I should mention before we get started that this story is quite subtle, as a consequence of how it needs to fit in with the other stories in the trilogy. If you get what happens, well done! If you don't, all will be explained in the third instalment.

"Fuck the Anthropic Principle," Junpei spat. His stinging cheek gave extra weight to his anger. The ring that lay like lead against his fingers made that pain even sharper. The sight of Akane walking away sealed the grievance inside Junpei's heart.

"Junpei…?" Carlos started to say. He hesitantly placed his hand on Junpei's shoulder.

Junpei shrugged Carlos off. "I'm fine," he lied. He walked back over to the table at the centre of the lounge where he had left his bottle of beer. "I just want to have a little bit more of my drink. That's all."

Carlos frowned. "I thought you didn't feel like drinking anymore. Isn't that what you said earlier?"

"Hmph." Junpei shook his head. "I guess things change quickly. Isn't that right, Carlos?"

"Whatever you say, Junpei. I'm not up for an argument right now." Carlos turned to walk away.

"Thanks, Carlos," Junpei said bitterly. He picked the bottle up from the table and swirled it around gently, listening to the satisfying gurgle of the liquid that remained at the bottom. Then he lifted the bottle up, the pleasurable coolness of the glass tingling his lips. "Seriously, fuck the Anthropic Principle." With that epithet, Junpei drank deeply from the bottle.

As he swallowed the alcohol, his vision went black.

o-0-o

Junpei's mind swirled, just as his beer had. For a moment he found himself kneeling in a fireplace, screaming as hot flying bullets tore his spine apart. Before the pain caused him to pass out entirely, Junpei's mind was ripped away again. He tumbled through the Morphogenetic field for what seemed like hours until he finally came to rest.

o-0-o

Junpei stirred to find himself sprawled on the hard metal floor of the power room. A thin layer of water shimmered on the metal and soaked into Junpei's shirt. Despite having trickled from the slab of ice that blocked the channel running through the centre of the room, the water was in no way cold. The sheer sweltering heat in the room that had warmed up the water quickly roused Junpei into full wakefulness.

The screeching alarm and the unnaturally bright light shooting through the blast window may have had something to do with that as well.

As Junpei clambered to his feet he saw Akane and Carlos on either side of him; once they had stood up as well he yelled at them, raising his voice above the noise. "Where the hell are we?!"

Carlos looked around. "It looks like the power room. We must have been knocked out by our bracelets again, then brought here."

"That can't be right," Junpei snapped, "We had at least forty minutes to go!"

"More importantly," Akane said, "we remember that. We can't have been knocked out, or we would have lost our memories as well." Akane just stood there for a moment, thinking. "I believe we may have shifted."

"'Shifted'?" Carlos asked.

"We've had our consciousnesses thrown into another time – maybe even another timeline – and occupied our bodies here. It's hardly unprecedented. Right Junpei?"

"I should have known all this esper bullshit was going to show up again." As Junpei scowled, something struck him. "Wasn't it supposed to be the case that esper abilities only activated when someone was in great danger? Whatever you say about it, we'd just won the fucking lottery. Why would we jump out of that?"

Akane raised her hand to her chin nervously. "I think… I think it might have been the other way round. We weren't the ones who chose to shift. The versions of us here were. They jumped to our timeline and we… we were forced back."

"I'm not entirely sure what you are talking about, Akane," Carlos stated, "but if you're saying we're now in danger, I don't suppose it could be because of that?" Carlos pointed at the blast window. Inside, the glowing orb began to spin faster, sparks of energy leaping off it and crashing against the walls of the reactor.

If that wasn't enough, an announcement soon conclusively answered Carlos' question. "Countdown over. Detonation is now unstoppable. Please evacuate."

"'Evacuate'?!" Junpei gasped, "We can't, Goddamnit! The door's still locked!" His chest constricted his breath; panic took him. "Hey, Anthropic Principle? What I said earlier… I was just kidding okay? No need to do this to us, so we can go back, right? Let us back! Let us back, damnit!"

Akane reached out towards Junpei. She patted his shoulder and caressed it gently, until Junpei's shivering died down.

"Akane…" Junpei whispered. The rest of the strength of his voice wouldn't come. "We can get back, right? We're the ones in danger now. That means we can shift back to the timeline we were in, and force those bastards to deal with the shit they left for us."

Akane sighed sympathetically. "'Those bastards' are just us, Junpei. No more, no less."

"Well, if one of them's me, then he's definitely a bastard." Junpei turned squared on to Akane and clenched both her shoulders desperately. "Can we go back?"

Akane bowed her head. "I'm sorry, Junpei. I think there was… somewhere in between, when we shifted here. I might be able to make it back but" – the agony of a million bullets piercing his back flashed through Junpei's mind again – "You and Carlos wouldn't."

Carlos started a methodical pace around the room. "There's got to be a more mundane way out of here, guys! If we look for it, we'll find it." Carlos' search took him to the other door out of the power room – this one had been opened – and into the small room inside. "Huh? Junpei! Akane! Have a look at this!"

Junpei and Akane joined Carlos to see him standing at one end of a pair of linked consoles. Junpei made his way over to the other; as he looked at the screen Akane peered over his shoulder. The words on the screen read, 'Rules of the AB Game.'

"'AB Game'?" Akane murmured, "I've heard of that."

Suddenly she reached past Junpei, tapping the screen multiple times in rapid succession with her index finger. Several screen's worth of text blinked past without stopping. Junpei squinted, trying to read what he could, but it was hopeless. From Carlos' frustrated expression, it was clear that the instructions had flown by too quickly on his screen as well.

"Junpei, Carlos," Akane said, her voice full of authority, "All you have to do is press 'Ally'. Try to do it at the same time: I'll give you a countdown. Are you ready?"

Junpei and Carlos both nodded.

"Okay. Three… Two… One."