Stepping through that rift was unlike any portal I had ever used. It was wrong. The second I did, the very moment my body passed through that tear in space and time, I knew that somehow I’d made a mistake. An awful mistake, one I might not even survive. Or maybe one I didn’t want to survive, if it meant the pain would continue.
Pain was the only word for it, at first. I was being ripped apart. Every piece of me, every atom of my body, was being torn in a different direction. My eyes melted into tiny pools and drifted away. My stomach was in my throat. My hands were inside out. My heart was being clenched in a vice. I was blind and I saw everything. I saw the spot I had just stepped through. I saw the entire planet Earth, not just like it was an image from orbit, but every part of it all at once. I saw clouds and dirt, rivers and cliffs, ancient cities and incredible spaceships. I saw tiny villages and vast cities. I saw it all, even as every part of my body seemed to be torn in different directions. I screamed, maybe. I wasn’t even sure by that point. It was so hard to tell.
Some distant part of me still clung to my identity, my thoughts, but it was incredibly faint. I was Felicity Chambers. I was Flick. I was Joselyn and Lincoln’s daughter. I was eighteen years old--wait, was I nineteen yet? When did I go back to the past? When did I--
Auuuuuugggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!! Agony returned. Had I been thinking, trying to remember, for a moment or an hour? Who was I agai--Flick. I was Flick. I had to be Fl--aaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuugggggggggghhh!! No, no, no more, don’t hurt me anymore! I can’t--I’m not--I can’t be--won’t be--I’m just one more face of--
-- us go! Another voice, not mine, but yes mine, screamed in my head. I knew the voice. Of course I knew the voice. It was me. Wait, no, not me. Can’t be me, I wasn’t thinking those words. Who was I when I wasn’t me? What did that even mean? What could it mean? It was nothing. I was nothing. I was pain, agony, loss, separated.
--- stop now, we’re still right here, you’re still here, wake up! Get up, damn it!
Voice again. Not me, but me. Who was I? Flick, Felicity, I was that. I was always that. Me. It was another me. This had to be me, through the pain and endless misery, it was me. I could go back to being me, if the pain would stop. Every part of me was being ripped away, like I was a piece of cotton candy being held under the water. I was disintegrating. I should have been gone already. I should have disappeared. This agony would have taken me apart and left nothing behind. My mind should have vanished into the ends of the universe and never been found. I should have been dead seconds, days, and eons ago. I should never have existed. I should have been wiped away. So why wasn’t I? Why was I still here? Why was I still me? The voice. The voice was clinging to me. The voice was holding me together, keeping me from fading the way I should have, the way the pain wanted me to. The pain was on one side, the voice on the other. They were ripping me in both directions, in every direction. No, no the pain was ripping me, the voice was holding me, clinging to me. It wouldn’t let me go, wouldn’t let the pain finish me. Why? Why couldn’t I go? Why couldn’t I just stop feeling this? The pain was so bad, it was all-encompassing, it was taking every molecule of my body and trying to rip it in a different direction, scattering the shattered remains of what I had been all the way into the far reaches not only of physical space, but time. The pain was trying to scatter me across the entire timeline of humanity, or even life itself. But something was holding me. The voice. Me? No, not me. It wasn’t me, but it was. It always had been but never would be. My voice, me, not my thoughts, a very different but identical me. A further me. It was me, another me, a bonus me, an… an…
Extra! My own voice, my real voice inside my head, screamed the name. I knew her, I knew who she was. Extra, it was Extra, the other me. She was there, right there. She was the one holding me together. No, not just her. She couldn’t have done it alone. The others were there too. She was in front, the one I could communicate with directly, but everyone else was holding onto me as well. The rest of the Flique were all stopping this inescapable agony from completely ripping me--us apart. They were holding onto me, but they couldn’t do it forever. I had to stop this, I had to--to find a way to make this pain go away. I had to--to think straight. I had to push through. But how? How could I even--aaaaaaaauuuggggghhh pain pain, nothing but agony tearing my mind into pieces, ripping through my body like a dagger just cutting me again and again. It was endless, I couldn’t think, couldn’t focus, couldn’t feel anything but pain.
Flick, that voice, now identified as Extra, spoke once more. Let me. Let us. We can help. Let go of it, let go of the pain. Stop holding it so much. Stop protecting us. We can make it better. You’re not alone, Flick. You’re never alone. We can share it.
And they did, just like that. The pain I was in halved. It wasn’t complete relief, but in that specific moment, it might as well have been. I felt Extra’s sudden cry of agony as she took on half of that pain. But then, just as suddenly, the pain we were both in halved again. Then again. And again. More and more of the Flique were taking on the pain themselves. They took part of it away over and over, spreading the agony amongst ourselves, amongst all of us so that each only had to bear a small part of it. There may have been about twenty members of the Flique who wanted to actively participate in fights, but there were two hundred who were awake inside that Archive. And right now, every single one of them was taking on part of that pain. It was spread apart so much, shared amongst so many of us, that I could barely feel it. Oh, it was still there, no question about that. It could still be distracting. But I could think finally. I could keep my mind focused through it, and actually try to find a way out of this.
Find a way out of what? A void. We weren’t in any physical space, as far as I could tell. We were drifting nowhere, in an empty area. We weren’t dead. What happened? Why--the rift. We had gone through the rift and now we were supposed to be on the Fomorian world. But we weren’t. Why? Why weren’t we--what--something went wrong. Something very bad. We had gone through the rift, but now we were here, with some sort of blinding agony that had been trying to rip us apart and scatter us across time and space. That was it. That rift had been wrong, bad. It almost destroyed us. Going through the rift had been like being pushed through a cheese grater. But why? Why was this happening? Was it just me? Was I the only one it happened to, or--
Percy! Was Percy okay? Were the others--what--did the rift do this to all of them? Were they--were they gone? No, no they couldn’t be. I had to find them, all of them and--Eurso! Where was Eurso, was he okay? Was he--no no no, please don’t let him be going through this agony too. It had to be just me, just us. Let Eurso be safe, please. I couldn’t even bear the thought of the sweet little armored raptor boy being in pain.
Flick, Extra urged, we need to get out of here. We need to push through, find a way to get--get back to where we need to be. We can’t stay here, we can’t bear this forever.
They couldn’t hold the agony back, couldn’t spread it out for too long. I knew that, of course. This--this pain, whatever it was, wherever it had come from, was trying to push itself back together, trying to come back to me alone. They were holding onto it, but it was hard. I had to find a way out of this, back to where we were supposed to be, before they lost their grip. If they did, if the full weight of that pain came back, I would never recover. It would be over, and we would be broken in a way that we’d never come back from. We had to get out of this before that happened. But how? How could we--this was a void. I tried focusing on teleporting back to a familiar spot, but nothing happened. I tried again, and again, yet the endless void remained. We were floating in gray nothingness. There was no ground under our feet, no landmarks, nothing. We were alone out here, together with ourselves yet apart from anything and anyone else. I wasn’t on Earth, so I couldn’t teleport anywhere. I couldn’t do anything. We couldn’t do anything. But we had to. We had to find a way. We couldn’t do it ourselves. I almost tried focusing on going back into the Archive, but that was pointless too. Our body would still be out here, and without me to help keep it together, the body itself might disintegrate. Then we would be gone. We needed the body, our body, for the Archive to exist. I couldn’t run away, couldn’t retreat. I had to find a way home, a way back. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything, not like this. The only way I even had a chance of escaping this void of trauma and torment was if someone else found us, if someone else could pull us through. But who? How? How could anyone find us in this… wherever we were? No one was that powerful. No one could--wait, yes there was. There was someone who could fix this, someone who would if they knew about it. We just had to find them, had to reach them. We just had to make them hear us before it was too late. It felt like it already was, but I pushed that intrusive thought aside. That wasn’t helpful, wasn’t useful. The only way we were going to survive this and get through it, back to where and when we were supposed to be in one piece, was by focusing on the person who could pull us through. Or rather, the people who could do that. The people who were responsible for the last time I had been fall-floating through a void similar to this, though that time without the blinding, crippling pain.
If I had been alone now, I would have died. The only reason I had survived this long was because of the Flique, because I had help. And if we were going to escape this, we needed more of that, from the only people in existence who were in a position to do that.
So, in that moment, I did the only thing I could. I screamed, not in agony, but for help. Both aloud and inside my head, I screamed as loud as I could, focusing on the Ankou. They were out there, they had to be. They were somewhere, and I was still connected to them in some way. They had to hear it, had to hear me. It was the only way we could survive. We--us. It wasn’t just me. I was here with every other member of the Flique, every other me. They had to survive too. We all had to survive. And we all screamed. Not just me, not just my voice. If I had been alone, I wouldn’t have been loud enough. I wouldn’t have been heard. But we were together in this place. And together, we screamed as loudly as we could. We screamed for help, our shouts echoing through that void, through the endless expanse of nothing. Would it reach its destination? Would our cry, joined as one, spread far enough to find its target? Would it be enough to make them understand? Would it convince them to come? Would it… would it… no, no I couldn’t hold it. We couldn’t hold it. The pain was coming back. Screaming like that, pleading for help, sending that message as far and as loud as we could, took everything we had left. There was nothing else to hold back that agony, the pain that would destroy us, tear through us and leave nothing. We had nothing. Floating in that void, there was emptiness, a flash of regret that we had failed. We felt the pain redouble itself, felt the brief second of terror about what we were about to experience just before the pain would shatter what remained of who we were.
And then, in that split second right before we would have been wiped away, before I would have been erased from existence, we were… gone. We were out of that void. We were taken from that empty space. We were taken from the pain just in time.
We were saved.
The void was gone. Now we stood on solid ground--no, a floor. We were in some sort of blank white room, with a single figure standing in front of us. A familiar figure. At a glance, the image was of my mother, but I knew it wasn’t her. Somehow, I knew exactly who it was, at a glance.
“Ceili?” I was speaking out loud, standing and looking and talking. “You--you saved us.” My voice trembled, cracking a bit with relief. The Ankou had heard us, had heard our cries for help. This was the Ankou Speaker, Ceili, the one I had spoken to before. She had appeared as Gaia then, and now as my mother.
“We have not entirely saved you yet,” the woman’s soft voice corrected, hand moving to take mine gently. “We are giving you the opportunity to save yourselves from the Dragon-Bonded’s horrible mistake.”
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“Mistake? What--what mistake?” I managed, staring that way in confusion.
“He was warned,” she informed me. “The rift you went through, it was created when you prevented the Fomorian-Seosten monster from dragging his world to yours. The last lingering connection between them became that rift, stuck in that spot during those few days. Picture a pool of water being drained, the whirlpool that is created when the last of it is going down. That is the rift you stepped into. The last of the connection between the two worlds that was created through a spell cast across multiple centuries, by one of the most powerful creatures in existence. Any being of sufficient power passing through it would ignite the embers of that power. Not enough to recreate the original spell, but enough for an… explosion of sorts. Sending multiple powerful beings through it in rapid succession… caused quite a bit of damage.”
I swallowed hard. “And you said--you said Ehn was warned about that?”
“Thoroughly warned,” she confirmed. “At least, he would have been had he listened. Multiple beings attempted to tell him of the dangers involved with that rift. But because they were not human, because he believes humanity in general and himself in particular to be above other species, he dismissed those warnings. He refused to listen to any further explanation, because they were not human. Though he claims to see himself as a protector of all, in the end, his arrogance in the superiority of humans caused him to ignore this warning, to the detriment of all life.”
Reeling from that, it took me a second to find my voice. “The detriment of all life, what does that mean?”
Ceili was quiet for a moment before carefully explaining, “That magical explosion, the first one, centered on the Dragon-Bonded. His physical form was atomized, an experience he will not survive. But it is much worse than that. You see, the power he held, the gift of a Dragon’s strength, was scattered and boosted by that same explosion of magical energy. Because he was attempting to reach the Fomorian world, that is where that energy is going. The energy of a Dragon-Bonded, boosted by the remnants of a spell built for centuries and sent straight to the Fomorian world. Due to Ehn’s own nature as a time traveler, the energy also traveled forward chronologically, back to your present. It will arrive at its destination, the Fomorian homeworld, shortly after you left.”
This was too much to take in. I could barely find the words. “Yo-you’re saying Ehn is dead. All that and--and he’s just--wait, Dragon-Bonded energy? Why do I feel like that’s not just going to explode on the Fomorian world and kill a bunch of them?”
“It will not,” she confirmed flatly. “The energy will attach itself to the nearest living creatures, the Fomorians themselves. Their strength will be enhanced a dozen-fold, at the least. Each and every one of what you call Fomorians will be gifted with the strengths of a Dragon-Bonded.”
A choked noise escaped me, as I literally staggered backward. “No… no, no, we can’t--we can’t let that--how do we stop it? How do we stop it?! Wait, wait, what about Eurso, Cerberus, and Percy? What about them, are--are they--”
Her chin rose slightly, voice even. “They live, though they are in great danger. As for how it can be stopped, that brings us to what has happened to you.”
“To me?” I echoed. “What do you mean?”
In a soft, kind voice, she explained. “When you attempted to pass through the rift, you carried one of the Dragon-Bonded’s bits of power with you. When he was atomized, so was it. That power… in simple terms, exploded backwards into you. Your body--no, your self was… shattered all across the timeline of human existence.
My head shook quickly. “What does that mean? Am I dead? Am I not me anymore?”
Her hand squeezed mine, as she smiled reassuringly. “You are still you. You will always be you. But you were… in a sense, multiplied. Various physical versions of you, duplicates, were scattered here and there through that timeline. When that happened, another rift was opened somewhere within twenty miles or so of where each duplicate appeared. If you wish to prevent the Fomorians from being empowered by the Dragon-Bonded’s remains, each of your selves must locate the nearest rift and pass through it. Once they do, once every version of you finds and passes through the rift, you will be made whole once more, and the opened rifts will all be closed. Close every rift that way, and the power of the Dragon-Bonded will be lost forever in the void, never reaching its destination, never empowering the Fomorians. Fail, if even one of your various selves does not pass through the rift, and that energy will reach its destination, taking an enemy which has already been laying waste to much of the universe, and making it stronger than anyone could imagine.”
I was staring at the floor, trying to come to terms with that. Ehn… Ehn was just… gone? He was dead--all that, everything we’d been through, everything we were supposed to do, and he was… no, I couldn’t focus on that. I had to deal with the immediate problem. “Okay so what you’re saying is that there’s several different versions of me scattered across the human timeline, and somewhere around where they appeared, there’s a portal they have to go through. As soon as every version of me does that, we’ll be put back together again and the rifts will close. Which means the energy that’s trying to reach the Fomorians in the present will just be… lost, it won’t turn them into Ultra-Mega Dragon-Bonded Fomorians. And… and the others, Percy, Cerberus, Eurso, you said they’re in danger? Wait, what about Mekkta, she wasn’t--I mean she was bonded to Ehn and all but…”
Her head gave a short nod. “Unlike you or your guide, the four of them have arrived on the Fomorian world in its distant past, while it is being overrun by Cronus. If you succeed with this, the last rift will appear to pull them back to the original place and time of the first one, the one you passed through.”
I processed that for a second. “So they’ll be okay, and we can find some way to reach the present and--one thing at a time. We have to make sure there’s no Dragon-Bonded Fomorians. That can’t happen. Whatever it takes, I just--I feel like going through those rifts isn’t going to be as easy as just taking a stroll, right?”
Ceili’s voice was quiet. “Correct. The rifts will have both attracted and empowered many dangerous threats. They will be difficult to find, and the beings they strengthen will work to prevent you from reaching them. They will know that allowing you to pass through the rift will remove that added power. You will need to fight your way past them. But to do so, you may need aid. You need not do this alone. We can send help for you, for those other selves, if you wish. If you ask for it, we will send that help.”
Please, Extra, sounding exhausted, put in, ask for help.
“Yeah,” I agreed quickly. “We need help.”
“Then you shall have it. We will send your friends to ensure you survive this.”
“Wait,” I started even as the white room started to fade. “What do you mean, my friends? Hang on a--”
********
I opened my eyes and sat up. “What?”
“You!” Laein, standing over me right in front of the Haunted Mansion back at the Roundabout, pointed. “What happened, why are you back already?!”
********
I opened my eyes and sat up. “What?”
“Oh my god.” That familiar voice was all I caught before something slammed into me, knocking me back down. A pair of thin arms wrapped around me, holding tight as Shiori, yes Shiori, sobbed against my shoulder. “Flick! Flick, how--how--what are you--what?”
She was joined immediately by another familiar figure who pulled both of us up to a sitting position and hugged me tightly. Asenath’s voice was quiet. “Did Ehn do this?”
Do this? Do what? I stared at the two. Shiori and Asenath, both of them right here with me. We were in a grassy field, and far away I could see… a castle, along with a line of armored knights on horseback riding toward us.
********
I opened my eyes and sat up. “What?”
“Felicity? Felicity!” With that cry, a hand found mine, yanking me off the ground and up into an embrace that took my breath away. Mom, my mom was there. She hugged me fiercely. And she wasn’t alone. My dad was there too, both of them suddenly right there with me. His arms enveloped both of us, leaving me just enough of an opening to catch a glimpse of a vast, sandy desert with just the tip of a pyramid in the distance.
*******
I opened my eyes and sat up. “What?”
“Holy shit, Flick!” Sands. Sands was there, grabbing my hand to yank me up. “Was this you? Was this Ehn? Where the hell are we? When the hell are we?”
When? Where? What was-- I saw Sarah then, as the other girl pointed over her shoulder. We were sitting in the dirt in front of… of some sort of old west saloon, with men in appropriate attire staring at us.
*******
I opened my eyes and sat up. “What?”
“Dude, I’m really hoping you can tell us that.” Columbus and Koren both stood in front of me. Surrounding them were dozens of what looked like heavily-armed pixies fluttering on colorful wings, in front of what looked suspiciously like an old World War One biplane in an otherwise empty field. The sound of gunfire echoed in the distance.
*******
I opened my eyes and sat up. “What?”
“Flick!” A familiar voice hissed in whisper, as a hand grabbed my shoulder to yank me back down into the grass and weeds. “Get down, we can’t let them see us!”
It was Tristan, right there on my left side, while Vanessa was on my right. All three of us were lying in a ditch alongside a dirt road, watching a horse-drawn carriage pass by. A sign conveniently placed nearby welcomed us to Salem, Massachusetts. Another sign next to that, made much more crudely and recently, proclaimed that witches were not welcome.
*******
I opened my eyes and sat up. “What?”
Before I had any idea what was happening, two hands grabbed mine, pulling me to my feet before their owner embraced me tightly. Avalon. It was Avalon, my Valley. She hugged me tightly, making a sound of relief deep in her throat even as I quickly returned the embrace.
“Flick?” Sean’s voice cut through my emotions, making me open my eyes to see him standing there with Vulcan beside him and Roxa on the other side. A wide expanse of snow-covered mountains filled the scene behind them.
*******
I opened my eyes and sat up. “What?”
“Flick!” It was a voice I knew instantly. My arms opened instinctively, even as Tabbris threw herself into them. I was lifting her up and holding my sister tightly just like that. My eyes opened as I held onto her, just in time to see another familiar figure coming right for me. Miranda. She was there too, latching on in a hug that took my breath away. We were standing on a street corner, with old horse and buggy carriages passing by on a cobblestone road, lit by old lanterns on poles. In the distance, I could see a bridge over a river, and… and a giant clock I had never seen in person before, but knew immediately. Big Ben. It was Big Ben, in London.
******
I opened my eyes and sat up. “What?”
“Boy,” Jazz Rhodes informed me, “is that ever a good question.” She reached down, pulling me up. Standing beside her was the equally-familiar form of Theia. Both of them stared at me in confusion, waiting for some sort of answer about what was going on. We were on the edge of some sort of cliff. And scattered across the valley below us were… were…
“Uhhh…. are those dinosaurs?” I asked blankly.
*******
“Now listen here, tell me--” Laein began.
*******
“Okay Flick--” Asenath started.
*******
“I love you, baby, I missed you so much. But you really need to tell us--” Mom pleaded.
******
“Look, one second we were at the school, and then we were here, with you,” Sands informed me. “So just--”
*******
“That is a World War One plane,” Koren pointed out. “And I’m pretty sure it’s brand new. I have no idea how we got here, so maybe you should tell us--”
********
“Not that I don’t love history and appreciate the chance to experience it,” Vanessa quietly whispered, “but this was very abrupt. So--”
******
“Part of me really doesn’t care, because you’re here,” Avalon whispered fiercely while holding onto me. “But given the whole situation, you should probably explain--”
*******
“Victorian London, we’re in Victorian London,” Miranda confirmed. “Somehow, we’re here, and we’re with you. Please, Flick, tell me you know--”
******
“Yeah they’re fucking dinosaurs!” Jazz pointed that way. “You were the one who was time traveling, so I think you should be the one to explain--”
****
“---what the hell is going on?”