Not the First

Free to go. That’s what Charrlene told the guards but still they maintained their vigil over them, even as Charrlene tried to leave.
“We’ve been trying to trace where they’ve been getting their Lores from but, from what we’ve seen, there’s no way back.” Charrlene looked over her shoulder. Seeing, or rather not seeing, that Crait wasn’t visible, she pulled Lore to one side. “What the hell is going on here? One minute I’m in negotiations with The Protectorate and the Quatarrians, the next I’m on Quatarr, in a crater, with Crait standing over me and a lifetime full of alternative memories.”
“You remember The Cornerstones?” Charrlene nodded. “Time didn’t exactly get permission for us all to be running around in the same time zone at the same time. Once Quatarr was saved and our universe was no longer at risk of destruction, Reality gathered everyone up and scattered you across the multiverse. Believe me, as soon as we could, we were looking for you. I spent ten years training myself to use these powers to find you all and bring you home. Those Lores, they’re on me.”
“Powers?”
“The Cornerstones retired but the universe couldn’t be without their powers so they gave them to us.” Lore let their energy flow between their fingers. “It’s like having the powers of the Reaper at all times but we’re stronger when we’re together.” Lore gestured roughly towards Piper and Char.
“Ten years… Ten years?”
“I’d like to see you master multiversal travel faster.” Lore raised their voice. Charrlene bit her lip. She then rapidly blinked while shaking her head.
“What about my Lore? Did they survive?” Her eyes had been slowly reddening.
“We don’t know. We’ve only seen one other Lore and he wasn’t The First.” Lore paused. “He was the first but he wasn’t The First.”
Charrlene sniffled. “Lab’s this way.” She swallowed her sadness well.
The room she had called a Lab certainly lived up to its title. It was a marvel of modern and post-modern science with technologies from a wide variety of species from all over history. The only thing it lacked was a team to properly use it. With a clap of her hands, one appeared. Hard light people sprang from nowhere and immediately continued fiddling with their experiments and tinkering with their tools.
“Form up.” Charrlene smiled to her guests. “Right, Lore, this is a small portion of our research and development team. R&D team, here’s your proof. Get to it.” And with that, they stopped, downed tools and crowded around Lore and their family. After the first wave, a second appeared from the same aether as the first. Very soon, the room overflowed with inquisitive, holographic scientists prodding and poking the trio. After what felt like an eternity and sounded like the rabble at a breeding auction, their direct attention faded. As did half of the team. Those that had been summoned by Charrlene remained and immediately began work on their new, collective project.
“Ok… I don’t know if that was really cool or really disturbing. Why do you have holographic scientists? Why do you have so many?”
“The same happened in our universe to a lesser extent.” Charrlene began. “After you locked Crait up, the majority of The Guild’s science team splintered off to try and find a way to get them out of prison. I had some of the other Lores sort them out but it’s been harder in this universe. They were more devoted to you. With humanities reputation, we couldn’t hire anyone outside of the species. So we did the only thing we could, train an army of AIs to fill the gaps Lore left us with.” Charrlene shrugged. “It works.”
Lore couldn’t refute that. The lab was in full swing almost instantly. What they were working on, Lore wasn’t quite sure but it all looked rather impressive.
“What are they doing?” Piper looked around.
“They’re currently trying to work out how you survived your trip here.” Charrlene’s tone teetered on patronising. “And who might you be?”
“They’re part of the reason it took ten years.” Lore giddily tapped Piper’s shoulder. “We had a kid. And that kid needed training.”
“Congratulations.”
“Oh, I can tell you how we got here too.” Lore raised their left sleeve revealing the purple scar. “Rift scar. That cult tried to bring us here but we managed to break free. I brought us here. We only really ended up at the train station because we wanted to know where we were.” Charrlene looked at them defeated, disappointed and deflated. She waved her hands to get the team’s attention and called them off.
“You could have led with that.” Char mouthed sorry in her direction. “Right then, we need to start an analysis of our timelines. That way we can find out what’s gone wrong.” She clicked and the lab changed configuration. Microscopes dissolved into keyboards and screens rose from the benches. Seats rolled out from desks and a computer lab was born.
It was a solid hour of keys clacking before they received any sort of update. “We’ve found two possible times where things could have gone wrong.” The scientist began nervously. “We’ve narrowed it down to either the first time they activated their gateway device or the battle on Quatarr.” The room silenced.
“Thank you.” Charrlene handed him back the clipboard. “Well, two options and neither of them are particularly agreeable.”
“Which would you rather it be?” Lore had pulled up their own copy of the science teams findings on their Breacher. A line with two points slowly spun between them.
“If it gives me a chance to save Lore, I hope it’s Quatarr.” Crait’s voice entered the room with their shadow. The body soon filled the void. “And anyway, if we do save Lore, who knows, maybe we’ll stop the gateway anyway.” Lore nodded. Their logic was sound.
“If that’s decided then we better suit up. We’re off to the beginning of the end.” Lore’s voice broke with the realisation of what this would mean. Char put their hand in her own and squeezed it lightly. “Thanks.” Lore pecked her cheek. A Darkened Reflection.