-Quinn was staring out the window of his hotel room. The tears had welled up in his eyes. Once again he leapt in head first not thinking. Autumn's timer was nothing like his old timer. The technology was incompatible. It was only a few slides away from burning out and it couldn't store coordinates or track wormholes. He had put himself back to square one. Even if he could find a way to track the Draconian trans-dislocation device (which he was beginning to discover that he couldn't) their was no way to use it with the timer. He heard the door open behind him. He turned around to see Autumn. "Go away," Quinn said. "No," Autumn replied, "You are going to talk to me. I'm your sister." 'No . . . you're not MY sister," he replied. "Maybe not, but after talking to Bennish and Mary I've discovered before this you were almost exactly like "my" Quinn. He use to talk to me if he had a problem." "I don't need you," Quinn replied. "No, you don't, but you need this." Autumn held up the timer. "And if I ever want to get home, I have to let you use it." Quinn scoffed, "It's about to burn out anyway." Autumn shook her head, "I can fix it. I already have before. You don't give me enough credit. You think I'm some air head who got her hands on a timer. I'll have you know I finished first in my class at Berkeley. I was dubbed Professor Brown's prize pupil for my paper on spatial anomalies. So forgive me Quinn, if I know the inner workings of the timer better than you." Quinn was speechless. "Now, where are those parts?" Autumn asked. "Why?" Quinn replied. "Because, me and Bennish have a timer to fix." Quinn pointed to a bag in the floor. Autumn picked the bag up and left the room.
-Max Arturo had only been settled into the room for a matter of minutes before he began to dissect the inner workings of the Draconian trans-dislocation device. The technology was unlike anything he'd ever seen before. It far surpassed Quinn's sliding technology. He could only hope he could make enough sense out of it to get them home. With Wade's condition, sliding from world to world was the last thing she needed to be doing.
-Bennish and Autumn were working on the timer. Mary was a few feet from them watching their every move. "How's it going?" Mary asked. "We're making headway, " Autumn replied. 'I'm glad you're here because some of this stuff, even I don't understand." "That makes two of us, Bennish, but I learned enough from the last time I dissected this thing to know how to fix it. Too bad Quinn's in such a funk, he could probably shed a little light on some of this stuff." Mary and Bennish eyed each other strangely. They knew once that would have been true, but now. Mary spoke, Ever since Wade and the others were abducted he just hasn't been himself." Autumn's head raised quickly. She turned to Mary and spoke, "Did you say Wade? As in Welles?" Bennish replied, "Well, actually it's Mallory now, but yeah, didn't Quinn tell you who he was married to?" "No. He just said his wife and friends were missing that they'd been abducted by something called the Draconian empire. I assumed he was married to Daelin, but this make so much more sense." "What do you mean?" Mary replied. "On my world, my brother was suppose to marry Wade Welles, but her and her sister were killed in a car accident. It devastated my brother, if it hadn't been for Daelin moving back just to be there for him, he probably would have turned out just like your Quinn."
-Remmy and Wade walked into the hotel room. Wade sat down in a chair and Rembrandt made his way over to Arturo. "How's it going Prof- . . . Max." "Not well, Rembrandt. I may be able to open a distortion field, but I don't think I can control where it will send us." "So we'd be back to random sliding?" "Not exactly sliding, but random travel, yes?" Arturo replied. Wade spoke, "But there's a chance, regardless of how slim, that we might make it back home?" "Yes, but the odds are not in our favor." Rembrandt spoke, "Remember Darlin', that it was almost five years before Q-Ball was able to find Earth Prime." 'But it could be only a few slides away," Wade replied. Arturo spoke, "Always the optimist, Wade." 'I want to see my husband. i want him to be there when I give birth to our child. If that means we have to randomly slide throughout the multiverse for a little while to find home, then so be it." "You heard the lady, open that distortion!' Arturo fiddled with the pentagon shaped device. A small beam of transparent light emitted from it and the fabric of reality began to sway and distort. "Ladies first," Arturo said. "Actually I'd prefer that you went first, after all I need something soft to land on!" The three of them laughed and Arturo spoke, "Very well, off I go." Arturo jumped into the distortion and Rembrandt and Wade followed.
- Same Earth, an alley near the Dominion Hotel. A green vortex opens and Conrad Bennish Jr. and Quinn Mallory are thrown from it. Quinn stands up, raises the timer and speaks, "She's gone, but I've think I've got a lock. Something's interfering with the tracking device, but I've got a lock on a photon trail." "Is it Autumn's?" Bennish asked. "I think," Quinn replied. 'Are we going to track it?" 'Does this answer your Question?" Quinn lowered the timer and fired. the green vortex opened and the two jumped in.