Chapter Nine:

Sever

Remember how I once said that I don't like getting bumped into? How it leads me on all sorts of different adventures when someone "conveniently" bumps into me? I mean, first Dana, then Lance, and then Kayce (my future daughter… apparently).

Well, I found myself flat on my face as a ton of people suddenly fell onto me.

"Shit!" one of them cursed. "Okay, let's never use that power again!"

"Here, here," someone else agreed.

I heard someone suck in a breath. "Hey! That means I can't do anything then!"

"Can you guys stop arguing for one minute?" somebody asked quietly.

"You know what? As soon as you actually do something, you can have a say in what to do," another one said in a clear and uninterested monotone. "Wimp."

Now, in Empire City, I once told you about an anger mark on my head. Remember that? Well, it just made another special guest appearance on my forehead.

I shoved them all off of me with all of my strength. "What the hell? If I could see, I'd stomp your faces in!"

"Ah, found 'em," one of them muttered.

"About friggin' time!" Someone came up to me, but I couldn't see what she was doing. "The hell? You didn't tell us that this one was blind!"

"She wasn't!" The person who just spoke grabbed my face and checked my eyes (while I tried to pry 'em off). "Ah. Quicksilver. I can fix this."

"Why the hell is quicksilver a fire Conduit's weakness?" one of them muttered.

"Why are the chemicals in soap a weakness for energy Conduits?" another retorted.

"Touché," the former replied.

I held up my hands. "Woah, hold up! Joan, tell me what the hell's goin' on!"

I felt a hand grasp my shoulder. "Um, if she can fix your eyes, you tell me. Because I think I'm hallucinating. Really badly."

"This'll just take a second!" She placed her forefingers on my eyelids, and some sort of beam of energy erupted from the tips. I leaped back as she said, "Done!"

"My eyes! Goddammit that hurt!" I snapped as I rubbed them. "What the hell did you do? Blinding me isn't an option, since I already am!"

"Stop being a whiny bitch and open your eyes," the monotone ordered.

I grumbled angrily under my breath and opened my eyes. You can't imagine the wave of relief that passed through me as the colours and the lights met my eyes. But then my eyes widened as I saw who were in front of me; who had landed on top of me.

There were five other Joan MacGraths standing in front of me.

"Are you seein' what I'm seein'?" I asked my future self.

"Pinch me. Maybe then they'll disappear," she replied.

Each one of me was significantly different. One of them had a hood covering her face and some sort of flexible-looking black armour on her body, with shotgun, some shuriken, and a few daggers scattered around, so I decided that she was the monotone. One looked quite innocent, and had a pink shirt with shorts on. I almost gagged when I saw the shirt, but when I saw the next one, I think I vomited in my mouth. She was wearing a mini-skirt and six-inch heels, and a tube-top. I wanted to punch myself out. Another one looked a bit closer to me, but she had glasses on and was levitating quicksilver in the air (which I decided was from my eyes). The last had green cargo-pants and a black tank top, with several guns strapped around her body.

"Sorry for dropping in," the me with glasses said, smiling weakly, "but we hoped to catch you guys before you went after Garyn."

I tilted my head to the side, barely noticing that my future self was doing the exact same thing. "What the hell are you…? Who the hell are you?"

The me with cargo-pants stepped forward. "Listen closely, 'cause I'm not repeating this explanation twice; we're all you guys, but from different timelines. In our timelines, Kessler tried other Conduit powers instead of fire. I'm a portal Conduit—I make portals. Not too hard to figure out."

"I'm a metal Conduit," the me with glasses chimed in.

"I'm a mind Conduit," the me with the innocent look said quietly.

The me with the skirt smiled. "I'm a water Conduit," she explained.

Joan and I looked at each other and gagged, and then we looked to the last me.

She glared at us from under her hood. "Dark Conduit," she said curtly.

The me with cargo-pants cleared her throat. "But even though we're all the same person—strangely enough—we actually have different names. Mine's Dilyn."

"Cass," glasses said.

"Viveca," innocence muttered.

I scratched my head as super-skirt said, "Rhea."

"Quinn," was hood's quick response.

Dilyn smiled. "We're here to put a stop to Garyn Makarov," she explained.

"And… I don't get it." I looked at my older self, who shrugged. "I'm sorry, but I don't," she continued. "Why the hell would you guys come from different timelines to stop Garyn, who's just an ass in mine?"

"He's been jumping from timeline to timeline," Cass explained as she let the quicksilver fall to the floor. "He's caused trouble for each of us, and we need to put a stop to him. We know he's in this timeline, and this is also the timeline he originated in, so it's where he's most vulnerable… and powerful." She pushed her glasses further up her nose. "If we band together, we can stop him and save all of our timelines; make it like he never existed."

I stared at them for a bit, before I threw my hands up in the air. "I give up. I'm turning myself in to a mental hospital. I write you guys from there. Buh-bye."

"B-But Kayce—!" Viveca blurted.

I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to glare at them. "That's not my name. Don't ever call me that."

"Why not?" Quinn challenged. "Are you too chicken to hear your name?"

"It's not my name," I repeated, taking a threatening step forward. "That was who I was supposed to be, not who I chose to be. If you're wise, you'll back off."

Quinn smirked. "What're you gonna do about it, bitch?"

I can think of a few gruesome deaths, I thought as I glared at her.

"As I thought; the mighty fire Conduit is actually a weakling." Quinn chuckled. "Oh wow, and the fire Conduit is supposed to be rare and powerful. Lo and behold, people; she's a coward."

I felt the fire form in my palm, but it didn't seem to register in my brain. "You wanna do this?"

"Guys, you'd better stop!" Dilyn cautioned. "Let's not fight each other when we have a common enemy here!"

"Oh, please, Dil," Quinn said, totally focused on me. "I wanna test this bitch myself!"

"I doubt you could keep up with me," I told her, smirking.

Quinn grabbed a shuriken with wicked speed and tossed it at me. A huge advantage about being blind; your senses are higher than people who can see. So, since my eyes were probably still in shock about being able to see again, mine were pretty high. I guess, being a Conduit, my abilities and reflexes were heightened to a point where I hadn't even noticed that I caught the shuriken.

"Holy shit…" the future me muttered.

Suddenly, a blast of fire erupted from my hands. Quinn leaped back and beat her arm, desperately trying to put the flames out. When she had, I heard snickers around the room.

"Satisfied?" I asked as I cautiously tossed the shuriken to her.

She caught it and smiled. "Easily provoked, but efficient. Viv, your analysis on her was spot-on."

"Thank-you," Viveca replied quietly.

I suddenly heard a scream. Acting on instinct, I bolted outside of the building and into an area I recognized as the graveyard. Not far from us, I spotted a body. In a cream-ish trenchcoat that looked so much what the Reaper Conduits had worn years ago, Alec was lying on the ground, his sniper rifle not far from him.

"Alec!" I rushed to him and turned him onto his stomach. I shook him, slapped him, smashed his chest—I did everything possible to get him to react to me. "Alec!"

Cass stepped forward and tenderly placed her fingers on Alec's jugular for a pulse. After several critical moments, she wordlessly shook her head. "I'm… I'm so sorry."

My eyes widened in horror. Joan fell to her knees and started crying, Viveca, Rhea and Dilyn trying their best to comfort her. I could feel the tears stinging at my eyes, and at that moment all I wanted to do was let them fall, but I couldn't. I closed Alec's eyes and held him close as the warmth drained little by little from his body, and then I rested him in front of me, placing his hands on his chest, where I also placed his sniper rifle. There were no visible wounds on his body, which only meant one thing…

Garyn Makarov's new power.

"You said that you could fix the timelines if we killed Makarov, right?" I said quietly to Dilyn, not taking my eyes off of Alec.

"Yes," Dilyn confirmed. "I know it."

I stood up and set myself on fire, the flames enveloping my entire body. "Then he's mine."

Rhea stood in front of me, stopping me from going anywhere. "You can't just go off!"

"Watch me!" I snapped. "I'm going to kill that fucking bastard! He murdered Alec! I'm returning the favour!"

"Think about this!" Quinn warned. "If you go off, who's telling what he'll do to you? He's trying to resurrect this 'evil' part of you!"

I glared at her. "Move! I'm not waiting another minute!"

"Don't even think about it, Joan!" the future me said finally.

I looked at her. "He killed Alec!"

"I can see that!" she snapped, finally regaining her composure. "But we need a plan to take him down! We can't just run in and knock on the front door!"

I clenched my fists and saw some Conduits and Pure fighting not far. "Fine! I won't go after him right now!" I lowered my flames until they formed their familiar "V" shape on my back and crawled up my arms. "Just don't get in my way!"

"What d'you mean…?" Rhea saw the way I was looking at the conflict. "Oh no. No you don't!"

"Too late," I growled, and rushed at the factions.