, but I think I know why. You do too.”

The original League worried about the same thing we had when we were in the GCD. No one wanted to destroy our history.

“How’s she doing?”

Rachel laughed. “Great. She’s talking with Mom, Dad, and Uncle Steve. I think she’s home for good now. Do you know how crazy this is? We couldn’t have had this conversation when she left, but now the block’s gone, and we aren’t keeping secrets from family anymore.

“Come home right now. You can talk to Grandma and help Dad with the door. You know he’ll need it. What are you doing anyway?”

If I was honest with myself, nothing that I couldn’t do later. It wasn’t everyday that a chance remark from your sister brought your grandmother back from the dead. It may not be a big event from the vantage of the GCD’s time analysis systems, but it was to our family.

I logged out of the computer, shed almost all of my suit, leaving only enough material for my stealth suit plus a “backpack” made of extra stuff, and walked out of the lab.

Amy, and Tara sat at one of the plastic and metal tables in the break area. Cassie stood next to it, glancing over at the elevator as if she were just about to go.

Everyone wore normal clothing, jeans and t-shirts (more or less). Amy wore a modern blouse with enough lace and ruffles to hint at the Victorian or Edwardian sensibilities of her home. 

Cassie wore a hoodie. Tara’s t-shirt showed a red and white checkered ball, advertising AmigaOS 25. I suspected it had to be old clothes from Infinity City. It definitely wasn’t from our universe.

As I walked toward the elevator, I heard Cassie say, “I want to go, but I think you’re right. It should be Tara.”

Amy pursed her lips. “I don’t think anyone should have to come along. I don’t want to inconvenience the team. You have your own lives. If we learned anything today, it’s that League needs everyone they can get sometimes.”

“But not all the time,” Tara said. “They can spare me for a few months.”

Cassie met my eyes for a moment, but continued the conversation, telling Amy, “You know as well as anyone that Lee constantly tells us to buddy up. You don’t know when you’re going to go down and need someone else to get you out, provide first aid, or call for help.”

Amy’s lips curled, “I know, but I’m okay with dying to save my family. I’m not okay with you dying.”

Tara reached out and gave her hand a squeeze. “Dying to save someone’s family would be worth it.”

Amy’s opened her mouth, stopped, but then said, “You don’t owe me that, but if you want to help I’ll take it. The previous Bloodmaidens agree with you.”

“Good,” Cassie said, turning to me and holding out the shattered pieces of her sword, “Do you think you can fix it?”

I took them, careful not to touch the monofilament edge of the blade. “It doesn’t look that bad. It’s broken, but still doable. The worst case scenario is that I have to build out the edge all over again and reforge the blade, but I think we might even have a spare. Grandpa used to repair one while the other was working to prepare for the inevitable destruction. Your dad was hard on technology.”

Cassie nodded, “I know.”

Of course, she’d now been removed from the triggering situation for days. So, she might not be affected.

I set my implant to remind me to respond to Courtney later. Thanks to Hal sending out messages to more than one hundred heroes and groups in my name, I had several times that many responses. Thanks to Hal, most of them wouldn’t need a personal response, but a few deserved it.

One of them was from Prentkos.

“I have been wondering when this day would come since you returned me to my own time. When our team leader called us in for a mission based on messages from the Heroes’ League, I knew it had arrived. I will confess to be a little disappointed not to have received a personal message, but you hadn’t met me yet, had you? I’m sure that you need some time for recovery, but consider yourself as having an open invitation to visit the Euro Team base in Brussels.

“Please call ahead before you come, however. It’s my hope to have a conversation with you that isn’t interrupted by combat. We both know, of course, that even if it seems slow here, there are no guarantees.”

I laughed, added Prentkos’ message to the reminder list, and moved on to the next, finding a collection of messages from Working Man, V8, Mateo, the Detroit Unity team, and the Hamsters (Rembrandt, Vincent, and Hieronymous).

They weren’t personal. Hal had sent them to take out the Nine’s base in Detroit, a few independent heroes that turned out to be plants from the Nine, and a National Guard officer in the local powered armor unit.

They had to take out the entire unit before it was over, helped by another Detroit hero who appeared to have power over small mammals. As much as it might be painful to fight Working Man or V8’s mech, I suspected the Nine’s Detroit operatives would be having nightmares about rats for the rest of their lives—to say nothing of humanoid hamsters.

Vincent did leave a personal message at the end and so did Mateo AKA Blue Mask. Vincent’s went, “Holy shit, kid. I just saw footage from the island end of things. Can’t believe the vampires are on your side this time. On the other hand, unlike the bozos we fought together, Dr. Transylvania’s no fool. Did the Nine think to throw rice? Let me know sometime.”

Mateo’s message started with a laugh. “You remember how Working Man told you he didn’t want us getting involved with the League’s problems? When he saw that you wanted us to take out a couple of city council members, I think that he almost fainted. Getting rid of those two may have been his greatest personal fantasy. I can’t say for sure, but he might be proud of having had you here. I thought you ought to know. Let me know when you’re next on this side of the state.”

I added the two of them to my list and managed to get through the rest. After I replied to everyone on my list, I checked the news, reading story after story about teams that we’d emailed with evidence and a plan, sometimes getting to watch a bit of the action.

I also got to watch the odd commentator who managed to become apoplectic about why, if we’d managed to collect this much evidence, we hadn’t acted sooner? Another asked how the Heroes’ League could have gotten access to all of this information. That was a smarter question than the first. If we allowed interviews, we’d have to hide the AIs’ involvement.

Then I asked myself (and my implant) another question, what had we changed?

I knew we’d changed something thanks to the GCD’s message. My implant, however, replied with answers I hadn’t expected.

Xiniti implants were designed for the possibility that any given Xiniti soldier might visit a parallel universe. So when we arrived and the implant connected to the nearest ansible for updates, it noted changes in the newly downloaded history by comparison to what it had before.

There weren’t many changes—in part because the Xiniti didn’t care about Earth history except as it impacted them and in part because there weren’t many.

Back in the 1970s when the Heroes’ League fought the last remnant of the Abominators, the Heroes’ League had found two of them in government. They hadn’t been high up. They’d been state representatives in Arizona and Missouri.

In the new history we’d come back to, they’d never existed. Those were the Abominators I’d killed during the fight with Magnus, so they’d never shapeshifted into human form and gone into government. I hadn’t killed all of the Abominators, though, just those two.

So the Heroes’ League fought the rest just like before. The two I’d killed hadn’t used their influence to change the world in disturbing ways. They’d fit in and stayed out of trouble. In the new history, the humans in their place hadn’t acted much differently.

What it meant that normal human politicians didn’t act much differently than evil aliens that had been warped by the Destroy faction’s artifact traps, I didn’t dare speculate.

All the same, I began to feel as if I’d missed an important difference. I couldn’t say what, but I felt sure that if I asked the right question everything would fall into place.

As I searched my memory, trying to think it through, Rachel contacted me via the League’s comm system, “Have you thought about Grandma?”

In the end, it wasn’t a long trip. I took the jet up to a high altitude and then aimed the jet downward toward Grand Lake.

We didn’t have any trouble with intercepting planes, missiles, or paranoid supers. Instead, we dropped into the lake, entered through the underwater entrance, and emerged in the base.

After the water drained from the airlock, I floated the jet into the hangar. 

We were home. It wasn’t even 8 AM.

After we’d showered and put away our costumes, everyone paused in the break area. Kayla had picked up breakfast. Whether it was amazing or merely okay, in that moment, it was amazing, not to mention somehow hot enough that it could have come straight from the kitchen.

At least that’s how I remember it. I may be deluding myself. Fitting the pseudo-Waffle House style of the restaurant, there were waffles, sausage, bacon, eggs, toast, and biscuits with sausage gravy.

Also there were lots of them. Supers ate more than most people to begin with, but there were a bunch of us… Haley, Marcus, Jaclyn, Cassie, Amy, Tara, Izzy, Daniel, Camille, Sydney, Julie, Chris, Kayla, Rachel, and I. We’d invited Dayton, Sean, and Jody, but they were bringing Jody to their team doctor.

He’d woken up on the way back and seemed okay, if confused, but the implant modifications hadn’t faded away. They needed to be catalogued and understood.

I couldn’t blame them and honestly, I couldn’t say I minded. As much as he’d been through a hellish experience and I hoped he’d get the therapy and medical attention he needed, I’d been in fights against him three times in the last two days. I didn’t want a fourth.

Near the end of the meal, Cassie said, “I don’t know what you’re doing today, but does anyone want to watch a movie tonight?”

Haley looked up from her plate. “My parents are planning Travis’ funeral today. Since we’re home, I should help, but I might be able to.”

Daniel and Izzy looked at each other and answered, “Sure,” at almost the same time, having most likely had a short telepathic conversation.

By the time we were done, almost everyone could make it. Personally, I decided to play it by ear. If Haley needed me, but wasn’t up for a group of people after family stuff, I’d do something with her.

We kissed as she left, telling me, “I’ll tell you what I’m doing by  three. We’ve made a lot of decisions already. I’ll know if I’m up for people by then.”

Then she stepped into the elevator and the doors closed.

I turned to find Rachel behind me.

“I should have caught the elevator with her and gone home, but I missed a lot. You told me Dad knows now, that Uncle Steve’s here, that Travis died, and that the Dominators messed with Ana, but only in snippets. I want to hear all of it in order and in detail.”

So that’s what we did for the next hour or two. We sat in the break area talking through it and it wasn’t just us. Amy and Tara, the only members of the group that didn’t have families to go home to here, stuck around and helped.

When we were done, Rachel stood up, “Okay. Now I’m going home. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that Mom killed Number Eight. That’s crazy. And practically in front of Dad and Uncle Steve and in our basement?”

“They seem okay,” I said. “I thought I had, but I guess I didn’t. It’s been one thing after another since Major Justice went after us. Oh… I didn’t see it till just now, but Dad sent me a text saying he’s putting in a new front door himself. All the local handymen are working on mushroom zombie damage. It’s probably a good sign that he’s trying.”

Rachel frowned, “Only if he does better than when he fixed the bathroom door. I think we both need to get home as soon as possible.”

The bathroom door did stick a lot after that, but cutting off the bottom quarter inch fixed it.

“There are a couple things I want to check on first,” I told her. “I’ll probably be an hour, but not longer.”

Crossing her arms and meeting my eyes, she said, “It better not be longer,” but she still left.

I walked into my lab, logged into the computer and found myself greeted by an avalanche of messages. I would have seen them through the comm system except that I’d set a status that allowed Hal to filter any messages from people outside the mission and respond to any that were important.

On a practical level that meant that an AI called Our Mutual Friend might have loosed steampunk style battlemechs on anyone who attacked the League’s families. While I’d told Hal that I didn’t feel comfortable releasing their locations, but he’d told me, “No need. OMF already knows, but he interacted with Lee after individuals in Syndicate L learned your identity and won’t reveal anything.”

Lee had once told me that people in Syndicate L who’d learned my identity had met with, “unfortunate blender accidents.”

I’d told him not to do that again, but hadn’t looked into it too deeply. I didn’t need to know whether it had been a literal or metaphorical blender.

Anyway, most of the messages were from other hero groups that Hal sent messages about the Nine and their assets to. They asked for confirmation and he’d successfully pretended to be me.

From the news alerts that continued to pop up, I couldn’t complain because the last few hours had been a metaphorical bloodbath for the Nine, their mind controlled assets, and businesses. It hadn’t been great for Syndicate L either. A number of their top people had been mind controlled assets.

The other messages came from friends who’d been in the hero groups. Courtney had been hired by a super group secret enough that she wouldn’t tell anyone its name, only that they were on the edge of something big and she couldn’t talk about it.

Her most recent message said, “Hal, thanks for admitting it’s been you, but could you make sure the Rocket sees this one? Rocket? I just watched what you’ve been doing on the island. We should have been coordinating with the League the whole time.

“We discovered that Goldenlash, leader of the Seattle Sentinels was working with the Nine willingly and turned his whole team. Hal just handed us the evidence we’d been missing and the opportunity to catch them in the act. Thanks for that. Oh, and Stephanie says hi. We used her mind control symbols a lot.”

Amy shrugged, “Most of the time I’ve spent in this world was in Florida. I’ve heard that the benefits for working at Waffle House aren’t bad, but the dental care some people got before working there wasn’t great.”

Haley shook her head. “That’s restaurants. The full time staff get benefits, but most jobs are part time and they don’t get benefits at all. Are things different in your world?”

Amy stared out the window.

I’d lifted off by then and we were flying across the ocean, the rising sun on our right, darkness to our left, and the ocean everywhere in sight. I activated our cloaking device and the sunrise dimmed. 

It was best not to be targeted by any defenses the island still had. Plus, it might allow us to avoid any leftover Dominator commands among US air defense staff. 

“It’s different,” Amy said. “We have physicians, but we also have magical healers of different kinds. It depends on where you are and who you are. The tribes and tribal confederations in North America take care of their own. In our colony cities there and back in Europe, most people pay physicians and healers out of their own pockets, but the unions and guilds have arrangements that make it cost less or nothing.”

She stopped, staring out into nowhere, but then said, “I should know more, but I don’t. I’m literally a princess and my family rules most of our planet. I never had to worry about it until I came here. I should go home. I’d like to stay for a month and say goodbye, but I know something was wrong back home and I need to do something about it.”

From further back in the jet, Vaughn asked, “Weren’t you supposed to wait ten years before going back?”

Amy sank into the chair and for a moment, I saw the smaller, thinner version of her in the armored warrior she transformed into. “It’s not that simple. Father said that I should wait ten years, but he also said that I needed to find out what was going on and to use my best judgement.”

Placing the Bloodspear on the floor, she said, “The timing isn’t cut and dried. My father was making his best guess that they could calm down the Bloodlords on and off the Council and solve some other problem by then, but it was only a guess. Anything could have happened by now and I haven’t been contacted by anyone in any way—not even threats from the assassins that are supposed to kill me if I appear to be coming home to try for the throne.”

Sitting a couple of rows back, next to Vaughn, Marcus said, “That’s a good thing, right? If they’re not gunning for you, it might mean they’re okay with what you’re doing. Everyone knows you’re working with us if they pay attention to social media. If they wanted to kill you or even talk, they’d be in Grand Lake.”

“Maybe, yes,” Amy said, “and maybe someone summoned them home to handle whatever’s going on there now. I checked in on the house we lived in after I arrived. It’s empty. There’s no forwarding address. They left three years ago. Our neighbors didn’t know anything. Nothing special happened. There weren’t even any movers.

“When I checked government records, the database hadn’t pegged them as inter-dimensional visitors or even unusual and worth watching. I checked with Reliquary. He’s the one who recruited me for Stapledon. He didn’t know anything either and couldn’t find out more even with clairvoyance. It had been blocked somehow.”

Amy frowned. “Harcourt and his wife are powerful blood magic users, but I don’t think they’re better at blood magic than Reliquary is at magic. Someone else blocked the spell and I need to make sure my family is safe.”

A few seats to Amy’s left, Jaclyn said, “If you need help, we’re with you. Maybe I shouldn’t speak for everyone, but I think I do.”

From the back of the cabin, Tiger gave a small bark that passed for agreement in my mind, followed by everyone else except we used words.

“Even Mr. Sparkles wants to help,” Cassie said, “but I think it’s mostly because he wants another shot at killing a dragon.”

Turning around, Amy’s eyes glistened, but her voice stayed calm, “Thank you. Bringing powerful friends from another world is exactly the kind of thing that would confirm the Bloodlords’ worst fears about my intentions, but if they confirm my worst fears, I’ll take you up on it. For now, I’m going to start small. I’ll go myself, find out the situation, and then make plans.”

Vaughn held up his hand, “I know it shouldn’t be me, but maybe someone should go with you. Stuff happens. You shouldn’t go into this alone. It’s really big.”

Nodding, Marcus said, “This has a Nine Princes in Amber and Dune feel to it—that, or maybe Yona of the Dawn. Epic, you know? Anyway, a second set of eyes won’t hurt.”

“I’ll think about it,” she said. “I’m not leaving yet.”

The jet hurtled through the air toward home, flying over Florida without anyone scrambling jets (or missiles) to intercept. Thinking back to what she’d said before I went through the portal, I couldn’t help but wonder how much this was about me. I knew she had more to worry about. She had to go back for her family, not to mention the alternate version of me that made whatever connection that might be between us one step weirder.

Still, it didn’t feel good. I’d miss her even though I knew from talking to her in the future that she didn’t regret going and we’d see each other again.

We’d get in trouble with the government for stealing the Nine’s tech, but not for using their ideas—probably.

It did worry me that Rook had likely brought back Abominator tech from the Moon and Mars. I didn’t even know where it was if I wanted to destroy it. 

In the main channel, Hal asked, “I’ll appear above the main building shortly.”

“We’ll meet you there,” Haley replied, turning her head to look over the group as we stood on the concrete platform in front of the stairway’s open doors.

“Ready?” She asked and amid the replies turned on her anti-gravity and floated toward the massive white building down the volcano’s slope from us.

Everyone floated after her, with those of us who didn’t need anti-gravity to fly, shooting over her almost as soon as we took to the air.

I didn’t go too far ahead, partly because it was wise to stick together, partly because it made me feel better to see that no one had been left behind. No one was. Even Tiger’s suit included anti-gravity and he understood how to use it, floating downward like a smaller, but unusually realistic, Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade balloon.

Soon after we landed on the roof, the League jet uncloaked above us, a long, silver, winged needle that could have appeared on the cover of an early science fiction magazine. The Defenders’ egg-shaped podjets, descended after it, stopping a few feet above the roof and opening their hatches.

While I might have felt that to be overly trusting, Alex, Brooke, and Jenny stepped out onto the roof. Following them came everyone else we’d left in the room where we fought Dr. Mind—Camille, Julie, Tara, Samita, Rod…

Standing together on the roof, it felt like a lot of people even though I knew every one of them. Every piece of my life was represented—family, high school friends and enemies, childhood playmates, friends I’d met through Stapledon, and even a dog from space.

It felt like someone should be making a speech about the worth of doing the right thing even if it seems hard, the enduring power of friendship, and how the legacy you inherit doesn’t have to define you even if it’s a good one.

I wasn’t the guy to be making that speech. Just like everyone else I could see, I felt dead tired. I may not have felt physically as tired as I’d felt the time I had to walk and fight the Cabal in a suit of dead armor, but I was there mentally.

No one else seemed up for that speech either.

Alex took a step toward where the SoCal Defenders podjets floated and then turned toward everyone. “I don’t know if we took out the Nine forever, but you took down Magnus and Dr. Mind and none of us are dead. Plus, Justice Fist got one of their own back. That’s a win. And even though I don’t dare declare victory over the Nine, I think we hurt them. That’s enough for today. Good job, everybody. I’m proud to have served with you.”

With that, he stepped into the podjet. Jenny and Brooke followed. One of Jenny’s copies told me, “We’re heading to L.A. The other podjets will help bring people back to Grand Lake.”

Sighing, she added, “You have no idea how much I want to be in only one body for a little while—maybe two at most—and both of them will be sleeping. Oh, and tell us when Travis’ funeral will be. We don’t want to miss it.”

Then she discorporated.

It says something about our lives that none of us even blinked at that. We boarded the League jet or nearest podjet without commentary and sat down. 

Haley put her hand on my shoulder, her claws clicking against the ceramic, “Are you up for flying home?”

“I’m more up for flying home than staying. Besides, it won’t take that long. Are you hungry? I want breakfast, but I don’t want whatever alien foodbars we might have left in the jet.”

I connected to the jet’s controls through my implant, running through the checklist even as Haley and I took our seats.

“I’m always hungry, but you’re not thinking of ordering from IHOP again, are you? It didn’t go so well last time,” Haley said, watching as the console in front her glowed.

Everyone in the cabin laughed. Amy hadn’t been around for that, but she laughed with everyone else. It had entered into team legend at some point.

Pulling seatbelts across her black plate armor, she said, “Once I’m back in my real body, I could go for pancakes. This one lives off life essence. If I eat as her, everything I eat disappears with her.”

“Oh shit,” Vaughn said, “I forgot about that.”

“I didn’t,” Amy said, the edge in her voice hinting at some story I knew I didn’t need to hear, possibly from when they were dating.

Good guess. Daniel thought at me. I didn’t want or need to know either, but I do anyway. Angry people are noisy.

“I’ll order,” Haley said. “Dad bought a breakfast restaurant. It’s trying to be a Waffle House. We could order from there and pick it up in the van. Maybe Kayla would be up for it.”

“Do the cooks have all their teeth?” Amy asked. “It won’t feel authentic if they have teeth.”

Dayton sighed but followed it up with, “He’ll probably like the power upgrade.”

“Oh, man,” Sean said. “I bet, but he’s still unconscious, so we don’t know yet. Is he going to be okay?”

We all looked over at Amy. She shook her head. “I don’t know how long he’ll be out, but he’ll wake up. I only took enough of him to make him fall unconscious. Once he regenerates enough… lifeforce? Mana? The best words I have for it are technical and aren’t in English. When he’s regenerated enough, he’ll wake up.”

Sean let out a breath. “What if he doesn’t?”

“He will,” Amy said. “He’s alive. He’ll wake up. I have literally thousands of years of expertise to draw on in this.”

Noticing the dark figures of Sean and Dayton on the roof of the main building, I zoomed in to see Jody lying at their feet. I wondered how much, if anything, of the fight with Magnus he remembered. Daniel and his grandfather had worked hard, but nobody was perfect and they were working on a tight deadline.

Dayton put a hand on Sean’s shoulder, “Relax. Everyone’s doing their best. You’ve seen her stab people without killing them before. Remember back when the dragon attacked Stapledon? She did it on other students because she had to, but didn’t kill any of them, right?”

“Right,” Sean said and slumped, but then sat down next to Jody. “Tell us when we’re leaving. I’ll be right here.”

“Soon,” I said. “We’ll be down as soon as we’re up to speed on everything.”

Dr. Transylvania’s voice carried over the comms, his accent hinting at Eastern Europe. “I presume you’d like to talk to me next? I don’t think that I have much to add that Prime didn’t already mention. My people did assist with the mind-controlled Cabal members. We did get hurt, but while they thought to ward the buildings against us, they didn’t supply them with wooden stakes. Or rice. That would have been annoying. You can’t imagine the compulsion when you see the grains fall to the ground. How many are there? You have to count them.”

He stopped, laughing. “Perhaps you can, V4. You and Blue Mask used them ably from what I’m told. You and the hamster. But nevermind. The Cabal soldiers and the Nine’s troops hurt us, but didn’t kill anyone. My children fed well, though, so they’ll be fine. And Ape Nasty got to hurt people without consequences. That always puts him in a good mood.”

The Atoner spoke up the moment Dr. Transylvania paused. “Don’t think that we let Ape Nasty do whatever he wanted. He stayed within the scope of the mission.”

With a grunt followed by laughter, Ape Nasty added, “You can believe the choirboy. I was well behaved. Everyone I hurt deserved it.”

“Hmmn,” Dr. Transylvania said, “it’s hard to find people that don’t deserve it on this island, but be assured that we pointed Ape Nasty in the right direction. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for you. While I did figure out how to disable the wards on the building, I didn’t figure it out soon enough to send people to help you. Still, we did help secure this end of the mission. The Nine’s soldiers can’t match a small army of vampires.

“I’d be remiss to omit the help we received from your AI’s book club, particularly OMF. His people were invaluable once the sun came up.”

Vaughn asked, “OMF?”

In an even tone, the Atoner said, “It’s an abbreviation of ‘Our Mutual Friend.’ He’s a difference engine given sentience. He acts as a fence and information broker. He’s based in Chicago, but someone supplied him with a network interface and now he has access to the internet.”

“I don’t know anything about it,” Dr. Transylvania said, “but if I did know something, I’d point out that the event predates when I turned myself over to the state.”

Ignoring him, the Atoner added, “He also has a small army of clockwork robots. They’ve been useful.”

Over the comm, Hal used a pleasant baritone that I wouldn’t have guessed was a computer voice. “It would be nice to have hands, but you’re correct, they have been useful. My report is that all hostilities have ended. I’ve notified the relevant authorities and a task force of troops from nearby countries will be arriving soon. The United States forces will arrive first, followed by Mexico. Unless you wish to answer questions, I’d advise leaving within the next 30 minutes.”

“You heard Hal,” Haley said. “Let’s get out in 10 minutes, if we can, 20 if we have to.”

Off the main channel I asked Hal, “Did you manage to copy the contents of the Nine’s computer systems? I’m particularly concerned about Rook’s and Dr. Mind’s files, but having a full picture of the Nine’s assets and businesses on hand would be good. We’ll probably be following up on them for months.”

Hal replied, “They’re already copied over. You can view them whenever you like, but they’re quite large.”

Colorful birds flew through the air above us. Others perched in the trees or on volcanic mound.

Noticing that, I hoped again that it was inactive, and decided to be grateful that Larry wasn’t here. While he was closer to me than some family members, he had the worst luck with fire and natural disasters.

Grandpa told me Larry had been in the fight that made Mount St. Helens blow early.

Deciding not to check the volcano for now, I said, “We should have everyone check in.”

Aloud, Haley said, “Main channel.”

I switched to it to find reporting in already in progress.

Alex’s voice sounded first. “We’re on our way up and we’re bringing a lot of people with us. Most of the staff surrendered. The way they tell it, you’d think they were kidnapped, forced to live in a tropical paradise, get rich, and direct a massive criminal empire.

“Whatever. Anyway, they seem to respect the guy in charge of the command center. Since he surrendered, we’re not having any problems. The guy who repairs photocopiers has been helpful too.”

Jenny cut in. “I’ve stationed a copy of myself behind each group and at the major intersections. If there’s anyone left behind us, they’re unconscious or hiding.”

Brooke asked, “How did all of you get out? After the explosion, I thought I’d have to open a portal for you.”

With a laugh, Marcus said, “I wanted to take a submarine, but Blue know about another stairway. It’s disappointing. When will we have the chance to steal a  submarine from a secret island base again?”

“Sooner than you think,” Alex said. “My dad’s been in a bunch of them. My stepmom even lived in one for a while.”

“Oh, right,” Marcus replied. “She was a supervillain.”

Prime’s voice cut into the conversation. “I met her once, I think. Pheromone powers, right?”

Alex paused, but then said, “That’s right.”

“The team she was with didn’t know it, but they weren’t much more than dogs following her commands.” Prime laughed. “But we’re supposed to be reporting in, aren’t we?”

“Yes,” Haley said. She looked over at me and used a private channel to say, “Did you notice how he got everything back on track? There’s someone who’s run a few meetings.”

With a snort, Prime said, “It’s a complete success on our end, but not an easy one. We would have ended up fighting our own dominated soldiers to a standstill but nothing else except that we followed the plan… We blocked our own people from playing a role in the fight and took targets of opportunity when we had them. The vampires did their job, hypnotizing our captive brethren.

“As of right now, we’ve got our people in custody. Our teleporters are sending them home. If what the AIs found is correct, we can keep them away from anyone who knows how to trigger them. Given time, the triggers will wear away and we have plenty of time.

“So, Heroes’ League, let’s consider this over. I’m willing to forget the death of my father at the hands of Lee and the Rocket, our humiliation at your hands in Grand Lake, how you publicized our existence, and gave the world’s heroes what they needed to target us and destroy us.

“I’m willing to remember our cooperation in freeing my brothers from the Nine here.” He cleared his throat, “It’s my hope that you’ll be willing to forget our cooperation with Ray and Syndicate L in targeting you as well as attacks our people made on you under Magnus’ control. I’m aware that one of those attacks killed Night Wolf. You have my condolences.”

Haley’s face, the part visible below her mask tightened, but she said, “Thank you. I’m willing to consider it over if everyone else is.”

Though Prime and I had said more or less the same when he’d helped fight the mushroom zombies, I understood how he might want to reiterate it in front of everyone. I said, “Yes,” and I wasn’t the only one. I don’t know if everyone said something, but at least no one objected.

Prime said, “Good. If you need us, you know where to find us, but be aware that if you want our assistance in the future, you’ll have to pay like everyone else.”

“Fine with me,” I said. “I’m hoping we never hit a problem big enough that we need you. I’m also hoping that we don’t come into conflict as a result of any future jobs you have.”

Grunting, Prime said, “We won’t take jobs that will put us into conflict with you. If you find one of us working for one of your opponents, contact me as soon as you can.”

“Absolutely,” I said.

Sean’s voice sounded over the channel, and my stomach sank, expecting him to throw the whole agreement away with a few poorly chosen words.

“Hey,” Sean said, “we’re totally cool with that too. Justice Fist was also there when you guys were fighting. Anyway… I thought we ought to report in. Dayton, Jody, and I got out. We used the stairway too, but we’re back on the main building’s roof now. Oh, and it looks like the zappy eyes thing Rook did to Jody is permanent.”

Amy shuddered as she passed it, telling me, “The little bit of him that’s left saw his dead body. Even for him, it’s weird and creepy.”

Haley shook her head, saying only, “Yuck.”

From behind us, Cassie’s voice carried over the sound of our boots stepping on the debris. “He deserves some weird and creepy. Between him and Dr. Mind, the Nine were trying to corner the market.”

I wondered if we should be bringing out any of them for burial, but would we bring out everyone? Just Rook? I dismissed it with the thought that the nations of the world had both private and public teams devoted to cleaning up after superhero fights, classifying new technology, and handling the inevitable hazardous waste.

Following Izzy into the corridor, I gave a last look at Rook’s combination of lab and submarine base. Noticing the storage cabinets and partially constructed Rook suits, I wondered if maybe we should be blowing up the entire place. Would the world be better if the world’s governments had the chance to study Rook and Dr. Mind’s technology? What about the Abominator implants and what they’d done to Rook’s followers?

If I felt we had to, we could always sear the place with the jet’s main gun. Reminding myself of that, I walked down the hall. It ended in a gray concrete staircase. Unremarkable in every way, from the steel beams to the blocky steps, it could have been in any factory or office building in the world. 

How many similar staircases had I walked up over the last few years? It could have been been the staircase I’d fought vampires on in Detroit, one of many in the Nine’s factory near Chicago, the arena on the island where I’d fought the Grey Giant the second time, the Defenders’ HQ in Chicago, or even our own base in Grand Lake. There had to be more. We hadn’t used the staircases much when we’d fought the mushroom zombies in the underground parking lots, but I knew they had to be there.

Even the stairways in Stapledon’s school in Colorado could have passed for it for a second. They might have been carved out of the rock by Earthmover, but the design wasn’t much different.

Who’d guess the life of a superhero involved spending so much time walking and fighting up and down the stairways in the employee only sections of buildings?

At least we weren’t fighting through this one.

Daniel’s voice sounded through our mental link. Blue’s scan can’t detect anyone in the stairway. When I sense our potential futures, the chances that we’re attacked while we’re in it are about the same as when we’re in Grand Lake out of costume, maybe lower.

I thought back, I’m being paranoid.

Daniel’s amusement carried over the link even before he replied, After today or after every day since our senior year of high school, who wouldn’t be?

I laughed and we walked upward. No one attacked us. The stairway didn’t explode. I could tell from watching everyone through my HUD that I wasn’t the only person expecting the worst. 

Everyone from Jaclyn to Vaughn, Marcus, Haley, Rachel… Well, everyone walked carefully, making micro adjustments with their heads that allowed them to keep everything around us in view.

Even Tiger paused to look down the way we’d come every now and then.

If it reminded me of anything, it reminded me of walking down the stairway into Red Lightning’s secret lair. The gas traps had long ago run out of gas, but the machinegun behind the wall had still worked.

We’d destroyed it after it fired on us. It seemed like forever ago.

You could view that whole incident as superhero life in a nutshell. We’d descended into a supervillain’s lair, risked our lives, but discovered information we hadn’t known before. While there, we’d found the remains of a battle and Red Lightning’s attempt to become even more powerful.

If nothing else, it was a reminder that even with time travel not all deaths could be fixed. Changing Red Lightning’s future would have been a major change to our past. I couldn’t even guess at the consequences.

When we reached the top of the stairway, we found that it ended in two, light green metal doors. Izzy and I looked at each other, prepared to rip the doors out of their hinges.

Before we even had time to turn back to (or test)  the doors, Haley had reached out for the door handle, turning it, and pushing it open. 

Nothing exploded. No alarms rang.

We stepped out onto a concrete platform on the side of a hill next to the (inactive?) volcano in the middle of the island. We were about half a mile from the compound we’d attacked. From our current height, we could see the roof of the building we’d landed on along with the other buildings around it.

Dr. Transylvania’s half-dome of a ship floated above everything, shattered walls and all.

I didn’t see any fighting.

The sun hung low in the sky, a glowing ball in a red sky. I wondered how the vampires were doing.

“Sure,” I said, intending to say nothing forever unless Ray reappeared on Earth.

Lim stared into the camera for a moment, giving the impression that he was studying me even though I knew he was just getting a still of the Rocket suit in his video feed.

Despite that, I felt a little guilty about not telling him much. It was probably a parental tactic—that or something he’d gained after years of handling supers for the feds.

“Okay,” he said. “Please don’t let it become a problem. The Xiniti aren’t going to make a clone army using his DNA, right?”

“No,” I said and checked my implant. It did not have a specific record of Ray, but the Xiniti avoided creating clone armies as a matter of policy. According to my implant, exceptions to that rule existed, but not on a wide enough scale to be called an army.

Though it would be the most honest response, I decided not to inform Lim that the Xiniti wouldn’t ever use Ray to create a clone army, but might create a clone unit if it were the only way to meet important mission objectives.

“Good,” Lim said. “One of him was bad enough. Okay, unless you’ve got something you need to tell me, I’m signing off.”

“I’ve got plenty,” I said, “but none of it’s urgent and it would take a long time.”

“I don’t doubt it,” he said, shaking his head, “and knowing what superheroes face, I’m going to bet that it will make me more nervous about the future instead of less. Anyway, I’m out.”

We said goodbye, and closed the connection, leaving me to pay attention to the world around me.

“What did Lim want?” Haley asked on the team implant channel.

“Mostly to let me know that the Xiniti took Ray to space—which is good. It means that I managed to fulfill my promise, but also that he’s off Earth, hopefully forever. And,” I added, “he also wanted to know what was going on and how much we were involved in the attacks on the Nine that apparently went on all over the world.”

Haley sighed, “I think you did the right thing, but it’s sad that Ray gets another chance and Travis doesn’t.”

I sunk a little inside myself. “I tried. I looked into a bunch of ways to bring back Travis. I even enlisted the machine to see if I’d missed any options. I couldn’t find any. Well, I found one. I could have done it if I stayed on the GCD, disappeared from this timeline, and let another version of myself replace me.”

Her eyes narrowed, “You didn’t, did you?”

“No,” I said. 

Then she turned to Daniel, asking, “He didn’t, right?”

Meanwhile Amy said, “You can’t do that kind of thing. I’ve felt guilty about you almost killing yourself to save me for years.”

A few of the symbols on Amy’s spear glowed with an inner red light.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I underestimated how hungry that thing is.”

Daniel shook his head, telling Haley, “He decided not to. He kept on looking to see if maybe there was another option, though.”

“Good,” Haley said, grabbing my arm. “You’re not replaceable. Neither was Travis, but swapping yourself for him, even if I never know, isn’t an option, okay?”

“I know,” I said, deciding not to mention that technically, if the universe would simply slip another Nick into my spot, I absolutely was. Saying so wouldn’t calm the situation down though, so I didn’t. 

I have learned at least a little about how to handle people.

Jaclyn reached out to pet Tiger, who’d cocked his head to look at me. “I missed even knowing that was an option on the table,” she said.

“I’d frozen time when I was looking into it, so I didn’t discuss it with the group. Anyway, I didn’t like that option.”

“You’d frozen time like Kee froze time?” She turned away from the dog to look at me. “That’s impressive. Seriously.”

I shrugged, “I did it with a device she designed, so maybe not as impressive.”

Jaclyn laughed, “Maybe, but I can’t do that even with the device. Either way, we need to get back up to the surface. The way we came down is filled with rubble now. Even if it wasn’t, I don’t think we should assume the weapons don’t work.”

Izzy stepped through the doorway into the control center, as tall and as powerful as ever, “We can get out. There’s another stairway up.”

“It’s Rook’s,” Amy said. “I asked Blue to check it out after we got everything under control here.”

“Good,” Jaclyn said, peering past Izzy toward the chaos killing Rook and his minions had left. “Let’s go home.”

The polished marble in particular would fit with being in Washington D.C. or a suburb with federal buildings. Lim could easily have been mobilized by the AIs to take down one of the Nine’s outposts.

The helmet and armored black vest with the letters “FBI” on the front told me it wasn’t a normal day at the office. On the other hand, I didn’t hear shouts or gunshots through the connection.

“Rocket,” he said, “you’ve been busy.”

“Sorry I didn’t let you know,” I said, my implant translating my thoughts into speech for the comm system. 

“We got what I assumed was your information about who the Nine controlled in the Bureau, local Nine bases, and influenced figures… There were even triggers to use and who they were connected to,” Lim said. “It was the most complete information on the Nine’s locations and assets that I’ve ever seen.”

He paused, “If that wasn’t you, who was it?”

“We,” I began, deciding that I did not want to explain Hal’s friends, “have a connection with a group that got into the Nine’s systems. They distributed information to the right people for the right task.”

Lim nodded. “I’d say so. I knew it wasn’t you personally, but there had to be a connection. Some of what we got was the Nine’s internal documents. Not everyone could get those. I thought you might be able to. Not only that, a lot of people got directions with a very specific time, order of operations, and the person to handle it. As long as people followed directions, it was easy. I’ve seen reports from all over the world at this point. It’s a crazy amount of detail. Was Lee involved?”

“With part of it,” I said, because Lim didn’t need the full story, “ but not everything. You know about the League jet’s AI and it was designed to simulate battles to find the optimal combination of tactics and strategy? Feed it enough information and you get good results.”

Sighing, Lim said, “I can’t say I entirely trust an alien AI, but you’re playing to its strengths. We can’t know for sure, but if everywhere went as well as it did here, this might be the end of them. Where are you, by the way?”

“The Nine’s headquarters, specifically, their submarine base. I’ll pass along the exact location after we’re done.” I had my implant make a note to remind me to ask Hal if he had a specific plan for when to notify governments about the base.

Of course, given that we had Cabal soldiers fighting other Cabal soldiers above us, the fight may have already been triangulated by earthquake researchers.

That thought prompted another note to my implant to check on how everything on the surface was going. The vampires would have to stay out of direct sunlight.

Lim muttered something and shook his head. “I know we were riddled with the Nine’s assets here in D.C., but it’s a gut punch to have missed out on that.”

I shrugged. “Sorry. If it’s any consolation, we’re in international waters right now, but the Nine being the Nine, I’d bet there are strings tied to some country. By missing out, you’re probably avoiding an international incident. Maybe you can get in on whatever muti-national task force they send in after we’re done.”

Lim snorted. “Unless you stick around the submarine base, probably not. I’m in the middle of a couple of different operations related to the Nine’s assets at the moment. Anyway, I thought I’d check in for where you fit in with all of this and if I was right in guessing I’d been left out of the loop.”

“Sorry,” I began.

“Don’t worry about it. Supers specialize in doing what we can’t and I’ve been expecting you to go up against the Nine soon. I just didn’t expect it to be on this scale. You already had international visibility, but after this… Well, expect more international calls and not all of them will be friendly.

“I don’t mean to rain on your parade. I don’t know how you did it, but between you and your allies, I think you may have just taken down the biggest criminal organization in the world.

“Anyone who plans to replace them will have you in their crosshairs. On the other hand, they may also fear getting your attention and given what I’ve seen today, they’ll be right. Crap. I got a text just now… I can’t tell you any details without permission, but someone following Hal’s instructions hit the jackpot. I’ve got to go. No, wait—”

“What?” I asked.

Shaking his head, Lim said, “I’m an idiot. The main reason I called you today was because of Ray. After we picked up his body, the Xiniti contacted us, insisted that we hand him over, and made us promise that we wouldn’t tell you until today, and even then only after dawn in D.C. Does any of that make sense to you?”

“Kinda, yeah,” I said.

He stared into the camera. “Is it ever going to make sense to me?”

“Let’s hope not.”

He nodded, “Right. I probably shouldn’t ask, but did someone change the nature of reality when I wasn’t looking? Combine a bunch of universes? Destroy a universe? Absorb a universe or two and now we’re going to have a bunch of new teams and villains that we think always existed?”

“Uh… None of those specifically. Has that ever happened?” I did my best to keep my voice even and unworried.

“I can’t talk about it,” he said, “but I will say that I’m sure it would be a huge pain in the ass if it did.”

It was less that we stepped through to the room, so much as fell through at an angle. There was no law, I supposed, that a tunnel through time and space had to synchronize with the orientation of the exit point.

Haley let go of my hand, rolling and coming to her feet. I turned on the suit’s anti-gravity, floating to the ceiling like a Rocket-sized party balloon. 

It hadn’t been a bad idea, though, because managing traffic hadn’t been a high priority in the portal’s design. Vaughn, Marcus, Jaclyn, Daniel, Cassie, Rachel, and Tiger poured out after us, dodging the people who’d appeared before them.

Amy, meanwhile, stood next to a wall filled with controls and computer screens, eyes widening as we filled the room. It wasn’t a big room.

Rachel was the last one through, and the portal closed behind her, causing Amy to blink and pull out the flat stone I’d left with her.

I flew over everyone and landed next to her. She handed the stone over, saying, “And? You won? You lost? Oh, and take this.”

“We won,” I said, “if killing Magnus, freeing Lee and Nataw, and convincing Govan that he should leave the Destroy faction and join Live is winning.”

Amy watched me and paused before saying, “That sounds exactly like winning. It sounds like a complete and total success. What aren’t you saying?”

I looked around; everyone was watching, and no one was saying anything. “Well, the way things worked out, winning may have changed the past a little. We don’t know how much. I got a message from the machine that there were minimal deviations, nothing that should affect anything.”

Haley looked over at me, “You did? I didn’t get anything like that.”

Rachel said, “Neither did I.”

The rest of the team echoed their responses. Daniel frowned, “I wonder if that’s because you controlled it for a little while or if it’s an Artificer thing?”

Rachel said, “Control. I’ve got as much claim to be an Artificer as he does.”

Giving a wave that extended his arm a good two feet longer than normal, Marcus asked, “Did you notice reality warp around you or anything? What happened after we left?”

It seemed impossible that she wouldn’t have been affected herself, but on the other hand, she was holding the portal open. Maybe she’d have been protected? Deciding not to muddy the waters, I only added, “What happened after I left?”

Amy held up her hands, “Not everybody at once. One question at a time. I didn’t notice any changes except for after you all came through. When the portal closed, the stone cut me off. I was connected to it, but I can’t sense it anymore.”

I reached out to it using what Rachel had taught me. It didn’t communicate, but I felt its presence. On the other hand, Lee had wanted an “adult Artificers only” conversation with Govan.

Amy tapped my armor and grinned, “Here’s what happened after you left. You remember how I absorbed Rook? He had passwords to everything and knew this place’s defenses. I locked the doors on their troops, shut off power to their weapons, and gave  Hal access to everything I could.”

“Whoa,” Vaughn said, “that’s why they didn’t send any more troops. We were fighting Power Burst and all of those guys, but it looked like more troops were coming, but they couldn’t get past their own doors.”

Cassie had walked over to the door and looked out, turning around to ask, “They’re still out, right? We fought an earlier version of them on the other side of the portal. I don’t want to fight them for a third time today.”

Frowning, Haley asked, “Do you think it was safe to give all of that information to Hal? He might share them with his friends.”

Amy shrugged, “It was that or lose everything. I’m digesting Rook with every passing second. He’s no one you want to keep in your head.”

She shivered, “He’s fighting it, but he can’t do much. They don’t share everything with me, but the previous Bloodmaidens are united in preventing foreign personalities from taking control.”

Glancing at Daniel, Haley asked, “Do you need any help?”

Daniel shook his head, “She doesn’t.”

Amy smiled, “I don’t. I’ve had plenty of practice digesting unpleasant personalities today. I had to steal Jody’s powers to have a chance of hitting Rook. I didn’t have to kill Jody, but I had both of them in my head while I was shutting the base down. I made sure I finished Jody first. He’s a creepy little bastard.”

“Don’t we all know it,” Cassie said. “We had to fight an earlier version of him in there too.”

Amy’s eyes widened. “You’re making me glad I stayed. That’s too much of him in one day… What do you think you changed in the past?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “There’s one big thing, but that shouldn’t cause any problems if it goes right.”

Cassie laughed. “Right. Letting Ray live is minor.”

“Ray?” Amy asked.

She hadn’t been around then. She might not even have been on Earth. I tried to think of where to start, but Isaac Lim’s name started flashing in my HUD.

I could think of a few reasons our FBI handler might be calling, not least of which being that I wasn’t sure we’d told him we were attacking the Nine’s home base tonight.

I took the call.

Then he stopped and looked over at Kee and Lee, asking, “Right?”

Kee looked up toward Nataw, “I know it’s hard for you. We all have friends among Destroy. If it could possibly happen, we’d like to end this without fighting any of them. We also know that’s unlikely.”

Govan nodded. “I’ve had my own visions. I know it’s unlikely, but hearing you say you see value in their lives is good. The less we kill, the better..”

Turning to meet Lee’s eyes, he said, “You don’t know how angry Destroy is about the way you left and that you took this thing.”

Lee shrugged. “After running from them for thousands of years, I think I might have an idea. They’ve destroyed star systems, intelligent species, interstellar nations, and empires simply because they thought I’d been there and influenced them in some small way.”

Govan stared. “In some small way? You’ve altered species evolution and raised armies that stood a chance of destroying us, and if not us, our servants. Word is that we should be looking for another. You’ve had enough time since the last.”

Lee crossed his arms, “Word from who? It seems like ‘we’ shouldn’t be looking for my hypothetical armies. It seems like Destroy should. ‘We’ already know about those hypothetical armies since we may or may not have created them.”

Govan took in a breath, “You know what I mean. You always have plans. You always have tricks up your sleeve. You put small things in motion that turn into big things later when everyone’s stopped looking. It’s unwise to assume you’re doing nothing and those in Destroy try to be wise.”

Grinning, Lee said, “I’m sure they try, but who’s been saying to watch for my murderous creations?”

Govan sighed, “Mednez, but he’s merely repeating what Halas and some others who knew you better said.”

Lee chuckled, “That’s who I’d have suspected. Halas won’t be doing much advising in the near future. There’s a decent chance he won’t reappear until after it’s all over.”

Shaking his head, Govan said, “At least he’s not dead. Where is he?”

“Mmmn,” Lee muttered, “I’m going to hold off on that one for a bit. I will say though that it was his trap for me that happened to go off on him. It will release him eventually, but not soon. I don’t even know how we’d get him out.

“If you’re still interested in joining up with the forces of leaving the younger species alone, we might want to think about what’s next instead of rehashing what people in Destroy think about me. For example, we might want to discuss whether you’re going to be a double agent or whether you’re going to quietly disappear, leaving Destroy to speculate as to why.”

Govan took a breath, holding it, but then saying, “I don’t have the temperament to be a double agent. I’m no good at lying. No offense meant, but you were better at it as was Kee.”

With a tilt of his head, Lee said, “No offense taken. That’s why I brought it up. We have a number of techniques you might use. Simply fading out everywhere might be good, but we could get some mileage out of staging your death. Setting it up so that you disappeared, but giving hints that the Ghosts killed you might pay dividends.”

Govan paused, but said, “We will have to decide that…”

He looked out at all of us, humans and a dog that watched with interest as unknown futures altered with every word.

Lee waved at us. “Sorry about that. This is going a bit long and you all can’t give away what you don’t know, right? We should continue it without observers. I’ll send you all back and we’ll meet you on Earth. I will, at least. The rest may have tasks elsewhere.”

It didn’t sound like a bad idea. I hoped that all of this with Magnus, the GCD, and four Artificers hadn’t attracted attention. 

My implant informed me, “Should it become necessary, the Xiniti weapons designated for destroying humanity can be repurposed to target Artificers.”

That was another thing I wouldn’t be passing on any time soon.

I felt the energy that hinted at a portal to home opening. As the power peaked, Lee used an Artificer channel to say, “Good job. You did everything you needed to and a few things I wouldn’t have dared to suggest. We’re moving in the right direction, and it shouldn’t be boring. I like that.”

Then the connection ended and I felt myself being thrown through time and space, my suit giving my time stream as the universe I’d come from, but our exact location was a mystery. Tabling any questions I might have for Werner Heisenberg, I let myself be propelled without resisting.

I’d already gone enough places for one day.

Grandpa, Grandma, and the original League disappeared. I wished we’d had a little longer to talk, but it probably wouldn’t have been wise.

The outlines of our League flew through the darkness with me, sometimes illuminated by flashes of light. Haley and I managed to clasp hands somehow and hung on to each other.

In my mind, I heard Spark’s voice, “You’re reentering your timeline. There are mild deviations, not enough to change anything important, but you may find that small details are different.”