by James Riley
“Teleport them somewhere.”
“What if you didn’t know where to take them yet?”
Bethany growled. “Just tell me—”
“Charm arrived here with the information of her entire people, Bethany,” Fowen told her. “She teleported them all up to her ship, but never sent them anywhere. That much information takes up a lot of gigabytes, or whatever they call them here, but it still takes up a lot less room than millions of people. And Quanterians have some pretty big memory drives.”
Bethany furrowed her brow. “You’re saying Charm showed up here with the entire population of the planet in, what, her pocket?”
“Who knows where she keeps stuff with all those robot parts,” Fowen said. “Maybe in her arm. But yup, she showed up here and asked the Magister for help.”
“He told Kiel and me that he sent them to a world where they believe in science,” Bethany said.
“Well, that part is true, I suppose,” Fowen said. “But he had to get one last dig in, so he came up with something that was pretty cruel, all things considered. And that says something coming from me.”
Bethany stepped closer, not willing to wait anymore. “Tell me what he did, Fowen. Tell me now.”
Anger flashed over his face at the name, but he forced himself to calm down, then nodded. “You know how the Magister hates the idea of an author controlling his life? Well, he hates Quanterians just a little more. I guess he wanted to make them both miserable, so he used magic to turn Charm and all of her Quanterian people into books.” He shrugged. “It wasn’t that hard, actually, considering all but Charm were already made of information.”
“Books?” Bethany said, shaking her head. “I don’t see—”
“Think about it. He floated all the books down here and sent them through a portal to another world, with another tower.” Fowen gestured at the mirror. “Don’t you get it? Remember what happened in Story Thieves? The Magister built a tower in the nonfictional world, Bethany. That tower has a mirror, which means this one connects to it. All of those Quanterians just got sent into your nonfictional world as books. And if anyone opens them, BAM, the spell is broken, and all of a sudden, Quanterians everywhere.”
Bethany fell back against the nearest wall, unable to believe any of this. Even the Magister wouldn’t do such a thing. “That can’t be true.”
“It is. Oh, and there’s one more secret I should admit before we go any further,” Fowen said, then started murmuring under his breath. As she watched, he began to glow, slowly growing in height and muscle. His black outfit and cape morphed into a suit, and sunglasses appeared on his face.
“What?!” Bethany shouted. “You?”
“Pretty handsome, huh?” said the man who’d been smuggling possibility ray guns into Jupiter City, flexing his enormous muscles.
CHAPTER 25
No!” Owen screamed, lurching forward into the now-empty laboratory, then falling to his knees as the pain in his chest erupted. He breathed in deeply over and over, trying his best not to faint. “Verity took her, Charm. He took Kara!”
Charm reached around beneath his arms and lifted him back to his feet. “Don’t worry, we’ll find him. Do you know where he went?” She tilted her head, like she was listening for something. “Wherever it was, he took all of my people with him. Science Police, too. I’m not hearing anyone or anything outside on the stairs now.”
Owen just shook his head. “Back in time. That thing on his wrist was a time bracelet, a time machine. He went back in the past, to use some portal in this tower to jump back to your world and invade Magisteria using the brainwashed Quanterians. After that, he planned on fighting Nobody, though I don’t know how even an army would help him with that.”
Charm’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Okay, that’s a lot. But this is nothing we haven’t handled before. Remember when we went to the future and found out you didn’t survive the fight against Dr. Verity? This is basically no different. We beat him then, and we’ll beat him now.”
Owen sighed, and suddenly his older self’s words came back to him. Tell her it was you. Not Kiel, you.
He glanced at Charm, who was smiling at him of all things, trying to make him feel better. He couldn’t tell her now, he couldn’t. They were right in the middle of an army invading a fictional world and Kara being kidnapped by a madman. If he told her the truth, she’d know he’d been lying to her from the very beginning. That everything they’d done together, everything they’d faced was based on a falsehood.
He couldn’t tell her, it just wasn’t the time.
But then again, it never really would be the time, would it?
“Charm, I have to tell you something,” he said quietly, not looking at her. “I’m not . . . I’m not Kiel Gnomenfoot.”
Her smile faded, and she groaned. “Not this again. I don’t know why you insist on pretending, but you’ve got the heart I gave to Kiel Gnomenfoot, the one that Dr. Verity put into you. Why you’re in disguise, I don’t know, but—”
Feeling weak from more than his heart problems, Owen moved to stand against the nearest wall, using it for support. “I should have told you all of this earlier, but I didn’t know how. That was me then, when we went to find the last key and crashed on Quanterium, but I’m not really Kiel. This is the real me. When you knew me as Kiel, I was in disguise. The real Kiel was here, on this world.”
Charm rolled her eyes, looking more irritated now. “That doesn’t make any sense. I tested you. My sensors did a complete analysis, and you checked out. Why are you doing this? What is this game you’re playing? We don’t have time for it, whatever it is!”
Owen shrugged halfheartedly. “The disguise spell fooled your sensors. And it’s no game. I’m serious. This is the real me.”
Charm just stared at him, looking more confused than he’d ever seen her. “You’re not Kiel? But . . . why? And who are you?” She slowly reached for the ray gun at her hip.
“I’m the same person you knew,” Owen said, holding out a hand for her to stop. “You can trust me. I mean, I know I lied and all, but that was before I knew you, really knew you. And I honestly was trying to do what was best for Magisteria. I was going to give up my heart to open the Source of Magic.”
She took another step forward, her hand still on her ray gun. “Who are you?” she said again.
Owen slid down the wall, not able to hold himself up. “My name really is Owen. Owen Conners. I’m from this world. In the past, years ago, we were able to see into your world through books. Remember how Bethany jumped us in and out of them? That’s her power, but the rest of us just read them and followed your stories. I read about you and Kiel both, so many times. And after reading about your adventures, everything you went through, it just felt like I knew you.” He winced, knowing how this all sounded. “I get that it’s weird, but thousands of people have read about you in this world. You have a lot of fans, a lot of people rooting for you.”
Charm didn’t speak, she just kept giving him the same confused look.
“When I found out about Bethany’s powers, I asked her to take us into Kiel’s story, while you and he were in the end of everything. We went in, and I rescued the Magister from Dr. Verity. Verity was supposed to kill him, but I stopped it. Unfortunately, the Magister figured out where we came from, and he and Kiel traveled to this world, leaving me behind in the tower. I couldn’t just let Dr. Verity win, so . . .” He stopped, shaking his head. “No, let me be completely honest. I wanted to know what it was like to be Kiel, to be a hero. I’m no one, a regular kid, nobody important. So I thought it’d be amazing to be a hero for once. To cast spells, fight Science Police—”
“And lie to me?” Charm said, staring at the floor. “I wondered why you were so different after the sixth key. I thought it was because you were mourning the Magister, but it didn’t fit. Now I understand.” She glanced up, and her eyes were red. “So, what, you thought this was all fun? My life? Kiel’s life? You just wanted to play along with us like w
e were toys?”
Owen sighed. “I know I was beyond stupid, trust me. I had no idea what I was doing. But when I found out that I had to give up my heart, I wanted to quit. To leave. I didn’t want to be the hero anymore. But you came to me, in the Magister’s tower, to convince me that I should do what was right, for people I’d never met and didn’t know. And you did.” He looked up at her, trying to show her how much that had meant to him. “You made me believe I could do it, Charm, and didn’t have to be just some . . . nobody.”
“Except you let me keep thinking you were Kiel after that, even when we went to Jupiter City.”
“I didn’t want to, but I didn’t know the right way to tell you!” Owen hit the floor now, not even able to look at her. “I was just so happy to see you. I’d really missed you, especially when Kiel, Bethany, and I would go on adventures. Those two would—”
“Kiel knew you’d done this?” Charm said.
Oh, whoops. “Uh, not at first,” Owen said quickly. “But he found out later and came in to take my place before the final fight against Dr. Verity. He didn’t want me to die for him. You know what he’s like. I know where he is now, by the way. I found out while you were all in Jupiter City that Nobody captured him. Just one more thing he took from us.”
Charm nodded, her eyes on the wall above Owen. “Everyone is taken from me. Why would Kiel be any different?” She rubbed her human arm against her eyes. “So what now, then?”
What now? “I can’t even begin to apologize—”
“Don’t,” Charm said, turning her back on him. “Just don’t. I don’t care. You lied to me, you tricked me, and you made me think you were my closest friend while doing it. There’s nothing you can say that will make me trust you again or let me look at you without wanting to throw up.” Her hands curled into fists. “All I want is to save my people from Dr. Verity, then stop Nobody. You are going to help me do that, and then I will never, ever see you again. Is that clear?”
Owen’s insides curled up into a little ball, and he wanted to groan in pain, everything hurt so much. But for once, it wasn’t so much about the physical pain in his heart. “Okay,” he said finally. “I’m not sure how we can do it, but I’ll help you as best I can.”
“Yes, you will,” Charm said. “Try to be useful in some way.”
The words hit him like a punch to the gut. “I . . . I will.” He pushed himself up the wall again, knowing she wasn’t going to help. “We need to find a way back in time. There’s a portal here in the tower that should be able to get us back to your world, but it doesn’t work here in the future. It’s been in this world too long, and the magic won’t work anymore. We need to get back to the past and use it there. Hopefully we can get there before Dr. Verity does and warn Magisteria what’s coming. Maybe they can use their magic to unbrainwash the Quanterians?”
“So we just need something to get us back in time, then,” Charm said. “That should be easy.”
“Dr. Verity said he was making a time machine, but I assume he took all of his plans with him,” Owen said, shaking his head. “Maybe they have technology we can use in this time period. Or maybe Dr. Verity did leave something behind that we can fix up somehow—”
“Oh, he had all the plans on the monitors, and whatever I see gets saved in the robotic half of my brain,” Charm said, tapping her forehead. “I can recreate the bracelet, or at least a close approximation, if we can find a few Science Police to steal parts from. But it’ll only work once, if that.”
“Once should be enough,” Owen said, limping over to her.
“Then let’s get started,” she said. “The sooner I never have to look at your face again, the better.” With that, she strode over to the door, threw it open, and left him standing alone in the remains of Dr. Verity’s empty laboratory.
CHAPTER 26
Turn into a train and run Fowen over, Bethany thought. Morph into gravity a thousand times worse than normal. Become a poison and inject yourself into him!
She grabbed her head, almost in pain from too many ideas coming at once. “You . . . you brought those possibility ray guns to Jupiter City,” she said quietly, her mind racing. “Do you understand what you’ve done?”
“Yeah, I got you here,” Fowen said, sounding proud. “Like I said, Nobody wanted to leave Jupiter City alone, but I needed you here if we had any chance of fighting him. You’d never have come if I just showed up as myself, you know that. You’d have attacked me, I’d have won, and we’d both be in trouble, because you’re the only one who’s going to be able to stop Nobod—”
She grabbed him by the neck, her muscles growing superstrong as she grew in height, towering over Fowen’s disguised self. “My father was hit by one of those rays,” she said quietly as Fowen’s eyes widened in surprise. “He’s going to disappear unless I can find a way to save him. And you did this . . . just to get my attention?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know!” Fowen squeaked, turning back into his regular self so that he now hung several feet off the floor. “You have to believe me. I was trying to help! I thought you’d find me before anything bad happened, I swear!”
She roared in anger and tossed him against one of the nearest walls. He slammed into it hard enough to knock the air from his lungs with a whoosh, then slumped to the floor. “This is all your fault!” she screamed, stomping over to him, the tower shaking with every step. “And you thought you’d get my help this way?”
Fowen quickly scrambled to his feet, mumbling a spell under his breath. Lightning exploded from his fingers, but Bethany just let it hit her, shrugging off the pain. “Whoa,” he said, backing away from her with his hands raised in surrender. “Listen to me! I really am trying to help. I did the same thing to your nonfictional version. I left her and Nowen a note in one of the Quanterium books and told them to open it. Right now, they’re probably freeing Charm and all of her people and they’ll be on their way back any minute. I’m on your side, trust me!”
She grabbed him by his shirt and held him over her head. “You’re on no one’s side but your own!” she roared. “Tell me what your real plan is!”
“To stop Nobody, really!” he said, flinching before giving her an odd look. “Um, did you know you’re disappearing?”
She glanced down and saw that her free hand had lost its fingers. She screamed in frustration and tossed Fowen aside, turning herself back to normal as quickly as she could. Thinking about her old self wasn’t comfortable, but the process seemed to go more smoothly this time. Unfortunately, when she regained her original form, it took far longer to get her fingers back. She struggled with it, getting more and more frustrated until finally they emerged, and she let out a huge sigh of relief.
“You shouldn’t do that, you know,” Fowen told her. “That’s what Nobody wants, for us all to disappear like that. You’re turning into possibility. That’s what happens without the nonfictional world anchoring ours. There’s nothing keeping us from rewriting ourselves into pure ideas.”
Bethany took a deep breath, just trying not to punch him again. “Now is not the best time to tell me what to do.”
He nodded. “Fair enough. But this is what’s going to happen to every fictional person, world, everything, if no one stops Nobody. This was his plan even before he discovered Charm’s invention. Have you been getting swamped with too many ideas anytime you’re trying to decide something? It’s happening to some extent to all of us, and it’s only going to get worse the more worlds are absorbed by Nobody’s possibility waves. The whole thing is speeding up, and we’ve run out of time.”
She frowned, thinking about how she couldn’t just think of one thing to turn into when using her superpowers the last few times. “Fine. Let’s pretend you’re actually doing this to help people. How do we fix it?”
“That’s why I brought you down here,” Fowen said, rubbing his neck where she’d grabbed it. “Not to get into a fight, I might add. Like I said, this portal can connect with the nonfictional version of the Magis
ter’s tower. All you need to do is go through and rejoin with your nonfictional self. Then you’ll have the power to face Nobody, because your nonfictional self will give you an anchor again. You’ll be able to rewrite yourself all you want without dissolving away. Which means you’ll be able to fight Nobody on his own terms. Winning, though, is something else.” He shook his head. “This isn’t a sure thing, by the way. Not even likely. But you, the whole you, are maybe the only one anywhere who even has a chance to save us all.”
Bethany stared at the portal, almost getting light-headed before she realized she’d stopped breathing. “No,” she said softly. “I don’t need her. She’d just hold me back. I’ll fight him myself.”
Fowen blinked. “Are you kidding? He’ll destroy you! You can’t rewrite yourself without fading away. He can, Bethany. I don’t know how, but he’s not disappearing like everything else. Plus, the more you rewrite yourself, the more you add possibilities into the world, and everything falls apart even faster. You need your anchor. You need your nonfictional self back!”
“No, I don’t !” she shouted at him. “All of this is her fault. I would have found my father years ago if she hadn’t kept me home, afraid of my mom, of getting discovered, of everything in life. I didn’t need her then, and I don’t need her now. All she does is feel guilty and worry about things. I’m a thousand times happier without her!”
“Yeah, you sound so happy,” Fowen said, giving her an odd look. “And you’re telling me you’re not worried about your father and our worlds? Maybe you’re not really seeing things clearly—”
Bethany reached out and grabbed his shirt again. “You want me to fight Nobody, and I will. I bet there are spells you can use to keep me together. If you can’t, then the Magister can.”
Fowen’s eyes widened. “There’s no way that’d work. Magic is pure possibility already. Without the nonfictional world anchoring us, magic is maybe the least reliable tool we have right now!”