Author's note: This is a prequel to my story "A Pause After Battle" which has been sitting in my ideas file for a while now and which Rarepairs week prompted me to finish (I'm not on tumblr so can't post it there), and is offered up unbeta'd for what it's worth. It's a bit of a departure from my usual sort of thing but I hope it works anyway.
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"Wake up, honey." The soft voice was accompanied by a firm slap on one cheek, repeated on the other as Annie climbed out of darkness.
She struggled to remember what had happened as a pair of familiar blue eyes slowly drifted into focus. I was walking down a corridor when Jeff called to me. I waved and walked towards him-
The eyes pulled back and a face started to pull into view. "She's coming round," the soft voice, which sounded familiar somehow, said to someone outside Annie's field of view.
Annie's memories started to swim back into focus. He walked towards me, smiling. Then he pulled a gun out of nowhere and I suddenly felt like I was being electrocuted. And then there was nothing -
Annie's blood went cold as the person in front of her stood up. All of a sudden, everything came clear and she recognised the face in front of her as the one she saw in the mirror every morning. Not just the face - somehow even the clothes were the same as the ones she'd put on that morning. Annie tried to get up, get away - but was pulled back by the ropes tying her wrists to the arms of the chair.
A soft hand stroked her cheek. "Oh honey," her nightmare duplicate said. "We've got so much to tell you."
"She won't believe it unless she sees it with her own eyes," Jeff stepped into view. Annie watched with horror as he pulled her duplicate to him who, laughing merrily, embraced him before locking lips for a feverish, passionate kiss.
XXXXXX
"This way!" The dean screamed, fleeing down a corridor. Jeff pulled Britta rounded the corner behind him, just ahead of the snap sound of tasers fired by the unbelievable duplicates of Troy and Abed who were pursuing them.
"Help me Jeff," Abed - his Abed - was attempting to pull down a row of lockers to block the corridor. Jeff joined him and started to heave, his powerful muscles trembling with the effort. He turned and ran as he felt them start to topple under their own weight, not looking back as the sound of crashing and cursing told him their pursuers had failed to spot the obstacle in time.
Jeff and Abed followed Britta round another couple of corners and down a flight a stairs until they came to the dean's office. "I think we've shaken them for the moment," he said, then he frowned as he saw somebody else was in the room talking to the dean. "Who's this?" Jeff asked.
"This is professor Hickey, I asked him to meet us here-" the dean started to talk.
"With all due respect-" Jeff said, his temper starting to fray. "But he must be older than Leonard! How can he help us?"
"I could still kick your ass boy," the older man growled threateningly, getting to his feet.
The dean scrambled between the two men. "Professor Hickey was a soldier and policeman before joining the faculty - we need his experience!" He scrambled out.
Jeff looked hard at him, saw somebody who, though old, still looked lean and dangerous. He nodded slightly. "Okay," he said, conceding the point. "Now what the heck is happening here?" For some reason everybody turned to look at Abed.
"The darkest timeline is invading," he said, looking utterly unsurprised.
"That's ridic- you know what, it isn't." Jeff sighed. "I mean, it is ridiculous but it's also the only thing that comes close to making sense." He rubbed his hand through his hair exasperatedly. "What are we going to do about it?"
"Allow me," the dean had a self-satisfied smirk on his face as he pulled a box out of a cupboard. "When Chang's operation was closed down, I confiscated a lot of his equipment-" he opened the box and started pulling out tasers, pepper sprays, tear gas grenades and nightsticks "-I was going to sell them to raise funds for the school, but-" he shrugged and started to hand them out.
Jeff took a taser gun, a pouch of reloads and a couple of tear gas grenades. "There's no way they're coming through that door before the police arrive now," he said with grim satisfaction.
"What about the others?" Britta was not impressed with his attitude. "I saw Troy get tasered by the other Abed and fall down a flight of stairs. Abed saw their Troy and Britta taser Pierce half a dozen times-"
"Where's Annie?" A feeling of dread had overcome Jeff on hearing Britta talk about the fate of the others. "Has anybody seen Annie since this started?" everybody shook their heads. Jeff pulled his taser gun out of it's holster and prepared to open the door. "It's time to take this fight to them," he said grimly.
XXXXXX
"Did you enjoy the show?"
Annie watched in horror as her duplicate (who, she was now convinced, was completely insane) climbed down off Jeff - no not Jeff, another duplicate, Annie thought, remembering her shock when she saw his artificial arm when the other Annie pulled his shirt off - and started to walk towards her, pulling her outfit back into place as she came over. "How can you possibly-" she yelped, trying to bury her confusion beneath outrage. For the truth of the matter was, though she'd been mortified with embarrassment to watch them, she hadn't been able to turn away. The sex had been passionate, intense and exuberant, the union of two people who revelled in each other's bodies and didn't give a damn who knew it. Annie's history with her Jeff, consisting of a single passionate kiss now almost two and a half years in the past since when there had only been sidelong glances and the occasional hug, crossed her mind and she angrily fought down a sudden surge of jealousy.
"Why the outrage, honey?" Annie's double had walked up to her and rested her hands on Annie's knees and leaned forward until Annie had had to lean as far back as she could to keep their faces from touching.
"Get away from me, you freak!" Annie hissed.
Her duplicate seemed delighted by the outrage, digging her fingers into the bare skin of Annie's thighs as she seemed to meticulously scan every inch of her face. "It's not as if it's anything you haven't seen before-" the duplicate stopped suddenly checking Annie's face for similarities to her own and jumped back suddenly as she saw something there, bouncing with delight and clapping her hands in a gesture Annie recognised as very much her own.
"They've never done it!" She said turning to her Jeff, still beaming excitedly.
"Jerkass hasn't had a shock to bring him to his senses. Yet." The Jeff growled as he pulled his shirt on, once again hiding his artificial arm from view as his eyes flicked between the two Annies.
"You want to though, don't you honey?" The duplicate had sashayed back over to Annie. Annie tried not to react as the other languidly trailed a hand up her arm, across her shoulder and softly stroked her neck. The duplicate was now behind Annie and had knelt down so that Annie could feel her hot breath on the side of her neck opposite to the one where the wandering hand had come to rest. "You still dream about it don't you?"
Annie bit her lips to avoid saying anything.
"I used to dream about it too," the duplicate whispered into Annie's ear, Annie swore she could smell the same minty breath freshener she used. "The reality is so much better," Annie felt the words more than heard them, the duplicate's mouth was so close to her ear.
"What was that?" The other Annie stood up, her voice suddenly hard and businesslike. Annie had quite failed to notice the Jeff was talking into some sort of radio.
"The locals have got weapons and started to fight back," he said. "Abed's asked for help - I'm going out. Keep the prisoner safe, and-" the Jeff grinned, pulled the duplicate in for a kiss and then let her go "-don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"Spoilsport," she said, swatting him on the chest. "Now go."
"What wouldn't he do?" Annie couldn't help asking. "He seems almost as nuts as you."
The other Annie smiled happily, apparently quite unruffled by Annie's insult. "I have a lot of spirit for someone tied up in a chair," she sat herself down cross-legged in front of Annie. "I really do have very nice legs, don't I?" She said wonderingly, reaching out one finger and running it up Annie's calf.
Annie tried to pull her leg away from the tingling feeling - vainly, as it was also tied to the chair.
"It's not always easy to tell looking down, the angle's all wrong." The duplicate said sadly. "What do you think?" She suddenly leapt to her feet and twirled so that the hem of her dress flew high in the air.
She really is absolutely nuts! Annie thought with horror. "Erm, yes we do?" She said nervously.
The smile on the other Annie's face showed it was the right answer, which seemed to be confirmed when her attention jumped back to the question Annie had asked before the diversion. "Oh how rude of me," she said brightly. "I never answered your question! He may be mad and evil-" she giggled for some reason at this "-but he's still Jeff. And no Jeff will ever hit an Annie, unless we ask him to. And even then his heart wasn't in it," the sad tone of voice was back. "I was so naughty too - I deserved that spanking!" Annie watched in disbelief as her duplicate stamped petulantly and adopted a tone of voice that reminded her of her Glee performance.
"So I can't hit you either, unless you ask me to."The duplicate suddenly went excited again - Annie felt like she was at risk of whiplash from all the mood swings. "Do you want to ask me to?"
"Erm - not now, maybe later." Annie managed to squeak out. She paused for a moment, trying to think of the best way to change the subject. "What exactly happened to make us like this?" She realised it was a risky question to ask, but she'd observed that the duplicate seemed to be happiest using first person pronouns for both of them.
"Oh honey, it's such a long story-" the other squatted on the floor again.
XXXXXX
"Clear." It had been Hickey's turn to go round the corner first and see if the duplicates - the evil study group, Jeff remembered suddenly Abed's name for them - were lying in wait. It had been a while since the two groups had clashed, when Britta had taken fierce delight in tasering her duplicate and the Troy and Abed had dragged her off. The time had not been completely wasted though - they'd managed to recover Troy and Pierce and, on discovering they were still alive, had carried them back to the medical station where nurse Jackie had put both of them on drips before locking the door behind the rest as they left.
The rest of the group followed Hickey round the corner and crept cautiously down the corridor, checking every room as they went past.
"Your turn kid," Hickey said to Abed as they reached the end.
Abed nodded then jumped out suddenly, holding his gun in front of him. "Cl-" then he stopped as a familiar figure stepped into the far end of the corridor and started walked towards him. Abed motioned the others to stay still.
"Abed, buddy!" Jeff cried out in relief. "There you are!"
Abed lowered his gun. "Good to see you Jeff," he said as he nodded and started to walk closer.
"Hell of a day-" Jeff was grinning as he walked closer. Abed noticed his hand start to move out of sight.
"Nice try, evil Jeff." Abed said, suddenly pulling his gun up, aiming and firing. The other Jeff cursed suddenly as he pulled his arm across his body, intercepting the taser dart which discharged harmlessly into the artificial material.
"Nice try, lame Abed!" He shot back, disappearing back around the corner before the others, who were now coming around the corner, could shoot.
XXXXXX
"-and then he persuaded a judge to set me free by convincing her I was too hot to be kept in prison, and we've been together ever since!" As she finished, the duplicate looked up from where her head was resting on Annie's lap, a jubilant smile on her face. Annie had long since inured herself to her doppelganger's complete lack of understanding of the concept of personal space where she was concerned - does she even realise we're two separate people? Annie had thought at one point. It helped - in a really freaky way that Annie really didn't want to analyse - that the touch casually rubbing her thigh was so very familiar.
"That's a really terrible story," Annie said - she slightly shocked herself when she realised was mostly sincere despite the horrors she'd heard, "but at least you found each other at the end." She struggled to add a positive note.
"Thanks honey," the other Annie said, her smile turning soft. "Of course you'd understand."
She suddenly shifted her position with a small bounce so that, while still on her knees, once again she was now facing Annie. "I've just had the most amazing idea!" Her face was positively glowing with excitement. "Why don't you come back with us, honey?"
"Er-" Annie squeaked, suddenly paralysed with shock. The other Annie didn't seem to notice.
"After all every Annie deserves a Jeff," the other Annie had excitedly grabbed hold of Annie's knees and was looking her in the eyes, apparently without noticing Annie's paralysis. "And your Jeff clearly isn't enough Jeff even for one Annie, whereas my Jeff is enough Jeff for both of us!" - she did another small bounce.
As she went silent for a moment Annie noticed that the grip on her knees had changed, she looked down and saw her - no, her - hands start to caress their way up her thighs. The other Annie's smile had changed from excited to what could only be lascivious.
"And when he's away being an evil lawyer-" the duplicate continued slowly "-maybe we could play? After all, who knows our body better than we do?"
Annie desperately squeezed her knees closed as her - NO! HER! - hands disappeared under her skirt. She really does know exactly - Annie desperately fought to get her body under control.
"What do you say, honey?" Annie - other Annie! - said softly. Annie made the mistake of looking into her eyes. Oh gosh, those must be the Disney eyes Jeff keeps talking about! Annie's resolve started to crumble as her - NO! Oh screw it - hands reached the waistband of her panties and started to caress the silky smooth skin just above them before taking a grip on the lacy material.
"Stop playing with yourself, we haven't got time." Neither Annie had noticed the Jeff return - one blushed violently as she wondered how much he had seen, the other gave a slight humph of annoyance as she removed her hands and stood up.
"What's the problem?" for once the other Annie seemed irritated with her Jeff.
"The locals are sticking together and have Troy, Abed and Britta pinned down in the cafeteria," he said. They're too alert, I can't get through."
"Then what can we do?" Duplicate Annie sounded petulant, the Jeff grinned and explained his plan. "Can you do it?" he finished.
"You know I can," she smiled and hugged him before skipping to the door. She'd almost left before remembering something, then turned and ran back to their prisoner. Annie watch uncertainly as with surprising gentleness the other took hold of Annie's face in both of her hands and pressed a soft kiss to her barely resisting lips. "I'll be back for your answer later honey," she said softly as she turned and skipped out.
Bubblegum lipgloss for some reason was the only thought going through Annie's head as she watched - her? - back retreat through the door.
XXXXXX
"Give up! You're pinned down and there's no way out!" Jeff screamed into the cafeteria.
"Screw you, lame Jeff!" The other Britta had recovered somewhat from her tasing and was being florid in her disgust for the study group in general and Jeff in particular.
"It doesn't matter what universe, I never get a break from you do I?" Jeff said dryly to his blonde friend who was sitting next to him behind an overturned table.
"Screw you, Jeff." Britta said, with none of the heat of her duplicate. "Are you ready?" At his nod, she stood up suddenly, threw a tear gas grenade across the cafeteria and dropped back down again.
Jeff jumped up, hoping to tase anybody flushed out by the tear gas. Instead he saw the other Abed, with a presence of mind that would have been admirable in a nobler cause, dump a fire bucket full of sand over it, smothering it so that only wisps of gas escaped. Jeff tried to take the shot anyway, but was forced to duck when the other Troy proved faster to give his friend covering fire.
"Damn, that was our last grenade." Britta said.
"I think Hickey may-" Jeff stopped suddenly as he heard a distant voice calling his name. As it got closer, he was shocked to recognise it. "Annie!" he cried as the petite figure of his friend ran into the cafeteria and hurled herself into his embrace.
"Oh Jeff - I was so scared!" Annie said. "I didn't know where you were and I had to hide-"
Annie seemed to realise where they were and pulled him away slightly from the field of combat. "I'm so glad to finally find you, Jeff!" She buried her head into his chest then pulled away slightly so that her eyes met his.
Jeff saw a fire in them he'd never seen before.
"Oh Jeff-" Annie reached forward and up, her yearning lips searching for his.
Jeff took hold of her shoulders and pushed her back slightly. "Annie! What are you doing? There are people watching!" he hissed.
"Oh, Jeff-" Annie's tone changed from lustful to pitying. "Now I understand that poor girl," her expression changed from adoring to savage as she shifted position and -
She suddenly started convulsing and dropped to the floor.
"What the hell, Britta?" Jeff screamed, bringing his own gun to bear even as Britta lowered hers after taking the shot.
"Look at her hands, Jeff!" She screamed back.
Jeff looked down and, with numb shock, saw the taser Annie had been about to drive into his side.
"That's their Annie, not ours - she was about to tase you," Britta finished.
Jeff started shaking, almost as though he'd been tased himself. "She was so, so-" he gasped out. Then he gathered himself, knelt down and picked up Annie - no, the other Annie - with as much care and gentleness as he could manage.
He turned around and walked forward to where the other duplicates could see him, still holding the Annie in front of him. "Drop your weapons everybody - we need to talk!" he called out.
The other Abed stood up cautiously and walked forward, keeping his hands where Jeff could see them. Jeff nodded in approval.
"That's far enough - now here's the deal. We've got your Annie and you must have ours or she wouldn't have tried this little stunt. So we're going to arrange a swap - your Annie for ours, then you all go home or spend the rest of your lives being experimented on in Area 51."
Jeff saw the other Abed's eyes open wide at that. I guess the X-Files is a thing where you come from too, he thought savagely.
The other Abed nodded. "I'll take you message to Jeff," he said. "The truce will hold until I get back."
"Deal," Jeff said. "But I'm keeping this Annie until then. The Abed nodded, then pulled out a phone and started running out of the cafeteria.
XXXXXX
The other Jeff had not appeared fazed in the slightest by what may or may not have been about to happen when he returned. Instead he had been relaxed, even solicitous - going so far as to untie one hand so Annie could take a drink from a bottle of water he handed over, though he did re-tie it after Annie finished and mumbled her thanks. Once again, she found herself blushing slightly as a familiar touch ghosted across her skin.
The other Jeff pulled up a chair of his own and sat across from Annie studying her for a moment, a soft smile that was heartbreakingly familiar on his face.
"You really are incredibly alike," he said at last. "Though I think you lack her fire," he paused for a moment. "But you don't, do you?" he said thoughtfully. "It just hasn't been brought to the surface. Yet." His soft smile was replaced with something… wilder.
"What's the answer she'll be coming back for?" He said suddenly.
Annie's nerves had been frayed almost to breaking point by the turbulent emotions of her captivity and she found herself quite unable to lie to this Jeff, who was looking at her with eyes so familiar and yet different. "She asked me to go back with you," she whispered. "She thought we could set up some sort of crazy menage a trois."
Jeff suddenly barked with laughter. "Ha! That's my Annie," he chuckled, rocking in his seat. "Always looking for a new game to play. Are you game?" His expression was suddenly very serious as his eyes bored into hers.
"What? No!" Annie squeaked, blushing bright red. "I mean-" she stammered. Whatever she was going to say was doomed to remain unsaid as his radio bleeped to announce an incoming message.
"What is it, Abed?" He barked into it. He didn't say anything as he listened, but Annie watched in fear as his face went chalk white with rage. "Aaaargh!" He screamed finally, throwing the radio against a wall and picking up the chair he'd been sitting on and smashing it to splinters against the same wall.
"What is it?" Annie whispered nervously - she was terrified of his sudden rage, but there was no one else there to talk him down, so - "what is it?" she repeated more loudly.
He whipped around, Annie watched in trepidation as he fought to get the rage distorting his features under control. Despite everything, she suddenly felt herself to be completely safe as he mastered himself. No Jeff will ever hit an Annie, she suddenly remembered her voice saying.
"Your Jeff has my Annie-" he practically spat out the pronouns "-and is proposing a trade."
"Are you going to do it?" Annie fought down the hope rising in her chest.
"I have to. I can't risk anything happening to her," Jeff's - no, the - aargh! - voice sounded broken.
"You really do love her, don't you?" Annie said softly, not for the first time that day fighting down sudden feelings of jealousy.
"Love her? Love her?" he barked with bitter laughter. He pulled a blanket off an unimpressive looking wooden box. This is the thing Abed conjured up in his Dreamatorium to get us here - I'd use the power in this to burn whole universes if that's what it took to get her back, then laugh over the ashes once she was by my side!" His face was suddenly savage, like nothing Annie had ever seen on her Jeff, then it calmed down. "So making a swap will be easy," he sighed.
"My Jeff once said he'd break a light sweat for me," Annie whispered sadly.
The other Jeff laughed. "Yeah, I remember saying that. I was lame then too." He turned slightly.
"You can come in now Abed, I know you're out there. It's quite safe," he finished.
Annie watched in surprised as her friend's doppleganger - albeit one with a goatee beard - walked in. He looked at her for a long moment, nodded slightly, then turned to face his Jeff.
"This is how we're going to do it-" the Jeff started talking.
XXXXXX
It was half an hour later and Annie was standing on one side of the quad with evil Jeff and evil Abed - evil Abed had volunteered the names to her and seemed perfectly relaxed about the epithet, though it seemed to annoy Jeff - evil Jeff - slightly. Her eyes however were fixed on the other side of the quad where her Jeff was standing with the other Annie, the rest of her study group, professor Hickey and the dean. Are the two Brittas talking to each other? She wasn't sure, but she thought she could see the two blondes chatting, apparently fairly amiably. Her suspicions were confirmed when they hugged and then parted as the evil Troy and Britta were released to head over to her side of quad.
Only when they were safely over did evil Jeff cut the ropes still binding her hands. "I hope he's worthy of you," he said gruffly, before putting a hand in the small of her back and pushing.
You and me both, Annie thought as she stumbled then recovered and started walking, her eyes fixed on her doppleganger walking towards her, who was looking just as intensely at Annie.
Halfway across the quad, as if controlled by a single switch, they stopped barely feet apart.
"I never did get your answer, honey." Evil Annie said, her eyes wide and guileless, a soft smile on her lips.
For a brief, wild moment Annie was tempted as something primal burned deep inside her. At some deep level we really are the same person, she thought. I know they're monsters, but I also know they'll never hurt me and all I have to do is Let Go and it'd be an amazing ride. But then she looked across the quad to see her friends - her family - waiting for her, worry on their faces as they wondered what the delay was and the temptation died away.
"You're making a mistake, you know." Evil Annie said, reading Annie's response in her body language. "Your Jeff will never make you as happy as my Jeff makes me - as he could make us both - he cares too much about things that aren't you. My Jeff doesn't care about anything that isn't me." The smile on her face was so full of contentment that Annie for a moment quite forgot the mayhem, violence and terror that lay hidden behind those words.
Instead, Annie impulsively pulled her doppleganger into a hug. "Hey!" she said, pulling away suddenly as - her - hands drifted down towards her ass.
"A girl's got to try," evil Annie said, a carefree smile on her face as she registered with some amusement the embarrassed grin on Annie's face. "You're not as boring as you seemed, lame Annie. Try not to be too good and have some fun occasionally."
Annie smiled. "And you let him take care of you - he really does love you, you know."
Evil Annie's smile turned lascivious again. "And he'll be proving it good and hard when we get back," she grinned at Annie's shocked squeak. "On which - 'bye Annie," she turned, waved to her Jeff and carried on walking back across the quad.
"'Bye Annie," Annie sighed fractionally and walked over to her friends, swiftly being enveloped in hugs.
"What happened in the middle there?" Jeff said, his voice frantic with worry. "What did you say to each other?"
"I'll tell you later," Annie said.