I have been assured that double posting is okay when posting new work. If this is the case, the next 2,000 or so words for you.
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It seemed like it was written by me. Same handwriting, same structure, except he seemed to favor periods where I rely on commas. It would also seem like he has the exact opposite ideas on what a good life would be.

I intended to read more, find out about the college, about the odd versions of the housemates, but I was being called. Deciding the best way to get through the day would be to play along, I grabbed the college bag and hurried downstairs.

It turned out that that person who was calling me was Cari. Her voice sounded different in this world, a little more lazy and apathetic, compared to the bright ray of sunshine in my world. "Come on, lazybones. We're going." as I got to the base of the stairs I saw Tamara and "Bro" standing at the door with impatient looks. I held my bag up to them, indicating that I had what I'd come for and we set out. In my own world we would normally walk a couple of miles to the train station in order to get to the city, so it was a rather pleasant surprise to see an Audi parked at the edge of a dirt track leading to the front door. Bro had the keys, but walked to the passenger side of the car and tossed the keys basketball style over to Tamara, who smirked and got into the driver's seat, leaving Cari and I in the back.

As I sat down, plunking my bag down at my feet, I finally had an opportunity to give her a full look, now fully aware of the fact that she was not the Cari I had memories of. Seeing her poorly dyed hair, slightly melancholy facial expression and the way she hunched, hiding her gigantesque physique made me feel unbearably homesick. As the car revved up and we pulled out onto the tarmac, my mind unbidden trailed back to the past, where I had first arrived at the lodge and met the gentle giant, Cari, for the first time.

-

It had been a long and tiresome journey. He'd expected that, to some degree, but after over an hour of traveling out to the Sega City suburbs, Craig was exhausted and was slowly starting to realize that this miraculous rent-free lodge may not, in fact, exist. He'd received the address from a businessman during an interview. It was overambitious for him to have attempted a job that high, but the way he thought it, to try and fail costs less than to have no job at all. The man was impressed enough with his enthusiasm and personality to offer him a room at this lodge.

So, after a shift at his part-time at the World Café, he hopped onto a train and went hunting. It had started to rain since he boarded the train and now he was tired, hungry and soaking wet, losing all faith to the idea that it was all a practical joke.

But just when all hope appeared lost, his eyes came across a small path leading to a log cabin fitting the description that he was given. Hurrying with the last of his energy, he made his way to the shelter of the doorway and gave a knock.

Pounding footsteps of someone dashing to the door, accompanied with a female voice screaming "I got it!" rang out and the door opened to reveal a large woman with long azure hair, a beaming smile, shining blue eyes, a grey shirt with a purple skirt and a shimmering necklace. Her face exploded with a sudden display of concern for the visitor. "You look drenched, you poor thing. Come in, come in.". Before he could react, Craig was being pushed into the common area of the lodge, where two others sat on sofas, looking to the newcomer.

"I got this card…" Craig mumbled, holding up the soaked remains of the card he had received from the man at his Tergcorp interview.

The blue haired woman hushed him and continued to push him until he reached the kitchen, where she had him take a seat "I'll get you some hot chocolate right away, then you can tell me all about yourself. Did you come to stay?" her voice sounded helpful, hopeful, happy and other good words beginning in H.

"I…" Craig faltered, looking around the pristine kitchen which appeared fully stocked and gorgeous "yeah… if that's okay?"
"Of course it is!" replied the woman, who was already starting to warm some milk and unpack some marshmallows for the drink. "Oh, look at me, being so rude. My name is Cari. It's nice to meet you" and accompanied with these words was the world's biggest smile.

"Mine is Craig. Craig Bayfield." the boy responded, feeling a smile rise to his own lips, though a slight edge of guilt and humility was also bubbling beneath it, causing him to add "…you don't have to do all of this, you know"

"Don't be silly." she replied with a smile, "It's my pleasure to welcome the newest member to our little family."

Unable to argue, or even comprehend how this had all happened so fast and perfectly, he blushed and whispered "Thank you." to the air, settling back into the chair, and ready to start the first day of his new life at this strange and wonderful lodge.

Things would change over the years. The lodge residents would move on to bigger and better things, Craig would learn that Cari was a Goddess of the Sacred Realm and he would meet her two sisters Tamara and Navi. But those things were nothing more than distant ideas in the mists of time, for now he was home, happy and the fantastic magic of an abnormal life had yet to reach him.

-

As I came back to the moment, I couldn't help but think about how fortunate I was to have lucked out on a place such as the lodge. Not many people have the fortune of charity which lead me to an entirely free and comfortable accommodation, surrounded by such kind and special people. For the first time since waking up, I was able to look back on how I acted the previous night and I was overcome with an unbearable urge to apologize to the people in the car, knowing full well that they had no clue about it.

But remembering them all made me realize how few were in the car with me, only three of the nine he had exploded at were present. Curiosity welled up and couldn't be held down long enough for me to get back to the journal and read up. "Where are the others?" I innocently asked.

Cari looked over, tilted her head in a curious way, probably wondering what I was smoking, but replied none the less "Navi and the twins make their own way in. Though their car was gone when we left, so I bet Navi's in the library, don't care what those two are doing.", I assumed that the two mentioned must have been Ruby and Sapphire, the time twins from my world. Navi was Cari's elder sister.

The drive was quite long, it took well over forty-five minutes to get there, and Tamara and the bro were content to pretend the backseat did not exist and quietly discussed among themselves. Seeing how close "Bro" was with Tamara had more or less cemented in my mind that he was really Tyler Dawn, the closest thing I had in my reality to an abusive older brother. Either way, I was stuck in the backseat and Cari was not being very responsive, so I ignored travel sickness and looked through my books to work out my schedule for the day.

Science fiction literature; social psychology; a couple of photography classes; and statistics. He was even nice enough, or forgetful enough, probably, to have written down the room number, teacher name and which people share the class with him inside the front cover of the appropriate book. Looking through the books, I worked out that I'd be going to Psychology with Navi, fiction with Tamara and the rest I was on my own for.

The car eventually pulled up in a giant parking lot and the gang got out and said their goodbyes, going their separate ways. Except, of course for Tamara. She and I had the same class, so she lingered long enough for me to get my stuff together and follow on.

"Manage to find that paper?" she asked, slightly grouchily. I couldn't get a decent read on whether she liked me or not yet.

"Yeah, wrote it on The Sandman." I replied casually, though I had no idea what the book my other self had read was. I wished in my heart of hearts that the teacher didn't ask for anything from it.

She paced ahead, in to the expansive building. I'd never been on a college campus in my life, it was impressive to see such a huge building with long corridors with dozens and dozens of doors, people wandering and drifting too and through. It reminded me of a hospital, but with less of a blinding white color-scheme. Tamara didn't have many words for me, so I just followed until we got to class. From there, I just pulled out my books and prepped myself to lie my way through the day, in hopes that I'd work out a way home later on.

The lesson went smooth. Much smoother than I expected. I just gave in the sheet and sat about watching the guy rant and rant about this and that, pointing out which page of the textbook he was referencing and what would end up being on the test. It didn't end up being as intimidating as I was expecting, so I resigned that college is not as difficult and stressful as it had otherwise appeared to be. During the lesson I was able to look over to Tamara a few times. She seemed so attentive and normal, compared to the moody and angst-ridden girl I knew. What seemed most disturbing, however, was that she looked more or less identical to her previous incarnation, even the necklace was present. But despite the similarties, the girl held herself differently, wore a different expression. She was not my Tamara. That was for certain. She was content, which seemed absoloutely impossible for the other Tamara.

After the lesson, she didn't regard me and just moved on to her next lesson, leaving me to navigate the building alone. Ended up about five minutes late for the psychology lesson, which had the teacher tear me out for disturbing the students who managed to get in on time. I sat down and again endured the endless prattle, letting my mind wander about. I thought about how I could make my way backc to reality. Where Lee, Kay and Tricia were. Wondered why were they not at home with the rest of the family. Then with a cold feeling in my stomach, I considered the idea that Tricia may not exist in this world, that the two of them were not in a relationship, that Kay would not exist, because a boring and powerless world such as this would not have time travel to bring her to them.

I didn't think I'd miss them both as much as I did that moment. My heart ached and drowned out the nonesense words of the teacher. And it was then, in my lonely desperation, that I recalled what I had previously read. Navi was in this class. My eyes frantically scanned the students. It actually took three sweeps of the room before I found her. If Cari and Tamara looked different, she looked absoloutely different. Her hair was dyed jet black with two destinctive green streaks vividly running from the top of the head to the base of her neck. She wore designer frame glasses, an odd ear ring I couldn't imagine on the quiet Navi I knew and her clothes were entirely different, black and gothic, rather than formal and regal. She seemed like the type of girl you would see in a music video of sorts.

I waited until after the lesson before approaching her.

"You arrived late today." she stated, and though the words were the same as the real Navi would have said to me, her tone actually had emotion in it. Disappointment and a hint of sadness.

"Yeah. Got myself a bit lost between classes" I lied, scratching the back of my neck nervously.

She gave me an odd look, above her glasses, but nodded "Will you be alright for the rest of the day? You seemed distracted. You can tell me if there is something wrong." it seemed that no matter which universe we were in, Navi was smart. I must have blushed or reacted in a way to raise her suspicions. "Please do not push yourself. I will see you tonight?"

I nodded "But for now, I'd better get going. If I waste time, I'll be late again" this was more convincing, as it was truth.

"As you say." she gave a nod and then walked off. I couldn't help be be astonished at how different she seemed. Though the way she spoke and the meek step in her walk remained. Almost the opposite of Tamara who was the same on the outside, but entirely different on the inside.

I had no time to worry about such things, though. I only had a few moments to get to the next class, which included working out where it was.

The rest of my day was spent in a photography class. Unfortunately, I'd not taken the briefcase of camera equipment with me when I left the house, so I was subject to another berating. Though my alter-ego left his portfolio inside the school bag, so I was not at a total loss.

The portfolio was actually impressive. It contained a wide variety of photographs, from standard nature shots, to dynamic action shots capturing an exciting moment of a party, some artistic shots of light reflected off of skyscrapers.

Back in my own world, Tricia had bought me a camera, I reflected on the potential that I, myself, held if my alter-ego was able to utilize his equipment so effectively. He seemed far more competent with it than I ever thought I could be, and it was through a mild edge of jealousy that I perked up and paid attention for the rest of the lesson.

Before too long it was over and all of the lessons for the day were. As I left the room I realized that I did not know the return trip arrangements. It did not seem likely that previous Craig would have wrote anything about that in his notebooks, so I was forced to walk back to the car and wait around for the others to get back.

Upon reaching the green Audi, I sat myself down on the curb and pulled out the journal that I'd stashed for future reading. Giving it a quick flip through, I eventually managed to find what I was looking for. The first day that the other me had arrived at the lodge I call home.

-

April 14th 2007

Sometimes I envy Tyler. He was always the better one. Faster, bigger, stronger, smarter. No matter what I tried or how hard I strived, he was always better than me. When he was adopted and I wasn't, I was jealous beyond comprehension. But that he was adopted by a rich family. That seemed unfair. But he was always my bro. I was always thankful for that. Every day that I was not adopted, he remained my big bro, my only family. Always writing or calling, telling me of the joys and trials of life with a rich family.

We kept in touch after the orphanage, and he even sent me Christmas presents every year. I never had the money to send him anything more than a card in return, but it never bothered him. If not for the camera he got me, I doubt I'd have any of my current talent and ambition in life. After I left the orphanage and moved into the apartment, he visited on occasion, even dropped in at the café when I worked there.

When he said he was going to be staying at his family's winter retreat during the year to study in the city and I was invited to come along, all expenses paid. Crazy offer, I spent the entire week fretting that it was a hoax or too good to be true, but we showed up at the place and it was gorgeous. Spacious, well furnished and with spare rooms for a few more people to stay with us. On the drive over, he mentioned that his girlfriend and her two sisters were also going to the college and wanted to get in on the deal, the more the merrier and the less each have to pay.

So here I sit, in my new bedroom which I think may just be bigger than the apartment was. I'm pooling my savings and working until September to manage a semester or two at CoSC, besides that I'm all paid for and sweet.

Tyler's girlfriend is just what I'd imagined from the people he'd have been hanging out with. Cute pink shirts, cell-phone strapped to her jeans, buttons all over the place. I don't think she appreciates the idea of Tyler giving charity to a freeloader. She has two sisters, one who is her non-identical twin, Cari. I don't really have a peg on what she's like, but she seems like she's on top of the world, possibly at moving in to such an awesome place. The other is an older sibling, Natalie, who has a bit of a goth streak to her. She seems interesting enough, though she's stuck in her books. May have to try speak with her a bit.

The major problem with the place is that it's in the middle of nowhere. It's scenic as heck, a huge lake and a forest within view, but it would take forever to manage to get to a store, and I'll have to bum rides to and from college. Still, I'm hopeful for this.

The best part of the day was getting to spend it with Tyler. We've not hung out like we did tonight since we were kids. The siblings were unpacking, so the two of us started up a fire and just spoke and spoke, knocking back some root beers. He told me what a hastle it was to have such high expectations from his adoptive parents and that he sometimes feel like a financial investment more than a son. I tried to empathize, but having parents of any kind would be a luxury to me, and I know he remembers a time when he agreed with me. But it was still there. Something living in all those letters and those phonecalls had preserved a brotherly connection which had been hiding for well over a decade. I guess I do have family now. A brother and some sister's-in-my-brother-dating-one-of-them.

So. A few more months at a café and then I'll be a college student. Plus, I'm in a scenic area of photogenic beauty. I can build a portfolio, focus on my camera and then I'll make it big enough to repay my bro for his generous hospitality.

-

So it seemed that my other self was as fortunate as I had been, except the circumstances of reaching the free boarding paradise were a little bit more believable than my own encounter with a armored superhero who just so happened to own it. A bigger shock is that Navi is a nickname in this world. Natalie was close enough and the description of an older sister matched. I made a note to ask her if the opportunity ever came up. She seemed to respond to the name Navi earlier and the rest of the guys called her that before.

The worrying thing is that the journal entry did not mention either Ruby or Sapphire, who I had been lead to think are living there and were probably somewhere on the college complex at the very moment. Putting those thoughts aside, I looked on to the next page of the journal, but was interupted by the sound of the Audi unlocking. I stood up and saw Tamara approacihng, alone.

"Hey there!" I greeted, giving a wave. I watched as her features showed a certain grumpy disaproval to my presence there. I gathered that other-me did not pull this particular stunt very often.

"Hi." She replied, dryly, walking around the car to the driver's seat. "Have a nice day?" it was clear from the tone in her voice that she didn't care, but asked anyway.

"Left my brain at home." I joked, to which she rolled her eyes, "Do you mind if I get a ride back home?"

"Sure." She'd already started the car by this point, so I hoped in besides her and looked over to her. "What did you think about the English assignment?"

I suppose that the disliking was mutual between Tamara and my other self, and I did not really wish to inherit the consequences. Clearly she was still annoyed about his attitude about the homework assignment. Heaving in a breath, as the car pulled out, I spoke slowly "I wasn't fair about this whole homework thing." I said, her hand tensed on the gear shift, I obviously hit target, "I just thought if I gave you a book and let you do it yourself you might end up liking the comics and wanting to read more."

She snorted, starring ahead at the road. I didn't want to be shrugged off so quick. "Listen, I know Tyler loves you." And I did know that, in my world the two of them were almost starcrossed lovers. "and I was hoping we could get closer. You never did seem to like me and I just wanted to build bridges. Guess I went about it in a wrong way."

Somehow I think she missed the point, as her reaction was to reply "He said he loved me?" a pink blush rising to her face. "He never said it before…"

I gulped in a mild state of panic, but intuition told me that it was the right way to go. "He never said it, but I know him, I see how he is about you and he's never that comfortable with anyone else, not even me. If that isn't love, then I don't know what is."

There was a long pause, it wasn't until we hit a red light and paused that she finally spoke up again. "Thanks, Craig." And it took another long pause before she continued "Tyler tells me about how the two of you were back in the day. Thanks for being there for him."

I could hear in her voice how uncomfortable it was for her and how she didn't wish to persue anything any further, so I just said "And thanks for taking care of him now." She gave a smile and then the two of us remained in silence for the rest of the journey. I looked out of the window and stared at the scenery, thinking back to the Tamara I knew and how the two of us also did not get along, but for decidedly different reasons.

-

The world had almost ended once again. It seems that not a month could go by without the world being endangered by some mysterious or ambitious threat which was intent on enslaving, destroying or harming the general populace.

This week's particular threat was in the form of a being named Ambrosia, which knew pain like no other and wished to find like minded people and recreate the world anew. Recruitment of such people was based mostly on their desperation, loneliness and how much they had been felt singled out and picked on, for those who are bullied would not bully others in a new world order. Of the lodge and it's residents, only two were self-absorbed enough in their own petty sorrow to have been roped in to the plan, whereas the other residents fought bravely to end the plot before the objective could be achieved.

A day had passed since then. Craig stood with his back resting against Tamara's door. For the past day she had been staying close to either Ruby or her sisters. This was her first moment alone, and the best opportunity for Craig to speak with her about what had just happened.

"Hey…" he weakly began, shrinking against the door, cursing himself for even wanting to start this conversation "I just wanted to talk to you about…"

Tamara looked to him, eyes averted, a pale expression on her face "I don't want to talk about it…"

He drummed his fingers on the door behind him, he was starting to turn pale as well. "I just… I don't have anyone to speak to about it."

She looked to him for a moment and then shook her head "Please go… I'll talk to you later. I just want to be alone."

Heaving a sigh, he gave her one more look and then spun around, opening the door and slamming it behind him, a jealous frustration taking him, where she had an entire family to support her and help her deal with the huge mistake she had made, he was painfully alone and still filled with the futile misery which had helped him betray his friends in the first place.

Returning to his room and thrusting his head under the pillow, he clamped his eyes shut and Craig tried as hard as he could to push his guilt away.

Enjoying it up to now. I'll admit I don't know a whole lot about MF World, but this is nice and accessible. I'll try to keep an eye on how this continues over the month.

I really should take part in NaNoWriMo one year. Shame I'm likely to be busy for at least the next three years seeing as I'm going uni =/ Well, that and I am terrible for extended periods of motivation.

THis is awesome so far, I'm really enjoying it! Of course I'm a big fan of brainfax stories anyway, so that helps.
As I'm reading it though, which was an odd coincidence concerning some of the subject matter, I'm picturing it in my head as a graphics novel. With different styles for different parts. The MF part being a cartoony Sonicy Comic style, the "Normal" world being as photorealistic as possible, the journal entry on comics being old school 4 colour etc...

Odd I know, but It's fun.

Oh, one more thing:

unsuffisticated - unsOPHisticated =P

Thanks to both Wes and Crimmy for reading and replying. I made the spelling change to the master copy, Crimmy, so thank you. I was trying to switch the styles between flashback, real-time and journal, so it gives me a needed boost in spirits to hear you say they read distinctively. Anywho, here's today's 2,000ish. Oh and my total numbercount is over nine thousand.

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The car pulled up infront of the lodge, snapping me back to my senses. Tamara gathered her stuff with no delay and headed into the house. I got my stuff together and walked in to the living room, noticing that Navi was already back and settled in the corner with a book. Tamara gave her a wave and received a nod in response, then Tamara went upstairs to do her own thing. I took a look about the room, wondering if I would see anyone else. Cari was sprawled out on the sofa, lazily reading a magazine.

"Tyler not home yet?" I asked innocently, dumping my bag to the side and parking myself on an arm chair. The familiar atmosphere of the lodge filling my senses with a satisfied comfort after a stressful day navigating a large building and meeting new people all day.

Cari shrugged in response "I think he's coming back with Sapphire." She replied, "Think he was doing some practice or something, and she offered to take him." In the corner, Navi looked over her book at me, but then returned to it. I caught the motion and felt compelled to bother her.

"What're you reading?" I asked, and upon seeing her expression shift into bewilderment, I quickly added "Sorry, I had a long day and just wanted to start up conversation. I don't want to bother you."

"Thief of Time," She stated plainly, continuing to look at him with a perplexed expression "you loaned it to me earlier this week. I am enjoying it. The character Lu-Tze is very interesting. I will return it by the end of the week."

I really hope she didn't see the blush that rose to my cheeks from that embarrassing little mistake. For a moment I cursed myself for persistantly interacting without reading the rest of the journal to get context on what the other me thought of his housemates. Doing so, however, would not make this akward moment vanish, so I smiled my nervous smile and said "Oh, I didn't know if you were finished yet." It was a pathetic lie, but one which would satify the situation, "I'm glad you like it."

Her eyes were all I could see above the book, so I couldn't really judge her expression, but her voice sounded flattered enough as she replied "I look forward to discussing it with you." And with that, she sunk back behind the book and kept reading.

I took a look to see if Cari was effected by the conversation, but she was absorbed in her magazine, at least, until her eyes suddenly widened and she slammed it to the ground.

"Everyone?!" she anounced, causing me to lean up from my chair and Navi to lower the book to her lap, "we're going to the Roundhouse on Friday." The statement came out so dramatically and firmly, that it hardly felt like an option was involved.

"Saygrum Angel are going to be playing." She continued, looking at me with an a rabid look of determination. "Remember when they played at the campus? They were so great!" what made this display most terrifying for me was that I was starting to get used to the idea of an apathetic and lazy Cari who didn't seem to have the energy to smile. Now she was exploding with the kind of squee that teenage girls reserve for the latest pop idol who was too old to be lusted by such young women in the first place.

I wanted to reply with a lie to avoid setting off the fuse of the fangfirl bomb that stood before me. Alas, she read my expression before my lips could throw out a distraction and she slapped my shoulder a little harder than she probably intended "How could you forget?! The two of us were talking about it all night. The guitarist was so cool."

I gave a dry smirk. Chances are, with a name like that and Cari being all starry eyed over her, it had to be Lee, who in my world was a guitar player who had once performed for the Roundhouse. He was Cari's boyfriend in the world I knew, and it would make perfect sense that she would be infatuated with him in this world.

"Sure." I replied. "I'll go along, it sounds like it'll be fun, and The Roundhouse is a good venue, a bit expensive, but it's really comfortable. It'll be worth travelling over there. Maybe we can hang around at the back and catch the band on their way out."

I just caught it in my periphral vision, but Navi rolled her eyes and buried herself back in her book. In my world she and Cari would fight over Lee's affections, so if it was him, she would have ever right to roll her eyes and try to shut it out. I doubt it would stop her from tagging along.

"I'll ask my sister and Tyler, later." Cari said, calming down, but wearing an unwaivering smile now. "I guess the twins can come, too." She added as an afterthought. I assumed that the two of them stuck to their rooms and didn't mingle with the family, which would fit with the versions I knew.

I sunk back in my chair and watched Cari dive back to her spot on the sofa with renewed energy, rifling through the magazine agan. I looked over to Navi again, who was hiding in her book, so grabbing my school bag again, I sunk off to the kitchen for some quick food so I could take it to my room and study the journal a little more. Walking out of the living room and into the messy kitchen was a shock, as it sobered me again to the fact that I was in another world. Ignoring it, however, I opened the fridge and my eyes were hit with a sea of yellow. Every article of food had a post-it note on it. Only a very small number featuring my own name. I decided to grab a little bar of chocolate which the other me had somehow preserved from enemy hands, and snuck away to my room.

As soon as I shut the door, I dumped myself down on the bed. The room looked more welcoming than it did in the morning. Compared to my own bare and featureless room, this was actually a rather safe haven. The little trinkets and personal touches really helped give an air of personality, which I was able to appreciate, even if it was not strictly speaking my own personality which was shining through it.

Something about the familiar solitude, comfortable bed and a lingering hope that if I closed my eyes, I'd open them again in that empty room in my fantastic lodge home, a few doors away from my beloved superheroine and our little bundle of joy from the future. Alas, fate is not as kind to me as it is to others, and when I opened my eyes again, it was in the same room with it's figurines, comics and photo equiptment. Heaving a sigh, I pulled the journal out again and casually leafed through it, getting context on as many of the housemates as I was able to. But most importantly, I wanted context on the conversation that Cari and I had moments before. Who were these Saygrum Angels and why did she react that way.

-

November 24^th 2007
Thanksgiving concert was amazing. I wasn't expecting enjoying it as much as I did. I don't like listening to modern rock music that much, but they weren't the typical rock band. The guitarist favored a more old school sound and the singer was actually really talented. The guy looked a bit fruity to me, jumping about the stage and letting his stringy blonde hair fly over the place. Cari couldn't shut up about him after the concert. Not that I minded. It meant someone would listen to me about the singer. Didn't want to tell Tyler about it, but I knew her. She used to come to the café when I worked there. I never asked her name. She was always with a couple of galpals and they ordered together. But she was nice to me and always smiled. Seeing her singing on stage like that was a big shock for me. The fact that she was actually good was also a shock.

Either way, I really hope I get to see them again, or they have a CD. They're the first band outside of Rush that I've wanted to listen to again and again, so well done to them. Navi didn't seem impressed by them, but she's in to that goth music. Tyler and Tamara just used the free time to hang about the lodge alone together. I don't blame them, if I had a girlfriend, I'd want to treasure moments alone. The twins were moshing, so I don't know what the heck they thought. I could ask them tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, Tyler's expected home with his family and Tamara's going on for the ride. He's been moody about it all week. He's been struggling with school, so I can understand his apprehension, but he's still got a family to go home to, so I can't extend too much sympathy. So that leaves Ruby, Sapphire, Cari and Navi for thanksgiving. Cari offered to cook dinner and Navi and I are helping. Even if it's not a family, it's still more than I'm used to and I am looking forward to it.

Thanksgiving at the orphanage was kind of ironic. Hard to be thankful about being an unwanted child, but it was good to have big meals. I really hope that tomorrow goes well, at the very least it will be fun to make it with Cari and Navi. I've only known them a few months, but they've become close friends. Navi is the only person who shares my interests in books and we trade and discuss a lot, and Cari's easy going enough to talk to at any time and about any thing. Ruby and Sapphire are anti-social, moreso than myself. I don't see them often. Funny thing is that they look identical, except their hair, but are so very different on the inside. One's a playful happy go lucky ditz and the other is the world's biggest straightman, although she's the exact opposite, a lesbian woman. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but she better not bring a date to dinner tomorrow.

-

Seems Ruby is a lesbian in this world aswell. Reading that just made the similarities between my world and the other one shine out like a blinding light. It made me feel empty and weak inside to think about it. If I was to be trapped in this new world forever, would I be able to rebuild what I used to have between the people I loved, would I be able to find Tricia amongst the billions of people in this world, and if I could, would I be able to earn her love a second time.

Sinking back against my pillow, and starring at the ceiling, I dreamed of the possibility. Bumping into my destined lover, somehow earning her heart and then confiding in her the truth of my origin, the fact that I had spent three years living with our future daughter and watching her grow from a father's perspective. I couldn't believe for a second that anyone would accept a story that ridiculous. I didn't know if I could live the rest of my life knowing the truth and not having anyone to confide in, I could already feel frustration welling up in my stomach and before I knew it I was pitching a random tantrum, slamming my fists and feet into the bed. Then with a huff I sunk back, deflated and empty once more.

The regret I felt before was now overwhelming. I reached for the journal again, but didn't want to read it. Somehow I felt it would be treacherous to my real family to be studying on how to fit in with these mirror image versions of them. I closed my eyes tightly and whispered futilly to the air "There's no place like home…". I had woken up here somehow, someway. There had to be a cause for it, and if there was, then there was a way to reverse it, to bring me back to the world I belong in.

I wanted to sleep, to let the next day come and hope it would take me to bed, but I did not eat at all since I could not remember when. Greedily, I consumed the chocolate I had grabbed and got up, selecting a graphic novel to read downstairs so I would not miss dinner. As desperate as my situation was, I was fairly sure it would be the greatest meal I had.

---------

(dammit yuku, stop unformatting }:O)

WHAT NINE THOUSAND?!

Keep writing! I need to doodle more normal world things! I only have one major suggestion, and I know I've told you this before, but I think it'd be a bit easier to read if the MF parts were italicized to show they happened in the past. There -is- a clear distinction between the two in writing style alone, but there have been times where I've had to go back and reread a section 'cause I didn't realize the scene changed.

You don't have to though, and I know you know that. 😀 I'm just throwing it out there to see if anyone else has input on that particular point. Otherwise, KEEP WRITING. I'll even let you have your computer back so you can do so.

(also, I'll be collecting any relevant doodles I make and either he or I will post them here)

~Shadowed Spirit Sage

Spent some time today editing the master copy, so the previous chapters can be replaced with better versions in the future. Here's today's offering:

-

The next few hours were mostly quiet. Both Cari and Navi seemed to be too enraptured by their reading material to manage any conversation, so I resigned myself to flipping through the book that I'd brought with me. It wasn't too bad, though the art was not to my liking. It did it's job of passing the dead minutes between coming back downstairs and getting to eat.

Before an hour had passed away, the door opened, revealing Tyler and Sapphire. Sapphire was fairly distinctive in appearance and was fairly cut in the middle between the one I knew and the one who stood there. Her hair was jet black, instead of it's normal azure, though it remained in it's short neck-length style, her arms were slightly more developed than the one I knew, and there was an energy to her character which I could not fit with the serene tea sipping Goddess I recalled.

"What a workout." she huffed, dumping a gym bag to her side and striding into the room, stretching her arms out. I spent the moment wondering if she was a cheerleader or something of the sort, though the spaghetti strap tank top did not really seem appropriate attire for that particular pursuit. "If we play like that at the end of the month, I think we can still rope in that victory."

Tyler, behind her, moved around her and looked among the people present. I had a feeling I knew who he was looking for, so helpfully supplied "She's upstairs, bro." whimsically pointing upwards.

He gave me a grin with a thumbs up and dashed upstairs, presumably not to return until dinner was ready. While I was dealing with him, Cari engaged Sapphire without looking away from her magazine, asking "Score any hoops?" though her voice indicated she didn't really care too much.

"I play defense." Sapphire harshly reminded Cari, angrily plunking herself down on a chair, "and yes." she added with a cocky tone.

"Don't get upset, Sappho, I was just asking." Cari continued, indifferently. "By the way, we're going out to the Roundhouse on Friday. Saygrum Angels gig."

Sapphire continued stretching and getting comfortable, "I had a good time at the one last year." she said, a little more friendly now, "I'm up for it." as she said it, she looked to Navi who was still hiding in her borrowed book and ignoring everyone around her, and then to me. "I guess you're coming too, Bayfield?"

"Yeah. Wouldn't miss it." I stated plainly, shrugging my shoulders indifferently, "The Thanksgiving concert was too much fun. Though, I don't know if you'll be able to mosh at The Roundhouse, it's a fairly intimate venue."

"I'll have fun, don't worry about that." she said with a devious smirk. If this Sapphire was anything like the one I knew, then I did not doubt that for a second.

Before the conversation could go anywhere else, Tamara and Tyler made their way downstairs.

"Okay." Tyler stated, holding Tamara's hand, "The whole family's here. Shall we get a start on dinner?" the room erupted with motion as we all got up and migrated to the kitchen, even Navi who had been fairly avoidant since our brief conversation.

Deciding it best to keep up appearances and try to make small talk if and where I could, I nudged Tyler's side and asked "Practice go well?"

"Well as it could, bro." he replied in a tone which indicated that the conversation was to end there. As hard as I was trying to find a way to connect with these mirror images of my family, it seemed that I was destined to be shot down, no matter what. I paused briefly in the doorway of the kitchen and watched as everyone raided the freezer for what we had.

I wondered if things were really as bad as I had made them out to be, back home. Whether a few kidnapping attempts and adrenaline fueled adventures were bad enough for me to want to switch realities. I thought, maybe there were good memories I could fall back on and if they were good enough to outweigh the bad.

-

Things were always tricky, living life with a daughter who should not exist yet. It had taken Craig a lot of getting used to, for the first year that he shared in the lodge with her, the entire family had deceived him into thinking Kay was Tricia's niece come to live with them. As most things often do, however, the truth had come out and after the initial shock had worn off, life was considerably better for the knowledge.

However, there were still complications. When Sapphire had rescued her from a horrific future that she and her sister were responsible for creating, she had told the young child that she was not to mention the future, no matter what, or it wouldn't happen. This had always seemed unfair, to Kay, who wanted desperately to be able to celebrate her birthday, but was forbidden from mentioning when it fell, least it alter the circumstances of her conception.

Upon learning this, Tricia and Craig had resolved to give her a special celebration every new year's day, which they playfully told the young child, would be "Kay Day" from now on. Kay Day consisted of all the things a birthday would contain, except for a song. Part of the key preparation was the Kay Day cake, to have a Pokeball design iced on the top.

Cari, Tricia, Craig and Kay occupied the kitchen, which was far messier than it normally would have been. Flour was spread over almost all surfaces and the faces of all four present, milk was spilling off of the counter and an icing bag was leaking on the sink. Kay giggled with delight, as she pressed her hands into the dough, her face beaming with pride and delight as she helped create the cake she would be sharing with her family that night. Craig leaned against the counter, having pre-heated the oven and ready to step in and help his daughter if she needed any help. Cari was playing with the measuring cups by the sink and Tricia was preparing the baking pan with some spray on butter.

"Must be hard for her." Craig mused to Tricia, watching Kay continue making a mess, "Taken out of the world she knew and forced to live with past versions of her family, but not able to tell them anything about the future she came from."

Tricia heaved a sigh and pushed some hair from her brow, frowning slightly "Would it really be so bad for her to tell us when her birthday is?" she asked, knowing the answer and wishing it wasn't so., "I mean, we'll just make sure we actually have her on that day."

"We can't be certain though." Craig said, sinking back, "Best we can do is make this home as comfortable for her as we can and deal with the future when it happens."

"I'm kind of happy, though." Tricia said, smiling, "I don't think I could imagine my life without her, you know?"

"I know." Craig replied, "I never thought I'd be a father. Plus, I didn't think I'd be a good one even if I could be one, I never had one of my own, so what would I know about raising kids. The fact that she was already old enough to love me and mean it… how can I be afraid of being a bad father, when I know I was to her… will be to her?" he gave a short chuckle, shaking his head "Time travel is confusing, huh?"

"Yeah…" Tricia replied, musing. "It's just not fair on her, is it?"

"No." he replied, quite seriously "It isn't fair. It isn't right. But it is. And if it is, we can't feel sad or guilty about it, we just have to make it as fair and nice as we can."

"I know." Tricia replied, hugging her boyfriend's arm "I was really dumbfounded at first, when I found out, I thought I would just run back home and drop everything which lead me here." she hung her head, knowing that her words also implied leaving Craig, but the fact she had not done this meant neither party was upset, as she continued "But I did stay, and I'm glad I did. I look at her now and wonder how I could have ever thought about wanting to leave, even for a second." she took her boyfriend's hands in her own and beamed brightly at him, "Kitty. I love you. I just want you to know that. No matter what has happened or will happen in my life, I am glad I found you. Without you, I don't know where my life would be right now and when I see you and our daughter, I get so happy to know that I am here with you." pausing a moment to regain herself, she released his hands and put her arms around him, standing on tip-toes to give him a loving and passionate kiss.

"I love you too, Trish." he finally replied, after the beautiful moment had passed.

-

Coming back to the moment, I noticed that the dinner operation had already begun. Navi had already snuck back out of the room, passing me, and was in her corner reading again, Tyler and Tamara were chopping up some chicken and peppers and Sapphire and Cari were preparing some rice and starting up the stove.

"Need any help?" I weakly asked, feeling embarrassed that I had missed out on the initial dive.

"We'll be fine." Tyler responded, "you get back to your book."

My ears were burning as I did as I was told and sat back in my arm-chair, I didn't particularly want to be looked upon as a deadbeat, especially when I had my suspicions that Tamara already thought me, or at least the other me, one.

I sighed, realizing that the matter had happened and could not be undone, so instead I reflected on what I had been remembering a moment before. It was the first time I had noticed the idea that Kay had suffered something similar to what I had, though it was not the end of the world for her. She was able to adapt and survive quite happily in the family we had given her, and though the circumstances were not exactly the same, I was quite certain that I would be able to survive the same way. Idly wishing to return home would not change a thing, and in that moment I realized that it was my duty to be more accepting to the situation I had found myself stuck in.

Also hanging in my memory were Tricia's words. She told me that did not know what she would have done if she had not met me. Perhaps in this reality, she had not met me. I didn't know how much her destiny would have shifted through something as small as that, but either way she was still not here and I had no ideas on where to start looking for her.

"You are troubled?" a voice from across the room asked me.

I looked up and saw Navi had placed her book to the coffee table and was starring directly at me. My embarrassment skyrocketed for being seen, and I quickly responded "I'm fine, really."

"You seem more distracted than normal." the black clad goth chick stated, eyeing me over her glasses.

"I know… I just. I'm having an off day." I sighed, "I'll feel better after I eat something, I promise." and mentioning that reminded me how true the statement was, I was starving with hunger by that point, and would feel so much better after I had the opportunity to eat dinner.

"As you say…" she responded, reaching out for her book, "Please confide in me, though. You would find I have a good pair of ears."

I was about to just say thanks and be done with it, but a streak of inspiration reminded me of the journal and what the other me had written about her on the first day he moved in, so I gave a weak smile and said "Thanks, Natalie".

I doubt she had expected to be called by her real name at that time and she looked a little taken aback for it, the edges of her lips curled and she gave a nod to me and hid back behind her book.

I felt very satisfied with that, and with a heavy breath, sunk back into my chair and waited until dinner was served.

Dinner ended up being pretty nice, the guys put together a fairly adequite curry dish, which was a tad spicy, but otherwise pleasing to the tastebuds and warming to the tummy. Perhaps slightly more greedy than I would have liked to have been, I took a second helping. It had, afterall, been a full two days since my last major meal. It took me a few minutes to fully realize the effects, but the addition of food to my system had negated a lot of the bad feelings I had been feeling moments before, chief among them were fatigue and grumpiness. I really felt refreshed and more prepared to deal with whichever reality I would wake in.

Directly after dinner, Tyler had dragged Tamara upstairs. Navi returned to her book and Sapphire had started watching TV, Cari meanwhile had started on dishes. I decided right there and then that the best way to start building a personal repor with my housemates would be to go out of my way to be nice, so I stood to her right and asked "Need help?"

She seemed pleased with the gesture and indicated a table towel, "If you could dry and put away, I'd appreciate it." she said. I noticed that since she saw the advertizement for Saygrum Angels she had been dancing on air.

I first started by opening all of the cupboard doors to confirm where the cups, plates and cutlery was kept, having done that I got the table towel and began drying, "You're really taken with that guitarist, huh?" I asked, keeping a pleasant smile upon my face.

"Want to hear a secret?" she said, brightly, her body actually shaking with delight, "After the thanksgiving concert, I got to meet him before we went back" her eyes sparkled as she thought back to what I believed would have been a treasured memory for her. "He was all over me, and whispered in my ear that we'd have to talk some more next time they played." she had stopped washing and splashed her wet hands together, holding them to her chest, "Oh, Craig, I can't wait. He was so hot and cool... and you know how upset I was when I broke up with Moggy."

I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes at this. I had found it weird to this point that Cari was so melancholny, but if it was over a break-up, she certainly wasn't anything like the blaise Cari I knew, who saw all relationships as a fling which lasted until the mortal died or she got bored. Perhaps this Cari, with her human lifespan, had not built the experience to treat love so disrespectfully, but the attitude she was displaying now was everything I hated about young love bottled and pressed into the shell of a woman that I'd normally respect. Moreover, my mind thought back to the journal entry which described her as a happy-go-lucky person, and theorized that she is only happy if she's in a relationship. "You two would be good together." I finally said, having dried the plate I was holding a good three or four times over in silence.

Cari seemed happy with that responce and went back to cleaning dishes, humming an unfamiliar tune which I assumed was by the Saygrum Angels.

I finished up that chore as fast as I could escape and worked my way back into the living room. I decided it was not worth going out of my way to bond with Sapphire, as the two of us were never friends in the world that I left behind and I did not think I would care for any variation on the formula, regardless of their origin, and Ruby and Sapphire had a fairly crazy origin as it stood. Smirking to myself as I walked up the stairs, I playfully tried to recount it in my head.

Ruby and Sapphire were time goddesses, or the same time goddess. It was hard to tell, due to the nature of their origin. What was clear was that they were actually the reincarnation of a previous goddess who had been killed with a special sword, and had her power drawn out and placed inside of another vessel, which again was destroyed and passed on to Ruby and/or Sapphire.

The act of killing that Goddess fractured time. Normally there was only supposed to be a single timeline, and the powers that be had kept this balance in place for all of known history. However, in that single act of killing the previous goddess, all of that had crumbled in on itself and countless variations of reality were created, including variations on the events that would follow, creating both Ruby and Sapphire.

As the events took place at the very heart of the catastrophe, no one was ever quite sure on what exactly occured, even Ruby and Sapphire themselves. However, Ruby claims that a different version of myself was present at the event, along with Cari and some of the lodge residents who lived there at the time. During the ensueing insanity, the power of the previous goddess had ended up in that me and turned him into her. A strange tale, and one I never truly placed much stock or faith in, especially given how much I despise her. Regardless of the circumstances, the fact remains that she exists and she claims this.

Also, in order to clean up history and make time more linear than it had been, she was tasked with destroying the variations of herself, including Sapphire. The two of them dueled and their fight sparked a chain reaction which lead to an entire alternate universe collapsing in on itself, leaving nothing but a void, of which Sapphire found herself trapped within for almost an entire century, before escaping.

As I entered my room, I rubbed my head. Thinking about that story always caused it to hurt, as so little of it made sense, no matter how much was explained or how many facts I tried to insert into my limited understanding. I had long since resigned to the fact that they just did exist, and attempting to explain why they existed was as futile as trying to explain why life itself existed.

I looked to the ceiling for a moment, thinking about the people I had met now and how they compared to the people I knew. Cari was a joyful ice themed goddess born to protect the sacred realm, she dated Lee. In this world she was a love sick college student who was only as good as her next boyfriend. Tamara was an angst ridden fire themed sister of Cari of the same birth and mission. Here she was a preppy and upbeat soul with no worries or troubles. Navi was a reclusive plant themed goddess, same as her sisters, who had a bit of a crazy and emotionless edge to her. Here she was a fairly nice goth chick who acted nice to me. Sapphire was a really crazy and superior acting time goddess. Now she was an athletic basketball player. Then there was Tyler. In my world, he was an "ego shard", a mirror image created of my own dreams and desires, a man who was not limited in the ways I was and saught to make the most of himself physically, mentally and emotionally. Here he was the same, and yet so different. He was the hyper intellectual MVP, which still represented how he was in my world, and he was my "bro" which was about the same relationship we shared in my world, though we did not get on as we do here.

My head hurt. I was thinking too much and the longer I was away from my special world, the less sense it all made. I lay back and closed my eyes, wondering if it really was a bad thought that I could adapt and live out here where everything made more sense. It seemed I had some positive head starts in life and could make something of it here, with a new family and new friends. I didn't know if it was betraying the life that I had before if I was genuinely unable to return. It would simply be making the best of circumstance, which was hardly a sin.

Troubling thoughts clouding my mind and the idea of anymore reading feeling appauling to me, I finally gave way to sleep, letting the waking world, wether it special or normal, disappear and give way to dreams.

The next morning the alarm disrupted me from my sleep. I was dreaming about Tricia and Kay. I remember that much. A small part of me wished to bury myself in the sheets, continue sleeping and ignore the world as loudly as I could for hope that I could remain in dreams, but as always they are fleeting and as the day went on it faded from memory. I got changed into some clothes which I did not own in my world and headed down to the kitchen, fixing myself some of the crap coffee from the previous morning and a pair of pop-tarts that were labeled as my own.

Tyler was the only one present in the kitchen, so I sat next to him.

"Morning, bro." I said, as politely as a person can when they're an exhausted nightowl who hates mornings.

"Mornin'..." he grumpily replied, proving that he was just as much a morning guy as I was.

"Something troubling you?" I asked, sincerely. It had not regsitered to me, until I heard the tone in my own voice, but my yearning for family had caused me to connect with Tyler in a way I had not really allowed myself to connect with any of tyhe other people in the lodge. "You can always talk to me."

"Yeah..." he mused, brushing his hair from out of his brow and starring down at his cereal bowl, which seemed mostly untouched. "It's Tamara." he said, after a brief pause. "We had a bit of a talk yesterday."

My mind traced back to the car ride the previous day and my heart sank. I was sure that my attempt at helping their relationship had backfired and made things worse. My voice caught in my throat for the briefest of moments, but I raised my hand to his shoulder and managed to breathe out "Tyler... I..."

He cut me off, however, looking to me with a dry smirk, before turning away, shaking his head, "No, no, don't worry bro. You weren't to know." he took another look at his cereal, then hopped to his feet, grabbing his coat. "Come on. I'll give you a ride, just the two of us. We can talk about it a bit, okay?"

"Sure thing..." I responded in a hushed tone, not quite sure what I was letting myself into. "Let me grab my stuff." and with that said, I quickly hurried to my bedroom and grabbed both my school bag and my briefcase of equiptment, mentally patting my back for saving myself another verbal bashing from the photography instructor.

I got back downstairs and Tyler was already prepared, standing in the doorway with his own bag and coat now over his shoulder. He nodded out for me to follow, which I did, and he hopped into the Audi. I noticed a blue Ford which presumably belonged to either Navi or Sapphire, but did not think it important enough to give more than a passing glance at.

For the first few minutes there was silence, Tyler started the car without saying a word, and after placing my stuff in the back, I hopped in the passenger seat. Every moment of silence was excruciating, as it made me believe more and more that my single sentence to Tamara the previous day had caused a major rift in the relationship between Tyler and the Craig he called bro. A small part of me mourned inside, as I had not been able to treasure the family bond which they shared.

"Don't be so tense, bro" he finally said, starring straight ahead at the road. I looked over to watch his expression, it was fairly straight and serious. Not sad or angry, just focused. "You didn't do a bad thing, yesterday. You wasn't wrong, either. I do love her. I thought she knew that." and then he cut himself off suddenly. Seemingly unsure on what he was to say next.

"I wouldn't have said it if I didn't think it would go down this badly." I said, thinking for a moment whether I should reach over and touch him for reassurance. I stayed my hand and waited for his response.

"I do love her…" he mused, to himself mostly, "I wanted to tell her so many times, over the months. But I hadn't decided…" he was struggling to find words. I had never seen my version of him this tongue tied, and I wondered if it was a similarity or a difference between them, as I was not sure how he would react to emotional turmoil of this variety.

"What's so hard to say, though? If you love her, she should know, right?" I asked, sincerely perplexed. Tyler was normally far more direct than this, and from what little he knew of his "bro", being tongue-tied over three words hardly seemed to be in his character.

"The folks." he finally stated. "You remember I took her over to their place for Thanksgiving, right?", I felt a large amount of gratitude towards the other Craig for leaving the journal for me to learn about it, otherwise I may have floundered through this conversation, and it did sound like he needed me right now. "Well, they didn't like her. At all. They threw around words like cheap harlot and gold digging skank." he sighed, slowing down for a red light, then looking directly at me with a troubled expression "Pa took me into the family room at the end of the evening, when she was waiting in the car, and told me to have my fun, but don't get any ideas of stretching it out any more than necessary." he frowned and started driving again.

"What a douche…" I grumbled, apparently the other me had similar sentiments as Tyler didn't react at all, "Well he can go screw himself, who is he to say who you love and don't."

"He's our landlord for one thing." Tyler responded, bitterly, "and for another, he's paying for my schooling, and he took me out of that orphanage. I told you before, the guy sees me as a financial investment, more than a son, and he obviously wants my "mate" to be an investment, also."

"Selfish prick." I grumbled, angrily starring at the road and wondering if my own world had such jerks in it, and whether there was a way to set them straight or not.

"Gets worse." Tyler said, "Warned me that if she got pregnant, I was to dump her immediately. Said something dumb like "their kind think a kid and a shackle are the same thing."" he took one of his hands off of the wheel to slam it unthreateningly against the dashboard and huffed out a breath of extreme aggravation. "It pissed me off when it happened, but it's been a few months, I thought I was over it, then Tamara tells me that you said I loved her and she wanted to move our relationship to the next level."

For a moment I wondered what level it was at, and immaturely pictured Tamara shyly asking if they could hold hands. Managing to keep a smirk down was a difficult chore, and once I had managed that I didn't have the heart to actually ask what stage the relationship was at, or how the rest of the conversation went, so just remained silent and waited for Tyler to resume the explanation.

"I didn't tell her what my dad said, back then." he explained, flatly, "So I let her know, I made sure she understood that it was his thoughts and not my own. Not that I think she would have doubted me, I mean, I do love her. She knows that now. She even knows why I never told her." the expression on his face scared me enough to think he may have been prepared to drive into oncoming traffic at any point.

"So was she supportive?" I asked, speaking up for what felt like the first time in the conversation, and immediately regretting doing so once I had.

"Of course." he said with a distinctive air of avoidance in his tone. "But she doesn't get it. She said I should just let him disown me, that we didn't need his money and that I was twice the man he was."

I watched him. I was agreeing with Tamara in my head, but his tone was fairly clear that she had said something which he could not even fathom her believing. I also feared that he had the impression that I was supposed to share his mindset on this idea. Deciding the most neutral course was wisest, until I knew more about matters, I simply stated "You are, you know."

"Thanks, bro." he replied, dismissively, as if he had not even listened to the compliment, "Even if you take the money and the support out of the equation, they raised me, you know? I can't just spit on that for a college fling. Maybe pa's right and it's just a fleeting fancy which I will get over when I'm in a different scene. I'm not ready to turn my back on everything for something I'm not even sure about. You know?" there was a slight pleading edge to his tone, he wasn't just asking if I understand, but if I could back him up and validate his belief, one orphan to another.

It was a hard call. I didn't know what I would say if this was my brotherly relationship, and this was not mine. It was the other Craig's and if he still existed somewhere in the world, I did not want to jam a wedge into something which he clearly treasured. Giving a quick gulp and praying I didn't misstep, I finally responded "Tyler. Family is not who raise you, but who love you." hallmark cheesiness, but fitting in it's own way.

I could tell right away that this is not what he wanted to hear. His grip on the steering wheel tightened and he looked to be a bit more stressed now that he did not have my validation, which he was clearly bargaining on.

"What do you want me to say?" I continued, trying to shove down my urge to get mad at him, "You think being an orphan is an instant angst ticket?" and it was only when I actually said that out loud that I realized that even if I had not grown up with him, I was still an orphan, like he was, and could empathize "It doesn't work like that, and you know it. You're being unfair to Tamara and yourself." and the more words I spoke, the more passionate I found myself becoming. I was actually getting angry at him for being such a pushover.

"Bro… I got to admit. I didn't expect that." he said, and as he did, I realized we were pulling over. I thought for a moment that I had offended him enough to get kicked out of the car "You're normally such a pussy, I didn't think you'd speak up." I couldn't get a read on whether this was a compliment or not. "Anyway, we're here. Let's get a drink and talk it over, okay?"

The car was parked now, and I got out. "This isn't college." I stated, feeling a bit deflated "Where are we?"

"You should recognize it, bro." Tyler said, indicating the building we'd parked beside. I gave it a look and a wave of familiarity washed over me. "Ah. Here." I said, calmly. Before me stood the World Café. A place that both versions of myself used to work at before they had found the lodge. At least, I gathered as much from the other Craig's journal.

It had been a long time since I had last seen it, I was not one for trips down memory lane, but this place did hold a very specific memory for me.

It was where I first met Tricia.

-

Winter was particularly harsh this year, the leaves had long since fallen off of the trees, leaving them empty branches which reached forlorn into the sky waiting for spring to revitalize them, the air was getting cold, the nights were dark and the world had lost the spark of brightness it had once enjoyed mere months before. A magic had been lost from the Earth and only a vague promise that it would soon return, come spring, gave any hope that the sun would come out the next day.

Though the countryside would be a ballet of death, as the plants and leaves had long since died in the ice and snow, the city thrived in the atmosphere. The bitter darkness and the cold showers amplified the effects of the lights. Where once the clear skies left an empty murky curtain over the land and the streets were given a haunting emptiness to the light, now the skies were overcast and the darkness helped define the light, as the puddles helped reflect it, creating a new life which only those in the city could enjoy.

Of course, despite it's beauty, the chilling cold and the harsh showers brought about their toll on anyone who would be walking the streets. It was under these circumstances that caused a chance meeting which would define the lives of both individuals involved.

Craig Bayfield worked at the World Café. He had ever since he had left his orphanage upon his 18^th birthday. It had been a few months since he first took the role, and as the time went on, he found that it was a rather nice role. He stood behind the counter, preparing his favorite beverage for any customers who would come in, making small talk in the meantime and even making friends in the long run.

The rain had been keeping any regulars away, as few people would brave the storms for a casual brew, especially those who got them to go. It had been a dreary day, dull and uneventful. The place was entirely empty at the time and he was leaning over the counter, reading a book.

A block away from the café, Tricia Greiner was using a newspaper to shield her head from the rain. She cursed herself for not having the foresight to have prepared for the rain. In her haste to seek shelter from the rain, she'd lost her way. She was still relatively new to Sega City. She had only moved there in the middle of January, switching schools from her suburban home in order to take up a secret career of costumed crime fighting. Unbeknownst to the world, she was in fact Electrawoman, new defender of Sega City, who wearing her signature blue and gold uniform, flew over the city using her electrical powers to snuff out crime where she saw it.

However, both the city and the powers were new to her and in the cold showers, each drop which made contact with her skin was accompanied by a bitter shock. Seeing no real way out of her predicament but to wait out the storm, she burst through the double doors to a café she had stumbled across.

The boy behind the counter looked up from his book, perplexed at the sudden entry of the poor drenched girl. He threw his book aside and ran around the counter to the newcomer.

"Are you okay?" he asked, "You look soaked."

The girl looked up wirily at the cashier, "Do you have a towel?" she asked, removing her coat and putting it on a stand by the door.

"Oh, sure!" the Craig replied, running around and tossing over a table towel from under the counter, his actions full of a youthful energy and excitement which generated from having some company to pass the boredom with. "Would you like a drink?"

"I don't have any money, I'm afraid." Tricia responded, as she was only a high school student, and any free time she would have for part-time employment was taken up by her heroic endeavors.

"Not to worry. I'll cover it." he offered. If he were asked to this day, he would not be able to provide an adequate answer for why he did so, just that it was the right thing to do. "All my money goes to rent and crap I don't need, anyway. And you look like you need a hot chocolate."

She was drying her face with the table towel, but behind it a smile spread across the girl's face, 'Thanks." she said. In the act of smiling, her long and pointed ears pricked upwards.

"Cute." Craig said, absently, and when she gave him a look of bewilderment, he added "Your ears, I mean. They're cute."

A slight blush rose to Tricia's face. All her life she had been singled out because of her ears, and had never received such an open and unprovoked compliment about them before.

Craig poured out the hot chocolate and sprinkled the top liberally with marshmallows, handing the mug to her with a smile. "Enjoy."

Oh my, this is quite long and epic. I must find time to read it all. :O

Clearly creg should record his long and epic story as an mp3 for all our benifits.

Thanks for taking a look, Saff. And I'll think about it Creo *laughs*

Anywho, here's today's offering

===

She took it gratefully and sat herself down at the counter, which Craig walked around to the back of, receiving the towel and throwing it into a laundry basket kept underneath. She took a sip of it and felt it immedietly warm both her body and her spirits.

"Thank you." She said, for a second time, looking up at him as he leaned over the counter, watching her. "I got lost and then it started raining." As she spoke she leaned up from her mug, and looked back out to the window, where the streets were still being barraged by a light winter drizzle. "How well do you know this area?"

"Fairly well." He replied, modestly, pouring out a fresh coffee for himself "I've lived in the city all of my life and get about a bit. Where're you heading?"

"Home. Well, home to this woman I'm staying with." This was a half-truth. She had actually been intending to go for her nightly patrol, and from an ariel perspective, she was easily able to navigate the city, it was only on the street level that she had any difficulty. Realizing it would cause more problems to explain this than to just wait for the rain to stop, she asked "Do you mind if I just wait out the weather?"

"No objections here." Craig replied. "I could use the company. Most don't like to drink to-go-coffee in the rain." He shrugged "Go figure. So you're a high school student?"

She puffed her chest out with pride and irritation that a stranger would blindly assume that, even if she looked that age "Yeah. Leavitt High School, I only transferred a couple of weeks ago."

"Heh. New to town, huh?" Craig replied with a vague smile, "How have you been finding it?"

"Well, I can tell you that it's different from the suburbs." Tricia responded, a bit brighter than before "It's big, but it's beautiful, and I like being able to go places without needing a ride."

Craig chuckled in response, walking back around the counter and sitting besides his lone customer, "I doubt I would have survived growing up in the suburbs. I'm a city boy through and through." And with that he took a liberal sip of coffee and sighed in satisfaction once he had done so.

"The city is a dangerous place, though." Tricia said with an edge in her voice "It's unsettling to know that there's so ,much crime going on."

"Yeah…" Craig responded, giving a shrug, "But you've got to admit, it's kind of exciting to be living in a city with it's very own superheroes."

Tricia did not have any time to shield her reaction and just blushed up, smiling against herself. She raised her mug to her lips in hopes of blocking out this reaction. Fortunately for her, it seemed that the man did not pick up on it, or at the very least he was polite enough not to raise attention to it.

"I'm Tricia, by the way." She said with a smile, offering a hand to the coffee shop cashier, "It's nice to meet you…" and she paused, inviting him to present his name in return.

"Craig." He replied, shaking her hand, "Craig Bayfield."

She looked back to the window, where some lonely rays of sun appeared to be splintering out of the clouds, and the rain had lightened up significantly. "Thank you again, for the drink."

"Stop by again." Craig said, drinking another sip of his coffee, his voice indicated this was a personal invitation more than an empty and pointless phrase he was trained to say to all customers.

Grinning back, she replied playfully "Maybe." Elongating the word and winking for good measure.

Craig reached under the counter and produced an umbrella and threw it over to her, which she catched with great ease. "You'll have to, if you're going to return that to me."

Feeling a renewed sense of joy and satisfaction in the world, she spread the umbrella open and merged with pedestrian traffic, thinking to herself that there were still decent people in the world and that the day was a lot brighter than it had been a half hour earlier.

-

I'd spent such a long time being consumed by nostalgia and memory that I had entirely neglected to pay attention to anything happening outside of my own head. When I had eventually been snapped back to the moment, Tyler was nudging me and asking what I wanted.

I naturally settled on the house special, as in my experience from working there, it was nice to have a surprising taste of variety each day. I was finally able to take in how the inside of the café looked in this world, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was. to the smallest detail, identical to the one I knew and recalled. The walls flanking the main entrance were lined with booths and the rest of the café was spread liberally with round tables with cute wooden chairs at each quarter.

The smell of freshly ground beans lingered pleasantly in my sinus, the ceiling was lined with fans which lazily rotated. It was exactly as I remembered it, and that fact feeled me with such a solid feeling of comfort, that I was prepared for anything my conversation with Tyler would lead to.

As the cashier poured out the drinks, I realized that the brown haired woman was a previous co-worker of mine. I struggled to recall her name, as she handed the drink to me. The uncomfortable smile on my face was probably enough body language to show the girl that I recognized her, and she clearly recognized me in turn. It was a nice moment.

After pouring in our sweetners and extra cream, we sat down in a booth. Tyler heaved a breath and sagged back.

"Okay." He sighed, preparing the words in his mind before slowly continuing, "So. I'm being unfair to Tamara and myself, huh?" he tented his fingers and looked me over with a neutral expression, "Anything else you wanted to say?"

"Tyler. Bro? Listen to me for a second." I took my own moment of reflection to prepare my counter-argument "I know how important a family is. I've envied you for the majority of my childhood." His face broke into an expression of pride, it was clear that he enjoyed hearing that particular sentence, arrogant jerk he was "And they did good things for you. I'm not ingrate enough to think that I can badmouth your old man, when I wouldn't be drinking this coffee without his money."

Tyler nodded, satisfied that I was seeing things from his perspective and not just running my mouth off mindlessly, as I assumed he thought Tamara had. "Ok, so if you get that much, then you should know I can't just turn my back on them both for the sake of a girl."

I smirked and folded my arms, perhaps feeling prematurely triumphant, "Is Tamara just a girl, to you, though?" I cockily replied.

He snorted, frowning at me. "Come on, this is unfair and you know it. You can't make me decide over my parents and Tamara."

"Your dad is making you, though." I responded, then quickly held up my hand to halt him and keep the floor my own for a moment more "Look, I'm not saying it's fair. It's a horrible situation and you shouldn't have been put in it in the first place. I'm just trying to help you deal with it with a clear head. First, tell me what happened last night."

He turned his head and starred out of the window, avoiding my eyes, "She got really upset that I didn't take her side when it happened. She said she loved me too, but I was a stupid idiot." He looked really grumpy, and for a moment I considered taking his side, if only to shield myself from being the target of his wrath.

"Well, what did you say in response?" I asked, trying to sound impartial.

"I…" he huffed, taking a large gulp from his mug, "I told her that without my dad she wouldn't even have a house to sleep in. She didn't react well. She just said thanks in that dark tone girls use and then stormed out. She didn't come back to bed. That's why I didn't want to go to college. Sorry for forcing you to bunk, by the way."

"Eh, you got me in worse trouble." I stated casually, gambling on the idea that their childhood would have been a more ordinary and simple version of the one I had spent with my own Tyler. He didn't seem to react in any way more than a smirk, which was better than the frown to my eyes, so I pressed on. "She'll be back tonight, Tyler. I'm sure of it. You two have something which can't be broken with a single sentence. You both need to spend a day calming down and you'll be better for it."

"But what should I say, bro? It's not like a day away will make it any less true" For a moment, I wanted to hit his concieted face for his absoloute lack of empathy towards the woman that I knew dang well that he loved.

"Talking to your dad about this would probably be a bad idea." I mused, looking out the window myself and watching the flood of human traffic passing by outside, "So you should prepare a gesture of apology, and just promise that you'll work something out. I mean, worst that can happen, you wait until your financially secured for yourself and then try to marry her or something. I mean, when you're on your own feet, only one who loses out from disowning you is themselves."

He looked like he was considering this at length, before looking back "He did say I could enjoy the fling as long as I wanted…" he mused, swirling the contents of his mug as he looked at me.

"So just enjoy it and worry about tomorrows problems when they come. Right now, today's problem is that you owe Tamara an apology gift" my eyes were still on the window, and it was that moment that my eyes widened and I felt my heart pull in my chest.

It was Tricia.

She was there, walking with two other girls, both of whom I recognized from my own world, but was not acquianted with. One, a blonde haired preppy girl who had been my jailer during a particular incident where Kay and myself had been kidnapped by a group of mercanaries who wanted to punish Tricia for her exploits as Electrawoman. The other was Tricia's best friend, Celine, who she went to high school with. Tricia, in the middle, looked exactly as I remembered her.

My heart was pounding in my chest, it was almost painful, and whatever Tyler had said in response to my idea of an apology gift fell deafly on my ears. I could feel the entirety of reality disappear slowly as my attention became focused solely on the trio. My vision was taken up entirely by her, no sounds entered my world, the smell of ground beans distant to me, the lingering taste of coffee lost to my lips and all that I could feel was my rapidly increasing heart rate, which spiked as I realized she was turning and entering the building.

Tyler must have noticed how I had blanked him out by now, but I didn't care. I was in the same room as Tricia. Perhaps not the same Tricia of my memories, but it was the Tricia of this world, the woman that I loved. If fate kept Tamara and Tyler together and had Cari lusting for Lee, surely I was destined to be with Tricia, and now she was here.

Her party approached the counter and the blonde, Angelica, made the orders for them all. Tricia turned and leant back against the counter, surveying the café. My breath caught in my throat, she was so close, my entire heart and soul willed for her to just look over at me, to recognize me, agaisnt all hope. Maybe my other self had met her in the same way that I had. A maelstrom of emotion and a raging storm of insane thoughts came across me all at once, and I found that I had pushed my hand onto the table and was prepared to stand and approach her.

Then I sobered.

My foot planted heavily on the ground, and I noticed that my hand was shaking. Painfully, I took my eyes away from her. I couldn't do it. As much as my entire mind, body and soul willed me to, I couldn't stand up. A tightness was forming in my chest and reality began chocking me. Even if she did know me, it was clear that we were not in a relationship in this world. I had no clue what I could possibly say. How would I be able to say a word, I didn't know if there was a way I could walk up to her without seeming a creepy stalker.

The moment had come and gone too fast, she was already leaving with her colleuges, and I could do nothing but watch and feel all of my hopes and love be stripped from me as the door closed and I watched her fade out into the distance.

"Bro? You okay?" Tyler asked, leaning over and shaking my arm. "You don't look good. She an ex I don't know about, or something?"

I looked to hm like a deer in a headlight, my heart feeling frozen in my chest. I heard his words, but I did not register them. "Something like that..." I barely breathed out. "I have to g. Bathroom. Sorry." I could hear the warbling in my voice, the corners of my eyes were stinging. Taking a quick panic gulp of coffee, I ran out to the restroom, locked myself in a stall, sat down and in a blind tempered rage, I slammed my fist against the walls, stomped my feet and letmyself cry out bitter tears of angry regret.

As usual, another terrific instalment, Craig. I've been keeping up with this as best I can around my own NaNo (which you've helped influence with your shifting use of storytelling perspective; so very brilliantly executed) and doing my scholastic writings that, because of a cosmic time-space rift, are due in successive days of each other. Keep up the terrific effort.

Thanks for the compliments, Rappy. It really means a lot to me, and I would love to read your project at some point, for I know you to be an amazing storyteller.

Here's today's installment:

-

Months fell off of the calendar slowly but surely as the year progressed. Spring brought about new life, flowers had begun sprouting from beneath the snow which had once blanketed the world, and the light and warmth that humanity often took for granted returned in full force. And as spring had come, removing all memory of the bitter winter chill, so too did summer come from the blooming rays of light that spring had delivered. Now the weather was muggy, humid and the city melted away amongst the smog and fumes of daily pollution.

It was a busy day at the World Café. Craig was running up and down the counter tirelessly attempting to get everyone's orders prepared in a timely manner. He was far from alone in this mission, but he never had an extensive relationship with his coworkers in any respect.

Through the previous months, he had made good friends with the pointed-eared woman who had long ago visited the store. She would come in at least once a week, with a trademark smile and some good conversation.

This was Craig's final week of work at the café. He had found a better living arrangement outside of the city and decided it would be too much energy to commute for such a low paid job. He was never unhappy with his role in the café, and did not regret anything about it for even a single moment, in fact in the enlightening retrospective which is offered by those who were on their way out, he could see that without the job he would not have the treasured friendship for him to miss in the first place. His people skills had developed and, though he found his new arrangement by searching for alternate employment, he did not have the heart to think badly of the first job he had ever held.

The entirety of the week he spent waiting for Tricia's visit, anticipating the bitter sweetness of their goodbye, and yet hoping that it would go well.

It was early evening when she finally walked through the double doors and beamed to see her friend on the other side of the counter. She politely waited in line for the opportunity to speak with him.

"Hot chocolate ready for you, Trish." I said, holding up a to-go cup full of steaming hot chocolate and layered with marshmallows. On every to-go cup there was a globe design with the worlds World Café written above and below the globe image. On a particularly slow day, Craig had got out his marker, used for indicating what cups needed cream, caffeine shots and so forth, and drew a little face on the globe.

The in-joke had carried on from then on, and when Tricia reached the front of the line, she found a bright face with whiskers and a mouth shaped like a sideways number three. As always, Tricia smiled at the silly gesture and handed over her money.

"Got any time to talk, later, Trish?" he asked, calmly, giving a mild nod to the clientele who were still queuing and waiting for their coffee.

Tricia sat down in her usual booth and looked out the window while sipping on her coffee. Normally she came in, spoke briefly with Craig and then made her way either home or to crime fighting. In her brief career, Electrawoman had garnered much media attention, mostly positive. She genuinely felt that she was making a difference in the city and that her presence would be a large deterrent of crime. She felt no guilt lingering in the café a little longer, as it seemed each night there were fewer and fewer things she needed to help with. A single night without a protector would not harm the city.

It was at least forty-five minutes before Craig had finally managed to pry himself away from the register, and sat opposite Tricia with a coffee of his own.

"Sorry for asking you to wait." he apologized, sagging back in the chair "It's been one heck of a busy day."

"It's okay." Tricia replied. "Are you okay? I don't think you've ever asked me to wait like this before." she scanned his features to see if there was any tell. There didn't seem to be.

"Well, I'm leaving the café." he stated, placing his hands on the table "I found a place outside of Sega City, and am going to stay there now." he watched as her face sunk at the news, as he had kind of anticipated it doing so.

"It's a really good place." he quickly added, raising his hands slightly, "A whole bunch of colorful people live there and it's all paid for. No rent, no utilities… it's really too good to be true."

"Oh…" Tricia said, struggling with words to deal with this. She supposed she should be happy for him, though it was slightly unfair of him to have her stick around for such a careless goodbye. "Well, I'm happy for you." and she knew, even as she said it, that she did not sound as happy as she was claiming.

"Anyway…I didn't want this to be goodbye." he said, and with this Tricia sat up a bit more, curious as to where he was going with this "I was wondering if you wanted to stay there too." and judging her facial expression, he raised his hands further, quickly adding "Not move in with me or anything, no. Just, you know... It's a nice place, it's free and there's spare room. The girl I spoke to said I could ask any of my friends if they wanted to come, and well, you're my only friend."

Both of them blushed with embarrassment at the awkward moment. Tricia started spinning the cardboard cup in her hands.

"I'm still in high school, remember?" she stated, not wanting to look at her friend as she said this "I have to stay with my guardian… at least until I'm 18."

Craig had totally forgotten this. He'd gotten along so well with her that he entirely neglected that she was 17 years old and would not be allowed to move out for another year. "Ok, I admit. I forgot all about that." he said, blushing, "But when you're of age, you're not going to stay with that strict old lady are you?"

"I hadn't thought about that…" she said, looking to the window and feeling a bit uncomfortable and unsure about all of this talk "I suppose I will have to move out."

"So, what've you to lose. Year goes by and it's just one of the houses you look at. Trust me, I did the whole house hunt thing, it sucks. I'll write the address down and next summer, if you turn up, I'll be overjoyed and give you the world's biggest hug. You don't, then I guess I'll cry. But you wont see that, so you have nothing to lose." he was always this bouncy, it was all part of his charm and the reason that they were friends.

"Tell you what. A flimsy bit of card is going to get left in our jeans on laundry day or something." he snagged her cup and pulled the marker from his pocket, writing down a phone number on the bottom of it. "You keep this Kitty Cup with you, and you'll be able to find our little lodge. Don't lost it now, I didn't bring my umbrella with me to make sure I'd see you again, this time."

"You're really retarded, Craig, you know that?" Tricia replied, grinning.

"Some have told me that. I'm just glad you aren't intimidated by it." he responded, smiling back at her.

"Well, I'm a bit retarded too." she said, flicking her own ear playfully. "I'm not promising anything, you know."

"Oh. I know." Craig said, standing up, "But I got the address from some shady businessman on a job interview, and ended up living there. You're getting it from a friend."

Tricia shook her head, standing up herself and walking over to the door "Then I guess this is goodbye, Craig."

"I'll think of it as see you later." he replied, patting her shoulder. "You take care of yourself, okay?" and as he spoke, he walked backwards to the counter where his attention was once again needed.

"You too." she called back, waving her hand and pushing past the double doors, back into the streets of Sega City.

-

If I was thankful for anything, it was that my unceremonious breakdown was not witnessed by any other customers, or worse Tyler. Giving myself ample time to clean my face and recompose myself, I walked back. I felt horrible inside, for sure, but I did admit to myself in retrospect, that my reaction was a bit too dramatic for the situation. Having had time to let the initial emotion die down, I was able to consider that even if I had the opportunity to speak with her, she would never be my Tricia and to think I could just place the love and trust of my relationship with her into another woman with the same name and face was, I thought, quite disrespectful for the love we shared.

I made my way to the booth, where Tyler was sitting with fresh drinks for the both of us. I took an experimental sip of my second drink and gave Tyler a satisfactory nod, he was close enough to me in this world that he could order coffee for me without my instruction. A talent which only two people in my own world had ever mastered.

"Want to talk about it, bro? I don't think I've ever seen you that cut up." he said, looking at me seriously, I couldn't decide whether he was hungry for the gossip or wanted to take the spotlight off of his own problems for a few minutes. Neither one would have surprised me.

"I don't want to…" I started, looking down at my unfinished first cup of coffee. I hesitated, however, as I wasn't sure if I would be able to contain all of the panic, stress and despair I had felt the previous few days without talking to someone, and this was a good a time as any to unload. Of course, I knew that I had to chose my words carefully, to avoid ramifications.

"I used to see her every day when I worked here." I said, which was not in itself a lie, "It was the highlight of my day. The reason I put on the apron every day, well besides paying rent." Tyler politely rolled his hand in agreement and to have me advance the story "I guess it's a show of how weak I am that she doesn't even know who I am, right?" I thought I'd feel better for getting Tyler's empathy, but I think the concept was absolutely foreign to him, and saying this just made me feel worse.

"Well, hey. That was before you moved in to the lodge, bro." Tyler reassured me with a cocky grin, "You've got the balls to talk to girls now, right?"

I sighed. He didn't get what I was trying to say, so I thought I'd just drop it "I guess…" he seemed to be slightly disappointed that the juicy scoop didn't delve any deeper than that, and that he would soon be the focus of conversation once again.

"Anyway, you shouldn't sweat the whole girlfriend thing, anyway." he said with a confidence which made me shiver. I didn't think it was possible that the other Craig would have a girlfriend without me having read about it in the journal, or pick up the vibe from somewhere. I felt compelled to ask.

"Why?" I responded, trying to act slightly more indignant than my worried mind was feeling, "It's not like I have one, right?" I watched his expression very carefully. There was no flicker of doubt or confusion. It seemed I didn't have one after all.

"Maybe not, but you'd be sorted when you decide to grow up and open your eyes." he sounded so full of himself as he spoke, that I really had to take in a deep breath and a mouthful of coffee to prevent a wave of hatred towards him welling up.

"The hell do you mean?" I questioned, my eyebrows raising. I couldn't keep up with his train of thought whatsoever and his roundabout responses were really getting on my nerves.

"Hah." he shook his arms in front of him to halt me, "I'm sworn to secrecy, bro. I just thought you were brighter than that."

"Well, you're the straight A student, Tyler. Not me." I shot back, feeling pretty bitter and annoyed with him, all of a sudden.

This shut him up. He sank back and finally lost that superior grin. "Guess I am." he sighed. "Want to trade?" I, myself, sighed at this. I didn't mean to upset him, and I could tell his daddy issues were plaguing his mind, and I had just hit a raw nerve.

"Look, I'm sorry. I know how much pressure you're under. I wouldn't be able to deal with it, and I admire you for keeping yourself up to his expectations. Want to talk some more about it, or avoid the subject all together?" I noticed, that helping him out and focusing on his problems, not to mention attempting to work out how much my other self would know about them, was helping me forget my own ones.

"Let's finish up our coffee and head back." he said, "I don't think talking about it will fix anything, and as you said, I just have to make it up to her, and that I was wrong for not defending her."

"And everything will be peachy keen." I dryly responded, with a subtle sarcastic layer which I doubt he picked up.

Early reply today, as Monday is Heroes night, and not even NaNo will distact me from Sylar. This one is mostly in-canon backstory behind one of my characters, so was easy to write, as it's stuff that I didn't have to make up.

-----------

We finished up our coffee without many words to share with one another. We could both read plain enough that the other was in a fairly bad mood and didn't want to be all brotherly and sharing anymore.

Well, I was not exactly in a bad mood. I just had a lot on my mind, mostly revolving with a renewed zeal in my mission to get back to my world, which turned out to be counter-productive, as I still had no idea how I had stumbled into the mirror universe, which made escape plans fairly hard to piece together.

Tyler, on the other hand, was most probably introvert as he had to think about what to say to Tamara and what present would be suitable for making up with her. I would have offered help, had he asked for it, but my assumption was that he wanted it to be personal. I knew that if I was attempting to buy Tricia's forgiveness, it would be just as much buying a guilt free conscience, which was hard to keep when you have help selecting the bribe.

We got back into the Audi, and Tyler turned on the radio. It didn't surprise me that he listened to books on tape in his free time, I wondered if my Tyler even listened to music at all. Whatever the book was, it's plot was lost on me, which was fine, as I did not particularly wish to deal with reality for the time being.

The drive was a lot longer on the way back and it felt like an age before we had returned to the lodge. When he pulled over, he let me out and then leaned over to address me without leaving the car. "Hey, bro. I'm going to pick something up. If she's there, make sure she stays, okay?"

"No problem, bro." I replied, waving him off. As soon as the car was out of sight, I spun around and entered the lodge, promptly crashing face first on the sofa and heaving the world's biggest aggravated growl.

"Bad day?" asked a female voice, which was unfamiliar enough for me to look over to the corner of the room, where Sapphire was doing sit-ups with her feet under the armchair. I never did speak to Sapphire that often in my world.

"Just getting involved in drama." I said, keeping vague and rolling onto my back to look up at the ceiling fan, trying to recall if there was a ceiling fan in my version of the lodge.

"That was pretty dumb, wasn't it?" Sapphire sneered, her voice full of the bitterness of someone who had once made the same mistake and vowed to never do so again. As I watched her, unstopping with her exercise routine, I noticed just how developed she was compared to the Sapphire I knew. Her thighs and biceps especially were far thicker and defined than the relatively slim Goddess from home. It was shown most clear in this moment, where, except for her jet black hair, she was identical to my memory's image, down to the tank top and denim short-pants that she used to wear.

As I watched she suddenly stopped, mid sit-up and looked over at me with narrowed eyes "Enjoying a free show?" she snorted, before adjusting her head back in position and finishing her sit-up.

An instant blush rose to my face. Perhaps it was because I was always in love with Tricia, since before I had even moved into the lodge, though our relationship did not begin until after she moved in, I never paid much attention to the gorgeous goddesses that surrounded me. I knew that they were, all of them, greater than the human potential for attractive features, the vivid hair color alone was proof of that, but that had never struck me.

Now I couldn't help but notice it, and with a gulp, I snapped my head away and starred at the floor, trying to block out the memory of Tyler insinuating that someone was already in love with me, or the other me.

"Not that I care or anything," Sapphire said, and for a moment I thought it was about my watching her, which made me blush up even more than before, "but what was this all rage inspiring drama that you're so riled up about?"

"Oh… Just Tyler having relationship problems." I said, off-handedly. "Nothing major." once again, I was telling a small truth to hide the bigger one, that being my desperate situation, which was the real reason I felt so annoyed.

"Heh." Sapphire spat, reaching the top of another rep, and pausing for a moment, "Preppy and the Jock are having a spat? I never would have guessed that would happen." her tone was mocking and indignant. I was starting to dislike this version of Sapphire as much as the other one. At least my Sapphire was an all-powerful goddess and had an excuse for her superior attitude.

"Yeah, well. Let's stay out of it and let them solve it for themselves." I said, shrugging back in my chair. "It'll do no good for us to get all gabby and gossipy."

"Whatever." she growled, heaving herself up again, "This is why I don't do relationships."

"Must be pretty lonely, though, right?" I asked, curious to see if I could learn more about my Sapphire through her mirror double.

She stopped and slid back on the floor, pulling her legs out to do some stretches. For a moment I lost track of the conversation and wondered how or why she would torture herself by doing this in denim, "The world's full of interesting people, Red, why should I settle on one, when I can have my pick. Relationships are just a futile attempt to hold on to an initial spark, where my way, you have that spark forever, just a different person's attached to it whenever I feel the call". The casual and almost friendly tone she spoke it took me for surprise, as I don't think I had ever heard such a tone from Sapphire's lips before, even from this version, or from her twin sister, Ruby, for that matter.

Her words left a bitter taste in my mouth, though. It was almost a mockery to all of my efforts to reunite with Tricia, Kay and the rest of my family and a small part of me was almost disappointed that she was not the one who Tyler was hinting at. Not that I wanted to be in a relationship with her, but it would be a welcome ego-boost to be wanted by a goddess. "You wont be able to keep that up forever." I replied, because I didn't feel like dealing with the repercussions of outright arguing with her, but I did not want her to keep an attitude like that and think it was okay.

"Yeah, well. Maybe when I'm older I'll settle down. Not like I'm aiming for kids or anything." her voice had returned to it's snarky tone. I couldn't see her face, but I was sure she was probably frowning or glaring. "You still holding out for that perfect true romance, Red?"

I shivered at the fact that someone I so venomously despised was giving me a non-aggressive nickname, and I made sure to check up on the journal when I got back to my room, but I had no reason to abort the conversation, so gave a sigh and said "Until the day I die, Sapphire."

To my surprise, she spun around on the spot to look at me, and gave me a smile so sincere that it actually terrified me. "You're the only one here who ever uses my name, you know that?" she said, her voice was completely different. Warm, inviting. Normally it was cold and hostile, so much so that I had just associated the traits with her on a permanent basis. It was that exact moment that I became terrified of the world I had landed in, and for the life of me I could not explain why.

"Well, it's your name. Why's that such a big deal?" I asked, quite perplexed as to why it would have caused such an odd 180.

She tilted her head, looking whimsically up at the ceiling, "Oh, I don't know. Everyone else is so infatuated with the clever wordplay my name invites that it's just nice to hear someone who doesn't call me a dyke to my face and then wonder why I treat them like dirt."

I traced my mind back, I did recall Cari calling her "Sappho", and the journal mentioned that one of the twins was a lesbian, but I just assumed that it was Ruby, because my version of her was.

I shrugged, "Well, I don't think it's a big deal who you go with." I said, honestly, "and I'm nice enough to waste an extra syllable, if it means not insulting you."

"You're sweet." she said, in a tone which I could imagine her pinching my cheek while saying, "If you ever do find that true love of yours, she's a lucky girl. Bring her to me, I'll tell her myself. "Craig Bayfield is a gentleman and does not obsess over the fact his housemate is a lesbian""

I gave a slight, but sincere, chuckle, shaking my head, "Thanks, but I think I can prove my virtue on other merits."

"Suit yourself." she responded, in a tone more befitting to my mental picture of Sapphire. She stretched herself out again and went back to her exercises.

I hopped up off of the sofa and waved to her, making my way up the stairs to my room. I wasn't sure whether I should smile that I had another friend in this world, or just be weirded out that it was her. In the past she had threatened me with that dimension slicing sword of hers, insulted me endlessly and been a general thorn in my life since the moment she materialized in the lodge living room, mad eyed and out for revenge.

-

It had been a normal day in the lodge, as so many of the most interesting ones start. It was mostly a quiet afternoon with little activity or excitement. Cari was running across the room with a duster, polishing off all surfaces which seemed to have even the slightest speck of dirt, Tamara was grumpily reading off in the corner, Craig was drinking coffee contently on the sofa, watching Cari at work, and Ruby was lying upside down on the ceiling, looking down at Tamara.

Small words were exchanged every now and again, but mostly the calm atmosphere was maintained, and time crawled slowly and healthily, dragging the afternoon forward into the inevitable evening.

Elsewhere, however, in a universe far from the reach of light and without any need for the concept of time, a lone woman floated in the empty abyss. She had been there for an age. Long ago, she had battled with her sister, a crimson haired goddess named Ruby, and in the battle, their identical swords, each with the ability to cut the dimensional fabric which allowed them to fold and tear space, clashed together and something happened. A rip was maintained which became a void, which sucked everything into it. First the immortal goddesses, then the land they stood upon, the sky, the sea, the entire world, then the entire galaxy and eventually the entire universe.

All was obliterated in the endless blackness of the void, sparring the two goddesses, for they were eternal, and their swords which were as unbreakable as they themselves were.

Consumed in panic, the girls used their swords to open up a portal to another world, and as they flew through, the red haired one grabbed the blue haired one's sword and threw it back into the emptiness.

Instinctively, without even realizing the severity of her action, she turned and flew after it, and behind her the portal to freedom closed behind her, along with her sister.

The infinite blackness stretched for eternity. For days and days she flew desperately reaching out, hoping she would find her sword, and her ticket to freedom. But before too long, she realized that it was gone. She was alone and lost in a void. A jail cell which stretched on for such an expansive infinity, that her key was locked in with her, and she was certain that she would never see it again.

Time lost meaning. For a goddess who had the ability to slow and speed the flow of time, it did not take too long for her to forget how long she had been there. For an eternal being, no matter how young, a day eventually becomes as meaningless as a minute.

And so, she floated in the emptiness, gradually losing track of things she once took for granted. At first she had stopped missing the ability to see, the darkness became as familiar as the sight of a cloudless blue sky, then the constant hunger pangs became so familiar that she had forgotten what her body was suggesting, the memories of sounds, tastes, sights all giving way to her endless quest for the sword which would free her.

As time went on, her desperation grew. She stopped trying to sleep, just incase the sword passed her by while she was unconscious, for she was sure that an abyss void of gravity would have no friction to stop the motion from Ruby's initial throw, so long ago.

She spent her time obsessing over her powers. With an unlimited amount of time to just float, with not even sights or sounds to distract, she would test the extent of her time control abilities. Before too long, she was able to feel the flow of time as if it were the wind she had long left behind, and this discovery was a welcome reminder that she still existed, and that she may someday find freedom.

And she was able to speed and slow the flow through her. She slowed it to the slowest crawl she was able to maintain, and attempted to refine and slow it further as time trickled slowly through the emptiness. For if time slowed, then the sword would remain in one place and be easier to discover.

There were bad moments and there were good ones. Though, with time brought to the state it was in this realm, a bad moment lasted longer than the goddess could bare. There were moments she tricked herself into believing she was free. Moments she was so certain that she had escaped, that to soberly awaken back in her jail brought about such pain and despair that she would try to will herself to stop breathing, a ridiculous notion as there was no oxygen in her prison to begin with.

She recalled one moment where she had a vision, of a glass room, surrounded by chaos. Of hundreds of women crowding around her, and one stepping forward and saying that she was her mother, and that she had to go back, that she did not belong in the world.

Sometimes she tried to scream, as loud as she possibly could. Hoping that somehow, someway the sound would travel through the emptiness and reach her ears.

Desperation, insanity and fear became her only companions. Her mind conjured ideas of if an eternal being could roam an endless void for eternity, would she be able to free herself. With no way of committing suicide, and no way of altering her situation, she resolved that there had to be. That if she were to continue floating for all of time, then she would have to find that sword.

And there was revenge. For years upon years the final image that was burned to her retinas remained. Ruby, looking at her with a sneering glare of victory. Ruby, her tormentor, her jailer, her twin, rival and nemesis.

Had it not been for the promise that freedom would grant her the ability to destroy the woman who did this to her, she did not think it would have been possible.

But she did find the sword. After an uncountable number of lifetimes, locked in the darkness, locked in her own revenge driven insanity, her hands felt the cool metallic blade and she clasped it so tightly that her fingers bled.

Without thinking of where, why or how, she cut through the boundaries of reality and out into the reality which lay beyond her prison.

And though she needed time to recover, to adjust her eyes, to sate her endless hunger, to savor the joys of taste and smell once more, she found health, and only once she had brought herself back up to a semblance of physical and mental health did she know where and more importantly when she was heading. For she, too, had a memory of the lodge, left long ago in the past, and knowing that she would soon savor the sweet taste of revenge, as she had savored the taste of food and drink after her exile, she tore a hole back to the lodge world, and traveled back in time to the year she first disappeared.

And the quiet, calm, peaceful afternoon in the lodge was interrupted by a portal suddenly appearing in the living room, and a azure haired version of Ruby flew in, brandishing a sword, her eyes bulging with rage and insanity as she looked up to the ceiling, where Ruby lay and screamed "YOU!

Over 25,000 words. I'm half way there.
-
First impressions are kind of tough to wipe away, but she did mellow out as the years went on, even started wearing some girly clothes, instead of the denim short pants. I always did find it funny how, when Sapphire mellowed out, Ruby became the aggressive one. She held a short relationship with Tamara which ended on bad terms, and she became quite destructive as a direct result.

I settled down in my room, once again. I didn't particularly want to make a habit of spending all of my free time in here, avoiding the rest of the housemates, however I couldn't argue with the idea that it was better to avoid further meddling. I wondered if there was another Craig out in the universe, or "Omni-verse" as Ruby and Sapphire described it, claiming that the "uni" in "universe" was misleading. I could just picture him sitting in my room, as I sat in his, and the two of us wished to be home. He did, after all, write that he wanted a magical world like mine, and I did shout out my friends about their exploits.

Something about that thought made me feel less lonely. I could just picture him in the same pose I was in, reflecting on how much he missed his perky Tamara, lesbian Sapphire, gothic Navi. Though he did not have a girlfriend. Perhaps he was jumping into my role, making out with Tricia and smiling with pride as Kay called him dad.

I thumped the pillow in aggravation at the mere thought of that. It hardly seemed fair that he could wish away his old life and get all of the joy and love that I had garnered over a lifetime, trading it with me for his own life where he had managed to work up none.

I threw his journal down on the bed and flipped the pages, actively trying to find something he loved, if only so I could feel the momentary joy and satisfaction of taking it for myself, it only seemed fair in my temporary insanity.

It didn't take too long, as I started at the most recent entry and backtracked, but I eventually found a page which spoke to me, and told me something about the other me, which seemed kind of shocking.

-

December 13^th

Today was not a total bust. Professor Clarke set us a nature project for photography. Nature has always been my weakest area. I am a city child and have problems with moving subjects who I can't ask to sit still. It's why I wont be taking baby photos for a living. As always I want to be the top of the class. Deciding that the lake outside the lodge was too boring for top points, I had to ask for a car ride. Tyler took his car to take Tamara were on a date. The twins were out on the town again. That left Navi's car. I knocked on her door and asked for the lift to the forest. Surprisingly she seemed to like the idea and took me right away.

I think it was the first time I had been in Navi's car. I know her sisters ride in it whenever Tyler needs his one, but she never let me in. Even when we're both going to college at the same time. I always thought she was a bit of a snob.

I got my briefcase and hopped in the car with her. I always assumed she listened to goth music, but it was classical. It was pretty good. On the way we made small talk. How her classes were going. How mine were. The fact we were in the same psychology class. I don't know if she knew or not. We rarely spoke. Then the subject turned to lighter matters. It was when we mentioned books that she opened up. We have similar tastes. A ton of books that I enjoy, she enjoys. She has a few I want to read, I have a few she does. We proposed a trade.

It would be nice to speak to someone indoors about books. She said she'd always noticed me reading, but never had the inclination to speak up about it. I guess I'm the same. Though she always gave me the vibe that she would bite my head clean off if I addressed her.

I was wrong. She is approachable, kind of interesting and we get along just fine. When we reached the site, she asked me to explain everything I was doing and listened with keen interest. No one gives a crap when I try to talk shop. It was refreshing as anything to speak about my passion without censorship. At class, people assume me a smart-ass bastard, and at home a boring nerd. It seems Navi is the same. She loves to learn and that is a rare thing.

There was a lot of snow at the forest, and the trees were all bare. It was easier to get wildlife shots. Navi helped as best she could. Mostly focused on any birds and squirrels who were stupid enough not to seek shelter for the winter. Still not my forte. But it was a fun project.

Navi insisted we stayed out there until nightfall, and we hung out in her car watching the sky grow red and then dark. Talking about anything that came to mind. I think we found a kindred spirit in one another. I never thought the creepy goth chick would have been such a beautiful and open soul behind her glasses and thick anti-social shell. If she keeps a journal, she would probably write about the anti-social comic geek and his redeemable features.

I don't want to screw this up. How amazing would it be if Tyler and I became actual brothers in law thanks to this.

-

I had to re-read that last line a few times, mouthing it out to myself just to be certain that I had digested it correctly. My other self had a crush on Navi. I took a few seconds to close my eyes and picture the scenes written about in the journal. It was actually fairly vivid, and I thought back to my own world, and realized how few moments I had which were that personal. Normally an event in my world would involve the entire group, whether it a happy evening or a morning of true despair.

I began to reflect on how all of the lodge residents treated me since I first arrived in this world. Tamara seemed to be the only one who truly disliked me in any sense, and I had to earn her acceptance myself, and Cari seemed totally indifferent to me. The fact that Sapphire and Navi were my friends was a total surprise, though Tyler being my brother had always made a small amount of sense.

When she spoke with me at college, and again once I got home, Navi seemed to be concerned with my well-being and eager to strike up conversation about a book, one I should note I had not read myself. Moments ago I had wanted to strike out at the other me and what love he had in this world, but now I found myself pleasantly surprised by him. It was clear that we were not the same person, not to any degree, however we were similar enough to be of the same origin, look identical, talk with enough similarities to not arouse suspicion. Somehow, despite being a totally different person, he had woven entirely different relationships along his journey through life. Where I spent my time dealing with high-adventures, helping a plot to destroy the world and raising a child with a super heroine, he was calmly studying for a career in photography, living with his brother, his brother's girlfriend and her sisters, and two other housemates.

I didn't envy him anymore. I didn't hate him. I grew a respect for him. I am certain he would respect me, if he saw the romance I had developed with Tricia and the fatherly bond I had established with Kay.

Unfortunately, with respect, also came responsibility. I had originally assumed I could just casually float through my experience in this world and see what comes of it, but now I realized that in a twisted way, I owed this other version of me his life. I could not assume control of it, for whatever period of time, and expect to go where I wanted with it. He was a man with his own passion and desires and he fought far harder in his life than I ever had in mine to make them a reality. I didn't think it would be fair if I somehow ruined his brotherly relationship with Tyler over coffee or by telling Tamara that he loved her.

I had no clue as to how I would tread without killing any butterflies, which would cause ripple effects through this Craig's life, but I knew I had been careless, and resolved there and then to stop my selfish and stupid attitude once and for all.

I quickly jumped down to the floor and looked under the bed. The briefcase was not there, as I had foolishly left it in the backseat of the Audi, but there were a few other things of value down there. I pulled out a couple of boxes and searched until I could discern whether more journals existed. Eventually I found a box with four of them. They were featureless notebooks, more than actual journals, and didn't carry dates on them. I checked the front and back pages of all of them and worked out that they spanned from 2004 onwards.

I read through from the first, picking up as many details as I could. Reading about what books he liked and disliked, what photographs he took, and once I read about them, I was sure to look back in the boxes and find the corresponding pictures, printed and kept either loose in the box or in albums he stored on his cupboard. I read about his job at the World Café and remembered my own role there so long ago, and smirked at how similar our situations and perceptions were.

He mentioned Tyler a lot. It occurred to me that until he reached this lodge, which was not until the most recent journal, that he probably had no other friends or family. It would have been depressing, had I have not lived similar circumstances myself.

It quickly became apparent, through reading, that photography was his one true passion, and was sparked by a camera Christmas present from Tyler. He was skilled, too, and thanks to library books, he knew a substantial amount. More than I could ever begin to empathize with.

His Christmas entries were always about how Tyler was doing, and what gift he got. It seemed that the troubles between Tyler and his adoptive father ran deeply. There were some reflective quotes about their childhood which brought a smile to my face. Tyler was the leader and Craig the follower, he managed to get them into trouble all of the time, and other me always seemed handy at getting him out. It seemed like he had all the charisma and playful energy a young boy needs to impress a prospective father. I pictured a younger version of myself wearing a dorky shirt and glasses.

The other me did seem kind of nerdish. It rang true in his entries about fantasy novels, comics and especially photography. It was no wonder people saw him as a smart-ass nerd, even I would, and we're the same guy.

As the reading continued, I was getting into the subtle differences which set the two of us apart, more than just his intellect, my social spirit and his high hopes and aspirations. He didn't get depressed as easily as I do, but he was quicker to temper. I found that to be fascinating on so many levels. I had rejected the ideas of rage and impatience due to traumatic events in the orphanage which lead to my inadaptable status, he had not suffered these trials, but had instead suffered the annoyance of knowing he had nothing but himself to blame for his fate.

As I continued to ponder how differently our childhoods would have been, had Tyler have been a real person, instead of an imaginary friend, the door knocked. I was startled by the sudden sound and jumped up in surprise. Making sure to first set the books aside, I walked over and opened the door, curiously. Wondering if it was Tyler or Tamara wanting to talk with me about their whole love drama, or to return my camera equipment.

Of anyone I was expecting it to be, I was most surprised to find that when I opened the door I was starring at Navi, holding a book to her chest and smiling at me.

This is not a good installment by my standards, but it had to be done. The flashback is mostly filler, rather than the usual character relationship/history defining moment.

----
"Your book." she said, holding it out to me, "I finished it. I liked it a lot, I did not expect that Jeremy and Lobsang were the same soul, born twice." I took the book from her and examined the back cover, then looked back to Navi. I didn't want to just stare at her dumbstruck, so decided on the spot that I would try to converse, even though I had no idea what the book was about.

"I didn't see it coming either, but it makes sense, doesn't it?" I said, really hoping that it did.

She gave a brief nod, "Thank you for letting me borrow it. When it is next convenient, would I be able to borrow your copy of "The Truth"?" she stood on tipped toes to look behind me at the bookshelf, where the hardback edition of the book rest with it's blue sleeve and bold white text.

"Oh! Of course." I brightly called while rushed across the room in three sweeping steps, throwing The Thief of Time on my bed in the process, I handed her the book with a smile. "I really hope you enjoy it." as I said it, I felt like a bad actor as I did all of this, neither my words nor emotions appeared sincere and I think Navi could sense it.

"You are not feeling well?" she asked, tilting her head. "You are not normally this riled up." she seemed mildly concerned and disturbed by my display, and I actually took a moment to consider calling off my attempts to deceive her and just come clean about the whole cross-dimensional trip. I didn't think she would believe me, though, and I didn't want to cause the other Craig to lose his chance at her, just because I was desperate to unload my story and escape awkward moments, such as this.

"I'm just having a really weird day." I said, relaxing slightly and attempting to make my actions and emotions seem less forced. "Tyler had me skip college to talk about things, and I just found these old journals." I indicated the notebooks on the bed, "Sorry if I seem weird."

"Ah. I see. That explains why you was not present for class." she said in a firm, yet matter of fact voice. "Forgive my intrusion." She turned on her feet and began walking away. Before my brain caught up with me, I dashed out behind her.

"Navi, wait!" I called out. She turned to me, an expression of surprise plastered over her face as I paced to narrow the gap between us, "Navi. Thank you for being such a good friend this past month. I really appreciate and value it." she continued starring at me with an expression which lingered the line between fear and confusion. "You said I shouldn't be afraid to talk to you, yesterday. Just remember, it works both ways. Okay."

She took a step back and recollected herself, looking down and then back up, as if manually brushing away the confusion or fear from her. "I see. Thank you, Craig." and with that said, she did retreat back to her room, allowing me to do the same.

As I walked, my mind went back to what I was thinking about before, how the two versions of myself had such different personalities, due to our individual exploits through life. I began to wonder what would have caused Navi to become so different.

In my world, Navi was the eldest member of the family, though she primarily existed in a child's body. This, over two centuries, had caused her to become resentful of immature and childish behavior in both herself and others. For the moment, I tried to imagine how it would be for myself, if I had to endure being looked upon as a child for the entirety of my existence. Suddenly the unapproachable, cold and cruel Navi of my world seemed redeemable, if only through sympathy.

Fortunately, my Navi did manage to get an adult body eventually, thanks to some help from Stressed and a rogue mirror spirit. It didn't do her many favors, however, as the rush of hormones and adult impulses caused her to become mutinous of her sisters and attempt to steal the heart of Cari's lover, Lee.

A smirk rose to my face. As crazy as their exploits were, I did miss being a witness to them all. Putting past matters out of sight and out of mind for the time being, I returned to the bed and plucked out the journal I had been reading, before the door knocked.

As I did, I noticed there was still a bookmark in The Thief of Time, I opened it up and plucked the piece of paper out. It ended up being a folded up page from a notepad, which I promptly unfolded, curious to know if it was just a random mishap, or a message designed for me to read.

The paper read "Meet me in my room at midnight. Bring your camera equipment." the handwriting was flawlessly beautiful and written in red ink, which I could imagine this goth version of Navi using. It was clearly a note for me, and though I could ask about it right now, I respected the fact that she didn't want to ask out loud, perhaps out of shyness. I resolved to retrieve the case from Tyler's car as soon as I was able and make this midnight rendezvous.

I let the notebook flop out of my hand and I sank back into my bed, huffing out. I now bore the responsibility to help this other Craig achieve his romantic aspirations with his version of Navi, but I also had my personal responsibility to my girlfriend and child, I couldn't very well begin a new relationship on good conscience, however, I could not dismiss one and punish the other Craig for no good reason.

I gave a dry laugh, wondering if there was any irony to the fact that I was in a love triangle with myself or that the token of his affection was the one trying to rip apart the perfect angelic couple of my lodge. I supposed there wasn't any irony in that matter at all, but it was really messed up to think about. Instead, I thought back to my own world and what type of a person Navi was there, compared to here.

-

The lodge was abnormally quiet. Times like these were treasured, amongst it's residents. Normally the house was a raging storm of constant hustle, bustle and energy. Of its ten current residents, six of them were away for various reasons. Tamara and Stressed were in another world, seeking adventure and experiences to enrich themselves, Ruby had become a threat so large that a realm of goddesses of whom she herself descended from, had imprisoned her for the greater good, as a result, Sapphire, Cari and Kay had gone to the void of Sapphire's exile in order to avoid the ramifications of Ruby's actions.

The evening went on for hours, and when the four of them were on the train together, Tricia and Craig cuddled together and Lee lazily dozing off in his chair, for the first time since she arrived Little Navi smiled. She had finally found someone who saw her for the intellectual and aged goddess she was on the inside, and not the childlike girl on the outside.

Until the winter sky grew dark, I read as much of the journals as I was able to. Curiosity kept trying to have me read the book that Navi had returned to me, but I thought that actual facts were more important than trivia knowledge.

By the time it was dark, I had made my way to 2006 and had developed quite a hunger. When I got downstairs, Tamara and Tyler were curled up together on the sofa, Tamara sporting a new golden ring with a circular ruby center. I smirked and shook my head at how easy it was for the two of them to console their differences. Sapphire was watching a movie of some variety and I could hear activity in the kitchen, so walked on in.

Cari was pacing up and down, the kitchen was a bigger mess than it normally would be, as she was baking a cake of some form.

"Having fun?" I asked, passing through the muck to get to the fridge.

"Yeah." she calmly responded, "Devil's Food Cake, it'll be ready in a few hours, okay?"

I plucked out the materials for a sandwich and went about putting it together on a counter which had miraculously survived Cari's attempt to cover the entire kitchen with batter, flour and eggs. "Sounds good. Need any help?" I asked, thinking I had a few hours before my late night rendezvous.

"I'll be fine, thanks." she replied, untouched by my offer and still busy sloppily whisking a bowl with more vigor than the task called for.

I finished up my sandwich and sat in the living room to eat it, and glance uninterestedly at the movie that Sapphire was so fascinated by. It looked like an over the top action movie which involved cars which explode when a feather touches them. I lost my interest in it before I had finished my sandwich and turned my attention to getting my briefcase back.

"Hey, Tyler?" I asked, slightly shy about disturbing his newly earned loving embrace with Tamara, "Could I get my stuff out the Audi, please?"

He pulled himself up and fished out the keys, handing them over, his satisfied smirk told me that my advice had paid off and he was grateful. I took them and plucked my stuff out of the back and gave back the keys with a knowing nod. It seemed that subtle body language is key to brotherly love.

I hurried back to my room and flicked the case open to examine the contents again. This time, I pulled out the body and began examining the features and shortcuts, feeling that if Navi wanted me to bring it with me this evening, I should be familiar with it. In my own world, Tricia got me a camera, which I occasionally used. This one put that to shame. I didn't even realize that you were able to replace the lens, but this case had a large lens, which I couldn't even imagine the practical use of, a more compact one and one which seemed to settle in-between the giant and the smaller one.

The process of attaching, detaching, working out how the attachable flash worked and flicking through the instruction manual seemed to eat up the majority of my evening. It was surprisingly refreshing to be introduced to a specialty like this. I was certain that no amount of practice would allow me to pass off as the other Craig with these tools, but at the very least I could obtain some self enrichment.

The notes that Other-Craig made in his journal about his beloved equipment helped me out greatly, and I thanked the cosmos that he had such a lonely and boring life that he would consider discovering the effects of a long-exposure shot for the first time to be a life-changing and journal worthy experience.

By the time I had had my fill of practice and play, it was 9.30pm, I didn't particularly fancy a bite of cake just now, and was growing anxious to get this meeting over with, as I was so afraid of all the things that could go wrong. Grabbing the alarm which woke me up on my first morning here, I set it for midnight and settled down to try and nap before it all happened.

The nap was both restless and pointless, but time eventually yielded and midnight came. I picked up the briefcase, having put everything back inside, and headed to Navi's door, giving it a soft knock. She opened it up, wearing a large coat, gloves and so many layers of clothing that I wondered if she fell out of her closet.

"It will be cold." she stated in such a level tone, I actually felt disappointed that she didn't seem happy to see me. "Please get your coat, I will take your briefcase up with me."

"Up?" I asked, perplexed, "Cold? Where are we going, Navi?"

"To the roof." she said as if it were the most common destination a man could possibly travel "There is a meteor shower this evening, I assumed you would enjoy watching with me."

A sincere wave of happiness and relief washed over me, "I'd love to watch that!" I said, attempting to curb my enthusiasm. "Thanks!"

She finally smiled, seeing my over-excited reaction, repeating "Grab your coat" then she looked to my empty hands and added "And the tripod." before walking to the back of her room and climbing out of her window.

I did as instructed and plucked out a rather warm looking bomber jacket that the other me had in his cupboard and a bag containing the tripod which was under the bed, and hurried back to Navi's room. She was already up on the roof, so I pulled myself out of her window and pulled myself up the ladder she had set up there. It was still a rather athletic action and something I had neither anticipated nor appreciated.

When I got to the roof, it didn't matter, however. She had set a little platform up against the chimney and had a telescope prepared, I set up the tripod next to it and began piecing together the photography equipment, using the telescopic lens I had been criticizing earlier.

Navi lay herself back on the gentle slope of the roof tile and starred up at the clear night sky. Having finished my chore, I joined her. The night was clear, perfect for what we were attempting to do, the stars were always defined, this far from the city, I scanned the bright orbs in the sky to match them to my memory. Fortunately it was the same, down to the smallest detail.

"Do you stargaze, much?" Navi asked me, watching my awe filled face, instead of the star draped curtain of sky.

I looked back to her and shook my head, "No, but I really should." I looked over to where our lenses were pointing, "I'm really excited about this. I wouldn't have even known unless you told me."

"You're welcome." she said, looking up, tossing her hair slightly in the process. I would begrudgingly admit that I found the allure of the single lines of green more interesting than the full head of it that my Navi had. "I am glad I could share this with someone. It is a lonely pastime."

"You do this often?" I asked, looking back to the stars.

"Occasionally. This is my first meteor shower." Navi replied, from her tone and tense body language, I could guess that she was a little guarded, perhaps unsure how to open up to another person. It would explain her unconventional way of inviting me up here.

I nodded, noticing the cold winter chill during the moment of silence. It was then that I was hit with a burst of inspiration, to steer the conversation slightly and see where it leads "What do you think is up there?" I asked, in the tone that stargazers would use when wanting to wax philosophical.

I saw Navi half-smile to herself, her eyes twinkling with the kind of passion one reserves for either their partner or their true calling, "Everything." she stated, simply. "It is poetry, out there." she paused for a moment, summing up whether she should continue speaking or not, "The light, the chaos, the delicate balance of the universe." she looked to me "Don't you think it's poetry, Craig?"

I had to admit, I had no clue what she meant. She was clearly fascinated with the cosmos more than I could fathom, but I did not intend to shoot her down. "Of course, it's beautiful." I said plainly, looking to the stars.

"There is so much out there." she mused, perhaps disappointed with my response, I was not sure, "You are a photographer. You can find beauty in anything, can you not?"

My mind traced back to Other-Craig's journal, and how his reaction to a poem that he once read, about a war photographer, and the scene of chaos and carnage around him as he took a shot of a dying man so that those in the unaffected world could share in his pain. "A photograph is more than a visual representation of what I see, though." I said, trying to make this big talk a bit bigger "I capture not an image, but a scene. If it's done right, I can show it to someone and they can take themselves to the moment, feel the scene and understand it."

I abruptly shut up. I was off topic and she probably didn't care.

"As you say." she sighed, looking up again. "I did not know you felt that way about photography."

"I didn't know you felt that way about space." I responded, perhaps too bluntly, as she seemed to grow even more disappointed. Heaving a sigh, and watching my breath plume up around me, I decided to make a bigger effort to empathize, "Do you think there is any life out there, Navi?"

"There must be." she stated, "It is too big for just ourselves. Do you not think?"

I wasn't sure how to respond, I knew there was other life out there. Technically, I was an alien to this world, as it stood, and that was not including all of the stories Tyler, Tamara, Ruby and Sapphire had about their off-world adventures. "What about other dimensions? I mean, like, mirror universe and stuff."

"I am not sure." she admitted, pulling herself up and walking to the telescope.

I got up and followed her, "I mean, like, is it possible that right now, in another universe, there is another Craig and another Navi on this rooftop, except she is the photographer and I am the astronomer?"

She shrugged, not looking at me, "I suppose it is possible." I had the feeling that she was growing increasingly disappointed with my lack of interest in the beauty of space.

I settled down next to her at the camera and set up for a high-exposure shot, assuming that with my lack of skill, getting a single shot of the phenomenon would be easier than failing to get individual shots, I hoped that it worked.

"Say, Navi?" I asked, tapping her shoulder, "I've been wondering. Why does everyone call you Navi. Your real name is Natalie, isn't it?"

She gave me an odd look, tilting her head and looking over her glasses, "It is my nickname. I prefer being called it." she stated flatly, "There is no reason more than that."

I struggled for a moment on what to say.

"I really do find it beautiful." I said, at last, "I'm just not speaking right tonight. This is all really sudden, you know?"

"I'm sorry." She said, as guarded as ever. I was starting to grow frustrated with how hard it was to communicate with her. She seemed to pause briefly in her motions fussing with the focus of the lens and turned to me. "Craig. It means a lot to me that you are here. I am happy you are my friend and that I can share this with you."

"And I'm happy to share it with you, Navi." I said with a smile. "Now let's enjoy this shower, okay?"

She nodded and turned back to her equipment. "It will all start within the next 20 minutes. Be prepared."

So the two of us sat at our telescope and camera, respectively, and watched the horizon intently. The tension mounted as the minutes passed, and eventually I saw a shining streak across the sky, much like a shooting star.

I pressed the button on my camera and it began to take in its shot. For the moment, I continued looking through the viewfinder, watching the display as more streaks followed behind, vanishing moments after they appeared.

"So pretty…" I breathed to myself, Navi apparently heard it as she looked away from her telescope and over to me.

"I told you so. Did I not?" she said, looking back to the display. "I wanted so much for you to see this."

"I can see why." I responded, quite breath-taken by the display. It was not something I had given myself the opportunity to appreciate when I was back home, which made the scene all the more majestic to my eyes, to think I had been missing out on the natural and astonishing wonders that the world offered.

"Shows you how special the world is, huh?" I asked, leaning my head against the chimney and watching out at the horizon.

"Not just our world." Navi corrected him. "All of existence."

"Of course. Sorry." I responded, half-laughing and shrugging it off "But my point's the same, you know?"

She nodded to herself, coming away from her telescope and looking at me with an unshielded look that I never would have received from my Navi. "Craig. There's another reason I asked you up here." She said, her voice seemed so meek without its normal strength and confidence. "I have been thinking if it was a good idea or not."

I tensed up involuntarily and could tell this reaction caused her to hesitate. Whatever she was about to say, this moment would be one that Other-Craig would have treasured and kept forever and I was stealing it from him, my heart was thumping in my chest and my breath caught in my throat.

"We are both adults; there is no need to mix words." Navi said, a little bit more sure of herself. "I like you. I believe the two of us to be good friends and we have the opportunity to be greater partners."

She sure didn't mix words. Had I have been Other-Craig and not the one who had a family in another world; I still would have been intimidated by such a forward proposal. Her expression showed that she regretted such impersonal phrasing, but it was too late.

I dared not delay my reply too long, but it bore much to think about. The Other-Craig loved, or at least was infatuated with, this Navi. I loved Tricia. Thinking about this for too long would cause a man to go insane. My head already hurt from a few moments.

"Navi…" I began, trying to sound as tender and empathetic as I could, "Wait here a moment. Please, don't go anywhere." It wasn't a wave of genius, or even a good idea, but I knew how the conversation would go, otherwise.

She seemed so afraid of rejection and of putting herself out like that, I felt like she'd break if I touched her. So I climbed down and hurried to my room, leaving her to watch the pretty light show for a while. It didn't take more than a minute, but upon seeing her face again, I knew that the single minute had possibly been the most tense and damaging of her entire life. I felt terrible and could only hope my next actions would shield her from the bizarre truth of the situation.

"Sorry for disappearing." I said, opening the journal in my hands and handing it to her on a certain page. "I wanted you to read this first. Before I said anything."

Her eyes flicked over the page, detailing the night that Other-Craig asked for a ride to the forest, and his thoughts about the experience. Her face was straight and impartial the whole time, I had a feeling that she was not allowing herself to feel happy about any of this until after the conversation was over. I wanted to look away. Every time I noticed her expression or her stance, I felt an overwhelming wave of guilt and hopelessness that I was unable to shed.

Eventually she looked up at me, wondering what the context behind the action was. "Okay. I wanted you to read that first, to prove that." I paused, trying to work out how to end the sentence "you are loved. The feeling is mutual." Her face didn't flicker. She could probably tell this was a set-up for a bigger fall. As if to confirm her suspicions, my next words were unfortunately "and that just makes all of this so much harder..."

"You found someone?" she asked, shivering and leaning back, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"No." I halted her, raising a hand up, "If I did I would have told you." I huffed out and drummed my hands on my leg, unable to even contemplate how I would explain all of this, "Navi. I wanted to show you the journal first, because I know you wont believe what I'm going to tell you." I saw in her facial expression that she wouldn't, even if I said it. "I just want you to understand that you are loved. That I am not turning you down, because I…" despite the frozen winter air, I was sweating, getting these words out was difficult. "I'm not Craig Bayfield." I closed out and heaved out, sure that she would blow up with rage or demand an explanation.

The silence dragged on for an uncomfortable amount of time. I eventually opened my eyes and stopped wincing, to see Navi just starring at me, as if I were a crazy person. Closer to the reaction I was expecting. "What do you mean?" she asked, her voice so scared that I started to suspect she was a moment away from jumping off of the roof to escape me.

"Navi. You're the most intelligent person I have ever met; I know better to insult that intelligence." I started, my voice clear and serious, having lost the burden of constant lying, "I told you that you wouldn't believe me, and I still don't think you will. Just promise you'll listen and will not tell anyone else, then I will tell you the truth."

She huffed and drew herself to her feet. I was afraid she was going to leave there and then, but instead she offered me her hand. "We will speak inside. It is cold out here." I took the hand gratefully and followed her back into the house, and down to the kitchen, where I put on a pot of coffee and sat down at the dining table with her.

"I will listen to what you say." She said, looking more like the detached and withdrawn girl I knew by the second.

"Okay. First, I want you to know I care about you. I only met you yesterday and you've been a friend at a time I needed one." The words came easily to my lips; they were all true, after all. "And the last thing I want to do is hurt your feelings. You opened yourself up to me, put yourself in a vulnerable position, and you have to believe me when I say that this is a difficult decision for me. I could have lied to you, I wanted to. But you don't deserve that."

She watched me with totally un-emotive eyes. I could feel them judging me, but she did not interrupt me, she listened as she promised she would. "You've noticed how odd I've been acting since yesterday, right? Well that's because I have been acting. I am not Craig. Not the one you know, anyway." I paused for her to react. Bless her heart, she was holding it in for me to finish. Though, that made it much harder for me, as I would have to fear her reaction in every word I said.

"I don't know how it happened, yet, but when I woke up yesterday I was here. I didn't know what was going on until it was all happening and I didn't think anyone would believe me, so I read his journal, spoke vaguely around people and just tried to fit in. You are the only one who even remotely guessed that something weird was going on." I sighed and slumped down slightly, under her piercing stare I felt completely exposed and terrified.

The pause was long enough for Navi to finally talk. "That is a compelling story." She said, coldly, "Too much for a mere rejection."

"Why do you think I gave you the journal first?" I asked. "That thing has been my lifeline since I woke up yesterday, and it says plain in his handwriting he was wondering if he would marry you, for heavens sake. I can't have written that up in the one minute I was gone."

"That is true…" Navi conceded, wringing her hands together, growing more and more discomforted by the second. "So why would you do this?"

"Exactly!" I exclaimed in exasperation "Why would I? I have no need to lie like this. But I had all the reason in the world to lie about being your Craig. There's no way to prove that I'm not him. I look like him, sound like him, we have the same birthday and we're both orphans. I can't even convince you that I'm a different person when I tell you to your face, I had no choice but to assume his role."

Navi was growing less and less impressed by the minute and I was getting more fatigued. I wanted to sit out and watch the stars with her, I had suspected there may be romantic motives for the event, but I thought it would have been easier than this to just dodge the subject and continue with the awe inspiring evening.

"Then if you are not Craig, who are you, and where is my Craig?" her eyes didn't look accusingly at me, so she clearly was just testing my story, more than buying into it.

"Okay. This is the part where you'll probably up and leave, so I wont judge you if you do. Just remember you promised not to tell anyone. I don't want all of this to affect his life and his relationships with everyone. If it wasn't for the fact I would have either had to outright reject you or cheat on my girlfriend to get out of that on the roof, I would have been happy to keep pretending to be him so if he returned, he would not suffer a blow to everything he built with you." I was rambling, she could tell. I huffed and walked over to pour myself coffee while she replied.

"So you do have a girlfriend." She said, clenching her fist.

"I do, Craig does not." I responded, making sure to enunciate Craig's name, to make sure the message sunk in. "But, you want to know who I am. I am another Craig Bayfield." I turned to her, raising a hand to halt her from speaking, "I grew up in another version of this world, in another version of Sega City, in another version of this lodge with another version of you, your sisters, Tyler, Ruby, Sapphire and a few people who are not here right now."

"How convenient…" she mused, bitterly, "And of all the worlds, you end up in one just like yours."

I rolled my eyes and huffed. I knew she had every right to be cynical, but it was still frustrating to deal with, "And I can't prove anything. There are lots of differences, though. We may have ended up in the same place with the same people, but the circumstances were so much different."

"Indeed…" Navi sighed, fed up with listening to my pathetic attempts to spare her feelings.

"Do you have a picture of him anywhere here?" I asked, suddenly. "He's a photographer. He must have pictures of himself. Right?"

Navi stood up and paced around me, I followed, making sure she didn't bail on this, I had my first moment of inspiration and I wanted to make sure it paid off. She walked to the table in the living room which had a picture of all the lodge members, Other-Craig stood there bold as brass. I held it up and pointed at the side of his face.

"I haven't read anything about his childhood, but if Tyler was a real person, that means he fought that fight and not me. Which means…" I pointed at Tyler's face, which bore a small scar above his left cheek, and then Other-Craig's which had no scar at all. Then I showed off my own left cheek, and the scar that Tyler had on my own face. "There's a very small difference between us."

Navi just looked at me, then the photo, and then me again.

I sighed, shaking my head. "Navi. I don't know how I got to this world, and I don't know how to get back to my world, but I need you to know that he loves you. This story is crazy, it's hard to believe, and I know that. I just don't want you hurting yourself or thinking you did anything wrong. Even if you hate me." I looked to her, suddenly overwhelmingly fatigued and tired of speaking. "Please. Say something."

"I… have to go to bed." She said, looking away from me. I patted her shoulder empathetically, "We'll speak. Tomorrow. You can ride with me to school, okay?"

I nodded. "If you want to pretend this entire night didn't happen, just don't mention it, and I'll never say anything about it again. Okay?"

"Okay." She said, before turning and walking upstairs.

I sank down onto the sofa , I thought about the telescope and camera on the roof for a second, hoping that they would be safe out in the open all night. I knew, right there and then, that I would not be able to sleep for the night. I took my coffee and sipped it, mulling over other ways I could have let that conversation go. Whether it would have been kinder to lie, or to dodge the entire subject all together. I wondered if it was unfair of Navi to have remained silent and not give me an answer at the end. I wondered if a scar would be enough to prove that I was not her Craig.

I also thought about him, somewhere out in the omniverse, would he have approved of my actions, would he have cursed me for driving a wedge between Navi and himself.

I didn't know. Though my mind was racing and I could not sleep, I was fatigued beyond belief. My head was pounding, I felt awful, guilt-ridden and horribly upset.

Trying to take my mind off of the situation, I picked up the photo-frame and looked at it, tracing my finger on Tyler's scar, and letting myself think back to the moment that I received my version of it.

The more of this I read, the increasingly more compelling I find it, Craig. You're crafting an interesting novel, most assuredly. I am terribly interested in seeing where this story goes before the month is out.

But why did you have to go and spoil Thief of Time for me before I could read it? ;_;

Oh, man. I am so sorry, Rappy. I had no idea anyone reading this would have been spoiled by that, I just assumed anyone who cared knew. I didn't even consider... ;_; I am really sorry.

Glad you're enjoying it thus far, anywho ^^; today will be special. Tricia urged me to write as much as I could today, so I am going to do at least 2 two hour blocks today, this is the first of the two and covers the Craig/Stressed backstory, which is part of MFC canon and has been referenced since I first started using the characters, but never actually elaborated until now

--
When looking through a group of children, it is always easy to notice the stereotypes and roles. The energetic leader types, the bookish nerd types, the artistic, the kind, the cruel. All of the traits which may someday be key to their future personalities, shining outright on their young faces. Few parents get to select the traits of their children, before raising them.

The two of them never really made it up, the single incident had driven a wedge in their friendship which would exist long beyond their youth. But they were still connected, for they were the same person and Stressed understood Craig's pain, as Craig understood Stressed's dilema of being trapped within his mind.

I opened my eyes to see morning light splashing through the living room window. It seems that as I had lost myself in memory and then lost myself to sleep. My bones ached from sleeping in such uncomfortable conditions, but I felt a bit more refreshed for having had a few moments of sleep.

It was still very early in the morning, which gave me more than enough time to work my way into the pot I had made before sleeping, and preparing a nice breakfast for myself. As I worked into my meal, the morning started to ease out of it's fog and I was more focused. My mind continued churning over the events of the previous evening. I was sure to face the consequences for it within the next two hours, but while it was far away, I felt safe enough to relax.

I had more than enough time to prepare something special for everyone, so making sure to rely on the stuff which had a Craig post-it on, I made enough breakfast for all of the residents. The first two to come down were Tyler and Tamara. At the same time. Hand in hand. That more or less cemented the fact that they had recovered from their fight, and I felt better for knowing that one fire had been extinguished.

"Morning, guys. I made breakfast, feel free to have some." I watched Tamara's expression as I said this, it was like a rollercoaster of being happy alone with Tyler, annoyed to see me and then overjoyed that I had been nice. I assumed that she was starting to have second thoughts about what type of person I was, and liked it. Other-Craig would find that journal worthy material.

"Thanks, bro. You doing okay? You're never up this early. Pull an all-nighter or something?" Tyler asked, sitting down with a freshly poured cup of coffee. Tamara worked on preparing a plate of breakfast for herself.

"I'm fine, thanks. Just had a lot of stuff on my mind. Ended up crashing in the living room and woke up early. Thought I'd do something nice for everyone, because I was up anyway." I said, plainly enough, sipping my own coffee and tilting my chair back.

"You've been big on that helping stuff past few days, bro. You feeling okay?" Tyler asked, looking over too Tamara.

"You're never this nice..." Tamara said with an air of suspicion about her, perhaps trying to see if I was working an angle or preparing to ask for a favor.

I shrugged casually "Just felt like doing something nice. I'm not a dick, guys. Come on." I was starting to think that Other-Craig's anti-social tendancies were making people think badly of him. "Anyway, how is it?"

Tamara shook her hand airily, I never was that good at cooking, but if it's passable, then I don't really care.

The morning dragged on, slower with each passing minute. Cari was the next person up, and gave me a quick hug when she realized that I'd made breakfast for everyone.

"Thank you, Craig. Thank you." she was dancing on air and full of pep, I didn't know why, "You all ready for tonight? It's going to be so awesome!" and my mind tracked back. It must be Friday, she was still excited to see her boy-crush play guitar in the evening.

I managed a bright smile fairly easily, as I had the opportunity to see Tricia, also, "I really can't wait. It'll be amazing."

"Count us out." Tamara said, wrapping her arms around Tyler, "We'll have a night to ourselves, thank you."

"Okay, but you don't know what you're missing." Cari brightly squeed, sounding more like her old self than she had for my entire time in this mirror universe.

The next person to come down was Sapphire. She seemed pleased with the breakfast and thanked me for it. Eventually Tyler stood up and brushed his hand on Tamara's shoulder, who stood up next, then Cari and the three of them lingered at the door.

"Aren't you coming, Craig?" Cari asked, possibly because she wanted to speak more about the Saygrum Angels concert. I shook my head in responce.

"Sorry, Cari. Navi offered me a lift. I'll still be there tonight, though. Don't worry about that." I gave an innocent smile and shrugged.

Tyler smirked and nodded at me, "Good man. Have a nice morning, then." and he turned and escorted Tamara and Cari off to the car.

Sapphire looked up at me, seriously after they had all left. "Riding with Navi?" she asked, "Sounds interesting." I didn't know if she actually cared, as she didn't seem bothered with small talk the previous day.

"Nothing scandelous." I said flatly, "We just have things to talk about." I was nursing my second coffee cup of the morning, and the lack of Navi was making me worry more and more. I still couldn't even fathom what her reaction would be.

"If you say so, Red." Sapphire said, standing up. "Well, I'm off. See you before the gig." and with that she left the room and took off for college.

That left Navi. For three excruciating minutes I sat alone in the kitchen, taking the time to refill my cup again. I paced impatiently and finally she appeared in the doorway. Wearing her over the top goth attire, perhaps a little more make-up than normal. Her expression was vague, I couldn't tell whether she was happy, sad, upset or okay.

"I made breakfast." I said, a little weakly, gesturing to the food.

"I am not hungry." she said plainly, "and we are late. Let's go." she turned and walked out the door, leaving me to rush and play catch-up. I left my bag and camera inside, as I didn't think I would be in the mood to endure classes at all, I only wanted to get this talk over with and deal with the rest of reality afterwards.

I got into the passenger seat of her car and she started driving. She didn't turn on the radio, and she didn't speak, either. So for the time being there was nothing, except silence. I didn't know whether I should look at her, or at the road, so I stared at my feet, instead.

I wasn't sure how long it was before she finally did speak, but the silence was eventually broken. "I have been thinking." she began, slowly, "I want to believe you. It would be convinient for me to do so. We would both remain unharmed." I could feel myself lighten at hearing this, but then she continued, "I cannot. Though."

There was a silence following it, I didn't know if she was thinking or wanted me to reply. I took a few moments to make sure I knew before finally saying "Oh... well. That's your choice, then."

"You are not being fair." she said, still in a level and unemoting tone, "You did not have to tell me that. You did, knowing I would not believe you."

I looked over, part of me wanted to agree with her, that it was unfair and that I shouldn't have, but a lot of me felt insulted that she would disregard my feelings on the matter. "Maybe I just thought you deserved the truth" I began, letting her scoff at the word "truth", before continuing, "Maybe I'm just sick of lying. Maybe I want to be able to just relax around one person. If that's selfish and unfair, then so be it. That's what I am."

Navi remained silent for a few moments, I watched the road, not wanting to see her face after my outburst. "I did not want to open my heart." she began, "I looked down on people in relationships. My own sister became a silly and pathetic little thing after meeting your bro, my other sister is acting a fool because of this guitar player. I swore I would never fall in love." I turned to look at her, guilt creeping over me, "I was my own person. I did my own things and I was content... and then you came and started being kind to me. Showing me how to be happier, to confide in someone."

Her words reminded me of how my world's Navi spoke, regarding her own crush on the guitarist, Lee. I continued listening in silence, not daring to interupt. "And this quickly you burn me." she sighed, probably kicking herself mentally. "Do you know how much that hurts, Craig? Do you?"

I shook my head. "I don't... and I am really sorry I'm the reason why you're suffering." my heart was pained at the fact that I could have easily made it all better, and that I was still thinking about meeting with this world's Tricia as if she were my own. If I was willing to go to these lengths to see a mirror Tricia, then why could I not be the person this Navi needed me to be. I felt selfish, exposed and terribly guilty.

"We are still friends." she concluded. "But yesterday did not happen for either of us. I did not confess feelings for you, and you did not make up a ridiculous story."

"It's true. I will say that again. But if it helps you deal with the fact that he's gone better, I will pretend to be him and I will forget about yesterday." I felt a tiny bit snappish in my responce, but I was not prepared to admit to be a liar, even to help someone who I helped harm.

"Enough." she said, suddenly. "No more. I do not wish to hear that again."

And then the silence returned, with nothing to fill it again.

The rest of the ride seemed like it was in slow motion. Though in actuality it was probably fifteen minutes at the most, it felt like an hour. I dared not open my mouth again and Navi was starring rigidly at the road. I took small solace in the fact that this would not prevent us from being friends, which meant that the relationship could be salvaged if I ever made it back to my own world, and Other Craig to his.

Navi eventually pulled the car into the parking lot and walked off, not waiting for me or acknowledging me. She would calm down, I was sure of that, but it was going to take a while, and it was probably best not to stand in her way. Without a school bag and camera case, I had no need to go to classes, my feeling was that if Other Craig wasn't at the classes, he wasn't learning, so filling in for him was useless. That's how I justified it to myself, anyway. So instead of sitting and listening to boring lectures all day, I toured the grounds, starting with the parking lot, so I could find the Audi. If I knew where that was, I had a ride back to the lodge.

It didn't end up taking too long, and the comfort of knowing my return trip would not be as excruciating as the one to college was, made me a tiny bit brighter.

I lingered the grounds, exploring the suprisingly beautiful scenary that surrounded it, the computer labs, the library. There were so many things I could have settled down and done to pass time, but I didn't. I ended up gravitating back to the Audi and sitting there as I did the first day I got here. My mind traced back over my actions, plagued with regret. I had almost ruined Tyler and Tamara's relationship with a single word, I had broken a blooming love between Navi and Other Craig. I just thanked what lucky stars I may have left in this world that none of my other conversations had lead to ruin. I heaved out a sigh, wondering if things would have been better if I refused to come out of my room. Feigned illness, attempted to avoid his life, rather than assume it until I could work out what to do.

There was another thing that was slowly driving me insane, how many times had I thought about my eventual task of working out how to get home. It seemed like it was always on the horizon, always out of reach and never any clearer to me than it had been hours or days before. I hung my head, drumming my fingers against my leg idly, I was sitting bored in a parking lot with nothing to do until someone comes to go home. If there was time for thinking about getting home, then it would be now.

But I couldn't think of anything. I just suddenly woke up in this world. Minor clues had come to me, perhaps the biggest was that when I found my scar I proved that it was my own body and not my conciousness in his body, which meant I had been physically moved from one dimension to the next, as was he. But how that could happen, I did not know. I doubted that a passing anamoly would have singled out two sleeping versions of myself. It was pointless to think about. I stomped my feet in frustration and growled out in annoyance. It seemed any amount of thinking on the past would just drive me to rage. The best thing I could do was plan the future.

And tonight was, indeed, something that needed planing. I had already told Cari that the two of us should meet the band after the show and I couldn't back out of that, though I knew I could easily shy out at the moment, a small part of me wants to see Tricia and speak with her. It was crazy to continue insisting that, as I knew that she was not my Tricia, and that all my attempts to deal with the relationships of this world ended in more pain and regret for myself. I was being unspeakably selfish, but I really did not know what else I could do. I would have to deal with the world eventually, and possibly face the fact that it would be my home for the rest of my life.

That thought scared me, and I was thankful to see Tyler, Cari and Tamara. I had no clue how much time had passed since I first sat down, but I was just happy to see them and escape from my head for a while.

"Hey guys!" I called out, standing and waving. Cari seemed pleased to see me more than Tamara and Tyler. "You guys have nice days?"

Cari nodded quickly, she was bouncing with anticipation, undoubtably due to the fact that her gig was going to be tonight and she would see Lee again. It was slightly discomforting for me to know about Cari and Lee's relationship from my world and think that in this world they did not know one another's name yet.

I looked to Tyler and Tamara, who were holding hands and standing by the front door of the car, they really did look annoyed with me, Tyler was the one to speak and clue me in, "Bro, whatever you did to Navi, you better apologize. She's been depressed all day, and I know it's your fault." I could tell that she wasn't speaking about it to anyone, but they know we rode together in the morning.

"I don't really want to talk about it..." I said, trying to keep the spotlight off of the subject of our dispute, knowing it would bring more pain and misery if revealed, "But it is my fault, I am sorry, she's already forgiven me and we'll recover one day at a time."

I could tell by their expressions that neither Tamara nor Tyler were impressed with that responce, but they had enough respect not to bring it up. We all got in the car, and I could see that Cari was not phased in the slightest, her mind still on pretty blonde haired half-angel boys who act like girls and the instruments they play. She couldn't keep still in her seat and between their combined displeasure with me upsetting Navi and Cari being a restless pain in the back seat, Tyler and Tamara just seemed grumpy.

The ride was undoubtably sweeter than the one earlier in the day, though. There was a radio and no one was expected to speak with anyone else at any point of the journey, though Tyler and Tamara exchanged a few small words with one another.

As I got out of the car, back home, Cari walked around, beaming. "Can you wait, Craig? It's going to be so amazing!" she exclaimed, hopping in to the house and rushing upstairs to prepare right away. I casually walked in behind, flumping myself down on the sofa for the time being, waiting until it was closer to the time before getting ready. Tyler patted Tamara on the shoulder and she went off to her room, alone, Tyler sat down next to me and nudged my arm.

"So come on, bro. I know she must have confessed that hidden crush." he said as if it was the most casual sentance in the world, "Tamara told me about it. Anyway, it's the only thing that could get her all moody and depressed like that. What did you do, turn her down, break her heart?" he was leaning in and had an accusing tone, not that I could really blame him.

"It's complicated..." I sighed, leaning back and looking at the ceiling, "and it's just between the two of us. I already said we made up. It'll be fine." to my suprise Tyler actually burst out laughing at this.

"Women always say it'll be fine, but they never forget a wrong, and never let their scars heal." he said, and I couldn't help but think that with an attitude like that, he would probably be having a very bumpy and interesting realtionshiip with Tamara, that is if they survived his daddy issues.

"Well it's not like I can do anything to fix it, even if I wanted to." I replied in a tone slightly more defensive than I probably intended, "She doesn't want to speak with me, and I don't want to upset her any more than I already have."

He slapped me on the back, hard enough to hurt. "That's wimp talk, bro. You wont help her by ignoring it. Bring her to your show, last thing you need is to have you and Cari all hyped up about a concert and her thinking you're in for her younger sister." he explained, I had a feeling he and Tamara had discussed this topic earlier.

"Cari's only going because she has a man-babe she has eyes for. We're not in to eachother at all." I said, darkly. Growing increasingly tired with the amount of times I had been talked down to so far that day.

"Whatever, dude." he said, standing up. "Just do the right thing, or Tamara wont shut up about it, and if she's upset with you, you know I have to take her side, right?"

I sighed "I know..." and let him run off back to her, thrilled to be left alone with my thoughts for a few minutes.

Time passed, I was able to eat, watch some blissfully bland news on TV, say hi to Sapphire as she came in and small talk about the concert that night, but the time when Navi would return from college would come and I would have to face her again. If only to invite her and to apologize again.

It turned out being another hour before she got home, I wasn't sure if she just had stuff she needed to do, or she was prolonging the inevitable. Neither one would have surprised me too much. She looked depressed and worn down, making it pretty hard to disguise the fact that she had been hurt in the recent past. There was no wonder that Tyler and Tamara were so upset.

"Hey, Navi." I said casually, waving "Are you okay?"

Her features tightened at the sound of my voice and she forced a neutral expression on her face to bow slightly and reply "I am doing fine. Thank you."

"We're heading out to the gig in a while." I continued, warmly, "Would you like to go with us? Not sure if you'd like the music, but it's still a night out, you know? It'll be fun."

She stood; pondering for a moment, but then shook her head "I have some work to do. I will not keep you." And she wandered upstairs without even a second glance at me. I couldn't really blame her too much, given all that had happened, but it was still fairly hurtful to be treated like dirt by the one person I thought I was getting close to in this universe.

With her now gone, I felt no inclination to linger in the living room any longer than I already had. It seemed a good enough time for me to go and prepare for the gig. As I walked upstairs and chose out my outfit, I was able to start letting go of my anxiety regarding Navi. I kept reminding myself that the Tricia I was going to see was not the one I love, but this didn't dampen the amount of excitement that was building up, just for a glimpse.

I eventually selected a simple jeans and sweater combo, fortunately my other had the same musical tastes as me, so there was no shortage of Rush related articles of clothing. I felt more like myself wearing them, anyway.

Fully dressed and prepared for the gig, I ambled to the kitchen to make sure I would not need to eat or drink at The Roundhouse, it was a very expensive venue and I was not sure how much money Other Craig had on his cards.

It was another fifteen minutes before Cari and Sapphire came back down. Both of them were dressed in very unexpected ways, from what I knew of them. Cari had a grunge rocker ensemble and had sprayed some yellow streaks into her brown hair to match the blue ones which were already there. It looked absolutely dreadful and I had to bite my lip to prevent laughing at her. Sapphire, on the other hand, had slicked her hair and pulled it to give it a jagged appearance and was wearing a corset and skirt combo which did not match, yet still complimented her.

I suddenly felt under-dressed.

"Ready to go?" Cari asked, unable to contain the excitement in her voice.

"I'm ready." I said with a nod and a smile, indicating the kitchen "I really suggest you two get something in your system before going out, though." I paused and re-examined the situation, "Wait, is it only us three?"

"Tamara and Tyler want alone time and my other sister is being all goth-emo again."
"Let's not delay, guys. I want to get close to the stage." Sapphire stated, walking into the kitchen and returning with a bottle of juice and some energy bars.

"Oh, okay!" Cari quickly exclaimed as she too got some snacks for the road. I rolled my eyes and walked on out to the door, waiting for the two of them to catch up. My mind was still heavily focused on the idea of Tricia. I didn't particularly care about seeing Lee.

"So, you know this venue, don't you, Red?" Sapphire asked me, after catching up. The familiarity in her tone constantly made me uncomfortable.

"Yeah, it's an up-scale jazz place. I don't know why they're doing a rock concert. I'm not sure if you'll be able to mosh it up tonight."

Sapphire just shrugged it off with a sly smile "The music isn't the main attraction for me." She stated confidently. It was that moment that the uncomfortable knowledge that the three of us were on the prowl hit me. Though, I was not in the same sense as my companions, I still wanted to speak with Tricia for the sake of hearing her speak and hoping that some kind of cosmic connection was keeping us together.

Every time I thought about that, I felt stupid and yet always unwilling to dismiss the opportunity of seeing her.

The three of us got in Sapphire's car. I got into the backseat and let the girls get up front. Sapphire drove away, warning that we'd be taking the train home if she scored.

The drive was uneventful. Cari was still bouncing on her seat, Sapphire was filled with a confident air which bordered on arrogance and I kept my own mouth shut. Sapphire's choice of music was erratic. She put on an iPod and the mix of songs gave nothing away to her personality. I watched the city lights grow closer on the horizon and marveled at the familiar landmarks as we slowly made our way towards the venue.

Not too long later the three of us were outside of the car in the parking lot of a grand looking bar with some lovingly made hand-made banners proclaiming the Saygrum Angels were playing that night. Perhaps over-eagerly, I looked around the parking lot for a van which would hold their instruments. There did end up being a van parked, but no one was at it. Sighing out disappointment, I caught up with the girls who had left me to my thoughts.

The gig was proclaimed as an 8pm start and it was only 6pm. The place was pretty quiet for the time being. It was the same Roundhouse from my memories. The stone walls, the dim yellow lighting, the elaborate fireplace with it's gentle flames which were obviously for decoration more than warmth, the red carpets with the elaborate golden emblem design stretching across it like wallpaper, and then of course there was the small black stage in the corner, which already had the drum kit with a white wing emblem drawn onto the kick-drum. I sat down along with Cari and Sapphire and ordered myself a coke, which Sapphire said she'd cover. I watched as their eyes both darted across the wide expanse of the venue's hall, looking for signs of attractive women or attractive blonde haired guitarists. My guess was that neither was in sight, so I took my coke and slowly drank it, smiling to myself and remembering my last visit to this club.

-

Summer was dying out in Sega City and the nights were coming sooner each passing day. It was 7pm and the clouds in the western sky were giving way to a dim hue of red. Kay exclaimed in joy as she watched them from the window of the moving train.

It was a beautiful evening, littered with behind the scenes drama which would remain hidden for the time being.

-

I shook my head, laughing. The other night I had been at The Roundhouse was a blurred memory to me. It was a crying shame that such a pleasant evening was ruined by drama. At the time, Navi was attempting to rid the world of Lee's manager, Jesse Thompson, and attempted to assassinate him while Lee was on stage. I felt a wave of satisfied relief that I had left the insanity of my home world behind me and could enjoy a concert without such high-drama.

Having finished my coke while lost in memory, I turned back to take a look at the floor. The tables closest to the stage had been moved away, presumably so people could stand if they so wished, which seemed inconsiderate for the people who chose to sit.

Cari and Sapphire had already wandered down there, and a few other people had taken some tables. I hurried down to the floor and sat down at one which Cari had claimed for herself. The stage was still empty, spare for a person who walked on stage and fiddled with the equipment for reasons I couldn't guess. Cari was still bouncing with giddy glee, barely able to contain herself.

I noticed that the band had put some of their posters up around the place. Wanting to waste a few seconds, I stood and walked over to one of them, examining. It showed the likeness of Lee, Tricia and two other people on the stage, mid song with their band named superimposed and all the gig details underneath. Tricia was wearing jeans and a leather jacket in the picture, which was mildly relieving, as I expected something elaborate like Sapphire was wearing.

Feeling a smirk pull to my face, I felt a tug on my leg. "That's my cousin!" a bright voice exclaimed, pointing to the poster. I turned and looked down, feeling a sudden shot to my heart. Kay was standing there. Her hair was much darker than the redhead daughter I knew, but it was undoubtedly her. She was pointing at Tricia and beaming with pride.

I knelt down and smiled, "She's a good singer, isn't she? Your cousin?" I felt a wave of warmth run through me, being able to speak this way to her. I knew it wasn't my Kay, but it was still her, and that familiarity was enough to boost my spirits to heights they had not reached since I woke up in this world.

"Uh-huh." She smiled, holding out her hand "My name's Kay!"

Before I could take the hand and introduce myself, an older woman caught her and turned her around, "Kay! What did I tell you about running off?" the woman angrily exclaimed.

Her face transformed into a look of sadness as she mumbled something about just being nice. I drew myself to my full height and looked at the woman. She was familiar, and it took a few moments to register her as Tricia's high school friend, Celine.

"Don't be hard on the girl, she's just excited." I said, trying to hold down my urge to yell at the woman for upsetting his daughter. Once again, reminding myself that she was not my daughter, but Tricia's cousin, and the Tricia of this world clearly did not know me.

"Mind your own business." Celine shot back to me, glaring daggers and dragging Kay back to where they were sitting "Now be a good girl and stay still."

I walked back to my seat and parked myself down in a grumpy state of dissatisfaction.

"Not long now, Craig." Cari reminded me, taking her eyes off of the stage for a rare moment.

"I'll go get us some drinks, then." I huffed, needing to occupy my mind with something, to prevent the irrational rage from consuming me.

"Thanks Craig!" she sang out overenthusiastically.

I got the drinks for Cari, Sapphire and myself and then took my seat. Time was moving a lot faster now that we were situated and we were able to capture candid looks at the band as they prepared themselves. Cari was giving her best come-hither stares at Lee, who was obliviously tuning his guitar, and I was surprised to find myself not feeling the same tug at my heart, when I looked at Tricia, than I did when I saw her in the coffee shop.

Lee looked exactly as he did in my world, down to his denim outfit which belonged more on a country singer than a rock star. He wore a smug grin all the time and his fair and thin hair waved dramatically with almost any motion that he made. One look at Cari proved that she was all but in love with the man. I felt a wave of hate well up just at the sight of him.

Nothing happened beyond that, though I did notice Celine speak to Tricia, pointing over towards me. Then the two of them gave me a menacing look. I shook my head, feeling the familiar sinking feeling of despair. I spend two sentences engaging a cute kid who ran up to me and somehow I am a bad guy. That hardly seemed fair.

It was the only notable moment of the warm-up. Sapphire had disappeared into the restaurant, searching for a girl to go home with, leaving Cari and myself to just eagerly anticipate the performance. The crowd grew substantially before the show kicked off, but it was still a mediocre turn out for a venue which could hold so many people.

The clock continued ticking away, until finally it was 8pm and the lights dimmed, and an announcer walked on stage, asking the audience to put their hands together for The Saygrum Angels.

5,500 words to go.

-
The band ambled up to the stage and picked up their instruments, the bass guitarist and the drummer were entirely unknown people to my eyes, I paid them no mind. Lee was the same as ever, though he wore a skull pattern bandanna and ditched his denim jacket to leave the audience with only the vest underneath it. Cari approved of this move. Tricia looked normal, her hair was sprayed and styled in a way I had never seen my Tricia's, but besides that she looked identical. She walked up to the microphone and surveyed the audience members.

"Good evening, everyone!" she shouted out, to a deafening silent response, she adjusted her microphone and continued in a more conversational tone "We're Saygrum Angels, and this is our first night at The Roundhouse, we hope you all like the set we put together for you." And with that said, she turned to her drummer who started the opening beat and the instrumentalists burst into song.

The music was rather interesting, it was standard rock but with some aspiration, as if someone who knew how to compose had looked over the sheet music and spice it up, I would guess that someone was Tricia. When she finally began singing their bittersweet lyrics, her voice was gorgeous, more so than the one I remember who was really good at singing, but spent her life focusing on other endeavors.

As I absorbed just how good this Tricia's voice was, in comparison to my Tricia's, I wondered what her life would have been like in a world where she had not been swept into our insanity, and she was able to follow the dreams and desires she held before super heroics, magic and time traveling children.

I caught myself smiling widely at her, and decided to look at Lee for a while. Cari was transfixed with him, and I could tell why. He had stage presence, in a way some guitarists never could. He effortlessly walked about the stage during the unimportant sections, and when his epic solo would come he would keep himself close to the edge of the stage milking the pantomime of passion, flaunting his golden locks and generally putting on a mating dance for any females in the audience. I was starting to wonder which Lee I hated more, the half-angel or this rock star.

The gig continued with high energy that made time seem irrelevant, before too long I stopped trying to look at clocks and just counted time in the number of songs they played. They were pretty good, though the sound equipment that they used was not up to scratch.

No one was really standing up at the front, so we had a clear view. At one point of the concert, I decided to look through the back to see where Sapphire was; eventually I caught her dancing with a small group of people.

Every few songs, Tricia would speak out to the audience proclaiming how great it was to play for us, what the following song meant to her. I didn't find it surprising that she wrote all of the songs that the band played.

After the eighth song the lights picked up and Tricia once again addressed the audience "You're a wonderful audience." She paused for an audience reaction which didn't come, "We're going to take a fifteen minute break, but you stay glued to your seats, because we'll be back." And she hopped off of the stage and the band followed, sitting down in a cornered off booth which had their belongings.

The ambient house music set back in and the noise of chatter washed over the room. I looked to Cari who was beaming widely at me. "It's not as fun as the Thanksgiving concert." She conceded, tilting her head, "But they're so good, don't you think?"

I nodded, "I forgot how good." I stated simply, looking to the booth which contained Tricia, Lee and their fellow band members. Cari caught my gaze and looked over for herself.

"That guitarist is something special, isn't he?" she gushed "Should we go and speak with them?"

I hesitated before answering, "They're preparing for the next set, let's just let them have their break." I wanted very much to speak with them, if only to see Tricia and kill the idea that something of my world was still here with me. As I watched, Kay and Celine rushed over, Kay gave Tricia a hug and heavily gushed stuff that I couldn't hear. I looked back at Cari, if only to prevent the girls seeing me looking at the child again.

The time passed faster than expected and before too long, the band were back on the stage, I resigned to let myself stop worrying and just enjoy the concert, as being trapped in my own thoughts for so long was getting stressful. Going out of my way to stop obsessing about my reality and who Tricia was in this world really helped my enjoyment of the concert. I was able to immerse myself more readily into the songs and enjoyed it more.

Possibly because of the alcohol that the patrons had been consuming since they arrived, the second set was received far more enthusiastically by the audience, who were making some mild level of sound, this in turn encouraged the band and improved their performance.

By the end of the evening, the band had earned a well deserved encore. It made me happy to see a version of my girlfriend so overjoyed in the moment of performance; I had seen similar looks of happiness on my Tricia's face, but never during musical performances. I made a note that if I found my Tricia, I would try to get her to live the same joy that this Tricia was displaying effortlessly.

As the song came to a close, Tricia addressed the audience once again, "Thank you all!" she shouted out, joyously "You're a wonderful audience, we hope we get to see you again. We have CDs and shirts on sale if you want to hang around. But first, give it up for my fellow Angels: on the drums, Barry Williams!" and the drummer gave a drum roll for himself as the audience cheered out for him, after they had died down, Tricia continued "On the bass guitar, Monica Taylor!" the female bassist gave a short display for the applauding audience before Tricia continued, "Lead guitar, Lee Cypher!" I was fairly sure the shriek emitting from Cari's mouth was enough to deafen me, as Lee wailed on his guitar for a few seconds to match the noise coming from the audience, "And I'm your vocalist, Tricia Greiner." She bowed down as people clapped and cheered, myself included, and then all four band members waved and went off to their booth.

The noise quickly simmered down as the regular music and lighting of The Roundhouse picked back up. The band was setting up a shop out of a suitcase on their booth, a small line already forming around them. Cari looked over to me, expectantly; she probably did not want to go up alone and was waiting for me to say something before going. "We'll wait for the queue to die down a bit." I said, simply, "That way we get to talk for a while, rather than get pushed aside."

Cari seemed satisfied with that logic, "I'll be back, then." She exclaimed, running towards the restroom; leaving me to the table alone.

"Yours is a coke, isn't it?" Sapphire's voice asked from behind me. I spun around and saw her looking fairly satisfied with herself. "You and Cari will have to ride the train back, tonight. Hope you don't mind."

I gave her a dry smile as a response, "Sure. Thanks Sapphire. Find someone good?" I weakly asked, attempting to make idle conversation.

"Yeah, I'll tell you more tomorrow. But I just wanted to get you two a consolation prize, in the form of drinks. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" she hurried back to the bar, got the promised drinks and left with an overly flirtatious wave. I suppose being an open and outgoing lesbian gave her the right to act like a hussy whenever she wanted someone to not hate her for something.

Cari returned and I gave the brief explanation that we would be going home on our own that evening, she didn't seem to care and the drink more than made up for it. She downed it so fast I could see the red flush to her cheeks.

The queue for CDs and t-shirts shrunk fairly quickly and eventually I stood to join it, Cari flanking me the entire time. Before too long we were at the front with no one behind us. Tricia was sitting down to the side talking with Celine, Kay on her knee; Lee was in charge of sales.

"And how may I help you two?" he asked in an overly elaborate tone of voice which made me want to hit him.

"I'll take a CD and a t-shirt." Cari said, happily, handing over the indicated money to Lee and smiling so wide at him that she may as well have just ordered a blonde haired guitarist for the evening.

"Of course." Lee said, picking up an extra large t-shirt for Cari and a CD, "And your boyfriend, here? Is he buying?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, as Cari giggled stupidly and shook her head, "No, no, he's not my boyfriend. We go to college together and saw you at the thanksgiving thing."

"Ah, fans? How wonderful to know we have a following already." He gushed, turning to his band members, "It appears we have fans, everyone." The rest politely smiled at Cari and I, I got the impression that they had similar feelings towards his attitude than I did. Cari still appeared spellbound by him. Some things do not change between universes.

Cari was blushing fiercely and began engaging Lee in conversation. I shook my head disillusioned, when a young voice caught my ear. "See, see! She was good, wasn't she?"

I turned to the source and saw Kay looking up at me. I looked over to Tricia and Celine before engaging, her "Is it okay?" I asked, Tricia smiled politely with a nod, so I sank to a knee and smiled at her. "She was really, really good. Your cousin made all those songs herself, huh?"

Kay beamed with enough pride to make it seem she had made the songs, while nodding "Uh-huh! I can sing too, but I don't write any music."

"Give it practice, okay? Tricia will teach you, and then you can write and sing together." As I spoke, I felt a simultaneous warmth and heartache, that I could connect with Kay this closely and yet even if I made this reality my own and had Tricia fall in love with me, she would never be my daughter. Not unless I got home.

"You're pretty good with kids, aren't you?" Tricia asked me, the first time she had spoken directly to me in this world.

I gave a level smile and nodded back to her. "I used to take care of one just like her a while back." I said, congratulating myself on another truthful lie. Fortunately Cari did not hear me, as she may have questioned my story.

"She idolizes me." Tricia said, rolling her eyes, "My aunt wants me to bring her to all my shows so it will inspire her." Her smile while saying this was gorgeous, I had to remind myself once again that this was not the Tricia I loved and to fall for her would be to betray the woman I did love.

"Good to have family who believe in you." I responded, pulling a chair over and sitting down to enjoy a more comfortable conversation.

"That's true." She conceded, looking to her cousin, "But we booked a hotel room for the evening for a party and I am worried about having her with me."

"I'll take care of her, though." Celine interjected; perhaps offended that Tricia was worrying so much about it.

"You earned the right to party." I laughed, looking at the other band members, the drummer and bassist were talking amongst themselves and Lee and Cari were so openly flirting that I was surprised to see them not making out yet. "You guys were really good tonight."

"Yeah. I was worried when the audience were keeping quiet for the first set, but they loosened up and it helped us loosen up." She said brushing some fair from her fringe and starring at Kay who had run to the stage and was innocently playing with the instruments which still lay there on their stands.

"You've got talent. All of you." I sighed, my morale draining for no real reason.

And with that, Tricia disregarded me, having worn out all the small talk she was willing to give to a stranger. She pulled herself up and ran after Kay, to stop her from damaging their equipment.

Somewhere in that moment, I resigned that this Tricia did not know or recognize me, and the burning desire to find her and speak with her had drained away. I felt deflated for wasting so much of my hope on something which only served to make me feel worse. I didn't even know anymore why I was so intent on this meeting. Somehow I had convinced myself that meeting Tricia would somehow cause things to correct themselves, but she was as stranger to me as anyone else in this world.

I felt alone, afraid. The words coming out of everyone's mouths fell muted on my ears. Tricia and Kay were both here. I could reach out and touch them and all I would feel is shadows of the people I loved. No matter what their names were or what they looked like, these were not my loved ones and all of my denial had finally left me.

I wanted to leave, right there and then. Go home and try desperately to break back into my home world somehow, but Cari was still talking to Lee, so I smiled and waved goodbye to the band and made my way to the bar, pouting at my misfortune, and perhaps for the first time, seriously considering ways to return home.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed, but eventually Cari tapped me on the shoulder, a big fat smile plastered all over her face. "Craig, we're going back to the hotel. You're invited if you want to come." Lee was behind her, looking very satisfied with the pull that he made. I had the feeling that in this world, Lee would not be as faithful and committed to Cari as my world's version was.

I still felt miserable and no longer wanted to be near the temptation of an unfamiliar Tricia, so I shook my head, "I'm going to head back on the train. See you tomorrow." I patted Cari on the shoulder and stood up, looking to Lee "Good set, man. You take care."

The guitarist nodded, perhaps unsure how one would respond to a compliment like that, then he went off with Cari and the rest of his group.

In another world, I may have joined them. But I was already in another world and it was now painfully apparent that it was not my world and it never could be.

Tomorrow should be the last installment, unless I decide to make the epilogue last longer.
-

In another world, I may have joined them. But I was already in another world and it was now painfully apparent that it was not my world and it never could be.

I gave myself a few minutes to pout and finish a final drink, before setting off. The club was mostly empty after the gig and I had no intention of sticking around any longer. I painlessly navigated my way through the dimly lit streets to the train station and boarded it without hassle. I made sure to find a nearly empty carriage to sit in and stare at the sky.

A deep feeling of melancholy had washed over me since Tricia walked away from me. Seeing her stare at me as a stranger was more painful than anything I could have possibly imagined this world to be capable of.

The train shunted along, and I started thinking about viable ways to get home. On this side, there weren't any magic or mystical abilities, but in my world there was. I had assumed, until now, that if I were to get home, I would have to wait for something of my world to come and save me, as I was more powerless here where powers did not exist than I was when surrounded by a family of heroes and goddesses.

I thought about who would be capable of creating a portal which would reach into another world. Stressed was able to, as he used his magic to teleport to Lee's world; Cari, Tamara and Navi were all from other worlds, though I did not know how they traveled; and then there was Ruby and Sapphire, with their dimension cutting sword.

Any one of them could have helped me, if I could get a message to my own world, but that seemed hopeless. I didn't know what I was hoping for any longer. I had met everyone from my world's lodge now. Cari, Tamara, Navi, Stressed, Sapphire, Lee, Kay and even Tricia.

I suddenly shot up in my seat.

There was someone I had not met yet. I don't know why I had not thought about it before, but Ruby existed here and I had not seen her once.

If Sapphire were available, I would have asked her right there and then what happened to her and why she had been absent for my three days in this world. Instead, I decided that the best option would be to find her myself. It was another pointless mission, but I still had some hope that I was not the only one who woke up in this world that morning. If I opened Ruby's door and found the crimson haired time goddess hiding away from the unfamiliar lodge, perhaps I would finally get home.

It was a stupid thought, an entirely irrational one, but I had no other leads to follow up on.

Impatience biting at me as the train ambled towards the station; I paced up and down, waiting to dash from the moment the doors opened until I could reach the lodge. The insane resolve fully engulfing me.

After the longest five minutes I had ever felt, the doors opened and I jumped out onto the platform below, picking my feet and making my way down the road towards the lake where our lodge sat quietly and off to the side.

The journey was about 2 miles, and I was impressed that my body could withstand such a long distance without rest. The moment I burst into the door, I wanted to collapse. The room was dark and no one was there. Tyler and Tamara were probably having a romantic evening and Navi was pouting about my confession, still.

I heaved some slow, deep breaths and slowly paced up the stairs. I was afraid of what was going to happen next, because I would either open that door to see a sleeping black haired version of Ruby, or an empty room. Then I would, once again, be alone and without any hope of escape. When I finally stopped in front of the door that belonged to Ruby, in my world, I hesitated, starring at the wood. I gave the door two firm knocks and waited briefly.

There was no answer, so I turned the handle and began investigating the room. It was neat, empty and looked like its owner was not staying in there for the time being. I felt a wave of dread and disappointment, before stopping myself dead in my tracks.

There was a thin oval shaped veil, about the size of a person, lingering in the centre of the room. When I walked to inspect it, it showed the same room I was looking at, but in a different state, the bed in the corner was not neatly folded, when looking through this veil, but it was a crumpled mass of sheets surrounded by caved in and splintered wood. The walls had large splintered scars stretching out, as if someone had attempted hacking at the wood with an axe.

It was my Ruby's room. She was in a brief relationship with Tamara, which ended in heartbreak and in the space of a month she had been defeated, ridiculed, stripped of power and put on trial by her superiors for being a threat to reality. Destroying her room with her sword was a typical response from her, and through this odd veil, I could now see my world. I pressed my hand to the veil cautiously and my hand went right through with minimal resistance. The air on the other side was warmer, but beside that, it felt the same as if I were to stick my hand forward anywhere else in the room.

Looking back to the door and silently bidding my mirror world friends a farewell, I pushed my whole body through the veil and stood, now, in the sword slashed destruction of Ruby's room, the Ruby from my world's room.

Every surface was coated in gashes from her rampage, the drawers and cupboards had large lines cutting across the surface, the walls were a barrage of splinters, the bed was crumpled completely, the entire place was a dump, and I had never in my life been so happy to be in a hellhole like this.

I walked to the window, which was mercifully untouched by the chaos which had befallen the rest of the room and stared up at the night sky. It was late and no activity could be seen outside. From this view, it was anyone's guess as to which world it was, but when I turned around to see the veil still hanging in the air, leading to the open door of the neat and tidy room, I knew I was home, a genuine smile of relief came over me when I suddenly caught a female voice from the corner of the room.

"That took longer than I was expecting."

-

There is only supposed to be one timeline. The Goddess of Time existed to make sure that this fact was always kept sacred and true. When time travel occurred, she would prevent parallels from forming. Her mere existence kept this delicate balance and stopped the world from branching off into infinite possibilities.

Then one day, she was destroyed. Pierced by a power stealing blade by a villain who wished to take the power for him, and with that action, time and reality were fractured. The villain, known as Damien, was eventually defeated and the powers he had stolen had moved on to the nearest vessel available at that moment. With a fractured timeline, the number of possibilities for the results was unfathomable. The only common with all of the reactions was that they all resulted in a new Goddess of Time being created, with the sole intention of removing the alternate realities that had been created.

With unlimited possibilities available, one of the possible recipients of the power was Craig Bayfield, who had been present in one reality, along with a number of his companions from the lodge, when the villain had been defeated. The resulting goddess of this fusion named herself Ruby Chronos.

Ruby's first days of existence were spent using her sword to visit the limitless realities created and destroying their version of the new goddess. Each defeat removed another possible timeline and over the course of her actions, it was eventually whittled down to the point where she was the only remaining one, as she was at this time unaware that Sapphire still existed in a void of an already destroyed universe.

Having completed her mission, she finally used her sword once more to bring her back to the lodge of the remaining timeline, different from her own in only that the crisis had never occurred and the protector of time was now herself.

The lodge was the same as she had left it, when she was Craig Bayfield and not Ruby Chronos. The residents were as peaceful as they were before their lives were interrupted by Damien's arrival, and most importantly, Craig still existed, oblivious to the path that his life could have taken and the circumstances that would have lead him to becoming Ruby.

Time passed and Ruby was accepted into the lodge, explaining her presence, who she was and why she called the place home. She became bitter rivals with Tamara, friends with Cari, but with Craig she could never find herself able to get close. When she saw the way that he spoke and the way that she acted, it fueled a bitter rage in her, a denial that she could have ever been that pathetic or sounded that stupid. Each and every time she saw him; she was filled with a sense of disappointment and could not bear to witness the mirror that showed her for what she once was and what she would never be again.

Time passed for her and every day her previous life became more of a memory and less of her inner being. With a love blossoming between her and Tamara, a hatred of her sister, and a world of wonder opened to her with her new powers, she soon forgot the life of an orphan boy who once worked at a coffee shop.

But sorrow and despair fell upon Ruby's hearts in the time to come, as her relationship with Tamara bloomed into a love which would eventually be crushed, her fighting with Sapphire would lead to her eternal humiliation and defeat and she discovered that destiny itself was set to destroy her.

No longer filled with the joy and wonder of her life as an almighty goddess, she began to hate Craig for different reasons, for being the one who got to live the normal life, for being happy with his girlfriend and their future daughter who was pulled from the night where her own life would be finished forever by her own hands.

For in the future, on the night that Sapphire took Kay back from the future to the present, Ruby went insane. To the point of which Sapphire could not hold her back. When told of this, Ruby assumed a lie or a ruse and went to investigate and came across her rogue self, and without any options besides self-preservation, was forced to destroy her.

The bitterness, hopelessness and rage spurred on by this situation consumed her, and in her desperation, she attempted to shatter the timelines that she was created to maintain, to break the dark future that plagued her.

She was successful in that end, and finally free from destiny and fate, she was able to create a better future for herself, free of all of the darkness that existed in her heart before.

-

I turned to the source of the sound and saw Ruby standing there, holding her dimension slicing sword and glancing at me with an expression of impatience and irritation. She tutted and walked right past me to insert her sword into the veil and with a clean sweeping motion it vanished.

"Now, Craig. I'm sure you have a lot of questions." Ruby began in an arrogantly confident tone, smirking at me before nodding to the side. "But I just finished explaining to him, and I don't really want to go other it twice."

I followed her head over to the corner of the room where I saw a man looking at me with a mousey expression of horror, he was my body double to the smallest detail, except for the scar above my left cheek, his hair was cut as mine was, his eyes were the same shade of blue, his attire was even similar enough to mine. It was Other Craig, I finally had come face to face with him and from his expression, and he shadowed a version of me who had existed before I had come to this lodge, meek, afraid and unconfident.

I didn't have the patience to deal with Ruby's cryptic mind games, or to startle my double by demanding answers of him. "Well someone had better explain, because I am going to be really upset unless there's a good cause for this."

Ruby sighed, floating up into a lotus position, mid-air, and she looked between the two of us, the pathetic and terrified normal Craig and me, the cynical and rough-edged Craig who had suffered much worse than a few days in bizarro world.

"You each wanted to be free of the state of your worlds." Ruby began, looking over to me, "You wanted to avoid all the chaos that gifted you with a girlfriend and a daughter, not to mention the quirkiest family a person could ever have." And she spun in the air to face my counterpart, "and you were growing increasingly withdrawn from a family that would have you, because you wanted to live in a comic book. I can empathize, I really can, but that doesn't stop me from thinking that you're both absolutely pathetic."

I looked over to my other, who had heard this whole spiel before and was just looking relatively fascinated by me and bewildered by the flying crimson haired woman in the sweatpants. "So all of this was just a mystical lesson in how to appreciate family and the life you have?" I spat at her, pacing forwards. The amount of emotional distress I had been feeling the past couple of days was all the fault of someone, and to be able to blame someone made me feel much better, but it also made me want to punch that cause in the face.

"That was a consequence, yes." She admitted, nodding and seeming thoroughly un-intimidated in the slightest by me, "But I actually did want to give you a taste of what life would be like if you were in the worlds that you dreamt about. I was confident you'd come looking for a way out, so I kept the escape portal in my room."

"Oh how kind." I snorted, shaking my head, "You didn't think to ask me before throwing me into someone else's life?" I was fed up with her and wanted nothing more than to pull her out of the air and hit her.

"I was still upset about what you said." She said with a sly grin, "You yelled at me, you yelled at the people you love and acted like a complete jerk. I didn't feel any remorse being a jerk back."

"And what did the wimp do to deserve this?" I said, nodding over to Other Craig, "Did he upset your precious goddess pride, too?"

"No…" she conceded, musing to herself, "He just happened to be a worthy candidate for switching. I've already apologized to him, and I'll drop him back off on the morning that he left, just like you'll wake up tomorrow the night after your epic hissy fit. No harm done"

I pinched the bridge of my nose. At the very least, I could feel some comfort that I had done nothing to ruin Other Craig's life, and he would have his own opportunity to fall for Navi on the rooftop on Thursday evening.

"Now, I think you two should have a talk. Then I'll go about sending you back to where you belong. Okay?" and with that, Ruby landed and left the room, leaving me and the other Craig alone to speak.

Done. Let's never speak of this again
-

He shuffled and stood up to a more up-right and confident position and approached me, I gathered that he was more at ease without Ruby in the room. "So… you're me, huh?" he asked in a skeptical voice.

I sighed and shook my head; putting my hand to his back and having him rest up against the door. I could gather just how horrible the past few days had been for him, and a sense of shadenfraude was allowing me to forget my own nightmares and comfort the poor terrified version of myself. It was very much like time traveling to an earlier part of life, where I was afraid of the superpowered insanity and telling myself that it would be alright.

"I'm sorry you got caught up in this." I said to him, brushing some hair back and looking over at my mirror double's features. "How was it for you? Did they work out that you weren't me?"

He sheepishly nodded, "First night, I was so confused and they were all really upset…" he paused, looking around the shattered ruins of the room they were in, "How do you live in this kind of world? Do you have a power, too?"

I looked at him for a few seconds before bursting into a small chuckle, "No, I'm about as powerless as you. Except I'm no way near as good with a camera, I'd wager you're more special than I am." He seemed to enjoy me saying that as a sheepish grin broke out on his face.

There were a few moments of silence as the two of us looked up to the ceiling, "So you have a daughter?" he finally said, looking over at me.

"Yeah, that's crazy, huh?" I laughed, sliding down the wall to a crouching position "From the future. I guess you don't know Tricia, either, right? How did you act when you realized she was my girlfriend?"

My other followed suit and crouched beside me, "I couldn't believe any version of me could have a girlfriend. When they worked out what I was I asked a whole load of questions, I didn't understand anything. Then when that red headed lady came and said she was going to bring me home, you turned up." As he spoke, he looked to the floor, his eyes wide from how much absolute craziness he had endured to this point.

"Bet you wished I kept a journal, huh?" I said with a smile, looking over to him, "Your one kept me going, no one knew we switched. I guess it doesn't matter if we're both going back to the moment we woke up in each other's worlds. As for your girlfriend problem, what do you think of Navi?"

"The green haired one or my one?" he asked, looking to me, perhaps trying to work out what my point was.

"Your one. The black haired goth girl. Play your cards better than I did, and you two'll be together in a couple nights."

"Really?" he gushed with a wide awkward grin.

"Really." I said with a nod.

"You're kind of cool, you know that?" he said, patting my back and standing up to his full height. "Thanks for sharing your life with me for a bit."

I hastily stood up, "Wait, wait, no. I didn't share my life. We were just thrown into one another's, probably to learn things always look better on the other side or something stupid like that." I shook his hand and gave him a last nod, "You have a more stable life than I could ever hope for."

"And you have a more exciting one than I could dream of." He added.

"But I guess there's no place like home." I said, playfully clicking my heels together.

Given that we were still, at core, the same person, he was as geeky as me and mimicked the motion, repeating, "There's no place like home."

"Ok, you two. Knock that off." Ruby's boisterous voice ordered, as she floated back into the room, "You've had your dorky moment, given some spoilers and all that other crap, now it's time to wake up… and I swear, if either of you make a "and you were there" joke, I will throw you into a world far worse than you could possibly imagine." Throughout her ranting, she seemed like she was having fun, which is more than I am usually able to say for Ruby. I was still very angry with her, but at that moment I couldn't help but feel a little light-hearted smile on my face.

"First you." She said, putting her hand on Other Craig's shoulder, she swung her sword through the air and with some resistance; an oval shaped veil leading into his world tore open where the view to her door once was. "Say goodbye."

My other waved at me, I saluted back at him with a smirk, calling "Don't screw up with Navi!" he smiled and nodded as the two of them stepped into the portal, which Ruby sealed shut after her, leaving me entirely alone in her room.

It was my world, and though Ruby was intending to mess with time again and send me back to day one, I didn't really see a point. I was home already; I walked forward to the door, intent on waking Tricia up and announcing my return. From the sounds of Other Craig's brief recap they had already worked out that I was missing and would be pleased to see me. That felt far more rewarding for my ordeal than just waking up as if it had never happened.

Before my door had even reached the doorknob, Ruby was back in the room tisking and wagging her finger at me, "Now, now, be patient, Craig. We still need to talk." She said, opening the door and walking ahead of me. "Let's go to your room."

I followed her, feeling my anger at her brash actions returning to me. She calmly paced ahead, not disturbing the doors leading to the other lodgers in their beds. I briefly entertained the idea of outwardly rebelling and rushing in to see Tricia, but there was little point when Ruby had the capacity to stop time and outrun me to any destination.

Upon returning to my familiar bedroom, she patted the side of my bed, offering me the opportunity to sit down, and she herself folded her legs and sat in mid-air. "Before you say anything, I want to make something clear to you Craig. I hate you." She nodded her head at the word hate and stated it so finally that I thought it was her entire lecture condensed to a sentence.

I was about to shout at her or just plain hit her, but she held a hand to halt me, "I hate you, because I understand you. You often forget that we were the same person, once. You and I have the same memories up until the moment I was born." As she spoke, I sat down on the bed and watched her, sighing out at having to deal with any more of this nonsense before my life returned to normality.

"And?" I asked, aggravated, "You assume that because you supposedly know what it was like to grow up as me, you know what's best for me? What the hell gives you the right to say or do anything about my life, you're barely in it." I suddenly stopped my furious rant as she had pulled her sword and was pointing it at me with a warning glare.

"Don't flatter yourself, boy. Didn't I already state that, I hated you? I don't care how you live your life or if you're happy." She placed the blade back on her lap and eyed me in a way to warn that she was willing to use it next time, and I knew how psychotic she was and dared not tempt that idea.

"So why the hell did you do this?" I demanded. "Was it some sick and twisted punishment?"

She calmly shook her head, "Craig. If it was you as the time goddess and me as the humble boy with a girlfriend, daughter and extended family, I am certain I would do a better job than you do. You're so willing to act like a victim and blame the people who love you for creating it that you would lash out like you did the other night, why the hell should you deserve that blessed life." With every word I could feel a bottled hatred spewing out of her, a bitterness that she perhaps had never outwardly admitted existed. It scared me.

"They deserve better than you." She snorted, landing to her feet.

"So you wanted to find a better Craig and replace me?!" I drew myself to my feet and stared at her, I could tell both of us were doing our best to keep our voices quiet enough to not be disturbed by anyone sleeping, and more importantly, we were an inch away from getting violent.

She was the one to back down and with a heaving breath she paced a step, turning her back to me. "Craig. I wanted you to understand something that only I could see. Not that they put you in danger and your life was messed up because of them, but that your life was magical because of them and that they would always save you."

I shook my head in disbelief, not willing to part with my anger so quickly, "Save the Hallmark crap for my birthday." I shot back, walking the step to close the gap between us, "That's not why you did this."

"Really?!" She practically screamed, swinging around and for a split second I thought her sword was being swung along with her body, "Do you know how painful it is to see you, moaning and pouting away a life that I rightfully deserved?" As she spoke she paced angrily towards me until I fell back on the bed, looking up at her with an unhidden fear that she would have struck me at any moment. "Even now you're being a pathetic little snot, I know you must have realized how important your life is to you and you're still rejecting the notion." She leaned in dangerously close, "Just don't screw up again. I won't pull this Wonderful Life stunt on you twice."

"What about you, then?" I retorted, leaning up and pushing her away, "Why are you so fixated on my life, when you're a freaking goddess?"

"Craig. This isn't about me. But I have made mistakes which I know I wont make again, I am working hard to fix the shambles I have made with my opportunities and unlike you, I can do stuff over. So get it right first time, okay?" I got the feeling that she wasn't being open or honest, but I no longer cared. All my rage had subsided with her replacing it with fear; I felt like crap and wanted to sleep.

"Now then. I'm taking you back. Don't mess up this time, okay?" and with that said, she pushed me back into the bed and I felt an odd pulling sensation, as if my soul was being sucked backwards into the bed. It was disorientating, and when I was finally able to tell what was what, the room was empty.

-

It was 7am when Craig finally woke up. Dim sunlight splashed through the curtains and into his room where they painted a bright yellow stamp against the back of his door, hanging in it's glow dust particles flew lazily around, illuminated only in that brief moment. Craig rubbed his eyes and pulled the blanket off of him and stood up, looking around. He stared beside the bed and smiled brightly to see that it lacked a bookcase. He had finally made it back to his home world.

In excitement, he thrust the curtains open and looked at the early morning sun reflecting off of the surface of the lake and the forest which stretched out around it. Quickly getting changed into his own clothes for the first time since the ordeal had begun, he hurried downstairs. His haste was met with a wave of disappointment as he found both the living room and the kitchen to be empty.

He flicked on the coffee maker and sat, watching the light outside the window, eagerly awaiting some company. He went over the events of his time in the normal world in his head, how every person he met was different to the people who he loved. He thought about the other Craig and how he would be spending his morning, in his world. He then thought about Ruby and what reason she possibly could have had to justify her actions. None of those things mattered to him anymore, for he knew that soon, he would finally be reunited with his family.

As he finished thinking that thought, he heard footsteps pounding down the stairs. He rose up and walked to the living room to see Kay with her correct ginger hair. Upon spotting her father, she hurried over and hugged him tightly. He hugged in return, kissing the top of her head and whispering how happy he was to see her.

"Are you taking me to school today, daddy?" she asked as innocent and oblivious as expected.

Craig nodded, scruffing her hair up "Yeah. I had a bad night yesterday; I just wanted to make sure today was a good day."

The young girl seemed happy with that response and quickly ran to the kitchen to make some breakfast before she had to go.

"Feeling better, I see." A voice from the top of the stairs asked, in a soft and kind tone. Craig turned around to see Tricia, pacing down the steps while wearing a white bathrobe. She did not stop when she reached him and took her boyfriend in her arms and pressed a soft kiss to his lips before leaning out and looking at him, "You were a real jerk last night, and you better apologize. But I'm glad you're feeling better."

He smiled uncomfortably, mixed feelings of guilt and relief meshing with the humorous idea that the other Craig would have had the same wake-up call. He gently kissed her back "I am sorry, love." He said calmly, "and I will tell everyone else that I'm sorry, later. But right now, I just want to hold you."

She gave him a perplexed look, but allowed herself to be embraced, clinging tightly as both of them closed their eyes. The words "I love you." Being whispered from both of their lips.

The embrace lasted a few more moments than was necessary or comfortable for both parties, but Craig came out of it smiling "Thanks for saving my life." He laughed, brushing his hand against her cheek.

"Sorry for endangering it." She responded, taking his arm and walking with him to the kitchen.

As the two of them walked into the kitchen, their daughter beamed up at them and for that moment, everything in the world was perfect and as it should be. Craig felt utter contentment and knew his place in the world, and hoped that somewhere out in the universe, his double was having similar sentiments about his own life.

Thinking back to the other world, Craig smiled and squeezed Tricia's arm, looking to her with a smile, "I think I know what I can do to make it up to you, love."

-

When put next to one another, the two worlds are entirely different. Circumstance and situation had shaped destiny and made entirely new realities. Leaving one universe where powered people existed and one universe where they did not. This had shaped the lives of those living and though similarities existed, things were mostly different.

However, the similarities did exist, and at times it was possible to observe the same event happening in both universes. Sometimes where a life had not been affected in the slightest by the existence of powered people, and sometimes where destiny had intended for an event to happen.

The air was cold; the sky was without a single cloud, as Craig and his companion pulled themselves up onto the roof. A meteor shower was mere minutes away from starting as the two of them settled down on the tiles and stared up with awe and wonder. As Craig watched the sky, the object of his affection sat and explained the phenomenon with the passion of one with a genuine interest in astronomy, and as she spoke, Craig watched and listened to each and every word.

It was a wonderful idea, and it was entirely unexpected when it was brought up, but very welcome. As the first signs of light blazed across the horizon, the two drew closer, admiring the sight.

And as one Craig looked at Tricia, and reached for her hand, the other looked at Navi and did the same, and as their hands met, both Craig's smiled at their partner filled with love and affection, overwhelmed by the beauty of this amazing night, and they simply said "I love you."

Now that I've finally gotten round to finishing my own NaNo-NaNo, I feel it just to congratulate you on both completing your novel and also lauding the very well-crafted story. Overall, it was a terrific read and one that had me empathetic with Craig nearly all the way through his journey. Fantastic story, Craig.

Very interesting story Craig! I hope you finished it as November is gone today ^^

Edit: Just saw the second page XD

Finished reading and must say you gotta be proud of your work! I truly enjoyed reading.

Thanks a lot, Rappy. The compliment really means a lot to me. Offer's still there if you'd like me to return the favor

As for Kijo, the thread has a big [FINSHED] in the title, I ended it a couple days back

Well, I shall leave that offer up to you, good sir. Having exceeded fifty thousand words, the story is not done and I wouldn't want to present to you an incomplete manuscript without giving some sense of whither it goes. But if you are indeed interested all the same, just say the word and I'll send it to you.

Quick question, since I havn't managed to read this since I last commented, due to having very little interwebs time, is there a way simply to save this whole thread to my computer so I can read it later?

Cause I wanna =(

http://www.hishkabagna.net/bayfield/Normal.doc <~ Enjoy 😀

~Shadowed Spirit Sage

Oooh, ta =3