Dakota had expected another dimension to look kinda wacky and weird, like things that involved aliens. Maybe some dimensions were, but the one that he and Cavendish stepped into looked shockingly normal. It was even less jarring than time-travel. It even seemed to be the same time of day, fairly early in the morning.
Their portal dropped them off right onto a busy street, which even at this early hour had pedestrians walking around. Nobody spared them a second glance, but it was clear why. They were in the future, which made sense. If they were here to learn about the one that had messed with time-travel, then it made sense that they would go to the time when time-travel was commonplace.
"Alright, what are we doing now?" Dakota asked. He had no idea where to begin finding this information.
"We go to B.o.T.T. headquarters, or at least what remains of it." Cavendish said confidently. "There may be some stray agents, or clues, or we may even find the mastermind behind this mess." Dakota didn't know if he agreed with that idea, but he was too tired to try to fight Cavendish on this. Besides, if he argued then Cavendish might just leave without him to do this mission on his own. Dakota didn't want to experience that all over again, so he just shrugged and followed his partner.
Cavendish only had his eyes set on their destination. Dakota kept his eyes on their surroundings, partially because he was bored and wanted to know just how else their dimensions were different. Mostly though he was trying to be more attentive. If Cavendish died, Dakota wouldn't be able to go back in time to save him, and if his partner saw something that had him running off on a solo mission, he wanted to see it as well.
It was only because Dakota was paying attention did he notice the frequent glances sent their way. There were some people who looked angry, or afraid, or maybe both, of them. After watching for a few minutes Dakota noticed that the fear wasn't for both of them, it was specifically aimed towards Cavendish. Nobody did anything, but they were feeling defensive around Cavendish, and Dakota desperately wished he knew why.
He was so busy keeping an eye on the people who were watching Cavendish that he barely noticed the people that were focusing more on him. He didn't see the pitying look in some people's eyes, and the righteous fury in others. Maybe if he was paying better attention he would have noticed that the small group of people who seemed to be a threat weren't watching Cavendish at all, but him.
Dakota had noticed the angry group glare in their direction and whisper amongst themselves. He noticed when they began to follow them. He made sure to keep himself between Cavendish and the strangers. They were close to their destination. Hopefully they got there before this group decided to do more than just follow and intimidate.
As the group got closer Dakota realized that they weren't going to make it. He grabbed Cavendish's arm and pulled him back.
"We've got a problem." Dakota said in a hushed tone. Cavendish gave him an odd look. He noticed Dakota glaring at the people now approaching them from the other side of the street. Cavendish cleared his throat and straightened. He started to move towards the group, some of whom were visibly more anxious now that they were noticed. Dakota grabbed his arm to keep him from getting too close. He was relieved when Cavendish didn't resist him.
"Good morning." Cavendish greeted them tensely. "Can we help you?"
"Like you would help anybody but yourself." One of the bolder looking young men scoffed. Some of his companions nodded. The others just looked at him like he was crazy.
"We don't want any trouble." Cavendish said.
"You should have thought about that sooner." The bold young man said. He lunged forward. Dakota instinctively moved to pull Cavendish behind him, thinking that he was the one being targeted, only to be grabbed himself. Dakota yelped as he found himself in the younger man's firm but shaking grip. He was pulled away from Cavendish, who looked just as stunned as Dakota felt.
Now that Dakota and Cavendish were separated the rest of the group seemed to find their courage, looking both more confident and more anxious. For some reason, even though they had gone after Dakota, they were all still watching Cavendish, waiting for his response.
Cavendish reached for the watch, but he didn't activate it yet. "Let him go."
The man holding Dakota took a step back, pulling him back. "Don't try anything." Now the young man sounded anxious. His hands were shaking more. He was acting like he and his friends weren't the ones that were causing trouble in the first place. "Back off!"
Cavendish's gaze darkened dangerously. It was not the kind of look that he was used to seeing from his partner. "I will ask once more, and not again. Let him go!"
The young man whimpered slightly. He seemed to be in way over his head. One of his friends put a hand on his arm. "Do as he says." They muttered. "This isn't worth it." The young man's grip on Dakota briefly tightened before he gave him a harsh push and began to run in the other direction. Dakota stumbled over his feet and tripped. He hit the ground gracelessly and knocked his head against the post, leaving him dazed for a short moment.
"Dakota!" Cavendish put his arms on his shoulders. "Are you alright?"
"I-I'm fine." Dakota rubbed his head with a grimace. It was sensitive, and bleeding a fair amount, but he knew it was probably nothing worse than a scrape. It would probably feel better in just a few minutes, but combined with how little sleep he got he was feeling more than a little nauseous. "Give me a minute."
"Sit here and rest." Cavendish said. He turned to face towards where the group had run off. There was a rare fury in his eyes. He started to head off after them. Dakota panicked.
"Wait!" Dakota got up, despite the way that it made his head swim. "Don't leave me."
"I'll be back soon." Cavendish said, but Dakota didn't know how to believe him. His chest tightened when Cavendish pulled out of his grip and began to give chase. He ignored Dakota's desperate pleas. Cavendish followed the group down the street, around the corner, and then he was out of sight.
Dakota stared at the spot where Cavendish had vanished. He felt like he couldn't breathe. He wanted to get up and go after them, but his body wasn't cooperating with him. He couldn't move. He couldn't think. All he could do was sit there and silently beg for Cavendish to come back to him.
He'd been left behind again, and even though logically he knew that Cavendish would be back, he couldn't calm down.
He didn't know how long he was sitting there. Nobody passed him on the street and he didn't know why. It took several minutes for him to force himself to shift his gaze to the side enough for him to notice that people started to walk down his street, but the second they noticed him they looked frightened and ran the other way. He couldn't bring himself to wonder why everybody seemed so scared to see him. He couldn't think about anything except the fact that his partner had abandoned him.
It felt like forever, but was probably just a few minutes, that Dakota was starting to feel calmer. Moving still wasn't on the table, but at least he didn't have to think about breathing anymore. He was feeling more level-headed. A minute or two later two people turned down the street, and Dakota wondered if he wasn't doing as well as he thought he was. He saw two people that he really didn't think he should be seeing right now. Why would Brick and Savannah be here?
Just like everybody else, the two figures who may or may not be Brick and Savannah paused when they saw him. Unlike everybody else they didn't turn to run the other way. They talked harshly for a long moment before they continued towards him, moving quickly but cautiously. The closer they got, the more Dakota was sure that it actually was Brick and Savannah.
"Dakota." Savannah approached, kneeling in front of him while Brick lingered back, looking more wary. There was a gentleness in her eyes that Dakota didn't think he had ever seen from her, and certainly not aimed at him.
"Uh, hi." Dakota tilted his head at her. "W-what are you doing here?"
Savannah looked back at Brick and they seemed to have a silent conversation before she faced him again. "We heard you were around here, and we thought we'd come check. Make sure you were okay."
"Did Mr. Block really think we were so incompetent that he sent you after us?" Dakota asked. He'd normally be annoyed about Mr. Block doubting their competence, but he really didn't care about this assignment. He wanted to go home, get some sleep, and hope that Cavendish leaving him behind again was just a bad dream.
Savannah's eyes widened and Brick made a panicked sound. They looked really freaked out, and Dakota couldn't figure out why.
Savannah took a deep breath and reached out for Dakota, but stopped before actually touching him. "Mr. Block didn't send us." She said slowly.
Dakota raised an eyebrow. "You're telling me that you and Brick acted against your boss just to check on us?"
Brick moaned anxiously and started pacing. "That's it, we're through. He's lost it."
"Get a hold of yourself." Savannah snapped before she looked at Dakota with even more gentleness than before. "You haven't lost anything, have you? You're just confused."
"Uh, yeah I'm confused." Dakota had no idea what was going on here.
"Come on," Savannah stood up and held a hand out to Dakota. He just stared at her. "Let's get you back home, and then we can get your head taken care of before the boss sees."
"You seriously think that's going to work?" Brick hissed as he came closer to Savannah. He looked at Dakota with an odd look in his eyes. "You'll tell him that we didn't do this, right? We found you like this. We helped you."
Savannah glared at her partner. "If the boss finds out that you're manipulating Dakota's memories we're both dead."
"I'm not manipulating anything." Brick said desperately. "It's the truth."
"Yeah, I know you guys didn't do this." Dakota touched his head, which was still bleeding, but it had slowed a lot. "There was just a misunderstanding." Both Brick and Savannah looked concerned. Dakota frowned. "And it had nothing to do with either of you." They relaxed slightly. "What's going on with you two?"
"We'll talk about that later." Savannah said in a tone that made it clear that she had no intention of doing that. "We need to get you back to B.a.T.T."
Dakota frowned. Something wasn't right here. "Hang on. B.a.T.T.? Not B.o.T.T.?"
"The Bureau of Time Travel was demolished." Savannah said as they began to walk towards the old headquarters. It seemed like Cavendish's instinctive theory had been right.
"We were reformed into the Bureau against Time Travel." Brick said urgently, like he was reminding Dakota of something that he thought he should already know. Dakota realized what had happened, and he felt a little ridiculous for not thinking of it before.
This wasn't his version of Brick and Savannah. They were from this dimension, and it seemed like they were working for the people that they were trying to find out more about. They also seemed to think that Dakota worked with them. Now he was being brought straight into the belly of the beast.
Dakota thought about making up an excuse and running off to regroup with Cavendish, but he didn't know where his partner had gone. Besides, he already knew that Cavendish believed that the best way to learn about what had happened to the B.o.T.T. was by going to the source. That was where Dakota was being led now. If he was lucky, he would run right into Cavendish.
So Dakota went along with it. Despite his unease he followed Brick and Savannah. Now that he knew that they were from another dimension a lot of things made sense, and a million other questions were raised. He had thought that they were acting so weirdly around him because they'd found him when he was hurt and panicking, but now he was scared that there was something more than that.
Was this always how they talked to and treated their Dakota, like he was about to break or snap at one wrong move? Had the strangers that had followed them before known the same Dakota as Brick and Savannah? Was that part of the reason why they'd been so anxious?
What was the deal with his other self?
When they got to what used to be the B.o.T.T. headquarters Dakota saw one or two familiar faces of old time travel agents, but most of the workers he saw were complete strangers. Dakota remembered being told that this dimension wasn't kind to time travelers. He didn't want to think about what had happened to the others.
Dakota had thought that he would be brought to the area of headquarters where Mr. Block's office would have once been, but the passageway to that hallway was completely bricked up and blocked off, almost excessively.
They didn't get very far before an agent approached them. "The boss wants to see you." His tone was really dry, and his words didn't seem all that threatening, but Brick and Savannah looked like they'd just been given a death sentence.
Savannah took a deep breath. "Well, we should have known that we couldn't keep this secret forever." They changed direction and started to make their way towards the libraries instead.
Savannah had the hallways, as well as all of the rooms that lined it, cleared completely. Dakota thought it was more than a little excessive, but she was adamant. When she was satisfied that they would have privacy she left Dakota with Brick and entered the library itself to get their boss.
Dakota had expected to wait for several minutes at the very least, but it seemed like only seconds passed before the library door was opened. Dakota had thought that he was all done with being surprised with this dimension, but then the boss of B.a.T.T. stepped out, and Dakota found himself practically breathless. He could say only a single word.
"Cavendish?" Dakota stood up and stepped towards this person who felt like both a friend and a complete stranger. This Cavendish was wearing different clothes. The colors were more of a soft maroon than an olive green, and the usual goggles that he wore on his top-hat were replaced with a very familiar pair of sunglasses.
Even without the clothes, Dakota would know that this wasn't his Cavendish. He carried himself with a confidence that he had never seen from his partner. More than that though, Cavendish was looking at him with a fondness that he wasn't used to from anybody.
"Vincent." Cavendish said, and that threw him off. Since when did his partner call him by his first name? Cavendish just stared at him for a long moment before he gave Brick and Savannah a cold glare that contrasted so much with the softness that he gave to Dakota.
"Leave us." Cavendish said stiffly. "I'll deal with the two of you later." Dakota felt shivers go down his spine at the clear threat in Cavendish's voice. Brick and Savannah retreated quickly. The moment they were gone all signs of fury in Cavendish's eyes left. He was back to looking at Dakota as though he was the only person that mattered. It felt wrong. Not necessarily bad, just wrong.
"You're hurt." Cavendish said.
"I'm fine." Dakota insisted. "Look, I appreciate the concern, really, but there's something you've got to know. I'm not who you think I am. I mean, I am, but not in the way you know." It felt weird to explain, but it wouldn't be fair to keep silent. "Look, I'm Dakota, but I'm not your Dakota. I'm-"
"From another dimension." Cavendish nodded as though it was obvious. "I know. Trust me. That much is painfully clear." There was a pain in Cavendish's eyes that Dakota really didn't like. Still, Cavendish seemed to have nothing but fondness for him.
Cavendish approached Dakota and gently brushed his hair away from the small cut on his head. "I suspect there's a lot about my dimension that you're curious about, and there's a lot that I wish to know about yours. What say you we get some food, sit down and have a talk?"
Dakota couldn't help but smile. He wasn't exactly hungry, but food helped him to relax, and it was a nice change of pace for Cavendish to be encouraging instead of making judgmental comments about it.
"Yeah, that sounds nice." Dakota agreed. Cavendish offered his arm. It took Dakota a long moment to accept the arm. When he did though it felt comfortable and nice. Cavendish smiled and escorted him deeper into the headquarters.
Dakota felt like maybe he should be nervous, because he was probably in enemy territory, but how could he ever be afraid? This was Cavendish. A version of Cavendish who was content to just be at his side. This was like a dream come true, and after being abandoned just earlier today by his partner, he wanted to enjoy this for just a little bit longer.