The tear was not stable. Not stable at all. It was wobbly and a bit fuzzy. But it was there. Robert Lutece stood before it. The tear was to a lab that looked much like his own. The same tables, same chalkboard with the same mathematical formulas, just as cluttered. The one thing that differed, the one thing, was the person staring at him through the tear. They, like him, had red hair, a pointed face, and even wore the same color clothing as he. But the person standing through the tear was a woman.
Robert raised a hand and gave a small wave. "Rosalind?" The woman was beaming. Robert started to smile as well. He… She… They had done it. They had opened a door to another reality. Another world. And the woman before him, was him. In every way. The exact same genetic code. The only difference was that he had a Y chromosome and she an X.
She drew closer to the tear, examining the edges of the tear. "It's going to close soon." Robert took a step forward.
"I'll try and stabilize it from this side." He began trying to balance the machine that had been maintaining the field. The hole between worlds not only continued wobbling, but it got worse. Robert swore under his breath and returned to the tear. "It's not working. " The tear began to give off a light crackling sound so that he had to nearly shout to his other self.
Rosalind didn't speak for a moment. She had a hand on her chin, loosing herself in thought. Robert approached the tear, studying the female version of him. She really did look like him. Her body languages, her sharp features, all were the same as his. Even her freckles that neither of them had grown out of were in the same places. He took another step closer to the hole, his nose almost brushing the portal. In this time, Rosalind had also gotten closer to the tear as well.
Her blue eyes met his when she finally removed her had from her chin. The pair of them were inches apart now. Robert's eyes followed the outline of the circular tear. It was going to snap shut any moment now if they didn't do something. Rosalind broke eye contact with him now, her eyes flicking back and forth.
She lunged, forcing through the tear. Robert tried to back up, but Rosalind caught him by the wrists. Normally he would have been able to yank back and free himself from her grasp, but catching him off guard wasn't his strongest moment.
Rosalind pulled, causing him stumble through the tear. He slammed forward landing hard on Rosalind's lab floor; she released his wrists, backing away from him. She turned to her version of the machine that was sustaining the tear and shut it down. Robert rolled onto his back just in time to see the door to his world vanish. He jumped up.
"What in god's name was th-" he froze. Robert lifted a hand to his upper lip and pulled it back to examine it. Warm red liquid was running from his nose. A sharp pain, like a tug on one of his optic nerves, was shooting through his head. He began to sway back and forth.
Rosalind took a step forward, placing a hand on his shoulder, trying to steady him. Robert tried to focus on her, but his vision was fuzzy and a sound like a crackling record rang in his ears. His glanced about madly, as Rosalind slung his arm over her shoulder, trying to support him.
He tried to take a step, but his legs gave way under him and he started towards the ground again, but Rosalind pulled him up higher, his head lolling against her neck. She dragged his form with her, muttering something to him but Robert couldn't understand. Maybe his brain wasn't processing what she was saying.
He tried to walk, but his brain signals weren't traveling to the rest of his body. His mind was crowded, over crowded. There were memories that weren't his own. Were they Rosalind's? There was… a floating city… Impossible… But it made perfect sense. It was created using the partial… The one that they had used to make contact. He squeezed his eyes shut, the crackling was loud, to loud. Anything that Rosalind had been saying was completely lost to him now. All he could here was the broken record's sounds. Robert slumped against her even more heavily now.
His eyes fluttered open and closed. The world sliding in and out of focus. Rosalind was calling for someone and he felt his other arm being hoisted onto another pair of shoulders, his jaw falling to his chest. Robert went completely limp and allowed himself to be dragged. He was muttering something… Columbia… Columbia…. Over and over. What in gods name was Columbia? His head was going to explode. The thoughts that weren't his pounded against his skull.
Robert was heaved onto what felt like a bed, but maybe it was a couch, or even a very soft table. His hands, now freed from Rosalind's and the strangers shoulders, covered his ears trying to block out the crackling sound. "Shut up, shut up, shut up," he was almost shouting now.
He felt a hand on his face and allowed his eyes to open the smallest crack. Above him, Rosalind was pressing a cloth under his nose, trying to mop up the blood. What right did she have to touch him? It was her fault that this was happening. She had been the one to drag him into this world. These were her memories plaguing his mind. Robert drew a hand away from his ears and swatted her hand away.
Her face, already filled with worry, fell. Not that he much cared. This was her doing. Robert rolled over on the maybe bed, continuing to try and drown out the sound. More memories were flooding into his mind… Comstock? And who was this fellow with the top hat and mustache? Oh god…. Religion. Religion now. It hurt.
Robert was not sure how long he lay there, willing for the awful sound to stop, for the memories to stop invading his mind, before he lapsed into a comatose sleep.
