In a white room sat a table with the space to hold ten chairs, but it only had 9 white chairs. In the blank space left by the missing chair an empty teacup was placed. Besides this, the area was empty. There were no walls, no floors, and no ceiling. The room was perfectly lit, not a single shadow was cast from the table and chairs.

Two women appeared, in their respective seats, one in a clean white suit that complemented her flowing blonde hair, while the other donned a black dress that copied her short black hair.

They sat in the room without making a sound, quietly waiting for the other guests to arrive. They waited, and waited, before finally raising their heads.

A small boy appeared in one of the chairs, wearing casual dress and had short spikey hair. “You two called yet another meeting? What gives?” The boy spoke, propping his feet onto the table and leaning back in his chair.

“[Time] changed hands again.” Fate spoke, making a cigarette appear in her hands, lighting it and sticking it into her mouth.

“Tch, again?! No wonder I was stuck for so long.” The boy kicked off the table, flying away as he spun through the air.

“Fuck!” The boy straightened his grip on his chair as it fell, clanging against the ground. “Force! The heck’s your problem?!” the boy yelled at the newest member to take their seat, a stoic man wearing a white suit with pale skin, who simply shrugged in response.

“Welcome force, we are discussing how time changed again.” Destiny spoke, smiling when Force acknowledged her by nodding.

World had dragged his chair back to the table, sitting at it once more with his feat propped up, he looked at his side, the newest member had appeared. A tall elven woman with pitch black eyes that shimmered like the night sky “Sup Arcane, been awhile.” He winked. “[Time] changed again, can you believe it?”

“Yes, that happens a lot.” The girl said, giving a light bow towards Fate and Destiny, and a wave towards force.

There was a loud thud as a woman with disheveled hair landed on the table “euh…” she moaned, not doing much of anything else besides slowly start to slide off the table, before force caught her and adjusted her in her seat.

“…Justice, why do you look like that?” Destiny asked.

“eurgh….” The girl turned away, plopping down on the table again.

“Oh I know!” World spoke up, laughing as he did so “She got dumped again!”

“NO!” The girl yelled, her hair flying everywhere as she suddenly shot up.

“Yes! It was that one girl at the bar you were bragging about… where was it, in Kion right? With the mole!”

“AAAARUGH!” Justice tried to leap the table, but force held her in place with her hair, and a mysterious barrier appeared Infront of her, acting as a transparent wall.

“Girl, what does this make? 10 this year? I’d think you would give up after how the last guy went.”

A young girl appeared in one of the last remaining seats, taking in the chaos before her she spoke “Did I miss something?” Watching justice scream while world laughed at her, both being restrained by force and Arcane.

Fate breathed out, smoke escaping from her mouth “Justice got dumped and world is torturing her over it. But other than that? Not yet.” She said, motioning to the teacup.

Everyone went silent, taking their seats immediately as the teacup slowly filled up with a black, gooey, liquid “Suuup everyone~ miss me?” No one replied “Aww. Silent treatment like usual. I don’t even get a bucket this time, what is this? A teacup? Where the hell did you get a teacup?”

Fate sighed, then cleared her throat (hey don’t ignore me!) “Now that everyone is here, we shall start.” Fate spoke. “As some of you know, [Time] has yet again shifted hands.”

“No surprise, [Time] has the hardest time existing but is the easiest to pass on.” Arcane said.

“Yes, [Time], ironically, never has a good time, they almost have it as bad as me.” World huffed.

“But this one is great! She’s a little beastman child!” Void spoke “She kept on flying through my space, I was surprised at first but eventually put 2 and 2 together!”

“I am going to miss the last one… he was cool…” Aeon pouted.

“Well, you know how [Time] works, who knows how many people it passed before finding someone who hit yes enough to get noticed by one of us.” Fate shrugged.

“We only noticed because we happened to be watching, she had been trying to save three beastkin for months.”

World twitched “Where was that?” he asked, agitated.

“West of the fox tribe’s villiage~ in the dungeon nearest to it. You should have seen her face when she go-“

“Near the fox village, in the rooted den. The one with the rabbi spiders.” Destiny answered him.

“Tch,” World clicked his tongue “The big skips I can handle, but the small ones like that… they get so annoying, just move on or try a different way.”

“Must suck, being aware of all that…” Justice grumbled

“He isn’t the only one that is always aware! And stop ignoring me! You guys know it is entirely your fault for what happens when you enter me!” Void protested, but his protest fell on deaf ears.

“So, how is she?” Arcane asked.

“She is…well it could be worse.” Fate sighed, taking a long drag from her cig “Seems like she has been through a lot, but is relatively stable.”

“That’s good, we do not want it switching again so soon, now that we are aware and can watch.”

“Speaking of, World, be sure to locate her and share your senses. The fact we are still aware of her means she did not go back at all.”

“Yeah, don’t get your panties in a wad, I’m looking.”

“Brat! Just do your fucking job!”

“I always do my job! Unlike some of you who just spend all your time finding dates!”

“Leave my love life out of this!”

“What love life?! We already established you have none despite trying to pick up every fish in the sea!”

“AAAAAARH!”

“And what of [Time]’s [Assist]?” Force asked, breaking the silence only to cause the table to go silent.

“….”

“Hey~ y’know she-“

“That’s the best part.” Fate leaned onto the table “She disabled it.”

“What?”

“No way, don’t lie.”

“Really?”

“Please… I don’t want to go back…not to [Void]…” Aeon cried.

“Hey! I will say it again! I am not responsible for what happens. And I am the one that got her to disable [Assist] in the first place!”

“…. Come again?” the attention of the room focused on the tiny teacup filled with black liquid.

“Oh? Now you are interested? Bunch of fucking assholes!” the teacup bounced on the tabletop in protest “Hypocrites! All of you! Won’t give me the time of day! What ever happened to respecting your elders!

“[Void], stop with the act, just tell us what you did.” Fate asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Feh! Feh feh!...fine.” the teacup stopped bouncing, instead it gave a little spin, landing at an angle “I simply pointed out she should not trust it, one thing lead to another, and boom, [Assist] is locked away until [Time] either changes hands or the current owner enables her again, which, oooooooh boi [Assist] was going full throttle on [Time], that kid must have been in a pretty fucked situation at home. Well, I know she was, but that is just me bragging.” The teacup then fell flat on the table as all attention was pulled elsewhere. “Hey, hypocrites!” Fate yelled out, but no one was paying them any mind now.

“Well, that certainly explains why we didn’t get tossed into [Void] the moment we summoned her…” Fate sighed out in relief.

“Yeah, you guys got lucky.” Arcane spoke “[Time] can still throw you in there without [Assist]’s interference but it seems they do not know that yet.”

“I hope they never learn that…” Destiny whimpered, followed by Aoen’s own worried whimper.

“Not possible.” World chimed in “If they last long enough, they will learn about it, it’s unavoidable.”

“More worried about what [Void] said.” Force spoke.

“Hrm? About what?”

Justice rose her disheveled head “They said they were flying through their space for awhile… doesn’t that mean it has been the same one?”

The others seemed confused “Yeah? What about it? [Time] dips into [Void] every time they return, they are bound to notice eventually.” World spoke.

“Oh, they were flying through!” Arcane gasped.

“Right,” Justice nodded, the faced world “And you said earlier how there was a bunch of long jumps back in time, right?”

“…” World leaned back in his chair “Ok, I get it.” He said, placing his palm on his forehead.

“What?” Aeon asked, the others that didn’t know joining in on the confusion.

“…” World motioned to void “[Void] can explain it better, probably even knows the reason why, but…”

The teacup was silent, unmoving, but still filled with the black substance “Oh? Need something from me again? Well if you in-“

“I’ll explain.” Arcane spoke, ignoring the loud ‘god damnit!’ protest of Void “What you said is correct, every time [Time] goes back in time they go into [Void] while the world corrects itself, the time spent in [Void] is relative to how long they are going back. Usually, they are static when this process is taking place but are known to become the opposite if the leap is far enough.”

“Can I explain my own shi-!“

“So they keep going back to a certain point?” Aeon asked.

“That, or something is forcing them back.” Fate sighed “World, you got any clue what is causing her to do that?”

World was still leaned back in his chair, seemingly in deep thought “Nothing, I can remember it is every three years for the long jumps.”

“We are not getting anything either.” Destiny said, referring to her and Fate.

Arcane sighed “Well, it is good enough that all of us are now aware of the new [Time], and am sure everyone wants to make their own contact.” She spoke, glancing at World “Be sure to find her and share your senses with us, I do not want us all to be unaware for anymore important returns.” She then stood up.

“Leaving?” Aeon asked.

“Yes, as should all of you.” She said, noting that [Force] had already left, apparently hearing all he thought he needed to. “We are all busy in our own right, thank you two for notifying the rest of us.” Arcane nodded to Fate and Destiny before vanishing herself.

“We will look into why she goes back every three years, you do the same World.” Fate said before vanishing.

“Good luck.” Destiny vanished.

“….argh this is going to be a chore…” World ruffled his own hair in frustration as he vanished.

“…” it was just Justice and a teacup left in the room; the teacup slowly turned towards justice “Well? You got something to say?”

Justice turned her head towards the teacup, she considered something for a moment before vanishing herself.

“Figures” Void spoke, now left alone in the empty white void. “And what about you?” the teacup then turned to the seat that remained empty throughout the meeting “Got anything to say? You aren’t mad at me for getting ol’assist disabled?”

“…They will come back, it is just a matter of time.”

“Yeah I am sure.” The teacup spined “so, seriously, not mad?”

“Disappointed you overstepped, nothing new and you are not the only one. Where is Mia now?”

“Eh…” Void paused “Being unloaded at the capitol. Being led into the slave merchant’s backroom for inspection.”

“Again? Why is she back there?”

“Iounno, she got captured by the church again. She may be looking for more information on that explosion.”

“That won’t do.”

“…”

“That won’t do at all., she won’t get anything going back that way. Why has she not used her log?”

“It apparently broke.” The teacup spoke.

“It what?”

“Well that’s what happens when you try to force the use of your skill and dying hundreds of times, shit stops working.”

“…regardless, this won’t do. It would be different if she was under the churches control but going back to the royal family…”

“Thinking of interfering?”

“Yes, it is necessary.”

“Now look who is overstepping!” Void protested.

“I never overstep.”

“…right.” The teacup scooted itself away from the *empty* chair “So what will you do?”

“I will make use of my pawn, before it is taken by the queen.”