Parallels- an MCSM AU [COMPLETED]

TWENTY-EIGHT- Now or Never

hahahahahahaha this one's short i'm sorry

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"What's the plan?"

Julia hesitated, seeming caught off-guard that Jo had agreed so quickly. "Plan. Yes. That. Um...."

Jo crossed her arms, looking amused. "You guys don't actually have a plan yet, do you?"

"We wanted to wait until all four of us were together, so you guys could help. Julia and I are prone to making pretty stupid decisions on our own." I explained.

"Essa currently isn't in her own timeline." Julia added. "She's in the newest one, probably messing with things and creating more deviations. We need to draw her out somehow."

"But..." Jacek started, voice quavering ever so slightly. "We need to kill her Reuben. Is he in that timeline with her?"

I shook my head. "No. He's still in her timeline. But I don't think we can just go in there and kill him- we've been in her fortress, and we know that it's fairly well-guarded and impossible to navigate. There's almost no chance of us being able to sneak in."

"Plus, she's probably hidden Reuben somewhere. From what I've heard about her, she seems really careful, so if she knows that Reuben is the missing constant, we can assume she's done something to protect him." Jo put in.

Julia gestured to her. "Right! I didn't even think about that. That's exactly why we needed you two."

Pressing his hand against his chin, Jacek thoughtfully said, "So we're hinging on the idea that we'll need Essa to get to Reuben. Could we go into the new timeline and just...threaten her a lot?"

"No. We can't go into that timeline, especially not with her in it. Us Primes hold a lot of power over the timelines; it wouldn't be a good idea to have all of us in one. It'd throw things off even more." I said. "Not to mention that we don't know where Essa is. She could be anywhere in that timeline."

"Well...hm. How far along is this newest timeline?" Jo asked contemplatively.

I paused, thinking. "I don't know for sure, but I think it should be right at the beginning of the whole Witherstorm mess. Why?"

Jo didn't say anything, but Jacek's head snapped up to look at her. "You don't think...?"

She shrugged. "Maybe. I mean, it seems right. If we're thinking the same thing here."

"Wait, what?" Julia asked.

Jacek glanced over at her. "Well, think about it. If Essa is in the new timeline, right as the Prime's whole adventure is starting...could she manipulate it so that she's part of the quest? I'm just saying, that's what I'd do if I was trying to screw up reality. If she gets the new Prime to trust her, she could manipulate them throughout the whole adventure, steering them towards making one decision over another."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too." Jo nodded.

Julia pressed a hand against her forehead. "Dammit. Of course she'd do that."

"So we've gotta stop her before she wrecks it too badly. The only question now is how." Jo put in. "We need to lure her into the In-Between, contain her, and somehow force her to bring her Reuben to us."

Her voice became increasingly despondent as she continued, clearly not believing that we'd be able to pull something like that off. I shot a glance at Julia.

"Actually...I think we may have more of an advantage than you two think." I said pointedly, still giving Julia a significant look.

She shifted her stance, looking uncomfortable. "I...wasn't planning on telling them that." she muttered.