“You’d think he would have finished after the first ten needles broke.”

Jill giggled and she wiggled around restlessly as they sat in the back of the car. Dr. Martin had been positively giddy after the first needle had broken, and then he’d brought out several others that were apparently all ‘specially ordered’ just for ascended people. Sweat dripped down Jack's neck as he remembered the sight of them all. Each one had snapped in half when the doctor had pushed them into his arm.

Jack was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that people with superpowers were a normal occurrence.

Jill hadn’t been any better than Dr. Martin. Instead of asking questions about the ascended she’d stood next to the doctor, eyes were wide in amazement as she watched needle after needle breaking when they came into contact with Jack's skin. In the end, the doctor had settled for a swab of Jack's cheek.

Jack had smiled when it was Jill's turn to go. She'd never even felt pain before. But he could taste his disappointment when she’d smiled as she felt the needle plunging into her own skin. Just feeling anything and doing the things she had never done while in Jack’s head was motivation enough for her to take all the tests and Jack knew that she didn’t care about the results.

‘Three days.’ Jack moved the stick of his lollipop around his tongue as he mused on what the doctor had said to them.

That was how long it would take for the results to come back.

The tests were just something they did to check that Jill and Jack were healthy. The clinic wasn't prepared to look after an ascended and so none of the equipment they had on hand could analyse Jack or Jill. Dr. Martin had promised to give them more information when the test results came back but the best he could do was provide them a recommendation to an official ascended testing centre after the medical checks they completed the medical checks.

There they could test the extent of their powers and abilities.

'I wonder what else I'll have?' Jack tried to imagine shooting laser beams out of his eyes or pounding boulders into dust with his fists.

Jill poked at his. “Stop looking all serious. It sounds like fun. It’s not like we have anything else to do, we’re just kids.”

Jack looked at her from the corner of his eye and smiled. She was right; they were kids again, the stuff of dreams. He even had superpowers, and the GodSworn weren’t a part of their lives anymore. He hadn’t mentioned it but he couldn’t help but worry that something was going to go wrong. It almost seemed too perfect. But she had squashed his thoughts with just a few words.

Sometimes he thought she could still read his mind.

“I totally can.” Jill puffed up with pride as she saw his shocked expression and she turned her nose up into the air. “Bow down before me mortal, for I am amazing and fantastical.”

“Jill, don’t bully your brother,” Jacqueline said absentmindedly as she drove. Then she froze as she realise what she’d said by accident.

Somehow she’d just gotten caught in the flow and forgotten that Jack wasn’t her child. Not one she remembered having at least. The kids also stared at her with smiles, and then Jill ignored her as she continued to tease Jack. It was like watching school children fighting.

‘No, it’s like watching siblings fight. Would it be so bad to have a son?’ Jacqueline toyed with the thought.

She’d quickly gotten used to having Jack around. Even though she’d only known him for an hour or two, she was already falling into a pattern of talking to him normally. It just felt right. Like he was filling a void in her heart that she’d never realised she’d had.

She’d definitely worried for a while that she’d kidnapped some random kid. But his relaxed attitude and uncanny similarities to Jill had quickly dispelled that fear. A quick conversation with Dr. Martin had also calmed her down.

'Oh boy.' She turned into the street their house was on. 'This is one hell of a mess.'

Jack was probably part of Jill's powers. That was what the doctor had said. Especially since he had appeared in their house at the same time that she had teleported there from the clinic. Jacqueline had heard of certain ascended summoning different things, usually animals or creatures that were inhuman. If Jack was something like them, then that meant that he would be around Jill forever.

Jacqueline watched the squabbling duo with the car mirror and smiled. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if Jack was around. They had enough money to pay for the extra food, and Jill seemed content. Definitely much more lively than she’d been before.

Then Jacqueline got hit by a stray lollipop and scrunched her eyebrows together in frustration as it stuck to the back of her head.

“Okay, okay.” She pulled into their driveway and turned around to face them. “Who threw the lollipop?”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Their trip home ended as quickly as it had when they’d gone to the clinic.

“It was me.” Jack put his hand up, looking guilty.

“Jack.” Jacqueline put on her parental chastising face. “There’s not going to be a dessert for dinner if you don’t apologise.”

Jack looked at her with a bemused smile. “Do I need to eat? I don’t feel hungry.”

“Huh?” Jacqueline didn’t know the answer to that question.

Needles couldn’t pierce his skin, and she didn't even know what else was happening inside his body.

Jack was curious about it himself. He hadn’t felt a single hunger pang since returning to his childhood body and he’d already been here for a few hours. He could tell Jill was feeling it heavily from the way she clutched at her stomach and groaned. She’d even tried to steal his lollipop, smacking it by accident into their mum’s hair.

He rolled his eyes at her dramatic behaviour.

“Bully the new kid why don’t you.” Jill retorted as she saw his smug expression. “Just because you’re used to it. I’m experiencing this for the first time you know.”

Jack sat back with a triumphant grin and he went over the interesting things he’d found out while at the doctor’s office.

It was November 2019.

Exactly forty years back from the moment the darkness had swallowed him in the GodSworn complex alongside Tink and Jill. In only five months he would be eight.

It was an extraordinary leap back in time. With all of his memories intact to boot. But there were some obvious differences that contrasted with the memories he had of his old life.

The primary of those being the ascended.

There definitely weren’t any of those in his prior life.

Apparently here it was normal, although extremely rare, for people to sprout powers which let them do things that ordinary humans couldn’t. Apparently, the ascended had been part of the culture long enough that society had grown accustomed to them. Jack could hardly believe his ears, but with all that had been happening, it wasn’t the biggest surprise of the last twenty-four hours.

“You. Eat.” Jack stuck his tongue out at Jill. “I’m going to ask questions.”

Jack jumped out of the car’s side and felt the ground thump underneath his shoes. His legs weren’t long enough to step out of it. Having a child’s body meant that suddenly the simpler things like getting down from the car were much more fun to do.

He made his way inside and instantly spotted the man he wanted to talk to.

His father, Gerald. The man was sitting down in the lawn chair and was scribbling onto a series of papers he’d laid out on the kitchen table.

Jack couldn't hold back his curiosity on how these ‘ascended’ gained their powers but Dr. Martin hadn’t been clear on the details there. Even though Jack's powers thrilled the doctor, the laypeople of the world didn’t have much of an idea about the cause of the phenomenon. They were just interested in the new powers and the stories that resulted.

“So what did you find out on the internet?” Jack looked with curiosity at his father’s handwritten notes lying on the table.

The man had spent the time alone researching into the ascended. He could see a list of names written hurriedly and even a few columns. He’d never realised his dad was so organised.

“Hey there, slugger. Internet? What do you mean? Gerald shuffled the papers on the table clumsily.

Jack stared at him. His father definitely wasn't a good liar.

“You stayed home so you could research the ascended. Those are your notes.”.

He might be a kid but he didn’t want to act like he was dumb.

Gerald chuckled as he realised he wasn't fooling Jack. “Yeah, they are. I’ll show you them after.” He pushed them away from Jack with an expression of shame. “They’re too untidy for me to show anyone else right now.”

Jack grinned at his father’s response and went to join Jill in grabbing a snack from the fridge.

‘Time to test if I can eat.’

He wouldn’t have pegged his dad to be someone so embarrassed about their writing. Jack always been hanging out with Jill or the other kids the first time he was this age. He’d never taken the time to appreciate his family or their quirks.

“We had a visitor today,” Gerald said as he turned calmly to face Jacqueline. “He was searching for someone called Jack Fisch… er… he-hello th-there?”

Gerald stuttered in surprise as two pairs of eyes stared at him intensely from under the table. The two kids had somehow managed to sneak right next to him while he was talking. One second they’d been roaming around the kitchen and now they were here.

Jack could feel his heart pounding as he looked up at his dad. “He was looking for me?”

“Oh no. No, no, no.” Gerald saw the worry on Jack’s face and put on a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. he wasn’t here for you. Just someone with the same name. He was looking for someone my age, tall and lanky.” Gerald paused as he tried to think of the rest. “And with a hunched back. I told him he’d found the wrong house. He probably got the name Fischer out of a phonebook and was trying every address.”

‘Crap.’ Jack and Jill looked at each other.

They could see the worry in each other's eyes. Gerald had described his previous self perfectly, from the age to the hunched back. But there wasn’t anybody in this time who should know him as an adult. He’d spent far too much time in the GodSworn complex to keep up with any of his old friends. Heck, he couldn’t even remember the people he’d known when he was seven years old.

Jack didn’t like where this was going, but he knew he still needed to get the information from his dad.

“What did the man look like.” Jack’s voice was sharp but it broke into a quiver at the end.

“Um…” Gerald paused as he heard the urgency in Jack’s voice. “He was definitely large. I don’t mean chubby, I just mean big physically. Tall, dark skin as well. Oh, and he had one hell of a moustache too. Immaculate.”

He continued to list various things, and Jack and Jill’s expressions grew grimmer and grimmer as their father’s description became more intricate. There was no way they wouldn’t recognise the person that they’d spent years together with. Talking, laughing and having fun, all the memories came flooding back. The only person who Jack had ever felt comfortable enough around to reveal his old address. His father was describing their friend from their previous life perfectly.

The patient that considered himself to be the greatest showman to ever live.

Dilmar.