"Jake, Jane, Carl, and Carly, wait for me after class," Ms. Michelle said, sliding her glasses up her nose. "Now, let's focus on today's topic." She tapped the board, bringing up images of ancient artifacts—stone relics.
But none of the four were paying attention.
"Uh… was I the only one seeing the btzz btzz?" Carl whispered, leaning toward the others.
"More like a buzz buzz, if you ask me." Carly smirked, half-laughing, half-freaked out.
"You guys should really take this seriously for once," Jane muttered, her voice clipped with irritation.
"Something we can both agree on," Jake replied, shrugging lazily. His eyes were half-lidded, like he could nap.
Ms. Michelle cleared her throat sharply—still facing the board. "No noise, please."
The group quieted instantly, tension still in the air. The rest of the class dragged on in silence until the final bell rang.
Students shuffled out, leaving behind only the four teens and their teacher. Ms. Michelle pulled a chair forward, sitting down with a sigh.
Carl broke the silence first. "Sooo... what's going on? What did you mean by 'Welcome to the Merge'? What even is this?" He gestured vaguely around the room, like answers were hiding in the corners.
Jane was more direct. "Yeah. Is this real? Are they real?" She pointed accusingly at Jake and Carl.
Jake raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Carl blinked. "Excuse you?"
Ms. Michelle lifted her hand calmly. "Relax, everyone. If we're looking from that perspective then... they're the real ones here." pointing to Jake and Carl
"Ha!" Jake leaned forward with a smug grin. "Guess who's the imposter now?"
"Shut it," Jane snapped, glaring.
"Cool it, you two," Carl sighed, the unofficial peacemaker as always.
"May I continue?" Ms. Michelle asked. They nodded, simmering down.
She stood and walked to the whiteboard, wiping it clean before drawing two large circles side by side. Under the first, she wrote Earth A. Under the second, Earth B.
"Alright, follow closely. These—Earth A and Earth B—are two separate worlds. Or rather, were. They've recently gone through a process known as The Merge. A boom and a mix up." She drew a third circle beneath the two and connected them with arrows from both A and B, labeling the new one Earth AB.
Jake straightened in his seat, suddenly more alert. "So... this world is a mashup of two Earths?"
"Exactly." Ms. Michelle nodded. "A dimensional-level collision. And now, here we are, living on Earth AB."
Jane's eyes narrowed in thought. "Okay. So both our world and theirs merged to form this one. But then why say they're the real ones?" She gestured again to the boys.
"Good question. It's actually because this is the system of Earth A. Earth B was actually patching up Earth A." Ms. Michelle said with a sly smile. She walked to the other side of the board and drew a horizontal line slicing Earth AB in half.
"This is The Merge," she said, tapping the central circle. "But it's important to distinguish it from The Merge Effect." She wrote both terms down: The Merge and The Merge Effect.
"The Merge affected the physical world—geography, physics, basic reality, space and all that. But The Merge Effect..." she turned to them, "...that's what impacted the people. Us."
Carly leaned forward, interest piqued. "So everything weird happening to us... the doubles, the genders flipping—it's all from this Merge Effect?"
"Exactly," Ms. Michelle confirmed.
Carl grabbed the marker and rushed to the board. "So hypothetically," he said, sketching smaller circles within Earth AB, each labeled B, "this would be what The Merge looked like if everyone merged evenly. But that didn't happen because of—according to you—the boom, basically saying the universe decided to mix it all up instead of patching."
He stepped back. "That also means this version of Earth? It leans more toward our side."
Jane jumped in. "Which makes sense! That would explain why some people are swapped."
"Right," Carly added. "It's like... the universe is scrambling to correct itself. And we're the corrupted data."
Ms. Michelle gave her an impressed look. "Exactly. The Earth itself adapted fast. But people? Not so much. Some merged. Some exist twice. Memories rewritten and all."
Carly crossed her arms, her voice quieter now. "Then that makes us... anomalies. Bugs in the New Earth's code."
A chill settled over them.
Jake, normally unfazed, looked around and said quietly, "I shouldn't have left bed."
"Look," Jane said. "You, us four—and others like us who remember the world before The Merge—aren't just witnesses to it. We're the ones caught in the middle. And whatever caused this? Doesn't seem to be done yet."
"Well… I, um…" Ms Michelle blinked rapidly. "You all explained it yourselves. Has someone already talked to you?"
"Nah," Jake said coolly, leaning back in his chair. "Just put the pieces together."
"Wrote about something kinda similar," Carl added with a shrug, fiddling with a pen.
"Drew something very similar," Carly chimed in, twirling a strand of her hair. "Had this image stuck in my head for weeks."
"Just like my clone over there," Jane gestured at Jake. "I also did the math."
"Hey," Jake snapped, half-joking, "who you calling clone?"
Jane looked away, intentionally ignoring him.
Ms. Michelle stared at them for a while. "Wow. I should've expected as much from the school's brain trust."
Carl walked back to his seat and dropped into it. "Alright, we get the Merge stuff now. But how'd you do that glitch thing earlier? That btzz flicker moment? Or whatever that is."
"Yeah, that whole distortion moment," Carly added, her eyes narrowing with curiosity. "Also, how do you know so much about something that isn't even in textbooks?"
"Seriously," Jane said, "you teach ancient relics and dead languages, but you're breaking down multiverse mechanics like a physicist. Doesn't add up."
Ms. Michelle let out a small chuckle, arms folded. "Well... I was a scientist. Before I quit and chose to teach."
There was a short silence.
"Upgrade or downgrade?" Carly muttered under her breath.
"Sounds like a downgrade to me," Jake muttered even lower. "An outdated one too."
Carl, Carly, and Jane chuckled. Ms. Michelle rolled her eyes dramatically like she'd dealt with far worse.
"Alright, alright, get it out of your system," she said, grabbing the marker cap and clicking it back on. "But I'll say this—knowing what I know isn't a coincidence. It comes with... experience."
Jane leaned forward, sharp-eyed. "Okay. Then explain why you glitched like that."
Ms. Michelle's smile dropped slightly. She glanced at the clock on the wall, then at her wristwatch, tension returning to her eyes.
"On personal—and safer—terms, I'd rather not say more about that," she replied, voice low and final. "This is all I can share for now."
She grabbed the board eraser and began wiping away the diagrams. "I've already kept you too long. You should all head home."
Reluctantly, the group got up. Jake lingered behind a few seconds longer, watching her carefully his eyes narrowed briefly—spotting the reflection of a man on the window before it became a woman again. Then he turned and walked out the door behind the others.
Outside, the sun had dipped behind the school buildings, shadows stretching across the concrete.
"So…" Carly sighed, dragging her feet with each step. "We're technically stuck together, huh?"
Carl nodded, bopping his head to a beat only he could hear. "Yup. Like a squad of.... Honestly I don't know."
Jake remained quiet, pulling his headset from his bag and slipping them on. Whatever he was listening to drowned the world out.
Jane, silent too, was nose-deep in a pocket-sized novel. She didn't speak, but her eyes darted up occasionally, watchful, wary.
As they stepped through the school gates, a presence lingered nearby. Unseen but felt.
Jane glanced over her shoulder.
A figure.
Just for a second.
A silhouette ducked behind a tree before she could see its face. She frowned but shook it off, convincing herself it was probably a parent or staff member.
Still, a chill followed her steps.
"Zabar's Deli calls," Carl suddenly announced. "I'm outta snacks and parental supervision."
Carly's eyes lit up. "Have you tried the cookies from Levain Bakery?"
"Nope."
"Biggest, most unnecessary cookie ever," Carly grinned. "Come on, we're going."
She grabbed Carl by the arm and practically yanked him into a jog.
"Let's gooooo, we'll be back, you two!" she called behind her.
Jane gave a silent thumbs-up, while Jake—clueless with his music on—just nodded with a confused look.
Meanwhile…
Somewhere deep in the outback of Australia.
The air split. A glowing tear opened mid-air, jagged and sizzling.
A figure emerged.
Cloaked. Hooded. His cloak were ragged, torn at the edges like they'd been burned.
He stepped out onto red soil and cracked rock. The rift closed behind him like a mouth shutting tight.
He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, a faint frown hidden beneath his shadowed face.
"Van Solas can already smell them…" he murmured. "Riftborn. Swarming like maggots in a dying world."
He looked around him. Everything seemed normal—but not to his eyes. Reality glitched—subtle but constant. Buildings flickered. Trees shifted leaves in unnatural patterns. The sun had two shadows.
"To think a world this broken is still pretending to function." He chuckled a lightly. "Fascinating."
Then he instantly burst into particles—dust, scattering into the wind, gone as quickly as he came.