Parallels- an MCSM AU [COMPLETED]

TWELVE- Twisted Paths

UwU

This chapter was unfortunately another example of "shit i have writer's block and i'm not accomplishing anything so i'm gonna sit down and make myself accomplish something" so it's,, not the best

also heads up prepare urself for a lot of fucking reading, this chapter is so long

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It was on pure instinct that I pulled my diamond sword from my inventory and pointed it at the woman I'd thought was my friend. "Alright, Admin. What the hell are you doing here?"

Lukas had an arrow nocked into his enchanted bow, aiming it at Julia. "How long have you been in her form? The whole time?"

"Wait, wait! I'm not the Admin, I swear it!" she cried, holding her hands up in an 'I surrender' motion.

I gestured to her with my sword. "Right, sure. What are you, then?"

"Julia. It's me, I promise! I'm not an Admin, I'm not dangerous. Please don't hurt me!"

"How do we know?" Lukas demanded, at the same time Radar exclaimed, "Does 'Julia' even exist?! Were you playing with us the whole time?!"

"No!" she yelled. "No, I wasn't! Please, just listen to me!"

She dragged in a deep breath, closing her eyes. When she opened them again, they were back to the calm brown I was used to.

"Please. I'm not Romeo. I really am Julia; I always have been. This is a misunderstanding."

"You having Admin eyes is a misunderstanding?!" Lukas countered.

She shook her head wildly. "Yes, I have Admin eyes, but it's not what you think. Read my lips- I am not Romeo."

I lowered the weapon slightly, watching her carefully. I had no idea what was going on, but I didn't want to attack her if she was telling the truth.

"Come on. Have I acted anything like Romeo at all in the time you've known me? I mean, I know it hasn't been all that long, but..." she shook her head briefly. "It's just a deviation. That's all."

Lukas loosened his grip on the bowstring. "Care to explain?"

She nodded, pulling absent-mindedly on the sleeve of her lavender shirt. "It's a deviation. You know how when Jess hit Romeo with the golden gauntlet for the last time, it took away his powers?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that didn't fully happen with me. At least, it did take his powers...but it transferred them to me. I...I can turn it on and off, but, yeah. I have Admin powers."

The three of us stared at her. She glanced nervously at me for a moment, then returned to looking at the floor. "I'm not a full Admin, and I haven't lied to you about anything else. I don't like these powers at all, but if I go too long without using them, they start to...overwhelm me, I guess? So I've been trying to use them for only a few minutes every day, just...creating or building little things so everything doesn't freak out. But since I've been around you guys so much, I haven't had much chance to release the power, and it finally just...it got too strong."

"Is that why you kept acting like your head hurt?" I asked, stowing my sword in my inventory.

She nodded. "Yeah. Not using it...well, it affects me in a lot of ways. Getting headaches is one of those. And I don't have his full powers. Well, I sort-of do, but they're not nearly as strong as Romeo's. I'm...look, I didn't want to hide this from you guys. I want you to trust me. But there was so much going on, and I just...I didn't get the chance."