On the Implications of Parallel Worlds

by computerneek

Chapter's End

Author's Note:

A word of warning:

This chapter builds on both the rest of this story AND on The Gate's "Chapter's End".

... And yes, I had to. Why? I don't know. I liked how it sounded.

Furthermore, I know they don't mention the next 'show', either- The Accidental Invasion. But it didn't really feel right for them to do that...

Patreon, Discord, Rewrite.

Hermione Greeter smashed desperately at her dimensional jump handset’s control panel as the two of them flashed down the room. Hermione Gate had happened to have wings- huge wings, which she was using as she carried Greeter almost effortlessly.

Unfortunately, though, her handset was malfunctioning, and so had dumped them into this situation. Hermione Gate was bleeding, and Greeter had lost an arm- and now they were fleeing an even more deadly foe. And they would die, unless she could get the module to get them out.

It… worked, she supposed. She felt the familiar jerk of the dimensional bubble it used to hop them between worlds, except that the bubble was far from stable, and practically ricocheted between worlds before it finally found one to merge into.

Wham.

She knew they had arrived mostly because of the pain. The velocity compensator was shot, so they arrived with the exact same velocity as they had departed with. She hadn’t expected that to be a problem, since Gate had a demonstrated ability to turn on a dime, almost quite literally.

But they had run into something. She bounced and crashed against the ground before finally running into something solid that arrested her tumble as they slid to a halt. She heard Gate’s blood-curdling shriek of pain as well, and hoped she hadn’t been hurt too badly.

There was a sudden rumble of thunder, and the ground shook.

She scrambled quickly to her feet, looking around- and had to pause.

There were two of Hermione Gate. Or, at least, one of her, and another Hermione that looked just like her. One was on the ground, shrieking in agony with one wing chopped off about halfway down the first bone.

And… She looked towards the thunder.

They were right back where they had just been fleeing from.

The monster turned towards them, away from the wall they’d just barely avoided slamming into moments before, and roared in fury.

It only took her one glance at the Hermione on the ground- that must be Gate, the other either didn’t have wings or hadn’t unfolded them- to know that they were done for.

The other Hermione didn’t seem to think so, though. She put one hand forward, and an icy blue dome of energy shimmered into existence around them.

The same icy blue as the levitation effect Gate had used a couple times, though a very different effect.

The strange monster’s unstoppable claw flashed down-

Boom.

The noise from the impact was incredible, and echoed all around, but the barrier stood. The new Hermione grunted and fell to one knee, though. As the monster lifted its masive claw for another blow, she turned to look at the other two. “You!” she barked, pointing at Gate. “Help me out! I can’t hold it off alone!” She then pointed at Greeter. “And you! Get that thing working and get us out of here!”

Gate gritted her teeth against the pain- at least the nanotechnology they’d gotten her mere hours before her handset malfunctioned had already sealed off her wound, just like Greeter’s had for her arm- and looked up at the newcomer. “I can’t,” she told her. “I can’t cast-!”

“Then give me your power!” It wasn’t a request, nor a demand, but an order.

“What-! But-!”

The claw smashed down on the barrier again, and while it still stood, cracks appeared- briefly- around the impact.

Gate let out a gasp of horror, swirled her hands in the air, and thrust them towards the newcomer. A beam of pure white energy connected the two- then the monster’s other claw glanced off of the barrier with a bunch of noise but no sign of damage or strain.

Greeter struggled with her handset. She’d have to short the fuse together again- which would not be safe, but she’d already used up her spares to get it as functional as it was. She fumbled with the circuits, using what was left of her toolkit after much of it had gone with her left arm earlier. The circuits were damaged, but if she twisted that, broke that, and shorted that, then-

She watched in horror as the dimensional control ring burned white and shattered, then the plastic around the power cell melted into a puddle of acids, which spilled over the circuits and started burning them to cinders as well.

They were marooned.

That control ring was easily the hardest part to manufacture, and impressively expensive. Not to mention, they shattered just like that- an unstoppable chain reaction that took mere microseconds to start- without an active power source. Unfortunately, that meant that while they were already impractical to carry around, it was virtually impossible to install a spare in the field, even if you did manage to carry one. It was much, much easier to simply carry a second handset, but Greeter’s spare of those had been left on the Gryffindor table in Gate’s Hogwarts.

“We’re done for,” she moaned. “Irrepairable.”

Very suddenly, her handset- and she herself, and Gate- were all surrounded in a massive shroud of the same, icy blue energy- and, with a sharp pop, they were very suddenly nearly three miles to the side.

All three of them. The newcomer had come with, and lowered her shield. “Irrepairable?” she asked, then she saw it. “Ah.” Her wand flew out of her pocket, and she pointed it at the device. “Repairo.”

There was a bright blash of white light, and the handset looked completely undamaged once again- the case even sealed shut again! The lights on the face blinked as it ran a self-test, then reported ready for jump.

“What… How…?” Greeter asked. “It’s too complex for that spell to manage! Even the engineers can’t-!”

The newcomer shook her head. “The rules are different when your unique talent is to break the rules.” She sighed. “First, get us out of here. Second, tell me who you are.”

“Right,” Greeter mumbled, scrambling to her feet and lifting the repaired device in her one good hand, glancing towards the charging monster as she did so. It would take a couple minutes yet to reach them. “We’ll need physical contact.” As she spoke, she punched in the coordinates to the Hermione’s Inc Hospital, then she held it out for the others to touch her arm.

Gate, tears streaming down her contorted face, struggled to her feet and rested her hand on Greeter’s wrist. The newcomer, looking curious, cupped Greeter’s hand with her own.

Then, Greeter pushed the button.

This time, it worked exactly as designed, and deposited them into the hospital lobby.

There was a shriek of alarm and a few nurse-Hermiones ran forward.

The newcomer looked unsettled by the number of Hermiones around her.

“Sorry,” Greeter grumbled to her, as the nurses started pulling them towards the wardrooms. It would take them only two hours, or so, to regenerate her arm- and only three for Gate’s wing. “This’ll take a few hours… You can wait here or come with us, if you want.”

The newcomer looked at her. “I’d rather not get lost,” she stated.

Greeter shrugged, a limited effect with only one arm. “Your hair isn’t exactly hard to spot amidst a sea of brown.” She glanced sideways. “And neither is Hermione Gate’s.”

“Hermione… gate?” she asked.

Greeter was now completely certain this Hermione had never even heard of Hermione’s Inc. She only had to hope that wherever she had come from had already run out of destiny energy. And that her handset remembered where she’d come from- but chances were, it had not. And without the coordinates, there was no way to find where any given person came from, only to tell whether they were in their home universe or not. “... Yeah. Multidimensional Hermiones… I’ll explain later?”

The newcomer scowled, but accepted it, before looking for and selecting a bench by the wall to sit in, arms folded and looking grumpy.

---

Hermione watched nervously as she waited for the two that had… run into her? What even had they done?

In any case, when she’d found herself so suddenly tumbling in that strange environment, her Agency training had gone to work. She’d flipped herself upright and slid to a halt on her feet, already examining her surroundings. She’d scanned her two companions’ tribes- the one that looked almost exactly like her, down to the wings, was even more like her than she looked- she was an Alicorn as well.

The other, who looked like an older version of her past self… didn’t seem to have a tribe, but the device in her hand was emitting small power surges that seemed to be interacting with the worldwall- presumably, that was how she’d gotten there. And judging by their tumbles, how they had gotten there as well.

So she had responded to the obvious threat- the monster bearing down on them. When it turned out her power alone wasn’t enough to stop it cold, she had started issuing orders- and her clone performed a bit of a clumsy power transfer, but it worked.

Then she’d heard her brown-haired clone’s desperation- and teleported them away so she could divert her attention from defense. She saw the damage… and used the only repair spell she knew.

She hadn’t understood the device at all, nor the blinking lights- but her brown-haired clone had, and had told her she’d just done the impossible.

It wasn’t her first time.

So she’d feigned knowledge, and used what she knew about her Talent to explain why (or at least, what she hoped was why) it had worked for her when it never had for anyone else.

Then that device had gotten them here… where there were even more clones of herself, mostly with brown hair, but there were some spashes of color every once in a while. Hers seemed to be unique, except for the one she’d come with- with the damaged wing… who the girl with the device had called ‘Hermione Gate’, then explained it as ‘multidimensional Hermionies’...

She understood that, though as she looked around the Hospital lobby, she couldn’t imagine why this many of the same person would want to come together- especially to staff a hospital! Add that they’re all named the same…

She shuddered. They almost certainly had some kind of naming system in place to tell them apart- like how that one had been Hermione Gate. Though, with that thought, the various alternate dimensions couldn’t all be the same, could they? As she looked, she spotted what looked like all kinds of personalities scattered about the lobby, engaged in all kinds of activities. Not to mention the varied hairstyles- hers wasn’t the only one that stood out. As a matter of fact, hers was one of the tamer stand-outs; one on the other side of the room had a head of fire instead of hair, but interestingly enough, her fire-hair wasn’t hurting her or spreading onto her clothes or the wooden bench. Then there was the girl next to her- still recognizable as another Hermione, but her skin was all scaly, her eyes slitted… and smoke curled from her nostrils every few seconds.

She did her best not to stare around, only wait patiently for Hermione Gate and the one with the device.

Eventually, someone sat down next to her, letting out a massive sigh. She looked just like most of the Hermiones present- except that her hair was expertly styled, her clothes looked expensive, and her demeanor looked very much like Silver’s.

“Good morning,” she greeted. Then she glanced up. “Or… whatever time it is here.”

The girl glanced at her, and smiled. “First time at the Hermy-o-Nanny?”

She blinked. “Uh… I’m going to have to say yes.”

She shrugged. “No biggie. The Hermy-o-Nanny is a Void facility- there really is no morning, evening, or whatever else. And we technically don’t have a fixed time, either. Makes timestamping a pain, I can tell you.”

She let out a snort. “I bet it would.” She looked out across the crowd. “Though with this much wisdom, you’d think they’d be smart enough to use a clock.”

“Well they did,” the girl grumbled. “For a time. Then the Clockless Association came down on their heads, and they didn’t have the firepower to fight them off, so they had to go without. What’s your moniker, by the way?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know that I have one, unless Hermione Granger counts.” She glanced back. “How about you?”

The girl drew herself up, grinning like a lunatic. “Why, I’m Queen Hermione Granger the First,” she introduced, one hand on her chest. Then she broke out into a fit of giggles, and leaned in to hug her. “In my world, at least. I’m Queen Granger here- not that I like it- and the founder of Hermione's, Inc.” She paused briefly. “I take it you’re new?”

She nodded. “Someone crashed into me, and ended up snagging me along,” she informed her. “I rather expect it was an equipment malfunction. The thing was broken, after all.” She paused. “This is going to sound weird, but what are you the Queen of?”

“Earth,” she answered simply. “It’s definitely not our prime path- and judging by your hair, you haven’t gone down our prime path either. But I managed to unite all nations of the Earth, wizarding and nonwizarding alike, into just one nation under the personal rule of the Great and Benevolent Queen Hermione Granger the First… in just four years after I started at Hogwarts, so when Voldemort appeared in my fifth year, he didn’t last very long. It actually got as far as nuclear weapons, I understand.”

She tilted her head. “I wonder what Dumbledore thought?”

“Dumbledore? Oh. In my world, Headmaster Argus Filch was as blind as he was stupid, but not caretaker Albus Dumbledore- he was actually the main reason I was able to achieve quite so much in so short a time. He’s my right-hand man, despite being at least five times my age, and even pointed us to Voldemort’s horcruxes!” She giggled at Hermione’s expression. “I understand that our prime path has Dumbledore as the headmaster and Filch as the caretaker.”

Comments

[Melody Song]

Ooh. That was a pretty neat end. Sad to see this go, but I'm sure An Accidental Invasion will be just as good

[blitzlego]

Honestly I'd read the story of Hermione inc maybe a story idea for ao2 (archive of our own)

[Adenbadens]

I don’t mean to sound critical, because I have read and enjoyed each of your stories, so I don’t really have a leg to stand on. But I do wonder how many times you’ll rewrite this tale before you find one you like enough to take to the end.

[Will_120]

I’m sad to see this one end but am excited for the next recursion

[Jlan]

10888587
I don't think he's rewriting it just because he wasn't satisfied. If I remember correctly he said the rewrites were because he didn't properly outline his stories. This led to him writing himself into a corner by accident and rendering the stories irreparably unable to continue, due to plot holes and suddenly conflicting story threads.

[computerneek]

10888906
*She.

But yes, exactly. And this time is different…. (“I’ve heard that one before.”)

[Ranun]

This kind of organization was inevitable, baseline smart with access to magic, there's definitely going to be a variant that makes this.
Now the question is what are the chances they have had or will have contact with the Inter-Universal Council of Sparkle

[Ranun]

10888906

10889863
Story was supposed to go one way, but didn't notice that it was already set up to go another way on its own.
Writers have scary good forward imagination even like that.

[keybounce]

League of Sweetie Bell here