The Way Back [Book 2 of One Tragic End to a Million Stories]

Possible Solutions

Jessica's POV

I did end up falling asleep, but it was only for a moment. I did realize something, though.

I don't want these psychic powers permanently. I wanted to go back to being normal. I just needed to find out how.

I saw Y/N talking to Mark when I woke up. I stood up and walked over to them.

"I see you've woken up," They said.

"What? Pssh! I wasn't asleep... for that long... Anyways, what are you talking about?"

"How to get off of this hunk of rock. We have no idea where any fresh water is. The colonists and the crew are getting dehydrated." I looked at them. "Wait... You've been here a while, haven't you?"

"So has Google. Why didn't you ask him?" I asked.

They sighed. "I don't know. He's kinda creepy. Smart, but creepy."

"So, then, why do you keep him?" I questioned.

"Well, for one, I'm scared if I try to get rid of him, he'll get rid of me." We both glanced at him. He was staring off into space, a blank look on his face. "And for another thing..." We looked back at each other. "He's useful."

"So, why aren't you using him? If he's useful, why not ask him?"

Y/N opened their mouth to speak, but paused for a moment. "That's fair. So, where do you get water around here?"

I smirked and imagined cool music in my head. "Get the containers ready."

"Containers?"

I blinked. "Well, yeah. How else are people going to drink the water? ...Do you not have anything?"

"No, I have stuff for that."

"So then, why did you ruin my cool moment?! I had cool music playing in my head in everything!" I sighed and looked down. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! ...I'm sorry. I shouldn't get so upset over... God, I'm so weird..."

"Eh. Not really. I've met weirder people. Way weirder people." I didn't answer. They placed a hand on my shoulder. "Hey." I looked up at their handsome and/or beautiful face. "It's okay. Just get us to the water, okay?" I nodded.

Captain's POV

Jessica took me to a river in the forest she came from. "What do you suppose we do?" I asked. She looked at me.

"Hm?"

"How do we get back to Earth?"

"We send a distress signal."

"Out of what? The ship is destroyed."

"I don't know. Build a radio?"

"And what about food? What did you eat?"

"There's berries in the forest."

"How do you know they aren't poisonous? How did you know when you first ate them?"

"Oh. I asked Google."

I looked back to where the group was, looked back at Jessica, and pointed to the group. "Him?"

"No. There are multiple copies scattered around the entire planet. Different colors."

"Colors?"

"Yeah, the shirt."

"The shirt?" I echoed.

"Yeah. There's like a red one, and a yellow one..."

"Where are the berries?"

"There's a bush right there." She pointed to a bush of yellow berries. I began walking to them, but Jessica grabbed my wrist. I looked at her. "Look." She pointed across the river.

"What? There's nothing there."

"Exactly." I was confused for a moment, but soon, I realized what she was saying. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah." We sat in silence for a moment. "I see why we used robots for this planet instead of humans," I said, breaking the silence.

"Why?"

"Because of what we did to Earth. Honestly, I'm surprised they had us colonize the other planet. We shouldn't be expanding ourselves. We'll just keep poisoning every planet. We didn't learn our lesson on Earth, so why should it be any different, now?" I looked at the ground sadly.

Jessica nudged me. "Hey. With my psychic powers, I can see Dark at all times. I can let you see him for a moment."

"Sure." Dark appeared what seemed like quarter of a football field away, focusing on something, his back towards us. "Now what?"

"Watch this. Hey, Dark!" He turned to us. "Do you need help with your eyeliner?! It would look cuter if I did it!" He flicked Jessica off in response. She chuckled a bit.

"I wouldn't be able to do that back when we first met. How did you do that without being terrified that he might chop off your head, or something?"

"I could sense that you changed him. Plus, I've known him a while. We talked, sometimes, the last two months."

I tilted my head. "Two months? The multiverse was only fixed one month ago..."

"No. You spent another month in cryo, remember?"

I mentally face palmed. "Oh."

"Get the berries. Let's go back." I nodded and got the berries.