I won't bother rambling right here, not really that much to say anyway, but please review (pretty please with sugar on top!)!

Seriously! Almost 5000 hits... wow, thanks guys really. I'm not just going to thank the people that have reviewed because I'd feel like I was cheating the people that don't cause I can't name them off... so just thanks to everyone kay?

This is an Afterward, a Postscript, an Omake, an Epilogue. It's longer than the regular chapters and it includes questions I wanted to ask but didn't have the chance during the original story, it should also clear up the dream/reality confusion... so without further ado, enjoy!

35. In Dreamland

It had been a week since I'd had that odd dream and I was beginning to think it was just that -a dream- despite various circumstances that lead me to believe it wasn't, at least not entirely.

That message was what bothered me the most. It had come from Shinji, who was supposedly a dream, and he'd practically said as much in his message, but the very existence of the message in reality proved that it had been to some degree real. I'd even had Haibara look at the message to make sure it wasn't just a hallucination on my part.

'See you in dreamland' he'd said. At first I'd had hope maybe I would be able to meet him again in the world of dreams, but as days passed without me having any dreams that had any sense of realism to them I'd started to lose that hope. I'd even began to think that maybe the message was just an odd coincidence, that it was sent to me by mistake because someone had put in the wrong number, as unlikely as that theory was.

In any case it was at that time, a full week since the passing of that event, that I'd drifted into sleep and found myself in that familiar world.

I fell asleep in my own bed at the Mouri Detective agency and when my eyes next opened I was laying on the couch at the professors house. It took me only a few seconds to grasp what was going on, a moment longer to understand it.

"Congratulations! You're having a lucid dream!" Shinji said in a near shout leaning at me.

"So... it is a dream?" I asked hesitantly.

"Probably..."

What an uncertain answer...

"Even if I had given you a straight answer it wouldn't really matter much now would it? This is -more likely than not- your dream, it's possible that you'd just see or hear whatever you'd like to, therefore there's no guarantee my answers can be the truth," He replied, "simply because it is a dream."

"I doubt I'd take advantage of the fact that it's a dream to manipulate what you say," I argued, "If I had that much control over my dreams then it wouldn't have been a week before I came back to this one. So we can assume that whatever you say is what you believe."

"A week?" He looked at me quizzically, "On this side of things it's only been an hour. Yuki called me when you suddenly collapsed and that's when I sent that message. Hmmm... a time difference of a week... there must be some significance in that, or perhaps it's a sign that this 'dream' is also a form of reality... curious... very curious..."

"You mean like this is an alternate dimension manifesting as a dream?"

"An alternate dimension... Of course not! You and I may be time travelers in this world but don't go off and randomly become a slider!" He said, his expression looked angry but his tone made it clear that he found the idea amusing, he continued with a more serious demeanor, "It's most likely a result of the paradox we'd caused. This world up until an hour and fifteen minutes ago -about a week for you- was reality but it was decided that you and I had too much effect in the world when we shouldn't have even existed to begin with so in order to correct the issue the world rewrote itself and made everything that had happened nothing more than a dream... Your dream..."

He paused, giving me a moment to take in everything that he'd just said, but while I was still processing he'd begun mumbling incomprehensibly to himself.

"...strange... I wonder, if that's the case then how would the current state of things be described? Is this continuation of a world-line that has already been dubbed a dream just the product of wishful thinking in your idle mind, or did I perhaps connect this world to what is now reality when I sent that message to you as your consciousness moved from this world to that one? By the first scenario 'I' would then be nothing more than a figment of your imagination reproduced by your memory of the first 'dream', but if the second is correct then we are indeed in parallel worlds and you are the connection between the two..."

"Shinji," I called out his name in hopes of getting him to shut up, which thankfully he did, he'd been giving me a bit of a headache with his speech so I was glad to see it over.

"Yeah I guess it doesn't really mater anymore anyway, there are much more pressing matters at hand..."

"Eh? Like what?"I honestly wondered what matter he might find more pressing than whether or not he was now a figment of my imagination.

He'd seemed a bit lost in thought for a moment before I'd asked my question, snapping him back to reality, "Lately I've been wondering how Apotoxin 4869 will affect my lifespan."

Oh? That is a good question...

"With my body being that of a six or seven year old and my mind that of a twenty-eight year old, I wonder which age I'd be technically considered. On one hand if I have the remaining lifespan of a six or seven year old then 'Shinichi Kudo' will be living about twenty extra years, on the other hand if I have that remaining lifespan of my proper age than 'Shinji Kudo' will die twenty years younger than could be predicted."

"You really do worry about such useless things," Haibara-san said as she stood in the doorway, having just came up from the downstairs lab, "You could easily be killed by those you call the Black Organization tomorrow, why wonder how long you have left to live when you can't be sure that you will live that long?"

Urk... good point.

"I've already lived twelve and a half years since being poisoned, do you think I won't be able to keep that up much longer? Besides, you realize we've captured Gin, one of the most dangerous members of that organization, don't you? Clearly, I'm not so easy to kill as you think, Yuki-chan."

"Would you please stop calling me that?" She asked, her words may have seemed polite but she gave him a look that would have killed probably anyone but Shinji.

"Calling you what? Yuki-chan? But it has such a nice ring to it," He replied, facing her killer gaze with a smile as though it were nothing, "You agree right, Conan? The name Yuki Haibara really suits Yuki-chan~."

It does suit her but... I tried to convey what I thought about his statement with my expression, "Don't get me involved in this."

"Why don't we change the subject then?" Shinji suggested, "You look like you still have things you wanted to ask me."

"Yeah... actually I was kind of wondering..." I trailed off. This is going to be so awkward to ask while Haibara-san is still in the room...

She didn't look like she'd be leaving anytime soon.

I managed to continue anyway, "...how did that date you had with Ran back before Plan B started go? Something happened right?"

"That's it!" Shinji said suddenly, "Something I would know about that you wouldn't, with an answer you wouldn't expect! That proves that this wasn't completely your dream and was at some point reality!"

"Could you just answer?"

"Oh my apologies...you see what had happened was..." He said, acting a bit embarrassed to have not answered the question in the first place, "Well long story short... she didn't believe that I was Shinichi Kudo."

"What? I had to ask, it made absolutely no sense, "She... she didn't believe you were... well... you?"

"Yes... though admittedly the twelve years I spent predominately as Conan Edogawa changed me in ways you wouldn't even begin to imagine (and I'm sure you wouldn't want to), I think it was my personality that made her so wary of me..." He replied as though he was stating the most normal thing in the world.

Knowing better than to ask about what unimaginable changes that I supposedly wouldn't want to think of had taken place I asked something else, "So... what did you do about her not believing that you were Shinichi Kudo?"

"I told her that I was Conan Edogawa from the future."

"You did what? ! ?"

"Asking a second time doesn't change the answer; I told her that I was Conan Edogawa from the future, and that I had traveled back in time in order that help 'Shinichi' with his big case."

Haibara-san responded before I could, "And she believed you?"

"Not until I showed her my driver's license..." He said, showing it to us. Sure enough, it stated that he was Conan Edogawa and eighteen years old, it also included the year and date he'd gotten the license.

"Baka."

"It's not like it's a lie."

"Well that's true but..."

"Conan. There's something a bit more important for you to be worrying about than how I chose to truthfully lie to your Ran, I'm sure you've realized by now..." He trailed off, he clearly didn't want to say what he seemed to feel needed to be said.

I wondered for a while what he was getting at but I couldn't come up with anything.

"If your 'reality' has changed back to how things were before I'd appeared and started making small changes, if things are how it was before I started Plan A then..."

"I understand," I said, he sighed glad he didn't have to mention any more.

He'd been planning to say, ' then the future I'd come from is likely to happen again.' The 'event' that he'd intended to change using Plan A will occur is about nine and a half years if I don't do anything to change it. I definitely couldn't leave things as they were, but we could take care of that together as long as Shinji gives me his advice from in my dreams.

After that we just made light conversation about various things, and after a while I almost forgot that I was in a dream. Before long I found my self opening my eyes again to find that I had woken up, it was actually a bit disappointing, but I guess dreams are supposed to feel good.

Later at school that day I decided to talk to Haibara at lunch, I made sure the others weren't listening when I spoke up.

"Oi, Haibara," I said, feeling only slightly foolish for what I was about to ask, "What do you think about time travel?"

"Idiot. Time travel is impossible," she replied with her usual cold demeanor. Almost the same reaction as when Shinji had said that he was from the future.

I couldn't help but laugh a little bit to myself. 'Say's the girl that invented the time machine.'