Hey, look!

The story continues, despite how poorly I handled the ending! ...Which is no longer the ending!

"Sir? Your card was declined."

I focus my eyes on the small payment screen. Indeed, it says declined. "Uh..." I open my wallet and check my cash. I only have fifteen bucks, and I owe... "Fuck." I look at the few groceries that I had chosen, and reluctantly grab the energy drink. I could really use that right now, but I also need something more nutritious than McDonalds for once. "i'll go put this back."

The cashier sets my groceries off to the side as I slide past the customers in line behind me, apologizing under my breath the entire time. I didn't think I had maxed out this card yet, but...

Five minutes later, and I'm outside the grocery store, cashless. The night sky is clear, and I can see some faint stars. This close to a population center, the lights are mostly obscured but the brightest are still visible. The one constellation I had every really memorized is Orion, and it hangs overhead now.

As usual, dark thoughts start to cloud in once I looked up. I turn my gaze back down to earth, where reality lies.

My beat up 2006 Camry Solara sits a small ways away in the parking lot, and after a quick check to make sure I'm not stepping into traffic I head in its direction.

I probably should have checked for more than just traffic.

"Hey!" Comes a female voice from behind me, not one that I recognize. Homeless person, or am I being mugged? I mentally flip a coin and decide it's probably a homeless person before turning around.

The weariness that had settled down disappears as a chill goes down my spine. Not homeless, nor a mugger. Just a policewoman, looking directly at me. "C-can I help you, officer?"

She shines a flashlight at my face for a second before answering. "Jerry Saunders?"

"...Yeah, that's me."

"My name is officer Hader, There's been a disturbance at your residence, a few people looking for you. They've been arrested, but we need you to verify a few things for us."

"..." I shouldn't have debt collectors on me, yet, and I don't think I've managed to piss of anyone in particular recently. "Okay, what?"

The officer pulls out her pen and notebook. "Can I see your license to confirm your home address?"

"Sure, I guess." I start fishing my wallet out of my pocket. "I don't really live there anymore though."

Officer Hader quirks an eyebrow. "You're supposed to update your address on your license when you move."

"Yeah well..." I finish pulling out my wallet and pull out my license. "I don't really have an address to update it too."

"Oh." She scribbles something down, checks all the information on my license and hands it back to me. "Sorry to hear that."

I shrug. "So, someone showed up there trying to see me?"

"Mmhmm. Several women and a man that were claiming that they knew you, and needed to talk to you. We were called when they refused to leave."

"Several women?" I scratch my stubble covered chin. "Huh."

"You don't have any idea who these people might be?"

"Nope. As sad as it is, this right now is probably the most interaction I've had with a woman in... a few weeks. I don't know who they could be." My stomach growls. "Can't you just, I don't know, put them into your database or something?"

"We're working on that." She scribbles some more stuff down. "What's a good number to reach you at? We are probably going to need to contact you again."

I give her my cell number, and she dismisses me. I walk over to my car and pop into it, I turn the key and turn the heaters up to full to take the chill away. As I pull the apple out of my bag, the officer from before knocks on my window.

I lower the window. "Something else?"

She points to the sleeping bag laying over the back seat of the car. "If you were planning on sleeping here tonight, you should probably go somewhere else. There's been a lot of reports of people breaking into cars in this area recently. If you're sticking around here, some other officers might come knocking."

"...Thanks." Well... now I have something else to think about.

"Goodnight sir. Stay safe."

"Thanks, you too." I wind my window up and look down at my apple. It'll have to wait until I relocate. I turn on mobile data on my cell phone and a bunch of messages come flooding in. Old college friends, some from my sister and parents, maybe a few more. I don't really feel like I have time to read them, so I hide them and start browsing the map to look for another decent place to park for the night.

There's a truck stop twenty miles outside town. Nobody cares if there's a small car parked in with the trucks unless it's full, but there's no cell service. I'd like to at least have some internet tonight.

Maybe I can try the 24/7 diner. There's no reason to suspect a car hanging around there, probably. Hopefully there's a place in the shadows where it'll be hard to see me. I put the car in gear and start driving.

It's been like this for almost two years now. After the, ah, incident my parents had forced me into therapy. It hadn't helped, or at least it was too little too late. I snapped one day on my college's campus, and slammed someone into a wall for something stupid, something so trivial I can't even remember what it was. Of course, the police got involved, and I got kicked out of college. From there, my life quickly spun out of control. I managed to get a job at a fast food place, which sucks. My parents kicked me out of the house, and barely conceded that I could still use the house as my mailing address. I also do some odd coding jobs when I can for some extra cash.

So now I live out of my car. I have enough clothes that I don't need to wash them more than weekly, a warm blanket for the winter, a laptop and cell phone with a decent data plan. I have a cheap gym membership so I have access to showers, and a PO box for my mail. I remind myself daily that it could be much worse, but sometimes it's really hard to bear.

I pull up to the diner and there's about ten-fifteen cars in the parking lot. Perfect, I'll blend in. I park in a darker corner of the lot away from the main road and grab my apple again. It's nice and fresh, a luxury these days.

While I eat, I check my credit card to see why it was declined.

Huh. A charge for one hundred sixty dollars to 'FDRL FUNDS LCK', whatever that is. Looks like someone got my card info, and then maxed it out.

The bank won't be open until morning, so there's nothing I can do until then. I reach into my grocery bag and pull out a protein bar, before getting out of the car and putting the driver's seat forwards. Being so tall, the front seat isn't comfortable to sleep in. The back isn't much more comfortable, but it is slightly better.

I get myself under the blanket and as comfortable as I can position myself and open my laptop. I have a project due soon, and the sooner I get it finished the sooner I get paid. It's not a special project by any means, but anything that puts food in my stomach.

I think I work for about an hour before I'm interrupted by my phone going off once again.

It's Dad. I haven't talked to dad in... very long. I hesitate a minute before finally deciding to take the call. "Hello?"

"Jer."

"H-hi Dad."

"Some of your psycho friends showed up on our doorstep."

"Not my friends. A policewoman already told me about it. I'm sorry, I don't know who that was."

"Hmm. They left some shit behind when the police took them, told us to give it to you. I'm going to throw it out if it's still on my doorstep tomorrow morning."

"Oh, okay. Tha-"

Click.

I sit in silence for a minute before I can work up the nerve to look at my messages. They basically say the same thing Dad had mentioned, and include some angry messages asking who the hell these people are and a very blurry photo of someone. Not very useful, to be honest.

My next shift at work is 8 tomorrow morning and it's already eleven PM. I should just go to sleep, but... I wonder what is going on. My old address is about fifteen minutes away, so I could get there and back in half an hour assuming I don't have any problems grabbing whatever it is.

I close the laptop after saving the project and get out of the back of the car over the driver seat. I'm probably going to be awake half the night wondering what it was if I don't go get it, so satisfying my curiosity is actually a prudent step.

Maybe if I keep telling myself that it'll be true.

The drive to my old house was uneventful, though I did choose to park a bit farther away from the house than I probably had to. There's nobody around, so I carefully head up to the house. Once there, I turn on my cell phone's screen and flip it around to be able to see the front steps easier.

On the ground is a DVD. Vandread.

Well, this was a waste of time. I can't believe Dad decided to call me just to screw with me. What does he expect?

Before I can actually think any further on the subject, the entire area around me is flooded with light. I whip around to find three police cruisers had been waiting in the shadows, and they have their spotlights trained on me.

"PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!"

I slowly raise my hands, cursing how easily I was set up.

It took a bunch of explaining, showing the police my phone, and a little pleading before the police finally believed me that I wasn't attempting to rob anyone. I was just trying to grab the stupid DVD off the porch because dad had asked me too.

If I hadn't gotten the text messages, I wouldn't have had any way to prove that, so I'm grateful I hadn't immediately deleted them.

On the way out of the station, I'm waiting at the receptionist to get my ID and other paperwork back when I hear some officers talking to each other.

"Hey, what do you think's goin' on with those losers we have in cell 3?"

"I dunno man, and I don't wanna know. We got the feds interested in them, so I don't want to touch this with a ten foot pole."

The first one snorts. "Can't be that bad."

"It is. They got a few people running around, pretending to be cops to do their investigation."

"Jesus. I wonder if they're spies or somethin?"

"Huh? That's stupid."

"No, seriously. You said they have federal agents, well, it seems like two of em can barely even speak English."

"What do they speak?"

"I dunno, but it sounds like gibberish to me."

"Your papers, sir."

I stop paying attention to the men and thank the receptionist. Before I can leave though, the two officers suddenly go quiet after a brief "Oh shit, here she comes."

Through the front door, Officer Hader strides in. She looks around the room quickly, her eyes settling on me.

Uhg. My night keeps getting worse.

True to my expectations, she comes over to me. "Jerry. Didn't expect to see you again so soon."

"Yeah, me neither." I tuck my paperwork back into my pockets. Aw shit, my car is still at my parents' house. I'm gonna have to call an Uber. "Blehg."

"Not having the best night?"

I pause a second to get my glare under control. "No, not exactly." I manage to get out. In the background of my tired brain, I wonder exactly what's going on. The other officers here seem to think that this policewoman is actually a federal agent of some sort, if I understood an overheard conversation correctly. I don't exactly have a good track record with those though.

"Well, it's fortunate for me that you're here." She turns towards the cells and gestures for me to follow. "Since you're here let's see if you can identify the people I mentioned to you before."

I look at my watch. One AM. "I kind of have work in the morning. Can't it wait?"

"No, it would be a waste to have you come all the way back here in a few hours if you're already here." She insists. "Follow me."

Obediently, I head back after the possibly fake officer.

Ahead of us one of the cell doors opens and the sound from inside the room caries out to me. a conversation, but not in English.

I consider myself a rational human. If I should find myself in another world, one where things don't make sense, spending months in outer space inside a fictional story only to wake up in my bed, I would dismiss it as a strangely realistic dream. My inability to let go of the Vandread incident despite this stems from a few things. The note, "Don't worry, we'll find you." on the back of some sheet music. A plush UFO I have hanging from my rearview mirror. A futuristic head accessory. My missing Vandread DVD. But mostly, it was the fact that I understood Japanese.

While the other stuff could be some elaborate prank, somehow, I doubt I could learn Japanese overnight with no effort. Something happened

So, I understood what they were saying.

"Tell them it's not our fault!"

"I did, they don't believe us."

"Why not?"

"We don't have any ID."

"We could make some."

"We don't even know what it looks like, so how could we forge anything?"

The door shuts behind the officer leaving the room and he turns to speak to Hader. "Only one of them is really able to talk English ma'am. It seems she's very confused though, because what she says doesn't make much sense." He hesitates when he sees me trailing behind her. "Is he with you?"

Hader nods. "He is. Anything else to report?"

"We took a bunch of small items from them, but nothing that looks like a weapon despite their insistence that they were armed." He hesitates. "Ma'am, be careful. They don't look like they'd be pushovers in a fight."

"Thank you, Devin. You're dismissed for now, I'm going to talk with Jerry here, maybe introduce him, and then we'll see how this is going to go."

Outside the door Devin had exited is a table, and Hader gestures for me to sit at it. I plop down into the metal chair and she sits opposite me. "I'm going to need you to be honest here. Has anything... unusual happened to you lately?"

Lately? No. Two and a half years ago? Yep. "Not particularly."

"Okay. See, I'm not really an officer of this county. I'm someone who is in charge of verifying certain strange events that have been occurring in the past year. These event involve someone disappearing suddenly, then sometimes just as suddenly they return with skills they didn't have before."

I stare really hard into Hader's eyes. "Magical knowledge?"

"Mmm. Well, of the few that came back claim to have had fantastical adventures."

I turn to look at the door to the side. It couldn't be. I refuse to believe it.

"Would you like to see them?"

"...Yes."

She gets up, bangs on the door twice before unlocking it and pushing it inwards. She turns to me. "After you."

I take a deep breath, and step into the room.

"John?"

Before my eyes are faces I never expected to see again.

"Duelo." The man looks a bit less stern than I remembered.

"John!" Parfet cries. "Can you get us out of this mess?"

"I-" Parfet looks about the same to be honest.

"Oh, it's just you."

"And I guess it's hi to you too, Paiway." Paiway looks about two years older than she had been... which makes sense.

"I take it you recognize them?" Hader asks from behind me.

I mentally switch back to English. "Yeah. I'm, uh, I'm going to need a minute."

It took half an hour for them to chaotically relay what had happened, what with them all interrupting each other every five seconds. Most of the conversation was in Japanese, and Hader had kept asking me to repeat what was being said.

It looks like I was correct with my guess as to how The Fixer's realm worked. After it had collapsed, the Vandread universe went back to "normal", and the events of the story happened as played out in the DVDs. Once they got back to Mejare and Tarak, however, something I hadn't thought of had changed the course of events.

It turns out, the Paksis exists somewhat outside of time and space, and it was able to retain memories of my time there despite undoing all of the Fixer's work. At some point, it gave a memory dump to everyone (aside from Hibiki, which was kind of glossed over. I have to ask later.) and...

They decided to try and find me. Dita, Meia, and Zan decided to try and find me. The entire crew of the Nirvana including Hibiki had decided to help, and with Duelo and Parfet's help they managed to figure out how to mimic the Paksis and allow travel between dimensions.

"Okay, so that explains why you're here, I guess." I say in English. Duelo nods along. I'm happy he at least can speak English, because it means a few less questions from Hader. "But what happened to the rest of the crew of the Nirvana?"

"We didn't quite get the right dimension at first." Duelo says in his calm, even manner. "We ended up in a series of odd worlds and got stuck in one other one. The Nirvana is still there, as is most of the crew."

"Really? What is this other dimension?"

'Not sure. We really haven't had a chance to look around for... source material." Duelo's lips twitch in the slightest manner.

I sigh. "Okay, well..."

Hader claps her hands. "Fascinating. People genuinely from another dimension."

I turn to her. "Well-"

She continues on regardless. "All of those that returned before claimed they had seen other worlds, but never had any proof."

"...Who exactly are you?"

She turns to me and fishes a badge out of her breast pocket. "Lieutenant Sarah Hader, of the US Inter-Dimensional Security Group, or USIDSG. We investigate people who've been teleported to other realities."

"So, you meeting me at the supermarket wasn't a coincidence at all."

"Nope. Also, due to the nature of our business, we had to block all of your digital funds to ensure you couldn't leave the area."

Explains why my card was declined. I guess that charge was them blocking my card? "Okay. I guess I can see that." I turn to Duelo. "So, can I go see the Nirvana?"

"No."

I glare at Paiway, who turns up her nose and looks away.

"Unfortunately, Paiway is correct." Duelo elaborates. "We don't have any means of transporting us back to the ship without knowing where, when, or having a device to travel with."

"Which is where I come in." Hader says. "The US government has been developing a system to track, map out and possibly travel at will. With your experience, we might be able to get it to work."

"That will get us there. Assuming it works." I mutter. "But where?"

"Welllll..." Parfet starts. "I have some data stored in that DVD case we left at your house. I was hoping that you would recognize it like you recognized our universe and that would let us figure out where we're going."

I glance at Hader. "I mean, if I can upload it to the internet I guess I could probably figure it out, whatever it is. Lieutenant, do you know what happened to the DVD?"

She looks away. "It may be currently on a plane to Washington DC, as vital evidence. We'll have to head there. I'll start coordinating with HQ to get you all quarters and places to live while you're down there." Hader taps here chin. "You will need to quit your job."

"Unless I don't want to." I mutter.

"Haaaaah?" Paiway rounds on me. "What did you say?"

"Maybe, I don't want to." I turn to the little girl and give her my best glare. She shrink a little but doesn't look like she's about to give up. "After all, the last time I got mixed up with you I accidentally ended up ruining my life."

Duelo finishes translating for Hader before turning to me. "I fail to see how we ended up ruining your life-"

My glare turns to Duelo. "Our universe isn't used to dimensional travel. As far as I was aware until today, I was the only case. Everyone around me called me crazy and a liar. I was already kind of a basket case when I was on the Nirvana, and now I've spent over two years having to lock my thoughts away to convince other people I could be employed." I close my eyes and take a deep breath. "Well, I guess the way I got kicked out of college was my fault for not getting anger management, and that's really the reason my life is screwed up." I nod to Paiway. "That was unfair of me, I'm sorry."

She gives me the stinkeye, but eventually relaxes slightly.

"Oh, it's been two years for you?" Parfet tilts her head. "I'ts only been about a year for us."

"Fascinating." Hader is scribbling furiously in her notebook. "Jerry, you say you were transported over two years ago?"

I turn to the lady. "Yes?"

"That would make you one of the first, if not the first account we have of this happening. Also, the first time we've been able to directly compare different dimensions temporally, as usually everyone just blinks away and blinks back instantaneously, and then we lose contact permanently." She finishes looking at her book. "This information is unimaginably valuable for or efforts! And you two made the dimensional portal?" She points to Parfet and Duelo.

Duelo nods. "As I rather do not like this cell, I would appreciate the chance to strike a deal."

I sit back in my chair as Duelo runs as an interpreter between Hader and both Parfet and Paiway, hashing out some sort of deal. It appears Duelo had a fairly decent understanding of what was going on in my universe, but the other two had less of an idea.

"A pleasure." Duelo and Hader are shaking hands.

Hader turns to me. "So Jerry-"

"Just call me John." I grumble. "That's the name I went by on the Nirvana. Or call me Jer, which is what everyone here calls me."

"Jer, then. Are you going to come with us?"

"..."

No. I don't want to go. I spent years telling myself to forget it, it's all a dream. I had to, to keep my sanity.

A voice in my head whispers "This time, there's people who'll believe you."

If they don't throw me to the wolves once they've got what they want.

"The you just have to be as useful as you can for them, milk them for money, and have a good escape plan."

Can I even trust that this U-Sid-Seg thing actually exists? It could be some crackpot who got exceedingly lucky.

This thought gets struck down almost as quickly as it forms. That would be absurd.

Still, you don't agree to things without looking at the paperwork first.

"You could see... them again."

Duelo taps me on my shoulder and I start. "What?"

"Is there a reason you were growling?" He asks politely.

"...I suppose there is." I turn to face all three of them. "I noticed a fairly obvious omission in all of your talk. After you made the dimensional gate, you refused to talk about any of them."

All three of them turn away and look at the floor, the ceiling, or in Paiway's case, her fingernails.

"'Them?'" Hader looks around the room. "Who?"

"Meia, Dita and Zan." I elaborate. "What happened to them?"

Duelo finally looks back at me, uncharacteristically shaken. "It seems that they've been, ah, caught up in the events of that universe."

My hands, currently gripping the edge of the metal table, have turned white from how hard I'm squeezing it. "Oh, really."

"Yes."

"Who are these people?" Hader asks Duelo, a little louder than I think she tried to.

"Dita and Meia are starfigther pilots, and Zan is part of the maintenance crew." Duelo clarifies. "John here was... close to them."

I stand up and place my hand on the doorknob. "I... If you are playing on my emotions..." The doorknob creaks slightly in my hand. "I'm going to call work and cancel for tomorrow." I turn to Hader. "I know how the government works. Write my up a contract making it worth my while or I WILL walk."

"I'll have you something by tomorrow." She promises.

I stare at the door for a few more seconds, trying to calm my steadily increasing heartbeat. "I need to make some phone calls."

As this story is about to become a crossover, I'm debating making it a new story on FF or just appending it to the end without marking the change in source material.

Also, Happy New Year, I guess.