He ran passed the gate and into the darkness, the rest of us slowly following.

“We need to be ready for anything.” said Iris.

“What’s even in here?” asked Isaac, “Whatever there is, it PAILS in comparison to what I can do.”

“That’s probably not true at all.” I commented.

“It’s… quiet.” commented James.

“Where’d he um… go?” asked Matthias.

“Shoot.” I said.

“I can’t see anything.” Isaac complained.

“That’s nice.” I replied.

All of us just kept on walking and I thought about Matt’s words, realizing that there was likely a bit of truth in what he had said. I bit my lip as I forced myself to keep moving forward. Just like the entire life I had lived, friends came and went in my adventures to, and it was always the ones I cared about the most.

My friends never really stayed around and I never got to experience growing up with anyone else. For as long as I could remember, my childhood friends went in and out of my life constantly. In the end, it probably doesn’t matter. Not everyone gets to be so fortunate.

Someone like me isn’t allowed to be fortunate. Someone like me can never die for real. Someone like me can only suffer all kinds of pain because I’m not allowed to truly die. Where were my parents during all of this? They never gave a damn at all about these quests I’ve been on. They never appreciate anything. I don’t really care much for my family anymore for causing and contributing to the darkest part of my life. Getting out of it hasn’t been easy.

Some days, I just want to fast forward my life to a point where things are okay, if such a point truly exists. Other days, I just wish time would slow down or just stop. We’re not time travelers, so we don’t really know what to expect from the future.

Whatever it contains, I’m uncertain if I want to know, but I’ll find out when the time comes no matter what.

Things sure had changed not only in my life, but on my adventures too. I’m going to defeat a villain, but everyone from my original team is gone and I wonder if the same will happen with everyone on my latest team? Lots of thoughts were going through my head at the time and I knew, even with my worries, I still had a job I needed to do.

“You alive?” asked Iris.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I responded, “I was just thinking, but it wasn’t really anything important.”

Not too much later, we found a door. I reached for the handle and then opened it, revealing a seemingly empty room.

“Is there actually anything in this place?” asked Catherine.

“So, you’ve found my hiding spot.” I heard a voice say.

“What was that, ‘This Guy’?” responded Isaac.

“I-it wasn’t me!” I responded.

“It’s ‘the author’.” said Iris.

When we were all in the same room, everyone noticed how it looked like there were two of me. However, something else caught our attention: the dead body of Matt in a corner of the room.

“Had to take care of the trash.” said the author, “He never cared about me at all!”

“W-what’s going on!?” was all James could say.

“This situation is more complex than we originally thought.” I said.

“So… you’ve got a clone?” said Isaac.

“No,” I replied, “far from it.”

“You don’t recognize yourself?” the author responded, acting shocked.

“It recently occurred to me,” I said, “but now I know the truth.”

“Get on with it.” he rudely suggested.

“You’re a fraud!” I exclaimed, “You are not and never were me!”

“Do you have proof of that?” he said.

“What’s my middle name?” I asked.

“Douglas.” he answered, “Any more dumb questions.”

“Yes,” I answered, “what was my mother originally planning to name me?”

“Um… Steve?” said the author.

“You’re wrong.” I responded.

“…Am I?” he said.

“If you really were me,” I said, “you would know my mother was expecting a girl!”

“W-WHAT!?” exclaimed the author.

“And my name would have been Christina.” I said, “There’s no way you would have forgotten something like that!”

“Even smart people forget sometimes.” he responded.

“I’m not smart,” I said, “I just work toward conclusions and am somehow right most of the time!”

“That’s… quite a ‘skill’.” commented Mikaela.

“So what if our memories don’t match up one hundred percent!?” exclaimed the author, “It doesn’t mean anything!”

“It doesn’t look like your attack was enough, Ron.” commented Matthias.

“There must be something else we can use.” said Iris.

“But should we use?” asked James.

“How about something else he couldn’t know about?” suggested Catherine.

“Something else… like what?” I responded.

“Perhaps something physical?” suggested Iris.

“Maybe there IS something we can use.” I said.

“As I said,” the author responded, “you won’t be able to prove anything.”

“Are you sure about that?” I said.

“Relax,” the author responded, “most of our memories are the same- most are, not all. It’s no big deal, really.”

“It’s not just memories,” I said, “there are other things I’m sure you don’t know about me.”

“What are you saying?” was all the author could say.

“Show us… your right arm.” I requested, “All of it.”

“Sure,” he said, rolling his sleeve up as far as he could.

“As I thought,” I said, “you truly are a fake!”

“What the hell are you talking about!?” the author exclaimed, “It’s just a normal, plain arm!”

“That’s the problem.” I said, “Something that should be there is not there.”

“What… is it?” he responded impatiently.

“Almost a year ago, I went through the most physical pain I’d ever been through in my life,” I said, rolling my right sleeve up as far as I could, revealing a scar that went from my elbow to near my shoulder, “I broke my arm and now there is a metal plate inside of it. That’s where this scar came from!”

“You… broke your arm!?” he responded, seeming surprised.

“Yes,” I said, “and since we have these differences I can say for certain that you aren’t me.”

“Do you know who he really is?” asked Iris.

“Wait… how is that possible?” said Matthias, “How is it that you know so much!?”

“I’ll admit,” I said, “I’m mostly guessing, but my guesses are based off what we’ve heard, seen, and some of the things we’ve experienced.”

“So… you know my true identity?” said the author.

“Could you all please stop beating around the bush and get to the point?” requested James.

“Certainly,” I said, “Why don’t you take off the disguise, Miles!?”

Wait… WHAT!?” exclaimed Matthias.

“So… he’s been here the entire time.” commented iris.

“Interesting.” responded the author.

“You knew a few things about me,” I said, “that’s why you pretended to be me.”

“Heh.” said the author, “You’re certainly very interesting.”

“The other villains that knew anything about me are permanently dead,” I said, “that’s how I know it’s you!”

“Are you sure?” he asked, “You’re sort of a celebrity in many dimensions.”

“But can you be certain many, if any, ‘fans’ or haters of mine have powers?” I said, “I know it’s you, Miles… show yourself!”

Within seconds, his appearance changed.

“So… you’ve seen through my disguise.” said Miles, hiding his face behind his light brown cape.

“It all makes sense now.” I said, “You being the author of the story was all a bunch of bullshit!”

“Correct,” said Miles, “There was no one trying to change the ‘story’ but me. I wanted everyone to suffer.”

“One question,” I said, “why did you kill Erica?”

“Why, she was getting in the way of my plans to rule every dimension,” answered Miles, “and I led you to Mihr'hai last fall so that I could distract all of you. I killed her when I had the chance- she knew too much.”

“Those strange occurrences,” I said, “all have to do with the book you stole from me!”

“Wait… so he had it this whole time!?” exclaimed Matthias.

“Yes,” said Miles, “I took it and made you think you lost it.”

“So… what now?” I said, “You’re gonna try to kill us, aren’t you?”

“No, WE'RE going to kill you.” said a familiar female voice.

“That’s-!” exclaimed Matthias.

Not too far away, I saw a familiar-looking princess holding two glowing green guns and pointing them at us.

“Ack!” I exclaimed.

“Leah, why?” asked Matthias.

“I never liked anyone and that includes you.” answered Leah, “Now, which of you dies first?”

This was it. Our final battle. If we didn’t stop them, it would be chaos for all worlds.