Chapter Text
Sheldon tinkered away in the garage of his family home, his little kid hands sore from the repetition of his projects. He was deep in thought, carefully jotting down the outcomes of whatever experiment he had found himself doing with his Professor Proton science kit when he was abruptly cut off by a buzzing sound behind him.
"Missy! How many times have I told you not to bother me when I'm--" Sheldon couldn't even finish his squeaky voiced sentence when everything around him suddenly changed in a bright flash. There was light and then there was a darkness.. a warm darkness. Not the kind of Texas warm he was used to, a cooler, warm, but still recognizable as summer.
Sheldon groaned as he sat up, feeling the soft brush of grass beneath his legs. He quickly shot up with a yelp, unfamiliar with his surroundings and startled out of his mind which was probably the only thing that could get him out of this mess right now. He ran aimlessly through a thick forest, God, he hated forests! Scary, woodland creatures, dirt, and his worst enemy-- bugs. He ran and ran and ran and ran until his little smart boy lungs felt like they were going to collapse. He had to have run far, didn't he? I mean-- he had to have been at least a little close to an opening.. civilization.. Turns out he had only run about 15 feet.
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.." Sheldon could only mutter as he looked around, scared for his life. He was too smart to die! But, in his glances, everything seemed to make less and less sense. The sky wasn't the deep blue that he was used to back in Texas, the bugs seemed.. a lot larger than usual, the trees (quite literally) had eyes that blinked! That was enough to make Sheldon pass out right there on the spot. Sheldon stumbled back, falling right to the ground and fainting out of pure shock.
Footsteps emerged deeper from the forest. Heavy footsteps. The kind of footsteps that would immediately indicate that, yep, whatever it was coming from was not from an animal in the slightest. But, it did seem to wear the mask of an animal. An elephant, to be more specific. The footsteps stopped beside the unconscious boy, the figure leaning over him and cocking its head in a curious manner. A chuckle left it's throat as it lifted the mask obscuring it's face to take a closer look at the too-clean-to-be-from-around-here boy. Perhaps it could've just been a camper too scared to get his hands dirty, but Elijah wasn't going to believe that. Especially not after an event too similar to the Limn shot through the forest and gave her that shot of nostalgia that she so desperately needed to continue her cause.
Conflicted, Elijah scooped up the young boy and brought him to her little opening in the woods where Elijah could really talk to him. Explain what the hell had just happened and how such a small boy could cause something so similar to something so big. So life changing, inspiring. Right now, all Elijah could really do was set the boy down on the ground and wait for him to wake. This was going to be fun.
A loud ringing noise shot Jedidiah out of sleep, his head tucked in his arms as he had fallen asleep at his desk again. Goddamnit. He shifted uncomfortably, stretching and hearing his back pop way too many times than what should've been healthy. Jedidiah rose from his office chair that really doubled as a bed to him at this point and slinked over to whatever clock was ringing. His hand hovered over the blaring object and he was about to turn it off when he realized something that practically made his heart stop.
The clock had rung before. Back when.. he didn't even want to think about that right now. He wasn't going to think about that pain again. What he had to put another through. But, the clock hadn't not gone off before.. Jedidiah shook his head, mumbling countless little no's over and over again as he slammed his hand down onto the clock to shut it up so he could think for a moment. He rushed out of his office and practically barged into Sydney's.
"Jeddie..? Where have you been? You've been sleeping in your office again, haven't you..? I dont--" The sound of Sydney's voice was enough to comfort him a million times over. Sydney was alive. Sydney was well. It didn't matter that he was ripping into him right now.. all that matters was that he was alive.
"You're not even listening to me.." Sydney huffed, fed up with Jedidiah's recent behavior. It was always just sleep, eat, ignore him and pretend that he never existed and when he did it was all half-assed,"Okay-- well.. I know this is probably a 'no' but, did you happen to also notice that big flash a bit ago? I'm not crazy for noticing that, right?"
Sydney might as well have ripped out Jedidiah's heart and shoved it right down his throat with that comment.
"No, no.. you're not crazy. I'm gonna go check it out, okay? Sorry," Jedidiah murmured, fidgeting with his hands,"I-I'll be back in a bit.. I'm sorry."
Jedidiah didn't listen to whatever Sydney said in response to that as he just focused on making his way outside and into the forest, not caring that he wasn't as presentable as he usually would've been, just pushing passed anyone who tried to stop him as he quickly slipped into the forest. This couldn't happen again.