by James Riley
CHAPTER 9
Owen slowly walked over to his older self, not sure how to respond. “Enjoying the future? Are you joking, because—”
“Um, obviously yes,” his future self said, rolling his eyes. “I forgot how big a pain I am without any imagination.”
Owen snorted. “Yeah, well, I didn’t ask to come here. But what did you mean, the PFFIA is going to capture us? If that’s true, I need to get Kara and leave—”
Future Owen shook his head, wincing in pain at even that amount of movement. “No, it’s already done. It happened to me, and it’ll happen to you. But that’s not what we need to talk about—”
Owen held up a hand to stop him. “Nothing’s already done. I can get out now, before they arrive.”
His older self glared at him. “Are you really arguing with me? I lived this already, I know what happens. And if I say you get captured, then you get captured. It needs to happen, to restore your imagination and get you to the fictional world. And when you get there, you’re going to have to do what Kara’s been telling you. You’re going to have to face Nobody. If you don’t reunite the worlds, this is what happens to us.” He gestured at himself. “And we get off lightly. Our friends have it even worse.”
Owen stared at him for a moment, not able to picture what his older self was saying, but knowing that he wanted no part of this. “I’m not going back there. There’s nothing I can do against him. We’ve already tried that, remember? Twice.”
His future self nodded slowly, then looked away. “Twice for you, three times for me, and more times than I can count overall. When I was here in your place, I talked to an Owen five years in my future, and he had talked to an Owen five years in his future. All of us told the next Owen what we tried to do to defeat Nobody, because nothing worked. But you, my friend, are going to break the chain.”
Owen’s eyes glazed over. “None of that makes any sense.”
“Not right now, it won’t,” his older self said. “But you’ll figure it out eventually. Anyway, I need to tell you what happened with my attempt.” He cringed. “It went about as badly as it possibly could have. Me, Kara, Kiel, Charm . . . we all went to rescue Bethany. Nobody is going to take both versions of her here, into this story.” He reached over to a nearby table and tapped some papers. “Remember this? We wrote it before going into Jupiter City for the first time.”
Owen stepped closer to the table, picked up the papers, and flipped through them. He saw mentions of bookwyrms and an Outliner and a bunch of other things that made no sense to him now, but they were familiar. “This is the story I wrote about Bethany’s dad being the evil King of All Stories,” he whispered. “Like fan fiction. It was so bad. But then Nobody appeared in it and told me to stop writing, because I was influencing the fictional characters in it.”
Older Owen coughed. “That’s the one. You’re going to really regret writing it too. That’s where Nobody’s going to take her. You’ll have to fight your way to the Storybook Castle at the end of the story, but one by one, you’ll lose your friends along the way, until finally it’s just you against Nobody. And that’s a fight that no Owen Conners has ever won yet.” He narrowed his eyes and stared at Owen. “Not until you.”
None of this made sense to Owen. As far as he was concerned, his older self was just spouting gibberish. “So if all of this is going to happen the same way every time, then I’m going to lose too. What’s the point of even trying?”
“That’s what I’m here to tell you, you unimaginative idiot,” his older self said. “I hope I wasn’t this much of a jerk to my older self. You have to think of a new way to fight him, something that none of the rest of us Owens have ever tried.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “I tried to use my time powers against him, even knowing he could duplicate them. But because of that, none of the other Owens had ever tried it, so I figured, why not? But my heart couldn’t take it, and it basically just gave out. I was useless.”
He looked away, and Owen thought he could see a bit of color coming back into the boy’s cheeks. “After I collapsed, Nobody sent me back here to get better. It wasn’t out of kindness, but as one last punishment. He knew they could have fixed my heart there, in the fictional world. Instead, he wanted me to experience the future of our world firsthand.”
His older self went quiet for a moment, and Owen dropped his head into his hands, not able to wrap his head around any of this. “You said none of the others used their time powers. But without those, we’re completely normal. How could they possibly have tried to beat him without using powers?”
“The version of Owen I met here had gone in with magical spells,” his older self said, struggling to talk now. The machines around him began to beep quietly, and Owen glanced at them nervously, hoping they weren’t setting off any alarms with the nurses or doctors. “The Owen before him had all kinds of science fiction weapons. Owens have tried everything we could think of, from giving ourselves new superpowers to bringing in allies from around the fictional world, even once creating another Nobody to fight the first one. But nothing has worked. It always ends with us alone against Nobody, and no matter how powerful we are, he wins.” Another wave of pain hit, and he clutched his chest.
“How many of us have tried this?” Owen asked quietly.
His older self shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“How many?”
“Thousands, okay?” his older self shouted, and the machines’ beeping grew more insistent. “Maybe there’s no way to beat him, I don’t know! But I do know that you have to try, or the world ends up like this, and we can’t let that happen. Have you seen what they’re doing outside? It’s disgusting!”
“What happens if we don’t get captured now?” Owen asked quietly. “What happens if I just go home and ignore all of this?”
“You don’t have a choice,” his older self said, glaring at him. “You always go back to the fictional world. You’ll want to, once you get your imagination back. Trust me.”
“But what if I don’t? What if I decide that someone else should handle this, since . . . well, since we know I can’t? Since every time I’ve tried in thousands of different time lines or whatever, I lose? What happens if I just decide to not play the game?”
“It’s not a game, and you don’t have a choice!” Owen’s older self said again.
“How can you know that?” Owen shouted.
“Because all of us asked this exact same thing, and we all went anyway!” His older self’s face contorted with pain, and he gasped as he fell back against the bed. “We were all . . . selfish. Comes from having no . . . imagination. Our fictional heart is too worn down from using our time powers to give us the connection we’d need. Kara’s right. Kara’s always right about us. You can’t imagine yourself in someone . . . else’s shoes. But doesn’t matter. I have . . . to tell you . . . there’s one other thing—”
The door to the room crashed open and Kara leaped inside, then slammed the door behind her. “They’re coming, Owen!” she said. “A doctor and a nurse. The lady downstairs told them we never came out and to call security. But I think your older self’s monitors are setting off alarms too. We have to get out now!”
Owen looked from her to the door, then back at his older self, who was waving a hand for Owen to come closer. He wanted to run out the door, knew it was the right choice, but instead moved in and took his other self’s hand. “What?” he hissed urgently. “What’s the last thing?”
“You . . . you need to . . . tell her,” his older self said, then winced, grabbing his chest. “You need to tell her the truth!”
“Her? You mean Kara? Or Bethany?” Owen said. Someone started to open the door, but Kara threw her weight against it, slamming it shut again. She gave him an anxious look and motioned for him to hurry.
“No,” his older self said, his eyes drooping as the machines beeped louder and louder. “You know who I mean. You need . . . to tell her it was you . . . the whole time. Not him. Not Kiel. It
was you.”
And then the hand in Owen’s drooped, and he gently laid it on the bed.
The door burst open, knocking Kara against the wall, and a woman in a long white coat came running in. “We’re losing him!” she shouted as a nurse passed her, going for the paddles on the ground. The doctor turned to glare at Owen, who leaped out of the way. “Did you kids use the crash cart?” she said, glaring at him accusingly. “That is not a toy!”
Then she stopped, seeing Kara for the first time.
“You’re the girl from earlier!” she said. “The one who disappeared right in front of me. You’re one of them, aren’t you! Don’t you move, security’s already on its way.” She quickly punched a button behind her on the wall, and a whooping alarm sounded through the building.
Footsteps pounded down the hall toward them, and Owen just stared at Kara, not sure what to do. He couldn’t use his time powers, not with his heart so weak. But if he didn’t, they were going to get caught, just like his older self had said!
Kara looked around desperately, like she was searching for a weapon, but the doctor grabbed her from behind, locking her arms tightly around Kara’s. “Oh no you don’t,” the doctor said. “You’re not going anywhere this time. The PFFIA is going to question you and find out how you pulled that little trick!”
The footsteps were getting closer.
“Owen, run!” Kara screamed. “Save yourself!”
He stared at her, wondering if he could. His older self’s words raced through his head. You won’t have a choice. But the footsteps outside were probably still far enough away that he could outrun whoever it was.
If he could get away, he could keep from getting captured, maybe not have to go back to the fictional world and not lose to Nobody again. And then he wouldn’t have to end up in this hospital bed, dying in front of his past self.
It was the logical thing to do.
But something bothered him, way down deep, like a memory that didn’t feel real . . . a feeling he’d had, when Kara was touching his hand. Every time they touched, his imagination came back and logic went out the window. Each time, instead of doing the practical, safe thing, he wanted to do what he thought was right, even if it ended up hurting him.
What if that was who he really was, and all he needed was to get his imagination back to see it? There wasn’t any way to know for sure, so logically, he should escape while he could. That was the only thing that made any sense.
“We surrender,” Owen said, raising his hands, fighting every urge in his brain screaming at him to run.
“No!” Kara shouted, but security guards quickly filled the room, grabbing her from the doctor.
“This one needs to be tested,” the woman said as the guards took Kara. “She disappeared on me a few hours ago, right into thin air. She might be one of them.” Then she pointed at Owen. “That one, I don’t know. Give him to the PFFIA too, so it can question him. See what they both know about that bracelet she’s got. It looks far too made-up to be real.”
As the guards grabbed Owen’s arms, the doctor’s words echoed in Owen’s brain. The bracelet looked too made-up to be real? What did that mean?
Then the guards pulled some sort of black cloth over Owen’s head, and everything went dark.
CHAPTER 10
Kiel!” Bethany shouted, leaping toward him and cradling his head in her arms. “Are you okay?”
The former boy magician slowly opened his eyes. “Oh, hey, Beth,” he said, looking around. “Did I miss something? Have you always worn a cape?” He smiled. “I like the mask, very mysterious.”
She glared at him. “You just collapsed after using some kind of invisibility cloak to keep Nobody from noticing me. Where did you . . . how did . . . what happened to you?”
Kiel tried to sit up, only for his eyes to go wide, and he fell back to the ground. “I seem to be a bit dizzy,” he told her. “I’m not sure when the last time I had any food or water was. You don’t happen to have any, do you?”
Bethany looked around, then saw something promising. “Stay here,” she told him, and gently laid him back on the ground.
“Sounds good,” he told her. “Wow, Charm really let this place get run down. We should ask her about that.”
Bethany draped the invisible cloth over Kiel to hide him, marking the spot carefully in her mind so she could find him again, then pulled out three Twilight throwing stars and silently made her way toward a broken fountain down the street she’d appeared on. Kiel was right . . . something insane had happened to Quanterium. Buildings all around Bethany were destroyed, but each in a different way. Some looked like they’d collapsed into perfect spheres of their material, while others hung in midair, every component of the house floating just millimeters from the rest, like someone had pulled it all apart. One seemed to be swirling around like it was trapped in a whirlpool, but that couldn’t be possible.
It wasn’t just the buildings, either. The street she stood on warped into a loop a hundred or so yards in front of her, before rising straight up into the air as far as she could see. The once-great city square, where a Kiel Gnomenfoot statue would at some point be built, was now jiggling in the breeze as if it were made of some sort of gelatin.
And maybe worst of all, just a few blocks away from her, a wall of white nothingness cut through the city, a wall that was slowly, ever so slowly, moving. As she watched, a building right at the edge began to dissipate as the wall touched it, disappearing into nothingness, just like she’d seen the Toad Prince’s henchman do.
What had happened here? Nobody seemed to be saying that what was happening to her father would be happening everywhere. Had whatever it was already started here? What had he said . . . the freedom of possibility? Was that what the all of nothingness was?
But why hadn’t he known what she was talking about, when she mentioned the man bringing possibility ray guns into Jupiter City?
She reached the broken fountain safely and found robotic fish slowly swimming upside down in it. Hopefully that was a result of whatever happened here, and not a sign that the water wasn’t good. She used her powers to morph her hand into a large jug, then filled it with water and brought it back to the spot she’d left Kiel. After a few moments, she located the invisibility cloth and pulled it off.
“That’s new,” Kiel said, staring at the jug at the end of her arm. “Have you always been able to do that?”
“Not exactly,” she said, grinning in spite of herself. She brought the jug to his mouth, and he slowly drank as she looked him over. Wherever he’d come from, he’d been through something awful. His clothes were ripped in places, and his skin was much paler than usual.
He drank as much as he could, then leaned back, his eyes on her. “I seem to have missed a few things while I’ve been out. Want to catch me up? What happened to Quanterium?”
“Um, this planet is from your story, not mine,” she said. “Where have you been? How did you get here? Did you know Nobody—”
He held up a hand. “I followed him here, through one of his ripped pages. It was the first time he left that castle he lives in for the last few days. He captured me, Beth. Months ago now. I was supposed to meet you after a year, when I was exploring Magisteria to try to figure out what my purpose was, now that the war was over. Remember how I gave up magic?” He wiggled his fingers at her. “Haven’t used it since. But every so often, a magic item here or there is still pretty useful.”
“Nobody kidnapped you?” Bethany said, both her anger at the man and her horror for Kiel threatening to overwhelm her.
“He claimed to know you and said I couldn’t be allowed to help you, not if the fictional world was going to survive,” Kiel said. “Then he reached out, and . . .” A cloud passed over his face, and he looked past Bethany, not focusing on anything. “I couldn’t see what he did, but I ended up in the middle of nothing. There wasn’t anything there, just . . . white. Like that wall of nothingness in the sky behind you. Time didn’t move, or so it seemed. I n
ever got hungry or thirsty, at least not while I was in there. I couldn’t move, but I could still think and talk.” His voice grew softer. “I screamed for help, begged to be released, but no one ever responded. I don’t know how long I was even there. . . .”
“How did you escape?” Bethany whispered.
“I didn’t,” Kiel said, shaking his head. “Someone freed me. I never found out who. I came out of the nothingness and found myself in a castle made of books. Whoever it was that helped me escape left me the invisibility quilt over there, and a few other choice items, along with a note. It said I should wait for Nobody to open a doorway to another story, then follow him. That was the only way I’d ever get out. So I waited, watching Nobody from under the quilt, for what must have been days. Just as I started thinking he was never going to leave, out of nowhere, he ripped open a page and traveled here. I followed him, only to find you fighting him.” He grinned. “Wish I could have been more of a help with that.”
Bethany wiped her hand over her eyes, not sure what to say. “I can’t believe he’s had you this whole time,” she whispered. “If I’d known . . .”
He shrugged. “You couldn’t have. And besides, I found out a few things while waiting there. That white wave of nothingness out there? That’s the pure possibility he’s talking about. And it’s happening in every fictional world. Well, all but one.” He frowned. “Jupiter City was supposed to be last, he said. I didn’t know what he meant by that until I heard him talking to you.”
“What does it do?” she asked, staring up at the possibility above them.
“I don’t really get the science,” Kiel said. “Not that I really get any science. But Nobody talked like it’d take in the entire fictional universe, and we’d all become just pure possibility. He thought that would mean the universe could start fresh, without any interference from nonfictional people.” He wrinkled his nose. “Sounded a lot like the Magister, honestly.”