Jake

Jake silently strolled through the hallways. Hands in his pockets and a casual presence about him. However, on the inside he was incredibly confused. Had his mother come home from Egypt? That dainty old green rock was the only memory of her he ever had. He turned a corner and started walking a little faster. He focused on the fragments he still had, but all he could hear was, come find me. He was eager, extremely eager.

His thoughts trailed to Aerith for a bit. Why wasn’t she going with him? Whoever called for him must’ve made a mistake, or maybe Aerith was the mistake. He drowned in his thoughts for a bit when Nadene tapped him on the shoulder. Her jet black hair swinging lightly as she reached up to it.

“Oh, heya Nadene. What’re you here for?” Jake asked

“I wanna see your mom...mind if I come with?” She deadpanned back

Jake only happily nodded and continued walking with the silent girl not far behind. They soon arrived at the office in just a few moments. Jake swung open the door in excitement, but no one was in the office waiting for him. The old lady at the desk dismissively looked up at him,

“Keifer...you’re leaving early today” She creaked, “I thought Mrs. McDoogal would’ve told you to bring your...belongings”

Aerith suddenly busted out of the door with Jake’s pen in hand,

“Hey Jake. I assumed you’d forget your pen, so I kinda rushed in your class and yoinked it. Don’t think it leads to any parallel worlds, not on it’s own at least”

Aerith handed Jake his pen, then left swiftly without another word.

Jake’s rock glowed a little. The office clerk adjusted her glasses a little and sighed,

“My mistake. Belonging…Well, you are dismissed. Your mother should be arriving shortly, she mentioned something about...hm...needing to kill the Volcano Dragon. Didn’t know we excused students for video games…”

Jake only shrugged. The office clerk motioned to Nadene,

“What about you..? Why are you here”

Nadene quickly tried to scramble an excuse as to why she’d get to leave too, but found none. She sighed as her scarf drooped down in defeat,

“No reason. I was just escorting him to the office. He gets lost easily…”

Just as she turned to leave, a woman slowly creaked open the door. She had a innocent stare on her face and stumbled into the room clumsily. Most of her body was overly shiny and fake looking, she had a set of glasses on with entirely opaque frames, and she had the strangest maid outfit on. Nadene kept the door open and stared silently. The woman rose her hand slightly and waved,

“Hey, Jake. Remember me? I’m...uh...your mother” She smiled softly

Nadene’s head spun around some more, this wasn’t the woman she’d seen before. This one was way shorter, her hair was a short purple and she carried herself differently. She was acting differently too, nothing like the god she had met before.

“W-wait...really? You’re a bit younger than I expected...h-how old are you?”

Jake’s mom stumbled on her words a bit before spitting out, “T-Two...T-Twenty Two! Twenty Two years old is what I meant! Nailed it”

Jake went to embrace his mother, nearly tripping into her chest. His mother attempted to back away, but all Jake felt was a hard metal. Jake titled his head and quickly backed away,

“You are really...really hard, like metal” He muttered, mesmerized. His mother only sheepishly laughed and giggled away. She remained distant throughout. His mom woozed back a tad bit towards the door,

“T-try not to touch me okay? I get a little glitc—twitchy every now and againnnn” she buzzed, “Wwwwoah, h-hhhaa ha, told ya’ so. Now come on Jack, let’s go home”

Jake’s Mom glitched a tad bit, but increasingly so as she made her way to the door. Just as she opened it, another walked in. Her crimson hair was styled in a posh and bouncy manor, with one sharp tooth poking out of her mouth at all times. She wore a brown sweater, but parts of it looked to be torn and singed.

“Hey, I need a kid here. Name’s Jake Keifer” She demanded. The purple haired girl shook nervously,

“Yyyou m-mmust’a have bbbeen missstaken. IIII’m his mother!”

The taller woman’s eyes narrowed, she rose a hand to her chocolate skin and frowned, “Uh no. He’s my kid...”

The smaller frowned and leaned closer. “Hey Saria, I thought I was gonna be the one to grab the ‘cash money’” She murmured, eyeing Jake the whole time

Saria held in a gasp and leaned forward some more, “Uh, no Navi. You were supposed to man the teleporter. This was a me thing. Wait, doesn’t that mean that no-one’s at the teleporter?”

“Heck. Uh, just use some magic or something. I think Cash Money’s confused” Navi signaled, “Anywho, let’s issue the emergency plan. Code: Bianca”

Saria and Navi both embraced Jake instantly, “BOTH OF US ARE YOUR MOM”

Nadene, still holding the door open, only starred on with a tilted head. Whatever was going on was beyond her, but it sounded like none of the people she had met today were Jake’s mom. At this point she only looked on to see how confusing it would get. The office clerk slowly maneuvered her hands up to her glasses and dragged them off with her wilted hands,

“Eh. Well we don’t have a mother registered with the boy. Taking him right now would qualify as kidnapping”

“What if I told you I didn’t care?” Saria cheered

“Well I couldn’t argue with you. These old bones can’t search through custody files anymore...” The office lady groaned

“Thankises” Navi finished. She picked up Jake by the hoodie, lifting him easily. “Wow. You are really light. How tall are you?”

“Six feet exactly” Jake murmured in pride, “Say…if both of you are my mother, then who’s my dad?”

“...Jake...I’m your real Dad” Navi smiled as she trailed Jake out the door. Nadene watched them go off for a few seconds until they were out of earshot. Afterwards she sighed and gave a look to the office clerk, she was asleep. Nadene only smiled and walked out the door, it wasn’t her first time leaving school and it hopefully wouldn’t be the last.

She rushed down the sidewalk towards the bus stop when she suddenly tripped. Immediately she drew back, it was Stephanie.

“Gah! Wait, what’re you doing here?” She scrambled

“I’m trying to get on a bus to find the god of space time” Nadene explained

Stephanie sighed and shook her head a bit, “Well, I’m just...walking around, y’know. I thought I’d go to that trade...market thingy you and Jake like so much”

“Oh, you mean Saul’s place” Nadene recalled, “Good place. I got my scarf there. Traded it for this weird pendant Layali gave me”

Stephanie stood up and dusted herself off. She leaned against a wall by her legs and dragged herself down on the dirty floor. She eyed the various small businesses in front of her, and a few of the rough looking citizens.

“I just wanted to take a walk” Stephanie sighed, “How’s Layali doing?”

Nadene stood for a while, but eventually leaned up against the wall herself and sat down. The cracks in the road were slightly uncomfortable, a few random bugs rushing amongst the weeds.

“She doesn’t hate you” She sighed, “She just wants you to be a little less...fakey”

“But doesn’t she realize how difficult that is!?” Stephanie shouted back, grimacing to herself, “Honestly it’s like she’s never even been in a relationship before! If she could get off her high horse for one second then maybe she’d be able to understand me”

Nadene only nodded, “She wants you to stop telling yourself no. That’s what frustrates her to no end…”

“Oh Yeah? Heh, I guess we’ll be bickering for a little while’ longer then” Stephanie slumped a bit further down, “Anyways...what’s up with Jake?”

“Well, he’s still Jake...just with two moms now” Nadene giggled

“Wait, what about his Dad?!” Stephanie quickly stumbled her words,

“Dunno, either they’re not his real parents, or Jake’s mom is in a relationship with a robot”

“What?!”

“Occam's Razor Yo” Nadene answered with a finger at her forehead. Stephanie only groaned and stood up. She casually gave a hand for Nadene to climb up,

“Sooo, I guess you’re heading to the bus stop?” Stephanie asked

“Yep. I really just have to check on something. After that...dunno”

“Neat. Let’s head out together then”

Nadene nodded and began to head towards her destination. The two of them were largely silent throughout their walk, and it didn’t take them all that long to reach the distinct dark green seats of their destination. Nadene plopped into the seat, taking no notice of the grime and dirt, or the faded advertisement. Stephanie was a little more cautious, slowly crossing her legs and leaving as much of the metal off of her as possible.

“The bus should be here in around a few minutes” Stephanie noted, “What is it you’re really looking for anyways?”

“I had a dream where I met Jake’s mother, and she cloned herself so that one was in the bus and one was walking around...I just want to make sure she’s still here” Nadene explained

“Fine...don’t tell me” Stephanie sighed and stood up, “Tell ya’ what. You go find whatever you’re looking for, and I’ll meet you at that pizza place. Bring Layali with you, I wanna do that thing with the spaghetti”

“Y’know Layali hates spaghetti right?” Nadene pointed out. Stephanie only shrugged and walked off. Heading down the street near the restaurants. Nadene watched her for a bit until she came out of view, the she made herself cozy on the cold metal and sighed.

After a short while she heard the bus slowly make its way down the road. It creaked to a stop as it came in front of her, exhaust shot out as it did, and the smell was immediately brought in the air. Nadene jolted awake and quickly eyed the windows, right where she had left it was another clone of Spiritfawn. Nadene only smirked to herself, as the bus door opened she began to make her way down the street, but something was wrong.

She felt extremely tight. Every muscle was frozen. Immediately she recalled being in this position earlier, but it felt different. It was less frozen and more paralyzed, like her brain stopped sending signals. Pretty soon she felt her legs moving into the bus, despite her not even considering it. Every motion was involuntary. Her legs lost all feeling, and next to go was her vision. By the time she was in the bus every sensation was lost. Her heart pumped faster and faster, but even that eventually normalized through whatever was happening. The only thing she was allowed was her breathing. She grew into a heavy pant, feeling her body brush past Spiritfawn. She went to the end of the bus and carefully sat down. Everything around her started to fade into a dark, endless void. Eventually she relaxed and let herself be taken by whatever magic she had gotten herself into.

Suddenly her vision returned, she was sitting in the exact same position she was when she first woke up. The only differences were Spiritfawn was there, still as a doll. And everything around them was a dark, inky black. She couldn’t move her body, through fear or magic she could not tell. Though, out of her sight Zackory, Jake and Layali were all on the bus too, each in the same position they always took. Nadene only took a small look around, and then found herself with her eyes closed yet again.