Everyone seemed to suddenly come to a halt and started looking at the white hair guy probably waiting for him to start saying something but someone else spoke first "So where do we begin? It's actually a long story " The blonde woman said looking down while thinking deeply.
"How about I ask my questions first and you can answer accordingly. If there is anything more that I need to know after all my questions are done you can fill me in on that too" I said breaking the silence because I'm pretty sure whatever they have to tell me and the questions I have are interrelated to each other. The blonde woman looked up at me and smiled "that sounds great" I looked at the white hair guy to see if he agreed but he didn't say anything just took a seat next to me while facing the bar whereas I was facing everyone else. I took that as a yes.
"So My first question is since when have you guys been shifting timelines?" I looked at the blonde woman for answers becauss she seemed to be the only one willing to provide it in detail which is better I assume because I had a feeling that the white hair guy would just give me vague answers. "Well it differs for each one of us. Some of us have been shifting timelines for centuries whereas some of us have only been shifting for a few years. For example it's been 120 years for me and I've been to 33 timelines so far whereas Lucian over there have been shifting timelines for 70 years now and has been to 14 timelines so far" She said pointing towards the guy with dark hair who seemed to be around 28. I looked towards the guy and nodded in understanding. "And that old man Eugene over there has been shifting timelines for 153 years now and has been to 43 timelines so far" She said pointing towards the man who seemed to be in his late 30s. "You do know that I got this body only for this timeline right? I usually look much better in other timelines" The man said in his defence to being called old. "It still doesn't change the fact that you're still older than most of us" Lucian spoke in response to that in a teasing manner
"And I have been shifting timelines for 30 years now and have been to 18 timelines what about you? Have you been to any interesting timelines? For me it's all been boring universes so far " The teenage girl with brown hair said in excitement. It seemed she was rather young in experience... Well at least compared to others she was. "Forgive Iris, she's rather enthusiastic and new to this" The blonde woman said apologizing for the teenager's behaviour "What about that kid over there?" I asked pointing towards the kid who seemed around 12 and has been glaring at me since I came here. I assume he doesn't like me much but I'm not even sure what I did to deserve that yet.
"That's Dylan he kind of doesn't like new people joining us. He's just overprotective of us and resistant to change. Please don't mind him. He'll open up to you soon enough. As for timelines, he is young even in that manner. He's only been shifting timelines for 20 years and been to 4 timelines" the blonde woman said trying to cheer me up which wasn't much needed in my opnion but I'm grateful for the effort.
"What about you Nora? How long have you been doing this?" The blonde woman turned to ask me. Well it's fair enough I guess since they answered my questions so far. "I have been doing this for 170 years give or take. Actually I stopped counting after 150 years because it seemed pointless to me and as for timelines I'm pretty sure it's somewhere around 60 or something" I said vaguely guessing while remembering all my experiences and memories.
"183" I heard a voice next to me say that in a calm collected manner. "You've been shifting timelines for 183 years and have been to 73 universes so far" I turned around to look who it was and it was the white hair guy. Of course it was him. I forgot he was even here. "And how do you even know that?" I asked him suspiciously in a cold tone because how does he know something about me that even I don't remember? This guy has been nothing but suspicious ever since I met him. "I do a background check of every person before they can join us " He said flatly without taking his eyes off his drink. Join them? Is that what they're expecting from me? We'll come to that later but first I need to know as much as I can from these people.
"Well yeah he does that. He did a check on all of us before giving us the chance of joining the team" It was Lucian who spoke now while giving a light smack to the white hair guy in response to which the the white hair guy shooted a sharp galre towards Lucian but instead of backing off Lucian started smacking his back more which seemed to have irritated the white hair guy further. "Not now you two" The Blonde hair woman said in a firm tone while glaring at both of them. "Alright! My bad" Lucian said pulling his hands up in defeat.
"What about this guy here? How long has he been shifting timelines?" I asked while pointing towards the white hair guy who still didn't bother to look up. "Oh Kael? He's been doing this far longer than all of us" The woman said in monotone voice again "how long?" I asked curiously. "More than 500 years" My eyes went wide at the numbers. Well I definitely did not expect that. "And he's been to over 200 universes and timelines" The blonde woman continued. That's just.... Incredible and sad at the same time.
"That's... " I tried saying something in response but I was speechless so nothing came out. "Awesome right?" Iris said enthusiastically certainly not understanding the depth of shifting timelines and universes for that long. "Yeah" I just that in defeat since I didn't have any words to say. "And what would your name be?" I asked the blonde woman since I got to know everyone's name here except for the one who's been providing the most information here.
She got that realization look on her face and started to laugh a little "how silly of me. I introduced you to everyone except me. Huh. I'm Irene Romanov, it's nice to meet you" She said formally extending her hand for me to shake which I did.
"One more question, how did you guys meet and figure out that you were all timeline shifters? And I assume the bodies you are possesing right now aren't your real bodies? Except for Kael here? From what I remember he had the same body when he attacked me in my previous timeline not to mention he is wearing a 21st century suit here" I said ponting towards Kael.
"I did not attack you. I was helping you go through the timeline shift smoothly. I knew the sleeping pills help and you didn't seem in position to be able to get to them easily so I intervened and I apologized for my behavior right then if you remember correctly" Kael finally spoke again but he didn't sound sorry at all. "Oh? And what were you doing breaking into my apartment before I even got there?" I asked daring him to defend that behaviour "I... was also there for the pills" He said in a normal tone. "You couldn't buy?" I asked expressing how ridiculous that is. "He was broke in that timeline and I bet he got nervous seeing you suddenly enter the apartment and knocked the cupboard accidentally" Lucian said laughing at Kael in response to which Kael shot another irritated glare towards Lucian.
But the main question is-
"how did you know it was me when I was in a completely different body?" I asked curiously this time because it is really somewhat unbelievable how he recognised me and others in different bodies.
"For some reason he doesn't tell us that either" Irene spoke this time not exactly clearing my confusion. "He recognized all of us the same way and contacted us in different timelines and somehow he always knew it was just us in different bodies" Lucian said explaining a bit further but that doesn't really clear up any questions for me. I guess if he is that secretive about it he won't spill it out now so there's no point in asking further.
"nevermind that then, tell me how do you have the same body in this timeline too? That is impossible in my experience. I have tried understanding or doing something about it but it never worked but how do you have the same body in different timelines? Is it your original body? The one you were born with?" I asked Kael again. If it was his original body then he'd be considered immortal since he's been doing this for 500 years now.
"It's not the same body" He said flatly not explaining anything further. Does he love to give vague answers? "It's not his real body but somehow he can change the appearance of the bodies he posseses. His real body must have looked like this but this jerk refuses to give us any further explaination" Lucian said looking towards Kael. "Perks of shifting timelines for 500 years I guess?" Lucian added but it was more like a question. "And if you're thinking about the 21st century suit he's wearing then that was tailored by Eugene here since he is a tailor in this timeline and Kael for some reason feels more comfortable in those 21st century suits so here we are" Irene added a further explanation which did clear somethings up.
"So how did you all end up in the same timeline? In my experience it's not possible to control where and when I'm gonna shift a timeline so how did you guys do it?" I said looking towards all of them. Irene smiled at that " We also used to think it's impossible to control the shift but Kael taught us that's not case, he taught us how to shift to a particular timeline so we all set a destination when we decide to shift and yeah we can also control when to shift" Irene added a further explanation to how it worked but- "do you guys still get the symptoms when you do it intentionally? For example I get dizzy and the memories start getting fuzzier and all mixed up and that sharp pain in the head? Do you guys experience it too? " I asked again to clear my doubts. "Well most of time not really but sometimes a mishap can happen and we can get the symptoms. For example in the previous timeline Kael also needed the sleeping pills because he knew he messed up" Lucian added while taunting Kael once again whereas I nodded in understanding
"So why are you guys working together and what is your team's goal here?" I asked the question that's been bugging me since beginning of all this.
"We want to put an end to this"