{Earth}

“What do you mean this man can call ‘figures’ from the Probabilities?”

As John spoke to Tumu over the comms device, Devis and Caedes finished assembling the last of the nacre-disabling rifles. Smith watched over the security monitors. Each of them kept a careful eye in the younger man’s direction as the Tritan called everyone for this briefing.

Meanwhile, Lynn barely heard the conversation.

“I killed me.”

No matter how much she repeated the phrase, everyone stared at her as if she went crazy. There wasn’t a body. And what hurt most was how unsure of her own sanity the experience left her. Imminent planned for the other Lynn to kill and replace her. To gain them access to the Arsenal and the top secret weapons stored inside. The others reasonably assumed the disabler was the most dangerous weapon in the arsenal.

But they were wrong.

She gazed at the door opposite the Faraday cage. The most secure door in the facility. Special nacre fortification with a deterrent shield programmed to one user. Lynn held exclusive access to Tantamount research. They dismantled the colossal rig at the Yellowstone Caldera, the site of the Volcano Day battle between the Icari and the humans. She and Smith spent most of their workday mining the Icarean device for useful technology. Such as the energy converter inside the control panel that translated nacre energy to detonation. It allowed the weapons engineers to create the disablers in the first place.

If Imminent wanted this weapon, did they intend to deploy Nox’s original design for it? To destroy the Earth if he couldn’t have it? If it’s true that the entity only wanted to create chaos in the Probability Matrix, then destroying one of Enki’s twelve planets would do the trick.

Smith nudged her gently. “Chief, you’re up.”

“What?”

John held up the device. “Attendance check.”

“Oh, present.”

“Good. I hate repeating myself.” Tumu sounded genuinely tired, as if his day were already long. “I tried to reach Chris and Karter but they didn’t answer. I suppose her first day as an official of the Tribunal kept them busy. I’ll catch them up later. Here it is. Razor can summon ‘figures’ from other Probabilities. Usually to fight for Imminent.”

Andrew came on the line and contributed, “Thanks to my nifty new affliction, I’ve learned that almost all of us defected to the enemy in many Probabilities. So if Razor wants an alternative to one of us, he’ll find plenty of volunteers to choose from.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Do you hear that, Lynn?” Pablo’s rich voice over the comms warmed Lynn’s heart.

John lifted the device for her to hear.

Her husband’s eagerness to avail the concerns he knew still plagued her meant the worlds to her. He continued his assurances, “That Lynn you fought, she wasn’t on our side.”

It relieved her guilt, but nothing could erase the trauma of fighting herself. For his sake, she called, “I heard, and it helps.”

Smith shot her a friendly smile and patted her shoulder. The perfectly coiffed hair and fresh eyeliner chilled the sincerity slightly.

Devis and Caedes swapped tools before continuing with their heads down. Obviously having resolved their earlier conflict.

Nervously licking her suddenly parched lips, Lynn asked, “What happened to her reality without her? The other Lynn?”

“It collapsed,” Tumu explained. “Without her, it destabilizes, leading to an implosion. Aside from that, only Razor can send them back. Once, he had the power to do it anywhere, but now he’s localized it. It’s unclear why. And try to remember, this is all speculation based on trace evidence I’ve found on this crazy scavenger hunt. To make things worse, Enki is implicated in the disappearance of the children from Gait.”

Kyle came on the line. “Was Razor the man in the white suit from Korac and Pehton’s memories?”

“That’s right.” Korac did not sound happy.

Lynn sympathized. The man responsible for Sagan’s disappearance into the Seam cost them dearly over the last month. Now it was time to make him pay. She crossed the room to John and took the comms from him. “Be careful, team. I’d rather you’d wait until we finished here with the spare rifles. But if this is the only window Matt could get you, send that slimy motherfucker straight to the Wrong Side of Eternity. Copy?”

Caedes nodded his approval. Devis scrutinized her as if surprised to find another reason to respect her. Smith put his fist to his chest. And John beamed.

Over the comms, several people offered encouraging words, echoing her sentiment. Be safe, but be devastating.

“This is Fury. We’ll do our best for Sagan. Over and Out.”

“‘In the void, you will know yourself. Within Inanis is us.’”

The rest of the room turned to Smith, who repeated Silence’s infamous line into the post-call quiet. At their bewilderment, he casually shrugged his shoulders and offered, “What? It’s catchy. And it makes sense now. The question is, why did she know that? Especially given her amnesia?”

He made an excellent point. Lynn sensed a good deal of reticence regarding the Icarean female. She and Pablo liked her, but not exactly the coincidences that stacked up around her regarding Imminent and now Sagan’s predicament.

Caedes humphed before standing for a stretch. “That expression has been going around since Umbra’s failed campaign on Thailea. And Silence is older than that. It’s not exactly a surprise for her to know it. Don’t invest too much weight into it.”

Devis seated the last disabler rifle in the transport crate. Idly, he mused, “I wish there was time for me to look into her memory. Hopefully, Kyle gets there soon.”

“Sooner rather than later would be best.” John agreed.

Lynn caught sight of the monitors beyond Smith and frowned. At 11:00pm, the techs checked the detainees’ cells for Icarean morning routines. But it was midnight, and the employees were all signing in for shift change. So who the fuck was in the detainee pods?

Oh, shit. “Is that T.a.o.?”

The shock suddenly reminded her of that time Celindria-as-Kyle went to speak to Twenty-One in the Ecology’s pods. And Lynn and Pablo forgot to followup with the real Kyle before they went to Cinder.

“Fuck, Smith! We gotta catch her and find out what she wants with them.”

Caedes balked, “How the hell do you expect to catch a Seamswalker?”

Lynn grabbed a rifle and marched out. “With the right weapon.”