Matter of Perspective

“Two Hundred Years.” She stood taller. “Two hundred years you left me on this backwards, mirror flip of our universe.” She shook her head. “Two hundred years, no messages, no promises of rescue then you snoop around the place as if no time has passed at all.”
“That’s broadly correct. Sorry.” Lore gave their best pained expression. “It’s only been ten years our end.” They produced a map of the multiverse. They highlighted their universe. “This is where we’re from. Closest universe to the multiversal core. And,” they highlighted a second universe, toward the end of the pack. “This is where we are now. The universes move at a proportional speed but our universe sets the pace…” They were cut off mid explanation.
“I don’t really care. I just want to go home and see Quart. That’s all I’ve wanted.”
“Which Char are you? ID wise?” Lore held their fingers crossed.
“Twelve… The name’s Juror, J for short. Just in case that helps.” She gave Lore a dirty look. “Fifty two.”
“Ah.” Lore was suddenly far too warm.
“You keep saying that.” She came closer. “Stop with the excuses and tell me what I need to know.”
“There are only three Lores left. There are also only three Chars left. I’m so sorry but Quart isn’t one of them.”
“Plus, for whatever reason, none of us have a clue about our lives before the supposed move.” Varkral shrugged.
“Never noticed that but… Yeah.” Lore nodded.
“You mean, they’re dead? All of this time and they’re dead.” Juror was speeding up in her pacing.
“I’m sorry. We didn’t find out until it was too late. Obviously.” Lore bowed their head in respect.
Juror turned to the closest spider. “Continue the preparations. Plans haven’t changed.” With a nod, the spider flew off.
“Planning something big then?” Lore threw a small sphere of energy at the wall. It temporarily disrupted the field but not for long.
“I’m getting out of here. Then, I’m going to undo whatever mess you’ve gotten us into.” She was now metres away from their cell, stood with the second spider. “Aren’t they something, my Bailiffs as Deuce once called them.” She shook her head. “Keep an eye on them.”
“DIALOGUE: YES SIR.” The Bailiff’s eye narrowed as it focussed on Lore.
“I can’t imagine anything that would require a battery that spans a planet’s surface and two very large spires to do anything is a good thing so, how do we get out of here?”
“DIALOGUE: YOU DO NOT.” The Bailiff interjected.
“Any ideas other than pessimism?” Lore patted themselves down as they finished.
“I may have something.” Varkral produced his wand. He held it so its crystal was aligned with the Bailiff. A white thread appeared between the two points. He jerked the wand backwards. The Bailiff was pulled off of its feet and dragged toward the energy field. One tendril crossed the barrier causing a horrendous sizzling noise as the plating on its steel limb was burnt off. The field was destabilising.
“Good plan, could have used some warning.” Char wrapped the burned tendril in her own energy and began to turn back time. Once healed, the plating continued to burn. Something in the metal wasn’t agreeing with the field.
Lore whipped a tendril of their own around the Bailiff. They pulled it in closer, stripping more of its protective seal off as they did. It scrambled as it attempted to run but ultimately failed. With the three of them holding on to it, it was completely immobilised, frying in the field it was meant to guard.
“DIALOGUE: THIS BEHAVIOUR IS FAR FROM MODEL. PLEASE REFRAIN FROM TOUCHING THIS UNIT.” The Bailiff screamed but no one cared.
“Hang on,” It was almost entirely within the barrier and the barrier almost destroyed when Lore froze the unit. “What’s that?” They approached it slowly and prised the top of its casing off. “Looks like jam. Glowing jam.” While the majority of its casing was filled with servos and motors, the section logic dictated would include its processors and memory cores was entirely filled with a viscous liquid from which their golden glow emanated.
Against Lore’s better judgement, they couldn’t stop Varkral from dipping his finger into the vat. “That’s rancid.” He spat the fluid onto the barrier. It cooked for a moment before disabling the field entirely. “Meaty, metallic and off. Whatever that is, it’s definitely organic.”
“We could have scanned it first.” Char moved in for a closer look. “Looks familiar.”
Lore held their Breacher over the vat. “Inconclusive. All the Breacher’s getting is the energy readings… That can’t be right.”
“What is it?”
“There is obviously rejeuvinative energy present but as that decays, it becomes dark matter. That’s why it created a rift in the core.” Char looked to Lore confused. “If The Reaper draws upon dark matter, drawing on too much at once would fracture the walls of reality. Think of it like pressure on a membrane with a small hole in it. The hole allows some of the dark matter to flow in but the moment we need more, the pressure increases and eventually, that hole gets a lot larger.”
“She’s not after the rejeuvinative energy, she’s after the dark matter.” Char looked to the towers that surrounded them.
“And with a planet’s worth of dark matter generators, she could tear a hole in the fabric of this reality. She could fire herself to any reality she wanted. She’s going to destroy an entire universe just to get home.”
“She’s going to destroy an entire universe for the person she loved.” Char had to rephrase it. Every other way she could think, it sounded utterly incomprehensible.
“We better get a move on then.” Varkral waved his wand, producing a glowing orb of light. Lore sighed.
“And where was that earlier?” Varkral bit his lip.
After exiting their cell, Char bathed the emitters ring in her energy, returning it to its original state before Lore thawed the Bailiff.
“DIALOGUE: ERROR. ERROR. PRISONERS SHOULD NOT BE ON THE CELLS EXTERIOR. DIAGNOSTIC: UNKNOWN VIRAL AGENT PRESENT IN COMPUTING CORE. RESULT: POWER DOWN FOR REPAIRS.” The lights went out. Varkral led the way. Free Form Planning.