It took two minutes of preparation. Junior got a small microphone and an earpiece. That way everyone in the building who had a significant rank would be able to listen in without Minhyun having to expend all his energy on dozens of links.

Ren feared his knees were going to give in. His heart had refused to slow down. He kept rubbing his hands on his jeans but his palms didn’t get any less sweaty.

Three boys stood in front of the massive steel door as it opened. Thirty of the forty armored agents turned to them, bodies tense, ready to pick their weapons back up.

Aron was still one hour away, no doubt being flown back at high speed. Ren promised himself he’d never let them split up again.

With every step the idea felt worse. Even though he couldn’t see the agent’s eyes behind their armor Ren knew their gaze rested on him. He was the only one left with an ability that could do damage. But there was no way to create enough Conmotes to engage the enemy troops.

Junior spoke with a voice that sounded a lot more confident than he could feel. Probably because he was shouting.

“Who are you!?”

Ren and Minhyun took their positions to his left and right. The speaker crackled a bit before they heard the voice again.

“I am the shadow that has been following you for a long time. Over the years there were many times when I thought about approaching you and your secret little world domination organization. Sometimes I considered if I would have to stop you before you held too much power. Other times, I though you should better be left in the dark about me. I tend to prefer to err on the side of caution and so you never learned of my existence.”

Ren sent through the link between the three of them. “What does he mean by world domination? And what power?”

Junior ignored him, instead addressing the tank again. “Alright, Mister ‘Shadow’. What changed that you had to go to such measures?”

“Them! Your friends. When they entered the picture I had to reconsider many things. And all of the sudden you began to foil my plans. You did barely any damage and all you found were my letterbox companies I had set up for exactly such events. I admit I became careless but you truly didn’t appear too competent.”

“You… you’re behind the agents of the void.”

The Shadow was silent for a second before he spoke with great condescension. “A cult of fanatics I set up to do some dirty work for me and serve as a distraction. Give drug money to a few addicts at the bottom rung of society and tell them they can earn more with simple work. Then radicalize them. You of all people should know how easily humans are forced into a path you set out for them.”

Ren sent to Junior again with increased urgency. “What does he mean? Did you manipulate anyone?”

Even this time Junior ignored him and took a half step towards the tank. “Get to the point, Shadow. What do you want?”

“Simple,” the Shadow answered right away. “Information. I assume you did not predict my attack since you were so terribly underprepared. The moment I learned about the extent of your ability from one of my spies I desperately searched for a way to escape you – to be the one person whose actions you can’t control. Long ago I found a way that I thought would make it possible for me to stay hidden at little cost.”

Ren didn’t bother to ask again, but there were now more questions burning in his head reserved for Junior than for the Shadow.

Minhyun hadn’t said or sent anything the entire time, but now he addressed the Shadow directly, cutting off the leader. “Why are you doing this? If you have spies everywhere anyway why attack?”

“The incident at test lab three in Japan,” the speaker let hear. “It went against everything I thought I knew about you all. For a month you make no progress in even finding my test facility and then, hours before the final test run you show up with perfect knowledge of its architecture and wreck everything. I know things just ‘pop’ into your head sometimes but not that much. Never that much. Do you have any idea how terrifying you are?!”

Ren felt double the goosebumps. His and Minhyun’s. The Shadow was clearly a horrific sociopathic monster, but Junior hadn’t denied a single accusation. Not out loud and not to them confidentially.

“Hey Ren,” Minhyun sent, “I’ve established a private link only between us two. Do you think there’s something to all this stuff about world domination?”

“No idea,” Ren sent back, “but we shouldn’t waver in our support for Junior. We still have to get Baekho back. Questions later.”

“Alright. Going back to three way link now.”

The man behind the speaker was still ranting. “I had to abandon an invaluable artefact. Do you know how much you harmed humanity? Do you even care?”

“I said,” Junior shouted, “get to the point.”

The Shadow sighed. “I want to know how you did it. I need to know what you can do. Maybe I have no other choice but to accept your world order and submit. I know it would be a bit late to make amends, but I would be willing to offer something in return. Perhaps we can become allies. Uneasy ones, admittedly, but still allies.”

“What do you offer?” Junior asked.

“To tell you how I’ve evaded you. How my attack could be so successful.”

Ren could feel the excitement radiate off the boy. It was the first time Junior addressed them through the link, looking back and forth between them. “What do you say? The more we know about him the better. It’s not like we can replicate the time loop, so I don’t see what we’d be giving away.”

Minhyun nodded while thinking at the duo. “Yes, but the priority is to get Baekho back alive. Don’t forget that. I’d rather concede any negotiation than loose him.”

“Same here,” Ren added.

“Got it,” Junior sent.

He turned back towards the tank. “We accept, but you go first. How come I can’t know your movements ahead of time?”

“Seeing as I have one of your friends as leverage I feel confident that you intend to keep your side of the bargain, so…fine. First, there is your impeccable sense of past events. I went to great length making sure nobody you met had valuable information about me to trigger. Then there is your annoying ability to conjure facts out of thin air. But they are rarely useful so I only had to avoid triggers there, too. Now, the future is a different beast.”

Ren had spent the last minute estimating how many shields he could produce with just the three of them available for emotional fuel. It would be much easier than creating full Conmotes. The lynchpin was whether those shields could extend all the way to Baekho and if they would be able to get away without coming under fire. There were too many variables.

The Shadow continued. “You can only see things that happen with five percent probability or more. The key was to keep even things I have decide upon under five percent. In the beginning I used dice. Once I had confirmed that you are blind to small events I camouflage in this manner, I moved on to random number generators. Then to a complex quantum computer based system that connects all my-“

“But how do you do it?” Junior asked.

“When I decide on a thing, say, to attack the compound here, I set up everything necessary. Then I activate a program that gives me a random number between one and a hundred every minute. Which means there is no set point in the future where the probability of my attack is greater than one percent.”

Ren had to admit that was smart. And scarily simple. And even knowing about it gave them no way to work around it.

“It does mean,” the Shadow finished, “that I have to keep my agents ready for hours potentially while the computer rolls the dice. Only when I get the predetermined number I picked, I’ll order an attack. That’s the moment you know what’s going to happen. But by then I have set up all my preparations.”

“Ren,” Minhyun sent, “That’s how you died in the time loop. The gun was using a random number generator to see if it should shoot or not. The probability of you dying went from one to a hundred percent in the moment it happened. Unpredictably.”

It was uncomfortable enough to know he had been shot to death in an alternate timeline, but knowing that it had been due to a quantum computer spitting out numbers made it even squickier.

Now Junior spoke calmly. “Your experiment in Japan. Do you know what I did?”

“No,” the Shadow said, “How should I? You ruined it.”

“It created a time loop for five hours before the experiment.” Junior was beaming with self-satisfaction. They were doing what the Shadow had done to them. Giving out great information that didn’t help at all. “I had knowledge from the future because I was there. I optimized for best results. But then you blew it all up and the looping ended.”

“…If that is true, Junior my boy, why haven’t I seen more damage to me?”

“W-what do you mean?”

What did he mean? There was only one facility responsible for the time loop. They had done maximum damage, didn’t they? Minhyun didn’t know what to think either.

“Haven’t you,” the Shadow said, “spent loop after loop doing things you otherwise couldn’t due to secrecy and moral concerns? You said you optimized for results, but what have you found out? You had the option to do anything – anything – with no consequences and you did no more than take away that opportunity from yourself.”

The Shadow laughed. It wasn’t the laughter of a villain, just the breathy chuckling of a man who wanted to be serious but couldn’t quite keep it in.

There was a heavy silence upon the scene. Ren had no idea how to come back from that devastating realization.

It was the Shadow who broke through the quiet. “It’s been lovely to chat with you. I’m being informed that Aron is almost in reach and I don’t intend to lose all my troops. If you will, perhaps consider joining forces with me. This offer is for all of you. Even those currently not listening. It should be obvious that I can optimize a lot better. Just to be clear, the offer goes for you as a group or each one individually. I would love to work together on something great. For now I bid you farewell.”

The armored men retreated with deliberation. The tank didn’t move from its spot. While the invaders fled the area, driving off in trucks parked at the edge of the compound, Ren wondered what protection the Shadow had against being followed. After all, they were inside a city.

For that matter why hadn’t the police shown up yet? There were businesses and apartments around. Did the Shadow have a way of keeping them away? Or was the organization in cahoots with law enforcement and made sure they remained camouflaged in their shiny office building.

“Wait!” Minhyun yelled. “How did you block my ability and Ren’s?”

To their surprise they got an answer. “Simple. Lobotomy. I scooped out as much brain from my agents here as possible. Now if you would kindly move away, this battle tank is rigged to explode when the random number generator spits out a seventeen. Just my way of making sure you won’t come after my men. Lobotomies are expensive if you want them done well. I have to protect my assets, you understand.”

The trio bailed. Ren fashioned Panic, a construct. It lifted Baekho by his collar and dragged him – fast – behind them as they raced for the door.

The operatives on the other side were already evacuating and the boys joined them, Panic and Baekho tailing behind.

It was an explosion capable of tearing the still standing walls of the negotiation room down. And a few more besides. Ren didn’t hear well for the rest of the day.

A/N: Behold. Archnemesis revealed! What do you think?