"So, it seems to me," Celia began, making that gesture, awkwardly touching her nose where glasses weren't, "that you and we each think we're from Earth?"

"This is Earth," I agreed.

"And this is the USA. And we're in a small town in Georgia."

"All true."

"And the US absorbed Canada, there was a moon landing in the Apollo mission, Einstein discovered relativity, Cleopatra was bitten by an asp, and cavemen invented the wheel?"

"Yes. Sounds like we're all on the same page."

"Except where you come from, here, you have Exhumans and the XPCA. And where we come from, there isn't a USA anymore."

"There isn't a USA anymore?"

"No," she said, looking sideways at Ajax. "Not anymore."

"What happened to it, in this world of yours?"

Ajax cut in. "The damn Sinos. You got them here too?"

"No, not really," I answered. "About fifty years ago, they launched a surprise attack and the continental US was saved by Skyweb, and we bombed them right back into inventing the wheel."

"Skyweb?" she asked.

"Some top-secret military project from back then, a 'web' of satellites and ground sites armed with laser weapons designed to protect the main population centers from an attack like China launched." I paused. "Do...you think that's it? Your world just didn't have Skyweb, and that's it?"

"We don't have Exhumans either," she said.

"And did you say laser weapons?" he asked. "Like Star Wars?"

"Uh. I mean, Star Wars is kind of a joke, but yeah, like that?"

He looked at me funny, and then scoffed. "I bet the spec ops and green berets and the other badasses had lasers too if they really wanted it."

"Sure. Anyway, I'm having a hard time buying this still. You come from Earth, where we didn't have Skyweb and got bombed out. How are you alive?"

"We survived because we were tough," he said.

"Because we were lucky, you mean," Celia corrected.

He looked at her like she was speaking Chinese. "We survived three years after the bombs fell, we joined a survivor's enclave and worked hard every day to keep people fed and alive."

"And we also didn't have a bomb fall on either of our heads."

"Because some of us decided to enlist, and the army cared enough about us to have bunkers to protect their own."

"And some of us were defense scientists, without whom, you'd probably be dead from rad sickness."

"Okay guys, I got it." I interrupted. These two were like elementary school kids.

"Somehow I doubt he did," she sniped at Ajax.

"Well, we can't all have PhD's in theoretical physics. Theoretical, because after the bombs, the amount anyone cared was theoretical--"

"It's chemistry, and you know it, you dolt. And how many lives did you save with your little gun and big muscles?"

"Okay, enough," I cut in. "You both survived 3 years after the end, and you met in a camp. What happened to bring you here?"

"There were three of us," she said, and he froze.

"Don't you dare bring up Lettie in front of them," he whispered.

"She's dead, Ajax," she said coldly. "We can't protect her memory."

"Sometimes, Celia, you are such a cold bitch."

I sighed. "Three of you. And then?"

"We basically ran the camp," he said. "We were the ones getting things done. Celia and her brains, whenever she actually decided to use them to help people--"

"Ajax and his muscles whenever something required no brains whatsoever, kept discipline and led salvage expeditions."

They lapsed into silence.

"And Lettie," I said.

"Lettie kept everyone alive...in every sense other than physically," Celia said.

"Lettie was the best of us." Ajax punched the ground. "This damn world. But the colony wouldn't hold. Too many mouths and not enough supplies. Our only hope was to move, try to find anywhere we could find a life. Our last place had water, but no food. People need both."

"So we set out. Lettie took us to city after city. We must have crossed a third of the US, and found nothing but ash and glass," Celia sighed.

"I'm still shocked we made it as far as we did," he said.

"Me too."

I hesitated to ask. "Where...is everyone else?"

He just looked at me, annoyed. "Need it spelled out?"

"No. I'm sorry."

"It seemed fitting that we three would be the last to survive, I guess," Celia said, touching the bridge of her nose again. "And we almost made it, too. Damn that girl."

This time I didn't ask. After a moment he continued. "We found a strange underground structure--"

"--Doctor Ramanathan's lab, must have been almost 200 years old."

I'd heard that name before. It was a hard one to forget. "Ramanathan. Of the Ramanathan laws? But wait. You've never heard of Exhumans?"

They looked confused at one another.

"The Dr. Ramanathan in this world was a prominent scientist like 200 years ago as you said, but he studied Exhumans. Almost everything we know about them is based on his findings from back then."

"Not in ours, he worked…" she began but stopped, looking like she'd been hit by a gunshot mentally.

We all looked at her. Ajax waved a hand in front of her face which she meekly pawed away.

"She okay?" I asked.

"She does this sometimes. Calls it 'thinking' but I think all the time and it never looks like this."

"Shh," she said, and traced some shapes in the air with her fingers. I felt my heart racing as the gesture reminded me of myself, manipulating lightning, of the terrapath channelling spears of earth, or of Dipshit creating booby traps of blades of ice. I took a deep breath and pushed the anxiety down. These two were confused, but not Exhuman, I was sure of that.

"So?" Jack said eventually.

"Private channel please, Athan," Tem's voice said a little funny in my earpiece. Which was weird because she was right behind me and I didn't hear her say anything. I glanced backwards and saw nothing of course, but got the read she was confused as well...same way I seemed to know where she was. Somehow?

"Uh, Tem?" I asked.

"Sorry, private channel please, Chariot." she repeated. Her voice sounded a little off. And that was on top of the weirdness of her sudden bout of ventriloquism.

I tapped my holo, putting me in a new channel. "Yes? Don't want to talk in front of Cosette?"

Stolen novel; please report.

"No, silly," said a different voice in my ear. "Don't want to talk in front of Cosette, Tem, or any of the others."

"AEGIS?" I asked. "This is a military op, what the hell are you doing?" Jack and Ajax looked at me suddenly startled. "Sorry. Jack...please keep an eye on things here. I have a call."

"So I hear," he said with a grin. "Hello to the lady from me."

I walked a few feet away, out of earshot, having to shove Tem to keep her from trailing me. "AEGIS, this is a secure line on an active op. Do you have any idea how much trouble you could get into for being on this?"

"Meh," she replied. "Wanted to cut in. Got interested when I heard about Ramanathan."

I gritted my teeth. How could she possibly be so blasé about this...if Cosette found out, being dead was probably the least of our worries.

"Look, talk to me about it later. Call my holo like a normal person, okay?"

I brought up my wrist again to switch back. "Ramanathan in his early years studied parallel worlds theory extensively," AEGIS rushed out.

"Look, AEGIS, I don't have time for another discussion on quantum immortality right now."

"Parallel world? Like another Earth maybe?"

"Oh," I said. "Oh."

And then once more because I was feeling like how Celia looked. "Oh, Jesus."

"Yeah. So if, in their world, Exhumans didn't exist, he probably got a lot further in that research than he did here. What do you think maybe he got up to?"

"AEGIS, don't listen to what Past Athan told you, you're the best. Thanks."

"I hear Past Athan's a jerk anyway. Look, I don't keep an ear on all your ops, I was just worried about you after how sullen you've been, I promise."

"I appreciate it," I said, and I did. I felt bad for bitching her out, as usual. "Going to head back, though."

"Good luck. This is crazy interesting stuff so I'm going to stay on…"

"Don't get caught," I warned.

"Wouldn't dream of it," she said, and I switched back to the main channel. Now I just had to not let Cosette know that I'd been tipped off. I wandered back and sat down with the two of them again.

"Any news from Celia?" I asked.

"Shh," she said. Ajax shrugged. I couldn't just spout it out right now or it would sound for sure like it related to my call, and if I brought it up later, it'd be weird that I only 'remembered' later. I had to work it a little carefully.

"I know I've heard that name before," I said, scratching my chin thoughtfully. Jack looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

"Ramanathan? You just explained he was a prominent scientist," he said.

"I meant...I know I've heard something else about him which might be relevant. It's on the tip of my brain."

Ajax and Jack were both staring at me like my phone call had turned me retarded. I tried to channel my inner Lia.

"It was on a holo I saw once a long time ago?"

"But...the Ramanathan laws aren't public knowledge…" Cosette said.

"Right. I must be confusing him with someone else," I said, starting to sweat.

Cosette continued right on. "Chariot, how is that possible? How many other Exhuman-studying scientists with long-ass Indian names are there to confuse?" I hoped she was just giving me shit as usual, but it certainly felt like an interrogation. My mouth helpfully went dry.

Abort! Abort! Abort!

"Teotihuacan!" I shouted, and clapped my hands together hopefully approximating something like happiness. "That was it. That was the holo I saw."

Jack seemed concerned. "That's an ancient, ancient mesoamerican city. How is that relevant?"

"Are all the sergeants in this world really this stupid?" Ajax asked. "Feels like I missed out on a few promotions by enlisting in the wrong world."

I laughed in what was hopefully a dismissive and self-deprecating way. "Haha, yeah, I'm an idiot, that's it. My bad." Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, that seemed like a good enough explanation for Ajax, Cosette, and Jack. Which was actually kind of offensive, if it wasn't so convenient.

Unfortunately, it was not good enough for Tem.

"Chariot is not an idiot!" she shouted. "I'm s-s...confident that if you just try, you can remember what you meant. I know you can figure this out!"

What an appalling vote of confidence. Thank God, pretty much everyone had written off Tem at this point, and Ajax was more confused where the voice came from than wanting to pursue it, so I was able to escape the conversation just by letting Tem hang there like an idiot.

I'm sorry, Tem. Your humiliation on this day was because I couldn't lie to save my life.

"This doesn't seem to be going anywhere," I said, of Celia, once the previous conversation had lingered long enough to die. "Maybe we should just go back?"

"We still have no idea how they got here though," Cosette said. "If they're refusing to answer any further, we can bring them in for interrogation."

"I don't think that's necessary. They're clearly harmless."

"But whatever sent them here is a huge threat. Can you imagine if instead of a couple survivors, next time it's a Sino army? Or hell, just a bomb?"

"But it's not Exhuman," I sighed. "So we have no operational authority."

"Well, I'm here, so that's enough operational authority for me," Cosette said, annoyed. "And you're going to stop second-guessing everything I say or I'm going to order you to bend over and order Tower to kick your ass."

"I copy. Over and out," I sighed. "She not talking still?"

"She's thinking," said Ajax.

"Well, I got word from the brass that if you can't finish this story on your own, we have to take you in, so get talking."

"Not much left to tell," he said, laying back on the grassy field, seemingly unconcerned about the prospect of getting grass stains on his new clothes. "We went in Dr. Ramadan's facility, Celia did some science stuff with the things inside, and told me to come into some machine. When I came to, I was in a clothing store, back in the US like it had all never happened."

Hmm. Like it had never happened.

"What year is it?" I asked.

"What, are you stupid and stupid?"

"Just answer the question." I was going to have some serious jaw issues if I kept grinding my teeth. We'd established there's two entire Earths at play here, and the current year is throwing him off?

"It's 2218. Year of our Lord."

Jack glanced at me funnily. It was just the right amount of pausing confusion but acceptance of a nonsensical situation to represent how I felt.

"Here, it's 2251. Whatever that machine was...it worked really slowly," I said.

"What? That's impossible."

"Impossible? You're basically an alien from another planet, and this is the impossible bit?"

"No. You're telling me...I spent thirty years in that thing?"

"Or something," I said with a shrug.

"Do I look like a sixty year old man!?" he shouted.

"Shh," Celia said.

"You're right," Cosette sighed in my ear. "This isn't getting us anywhere. He's useless and she's...whatever she is. Bring them both in."

"Surely that's not needed," I said. "Celia just needs to snap out of it." I stood up and advanced on her, meaning to shake her out of her reverie, but Ajax rolled between us, rising into a crouch.

"Not one hand on her," he growled.

"Look buddy, I don't even care. Just shake her so we can finish this chat and you guys can go home. I'm trying to help you."

"You are being so noisy!" Celia suddenly shouted. "I am thinking over here!"

"Celia, can you think later, please?"

"What?" she asked, distracted.

"Talk now, think later. Please."

"No, I'm...the machine. Ramanathan," she said, completely unhelpfully.

"Hey. HEY. Focus!"

I moved towards her but Ajax moved at me again, grabbing me around the waist before I could get out of his reach. He brought me to the ground and raised a fist threateningly, but before he could hit me, something screamed and he flew off me, landing on his back. Half a moment later, he grunted as something landed on him and flinched as scratches appeared on his face.

"DON'T. YOU. TOUCH--" Tem screamed.

"What the damn hell?" he got out, lashing out with a crack, and a moment later, Tem materialized in a freshly-flattened pile of grass. She spun and smeared the stream of blood from her nose onto the back of her hand, turning transparent as she prepared to lunge at him again.

I snapped my fingers and a bolt of lightning discharged explosively from my fingertips into the ground, making everyone turn to look. In the moment they broke off, blades of lightning materialized in the air between the two.

"Tem, stay down. Ajax...get it through your damn skull, I'm trying to help. If I wanted to hurt her…" One of the blades disappeared and rematerialized inches from her face. She blinked a couple times at the sudden distraction and then yelped, skittering backwards. "But I don't, obviously. So knock. It. The. Fuck. Off."

I was completely unprepared for him to turn around and instead charge at me again. Again, he caught me around the middle, and this time, didn't hesitate to start pounding at me. I tried to focus on keeping track of the invisible Tem and keeping her out of the fight with my swords while I protected my face until Jack showed up.

Impeccable timing as ever, he materialized for only a fraction of a second before he and Ajax were both gone.

I sat back up and felt my newly split lip. Tem yelled inarticulate rage, and I did my best to keep her penned in, even as lasers began to pour from the sky to indiscriminately obliterate the field. With a sigh, I rose and walked to Celia. Better that she be inside my shield, too.

"Can you finish your story now?" I asked.

"Where's Ajax?" she said, looking understandably completely freaked out now.

"He's safe. Jack just took him somewhere so he'd stop being an asshole. Look, we can just talk without him. I really just need you to finish your story so we can go, please?"

To my surprise, she shook her head. "I'm not doing anything unless I know Ajax is safe."

"I thought you were the reasonable one," I asked.

"Reasonable?" she echoed bitterly. "He and I are possibly the last two people from our world. It's not likely but it's possible. Even if he's a meat-headed idiot, do you think I could not care about him?"

"Lady," I sighed.

"Celia."

"Celia, look, as I was explaining to your friend, all I want is your story and you guys can go. If I don't get it, we have to take you in. I don't want that."

"Well, then you shouldn't have taken Ajax away," she said, her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Jack, can you bring him back?" I asked.

"Negative. The man's gone completely berserk, I can't get close without getting clocked."

I contemplated having Tower take some of the fight out of him, but could only imagine how uncooperative Celia might become if we brought back her man in Tower's arms. I sighed again. I almost missed dealing with good old fashioned Exhumans. You kill them, they kill you, none of this bullshit.

"Okay, Cosette you win. We're bringing them in. Jack, once he's punched himself out a little, please bring in Tower to put him in restraints." I pulled cuffs off my belt and offered them to Celia. "Want to put them on yourself or are you going to make me?"

"Why even bother? I thought you can read minds. Just take what you want and go away."

I tossed the cuffs at her and she silently put them on.

But you know, she had a point.