The following week went by in a flash. After finding the picture of Master Terra and who they assume to be Hailee, Parker knew he had to practice a bit more before touching it. He didn’t want to risk up and vanishing without being as prepared as he could possibly be.

Alexis was fairly certain that when she held the picture she could feel the master’s core rhythm but she wasn’t one-hundred percent sure because she didn’t know it originally. Parker realized that he didn’t know what Master Terra’s rhythm sounded like either. They discussed at length what to do about that and they begrudgingly came to the conclusion that their only real solution would be to use Lara for that.

There was a part of Parker that wanted to not tell Lara about any of this and see if they could stop Mater Terra on their own so they didn’t risk Lara ruining everything. However, at the end of the day, none of them knew what Master Terra’s core sounded like so they had to resort to using her when the time was right.

———

“I feel like I’m a third year again…” Parker said, irritated.

Caleb looked at Parker, slightly annoyed. “Got a problem with third years?”

Parker sighed. “You know what I mean. I keep finding myself needing to do things I learned as a third year over again. I’m supposed to be some super powerful Imperial yet here I am again learning how to sense cores consistently.” He started tapping his finger on the library table to the rhythm of his own core.

The tapping put a smile on Alexis’s face. “You know that you’ll figure it out. It might just take time. I mean you have the mind of future Parker but you’re in the body of present Parker and present Parker hasn’t learned a lot of those things. So, things that are muscle memory to use aren’t to our Parker so it won’t be a completely natural transition right?” She lost the confidence in her voice the longer she went on.

“I know I need to not get frustrated so easily but the fact that I’ve been through almost exactly this before is just so damn frustrating.” He didn’t know how else to express what he was thinking.

“Okay, well let’s test it out again. We haven’t run the drill in a couple days. Count to two hundred before searching.” Caleb stood up and ran out of the library, Alexis right on his heels.

Parker walked out to the balcony that overlooked the waterfall and leaned against the railing. He wasn’t going to count but he knew he could just zone out for a little bit. As he stared, his heart started to race as he felt the phantom touch of a hand on his shoulder.

He remembered the first time he’d stepped out onto this balcony. He’d been staring at the waterfall for a moment when Hailee found him and grabbed his shoulder.

The memory spurred Parker’s energy. He turned his back to the falls and dialed in on Alexis’s core immediately and within seconds was standing right next to her on the roof.

“Are you sure that was two hundred seconds?” she asked.

Parker shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know but I do know that I could resist coming to find you first.” He pulled her into a tight hug. He hadn’t noticed it at first when he arrived in past-Parker's body, however it stuck out to him after a week or so. He hadn’t realized how disproportionately he and Alexis had physically grown. Alexis wasn’t tiny by any means but Parker had grown several inches to each inch she had grown. He figured on Earth 2 he had been at least five inches taller than her.

Parker kissed her on the nose since it was right in front of his face and then blinked a couple times, staring into her eyes.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Just…” he thought for a quick second to find the right word. “Different is all.”

Alexis squinted and shook her head slightly. “Different how?”

“Well, my mouth is about even with your mouth right now and I’m pretty used to giving you forehead kisses because my mouth normally lines up perfectly with the top of your forehead. So, when I hug you, your head lays nicely on my chest and I rest my chin on the top of your head. Like I said, just different. Not bad.”

Alexis’s eyes dropped to the floor. “I’m sorry…”

He hugged her tighter, trying everything he could to keep the flashback of her dying out of his mind. “Don’t be sorry. You’ve nothing to be sorry about.”

“I’m just not…” she trailed off for a second. “I’m not her.”

Parker squeezed her tightly again, resting his chin on her shoulder. “Stop. Please. I’ve never asked that you be her. You can’t be exactly her. There’s so many pieces of her that will always be in you but you’re a different person.” He stood up on his toes slightly and kissed her forehead. “Remember, you’re going to have a completely different future than we did. Earth 2 will never even happen.”

Alexis looked at him and smiled. “I know. I just feel like there will always be a part of me that feels like I can’t live up to her. She did so many amazing things and you two were together for so long…”

Parker flicked her nose. “Girl. Stop. You are going to do so many amazing things. Do everything you can to not overthink and just be you. Nothing could be more amazing than you just being you. That’s who I fell in love with.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“When was the first time you told her?” she pried a little.

Parker’s gaze dropped and he could feel that feeling right before your eyes started to water. “I… didn’t.”

There was a long moment of silence as the wind whipped past.

Alexis squeezed him as tightly as she could. “She never doubted that you did.”

Parker didn’t say anything as Alexis flew them down to their balcony. He wasn’t sure how much time passed as he sat on the couch staring into the fire. Monty had made himself nice and comfortable in Parker's lap and was snoring louder than his little body should’ve been able to. Alexis was cuddled up to Parker and had her eyes closed.

Caleb walked into view and threw his hands onto his hips. “So… just not gonna look for me or what?” he said, exasperated.

Alexis’s eyes shot open at the sound of his voice. “Oh crap! Sorry! We got… kind of caught up in a moment…” She turned her eyes from him feeling badly.

There was a moment of silence and Caleb exclaimed, “Oh. Oohh! Ew! No. I don’t need to know that!” frantically waving his hands around.

“Not like that!” Alexis snapped back. “Just… a moment.”

Parker finally met Caleb’s eye. “I’m sorry man, it’s totally my fault. Where’d you choose to hide?”

“I’m not going to tell you, numbnuts! Now, I can just use that spot again I guess.”

The next couple of days went by as they continued to practice Parker’s sensing abilities. He progressively got better and better and he didn’t forget to look for Caleb even once.

The Regale was filled to the brim as the three of them made their way in for breakfast. Everyone went about eating quietly. Once it seemed like most people were done eating and just sitting around talking, Master Sora stood up at the head table and announced, “Good morning! Sixth years, are you ready to put your skills to the test?” Cheering came from around the room. “Make your way to The Arena!”

The three of them looked around confused. “What’s going on?” Parker asked no one in particular.

“It’s one of our major tests for the year,” Claire said as she stood up from the seat behind Caleb. “The masters will work together and we have to overcome them.”

Parker’s eyes shot open. “I remember this!” he said, louder than intended. Claire looked at him confused but brushed it off and made her way out of The Regale.

“What do you remember?” Alexis asked.

“It’s pretty much exactly what she said. Let’s just follow the crowd up and you’ll see.” Parker remembered how amazed he was when he saw the room they were headed to. Alexis had found him by sensing his core when he returned from Lara, although the timeline felt a little off. It seemed like a lot of the same things were still happening that he remembered, but some stuff seemed a little out of order. He wondered if it was because he was handling Lara so differently. Was it affecting everything else around him?

After walking for what seemed like forever, they arrived in the dark corridor that had a golden door at the end of it. There were no other doors, no windows, nothing. Just a dark corridor. The only light source was from the Fire Imperials that were walking down the corridor with them.

When they walked through the door, both Alexis’s and Caleb’s jaws dropped. Seeing this made Parker smile because he hadn’t been present the last time they saw it. They were standing at the bottom of a room similar to the Aether field but it had to be roughly ten floors tall. At the top, there was a viewing area just like the Aether field that everyone could see down from. There was a part of Parker that never understood why they would design these things so that people pretty much had to watch through their feet but he’d grown so accustomed to it that it didn’t really bother him anymore.

The House of Gia and The House of Erion students were helping whoever they could get up to the viewing room. Once they made it up, everyone was taking their seats. Master Sora met them up there and explained what was about to happen.

“The sixth year students came up with a wonderful idea that we felt we had to give a try.” He gestured to the area below everyone’s feet. “Some of them felt classes weren’t challenging enough or going to actually get them ready for the real world. So, they wanted us to put them through scenarios to challenge them.”

Master Keegan took a step forward. “And we thought it would be a fantastic idea for everyone to see what they do so they can get a feel for what is to come in the future.” He smiled big as he looked around the room. All of the students smiled back, excited to see what would happen.

“When the weather is nicer out, we’ll do a lot of these outside,” Master Kingston interjected. “For now, we’ll do them in this tower since it hasn’t been used for much as of late.”

Master Studwick stood out of the chair she had been sitting in and picked up from where Master Kingston left off. Parker figured she had taken over as head of The House of Gia once Master Terra disappeared.

“Is everyone ready?” She yelled to the crowd.

Everyone started to cheer and scream as the masters dropped through the hole in the floor. Master Sora flew to the bottom. Master Studwick went next and pulled stones out of the wall to act as stairs that made their way all the way down. Then, Master Keegan followed her down. Master Kingston poured water out from a pouch she had kept strapped to her side. The water poured down the stairs and she froze it into a kind of slide that she jumped on and rode to the bottom.

The first group of sixth years got up and made their way to the opening to begin their first scenario. Parker, Alexis and Caleb stared down to see how this was going to go. Parker remembered this very well now and reflexively reached up to rub the spot on his head that had hit the floor next to the opening.

“Wanna know a secret?” Claire asked from next to Parker. The three of them turned and looked at her, waiting for her to continue. “We didn’t actually challenge them to this. Every sixth year class goes through this challenge.”

“Why did he say it was your class’ idea then?” Caleb asked.

“Honestly?” she asked them. “I have no clue. He’s always done that and no one I know has ever asked.”

They all laughed a little as the first group dropped through the opening. Parker watched in amazement as the four sixth year students worked so perfectly in unison to methodically make their way down to the bottom.

“It’s a ten minute time limit, right?” Parker asked.

“Yeah,” Claire confirmed. “How’d you know that?”

All of their eyes shot open wide, realizing that Parker slipped. It seemed like he was slipping more and more often lately.

“Never mind,” Claire said, standing up. Finn walked by and she started to walk with him. “We’re up next!”