#michifics

Title: You Look Better Author: Tsubame Ongaku aka The Blue and Gold of @bughead-fanfiction  Fandom: Riverdale (TV Show) and BUGHEAD Rating: G Disclaimer: The series belong to CW with characters belonging to its respective artists.

Prompt:  If you could do one with Betty at school wearing Jughead’s clothes (like his flannel, beanie,etc.) that would be the cutest thanks.

Summary:  Clothes maketh a man.  Jughead is a firm believer of this.  He was Jughead and the clothes on his back reminded him that.  However, he knows how to share when the situation calls for it … 

Title: Age of Innocence  Author: Tsubame Ongaku Fandom: Riverdale and BUGHEAD Rating: T Disclaimer: The series belong to CW with characters belonging to its respective artists. 

Summary: [Pre-Series] Jughead and Archie reminisce on their past and understand the meaning of innocence.   

Innocence.

A word often used on while we were young. But what does it mean? And whom does it really apply? Does this really only refer to those youths that don’t seem to know any better? Those without guile, cunning and dark agendas behind the eyes of the adults that no child sees or understands until they become one themselves …

Title: What is in a Name?  Author: Tsubame Ongaku Fandom: Green Gables Fables (@officialggf and dwellinginmarblehalls)    Rating: T Disclaimer: Original characters belong to L.M. Montgomery. And Green Gables Fables doesn’t belong to me either. I am simply a fan that wishes to express her love for the show. 

Summary: Shakespeare once said, “What's in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.” Anne sometimes wished she felt the same way. Where is the romance? The whimsical in the name just plain, Ann.

What is in a Name? Tsubame Ongaku

Anne couldn't help but make a face when she saw her name on her class schedule. The horrid person distributing them spelled it as, “Ann.”

Just Ann! No “e.” Just plain, regular “Ann.”

Gilbert was sitting on her bed, busy reading his own schedule and already dreading some of the classes that was about to come. In fact, he was visiting Anne to relax, before he had to go back and memorize the skeletal system again.

“I have Saturdays free. What about you?” He finally asked. If they were lucky, the rest of the gang would be too.

No reply.

Title: Take a Picture; It Lasts Longer

Author: Tsubame Ongaku

Fandom: Spooksville Live Action Series

Rating: K+

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation to the to Jim Krieg or his group in the production of Spookville. This is written to show my support for the show and to entertain other fellow fans.

Summary: A new face has appeared in Spooksville and he was setting every female heart in Spooksville racing. He is an older, handsome photographer whose favorite hobby seems to be taking pictures of Ann. He is sweet, understanding and too good to be true. This is Spookville, there had to be a catch.

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Take a Picture; It Lasts Longer

Tsubame Ongaku

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Ann Templeton might be the infamous town witch but there was no denying that like all the Templeton women, she is a very beautiful girl. However, even she was unused to the attention this person was giving her. She didn’t necessarily dislike it but she certainly didn’t find it at all normal.

She could hear the flash of his camera from the spot on the bench she was resting. It was making it difficult to concentrate reading her book. Not that it was really all that interesting. Moorpark had wanted her to brush up on a spell for transferring memories.

The sound of the flash and shutter stopped, but she could still feel his eyes on her. Without looking up from her book, she says in a voice she was sure was loud enough for him to hear; “Take a picture, it lasts longer --- oh wait! You already did that, didn’t you?”

There was a sound of a chuckle before he finally stepped out of his hiding place. “My sister always told me I’d make a terrible spy.”

“What do you want? Other than think that you are some kind of closet pervert and gets a thrill out of spying on teenage girls, I can’t think of any other reason you’d be here spying on me.”

She knew who he was of course. Since he suddenly appeared to document their school’s last sports fest, he was a popular source of eye candy. She never really paid him much attention before, but now she had the luxury to admire him.

He was as handsome as rumors said. At the same time, she couldn’t help but feel like he reminded her of someone. His name was Andy Manfred, a handsome young man in his early to mid-twenties and he was a new face in Spooksville. And to Ann that was reason enough to be wary of him.

She had been in Spooksville long enough to know that one should never trust a pretty face.

“Hold on, wait minute. Don’t do anything hasty. I come in peace,” he said as he raised his arms and camera in the air in surrender.

He had smiled and Ann couldn’t help but think there was something eerily familiar about that smile. “You must really be new in Spooksville if you think that would work on me.” She stood from her bench and started walking the other direction.

Suddenly, he was in front of her blocking her exit looking at her with that handsome smile on his face. “Wait. Look, I’m sorry. I think we got off the wrong foot.” He extends a hand towards her. “Hi, I’m Andy. You?”

Ann smiled darkly. Her smile was looking more like a smirk. “And I’m leaving,” she answered pushing past him.

This time, he didn’t stop her.

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    Adam didn’t know what it was about Andy that bothered him. It wasn’t that he was so popular with the girls, like Sally. It wasn’t that he got along scarily well with his bestfriend, Watch and that said bestfriend was cancelling on him and Sally more and more.

It wasn’t that he was extraordinary. In fact, everything thing about him was pretty ordinary. With only a handful of exceptions, even his photos were pretty ordinary.

“Do we know anything about him?” Adam asked Sally after they got another message from Watch that he was going to stay in school a little longer.

Sally swung her bag over her shoulder and shrugged, “Well, we know he is handsome and popular. He plays basketball like a pro. He was hired by the tourism board of the city to take pictures for brochures…”

“He also has no family and nobody seems to know where he came from. Not to mention, of all places to be a photographer, why choose Spooksville?”

  Sally didn’t say, but she thought it was a little weird as well. Spooksville wasn’t really oozing with anything worthy for tourism. “Tourism Board paid well? That’s the only reason why anybody would be crazy enough to take pictures in Spookville. The last photographer was last seen taking pictures by the lake and was never seen again.”

They suddenly stopped when they saw Ann’s limousine stop in front of school. A few minutes later, Ann came out of the school. For a few minutes, they saw her and Moorpark talk before she finally entered the car.

After what happened with Madeline Templeton, Adam and Ann haven’t talked. It probably looked like he was avoiding her and even he had to admit that they were probably right. Her betrayal stung but at the same time --- he couldn’t seem to completely ignore her.

When her car pulled out of school, Adam looked away in time to see Andy take a picture of Ann’s car from the window of the school laboratory. He noticed Adam watching him and quickly got behind the curtains.

Had he just been taking pictures of Ann?

Maybe he shouldn’t be surprised. He can’t forgive what she did but he’d have to be blind not to admit she was pretty. However, there were a lot of prettier girls in school. He could take pictures of them.

He stopped himself before he could think about it further. Why should he? He didn’t trust her. Whatever trust he had for her before was gone. Whatever was going on between if there really was anything going on, had nothing to do with him.

“Come on. Let’s go. My dad told me that we’re expecting someone for dinner.”

Adam managed to push out the thoughts while he was helping his father out with dinner. It wasn’t unusual to see his father cook lately. Since they moved to Spooksville, they have been opting to cook their own food most of the time since the best and only restaurant in town sometimes had very questionable tastes.

“You haven’t told me who was coming over,” he said, munching on a cookie he snatched from the refrigerator earlier.  

“I don’t know if he is someone you know. He hasn’t been here long.” Mr. Freeman proceeded to explain how he met their guest while he was shopping for fishing gear in town earlier. They got along because he also had a wide knowledge of fishing.

  They were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. Adam excused himself to answer it. What was waiting for him was the last thing he wanted to see.

“What are you doing here?”

Andy didn’t seem bothered by the cold reception. “I’m here for dinner. Your dad invited me… can I come in?” The first thing Adam noticed was the camera that was still swinging around his neck. He was a photographer so maybe it wasn’t at all that weird …

… maybe just a little. Why would anyone want to bring a camera to dinner?

Still frowning, Adam steps aside for their guest to pass. When Adam’s father saw them, he smiled apologetically and told them that he wasn’t done yet. It wasn’t hard to guess why. Smoke was coming out of the pot he was tinkering with earlier. He suggested that the two boys play basketball.

Having seen him play basketball in school before, Adam knew perfectly well that Andy was seriously good having played against his school’s varsity players and not doing too badly.

Maybe trying to break the ice, Andy grins and asks, “So, who is it?”

Dribbling the ball a bit with one hand, he stared suspiciously at Andy. “Who is what?”

“Who are you really into of course? Your friend Sally is kind of cute.”

Adam had been attempting to make a shot when he asked that, instead he tripped on his own feet. He turned to Andy and stared at him like he was some kind of madman.

“Or maybe Little Miss Ann Templeton is more your type.”

“Definitely not,” Adam answered quickly and his expression becoming very dark.

Probably sensing that it wasn’t a good subject, he quickly apologized.  “Sorry. What did she do? Break your heart or something?”

“I don’t want to talk about it, okay? And I especially don’t want to talk about it with you.” He threw the basketball towards Andy and began walking away.  

“You don’t like me very much, do you? Are you threatened by someone stepping into your turf?”

“Threatened? By you? You have got to be joking.”

Andy had caught the ball and was now dribbling it thoughtfully. “No joke. Because I know how you think.”

“Do you have any idea how creepy that sounds?”

“You do know that this is Spooksville. You’ve got to have already seen something much scarier than me.”

Adam wasn’t amused, but he did have a point. He’s seen ghosts, aliens and goblins since arriving in this town. “Why are you here? You’re getting close to my friends and my dad. Why?”

He didn’t get a reply. Instead, Andy dropped the ball and picked up his camera. “You don’t mind if I take a few pictures, do you?”

Again, that was a little strange. Usually you didn’t need permission to take pictures, right? “I don’t mind I guess. What’s so great about taking pictures anyway?”

Without looking up from tinkering with his camera, he answered, “My … girlfriend was the one that taught me. She always said that the camera is the only way to capture a person’s soul. ”

“Where is she now?”

“She’s gone.”

“I’m … sorry.”

Andy laughed and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll win her back. Are you going to let me take a picture or what?”

Maybe it was guilt for bringing up that topic up, but Adam found himself smiling. “Just make sure to get my good side, alright?”

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  It wasn’t unusual have Sally Wilcox in Watch’s laboratory in the middle of the night. What’s unusual was Sally Wilcox anywhere near his laboratory before nine in the morning. Watch was in a break through, which was why he didn’t get much sleep the night before. He didn’t think it would be a problem.

So imagine his surprise when the small girl woke him up in the most unpleasant way possible.

She played Justin Bieber’s Baby in full volume.

“Sally?! What in the ---?”

Sally gave a smirk and quickly turned it off. “Now, that you’re awake. I think we should talk.”

Watch grumbled and began to try putting order to his bedhead. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“Sure I do. It’s 6am. Just in time for breakfast.”

He yawned and began to stretch. There was no point trying to get some sleep with Sally here. She looked like a girl in a mission and he knew better than to try and stop her. He knew her long enough to know she wouldn’t leave him alone. “What do you want that is so important that you wake me up this early in the morning?”

“I think Adam has been possessed by an evil spirit.”

Normally, something like that would probably sound ridiculous. But in a place like Spooksville, that is actually very highly plausible. “What are you talking about? I talked to him yesterday. He looked just fine to me.”

“Well, now he’s not fine!”

“What makes you say that?”

“He’s having coffee at a café with Ann Templeton. Laughing!”

Watch blinked.

“Ann Templeton? The girl he never forgave for tricking him Madeline Templeton is his mother? That Ann Templeton.”

If Adam was talking to Ann Templeton, Watch knew that was worth investigating. He knew how angry Adam was after what Ann did. It wasn’t like him to not tell them what he was up to either. Weren’t they a team?

“So, get out of bed and help me make sense of this. Oh! And your mom made breakfast.”

Breakfast had been quick of toast and was out the door within minutes. Sally was afraid that if they lingered, they would miss something. Watch wasn’t really quite sure what was so interesting about watching Adam date. In fact, it was a little too stalkerish and creepy.

“We are not stalking,” Sally assured him. “We’re just concerned friends watching over and making sure that nothing is wrong.”

“I am not sure Adam is going to see it that way though.”

But Sally didn’t respond. It was either she didn’t hear him or she simply chose to ignore him completely. Having no choice, Watch sighed nibbled on his breakfast as they made their way towards the café.

Watch didn’t think Sally was lying when she told him but he was still not ready to see Adam sitting so closely to Ann Templeton. What was even stranger was that he was smiling and acting like nothing was wrong.

Sally pulled him to an adjoining table obscured from view behind a tall plant. They were close enough to hear the conversation and it was certainly an odd one.

Ann took a sip of her latte and gave a surprised look. “This is … my favorite,” she whispered quietly. “But how would you know?”

Adam smiled but didn’t answer. There was nothing unusual about how he was that morning. It was simply that he seemed to know a lot more about her than she remembered ever telling him.

First, he knew where to find her when she wanted to get away from Shadowmere and then he knew what she ordered whenever she was there. Not the one she bought every morning on her way to school. Not even Sally with all her stalking and researching about her ever knew. She made sure of it.

She was glad to have Adam talking to her again, but she couldn’t help feel it was a little off.

It was Adam but at the same time it wasn’t Adam.

He had Adam down from the smile to the mannerisms. Instead of being endearing, it felt more creepy than anything. She wanted to leave but it has been a pretty long while since she last saw Adam, she didn’t see the harm of sneaking a few minutes of his time.

“Why the change of heart? I thought you hated me.”

“Are you sure you really want to talk about this? We don’t have a lot of time before we have to leave for school.”

From what Watch could understand, Ann was just as confused about Adam’s behavior as they were. It just might be possible she had nothing to do with it. Sally didn’t believe that though as she eloquently told him after Adam and Ann left for school.

“I am telling you! She knows something. I just feel it.”

Watch sighed. “From what I heard, that is not what it sounded like.” He tried looking for Andy earlier, but for some strange reason nobody could find him. He had no choice but listen to Sally speak of the Templeton witch casting a spell hypnotizing into believing that he was head over heels for her. “Listen, I think something weird is going on too. But Ann doesn’t have to be behind everything weird that happens.”

“Why not? If you haven’t noticed, she usually is.”

“No. She’s not. It’s Madeline Templeton.”

“And Ann is a Templeton, right?”

Watch wasn’t completely convinced. He didn’t really trust her but she did help them get Adam back, so he believed that she wouldn’t do anything to him.  But something weird was definitely going on.

“Maybe. But I think we should really think about this.”

 “Aren’t you going to be busy with Andy, your new bestfriend?”

What? What?! No!” Watch really confused and surprised by this. “He’s just been helping me with my theory on Alternate Universes. You’d be surprise how much he knows.”

“Oh.” Sally relaxed visibly. “Alternate Universes? You mean like the ones in the Secret Path?”

“Yeah. I was hoping to find a way to calculate which one Adam’s mom went to,” he admitted. He felt bad about keeping this a secret for a while, but he didn’t want to bring Adam’s hopes up for nothing. “I didn’t have much luck with it. There are too many possible universes. Even if we explored every one of them, we’d probably be better of searching for a needle in a haystack.”

 “For now, why don’t we concentrate on this universe, shall we?”

It wasn’t like they had a choice. “We’ll start with the most obvious. Let’s start at Adam’s place.”

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  Adam wasn’t home when they got there, but his father was and he offered to let them wait. He also mentioned that Adam had been acting strange. However, he had been acting quite normal during dinner with Andy.

Sally leaped up from her chair. “Andy? You know Andy Manfred?”

He repeated the story he told Adam about how he met Andy. They could really find nothing out of the ordinary from it. It was maybe a little weird that a guy like Andy liked fishing but people had weirder hobbies. What caught their attention was what came after dinner. Before Andy went home for the night, Andy challenged Adam to a game of basketball. Adam probably didn’t like that idea. It was Spooksville after all and it was never a good idea to be out at night.  

Somehow, he managed to convince him though. When Adam got back, it was like he and Andy became best friends. It sounded like the game was a lot of fun.

“I’m not buying it.” Sally whispered to Watch once they were out of earshot. “That guy probably has something to do with this. He’s probably working for the Templetons.”

They might not be friends, but Watch didn’t think Andy Manfred was a bad guy. They might not know much about him but --- who was he kidding? Of course he was suspicious. This was Spooksville and nothing is coincidence in Spooksville.

“I guess we know where to start then.”

Watch knew that look. It was the look Sally had when they were about to do something they might get in trouble for breaking the law.

“We’re breaking and entering into his house, aren’t we?”

“Yep.”

It wasn’t hard to find where he lived. He’s been living a few blocks from the photo shop where he usually developed his pictures since he arrived.

Watch hated breaking and entering. They haven’t been caught yet, but that didn’t make him feel any better about it. What they discovered when they got there was they didn’t need to.

The landlady caught them. She didn’t look very surprised to see them. More specifically, to see Watch. “Oh, you’re Andy’s little brother’s friend. Are you looking for Andy?”

 “Little brother?” Watch didn’t remember Andy ever opening that he had a little brother. Now that he thought about it, he never mentioned his family much. They weren’t about to lose this chance though. “How did you know?”

“I saw your pictures. Those photos looked a little old though, so I always thought you would be older. I was wrong. Neither of you look any different.”

“We were looking for Andy this time. Would you mind showing us to his place? We’ll do our waiting there.”

It wasn’t that easy as they thought though. She didn’t like the thought of letting them in without Andy’s permission and offered them to wait at the parlor. They declined and appeared to have left but Sally really wanted to see that room.

“So, in the end we ended up breaking and entering anyway.”

Sally shushed him as she slowly slipped through the window. They weren’t ready for what they found inside. There were walls of charts and pictures. Andy had been watching them and observing them.

“This is why he is a photographer. He needed an excuse to take pictures of us.” He scanned the wall. It was a brilliant cover. Nobody would think twice of a photographer taking pictures of them. It was their job after all, so he could watch them undisturbed. “Of all of us.”

That wasn’t the only thing that was odd. There were two sets of photos.

“What the heck am I wearing? I’d never wear something like that!” Sally exclaimed seeing a picture of herself wearing something she wouldn’t be caught dead wearing.

 “I’m wearing … an ascot?!”

“Seriously? That is the first thing that freaks you out?”

“Easy for you to say. You’re not wearing it!” she hissed. “Who are they anyway? I mean. That can’t be me.”

There were notes beside every photo. Watch pointed to the note beside his photo. “The word stepbrother had been crossed out.” Beside it was Bestfriend ad underlines twice.

There was something written on a note beside Sally’s name.

Madam Mayor’s daughter. It was also crossed out and like Watch also had another word beside it. Bestfriend.

“What does this mean?”

“I don’t know. I am still trying to make sense of all of this. Look, there’s Ann!”

Or they think was Ann at least. There was a photo of the Anne they knew of course, but the disturbing part was the other photo with it. The Ann on the other photo looked older and more matured --- maybe in her twenties. It was impossible.

“Photoshop?”

“It’s possible, but it wouldn’t make any sense why he would do something like this. Maybe it is just a look-alike or a photo of one of the Templeton ancestors.” There was nothing written beside the photos like the others. But there was something written under the photo of the older Ann.

“All My Love, Ann”

While Sally began choking on what that meant, Watch finally understood. The detailed diagram of every person in Spooksvile and what theoretically could be … their counterpart?

“This … can’t be. It’s impossible. It was still all theory!”

“Watch, this is Spooksville. Impossible is possible, now are you going to tell me what is going on or am I going to have to twist your arm?”

Watch frowned. It was beginning to all make sense why Andy knew so much about Alternate Universes. “There is a theory that Alternate universes exist and they were developed from the choices people made. If there is a universe for every choice made, you’d have billions. Actually, I don’t think you can count how many.”

“Argh! Can you skip the science and get to who this creeper is?””

Watch rolled his eyes and sighed. “Isn’t it obvious? Who don’t you see in the chart? You don’t need to put yourself in a chart for yourself, right?”

There was a sound of clapping behind them. Sally and Watch turned around to find Adam by the door with a smile on his face. He didn’t at all seem surprise to find them there. It was like he had been expecting them.

“You two never change. I knew you would find this place eventually. I was hoping it would be later though.”

“You were going to get rid of all this evidence!”

“Evidence? You make me sound like a criminal. Come on you guys, it’s me! Adam.”

Sally froze because for a moment, she felt like she could really believe it. He sounded so sincere. She looked up at Watch and saw that he was just as torn and confused as she felt.

“Stop joking. Maybe you are. In a different world, but here you are Andy Manfred.”

The person with Adam’s face’s smile wavered. His eyes now looked sad and guilty. “Please. You don’t understand. I want to save her this time. I don’t want to fail her. Not again.” He turned around and began walking to the door. He turned only to tell them, “You are free to do what you want. No one is going to believe you any way. I am Adam Freeman whether you want me or not.”

 Then he was gone.

Of course, he was right. None of the grown-ups were ever going to believe that Adam was taken over by an Alternate Universe counterpart. Sally slipped out the window and Watch followed her. Not before taking the photo of the older Ann off the wall and into his pocket. Just in case they would need it later. “Where are you going?” he called out and they went down the fire escape.

“Ann Templeton. She has to know something about this.”

They found Ann exiting at the usual coffee shop buying her usual latte that she usually bought after her piano lesson. Watch and Sally stopped her from exiting with wide smiles on their faces. “Hello, Ann. We need to talk.”

“What are you ---? Let me go! Where are you taking me?!”

The three of them slipped through the back of the shop. Once outside, Ann wriggled out of their grasps and turned to face them. “What was that for? I thought you all want nothing to do with me.”

“That hasn’t changed if you are wondering,” Sally retorted. “But circumstances made it necessary. Do you have anything to do with why Andy Manfred is inside Adam’s body?”

“Technically, Andy is Adam.”

“Fine. We’ll call him Adam 2, then.”

Ann simply gave an annoyed look and crossed her arms. “What are you two talking about?”

Watch began explaining about his theory about alternative universes, using their adventure at the universe with the zombies as an example. “There are countless other worlds like that all made from different choices everybody makes."

“And Andy … is from one of them?”

He nodded. “I think he is from a universe … where you were important to him.” That was when he showed her the photo from the room.

“That’s … my handwriting! But I didn’t write this.” Ann whispered. When she read what she wrote, she blushed. She didn’t think she would ever write something like that. She was a teenager. She was too young to think something like that.

But it all made too much sense now. How Adam suddenly forgave her, why he would know her favorites and why he seemed to know so much about her. It was Adam, yet not Adam. He was everything she wanted but at the same time it wasn’t him. “I’m going back to Shadowmere, I’ll let you know when I find something. If he got whatever spell he used from the Shadowmere of his world, then it should be in the one here as well. In the meantime, the two of you find out what he wants.”  

With that, she left to go back to her car where Moorpark was waiting for her.

“Now what?”   

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  Until Ann could tell them more of what they were dealing with, they concentrated on trailing Adam the next day. He was doing nothing out of the ordinary, which is even more frightening since it only proves that this person was also Adam. He was assimilating into Adam’s life so easily.

No one was noticing anything out of the ordinary. Not even Adam’s father.

“Could it really be this easy?”

“Did you say something, Watch?”

Watch puts down the binoculars. “Don’t you think this is a little scary? I mean, this isn’t a simple case of possession. In essence he is still Adam.”

“Why do you think he is doing this? Coming to this world?”

He peered through the binoculars and saw that he was on his way to the bus stop. “He said something about a she. He could be talking about his mom.”

“And that picture of Ann Templeton?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like I can just go up to him and ask him, can I? He’s taking the bus; we should take the next one if we want to follow him.”

“We don’t even know where he’s going to stop.”

Watch smiled. “I think I do.” There was only one logical place he would be going if he was taking that bus. “He’s probably going to Shadowmere. We should warn Ann that he is on his way. Lets just hope she found what she is looking for.”

Ann hasn’t found it but she believed that she was close. The concept of the spell was clearly written in one of the spell books she found but she couldn’t find a medium. It wasn’t like Adam or Andy was bringing a wand nor it did he have the magic to work one.

She was still trying to make sense of it when she heard the knock on her window. She looked around worriedly wondering if they were insane. If Madeline ever caught them here, it wouldn’t just be them that was going to be in trouble. But Sally and Watch were getting better and better sneaking into Shadowmere. Ann knew she should be worried about that but she decided that it would be taken care of another day.

Sally wasn’t beating around the bush. “Did you find anything?”

“I might,” she answered. “I just can’t find the one thing that could give this sense.” She showed them the book she had been reading earlier. The page opened was a spell about soul-exchange. “The spell is actually not that hard as long as you have a medium and a soul compatibility with the one you are exchanging with.”

Watch muttered quietly, “Compatibility? Then it makes sense why he is after an alternate version on himself.” He turned to Ann and continued, “He is probably on his way here now. Do you have any idea why?”

Ann nodded. “For the spell to be permanent. He is going to need something.” She turned the book to another page. “This is the Forget-Thee Flower. In order to completely assimilate himself into our world, he is going to have to erase every trace of Our Adam.”

“And you have such a dangerous plant? Here?” Despite the question, Sally didn’t look at all surprised. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

Ann arched one annoyed eyebrow. “I didn’t see you complaining when I used it on our teacher this morning so he can forget we were supposed to have a pop quiz.”  

“It’s not like you prepared for it too. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have done that.”

“I spent most of the night looking through these old books looking for answers. What’s your excuse?”

“Guys! I mean --- girls, this is not the time to argue. If we got through your security, then it should be no surprise Adam--- I mean Andy would have no problems either. Where is the plant?”

Despite the annoyance of being interrupted, Ann calmly shut the book and smirked. “I am not stupid. I moved it where he can’t find it. That isn’t the problem right now. We have to find the medium he used on Adam.”

“Medium?”

“What he used as a sort of storage unit for Adam’s soul,” she answered matter-of-factly. Her tone implying she couldn’t believe they were so slow. “It can be anything. A painting maybe --- anything that can capture a piece of this ---“

It dawned to them all at the same time.

  “The camera!” They said in unison.

“Did he leave it at his apartment?” Ann asked.

Watch shook his head. “He wasn’t carrying the camera either.”  He didn’t see it --- and it was Adam they were talking about. He was an Adam from another world but he was still Adam. He wouldn’t be careless enough to leave something that important behind. “I think he’d have the memory card though.”

“Are you saying that he is storing Adam’s soul inside a memory card?” Sally said in disbelief. “That is just beyond creepy. I am never smiling for a camera again.”

“That would be a real shame because I know for a fact that you have a very cute smile.”  

And then, there was Adam by the door looking like it wasn’t at all trouble to get past Ann’s security. “Don’t look so surprise. I have done this plenty of times. I am getting used to it.”

Ann demanded. “What are you doing here?”

Adam just smiled and shook his head.  “I think you already have your assumptions. Either you think I am after the Forget-Thee flower or you think I am after the spell for mind wipe.”

Ann, Sally and Watch looked at each other then whispering to each other how he knew.

“I told you. I have seen too much of this before.” Adam closed the door behind him and turned to Ann. “Show me the gallery. I know you’re going to deny it because we’ve done this dance before but don’t bother. I know it exists. I want you to show it to me before it is too late.”

“Why should I trust you?”

The stranger with Adam’s face smiled. “Because despite everything, I am Adam. And you know me.”

Ann was tempted to lie but she could sense that he already knew where the gallery was. He was probably testing her to see if she would willingly show him or he had to force himself in. She sighed and lead him to the gallery. “I just know I am going to regret this.”

Sally and Watch already knew where the gallery was but it was Ann who had the key. They weren’t all too surprised when they got in and nothing much had changed since their last visit to the gallery.  

 Once inside, Adam gave an odd smile to Ann.  “I am never going to get used to this.”

“Used to what?”

“Used to you not knowing who I am doing this for,” he answered softly. He tossed a small case to watch, which he caught barely. “That is the SD card that Adam is in. After I am done here, you can let him out.”

All three of them were stunned.

He appeared to not notice. He simply stared at the painting of Ann on the wall. This is one of the universes where you survived. Whatever you do, don’t ever regret what you did. In my world, you didn’t … you didn’t do what you did. You fought Madeline’s control for as long as she could but eventually she did take over. The second year of our marriage.”

“Marriage?!” There was a chorus.

Ann was sputtering. It was amusing to Adam to see the cool Ann sputter like that. Watch and Sally were too stunned to have the same feeling. “What are you saying? That we were married?!”

“For two years. On your 23rd birthday, Madeline took over --- because of this painting,” he explained. “For the soul capture spell to work, you only need a medium to capture the subject’s piece of their time. A picture is much faster but for a spell to keep a strong witch like Ann you need something stronger. Like a painting. But this is much slower to take effect, which is why we didn’t know until your 23rd birthday.”

“But why?! Why would she do this when I gave her ---“ Out of guilt, Ann couldn’t finish.

Adam finished it for her. “---when you her my mom’s body? Easy. It’s because she is Madeline Templeton. ”

“How do we stop this then?”

Adam pulled out a tin of paint remover. “We stop it from taking your time.”

  §•..•¤°°¤•..•¤°°¤•..•¤°°¤•..•¤°°¤•..•¤°°¤•..•¤°°¤•..•¤°°¤•..•¤°°¤•..•§

  It was a huge painting, so it took a while to remove all of the paint. When they did, they went back to Adam’s house. His father was still at work, so they had some privacy at least to listen to Adam’s story.

“So, you didn’t force Adam to lend you his body?”

This other Adam laughed and shook his head. “No. It took a lot of convincing and proving, but I managed to make him believe me. “

“Why didn’t he tell us?! He could have written us a note or a text.”

“We figured that if we did you both are just going to think I wrote it, so we just thought it would be much easier to go on with what I needed to do while you two were busy investigating me.”

It was clear now that it was difficult to outthink someone who knew them so well.

“Where are you going now?”

He shrugged. “Go to the next world I suppose. And try to save Ann again. Maybe if I save her enough times I might …"

“… forgive yourself for not saving your wife.” Watch finished.

Much like how he is trying so hard to find his mother, he is looking for his wife ... over and over again.

Andy walked towards Ann and leaned forward a bit to whisper something into her ear. “Don’t worry. He understands. He’ll come around eventually.”

Ann frowned and pretended not to understand the meaning of his words then began to cast the spell that would return their Adam soul to his body and the Andy to his. Of course when Adam was back, Ann lets him have it. “You idiot, we were lucky this time that he was a good guy. How do we know the next guy will be too?”

Adam smiled and looked out the window and saw Andy looking back at him for a brief moment before walking away. He had wanted to chase after him. There were a lot of things he wanted to know. Like for example, what he uses to travel between alternate worlds.

He didn’t notice he wasn’t paying attention. It was only when Sally conked him in the head that he turned his attention back to them. “Are you even listening?”

“I have to agree with them this time, Adam. That was reckless,” Watch admitted.

Adam spent most of the time apologizing. Eventually, it was time to return home. Ann had returned home earlier because she didn’t want Moorpark to know that she had sneaked out. More importantly, she didn’t want Madeline to know anything of her helping them. Not while she still thinks that Ann was on her side.