Heretical Edge

I was riding through the jungle on a dinosaur.

I was standing in a field, watching a crowd of medieval knights ride toward me.

I was racing through Victorian London in my lion form.

I was trudging through a seemingly endless desert on my way toward a pyramid.

I was moving through a snowstorm in the middle of a narrow canyon.

I was leading my friends on a tour of the Roundabout.

I was fighting for my life in a forest against… Sariel?

I was sliding down a steep incline with teeth nipping at my back, hang gliding off the side of a mountain, clinging to the top of a car as it sped through the busy Moscow streets, talking as Jacob to a group of Japanese peasant children with a couple samurai watching us.

All those memories and more rushed through my mind at once. I was in all of those places, doing all those things and experiencing all of it at the same time I heard it all, felt it all, thought everything I had thought in those moments. I was every one of those Flicks all put together.

I went through all of that, everything I had experienced at all of those rifts in the span of just a few seconds. Everything hit me at once, like a train slamming through my brain. Oh, and I also remembered the actual monster trains that were now living inside my new expanded Archive. Not to mention the other lost and misshapen figures put together by Charles Lechmere, the real Jack the Ripper. I remembered Bezique, Daffy the young Original Fomorian, and the piece of shit, Wreth.

I remembered Avalon becoming the new Phoenix-bonded. I remembered finding out what Invidia had done to one of my other selves, and about Invidia-Charmeine possessing Joseph Bell, who was actually the knight, Bedivere (and also bonded to me) Marian being not only my apprentice but also being fused with one of the Flique and being a descendant of Chadwick.

I remembered making one of the worst mistakes of my life when I failed to give Sariel a chance to talk to me back in Egypt, taking away her chance to help her mother. And I remembered apologizing for that in Salem. I remembered the living, sapient ship that had escaped Tartarus.

Then there was the vacation. Not a rift, just a real, genuine vacation. One of my other selves, one of the versions of myself that had been split up by the Ankou and spread through time had actually been sent to the Roundabout along with so many of my friends and family, who appeared after their respective rifts were done with. We were there for four months. Four full months of no real pressure, no dramatic fights or impossible decisions. Just four months of resting, training with Avalon and the others, practicing, living, teaching, planning and being a real person for once.

I had so many thoughts, so many memories, so many wonderful, horrible, amusing, terrifying, and disgusting memories. I felt all of that hit me, staggering backwards. It wasn't until I was well on my way to tripping and falling over my own feet that I even consciously realized I was standing at all. I had been so busy absorbing all those memories that I didn't actually understand that I was standing in my physical body somewhere until I felt the rush of air as I fell backwards.

Hands quickly and easily caught me, keeping me from hitting the ground before giving me a gentle push back up to my feet. "Whoa there, Flick! It was a rush going through that rift, huh?"

My eyes, which had reflexively closed, opened to find Percy grinning at me, her white hair being blown gently in the breeze as a red sky with orange lightning dancing across it flared behind her.

Before I could even start to respond, as all those memories were still rushing through my mind, another face pushed its way into view. Or rather, three faces. Cerberus, making uncertain and worried puppy noises, pushed his way in with all of his heads and started licking me anxiously. Eurso, the armored raptor, was right behind him, sniffing me anxiously.

Gasping at the feel of cold metal tongues and a scaly nose, I reeled and laughed. "I'm okay, I'm alright, it's fine, I swear, I'm good!" My hands rose to first embrace all four heads together, then give them both a little push back so I could look down at myself and take stock. I was okay, right? Well, physically I was far more than okay. I was stronger than I'd ever been. That much was clear just from how easy it was to push Cerberus and Eurso away. Not that they really would've tried to resist me that much, but still. The two of them were definitely easier to push back. I had absorbed plenty of strength increases in all those rifts.

And that definitely wasn't the only power I had gained through all that. Not in the least. But I was going to have to take stock of that later. I had already wasted too much time taking in the memories of what had happened throughout my scattered quest. And I sure as hell hadn't even started to deal with the emotions of all that. I was going to need more time to process everything, but I was pretty sure this was the absolute wrong place and time for that.

Slowly turning my head, I took in what was around us and immediately confirmed that. The red sky and orange lightning had been a hint, of course, but still. We weren't on Earth. The land was some sort of cracked, hard rock desert with purple and black sagebrush that looked very sharp. Ahead and slightly below was a walled city, the architecture looked like something like what you might see in ancient Rome, except made out of bright purple and gold metal, with enough clear technology involved to make it more like ancient Rome mixed with some sort of sci-fi place. The buildings were linked by covered bridges, and there were beautiful fountains and statues all over the city. The statues were a mix of warriors and obvious academics, and looked like they had been constructed centuries earlier but were beloved and very well-maintained. There were baskets full of tributes near them, both of the precious gem and fresh fruit and vegetable variety.

We were here. After all of that, we'd made it. This was the Fomorian homeworld, or at least what had become their homeworld after Jazz, Theia, and I stopped Wreth and sent the survivors through that rift to start their new lives. They had made it to this world, and lived here for thousands of years by this point. They had created a whole new civilization. One that I had been unable to warn them would come crashing down around them thanks to yet another dictator who ruined their people and led them to an unimaginable fate with a monster who was even worse. The guilt of that, of not being able to warn them or do anything that would alter the timeline, was also right there along with all my memories of that whole thing. The pain was raw and very real.

Oh yeah, and speaking of what had happened back then, there was one statue in particular that stood right in what looked like the very center of the city, surrounded by all the other buildings and facing what looked like their palace in an obvious position of real reverence. This statue wasn't like the others for a couple reasons. First, because it was just over twice as tall as them, and seemed to be carved out of beautiful white marble rather than metal. And second, because it wasn't a statue of a Fomorian. No, this was a statue of a human being, or at least someone who had been human up until very recently. Yeah, I was looking at a statue of myself, standing in the center of this Fomorian city in a way that made it absolutely clear how important it was.

It wasn't even a statue of my Jacob self. It was me, Flick, Felicity. It was a statue of me as myself, just standing in the center of that Fomorian city in front of their most important building, surrounded by baskets and crates full of tributes. As if I didn't already have enough to process as it was.

"Oooh, Flick!" That was Percy again, looking the same way I'd been staring. "I didn't know you already came here! You should've told us, it would've made the whole trip much easier to plan."

My mouth opened to reply, but another voice interrupted. "Yes, maybe you should have said that much." It was Mekkta, the black human woman who was one of Ehn's lieutenants or whatever. Or had been one of Ehn's lieutenants, right up until he… uhh, right. Not that she knew any of that yet. She was just standing there in that casual clothing. Red pants, gray, white, and black flannel shirt, bare feet. Her long, elaborate braids bounced a little as she turned to look very pointedly at the statue in the distance, then turned back to me with a raised eyebrow. "Well, anything you'd like to say?"

I could've done a lot of things right then. The list of things I needed to do, needed to say, wasn't exactly short. Especially considering the statue we were staring at. There was a lot to get into. But the only thing I could do right then was swallow hard before lunging forward to wrap my arms around Persephone. I hugged her tight. All of that, everything that had happened at all the rifts that I now had filling my mind were… a lot to cope with. Almost more than I could cope with, to be honest. The only thing keeping me from being completely overwhelmed and broken from taking in all that stress was that vacation. I felt that too, I remembered those four months of having a real break. It helped.

Stolen novel; please report.

Yet even with that break, I couldn't help the rush of overwhelming emotions. It felt like forever since I had seen Percy, after she had become so important for so long as the main tie to my real life back in the future. She had helped me hang onto who I was, had been right there with me through all that. And the last thing I'd been told about her was that she was going through that first rift full of dragon-energy to the Fomorian homeworld, with Ehn basically exploding around her to… yeah. It was a lot, and sure I'd been told she would be okay, but still. I was worried about her. And that worry had been magnified across all those other selves at all those rifts.

Percy seemed surprised by the hug, making a confused noise at first as she actually went a little bit stiff. As soon as I felt that, I started to pull back so I could apologize, but she returned the hug before I could. I felt her arms close around me, squeezing tightly with a bright, audible giggle. "Hello to you too, Flick! I didn't know you'd be this happy that Ehn's plan with the rift worked."

Oh boy. Those words sent a little wince through me, and I coughed before pulling back to reply, "Okay, first of all, I'm sorry I grabbed you without permission. I was-- it was a lot, I was going through a lot, I am going through a lot, but I still shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry. And second, umm…" Boy where the hell was I supposed to start? My eyes shifted toward that statue of me in the distance, taking in the whole sight once more. It didn't really help me know where to begin.

"What happened?" That was Mekkta again, though this time the woman's voice was slightly less demanding. She had clearly realized I was going through a lot right then. Her voice was still confused and anxious, but had softened somewhat. "What did we miss? Did you get here before us? Have you been here for a long time? Where is Ehn? What happened to the two of you?"

Even as my mouth opened to respond, I still didn't know how I could explain it. And then I was even further distracted as a realization struck me. No, not a realization, it was new information. The Ankou were sending me an update or something, filling my head with what I needed to know. Not all of my other selves, the ones sent to all those rifts, were actually here right now. And it wasn't just the one that had been taken by Invidia who was missing. Two other versions of myself weren't here right now, hadn't been absorbed back into me. The first was the one who had been with Sands and Sarah in the Old West. She/I (and they) had been taken by that… oh, that Cassiel person I met in Egypt. They had actually right come out of the rift there in the Old West and taken Sarah, Sands, and that version of me to help out with the whole Fomorian invasion of Desoto.

Yeah, I really didn't know why that version of myself hadn't rejoined the rest of me here yet, or how Cassiel had even gotten to that point, or… any of that. But I assumed it would come up later. Meanwhile, the other version of myself who hadn't come back was… the one who was at the World War 1 rift with Columbus and Koren. That one had been forced to use a rift that was tampered with by Invidia, a rift that sent her--me all the way back to around 2500 BC and left her-me there. That version of me could… could never actually reform with the rest. The rift had seen to that. She was separated from the rest of me forever, and forced to live through all those years. No shortcuts, no time travel, no way to cheat. She just had to live out all those centuries.

Well, that was a lot to take in. All of this was, and just as I started to process, Mekkta put her hand on my arm. It wasn't violent or anything (given how strong she was, the woman could've ripped my arm off entirely about as casually as I could snap a toothpick if she wanted to), she was just getting my attention again. "Chambers, what--" Her words were interrupted then, as more of that lightning filled the sky just ahead of us. No, wait, not lightning. That was cannonfire being sent from some ship that flew down out of the clouds. It was heading right for the city, two more lances of orange lightning shooting out of it to collide with a tower there, annihilating it and sending a shower of debris in every direction that took out more buildings nearby. From here, we could see small figures fleeing out into the streets and across what remained of the bridges connecting that debris to more buildings that were a little more intact. For the moment, at least.

The city was on fire. More of those ships were coming out of clouds or even flying up off the ground. Some were shooting at one another, only to abruptly stop and turn their cannons on the city, presumably as the people inside were taken over. Far in the distance, I saw more ships getting smaller as they flew away, presumably to other cities. Even as we stood there, one of the ships nearest us came to a hovering stop and five figures dropped out of it. They fell straight down to intercept a crowd that was trying to flee out of the city. I could already hear the screams.

Within a few seconds, half of those people were down, unmoving. The rest had tried to scatter but were already being caught and dragged back. They weren't being killed. Of course not. Cronus wanted them alive so he could shove more of those Seosten minds he stole into their bodies. That's what this was, what all of this was. He was taking over the planet, and every Original Fomorian body he managed to infest with one of his stolen, corrupted minds would be another piece of his army. An army that was growing exponentially, and would eventually take over the entire world. And from there that army would expand across the universe, killing every living thing it reached while harvesting the biological material to create an even bigger army. And so on and so on.

My head shook sharply. We weren't here to stand in place. Clearly we'd arrived right in the middle of the invasion, an invasion we couldn't do anything to stop. But maybe we could still help some of these people. After all, the whole reason Ehn had wanted to come here was to pick up one of those Fomorians. A goal that Odysseus had added to by insisting we try to pick up at least one of each of their three biological sexes so we could give their species a chance.

Snapping my gaze over to Mekkta as her gaze flicked between me and the scenes around us, I spoke sharply and quickly, trying to make it clear there wasn't time for discussion. "Ehn's gone. He's gone. I'll explain later, but right now, we have a chance to do what we came here for. We can grab some of those people and get them through the rift. Not just three, as many as we can get. Then we go back through and make sure it closes before Cronus or any of his people can go through it."

For a second, I wasn't sure how Mekkta would react. After all, I had just told her Ehn was gone and didn't give any sort of clarification or explanation beyond claiming that I would talk more about it later. I was kind of asking her to put up with quite a bit on faith here, considering we had just met and she didn't actually know me. Her eyes shifted from me to Percy, then to Cerberus before finally dropping to look at the invasion still going on. Another half-second passed before she spoke. "Okay. But you will explain what you mean and where he is. We can go save them."

"Actually, we are going to get them," I corrected. "I need you to stay here and guard the rift. If we don't get the living Fomorians, it'll be bad. If Cronus or any of those monsters of his get through to Earth, it'll be the end of the universe. You're strong. Stay here and make sure that doesn't happen." Boy, was I pushing things right now by thinking that I could tell her what to do or what?

"There's a lot going on down there," the woman reminded me easily, keeping any annoyance she might've had about me taking charge completely out of her voice. "This is literally the end of this entire civilization now. Are you sure you four are enough to get those people back here?"

"We won't let Flick fail," Percy immediately declared, standing up straighter. "Right, boys?"

All three of Ceberus's heads gave a firm nod, followed by a quick chorus of barks. Then his tail wagged as he looked over at me with one head, to Percy with the second, and to Mekkta with the third. I had the feeling he was waiting to see if any of us would offer him treats for being such a good boy. Obviously, Percy did just that, holding out a palm full of metal balls for him to scarf down. Eurso, meanwhile, puffed himself up and made a show of growling at the ships flying overhead, only to take a little sidestep toward me for protection when one looked like it might be coming a bit closer.

"We could do it by ourselves if we had to," I agreed, "but we don't. Give me a second here." With that, I closed my eyes, trying to tune out the fact that Fomorians were being taken prisoner with every passing second. They weren't dying. That was the only tiny bit of solace I had for taking this extra time. Cronus's abominations were very specifically taking those people prisoner so they could be infested. We could still save some of them before it was too late, maybe, hopefully.

With that thought bouncing through my head, I was suddenly elsewhere. I was in my Archive, standing right there on the Flique island. As soon as I appeared, arms were suddenly wrapped around me. Tabbris. She hugged me tight. "Flick! Hi, you made it! I mean, we all made it!"

Returning the embrace, I glanced up to see Miranda there, right next to Bezique, the tiny harpy-like Batty-Fang we'd met back in 1890's London. The three of them had insisted on riding through the rift inside my Archive, and it looked like it had worked. They were right here.

And they weren't alone. Well, obviously not, with the Flique here. But there were also all those other creatures Lechmere had made. They were here too. Standing all along the beach around me as I held Tabbris in a tight hug were Miranda, Bezique, various members of the Flique itself, and an assortment of patchwork Frankenstein-like creatures put together from dozens of species. All of them staring expectantly at me.

Oh yeah, and one more being who wasn't human, Seosten, or Patchwork. Daffy was there. The little kid Fomorian, wearing the Rangers cap that Theia had given him, was right on the other side of Miranda, holding her hand. He'd been by my side as we went through the rift back in dinosaur land, but apparently coming through it had put him here, in the Archive.

"Hey guys," I started slowly, looking around at all of them. "I hate to say it after everything you've already done, but I really need your help right now.

"We're gonna save as many Fomorians as we can."