Jacob wasn't sure if he wanted to follow Adrian and Nova, like Rose and Mal had done, or to stay with Cat as she recovered. He had found himself in this argument with himself a few too many times throughout their travels by now, and he was sure he would run into again in the future. As he was debating his options with himself, Cat opened her eyes. She groaned at the pain in her leg, and tried to sit up. Jacob quickly advised her to lean back down. He explained about how bad her injury was, and why it had grown over time.

"Hey Jacob," Cat said quietly, "Thanks for helping and everything, but..." She trailed off with her current statement, getting lost in thought. Jacob didn't respond for a moment, still stunned by the fact that she had used his name. She didn't say it often, and he found himself savoring the moment, oddly enough. He was about to ask what the but on the end of her thought meant when the doorbell to their apartment building rang. Jacob stood to answer the door, expecting one of the others to be behind it. He opened the door, however, to find a young man in casual clothes over a Renegades uniform at the door. He pushed inside ignoring the fact that Jacob was wearing his Archer costume still.

"Man, I'm glad I finally found you without a mask on, Jacob." The man said. He cracked his neck and sat casually in one of the chairs as though they knew who the heck he was. Jacob had been surprised when Cat used his name, but hearing it from a stranger was an even greater surprise. "Oh, hey Cat," The man continued to interact with them casually, until he looked at his sleeves and hands, then seemed to suddenly realize something.

"Oh, sorry! Forgot to lower the disguise. My bad." He suddenly he seemed to shift and twist into another person. He now was even younger, about their age. They both recognized him right away from his short and messy brown hair, his glasses, and his choice of style, which was always a nice shirt or a plaid with the sleeves rolled up over his tee. Richard sat before them.

"Wait. how can we be sure this is actually you? You just proved you could change how you look," Jacob pointed out, finally gathering his wits. He searched his mind for the answer to a question that it was unlikely for anyone to know except Richard. Finally he found one. "What is my strongest character in our Star Wars game?"

"Well technically there are two answers to that," Richard started, "Your character with the highest power rating is actually Barriss Offee, but you and I both know that right now your actual strongest character is Grandmaster Yoda, not to be confused with Hermit Yoda." The details that Richard gave in his answer were precisely what Jacob had been looking for. He had consistently mentioned how Barriss was his highest power character, but his Yoda in the game was actually more effective. He had mentioned it only a few days before he traveled actually. "Trust me," he continued, "If I was somebody else, how would I know that you can sing soprano?"

Jacob felt a little embarrassed as Cat gave him a questioning look. He had been known to use his sing in his falsetto along with the sopranos whenever the choir director split them apart in sectionals. He wasn't all that embarrassed that he could do it. He was actually fairly proud of it. What was embarrassing was the fact that Cat was looking at him like he was crazy.

"Yup, that's me. Mr. Every Voice Part at your service," Jacob said. He looked awkwardly between the two of them, then finally addressed the elephant in the room. "How'd you get here?"

___________________

Cat listened as Richard explained his story. He started a few days before they even traveled. He had been sitting at school and the bell rang. He walked through the doors and into the crowded hall. His class was quite separate from most of the rooms in the building, so he soon split away from the flow of students. He found the back staircase and climbed up. He opened the door and stepped through, finding himself facing an amazing view of the stars hovering around him. His feet clunked on the metal floor as he walked through the field of stars. The door shut behind him, and moments later it opened again, causing the stars to all vanish without a trace.. He heard the man's words, but didn't really register what he was saying. He turned to face a man in a grey uniform that seemed familiar to him. The man pointed a strange looking gun at his chest, asking him how he got aboard. Richard looked confused before asking the question that seemed obvious.

"Aboard? Aboard what?" Richard had asked, clearly befuddled. The man lowered his weapon, finally noticing that the stranger was unarmed and confused.

"Do you know where you are?" The man asked, now curious about the young man in his superior's office. Richard shook his head, both to answer the man and to clear the stars he was seeing for some odd reason. "This must be a joke," the man grumbled, "let me figure out just who you are?" At that moment a blue figure dressed in a white uniform walked through the door as it slid open. He surveyed the scene, his piercing gaze swept over Richard and the man, carefully calculating what the situation was.

"Care to explain this agent?" the blue man said calmly as he approached his desk. Richard looked around the room and finally recognized his surroundings. Between the larger slab of stone that had graffiti all over it, the officer, and the alien in white, Richard finally realized that he had just stepped into the office of Grand Admiral Thrawn of the Imperial Navy. He backed away slowly and reached for the door controls. The agent drew his weapon and took aim as Richard dashed for the door, before he reached it he reached out his hand and the door opened. He ran back out of it, finding himself back in school, stepping into his Astronomy class.

The irony was not lost on him, even now that he sat here in yet another story. Jacob understood exactly what had happened, but Cat needed a little more explanation. He had come here only shortly after he had entered that other world. That other galaxy, to be more specific.

__________________

Mal couldn't help but be caught up in the drama between Nova and Adrian. She had wanted to see what would happen between them ever since she read the first book of the series. Unfortunately, she was a little ways behind Adrian, and running was not exactly her sport. She finally found them blocks away. They sat on the porch of Nova's devastated home when Mal and Rose finally arrived. They sat together, which was a good sign. When they saw her approaching, they turned and went inside. Mal held out her hand to signal Rose to stop.

"Perhaps we should let them sort themselves out. What do you say?" Mal pointed out. Rose nodded in agreement and the two of them turned to make the long walk back to the Watchtower. "Rose, are you feeling valued as a part of our team?" Mal asked suddenly.

Rose didn't answer for some time, clearly thinking hard about her answer. "I don't know... I just feel like I don't belong in this story. First I rejected from the Renegades, then I managed to get kidnapped by Anarchists, luckily things were looking up for me when Adrian chose me for the Watchers, but I let them down too. I ruined our trap, and managed to get caught in it myself. I made it so you guys had to face off with Renegades," Rose finally said as they walked. "I just feel like you guys know exactly what you're doing when you're here. None of you managed to get captured."

Mal burst out in a small laugh. Rose looked discouraged for a moment before she explained. "Rose, believe it or not, the first time we traveled both Jacob and Cat managed to get themselves captured. You saw the wound on Cat's leg, right? That was from an orc dagger. Jacob had to carry her miles across open country just so she wasn't walking on it. In our second adventure, Richard and I managed to actually get ourselves captured by centaurs. Every time, we helped each other. Don't wear being captured or trapped as badge of shame, it is the badge of a true traveler!" Rose seemed to be encouraged knowing she wasn't alone. They reached the Watchtower just as they finished their conversation. They opened the door to a sight Mal hadn't expected. There in the main lobby sat Richard.

_______________

Rose didn't recognize the stranger sitting in their lobby, but based on the Mal's reaction she figured it wasn't somebody else from the book. He introduced himself as Richard, looking to the others and saying it was nice to meet his replacement. He explained he had been traveling on his own by accident ever since he had taken a trip to Hogwarts. However, he hadn't been one of the original four travelers. She had met Vince once or twice through the summer when he joined the frisbee group, but she hadn't ever seen him as some dark lord like Mal had described him. Much like Vince, Richard didn't really seem to live up to his story based on her first impression.

"You're welcome by the way, all of you," Richard said. The rest of them looked at him curiously, as he hadn't done anything to help them. "I've been guiding your story ever since you got here. Who do you think convinced The Grenadier to attack the building right next to where you would come out? I was there at your trial, watching." Suddenly, he changed form into the same man Rose had met in the alley when she had first been recruited by Adrian as the second member of the Watchers. He laughed, coughing a little as he did so. "Remember me?" he asked, then changed again. This time he was a young child that Cat recognized. It was the same little boy who had been there when she and Nova had chased Adrian and Jacob. "Have you seen my mommy?" he asked innocently. Finally, he shifted back to himself, and accepted thanks once again.

"I still don't get it," Jacob said.

"Get what?" Richard asked.

"I thought you were the piggybacker on our travels. Are you saying you've been to several different stories already, but leaving is significantly easier?"

"Exactly. That is exactly what I'm saying," Richard replied.

Rose hadn't heard of how they were planning on leaving this story. It sounded like Richard could very well be a ticket out of this story. The others shot nervous looks back and forth.

"Richard?" Jacob asked, "Have you been messing with storylines? You remember what happened when we did that too much." As he spoke his voice trailed off. "Oh no... please don't tell me you led them all here!" Rose still looked bewildered by the whole conversation.

"What do you mean led them here? Led who? How?" She finally asked, throwing her arms in the air in frustration with her own lack of knowledge on the topic. Jacob was the one to explain.

"Imagine all these stories are like... pieces of cloth," he explained, "I think travelers are like a needle and thread. Everytime we make an impact on a character or change an outcome, I think we go through that piece of fabric, our string following behind us. Now you can do this as much as you want to the first world you visit. That's why we aren't frustrated when you change something, like creating the Watchers, but as soon as you slide the needle through a different piece of fabric? You connect that world with the one you already threaded. Soon, the two crash into each other."

"There is one little hole in your problem. I'm not a traveler," Richard noted, "I'm like you Rose, and like Vince. I don't actually have the ability to travel intentionally. I can travel now by accident because I managed to catch a ride with these three. Now I'm a wanderer, doomed to forever travel through the stories, never certain of my destination. That is, until these three traveled again. Now, I can help you three fix this mess."