Black Mirror

Chapter 15 - Life On Mars?

"What?" Fionna disentangles herself from Kensi's embrace and jumps to her feet. "Don't pin this on me! I had no idea-"

"Of course not! You were only concerned with-"

Kensi, Kelly, and I step in before Gabe and Fionna can come to blows. I pull him back to a far corner of the cave, grasping his shoulders like he's a boxer or something. The girls do the same, gathering near the entrance. Ty, Russell, and Ariel stand back, all looking neutral. And Jay's in the middle, his gaze swiveling between the girls on one end, and me and my twin on the other.

"Look," I whisper to Gabe. "You're right. Fionna did this for herself. Except not really. But you're right. We should've seen this coming. Changing the past, of course we'd wind up changing the present too-"

"Easy for you to say." Gabe pulls away from me violently.

It hurts me, seeing him this angry. Never, not even when he lashed out at me after I caught him cutting, has he retreated from me like this. He's told me time and again that I'm his rock. How unmoored from reality must he be?

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch the girls talk for a moment. I can't hear them clearly, not from this distance. So I refocus on Gabe. He's got his head in his hands, and he's almost in tears. "Why?" he whispers. "Every time I..." He looks up at me, and I expect him to turn away, but he doesn't. "I know this sounds stupid, but everyone I love, I lose."

"That's not true," I say automatically. "Look, you've got Fionna. You've got...you've got me."

"I didn't have Fionna anymore, for a while. After she died. And after I died, after White Shadows, I thought I'd never see you again."

I approach him again, just waiting for him to sprout porcupine quills to repel me. Someone's coming up behind me - Jay, I think. "You ain't getting rid of me that easily." I wink at Gabe, then stand him up on his feet and wrap my arms around him.

For the longest time, he stays still. Then he returns the hug, slowly but surely. "At least I can count on you every time." He pulls back, and I leave my hand on his shoulder. "We need to fix this, Alex. We need to-"

"Whoa, whoa, back up," Jay cuts in. "Are you suggesting we undo what Fionna just did?"

"NO!" Gabe and I both yell at him.

Finally, Jay looks suitably scared of us. He cringes for a moment, then relaxes. "'Cause I have a better idea," he says. "If I'm not supposed to be here, let me use the Mirror to undo my own death."

"Can you even do that?" asks Ariel. "If your counterpart's still alive, then does the Mirror default to your own death?"

"How should we know?" asks Russell. "None of us work for Peppermint, dude. Just you."

"It's a chance we gotta take," says Jay.

Everyone else watches him intently, and I'm sure we're all wondering the same thing. It's Ty who asks the million-dollar question, though. "Why are you so quick to take that chance?"

"Believe me," Jay says, "I know when my life's detoured into the wrong story. I'm not about to be part of some angst-ridden teenage Flashpoint Paradox."

Fionna glowers at him. "Should I be offended?"

"No, that's typical Jay," Kensi says with a reassuring shoulder-pat. "Blunt to a fault. All the faults, really."

"You serious?" Russell asks Jay.

"Even Gabe doesn't remember how I kept telling him I didn't belong here." Jay tilts his head at my brother, who only blinks in response. "I dunno if it's 'cause he's one of those Breakers or what-"