Chapter Text
Through The Looking Glass
Twenty-one year old Blair Sandburg lay on the jungle floor and wondered why the consulate hadn't told them about the danger of encountering militant insurgents in the area. He should have listened to Naomi when she objected to his joining the expedition to South America. But how could he pass up the opportunity to go with Dr. Stoddard, a man who was famous in the anthropology world.
His sight was graying around the edges and he could barely make out the bodies of the other expedition members. Dr. Stoddard had been the first to fall under the rain of bullets as the insurgents attacked their camp and the rest of the group hadn't been far behind him. Now Blair's vision grew dim as he felt his blood draining from his body. As his eyes slowly closed, he thought he heard a wolf howling mournfully in the distance. His last thought was that now he'd never find a sentinel.
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Blair felt something wet and raspy rub across his cheek and opened his eyes to find himself face to face with the biggest black cat he’d ever seen. His first thought was that a jaguar had come to feast on the remains of the expedition and he gave a startled yelp as he scooted himself backwards. The cat eyed him thoughtfully for a moment, then seemed to nod in satisfaction as it turned away and disappeared behind an overflowing dumpster.
Blair laughed nervously and closed his eyes. “Just a big old alley cat,” he sighed in relief and tried to calm himself. Then he realized just what he'd seen. "Alley cat? What's an alley cat doing in the jungle?"
He opened his eyes wide and looked around in confusion at the litter filled alley. Where were the South American jungle and the remains of the expedition’s camp? Memories of the attack assailed him and he felt again the impact of the five bullets that had struck his chest and stomach. He looked down at himself and recognized the T-shirt, jeans and hiking boots as the same ones he had put on that morning in his tent. He saw that they were no longer soaked in blood and riddled with bullet holes so he lifted his shirt and found no sign of any wounds.
He ran his hands through his hair in confusion. He'd been in the jungle. He knew he had. How could he have ended up in an alley? Was the murdered expedition only a dream? The memories were so real. If he had died in the jungle, did this mean that the afterlife was nothing but a filthy alley? Blair laughed again nervously.
"Man, that must've been some party I went to last night," he muttered. "Too bad I can't remember it. Next question. Where the hell am I?"
He stiffly got up and stretched. His chest ached and he absently rubbed it as he walked to the head of the alley. When he reached the street, he sighed in relief as he recognized a run-down neighborhood he and his friends from Rainier University had gone slumming in. Yes, there across the street was the bar where they had indulged themselves in seeing how the other half lived. His mother Naomi wouldn't have been happy to learn about that little trip. It was bad enough that her son refused to join the family business and insisted on anthropology as a career. She would consider it unforgivable for him to mingle with the lower classes, after all one must keep up appearances. She had really hated the idea that he was joining the expedition to South America because that meant he would have to rough it like everyone else. Ah the perils of being a rich boy surrounded by commoners.
Blair spotted a pay phone and reached for his wallet only to find his pockets empty except for his Swiss Army knife. Had he been robbed? Then he remembered putting his personal items and all his money in his backpack, the backpack that remained in his tent when he rushed outside at the first sound of shots being fired. He leaned heavily against a nearby wall at that thought and felt again the impact of bullets.
His vision started to gray out and he was hit with a wave of dizziness as his knees buckled. He felt a strong hand grasp his upper arm and dimly heard someone ask, “Are you okay, kid?”
Blair looked up at the man whose grip kept him from falling. He saw a tall man with icy blue eyes whose stern expression didn’t match the concern in his voice. The man frowned and asked, “Do you need an ambulance?”
The feeling of having been shot faded as Blair shook off the dizziness and tried to calm himself. He took several deep breaths and blinked stupidly as he catalogued the man’s muscular build covered with a leather jacket, T-shirt, and jeans and topped with a military style haircut. ‘He’s either hired muscle or a cop,’ Blair thought inanely.
The man’s frown deepened and he repeated, “Do you need an ambulance?”
Blair recovered from his daze. “No. No ambulance. I’m all right.”
“You turned white as a sheet and looked like you were about to pass out.”
Blair smiled nervously. “Too much party and not enough breakfast.”
“If you say so.” The man released his arm and headed for the bar across the street, glancing back over his shoulder at Blair once or twice before he disappeared into the building.
“What is happening?” Blair wondered then took another look around. “I need to go home,” he decided then remembered that he had no money for a cab or even the bus. “Oh well. I’m not crippled and the exercise will do me good,” he shrugged and began walking in the direction of Rainier University.
He and his friends had only gone to that bar twice and his roommate Rudy had been driving both times but Blair remembered the route they had taken. This wasn't an area of Cascade that he normally visited and he hurried his steps in order to get back into familiar territory. There weren't many people on the street at this hour, the sun's position in the sky told him that it was early afternoon; he knew that most of the residents wouldn't be out and about until it was dark enough to hide their activities. All the more reason for him to get back to where he belonged before it got any later.
As he walked, he pondered the weird flashbacks he seemed to be having about dying in the jungle. Someone must have slipped him a pretty potent drug last night. He and his friends must have been slumming again though he didn't really remember that. What he couldn't understand was why his friends had left him in that alley. Maybe he'd been so freaked out by the drug’s influence that he had taken off and they hadn't been able to find him. Still, why hadn't they called the police to look for him? They knew this was an unsavory area. How could they have just left him there?
He began to recognize landmarks and felt himself relax. Another two blocks and he would be out of the Old Town area. Then he noticed a street sign that said he was on Southern and did a double take. He couldn't believe the name of the street had been misspelled. It should have said Sothern. Then he noticed the cross street was labeled Packard. That should have been spelled Packerd. He shook his head at the strangeness and continued on his way.
Two blocks later, he stopped and stared in confusion at a four-story building on the corner. He was positive that that had been a vacant lot the last time he had passed that site but there stood a building that looked like it had been there for several years.
"What the hell? Where did that come from?"
He looked at the other buildings around him and thought they at least looked vaguely familiar so he was sure he hadn't accidentally wandered from his intended route. All he could do was keep going and get back to his apartment as quickly as possible. Maybe Rudy had an explanation for all this.
Another thirty minutes found him in front of the off campus housing where he lived. He was relieved to find the street door unlocked and hoped that Rudy was home since he seemed to have lost his keys. He could hear music coming from his apartment but it took at least five minutes of knocking on the door before it was finally opened by a frowning young man with purple spiky hair.
Blair stared at him in shock then asked, "Rudy?"
"Yeah, who wants to know?" Rudy replied and slouched against the door frame while he gave Blair the once over.
"What have you done to yourself?" Blair wondered out loud then shook his head. "Never mind. What the hell's going on? I woke up in some alley and had to walk all the way from Old Town. That was pretty crappy for you to leave me stranded there. Now let me in. I’m tired, I’m hungry, and I want a shower."
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rudy denied. “For that matter, who are you?”
“What do you mean, who am I?” Blair was starting to lose his patience. “I’m your roommate Blair Sandburg. Joke’s over. Now let me in.”
Rudy wrinkled his nose in distaste. "Are you on drugs? Sarah's been my roommate for the past year and I have no idea who you are."
"Who is it, Rudy?" a girl's voice asked.
Blair looked past Rudy at a blonde girl he'd never seen before. His bewilderment increased as he noticed the absence of personal touches he had made to the apartment.
"Beats me," Rudy answered the girl then turned his attention back to Blair. "Why don't you start walking back to Old Town before I call the cops?" He slammed the door in Blair's face.
Blair wasn't sure how long he stared at the closed door before he finally turned and went back out to the street. He sat down on the front step as a wave of dizziness hit him and he could feel his heart rate speed up.
"Don't panic," he tried to reassure himself. "There's a logical explanation for all of this. I just have to find it. Someone's trying to play an elaborate joke on me and when I figure out who it is, then we'll see who has the last laugh. I know. I'll go to Rainier. Someone there will be able to tell me what's going on."
Course of action decided, Blair stood and headed for the University campus determined to get to the bottom of things.
A five-minute walk brought him to the campus and he headed toward the anthropology building. It was a large campus, so markers had been erected here and there to direct students to the various buildings. Blair didn’t look too closely at them until the one labeled Hargrove Hall made him stop and stare. He shook his head in amusement.
“I don’t believe it,” he chuckled. “All the times I’ve walked past this sign and I’ve never noticed that someone misspelled Hargrave.”
His attention was drawn to a group of people coming toward him and he breathed a sigh of relief. That was definitely Dr. Stoddard though he looked much more dignified than Blair remembered him being. Blair was happy to see Lynn, Danny, and several other members of his dreamed expedition walking with the professor. Without thinking twice, he hurried over and greeted them barely noticing the puzzled looks they gave him.
"Dr. Stoddard! Am I glad to see you," he enthused. "You would not believe the dream I had. You and me and the others were in South America and rebel insurgents came into our camp and killed us all. Thank God it was just a dream!”
They looked at him blankly for a moment, then Dr. Stoddard asked, “Have we met, young man?”
Blair's world tilted. "Dr. Stoddard, don't you recognize me? It's Blair, Blair Sandburg. Remember? The guy you said would make a big name for himself in the anthropology world? That's why you chose me to be your second on the expedition to South America next month."
Dr. Stoddard's eyebrows rose while the others gawked at him in disbelief. "I'm afraid I've never seen you before in my life and as for naming you second on my expedition, we returned from said South American expedition last month. As you can see we are all alive and well. Now if you'll excuse us."
Blair's face paled and he couldn't believe what he was hearing. They couldn't all be in on this joke, that would be too cruel. "But Dr. Stoddard," he tried again.
Dr. Stoddard frowned. "Now see here, young man. I've said I don't know you and I don't. If you continue this harassment, I shall have to call the police." He turned and walked away followed by the rest of the group who shook their heads at the audacity of the obviously deranged young man.
Lynn hesitated then sympathetically smiled. "There's an excellent drug rehabilitation center down on Belmont Street. Give them a chance; I'm sure they can help you." She patted his arm and hurried after the others.
Blair sank to the ground and sat staring after them. How was it possible that Dr. Stoddard and the others could look him in the eye and so convincingly act like they'd never seen him before?
“Curiouser and curiouser,” he whispered and began a mental list of all the strange things he had encountered since waking up in that alley.
The flashbacks to what must have been a drug-induced dream about dying in the jungle.
The misspelling on the signs for Sothern, Packerd, and Hargrave. The building that stood in what he was sure was a vacant lot. Rudy, who had always worn his light brown hair in a conservative style and was now a bleach-blond with purple spikes. Again, Rudy who declared they had never been roommates and claimed not to know him. Dr. Stoddard and the other expedition members who looked at him as if he were a stranger.
“My God,” Blair murmured forlornly. “I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole and I’m not in Kansas anymore.”
He sat for a while feeling lost and alone before he realized it would be dark soon and he needed to find somewhere to spend the night. He had no money or identification and he knew there was no way Rudy would let him into the apartment. He thought of the homeless shelter over on Hampton where he had volunteered on occasion and figured that would be a safe place to stay. Maybe after a good night’s sleep, things would start making sense again.
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Unfortunately, the shelter was full. The best they could do was give him a hot meal and a coat to wear. With nowhere else to go, Blair wandered over to a nearby park. He knew that a lot of the homeless spent the night there and he hoped that he could find a secluded spot to get some sleep. He crawled under some bushes that were off the beaten path and tried to get comfortable. He was no stranger to roughing it, but other times at least he’d had a sleeping bag.
Blair curled up in a miserable huddle and wondered what he should do. He thought about contacting Naomi, but only for a moment. She would just berate him for getting in trouble and insist he return to the family immediately. He wasn’t about to give up his independence so easily and was too stubborn to admit that he might have messed up by disregarding her wishes.
He sighed, “I’ll just have to make the best of a bad situation. Maybe once I’ve had some sleep, I can figure out what to do.”
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Wolf peeked out through the nearby bushes and watched Blair try to make himself comfortable on the ground. His human’s thin coat wasn’t enough to protect him from the chilly night air and he was shivering in his sleep. That would not do, not at all. Wolf silently left his hiding place and cautiously lay down beside Blair. Sensing the nearby warmth, Blair snuggled closer and wrapping his arm around Wolf, gave a contented sigh.
Wolf noted that his human was now warm and deeply asleep and he laid his head on his paws and sighed. He would guard his human as he slept and this time he would keep him safe. He hadn’t done such a good job of it in the other life, and if Panther hadn’t answered his call for help, his human would have perished in that jungle. Wolf was grateful for the second chance Panther had given him and was determined to do a better job this time. He would not fail his human again.
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Jim Ellison rolled his eyes in fond exasperation as he walked into his apartment and spotted the black panther lounging on his couch.
"Honey, I'm home," he smirked.
The panther yawned and stretched regally before replying, "So how was your day? Meet anybody interesting?"
Jim headed for his small kitchen. "You'd already know the answer to that if you'd stuck with me in Old Town like I thought you were going to. So where'd you disappear? Down some alley chasing rats?"
The panther sniffed disdainfully. "Must I remind you, Sentinel, spirit animals don't chase rats. We have better things to do with our time. Besides, I was busy fulfilling my duties to you."
"Last I heard, a spirit animal’s first duty is to stick with his sentinel and make sure his enhanced senses don't overload, especially if said sentinel doesn't have a guide. Your second duty is to locate a guide for me." Jim made a show of looking around his apartment. "Nope, no guide in sight."
"For your information, Mr. Know-It-All, it just so happens that my time was well spent speaking with a wolf."
Jim stood with his arms crossed and glared at his panther. "I know you spirit animals like to have your little get-togethers but why was it so important to talk to a wolf? Besides I don't know of any sentinels who have a wolf for a spirit animal. Traditionally a wolf would belong to a…" Jim's voice trailed off as the panther chuffed at him in amusement.
"This particular wolf does belong to a guide who just happens to be a very special young man.”
“Is he my guide?”
“Yes, and he’ll make you an excellent companion.”
“Well then, where is he? Why didn’t you bring him to me?”
“Patience, Sentinel. He just needs a little time to adjust to his new home.”
“What do you mean, adjust? Where’s he from?”
“He’s…. not from around here. Exactly.”
“Panther, what did you do? Did you kidnap him?”
“Not exactly. I just removed him from a life-threatening situation, and since your guide didn’t make it, I brought him here.”
“Life-threatening situation. And what do you mean my guide didn’t make it?”
“The universe is filled with an infinite number of possibilities and an infinite number of time-lines. In one reality, you and your guide found each other as children. In another, you never met at all because you died in a helicopter crash. In yet another, you were together as sentinel and guide but he died when a rival sentinel drowned him in a fountain. In our reality, your guide died at the age of ten from a wasting disease. I never told you about him because spirit animals are more than capable of helping sentinels control their senses. Guides are just a nice bonus, a soothing presence in an otherwise stress-filled life. I had hoped that I might find another in our reality who would be suitable as a companion for you, but that hasn’t happened.”
“So you just took it on yourself to snatch him out of his reality and plop him down in the middle of ours?” Jim demanded. “Panther, you stole him. Somewhere in his own reality, his poor sentinel is wandering around wondering where his guide is. How can you possibly justify your actions? I’m not so desperate for a guide that I will condone kidnapping.”
“It wasn’t kidnapping! I heard his wolf crying out for help. Let me tell you about his reality. The you who would have been his sentinel witnessed a serial killer murdering your football coach. The killer saw you and added you to his list of victims. Ironically, you were also ten years old when you died in that reality.
“Sentinels are extremely rare in his reality. Still, he was drawn to search for people with enhanced senses and even though he only found those with one or two, he kept searching for someone with all five. He joined an anthropological expedition to the jungle in the hopes of finding a Sentinel. However, the expedition was attacked by insurgents and everyone else was killed. He was gravely wounded and slowly dying when his wolf cried out for help. I heard and was able to pull them both into our reality where I healed him. He woke in that alley across the street from that bar you entered yesterday with no idea where he was or how he’d gotten there.
“If I hadn’t brought him here, he would be dead now. So I did not kidnap him, I saved his life. You may thank me now,” Panther concluded smugly.
“You’re lucky I’m the forgiving sort,” Jim grumbled. “So when will you bring him to me?”
“Give him a few days to adjust to his new life. Unfortunately, the young man in question doesn't know he's a guide yet. But don’t worry. Wolf and I will speak to him and explain everything. Once he understands, I’m sure he will be eager to meet you.”
“I hope so,” Jim sighed wistfully. “It will be nice to have a companion to share my life with.”
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