Chapter 21: It's (Always Been) About Time

The Rift Generator, Bermugula's Orbit, ?

"Uka Uka unknowingly paved the way for our bright future," N. Tropy was saying as he admired his own handiwork, Cortex walking past him with a sour look on his yellow visage, opening the nearby furnace and beginning to make repairs. "Once my Rift Generator is complete," the self-proclaimed master of time went on, Cortex mockingly moving his hand to imitate his fellow doctor's mouth, quickly deviating from doing such when Tropy glanced back at him out of the corner of his eye, "Dominion over all of time and space will be within our grasp!"

Cortex sighed as he continued to do maintenance on the furnace, hearing the approaching footsteps of his longstanding duo of assistants coming up behind him. "N. Gin, N. Brio, you had some little projects you wanted to tell me about?" he asked, not looking up from his work.

"Master, my mechanical marvel will hypnotise you an army!" N. Gin insisted eagerly.

"And my potion will make me— Uh, them unstoppable!" N. Brio inputted, holding up a beaker filled with his signature Mutagen brew as he spoke.

"Right, yeah, fine, sure," Cortex said unenthusiastically, not the least bit interested. "Have fun with your… ray guns or whatever."

N. Gin went to walk away to get started in his project, only to accidentally bump into N. Brio, causing a scuffle between the two to break out, quickly escalating with N. Gin even going so far as to sink his teeth into Brio's ankle.

"Hasten your steps!" N. Tropy barked at them from over by the Rift Generator. "By my calculations, our enemies are already moving against us," he stated, a cold expression forming on his face, "And we… will… prevail," he concluded, his cold expression turning into a sinister smile. "Cortex, fire up the afterburners! Let's see what my glorious machination can do!"

"I'll give you a glorious machination," Cortex muttered under his breath as he closed the vent of the furnace and turned the lever on the side. "I'll give it to you right up the…"

The Rift Generator flared to life, cracking with electrical energy. N. Tropy started to laugh maniacally as each node around the device lit up.

"Yes. Yes!" he declared, holding up his signature tuning fork. "I can already feel the temporal ripples! Even as I speak, quantum rifts are opening all across reality!" He then chuckled coldly. "Oh, the fear and chaos this will instigate is going to be… delicious."

"Speaking of delicious, what's time's dinner?" N. Gin asked. Everyone else present ignored the doctor with a missile lodged in his head, causing him to let out an annoyed "Hmph!" and turn away, taking a step forward before falling flat on his face. N. Brio laughed at his fellow doctor's expense… only to yowl with pain as he suddenly felt N. Gin's teeth upon his leg again.

Evil Public School, Frozen Coast, 2008

The wind howled in the distance as the Brat Girls went about their evening patrols, pacing back and forth outside of the ominous school building perched on the edge of a cliff in the farthest reaches of the snow-covered region, their furry faces draped in shadow. One of them, the no-nonsense leader of the patrol, wrapped her arms around herself when her fellow guards weren't looking, not letting them see her shivering from the cold, not letting them see that she would or indeed could ever show any sign of weakness. She gritted her teeth and canines; this was going to be a long, cold night.

Suddenly, the air was rent with an ominous, deafening cracking sound. Alarmed, if not bewildered, the patrol members looked up, staring at the gloomy sky overhead as it began to crack open, a huge, jagged quantum rift appearing in midair, permeating the light evening snowfall. Beyond the rift, the star-filled void of deep space could be seen.

Many of the Brat Girls began to scream and shout in panic, having never seen an anomaly such as this before. The patrol leader, in spite of how horrified she was, did her best to maintain a tone and demeanour of authority as she barked commands at her fellow anthropomorphic beings, trying to maintain order.

"Remain calm and at your posts, girls!" she ordered sharply, struggling to make herself heard as her patrol ran about, flailing their arms in panic. After a moment, the patrol leader remembered the megaphone holstered at her belt and hastily drew it, holding it up and at the ready. She closed her eyes, opened her mouth and uttered a shrill, obnoxious, animalistic chitter into the sound-amplifying device for several seconds. Visible sound waves in the form of bouncing pink music notes began to emanate from the far end of the megaphone, floating through the air and soon reaching the animalistic ears of her peers, even through their fluffy pink earmuffs. Several of them reached up to cover their already covered ears, wincing at the cacophony of unnaturally amplified noise.

"Oh, my gosh! Is that how we sound when we do that?" the nearest Brat Girl wondered aloud. "Because that is, like, totally the worst!"

The patrol leader lowered her megaphone, stepping forward and grabbing the guard who had spoken by the collar, lifting her up off the snow-covered ground with surprising strength. "Round up the troops, fellow minion! We've got a catastrophe on our paws!" she commanded, releasing her subordinate, causing the lower ranking minion to drop face-first into the snow. The patrol leader then turned to the rest of the group. "And one of you, find BG-2187 and bring her to me! I just know that she has something to do with this…" she hissed, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

Alpha watched the chaos unfolding below from behind the glass of a window on the third floor of the building, her eyes wide. "This is beyond anything I've ever had to deal with," she murmured quietly to herself. "It's beyond anything that any of us have had to deal with…" Her expression then hardened. "And it just might be… Hmm."

Alpha turned away from the window and marched out of the room, proceeding down the hall, mulling over recent events in her head, her mind racing.

Just a couple weeks back, Evil Public School had lost contact with the Space Head and the Ice Prison, Cortex's orders no longer coming in over loudspeaker or any communication device on hand. Additionally, all NV units had ceased to function completely, causing many mind-controlled mutants to run free all across Wumpa Island, greatly upsetting the order of the Frozen Coast and places beyond. N. Brio's Doom Monkeys at the Junkyard weren't responding to transmissions. The Znu at Mt. Grimly had also gone dark. As for the Slap-Es… Well, they had never been a reliable source of intel. The Brat Girls had suddenly found themselves isolated without orders, without Titans to act as guard dogs or as labour, and with dwindling supplies. In spite of this, Alpha and the other high-ranking Brat Girls had done their best to maintain order, keeping the students of Evil Public School in line, sending a small reconnaissance group to the Ice Prison (which had not returned, with attempts to contact them by radio being met with nothing more than continuous static) and doing their best to ration supplies fairly.

…Well, as fairly as an evil code of conduct would allow for, at any rate.

And now, after two weeks of being cut off from the rest of Cortex's forces, including the man himself, a giant rift portal had appeared right on the Brat Girls' doorstep. Clearly, they were at the point of no return… and Alpha didn't know what to make of it all.

Had Cortex abandoned them? Had those meddlesome Bandicoots done what they tended to do best and put an end to Cortex's schemes before they could truly get off the ground? Or was this all some sort of elaborate trick, a test of loyalty on Cortex's part? Alpha had spent the last few weeks brainstorming an escape plan with Wimp and Screwball, something that would get not only the three of them, but all Brat Girls out of here and on the road - literal and otherwise - towards freedom. And now, after two weeks of waiting to see when or even if their master would issue new orders… Bam! A time-space portal out of nowhere. It couldn't be a coincidence… or could it? Was it a trap?

Or was it the very opportunity that Alpha had been waiting for…?

If a Brat Girl were to jump into this portal, what would they find? Would they be instantly killed? Would they be transported to a place far from the Frozen Coast? To another planet, perhaps? Another universe? The possibilities were endless. Endless potential for both escape… and danger.

"Wimp! Screwball!" Alpha barked as she reached the doorway of her patrol's dormitory, rousing her subordinates from their respective moping and chewing of their own toenails - the latter being what Screwball had been doing. "With me!"

Wimp glanced around nervously as the trio made their way down to the ground floor of the building, Screwball sniffing the air anxiously, picking up on the fact that something was amiss, but wasn't aware of exactly what that something was as of yet.

"Alpha?" the more timid Brat Girl asked after a long period of walking in silence, her words barely above a whisper. "Is this it? Are we going to—?"

"Shush!" Alpha hissed as they reached the double doors that marked the school's front entrance. "Stay close," she went on more calmly, though her words were no less serious.

As Alpha and company stepped out into the cold and the chaos, the Brat Girl who was supposed to be commanding the guard patrol shrieked as a large wooden crate suddenly flew out of the quantum rift, sailing right towards her head. She dived out of the way just in time, but in doing so, she ended up sprawling on the ground closer to the rift, which began to pull her towards it. She let out a panicked cry as she felt herself starting to get dragged towards the ominous time-space hole, desperately clawing at the fluffy white snow she lay upon to try and save herself, her eyes wide with terror.

"Oh, no!" Wimp cried as she watched the scene unfold, putting her hands to her mouth. Alpha, on her part, opted to do what any good leader ought to in a crisis: Take action. She darted forward, soon diving to slide belly first along the frost-covered ground to meet her struggling, panicking peer, grabbing her hand in a tight grasp while digging the toes of her own pink boots into the hard dirt beneath the snow… but it wasn't enough. The rift was still sucking them towards it, albeit slightly slower then before.

"We're gonna die! WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Alpha's fellow patrol leader screamed in panic, having lost all sense of composure.

"Just hang on!" Alpha barked at her, though she was starting to fear the worst herself. Her eyes widened when she suddenly felt a pair of hands around her ankles.

"Pull, Screwball! PULL!" Wimp was shouting, having grabbed hold of Alpha's legs, Screwball having wrapped her strong arms around Wimp's torso to help her. Together, the two lowest ranking members of Alpha's patrol managed to pull their leader and her cohort to safety, just outside of the radius of the quantum rift's pull, where Wimp and Screwball let go before the former immediately sunk to her knees, hyperventilating, her eyeballs nearly bulging out of her head.

Alpha picked herself up, helping her fellow patrol leader to her feet before turning her attention to Wimp and Screwball.

"That was a bold display, you two," she said seriously. "If that had gone wrong, all four of us would now be in that rift." Her stern expression then turned to a grateful smile. "Thanks for saving us. Barista was right; you two are worth more than even you yourselves give you credit for."

Wimp found herself beaming. Then she brushed profusely and looked away. Screwball just sat down and scratched at her own ear with her foot in a dog-like manner.

"N-Not to dampen the mood, Alpha," the guard patrol leader began, "But we still need to do something about that!" she declared, turning and brandishing a finger at the portal that was still wreaking havoc, several other members of the guard patrol now starting to get dragged towards it. Before Alpha and the others could even react, one of the guards got sucked in, disappearing into the unknown, her terrified scream instantly cutting off as she vanished. Screwball's eyes widened, and then she was suddenly bounding forward on all fours, leaping through the air and right into the portal, much to the horror of Alpha and Wimp, the latter screaming out her colleague's name with the shrillness of a banshee.

A good ten seconds passed, the wind howling around them, and then—

Screwball suddenly came tumbling out of the rift to roll along the ground like an armadillo, the Brat Girl who had gotten sucked in before in her arms. They came to a sprawled halt at Alpha's feet, Screwball seeming no worse for wear while the Brat Girl she had saved looking as though some of her facial fur had turned white from trauma… though that may have just been snow she had picked up while rolling along the ground.

"What was it like in there, rookie?" Alpha asked the guard, her words firm yet not without a hint of concern, the latter prompting her fellow patrol leader to raise an eyebrow behind her.

The guard picked herself up, trembling. "There was… a m-marshland of sorts. W-With boardwalks everywhere," she managed, still appearing shaken. "Very humid climate. I barely had time to register any of it before BG-1342 showed up and brought me back."

"Did it look safe?" Alpha demanded, appearing almost hopeful. Was the air breathable?"

"Y-Yeah, I… I think so? Maybe?" the guard said uncertainly. "Like I said, I didn't really have time to—"

"Screwball!" Alpha said sharply. "Did you have any problems on the other side of that portal? Any difficulty breathing?"

Screwball tilted her head, looking uncharacteristically thoughtful. Then she shook her head, seeming almost fully coherent for once… only to then stick out her tongue and start panting like a dog, looking quite goofy.

"Then that settles it," Alpha mused. "There's a hospitable world on the other side of that rift. We don't know how hospitable exactly, but it's something."

"Whoa, wait a minute," the leader of the guards said sternly. "You're not seriously thinking of defecting? Now? At a time like this?"

Alpha turned to her fellow patrol leader. "I think about a lot of things, BG-3469," she stated. "All of them concerning the good of my Brat Girl kin. Can you say the same?"

"Alpha, my loyalty is to evil, to order!" BG-3469 exclaimed.

"And how has that been working for you, hmm?" Alpha demanded, prodding her fellow high-ranking Brat Girl in the chest. "D'you feel happy, serving the cause of evil, serving that insufferable big-headed scientist that takes us for granted? Wake up and see the bigger picture, 3469!"

"But…!" BG-3469 spluttered in protest. "I'm not just gonna jump back into that portal thingy! You said it yourself - we don't know what it's really like over there! What if there's someone worse than Cortex running the whole place? We could be leaving a harsh life behind in favour of a life of true suffering!"

"And what if we're not, 3469? What if we're doing just the opposite by jumping in? A defecting Brat Girl once taught me that sometimes, we have go on our gut instinct if we're to become who we truly are, what we're truly meant to be!"

"But jumping into a rift portal on a whim is madness!" 3469 insisted. "And what of the other Brat Girls? What of the students? You said you're always thinking of the good of all Brat Girls, so—!"

Screwball suddenly let out a loud cry, prompting Alpha and 3469 to turn in time to see Wimp stepping towards the quantum rift. She glanced back at her cohorts with a sad smile and then closed her eyes, the wind whipping around her and billowing her purple hair about as she was lifted off the ground and sucked into the rift.

Alpha could only stare, open-mouthed, at the spot where Wimp had been, and then her expression hardened. She turned to Screwball and 3469.

"Gather the others - anyone who's willing to defect, to escape," she told them. "We're leaving this frigid tundra now."

Screwball gave an overly enthusiastic series of rapid nods before grabbing 3469 by the arm and dragging her away before she could protest.

"It has to be now," Alpha mused quietly once she was alone, gazing solemnly up at the quantum rift as she spoke, "Because it's now… or never."

"Okay, one last time," Aku Aku was saying. "Focus and…"

Barista held her arm out before herself, her eyes closed and her Mojo tattoo shimmering a luminous shade of blue. She clicked her fingers, and with a slightly startled grunt, North, who had been standing before her on the grass, suddenly vanished to be replaced by a glowing green orb of magic that hovered in mid-air. Barista instinctively reached out, gently closing her fingers around the orb… and then she promptly tucked the orb away into the folds of her Evil Public School uniform. She then opened her eyes. "Did I do it?" she asked.

"Woohoo!" Crash cheered from over by his house, thrusting his tattooed fist upward enthusiastically. Crunch looked up from his regular push-ups routine to give a nod of approval.

"I knew you'd get it before long," Coco said, striding over to give Barista a high five. "Mind over mutant, am I right?"

"Heh. Yeah, I guess that's one way of looking at it," the bat girl said, chuckling. She glanced down at her jacket, her mind dwelling on the Ratcicle she had just converted into energy. "I can actually feel him in there. I can feel his aura, his Mojo…" She then frowned. "He'd better not get any cheeky ideas while he's inside my jacket," she declared, prompting all three of the Bandicoots to burst out laughing while Aku Aku just rolled his painted eyes, a knowing smile on the wooden mask's face.

The amusement of the situation was cut short, however, as a quantum rift suddenly burst open in mid-air right behind Barista, causing her to shriek as she suddenly found herself being pulled in.

"NO!" Coco shouted, quickly grabbing Barista by the wrists and planting her own feet firmly on the ground. In an instant, Crash and Crunch were there, desperately trying to pull Coco back.

"Watch it, fool! You're gonna get pulled in, too!" the muscular bandicoot declared.

"Coco, I…! I think you're gonna have to let go!" Barista cried as she hung there in mid-air, her legs dangling close to the portal, her tone making it clear that she didn't like the idea anymore than Coco did.

"No, I…! I won't let you go!" Coco insisted, tears starting to form in her eyes. "Not when I was just starting to like you, just starting to get used to having you around! You're like my…!"

Barista gave Coco a look that told her she didn't need to say it, for they both already knew. They both smiled sadly at each other…

…And then Coco lost her grip and Barista went sailing through the rift, which closed as soon as she disappeared into it, leaving the Bandicoots and Aku Aku in stunned, silent shock. The youngest of the siblings then sunk to her knees and wept, Crash soon pulling an arm around her, tenderly patting his little sister on the back while Crunch just sighed, trying to hold back his own grief.

"Damn fool will be fine," he said at last, his voice cracking slightly. "You lot taught her well, and I think she picked up enough o' my own tricks to put the hurt on anyone who tries to mess with her. Also, she's got that Ratcicle with her, and he's almost as tough as me." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as everyone else present.

"With every meeting, a parting is sure to follow," Aku Aku mused quietly, looking crestfallen in every sense of the word; his grassy hair appeared flatter on top than usual. "Such is the way of the universe, the way of the Mojo."

Hearing those words, Crash burst into tears, joining his sister in her despair, the two of them wrapping each other up in a hug.

Crunch turned away, allowing a single tear to fall from his left eye. He quickly wiped it away before straightening up. "I'll go start on dinner," he croaked. "She wouldn't want us to forget what's important just 'cause she ain't here no more." On that note, he filed silently into Crash's house, closing the door behind him so his adoptive siblings and mentor figure wouldn't hear the frustrated profanities through which he would be expressing his own sadness for the next few minutes.

Neon City, The SNaXX Dimension, 3023

"That was the last time I saw them," Barista concluded, her words having grown tearful as the hypnotherapy session had progressed, her emotions having been brought to the surface along with her memories. "Next thing I knew, I was sprawled on a floating walkway higher up in the city. There was no sign of a rift portal back home as I got up, trying to make sense of my surroundings and get my bearings. I soon saw a trash bot patrolling the area and when it looked at me, I panicked and ran, hiding myself in an alleyway a couple streets away. Soon after that, it started to rain, and I only had a big cardboard box someone had thrown out to shelter under. I was scared and, save for North in my coat pocket, alone."

Megumi said nothing. She knew what was coming next. How could she not know? She'd been there to witness it first-hand.

"And then, I heard a voice, calling out to me," Barista said, letting out a little sniffle as she lay there on the bandicoot woman's expensive psychiatric couch. "Someone asked if there was anyone in the alleyway. I didn't respond; I was so afraid of meeting with trouble… but then I heard footsteps, and when I saw a hand bearing a dainty white glove start to prise open the lid of the box I was hiding in, I shrieked in fright… and then I saw the folds of a blue and white umbrella, a woman in a business suit looking down at me with concern. A bandicoot woman. You, Doctor Megumi," she confirmed, letting out another sniffle, but the bat girl now had a smile on her face as she lay there with her eyes still closed. "Your eyes, they were just so… gentle. They had such a caring, compassionate quality to them… and I knew. Right from that moment, I knew I could trust you. I knew you only wanted to help." Another sniffle. " And then you…" Her words came out in a choked sob. "And then you said—"

"It is alright, dear one. I am here to be helping," Megumi recited, remembering what she had said on that fateful day, during that fateful meeting, word for word. She reached up and wiped a single tear from her own eye as she continued, "My name is Megumi. What is being yours?"

Barista's smile grew wider. "Yeah. Yeah, you were… No, you are just the best," she said tearfully. "You were so understanding as I started babbling on about how I was lost with no way of getting back home and how I was so, so scared… and then you slowly, carefully reached into the box, gently took hold of my left hand and gave it a little squeeze. You told me that everything was going to be alright, and in spite of everything, in spite of how I was terrified out of my mind… I found myself believing you."

Megumi once again remained silent, but she found that she had to wipe another tear from her eye, with more threatening to build up as she sat there.

"You brought me home, let me use your shower… during which I totally freaked out over its AI system and how it went about washing me," Barista recounted with an embarrassed chuckle. Even Megumi allowed herself a light giggle at that one.

"Yes, I remember you were being convinced that it was trying to attack you," the bandicoot woman said, letting a knowing smirk of amusement creep onto her orange-furred visage. "I practically had to be placing you back in the cubicle myself even after you had calmed down." The two of them both laughed at the memory.

"Once I was showered and dressed in some clothes you had provided for me, we both sat down with a hot drink each and proceeded to chat. I told you a lot about my life, conveniently leaving out the part where I had a big, frosty ice monster in the pocket of my coat that you had sent off to be laundered." Barista then giggled. "As soon as you left me alone, I raced down to the downstairs laundry to get North out of my coat before it could be tossed into the nearest washing machine. I don't even know if he would've been affected by an experience like that, given that he was still an intangible ball of magic at the time, but I wasn't taking any chances." She sighed contentedly at the amusing memory. "After that, I gradually started to settle in at your apartment, and before too long, I started to see it as… home," the bat girl confessed. "A place of sanctuary, safety and comfort."

"Yes. It is being no wonder that you would use it as your psychological safe space, in that case," Megumi said, nodding in understanding. "I think you have done well today, Barista, and it is being about time that I brought you back from your subconscious mind." On that note, the hypnotherapist lowered her voice, speaking her next words in a hushed and soothing tone. "I want you to be returning to your safe space, Barista, and in doing so, just let yourself relax deeply. I am going to count from one to five, and when I reach the number five, you will slowly open your eyes, coming back into full awareness of the world around you. Understand?"

"Yes, Megumi."

"Very good. One, starting to stir to the world around you… Two, beginning to be feeling more alert… Three, a great sense of refreshment washing over your body and invigorating you… Four, getting ready to open those wonderful eyes of yours… and five: Eyes open, wide awake."

Barista blinked once, twice as she stared up at the ceiling, her surroundings quickly coming back into focus as her mind clicked back into place, fully alert, her body feeling somewhat energised. She slowly sat up, turning to look at Megumi. "Okay, that," she said sincerely," was flipping amazing." She then leapt to her feet, grinning broadly. "Oh, my gosh! Can you believe that I was scared of trying hypnosis just a couple days ago?! Oh, that just felt so nice! And I feel so much better having gotten all of that stuff about my past off my chest! Wait, is it normal that I remember everything we talked about while I was in hypnosis? In? Under? What's the right terminology here? Oh, who cares?! It was great!" she positively squealed, doing a little twirl on the spot like an overly excited school girl.

"Okay, okay, be settling down, my dear Garnet," Megumi told her, but the azure-haired bandicoot couldn't help but smile; Barista's positive energy was infectious. "I am glad that you are feeling much better."

Barista then stopped in place, her gaze seeming to grow distant for a moment. "Oh, wow. I really do," she realised. Then she grinned once more. "Man, if I knew hypnosis could do this much good for me, I would've signed up right after I first met you!" she exclaimed. "In fact, you know what? I'm gonna recommend you to those bandicoots I met recently in case they ever need someone to talk to about their problems! Them and those magic masks who… help them travel…" Her eyes positively bulged in yet another moment of realisation. "Across… dimensions…"

"Well, what was I supposed to do, according to you? Research quantum physics every day for the rest of my life, come to understand the interwoven layers of reality itself and open my own rift portals? Life isn't as simple as that, Tawna!"

Barista slapped a hand to her forehead, feeling monumentally stupid. "Are… you… KIDDING ME?!" she suddenly screeched, making Megumi jump slightly. "The solution was staring me in the face and I couldn't even see it?!"

"Barista, what're you—?" Megumi began, but Barista was already starting for the door at a quick pace.

"No time!" she called back over her shoulder. "I've gotta see a bandicoot about a mask! Bulk bill me!" On that note, she left the room before Megumi could so much as utter a word.

"What is she talking about? I gave her this first session for free as her friend!" she exclaimed once she was alone. She then shook her head, both flabbergasted and a little amused at the coffee bat's parting words. "Bulk billing indeed…"

Yeah, this chapter was really just meant to bridge the previous chapter and the next. Like, more so than most other chapters, I mean; it's just here to wrap up a few loose ends and get all the pieces in place for the big multi-chapter finale that I've been planning since I first started this fanfic over two years ago, so look forward to that - it's gonna be a doozy.