The glowing ring of the portal appeared before us with the grey concrete of the dock’s control room visible through the circle. It grew larger by the instant, making it clear that we were exiting immediately.
It was less that we stepped through to the room, so much as fell through at an angle. There was no law, I supposed, that a tunnel through time and space had to synchronize with the orientation of the exit point.
Haley let go of my hand, rolling and coming to her feet. I turned on the suit’s anti-gravity, floating to the ceiling like a Rocket-sized party balloon.
It hadn’t been a bad idea, though, because managing traffic hadn’t been a high priority in the portal’s design. Vaughn, Marcus, Jaclyn, Daniel, Cassie, Rachel, and Tiger poured out after us, dodging the people who’d appeared before them.
Amy, meanwhile, stood next to a wall filled with controls and computer screens, eyes widening as we filled the room. It wasn’t a big room.
Rachel was the last one through and the portal closed behind her, causing Amy to blink and pull out the flat stone I’d left with her.
I flew over everyone and landed next to her. She handed the stone over, saying, “And? You won? You lost? Oh, and take this.”
“We won,” I said, “if killing Magnus, freeing Lee and Nataw, and convincing Govan that he should leave the Destroy faction and join Live is winning.”
Amy watched me and paused before saying, “That sounds exactly like winning. It sounds like complete and total success. What aren’t you saying?”
I looked around, everyone was watching and no one was saying anything. “Well, the way things worked out, winning may have changed the past a little. We don’t know how much. I got a message from the machine that there were minimal deviations, nothing that should affect anything.”
Haley looked over at me, “You did? I didn’t get anything like that.”
Rachel said, “Neither did I.”
Their responses were echoed by the rest of the team. Daniel frowned, “I wonder if that’s because you controlled it for a little while or if it’s an Artificer thing?”
Rachel said, “I’d bet on control because I’ve got as much claim to be an Artificer as he does.”
Giving a wave that extended his arm a good two feet longer than normal, Marcus asked, “Did you notice reality warp around you or anything? What happened after we left?”
It seemed impossible that she wouldn’t have been affected herself, but on the other hand, she was holding the portal open. Maybe she’d have been protected? Deciding not to muddy the waters, I only added, “What happened after I left?”
Amy held up her hands, “Not everybody at once. One question at a time. I didn’t notice any changes except for after you all came through. When the portal closed, the stone cut me off. I was connected to it, but I can’t sense it anymore.”
I reached out to it using what Rachel had taught me. It didn’t communicate, but I felt its presence. On the other hand, Lee had wanted an “adult Artificers only” conversation with Govan.
Amy tapped my armor and grinned, “Here’s what happened after you left. You remember how I absorbed Rook? He had passwords to everything and knew this place’s defenses. I locked the doors on their troops, shut off power to their weapons, and gave Hal access to everything I could.”
“Whoa,” Vaughn said, “that’s why they didn’t send any more troops. We were fighting Power Burst and all of those guys, but it looked there were more troops coming, but then they couldn’t get past their own doors.”
Cassie had walked over to the door and looked out, turning around to ask, “They’re still out, right? We fought an earlier version of them on the other side of the portal. I don’t want to fight them for a third time today.”
Frowning, Haley asked, “Do you think it was safe to give all of that information to Hal? He might share them with his friends.”
Amy shrugged, “It was that or lose everything. I’m digesting Rook with every passing second. He’s no one you want to keep in your head.”
She shivered, “He’s fighting it, but he can’t do much. They don’t share everything with me, but the previous Bloodmaidens are united in preventing foreign personalities from taking control.”
Glancing at Daniel, Haley asked, “Do you need any help?”
Daniel shook his head, “She doesn’t.”
Amy smiled, “I don’t. I’ve had plenty of practice digesting unpleasant personalities today. I had to steal Jody’s powers to have a chance of hitting Rook. I didn’t have to kill Jody, but I had both of them in my head while I was shutting the base down. I made sure I finished Jody first. He’s a creepy, little bastard.”
“Don’t we all know it,” Cassie said. “We had to fight an earlier version of him in there too.”
Amy’s eyes widened. “You’re making me glad I stayed. That’s too much of him in one day… What do you think you changed in the past?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “There’s one big thing, but that shouldn’t cause any problems if it goes right.”
Cassie laughed. “Right. Letting Ray live is minor.”
“Ray?” Amy asked.
She hadn’t been around then. She might not even have been on Earth. I tried to think of where to start, but Isaac Lim’s name started flashing in my HUD.
I could think of a few reasons our FBI handler might be calling, not least of which being that I wasn’t sure we’d told him we were attacking the Nine’s home base tonight.
I took the call.