⚝──⭒─What We Make For Ourselves─⭒──⚝

Chapter 4: Room 111

Reyna feels little fireworks of adrenaline shoot through her body when she enters Room 111. She remembered this room distinctly for its metal walls and unusually wide vastness, which contrasted with the tight, concrete corridors of the base; it was where she became a Homo nova.

Instead of the metal chair where they administered the formula to her, a large circular platform stood in the center of the room. At its base was a touchpad displaying the current date, the date where Reyna would be traveling back to, and the exact location where she would land. To her right, a partition stood a little ways from the wall, most likely where she would be changing.

"Alright," Syd claps their hands together. "Ready to sail this storm, Reyna?"

Reyna shifts awkwardly. "Don't I have to be? The General wasn't really asking me."

"According to the General, there's not much time so I need you to do what I say without asking a lot of questions, got that?"

Reyna nods, not wanting to waste time with words.

"Change out of your clothes behind the partition."

"Into what?" Reyna asks, taking her boots off first. She hasn't even time traveled and she was beginning to despise the sound of this.

"Er... nothing." Reyna could hear Syd rubbing their hands uncomfortably on the other side of the partition. "The time machine only sends organic things back in time. Meaning, whatever clothes you wear or stuff you bring will be disintegrated while you time travel. But don't worry, I'm not looking. Besides, you'll find new clothes in 2005."

Reyna could only change out of her clothes in silence. She rubs her arms once more when the cold air bites into her skin.

"Okay, I need you to step on the platform. Everything else will be taken care of from there, so there's nothing you need to worry about except for your mission."

"Um, Syd?" Reyna asks, her voice faltering as she steps onto the platform. "How will I come back?"

Syd snorts. "You want to come back to this?" They continue tapping on the touchpad until a whirring noise starts below the platform. "Kidding. We'll try to track you down and send a time current like this one... if you come back alive- stop staring at me like that. You'll do fine."

If I come back alive? Stop it, of course you will. You didn't do all this training just so you could die.

"Just focus on your mission." Syd says in a reassuring tone before smirking. "Good luck, plebe."

Reyna sighs in frustration. Why did everyone keep calling her a plebe? She may be the youngest of the Homo novae, but she was just as skilled as the rest of them.

It's their way of showing they care. But that didn't stop her from correcting Syd. "I am not a plebe, Syd-"

The whirring sound reaches to a fortissimo as blue bolts of lightning swallow Reyna like waves at high tide, though it doesn't burn her skin. She shuts her eyes anyways. She feels her body 'fall', like it does when she dreams, only that it doesn't stop when she opens her eyes again. Maybe she was dreaming. Maybe she'll wake up and she'll be in the comforts of her cot. Maybe she'll wake up and she'll be at home-

No. Anywhere but where I used to be. She didn't become a Homo nova just so she could relive her past. It's why she's a Homo nova, not a Homo obsoletus.

Her feet finally touch the ground once more. Instead of smooth metal, sand and gravel scrape against the soles of her feet. The dry, night air of New Mexico warms her bare skin.

This was it. The players were ready and the dice had rolled. All Reyna had to do was finish the game that was her mission.