My eyes opened up to unfamiliar scenery. 

“Where… are we?” I asked.

“Linwood.” answered Jean, who I suddenly saw in front of me.

“Never heard of it.” I replied.

“It’s a town located a couple hours from Mirai, hidden in a forest.” responded Jean.

“Did we… die?” I asked.

“Honestly,” said Jean, “I don’t know. The rest of us found ourselves here when we woke up.”

“Is he up yet?” asked a voice I was unfamiliar with.

Looking behind Jean, I could see a man with dark hair and gray eyes. He also had something sticking out of his pocket.

“I’m… alive, I guess.” I said.

“Ah, that’s good.” the man said, “I’m glad the five of you are alright.”

“Five?” I said, “Who else is here?”

“Kia, Christina, and Mikaela are also here.” answered Jean.

“Why is it just us?” I asked, “What happened to everyone else?”

“Unfortunately,” said the man who saved us, “you five were the only people I was able to find. I didn’t really have enough time to go deeper into the woods to see if I could find more of you.”

“More importantly,” said Jean, “are you alright?” 

“I’m fine,” I answered, “why are you asking?”

“You were asleep for two days.” she answered.

“Two days!?” I exclaimed, “I was really asleep for that long?”

“Alright,” said Jean, “let’s get you out of bed.”

“O-Okay.” I replied.

As I slowly got myself up, the man pulled something out of his pocket. It looked like… a locket. He started squeezing it.

“You okay?” I said.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” he said.

“Wait.” said Jean, “Are you Kurt?”

“You know my name?” the man replied.

“Cerise mentioned you.” answered Jean.

“How is she?” asked Kurt, “No, I guess you wouldn’t know, since you’re all stuck here.”

“Unfortunately, after falling from an airship,” I said, “we haven’t seen her.”

“Sounds like you’ve all been through a lot.” said Kurt.

After getting out of bed, I was taken to a dining area. We all ate and talked about what we could. We told Kurt everything that we could remember. 

“By the way, Kia.” said Kurt, “Have we met somewhere before?”

“I… not that I know of.” answered Kia.

“Sorry,” replied Kurt, “you just looked familiar.”

“By the way,” I said, “there’s something I wanted to confirm with Christina.”

“Yes?” she replied.

“Since I saw you, I felt like I knew you from somewhere,” I said, “after some of the interactions I’ve had with others a couple days ago kind of gave me an idea.”

“What is it you want to say?” asked Christina.

“You’re me, aren’t you?” I responded.

“Wait, what?” responded Kia.

“Interesting.” commented Mikaela.

“I was wondering where this was going.” added Jean.

“I’m a little lost here.” said Kurt.

“There are multiple worlds,” I said, “and these worlds come in sets and you’re from one of those other worlds. You’re just another version of me.”

“Another version…?” asked Kia.

“I imagine the world you’re from is where I was born a girl… like my parents planned.” I said.

“What?” responded Kia.

“Wow.” commented Mikaela.

“Honestly, that makes sense.” added Jean.

“I knew you’d figure it out eventually.” said Christina, “Honestly, I don’t even know how I ended up in this situation.”

“If you’re another version of him,” said Jean, “I wonder if there are any other differences?”

“Well,” I said, “I imagine you don’t have any younger siblings. Is that right?”

“You’re right.” answered Christina.

“You’re lucky,” I said, “I’ve got two younger sisters, who are twins and they are a pain to deal with.”

“I see.” commented Christina.

“When you say you don’t know how you ended up here,” said Mikaela, “what do you mean?”

“Well,” said Christina, “I imagine my previous adventures were much like Ron’s - training in Dovacath, the magic gems in Mirai, finding the rest of the gems as all worlds were merging and taking them to an old door, battling Jeff in Dimension F, the chaos in Mihr’hai, and then going all over the place to fight Miles one last time and dealing with the betrayal of an old friend.”

“Yeah,” I said, “that lines up with what we’ve done so far.”

“And then after that,” continued Christina, “I went on more adventures for a few years and then suddenly, those weird murders were happening. Before I knew it, I ended up in Dovacath and found Jon and Lilith, but they didn’t know who I was. I was very surprised. It took me a bit to figure out that I somehow ended up in a world where another version of me was the hero.”

“I see.” I replied.

“Sounds complicated.” commented Kurt, scratching his head.

“By the way,” said Jean, “how’d you end up here, Kurt?”

“Well, it’s connected to those murders you’ve mentioned,” he answered, “they’re going on in every world and it seems like they’re all merging again.”

“And so you’ve taken over at this inn because there aren’t enough people?” I said.

“Well,” he said, “I’m just helping out, there are a few others who’d be happy to take over.”

“Okay,” said Jean, “we’ve done enough talking.”

“Yeah,” said Mikaela, “I’m getting bored.”

“Aren’t there more important things to worry about?” asked Kia.

“Ron,” said Jean, “I challenge you.”

“What…?” I responded.

Looking around the table, it was clear everyone else was confused.