Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A sprawling field of grass spread as far as the eye could see. In the distance, the towering spires of a prospering kingdom stood tall; their golden glory shining against the setting sun. From what the eye could see, glamorous black fencing marked the way into the magnificent city, roads paved with brown brick, people buzzing back and forth like little ants bringing food to their queen. The more eye-catching feature, however, was the high crumbling stone walls behind the glorious palace. Blue lettering and intwined shapes lining the walls, a foreboding glow to contrast the dismal stone.

Way too far away, in their opinion, a group of four was continuing their trek toward the massive structures.

“This is bullshit,” Zeke, the blue haired operator who was currently in the back of their group, complained for the fifth time in the last hour. “I mean, why would the commander drop us off this far from Agwin?” Idly, he wondered if this was his boss’s screwed way of saying they were unfit, implying they all relied on their powers too much and needed some exercise to humble themselves.

“Zeke,” Rein groaned, grateful for her short hair as the humid air made their clothes stick to their skin. The girl pulled at her shirt, fanning her face as sweat dripped uncomfortably down her chest. “Whatever reason our commander had for sending us so far away from Agwin, I’m sure it was a good one.”

“Ever so loyal to the commander,” Zeke chided, but said no more. An odd behavior for sure, but a testament to how miserable he was at the moment, the situation making even the most annoying member of the group stay his tongue.

Leading the group, the scribe and seer kept quiet, not so odd considering their personalities. Though for the seer, this was more so caused by an act of petulance. Upon arrival, he’d taken the chance for a quick vision, a lesser version of his powers that wouldn’t result in pain, nor start the clock for his inescapable death. There was a sobering lack of a certain blue-haired traveler, he’d noted, and Rei had been silent ever since.

Ventus sighed, brushing the twin strands of hair framing his face behind his ear, his mismatched eyes scanning the horizon for some way to get to their destination faster. “What’s with the commander and these imperial-esq universes? I feel like every universe we visit is run by a monarchy or some emperor of a sort.”

Rei, being the closest to the scribe and the one the question was posed to, gave a noncommittal hum. Truly, he didn’t care, he rather liked seeing the inner workings of royal families, and he understood his commander’s obsession with the concept. It wouldn’t surprise him if she had been a queen in her original universe, though from both his powers and his close relationship with the woman, he knew that had not been the case.

He also knew that the reason they had been dropped so far from The Kingdom of Agwin, was to stall and give the “director” time to send his travelers to this universe as well. The commander had a shrewd sense of humor, Rei would give her that, she liked to spawn chaos and figured giving the enemy a head start would be fun. Of course, that meant her operators had to walk several miles to get to their mission, but that was part of her fun as well.

“Rei,” Zeke called from the back, his pace had slowed even more, the blue haired operator not seeming to realize this just made their little venture all the bit longer. “Can you see how much longer we have?”

“The commander said not to use our powers.” While it was a true statement, Rei was also still just being petty. Technically, that was a lesser power that Ventus held, not Rei, but Ventus looked up to Rei like he was a higher being and wouldn’t butt into Rei’s small moment of indignation.

Zeke groaned, letting his head fall forward and glaring at every blade of grass they passed by.

“Shall we go over our mission again,” Rein suggested, “maybe talking about it would give our minds something else to think about, aside from our aching feet of course.”

“My feet aren’t aching.”

“No one asked you Ventus.”

Rolling his eyes, tired of listening to the endless arguing from his comrades, Rei led the charge at starting the conversation. “The commander wants both Agwin and Wellston to fall—”

“What does the commander have against Wellston?” Zeke interrupted.

“Something to do with a doctor, I don’t quite remember,” Rein answered with a shrug.

“Anyway,” Rei drawled, his tone indicating the annoyance the seer felt at being interrupted and both Rein and Zeke flushed before falling silent. “Wellston—and I am referring to this universe—apparently treated themselves as the divine, setting Agwin beneath them and you know how the director feels about that.”

Rein and Zeke, still embarrassed from being chastised, gave quiet nods, though Rei knew that they had just as much understanding of the situation as he did.

Ventus, the scribe, and being the one with the most knowledge of the universe aside from Rei, picked up where the seer left off. “However, after Wellston fell, Agwin assumed the exact attitude that Wellston had, treating the citizens of the fallen kingdom like trash.” The scribe shook his head, his tucked away strands of hair falling onto his face again and causing the boy to scowl. “Rei, do you have a hair tie?”

An ever helpful, older brother figure, Rei pulled a soft fabric band from his wrist and mutely handed it to the boy who mumbled his thanks.

“Essentially, both sides are trash.” Zeke huffed a laugh, amused by his own assessment. Then, in a sudden change of attitude, strode past Rein to the side of Rei and tossed his hands behind his head. “This should be easy, we just need to sow some discord between the two kingdoms, and boom! They fight each other, and we conveniently step in so they both lose.”

Not a bad plan, certainly one that had worked for Zeke before, he was his commander’s most trusted operator when it came to total destruction. Rein on the other hand, was revered for her cool head and ability to think straight even when victory was supposedly thrown in their hands. The girl grabbed the back of Zeke’s neck, pulling the yelping boy back to her side before releasing him.

“We have to be smart about this Zeke. Unlike those two—” she jerked her head toward Rei and Ventus who walked ahead unbothered— “we actually exist in this universe, remember?” The blue hair operator took a second to think, a rare occasion only the other three were privy to, but his jaw dropped slightly open. “Yeah,” Rein clicked her tongue before roughly pushing Zeke away from her.

“What role are we to assume again?” Zeke’s question was posed to Rei, but Ventus answered.

“You and Rein are ambassadors for Agwin, you’ve supposedly been on official business in another kingdom. Um…”

“Grasshill,” Rei supplied when Ventus floundered.

“Right, but now you’ve returned and are to conduct business as usual.”

“You two have an advantage because you will already been in the know of Agwin’s inner workings, and you have easy access to more information because the royal family trusts you,” Rei prattled off the brief information he’d received from his vision earlier. Acquiring and documenting information about the universe was technically Ventus’s job, Rei would just help when needed. “Ventus and I will be going to Wellston; we’re working with a blank slate essentially.”

Rein nodded, her eyes trailing to the smaller white marks covering the tips of Rei and Ventus’s fingers, so similar to the winding elegant runes decorating their upper arms, currently hidden by their lesser powers so as to not create suspicion. Every once in a while, she envied their scribe and seer, they were tremendously powerful, though she knew that power came at a great cost.

A quiet lapsed over their group, exhaustion making them loath to talk anymore, and they were busy mulling over what actions they would have to take once they reached the destination.

They would split paths later, two of them going into the prosperous city while the other two went to desolate ruins, both groups intent on bringing their kingdom of choice to the ground.

Chapter Text

At least this time, he hadn’t been dropped in the middle of a battlefield. Though it seemed the director took a liking to dismal, destructive imperial settings. Perhaps he was part of a royal family in his real life, though John doubted it—if anything, the director had probably been a courier for a royal family, that’s all.

John wasn’t sure how he felt about this version of Wellston, towering gray walls spanned the skyline, all the traveler could see for a while. There were jagged carvings decorating the crumbling stone, though from his position, craning his neck uncomfortably toward the sky, he couldn’t make out what the carvings displayed.

In the back of his mind, John remembered the director explaining what the carvings in the walls were, though poor memory had caused him to forget. That, and the excitement upon walking into this universe, and immediately being greeted by the sight of his two best friends. Alive and well, for that matter.

John had initially stayed quiet, due to the fact that he appeared in this universe during the act of sneaking, Arlo and Seraphina ducking behind a corner before shushing John when he opened his mouth. Traveling between space and time was always disorienting, it gave him a good excuse for his brief abstraction, he was first focused on collecting his bearings and then thinking back on his mission briefing.

Seraphina crooked a finger forward, a hidden set of feet passing by them before the trio moved. They were trailing along one of the stone walls, stepping over broken and weathered pieces of rock that had fallen from the mighty walls. Idly, John wondered if the breaking of the walls was caused by the shapes carved into them, but that was a thought for another day.

“Hey Arlo,” John chanced a small conversation, but the blonde turned sharply and clapped a hand over the traveler’s mouth. His eyes narrowed in quiet remonstration, as he held a finger to his own lips. John watched as a shadow passed them, paused in sudden alertness, then continued on after an exceedingly long moment passed. He let out a heavier breath than intended when Arlo removed his hand, shaking his head at the raven-haired boy before roughly tugging him along with an arm.

‘What the hell are we looking for?’ John wondered, wishing his post universal travel headache would disappear so he could remember his damn mission…aside from defeat the enemy of course.

Their steps were near silent, helped by their very apparent lack of shoes, the soles of John’s feet ached with every rock that pressed into his flesh. Even the rustle of Seraphina’s cloak, a short, snipped thing that ended at her hips didn’t make much noise. John rubbed at his nose, cringing at the dirt and grime that covered his skin, something that definitely hadn’t been there before he’d come to the universe.

John huffed, if they were going to travel in silence, he might as well take the time to remember his director’s words, more of a warning than a mission brief, but that was expected now.

~

“You will be entering this universe as a preexisting version of yourself,” the director began, an uncomfortable subject in John’s opinion. He had never liked the idea of technically taking over the life of another version of himself, as convoluted as that was. As a traveler, it wasn’t uncommon to be sent to a universe that he already existed in. When he had spent a long night in the longue mulling over this concept, Leilah had explained it in the simplest terms possible.

It was essentially like overwriting a save file in a game, she was speaking John’s language, he would give her that. The traveler John would replace that universe’s John, and he would gain all memories and knowledge that the previous host had acquired. When John asked what happened when he departed, Leilah shrugged.

“I don’t know, as long as the universe doesn’t collapse, then everything went well, right?”

Not the most reassuring sentence, given the fact that John then spent another hour sitting in the longue pondering what happened to a universe after a traveler left. John had once explained to Arlo the process that a traveler underwent; go in, complete the mission, and leave. His friend of course questioned if everyone would simply forget him; if it would be like he never existed. John hated that he hadn’t been able to give an answer either, something for him to chew on he supposed.

“Director,” John broached the subject now that it was on his mind. “What exactly would cause a universe to collapse?” The director leaned back, clearly not expecting the question, and gestured for the traveler to continue. “Zirian once said it would collapse if you exposed your identity to someone from that universe.”

John bit his lip, unsure whether he would get lectured for revealing what he said next. “I’ve admittedly told Arlo and Seraphina several times that I wasn’t from their universe, outright told them I traveled between them too.”

“While that won’t cause a universe to collapse, I don’t recommend you continue doing that John.”

“Noted.”

“Revealing your identity won’t cause the universe to collapse, revealing your mission will.”

John winced; he had done that a multitude of times too. Hell, he had done that in the previous universe, sort of, telling Arlo that he and Kuyo were there to cure the imperial city could’ve been taken as them just being really good people. For the sake of his mental health, he shook away any other thoughts of the imperial city, the idea that he caused the universe to collapse being too much for him.

The director shook his head, raising his hands in a way that suggested John stop thinking for a moment and listen to what he had to say. “The threads of these universes are very flexible, John, sturdy too. It takes more than ‘my mission is to save you’ to snap those threads. Rest assured; you haven’t caused the destruction of any universes.” John breathed a sigh of relief; he hoped it hadn’t been too obvious.

The man laced his fingers together, mulling over his words before he continued. “It is a very complicated thing to explain John, forgive me for my shortcomings.” John waved a hand to dismiss the comment, he never thought less of his director, except when it came to the missions Kuyo was sent on, but that was irrelevant at the moment.

“You can tell someone you’re there to save them, but if in doing so, you prevent the thing that you had to save them from, you’ve changed history and therefore altered the outcome of the universe.”

A heavy dread sat on John’s chest, the kind that only came from existential thoughts of death and knowing that one’s actions could hold such heavy consequences.

“But we’re getting off topic aren’t we?”

John nodded, the conversation leaving a sour taste in his mouth.

The director grunted, the awkward atmosphere seeming to affect him as well before he began again. “This version of you lives in the fallen kingdom of Wellston—yes, the commander of the Paradox Agency has beef against Wellston—where you and the civilians have abilities, but they’re currently blocked by runes the people of Agwin have embedded in your skin.

“Your mission is to stop the paradox agency from taking advantage of the tension between the two kingdoms to destroy them. My hope is that you, and your comrades in this universe, will be able to restore power to Wellston and bridge the gap between them and Agwin.”

So, not hard at all.

~

“John, now’s not the time to be zoning out.”

Arlo’s harsh gripe drew the traveler back to attention, John hunkering down to join the others as they continued their way along the wall. A large set of doors, surely beautiful in their prime but moldy and covered in grime now, were ever so slightly open to allow large guarded caravans in and out of the walls. The carts were dome shaped, covered with a white drape that covered their contents. In front, behind, and on either side of each cart were four soldiers dressed in royal armor with brown capes hanging from their necks.

‘Agwin,’ John thought to himself, taking in the royal crest embroidered into the cape, nothing he had ever seen in his original universe. “Hey,” he whispered, ignoring the stares he got from Seraphina and Arlo, “what are those?”

The blonde scoffed, shaking his head as he pinched his nose. Seraphina’s reaction arguably hurt more, she stared at him, eyes blank and mouth curved downward in disappointment. “That’s where we’ll be if you keep talking John, getting escorted back into the walls before we’ve even made it out.”

John’s lips pinched closed, as much as he wanted to acquire more information, his pride and dignity couldn’t take another death stare from either of his friends again.

They continued to creep along the walls, stopping in their tracks when someone would walk past, John noting that the people they were hiding from were dressed just as poorly as they were. ‘We’re hiding from other Wellston dwellers?’ From what he had gathered, Agwin had conquered Wellston in some way, and the directors debrief told him they had found a way to seal off the people of Wellston’s powers. ‘Can we use them outside the walls?’ John wondered, the absent hum of power beneath his skin was unnerving, it was too similar to when he’d been stripped of his ability in his original universe.

“Almost there,” he heard Arlo mutter as they moved closer to the door. John still wasn’t sure what they were doing, all he knew was that they were about to sneak out of Wellston and apparently the other citizens weren’t allowed to know that. Though Arlo and Sera’s shoulders were raised, their entire bodies poised to run, there was no tension in John’s body. ‘I’m just along for the ride I guess.’ Continuing to go through with the motions, John followed Seraphina and Arlo’s actions as they crouched through the tall grass closest to the wall, moving with the wind so that the green blades seemed like they were moving naturally.

‘It’s almost too easy to sneak out of here,’ John thought as they inched closer to the open door. ‘Surely people escape all the time if such a route exists.’

The trio abruptly stopped, John nearly slamming into Arlo’s back had he not got himself in time. Seraphina held a finger to her mouth, gesturing to one of the carts with her free hand, John and Arlo’s gazes following her movement to an unguarded stack of baskets shoved up against the large stone doors. John hummed, “what’s in the baskets?”

“John, did you hit your head or something?” Arlo asked, cold blue eyes narrowed while his lips curled. “Food, obviously.”

Seraphina looked between the two boys before sighing, shuffling closer to John so that she was now in between him and the blonde. “Remember John, the caravans that bring back escapee’s usually sit here for a while. The guards have to make sure no one escaped on the way over and all that,” Seraphina waved a hand through the air as she explained, “the guards usually bring themselves snacks because it takes so long to get a headcount.”

Arlo scoffed, “you would think they’d bring someone with an ability to do that and make things faster.”

“Hypothetically, but then they wouldn’t leave their food unattended for us to snatch.”

John nodded absentmindedly as he took in the girl’s words, so they were there for food. Makes sense, with the dismal situation he had been dropped in, John wasn’t exactly surprised that food was hard to come by. This version of Wellston was honestly what he’d been expecting when he went to the Imperial City of Wellston, people out on the streets begging for mere grains of food or a warm blanket to survive the night.

“What do you think it’ll be this time?” Seraphina asked, her eyes locked on the baskets as the pupil dilated. “Sandwiches?”

“I was more so hoping for soup.” Arlo’s tone was more neutral, but the way he licked his lips afterward was telling enough.

John winced, he had eaten before he left for his mission, so his stomach was nice and full at the moment. “Yeah,” he chimed in just to be included, “soup would be nice.” It was somewhat chilly after all, but that could have been caused by their lack of proper clothing rather than the actual temperature outside. “Alright, let’s grab the food and go.”

Seraphina and Arlo shared a glance, but they nodded before starting their crawl to the baskets once more.

It was still too easy, John thought. Seraphina had reached the baskets, Arlo watching the guards that stood mere feet in front of them as she rummaged through the brown sacks for food they could stuff in their pockets. They couldn’t take it all, Arlo had explained, that would draw suspicion, and the guards would stop leaving their food in the open. Seraphina pulled out a couple of apples, passing them to John who shoved them in his jacket, some cheese cubes went to Arlo, a few slices of what looked like Salami ended up under Seraphina’s cloak.

“Is that all there is,” John whispered, Arlo flinching even though none of the guards looked their way. Seraphina nodded, lips pressed into a thin line, and John could have sworn he saw tears welling up in her eyes. John huffed, seemed the guards really had just packed ‘snacks’ this time, nothing of substance, they would be hungry until the next caravan came through. John didn’t know how often that was yet, but he hoped for their sanity that it was often enough that they wouldn’t go insane and try to eat each other.

With strikingly empty pockets, the trio slowly made their way back into the crumbling streets, heads down and stomachs empty.

Except for John’s, but he wasn’t going to say that.

Chapter Text

Dirt and grime covered every inch of the stone paving on the ground. A whistle flew through the air, the holes and gaps in the houses around them amplifying the noise, like a shriek of a dying animal on its last breath. John had to awkwardly pick his feet up with every step so that he didn’t trip on loose rocks, the uneven ridges protruding from the ground at awkward angles, like they had been smashed by a heavy object.

The light breeze tussled John’s hair as he looked around, ‘there’s not a soul out here,’ he thought. Not a person lingering by the houses, no children running around in the grass, no smell of cooking wafting through the open windows. Despite passing people on their way to the gates, now it was like everyone had disappeared.

The sound of their footsteps stopping brought John’s thoughts back to the present. Seraphina had veered off the road, Arlo sticking by John’s side, and pulled some slices of salami and a piece of bread from her cloak.

“Where’d she get the bread?”

“She had it before we left, remember?”

John bit his lip as Arlo gave him a glance from the side, he would really have to catch up on his knowledge of this universe before he made Arlo and Seraphina any more suspicious of him. Maybe he would just say that he hit his head and was having trouble putting his thoughts together. Better than having to admit he was a traveler mere minutes into this universe.

‘Let’s not do that this time, I don’t want the universe to collapse.’

Seraphina crouched down, holding the bread and salami out in front of her, and two small figures emerged from beneath a patch of leaves and grass. John sucked in a breath, he hadn’t even seen them, how had they managed to blend in with the ground? Little scrawny figures hesitantly reached toward Seraphina, the older looking of the two taking the salami and passing it to the younger girl crouched behind who John assumed was her sister. The younger girl digging her fingers into the back of her sister’s legs and taking the meat slices with shaking hands.

“You can have the bread too,” Seraphina gently added, nudging the slice of bread toward the girl who shied away, shaking her head and turning back to the bushes. “It will keep your stomachs full for longer,” Seraphina urged, holding the bread with both hands and stretching her arms out in front of her. The bread was wholly accessible to the two young girls, easier for them to grab than it was for Seraphina to snatch it back for herself.

The older girl narrowed her eyes, looking back at her sister who was munching away at the salami before turning back to Seraphina. Slowly, she reached her hand to the bread, met eyes with Seraphina once more before quickly grabbing the bread and bringing it to her chest. Her lips mouthed the words ‘thank you’ before she and her sisters crawled back under the grass, disappearing as if they were never there in the first place.

John released a shaky breath, his heart clenching as Seraphina dusted her hands off and stood, walking back over to the boys and gesturing for them to continue. “What do we have left?” She asked, sighing as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her pants. Arlo huffed, pulling the cubes of cheese from his pockets, and prompting John to show off his apples.

“Not a lot,” the blonde lamented, “we won’t starve before the next caravan, but it won’t be pleasant.” Arlo separated the cubes in his hands, sorting them into two groups of four before splitting the cheese between Seraphina and John. “I’m not a big cheese person,” he explained when he saw John’s arched eyebrow.

‘I’m not either, but if I was starving I’m gonna eat whatever food is offered to me.’ John shook his head, taking the cheese with a muttered ‘thanks’ before passing one of the apples to Arlo. “We can split the other one between the three of us?” Seraphina nodded, pulling a pocket knife out of her cloak and waving it around before pocketing it again.

“We can do that once we get back home,” the girl stated, beginning to walk again which brought Arlo and John to follow after her. “If we sit down here and cut up the apple we’re bound to get jumped.”

John looked around, aside from the kids who had been hiding in the grass, there weren’t many other places he thought someone could hide and jump out at them. “There’s no one else here,” he pointed out as they walked, “unless a full-grown adult can hide in the bushes, then I think we’re fine.”

Arlo sighed, something he seemed to be doing a lot with John around. “They’re not going to be this close to the gates John, most of the gangs hang around the walls, no reasonable person would set up their home this close to raiders.” John kept quiet, determined to figure at least something out on his own so as to not piss Arlo off any more than he already had.

‘Wellston is clearly some sort of desolate ruin now, due to some fight with Agwin that I have yet to learn about.’ John looked up, he had a better view of the runes carved into the walls surrounding the kingdom, an odd amalgamation of circles, lines, and squares intwined together to make…something. The traveler squinted, then looked down at his palm where a similar assortment of shapes had been painting on to his skin. ‘This must be what’s locking my ability away,’ John thought, casting his eyes back up to the walls, ‘why’d they feel the need to double down?’

As they walked further into the ruined kingdom, the houses lining the streets became sturdier, there were fewer holes in the walls, though John did pass one that looked like it had exploded. Not that something exploded inside the building, but that the actual building had just decided to combust one day. ‘Interesting,’ John mused before looking away again. There were more people here as well, he noticed, small gaggles of people asking around for food, people hunched against house walls and leaning against each other for warmth.

There was a man shoving groping hands away from his moldy sandwich, a woman swaying back and forth as she muttered to herself, a child’s toy left abandoned in the middle of the road, and a young boy stood in the middle of the square with a large book in his hand, mumbling blessings and well wishes to anyone who would listen.

Numerous tall figures wearing brown capes over their armor patrolled the square, spears clenched tightly in their hands as they oversaw the people wandering around. Two guards yawned, bored by the quarrel of two young kids fighting over a large piece of bread that eventually got snatched away by an older boy. One woman laughed as a scraggly girl of the same age begged at her feet for the guard’s cape, something to cover her bare legs with.

John held his gaze at the ground, having seen enough, his eyes were beginning to burn anyway.

“We’re almost there John,” Seraphina piped up, as if she could detect his distress. The trio approached a dilapidated building, but at least the door seemed to be in place, it didn’t look like a house that had been broken into, so it was probably safe to sleep in, at least for the moment.

Seraphina paused to let Arlo pass, and the blonde roughly shouldered the door open before gesturing for John and Sera to enter. The traveler gawked—though he shouldn’t have been surprised—at the inside of the building, it was essentially empty aside from the strewn about blankets covered the hardwood floor. A small gas heater sat in the corner of the living room, a warm orange glow illuminating the small space, though it did make an unpleasant smell waft through the air. John assumed that’s what the open windows were for, not that they could change that, the windows had been broken open not propped open.

“Well,” Seraphina started, as Arlo kicked the door closed, slamming it a couple times to make sure it was stuck in place, that certainly answered how no one had broken in yet. “Now we can divvy up our apple slices and try not to think about our broken water system.”

John groaned, of all things he hadn’t considered, “we don’t have any water?”

“Nope.” Seraphina plopped down on one of the blankets, followed by Arlo and eventually John who had to drag himself over. “We we’re gonna try and do that after we found some food, but you and Arlo clearly forgot, and I was too busy thinking about my salami pieces to remember to get some water.” The girl sighed, rocking back and forth as she pulled her knife out to cut the apples. “At least apples of some kind of water in them.”

Arlo grunted, forgoing cutting the apple and biting straight into the piece of fruit with a loud crunch. The blonde hummed, a slight look of satisfaction forming on his face. “At least they’re fresh, we could have looted some solider with old apples.”

Seeing the fresh pale-yellow color of the apples, Seraphina smiled and set to cutting the apple faster, a pocketknife not really being the best tool to cut an apple with. John quietly munched on his cheese cubes, Colby Jack, not his favorite, but it was food so he wouldn’t complain. When Seraphina finished cutting the apple, also enjoying the cheese snack, she passed half of the slices to John before taking an apple slice and eating it with a sigh.

They ate in silence, the quiet cracking noise from the heater being the only sound inside the house. There were sounds outside, the sound of the strife that John had seen earlier, but he would ignore that in favor of the crunch of the apple slices.

“Hypothetically,” John mumbled around a piece of cheese, “if they did have soup, what kind would you guys want?” He mostly asked because now the sound of chewing was starting to get on his nerves, and he wanted to get to know this version of his friends. John winced; he had taken the easy friendship making from his previous travels for granted when he had gone to the Imperial City. He had no more met Seraphina and Arlo before the archmage died and the king ended up being a piece of trash, but the version of his friends sitting in front of him, this was a fresh start.

Seraphina hummed, eating her last apple slice before she answered. “Nobody likes tomato soup, I’d like something with vegetables, and chicken broth preferably.”

John blinked, ‘I like tomato soup, but more importantly, Seraphina and Arlo were awfully prissy for two people currently relying on stolen morsels of food. “I’d honestly eat anything,” he added.

“We’re aware of that John.”

“Arlo, go back to eating your apple—are you eating the core?”

“It has lots of vitamins.”

John gawked, Arlo was eating the entire apple, seeds and all. He had heard once that the core of the apple actually did hold vitamins and nutrients that were good for his body, but there was just something instinctively wrong about eating the apple core and John would not lower himself to that level.

“Well, I hear people who eat apple seeds end up growing apples inside of them—”

The house shook, dust and old paint flaking off of the ceiling as an explosion rattled their bones. John’s first though was ‘oh shit, the gas heater exploded and now we don’t have a house, I knew those things sucked.’ But upon further examination, the gas heater, and their house were still in perfect shape.

Seraphina, Arlo, and John all looked at each other, shrugged and resumed finishing the remains of their snack. Even though there were screams coming from outside, and the shouts of guards telling people to calm down, they were safe for now in their little house. Whatever had exploded, it was none of their business.

Chapter Text

Unlike the crumbling remains of Wellston, Agwin stood tall in their glory. A woman on the side of the road danced in flowing robes colored in various shades of gold. Men haggled with merchants for exotic fruits from who knows where while kids ran through street vendors giggling, their stolen goods tucked under their arms as they ran from the angry shop owners. Rein looked around as the soft breeze tussled her short hair, from afar she hadn’t realized how magnificent the royal city looked.

‘It’s a kingdom bathed in glory, that’s for sure,’ Rein mused, but she bit her lip soon after. ‘Bathed in glory that they stole from others.’

While Rein was lost in her thoughts, Zeke looked around with hungry eyes. There was a specific food stall advertising cake that his gaze had gotten stuck on. Sparing a quick glance to Rein, Zeke broke away from his fellow operator to approach the short woman running the stall. She looked up with kind eyes, her gaze like that of a mother, caring and always willing to provide. “How can I help you,” she spoke, voice a little high pitched and raspy.

Zeke ignored her for the moment, scanning the vast array of cakes meticulously set out before him. A light orange colored one caught his eyes, little speckles of brown—likely chocolate—were spread throughout the cake, and there was a light glaze drizzling over the top of the pastry.

The operator grinned; his mouth watered as he looked up to ask about the cake.

“Zeke.” Just like earlier, Rein came from behind and snatched the back of Zeke’s neck, pulling him away from the cake stall and sending the woman an apologetic smile. “We’re not here to eat you dimwit!”

“Since when weren’t we allowed to eat on missions?” Zeke shoved the other operator off of him, stumbling forward before he regained his footing. “I don’t know about you,” he huffed, “but I don’t tend to work well on an empty stomach.” The blue haired operator didn’t understand how his fellow operators just ceased to eat, Rei and Ventus were a special case, but Rein just made the decision not to eat on her own. She claimed that she just didn’t get hungry anymore, similar in the way that they didn’t need sleep, something his commander still wouldn’t explain to him.

Rein shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose as she sighed. “I didn’t say we couldn’t eat,” she started, “but we have things to do. Food can wait till after if you’re really hungry.”

Zeke paused; lips pursed before he spoke. “What did we have to do again?”

“Oh, I’m going to kill you.”

Zeke had the gall to smirk, causing Rein to raise her eyebrows in a very genuine threat. “Don’t forget Zeke, our abilities work out here, I will beat the shit out of you in broad daylight.”

And wouldn’t that be fun, Zeke thought with a chuckle. It had been a while since he’d riled Rein up, the girl was often sent on longer missions than him, resulting in the two only seeing each other in passing. That, and whenever he tried to start shit at HQ, Ventus usually stepped between the two like he was actually going to do something. At least Rei just stood to the side and let the two duke it out whenever he caught them, only stepping in to stop the two operators from actually killing each other.

Just once, Zeke wanted to fight Rei, and he was fairly sure the seer wouldn’t mind, but Rein claimed that it was ‘disrespectful’ to waste their seniors’ time like that. ‘One day,’ Zeke thought to himself, then focused back on the young woman in front of him.

Zeke grinned, running his tongue over his teeth for show before taking a dramatic bow.

Something in Rein snapped and she lunged.

Zeke bounced back as a large black claw swiped at his face, the rest of Rein spider-like appendages fanning out behind her and sending passerby scrambling. His skin hardened, blocking the next attack with his forearm before he tucked low, keeping his body close to the ground as he rushed the girl, aiming a hardened fist to her face, his pulled back arm phasing in an out to apply more damage. His fist met her nose with a horrid crunch, Rein’s head reeling back as she swung a leg out toward Zeke’s legs.

The male operator grunted, having applied his defense ability to his upper body, Rein’s kick hit him right in the knee and sent the bone shifting uncomfortably to the right. “Shit,” Zeke ground and bounced back out of her range to assess the damage, dislocated probably, but not broken.

Rein pulled her head forward, eyes watering as she wiped the blood away from her upper lip. Her crimson eyes narrowed before she thrust her arms forward, black spider limbs flying toward Zeke and aiming to impale. The boy dodged one, two, and then winced when the third sliced through his other knee, Rein’s plan becoming clear in his mind.

‘Not good,’ Zeke grimaced, looking down at his ruined pants, the blood coloring his clothes from his knees down. If Rein took out his legs, then he would have to limp the rest of the way to the palace and then explain to whoever they answered to why he was walking like he had a peg leg. Reason clouded over his lust for battle and the boy sighed to himself. “Rein, maybe we should—”

Rein’s fist slammed into the side of his head and sent him flying.

“Damn…damn!” Zeke cursed when he finally stopped rolling, his ears ringing and vision blurry as he tried to blink away the fog. “Ah, shit…” he groaned, attempting to push himself up with his arms but he trembled and fell back down. “That’s embarrassing,” he muttered into the dirt.

The operator looked up as a shadow loomed over him, expecting to see Rein and bracing himself for another punch, a kick to the chest, maybe even one of her spider limbs would pierce through his heart.

“This is unacceptable behavior from official Agwin Ambassadors, I expect more from the two of you.”

Zeke peered up, noting that Rein was in fact standing over him, behind his back whereas the person who spoke stood in front of him. Suddenly, Zeke’s face being smushed into the ground seemed mortifying and he quickly jumped to his feet, head spinning and all. The man before them had tawny-brown skin and turquoise hair, his glowing green eyes were narrowed as he looked at the two, the movement dragging his brown and subsequently, the circlet around his head downward.

Zeke barely caught Rein’s muttered ‘Gou’ from behind him but paid it no mind.

“And you are?”

Rein punched him in the back, his kidney’s screaming at the pressure. Breath caught in his throat; Zeke had no choice but to stay silent as Rein came around him to stand before this “Gou” person.

“Our apologies,” the operator started, deeply bowing her head and retching Zeke’s neck forward to do the same. “Our fight must have disoriented Zeke, he must not have seen you well.” Zeke bit his tongue to keep from making some smart retort, but Rein’s grip tightening on his neck was a better motivator. Gou narrowed his eyes at the two, Zeke eyeing a shining golden crest clipping near his collarbone and it finally clicked for the operator.

“Oh, this is the guy we answer to,” he whispered.

“Aside from Broven who I assume is the king, yes.”

Zeke held back from asking about the names, Rein’s brow had tightened as soon as Gou showed up, and something about her posture implied that her tension wasn’t pertaining to being scolded over a fight. Zeke filed that information away for later, something to pester Rein about later, and brought his eyes up to the official in front of him.

If they were going to sow discord and destroy Wellston, this man was likely the best place to start.

~

Dark smog filled the air, both operators coughing while they tried to fan the remaining sparks and embers away from their faces. It was certainly the most interesting start to a mission, Ventus thought, coughing when he accidentally inhaled too early and got a mouth full of smoke. Theoretically, they should have known better, both were too smart of beings to make such a simple mistake, but maybe that was the human part of them coming through.

Upon arriving at the fallen kingdom, Rei and Ventus had ducked into an abandoned home to collect their bearings and discuss a plan of action. While listening to Rei talk, Ventus had gotten distracted looking at the white runes winding up and down his fingers, posing a question to Rei—would their lesser powers still work considering they were technically ‘abilities.’ Rei hadn’t been able to answer him, so they just went ahead and tried to activate their abilities, it was just a small experiment after all.

Wind blew sparks from Rei’s fingers toward the gas heater and boom! Now they were stumbling away from the remains of an abandoned building, pulling their hoods up when people from the city square began to flock to the area.

‘This is off to a good start,’ Ventus thought, coughing once more before his throat finally cleared.

Brushing his bangs out of his face—his hair tie had been lost in the explosion—Ventus took a look around the so called ‘lost kingdom.’ From what he had researched before their departure, Wellston had once been regarded as the Holy City of Wellston, a kingdom of the divine, whose powers gave them the ability to care for and tend to their prosperous kingdom.

“How the mighty have fallen,” Ventus mumbled as the two were swarmed by citizens looking at the wreckage, looking for scraps from whatever poor soul they assumed had been stuck in the building. “Have they really sunk so far as to steal from the dead?” Ventus asked, “not that we’re dead but, they don’t know that.”

At his side, Rei looked on, his golden eyes with splashes of blue in them glazed over as the instinct to cast a vision hit him full force. “People become desperate,” he droned, “the dead don’t need to eat, they don’t need water, might as well take it from their remains. It’s kinder than stealing in a way.” Morbid, he thought, but that was the reality of things.

His eyes burned, hands itching for that glowing clock that would let him know how everything would unfold. ‘Don’t use your powers,’ the commander’s voice rang in his head, but what was the point? Kuyo wasn’t in this universe, he reminded himself, there was no point in putting off his inevitable death if there was nothing in it for him. A slight glow overtook his body, that white clock his eyes were so familiar with beginning to flash behind his eyes before a hand was set on his shoulder.

“You’ll give us away,” Ventus pointed out.

Inside, Rei’s mind screamed that he was smarter than this, that he shouldn’t lose his composure in front of his junior. The operator sighed; emotions were so unreasonable sometimes.

Rei straightened his back, the glow fading from his body as he lightly pulled Ventus’ hand away from him. “We should move,” he stated, “people will start to connect the dots that we were already here before everyone else, and we’ll look suspicious.”

Ventus nodded, half in agreement and half of him just wanting to listen to his senior. He adjusted the hood around his face before following after the older operator deeper into the crumbling kingdom.

Tall individuals in armor and brown capes watched them as the two walked by, their eyes narrowed on the runes decorating the skin of the operators, hands tightened around spears and poised to strike if one of them stepped out of line. Ventus frowned, the extra security wasn’t needed, the people of Wellston couldn’t use their abilities, both inside and outside of the city, and the lack of food and water stripped them of their strength. Though from the scribes research earlier, he knew this was just added security formed out of Agwin’s paranoia.

Ventus suppressed a giggle when Rei caught the guards still staring and gave them the finger.

Grateful to have the seer with him instead of Rein or Zeke, those two were too impulsive and liked to argue for fun, Ventus relaxed, probably walking a little too casual for someone supposed to be suffering. With that thought in mind though, his slouch returned. He didn’t have any emotional connection to the people of Wellston like Zeke, or a long-standing grudge against Agwin like Rein, but something about the situation made an aching twist in his stomach form.

The scribe sighed, every lingering thought about Wellston was just starting to make him depressed.

Discussing their mission was the reasonable conversation topic he could take, though that would likely be just as dismal as thinking about the state of Wellston. Ventus hummed; a certain burgundy-haired girl entered his mind. Taking the opportunity, Ventus spoke up, “hey Rei, I know you said Kuyo wouldn’t be here—” and Ventus didn’t miss the way Rei’s shoulder slumped— “but did you see anything about Meili?”

“Your research didn’t say anything about her?”

Ventus shook his head, there had been no mention of his partner among any official Wellston documents. She wasn’t listed in the royal family archives, there were no aristocratic obituaries written about her, so he at least assumed she was alive, he just hadn’t found any information on her. “No, so she’s no one important in this universe.” There was also the possibility that she didn’t exist, but Ventus was trying to ignore that outcome at all costs, lest he fall into the same slump as his senior.

The seer hummed, checking their surroundings before he flashed white for just a moment, the light simply looked like a flash of lightning and was gone before Ventus even registered it happened.

“That won’t hurt you right?” Ventus asked as he wrung his hands together, as much as he wanted to see Meili he didn’t want to complete this mission alone if Rei keeled over dead.

“She exists,” Rei muttered, hoping the shake to his voice wasn’t that noticeable, he’d have to hold off on the lesser powers for a while. “She actually might help us with our mission Ventus.” Rei ignored the misery that crossed over the scribes’ features, Ventus never enjoyed when Meili was involved in the events of a universe, there was too much risk of her dying. Perhaps he had just gotten used to seeing Kuyo in the throes of peril, that, or he was used to being the one who died and didn’t have to worry about seeing Kuyo run through with a sword.

Ventus didn’t respond, so Rei turned back to the road ahead, coincidentally leading them toward the area he’d seen Meili at. The girl was part of a resistance group, similar to the one of the Imperial City that he had de facto led for a while, and she along with a couple of others were planning an escape to Agwin to steal some supplies. Weapons by the looks of it, maybe he had seen too much, that was probably why his head was spinning.

He had also seen something he definitely wasn’t supposed to see. Something that indicated their success at destroying both Agwin and Wellston, but implied that things had been destroyed on a much grander level.

And at the center of it all was a raven-haired boy with crying golden eyes.

Chapter Text

Ignoring the explosion for the moment, the group finished their snack before discarding any remains they had in a corner. Shockingly, John realized there was a stark lack of bugs in their humble abode. Not that he was complaining, having to deal with bugs would just be the cherry on top for their situation. His mind tried to conjure a reason, maybe it was too cold, or there was something in the air, even something to do with the runes surrounding the city.

Speaking of, “what do we know about these?” John asked, holding up his hand to examine the markings stretching across his skin. On their walk to the safe house, he noticed a similar pattern on the back of Arlo’s neck, though the exact markings were different, they at least held the same purpose. Arlo hummed, still chewing on the core of his apple as he reached up to rub the back of his neck instinctively.

“If you’re asking how they appeared, which we’ve discusses several times,” Seraphina spoke up, “we still have no idea. They appeared when the runes in the walls showed up, but no one knows how Agwin did it.”

John chewed on his lip as he mulled over this. Technically, his mission didn’t involve solving the problem between Wellston and Agwin, he was just supposed to stop Paradox from destroying everything. ‘But does that involve getting rid of the runes,’ John wondered. There was a good chance that the Paradox Agency had caused the discord between the two kingdoms, maybe they had been peaceful until those villains had sunk their claws into this universe.

Not for the first time, John wondered what Paradox’s ultimate goal was. From what he knew, and had pieced together by speaking with other operators, there was beef between the director and the commander of the Paradox Agency. Over what, that wasn’t something he was privy to, but he hoped it would be explained eventually. Because if he was honest with himself, this traveler schtick wasn’t something he wanted to do forever, no matter how taunting returning to his old universe was.

But alas, this was not the time nor place to be pondering on such things. For now, he would help Arlo and Sera until he inevitably ran into one of the Paradox operators and could finally get to work.

“Alright,” he started, twisting his hand around to examine the runes once again, “so our first priority is getting our abilities back, right?”

“It’s been that way for months John, not sure why you’re bringing it up now.”

“Maybe I’ve finally grown tired of nothing getting done.”

Seraphina hummed, seeming satisfied with the bs John had spouted. Arlo stretched, the boy laying down on his side with his head propped up on an arm. “Agwin has no one with such rune casting abilities, they have to have some mechanism on the inside that does it for them. Same with the runes they put in the walls.”

John frowned, how the hell had they put runes in the walls? “You don’t think it would be much easier if they simply found someone with the ability?” John asked, to which Arlo shook his head.

“My aunt often collaborated on research into abilities with the King of Agwin. We would speak, and she leant me a book or two every so often.” Arlo droned; his eyes slipping closed as he relaxed against his hand. “No ability has ever been able to create something so intricate, let alone restrict or complete remove someone’s ability.”

Seraphina added, “we don’t even know how Agwin gained abilities.” John startled, the people of Agwin didn’t have abilities prior to taking over Wellston? Then how the hell had they managed to overtake Wellston and reduce the kingdom and its people to such a sorry state. The traveler hummed, thoughts trailing back to the older blonde woman that Arlo had offhandedly mentioned. Valerie had never come up in any of the other universes he had visited, and Arlo had only mentioned her once or twice. But John could remember who she was in his original universe, the cold-hearted murderer who had robbed them so much.

John filed that information away for later, he’d find another time to ask Arlo about his aunt.

A cough ripping through the silence cut through his thoughts, John’s head whipped over toward Seraphina who held a hand over her mouth. The coughing persisted, the wet and crunchy kind that tears through the throat and leaves one exhausted, John winced in sympathy. “Are you okay?”

Seraphina cleared her throat, the girl shaky her head and wiping away the few tears that had gathered at the corner of her eyes. “I’m fine,” she rasped.

“I can grab you some water.”

“Pipes are broken,” Arlo brought up.

‘Oh,’ John deflated, hands clenching against his knees as he searched for something to do.

Seraphina’s face was pale, he was just now noticing, and her fingers shook when she finally drew them away from her mouth. Deep purple bags hung under her eyes; cheeks painted a cherry red with a sickly hint of green to them. ‘Shit, is Sera sick?’ There couldn’t be a worse situation to be sick in, no food, no water, shabby shelter that didn’t provide any safety. Whatever disease was running rampant through Wellston had clearly reached Seraphina, though she seemed to be holding herself together well enough.

“I’m okay John,” Seraphina reassured, or at least tried, to reassure him. “Plenty people in Wellston are sick right now, it was inevitable that one of us was going to catch it.”

John wanted to argue that there was at least something they could do. Whenever he was sick, he opted for something warm to drink—currently a no go, a nice long nap in his bed—also impossible with their current situation or downing an entire bottle of cold medicine.

The traveler snapped; ambition renewed as he quickly rose to his feet at the questioning stare of his comrades. “There has to be medicine around here somewhere, right? If so many people are sick, I bet it’s in high demand.”

“You’d be right,” Arlo muttered, “which is why most of the medicine is guarded by one of the gangs at all times.”

“So only gang members have the right to healthcare?”

Seraphina coughed, wiping the spit that had gathered around her mouth away before nodding. “When most of the aristocratic households fell, people scrambled to collect our remains, they’re who make up most of the gangs now.”

The people who basically bled out the rich, John thought. “Would it hurt to try?” He asked anyway, netting exasperated sighs from Seraphina and Arlo but otherwise, they didn’t protest.

“Don’t get yourself killed John.”

With Arlo’s words set against his heart, John left the safe house with medicine on the mind.

His first problem, not knowing where the hell he was supposed to find said medicine. The square they had walked through earlier was blessedly empty, likely due to the morbid curiosity that takes over when humas witness tragedy. Whatever had exploded must have been big to draw everyone toward it rather than away, but maybe that wasn’t such a good thing.

John looked around; he had made it two steps away from the house before coming to a stop. The few people that were left in the square were too delirious, inebriated, or out of the minds, John wouldn’t be able to get any answers from them. While he was sure that no sane person would point another toward supposed gang members, it had been worth a shot, or at least better than wandering around aimlessly. Unfortunately for John, he was stuck with the latter, so it was better to get moving than continue to stick his feet in the mud.

The traveler picked a random director and walked, attempting to keep a balance between looking around and keeping his eyes low. There were still guards, royal guards if John had to guess, keeping an eye on his every move. It was like they expected the people of Wellston to get their abilities back any second, which made John wonder if Seraphina’s words from earlier were true, though they still didn’t make much sense.

Realistically, there was no way for Agwin, a place that had no abilities, to invade and destroy Wellston and the people who had been revered for their abilities.

John ducked through an ally when he nearly stumbled right into the middle of a fight, more like a beating, it had been a group of men wrangling a young boy on the ground over a morsel of bread. The traveler winced, he had seen his fair share of unreasonable violence when he was in high school, but nothing like this.

It made his stomach ache, and he tried not to heave.

John had realized how silent it was until he started to hear voices, thankfully not in any hysterics, but it startled him hearing people talking after walking around in silence for the past few minutes. The traveler rounded a corner, leaving the alleyway he had been traveling in and spotting a group of people sitting around a fire, what looked like a run-down shop at their backs. His eyes narrowed, almost all of the people sitting around the fire were complete strangers to him, except for one girl with burgundy hair that was sitting sharpening a knife.

His lips pursed at the memory of an empty field, blades and wind flying at his face, and an annoying blonde who he had desperately wanted to punch in the face. Yes, he and Arlo had come a long way, that didn’t mean John still didn’t have a few grudges, it just meant he would affectionately punch Arlo the next time he saw him.

John made to leave the alley before a hand was set on his back, his shoulders rising, he prepared for a fight until he turned around a met a very calm boy.

‘Oh of course,’ he mentally groaned. If Meili was here, then it was no surprise to John that Ventus wouldn’t be that far away. There was something odd about his appearance though, it shouldn’t have been, since everyone looks different depending on what universe John traveled to. But there was something about the boys’ eyes, one his regular scarlet and the other a much lighter pink, that felt so unsettling to John that he pulled away out of instinct than any disdain toward the boy.

“Ah, sorry,” Ventus apologized, rubbing the back of his neck with a small smile. “I just don’t think it’s the best idea to walk right up to a gang, you know?”

John did know, he hadn’t been planning to walk up to them, he just wanted out of the alleyway, but he refrained from saying that. “Thanks, I guess,” he muttered, then looked Ventus over, “have you been following me?”

At least Ventus actually looked taken aback at the accusation, John would’ve been even more suspicious at a lack of reaction. The boy shook his head, strands of hair waving in front of his face that he pushed away with a huff. “We just happened to be going the same way,” he started, rushing to add when John arched an eyebrow, “I’m looking for medicine too, just some headache relief, I’m not sure what you’re looking for.”

“How did you know I need medicine?”

“It’s the only reason anyone approaches the gangs anymore.”

John hummed, then nodded, that seemed reasonable enough.

“Is there a reason the two of you are standing around here?”

Ventus’ eyes widened and John sucked in a breath when something sharp was pressed against his back. Turning his neck, he met Meili’s narrowed eyes, several other members of the gang standing behind her with their own weapons raised. John hoped that Ventus would say something, being Meili’s counterpart and all that, but the boy was stunned to silence, eyes widened and trained on Meili like she was something to worship.

So, John opened his big mouth instead.

“Hey uh, any chance we could get some medicine?”

Chapter Text

Unbeknownst to many, the senior traveler’s room was not barren, nor was it occupied by a single plain white bed and nothing else. There were trinkets from his travels propped up on his dresser, as well as a few surrounding the lamp on his nightstand. There were also pictures, paintings, and plaques hung up on his walls. Achievements he had gotten during a mission, the congrats he received with every promotion, and of course, several pictures of him and his friends.

Currently, his eyes were locked on a picture his mom had taken back in his original universe, taken the day of his graduation from Wellston high school.

Kuyo’s smile had been so wide that day, so had Rei’s, they had both been ready to leave that school behind. For as much work as they put into the school, at the end of the day, it was still high school, and they had been counting the days before they could leave those doors for the last time.

He could make that smile stay forever, if only he could find a way to keep his friend alive. Kuyo frowned, rolling over in his bed to face the wall rather than that blinding picture. Why was it Rei that died every single time, every universe, every trip into another world? It could be the most peaceful land Kuyo had ever traveled to, and Rei would still end up dead by the end of his mission. The first couple times, it had hurt, watching Rei die over and over again after losing the original version of his best friend. Then it became frustrating, and Kuyo blamed himself, wondering if his presence somehow triggered a switch in each universe that was set to kill Rei.

It was unnatural, Kuyo thought, eyebrows furrowing as he buried his face into his pillow. The director had once told him that universal threads were ‘flexible,’ if that was the case, it should have been impossible for one person to die in every single universe. “Something isn’t right here,” the traveler mumbled as he forced himself to sit up. Every universe was different, they were like snowflakes—as Leilah had so helpfully explained one day—there may be similarities, but no two universes are designed the same.

“Meaning there should be one universe out there where he lives.”

Either he would find it, or he would die trying.

Luckily for him, he just so happened to work for a man who specialized in universal travel, someone who should have several documents pertaining to that topic. Not that the director would willingly hand those over, Kuyo lamented as he rose from the sheets, he would have to call back on the skills he’d illegally gained as a vigilante and find a way to steal them.

With a renewed vigor, Kuyo set forth from his room, brushing past anyone who stepped in his path and tried to speak to him. Kuyo wanted it on record that he wasn’t a mean person, as many people around the agency made him out to be, he simply didn’t have time to stop and talk with every person he saw once his mind was set on something. And John’s accusation that he was “obsessed” with Rei was a stretch too, they were simply very good friends, and Kuyo didn’t want any of his friends to suffer.

Especially not someone who had brought so much meaning into his life, someone who had flipped his entire mindset around and helped him to become a better person.

Rei was just…special, that’s all, and Kuyo was not obsessed.

The first problem Kuyo ran into upon entering the lobby, there were way too many people out for him to not look suspicious sneaking around. Secondly, the director never left the office, so there was no way for Kuyo to get in and snoop around without literally doing it in front of his boss. The traveler huffed, there had to be somewhere the director kept his things outside of the office. After all, the small room could only hold so much, then again, they were already defying the laws of time and space by being there. It was entirely possible that the director’s entire life was stashed into that room, and they just didn’t know.

“Kuyo.”

His entire being groaned as he turned toward his fellow traveler, bounding over to him with the most annoying smile plastered on his face. Zirian wasn’t an unpleasant person by any means, though he knew John had beef with the man, Kuyo was just not in the mood for idle chatter. However, Zirian and the director were pretty close, maybe the light-haired boy knew a thing or two that Kuyo didn’t.

Kuyo gave Zirian a light nod as the traveler approached, noting that Zirian was dressed in his standard uniform with his rank as a senior clipped to his collar. “Heading out?” Kuyo asked, making small talk as Zirian nodded. Typically, they only wore their assigned uniform if they were going directly against Paradox operators. These missions usually took place in universes that had already been torn apart by Paradox, both sides of the battle searching through the remains for anything useful.

“Apparently the universe Lyle and I visited last collapsed after our departure,” Kuyo had no idea who Lyle was, but he wasn’t going to ask, “boss thinks Paradox had something to do with it. They usually do,” Zirian grumbled then shook his head. “What about you, still on probation?”

Kuyo wanted to argue that he wasn’t on probation, just a forced break, but he knew Zirian would never agree to disagree. It was pointless to start an argument he wouldn’t win, so he settled for a shrug. ‘Now, how to ask about some files without seeming suspicious.’

“Hey, do we have a library in here?”

Though Zirian frowned, it seemed out of confusion rather than any suspicion toward Kuyo. “I mean, the director has his personal one, but I don’t think there’s a public library anywhere in here.” Zirian paused, lifting a hand to his chin in thought before adding, “theoretically, if we wanted to read for entertainment, we could just bring some books back from our missions. Leilah did that once; I learned about a whole bunch of horses that should never exist.”

Kuyo nodded in fake acknowledgement, he could not care less about whatever horses Leilah had been reading about. “That sounds interesting,” he droned, “I’ve never seen the director’s library around here, this place is a maze.” He had made sure to give a dull chuckle after his statement to make his words seem lighter, though he hadn’t been lying about the place being a maze.

Thankfully, Zirian simply laughed in agreement. “You’re telling me, I only happened to notice it because I was with the director at the time. That’s probably where he keeps all of our mission assignments.”

“Or the paper to fill the machines.”

“Right, I’ve always wondered how they never seem to need refilling.”

“Yeah, you’d think managing those things would be people’s jobs.”

“Well, when you traverse between universes, anything is possible isn’t it?”

‘What a dull conversation,’ Kuyo sighed. He had concluded that Zirian was a very boring person, there was no enthusiasm in his voice for anything, why was Zirian even here? Well, at least he’d gotten his answer, the library had to be around the director’s office if he had been outside of the room with Zirian. Kuyo bid the other traveler farewell in a poorly mumbled ‘okay bye,’ before making his way toward the office, dodging a few more people along the way who commented about seeing him out and about.

Finding the library was surprisingly easier than he expected. Kuyo had been right about it being near the office, the director never went too far from the room, so he shouldn’t have been surprised that the inconspicuous broom closet was actually a private library. Making sure no one was around—Kuyo leaning against the wall when a few people did pass by—the traveler turned and slowly turned the handle.

When the traveler pushed open the door to the private library, his eyes instantly watered from the sheer amount dust that invaded his space. A cough, a wave of his hand, and Kuyo cleared his throat; after recovering his bearings, Kuyo stepped into the room, clicking the light switch as he went and filling the room with a dim orange light. In the back of his mind, he could remember hearing that books and papers should be stored in a place with good ventilation and away from the sun, but this seemed a bit extreme. The slight rank smell in the air was probably mold, Kuyo’s nose wrinkled in revulsion, but he pushed forward.

Stacks upon stacks of paper filled every inch of the room, a little intimidating if he were honest. The traveler rubbed his nose, wiping away the last remnants of dust; with a sigh, he began to read over the few folders of text that somewhat categorized this absolute mess. Not for the first time, Kuyo pondered over the age of the director, who seemed like he couldn’t be more than a child at this point.

“Nothing to it but to do it,” the traveler mumbled, then began his search.

He floundered for a moment, unsure where to start before he picked up a random stack of papers. The first page was completely grey, covered by the passage of time, so he had to move on to the page underneath it. Not that it had fared much better, but at least Kuyo could see that the ink covering the page had been used to document an insurmountable amount of numbers. Finance, economics, it had never been his strong suit, he set that stack back with a muted sigh before moving on to the next stack.

Rei would find it interesting though, Kuyo mused, a smile slipping on to his face. His friend was enamored with looking upon rows and rows of numbers and creating a bigger picture out of them, he was obsessed with the endless combinations and endless results he could find just from one or two numbers; dissecting this room would have been a field day for him. But it wasn’t time to dwell, if he wanted a way to bring his friend to safety and keep it that way, the traveler would have to put in an effort to not think of his friend for once.

Kuyo could have been in that room for hours, and he was sure he still wasn’t going to find anything. The only things in the director’s library were several accounting documents, written resumes he had received from his travelers, trashed mission statements that had gone unused or deemed unnecessary, Paradox Observations, Paradox Operators, research on corporeal forms and abilities—

Kuyo stopped, locking eyes on two manilla folders wedged between the others, sorted in the right alphabetical order and subsequently making them appear inconspicuous. He shoved the surrounding files away and pulled the folders out, one of them having a digital lock keeping the folder closed. Why weren’t both of them locked, he wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t about to complain about information being laid in his hands.

The traveler turned both folders over in his hand, despite being mostly compiled of paper they were terribly heavy. Kuyo couldn’t tell how many documents were stored in each file, but there had to be extensive information about the enemy in there.

‘This likely won’t give me any answers about Rei,’ Kuyo thought with no small amount of disappointment, ‘but gaining knowledge about the enemy is always good.’

And, what if the enemy had something to do with Rei’s death? Kuyo didn’t know anything about the commander, though these documents certainly did, but maybe the commander had some grudge against Rei and found a way to punish the young man by making him die a horrible death in every universe. He found his hands clenching, Rei was an incredibly kind man who only had everyone’s best interest in mind; he could see why some people tended to dislike him—he definitely had as well—but he couldn’t imagine anyone hating him so much to the point of killing him endlessly.

There had been the whole ordeal with EMBER, but that hadn’t been a personal grudge…not really. They had been vigilantes and EMBER was their natural enemy, Rei was killed simply for being the enemy, not out of any particular case of hatred.

There was no way he could read these documents in this stuffy closet. For one, there was a very real chance he could get caught and he wasn’t sure what the punishment would be, and two, it was becoming ridiculously hard to breathe in the moldy closet and Kuyo was sure he would die if he stayed in there any longer.

Slipping out of the room was a lot harder than sneaking in. Kuyo had let the door close behind him, for obvious reasons, but now that meant he couldn’t make sure the coast was clear before leaving with his stolen goods. The traveler pressed his ear to the door, cringing when the muck from the door rubbed off on his face, but he’d worry about it later. While he couldn’t hear any footsteps, the door was kind of thick, he couldn’t be completely sure if the hall was empty.

“Rei would just shove through the door and act natural,” Kuyo had to laugh at his own observation. Despite meeting over two-hundred versions of his best friend, Rei had never really changed across the universes. Still kind, still incredibly selfless, still stupidly smart; he was always someone who led with his heart and firmly believed in his actions. And because Rei was the best example Kuyo had to follow, he shoved the door open and strode into the hallway like he was supposed to be there.

To his dismay, he had been wrong about the hallway being empty. Thankfully, the few people that were passing by simply glanced at him then continued. The traveler released a deep breath, his chest aching from the pressure of holding said breath for longer than expected. ‘Act natural,’ he reminded himself, keeping his steps perfectly measured and back straight. Though that was likely creating the opposite impression, Kuyo settled to bring back his ever present slouch and suddenly people started looking away from him.

That should have offended him.

Chapter Text

In John’s mind, there was always room for jokes. This unfortunately meant that he decided to make said jokes at the most inopportune moment, usually ending with him getting a fist to his nose or being launched through a wall.

A knife being pushed through his side would be a twist though.

Meili’s lips curled down, angling the weapon higher against John’s back. From this vantage point, John knew that if she were to indeed stab him then she would likely hit a major organ, and then he would have a real problem on his hands. Swallowing the smart remark he had on the tip of his tongue, John brought his arms up next to his head, turning slow enough to where Meili’s knife wouldn’t nick him and he could face her properly.

Ventus seemed to catch his train of thought, the other boy raising his hands to align with his head as well, mismatched eyes watching Meili’s every move. Whether that was out of fear or adoration, John didn’t know, but it wasn’t worth dwelling on at the moment.

The traveler opened his mouth, speaking slowly as to not push his current “opponent” into attacking him.

“You’re the leader of this gang?” He asked, and Meili merely quirked a brow at him. Flipping the knife with her fingers, the girl deftly stashed the weapon away in a sheath John couldn’t see before crossing her arms and taking a more casual stance.

“It would seem that way, what does it mean to you?”

John thought back to Seraphina, her glassy eyes and red tinged nose imprinted in his memories. Though he had seen Sera sick countless times before, seeing his best friend look so miserable in such a dismal setting at struck a chord within him. “I’m looking for medicine,” the traveler explained, “my friend is sick.” Taking a chance with lowering his arms, John clasped his hands together and held them in front of his chest. “It doesn’t have to be much, just enough to take the immediate pain away.”

To her credit, Meili didn’t look disgusted with him like he thought she would. He assumed that as the leader of a gang, Meili would be unsympathetic to the plight of other people, or at least that’s how people acted in the movies John had seen.

The girl turned her eyes to Ventus, raising her eyebrows as she jerked her chin forward. Ventus floundered, cupping his hands together in the same way John had before he began his pleading as well. “I was actually looking for help, or rather, to be of help,” Ventus explained, and John frowned. Not that he knew this universe’s Ventus, but the boy already changing the story he had told John had seemed odd to the traveler.

Meili clicked her tongue, idly shifting her weight to her other foot as she took the two boys in. “That’s all people do nowadays, plead and beg for a way to change their circumstances. It’s rather depressing actually.”

“Would you not do the same?” John challenged, ‘what right does she have to say that? She is clearly faring better than most other citizens, no reason to complain there.’ In fact, John thought that if anything, Meili and her gang could be using their supplies to help those less fortunate than them. But then Seraphina’s previous statement rang clear in his mind…

“When most of the aristocratic households fell, people scrambled to collect our remains, they’re who make up most of the gangs now.”

John grimaced, ‘hard to sympathize with other’s when theft is what got you here.’

At his side, Ventus took a step forward, prompting Meili to raise her hand over her hip again. A not-so-subtle threat of what she could still do to them if they tried to one-up her. “We can carry out weight,” Ventus started, John didn’t know how the two of them became a ‘we,’ but he remained silent. “All I’m asking for, is a place to make use of my talents, I can help wherever I’m needed.”

“Who is the ‘we’ in this situation,” Meili responded, gesturing between the two boys, “you two clearly don’t know each other.”

John nodded, it was obvious, so he didn’t feel the need to defend himself on that front.

“That would be me.”

The traveler startled at the new voice, whipping his head around to take in the person that seemed to have suddenly appeared behind them without their notice. The stranger had long mint green hair pulled into a single braid resting over his shoulder, and gleaming golden eyes that seemed to fade into blue. An easy-going smile seemed to rob John of all his defenses but not before he paused, while the stranger was someone he had never seen before, something in his voice sounded familiar.

Ventus, however, heaved a sigh of relief, turning his back on Meili to go to his friend and stand at his side instead. “This is Rei, the both of us are very capable fighters, we can assist you.”

John gaped, on the one hand he was slightly offended that Ventus had completely excused their slight comradery the moment Rei showed up, as childish as that may seem. On the other hand, he knew for a fact that he had never met Rei in his life, not in his original universe and not in any of the ones after. ‘But I’ve heard that voice before,’ John struggled to arrange his thoughts, he would remember a person who looked like that. Rei had presence, it was like he commanded the room to look at him, and John could see just how that smile could probably get him anything he wanted.

‘Now I see why Kuyo’s so obsessed, that man is beautiful.’

Rei turned his odd colored eyes toward the traveler, searching for something in his gaze; John didn’t know what, but he would gladly bear his soul for the man to see if it meant he could find what he needed.

Seeming satisfied with his findings—though John wasn’t sure what those were—Rei turned away from the boy and regarded Meili again, pulling two loafs of bread from the cloak around his shoulders and holding them out in offering. “Ventus and I have food,” the man explained, “you may have medicine but that can only get you so far on an empty stomach.”

Meili’s eyes widened, gaze tracking the pieces of bread every time Rei slightly moved. The men behind her too were starting to shift forward, John was almost certain they would jump the poor guy if this negotiation began to go south.

“Let us join you, supplies are easier to gather when there are more people. We’ll give you one piece of bread for doing so.” At the end of Rei’s words, Meili frowned, looking between the two pieces of bread before trailing back up to the man’s face.

“Only one?” She questioned, “you clearly have two pieces of bread in your hands.” Meili’s hand rested on the hilt of her knife, ‘or dagger,’ John thought now that he didn’t have it pressed against his back anymore. Suddenly, his idle thought about the gang jumping them didn’t seem so farfetched, as the men behind Meili began to pull out their own weapons.

Rei handed off one of the pieces of bread to Ventus, who took it naturally, as if there was a plan between the two and John had simply gotten stuck in the middle of it. “This young man needs medicine, right?” The traveler startled, if Rei knew that, just how long had he been listening? Rei continued, “you can get the other loaf of bread if you give him the medicine he needs for his friend. Then he’ll be on his way, isn’t that right?”

John hastily nodded, somewhere in this altercation, he had gotten the vibe that he was severely outnumbered, outpowered, and very out of place in this group of people. He didn’t know much about the Rei and Ventus of this universe, but they seemed like very powerful people, and he didn’t want to get on the bad side of either of them.

Meili chewed on her lip, though her hands at least fell back to her sides so that was a plus, then she turned and began to mumble under her breath just so her fellow gang members could hear. Awkward silence passed, John had meant to turn and thank Rei for intervening, but upon meeting that weird eyed stare again he found his mouth going dry.

Thankfully, the silence didn’t last long, Meili huffed some grunt of agreement before turning back to the boys as one of her gang members ran off. “I’ll accept these terms,” she suddenly pointed an accusatory finger at Rei who simply smiled back at her, “but if either of you two begin to drag the gang behind, you’re both dead. Hear me?”

Ventus nodded with a fervor John had never seen before, and it took everything the traveler had not to snicker at the sight.

A buff man, the rune decorating his shoulder looking more like a tattoo than a seal, came running back over to the group with three white cases and handed them off to Meili. The girl mumbled her thanks before extending them out to John. “It’s a month’s worth of pills, should keep your friend on their feet for a bit longer.”

The traveler took the cases, looking them over for a moment then stuffing them into his pockets, noting that Ventus handed over the loaf of bread he was holding at the same moment.

“We don’t have much of that stuff,” Meili continued, “if your friend needs more, you’ll have to find another gang. We can only trade you for food if we actually have the medicine.” While John really hoped it didn’t come to that—he didn’t know if he would last a month in this universe—he nodded his thanks to Meili nonetheless.

“The two of you,” Meili pointed to Rei and Ventus respectively, “come on, make yourselves useful, let’s see what you can help with.”

Ventus and Rei shared a look before Ventus nodded and hurried after Meili and her gang. Rei cast a glance at John whose heart skipped a beat; clearing his throat, the traveler mumbled a small thanks to Rei. “You didn’t have to do that; you don’t know me.” John wasn’t assuming everyone in Wellston was a savage, he was sure there were still a few good people sprinkled throughout the fallen kingdom that hadn’t succumbed to madness. But it never hurt to make sure there weren’t ulterior motives hidden in Rei’s actions.

The man smiled, as he always was, and reached out to ruffle John’s hair. And it was so familiar, so brotherly, that John’s heart ached for the Remi of his universe.

“Do I have to know you to help you?”

“It’s survival of the fittest out here.”

“Only if we make it that way.”

No reply came from John’s lips or to his mind, so he kept his mouth shut, staying silent as Rei patted him on the back then followed after Ventus. The traveler’s mind whirled, what would it have been like if John had met Rei before his death in his original universe? Would the young man have been able to help John, maybe having such a stable support beam in his life would have made things easier.

But then John thought of Seraphina, thought of his dad, and how both of them had been the pillars he needed but had decided to ignore. While Rei was a great person, and likely would have helped, John probably would’ve treated him the exact same way.

John wiped the sudden grit away from his eyes, ‘no use dwelling on the past now.’ He had medicine for Seraphina and a universe to save, he could get lost in his thoughts later.

Never sparing another glance back at the gang, John turned back toward the alley he came from and started making his way back toward his friends.

Chapter Text

“It’s survival of the fittest out here.”

“Only if we make it that way.”

Sometimes Rei wondered if things really were that simple. When things get quiet, and his mind tends to wander, he wonders if the war between Time and Paradox could be solved with a simple conversation. Of course, he knows his commander. As fond of her as he is, he could understand that she could be unreasonable and downright incorrigible at times.

‘Agwin tore Wellston to the ground because they treated the people of Agwin as if they were below them.’ Rei reflected, sitting against a wall while Ventus familiarized himself with the members of the gang. The older operator had found no point in doing the same, he knew how things would play out, there wasn’t any reason he should try to buddy up with any of these men.

‘The people of Wellston were revered for their powers, but instead of using it to help others, they only sought to elevate their status above Agwin even more.’ The young man glanced at his hand, at the small white lines winding up and around his fingers. ‘It’s a common trend,’ he realized, ’the strong will prey on the weak, because they lack any natural predators.’

There is no challenge, no motive to improve your strength when you’re already at the top.

A small cheer drew Rei from his thoughts for a moment, and he looked up. Two of the men had their arms swung around Ventus’ shoulders, one keeping him in a headlock while the other ruffled the boy’s hair. The young operator laughed, his struggle to escape their grasp proving futile, but he was in no immediate danger, so Rei didn’t feel the need to intervene.

Sometimes, though Rei would never admit it, he envies Ventus.

They are the same, but they are quite different.

Ventus laughs freely because he understands where his laughter comes from. Rei laughs and wonders why his chest hurts, why his eyes burn and why a weird feeling takes over his mind. Ventus cries, because things hurt him, watching a friend die or failing a mission. They make him feel less than, and the scribe knows he can do better.

When Rei cries, he feels hollow. Sometimes he laughs while doing so, and he sees how that scares Ventus and that horrid feeling in his chest build up again.

Ventus understands the concept of being human, despite not being one.

Rei does not.

The young operator catches Rei’s eye for a moment, the glint in his eyes is so bright that Rei feels blinded for a second but pulls his thoughts together to give his junior a friendly smile. Ventus returns that smile as he continues fighting his way out of a headlock, only now does Rei notice the smaller boy pulling at Ventus’ legs, in the same way a child clings to their parent or an older sibling.

In the back of his mind, Rei sees a girl just a few years younger than him; she has bright pink hair and sparkling light red eyes. But she looks at Rei like he’s the sun and he swears to protect that girl forever, in every universe he is destined to visit.

He sees her die once, and vows to never interact with her again.

And so, he wonders how Kuyo does it, how the traveler can stand to see him die over and over again yet still seek him out whenever their paths may cross. It’s not as if Rei is any help; when he conducts his first vision at the start of every new universe, he also searches for that blue-haired swordsman and does everything he can to make sure they meet each other at least once.

“234,” the operator mumbles to himself.

He watches as Ventus approaches Meili and attempts to make small conversation with her. The girl brushes him off, but he keeps trying, attempting to bridge the small unfamiliar gap between them until Meili relents and lets the boy sit next to her.

Ventus likes Meili, and not for the first time, Rei wonders if he might be obsessed with Kuyo.

‘No matter,’ he thinks as he adjusts his position on the wall.

He wouldn’t be seeing Kuyo this time around, it was better to focus on his mission for once.

~

“Every time a lost one escapes the walls we risk the fall of Agwin.”

For a royal kingdom, the King’s assembly room was awfully small. There was only enough room for him, Gou who was apparently hand of the king, and some woman with hot pink hair that Zeke had never seen in his life. The rest of the room’s inhabitants, including himself and Rein, were forced to stand shoulder to shoulder along the walls.

Zeke nudged his fellow operator, though his body was still sore from their little fight earlier, he knew Rein wouldn’t start anything in such a crowded room so he could annoy her to his heart’s content.

“You’re from Agwin right?” Zeke asked and Rein threw him a mean glare. While none of the operators talked about their origins much, mainly because some of them had only known the paradox agency, Zeke had at least known of a version of Rein that had been from Agwin. In his original universe, Rein was just some poor girl from the desert—that was Agwin—and he had only paid attention to the color of her hair before disregarding her.

The girl shook her head before brushing her short unruly hair from her face. “The people of Agwin are dead to me. In this universe and every other.”

“Damn, what did they do to you?”

Rein’s glare somehow hardened, and she whipped her head away from Zeke before she changed her mind about pummeling him in the assembly room.

Still, she could recognize beneath Zeke general ‘assholery’ that he was confused about the identities of the people in front of him. So, she explained under her breath so that attention wouldn’t be drawn to them. “That man in the middle with the awful rattail is Broven, he’s obviously the king of Agwin if you used your context clues correctly.”

“I don’t know what guards were stationed inside the walls of Wellston,” Broven continued, shaking his head as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “At least three people escape in a week and there are reports of food vendors being looted almost every day. Our people are supposed to feel safe from the citizens of Wellston. How can they do so when those filthy people are breaking into their homes and stealing their stuff?”

The woman with hot pink hair huffed, tossing her pigtail just for show with a small noise. “The people of Wellston have to rely on brute force to get what they want now,” she giggled, “how the times have changed.”

“That brat,” Rein grit out after a moment had passed, “is Melody. She’s usually a nobody throughout the universe’s but she seems to have won the king over in this one.”

“Are they together?”

“Dunno, she had a boyfriend in my universe, and it wasn’t Broven.”

“Scandalous.”

Despite herself, Rein gave a chuckle at that.

At the table, Gou gave Melody a pointed look. “Whether it’s through brute force or not, the fact of the matter is that the people of Wellston are escaping the walls.”

An unsettled shift ran through everyone in the room. Despite Agwin having power over Wellston in every sense of the word, it almost seemed as if they were afraid they could lose that power at any moment. Zeke hummed to himself, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he pondered, ‘can they lose their power that easily?’ He and Rein hadn’t figured out how Agwin gained power in the first place, and there hadn’t been time to meet up with Rei and Ventus to see if they learned anything.

‘If they suddenly gained power, then surely they can lose that power just as fast.’ Zeke racked his thoughts for anything they might have seen along the way. Rei and Ventus had runes on their hands to symbolize their status as “lost ones,” but there were no such runes on the people of Agwin. So it wasn’t like one rune gave people powers and the other took them away.

“Why don’t we just get rid of Wellston once and for all,” someone, Zeke didn’t care to see who, spoke up from along the wall. “They’re just sitting ducks; it would be easy for us to take them out.”

Zeke would have to agree, there was no reason for Agwin to keep Wellston behind the walls other than just for their sick satisfaction. There was some appeal to that he supposed, torturing the people who used to torture you, if that’s what you could call it. He would have to speak to Ventus to fully understand what had happened between Agwin and Wellston, or not, his job was just to destroy this place anyway.

Which is why he spoke next, he ignored the scathing look Rein shot at him.

“How about we ambush the place?”

Broven raised his head from where it had been resting in his hands, though he narrowed his eyes at Zeke, he lifted a hand to prompt the operator to continue.

“Who else is left in Wellston anyway, anyone important?” Zeke asked, though he knew nothing of the situation inside the walls and was just speaking from his butt. But a shot in the dark was better than nothing. He continued, “is it any fun to parade around as they used to anymore? We have the power and they don’t, they’re not fighting that anymore they’re just searching for food.”

“Does that really give us the right to kill them all?” Gou challenged, unlike Broven, his hard stare was out of disappointment. “Because that’s what you were implying, isn’t it Zeke?”

Zeke shrugged adding, “either that or tear the walls down and let them fend for themselves. You’re afraid of them regaining power, get rid of them.”

A conflicted mumble went throughout the room, people agreeing with Zeke about putting an end to Wellston, and others arguing about the ethics of it all. But none of that mattered to Zeke, a grin split across his face, his mission was to destroy this place. It didn’t matter if the way he did that was perfectly ethical or not.

Chapter Text

Whatever Meili had given to him was strong, Seraphina had taken one of the pills and her eyes had instantly drooped, though the color had slightly returned to her skin so that was a good sign. The next couple of minutes had passed in silence as John and Arlo worked together to make Seraphina as warm as possible. They had taken the few blankets they had and made a small pallet to lay her on, using their jackets to cover her up where she lay next to the heater.

“Is it good for her to be breathing near this thing?” John asked, all of his knowledge about gas heaters pointing toward this being a very bad idea.

Arlo shrugged. ‘Very helpful,’ John thought.

The blonde grunted as he pushed himself up to his feet, turning to John and gesturing toward the door with his head. John looked back at Seraphina for a moment longer before getting up as well and going to Arlo’s side, the other boy making sure Seraphina was asleep before speaking lowly.

“We obviously don’t have the supplies to sustain her while she fights this illness, John.”

John’s brows furrowed; they had just gone on a supply run, albeit a useless one, but John had expected a little more time to pass before they needed to sneak out again. “We can just loot the soldiers guarding the wall again, they had barely anything on them,” the traveler pointed out, “we’d have to actually leave the walls.”

Unfortunately, it seemed as though Arlo was following the same train of thought, as he needed and cast a quick glance outside through one of the windows. “It’s risky, but people do it all the time, you would think they’d tighten security.”

‘They haven’t?’ John pondered, perplexed, because why would Agwin just let people escape without doing anything about it? It was no doubt that they were eventually thrown back into the walls, as there were no rumors of people making it out and regaining their abilities or making a new life for themselves. The director hadn’t mentioned seeking help beyond the walls, so John had simply assumed that anyone who made it out either got captured or didn’t return at all.

“From what Seraphina has found,” Arlo continued, crossing his arms against his chest, “there’s food stalls not far from the walls, but they’re too close to the palace for us to go unnoticed. Robbing a simple supply cart or a vendor just outside of the walls is easy. But if we want actual sustenance we’ll have to go further.”

John supposed that made sense, they weren’t exactly the most inconspicuous looking individuals. Torn and tattered clothing didn’t blend in well with wealthy and well-off citizens, they would be spotted instantly and carted right back where they came from. “So how do we get there?” John asked anyway, not at all surprised when Arlo breathed another sigh.

“Getting out isn’t the hard part, you saw how easy it was to rob those guards earlier, it’s not getting caught once we get into Agwin. Theoretically, if we could find disguises it would make things a lot easier.”

“Why don’t we just use brute force?”

“What?”

While John gave himself credit for getting better over the years, he wouldn’t deny that punching his way through things had worked before…at least for a short while. If there were any situation where that method actually seemed appropriate, it was likely this one. “There were only what, three guards when we robbed that cart? We take them all down and steal their outfits, and then we can walk out of the walls with no problem.”

“First of all,” Arlo muttered with a shake of his head, “there were four guards, if we weren’t already outnumbered, we don’t have abilities, and they do. They would overpower us in a second.”

‘Damn it,’ John thought, he had forgotten that Agwin had abilities. None of the guards he’d seen stationed around Wellston had used theirs, even when people were practically hanging off their legs begging for mercy. John frowned, ‘actually, why do they have weapons if they have abilities?’

“Arlo, have you ever seen the guards use their abilities?”

Said boy frowned, looking down at his shoes as he chewed on his bottom lip before looking up at John and shaking his head. “If they need to calm a crowd down, they usually use those lances they carry. Do you think they can’t use their abilities inside of the walls either?”

That would be a horrible oversight, John thought, but it was plausible. If Agwin had put the runes in the walls to obstruct any ability usage, then they would have likely done so before gaining abilities themselves and therefore hadn’t accounted for their own powers being limited. And so, the runes on their hands had to be to level the playing field; if Agwin couldn’t use their abilities inside the walls then they had to make sure Wellston couldn’t use theirs if they happened to get out.

John met Arlo’s eyes with a smirk, this could work then. If they could overpower the guards, then they could don their clothes as a disguise and take as many supplies as they needed.

He just had to hope this Arlo was good at fighting.

~

What John had not accounted for was the guards stationed at the wall to be Zeke and this universe’s version of Rein. The traveler swallowed a gulp as he and Arlo crouched low in the grass, just as they had done before, but he swore Zeke knew they were there as the man kept looking over in their direction.

John hadn’t had many conversations with his universe’s version of Rein before he left to be a traveler. Arlo had rescued her from Spectre, she went to jail, got rescued from jail and then went on her way after everything had blown over. Blyke and Remi had tried to stay in touch with her, Remi claiming they could help her work through whatever was troubling her, but the silver haired girl had refused and returned to Agwin without another thought.

This Rein had super short hair and a permanent glare on her face, not helping to quell John’s nerves at all with Zeke and his ever-present smirk standing at her side.

“John,” Arlo whispered while nudging the traveler in the side. “Are we jumping them or not?”

John sucked in a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he nodded. “I’ll take the guy, you get the girl,” he stated, and ignored Arlo’s frown. He didn’t have time for this Arlo to have a dilemma over whether it was okay to hit a girl, his Arlo had never cared about that, John smothered the laugh that bubbled up his throat at the thought.

They crept through the grass, keeping behind the supply cart in hopes of getting the jump on the guards. John’s fist balled at his side, if he could grab Zeke from behind then he could swiftly knock the other boy out, hopefully Arlo would be able to do the same thing with Rein.

‘Okay, now or never,’ John thought as he passed a nod to Arlo, and they moved.

Zeke had him down in a chokehold in less than a second.

Venom green eyes narrowed then widened in barely restrained glee as he peered down at the restrained traveler. “My my,” Zeke leered as he leaned in close to John’s face, practically breathing right into his ear, “If it isn’t my favorite traveler. To what do I owe the pleasure?” John scrambled for Zeke’s hands, working his hardest to push the other boy off and away from him.

Zeke laughed loudly, punching John in the nose with a sickening crack before kicking him away. “Poor lost one trying to find a way out of the walls huh?”

John wiped at his nose, a warm liquid trickling down his wrist as he jumped up to his feet again. ‘Okay, maybe my plan sucked,’ he lamented as he brought his fist up into a fighting stance. He had anticipated the guards putting up a fight, maybe a small struggle, but Zeke had thrown his entire plan into a frenzy and now he wasn’t sure if they would make it out at all. John spared a glance toward Arlo and found him in a similar situation, he and Rein locked in a battle of fists, and it seemed like Arlo was losing.

‘But, as long as they can’t use their abilities, we should be good,’ John assured himself. After all, even if Zeke had extra powers as a paradox operator, he couldn’t risk exposing himself in front of Rein and disrupting his mission.

The traveler shook off his nerves and threw a right hook toward Zeke’s face. The operator dodged, reeling back for a kick that collided with John’s side, the other boy grunted, but used Zeke’s momentum to grab his leg and throw him to the ground. Zeke went with a shout, unfortunately he was also quick to recover and was back on John in a moment.

“Shit,” John cursed as Zeke’s arms wrapped around his torso, hard punch after hard punch hit his abdomen with way more strength than Zeke should have possessed. ‘Maybe he is using his ability,’ John pondered as he brought his knee up into Zeke’s crotch, shoving the other boy off of him as he gagged.

As a traveler, he should also be able to use his ability regardless of the rune on his hand. Unfortunately, his damn ability relied on others using theirs first, so he was shit out of luck with this fight.

“Not bad Johnny boy,” Zeke cackled, stepped back just enough to have John pause before swiftly turning and swinging his leg hard toward John’s neck.

John yelped as he brought his arms up to block, hearing and feeling an unpleasant crunch rattle his bones as Zeke’s leg collided with him. His fingers tingled, an unpleasant warmth spreading through his veins as he staggered backward. ‘Why is he so strong?’ John sidestepped another kick, ducking low when another was aimed at his head and used Zeke’s distraction to swipe his other leg out from under him.

 ‘Or rather, why do I feel so weak?’ John was by no means new at hand-to-hand combat, in fact, he would say he was better with that than using his ability. But since he started his fight with Zeke, it had felt like his strength was slowly being sapped out of him. Was it the runes in the walls, John spared a second to glance at the glowing runes spread through the walls around Wellston.

Just where that hell did the director send him?

“Hey John.”

John snapped back just in time to avoid Zeke’s flying fist, but not soon enough to avoid the operator tackling him to the ground and pinning his arms above his head. “This is very weird Zeke, are you trying to tell me something?” John couldn’t help but tease, if only so that it gave him some leverage over the situation again.

Zeke didn’t find it very amusing, if his sudden grimace told John anything, but it made him laugh so that was a bonus.

“John, why do you believe your director is the good guy here?”

“Why do you think your commander is the good one?”

Zeke huffed with a dramatic eye roll before continuing, “our commander fights against imbalance in the world. For what does yours fight?”

‘My director fights against people like your commander! What do you mean fighting against imbalance; you people are the ones causing the imbalance!’

But no words came from John’s mouth, and Zeke smirked down at him like he always did before roughly shoving off of John and stepping back. “Run along Johnny boy and take your stupid friend with you.”

John looked up to see Arlo holding his bloodied cheek from where he sat mere feet away from Rein. Her fists were bloody, her glare hard and burning into John’s as she spat on the ground.

“This world belongs to us John, accept your defeat, and make this easier for us.”

Chapter Text

“Wow…the two of you suck at your jobs, just goes to prove that you two need me to get anything done.”

John winced when Seraphina pressed the edge of her cloak against his cheek where a thin cut was located. The girl was a lot livelier when he and Arlo returned and had simply laughed at their beaten-up state before beckoning them over to patch the boys up. John had to sigh, at least once he wanted to see a version of Seraphina that didn’t chuckle at him, but he figured that was universally out of character for her.

Arlo huffed from where he sat against the wall, having refused Seraphina’s fussing and decided to clean himself up on his own. “At least we confirmed that the people of Agwin can’t use their abilities inside the walls. Seems they’ve screwed themselves over while trying to take us down.”

“Why haven’t we just bulldozed the walls down yet?”

“Bulldoze?”

John ignored Seraphina’s question for the moment and crossed his arms in thought. If he wanted to stop paradox from destroying this universe, he needed to figure out what they had broken in the first place. All things were pointing toward the discord between Wellston and Agwin, especially after John had seen Zeke among the Agwin guards. Knowing Zeke and his destructive tendencies, John could assume that the operators following plans were likely to either destroy Wellston or destroy moral enough that the people of Wellston eventually destroyed themselves.

 “We have to get rid of these runes,” John muttered, that would be the first step in stopping paradox.

“Well duh,” Seraphina droned, sitting back as she’d finished cleaning John’s face off, “but we still have no idea how Agwin put them there in the first place.”

“The ones on our skin or in the walls?”

Seraphina paused, holding a hand to her chin as she muttered more to herself than the other boys. “Well, the ones in the walls appeared out of the blue one day, we had just held a festival and Agwin had been invited out of goodwill.”

John held his tongue, in his experience, the people of Wellston didn’t do much out of goodwill.

“King Broven had mentioned having a gift for Wellston,” Seraphina continued, “but that gift never arrived because the runes in are walls appeared the next day and the rest is of course history.”

A gift, John mused, whatever that gift was had to have been what cursed the people of Wellston. But Seraphina had said the gift never arrived, but the curse still had, so what had Agwin done during that festival to put the runes in the walls overnight?

John groaned, holding his head in his hands at the standstill he came to. All things considered, he knew that the best way to find answers would be to find a way in Agwin’s palace, but considering his place in society, that was going to be a near impossible task.

According to Arlo, sneaking out of Wellston was an easy task—ignoring Zeke’s surprise appearance from earlier— but he hadn’t heard of anyone getting into the castle, and he was sure if he asked Sera, she was just going to tell him that those who tried had died. Seraphina was a self-proclaimed expert at getting out of the walls, but if he wanted to find out more about the runes, he needed an expert in breaking into the castle.

‘Where the hell am I gonna find someone like that?’

“Do you think the gangs know how to break into the castle?” John threw the question out there regardless of the shock written across Sera and Arlo’s faces, it was at least worth a shot. “I mean come on,” the traveler continued, “the answers to the runes have to be somewhere in the castle. Maybe they have a sorcerer, or a witch casting spells on the walls of Wellston, and we would never know because they’re locked up in the tower.”

Arlo blinked, giving John one blissful moment where his words didn’t sound incredibly stupid. “First off John, sorcerer’s and witches don’t exist, and there’s no tower in Agwin’s palace where they could be locked up.”

John blamed his past adventure to the imperial city universe for that idea.

“Secondly,” Arlo continued, “there was one gang that managed to make it into the palace a few years ago, as you would expect, they were all caught.” Arlo’s eyes cast down, a shadow crossing his features as his lips pressed into a thin line. “Gou and the rest of his guards marched into Wellston the next day, lined every single gang member who had been caught in the middle of the square, and had them all executed.”

John’s heart stuttered. “As…as in he killed them?”

“Beheaded, for all of Wellston to see.”

John gulped the lump of bile that began to rise up his throat at the visual. The traveler hoped that he would never meet Gou throughout his time in this universe, he didn’t know if he would feel the urge to run or beat the shit out of the man and that thought scared him.

Seraphina shuddered next to him, drawing her cloak further around her shoulders as she bitterly shook her head. “Only one person escaped, and from what I’ve heard she’s never left the walls since then.”

“Who is she?”

“Meili, her gang covets most of the medicine here in Wellston.”

John paused, ‘Meili?’ He had just seen her hours ago and the girl seemed ready to stick it to Agwin at the drop of a pin. Had that just been a façade, or had time healed her wounds and gave her the confidence to try and storm Agwin again? She had clearly rebuilt the gang and made herself the leader, building up enough of a reputation that the people of Wellston knew her name and her dealings. John wondered if she could be swayed to help him and his friends into the Agwin palace.

‘Or…’ John had a thought, one young man with bright green hair appearing in his thoughts as an idea came to mind. ‘He and Ventus seem smart, smarter than the average Wellston citizen that is. I wonder if Meili would be willing to spare those two to get us into the palace?’

That problem aside, John would also have to give Seraphina and Arlo a good excuse for grabbing these two random guys and suddenly proposing they all break into the palace of Agwin.

“John… what are you scheming in that head of yours?”

Well, if Seraphina was going to give him an opening, he might as well take it.

“Okay,” John launched into his proposal while standing because he always expressed his thoughts better while pacing. “Basically, I met Meili when I went to find medicine for you Sera, and she has a pretty big following like you said. Her gang has both the numbers and manpower, I assume, to break into Agwin’s palace.”

Arlo and Sera blessedly stayed silent, giving John the time to air his thoughts out, but Arlo was staring at him with very clear disapproval.

“Also, when I went to get the medicine, I met these two guys that just…” John trailed off, how did he explain that he just felt like Rei and Ventus were capable of helping them, “they expressed that they’re also looking into the runes and how to get rid of them. So essentially, I think if we teamed up with Meili’s gang, we’d have a good chance of getting into the castle.”

Seraphina hummed, “not a bad idea, but we’d have to convince Meili, who doesn’t know us and only met you for like a minute, to help us get into the castle.” Seraphina shook her head, the idea becoming increasingly ridiculous the more she thought on it, and eventually went silent.

Arlo picked off where she had stopped, “we get where you’re going with this John, but there’s too many unpredictable elements to this strategy, it’s just not going to work.”

But was there a better plan, or were Arlo and Sera simply content with sitting inside the walls for the rest of their lives and rotting? “It’s worth a shot though,” John tried, “what’s the worst that can happen, we get thrown back in here and come up with a new plan?”

“Or we get beheaded John.”

John had briefly forgotten about that, he wasn’t sure if the director’s powers could bring him back if he died on a mission. Though thankfully he had never heard of anyone dying during a mission, so that was comforting.

“You know what, I say we try.” John had to gawk as Arlo stood up as well and dusted off his pants. “If we die while doing so, at least we know we tried to better our circumstances rather than lay down and give up. I don’t necessarily want to die, but it might be a mercy compared to living like this forever.”

John could count on one hand the number of times he had willingly agreed with Arlo, and now he could use two.

“I think that’s a great idea.”

John jumped, a startled yelp slipping from his mouth at the foreign voice, and then face peering through one of their open windows. “Rei?” He exclaimed, clicking his tongue at the friendly wave he received from the older boy, who had Ventus smiling behind him like they were both two puppies that sniffed out a treat.

“So, we’re sneaking into the royal palace?”

“How long have you been listening?”

John sighed and made a mental note to watch out for the elusive Rei whenever he next needed to have a private conversation with someone.

Chapter Text

Despite his confidence when it came to stealing the documents, Kuyo found himself hesitating when it came to actually opening them. This was treason, no matter how you shaped it, and if he didn’t find something and got caught with these documents then there was a good chance he was going to get fired. He huffed to himself, not that he really cared about getting fired, but it would be unfortunate.

The folder labeled ‘Paradox Observations’ was thinner than the other, not surprising considering the other folder contained information on the paradox operators. Kuyo fiddled with the edge of the locked folder, he had never been curious about the enemy before. Afterall, he had joined the agency to find a way to save Rei, not fight some evil force. There was no one of note that came to mind when he pictured the paradox operators, though he was sure he had some run ins with them in the past.

He knew for sure that Zeke was a paradox operator, he had been an annoying underclassman in his original universe, but John had explained too many run ins with the prick for it to be mere coincidence. Some version of Zeke had been approached by the commander and now made it his life’s mission to reap havoc on other worlds.

Shaking his head, Kuyo tossed the locked parchment aside on his bed and picked up the other one.

‘What if I find out the director is secretly the evil one?’

Though could either the director or commander really be considered good or evil?

‘There’s no time for this.’

Deciding enough was enough, Kuyo flipped open the manilla folder; parchments and small leaflets fell into his lap along with a few coins that he simply set aside.

June 18, 20XX

It is currently morning, yet I find myself more tired than I have ever been in past years. I manage over 150 travelers on a daily basis, many of whom have less than pleasant dispositions, and I still have never been this exhausted.

Twenty universes, all gone in the blink of an eye.

We can defy time and space, but her whereabout still evade me. I sent Zirian and Lyle to do clean up under the guise that the universe simply collapsed after they left, assuring them both that something must have been wrong with my analysis and that it wasn’t a mistake on their part. Leilah and Brennet were sent to another, and I considered sending Kuyo on cleaning up as well; that was partially a thought to get him out of the slump he’s been in, but I decided against it.

It still perplexes me that after years of constantly creating for her very existence, I have yet to make a safe haven where she can exist peacefully. Thus, I have nothing to document for this cycle, these are merely ramblings from a man driven mad with love.

Kuyo frowned at the paper in his hand, the writing only filling about half of the page before it was cut off. No signature at the bottom meant the other remained anonymous, but from the tone and language used Kuyo could deduce that it was the director speaking. But who was this ‘her’ that he constantly referenced, the commander, a lover, a friend from a distant past?

‘A man driven mad with love,’ Kuyo thought to himself, then chuckled, ‘guess none of us can truly let go of someone, can we?’

Moving on, Kuyo decided to read another pamphlet, this one dated a few months back from the first.

February 7, 20XX

I discovered a common denominator in the universe’s Paradox’s commander destroys. Of course, I have always known that she loathes any universe she cannot step foot into, but upon further investigation, I found that most destroyed universes had experienced a form of power struggle before their ultimate demise.

As an example, I will use the sprawling forest kingdom of Grasshill.

The most recent mission I sent Ella on; I had her pose as one of the elves native to the water kingdom of Lovun. Her mission was to recover a stolen relic that the people of Grasshill had taken from Lovun, one that belonged to their queen and gave her the power she needed to sustain the elves. Ella is a capable traveler, and thus completed her mission with relative ease, however, the universe collapsed due to the interference of various Paradox operators soon after.

A notable figure is Ventus, but he and Ella did not come into direct contact. Ella’s report stated that she overheard Ventus talking with another operator about the “unfairness of it all.”

I must admit I was not sure what he meant by that, until I took a deep look at what had happened between Grasshill and Lovun.

Lovun’s elves had healing powers and Grasshill had been at war prior to the theft, upon being refused medical assistance from the elves, Grasshill began abducting elves and forcing them into servitude. This would bring the two kingdoms to blows and result in the rune being stolen and the elves beginning to lose their powers.

The power struggle, the blatant disrespect between races, is something the commander hates.

I, of course, am the one who understands that best.

I will take this into account when I send travelers on future missions, we will see if there is a way to reach the Paradox base if we can get to these struggling universes before she does.

The note ended, and Kuyo let it deftly slip from his fingers, mind reeling. He had noticed a common theme in his mission as of late; they all had the same theme, the imperial city of Wellston, the battle kingdoms he and Rei led, all of them were instances where the strong preyed on the weak, or power was withheld from those who needed it most.

From the director’s words, this occurrence was what made the paradox commander destroy universes. ‘But what grudge does she have with that particular topic?’ It was obvious that the commander and director were intimately involved with one another, and Kuyo would assume that they had been friends in the past, if the director hadn’t described himself as a man “driven mad by love.”

Setting the documents aside for a moment, Kuyo brought his hands up to his temples and tried to put together what he now knew. ‘The commander and director know each other, possibly from a time before they held their current positions,’ he concluded, ‘the director can create universes while the commander seems only able to destroy them.’ That didn’t explain why the director was creating universes for her however. Kuyo looked back at the first document, looking for anything he might have missed.

“A safe haven where she can exist peacefully,” Kuyo read aloud, “there are certain universes the commander can’t enter…” Now that he thought about it, Kuyo had never heard of nor seen the director enter another universe himself. He was always sending them on missions but had never appeared in person to assist them or anything like that.

“I wonder what universe they came from,” he muttered idly as he picked up the next paper. This one was dated quite a while back, it even had yellow pages to go along with it.

September 20, 19XX

Eloise and I have decided what to do for our wedding. We want to make use of our abilities and incorporate them into the wedding ceremony. For my part, I’ll be creating a small universe within our own that will function as the venue. It’ll be decorated with all of the flowers that Eloise likes, along with a white runway that I think is supposed to be the aisle. I dunno, Eloise didn’t tell me what it was, she just said that she wanted it.

Typically, only I would be able to enter this universe I made. Useful when I want to escape for a while but not when I’m trying to marry the love of my life. However! We discovered that Eloise could use her ability to travel between realities to enter my universe! That’s so cool, and it’s something only we can do!

You know, I was originally worried when the doctor said it wasn’t safe for Eloise to continue using her ability. But she’s been using it recently and seems to be just fine, which means the wedding is still a go!

Oh, I forgot to mention, but we carved our names on the tree where we met when we were kids. Our initials from all those years ago are still there, but now under the ‘R and E’ are the names Ryker and Eloise. Aren’t we cute!

Kuyo didn’t really know what to make of this note, it just seemed like the ramblings of a starstruck teenage boy. Though it did reveal two things that Kuyo would have to make use of, the names of the director and the commander.

Ryker and Eloise, respectively.

“Well, that makes this much easier,” Kuyo laughed to himself as he picked the locked folder back up. The digital lock at six spaces, and as Kuyo pressed his finger against them, a holographic letter popped up. “Really, you see this thing in movies all the time,” Kuyo prattled as he started typing the name ‘Eloise’ into the lock, “the director couldn’t have come up with a better idea?” As the last letter was filled in, the lock came off with a click and bounced off Kuyo’s knee on its way to the bed. The manila folder, though yes it was thick, suddenly felt very heavy in his hands.

Kuyo’s hands suddenly shook, and his heart began to beat fast in his chest. The traveler pushed a gulp down, unsure as to why he was so nervous all of a sudden, what exactly was he expecting to see in this document? He had no emotional connection with any of the travelers in the agency, it didn’t matter if some of them turned out to be double agents, it didn’t matter what the director was hiding from them.

Kuyo flipped open the folder slowly.

The first paper had a picture of Zeke with a brief description of his appearance and temperament written under the photo. ‘Unsurprising,’ Kuyo thought as he read the words “his primary missions include conquering and destroying.” There was nothing important on Zeke’s page, other than the fact that he was violent and often didn’t work well in a team. There were some bullet points on his ability, nothing dissimilar to his ‘phase shift’ ability from Kuyo’s universe, though he did note that it seemed to be a little stronger when it came to defense.

Feeling a little disappointed, Kuyo turned to the next operator page and felt his heart stop.

“A manifestation of pure aura, born in the paradox agency as a seer, with an affinity for lightning. Because his existence is a paradox itself, he is cursed to die at the end of every mission.”

He is cursed to die at the end of every mission.

He is cursed to die at the end of every mission.

“He is cursed to die.”

A tremor ran through Kuyo’s body, mouth going dry as he stared down at the picture of his best friend.

His best friend who was…evil.

His best friend who had soulless dim golden eyes with a blue ocean shadowed under his pupils. Who had long green hair with streaks, like lightning, running from his roots to tips of his braid. His best friend whose eyes shone with a white clock in his iris, whose back was pictured with a large clock tattooed across his skin.

 Kuyo roughly tossed the file aside before throwing himself to the floor and promptly threw up.

Chapter Text

“So…” John trailed off, whistled, and then decided no one else was going to try and make conversation. Seraphina and Arlo trailed at the back of the group; himself, Rei, and Ventus led from the front as they made their way to the walls for another escape attempt.

In hindsight, John wasn’t surprised at the awkward silence permeating the air. Arlo and Sera were unfamiliar with their sudden two companions, and Rei and Ventus were simply along for the ride.

But still, John had to sigh, yes, they would end up sneaking around but there was no point in walking in silence.

“Rei,” John tried again, the green-haired boy looked the most approachable so he might as well start with him. Although, what exactly was he supposed to talk about, their dreadful circumstances? Rei seemed a bit more chipper than the rest of his crew though, it was nice to see someone in high spirits around the desolate kingdom.

Rei hummed and John startled, he hadn’t said anything after calling Rei’s name and had just left him hanging. “Oh! Have you ever been outside the walls?” It was a shitty attempt at conversation, but at least John was trying.

The older boy nodded, long braids swaying lightly behind his shoulders. “One time, I did get thrown back in pretty quickly after, but I was able to catch a look at the fields beyond the walls,” Rei explained, and once again John was stumped over how mesmerized he seemed with Rei. If Remi’s brother had been alive in his original universe—assuming he and Remi were on good terms—John probably would’ve come up with any excuse to hang out with Rei if only to hear his voice.

‘I understand Kuyo, I really understand.’

But back to the fields, John hadn’t gotten a chance to look around the universe before he was thrown into the walls. Though he supposed that was the case for every mission he took, just once it might be nice to explore the universe he was working in rather than going straight to his mission. ‘Huh, maybe I’ll suggest that when I get back,’ he thought, it could be useful to boost morale and make people take missions more readily.

Leilah specifically would like that, she always said finding a universe to vacation in was more enticing than work—

“They weren’t that nice,” Arlo suddenly huffed from the back, “at least not from what I remember.”

At his side, Seraphina chuckled. “You were never one for enjoying nature though, were you Arlo? I bet you miss fresh grass now,” she teased, and Arlo simply grumbled under his breath.

John hadn’t thought much about it, despite overwriting the version of John that existed in this universe, he didn’t have too many memories about that John’s relationship with Arlo and Sera. They seemed close at least, close enough that Sera and Arlo didn’t look at him like scum whenever he spoke, but those two seemed closer with each other than they did with John.

His upper lip curled involuntarily, for no reason in particular.

John turned his head when Rei softly laughed, Ventus staring at him as blankly as ever, but his mouth was set in a small smile. ‘That’s an odd duo,’ John idly thought as Seraphina and Arlo continued to bicker. He had no idea who Rei was before Remi brought him up, though he was sure he would have heard of the older boy had he gone to Wellston since his first year rather than transferring.

Ventus on the other hand, he wasn’t close to Remi and was simply a goon to Arlo, he had no reason to know or associate himself with Rei. ‘I mean, relationships can vary across every universe, but they usually maintain some sort of consistency.’ For example, Remi, Blyke, and Isen were pretty much always a trio, maybe a duo if one of them happened to be absent. John had only seen Evie once, but Terrance and Roland had been with her both times.

It was an odd pairing for sure, but John had seen weirder things.

Seraphina and Arlo were married in one universe, that had been horrifying.

John’s musing came to an end as they approached the towering walls surrounding their kingdom. They’d had to crouch down earlier than before, being a bigger group, and slunk against the walls just as they’d always done. Seraphina and Arlo made their way up to the front, being more familiar with this specific route and the ones with the plan.

“Me and John got our asses beat earlier,” the blonde had said.

“No the hell we did not!” John had tried to argue, but no one was paying him any mind. Rei just laughed at him and Ventus idly nodded. They were all sitting in a circle in the middle of the floor, it would have been nice if they had a fire to sit around, aesthetic too, but life wasn’t good enough for that.

Arlo rolled his eyes before continuing, “regardless, we’re obviously not the ones who need to do the fighting. Seraphina’s illness is worsening so I doubt she’ll be any use.” Arlo ignored the pointed look Seraphina threw at him, staying ignorant at the fist she pretended to punch him with. “Are the two of you any good with hand-to-hand combat?”

Rei had shaken his head, John pursing his lips in doubt, he had seen pictures of Rei before and that man had been ripped. But it was a different universe after all.

Ventus thankfully nodded, smacking a fist against his head with a dramatic nod. “I can hold at least two people off, or at least create a distraction long enough for us to get out.”

John had been all for the show of force, it would be nice to get the guards back for the absolutely ass whooping he and Arlo had received. However, Seraphina shook her head, shuffling forward as if to further indicate that it was her turn to speak. “We’ve learned several times that brute force does nothing in our favor, though I agree that we can use it as a distraction.

“Ventus, Rei, the two of you can pretend to fight within eye shot of the guards, that way they have reason to leave the carts. That’s part one of our distraction.”

John, Seraphina, and Arlo stayed hunched down behind the carts as Ventus threw himself out into the guard’s field of view. They drew their weapons immediately, but paused upon watching Rei approach with clear intent of beating the shit out of Ventus.

“I told you; it was my bread!” Ventus shouted as he pushed himself to his feet, dodging Rei’s fist that flew toward his face and grabbing Rei’s outstretched arm. “You’re lucky I even offered you a piece, but that you had to give it away to that stupid gang!” Ventus’s knee went to slam into Rei’s stomach, but the older boy spun away, using his still trapped arm to wrap around Ventus neck and pull hard.

“You wanted medicine didn’t you, we had to make a trade.” The guards, thankfully not Rein and Zeke this time, were staring in awe at the sight before them, one of them muttered something about ‘brutes’ to the other.

Seraphina cleared her throat, turning her head toward the unguarded cart, then they moved.

Arlo crawled through the cloth covering as Seraphina shuffled her way under the cart. The food carts weren’t brought in by horse, from what Seraphina had told him and his vague memories, they were hauled in by whatever group of guards had the morning shift and switched out whenever the staff changed.

John snickered as he unfastened one of the wheels, hearing a similar chuckle from underneath the cart where Seraphina was followed by a near inaudible click. ‘Great,’ John mentally cheered, all they had to do was wait for Arlo to finish his part and they’d be golden.

One of the guards cleared their throat, raising a hand toward the bickering duo while keeping his distance. “The two of you need to knock it off and get away from the walls, we can both see what you’re doing.”

“Can they really though?” Arlo piped up, finished with his part of the plan and rejoined Seraphina and John under the cart.

The trio inched their way backwards, keeping their eyes on the guards lest one of them decide to turn around. Once they were in the clear, Arlo pulled the apple he had nabbed from one of the baskets then lobbed it toward the cart.

“What the—”

The guards turned away from the fight and gaped at the state of their cart. The apple had knocked the wheel John loosened away, causing the cart to shift to the side before splitting open from the center where Seraphina had cut a hole in the bottom. One crack led to another, and the cart was collapsing under itself, food and supplies spilling out of the curtain thanks to Arlo tearing open all of their baskets.

“Shit!” One of the guards swore, the two rushing over to try and salvage some of their goods.

They were so distracted by the destruction of their cart, that neither of them had noticed Rei and Ventus sneaking up on them, until they were smacked over the head and effectively knocked out.

“I cannot believe that worked,” Ventus commented, shaking his head as he threw the piece of wood on the ground. John had to agree, when Seraphina proposed the idea, it had sounded just as outlandish as their brute force plan from before. But it had worked, so they couldn’t complain too much.

~

Despite having to sneak around once they entered Agwin, there wasn’t a corner or alley that didn’t display the magnificence of the kingdom. Everything was golden, the palace was golden, market vendors were golden; if John had to guess, the people of Agwin liked the color gold.

Thankfully, shining golden towers cast a lot of shadows, helping their cloaked and hooded group stay hidden from any prying eyes.

Seraphina, at the front of the group, suddenly paused.

The shining gold of Agwin was decorated with red banners, colorful beats strewn across the streets as people danced, ate, and simply enjoyed a merry life. Kids ran past the shadows, unaware of the strangers invading the city, their bare feet tapping along the ground and beads jingling as they ran.

The sweet smell of cake wafted to his nose, John’s eyes finding a short lovely looking woman passing out small slices to the young girls that walked by; boys trying to impress their crushes left with arms full of treats and a smack on the ass from the woman. If John remembered anything about his mom, he might have tried to make a comparison.

“How is any of this fair?” Seraphina mumbled, the feeling of freezing water running down his back shocking John back to the present.

“It’s not.”

Despite Arlo’s grumbling, John couldn’t help but look back at their other two companions. Ventus looked indifferent, as usual, and Rei had a blank look on his face as well. John’s memories didn’t provide much about Wellston’s fall, and with Arlo and Sera being around the same age as him, John doubted that they knew too much about the inner dispute between the two kingdoms.

“What exactly happened?” John murmured, thankful that Rei and Ventus seemed to hear him, but Arlo and Sera didn’t.

Rei looked to Ventus who let out a sigh, ‘weird,’ John thought.

Ventus pointed to the towering golden palace, a yellow flag waving from the highest steeple with pride. “Wellston had a very similar palace, despite overthrowing us, Agwin has modeled almost their entire kingdom off of Wellston’s old design,” the boy explained. “Agwin saw the people of Wellston as gods, they wanted Wellston to use their powers for good.

“But all they used it for was to oppress the weak.”

John couldn’t help but sigh, wasn’t there one universe where Wellston wasn’t full of pieces of shit? In his original universe, the highschoolers were constantly stepping on those they thought were below them, and then were shocked when people like John started to fight back.

Rei rested a hand on John’s shoulder, giving him a sympathetic smile. “Human nature is often hard to understand sometimes, isn’t it?”

No, John thought, you just had to be a decent person and agree to disagree. There was no reason to be tearing each other down, and constantly putting someone in the ground just because you had something better than them.

“So, what can we do about it?”

“Well,” Arlo spoke, “the first thing we have to do is get rid of these runes.”

That was unfortunately true, which meant they would have to find a way into the palace. The best place to find the plans for Wellston’s destruction would be on the desks of the people orchestrating it after all.

John sighed, ‘one day, I’ll get a normal mission for once.’