There isn't ever a point where Redcliffe town is prepared for a dragon to suddenly appear in the skies overhead, but it must be said that amidst a pitched battle with mages on both sides and an alchemist on one is a particularly unexpected time. There is a brief pause in the fighting as everyone looks up to assess this new threat.

And everyone remains paused as the dragon descends. Everyone, that is, except the person the dragon is descending to see.

"Hello," she says, shifting into a human form next to Bellona.

She eyes the frozen people around her - and the transformed dragon in front of her - suspiciously. 

"Hello?"

"Bellona Elric, yes? I'm Zera, and I'm here to rescue you."

"Eliana succeeded, didn't she?"

"She did. Or does. Is succeeding. This language is not good with time travel tenses."

She laughs. "I get the point anyways."

"Excellent! Now, there are a couple more instances of you I need to pick up, and then we can quit this little tangle of time."

"Lead the way." Especially if leading coincides with answering questions about how time works here, and about who she is (of secondary importance to the science, naturally).

If Bellona feels like asking questions from dragonback, she can do so. Though her alts are sure to have similar questions if she can stomach the wait.

Fine, fine - she can at least filter for productive initial lines of inquiry.

Ah, now that's thinking ahead.

Though she may find herself somewhat distracted as slip from the air into the Timeways, which render themselves as sand and stars and clockwork, stretching endlessly in every conceivable direction and some that are not. (And if Bellona happens to squint around in just the right Gate-ish mindset of analysis, she may catch a glimpse of geometries much, much less describable.)

Fortunately, as an alchemist (and one who has seen the Gate), she is very good at describing the indiscribable - and she also brought things to write with! Inconceivable dimensions are nothing before proper mathematical analysis.

They drop back out shortly in the sky over Redcliffe again, subtly different than the one they just left. Again, everyone who's not Zera or a Bellona is put on pause as she lands.

And the first Bellona is deposited safely on the ground as Zera switches forms again.

This particular timeline is significantly in advance of the others - the Bellona here had focused on researching on behalf of the others, including extending her own loop as long as necessary. She doesn't seem particularly surprised when the world freezes - she's more visibly worn than the first Bellona rescued, eyes tired, face perhaps aged subtly. She strides over to them confidently. "Figured out a rescue?" she asks.

The first Bellona nods - and gives her a hug. "Zera did," she says. "She wants to wait for us to rescue the other us, too, before explaining too much, but I've been doing preliminary filtering."

The second Bellona hugs back with a thin smile. "Then let's not waste anymore time."

"This one, I'm afraid, will need a little more finesse. She has to die, see, to maintain continuity."

"Bellona Final told us about that," the second Bellona says, "Before the loop on her end closed. She's the one I can't figure out how to save - even something like subtly making it only look like she died would be really, really tricky to pull off without a paradox."

"Luckily, I'm somewhat of a paradoxical expert. And I have a few more tools at my disposal than you do. The plan is this: when we enter her line, we do so invisibly. We infiltrate the site of the confrontation- and we let her die, so Eliana can make her escape to the proper time. Then I rewind her back to before her death, and you two, ah, help her reconcile that experience."

Both Bellonas nod, seriously.

"Do either of you need a moment before we proceed?"

The first shakes her head, and the second just says, "Let's get this all over with."

"All right."

Then again they go flying through time and strangeness, emerging into a Redcliffe much more battered than seen before. Invisible, Zera flies them to a balcony entrance near the throne room.

Where, once everyone is more appropriately sized, they can sneak inside, just in time to watch Eliana make a desperate play for Alexius's amulet, as Bellona attempts to fend off the Venatori forces closing in around them.

The other two watch with pained expressions as the third Bellona sacrifices herself for Eliana, her last words, "There always has to be a sacrifice for Truth," making them both flinch.

Yeah, that's harsh.

But it's working as intended, because Eliana disappears in a flash of magic, leaving the way clear for Zera to hop down and clean up the remaining Venatori. Then, presuming the other two have followed, she sets her magic upon the fallen Bellona, winding the thread of her life back up. Blood reverses its spatter, wounds seal as weapon fragments exit, and breath reenters her lungs.

They kneel on opposite sides of her, ready to catch her when she jolts awake with a gasp. The first Bellona promptly hugs her; the second says: "You did it. We won."

The third Bellona takes a few gasping cries, then before a plaintive: "El-El?"

The other two squeeze their eyes shut. "Bellona Final's with her," the first says, tightening her hug, but the second says to Zera: "Can we return to the main timeline?"

"I can take you," she confirms.

"...She's got Bellona Final, though," says the third Bellona.

"Doesn't mean she can't give you a hug," says the second. "And you can see for yourself that Eliana made it out okay."

"They'll want to know we're okay, too, even if we're just saying goodbye," says the first. 

"They are working on a way to rescue you as well," Zera offers. "From the, mm, call it official perspective, they don't actually know that I've already done it. So it will be a lovely surprise to see you all."

"See?" says the first. "We cam figure out what to do in the future after we talk to them, too."

The other two nod. 

"Next stop Thedas/Amestris prime timeline, then."

With questions on the way? 

If they like, sure.

They'd like! (Even the third Bellona perks up at the prospect of learning more about how time works.)

She has a feeling the best place to start with this group is the mathematical description...

Seems so!

Then the travel time will pass in a subjective flash-

-and they show up outside Bellona's little house in Haven. (Not too long after her El arrived, Zera doesn't want to lock anything up that still needs a bit of room to flex.) All the interested parties should be in residence, so she steps up to the door and knocks politely.

The door is answered by a Bellona! One in overall much better condition than the three that Zera rescued. "What - ?"

"Hello! My name is Zera. I met your friend Ling a while back and she mentioned you were having some problems with a time loop rescue. I'm here to tell that I fixed it."

Blink blink. " - What in the world is Ling up to - nevermind." She reaches forward to hug the most upset looking Bellona, shouting over her shoulder: "El! Eliana!"

"Who is it, Lion- Oh. Lions!" In need of hugs, it looks like.

The other two give Bellona three space for the most hugs, especially when she starts crying on her sister. 

Hug hug. "I'm so glad you're safe."

Eliana will... wait in the back. She is uncertain how welcome she is to the others at this time.

"Didn't think we would be," the third Bellona says. "Didn't think I'd be - Zera put me back." She raises her head to look for Eliana.

"I am sorry."

"...Don't be. It was important. And 'm glad you're okay."

"And I, you."

Also hug?

Of course.

All the hugs!

Bellona One gets in on the hug action more, too - though Bellona Two is still hanging back.

El lifts her head to looks at Bellona Two. "Hey. Just because you have automail doesn't mean you can't be hugged."

She smiles a little and steps up to give El a hug. "I'm really glad to see you got through," she says, quietly. "Think it's doing Bellona Three good to see both you and Eliana are okay at the same time."

"I hope so. But you all had a rough go."

"...It's been longer for me, but... I've had more choices, I guess, and more time to get used to it. Bellona Three kinda rushed things." She shakes her head, tucking her hair behind her ear with her left hand - the automail's pretty good quality for something made in a relative rush in the back woods, but her hair still catches briefly in a finger joint. She makes a face.

"Oh, Lion." El helps her detangle.

Sheepish grin. "Thanks. I know I really should wear gloves, but..." Shrug.

"I can make you some. Or fix up those casings, at least."

"Casings, maybe - I don't like gloves much."

"Come in, then. Everyone, in fact, let's not stand in the door all night."

Inside! With all four Bellonas. (Plus Zera?)

She's still here, yep.

Good - and while the others are preoccupied settling into the house, Bellona Two asks Zera, quietly: "If I wanted - if some of us wanted to go somewhere else, could you take us? And how soon would we have to decide?"

"I can. And you have as long as you'd like."

"Are you going to stick around that long?"

"Returning in the nick of time is one of my talents!"

"Seems like it!"

"Time is what I do, Miss Second. Take as much of yours as you want."

"Thanks."

Then perhaps she should return to socializing with her sister?

...There's kind of a crowd. It's a lot easier to just hang back than to deal with trying to compete with the other versions of herself for El time.

It's up to her.

She'll wait. 

Then maybe they can continue their discussion of the mechanics of time?

Yesss. (She traded her limbs not just for the others to be able to contact one another through Truth, but also for rather extreme amounts of knowledge about the functioning of time - she's nowhere near Zera's experience, and it's evident that what she knows hasn't fully sunk in, but she's worlds ahead of the other two so they can zoom off straight into the most esoteric elements.)

(If she's having fun, okay.)

She's mostly waiting for a gap in the others - and Bellona Three gets squirrely about split attention soon enough, turning to focus on talking to Eliana - then Bellona One steps back to pepper Zera with her own questions, allowing Bellona Two to step in for a proper El hug. 

Big hug. "Hi."

Hug! "Hi yourself."

"Are you okay?"

"...Dunno."

"Yeah."

"Anything I can do?"

She shrugs - glances at the others, but there's no point saying this privately since they're all thinking it (Bellona Final even has been totally avoiding splitting El attention, and is now mostly interacting with Bellona One plus Zera) - "Clone yourself?" she says, half wistfully and half sarcastically. 

"I mean, you're the biomedical engineer. We could do it. Or put me in a time loop, I bet Eliana could figure something out."

She pauses, then shakes her head. "Time loop wouldn't be stable, and creating a time loop just to rescue enough versions of you from it would require solving interdimensional travel first and then finding an empty dimension with friendly laws and then still be risky - and the cost for cloning you with memories intact would be astronomical - there's also the question of the Gate. I and the other Bellonas share a Gate, but we'd need to clone your soul as well as your body and memories to produce versions of you with alchemy - there's honestly also no guarantee that we'll keep access to alchemy if me and the other Bellonas hang out in the same world, without some form of intrinsic separation multiple connections to one Gate would be innately unstable - stuff like one person's attempt at alchemy having a three in four chance of catastrophic backlash in the vicinity of one of the other three, or a chance of our souls spontaneously collapsing into the one soul they're supposed to be - could route around by intentionally cutting our access to the Gate, but I don't want to - we'd also probably need Zera's cooperation for most stuff involving time loops, I honestly wasn't expecting to be rescued since the maths don't work out for any magic system we currently have access to and using alchemy would be stupidly dangerous - the reasons are complicated and involve science Amestris doesn't have yet, I had to trade the Gate for them."

"Oh, so you've thought about it already."

"...It was pretty easy to guess that we'd get jealous of each other even if we did get rescued, and I figured out the issues with multiple connections to the Gate while setting up our ability to talk through it. And I was motivated to find some way to extract myself from the timeloop - extracting someone else's just an extension of that." (Also she kind of feels like the sheer volume of information she traded for has made her smarter - she got that the first time when she traded her entire body, but she was a lot more specific this time - and it feels like her mind needed to expand for all the new information to fit into it. It's also so far been impossible for her to forget or struggle with anything she's traded the Gate for, which is a massive advantage over studying things the hard way.)

"Sorry, Lion. I'm just trying to catch up."

Hug! "'s okay."

Many hug.

"Are you- thinking about leaving, then?"

"...At some point."

"The Gate connection issues will be stable so long as we don't use alchemy, but - that'd suck, and I dunno how long it'll take to get too jealous."

"Yeah."

"I'll always love you. All of you. No matter where you go."

So much hug. "We can visit, still, especially once we get interworld travel stable. Be more like we're just - traveling. And we could trade whatever we've discovered when we meet." Bellona Two thinks she'd like to travel, actually - everything she saw through the Gate revealed so many more possibilities.

"That would be nice."

"I've got a lot of stuff to teach you guys already."

"I can't wait."

Does El want an infodump about black holes? Because that is a great way to get an infodump about black holes (one which seems to be leaving a lot out, given even the overview in turn brushes over spacetime in a 'this is a thing' kind of way, and the concept of acceleration and gravity being meaningfully the same thing is probably a major 'what' moment that Bellona Two just states matter of factly, as is relativity of time and the concept of a light cone, and she spends more time explaining how space and time can switch places inside a black hole's event horizon such that the distance to the exit becomes infinite while time becomes finite, since that's The Cool Part.) Also fucking with spacetime too much via alchemy could produce a black hole which is pretty cool if you think about it, and wouldn't even be that dangerous (except to anything in or touching the array which might get crushed infinitely small) since it'd be limited mass - 

Bellona nO-

Spoilsport.

Excuse her for liking her surroundings and genius alchemist sister uncrushed thank you!!

She could trigger it remotely with alkahestry! And honestly it'd just fall to the center of the Earth, it'd be subatomic and pretty much just flit around between atoms - space  is mostly empty vacuum so the ground won't exactly stop it - going 'Hi! I'm a black hole!' and wouldn't do anything interesting before the Sun eats the Earth anyways. Which is the biggest downside.

Uh huh.

Sigh. "No sense of adventure?"

"Not until you teach me enough that I can evaluate the efficacy of the safety procedures."

"I'll write a couple books too, how about?"

"Perfect."

Another hug, for good measure. 

As many as she wants.

El might end up spending her next couple of days rotating which Bellona she's hugging. 

Don't threaten her with a good time.

So it's a workable idea for her?

Oh, absolutely.

Sounds like they've got a game plan, then. 

Then let's run with it.

And over the next few days, El does in fact spend her waking hours - as does Eliana, though less intensely - rotating between the three time-looped Bellonas. Bellona Final hangs back from the rotation, pretty much only hanging out directly with her sister and girlfriend at night when they're asleep, interacting with the other Bellonas during the day. Bellona Two gets a lot of writing done, while Bellona Three calms down overall - and it's Bellona Three that gets restless first, apparently anxious to get moving and do something (and apparently the most inclined to jealousy of the set). Bellona Two and One decide they should leave with her; they're getting pretty close to too jealous (and too bored with avoiding alchemy) anyways. 

Ready to visit other worlds?

Seems like it! 

All together, or separately? Zera can accommodate either.

They want to go to separate worlds - but it wouldn't hurt to see each other dropped off, and it's easier to all leave at once. (After they've had time to all hug El and Eliana and Bellona Final goodbye.)

Fair enough. All aboard!

Zera slips them back into the Timeways,and the impossible geometries stretch and distort as she pushes to the breaking point, and past, into the multiverse beyond. She has a good idea of where to stop first, but as she is a dragon of manners (and the ship is the sort of being she can contact in this manner), she will reach out to ask Serenity's permission to dock before making the final approach.

It responds readily. "Permission granted; alts of Villanelle are good passengers. I have informed the crew."

Then she sees no problem materializing them on board!

Villanelle was on the main deck, fortunately, sketching the sprawling port that Serenity is currently docked at - the exceptionally strange sprawling port, a sky of brilliant swirls of light casting scintillating rainbows over a city made of spires of white stone and glass - many of them floating in midair - high arches forming busy walkways between the towers, numerous tiny sky-boats flitting around like birds, larger ships like Serenity in the chaotic port. Many of the people visible from the deck are obviously nonhuman, some humanoid with wings or tails or oddly colored skin but many strange - a large blurry ¿cat? purchasing fish, a floating eyeball wearing an out of place jaunty hat in a heated argument with a dockworker, a serpent with arms loading crates onto a ship...

She bounces up from her seat - she has the same face as Bellona - with a welcoming grin. "Welcome to the Serenity!" she says. "I'm Captain Villanelle. Are you looking for a ride - ?"

They're too busy staring at the city to answer. 

"Hello, Captain. At least one of them, I would guess."

That draws Bellona One out, at least. "We're trying to head to all different worlds - uh, long story short, we can't use our kind of power if we're all three in the same universe. Dunno if Zera was intending to drop us all off here for you to do the moving, or leave only one of us here - ?"

"Serenity isn't that fast, so getting you guys to two or three different worlds might take a while."

"Probably only one of us will stick around here, then," Bellona One says. 

"I can handle moving the others on," she says. "I'm Zera, by the way. I don't think we had a chance to meet when last you visited my world. The one with the dragon, where you dropped off that ninja girl with the eyes."

"We didn't! How's she doing, by the way?"

"Quite well, as far as I'm aware. I believe she is having fun and making new friends."

"Terrorizing the locals?"

"Only the ones that deserve it."

"Naturally."

At this point, the other member of the crew shows up. "Serenity said there were new passengers- Oh. More of you."