Previously on Sheena:
Dr. Carter was working on a time dilation accelerator that Tyler Mandarin was using to steal artifacts from sacred Kaia sites in the LaMistas. Dr. Carter was experimenting on retrieval when the accelerator was set to randomize portals. When confronting Tyler Mandarin, Tyler took the time dilation accelerator from the doctor and locked the doctor in.
Sheena and Matt Cutter caught wind of Tyler's activities as well as the disappearance of Dr. Carter, and traced the trail to a secret compound in a former construction site dirt mound. There, Sheena freed Dr. Carter but were caught, as was Cutter, by Tyler's goons.
After a struggle to save Dr. Carter from punishment from Tyler, a bomb went off and threw everyone off the dirt mound. Matt Cutter fell into a portal during the explosion. Sheena recovered but couldn't find him. Matt Cutter yelled for Sheena while falling in limbo.
Sheena searched the site for Cutter, and couldn't find him anywhere. She saw bodies strewn across the area, but she couldn't find his, nor Tyler's. She saw the time dilation accelerator near a pile of wood and metal. It was broken.
"Cutter! Where are you?"
Tyler Mandarin had a bruise from the explosion, and was recovering from the explosion, and saw Sheena in front of where he was. He grabbed his gun, and noticed that the time dilation accelerator he so wanted was broken.
"Cutter!"
"Stop right there!" Tyler said, holding the gun.
"Tyler, look what you've done!" Sheena replied back to him. "Your precious forced invention is destroyed. Dr. Carter and your goons are dead. Where's Cutter?"
"I don't know, but you aren't going anywhere without giving me the accelerator." Tyler pointed the gun to her face.
"It's broken."
"I know how to fix it. I am the only one who knows how to fix it."
"Where is Cutter? What did you do to him?"
"Like I said, I don't know. The explosion happened so fast."
"Yes, and you killed Dr. Carter. Did you kill Cutter too?"
"No. I don't know where he is."
Sheena lifted her knife from her pouch and lifted her foot above the broken accelerator.
"If you don't tell me where he is, I will finish the job the explosion didn't do."
Tyler lowered the gun, but hid it in his back pocket.
"When I last saw him, my goons were holding him before the explosion happened. When it happened, I saw his body rise into the air with the dirt, and I thought I heard a portal open. In the struggle, I don't know what was pushed."
Sheena threw her knife at Tyler's shoulder and Tyler fired a gun that missed Sheena. Sheena was holding his hands behind his back.
"Are you saying that he fell through the portal?!"
"He might have."
"What was the last button you pressed?!"
"The randomizer. Dr. Carter told me that he was still exploring what it meant before he died. He didn't know if there was a way to retrieve after randomization."
"Why did you set it to random?"
"To punish Dr. Carter for disobeying me."
Sheena threw his head into the ground. She gripped tight as he was struggling for air. Cutter got Dr. Carter's punishment, and there was no way of knowing whether he would be able to return. She wondered if he was truly gone forever.
Tyler died by Sheena's hand, and she gathered the time dilation accelerator and the notebook from Tyler's pocket. If Dr. Carter didn't die, she would have been able to help him figure out a way of return from randomization. Without a portal for retrieval, Matt Cutter would remain trapped with no way out. She kicked Tyler in the head, looked at the damage, then left the site.
Sheena went to Kali first with what happened. She was able to return the Kaia artifacts but it felt somber without Cutter there. Kali then went with her to tell Mendlesson, who was in shock and didn't know what to do with Cutter Unlimited, and didn't want to see Sheena for a while. Sheena then went to Rashid and told him.
"You're only hope, Sheena, is to find a colleague of Dr. Carter's who knew him and could help. Everything would be in his journals."
"I have to protect the LaMistas," Sheena said.
"I understand, but I would keep an eye out for scientists around here who you help and see if they know anything about time dilation to help you."
"Thanks Rashid. I can see why Cutter trusted you."
"Trusts, he may still be alive somewhere."
"Thanks."
Cutter was still alive. He was trapped in limbo, constantly falling through time. The fear of uncertainty subsided, and he accepted that he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. He thought there was no way for Sheena to save him. She may not even know where he was. The explosion happened so fast. Still, he didn't know where he was, and didn't know if this vortex would end somewhere. He just kept falling.
In the former laboratory of Dr. Mitchell Carter, there were two green lights appearing on the televisions, undamaged by the explosion. While there were papers and burnt furniture everywhere, there was the televisions working, and both lights traveled around the other televisions. It was possible that Cutter and the elephant were stuck in similar limbos. But- it would be a year before Dr. Carter's televisions and still mostly functional laboratory would be rediscovered.