Lukas's POV▪

I wasn't sure why I seemed to be the only person to realize that this whole situation was spiraling out of control.

On some level, I understood Jess's desire to help, and that now that he'd committed himself to this mission, he wasn't going to back down for anything. But I also wanted to absolutely throttle him for suggesting we just leap into another dimension and see how it matched up with our own.

He'd always been like this, from the day I'd first met him. So impulsive, ready to jump into literally anything if it meant helping someone or fixing something.

It was part of the reason I admired him so much. I'm what you might call an overthinker, unwilling to do anything without first figuring out what's really going on. Only when I'm following someone else am I brave enough to dive headfirst into an unfamiliar situation.

I was still a little unsure of how much to believe about all this timeline stuff, even though I'd seen the gates to those other dimensions. It made me uncomfortable to think of all the things I didn't know. I thought I understood how our world worked, and now I was being told that it might not be that way for long.

It seemed strange to be saving the world before it was actually in danger. Though, I guess that because of the whole 'missing constant' thing, it was in danger, just not…tangibly. There was no monster to destroy or enemy to defeat, just a strange, confusing puzzle to solve.

Julia slashed her sword downwards, cutting through the mystical white symbols she'd drawn in the air. Like before, the slash left a glowing white gap in the air in front of us, looking exactly how you'd imagine a gate to another dimension.

Tucking the diamond weapon in her inventory, Julia asked, "We all ready?"

"Of course." Jess replied confidently. He didn't seem at all concerned that we were preparing to head into a vast indefinite. Sure, the three of us were already outside our home dimension, but at least here we'd known from Julia that it wasn't too strange.
If, of course, the idea of parallel worlds could ever be considered 'normal'.

"Good. I don't want any of you wimping out on me if we get into danger." She said with a quick wink. Although her tone was joking and her expression light, she shot me a significant look before turning and striding into the gate.

I bristled slightly. Despite the fact that we'd started out on relatively good terms, I didn't trust her. She was too flippant, too thoughtless, too argumentative. And I was getting the uncomfortably strong feeling that she was hiding something, from the way she reacted to or said certain things.

Radar quickly followed Julia, disappearing into the abyss of white light so completely, it was as if he'd never existed at all. Jess stepped forward to go with them, but I reached out and caught his shoulder right before he went through the gate.

He turned, giving me a questioning look. I dragged in a deep breath, then asked, "Are you sure we should do this?"

"Do what? Save the universe?" he asked in that peculiar tone of his that rested somewhere between dryly sarcastic and perfectly serious.

"Do…what we're going to do to try to save the universe." I hedged. "Trust Julia. Go running into a whole new timeline with no idea of what's gonna be there." I didn't relinquish my hold on his shoulder, preventing him from going through the gate and ignoring my caution.

His expression darkened slightly, a tinge of unhappiness revealing itself. "You don't trust her? Lukas, what on earth has she done to you?"

I hesitated. "She…look, okay, it doesn't matter if she hasn't done anything. That woman is hiding something, and I don't like it. And she's just…problematic. She's stubborn and impulsive and quarrelsome, and I'm questioning if we really want to blindly follow her into this. I know I probably should've brought this up sooner, but you didn't really give me a chance."

"Stubborn and impulsive?" he echoed, watching me silently with those serious dark eyes. "Maybe you're forgetting, but those are both attributes you usually assign to me."

My grip went slack from shock, and he pulled away, stepping towards the gate again with a slightly despondent expression. I stayed frozen as he disappeared across the threshold, appalled at my own words.

I should've known better than to diss Julia. She was, after all, a version of the friend I cared for and respected.

But she was so different, at the same time, in small, subtle ways that were downright uncanny when paired with the rest of her personality. She was just like Jess, but not, and I didn't know how to react to it.

It didn't help that Jess and I still hadn't fully made up from our fight on the way back from the Order's temple. We'd mostly forgiven each other, but we hadn't really addressed the main problems. And even though I knew we'd eventually need to get that out of the way, I really, really didn't want to talk about certain things that I knew he was bound to bring up in that inevitable conversation.

I sighed, then began walking into the gate. Julia had said that the openings to the In-Between never lasted long, and even though I was full of objections to this whole quest, I didn't intend to get left behind.

Unlike the first time, the strange sight of the In-Between came into view immediately after I crossed the threshold. The perfectly empty plain, strangely tinted sky, the circle of colourful terracotta blocks below my feet, and the brilliant white tears in space, the gateways to the other timelines.

The others were waiting for me, more or less. Julia appeared to be walking in a circle around one of the gates, Radar was examining the dimmest, smallest gate with a mystified expression, and Jess was looking up at the empty sky.

"I wonder why those gates aren't down here with the rest of them." Jess mused quietly.

Julia looked briefly over at him. "Dunno. They must be different in some way, but I'm not sure how."

I glanced between them in confusion. What other gates could they possibly be talking about?

I looked upwards in the general direction that Jess appeared to be studying, but all I saw was the dim periwinkle-blue of the sky fading eternally into an unreachable evening. Radar approached us as well.

"What do you mean?" he asked, aiming the question at Jess. He was rewarded with a thoroughly befuddled look from the short man.

"The…the other gates up there. Don't you…you can't see the second layer?" Jess asked, his voice laced with confusion.

I shook my head slowly, feeling distantly anxious for a reason I couldn't explain. "No. It's just sky."

Walking over to stand beside Jess, Julia suggested, "Maybe it's, I dunno, a Prime thing. We're supposedly a little unusual in relation to the average person."

"I think I found something about that in Ivor's research." Radar added. "It wasn't much, but he mentioned that Primum Movens have the ability to interact with the timelines a lot differently than other people."

I spared another glance at Jess, who had returned to looking skyward. I didn't want to say it aloud, but I'd suddenly wondered if maybe that was the reason he was so…heroic. Not because of how his adventures had shaped him, but because he'd been a Prime from the start, even if he'd never known it.

"Also, does anyone have any ideas as to why that gate over there is so dim? It doesn't seem to have any images in it, either." Radar continued, gesturing to the gap of white light he'd just been looking at. I gave it a brief glance.

Four of the six gates were identical from a distance; tall, pure-white rips in the air, pulsing with light and flickering indistinct images when you got closer. The fifth was very similar, just a little smaller and a few shades dimmer.

The last, however, was something else entirely. It was little more than a smear of white, shimmering vaguely. I hadn't looked at it close enough to see that there were no glimpses of the Prime's life that drove that timeline, but I believed Radar.

Julia shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "I'm not totally sure, but I think it's because that timeline isn't fully developed yet."

"How can it not be fully developed?" Jess asked with a frown. We seemed to have completely opposite reactions to all this information: he was ready to accept it, even if he didn't fully understand it all, while I, despite understanding it, was hesitant to believe.

"Maybe that Prime hasn't finished his or her 'main' adventures yet. Like they're still, I dunno, stuck in the Portal Network or something." I suggested.

Julia raised an eyebrow at me. "Or they haven't even started their adventure yet. Hence the fact that there's no images, instead of just a few."

Radar was now staring at the dim gate with an awestruck expression. "You mean, if we went to that one, I would meet a version of you or Jess before you were heroes?" he asked, wide-eyed.

"I mean…yeah, probably something like that." Julia agreed. "I don't know, though, and we're not going through that one at any rate."

"Why not?" Radar inquired. I could tell he was stuck on the idea of discovering Jess and Julia's hero roots firsthand.

Jess shook his head. "Because," he began in a patient voice, "That timeline isn't completely formed, so it won't match up with the others at all. It's not part of the problem."

"Yet." I added. Jess gave me a concerned look, then returned his attention to Radar.

"Oh. Yeah, okay, I get that. Which one are we going to, then?"

I hadn't even noticed that Julia had wandered away until she called, "Well, that's the question of the hour. That one and that one aren't necessary, since they're mine and Jess's, but any of the others are up for negotiation." she started, pointing to two of the gates, then the one between them. "As far as I know, that one's been around the longest, but I've also been a little hesitant to learn too much about it."

"Why?" Radar asked, ever curious.

Julia gave him an apprehensive look. "Because that's the one that my timeline stems from. Going there would be the equivalent of visiting the future, and I'm not so sure I want to do that."

Jess asked her something else about timelines branching off from each other, but I stopped listening, staring intently at the gate Julia had deemed the oldest. The image flashes I saw were brief and faded, and I felt faintly uneasy in a way I couldn't describe.

The Prime of that dimension appeared to be a young woman with pale skin and a lot of long, dark hair. She was beautiful, but there was something vaguely off about her. I couldn't tell a lot from the momentary flashes, but she was definitely unusual. It was something in her movements, how she stood and the way she smiled.

She looked like a predator.

I'd seen Jess appear that way as well, when someone or something he cared about was threatened. He seemed like a whole different person in those moments, fierce and protective and intense. It was quite intimidating when he got like that, but then he'd turn and smile, or make some joke or silly comment, and it would all be back to normal.

I shuddered slightly, turning away from the gate right as Jess called, "I vote for this one."

"Yeah? That'n branches from yours." Julia informed him, striding over. Jess nodded.

"I know. It looks like it started decently behind mine, so, if we're lucky, the whole Admin thing hasn't happened yet."

Julia snapped her fingers and pointed at him. "Good thinking. That'd be helpful, so we can talk to the Prime."

Jess was about to step into the gate when Radar exclaimed, "Wait! Do we have any way to know where we're going to end up?"

"I don't know." Julia admitted. There was another strange similarity and difference between her and Jess: neither of them were afraid to admit they were wrong or didn't know something. But while Jess always seemed slightly guilty or sad to not have information, Julia seemed to have no such problem.

"When Ivor first told me about the In-Between, he mentioned something about intention, but…yeah, I've no clue." she continued, reaching up to rub her forehead. I'd begun to notice that she did that a lot, as though she had a perpetual headache.

"I guess we just have to really really hope we end up somewhere familiar." Jess said with a quirked smile. With no further words, he pivoted to face the gate again, and walked briskly through it.

Radar quickly followed him, leaving me and Julia as the only living souls in the In-Between. She waved her arm towards the white gap. "After you."

I gave her a slightly frosty look. "I thought chivalry said it's supposed to be the other way around. Ladies first, y'know."

She replied with a superior sort of expression. "I've never been one for tradition. Are you going, or not?"

I didn't bother to answer, just strode forward and entered the gate. The white light swirled and surrounded me for a few moments, then faded as I stepped out the other side.

Jess and Radar swiftly came into view, the former of whom appeared to be carefully studying our surroundings. We had appeared in an extreme hills biome, and one that seemed vaguely familiar.

"Good news!" Radar said. "Jess knows where we are. And, possibly even better, it's really not that far from Beacontown."

I felt a surge of relief, coupled by mild nervousness. "Great. And…bad news?"

Radar gave me a look. "Does there always have to be bad news?"

"I mean, there usually is." I pointed out with a shrug, glancing at Jess again. He appeared to be ignoring us.

A strange noise caught my attention, and I turned around to see Julia stepping into this dimension. Watching someone appear out of nothingness was somehow even stranger than seeing them disappear into an abyss of white light. Apparently the large, glowing gates didn't form unless they were specifically opened.

She looked around calmly. "So, where are we?"

"In the mountains behind Beacontown. We just need to head that way a little while, and we should be in town within the hour." Jess said, pointing in the direction he meant.

We began walking, and as we did, I realized that I did in fact recognize where we were. I'd never been up there, but the view of the mountains that made up the backdrop of my hometown was familiar nonetheless.

I ended up falling into step with Jess, though he hardly acknowledged me. I wondered if he was still upset about me insulting Julia (and technically him), or if there was something else on his mind.

He walked fairly quickly for someone of his short stature, and his eyes were slightly glazed as though he wasn't completely looking at the path in front of him. I gave him a slight nudge with my elbow.

"Hey. You alright?" I asked. I knew what kind of answer I was going to get, but I asked anyways.

His expression bordered on disinterest when he looked up at me. "Yeah, fine. Just thinking."

"About what?" I asked after a beat of silence.

He returned to looking forward, throwing out a flippant, "Stuff."

So, that conversation went just about exactly as I thought it would. Part of me wanted to keep pressing until I got an actual answer, but that hadn't worked out so well last time. Besides, I'd prefer to hold off on the more in-depth conversations until I was sure that Julia, who was currently a few paces ahead of us, wasn't listening in.

It wasn't long before I began to see the tall buildings of and hot-air balloons that hovered above Beacontown. There didn't appear to be a massive floating tower, though, which was a good sign.

A feeling of anxious restlessness swept over me. If there was anything massively wrong with this timeline, we were about to find out.

Julia seemed to have no such qualms. She briefly glanced over her shoulder to show us an exuberant grin, then sped into a quick jog, leading the way down the mountain and out of the extreme hills biome. We crossed the bridge that spanned the aquatic district, and soon found ourselves just inside the wall of this dimension's Beacontown, near the side of the Order's Hall.

Radar was looking suspiciously around at everything. "It looks so much like our Beacontown." he commented.

"Well, it's not. We're gonna have to be stealthy- since there'll be versions of you two here, we've gotta make sure not to arouse suspicion." Jess said, gesturing to Radar and I.

"And we need to figure out when we are." Julia added. "At least we know this is before the Admin took over everything…but how much before?"

I studied our surroundings carefully as we started down a side path that paralleled the main street. Beacontown was a very familiar setting for all of us, but it had changed a lot in the past few months, and I had trouble keeping track of when exactly each of those changes occurred.

My eyes caught on a building near the front entrance that was partially destroyed. I could've sworn that one had been fixed after the Admin was overthrown, but…

Still aimlessly following Julia, I made mental notes as I continued scanning the town. There were several buildings damaged that were in the process of being repaired, mostly with Prismarine blocks. If I was right, they had been smashed by the Admin when he was still in his Prismarine Colossus form.

Which meant…

I moved my arm towards Jess, intending to nudge him to get his attention, but my hand met empty air. I paused, glancing back at where Jess was standing frozen, several paces behind us.

"Jess?" I asked, going back to stand beside him. He was staring wide-eyed at the main street, looking much like Radar had in the In-Between.

"Jess. What's…"

The words faded from my lips as I caught sight of what he was gaping at. A young man stood in the center of town, near Reuben's memorial, talking to a group of unfamiliar people. He had skin the colour of dark-oak wood and long black hair pulled into a ponytail, and seemed to be about the same height as Jess. All in all, he appeared to be fairly ordinary.

Except, of course, for the Prismarine-coloured gauntlet on his right hand.