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sonicrainicorn · 2 years

Text

No Way Home

Words: 10,093 Desc.: Daniel messes up a spell (Kevin is shocked -- aghast, even) and pulls in four different Daniels from across the multiverse into his living room. Now the issue is putting them all back. TW: minor panic/anxiety attacks

(lmao two of these Dans are from fics I haven’t published yet so there’s some massive spoilers in here. I just found this concept too entertaining to leave it waiting)

///

“What is it that you’re planning to do exactly?”

Daniel lifted his eyes from the page to look at Kevin’s quizzical expression. He did have to admit his ingredients were... unorthodox. A piece of a mushroom from a fairy ring Sean collected, water from a very specific lake in California bottled under the full moon, a raw cut of azurite, and a lot of other seemingly random crap.

“I’m trying to look into my timeline,” he answered.

“Divination? I can do that for you without all this junk.” He waved his hand in the general direction of the coffee table.

“I’m aware.” He turned back to the spell book. “But I’m trying to do something a little more complicated.”

“More complicated than that one time?”

“A bit more, yeah.”

Kevin leaned over the back of the couch. “Don’t leave me in suspense -- what is it?”

“I want to look through possible timelines. What sort of choices I could have made that could have led to something different. Things like that.”

Kevin frowned, his eyes scanning Daniel’s face for some hidden answer. He opened his mouth, then closed it. He gave a small smile. “Yeah, that does sound pretty complicated.” He pushed himself away. “Well have fun. Don’t forget to call your local divination expert for help if you need it. That’s me, by the way.”

Daniel scoffed. “Yeah, I know. You bring it up as often as you can.” He shooed Kevin away with his hand. “Now, come on, I gotta focus.”

Kevin said nothing, leaving Daniel alone.

Daniel studied the words and steps carefully. Not only was this a branch of magic he didn’t often use, but it was also a style he was unfamiliar with. Traditional French, according to the book. Traditional magic styles were always fascinating to study, but putting them into practice was a bit more complex. And Daniel knew firsthand that one wrong step could lead to unforeseen consequences. So he had to get it right. He didn’t want to find out what could happen if he fucked up a timeline spell.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. No time like the present.

Moving to sit cross-legged on the floor, he propped up the book on the coffee table so he could still refer to it. To start, he filled a small plastic tub with the lake water and set a wooden bowl on top. Next, he reached up and pulled out a strand of hair. He couldn’t help but flinch a little, but he dropped it in the bowl without issue. And then he made his first mistake.

As he grabbed the mushroom piece, it slipped out of his fingers and rolled onto the floor. Cursing under his breath, he leaned over to search for it. He picked it up, noticing it had who-knew-what sticking to it from falling under the couch. He dusted it off and blew on it. But he had no way of knowing he did anything wrong. The true nature of fairy ring mushrooms was a secret the fae kept tight. Not even a half-fae like Sean was allowed to know the full details.

Fairy ring mushrooms on their own weren’t magical. They were a conduit like so many witches’ wands. A dormant element of nature to use magic through. But Daniel wasn’t a witch. He had magic at his fingertips -- something rare and dangerous and powerful -- that oftentimes ended up exploding wands doing mundane spells. And as such, the fae didn’t want people like Daniel to understand their mushrooms’ true nature. Because the mushrooms remembered. Something as simple as a breath could trap magic inside. For a witch, this did nothing. But for a sorcerer -- for Daniel -- it meant the mushroom was alive.

He dropped it into the bowl.

Referring back to the book, he followed the next steps with meticulous detail. Yet, he made a second mistake.

He lit a match and dropped it into the bowl. The dried-up plants caught fire in an instant, which meant the last step he had to do was drop in the azurite. But he hesitated. Just for a moment, but it was a moment too long. The spell book warned against stopping during this stage. Once the fire was lit, the spell needed to be completed as fast as possible.

Fearing the consequences of not finishing the ritual at all, he dropped the azurite into the bowl. The bowl crashed to the bottom of the tub and thick white smoke billowed out, engulfing the room. Oddly, it smelled like cinnamon.

As Daniel coughed and waved the smoke away from his face, he heard other people coughing as well. Thinking it was the other lads, he started coming up with the best explanation to justify the mess, but all his words shriveled up and died the moment the smoke cleared.

He saw himself. Well, four of them.

They stood on the other side of the coffee table with similar expressions of shock and confusion. Daniel wasn't sure how to feel about knowing what he looked like when he made that face, so instead he focused on their other aspects.

The first one wore a purple sweater with the sleeves rolled up. His jeans had grass stains on the knees with a hole accompanying the right side. Faint paint stains popped out in random spots. He looked the most tired out of all of them.

The second one mirrored Daniel the most. Thin glasses perched on his nose. He had a light blue hoodie with an embroidered patch over his heart. Headphones sat on top of his head and he had something clutched in his hand. He wasn’t wearing shoes.

The third one held himself like he wanted to fade into the background unnoticed. He also had on a hoodie, but this one was light gray and much too big for him. A colorful scarf wrapped around his neck and a bright red beanie hid his waves. The snow on top of his boots was starting to melt.

The fourth and final one had to be the most bizarre. His hair was the longest of the group and much wilder, but that was tame in comparison to the rest of him. With a cloak draped over his left side, he looked plucked from a completely different time. His face differed the most as well. He had a few fading scars running in different directions along his cheeks and nose. It would have been hard to call him a Daniel if it wasn’t for the wide blue eyes and sharp jawline.

After a long time of no one saying anything, the one in the headphones exclaimed, “what the fuck is happening?”

Uh oh.

“I was in the middle of shopping,” the one in the purple sweater put his hands to his temples like a terrible headache appeared, “and now I’m standing in a living room with four other people that look like me.”

“What sort of magic is this?” The one in the cloak eyed Daniel curiously. His accent was slightly off from the others.

“Magic?” the first two echoed, perplexed.

The one in gray didn’t say anything, but he looked right at Daniel like he knew the answer already. It was a little unnerving.

“Okay!” Daniel stood up. “I have to admit, this is really fucking weird -- even by my standards -- so how ‘bout we all just, just chill for a second.” He could feel his anxiety spiking and for fuck’s sake he didn’t need that right now. If he got too stressed it would make everyone panic more and then he would panic more and it would make a bigger mess of things. Not for the first time, he cursed Kevin for giving him this damn ailment.

Purple Sweater crossed his arms and glared at him, yet his mouth remained shut.

“Chill?!” Headphones waved his hands around manically. Daniel could see he held onto a Switch controller with white knuckles. “How are we supposed to be chill about any of this?”

“I don’t understand what that means,” Cloak said with a furrowed brow.

“It means ‘relax’,” Gray explained softly.

“Ah. Then I agree with that one.” He pointed at Headphones. “I don’t understand how we’re meant to be ‘chill’ about appearing in this... place.” He looked around with a small frown.

Daniel wasn’t sure if he should take that as an offense to his interior decorating.

“Well, he can’t tell us what’s going on if we don’t stop yelling at him,” Purple Sweater said calmly. He gave a pointed look to Headphones, who grumbled and shoved his hands in his hoodie pocket, keeping his mouth shut. Then he looked at Daniel and Daniel felt like he was disappointing his dad all over again. “Why did you bring us here?”

“It was an accident. I only wanted to look into my timeline but I guess I... messed up.” He scrunched his face. Understatement of the century.

“Yeah, no shit,” Headphones griped.

“Language,” Purple Sweater chided. Then seemed confused about why he even bothered. “Sorry, that -- that’s just a habit.”

Headphones looked at him weirdly.

“The magic in this place feels off.” Cloak frowned further as he continued to scrutinize the room. “It’s not... I don’t feel the same presence like at home. How can you have such powerful magic if it isn’t in the world around you?”

“It’s more prominent here,” Gray chimed in. Quiet. As if he didn't want to be heard at all. “Magic in my world is rare but completely mundane.”

“Your world?” Purple Sweater noted curiously.

“Why the hell do you guys keep talking about magic?” Headphones pushed down his headphones and grabbed at his hair.

“It’s how I brought you all here.” Daniel sighed like it was obvious.

“But magic isn’t real!”

“How else would you explain this, then?” He threw his arms out to emphasize their situation.

Headphones shook his head and shut his eyes tight. “I don’t know! This can’t be real! None of this is happening! I’m -- I’m dreaming or something. I fell asleep before I went live and now chat is waiting for me.” He started lightly tugging on his hair. “I just have to wake up and start the stream. This’ll just be a weird crazy thing we talk about.”

Daniel chucked a couch pillow at his face. “Stop it! You’re not dreaming.”

A loud crash startled them all. They turned to see Kevin staring at them with wide eyes, his hand floating mid-air. Pieces of a mug scattered across the ground.

“Kevin!” Four Daniels shouted in surprised relief. One of them muttered it like a guilty confession.

Kevin continued to gape at them until he was snapped out of it by Daniel awkwardly fixing his hair. “Dan, can I, uh, can I talk to you for a second?”

The Daniels glanced at each other.

“My -- My Dan.” He shook his head and pointed at Daniel, giving him one of his rare serious looks. “You. Get over here.”

Daniel hesitated but complied anyway. He stepped over the ceramic pieces, making a mental note to tell Kevin to clean it up with a broom rather than magic it away.

“The rest of you... Dans... just, uh, just sit wherever.” He grabbed Daniel’s arm and dragged him into the nearest empty room. Unfortunately, that happened to be the bathroom. “Dan, what the fuck --?”

“I know!” Daniel dragged his hands down his face. “I fucked up. I don’t know what I did to bring them all here.”

“What even are they?”

He tapped his bottom lip. “At first I thought they were different me’s from across my timeline, but then there was that weird one with the long hair. And two of them don’t even have magic. So I think... I think they might be from different universes.”

Kevin stared at him like he was crazy, but it was a look that only lasted a moment. He groaned and ran his hands through his hair. “Dude, how do you mess up a spell that bad?”

“I don’t know!” He whined, sounding far too much like a child for his liking. “Please help me fix it. I don’t know what to do and if I tell them that they'll get mad at me and then I'll freak out, and you know what happens when I freak out --"

"Stop." Kevin put his hands on Daniel's shoulders. “I'll help." He frowned. "Jeez, you must be in really deep shit if you’re asking me for help.”

He shrugged. “You are the local divination expert after all.”

“Oh, no. We’re way past divination at this point. And flattery will get you nowhere.” He grinned. “But I wouldn’t mind hearing it anyway.”

Daniel rolled his eyes.

They walked out to see all the Daniels sitting far apart as they avoided looking at one another.

Kevin clapped his hands to get their attention. “Okay, Dans, so here’s the thing -- you don’t want to be here, and we don’t want you here so we’re going to do whatever we can to get you guys back.” Ever since The Incident, he had gotten better at taking charge.

“How long will that take?” Gray asked quietly.

“Uh, what spell did you use, Dan?” He motioned to the book on the table. Kevin scooped it up and skimmed the page. He didn’t look too confident anymore. “Okay, um, maybe a few days?”

"What?!” The four Dans yelled at the same time.

“Days?!” Purple Sweater shot up from his spot on the couch. Up until this point, he had been the most calm and collected of the bunch so it shocked Daniel to see him so livid. “I can’t wait days -- I have a daughter to get back to!”

Headphones’ head snapped to him with wide eyes.

“I was hiking down to meet my friends,” Gray said, for the first time speaking above a murmur. “What’re they gonna do when I never meet up with them?”

“And I was in the middle of rebuilding a library.” Cloak crossed his arms with a scowl. Daniel caught sight of a flash of silver. “Imbuing books with magic isn’t shit you can just stop.”

Kevin held up a hand placatingly. “It takes time to deconstruct a spell, and this one is super complicated. We’ve never worked with anything like this before.”

“Then why the fuck did you even attempt it?” Purple Sweater snapped.

Daniel took a deep breath and counted.

Kevin took a step forward so the attention would be on him. “Look, you’re all Dan -- you should know better than me how he thinks. Are you telling me none of you have taken a dumb risk before?”

They fell silent.

“We just need to find out what went wrong and go from there.”

“How do we do that?” Cloak raised a brow.

Kevin tapped the book cover. “Well... you have magic, too, right? Maybe you can help.” He sat on the armrest of the chair and handed the book over.

Daniel and Gray shuffled closer as well.

As Cloak unfurled his arms to take the book, everyone in the room sucked in a breath. “Huh?” He glanced at them all in confusion before seeming to click the ideas in place. “Oh.” He chuckled, not at all bothered as he held up his left arm. It was pure metal. “I lost it a while ago. Doesn’t bother me much anymore, but I guess it’s probably weird for different me's.”

“How’d you lose it?” Gray asked, voice nothing but a whisper.

Cloak cleared his throat, eyes firmly on the spell book. “So what’s a France?”

As the three Daniels and Kevin poured over the book, the remaining two Daniels were left to themselves. Magic wasn’t real in their worlds so they wouldn’t be much help. Purple Sweater sat back down on the couch with a sigh. Headphones sat stiffly at the other end of the couch.

He tried to pay attention to what was being said in case it was important, but every other word flew over his head. Besides, if he was being honest, he was more interested in the other Daniel on the couch.

“So,” he started. The other Daniel cocked his head at him, “you have a daughter?”

He smiled. “I do.”

He scooted a little closer. “Do you have a picture?”

Instead of bringing out a phone as Headphones expected, he pulled out his wallet. He took out a little photograph and handed it over.

Headphones found himself smiling down at the picture. A little girl with dark hair pulled into pigtails grinned back at him. Her smile was so big he could barely see her bright blue eyes. She was sitting cross-legged in the grass. Green stained her exposed knees and even her socks. She had on overalls shorts with a pink striped shirt underneath. Her hands were stretched out towards him as if she wanted to catch the camera. Or maybe she wanted who was behind it.

“She looks a lot like you,” he said and handed the photo back. He hoped his hand trembling wasn’t too obvious. “What’s her name?”

“Elizabeth.” He stared at the photo in adoration. “But we just call her Cupcake.”

Headphones swallowed down a shaky breath. His fingers brushed the edges of the patch on his chest tentatively. “Who... who’s the mother?”

Purple Sweater scowled as he put the photo away. “Doesn’t matter.” He placed the wallet back in his pocket.

Sensing he struck a nerve, he apologized softly.

Purple Sweater didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he looked at him as if he solved a puzzle. “I’m --” his lips quirked up in a sad smile -- “I’m not your future. We’re from two different worlds. Whatever you’re hoping you’ll get... I’m not it.”

Headphones' eyes darted to the floor and he retreated into his hoodie. He should have known an alternate version of himself would be able to read his true intentions. “This is some real Multiverse of Madness shit,” he grumbled. As if making a shitty joke would make him feel better.

Purple Sweater gave him a confused face.

One of the other Daniels cried out in annoyance. They turned to see Cloak with his hands buried in his face. “I don’t understand your magic,” he whined. “Why does it have so many rules?”

“Well, how does it work in your world?” Daniel crossed his arms and looked at him like an annoyed older brother.

“You just ask for it!” He threw his hands out in front of him and colorful flower petals exploded from his palms. His irises flashed gold. “It’s a far superior system.”

Daniel scoffed in offense. “Superior --?”

“If your magic works here, why can’t you magic everyone back to their own universes?” Kevin asked before Daniel could get all huffy.

Cloak suddenly became very shy. “I’m strong, but I don’t know if I’m that strong. I don’t know if it’ll reach into universes that don’t have magic at all.”

“Oh, so now whose magic system is superior?” Daniel smirked.

Cloak glared at him.

“Don’t you guys have internet here?” Headphones asked. “Can’t you look up what to do on some bullshit magic website?”

“That’s not really how this works.” Kevin frowned.

“What’s an intern-net?” Cloak furrowed his brows.

“No, you know what?” Daniel took out his phone and tossed it to Headphones, who almost didn’t catch it. “Why don’t you try to look something up and see how well that works out for you.”

Headphones scowled. As he looked down at the phone he muttered, “God, am I really this annoying?”

Kevin chuckled. “Now you know what it feels like to be everyone else.”

Purple Sweater peered at the phone curiously. “What is that?”

“A phone?” Headphones glanced at him in confusion. It was a normal Samsung. The exact same model and color as his own. He turned it on and nearly laughed. Of course their lock screens were almost identical things.

“That’s not like any phone I’ve ever seen.” He continued to look at it like its mere existence made no sense.

“What? What does your phone look like?”

Purple Sweater fished something out of his pocket, revealing an old flip phone.

Headphones stared at it with wide eyes. “Oh my God.” he hadn’t seen one of those since he was a kid. “What year is it for you?”

“Uh, 2005. Why? What year is it for you?”

“2022.”

They looked each other up and down, suddenly way more uncomfortable than they had been before. It was one thing to be pulled into another universe. Having one of your alternate universe selves (one that appeared normal by comparison) be from a different time was another.

“Umm.” Headphones shifted in his seat. He waved the phone at him with an awkward smile. “Wanna know how it works?”

While the two Daniels were distracted by that, the other Daniels and Kevin were still stumped on what to do.

“What about you?” Kevin asked Gray. “Could your magic do it?”

Gray fiddled with his beanie. He had to take it off along with his scarf since it got far too hot for him. He even had to roll up his sleeves. “I don’t really have magic like that. All I can do is See into the future.”

Kevin grinned. “That’s great! You can See how we get out of this and tell us what to do.”

“Not... not really.” He kept his eyes on his beanie. “I’m cursed. No one ever believes what I say.”

There was an uncomfortable beat where no one said anything. The Daniels on the couch laughed together. It sounded the same.

“Do you believe yourself?” Cloak questioned gently.

He nodded.

“Well... maybe you could tell us?” He motioned to himself and Daniel. “We’re technically you.”

He looked hesitant. “I-I don’t know. Would that work?” He messed with his beanie some more. “I don’t really like looking into my own future.”

“That sounds like a good loophole if I ever heard one.” Daniel shrugged.

“It’s up to you,” Kevin added.

He looked around at everyone. “I guess there’s no harm in trying.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. It didn’t take long for him to wince. He rubbed the center of his forehead with his finger, but it didn’t do anything to dissuade his pinched expression. “Th-there’s --” he gasped sharply, his eyes blowing wide -- “there’s... there’s...” his breathing quickened.

Kevin was at his side in a flash. Apparently, it didn’t matter the Daniel, his mother-hen instincts were ready to go at any sign of distress. “Hey, I’m right here. What happened?”

Gray clutched the front of Kevin’s shirt like a lifeline. It sounded like he was choking. “T-too, too many. There’s too many.”

“Breathe. It’s okay.” With little deliberation, he placed his hands on Gray’s arms. If these Daniels thought similarly, they probably responded to anxiety similarly as well. And if there was one thing Kevin was quick to learn, it was that Daniel relied on touch to help him feel better. He would have preferred to wrap him in a tight hug, but he didn’t want to make him feel like he couldn’t breathe. “What’s too many? What did you See?”

“Futures. M-my future. His. Ours.” He shut his eyes and gasped for air. “E-every, every Daniel in here. I-I See them all. They’re all -- they’re all mixing together in my head.”

“Okay. You’re okay. Let’s just focus on something easier. How ‘bout mine? Can you tell me my future?”

Gray opened his eyes and looked into Kevin’s. His breathing began to slow and his grip loosened little by little. “Once you ask Daniel that thing you want to,” he mumbled. His eyes glanced over to Daniel, “everything will turn out fine.”

Kevin snorted, a half smile on his face. “I don’t know about that.” then he frowned. “Sorry.”

Gray shook his head. “I’m used to it.” but he sounded sad. He noticed Purple Sweater staring at them. His expression seemed almost pained with longing. He recalled a future -- a brief flash in his mind -- with Kevin, Anna, and a little girl. A tight-knit family with a chance he’d never see them again. He took a step back. “I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s alright. Happens to the best of us.” He gave him a small smile.

Daniel sighed. “Now what do we do?”

“I... may have an idea,” Cloak interjected hesitantly. “I just thought of it. I don’t know if it’ll work.”

“I think at this point anything is worth a shot,” Purple Sweater said.

Everyone else seemed to be in agreeance.

Cloak sighed. “Okay.” He scanned the page once more before standing up. He waved a hand over the coffee table and all the ingredients appeared. Purple Sweater and Headphones somehow appeared weary and impressed at the same time. Cloak grabbed the azurite with both hands, clasping it tightly. His eyes shined gold. When he opened his hands, the azurite shimmered with that same gold color. “Do the ritual the same way you did it before.” He handed the azurite to Daniel. “This should be able to reverse the effects. I hope.”

Daniel stared at the gold streaks swirling around the deep blue of the azurite. Then he looked up at Kevin, who gave him an encouraging smile. Then he looked at the Daniels. They were staring at him expectantly. Well, if anything was worth a shot...

He sat on the floor and repeated the steps. It was hard to ignore all the eyes watching his every move. Not that he could blame them for being so intense about it. Their fate rested on his shoulders. No pressure or anything.

Much like before, when he dropped the azurite in, smoke billowed out of the container, except this time gold glistened within it like flakes of glitter.

“Did it work?” Kevin asked as he waved away the smoke.

He looked around and only saw one Daniel.

~~~

A shiver ran down his spine as his feet connected with the ground. He stumbled forward but managed to keep himself from crashing onto the... hardwood... floor...

Wait a minute.

His apartment had hardwood floors, but it wasn’t this color. He lifted his eyes and horror hovered over his shoulders, threatening to sink its claws into him at any moment. The foyer he stood in was foreign to him. The front door didn’t match his apartment’s at all, and the neighboring key hook had a set of car keys hanging on it. He didn’t know how to drive and he certainly didn’t live with anyone who knew how to.

The horror slashed down his back when he heard the quick padding of feet behind him.

“Daddy!”

His entire body stiffened. Several daunting things became evident all at once. The first, and most prominent, one being this was not his universe. How would he get back without the help of any other Daniels? God, he would much prefer to be back with all of them in that weird place than wherever he was now. He’d rather live there forever than be trapped here with... with...

He slowly turned around. A little girl with dark hair and bright blue eyes smiled up at him.

She launched herself at him. “Where are the snacks?” she peeked up with a mischievous smile.

“I-I, uh --”

Her smile turned into a curious frown. “When did you start wearing glasses?” she frowned further and reached into his hoodie pocket before he could be affronted by her audacity. “What’s this?” she pulled out the Switch controller, giving it a scrutinizing once over.

He resisted the urge to yank it out of her hands and instead gently pried it away from her. He had a feeling the other Dan wouldn’t be too happy if he upset his daughter. “I-it’s, uh, it’s something for later.” he shoved it back into his pocket with a nervous smile. He hoped that he wasn’t messing up time-space by being here with things that shouldn’t exist yet. If all his years of watching Doctor Who was anything to go by, it wasn’t that big a deal, but he wasn’t too sure about it now.

Her eyes lit up. “Is it a game?”

“It’s -- yes. It’s a game.” Jesus Christ, he had no idea how to talk to children. He couldn’t comprehend how he was a dad in this universe. He thought about being a dad one day, but faced with the reality of it, he was feeling all sorts of anxieties and fears he didn’t know were possible.

“I wanna play!” she bounced on the balls of her feet.

“Uh, not yet.” he stepped around her to start a search for a secluded spot in the house. “It’s... it’s a surprise. For later. Much later.”

She pouted, dragging her feet as she trailed after him. “Aw, but I wanna play now.”

“J-just, uh, just give it some time, dear.”

This gave her pause. “You don’t call me that,” she said matter-of-factly. “Only Gramma calls me that.”

Oh, shit. He only said it because that’s what his mom called him and his brother. Of course he would let it continue to be her thing. That sounded like something he would do.

She looked him over again. “Why do you look funny?”

“I...” he had half a mind to make a bad joke but realized that would probably be the worst thing he could do. Instead, he panicked about what would be the best thing to do. He couldn’t say he wasn’t her dad; that would lead to more confusion. “I will answer that... in just a second.” he started trailing down the hall to what he hoped was the bathroom. Unfortunately, Cupcake continued to follow him.

To make matters worse, as soon as he approached the door, it swung open. He yelped in surprise. “Kevin?!”

Kevin stared back at him with wide eyes. “Dan?” he looked him up and down. “When did you get back? Where’s Anna?”

“Anna?” why was he supposed to know where Anna was?

That appeared to be the worst response he could have made. Kevin frowned. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Ask him why he’s wearing funny things.” Cupcake pointed up at him as she peered around his body to give Kevin a serious pout.

Kevin looked him up and down again. “Yeah, that was going to be my next question.”

He noticed two doors to his left. He hoped one of them was his bedroom in this universe. “It’s -- this is hard to explain.” he started inching to the closest door. “Just give me a minute.” He shut the door in their faces. He felt a little bad about it.

“Is Daddy okay?” Cupcake whispered.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Kevin answered, sounding like a plain lie to Dan. “Let’s go call Anna.”

Dan sighed and thumped his head lightly against the door. How the hell was he going to explain this? God, he just wanted to go home. He couldn’t be a dad! He especially couldn’t be Cupcake’s dad. He didn’t know her favorite food or her bedtime routine or what movies she liked to watch.

She wasn’t his daughter.

And her real dad was in some other universe trapped the same way he was. He couldn’t imagine what he was feeling. Thinking he’d see his daughter again only to wind up in another alien place. No one won in this scenario, and he was starting to feel worse about it by the second.

Sighing again, he pushed himself away from the door and looked around the room. It appeared he made the right choice. This room was set up in an eerily similar way to his own bedroom back at home. There were differences here and there, but he could still tell this was his bedroom. If this wasn’t at the bottom of his list of Weird Things That Happened Today, he’d find more care to be creeped out by it.

He noticed some pictures on the dresser across from him and decided to take a closer look. At home, this dresser was smaller and had a lot more random crap stacked on top of it. There was still random crap on this one, but he didn’t care about that as much.

He picked up one of the frames. It was of this universe’s Dan, Anna, and Kevin. They looked young -- still teenagers. It was hard to discern their location, but there was a rocky cliffside in the back, and wispy green plants moved in a captured breeze at their feet. Dan was at the front, leaning against a railing, looking toward the camera with a crooked grin. He had a hand up to stop his hair from flying in his face. Anna sat on top of the railing beside him. She leaned forward so the camera could see her sticking her tongue out. She didn’t seem to mind her hair being in the way. Kevin stood as if he was prepared to jump over the rail, but stopped only to take the picture. He had his typical faux innocent smile.

The next photo was of a baby. This one appeared to be done by a professional. The background was a soft peach color. Fine, dark hair poked around a white floral headband. Her eyes seemed brighter and bluer than they did in person. She gave the camera a wide, toothless smile.

The other photo was also of Cupcake. About toddler age this time, wearing a t-shirt with a cute animal on it. She had her hand out to a sheep eating out of her palm. She watched it with an excited beam.

He set down the frame. Frowning, he took a step back. Then immediately hissed out a curse and jumped away. As he rubbed his foot, he looked down at the floor and saw a lone Lego piece. Near the bed sat a tipped-over tub of Legos. Even with the annoyance of stepping on a damn piece, he couldn’t help but smile. He knelt beside the tub and noticed a lot of things happening at once.

There were dolls sitting on crudely constructed chairs, and different structures made of mismatched bricks. He noticed a few Lego figures assembled into horrific monsters. That was definitely something he’d do. He frowned.

They were playing together.

He could see it happening. The tub of Legos was kept under the bed -- a secret at first to keep Cupcake out of them and stop her from making a mess. But she figured it out. Then, perhaps today, she dumped them onto the floor and insisted Dan play with her. She brought her dolls to have them interact with their new Lego world. Dan showed her how to make abominations, which she promptly built a jail for.

It seemed like fun. And even despite the horrible reality of being here, he smiled a little at the thought. A father and daughter enjoying each other’s company. As if nothing else in the world mattered besides the havoc they created.

Then he frowned again.

He was hit with the stark realization that the only way he’d get to experience this was if he stole it from someone else. He could only have a sweet, domestic life if he replaced this other Dan.

And, for a moment, it was tempting. Why wouldn't it be? It all seemed so uncomplicated. So easy. But he knew deep down he couldn’t ever live with that. He would rather have this be an unattainable dream than rob someone else of it.

He had to find a way back. This little girl needed her dad. Her real dad. Not someone who entertained the idea of being one.

He stood up, determined but also lost. He didn’t know how to get back, exactly, but he wouldn’t stop until he found a way. It couldn’t be that hard, could it? Maybe he needed to retrace his steps from before this whole thing happened. Except he noticed a few glaring problems with that almost immediately.

He was in 2005. Twitch wouldn’t be around for at least another six years. And as he looked around, he could see this Dan had no intentions of becoming a streamer. There wasn’t even a computer in here.

Dan thought back to 2005. It was almost twenty years ago by now. Jesus Christ, he was getting old. Gah! That wasn’t the point! Focus, Daniel, focus.

Okay. 2005. If there was a computer, it would be somewhere everyone could access it. However, it would also be where Kevin and Cupcake were. Dan wasn’t sure he was ready to talk to them yet, so leaving this room was a big no-no.

What else could he do? What happened the exact moment he was transported into another universe? He sat at his computer, he started setting up the stream, and then... he was looking at himself in a completely different room.

That wasn’t very helpful. Would he really have to wait six years to retrace his steps the right way? Six years was a long time -- it was an especially long time for a father to be without his daughter. He would miss so much by then.

No, there had to be another way. There had to be. He couldn’t be stuck here! There had to be something he was missing or something he needed to say or do or... or...

He stood there in silence for a moment that felt like an eternity, half expecting -- hoping -- to get dropped into the right universe. But nothing happened.

He heard Cupcake and Kevin whispering right outside the door.

~~~

He took a breath so deep it hurt his chest.

His lungs filled with smoke, but by the time he exhaled, it was already gone.

He found himself looking into the surprised faces of Daniel and Kevin in a rather familiar living room.

He patted his pockets and found his phone and his Switch controller. He could feel headphones over his ears. He brought up a trembling hand to his chest. There was an embroidered patch beneath his fingertips.

Oh.

Before any of the other Daniels could say anything, the Daniel sitting beside Kevin disappeared in a jarringly cartoonish poof! only to be replaced with a toddler in clothes far too big for him.

Once again, before anyone could react, the toddler screamed, “fuck!” as loud as he could, startling everyone. He buried his face in his little hands.

“Whoops!” Kevin hurried in and scooped him up. “Don’t worry about this -- happens all the time.” He flashed the rest of the Daniels a nervous smile as he began to back out of the room. “Just give us a second.” then he ran down the hall.

A long, heavy silence stifled the room.

“I didn’t think today could get any weirder,” Cloak mumbled under his breath.

Purple Sweater opened his mouth to comment but closed it when he caught Headphones sitting down out of the corner of his eye. He looked way more exhausted than the first time they saw each other. His shoulders were more hunched and a tight frown stayed on his face as his eyes gazed at nothing in particular. “Are you feeling okay?”

His eyes flicked up then immediately turned in another direction. “I’m fine.”

Purple Sweater frowned. Now he understood why Kevin and Anna always tried so hard to help him. He kept quiet for a moment. The other two Daniels started their own conversation. “I’m pretty sure I was in your universe.” Headphones said nothing. “I found myself sitting in front of this crazy-looking computer with a bunch of different things happening. I don’t understand how you can read what all those people say.”

The corner of his mouth twitched up. “You get used to it.”

“I turned it off, I think.” He wasn’t sure which monitor he needed to pay attention to. They all had something on their screens, but he was pretty sure he shut down the stream at least. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt more like a dad than I did fumbling around with your computer.”

He laughed lightly, but the smile didn’t stay there for long.

That didn’t work. He needed to come up with something else. “I liked your Lego collection. I haven’t seen any of those sets before.”

At last, Headphones looked up at him.

Across the living room, the Daniels there were having a similar conversation. “Are the animals in your house supposed to be there?” Cloak asked with a bit of genuine concern. He had never seen anything like it before. He heard of people keeping cats and canines, though they tended to stay outside. But this man had a whole menagerie in his tiny cabin. He even had a rat. Who willingly kept rats in their house?

Gray smiled, the first time he had done so. “Yeah. They’re my pets.”

“Even the sheep?”

His smile widened. “She’s spoiled. She gets offended if I leave her outside for too long.” His smile shrunk a bit. “Are they doing okay?”

“I believe so. The cat didn’t seem to like me very much.”

“Yeah, he’s not a big fan of Daniels.”

“A big... fan?”

Gray couldn’t help but chuckle at Cloak’s confused expression. “It’s just a saying. He doesn’t like me very much, either.”

“Ah.” These people had such weird words and phrases.

“So I guess I was in your universe,” Gray said after a moment. He returned to his meek posture and tone. “Your friends told me what happened. I’m sorry about your library.”

The library. Burnt to a crisp and destroyed along with most of The Castle. Even now his heart ached thinking about it. He spent his entire childhood in that library. Against his will, mind you, but that didn’t mean he wanted to see it destroyed. “Oh, it’s alright.” he tried to smile. “Hard for things to stay gone when you have magic.”

Just then, Daniel -- back to an adult -- and Kevin returned to the room. Daniel’s entire face was red down to his neck. He held up a finger to stop anyone from speaking. “We are not going to talk about it. No one is going to ask me any questions about it. We’re just going to ignore it and pretend it didn’t happen.”

The other Daniels acquiesced.

Daniel smoothed out his shirt and sighed. Then the calm was broken. “How the hell did you guys get back here?!”

“I retraced my steps,” all four Daniels answered at the same time.

“None of us were in the right universe,” Purple Sweater explained.

“But you were gone for, like, thirty seconds. There’s no way any of you are that fast.”

“What?” Cloak’s brows pinched together. “It was at least twenty minutes.”

“A few days for me,” Gray added.

“I had to wait until morning.” Purple Sweater frowned.

Daniel looked at Headphones, expecting him to follow the trend. When their eyes met, it was like looking at a completely different person.

“Six years,” he said, voice hollow.

“What?” Purple Sweater stared at him with huge eyes.

“I had to wait until it was 2011,” he didn’t look up at anyone, “once Twitch went live I made my account and wound up back here.”

“You went back in time?” Kevin asked.

“He’s from 2005.” He motioned vaguely to Purple Sweater who was starting to look like the world was falling apart around him.

“Does that mean,” he started softly, “if I go back now, I would I have missed six years of my daughter’s life?”

Kevin gave Daniel a worried glance.

Daniel tried not to start panicking. This complicated things. “No, no, it’s fine. I’ll... Okay, uh, I’ll just send you all back to right before you fell into this universe. It might take a little bit of extra time to figure it out but it could work. It’ll be like nothing ever happened.”

Headphones looked up at him. “Like nothing ever happened?” His expression changed to one people rarely saw on any Daniels’ face. Fury. “I spent six years raising a daughter that wasn’t my own, and you expect me to act like it didn’t happen?”

“W-well...”

“I just lived a life I never thought I could have and... dammit, I liked it!” He tore off his headphones. “I liked teaching little kids how to write. I liked having a daughter. I liked living with my friends and being one big family. And you’re telling me I have to go back to my lonely apartment and -- and just forget about it?” His face was wild and desperate. Like he was fighting a losing battle.

Daniel opened his mouth, but he couldn’t find anything to say. Was there anything even to say? He could promise to fix it, but would any of them believe him? He messed everything up in the first place. And then things went wrong a second time. It didn’t matter what he said. It would sound like an empty promise. He closed his mouth.

Headphones huffed and stood up. He marched toward the front door without a word.

“Hey --” Kevin started, but Daniel put a hand on his arm.

“He’s not going anywhere.”

Once the door slammed shut, a tense silence fell over them. Purple Sweater quietly excused himself and followed Headphones.

He found him standing on the front porch, his arms resting on top of the banister. He stared down at the headphones in his hands like they were trying to start a fight.

“Hey,” he greeted softly.

“Hi,” he muttered.

Purple Sweater propped his arms against the banister and looked out into the front lawn. It was small. Kind of overrun. Tall bushes on either side separated them from the neighbors. They were in their own little world out here.

“When I found out I was going to be stuck there,” Headphones started, “I hid all my stuff in the bottom of a drawer."

“Smart,” was all he could think to say.

Headphones sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m talking like I’m the only one affected here.” he put his headphones around his neck. “I’m just... a little jealous, I guess. Your life was so simple. I appreciate my life don’t get me wrong -- I love that I get to play games for a living and I’m very thankful for what I have -- but seeing your universe...” he sighed again. “It just makes me feel like I missed out.”

A breeze rolled past before Purple Sweater decided to say anything. “My life wasn’t always that simple, you know.” his eyes stayed on the silent street as he recalled his messy past. “I tried to get married too young, I had a kid too soon, and my fiancée left me because she got tired of pretending to love me. I barely saw Cupcake for the first four years of her life. I was always working. Then I got my head out of my ass and asked for help. Anna and Kevin started living with me, I went back to school, and that’s where you picked everything up.”

He smiled at Headphones as best as he could. “Basically, what I’m trying to say is, you can still have that life. Mine only seems so perfect because you didn’t see what I went through to get it.”

“I guess you’re right.” He looked down guiltily. “It was just easier to pretend to be you for a little bit.”

Purple Sweater recalled the quiet apartment he found himself in. He hadn’t known quiet since before Cupcake was born. It turned out he didn’t miss it as much as he thought he did. “What’s stopping you from having one of your friends move in?”

“They have their own lives. I don’t want to get in the way of that.”

“You never know. One of them might be willing.”

Headphones didn’t respond. He brushed his hair back as another breeze went by. He tilted his head to look at Purple Sweater with new consideration. “Did you ever think about trying to get married again?”

Purple Sweater laughed. The type of shocked chuckle one does at a surprise. “Man, if I had a nickel for every time someone asked me that...” He shook his head. “I never wanted to get married in the first place. I like the way things are now. Why ruin a good thing?”

Wow. Headphones wished he could be this confident and secure about any of his decisions. “Your daughter is really lucky to have you.”

His smile turned small and brittle. “How is she?”

“She’s doing well. She started playing football and she’s really good at it. Like really good -- that’s not me being biased or anything --” they both chuckled -- “but she’s already decided she wants to be a veterinarian. She started getting into wildlife conservation by the time I was getting ready to leave.” He could have gone on for a while longer -- now he understood why parents talked about their kids so much -- but he saw the look on Purple Sweater’s face. It would have been cruel to keep going. “I, uh, I tried my best to act like you but I think she could always tell there was something off.”

“She’s too observant for her own good.” it almost sounded like he didn’t believe him.

Just then, a strong sensation raked down their backs, cutting their conversation short. They looked at each other.

“I think I’ve seen Into the Spider-Verse enough times to know that wasn’t a good thing,” Headphones said.

Purple Sweater stepped away from the banister. “Come on.” He opened the door.

Inside, the other two Daniels appeared to have felt the same thing. Cloak’s metal arm was on the floor.

He bent down cautiously to pick it up. “I’m losing connection to my magic.” He pulled it underneath his cloak and his eyes burned gold.

“Me too,” Gray muttered, his own eyes closed. He started to play with the end of his scarf so hard it looked like he began to unravel it. “I-it’s like something just snapped inside of me.” He opened his eyes. “I can’t See the future.”

Cloak blinked and the gold vanished from his eyes. He wiggled his metal fingers around experimentally. Rather than the fluid movement they were more than capable of before, they were frigid and clumsy. “Ugh, I can’t believe this is happening to me again.” He dropped his arm with a scowl. “We need to get home.”

“We still don’t know how to do that,” Kevin piped up.

“It doesn’t seem like we have much time to figure it out.” Headphones crossed his arms.

“What happens to us if we run out of time?” Gray asked.

No one responded right away. All eyes were on Daniel once again. He took a breath and started counting. “I don’t know, but we’re not going to run out of time. We almost had it right -- we just have to figure out what to tweak.”

“How do we figure that out?” Kevin asked. “We just keep sending them away until we find the right combination?”

“No!” Purple Sweater and Headphones shouted in alarm.

Daniel held up his hands in defense. “That’s not what I’m suggesting! I’m just saying there must have been something we missed. Something small.”

“Like... our hair?”

Everyone turned to look at Gray. He flipped the spell book around and pointed to one of the lines of ingredients. “When you did the spell again you only used your hair. But what if you need hair from all of us?”

“It can’t be that easy, can it?” Cloak looked at Daniel with disbelief. He hated this magic system so much.

“It might be.” Daniel took the book and looked it over again. “Decoding magic is complex. The closer you get to the right answer, the smaller the changes are going to be.”

“We’re technically hacking the system because of you.” Kevin grinned. “There’s usually a lot more failed attempts than this.”

He didn’t know what that meant, but he’d take it as a compliment.

Headphones groaned and rubbed his eyes. “Please don’t talk about failure right now. I don’t want to think about how much universe hopping I could have done.”

“Well, if things go right, this last hop will be to your homes.” He looked at Cloak. “Do you think you could get us those ingredients again?”

Cloak rubbed his forearm awkwardly. “You don’t have any extras laying around?”

“Believe it or not, we don’t have dirt from a primeval forest collected under a blood moon tucked away in a drawer somewhere.”

He pouted. “Okay, I get it.” He walked up to the coffee table. He put his hands on it and closed his eyes. “I ask to bring back what was used.” Nothing happened. “I ask for what we need.” Tiny sparks of gold swirled over the table but nothing appeared. He sighed harshly and shook out his hands, glaring down at the emptiness.

“Hey,” Kevin said gently, “it’s okay. We’ll find something else.”

“No, I can do this.” He placed his hands back on the table. He squeezed his eyes shut. “Phexas, if you can still hear me, please help. I need these things to get back home. I ask you to help me. Please help me.”

Daniel, starting to feel a little bad, opened his mouth to tell Cloak to stop, but as soon as he did so, everything they needed laid neatly out across the table in a bright flash.

Cloak took a step back, panting as if he ran a marathon. “Holy goddess above, that’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” he collapsed into the nearest armchair. “And I’ve fought a giant beast made of pure magic once.”

Purple Sweater blinked at him owlishly. “You did what?”

“Let’s see if this works.” Daniel sat down in front of the coffee table.

As Daniel prepared to redo the spell once again, Kevin looked at the other Daniels. They seemed nervous. “I would say it’s been fun,” he started, “but I think this was more stressful than having to take care of toddler you.”

“Hey -- watch it. I said we weren’t going to talk about it.” Daniel began to crush the aspen leaves.

“But it’s true. I had to literally fight your fears, I had to rescue you from your crazy boss -- worst of all, I had to act like a parent. Do you know how hard that is?”

Purple Sweater giggled behind his hand.

“And I would say this was harder than all of that. I never thought I’d live to see the day when you mess up something more than I did.”

Daniel glared at him as he dropped the mushroom piece into the bowl.

Kevin grinned back. “This can stay between us, though, don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.” He caught sight of Gray giving him a peculiar look. Upon close inspection, it seemed something close to... adoration? “What?”

Gray smiled. “You don’t change much in any universe, do you?”

He paused for a moment to process that. He looked around at these four different Daniels from four different universes. They looked and talked to him like they knew who he was. Like they knew what to expect. In every universe, Daniel and Kevin knew each other. No matter how much things changed, the thing that stayed the same was their friendship.

“Okay, final step.” Daniel held the matchbox. “Hopefully, this’ll be the last we see of each other.”

“If it’s not,” Headphones pointed at him, “I know you don’t fear death, and I’m not afraid to kill you.”

Despite the threat, Daniel smiled. “Noted.” he lit a match. “Here goes nothing.” He completed the spell a third time. And much like the first two times, smoke billowed out of the container. It smelled like fresh, clean air.

Daniel and Kevin waited in taut silence in an empty room. They were afraid to celebrate too early again. A minute passed. And then another. Daniel allowed himself to breathe when five minutes passed and no other Daniel reappeared.

“I think you did it,” Kevin said a little cautiously.

“I think I did.” He leaned against the couch. God, he wanted to sleep for two days straight again. What a horrible fucking mistake.

Kevin sat on the couch once it was beyond clear that the chaos was well and truly over. His leg bumped into Daniel’s arm.

Daniel looked at it, then up at him. “So you had something you wanted to ask me?”

Kevin stared at him for a long time. It was probably the most thoughtful and serious Daniel had ever seen him. He took a small breath, his mouth parting to speak --

The door swung open so hard and so fast that it smacked off the wall behind it. Sean shoved his way forward, holding several grocery bags with each arm as he yelled obscenities over his shoulder. Daithi yelled right back at him, holding significantly fewer bags.

“Get up, you lazy assholes,” Brian stuck his head through the doorway, “we share the suffering in this household.”

Daniel rolled his eyes.

Kevin grinned and stood up. He knew how to make this worse.

~~~

Dan blinked.

Wasn’t he just inside?

He was... what was he doing?

He breathed in the cool, crisp air. Oh, right! He just walked outside. He was supposed to see a movie with everyone today. He pulled his beanie further down his head and continued his trek down the mountain.

“There you are,” Spiff greeted once he got to the bottom. Mango looked up from her phone to give him a smile. “I was starting to think you got lost.”

Dan smiled. “Lost in thought, maybe.”

“Well, come on. If we’re late then Kiwo is never going to trust me to pick you up again.” He motioned with his hand for them to hurry up.

“I’m surprised she even trusted you in the first place,” Mango quipped.

“It’s because I’m responsible.”

Dan snorted. He didn’t believe that for a second, but Kiwo would have both their heads if they stayed here and argued about it. “Yeah, okay, let’s go.”

~~~

Wait, what?

The book in Dan’s hands slowly returned to ash as his concentration broke. He watched it fall between his fingers, where it got lost in all the other mess.

Damn. He must have started drifting off. Combing through ash and charcoal to recreate burnt books was hard. His brain was tired.

Kevin poked his head through the doorway with a large grin. “Hey, how’s --” the grin flopped into a frown. “Are you okay?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” He looked around at all the ash he was sitting in. He was able to recreate the science part of the library (which had the most books and shelves intact) but he still had a long way to go.

“Looks like you need a break.” Kevin’s smile returned. “Come on. Sean made lunch.”

“Sean made lunch?” Dan’s smile grew at Kevin’s excited nod. “I have to see this.”

He hopped to his feet and raced Kevin down the hall.

~~~

“Dan?”

A box of mac and cheese slipped out of Dan’s hand and crashed into the cart. “Whoa, shit,” he hissed, startled. When did he pick that up?

“Swear jar,” Anna said without missing a beat.

Dan tried not to roll his eyes. “We’re not even home.”

“The swear jar must always be honored.” She gently elbowed him in the side. “Are you back on Earth now?”

“Yeah, sorry.” He brushed his hair back and took in the scene around him. They were in the pasta aisle, and the cart was getting fuller than they intended. It was meant to be a short trip to the store, but the longer they spent in there the more stuff they picked out. “I was having a really intense daydream, I guess.”

“I could tell.” she began to push the cart down the aisle. “But we have to get going. I don’t want your daughter to eat Kevin because we didn’t bring her snacks in time.”

Dan laughed. That didn’t seem like such a bad thing, in his opinion.

~~~

Dan stared down at the controller in his hand. It felt odd for a moment -- like he was meant to be doing something else. Wasn't he doing something else? He shook his head to clear it of all thoughts. No, that didn’t make sense. He must have nodded off or something. How unprofessional.

“Hey, guys, how’s it going? Can everyone hear me okay?”

What a strange, little dream.

#listen #you need a little nonsense sometimes #i was originally going to include daniels that werent mine as well #but 1)#five daniels was already too many #and 2)#there are a lot of rt AUs #like a lot #rtgame #callmekevin #you have no idea how long this stayed in my drafts #sonic writes sometimes

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