everything starts to make sense. “I didn’t jump time loops. ALCOR coordinates didn’t send me into another time loop. He sent me into another… well. I don’t even have a word for it. Epoch, maybe? I’m in another… iteration. You are the world that came before. You—” I walk over to her and take her by the shoulders. Shake her a little. “You are the ancient tech!”
“What’s that mean?”
“I don’t know.” I let go of her shoulders and back up, because touching her… well, makes me want to touch her more . Get a grip, Crux. I shake my head and lean against the counter. “I don’t know what it means. Maybe it doesn’t mean anything.”
She lets out a long breath. And is she glowing again? “Is that the end of your story?”
“Ha.” I laugh. “No. That’s barely the beginning.”
“OK. So tell me the rest.”
So I do.
I tell her about Serpint coming home with Corla. And Draden dying. And ALCOR’s big plan to save Nyleena. And his death. Then the Baby, and the Asshole, and Jimmy meeting my daughter on Mighty Minions. I tell her about Luck, and Valor, and Veila and Tray. And then I tell her about the princess rebellion.”
“Huh. Well, good for them. Didn’t work that way with us when we rebelled. But whatever.”
“And then Luck killed me.”
“Hmm. That’s unfortunate. But… you’re still here.”
“I know. I went somewhere else and then I came back. Well, not to here. To there.”
We both sigh. It’s confusing.
“And then… Valor and Veila stopped time.”
“Wow.”
“Right? Fucking soulmate power. It’s pretty cool. They all found their mates and now they’re part of a special team. And everyone seems to have a power. I know that makes no sense, but it’s like… they’re…” I stop and shrug.
“Better? Together?”
“Yes!” I point at her. “Better together.”
“So what’s your superpower?”
“I don’t have one.”
“Well, that’s dumb.”
“I know. I’m always getting shafted in this world.”
“No. I mean that’s literally dumb. If they have one, you have one.”
“So I’ve heard. But this trip was my last chance to find my soulmate and figure out my soulmate superpower. And… well. No offense, or anything. But you’re not her. So. I don’t have a soulmate, thus—I don’t have a superpower to find.”
“Maybe she’s not your soulmate?”
“She has to be. We had sex. I got her pregnant. Cygnian princesses can’t get pregnant without their soulmate.”
Alera snorts. “Says who?”
“That’s just how it is.”
“Not where I come from. We make babies like there’s no tomorrow.”
“Yeah, but that’s because ALCOR didn’t fuck up your genome yet.”
She waves her hand through the air. “OK. Continue.”
“Well, I know we’re soulmates. Corla told me we were. And we did make the station rock and shudder. Plus, she lit up like the sun.”
“She told you.” Alera is shooting me a look that says, And you believed her?
“Why wouldn’t I believe her?”
“I mean…” She trails off.
“What?”
“Did it ever occur to you that she just wanted your… genetic material?”
“No. She didn’t want the babies. And after we had sex, she told me we would never see each other again because—”
Alera laughs. Cutting me off. “What?”
“Yeah. We were… you know. Star crossed.”
“She told you that?”
“Well. No. Actually, she told me we were never going to see each other again. And then I said, We’re star crossed. And then—”
“Whoa. Hold on. Let me get this straight. She came to you. You two fucked.”
“It was a little more complicated than that. There were costumes, and a breeding ceremony, —”
“Crux?”
“What?”
“Stop. And listen to me. OK?”
“OK.”
“She used you, buddy.”
“No, she… we—”
“She used you, Crux. I don’t know why. Or what it means. But that bitch used you. And then she took your star-crossed explanation and ran with it. She was never your name mate.”
“Soulmate,” I correct her.
“Whatever. She lied, Crux. Cygnian princesses do that. In fact, where I come from, no one trusts a silver princess. We are the worst. Our bloodlines go way back to the original queen who was super messed up in the head. I’m talking, that woman could lie like nobody’s business. She built an entire religion around—”
“Nice story, but Corla and I are definitely soulmates.”
“Why?”
“Because… all my brothers have soulmates.”
“So? All my sisters race karkadaans. You don’t see me riding those smelly beasts, now do you?”
“Well… what the actual fuck then, Alera? Why am I always the one getting shafted? If she’s not my soulmate—shit, what if there is no Crux soulmate?”
Alera beckons me towards her with a finger.
“What?” I say.
“Come here.”
I take two steps and erase the distance between us. She