I emerged into a land of nothingness.

A wide, perfectly flat, grass-covered plain, as far as I could see. The horizon was dim and far in the distance, dotted by faint white clouds. Based on the lighting, it appeared to be somewhere between midday and sunset, though I couldn't actually see the sun anywhere.

There was not another being in sight, no animals, no mobs, and no Julia. The entire place was perfectly, eerily silent, so completely still that I had to wonder for a moment if I'd gone deaf.

Then, things slowly started to fade into view around me, coming into focus as though I was adjusting to an unusual light level.

The empty plain still stretched out in all directions, but I was now standing on the edge of a massive circle of glazed terracotta blocks in all possible colours. Surrounding the disc were tall slashes of white light similar to the one Julia had opened- gates to other timelines, I had to assume.

Three of these were brilliantly luminous, exuding a colourless vibrancy that somehow didn't hurt my eyes to look at. The other two were fainter: one was only slightly dimmer, like a torch vs. a sea lantern; but the other was barely there at all. A quick glance behind me confirmed that the gate that I'd come through was just as bright as the first three.

Julia and her horse were standing near one of the clearer gates, waiting for me. She waved me over and I started to walk towards her, before something else caught my attention.

There was another layer of gates above this one, though unlike the filled-in circle that I was standing on, these were connected by only a ring of blocks. And although it was high enough up that I couldn't be sure of what I was seeing, I think there was a third layer as well.

That was a lot of alternate dimensions.

A strange sizzling flash of a noise came from behind me, and I turned to see Radar appear through the gate that I'd come through. His eyes were wide and startled as he looked around at the six white gates.

"What...?" he murmured.

Julia was grinning. "Welcome to what I call the In-Between. You're now officially outside of everything you've ever known to be true."

Radar didn't look comforted by this. "Why is it so empty? I've never seen a Plains biome so...flat."

"That's because we're not in a real dimension. We're on the edge of all of them." Julia said cryptically.

He shook his head. "That doesn't help at all."

Now that I was closer to the gate near Julia, I could see that it wasn't pure white. Little flashes of colour appeared here and there, looking almost like images. Small, quickly-fleeting images, but they were there.

I watched the gate closely, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. I caught a glimpse of a side-profile of Julia's face for a moment, then a second-long view of her standing at the top of the Farlands maze, wearing Ellegaard's armour. Another quick flash of her standing on top of a tall Enderman statue made of black wool blocks. Her watching symbols fly out of the open Atlas in the Portal Network. Little snippets of her adventures, showing that this gate led to her timeline.

By the time I'd torn my eyes away from the faint images, Lukas had caught up to us. He gave Julia a begrudging sort of look.

"I thought you said that gate would take us to your dimension."

She replied with a superior sort of expression. "Well, it is taking us to my dimension, more or less. Gates bring us here, and then we take other gates to our intended timeline. It's a process."

"You've been here before, then." Lukas observed. She nodded.

"Yeah, when I came to find Jess. That time...didn't go so well, though." She finished hesitantly.

The worry evident on Radar's face increased tenfold. "What happened?"

"Uh..." she glanced between Lukas and I. "You know how when you first found me, I was injured by more than just those zombies?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's because I was attacked by someone. They ambushed me right as I came through the gate." Julia admitted. She was acting vaguely guilty, though for what reason, I couldn't tell. "I have no idea who they were or why they were here, but they beat me up pretty badly before I managed to make a run for it and get through your gate."

"That sounds terrifying." Radar commented, looking anxiously around as though he feared someone was about to jump out from behind one of the other gates.

Julia shrugged. "Yeah, it kinda was. I mean, that it wasn't the first time I've dealt with someone trying to kill me, but it wasn't a fun experience. Not to mention they were wearing a mask and a hood, so I had no way of identifying them. Not...that I'd be able to anyways, since they could've come from any of these timelines."

She then shifted her shoulders and straightened her back, like she was pushing away unwanted thoughts. "But it doesn't matter. I don't really care who they were or what they were trying to accomplish. I'm alive, I managed to find you, and we have other things to do. We need to get to the Far Lands."

It wasn't until she adjusted her grip on her horse's lead that I realized how tightly she'd been gripping it. Despite her casual tone and insistence on moving forward, I could tell there was something about the whole situation she wasn't telling us.

I didn't get a chance to ask right then, though. Julia gave me an 'are you ready' sort of look, then stepped into the gate without another word. This time, it was Lukas who followed her first, then Radar.

Inara softly nudged my shoulder after Radar had disappeared. She didn't seem at all daunted by the abyss of white light I was going to lead her through.

I glanced back at the other gates surrounding the colourful circle. It suddenly occurred to me how real this all was, all these different timelines and what they meant. I wondered who else knew about them, and who had built this place, if it had, in fact, been made by human hands.

It forced me to consider what else out there I didn't know.

Another gentle shove from my horse brought me back to my senses. It was by instinct that I stepped forward, passing through the gate and into another dimension.

The other three were already on their horses when I emerged, and I wasted no time in swinging myself up into the saddle. I didn't recognize our new surroundings, but Julia, who now had a map in her hand, seemed undeterred.

"This is gonna be quite a journey. There's no turning back now." She warned, aiming the comment mostly at Radar.

"We know," said Lukas. "Which is why we should get a move on. The Far Lands await."

-

The ride to the Far Lands took five days. We didn't exactly race all the way there, but we made good time. Luckily, the place we'd ended up when we came through the gateway was closer to the Far Lands than Beacontown, which gave us a good head start.

We got to know Julia better on that journey. She was a pleasant person to travel with- easygoing, positive, and interesting, though with a bitingly snarky side. She'd won Radar over fairly easily, and for the most part, she and Lukas stopped sniping at each other. Though that didn't mean things were completely copacetic.

She confided to me that it was very unsettling to have to reintroduce herself to Lukas and Radar, since she was already so familiar with them, or at least the versions of them that dwelled in this dimension.

And I still had the feeling that she was hiding something. She didn't seem to be the type of person to withhold truly urgent information, so I hoped that whatever it was she was concealing, it wouldn't impact our mission.

Julia had also spent a while attempting to explain what she knew about the deviations. She had trouble articulating her thoughts on that topic, but that wasn't for lack of trying.

She said that when the timelines became too out of sync, they could start throwing off the basic functions of our universe. Time went whack, mobs started acting and even appearing different, basic tools like compasses or maps stopped working.

"Things just...change. It's hard to explain. I can think it clearly enough, but for some reason putting it into words is a bridge I just can't cross."

We had also gleaned some new information from the other papers she'd taken from the hidden room. Nothing completely world-shattering, just interesting details about how the timelines worked.
There was no firm evidence, however, that it had indeed been Soren who had been investigating the timelines.

My instincts told me it was him, and Julia agreed. Lukas had said we were probably right, but that we couldn't possibly know for sure based only on what we knew at the time. Radar, having never met Soren, decided to refrain from expressing an opinion.

Julia and I had spent an evening focusing intently on figuring out the differences between our timelines. This consisted mostly of trying to remember the most key choices we'd made on our journeys, and comparing what had happened because of those.

I'd been more than a little surprised to discover that when the Witherstorm had first been formed, she had chosen to rescue Gabriel over Petra.

"He was valuable! He had information we needed to know! Plus, he's a legendary hero; I couldn't just leave him there!" she'd said.

"Petra's your friend!" I'd argued. "You left her there in favor of a stranger."
She had, at least, had the decency to look sheepish, and I'd let up on guilt-tripping her.

"I mean, it all worked out in the end." she'd muttered.

Yes, it had all worked out. That was the most obvious constant we could find- even though our choices and paths had been wildly different, the end product was still the same.

This knowledge had kept me awake for a while. Why did everything turn out fine? Even when there were losses and the odds were stacked against us, we'd still triumphed. We'd still come out on top.

Why was that?

I had tussled with similar queries in the past, but none exactly like this. I had, several times before, wondered why is it me? why am I the 'hero' here? what gives me the right to always be the winner?

But never before had I put that into the perspective that included the timelines. I thought back to that first fateful paper Lukas had found, the list of terminology with my name scrawled over the definition of Prime.

Primum Movens. Those who 'drive' the timelines.

What did this all mean? How did it line up with the grand scheme of things, and how did it affect me?

Questions. Always, always, so many unanswered questions.

I was just holding onto the knowledge that once we reached the Far Lands, Ivor would be able to explain it all. He would tell us how to fix the deviations and set the timelines right, and I would hopefully get my hands on some solid answers.

We reached the towering walls of the Far Lands on the evening of the fifth day of the journey. I'd nearly forgotten how truly breathtaking the sight was, the long-stretching gaps giving glimpses into the sheer stone cliff. Patches of coal and dirt dotted the impenetrable face, a natural touch against the impossibility of the world's edge.

The feeling of nostalgia grew stronger as we dismounted our horses and went into the tunnel that led to the maze. Suddenly, I was sixteen again, looking up at the towering walls of the maze in the way of me saving the world. I was young, optimistic. I hadn't yet fallen prey to the jadedness that crept up on me through my years of adventures.

I shuddered slightly, a chill slipping down the contour of my spine. God, how things had changed.

I was not the only one intimidated by the barriers of stone.

"Uh...where are we supposed to go?" Radar asked nervously. Lukas pointed to the length of sturdy vines hanging down a nearby wall.

"Up those. We get up to the top of the walls, which makes it easier to get to the other side. That's where Ivor's lab is."

Julia wasted no time in grabbing ahold of the vines and starting to pull herself up. I was learning that she was a very action-oriented person, more interested in doing things than discussing them.

Lukas, Radar, and I quickly followed. We had to walk single file, which left little room for wrong turns and dead ends, but it was easier to see where we were headed from up there.

We passed streams of both water and lava cascading from the high-up natural ceiling, though luckily encountered no mobs. It didn't take too long for the building that housed Ivor's lab to go from an indistinct shape in the distance to a within-reach destination.

The feeling hit me when we were walking up the birch-wood stairs. A heavy, slightly ill sensation, the hunch that something wasn't quite right. Before I could say anything, Julia had already thrown the door open, and was calling Ivor's name.

Since everything so far had been fairly familiar, I was decently surprised to see how much the interior of that place had changed. It was much more...organized, to put it simply. Most of the shelves, occupied by both books and potions of all kinds, had been moved to lining the walls. Different contraptions were scattered around the rooms, in the organized-chaos sort of way I had started to associate with Ivor. A cartography table and a crafting table had been pushed together, creating a large space on which to strew papers about.

Lukas ran his right hand along the top of one of the bookshelves, frowning slightly. He rubbed his fingertips together, and the troubled frown deepened. I glanced at the bookshelf, wondering what he was reacting to.

Dust.

A light, thin layer of grey dust had settled on the shelf. All the shelves, in fact.

"Ah...Julia?"

She didn't reply right away, having dashed off to a different room in search of the potion master. I heard her continuing to shout for Ivor, the worry in her voice increasing every time she did so.

"Julia?" Lukas called. She reappeared, leaning back into the main room. She was the picture of concern, her skin ashen and brown eyes wide.

Neither of us had to say anything else. She shook her head, though in disbelief or denial or something else entirely, I couldn't tell.

"He's gone."