Altera

The first thing he could say for certain was that it wasn’t *quite* Plue. Oh, it was totally close.
Their faces had the same sort-of round, sort-of heart-shaped quality. Her nose
was the same, rounded. Her eyes were the same, green and sharp and long-lashed.
She was holding a sword, which was a very Plue thing to do as well.

But her hair was a touch darker, still blonde but less
bright than the locks of the Plue he knew. Her expression seemed off, somehow,
which was weird because he’d see Plue (his Plue) look surprised a hundred times
before, but for some reason it was different with this one. Her eyes weren’t as
bright.

She stepped closer to him. Closer, and closer, and he didn’t
do anything because he wasn’t sure what he *could*
do in this scenario. He realised that there wasn’t a tiny scar on her lip, like
there was with his Plue.

She dropped the sword on the floor and reached a pale hand
up to his face, but stopped centimetres away. Paused. Breathed.

“Aaron?” She said again. Quieter, this time. And something
was definitely up; he hadn’t gone by “Aaron” for years. Changed his name to
“Dante” for legal reasons after the whole “Highwing-slash-forming Pandemonium’s
Bane” incident. She was welling up, he dimly realised, her eyes watering.
Helpless, he tried for a shrug and mostly just succeeded in letting his arms
drop to the ground a bit.

“Hey.” He said, and she stepped back like she’d been snapped
at. She cupped her hands around most of her face as the tears began to fall.

“Oh my God.” He heard her mutter. He reached out – she
stepped back again. “No! No need.” She said, way too quickly, voice choked up.
Just from what he could see, it was obvious that there was a need for *something*, but he respected her choice
and let her be while she pulled herself together.

It took a while.

**This is going to be so awkward**, Raelyn said in his mind. *Shut up*, he responded. She shut up.

She eventually sniffed one final time and let her hands
fall, wiping them on her cloak. Then she looked back up at him.

“…How’ve you been?” She asked.

This was a tricky question to answer for a few reasons. He
was mostly still distracted by the arrival of this alternate-universe version
of his partner, and by this point he’d also realised that if she was having
such an extreme reaction to just *seeing*
him, then things probably weren’t so hot back where she’d come from. There was
also the fact that he’d kind of been through a lot already.

“So-so.” He said, not sure what else to say. A pause. Then:
“Getting’ into… some fights, I guess. You know.”

She nodded. It looked for a second like she was gonna cry
again, and he braced himself for another few minutes of standing awkwardly by
the foot of the stairs, but she then blinked furiously several times and
managed to look back up at him.

“Sounds about right.” She said.

Another pause.

“I’m guessing…” He paused, tried again. “I’m guessing the
Aaron you know isn’t… uh…”

“He’s dead.” She confirmed it. There was a sad smile on her
face. “He died a long time ago.”

“I see.” Dante’s voice felt lower, that time. And he didn’t
reply. He had no idea what to say.

They were saved by his phone going off. A text alert. He
brought it up to his face, and saw that it was from Plue. She was waiting for
him outside the HQ. Right. Didn’t they have plans, or something? That was
probably, he realised, gonna have to wait.

“Who’s it from?” She – alternate-Plue – asked. The
expression on her face was unidentifiable. He decided to just bit the bullet.

“Plue.” He said.

She didn’t give a reaction. Not that he was entirely sure
how she’d react to that. Be happy that she’d get to meet her parallel self? Be
disappointed or jealous that he still *had*
a Plue, that the two of them were still each other’s other half? To be fair,
jealousy had never really been his Plue’s thing, but he didn’t know this one.

“Do you… want to meet?” He offered. She looked up at him.
Narrowed her eyes and raised her eyebrow in an expression that was so Plue he
felt a pulse in his chest. Then, she nodded slowly.

“Okay.” She said. He forced a grin.

“Fantabulous!” He remarked. Then he turned on his heel and
marched up the steps so he wouldn’t have to look at her a moment longer,
because it was too much. It was all too much. His head hurt and his heart hurt
and he suddenly felt as if he was looking into some kind of dismal future,
where he’d gone and left her behind, and he was flashing back to all the times
he’d almost died and looking at them in a whole new light because *what if he’d actually died, would this be*
what she was left as*-*

“Dante?”

Situational awareness came back into play and he realised
that he was standing on the steps outside the PB HQ. Plue – *his* Plue, his bright-eyed yellow-haired
Plue – was standing at the bottom of the steps, waiting for him. She looked
unamused.

“What took you so long?” She asked. He glanced behind him –
other Plue was just coming out of the doors.

“Well, that’s the thing.” He said nervously. She raised the
eyebrow, and he sort of stood back unceremoniously to let the two Plues catch
sight of each other at the same time. Neither of them moved for a moment – and
then, as one, they raised their arms to point at each other. It was almost
funny.

“That’s me!” His Plue said, pointing at the newcomer. She
nodded, dimly.

“And you’re me.” She rasped. His Plue, after a moment,
nodded.

“Looks like it.” She acknowledged.

Dante clapped his hands together.

“So!” He said. “Now that we’ve, uh, caught everyone up,
thoughts on discussing somewhere more private?”

“Sounds like a plan.” The two Plues said in sync, before
shooting one another a look. Ah. Hopefully that wasn’t going to be a problem…

0(0)0

“Alternate dimensions, huh?” Plue asked, sipping on her hot
chocolate. Alter-Plue nodded.

“I think so.” She explained. “That’s- I mean, that’s the
only real explanation for all of this.”

“That it is.” Agreed Plue. She and her counterpart nodded in
sync. Dante, standing by the hob, was forced to blink and adjust his vision.
Nothing could have prepared him for how *trippy*
it was to see parallel versions of his girlfriend interact with one another. It
was way beyond bizarre.

“And you’re here because?” Plue prompted? Alter-Plue frowned.

“My own dimension… we lost, essentially.” She said in a nice
and unambiguous statement. Dante and Plue both stared at her with worry. She
began to elaborate:

“The maelstrom won. The Nexus Force was destroyed. I spent
years trying to gather together groups of survivors, eke out a living. But we
always… we just always lost. Died. Got scattered again.”

She wasn’t meeting either of their eyes, now. She was
staring at the table below her.

“Eventually, I cut my losses.” She explained. “I’d found out
about the gate some time ago, and I… I just went through it. I figured that if
I couldn’t save my own dimension, I’d try to help in another one.”

Neither Plue nor Dante had anything to say to that
initially, but eventually Plue spoke up.

“That sucks.” She mused, and she probably wasn’t wrong.
“That really suck. I’m… I mean…” She sighed. “An apology would be hollow.”

Alter-Plue nodded again.

“Yeah.” She said, simply. “Yeah, it would.”

Plue sighed.

“I can’t imagine how I’d handle everything I’m assuming
you’ve been through.” She confessed. Alter-Plue shrugged.

“I mean, you’d probably turn out quite similar to this.” She
thumbed at herself, completing the joke. Dante saw Plue crack a smile.

“Maybe.” She admitted.

There was another silence. Dante, eventually becoming too
uncomfortable with how dour everything was getting (not that he blamed
Alter-Plue, but like, oof), clapped his hands and got both of their attentions.

“So, you want to help?” He asked, folding his arms. “Join my
team.”

Plue looked startled, but it was Alter-Plue who winced and
shook her head.

“No, no, I can’t.” She said, nervously glancing between
Dante and Plue. “I couldn’t do that.”

“My Plue isn’t normally there, so it’s not like you’d be
treading on her toes or anything.” He emphasised. That just made Alter-Plue
look *more* nervous, though.

Plue spoke up. She sounded a tad exasperated. “Dante, I want
you to think through the problems that could potentially arise if you came from
a dimension where I was dead, and got put on a team with another me. And then
flip it around.”

He did. And then it made sense.

“Right.” He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “Right…”

Plue turned to face him and wagged her finger threateningly.
“And don’t you dare make a threesome joke.”

Dante held his hands up. “Wha- *when* did I imply I was gonna do *that*?
I have standards!”

“I don’t know!” Plue retorted. “But I figured I’d
pre-emptively tell you to not do it before you even got the idea.”

“Oh, *thanks*.”
Dante said, sarcastically. Now she’d actually just put the idea in his head! He
clapped his hands over his eyes. “Now I’ve got to stop myself from picturing
it!”

“Good luck!” Plue said in a too-sweet voice. Dante lumbered
over to the cupboards and decided to busy himself with making some more hot
chocolate – if for no other reason, than to distract him and stop him from
thinking about- that thing that Plue had brought up. It definitely didn’t help
that he could hear Raelyn cackling in his head. AND encouraging him to do it.
He’d expect nothing less from her by this point, to be fair.

He could tell that Plue and Alter-Plue were having a
conversation, but it was all white noise to him until a good few minutes later,
where he approached the table with three steaming mugs in hand. Plue accepted
hers gracefully; Alter-Plue looked startled at the offer, and then began to
cradle the mug to her chest like she didn’t want to reveal it to the big and
scary world. Plue focused back on him.

“Dante, we have an idea.” She said. Dante, thankful for
another distraction, eyed her keenly. Plue flicked a hand between herself and
Alter-Plue. “We’ve been talking.” She confirmed. “And we have a good idea of
what she could do.”

Dante glanced over to Alter-Plue, who turned to look back at
him.

“I could become, in essence, a special agent.” She said.
“Join your team, but not as a regular member; as someone who takes on solo
tough assignments, does shit underground, and generally acts as a… like, silent
right hand. Or something like that.”

Dante was almost more startled to hear Alter-Plue curse –
the Plue he knew never normally did that – but eventually figured he could just
chalk it up to interdimensional differences, and began to think about their
idea.

“Objectively,” Plue continued from her counterpart, “it’s
fantastic, because it essentially gives you and me an ace in the hole that
no-one else’ll know about. A failsafe in case everything else goes balls-up, or
something like that. And, subjective… subjectively, it also works because she
can be a part of the team without having to spend that much time in your
company.”

“Is my company that bad?” Dante joked, even though he knew
what both of them were referring to. Plue laughed through her nose.

“You know what we mean.” She told him. He nodded.

“Yeah, yeah.” He turned to Alter-Plue. “And you’re okay with
it?”

She nodded. “It’ll be what I was doing before, in some ways,
so it’s not going to be too unfamiliar.” She explained. “Besides, if there’s a
chance that I can help make sure that this dimension – your dimension – never
ends up like mine? I’m game.”

Touched beyond words, Dante extended his hand. Alter-Plue
looked at it in surprise for a moment; then her face softened and she grasped
it, pumping it once before letting go. Like she was afraid to hold on for too
long.

“So.” She said, her briskness clearly forced (not that him
or Plue were going to comment on it). “I’m guess I’m going to need to change up
my appearance a bit, to make sure there isn’t any confusion.”

“Considering I’m the leader of the Nexus Force? Ideally,
yeah.” Admitted Plue. “Any colour you’ve always wanted your hair to be?”

Alter-Plue twirled one of her long and grimy strands. “I think
I can think of something.” She admitted. “And I’ll need a new name, too.
Probably.”

“Probably.” Admitted Plue. The two smiled at one another.

“New name?” Dante’s interest was piqued (as well as
Raelyn’s). Naming things was fun. “Oooh, okay, let’s see…” His mind wandered to
the Mythran language; naming things based on that was always fun. “Would you
feel too averse to a name like “Umbra”? It means “shadow” or “shade”, so I
don’t know if that’d work…”

“What’s the word for “other”? Or “another”, or “alter”, or
something like that?” Alter-Plue asked him. “I mean, that’s what I am.
Technically.”

“Are you sure you’re okay with that?” Plue asked. Alter-Plue
nodded.

“I’m fine.” She assured her, before turning back to Dante.
“What would the word be?”

“Uhh…” Dante thought. What was it?

**Alius**, Raelyn
told him. *Thanks*, he thought back,
honestly surprised by the contribution. Maybe there was hope for the two of
them after all.

“Alius.” He repeated. Alter-Plue nodded. “I can get behind
that.”

Surprisingly, it was Plue that spoke up. ““us” is, like, the
masculine suffix, right?” She asked. “Wouldn’t you prefer “Alia”?”

Alter-Plue and Dante eyed one another.

“I mean, I don’t think that’s how it works, actually-” Dante
began.

“-but I think that sounds better.” Alter-Plue – *Alia* – finished. “Thanks, Plue.”

Plue smiled. “No problem, Alia.”

Dante was curious for a bit longer, but hey; it was her
choice. “Well then,” he said, holding out his fist. “Welcome to the team,
Alia.”

Alia glanced down at his fist warily, but then shrugged and
bopped it with her own.

“Glad to be here.” She said. And smiled.