I landed on my feet on the other side of the gate, still with my diamond sword in my hand. I hadn't even given it a second's thought, just leaped into the white abyss behind Essa and her Aiden.

To my surprise, the battle didn't immediately continue in this new timeline. It was suddenly day, the sun peeking hesitantly through high clouds, with the two villains nowhere to be seen.

I straightened my stance, looking confusedly around as Julia appeared beside me. We were in a birch forest, the kind with the impossibly tall trees that seem like they could rival even a jungle. A light breeze stirred the high-up leaves, but no other sounds could be heard.

We were alone.

"What…what the hell?! Where are they?" I exclaimed, turning in a full circle. "I was right behind him! How…?"

Julia shook her head, looking just as lost as I was. "I have no idea. Maybe…Essa manipulated the gate somehow? So we'd end up far away from her?"

I reached up, running a hand through my hair in bewilderment. "I guess? And where the hell even are we?"

"I don't know. This biome is a little too generic to recognize." Julia said. "And we won't be able to figure out which timeline we're even in until we get somewhere we're familiar with."

I sighed. "Dammit. This is bad. I hope the others are okay. Especially Aiden, he didn't look too good."

"What even happened back there?" Julia asked. "One minute I was asleep, then I heard Aiden yelling, and bam, there was Essa. What were they doing there?"

"No way to know until we get back." I replied resignedly.

I scanned the area again. We were up on a slight hill, which helped me get a decent look at where we were. There were no immediate landmarks, until I turned my gaze west and saw a thin column of smoke wafting up from fairly nearby.

Shielding my eyes with one hand, I studied the smoke. It didn't look like it was from a forest fire, but rather, something more controlled, which could only mean there were other people nearby.

I pointed this out to Julia, suggesting we head towards it. We had only taken a few steps, though, when a new problem arose.

Julia hissed under her breath and went down, crouching on one knee and grabbing her ankle. "Ah, shit."

"What?" I asked, pausing beside her.

She looked up at me with pain twisting her features. "I think I got hurt during the fight. That jerk knocked my feet out from under me, and I think he either kicked me harder than I thought, or I landed weird. Or both."

"Are you…okay to walk? At least to whatever that is?" I asked worriedly, indicating the smoke. She glared down at her ankle.

"Probably. It hurts, but I've been through worse."

We started towards where I'd seen the smoke, walking fairly slowly to prevent Julia exerting herself too much. The birch-covered hills soon gave way to a classic plains biome, dotted here and there with oak trees. And not far away from us stood the beginnings of a little town.

The trail of smoke was rising up from the chimney of one of the nearest buildings, which appeared to be a blacksmith's shop. As we drew closer, I could see that the town was a very small one- only a dozen or so buildings, all made of oak or birch wood and embellished with stone. An iron golem lumbered past the fountain in the center of the town, its heavy feet making loud thuds as it walked.

I didn't recognize the place, nor any of the people strolling about the stone-brick paths. We needed to figure out where we were, though I was slightly unsettled by the idea of just asking someone. We'd have to be careful with our words, since we didn't know what timeline we were in.

We had just passed the blacksmith's when an unfamiliar voice called out to us. "Hey, hello!"

I turned towards the voice, to see a woman standing on the steps of the stone building we'd just passed, waving to us. She was wearing dark goggles over her eyes, and had long, very dark red hair that faded to a pale orange at the tips.

"Uh…hi." Julia tried as we went back towards her.

She grinned, then lifted the goggles to reveal friendly brown eyes. "Sorry if I startled you. Haven't seen travelers through here in a while!"

I relaxed slightly. "Can't say I'm surprised. This is a pretty small place."

She laughed. "Yeah, that's for sure. I'm Ingrid, and you are?" she asked, offering her hand to me.

"I'm Jess, this is Julia." I replied, shaking her hand. "Could you, ah…have you ever heard of a place called Beacontown?" I asked cautiously. She seemed friendly enough, and I hoped she'd be willing to help us.

Ingrid adjusted the goggles on her head, frowning slightly. "Hmm…can't say I have. Though that doesn't necessarily mean it can't exist, I haven't travelled much."

"Shoot." Julia muttered, then seemed to think of something else. "Well, then, do you know if there's a town near the Arian mountains? The uh, east side, I believe?"

Again, Ingrid took a moment to contemplate this. "Ah! Yeah, that'd be Dreiton. Pretty far from here, but it's there. You guys headed there?"

"Yeah, that's the goal." I said.

She nodded, then pointed towards the horizon in the opposite way we'd come. "It's a little more than a day that way. You're on the right track, but it's quite a journey."

"Thanks. And, ah…this might be a dumb question but…what's this town called? We've been travelling awhile; I've started losing track of where we've been." Julia hedged uncertainly.

Luckily, Ingrid seemed to buy it, and laughed good-naturedly. "This is Taswell, though I doubt it'd be on many maps. You already noticed what a small place it is."

"Taswell. Huh." I muttered. A strange feeling of familiarity jolted through me, though I didn't immediately figure out what it meant.

Ingrid snapped her fingers, though the effect was slightly lessened by the gloves she wore. "Oh, I almost forgot. I noticed you were limping on your way over here; do you want a Potion of Healing? My work tends to get me burnt quite a bit, so I have extras." she said to Julia, who smiled relievedly.

"Yeah, that'd be great. We had to ah, fight off some monsters earlier, and…yeah. If it's not too much bother."

The redhead waved her hand dismissively and disappeared into her shop. I leaned close to Julia, murmuring, "Taswell? Dreiton? Where in the Overworld are we?"

Julia shook her head again. "I don't know. I've never heard of either of those…though it sounds like this 'Dreiton' is near where Beacontown should be. How many towns are there on the east side of the Arian mountains?"

"Only one, as far as I know." I replied. "Something's weird here."

"Well, at least we know where to go now." Julia sighed as Ingrid reappeared. She had a pink potion bottle in one hand, and a colourful map in the other.

"Here you go. I figured you might want a map, too, to get a reference on where you are. There's a lotta open space between here and anything else, and it can be easy to get turned around."

Julia gratefully swallowed the potion, and I noticed her stance shift as her ankle healed. She smiled appreciatively at Ingrid. "Thanks again for your help."

Ingrid grinned again as well. "Happy to be of assistance. Not much happens here, and I love meeting new people. Good luck on your trip."

We walked off, heading quickly through the rest of the town. Nobody else paid us much attention, though I noticed we did get a few curious glances. I studied the map as we walked, frowning as I tried to make sense of it.

This was unmistakably the same geography as my own world, but it was so…different, at the same time. Taswell wasn't the only little town I found on the map that I was sure didn't exist back home.

We'd just left the town behind when Julia commented, "So, that was weird."

"A little, yeah." I agreed.

"I mean, at least she was nice, and now we know where we are, but that was still pretty strange, right? Like…how could she not have at least heard of Beacontown? And what's this Dreiton?"

I shook my head, tucking the map into my inventory. "I don't know."

Julia didn't seem to hear. "Ugh, what did we get ourselves into? I swear, there's something weird about this timeline. I just have a gut feeling about it. Something's not right here."

"Yeah, it's pretty strange." I said, not fully processing her words. Something was flickering at the back of my mind, a memory trying to match up. "Listen, I…I think I might actually know something about Taswell, after all."

She raised her eyebrows, giving me a curious look. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. It…I'm not sure if I'm remembering right, since I was only there once, when I was a fairly new spawn. But if memory serves…" I inhaled deeply. "Taswell was destroyed in the Witherstorm, and it wasn't rebuilt."

Julia's look of surprise intensified. "Really. Huh. Maybe it…was rebuilt in this timeline?" she tried, though she didn't quite seem to believe her own words.

I shrugged. "Or…this timeline might be in the past. Like, way in the past. Let's face it; we don't know anything about this timeline. I doubt Essa would've dropped us into a dimension we're already familiar with, so I think it's safe to say this place is going to be unpredictable."

"You think it might be one of those other timelines we saw in the In-Between? The higher ones that Radar and Lukas couldn't see?" she asked.

"Maybe. It's just a hunch for now, but you never know. I have a bad feeling about this one too, just like you said."

She sighed. "Well, without knowing the exit code, the best we can do is hope there's answers in Beacontown."

We travelled for the rest of the day, which was honestly only about three hours.

The time differences between realities was insanely jarring, made even more so by the fact that I'd been sound asleep only minutes before jumping into this timeline, where it was already afternoon. I wasn't sorry to see the sun going down, eager to catch up on the rest I'd missed the night before.

Ever since this had started, I'd only gotten half a night's sleep in my own bed. It was beginning to make me understand Radar's aversion to adventures a bit more.

When the sun hit the horizon, Julia Admin-ed another small house for us to spend the night in. It was a modest oak-wood thing, the exact type of structure I would've built if I'd been out here on my own.

It was relieving to see that her Julia-ness outweighed her Admin-ness, even when she was using her powers. I admittedly still wasn't totally used to such an apparently-normal person having those unworldly abilities, but she didn't show off or use them excessively, and they were proving to be handy.

I knew it was easier for her, too, that we knew. She didn't have to worry about trying to keep the secret, or the headaches she described that came with suppressing the powers.

Julia had made the roof of the little building out of glass, allowing me to stare up at the stars as we tried to go to sleep. Although I was still tired from the fight and the lack of rest the previous night, and the bed was comfy and warm, I still wasn't able to drift off. There was too much on my mind. I lay on my back with my arms behind my head as my thoughts drifted down into an unsortable pile, my tired brain flitting between worrying topics and unanswerable questions.

"Julia?" I asked quietly, testing if she was still awake. It hadn't been long since we'd gone to bed, but I'd already seen once that she had the ability to fall asleep very quickly.

"Mmf. Yeah?"

"…Do you ever think about the future?" I asked after a moment.

Across the small room, I heard her bedding rustle as she rolled onto her side to look at me. "Uh…that depends. What kind of 'the future'? My future? The future of the world?"

"Yours."

She paused. "Immediate or distant?"

"Both, I guess. Or neither?"

"Jess, are you actually awake? Are you just philosophically sleep-talking at me?" she asked. I could tell from her tone that she was kidding.

I sighed, mildly frustrated at my own lack of lucidity when speaking. "I mean…do you have any future goals? Do you see yourself doing anything else big in your life, or is this it? Are you going to continue upwards and forwards, or just stay where you are?"

She was silent for a few moments, though I wasn't sure if she was thinking of an answer or trying to assess my sanity. Finally, she said, "I'm not sure. I have thought about that, but not really…decided anything? Like, I know that yes, I am going to continue. Where I am right now is not where I'll be forever. I love my Beacontown, and I love being a leader, but I know there'll be more someday. I'm still young. We're both still young."

When I didn't reply right away, she continued. "I'm going to make my Beacontown a place for heroes. People like Jack, who have already been through the mill, and people like Radar, who are still looking for what life has to offer them. It's going to be a place where everyone's safe, where no matter who you are or what you've been through, there's a spot for you. I'm not sure if I'm going to be the leader of that future Beacontown, but that's what I'm gonna make of it. Also, I'm probably going to marry my girlfriend someday, though it's okay if that's not for a while."

I stayed silent for another few moments, contemplating this. There was something in her voice when she talked about the future that made it seem almost like it wasn't some fragile possibility, but something that was already set in stone.

"Why?" she asked. "What's still in store for you?"

I took in a deep breath. "I don't know."

"Jess."

I glanced over at her, moving only my head. It was dark, but I could see that she was laying on her side, propped up on one elbow and giving me an unconvinced half-glare. "You would not have asked me that if you didn't know."

I returned to looking skyward. My throat felt strangely thick as I said, "But I don't. I have no idea what's going to come next, if anything is at all. I just…every time I think about 'the future', and what else I might do, all I can see is a blank void. I just don't know what else to do."

I briefly glanced at her again. "I asked, because I'm feeling stuck, and I wanted to know if this was just part of our lives, or something exclusive to me."

She watched me with serious brown eyes, waiting for me to say more. My voice was quiet and heavy as I continued.

"I don't know who I am without my friends. I'm with you in that I love leading Beacontown. It's my home, and my responsibility, and I welcome that. But…" I paused for breath again, and to attempt to sort out my thoughts. "I don't know where to go from there. I don't know who I can be, only who I was. And I'm…I'm not even sure if I am that person anymore.

"Julia, somewhere along the line, I gave up on the idea of my future. I don't know when. It wasn't a conscious decision…it was just how things happened. I stopped looking ahead, I stopped reaching forward, and I stopped trying to be more. I know where I am now, but I don't know what's beyond that, if there is anything beyond that. And I don't know how to know."

We were both quiet for a minute or so after that outpouring of words. I could feel Julia's eyes on me, though I didn't look back at her.

Her sigh echoed mine. "Jess, I…I think I understand what you mean, though I can't say I've felt like that. I…hell, I don't know what to say."

"Sorry." I muttered. "I shouldn't have dumped that on you."

"No, it's okay! Look, if you can't talk to yourself from another dimension, who can you talk to? I'm completely chill with being vented at. I just…don't really know how to react to that. I'm sorry, I guess."

Again, it took a few moments before either of us spoke again.

"I think that's part of the problem, actually. I feel…all this dark crap, and I don't know who to turn to. Olivia's not around, and she's the one I always used to vent to. Lukas has his own life stuff to deal with, and I've already dumped other baggage on him. I'm not about to start scaring Radar with this, and there's…there's no one else."

I exhaled slowly. "If there's one thing I can't handle- and I mean really cannot handle -it's being alone. Even if I'm not really on my own, I can still feel isolated, and I just…I hate it. I can't deal with it. But I have to, and it's just…it's hard, is all."

Julia let out a small, bitter laugh. "Me too. God, Jess, infinite me too. It's not really a physical aloneness as an emotional one, and you're right, it is hard. It's one of the hardest things I've ever dealt with."

"So how did you deal with it?" I asked, finally looking at her again. There was only one dim torch in the little structure, casting strange shadows over her tan-skinned face. "How are you still going strong and looking ahead, while I'm falling deeper into my own brain?"

Julia retained eye contact for a moment more before her gaze flicked away. "I don't really know. I guess I just kept thinking… that I didn't come this far to only come this far. You know?"

"No. No, I don't." I said shortly.

She gave me an odd little half smile. "We've both been through a lot. We've both lost things, and gained things, and been changed by our world just as much as we changed it. But in my mind, every problem, every change, every loss…it's just another step up. It's just another addition to the path that's never going to stop growing and changing and becoming better. I guess I just never let myself dwell on things long enough for them to drag me down. I don't know if that helps or not, but…that's about the best you're going to get from me right now." she said with another small laugh.

I smiled as well, but it turned into a yawn. The conversation had helped, a little bit. I'd been reminded that just because this was how I felt now, didn't mean it had to be that way forever.

"Now, are you going to make me continue discussing life crises, or can I go to sleep?" Julia asked jokingly.

"Go to sleep." I told her. "I shouldn't have kept you up; I feel like we're gonna have a big day tomorrow."

She made a noncommittal huff noise, turning back onto her opposite side. "Yeah, I think that's a pretty normal thing to be feeling in this scenario."

Julia went silent after that, dropping quickly into the deep realm of sleep. It took me several minutes of listening to her even breaths, though, before I finally drifted off.

I didn't remember the details of my dreams that night, though I know I wasn't any less isolated in my sleep as I was in the waking world.