Renny: Okay so to understand the general plot, I've gone off from what Anthony Horowitz has laid down in canon for us Po5 fans. It's been implied that there can only be one set of Gatekeepers in the same world, as shown when Jamie replaces Sapling. So it stands to reason that, in the dreamworld, the Gatekeepers of the modern world (Scarlett, Jamie and Pedro) never meet their past selves, and the Gatekeepers who replaced Matt and Scott (Matt and Flint) never meet their future selves or see their friends again.

Matt: But you're changing that?

Renny: Yup. In this world, or at least in my headcanon, all ten of the Gatekeepers can exist in the dreamworld at the same time, so they can all meet their past/future selves and still see their friends at the same time. So basically, my post-Oblivion has seven of the two sets of Gatekeepers permanently in the dreamworld, while the other three are still alive.

Matt: And for this plotline to work, you're cutting them off from the dreamworld?

Renny: The dreamworld regained colour after Chaos was beaten right? That happens here too, but the living Gatekeepers can't access it. I won't explain why because I can't honestly explain it myself.

Matt: That makes just about as much sense as anything else in the series, so that fits perfectly.

Renny: Awesome! Can you do the disclaimer, Matty?

Matt: . . . Renny doesn't own the Power of Five. And please don't call me that.

Renny: Make me.

Matt: *raises up a giant ship out of nowhere*

Renny: Convincing argument. On with the show! *runs off* YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIIIIIIIIVE!

OOOOOO

"We think we may have found a way to send the two of you back."

Matt wasn't sure what prompted his past self to start looking into the concept. He wasn't sure how the other boy had gotten his friends, the other Gatekeepers of the past, to help out either.

But either way, it seemed that- after almost three years of searching- they'd found the answer.

"How?" Matt asked, standing up. He and Scott- actually friends now that they were, well, dead- were sitting on the beach trying to find some weird shell that Scott had seen a couple of hours ago, but to no avail as they hadn't found it yet.

Now it seemed like they might never find it.

"Well," his past self began. "Scar seems to have found something in the library. It's an old book, near enough to the back of the entire structure- the entire room's filled to the brim with books that might date back to before even our time."

"How is that possible?" Scott wondered, also standing. He dropped the black and white shell he had in his hands, and it scuttled away on pink legs. "I thought your people didn't have books back then."

"We did." Matt's past self- who was calling himself by his old nickname, Matteo, to distinguish himself from Matt- shrugged. "Just not many, and a lot of people couldn't read anyway, so they were useless to us."

"Besides," Inti added from beside him. "Many books were burned or destroyed. It appears that we may have found some that date back to times before the first coming of the Old Ones."

Matteo nodded his agreement.

"Fair enough, but how does this help us get back?" Matt frowned, crossing his arms.

"Like I said, Scar found one that might be able to tell us how to actually do it." Matteo explained. "It doesn't have a title, and the language is old- in fact, even the Librarian had trouble translating for us."

That was strange. The Librarian could understand, speak and write every single language ever created (even dead ones, like the past Gatekeeper's one) fluently. But if he had trouble with one language, well . . . maybe that meant there was a time before even the Librarian. Matt somehow found that impossible to believe.

"Scar and the twins are waiting for us in the room she found it in." Matteo gestured in the general direction of the dreamworld's library. "Come on, we shouldn't keep them waiting any longer."

With one last, slightly mournful look at the beach, Matt and Scott followed the two past Gatekeepers.

They found the other three waiting for them in a room that Matt had never seen before in the library, with the Librarian sorting through the books. They did indeed look incredibly old, some with actual frayed edges, and those open on the table were written in a language Matt had never seen before in his entire life or death.

"Hi guys!" Sapling grinned. Matt almost did a double-take when he saw him- Sapling was sort of almost literally buried in books.

"Dude, get out of there." Scott obviously wasn't amused.

"But my book fort is nearly complete!" Sapling cried.

"I gave up three hours ago, don't try and stop him." Flint sighed.

"So where's this book?" Matt asked, sitting at the table and deciding to ignore Sapling's weirdness.

"Right here, Matty." Scar held up one of the oldest books on the table, open on some page that had several strange drawings that looked even more twisted than the ones of the Old Ones.

"Don't call me that." Matt said absently, taking the book. He studied it and turned it over, looking at the back, but there were no words there- nor was there anything on the spine or the front, which struck him as strange.

Even the books from the past Gatekeeper's times had titles of some sort.

"See?" Inti said. "The translations are in those notes there," Pedro's past self gestured towards a pile of papers next to Flint. "If you want to read them."

He hesitated.

"Do you want me to do it?" Scott suggested.

" . . . Yeah. Sorry." Matt muttered.

"It's okay, really."

Matt wasn't actually that good at reading, despite what most people would think. As of his failed school years, he could just about barely spell words (one time he'd somehow became convinced that 'cat' was spelt as 'kat') and reading was another story entirely.

Scott didn't laugh at him. Nor did any of the other Gatekeepers, as Matteo was pretty much illiterate as well.

"Wow." Scott said after a few minutes.

"What is it?" Matt asked, leaning over. He tried reading the notes himself but he got up to the tenth word and gave up, looking up at Scott instead.

"This actually changes everything!" Scott cried, putting down the papers. "It sounds sort of complicated, but if we can figure it out, maybe it'll be simple enough for- . . . um."

"You can say it." Matt told him.

"I don't wanna offend you." Scott winced.

"Simple enough for us to understand?" Matteo spoke up. "Seriously, Scott, it's true anyway."

Scott sighed.

"Does this mean I can crack about your intelligence without-"

"No." Matteo said over Scar.

She slumped back, sulking. "Why do I never get to have any fun, I swear . . ." Scar muttered.

"You can join me in my quest for the biggest book fort in the world!" Sapling suggested cheerfully.

"The only one." Flint told him.

"That just makes it more awesome."

"Maybe later, we can look through the 1700s section for the walls or something." Scar said.

"Oooh they're bound to have some good stuff." Sapling grinned. "They started on a leap year, did you know that?"

"Shut up, Sapling." just about everyone said.

oooo

A few days later, they'd finally managed to figure out the spell (Flint insisted it wasn't one, but everyone else kept calling it that) to send Matt and Scott back to their own world.

Scott looked around himself and Matt.

They were on the beach again, but this time they were standing under a shady bunch of trees that he didn't know the name of. Probably something ancient and weird. Or modern and weird. Whichever.

He and Matt were surrounded by strange symbols that Scar and the twins had drawn up with some supposed magical blue charcoal. Most of them surrounded him and Matt, but others had been drawn onto the trees nearby, and each of the past five Gatekeepers took up their places in front of one tree each.

"Alright," Matteo said. "The theory is that, with our power combined with yours, directed by the symbols, the two of you should be sent back to your own world. Keep in mind that it's been five years since the Battle of Oblivion, and neither of you have aged at all since then."

"And the living Gatekeepers have." Scar added, from where she was standing in front of a tree with a blue pentagram symbol. "So, basically, your twin's gonna be twenty and you're gonna be fifteen."

"Paradox!" Sapling cackled.

"Shut up, Sapling." they told him.

"Spoilsports." he muttered.

"But he is right, it's gonna be a paradox." Matteo said. "It'll also be the first time that any of the Gatekeepers have been different ages, not counting different days of birth. And we also don't know the state of that world either, and a lot can happen in five years- that was demonstrated when you skipped ten years."

"Things basically went to hell with one, right?" Matt asked.

"Basically. Anything could have happened." Flint agreed. "Are you two ready?"

"Just one question." Scott held up a hand. "And I'm not saying I don't want to do this, but why? Why'd you all get this interested in sending us back, to the point that you'd spend three years looking for the right spell?"

"Ritual!" Flint cried. "It's called a ritual!"

"There have to be five Gatekeepers." Matteo answered, ignoring Flint. "I know it seems somewhat pointless now that Chaos has been banished again and the Old Ones are gone, but . . . there has to be five. The living ones have been cut off from the dreamworld, so they can't even visit us- or, more specifically, you two. This is more or less a precaution just in case something happens and the world needs the Gatekeepers again."

"But," Scar broke in before Scott could say something he would probably regret. "We also think that it's best for all five of the modern Gatekeepers to be together because, well, you belong together. Not just because your powers grow stronger with each other, but I think you need each other emotionally too."

Scott didn't say anything. He couldn't, because who could say something to a reason like that?

"Alright. I'm ready." he said. He glanced down at Matt, who nodded silently.

"This has never been done before, so we're not sure if this'll hurt." Matteo warned them.

"But the good news is that if it fails, you'll end up back here and we can try again." Sapling shrugged.

And that was true, so no one told him to shut up. This time.

"Alright then, give it everything you've got!" Matteo called.

The past Gatekeepers stretched out their hands as if they were trying to create some sort of circle, but they were all at least a couple of feet away from each other, so the circle wasn't complete.

Even so, Scott could feel the power start to flow from each one of them- and he and Matt reached out and gently touched fingertips, as a way to anchor themselves and make sure they ended up in the same place when they got back.

Not if. When. Scott refused to allow himself to think that anything else could happen.

He and Matt added in their own power, and finally the blue symbols arround them started to glow softly. Even if the daylight, the glow was easy to see, and awe-inspiring for Scott.

The world started to shake like it was trying to break apart.

It was gentle at first, so much so that Scott didn't notice it. But when it got more violent, he glanced around. No one else seemed to have noticed it, but Matt was looking like he felt- confused.

Was this meant to happen?

And then the pain started.

Scott fell to his knees and screamed, hearing Matt doing the same thing beside him. Despite the pain they kept their hands together, now gripping each other in fear of letting go and ending up on seperate parts of the world.

"HOLD ON!" Matteo shouted through the rumbling. It seemed that the past Gatekeepers had finally noticed it. "JUST HOLD ON!"

"H-hold . . . on . . ." Matt whispered.

Scott glanced at Matt and- almost involuntarily- got a flash of an old memory from Matt. Richard, taking hold of Matt and telling him to "hold on" as they jumped into a freezing river so they could escape somewhere Scott didn't recognise.

Matt gained strength from that memory. He was gonna see his best friend, his big brother, again.

Scott gritted his teeth and thought of Jamie. He'd turned on the Old Ones at the last minute and had broke the seal on the door to help his twin brother win the war. He wanted to see Jamie again.

The pain somehow changed, to become just a dull throb in the back of Scott's mind.

And then everything went black, and the only thing left in Scott's awareness- his entire mind- were the glowing blue symbols and the past five Gatekeepers telling him to stay safe.

OOOOOO

Renny: I wasn't actually intending to cut this off so early, but then I realised that the next scene I have in mind wouldn't work with the last one we just had, so yeah.

Matt: . . . That was an intense first chapter.

Renny: Not as intense as some things I've written. Next chapter's gonna be longer, I swear. Read and review, people! Even if most of you are in the shadows . . .