Episode 2, Chapter 4: Kinetic Flashbacks, Team C (Sammy/Jack)

This chapter is from Jack's point of view.

[-]

Sammy and I found ourselves inside a Woodland Mansion - one I recognized. The Eynori's home; not far from the swamps of the Shifted Gruntildian, the beautiful and belligerent witch.

Sammy looked at me. I looked at Sammy.

"Why would the tower give us this?" She asked, putting a hand on her chin and looking around. I looked around as well, folding my arms.

"Good question. I assume that the whole 'The Light knows all, it's seen your minds…' thing the fish lady said is part of it." I said, looking at her. She shrugged.

"I guess. Maybe we should go inside the mansion!" She looked at me with a grin. I rolled my eyes, following her inside.

Inside, two younger versions of us stood; on either side of Sammy stood myself, and… Vos. Our old friend. He lowered his hood, glittering silver hair tumbling over his shoulders as he shot past-me a smirk. Past-Sammy rolled her eyes, nudging the two of them to proceed. Predictably, the present Sammy and myself followed close behind them, Sammy looking at me in confusion as I phased through various illagers; while she simply walked around them.

"You know you can go around them, right?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but if we phase through them then it's easier to stick close to our past selves. I'm guessing that's what we need to do." I shrugged. She jogged ahead, avoiding the illagers as I caught up with her, watching our past selves sneak through them.

"I don't know what to make of this place - it all seems to function not unlike a village but… contained entirely in this mansion?" Vos looked around, placing a hand on his chin in thought.

"That's how most illager clans operate. The original one in a clan builds a big mansion, and eventually villagers turn, or are born into the clan, or are taken and forcibly inducted. That's what the outposts are for; you know how many of the Cymonis clan were just wandering traders that were in the wrong place at the wrong time?" Past-Sammy pulled her brown hair back into a ponytail as I looked at present-Sammy. Her hair was… black?

"What? I can't dye my hair?" She mumbled.

"...You were in captivity for 40 years." I shook my head. "I don't think the Admin would let you dye your hair if you were stuck in an obsidian box for that long."

She gave me a strange look, pressing herself against a pillar. I pressed myself against one opposite her as our past selves ducked to the side, one of the illagers marching down the hallway.

"Who's that?" I mumbled, looking at present-Sammy, who rolled her eyes.

"That's the Eynori's strongest Vindicator… you know, your husband?" She snarked. I sighed softly, shaking my head.

"Was my husband." I corrected. She growled something under her breath, glaring at me as he stopped, pulling past-me from where he was hiding.

"Why are you hiding?" I translated as he growled in past-me's face. Past-Sammy darted out, shouting something in the same language.

"We're not harmful! We're explorers! Ex-plor-ers!" She yelled, waving her arms and speaking slowly. He squinted, leaning down and putting past-me down as he locked eyes with past-Sammy. Admittedly, it was a bit hilarious seeing her squaring up to someone so much taller than her…

Past-Nurm glared, before laughing and ruffling her hair.

"It's so silly when humans bring their spawns into their raids… Human spawn are so silly and frail."

"I'm an adult!" She grumbled. "Geez…"

Present-Sammy looked at me, shaking her head. "Cannot believe that he thought I was a kid."

"I mean, you haven't aged since you were at least 18." I replied, rolling my eyes. A woman ran up behind past-Nurm, tapping his shoulder and saying something I couldn't understand before gesturing towards where he'd come from. He shrugged, pointing at the past-us group and replying.

She brandished her axe, the handle alone the size of her entire torso as the iron blade reflected the torch light. She pointed at us and barked some kind of order at him, and he glared at her. She raised her voice, raising her axe and swinging at us – only for past-Nurm to pull his own axes out, disarming the woman before turning around and pointing over our past selves heads.

"Out, that way!" He barked. Sammy and I turned around, watching as our past selves sprinted through us and into the… void? Huh.

Everything wobbled around us, shifting like sand as we found ourselves in a dusty, cobweb-filled building. Sammy pushed a lever, the lights turning on around us… How was she able to interact with what was supposed to be the past? She put a finger to her lips as our past selves walked through our present selves, past-Sammy placing her hand firmly on the desk in the corner of the room. To the right of the desk, a man busily scrawled using a small chunk of concrete against a dark green board.

"…I'm afraid I cannot help you." He said flatly, not looking behind him as he drew a line. "Class is long over; your late work should have been dealt—"

"We're not students!" past-Sammy said angrily. "You're the one teacher here who knows anything of Admin history!"

"…Admin history?" A faint smile flickered across his face. "I… suppose I might be the one to know about that." He turned around, hands gripping the rail under the board. "But, why should I help you? I've got piles upon piles of curriculum and homework and essays to handle and grade – do you honestly think I'll have time to juggle this on top of the work of several dozen half-matured spawns?"

"You sure care about your students." Past-Sammy rolled her eyes, hopping onto the desk. He lept from the board, batting her away.

"Nobody sits on the desk!" He barked. "Please, I'll have to clean the whole thing all over again, and—"

"…Mr. Phlox, was it?" past-me raised a hand and tilted his head. "If… if you could…"

"If you'd stop worrying about your damn desk for a minute, we do have something that needs your help." Past-Sammy shrugged, getting back onto her feet.

"This is when…" I looked at present-Sammy.

"When we first asked Soren about that gauntlet." She nodded. Sure enough, he'd focused on past-me's arm, grabbing his hand.

"I—Oh goodness. I haven't seen…"

"We were exploring with our frrrr—colleague, Vos, and found it after defeating a giant redstone spider."

"Hm. I remember a story like that – the Mecharachnach, a challenge created by the Admin to test old heroes – potential champions." Soren put a hand to his chin, dropping past-me's arm as he began to pace. "Interesting, how the Mecharachnach managed to seemingly reassemble itself in the span of twenty ye—cycles."

"You fought it?" past-Sammy asked, incredulously. "Man, Vos had me climb inside the dang thing!"

"Myself and my… old, friends…?" He hesitated, strangely. "My old… Whatever. What they were isn't what they are now. We had discovered it ourselves, and I found myself in possession of that same gauntlet."

"But Mr. Ph—" Past-me mumbled, being cut off by Soren's hand waving dismissively.

"Just. Just call me Soren." He shook his head. "It's pronounced 'flox', anyway."

Present-Sammy looked at me, snickering. "Quiet, aren't'cha?" Her voice was different. More gruff, as if she were forcing her voice to be deeper than it was naturally. It… wasn't something she usually did. "Jackie, tell me – you know how this story ends, don't you?"

"This story?" I raised an eyebrow. She scoffed, glaring – her eyes, I hadn't noticed before, were glowing a faint light blue. Something was wrong… but if I said anything, neither of us might have left that box. "After we visited Soren…"

Sammy clapped, the world rippling around us – but instead of going to a different memory, it simply… jumped ahead in the current one. "You know what he told you—us."

"I was the first Bearer of that gauntlet, you know. It's very recent, in terms of games the Admin has played…" Soren sighed, pressing a finger against the bridge of his nose. "Truthfully, outside of the gaze of the Order, I used to speak with and commune with the Admin quite often… until he decided I was no longer worth his time – that I wasn't the answer to retrieving what he had 'lost.'"

Sammy sighed scornfully, fingers curling as her nails dug into the palms of her hands. "You really are like him, you know." She closed her eyes, clapping her hands again as the world shifted. We found ourselves in the Sea Temple, cornered by the Colossi and the Guardians. "Do you know what happens here?"

"Vos dies…?" I squinted, glaring at her. "Right?"

"He hasn't killed anyone." She laughed, looking right at me and grabbing my chin. "In fact… I haven't killed anyone."

I ripped myself away from her, springing back as a Guardian beam shot through me, turning Vos to inventory – how strange, hearing my own horrified scream from behind me. "You-! You're… The whole time?"

"Well, not the entire time Sammy knew you and Vos, no… but this is what I mean with you being just like him." She – he? – shrugged, tilting his head as he grew, glowing as he assumed his true form. "You're oblivious to a fault. I gave you such an obvious tell… and you still falsely clung to the hope that maybe I was your long-dead-but-actually-just-missing friend."

"Th…then…" My fists balled. "THEN WHERE ARE THEY?!" I yelled.

He stepped closer, leaning over me ominously. I threw a punch, hitting him square in the chest… but he simply grabbed my hand before I could throw another one.

"You know, I was perfectly willing to allow you to wallow in your own shock and doubts. My grand reveal, to the person who's annoyed me the most…" He lifted me by the wrists, pupil-less eyes staring through me as he smiled. "You were the one who couldn't catch on – who refused to. Nobody would believe you! I, Sammy, the Admin? Hah. The others wouldn't believe it."

"Put. Me. Down." I growled.

"Okay." He grinned, dropping me.

I didn't hit the ground.