The Secret of Edd "0rigins"

Eddy walked out of the gate's internal space, and grinned at Edd, Ed, and the others.

"Hey, guys---I want you to meet someone."

He looked over at the gate behind him, and continued grinning at the group stared, and began whispering.

"Eddy... I really think we shouldn't have messed with the timeline yet..." Tasha muttered, crossing her arms as she stepped out. Her eyes focused to the new light, and she noticed just how many of the others from the cul-de-sac----how many people here, that were no longer kids when she came from---were watching. "Uh... hi."

Edd shook his head, and moved to walk up the staircase. "Tasha, right? You're... my little sister, from some point in the future?"

"And the girl who taught me to hide all my thoughts from you mind-readers, yup." Eddy made a face at Edd and Jonny, and wiggled his fingers at them. "Mwahaha, you will never get in my mind again--- It's mine, all mine!"

"All mind and no brain, somehow." Tasha remarked, jabbing Eddy in the chest with her elbow, and walked off the staircase. "I still don't think this is right, this has to be creating another universe with how much you tell me not to mess with the timeline in my time, but, maybe you were just trying to delay this. I don't know."

Kevin whistled, shaking his head. "It's nuts, you know that? You're about Sarah's age right now, but the Tasha I've seen around is like, a little over a year old. And you and Eddy have the hots for each other."

Eddy and Tasha exchanged glances, and grinned. "Actually, Kevin... I've been to Tasha's time, and you know what? I met my kids. And a twenty-something Tasha."

"Talk about a long-distance relationship, though, you guys... what if something happens to the gate?" Nazz wondered, shaking her head at the amusement of the whole thing.

"We should be good. Especially with how many gates Double D's built by my time." Tasha shook her head. "I swear, my brother's possessed with this need to build a newer, better gate. And it's not about the newer or better... there's something missing about the ones he's built, he's trying to get somewhere and he doesn't even know where."

A few kids eyed Edd, and Marie sighed dramatically, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "Well, Double D, if you start getting that way I might just have to cut you out of my life. No craziness."

Edd raised his hands, smiling sheepishly. "Really, I don't mind if you do. Thus far, I've got nowhere I'm trying to get. Tasha, about when did that start, do you know?"

"Uhhh...." Tasha, Eddy, and Eddy walked off of the gate's steps, and she tapped her upper lip in thoughtfulness. "Actually... just around when I came here for the first time. I haven't figured it out yet---and neither has he. And, trust me, he and Jonny have been working on it a long time. So far, we're only getting flashes of me and Eddy, and this darkness from the rift in his dreams... nothing that really answers it."

"His dreams?" Ed tilted his head. "Like the ones Double D kept having about the Other world Eddy went up into the gate in?"

"Exactly." Tasha pointed a finger at Ed, and nodded. "That's exactly the kind of dream. He has another one every few years, and they just get further and further from what actually happened; Jonny and Marie think it's a suppressed guilt for not rescuing Eddy then, but that doesn't explain the flashes about me."

Eddy shrugged at her, sitting on one of the benches. "Well, that first time, didn't you say that you saved me? Or... no.. you said I remembered everything because you went into that world for a while. Maybe it's something about that?"

Tasha frowned. "You know, I remember saying that... but I still don't know why I said it. I did go to that world, yeah, but I don't remember doing anything that would've brought your memories---especially not the fragments from on the other side---to the you in this timeline. I really don't know."

*~*~*~*~*

He smiled. "So, that's it? That's the big secret?"; Edd shook his head, not understanding. "I don't follow..."; "Will you, like, get reincarnated as your sister in an alternate timeline?"; "...Eddy, does that even make sense?"; "Well, sure! I mean, we're from different universes! Different versions of us would have different, you know, souls or whatever we have... so it's not like you're your own sister or anything..."; "I don't know that that's what will happen. Tasha's remarks suggested, to me, that it's more likely my essence was blended with that of her timeline's me---and by the time I'd met her, had been for some time."; "I dunno... I mean, you are the one that kissed me and crap just now..."; "I embraced you in a hug and a kiss on the cheek. That's hardly the same as making out with you, Eddy. Depending on the culture and time period, that was a purely brotherly embrace."; "Not in our time..."; "Shush, you. And how would you suppose we find out, anyway?"; "We could go ask..."; "Right... a visitation to an alternate universe version of either of us by two ghosts, wanting to know where we get reincarnated to."; "Hey, that me and Tasha have that whole temporal circle thing going on!"; "And that older me has memory flashes from here, same as you."; "Maybe you got split up, so the Gate was really sure you won't remember once we're not here anymore?"; "..." Edd sighed. "Eddy, let's just finish this, all right? Since we don't seem to have access to anything about where we're going to go... and we're going to forget this conversation, courtesy of the gate, in just a moment... we may as well get it over with."; "...I still think you got morbid after I died. You know that? You were so, wanting to kill Tony when you first saw him... and then when you were talking to Kevin? Jee-eez..."; Edd frowned. "What would you suggest, then?"; "Go save him instead."

[social protocols active]

Earth phrase of approximately your time period: Time's up, boys. Please prepare for mental reorganization and removal of all non-pertinent memory.

"...Why do we need to prepare, anyway?" Eddy wanted to know.
...Because failure to relax may result in memory glitches and residual awarenesses. This is not desirable.: "Gate... Remind me of what Eddy just said, all right? ...I think he's right about it."
...Agreed. Incomplete interaction will need to be resolved within the next life for you. Intention fragment will be retained. Please prepare for mental reorganization and removal of all non-pertinent memory.

[social protocols inactive]

[Enacting temporal mental reorganization; Three. Two. One.]

Memory has been reorganized.

"Here. Go... I'll be fine." Edd pulled back from Eddy, and pressed a button.
*~*~*~*~*

Tony frowned down at the little girl who'd suddenly appeared on the remains of the hospital's roof. Or, rather, above the remains---floating, like he was.
She seemed to have put enough effort into it that she was utterly unaffected by gravity or wind---she seemed like a ghost, rather than a physical being who'd just activated a gate to come to where he was.
"What did you want?" He exclaimed, annoyed.

"I still thought it was about what you wanted... But, regardless. You're Tony, right?"

His eyes narrowed at her utter obliviousness to what he'd meant, the uncertainties of just what she had meant by some of that, and nodded. "Yeah, that's me."

"Mmm." She smiled and nodded, and held a hand up. "Could you come with me, please? I had some things I wanted to ask you, and I don't think this is the place to do it."

He looked up at the rift, and down at her. "When did you want to go?"

"Before either of us even existed."

"Sounds good. Let's go."

She activated the gate, and they both levitated themselves into it. It closed behind them, even as the rift extended tendrils down and began to pull the buildings out of the ground.

*~*~*~*~*~*

The darkness slowly lights to gray shadows, and a silhouette rises up. The landscape brightens further, revealing a fairly peaceful cul-de-sac. Shouts of children playing, and the playing of flirting youth, join the lawnmowers, TVs, arguing adults, distant cars, and the hum of the electrical wires that hang over the area.

It's evening, and the sky's turned unusual colors, leaving the would-be lovers and friends sitting out, watching for any sign of the first stars.

Tony shook his head as his little brother wrapped an arm around the younger sister of his best friend, from some years into the future, and they stared up at the stars together. "You two make even less sense than the rest of the kids around here, you know that?"

Tasha grinned at him, and Eddy waved him off with a hand. "Yeah, yeah, I know---I'm fifteen in this time while she's two, and in her time she's nine and I'm twenty something and the older her's twenty something.... I've never heard of anything wrong with dating someone from another period in time, though... And how's it your business, anyway? You're gonna start now with being the older brother who's watching out for me?"

"Lousy time to start, but I guess late's better than never..." Tasha added, musing.

"Oh, shut up. If you didn't want me around, why'd you bother coming after me?"

"I'm easily amused. That's why." Tasha decided with a nod, then gazed off at some distant point. "Or... maybe I didn't want to be responsible for your death."

"How were you ever responsible in the first place...?" Tony wondered, frowning.

The girl had remarked as much, during their longer conversation in the past... and alluded to things that Tony could only assume the once-and-nonexistent future-Edd had spoken with her about. That, or she, like all the kids around here these days, was better at reading minds than he was. She smirked, and he shook his head in annoyance. "Forget it."

"Forgotten. Don't worry, we won't bug you too much, but if you're gonna sit around invisible and all ghosty, we're gonna make fun of you." Eddy grinned.

"Idiot." He glanced off to the side, and gestured towards the approaching figure. "You might want to mind when you talk to me---I was doing this so no one would have issue with my being here."

"I think we're good." Tasha decided, and leaned up to wave at Edd. "Hiya, past big bro..."

"Hey, Tasha... thought you two were up here. Uh, Eddy... who are you two talking to, anyway?" Edd wondered aloud as he came up the hill. "I don't see Plank around, so unless you two have found a new telepathic friend that you're too lazy to talk in your minds to..."

"Nah, nah, we're insane, Double D. Completely insane. Talking to dead people." Eddy retorted, leaning his head back in his hands and stretching out on the ground.

"Yup. I see dead people, big bro. All over the place." Tasha grinned, and Edd shook his head.

"Forget I asked... Look, mother asked me to come look for you two, since it'd get me out of the house... and by the time we get back, dinner will be ready. Let's get going."

Eddy and Tasha exchanged glances with Edd's amused, weary expression, and started to get up. "What, you driving her nuts with trying to write down every detail of her recipes again?" Tasha wondered.

"Not every detail, no... But the majority of it..." Edd, shook his head. "She's hardly the traditional sort, I doubt she thinks I should leave cooking to 'the woman', or any nonesense of that regard, but that she still refuses to allow me in the kitchen when she's making dinner for a big event..."

"Don't worry, Double D. I bet it's nothing to do with roles---it's just personal. You get annoying in the kitchen, you act like everything's an experiment." Tasha grinned at him.

They continued in a similar vein, walking down the hill and into the woods, back from the swimming hole towards the main part of the cul-de-sac.

*~*~*~*

Evaluation: Pending.

Pending? Specify gap in information archived.

Timeline differentiation within acceptable parameters. ...However...

I see nothing missing. All of the beings desired are there, the residual forces eradicated or cleansed and reintroduced into the timeline... There is a minimal amount of temporal loops likely to be created through the various offshoots. Undesirable potentialities are being reassigned and indicated as such.

We are in agreement in this; all the measurable qualities are within acceptable parameters. However, something potentially necessary is lacking.

...

[social protocols active]

Do you refer to the virus? The slow spread is already present within the world---to reintroduce the faster spread will merely recreate the previous potentiality.

No... that is not what I meant... Is our presence required?

In this the central passage will prove useful. Our presence is not required in order for changes to be made. By the time that you are re-assimilated into the timeline, every potential alteration you would make will have been made.

...I guess that's what you get, in timeless, spaceless existence. Hmm?

I guess so. Double D, is there anything else I need to do?

...No, I think we're good. Gate?

Prepared for memory reorganization.

Good. Let's get going, then.

*~*~*~*~*

Edd paused, and Ed, Eddy, Marie, and Tasha slowed down behind him.

"What's up, Double D?" Eddy wondered, looking at the gate.

"...I found something that I think Tasha's me was working on... you know how, normally, when we go through the gate we're just in and out? And with theirs, there's this step you take where you can't see where you're coming from, or where you're going to---just the light all around?"

Ed shrugged, and Marie nodded. "Yeah, I kept thinking theirs was broken... you know what's up with that?"

Edd nodded, and tapped on a new panel he'd added to the gate. "Yes. It's essentially a space between universes that you're traveling between."

Tasha's eyes widened, and she stared down at the figures. "But, if it's going on a similar basis as... Oh, what was it. A Wrinkle in Time, with that example of the ant on a string, and tesseracting between places. What's that space between...? I figured we were simply stepping through where the universes are already touching."

Ed's eyes lit up too, as he started to think of various races of non-emotional beings that you get, in sci fi and fantasy, existing beyond the edges of existence. The space between universes... What lived in there?

Eddy saw the look on Ed's face, and cringed. "Jeez, Double D, you're giving Ed those ideas again---he's gonna start spouting any minute, or making more of his comics. What's up with that space? You think that's what Tasha's Double D's looking for?"

"Yes, I think it is." Edd double-checked the numbers, and nodded at them. "There's a few adjustments made---but, essentially, you can increase the size of that step. I've got it balanced that the edges of the universes you are approximately the size of, say, my bedroom apart, and tried bringing an object in there to leave there. The next three times I tried entering, the book was still there, and in surprisingly good shape for existing more than temporarily in a non-matter environment."

Marie looked over at Eddy, and the boy shrugged. "I guess that's pretty cool... but..."

"Wait, you mean it? You've seen it, you've tested it? But that shouldn't be possible!" Tasha's eyes were bugged out, and she shook her head frantically. "A space... between? It's not between, it can't be, the universes---the multiverse---continue without regard for the space around them. If we can travel between them, then, I thought they must be in contact. What..." She sat abruptly on a step, trying to think the theories through.

"Tash... you remind me, sometimes, just how much you are so Double D's sister." Eddy grinned. Tasha made a face at him, and he shrugged at the others. "Since you and Tash are the only ones that get why this is important, Double D, why don't we just go back to her time? You can show us this space on the way... and maybe we can drop off one of the benches on the way."

"Ooooh, yeah! Then we don't come out of being chased again, and have to try and relax only to find mom and Double D's mom and everyone looking all angry because we snuck out again..." Ed seemed very enthusiastic about this idea, and the others nodded, cringing, at the incident he was referring to. It'd only sped up Edd's research and design of a gate that could be kept somewhere in the house, but, until he'd finished it they continually were having to get to the gate and back quickly.

"Then, let me show you on the grand tour." Edd waved an arm towards the clearing gate, and pressed Enter on the keyboard. The familiar light spread out as the gate solidified, and the five headed up the stairs.

//What'ja find now, Double D?// Jonny's voice wondered as he touched at Edd's mind, tentatively in the little 'hello' they'd been developing.

//Looks like something to do with the gate...// Plank peered over Edd's mental shoulders--through his eyes--and nodded back at Jonny. //Something with the gate.//

//Hey, didn't we already have that privacy conversation?// Edd gently put up a barrier or two, and pushed Plank's ever eager mind a little further back. The kid muttered an apology, and Edd returned his attention to both of them. //We're investigating a space between... take a look.//

The visuals and general, nontechnical understandings were sent over, and the other two sent amused understanding back.

//Be careful how far you go into there, Double D...// 'Plank' murmured, and stared at the space between as the five entered it. //...I get the same kind of feeling about it that Jonny got about the first gate.//

//'Prophetic' again, hmm? Well, I'll keep it in mind.//

Edd outwardly stepped out of the way---though what he was stepping on was a good question. As he'd described to the others, you couldn't see any door or window of where you'd come from, or where you were going. It seemed like the strange light/darkness, the slow-swirling colors made up an infinite space all around them. There didn't seem to be any end to it---it wasn't like being in the inside of a sphere, but it didn't seem like there was a ground.

Ed tested it by putting a hand down---and down, and further down than his feet. The others watched, startled, as he pulled it out and tried stepping in the same place he'd reached down in. His foot stopped at the same level as the first foot.

"...That's really weird. You sure you want to make a place in here, Double D? And how do we even know where to go if we take a nap or something?"

Edd grinned, and pointed towards the book. "I thought the same thing, so I put the book down, spun in a circle, and walked in the same direction that I would have, the first time---and came out where I intended. The next time, I intentionally didn't move in here, but to turn around and walk where I'd come from.. and still came out at my destination. It seems that, upon entering this place, the only place to go is to the other end. It's not like a tunnel."

"Weird." Marie simply agreed with Eddy, and shrugged. "Well, if we can help the other older you with his little obsession thing, maybe that'll be it, huh?"

"Sounds like this might be it... let's go check." Tasha smiled, and they all headed out to introduce this knowledge to the older, other Edd.

*~*~*~*~*

...

[social protocols active]

...That was not intended.

I told you something was missing.
And you believe the central passage was that missing element?: "...Yes. I do."
Then let me finalize this temporal circle and be done with it.: "What happens if they build a gate in here?"
If they activate a gate within the transfer state? They might enter an imaginary world, one that hadn't been an actual universe until that point. They might enter one of their own minds. They might come here.: ...
You see why this concerns me.: "Yeah, I do. But all the possibilities play out, right? We're not the only us, not even the only us in this place... are we?"
If we are, then the question cannot be answered. If we are not, then, we are of a potentiality that will never contact the others. This multiverse tends towards functioning as a transfer state as is.... and we will be contacted, in time.: "By whom?"
By any number of Edds who have built gates, met others who have done the same, and tried to establish an inter-universal nexus within the passageway. In light of the possible interactions, suppose I should update my social protocols.: "Am I still going to be here? I may be in an eternal state here, but, I don't know everything. You seem to, though."
In our potentiality? "Looks like it." "...Eddy, what are you still doing here?" "Uh... temporary eternity, right? Don't we both just keep wandering back in here?"
Idiots...: "But we'll be taken out, so the pollution isn't eternal."
Nothing is eternal. I was simply trying to create the environment I wanted for this place. Why don't the two of you go create a side passageway, one that will connect into the central passage when the time is right? "Isn't it already done? I mean, no time, or anything in here..."
Go away.

"Eddy, you really shouldn't bother the near-omniscient artificial intelligence like that. Let's just go."
"Fine, fine... 'Near omniscient'... If that thing's nearly a god, then..."

"Then what?" Edd laughed as they wandered, and visual manifestations of the openings kept flickering in and out like archways of light into brighter or more shadowed places within universes. The 'central passage', that nexus at which Edd had observed his universe pull away from the others and redefine itself, seemed to have a surprising amount of furniture surrounding it.

"I'm probably gonna lose it, then. Stupid little computer thing..." Eddy blinked at the change in scenery, shrugged, and moved to sprawl on one of the new couches. "...You know what? We should get a party going in here."

"A party...? Who would we invite?"

"All the guys from your universe...! Like, grab Kevin and anyone else from just before they die, or go mindless zombie, or whatever else... bring them here for a bit, and erase their memories when we're all done?"

Edd's eyebrows rose, and he stared at Eddy for a moment. "You know... that's actually a good idea. It's a little more difficult to calibrate with the presence of the gates already in effect, but..."

"...I don't get the techno stuff. I don't care. Can you do it?"

"Jeez... a party and I'm not invited?"

Edd paused from his calculations, and he and Eddy looked over to see Tasha wander in, trailed by Tony.

"...You must be kidding me."

Eddy grinned, and clapped Edd's shoulder (as well as he could, being shorter than the older Edd). "Well, what do you know? Hey Tasha, so did you just go and save Tony or something? From impending doom of the gate, and all?" He wiggled his fingers in an ominous manner, trying to make the thought more dramatic.

"Yup."

"She decided she wanted to talk to me before I died... so we went to some hippie concert, where everyone was already off, and not likely to remember us..." Tony remarked, stretching, and looked around. "What, this is what Zero looks like? Nothingness is a bunch of pretty swirling lights? After all that...?"

"Uh, I don't actually think this is zero..." Edd frowned at the thought, and tried to explain. "This is more a state in between. Assuming any universe is one or more, and nothingness is zero, then this is the infinite range excluding zero and one or higher." The others stared at Edd a moment, and he shrugged. "Anyway, Tony---I had something I wanted to ask you, and I was so intent on.. well, on seeing that you died, that I didn't even think of it before."

Eddy and Tasha exchanged looks, and shook their heads.

Tony sat and observed Edd carefully. "What did you want?"

"Do you know what you did differently, in your design of the gate, that caused this space to be accessible? What caused the temporal circles? It created a life-form, one who resides in the empty non-space, who seem to be the mind of your gate."

All three of the others blinked.

"Wait, that's who that is?" Eddy shook his head at the understanding.

Edd nodded at him, and looked to Tony.

Tony shrugged. "I dunno... it wasn't the design. I think the computer I had wasn't in the best shape." He looked thoughtful. "All the kids from other universes went to one of theirs, when you lot came to Eight-Three-Two with me'n'Eddy... And sometimes it makes time travel possible, from what you and Tasha here said..."

Eddy grinned, delighted. "I know... Double D! It's broken! It's got a glitch... that's why it's got a mind, and talks, and all. Right?"

"Maybe..." Edd shrugged, and pressed a few more buttons on the controller. "...I suppose that makes sense. Give me some time to think about it."

Eddy continued laughing. "It's too good... too good. Man. 'Near omniscient', whatever! It's a glitch! It's its own virus, or something... anything. Man... next time we go see it I'm gonna have to bother it."

"Eddy.... I wouldn't laugh just yet. Given that it seems to be residing in a state of non-existence, a world of infinite potential that it's in control of... wouldn't it be fair to call it a minor deity at least?"

Eddy simply stared at him in silence for a moment. "Double D... if you try to convince me that your remote created the universe, I'm leaving now. Just walking out. Serious."

Edd shrugged again, a soft smile clearly visible. "Then I won't say anything on the matter, not at all."

"In the meantime, where are you guys from? We just dropped off Double D and Eddy from the universe I'm always hanging out in..." Tasha tilted her head. "And you guys definitely know a lot."

Eddy put a hand up a bit, hesitated, and lowered it. "Wait. And you were just talking like you remembered us! I'm hurt."

"We didn't actually talk to anyone else. Anyone you think you interacted with yet was... illusory. Imaginary. I'm not convinced that they're real, yet." Edd remarked.

Eddy blinked at him a few times, finally just asking, "What?"

Edd shrugged. "Infinite potential, and the three of us were the only ones there." He shrugged again, and looked at Tasha. "Well, you know of the universe 'zero', the one that is simply the infinite potential, or the already, utterly destroyed universe. And eight-three-two, the universe... or universes... that got destroyed by Tony's immature use of the controller. Well, I'm from eight-three-two. Eddy here is... uh... a manifestation of who he was at the time of his demise in that universe, complete with all his memories from that other side."

Tony and Tasha stared at them. Eddy joined in, and the three of them finally gave various stumbled questions to the idea of, "What?!"

"You're... ghosts?" Tasha finally articulated.

"Maybe?" Edd responded.

"Double D!" Eddy exclaimed.

"Well---Eddy, honestly! You lack a physical manifestation, regardless of your lounging upon that couch. Yet you retain the visual form of you ego's understanding of yourself. You retain your memories, personality traits... and, technically, neither of us should even exist anymore, considering the number of times the controller has tried to 'reintegrate' us into the patterns of existence. What else could we be?"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* End of Part 6? *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Edd: ...

Eddy: What, no gleeful squeeing "Oh, Kiiitty, what a WONDERFUL alternate-universe-connection-techno-dweebie story you've created of us! I just want to gush at it!" stuff?

Edd: I... I'm simply trying to follow this part of the story. In the void. It seems that we erase our own memories repeatedly... and leave... and are still there talking... and despite leaving are STILL there, remembering everything that we forgot...

Eddy: ...

Edd: ...

Eddy: Yeah. That's what I was talking about before. She's just having so much fun confusing people that it doesn't even make sense.

Edd: Oh, no, no! There's a structure, I can tell, and she understands it all---I think I just need to read it a few more times before I'll completely follow. (moves to stare at the screen a few more minutes) At least that ghost theory was thrown in. Maybe I'll eventually understand it.

Ed: It is 'wonderful', Eddy!

Eddy (groaning): Don't you start too...

Ed (clearly enthusiastic): But it is! There's this whole place between the worlds like where that old-future spiderwoman from the Spiderman cartoon is from, or that from the story she mentioned---we could run into anyone and anything at anytime there! And you guys wouldn't even be going "Oh, Ed don't be silly that's not how things work"----Double D'd be going all "Oh, and you came from THIS universe with-all-these-big-numbers? How fascinating" and stuff while he's talking to an alien with four jaws that's thinking about eating him... and you'd get all happy talking to some people from Star Trek and getting a replicator from them---

Eddy (fake-snoring): ...

Ed (still going): ---that you could use to make whatever you want and---

Eddy (cutting him off): Wait, wait, what? Make whatever I want how?

Ed (grinning, having baited Eddy into paying attention): ...

(Eddy scowls): HOW, Ed?

Ed (shaking head solemnly): I am not going to spoil it for you, Eddy. You will just have to watch Star Trek with me.

Eddy (seeming to consider, literally weighing his hands back and forth. Glances at Edd): Double D, come on, tell me---is Ed just talking out his butt? Or could we actually run into these people?

Edd (startled out of his musings): Uh, what?

Eddy: The, the Star Trek people! With the money-making machine! Could we actually run into them, with that way-station thing?

Edd: 'Money-making machine'?

Ed: Replicator, Double D. Pay attention.

Edd (considers): Considering what I'm seeing in this previous chapter---if we get access to it, yes. And in some small infinity of universes, we will.

Eddy: We're gonna be one of them. Yeah, I got a good feeling about this one...

Narrator-Future-Edd: With that aside, please review, everyone!

(The other three Eds jump as he suddenly speaks from the shadows)

Narrator-Future-Edd: Uh... Sorry about that. I got a little ahead of myself...

Eddy: Sheesh... What are you doing here, anyway?

Narrator-Future-Edd: ...I never got to speak in here before. And this story is about me, not the three of you.

Edd: Well, it's---

Eddy (interrupting): I'd say it's a lot about me too, especially in this bit!

Ed (gushing enthusiastically): So what was it like running all over time and stuff?!

The other three fall silent, blinking at him.

Narrator-Future-Edd (chuckles): I miss this randomness. Enjoy it, huh, kid?

Narrator-Future Edd ruffles Edd's hat, and moves off into the shadows again.