Lara stared at Parker blankly. He could see her physically processing what he’d just said. Taking that pause, Parker looked around at the others in the room. Did they know everything that happened?

“Impossible.”

Parker looked at Lara once more. Her face glowed with disbelief. “It’s not impossible. We’ve seen him.”

“And you didn’t kill him?!” Lara screamed, red-faced, spitting with rage. “Even you said that he killed Hailee! How could you not avenge her?”

A wind began to whip around the room. A couple of her lackies seemed to be worried while others sat there as if this was nothing new. Parker didn’t know what to expect from her anymore. In the past he’d felt relatively safe because she’d become so interested in him and needed his help. Now however, there was a chance that she may just waste him.

“There’s other ways to solve problems!” Parker shot back at her.

Lara turned around and slapped her hand against the wall. “I don’t understand how he’s here. I searched for months to make sure that his core was nowhere on my Earth.”

“He must’ve hidden his core from you.”

Lara looked at him with disdain. “That’s impossible!”

“You’re kidding right?” Parker asked mockingly. “Impossible? How can you believe anything is impossible after you’ve killed billions of people and created a second Earth?”

One of the women sitting at the table stood up. “The boy has a good point. How can we believe that he wasn’t capable of doing something like that?”

“I just can’t believe I could’ve missed him for nearly three years... I thought I was done with him...”

Parker stood taller. “He plans to kill you. He has one thing to live for now and that’s to put an end to you.” The room fell silent, and Parker’s heart began racing. He didn’t want to push his time here too much for fear of not getting back, but without the locket how was he supposed to return? He reached out for Alexis’s core, praying that he’d be able to sense it. Nothing.

“Where did you see him?” Lara probed.

Parker knew nothing good could come of telling her that they saw him at the castle, especially since the others were still there. What would stop her from going there immediately in hopes of finding Terra? “What good does that do you?” he said, stalling for time.

He continued to search for someone’s core that he could latch onto but he couldn’t keep his focus straight. Something about Earth 2 made it much more difficult.

“I will find him and destroy him! That’s what good it’ll do me!”

Parker almost laughed when he said, “Well, it’s not like he’d still be there by the time you arrived. He’s searching for you.”

“If I find him first, I can surprise him,” Lara retorted.

“I really don’t think you can. Not without being able to teleport.”

Lara stared at him furiously. After a moment she took a deep breath and said, “Teach me.”

Parker reeled back slightly, confused beyond belief. “Do what?”

“I said teach me you little sh—” She stopped herself. “Clearly, you are better than me at teleporting in my new world.”

Parker could tell that she was trying to suck up to him at this point. “No, I’m not.”

Lara started to breathe heavily again and one of her lackies stood up, as if to try to calm her down. However, she held her hand out and said, “You’ve teleported, I haven’t. Therefore, you are better than I am at it.”

“But I don’t know how I did it,” he tried to explain again.

The look on Lara’s face made Parker nervous. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking which made his heart race even more.

“Grab him,” she commanded.

The man and woman closest to him stood up, ready to grab him. Parker quickly threw his hands out blasting air at both of them. He sent the woman rolling across the room they were in. The man held his hand up and split the air around him.

The man kicked his foot directly at Parker, sending a torpedo of air at his chest. It hit square, knocking Parker back several steps. Parker breathed heavily as he kept his eye on the man approaching him.

Looking around at the others, they’d gotten to their feet but didn’t make a move yet. It didn’t look like there was a way out of this. He was far too anxious to try and find someone’s core to latch onto at this point, so he saw only one option of escape.

Parker turned around and blasted the window into pieces sending shards of glass to the ground outside. He ran forward and jumped through the newly made opening. Parker hadn’t completely realized how high up they were, but he knew that it was high enough that he should start to panic as he fell through the air.

He started to spin in the air trying to get his tornado going to help cushion his landing. Falling faster and faster, spinning as much as he could, he couldn’t get his tornado to start. Nothing was working and the ground rushed toward him.

Parker screamed as he plummeted. The ground was only forty feet away now. It was too late. He screamed again and threw his hands down toward the ground letting out the strongest burst of air he could muster. His head whipped down from the force of slowing down so rapidly. He couldn’t stop his fall, but he managed to keep himself from dying.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

It took a moment for him to catch his breath and stand up. He looked up at the building he’d been in and saw how tall it had been. There was no way of knowing at this point if he’d been at the top, but he knew he had to have been at least fifteen to twenty floors up.

Now that he felt like he was in the clear he took a second to look around and got his bearings. There were tall buildings everywhere he looked. He figured he had to be in one of the big cities. Maybe New York City, Chicago, or somewhere like that. The streets were completely empty. Not a car in sight, which for a city like this had to be nearly impossible. Thinking about it for a minute though, he realized he hadn’t seen any cars driving since they arrived on Earth 2.

Parker started to slowly jog, keeping close to the buildings to stay out of sight. As he made his way through the empty streets, he started to wonder exactly how many Imperials had ended up on Earth 2.

The world seemed to be desolate. Parker had seen a few movies like this growing up, where the human population had nearly died off, leaving the planet to be run by the few that were left. Nature always seemed to take over all of the buildings in the movies and when he looked around now, it was the same. Plants grew all throughout the streets in the planters the humans had used, trees were no longer trimmed, and vines had begun working their way up some of the buildings. It hadn’t been too long yet, so nature hadn’t completely taken over like in the movies he’d seen. However, it allowed him to figure out where people were living.

As he looked around, he could tell that Imperials had taken home in specific buildings because they were the ones where any of the plant life had been cleared off of. No matter how dire the situation might have been, they were still humans at heart and couldn’t break their natural habit of wanting things to look neat. Honestly, Parker was surprised they hadn’t used their Imperials to just clean off all of the buildings, but they must have had other priorities.

Parker continued to run through the streets, trying to take as many side streets as possible. After about ten minutes of jogging it seemed like no one was following him which didn’t make sense to him, but he started to slow down and take in his surroundings. He saw street signs but that didn’t help him.

“Where am I?” he grumbled to himself. “Gotta figure out how to get back…” He found a secluded spot that was out of site and sat down in it. Closing his eyes, he focused as hard as he could and reached out in his mind. After a few minutes, Parker flopped onto his back, frustrated beyond belief. “Why can’t I find them?”

The sun started to set behind the buildings and Parker knew he had to find a place to hide for the night. Although the spot he was in was out of eyesight, he felt he might get a little chilly throughout the night. He could always start a little fire, but that may give his location away, so he got up and started jogging through the side streets again.

The sun was down, and stars filled the sky. Parker looked up and longed to be back at school, sitting on the roof with Alexis in their fourth year. Life should be nearly stress-free, but that’d be too simple, wouldn’t it?

In an instant, Parker was standing in the spot he’d been trying to find everyone’s core in, and the sun was just beginning to set. He looked around, confused. “What just happened?” he mumbled to himself. “How can the sun be up? It had already set, and the moon was up…” His heart started to race as it started to click on what’d he’d just done. “Did I…”

Parker ran off at a faster pace this time, making it to where he last remembered before the sun set completely. He could see not too far off in the distance an area that was full of trees. He felt like everything was revitalized. It was a reality now. He knew he’d be able to make it back and stop all of this from happening.

No one had found him, and it didn’t seem like anyone was in the vicinity, so Parker started a small fire to produce a little bit of light and heat from within the trees. He had good coverage, so he wasn’t worried about the others at this point. He didn’t completely understand but somehow, he was able to relax a little and let his mind trail off after a bit.

Parker started to wonder what the others were doing. Had they noticed the small time jump he’d just done? It took a while for him to realize that he hadn’t blacked out after either. Things seemed like they were starting to improve, at least a little.

The night went by smoothly, nothing out of the ordinary happened, but Parker wasn’t able to get any sleep. Even though he was able to relax a little, and it didn’t seem like anyone knew where he was, he couldn’t let his guard down completely, not without someone else with him.

He knew that he needed to find a way back to everyone but walking there wasn’t an option. Afterall, he had no idea where “there” was. “Guess I’ll just look around and see if I can figure anything out.”

Parker made his way around the wooded area he’d found. After a little while, he discovered a stream in the woods and took several long gulps of water. He never thought water could be so refreshing but it felt like it’d been forever since he’d had any, even though it’d only been a day. He got up and followed the stream for a while, thinking about when Master Sora had sent them out on their quest before Earth 2 happened. Following that stream down the mountain with everyone, finding Ava and bringing his sister back with them.

How was he supposed to find the others to get back to them at this point? He tried several times but couldn’t sense their cores at all. Frustration with this was starting to get the best of him when he heard a voice in the air.

“Parker, please come talk to me.” Lara’s voice filled the air around him. She must’ve been sending it out on the wind to anywhere she could, hoping he’d step forward.

Parker didn’t understand how she could think that he’d agree to come out. He’d literally jumped out of a skyscraper to get away from her.

“We can work together to stop him,” her voice said again.

His nerves were beginning to run high because he felt like she was starting to narrow in on his location.

“You can teleport, I’m figuring out how to consistently sense cores. We need each other”

That was it. She knew where he was. He knew he had to move, but if what she said was true, she’d just find him again. He didn’t want to admit it, but he did need her. Now the question was, how could he use her without sharing the knowledge of how to teleport, even though he didn’t really know how to himself.

Maybe it was just time to deal with it. Suck it up. Face her head on right now. Could he surprise her? Doubtful. Could he fool her and make her think he was willing to help and then get the drop on her? Not probable, but possible.

Parker began making his way back to town to face her. There was a moment he wondered if something wasn’t going his way that he could possibly rewind time a little and try again but without knowing exactly how he did it, the chances were slim.

He walked for a while, keeping a close eye on his surroundings. He continued to try and sense the cores of anyone in the area but no such luck. Every time he couldn’t sense someone’s core, it made his heart race a little more. Ever since they got to Earth 2, Parker felt like his resting heart rate had increased by at least ten beats a minute.

“Thank you,” Lara’s voice said from all around him as he approached the building he’d jumped out of the day before. “I knew you’d see it my way. Come upstairs.”

Parker stopped and stared up at the building. He couldn’t see the broken window from where he stood but he knew this was the spot he’d landed because of all the broken glass lying around.

He walked to the front door and the moment he put his hand on the door handle, he felt a searing heat run through him filling his entire body.