JACKIE:

Responsibility smacked me across the face. Another day, another billions of lives at risk. Every probability matters. I must change the ones that need healing.

My mission was clear; eradicate Alpha from the slipstream completely.

Sure, I saved one timeline from global genocide at the hands of the killer drone, but could I do it again and again, throughout the entire Proba-verse?

“Don’t be a loser,” I told myself. “Keep winning.”

As I flew through the slipstream, fire portals attacked me from all sides. The streams were suffocating, all demanding my attention at once. Which one should I focus on? Which one needed to be changed first?

“Firestorm, help!”

I looked around. No sign of the phoenix; my father and trusty companion in this crazy game of chance.

“Where are you, Firestorm?”

As the probability portals smothered me, their flames singed my skin.

“Ah!”

I had the power of fire within me, but could still be burned by it. Even though I leveled up on my last adventure, I had a lot to learn.

The nearest portals displayed my worst fears; my mother giving me away as a child, Baxter dying in the street, Alpha coming into power because I failed to stop him. Abandonment, death, guilt, shame… Hadn’t I squashed all those anxieties? Was I a glutton for punishment? It was more than I could bare.

“Enough!” I screamed. “I defeated you once. I’ll defeat you again!”

The power of my voice pushed the portals away, reminding me of an important truth.

“Fear isn’t extinguished in a moment. It always comes back for more. The work is never done.”

I found myself alone in the slipstream’s vastness once more. I could breathe again. The enormity of my task no longer overwhelmed me. At least not completely.

“I can do hard things,” I whispered.

“One step at a time,” Beatrice answered.

My grandmother and Firestorm emerged from a portal to greet me. Her signature white bob framed her angular facial features. Her skin glowed with an impenetrable youth. She looked small next to Firestorm’s large, scaly phoenix body.

I wrapped them in the biggest hug.

“Firestorm! Beatrice! What’s going on? Don’t tell me you two are working together now.”

Firestorm and Beatrice exchanged a knowing glance.

He said, “There’s been a lot going on behind the scenes. When you worked with Beatrice to reset the timeline, I created an alternate probability branch.”

“He had the audacity to throw me in a cage!” Beatrice added.

“You went through with your revenge plan? Wow. Bold choice. How’d it go?”

Firestorm sighed. “You were right, and I was wrong.”

“What was that? Can you say that a little louder?” I joked.

Firestorm admitted, “Violence wasn’t the answer. Revenge got me nowhere. Luckily, your choice to work with Beatrice led to a much needed reset.”

Beatrice smiled. “We’re on the same team now. Let’s work together to clean up the slipstream. Alpha left infected nodes all over the place.”

I looked around, saw the infection, and threw out an icy blue flame. An oozing node grew bigger. I shot it again, and it popped. The disease burned my skin.

“Ow! That hurt.”

I closed my eyes and healed myself by harnessing the phoenix gene.

“Jackie, can you help Firestorm burn away the infection while I dive deep into the probabilities?” Beatrice asked. “I sense another stream where Alpha is poised to execute his redistribution program. We must stop it no matter what the cost.”

“Yes, ma’am. Anything you say.”

Firestorm and I nodded, ready to take on the assignment. At least we were starting out easy. It’d be difficult to face Alpha again so soon.

“My flamethrower zaps the infection real good.” Firestorm blew his fiery breath with one long surge, and the disease melted away from the slipstream walls.

I followed his lead, throwing long flames to rid the slipstream of remnants of Alpha. My blue flames mixed with Firestorm’s red fire to create a purple stream of pure heat, melting the disease.

As Firestorm and I worked together to clean up the tunnel, Beatrice closed her eyes and opened her hands. She mentally scanned the probabilities for the next stream that needed to be healed.

“Wish I could do that,” I whispered to Firestorm.

“Some day, kid. If you stay focused, you’ll become a true slipstream master.”

“Let’s hope. I can learn from the best.”

Lost in deep concentration, Beatrice worked her magic. Atomic particles manifested and swirled between her palms. The energy vibrated, and from it sprang the life force of a fire portal. A red laser grid covered the stream, locking its contents away.

“I’ve got it,” Beatrice declared. “I’ve found the probability we need to fix next.”

“What’s the deal?” I asked. “The Grid is protecting it.”

Beatrice closed her eyes and felt her way through the details of the locked portal in her hands.

“Alpha will get into the slipstream again if we don’t eradicate him from this timeline. If we don’t intervene, he will enact the redistribution program again. Billions of people will die.”

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“Not on my watch,” Firestorm said.

Beatrice nodded. “This alternate probability was created when I chose not to take the Life Rite immortality serum.”

I gasped. “Wow! The knock-on effects of every major decision must be insane! The possibilities stemming from every choice we make seems endless. Paths not taken are still lying in wait, ready to manifest. Aren’t they?”

“You’re right, Jackie. In this new probability, I refused the serum. I introduced Grace to Zayne, but they didn’t connect in the same way as last time. She never saw him enslaved…” Beatrice explained with eyes still closed.

“Seeing Zayne in the cage gave Grace great empathy for him. In this new timeline, she didn’t have enough conviction to go against her father’s wishes and follow her heart. Grace and Zayne parted ways soon after they met on Bennu Island.”

“Sorry to hear that.” I put my arm around Firestorm for comfort. It must have been hard to hear that Grace didn’t choose him in every probability.

His long neck drooped. “Can’t win them all, I guess.”

Beatrice nodded. “At the end of that summer, I died. Mark and Grace followed my instructions to bury me in the volcano. Then they went home and got on with their lives.”

“Unlikely to visit Bennu Island again,” Firestorm added.

“Mark visits my grave, but Grace doesn’t,” Beatrice clarified. “She attends a prestigious university in the city.”

Firestorm nuzzled into me. “Maybe that’s for the best. Grace is capable of amazing things.”

Beatrice smiled. “Indeed.”

Firestorm added, “She doesn’t need some boy from Bennu holding her back.”

I tried to wrap my head around this new probability. “If Grace is a university student, does that mean we’re going into the past?”

“Time is not linear,” Beatrice explained. “It’s like a snake eating its own tail. In a sense, yes Jackie, you are going to the past, compared to any timeline you’re familiar with. Mark honored my wishes and didn’t move forward with the Life Rite serum, but he’s tinkering with the drone and… I get the sense that Alpha has a high probability of getting the serum some other way.”

“Some other way?” Firestorm asked, “How?”

“That is what we must uncover before it’s too late. We’ll enter this slipstream at a pivotal moment so we can change the course of its history.”

“If Grace and Zayne never got together, was I even born?” I asked.

Beatrice opened her eyes. “No, Jackie, you weren’t.”

“How will she get into the stream to enact change? We need her on the ground since I’m a little… distracting.” Firestorm pointed his wing at his oversized phoenix body.

“Yeah, Beatrice, how will I get into this portal if I haven’t been born yet? I can’t just ride Firestorm’s stream if I’m going to make important changes.”

“It won’t be easy. That’s why the portal appears locked to you.” Beatrice nodded. “You’re right. Riding Firestorm’s stream won’t be enough. You have to go deep into the probability to influence it. I need you to believe in your ability, Jackie.”

“Not my strongest suit, but I’m willing to try. I felt so empowered when I defeated Alpha, but my newfound confidence is already gone. Why is it so fleeting?”

Beatrice touched my shoulder. “You don’t have to do it alone. Firestorm and I are here to support you. Think of what form you’d take in this new probability.”

“I would be Zayne, home on Bennu,” Firestorm said.

“Yes.” Beatrice nodded. “Jackie, can you imagine what you would be?”

I shrugged. “Non-existent.”

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed. You’re in there, but not in the way you’d expect. Think harder, Jackie. You can, and will, figure this out.”

I nodded. Beatrice’s faith in me was invigorating. I accomplished a lot and was just getting started. Yet this was a difficult puzzle to solve…

“If my mom never had me, then I’d be space dust.”

Beatrice shook her head. “Not quite. Try again.”

I worked the riddle in my mind.

“If I was never born, who, or what would I be? What form would I take?”

No clues came to mind.

“Dad, do you have any ideas?” I asked Firestorm.

He opened his mouth to speak.

“He can’t answer for you,” Beatrice interjected. “This must come from within. You need extreme conviction to enter this remote probability.”

I looked at the portal. It glowed from behind the red laser Grid that imprisoned it. What new realities did it hold? And how did I belong within it?

“Let me think…”

I imagined Grace without the burdens that come with having a family. My mother would be young, rich, and probably reckless. Would she find someone else to fall in love, marry, and have kids with? If so, maybe I’d be born after all. Maybe some part of me was in there…

“I’ve got it!” I declared proudly.

Beatrice smiled. “Tell me.”

“Maybe I’m an unfertilized egg in Grace’s ovaries, waiting for the chance at life.”

Beatrice clapped.

“Well done, Jackie!” Firestorm smiled.

“You got it. Gather round.” Beatrice instructed us. “Close your eyes. Think of your potential in this probability. Feel it with your whole being. Immerse yourself in it mentally. Allow the stream to engulf you. Together, we will crack it open and clean out the infection.”

“Wait a sec… You want me to become an unfertilized egg? That’s impossible.”

Beatrice didn’t look amused at my non-belief. “Come on, Jackie. Have a little faith. Feel the potential within.”

“What about you, Beatrice? Where would you be?” I asked.

“I’d be dead, buried in the volcano.”

“Oh…”

If Beatrice was strong enough to enter that state, I could tap into the energy of being unborn. Right?

“This will be easy for me,” Firestorm admitted. “A new path to explore as Zayne.”

“The path not taken is always intriguing,” Beatrice agreed. “But once inside, don’t ruminate in it. If the pull to experience that life is too strong, you won’t be able to break away to help us stop Alpha’s redistribution program.”

Firestorm nodded. “Understood.”

Beatrice instructed him. “Once you’re inside the timeline, find Jackie. Help her. We must all stay connected, okay?”

“I need you guys more than ever,” I admitted.

“We’ll never leave you.” Firestorm’s words comforted me. I knew that was true. “I’ll need to hide in the shadows so I don’t blow your cover, but I’ll be there. Give your mother a hug for me.”

“Wait, so let me get this straight. I’m going to rebirth into this timeline and then what? How are we supposed to stop Alpha?”

Beatrice grabbed my hand for support. “The way forward will present itself to us as the timeline unfolds.”

“That doesn’t sound like a solid plan to me. Let’s think things through a bit. Strategize together.”

“Unfortunately, that’s not how this works. We can only know the truths of each probability by experiencing it. We have to get boots on the ground, let the story play out. Only then will we know how to fix it. Remember, Jackie, you can do hard things.” Beatrice squeezed my hand.

“Yeah. Sure, of course.” I took a deep breath and concentrated on the portal.

I thought again of Grace, my mom, living an opulent lifestyle without a care in the world. Bennu Island was just a bad summer vacation for her, the summer her mom died. She didn’t know her father made an immortality serum. Mark never used it to cure Beatrice. The Life Rite serum never saw the light of day. The probable details of this stream played out in my mind’s eye.

I felt the portal opening to me, but not completely. The Grid didn’t budge.

“It isn’t working!” I cried.

“Don’t give up, Jackie.” Beatrice explained, “We’re all working on this together. I feel it opening with our powers combined. Keep going! Stay strong.”

A tear fell down my cheek as I thought about a world without me in it. Yet, I was in there as a speck of potential, lying dormant in my mother’s body.

“Amazing how the seeds of life work…”

Technically, the potential for my life was alive in Beatrice’s ovaries and my great-grandmother before that. My unborn children laid dormant inside me. The weight of that power settled in.

If my mind could take this leap of faith, I could visit an infinite amount of timelines in the slipstream.

“I am Zayne,” Firestorm reminded himself.

If Firestorm could overcome his physical limitations, then so could I.

“I will be born,” I declared.

“Yes!” Beatrice grabbed my hand.

Our combined strength coursed through my veins.

“I am a phoenix gene carrier!” I doubled down on my vision of this probability. I was a seed of potential, a spark yet to be ignited. The endless possibilities made me feel ready to explode.

Beatrice cheered me on as we all concentrated on the locked portal. “Yes, stay focused. You’ve got this, Jackie.”

“I am Zayne,” Firestorm repeated.

The portal expanded, opening itself to us.

“And I am a phoenix gene carrier, ready for battle!” Sweat dripped down my brow as I flexed every muscle in my body, ready to ignite more of my untapped potential.

“Alpha doesn’t stand a chance against us!” Beatrice declared.

“Watch out world. Here we come!”

The heaviness that comes with struggle lifted, and a sense of relief washed over me. Our collective determination pierced the veil. Together, we entered the locked stream.

A red light flashed over me as I whipped past the Grid surrounding the portal. The probability engulfed me with all its glory.

We may have gotten in, but would we be able to change the course of its history? Could we stop Alpha from rebooting the dangerous redistribution program to save billions of lives?