Sometimes, stories pop right the hell out of nowhere. Elkay knew this well, having been an author and narrator for a very long time. Actually, she knew many things about the Neoverse and how it functioned. It was only natural, since she had created it. Back on the subject of stories happening by accident, that very thing was about to occur, although Elkay didn't know it yet. The perceptive reader might now wonder why this would be mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, since Elkay was supposedly writing the story at this time, and would have no reason to be unaware of what was going on. The truth of the matter was that she was no longer narrating in realtime, because (as previously mentioned) the story that you are about to be told was not supposed to happen. But more on that later.

It was around noon, or maybe morning, when Elkay skipped up to Ellie in her office. She smiled pleasantly and folded her paws on her lap as she sat down. Her posture and mien indicated that she was about to ask for a favor.

"Ellie, dear, I need to check on something. Can you allow me to access the metadata of the Neoverse?"

Ellie shook her head.

"No. I don't want to use my powers frivolously."

Elkay frowned.

"You're lying, Ellie."

"So what?"

Elkay folded her ears back.

"Did it ever occur to you that it might be harmful to lie, given your situation? I know why you don't want to use magic: you're afraid of your own power."

"That's ridiculous."

"Is it? I'd be concerned too, if I was able to break my own barricades unconsciously."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Elkay drummed her claws on the desk impatiently.

"That's funny, because if I were to accidentally switch to my evil alter ego and slaughter a colony of gorillas, I think I'd remember it quite vividly."

Ellie trembled.

"You said it. Why'd you say it? No one had to know."

"Relax, Ellie. This isn't being narrated."

Which later became a lie, of course.

"I'm infinitely concerned about you, but let's not worry about that right now," Elkay said calmly, "I need to check on an aspect of the story. It's important."

Ellie folded her wings over her shoulders in shame.

"I'm afraid to use my magic . . ."

Elkay patted her head.

"That's okay. There are other ways to access the unseen mechanisms of my world. Do you still have those plotholes ready?"

Ellie shook her head.

"I obliterated them. I saw no need to keep them around, now that the first main story is over."

Elkay hummed.

"Alright, we'll use one of mine. Anachronisms count, by the way."

She lifted her head and spoke in a clear, loud voice.

"If Claire was thirty years old during the events of Jurassic World, and Karen is the younger sibling in our canon, she would have had to have given birth at a very young age."

A dark rift appeared out of midair and started to expand. Elkay struck it with magic, and it became frozen in place.

"There. Do you want to come with me, Ellie?"

Ellie rubbed the back of her neck timidly.

"Maybe . . ."

"It'll be fun."

Ellie sighed and stood up, marching slowly towards the frozen plot hole. She poked it gently, then flicked her hand with boredom.

"Should we fix this, afterwards?"

Elkay shook her head.

"I can't think of any way to justify this one. It won't harm the world if we ignore it, though. It's like any other mistake: if we choose to turn the blind eye, it won't affect our reality. That's why the Star Wars prequels are allowed to exist, heaven help us. But enough about that. Follow me, and I'll show you something really cool."

They hopped through the rift and entered a pitch-black world. Elkay stood up on her hind legs and lifted her arms grandly.

"Awake!"

Suddenly, the air was filled with strange, glowing objects. Ellie stared at them with fascination. Billions of marble-sized spheres floated every which way. Some of them were attached to each other with strings of light. These joined structures spun around at different speeds. Ellie ducked under a fast-moving duo and followed Elkay through the mess.

"What am I looking at, exactly?"

Elkay smiled.

"Destiny Knots. You'll hear cynics say that love is not real, that it's only chemicals in our brains. That's partly true, but in the land of Fiction, certain people are destined to be together forever."

She called over a spinning structure.

"The attached spheres represent the joining of a couple. In order for them to start spinning, an event of significant emotional connection must occur. For example . . ."

She called over a destiny knot that was spinning so fast that it was practically a blur.

"This one belongs to Claire and Owen. It started spinning once they kissed on Tall Mountain. Eponymicus erased their memories, however, so the bond was broken. Their Life Orbs stayed close together, and later became attached when they decided to . . . well, to stick together for survival. They started spinning again during their wedding."

Ellie nodded.

"That's interesting. Why did we need to see this?"

Elkay rolled her eyes.

"I'm getting to that."

She called over several knots.

"Let's see . . . Lowery/Karen, Vivian/Sarah . . ."

She folded her ears back suddenly.

"Crap."

"What?" Ellie asked cluelessly.

"Vic and Zara's knot isn't spinning yet. Their orbs are connected, but . . ."

Ellie saw the knot that Elkay was talking about. The spheres were attached, but they remained motionless. Ellie poked them gently, but they did nothing but drift away lazily.

"Why do you want them to spin?"

Elkay sighed.

"The sooner we can solidify this new group's identity, the sooner we can leave the old one behind."

Ellie blinked.

"Pardon?"

"You and Alan, Henry and Seri, Ian and Sarah, Robin and Yannick. That's the old group. We don't want to tell their stories anymore because . . . Well, frankly, I'm your friend now, and it's uncomfortable to put you through that shit. We should be focusing on the Jurassic World characters. Otherwise, it's just uncomfortable."

Ellie nodded.

"I guess so. The problem is that Claire is a part of our world now. She knows that she's in a story, to some degree. She'll be looking to her God for guidance."

Elkay closed her eyes.

"Just like you looked to your narrator. In a way, the narrator is the god of the story. For me, it was more literal, but you know what I mean. Trouble is, when you meet your creator, you realize a lot of things. You discover that every doubt you had about your faith was absolutely founded. What loving god would allow their creations to suffer like this, after all?"

Ellie swallowed nervously.

"But it's for their own good."

"Does the end justify the means?" Elkay asked rhetorically, "I'll tell you a secret, Ellie. Prophecy exists."

"I know. I've always wondered why you don't consult it."

"I'll tell you exactly why," Elkay stressed, "If you discover your fate, it won't make a difference. When you try to change it, you will only seal it, because the will of The Star is absolute. What will happen will happen, and our ability to control our destinies is only an illusion. I'm sure you'd rather not know, so that you won't dream of another end to your story. It's better to be surprised by tragedy than to see it coming when it cannot be avoided."

Ellie took a deep breath.

"Do you know what The Star wants?"

Elkay shook her head.

"If you don't, I don't. But it's trying to make something happen. I don't pay attention to prophecy, Ellie, but my mother does. She told me that there will be a Queen who restores balance to the Neoverse. She is supposedly many things at once, whatever that means."

Ellie laughed.

"That sounds like Cl-"

She froze.

". . . Oh my god. Do you think-"

Elkay shook her head.

"No. It can't be Claire. According to another prophecy, she will be killed before your reign is over."

Ellie frowned.

"And she'll be defeated by a creature that was not woman-born, of course."

Elkay nodded.

"Of course. But we don't know when that will happen. For now, let's focus on the present. We'd better get back to Isla Nublar. If we don't keep things under control, it will be chaos and anarchy. Let's not forget to close the plothole behind us."

Ellie smiled.

"Speaking of plotholes, what's going to happen when Colin Trevorrow decides to make a sequel? What'll happen to our canon then?"

Elkay shrugged.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, there's no risk of unintended consequences as far as storytelling goes."

She did not notice that her tail had accidentally severed a Destiny Knot as she swung it back and forth on her way out.

***TSJWFEW***

Owen smiled and pushed Lily on her swing. She laughed, kicking her feet merrily.

"Higher!"

Owen pushed her again.

"Too high! Too high!"

Owen rolled his eyes and pushed her more gently.

"Make up your mind, Lily."

She cheered and wagged her tail.

"Perfect!"

Owen turned as Claire appeared from the portal machine. She thundered over to him, removing her white blazer hurriedly.

"I am so, so, so, so sorry!"

Owen twisted his mouth.

"For? . . ."

"For being late," Claire sighed, "I was supposed to be here three minutes ago. I'm probably working too hard."

Owen chuckled.

"Claire, three minutes hardly counts as late. Don't worry. You're a wonderful mother and we understand if you don't make it here exactly on time."

Claire rumbled guiltily.

"But you'll let me know if I start to get too work-oriented, right?"

"Of course."

Claire smiled as Owen ran his hand down her right horn.

"Thank you," she sighed, "You're probably right. I was only late because Zara misfiled a bunch of forms. She's been very distraught ever since she heard that Alec was getting married."

Owen blinked.

"Alec? Who the hell is Alec?"

"Her ex-fiancé."

Owen shook his head.

"I think you mean 'Steve'."

Claire gave him a sideways glance.

"No, his name is Alec."

Owen crossed his arms.

"Claire, she told me that his name was Steve."

"Maybe you're misremembering . . . or she could have lied to you."

Owen furrowed his brow.

"Why would she do that?"

"To get you to shut up. I'm guessing you were trying to see me, at the time? . . ."

Owen hummed.

"Well . . ."

"Thought so. By the way, I'm offering an apology."

"An apology?" Owen echoed.

"From Old Claire to Old Owen. I shouldn't have been so rude."

Owen closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I'll apologize too. I shouldn't have pestered you."

Claire smiled and curled her tail around his ankle.

"I'm glad you pestered me. Otherwise, we would have gone our separate ways."

"Can you imagine? . . ."

"I don't like to think about it. But it doesn't matter, because we're together now."

Owen knelt and kissed her gently.

"I love you."

"I love you."

As they kissed again, Lily made a gagging sound, still swinging.

"Ew, you two are so gross!"

Claire laughed.

"You'll understand when you're older, sweetheart."

Lily crinkled her snout.

"I don't think so. It seems really weird to me."

Claire ran over and pulled her off of the swing, spinning around playfully.

"Is that so?"

Lily giggled.

"Yes! You're both weird!"

Owen took a running jump and stood on Claire's back.

"Yes, but we're weird together, and that's what's important."

***TSJWFEW***

Robin sighed in frustration as her youngest children scurried through her flat. They were playing tag, it seemed, and when dinosaurs played games indoors, bad things happened. Robin cringed when she heard a lamp shatter.

"Kids! Calm down. Aren't you a bit old for these games?"

Margalo squealed with excitement and ran through her legs. Robin lifted her foot as Templeton followed his sister, then she fell down with a massive crash. She changed into a human and groaned.

"Ow . . ."

Yannick jogged into the room.

"What's the matter?"

Robin stood up, brushing herself off.

"It's the kids. You could help with them, you know."

Yannick shrugged.

"I'm busy."

"With what?"

"Um . . ."

Robin rolled her eyes.

"Look, it's hard enough having one kid, but we have eight."

"The triplets moved out."

"Which leaves five. It's still pretty difficult to raise five kids alone."

Yannick waved his hand dismissively.

"Let the others babysit them. That's why we have friends."

"But they're busy."

"With?"

"More stuff than you, probably."

Robin sighed and sat down on the couch, placing her palm on her forehead.

"I don't know, Yanni. Things have been difficult, recently. Henry's been looking after June, so Seri's been stuck watching Harry nonstop. It feels wrong to dump more kids on her. If anything, we should be giving her a break."

Yannick snorted.

"She can deal with it."

Robin crossed her arms.

"Now, that's just rude. It's our responsibility to help the Wu family. We're so close to them already . . ."

"How?"

Robin sighed.

"Oh, you know. Back when you and the others were stuck in the Purgatorium, I was practically a mother to Harry."

Yannick sniggered.

"A spinosaurus with an allosaurus mother. Imagine that! Did Henry endorse this relationship?"

"Well, we did kiss one time."

Yannick went rigid.

"What? . . ."

"We decided that we should stay friends, though," Robin continued, "We really didn't see each other as anything else."

Yannick gulped.

"You . . . You cheated on me?"

Robin smirked.

"Hardly. We thought you were dead, at the time."

Yannick frowned bitterly.

"It's still cheating . . ."

Robin shot him a condescending look.

"If you want to bring up these issues, we'd better talk about what I'm feeling right now. It's been ages since I've had any time to myself. You never take the kids out, except when you have to. This is a team effort. Can't we work together?"

Yannick's brow became furrowed.

"I guess we've proved that we can't, given this new information."

Robin scoffed.

"Unbelievable! You're honestly blaming me for kissing someone one time? We didn't even go through with our relationship!"

"Maybe we shouldn't either."

Robin's eyes went wide.

"What do you mean?"

"I want a divorce."

***TSJWFEW***

The news spread like wildfire. It wasn't long before Robin and Yannick's divorce became the talk of the town. Of course, the discussion was limited to quiet whispers and shared looks of subtle worry, but it was definitely present. Some noticed it more than others. Zara, for instance, was a good friend of Robin's, so she had to deal with a lot of sobbing. Elkay, too, was affected by the news. Robin had always been one of her favorite characters, and it hurt to see her so upset. When she found out that it was by her own doing that the knot had become undone, Elkay practically broke. Depressed and in need of a friend, she summoned Mo'nique. Her zebra companion trotted up to her as she lay by a pond, utterly miserable.

"Hey, girl. Wanna talk?"

Elkay did not move.

"I've screwed things up."

"It's not your fault."

"It is. It's my fault that Robin is getting divorced and it's my fault that Ellie is changing."

Mo'nique sat down beside her.

"Don't say that. You couldn't have known."

"I shouldn't have involved myself with their affairs. Self-insert characters always suck the realism out of novels."

Mo'nique folded one leg over the other.

"Can I tell you something?"

"What?"

"I've been reading your story. It's alright."

"Thank you."

"I've noticed something. Events go in cycles."

Elkay shifted her head, moving it through the grass slowly.

"What are you referring to, specifically?"

Mo'nique handed Elkay a sheet of paper.

"I heard this on my way here."

Elkay read the note.

"You two are so cute together! Do you think you'll ever get married?"

"It's legal here, so probably."

"Can I ask you something? It might be a stupid question."

"Go ahead."

"Which last name will you take?"

"Dunno. Sarah's, probably."

"But yours is easier to spell."

"Uh . . . Not really."

". . . It is, though. How do you even spell Kolodinsky?"

"Kolodinsky? I thought her last name was 'Brown'!"

Mo'nique smiled.

"You see? It's like before. It may not be exactly the same, but if it was, life would be . . . well, boring. There will always be Robins. Maybe not the Robins you're used to, but Robins all the same. If you think you've lost something, all you really need to do is look at what you have. You'll see that the love you're looking for is never truly gone."

"And Ellie?" Elkay whispered, "What of her? She cannot be replaced."

"As far as you know," Mo'nique said with a smile, "But even if you lose Ellie, she'll live on in some form, and you won't have to be alone."

"Are you sure?"

Mo'nique nodded.

"No one deserves to feel unloved, and no one has to. It's all part of life. And life is just the beginning."