Lost Boys

Edge of the Liminal Zone

Bonus points to anyone who recognizes what the title is from.

********

Hitching a ride turned out to be harder than it sounded. For some reason, all the inter-multiverse travelers they found seemed strangely averse to picking up people whose wanted posters were plastered all the way from here to the nightmare realm.

Eventually, Stan just hijacked a vessel and, wracking his brain for the coordinates and name of the universe they were looking for, plugged them into the guidance system and drove off towards it at high speed.

The previous owner of the multiverse cruiser was probably going to be a little upset when he regained consciousness and found himself stranded in another dimension, but hey, at least they'd transported him to one of the parallel earths run by dolphins-onto a tropical beach, no less. He'd be fine. Probably.

Unfortunately, despite Stan's having more recent experience with driving than Ford, they were unable to land quite as smoothly as they had hoped.

"Oh, ow, everything hurts," Stan groaned as they half-crawled away from the twisted burning wreckage and pulled each other to their feet.

Ford sighed, checking to make sure none of his limbs were broken. There was a small cut on his forehead, and he was going to have some fresh bruises, but hey, it wasn't like he'd never experienced that before. "That would have been better without the cliff."

"Yeah, sorry." Stan checked Vera anxiously, breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw there was no substantial damage to the gun.

"I wasn't blaming you. It was hard to see in all this-" He gestured irritably to the storm surrounding them- "it probably would have happened no matter what." By squinting he managed to make out the cave, so they hurriedly began trudging through the snow towards it.

Just as they reached the entrance he barely heard his twin murmur, "Thanks, Ford."

And then he was distracted from replying by a loud chorus of cheers.

********

Instantly he was grabbing for his gun (not the quantum destabilizer, one of the extras they'd managed to recover), brandishing it at-the three sisters, standing together in a corner of the cave in front of a quite welcoming fire. All three of them were clapping; because of where they were situated, it created a bit of an echo effect.

He lowered the gun as soon as he registered who they were.

None of them seemed at all perturbed at his threatening them-again. Hera giggled, in fact, and asked, "Is that your normal way of saying hello, or are we just special?"

"Well, he's been told before that he needs to think before he shoots," said Cici, who Ford noticed had borrowed an eye from both her sisters. "But I'd like to think we're special to him anyway."

He hoped fervently that his face didn't look as warm as it felt. Either way, Stan was stepping forward and doing a cheesy bow.

"Thank you for that wonderful ovation!"

"We thought you needed it after everything you've been through," said Cici with a little shrug.

"Then I guess we oughta give you this." And from behind his back he produced the silver box.

Cici let out a squeal that had Ford fighting not to clap his hands over his ears, and ran forward, snatching it from Stan.

"You got it! Oh, thank you so much, this is the happiest day of my life!" Immediately she started reaching for her collar-but then Hera was at her side, smacking her hand down.

"Don't put it back in now, there's other people present!"

Cici glowered at her. "Oh please, it's not like they'd see anything weird! I showed them earlier-"

"You should know better by now than to let men see your heart!"

"They got it back for me, Hera, I don't think I need to worry about them trying to steal it!"

To the side of their squabbling, Teller gave the men a long-suffering look that was perfectly interpreted as, "Yes, this is what I have to put up with all the time."

********

Ford finally coughed into his fist. "Um, if you would, please?" He held out his hand. "Our payment?"

Cici and Hera didn't seem to hear them. Rolling her eyes, Teller took the chain with the coordinates from around her neck and held it out to him. Ford accepted them gratefully.

"Thank you so much."

She smiled and blushed, then drove her elbow hard into Cici's side. She nearly dropped the box, and after fumbling to catch it for a second her attention was drawn back to them.

"Oh. You're leaving?"

Ford was about to answer when Stan turned to him, a hint of anxiety in his eyes for some reason. He cleared his throat and asked, "Do you wanna try for the nightmare realm? You got what you need ta fight Bill now, and you're the one who got screwed over by him. It's your call."

That drew Ford up short.

His brows lowered over his eyes, and he stared down at the box of NowUSeeItNowUDontium.

"You say the other versions of us defeated him together?"

"Yeah, but way in the future, giving the triangle lots of time ta hurt lots of other people. And who knows, it might not mess up the space-time continuum if you're the one ta take him down."

Ford rolled his eyes at him before frowning in thought again.

It was awfully tempting, to finish putting together the quantum destabilizer here and then go charging off to destroy his nemesis. It was what he'd spent the last six years planning on doing, or to die trying. And now he had hope that he could actually make it back to his own dimension afterwards. And Stan was giving him his full support for it; in fact, judging by his body language and determined expression he had every intention of coming with him whether he liked it or not.

Ford looked at Stan.

He looked back down at the box.

He looked at his brother again.

"Let's go home, Stanley."

Stan beamed.

********

Once the Pineses were gone, Cici's heart was put back in her chest, and she let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh man, that feels so much better. I finally feel whole again."

"Tell me about it," Hera said. She looked back at where the twins had been, and sighed. "We're never gonna see them again, are we?"

"Not those ones, no."

Hera shook her head dramatically. "I can feel my heart breaking just thinking about it."

There was a wet squishy sound over to her right. She looked over at Teller and smiled. "No, not really, I was exaggerating. But thanks, sis."

Teller smiled back sheepishly, and returned her own heart to her chest.

********

Awwww, so much familial affection!