Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

“Hey Drew, buddy, need you to wake up. We got a giant problem, so if you could get your butt to the root network control room as soon as possible, that would be great,” Andrew heard the voice of Gus as he woke up from a sound sleep. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear the sleep haze from his brain. What had the annoying bird said? Something about a problem? Already? The loop should have just started, and it didn’t seem like they were stuck in a constant series of restarts again. He yawned loudly and forced himself out of his comfortable bed.

“Drew, seriously, wake up!” came Gus’s voice again through the intercom.

“I am awake, and I’ll be there shortly. Give me a second, dammit,” Andrew responded, harsher than he had intended.

Grumbling, Andrew began his walk. Problem or not, he was grabbing a coffee on the way. The capybaras should have already had a morning brew ready to go, and he needed some added energy for the day. Except, there was no coffee. The cafeteria looked like it had at the end of the previous loop. The capybaras were nowhere to be seen. “Shit,” he quietly muttered, realizing Gus had been right to wake him. Something was wrong.

Minutes later, Andrew burst through the control room door to find Gus frantically trying to adjust some of the equipment's inner workings. “About time,” Gus said.

“Sorry, I may not have fully understood the magnitude of the emergency. I didn’t see any of the capybaras on my way,” Andrew explained between heavy, ragged breaths. He was in better shape from his Under Library experience, but he still did not enjoy frantic runs.

“That’s because there are none. No Cal or Ethel either. We should be about twelve hours into the loop, and the question we need to determine is what happened. By now, one or both of them have shown up. Without them, we can’t do anything to open the usual gateways so that others can come through,” Gus explained.

“What about the root network? Is that still working? Can we use that to grab them?” Andrew asked, his heavy breathing coming under control.

“Yes, but I don’t think we can change targets. I might be able to interrupt it, but I can’t do anything to retarget anyone without the boss. Hell, I don’t even think this thing can pick up humans,” Gus’s voice added a note of panic.

“Okay, we need to calm down and think this through. What could have happened that didn’t just end the loop? Wait, where’s Fulginanis or Oakbert? Do they have any idea what’s going on?” Andrew asked, reasonably sure if anyone knew it was the linked mana spirits.

“I already asked Fulginanis. As far as he can tell, Cal is still asleep. Oakbert said the same for Ethel. Neither of them were able to prod them away. Fulginanis is now out there trying to draw up as much energy as they can in an attempt to wake Cal up one way or another. Oh, and yes, I did already ask. They cannot force the gates open without Cal or the boss. So I have no idea what we are going to do if that doesn’t work,” Gus was speaking fast enough that Andrew was surprised he understood everything.

“I cannot wake Cal up. As far as I can tell, he is unhurt, but I should be able to wake him. So it seems that we do indeed have a problem,” Fulginanis had appeared in front of the two of them to deliver the bad news.

“So what the hell do we do now?” Gus asked, shaking his head with worry.

“Who do we have here that is loop-aware?” Andrew asked the two.

“Sleek, Mr. Oakbert, Alfred, Gretel, Frank, Excalibur, the three of us, and perhaps the presence attached to the dogs,” Fulginanis Answered.

“Wait, the sword was able to get himself here at the start of the loop?” Andrew asked. This had potential. If Excalibur could create a gateway to get himself here, that might be how they find out what’s happening on Earth.

“Yes,” Fulginanis answered.

“Alright, you two get all the loop-aware people and join me at his resting place. I have some ideas, but we need to talk them out,” Andrew said. Fulginanis vanished, and Gus nodded. Andrew took both as signs of agreement and left to find Excalibur. He had wanted to talk to the sword in depth during this loop but would have preferred much less dire circumstances.

***

“Yes, I could probably tear a new portal from here to the Earth, but if I did that, we would risk the stability of these realms, and considering what this one specifically so recently endured, I believe that it is an unacceptable risk until we have eliminated all other possible options,” Excalibur explained. Andrew and Gus had just finished explaining the current situation to him.

“We did not sense anything out of the ordinary at the Mistresses, but we are also asleep when the loop starts, so likely anything that occurred either happened while we slept or didn’t happen until after we were already here,” Alfred said.

“Yes, I was worried about that. So my current working theory is that someone or something has captured those of us who start the loop outside of here. I imagine had you two remained behind much longer, you would have also been captured. What we don’t know is if Andy, Ralth, the capybaras, the bugs, or even Melissa are part of this. So how do we investigate that when we are all stuck here?” Andrew asked.

“Trashcat!” Gus suddenly shouted.

“What about her?” Andrew asked.

“She isn’t here yet. The root network won’t pick her up for another year as she hasn’t been born yet. We need to stop it from grabbing her and find a way to communicate with her. She is going to have to figure out what’s going on out there,” Gus answered.

“Okay, so then we have a new problem. How do we talk to her? Any ideas?” Andrew looked around at all of their faces as he asked and found them all looking back at him expectantly. He was supposed to be the genius problem solver here, but at the moment, he had no idea what to do.

“Bart, can you find Bug?” Gretel asked, interrupting Andrew’s thoughts.

“Nope, should be able to, though, so whatever is stopping the mana spirits is stopping me too. Got an idea, though: what if we brought the cat into your council? I’m tied to everyone in it now as a squire, so in theory, I could manifest with her,” Bart said, appearing between the dogs.

“Can you do that?” Andrew asked, unsure if they needed Bug or if the fact that Trashcat wasn’t a dog would mean they couldn’t.

“Maybe we kind of learned how to add someone to it. She’d have to accept the idea without knowing what was happening. We at least had a guide,” Gretel explained.

“Yes, but she is a smart cat. I think she’d figure it out. This may work,” Alfred added.

“Great place to pin our hopes, but she is all we have at the moment, and at least we have plenty of time to prepare,” Andrew said, sliding his lips into a grimace. He wished they had a more concrete plan.