Sage Jon stepped out the bathroom fully clothed. He had borrowed the clothing from DTH Jon. He could still feel the drugs in his system but he felt he had it mostly under control. He carefully walked down the stairs. It felt weird for him to see the house, like a normal house. He was used to seeing it filled with his inventions. He too spotted his mother in the kitchen.
"Good day mother. Have you seen Zoe?" He asked her formally. She briefly stared at him.
"You aren't going to start fighting again?" She asked. Jon shook his head.
"No, I only wish to converse with her." She stared at him again. "I want to say sorry for upsetting her."
"She's in the garden." He too went through the back door. He shut it to ensure their conversation wouldn't be overheard. He saw Zoe sitting at the small patio table. She had swung her head round when the door shut but she was looking off into space again. He sat down beside her.
Still not looking at him she said. "Either you changed your clothes again or you're not the Jon with the DTH."
"I am indeed the Jon that was on the bed. You have excellent observational skills." He said genuinely. "Maybe you can swap with my Zoe. Depressed Goths don't make good lab assistants."
"Your Zoe works for you?" She asked surprised. He nodded.
"I pay her, I pay her well in fact. She wouldn't do it for nothing."
"Good for her. I'm not a depressed Goth."
"I can see that. You seem to be considerably different from the mean Zoe."
"I'm not mean either." She said starting to grow annoyed again.
"I'm sorry I didn't intend to imply that. I was using the definition of mean that refers to the average." Zoe turned to face him.
"You like using fancier words more than DTH Jon and that is saying something. You are super smart right?" She asked.
"So I am led to believe. I've encountered many Jons but I've never travelled outside my own world before. I have no independent evidence, so my opinions about myself are likely somewhat biased." He admitted. He had never spoken to anyone else from outside his world who wasn't Jon, till he had arrived here.
"You are incredibly clever. I find it hard to believe you can be so wrong about Zoe. The 'mean' Zoe anyway." She paused. She knew she was judging Jon harshly. "I guess I was wrong too. Until I actually talked to one of them. My opinions were just from a photo though. I didn't actually live with her."
"Sadly my studies of the nature of the universe allow me little time to socialise." He did sometimes feel a little sad about that but the work was too important. In his mind sacrifices had to be made.
"Well, first off she's not really a Goth and she's not depressed. She likes dark clothing is all. She's a little distant and insecure. She swears to draw attention to herself and seek validation. Even if you don't have much time for talking you should know this. I only spoke to her for a little while and I worked all that out."
"You are correct. I'm not a very good brother." She didn't want to talk about this any more. She decided to change the subject.
"So why did they send you out here?" She asked. Sage Jon shook his head.
"They didn't send me, I chose to do it." He said.
"Why? I barely know you. In fact I don't know you."
"Several reasons. Firstly I wished to apologise for what I said. The drugs in my bloodstream appeared to have affected my inhibitions. Those uninhibited words seem to have initiated this somewhat reckless behaviour on your part."
"This is meant to be an apology, right?" She felt this was a somewhat double edged way of saying sorry.
"Yes, sorry. It's just DTH Jon is somewhat concerned about his Zoe returning home. This could create a rather awkward situation for him."
"Oh so it's okay for him to show up in my world and do what the hell he likes but if I do it, it's wrong?" She asked him.
"Are you talking about the world you believe is lacking in reality because it has been fabricated?" He asked.
"Shut up." She said sharply, annoyed by her own hypocrisy. Sage Jon couldn't help but smile a little.
"That brings me on to the second matter. The validity of your existence."
"I don't expect you to understand."
Jon leaned back in his chair. "Oh but I do." Zoe looked at him a little confused. "My own world originates from one of the red timelines."
"So you are out here in some strange show of solidarity then?" She asked. He chuckled loudly.
"If you like. What I really wanted to explain is that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the multiverse."
"Right." Zoe said, not entirely sure what he meant.
"The multiverse is infinite." He said opening his arms to emphasise his point. "All possibilities exist. All universes exist." She listened intently. "The DTH can only track a finite number of universes. Your universe wasn't created, it already existed."
"I don't really understand what you are saying." She admitted.
"I see I shall have to use an analogy. You have web browsers on your world?" He asked.
"Of course, it's not prehistoric world or something." Zoe told him with a slight tinge of annoyance.
"The DTH is like your bookmarks, your favourites, your history or whatever your web browser uses to find pages you have previously visited." Zoe nodded in comprehension. "There are still countless pages on the web that you have never been to. Now imagine there is an infinite number of web pages. Every possible page already exists. Just because you haven't got a record of them, doesn't mean they are any less valid or real does it?" He asked. He could tell from the expression on Zoe's face she was slowly understanding.
"Yeah but surely, if it's already out there, it's all predetermined. Anything we do is meaningless." Sage Jon got a hesitant look on his face.
"I think free will is a discussion for another time."
"It doesn't matter anyway. You already know my world has been sucked into a wormhole."
"That is the final matter I wished to discuss with you. There is an upper limit to the number of sub-atomic particles that can pass through a wormhole before it collapses. It's a subject I've studied in some detail." He said.
"It must be a big number. There was a lot of stuff sucked out of that basement."
"It is, around six times ten to the power of thirty two atomic mass units. I call it Madison's number." He said proudly. She rolled her eyes.
"I call it - Jon Madison's massive ego number myself." She said sarcastically.
"I have to do my work in secret. I can't have a committee of scientists acknowledge my discoveries, so I have to do it myself." He explained.
She pointed to the rear of the house. "Be careful you can get back through that door with that big head of yours." She said laughing. He grew annoyed at her lack of understanding. She could see that from his expression. She stifled her laughter. "Sorry, so how much stuff will have been sucked in?"
"I can't say for certain, it depends of the atomic masses of the atoms involved. Assuming it was mostly solid matter probably no more than a few thousand tons."
"Is that all?" She asked amazed it was such a small amount. "So my world is still there?" He nodded with a grin. She stood up quickly and gave him a hug. "Thanks, bro." She said.
"I was under the impression you didn't acknowledge me as your brother." He said a little confused.
"Don't spoil the moment." Zoe said.
From the kitchen Linda looked at them and smiled. She hadn't heard the conversation and had no idea who they really were but the fact they were bonding made her a happy mother.
