Our Planet has Crashed [COMPLETE]

sixty eight - KOTLC

Fitz POV:

"What now?" 

Fitz turned to see Dex and Linh getting to their feet, the mirror on the vanity from Marie's house cracked. Dex opened the third drawer like Fitz had and pocketed the comb. He looked at Fitz expectantly, like Linh was. Fitz blinked. He wasn't a leader. But it seemed he had to be. Even Dex was looking up at him, and that was the most surprising thing he could think of, and they were in an alternate reality.

FItz?  a voice cried in his head urgently. Fitz, are you there?

Oh, yes. Sophie was still connected to him telepathically. Between the humans battling the Neverseen and them finding the way in, he had almost forgotten about her. I'm here, he transmitted. She felt closer, somehow, now. 

Are you okay? You haven't answered for a while. 

Sorry, he said guiltily. We just got in.

Really? she practically squealed. Just follow my voice now, then. Am I closer? I actually don't know where I am. 

You feel closer, but I'm not sure.

Not sure? she asked.

Uh, well, this hideout is actually an alternate reality—

WHAT?

Uh, yeah, so we really don't know. We're getting our bearings now.

Okay,  she said, although she seemed a little less hopeful. 

Fitz turned back to Dex and Linh, who had stopped staring at him and were trying to rip off a board covering one of the smaller windows. Their disguises had faded, and Dex's muscles were no longer stretching his shirt. Fitz went over to help. "We should use the spare disguises." he suggested.

Linh produced a box of vials from her cloak pocket. All of them had worn black cloaks, but the handmade eye symbols of the Neverseen just seemed so fake. They wouldn't make it two steps out of the house, let alone all the way to Sophie, or the other prodigies.

As they gulped down the disgusting elixirs, they peered out the window. Like Marie's alternate house, the grey one, this one was stripped of all decoration, save the vanity Dex had pulled through. Speaking of which . . . 

"How will we come back?" Fitz asked.

"You want to come back?" Linh gawked at him. "Into some alternate-San Diego full of Neverseen members?" she pointed out the window. 

Fitz dropped the empty vials, which shattered on the ground. 

Outside, in the alternate San Diego, the streets were full of black-cloaked figures with white eyes on their sleeves. It was packed, like at the Celestial festival packed. Everywhere he looked, the white eyes haunted him. On the roofs, the streets, in the buildings, the shops . . .

"No, of course not," he argued, once he had regained his cool. "But since Dex so smartly pulled the vanity down with him—"

"Did you want Gethen and his goons to follow us?" Dex yelled.

"Shh!" Linh said, but neither of the boys heard her.

"We don't even know if we can rescue Sophie and Keefe this time, let alone the other prodigies! How will we come back? How do we know the comb will work everywhere? It doesn't have to!" Fitz yelled back. 

"At least we can study it and see how it led us here—"

"It's a comb!"  Fitz interrupted, exasperated.