Fiction: The Divergent, a short story

The Divergent⌛

A short story, by Erik Engström, 2026-06-01

Midnight had long since passed when the two figures passed by the alley.

A city is a living organism and the pulse had slowed down after the break of night. Cars and people that makes up the artificial bloodstream had vanished like every other night in the city.

It took only a few seconds before the two silhouettes came back after having seen something strange further down the road and instead made the unwise decision to take a shortcut through the alley in order to reach the subway faster.

Huron Yetao and Thema Reno had just performed a mission as contractors for The Time Council, in which they had been tasked with an assassination. The time council usually avoids interfering with the timeline directly, as they believe the unaltered timeline is the most pure and correct. So, when the order had reached them, they could at first not believe the mission or who the target was.

Further into the alley, a slumped-up shadow in a filthy doorway barely caught the attention of the two agents who were visibly agitated and walking rapidly to the other end.

Joanney Sutton was used to be unseen by fellow people, to the two people jogging past he was no one, but even a nobody can become a somebody, those who are not seen are sometimes the ones that see the most.

The two agents hadn't made it very far when yet another person stepped into the alley from the other end. A metallic sound, the familiar noise of a slide being racked on a gun was heard coming from the other end of the alley. The hooded figure aimed at the two agents and fired several shots in rapid succession. Debris fell from the concrete wall and landed on Joanney, who froze from the shock and surprise. Seeing both Thema and Huron being immobilized on the ground the assassin retreated out of the alley and into the street.

For a moment everything was quiet. It had all happened so fast, but Joanney came to and brushed the concrete crumbles out of his hair and from his clothes. After a few seconds a coughing was heard from one of the agents. It was Thema who tried to get up, failed and fell back to the ground with a loud splutter.

Joanney who was just mere meters away, crawled out of the shallow doorway and over to the pair. Thema turned her head to him and with eyes that pleaded, she spoke "my watch, take it, stop them" with her final words, as her body gave up and became one with the ground. Had he been anyone else then he might have ran off in fear, but something about the way she spoke her last words made him act.

Her wrist was still warm as he pried the strange wristwatch off from her arm. A green and blue light was dimly lighting up his face as he held it up. The assassin was gone and so were the agents, so he quickly decided to go back the way the agents had come from.

He rounded the corner as he came out to the street, on the other side was an empty parking lot and a few dark corners to hide in. Joanney stealthily made it over to one of the hiding spots and looked closer at the watch. It had a few buttons, one of which was labelled "home". The watch face displayed a set of coordinates and unlike a regular wristwatch it displayed not just hours, minutes and seconds, but also the year and another number he couldn't figure out the meaning off. The backside of the watch was engraved with TTC and the initials T.R.

Having no place to call home since the incident, he pressed the home button in curiosity.

The display changed to a black screen, and strange code in green now covered the monitor.

"Confirming user... status... failed"
"Confirming timeline ID.... success"
"Checking vitals... success"
"Wielder will be temporally relocated in 10 seconds"

It had managed to count to seven before Joanney reacted, hastily strapping the wristwatch to his arm, in all his hurry he even managed to put it on the wrong way, leaving the watch face upside down.

Being transported in spacetime is an unpleasant feeling, not because it feels strange, but because you don't feel it.

As both the waves of light and the molecules touching you are affected, your mind simply cannot comprehend the experience.

For him it was no different, when he arrived all the senses returned at the same time, just as light returns after a blackout, leaving him disorientated.

He arrived, suffering from acute time travel sickness, but he was in relatively good shape.

Looking around himself, he noticed that he was in what almost looked like a reception area of an office.

Two receptionists looked over at him from a desk, almost apathetically, as if they barely registered his arrival. Then they continued with the paperwork that they had in front of them.

He sat down on a bench, fiddling with the device which display now had returned to normal. The coordinates had changed and so had the time, not only was he not in the same time zone, he was in a completely different timeline now.
An hour went by when one of the large doors on the side opened up and a man in a suit walked out, locking his eyes onto Joanney.

The suit didn’t present himself, just said “come with me, we know everything”.
Joanney who was still dazed from his first journey through time didn’t put up a fight and just played along. They walked through the same door that the man had arrived from and continued through a long corridor. Judging by the sound of their footsteps and the structure of the bright walls, they were in a corridor made of cheap metal.

He looked around as they continued on and noticed a woman with short red hair who was packing a bag inside of a room. Their eyes met and there was something familiar with her face and she looked at him and her facial expression revealed a similar instinct.

They turned around a corner and arrived in a room. He didn’t have time to connect the dots before the suit finally spoke again. “I know you witnessed something you shouldn’t have. I am going to make the choice simple for you. Either you cooperate with us or you will expire here today.”

Intimidated Joanney spoke hesitantly, “what do you need me to do exactly?” and shifted uncomfortably.

“I need you to finish the job next time, one of the agents survived the ambush, your ambush”, said the suit calmly but with a voice that commanded respect.

“Wait, that was me?” Joanney replied confused and shocked, “how is that possible?”

“The timeline is broken thanks to the three of you and this is the way to set it straight again. The council does not approve of any divergence. You will be provided with the equipment that you will need and you leave shortly again. In the meantime, make peace with yourself.” The suit ended the discussion and left the room.

Half a minute later Joanney stood with his back against the door, still confused about the past conversation, when he heard a faint voice.

“Hello Joanney”, spoke the voice from the door. He turned around and saw the red-haired woman from earlier. “I believe you have my watch”, she said with a voice that hid sadness not nearly well enough. It was at that moment he recognized her eyes. She was one of the agents. She knew that he knew and cut him off before the words had even left his mouth.

“I know what he asked of you. I am here to ask the same. Listen, the integrity of the timeline is more important than our lives, your life. I know he wants us dead, but if you save us, you will break the timeline. You don’t have much time, you must choose quickly, I need to leave before they see me talk to you”, and as fast as she said it, she had already turned around and started going back to her room.

He knew better than to call out for her, instead the tall figure of the man in the suit stood in the opening to the room a while later. “You are ready, it is time”, he said imperatively.
He helped Joanney enter the spacetime coordinates into the device and as he looked the man into the eyes the man had already pressed the activation button.

It would have been a lie to say that he was prepared this time around, even the most experienced time travelers never fully get used to it, but it was done, he was once again in the neighborhood where it had started. The dark parking lot looked the same.

Down one end of the street he saw two figures sneaking around in the darkness, “Huron and Thema”, he whispered to himself. Turning to the other end of the street he a saw the hooded figure waiting under a streetlight. Dressed just like himself.

Joanney knew he had to make it into the alley before the others, so he dashed across the street from the parking lot. He peaked out and saw the hooded figure disappear around a corner in his attempt to ambush the agents. Joanney hurried to the safety of the doorway.

Once again something startled the two agents, who broke away from their intended path and headed towards the alley as well.

He hunkered down in the place where he first had witnessed the attack, but this time he was armed. The observer was now a participant in a game greater than he himself could understand at this point, but he had made his decision. Whether it was made on false premises or not, he knew what he had to do.

Hiding in the darkness of the doorway he aimed the gun at the end of the alley and waited.