I stared back at Lukas's excited blue eyes, unsure if I had heard right. "You what?"
"Essa's plan. We think we figured it out. Or part of it, at least." he repeated. Yeah, apparently I had heard him right, unbelievable as it may seem.
I stepped aside, letting him and Aiden into the storage room. Radar closed the chest he had been looking through. "Seriously? How?!"
"Okay, so I told Aiden about the timelines and the whole adventure, right. He knows just as much as we do- or, as I do, actually." Lukas started, gesturing to the other man. "Anyways, we were just talking and theorizing and whatever, and he realized something about the timelines."
Aiden spoke up then. "Even with all the deviations and stuff, these different dimensions are all still variations of the same time. So my idea was, since the timelines being messed up affects the logic of the universe, is it possible to use the timelines to turn back time?"
"Essa wants her friends back, she basically told us that with all her 'I'm-just-trying-to-fix-things' bullshit. And we've already proven that you Primes are a little different than most people, so Essa could be creating deviations and stuff in order to mess with the timelines and change her past. It makes total sense, in a completely whacked sort of way." Lukas continued.
I stared at him, openmouthed. It did add up, with everything we knew about the timelines in general and Essa's specifically.
Radar slapped a hand against his forehead. "Oh my god! That-that's…you're right! It completely fits! Timelines, of course!"
"I kind of can't believe I didn't think about it before." Julia said. "It's so obvious. I mean, I've considered why they're called timelines, but never in-depth enough to put the pieces together. I have no idea how one would even do that, but Essa was boasting about knowing more about the timelines than any of us."
"Yeah, same here." Lukas put in, nodding to Julia. "Besides, remember what Jo said? Who are we to say what's possible?"
I tapped a finger against my chin, thinking. "This isn't quite enough information, though. We still don't know how she's doing this, or how she even learned about any of this in the first place. Call me paranoid, but that's what's freaking me out the most."
"No, I thought that too. There's something fishy with Essa." Aiden agreed. "Lukas told me she'd apparently been studying the timelines for years, but what does that mean?"
I shook my head. "I don't know. We're gonna have to look into this better, if we can."
Lukas exhaled heavily. "If we can is right. If Essa figures out what we know, we're gonna be in trouble. Assuming, of course, that we're even right about this. We could be thinking about this all wrong."
"I don't know. This seems pretty right to me." Radar said. "And if we're willing to risk it, there might be someone back in Essa's timeline who'd be willing to help us, someone who knew her well enough to know her plan."
"I'm not sure, Radar. It seemed like she kept her secrets pretty close." I objected quietly.
He shrugged. "Might be worth a shot, if we can't think of anything better."
"Alright, great. So we've figured out what she's doing, and why. How do we stop her? Because we cannot let this happen." Julia asked, raising her left eyebrow.
The rest of us looked at each other for a few seconds. Aiden opened his mouth, then shut it again with an audible snap when he realized he was just as clueless as the rest of us.
"Talking to her's out of the question, right?" Radar asked. Julia shot him a look. "Definitely. And in any case,I don't think she'd be willing to negotiate after we so firmly turned down her stupid 'alliance' trap."
Lukas crossed his arms, looking uncomfortable. "Well…I can think of one way. It's not pretty, though."
"Yeah?" I asked, unable to keep the hope out of my voice. Lukas cleared his throat and gave me a cagey look, but didn't say anything else.
I stared at him for a moment, not comprehending, before it hit me.
"Oh. Well…yes, I suppose that's an option. But I don't like the look of this scenario if what should be our last resort is currently Plan A."
"Wait, you don't mean…we can't kill Essa?" Radar asked, his voice cracking with nerves.
Julia scowled at no one in particular. "Why not? She seems like she wants to do just as bad to us, does she not? You heard how she was talking in the In-Between." she pointed out.
"Actually, I'm not sure if that's such a good idea." Aiden cut in. Julia's glare lifted to him, and he hesitantly backpedaled. "Okay, yeah, I don't know about her as well as any of you do. But do we know what'll happen if a Prime gets killed? That'd be a pretty massive deviation, so wouldn't it ruin stuff even more?"
Julia held her glower for a moment more, than cursed quietly. "Dammit. You're probably right. I don't know how a Prime's death would affect things, especially one who was killed by another Prime. We might really screw stuff up."
Lukas snorted. "Yeah, like it's not screwed up enough as is?"
"Okay, wait. Aiden's got a point." I said. "But what if there's a loophole to that? Like maybe it won't screw things up if she's killed or not killed by another Prime? Or…in her timeline versus another? Or even the In-Between?"
Now it was Radar who gave me an anxious look. "I thought we just decided against killing her…?"
I shook my head. "Obviously, we'll do anything we can to avoid that. But Radar, this could get dire." I said gently.
"If killing off Essa will undo all the shit she's done, I am all for it." Julia contributed.
"But what if it does something horrible?" Aiden pressed. "What if, say, killing a Prime erases their entire timeline?"
This earned another disdainful noise from Lukas. "Honestly, I think that might be for the best. Essa's dimension is pretty fucked up."
Aiden pointed at him. "Yes, but if she realizes you guys are trying to take her out, wouldn't that validate her using lethal force against you? Which would risk either our or Julia's timeline being destroyed. And, forgive me, but I really don't feel like having my entire existence deleted."
Julia looked down her nose at him. "Stop helping. You're making this so much more confusing."
"I'm just trying to be logical." he objected, lifting his hands in a surrendering motion.
Radar crossed his arms loosely and bit his lower lip, a sign that he was thinking hard. "So then what can we do?" he muttered. "She won't listen to us, and we don't want to kill her unless we have to. What options does this leave us with?"
I sighed, rubbing my forehead. "I don't know. Essa's obviously unstable, and we just don't know enough about this to make a plan."
"I think we should do what Radar said. Go back to her timeline and see what we can figure out." Julia suggested. "I can use my Admin powers to disguise us, and maybe we can dig around her base or something."
"It'd be risky, but it might work." Lukas agreed.
I glanced out the window at the town. "Sure. But not now. There's a couple other things I still need to take care of, and we should bother to actually have a plan this time, instead of jumping blind." Julia winced as I said this, but I hadn't been trying to guilt-trip her.
"So, what, we go tomorrow?" She asked.
I shrugged. "Sure. Assuming, of course, that nothing new comes barreling into our lives before then."
Aiden snickered quietly, then caught himself and transformed it into an unconvincing cough. I gave him a look. "Don't think I'm joking. You never know what can happen in the space of an hour, much less a day."
"Yeah, no, I know. I…I know. I'm just…" he made a vague rolling motion with his hand. "Not used to being part of any of this 'quest' madness anymore."
Radar's laugh was uncharacteristically harsh and sarcastic. "Oh, been there, Aiden. And trust me- as soon as you have to say that, you know you're about to be in it deep."
Soon after that, I went back out into my beloved town that I'd been gone from for too long. As important and interesting as this adventure was, I regretted having to leave Beacontown for so long.
Aiden had been right, though. Most everything was just fine. There were the few little problems here and there, but they were solved easily enough, especially since people were so relieved that I was back.
Even the things I had to sort through and deal with were still welcome. They were classic Beacontown things, which made for a colossal relief after the craziness of the past few days. All my friends and acquaintances were more than happy to see that I'd returned, which lifted my spirits quite a bit.
Unfortunately, I had more on my mind than I allowed myself to let on. I was glad we'd pieced together at least a little bit of Essa's plan, but it wasn't enough. I wasn't sure it would ever be enough.
If all went well tomorrow, we should have more information about the mess that was Essa's timeline, and what exactly she was planning to do to fix it. The time reversal theory seemed unsettlingly plausible, but how would she carry that out?
Always with the questions. Again and again, I ended up with more queries than I could answer.
It was late evening, and I stood up on the bridge that spanned the main street, watching the last throes of sunlight disappear from the horizon. Behind me, the moon would soon be rising above the gates.
The slight breeze that tousled my hair was pleasantly warm, and it carried faint hints of conversations up to me from people walking below. The bridge was one of my very favorite places in the whole town, the oak planks strung high enough between the two jungle trees that I could look down at the whole center of town. It was especially peaceful at this time, the beginning of night when no one else was around.
Well, almost no one else.
"I thought I'd find you up here." A familiar voice said conversationally. I turned to see Lukas stepping out onto the bridge, walking cautiously towards me.
I smiled thinly. "Hey. What's up?"
He stood beside me, leaning his arms on the dark-oak fence. "Aaahh…you know."
I decided not to point out the fact that I obviously did not know. He wouldn't look directly at me, making the silence between us stretch on somewhat awkwardly.
I knew that there were still some things that needed to be said, stuff between us that needed to be addressed. But I wasn't sure how to start. I've never been good at starting difficult conversations. I'm a pro at saying comforting things, and I can pull a motivational speech out of thin air like nobody's business, but I can't for the life of me manage to start talking to a friend about something I know is going to be difficult.
It was just like that night up in the treehouse. I felt like I'd already said too much, already asked my questions, though I knew I hadn't really said anything at all.
Luckily, Lukas didn't have the same problem with this as I did.
"I'm sorry, by the way. Honestly, I…I don't even remember what started it all, but we've been in this weird unspoken fight ever since the beginning of this whole mess, and I want to be done with it. I hate arguing with you, even when it's this strange kind of not-fighting that we do. It's just making this whole situation so much harder, and we really…don't need that right now. So I'm sorry."
I exhaled slowly. I was so, so lucky to have him as a friend. "Me too. And same here, I can't even remember what started it. We were both just pushing each other too hard at the wrong time, I guess."
He nodded. "Yeah, something like that."
We were silent for another few moments, though this stretch of quiet was significantly more comfortable than the one before. I remembered, suddenly, that there had been a specific thing that had sparked this fight. And it had been entirely my fault.
I shifted my weight, glancing over at the taller man for a moment.
"Look, Lukas. I really do need to say that I'm…I'm so sorry. This could've all been avoided if I'd just…" I sighed heavily, unsure if I'd even manage to say what I was trying to.
Lukas looked genuinely confused, bless him. "Just what?"
"Just stopped being such a jerk about your relationship with Aiden. I know we mostly already dealt with all this, but I just realized that I never really apologized. You're right; I should've accepted that he was different a long time ago. I…I wasn't being fair to either of you, and I'm sorry." I told him softly.
He shrugged. "It's alright. I'm not mad anymore. I understand why you didn't trust him; you had every right not to."
I shook my head. "No, I didn't. I've been holding onto some things for too long, and I don't wanna do that. He is different now. Even though you'd already been saying it, and I'd seen it before, today really showed me how wrong I was. He may have been trouble in the past, but hell. I was trouble in the past."
Lukas watched me silently, like he knew I had more on my mind.
I glanced away, looking down at the Redstone lamps that illuminated the town. Looking anywhere but at him. "Now that I've seen how dark and unstable Essa is, how she was so deep in her own anger-fueled world that she couldn't see when 'bad' things were a blessing in disguise…I don't want to become like that. I can't become like that."
Lukas's voice hardened slightly. "Jess. You're nothing like Essa."
I lifted my head to look at him again, desperation leaking into my voice. "But I am! All of us Primes have things in common, especially Essa and I. Sure, we've obviously made some different choices, but the motives behind them were the same. Deep down, I'm sure she thinks she's just trying to protect herself and her friends, and that is exactly what I'm doing."
I sucked in a deep breath. "Lukas, I have that same darkness that Essa described, though I put more effort into hiding it. I could be just as dangerous as her, just as terrifyingly vengeful. I have the potential to fall just as far as she has."
"You react to that darkness differently, though. You might have similar motives, but like you just said, you do different things because of them. You're a protector, not a destroyer." Lukas said carefully. He moved closer to me, our shoulders touching side-by-side.
I relaxed, letting my shoulders slump. "That's what I'm trying to say. We're similar, but I hope that we're different enough in the ways that will prevent me from becoming like her. I can't slip over that edge. I just can't."
"Jess, if you start going dark, I'll be here to pull you back. I swear it." he promised.
"What if you won't, though?" I countered. My voice sounded too loud, too aggressive, but I hardly noticed. "What if you have your own life, and I have mine, and I end up gone before either of us have a chance to even notice, much less do something about it? I…I want to be different, and we both know I'll try my hardest to be, but what if…what if this is just my future? I know her timeline is so unlike ours it's insane, but…what if that's just a constant? What if all of us Primes are going to end up down that road?"
Lukas's silence was a melancholy one. I was looking away from him again, but I could feel his sad blue eyes on me. We were both quiet for several minutes, leaving my heavy, upset words hanging in the air between us.
"I'm sorry, Jess. I…I don't know what to do."
I let out a deep sigh, resting my elbows on the dark-oak fence and hiding my face in my hands. "God, why can't things ever be easy."
"Because then it wouldn't be life?" he suggested.
I glanced halfheartedly up at him again. "I'm just…the whole point I wanted to make was that I'm happy for you. I'm glad that you're in a relationship with someone you really care about, and it's even better that you managed to fix a friendship that got wrecked so long ago. I'm sorry I was being such a jerk, and I just hope that we can hang onto this life. Maybe you're right, and this'll turn out fine, but I just…"
I lifted my head to stare up at the stars that were beginning to grow brighter with the loss of the sun. "It's just hard sometimes."
Lukas rested his arm around my shoulders. "I know. Trust me, Jess, I know. But I'm here for you. We all are. I swear, even if I am dealing with my own life, I'll try my hardest to keep you steady. You're my best friend, alright? I'm not about give up on you, and I promise I won't let you down."
I smiled. It was thin and fleeting, but a smile nonetheless. "Trust me, Lukas. I don't think you have the capacity to let me down."
"See? You're not going dark anytime soon. Not on my watch." He said, shaking my shoulders gently. Then he stepped slightly away, gesturing towards the building that led back down to the ground. "So, should we head back to the Hall and try to get some sleep? It sounds like we're gonna have a pretty wild day tomorrow."
I followed him back down from the bridge, and we walked back to the large glass and quartz building together. No more words were exchanged, but that was okay. I was feeling much more at peace than I had the whole day.
Now, if only I had a jot of confidence that tomorrow would go just as well.
