September 4, 2235 |-262|

"And guitars have always felt a little... I dunno, phallic?"

Rosa zoomed in close enough to see Serafina's freckles. They continued. "You can't be punk without a guitar? You might as well say you can't be punk without a man."

"Uh-uh. I don't buy it."

Amused, Serafina tilted their head in mock confusion. "Sorry?"

"Bullshit you're a freshman."

Their mouth pinched and the slightest dimple popped as they smirked and feigned innocence. "But I am. Would you like to inspect my high school transcripts? Or my birth certificate? Born in '97. My birthday was in April. Too bad you missed it."

Rosa paused the God's Eye projection then zoomed back out to a one to one ratio. Alone in the massive and once bustling Observation Room, she stood from her chair, left her terminal and stepped up and onto the arena. The image shimmered as she walked through the 21st century cafe, dissipating like disturbed smoke before snapping back to form behind her.

She approached Serafina. Their face wore an amused smile. They were playing with Ursula, teasing her affectionately. But Rosa knew from watching Serafina through their years and lifetimes that there was something more. They were happy – no small feat for a Quinn – and no amount of smirk or snark could hide it.

Rosa had never looked at anyone that way. Nor had anyone at her. Standing next to Serafina, she leaned in, over the wingback's armrest, closer... closer... Her nose made Serafina shimmer and she backed away. What am I doing?

She was exhausted – and quite possibly delirious. In the five weeks since Serafina had revealed themself to Rosa, she'd been obsessed, abandoning James, Martha, and any manner of self-care to watch as much of Serafina as she could.

At first, she wasn't alone. Everyone still involved with Project Savior was inspired anew by the development. Three immortals instead of two! There might actually be a chance!

But even after Serafina's personal shock wore off, Martha and James' requisite panic from their daughter's immortality derailed humanity's mission before it could begin, life after life. Then Serafina slipped into nihilism as their parents had before and Rosa's peers began dropping out.

Some took their terminal injection, others wasted away in passive hopelessness, still others found peace with the impending extinction, choosing to spend their final weeks with loved ones. But Rosa stayed.

She wasn't sure if she actually believed the Quinns could succeed and give humanity its lifeline. Maybe she was in denial. Maybe she needed a distraction. Or maybe it was Serafina.

Rosa had tagged along to vicariously rejoice and weather Serafina's triumphs and tragedies, the latter in greater supply. And while she had revered James and Martha as much as the next technician, Rosa's connection with Serafina was palpable. So she was overjoyed when they found Ursula and climbed out from the abyss. Then everything went horribly wrong.

Rosa turned back to Ursula, frozen in her chair and wearing a sheepish grin, and felt the urge to spit in the monster's face, but dehydration kept her civil.

Instead, she left the arena, retook her seat at the terminal, and closed the life, bringing the Observation Room to near darkness. She rested her head in her hands. The room began to shake. After roughly ten seconds, the tremor ended. They were becoming more frequent as the Earth closed in. Current estimates had Engineering – and thereby Project Savior – losing integrity in three days.

Rosa raised her head. She should eat. She should sleep. But instead, she waved her hand over the operation sensors to reactivate God's Eye and brought up the most recent lifetime observed, floating in front of her. She'd left off on Serafina's thirtieth in the year 2071 shortly after their mother had died. Rosa advanced the timeline, waiting for the Anomaly Index to give her a reason to stop. In 2079, a red dot appeared, signifying their death. Rosa advanced to the parallel present and found the Earth as lifeless as ever.

She continued on to life thirty-one. The index was flat until a blip from their first consciousness at age two, then another at four, and then rocketing up when they came back for good at five. The spike on their first day was to be expected. Whether Serafina tells their parents or Martha and James figure it out themselves... it's always so painful for them.

Rosa advanced the timeline slowly. As with all of Serafina's lives, each new day following their awakening triggered the index with new revelations for Martha and James. After a couple of weeks, the index tempered before spiking again on October 14. Serafina had developed a pattern over the last five lifetimes. If they're keeping to it, they must be in their new home with the space and equipment they require. She decided to take a look.

The Arena lit up. A five year old Serafina sat frozen in their workshop / laboratory soldering electrodes across a disentanglement cap. The space was the same as the previous five lifetimes – a little over a thousand square feet with vaulted ceilings, a 3D printing station, a multitasking lathe, tables reserved for electron microscopes and various machinery they'd yet to procure, and a standard workbench at which they currently sat. Rosa waved her hand to animate the scene.

A wisp of smoke rose from the wires as Serafina's tiny fingers adjusted the iron. Rosa zoomed in and rotated the image to give her the perspective of the cap, looking up at Serafina, their eyes straining behind children's safety goggles. The cap was made of soft, white fabric, sized to wrap snugly around an adult's head with the aforementioned electrodes spread across in one centimeter intervals and a chin-strap at the bottom to keep it secure. For the past seven lifetimes, the cap was Serafina's first order of business once they had the means. Win or lose, they felt their parents deserved an ending and were determined to give them one.

It was one of many innovations for which Rosa had provided assistance from across the centuries. Serafina had continued contacting her from a meditative state, refining their ability to control the connection, and devising a method for Rosa to initiate contact, herself. Serafina didn't mind the visits. In fact, they'd told Rosa they looked forward to them – a moment she continued to replay in her head as the happiest in her life – just so long as they weren't in public or immediately engaged with their physical surroundings.

Within the Arena, Serafina set the iron on the workbench and blew the wires cool then raised their goggles to the top of their head to scrutinize the cap before placing it down as well. They pulled back their arms and arched their back then relaxed and rubbed the corners of their eyes.

They appeared to be finished. Could I?

It had been forty-four minutes in the present since her last visit. She'd made herself a rule to not initiate contact more than once an hour. Otherwise, I'd do nothing but. As extinction loomed, however, Rosa failed to see a point in moderation or self-discipline.

She paused the scene then activated the shortcut she'd crafted, building up an excess of charged ions in the receptor before releasing them against the flow of data. Then she reanimated Serafina who suddenly clasped the workbench with one hand and the back of their neck with the other. After a moment, they released and said, "Okay then."

Serafina stood from the bench and walked to an open section of wall then sat against it cross legged. After two deep breaths, the Arena fell dark.

Then purple rained and fell and spun until coalescing into the form of the five year old Serafina, sitting cross legged in the center of the Arena. They opened their eyes, stood, and walked to the edge where Rosa met them. For whatever reason – the exact science of this was still a mystery to Rosa – she couldn't enter the Arena during these visits as a naturally occurring magnetic field separated them like a humming pane of glass.

"Good to see you. What's up?" Serafina said with their five year old voice.

"Oh, uh.... Nothing really. Thought to check on you... Was that a disentanglement cap you were working on?"

"Yep. Just finished. Going to present it to them today."

"That's good. That's good. And... I've checked – like you asked. Their timelines are still cold."

Serafina exhaled in relief. "That's wonderful. Thank you, Rosa. It means so much." The look in their eyes made the ache in her chest warm. "But how are you? How are things up there? Or... over there? I'm not sure how to..."

Rosa dropped her head. What was there to say? Practically all that was left of over here was her futile obsession with Serafina.

"Oh god," they said. "That was stupid. Sorry. Why would I ask that?"

"That's okay. But yes, it is getting close. Our projections give us another three days so-"

"Three days?!" they exclaimed. "Rosa, what are you doing? Why... why are you contacting me? These minutes are precious."

"I understand that," she stated meekly.

"You really shouldn't contact me anymore unless it's an emergency. Otherwise, fast forward to the end of this life, and then to the next, until we succeed. I promise we'll keep trying."

"Yes, but..." She felt like a ridiculous child, her ego trembling in fear. But as with moderation, perhaps it was too late for embarrassment. "You are... You're kind of... my only friend."

Serafina took a sudden step back from the edge of the Arena and pinched their eyebrows. After a moment, they returned and said, "You're kind of mine too. I have my mom and dad, but half the time, they're only getting to know me. But you..." They put their hand up to the barrier and their purple palm blanched lilac. Two centuries and a universe away, Rosa did the same, the field tickling her fingers.

But Rosa understood there was another – someone from Serafina's own time and plane who more than knew them. She dropped her hand. "I checked on Ursula in your last life. I didn't try to watch anything because, as you said, my time is short. But I scanned her timeline."

"Thank you. Anything?"

"The same as the last three lifetimes. Except apparently she is refining the process. She had the Hawking blocker in place by the age of ten. Then it was blank until her death in 2055. Maybe... she just wants to be left alone?"

Serafina shook their head. "No, she might not have shown herself or taken credit for anything, but she was engaged. The Prime Minister's assassination? That was her. So was the bioterrorism. It was so much easier when you could warn us."

"Not easy enough, I suppose." It was a low blow, but Rosa didn't have the energy to apologize.

A muffled, far off voice shouted cheerfully, "Knock, knock!"

Serafina looked up then said, "I think that's my dad."

"Definitely. I know his voice quite well."

Serafina looked back at Rosa and placed their hand on the barrier once more. "I need you to promise me two things... Please?" Rosa nodded. "Promise me you won't give up on us... On me."

"I promise," she said, her voice catching.

"And if we- When we succeed and before you leave to feel the sunshine on your face and the grass beneath your feet, to a place where you'll make friends, where you'll fall in love, where your life will go on... Would you promise to say goodbye?"

Her dry throat scratched painfully as Rosa swallowed back emotion. She nodded and placed her hand to theirs.

Serafina smiled sadly for a moment, then closed their eyes and disappeared. So too the magnetic field, and Rosa fell forward, stumbling to one knee. She tried to push herself up, but lacked the strength. Malnutrition, dehydration, sleep deprivation, and depression were calling in their debts. She collapsed onto her back, half within the Arena, half without. Her head fell to the side, leaving the God's Eye terminal in her line of sight, and beyond that, the entrance for the phasing chamber and the finish line of Dr Tanaka's fantasy. Her eyes closed. Maybe if she lost consciousness she'd die before she woke... Maybe she'd sleep past the end... Maybe...

Author's note:

I don't blame Rosa for distracting herself. I don't blame her peers for losing hope. My own hope wavers from time to time and we live in a relative paradise compared to 2235.

Thank you for reading!!