Chapter Text
Time passes differently in your halls, that’s for sure. You and Michael grow to not really keep track of it anymore.
You do end up helping, just being there, with your podcast knowledge. Helen is let out and the map she tried to draw in the Archives is ripped up. Jon will sometimes return to his desk to see papers in a hand unknown to him, giving him bits of information to help connect things or warn him. Mysteriously, the Archive crew find themselves unable to leave due to unforeseen problems when the time comes for them to stop the Unknowing. All except Jon. Stubborn bastard. The ritual crumbles, of course. But Daisy doesn’t go missing, and Tim doesn’t go kayaking. So you take the victories you can in spite of the whole ‘Jon still slipping into a coma and becoming a full avatar’ thing.
Elias, the prick, still has Peter Lukas come in and worm his way into Martin’s space. But often, Martin will find that a new cup of tea appears on his desk when he’s not paying attention, sometimes in a cup he’s sure he doesn’t own.
You continue helping out the best you can, sometimes with your boyfriend rolling its eyes at you and your antics over the smallest of things. But when you remind him that the smallest details unnoticed can become the most dangerous, he sighs and lets you do as you please. All in all, the apocalypse doesn’t happen, and eventually The Magnus Institute is co-headed by Tim and Basira, the two balancing each other out quite nicely most days. Jon and Martin still work in the Archives (their work romance ever so awkwardly blooming), Daisy and Melanie do field work with extended breaks between their ventures (Melanie taking hers at Georgie’s flat; they’re honestly so cute together, fawning over the Admiral), Peter Lukas come and goes as he pleases (mostly because no one can stop him fogging his way into the Institute), Michael causes mischief whenever it’s there, and you play into Michael’s pranks sometimes; but mostly you watch over the Institute and your beloved characters there.
You change, too. You don’t think you’re quite an avatar. But then, sharing a space continuously with a being of the Spiral, what would you know? Either way, you become sort of an extension of the halls - not having as much power or control over how it manifests around you as Michael does, but making you more of a threat all the same. Which is exactly how you shred Jonah Magnus and his old body to ribbons, giggling when Michael asks you if you know that red looks stunning on you.
That’s how you continue to live out several of your years here in this strange new world. But like I said, time moves much differently in places outside your halls.
There comes a day when you and Michael find a door that’s familiarly locked. But you notice that the doorknob is… different from either your or Michael’s usual doors. In fact, it may not be yours at all anymore. But you sure as hell have the key. The same one that you stuffed into your coat pocket with your phone on the last day you spent in your old world.
The door shudders as you reach into a pocket that is not on your outfit, and fit your old house key into the lock. As you turn the key, the door gradually shifts to match the knob, becoming entirely and plainly visible as your house’s front door. You slip the key back into your pocket and put an apple on the tiny circular table nearest you - “A marker,” you tell Michael. “To see just how different the timelines here really move while we’re gone.”
You open the door and walk hand-in-hand through it to see an unchanged living room and light snow on the ground. The date on your phone still reads December 1, and a quick call to Ben confirms that it’s right. You laugh, the air popping, fizzing, and bubbling around you. And Michael asks you to dance.
After some months back in your world, the two of you find that the apple sitting on the table in your halls hasn’t aged a minute, and realize that you are free to travel between the two worlds as you wish without losing time in either of them. You think aloud that this means the worlds depend on you being there to keep moving forward, and wonder what exactly that makes you.
“Gods?” Michael chimes in.
“Gods!” you laugh, and kiss him.
Author's Note:
To all of you wonderful readers who have stuck with me and waited weekly for updates on chapters these past two and a half months: The support really does help so much with the process of posting something I loved writing. And the comments! A special thank you to all those who took the time to sit down and write out their love for the story I crafted - it was a labour of love that took so many months to finish before I started posting, so to see that there are people who enjoyed reading it even half as much as I enjoyed making it? It's something so fucking special and I've cherished every comment left with a smile on my face😁🥰
Hopefully the end of this journey was as satisfying as the path you walked on to experience it. And I wish you the best for this week and all the rest in your lives.
Thank you💙