Nine minutes, Regina updated me as we headed outside, understandably tense.

Other than a deck and more pot plants, the balcony was empty. Regina stepped towards the edge, but an outstretched arm from Vishnu blocked her progress.

It soon became apparent why. Half the floor glitched, crumbling into dust and concrete chunks that crashed to their twin below at the volume of gunfire. Echoes of the impact lingered against the oppressive silence for longer than seemed reasonable, and a cloud of fine dust spread through the wreckage.

Vishnu lowered the arm. He ushered Regina forward onto what was left of the fixture, and joined her on the broken edge. Wide steel beams jutted out through the gap, rusted but intact.

The god knelt, peering out over the edge, and reached down with a pair of arms, hunting for something. His clothes smeared with dust as the remaining arms gripped the balcony rail for purchase. Unaccounted for, the bauble around his neck dangled precariously over the precipice. I saw an opportunity.

One arm came back up to secure it, and Vishnu backed up from the edge. “We need scaffolding,” he stated, peering downwards.

I opened my mouth, but Regina was on it ahead of me. “I can hold that for you,” she offered, gesturing towards Amulet Tez. “So it doesn’t fall.” Her voice cracked and she was shaking, which was good. Gods loved to underestimate the mortal population even without assistance, but a little extra convincing wouldn’t hurt.

Amulet Tez glanced up at Vishnu even as a glossy black scaffold materialised into existence around the wreckage. Stairs descended from the ledge and spiralled under the overhang. Inlaid with golden carvings in geometric lines, they looked beautiful, sleek, and liable to send their users to a probable early grave.

Vishnu hesitated, stared at the output of Tez’s engineering prowess, then reached up and lifted the necklace from his shoulders. He passed it to Regina, who looped it over her head.

“Perfect,” I purred. With the reflection out of the crossfire, we just had to get Vishnu to restart time before delivering Scarfy her greatest prize yet. “How’s your control?” I asked Regina, as Vishnu stepped out onto the scaffolding and descended the stairs. “Can you extend the fields to only him?”

The demon lord nodded.

So close. My heart felt like it was rattling hard enough to shudder up my chest and through my windpipe, preferably in front of a team of baffled medical professionals.

This time when Vishnu reached under the ledge, he found what he was looking for. A small computer drive came back with his hand, dangling with dusty strips of gaffer tape. One glitch later and they were gone, the object once again pristine. I was impressed Scarfy had managed to hide it down there in the first place, although she might have had help.

Vishnu herded the group back into the main apartment, where Neetu was still pacing back and forth near her prisoner. He held up the drive so the latter could see it. “Is this all of them?”

“I’m sure you can figure it out,” Scarfy replied. “You seemed to have no trouble finding it.”

Vishnu turned towards the necklace. I noticed he didn’t ask for it back.

“I see,” he said, after several long moments. “You have made copies.”

A flicker of dread passed over the older woman’s face. “Nonsense. We wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“You are lying. You have made them, and you will use them not long from now, should you be given the opportunity. You are checking in hourly with your remaining associates, who have been instructed to unleash their power should you fail to do so.”

Cracks appeared in Scarfy’s expression. “No.”

I felt my eyebrows skyrocket up my forehead. Assuming it wasn’t something Tez had just made up, that was the most intriguing revelation to come out of this excursion. Given the other major revelation involved using the captives, that was saying something. It raised a swarm of questions, not least of which included whether souls were carried over and how, and whether it applied to powers. That was a snowball effect waiting to happen.

That Security had missed something on this scale showed how much the primary timeline had already changed. A week ago, Apollo had been making house calls for petty infractions. Siphon was still going after low-risk targets, slow, safe and under preliminary investigation. It was only when Themis had mistaken me for one of its victims that things had escalated. Apollo would have predicted Themis’ capture, but he was gone. And once you had Themis, off the charts on the abstraction scale, you had a terrifying ace in the hole. If you knew how to use it.

Multiples of Themis, or any gods, in the hands of Siphon’s warmongers made me want to head straight to the nearest dimensional door, plunge through and keep running. But those were gone, too.

There were a lot of ‘if’s. It had only been a few days. Siphon mightn’t have figured out who they had yet. The line about controlling gods could have been just a line. And of course, few gods – even of Themis’ calibre – could stand up to Vishnu.

“Even the gods may not create divine life,” said the god in question, in the tone of someone remarking on the weather. Not very unusual weather. “However, your input is still needed. You will give me the locations of the copies held by your colleagues. Until they are all retrieved, this city shall remain under my control.”

“Approximately how long will that take?” Neetu asked, folding her arms.

“As long as it needs to.”

Four minutes, said Regina.

I had to give it to the sergeant. Not many people had it in them to give the C-suite attitude. At least not in the know. Exposure to me must have gotten her in the habit.

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“It’s moot,” Scarfy interjected. She straightened up as best she could. “There are no copies. The technology doesn’t exist.”

“More untruths. If I were to pay a visit to –” he glitched about a metre to one side, reappearing in front of the rebel leader with his back to Regina. “– Louis and Kembang, Jiang and Shyla, they would have nothing to show me?”

“You said they were dead.”

I looked at Tez’s reflection, whose eye stared back at me closely enough it gave me the uncanny impression he could actually see me. I waved a finger back and forth in front of him just in case. No reaction.

“A hint would be nice,” I grumbled. I doubted Vishnu would restart the world because we asked nicely. Bits of it, maybe. But the whole thing wouldn’t fly until the immediate threat was dealt with, by which point it would be too late.

An order from the tyrant would do the trick. Easy, if I hadn’t been stuck in advisory capacity.

Failing that, it would take some kind of outside threat and lying our asses off about it. That, I could manage.

“This city is an outlier,” Vishnu stated. “Your colleagues will join the others soon enough. At the office, their homes, their private vehicles and your underground storage. Seeing as your staff have destroyed the bodies of many of ours, we may even repurpose theirs for resource efficiency.”

Tez wasn’t making moves to stop me, so I reached out and tapped Regina’s glove on the hard curve of the ring. “Get it ready.”

Scarfy’s wrists strained at the cuffs to no avail. “How can you know?” she snapped, and struggled again. “Who was the leak?”

Vishnu’s face was impassive. “Your cooperation is a foregone conclusion. Whether or not you resist now makes little difference. That you made it as far as you did is testament to your dedication and ingenuity. But it is not for you to interfere in divine affairs.” He paused, extending an arm partway to the older woman’s head. “Is there something you would like to say before your execution?”

Her eyes widened. “You just said –”

Vishnu waited for her to finish. “While we were talking, I obtained further information,” he explained when she didn’t. “I have the locations for the remaining copies, and the codes to access them. I have the knowledge to operate your software. Had you been compliant as requested, this was time you could have spent prolonging your life in my company. As it stands, I have applied a workaround, and your presence is no longer needed. If there is nothing you would like to say –”

“Wait!” Scarfy interrupted, even as I saw Regina sliding her glove off in the background. “You need me. As technical support if nothing else.”

“That does not require you to be living,” said Vishnu, who would have known, given his ongoing method acting of a dead thing washed up on a beach.

“You must want something. Everyone wants something. I can help.”

“Your optimism is misplaced. You are merely trying to buy yourself time to find an escape.”

Scarfy scowled. She curled her lip and tried to spit at his feet. The exhalation came out dry. “Then I hope justice finds you one day.”

“I have already found her,” Vishnu responded, uncurling his fingers around the drive presumably containing Themis until it rested in an upturned palm. “Although the metaphorical concept is a children’s story. Justice as you seek to define it cannot exist in an erratic world fluctuating according to individual perspective. I have put forward motions to have this changed, but it is an unpopular approach. Therefore, the best one can hope for is stability.”

“What stability?” Neetu cut in. She jerked her head towards the half-destroyed balcony. Regina froze, but Vishnu didn’t follow suit.

“Exactly,” he said, attention focused on the militant leader. “Look at your city. It and the world are in crisis as a direct result of your actions. If you had only accepted your place in the machine, it would have continued to flourish. It is now too late to go back, so I must salvage what I can. There will be a brief period of disruptive adjustment, but soon life will settle into a new routine. If it is worse than before, that is on your shoulders. Reflect on your choices, and one day you will understand. For now, someone must be held accountable.”

Two minutes, said Regina. She swallowed.

“No,” said Scarfy. “I refuse.”

“It makes no difference,” Vishnu stated.

His prisoner had nothing to say to that, largely due to the fact she had been replaced by a pile of bones and dust dripping down the front of the sofa onto a pile on the floorboards.

Regina gagged, covering her mouth with a gloved hand. Gold flashed from the other. She stepped closer.

Vishnu knelt forward, retrieved a pair of rusted handcuffs from the debris, and extended them towards Neetu. “These are yours.”

“Not anymore,” said the sergeant, who’d gone equally green. “If I’d wanted to see this kind of thing, I’d have signed up for medical school.”

“We have more to do,” said Vishnu. “Come.” Straightening, he took a step towards the door and stopped short as one arm pulled against a thin golden chain. He tugged at the limb, which didn’t budge, then paused briefly before repositioning for a better look, pulling up the sleeve of his suit.

Regina stared back at him; half-defiant, half-terrified.

“Ah.” He paused again. Nothing happened. “Tell me,” he said, after a few moments. “How did you come into possession of the Bridle of Athena?” His gaze moved to the amulet around her neck.

“I don’t think that’s important right now,” said Regina. She pulled on the chain, and Vishnu came with it.

My chest felt light and fluttery, and it wasn’t just the visitation talking. “Keep your distance,” I warned her. “He can still bludgeon you. Don’t let the demeanour fool you.”

“You have been misled,” said Vishnu, a note of genuine annoyance creeping into his voice. He stepped forward.

Regina’s arm came up, and a translucent orange wall appeared between them, the same colour as her rune. It bisected the corner of the coffee table, which immediately fell to the ground in a triangular slice.

“Called it,” I murmured.

Providence’s COO halted, examining the new addition without touching it. He turned his eyes back to the demon lord. “What do you think this will accomplish?” he queried. “The impasse you have created is only temporary. You have restrained me, yes, but I am your only path back to the flow of time. Even if that is a life you wish to lead, would-be disruptor, you and your friend will die of old age, without companionship, convenience or medical care. I have all the time in the world. If you do not want to die in this prison, take off the bridle. I promise I will spare you,” he added as an afterthought.

Neetu’s pistol clicked into place behind him. “I’ve got you covered,” she spoke down the barrel.

Vishnu sighed.

“And why should we believe you?” Regina asked. “You have no reason to keep that promise.”

“True, but what other choice do you have? That you haven’t yet discharged the malefactors’ weapon on me shows you possess a modicum of sense. Under the effects of this artifact, we are all trapped. No one else can help you.” His gaze snapped to Amulet Tez. “I am not concerned with your opinion.”

“Then I’ll speak for him,” said Regina. She curled her fingers around the necklace. Rather than stumbling, I watched the shield go up. The mask of a disgruntled service employee putting up with a crap job and crappier income. Or, conversely – but perhaps not that conversely – a guardian protecting their fellow misfits from the kind of trouble not used to hearing ‘no’. “Because there is one other person who can restart it. He just doesn’t care most of the time. Unfortunately for you, you interrupted him on a major project launch. And he’s getting impatient.”

Vishnu opened his mouth, then closed it again.

“Really should have followed the rules,” said Regina. “Adios, Vishy. You were a shit boss.”

Reality slammed back into existence as five additional perspectives hit all at once. Italian crowds roared in my ears, and I jumped so hard I almost fell off the edge of Vince’s pontoon. Even with the place of power in effect, the transition was a shock to the system.

“Ugh,” I wheezed, and spent a few seconds collecting my thoughts in what felt like several simultaneous iterations. At one of my sets of feet, Vishnu’s body lay sprawled unconscious on the ground in a bundle of colours, heartbeat steady as his chest rose and fell. Alarmed voices filtered up from the apartments below, along with a clatter of straggling debris and the subtle hum of machinery. “Well, so far so good, and no more time freezes. This is easy.”