The mobile research centre lurched to a halt, waking me from my sleep immediately. I bonked the top of my head on the bed over me, quickly crawling out of my own, rubbing my head and approaching the front of the vehicle. It was dark out, and from the small clock positioned on the dashboard, it was 2 am. I remembered that we had fallen asleep last night soon after leaving Mount Blackhead, and I wasn't at all surprised that it had taken us this long to get from there to here. Shuffling at the other end of the mobile research centre caught my attention and I noticed Agent Bronwyn hunched over a laptop and a microscope. She turned her head to me, taking off her headphones and smiling up at me lightly.

"Um, good morning," I waved.

"'Morning," she said, wincing when she realised her voice was a bit loud, "Sorry that Oswald woke you up."

I shook my head, "No, it's okay. I wasn't sleeping super well anyway. What're you up to?"

She shifted off to the side and motioned to the laptop. "You know how I asked for a blood sample from all of you last night? I needed to see how fusion matter has been affected you, if at all. More specifically, I was looking for your nanites to see how they were getting along."

I stepped over and looked at the laptop screen. On the screen was a greyscale display of something I had definitely seen in a book at school at some point. "I honestly have no idea what I'm looking at."

Bronwyn smiled and stepped forward, "This is your blood. I'm looking at your red blood cells and nanites and making sure everything is normal."

"And those stringy, worm-looking things?"

"Those are trace pieces of fusion matter."

I instinctively stepped back and looked at Bronwyn.

"They're harmless as far as I'm aware. They eventually just dissolve away or get ripped apart when the other cells realise there's an outside body. In lamens terms."

I nodded, "If you say so. Is there anything you've learned about nanites?"

Bronwyn sighed, "Not yet. Nothing we didn't already know, that is. They're acting relatively the same as they were before, but something is preventing them from activating. EVOs that were EVOs before are still EVOs; Van Kleiss, Rex, Breach, Biowulf, the like. But new EVOs can't form."

I nodded and stepped back to sit on the chair on the other side of the centre and yawned.

"You can go back to bed if you'd like," Bronwyn told me, taking a seat in her own chair, "I'll keep it down."

I sighed and said, "I'm not really tired."

I had felt that same "being watched" feeling shortly after I had woken up, but hadn't really thought about it too much after I noticed Bronwyn was awake. But it was back now. It was stronger than it had been before, but I knew that looking at where I thought it was wouldn't make it any better.

"Alright. Well, I'm gonna get back to work. If you need anything, just shout," Bronwyn said, turning around and putting her headphones back on, then quickly taking them off again and adding as her face became red, "Well, not shout, but you know what I mean. Um. Anyway."

I chuckled a little and felt my eyelids becoming heavier. After what had only felt like 5 minutes later, I was awoken by a loud crashing. I flailed in my chair, throwing off the blanket that had suddenly appeared draped over my body. Outside, I thought I saw what looked like a silhouette flash out of existence, a crater and the debris of a streetlamp the only evidence of its existence. I rushed outside and stood in the centre of the crater, drawing my Pop Gun and pointing it about as I spun around, looking for the owner of that silhouette. As my comrades joined me, I felt a sharp pain in the side of my head. I shut my eyes tight, holding the side of my head, and when I opened them again my teammates were standing around me.

"You okay, Nova?" Kerry asked.

"Um, yeah," I lied. The sun had begun to rise now.

"Should... should we get going then?" Athena questioned, motioning at the big blue building across the street.

"Wait, aren't we gonna investigate what happened here?" I pressed.

The other 3 looked at each other. I felt the headache leave me as Bronwyn said, "You... you just told us."

"No, I didn't," I stated.

Kerry shook his head, "Look. You've been dodging it lately. What's going on? Please, tell us."

My three teammates looked at me, their concerned expressions speaking a thousand words. "I've already told you - well, I've told the two of you. Nothing is wrong. I occasionally get feelings like I'm being watched. I have dreams that it's me who is watching... well, me. But I'm okay otherwise, I've been feeling especially great since we got Providence on board."

The other three didn't seem to be buying it, "Er, Nova. If I may? I've not been on the team for long, but this event... well, I'm not a medical doctor - I'm not even a doctor, just a researcher - but I know when there's something up."

"I'm fine. Y'know what? Let's just get going. Doctor Automata is probably waiting for us," I insisted, marching off towards DexLabs HQ.

A Dexbot had led us down into the room we had been in once before; the Gateway stood in the centre of this room, Dexter and Doctor Automata working away around it. Doctor Automata approached us as soon as the Dexbot left and wordlessly led us over to the Gateway. To me, it seemed like nothing about it had changed; sparks still fell off the sides where circuitry was exposed, wires haphazardly wrapped around the beams that made up the gate itself, 4 camera-esque things on the corners of the Gateway would occasionally project swirling lights without any input causing them to do so. Yet, the lab was fuller now; on the other side of the room sat a wall of glass balls filled with swirling blue, red, and yellow fog. Tubes filled with condensed Fusion Matter lined the ceiling, papers covered desks where Dexlabs employees were working tirelessly, and Dexter had moved to go argue with Mandark while addressing both the Gateway and the wall of spheres.

"Seems like you've been busy," Athena said.

"Yes, we have. That brings me to my first point, actually. We've had a breakthrough; we've developed a new weapon in the war against Fuse," Doctor Automata said, pressing a button on his wrist-mounted NanoCom. A miniature version of Dexter popped up at his side.

"Salutations!" it exclaimed.

"This is a Nano. A combination of condensed Fusion Matter, Dexlabs and Mandark Industries technology, an item of the person we are recreating in Nano form, and the user's own Imagination" the Doctor explained. Two aides approached, some of the spheres in their hands. "These are the first four we've created."

Automata dismissed his miniature Dexter and one by one pressed a button on the sides of these spheres. As he did so, the fog from within condensed and suspended within them was another one of these "Nanos"; the first was Dexter, the second was Mandark, while the third was Professor Utonium, and the fourth was Samurai Jack. They floated in the fetal position in these glass wombs, lightly spinning around. Doctor Automata smiled.

"Is that... Samurai Jack? I thought he was a myth. How'd you manage to get something of his?" Bronwyn asked.

"Oh, he's real alright. And believe me, I was surprised to learn that as well," Automata said.

I inched closer to take a look at each of these miniatures. They weren't perfect copies by any means; in fact, they all looked exceptionally cartoonish and young. Mandark in particular looked more like how he did as the emerging child genius rather than how he does now as the CEO of Mandark Industries. Dexter was the same way; his hair was curlier, and he was much shorter than how miniature of Dexter should be if it were to be made of him now, and Samurai Jack looked exactly as he did in the popular cartoon he starred in a few years ago.

"I'm assuming that's not why you called us here so urgently, though, right Doc?" I asked as I leaned away from the capsules.

Automata cleared his throat as he walked back to the Gateway. "Right. We're ready for you now."

I gave him a look of disbelief, "You want me to go through the Gateway when it is literally sparking and looks like it could explode at any second?"

"It is safe, I assure you," Doctor Automata responded.

"I'll vouch for my employee," said Dexter, approaching with a strange teal orb in his hand.

Doctor Automata smiled and took the orb from Dexter. "See this? It's the first drone that we sent through that managed to come back. It is completely undamaged. And this one is the first of over 25."

"And for organic test subjects?" Bronwyn jumped in.

"Numbuh 790,000.1 will be the first," Dexter admitted.

"But, Miss von Zon is a human, and therefore smarter and more durable than the average lab rat. She's also not expendable, meaning we will be monitoring her 110 per cent of the way. If we expect anything has gone wrong, we hit the emergency shutdown sequence and your commander will be dragged back out of there immediately," Doctor Automata added quickly.

"Why do I have a terrible feeling about this?" Kerry mumbled.

"I... I trust you. Dexter, you're one of the smartest people on the planet, and Doc, you got those Nanos to work in a matter of days after announcing that you had begun development on something to fight Fuse. If you say that I'll be okay, I believe you," I said.

"Good. Here," Doctor Automata shifted closer to me and slipped a teal band across my wrist. "This will allow us to communicate with you while you're in the In-Between. Once you arrive at your destination, we'll lose contact with you until you re-enter the In-Between."

Dexter handed me a pressed teal and white outfit and added, "These clothes are specifically made to help protect you from whatever lies in the In-Between. There is a quarantine area around the corner where you can change. We'll keep your KND armour somewhere safe."

I nodded and followed one of Dexter's aides to this quarantine space and changed into the suit I had been provided. When I put it on, I felt it conform to my specific body shape automatically; the shirt I had been provided was warm, but the spaces underneath the armpits were open. The sleeves were covered in buttons and switches and lights that blinked, but the shirt was exceptionally lightweight - although I may have just gotten used to the heaviness of my KND armour - and looked stylish nonetheless. The pants were covered with wires that connected to other parts of the suit and had a built-in weapon holster. I placed my Cherry Pop Gun within. The holster conformed around it immediately, keeping a small opening around the handle. I began to leave the quarantine zone and, after I was sprayed with a scentless mist, returned to the Gateway. It had begun powering up while I was away, the camera-like projectors creating a vortex of swirling multicoloured light as I turned the corner.

"Ready when you are, Numbuh 790,000.1!" shouted Doctor Automata over the rumbling and the humming the machine was producing.

"Wait!" Dexter shouted. He ran over and flipped a switch on my right arm. "That switch will allow us to essentially magnetize you back if things get too worrisome. Now we're ready when you are."

I nodded and made my way to the entrance of the Gateway. Athena grabbed my wrist, causing me to turn around.

"We'll see you soon!" she shouted. I nodded determinedly and pulled her in for a quick hug.

"That's right. Good luck, Nova," Kerry added, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"I'll be back before you know it," I said, pulling away and taking another step forward. I took one last deep breath and closed my eyes tight as I walked through the portal and out my own universe.

When I opened my eyes again, I was floating in an endless void of clouds and empty space. Lightning arced across the clouds. Before my very eyes, the clouds changed from grey to orange, then orange to purple. The lightning changed colour too, from blue to red to green. Swirling fog pervaded the area around me, yet I could see through it as if it weren't even there. Soon, whether or not it was of my own volition, I found myself moving forward. Slowly but surely, I moved forward, cutting through the clouds that stood in my way. Pink lightning swirled around me. The "In-Between" smelled like a campfire and I could hear echoes of some far off noise. Suddenly, the new NanoCom on my wrist beeped to life.

"This is-shk Control to Shepard, do-shk you copy Shepard? Over," asked the echoing, static-y, far-away voice of Doctor Automata.

"I copy, Control. Why is my codename... Shepard?" I responded. My voice echoed endlessly around me.

"Alan Shepard was-shk the first human to perform a spacewalk. You're the-shk first human to-shk walk around in the In-Between, over."

"Right. So, what's my target? Er, over."

"As we-shk discussed the first time you saw-shk Project Gateway, we've been-shk getting data from a univershkkkkk-"

"Say again, Control?"

"-Shepard, do you copy-shkkkk?"

"I'm losing you, Control. Over."

No response came.

"Control?"

Again, the other side was silent. I swore under my breath, which came back to me tenfold. I stopped where I was, hoping to hear Automata's voice again soon. I was entirely lost - just aimlessly floating in an ever-morphing void - without him there. I did remember that universe that Automata and Dexter had explained a few days ago; it was some universe where an entirely different cataclysm had occurred instead of Fuse invading thousands of years ago, with some other apocalyptic scenario having taken place recently. That was all well and good, but I had no idea how to get there. I assumed it was one of those swirling misty vortexes, but there were at least 10 of them and guessing was clearly out of the equation.

I had no concept of time in this void, but the lightning that was simply a constant now had conglomerated and began approaching where I was. And it was speeding up. Within seconds, green lightning struck in front of me, behind me, above me, below me... and then that lightning struck me. Twice. Three, four, five, six times. Not once, though, did it hurt. From each one of the impact points, I felt a strange tingling sensation sprout, crawling across my body like millions and millions of ants. It almost tickled, particularly the third impact point, which was directly above my right eye. Moments later, a voice cut through again.

"-repeat, this is Control! Shepard, do you-?"

"Control? Control!? I copy, I copy!"

"Oh, thank the stars! We were about to pull you-shk out of there, is-shk everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm okay. I got struck by lightning. It tickled."

"You- wait, you got shk-struck by lightning?"

"Yeah, it tickled."

The other side was silent for a moment.

"Control?"

"Sorry, Shepard. We just-shk had no idea how to-shk take that. Um, anyway. You're looking for the gold-shk mist cloud, repeat; golden mist-shk cloud, over."

"Copy that, Control. Shepard, over and out."

"Godspeed, Shepard. Shk-over and out."

The In-Between echoed with my voice over and over again. Again, time seemed to work differently here. As did sound. With the two of those factors combined, every sound that occurred here echoed nearly infinitely; although it would eventually become quieter and I would eventually be able to tune it out, the sound never went away.

I eventually was able to shake off the echoes and locate the golden swirling mist. From there, I pushed off of nothing and propelled myself towards the other universe. I had no idea how long it was before I noticed it become larger and closer, but soon, two golden lightning bolts arced out of the mist and directly towards me, wrapping around my forearms and pulling me in at rocket speeds. As I collided with the cloud, a frigid, dusty air consumed me and my eyes instinctively shut immediately.

I tumbled out of a golden portal, rolling over the top of a pile of destroyed drones and into a dark, sealed room. I could hardly stand and the lightning impact sites suddenly began to hurt, to burn. I reached down to my leg, cautiously, and grabbed at the especially extreme heat on my leg. My Pop Gun had entirely melted, not just the popsicle that made up the barrel. I dejectedly threw it on the ground, trying to ignore the 3rd-degree burns it caused on my leg and my hand.

Once more, I attempted to push myself up off the cold, stony floor of whatever room I had been trapped in, and once more, I failed, groaning at the pain.

Shouldn't I be dead right now? I couldn't help but think to myself. I had been struck by 8 different lightning bolts. And yet, I had gotten off with nothing else more than burns and minor, likely temporarily, paralysis.

"Hey, HW, did you hear that?" asked the voice of a teenaged boy somewhere outside the room.

I heard footsteps approach and watched a warm orange light creep up under the small crack under the door. The footsteps stopped and the light hung in front of the door, followed by shuffling and stone scraping against stone. And then, shadows broke the light and above me stood two beings. One was a boy with one arm, wearing a green backpack and a strange white hat. The other was a green-skinned girl holding a torch and dressed in a green, purple, and brown cloak with hair made of leaves poking out from under a hood.

"Woah. Is that a human?" asked the girl.

"I think so. She looks young. And hurt," said the boy, kneeling down to me and placing his fingers on my neck. "She's okay."

"Well yeah, her eyes are open," responded the girl.

"Oh. Right. Hey, are you okay?" he asked.

I opened my mouth to respond but all that came out was a deflated groan.

"I think that's a no. Hey, Finn, step aside. I think I might have a healing spell or two I could use," said the girl. She handed the torch to the boy, Finn, and took some colourful leaves and a vial of brown viscous liquid out of a small pouch. "Um. Sorry, human girl. This might sting."

The girl applied the leaves and strange liquid to my face, arms, and legs, and sure enough, it stung like the devil. I winced and groaned in pain, but as the witch began reciting incantations, I instantly felt the pain leave me. By the time she pulled away, I was able to move again. Sitting up, I accepted a bottle of water that Finn offered to me and downed it in one swig. It felt like days since the last time I had drunk something.

"Wow. That was quick," remarked the girl.

"The healing or the drinking?" I asked, my voice hoarse.

"Well, now that you mention it, both. How'd you get here?" she asked.

I pointed behind me to the portal and the pile of drones. Finn's eyes lit up immediately.

"Woah, no way! Guess that explains why a human is so far inland," he exclaimed.

"We need to let Bubblegum know that a living person came through after all," the girl noted, "Hey, can you stand?"

I shrugged and tried to stand up, but my legs gave out and I fell back to the ground. I shook my head.

"Alright, then," Finn said, giving the torch back to the girl and wrapping his good arm around my shoulders, pulling me up effortlessly, "Let's get moving. Oh, right, I'm Finn, by the way. This is Huntress Wizard."

"'Sup."

I nodded and groaned out one simple word in greeting, "Nova."

I wasn't sure when I did, but somewhere in between the dungeon and the Candy Kingdom - as I overheard Finn and Huntress Wizard call it at one point - I passed out from the pain and found myself waking up in a bed to the scent of peppermint, cinnamon, bubblegum, and various other distinct forms of candy and sweet things. Surrounding my hospital bed was a small menagerie of people. Finn and Huntress Wizard stood on either side of a girl with pink skin, a dress, and pink gooey "hair," while on the other side of the bed was a yellow dog standing on two legs, a doctor tending to me, and an older bespectacled man in a suit with a bowtie who was eyeing me up and down like a test subject. As I blinked the sleep away, I slowly sat up and was immediately pushed back down.

"Oh, Glob, hang on there. I'm not done with you yet," said the Doctor.

"Hey, she's up!" exclaimed Finn.

"Oh! I have so many questions for you," began the older man.

"Simon, wait," began the pink girl, "Let her get her bearings."

"R-right, of course. M-my apologies." replied the man.

"Hey there, I'm Princess Bubblegum," continued the regal woman by my side, "Finn said you came through one of those weird portals."

I cleared my throat, "One of those? Are they... common?"

"Yes, they are. Until you, they just kept spitting out these weird drones," she held up one of Automata's teal orbs, "there are at least 5 or 6 locations where these portals open that Simon and I have detected across Ooo."

"Did you make these? Are you a time traveller? Or from some other alternate timeline? How do these portals work? Why did it take a month for someone to finally come through? Who are you?" blurted out Simon. Princess Bubblegum glared at him and he shrunk instantly.

"Um. Well, no, I didn't make the drones or the portals," I began hoarsely, "I suppose I'm a bit of both? A time traveller and an... uh... inter-universal traveller? And did you say it had been a month? As far as I know, the people who did make these drones have only been sending them through for... 2 weeks, maybe?"

"Fascinating," was all the scientist said in response, jotting down every word I said in a journal.

The doctor aggravatedly sighed and growled, "Please stop it with the questions. This human needs rest! I-"

"Oh, yes, and you're a human! Do you come from a time where humans are still the dominant race on the planet? Do humans-"

"Simon. Please. Doctor Princess is right," interrupted the candied woman, "we'll get the chance to ask her all the questions we want later. For now, she needs rest."

I opened my mouth to give my own input but was interrupted by Doctor Princess applying a hot sticky gel to my arm. Without even thinking about how much it hurt, I immediately lied back down and was left to my own thoughts as the Princess left with the others in tow.

The next day, I was released and immediately sent to find "Bubblegum and the others in Marceline's cave" with no context as to where that was or even who Marceline was. Luckily, as I left the hospital wing of the giant castle I had been treated in, I was immediately greeted by Finn and that same yellow dog from the day before.

"Heya, dude!" waved Finn. "Doctor Princess let us know you were being released, so Jake and I came to pick you up."

"Yeah, hop on!" exclaimed the dog.

I was almost about to be surprised but suddenly remembered that talking animals were not uncommon in my own world - and, in fact, I personally knew a few - but then was only more surprised to see the dog stretch into a bigger dog with his four legs becoming long and noodle-y. One of his legs grabbed me by the back of my shirt and hoisted me up, placing me on his back, just behind Finn.

"Oh man, I don't like heights," I mumbled to myself.

"Don't worry, Jake's not gonna let you fall," Finn assured me.

I nodded cautiously and grabbed my pants as we set off. I looked around slowly as we left the Candy Kingdom. Sitting on the walls around the city were two giant golems in the shape of gumball dispensers, which watched us as we left. The castle they were protecting was large and took up most of the area of the city in the walls, with a large cherry blossom tree rivalling the size of the purple tree in the centre of Mount Blackhead sprouting out of the top. A forest surrounded the kingdom, and I could see a grassland beyond, which eventually turned into a snowy land with giant mountains made of dark blue ice. We turned a corner and passed a land of volcanoes, magma, and fire that reminded me of pictures I had seen of the Flamelands back home. As we walked further into the grasslands, I realized we were headed directly for a large, dark cave that opened into the ocean.

Upon reaching the cave, Jake stretched down to his normal size, grabbing Finn and me on the way down and gingerly placing us on the ground. I made my way into the cave without even waiting for the dog and the boy, immediately noticing a pile of drones near the entrance, a small shimmering golden light hovering above it. Beyond that was a dim yellow light that led into a cottage directly in the centre of the cave. I froze in my tracks, unable to take my eyes off the strange display. Jake stretched his way to my side.

"You doin' okay, buddy?" he asked.

"Um, yeah," I answered, wiping away the sweat that had beaded up on my forehead.

"Homesick?" Jake continued.

"I guess so. Might also just be that I have a weird connotation with those portals now," I voiced.

Jake nodded and opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a voice calling out from the cottage.

"Yo, Jake, Finn! Bring your new friend in, Bonnie wants to talk," called out the voice of a girl with grey skin and long black hair, floating just above the porch of her cottage.

"Be right there!" Jake called back, then turned to me, "As I was saying, just because you're far from home doesn't mean you have to be okay with going back. You got donked up pretty bad when you came through that portal, no one is expecting you to be okay with that. I get the feeling you're here for a reason, and that some pretty well-meaning people on the other side are waiting for you. But if you need some time to rest, Finn and I would be happy to let you live with us for as long as you need. Okay?"

"Yeah. Okay. Yeah, thanks, Jake," I smiled weakly.

The magical dog offered me a fist, which I happily pounded before following him and Finn to the quaint cabin. As I passed close to the water in the cave, however, I noticed something else new and startling. My reflection was almost entirely unfamiliar. My hair was shorter now, and any semblance of my natural brown was gone, instead replaced with bleach white and green - the same green as the lightning bolts that had struck me in the In-Between. I reached up to my face, which had also been discoloured where I had been struck. I stepped away from the water and swallowed the lump in my throat, deciding not to acknowledge it to the others. As far as they knew, I had always looked like this.

As we reached the cottage and entered together, Princess Bubblegum, Simon, and who I assumed to be Marceline greeted us. Within seconds of me taking a seat on their couch, the questions started flooding in.

Who was I? Where did I come from? Why was I here? What were the portals? How did they work? What were the drones for? Who sent me if I wasn't the one behind the portals? I tried to answer what I could, but I couldn't answer most of those questions to their exact liking. I was Nova von Zon. I came from the town of Orchid Bay on an Earth that was currently being invaded by aliens known as Fusions. I came here in search of new allies to fight these aliens since we knew there was no way we were going to be able to take on Fuse by ourselves. The portals were a link between universes and timelines through a space known as the In-Between where the laws of time and space were null and void. I was sent by a kid genius named Dexter and his top scientist, Doctor Automata.

I continued to answer their endless questions, hardly given the ability to breathe. Their questions eventually made it to their end, and Finn, who had been silent on the couch next to me this whole time, finally was given the chance to speak.

"So this alliance, you need extra people?" he asked. I nodded, "Well slam-dam hot jam, I promise you that Jake, HW, and I will go back with you."

"I'm going too," Simon agreed, "I'd love to study this 'Project Gateway' and the In-Between with the scientists who have breached into it..."

"No, Simon, I'm going. I can do the same research while also creating a small candy army to help with the actual fight," PB cut in, "Besides, I need someone trustworthy to run the Candy Kingdom while I'm gone."

The scientist adjusted his glasses and nodded affirmatively.

Marceline flew over and grabbed the candy princess' hand in her own, saying, "I'm going with you. I'm definitely not gonna let you go face on an alien invasion without me."

PB looked at the other girl and smiled, her pink skin becoming red with blush. I had noticed Marceline's fangs earlier, but when she smiled lovingly at Bubblegum, they became particularly prominent. From those and the two evenly spaced scars on her neck, I deduced that she might be a vampire. I knew they existed in my own world (thanks to going to school with the grandson of the Dracula), so if Marceline was a vampire, well, c'est la vie. This world had already proven to have magical stretching dogs and beings of sentient candy.

"So, when do we leave?" Marceline asked.

"Probably whenever the next portal opens," Finn told her.

"Wait-" I began.

Bubblegum looked down at a device she produced from her pocket and declared, "Seems like the one in the Fire Kingdom just sent out a drone."

"No-"

"I'll go let Huntress Wizard know and we'll meet you there," Finn continued.

"Hey, don't I get a say?" I asked, louder than I meant to be. Everyone looked at me. I felt myself shrink at their gaze, but continued, "I... I need some time... before I can go through the In-Between again. As Jake said, I got donked up in there. I don't know if I'm willing to go through that again yet."

For a moment the room was silent before everyone agreed we could wait for as long as we needed to; we weren't going through unless everyone was ready and willing. I wasn't sure why, but I had been expecting them to be ruder about me making such a big request. Nevertheless, I smiled and thanked them all kindly, trying to avoid thinking about the reason as to why I needed extra time before leaving.

And thus began the next month of my life. While I didn't live with Finn and Jake, I was made an honorary citizen of the Candy Kingdom and lived in a small apartment there paid for by Finn, Jake, and Princess Bubblegum. I spent most of that time working with Simon and Princess Bubblegum to give them more information about my own world and the In-Between. They eventually managed to figure out how to reverse-engineer the drones and began sending them back, collecting the same data that Dexlabs had.

I had also begun seeing Doctor Princess weekly to see if there were any negative effects of me travelling inter-universally. She quickly found something else out that I hadn't noticed before: I wasn't 10-years-old anymore. I was 14. I had somehow aged 4 years in less than 2 weeks. Learning that immediately sent me into a panic, worried that those 4 years were not a product of the In-Between, but that I actually had aged 4 years thanks to time being weird and muddled, and when we returned to my own world, it would be 4 years in the future. I rushed another drone mission but given that Simon and Princess Bubblegum had no control of when or where those portals appeared they instead checked the data of the only drone they had sent out and received back, learning it had not been 4 years, but 4 weeks since I had left. By the end of my stay, the latest data suggested it had been a month and a half, and I had aged exactly a month (beyond the first 4 years).

Beyond that, I had spent a lot of time recovering from the injuries I sustained in the In-Between, mental and physical. I became accustomed to my new appearance. What had happened in the In-Between would never be something I could forget, but I eventually came to terms with being literally scarred by my first journey through it. Soon, this mild, lukewarm acceptance led to the feeling that it was past time for me to get back to my own time. I had sent my communication device back with a drone on my third day in the Land of Ooo, hoping that it would let people back home know I was okay, so we would need to hitch a ride with a drone back to my own world.

I let the group know, and exactly a month after arriving in the Land of Ooo, I was finally leaving to return to my own land, through the portal in Marceline's cave. It opened and a drone exited, hovering in front of us. The drone hopped around and left back through the portal. I led the way in, following the drone, feeling the cold air of the In-Between once again. Finn followed first, Jake and Huntress Wizard hanging on his heels. Marceline and Bubblegum stepped in last, hands held firmly together. Echoes met my ears, lightning and clouds appeared in front of my eyes. The clouds changed, morphing into different shapes and colours as they swirled around the void. A lightning bolt struck just in front of me. I froze in place, remembering the bolts that struck me, the bolts that dragged me into Ooo, the bolts that rapidly aged me and drastically changed my appearance. I couldn't let that happen to me. I couldn't let that happen to my new allies. Not again, not again. They couldn't feel what I had felt, as if death was crawling through every cell in my body. No one should ever have to go through that. Get out, get out, screamed every fibre of my inner being.

I took a step back. As I did, the group seemed to freeze too, but not in the same way as I did. They just stopped, as if time had frozen around everything except me. Without a second thought, I followed the direction the drone was going, into a green misty cloud. I needed out. Out. Get out. Get out. Now! I wasn't sure why, but tears began falling out of my eyes as I entered my own world once more, tumbling through and into a dark cave infested with Fusions. For a brief moment, I celebrated being back in my own world before realising I was not in the right place. I felt myself being picked up by someone and looked up to see that everyone else had already made it. Confused, I backed up and allowed the tears to fall, still unsure of why I was crying, to begin with. Somewhere deep in the cave, a screech emerged. I covered my ears and shut my eyes, unsure of why I did either. I felt as though my emotions and thoughts weren't my own, as if they were stuck somewhere in the In-Between, just lagging behind.

My mouth opened and a voice that I hardly recognized escaped, yelling a loud, prolonged "STOP!"

When I looked up, everything had frozen again. I suddenly regained my own thoughts and emotions, immediately stopped crying, and stood up, looking around. I walked forward towards the frozen visage of Finn attacking a Caterplug, Huntress Wizard attacking an Ultramagno Beetle - an arrow frozen in time as it pierced the Fusion - and Marceline in mid-transformation into a large beast. A Fusion Spawn had jumped on Finn's backpack and begun consuming its contents. Before I continued to walk through the cave, I pushed the Spawn away, and though it didn't move, I hoped that doing so would help in some way. I continued winding around the maze-like corridors and eventually came face-to-face with a Fusionized Blossom hovering just above the ground, its red eyes glaring right through me. I drew a sword Finn had given me and stabbed it through the Fusion. As I pulled it out again, nothing changed. There was not a piece of evidence that the sword had ever pierced her at all. So I continued on, encountering a green circle on the ground through which tentacles rose up, frozen in time. I stepped forward, reaching my arm towards the tentacles. As soon as I did, I felt a large jolt of energy flow through me. The tentacles curled around my arm and pulled me forward. I looked behind me just in time to notice Fusion Blossom turn towards me, flying straight at me at top speeds. As I raised my arms against the Fusion, I sunk into the ground and emerged into the Pokey Oaks School Infected Zone.

A hand on my shoulder immediately caught my attention, and when I looked up, I came face to face with a human, a small Professor Utonium floating forward and inspecting me.

"Are you okay?" asked the Nano.

I nodded, "Y-yeah. Um, thanks."

The volunteer, a boy in a green vest, pulled me up. I turned around to look at the portal as he did.

"You must be a new volunteer," the volunteer said simply, "I'm Xander."

"Nova. And believe me, I've been around longer than I look like I have. What is that?" I asked, pointing at the tendrils

"Fusion Portal. Leads into Fusion Blossom's lair. She's kind of... one of the big bosses here," the volunteer explained, slinging a large energy-enhanced blade over his shoulders.

I nodded and leaned back against the side of the school, watching the tendrils in the portal sway as I slid down its side. "How do you get in?"

The volunteer cocked an eyebrow and sat down next to me, "You just came out of one. How would you not know...? Ah, none of mine, I guess. You just... walk up to it. The tentacles wrap around you and pull you in."

I nodded and pulled myself back up, marching towards the portal.

"Woah, hey, what're you doing?" the boy asked, chasing after me.

"Going back in to help my friends," I answered. And with that, the tentacles wrapped around me and soon I was back in the lair.

The Fusions still swarmed the cave, but I could see the others on the other side of a pair of Caterplugs. I quickly attempted to dispatch them, Marceline noticing me and rushing over, slashing at the other Caterplug with her axe and helping me take out the Caterplug I was fighting.

"There you are!" she yelled.

"Sorry. Believe me, I would explain if I knew how. For now, there's a Fusion Doppelganger of a really strong superhero here. We're gonna need to take her down if we want to get out of here," I explained.

Marceline glared at me like a worried parent but followed me when I stormed off towards the others.

"Nova! What in Glob's name happened to you? You literally just disappeared right in front of us!" Bubblegum exclaimed. She didn't seem angry, just surprised and filled with scientific curiosity.

"Not sure. Let's get out of here and maybe we can figure it out. There's a Fusion blocking the exit. She looks much stronger than any of the others I've ever fought," I answered, not wanting to try to explain myself over and over again.

"Lead the way, buddy," Jake said, giving me a small, knowing smile.

With the 6 of us, we cleared the way to Fusion Blossom handily. And then there she was, standing at the other side of the room, staring us down, small sparks shooting off from her eyes. She made the first move, flying towards Jake, a cloud of dust following her. Jake quickly stretched around the Fusion Powerpuff, who slid across the ground as she stopped herself mid-flight. She lightly growled and turned her attention on Finn, pinning him to the ground in the blink of an eye, knocking his sword clear across the room. Huntress Wizard, Marceline, and Jake followed up, throwing the Fusion off Finn and in my direction. I swiped as she went past, drawing the first drop of Fusion Matter as she tumbled to her new position on the other side of the room. The alien flew up, while Marceline followed, slicing her back down to the ground with her axe before Fusion Blossom could even react. Seemingly unharmed, Fusion Blossom stood back up and charged Bubblegum. The Fusion unhinged her jaw and green flames escaped her throat. Bubblegum responded by summoning a shield made of root beer, which she then directed towards the Fusion. Easily dodging it, the Blossom impostor slashed at Bubblegum again, knocking her down to the ground. Marceline roared as a response, transforming into a grotesque monster and grabbing at the Powerpuff.

The Fusion escaped, however, and realised she would have been outmatched against anyone but Finn and me, as evident by the fact that she exclusively focused on us for the rest of the fight. She would go between the two of us, dodging anything that Jake, Huntress Wizard, Marceline, or Bubblegum tried to throw at her. Occasionally Finn and I would get a slash in, but the alien was clearly winning. I was barely standing, and Fusion Blossom took quick notice, grabbing me by the neck and flying me to the top of her cave, pinning me to the ceiling. I began to lose my breath and soon only one thought pervaded my mind; This is how I die. Not the In-Between. But a dum alien. My eyes rolled back into my head and my vision went black. And then I was breathing again, and I was falling. I coughed and looked up to see Fusion Blossom still frozen in the air, still in the pose of holding me to the ceiling, a large beastly Marceline hand stuck in mid-swipe. I blinked and coughed some more, and suddenly Marceline was moving again while I was being caught by a magical dog.

Fusion Blossom looked at me - as I wheezed on the ground and rubbed my neck - completely enraged. White electricity zapped in her eyes and she flew down to me, recklessly not paying attention to Marceline and allowing herself to be impaled by one of Marceline's massive beastly claws. The Fusion's eyes closed and she exploded into Fusion Matter. Slowly, a hairbow fluttered to the ground in her place. I limped my way over and picked it up, covering my mouth to cough again. I figured it might be useful to give this to Dexter to see what he could do with it and stuffed it into a pocket.

As celebrations were had and we left the lair, I looked down at my hands in an attempt to try to make sense of what had happened. As we were found and picked up by a group of KND Operatives, Urban Rangers, and volunteers, I continued to zone out, flashbacks to everything that happened in the In-Between plaguing my mind, the entire battle with Fusion Blossom replaying over and over again like a movie. The moment, in particular, that stood out above the rest was my near-death experience, pinned to the top of that cave, then suddenly and without warning being freed and falling to the ground. I continued to try to rationalise whatever had happened even as we took a Jump Jet from Genius Grove to Tech Square. In the basement of Dexlabs, I finally reunited with my team and introduced Dexter to our new allies. Doctor Automata approached me excitedly.

"Nova! You should be dead!" he shouted.

I glared at him. I know that, I thought to myself. I turned my attention to the Gateway, walking towards it with nothing but hatred and destruction encroaching on my mind.

"Wait, are you considering going back through already? That's great! We actually-" Doctor Automata began, running after me.

I turned to him and growled, "I'm never going through the Gateway again. And neither is anyone else."

I pushed him away and raised my sword at the machine. Bronwyn was the one who stopped me, grabbing my wrist. Her eyes were not angry as they stared at my own. They were concerned, worried, scared. No words were said, but I dropped my sword and fell to the ground. I didn't know why I had felt such aggression upon seeing the Gateway again. Bronwyn kneeled down and wordlessly pulled me in as tears silently fell down my face.

"I'm sorry," was all Doctor Automata could muster to say to me.

Athena, Kerry, and Bronwyn forced Doctor Automata and Dexter to shut down the Gateway. They made the scientists take out the essential parts and store them away. I didn't get much sympathy from that. I showed the hairbow to Dexter, who told me to hang on to it and turn it in at a Nano Station whenever I could. He returned my KND armour and NanoCom to me as well; the armour was far too small for me now, but the communicator was apparently now the first public NanoCom 2.5. Again, it was hardly any consolation for what I had to endure. The team didn't directly comment on my appearance until much later that night, but as I held a one-sided argument with Automata, they gained that it, as well as my rapid ageing, was a side effect of the lightning that I originally thought nothing of. Athena told me the source of the conglomerated lightning was a "dimensional storm", something that disintegrated drones if it came into contact with them. I really was supposed to be dead.

We spent the night at Tech Square, where we caught up and told each other about what had happened in the 6 weeks since we had last seen each other, but when everyone had fallen asleep, I sneaked out of the mobile research centre to find the streetlamp that exploded. I eventually did, though it looked as if it never had anything wrong with it like it hadn't completely shattered right in front of me. Standing under it, I turned to look back at Oswald. A faint blue light existed within, and I could see two shadows moving around.

Weird, I thought to myself, knowing everyone else was asleep. I stepped forward, but as soon as I did, I heard a slight crack, followed by a small explosion.

The explosion gave way to a deafening silence, and as I realised my eyes had shut tight, I opened them only to be met with a circle of perfect copies of myself, standing around me in a flat, open, stone-floored void.