| Hyperbola, Pt. 1 |

“A choice?”

Arufa stood across the parking garage from Agent Ghiles, prepared to fire. He didn’t seem very focused on her—he scanned the scene back and forth, rarely even making eye contact.

“Yes. Maybe you should wake up Skyler for this.”

Upon hearing their name, they shook their head and looked up. Their curly blue-grey hair fell in front of their eyes. “Huh? Who are you?”

“That works too.” Ghiles said. “I take it you two are in some serious trouble.”

“That’s right,” Arufa said.

Skyler rubbed their eyes. “Someone explain, please.”

The man turned his head, but his eyes continued darting about. “I am Agent Ghiles. I came here to offer a choice, one which I’ll explain once you’re up and about.”

“I am awake.”

“You’re neither up nor about.”

“Fair.”

Arufa kept herself ready for combat. Ghiles seemed like a government agent of some variety, and by the very nature of that fact he was bound to have some kind of training. An altercation was to be avoided if possible.

She began pacing, walking around the black-clad man to size him up. She was pretty sure she could take him in a fight—skinny, not particularly tall, only lightly armed. He’s wearing sunglasses too, but judging by the fact I can see his eyes through them, they must not be very dark.

“I saw the footage. Let me guess, new to Overside. Didn’t know they were real cops.”

Good read. “How’d you know?”

“Well, it’s not the first time something like this has happened.”

Skyler, now fully alert, backed against the wall and stood to their feet. “It’s not?”

“No. Guilt trip stories float around the Underside prisons like oil on water.” Ghiles tapped his foot. “In light of that, I’m offering you a way out.”

When he said it, he looked Arufa dead in the eyes. I was just talking about finding a way out. Did he know that?

“Go on, give us the choice, then,” she replied.

Nodding, Ghiles turned around, towards the ramp leading to the next floor of the garage. He won’t face us? Why?

“Option A is this. I leave. You stay here. Figure a way out for yourself. You may not like it, but you do have options. Further up in this old car park is an elevator. Siphon some AG from there, and you can make it down and lay low for a while.

“Option B is different. Using unreleased technology, we can erase your crimes, if you so choose. We’ll rewind time by twenty-four hours. No one will remember anything—not even the two of you—but I’ll make sure you don’t wind up in the same situation again.”

Arufa blinked. “Okay, so let me run this by you to make sure I got it straight.”

“Certainly.” Ghiles turned back around, arms crossed.

“Option A is, you do literally nothing and we probably die. Option B is actual time travel and you make us forget the past twenty-four hours so you can essentially rewrite our history?”

Ghiles nodded. “Without your sarcastic exaggerations, yes. That’s a good summary.”

“So, time travel is just… real? And you expect me to believe you?”

“In the simplest possible terms, yes to both.”

Actual time travel. So… is it possible that the warrant was actually staged? Or, is this a different kind of time travel? Does it even work that way?

Skyler cut into Arufa’s spiraling thoughts. “That sounds like a win-win to me. No endless guilt and no one chasing us down. Pretty solid deal.”

“I don’t buy it,” Arufa said.

Ghiles raised a dirty-blonde eyebrow. “What’s the problem? I’m willing to compromise.”

“Why twenty-four hours? Why not just twelve?”

“Why does it matter?” He shot back with such confidence, it made Arufa stagger.

Really, it’s because I don’t want to forget Marsia. But I’m not sure I can tell him that.

“The crime happened just under twelve hours ago. No need to cut out unnecessary time, right?”

“That’s not how it works,” Ghiles said. “The events leading up to it started long before the crime itself. In order to fully derail it, we need to get to the root, which is why I added a twelve-hour buffer.”

Skyler smirked. “Might be for the better.”

“Why’s that?”

Arufa shot a signal out with her right hand, telling Skyler to zip it. “…Just some embarrassing failures, is all,” they said. They’ve never been a good liar.

Ghiles shot Arufa a look. She couldn’t tell what it meant. He knew Skyler was going to say something else. I’m starting to get a weird vibe from this guy.

“Arufa, I can tell you still have your reservations about this. What’s got you worried?” he said.

“Who do you work for? And why are you offering us this choice?”

“Confidential. And out of the goodness of my heart.”

“I call bullshit. I think you used your time travel whatchamacallit to put us in this situation in the first place.”

“Any reason for the accusation?”

“The warrant for our arrest came out before we committed the crime. You wanna explain that, pal?”

“If there was any time travel involved with that, I would have already told you.”

“Sure. Say that all you want.” Arufa grimaced. She took a hand off her nail gun to brush her hair back.

My best guess is, this Ghiles dude wants to turn back the clock on something that happened before we shot those cops. If he’s with the government, it might have to do with Marsia and Locri, the two Oversiders. I’ve noticed a lot more segregation between the sides these days, anyways.

Skyler slowly reached behind their back to grab onto their tasers, just in case. “I see where you’re coming from, Rufa. But this deal ain’t that bad.”

“You sayin’ that for real or just to say it?”

“For real. I’m hungry, and I’m a little traumatized. Two birds with one stone, and I don’t even have to get therapy.”

“Alright. Let me think about it, Mr. Ghiles,” Arufa said, turning about and looking off into the city. It seemed so artificial—despite humanity leaving their planet behind a long time ago, her instincts still yearned for some kind of greenery.

Speaking of time stuff, maybe he’s trying to stop us from remembering that weird time stop thing. Maybe we’re not the only ones who remember it. Maybe it was real, and some sort of time police force is trying to erase it. But, God, now I sound like a conspiracy theorist.

It’s also bothering me that we’d just… forget. Like a snap of his fingers. I’m not sure what that would be like. Though, maybe it’s already happened to me—I guess I wouldn’t know, would I?

The city began to glow a faint blue and red. Arufa squinted, confused—until she heard the sirens from below. She stepped out and looked over the edge.

“They’re here!”

Ghiles cleared his throat. “You’ve got a choice to make, then.”

“Arufa, let’s just take it and go! We’ll die if we don’t!” Skyler said, panicked. A look of dread washed over his face as the ear-piercing horns enclosed on the floating parking deck.

She threw both her hands up in resignation. “You know what, fine. You–”

There’s writing on my left hand.

She read it. ‘Don’t forget’, it said.

The tattoos! We only started seeing them after we met Marsia and Locri! And if that never happened… we’d never have noticed them.

But we keep forgetting, anyway. Forgetting, like a snap of his fingers! Holy shit, he’s been messing with our memories! What is this? What the fuck is this?!

The police vehicles ripped up through the air, immediately targeting the two outlaws. Red laser beams lined up all over Arufa’s and Skyler’s foreheads. “Hands up or you’re dead! Now!”

Ghiles smiled, pulling out a small glowing device. “Thank you for your cooperation. Is that a yes?”

“Yes!!” Skyler shouted.

Arufa protested. “No! Stop! No! This isn’t right! He’s trying to make us forget the–”

But it was too late.