The swirling white surrounded me completely, preventing me from seeing or feeling anything but colourless light. I prayed- literally shut my eyes and prayed -that we would end up somewhere okay. It would really suck if we found ourselves days away from Beacontown again.
I appeared back in the Overworld, landing steadily on my feet and opening my eyes. It was night, the full moon shining high above us. Mob noises echoed faintly around me, and I drew my diamond sword on instinct.
I glanced around quickly. Julia also had her weapon out, and Radar was all but hiding behind her as she fended off a zombie. A rattle to my left made me jump, and I barely dodged in time to avoid a skeleton's arrow in my side.
I lunged forward and struck the monster with my blade, finishing it off. Skeletons weren't hard to kill, but they were still a pain. I stuck my sword back into my inventory, seeing that Julia had dealt with her foe as well.
"Where are we?" I asked.
Lukas tapped my shoulder, and I turned. A walled town could be seen in the near distance…and a very familiar one, at that.
"No way. Is that Beacontown? Are we seriously that lucky? No way." I didn't believe it. It sure looked like Beacontown, and the mountains behind it were right, but how could we possibly be here just like that? This world wasn't small- there were literally a million other places we could've ended up.
"Looks like it." Julia replied.
I shook my head in amazement. Truth be told, I'd started getting used to things going massively wrong, so I wasn't sure how to react to this.
"We still don't know which timeline we're in, though, do we?" I remembered. When we'd been in the In-Between, I'd been way too stressed and unsettled to orient myself.
"I…have an idea about that, actually." Lukas said. He pointed in the opposite direction of Beacontown, where the tall spires of another city were clearly under construction.
I tipped my head to the side, unsure of what I was looking at. Then Radar said, "Whoa, is that Champion City? Why does it…look like that?"
Julia snapped her fingers. "It's still being built. We're in the past; this must be the timeline that stems from mine."
"But how far in the past are we? Has to be quite a few years, right?" I asked.
Lukas shrugged. "One way to find out. Let's head into Beacontown."
"Wait!" Radar said. "What are we gonna do when we're there? Talk to the Prime? Or just…lay low for a while? We can't go back to the In-Between while Essa's still after us, but is it really a good idea to get yet another Prime mixed up in this?"
"Hm." Julia grunted thoughtfully. "I'd say we should try to make friends with the Prime, and fill her in on the timelines if she doesn't already know. For all we know, Essa might try to recruit the other Primes for whatever her twisted plan is, so we could use all the allies we can get."
Radar sighed in a distressed sort of way, but didn't argue. We headed towards this version of Beacontown, moving quickly in hopes of getting there before we had to deal with any more mobs.
The thought of being in the past made me somewhat nervous. We were even further back than when we'd been in Jacek's timeline, so if we were going to talk to the Prime, we'd have to be very careful with what we said.
The gates slid open automatically before us, and I was hit with an uncomfortably strong feeling of nostalgia as I surveyed the town in front of us. This was obviously in Beacontown's early days, before people had started arriving in droves and the Prime had fully claimed leadership. So we had to be at least four years back, maybe more.
The streets were quiet, the glowstone lamps casting a comforting gold glow on the small houses. They were all much plainer than the Beacontown structures I was used to, which was rather unsettling. Ahead of us was the likeness of the amulet, and though the beacons weren't lit up, the gold, iron, and glass still reflected the lamplight in a beautifully eerie way.
Radar was staring around in awe. "Whoa. This place is a trip. It's so…simple."
Julia laughed quietly. "You never saw the town when it still looked like this, did you? You're too young."
He shook his head. "Nope, and I've only lived in our Beacontown for a little over a year. I've only ever known it like it is."
"It's certainly changed a lot in the past few years, huh?" I commented. "It hardly even seems like the same town. Hell, I'd almost completely forgotten it used to look like this."
Lukas was the next to speak up, in a similarly soft voice. "I haven't. I think about it all the time. I even remember when it wasn't a town at all, just a base camp for some of the Witherstorm refugees."
Glancing vaguely up at the night sky, Julia added, "That feels like it was such a long time ago."
"It was." I put in. "Seven, going on eight years." We'd all been so young, so unsure. We'd had no idea what to do, much less what we were going to become. We were just kids, dreaming of the future.
Were we any better now? We were older, maybe, but in the grand scheme of things, what difference did that make? Here and now, in this adventure, we were still uncertainly guessing, still trying to be enough.
But that was the difference, right there. We'd stopped thinking about the future, instead accepting that this was our future.
It hit me like a lightning bolt. That's what had changed. That was why I'd been so irritable, and Lukas was so hopeless. We'd stopped dreaming of more. We'd stopped looking into the horizon, instead focusing on the path directly under our feet. We'd settled into our current day-to-day lives, silently accepting that this was all we were going to be.
I couldn't believe it had taken me so long to understand.
I looked over at Lukas, who was scowling thoughtfully ahead of us, at the Order Hall. Although I was glad to have figured this out, I didn't know what to do with the information.
As we approached the large glass and terracotta building, Lukas asked, "Is…does this seem off to anyone else?"
We paused. "Off…? How?" Julia inquired.
He tipped his head to the side. "There's no lights on. I don't think this version of the Order is here."
"What? Why wouldn't they be?" Radar asked.
Lukas shrugged. "I don't know. Even though it's kinda late, there should be at least some sign of people being here. But even the lights around the entrance are off, which almost never happens."
"Dammit. So then where's the Prime?" Julia asked. Lukas shook his head. "Beats me."
Before any of us could think of anything to say, a familiarly grouchy male voice called, "You four! Quit soliciting! Hasn't anyone ever told not to hang around on private property?"
We turned to see none other than Ivor, shouting down at us from his monstrosity of a house. Apparently the Prime of this timeline had decided to let it stand, though there was a noticeable lack of lava. They must've reached a compromise.
Lukas subtly shifted to behind Julia, assumedly hoping to not be recognized. Unfortunately, everyone else in our group was shorter than him, so the best he could do was duck his head awkwardly and hope Ivor's sharp eyes didn't identify him in the semidarkness.
"Um…do you know where the Order is?" Julia asked Ivor, ignoring his previous words.
The older man rolled his eyes. "They're out on some mission, I don't know where. What do you want with them?"
"It's, uh…kinda personal?" Julia tried.
Ivor gave her a distrustful look from above us. "It's a secret, alright? There's some things they need to know." I added stubbornly. I knew that probably did nothing to assuage his suspicions, but I wasn't about to explain the whole we're-from-another-dimension thing right then.
"Well, they'll be back in the morning. So until then, I suggest you get out of here." He snapped, crossing his arms.
"Alright, alright. We get it." Julia muttered as we headed away from the Order's headquarters before he decided to interrogate us anymore.
"He seemed grumpier than usual." Radar commented.
Lukas shook his head. "He was like that all the time in the past. You're lucky you've only known him recently, now that he's calmed down. Well…kind of calmed down."
"Where are we supposed to go?" Julia asked. "We can't just skulk around waiting all night."
"Right," I agreed. "There should be an inn around here somewhere, we can stay there and find the Order in the morning."
It took us a few minutes to find the inn, but we did. It was vastly smaller and plainer than it was in my Beacontown, but that didn't matter. We checked in quickly and went up to our rooms.
Julia fell asleep the very second she fell into bed, but I was awake for a while longer, my brain spinning helplessly through possibilities and pasts.
Truth be told, I was almost dreading meeting this Prime. I still didn't know exactly how far in the past we were, but if I was right, this Prime would be only eighteen or nineteen. Still free, still adventuring. Still looking to the future.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to face that, not with the knowledge that I had essentially, somewhere along the line, given up.
I didn't know what to do.
This particular adventure was hard enough. There were still so many things we didn't know, answers we hadn't yet figured out how to dig out. But what would come after this? After everything we'd been through and learned, would things just go back to normal?
That's what I wanted, right? Of course, I wanted to fix the timelines. But what of the after? Would there be an after?
I hated this. I hated having questions that kept me awake, and I hated being the only one who had any hope of answering them.
Which is to say, none.
I don't know how many hours I laid awake, hands folded behind my head as I stared hopelessly at the ceiling.
I hated this.
The next morning came too early. When I finally fell asleep, it was restless and full of uncomfortable dreams that haunted my consciousness like a fog.
Lukas actually had to shake me several times before I woke up, which was unusual since I was normally a pretty light sleeper. He gave me vaguely suspicious looks the entire time it took us to leave the inn and head back out into town.
That day was slightly overcast, with the morning sun peeking hesitantly through layers of clouds. It wasn't enough to seem like rain, but it didn't exactly help my heavy mood.
Julia snapped her fingers and pointed at Lukas. "I had an idea last night, when we were talking to Ivor. Even though you're a little older and you look a bit different than the version of you here, it'd still be pretty easy for someone to recognize you. So I was thinking, if you're okay with it, I could use my Admin powers to disguise you." She said, lowering her voice significantly on the last sentence.
The blond man looked at her for a few moments, then shrugged. "Sure. I hadn't really thought about that, but it's probably a good idea."
I was a little surprised he'd agreed so easily, since he and Julia still didn't seem to have fully gotten over their fight back in that accursed obsidian cell. Or…any of their previous fights.
Perhaps his sense of practicality was outweighing his need to hold a grudge.
Julia glanced quickly around to make sure no one was paying attention to us, then closed her eyes. There were people walking along the main streets, but we had stepped into the shadow of a nearby building and were being completely ignored.
The Admin-red filled Julia's eyes, and she nodded briskly. When I looked back at Lukas, I jumped slightly. I don't know why, exactly, I was so surprised to see that he wasn't Lukas anymore, but I was. Truth be told I was still a little unnerved by Julia's powers. They were certainly helpful, and I trusted that she couldn't use them against us, but it was still a little strange.
Lukas still had the same blue eyes, and was wearing the same clothes, but his face had completely changed. He was paler, with longer and curlier hair that was even darker than my own. His nose was slightly wider, and he had a sharper chin.
He lifted a hand to his face. "I don't…feel any different." he commented quietly.
"Trust me, you are." I said, still a little disturbed. Even his voice was slightly changed, a little deeper and with a faint accent I couldn't place.
"It's like a mask." Julia said. "I didn't actually change what you look like, just put a sort of…glamour on top of your real face."
Meanwhile, Radar was looking around this version of Beacontown again. "Hey, uh…this is just a guess, but I think the Order's back."
I followed his gaze, not immediately seeing anyone of interest. Then I caught sight of two people walking together casually, heading towards the Hall. One of them was a tall, muscular, young man with shaggy black hair, whom I instantly recognized as a younger Axel.
The other was a slender girl with brown skin and black hair pulled into a bun at the top of her head. She was also fairly tall, and wearing the set of armour that I believed was called the Swordbreaker.
She had to be the Prime.
Julia made a face. "That armour? Really? I've always hated that one."
I elbowed her. "Priorities, Julia. Let's go talk to her."
"Fine, yeah, I know." She sighed, jogging quickly towards the umber-skinned girl and catching her attention.
Lukas, Radar, and I trailed behind her. "Here we go again." Lukas muttered under his breath.
Radar gave him a sideways look. "That is seriously going to take some getting used to."
"What?" Lukas asked. Radar and I exchanged a glance.
"You."
"Your mask or whatever."
"The voice."
"Especially the accent."
"Your hair."
He self-consciously ran a hand through the dark brown locks that curled over his forehead. "What did she do to my hair?" he asked, somewhat nervously.
I snickered. "Oh, nothing."
He glowered at me, but was interrupted by Julia waving us over to where she was standing in front of the Prime and this timeline's Axel. The girl's dark face was friendly and open, contrasting starkly with Axel's suspicious scowl.
"This is Jess, Radar, and…Luis." Julia was saying. She completely missed the evil glare Lukas shot her with.
The Prime made a small motion with her hand, almost a wave, but not quite. "Hey. I'm Josephine; you can call me Jo. And this is Axel."
"Anyways, like I said, there's something we really need to talk to you about. Alone, if possible." Julia continued.
Axel gave Jo a questioning look. She glanced back; a silently confident expression that made the tall boy relax slightly. "Sure, okay. I'm all ears. We can talk in the Hall, if that's alright. Axel, I'll catch up with you later?"
He hesitated for a second, then shrugged. "Yeah. No problem."
Jo gestured towards the Hall, and we walked with her. "So, what's going on?"
"It's…kind of a long story." I hedged, unsure of how exactly Julia was planning to go about this. Jo grinned.
"I've got all day."
Josephine was a good listener.
For most of the explanation, she was fairly quiet, leaning forward slightly on her elbows as she listened to Julia and I (and sometimes Radar or Lukas) talk. She asked pointed questions now and then, mostly about how the different timelines worked or why stuff happened. Her grey-brown eyes widened during the tenser parts of the story, such as when we realized Ivor was gone or when Essa shut us in the cell.
She seemed to have no trouble understanding it all, either. It was clear she was very smart, and very interested in the way things worked.
We didn't tell her about Julia's Admin powers, or anything that would give her any hints about future adventures. We'd learned that we were exactly five years back- Jo was recently nineteen; still adventuring with her friends and just starting to take on more leadership duties around Beacontown.
She seemed so happy and carefree, and I was very, very careful not to clue her in on any facts that would lead her to believe that would all change.
"…And that's how we ended up here. We were lucky enough to find you so quickly, and even luckier to end up so close to Beacontown in the first place." Julia finished.
Jo nodded slowly. "I kinda wonder, though. Do you think it is a coincidence that you met me so soon?"
"What do you mean?" Lukas asked. We hadn't told her his real identity, either, since that would entail revealing Julia's powers.
"Well, from what you told me, it seems like you all were pretty desperate to be close to Beacontown. Is it possible that intention influenced your destination?" she inquired.
"What, like the In-Between was bent to our will or something?" Julia asked.
Jo smiled lightly. "We're dealing with alternate dimensions here. Who are we to say what's possible and what's not?"
I gestured to Julia. "Don't forget that whole Primes-being-different-from-other-people thing. Maybe she's right, and we have a…connection with the In-Between or something." I said, remembering the layers of other gates I had seen that Lukas and Radar hadn't been able to.
"Like I said, anything's possible." Jo said.
I was fairly surprised at how well she was taking all of this. She had seemed a bit stunned at first, but wasn't as suspicious as I would've thought.
Maybe that was because she was younger, and hadn't dealt with quite as much shit as the rest of us yet. The three or so years before the Admin had been hard on me, when my friends were getting more distant and my faith in the goodness of the world was dying.
Part of me wished I could warn her about all of this, but I knew I couldn't. To do so would just be to create more deviations, and erode her positivity even quicker.
But still. I hated remembering that I used to be so trusting and lighthearted, and knowing that this girl was going to end up the exact same way.
Focusing on Lukas- whom she still knew as Luis, the mysterious dark-haired man that she hadn't met yet her own version of -Jo asked, "So, what next? If Essa's after you, and the deviations are getting worse, what do we do?"
Radar sighed. "Well, we still need to find that missing constant. Then we can figure out how to fix it, and things will go back to normal. Hopefully."
Jo nodded thoughtfully. "I don't remember if I mentioned this earlier, but things have been a little…strange, recently. Mobs acting weird, time seeming kind of flexible, stuff just being a little less…predictable. It wasn't really enough to make me think about it, but adding all this new information to the mix…"
I leaned my elbows on the table we were sitting at, dropping my head into my hands. "Shit, it feels like it's been so long since I've been home. I know it's only been a little over a week, but it feels like so much longer. Honestly guys, I know we need to figure this out, but I'd really like to go back to my own Beacontown. Even if it's only for a little while."
Lukas nodded, and Jo visibly perked up. "Ooooh, you haven't told me what your Beacontown is like. Is it very different from this one?"
"Well, you gotta remember that it's five years in the future," Radar reminded her. "It's gotten a lot bigger, and just…I don't want to say fancier, because that seems rude, but…"
"More elaborate." I filled in. "It's become a really neat place, and I love it. Trust me, yours will be just as cool someday."
Jo smiled. "That's good to hear. I've been coming up with more plans for this town, and I hope they pay off. I'm not officially the leader here, but I have a feeling I will be."
"Yeah, you will." Julia said in an uncharacteristically melancholy voice. I glanced over at her, wondering what had caused that sudden shift in mood, but she didn't look as upset as her voice had sounded.
"What else happens to me? Any more big bad villains?" she asked.
Lukas and I looked at each other. "I really shouldn't be telling you your future…but yeah, there is." I said.
"Including Essa." Radar added.
Jo nodded briskly. "I promise I'll keep an eye out. If I see anyone here who even remotely matches your description of her, I swear I'll be careful."
"Good. That's the whole reason we decided to talk to you, really. We don't know what she's planning, but we know it involves the timelines and that it's nothing good. We need all the help we can get." Julia said, standing up from the table.
Jo stood as well, giving her a little mock salute. "I'm here when you need me."
We headed back out to the inner entrance of the Hall, and Julia drew her diamond sword. We'd already told Jo about the gates and how they were made, but she still gasped in wonder as Julia drew the shimmering white symbols in the air.
As always, a long downward slash of the sword opened the gate, dousing us all in pure white light. Jo reached forward, the tips of her fingers vanishing into the abyss of white. She gasped again and retracted her hand, still looking awestruck at the gate.
"Holy screaming Phantoms. That's even more amazing than I thought it would be." She murmured.
Julia grinned. "I'm sorry we have to cut this so short, but we should go. We'll be back, though. I promise."
She disappeared through the gate, and Radar followed her. I was about to go with them, but at the last second, I turned back to Jo.
"Enjoy what you have, Jo. It won't be like this…it won't be this good forever. The next few years…"
"Jess." Lukas's stern voice cut through my words.
Jo looked at me with wide eyes. "Really? It…things change?" she asked. I could tell by the anxious, almost fearful tone of her voice that she'd already been worried about this.
I nodded once, then stepped into the gate before Lukas could chastise me again.
The perfect white surrounded me for several seconds before I stepped back out into the In-Between. I shuddered slightly, looking around at the strange dimension. It was even more different than before. The sky, which had previously been a beautiful mix of almost-evening blues and periwinkles, was now a wash of ominous greys. The ground seemed faded as well, and in the distance, outside the circle of gates, I could see strange lumps that made the ground look bizarre and disfigured.
Things were definitely changing, and not for the better.
Lukas appeared through the gate behind me, still giving me a sharp look. I instinctively stiffened for a moment at his unfamiliar appearance, but relaxed just as fast. "You shouldn't have told her that." he said in an undertone.
I jerked my head irritably, looking away from him. I knew all too well that I shouldn't have said anything, but I couldn't help it.
"How would you have felt if you were still in your prime hero years and someone had told you things were about to get bad?" he continued. I turned my head again to give him a sharp glare.
"I would've appreciated it, actually. Being warned, instead of just getting tossed into hell unawares? Yeah."
He opened his mouth, clearly about to argue, but Julia interrupted.
"Oh, Lukas, do you want me to take the mask off now? Since we're going back to your timeline, it's not like you need it."
He visibly forced himself to relax. "Yeah, sure."
She closed her eyes and made a swiping motion with her hand, and just like that, he was back to normal.
Radar grinned. "Oh, good. Mister Nice-Hair is back."
Lukas shot him a suspicious look, running a hand over his now-blond hair. Julia laughed. "Don't listen to him. Your hair was still pretty even in the mask."
"You know what they say, though, about beauty being in the eye of the beholder." I said, striding towards the gate that led back to my timeline. Back to home.
"Well, at least now I know how you four escaped that prison." A low female voice remarked.
I froze, and so did the others. I had only heard that tone once or twice, but it was the kind of voice that stuck with you.
A young woman stepped out from behind my gate, wielding a very heavily enchanted, deadly-looking diamond sword.
A young woman with long black hair and a purple bandana over her mouth.
Essa.
