ELEMENTS > ORGANIZATIONS > GUARDIANS OF THE CONTINUUM
Guardians of the Continuum is the self-chosen name for a 1000 year old cult established by an unidentified vigilante from the future beyond 2077. Originally misnamed by Jason Sadler in Episode 110 as "Freelancers", the Guardians are actually created to stop the freelancers. The Freelancer terminology has stuck because keeping the Guardians mysterious was essential to plots throughout season two. It is only in season three that Kiera Cameron is informed of the distinctions, and most other characters continue to remain misinformed.
The cult of the Guardians is organized as cells, and only one cell is revealed so far, although there presumably are cells all across the planet to deal with local manifestations of freelancer disturbances.
Guardians possess advanced future technology, including time travel devices used by a small elite number of the group. Time travel is discouraged by Guardians, but some do. They need coded dot tattoos in between their fingers to prove authorized time travel, else they are criminal freelancers.
Stan Escher Sadler is a former Guardian who went rogue as a freelancer, fathered Alec Sadler-2012, then concealed himself using a fake death by fire, and was rediscovered by Guardians in the second season climax episode 213. That Escher ceased to exist in the aborted timeline after Alec Sadler-2013 time traveled back a week, and the Escher-2014 was then killed by Emily-2014.
The Guardians-2013 killed Agent Gardiner and framed Kiera-2013 to take the fall for it. Those Guardians-2013 ceased to exist in that doomed timeline when Alex-2013 time traveled back a week. Guardians-2014 also killed Gardiner and framed Kiera for it, but that has not surfaced yet.
Guardian Curtis Chen-2014 killed Kiera-2013 in episode 301. Curtis Chen's story is evolving in 2014 and red herring false leads have been strewn. Curtis Chen-2077 on death row has the Guardian tattoos in his prison cell meeting with Travis Verta. Chen, Travis and Jasmine Garza are the terrorists that took down the tower with 30,000 deaths, and the Guardians seem to be agreeable with his actions. Nothing else is yet known about Chen-2077.