"Do these slides ever get any smoother?" asked Rembrandt.

"After almost five years, you'd think you'd be used to it, Remmy." Maggie replied.

"How long are we here, Quinn?"

Quinn Mallory raised the timer to check the readout and reported, "Two weeks and change."

"Maybe it'll be an uneventful world," Colin said.

"I doubt it. Take a look at that!" said Rembrandt. The four figures raised their heads to the sky to see a battalion of Manta Ships.

"Damn Maggs are everywhere! Everyone knows the drill. Run for it!" Quinn shouted.

The four figures began to run away, but were suddenly met by a battalion of Kromaggs. Maggie leapt forth to try to grab a gun, but was immediately gunned down by two other Maggs.

"Maggie!" Quinn screamed.

"They . . . killed her!" Colin was in a state of shock.

Quinn held up his hands and spoke, "We surrender."

Remmy leapt forward and hit a Kromagg, "Like hell we do Q-Ball!" But before he could get any farther, Colin struck him from behind and he fell to the ground.

"Colin!"

"What's the matter Quinn? Did you actually think I was your brother? I'm with them. I have been from the start." Colin's form suddenly shifted to that of a Kromagg. "And now I get to deliver the coup de grace to the biggest threat to the Kromagg Dynasty ever." Kromagg Colin raised a gun and fired as Quinn screams, "NOOOOOOO!!!!"

Quinn's eyes began to flutter. He was slowly able to see people standing above him.

"Thank God. He's coming out of it."

Quinn's eyes finally focused and he saw Wade, Rembrandt and the Professor standing over him. It looked like he was in a hospital. "It's good to see you awake Mr. Mallory," said Arturo.

"Something's not right here." Quinn said groggily. You can't be here. Same for you Wade. Rembrandt, your mustache? When did you grow it back?"

Remmy looked at Quinn strangely. "Q-Ball, you know as well as I do that nothing would ever make me shave my stache."

"What do you mean, Miss Welles and I shouldn't be here?"

Then it hit Quinn: this must have been a group of doubles that had mistaken him for their own. "I'm not your Quinn."

"That's preposterous, my dear lad. You've been sliding with us for almost a year and a half."

Quinn tried to shake his head. "I've been sliding for almost five years. My Arturo died and my Wade was kidnapped by the Kromaggs."

Remmy tried not to laugh and spoke, "You mean these guys Q-Ball?" He pointed to a TV displaying a science-fiction show.

"Captain. The Kromaggs are closing in on us." [cut to the Kromagg ship] "The Alliance fleet will not escape us now, Kolitar."

Quinn was very confused. He just looked at the others and spoke, "Leave me alone. I'm not your Quinn. My sliders are dead. The Maggs killed them. Maggie, Rembrandt . . . and Colin turned out to be a Kromagg himself."

Arturo looked at the others and spoke, "Let's leave him be for now. He seems to be in a very confused state. Of course being in a coma for three months will do that to a person." The three of them left the room and a nurse entered. Quinn looked up and it was Maggie.

"Maggie!" he screamed. "It's good to see you awake Mr. Mallory. Your friends have been very worried about you and so have your mother and brother."

"Maggie, it's me, Quinn."

"Right, you're Quinn Mallory. You've been in a coma for three months. I'm Maggie Beckett. I've been your nurse. Strange, how did you know my name? You haven't regained consciousness since they brought you here. Maybe you really can hear things around you in a coma."

She didn't know him. Of course she wouldn't; Maggie was dead. This must be her double.

"Try to get comfortable, Quinn. The doctor will be here shortly to run some tests on you." She left the room and Quinn began to think, "Is this a Kromagg trick? What's going on here?"

"Well Mr. Mallory, I see you've finally rejoined us."

"And you are?"

"Dr. Steven Jensen. I'm in charge of your case. Everything is looking good. If your recovery keeps up we might be able to let you go home in a week or two."

Steven Jensen, Maggie's husband. It gets weirder by the minute.

He took a good look at her and realized something. Her hair, it was brown. The last time he'd seen her it was red. She has to be a double, it was the only thing that made sense.

Of course, part of him didn't want her to be a double. He missed Wade terribly. Truth be told, he had made a silent vow that if he ever did find her he'd propose right then and there.

So much had happened though. Finding out he was from another universe, and had a brother, and the Kromaggs, and everything . . . it really screwed things up.

Wait a second. I'm from another universe? My parents just happen to drop me off on a world where their doubles didn't have a Quinn Mallory. Why wouldn't Mom have said something when I slid back the last time? Something isn't right here.

Quinn sat up and broke the silence. "Wade, I need to know a few things."

She was startled. "I thought you were asleep. What is it? Still think we're doubles?"

"I don't know. What happened? How did I get here?"

"You don't remember lottery world?"

"Where you won the lottery and they were going to kill you."

"Right. You were shot right before you leapt into the vortex. You lost a lot of blood. When we finally got you here you were in a coma. It's been three months and every day I've sat here and waited for you to wake up."

"But Wade. I didn't slip into a coma. Ryan removed the bullet and we slid to Sorcerer world."

"What's that?" she replied with a look of confusion. "Where we met my double who was running things as the Sorcerer?"

"Quinn, we never slid again. This is the same world we landed on after lottery world."

"That can't be right. Can it?"

"Quinn . . . you were in a coma. We weren't going to leave you here. I wasn't going to leave you here."

"Where are we then? Is it home? No, it can't be, Maggie said I had a brother."

"Oh, her."

"What?"

"We never have seen eye to eye on you. She thought I was wasting too much time waiting for you to come out of this." Stranger and stranger. "But this isn't home. The Golden Gate Bridge is blue and you have a brother, Colin. As far as we can tell, the Quinn of this world slid at about the same time we did and took this world's Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo with him. So, we've kind of borrowed their lives. I mean, my folks and yours know the truth, but as far as the rest of the world is concerned we belong here."

"So here comes the big question. When do we slide?"

Wade turned away from him.

"Wade. When do we slide?"

"It's not that easy Quinn. We only had a week here. We all decided we'd miss the slide if you didn't come out of it and when you did, try to use the timer with this Quinn's equipment, but something happened."

"What happened?"

"Ryan stole the timer and slid without us. He tried to get me to go with him, but I told him I wouldn't leave you, that . . . oh crap. I told him I loved you. So he stole the timer and slid out. Quinn. We're stuck here."

Quinn just lay back down in the bed. This wasn't getting any better, was it.

Which, the more he thought about it, the happier it made him. The way things had been going in his "coma-life," events were inconsistent and without meaning. Quinn assumed if he hadn't come out of his coma that in his "coma-life" he would have merged with a double of himself that didn't look anything like him and taken to using the name Mallory.

Nah, that was even too crazy for a dream.

No, the truth was none of it had been real. And as unbelievable as that had been at first, it all made perfect sense the more Quinn thought about it. The worlds he and the others had began landing on had seemed like nothing more than bad rip-offs of movies. Quinn could only assume that after a certain amount of time his mind just ran out of ideas.

"Quinn!" a voice screamed out. Quinn raised his head to see "his mother" and someone who slightly resembled him; he could only assume this was "his" brother Colin. Quinn laughed a little. He almost expected Colin to look exactly like he did in the "coma-life", but he didn't. As a matter of fact, the only namesake from his "coma-life" who bore any resemblance to her counterpart was Maggie. Quinn could only assume that was due to Wade going on and on about how much she hated Nurse Beckett and pointing out everything she hated about her. Right down to her physical attributes.

Quinn's "mother" threw her arms around him and spoke, "I'm so glad you're awake!" Quinn knew that this was only a double, but it still felt good to actually be able to hug his mother again. "You know I'm not-"

Colin cut him off. "Our Quinn. Yeah, doesn't really matter though. It's nice to have you back around."

"Besides," Quinn's mother replied, "if I wasn't this emotional, don't you think the people in the hospital might think something was wrong? Especially after the fit I threw in the beginning."

Quinn was puzzled, "I thought the others told you we were sliders?"

"They did, but not before I found out you were here. I assumed you were 'my Quinn.' It wasn't until after I visited you that Professor Arturo set me straight."

"Anyway," continued Colin, "I've been working in the basement with Professor Arturo. We've been trying to build you guys a new timer, but we haven't had much luck. Hopefully when you get out you'll be able to figure it out."

"So you're into physics?" Quinn asked.

"A little. Truth be told, I wanted to go with Quinn on his first slide, but I was out of town when he slid. I guess it was for the best. I'd hate for both of us to have gotten lost out there. I don't think she could have handled it."

"Quinn, I just want you to know that you can stay with us as long as you have to. If worst comes to worst, when my Quinn finds his way home, you can use his timer to slide."

"Thank you," answered Quinn.

Quinn was on the porch of the Mallory house. Wade walked up behind him and spoke, "Penny for your thoughts."

Quinn turned around. "It's a lot of things." For the first time since he had awakened from his coma, Quinn took a good look at Wade. She was beautiful. How could he have been so blind to that? And he loved her. He had been hiding that since they had kissed on that world they thought was going to end. At that moment nothing else mattered.

"Wade, I love you."

"What-?"

"Marry me Wade."

"Quinn . . . what . . .?"

"Wade, I love you. I don't want to lose you. I could have died from that bullet, or you could have left with Ryan, or worse yet, you could have been abducted by killer apes and altered and used for breeding purposes--"

"Quinn . . . "

"No, listen. I won't lose you. I want to spend my life with you. I'm going to get us home and then I want to spend the rest of my life by your side . . . so will you marry me?"

"Quinn . . . as I've been trying to say for the last five minutes . . . YES! YES! YES! I'll marry you!"

The two kissed, and for a moment all seemed right with the world. Well, except for the fact it wasn't their world.

"Ahem."

Quinn broke from the embrace to see Professor Arturo standing on the porch.

"Sorry to interrupt you two."

"Quinn just asked me to marry him, Professor!"

Arturo was somewhat taken aback. He smiled and said, "That's wonderful, and what I'm about to show you will only make it better. If the two of you would accompany me to the basement."

The three sliders walked down to the basement. What they saw was nearly overwhelming. In the basement were doubles of Quinn, Wade, Arturo and Rembrandt. And off to the side sat Rembrandt talking to another Quinn!

Rembrandt saw Quinn and the others and called over, "Hey Q-Ball! You will never believe who this guy is!"

The smile on Remmy's face wasn't even a hint to the surprise Quinn was about to get. The double spoke, "Didn't I tell you not to mess with the timer before your time is up? It corrupts the program and you wander aimlessly."

Quinn's eyes grew large, "You. You gave me the-"

"Equation," his double finished, "And I've been looking for you almost ever since. I slid back to your world after I figured out how to control the slide and found out from Bennish of all people that you'd been missing for about two months. I've been looking for you ever since, and along the way helping out the other nomads."

He pointed at the doubles in the basement. "These guys are finally home."

Time passed. Smarter-Quinn gathered our sliders up and asked, "You guys ready to go home?"

"Of course! Me and Quinn are getting married," Wade said.

"I knew it would work," Smarter-Quinn said.

"What was that?" Quinn replied.

"I gave Wade that kiss back when I visited your world to get the ball rolling for you."

"Huh?" Quinn replied.

"Remember, I'm married."

Quinn's face was puzzled. "Yeah, so?"

"Who did you think I was married to? As a matter of fact, we've got a child on the way. So come on! Let's get you guys home."

And they all lived happily ever after, because as we all know this is the only way we fans want it to end.