Over the next several days, Parker did what he could to practice jumping back in time, but it wasn’t working for him. He thought he’d had it figured out, but every attempt failed. The others did what they could but no such luck.

Another week went by as they were traveling to the city that Parker thought Lara was holed up in. Everything seemed so calm in the world. They ran into very few people, a few more wildlife than that and a whole lot of empty wilderness.

They’d found that most of the world had not returned to normal or even anything close to how it used to be. Parker still didn’t understand how no one wanted to pick up their previous lives so the world could keep functioning as it had. Everyone seemed to be more interested in living off of the elements instead.

Somewhere around South Dakota, a city had formed of what seemed like thousands of Imperials that had created their own little society. They had constructed massive walls as a city barrier to help keep out the bit of wildlife that was around there still. There were massive buildings that Parker assumed was where whomever was in charge stayed.

The residents allowed them to stay a couple of nights before they continued on their journey. Parker wasn’t sure exactly what city Lara had taken over but knew that it had many skyscrapers.

After they left the city, they traveled for another week that consisted of mostly nothing besides Parker still trying to figure out how to jump in time. A good amount of time was spent on the other elements but Parker’s main concern was getting back, so he could stop all of this from ever happening.

One evening, they were sitting around a fire they had made, and Parker was staring up at the stars, zoned out in his own little world. Alexis laid down next to him and snuggled right up beside him. They managed to get a lot of alone time now as Caleb and Master Sora get in long conversations and debates.

There was a time that Parker felt like he couldn’t feel any closer to Alexis than he did, but lately he’d really been amazed by how much he learned about her and cared for her more and more. “How are you doing?” he asked as she got comfortable. She looped her arms around his left arm and laid her head on his chest.

“I mean, same old same old, right?” she mumbled.

He could tell that she had been a little down lately, but he couldn’t blame her. Nothing was improving. They didn’t know exactly where Lara was, their imperials were only improving a little and Parker still wasn’t able to jump in time at all.

“Yeah, I suppose so, huh?” They laid there for a little while and Parker pulled her into a hug and held her for a minute. “Remember back at school when we used to sneak up onto the roof when no one was looking so we could look up at the stars?”

“Of course, why?”

“Nothing really. This just reminds me of that.”

“How? We never would’ve laid like this back then.”

Parker laughed. He knew she was right. “Hey, don’t blame a man for being shy. I mean look at you, who wouldn’t be nervous?”

“Oh stop,” she said, playfully hitting his chest. He caught her hand and interlaced their fingers.

“I just miss that. I loved every second of being on—”

-----

Parker was staring at the ceiling of the room he had stayed in while they were in the city they found. He sat bolt upright and looked around, heart racing. Alexis, Caleb and Master Sora looked at him concerned.

“Is everything okay?” Alexis asked, sitting next to him and putting her hand on his thigh.

“Yeah, I just…” he trailed off as he realized what had happened. He’d done it! He didn’t know how, but he knew that he was back in time. That was the only way to explain that he was sitting in the bed he’d slept in previously. It had been a while since they were here, so it was his biggest jump yet.

“Guys, I did it!” he said, looking back and forth between all three of them.

“You did what?” Alexis asked, confused.

It was Parker’s turn to look confused. “I jumped back in time!”

“Son, you haven’t done anything,” Master Sora interjected. “You’ve been asleep.”

Parker didn’t understand. Jumping through time was the only explanation for this but he didn’t know how to prove it to them. “We’re still in the walled city, right?” Everyone nodded slowly. “We’d already left here and been gone for over a week before I jumped back.”

“So, you’re saying you managed to jump back over a week?” Caleb asked. “You’ve never done a jump so big. And if you did jump back, why aren’t there two of you?”

Parker sat and thought for a moment. Master Sora spoke up, “He must land in his own body when he jumps back, retaining all of his memories from our future.”

“What happens to that future then? Since Parker is here now, doesn’t that mean that he just wouldn’t exist there?” Caleb seemed extremely intrigued by the concept of what this time jumping implied.

“I really don’t know,” Parker said. “All that really matters is that I managed to jump back over a week.” He was really excited and wished they would join him on the excitement train he was riding.

“So, how’d you do it?” Alexis asked. “We’ve been trying for weeks already, what changed?”

“Honestly?” Parker asked and everyone nodded for him to continue. “I have no idea what I did.”

Alexis slapped her own forehead. “Seriously?” she groaned.

“Tell me what you were doing when it happened,” Master Sora instructed.

Parker thought back and started to blush. He didn’t really want to share with everyone but knew that he had to. “Well, Alexis and I were laying on the ground looking up at the stars and I was holding her…” He saw Alexis start to blush and Caleb chuckled a little. “We started talking about how we used to go up to the roof and look at the stars all night while no one knew where we were.”

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“You used to do what?” Master Sora interjected hastily. He shook his head for a minute. “Sorry, old teacher brain. New things to worry about. Continue.”

“Not to interrupt,” Caleb said. “But we all knew.”

Parker stared at him; mouth slightly agape. “Anyways… we got to talking about how much we missed being back there and then all of a sudden I shot up in bed here.”

Master Sora scratched at his short beard he’d grown during their travels. “Hmm… it could be…” he mumbled to himself. “All right, this is going to sound cheesy but remember when you were first learning your Air Imperials? What did you have to do at the beginning?”

Alexis raised her hand like they were back in class. “We had to focus on happy memories.”

“Exactly,” Master Sora said. “I think that’s the case here as well. The memories you focus on, the happiness you remember, bring out the best of your abilities. Now, at the time, all you had was an Air Imperial to convert the happiness to, but now, you ‘ve got more abilities than any other. So, if you focus your happy thoughts and memories into your Space Imperial, I assume that’s the one time-jumping falls under, then you should be able to make the jump needed.”

“Wait,” Caleb interrupted. “Parker jumped back in time to this Parker’s body. His future mind took over the mind of our Parker. Does that mean our Parker’s mind is just gone, or did it transfer with the future Parker?”

Everyone looked at Caleb with a mixture of concern and unknowing. “I don’t know if there’s a way for us to ever really know that.” Master Sora said.

“Can you jump forward in time?” Alexis asked.

Parker blinked rapidly for a moment. “I–I don’t know. I’ve never even thought about trying to do that. I mean the goal is to go back in time and stop Lara from murdering most of the world, right?”

“I guess that’s true…” Alexis said.

“Do you guys think I should try it? Jumping forward that is.”

Master Sora pursed his lips. “I mean, could it hurt to try?” Everyone looked back and forth at each other, not sure what to say.

-----

The next few hours went by quickly as Parker was trying to figure out how to jump forward in time. It was a challenge because he didn’t truly know how he jumped back in time in the first place. But, thinking about what Master Sora said about happy thoughts and focusing on where he wanted to be was all he had to think about at the time.

It was hard to focus on the future and happy memories because the future didn’t really hold any happy memories for Parker. The only happy thing he could focus on was what he had been doing when he jumped back to where he was now.

After a while, he started to confuse himself with thinking about his future thoughts and whether they were happy memories since they hadn’t technically happened for this Parker yet. A headache started to torment him as he worked. The others kind of just sat around and watched which didn’t make things any easier.

Parker decided he needed to take a break, so he walked away from the group and used his Air Imperial to speed his way out of the walled city. It was nice being out in the woods on his own for a change. A breeze worked its way through the trees, and he could hear the noise of some wild animals somewhere nearby. It was always a nice change to hear animals nearby since it seemed like there hadn’t been a lot that made the jump to Earth 2.

He laid down under a tall tree that had to be at least a hundred years old or was it new since this world was just created. He gently slapped himself, reminding himself that he came out here to fix the headache, not make it worse.

Parker watched the sun work its way across the sky as he relaxed and cleared his head. He started thinking about laying with Alexis under the stars again. He was in a perfect spot for them to lay and watch the night sky, just like they had been when he jumped back. He missed laying on the grass and holding her right next to him. The way it felt to have her head resting on his chest, listening to his heartbeat…

Everything around Parker froze. The leaves in the trees, the critters running around, everything. Parker sat up and looked around but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, aside from everything being frozen. Had he done that?

“You’re cute when you’re relaxed,” Alexis said giggling.

“You scared the crap out of me!” Parker snapped playfully.

Alexis crawled down on the ground beside him and snuggled up close to him. “What were you thinking about?”

Parker blushed. How come everyone seemed to ask whenever he was thinking about Alexis? “Just… you know… stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?” she teased, pretty sure of what he was thinking about. He’d had the same face he made when he talked about it earlier.

“Just things. That’s all.”

Alexis kissed him on the cheek. “You don’t need to be shy or embarrassed around me. I mean we’ve been a couple for how long now?”

“I know, I know. It’s just… I don’t know what it is. Talking about my thoughts and feelings and stuff has never been easy for me.”

“Tell me about it,” Alexis joked.

“That’s my problem! I’m not good at telling about it…” Parker sulked.

“I’m joking! I know that it’s not easy for you. We’ve been together long enough that if I didn’t know that, what kind of girlfriend would I be?”

Parker looked at the face of the girl he loved and remembered just how amazing she was. She was always right there by his side no matter what now. He leaned into her and kissed her. He didn’t know what it was about this kiss, but his insides raced, and he had the same butterflies he felt the first time he’d told her he liked her.

-----

“Hello…” Alexis said, shaking Parker’s shoulder. “Earth 2 to Parker!” She shook him harder.

Parker sat up and stared at her. They were laying on the ground under the stars. He couldn’t tell where Caleb and Master Sora were, but he recognized what had happened immediately.

“What happened?” Alexis asked. “We were talking and you just, like, passed out.”

“Alexis, I did it!”

She stared at him confused beyond belief. “I don’t understand, what do you mean you did it?”

“I jumped back in time to when we were in the walled in city. Then we figured out my time jumping has to do with focusing on happy thoughts and memories. So, I spent hours trying to figure out if I could jump back to this time, but it wouldn’t work.”

“Parker, I know that. Remember? I was there. However, you haven’t moved from this spot, right now.”

Parker hugged her and then kept talking. “Past you asked if I was able to jump forward in time so I started thinking about us right here, in this moment.”

Alexis blushed. “And then you jumped right here?”

Parker avoided eye contact for a moment. “Well, not exactly. I kept practicing but nothing worked, and I just got a headache. So, I kind of ran away so I could have some alone time and relax. But then you found me and reminded me of how much—” he stopped and stared at her.

Alexis giggled. “I remember” she said with a smile.

“Then I kissed you because I was so happy and then BAM! here I am. Although it does seem like I tend to pass out whenever I jump through time. Remember? I blacked out for a few days back then.”

Alexis looked at him confused. “So, if you blacked out for a few days going back in time, why didn’t you black out for a few days going forward?”

“That’s a good point… I really don’t know. But we need to find Caleb and Master Sora so I can tell them.”

They made their way back to the others and Parker ran through the whole story again. Alexis seemed just as intrigued as she did the first time through.

“So, do you think I should keep practicing?” Parker asked.

“I want to say yes, otherwise how will you jump back several years? But at the same time, I worry about how it affects the universe. Are we creating alternate timelines? Are we ruining the lives of the other versions of you that you land in?” Master Sora looked like he had a thousand more questions to ask but stopped and looked for a response.

“I really don’t know,” Parker answered. “But Lara has to be stopped and this has to be the best way. Hailee deserves a second chance. The world deserves a second chance.”