It's A Wonderful Unlife

by dooder's nin

What you say and how you say it can make all the difference as Frankie, Cleo and Jackson come to learn when an idol Cleo brings to a slumber party ends up giving them a glimpse of what it would be like if a few certain things were changed. Now they must work to fix it before they run out of time and become a part of this alternate life…or unlife.

Since it was a Friday evening, Frankie's parents had finally allowed her to have a sleepover at her house rather than go over to one of her friend's houses. Her father had been reluctant, but some persuasion from her mother had granted her the opportunity. What delighted her even more was that her parents were pretty much allowing them the run of the house for the night with only brief appearances to check in on the girls. Abbey arrived with Clawdeen and Lagoona, while Draculaura showed up with Ghoulia. Only Cleo arrived by herself, accompanied by more than anyone would have thought necessary for a sleepover except perhaps Draculaura.

"Hey ghouls!" Frankie cheerfully greeted her friends as they arrived, doing her best to be a good hostess with the responsibilities that her parents had laid out for her to remember. They'd put on a movie and had ordered pizza, going about like any normal sleepover for the friends. As it got later and they continued to talk and play games, they eventually got into the realm of boyfriends. It was inevitable, but Clawdeen didn't seem as thrilled about the topic once they had moved beyond the comments on who had improved their cute status levels or whatnot.

"Well, not everyone can have a relationship like the one Deuce and I share." Cleo responded to something Lagoona had said as Frankie walked back into the room with more drinks for everyone. It seemed she had been right in asking her parents to allow her to stock up on more smoothie ingredients after her friends had commented on how well she made them. Passing them around, she rolled her eyes as she caught Clawdeen's look and sympathized with her. She was just sitting back down when the girls heard a knock on the door.

"Who could possibly be coming over now? It's almost ten thirty" Draculaura asked, looking to Frankie as though expecting her to announce another person she had invited. Frankie shrugged and cautiously looked out the window before opening up the door. "Hi guys. What are you doing here – it's a sleepover you know…" Frankie said as Jackson and Heath stood on her doorstep. Jackson looked shyly at Frankie seeing her in her pyjamas, elbowing Heath in the side as he peeked around Frankie to whistle at the girls. Even if he succeeded in causing Abbey to snicker at his antics, they were not too pleased to have their sleepover intruded upon.

"Sorry Frankie. Heath and I went to see a movie with Deuce and Clawd. They're waiting in the car." Jackson said, fiddling with his glasses. Frankie nodded but continued to stand at the doorway. "That explains why you're out so late, but not why you're here." She said. In response, Jackson pulled out from his pocket Frankie's phone.

"We must have switched phones earlier when we got caught outside in the rain." He said, Frankie finally letting them inside so she could check to see if she really had taken Jackson's phone. Picking up the phone from where she had placed it on the kitchen counter before hastily getting all the parties supplies and cleaning up after school, she realized that she really had taken Jackson's phone. They looked similar, but she would have thought for sure that she wouldn't have missed that detail. "You're right. Thanks Jackson." she said, handing over his phone as he checked the screen. "I didn't even think to check with getting ready for the sleepover."

"Yeah. I hadn't bothered either until my mom called Heath's phone to ask why I wasn't answering mine." Jackson said, Heath nodding. "It was good thing the movie hadn't started. You're mom talks as much as my dad does." He said, walking over to say hi to his girlfriend. At this point, Clawd and Deuce had gotten out of the car and stood on the doorstep, Cleo hugging her boyfriend while Draculaura squealed as she hid behind Ghoulia that Clawd wasn't supposed to see her in her pyjamas.

"No no no! I'm not allowed to have guys come over!" Frankie said, attempting to shoo them away before her parents noticed. But Cleo turned to look imploringly at her friend.

"They could stay for just a few minutes, right? They're planning on heading back out anyway so there's no harm in just ten minutes." Cleo tried to suggest, Draculaura pulling a blanket around herself as Clawdeen rolled her eyes and waved to her brother. Frankie looked torn over what to say.

"Come on. They can play in one game that I brought with me." Cleo said, dragging Deuce inside despite his protests that they didn't want Frankie to get in trouble because of them. Jackson gave her a sheepish smile. "Sorry Frankie. I just wanted to return your phone." He said to try and calm her down as she started sparking.

"Yeah. One game and we're outta here." Heath said, encouraging Clawd to actually come inside and shut the door quietly behind him. Despite her reservations, Draculaura still sat beside her boyfriend as Cleo pulled out an idol from her bag.

"Cleo. You're not supposed to take those things with you anywhere." Clawdeen said, Ghoulia moaning out a warning about the last time she hadn't checked the side effects of an idol's power. But Cleo seemed to not be concerned at all, placing the idol on the table.

"Oh we won't do anything drastic. It's all for a little fun." She said. The other's looked over what appeared to be a miniature obelisk. "This is supposed to have the ability to give the wielder a peek into alternative fates. I thought it might be interesting." She said, moving symbols around on the idol to get it to start working. "It'll project images from the gemstone on the top." She explained before turning to the others.

"This sounds like it could seriously backfire Cleo" Deuce said, trying to reason with his girlfriend. "I know you still have issues with that time that everybody temporarily forgot about you because of Gigi's powers, but do you know what could happen if something went wrong?" he asked. He was hoping that at the very least, if he couldn't persuade her to stop then he could get her to keep the safety precautions up and running.

Cleo dismissed his concern and continued fiddling with the idol, pressing and rearranging the symbols on the sides of the obelisk, causing it to start to hum and glow from the bottom. That got everyone's attention but Frankie was sure that her parents would hear and come to find the extra guests in the house. Jackson tried to calm her down but she stood up and tried to plead her case to her friends, seeing the light from her parents' room turn on. Grabbing onto the obelisk to halt Cleo's actions, she said to her friends, "Yes, well, if my parents find you all down here it'll be as though they failed in their creation of me because they will end my existence". She tried to tug on it to pry it from Cleo's hands but the mummy held tight to her idol. "Draculaura, you have to help me get them to go back home!" Frankie said to her friend sitting beside her. Jackson positioned himself between Frankie and Cleo, attempting to pacify the situation. "Guys just put it down and then we can…" he said, placing his hand on the top to ease them into lowering the idol back onto the table. Cleo's eyes widened as she saw too late how things weren't working quite right, but before anyone could say anything, a bright flash from the idol blinded everyone and for a moment no sound was heard. It was apparent that the idol had been more than Cleo had expected.

---

Cleo, Frankie and Jackson blinked open their eyes slowly as their eyes readjusted. They noticed that they were the only ones standing in the room now, and that it was suddenly daylight outside. "Whoa. Frankie what did you do?!" Cleo said, yanking the idol out of her friend's grip.

"Me? Nothing. I was trying not to wake my parents." Frankie defended herself as Cleo looked over the idol. Jackson waved his hands frantically to get them to not launch into one of their dramatic fights.

"Girls, come on. Why can fight about who did what later. We need to figure out what happened." He said, looking between the two of them to get them to calm down and think things through. "It's daytime already so either that thing brought us forward or backward in time…or something." he said, scratching his head as he thought about what Cleo said about her idol. "Cleo…can it do that?" he asked her, getting her to look back at him from her inspection of the idol.

"Maybe. It's supposed to project different possibilities for people's pasts or possible futures. We messed up the symbols on it so we could have created an alternate timeline…I think." She said, hand on her hip. "I wouldn't have to think about it if you hadn't panicked Frankie" she complained, earning a disbelieving look from her friend.

"Fine. Let's just go with me screwing things up. How do we get back to our time then?" Frankie asked, crossing her arms in her irritation. Jackson sighed as he realized the difficulty he was going to be faced with in handling the two girls in addition to whatever situation they had found themselves.

"Well. It should be simple – get everyone who was in the room back together and we repeat the beginning of the ritual but each of us has to press down on the inverted symbol to get us back." Cleo said, shrugging.

"But we don't even know if everybody's still around." Jackson said. "They could go to different schools or not even live in the country. Draculaura, Abbey, Lagoona…they could all be attending schools in their home countries." He said, causing Cleo's confident smirk to wither a little. "Plus, we don't know what sort of trigger caused any differences." He said, attempting to come up with some sort of hypothesis for them to follow as they went through their day again.

"There could be two of each of us now too, right?" Frankie asked, looking to Jackson as though he might provide her with the answers like he normally was able to for his girlfriend. But he shrugged and looked to Cleo.

"I don't think so since we were holding onto the idol. We likely jumped into the position our alternate selves were in without there being any immediate change." Cleo answered them, recalling what little information she had read up on for this idol. "What did you say again when you grabbed…" Cleo started to ask, but a noise from upstairs alerted them that Mr. and Mrs. Stein were waking up. Frankie's eyes widened and she motioned for her friends to head out the door.

"Okay, we'll wait out front. If you're not out soon we're gonna be at Cleo's place." Jackson said, Cleo giving him a curious look but nodding nevertheless. She could tell that Jackson was coming up with some sort of plan and she didn't mind heading back home to begin to sort things out. Frankie nodded along and shut the door before turning around and coming face to face with her father as he came down the stairs. He stared at her for a long time, making her feel uncomfortable with all the silence. She could see from where she was standing Jackson and Cleo peeking in from the window and Frankie decided to keep her father's attention on her.

"Good morning…dad?" she said, making it sound more like a question as he stared at her as if he had never seen her before in his life. Her father took a few slow steps toward her and placing his hands on her shoulders. "It worked! It worked! You're alive!" he said, pulling her to him in a hug. Her father laughed and pushed her away again to take a look at her. "Your mother didn't believe I should keep trying when you didn't wake up the last times we tried…but I knew I could figure it out and now you're here." He said, smiling at her while Frankie looked on in confusion. Her father picked up on that and gently guided her over to their couch, petting her hair as he let go to race back upstairs. Frankie looked back to the window to shrug to her friends. They nodded and left her to deal with the problem, having their own agenda to get to as they tried to set things right. Looking back to where her parents were racing down the stairs together, her eyes widened as her mother enveloped her in a big hug. "Mom?" she asked timidly, not entirely sure what to expect. Her mother laughed and pulled away to look at her daughter, tears of happiness in her eyes.

"Yes baby…I'm your mom." She said to Frankie, making her feel all the more confused as she looked back and forth between her parents. They sensed her confusion and smiled comfortingly at their daughter before her mother turned to her father. "You tried again last night without telling me?" she asked without any real hint of anger in her voice. Her father nodded to his wife, wrapping an arm around her shoulder to pull her to him and placed a kiss to her head. "I did, but I didn't think it worked. Poor girl must have woken up by herself in the dark – I found her wandering around down here as I came down." He answered.

"What's going on?" Frankie asked, having had enough of them talking about her as though she couldn't comprehend what they were saying. Her mother gasped and looked to her father. "You managed to get her speech fully developed too? Oh, she's wonderful, perfect…our little girl." Her mother said, hugging Frankie again. "How old am I?" Frankie slowly asked as she came to the realization that maybe there was no alternate version of her in this timeline. Her father chuckled before sitting beside her and wrapping an arm around her like her mother had. "You just woke up, dear. You're probably only a few hours old. Happy birthday!" he said, smiling wider and laughing as Frankie's eyes widened even more. Oh no, she thought, it's because I said it would be like they never created me when I was holding onto the idol – what else has changed?

---

Cleo and Jackson managed to get back to her house in under a half hour, having raced from Frankie's house nonstop to avoid running into anyone. Catching their breath, Cleo led them inside and they entered into the de Nile's enormous library full of old papyrus scrolls and tomes. Jackson whistled as he looked around at the amount of material in awe, Cleo rolling her eyes at what she thought of as nerdy behavior.

"So…any idea where to start searching?" Jackson asked as Cleo set the idol down on one of the tables in the room. She tapped her chin as she thought about it. "You probably will end up doing most of the research if all of these are in ancient Egyptian. I can't read that Cleo" Jackson said, sitting down and checking his watch.

"Whoa. Cleo, it's almost time for school to start." He said. Cleo sent him an annoyed look, a hand on her hip as she processed what he said. "I think we can skip today Jackson. Once things are righted it'll be like we didn't skip at all." She said, waving her hand in her typical manner. Jackson sighed and rubbed a hand on his face before answering. "I know that Cleo, but one of us needs to go find out if our friends are still around, still friends with us, and how to convince them to all meet up together." Jackson said.

"Well, that's my kind of job. No offense, but you're not a social butterfly Jackson." Cleo said. "You can stay here and look through the scrolls." She said, indicating one stack of scrolls. "And some are in English, especially since my daddy likes to have Nefera or I translate old scrolls when we're being punished. He checks them once we're done so the information is accurate." She said as Jackson looked over the mound he was going to have to search through. "It's how I came across this idol." She said.

"Alright then. I've got my phone on me so I'll call you with anything I come up with and you can do the same." He said. "Sound like a good plan?" Jackson asked, doing so mostly to get her to not give him a hard time if she felt that her approval was necessary for the plan to acceptable. It worked since Cleo nodded and headed out to go to school. Jackson sighed as he set to getting through all the scrolls and realizing it was going to be a very long day, not counting the fact that he was doing it all over again.

Cleo was ready to go and out the door shortly, being carried to school to arrive just on time. Entering the school, she couldn't immediately notice any glaring differences as she walked among the other students. It did seem like there were fewer monsters, but she had to continuously remind herself to be careful with what she said or did. Spotting Clawdeen, she warily approached her with what she hoped was a genuine-looking smile. "Hi Clawdeen." She said as friendly as she normally did when talking to her friend. But the werewolf just growled at her as she finished up at her locker.

"What do you want from me Cleo? My brother isn't anywhere near here so you'll just have to wait to talk to your boyfriend." She said to the mummy, taking Cleo by surprise. "What?" Cleo asked. Clawdeen huffed. "I don't have time to play your dirty little mind games Cleo. My brother may have fallen for them, but I'll convince Clawd you're not right for him. Now get outta my way or you're going to make me let for class." Clawdeen said, the hostility practically dripping from every word she spat at Cleo. Cleo just nodded and stepped to the side to allow her friend to brush by her. Cleo gulped as she realized that not only did this version of Clawdeen apparently despise her, she was dating Clawd too.

Cleo also learned that she'd only moved to their town about sixty years ago rather than the amount of time that she had actually been living in their town, and so wondered about her other friends. Continuing on through the day, she had tried to talk with Draculaura but had found that her vampire friend had only been attending Monster High for a few months since she and her father had just moved from Transylvania. She was also surprised to find that although she spoke and behaved the same in nearly every way, she wasn't shy about drinking blood. But it seemed at least this one of her friends was willing to talk with her, since Clawdeen had kept Ghoulia by her all day to prevent her from talking to her. Her other foreign friends were also more difficult to locate, as Lagoona didn't really hang out much with her apparently and Abbey had only arrived that day as she transferred in.

"Hey girl" a voice said behind Cleo before a furry face snuck a kiss to her cheek. "O-oh! Hi…Clawd." She said, plastering a fake smile onto her face as she watched Deuce walk by without sparing her a glance. "Everything okay today? You seem jumpy." He said, pulling her into his side as they walked down the hall. Cleo hastily nodded, trying to keep from arousing his suspicions before she had a sudden thought.

"Actually, I am a little down." She said, Clawd taking the bait and looking at her in concern. "I was hoping to throw a little party at my house – just a little one with a few friends – but I can't convince your sister to come along. I really am trying to be friends with her." She said, swallowing before she forced herself to lean into Clawd's side to persuade him to help her out.

"Yeah, I know she can be a little difficult. I can talk to her for you later. Maybe she can bring Ghoulia along to help her…feel…less irritated?" he trailed off, not wanting to offend Cleo. But Cleo just giggled and nodded, happy that her plan was coming together. Clawd's face brightened at that and he gave her another kiss to the cheek as Cleo pretended to be looking away at the moment. She awkwardly coughed before continuing. "That'd be perfect. I'd love it if Ghoulia came along too. You'll be there too?" she asked, his nod confirming what she'd already suspected. She smiled and gave him a genuine hug as she hoped things would work out. Now I need to find a way to get the others to come, including Deuce, she thought. Draculaura, Abbey and Lagoona would likely take her up on her offer too, since they seemed amicable enough with her and probably wouldn't refuse an invitation from one of the most popular girls in school, even if they didn't know why she was inviting them. She sighed, thinking that she now also needed a way to talk Heath into coming too but considered asking Jackson to drag his cousin there.

A huge burst of flame and a couple of screams shocked Cleo and Clawd apart to see what the commotion was all about. "Aw, Heath's up to his stupid bully self again with his anger issues." Clawd sighed, shaking his head. Cleo looked curiously at him but chose not to say anything just yet as she watched Heath storm past with nearly every part of him aflame. "We didn't know how easy we had it with Manny before he got sent to that correctional school." Clawd said, causing Cleo to be unable to keep in her gasp. Looking to Clawd as he eyed her curiously, she shook her head to clear her thoughts before she said anything. "What's made him turn into this? He's normally just goofy. This can't be just from missing his friend."

Clawd looked at her in concern, guiding her down the hallway so they could head to class. "Cleo, what's gotten into you? You know what happened; why everyone lets him get away with this stuff still." He said. "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked, Cleo hastily nodding and smiling to put him at ease. He still looked concerned, but seemed to agree to let it go as the bell rang and they needed to get to class. Cleo remained standing there until Frankie burst through the front doors, sprinting over to her.

"Hey Frankie." Cleo greeted. "I take it you didn't exist in this timeline if the way your father was acting was any clue." She said, walking with her to the end of the hallway so they could talk. Frankie shook her head. "No. I feel bad that I snuck away like I did, but I needed to get here. Where's Jackson?" she asked.

"He's back at my place researching the idol. I've been finding our friends. FYI, Clawdeen hates me and so does Ghoulia, I'm dating Clawd, Draculaura is a new transfer student and drinks blood, Abbey just got here today, Lagoona had no idea why I'd want to talk to her, and Deuce hasn't spoken to me at all." Cleo summed up, Frankie's look one of bewilderment at all the information. "Oh, and Heath's the school bully, not Manny since he apparently was sent to another school for too many fights."

"What? That's ridiculous. He must be the least terrifying bully ever." Frankie scoffed, crossing her arms and leaned against the windowsill. Cleo shook her head. "Well, you didn't see him storming through the halls. I'm lucky Clawd pulled me aside or all my bandages would have been turned to ash." She said, shifting her weight as she stood.

"Hey! You must be a new ghoul." Deuce said as he walked over to them, extending a hand to Frankie as he smiled at her. "I'm Deuce." He said, his snaked bobbing around happily and making the two girls laugh.

"Hi Deuce. I'm glad to see you." Frankie said, momentarily forgetting that she should be more careful with what she said to her friends since they had no idea who she was to them. He smirked at her and her eyes widened as she realized that she sounded like she had been flirting and she glanced at Cleo to let her know it was an accident. She didn't want a repeat of her actual first day at school. "Well I'm glad to hear it – and me too…" he trailed off, waiting for her to say her name. "Oh! I'm Frankie." She said, shaking his hand as he smiled at her and held her hand for longer than was necessary for a handshake. "I'll see you around Frankie" he said, beginning to leave before Cleo called him back.

"Frankie just accepted an invitation to a small party I'm having tonight. Just a few friends I'm trying to get to know better. Why don't you come?" she asked sweetly, pretending to be playing matchmaker. Her role was made all the more convincing by Frankie's startled exclamation of confusion and he chuckled. "Alright. See you there Frankie." He said, pointing at her and smiling as he walked away.

"What the heck was that Cleo?" Frankie asked as she attempted to comprehend what was going on inside her friend's mind. Cleo rolled her eyes. "Now we have Deuce coming over to my house too. All that's left to do is find a way to get close enough to Heath to invite him and we have everybody together to perform the ritual again." Cleo explained as they walked.

"Oh! A party is a brilliant idea Cleo." Frankie gushed, surprised by her friend's clever thinking. They turned down another hallway, noticing that it was decorated differently. "I do wonder what could have made Heath so hostile though. That's just not in his nature." She said worriedly. Cleo nodded before abruptly stopping. "So that's what Clawd meant when he said Heath had a reason for getting away with bullying" she said staring at the wall and pointing. Frankie followed where she was directing her and gasped. On the wall was a small, framed photograph of Jackson next to one of the mad science classroom. But while she could have dismissed it as for having achieved some sort of award, the phrase 'In Memoriam' underneath made it very clear as to why his picture was hung in the hallway.

"What happened?" Frankie said, slowly walking over to the frame, her hands covering her mouth. Cleo gulped loudly but shook her head. "It must have been accident…but it seems like there are a lot of things that are different because you didn't exist to make an influence on things." Cleo said, dragging Frankie away and into the classroom for their final class before lunch. Frankie looked curiously at her, prompting her to explain her thoughts more. "I know part of it had to do with that you must have said when you grabbed the idol, but there have been plenty of other things too." Cleo said.

"But I didn't want to send anyone away from ever having come to Monster High…unless, that's how the spell interpreted what I said to Draculaura about going back home." Frankie said, her eyes widening again as she had an epiphany. "That's why she and Abbey and Lagoona just recently got here. They went back home, but they find this place to be their home too so that's how they are still in this timeline with us." She concluded. Cleo nodded and continued with her theory. "And since you weren't here to help put us together again, we're only distant friends, especially Clawdeen. And you didn't break up any of Manny's fights, nor did Abbey, so he had to go to another school. And with Jackson, you weren't here when he first discovered that he had two sides to him and he must not have been able to cope with his parents keeping that a secret from him his whole life. Holt had nothing to focus on other than music and parties, which Jackson must have fought with him over, and something led to him getting in an accident." Cleo reasoned, not concerned at all with the looks their teacher was sending at them for talking in the back of the classroom while class was going on. Still, they remained silent for the rest of the class and began to head to lunch, talking over how they might approach the touchy subject for Heath.

---

"I texted Jackson with all the information I got from today, but he hasn't responded yet." Cleo said, checking her phone as they lingered in the hallway after class as the other students headed into the creepateria and left them alone in the hallway. Frankie sighed, giving out a little moan and holding herself to keep herself from falling apart from the stress.

"Oh, I hope he's found something." Frankie said. "You did tell him not to come here, right?" she asked, turning to face her friend directly. Cleo rolled her eyes before nodding to answer her friend's question. They were debating on whether or not to go actually eat something when they heard a small 'psst' that caught their attention.

"Jackson! You can't be here!" Frankie whispered to him as she ran over to him, giving him a hug nonetheless. Cleo huffed before smacking him on the shoulder. "Don't you read your texts?" she asked him. He scowled at her and returned her question with one of his own. "Don't you check your voicemail? I told you I'd found the scroll you were talking about but that my battery was dying so I was heading over to you guys. Besides, my excuse of you having sent me home to get you something for school required that your father also see me leave." He said, not letting go of Frankie just yet. "But why can't I be here?" he asked. Cleo huffed again, before looking down the mad science hallway to see if the coast was clear. Satisfied, she pulled him down the hall to point at his picture on the wall. "What the…" he trailed off, running a hand over the picture. "That's messed up. How'd that happen?" he asked as he turned to his friends, but received only shrugs in response.

"No idea except that it was an accident from you not being able to deal with Holt and vice versa." Cleo said, continuing to check the hallway. "But your death made Heath into the school bully. I have no idea how I'm gonna be able to get him to agree to hanging out with the rest of us." She said, placing her hands on her hips. But Jackson still seemed to be in a bit of a shock, Frankie rubbing his back comfortingly. "You really do need to hide or something. If anybody sees you then there's going to be too much of a commotion that will make it impossible for us to have the chance to fix this." Frankie said, Jackson nodding in agreement. He handed the scroll and idol back to Cleo in the bag he had taken from her house.

"Okay. Um…I'll wait for you in the cemetery. Anybody who sees me there will think I'm some kind of ghost, I hope." He said. The girls nodded and Jackson made his way back down the hall. As Jackson slunked against the wall to avoid being spotted, he heard a commotion behind him, forcing him to rush to squeeze himself between the last locker and the wall. A couple of students ran past him in fright, Jackson holding his breath as they went by, fearful of being spotted.

"That's right you better run!" he heard his cousin threaten, walking past him all ablaze and appearing far more menacing than his typical pranking style. Jackson swallowed thickly at the sight, waiting for Heath to move out of range before he stepped out. Convinced that it was safe, he let out the breath he had been holding and cautiously began to continue down the hallway. Another bang echoed through the hallway and Jackson could see a student running away from him, but Heath had apparently thought the guy had run the other direction and doubled back, running into Jackson.

"Oomf. Who thinks they can just sneak up on the Heathster?" His cousin threatened as he righted himself and lifted Jackson against the lockers before seeing who it was.

"Hi Heath." Jackson said timidly as he'd been caught by the one person who definitely shouldn't have seen him. Heath's flame immediately went out and he stared wide-eyed at Jackson, still retaining his grip.

"J-Jackson? Is that really…it can't be you. I saw you die. I was at your funeral" He said, tone switching from hopeful to angry to grieving within the same sentence. Jackson nodded, gently placing his hands over Heath's. "Yeah. It's me." He said, giving his cousin a small smile. "I'm really here now."

Heath blinked a few times, releasing his hold to run a hand across Jackson's face to confirm for himself what Jackson had said. Jackson remained still, not sure what he should do next, but Heath started to hyperventilate and in the next second had collapsed into Jackson's arms. "Oh, not good." Jackson said, sinking down to the floor with him. "Oh, you're heavier than you look cuz'" he said, trying to get a good grip on Heath to drag him outside with him. It took several stops and hiding spots, but Jackson was successful in getting outside with Heath, opting to carry him piggy-back style to the cemetery. He wasn't sure how he was going to explain things to Heath if he woke up soon, but he figured that at least he solved the girls' dilemma of getting to his cousin.

Arriving at the cemetery, Jackson gently set Heath down under one of the trees that had a bench under it. Catching his breath, he sat under the tree to wait for the blowup to start as soon as Heath woke up. He didn't have to wait very long as Heath groaned and brought his hands to his face. "Ugh. What happened?" Heath moaned in a manner that suggested he was talking more to himself rather than expecting to receive an answer.

"You fainted. I never thought I'd see that happen" Jackson said, laughing. Heath shot upright at the sound of Jackson's voice, hands slipping from his face to reveal his wide-eyed expression as he looked at his cousin. Jackson smiled at him again and gave a little wave from where he was sitting. "Hello again. Please don't pass out again on me."

"Y-y-you're dead." Heath said to him. "And not in a good way man!" he began to shout, hysterics starting to overtake him again.

"I know. I saw the picture." Jackson said, attempting to keep the tone between them light to downplay the panic. "How'd that happen by the way? Was it quick at least?" Jackson asked, grimacing.

"You don't remember?! Dude, Holt got into some major fight and some guy shot him – you – in the back. I watched Holt fall and transform back into you before…" he said, wiping his face with his hand again. "You can't be real. I've finally snapped. I wasn't able to help you both deal with things or quick enough to stop that guy and now I'm hallucinating...You can't haunt me cuz'." Heath said, shaking his head as tears started to form in his eyes as he let out a few hysterical laughs.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Jackson said, getting up to sit next to Heath and wrap an arm around him. "I'm not here to haunt you Heath." He said, his cousin clinging to him as though if he let go Jackson would disappear again from his life. "But don't leave either. I miss you so much." Heath sobbed into his chest as Jackson ran an arm up and down his back to comfort him. "I love you cuz' and I never said it once to you." Heath said, pulling away to look into Jackson's face.

"I…love you too Heath. Everything's okay. We can just stay out here for a while." Jackson said, wishing for the first time that day that time might move a little quicker so the girls could get back to them. Heath let out a few more sobs as he hugged Jackson to him again, dropping his head into the crook of Jackson's neck.

"You're still exactly the same as that day." He said. "I'm not letting go again." Heath promised, Jackson finding he could only nod a little. "Could you maybe not squeeze so hard though?" Jackson tried to joke with his cousin, but Heath only gave a short laugh and squeezed him tighter. "Or not." Jackson said resignedly. "Same humor too. I don't know how you're here, or why, but I'm making sure you stay." Heath said, Jackson leaning into his cousin as they sat on the bench.

"At some point I'm going to need to get up to leave Heath" Jackson said, thinking about the girls' plans. Heath held onto him tighter and shook his head. "No! No! I'll come with you then" Heath bargained. Jackson sighed. "Of course we'll leave together. I meant we can't sit here for the rest of the day." He said. "I'm starting to fall off this bench anyway." He reasoned with his cousin to let him go so they could readjust themselves. Heath slowly let go but watched every move Jackson made before latching onto him as soon as he was comfortable. I hope the girls get here soon, he thought. As much as he loved his cousin, he wasn't sure how to handle him quite like this.

---

Cleo and Frankie raced over to the cemetery as soon as they were able to, Cleo having to talk briefly with Clawd once more to make sure that he would remember to talk to his sister for her. Once there, they were amused at the sight before them. Heath had stopped sobbing at this point, but had exhausted himself emotionally to the point where he was simply clinging to Jackson like a kid holding his teddy bear as he drifted off to sleep.

"I thought you were trying to avoid running into anybody?" Cleo asked, crossing her arms as she smirked at Jackson's situation. Jackson rolled his eyes and attempted to stand up to talk with them, but Heath mumbled a startled, "No!", before pulling him back down next to him. Jackson sighed, having found any humor in this long gone. "Heath, I'm not going anywhere. You can watch me talk to the girls, okay?" he said to his cousin, trying to convince him that he wasn't going to just disappear.

"Is he alright?" Frankie asked as Jackson wormed his way out of his cousin's grip as much as he could, Heath adamant that he hold onto Jackson's sleeve at least. Jackson turned to look at her. "How do you think you'd react if your dead relative suddenly showed up completely out of the blue like nothing was wrong?" Jackson said, shooting her a look. Frankie looked embarrassed for asking such an obvious question, but Cleo called their attention back to their situation.

"Well, I can take Frankie back home with me in my carriage…but I'm not so sure how you two are going to get back to my house." She said. "It looks like everybody's going to come, but Clawdeen's got me a little worried." She said, chuckling as Heath tugged on Jackson's arm like a little kid to get his attention.

"I have a car." Heath said to his cousin. Jackson looked at him in confusion, since last he checked, Heath didn't have a license. "Why do you have a car if you can't drive it?" Jackson asked, but Heath didn't answer, instead only shrugging and blushing. "Okay fine. We'll take the illegal driver's vehicle and meet you there." Jackson said, attempting to walk away but was held back when Heath didn't move with him. "Come on Heath. We need to go now." Jackson said patiently, spurring his cousin into action. The girls followed them into the parking lot.

"Jackson, somebody might see you just walking around out here." Frankie hissed at him as her boyfriend didn't make much of an attempt to hide. Jackson shrugged. "It's the end of the day on a Friday – everybody's more concerned with getting to where they planned on going. They won't notice me if I'm walking with a bunch of other people." He said, opening the driver's side door on Heath's car. "Oh, so that's why you have a car. This is – was - my car. My parents must have given it to you." Jackson said as he started to get in.

"No way Jackson. You need to let Heath take over from here." Cleo said. "You may be the better driver, but if someone recognizes his vehicle and tries to talk to Heath, they're going to notice you." She argued, Jackson finding himself unable to come up with a counter point. Grumbling, he maneuvered Heath into the driver's seat and shut the door, Heath protesting as Jackson stood outside. "Fine, but if we crash 'cuz he's not in the best state right now, I'm so blaming you." He said, walking around the front of the car to keep in his cousin's view as he got in the passenger's side.

Although Jackson had a valid point, the girls did find it cute to see how much Heath and Jackson cared for each other, especially with Heath. They waved and headed over to Cleo's awaiting servants. A few minutes later and they had arrived at Cleo's house, waiting outside for Heath and Jackson to pull up. They spotted Heath's car turn the corner onto her street at breakneck speed and come to a screeching halt that made them wince just from thinking about the kind of whiplash that could give them. Jackson scrambled out of the car, slamming the door shut behind him. "What the heck kind of driving was that?! You could've killed us with the way you take those turns. Geez, Heath!" he said, rubbing his neck as he ranted. The girls laughed at Jackson's response as he walked over to them. Heath rushed to get out of the car too, jogging over to where the three of them were standing. "Sorry. I don't get many lessons." Heath apologized, looking over his cousin as Jackson sent him an irritated look.

"Yeah, well, let's not go for another joyride anytime soon" Jackson grouched as Cleo led them inside. "Why do you continue to drive it if you don't know how?" he asked. Heath gave him a look that was a mix of embarrassment with incredulousness. "It was your car. Why do you think I try to drive it?" he said, shutting the door behind them as the girls walked ahead. Jackson winced but nodded, remaining silent as they entered into Cleo's library.

"Should we try to set up for an actual party too? Just in case they get here and we need to stall. They're gonna want to know what's going on if nothing's set up." Frankie said, Cleo nodding before calling over her servants to give them orders on what to do for a small party. As she did that, Frankie took out the idol and scroll that Jackson had brought to them.

"Okay, so this says pretty much the same thing that Cleo told us." Frankie read aloud, Jackson taking a seat in one of the chairs with Heath leaning against the wall. She looked over at the elemental, who seemed overwhelmed, continuing to just stare at his cousin. "You gonna be okay Heath?" Frankie asked, snapping him out of his reverie. Heath nodded once but Frankie was unconvinced. Jackson grabbed the scroll and pulled it closer to him, opening it up to point out what he had found.

"This is why I thought I needed to find you two. Look." He said, indicating a portion of the papyrus. "This talks about how we only have a certain amount of time before the time lines start to try and take care of any anomalies – which is us." He said, unrolling more of the scroll. "This talks about the use of celestial measurements in opening up the glimpses that Cleo was intending for us to play with at your sleepover." He continued to read, Frankie looking over his shoulder as Cleo reentered the room.

"Wait. Are you saying that none of what this world is like is real? That one little thing Cleo did, messed it up and got you killed?" Heath asked as he tried to rationalize what was going on, turning his frustration onto Cleo in blaming her.

"Whoa! Calm down Heath!" Cleo said, holding up her hands in a gesture of surrender. "We're going to fix this and everything will go back to normal." She said. Heath's flame was still ablaze but he backed off, returning to his previous position of leaning against the wall. Jackson awkwardly coughed to get back to their previous conversation, Frankie still looking anxious as Heath and Cleo seemed tense around each other.

"Anyway, we might not have until ten thirty tonight to fix this." Jackson said, causing Cleo and Frankie to snap their attention back to Jackson. "What? How is that possible?" Cleo asked, snatching the scroll out of Jackson's hands to look it over herself. Jackson rolled his eyes at her typical behavior, but Heath didn't seem too thrilled. Frankie left her position standing behind Jackson to come between the two of them, holding out a hand to keep Heath from just lunging at Cleo.

"Cleo, give it back and let Jackson explain." Frankie said, urging her friend to do as she said with her eyes. Neither of them had any real idea how to expect this version of Heath to act, but making things difficult for Jackson wasn't helping their situation. Cleo huffed but handed the scroll back to Jackson.

"So what I was trying to say was that this scroll's solution to righting any tweaks one might make to their timeline involves not only inverting the right symbols – which don't seem to be in the same position anymore on the idol - …" he said, pointing over to the idol so that Cleo could look for herself, "…but it has to be done when the star that it uses as its base signal is at an angle inverted from the time and location when the ritual was done." Jackson finished, Frankie and Heath giving him confused looks. He waved off their confusion with a gesture of his hand. "It's astrology. I can do that part, but Cleo needs to figure out what pattern those symbols keep shifting in means so that we can actually get around to fixing things." Jackson said, standing up to go use the computer in the room.

"So when are you guys supposed to do this thing then?" Heath asked. Jackson shrugged. "Give me a minute Heath. I'm not an astrologer, but luckily there's always the internet." He answered, typing away at the keyboard. Heath smiled as he watched Jackson getting to work, no doubt lost in memories about his own version of Jackson. Heath turned to Frankie to apologize but found that she'd had a far-away look on her face. Snapping his fingers and waving a hand in front of her face didn't seem to snap her back to reality, so he gave her a little shake. "Hmm? Oh! What happened? I spaced out there…whoa, haven't done that since my first few…days…" she said, her eyes widening. "Jackson, you said something about the timeline trying to fix anomalies. Does that mean we're going to become whatever this version of ourselves is supposed to be?" she asked, rushing over to his side.

Cleo stopped her analysis of the idol to pay attention to this portion of the conversation. "If that's the case, then you might even forget about us being your friends and revert back to how you really were on your first days of being awakened." Cleo said, gasping. "Assuming that you don't just disappear!"

Frankie held her head in frustration, grasping at her hair. "No…no, I don't think that's what might happen. My parents ran all sorts of tests to make sure that I was fully functioning this morning so their actions probably made it possible that their version of me would be created by now…" she said, biting her lip.

"I got it. The star that this idol used at ten thirty last night will be in the sky at the same angle from our location, but inverted…at seven fifty two." Jackson said standing up from the computer desk, hoping to get them into focusing on doing what they were able to control.

"But Jackson…" Heath said, alarm spreading across his face. "That's too late!" he said, grabbing onto Jackson's shoulders. His cousin looked at him curiously. "Why would that be too late, Heath? What am I missing?" Jackson asked. Heath shook his head to stop his eyes from watering. "Heath! Tell me!"

"If what you said about turning into what this version of yourself is like, then…at seven forty… you're gonna be shot and bleed to death." Heath said, holding onto his cousin as Jackson's knees began to buckle. Heath eased him back into his seat, the girls gasping at what he just said. Jackson took a few deep breaths. "Why do we have to always cut things so close?" he asked, rubbing his face with his hand. Heath just held onto him tighter it seemed, as he faced the possibility of losing his cousin as over again.

---

The four of them worked on figuring out just how to go about getting back to their timeline, Heath putting more effort into contributing than before. Cleo was working with Jackson to come up with a possible equation to use to try and help them solve the puzzle that the symbols seemed to be in as they repeatedly rearrange themselves every half-hour. Based on what Heath said was waiting for Jackson, he and Frankie chose to work on looking through the scrolls that Cleo had said contained information about healing spells. Although Cleo figured that the idol that had created the alternate timeline would have more of a power over the amulet or spell that they used to try and heal him, they hoped that it would be enough to keep him from bleeding out within the twelve minutes until they could enact the ritual again and go home.

"Okay, maybe if we use this one to try and…"Jackson said, fiddling with the idol and maneuvering the symbols around. It looked like he was making progress but as he paused, the symbols rearranged themselves again. Cleo let out a groan as this happened again, throwing her hands up in frustration as she and Jackson again failed.

"Jackson this could take longer than we thought. I told the others to be here around six thirty and I need to check in on how the party is being arranged and send out texts again to remind everyone." Cleo said, getting up from her seat to start typing on her phone. Jackson sighed, leaning back in his chair to take a break before trying again.

"How's it going with you two? Any luck?" Jackson asked of Frankie and Heath, but Frankie just shook her head before letting her hand climb to the top of the bookcase out of her reach and pull down some more scrolls to look through. Jackson groaned again and leaned onto the table, folding his arms and resting his head down. Heath paused in his search and walked over to his cousin.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out. No one I know is as smart as you were – are!" Heath said, having to correct himself. Jackson gave him a small smile, overlooking Heath's phrasing as he was getting better at talking with him in the present tense rather than the past.

"Before or after seven forty?" Jackson asked, running a hand through his hair. "It's almost six thirty and we're no closer to solving this than when we started. Cleo, there's got to be something here that you can pick up on that I'm just not able to see." He said, getting up from his seat to stretch. "Any ideas what you're going to do for an hour and a half? We can't let them decide to leave early." He said to Cleo. The mummy scoffed at Jackson's questioning of her party-throwing abilities while Frankie laughed.

"Don't worry about Cleo's role in all of th…"Frankie started to say before dropping the scroll she was holding and zoning out again. Jackson sighed and picked up the dropped scroll as he and Heath guided her to sit down in one of the chairs. Frankie's moments of spacing out had become more frequent as the timelines started to catch up with the three travelers.

"This is not good man." Heath said, hair starting to flame up again briefly before he extinguished it. Jackson rolled his eyes at his cousin's understatement, deciding to look at what Frankie had dropped. "Hey Heath, look at this." Jackson said, spreading out the scroll as they waited for Frankie to regain her senses. Cleo's attention was piqued and she stopped her party preparations to come over.

"That might work cuz'" Heath said, letting Cleo stand where he was to read. She nodded as she looked over what had caught Jackson's attention. "This is not meant to be a long-term fix though Jackson. Who knows if this amulet will work with the idol's influence already working on us?" Cleo said, but what he had found seemed to be their best chance as it was an amulet meant to stop the worsening of an injury. But she knew that the incantation that empowered such an amulet was only meant to keep a person seriously injured in a suspended state so that help could arrive. There was no telling if it would be effective on Jackson's injury. "Maybe we can find something that's meant to actually heal a fatal wound or to prolong life…" she mumbled. "But daddy doesn't tell where those are so that Nefera or I don't mess around with them and possibly do something to ourselves." She said, making a face at her father's stubbornness. "I know he means well but he should trust us with that stuff by now."

"Because you're always so careful with every little artifact of his" Jackson sarcastically said. But Cleo simply huffed and walked away due to her lack of a proper response, considering that this situation may have been preventable.

"-ings. She's….hmmm? Oh, not again!" Frankie said in frustration as she came out of her dazed state. "That's really annoying. I hated those. I couldn't remember what happened during them." She said, crossing her arms.

"Yeah. I have some experience with that." Jackson said. "But at least yours will go away soon." He said as she walked over to give him a hug, chuckling at his reference to his other half. "But it seems as though you were onto something with this scroll." Jackson said, letting her take a look at what he and Heath had already read while Cleo went to search for the amulet. Frankie looked over at the amulet, noting that it was small enough to hold in one's hand, and feeling as though they had accomplished something.

"Well there's something at least. Any ideas on the idol's puzzle?" Frankie asked, picking it up again to look over. Jackson seemed to deflate again, his cousin patting him on the back in an attempt to comfort him. Shaking his head, he was about to answer when music began drifting through to them from where the servants had begun setting up for the party. "Oh no! Not now. Holt's gonna…." Jackson said, clutching at his head to cover his ears in the hopes of stopping Holt from being triggered, but a burst of flame signaled that Holt was out.

"WHOOO! It's been too long!" Holt said, having not been triggered for at least a full day since the three of them began their adventure. Holt looked around to get his bearing, smiling as he clapped a hand on Heath's shoulder. "What are we doin' here cuz'? There's some music beggin' to be danced to and we're in a library? Nah uh…let's go get…." Holt started to say, dragging his cousin out of the library before Frankie intervened. Heath had been just as much in a dazed state seeing Holt again as he was with Jackson, despite knowing what was coming, and hadn't been able to get a word in edgewise with his cousin anyway. They had almost made it to the door when Frankie got in their path to stop Holt from continuing his path.

"Holt. We don't have time for this." She said sternly, pushing him back into the room. She checked the time to see that they had only ten minutes before people started arriving to explain things to this half of her boyfriend and to convince him to stay put and out of sight.

"Hey! You need to make time to enjoy life Ms. Fine…" Holt smiled at her, anxious to get out and have a good time with his typical over-exuberance. "Yo! A Hyde's gotta do what a Hyde's gotta do. Heath can back me up on that one, right cuz'?" Holt said, addressing his cousin. Heath continued to just stare at his long-lost cousin again, unable to keep his emotions in check. Holt looked sideways at Heath. "What's up with you? Did Jackson get somethin' on us?" he asked, checking his hands for any strange substances.

"No Holt. We're just in a lot of trouble at the moment and you can't let yourself loose." Frankie said, sympathetic to Holt's urge to be free. "We can explain, just try not to be loud, okay?" she said. Holt still remained unconvinced. "Well can we walk and talk? That beat needs some serious…" he began to say, attempting to brush past her when Heath pulled him into a tight hug.

"I'm so glad to see you again Holt!" Heath said, crying a little as he held onto his startled cousin. Holt tensed under all the affection, looking to Frankie for help before he noticed all the scrolls and ancient Egyptian items spread all over the place.

"Wait a minute…where did you think I'd gone? Jackson didn't try to…to get rid of me…did he?" Holt said, sounding both saddened yet furious at the thought. "We were getting' along fine! What did he do?!" Holt began to shout, trying to shove his emotional cousin off of him.

"Nothing! Nothing like that happened." Frankie said, eyes widening in panic at the thought of Holt letting go of what little control he usually had. The last thing they needed was for him to start something now. Holt was breathing heavily as he looked around the room. "Then tell me what he did!" he demanded of his girlfriend. "Were you going to just let him do that to us?!" he yelled, directing his fury toward her now as his hair began to blaze.

"Holt, calm down." Heath said, reigning himself in. "Please just let me talk to you. It's been so long since I could talk to you." He pleaded, his tone apparently doing the trick and getting his attention focused on anything else but his anger. Frankie let out a little sigh of relief, but still remained on edge in case something else should happen.

"What d'ya mean, 'so long'? I talked to you yesterday…unless Jackson's kept me away for longer." Holt said, his irritability showing up again as he spoke. Heath took a breath to compose himself before getting ready to explain to his cousin what he knew. "No Holt. Jackson hasn't done anything to keep you away for his own purpose or to try and get rid of you...And while you may have really talked with me yesterday, I definitely haven't talked to you." He said, walking back over to his cousin.

"Yo, Frankie, what's he talkin' about? He's makin' no sense here." Holt asked his girlfriend. Frankie sighed and motioned for Holt to sit down. Begrudgingly, Holt took a seat and gestured with his hands for her to get on with an explanation.

"Okay, well, you and I were hanging out together outside before it started to pour out, remember? You turned back into Jackson as we took cover under one of the weeping willows by the school when your headphone's got snagged on a branch." She began, hoping that by starting with his last memory she could convince him to calm down a little more. Holt nodded and seemed to be doing better. "Well, I had a sleepover later that evening and Jackson came over with Heath, Clawd and Deuce when he returned my phone 'cuz we switched by accident. Cleo persuaded us to let you guys in to play one game but she pulled out this idol and it created an alternate timeline. You and I and Cleo aren't affected because we'd been touching it when it went off, but we don't have much time to put things the way they should be." She finished. Holt looked at her with an expression of incredulity as she talked, scrunching up his face.

"So then, what? Do I not live around here in this version of things? Did we never go to Monster High together then?" Holt turned to ask his cousin. Heath looked down and shook his head. "No. You did live around here Holt. You and Jackson went to Monster High, but only for about six months before…before you got into a big fight at a party you were dj at with some guy who pulled a gun on you." Heath said, starting to tear up again. "You and Jackson had only just found out about each other and weren't handling it very well. Your parents asked me tag along with you and I'd been having fun spending time with you – and Jackson too. I just, wasn't quick enough." Heath said before he covered his mouth with his hand, unable to continue.

"Are you sayin' that there isn't any me in this timeline?" Holt asked, looking between the two of them, their nods of affirmation not sitting well with him. "This is one sick joke yo! Nobody could get the drop on me like that!" Holt said, standing up and roughly walking past them and out the door to follow the sound of music before either of them could stop him. They rushed after him, but knocking on the door could be heard as the guests were arriving.

"Oh no!" Frankie gasped. "You follow Holt and I'll go get Cleo so we can answer the door!" she said to Heath, who nodded and sprinted in the direction Holt had run off in as he attempted to catch up to him. Frankie took a deep breath and made to go after Cleo when her friend managed to appear next to her as though by magic, startling her. "I heard the door. Sorry about the music, I wasn't able to warn you before they turned it on." She said, handing her the amulet she had been searching for when they split up. Frankie sighed and nodded, waiting with her as the servants opened the doors and their friends walked inside.

---

Draculaura walked in beside Abbey, the two of them talking with each other about their adjusting to Monster High, Lagoona not too far behind them. They smiled pleasantly as they noticed Cleo and Frankie, walking over to them as Cleo motioned for them to follow them to the back of her house where the party was to take place. For a while, the three of them seemed to be getting along fine with Cleo and Frankie, answering questions about themselves and asking a few of their own. Thankfully neither of them decided to question their invite, making things go a little easier. As Clawd and Ghoulia walked in, Heath pulled Frankie aside to talk with her.

"Frankie, Holt's gone!" he whispered to her in a panicked tone, his hair starting to flame up. Clawd sent him a curious look but Heath sent him a sheepish smile before continuing to face Frankie. "What do you mean, gone? Where'd he go?" she asked, her eyes wide at the thought that they would need to find their wayward friend soon if they were to be able to carry out the ritual. Heath shrugged. "I mean he gave me the slip. I think he might still be hanging around waiting for his chance to pounce on the music setup, but I have no idea if he decided to head to his home either. He could be anywhere Frankie!" he said, voice rising a little in his agitated state.

"Shh!" Frankie said, snapping him back to attention. "Okay, let's just hope that Jackson's phone really does use up the rest of its battery soon and he can make his way back to us. As much as I love your cousin, he does make some things more difficult than they need to be." She said, putting a smile on her face as Clawd approached them.

"Hey Heath…I didn't know Cleo asked you to come." Clawd said by way of greeting. Heath shrugged and nervously smiled. "Yeah…I'm just here to, y'know, provide the entertainment." He said, nervously chuckling as he decided to pick up a few of the candles Cleo had set up and attempt to juggle them while keeping them lit. He was successful for about thirty seconds before one landed on his head, the wax dripping onto his head and causing him to scramble to get it off. In his haste, he tripped on one of the tablecloths, knocking a stack of paper cups onto him as he fell to the floor, one of which sticking to the wax and making it look like he was wearing a fez. Heath gave a short chuckle as Cleo stared exasperatedly at him, but the girls snickered while Abbey fondly smiled at Heath's antics. Frankie also shook her head, not at all surprised at his level of success – she could tell how he and Jackson were definitely related. But Heath was successful in diverting anyone from getting too suspicious and trying to leave. Getting up off the floor, he brushed off the lingering residue from the candles as Abbey assisted him in removing the cup from his head.

Clawd chuckled and turned to talk with Frankie. "Man, it's been a while since I've seen Heath like that. I don't know what you and Cleo did, but keep it up." He said. "Deuce and I tried to get him to talk with us, but we just couldn't seem to get him to open up. He's much better as himself than…whatever he was trying to be." Clawd took a sip from his drink before turning to Frankie again. "Sorry ghoul. I didn't ask your name. I'm Clawd by the way, but I bet Cleo's already told you about me." He said, extending a hand for her in much the same way Deuce had done when reintroducing himself. This time Frankie was better prepared and smiled as she shook his hand. "Hi Clawd. I'm Frankie." She said, looking around the room.

"Oh, so you're the ghoul Deuce was talking about at practice today…." He said, slyly grinning at her as he trailed off, causing Frankie to inadvertently blush at the implication he had made. Luckily Clawd took it as something to be expected and laughed. "Don't worry. He's a cool guy so long as he keeps his glasses on. He's a gorgon after all. He should be here soon too." he said. Frankie nodded and was about to ask where his sister was when Cleo beat her to it, rushing over to the werewolf.

"Where's Clawdeen? You said she'd be here!" Cleo said, eyes wide as she grabbed onto his arm. Clawd sighed before placing a hand on Cleo's shoulder. "I said I'd talk to her. She's stubborn, or did you forget about that? She said she'd think about coming but that she'd come later if she came at all." He said. "Sorry Cleo, but it's no big deal. I know you tried." He said, moving aside to go talk with Heath.

"What are we supposed to do now?!" Cleo franticly asked of Frankie. She looked absolutely panicked, having assumed that everything would work out. "I have to call her or something." Cleo said, taking out her phone.

"Wait. Something tells me that might just make it worse." Frankie said, watching how Clawd and Draculaura seemed to politely say hello but keep their distance as the werewolf and vampire tensions apparently applied to them in this timeline. "I'll see if I can go talk to her – once I find where Holt ran off to." She said, causing Cleo's mouth to drop in a dramatic gesture.

"He's out and running around?" Cleo asked before shaking her head and holding a hand to her forehead. "Oh this is giving me a headache from all the stress. I think I'm changing too." she said, Frankie helping to guide her to a seat. "Plus, it seems it's all up to me now to figure out how to crack the idol's puzzle." She sighed, leaning forward to drop her head into her hands. Frankie nervously looked around as the others stared at Cleo's behavior.

"He, he. Clawd, could you come here?" Frankie nervously chuckled and called her friend over to the side. "Um…I don't know if you noticed, but Cleo really wanted to try and straighten things out with her and Clawdeen. She really likes you…and…said that she didn't know how you two were going to continue to be together if your family can't stand her." Frankie fibbed, hoping that Clawd might reconsider trying to persuade his sister to come and take one more worry off of Frankie's shoulders. Clawd looked stunned, glancing over at Cleo as she had her panic attack, Ghoulia patting her on the back.

"Did she really say that? I didn't know she cared that much. I mean, I know she cares but she's, well, Cleo…" Clawd said, looking moved at his supposed girlfriend's level of devotion to her boyfriend. "Okay. I'll…I'll give her another call." He said. Frankie bit her bottom lip as she tried to get him to make sure she showed up. "Could you maybe just go pick her up? She might not believe you over the phone. Just be back before seven thirty." She said. Clawd looked at Frankie curiously as he considered what she said, glancing back over at his troubled girlfriend as though trying to determine if it was another of Cleo's dramatic acting moments. But Cleo's distress was genuine this time, if not exactly for the reason Frankie told him, and he gave her a nod. "Great. I can walk you to the door." She said, guiding him out of the party room in case he may have gotten second thoughts.

As they approached the front door and opened it, they were surprised to find Deuce standing on the doorstep. "Hey dude; dudette." He greeted them, Clawd giving a brief hello before explaining he was leaving to go get his sister and drag her to the party if he had to. "Glad to see you" Deuce said as he flirted with Frankie, causing her to giggle to keep up the act.

"Glad to see you too Deuce. Come on in." she said, stepping aside and gesturing for him to enter. He smiled at her but continued to stand in the doorway. A rustle in the bushes near the doors caught Frankie's attention, and she thought she glimpsed a splash of red and blue before Deuce held her attention again.

"Actually. You'll never guess who I ran into on the way here." He said, causing Frankie to start to nervously chuckle. "Ha ha…who exactly…did you run into?" she asked, afraid he might have brought someone else to their party and possible jeopardize the ritual even more so than it already was.

"Your parents, babe. They're going crazy looking for you! I told them where I was meetin' you and they should be here any second." He said. "I do like you, but your family is worried about you. I'm sure they'll let you hang around once they make sure you're okay." He said, leaning in and giving her a kiss on the cheek before making his way inside, following the music to reach the others. Frankie stood there stunned at his news, the rustle from the bushes snapping her back to reality before she zoned out completely again. "Holt is that you?" she called out, wandering out and down the porch steps to try and spot her boyfriend. She was debating on calling out to him again when she was surprised by two strong arms that lifted her up and spun her around.

"Oh! There you are!" her mother exclaimed, pulling her to her chest as she cradled her daughter. "Oh my little girl. You are in so much trouble!" she said, although her voice sounded far from intimidating as she hugged Frankie in relief. "Your father and I have been looking everywhere for you. You're not ready to wander around on your own…" she said, putting Frankie down on the ground to inspect her for any damage. "I know you're just curious, but you need to stay with us for a little while. Follow me!" she said, dragging her daughter to her car. Frankie panicked, her arm detaching and causing her to lose her balance and fall to the ground on her butt.

"Oh, dear! Don't worry, we can help you with that." Her mother said, reattaching her arm. Frankie shook her head. "But my friends…" she started to argue, trying to let her mother release her. Her mother sighed, looking irritated yet elated that her daughter had already found people to call friends. Once her arm was attached, Frankie's mother scooped her up and carried her back to the car, Frankie struggling in vain to escape her mother's strong grip. She spotted Holt peeking out from the bushes. "Holt Hyde!" she called out, trying to convey his need to both help her but to do so without being seen.

"What did you say?" Her mother asked her as she buckled her into the passenger's seat. Frankie chose not to say anything else, her mother running a hand along her head. Pulling away, her mother shut the door and raced to the driver's side to get back to their house as soon as possible, concerned over why her daughter might be shouting out the name of a boy who'd died long before she had even been awakened. Frankie pressed her face to the glass as the car sped away, Holt watching her get further and further away from him.

---

Ghoulia moaned comfortingly to Cleo as she continued to pat the mummy on the back to try and keep her from making her panic attack worse. While she may not have been her biggest fan thanks to Clawdeen's influence, she couldn't help but try and be a good monster. She hadn't seen this side of Cleo and felt ashamed that she had thought of her so lowly, telling her this in the hopes of consoling her. Cleo hiccupped a little, finally realizing that the other girls had crowded around her. Even though they may not know each other very well in this timeline, their inner qualities hadn't completely been altered and they had offered their sympathies.

Deuce entered the room to see the girls sitting together, with Heath off to the side talking with Abbey as the yeti seemed unable to comprehend why there was such a need for dramatics at the party. Walking over cautiously to see whether or not it might just be better for him to head home, he was startled when Cleo sent him an enormous smile as she spotted him. Ghoulia also moaned questioningly at Cleo, reminding her that Clawdeen would not only be displeased that she was flirting with another guy while dating Clawd, she would proceed to then make her existence unbearable for as long as she could if she tossed Clawd aside without having the decency to talk to him about it. The fact that she would be getting exactly what she wanted in their splitting up would have no bearing on the loyalty werewolf siblings had toward one another. Cleo nodded but motioned anyway for Deuce to come over.

"Hey Cleo, everything alright in here?" Deuce asked, nodding to the other girls as he greeted them. Cleo sniffled before being unable to control herself and broke down again. "Whoa…maybe we should leave you alone. Y'know let you have some privacy?" he offered.

"No! No, please. Everyone please just…I need to talk to you about something and I'm asking you to believe me. I know it will be difficult to understand…but I'm not the Cleo you all know. Not this world's version of me." She said quickly, hoping to be able to talk to them about this and not have them bolt away as though she was crazy. As it was, Deuce and Ghoulia were giving her some strange looks while Lagoona, Draculaura and Abbey didn't seem to know whether or not this was the sort of party trick that their host would pull.

"What are you talking about?" Deuce asked again. "I'm pretty sure we might have noticed if you were some sort of body snatcher…unless you're the good kind." Deuce said, looking her over cautiously. Cleo huffed and crossed her arms. "No I'm not a body snatcher. But I could totally tell why they might want to imitate my style." She said, easing doubts about whether or not Cleo was still herself. Standing up, she pulled the idol out from where she had hid it among the other party decorations and walked back over to the group.

"She's right guys. Just…I know I'm the last person you would likely trust about this sort of thing, but hear her out." Heath said, coming over to stand by her. Cleo gave him a grateful look before launching into an amended version of what had happened.

"So that's why I invited you all here to this 'party', so we could try and set things right. We're all really good friends in the real timeline – not that you aren't real here either – but nothing is right. I need to come up with the right way of putting these symbols back in the correct order so that I can invert the proper ones and get sent back to my home. But I have to do it for seven fifty two tonight or I'm stuck here. I'll take on the characteristics of this world's Cleo, but able to remember everything from my world for the rest of my existence. And I thought having to share characteristics with my sister was bad." She said.

"But you don't have a sister, do you?" Heath asked of Cleo. Cleo's eyes widened at the thought, but waved off his confusion. "You must not have had the misfortune of meeting her in this world…probably because she wouldn't have come back to coach the fearleading squad without Frankie convincing me to keep at it…" Cleo mused as the others tried to determine if they wanted to give her the benefit of their doubt or to leave her alone.

Ghoulia took a look at the idol as Cleo paced and implored her friends to believe her. Moaning at the others, she showed them what she was thinking. Cleo seemed to let herself be marginally relieved before looking around. "Where is Clawd? Frankie?" she asked, looking to Heath. "Did she find your cousin yet?" she asked.

"Okay. That's taking it way too far Cleo." Deuce said, expecting to see Heath spiral into another of his depressed rages and ignite half of the party decorations. "Clawd was leaving to go get his sister when I got here and Frankie will be back later once her parents are okay with her." He said, trying to grab at the idol but Ghoulia retained her hold of it. "But you can't be so cruel and bring up his cousin to him" Deuce said as he turned back to her.

"But that's exactly why we have to believe her!" Heath shouted, his hair flaming but quickly called back under his control. "I saw him again – I talked with him. He's alive in their world." Heath said in desperation. "Jackson was with us all day until the music was turned on early and then Holt was here. Man, it was like they'd never been gone." Heath said smiling at Deuce who looked at him like he'd finally lost his mind.

"Wait. You said Frankie's parents came and got her?!" Cleo asked, returning again to full-blown panic. "We need to get her back now!" she said. Ghoulia moaned again to get everyone's attention, holding the idol upside down and pressing on a few symbols. The idol projected onto the floor a few images like Cleo had planned to do, and the others could see themselves sitting around at the lunch tables at school, talking with each other at the maul, partying together with Holt at the dj table.

"That's what we're supposed to be like?" Lagoona asked, seeing her dancing in the arms of Gil and making a face. "But he's a freshie. I wouldn't be seen with him." She said. Cleo walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Of course you would. You don't let such old beliefs get in the way of your happiness. You and Gil are a great couple, even as you two deal with your parents having some issue with the two of you being together. You and he are so happy with each other." She said to her before walking over to Draculaura.

"And you and Clawd are going steady as a couple, completely and hopelessly in love with each other. And Clawdeen's okay with it, even encouraging you two to do more together." She said, finding a small amount of amusement in her friend's faces. Looking over to Deuce, she timidly walked over to him. "And you and I have been dating for a while now too. I may be difficult at times, but you're a wonderful guy who's patient enough to put up with me and my dramatics. Please…even if you don't believe me, at least stay long enough for us to attempt the ritual with the idol. If it doesn't work, then you all can go home and never talk to me again if you want. "she said, turning to face them all directly. "Just give me a chance."

Ghoulia moaned to her again, sending her a smile as she told her that she believed her and might have something to go on to get the idol to work. Cleo gave her a large smile, her eyes watering up at her friend's faith in her even when she had been convinced not more than two hours ago that Cleo was the worst person on the planet.

"So Ghoulia can get this thing working again but you say you be needing everyone here that was in room at time. What are we supposed to do about Clawd and Clawdeen, or this Frankie and Holt?" Abbey asked from her position next to Heath. Cleo sighed but could do little more than shrug.

"Frankie must have been able to convince Clawd that he had to go get his sister so we have to hope that he'll be successful. How I'm supposed to convince her to stay is a problem I'll face when it gets here." Cleo said, sitting back down. "As for Frankie…Holt wouldn't have left her too far out of his sight unless he was really, really mad." She said. Heath winced at her statement, causing her to look at him in a silent prompt to say what he needed to say.

"Yeah, well, I may not have handled seeing him again so well." Heath admitted. Cleo smirked at his sheepish look. "You didn't faint again did you?" she asked, enjoying how his face turned red and he shook his head to deny to the girls that he had fainted. "No I did not faint…but I may have been a little emotional. Anyway, the way I acted and told him how I thought I'd never see him again, mixed with waking up surrounding by all sorts of magical stuff led him to think that Jackson may have been trying to get rid of him." He explained. Cleo groaned and let her head roll back as she slumped in the chair.

"So I take it he was beyond angry then?" Cleo said. Heath shifted around as he stood but nodded. "He was more hurt than anything and didn't believe anything of what Frankie and I told him. Most likely he either waited around to get to talk with one of us alone, although he's not so good with waiting around patiently…or he tried to head home." Heath said, an idea forming in his head. He took off toward the front door, the others trailing behind him. Bursting through the doors, he sprinted over to where he had parked his car only to find it gone.

"His car was here before I went into the party room to talk to Frankie, so he was still hanging around then." He said, walking back over to the porch. Draculaura walked past him to look in the bushes. "Look at this. The bushes are a different color here" she said, poking at one of the brown branches, which crumbled under her touch. "Oh! It was dead here. It smells like ash over here too." she said.

"Seriously?" Deuce said. "That doesn't mean he was hiding in the bushes. Why would he burn them too?" he asked, crossing his arms in his disbelief. "Unless…" he began, looking thoughtful.

"Unless what?" Lagoona asked him, curious to know where the others were going with their little clues. Deuce's snakes starting twisting about as he began to get more agitated, him having to snap them out of their state. "Unless what you said is true and he was hiding in the bushes while I was talking with Frankie in the doorway." He said. "I'm going to say it's safe to assume the dude wasn't pleased when I was flirting with his girl, even if I didn't know she was." He said, trying to grasp what was going on.

"Well, then he must have seen her get taken by her parents. He must have gone after her." Cleo said. "We should head back inside and get to work. I don't doubt that he'll find a way to get what he wants, right Heath?" she asked of Heath as she guided them all back inside. "Until then, we better make sure that we have everything ready for when they all get here. Things might get a little crazy after." She said, thinking about what Heath had said about his cousin's fate once seven forty arrived. The others agreed and walked back inside, anxious to follow Ghoulia's speculation. Once that was taken care of, it was up to Frankie and Holt to get back to her house in time.

---

Frankie found herself being dragged back inside her house by her mother who was holding her tightly to her and making soothing noises in her attempt to care for the daughter she believed must be in serious need of doctoring. Her father rushed over to her as soon as her mother plopped her down on the charging table in the basement, checking her over for injuries and to check on her charge level.

"Stop! Please, just listen to me. I'm not really your daughter." She said, causing her parents to look at her in extreme worry. "I mean, I am your daughter but not your daughter." She tried again, knowing that she was failing miserably to plead her case with her parents. She smacked a hand to her forehead a couple of times in her frustration.

"No, no, no" Her father said, holding her hands within his large ones to keep her from moving around. "That's not good for you to do. No destructive behavior." He said to her, looking into her eyes as he spoke. "You don't hit" he said again, causing Frankie to look at him disbelievingly as he talked to her like he would have done when she was just a day old.

"But I need to get back out. There's something I need to do." She said, struggling to pull away from her father. He just readjusted his hold on his daughter while her mother tried to comfort her by petting her head like she did when Frankie came to her with the occasional nightmare still.

"Oh, Viktor. Something must not have connected right in the nervous system you built for her." Her mother said, beginning to tear up. "She can't tell what's real. She called out for Holt Hyde as we were heading back. I don't know how she heard of him or why she thinks she knows him, but I'm calling Dr. Jekyll." She said, getting up and picking up the basement's phone. "He might be able to help her if this is just a psychological problem rather than one that requires you to operate on her again." Her mother said, causing Frankie to let out a panicked noise and begin her struggles against her father with renewed vigor.

"Shh, shh, shh, honey. It'll be okay. I won't do anything to hurt you – I promise you I would never hurt you." Her father said, hugging her close to him. Frankie couldn't help but tear up at this point, feeling helpless to get her parents to understand.

"But I'm not crazy or broken. I'm not supposed to be in this world." She argued, unintentionally letting her head drop against her father's shoulder as she looked for comfort. Her father rocked her gently. "Of course you are. Did you run into some humans? Did they tell you that?" he asked her, clearly getting angry at the thought of having his daughter repeat his experiences from his early days.

"I'm not from this timeline…" she tried again. "I'm over a year old and I have friends that I go to Monster High with, and my boyfriend is Jackson Jekyll and Holt Hyde." She mumbled out.

"Oh dear. She's made up a whole history for herself while she was out on her own. She couldn't process things by herself." Her mother concluded, turning back to the phone to begin speaking with the person on the other end. A couple of minutes later, she hung up and addressed her father.

"Dr. Jekyll is on his way over and should be here in five minutes." She said to Frankie's father, laying a hand on Frankie's head again. Frankie just whined at her parents' continued disbelief. "We're lucky he hasn't finished moving out yet. His ex-wife was able to forward my call to him in time."

"What? His ex-wife…" Frankie asked before it dawned on her. "They divorced in this timeline after this version of Jackson and Holt was killed?" she asked. Her parents nodded. "See…she does have some grasp on reality. Some part of her knows the truth." Her father said to his wife.

A knock on their door not long later had her mother racing to let Dr. Jekyll inside, and Frankie could see him come down the stairs after her mother. Dr. Jekyll gave her a comforting smile that he must've used on every new patient of his. "Hello Frankie. My name is…"

"You're Dr. Jekyll. You're Jackson's and Holt's dad and he inherited his alter ego from you. Jackson's favorite food is macaroni and cheese while Holt loves spicy wings. Jackson loves mad science just like you while Holt prefers to dj and party like your other half loves to create all sorts of different light shows and pyrotechnics. It's how you met your wife while he was putting together one of those performances, but you transformed back into this half of you before the show ended and she ended up saving you from getting burned. Jackson says he doesn't believe that mushy story, but finds it believable that his mother would have agreed to have participated in some of your college experiments and that's how you must have gotten to know one another. I find it adorable how he likes to talk about how you two met. I'm really not insane Dr. Jekyll, I just need to find my way back to my home." Frankie ranted, trying to get out as much information as she could of what she knew about Jackson's family.

Dr. Jekyll looked stunned before turning to face her parents. "Who…who told her all of that? Who would talk to her about my son?" he asked, making obvious efforts to keep his other half from taking over while he was attempting to help out their daughter.

"No one but Jackson and Holt!" Frankie sobbed out, giving in to the tears. "I'm telling you. I came here because of some portal that opened up from one of Cleo de Nile's idols and I got stuck here with her and…" she started to rant but thought better of mention how she came with Jackson through the portal considering that she was standing in front of his father.

Dr. Jekyll took another deep breath. "Well it seems what you said on the phone is accurate. Her emotions are genuine based on the way she continues to hold herself and how she talks. She believes wholeheartedly this fantasy, using this information she must have learned from wandering around to Monster High . She must have run into Heath and been basically an empty slate for him to pour all his emotions onto. Being so young, she took them as her own and constructed this rationale of another world to explain why she would have these feelings…" he said, rubbing his eyes as he thought about his son.

"No! That's not what I said. You're not listening to me!" Frankie argued, panicking as she checked the time to see that it read seven twenty five.

"I would suggest holding off with any operation. This clearly isn't a biological issue but instead something to be treated with…" Dr. Jekyll began to talk to her parents again when a large orange glow could be seen coming from the left side of the house and approaching fast. Her father released his hold on her, her mother and Dr. Jekyll rushing up the stairs to see what was going on outside.

"Stay right here and don't move Frankie" her father said sternly to her. "We don't know what's going on, but I can't trust you not to run off if I bring you outside. So stay here honey." He said. "We'll be right back." He said, kissing the top of her head before bolting up the steps and locking the basement door behind him. Frankie growled in frustration, racing to try and open the door despite knowing it wouldn't budge.

"Psst! Frankie-Fine. Time to go!" Holt's voice called out to her, causing her to look around and spot him breaking the basement window. "We ain't got time to take things slow. Come on!" he said, extending a hand to her to lift her out. As she crawled out, she could see the entire left side of the lawn with all its trees and shrubbery up in flames.

"I needed a distraction so I improvised." Holt said at her questioning look. "Car's this way." He said, pushing her in the direction he had left his car after he followed her to her house. He held open the door for the shaken Frankie, and shut it quickly to return to the driver's seat.

"Holt?! Holt!" Dr. Jekyll's voice rang out as he stepped into view. His face was ashen as he stared at his son in disbelief. "Is that you son? Oh my…Holt…" he said, walking over to embrace the son he had thought lost. "How are you here? Are you really you? Did…did someone bring you back? Your mother?" his father continued to ask as Holt tensed in his father's grip. "Is it only you that came back? Is there no Jackson side to you now? Holt, please answer me!" his father desperately shouted to him as he fired off more questions.

"Dad. It's really me. Jackson's here too. But you need to let me go." Holt said, breaking out of his father's grip. "You gotta just trust me that everything's gonna get put back together again." He said, opening up the car door and getting inside. He started up the car but his father continued to stand in front of it, blocking him from leaving. "Dad please. I'm gonna fix this. Trust me" Holt repeated.

Dr. Jekyll nodded, stepping aside. "I do son. I do." He said as Holt began to pull away from the curb. "Love ya Dad." Holt said as he sent him a smile. Dr. Jekyll gave a tear-filled laugh. "I love you too" he said, Holt pulling away and watching in the rear view mirror as his father got smaller and smaller as they left him standing there.

---

"Thanks Holt. That was close, but we've got to hurry up. It's seven thirty already." Frankie said as she checked the time again. Jackson was right about them always cutting things close it seemed. "How'd you know I'd need a rescue?" she asked.

"You called out to me so I waited until your mother turned off of Cleo's driveway to follow you home and waited by the basement window." He said as he sped along the road. "I'd planned on breakin' in and sneakin' out the back or something with ya' but then I heard all that stuff they were spoutin' to ya. I'm sorry I didn't believe ya before Frankie. I shoulda known you wouldn't mess with me like that." He explained and briefly looked over to her to see her sending him a small smile.

"I don't blame you Holt. As you like to say, 'it ain't right'" she said, Holt giving her a chuckle. They pulled up outside Cleo's house, noticing that Clawd's car was back and hoped that he had been successful in getting his sister to come with him. Frankie checked the time. "Oh my ghoul! It's seven thirty seven. We need to run Holt!" she said, the two of them sprinting inside and making their way to the party room.

"Dude!" Deuce shouted, Clawd and Clawdeen gasping loudly as Frankie made her entrance with Holt. Despite what Cleo had said and the images projected from the idol, Deuce was still taken aback at seeing his dead friend standing with them again. Clawd and Clawdeen also seemed to be stunned, Clawdeen having stopped her argument with Cleo as they entered into the room.

"See!" Cleo said, gesturing to the two of them as they caught their breath. "Now you've got to believe me." She said, turning to talk to Frankie and Holt. "Ghoulia and the others have helped me to figure out how to get the idol working again." She explained. Holt, usually pleased at being the center of attention, decided to try and amend his earlier actions and began to walk over to his cousin.

"Hey man. I'm sorry I made things difficult for ya' earlier." He said, sending a sheepish smile to his cousin as he rubbed the back of his head. "You know how I can be." He laughed. "But I'm –" he started to say before he visibly stumbled forward into Heath, grasping onto his cousin's jacket and staring at him with wide eyes.

"Holt? What is it?" Heath asked, trying to hold up his cousin by wrapping his arms around his back. Heath pulled back a hand and looked horrified as he saw the blood that covered his hand and was rapidly starting to spread across his already red jacket, turning it an even deeper shade of crimson.

"No no no." Heath said as he held up his cousin in his arms as Holt struggled to breathe. "Not again." Heath whined with grief in his voice as he noticed that it was seven forty already. Holt's legs gave out and he sagged to the floor with Heath still holding onto him, his motion sudden enough to knock the headphones off his head as he allowed his head to loll back. A flash of red flame and Jackson was back in Heath's arms, lifting his head up as he tried to comprehend what was going on, coughing up blood as the injury worsened. The others could see the front of his shirt beginning to darken too as Heath grabbed the fallen tablecloth and tried to put pressure on Jackson's wound.

"Come on Jackson. Don't do this to me again." He pleaded with his cousin, snapping Frankie out of the zoned out state she had been in. She rushed forward and placed the amulet Cleo had given her into Jackson's hand as he closed his eyes. Heath shook him as they waited for something to happen. A yellow glow came from where Jackson was holding the amulet and his eyes opened again as he took in a shuddering breath.

"Whoa…" Clawdeen breathlessly said from where she was watching beside her brother. Heath continued to put pressure on Jackson's injury while his cousin struggled to keep aware with the help of the amulet. Cleo had been right in her theory that its power wouldn't be at its full potential while still under the idol's influence, but it was keeping Jackson with them a little longer.

"We need to call an ambulance or something" Lagoona cried out, removing her hands from covering her mouth. Draculaura stood next to her, eyeing all the blood that had begun to seep onto the floor with a curious look, as though not sure whether or not she should find it revolting.

"No. We need to wait until seven fifty two and perform the ritual. That'll undo everything and we'll stop reverting to what this timeline's version of us is supposed to be." Cleo said, answering the unspoken question of what was going on. "Come on Frankie. Help me set things up." Cleo called out, but Frankie seemed frozen again. At first she thought it was because of Jackson, but waving a hand in front of her face confirmed that she was on her own now. Sighing, she was relieved to find that her other friends continued to stay and began to help her set up the ritual.

"Hey….Heath." Jackson wheezed out, blood dribbling from his mouth. His cousin tearfully smiled at him. "We tried…to get here...earlier." he said. "For the…first time…I can actually…remember a little…of Holt's memories…." He said, briefly closing his eyes as pain assaulted him. "Why do I always…seem…to end up…the one…getting hurt?" he asked Heath, making an effort to smile at him.

"I guess you've just got some really nasty luck man. Totally from your father's side, 'cuz look at me!" Heath tried to joke with his cousin, holding him close as he continuously glanced at the clock, hoping it would be time for the ritual. "I already seem to have gotten myself a hot date while you were off with your girl." He said, turning back to find his cousin's eyes closed. "Hey! Can't do that Jackson." he said, roughly pressing on Jackson's wound with the tablecloth that had long-since been drenched in blood.

"It's lucky…that shot…didn't actually hit me... in the center of the chest…huh, Heath?" Jackson asked, groaning as he opened his eyes again. "Then there would've been…no chance….to go home." He said as Heath readjusted his grip. He looked up to Frankie but she still stood there in a daze. "Yeah cuz', you're gonna be able to go home. Make sure that you take care of yourself too – can't keep leaving that to me and Frankie." Heath said as Jackson began to take in heaving breaths as the amulet's power began to wane. He scrambled to hold his cousin closer to him. "Three more minutes Jackson. Just three more – you can do it." Heath encouraged his cousin.

Frankie shook her head as she finally came out of her daze to see Jackson being cradled by Heath. She gasped, already aware of what had happened but alarmed by how much blood was all over the floor. She looked to Cleo who was all ready to start the ritual, holding the icon upside down as Ghoulia had done do be able to accurately rearrange the symbols at the right time.

"Lift him up Heath. You can't be the one to hold onto him when the ritual takes place or it might screw things up again." Frankie said, swallowing her concern to get through with the ritual, assuring herself that Jackson would be fine once they got back. Heath slowly lifted his cousin up, but it was apparent that Jackson no longer had any strength with which to hold himself up on his own. A loud banging was heard as Frankie's parents had realized that she had returned to Cleo's and had forced their way inside. Cleo's father could be heard demanding them to pay him the respect he deserved but Frankie's father's voice was just as booming.

"We've got to do this now!" Frankie said, lifting up one of Jackson's arms to support his weight as Heath let go. He sagged against her and she struggled to hold him up, her attention divided between the commotion going on in the entrance and the minute left before Cleo could start the ritual. Cleo nevertheless began to rearrange the pieces, standing opposite Frankie so they could recreate their positions. She and Frankie watched the clock as Frankie's father burst into the party room, spotting his daughter and a bloodied Jackson standing in the middle. The confusion on his face was clear and he made to ask her what was going on when the clock turned to seven fifty two and Cleo and Frankie pressed on their respective symbols on the icon, Frankie dropping Jackson's hand onto the top. The last thing they saw was their friends' shocked faces and a bright flash of light again. The three of them braced themselves as they repeated what had started this whole adventure and hoped for the best.

---

Cleo and Frankie winced as they could tell that the light was receding, daring to open their eyes and glance around them. They found that they were back in Frankie's house at the same moment as when they had left, surrounding by their friends as they shielded their eyes from the light. Cleo and Frankie were happily stunned but a noise from upstairs that had started the whole thing was heard again. Clawdeen raced to the bottom of the stairs as the light came on, shouting up an excuse. "Sorry. I..uh..Lagoona accidentally sat on the remote and turned the television on." She lied, but they were all relieved when her father simply called down for them to be more careful.

Overwhelmed by their ordeal, Frankie couldn't hold Jackson up anymore and he fell to the floor with a loud thud. "Oh Jackson!" Frankie cried out as she readjusted her own position on the floor to head back over to her boyfriend. Seeing his prone friend, Deuce got up from his seat next to where he had fallen to check on him.

"Dudes, what happened?" he asked as loudly as he dared, the panic clear in his voice as he took in the blood-soaked shirt. Draculaura hid her face in Clawd's side as she spotted the blood while Heath got up from his seat next to Abbey.

"How did he get like this?" he asked Cleo who was still holding the idol. Cleo only continued to stare wide-eyed as Jackson lay on the floor with Frankie and Deuce attempting to wake him up. "Hey! Come on Cleo" Heath said to her again, gaining her attention.

"The idol worked. It took us to an alternate timeline. Jackson was shot." She said as succinctly as possible. Heath and the others gasped, the elemental jumping over Draculaura and Clawd to get to his cousin.

"Jackson, come on. Everything should have been righted by now." Frankie said, shaking the unconscious boy. Deuce grabbed a nearby blanket, easing Jackson onto it so that they could carry him. "Come on. Let's get him down to your father's lab. There's got to be medical equipment down there to help him." He said, picking up one end of the blanket while Heath grabbed the other as they carried Jackson on the blanket like on a stretcher. Once down there, they placed him on the metal table, Jackson not making a sound as they moved him around, which caused concern for Frankie. She wasn't sure what to do next, pulling open the hand that had been clutching the amulet still. She could see that it had stopped glowing, its power spent as it went through the portal with them.

"What do we do now?" Clawdeen said as she and the other girls came down the stairs. Frankie bit her lip before rushing over to where her father kept her supplies.

"He must have lost too much blood." Cleo said as she looked over Deuce's shoulder. "Is he still breathing?" she asked. Frankie dropped the box of gauze she'd been carrying onto the table beside Jackson to pick up the stethoscope draped over the side of a piece of equipment. She quickly placed the ends of it in her ears and placed the metal portion onto Jackson's chest, trying not to be squeamish as blood covered most of it. She urged the others to be quiet as she listening, the others hushing immediately. After a moment, the relief on Frankie's face put them all at ease.

"He's breathing. His heartbeat's slower than I would have expected but I think he's okay." She said, putting the stethoscope aside and grimacing as she began to feel around where she had thought she'd seen the wound originate.

"What are you doing?" Draculaura asked from beneath the blanket she had draped around her like her father's cape usually was. "Don't mess around with him like that." She said, feeling woozy herself. Frankie pulled her hands back, now covered in blood, before turning back to talk to her friends. But that apparently was too much for Draculaura who passed out into Clawdeen's waiting arms. As the werewolf guided the vampire onto the floor, Frankie turned to address Heath since he seemed to be the most panicked.

"There's no bullet hole anymore, so I'm guessing when we fixed the timeline, it closed up. He's just unconscious." Frankie said, relieved. "But he's not going to be able to save those clothes." She said, hoping to bring levity to the situation. Heath sagged against the side of the table in relief, Deuce patting him on the back as he shared in that relief.

"Good luck getting him back home though…" Lagoona said to the boys as they came to realize that they would need to leave shortly or they would be caught. Deuce turned back to Jackson and shook him roughly again, still concerned but not worried about aggravating any injuries.

"He lost a lot of blood Deuce. Give him a minute or two to let the timeline catch up and heal him." Cleo said, putting a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. "Um…just checking…but you are still my boyfriend, right?" she asked, getting his attention.

"Yes…Unless there's something you're not telling me?" he asked her, arching an eyebrow. But Cleo happily squealed and launched herself at him in a tight embrace. "Oh that's a relief. You're the best." She said. "I should do something nice just for you." She said, pulling away to plant an enormous, deep kiss on the surprised gorgon. The girls giggled as he almost lost his glasses in his surprise at Cleo not letting up for a good amount of time.

"Whoa! I'm not complainin' but you sure you're okay?" he said as he wrapped his arms around her, Cleo smiling as she snuggled into his chest. She nodded and sighed contentedly before closing her eyes to hold him tighter. Deuce rubbed her back, looking to Frankie for an explanation. Frankie smiled at him, mouthing, 'Later', for him to understand to be patient with an explanation. She grabbed a roll of paper towels and wiped Jackson's blood off her hands as they waited for him to wake up. Once the five minute mark had been passed, their concern returned at Jackson's continued stillness.

Heath returned to his cousin's side to shake him again. "C'mon Jackson. We're getting' tired of waitin' around here." He said. Frankie sighed. "Maybe he'll sleep for longer than I thought." She said, hugging herself. "Just as long as there is a Jackson and Holt in this timeline, I'm happy." She said.

"What you mean?" Abbey asked, coming to stand beside her as Lagoona and Clawdeen tried to revive Draculaura. Frankie sighed, looking to Cleo to see if they should say anything just yet about what they'd experienced. At Cleo's nod, Frankie took a deep breath. "Well in the timeline we visited…there was no Jackson or Holt anymore." She said. Heath looked curiously at her, turning to face her and leaning against the table his cousin lay on. "There was no version of him in that timeline? Weird." He said to her.

"No, that was me." Frankie said. "I was the one who was never created. But there had been a version of your cousin. But since I wasn't there apparently, when both sides of him found out about the other, he couldn't cope very well with it being kept from them…and, well, Holt got into a fight and got himself shot in that timeline. He turned back into Jackson and bled out in your arms." Frankie said to Heath who had a growing look of horror on his face. He looked like he wanted to ask something else, but a groan from behind him startled him enough to whip around, his arms flailing as he turned and smacking his cousin who had propped himself up on his elbow.

"Ow! Hey!" Jackson said as he rubbed his nose. "What did you do that for?" he asked, shifting back onto his back. Frankie laughed at Heath's goofy nature, glad to see him like this rather than the alternative's version. Jackson glared at his cousin who sheepishly smiled at him before helping to pull him up into a sitting position. Jackson moaned a little at the motion but otherwise seemed alright.

"Man, how do you keep ending up in these situations?" Clawd asked good-naturedly from beside his girlfriend as Draculaura came back into consciousness too. Jackson shrugged before looking down at his chest.

"Yikes. That's going to be difficult to explain to my parents." Jackson said as he prodded his chest. "This is so weird." He said as he pulled his hand away, some blood getting on his hand that he wiped onto his pants. He attempted to stand up off the table, but that kind of movement seemed to be too much too fast still and he grabbed onto Heath to keep himself upright. "Oooh, head rush." He said, grabbing at his head with his hand while Heath steadied him.

"You okay?" Heath said, thinking back on what Frankie had told him. But Jackson nodded to him, letting go to stand on his own. "I'm good. You know, except for the bloody clothes." Jackson said gesturing to his now ruined clothes.

"I hate to say it, but we should try to head back home now." Clawd said, releasing Draculaura from his hold as she tried not to look at or smell Jackson's blood. "It's late and you're gonna have a hard enough time explaining breaking curfew without the gruesome getup." He said, laughing when Jackson grimaced again at his outfit.

"He's right though." Deuce said, extracting himself from his clingy girlfriend. "If you're able to head out, we should go." He said, Jackson giving a little nod and taking small steps. Heath grabbed onto Jackson's arm to keep him steady. "I can manage Heath." He said grouchily to his cousin. Heath rolled his eyes. "Sure…come on. Any idea what you're going to say to your parents?" he asked as they all went up the steps. Jackson paused as he thought about it. "I could say Holt did something stupid again." Jackson said. "Maybe they'll just let me get some sleep and explain in the morning." He said as they exited Frankie's house to get into their car.

"Wait a minute Jackson." Deuce said, stopping him as he got into the backseat of Deuce's car. He ran back inside Frankie's house and returned with the blanket that they had used to carry Jackson down to the basement. "I like you dude, but I don't want you gettin' blood all over my car. You've got it front and back." Deuce said as he handed Jackson the blanket.

"You make it sound like I spilled a drink on me rather than nearly bleed out. It's drying now anyway." He mumbled, frowning as he took the blanket. "But I get it. I'll be careful." He said, laying out the blanket to keep himself from staining his friends car. Heath grimaced as he watched his cousin, eyeing the blood stains on him and the blanket. "Do you maybe want to sleep over at my place? My parents are staying out late tonight too so we might have a chance to get you out of those clothes before anybody notices." He said as the others got inside the car. Jackson gave his cousin a grateful smile and nodded, turning to wave to the girls who stood at the door to wave goodbye.

As soon as the car was out of sight, Cleo and Frankie were besieged by questions from their friends. So Cleo and Frankie spend the rest of the sleepover relating all the details to the girls as they were sure Jackson was likely to do until he passed out from exhaustion. As it was, they were hoping to actually get to sleeping soon too, as the stress and exertion from repeating the same day built up on them. But the girls seemed to understand this and allowed Cleo and Frankie to explain more later. As Frankie snuggled into her blankets she couldn't help but think of how much she took for granted, how much her friends meant to her, and was warmed by how much she meant to them. It was a wonderful unlife, indeed.