Ne’lix sat at a terminal he’d just returned to from one of Earth’s many subterranean locations, that were not, strictly speaking, known to everyone on the surface. In fact, probably less than 1% of the population knew about underground bases spread around the globe. Of those 1% even less knew what he did. Each of these bases was located away from any civilian locations on the surface so that if something drastic needed to happen the personnel in the bases would be safe when a city was cleansed.

Ne’lix had been drinking his coffee daydreaming a bit until five minutes ago when everything had gone to shit. An alarm on his console had gone off. When he glanced at it he recognized an administrative override code as it flashed across his terminal. The code string had been such a surprise and unknown to everyone in his section. They had scrambled to look it up and find out what was going on. When no one could, Anna, his supervisor, accessed her terminal. After reading for a few seconds she looked up and around the room as she said, “It means Level 10 planetary cleansing. Nukes should be detonating shortly.” When nothing happened, another code had come across the screen “X0X”. Anna had turned white, then passed out. He’d been the closest and been just quick enough to jump out of his seat and catch her before she hit her head. After he’d gotten her settled, called for a medical team, and treated her for shock, he’d moved to her terminal and looked up the code while he kept an eye on her. Everyone else had looked up but went back to work knowing that whatever was going on was pretty important. Ne’lix used Anna’s terminal and found that the “XOX” code was a designation given to planets in the Empire that had been sanctioned and then sanitized. That could mean a surface wipe or it could mean the planet was destroyed. Ne’lix read a message that had flashed up while he was looking up “XOX”

Singularity shield will drop in 60 seconds.

Well, that sucked. He hadn’t been alive long enough this time to learn a lot of skills and while he’d learned that magic was real he hadn’t picked up anything that would help him in the next 60 seconds. Of course, that’s why Anna had feinted, she knew what was coming. Ne’lix activated the one magical ability he’d learned, Aura sight, and looked around for what he thought would be the last time this time around as a timer appeared on the monitor and counted down

5

4

3

2

1

…???

This time around Ne’lix had been born in a Universe with an Earth he recognized but with some stuff going on at a galactic scale that had surprised him. Right after he’d been born he’d remembered everything. Though he still hadn’t been able to talk for almost a year. Once he could talk, something most children could not due fluently by their first birthday he had garnered the interest of some powerful people who’d quietly checked him out. Two people in black jumpsuits had visited his home one night. They’d waved a device he now knew as able to determine if you served Textrix or not, and then picked him up and headed to the Administration building in his town where they’d walked through. He’d been taken to another world where children like himself could talk. They all knew stuff they shouldn’t know at their age. Nikki, one of the girls in his class talked about something called fusion towers where unlimited power could be generated. Another kid, Paul, talked about making swords and how you needed to know exactly when to quench the steel to make it as strong as possible. They couldn’t talk about their previous lives but they definitely hinted at them. Ne’lix had no such limitations. He’d talked about how as a little girl he’d liked to play during the day and run around in the park until the invasion. He even talked about his Counselor which had warranted him a visit from Trix. She’d come to see him in the form of a normal human woman and explained to him that he was truly special and shouldn’t be repeating what had happened to him before he was born this time. Sure, he could talk about skills and stuff but not about people or places, especially Textrix and what had happened to him after he’d died. He’d understood the gravity of the visit and promised never to speak of it again. He didn’t want to piss off the woman he’d promised to serve, someone he was pretty sure Trix worked for.

So when the countdown had started he wasn’t too worried about death, he knew he’d be reborn on one of Textrix’s worlds. Just recently he’d been shown how to access his personal interface and figured out why he remembered everything and could talk about it. He had two pretty unique abilities as far as everyone he'd talked to could determine. The first was “True Prophet.”

True Prophet – The mysteries of life and death are not mysteries to you. As you move from this life into whatever awaits, you will always be able to remember your previous life and speak of it to others. Death is no longer something to be feared but a doorway you may walk through knowing there is something else and sharing those insights as you wish.

The second ability Ne’lix had was an ability called Perfect Memory.

“Perfect Memory” - Like Photographic Memory except for all five senses with an automatic recall of desired information.

Between the two abilities, he had the ability to remember everything perfectly and also remember and speak about everything from one life to the next. During his first life, he’d been on an Earth much like this one except he’d been what the history books here defined as an American Indian, Apache tribe. When he’d died that first time he’d been greeted by a Counselor who had described Textrix to him and asked if he’d like to serve a greater cause. He wasn’t sure why he’d said yes. It could have been because he’d just died and was afraid. There was no Great Spirt, or if there was Textrix seemed to be it. He hadn’t been religious, but he’d believe in the Great Spirit. If he was honest with himself, part of him still did. Knowing that he’d died and then appearing in a room with a female had shaken some of his fundamental worldviews. There had been some difficulty adjusting and some strong encouragement not to fight with the Counselor, he could still remember the beating she’d had to give him before he’d respected her enough to listen to what she had to say. He’d been so uneducated then. He could have agreed because he didn’t have much knowledge that wasn’t immediately useful for survival. He hadn’t been a really deep thinker in that first life he was being honest with himself. Or it could have been because he’d needed to latch onto the first thing he ran into after dying after how powerless he truly was had been beating into him a couple of times. He wasn’t sure exactly why, but he had agreed. He hadn’t felt any different but he’d immediately disappeared and been reborn as a woman. This time on Earth except during the 1900s. He’d lived in France as a young girl. When the Germans invaded Marne he’d been wounded and a week later had died of a terrible infection, that time he’d only made it to age 13.

Ne’lix knew all this and how to compare the various timelines and locations during each of his three lives because his education this time around had included a very comprehensive course on the Multiverse Theory and Alternate Universes with various timelines or the same timeline just moving faster or slower than the counterparts. Also, it seemed that every time someone tried to truly go back in time what happened was a new Universe was created based on their current universe which had a starting point of their target destination. The true shocker was when he’d been informed that Magic existed and that was how people attempted to travel through time and why new Universes popped into existence. He hadn’t believed his teacher until he’d been shown a very convincing demonstration when he had held fire he conjured from nowhere. He’d been completely convinced that magic existed when he was taught his first spell which was a simple perception spell called Aura Sight which he activated now. He’d been thinking for a while and wondered if he’d been caught in some kind of moment just before being obliterated by the gravimetric stress of the black hole but when he looked at the monitor he noted that the timer was now at negative 45 and still counting down. That was when he noticed a rainbow wave of scintillating colors rising through the floor engulfing everything, including him, as it continued up into the stone roof above him and disappeared.

“Did any of you see that?”

“See what? “someone asked that he could see, though he was sure it was a guy named Alex he didn’t get along with.

“The wave of rainbow colors that just washed over us.”

“Ne’lix are you talking crazy again? You know the last time you started talking crazy that woman dropped by,” Dez, one of the women that I’d known since I’d started school this time around.

“No Dez, not talking nonsense, I had Aura Sight up and noticed it.”

“Oh, okay, let me check my monitor,” she said as she typed some inquiries into her terminal. “Your right there was a huge surge of chaotic magic that was generated from the center of the planet and just washed over everyone and everything. The sensors are reporting it’s gone now.”

“Well I saw it, but I didn’t feel anything, anyone else feel anything when I called out?” he asked.

“Not Me,” Cissy called from across the room

“Me either,” Bradley said from the other side of the room.

“What’s with all the yelling?” Anna asked as she groggily came too and looked around.

“You passed out,” Ne’lix said

“Passed out, why?” she asked as her eyes went wide.

“Calm down,” he said reassuringly. If that had happened we’d all be dead now. It’s been almost two minutes since the shield went down.”

“Two, Two, Two minutes?” Anna stuttered.

“What’s wrong with her?” Cissy asked as she walked up to check on Anna.

“Nothing a strong cup of coffee and a lot of alcohol won’t fix,” Ne’lix said.

“What do you mean?” Cissy asked.

“Don’t you worry about it, once Anna gets her wits about her I’m sure she’ll explain it to you. Why don’t you go get her a cup of coffee? She’s going to need that first, I think.”

Anna waited until Cissy was out of earshot then asked Ne’lix in a whisper, “How do you know what’s going on?”

“Anna, you left your terminal on when you passed out, I have a perfect memory remember? It’s why you keep an eye on me. I remember everything I see, hear, touch, taste, or smell. Even if I was casually observing you, I remember every single keystroke you’ve typed and every screen you opened. Also, I’ve been trained. I guess that’s a really long way of saying I used your terminal to query what had rattled you so. Also, I’ve had just a little more training than everyone here knows, courtesy of Trix, probably a test to see if I’d tell anyone. Since we’re both supposed to be dead right now, don’t think that secrecy matters at the moment, do you?” he whispered back.

“Not really, and thanks for keeping me from hurting myself. I think I remember you jumping up to catch me as everything went fuzzy and dark,” she said.

“I did, and you’re welcome. You might be the boss, and a pain in the ass sometimes but there was no way I was letting you hit your head on your desk,” he said with a smile.

At that moment Cissy returned with a cup of coffee as Anna sat up and took the cup, then a sip as she said, “Okay people parties over. Everyone do a level 10 scan on the surface. We need to find out what’s happening. Also, I’d like to thank all of you for helping me but now it’s time to get back to work”

As Anna finished putting us back to work the medical team rushed in and were pointed over to her. Since she was sitting up it was a pretty quick conversation. They checked her over, double-checked her condition with their medical scanners made some notes then gathered their gear and walked out of the control center.

While the medical team examined Anna, Ne’lix did as she asked and performed a level 10 scan on the sector he was responsible for. Except for the subterranean explosion which hadn’t gone nuclear, and a couple of people that had noticed the ground rumbling nothing of note had happened. As far as he could tell everyone was treating the ground shakes as a localized minor earthquake and had gone back to business as usual.

Anna came over to Ne’lix and made a motion to type into his keyboard as she asked, “May I?”

“Sure,” Ne’lix said as he backed up a little to give her some room. After a few keystrokes and screen changes his monitor showed the moon’s surface from a camera angle up and above the surface. Probably from one of the small satellites they had in orbit around both Earth and the Moon. Below the angle of the camera, a plume of dust was frozen as it expanded from the surface. Anna hit play and they watched as the camera angle zoomed in on the image of a 16-year-old boy identified as Ahrem Bianci. The image showed him looking around and then starting to move ahead of the dust cloud before he shimmered and disappeared.

“What the fuck was that?” Ne’lix asked

“That was the reason for everything that just happened. He was in a room where a nuke was detonated less than five feet under him. He survived and then under his own willpower moved through the vacuum of space and disappeared. We need to search for this boy as far and wide as we can. The message I just received orders me to bring you in on this search. No one else is to know what we’re doing though, understood?”

“Understood, I guess it’s time to get to work”

“It is,” she said to Ne’lix then raised her voice. “Everyone, Ne’lix and I need to travel to headquarters. A new supervisor will be arriving shortly. Continue your searches and make sure to have reports ready for the new supervisor when they get here.” Anna said then turned and walked towards the door as Ne’lix stood and followed her out. After the doors had closed Anna walked forward ten paces and turned to the blank wall on her right that disappeared revealing a portal. Anna stepped through as Ne’lix followed closely behind her.