Previously, at this rift! Flick met up with Jazz and Theia waaaaaaay back in dinosaur times! Flick managed to explain a little bit about what was going on, and they saw an alien ship land before what appeared to be some sort of safari hunters emerged. Thanks to Story’s somewhat spotty translation, they learned that these aliens work for a collector who wants them to bring him rare plants and animals. In the midst of that, the aliens detected an energy surge, which was probably the rift. And as though that wasn’t enough, a different alien ship came out of the sky. Both ships shot at one another, and the new one was shot down near the rift. Flick and the other two set out to get to it, but were attacked by robot dinosaurs. Locke, who had changed places with Story, used her animal control power to summon a couple allosaurs and let the trio ride them out of there to continue their race to the rift before either set of aliens can get to it!

  So there we were, Jazz, Theia, and me, racing away from a group of robot dinosaurs with the help of a couple living Allosaurs. We were over a hundred million years in the past, and there was some sort of battle going on between two different alien groups, both of whom seemed to be trying to find the very same rift that I needed to get to. We had no idea who they were or what they intended to do with that rift. Nor could we be certain which of them had sent the robot dinosaurs after us. There was just a heaping pile of unanswered questions, which I didn't think any of the aliens would answer.

  Jazz and Theia were looking at me from the back of their dinosaur as we charged through the jungle. I had at least taken the time to let them know that I was the one controlling our rides, so they were safe. Well, technically Locke was the one controlling them, but I hadn't exactly had a chance to get into all that yet. Hell, I had barely been able to give them the basic gist of what was going on with these rifts and why any of these people going through them would be such a bad thing.

  Theia spoke as our ride continued, once it became clear that we were outrunning our pursuers and weren't about to end up in another fight immediately. “Say, Flick, you really don’t know who either of these groups are or who they could be working for? Or why at least one side has employed machine duplicates of local animals, implying that they have been here for awhile?” From the tone of her voice and the careful word choice, I was pretty sure she was trying to sound casual and polite despite clearly being at least a little suspicious. And who could blame her, especially when you threw in me apparently having pet dinosaurs I could call to help us. It probably did sort of come off as though I knew a lot that I wasn't saying. Which, well, yeah. There really was a lot I hadn't said.

  Jazz shook her head. “Why would she know anything about these people? She said she just got split into a bunch of copies of herself so she could be scattered through the whole timeline, remember? She showed up here at the same time we did, millions of years in the past. All those people out there almost definitely don't exist anymore in our time. And by those people, I mean their entire species. Why would she know anything more about them then either of us?”

  Theia, in turn, gave a little shrug while bouncing along as the Allosaurus picked up speed thanks to the anxiety and sense of danger Locke was still giving off. “Think about everything you know about Felicity, and the fact that she has been out of our sight for some time even from our point of view. Then add in the fact that she has been away for even longer thanks to time travel. Finally, multiply her strong tendency to find trouble by the fact that she was taken by Ehn specifically to put her in situations with even more danger. Can you truly say that there's no chance she's already time traveled to now, or even earlier, and encountered these people?”

  After getting all that out, she summarized her point with a simple, “Flick is very good at finding trouble, and now she's had unlimited time to do that in. I’m pretty sure there's a mathematical formula that says Felicity Chambers plus unlimited time equals an unlimited amount of trouble. If you just give her enough opportunities, she will find a way to encounter every possible threat that exists in the universe, or at any point in time. And she will most likely prove quite useful in solving that threat.”

  Finally, she smiled. “Also, her ghost spies were able to understand what those people were saying earlier, and did not seem to cast any spell to do so. Either she has super language translating powers that even work on civilizations that have been dead for millions of years, or she's encountered people like them before, right?”

  Before I could do more than make a weak noise of protest, Jazz gave me a brief glance and nodded. “Sure, that makes sense. But I think she would’ve told us if she knew these people at all. Besides, we haven't even seen anything about that second group except that they came on a spaceship that went down right where that rift probably is. So who knows what they look like? And you said it yourself, she might just have a really good translation power. Those do exist.”

  “Plus,” she pointed out casually, “we should know that Flick’s ability to find trouble works off her own frame of reference, not ours. She might be able to find an infinite amount of trouble with infinite time, but the time she's actually experienced since she left is definitely finite. She can only have found and dealt with so many problems within-- Flick, how long has it been for you?”

  Coughing, I thought briefly, then replied, “A few months, basically. Maybe six, something like that. But I didn't keep randomly time traveling all over that whole… uh, time. I spent almost all of it in the late fifteen hundreds. Um, AD, to be clear. And I definitely never came back this far.”

  I would have argued the whole thing about me finding an unlimited amount of trouble if I had enough time, but what was the point? Especially considering what I actually had encountered ever since I left with Ehn. I might not know who these people were, but I really had seen a lot.

  Just give them the rundown with a bit of possession, Locke put in while sounding more than a little distracted. I'm doing everything I can to keep these two dinosaurs moving while distracting those robots, but I don't know how long I can keep doing that. So hurry and use the Seosten way of getting those two caught up with what's going on. Unless you know an even faster way to do it.

  I really didn't, and considering we could run into more trouble any second (ha ha, yes, it was a mathematical certainty and all that), I really needed to use this brief chance while we still had it. That spaceship and the rift itself couldn't be too far from here. I was already having enough trouble understanding what was happening right now even with everything I knew, so I really couldn't even imagine trying to keep up and stay cool if I was stuck with just what these two had been told so far. Honestly, they were rolling with it like champs. Maybe at least partly because they were still in that whole, ‘whooo, dinosaurs are so freaking cool’ mindset. Which, yeah, they really were, and we were actually riding them! That probably accounted for at least a solid fifty percent of why they weren't losing it too much just yet. But they deserved some real answers, and if I didn't catch them up soon, something was going to interrupt and take away the chance.

  Before that could happen, I quickly told those two what I wanted to do, informing them that while I really, truly did not know who these groups were or what they were doing besides apparently looking for that rift they had detected, there was a lot that I did know and needed to share so we could be on the same page. And given the time restraints, possession was the best way to do that. I could upload a whole new trilogy or so of movies worth of information in seconds that way. Which meant I needed them to willingly allow me into them. After all, they would still be protected by the anti-possession spell. I needed them to give me their explicit permission to do this.

  Needless to say, both of them were understandably a bit dubious about that idea. I saw the way they exchanged looks before Theia spoke somewhat conversationally. “You know, it occurs to me that if someone did want to go through a lot of trouble to convince us that we were really interacting with Flick so we would lower our guard and let her-- or them possess us, creating a situation like this would be a good way to do it. Give us cool dinosaurs to ride, a pressing time limit, strange aliens and robot dinosaurs to make everything even more complicated, then point out that it only makes sense to allow them to possess us. Distractions upon distractions like a magician.”

  Yeah, shit, she probably wasn't wrong about that. This whole thing probably did seem suspicious, especially considering it the stuff I hadn't been able to tell them yet. They couldn't know for certain that I was even really me rather than someone who looked like me and had similar powers and knowledge. Which, in this universe, really wasn't complete proof at all.

  Before I could find a response to that, Jazz replied, “Sure, but isn't that a bit much for anyone to go through just to possess us? I mean, yeah, you're pretty important. Daughter of Kushiel, Inherited Olympian power and all that. But I'm just an average Heretic. They could get someone like me with a hell of a lot less effort than this if they wanted to. I'm just saying, this really seems like a bit much in the effort and resources department for them to trick their way into possessing Jasmine Rhodes. I'm not that special.” She said it simply, without any overt negativity or anything, just like she was stating a fact. The fact that she wasn't all that special. Which really made me want to say something, but now wasn't the time. Especially considering I was pretty sure we were only a couple minutes away from that other ship, and the rift. If I was going to give them the information upload, I really needed to do it right now, if not even earlier.

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  Theia seemed to realize that as well, looking ahead as though calculating how much time we had. Then she gave a short nod and held her hand out to me, as far as she could reach from the back of the other dinosaur. But instead of agreeing to let me possess her, she pointed out, “Then I’ll leave my protection up and possess Flick instead. She should be able to share information just as easily that way. There isn't that much difference, but I'll have an advantage.”

  I knew what she was saying. One of the big problems with what we had taken to calling Sticky Possession Syndrome was that even if they wanted to let their host control themselves, their brand of position was so strong, they generally couldn't. If I was secretly an enemy, she would have a better chance of controlling me this way than a normal Seosten might. And with her mother’s power, she could release me by ‘killing’ us and then passing the damage to some random animal. Allowing her to possess me wouldn't be the permanent thing it used to be.

  There was a lot to consider there, given everything, but honestly, we didn't have the time. We already wasted entirely too much on this. I needed these guys to understand what was happening and why as quickly as possible. Besides, maybe it was childish, but part of me kind of wanted to surprise Theia when she stepped into me and found out just how many of me she was dealing with.

  So, pushing all those thoughts and doubts out of my head, I took the other girl’s hand and nodded. “You know, a year ago, I never would have believed I'd actually be saying this, but go ahead and possess me.” Even as I was saying that, Locke made our dinosaur rides come to a stop. We might have been pressed for time, but it was probably a bad idea to be running full tilt on these things while this was going on. There was too much chance of things going wrong.

  From this spot, we could actually hear fighting going on. There were crashing sounds, lasers, people shouting, and more. It sounded like there was a whole war going on just ahead of us. Part of me wanted to abandon this entire idea and just rush right in to find that rift. After all, if any of these people found and went through it, we were completely fucked in so many ways. But there was still that pressing voice in the back of my head insisting that it was important that these two know what exactly was going on, just in case. Not only the barest details, but all of it. Which, to be fair, that voice might have just been other members of the Flique who thought it was a good idea. These days, I really did have a lot of voices in my head that weren't just me. Well, they were me, but not-- yeah, you know what, never mind, I wasn't gonna get bogged down in that.

  The point was, I didn't know if this was a good idea or not. I didn't know if this was about to be a colossal mistake, taking the time to do this. But it was only going to be a few seconds overall, and I was pretty sure the benefit of them knowing everything would outweigh the risk of the entire universe falling apart in the next minute. After all, as long as those people were fighting each other, they weren't going through the rift. Maybe they hadn't even found it yet. And while I was dreaming, maybe these dinosaurs we were sitting on would transform into full-grown and completely friendly dragons who wanted to use all their vast power to help us solve the entire situation before taking us to the land of gumdrops and cherry limeade.

  All of that, including all the doubts and hopes, ran through my mind in about a second while I waited for Theia to do her thing. She seemed to be giving it a moment to see if I would decide to object after all. When I didn't, she gave me a short nod, murmured a quiet word of what sounded like she was wishing herself, me, or both of us luck, then focused briefly and disappeared into me. I was actually willingly allowing her to possess my body after everything that had happened the year before. Jeeze, things truly had changed since then, hadn't they?

  And speaking of things changing, the second she was inside me, I felt her surprise at the presence of another mind. She was able to detect Locke immediately somehow, but before she could really react to that, the two of us immediately uploaded all the relevant information. I had been essentially compiling it ever since the basic idea of getting them caught up this way came to mind, so I had a packet of info ready to go. It was all about just who the Flique were, how I’d ended up becoming--well, what I was now, and all that. Everything that had to do with meeting Gaia, getting to the Reaper tower that became the Roundabout, and the rest. It was all the information I could give her. And just as Theia started to react to finding more than one of me in this mind, I gave it a little push into her. Just like that, she absorbed at least a basic summary of everything that had happened to me ever since I left with Ehn.

  Yeah, it was probably going to take her a couple seconds to process all that.

  Unfortunately, she wasn't exactly going to be able to do that in peace. Because no sooner had I shoved that information in her head, than an interruption came out in the real world. An interruption in the form of a dozen small but quick metal things that came flying out of the trees ahead of us. I only had a second to see them, and they were moving too quickly for my eyes to get a good look. But my item sense told me enough. These things were robots, like the dinosaur versions we had left behind. Except these ones appeared to be based on giant dragonflies, about the size of basketballs. They were probably some sort of scouting drones, considering all the scanning equipment I was picking up, combined with their speed and size. But even if they were mostly meant to scout, they definitely weren't unarmed. Which became clear as one of them took a quick shot at me with a pair of dark orange lasers from its eyes. At the last second, I used my energy absorption power. Which I immediately expended in a quick blast from my hand to hit one of the other drones that was taking aim at Jazz, destroying it and sending the thing’s remains flying sideways into another drone to knock it off course before that one could shoot as well.

  The drone that had shot at me that first time was already angling around for another shot. But Jazz had recovered from her surprise and was extending her hand that way, creating another one of those three-foot wide circular glass-like shapes with the kaleidoscope of colors spread through it in the air between me and the lasers. Just like earlier, the beams were transformed into harmless light rays after passing through that. But this time, she didn’t allow those light rays to simply continue on. Instead, a second circle of kaleidoscope glass had already appeared almost directly in front of my face. When the beams of light hit that, they rebounded off it like hitting a mirror. At the same time, they were transformed back into dangerous lasers. The drone that had sent the lasers out in the first place took a direct hit from its own beams and crashed.

  Right, so Jazz had transformed the beams into light with one use of her power so the second one could reflect that light back at its source, transforming the beams back into lasers. I was guessing she couldn’t redirect lasers themselves, but had to turn them into harmless light first.

  Either way, two of the twelve drones were destroyed, while a third was still recovering from having one of its companions’ remains blasted into it. But that still left plenty more to deal with. Or rather, that would have been plenty to deal with, but I was tired of all this already. We really didn’t have time to waste with all this, not if those people were getting near the rift. So, before the dragonfly drones could do anything else, I swarmed them with ghosts. Just like that, each hovering basketball-sized bug drone was grabbed and torn apart by several ghosts at once.

  The drones were done. That was the good news. The bad news was that they were only the tip of the spear. The shaft of that spear was just arriving all around us. More robot dinosaurs. So many robot dinosaurs. It was an entire army of the things surrounding us on all sides. Every type of dinosaur that was still living, and some that were probably entirely extinct by now. Dozens of mechanical monsters coming in, and none of them looked interested in talking.

  “Flick, Theia, whoever’s in charge over there!” Jazz was shouting. “Get over here and possess me, I can get us out of here, but you need to be in me because I can only move myself!”

  Without wasting another second, I was already launching myself that way. The army of robot dinosaurs was almost right on top of us, our own biological versions recoiling. My hand grasped Jazz’s extended fingers, and then I was possessing her.

  The instant I did that, the other girl was already transforming herself into that mist-form I knew she had from all the way back when Ammon had controlled all those people in the dorm to try to hurt me. But now she had another power that she used in conjunction with that mist form. Namely, some sort of air manipulation ability. No sooner had we turned into mist, than that mist was rocketing through the air as though propelled by an incredibly powerful, incredibly narrow wind. It was like being shot out of a blowpipe or something. That was the best comparison I could make.

  Within a few seconds, we were past all those robots. The last thing I did was make several ghosts appear at the edge of their line to hit the things and get their attention. The ghosts would flee into the jungle, leading the robots away from them. And, more importantly, away from the Allosaurs that had been our rides. I sure as hell wasn’t going to leave those poor guys high and dry to be attacked by these bastards. The ghosts could get their attention and lead them off.

  Just like that, we were in the clear, and much closer to where that ship had gone down. The fighting that we could hear was so much louder now, as Jazz transformed back into her physical self before landing on a tall, moss-covered boulder.

  “Okay, now… now… uhh…” She trailed off, clearly only just then starting to sense that there were more than two additional minds in her head.

  Hey there! Locke chirped. Guess you probably have some questions, huh? Well, we’ve got some answers. But you better let us drive the body for a bit while you take it all in. Just ask Theia, it’s a bit of a doozy

  I would say it’s at least fourteen doozies, Theia herself put in cheerfully. But yes, it is a lot. On the other hand, my ghost-mother already believed you were a pain when you were an ordinary Heretic.

  Wait till she finds out what you’ve been up to since she saw you last.

  Joke Tags: Does Anyone Else Really Miss Eurso The Raptor With All This Dinosaur Stuff Going On?