Joy awoke to the warm feeling of sunlight on her face. The first thing she did was check her right wrist, ensuring that her side of the pair of metal handcuffs was still securely locked around it. It had become routine for her. She turned to her side to see Wendy, still deeply asleep, mouth hanging open slightly, releasing muted snores upon each exhalation. Joy smiled and used her free hand to brush Wendy’s cheek. That had become routine for her, too. The smooth softness of Wendy’s skin was far more reassuring than the cold grip of the handcuff.

Joy sat up (slowly, so as not to awaken Wendy) and began to assess their surroundings. To her relief, they remained in the same area they had been the previous night. Their camp was set up at the center of a vast river valley, a location that was hands down one of the most picturesque locations she’d ever been to. The place was surrounded by lush greenery and walled in by impossibly tall, snow-capped mountains. The nearby river provided a constant backdrop of rushing water to accompany the serene sounds of wildlife. The ends of the valley were indistinct in both directions, illuminated by a bright, early morning sun that glowed from between the mountaintops, casting zigzagging shadows that stretched across the land. Joy inhaled deeply, basking in the crisp, vibrant flavor of the air.

“That’s three weeks and two days in a row now,” a hoarse, groggy voice from beside her murmured, almost inaudibly.

Joy looked down at her newly awoken partner and reached over to run her fingers through Wendy’s blonde locks.

“I know. You’re getting better at controlling it. I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“No,” Wendy lied, sitting up and digging into her jean pocket, procuring a small metal key, “My arm did. This handcuff thing is a real pain in the .”

“It’s the only way to make sure that we stick together if it happens during the night.” Joy said seriously.

“I felt it happening last night in my dreams. But I managed to fight it off. And it wasn’t as hard this time.”

Wendy bit her lip in frustration as she fumbled with the lock. Joy tenderly took the key from her hand and unlocked the handcuffs, earning a wide, embarrassed smile from her clumsy companion.

“We’re still going to keep using them. I refuse to lose you, Wen.”

The blonde responded by sitting up fully and planting a long kiss on Joy’s cheek. She liked to save her partner the trouble of dealing with her morning breath.

“So how about I go fish us up some breakfast?” Wendy asked, standing up and stretching.

“As long as I’m there to make sure you don’t get the lines tangled.” Joy said with a giggle.

“No fair,” Wendy huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, “You always do everything. I have to contribute somehow. The way I do it, I won’t even need a line.”

Joy stood up now, her playful grin gone, replaced by a concerned expression.

“No. I don’t want you hurting yourself. You know what happens if you try and push it too far.”

“You can be there the whole time,” Wendy pleaded, “You can hold my hand, or we can put the handcuffs on if you really wanna go that far. I have to practice this stuff somehow. This is one of the safest ways to do it.”

Joy bit her lip and looked away, still uncertain. Wendy stepped forward and wrapped both arms around the younger girl’s waist, resting her chin on Joy’s chest and looking up with wide puppy-dog eyes and an irresistible pout.

“Please, babe? Pretty please?”

“Ugh, fine,” Joy said, defeated, “But I’m holding your hand the whole time. And if anything even goes slightly wrong, you have to stop, and give it a rest for at least the remainder of the day.”

“Yes!” Wendy yelled triumphantly, releasing her hold on the taller girl and practically skipping over to the riverside.

Joy sighed and jogged after her.

Despite the conclusion of the events that precipitated a year ago, Wendy had retained the odd psychic abilities that she’d been granted. Joy theorized that it had been due to the healing magic done on Wendy by a certain desert-dwelling zombie that had helped them to save the world. At first, the powers had only manifested themselves as visions. As time passed, they progressed to other facets of psychic prowess, beginning with a sporadic, difficult-to-control telekinesis that (with the help of Irene, Seulgi, and Joy) Wendy had been able to tame and use to her advantage. The more Wendy used these telekinetic powers, the more control she was able to gain over them. However, the strength of her powers had increased exponentially from that point on, to the point that Wendy was unable to keep up with their rapidly expanding capacities. The manifestation of a teleportation ability had occurred late at night several months ago, while Wendy was asleep. Luckily, she had been intertwined with Joy; as a result, the two lovers were transported to an unknown location, with no reliable method of returning to Irene and Seulgi. Joy wondered about their long-lost companions every day, and how they were faring in this newly-formed world.

Since then, they’d been randomly transported five more times. Neither of the girls were sure of how far they’d traveled, where they’d wake up next time, or if they were even still in the same world. They’d noted that the teleportations seemed to constantly put them in spots that were at least mostly safe and isolated. Joy added the handcuffs as a precautionary measure after the second time it had occurred, and they’d worked perfectly ever since. Since the fifth teleportation to this valley, Wendy had learned how to hold back the sudden jumps in location, although it seemed to take a great amount of effort to do so. The fact that she was able to do it in her sleep now amazed Joy beyond belief. Wendy’s lack of confidence in herself hid a perfectly capable girl, one who was headstrong and unwilling to give up. It was one of the things Joy admired about her partner the most.

“Hey!” Wendy said, waving her hand in front of Joy’s face, “You awake? I’m about to start. Are you gonna take my hand or not?”

Joy blinked as she was brought back to reality. The river before her was wide and deep, with muddy, sloping banks and deceptively blue waters that moved much faster than they appeared to. Wendy stood with her bare feet in the mud, clutching her shoes in her right hand, holding out her left towards Joy with an expectant expression. Joy removed her own shoes before taking Wendy’s hand, stepping up to stand close to her, enjoying the squishy wetness of the ground between her toes.

“Ready?” Wendy asked, smiling.

“No, but that’s not gonna stop you, is it?”

The shorter girl gave Joy another kiss on the cheek for reassurance.

“I’ll be fine.”

Joy sighed and squeezed Wendy’s hand a bit tighter.

From an outside perspective, it looked as if nothing was going on, as if the two girls were simply standing hand in hand by the river, enjoying the view. Internally, however, Joy knew that Wendy was devoting her entire focus to the task at hand. The petite girl’s eyes were shut tightly, face tense as she scanned the river bottom for a suitable target. Joy knew this was the easy part. It took little effort for Wendy to use her powers to view things that were so close in proximity to her. At this stage, there was very little chance of error. The worst that could happen is that she wouldn’t be able to find a large enough fish, and they would have to move elsewhere, or (as Joy was secretly hoping) give up entirely and fish by hand instead.

The tightening of Wendy’s hand around hers indicated that the older girl had indeed found a properly-sized fish and was now attempting to telekinetically lift the animal from the water to the shore. It was a task that took a massive amount of effort and concentration; Joy could see beads of sweat beginning to form on Wendy’s brow, along with the telltale quivering frown that had set itself upon her face.

The first physical sign of the blonde girl’s efforts was a slight bubbling of the water a few feet from shore. At the center of the bubbling emerged a sizeable pink salmon, slowly breaching the waters, thrashing back and forth in a futile attempt to escape its invisible assailant. Now that the fish was above water, its movements would become much more frenzied, leading to an increase in the amount of effort required for Wendy to pull it to shore. She kept the fish halfway beneath the surface in order to mitigate this issue, dragging the helpless creature towards them in a way that made Joy feel a slight twinge of sympathy. She reminded herself that they had to eat somehow, and that this was no different than regular fishing.

When Wendy had brought the salmon close enough, Joy eased her hand away from her companion’s and stooped down by the river, snatching the salmon up into her arms at the same second that Wendy relinquished her psychic hold. The older girl inhaled deeply as she opened her eyes, breaths coming quick, body relaxing enough for her to have to take a seat in the grass for fear of fainting. Joy wrestled the salmon far enough away from the water, pinning the fish down under her weight in order to keep it from moving.

“Tell me you didn’t go for the biggest fish you could find!” she said in exasperation.

“I did,” Wendy said breathlessly, “But you already knew I would. Do you need help?”

“No,” Joy said sternly, “Stay there and rest. You need to-”

Joy froze as she looked away from the fish and at her partner. Wendy was no longer sitting up, instead hunched over with her forehead pressed to her knees, hands clutching her temples. She let out a low moan of pain and tensed up involuntarily.

“Wendy, are you okay?” Joy asked, releasing the fish and allowing it to flop around in the grass, “What’s wrong?”

Wendy’s response was a shuddering exhale as her entire body began to tremble. Joy’s heart dropped. She knew what was happening.

“Oh no. No, no, no, no, Wendy hold it off just a little longer, I’m coming!”

The black-haired girl darted forward, arms outstretched, but it was too late. There was a flash of white light, just bright enough to obscure her vision for a moment, and Wendy was gone.

***

Wendy regained her senses rapidly as her massive headache receded, leaving behind a surprisingly high level of clarity and awareness.

The ground, which was composed of very loose, fine sand, was unbearably hot. Wendy sat up, using one hand to shield her eyes from the blinding sun. As far as she could see, there were no notable landmarks aside from dunes of sand that sloped so subtly that they were almost indiscernible from the flat land. The sun hung high in the sky, radiating an unwavering heat that baked the land thoroughly.

The environment reminded Wendy of the time that Joy had carried her across the desert as they’d ran from a giant scorpion. The memory of her love caused a sudden spike of panic to strike her; Joy wasn’t here. She was alone. For the first time, she’d teleported without her partner.

The blonde could feel the tears beginning to make their way into her eyes, could feel her heart’s rapid, frantic beats, could feel herself beginning to hyperventilate. It took every ounce of strength she had to fight the anxiety, to push away the rising horror and to regain control of herself.

There was only way that she would be getting back to Joy. She’d never tried it before, but she had teleport back to the valley. It seemed like an insurmountable task. Up until that point, Wendy had only attempted to contain her teleportation ability, to resist it in order to prevent herself from changing locations. She had to remain in a constant state of awareness, ready at any moment to halt the reality-distorting process.

But what would happen if she were to let go? To allow herself to teleport, to guide the energy behind it rather than suppress it. It was likely an exercise in futility, but she had to try. If she didn’t, she was doomed to die alone under the hot sun.

Wendy closed her eyes as tight as she could and began picturing the valley. She pictured the mountains, the trees, the river, the mud, the sounds of birds chirping, the fresh, slight coolness of the air. Simultaneously, she dove into the part of her brain that housed her psychic abilities.

This unfamiliar section of her consciousness was still very alien to her, though it had been with her for awhile now. It always felt as if she were flexing an extra limb, one that shouldn’t be there, one that was much stronger than the rest of her body. She came to the section where her teleportation ability resided; an unfamiliar, expansive section that threatened to consume her with its sheer size and uncertainty. It was like staring into an abyss.

In spite of the fear that threatened to reclaim her, she refused to back down, throwing herself fully into this part of her brain, allowing her body to be overtaken by it. The light, unearthly feeling started to seep its way back into her veins as her body began to tense up. There was no headache this time, instead a cool throbbing that actually felt quite pleasant. She was distracted for a moment by the shocking lack of pain. And then, she was moving.

There was no time. Her eyes were shut, but she could see everything. She was moving at an unfathomable pace. Locations sped by, mere splotches of color as she tumbled across space and time. She could see that she was moving along a linear plane, and that parallel to her plane were many other planes, each extending into the distance, each flashing by at the same speed as the one she was located on, separated from her plane by large gaps of inky nothingness.

She was moving too fast. There was no way she could find where she needed to be like this. There was no control, no order. She clenched her fists, willing her body to slow down, somehow knowing that if she concentrated hard enough, she could direct herself. She tried to use thoughts of the valley as anchor, but they were impossible to focus on as she zoomed through reality. She turned her thoughts to Joy, instead.

Wendy focused on the warmth of her lover’s skin, the softness of her kisses, the silkiness of her hair. She pictured Joy’s smile, the way her eyes crinkled up when she laughed, the whiteness of her teeth, the redness of her lips…

And just like that, Wendy was in control. She was no longer soaring across the cosmos at the whim of her powers. She couldn’t stop entirely, for if she did, she would be placed at whatever location she was traveling “into”. That’s what it was. She wasn’t flying to these locations, or by them, she was inside of them. She was part of something that existed outside of her usual reality, somewhere that was connected to all realities. It was both amazing and terrifying at the same time. She regarded the other planes of existence. Wendy knew that, with enough practice, she would be able to move to other planes, just as she was moving within her own plane. But that wasn’t relevant, not now. Now, she had to focus on finding Joy.

She returned to the image she’d previously conjured, the one of Joy laughing. She expanded it so that she could see that Joy was sitting on the ground, leaning up against a tree. She went further, zooming out so that the river was visible in the distance. Then further, to where she could see the beginnings of the slopes that led into the mountains.

Reality was shifting, becoming more tangible. Wendy could see the valley in its current state now, with a small beige dot representing its lone inhabitant. The determined blonde focused hard on that dot, intent on placing herself directly in front of it. She allowed herself to speed up, all of her attention placed on that one location, right in front of her lover, who appeared to be curled up in a ball on the grass.

There was a flash of white light.

***

The second flash came minutes after the first. Joy noticed it even through her shut eyelids. She looked up, sniffling slightly as she did so, unwilling to put in the effort to brush the hair that was clinging to her soaked cheeks away.

Wendy reappeared, standing this time, her arms outstretched to either side, a look of complete serenity on her face as a cascade of blonde swept around her as if she were some sort of ancient goddess.

Joy couldn’t remember crawling over, but the next thing she knew she was on her knees before Wendy, arms wrapped around her waist, face buried in the fabric of her shirt, sobbing without shame as Wendy cradled her.

“Wen… don’t you ever, ever, ever, do that to me again… do you know how worried I was? I love you, Wendy. I love you so much, never leave me like that again, please...” she cried.

“I know, I love you too, it’s okay, I’m back now…” Wendy whispered, running her fingers through Joy’s hair.

Joy’s tears of sorrow became tears of mirth. She refused to let go for a long time.

------------------------

I actually didn't plan on re-introducing Wenjoy until literally the final chapter, but since I had no clue what to do in this one, I decided to throw in a short thing about them here. I know the chapter content has nothing to do with the name, but I couldn't really think of anything that would fit it... sorry ):

The next chapters are gonna be action-heavy, so prepare yourselves. Granted, I don't know how long it'll take me to write them (might be awhile) because I really want to do them right. But get hyped nonetheless (; you should also start fearing for the wellbeing of certain characters... (was that too spoiler-ish? idk...)

Thanks for reading<3