Clock's Ticking

Variants

It had only been a few hours since Loki, Kamaria, and the Loki Variant had gone missing. I can't believe Loki would take Kamaria hostage and I'm not sure what he thinks he will gain from having her, but I refuse to stop until we find them. Renslayer thought that maybe the Time-Keepers would have some idea as to where they've gone, so I'm stuck pacing outside their door, waiting for her to return. When the door opens I can't ask Ranslayer my questions fast enough, "what'd they say? Is she okay? Are you okay?"

"No, no, Mobius. I'm not. Under the best of circumstances, it's jarring to stand before the Time-Keepers. And this is not the best of circumstances."

"Yeah, but they can't blame you."

"They can and do. The Variant was right here. What if she got to the Time-Keepers?"

"I know, but she didn't."

"No, but she got away. Along with both of the Variants that I got you permission to bring in here. Do you have any idea how impossible it is to keep the timeline stable? The Time-Keepers are all that stand between us and full-scale calamity."

"And I'm glad they're on our side. But if they want me to find Kamaria, Loki, and the Variant, I need access to Hunter C-20."

"I'm sorry, but that's impossible."

"Look, when we found her, she kept saying, 'it's real. It's real.' Over and over. I need to find out what that meant and what else she saw when she was with the Variant. Look, I know there's protocol, but I have to find Kamaria, and C-20 could have information..."

"She's dead, Mobius!" Renslayer quietly shouts.

"What? How?"

"The Variant, she enchanted C-20, scrambled her mind."

"I don't get it. She seemed okay. She seemed fine."

"At first, yes. But by the time she got in here, she could barely speak. The decline was steeper after that."

"I didn't know. What..."

"Nobody does. We don't want people to panic. Can I trust you to keep that between us?"

"Of course. Yes. I'm sorry."

"Every moment those Variants are out there, we're all in danger. Find them!"

I head to the offices, where B-15 and the others are working on finding Kamaria and the Variants. "Have we found them yet?"

"There's nothing sir," one of the lower ranking analysts informs me.

"Even with the magnified nexus threshold? That one should be setting off alarms if someone steps on  the wrong leaf."

"Wherever they are, I'm not sure anything survives."

"Don't underestimate them." The Analyst walks away as I walk up to B-15, "you see anything down at Roxxcart?"

B-15 shakes her head, "they're gone. Leaping across time, plotting their next massacre. Any news on C-20?"

I look toward the screen, monitoring any nexus event, unable to look at B-15 and lie to her face, "no."

"We need to find them."

"We will. Because I'm not gonna stop looking until I find my partner."

As we wait and watch the monitor starts to beep, "we've got something."

I look over the screen and notice the spike is going straight up, "okay, that's not someone stepping on the wrong leaf. You ever seen a branch like that?"

"No."