2.6 Million Years ago. BC

Cyrus was wearing a full plate armor, he looked at the strange area around him. the air was warm. really warm, and the place was tropical, he looked around at the bright and shiny area, warm sand was below his metal feet. the area was unbelievably different, out of all the areas Cyrus was in. none of them had Palm trees.

He looked at the ground and noticed a yellow shine. he picked it up and noticed it was a necklace. a necklace of christ, it must be a gift from god! Cyrus thought happily and plucked off his helmet, revealing a Young boy with Golden hair and Cyan eyes, he put the Necklace on his Neck, a yellow shine glows off of it. Cyrus made a smile of happiness.

I see you have picked me up. I am the spirit of god. I have taken you here to the creation of this planet where the first holy relic lies. Others shall join you. they are from other times and they believe they're own thing. they have all been told different reasons to go on this quest. but remember. You are the true chosen one.

Cyrus looked around with a smile, he gotten on his knees and started praying with a look of Ecstasy on his face He was always with me. He Cyrus thought. and starting yelling things about his god. chanting words of happiness.

Amen!. Ameeeeeen! God is with us all!. Ameen!

Sengoku Jidai
July 30, 1570

Minamoto Kenshi aimed down the barrel of his matchlock, his target charging forth with his spear drawn. He laughed, spears are meant to out range swords and yet here he stood, holding the gun to out range the spear. He pulled the iron lever, watching the burning rope slam into the powder catch, igniting the blackpowder inside. A sharp breath later, he made tiny adjustments to his stance; tightening of his legs, the loosening of his hands, the steadiness of his eyes that lined up to the front sight. He closed his eyes as the sparks flew into the barrel, opening them right as the lead ball prepared to fire.

CRACK!

The ball of lead bounced around the inside of the barrel, ricocheting like a child's ball in a hallway, leaving the barrel faster than any horse or arrow could hope to. And with unparrelled accuracy, met the enemy soldier straight in the eye, taking a bit of his skull and temple with it. Kenshi grinned, another kill with his god-like shooting skills, the kami themselves jealous of it. He listened to the sounds of thunder the rest of the gunner showered down like a parade of death.

Hearing the leader's command to charge, he rallied the rest of the men to fight an die for the Oda Clan. With a quick draw of his katana, he slung his gun over his back and raced into the fray where swords and spears await the lucky and blood and death for the unfortunate. Literally jumping into combat, he cut down an enemy foot soldier before clashing blades with another samurai, his eyes full of honor and passion just like Kenshi's own black eyes.

Good men died all around them, to swords and spears, to arrows and polearms. Swing, parry, swing, block, across the chest and into block, Kenshi remembered his training as his feet adjusted for it. He tried to find an opening, a misstep, something that would allow him get a blow in, but the samurai's form was perfect. Finally, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a chance.

Grabbing the edge of the man's armor, he dragged it down, pulling the man down with it. He lost his footing and Kenshi rushed in with his blade. Long before he hit the ground, Kenshi's blade was lodged in his throat. A quick slice out and a fine red mist spurted out, Kenshi looked back to see the enemy dead or dying on the ground. He raised his blade and cheered, echoing with his comrades who did the same, throwing up their swords and spears in victory.

In the middle of the cheer, Kenshi heard a whistling sound, then felt pain in his shoulder. He cocked his head and saw a long wooden arrow sticking out of where his shoulder blade was now searing in pain. Roaring as he snapped off the shaft, the rest of the soldiers prepared to fight as a new wave crashed into them from over the hills, indiscriminate arrow fire peppering the Oda troops before the charge made impact. Kenshi would never live to see it though. Stroke down by a hail of arrows, dozens must have lodged themselves into every limb and every section of his body, bringing him to the ground on his knees before he collapsed under his back.

As the battle raged on, he reached towards the noon sun with an arm with less arrows in it, despite having mentally prepared himself to live and die on the battlefield, he wanted to coward out of it when he was at death's door. "Please..." he groaned weakly, "Dear kami, let me live..."

"Volunteer number 0001, Minamoto Sagiahara Kenshi. Time period: Japan, Sengoku Jidai, the Age of the Country at War." a new voice drifted into Kenshi's dying ears and he promptly though he was going mad from the pain, "Do you accept your task? You will be given new life upon acceptance."
"W-what are y-you? A g-g-god?" Kenshi struggled to hear the voice over the sounds of war.
"If it makes you feel any better, yes. Now, will you die here or will you accept your task?"

In his desperation to live, Kenshi accepted the task. The voice congratulated him as a body fell over, a spear still stuck in its chest. Kenshi yelled for the voice to return, "Hey! W-where are you?! Are you going to leave me here?"
"Digital download in process, please standby." the voice calmly said as Kenshi looked at his hand and began to panic, his hand, or what was suppose to be his hand was now disappearing into the air as blue square pixels like scattered sakura petals. He panicked and breathed as loudly as a man with a dozen arrows in his chest could as his legs and his other arms were "downloading", "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-"

He was suddenly cut off as he was taken from the battlefield, to be transported to some other place, to start the beginning of a grand journey beyond the path of honor.

5 kilometers offshore of Herculaneum
August 24, 0079

In the final moments of her life, before the lack of oxygen blocked everything out, Livia met her husband’s gaze one last time, seeing her own agony reflected back in his tear-filled brown eyes. And then the darkness swamped her.

But not entirely, because there was a glowing silver light approaching her. In the darkness, she saw a raised lantern. So the mythology was real. Mercury had come to guide her to the Realm of the Dead and free her from the sorrows of life.
But it wasn’t exactly what the tales said. He stopped, standing over her small form, and smiled a terrible smile.
“Lady Livia, the Jewel of Herculaneum.” He said.
“M-m-my l-lord?” Livia asked softly, wincing at her stutter. She never stuttered.
“You’ve become a coward. Dying without seeing your people to safety. Crying and making a fool out of yourself in those last minutes. How disgraceful to your family and your people.”

Two tiny souls drifted out from behind Mercury, the souls of her children, and with a cry Livia lunged for them, only to be paralyzed by the god’s power. He smiled again, nudging her with a golden-sandaled foot to push her back. “Nuh uh. You don’t get to have them back. However, I’m willing to give you another chance at life.”
“L-l-let me have m-my… g-give me m-my children!” Livia cried. “I-I’ll do anything if you give me my children.”

The god paused as if to consider it. Then he shook his head. “Even I cannot break the rules of the dead to that extreme. But…” he let the thought trail away for a moment. “But another deity has requested your service. You will be reincarnated with all of your current memories, but not in the same time. It would not do for you to find your little husband again and make more little coward children.”
“I… I j-just want my c-children. A… A m-mother’s f-first d-duty i-is to… to h-her f-f-family. W-w-without m-my children I… I-I’m nothing.”

The god bent down and raised Livia’s chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. Such a thing would have paralyzed a mere mortal; as it was Livia felt as though she might disintegrate from the power contained in the god’s dark silver eyes. He rose, once Livia’s eyes were trained on him, and seized her children’s spirits roughly. They squeaked and made hissing noises, though Livia couldn’t understand them (although she supposed she was dead too.) She tried to lunge for her babies, but the god just laughed and took a step back.

“You foolish child. A mother’s first duty is to her children, yes, but a child’s first duty is to her mother. And your mother is Imperia Roma. You would do well to remember that.” The god let her children’s spirits go and they fled away, further into the darkness behind his lantern. Then he knelt again, faked sorrow and hope in his eyes as he put his hand on Livia’s knee. “Lady Livia Domitia… Forgive me. It is not my intention to be cruel. But I will be if I must.” All the emotion went out of the god’s eyes, replaced by cruel calculation. “You see, the empire needs you, Lady Livia. If you agree to this second chance, you will be the force that will turn the tide of the Divine War. If you agree, Mother Roma will live eternal against the usurpers. If you agree, your whole bloodline will be granted prosperous lives and guaranteed entry to Elysium.”

Livia froze, her mind racing, scrambling for anything to say. “And if I do not agree, or if I fail?”
“Your presence alone will allow the gods enough power to succeed over their usurper. You cannot fail. But if you do not agree, well…” His eyes went hard again. “Your reward will be reversed. Your whole bloodline will suffer in the pits of Tartarus.* And as my lord Pluto has decreed, the Dirae^ will be set firstly upon your children to satiate their never-ending lust for agony.”

Livia couldn’t breathe. All she had to do was agree and even if this new existence was to be torture or some other vile concept incarnate, the empire would live forever. And her family would be eternally blessed. Why was she even still considering it?

“I will… I will accept the premise of the agreement, if it is to be sworn upon your honor as the god Mercury and upon the River Styx.”
The god smiled again. “By the River Styx and my honor as a deity of Rome, I swear that your family will be granted eternal bliss in the afterlife for every generation to come.” Dropping the formal tone, he pressed something into Livia’s hand. “This will help you on your journey.” He snapped his fingers and vanished, along with the souls of Aulus and Aelia.

Livia tucked the small item into her belt purse without looking at it and started to cry, shamefully, at the sheer hopelessness of this situation. Of all her education, she’d learned precious little of how gods operate. Then another voice spoke, seemingly all around her, and startled her out of her tears.

”Volunteer number 0002, Livia Hadriana. Time period: Early Roman Empire, Cataclysm of Vesuvius. Participation confirmed. Calculating location…. Location confirmed. Calculating temporal discrepancy… Temporal discrepancy confirmed. Standby for upload and transport.”

And then searing pain as she watched her own limbs start to disintegrate into a stream of bright blue, glowing pixels. With the last thought of her conscious mind she realized that the god hadn’t promised anything about Rome’s future.
But her family was to be safe. Surely that was at least a small victory on her part.

(*=For those unfamiliar with the mythology (the actual mythology, not the Percy Jackson mythology) Tartarus is actually what is referred to (in the PJ books) as the Fields of Punishment.)
(^= a Dira is the Roman equivalent of a Fury. The plural of Dira is Dirae.)

Arizona territory
Tucson
June 3rd 1881

Stumbling out of the local saloon humming a tune holding a half empty bottle of whiskey is Alan Lapart. The outlaw stopped to check if anyone was fallowing him. Seeing that the coast was clear he began to walk to were he was camping for the night. As he passed by an ally some one called to him. "Hey friend come over here I got a proposition for you," Alan placed his open hand on one of his colts before steeping into the ally "alright what is your proposition?" The outlaw couldn't see much of the man that he was speaking to only thing that he could make out of the figure is that he was wearing a fine suit. "I am putting together a group of people to recover 10 parts for a machine across time."

At the mention of time Alan raised an eyebrow "what do you mean by time?" he asked. "I mean that you will be traveling through out time. In exchange for going on this journey. You can steal or take what you want from different time periods. And your name will be famous as the outlaw who stole through time," the mysterious man said.

'Ok I'll bite so how do I join up with this posse of yours?" The man reach into his pocket and pulled out a small cross attach to a leather strip "by putting this on," he said tossing it to him. Glaceing at the man one last time at man before he put the necklace said "I swear to god if this is a trick I will shoot you." As soon as he put the cross on he heard another voice.

”Volunteer number 0003, Alan Lapart. Time period: American Expansion, Wild West. Participation confirmed. Calculating location…. Location confirmed. Calculating temporal discrepancy… Temporal discrepancy confirmed. Standby for upload and transport.”

Alan terrified yell echoed through out the town as he digitize into pixels and sent through time.

Soldier 56342 was in the armory being fitted with weapons and equipment being prepared for the experiment. "Soldier 56342 50% preparation complete" a computer said. Once he was fully prepared he was lead out to a large auditorium where the machine was standing in the middle. Hundreds of political figures, and high ranking soldiers were in the audience watching as history was about to be made. Soldier 56342 is going to be the first to test out the new time travel device. "Begin countdown" the computer said as He entered the machine and the door closed. "10...........9........8..............7........6..........5.........4.........3........2.......1......Activate!" The Scientist at the control panel hit the button and the machine came to life glowing and making strange noises. The Soldier stayed calm and still as his body began to slowly disappear. Withing seconds he was gone completely.

~
London, Emgland

October 21, 2012
9:58 AM

Ava giggled to herself as she put on her leather jacket as she walked to the door. "Come on, Ava. Are you really gonna just walk off without us talking about what happened last night? And your laughing, why are you laughing?" Ava spun around to look at her friend Peter. She gave him a small smirk before kissing him on the cheek. "Your just adorable. There's nothing to talk about though. We were both drunk off our asses SO, yeah. It's not a big deal. We are just friends."

She said easily trailing her eyes over her surroundings before looking him in his eyes. He appeared speechless and couldn't muster up words to say. She 'awwed' at his cuteness before pinching his cheeks. "Like said, your adorable. Gotta go now." She then turned on her heel and strutted away, texting on her phone in one hand and her laptop case in her other hand. She waltzed down the street like it was a catwalk and practically oozed complete and utter confidence.

That was just Ava. She walked down the street looking at her surroundings every once in a while but, she kept her eyes on her phone thumbing through her website. Yeah, she had a public website that people could contact her from. In order to get her help with jobs and such. She replied to a few that caught her attention, linking them to her email so they could further contact her and they could talk business.

Finally Ava stopped in front of a large building, her apartment. She sighed in relief at seeing her home before slipping her phone in a small pocket on her laptop case. She entered through the double doors and was greeted by the smell of flowers and leather. And a faint trace of smoke. Yeah, a weird combination but, it's her home and she loves living there. She could afford a house by then but, she's grown attached to the apartment.

After all, it's not as if it's small and cramped or anything. It's a nice, big size.

She walked past the person at the front desk. His name is Warren and he's in his late twenties and is quite attractive. However, he isn't her type and she thinks of him as more of a father figure if anything. "Morning Ava." He greeted in his deep voice that oozed warmth. She gave him a smile and a small wave. "Hey Warren." She replied before walking to the elevator and getting in before pressing the button for the 4th floor.

She waved to Warren just before the doors closed and she was slowly moving up. However, during the ride she, all of a sudden, heard a voice that was accompanied by a blurry figure that was in the corner. This, of course, made her jump 10 feet in the air out of pure surprise and a curse soon followed.

"You have been selected to go on an important mission to recover 10 parts for a machine across time." The voice said ominously. Ava glared at the figure, her interest was piqued however. "Strewn through time? What's the catch?" She asked as she put her laptop case over her shoulder, crossing her arms with her hip popped out. Clearly untrusting of the creepy figure.

"You and others from different time periods are going on this mission to retrieve the 10 parts scattered throughout time." Ava was interested in meeting people from other time periods. Should be fun. She gave him a smirk filled with trouble. "Okay, let's do this." The figure disappeared and her necklace shined a bright gold color before settling. Before she could ask what's happening the voice responded.

"Your necklace allows you to be able to communicate with others who are not of the same language of you. Don't lose it." She fingered the necklace. It was really a golden compass that was connected and strung to a golden chain. And then she heard the voice once more.

”Volunteer number 0004, Ava Miller. Time period: Modern Civilization, Beginning of a Machine-Based Existence. Participation confirmed. Calculating location…. Location confirmed. Calculating temporal discrepancy… Temporal discrepancy confirmed. Standby for upload and transport."

She then gasped as she broke into billions if pixels and disappeared. Right as she disappeared, the elevator doors opened.