Chapter Text
When Wifies awoke, he expected smoke and rubble.
When Wifies awoke, he didn't know what to expect.
When Wifies awoke, he didn't expect to wake up at all.
This was unexplored ground for him, after months of tracking Parrot's... everything. He’s used to situations he could expect.
He winced. He didn't expect to wake up in the first place, and now the dim light of the unfamiliar room seared his eyes. He greeted his death with grace after all, he thought.
Speaking of his death, he was made suddenly aware of the lack of a specific item, in his inventory or surroundings. After a slightly panicked pat down, he confirmed it.
The spyglass was gone. Possibly for good this time.
Pushing aside that panic, he settled on looking around. This was not his deathbed.
It was a bed, though. and perfectly comfortable.
Warily, he looked around the rest of the room— calm white walls, spruce furniture, a singular lamp casting dim light on everything.
A window showcasing a skyline he’s never seen before.
Where the fuck was he.
He knew everything about everywhere on Unstable. Every civilization since the Mafia could not exist without his knowing.
Did one slip under the radar? Has he been out for a ridiculously long time? Was Horace (under)paid to put all of this up in a night?
Or… was this a different—
“Hello!” Wifies jumped at the interruption, tearing his gaze from the window and towards the intruder, sporting auburn hair and mismatched cat ears. A face he knew— Kenadian.
“My name is Kenadian,” Kenadian confirmed, “And I’m in charge of your rehabilitation. Ask me any questions you have. This is my house. Uhm… Do you have a serial number?”
“A… serial number?”
“Yeah, you know— 0034, 0145. That kinda thing.”
Wifies blinked at them.
“No.”
Kenadian blinked back.
“Okay… Do you have a name then?”
“Wifies.” Did Kenadian not recognize him?
Kenadian squinted at him. “How did you… come across this name?”
Wifies squinted back, “It’s… mine?”
Kenadian noted down something on a clipboard and left.
Wifies slumped onto the backboard, trying to think his way through what was happening.
He died. Unmistakably, he died. To his own failsafe.
Embarrassing, truly.
The question was if he died, how was he alive now? Where was he? Why didn’t Kenadian recognize him?
He didn’t have enough information. He needed to get information. He’s not used to the unknown anymore.
Wifies stood up, regrettably leaving the very comfortable bed to go investigate. His bones hurt.
The door swung open with a creak, revealing a grey hallway and voices lowly arguing somewhere up ahead.
With nothing better to do, Wifies headed towards them.
“--and all im saying is that maybe you’re overracting, Ken.” Familiar voice— Wato?.
“How am I overreacting! I am reacting perfectly reasonably.”
A new voice— “You’re panicking about the guy we picked up being a spy for a dead guy. I think maybe you’re overreacting.”
“Maybe he’s not dead, did you think of that?”
A second new voice— “I bashed his skull in myself, Kenadian. Wifies is dead.”
Wifies froze, a few feet from the door, at an angle he couldn’t see inside.
This was bad.
“Urgh you’re right, Clove. If he was still alive he’d make sure we knew it.”
The first voice (Wato?) comes back, “Maybe we ask him more questions.”
“Yeah. Like how he survived the factory explosion.” Clove again.
Wifies decided maybe he shouldn’t get caught eavesdropping if they were scared he was a spy.
Slowly, leaving them to brainstorm, he fleed back to the room, settling on a plush armchair instead of the bed.
So they really didn’t recognize him. And he was dead— In a different way than he remembered dying.
Maybe he could ask Kenadian for a notebook. Keeping track of everything mentally was tiring.
He missed Jumperwho’s files.
He missed knowing things.
The door swings open again, revealing not Kenadian, but someone who could almost be a reflection of Wifies himself, aside from the scar across their neck and sweater vest.
“So… Wifies.”
Wifies blinked.
“My name is Clove, they/them, and I have some questions for you.”
Wifies blinked again. What kind of server glitch was this?
Clove squinted at him. “...Hello? Earth to Wifies.”
“Uh. Yeah?”
“Questions?”
Wifies blinked. “Sure?”
Clove’s mouth became a line, “Okay. So one— how are you alive?”
“I’m trying to figure that out myself.”
“See that’s not helpful.”
“You people aren’t telling me anything either!!” Wifies squawked, “How am I meant to answer questions when I don’t know what’s going on?”
Clove sighed, beckoning Wifies to follow them.
Wifies obliged.
They travelled down the same tunnel as before, this time going through the door, revealing a kitchen/living room setup, with Kenadian, Wato, and another Wifies doppelgänger— this time with a hoodie and longer hair.
Clove pulled out a chair, gesturing for Wifies to sit down before pulling out their own.
“So we both have questions,” they start, looking at everyone surrounding the table, “hopefully we can clear up any confusion all at once.” They turned to Wifies, “Maybe you can tell them what you told me.”
Wifies cleared his throat, “I don’t know how I’m alive and I don’t know what’s happening. Is what I told Clove.” Usually he liked to keep information close to his chest, but at this point he presumes he can’t afford that. Any withheld information would make his hosts infinitely suspicious.
“Where did you come from?” Clove.
Wifies rubbed his neck, slightly embarrassed. He’s not used to people anymore. “That’s annoyingly complicated.”
“Simplify it.”
“I don’t think I’m from… here.” Wifies said awkwardly.
“Yeah see that says nothing. That gives us no information.” Kenadian joins the conversation.
“I don’t have information!!” Wifies complains, “All I know is that I was facing all of my mistakes flung in my face as Parrot left me to explode.”
All four of the people in front of him glanced at each other.
“What.”
“Welcome to my world,” Wifies grumbled, looking askance. The memories were fresh, mistakes burning through his brain. Parrot was right, he did regret it.
Wato leaned back in his chair, tapping the table in concentration, “That… doesn’t line up with what we know of Wifies.”
“So then what do you know of Wifies?”
This time Clove jumped in. “Wifies was a famed supervillain known as the Scientist. He had his hands in everything, and we only found out about him long after he became a problem.”
That sounded uncomfortably familiar. Wifies shifted in his seat.
“One of the things he did primarily was create clones, often to further a single purpose each. Usually pretending to be him, for some kind of information tradeoff or a hit. He prided himself on being untouchable. Fifi and I are two such clones.”
Wato jumped in again, continuing the story, “A little bit ago, Kenadian and I raided his factory and blew it up. They were the only known survivors.”
That’s definitely not Wifies’ past. So many things were different, but one thing stuck out— “Supervillain?”
That got him looks.
“Yes?”
“Like a supervillain. Superheroes. All that jazz?”
Kenadian furrowed his brow. “What do you mean. How out of town do you live?”
“I think maybe farther than any of us thought.”
“That’s so helpful, thank you.”
Wifies paused, not wanting to even voice the possibility. He thought of it earlier, but it was so far fetched he discarded it immediately. But there didn’t seem to be any other explanation than— “I think I’m from another universe.”
Silent blinks from around the table.
“What.”
Wifies held his hands out as if to avoid attack, “I know— I know that sounds inconceivable but I genuinely don’t know what you’re talking about. And also Wato and Ken didn’t recognize me and we were friends. I was never a part of a factory and I’m not a clone.”
The quartet collectively leaned back, with the exception of Fifi, who leaned forwards. “That’s so interesting! So like, you don’t have superpowers? Or heroes or villains?”
“No… Not really. There were people who could be considered heroes or villains but not like, super versions,” Wifies couldn’t help but think of Parrot. “Some tried a bit too hard to be either.” Maybe he was thinking of himself, too.
“Okay, I’m actually not sure where to go from here.” Kenadian said after a moment of silence, “I assume you need a place to stay. Wato found you in a tree at the park.”
“I- Yeah, that would be appreciated.“
Kenadian clapped their hands, “Excellent. The room you were staying in was our spare anyways.”
Wato snickered, “I vote not it to telling Wemmbu his favorite room is taken.”
Kenadian groaned.
“You chickens. I’ll do it,” Fifi smiled, bemused.
Wifies filed that information for later.
“Oh! You know what this means?”
Kenadian groaned again, “It means you’re going to spend all our money again.”
“It means shopping trip! Yay!”
- - -
Wifies sat, again, on the bed. Surveying, again, the room. His room. His closet was stocked, he had fun blankets and pillows, and figurines from shows Clove and Fifi insisted on showing him.
They had, in fact, stayed in budget. It seemed Kenadian’s ribbing was just that-- unserious ribbing.
For the first time all day, he was truly alone with his thoughts, no company and no scrambling.
This was a second chance. He died in that chamber. He’s alive now. When he dove for the spyglass he accepted the explosion, accepted a justified death. Parrot would never look at him the same, he didn’t have any reason to keep going. His last moments were embracing the friendship he ruined, remembering everything he turned his back on.
Part of him didn’t think he deserved this. Part of him wanted to redo what was undone when he woke up in his bed.
He looked over at the figurines. He wanted to watch the shows. He wanted to learn to know the two who claimed him as their brother. He wanted to learn more about the world he’s spawned into.
It wasn’t the time for foolhardy decisions. He needed to collect information.
He smiled, closed his blinds, and went to bed, excited to see what tomorrow had in store for him.