MERCURY, NEVADA. 2040.

Shailene barely has two seconds to blink the dust out of her eyes before Ragnar is grabbing her arm and shouting at her. "Get up! McNamara and his WRAITH troops are here."

Everything in her body aches — Fiona has never been as zealous or talented as her in combat, but the girl still knows how to land a blow. Shailene pushes herself off the ground to see Cacio e Papa wrapped between a world of chaos. In the distance, Shailene can see Fiona and her monk boyfriend in the car, talking to the ever-disgusting Ryan McNamara. And as two other tanks roll into the parking lot, Left Behind members are activating their mechsuits and preparing their explosives. They look to Shailene and Ragnar, waiting for an order.

"We need to stop them from taking Fiona and Seraph," Ragnar whispers urgently, pulling Shailene behind a dumpster. "We have our whole team here. We can create a diversion big enough for all of us to escape."

Shailene frowns, watching Fiona's fiery hair in the distance. The air is muggy and her blurry figure glints strangely, as if the light is bending around her. Shailene blinks herself back to normalcy. "But why sacrifice the safety of the team for those two bozos? They're just going to leave us again. We need to retreat."

"Shailene," Ragnar says with a sigh, as though disappointed with her. "Even if you didn't care about what happens to Fiona, Left Behind can't afford to have her captured by McNamara's team. They know too much."

Shailene doesn't say anything for a moment, trying to scrutinize Ragnar's thoughts. For most of her life, she worshiped the Ragnar Blomberg, ex-scientific prodigy and leading climate change activist. But now he watches Shailene, waiting along with the rest of the team for her to give her orders.

"Open fire," Shailene says, her eyes still on Ragnar. She nods. "Open fire!" Shailene repeats, looking around at the shell-shocked LB members. "Do whatever you can to stop them from taking Fiona and Abin."

Everyone springs into action. Hani salutes and immediately pulls herself up, using Cacio e Papa's gutter to lift herself onto the roof. Sanjay and his explosive units take cover and the sounds of pins dropping before they throw their grenades clink musically against the ground. Shouts erupt from the parking lot as McNamara's team realizes that Left Behind haven't left yet, and Shailene can only catch a glimpse of Fiona grabbing Abin out of the car before she loads her gun and takes off.

"Cover me!" Shailene yells as she tears through the parking lot, activating the shields on her mechsuit. She feels her cheeks go hot from the explosives deploying all around her, rattling her teeth against each other. But this is her moment, and she's not letting McNamara out of her sight.

She fires a few shots into McNamara's small group and feels a few bullets whiz past her in retaliation. Even through the smoke and dust, she can make out the sight of Fiona and Abin fighting off a group of soldiers. Despite the shaking ground, Shailene's fingers don't even quiver as she loads more bullets into her gun. This is what she's been made to do. This is who she is. And it's as natural as breathing air.

"Is that Shailene Fischer that I see?" Colonel McNamara's voice is unmistakable, even over all of the sounds of carnage and pain. "How brave of you to finally show your face."

"It's not my fault your team's so bad at catching so-called criminals," Shailene responds, aiming her gun at him. Through the dust, she can just barely see the barrel of a gun pointing right back.

"Seems like I've got you right where I need you now," he laughs as another agent joins his side, also pointing their gun at Shailene. "But your confidence never ceases to amaze me."

"Or we have you exactly right where we need you," Ragnar says, stepping up next to Shailene. The four of them standoff as explosives continue to rattle the ground around them. Half the restaurant is on fire at this point, but nobody makes a single step to move.

"Well, you've got us where you needed us," Shailene says icily, cocking her gun. "So what now?"

Just then, a whisper slices through the air and washes their world in white light. This explosive does knock them all to the ground and when their vision clears, Abin stands amidst a dozen fallen bodies. Fiona continues to fend off three men herself, a few feet away, having been shielded by Abin.

As the smoke clears, McNamara opens his mouth. His gun is still pointed at Shailene but he wavers as he stares at Abin, flabbergasted. "What..." He looks back and forth between the two of them, trying to decide who he wanted more. Eventually, something wins out.

"Call it our secret weapon," Shailene says smugly, watching as McNamara finally turns to run towards Abin, who is quickly getting away.

"I'll be back for you two," he says with barely-concealed disgust. Abin's scrolls had cleared the dust in the air and she can see his sneer visibly, from the scrunched up nose to the twisted frown. But even more, she can finally see the agent who has been at his side this whole time.

In every other scenario, Shailene would have taken this opportunity to shoot him in the leg or anywhere else moderately inconvenient. Usually, she likes to aim near the groin — never fatal but always excruciating. Or at the very least, she'd have some sort of retort for that son of a bitch.

But in every other scenario, Evie isn't aiming their gun at Shailene.

"Evie," Ragnar says, his voice barely above a whisper.

Shailene doesn't think. She doesn't have a moment to think. A rush of both crushing heartbreak and joy swallow her as Shailene runs towards her long-lost sibling. But Evie stands firm, holding their weapon against her. When Shailene comes in for a hug, a swift kick knocks every breath out of her.

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"Evie? What are you doing?" Shailene gasps. Evie looks just like she remembers. Their hair is a bit shorter and they no longer have the chubby cheeks that so clearly marked them as the baby of the family, but it's Evie nonetheless. Except that there's something wrong.

"Don't."

Shailene recoils in shock from the ice in her voice. The word comes from a mile away and Shailene feels like she's drowning in the pounding of her heart. She has never heard anything even close to the malice in Evie's ever-soft voice. But there is nothing like the hatred in Evie's gaze right now.

"Shailene," Ragnar says, his voice a warning. "Why don't you come back here?"

"Evie, it's me," Shailene says as if there'd be any sort of confusion. But she's confused. "McNamara's distracted right now. If you move fast, we can take you with us."

Evie laughs, and it's unlike any laugh Shailene's ever heard from Evie. "You're only ten years too late."

"What are you doing, Evie?" she pleads. Shailene hates the weak whisper of her own voice and the tears that are threatening to spill, but there's nothing she can do about that at this moment. She's imagined finding Evie again so many times, the way it'd feel to hug her little sibling again or laugh together over silly gossip. Never, in any of the millions of iterations, had she imagined this.

Evie's gun doesn't waver as she flips open her mechsuit and reveals a shiny array of medals and badges. Gold medallions, ornate ribbons, everything of the sort. "Call me Lieutenant McNamara. As for what I'm doing... well, I think I could ask you the same." Evie holds up a pair of handcuffs. "In custody."

----------------------------------------

Abin's heard of Colonel McNamara many times by now, both from Left Behind and various news reports when Fiona has the broadcast on. Fiona herself had described him as an Irish war god with "absolutely no work-life balance". But nothing could have prepared him for the colonel who is barrelling towards him, the scar along his face glinting in the sunlight.

In a rush, Abin tears another piece of his scroll and throws it at his feet. Colonel McNamara rolls on the ground to avoid the blow and cocks his gun at Abin. "So you're the freak who's been destroying all of my Compliance Order troops."

Abin doesn't answer, perfectly aware of his dwindling supply and how everyone else is preoccupied in their own fights. It doesn't seem that they're winning... and there's no one to save him. He watches as Colonel McNamara circles him, a grim smile on the colonel's stoic face.

"They had said that you looked like you weren't from our time," Colonel McNamara says, tugging on Abin's robes. Abin flinches and moves away from him. "And that you were some sort of strange sorcerer."

Abin swallows, still counting out the scraps of scrolls in his sleeve. "I don't particularly consider myself a sorcerer." He winces as a headache intensifies in his head — he must be over-exerting himself. The only other time this happened was when Master Ji-ham passed. He's trying to buy time, but for what? The parking lot is ruined by carnage and there are casualties on both sides. A few feet away, he can see the alarm on Fiona's face when she realizes who he's speaking to.

"Then what are you?"

Abin holds a slip of parchment between his fingers, like a threat. "I'm not sure there's an English term for what I do." He flashes the Korean character he had painstakingly drawn on the parchment, calling upon the fire elements to create explosives.

Colonel McNamara is still circling him, his gun pointed squarely at Abin's heart. "Fascinating... my troops have been reporting a time-traveling man with strange powers but I didn't believe it until now. This is... interesting." Between his buzz cut and sharp jaw, there are no emotions behind McNamara's face — only calculation. McNamara is the first person that he's met in the present to be completely unfazed by Abin's powers.

Abin feels disgusted by the way that McNamara looks at him and suddenly understands why Shailene and Ragnar hate him so passionately. "Leave me and my friends alone."

McNamara barks out a laugh. "You made quite the friendship choices for someone who's jumped centuries. Are you aware that your friends are highly volatile violent terrorists?"

Abin flips the parchment in his palm and glares at McNamara. "They're only trying to do good in this world."

Ryan's voice is hard. "So do I. Do you think it's fun to tell orphans that they've lost their home because the little club of yours bombed it? Or that entire communities have a foot shortage every time LB decides to cut off a supply chain? All to send a message? Is that the good that your friends are doing?"

Abin stays silent, still rubbing the parchment between his fingers. He tries to distract himself from the dull thudding in his head.

Colonel McNamara finally stops circling, the barrel of his gun just barely kissing Abin's abdomen. This close, Abin can see every freckle and the ginger tint of his eyebrows. The two men stare each other down, barely saying a word, their respective weapons at hand.

"Let me make you an offer," Colonel McNamara says, his voice low and persuasive. "Come with me to Sacramento. I have power and resources to help you in ways you cannot even imagine. More importantly, I have knowledge... about how you may go back. You want to go back, don't you? I will admit it's not fully fleshed out, but it will be the only hint you will ever get."

Abin opens his mouth. Coming here has done little to reprieve Abin of the guilt and endless depression that Master Jiham's death had brought him into. Decades of wisdom and knowledge, gone within seconds. Sometimes, when eating mushy food with a group of random radicals he's never met before last week, Abin feels that there's no point to life whatsoever. What if Abin gave McNamara everything he wanted, and Shailene or Ragnar end up in prison? What happens if this world dissolves into chaos and the sun explodes tomorrow? This isn't Abin's world. There's no point to anything. Abin's headache continues to pound, like an endless sound he can't escape. For a moment, the offer is enticing.

But over the muffled pounding, Abin can still hear Fiona shouting over the din, whirling around with her dagger. He can see Shailene crying, in front of one of McNamara's agents. Maynard and Hani and Sanjay fighting with their lives amongst the dust, passing explosives and weapons to one another. And most of all, he remembers Fiona's smile — the way her brown eyes crinkle in the sun, driving down the road and telling him about the days before disaster. The days in a world that isn't all that different from the joys of his own.

"Absolutely not," Abin says flatly.

"Well," McNamara says. "I guess we're doing this the hard way then."

With a thunderous bang and a flash of pain, McNamara shoots Abin in the leg. In the same second, Abin thrusts his last scroll into the air and time stops. Abin crumples to the ground as everyone is bathed in a white light and absolute silence overtakes the battlefield.

A deathly peace.

"Abin?" He can hear the faint sound of Fiona running towards him, her voice thick with worry. "Abin? Can you hear me?" It sounds like she's speaking through an ocean, yelling from a thousand miles away. In a flash, Abin's headache erupts and drenches him in blinding pain.

But for once, it's not Fiona that he's looking at. No, instead, he sees the four figures emerging from the light and storming towards him. They are dressed just like him, but the anger on their faces clearly demarcates them from him. The faces of the only people Abin has ever loved — Gwan, Hu, Jin, and Yuha, the people who took him in at the monastery. The people he's grown up with. The people he calls family.

"Abin, you disgusting murderer," Gwan says, his voice contorted with fury. "You thought you left us behind."