Traveling back with Elias and leaving my world, my family, left my chest feeling ripped open and raw. It also felt right.

To move forward, I had to learn to step away, and what better time to do it than now. I would only be gone for a few days, but a lot could happen in that time.

As I walked beside Elias in his home city, I easily imagined being born in this world instead. He'd helped me to pull my hair into a bun that looked just right for how Ashton normally wore it in case anyone saw me. While he hadn't told her what was going on, he had asked her to take a few days to train in the countryside and not to contact anyone. Though Elias shared that Ashton wasn't happy about being kept in the dark, he'd promised her that this would be the last time, and she'd begrudgingly agreed to listen to him. Part of me was surprised that she would do this, while another part thought it made perfect sense. If Piercey needed me to do something, I would do it, even if I didn't understand.

I looked up at the tall buildings in Elias's city and marveled at all these people had accomplished. It was hard to even imagine watching these being built or helping to build them myself.

"This seems too risky," I said quietly after someone smiled at me on the street. People here knew me. What if I said or did the wrong thing?

"We're almost to my place. Stay calm."

I took in a deep breath and followed him into his apartment building once we arrived. This looked straight out of a book at the Sacred School. In fact, it was very similar to the suites there. They were so much more advanced than my people in terms of infrastructure.

I sank onto Elias's couch the second we entered the apartment. "Is it safe here?" I asked.

"Yes. I make sure no one can spy on me here. I even have defense systems so no one can monitor our energy levels. It's one of the safest places in this world."

His skills as an information officer were impressive. I knew I wouldn't understand, so I didn't bother asking him to explain. All I needed to know was that what I could do in war, he could do with technology. Defend, attack, infiltrate.

"Okay," I said, relieved that we speak openly. "Talk me through this plan of yours and how that's going to change your Valley. Let's say we do take down your guild. What then? Will your world actually be better? I'm sure you can see from mine that it's not smart to just kill your leaders with no alternative."

Elias smirked. "I can definitely see that. Piercey saw it too. He warned you."

"You're right." I hadn't forgotten our conversation when we'd first reunited and Piercey told me that swooping in to save the day wasn't always so simple. It had been a long time since I thought about that conversation, but I wished I had listened more back then, not because I regretted killing the Prophet, but because we might have been able to make the transition better if I'd not been so bullheaded. "He understands that the people in the Valley have to pave their own way or they'll never be successful. I just didn't really get it before."

"You saw something he didn't as well. You saw that the Prophet needed to die, no matter the cost. It's something I've come to see in my own world, especially after observing yours."

I shrugged. "I need to learn to delegate power and build up leadership in others. That's what the library at Sacred School is teaching me, at least."

"In my world, when we remove my guild from power, we won't be dismantling them entirely. They'll still serve as a check to the other guilds. My hope, though, is that others will see what we did, and try to hold the other guilds accountable."

"That's a naive hope, Elias. Your Piercey side is showing."

He chuckled. "I suppose I'm very much in your situation where I know we need a change of power but I don't know how to replace it."

"Your people are well-educated and powerful. They've been trained since birth. I'm not sure you need me to come in and kill gods as much as you need to get your world to start fighting back."

Elias leaned forward. "It takes a spark. Besides, my guild actually has to go. My world has problems, but it works well enough having different guilds to balance each other out and keep any one from becoming too powerful. Most of the guilds don't want to take over the Valley. Mine is different. They do. I can't let them."

"So what is that you really want me to do?"

"I want you to impersonate Ashton to bring Jaxon and his allies into the fight and to be able to get to the leaders. Specifically, I need to get to someone Ashton is close with. His name is Lote and he's very careful about who he lets near him. He's paranoid, but he trusts her more than he trusts anyone else in the world."

"He's high up in your guild?" I asked.

"Yes. We've got the head of the guild, which consists of one leader from each of our specialties. They have equal power, but are not equal in their prowess. Lote is political, but very powerful as well, and will be the hardest to take down. The best chance to defeat him would be for you to get him alone. He's very good with empowering others so if there's anyone around, he'll increase their strength tenfold, and you'll be overwhelmed."

"Do you think I can beat him as I am?"

Elias nodded. "Yes, because I'll fight as well. You could beat him on your own but it might nearly kill you. Together, we can do it."

"I thought you weren't a fighter."

"I'm not, but I can make the fight harder for him. I have my ways. I've helped Ashton before."

He looked sad every time he said her name. "There's something keeping her connected to this guild beyond her devotion," I said. "I would not be blindly devoted to people who hurt others and if they were manipulating me, I'd eventually start to see it."

"Your dad betrayed you in this world. That changed you. Ashton has never been betrayed like that before. She trusts the people she loves."

I'd never thought about how that experience must have impacted me. "They couldn't have had a good relationship."

"No, they didn't. It wasn't the same, though. He had his own power to obsess over. He never spent time with her and they didn't bond. It left her longing for family and now that she's found it, you know how hard it'll be for her to let go."

That made my chest hurt for her because I couldn't imagine having to turn on my people.

"If we get Jaxon on our side, then what?"

"He's clever and has plenty of plans for how to fight against our guild. All he needs is some inside help. He can tell his guild when to strike too."

"Aren't you worried about his guild taking over?"

"I have a plan for that."

"Hm," I said. "That sounds suspicious. Are you going to destroy them too?"

"They'll be so focused on their enemy that they won't see me coming. They have so many resources at their disposal. The Valley is angry with them for hoarding it, but they're the only ones capable of dealing with my guild's military expertise. My skills will make it simple for me to hack into their systems and redistribute some of that wealth while they're busy killing my guild."

"I never knew Piercey could have a deliciously evil side."

Elias smiled. "I'm capable of more than what you'd think, Max. I'm doing this to put more power into the hands of the people. They know what to do with it. They're just stuck between two guilds that became too powerful."

"It'll only happen again."

"Maybe."

"You need to get people from both guilds to agree to work together or you'll be at war when it ends."

"I don't know how to get them to do that."

"Someone will. Delegate. Just like I'm learning to do."

We both laughed and it felt a little like talking with a friend, rather than an impersonator who'd forced me into his world and put my own in danger.

"That's why I really think you need to learn to travel through Ashton's life." Elias sounded animated like Piercey usually did when talking about something that intrigued him. "Ashton refused to tell me anything about her time with Jaxon after what I did and I know that she had talked to him about plans for peace with the guild. There's information she has that I need."

"Can't you explain why to her? I just don't understand why she's completely refusing to help you. I'm worried about wasting time trying to travel through her life when it may not be possible."

"I've tried. It's a dead end. This is the waste of time."

I tensed at his impatient tone. "You're not always easy to trust, Elias. It isn't a waste of time for me to ask questions for myself. I won't blindly follow you around."

"Fine. Fair. I'm sorry. It's just that if I knew how to defeat the guild right now, then I'd tell you how to do it. I'm missing pieces."

"What if it doesn't work?"

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"I don't see why it wouldn't work," Elias said. "The gods uploaded your consciousness to these worlds. There shouldn't be any difference at all apart from your lived experiences. Theoretically because you are identical, you should be able to travel through her timeline. The only thing that would hold you back would be finding the entry point."

I sighed with a great deal of discomfort in the pit of my stomach. "I don't know. When I travel through time, I'm remembering."

"What about when you'd slip?"

"Well… I guess it was different. When I slipped, sometimes I did remember, but often there was some kind of trigger. I just suddenly fell through time."

"If it was like a flashback, then you were remembering, but it may not be in the same way as conjuring a memory. It could be that scent reminded you of that time or a feeling."

"Wait." I lifted my hand. "I lived multiple lives in my world from when Dr. Henderson reset the simulation. Why can't I travel those previous lives?"

"It makes sense to me," Elias said. "When she reset it, she wiped it. How can you travel to something that has been erased from your world?"

"I guess. I still am just worried about spending time trying something that seems so likely to fail."

"If it works we will have a major advantage. You'll have our missing pieces and you'll know more about my world without having to connect with me. I think we'd both prefer to avoid that."

Honestly, I would rather live through the life of another version of me than to connect with Elias.Thanks to Piercey, I knew that we could trust there wasn't anything terrible Elias was holding back, since they'd connected. I really didn't want that level of intimacy with him or to experience everything he had.

"So if I travel back through Ashton's life successfully, I should target the time where she was with Jaxon."

"Yes, because before that, we told each other everything."

"What about after she and Jaxon split up?"

"Not as important because even though things were strained, we did talk. But if you can, yes. What I need the most though is what she saw behind enemy lines. She was with the other guild."

"It'll be hard to travel without remembering. I'll try my best to get to these memories. I might be able to access different points in my counterpart's timeline here in this world using what we do share.There's definitely times we've felt the same since we both got involved with Nash, well, Jaxon. It won't be perfect. I may end up in a memory that isn't useful, but if I can do it a few times, I can get better at navigating her timeline."

Was it right to travel through Ashton's life as though it belonged to me? I didn't need to wonder about that. Of course it wasn't. I couldn't trust that she would listen to me, though, and I needed to know whatever it was that only she knew. If Elias couldn't repair with her enough to get this job done, then I simply had to do it.

I didn't have time to sit around worrying about ethical quandaries. This guild needed to die and if Ashton insisted on defending them mindlessly then she'd created her own fate. I wouldn't go easy on myself, not even in another life.

Sure, Ashton was a different person from me because we lived different lives, but we thought the same and had the same personality. Living through her world and seeing the guild through her eyes would tell me everything I needed to know.

Part of me wanted to just charge in and blast the hell out of his guild.

I had to remember, though, that this world grew up on power. They had more discipline and mastery of it. Their people had advanced beyond what I could imagine because they all worked on it together, rather than a small percent of people in my world who could barely pull together through all the chaos our power caused.

Over the next few hours, I worked with Elias the same way I had worked with Piercey when I wanted to learn to master my control of time. We hoped that together with my natural instinct for travel and with his mastery of breaking into the code of this world, we could help us break into Ashton's life.

When I first started trying to travel, I found that I couldn't return to my past experiences in this world, so being here closed me off from my own timeline. But I also couldn't travel through Ashton's. We might have had the same consciousness, but this world knew that I wasn't her. Elias wore a pair of goggles while we worked, toggling things in the air I couldn't see. I was curious about what he was seeing, but I didn't have time to waste playing around with his technology.

"That's it." He pinched something and then dragged it down. "I can see you in the code. You're designated not only by your personal identification, but your world."

"So it won't work?"

"I think it can. If you try traveling while I work on the code, we should be able to splice you into Ashton's life."

That seemed like a long shot to me. "I'm not sure how to do that."

"You don't do anything differently. Imagine that you're Ashton and try to travel back to when you first started working with Jaxon. I'll do the rest."

To my surprise, it took only a few more tries before I heard Elias exclaim in surprise, and then I could feel myself slipping away.

"No… fucking… way…" I managed the words as my eyes drifted closed.

The slip through time felt different than it did in my world, but only slightly. I often felt as if I stood in two bodies, my soul drifting somewhere between. I felt that way now but also with my mind. For the first few seconds, I still felt like myself. I was Max and I was looking through the eyes of Ashton. Quickly, though, my awareness of myself drifted as I fell fully back into Ashton's past. I looked around at the verdant grass of the field and the strangers surrounding her, wondering who they were, until their names began to fill my mind, and my love for them sparked in my heart. Rapidly, I became her. I became her so fully that my last fleeting moments as Max carried with them the fear that I wouldn't find my way back to my true self. The Max who loved the valley in my world and wanted to make a life with Nash. Who'd just become Ma to Elsie.

This thread to my true self dipped into the river of Ashton's life and no longer could I feel anything of my old self.

The canvas of the tents whipped with the wind as I gathered with my closest comrades, prepared for a battle that already I realized might change everything.

"I can't do this," I said.

"Ash." My friend let his head fall back as a frustrated groan slipped out his mouth. "I will go crazy if I hear you complain one more time."

"We don't need them, Ralphy." The four coastal kingdoms had united to try claiming dozens of villages along our border. They were powerful and it would take all of the Valley kingdom's working together to rebuff their attempts. Our guild and the Silver Moon guild had agreed to partner together and share resources for this effort. I didn't trust competing guild to work with us.

"Right," my friend said. "We only need your sword and your thirst for battle."

"Obviously. I don't want to work with anyone from another guild when it's unnecessary, but if we're forced to ally with others, why them? Why our worst enemies? Why–"

"Because they're the best."

"We're the best," I said.

"Other than us. You know they're good. Put away your pride and do what's best for the valley."

That ignited my fury like nothing else. "Don't act like I'm not doing that. You think this is good for the valley? Pretending that we can work together only confuses the people who want to see our feud come to an end. We need to actually resolve our issues, not ignore them."

"So you'd make peace?"

"I'd love to make peace." I shrugged. "As long as they're willing to admit what pieces of shit they are."

Ralphy laughed and shook his head. "You're a child."

"You feel the same. You just don't say it."

"Really, though. If the leaders came in today saying the feud is over, what would you do?"

"I'd welcome our new brothers and sisters, provided they actually intended to behave themselves. I don't trust them. They're going to use this to soften our resolve and fool some of us into trusting them. They'll try to plant dissent or wait for the moment to strike."

"Paranoid."

"Realistic."

When he looked at me this time, he was quiet long enough that I realized he really was worried. "Ash, this is a significant threat. All of our guilds want to see our kingdom survive. Sure, we have preferences on who's in power and that doesn't benefit everyone. But any guild here taking power won't wipe anyone off the face of the Earth. These guys want to destroy us and steal our resources. They literally want to kill every last one of us."

I swallowed hard. "I know."

"We can't take chances. We have to work together."

"It's a simplistic claim that is going to get some of our people killed, Ralph. Just because we all have to fight our common enemy doesn't mean we should stand side by side. It will only make it easier for them to stab us in the back."

"Well…" Ralph sighed. "I guess watch your back, because we have our assignments."

I grabbed his arm, horrified that he'd held onto this news. "Who? Who do we have to deal with?"

His grimace told me all I needed to know. I wouldn't like this.

----------------------------------------

I stared at the enemy guild members who we would spend the next few days training with in preparation for entering the battlefield. Despite my arguments against working with them, I did see the wisdom of it. We had many battle strategies. This one, breaking into groups based on combat specialty, would work against this particular enemy. The number of people in my guild who could match our combat abilities obviously were lower than merging with this guild. Our group had increased from six exceptionally lethal warriors to eleven. Of course, we had more people operating at this level.

What really made me angry was that they'd dared to give me a Silver Moon partner. We always had teams of two that we could break into in this formation, but for the first time, I wouldn't partner with one of my comrades. I stared at the mop of curly dark hair atop my so-called partner's head. He dared to fucking smile at me, like we were friends. Or worse, like I was a joke.

I only narrowed my eyes in response and the stupid bastard chuckled appreciatively.

I'd teach that asshole not to underestimate me. And if he wasn't, if he just thought that I was someone to smile at, then he was in for a rude awakening.

"We're going to be working together for a few months at least." Our group leader, an older but ferocious woman, seemed to give me an extra hard look. "Be on your best behavior. Get to know one another."

"Just don't get too cozy," I said.

The curly-haired fool crossed his arms, still not having the decency to look serious. I'd run into this guy before. Name was Jaxon and he was the hotshot of all hotshots. In his mind, at least. Dude could literally fly. I'd never actually met another person in the flesh who'd mastered it at his level. I hated how that gave me a thrum of excitement. I also hated how tense his gaze made me feel. What did he think he was looking at?

"How should we get to know each other?" Jax had wandered a step closer.

"Don't fucking think about it."

"Think about what?"

I wrinkled my nose and glanced down his face, frowning at his easy half-grin. "That. You think you're charming or cute or something. You're obnoxious and I already don't like you."

"Ouch." He rubbed his chest. "My poor heart."

He was mocking me. He didn't look hurt in the slightest. I could fix that for him.

"We're gonna kill some coastal warriors over the next few months and then never see each other again. I don't need to know you to kill people in your general vicinity."

"We're fighting together."

"I fight alone."

"Do you? I've seen you before. You're a team player."

"Not for this team."

"Man, you're going to be really fun."

Maybe it wasn't fair to be so antagonistic. I just didn't want to let that smile convince me for one moment that we could be friends. I'd lost actual friends to these people. This wasn't a bloodless war between our guilds. Maybe we all wanted to fight for the valley, but we were still at odds with each other.

Something told me that I shouldn't have to work this hard, be this mean, to keep someone as my enemy and I could let up. Only another part of me said not to let up, or rather, not to let down my guard. Jax crossed his arms over his chest, glancing at me one more time with his amused smirk.

Joining together was so stupid.