The people around New York had already collectively noted that Rosalind Lutece barely left her laboratory, and were now wondering what she was up to, placing strange-looking devices onto the foundation of the house.

Rumors had begun spreading that she had some sort of affair with Comstock, as he kept returning to the building. From the politician's "visions", they could also gather that there was some sort of floating city under construction. Little did they know, though, that the actual truth surpassed their wildest expectations.

It couldn't be explained to them immediately, though. Since the beginning of the history of physics, the equations used got more and more complex with the culmination of Maxwell's equations in 1862. It was crazy that this thing was what described reality, and no one in their right mind would have believed it. But there it was; scientific truth, proven by people long before Rosalind (or Robert), accepted and used as the telegraph and radio communications were developed.

If anyone in the street had been asked, "could there be an alternate Earth with only one different thing: that you were born the opposite gender?" they would have immediately dismissed it as something a science fiction author would write, but not something actually worth considering. And yet, for Rosalind Lutece, the answer was a very clear "yes", as the experimental evidence from the Lutece particle had very clearly shown, and if you were to suggest otherwise, she would laugh in your face the way anyone would laugh if someone in the street proclaimed that two and two makes five.

Unfortunately, Rosalind and her "brother" Robert had come to learn one more thing: in Robert's universe, either Comstock wasn't as prevalent a figure as he was in Rosalind's, or he didn't exist at all. That meant that, if the crazy idea of "Columbia" that Rosalind's Comstock had ever came to fruition, that would very likely mean that this would be the end of their contact.

Unless...

Even though Rosalind was already accustomed to Robert's way of thinking about how the Lutece tear could exist, she still viewed the idea as not worth risking. However, the idea that she would be separated from her very possible best friend - even love interest, if Rosalind had thought of anything that crazy - for pretty much forever was even more foreboding. For this one time, she had to try.

After mounting the last particle that would allow the building to stay afloat, Rosalind went back to the laboratory to set up an entirely different experiment, just for the sake of her and Robert staying together... forever.


Unfortunately, opening a Lutece tear was easier said than done.

Such counter-intuitive solutions were to be expected from science. After all, the discovery of electromagnetic induction also took years to actually be discovered, because someone had to realize that a moving magnetic field creates an electric current. But these times were long past; electricity was now well-understood, and the only obstacle to its popularity was actual appliances.

But the fact remained that the solution to opening a tear kept eluding the two alternate Luteces. The tears always seemed to either close too quickly or be too small, and the deadline for completing Columbia for the world fair (most buildings were already up, save for the science exhibit which was to be the Lutece Laboratory itself) was fast approaching so they had to progress like electricity itself.

On top of that, there was the whole ethical issue. People like Comstock, if they ever knew that there was another Earth, would try to exploit it for natural resources. The result would be an eternal inter-Earth war in which billions - no, trillions - would die because they couldn't agree with themselves. No, this particular invention would have to remain within universities as a "neat little thing" that was never to be developed seriously.

Oh, speak of the devil...

As Rosalind was thinking to herself, trying to figure out what went wrong with the tear device this time, Comstock came in, and this time he didn't look too happy. He didn't stop at the counter as he usually did, instead progressing through straight to the tear device, just as another tear was about to open. As it opened, he was struck by a lightning-like bolt and passed out.


When he came back to consciousness, he immediately began giving Rosalind directions. He mentioned a man named Booker DeWitt, who was seemingly from Robert's universe, and that his child was to be Comstock's, as he himself turned out to be sterile. The vision that he had, just before he passed out, confirmed this, as Columbia was not to survive without a human heir. Rosalind thus relayed this information to Robert as she hospitalized Comstock and helped him with what she could.

Robert came back very soon. It turned out that at the moment, Booker and Robert were involved in a gambling deal, and Booker was so much in debt that he, in a fit of drunkness, was willing to give away his own daughter, someone named Anna. Even though this message was concise, from the vision of various tears Rosalind could gather the rest of the story: as he sobered up, Booker retracted his deal, but the prophecy was to be completed.

As Rosalind was tending to Comstock, who, after several hours, seemed to finally be in better shape, though, she hit something. It seemed to be the tear device, and surely enough, without entirely knowing what she was doing, she actually opened a human-sized tear. It looked like a hole with glowing white edges, and it seemed to open to behind the building. As shown by the flashing of the other particle, Robert had trouble locating the tear, and she had to drop a quick message to him: "Behind the building. I believe time is running short."

Still guided by his visions, Comstock stepped through the tear. Rosalind noted that there seemed to be no immediate side-effects to his presence on the other side of the tear, but soon had no time for the thoughts as she saw one of the most beautiful sights.

The man looked as close to Rosalind as a man of the time could look like. She was immediately caught off-guard by the freckled face, and only after a while she could bring herself to look at how her alternate gave the baby to Comstock.

Shortly after that happened, though, Robert noticed someone to the side of the tear, out of sight for Rosalind.

"Booker."

At another time, Rosalind would have thought that this whole "communication by voice" between her and him was quite novel, but she didn't have time as everything just happened too fast. Booker came, wanting his daughter back, Rosalind noticed that even this time, the tear was unstable, Robert, Comstock and the baby made it through and as the tear closed, Booker was left behind. Then, stuff started exploding on Rosalind's end as the device acted as if the tear was still there, and everything went dark as electricity had been cut off for the laboratory.


It was only after a while when Rosalind herself came to her senses and started remembering. She had come to realize that Booker was Comstock, and that getting his baby would be the only legitimate way of getting Comstock, a sterile man, an heir.

But she remembered something else. There was a grown woman, who apparently had powers over the tears, and she seemed to be guiding someone through memories, as if she was the one who orchestrated everything.

"Elizabeth," Rosalind whispered as she looked around, seeing Comstock tending to the baby as if she was his. Robert hadn't recovered at all, and seemed to be bleeding from his nose.

The baby laughed when she heard the name, and thus Comstock decided that that's what he was going to call her.

It wasn't part of a prophecy, but it sounded like it should have.

The only thing left to do now was to send this laboratory into the air and be done with everything.


"Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt." - Robert Lutece, 1893


Author's idiotisms: Can the revival of the Lutecest fandom wait a bit? I'm certainly not in the mood to deal with anything.