Chapter 13: SCHRÖDINGER'S FATE

Shade was still warily eyeing Future-Malik when she spotted Francis out of the corner of her eye. Which reminded her that the two of them still needed to deal with Schrödinger. Now that they were ensconced in their new safehouse, it was finally safe to release Schrödinger into the real world. There was little choice but to release him straight into their former lair. In any case, Schrödinger knew where the place was, so there was hardly any point in releasing him anywhere else.

Francis caught Shade's glance, and nodded. She, too, was anxious to get back to more solvable problems than the inevitable Rockborn epidemic the world would soon be facing. But Francis also had something else on her mind. Her nagging concerns about Schrödinger's fate. Suddenly she looked at Future-Malik with an expression of revelation on her face.

"You can see all the Rockborn, right? Well, all except me," she said ruefully. "Can you tell me a bit about the powers of the one called Schrödinger?"

Future-Malik waved a hand in the air, flicking his finger, a gesture like he was scrolling on an invisible touch-screen. After a few seconds, he looked confused. "There is no mutant that calls themselves that. Your world just passed a thousand Rockborn yesterday, and there is not a single one called Schrödinger."

It was Francis's turn to look confused. And she wasn't the only one. "Saber-toothed tiger looking guy?" Dekka pressed.

Future-Malik scrolled some more. "There was a mutant called Bengal Tiger in the New York City area. But he fell off the radar. We assumed he was dead."

Astrid narrowed her eyes, noticing Future-Malik's use of "we" instead of "I." Probably just referring to the other Dark Watchers, she thought. Whoever they were.

Malik (the present, Rockborn Malik) looked like he wanted to smack himself in the forehead. "You can't see into the Over There. None of us can feel the Dark Watchers when we're in n-dimensional space, meaning that you can't see us there."

Future-Malik nodded. "I thought so. We see each of you disappear and reappear regularly. I thought that might be what was happening." His eyes widened. "Bengal Tiger, assuming that's the same mutant, disappeared weeks ago. He's been in n-dimensional space all this time?"

"Yeah," Francis said, sounding guilty. "Yeah, he's been trapped all this time."

"Well, no sense putting it off any longer," Shade said, in a tone of agreement, clapping her hands together once as she spoke. "Let's go."

Shade probably didn't need to come along, now that Schrödinger seemed willing to cooperate with the Rockborn Gang. But, of course, she had insisted, unwilling to allow Francis to go on her own and be defenseless. And Francis, although concerned about Schrödinger, didn't entirely trust him, either.

So, with Shade morphed and ready to yank her to safety at a fraction-of-a-second's notice, Francis went into n-dimensional space and quickly found Schrödinger. Neither of them spoke. Francis put her hand onto his shoulder, and, at last, brought him back to the real world.

She mentally steeled herself as she passed into reality, ready to watch Schrödinger die. As much as anyone could ever be ready for a thing like that. But that wasn't what happened.

Schrödinger looked down at himself, his skin covering his organs and muscles and bones in a way he was no longer used to seeing. He wasn't dead. But neither had his injuries disappeared. His legs were still shredded stumps, yet he could stand. His arms were still ripped apart by frost, yet he was not losing blood.

He de-morphed, returning fully to his human form for the first time in weeks. His human form was visibly uninjured. He was a blond teenager. He was lean, muscular, and tall, with green eyes that seemed permanently angry underneath angular eyebrows, like a hawk's hardened expression.

Then, he morphed back to his tiger form. Still unhealed. Still standing on legs that weren't there, still looking down at his raw-meat arms.

"What . . . am I?" Schrödinger said wonderingly.

Francis looked sadly at him. "You're free," she replied simply.

Schrödinger gave Francis a wave of two bloody fingers and a saber-toothed smile, as he wandered off into the facility that General Eliopoulos had given to the Rockborn Gang. No doubt he would find Knightmare's cell and release him.

Well, Edilio had warned Eliopoulos that the base was now compromised. And even Knightmare was not immune to missiles. So hopefully that villain would know better than to cause too much trouble. Knightmare was ruthless, but he was also self-interested.

In any case, that was no longer Francis's problem. She grabbed Shade and went back Over There, making their way back to the virtual safehouse and the rest of the group.

Future-Malik was still there, still glancing at the readout that nobody else could see.

"We did it, we released Schrödinger back to the real world," Shade said impatiently. "He's even in morph, last I saw him at least. Now can you see him? Can you please tell us what's happening with his powers? I'm getting weirded out by whatever he's got going on."

Future-Malik frowned. He scrolled back and forth on his unseen readout in apparent frustration. "No. This makes no sense. I still cannot see him."

The rest of the Rockborn Gang stared at Future-Malik. Malik blinked.

"You mean, he's like Francis?" Malik said incredulously. "He's one of the ones that the Dark Watchers do not watch?"

"What does that mean?" Francis asked.

"It means, like you, he exists in some way outside of the simulation," Malik said darkly. "Schrödinger is not bound to the world that we once called 'reality.'"