Copyright 2015 Aishling Wray

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

1

“Don't do it...”

Tick, tick, tick...

Time was going fast. Sydney stood at the tracks. The wind was pushing furiously around the sixteen year old girl as she stood alone in the windy country side. It had just become night, and she had tears welling in her eyes. She could hear the train coming. Her home was just a little distance away, but she had chosen tonight to take her life.

All because of one girl.

Kylie.

She swallowed as she shut her eyes and stepped out onto the tracks, the sound of chugging in the distance as a giant train came slamming down the rails to where she hoped to get hit.

Get killed.

She stood there, hearing the nose of the chugs and screeching coming closer and closer, and just as it was about to hit her she was shoved off the

metal tracks to the grass. The train zoomed by, and she lay there paralysed in shock for a second before an angry voice shouted at her.

“DON'T YOU EVEN DARE!”

Sydney choked in tears as she turned around and saw a girl there that looked just like her, the girl panting and raging there above Sydney, and her twin self said angrily.

“You are not doing this.”

“W-what...” Sydney said in horror as she looked at this blue haired identical twin, and she continued, taking a breath, “Y-you're me!”

“Yeah, I am...” the girl just said back and lifted her hand before Sydney as she offered her help up. Sydney looked at the pale hand frightened but reached timidly for it, “And you need to hide me.”

The young sixteen year old girl stood unsteadily on her legs as she looked at her clone and uttered, “What...?”

“You are actually handling this quite

well.” the blue haired girl said back with a grin, and Sydney just swallowed as she nodded.

“Well... I might be dead... so...”

The blue haired girl just laughed and replied, “No, you are still very much alive.”

“I was going to dye my hair blue in a week...” Sydney muttered wiping her teary eyes, and her twin just smiled.

“I started doing it months ago.”

“It looks good on you...” Sydney said with warm but sad eyes, and the two stood in the dark for a few minutes before the blue haired girl said.

“Call me Sid.”

“Boy, that'll get confusing...” Sydney just chuckled weakly, and Sid just smirked before saying.

“Sydney, I need a place to hide... and you're the only one that can hide me.”

“I'm still thinking this is a dream...” Sydney said with a weak laugh, and

Sid glared at her angrily.

“Well it isn't.”

“Then who are you?”

“I'm you, just... from another universe.”“Right, sure.”

“Come on.” Sid said angrily and grabbed Sydney's arm pulling her back in the direction of the young teen's home, but Sydney held back reluctantly as she said.

“No! I want to die! I don't want to go back! I don't want to pretend anymore that I have a future when I don't!”

“Sydney.” Sid said angrily and burned her eyes in the direction of her alternate self, “You are coming, and I'm hiding in your tool shed!”

“N-no!” Sydney just cried and tried to run away, but the blue haired girl just brought out a small zapper and pressed it in her side. Sydney got stunned, and after a split second darkness entered.

When she woke again she was just outside her home's door. The sun was only then rising over the vivid green country side, the cement beneath her warm from the summer heat even in the dawn.

She rubbed her eyes tiredly and began to get up on her feet. She heard the door open behind her and out came her mother Laura.

“Sydney...” the woman said quietly and hugged her, Sydney weakly reaching her hands around Laura as she hugged her nervously back.

“I couldn't see you in your bed. what are you doing out here?”

“Just...” Sydney said quietly and could hear the sound of a train in the distance chugging down the tracks a mile away, “Just wanted to look at the stars.”

“Come inside.”

“In a second...” Sydney said with barely a voice, and Laura looked at her worriedly but weakly nodded her head.

The woman came back inside to the home.

Sydney stood outside in the dim morning light and remembered the person she had seen when she had tried to take her life.

Herself.

She swallowed as she remembered those words- in your tool shed-

Should she check...? see if her imagined event was actually a reality?

She took a few weak steps to behind the home and went to the shed at the back of the field. She creaked the metal door open barely and peered inside but froze when she saw that blue haired girl. Computer dials, holographs and machines were all set up in the tiny space.

She closed the door quickly when the girl's eyes glanced over at her, and Sydney stood in a panic on the other side as she uttered.

“It's just my imagination... just my imagination...”

She stumbled forward suddenly when she felt the door open and her doppelgänger said to her in a hiss.

“Get in here, quick!”

Sid grabbed Sydney's arm and pulled her into the small shed, Sydney struggling all along, before Sid locked the door at the latch and looked at the weaker version of herself.

“What do you want!?” Sydney cried as she pressed against the wall before falling in a cradle at her knees, Sid just grunting at this but Sydney had to know, “How are you real?! How do you exist here- Another me!”

“I'm you from another universe, Sydney.” the girl responded bluntly, and Sydney shook her head, not believing. “I came to your world to escape persecution from mine.”

“Why mine? Why here? Why now!”

“Because you are the only version of me that I know won't turn me in. And the only version that knows about alternate universes.”

Sydney just shook her head in denial but felt Sid crouch down beside her and continue.

“And because I know you have nothing left to lose.”

Sydney looked at her alternate self and saw Sid give a serious gaze at her. Sydney just swallowed and nodded her head weakly in response.

“I k-know...” she muttered and wiped her eyes from the tears that had started to form. Sid just stared at her for a few more seconds before patting Sydney on the back and helped the pale brunette up onto her shaky legs. Sydney just gulped in nervousness as she watched Sid go back to her technology, and she asked the blue haired girl after a few minutes.

“Why are you on the run?”

“I'm on the run because I know how to influence other realities... all fifty million of them.”

“Fifty m-million?” Sydney said in disbelief. Sid just looked back at her

from her screen, replying with one word.

“Yes.”

“I don't get it.”

“I can step foot into any universe because I can see through the illusion.” Sid just said back quietly, barely interested in elaborating. “Some people want me because they want to use my ability to take control of worlds upon worlds.”

Sydney swallowed as she heard this, only standing still in fear, and the blue haired girl looked back at her as she said.

“And unlike you, Sydney... I don't want to die.”

“I don't understand.”Sid growled as her hand ran down her face stretching the skin and replied, “I just told you. That's everything. They want me dead so they can use my brain to discover how to take one step here and end up instantly there.”

“But why?”

“For power. All they want is control.”

“This can't be real...” Sydney just cried falling back down to her knees, and in tears, she curled herself into a closed off ball. “This can't be happening to me.”“Well it is.”

“Just leave me... go away.”

“I can't.”“WHY!”

“I told you why! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!”

“Why didn't you just take my place, then?” Sydney cried back and Sid just sighed in response, “Why didn't you just come here, let me die and pretend to be me!”

“Because.”“Why!”

“Because you are the only version of me left that's good!”

Sydney gasped in hearing this and Sid just closed her eyes in pain as she muttered, “Yep...”

Sydney wrapped her arms tighter around her legs as she held herself and wept. Sid just worked at her dials for a few more minutes before she uttered to her brown haired alternate self.

“You better get going. Your mum will be looking for you.”

“I don't want to.”

“Go, SYDNEY.” she just yelled at her and Sydney shook back at those words before getting on trembling legs back to her feet and leaving the tool shed.

Sid breathed out slowly as she tried to calm herself and looked back at her dials and holograms to see if the police had come or not. She took a breath out in relief when she saw no indication of anyone else entering this universe. She stood up from her stool and looked out through the small stained window to the green lush countryside that had come more into view as the dawn reached six thirty a.m, and sunlight had lit the land in sparse spots with shadows still predominant.

“Sydney... why you gotta be so stupid.” she uttered to herself about the other her, and took another deep breath out as she got an old damp blanket from a shelf, covering it around her. She leant on the back metal wall, trying to fall asleep.

Sleep a luxury now that her very existence... was in danger.

Sydney didn't want to re-enter her home. She wanted to just go back to that train track and end it all. But there was no point in doing it now. She could wait till Sunday night... today only donning the start of Saturday, and she headed back into her house, going to her room and laying on her bed.

She wrapped her heavy blankets around her as she lay there in the warmth, just curling tightly into the quilts.

There was no point in fighting it... no point in trying to fight for her life now that she didn't have Kylie, and she

would do as what was planned.

She didn't want to pretend anymore that things would be okay.

She knew now that they would never.

Away in the tool shed Sid could feel the thoughts and feelings that went through her other self and bit her lip worried.

She needed Sydney to stay alive... stay alive just long enough till she could figure something out. But her other self seemed to have already given up, and Sid hated this so much.

She leant on the wall at the back of the shed, just trying to sleep but all the feelings of Sydney could be felt right in her core and Sid hated this.

For the other her that wanted death so much all Sid wanted was to live. Live till a hundred or more and live without having fear of her life being taken all because she had questioned things and broke apart from the illusion.

Now all she had was time till she had

to leave this world as well... once they came they would not stop till she was theirs.

And she would never be theirs.

She would never.

Both girls fell asleep as the sun shone its rays all across the land. The dials on the holograms and computers spun round and round. A small bleep was detected in the radar studying quantum particles. Sid just stirred in her sleep as she uttered to herself in a needful voice.

“Just one more day...”

The dials always spinning as she begged with eyes closed tightly.

“Just give me one more day...”

2

Colours of blue, grey and navy fluttered in her mind as Sydney slept in silence on her bed. The warmth had sunk deep into her pale skin, and while the sun shone outside, a cloud came and stole its light.

Sydney stirred in the shadows that had suddenly came over her and shivered there as in her subconscious she knew the light was diminishing fast... not just the sun's, but her soul's.

Away in the shed Sid had only just awakened in the darkness of the metal building. She blinked her eyes weakly as she licked her dry lips and stretched her arms, tiredly.

She looked with sleepy eyes over to her hologram screen and stiffened when she saw that bleep that was on it.

She pushed the blankets off her as she got up and sat on the stool, clicking a few things with her computer

mouse on the screen and just read the data in silence.

“This is not good...” she muttered to herself with no emotion, looking at her watch to see the time say twelve. She swallowed nervously as she hesitantly got out her phone and dialled a number within seconds.

Sydney was still in deep sleep- her only release as she curled into the blankets and only clenched her eyes when she heard her phone buzz on the night stand.

“Mmph...” she muffled out, opening her eyes slowly. She turned around on her mattress and looked quietly to her mobile that was vibrating on the table beside her. She took one deep breath out and picked it up, looking at the number that was foreign.

She answered it in a few seconds and muffled out, “Hello...?”

“Sydney, it's me. Sid.”

“Go away...” Sydney just uttered in slight pain. Sid just chuckled barely at

this pitiful response, answering back.

“No... that is not going to happen.”

“What do you want?”

“I need food.” the blue haired girl replied back, and looked out the stained window of the shed to the house, seeing Laura and Paul eating breakfast at the table in the dining room. “Your parents will be leaving in half an hour to the city. When they do, I'm coming in.”

“How do you know that?”

“I know everything you do.”“But how-?”

Before Sydney could ask again the line went dead, and she sighed as she sat up on her bed and looked at the time on her phone, seeing it say 12:15.

She could hear the chugging of a train and barely pulled back her curtains as she looked out her window, the vehicle climbing up the slope in the distance.

“Just a little longer.” she whispered

biting her lip as she watched the train's smoke leave its chimney, and she closed her eyes weakly in pain as she sat there, ache in her core, on the warm bed.

She got up after a few more minutes and went to the living room to see her parents preparing themselves for a drive to the city.

“Will you be okay, Sydney, while we're gone?” Laura asked in concern as she slung her handbag over her shoulder, and Sydney nodded with barely any energy.

“Yeah... I'll be fine, mum.”

“We'll see you later, dear.” Paul said as he hugged his daughter and he and his wife left the house in a few minutes more. Sydney only stood in the living room, still feeling the warmth from her father's embrace and eventually just sat down at the dinner table, looking at nothing.

She heard a knock on the door a few minutes later and shut her eyes again

in pain as she breathed slowly through her nose before answering the door and saw her twin self come in in a haste. Sid raided her kitchen cupboards and refrigerator for something to eat.

“Didn't you bring any food with you?” Sydney asked the blue haired girl as Sid got out chicken pieces and white bread, and Sid just laughed shaking her head.

“No. I didn't have time and I can't travel anywhere in the multiverse now to get anything anyway.”

“Why?”

“The police put a tracker on the leaps to different verses... so... I'm stuck.”

Sydney just nodded her head with barely any movement and watched as Sid made herself a chicken, mayonnaise sandwich.

“So what are you gonna do here?”

“Hopefully survive.” Sid said back with a serious voice and looked at the pair of scissors next to Sydney, saying

to her, “Hand me those.”

“What...?” Sydney asked back confused and picked up the scissors, holding them forward. “These?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“So I can cut my hair.”

“Why would you do that?”

“I need to throw them off my trail. I need to change my look.”

Sydney looked at Sid's long blue hair and swallowed nervously as she just looked down to the ground before nodding back in response and handing the girl the scissors.

Once Sid had finished eating her sandwich she stood inside Sydney's small room and cut her hair short in front of the mirror. It wasn't much later when her blue locks fell to the ground and she looked at the boyish haircut she had given herself.

Sydney watched from the open door as her alternate self donned a new

look completely. Sydney's blue eyes gazed down to the ground as she chewed her lip quietly waiting for her other self to say something.

“So. Why were you gonna do it?”

She glanced up at Sid as the short blue haired girl looked at herself in the mirror at different angles, and Sydney said back slowly.

“What?”

“Kill yourself... over some stupid girl.”

“I loved her... and she... rejected me and I just can't ever be happy without her loving me back.”

“Chhhh...” Sid smirked at this as she looked with mocking eyes at the brunette. She said back almost pitying. “That is such a pathetic reason.”

“If you really know me, then you would understand that it isn't.”

“No. I wouldn't. Because yeah, I know you. But I know all the other Sydneys too, and you're the only good one left that hasn't killed herself yet”

“What?”

“All the other 'good' yous have all killed themselves from between the ages of twelve to sixteen. The ones that haven't have all been cold and emotionless and well... bad.”

“And what are you?”

Sid smirked as she looked at her brunette alternate self and replied. “It makes me the only other one to say no to the knife and look for answers other than expecting some girl or guy to be it.”

“You just don't understand.” Sydney just said with tears in her eyes, and Sid just shook her head in response, answering.

“No, I'm just the only one that understands all too well.”

“Shut up...” Sydney only cried, streams of tears running down her cheeks and she left her room to leave the house, but Sid grabbed her arm and held it behind Sydney's back. The brunette yelped in pain as Sid had her

in a police hold, and Sydney begged.

“Just let me die... please just let me end this.”

“This pain will cease, Sydney... just give it time.”“It will never go away.” Sydney just cried back. Sid only rolled her eyes aggravated as she pushed Sydney onto a chair in the dining room and left the girl as she went to lock the front door so neither could leave and head to those tracks.

“Don't you want death too?!” Sydney cried as Sid came back in, the keys being placed on the table. Sid only sighed as she looked at the brunette girl and muttered.

“NO. I want to live, Sydney!” she glared at the girl, and Sydney moved back on her seat afraid at the yell. “I want to see the stars come out every night! I want to see my loved ones still alive! I want to be back in my own reality but must importantly I want what you have!”

Sydney looked at her, the brunette just trembling on the seat as Sid yelled.

“I want a life! Because for the last four months I have been running for mine.”

“And what makes you say they won't kill me? Huh?” Sydney just shouted back, and Sid growled aggravated as she replied.

“Because they just won't. They have fifty million Sydney's to get through. It'll take them at least a hundred years to find us and as long as I don't jump anymore, we should be fine.”

“Is that the truth or are you just lying to me?”

“It's the best possibility I can come up with.” Sid said honestly. Sydney just lowered her eyebrows glaring at her, in hate.

“I want to die.”

“Don't you see how selfish you are being with that!?” Sid shouted at her in anger, Sydney having tears well back

in her eyes as she said.

“I just want to die...”

“Sydney, I will tell you one thing.” Sid said exasperated as she pressed her hands on Sydney's chair's arm rest and closed her eyes, hating she was going to say this. “In all the other timelines with you and Kylie, you two never got together... ever.”

Sydney only had tears balling in the corners of her eyes as she heard this and said back in pain. “I know... but if I can't have her... what's the point? Tell me please.”

“The point is to see you don't need someone to be happy. You've got to make yourself happy first.”

“Shut up...” Sydney just uttered and pushed Sid away. She walked to her room and got back into bed, her eyes shutting as tears streamed down her cheeks and dampened the sheets.

Sid sighed in annoyance in the living room as she knew she had kept Sydney safe this time but halted as

she felt a tear in the universe. She ran quickly to the bedroom, seeing Sydney with the scissors in her hands and about to stab herself in the neck.

“Sydney, don't!” she shouted and jumped on the bed pulling them out of her hands, and Sydney just cried as she begged.

“Why won't you let me go! Why!”

“Stop it!” Sid yelled at her and slapped her in the face. Sydney only stumbled back on the bed as she looked at Sid, shocked.

Sid gave an angry grunt as she placed the scissors on the night stand and glared at her alternate self as Sydney looked back in fear at her.

“Kylie is not worth this! I know you love her but please, get a grip!”

Sydney only hid under the blankets as she cried and Sid just exhaled out a heavy breath, but tried to hold back her aggravation when she heard the phone beep and picked it up seeing a text from...

Her.

She bit her lip as she saw Kylie's name and looked at the message, reading it in her head in silence, as it said.

Sydney, I'm so sorry... I just... I think you just shocked me with what you said... but... but I love you too. I'm coming over in an hour.

Sid couldn't believe this response... the first time in any of the universes. Sydney only cried under the heavy blankets.

“Who was it...?”

Sid looked at her and just came clean within minutes, saying, “Kylie.”

Sydney threw the blankets off her as she looked in agony at Sid and had to ask. “What did she say?”

“She said...” Sid said quietly, still not believing this, “That she loves you.”

Sydney seemed to become completely frozen when she heard this and looked at Sid, tears in her eyes as she said with so much joy.

“She d-did?”

“Yeah...”

“She loves... me?” Sydney stuttered, tears running down her cheeks uncontrollably and Sid only closed her eyes nodding her head again. Sydney lunged forward and hugged her as she cried in so many happy tears, and all Sid could think of was how one misstep could ruin this all.

“She'll be here in an hour.”

Sydney opened her clenched eyes in shock as she let go of Sid and said back in horror.

“An h-hour?!”

Sid nodded her head and Sydney tumbled out of her bed as she ran to the bathroom to wash her crying puffy eyes. All Sid could think was.

Please let this end well.

3

Sid sat on the bed for a few seconds thinking this over and took a sigh out as she came out to Sydney who was wiping her face in the bathroom.

“She can't come.”

“W-what?” Sydney said as she turned her sore eyes away from the mirror to her alternate self and saw Sid's disdain. “Why can't she?”

“With me here? Why do you think...” Sid just uttered. Sydney just laughed awkwardly as she wiped her face with a towel and continued.

“I can just tell her your my cousin.”

“I can't believe you...” Sid just muttered under her breath astonished. Sydney refreshed her face looking back confused at the blue haired girl. Sid just growled, “You were so willing to just off yourself before, but one simple text message makes you want to stay. You should want to live for you. Not for some girl.”

“Shut up, Sid.” Sydney only

mumbled, her eyes still hurting from the earlier tears, and she shoved past her, going to her room to get changed into more appealing clothes.

Sid sighed in frustration but also hurt... hurt at the fact that Kylie had sent that text. Why had she sent it? In all the other universes Kylie never returned love, so why this one? Why this Sydney...?

It almost made her stomach sink with anger and resentment, but she would not let it show. She had to ignore these feelings and just focus on protecting herself.

In Sydney's room, the brunette had just got changed into a skirt and singlet and had picked up her phone again to look at the message, a goofy smile on her face.

Her eyes shined with tears of joy and she bit her lip with a nervous gleam as she put her phone in her pocket and came out of her room, only to see Sid in the hall, leaning against the wall. Sydney's smile lowered and she just

stomped past her not wanting to hear anymore of her other self's “highest” opinions. Sid just sighed out a groan and followed the brunette into the living room, Sydney sitting down and going on her phone as she skimmed through Facebook.

Sid couldn't believe this. A little more concern could be shown for her own state of worries but Sydney was so self involved, Sid had just had enough of this.

“Maybe I should've let you kill yourself.”

Sydney paused her movements and looked up slowly to Sid who just glared at her in anger. Sydney only looked with still eyes at her and uttered back weakly. “You don't mean that.”

“Yeah... maybe I do.”

“Maybe you're just bad like the other me's.” Sydney said back in quiet upset words from this, Sid only rolled her eyes. The blue haired girl felt a buzz in her pocket and placed her hand in it,

leaving the room as she pulled out her own silver phone and pressed a button. A hologram popped out of the device as it showed a different version of herself's profile. Her phone's robotic voice told her.

“Sydney Phillips 1.007 has been destroyed.”

“Shit...” Sid whispered to herself as she looked at the girl's profile, seeing static ripples shimmer through the hologram. She swallowed nervously as she pressed off the holographic display and looked down to her watch to see the time say one o clock. Kylie would be here in thirty minutes.

Sid dug her hands back into her pocket, pulling out little surveillance tabs and placed them around the house and outside on the Phillips' property. Once she had done this she came back in and pressed another button on her utility watch, syncing up all the tabs as they spread little detecting invisible lasers out and around the area.

She took a heavy breath out and went back to the living room, going over to Sydney's laptop and turning it on as she sat on an armchair and just typed up stuff, recording her findings and clarifications.

“What type of reality are you from...?”

Sid paused for a second as she heard Sydney ask this cautiously. the blue haired girl glanced her eyes up at her with a stilted mouth.

“A similar one to this.”

“Then how come you have all this futuristic technology?” Sydney asked warily, and Sid just smirked. She closed the lid of the laptop and looked at her counter part, replying simply.

“I know everything every other Sydney knows. Some of us live in worlds that are much more advanced than mine and yours are. I hopped into one a couple of months ago and got the equipment I needed to survive. To be honest... you and I are living like

animals, compared to most other universes.”

“And how do you hop from one world to another?” Sydney asked mystified and Sid just grumbled a little annoyed. She didn't want to give a low down on everything, especially not to a Sydney she particularly envied, but just sighed and said quietly.

“I see through the illusion. I use my mind to see a different world that is around me and just step into it. There's quantum particles everywhere that allow every possibility. And when I want to see a new universe all I have to do is get into the same thought pattern as the particles to see it.”

“I read a book about this when I was twelve.” Sydney said with a small smile on her face and Sid just looked at her silently with no expression. “I find it kind of out there... though now-”

“That same book I picked up for a second time a year ago.” Sid interrupted and Sydney halted her talking as she listened to the other her

speak, “I was pretty down... I wanted an escape and to see if there was any universe where I got her-”

Sydney's ears perked up when she heard Sid nearly say something of importance, but the blue haired girl stopped herself. She cleared her throat and continued nervously, “Where I wasn't in pain... And at that moment my mind expanded and I knew everything... all different versions of me, all trials and errors, and I just moved slightly on my bed and saw a version of myself hanging in the closet.”

Sydney swallowed as she listened to this in fear and Sid only closed her eyes, muttering.

“I had gone into a universe where a version of me had killed herself... a tear where I had gone two directions. Suicide or enlightenment. And when I returned back to my own universe I found a letter on my bed. I opened it and it said 'give us you or we will take them'.”

Sid took a deep gulp as she remembered the moment when she had made a foolish decision, and she just had to laugh at her mistake, tears nearly fallen from her still eyes.

“I thought the letter was a joke... something random and started to use my new power to jump between worlds, knowing everything but needing to see it first hand. And when I did come back to my own world a few weeks later... everyone I cared for, was dead. Yet I was still alive.”

Sid just clenched her fists as she thought of this, angry tears in her eyes, and Sydney watched her worriedly. Sid just had tears stream down her sharp cheeks, and she said in hate of it all.

“I was alive yet people who had done nothing were all dead. And so I ran. And kept running ever since.”

There was no sound after this as Sid sat on the arm chair and closed her eyelids, water leaking out her eyes as she couldn't control the stream of tears

that were flowing from them, and Sydney just looked in panic at her. The pale brunette girl asked in fear.

“But it wasn't your fault...”

“I learnt that they could only track me when I hopped.” she opened her blue eyes and looked at Sydney, her own eyes looking at Sid, afraid. “So I have to stay here... until I die. One more hop and I'm caught.”

“Okay...” Sydney said worriedly. The door bell could be heard dinging a split second later. Sid stiffened as she knew who it was and quickly lifted up the lid of the laptop, continuing in utter uselessness to write her findings.

Sydney got up in a hurry and ran to the door. She peered through the eye piece and saw Kylie on the other side, Sydney beaming widely at this sight and unlocked her door. Kylie fell into her arms the minute the door was opened. The dark girl hugged her, and Sydney paused for a second before returning the embrace.

“I can't believe it took me so long to see.” Kylie said to her friend before letting go slightly and looking into Sydney's blue eyes, “That my life would be nothing without you in it.”

“My life wouldn't be anything without you, either.” Sydney just said in tears, and Kylie stroked the pale girl's face. Sydney felt her stomach become so alive with butterflies and singing unicorns and saw Kylie pull her into a small kiss that lasted a few seconds before the dark girl moved away.

“I'm sorry, Sydney... you just. It was such a shock but I knew after a few days I loved you, too. I'm sorry it just took so long.”“It doesn't matter anymore.” Sydney said to her and pulled her into another hug, and Kylie just gave a small laugh at this. All Sydney could think to herself as she wrapped her arms around Kylie was, she loves me... she actually l-loves me.

Once they let go of each other Sydney pulled Kylie towards her room

so they could be alone in privacy, but Kylie heard a creak in the living room and let go of Sydney's hand, curious.

“Ky?”

Sydney's voice was barely noticed by Kylie as the dark girl peered into the living room. She saw a blue haired girl sitting with a laptop on a chair.

“Who's this?” Kylie asked with an intrigued laugh, and Sydney came into the room nervously after her. Sid didn't want to gaze up at Kylie... didn't want to have her heart hurt at just seeing her. She stared deeper into the screen, mumbling in a low voice.

“Sydney's cousin.”

“No way!” Kylie laughed as she sat down on the lounge a little away, interested in this development and looked at Sydney then back at Sid. “She looks just like you, Sydney!”

“Only a l-little bit.” Sydney said back nervously to Kylie and sat down beside her best friend, trying to get her to leave but knew it would be quite the

task with Kylie.

Sid looked up at Kylie for a brief second, seeing the brown eyes look at her curiously and cleared her throat, getting up and leaving the room with the laptop.

Kylie smirked out a short laugh as she said with a grin to Sydney. “She's not very sociable.”

“She's just very shy.” Sydney said in a nervous voice, and Kylie only chuckled.

“I swear she looks like your twin!”

“Well she isn't, so let's not worry about her anymore...” Sydney said with shy eyes on the whole cover up she was trying to orchestrate, and Kylie just smiled back at her. She touched Sydney's hand with her own warm one, and Sydney felt the butterflies in her stomach just explode.

“So how did you find out you... loved me?” Sydney asked back in slight worry of what the answer would be, but dying to know, and Kylie just

grinned.

“The last week... it just... it didn't mean anything. I need you to give my life meaning.” Kylie said with sincere eyes and then did a cross at her heart, adding. “I swear.” sticking out her tongue as she joked and Sydney felt her eyes grow wet with tears of joy. She kissed Kylie then and there and the dark girl just giggled deliriously happy in the smooch as she pressed her own lips back into Sydney's, and the two embraced for a few minutes.

Sid sat in her alternate parent's room in silence as she felt the joy in Sydney's heart, how she had never felt this happiness in any other alternate hers.

And all it made her was sad.

4

Sid stiffened for a moment as she listened to the sound of Kylie and Sydney talking, and frowned. She didn't want to go back out there. She wanted to hide and not face the fact that having that dark girl here was affecting her.

Because this Kylie had chosen this Sydney Phillips... and her Kylie had never chosen her.

She sucked in one deep breath before letting it out in an exhale and just rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. Frustration in the simple jealousy she couldn't seem to fight off.

But it was a stupid human emotion. If she was going to stay here she had to banish it. There was just no point in the end.

She froze when she heard the two laughing girls come out of the living room and bit her lip in fear as those happy voices penetrated her and she wanted to be away from it- almost

wanting... to be soulless.

“I'm just gonna go to the toilet, kay?” Sydney said to Kylie in the hall, the two holding hands, and Kylie just winked at her, saying back calmly.

“Cool.”

The two let go of each other and Kylie stood in the hall rolling back on the soles of her feet before she heard a creak in the room next to her and grinned. She pushed open the door and saw Sid sitting on the bed, frustrated. The blue haired girl looked with hateful eyes at her, and Kylie just smiled nervously as she uttered.

“Sorry, I thought I heard something.”

“You did.” Sid said back coldly and folded her arms in a stiff stance, muttering, “Me.”

“Relax, babe.” Kylie said with a wink and a click of her thumb, and all Sid could do was break a hopeless grin at that. Why was this girl able to have this affect on her... a girl she still hated that she loved no matter what version

it was.

“Yeah...” she said back weakly with a small smile and looked Kylie in the eyes, seeing the life and spark in them. She swallowed nervously as she muttered, “Just... a bit tired.”

“Y'know you look and sound just like Sydney.” Kylie said with amusement and amaze and came and sat down on the bed next to her with a smile. Sid seemed to stiffen at the proximity and nodded back unsure if she should say anything or not- knowing deep down in her gut that she shouldn't.

“Well, cousins you know.” she said with a quick smile that fell as fast as it came, and Kylie just chuckled at this nudging her on the shoulder. Sid felt her heart hurt at that.

“More like one of you is an adopted out twin.” Kylie said with a big gleam, and Sid just laughed a little at this before the dark girl asked back quite daringly. “What's your name, Blue Eyes?”

“Blue Eyes?” Sid said with a smirk and Kylie nonchalantly rolled her eyes.

“Blue Hair doesn't said as nice.” she admitted with a grin. Sid just had to laugh again at this.

“Err... Natalie.”

“Doesn't suit you.” Kylie said back, leaning back a bit on the bed as she held herself up by her elbows, and Sid just gave a small, pretend gasp back in return.

“Well what would you call me?”

“I don't know... 'Sydney Junior'?”

Sid seemed to freeze a little when she heard Kylie say this and swallowed looking down to her own hands, uttering, “That's not funny.”

“'Kay, Junior.” Kylie said with a cheeky smile and wink, and Sid just couldn't do anything but laugh back at this- how was this girl still having this STUPID affect on her?

“Kylie?” Sydney said in the hallway, hearing Kylie shout from behind the room door.

“In here, babe.”

Sydney seemed to hesitate at the door knob... what was Kylie doing talking to her? She almost grew jealous- she did grow jealous and opened her parent's room, looking at the two on the bed, and her heart drummed quickly in beats as she saw Kylie quite relaxed beside her counter part.

“Oh- you two were talking.”

“Yep.” Kylie said with a nod and a grin. “Y'know, your cousin's quite interesting. Natalie, right?”

Sydney seemed to be frozen in worry and stress as she looked at the blue haired girl beside Kylie, saying back quietly at this new piece of hidden identity she had to keep. “Yep- her name is Natalie.”

“I know, sure.” Kylie said with a laugh, and gave the wooden Sid a nudge on the shoulder, grinning. Sid didn't move in response and just got off of the bed walking past Sydney and

muttering to her.

“She followed me in.”

“Right...” Sydney replied back, also in a hush voice, and Kylie sprang back up on her legs as she said to the two pale girls.

“Right, ladies. What shall we do?”

The two Sydneys seemed to freeze at this- Sid not believing that Kylie was acknowledging her presence, Sydney just furious that Kylie did.

“I should probably-” Sid began, about to make an excuse to leave the two but looking at Kylie, her heart yearned for her. She couldn't help it, and she saw Sydney looking at her, still waiting for her to leave the two of them alone, but Sid decided to make a different choice. A choice for herself. “I don't know. What do you want to do, Kylie?”

“Video games?” Kylie asked the two, holding out her hands weighing the choice and Sydney just giggled at this, Sid looking with an inquisitive smile at

Kylie, before saying quite calmly.

“Sure.”

“Sid-” Sydney said, glaring back at her other self at her response and said correcting herself quickly, “I mean Natalie. Don't you have some work to do?”

Sid looked at Sydney and saw the brunette girl's despondency, glancing back at Kylie and bit her lip, hating how she had to make the only decision that was given to her at that moment.

“Sure, Sydney...” she muttered in distant hate and just sighed. She came over to the bed and picked up her laptop. She bumped off of Kylie as she past and Kylie seemed to freeze when she felt Sid's skin contact her- almost sensing something she could not describe- like she knew this girl intimately.

Kylie watched as Sid walked out of the room, feeling bad at Sid's dismissal from her invitation. She just said to Sydney.

“Why did you tell her to go?”

“Do you love me or her, Kylie!” Sydney nearly shouted, and Kylie stood there, seeing Sid close the door behind them but knew that blue haired girl had heard.

Sid listened on the other side against the wood with closed eyes as she listened to Kylie say back in an unsure voice.

“You, of course.”

Sydney looked at Kylie panting quickly in upset breaths, trying to calm herself down and just said after a few moments.

“Then why does it matter, Ky? She's just my cousin. She doesn't matter.”

Kylie looked to the closed door and just looked down to the ground quietly, nodding her head. But a part of her felt that that girl was more than just a cousin- to both her and Sydney.

“Kay.” Kylie said back in slight melancholy, and Sydney just gave a nervous smile. She opened the door to

lead the two out and noticed the hall empty. Sid was no longer there.

No. Sid was outside sitting underneath the veranda as she tallied up her results from the surveillance of the area, but all her soul wanted to do was leave this world, leave this breaking heart in her chest. For she knew. She knew that that Kylie loved her.

Maybe Kylie didn't know it but Sid had felt it. Sid had felt the connection, the knowing that Kylie had deep down that one of the other hers had hurt her badly. And all Sid was in was pain. Pain at the fact that she would never be able to explain this. It just wasn't-

“Fair.” she stuttered to herself, as tears started to roll down her cheeks, and she pathetically wiped her eyes but couldn't stop the weeps. “It's just not f-fair.”

She hated Sydney. Hated herself that she had kept her alive for this moment to come.

When she had leaped and had landed in this universe she was only a few feet away from Sydney on that train track. She could feel all that girl's pain and misery, that she had nothing left to live for, and all Sid had remembered was when she had been there and she had made that choice to continue. And that she would force that choice on Sydney.

But why had she?

If she hadn't pushed Sydney out of the way of that train then she could've taken her place and it would be her, Kylie would be saying she loved. It would be her, Kylie would be holding instead of the stupid, self centred Sydney that now had her!

Sid cried for minutes on end, so much hate in her, so much despise and took shallow breaths after a few seconds when she heard a beeping on her utility watch. She pressed it, and a hologram popped up saying in its robotic voice.

“Four Sydney Phillips have been

killed in the last five minutes.”

Sid looked at this with quaky eyes and just swallowed as she nodded and pressed the button to close it off again. The hologram disappeared from the air, and she took another gulp in her sore throat as she headed to the shed and looked over her dials and gadgets.

She knew she'd have to bring it out. This was getting too serious. She pulled out a suitcase from underneath a shelf where she had hidden it. She unlatched it. As she opened the case, her blue eyes gazed at the weapon in hand.

A powerful, thousand voltage gun which could kill fifty people in one shot. Something she had stolen in case she had to do it.

Kill... for her life.

She closed her eyes as her finger rested on the trigger but still knew she had time, it wasn't the end yet. It, in the end was just a precaution, to prepare herself for if the end did come

soon.

Five Sydneys killed in fifteen minutes. In an hour maybe a hundred. They were getting through them quickly, and she knew now that she couldn't protect this Sydney in case they did come in the next few days, hours, maybe even minutes.

All she could do was protect herself and protect... her.

“I don't love you, Sydney.” Kylie had said to her a year ago in her own universe, telling her the truth but then she heard this Kylie say.

“I love you, Sydney”

And she could feel it, and she could know it because she knew Kylie did love this Sydney. And some part in her soul, in her heart, she knew this Kylie loved her too.

She just knew.

Her finger rested on the metal trigger, and she put the gun in a metal belt behind her back. She stepped out of the shed carefully and looked

around the green countryside, the peace and quiet in this world that may in days, or even hours, be disrupted. And destroyed.

But she still had time. She still had time to be with the girl she loved.

And she would be with Kylie. Whether in her presence or even only just in her heart. She would not deny herself that on maybe the last day she had in this world. A world among worlds.

She nodded her head and headed back to the house. Her steps, cold and empty, but her soul not willing to give up yet. There was just too much left to accomplish.

And she still had time. She still had time.

She still had a life.

5

As Sid entered back into the home she could hear sounds of the video game escaping from the living room. The two other girls were loudly playing it. Maybe Sydney hoped that by playing the game so loudly she would distract Kylie from the blue haired girl. But Sid could tell from the feeling she got from her other self it was just because Sydney wanted privacy. Wanted Kylie to herself.

After all, who was Sid to want her? Sid tried to ask herself this rationally for a second. Yes. She was just a stranger in this world that she knew so well. But she deserved love... if only for her time left alive, or not captured by those villains that kept her on edge and scared for her life.

She swallowed as she came through the dining room to the hall and peered in through the door of the living room. She peeked in at Kylie and Sydney playing the game. Kylie had her tongue sticking out of her mouth as she tried

to win the round of Mario Kart. Her controls crashed all over the place as she took this game quite seriously yet was playful about the whole competition... a strange yet cute combination Sid just could not help but smile at weakly. A sigh left her lips as she looked over to Sydney... she competing against herself.

Why do it?

Why not?

She stepped into the room and Sydney gazed over curiously to her, thinking it was someone else but just frowned when she saw Sid and said to her coldly.

“What are you doing here?”

Her voice was laced with a hidden threat and Sid just pulled out the gun from her belt. She held it out before her in a firing position and Sydney just froze stiff in fear. The brunette girl seemed to tense up as if her braveness had vanished just like her earlier depression. Sid grinned and whistled

to get Kylie's attention.

Kylie gave a glance away from the screen for a split second before jolting when she saw the gun in Sid's hand and just dropped her remote, standing up and saying.

“That is so cool!”

Sid gave a more crooked smile at this response, but Sydney jumped to her feet and looked at her blue haired counterpart, yelling.

“Get that thing out of my house!”

“Relax, babe.” Kylie said to her and then looked back to the gun. She took a step towards it curiously and said with a smile, “What is that? It looks awesome.”

“It's a high voltage gun.” Sid just said with a smile and mentioned after seeing Sydney's terrified face, “It's on stand by, but.”

“Where'd you get something like that, Natalie?” Kylie asked amazed and entranced, Sid just gave a bigger gleam as she mentioned.

“I have my ways.”

“Can I see how it works?”“Kylie!” Sydney just yelled, hating how her crush was so bedazzled by her other self, and how much that hurt and infuriated her, “It's dangerous and Natalie, you need to get that out of my house!”

“I. Can't.” Sid said back weakly and eased the gun back into her belt. Sydney just had furious yet tearful eyes on her as she saw Kylie grin at Sid, and asked back confused.

“Why not?”

“Some new developments have come to pass.” Sid just said weakly and glanced in Sydney eyes as if to convey the message that whatever the development was... it was a bad one.

Sydney seemed to get the message, much to her chagrin and hesitated for a second before looking down and nodding her head in response.

“Okay.”

“You two are so crazy.” Kylie said

with a laugh, Sydney just swallowed nervous of how to reply.

All Sydney wanted to do was be with Kylie... but now she was worried. She wished she could just know what was wrong... what was always wrong.

First having to share this reality with her alternate self and secondly, feeling like something horrible was to occur... even though so much great had happened in the last two hours alone. She knew there was something eminent on the horizon.

“Can we talk 'cousin' to 'cousin'?” Sid asked quietly and Sydney nodded her head, not willing to fight this. Sydney touched Kylie's arm and the dark girl looked at her, confused.

“Sorry, Ky. I'll just... be a minute.”

“Something wrong?”“I'll tell you later.”

“Kay.” Kylie said though her voice sounded worried. Sydney just smiled at her quietly before removing her hand from the arm and following Sid

outside.

As the two reached the front door Sid felt a beep on her watch and pulled the door closed behind them, before pressing the button, and a holograph came up.

“Fifty Sydneys dead in the last ten minutes.”

“What...?” Sydney said in completely lost comprehension, and she looked away from the holograph to Sid who pulled a disgruntled look at the news.

“Is this true?”

Sid didn't say anything for a moment before touching Sydney's arm, clutching it in a hold at the wrist and pulling them both to the shed.

“Is it?!”

“Yes.” Sid said back quietly, hating to admit that and Sydney just began to panic as her breathing went in to complete hyperventilation.

“Why didn't you tell me this? Are they getting closer?!”

Sid grabbed Sydney's shaking arms to hold her other self still and sighed as she looked at Sydney, uttering.

“I over estimated. But still, it could take years for them to find us.”

“Or minutes!” Sydney just cried, and Sid clenched her eyes closed tightly at that response and nodded her head stiffly.

“Or minutes.”

“They could leap here at any second!” Sid cried again, and all that ran through her head in that second was not her life but-

“Kylie.”

The two girls looked at each other as they both said the same name. The two became quiet for a second before Sid muttered, a little nervous.

“Yes... Kylie.”

“I love her, Sid.” Sydney pleaded though Sid did not know why she did, “I don't want her harmed.”

“I love her too...” those words Sid

said back seemed half calculated but half unwilling admittance. Sydney seemed to freeze up in agony when she heard the blue haired girl say this and simply asked back in desperation.

“Why?!”

“I just... I've always had.”

“And so you led those people to us even though you knew Kylie was here!”

“I didn't know she loved us!”

“Me, Sid! She loves ME!”

Sid didn't want to accept that... she knew that Kylie felt something for her... she just knew.

“So you know what you have to do.” Sydney said to her, catching Sid away from her thoughts, and Sid just looked in hate back up at her.

She had a feeling what the answer would be though she knew she would not accept it.

“You have to turn yourself in.”

“Are you a fucking retard??” Sid just had to say outright, Sydney coiled

back shocked at that reply. Sid was having enough of her other self's idiocy.

“If I turn myself in, they will just use me to unlock all the universes and we'll all be doomed.”

“You don't know that! You don't know if they really want to control or destroy!”“What else do they want?”

“Maybe they just want you to go to multiverse prison for impeaching the universal law?”

Sid just scoffed at that... how were the two of them from the same ilk?

She just looked at Sydney quietly for a second and muttered with barely a word. “No.”

“So what are we going to do then?”

“I want to spend my remaining time with Kylie...” Sid's words were quiet but determined... yet still she felt she needed the permission of the other her, though Sid literally despised her.

“What?” Sydney only cried back and

Sid hated how hysterical this girl was.

“One day. If they don't find us today I'll leap somewhere else and they'll catch me in the teleportation... most likely leaving you two unscathed.”

“I don't believe you...” Sydney only muttered back coldly, and Sid just pulled an annoyed look from her resistance to her truth. “You were so certain of staying alive this morning... why would you risk it now?”

“Because she loves me.”

“Stop saying that!” Sydney yelled and at that moment she attacked her. Sid felt a slap in the face, but returned the gesture by pulling Sydney's hair and yanking the brunette girl away with ease. Sid guessed that was one advantage of having cut her locks short.

“Let me g-go!” Sydney cried. Sid just shoved the pathetic girl to the ground, despising her.

Sydney just looked at her from the ground, tears in her eyes. She wished

that none of this was happening. She didn't want to fight... but she didn't want to lose.

“Do you think Kylie would even want to be around you! She doesn't know you!”

“She does!” Sid insisted. It seemed like a delusional hope to Sydney.

“Please... Sid...” Sydney just begged as she stumbled to her feet and looked at the pale alternate her. On Sid's cheek was a red mark from where she had slapped her. Sydney just stood there and muttered after a second.

“Please just give me... my one day with her... I-”

“I love her.” the two said at once again and before either could reply with anything else, the two just sighed.

“So what do you want to do?” Sydney asked as if giving up on this hopeless battle, and Sid just took a deep exhale out, before answering back as blunt and honest as possible.

“We tell her...”

“But-” Sydney began, and before she could finish she stopped herself and looked into Sid's blue eyes and saw... saw herself.

Her own self who was just as lost and scared and heartbroken. Her own self who just needed to know that it was all worth it in the end... just to hear those words.

I love you

Sydney sighed heavily and looked at Sid, her eyes silent. She nodded her head and muttered with barely any words, “Okay.”

“It will be alright.”“If she doesn't think we're crazy...” Sydney said in truth and the two thought about Kylie for a second. The two laughed and said at the same time.

“Nah...”

They began walking back towards the house, and all Sydney could say to Sid was.

“You are the biggest hypocrite.”

“How?”

“Saying 'you shouldn't give it all up for just one girl.' Look at what you're doing.”

Sid just chuckled at this and nodded her head in defeat. “Yeah... I guess. But you and I are basically the same, just from different outcomes.”

“What do you think will happen when they come?” Sydney asked. Her voice sounded scared, but she knew it was inevitable what was to happen to them.

“I think they will kill one of us and take the other.”

“But which one?”

Sid took in a small silent breath at this, saying as they came in through the door. “Does it matter?”

“Yes.”

To her it didn't... but she could see and understand why to Sydney it did. But they wouldn't take the original of

this universe... they would tell the difference between the two.

Wouldn't they?

The two stepped into the living room where they saw Kylie playing with string around her fingers, making webs out of boredom. Sydney smirked. She began to come towards Kylie who hadn't spotted them yet but felt Sid put her hand on the brunette girl's shoulder, and Sydney turned her head to look at her other self.

All she saw was Sid's eyes plead to her to tell her... for them to be honest and Sydney sighed... knowing they had to.

She cleared her throat and looked silently at Kylie. The dark girl closed her hands together and looked up with a smile but seemed to stiffen it confused when she saw the two girls looking solemnly at her, and she simply said.

“What's up?”

Oh, how they were about to tell her.

6

“Kylie, I-” Sydney paused. She looked at Sid nervously, and her counter part just nodded. She gulped afraid and looked at Kylie who was looking confused back at the two. “We need to tell you something.”

“You're twins.” Kylie said. Her voice was pure seriousness, and Sydney and Sid laughed nervously. They shook their heads, and Kylie pulled a confused look, adding, “But it's so obvious!”

“You were close.” Sid said barely. Her voice was still and serious, and she looked at Kylie waiting for any reaction to this before adding, her voice weak, “We're the same person.”

“No FUCKING way!” Kylie cheered and stood up looking at them. She quickly hurried over and measured the two's arms and legs with her mind and said, “So... are you two... clones? OH MY GOD! Are there more of you! Sydney, why didn't you tell me you could c-”

“No, Kylie!” Sydney just yelled frustrated. She loved Kylie dearly but sometimes it frustrated her how clueless her friend could be, “We are not clones... we-”

“Are from different dimensions.” Sid said back plain and simple, and Kylie cocked an eyebrow up confused as she just uttered.

“Huh? Now that seems totally implausible.”

Sid just grinned at this, she quite liked Kylie's response, but Sydney was just boiling over in rage.

“Well it's true!”

Kylie gave a blink, then a smile and said in a slow grinning gleam, “Really?”

Sid nodded warily, and Kylie glanced back between the bluenette and the brunette. She just cracked a grin as she said in total ecstasy “That is so COOL!”

“Heh, heh... yeah.” Sydney said nervously and couldn't believe how well Kylie was taking this. It seemed

whenever parallel universes came into the equation, everyone accepted it at once.

“So wait...” Kylie continued, walking back and forth and wagging her finger thinking, “If you two are the same and are just from different universes... which one, which one is my Sydney?”

Sydney beamed widely when she heard Kylie say that. Her Sydney. That Kylie knew the difference between the two and stepped forward. She put her hand on Kylie's shoulder and said with loving wet eyes, “Me, Kylie.”

“Seriously.” Sid said annoyed, more at Kylie and her words than the situation and asked, “How are you handling this so well? Oh and Kylie. That Sydney and me are the same, just from different outcomes.”

“No one could replace my Sydney...” Kylie muttered back quietly and looked at her loved one with warm eyes. Sydney smiled back, feeling she was about to break down in tears at such wonderful words, and Sid just growled.

What was she meant to do now? Tell Kylie that they could all be killed in hours or minutes? Tell Kylie that she wanted her just for today, and tell her that she had to love her? Sid couldn't do that... no matter how much she wanted to.

She bit her lip weakly, holding back the trembles of her bottom lip to show she was not upset. She was just lying to herself.

“But Sydney... why are you telling me this?” Kylie added getting back on track, and Sydney was about to answer, but Sid just said in a stern voice.

“Because I have to leave soon... and I just... I wanted to- to-”“She just wanted to hang out with you...” Sydney answered for Sid, and the blue haired girl looked confused at her as she heard these words. “Just for a while... she has to leave tomorrow.”

“Aw that sucks.” Kylie said, her shoulders slumping disappointed, and Sid just nodded her head. She looked

at Sydney a bit cautious, seeing Sydney nudge her head in the direction of the door. Sid looked at her confused but saw Sydney pat Kylie on the shoulder again, as she whispered.

“We'll be back in a second.”

Kylie blinked bewildered and nodded her head in reply. She watched as Sid and Sydney left the room and all Kylie did was lean against the wall in amazement, muttering to herself with a jokey grin.

“Would it be called a threesome or still a twosome?”

Sid already knew what Sydney was going to say as they reached the dining room, and she stopped before Sydney had, looking at her. Sydney sighed as she said with teary eyes.

“You have her... for one day. Then you go.”

“So you're not worried?”

“I'm terrified... but you should know that.” Sydney muttered and Sid nodded her head, knowing the truth of

those words.

“Yeah, I know.”

Sid knew she should have said something to console Sydney... to tell her a 'thank you', to tell her she was sorry that she needed this, and just as she was about to leave to go back into Kylie, she mumbled.

“Sydney...?”

Sydney looked up at her slowly, her eyes in pleading tears.

“I'm glad I saved your life.”

“I'm glad you did too.” Sydney only whispered back with a small smile and Sid gave her a nod.

Sid's eyes were silent as she went out to the living room and knocked on the door. She peered in and saw Kylie sitting on the ground against the wall, the dark girl concentrating on her thoughts, and Sid muttered.

“Kylie?”

“Hmm?” Kylie said back. She looked at Sid slowly, her eyes weakening a

little when she saw someone she did not expect, and that pierced Sid in the heart.

Sid held back her hesitation however as she just mumbled.

“Do you... want to go for a walk?”

“With just you... and me?”

“Yeah...?”

Kylie chewed her lip nervously as she thought about this. Something about this Sydney made her cautious... made her slightly wary. But she knew the fact of why this was. It was because a part of her... l-loved her.

She shut her eyes tightly, trying to shake off the thoughts of that and just got up. She shook herself down and said with a smile. “Yeah, sure.”

Sid smiled back in return and watched as Kylie came out of the room to the hall. The two took the back door to the road.

Sydney was just in the kitchen, sitting at the table with her head in her hands as she cried. Tears streamed

through her fingers.

Kylie and Sid walked the country road. There were hedges on both sides of them, cut off from the road by streams, and Kylie put her hands in her pockets awkwardly.

“So...” She mumbled nervously. She glanced over at Sid for a second before darting her eyes down back to the path and said in nearly a stumble of words, “You and Sydney... are the same person?”

“Yes...” Sid said honestly in reply and Kylie nodded her head. She gave a quick smile as she continued on.

“So you two... are one in the same?”

Sid looked at her with a grin, amused at hearing the same thing asked only with different words and cracked into a little laugh as she responded, “I guess so, yeah.”

“Well you know what they say.” Kylie said nervously, smiling at her and patting her a little anxiously on the back. “Two are better than one.”

“Try fifty million.”

“F-fifty... mil...million?” Kylie said aghast and Sid nodded her head. She gave a crooked smile to Kylie as she said, slowing down her pace a little so they walked in the same line.

“Yeah... and fifty million or more of you, too.”

“Wait?” Kylie said astonished and looked with amaze at Sid as she pulled the girl back with her arms, holding Sid's shoulders and asked. “There are fifty million of me?”

“Yeah.” Sid said with a devilish grin, and Kylie just uttered out in a daze.

“Oh my God!”

“I love your reactions...” Sid said, still feeling Kylie's arms touching her shoulders, and Kylie just chuckled back at this. She looked Sid in the eyes and said.

“So fifty million...”

“That's what I heard.”

“But-”

“Don't worry,” Sid said before she could ask and released one of Kylie's hands from its hold on her, stating, “None of them are as cool as you.”

“I bet.” Kylie said with a wink and Sid gave a small smirk in amusement at this confidence. She felt her cheeks redden a little and Kylie caught this.

The dark girl gulped, realising in a second she was still touching Sid and released her other grip from the girl. Her arms fell back to her sides, and Kylie added on nervously, beginning to hurriedly walk again.

“So do you...” she said, her lips quivering afraid to get the words out, and Sid looked at her quietly. She could tell what the next sentence would be without even having to know, and heard Kylie splutter out.

“Do you love me too?”

Sid blushed deeper and looked away to the ground. She walked slowly back up to Kylie who was shaking in fear or anxiety... Sid couldn't tell, and when

she reached her again she just muttered nervously.

“Yeah... I do.”

“So where's your Kylie?”

Sid shut her eyes. She didn't want to remember where her Kylie was... her Kylie in the ground... her Kylie gone.

And her Kylie never having the chance to even try to love her now... not that she ever would have.

“She's gone.”

Kylie blinked surprised to hear this and grabbed Sid, pulling her back by the shoulders to face her again and asked, “Wait, wait, wait...” she looked at her in horror as she asked in a shiver, “She's g-gone...?”

“Yeah...” Sid said back quietly and began to walk away back down the road but suddenly stiffened as she felt Kylie pull her into a hug. She lost her breath as she felt the dark girl pat her on the head in comfort and say as caring as she could.

“Sydney... I'm... I'm so sorry.”

Sid smiled weakly back at the embrace and put her hands between Kylie's chest and hers. She pushed her away gently and muttered back in near tears, “Don't worry... it's not your fault.”

No, it was her own.

She added back in just a bare whiff of a voice.

“And call me Sid...”

“Why would I call you that?”

“Because I don't deserve to be called that girl anymore...” Sid said barely, and felt her eyes lift up into Kylie's, as she whispered, “Because I did a terrible thing.”

“What?” Kylie asked, her voice so quiet as she looked at Sid worried. Sid just stared into Kylie's eyes, feeling tears nearly come out and just leaned forward and-

Kissed her.

Kylie held still for a second frozen at the embrace and Sid just pulled back looking at her, ashamed of herself.

She swallowed a painful swallow and tried to walk away but just felt Kylie hold her head softly, looking into her eyes. Sid held still as she looked back into Kylie's before feeling the dark girl trace her lips around her own and when their mouths parted... Sid looked silently at her.

“This...” Kylie asked, her words coming out as stumbles and she looked at Sid quietly needing to know, “This isn't technically cheating... i-is it?”

Sid looked at her silently for a second more and just shook her head. Adding back in a voice that was a lie to even herself, “No.”

And with that the two began to kiss.

Sydney looked over at the clock, seeing the time say three and wondered what was taking Kylie and Sid so long. But she sighed as she remembered what she had promised. To give Sid the whole day... though

why had she?

She swallowed as she heard a small beep and froze looking around for where that sound came from. She soon spotted a small tab on the ground and picked it up. She saw a little button on it and pressed it in. The button flicked to different colours, going red, green, blue, as a sound came out of it in a utilized voice.

“Fluctuations in the quantum particles. Forty universes apart.”

Sid swallowed, not understanding what this meant, but it suddenly clicked to her.

Forty universes apart...? They were only forty worlds away...

7

“Shit.” Sydney cried to herself as she realized this fact, “Oh shit, oh shit.”

It suddenly seemed to hit her full force that her life really was in danger of ending. She swallowed and pulled back her brown hair from her face, feeling sweat pour down from her body and just began to helplessly cry.

“There's fifty million of us!” she cried as she sat down on a chair to steady herself. She cried out one more time, “Fifty million!”

Then how? How were they only forty dimensions away? Forty universes... yet if they were able to get into the quantum thought of this universe they could appear here in an instant.

Tears fell down her cheeks, rolling down in little wet streams, and she begged to herself. “Please let this all just be a dream! Please!”

When their lips broke, Sid and Kylie were gasping and holding each other

tightly on the deserted road. Kylie took a few breaths before looking at Sid and stuttered in a shaky laugh.

“Whoa...”

Sid smiled weakly back, but it took her all but her mightiest strength not to break into a gleam of pure childish delight.

“Y-yeah...”

The two let go of each other, more Sid withdrawing as she was nervous of what to do next, and Kylie looked with shy eyes at her. A goofy smile was all too present on her lips as well, though.

“You act different,” Kylie said then, a little cheekily but curious all the same, and Sid looked a bit confused at her. Kylie just chuckled and added to her conclusion, “Different... to Sydney.”

“We are from different worlds...” Sid said back honestly, though her heart beat a little quicker under her skin, and she smiled nervously. Kylie could tell the lack of courage in that smile, and Sid sighed. She added back in a

quiet voice, her words barely escaping. “And different outcomes.”

“Tell me,” Kylie said slowly. She looked at Sid who just gazed at her, her eyes hiding so many secrets. “Tell me what outcomes.”

“It doesn't matter...” The girl just replied, hating to even say of her pitiful past... a past she was ashamed of and wanted forever to forget. Though with death on the line in the horizon... maybe she shouldn't wish too hard. “I just... I made a mistake.”

“But what mistake, Sid?” Kylie had to know. Sid was keeping this all so secret, and from what Kylie could tell, she was perfect... maybe even more perfect than-

My Sydney... mine

The dark girl bit her lip, remembering that unconscious promise she had made... yet knew deep down she had already broken it.

“You're perfect.”

Sid just shook her head, balls of

tears reaching the sides of her eyes, and she just looked back at Kylie, with hate for that simple praise, “I'm not... I'm probably the most imperfect girl in the world!”

“Why?”

Sid ignored this demand, wanting to hide from it, wanting to bury herself in the ground and just glared at Kylie, her body shielding herself in a protective hold.

“Because I have killed millions.”

“...what?”

Sid hated it, hated how the truth just poured from her mouth and looked at Kylie, with so much self loathe- self hatred.

“I leapt... and leapt again... and they said, 'stop, come. Or they'll die', but what did I do?” Sid seemed to fall on the ground as she crouched over, trying to just hide... to show she couldn't handle the fact; of how much of a danger she was to everyone, “I just... leapt!”

“Si-”

“I killed everyone and I'm still killing everyone because I'm afraid to just end it all and save all lives... all because now I,” She swallowed and looked at Kylie, hating how she was would never be worthy of her no matter how much she tried. “I won't leap again.”

“You didn't do anything wrong.”

Sid shook her head.

Shook it and just got up.

And ran.

Kylie watched dumbstruck for a second before realising Sid was running away and shouted, suddenly going into a sprint herself, “Sid! Wait, Please!”

Sydney caught her breath as often as she could, caught it and caught it again as she tried to breathe but the panic was too much.

Her death... such a cruel reality that

could soon come to pass, and what would she have left?

Just the remnants of a life. Remnants of a soul that had been brought back to life only to be crushed again so unmercifully.

She heard the chugging in the distance... another train doing its errands and wiped her swollen eyes with her hands... trying to save face. Trying to save herself... from the truth that was right there.

Sid reached the hill and nearly stumbled onto the train tracks till she felt a hand grab her jumper and pull her back- a train zooming past her only inches from her nose.

She swallowed, frozen in fear before feeling Kylie pull her back and hold her steady in her arms, a few inches from the tracks. The two just stood there, watching the cargo whoosh past before the area grew silent again, and Kylie tightened her grip around Sid's body.

Whispering.

Hissing nearly.

“Are you insane?!”

“I-” Sid said but cut herself short as she seemed to come out of her panic and realised in that second... how close to the real Sydney of this universe she was.

Willing to face death and loose it all... over, over emotions...

She swallowed once more, her previous pale face pink with the emotions she had shown and not controlled, and she felt too weak to move. But was in too tight a hold to do so anyway.

She felt Kylie grip her tighter, almost too strongly as if if she loosened her hold for a second, Sid would get free.

The dark girl spun Sid suddenly around to face her, and before Sid could say anything Kylie just hugged her in an angry embrace.

Angry at the foolish act that the girl she loved was so stupid!

“Kylie, I-”

“You are a fucking idiot!” Kylie just yelled back at her, slicing Sid's ears with her voice and Sid swallowed nodding but didn't feel any loosening of the hold.

“Why, Sid?!” Kylie just yelled again, and stepped back from her but still held her so she wouldn't escape, “Why are you so stupid!?”

“I... I,” Sid stuttered and only looked to the ground, not brave enough to look Kylie in the eyes... not brave enough to face her conclusion, “I just... I-”

“You're just like Sydney!” Kylie said in anger and suddenly shoved herself away from her. She looked Sid straight in the eyes as she yelled, “You just try to run from the problem when you should face it!”

“W-”

“Oh you know what I mean!” Kylie just shouted and nearly ripped her hair out in rage, “When Sydney told me she

loved me, she demanded an answer and didn't give me time to think. When I said the first thing on my mind she literally ran away just like you did. I can't HELP it if I love you two. But you can help it by not tearing yourself apart!”

Kylie held her breath for a second, just glaring in pure anger at Sid. Before releasing an exhale and gave out bitter shallow breaths at all that had just happened.

Sid stood there, shocked. She looked in silence at Kylie for a few minutes before stuttering out, attracted almost to her angry row, “I'm... I'm.”

She really wanted to say, 'you are so hot right now', loving the concern Kylie showed to her out in the open. But she held still for a second, not knowing how to finish her sentence.

“You're... do you really l-love us, so m-much?”

“No, genius.” Kylie said sarcastically in a scowl, putting as much emphasis

on her words as she could and just grabbed Sid's hand, pulling her away from the tracks.

Sid blinked surprised at the action as Kylie forced them back down the hill they had run up and Sid just stared at her silently, feeling Kylie's eyes glare ahead.

Sid gulped painfully, her throat dry from nervousness... more nervousness at the fact she was holding Kylie's hand, and not at the near death attempt.

The two walked down the hill, Kylie keeping grudgingly silent, and Sid just closed her eyes.

But a small swooning smile was crawling across her lips.

It wasn't too long later that the two entered back into the house, that Kylie finally unclasped her hand from Sid's and just pulled Sid to her by the shirt collar, saying in her face with no pause.

“Don't ever do that again.”

Sid swallowed, nervous eyes looking at Kylie and just nodded her head... but her heart twisted and danced at Kylie's firm attitude.

The two arrived into the kitchen when there was a cry from a room a few doors away and the two glanced at each other, Sydney rushing in with her face as red as what Sid's had been minutes ago.

“Tell me!”

The two blinked confused, looking back at each other lost before Sydney yelled, needing to know.

“Tell me how many have died!”

Sid looked at her warily, but knew what she spoke of and sighed. She lifted her watch up in front of them and said quietly to it.

“Analysis.”

A holograph suddenly zapped out of her little device and Kylie stumbled back startled.

“A million Sydney Phillips have been killed in the last forty minutes.”

“Oh shit...”

The two Sydneys looked over at Kylie as the dark girl just mumbled these words out, as if she knew everything that had passed before. Sydney just glared her eyes into Sid's and spat.

“They are going to be here, any second, and it is all your fault.”

Sid didn't say anything in return.

It was all her fault, and she had been so utterly cowardly that she knew there was nothing to defend herself with, except.

“But I told y-you.”

“But you never should have come.”

Sid stood there, her soul breaking at those words. She closed her eyes, holding back the tears she had so easily wept earlier and as she opened them again, she just pushed past Sydney and went to their parent's room. She closed the door, leaving the two alone.

Sydney held her hands tightly in rage, her chest beating up and down in anger, and as she looked around she noticed Kylie... almost forgetting that girl was there.

“Sydney...?” Kylie just uttered out in disbelief, her words barely there and before Sydney could reply, the dark girl just held up her hand to stop her.

“That was not called for- she's,” Kylie held her words for a second, before saying in honesty. “She's yourself.”

“She is nothing like me!” Sydney just yelled and tore back from Kylie, a step away from Sid's defender. The girl just spat. “She's a murderer!”

“N-n,” Kylie barely uttered, not able to say the whole word but shook her head to display her answer, “No... she isn't.”

“Kylie.” Sydney said in so much vehemence and stared at her, not getting how Kylie could be this willingly stupid.

“I'm going to die all because of her!”

Kylie shook her head again, not believing. Not wanting to believe.

“And so might you.”

Kylie caught her breath in a gasp as she looked at Sydney and almost stepped back... this news suddenly registering fast.

“She wouldn't.”

“She's on the run, they are killing all of the me's... what's to say they won't kill one of you?”

Kylie couldn't understand the cold calculated words that left Sydney's mouth and just shook her head one more time.

Whispering.

“They wouldn't.”

Sydney just stared at her, waiting for her to get it.

Away in the room Sid looked at her hands... the hands that had the blood of all she loved on them and how she had tried to run from it, escape the

torture but had just brought upon more.

Sid swallowed in a tremble and just thought of her choice.

Maybe she should leap.

8

“Sid,”

Sid glanced up at the door. She could hear Kylie's voice call for her from the distance before there was a rattle on the door knob, and she swallowed, listening to it shake. Kylie worriedly tried to twist it on the other side but it was locked, and the dark girl just called in.

“Sid, listen to me.” her voice was a little shaky as she said these words but had to no matter what, and continued with a worried voice.

“Don't listen to Sydney... s-she's, she's just mad. We-”

“Kylie, I don't care!” Sid just shouted back interrupting her and Kylie stood, shaken, away from the door at those words. Sid swallowed in a quaky breath and just yelled, “I'll do you all the favour and just go. I-I...”

The blue haired girl just felt a few tears roll down her face and just mumbled, “I didn't mean a thing...”

“No, Sid! That's not true!”

Sid just ignored her but she herself was still scared. Scared of what leaping would mean. Where it could take her. Where she would land... but it had to be anywhere better than here.

She began to align her thought patterns up with all the other Sydneys and saw flickers of different realities come into her view... before she chose the safest one. One which a Sydney had already been killed in.

Her reality started to change, started to flicker and shake into the new, before she heard Kylie say in a desperate voice, the girl's words laced with tears.

“Please, Sid... I-I, I n-need you!”

And that is what made Sid stop. That is what made her have to stop as she couldn't be in a single reality without her... without-

Kylie...

She stopped the process of entering a new world and landed back on the

bed, just feeling hopeless at how those three words could stop her.

“I need you”

And how she needed Kylie too. How she could do nothing else but need her.

Kylie stood panting on the other side of the door. Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she leant against the wood and slowly slipped to the ground. A failure... not knowing what Sid did in there, but knew.

She had failed her.

The door was opened and she fell back as Sid came out and the blue haired girl just gave a weak smile, looking down to the ground. Kylie looked up at her from the floor, her back having hit it and just wiped her tears quickly, getting up in a haste.

Sid felt ashamed of herself. Knowing she was still the cause and the problem in all of this, but this all seemed to leave her head when she felt Kylie hug her in so tight a squeeze she couldn't breathe.

“Why is every Sydney I m-meet,” Kylie stuttered out as she hugged her in a squeeze, Sid just giving a huff back at the hold, “Always so stupid!”

“I'm sorry...”

“We both know you're not...” Kylie said, letting go of her and looking Sid straight in the eyes. Sid looked back at Kylie with a surprised expression, and the dark girl only responded, “Because if you were... you would stop doing this.”

“I'm sorry...” Sid just muttered out again, feeling empty at those words. She never meant to hurt Kylie.

Kylie just stared at her, looking deeply into her eyes. She didn't trust those words... couldn't trust them even though Sid had said them once before. The dark girl took a breath out and appraised her. She muttered.

“Then promise you won't jump in front of a train, run off, or give away your life.”

“How did you k-know I-?” Sid began,

remembering that she had just nearly given away her own existence then, and looked confused and unsure at Kylie.

Kylie just stared at her, muttering.

“I felt it.”

Sid looked at her and just nodded her head, knowing she had to keep her word this time... Kylie connected to her in a way far deeper than what she had imagined before and just whispered in sincerity.

As much sincereness she hoped she would ever have.

“I promise.”

“I'm going to hold you to that, Phillips.” Kylie said in a warning and Sid nodded her head, shutting her eyes and giving a small smile as she breathed out.

Happy that this was not over yet.

The two walked back to the kitchen where Sydney sat on a chair in a hunch. The brunette girl just had her arms folded and stared at the ground,

her eyes angry and scorching with unheeded heat.

“Everything is fine.” Kylie said as she pushed Sid forward and Sid stumbled on her feet before holding herself straight and looking at Sydney, “Sid promises things will be alright.”

“I just...” Sydney uttered, looking to the ground and not even wanting to face the two with her words, “I just don't get you, Kylie.”

“What do you mean, babe-?”

“Babe?” Sydney just uttered, glaring up to the dark girl that she had thought loved her... but from all she had heard in that hall just then... how could she really ever truly know this. “If I was your babe, you would support me-not some rip off of me!”

Kylie stepped back, startled to hear such words tear out of her best friend's mouth and she only said confused.

“Sydney, don't you get it? She is you!”

“She. Is. A MURDERER!”

Kylie fell back another step as those words slammed into her, and she looked at Sydney completely shaken by that slicing conviction.

“She never killed anyone, Sydney! She wouldn't hurt a fly just like you wouldn't either! Don't you get it?”

“No! Don't YOU GET IT!” Sydney just shrieked back and burned her teary eyes into the two, her face red, but her expression in so much despair, “Kylie, she's not me! She's a slip up in the system. A. Mistake.”

Sid only stood there, looking at her other self scream these accusations, but she could feel what Sydney's true reasons behind this was and only stepped forward, mumbling in such a little voice.

“You're just... you're jealous...”

Sydney stepped back, complete shock coming over her but Sid knew all of Sydney's thoughts... all of her intentions and motives and Sydney yelled back, denying it but it was as

blatant as her lie.

“I... I'm not! I just want to protect me and Kylie!”

“It's always about us and Kylie... all of this!” Sid just said, not wanting to deny this any longer, the truth of this fight... of every word those two had spoken in conjuncture to each other.

“I only tried leaping originally because of Kylie. Every suicide that has been committed by so many of us have been down to Kylie. And even this now. My stupid reason for staying and yours for wanting me to go. It's all because of-”

“Kylie!” Sydney shouted in tears as Kylie left in a run and Sid alerted to this quickly. She sprinted after her and stopped Kylie opening the front door to leave the house, but the dark girl just had tears also in her eyes and she shouted.

“I never made you two do any of these things. I-I,” Kylie stuttered, wiping her face again from her helpless

sobbing, “I never meant any of this,”

“That's what I'm saying!” Sid said back and pulled Kylie's hand into hers as she brought the dark girl back into the room and just looked at Sydney, letting Kylie go again, “Sydney, we've got to get a grip on ourselves. We can't just rely on Kylie's approval or disapproval! We need to step up our game... and- and fight!”

“I don't want to fight...” Sydney just whispered, her eyes lifeless as all she had seen was the two girl's hold hands, the two girls stand side by side and she only uttered out with no more strength, “I give up... you win. Kylie, I hope you are happy with her... she's a sitting duck, but hey?” Sydney joked, oh so cruelly at the fact, “So am I.”

She gave a weak grin, her voice dicing and precise in how much those words were meant to hurt and scare and just pulled out the high voltage gun, saying in a quiet voice, “Now get out.”

Sid blinked. She put her hand behind

the back of her belt, realising the truth of the matter... that Sydney at some point had pulled the gun from her but when?

“Sydney-”

“-Babe?”

“GET OUT!” Sydney just screamed and the two hurried in a rush out of the house as they heard the gun activate. They tried to catch their breaths on the other side of the door as it closed behind them, before hearing the door lock a second later, and Kylie just slammed her fist into it, shouting.

“Sydney, please! Please don't do this! Everything will be fine! Please trust me!”

“Don't even try, Kylie...” Sid said back quietly. Her words were tired and just giving up on even trying to reason to her other self... almost swearing that this Sydney was like so many of the others.

Was bad...

And that she, she could have that possibility of being bad herself... no matter how much she tried to deny it.

“Why won't she listen?” Kylie begged in fear as she shook Sid, “Why is she acting this way?”

“Because she is a Sydney Phillips...” Sid only replied back and gave an exhale out, just so tired of trying anymore, “And every one of us turns bad... and I don't know why that is.”

“But she isn't bad! And neither are you!”

“I thought we weren't... but we have to be. Because what me and Sydney have in common is one thing neither of us will ever redeem.”

Kylie looked at her confused, just waiting to hear those words and they poured out shamefully.

“We are selfish. And we will always be selfish until the last one of us is destroyed...”

“STOP SAYING THAT!” Kylie yelled, hating hearing these words. She knew

this wasn't true, it couldn't be true and she said, eyeing the door and trying to figure out a way through this, “You and Sydney are good people. Yes, you are a little selfish but you are also very brave. Heck you nearly ran in front of a train.”

“Emotions...” Sid sighed, hating to admit that, and continued while Kylie shook her head to deny that, “Purely emotion-”“No!” Kylie yelled and stamped her foot, hating this sour reply and grabbed Sid shaking her to get some reality back up into that brain of hers. “You two can figure out a way to stop this! I know you can! You know you can, Sid! THINK!”

Sid just sighed again and Kylie slapped her in the face. Sid just looked at her startled and Kylie gave her one warning look not to answer with that again.

“I guess...” Sid said back weakly, thinking slowly to herself and turned her eyes to the shed, “We get

ourselves some guns, just to prepare in case they do come any second.”“Okay, and then what?” Kylie asked, desperate to have more instruction.

Sid took a breath out, trying not to sigh in case she got another slap, “And we find a way back inside, convince Sydney to help us and-?”

“And?”

“Hold on.” Sid said, hearing her watch beeping and pressed a button on it, confused. A hologram popped out of device and a computer voice said.

“A disturbance in the quantum particles has been located in this universe. The rightful authorities have been alerted.”

Sid held still, frozen for a second as she heard these words and thought back to the only instance where a disturbance could have been made since she came.

When... when she had nearly leaped only minutes ago.

But she hadn't... yet maybe she had leapt just enough to alert... to alert the tracker.

She swallowed and looked at Kylie, and the dark girl only gazed back confused at her.

“What is it?” she asked.

Sid gulped again, her throat dry and uttered the words... though they were barely heard with the pain that was in them.

“They found me.”

9

“What...?” Kylie said in barely a voice and Sid looked at her, quietly.

All she saw was Kylie's worry, Kylie's fear and she had to make this right. She had promised.

“Come with me.” she said in an instant, grabbing Kylie's arm and pulling her to the shed. Kylie followed as they rushed to the metal architecture and Sid pulled open the door, rushing them in but Kylie stood back amazed looking at all the equipment.

“What is this...?” she asked as she watched Sid pull out suitcases from under the shelves where they had been hidden, the blue haired girl quickly looked at her.

“Weapons. To defend us.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Kylie said waving her hands in the air, Sid pulled a gun into her hands, “You want us to shoot people?”

“Yes.” Sid said back in one word.

Kylie gulped, nervously rubbing her head. Sid rolled her eyes and gave a small smirk. She threw a gun to Kylie who stumbled to catch it and pulled out another for herself. She hurried the two outside the shed and they hid behind a hedge as Sid pulled Kylie down to the ground as they both crouched on their knees.

“Why are we-?”

“They'll be here any second. Listen.” Sid said fast and showed Kylie the dials and buttons on the gun. “This is a futuristic gun. This one only stuns and paralysis. This button is for stun, the other for paralyse.”

“See” Sid continued grinning at Kylie cheekily, “No death.”

“And what about you?” Kylie asked with low eyebrows, waiting to hear what Sid's gun did and Sid only nervously grinned.

“I do what I have to do... this one only shoots lasers and bazookas.”

“Shut the fuck up.” Kylie said with a

smile, even though she knew that was probably the worst possible gun to have in their possession, “Where'd you get something like that?”

“Other universes, Kylie.” Sid said blankly and Kylie blinked her eyes a bit dumbly before Sid continued. “We need to go warn Sydney.”

“Right... and Sid.”

Sid stopped herself from getting up and looked back at Kylie, seeing the worry in her eyes.

“Everything will be okay...right?”

Sid looked slowly into those scared eyes and nodded her head stiffly, not wanting to lie but also not knowing what the truth would be for this outcome.

“Yes... everything will be fine.”

“Okay.” Kylie said with a nod of her own and a small smile back, and as the two began to stand back up on their legs again there was a huge bang in the distance. The two froze. Sid looked over the hedge, quickly running to the

house's corner and peering over.

She swallowed when she saw what would haunt her existence till she was free.

There was a giant crack in the air, seeming as if it was knocked out of the space between space, and through the crack pierced golden light. But it was what was standing outside the crack that scared her.

Three people, two men and a woman. Sid's heart beat a million seconds a minute. She watched as they looked around the area, the black man saying to the other two.

“Split up.”

But it was what happened next that terrified her.

They literally split. Split into two people each, and then the six of them, split into two more people.

Sid stared at it terrified, trying to figure out how this had just happened and went through the process in her head.

And then it dawned on her.

When she felt that tear in the universe hours ago, when Sydney was going to split off another parallel and make another infinite for a different choice.

What was the choice that would make a different possibility? A different you?

Sydney had wanted to kill herself... but there must have also been a part that wanted something so different it would tear the universe into two. But what?

“Sid!”

She looked over and saw Kylie looking at her with frantic eyes. She swallowed getting her wit about her and ran back over to Kylie, whispering.

“We have to get inside the house.”

“But there's too many of them!”

“There's only twelve. They split off alternate versions of themselves, I'm sure.” Sid bit her lip, hoping she was right about that. She looked at Kylie

quickly and said in haste.

“Get inside, I'll protect us.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I have something to protect now.”

Kylie looked at Sid silently, realising what she was saying and just nodded her own head. She had to trust her, and she ran in silent steps to the house. She went behind the opposite side of the building and slipped in through the back door, but just as she closed it behind her, a laser shot was fired at her hand. Kylie yanked it away, barely missing the shot but she could feel the burn of where it grazed her and quickly locked the door as the woman closed in on her.

But Sid had seen it all.

She had seen the fire, the chance of Kylie nearly getting hit and it, it tore Sid apart.

One part of her wanted to get in there and protect Kylie, save her from any fires that could kill her. Another

part wanted to kill the woman. Shoot her a thousand times in the face. And another part just wanted to shoot all the alternate selves the people seemed to easily manifest.

She swallowed hard, all these things she wanted to do so much, and then it dawned on her.

As bright as day.

She could do them all.

All she had to do was change the way she viewed this reality... change her thoughts. Be enlightened once more and in that second she gave a grin, knowing her choice.

Her choices.

She screamed, catching the people's attention as ten different hers tore out of her. The black man leading the group waved his hand around the side, signalling his team to follow the roar.

As one of the black men ran to the side of the house he got a shot right in the head, falling over lifeless and the other men looked down shocked and

terrified. They quickly frowned and ran after the Sid that had shot them only to have another fire a bazooka at three of the men, as they split and ran.

“FIRE!” The black man called as more of them split, trying to fight the Sids but more and more of the Sids split every second. There were a hundred of them within two minutes as the girls shot and dodged and dived to the ground to escape firing lasers.

One of the Sids ran to the other side of the house. She quickly saw that woman who was shooting bullets into the door knob, shooting the knob off clean and Sid whistled at her to get her attention.

The woman glared at her, quickly splitting in half as one of her kept at the door, while another began to fire and Sid split again, three of her going different directions as they shot and fired crazily. Wanting her dead, wanting Kylie safe.

The woman dodged expertly till she fired a bullet into one of the Sid's

shoulders, the Sid falling to her knees in pain. The woman smiled but another Sid who had torn from another one was just behind her and was about to shoot a laser in her head, when the woman heard the snap of a twig under the Sid's shoe and just tore again, one of her getting a hole in her head while another jumped to the ground to avoid the fire.

Meanwhile the Sids on the other side of the house shot at the men, all quick and fast at their fires and misses and by the time the men had a chance to make a different decision and tear, they were just shot again, several bodies lining the ground.

“STOP THIS!” The leading black man yelled. He had been away from the action, splitting off different ones of himself with every new choice that he could create, and a Sid just yelled back.

“No! You stop this! I just want to live!”

“You don't understand! Your power

should not be! You cannot have this gift!”

“Why!” all the Sids yelled at once and the man glared at all of them, watching his alternate selves get killed and massacred no matter how much they fought.

“Because! You. Are. BAD!”

The original Sid stopped when this was said, but the other hers continued fighting as suddenly more cracks appeared in the air, and different people jumped out of them, coming to fight.

But these people were no match.

Three Sids pulled out their rocket guns and fired bazookas at them. There was explosions as the people burned up, and exploded body parts flung in the air. One Sid quickly noticed these cracks and that there was a universe behind them and as she realized this, the information spread to the others in seconds.

Twenty Sids split out of two as they

dived into the cracks while the others killed off the remaining men, and the black man only watched terrified as his world came crashing in on him.

He hid behind Sydney's parents spare car, gasping and panting for breath.

The woman on the other side of the house had just burst the door open and escaped inside. She slammed opened Sydney's parent's room only to see Kylie on the bed, leant up against the bed-rest terrified and the woman just shouted.

“She's trying to take my life.” holding her gun in Kylie's direction and slowly pressing her finger on the trigger, “Then I just take what makes up hers.”

Before she could pull down the trigger she stood there paralysed in the spot, but her body jolted of electricity as currents of it rippled through her bones and she dropped dead on the ground. Kylie looked up.

Sydney stood behind the woman with the electric gun in her hands and uttered back in spite of herself.

“No one harms Kylie... no one... but me.”

Kylie only jumped back on the bed-rest again as Sydney came forward with the gun in her hands, aiming right for Kylie's head and Kylie begged.

“Please Sydney! S-STOP!”

“You chose her, Kylie!” Sydney just yelled, tears roaring down her cheeks and Kylie shook her head panicky. “You chose the me I could never be! Because I'm just not GOOD enough for you!”

“SYDNEY, P-PLEASE!”

Sydney was about to press fire on her gun when a million shots blasted into her body. She just spat out blood.

Outside the open door stood three Sids, all firing as much as they could to stop the near murder of the innocent girl, and Kylie just looked at the three Sids when Sydney's body banged to

the ground.

“Sid...?”

“Hey.” The three Sids said together, waving at her with a smile and Kylie waved back weakly, her own smile forced and scared and just plain bewildered.

“What the FUCK is happening?!”

“Well-”

“WATCH OUT!” a Sid shouted from the distance and the three Sids turned the other direction as their fired at someone away from Kylie's view, and the dark girl just blinked in horror before seeing the three blue haired Sids disappear.

Kylie just held tightly to the bed rest and she muttered to herself in disbelief. “What the fuck! Seriously! WHAT THE FUCK!?”

Before she ran out of the room and looked through the open back door, seeing hundreds of Sids shooting down hover crafts, armies of men and woman, all the while strategizing and

ripping themselves in tens.

The black man was panting behind the car as he seemed to pray for his life, before he felt someone crouch down beside him and he looked at the blue haired Sid terrified, but saw the concern in her eyes.

“Please- Just- I can't fight anymore! Please!”

“What did you mean by...” Sid asked quietly as she looked at him and needed to know. “I am bad... how am I bad?”

“You are all bad!” the man just spat, looking her in the eyes with such hate and shouted, “All of you. Every Sydney Phillips since you were a small baby to now! You may be able to know every alternate you, but I am able to know every alternate everybody!”

Sid looked at him confused, scared of his words and the man just hissed.

“I would've let you have your little power, I would've. If I had not seen

the hate in your soul, the coldness in your being. You are bad. You can not change that.”

“I am good.” Sid said back in quiet words, denying this claim... she knew it wasn't true.

“You are only good when dead.”

She looked at him, hearing those words and how much poison was in them, and she just shook her head with tears in her eyes.

“No.”

“What have you done that has helped anyone?”

“I've...” Sid said, barely speaking another word as she just didn't know what to say, “I've helped... many... I've helped-”“No one.” the man spoke for her and just glared into her eyes, “No one but yourself. Except that girl... and it was still... for Sydney Phillips!”

He spat in her face and Sid just wiped it slowly off her cheek. She looked down at the saliva in her

hands... feeling that sick feeling in her heart at how accurate those words were.

And she... she didn't deserve to live. For she was bad.

The thought sprung through all her alternate selves as they fought and killed off the people that wanted them dead. But none of them wanted to acknowledge that thought. None of them wanted to believe that.

“We are not!” one Sid shouted as she stood on the driveway and looked at the original Sid and the man. The man just turned his furious eyes to her and waited for her to continue. But he cared not for their words.

“We just want to live like anyone else!”

“You're the ones that are bad!” another cried in the distance, and the man just scuffed at that, getting up and looking at the land around him. All he saw was the last person getting shot down... thousands of bodies on

the ground, and he just stared at all the Sids that had won. The ones that didn't give up.

“You killed our family!” one Sid shouted coming right up to the man and jabbing her finger in his chest but he said not a word.

“When we had finally seen the truth of the world... of the UNIVERSE... you took away everything!”

“You didn't deserve the truth!” he shouted and the Sids shook their heads.

The original Sid just sat on the ground, thinking this over and heard another Sid say.

“You judge us on all the bad the other Sydneys had done... on our pasts! But not on the only Sydney who wanted to change.”

The Sids all looked down to the original Sid and looked at her with sincere eyes, Sid hiding herself in near tears away from their stares.

“The person she was, right then! The

Sid who wanted to live... who wanted to do good! She had changed! And she hasn't changed back ever since.”

“But you can't CHANGE your past!”

“No...” the original Sid said and stood up. She looked at the man and hated to admit the truth... but it was the only thing she could do. “I can't change the past... I can't change the bad things I have done. But I can never do them again. I can be a good person! Not try to be but BE!”

“You have killed millions. Not just your other selves but their families.” the man only hissed and Sid shook back at those words... knowing he spoke the truth and took a deep breath, looking at him.

“I haven't killed millions.” she only said, looking at him and not faltering in her words, “You have. You have!”

“Enough!” the man shouted and pulled a gun to her head but before even a shot was fired from it, a thousand lasers exploded through him

and he fell to the ground dead.

Sid gasped as she looked at the fallen man... the last in the battle and stared around her at all the lives she had taken, but one Sid shook her head.

“We may have killed thousands of evils... but we saved one innocent.”

Sid looked at the alternate her and just shook her head. She whispered. “I am not an innocent.”

The Sids all looked at her quietly, not moving to say a word, not willing to correct her, before Kylie walked away from behind the house where she had been hiding and just uttered in a scared voice.

“I don't think that's who they were talking about.”

All the Sids suddenly turned their heads around to look at the dark girl, and all said in relief that she was still alive.

“Kylie.”

“Kylie...” the original Sid just

whispered, and looked at her as Kylie stepped over the dead bodies of the men and woman until she stood just a little distance away from her.

“What you girls just did just then,” Kylie said in amazement and shook her head. Not upset... not disappointed... but just proud, “Was amazing. You Sid, all of you... are amazing.”A bunch of red cheeked faces spread through the crowds of Sids, besides the original who tried to fight it off as best she could.

“We just killed thousands.”

“Yeah, but you saved me.” Kylie said with a small smile, shyly looking at Sid, and Sid just shook her head... that shouldn't have been the reason why for that massacre. “And... you saved yourself.”

“But, Kylie-”

“I don't mean you saved yourself just now... because that's an obvious.” Kylie said interrupting her and shook her head as she put her hands on her

hips and looked at Sid, proud, “No... I mean, what you said before. You changed. You are not even trying anymore. You are just being.”

“Kylie, I-”

“Yes?” Kylie asked, folding her arms and waiting to hear what she had to say. Sid just looked at Kylie's smiling face and just uttered, not knowing what else her words could be.

“I... I love you.”

Kylie just gave a small smile... knowing that was the best reply that could be given and nodded her head, adding.

“Why wouldn't you? Kylie, F.Y.I, me, is awesome.”

“Sorry to break this up, girls...” one of the Sids said looking at the two and then just gazed around to all the dead bodies that surrounded them, “But what are we going to do with all... of this?”

“See those cracks in the air.” one Sid said, butting in as she pointed to the

cracks and how they were slowly closing up to restore the universe back to its original state. “Me and a bunch of the other girls jumped in them and found a universe where it is nothing but gateways to others. It literally lets you tear a hole. We can leap all of these dead bodies there.”

Kylie shivered at the mention of the D word, and all the Sids just chuckled at this reaction.

“But what about... her?” one Sid said afraid to mention, and the thought went through all their minds in that second of Sydney Phillips who was deceased inside.

“Her parents are going to very upset when they find out she's gone.”

“Unless...”

“I stay.” Sid said quietly, nearly a whisper as this realisation dawned on her, and the Sids all looked at her with small gasps at such an idea.

“Look.” one Sid shouted, looking at all the others with upset eyes as the

thought passed through them all, “We can't just take her place! We can't just pretend this is our life... no one wants us here, we should-”

“I want you here.”

All the girls turned their eyes to Kylie as she said this and stepped forward, looking at Sid and saying the words. “I want my Sid.”

She walked right passed all the other Sids and stood in front of the original, lifting her hand to Sid's cheek as she looked at her with a smile.

“I want you.”

“But what about-?”

“She tried to kill me, and you tried to save me. And you did save me.” Kylie said in honesty and smiled at her, continuing, “I was forced into loving her... but you made me think, you made feel. And you are the Sid Phillips that I love.”

“Don't you mean, Sydney Phillips?”

“You don't deserve that name.” Kylie said, love in her voice and Sid blushed

helplessly at Kylie's truthful words, nodding her head and felt the dark girl kiss her. All the other Sids looked away nervously.

It wasn't soon later that the Sids transported the bodies of the deceased and any of the metal from the crafts into universes that were empty or sparse. On the way, one said to another.

“You know... even though they killed tonnes of the Sydneys and their families in millions of other universes... I think we can still go to them, one each... and start again.”

“I think that's a good plan, Sid.” the other said and the thought passed through them all. All the Sids disappeared eventually into worlds where they could start anew, worlds where they could make their homes, and when Sydney's parents eventually arrived home the whole area was clear of any trace of a war.

The parents opened the door and called through the house.

“Sydney?!”

“In here!” a voice called from far away and the two adults followed it slightly confused, as it sounded happy and relaxed, and they entered into the living room seeing Sid and Kylie on the couch. Their daughter donned a new blue dyed short haircut.

“Sydney, what have you done to your hair?”

“Don't you like it?” Sid asked with a worried smile, and Laura just looked at it for a few minutes before muttering.

“Well it's a change.”

“I love it, babe.” Kylie said to Sid with a wink, and Laura and Paul blinked their eyes confused to hear Kylie say that word, seeing the dark girl with her hand on Sid's lap relaxed and uttered.

“Babe?”

“Me and Kylie are-”

“Together.” Kylie said to them with a wink and the two parents went pale before saying nervously, not even knowing their daughter was gay.

“Oh that's wonderful, sweetie.”

“I voted yes!”

“Just keep that stuff in your room.”

“Okay...” Sid said with a small laugh, but finished her sentence with a nervous voice... afraid to say the words but said bravely, “Mum, Dad?”

“Hmm?”

“I...” she said, not knowing if it was right to say this... not knowing if it would ever be right. But she had to follow her heart.

“I love you.”

“Oh, we love you too, dear.” Paul said with a smile and Laura nodded, before the two waved goodbye to leave the new couple on their own.

“Are you okay, Sid...?”

Sid looked into Kylie's eyes, seeing the love and comfort that was in them

and just nodded her head, saying.

“Yeah, I'm fine... I'm,”

She swallowed and said back quietly with a soft, brave smile. Knowing the truth now... knowing her being.

“I'm...I'm good...”