Anti-Mage

Anton flew through the Astral Plane, taking in the various colors as he went. Since his goal was to find a Prime Material Plane, he needed to come across either a portal or, well, he really didn't know how the Astral Plane would transition toward a material plane with his skill. Fortunately, he didn't have a long wait. In the distance, what looked like an asteroid belt came into view.

As he flew between various-sized rocks of all types, they increased in size and number until he was dodging around stones the size of SUVs, then buildings, and finally a huge moon-sized rock with a large semi-transparent portal on the surface that had a transparent forest on the other side.

He wasn't sure why it was semi-transparent until he passed through it. Once on the other side, he found himself in a forest with large, no, giant trees. There was no sign of the portal he passed through, nor did he step back into Astral Space through the curtain when he took a step backward. The portal had been one-way.

While he'd been flying, his mind had been reviewing the various events of his life. The one thing about having astronomically high intelligence was that he could not forget things. He could divert his attention; he could keep his mind occupied, but flying through the Astral with almost no stimuli to keep him occupied gave his mind plenty of time to review everything that had happened to him so far.

He flew forward a bit in the forest that was all around him and landed. He'd been thrown fourteen billion years in the future. Fourteen billion years further from his origin. Fourteen Billion…

An anguished roar erupted from his throat that broke the serene atmosphere as a guttural, "FUUUUCK!!!" erupted from his throat.

Anton deactivated Traverse Reality and walked forward until his Aura Sense spread out to its full range of 10,000 feet in its standard configuration. The only things in this forest were trees, variants on deer and rabbit-type creatures, and the normal insects and plants one would find in a forest. Most of which were fleeing the immediate area after his loss of control.

He noticed a large tree with a space underneath and walked over to sit down. A quick check of his SYSTEM Status confirmed that his regeneration rates were normal and that he would be able to stay here for a while.

With his higher-ranked version of Create Item, he created a blanket with a nest of heavy pillows and made himself comfortable, and a small table with a few chilled glasses on it. Next, he cast his higher-ranked Created Food and filled them with scotch. He was sure the alcohol wouldn't have any effect on him. That wasn't the point. He sat back, closed his eyes, and just relaxed as he tried to calm his racing mind.

It didn't work. His mind raced in circles, and his rage built. He lost control for only a moment, and the pillows he was sitting on and the drinks he was holding vanished as the void erupted and disintegrated everything within ten feet of him. Luckily, the tree behind him was large enough that only a small portion disintegrated before he was able to re-establish control of himself. Still, the damage was done. He felt anger and pressure building within him and knew that he couldn't stay here.

"Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!" he said over and over as he tried to regain control of the pressure building up in his mind and soul. It didn't work. He had no idea how dangerous he was at this point. Since he did not want to hurt anyone, he teleported himself 18,939 miles straight up repeatedly. After the tenth teleport, he was well outside the planet's atmosphere, floating in space above the planet below him. Anton paused and looked around to make sure the area was clear.

He was now in orbit above a planet that was over 180,000 miles below him. A quick look confirmed that it was not Earth. He'd never seen a planet like it before. The atmosphere had a green tint to it, and it seemed like there was more land than water. He also confirmed that there was nothing in orbit near him or approaching him as far as he could see.

Satisfied that he was alone, he released the mental locks he'd placed on his rage. In that moment, the hold he had on his anger weakened and then exploded from his Trinary Core. He'd thought it was in his mind. He was wrong. The anger had festered in his soul, and his soul was firmly located within his trinary core. His Intellect and Will withdrew into his soul to protect the rational portion of his mind. The part of himself that he had kept under strict control, the portion of his emotional makeup that further defined the logos of his identity, was unrestricted for the first time since he was a young child. That emotional portion of his soul reviewed the struggles he'd been going through to protect those he cared about and began flailing against the restrictions his cores placed on him.

The intellectual part of his mind, which had been told he should not consider certain things, was shut away as the emotional portion of his mind said. "Fuck it!" and began doing things that he had never considered before and probably wouldn't remember.

The first thing the part of himself within his Trinary Core that was still rational noticed was that his unassigned Spell Slots began burning out as the emotional aspect of his nature thrashed and struggled.

In that first second, hundreds of thousands of spell slots were burnt out as they were assigned to do tasks that they could not. There was no stopping his desire as the spell slots were assigned to fill roles that to him seemed unlikely. As he did so, the Spell Slots burnt out like a fuse that had received more electricity than it was rated for. They did serve a purpose, though. They laid a foundation that allowed his emotions to recognize and begin assigning the spell slots to functions they could hold.

One thousand Spell Slots locked into an orb that represented the common spheres of magic dedicated to light, and then each of the other seven basic elements. This continued until all 21 spheres of magic had spheres and then continued further as spheres were created to lock in the eleven various categories of magic. A ring of thirty-three orbs surrounded and began to orbit his core in the metaphysical space that was his trinary Core. This continued again for each rank of magic, including the Ascendant and Divine spheres.

When every sphere and category of magic was represented at each rank, additional spell slots began being dedicated to every conceivable augmentation that could be made to a spell: reduced damage cost, various elemental effects, and increased speed for multiple types of movement.

The core of Anton's intellect watched as 30,855,000 Spell Slots were allocated to small spheres that orbited his Primary core. Then something weird happened. The mass of orbiting spheres around his trinary core condensed until they were only surrounding his Primary Core, and the process began repeating. When it was done, an equal number of spheres was allocated to surround his Void Core. Then it happened a third time as spell slots were dedicated to the same rolls and surrounded his Evolutionary core.

A total of 185,130,000 Spell slots had been dedicated to creating 330 spheres orbiting each of his cores in ten orbits, representing each of the ranks of magic. The remaining 123,420,000 spell slots vanished from his Status Screen as ten more orbital rings of spheres appeared around the trinary core, each consisting of an additional two spheres of each type and category of magic. Anton could tell that one set was for mana while the other set was for Psychic Energy. The highest rank orbit, the divine rank, was the closest to the trinary core, while the common ranks spheres orbited the furthest away. Intersected among the ten orbits were additional spheres representing even more augmentations for each type of resource. If his guess was correct, the spheres orbiting the cores were directly related to each other, and then worked with the two sets of spheres in orbit, depending on which resource he was utilizing.

As the Spell Slot counter reduced to zero, an overwhelming sense of weariness overcame Anton's intellect within his soul core as he watched the changes to his core compress and lock into his Trinary core. If not for Sense Aura, Anton wouldn't have been able to notice that what had appeared to be a core consisting of three cores where there should only be two now seemed to be one core, instead of two or three. The spheres of magic he'd created had compressed down over the trinary core. He could zoom in and see each orb, but to anyone unable to zoom in and approach his soul, it would appear that he only had a single core.

As he was considering the implications of that visual cue to others and what it meant, there was a flash, and Anton's mind went blank as he lost consciousness.

***

Anton came to with a massive headache and a feeling that something about himself had changed, something fundamental. He also realized that he was floating in space, and he could breathe normally. What the hell?

Anton opened his Status and checked his Notifications.

Your mind has experienced a psychotic break.

Your Intellect has protected itself successfully.

Spell Slots Expended: 360,049,290

Spell Slots Available: 0

Your Trinary Core has evolved into a Holistic Trinary Core.

Holistic Trinary Core

Beings with a Holistic Trinary Core may exist in any quantum state. This core consists of an Evolutionary Core that acts as an anchor, supplemented by the Primary and Void Cores. Additionally, every sphere and category of magic has been incorporated into each secondary core and also buffered by at least one additional layer of magical type and category augments that surround the core. The specific structure of this Holistic Trinary Core features two outer shells that enable the utilization of Mana and Psychic Energy to power any skill, ability, perk, spell, or psionic party, regardless of the required resource type; they are now interchangeable.

This structure allows for intuitive and instantaneous casting of magical spells and Psionic Powers from any sphere or category of magic without the need to invest Spell Slots into specific spells or Psionic Powers.

Benefits:

This structure fundamentally alters the nature of entities with such cores, enabling them to modify their structures to exist within any quantum state within the Manifold Multiverse. Evolutionary Limitations on size conversion due to incorporated evolutionary cores are rescinded. Magic will automatically supplement any such changes.

When crossing between Multiverses, any clothing or items worn are automatically converted to the quantum state of the new region. Should a matter-based Trinary creature step into an Antimatter region of the multiverse, the Trinary Core will shield and modify every cell and atom of the Trinary creature and their equipment to suit the new region.

Use of skills, magic, and the like is automatically converted to work in the new region, realm, or dimension.

The Holistic Trinary Core has incorporated spheres and categories into every aspect of your Primary, Evolutionary, and Void Cores. Additionally, Anyone attempting to scrutinize your core will only find a single core unless they can pierce Mythic-ranked defenses.

Note: A holistic Trinary Core draws its energy from all spheres and categories of magic. Even in Mana Starved locations, you may access magic, though the area of effect and range will be reduced.

Disadvantages: Skills, Spells, and equipment that access regions outside the new region, but are not compatible, cannot be accessed. This is a safety feature imposed by the Holistic Trinary Core and cannot be circumvented by any known means.

WARNING! When crossing between incompatible regions, ensure that you do not rush your Trinary Core. While undergoing conversion to the new region, a mishap may occur if the process is rushed.

Note: The Holistic Trinary Core does contain the ability to create Ascendant and Divine Rank Magic and Psionic Powers, if the Trinary Core reaches those ranks.

Mental Capacity Reduced

Initiating Automatic Defense Protocol

Activated Aura Sense,

Upkeep: One Mana per second

The environment is detrimental to the current Physical State. The Physical structure is adjusted.

Upkeep: One Mana per second.

Micro-meteor on impact course, position adjusted.

Micro-meteor on impact trajectory, position adjusted.

There were quite a few messages that altered his position or moved him around micro-meteorites. He looked at the time stamps of the first and last messages; three hours. He'd been out of it for just under three hours. Anton skipped ahead to the last message.

Your emotional state has rebalanced.

So, he'd had a psychotic break. Somehow, his subconscious had figured out how to do something that would allow him to utilize Psionic and Magical Spells at will to shape reality. Did that mean he could travel through time? If so, there was one place he could go back to that might change things.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Fate, Destiny, the God of Time, if there was one, be damned. If he could travel through time, he was going to, and then he was going to hunt down those who had sent the Selechi after the Adventurer's Guild. No, he wasn't going back to the Antimatter Universe; there was no point. If his actions had any effect, they hopefully set them up to survive integration. No, he was going to target the location he'd dropped that fireball that had destroyed the Selechi city. He wasn't going to stop it. But he could appear there and then hope further back in time to see if he could backtrack whoever was behind the attacks on his Realm of Origin, at least in this Iteration.

Anton willed himself into the physical form of a Selechi. Then, he conjured a set of armor identical to what he'd seen them wearing. He pulled it into his inventory and then set up a wardrobe set for it. A mental command, and the Armor appeared around him, equipped. He loved that function of his Personal Storage. He quickly looked himself over with Aura Sense, then visualized the place he'd stepped onto. He focused on it, and a window appeared floating in front of him, allowing him to scry the location he wished to go through space and time to. He had full control over the screen. He could alter the target, fast forward, and rewind. It was just like watching a video, except he was looking back through 14 billion years into another Manifold Universe. He found the point where the fireball exploded, watched the cascade of explosions as they spread, and took out a small city near the device that had created the portal the Selechi used. Once the primary and secondary explosions were all done, he shifted his point of view one more hour forward and then moved it back to the crater where the portal had been.

He quickly checked his resource usage and found that casting a spell to look that far into the past had only cost him one mana. He still didn't understand how his augments reduced the cost, but it looked like all those extra spell slots that had gone into his Core for augments had actually decreased how much it cost him to cast spells. That the spells now adjusted as needed was awesome!

Anton brought his attention back to the scrying window, focused on the location he'd chosen, and willed himself to shift through time and space to appear in that location at that time. He'd like to say that it was harder than a normal teleport, but it wasn't. One moment, he was floating above a planet in space; the next, he was standing at the bottom of a crater. Then something happened; the world around him shimmered, and suddenly he found himself standing on a floor with a group of Selechi in armor, all reacting to his sudden appearance.

Paradox Protocol Initiated.

"Where did you come from!" The closest Selechi yelled at him as he brought his rifle to bear on him.

One of the others, Selechi, a little father back with a device that reminded Anton of a tricorder from Star Trek, called out, "He's an Imposter, he has no current ID code. Attack!"

Anton cursed; he should have realized they'd have friends or foe electronic IDs in their armor, else how would they tell who a friend or foe was when fighting amongst their own kind? Well, if that was the case, how about sowing a little chaos? Anton reached out to every suit of armor he could see within his line of sight, activated the Electronic Bridge to each one, and shut down that function.

Everyone around Anton froze for a moment, which was all the time he needed to focus his thoughts and come up with something that would make it nigh impossible for him to be affected. Instead of trying to cast a Time Stop spell that would, at most, affect an 18,000-mile radius and cost a lot of mana or psychic energy, Anton went the other route and cast a spell on himself that increased his personal time frame by 100 million times.

Now that casting spells was much more intuitive, all he had to do was think of the effect he wanted, and it happened. He didn't even need to gesture or speak to cast his spells, as he was automatically augmenting his spells not to require components, somatic gestures, or commands. He had to think about what he wanted to happen, and it did. In this case, he wanted a spell that allowed him to move so fast that anyone around him wouldn't be able to see. Unfortunately, he immediately found out why Flash was referred to as a quantum speedster.

Moving 100 million times faster than everything else meant that when he tried to take one step, his leg would move the one and a half feet of a normal stride 100 million times faster than anyone else. He had planned to move so fast that his movements couldn't be seen or reacted to. He'd disregarded his normal maximum speed, which was a mistake.

Reality warped around him, and with one step, he exploded through a portal that had appeared in front of him and crashed into and through the surface of a star. His second step found him outside the star in the vacuum of space, where he crashed through a dimensional barrier he had neither detected nor realized was there as he crossed through it. As he crossed the barrier, a Notification appeared in his vision.

You are exiting this Temporal Frame.

***

A Few moments earlier.

Queen Siblee read the latest report and froze. She double-checked the list of names twice before activating a Scrying portal that would allow her to see through the Manifold barrier and looked at the planet that the report was concerned about. She looked over the scene and then to the aide who had handed her the report.

"Where is the damage that was in the report you just handed me.

"It had been undone, my Queen."

"And my Son?

"He is lost to us. If his soul survived, it has been cast elsewhere. He's gone, My Queen." The aide said as she dropped to her knee and bowed her head.

The Queen reached toward the portal and twisted her hand counterclockwise. The Image in the portal backtracked, flickered, and moved until she was looking at an armored Selechi that appeared out of nowhere. She scrutinized the man and then pulled up another image of a human who had appeared right before the first explosion took out the first Selechi city.

It was definitely two different creatures, she could see that, even with the Armor on the Selechi, but their aura's each had the same anomaly she'd detected when she'd reviewed the original explosion through her Temporal Scrying Portal. It was too bad that the Multiverse this individual lived in was oppositely charged than her own, or she would bring this shapeshifter back here and dissect him if she could. Instead, she would have to be satisfied with doing to him, what he'd done to her son. Wiping him from existence.

Her people had developed a technology and magical combination that allowed them to visit the other multiverse. The temporal and tidal forces of her portal would atomize and scatter the soul of anyone not protected. A little revenge wouldn't make up for her son's death, but it would make her feel a whole lot better.

Queen Siblee used one of her temporal abilities to see which direction the Selechi would move first and then created a portal from that point into the Sun, around which her home orbited. That should do nicely. Her scrying portal glitched and then vanished as the location she was viewing was destroyed.

That wasn't supposed to happen.

The Queen quickly changed the destination and filter settings of her scrying mirror to a point less than one second above where her target should have appeared above the Sun. Without the filters, she wouldn't have been able to see anything. With the filters, she saw a single hole diving deep into the star, and even now, an overpressure shockwave was exploding away from a line that went entirely through the star.

As fear gripped her heart, the explosive force froze, reversed, and the star repaired itself. That hadn't been her doing. As she considered what she'd just witnessed, a thought crossed her mind. Maybe it was time to reconsider crossing the Manifold Barrier. Yes, she'd lost a son, but as had just been shown to her, she could lose much more than that if whoever was helping her stopped doing so.

She knew what was supposed to happen when something from the other universe came into contact with matter from her universe. That's why she'd set the portal to appear 100,000 miles above the sun's surface. Close enough to be vaporized by the heat, maybe touch a few spare atoms, and go boom, which would appear as a small flash. Instead, something had blasted through the portal, through the star, and it hadn't exploded when it came into contact with her universe, when almost everything else had.

Yes, it was time to reconsider her life choices.

***

Had he just gone through a star? He quickly checked his Notifications.

Yes, his quantum state had changed as he crossed a Manifold Dimensional Barrier.

Yes, he plowed completely through a star as if it wasn't there. Sure, he'd taken damage, but his damage resistance and Adaptation had pretty much negated the normal heat and gravity-based damage he'd have taken.

Finally, he'd exited the star and broken through a Temporal Barrier and left his Temporal Frame, which left him here.

Where was here?

Anton looked around and found himself standing on nothing with nothing visible as far as he could see in any direction. The area was illuminated with a soft glow, though there was no visible light source. It seemed to be coming from everywhere.

Suddenly, a dot appeared on what he assumed was a horizon of sorts that grew bigger as it grew closer. As the dot grew, Anton could see features that reminded him of a medieval castle, like something he'd see in a Disney cartoon. As it drew closer, Anton realized that it was pretty large and surrounded by a wall with buildings inside it. In fact, inside the wall, he could see typical buildings with people walking around normally, while the area right outside the wall was empty.

The Castle slowed and came to a stop with an open gate ten feet in front of him. If that wasn't an invitation, he didn't know what was. Anton took a step towards the opening, and another prompt appeared.

Non-SYSTEM Message.

You are about to enter the Kingdom of Altaire.

If you have no idea where you are and came here by accident, make your way to the first door on your left.

If you are returning, Welcome Back.

Combat is forbidden within Altaire. Violators will be sanctioned.

Note: If you have not noticed yet, normal SYSTEM connectivity is not available in this location. You may access your Status normally, but you will not be able to access your SYSTEM.

Anton read the notifications and closed them. He stepped through the gate and walked forward to the first building on his left and stepped through the door.

A short woman with gray hair walked out through an olive-green curtain and smiled, "Welcome, Welcome. I am Susan, the owner of this establishment. Are you new to Altaire?"

Anton shrugged, "I am. My name's Anton. I'm not even sure how I arrived here?"

"Well, let me have a look at you," the woman said, her eyes glowing gold as she looked over Anton. "I see. Well, it's a good thing you did whatever you did to get here because I'm sure one of the Guardians would have come looking for you at some point to figure out why the temporal stamp the SYSTEM places on you varies so much. You were born in the 9th Iteration, but now you're in the 10th. You've just traveled back in time approximately 14 billion years to do whatever was necessary to get here. Care to explain?"

"Is it required?" Anton asked

"I am a Guardian. If you tell me, I can keep the other Guardians from coming and looking for you," Susan said.

Anton looked skeptical as he asked, "While I have my idea about what this place is, how about you tell me that first, and what you're a Guardian of exactly?" Anton asked.

Susan smiled, "Altaire is the personal domain of one of the True immortals and also a refuge for the Guardians of Time. You could say it's our home away from home. The area outside Altaire is a representation of a place outside of time. Though that is technically not accurate, as time in some form exists almost everywhere."

Anton nodded before he asked another question, "How exactly are you guarding time?"

"We prevent other entities from causing multiple issues through paradoxes and similar problems. Let me ask you this: Do you know what iterations are?

"The gaps of time between when various multiverses begin and end," Anton said.

"And why do you think there are iterations?" Susan asked.

"Entropy states…"

"Bah, entropy is a joke. Nothing truly ends; it just changes form. No, the Iterations are points where we can correct a significant temporal mistake and start fresh. The 9th iteration being finished off by he who we do not speak about as it was, makes doing so for that iteration a bit more complicated. Still, the problems going on in the 10th Iteration are making it a prime candidate for a reset."

"That's not because of me, is it?"

"I don't know, you haven't told me what happened to you and why you are in the 10th iteration when you're temporal signature clearly defines you as being from the 9th Iteration."

"Very well…" Anton said and then laid out everything that had happened to him so far. How he thought he had been targeted and been thrown forward into the future. He concluded by explaining what had happened to him and allowed him to make his way back to the point right before he ended up here.

Susan listened attentively to Anton for almost two hours as he told his tale. While he'd been talking, she'd walked him to a table at the back and provided a picture of juice and water. So, he took his time, sipped on juice, and then water as he told her his tale. When he was done, Susan asked, "How did you get here, then? "

Anton smiled sheepishly, "Well, I ended up in a tight spot surrounded by enemies. Instead of trying to cast Time Stop around me, I decided to speed myself up and run away.

"What factor did you increase time by?"

"As fast as I could at Mythic Rank," Anton answered truthfully

"And then you moved at your highest movement rate to get away?" Susan said thoughtfully, before she asked, "How fast is that?"

Anton opened his Status and checked. He hadn't looked at it since he picked up all those levels. "Let me see, it says here about 2.8 billion miles per hour."

"How fast is that per second?" Susan asked slowly

Anton did the calculation in his head, "Right around 776,765 miles per second.

"So, you attempted to move as fast as you could, which was already 4.1 times the speed of light while accelerating your personal time frame by 100 million times?"

Anton's eyes went wide as he thought about what she'd said. He was about to say something when Susan flickered. He was sure most people wouldn't have noticed, but he did, "Where did you go?"

"Saw that did you?" Susan asked with a raised eyebrow.

Anton just stared back.

"Fine," Susan said as she waved her hand, and an image of a forested area with a small city built up in it appeared on a holographic monitor. One moment it was there; the next, the point of view was falling up and away from the planet when an explosion erupted, launching at least 10% of the planet's spherical volume into space.

Anton watched until the image disappeared before he asked, "What was that?"

"Effectively, that was a warp bomb going off at ground level on a planet. That was also happening to the Star you plowed through. That is what would have happened if I had not intervened just now. Also, that is where you crossed the threshold and left your temporal frame to enter this realm."

"I did that?"

"You did, though, now it didn't happen. I countered the explosion at the point where you disappeared and had a friend repair the star. To everyone on the planet, there was a flash of light, and you were gone. To those who saw the star, that's a little less believable, but the star is stable, so I'm pretty sure they're not going to care."

"What if I wanted them all to die?"

"Then kill them, just don't take out half of a planet or a solar system when you do so."

Anton cocked his head to the side as he considered what she'd said. Then he wondered why people cocked their heads to the side. A moment later, he shook his head, bringing his thoughts back to the moment at hand, and smiled before he answered her, "That's Fair. Can I ask a question?"

"Of course," Susan said.

"Why are you being so accommodating and helping correct something I did. I would figure you'd take out the trash, so to speak. Me being the trash in this example, of course." Anton said.

I will grant that keeping you around is a bit of an issue. Do you know what's more of an issue, though?

Anton looked at Susan with complete bewilderment on his face, "I have no idea."

"I'll tell you what. Doing is always better than telling. As one of the Guardians of Time, I can reset everything back to any point since the first Multiverse Sparked into existence. Going back before that point is pointless. Also, we're not going that far back. While I went off to fix the issues you'd created with your movement into this Realm, I also checked over your life."

"Why?" Anton asked nervously.

"As I said, doing is better than showing. This will feel a little weird," Susan said.

A golden field wrapped around Anton as everything vanished around him, and he found himself in that chamber under Antarctica.

"Anton, what are you doing!" Beth called as she started rushing back toward him.

Anton no longer felt like he was in control of his hand as it reached down and touched the word "Mental," which also became highlighted, and the humming increased again. Anton looked over to the light that was bobbing up and down from the direction Beth was coming from, when a sheet of blackness descended around him, which cut off all light and sound further than ten feet out from the pillar. The floor still glowed blue…

Wait, this is wrong

Paradox Protocol Initiated.

Anton reappeared back inside the golden sphere of energy he'd been surrounded by as Susan lowered her hand.

"I can't accidentally create paradoxes, nor can I be used to create a paradox. How fun!" Anton said excitedly

"And since removing your memories and starting over is no longer possible, the 9th Iteration just became a fixed point within your Multiverse. Although while you were out, we did test to see if we can affect others, and it seems that the effect is localized to you and a few others."

"So, what happens now?" Anton asked.

"Now, you are given an introductory course on time travel and things to avoid, rest up, and then we send you back to Terra so you can visit with family before you head off to do whatever it is you want to do.

"What about that invasion force…"

Susan chuckled, "It would seem that your accidental trip through their Sun is causing them to re-evaluate their need to cross into your Multiverse. We're sure they'll do something stupid again, but that's a future Anton Problem. Right now, with what you told me, you need to come to terms with your new spell-casting abilities, and a visit with family will do you good. I did track you down and check on you in the future. Take a break, spend some time with family, and don't upset the status quo on Terra. You are far too powerful for that location.

***

Susan watched as Anton stepped through a portal to Death's inner sanctum on Terra. A woman with fiery red hair appeared beside her. Susan looked at her, "Pandora, are you sure we shouldn't have told him?"

"You know the mandate set forth by the Council, and they sure as hell don't want my father to take an interest in this group. Also, remember, I am just one replicant of many. If we keep things from going crazy, Dad keeps on doing whatever he's doing.

"Doesn't it get confusing for you?" Susan asked.

"Receiving information from multiple Temporal Frames at the same time as my Replicants report in?"

"Yes," Susan said.

"Nah, Dad showed me a trick or two. My conscious mind doesn't process the information until and unless I'm about to interact with a specific Temporal Frame. Also, things being chaotic around me and in my mind is my nature. It's one of the reasons I can act as a liaison between dad and the council.

"And you're not going to do anything about the spy that is even now taking the information back to her Queen."

"Did she break any of the council's rules?"

"No, the information is being taken back to her queen after her arrival here and only concerns information she gathered from now and before she left, so no possibility of a paradox occurring from her actions is possible. But we know what those actions will put into motion?" Susan pointed out.

"That's the thing about Choice; everyone must make their own."

"And the Consequences," Susan asked, obviously not happy about the choice being made.

"There will be Consequences. Now, since you are done seeing to his training, what will you do now?"

"Act as a Guardian. Hopefully, the training we gave Anton will help him not blatantly break the Temporal rules the Council abides by."

"Not that it would matter in his case," the Pandora pointed out.

"Not that it would matter," Susan agreed.