In an astral plane of existence, detached from time and space and away from any and all dimensions, a... person, one could say, sat in front of a desk, boredly observing the monitor before him. I could mention his name, but it would incomprehensible for a human mind, so instead we'll call him Steve.
You see, Steve absolutely hated his job. It was boring, monotone and didn't even pay well. He just sat there, from start to end of his shift and observed the monitor. At the end end of his shift, the mandatory report always had the same message: No abnormalities found.
Which was why it was perfectly understandable that his eyes were currently drooping and his mind shutting down. However, he was startled out of his almost-nap when a small beep reached his senses. He opened his eyes and looked at the monitor again. There were small points there, slowly moving towards the top of the screen and then disappearing.
Now, this wasn't an uncommon occurrence at all. The monitor always showed small dots that moved towards the edges. Not strange at all. What was abnormal was the sheer quantity of the dots. They almost filled the entire screen. Discernible was only that none of them quite touched the upper edge, except for one specific point towards which all the dots where seemingly headed.
For a moment, all Steve could do was stare. Nothing like this had ever happened before. What in all worlds was going on?
That thought snapped him out of his stupor and he clumsily reached for the phone to his right, miraculously dialing the correct number. A nasal, female voice answered the phone on the other end.
"Head of the Department of Soul Distribution-" was all she manged to say before she was cut off.
"This is the World of Humans Branch. There is something highly abnormal going on right now. Look for the scan signature of our Gate. I can't explain it otherwise!"
There was silence on the other end, then the sound of fingers tapping on a keyboard, then more silence.
"...and? What is it? What's going on?" he dared to ask in his impatience.
More silence. Then, "There's a massive soul influx coming from the World of Humans. They're not being distributed properly and they're all entering a single Gate. The readings are also strange. It's..."
"It's..." he urged.
A gasp, "It's as if... as if the souls were completely fresh."
"What do you mean? Why fresh?"
"Many of them haven't undergone any process."
His eyes widened, "Then..."
He could almost hear her stern nod, "Yes. More than half the souls here haven't even left their bodies through proper means. These people haven't died. Moreover, the total sum... the number is ridiculous. And why aren't they being stopped at the Gate they're all heading towards...?"
He fidgeted, "Um, so, what should I-"
"Nothing. Thank you for notifying me. If anything else of note happens, please tell me promptly."
"Of course."
She sighed heavily as she hung up, but wasted no time. Quickly, she searched for a certain number in a list pinned to the wall beside her and dialed it. She tapped on the floor impatiently.
"Department of Soul Distribution, World of Flames Branch." said a soft but undoubtedly male voice.
"We have a problem."
"If it's about the sudden massive influx, we know. We've been trying everything, but no matter what, the Gate won't close down. I was about to call you myself right about now."
"Well, we have to do something."
"But we can't! All the souls are entering our world and we can't do anything about it! But that's not really our only problem."
A shiver of dread ran down her back, "What do you mean?"
"They're not just entering the World of Flames normally. Many of them are just... just appearing there. No rebirth, no reincarnation, no growing up in a new life, no nothing. And those who are going through the proper process have somehow forgone the memory wipe. It's madness, I tell you! And we have no idea what's wrong!"
She was still for a moment. Then, with some trepidation, she spoke, "Then... not only are they being taken from their world prematurely, but they're also all being inserted into a single world."
A moment of silence.
"They WHAT?"
She shook her head, even though he couldn't see her, "No matter. We have fix this quickly."
"Well, I'm sorry! Let's see you do a better job of closing the Gate!" She didn't say anything, just waited. "...I apologize. I shouldn't talk like that to my boss. The stress' just getting to me, is all."
"I understand. But still, our task is to regulate the flow of souls between the different worlds. We can't just give up. Do your best and see if there really isn't a way to fix this."
"Yes, ma'am."
She hung up, hoping against all hopes that they'd get this patched up properly soon.
Thirteen human hours later, all stray souls from the World of Humans had traversed into the World of Flames, in different timelines and alternate realities.
The moment they managed to close the Gate, however, all these timelines were merged into the main one at one specific point.
There was no fixing this now.
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AN:
Yes, I know I should be working on Redemption. I am too! My muse just left me for a short vacation and then the plotbunnies actually gave me something I really liked, which just turned into this. It will probably be updated even more irregularily that Redmption and will mostly seem like a series of one-shots, but I found the idea great. Please tell me what you think!