Archive of Our Own

Amelia blinked, and then checked her surroundings.

Eldritch Temple, surrounded by takodachis, the very few humans present are all wearing Tentacult outfits.

“Yeah, it’s me again. Sorry if I’m interrupting anything; though really, aren’t you guys already all used to me by now?”

The takodachis seemed content with that answer, while the more human members of the Tentacult were seemingly a little unsettled.

Thankfully for Amelia however, the one person she needed to not be mad at her wasn’t, because Ninomae Ina’nis could never stay mad at Amelia.

“I’m glad to see you back; I was a little worried that we had lost you. Where have you been anyway?”

Amelia wasn’t sure how to answer the question. She never was.

“Uh, hanging out in other timelines? I guess I’ve never explained myself to you. I was hoping it wouldn’t matter. Why are you curious?”

Ina smiled.

“I thought it’d be a shame if you disappeared forever after managing to get into my heart as easily as you did. You certainly are better at dating than any of the takodachis.”

Amelia paused.

“I dated you?”

“Well, I imagine you didn’t see it as dating, but I thought it was nice of you to invite me out for a movie. Or just to play games. You understand that we’re both still human. I’m afraid your plan to capture my heart worked, even if you weren’t planning on it.”

Amelia frowned.

“I’m really sorry. I can’t stay long.”

She looked down at her watch, dials spinning uncontrollably.

“There was a time where I could control this.” Amelia explained, “Not anymore. Now I just get blinked to different timelines at random. Even if I take off the watch, I’ll still get blinked away and the watch will follow me. If you want to enjoy the moment while it lasts, we can try - but I’ll disappear, and I don’t know if I’ll come back. You’re free to forget about me unless I find a way back.”

Ina’s eyes narrowed.

“I won’t forget. I’ll find a way for you.”

Amelia nodded.

“I hope you do. I wish I could stay. I really do. I wish I could stay anywhere, even if it was the underworld itself. Anyways, you have plans for lunch?”

“I could arrange something, if you’d like.”

“Sure.”

Amelia blinked, analyzing her surroundings as being much darker and gloomier than most places in the mortal realm.

“Oh, it’s you again.” Came the reply from a certain reaper. “Help yourself to any of the drinks in the fridge, but don’t touch the wine; that’s mine. Feel free to use my kitchen, avoid anything with a skull on it. I mean yeah, having a living being in here complicates logistics but I really would hate to have to reap you early.”

“Oh, hi Calli.”

Amelia relaxed. There was a grand irony in the fact that she felt incredibly safe despite being a living being in the middle of the underworld itself, but Amelia wasn’t one to care.

Calliope’s house was a bit of a second home for her. Or third, fourth, or however many she was at. Many timelines were dead, but this wasn’t one of them. Or if it was, it just happened to be that the location the watch teleported her to was still a nice place to settle down.

Adding on to that, Calliope was just a chill person to hang out with. Amelia remembered that Calliope wasn’t too happy the first time she showed up, but they had soon gotten used to their arrangement; Amelia could borrow the guest bedroom and otherwise could make herself at home around the place. For the most part, Calliope was focused on songwriting and didn’t ask too many questions, while Amelia understood that as long as she didn’t actively create any new problems for Calliope she’d be welcome around here.

It was something worth expressing gratitude over, at least.

“Thanks for letting me stay here.”

“No problem.” Calliope replied, “It’s weird, but I think I miss having you around. As much as you drive me nuts it feels wrong how quiet it gets around here when nobody’s around. You can stay for however long you like, if only because you don’t make a mess out of my kitchen.”

“I wish I could.” came the somber reply from Amelia, “But I can’t. I’ll try to stick around for as long as I can, but if you forget I was here, it’s not a problem for anyone but me.”

Calliope smirked.

“Not likely. The guest room’s open for you, if you wanna rest.”

Amelia nodded, and went upstairs to fall into a bed, at least so she could get some sleep before waking up in a new timeline.

What she wasn’t expecting was for the guest room to look exactly the same as the last time she’d been blinked into this house.

The guest room’s open for you.

“...but not for anyone else?” Amelia whispered.

“Yeah. I’d forgotten why I kept that room open, but now that you’re back here, I’m reminded of why I did that. It’s nice having you around; feel free to stay the night. Well, until you blink out again; at that point I’ll wait for you to get back here again. Really, you’ve been here enough times that it might as well be your room. I really wouldn’t mind if you visited more frequently, though.”

“...That’d be nice.” Amelia replied while falling into bed. “Though I probably won’t be around by the time I wake up.”

Amelia blinked, and found herself laying in the sand of a deserted island.

Should I be grateful for the sunny weather? Not that it matters now.

She got up, and then shrugged.

Might as well enjoy the view.

After waiting for what felt like an eternity but was likely no longer than an hour, she suddenly found that she wasn’t alone.

“I really wanna know why you keep zapping yourself into the middle of the ocean. It’s not a great place for land people, even if you keep appearing on this island instead underwater.”

Amelia sighed.

“Hey, Gura. This damn busted watch has been flinging me around time and space. Arriving here was never really something I planned for. Haven’t I told you that before? I don’t remember how many times I’ve had to explain this. Maybe you were the last one to know.”

Gura frowned, before quickly wrapping one arm around Amelia’s.

“Well, I guess someone had to know last.” Gura mused, “It’s funny, isn’t it? You met me for the first time by accident, and yet back then I thought it was some form of destiny. Maybe it is? Honestly I don’t know, and I don’t really care either.”

Gura, from what Amelia remembered, was not particularly invested in all of the more intellectual ramifications of things. She just liked hanging out around Amelia.

Amelia couldn’t help but smile.

“Depends on whether or not Kronii’s willing to risk me creating another time paradox. Given that my home timeline doesn’t exist anymore… yeah, she’s probably not interested. I’m sorry if I completely reshaped your world. That’s just the average Tuesday for me.”

Gura frowned.

“It’s not fair for it to only go one way, you know?”

Amelia shrugged.

“I’m afraid I don’t. I hope you’ll painlessly forget about me. I might return. I might not. And if I don’t, I might not remember, either-”

She was interrupted by a kiss on her cheek.

“Then maybe you’ll remember that.”

“...well, uh…” Amelia replied in a daze, “...maybe I’ll stay here and relax a bit…”

Amelia blinked, and then looked around, realizing she was in what looked like a fast food establishment, and was seated at a table.

Oh no.

“Hey!” Kiara shouted, “We have a front door; no teleporting in here unless-”

And then she looked at who it was who had teleported into her restaurant.

“Amelia? Is that you?”

Amelia nodded.

“Yeah. Another day, another random time jump to-”

That was far as she got before Kiara wrapped her arms around her.

“I thought… I thought you might…”

“...I might not come back?” Amelia asked, “Yeah, I’ll be honest, I was kinda hoping you had just kind of forgotten about me.”

“Ame! There’s no way I’m going to forget you that easily! Now, when was the last time you’ve eaten?”

Amelia paused.

“I’m pretty sure I’m immortal now and can’t actually die of starvation, but several time jumps ago, if you want the-”

The whirlwind of motion that was Kiara’s response was incredibly quick, and in a time that felt impossibly fast to Amelia there was a plate of fried chicken placed in front of her.

“Kiara, I’m not five.”

“I know.” Kiara replied, taking the seat opposite Amelia. “But I thought you could use something nice for a change. If anything, I’m a little mad I didn’t have preparations ready to take you out for a real date, since I only get one shot every however many weeks it is between visits. I mean, really, how long does it take to get back to a timeline?”

“It’s completely random.” Answered Amelia, “Kronii warned me that overclocking the watch was a bad idea. I… had my reasons for it. But I’ve told you, warned you, even, that loving me would be impossible.”

Kiara gave a sad smile.

“No, loving you is quite easy. If it were impossible, I wouldn’t feel your pain in sympathy. You’re lonely, Ame. I thought you could use someone to look after you.”

Amelia shrugged.

“I can’t exactly take anyone with me when I get whisked away with no warning. You aren’t the first person who’s said they’ll find a way to keep me around. Spacetime is a large place.”

“Hey!” Kiara shouted, “I’ll show the rest of them! Even if I only get to pamper you once every several weeks on average!”

“Maybe you will.” Amelia said, finding herself smiling involuntarily.

Amelia blinked, and found herself on a world that several time jumps ago would’ve been unfamiliar to her, lit only by starlight.

She looked down.

“Hey, Sana.” Amelia said, looking down at the ground, “You don’t mind if I take a nap on your chest, right?”

She snickered to herself.

“I mean, of course you aren’t going to hear or notice-”

“I’m aware of everything that happens around my own personal space! I’d put on my limiter for you if there was solid ground here, but my space realm is, uh… maybe I can redirect you to somewhere with solid ground?”

Amelia stumbled and fell flat on her face.

“Uhhhhh… it won’t matter soon, anyway.”

“Really?” Sana asked with an astrally projected voice, “Right after being forward enough to immediately stick your face in my chest?”

“I-er-uh-you-um-what?!“ Amelia stammered, “I tripped! You don’t know anything about me!”

“Aside from all of the other times you blinked here? You seemed annoyed or busy most of those other times and I didn’t want to bother you, but I did hear about the whole thing with your watch. You should see Kronii-nii about that. I tried asking her, but she said she needed to speak to you first, so one of you has to initiate that talk!”

Amelia sighed.

“I will. Eventually. By sheer luck. Assuming Kronii’s forgiven me by then.”

“Oh, she will. She’s actually a total softie at heart. You wanna nap?”

“Sure, though I’ll be gone by the time I wake up. I always am.”

Amelia blinked, and found herself waking up in a strange realm, and one she’d been to more often than was statistically likely and yet kept finding herself unavoidably being teleported to.

“Wazzup!” came the reply of the local chaos rat, Hakos Baelz.

“Oh hey, Bae. And not much is up right now.” replied Amelia in a relaxed tone, taking the time to appreciate a realm in which the rules of reality didn’t apply. “You got any coffee?”

Bae smiled.

“Of course I do! How long will you be staying?”

Amelia shrugged.

“As long as I can. I’ll be gone tomorrow in all likelihood.”

Bae frowned.

“Well, I’ll drag you back here again someday.”

“Good luck with that. Where my watch sends me is entirely up to random chance. There’s no pattern; ever since the incident with the watch my life’s been, uh, kind of a trainwreck.”

“No pattern, you say?” asked Bae, “Sounds chaotic to me.”

Amelia snickered.

“Yeah, that makes sense-wait, are you the reason I seem to come here more often than what would be normal?”

Bae shrugged.

“That really depends on your definition of normal. I can feel it, though, this is a very short visit. But I’m not too worried, really; you’ll show up again soon enough. Besides, teleporting here at random is more or less the intended way to get here, given the path to my realm makes no physical sense whatsoever.”

“True.” Amelia replied, while laughing. “Even this place tends to be different every time I’ve been here; though it’s still always recognizably your realm. You’re a good host.”

“Thank you, thank you!”

Amelia blinked, finding herself in a forest.

Fauna’s realm was that specific kind of peaceful that only nature could be, and while Amelia normally hated being pampered, she couldn’t find it in herself to get annoyed at Fauna for it.

“I’ll let you stay here.”

Why does she care about me, anyway?

She wasn’t going to complain, but curiosity did get the better of her.

“Why? I thought you hated humans.”

Fauna frowned.

“I could never hate humanity, as damaging as it is. I can be disappointed at much of what people build and destroy, but I don’t have it in me to hate living beings of any sort.”

Amelia relaxed.

“Thanks.”

“Not a problem. Besides, I think it’s only fitting for me to help lost and lonely creatures find a way home, right?”

“Good luck.” Amelia muttered, “Sorry, I should be nicer to those who want to help me. I’m just saying that you don’t have to worry about me.”

“What if I want to?” Fauna asked.

Amelia frowned.

“Then I’m afraid you’re out of luck.”

“Oh, I’m not sure. I can get very worried. Maybe some peace and quiet could be nice?”

“Well, peace anyway.” Amelia answered, “I’m not sure about quiet. Friends are nice.”

Fauna nodded.

“Well, friends and those who are closer. I might not be particularly close to humanity, but you are a special human.”

Amelia chose to not acknowledge the implications of the statement.

Amelia blinked to a small wooden cabin, and said nothing.

“Oh, hi.” came the response from Mumei, “Bed’s available for you if you need it.”

Mumei knew about Amelia’s predicament right from the start, and had been rather hospitable right from the get-go. Part of Amelia wanted to reject it, to say she was fine and she didn’t need to be accommodated. Another part of her, the more rational half, said that any accommodations would do when she might not get anything tomorrow.

As such, she sighed, and replied in the affirmative: “Sure. I’ll be gone soon enough anyway. Damn thing hasn’t given me more than a day in any given timeline. Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s getting faster; I swear I blink and I’m in a new timeline. Nowadays I get a single day before getting zapped to… well, honestly, who knows?”

“Kronii probably knows.” Mumei replied, “She’s smart like that. She’s why I know about your situation.”

Amelia paused.

“That makes sense. I was wondering why you’d know about the whole deal with my watch when I showed up here the first time. What’s she been up to?”

“Dunno. Says she’s waiting for you.”

“Then why does she find me? I know she can do that. Oh wait, I know why: I’m being punished for messing with the timeline.”

Mumei sighed.

“She said you’d be like this. No, she doesn’t visit for a different reason. She doesn’t want to be the one to initiate the talk. She said you have to.”

And then she frowned.

“Which is a real shame, really. I kinda wanted to see what happened between the two of you. Mostly because there’s a bunch of time stuff I don’t understand. Usually Kronii puts timeline breakers out of their misery. And then retroactively makes it so they were never born. She doesn’t do that often though. I kinda wanna keep you here because I’m curious, you know?”

“I really don’t,” Amelia answered, “but okay, I guess.”

“Well clearly you're special to Kronii and anyone special to her is special to me. I might not interact with Sana or Bae very much but I understand they’re important for all of us. Kronii’s… acting weird. I wanna know why she acts weird around you. She should really do something.”

What followed was an intense staredown between Amelia and Mumei, until eventually Amelia broke it.

“Well, I don’t know either. You said the bed was open?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’ll sleep. Hopefully I’ll find Kronii eventually.”

Amelia blinked, waking up on the floor of a room in a clock tower that existed surrounded by the metaphysical flow of time itself.

“...or I guess I could find her on the next blasted time jump.”

“It wasn’t coincidental.” Came the reply from none other than the Warden of Time herself,  “Mumei was right; I should do something. So here I am. How’s existence been going?”

“It sucks, to be honest. But I guess I’m just too stubborn to die. And coincidentally finding people who really want to help me. Since you appear to know exactly what it is me and Mumei talked about last, I suppose you know what I want to ask you.”

Kronii frowned.

“I have my reasons for sparing you. Killing you would be the easy way out.”

Amelia sighed.

“Really? You hate me so much that you won’t even give me the option to just, you know, get my existence erased like a normal person? If I retroactively never exist, wouldn’t that mean that no one misses me?”

Kronii shook her head.

“One person would.”

“...you would miss me?” Amelia asked.

Kronii nodded.

“I remember all of them. Throughout seemingly infinite worlds, I have kept watch. Sometimes the world comes undone quickly. Sometimes it doesn’t. Even when I make the call to erase an entire world from existence, even if nobody else will remember… I will.”

“That still doesn’t answer why you spared me; why you’d leave me with this mess.”

“Your home timeline doesn’t exist anymore. Your watch, if you remember, had an emergency safety feature that always sent you back to your home, which…”

Amelia frowned.

“That still doesn’t answer why! That just answers why I get blinked around so much: the watch is internally freaking out that it can’t find my home timeline anymore! But that doesn’t answer why you didn’t end my existence when you had the first chance to!”

Kronii looked away.

“I said it before: I had my reasons. I still do, really. The reality is that some things are… not easily fixed. I can’t restore a timeline that’s been annihilated. And the watch is, as you’ve discovered, not something easily separated from its owner.”

Amelia snarled.

“If that’s the case, can you put me out of my misery? I mean, I think I’m starting to work it out, but I hate this. I hate that I can’t connect with anyone. I hate that I get single days with most people and then wake up in the middle of another timeline.”

She sighed, staring off to the side.

“And I hate what I’m doing to them, too. I met an Ina that wants to date me. There’s a version of Calliope who gives me a room to sleep in. Honestly, if I die, I wouldn’t mind staying there for the rest of eternity. I found out Fauna doesn’t actually hate humanity. But it would’ve been easier if she did, because that would mean that my existence is actually as meaningless as it feels.”

Amelia turned her head back to Kronii.

“So which is it? Do you care about me or not? Because if you don’t… maybe just tell them. Tell them I might not come back. That’s all I want. I just want them to know. I just want them to know that it’s safe to forget about me.”

Kronii frowned, but ultimately nodded.

“I… I don’t think you’re going to get what you’re asking for. But I’ll tell them. Is that okay with you?”

“Yeah.” Amelia answered, “Sorry, I kind of just unloaded there. I’m stubborn. I figure I’ll break out of this eventually.”

“Don’t apologize.” Kronii replied, “It would be different if it were me, but you were recently mortal. You were recently an ordinary human. Something like this, I could take, because my nature as the Warden of Time gives me a perspective that makes it bearable. That I have inflicted this fate upon you is… perhaps you should not think of me that highly.”

Amelia shrugged.

“Eh, Mumei seems to like you. Sana said you were a big softie.”

“I-well-uh-oh come on!” Kronii stammered, to which Amelia smirked.

“Maybe you haven’t noticed since you’ve apparently been watching me all day, but you’re actually in control of where and when you go. Maybe you should talk to some people while I’m out. You’re appreciated, you know?”

“Why would you say that?!”

“Because it took me a while to get it, too.”

Amelia blinked, and then found herself somewhere new, for the first time in what felt like eternity.

The room she was in was decorated in purple, and standing in front of her was somebody new: a half-angel half-devil being with violet hair.

“You look like you’ve seen better days. Kronii told me about your situation, and while I had to trust her instructions for the timing of your appearance, from the moment I sensed your presence in the timeline, I also sensed your despair. I’m Irys, the incarnation of hope.”

Amelia paused.

“Well, I guess that confirms that Kronii’s keeping her end of the promise. It feels like cheating to know that she contacted you before I appeared, though; I’ve kind of gotten used to people not knowing who I am at all.”

Irys smiled.

“Oh yeah, Kronii’s great when she actually gets into action. She’s just naturally not a very action-y kind of person, especially concerning people she likes. It took her forever to admit that she might have even the slightest amount of affection for Mumei, and she’s a council member. As a human - even if not an ordinary one - it’s gonna be even harder for her to admit directly that she likes you.”

Amelia froze.

“...she likes me?! Have you seen how she acts towards me?!”

Irys broke out laughing.

“Oh, right, you don’t know how she was with Mumei. Well, do I have a story to tell you!”

By the end of the story, Amelia was laughing too.

Amelia blinked, looking around at the deserted island that she had appeared in, only to find that a shark girl had beaten her to it.

“Hey!” Gura replied, “I was wondering if funny time lady was correct. Glad to see she was!”

Amelia smiled.

“That ‘funny time lady’ is Ouro Kronii, the Warden of Time. I asked her to help me out, and she’s decided to be cheeky about it, given that she can retroactively appear before I do. I just wonder if she realized how difficult this was going to make things for her, given how many different people she’s gonna run into.”

Gura paused in confusion.

“You have a lot of friends?”

“Not willingly, but yeah. I kind of wonder why you keep coming around here.”

“I live here, silly! Well, around here, anyway; my home is actually underwater. I keep coming up here though because you keep appearing here. I mean, really, was the hint I gave last time not enough?”

Amelia sat down on the beach of the island’s shoreline.

“I suppose. I can’t exactly go very far, given I’ll be gone quickly enough.”

Gura took a seat beside her.

“I hope I can come with you one day. Ocean’s my home and all, but… it’s kinda boring, really. You’re weird. But I kinda love that.”

Amelia snickered, before lying down in the sand.

“Well, I suppose I can call myself human, but ordinary… yeah, that’s a bit of a stretch now. Can we just relax here until I blink away again?”

She felt a set of hands wrap around her arm, which she supposed was enough of an answer.

Amelia blinked, and found herself again in the domain of time, this time seated at a table with two other occupants.

“Really? An eternity of not seeing this place, and then twice in the same week?”

“Oh, that’s why Kronii-nii invited me here!” Sana replied cheerfully.

“We were discussing what to do with you.” Kronii continued, “Because Sana apparently thinks that I… might consider you more than just another person.”

“Yeah, Kronii-nii’s pretty big about avoiding ever using the word love for some reason. I just kinda got used to it, but it drove Fau-fau kinda nuts watching Kronii and Mumei-”

“Don’t you dare say it!” Kronii interrupted.

“Too late.” Amelia replied with a smug grin, “Irys told me the story about you and Mumei.”

Kronii paled, and Amelia burst out laughing.

“IRYS, YOU TRAITOR!”

Sana smiled.

“I mean it’s important for Ame to know! I think she’s figured out that you love-”

“Don’t say that either!”

Sana shrugged.

“Well I guess I’ll just talk about my own feelings then. Which is that Kronii’s been obsessing over you enough that you’re clearly quite special to her. To say nothing of the couple times you appeared on my body too! I think you just need somewhere to call home.”

The cheerful mood suddenly died.

“...Yeah. That’d be nice. I don’t have a home anymore, though.”

Sana, on the other hand, kept a seemingly unshakable smile on her face.

“I’m trying to convince Kronii-nii to fix that.”

“I told you, this place is not designed to support life.” Kronii replied, “I don’t know how you don’t get that.”

“Because that’s easy to fix! We have Fau-fau and Mei-mei!”

Kronii facepalmed.

Amelia blinked, and found herself in the middle of a temple, seated at a table. The table only had two occupants, and on the other side was none other than Ninomae Ina’nis.

Ina grinned with a pride that was unusual for her.

“It worked. It actually worked! Ao-chan, thank you so much.”

“Uh,” Amelia replied, “What worked?”

“Oh, the Warden of Time showed up here, and told me there was nothing that could be done about you. I then made her explain the whole situation with her, and I told her that via my pact with Ao-chan I might be able to cast a ritual that would control where you ended up.”

Amelia froze.

What?

“...I thought my place within spacetime was completely random…”

“It is, and Kronii explained this.” Ina continued, “But Ao-chan’s abilities are…weird. They can manipulate the outcomes of fate, alter the nature of reality as we know it. I told Kronii that I might be able to manipulate the next time you arrive. I can’t keep you here, and I can’t cast the ritual often, but I’ve proven that it is possible, and with that…”

“You think you can save me.” Amelia finished.

“...Not yet.” Ina replied. “But if I can subtly manipulate the strings of fate into sending you where I want, then I have a starting point.”

Amelia smiled.

“If I run into Kronii again, I’ll tell her to visit you. This is… actually pretty big, if you think about it. Otherwise, I’m just surprised. Surprised you’d put this much effort just to get precious extra time with me.”

Ina smirked.

“Oh, I had my reasons. First and foremost: I want to hug you, because I feel like fate has starved me of hugs to a criminal extent.”

Amelia blinked, finding herself in a forest, and then found a pair of arms wrapped around her.

“You poor thing! I can’t believe Kronii would do that to you!”

“Fauna, it’s fine I don’t need-”

“Kronii should’ve done something so much earlier.” Fauna interrupted, “The fate you’ve suffered is cruel.”

“There is nothing I can say that will make you not pamper me, is there?”

“Nope.”

Amelia sighed.

“Well, I suppose it comes from a good place. Look, I know Kronii probably only told you recently but could you try to not give her too much grief about it? She’s trying to fix this. Maybe. Honestly it’s hard to tell when she gets involved. Regardless, this isn’t really an easy issue to fix. It’s not like I can stay here. You saw me as a lost creature that you wanted to guide to their home, but my home doesn’t exist anymore.”

Fauna smiled.

“Then we’ll find our own way to help.”

Amelia blinked, and found herself at a dinner table, a plate of fried chicken in front of her.

“Oh, hi Kiara. Nice of you to prepare dinner for me.”

“Kronii gave me the exact second you’d show up, so I figured I’d do something nice for you. That, and Kronii’s got plans and I wasn’t going to let her win!”

“Plans?”

“It’s obvious! She wants you for herself! Well I’m not going to let her win that easily!”

Amelia burst out laughing.

“I-how-do you even know what Kronii’s like?!”

“Well, no, but-”

“I was the one who told her to tell you guys to give up on me. My watch can’t be fixed. I have no home timeline. What makes you think you have a chance?”

“Simple: by the time I’m done, you’ll want to call this place home! Now eat up, I know you probably haven’t eaten properly in a while.”

“Actually, Ina and Fauna both fed me. Ina’s trying to date me and Fauna’s literally mother nature, so you do have competition for winning my affection.”

Kiara grinned.

“Let them try!”

Amelia blinked, and found herself in Mumei’s place, finding that Mumei and Kronii had both beaten her there.

“Hi!” came the rather casual reply from Mumei.

“It’s nice being the only one who knows exactly when you’re going to show up.” came the smug reply from Kronii.

Amelia frowned.

“Could I know, too?”

Kronii shrugged.

“Sure. You’ll be visiting a grim reaper next, who, by the time you meet her, is actually going to… well, I can’t spoil that just yet.”

Amelia rolled her eyes.

“I suppose. Anyways, I wanted to ask: can you visit Ina shortly after I get blinked away from her? She succeeded, and I think you know what that means.”

Kronii froze.

“...I didn’t think that was possible. Alright, I’ll do that, then.”

Amelia nodded.

“Also, Kiara seems convinced that you’re trying to fight her for my love, so could you clarify that you aren’t doing that? I’d really like things to not get awkward between the two of you.”

“I-uh-what-are you serious?!” Kronii asked incredulously, much to the hysterical laughter of Amelia.

“Yeah, she’s like that. Is your bed free? I find that I teleport every time I go to bed, so I might as well speed that process up.”

Amelia blinked, and as predicted, found herself in Calliope’s house in the underworld.

“Hey.” Calliope replied casually. “Kronii told me everything before you arrived, so I have your room ready, if you need a nap.”

“Don’t wanna sleep right now. Every time I nap I always wake up in a different timeline, and I’m trying to figure out what Kronii’s planning, because at this point I know she’s planning something but I haven’t figured out what.”

“I mean, we’re gonna save you, but at this point I don’t really know how we’re gonna do that. Kronii said we’re about to enter phase two, whatever that is.”

Amelia froze.

“What?”

“Look, it’s already ridiculous enough that you barged into all of our lives from an entirely different timeline, but I care about you, I’m not the kind of person to just abandon people I care about and it’s pretty clear you’ve made other friends while jumping around. I already said I don’t know how, so again, don’t ask.”

Amelia paused.

“I think I might take that nap, then. Because every time I jump is another opportunity that Kronii has to set something up. If we’re about to enter phase two… well, I don’t really have much of a choice, but I’m going to put my faith in Kronii actually doing something nice for once.”

Calliope smiled.

“Yeah, I get the impression she’s actually really nice when you get to know her.”

“I think she’d disagree with that, but yeah, I think so too.”

Amelia blinked, and found herself waking up once again in the realm of Hakos Baelz.

“Hi!” came the reply not from Bae, but from Irys.

“Irys? What are you doing in Bae’s realm?”

“Oh,” came the reply from Bae herself, “I summoned her here. Kronii said it was part of the plan, though she hasn’t told me what the plan is, aside from saving you. That said, the two of us go way back.”

Amelia sighed.

“I’m going to owe so much to you all if you pull this off.”

“Eh,” Bae mused, “I’m chaos. I have my own reasons for doing things; I’m not expecting to get repaid for this.”

“And it’s my duty to restore hope where it has been lost, including your own.”

Amelia found herself almost involuntarily smiling at Irys’ optimism.

“I hope it pays off, then.”

Amelia blinked, and found herself back in a familiar fast food establishment before pausing in shock.

Kiara, as expected, was already in front of her, having prepared dinner, as Amelia conveniently arrived seated at a table.

Much less expected was the fact that Calliope was also there.

“...Okay, how did you do this?!” Amelia asked in shock, “I thought Kronii and I were the only ones jumping through time!”

“Oh, me and Calli are actually from the same timeline.” Kiara answered, “So she decided to take a break from her reaper duties to say hi, since Kronii’s given us the schedule. We hadn’t talked in a while so neither of us realized we had both met the same person!”

“That’s right,” Calliope continued, “Honestly, it’s a little embarrassing that we both somehow missed this. Also, and I always forget this while on reaper duty, but I actually like the taste of actual food, which is one of those things that we fake down the underworld but can only really be enjoyed while mortally incarnated.”

Amelia smirked.

“Well, I certainly won’t say no to food. Has Kronii told you what phase two of her plan is yet or is that just as unknown as when you told me?”

“Nope.” Calliope answered. “Kronii said it involves someone named ‘Ina’ though, and I haven’t met her yet.”

Amelia’s eyes widened.

“...I think I know what Kronii has planned. It's going to be interesting to see whether or not Ina can overpower fate itself…”

Kiara grinned.

“If it’s to save you, then something as small as fate won’t stop us. Now eat up; you shouldn’t be time traveling on an empty stomach!”

Amelia blinked, and found herself in Ina’s temple, and then froze as she looked at who was there to greet her.

As expected, Ina was there.

Less expected was Gura.

“Gura? What on Earth are you doing here?”

“Oh, Ina figured out summoning, and honestly the ocean’s kinda boring.”

Ina smirked.

“As soon as I told her I had a method of being able to summon you where I wanted you to be summoned, Gura immediately said yes and joined me. After that, well…”

Amelia took a deep breath.

“I can’t believe how much you’re doing for me.”

“Thank Kronii. She’s given me access to time manipulation, which is normally a field that even my pact with Ao-chan won’t normally grant me. The fact I’ve figured out a way to summon you where I want you to be summoned is the key; Kronii said she’d meet me after you leave.”

Amelia nodded.

“Guess I should leave quickly, then.”

Ina and Gura both hugged her in a team effort.

“Not yet!” Yelled Gura. “Both Ina and I are owed hugs and we’re gonna get them!”

Amelia laughed, a warm, seemingly unshakable grin appearing on her face as she did so.

Amelia blinked, and then found herself in Ina’s temple once again.

“It worked.” Kronii suddenly said, “You are spatially in exactly the same location relative to Ina’s position, but ahead exactly 3 days, 14 hours, 15 minutes, and 9 seconds from when you teleported.”

“Hooray!” came the reply of Sana from behind her.

“Uh,” Amelia replied, “isn’t this Ina’s place?”

“Yes.” Ina replied, “Me, Gura, Sana and Kronii are all here. Sana gave me a lot of help with calibrating the spatial half of the ritual so it could be consistent. We’ve figured out how to force the watch to send you to the same location; now all we need to do is figure out how to send you to the same time.”

Kronii nodded.

“The time half is the harder part, though. Remember this is all a result of the fact that Amelia’s original timeline got erased from existence. The watch is trying to send her home, and we might have convinced the watch to send her to the right space at will but at the right time… well, I think it’s possible, but it won’t be easy. I think we can move on to phase three, which will start when you next blink.”

Amelia smiled.

“I’m ready, then.”

Amelia blinked, suddenly finding herself in a room she’d never been in before, which looked like some sort of tribunal with one seat in front and four behind.

Bae was in the front, while Sana, Fauna, Kronii, and Mumei took their positions behind her.

“Yes!” Shouted Bae, “The thread of fate predictor works!”

All five council members smiled in different ways; Sana joyfully, Fauna warmly, Kronii with a smug grin, Mumei with her usual polite-but-unreadable smile, and Bae with a triumphant smirk.

“Can anyone explain what’s going on?” Amelia asked, confused.

“A lot of things, really!” answered Sana, “Bae figured out how to mess with the circumstances until we got the different positions and times you could appear, then Me and Kronii figured out how to accurately find your blink position in space and time.”

“...isn’t that huge?”

“Oh, yeah.” Answered Kronii, “This means you’ll never be alone again. Take a nap; when you wake up, we’re going house-hunting.”

Amelia paused.

“...you mean…”

“You’ve been adrift for a while, haven’t you?” Fauna answered, “It’s time for you to go home.”

Amelia smiled sadly.

“Maybe you forgot, but I don’t have one of those anymore. Besides, my old home wouldn’t be the same anymore. I don’t want to be alone again. An existence of being controllably thrown around reality isn’t too bad if I’m not alone.”

Kronii smirked.

“Trust me, that won’t be an issue. We’ll be with you all the way.”

Amelia blinked, and appeared in the Underworld.

Much to her surprise, Calliope’s ordinarily quiet house had become a crowded place, a place where one person lived suddenly being occupied by eleven.

“Hi!” Gura said with a smile, “I was getting worried you’d be late!”

“Nah, Kronii’s predictions are pretty much always accurate unless the timeline fragments, and if that happens we have much bigger issues, like the end of the universe.” Mumei explained.

“What the heck?!” Amelia asked in surprise, “How did you all find me? I mean I can understand how Kronii does, but…”

“Oh,” Ina answered, “I ‘persuaded’ Kronii to explain the technique to me. From there, opening a portal to the underworld was comparatively easy.”

“It shouldn’t be!” exclaimed Calliope from the back.

Amelia snickered.

“Heh. Yeah, as much as I enjoy this little party, I don’t think it’ll be good for the eleven of us to live here. I suppose I should enjoy the party while it lasts, since unlike you ten I’ll be gone tomorrow.”

“Oh, no.” Kronii replied, “You have several more parties to attend before we give up.”

“You call this a party?!” Kiara asked in reply, “Come on, let me show you guys how it’s done when we get back to my place!”

Amelia paused.

No way.

Amelia blinked, finding herself at a party catered with fried chicken and french fries.

“You see, Ame?” Kiara asked at Amelia’s appearance, “Now this is a party!”

Amelia smiled, snagged the nearest piece of chicken, and took a bite.

“I mean, I like the food.”

“Ha!” Kiara replied with a grin, “I knew I had an advantage here.”

Everyone else glared at Kiara, except Ina, who grinned smugly instead.

“I think I can correct that advantage.” Ina replied.

“Before you get any ideas,” Kronii mused, “You don’t get to date her one-on-one.”

“What makes you think I would try that?” Ina asked, while smiling a little too much to get away entirely innocuously.

“You aren’t a very good liar.” Mumei replied rather bluntly.

Amelia laughed.

“I don’t think any of us are! That said, as much as I like this place as a party space, I’m not sure I’d want to call it home.”

Ina smirked, as if she had an idea.

Amelia blinked, only to find herself in a temple, in front of Ina.

“My dear Amelia, how would you like to call the temple of the ancient ones your home?”

Amelia paused.

“I mean, it certainly has the space, but I’m not sure about… you know, the whole cult thing.”

Ina sighed.

“Well, it was worth a shot. We ordered food in advance of your arrival, and there should be abundant cookies, assuming both the takodachis and our friends haven’t eaten all of them.”

“That sounds great. Wait, speaking of our friends, how did you stop them from interrupting this moment?”

“Oh, I cast a barrier spell that sealed off this chamber. I only needed it to hold until-”

“Ina, you cheater!” Kronii suddenly interrupted.

“-now.” Ina finished the sentence, as the barrier broke and everyone else arrived.

Gura jumped at relative hyperspeed to wrap her arms around Amelia.

“Stay here! We can live together now!”

“I mean,” Amelia replied, “I’m all for settling down, but here of all places? Last time I was here, I had to - wait, no, that was an alternate universe version of this place. Before I annihilated it. Along with the entire rest of that universe.”

She frowned, pausing as she realized that she had utterly killed the mood.

“Ame…” Kiara spoke softly, “...you didn’t mean to, did you?”

Amelia looked to the side.

“I didn’t realize what I was about to do at the time, but that doesn’t mean I’m innocent. It just means I’m not guilty of malicious intent. Criminal negligence is still, you know, criminal. Maybe it’s best if I find a home somewhere away from all of you?”

“Amelia!” Kronii hissed, “Don’t you dare!”

Amelia looked at her watch, and deliberately invoked its power. She couldn’t control the destination, but it wasn’t important.

Amelia blinked…

…And landed on a deserted island, on a sandy beach.

“...Somewhere like here.”

And with that, sat down.

“Well, I guess I have time to think.”

“Think about what?” asked Sana.

“About my future, about what I want to-”

Amelia immediately jumped up, noticing she wasn’t alone, as ten people had followed her.

“How did you all follow me here?!”

Kronii, Sana, and Ina all raised their hands.

“Right. Spacetime warping powers combined with being able to predict where I get randomly zapped to. I honestly don’t know how I didn’t see that coming.”

The group laughed in response, seemingly lightening the mood.

“Ame,” Gura said while giggling, “you really think you’re gonna make this place your home?!”

“Of course not!” Amelia replied, “I kinda just jumped at random so I could get some time to sulk about the whole ‘accidentally obliterating a universe’ thing on my own. Figured I’d let you guys keep the good mood without me bringing it down.”

“Problem is,” Calliope stated matter-of-factly, “your leaving us hanging like that also killed the mood much more effectively. Like, we’ve all met each other because of you, because enjoying your random anomalous appearances is the one thing all of us have in common.”

“Plus,” Ina continued, “I even almost had cookies saved for you! Well, before the takodachis ate them all. Look, I tried.”

Amelia found herself unable to resist laughing at how casually Ina spoke.

“Well I’ll make it up next time you guys have a party set up for me in advance, which will probably be like, one time jump from now. How about I just skip there?”

“Hey!” Mumei shouted in annoyance, “We don’t do the time skip thing; we’ll actually have to wait that long!”

“Yeah, but face it: a deserted island is hardly the best place to party, given that it doesn’t look like any of you guys brought snacks. Also, can’t Kronii do the time skip thing?”

Kronii shrugged.

“I have my own version of that, but for stability reasons I don’t want anyone who doesn’t already time travel to be messing around there. I wasn’t particularly happy with Ina for the stunt she pulled, but she’s buddies with Sana, so I figure it’s probably fine. In that case, we’ll see you soon.”

Amelia smirked, and then blinked…

…and then arrived at Irys’ house, in which ten people had beaten her there.

“Okay, I like the decor, but there’s no way this has the space for all of us.”

“Oh, I know a place!” Sana exclaimed happily.

Amelia blinked…

…into an inky-black space lit only by stars, finding herself floating aimlessly.

“...Sana,” Amelia muttered, “I understand you’d be willing to host all of us, but I think most of us prefer a place that has, you know, solid ground and working gravity.”

“Ah, right. It’s hard to party when I’m the only source of gravity around here.”

Amelia sighed, and blinked…

…Into a beautiful forest.

Amelia sighed.

“Is this the part where all of you are trying to convince me to live with you?”

Fauna smiled politely.

“Maybe. I suppose you’re attached to civilization in a way that even nature can’t provide by itself.”

Amelia shrugged.

“If I had to make do, I’d accept it. But out of every location I’ve been to I do think Ina’s winning. Mostly because she has cookies. Kiara and Calli are a close second and third though.”

Ina and Kiara grinned triumphantly, while Calliope paused.

“Wait, me? Third place?”

“Yeah, the underworld’s not that bad, if only because you answer any suspicious callers so I don’t have to get tangled up in that mess. Only downside is that it’s not a great location if everyone’s gonna keep visiting.”

Calliope shrugged.

“Fair enough. Kiara drives me insane enough as is, having all of you over at once would be, uh… yeah.”

Kronii suddenly smirked.

“Well, I have a place you could go.”

Amelia shrugged, and then blinked again…

…Into a clock tower located in the flow of time itself.

“I think I have an advantage.” Kronii suddenly exclaimed, both to Amelia and to the other nine people who had, as per usual, predicted Amelia’s blink and had beaten her to the location.

“Really?” Amelia asked, “This place is pretty barren. It’s designed only to be a place of… whatever it is you do.”

“True.” Kronii muttered, “But it’s also the one place I could end the cycle for good.”

Amelia froze, as did everyone else, as Kronii smirked.

“...what?” Amelia asked.

“You heard me.” Kronii answered, “You see, we’ve been working on a solution to your problem. It just so happens that I have the final piece of the puzzle. I can locally suspend the flow of time, and with it I can depower your watch, ending all of this.”

“Kronii!” Ina spoke indignantly, “You traitor! You said it couldn’t be done!”

“To be fair,” Kronii replied, “that was all the way from before you figured out how to manipulate her blinking locations. I said I have the final piece of the puzzle, not that I had every piece.”

Bae frowned.

“It still seems unfair to hide this from us until now.”

“Also,” Mumei replied, “can’t you just, like, stop the thing with Amelia and then send her to any other place in the timeline?”

Kronii sighed.

“Okay, fair. My real strongest argument is that this is the closest thing Amelia has to being in her home universe, given that this place is where all of the timeline threads connect with each other. Some familiarity is nice, is it not?”

Amelia frowned.

“...to be honest, no. I don’t need any more reminders of what I did. I don’t get why you guys are all so determined to save me. Why do any of you care?”

“I said it before,” Calliope answered, “but you’re the reason we know each other. Also, if you compare yourself to any other underworld native, you are legitimately the best roommate I’ve had down there.”

“As for me,” Kiara answered, “You just make my immortality so much more interesting! Do you know how rare it is for me to encounter surprises anymore?”

Ina continued: “While it’s a bit cheesy of me, there was always something about you that made you irreplaceable in my heart. Maybe it’s how you saw me as a human and not just the high priestess of the ancient ones.”

“And you were just there for me as a friend when I needed one.” Gura continued.

“My job is bringing hope to people.” Irys added, “And honestly you really needed it back then. After meeting you, though, I had to admit you were pretty cool.”

“It’s the first time the council has worked together on anything in a little while!” Sana exclaimed happily.

Fauna nodded.

“That’s true. And I was always going to help you because it’s in my nature to take care of other living beings, to help lost ones find their home.”

“Or to make a new one.” Kronii added, “It’s funny, because at first you drove me nuts. You still do, but I’d actually miss you now. I’m perfect, after all, and I’m not going to let something go wrong when we are this close to saving you for good.”

“Admittedly I’m just kind of tagging along because Kronii is.” Mumei replied, “But that’s enough of a reason for me, because if you’re good enough that Kronii actually likes you that’s enough of a reason to think you’re really cool. Besides, once I met you once that was good enough for me.”

“And I don’t need a reason.” Bae finally concluded, “I’m chaos. I just do whatever I feel like, and joining this really strange party seemed like a fun thing to do.”

Amelia simply stared in silence at the fact that she had effectively been confessed to ten times in a row, even if the confessions weren’t that romantic in nature.

“...I don’t… I don’t know what to do. I could end the cycle here. But I think… I think I finally realized something.”

“What did you realize?” Kronii asked.

“The watch was right. I just want to go home. Ending the cycle here… would just leave me stranded in a nice-looking place that’s still not home to me. I’m sorry. Maybe it’s selfish given all you ten have done for me. But I just want to go home. You ten, you ten are amazing. And I hope you remain friends after I’m gone. But none of this is home for me. I just… I just have to go.”

Amelia blinked…

…and opened her eyes to find herself somewhere new.

The house was suspiciously empty, and even more suspiciously familiar to her. The place was, if Amelia was being honest, a bit too large for one person, but it was cozy.

No way.

She went downstairs, and found a variety of gaming equipment, equipment that at one point she used to own. Upstairs contained two bedrooms, the beds recently made.

“Clearly someone lives here, but… this can’t be my original universe. It can’t be.”

She sighed. She remembered that there were rules about not meeting herself unless she was willing to risk the stability of the universe. At the same time, her investigator’s brain had activated, and she had to know what was happening.

Well then, investigation time.

She continued looking throughout the house, until she found another room that served as some sort of office, a place where case files could be placed. At the moment it was empty and meticulously clean.

Aha! Someone’s definitely messed with these-

The sound of a doorbell interrupted Amelia’s thoughts. By reflex, not even thinking about the consequences, she went downstairs and opened the door.

Ten people were behind it, smiling.

“For the record,” Ina replied, “This is my timeline, so technically I still won. But I also won without technicalities, because we all won.”

Amelia smirked.

“At first, I was wondering if Kronii teleported me back into a timeline that doesn’t exist, but I know she didn’t. Because I have never kept my case files organized back in my home timeline.”

“Darn it!” came the reply from Kronii.

“That said,” Amelia mused, “what are you all doing here?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Ina used, “Making you feel more at home. Thank Kronii and Mumei for that, by the way. As well as me and Sana, I guess.”

Amelia nodded.

“Kronii’s the only one who could know where I lived in my original timeline, but what did Mumei do?”

“I convinced the previous owner to sell.” Mumei answered casually, “It’s a nice house in a nice place, especially after Kronii meticulously renovated the house to match your old timeline, until she cleaned it up because your old messes made her go crazy. Oh, and as you could probably guess, Ina and Sana performed a big ritual that manipulated your blink location to this exact place.”

Amelia laughed.

“God, you guys are too good for me. I just can’t believe you did all of this given I’m going to be somewhere else after I blink.”

Kronii smirked.

“Will you?”

And it was there that it all clicked for Amelia.

“...am I home?”

And for the first time, Kronii’s smirk changed to a smile of warmth.

“It was my idea.” Gura admitted, “I kinda figured, ‘hey, if this watch is busted because it’s trying to send Ame home, how about we just… send Ame home?’ Maybe it doesn’t matter if it’s your original universe.”

Amelia smiled, a rare smile of relief above all else.

“And if you guys want to keep me company, then this place will be home every way that could ever matter to me. Thanks. I really mean it. I guess… I guess I can rest now?”

“Oh no, you don’t.” Ina answered, “We still have to finish that party that you left us back at my place. Advantage of weeks passing for us but not for you: we had time to order food again.”

Amelia laughed, before pausing.

“Wait, really? You’re continuing a party after I ruined the mood weeks ago?”

“I mean, yeah.” Mumei answered, “It’s only been like a few minutes for you, so really all you’ve done is take a small breather. Besides, if we’re calling this home, we might as well give you the housewarming gift; apparently setting up the portal network is really hard and whoops sorry Sana I just realized I wasn’t supposed to say that out loud.”

Sana laughed.

“I think she would’ve figured it out before we actually did anything! I mean, if we’re traveling to and from our respective spacetimes at will it’s not exactly a hard leap of logic to make.”

Bae facepalmed.

“And I was actually managing to keep that secret for so long.”

“Hey,” Kronii muttered, “it happens to the best of us.”

Amelia nodded.

“Yeah, it’s not easy to keep secrets from each other given our abilities. That said, I’m ready to party hard, because I might as well enjoy the opportunity while it lasts.”

“That’s the spirit!” Irys replied enthusiastically.

A couple of hours later, the party naturally wound down, mostly owing to Amelia getting a reminder of the fact that she was human and in fact, did need to sleep. She waved goodbye, and the rest of the house seemed to quiet down as most people were sent to their respective homes and times.

Two people, however, didn’t follow suit.

“Ina. Gura. You two didn’t go back to your homes?” Amelia asked.

“Uh, Ame?” Gura answered, “The ocean’s my home, and it’s really boring there. I really don’t miss it most days, you know?”

“And I have my own reasons.” Ina continued, “I do plan to go back to the temple, but I’ve told the takodachis that this is personally important. And it is.”

“You aren’t thinking about moving in, are you?”

Ina smirked.

“If I can figure out an arrangement to do the whole priestess gig only part-time, then I might. It’s a cozier place than my temple, at any rate. And it’s weird because I’ve never been here before, but this feels like a home. A place we could all stay. Does that work for you?”

Amelia smiled.

“Yeah. And I guess if that’s the case, I’m never going to be able to get rid of you.”

“Nope!” Gura replied, “You’re stuck with us now!”

“Well, unless I get homesick again. Then…”

She looked down at her watch.

“...or maybe I’ll blink back here when that happens now. I think… I think I’m ready to move on from what I’ve done. Even if only I remember it. Because the reality is that I like this new reality, and I’ll do whatever I can to protect it. That said, I’m going to bed, because I’m just… tired. Tired of not knowing what will happen when I wake up.”

Ina nodded.

“...it’s probably for the best that you get some sleep.”

Amelia went upstairs to her bedroom after that, and then immediately fell over, losing consciousness as she had the first good sleep in what felt like eternity.

Amelia blinked, ridding herself of residual sleepiness, waking up not on an unknown floor but in a comfy bed.

“Hey, Ame.” came the calm voice of Ina. “Guess where you are.”

Amelia found herself smiling involuntarily.

“I’m home.”