"You're Primes, and you're not supposed to be in this timeline!"
Julia and I stared at him, then at each other.
"W-wait, how d-did you know we're Primes?" she stammered confusedly.
Soren gestured wildly to both of us. "It's all over you, like an aura. You're obviously heroes…but there are no heroes in this world! There can't be! That's the whole point of this dimension!"
Dragging in a deep breath, he continued, "You had to've noticed, right? You Primes are a nasty, observant bunch. There's no way you don't know."
"No. I mean…yes, we know." Julia said. "But…why?"
"Because she made it this way. She wanted to see what would happen." Soren said bitterly. "What are you even doing in this timeline? As far as I know, it's not exactly easy to get to."
"We were trapped here, by another Prime." I explained.
Soren scowled, his bushy orange moustache drooping. "Oh, this is not good. Primes are dangerous people, and having them pitted against each other can never end well. You must get out of here, and soon. There can't be heroes in this world- it completely throws off the balance."
Julia and I exchanged a bewildered look again. "We…we don't know how. We don't have the exit code." Julia said. "I just told you, we were trapped here."
"And what do you mean, it throws off the balance? Why can't there be any heroes at all? Julia and I haven't even done anything in this world; but are we heroes anyways because what's happened in our own timelines?" I asked.
Soren's dark eyes shifted between the two of us, and he sighed. "Don't worry. I have a book on the timelines somewhere around here that should have the exit code. And yes. Even if you're new to this dimension, your heroics still carry over with you. It's inescapable."
He began examining the bookshelf towers, beckoning for us to follow as he walked. "This timeline was specifically made to have no heroes in it, other than the Order, and I don't think we really count. It was created in the exact right way to prevent the Prime from ever existing. Everything else matches up the same, but without the key part, the Primum Movens. So having not just one, but two Primes in this timeline could muck up our flimsy reality even more."
"What happened with no Prime?" Julia asked. "How did everything…?"
Soren gave her a curious, sad look. "I don't know how everything happened in your timelines, so honestly, it's hard to explain. But seven, almost eight years ago, Ivor released a Wither on the world. It was under his complete control, fueled by the Command Block. One by one, he exposed and humiliated each of the remaining Order members, revealing all our lies as well as giving visible proof that we weren't as great as everyone thought we were. People were crushed. They didn't know what to think. We all became outcasts, except Ivor himself. He's viewed in rather high regard, though as far as I know, he resents it. He's not a hero, of course, but people respect him far more than they do the rest of us."
"I mean…you did lie to the entire world for years." I pointed out quietly. Soren sent me a brief glare, then returned to looking through books.
"How long have you known about the timelines? How did you find out?" Julia asked.
This prompted another tired sigh from the orange-haired man. "The timelines were revealed to me a long, long time ago, by an old friend. She was far more interested in them than I was, and I wish I'd have been able to catch onto her obsession sooner. At first, she only wanted to learn more, but in the end she…changed them. Ended up creating this one, as an experiment. By the time I realized how dangerous this could be, I was far too late to stop her. I know that, later, a failsafe was created in case things got too bad in the future, but it was after she and I had already…lost contact. I took up studying the timelines much later, but the damage had already been done."
I wasn't sure what to think of all this. Who was this 'she'? How had she created a whole new timeline, especially one as whacked as this one?
"What was the 'failsafe'? Because things are starting to get pretty bad." Julia asked. Soren shook his head.
"I can't tell you that, partially because I don't know. I don't know how things have changed in your timelines, and I don't know how this information would affect them. All I can say is that it has to be something that's consistent in every timeline and will help you turn things back to normal if the deviations are getting out of control. Because yes, I am aware that things have been a little out of the ordinary lately. I assume that this other Prime, the one who trapped you here, has something to do with it…?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Her name's Essa, and as far as we know, she's trying to turn back time to fix some fatal mistakes she made in the past. Obviously, that's not sitting well with the wellbeing of the universe."
He shuddered slightly, still examining the bookshelf tower. "No, it's not. You must stop her, before everything's too far gone. You Primes have extraordinary abilities in relation to the timelines, but even you won't be able to fix the mess that will be made if she reverses time."
Soren suddenly let out an exclamation of triumph and reached up to grasp a thin book from a higher shelf. It looked like nothing more than a small blue journal, and a very old one, at that. But he seemed happy as he flipped through the pages, settling finally on a list of strange words and symbols that I recognized to be exit codes.
"Whoa. What language is that?" I asked, staring down at the unfamiliar letters.
Julia gave me a funny look. "You…can't read it?" she asked.
I shook my head. "No. It just looks like gibberish to me."
Now it was Soren who looked at Julia curiously. "It would. This is a very old language, and I know of very few who can understand it. It's been around since the time of the Admins."
Julia flushed red and stammered some kind of excuse. I narrowed my eyes as I remembered how she'd been able to understand the chart back in that creepy room in the Order's temple. How exactly could she read this long-dead language? Did it have something to do with her Admin powers?
Luckily, Soren decided not to press the matter right then. He showed the page to us, tapping his finger against one of the symbols. "That's the one for this timeline. It'll get you back to the In-Between, and you'll have to decide where to go from there."
"Thanks. I gotta say, you're a lot more helpful than the Soren of my timeline." Julia said, scrutinizing the paper. "Seems simple enough. Let's go."
We returned to the center of the library, where there was ample space to create the gate. Julia began carefully tracing her diamond sword through the air, much less confidently than she had in the past.
"I hope you manage to stop this 'Essa'." Soren said thoughtfully as she slashed the sword downward, opening the tall white gate. "You'll have to be on your guard, though. I have a feeling this whole situation is more complicated than it first appears. Giselle never could leave well enough alone when the timelines were involved."
I'd already been barely a step away from the gate when he said this, and I turned around so fast I almost twisted an ankle. "What did you say?!"
"I said, I fear this situation may be even more complicated than it looks from the outside. Be careful." Soren repeated hesitantly. He seemed to know he'd said something he shouldn't have.
Julia nudged my shoulder, though she too looked a bit unsettled. "Let's just get out of here, Jess. The last thing we want is to mess stuff up even more by being where we shouldn't."
I gave Soren one more suspicious look, then took a deep breath and stepped into the gate. The white abyss was strangely comforting, since I'd started to grow so accustomed to jumping through timelines.
My life had honestly gotten so weird.
I appeared back in the In-Between, right in the center of the familiar circle of gates. This, also, would have been a relief…were it not for the alarming new sights of the In-Between.
Julia appeared beside me, and she did a double take as she looked around. "Whoa. What happened to this place?"
"I don't know." I murmured. The sky was a strange grey, smeared here and there with other dim colours. The horizon was a dull red, the colour of drying blood.
The ground was just as strange. The individual blocks below our feet were shot through with cracks, beginning to separate the earth into strange, misshapen sections. It shook slightly below our feet, as though it could shatter into a million pieces at any moment, casting us into the void. Outside the circle of gates, I could see more of those strange formations, the ground being forced upwards into strange lumps by an unknown force.
Julia glanced at me. "Okay, you heard what Soren said too, right? I didn't just…hallucinate that?" she asked.
"What? The thing with Giselle?" I checked. She let out a sigh of relief.
"Oh, thank god. I'm not losing it."
I reached up to push a piece of hair out of my eyes. "Who is Giselle? She's buddies with Essa in that timeline, but she also knows Soren in that 'control' timeline? What's her deal?"
"I don't know. But…it sounded like she's the woman he was talking about, right? The one that was obsessed with the timelines and changed some things?" Julia inquired.
I hesitated. "I guess. I mean yeah, it sounded like he was talking about her, but…how? How could she have created a timeline?"
"With…the Command Block? Maybe?" Julia guessed, though she didn't look sure. "Honestly, I have no idea. Let's just go back to your timeline, and fill the others in on all this."
"You don't seem all that anxious to return to your own timeline. Can I ask why?" I asked, giving her a curious look.
She shrugged. "I don't know. I'm just…not worried about it, I guess. I know that my versions of Radar and Stella have things under control in Beacontown, and this is more important. I'd rather not go back until everything's fixed, so I know I won't have to leave again."
I supposed I could see her logic, though I still didn't fully relate. I was eager to be home again.
I gestured dramatically to the gate that led to my timeline. "After you, milady."
"You're too kind, my dear sir." she replied in a falsely posh voice. I laughed, and she winked playfully before stepping into the white abyss.
I was about to follow her when I heard a soft voice. "I must say, Jess, you two got out of there even faster than I thought you would. You are getting to be quite the thorn in my side, you know that?"
I whirled around. Essa was standing only a few paces away from me, swinging her diamond sword casually back and forth.
"Essa. What in the…what are you doing here?"
She tipped her head to the side, looking me up and down. She was several inches taller than me, and I hated being forced to look up at her. "I'm a Primum Movens too, Jess. This is my territory just as much as yours."
I eyed the sword nervously as I said, "We know what you're doing. We're going to stop you."
"No. No, you're not. It doesn't matter if you know what I'm going to do, Jess. You can't even begin to understand the depths of my plans." she remarked. Her voice was low and soft, and very intimidating when coupled with her predatorial stance.
I was about to say something smart-alecky, but I caught sight of something that made my mouth go dry. I'd been so focused on the sword and Essa's calculating expression that I hadn't even noticed the pink pig that had been hiding just behind her legs.
The pig looked at me curiously, and I felt my heart break as I noticed the familiar dark spot on its back.
No, not it. His.
"Is…is that…" I stammered, unable to speak louder than a murmur. It was incredible how much the sight hurt, even after seven years of accepting that he was gone.
Essa smiled lightly. "Reuben. Yes. And no, it's not a trick, or a replacement, or anything like that. It's really him."
"In…in your timeline…Lukas was the one who fell and died. I…I thought that meant Reuben didn't exist at all, but…?"
She tilted her head towards me again. "No, he existed, alright. I just took better care of him."
The words were like a knife to my heart, as Essa well knew.
"That pain that you're feeling right now? That sense of loss, and the knowledge that you could've done better? That is what I feel, every day. That's all I feel." she continued in a low voice.
I couldn't say anything, and she continued, stepping forward and shrinking the gap between us. "I know that you're less than happy with my methods, but I just want you to understand. I'm doing this because I want the pain to go away. I want my friends back. I've been working towards this for years. It's the only thing I want, the only thing that's keeping me going. It's my only dream. And you know what they say, in somnis veritas."
"Do they say that?" I asked, more than a little rudely as my voice finally came back. I realized now that this was the only reason she'd brought Reuben with her to this little confrontation. She was manipulating me, trying to get me to sympathize with her and forget that she was the cause of all those deaths. I glared up at her elegant face only a few inches from mine, though she didn't seem bothered.
"Yes, they do. In dreams there is truth. Rather fitting, don't you think, since this whole scheme seems crazy enough to be a dream?" Essa asked with a demure smile.
She leaned in, so close I could see every dark fleck of colour in her eyes as she whispered, "What do you think, Jess? Is there truth in your dreams…or only in mine?"
I shoved her away, and hard. "Stop playing around, Essa. Did you actually want something from me, or are you just here to be unsettling?"
Rather than looking angry, she smiled in a pleasantly surprised sort of way, arching her dark brows. "Well, you are a fierce one, aren't you? You know, if we weren't so at odds over this whole thing, I'd say we'd make a pretty formidable team."
I bared my teeth as I snapped, "That's not going to happen. What, did you really think if you got me alone that I'd suddenly agree to join your side? No way. I stand by what Julia said- I've seen what's happened to your allies, and you're not about to rope me into this mess."
The diamond sword swished back and forth again as she said, "No, I didn't think you'd be so easily swayed. I was hoping you'd be at least a little more reasonable without that creepy half-Admin putting words in your mouth, but ah, well. I have bigger Silverfish to fry."
She grinned, and made a gesture towards her gate. I watched, heart aching, as Reuben obediently trotted into the gate, returning to Essa's timeline.
"So, it looks like we're parting ways yet again, and on no better terms. What a shame." She said, shaking her head in mock sadness. But instead of following Reuben back to her own timeline, Essa turned away and walked towards the smallest, dimmest timeline. The one that wasn't fully formed yet.
"Wait. What are you doing?" I asked uneasily.
She glanced over her shoulder to give me a wicked little grin. "Oh, sorry Jess. But that's the kind of information that I really only tell my allies."
I debated my options. I knew nothing good could come of her in that timeline, but I wasn't close enough to stop her. If I drew my sword and tried to fight her, she'd just leap through the gate. But I hated having to just walk away.
I huffed, clenching my jaw. I knew she was watching me, waiting to see what I would do. Resigned to my fate, I turned and started for the gate to my timeline again.
Just before I went through, she called my name again.
"Jess. You know you can't stop me, right? And I don't just mean right now."
I glanced back at her, just for a second, before stepping into the gate. "Doesn't mean we won't try."
I emerged in the treasure room of the Order Hall. Julia was standing with her hands on her hips, tapping her foot impatiently.
"There you are! What the hell happened?! What took so long?"
I hesitated, unsure if I should tell her right then. She didn't seem happy with me, and it might be better to explain the whole interaction with Essa when I had Lukas and Radar's attention as well.
"Uh…nothing. I…thought I saw something, and went to check it out." I tried. Her eyebrows furrowed, and I could tell she wasn't willing to believe me just based on that. "It was really creepy; at first I thought it was some kind of bizarre hunched-over monster, but turns out it was just one of those weird lumps in the ground. There's definitely something wrong with the In-Between." I added, trying to make the lie more plausible.
She nodded slowly. "Huh, alright. You took forever, though. I was starting to think I'd need to go back and find you."
"Sorry." I muttered. "Do we know where the others are?"
Julia gestured to the entrance. "Yeah, they're on their way. Radar was in here when I showed up…I'm afraid I may have startled him a bit." she said with a guilty laugh. "He said he was going to go get Lukas, and someone else who apparently showed up, wouldn't tell me who."
I wondered briefly who it could be, but didn't have long to speculate before the piston-engineered entrance slid open and Radar dashed in.
"Jess! You're here!" he exclaimed. Three others followed him in, though I didn't get a chance to see who before my intern attacked me in a hug. "I'm so glad you're back, we were so worried!"
I laughed and hugged him back. As soon as he released me, Lukas was there to deliver a mostly-friendly punch to my shoulder. "That's for disappearing on us. Honestly, first I wake up to my boyfriend getting stabbed, and then my best friend launches himself into some unknown portal? What kind of shitty night is that?"
"Sorry. Instinct just kinda took over, I guess." I said with a not-completely-ashamed grin. I glanced over to see Aiden standing nearby as well, holding hands with Lukas and looking significantly less bloody than I'd last seen him. "Hey. Good to see you alive."
He grinned. "You too. You've been gone for a while, you know."
"How long?" I asked, my smile faltering.
"This is the third day." Radar replied. "You disappeared Tuesday night, and it's Friday afternoon now."
I glanced at the window, confirming his claim, then met Julia's eyes. "Whoa. It…did not feel like that long where we were. Oh, and speaking of that, you will not believe where we ended up, it was the weirdest thing I've ever…"
My voice trailed off as I finally noticed the fourth person to arrive, a pretty umber-skinned woman in a red robe. I tried to restrain a childish squeak of happiness as I hurried over to wrap her in a hug. "Olivia! What are you doing here?!"
She returned the embrace immediately, her laugh warm and familiar near my ear. "Hey, Jess. It's so good to see you. Things have been calm in Redstonia lately, so I figured it'd be a good time to pay you a visit."
She pulled away, holding my shoulders at arm's length and still grinning. "Though it's somehow just like you to have completely disappeared the one time I come to visit! Really, Jess. You'll never change."
I laughed. "Yeah, I know."
"So what have you been up to? And who's this?" she asked good-naturedly, gesturing to Julia.
"Oh, right. That's Julia." I told her as Julia gave her a slightly awkward little wave. "She's a new friend."
Olivia extended her hand to Julia. "Hi. I'm Olivia."
"I know!" Julia laughed, then seemed to catch herself. "Jess, ahh…has told me a lot about you."
Returning her attention to me, Olivia asked, "So, where have you been? Radar said something about dimensions, but wouldn't give me any details."
I froze, sinking into a moment of panic. I couldn't tell Olivia about the timelines, didn't dare add to the problem of people knowing about them who weren't supposed to. Technically speaking, there were already three people in this room who shouldn't know about any of this, and adding a fourth would not help things.
But…Liv was my best friend. I did not hide things from her; never had, never wanted to, unless the situation absolutely, desperately required it.
Did this one?
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Julia subtly shaking her head, as though she knew what I was thinking. The message was obvious: don't tell her.
I put on a smile that only felt a little bit false. "It's…kind of a long story, but yeah, other dimensions. Not quite as crazy as you might be thinking, but pretty complicated nonetheless."
"Jess, how about I tell the guys…the new information we found out, and you and Olivia can go hang out?" Julia suggested. "So you can tell her the basics of the adventure, and all that."
I relaxed slightly. "Sure, good idea."
"Oh, cool! Then you can show me the new changes to Beacontown! I've been wondering how the place has adapted since the whole Admin mess." Olivia said, and I grinned, relieved that she was making this so easy.
Meanwhile, I did not miss the concerned glance that passed between Lukas and Aiden when Julia said 'new information'. I was honestly pretty glad it wouldn't be left up to me to explain the whole 'control' timeline…though now it fell to me to tell Olivia about our mission without actually telling her about the timelines.
This would be interesting.
The two of us left the Order Hall, and she pulled me into a side-hug as we walked. "I've been missing you so much in the past few months, you have no idea. I love Redstonia, but the place makes me even more lonely sometimes."
"I know exactly how you feel." I said. "You're basically leading the place now, aren't you?"
She sighed and nodded. "Yeah. Though my assistant Nadia is keeping an eye on things for a few days while I'm here. Honestly, she's a lot more cut out for being in charge than I am."
Leaning over to whisper in my ear, Olivia confessed, "I'm actually hoping to push full leadership over to her sometime in the future."
I gave her a surprised look. I hadn't guessed that any of my other friends might be having the same doubts about our choices as I had. "You? Giving up responsibility? That's…surprising."
"Oh, don't even think about teasing me." She admonished. "I'm all for responsibility, I'm just…not a huge fan of being depended on for everything. It's sort of stressful, you know."
"Yeah, I know." I said quietly.
We headed further into town, remaining comfortably quiet for a few moments, before Olivia remarked, "So…Lukas and Aiden, huh?"
I snickered. "Yep. Not the pairing I would've expected, but they're surprisingly cute together."
"Right? Oh my gosh, they're such lovebirds." She laughed. Twin spots of colour appeared on her cheeks as she very casually said, "I guess that means Petra's dance card is empty again, right? So to speak."
I stared at her. "W-what- you, you're telling me you…?" I stammered in surprise. She wouldn't look at me, confirming my suspicions. "Wow. I never had you pegged for…"
"What, a lesbian?" she asked coolly. I laughed again, jabbing my finger into her side.
"No, a bad-girl type! Seriously, why are all of my friends suddenly getting into unconventional romances? Is there something in the air?"
She giggled and leaned away from my poking. "Shut up. Just because you're aro doesn't mean you get to mock the rest of us."
"Oh, it absolutely does." I objected.
Olivia shook out her mane of curly black hair, adopting a more serious expression. "Anyways. If you're done making fun of the rest of us for having feelings…what's been going on? I know you've been off on some crazy adventure, and you…seem a little different."
"Do I?" I asked, stalling for time.
She gave me that classic best-friend look that told me she saw right through me. "Yes, you do. Come on, Jess, the longer you wait, the more curious I'm gonna get."
I sighed slightly, and began the story, speaking fairly slowly and thinking through nearly every sentence before I said it. I was very, very careful what I revealed- I didn't tell her about the map, or that Julia and I had lived the same life, or that there was a dimension in which Reuben was still alive. I stayed as vague as I could, making it sound as though the other dimensions were completely different.
I was careful not to say anything about time, either, because I knew that Olivia was a very intelligent person and would easily put the pieces together if I gave her too many of them. I could see her frowning dubiously during some parts of the story, but I tried to divert suspicion as best I could.
I didn't like lying to her, but I knew I couldn't endanger the fragile balance of the timelines any more than I already had. Maybe someday I'd be able to explain the full truth, about the deviations and us Primes and the different versions of the people we knew and everything else I'd learned in the past week or so, but now was not the time.
She seemed extraordinarily interested in the idea of the In-Between, especially how it had changed the more dimensions we jumped through. She also acted like she knew that I was holding some things back, but didn't pressure me to say any more.
We hung out for the rest of the day, eventually letting my lengthy explanation fade into more casual conversation. We aimlessly roamed the town, talking about everything that came to mind. She told me all about how things were going in Redstonia, and I showed her how the beautification project was going on the tower.
I ended up confiding several of my worries to her, about my aching loneliness and the fear that it was too late to recover the future I'd given up on. She hadn't had too much to say about either of those, just wrapped me in a tight hug and told me she believed in me, that she knew I'd find a way to make it alright.
It was honestly surprising how much that helped.
Not just the hug or the comforting words, but her simple presence. The ability to pretend that things were okay for a little while, with my best friend by my side and the world not yet falling to pieces at our feet.
The sun was disappearing below the horizon by the time we finally went back to the Order Hall, still chatting happily and laughing over memories.
Unfortunately for my peaceful state of mind, Julia was waiting for me just inside the main entrance.
Olivia went upstairs to her room, and I braced myself for whatever the other Prime was about to throw at me. From her grim expression, I knew it couldn't be anything good.
"Hey. What's going on?"
She looked down at the floor, scuffing her shoe against the smooth stone. "Ah…nothing's exactly going on, but…"
I raised an eyebrow and made a motion with my hand, encouraging her to continue. She sighed. "Look. The fact is, I don't think we know enough about the timelines. How they work, and how we're supposed to fix all this. And I know this is probably risky for a handful of reasons…but I think it'd be helpful to make a trip to my timeline."
"What for?" I inquired. She hesitated for a moment more.
"We need to find my Ivor."
