THE MOMENT
Deep within a frigid cavern near the mountain's peak, a select few people gathered to discuss an urgent matter. 10 representatives, including a black cat, an old man in a black bowling shirt, three 10-year-old girls who looked like triplets, and a Japanese young woman with a sword pointed at one of the girls. Along with the rest, they had already exhausted almost all possible talking points, and she made a decision.
"On whose authority?" Janet, the black cat, asked. Jenny, the young woman holding the sword, settled on a plan and was pushing it into action; but, Janet raised a very important question.
"Six needs our help!" Jenny slightly tilted the blade away from its current target, a girl with dusty blonde hair and brown eyes, to gesture at the other two girls, both with brown hair and green eyes. The blonde and brown-haired girls had been twins up until a few days ago, when a mishap with the sword split the brown-haired girl into two. Jenny, their mother, and Aurelio, the father, worked fast to find a solution, and now Jenny was making it happen while Aurelio went along.
"Six and 23 were already fragile from the first split...," Aurelio offered extra context to the cat. "23 only made it worse by using the sword."
"I'm sorry...," 23 apologized, again, to her dad. But, the pair of Six's weren't going to stand for their sister taking the entire blame.
"Hey!" One of them said, quickly followed by the other as they shared a single thought. "We agreed on it together!"
"We all know," Jenny tried to reassure all three girls at the same time, then she focused on the cat again. "This has gotten out of hand. I just need a Moment to try and fix it," she said. "Tim, Quinn, and Chronos are willing to give it to me," she said. The old man, Tim, nodded. Quinn, a young, pale woman with white hair and orange underlights, also signaled an agreement.
"Confirmed." Chronos, a sapient nano-swarm spoke from within an electric blue hourglass. The cat shook her head.
"Tim, Quinn, and Chronos do not represent their Courts. Ballisea and Chroma have each refused to endorse any option. Chronos is a substitute in the Sharp Court, and this request falls outside of his duties," the cat explained. Then, she smiled. "You only have one play here, and we all know it," she giggled at the repetition of Jenny's words.
"What?" From Aurelio's admittedly limited perspective, that seemed like an odd thing to say. He thought he knew what Jenny's plan was. They needed a heavy dose of solar energy, and Jenny had said she knew how to find a Carrington Event. As she explained the plan to him, they were going to try to split 23 also, to be able to put all four of them back together into a single soul, as they were intended to be before Aurelio created 23 and Six. They grabbed the sword and the girls, and Aurelio followed along, happy to solve a problem. But then, what was Jenny's only move that everyone seemed to know about? He didn't actually know what they were arguing about. He'd initially gotten the impression they needed to convince Janet to let them remain there during the solar ejection, and didn't think much about it after that. "Wait, what's gotten out of hand, exactly? That feels like a strangely specific thing to say...,"
Jenny knew exactly what Janet wanted to hear. Of the 10 people present in the freezing cave, half of them didn't know the secret that the other half did. Jenny was in the know, and it was not at all how she wanted to reveal the situation. The three girls had a vague knowledge and wouldn't be too surprised, but Aurelio and Dread didn't have a clue. Dread had been Jenny's best friend since they were kids, and Aurelio was her soul mate. She was going to have to break their hearts if she wanted to save the girls.
Everyone was there for a purpose. 23, and the pair of Six's needed help. Jenny and Aurelio were the parents there to do just that, and Dread was like their cool, tough aunt, there to open a door only she could. She stood next to the pitch-black vault door with her arms crossed, ready and waiting for the word. Tim, Quinn, and Chronos were all masters of time, along with Janet, they had the combined power to rewrite the temporality of the entire multiverse. But, as far as five people there knew, no one in the room had the authority to actually demand a Moment.
"Usually, you give me the quick explanation...," Aurelio nodded. "I really do appreciate that. But, think I want the full one this time. When you told me you knew how to find a Carrington event, I was like 'well, yeah, so do I'," he explained. "I know Sharp Development triggers them on a schedule for various Earths, for various reasons. A lot of the time, not even the people on the Earth know it's coming. If they do know, it's known only to a few. But... you're a 'Sol'.. you can make one of these happen anywhere, any time, even on a dead Earth with no one around. So.. why are we here on a Sharp Earth? Why do we need Janet's permission at all? What's your only move that can apparently convince Janet?"
Jenny sighed. At the very least, now she knew she was only breaking Dread's heart. Now that Aurelio decided it was a puzzle, he'd be happy to have an answer and not dwell too much on the details. That was usually how he worked, and she was really hopeful.
"I asked Janet for a Moment...," Jenny spelled it out because they couldn't hear the difference. "With a capital 'M'. It's like a 'time-out' kind of, on a multiversal scale. All of reality is rewritten for the duration of the Moment, then returned to normal after," She hadn't said anything too bad yet, but she was watching Dread and Aurelio carefully. Dread had always been by her side, and the young Nordic woman with spiky white hair didn't know what was coming. She smiled encouragingly at Jenny, with sparkling purple eyes.
"Tim, Quinn, and Chronos all have the timelines of their respective Courts, and Janet is kind of like the ledger that keeps them all organized. It has to be a Sharp server, because that door..," Jenny nodded at the black vault. "...only appears on Sharp servers. And, I chose the Carrington event to sync up with Sharp's timeline; it makes everything easier. "
"What's behind the door, another one of Dana's Labs?" Aurelio asked. Dread's smile only grew broader because she knew that answer. Dana Sharp was the founder of Sharp Development and was known for having secrets upon secrets. She had dozens, maybe hundreds, of hidden labs at one point in time. And, now that she was dead, there was no way to know how many, nor how to track them.
"To make the most of the Moment, it's easier to use one that's already happened as a reference...," Jenny nodded. "That's one of Ms. Sharp's oldest archives."
"Wait, wait. This is too delicious," Janet spoke up. "Let me set you up again," she said. Jenny knew what was coming and faced Dread with apologetic panic.
"I promise it's not whatever you might think.. it's way, WAY more complicated than that! I'm sorry!"
"You're requesting a Moment?" Janet laughed. "On whose authority?" Jenny closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again with a straighter back. She looked down at the black cat.
"By formal request of Dana Sharp," she said.
"What?" Dread spoke up first. She was Jenny's best friend, and had agreed to help her. She knew she was about to be furious judging by that small revelation and all the apologies that came before. Adrenaline was coursing through her, and she yanked the door open without hesitation, while waiting for Jenny's answer. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"Soul identity confirmed," Janet laughed. "I hereby grant Dana Sharp a Moment for the duration of three weeks. The vault is open, you may replay a saved Moment."
"I don't think we have three weeks...," Aurelio spoke up as Jenny headed directly toward the vault. Dread vanished as soon as Janet confirmed Jenny's identity as Dana Sharp, but that'd have to be dealt with later. "You're not Dana sharp...," he added as he followed her, shaking his head.
"It's complicated," Jenny answered. She rushed into the vault and was halfway out again before Aurelio caught a peek inside. It was a white room with shelves of translucent red nodes; Jenny carried one out to give to Janet.
"We need to complete 'Six's Day Out'," she said.
"Wait, there's a lot happening here. We can replay saved Moments... and you found.. you knew there was one called 'Six's Day Out'...? Has this happened before??" he asked.
"Six's Day Out, approved." Janet replied. "Sync to Carrington Event in five...," she began a countdown to coordinate with the others, Tim, Quinn, and Chronos. They were all temporal manipulators, and the solar flare had been paused while they hammered out the details. "Four...,"
“23!” Jenny called their daughter and held the sword out. The blonde girl ran closer then held her hand out toward her mom and closed her eyes.
“Ready,” she said.
“Three…,”
“Nobody move!” Jenny said.
“Two…,”
She swung the sword with a white flash and sliced a shallow cut across 23’s open palm.
“One…,” 23 began to glow with golden energy and her body began to vibrate subtly. Jenny held on to her and hugged Aurelio.
"It's complicated," she said.
"One." Everything went white.