Plans

“You time traveled?” Lithuania asked.

Latvia nodded enthusiastically. It was the morning after she rescued Peter, and she couldn’t have been more excited about her newly discovered ability.

“But I didn’t think—”

“The three of you have only scratched the surface of your powers…” Timoteo said, as he entered the living room of the Lokton bed and breakfast. “You’ll grow into them in time. Just remember you’re space, time, and infinity. There’s a lot that goes into that. Now, we have to get moving. Where are Isa and Winfry?”

“Moving where?” said Lithuania.

“That’s the thing,” began Estonia, “I feel like no one really knows what to do next. The three of us are together, but now what?”

“Where are Isa and Winfry?” Timoteo repeated. Winfry came in through the front door, rubbing his hands, alone. He looked windswept. “Decided to go for a walk?” Timoteo asked dryly. Winfry nodded, blowing his hands. “Isa with you?” Winfry shook his head and walked straight past them, into the kitchen.

“What’s up with him?” mouthed Estonia to Lithuania. Lithuania shrugged.

“Timoteo,” said Latvia, “How do Isa and Winfry fit into all this? Do you know what we’re supposed to do next?” 

“What do you think we should do next?”

Lithuania looked to the ground and bit her lip. She knew what she wanted to do next… She just didn’t know if it was possible.

“Well we can’t exactly go back to the Antioch Complex… not with those dark hooded AssMachenstani whatevers chasing us and tracking our magic.”

“But what about our jobs?” said Estonia. “Won’t people be wondering where we are? Won’t they notice we’re missing? Won’t Foggistan get suspicious? We should just go back, contact Jagesic and let him know we’re being chased by AssMachenstan. Maybe they can give us protection, and we can let them know what we think is going on here, and—”

“But we don’t exactly know what is going on here,” said Latvia. “About the only thing we’ve done is find Lithuania and—well, we have discovered AssMachenstan is behind all this… but—”

“Marco…” mumbled Lithuania. Everyone fell silent. “We’re still missing Marco.” A few seconds of silence went by before Timoteo spoke up.

“Returning to Antioch is out of the question. The Black Emissaries will snatch you up as soon as they can. You can consider your old lives just about gone by now.” Estonia felt a stone plunge into her stomach. Being the career-minded older sister who had never been quite interested in magic to begin with, this flatly delivered bit of news from Timoteo hit her like an icy slap to the face. As for Latvia, she felt an odd hybrid of thrill and terror. Of freedom and helplessness. Like she had suddenly stepped into an adventure she both willingly and reluctantly accepted.

Lithuania felt nothing.

“As for informing Jagesic,” continued Timoteo, “I am sure he is already onto quite a series of discoveries himself. I know why you’d be eager to speak to him, but the truth is, we don’t yet know nearly enough to merit our return. And as strange as it sounds, I think you’re safer here in LusciousLocks than anywhere else at the time.”

“How is that possible?” asked Estonia.

“The Black Emissaries will be unable to track you through LusciousLocks. The same thing that’s jamming communications and making psychic powers go haywire is, if I’m not mistaken, also affecting the Emissaries’ ability to track you. Considering they haven’t fallen upon us yet, I’d say they have no idea you three are here. And if they do, then they don’t know how to find you. On another note, the heightened magical density of LusciousLocks could, for all we know, offer an optimal training ground for you to develop your powers.”

“So what do you propose?” said Lithuania, growing irritable.

“AssMachenstan has settled somewhere in LusciousLocks. We need to find out exactly where, if we are to be of any use to Jagesic once we return to him. It would also be smart of us to explore this magical connection thing—from earth to creature. Discover why LusciousLocks is so particularly magical, and discover how AssMachenstan plans to harness this magic.”

“That sounds complicated,” said Lithuania. “We should go for Marco first.”

“I fail to see how Marco will be of any utility to us now,” Timoteo said flatly. “He is neither magical nor in any way written into your destinies as far as I know.”

Lithuania rose, flushing. “I don’t know how you presume to know everything you say you know—I don’t even know why I trust you, when everything you’ve told us so far could either be a lie or some part of your own devious little plan—”

“Lithuania, he saved your life,” interrupted Latvia.

“And for all we know he could have saved me because it somehow fits into AssMachenstan’s plan!”

“Lithuania!” Latvia said, stunned. She was too grateful for Timoteo’s assistance in rescuing Peter for her to think suspiciously of him now.

“It’s OK,” said Timoteo. “You’re the suspicious one. In the end, it’ll prove to your benefit. But I must honestly say that I think going out of our way to save someone who, in the grand scheme of things means nothing, is a waste of time.”

“He doesn’t mean nothing,” Lithuania snapped.  

Timoteo leaned back into an armchair, arms crossed, wearing a “suit yourself” expression. At that moment Isa stepped into the living room, squinting and rubbing her temples. “I’m sorry, have any of you seen Winfry?” she asked.

“He’s in the kitchen,” said Latvia.

Isa nodded and stepped into the kitchen.

“Timoteo,” said Lithuania, making a visible effort to pull herself together, “I can’t—I can’t go on, romping about LusciousLocks, knowing that Marco is out there, somewhere, stranded and alone.”

“Do you even know how to find him?” said Timoteo.

Lithuania pursed her lips. Putting the pieces together, she could only assume she had done something, back on the helicopter, to send Marco into another world. “You don’t know where he is, do you?” she asked Timoteo. He shook his head. “But you do know what happened to us on that helicopter, right?”

Timoteo nodded. “Of course I do. And so do you. Your jump in adrenaline activated your power. You split reality through multiple worlds, in a subconscious attempt to save yourself and Marco.”

“And I did.”

“Yes. If you really have seen him in one of your little disappearing acts, then that means he is out there, somewhere. Alive.”

“Do you know why… Why it sometimes hurts so much… to travel through worlds?” She was referring to her disappearance while fleeing the trumpeting monster, and while running down the tunnels with Felix. Those times when she had felt her body catch fire.

“Yes. You were all out of control. Didn’t you notice nothing of the sort happened when you used your power after I focused your magic? You were skipping through worlds as if you’d been doing it your entire life.”

“Yeah, but why? Why should it hurt?”

Timoteo leaned forward, hands pressed together. “If you attempt to travel right now, it will probably hurt again. It’s because you’re learning. And when you’re learning, and you travel into a parallel universe, your body associates with the closest thing to yourself it can find—meaning, it clings to your body, from another universe.”

Lithuania looked perplexed. “What?”

“Consider the Lithuania from another world as a reference point. When you travel through unfamiliar worlds, you’re searching wildly for reference points, even if you don’t know it. You’re looking for familiar ground to land into, because you haven’t quite learned how to manifest your entire body in another world. When the Lithuania from this world travels to another world, the closest point of reference is her own, parallel-world body.”

“So I possess another Lithuania?”

“No. You swap places.”

Lithuania thought for a moment. “Oh crap.” Her eyes opened wide. “I was switching places with my dead body from another universe, wasn’t I…”

Timoteo grinned grimly. “Probably. That does explain the charred chunk of body Felix saw you get replaced with when you vanished from the tunnels.”

“Gross…” Lithuania muttered. “But then that means… that the Lithuania from the world Marcos is currently in… is dead…”

“If that time you vanished from the tunnel was the time you saw him, then yes, probably.”

“OK. So give me a power boost,” said Lithuania, decidedly.

“What?”

“Give me a boost, so I can go find him without feeling all burned up again.”

Timoteo let loose a laugh of disbelief. “You can’t be serious. I’m not some sort of energizing little battery charger you know. I need to reload between boosts. And even if I did supercharge you, you wouldn’t know which world to look in! It could take you years—decades even, of world-hopping, before you could find Marco!”

“I found him accidentally, didn’t I? Without even knowing what I was doing—I saw him. So I must know where he is… somehow. Right?”

“There is a subconscious link between the two of you, no doubt. I couldn’t explain it otherwise. But what is your plan? To get charged, close your eyes and just hope? Hope you find your way to him?”

“It’s a start,” said Lithuania, defiant.

Timoteo scoffed, rose to his feet and began pacing the room. “Frankly, I thought you were more controlled than this. I thought you were less emotional—wiser.”

“Oh cut the crap. Marco is my right hand. I’m sure whatever we try to do, we’ll do it better with him around.”

“You love him.”

Lithuania was taken aback. This was the first time anyone had openly claimed such a thing. Acknowledged that anything existed between her and Marco. “I don’t love him,” Lithuania spat, confused somewhere between indignant and embarrassed.

“It’s the only reason I can think of for you not acting rationally. Marco is simply not a priority. You should recognize that. And searching for him will simply take too much time—”

“EVERYBODY DOWN!” screamed Felix, storming into the room. An instant later, all the windows of the bed and breakfast exploded, an invisible blast knocking everyone to the ground.

Felix quickly scrambled to his feet and began shooting his rifle wildly out the window. More shots could be heard coming from the second story of the bed and breakfast—probably coming from Felix’s five men.

“What—what are you shooting at!?” Timoteo screamed, hands above his head.

Another blast, Felix soared through the air, slammed into a wall, and the ceiling above them burst aflame.

Isa and Winfry scrambled out the kitchen, crawling along the floor. “What’s going on!?” Isa cried.

Felix picked himself back up and continued shooting out the shattered windows. His men came storming down the stairs, fleeing the flames upstairs. “It’s that woman! The one with the tape!” Felix yelled. “She’s back!”

“Winfry!” Timoteo barked. “Use your librem. Quickly!”

“Latvia! Do your magic thingy!” said Estonia. “Make it stop!” As the five soldiers shot their rifles out the windows, another invisible blast sent them flying through the air. There was glass and pieces of furniture everywhere now.

“I—” Latvia stammered. “I don’t— I don’t know how!” she cried. She wasn’t supercharged. She couldn’t focus. Winfry, on the other hand, scribbled wildly into his librem. 

“It’s not working!” he said. “Why isn’t it working?”

“STOP!” Timoteo yelled in sudden realization. “Don’t use magic! She’s absorbing it! Everyone, go out back. Hurry!” Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Winfry and Isa scrambled into the kitchen and down the corridor towards the bed and breakfast’s back exit, while Felix and his men had picked themselves up again and continued shooting. “Felix, stop!” Timoteo yelled. “It’s no use!”

Felix wasn’t listening.

“Felix!” Timoteo roared from the ground, yanking Felix down by the wrist with unusual strength. Just as he did so, a slicing sound cut through the air, and blood splattered in every direction.

“NO!” Felix screamed. It was as if his world slipped into slow motion as he saw each of his soldiers, throats sliced open, collapse one by one, each an instantly lifeless and bloody heap upon the floor. “NOOO!!!!” he roared, overcome.

“Felix!” Timoteo said firmly, grabbing him by the face and focusing on his eyes. “She is too powerful. This is not the time to play hero. Escape out back. NOW. Lithuania will need your help.”

Felix, for the first time in his life, felt himself losing control. “MY MEN—” he stammered.

“Felix, GO NOW.” Timoteo shoved Felix towards the kitchen door. Felix’s eyes were spinning out of their sockets, but he seemed just sane enough to pull himself together and flee.

Timoteo was alone now.

“I surrender!” he yelled, rising to the windows, hands up in the air.     

There she was. The woman of the smoke dress. “You were an idiot to try to flee, Timoteo,” she barked. She extended her hand, and an invisible force pulled Timoteo’s neck straight into her grip. She held him in the air with unnatural strength, his feet dangling above the ground, tall as he was.

“You— will— fail!” Timoteo gagged.

The woman smiled. “I doubt that.”

And in a puff of smoke, they were gone.