"I've seen you before," Adam said as he donned his battle gear. "You know that, right?"

​     "No. We've never met before just now."

​     "To get here, I had to go through a portal from my universe, and a whole bunch of people tried to stop me. You were one of those people." 

     "Impossible."

​     "I can't think of a single reason why I'd lie about something like that, and I'll tell you something else, too. There were two of you there that day."

​     Adama made no reply to that, but Adam assumed that, if she had, the reply probably would have been another, "impossible", so he just went ahead as if she'd said it.

     "Yeah, there were maybe fifty of us going at it, and out of nowhere you and I appeared, and it looked like we'd been beating the hell out of each other, and we were both engulfed in red flame." 

​     "What?"

     "Yeah, and then we exploded into red flame, and that was it. You keep looking at me like I'm making this up."

​     Adama walked over to the edge of the sky chariot. She, too, now wore battle armor. She looked exactly like the Adama he'd seen on Earth. "We're almost at my fortress," she said. "You should get a look around while you've got the chance. We're pretty high up. The view's outstanding."

​     And, with that, she stepped back so that she dropped off the chariot...

     into...

     what?

     Adam walked over the edge of the sky chariot himself and got a look over the side. Nothing. No Adama anywhere.

     Then he got a look around in general. Adama was right about the view. This was a universe where the sky was three different shades of blue, as well as green and brown, and hidden behind billowing white and orange and crimson clouds, and all of those clouds and all of that sky seemed to be in constant, swirling motion. Adam felt that, if given the time, he could rest on his back and stare for hours at this constantly swirling sky.

     As for what was below him:

     It was like a crazy patchwork quilt down there. One part of the land was brown, another part corn-yellow, another green, and this "ground quilt", too, stayed in constant motion. Adam saw clusters of lights on this quilt, cities, but even they stayed in motion. Some of the lights would rise from the ground into the sky, then return again. Parts of the ground swarmed with living entities of one kind or another. Thousands of creatures, some in formation, others not, fluttered through the air.

     Adam was fifteen billion years old, as old as the universe itself. He'd been on a thousand different planets, lived amongst near as many cultures and beings. ​

     But he'd never seen anything like this.

​     He'd heard of Domitika, of course, Infini's dream universe, and he'd imagined what it might be like, but...

​     Okay, he thought. I'll admit it. I am now officially impressed. Adama's right. This is one hell of a fucking universe.

​     Adama returned just as they reached her fortress. She stepped out of one of the cabins of her sky chariot. She looked just the slightest bit different than she had before she left. She looked sweatier, for one thing. She'd been exerting some physical effort. She had a bruise on her cheek. One of the sleeves on her battle uniform was torn.

     "Been in a fight?" he asked.

     "You could say that."

​     "You were fighting with my brother, Gramps. I watched you two."

     "He's your brother?"

     "All Adams are brothers."

     "You were a mess back there, darling."

     "I'm better now."

​     "We'll see."

​                                                     CONTINUE