Parker explained everything to her. Every little detail that he could think of right up to flying to the roof a few minutes before. He watched her face carefully as he retold all of the events and saw the full spectrum of emotions in her eyes.

The majority of the time, she seemed like he was just spouting out some story to cover for himself, however there was a part of her that started to believe him due to the level of detail he gave. Would he put that much effort into a lie?

Parker reached out and grabbed Alexis’s by the shoulders. “I love you, Alexis. No one else.”

Alexis blinked several times staring into Parker’s eyes. She could tell he meant it, but how was she supposed to just accept everything he’d just told her? She reached her hand up and placed it on Parker’s. “Give me the night, please. I need to process everything you just told me.” Alexis saw Parker’s head drop down. “I’m not saying I don’t believe you, I’m just saying I need some time to process everything you said. I think that’s fair.”

Parker nodded his head and took his hands off of her shoulders. “How much time do you think you need?” he asked, still looking at his own knees.

“Just the night, I think.” She tried to sound as reassuring as possible but she could tell that it was still bothering him. “We can talk about everything in the morning. There’s no classes tomorrow so everyone will sleep in. Let’s meet in the Common Room at seven.”

He lifted his head so he could meet her eyes. A faint smile crept onto his face. “Promise?” Alexis held her fist up in front of him with her pinky out. Parker smiled more and grabbed her pinky with his.

“I promise,” she said.

———

Parker struggled to fall asleep for hours. All he could do was lie there and worry about whether or not Alexis was going to choose to believe him. If she did, he was sure things would go back to relative normal. But what would happen if she didn’t believe him? Would she just stay away from him? What would that do to the timeline?

After what seemed like hours, Parker finally passed out but it was one of those nights where he closed his eyes and opened right again at seven and felt like he got no sleep. He looked around the room and saw that everyone was still asleep so he quickly got dressed and made his way out to the Common Room.

Alexis was sitting on the couch, staring into the fire. She was doing something but Parker couldn’t tell what until he got around to the front of the couch. He saw Monty sitting next to her and she was scratching his chin. It looked like Monty had a little smile on his face and when he saw Parker, he jumped down off of the couch and took his spot on the hearth of the fireplace.

Parker followed Monty’s path as he moved and got comfortable. He’d almost completely forgotten about Monty. What had happened to him when they made the “move” to Earth 2? Had he even survived? Parker’s head sank at the thought but then he heard Alexis tapping on the spot next to her on the couch.

“So, you said she made an entire new Earth?” Alexis said as Parker sat down on the couch.

“Originally that’s what we thought, but after a few years there we realized that she hadn’t created a new Earth, but had actually just killed the non-Imperials from regular Earth.”

Alexis’s eyes shot open. “Seriously? That’s been her plan this whole time? To just kill everyone she didn’t like?”

Parker slowly nodded his head. “So, does this mean you believe me?”

Alexis turned on her cushion to face him. When Parker turned to meet her eye, she leaned in and kissed him. “I’m not saying that it’s going to be a perfect transition, but I’m willing to try. This is going to be weird.”

Parker squinted a little bit, confused. “How is it going to be weird?”

“You’re not my Parker. I mean, like you said, it’s been three more years for you. You’re technically eighteen right?”

He was surprised at how logically she was speaking. He was fairly certain that if their roles were reversed, there was no way he’d be able to keep a logical train of thought. That being said, she would probably do a better job of selling her case, unlike him.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“I guess you’re right,” he admitted. “But we are still the same person…”

She nodded. “Yes, but at the same time you’re not. You have three years of more feelings for me than I do for you.” Parker’s head dropped at that comment. “No, don’t be sad. It just means you have to be patient with me. I’m not saying I don’t… feel the same, but I need some time before I say it. I want to make sure that it’s the right moment when I say it and that I’m not just saying it because I know your Alexis loved you.”

Parker lifted his head up. He knew what she said was right and fair, but it still hurt a little. “So, what do we do now?” he asked.

“Well, I say we try to go about life like normal. I imagine we probably shouldn’t tell anyone else.”

“I can’t just go back to life like normal,” he said. “Normal means that you, Hailee, and Master Sora die. I can’t let that happen again. I won’t let that happen again.”

Alexis understood what he was saying. “So, do we use your knowledge to try to get a jump on Lara?” They sat in silence for a moment as the fire crackled and they could hear Monty’s faint snoring. Alexis spoke again, “If we get ahead of the game, we may be able to prevent the fight in the city where Hailee died, which would then change the creation of what you called Earth 2 right?”

Parker nodded his head again. “That’s right. Lara did that right after Hailee died so if we prevent that, it may completely change everything!”

They spent the next hour brainstorming strategies and then other members of their house began waking up and making their way out to the Common Room. That was their cue to go get ready for the day.

Parker made his way back to their room. When he walked through the door, Caleb was making his own bed. He looked over at the mess he’d left his and then laughed when Caleb let out a sigh, referring to the mess. “Hey, I’m not perfect…”

Caleb laughed even harder. “Man, we’ve been here for three years. I don’t know why I’m even shocked at this point.”

“Me either.” They both laughed again and finished getting ready for the day.

When they got into the Common Room, the triplets were sitting on the couch, a few other students were milling about, deciding what to do for the day. Parker remembered their first year, they’d spent a lot of time out by the waterfall, but now that Lara’s Imperial around the castle is gone and it’s like the arctic tundra out there, it was hard to decide what to do with all the free time.

“Hey,” Parker said, turning to Caleb. “I’m going to go to 23-D and practice some. Lord knows I need it.” Caleb agreed to go with him and help out. They made their way to the exit and right as Parker jumped down, he heard his name get yelled from behind him.

A moment later, the girls arrived next to them in the corridor. Alexis was still trying to finish fixing her hair by putting it back into a ponytail. “Where are you headed?” she asked.

They walked and talked as they made their way down to room 23-D. Parker descended the center of the stairs slowly and close to the side in case his tornado gave out on him. He safely touched down on the twenty-third floor landing and gave a small fist pump in celebration.

When Parker opened the door to 23-D, a scent of fresh grass and trees wafted past his face and he smiled. He’d missed this room.

Several hours passed by as they trained that morning. By lunchtime they were all starving so they went to get lunch. Parker wanted to go back out by the waterfall because it had been a while since he had seen it. Weeks had passed since he jumped back in time and he had yet to go out to it once.

“It’s way too cold out there for me,” Caleb said. “I’m just going to go back to 23-D, see you guys there.”

Parker, Alexis and Hailee all made their way out to the waterfall through the use of Alexis’s Space Imperial so the bitter cold wouldn’t eat away at them. When they made it to the bridge, Alexis released her Imperial and the cold crept deep into their bodies.

The roar of the falls made Parker’s heart race. He loved being here, although he preferred when it was warm. “Okay, I’m good,” he said and Alexis brought back her Space Imperial. It was incredible the temperature difference between the two spaces.

Caleb was laying atop one of the small hills in 23-D when they arrived. Hailee tried to sneak over and scare him, but he knocked her feet out from under her before she could get close enough.

“I won’t lie Caleb,” Parker started. “I thought you were asleep there.” He started to laugh.

“Understandable, since you guys took forever!”

“We didn’t take that long,” Parker defended. “I just wanted to see the falls for a minute.”

Caleb looked at him confused. “It’s not like it’s been forever since you’ve seen them.”

Parker saw the suspicion in Caleb’s eyes. It was like he could tell something was off but Parker hoped Caleb would just let it go and move on.

Hailee jumped to the rescue. “Parker, you’re doing so much better than when you woke up.”

“Thanks Hailee” Parker said.

Alexis squeezed his arm in a hug. “I’d bet you’ll be back to normal soon if you keep practicing.”

Parker saw Caleb’s ears perk up at the emphasis Alexis put on the word normal. “Yeah, luckily it seems like I’m out of the ‘blacks out routinely’ phase of my recovery.” Everyone laughed at that comment before they spread out around the room to continue their training.