Part 1: Quarantine
Part 2: Odd Jobs
Part 3: Shuck
Part 4: The Old North
Part 5: Dirty Dave
Part 6: Multipliers
Part 7: Kilogold
Part 8: Analysis
Part 9: Reversal
Part 10: Miss Meta
Part 11: The Fourth Consortium
Synopsis(spoilers ahead if you want to read the story from the beginning)
Victor Meta is a time traveler who lived with his wife Janet and his young daughter Mira in a quaint timeline on the edge of obscurity. However, one day he was ambushed by soldiers of the Legion, and was forced to ally with a con artist named Shuck to save them from certain doom. By carefully manipulating time, he was barely successful, thanks to additional help surprisingly provided by his own daughter, now an adult time traveler.
But all of that pales in comparison to the revelation that Mira brings. They were not alone in being targeted. The time traveling family of Meta has been attacked throughout history. And now that they know they weren't alone in escaping the ambush, they need to figure out how they were attacked, and why.
Much to Victor’s dismay, he was now asked to leave his comfortable seat. At the speaker’s direction, they were led to a secure room underneath the coliseum, where another group had already been led.
The other group of two was a Meta and a rather young non-Meta. Victor tried to place the Meta, but despite racking his brain, he couldn’t quite remember the name. So, he simply began the introductions. “Greetings. I am Victor, and this is my daughter, Mira. This one is a Gatekeeper from the sixth era, Shuck. Might I ask your names?”
The unknown Meta, rather spindly in terms of body type but otherwise having a confident disposition, responded for their group. “I am Dante. I also recruited a Gatekeeper from the same era, as coincidental as that might seem… one who goes by the name of Ghost.”
Shuck grabbed Victor and Mira, pulling them along as he began to leave. “Oh, god, I thought it was just a look alike… no, no, no, we have to go NOW!”
Shuck was stopped in his path by said young caster, his height and complexion suggesting he was barely a teenager. He wore a black blindfold with a silver figure eight design, completely covering his eyes, and his clothes were black combat gear. He had a very serious frown, appearing to have recognized something about their group. “Hmm… Your name is Shuck, is it? Odd. Your friends say you are a Gatekeeper, but I see something… different.”
Shuck walked up to address the kid directly, but acted unnerved and made sure to keep an unusually large distance. “H-hey… Ghost. I guess this would be the first time you have met me, huh? Of course… makes sense. I mean, you said that when I first met you… that we had met… before, I mean… uh…”
Ghost smirked. “You sound a bit nervous.”
Shuck rubbed his hands, looking around as if for a way to escape. “Well, that would be because I am…”
Ghost took a step closer. A dagger appeared in his hand, as if from nowhere. “Why so nervous? Have something to hide?”
Ghost began levitating, and Shuck spun around in horror to see Victor using his gravity casting in an attempt to control Ghost. Victor let out a short scoff at the sight of a young one who had so easily intimidated Shuck. “I won’t have some little punk intimidating one of our group. If we wanted, all of us Meta could easily-”
Ghost vanished, and Victor stopped talking. Ghost’s voice returned from behind Victor, where he could be seen holding a knife pressed up against his back. “Are you sure you want to finish that sentence?”
Mira shouted. “Enough! Ghost, I don’t know who you think you are, but I kindly ask you to stand down and act with civility!”
Ghost pulled up one side of his blindfold, sending chills down Mira’s spine when she saw his crimson colored eye. He stared for a moment before removing his weapon from the threatening position at Victor, walking back over to his own Meta. He faced Mira, uncovered eye studying her carefully. “I make no guarantees to act with what you call civility… that is not what I was hired to do. I was hired to protect this Meta behind me. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
Mira responded with incredulity. “You call that protecting?! You’ll get him banished from Pause acting like that!”
Ghost laughed slightly. “Well, I’m not the one acting real shifty when placed around an infinity caster…”
“What the rift are you talking about? Shuck isn’t acting shifty around an infinity caster! All Metas are infinity casters!”
Dante, who had up until this point just been watching things unfold with a general air of confusion, stepped in. “Miss… Mira, was it? Ghost is not a Meta, but he is an infinity caster. Just a different type. That is what he is referencing.”
Mira looked at Ghost again, and it all suddenly clicked. “Wait… your blindfold! So that means…”
As Mira found herself at a loss for words, an amused Ghost finished her thoughts for her. “Correct, while the Meta have their pocketwatch as their Piece of Infinity, I have my blindfold as my Piece of Infinity. I am an Infinity Caster of Light, meaning I possess the Truth Sight. I can practically see right through everything and everyone, metaphorically speaking. Which is why a clearly dishonest man like Shuck would be very nervous around me, but for now… that’s not our main concern. We are all here for something very specific, are we not?”
Victor looked at Ghost suspiciously. “So… you know Shuck, then?”
Ghost sighed. “And here I thought we could finally get to the point… No, this is my first time meeting him. My infinity power has never given me a wrong impression of someone before, though. From his initial reaction, it sounds like he has already met an older version of myself… luckily, I would wager both of us are smart enough not to let such oddities cause any time toggles.”
“I see… but, and I hope you do not take offense to this, I’m rather shocked to see one as young as you involved in such dangerous matters. ”
The other two Metas were silent as Ghost just laughed hysterically. Dante seemed to understand the joke, though he didn’t find it nearly as funny. After Ghost composed himself, he went up and pulled the sheet back on one of the tables, prompting Mira to cover her mouth to avoid screaming.
There were four tables with sheets on them, and something underneath each of the sheets. Mira had never considered that they were covering dead bodies, protected and preserved by an applied time bubble around them. Ghost left the top half of the first lifeless body uncovered as responded. “Tell me, Victor… how did you deal with those who came to kidnap your loved ones?”
Victor, though more accustomed to such morbid sights than Mira, still took a moment to find his words. “We… managed to time jump them out before they could stop us.”
“Well, that’s one method. I went with something a bit simpler. I killed all intruders with overwhelming force.”
Shuck pulled a still slightly dazed Victor close to whisper frantically. “This is what I’m talking about! Ghost is insane, but that by itself isn’t the worst part. He’s powerful, way more powerful than he looks. He could kill every single person in this room if he wanted to!”
Dante walked over, talking more quietly while Ghost waited patiently by the four dead bodies. “Look… I know, he’s a bit intimidating, being a killing machine while so young. But he gets results, and besides a couple biting comments, he has not stepped out of line in the slightest. It cost me a fortune to hire him, so I doubt he would turn on any of us anyways. Unless, you give him reason to, naturally.”
Victor raised an eyebrow. “How much did it cost?”
“Two hundred fifty thousand.”
“By the rift! How much?!”
Dante frowned, growing more serious. “You heard me. Two fifty, with some other conditions I had to fulfill keep him on retainer… but the results speak for themselves. I’m certain that I’m not the single wealthiest Meta, but I know several wealthier than I who now regret not spending the same kind of gold to protect themselves. Now… can we continue?”
The group warily walked over, where Ghost was still standing with one eye uncovered. “Right… now that all of you are done talking about me as if I didn’t know you were discussing me… there are a couple observations I would like to make right now.”
Ghost walked to the other side of the dead body. “Basics should be obvious… able bodied male, late twenties to early thirties, definitely a class six. All of that is rather mundane… but this is the interesting part.”
The partially blindfolded caster walked over to the second table, pulling back the sheet to reveal a female face. “This one is from an entirely different time period.”
Victor crossed his arms, confused. “Well, we could check the records to verify, but how could you possibly know that?”
Ghost shrugged. “I can’t always explain how I know. Just a million little things. Face structure, skin tone, height and weight ratio… there are certain trends between time periods that can be measured, but my truth sight lets me skip all of that and immediately see the fact that they aren’t from the same time period. But lets keep this moving…”
He held up a journal. “They each had a version of the same journal amongst their belongings… strangely enough, they are written in unique codes, and each journal contains different information. It looks a lot like what you Metas keep on your person at all times.”
Victor considered the implications. Able to target Metas through parallel timelines. Kept notes in a manner eerily similar and even more securely than most Metas. And origins from completely different periods of history. “You think they are also able to travel through time?”
Ghost shook his head. “No, that’s very unlikely. I think they have figured out a way to traffic people through time.”
“What’s the difference? That sounds like time travel.”
“It’s VERY different. Travel implies at will. Traffic implies they are heavily restricted. Have you read any of the ransom notes?”
After Victor said no, Dante spoke up. “They requested Metas show up at specific places and times, unarmed and alone. Some of the notes then went on to list various specific tasks, such as moving a person or thing to a different place in time. From all the ransom notes we looked at, no pattern or end goal was detectable. Not even Ghost quite understood the point of all of it.”
Ghost raised a finger. “Don’t put words in my mouth! I did understand the point. Putting pressure on Meta to move stuff through time, likely to accomplish the very goal of putting pressure on Meta. A form of self fulfilling prophecy, if you will… The thing I did not notice among the ransom notes was the extended goal… using Metas to fundamentally enable their own blackmailing requires a goal that can only be achieved with time travel, otherwise all that work is for naught. They have a larger plan.”
Mira chimed in. “I thought their goal was just to kill all Meta?”
Ghost looked at Mira, a slight frown. “I wish I could tell you that such a rumor was definitively untrue… but unfortunately, my truth sight has limitations, just like your time travel. I can’t deduce truth from nothingness, I need to see the evidence. I can only guess about their end goal, as I haven’t seen anything that elucidates their end goal. Nothing I have seen disproves that rumor, though.”
Everyone was silent. Mira spoke up again. “So… what do we do now?”
Ghost held up a summoning card. “Personally, I would like to know why Shuck had this…”
Shuck frantically checked his pockets before yelling at Ghost. “HEY! When did you pick my pockets?”
Ghost inspected the card. “Oh, it’s not a hard thing to do for someone who can throw illusions around… I’m honestly surprised you didn’t notice. Mind answering what this sleeve on the card is?”
Shuck marched over, swiping the card back. “It’s to prevent thieves like you from using it! This cost me a fortune to obtain, so I made a sleeve that only I can open without breaking the card.”
“That’s rather paranoid.”
Shuck, clearly more bold than before, yelled in Ghost’s emotionless face. “Apparently, it was good thinking with pickpockets about!”
Victor stared daggers at Shuck as the electro caster turned back towards him. “Shuck… where did you get that summoning card? It wouldn’t be Isgor, would it?”
“Of course not!”
“…then would you care to tell us exactly who it is?”
“No, I can’t. But it’s not Isgor.”
“Ghost! Is he lying?”
Everyone looked at Ghost, who had his arms crossed. He chuckled slightly before answering. “No, that answer wasn’t a lie… but it doesn’t take truth sight to know that’s not the full story. Shuck, if I could offer a suggestion…”
Ghost got closer to Shuck, returning his angry stare with an equally determined look. “Don’t try to deceive your allies. Doing so is a good way to end up dead.”
Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying the story, you might also enjoy some of my other published work on Amazon! It’s set in the same fictional universe, but follows different characters.
Gatekeepers, Book One: Unquestionable Truth
Gatekeepers, Book Two: Order of Gravitas
Same post on Minds