Zoe Li was surprised to see Blanche appear out of thin air in the middle of an extremely busy Grundo's Café.
"Blanche!" Zoe yelled. "What are you doing, appearing out of thin air like that?"
Blanche put a hand to her head, suffering the same side-effect of dizziness that Jess had when travelling back six centuries.
"Hi, Zoe," she muttered, trying to stop herself from falling on a random Baby Bori that happened to be standing behind her. "And as for appearing out of thin air... uhh..."
Suddenly, Jess walked up to a point just behind Zoe, wearing a short red summer dress that looked like it was made in the 50's. And knowing where Jess's own mum shopped, it probably was.
"Mum," Blanche said, "you're wearing the red dress."
"Of course I'm wearing the red dress," a startled Jess replied. "What else would I be wearing?"
Well, jeans. But Blanche shook her head anyway, and said, "no matter."
"I would hope it was matter," Jess protested. "Otherwise, I have a feeling I'd be wandering around in my underwear, and that is hardly what you'd call good."
Blanche laughed. "Exactly," she laughed. "Where's Saint?"
It was Zoe that answered this time. "Arguing with Alexa," she said. "About..." there was a pause as Zoe strained her memory. "Sloth, if I recall."
"Why is everything about him?" Blanche asked irritably. "As if being captured wasn't enough, now I have to..."
"You were captured by him?" Zoe and Jess asked in one voice. "When?" Jess continued.
Blanche waved a hoof. "It was a stupid idea of yours," she told Jess.
"Mine?" Jess demanded. "What did I do?"
"No no, mum, you in... uhh, just stick with you for now, okay?" Blanche took a breath. "Anyway, this idea was that we should escape Sloth's office through an air vent."
"Why would we have to escape through an air vent?" Jess asked. "And why do I clearly remember not being stuck in an air vent?"
"Because you haven't been stuck there yet," Blanche explained patiently.
"Fine. Why was I there?"
"Because you were going to write an article about Sloth's evil plan..."
"What evil plan?" Jess asked coolly. "He's just a poor misunderstood bloke, isn't he Zoe?"
"No," Zoe replied. She had never been a large fan of Sloth.
"Yeah, well, Zoe never says what she means, so she means yes," Jess argued hastily.
"No I don't," Zoe argued.
"And that means yes, she does."
"No it doesn't, Jessie."
Jess rolled her eyes. "She's very difficult to argue with," Jess told Blanche. "She keeps agreeing with me."
"I do not!" an infuriated Zoe yelled.
"See?"
Zoe scowled at Jess. It had been confusing enough that she'd magically changed from a blue top and jeans to this 1950's-style red dress in the space of about a minute, but now she was also being perfectly irritating, as only Jess could!
"Anyway," Jess continued, "where have you been, young lady?"
"Been?" Blanche asked weakly.
"Been. Yes. You've been gone eight hours," was Jess's reply. "I thought you'd gone with aussiejewel, but she came back two hours ago."
Blanche nodded. "Uh, well, after spending several hours in Sloth's office, the whole going-through-the-air-vent thing didn't work out."
Jess looked at Blanche suspiciously. "How?"
"Well, there was suddenly no oxygen there... but we woke up in a cell," she added hastily. "And then you used the stuff you learned in Drama to..."
"I haven't done Drama yet," Jess pointed out. "That's next semester."
"Well then, you have done Drama," Blanche argued, "when you account for time travel."
"Why would I account for time travel?" Jess asked. Blanche sighed.
"Look, don't worry about it, mum. Or you, Zoe."
Jess shrugged. "All right, then. Want a cup of tea?"
The other Jess – the one in a blue top and jeans who's been in the majority of this story – was strolling down a corridor on the top floor, gun held out in front of her so she could shoot at any passing menace. However, she had no intention of killing at any passing menace save Sloth: that was why the gun was set to 'stun'.
She hid in a convenient alcove as she heard voices around the corner, holding the gun out slightly. There shouldn't be any voices up on the top floor that wasn't Sloth's, or from members of Sloth's security, or her own. Since she was fairly sure she didn't go up to explore Sloth's level on June 19 – a day she didn't even remember due to it being wholly unremarkable, but still – she didn't think it would be her own voice. That left Sloth, or Sloth's security.
Jess closed her fingers in on the trigger, pulling it just as a twitchy Techo, talking to himself, rounded the corner. He fell to the ground and Jess stepped forward to examine him.
"Poor fella," Jess said, unintentionally in a Northern Australian accent as opposed to her native Southern one. She then continued through the corridor.
Jess eventually located Doctor Sloth, in his office (of all places...!). Then she decided to run over her plan in her mind. Step one, jump in. Step two, shoot. Yes, that was about it.
So Jess followed through with that brilliant plan.
"You've lost," she gloated at the defeated criminal. "I've beaten you." She then paused. "So what am I meant to do until July 15?" She stomped a foot in frustration. "I couldn't have drawn this out a little longer, could I?"
Luckily – or not so luckily, perhaps – Jess was almost instantaneously given something to do. She disappeared, and so did Sloth.
To appear in a land of blackness. Or, as it might more accurately be described, a void. A nothing.
Until some tables appeared, followed by some chairs. In front of the chairs, a smallish but tall platform stood, on which there was yet another chair and table combination. Surrounding the two chairs and tables plus the chair and the table on the platform, appeared a semi-circular row of desks, all made out of wood.
Then, a person appeared, seated on the chair on the platform. He was about fifty or fifty-five, with grey hair: he wore an official-looking white, red and gold uniform. He spoke with a voice Jess instantly disliked: a pompous, arrogant tone.
"Let there be order," the man declared. Suddenly, the rows around the three were filled up with various people – all men, Jess noted – who were quite pleasantly chatting with each other. They all hushed as they eventually realised where they were.
"Sit," the man on the platform bellowed. A bewildered Jess complied, and was absolutely amazed to see Sloth doing so as well – apparently fully healthy.
"Let the trial begin," was the man's third declaration, holding both hands up in the air as he declared it.
"Excuse me," Jess interjected suddenly. "Forgive my obvious ignorance, but where are we, and why are we here exactly? And who are you?"
"I am Kayandi," the man declared grandly. "We are all in a telepathic plane, called into existence by the force of my will. And we are here," he said pointedly, "to try both of you for meddling in time."
"Meddling in time?" Jess asked, flabbergasted. "That is not a good enough reason to call into existence a temporary plane and kidnap people from random places..."
"It is," Kayandi declared. "And if that is all you wish to query, I suggest we get along with the trial."
"And another thing, why are we being tried together?" Jess asked. "You said trial, not trials. I refuse to be tried with such a criminal."
"You are both criminals," Kayandi declared levelly. "You committed the same crime. You sacrificed innocents in your quest to defeat each other. You will receive the same verdict."
Now Jess was really horrified, and she could just tell from the emotion in the air – heightened by the fact that it was in a telepathic dimension – that Sloth was experiencing the same emotion.
If they didn't work together, they would both have highly unlikely chances of returning to Neopia.
But if they did, Sloth would be free to push world domination on Neopia.
Jess hated moral dilemmas.