She summarized the problem as quickly as she could. Not just Vega's sudden personality change, but the way he knew things he shouldn't, the break-in and attempt on his life, the way Bison didn't seem responsible for any of it. Guile would nod along every once and awhile to show that he was paying attention, even if his eyes flicked over to Vega occasionally. Had to make sure he wasn't up to anything. She couldn't blame him. Vega was crafty, quick, and deadly. Bad combination for an enemy to have, especially one sitting in your home. It made her feel guilty that she'd brought him here to begin with. Guile was pretty patient to let her do this. Again, she thought of how safe the place felt to her, and maybe it just seemed at the time that nothing could go wrong here. That even if she brought someone like Vega into the heart of this little fortress, everything would still be okay in the end.

She held out her list, explaining it to Guile. It was still too short to notice any kind of discrepancies in the stories Vega was telling. "So you see the problem?" she asked.

"Yeah, unfortunately," Guile said, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms. "I still say he's acting. I'd drop him off at the nearest prison if I were you."

She heard Vega sigh, but he didn't say anything. "Can't. Lost my best evidence against him to S.I.N.," she said. "Beyond that, he knows things he couldn't possibly know."

"Are you sure? Maybe our secrets just aren't as guarded as we like to think," Guile said. She knew he meant well, that he was trying to poke any holes he could into the situation. But the more she spoke to Vega, the more unsettled she became with the things he knew about her. Innocuous things like a favorite color were weird enough. When he got right down to stuff she feared and held anxiety over, such deeply personal thoughts that she'd only divulge to someone she really trusted, it was hard to write it off as an act, or something he'd just stumbled across.

She shook her head. "No, trust me, I've racked my brain trying to figure that part out." No one would enjoy feeling so exposed to another person without their consent. She'd thought of everything, and short of Vega having suddenly become some kind of telepathic thought-snatcher, she couldn't figure it out.

"You've told me a lot of things," Vega said. "I listen, even if you don't think I do."

"Shut it, psycho," Guile said, almost without thinking.

"Calm down, Captain America," Vega said defensively, holding his hands up. "I want to figure this out as much as you do."

"Vega," she warned. Guile wasn't terribly patient with people he disliked. "When we need something from you, we'll ask. Okay?" She was trying to maintain the peace. Vega obviously didn't enjoy being here and speaking to Guile-or not speaking to him. It felt reassuring, to see that he still got irritated with things. That was closer to normal than the weirdly kind and patient way he treated her. She turned her attention back to Guile, who was glaring at Vega. "So, focusing here. We have the Vega we know and love-assassin, crazy, matador. And...bizarro-Vega. Less crazy, absolutely awful fighter, teacher."

Guile snorted. "Teacher?"

"Professor," Vega said. Funny, he'd never corrected her on that before.

"Okay," Chun-Li said, before the two were at each others' throats again. She drew a line over the page in front of her. "When did we, allegedly, meet?" she asked him.

"A bit over five years ago. September."

She ticked a line perpendicular to the first, and wrote the date. "Okay. So according to you, we were both attending school in France." She wrote his version of events underneath, her version on top.

"Yes. You moved from the U.S., I moved from Spain."

That wasn't right. She'd only lived in the States briefly, and the date he gave didn't line up with that time. "Tell me more about that, it doesn't sound right." She waited, pen at the ready, focusing on the paper.

"You said you and your dad moved to the U.S. from China after Shadaloo ordered a hit on him."

Her heart stopped. What was he trying to say? She couldn't bring herself to write the information down. Instead her eyes seemed to be boring holes into the table. Guile was quicker to articulate his thoughts on the discrepancy than her. "You think you're being funny?" he practically snapped.

"What?" The genuine confusion in his voice only upset her more. She wanted him to laugh in that awful, condescending way he did, to show her he was toying with her. That he knew exactly what buttons he was pressing. But no, none of that happened, and he asked, "Are you okay?" He started to reach for her shoulder, and she was grateful that he stopped himself. She didn't want to think about what she might've done if he'd touched her.

"What are you saying?" she said, still unable to face him. Every other noise in the world became muted, save for her own pulse and his voice as he spoke.

"It's what you told me." He said it cautiously, like he realized he was treading towards dangerous territory. The tension in the room made that clear enough. "Your dad was with Interpol. He was working on some Shadaloo related case. After someone tried to kill him, he took an office position, I think. You moved with him to New York. When you were...fifteen? Sixteen? Can't remember."

Finally, she forced herself to look at him. He was somewhere between concerned and confused. "What then?" she asked, trying to keep her tone professional and even. And was it ever difficult with this killer sitting here, trying to play her for a fool. Or not. The two possibilities were threatening to set her brain on fire if she didn't reconcile them soon. She was helping him, murderer, terrorist, evil incarnate, how could she? He was genuine, lost, desperate, different, how could she not? His eyes were full of concern, the eyes of a friend worried for a friend and could she continue entertaining this?

"I don't know," he said slowly. He realized how upset she was, but couldn't fathom why. "You lived there until you came to Paris." He paused, but his lips were still parted, like he had more to say. She stared at him, and she couldn't take her eyes off of him. Like if she paid enough attention, she could find it, that sliver of insanity, the glimpse of malice, hidden there somewhere. "What happened?" he asked.

"Shadaloo happened," she said. How could he ask her about this, like he didn't know? Vega may not have been the one to kill her father, not yet having been a member of Shadaloo at the time, but he knew well enough why she dedicated herself to this cause.

"What?" He shook his head. "No, he's coming to-" He stopped. He knew what she was saying, but didn't want to put the words out there himself. "Cariño, I'm sorry."

Sympathy was the last thing she wanted from him. "Don't-" She couldn't finish. She didn't need this. Didn't need him to mock her with some made-up fantasy life she could've been living. To pity her or pretend to care. "This is just some new, sick game for you, isn't it?" She tightened her grip on the pen before slamming it to the table.

"You think I'm making this up?"

"Wouldn't put it past you," Guile muttered under his breath, glancing over at Chun-Li. He was coming pretty close to throwing Vega out of his house for upsetting her. But what else could he expect out of him?

"I don't even know who you are!" Vega cried. He sighed angrily before turning back to look at her. "Chun-Li, come on. I don't know how, but this is some-" He waved his hand. "We have two very different stories here."

"Not stories," she said evenly. She forced herself to maintain her composure. Every ounce of strength she had in her, she projected to keep a cool outward appearance. If he was enjoying her suffering, he wasn't showing it. "One truth. One story."

"I believe you, okay? Whatever you say happened, I'll take it, and I'm sorry that it happened to you. But I know how my own life has gone, alright? I know what you've told me about how your life has gone." Finally, as if he couldn't take it anymore, he did reach out for her. A hand on her shoulder, thumb brushing over her sleeve. "I want to try-"

"Back it up," Guile ordered.

"Who are you?" Vega said, plainly irritated. He broke off into Spanish and they couldn't follow what he was saying.

"Too afraid to talk to me in terms I can understand?"

"I think you wouldn't understand it in English, either!"

"Stop it," Chun-Li said, holding up a hand and shrugging his from her shoulder. "Stop. Everybody." She breathed deep. This was a mistake. All of it. She should've shoved Vega's unconscious body out into the hallway of that hotel when she knocked him out. Let him be the state's problem when he started spouting his crazy story, wondering who he was. The last thing she should've done was listen to him. "Let's calm down. Take a break." She didn't wait for their input. She knew Guile wouldn't say anything, and she didn't want to hear what Vega had to say.

Leaving the room was instantly freeing. It was more open, and she could breathe again. She made it to the kitchen, leaned back against the counter, and put a hand to her head. Getting worked up was like letting him win. She had to keep it together. Even if he wasn't faking it, she had to remain composed. If she let herself get distracted over what-ifs, she could end up missing some big flaw in his story, and maybe that was just what he wanted. "You want me to kick him out, just say the word." Guile's voice brought her attention back to her surroundings. He wasn't looking at her, eyes still on Vega, who he'd ordered to come out to the den where he could keep tabs on him. He couldn't leave the guy alone in his house, but he couldn't stand to let Chun-Li suffer by herself.

She smiled a little. "No, I have a job to do, and I'm going to do it." Saying the words was like some instant boost of confidence. A reminder to herself that she couldn't give up on this. It'd be like letting him win, to not figure it all out.

"This isn't your responsibility," he said.

"You aren't the least bit curious about his story?" she asked, though she knew the answer. Guile was a very literal, no nonsense person, and probably didn't believe a word of it.

"The only thing about him I have any curiosity over is how long he can hold his breath if I threw him in the Hudson with a bag of rocks tied to his legs." She nodded slowly, but couldn't bring herself to smile at the morbid joke. He clapped a hand to her shoulder, and said, "Just don't get yourself bent out of shape over him. It's not worth it."

She nodded again. He was right, after all. "Yeah."

"Take as much time as you need. I'm going to make sure that nutbar doesn't get into anything." She glanced up at him as he left. He stopped in front of the couch where Vega had been told to sit. She heard him say, "On your feet." The two were gone from her line of sight, back in Guile's office. She breathed slowly, still looking out into the hall where they'd been. What was she supposed to do here? What was happening to Vega? Did it make any logical sense to believe his stories? How did he know all of the things he did? Was it at all realistic to think he'd somehow read her mind? Hypnotized her? Got her with some kind of truth serum? Had really lived this alternate life he was describing? She exhaled through her lips, rolling her eyes at all of these absurd possibilities.

"Oh, I wondered whose car was outside."

She turned at the sound of the voice, smiled to her friend as she entered the room. "Hey, Julia."

"Nice to see you," she said, the two sharing a quick hug. "You're probably here for work, though, aren't you?" She said it in a way that made it clear she already knew the answer.

Chun-Li nodded. "Weird case I wanted Will's input on," she said.

"Hm, then you must be desperate."

She laughed. "Yeah, it's a tough one. This-" How did she describe him? Criminal? Mentally ill? She wasn't sure. "This guy is making some pretty bold claims, and I'm trying to figure out what the best course of action is. It's further complicated by the fact he's apparently being threatened with death and kidnapping." It was a slightly more complicated and weird issue, but she didn't really have the time to explain it. Even if she did, could she really?

"Quite a lot to put on your plate."

"I wish I could say I'm used to it, but this really isn't at all like my usual fare. I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to respond."

Julia smiled in that reassuring way she had. "Well, they ended up in your hands for a reason. You're a capable person with a strong sense of right and wrong. But you're also compassionate, something that can be just as important but often overlooked." Julia put a hand on her shoulder. "I know you'll come through and make the best decisions for your case."

Chun-Li nodded slowly. She wished she had her friend's confidence about this. Part of it was just that Julia was saying whatever was most supportive, and part of it was that she didn't know all the specifics of the issue. But it never hurt to hear something kind and encouraging from a good friend. So she smiled. "Better get back at it." The two parted ways, and Chun-Li took one final deep breath before plunging back into the odd little circus she'd created here in Guile's office. "Okay," she said again as she sat down. She felt like she said the word a lot, but it was almost some sort of mantra for her. Something that grounded everything and prepared her for work. Vega sat up a little straighter when she came back in, and Guile still leaned into his elbows propped against his desk. "Back to your story." Her voice was unwavering as she spoke. It felt much nicer to be calm about things, even if the words she had to say felt foreign and upsetting. "So according to you, my father was never killed by Shadaloo." She wrote it down without hesitating. Maybe he was toying with her, maybe this was genuine. Until she knew for sure, there was no sense in letting him see her get upset.

"Yes. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," she said evenly. She finished writing her version of the events, the one she knew unfortunately all too well. "Tell me what you know about Shadaloo. You said before you were keeping tabs on them."

He sat back, eyes roving around the room, though she noticed they always managed to avoid Guile. "Shadaloo took over the entirety of Thailand. There were speculations that their reach would continue to grow, unless somebody intervened."

"Bison took over Thailand," Guile repeated, plainly unbelieving.

"Yes."

Chun-Li remembered suddenly the remark Vega made when she was trying to get him to lie to Bison. "Yeah, you said this last night," she said as she jotted it down. "Here, Shadaloo is just a small base. It's never gotten any bigger than that."

"Really? Because they seem pretty unstoppable."

"How so?" Guile asked.

Vega shrugged. "That Bison guy is just very powerful and intelligent. He's engineered this robot army-"

"Jesus Christ," Guile said with a sigh. "We're really going to listen to this?"

"You are the ones asking me," Vega said. "And that's how it went."

"Think about Seth," Chun-Li said to Guile. "He probably means androids like that one."

"Yeah, that one. The rest were useless, and that one wasn't exactly thrilled about serving Shadaloo," Guile said. "He's making all of this up as he goes."

"Yes, I want you to believe me, so I chose the most outlandish stories I could imagine," Vega said before rolling his eyes. "Can you listen? Shadaloo is a huge threat. They have at their disposal an army of those android things. Those girls have assassinated dozens of politicians across the globe who get serious about fighting back. They brainwash people into fighting for them. Nobody has seen this Bison guy in years so they haven't been able to take him out."

Chun-Li took it all down as quickly as she could. Shadaloo was not what she would call 'ineffectual', but it did seem to pale in comparison to the one from Vega's story. She despaired to think of them ever becoming so powerful. So what had happened to prevent that from happening? "Those girls," she repeated slowly. "You're talking about the Dolls again." He'd mentioned before how he felt bad for them, that they were kept there under Shadaloo's control. The real Vega must have felt a bit bad for them, too. Or at least, for Cammy, as he'd helped to get her out of Shadaloo. She noted that, and studied her little dual timeline. Hadn't Cammy been the one to come back, free the Dolls, and destroy the psycho drive? It'd dealt a pretty powerful blow to Shadaloo. It'd weakened Bison enough to be killed later by Akuma, another setback. She looked up at Vega. "Without you to get Cammy out of Shadaloo safely, she never got out at all. She never destroyed the psycho drive." She traced a line idly from the point that mentioned the Dolls, over to Shadaloo taking over Thailand. "So Bison just got stronger because he never had to start over."

"I thought you said I'm supposed to be working for Shadaloo?" he asked, completely confused by the point she'd just made. "If I'm one of them, why would I go against them like that?"

She shook her head. "You didn't exactly go against them." She didn't know the whole story, because Cammy didn't like talking about it. Rose had helped rid her of her memories of Shadaloo, so what she knew were just bits and pieces. "You were assigned to kill Cammy because she'd started to become self-aware. For some reason, you didn't do it, and the rest is just like I've said." She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to concentrate. "But if you never joined Shadaloo, she never had someone to get her to that point. If Bison never died, Balrog never took command and ran it all into the ground. And if Bison just became more and more powerful, Akuma may not have killed him." She stopped to consider that last point, horrific possibilities creeping into her mind at what Bison may have done if he had Akuma's power at his own disposal.

"And you said Chun-Li's not an Interpol agent," Guile put in, looking at the list of differences now. "You and I have harassed Bison and crew so many times I've lost count. But I never would've found the place if it wasn't for your hard work. If I never partnered up with you, we never blew the place to pieces." She nodded as she wrote this down as well, looking up when Guile gave a short, ironic laugh. "So without you and me to work at them from the outside, and Vega and Balrog over there to screw it up from the inside, they just kind of took off. Allegedly, anyway." He braced his arms against the desk for support, grinning a bit as he looked over at Vega. "You guys are your own worst enemies."

"I suppose I can live with that," Vega said. "Even if it doesn't really put me any closer to understanding what's going on."

"Like we are?" Guile asked, then gave a short laugh. "It's like a parallel universe you have going on. Some real Quantum Leap shit."

Chun-Li smirked, and shook her head. "Wow, you're admitting you don't know something? Maybe we're in the alternate reality."

"Yeah, maybe in this one, you can be engaged to Rufus and Dan Hibiki is the godfather of your future child."

So there were possibilities more disturbing than dating Vega. "Back to this," she said quickly, tapping her pen on the paper. None of them had said the words 'parallel' or 'alternate' out loud to describe the situation until now, and she felt suddenly emboldened to pursue that notion. "Do you guys think that something like that could be it?" Guile's critical gaze was almost enough to make her feel ridiculous for even asking. "This alternate reality idea, I mean."

"Definitely not," he said. "There's a more logical explanation."

"The two aren't mutually exclusive, you realize?" Vega said. Guile raised his eyebrows, allowing for him to continue. "The idea of a multiverse, or 'possible worlds', or whatever you want to call it, is a philosophically and scientifically legitimate theory that people much more intelligent than you or I have and continue to study. It's possible that there are a large-if not infinite-number of different universes wherein anything that could have happened in our past, but didn't, did happen."

"Well, excuse me, Dr. Hawking, for being a bit skeptical when a terrorist waltzes into my home telling me he's in love with one of my best friends who he's also tried to kill on multiple occasions," Guile said.

Chun-Li listened to the conversation, more than a little unsure of which stance to take. "What does that theory have to say about people moving between those worlds, then?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I'm not terribly well versed on the topic. I'm sorry."

She snorted at his apology. He seemed like he knew more about it than her, so what was he sorry about? "It's fine," she said, flipping the page with the timelines, and writing on the back. She jotted down the words 'parallel world', then glanced up at Guile. "So we have one proposed solution, outlandish as it sounds. What else?"

"Drugs, brain damage, mind-control, pure sadism on his part..."

Vega sighed loudly, but Chun-Li wrote them down, considering them as she did. She shook her head, crossing off the first two. "No, I already ruled these out with the trip to the hospital," she said. She looked at the third possibility. "And Bison doesn't seem involved." She almost marked through it, but a suggestion from Guile stopped her.

"Then maybe it's not Bison doing it," he said. How had she not even considered that? So she nodded, leaving that point on the list. The fourth, she hesitated on. Much as she disliked Vega, it was pretty difficult to believe he was acting. It'd been too long, too thorough, too knowledgeable to be an act. So she instead wrote 'probably not' beside it.

"Who else has that kind of power?" she asked.

It was Vega's turn to get critical. "You two won't believe a solution based in metaphysics, but you believe in supernatural powers. Nice, fine."

"We've seen those first hand," Guile responded. "Can't say I've ever seen a parallel world or whatever."

Vega stared at him like he was an idiot before waving his hand in front of his face. "Hola, estúpido! Where do you think I come from? I can tell you it's not here!"

Guile held his hand up, and Chun-Li could tell from the exasperated expression he wore that he was getting closer to his breaking point with Vega. "Sit your ass down and shut up, alright? When I want to hear your opinion, I'll ask for it."

"Okay, okay," Chun-Li said quickly. The look on Vega's face was not at all a friendly one at the moment. Even if this wasn't their version of Vega, she didn't know him, and couldn't predict how he'd respond. He certainly looked like he wanted to throttle Guile, but she couldn't say if he'd act out or not. "I think we're just moving in circles here." She picked up her paper, and folded it once. "We can't commit to believing his story, he can't commit to our alternatives. We're just going to have to agree to disagree until one party finds some kind of concrete evidence for or against the other."

"How have I not given you enough?" Vega asked, showing some frustration still. "I've told you all these things you've admitted I shouldn't be able to know-"

She held up a hand, and he quieted himself with a sigh. "I'd like to believe you. It'd be one less thing to worry about," she said. "But you have to understand our perspective, too. You aren't a person we can trust, and are involved with people who can and have done things we would have never thought possible. Can't you agree that it's a bit naive to immediately trust your story, given our point of view?"

He drew a hand over his face, fingers resting over his mouth, but ultimately nodded. "Fine. I suppose I can understand that, to an extent." It was a begrudging acceptance, but at least there was some small piece of progress. They had agreed on something. "Where does that leave us?"

"Well, whatever your deal is, it's plain you don't want to go back to Shadaloo," she said. "And I can't really bring myself to leave you at Juri's mercy either. I'm going to do what I can to help you disappear, unless you..." She waved her hand once, still feeling a little strange about all of this. "...turn back into yourself."

"Are you hearing yourself?" Guile asked. "You're going to help him? Him?"

"Keeping him from Shadaloo is my priority right now."

"And what happens to you when he drops the act? It's too big of a risk!" He leaned forward, keeping his eyes on hers, and she could see how much stress her decision was causing him. "Think about whether or not this is worth your life."

"I don't kill people," Vega muttered, but went ignored by both parties.

It was a stalemate. Maybe she was putting herself in danger, but that was a risk inherent in standing against Shadaloo to begin with. Sure, eliminating Vega from their ranks wouldn't be the blow that sent the whole thing crumbling down. But it wasn't negligible either, and every strike against them mattered. The ideas she'd crafted concerning what would happen if Bison got a hold of Vega again were dark ones. Vega's weakness in combat was his instability and lack of self-control. If Bison erased that flaw through the same sort of conditioning he'd performed with the Dolls, what was left? "I know you don't like hearing that, Guile, but this is what I'm going to do." She looked up at him, and he was shaking his head. "If you want to offer any help, that'd be great. But if you don't, I understand that, too." There wasn't much left to say to him about this, so she nodded to Vega as she stood up. "Let's go."

"Chun-Li, wait," Guile said, and she could hear the agitation in his voice. She stopped at the threshold of his office. "Look, he might be tolerable for now. But just keep your eyes open, and if you get in over your head, call me. I want updates from you. Regularly. Maybe a message every morning and every evening?"

She smiled, but didn't argue with him. It was a simple enough request, and a logical one, too. If she didn't message him, then he'd know something went wrong. "I will." In a way, it made her feel better to know she'd have him as a kind of backup, someone who'd notice if she disappeared. Of course, she hoped it didn't come to that. She exchanged good-byes with Guile and his family, and as they left, Vega seemed instantly less tense. "You don't like Guile very much," she stated once they were in the car again.

He had his arms crossed tightly, fingers flexing as he tried to generate warmth. "Do you like people who grab you by the throat for existing?"

"Remember," she said, "To us, you're someone very different."

His eyes fell briefly before looking back up at the road ahead. There was a light dusting of snow on the street. "Right," he said in a quiet voice, like it was more for himself than her. They were both silent after that. She kept her eye on him whenever she could, unwilling to let her guard down. He caught her looking at him occasionally, and she tried not to appear embarrassed. It got to be too much for her, and she decided maybe music wasn't such a horrible risk after all. Better than the awkward silence, and she could skip a song if it seemed like it might make things awkward. "You shouldn't play with your phone while you drive." She wanted to laugh at him for saying that. If he only knew the number of dangerous situations they'd both been in.

"Just putting something on," she mumbled back.

"How did you do that?" he asked when the music finally played.

She raised an eyebrow. "Bluetooth."

"Oh. I'm an idiot," he muttered, like he realized in hindsight how obvious it was. "I'm terrible at things like that. I'd have the radio making coffee or something if I tried to do what you just did."

She sputtered, trying to interrupt her own laughter at the absurd statement. "Well, I think that would actually make you a genius, to make a drink out of radio waves."

"Yeah, you always have a way of spinning it nicely."

Again, she felt a bit uncomfortable. It was really hard to come to terms with him behaving like he knew her so well. She thought of all of the parallel universe stuff. Philosophy had never really been her thing, and while she kept up with some of the more basic scientific news, she couldn't begin to imagine how the idea was anything but science fiction. Even if there was someone sitting here with such a different take on their lives. It seemed naive to accept what he had to say at face value, but then it seemed stubborn to just reject everything and dismiss his knowledge of her as coincidence, or absurdly invasive and specific espionage.

"You're still stuck on this?" he said, bringing her attention back to him and the music. "What's it been, a year since this came out? And I'm sure you've had it on nonstop the entire time."

Her cheeks flushed red, and she hoped he wouldn't notice. She hated how much he knew about her. Even if this wasn't Vega, it was somebody enough like him to make it creepy when he spoke to her about herself. "So what?" she said.

He shook his head and shrugged. "It's just funny what changes and what stays the same." He stopped, a little smile coming to him, like he was remembering something. "You said one of your friends made jokes out of this song, like, 'I synced your mother to the Moog modular because I knew it was a sound of the future'. Something like that." She stared at the road as they drove, forcing herself not to smile as she thought of Ken's dumb jokes. He'd sent her a series of messages referencing or parodying the song, that being one of many. "I pretended not to understand what a 'your mom' joke was, and it was really something to watch you try to explain it to me."

She wrinkled her nose."You just like torturing me, no matter how different your life is," she said, slightly irritated.

He laughed. "Not torturing. It's just-" He stopped himself, seemed a bit hesitant to say.

But of course, that made her curious, so she had to know. "Spit it out."

"It's cute to see you get flustered." His hand brushed through his hair. He didn't look back at her, knowing it'd probably upset her for him to say that. "That is, when it's over a harmless thing," he added softly, remembering all of the horrible things she said he'd done to her in this life.

She frowned a little at his sudden shift in tone. "Well, if you're really from somewhere else, don't feel guilty for what your alternate self has done. You seem-" She stopped. She wasn't about to compliment him, was she? There had to be a better way to phrase it. "You seem like you aren't as much of a jackass."

"My God, the highest honor one can earn from you."

"Stop it."

"I think, maybe I should have had a speech prepared for this?"

"Stop!" she said, trying to keep herself from laughing at the way he pretended to be so genuinely flattered and shocked.

"I thank God, of course, for this moment-"

"I'm going to push you out of the car."

"-and I want to thank my agent, who made me such an expert on not being as much of a jackass-"

"I take it back."

"That's really unprofessional."

"Oh, unprofessional? I think you-" She never got to finish the statement. The awful sound of metal squealing against metal interrupted her, a jolt running through the car and throwing them both against their restraints. There was another impact as the car slammed into the guardrail, she took a tighter hold on the steering wheel. She pressed on the gas, and for a moment the tires spun uselessly on the icy street before they gained traction and moved forward. She glanced up at the other vehicle reflected in the rearview mirror. Shadaloo or S.I.N., a delightfully short list of choices. Either way, they'd been found, and now it was up to her to lose them.

i don't know anything about metaphysics or quantum mechanics and only have the most basic grasp of the possible worlds theory(maybe not even that haha), so if i got anything wrong in a way that doesn't fall under 'suspension of disbelief', please let me know and i'll fix it. and yeah that is a reference to daft punk's giorgio by moroder and...ah :p you people who are still reading are truly brave and tolerant souls