Parallels- an MCSM AU [COMPLETED]

TEN- Into the Unknown

"Do...what we're going to do to try to save the universe." I hedged. "Trust Julia. Go running into a whole new timeline with no idea of what's gonna be there." I didn't relinquish my hold on his shoulder, preventing him from going through the gate and ignoring my caution.

His expression darkened slightly, a tinge of unhappiness revealing itself. "You don't trust her? Lukas, what on earth has she done to you?"

I hesitated. "She...look, okay, it doesn't matter if she hasn't done anything. That woman is hiding something, and I don't like it. And she's just...problematic. She's stubborn and impulsive and quarrelsome, and I'm questioning if we really want to blindly follow her into this. I know I probably should've brought this up sooner, but you didn't really give me a chance."

"Stubborn and impulsive?" he echoed, watching me silently with those serious dark eyes. "Maybe you're forgetting, but those are both attributes you usually assign to me."

My grip went slack from shock, and he pulled away, stepping towards the gate again with a slightly despondent expression. I stayed frozen as he disappeared across the threshold, appalled at my own words.

I should've known better than to diss Julia. She was, after all, a version of the friend I cared for and respected.

But she was so different, at the same time, in small, subtle ways that were downright uncanny when paired with the rest of her personality. She was just like Jess, but not, and I didn't know how to react to it.

It didn't help that Jess and I still hadn't fully made up from our fight on the way back from the Order's temple. We'd mostly forgiven each other, but we hadn't really addressed the main problems. And even though I knew we'd eventually need to get that out of the way, I really, really didn't want to talk about certain things that I knew he was bound to bring up in that inevitable conversation.

I sighed, then began walking into the gate. Julia had said that the openings to the In-Between never lasted long, and even though I was full of objections to this whole quest, I didn't intend to get left behind.

Unlike the first time, the strange sight of the In-Between came into view immediately after I crossed the threshold. The perfectly empty plain, strangely tinted sky, the circle of colourful terracotta blocks below my feet, and the brilliant white tears in space, the gateways to the other timelines.

The others were waiting for me, more or less. Julia appeared to be walking in a circle around one of the gates, Radar was examining the dimmest, smallest gate with a mystified expression, and Jess was looking up at the empty sky.

"I wonder why those gates aren't down here with the rest of them." Jess mused quietly.

Julia looked briefly over at him. "Dunno. They must be different in some way, but I'm not sure how."

I glanced between them in confusion. What other gates could they possibly be talking about?

I looked upwards in the general direction that Jess appeared to be studying, but all I saw was the dim periwinkle-blue of the sky fading eternally into an unreachable evening. Radar approached us as well.

"What do you mean?" he asked, aiming the question at Jess. He was rewarded with a thoroughly befuddled look from the short man.

"The...the other gates up there. Don't you...you can't see the second layer?" Jess asked, his voice laced with confusion.

I shook my head slowly, feeling distantly anxious for a reason I couldn't explain. "No. It's just sky."

Walking over to stand beside Jess, Julia suggested, "Maybe it's, I dunno, a Prime thing. We're supposedly a little unusual in relation to the average person."