Chapter written by eternal-eloquence
___

They landed on the ground in with a few pained grunts, the end result being a heap of limbs on the floor. Petra barely had time to process what had happened before a figure appeared in front of her, her hair tousled and her position set into a fighting stance. When Petra's eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness, not only did she see Jesse's looming form above her, but her diamond sword's blade pointed directly to her face.

The simultaneously gasped and inched away from each other as fast as they could, Lukas letting out an exclamation of surprise. Jesse let her arms drift back to her sides and her sword dangle with the point facing down.

"What just happened?" She immediately bombarded them with questions. "Where the hell were you guys? How did you end up on the floor? Weren't we supposed to go monster hunting?"

"Slow down there, sister," Petra said as she shoved Lukas gently to the side and got to her feet. "You tell us."

"What do you mean?"

"We did go monster hunting. You got hit by a witch's potion, Jesse," Lukas explained. "You were out cold. We brought you back here, and next thing we knew you were stirring in your sleep. Suddenly it was daytime again and we were all heading out of town with Axel and Olivia."

"Didn't Axel and Olivia leave yesterday?"

"Exactly."

"W-wait. So I got hit with a witch's potion?"

"Yeah," Petra cut in. "It wasn't like one we've ever seen before. It was gold."

"Gold?" Jesse repeated anxiously.

Petra nodded. "Gold. Good news is, it doesn't seem to have any lasting effects. My guess is that it's meant to knock the victim out so the witch could finish them off." She headed over to Jesse and reassuringly patted her on the back. "See, Lukas? She's fine."

"Geez. Sorry that I was worried about her well-being, Petra." Lukas still wasn't entirely convinced.

"You guys said that you appeared in Beacontown with Axel and Olivia while it was daytime," Jesse recalled. "But I've been here the whole time. I just woke up now, and according to my sources—" she headed towards a nearby window and drew back the curtains, revealing a midnight sky with stars smattered across its surface, "—it's still nighttime. You guys must've been hallucinating."

"Sure, Jesse." Petra rolled her eyes. "Just like we hallucinated you getting hit by a golden potion that knocked you out on impact."

"Anything's possible."

"Shut up."

"What time is it, anyway?" Lukas intervened, glancing around for a clock.

"Late. It's late," Jesse answered for him.

"Okay...well, I guess I should head up for bed." Petra shrugged. "Though I'm not sure I'm going to be able to sleep after what happened..." she muttered to herself.

"You should probably get to bed, too, Jesse," Lukas said. Jesse raised an eyebrow.

"Why? I'm not tired," she challenged. Petra huffed. They should've known that Jesse wasn't going to go to bed that easily.

"Jesse—"

"I might as well get some paperwork done," Jesse sighed. "See you guys tomorrow."

And without a second glance, she was out the door.

This prompted a long pause from Lukas and Petra, who each stared at the door she had exited from.

"Well, that could have gone better."

"You said it." Petra pulled her bandana off and ran her fingers through her hair. "I'm gonna go catch some shuteye. See you later?"

Lukas nodded. "Right. See ya."

He stood there, patiently waiting for her to leave. She turned on her heel, about to disappear into the corridor, when she suddenly surveyed him in a strangely cryptic manner. He shuffled his feet, uncomfortable under her scrutinizing gaze. This only made her more suspicious.

"Aren't you heading up to bed too?"

"Sure..." Lukas trailed off, the end of the word almost phrased as a question. He suddenly huffed angrily as a gust of impatience welled up in his chest. He pushed it down for the time being. Contrary to popular belief, Lukas was not the most patient person. "Just go to sleep, Petra. I'll be up in a second."

To Lukas' relief, and mild surprise, Petra simply shrugged and continued her way out of the room with a large yawn.

Lukas peered over the frame of the hallway door with one foot planted firmly on the threshold. When he was sure that Petra was safely in her room with no way of hearing him, he tiptoed to the front door and turned the doorknob, instantly welcomed by the cold, rushing wind of the night. He closed the door behind him, hearing the latch click, and hummed in satisfaction.

The crickets lured him to the depths of Beacontown, where he scanned the area for his destination. When he spotted the familiar, towering alien-structure that most Beacontowners had attempted to disassemble, he bounded towards it.

* * *

"—and then were brought back here."

"Hm. I see. That's it?"

"Yeah."

Ivor hummed in acknowledgement as Lukas' words sunk into his stream of thoughts. He'd mentioned a golden witch's potion, an unconscious Jesse, and a different version of Beacontown.

"I don't know what to make of it," Lukas said. "One second we're here, and the next we're in Beacontown. Now that I think about it, there was no Admin tower when we were there. That must've been before the fiasco with the Admin...but then that would mean we were teleported back in time, which makes no sense! Agh!"

"Louie, calm down," Ivor said. "That potion could have just created hallucinations for you guys. Besides, if there's anyone who should be freaking out, it's me. You came over here at three in the morning to ask me about some potion."

Lukas groaned and buried his face in his hands. He thought Ivor, of all people, would understand! "Ivor, we weren't hallucinating! And it wasn't just some potion! I've had this conversation with Petra before, I don't need to have it with you too!" He took his face out of his hands and slammed his palms against the table in frustration. Ivor flinched back into his seat. "You know what? I'm done." And he bounded out the front door.

"As long as it doesn't have any lasting effects!" Ivor shouted after him, grimacing as he heard the door slam. "He's gonna wake up the entire city with that temper," he added to himself in a mutter.

* * *

The next morning, it happened again.

Lukas had awoken to Petra's humming as she brewed her coffee. It had been only ten minutes before things had slowly started to spiral downwards into chaos. Before they knew it, Petra had gasped and dropped her coffee all over him as the scene around them slowly began to change into the bustling streets of Beacontown. Their current predicament was very similar to the previous one, except, this time, they accompanied Jesse and Radar instead of Axel and Olivia.

The only good thing that had come out of it this time, however, was that the message that this was no laughing matter seemed to be getting across to Petra. Slowly, but surely. "This is getting freaky," she'd whispered to him at one point when Jesse was giving Stampy and Stacy the cakes she'd crafted for them.

Soon enough, there was a strange fizzing sound, and Lukas and Petra found themselves sprawled on the ground again in the treasure room.

"Okay. That. Was weird."

"See?" Lukas said to Petra, splaying is arms out in exaggeration.

"Okay! Fine! I admit it! You're right! Now get off my case!"

"We need to tell Jesse about this," Lukas said firmly.

"Where even is she?"

"The last time I saw her was when yesterday, when she said she was going to do some paperwork, right before I..." He trailed off and ended with a groan.

Petra looked at him in confusion. "Last time you...what?"

"Huh?"

"You just trailed off," she explained. "What did you do last night, Lukas? Something to do with Jesse's paperwork?"

He sighed. "No...after you left, I went to Ivor's and asked him about the potion."

"What?"

"I know, I know."

"Lukas. Isn't it obvious that this is something we should probably keep secret?"

"Oh, yeah. Sure. Because people would totally believe us if we told them."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"What! You didn't believe it until two seconds ago, and you where there while it happened!"

"Never mind that," Petra said with one hand on her hip. "What'd Ivor say?"

"He wasn't even worried at all. He said that there was nothing to worry about as long as there was no lasting effects. But clearly there are some lasting effects because look what just happened!"

"Hold on, Lukas...Jesse was in there too. What if she's seeing what we're seeing!" Petra ended excitedly. "We should go ask her."

"That's...actually a good point. How did I not think of that before?" Lukas said, placing his hands on his hips.

They knocked on Jesse's closed bedroom door, receiving no response. There wasn't even the sound of footsteps—nothing at all. It was completely silent.

"Should we go in?" Lukas mused out loud. Petra nodded and slowly pushed the door open.

"Jesse?"

The room was untouched. Jesse's bed was neatly done, the white sheets spread out nicely on the mattress without a single wrinkle. the closet doors were shut, as where the drawers of Jesse's dresser, and her Jesse's accessories were on one of her shorter dressers and lined up against the mirror. The curtains were drawn, filtering most of the rays of sunlight that would have otherwise segued in and engulfing the room in a shallow darkness. The lamps were also shut off, providing no light to the room whatsoever.

"She's not in here," Petra stated bluntly, a faint trace of worry edging its way into her voice.

"Well, she said she was going to go do some paperwork last night," Lukas pointed out. "We should go check the office."

And that's exactly what they did. Jesse's office was a tiny room, with four walls that seemed to press in on you and no windows. It was where Jesse's large desk sat, with its mountains of papers and writing utensils, and Radar's desk as well, always neat and tidy with not even a single piece of graphite sat. The latter sat perpendicular to the former, so Jesse could see exactly what Radar was working on. It was a very horrible place to do any time of work, let alone paperwork, in that room.

Much to their relief, they found her in there. Her papers, some crumpled into tiny balls, some not, were scattered all over the desk as per usual, a red pen still grasped between her fingers. Jesse had her head resting on the desk, using one arm as a pillow. Her long black hair completely covered her face and streamed out onto the rest of the desk, the lamplight from her desk lamp still burning electricity and shining down on her sleeping form.

Lukas smiled softly, while Petra crossed her arms and rolled her eyes with a small grin.

"Should we wake her?" Petra asked.

Lukas hesitated before shaking his head. "No. She needs the sleep. We can ask her later."

Petra nodded. "Okay. But we can't just leave her here, can we?"

"No. No, we can't."

"Guess you'll have to carry her again." She laughed as Lukas' groans carried throughout the whole of Jesse's tiny office. "Shh! You'll wake her!" Petra added with a snicker as Lukas headed over and gently hoisted Jesse up bridal style for a second time.

"If you ever tell anyone about this..." he said as his face flushed bright red.

"Try me," she teased.

"Petra!"