Chapter 7 - Preparation
Lucas stepped out of the shower with new clothes, a box of matches and some burnt shreds of clothing. He glared at his Mirror-self and pushed past him.
"That was my favorite shirt," Lucas told him through gritted teeth.
"Sorry," Mirror-Lucas murmured weakly. "I didn't really have much say in the matter."
Lucas glared at him but said nothing.
"Look, buddy, this is strange for all of us, more than you guys," Mirror- Lucas told him. "This doesn't happen often at our school. This you peoples domain. I just want to get back to my life."
Lucas tossed the clothes in the bin. "That's good and all, but—" He noticed Mirror-Lucas clutching at his head. "Hey, are you okay?"
"First Ow. Second, god no! Third, Ow," Mirror-Lucas replied in a pained voice. "Get. Help. Now. It. Hurts."
Lucas looked down at his Mirror-self and placed his hand on his shoulder. He went to say something, until her tore his arm back in pain. "What the hell was that?" Lucas yelled.
"I don't know. But it felt like an electric shock," Mirror-Lucas commented. "Only strong. What with the pain and the burning sensation."
Lucas's vision became blurry. He found it hard to stand up. "I don't fell well."
"Join the club," Mirror-Lucas remarked. "Membership is free."
"I'm not going to comment on that on the basis the you're an—OW! God!—idiot," Lucas told him, after the pain subsided again. "You just say stupid things—with no basis. It's... well... stupid..."
"And? I don't care. Why should I?" He replied. "What I do care about is us getting over this pain."
John found Corrine with Mirror-Vaughn in Corrine's room. They were discussing the new problem of the pain that was overcoming the Mirror- people. He ran his hand through his hair. As long as he didn't run into Vaughn, the man of suspicions. Maybe the blackout was too much?
"Corrine, where's Mirror-Marshall. I've found something very interesting," he announced entering the room. "You will be the only one unaffected besides me."
"What? Why?" She asked alarmed.
"Because neither you or me have Mirror-selves here," he told her calmly.
She stopped. "But if another version of me was brought here by Pearadyne then would I start to... what will affect them exactly? What's happening?"
"Basically, coalescence," John replied. Still calm.
"Coalescence?" She asked. "Merging... the realities are being merged. And so unless the Mirror-selves are both the Mirror-selves and the real ones will die."
John nodded. "You catch on quick."
"What's with the sudden bad and moody-ness?" She asked concerned. "You seem detached."
"I am detached," he replied before adding, "have you seen Mirror-Josie anywhere?"
"No, why?"
He cleared his throat. "Uh... the Mirror-selves... they're going to become more like the dominant personality that they need to merge with. They'll lose their identity, and cease to be. Unless the realities are blah blah blah."
Mirror-Vaughn spoke up. "How long do we have?"
"You're not affected?" John asked.
He shook his head. "Why?"
"No reason."
Vaughn wandered around alone, processing what had happened over the past few days and what would happen. So far he'd gotten; Mirror-versions arrived. Badness ensued. Drifting apart. Doomed relationships. Happy future.
That was it.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by ramming into Marshall and knocking him to the ground.
"Uh, sorry," he offered, helping Marshall to his feet.
"Don't be," Marshall muttered. "What's wrong with you? You seem quell Shinji. Colour me bored."
"I'm just... nothing's wrong. I just need some time alone. Where's John?"
Marshall raised an eyebrow and stifled a laugh. "Time alone... with John?"
"Don't get smart Marshall. I need to see him. It's important," Vaughn snapped. "I... I don't trust him."
"So you're back on this again? I think you need a tune," Marshall replied sarcastically. "This one's gotten old."
"Hey, I never not trusted him before," Vaughn corrected. "I just disliked him!"
Marshall made a hmm sound but didn't say anything.
"So have you seen him?"
Impatience.
"No, I haven't, sorry," Marshall said before walking off. "We're all meeting in the science lab by the way."
"Uh, thanks," Vaughn said out loud to no one.
Mirror-Josie was going through Josie's cupboards looking for some clothes. If they were going to stay here, she needed to change. She wasn't herself anymore. She could feel it. Everything around her was changing. What John had said was coming true.
You will be.
He knew. Everything was going to hell. And he knew. But he wouldn't do anything about it.
Josie left the Pearson residence surprisingly happy. Finally, something was going her way. She had to leave everything behind—possibly forever—and start anew. But her destiny, that greater purpose Josie2 had told her of would no longer haunt her.
"I'm free," she said out loud to herself.
She walked briskly to her room and found Corrine, John and Mirror-Vaughn preparing to leave. They'd decided to start working on the mirror that would create the gateway now. Then when they had a chance they would use it and send them home before any more pain was caused. Before they ceased to be.
"Corrine, can I talk to alone?" Josie asked meekly. "It's important."
Corrine signaled for the other two to leave. "Sure, what is it?"
"I'm leaving. Everything. I have to," she announced bluntly.
"That's something I wasn't expecting."
"I'm serious. I wish there was some other way," Josie said. "But I refuse to have my fate decided for me. I refuse to have these realities destroyed because of me!"
"Josie, what did the clone say to you? What's gotten you so worked up?" Corrine asked, worry filling her voice. "You've been acting strangely ever since you two talked."
Josie laughed thinking about it. "Do you want to know what that bitch told me? What my greater purpose is. I will die. I can't do anything about it. To stop the bleeding I will die."
Corrine placed her hand on her friend's shoulder. "Josie, I'm so... I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything. Just promise me, you won't do anything rash," she said. "I've made this choice purely by my own free will."
"How are you doing—no, I don't want to know," Corrine stopped herself. "When do you plan on leaving?"
"Now. I... I just wanted to tell you," Josie replied. "Wish me luck."
"You don't need luck. I will see you again," Corrine told her sternly. "I just don't know when. If there's anything I can do though..."
"I know, you'll do it," Josie finished off her friend's sentence. "That's why you're such a great friend. Just... you can keep everything together. Don't fall apart on me. And don't let anyone touch my things! They're staying right here. Oh, and my CDs and such, they're yours."
Corrine shook her head. "I couldn't do that. They're yours and... and if you..."
"If I didn't come back, they'd be yours. It wouldn't be disrespectful," Josie assured her. "I want you to have them."
"But... But..." Corrine couldn't finish what she had started.
"Goodbye. And don't tell anyone what I'm doing yet," Josie said softly. "I don't want anyone breathing down my back about dealing with Pearadyne."
Josie embraced her friend briefly before she left taking nothing with her.
Corrine ran to the science lab. If they could figure out how to set everything right, then maybe Josie wouldn't have to leave. She could stay and everything would be like it was. Nothing would be bad anymore.
She ran into John standing outside the room with a mobile phone. His voice was hushed and filled with anger.
"... I was told that this job was fine for me... I can handle this job... I was the job once remember... What did you say?" When he saw Corrine approaching, he ended the phone call. He didn't have time for this now. Le Infant teribble that's what Victor had called him.
"Corrine, where's Josie?" John asked.
She didn't answer.
"Where is she?" He asked again.
"She's missing," Corrine lied. "I walked off, she said she had to get something and when I went back, she was gone."
"That's just great," John muttered. "Vaughn, Josie, Josie-two and Mirror- Josie are all un-find-able. We really don't need this."
"It's odd that you're referring to the science club as an us," Corrine said as they walked inside. "You were vehemently against the idea a few days ago."
"A few days ago, I wasn't trying to stop realities from bleeding into each other," John countered. "Besides, I have reasons to be here."
"Does it have anything to with you 'job?'" Corrine asked. She'd heard him!
"Eh, job?" Marshall asked when they left the room.
John simply smiled, and Corrine realized what he meant.
"You weren't lying when you said your family was involved with Pearadyne," Corrine said to affirm what she already knew.
Marshall caught on as well. "You just lied about who it was that worked for them. It's you."
Lucas stared at John opened mouth. "You work at Pearadyne? How'd you land a job like that? Why'd you land a job like that?" He snickered. "Lose a bet?"
"Go ahead, mock me," John snapped.
"I believe he just did," Marshall said drolly, avoiding looking at Lucas. "How did you get this job?"
John shook his head as if he was trying to forget. "There were many factors."
"Great. Cryptic," Lucas said exasperatedly.
"Well, I don't know," Corrine said. "With the shadows he's standing in and the cryptic he's kind of cute in an annoying sort of a way." Of their looks she quickly added, "or... not."
"Two of the factors were my families connection. My fathers brother, so my uncle and my older bother both worked there," John explained begrudgingly. "The other was my involvement in the past—and subsequent black mail when I discovered this."
"You would have only been a baby," Marshall said.
John nodded. "I would have been."
Mirror-Lucas opened his eyes slowly. "What's happening?"
"They're getting worse," Mirror-Vaughn noted. "We should just make the mirror-thingy... now... and how eloquent was that? Mirror-thingy..."
"You're becoming more like regular Vaughn," Lucas told him. "That'll be fun for you."
Marshall opened his mouth. "Even more competition over Josie, hey?" He laughed before it quickly petered out when he saw Corrine staring down at the ground and Lucas scowling at him.
"Bite me," Lucas shouted at Marshall.
"And things just get better and better. Grow up," Corrine said to them. "Fight after we've returned everything to normal. Or, you know, as normal as this school gets."
"Personally, I don't see why we can't fight, I mean, can we even go any lower. Three Josie's are missing, Vaughn's missing—no doubt, he's with daddy—and then we have him being all cryptic-and tie-me-to-the-train-tracks- I-will-manipulate-the-Earth's-magentic-field-evil. Will us fighting really make it that much worse?" Marshall asked.
Mirror-Vaughn sighed slightly. "Why do I have the feeling we have a lengthy exposition coming up..."
Mirror-Lucas asked again. "What's happening?"
"Don't bother," Mirror-Marshall muttered. "We... aren't important. They're to intertwined with their own lives."
"Isn't that what you do? Get self-obsessed?" Mirror-Lucas asked.
"You don't understand..."
John took a deep breath; he had something important to say. "Marshall, I'm not a good guy, as you've probably figured out by now... but I still want to help. And I can help. Not physically, that would put me at the top of Pearadyne's list of enemies. Not a smart thing to do. Besides, you people are the ones who need to help Josie. I've screwed too much up.
"The thing is this place, in this room, with all of you, real and Mirror- people... in all the schools I have been to knowledge was considered bad. In all the places I've lived you had to work hard to get any knowledge. But here, the amount of knowledge, the collective intelligence it's amazing. Like a force. A hugely powerful, penetrating force.
"And I can feel my mind opening up and letting this force in. Letting it in—as I'm sure all of you do—and letting it thrust into... and spurt knowledge... into... this sentence has ended up in an entirely different place to where it started." He finished quietly off everyone's looks.
Lucas coughed—he was the only one to make a sound. Everyone else was too awkward to even look at each other. He looked at Marshall, an eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face. "I didn't know my knowledge was so... desirable... Is it?"
Marshall just smiled.
Reconciliation.
"Why should we trust you?" Marshall asked. "You've lied to us more than once. And now three Josie's are missing because of that and so is Vaughn."
"You shouldn't trust me. But you have no choice," John told her. "You need to go into Pearadyne if you want to save any of the Josie's or Vaughn. I can get you in there."
The three Mirror-counterparts were growing weaker. Soon it would begin to affect the real world counterparts as well. Unless they did what Mirror- Vaughn had suggested to Corrine earlier. They were sitting out of this discussion.
"We could just go in. You know storm it," Lucas suggested.
John burst into loud uncontrollable laughter. "Are you insane? You can't just John Wayne your way through this. It's lab. A top secret lab, well okay maybe not top secret, but it's still a lab—"
"That's run by a really evil guy," Corrine put in.
John looked at Corrine. "He's not evil. He's just been through a lot."
"You're sticking up for him?" Marshall asked, getting accuse-y. "Why?"
"I'm not sticking up for him," John bit out. "But... you can't just throw around evil all willy-nilly. Or jokey-ryhmey, for that matter."
"We aren't throwing terms around... willy-nilly..." Corrine said quietly.
"Fine. Fine. I'm sorry," John conceded. "It doesn't change the fact that we don't know how to change things back to normal. I mean, none of you want to go through the coalescence, do you?"
"No," all of those who would have to said in unison.
"I thought so," John replied absently, the real thought on his mind was still on what Victor had said to him earlier: Le Infant teribble.
Lucas stepped out of the shower with new clothes, a box of matches and some burnt shreds of clothing. He glared at his Mirror-self and pushed past him.
"That was my favorite shirt," Lucas told him through gritted teeth.
"Sorry," Mirror-Lucas murmured weakly. "I didn't really have much say in the matter."
Lucas glared at him but said nothing.
"Look, buddy, this is strange for all of us, more than you guys," Mirror- Lucas told him. "This doesn't happen often at our school. This you peoples domain. I just want to get back to my life."
Lucas tossed the clothes in the bin. "That's good and all, but—" He noticed Mirror-Lucas clutching at his head. "Hey, are you okay?"
"First Ow. Second, god no! Third, Ow," Mirror-Lucas replied in a pained voice. "Get. Help. Now. It. Hurts."
Lucas looked down at his Mirror-self and placed his hand on his shoulder. He went to say something, until her tore his arm back in pain. "What the hell was that?" Lucas yelled.
"I don't know. But it felt like an electric shock," Mirror-Lucas commented. "Only strong. What with the pain and the burning sensation."
Lucas's vision became blurry. He found it hard to stand up. "I don't fell well."
"Join the club," Mirror-Lucas remarked. "Membership is free."
"I'm not going to comment on that on the basis the you're an—OW! God!—idiot," Lucas told him, after the pain subsided again. "You just say stupid things—with no basis. It's... well... stupid..."
"And? I don't care. Why should I?" He replied. "What I do care about is us getting over this pain."
John found Corrine with Mirror-Vaughn in Corrine's room. They were discussing the new problem of the pain that was overcoming the Mirror- people. He ran his hand through his hair. As long as he didn't run into Vaughn, the man of suspicions. Maybe the blackout was too much?
"Corrine, where's Mirror-Marshall. I've found something very interesting," he announced entering the room. "You will be the only one unaffected besides me."
"What? Why?" She asked alarmed.
"Because neither you or me have Mirror-selves here," he told her calmly.
She stopped. "But if another version of me was brought here by Pearadyne then would I start to... what will affect them exactly? What's happening?"
"Basically, coalescence," John replied. Still calm.
"Coalescence?" She asked. "Merging... the realities are being merged. And so unless the Mirror-selves are both the Mirror-selves and the real ones will die."
John nodded. "You catch on quick."
"What's with the sudden bad and moody-ness?" She asked concerned. "You seem detached."
"I am detached," he replied before adding, "have you seen Mirror-Josie anywhere?"
"No, why?"
He cleared his throat. "Uh... the Mirror-selves... they're going to become more like the dominant personality that they need to merge with. They'll lose their identity, and cease to be. Unless the realities are blah blah blah."
Mirror-Vaughn spoke up. "How long do we have?"
"You're not affected?" John asked.
He shook his head. "Why?"
"No reason."
Vaughn wandered around alone, processing what had happened over the past few days and what would happen. So far he'd gotten; Mirror-versions arrived. Badness ensued. Drifting apart. Doomed relationships. Happy future.
That was it.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by ramming into Marshall and knocking him to the ground.
"Uh, sorry," he offered, helping Marshall to his feet.
"Don't be," Marshall muttered. "What's wrong with you? You seem quell Shinji. Colour me bored."
"I'm just... nothing's wrong. I just need some time alone. Where's John?"
Marshall raised an eyebrow and stifled a laugh. "Time alone... with John?"
"Don't get smart Marshall. I need to see him. It's important," Vaughn snapped. "I... I don't trust him."
"So you're back on this again? I think you need a tune," Marshall replied sarcastically. "This one's gotten old."
"Hey, I never not trusted him before," Vaughn corrected. "I just disliked him!"
Marshall made a hmm sound but didn't say anything.
"So have you seen him?"
Impatience.
"No, I haven't, sorry," Marshall said before walking off. "We're all meeting in the science lab by the way."
"Uh, thanks," Vaughn said out loud to no one.
Mirror-Josie was going through Josie's cupboards looking for some clothes. If they were going to stay here, she needed to change. She wasn't herself anymore. She could feel it. Everything around her was changing. What John had said was coming true.
You will be.
He knew. Everything was going to hell. And he knew. But he wouldn't do anything about it.
Josie left the Pearson residence surprisingly happy. Finally, something was going her way. She had to leave everything behind—possibly forever—and start anew. But her destiny, that greater purpose Josie2 had told her of would no longer haunt her.
"I'm free," she said out loud to herself.
She walked briskly to her room and found Corrine, John and Mirror-Vaughn preparing to leave. They'd decided to start working on the mirror that would create the gateway now. Then when they had a chance they would use it and send them home before any more pain was caused. Before they ceased to be.
"Corrine, can I talk to alone?" Josie asked meekly. "It's important."
Corrine signaled for the other two to leave. "Sure, what is it?"
"I'm leaving. Everything. I have to," she announced bluntly.
"That's something I wasn't expecting."
"I'm serious. I wish there was some other way," Josie said. "But I refuse to have my fate decided for me. I refuse to have these realities destroyed because of me!"
"Josie, what did the clone say to you? What's gotten you so worked up?" Corrine asked, worry filling her voice. "You've been acting strangely ever since you two talked."
Josie laughed thinking about it. "Do you want to know what that bitch told me? What my greater purpose is. I will die. I can't do anything about it. To stop the bleeding I will die."
Corrine placed her hand on her friend's shoulder. "Josie, I'm so... I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything. Just promise me, you won't do anything rash," she said. "I've made this choice purely by my own free will."
"How are you doing—no, I don't want to know," Corrine stopped herself. "When do you plan on leaving?"
"Now. I... I just wanted to tell you," Josie replied. "Wish me luck."
"You don't need luck. I will see you again," Corrine told her sternly. "I just don't know when. If there's anything I can do though..."
"I know, you'll do it," Josie finished off her friend's sentence. "That's why you're such a great friend. Just... you can keep everything together. Don't fall apart on me. And don't let anyone touch my things! They're staying right here. Oh, and my CDs and such, they're yours."
Corrine shook her head. "I couldn't do that. They're yours and... and if you..."
"If I didn't come back, they'd be yours. It wouldn't be disrespectful," Josie assured her. "I want you to have them."
"But... But..." Corrine couldn't finish what she had started.
"Goodbye. And don't tell anyone what I'm doing yet," Josie said softly. "I don't want anyone breathing down my back about dealing with Pearadyne."
Josie embraced her friend briefly before she left taking nothing with her.
Corrine ran to the science lab. If they could figure out how to set everything right, then maybe Josie wouldn't have to leave. She could stay and everything would be like it was. Nothing would be bad anymore.
She ran into John standing outside the room with a mobile phone. His voice was hushed and filled with anger.
"... I was told that this job was fine for me... I can handle this job... I was the job once remember... What did you say?" When he saw Corrine approaching, he ended the phone call. He didn't have time for this now. Le Infant teribble that's what Victor had called him.
"Corrine, where's Josie?" John asked.
She didn't answer.
"Where is she?" He asked again.
"She's missing," Corrine lied. "I walked off, she said she had to get something and when I went back, she was gone."
"That's just great," John muttered. "Vaughn, Josie, Josie-two and Mirror- Josie are all un-find-able. We really don't need this."
"It's odd that you're referring to the science club as an us," Corrine said as they walked inside. "You were vehemently against the idea a few days ago."
"A few days ago, I wasn't trying to stop realities from bleeding into each other," John countered. "Besides, I have reasons to be here."
"Does it have anything to with you 'job?'" Corrine asked. She'd heard him!
"Eh, job?" Marshall asked when they left the room.
John simply smiled, and Corrine realized what he meant.
"You weren't lying when you said your family was involved with Pearadyne," Corrine said to affirm what she already knew.
Marshall caught on as well. "You just lied about who it was that worked for them. It's you."
Lucas stared at John opened mouth. "You work at Pearadyne? How'd you land a job like that? Why'd you land a job like that?" He snickered. "Lose a bet?"
"Go ahead, mock me," John snapped.
"I believe he just did," Marshall said drolly, avoiding looking at Lucas. "How did you get this job?"
John shook his head as if he was trying to forget. "There were many factors."
"Great. Cryptic," Lucas said exasperatedly.
"Well, I don't know," Corrine said. "With the shadows he's standing in and the cryptic he's kind of cute in an annoying sort of a way." Of their looks she quickly added, "or... not."
"Two of the factors were my families connection. My fathers brother, so my uncle and my older bother both worked there," John explained begrudgingly. "The other was my involvement in the past—and subsequent black mail when I discovered this."
"You would have only been a baby," Marshall said.
John nodded. "I would have been."
Mirror-Lucas opened his eyes slowly. "What's happening?"
"They're getting worse," Mirror-Vaughn noted. "We should just make the mirror-thingy... now... and how eloquent was that? Mirror-thingy..."
"You're becoming more like regular Vaughn," Lucas told him. "That'll be fun for you."
Marshall opened his mouth. "Even more competition over Josie, hey?" He laughed before it quickly petered out when he saw Corrine staring down at the ground and Lucas scowling at him.
"Bite me," Lucas shouted at Marshall.
"And things just get better and better. Grow up," Corrine said to them. "Fight after we've returned everything to normal. Or, you know, as normal as this school gets."
"Personally, I don't see why we can't fight, I mean, can we even go any lower. Three Josie's are missing, Vaughn's missing—no doubt, he's with daddy—and then we have him being all cryptic-and tie-me-to-the-train-tracks- I-will-manipulate-the-Earth's-magentic-field-evil. Will us fighting really make it that much worse?" Marshall asked.
Mirror-Vaughn sighed slightly. "Why do I have the feeling we have a lengthy exposition coming up..."
Mirror-Lucas asked again. "What's happening?"
"Don't bother," Mirror-Marshall muttered. "We... aren't important. They're to intertwined with their own lives."
"Isn't that what you do? Get self-obsessed?" Mirror-Lucas asked.
"You don't understand..."
John took a deep breath; he had something important to say. "Marshall, I'm not a good guy, as you've probably figured out by now... but I still want to help. And I can help. Not physically, that would put me at the top of Pearadyne's list of enemies. Not a smart thing to do. Besides, you people are the ones who need to help Josie. I've screwed too much up.
"The thing is this place, in this room, with all of you, real and Mirror- people... in all the schools I have been to knowledge was considered bad. In all the places I've lived you had to work hard to get any knowledge. But here, the amount of knowledge, the collective intelligence it's amazing. Like a force. A hugely powerful, penetrating force.
"And I can feel my mind opening up and letting this force in. Letting it in—as I'm sure all of you do—and letting it thrust into... and spurt knowledge... into... this sentence has ended up in an entirely different place to where it started." He finished quietly off everyone's looks.
Lucas coughed—he was the only one to make a sound. Everyone else was too awkward to even look at each other. He looked at Marshall, an eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face. "I didn't know my knowledge was so... desirable... Is it?"
Marshall just smiled.
Reconciliation.
"Why should we trust you?" Marshall asked. "You've lied to us more than once. And now three Josie's are missing because of that and so is Vaughn."
"You shouldn't trust me. But you have no choice," John told her. "You need to go into Pearadyne if you want to save any of the Josie's or Vaughn. I can get you in there."
The three Mirror-counterparts were growing weaker. Soon it would begin to affect the real world counterparts as well. Unless they did what Mirror- Vaughn had suggested to Corrine earlier. They were sitting out of this discussion.
"We could just go in. You know storm it," Lucas suggested.
John burst into loud uncontrollable laughter. "Are you insane? You can't just John Wayne your way through this. It's lab. A top secret lab, well okay maybe not top secret, but it's still a lab—"
"That's run by a really evil guy," Corrine put in.
John looked at Corrine. "He's not evil. He's just been through a lot."
"You're sticking up for him?" Marshall asked, getting accuse-y. "Why?"
"I'm not sticking up for him," John bit out. "But... you can't just throw around evil all willy-nilly. Or jokey-ryhmey, for that matter."
"We aren't throwing terms around... willy-nilly..." Corrine said quietly.
"Fine. Fine. I'm sorry," John conceded. "It doesn't change the fact that we don't know how to change things back to normal. I mean, none of you want to go through the coalescence, do you?"
"No," all of those who would have to said in unison.
"I thought so," John replied absently, the real thought on his mind was still on what Victor had said to him earlier: Le Infant teribble.