PREVIOUSLY: Everything. Including this guest post.

PART 96c: RESPITE II

“The innumerable possibilities are now in your hands,” Frank remarked, coming up to stand beside Carrie.

“Ah, yes. Here we are, in the world with an unknown future,” the blonde mused. She spun the graduation cap she was holding, finally turning away from the school library. “Where really, my hands are no more important than anyone else’s.”

Frank jerked his head back towards where she’d been looking, in the process dislodging his own cap, which he caught. “Were you just thinking about the van crash, the timelines, and Mindylenopia?”

“Yeah,” Carrie admitted. “And not only her sacrifice in the past. I’ve realized she’ll likely still be a part of our future.”

Frank frowned. “Wait, what? Carrie, our paths are all un-predestined here. Especially for us, two people who never graduated high school in that alternate timeline.”

“Meaning we can change this timeline, Frank,” Carrie asserted. “ONE timeline. We didn’t change the nature of the universe. So while our lives will be different, that alien artifact that your Future Luci mentioned? Something tells me that’s a fixed point for us as well. Meaning there will be time travel. Meaning Temporals. Meaning a new Mindylenopia could be born into this future, with a new Glinephanis, and new interferences.” She smiled. “It’s how we HANDLE all of those events, that’s what becomes the real difference.”

“Right,” Frank said. He smiled back. “You’re getting good at this temporal theory stuff. And you can peek a few days ahead with your power too, so that’s an advantage if there’s trouble.”

Carrie snorted. “Yeah, but no. One thing Chartreuse and I have kinda decided is to leave future vision scrying to her. I mean, even setting aside the ‘me seeing only pre-destined things’ problem, if I’ve resolved not to randomly poke my fingers into my own past? Then I should have the courtesy to not to do it to my future self either. Or anyone else’s future selves.”

“So you’re renouncing your powers?”

Carrie shook her head. “I didn’t say THAT.”

“So it’s merely that you prefer to think about… other things whenever you’re with Chartreuse?”

“I didn’t say that eith–" Carrie eyed his waggling eyebrows, then reached out to smack him in the arm with her graduation cap. “Seriously? Get your mind out of the gutter.”

Frank chuckled. “Sorry. It’s just, ever since it became official around the school, you’re both so cagey about how far you’ve actually–"

“And you KNOW I’ll smack you again if you keep on that topic, right?”

“Okay, okay, back to time travel. Carrie, what if by not using your powers, you end up making an otherwise avoidable mistake?”

“Oh, I’ll make mistakes.” Carrie idly pulled some strands of hair into her fingers, twisting them about. “After all, you only truly learn by messing up, and then correcting things. Assuming you can. Because the alternative? Being told ‘hey, you have to do this now’? That’s not learning. That’s damn annoying. Whether you’re being told ‘what to do’ by a future version of yourself or not.”

Frank grinned. “Wise words. For the record, I voted for you. For valedictorian.”

Carrie chuckled. “Thanks. But I’m glad Laurie won instead. I think she’s come further than anyone else did in our four years here. Well, in terms of the stuff normal people get to know about.” She dropped her hair and sighed. “We should get going to our designated grad rooms. Keep in touch next year from university, and all that?”

“For sure,” Frank agreed. “I’ll message you whenever I’m doing my mathematics homework.”

“Ha!” Carrie rolled her eyes. “I said I was considering a MINOR in maths, so that I’m not completely out of the loop on time travel theory and whatever. Kinesiology, that’s where it’s at for me.”

“No, I mean I’ll want someone with cool temporal stories to tell, who can remind me why I’ll want to keep studying this stuff.” Frank grinned, then began to walk away, only to pause and gesture. “After you, O Temporal One?”

Carrie shook her head. “Don’t inflate my ego. Let’s simply head towards the uncertainties of the future together, okay?”

With a shared nod and a smile, the two teenagers clasped their hands and walked down the school hallway one last time.

END OF TIME & TIED

CARRIE MAY RETURN IN... TIME UNTIED

WHERE TO GO FROM HERE?

• The story of Chartreuse continues in "Epsilon Project"'s second story, "Wish Fulfilment", if you would like to read more about her in the summer after high school.
• This site will continue with "Epsilon Project"'s fourth story, that you can vote on here until the end of May (tomorrow). It will publish Sundays, with weekly votes.
• Time Untied. Yeah. If you haven't been reading the commentaries, the saga of Carrie was once envisioned as being five seasons, aka ten books. We're not even halfway. That said, not much else has actually been written. But this Friday, I will post an excerpt from Time Untied that I wrote in 2015, including an explanation for why I'm not calling it Time & Tied Book 5.
• There will be one further Commentary posted in a week (next Tuesday), with behind-the-scenes for the last parts, some more site stats talk and character analysis.
• You can go back and read "Time & Tied" from the beginning if you like, it's been recently reformatted. Related, I'm rerunning it daily on Royal Road Legends (we just hit Book 3), where there is the occasional character poll. (You can also comment here about your faves.)
• I run a personified math webcomic too. If that is in any way your thing.
• There are a number of links in the sidebar to other serial sites with similar material (time travel, voting, etc).
• There are a number of other good serials on "Top Web Fiction", which you can easily access by clicking here: Vote for T&T ;)
• Maybe someone will comment with another suggestion...?

PREVIOUSLY: Carrie/Elizabeth forked the timeline. This allows her to become a Temporal God in the timeline she created.

PART 96b: RESOLUTION

Chartreuse counted to ten before following Frank and Beth around to the front of the library. She watched as the time trippers piled into the time car and, after Frank grabbed the briefcase from the trunk, finally pulled away from the building.

She then ducked down as the gunman who had fired in their direction ran down the front steps of the library, waving his weapon. The guy managed to prevent a vehicle that had been pulling out of the parking lot from leaving. It was as the guy climbed into the passenger seat, pointing his gun at the driver, that Chartreuse knelt down in the snow, to open the trombone case she was carrying.

She pulled out the temporal gun. Along with one other item.

As the gunman’s hijacked car drove out onto the road, there was a flash of light. The driver swerved to avoid hitting the glasses-wearing teenager who had appeared. The car hit a patch of ice and spun out, slamming into a nearby telephone pole. The passenger door was wedged shut in the impact; for the moment, there was nothing to worry about there.

Chartreuse attached her item onto the recharge port of the gun. She then moved to get herself a good bracing position at the bottom of the staircase, kneeling down, pressing the bottom of her boot back into the concrete pillar. She knew the kickback from the gun would be a problem.

A second blond man ran out of the library, followed closely by Lee and Luci. The guy dashed down the stairs, and got about three steps further before being clocked in the head by the dictionary Lee had thrown. Their adversary went face first into a snowbank. Not that far away from him, another familiar person appeared from out of nowhere.

“Tim?” Luci gasped. She took the stairs down two at a time, pausing at the bottom. “Chartreuse? What are you doing?”

“Preparing,” she muttered back. She took aim across the parking lot.

Luci blinked. “When did you end up with the temporal gun? And why is the safety off?”

Luci reached down for it, and Chartreuse slapped her hand away.

“Chartreuse!” Luci said. “You’re being reckless - and what do you have on the recharge port?”

“A battery.”

Luci’s eyes widened. “WHAT? You CANNOT be thinking of charging that thing while you’re firing. That’s INSANE.”

“So is she,” Chartreuse whispered.

A short distance away, Laurie appeared.

Luci now reached down with both hands, and so Chartreuse shoved her friend back, out of the way. Luci fell into the snow. “Luci, I’ll, you know, explain later, there’s no time now!”

“Why not? Chartreuse, what is going on?”

Chartreuse looked back at the asian girl, and then at Lee, who was helping her stand back up. In that instant, Chartreuse wondered, what if she died here, and never got to explain?

“Okay, fast version? The day after we, like, talked to Mr. Waterson, I had a vision of today. Looking into it more led me to this experience ten minutes ago, where I used a set of paired relaxation crystals to tell our Carrie to, you know, nudge Mindy’s time car. And now I know that in, like, a few seconds, I’ll have my only chance at saving her.”

Chartreuse looked back across the parking lot. Which was when the blonde teenager appeared, her maniacal laughter echoing eerily around the whole area, her feet starting to lift off the ground as temporal energy sparked all around her, originating at her fingertips.

Chartreuse fired.

Energy lanced out of the gun.

The cackling blonde girl absorbed it. At first.

Chartreuse never moved her finger off the trigger. Even as her own body was driven back into the concrete post behind her, she continued the sustained burst. Tears sprang to her eyes as she felt an ankle give out with a snap, but she kept the gun up and on target. The battery on the port chirped… and the energy blast continued. Across the parking lot, Carrie stopped laughing.

“Chartreuse, stop!” Luci shrieked.

“I’m not losing her again,” Chartreuse cried. “Carrie! Carrie, I love you! CARRIE, COME BACK TO ME!”

“Chartreuse, the gun’s overloading!” Luci reached out again, only to have Lee pull her back, twisting his body around and using it as a shield.

The temporal gun exploded in Chartreuse’s hands.

But not before Carrie’s head had snapped back, her body falling into the snow as the golden light in her eyes faded away.

Carrie listened to the voices around her for a minute or two. From the sound of things, she was again in a hospital. And… geez, had the entire temporal group come to pay her a visit? She cracked open an eyelid.

“Carrie’s awake now,” Luci said immediately.

Opening her other eye, Carrie was able to make out… well, Luci, Frank, Clarke, Julie, Corry, Laurie, Tim, Lee, and even her own father. But not… “Char-treuse?” Carrie croaked out, through dry lips.

Laurie clasped her hands together. “Carrie immediately wants her girlfriend. The one who saved her soul. Oh my God, all the squee!”

The people closest to the head of the bed moved away, and as Lee did so, he made an elaborate gesture towards the next bed over. Carrie followed his motion, where she saw…

“Hi Carrie,” Chartreuse chirped. “I’d, you know, give a thumbs up, except…" She held up her arm, which had been completely wrapped up in bandages.

“She’ll be fine,” Clarke broke in, as Carrie found herself unable to avoid looking horrified. “Don’t worry.”

“Yeah, in fact we originally came here to see Chartreuse,” Corry remarked, crossing his arms. “We didn’t know when you’d wake up. So don’t get a swelled head, Waterson.”

“Speak for yourself,” the older Waterson objected.

Carrie licked her lips, her gaze shifting over to her father. “Dad. Gods, I’m sorry, I never meant to leave you alone in the present for so lon– geuh, I… I mean…"

“He knows about the power,” Frank reminded Carrie. “There was this whole thing where you had a double named Beth wandering through the school last month? So we kind of had to fill him in?”

“Oh. Right.” Carrie brought her hand to her forehead. Last month? “What day IS it?”

“January second,” Tim supplied. “H-Happy new year.”

“I really hope having no coins means we’ll get a few months before we see more time travellers,” Julie observed.

Carrie exhaled. “Yeah, there… there won’t be any more of that happening. Not now. We’re on a parallel time track now.”

The people around her bed exchanged glances. “Carrie,” Frank began. “Based on the temporal theory that a Future Luci explained to me, it’s highly unlikely that multiple time tracks–"

“TRUST me,” Carrie interrupted. “Our Luci’s path itself could be different going forwards. We can talk theory later, but for now, even if anyone from the revised future does try to rewrite us? Believe me when I say I know how to divert them out of our timeline.”

“In a SAFE way, yes?” Chartreuse piped up. “Because I don’t want a rerun. Even setting aside the, you know, temporal gun blowing up on me, I had to stick close to Beth last month in order to get a read on her majorly displaced temporal energy. That way I could, like, use it, in order to forecast my way further into the future than I ever have before. And that sort of ‘vision plus’? Featuring Insane Carrie clarifying the library events I’d seen? Not my, you know, happiest place.”

“I’ll find a safe way of dealing with time travellers,” Carrie assured. She checked herself. “Actually Chartreuse, we both will. Together.”

Chartreuse beamed.

Carrie’s gaze shifted back to her father. “Thing is, in this timeline, I can’t bring Mom back. I’m sorry. If it means anything, she was alive, in the future of another timeline… maybe that’s why some part of you felt like Mom never died?”

Hank Waterson flinched. “Oh. Well. Was she happy there?”

“I… I don’t know. Damn it, I didn’t even check.” Carrie’s head hit her pillow. “I’m sorry. I should have. Hell, maybe I could have even brought her too, I had all that power, it’s just I didn’t even think, I was so focussed on the separation. Dad, I’m so sorry…"

His hand reached out to squeeze hers. “It’s okay, honey. Let’s assume she was happy, and focus on the present. Because Carrie, you’re what’s important to me right now.”

She squeezed his hand back, and found that she was able to meet his hopeful look with a smile.

Lee cleared his throat. “Uh, hate to interrupt a moment, but we already DO have two other time travel guys? Arrested at the library?” He jerked his thumb towards the window. “Do we worry about them?”

Carrie frowned. “No, I wouldn’t. If they were trying to disrupt the awakening of my full potential, it didn’t work.”

“I’ve filed a police report there anyway,” Mr. Waterson added. “Along with what happened at the library, they’re being charged with the attempted kidnapping of my daughter. Never mind that it was technically that Beth girl at the time.”

“So, like Shady, they’re going to end up in the justice system,” Luci mused.

“S-So what’s next for us then?” Tim wondered. “Anything?”

“No,” Carrie groaned. “I pass on doing ANYTHING for the next while. Well, aside from schoolwork, which I guess I’m massively behind on, since my leaving during the talent show.” She looked towards Laurie. “Meaning guess what? You’re still in charge of the cheerleading. In fact, if you’re willing, it’s yours for the rest of our senior year.”

Laurie blinked. “Golly. Thanks.”

Carrie smiled. “Just because this new timeline has me staying in town, that’s no reason to take your future away from you.”

“But Laurie’s behind in her schoolwork too,” Corry protested. “She left for her fake art camp right after you vanished, Carrie!”

“So I’ll work hard,” Laurie said, crossing her arms in imitation of her brother. “Plus I have lots of friends who can help. I’m not letting Carrie or the other cheerleaders down, bro!”

“Ooh, watch out, Power Cad,” Lee said, chuckling at Corry’s sigh of resignation. “Double V here might end up running the school with the Cross One. Instead of it being you and the Rich Witch.”

Clarke frowned. “Witch? Lee, you might want to consider updating–"

“No, no, it’s fine, Phil,” Julie interrupted. “After all, those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it. The only thing that matters to me right now is how the two of us could work on the time car together. To kind of… find ourselves again.” She fingered her rose brooch before leaning into him with a smile. Clarke grinned back, raising his arm to encircle her shoulders.

Frank turned to Carrie. “That reminds me. We didn’t spot the car anywhere in town. Did you send it back?”

Carrie pressed her hand to her head. “Oops. No… I forgot. Didn’t want to do a global removal, or we’d likely have ended up with our Glen again. He’s a headache I don’t need. It’s probably for the best though? No time machine, no time gun, no Temporals, just us, and our normal, everyday lives from this point on.”

“No car and stuff?” Laurie moaned, her arms uncrossing. “Golly, I really hope alt-future-Laurie enjoys using my art supplies.”

Mr. Waterson cleared his throat. “Well, as much as I’m enjoying learning more about recent events, unless there’s anything else that’s urgent, I think my daughter and her girlfriend could use their rest.”

Carrie’s eyes went wide. “Oh. My. God. Dad, NO, do NOT say girlfriend yet, we haven’t really officially - oh NO!” She jerked her gaze back over to the adjacent bed. “Chartreuse, you said you had to get close to Beth? Are you saying you two have, like, kissed the way we did, and that the whole school now knows about… about…"

“No,” Chartreuse gasped. “Carrie, you’re, you know, the only one for me. And if you want, no one outside of this room has to, like, know that.”

“Okay. Okay, good.” Carrie let out a breath. “I mean, others can know. I just need a few days here, minimum.”

“Confirming it IS a relationship?” Luci said, winking.

“She did say kissed Beth ‘the way we did’,” Corry remarked.

“Plus there was that whole soul saving they did,” Julie observed.

Carrie felt her face getting warm. She pulled her bedsheets up over her head. “My Dad said it’s rest time. Goodbye now!” There were a few chuckles, followed by a shuffling of feet as people started moving away.

She gave it a good ten seconds, then pulled the sheets back down to her neck. “But before you leave? Thanks. For everything. I mean it.” She made a point of meeting each of their gazes with a smile, as they looked back at her. “Because I wouldn’t be here now. Not if it weren’t for each and every one of you.”

NEXT: Respite II, an Epilogue of sorts. Please stick around.

ASIDE: Part of the reason for splitting the last entry at this point is for site transition time back to Epsilon Project. (You can vote for that plot here.) But it’s ALSO because Drew Hayes was taking guest posts this week on his site. Read my post here, which in continuity, takes place a few months after the events above. Then consider sticking around on Drew’s site to check out his material, and the other guest posts.

PREVIOUSLY: Carrie of the past (Elizabeth) is trying to figure out how to not become the Future Carrie of Timeline Four.

PART 96a: THE ULTIMATE PARADOX

“Missed me,” Elizabeth shouted as she charged through the fog, getting near to where she imagined Carrie would be.

“I’d rather not have even more memories of being in hospital, but I will if I have to,” Carrie shouted back - with a voice that was far too close.

Elizabeth back-pedalled, and carefully began to generate a temporal attack in her palms. A blast that she hoped would freeze at a distance, and not be the temporal freezing that required transmission by touch. “You will be banished,” she shouted, hoping to continue to keep Carrie’s attention on her, and off Buffy.

“I can’t banish myself, stupid,” Carrie snarked back. “I’m immune!”

“I mean you will be banished from being my future. Ha!” Elizabeth retorted. “Because even if you ARE good looking, you’ve got a lousy attitude.”

Something cut through the mist towards her. Elizabeth dropped towards the ground, firing off the charge she’d been generating. Energies collided, spiralling left, and there was a booming sound as they blew out (in?) another part of the wall. Well, that had been pointless. She probably wasn’t going to win this with temporal energy either.

‘Not unless you create a larger charge!' a part of her insisted then. ‘Just give yourself over to it, time is everything, it’s the humanity holding you back… let it go…’

Elizabeth grit her teeth, and pushed herself back up onto her feet. “Yes, fine, you’re part of me, but I remain in control,” she asserted, saying it aloud to put more force behind the thought.

“No, I’M in control,” Carrie’s voice came again. “Because I’ve now worked out how to deal with there being two of you here.”

“Oh yeah? Kinky, but no thanks,” Elizabeth shouted back. She back-pedalled again, knowing every time she spoke she gave away her position - and she nearly stumbled into the wall. Damn it, the mist was disorienting her now.

“The reason I can affect memories,” Carrie continued, as if she hadn’t heard, “is because they’re formed by the passage of time. Meaning, of course, if I can reach into someone’s past and disrupt the particular time when those memories were stored? I can erase, or with a bit more finesse, even alter them.”

Elizabeth tried firing off another blast towards the sound of Carrie’s voice. Carrie simply laughed.

‘You can do better than that. You need to let yourself go.’

It felt like the temporal side of her was starting to pulse within. Elizabeth did her best to ignore it. She couldn’t fight a war on two fronts. “You going somewhere with this?” she hollered.

“Of course.”

Carrie’s voice had come from right behind her! Elizabeth spun, but Carrie had already grabbed hold of her arm, twisting it, even as her other hand pinched in at Elizabeth’s chin.

“Because here I am, RIGHT here, RIGHT now, and I’m about to make both of our pasts an absolute misery unless you surrender. So, do you surrender? Well, Elizabeth, my pathetic defeated teenage self, DO you? Because it’s not too late for us to have a few genuine, happy memories, you know…”

It occurred to Elizabeth then that Carrie was probably homing in on the sound of her own voice, at which point she would jump back in time a few seconds in order to get Elizabeth into this undignified position, and thereby allow herself to home in. Well, wasn’t that clever.

‘Two can play at these games… let it happen…'

“I’m not surrendering,” Elizabeth gasped. “Not to you, nor to my temporal demons…"

“Then you’ve already lost,” Carrie said. “Really, Elizabeth, see sense. Allow me to tweak your memories. That way you won’t realize that when you go back and become your other self in this room? You’ll be working for me. And everything you’ll do will lead us to an outcome here where I am the victor… where you both gave up…"

Elizabeth brought her heel down as hard as she could on Carrie’s foot, twisting free of her counterpart’s grip - and feeling like she was out of time. She was getting angry, and scared, and confused - soon, if she did much more than jump back to become Buffy? She might indeed lose control. Which she couldn’t afford, her prior self needed the keycard tucked in her waistband. She reached for it - it was still there. In fact, yes, it was time.

“Know what, Carrie? I forgive you,” Elizabeth breathed. “Now pardon me as I…"

She time slipped back.

Carrie growled, as she reached out for Elizabeth a second too late. “Fine,” she declared, spinning around to face the mist. “That merely makes it one-on-one again. All too easy.”

“Or not,” came a response from somewhere ahead of her. “Because our paradox - I’ve finally figured it out. In fact, it’s not even a paradox at all.” The sound of footsteps drew nearer. “Though if it’s any consolation, you were right about one thing.”

And seventeen year old Buffy - or rather, the most up-to-date version of Elizabeth - stepped out of the fog. With her eyes a bright gold, and her blonde hair flowing in waves around her, despite the lack of any wind. “I did end up having to surrender to something.”

When the words ‘accept incoming call?’ appeared on the main screen, Bernard reached out to acknowledge. “Who is this?” came Lee’s voice. “Turn on a video link.”

“Um, it’s Bernard? That is, a friend of your resistance,” Bernard clarified. “Er, no video available?”

“Huh. Okay. Let me know when Megan’s team gets there?”

Bernard eyed the other feeds. “If you mean the resistance forces, I think they’ll reach the control room in a couple minutes. Looks like there’s no one else left to stop them any more.” He turned to Amelia. “Come to think, we’d better prop the door back open, so they can get in.” The redhead nodded, moving to replace the mop.

“And what’s the status on Carrie?”

“She’s down in the displacement room. Hopefully incapacitated,” Bernard said.

“Hopefully? Can you maybe sound a little more certain?”

Bernard didn’t answer. He couldn’t - he’d vanished from the room.

“Amelia!” Anthony gasped. “Bernard’s–" The blonde boy disappeared too.

Amelia turned from where she’d propped the door open. “Uhm… guys?”

The control room remained empty, save for Glen’s unconscious body, until Megan Falls walked in three minutes later.

Carrie fired off a temporal blast at Elizabeth. And to her shock and confusion, Elizabeth seemingly absorbed it. How? This teenaged version was too young to know how to do that.

“See, I figured out what I was trying to tell myself,” Elizabeth said airily. “With the apple.”

Carrie readied another blast, a bigger one.

“I was actually trying to remind myself of the discussion I’d been having the first time I ever pulled off that little trick. Last year for me, ages ago for you.”

Carrie fired off her second blast, one that would bump Elizabeth several minutes into the future, rather than a few seconds. Again, incredibly, Elizabeth absorbed it.

“It was a talk with Frank about self-consistency,” the teenager continued blithely. “Versus multiple time tracks. By which I mean timelines that can branch off from the main one, looking much like the way that circuit burned out into forking paths on the wall there - do you remember that talk at all?”

“This isn’t POSSIBLE,” Carrie screamed. She began to form an even bigger charge in her hands. Yes, it was all about power. Power, a power that she had, which her younger self didn’t.

“Wrong,” Elizabeth countered. “This IS possible. What’s really incredible about this whole future is that, despite all of the arguments we made back then… in the end, you latched onto the temporal model of self-consistency? Seriously?”

“No, NO, you can’t,” Carrie said with mounting horror. A horror that came from an increasing awareness of what Elizabeth was saying. She tried to make her charge even bigger. “I’ll freeze you and reprogram you. You won’t be able to absorb this. Never in my past have I have EVER been able to absorb something like this!”

“Let me tell you a secret.” Elizabeth took a step forwards and leaned in closer to Carrie’s ear. “Not. From. Your. Timeline,” she whispered.

It happened the day Frank died, saving Luci’s life. After her consciousness had become trapped inside him. What had allowed that event to become a temporal lynchpin?

Mindylenopia! Oh God, Mindy was the key. By inserting herself into the timeline, Mindy had forced Carrie to power up faster. To learn a technique like banishing sooner. Mindy had moved her abilities along at an accelerated rate - in fact, Glen likely wouldn’t have revealed himself two weeks ago, if not for Mindy! Surely, Mindy’s involvement meant that Elizabeth/Carrie had it somewhere within her to undo this.

Moreover, she had told Luci/Frank that she would fix things, one way or another. She had meant that.

And there WAS a way. She saw it now.

“Go to hell, other me,” Elizabeth gasped. Her eyes flashed golden. She felt like she was being torn in two…

And Carrie gave up. Glen guided her towards the stairs, out of the Dijora house, and out of town.

And they never returned.

And Carrie grew up to hate herself even more.

And later she went back in time and abducted her own pregnant mother.

And Theresa, after receiving a mysterious mental message about her mission, bided her time through history, ultimately joining the resistance, to ensure that Mindylenopia could go back, so that the split would occur.

The split that resulted from the fifty year old Carrie facing off against her seventeen year old self.

It happened the day Frank died, saving Luci’s life. After her consciousness had become trapped inside him. What had allowed that event to become a temporal lynchpin?

Mindylenopia! Oh God, Mindy was the key. By inserting herself into the timeline, Mindy had forced Carrie to power up faster. To learn a technique like banishing sooner. Mindy had moved her abilities along at an accelerated rate - in fact, Glen likely wouldn’t have revealed himself two weeks ago, if not for Mindy! Surely, Mindy’s involvement meant that Elizabeth/Carrie had it somewhere within her to undo this.

Moreover, she had told Luci/Frank that she would fix things, one way or another. She had meant that.

And there WAS a way. She saw it now.

“Go to hell, other me,” Elizabeth gasped. Her eyes flashed golden. She felt like she was being torn in two…

And Elizabeth pulled away, vanishing into the time streams.

And Frank’s life was saved.

And shortly thereafter, Elizabeth decided to save her mother too.

So Theresa revealed herself, and the time machine was reconstructed in a car, and her friends came after her, only to have Mindylenopia sacrifice herself back in Miami.

And from there, Elizabeth was dragged back into the future, to seal the split and reunite the timelines - except they would not be reunited. Could not be reunited.

Not once Elizabeth had seen a way to defeat her fifty year old self.

“STOP!” Carrie howled. “There can be only ONE timeline. MINE!”

“Lynchpin moments are a bitch, aren’t they?” Elizabeth remarked, stepping back. “Turns out I can do more than simply overwrite when I target one. It’s fine, I’m building up to a timeline separation here, so you’ll have your own future back soon enough. For all the good it will do, given how the resistance is closing in.”

“NO!” Carrie continued to charge up the insane amount of energy in her palms. “You can’t. I mean think about it, if you do this - your mother, she’ll be trapped in THIS timeline. Where I dragged her, out of our unified past. Our mother will be in what you’d call an Alternate Timeline Four. You’ll NEVER see her again.”

Elizabeth stared. She nodded. “I know,” she said, sadly.

In one last ditch effort, Carrie brought her palms up, and released all the temporal energy that she’d been generating, right into Elizabeth’s face.

Elizabeth simply boomeranged it.

Carrie fell back onto the ground, her body locked in temporal suspension, her mouth frozen open in an ‘o’ of surprise.

Elizabeth stepped forwards. “You’ll get our mom, and an extra teenaged Glen in this alternate timeline. Good for you. As for me?” She looked up at the ceiling. “I get my future back.”

The blonde drew in a huge lungful of air, increasing her concentration. Her mental message back through time to this timeline’s Theresa had been sent. She’d shoved her friends back into their present, into the other timeline. Her timeline. What was becoming the true timeline. The only thing left to do was… separation.

The Earth began to shake all around her.

It was like that time she’d planned on channelling the destructive force of Shady’s bomb into the time streams, except the sensations felt a hundred times more amazing. For while this alternate future timeline could continue on as it liked, with Megan’s forces in control of the building, Elizabeth/Carrie would be able to rewrite the future of her true timeline. Everything from this point of her life onwards? Would be a complete unknown.

As such, the Earth around her could be moulded in her image.

Everyone would have to bow down before her.

Bow down, because she was a cosmic force.

No, more than that, at this point she was A TEMPORAL GOD.

Unyielding. Unbeatable. Unstoppable.

Carrie Elizabeth Waterson threw back her head and laughed in an insane euphoria. It was time to return to her present.

NEXT: Resolution

ASIDE: So that’s… good? Two posts left, as I split the last section. Voting for T&T can still be a thing. Also, Rev. Fitz, who wrote our latest April Fools Entry (with the Elder Carrie) has been examining serial sites this month. He just recently looked at Time & Tied. So check out his thoughts, and if you haven’t yet, his serial too!

PREVIOUSLY: Carrie of the past (Elizabeth) is trying to figure out how to not become the Future Carrie of Timeline Four.

PART 95b: CARRIE VERSUS HERSELF

They barely got three paces inside the room before Glen was pointing a gun at them. “Freeze!” he said. Elizabeth’s companions froze in place. She realized then that he’d used his mental power.

Except while Glen sounded confident, Elizabeth noticed that he looked worried. He obviously hadn’t expected their mad rush into the control room. Then, looking around, she realized something else. Elizabeth quickly reached out, grabbing the mop that Anthony was still holding, tossing it back behind them. Keeping the main door ajar.

“Move back.” Glen waggled his gun, and Elizabeth, Bernard, Amelia and Anthony all stepped backwards, towards the wall. “I don’t know how you managed to gain access,” Glen remarked. “But this facility DOES have an armoury, and we WERE prepared for that unlikely eventuality.” He gestured at the floor, where there were at least a half dozen other gun-style weapons, along with a small box of what Elizabeth assumed were bombs.

“Unbelievable,” Elder Carrie remarked from behind Glen. “To think that I was once that insanely stupid. God, I hate myself.”

“Come over here and say that,” Elizabeth challenged.

“Don’t even bother with them,” Glen said to Carrie. He rose from his chair and began to advance. “The only question now, Elizabeth, is whether we send your friends here back to their present as they are now… or whether you force us to do it with them a little more… let’s say, wounded?”

Bernard turned to look at Elizabeth. “A version of you actually picks this guy over us?”

“I know,” Elizabeth sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m working on it.”

Glen stopped a few paces away. “Funny. Come on now, this will be SO much easier if you simply accept your destiny."

“That’s far less interesting.”

Glen spun at the unexpected voice. He found himself unable to bring his gun to bear in time, Buffy having followed her remark up with a sprint inside the room, and a full body tackle. With the redhead on the ground, his gun bouncing away, Elizabeth shifted her own attention towards Carrie.

The fifty year old Carrie stepped towards one of the other weapons on the floor, then seemed to think better of it as Bernard made a similar dive. For a moment, Elizabeth sensed her future self trying to establish a temporal freezing field. She nullified Carrie’s efforts.

With that, Carrie charged out of the nearest available exit. The one that led down into the displacement room below. “What, are you trying to escape?” Elizabeth shouted. “If you think you’re so superior to me, PROVE it!” She chased after herself.

Buffy beat her fists into Glen’s side, smacked him about the head, and tried to knee him in uncomfortable places. “Why?” she shrieked. “Why didn’t you make me into a better person? WHY?!”

“Stop! Carrie, I’ve been trying to help,” Glen answered, trying to protect his body while simultaneously attempting to push her off of him. “Besides, that’s still in our future, I haven’t even done anything yet. Stop, I haven’t done it yet!”

“Eliz– err, Buffy, we got this,” Bernard said.

Buffy stopped herself, breathing hard, and noticing that Bernard was now holding a gun on the both of them. Amelia was rounding up the rest of the weapons, moving them to the corner, out of reach, and Anthony was approaching with some rope.

Buffy pushed herself back, rising again to her feet. “Right.” She eyed Glen. “I forgive you too. That said, you try any more of your mental tricks here? Things will not end well for you.”

Anthony began to tie Glen up.

Bernard inclined his head towards the exit. “Buffy, go help yourself.”

“Just a second,” Buffy said, straightening her blouse. “You’ll need the code to turn off the lockdown here, so the resistance can get in.”

“I’ll never give that up,” Glen assured them.

“You won’t have to,” Buffy noted. “Seeing as you entered it into the system, in this room, maybe five minutes ago.” She allowed the time streams to coalesce about her, and after carefully anchoring herself in the present, she slid back to see what the necessary computer input was.

Elizabeth supposed that she should have expected her future self to ambush her as soon as she charged through the sliding door into the displacement room. And yet, she hadn’t anticipated it, and as such she had the wind knocked out of her as the two of them then fell on the ground in a flurry of arms and legs. Elizabeth tried to kick out at her counterpart, but the fifty year old had the advantage of leverage - and of course, a future her would knew most of her moves. Or her expected moves, anyway.

Elizabeth reached out and yanked hard on Carrie’s long hair.

“Yeow!” Carrie screeched. “What, are you in grade school?”

“I was going to say the same,” Elizabeth shot back. “Why won’t you let me play in your sandbox?”

“My God, I’m so immature,” Carrie groaned.

Carrie still seemed temporally weak, but Elizabeth fast realized that where Carrie was holding onto her, her arm was going numb. The feeling was spreading up and into the rest of her body. That wasn’t good. But Elizabeth couldn’t seem to squirm free, she couldn’t seem to… oh. Wait. Duh.

Her eyes flickered to gold, and she slipped back in time thirty seconds. After rolling to the side, she then rejoined the present, in time to see Carrie face plant into the floor as her prior self disappeared. Elizabeth quickly pushed herself back up onto her feet, rolling her shoulder to try and regain the feeling in that arm. There was no point in her tackling the prone Carrie - this battle wasn’t going to be won physically.

Sure enough, Carrie had soon risen to her feet as well. “I guess I should be glad that I’m finally displaying half a brain,” she remarked.

“This won’t be like it was in Miami, Carrie,” Elizabeth declared. “I’m no longer that vulnerable girl. I’m ready for you.”

“Ha! Sure you are. Considering less than an hour has passed for us since then, I’m hardly shaking in my boots.”

“Weirdly enough, it feels to me like mama’s disappearance happened a lifetime ago. Despite you being the old maid here.”

Carrie snorted. “Oh, stop. You must know you cannot possibly win?”

“I don’t know that at all.”

“I’m YOU!”

“And yet… you seem unsure.”

“While you seem weak.”

Carrie brought her arm up, and Elizabeth realized too late that her future counterpart had been readying a charge of temporal energy. It hit her with enough force to launch her back into the far wall of the room, and it was all she could do to avoid getting herself pushed out of the present, and a few seconds into the future.

Carrie could have prepared a finishing blow in those few seconds.

Elizabeth slid to the floor, ending up in a seated position. “You know,” she wheezed, “I should really look into this masochistic streak I seem to have.”

“Stop talking,” Carrie said. Her eyes flickered over completely to gold, and she fired off another blast of energy.

Elizabeth snapped her arms up. She’d anticipated Carrie’s move this time, but all she’d been able to think of as a counter-move was to try and freeze time in her immediate vicinity. Rookie mistake - the blast was still moving for her, albeit much more slowly, and now she’d never be able to speed up her own time to dodge it. Not without releasing the freezing field and being hit.

Carrie laughed. “I am such a…”

Elizabeth never found out what Carrie thought she was, because right before the temporal blast could reach her, it was struck from the side by a counter-blast of temporal energy, sending the whole sparking assembly careening off to the side. It impacted the wall, a chunk of the panelling vanishing completely into the streams of time.

“Sorry I’m late,” Buffy said from the doorway, lowering her arms. “Bunch of things cropping up at the last moment. You know how it is.”

“Not as such, but I guess I’ll know soon enough,” Elizabeth said. She pushed herself back to her feet. “Thanks, Buffy.”

“No problem.”

Carrie jerked her gaze back and forth between both versions. “At least you’re making this interesting,” Carrie acknowledged. “But even with two of you, you still have only a primitive understanding of our power."

“We’re fast learners,” Elizabeth noted. She allowed the power to wash over her then, tentatively embracing the sensations, knowing that her own eyes were flicking to gold - and yet allowing it to happen. After all, she would become Buffy, right? She would maintain control.

“Fine,” Carrie snarled. “Let’s do this. But first, I’ll make sure we have no interference from your friends up there.”

She fired off two more pulses of temporal energy. Two wall panels were temporally banished in their wake - along with whatever was behind them, if the sparking was any indication. A klaxon sounded briefly, and the door to the room slid closed, along with blast shields slamming down over the observation windows above.

Elizabeth frowned, as a burn mark also appeared on the wall, spreading out from one of the missing panels. And whereas at first, the dark scorching had looked like it would follow a single path, it very quickly radiated out, looking more like a trident or a tree branch. Multiple paths. For some reason, that felt significant.

Elizabeth was so distracted by the image that she didn’t even notice the huge tree trunk that came hurtling at her moments later.

“Damn. We’re cut off,” Bernard remarked, as the blast shields dropped into place, blocking their view of the three Carries down below.

Anthony glanced sidelong at Bernard. He was now holding the weapon on Glen, as they had determined that it was an energy pulse set to stun. So it’s not like he was about to fill the Temporal full of holes if Glen tried anything. “Can y-you undo that?”

Bernard shook his head. “Doubt it. Carrie probably fried the hardware.”

“Wouldn’t there be sensors in that room or something?” Amelia guessed.

“Maybe,” Bernard yielded. “But I don’t know how to turn them on. So aside from having shut off of the lockdown, there’s not much more I can do. Aside from watch the progress of the resistance, which is what Glen had calibrated the system for.”

“I won’t help you,” Glen said.

Bernard sighed. “No one even asked you for help.”

“You’re only making this harder on yourselves,” Glen continued. “And harder on Carrie too. You need to surrender now, it’s the only way that girl can have a happy childhood! That’s her ONLY chance, you understand me, you Mundane morons? The ONLY way that you can still live out your dull, pathetic lives, is to give up. So that we can fix Carrie’s mind, retrain her, such that she doesn’t remember how one day she will–"

Anthony fired, and Glen slumped to the ground, out cold.

“Tim!” Amelia gasped.

He looked over at his friends and smiled weakly. “It occurred to me that he might be using his mental power more subtly. To w-wear us down. W-We’re all tired of being manipulated, yeah? W-We didn’t need him conscious… right?”

Bernard grinned back. “Good point. Wish I’d thought of that myself.” He turned back to the monitors. “I think Luci’s forces will be here in less than five minutes. They can help us out.”

“Weirdly enough, I don’t think Elizabeth has that kind of time,” Amelia sighed, looking again towards the blocked windows.

Buffy tackled Elizabeth in the nick of time, the tree trunk flying over their heads and slamming into the wall. Elizabeth snapped her gaze over towards the huge object. “Whoa! Where the hell did that come from?” she gasped.

“When the hell,” Buffy corrected breathlessly, continuing their roll across the floor. “Reverse banishment, that was a something Carrie knew about, which could be manifested from somewhen.” A mist began to appear within the room, making it harder for them to see. “Takes hella energy and concentration though, so I’d say we’re good for at least another ten seconds.”

“You will become me!” Carrie shrieked from within the growing fog. “I’m starting to feel these events in my past now.”

“Not good.” Buffy swallowed. “Look, Elizabeth, this is where we part ways. I need to strategize.”

“Oh. Pity. It’s been fun,” Elizabeth said weakly. She pushed herself back up off the floor. “I don’t suppose you can come up with a way of dispelling this mist first?”

“Actually, I’m creating it,” Buffy admitted, her golden eyes glowing. “So that it’s harder for Carrie to target. Remember from geography, the foggiest place on Earth, just off Newfoundland?”

Elizabeth blinked. “We’ve already figured out how to reverse banish?”

“Kinda? I’ve had some time to consider, since I told myself about the ability, and fog’s basically air. I really want to turn my concentration back to our Ultimate Paradox though. Okay?”

“Understood.” Elizabeth clasped herself by the shoulder. “Thank you.”

“Thank YOU,” Buffy said. “You’re the one who will soon give yourself the key card, after all.”

Elizabeth chuckled, then pulled Buffy back down as another huge tree flew through the fog towards them. “Right, that’s got to stop.” She exhaled. “Okay, here goes nothing.”

Launching herself forwards, Elizabeth charged through the fog towards her future self. And, to the increasing annoyance of the temporal powers she tended to keep locked away, away from her destiny.

So her powers began to push back.

NEXT: The Ultimate Paradox

ASIDE: It all ends with Part 96. Maybe you see how at this point? I’ll be splintering the end of Book 4 into three posts, for a couple reasons. One of them is to give me a transitional week, as the site returns to “Epsilon Project”. Until then, the usual vote for T&T, if you please?

PREVIOUSLY: Carrie of the past (Elizabeth) is trying to figure out how to not become the Future Carrie of Timeline Four.

PART 95a: ENDGAME

“What are you doing?” Glen asked.

“Preparing to isolate myself,” Carrie grumbled. The fifty year old pulled the small bomb out of it’s container in the armoury. “This ought to do it.”

Glen shook his head. “I’m still not following.”

She turned to glare at him. “The only reason younger me - hell with it, let’s call her Elizabeth - is able to function here in the future, and wherever they are in this building, is because of whatever her friends are now telling her. Yes?”

“I suppose that makes sense.”

“So, if we eliminate them, Elizabeth becomes an easier mark. And a bomb is a lot more efficient for doing that than a bunch of separate temporal banishments.”

Glen rubbed the back of his neck. “Ignoring the historical ramifications for the moment, the fact that they’re unlikely to split up? Means that if you blow up Elizabeth’s friends, you’ll blow up your past self too.”

Carrie nodded. “Hence I go after the others before they got here.”

“Except they already ARE here. So… how does that work, exactly?”

“I don’t know yet. But I’ll make it work,” Carrie asserted. “I’ll destroy them before they arrive, and let that ‘bleedthrough’ effect thing sort the rest out.”

“Um, Carrie? You don’t experience ‘bleedthrough’,” he reminded her. “You’re the cause, not the effect. You get saddled with the memory headaches. Ergo, even assuming you can pull this off, what if it merely leaves you with a massive migraine, unable to act at all?”

“Then at least Elizabeth will be similarly affected,” Carrie snapped, feeling her patience slipping away again. “Look, Glinephanis, there must be some way I can change things in the same manner as Mindylenopia did. But to succeed, I’ll need to know everything I can about how to identify that ‘time car’ back in Miami. That way, as soon as my connection to the time streams fully kicks back in, I can go back to destroy her friends before they get here.”

Amelia looked from Elizabeth, who was now holding an apple, over towards Buffy, standing in the doorway of the janitor’s closet, and then back to Elizabeth. “I don’t get it,” she admitted.

“Me neither,” Anthony chimed in.

“I might,” Bernard said, looking uneasy. “Except I still don’t like it. It violates the law of conservation of mass, among other things.”

“Show them,” Buffy suggested, stepping into the room and gesturing towards the door.

Elizabeth looked down at the apple she was holding, pursed her lips, and then marched back out of the janitor’s closet. She pulled the door closed behind her. There was a brief silence.

“So… now what?” Amelia asked.

Bernard crossed his arms, looking over at Buffy. She was now holding her palm against her temple, and grimacing. “You just went back in time, came back in here, and tossed that apple at yourself, right?”

Buffy nodded. “Yeah. Meaning I’m back to being Elizabeth again, by the way.”

“Wait, s-so where did Elizabeth get that apple f-from?” Anthony asked.

“From Buffy,” Amelia said, with a shrug. “The real question is where Buffy got HER apple from.”

“That was from being Elizabeth,” Bernard said dryly. “You’re both asking valid questions, you see. There never was an apple - and yet it was once here.” He rubbed his eyes, beneath his glasses. “She’s done this once before, WAY back when we first discovered the time machine. It’s a Catch-22, and I never did work out how she pulled it off.”

“I think it’s simply something I can do,” Elizabeth admitted. “I even did it with the time machine once. I assume I’m using it here to try and tell myself something. Maybe that’s also what Liz tried to do with Carrie.” She sighed. “I don’t know why I have to keep picking the path of temporal headaches.”

Amelia stared back at the door. “Maybe Buffy is about to walk back in, not carrying an apple, but instead carrying the ultimate weapon to use against her future self?”

Again, there was a brief silence.

“So, n-not that,” Anthony concluded.

“Damn it, I’m trying to tell myself something,” Elizabeth repeated. “Subconsciously. But WHAT?”

“An apple a day keeps the Carrie away?” Amelia suggested.

Bernard leaned against the nearby shelf. “Maybe you’re trying to hint that this is something Carrie can’t do,” he decided. “That it’s something she’s never mastered. So if you can nail it for her, you can change her mind, make her realize that your path is the better path forwards.”

Elizabeth gave him an uncertain look. “And I demonstrate this bizarre power in some definitive way to Carrie… how, exactly?”

“I don’t know,” Bernard said. “But I’m starting to feel like we won’t find out by staying here, in defensive mode.”

“For the record, I don’t think this is a good idea,” Glen remarked.

“For the record, I don’t care,” Carrie shot back.

They had purged the remaining knockout gas from the generator’s control room and then returned there. It was a position they could easily fortify, and even use to draw in reinforcements if necessary, given the proximity to the displacement room.

“We’ll release the lockdown for at most ten seconds,” Carrie insisted. “That will drop the temporal dampening field, and allow me to jump back to Miami, despite my current weakened condition. Once I’ve planted the time bomb in their car, I leap back here to reap the rewards.”

Glen eyed the monitors that he’d pulled up. “It looks like the resistance incursion is stalled at level two. All right. When you’re ready, give me the word.”

He supposed he should simply be happy that he was finally dealing with a Carrie who could embrace her powers, even if she seemed to have become a bit overconfident about them. That was the Carrie he’d met when he was young, before going back to when she was a teenager, so it was nice to finally be back with ‘his’ Carrie.

“Go,” Carrie stated.

Glen dropped the alert. Carrie disappeared in a flash of light. Glen began to count in his head, one-onethousand, two-onethousand, three-onethousand… and Carrie was back. He reinstated the lockdown. “Well?”

She glared at him. “Well what? Do you still remember Frank shooting me with the weapon and all that?”

“Yup,” Glen affirmed.

She glared out through the observation windows. “I rushed that. Maybe they split up. Or a couple of them escaped the blast. You didn’t mention they had another means of time travel available to them.”

Glen shook his head. “They didn’t. Or not that I know of.”

Carrie rubbed her chin. “Perhaps they saved key circuits. Rebuilt a device. I should have lobbed the bomb at them, instead of setting it in the car.”

“It’s not like you can’t try again,” Glen remarked. He gestured at the floor. “We looted the armoury, we have more bombs.”

“Right. Hold on, I’ll see if I can track their actions after the airport affair a little more carefully…"

“I’ll keep trying to pick them up in the present on internal sensors,” Glen offered. He began to tap at the keyboard again.

Anthony peered out the door. “You’re r-right, Elizabeth - they must have dropped the lockdown. The r-red lights are…" The corridor lighting changed again. “…back.” He quickly re-closed the door.

“Is the resistance breaking through?” Amelia wondered.

“No,” Elizabeth said, pressing her palm against her temple again. “No, I should have realized this. If I were in charge here, I’d have tried retaking the control room. Damn it! They must be there now, with Carrie doing experimental time jumps. Maybe they can even bring back future reinforcements. I need to start thinking strategically. To start thinking like… ugh, like that Carrie.”

“So what d-do we d-do?” Anthony asked.

“Well, Bernard’s right,” Elizabeth sighed. “We can’t keep playing a defensive game. There’s only one way I’ll be able to stop a single-minded Carrie from harming anyone else - no matter the cost to myself.” She looked around at them. “Know that you don’t have to come along.”

“Still not leaving without you,” Amelia reminded.

“Right.” Anthony reached back for the mop. “After all, s-someone’s got to deal w-with Glen as you face yourself.”

“So you’re stuck with us,” Bernard agreed.

Elizabeth smiled. “Thank you. I don’t deserve… actually, hmm. Know what? On second thought, strike that. Maybe I do deserve friends like you.” She looked towards the closet door. “More to the point, maybe I even deserve friends like Buffy.”

“Um, friends like yourself?” Amelia asked.

Elizabeth nodded. “Yes. Yes, because you know what? THAT’S Carrie’s weakness. How she hates herself. How, I hate myself.” She smiled. “Think about it. Nearly every time I’ve met another incarnation, I’ve argued, I’ve tried to beat myself up, I’ve hoped to change my own experiences… I’ve never seriously tried to work WITH myself. To accept my flaws, and my future… and consider that maybe they’re not so terrible after all.”

“Um… except f-for how this f-future kind of is terrible?” Anthony said, gesturing around them.

“Oh, well, this future is terrible, sure. But for the first time, I’m starting to wonder if I can accept that MY future destiny ISN’T.” Elizabeth straightened her posture. “Or rather, that it won’t have to be, not once I truly deal with myself.” She stepped towards the door. “Meaning it’s not only time for the final battle between Carries…” She pushed the door open. “But that it doesn’t have to be one-on-one.”

“This is ridiculous,” Carrie said, her eyes flickering from yellow back to blue. “When I centre on them, all they’re doing is moping about Miami. But when I jump ahead a few days, I can’t pick them up at all.”

“So track them more gradually,” Glen said idly.

“Even ignoring how I’m not at full strength, and the fact that watching a minute back then is the same as a minute in the here and now, it’s SO BORING,” Carrie moaned. “I am narrowing it down though. I think something happened on their third day there. Damned if I know what. Where are Elizabeth and her friends in the present, have you spotted them?”

“Yeah. They’re approaching our position.”

Carrie blinked. “Wait, for serious?”

Glen nodded. “Yeah, but I’ve locked and re-keyed the ID on the door here to a random sequence. We’re secure. I’m more worried about these resistance forces. They’re not giving up. Maybe you should pop up there and scare the hell out of them, make them retreat?”

Carrie gestured. “Fine, fine. In a little while, I’ll time travel back to now, and do that.”

“Right.” There was a brief silence. Glen cleared his throat. “Thing is, you haven’t appeared to them yet, implying that in the future you might not–"

“Glinephanis?”

“Yes, Carrie?”

“Shut up, I’m busy.”

“Okay then.”

She resumed trying to pinpoint whatever Elizabeth’s group of friends had been doing in Miami. Instead of focussing on Elizabeth herself.

“Slight problem,” Bernard remarked. Again, he reached out towards the ID reader. Again, he tapped the access card that Faye had provided, back when Walter had first arrived to program the temporal generator. And again, nothing happened. “This card isn’t working any more.”

“Carrie’s in there though," Elizabeth murmured. “I can sense it.”

“Maybe they’ll open the door if we knock?” Amelia said hopefully.

“No,” Elizabeth said slowly. “It’s time. Give me a moment. As long as I believe in myself, and believe that I can… that I AM going to survive this encounter… I… I will be able to…"

“…give myself this,” Buffy finished, appearing in a flash of light. She seemed scared and out of breath, her eyes flickering between blue and gold, but she nevertheless extended her hand to her double. It held a new key card.

“Nice! You got the card off of Carrie,” Bernard said, grinning.

Buffy drew in a long breath, then turned to him, smiling weakly and rubbing her temple. “Nope.” Her eyes settled on blue.

“Okay, so, key cards are our new apple,” Elizabeth remarked. She reached out to accept it, turning it around in her hands as she looked Buffy up and down. “Thanks. I’m guessing I’m more on offence this round?”

Buffy nodded. “Yeah. And I’m afraid when I left I still hadn’t figured out how to resolve our ultimate paradox. Namely how we can accept becoming her, and yet somehow NOT become her.”

“That is a puzzler,” Elizabeth agreed. “Keep working on it, okay future me?”

“Oh, you bet.” Buffy dusted off her hands, becoming increasingly more chipper. “After all, I think I will have been getting close soon, knowing what I will have to be seeing a short time ago while I have drawn her fire like you already will.”

Anthony rubbed his forehead. “Okay, that sentence right there? That’s where Temporal ends up being a better language than English.”

The two blondes glanced in his direction. “Sorry,” they chorused in unison. They then looked back at each other and let out simultaneous giggles.

“That is somehow cute, and yet scary as hell,” Bernard observed.

Elizabeth smirked. “If you think that’s scary?” She brandished the new key card, moving in closer to the reader. “Just wait until we’re both fighting our future incarnation.”

The reader pinged, and the door unlocked.

NEXT: Carrie Versus Herself

ASIDE: I’ve been watching the anime “Steins;Gate” this month. I think that, if you enjoy this serial, you’d enjoy it - and vice versa. (Both are slow to start, and get convoluted.) I’ve been blogging about my experience watching it, if you’re curious.

PREVIOUSLY: Carrie of the past (Elizabeth) is trying to figure out how to not become the Future Carrie of Timeline Four.

PART 94b: BUFFY’S RETURN

Carrie Elizabeth Waterson looked around at her time travelling companions. “Don’t all talk at once.”

Timothy Anthony Whitby cleared his throat. “What about Mindylenopia’s weapon?”

Frank Bernard Dijora held it up. “Drained. I already used it to take down Future Carrie, that’s why she’s not breathing down our necks.”

Anthony nodded. “L-let me have a l-look then. M-Maybe I can see how we m-might recharge it?” Bernard handed it over.

“Related, how much longer is that one shot going to keep Future Carrie out of it?” Elizabeth asked.

Bernard shrugged. “No way of knowing.”

Elizabeth sighed. “Perfect.”

Then again, she reasoned, if they kept using the gun, there was an obvious defence. Whenever Carrie regained consciousness later? She could theoretically jump back to right after she was shot. Negating the effectiveness. Good thing her future self wouldn’t have tried that already. “The gun’s hardly a permanent solution anyway.”

“Permanent?” Laurie Amelia Veniti gasped in horror. “You’re saying you want to kill future you?”

Elizabeth jerked her gaze towards Amelia. “Whoa! No, no, I want to… to… I don’t know, fix her. So that I have something to look forward to, something that isn’t… isn’t HER.”

Bernard leaned in. “That reminds me. I did overhear Carrie talking to, um, an even more Future Carrie…"

“Liz,” Elizabeth offered.

“Sure, to Liz. They were saying that the only method Carrie had for dealing with a future self was to overwrite bits of her own past. To remove the need for Liz to interfere with herself in the first place.”

Elizabeth raked her fingers back through her hair. “Okay. Except I’m not about to change the events that brought me here. Especially the truth about my mama. I won’t deliberately hide that from myself. I can’t. Because as long as I know about it, I also know that I don’t want to become the sort of person who would do it.”

“I get that,” Bernard said. “Thing is, Liz was wondering if there was another way. She didn’t give details.”

Elizabeth pursed her lips. “So maybe Liz sensed something, but it’s a thing she needs a younger self to do? I don’t suppose she passed along anything helpful, like a note.”

“I was insubstantial at the time, I don’t think the Carries even knew I was listening. But even if Liz had, her existence is being overwritten here.”

“Hold on.” Amelia gestured out towards the observation windows. “Aren’t we sitting in a huge time machine here? Can’t we use that to our advantage?”

Bernard adjusted his glasses. “Fair point. I guess I was mostly watching when Walter set the controls, and as such might be able to do something - but when would all we travel to?”

“Back to our present,” Amelia asserted. “Or, well, your present,” she amended. “A few weeks ahead of me, whenever you left to recruit me.”

“Carrie would only follow us back,” Elizabeth countered.

“So we’ll set a trap for her,” Amelia insisted.

“I can see through time,” Elizabeth sighed. “So we have to assume that Carrie can too, and that she’s better at it. She would look before she leapt, then pop in before we could come up with the trap. Or worse, find a way for us to spring it on ourselves. No, we’ve GOT to deal with Carrie in the here and now, before she regains her full strength.”

“It was a good thought though,” Bernard assured Amelia, off her crestfallen look. “Actually, in a similar vein, maybe we can use the information in the building’s database? The future knows more about Carrie than we do…"

As Bernard walked over to the main board, there was a flash of light over by the exit. “Sorry, but we’ve got to get out of here, now,” the newest arrival asserted, pulling the door open.

Elizabeth did a double take, recognizing another seventeen year old version of herself. “Uhm, yeah, okay ‘Buffy'…"

Buffy rolled her eyes. “I’m serious, there’s going to be a–"

“Lockdown. Lockdown,” came an automated computer voice. “This building is now in lockdown.” A red light on the wall came on, strobing, as half the overhead lights switched off.

“And they’ll start to pump knockout gas into this room momentarily,” Buffy concluded. “So get a move on.”

“Okay, n-not a fan of gas,” Anthony decided, hurrying to the door. Amelia ran over after him. Which was when the lock on the door clicked - but as Buffy was holding it open, there was no problem.

A hiss of air came from some overhead vents, and vapours began to pour out. “Damn. Glen must be in some auxiliary control room,” Bernard reasoned, hurrying after the others.

Buffy followed them out… shutting the door in the face of a surprised Elizabeth.

“Buffy,” Amelia shrieked. “You locked yourself in!”

“No. She’s about to realize she has to travel back to give you the warning,” Buffy assured the redhead. A puzzled look began to form on her face. “Meaning I’m Elizabeth again.”

Bernard lifted an eyebrow. “You know,” he remarked. “Maybe we should be trying to figure out a way to use your time travel abilities as our weapon of choice.”

Glen tapped at the holographic keyboard that had allowed him to interface with the building. It looked like he hadn’t been able to gas the main control room in time - and now he wasn’t sure where the other time travellers had gone. With the whole place in lockdown mode, he didn’t have complete access to the sensors any more.

Still, once he’d been notified of the external resistance forces closing in, initiating the lockdown had been the priority - along with getting their internal forces to mobilize in response. He wondered why security had been decreased throughout the building; what few personnel they had here would now have their hands full. New regulations following his departure, perhaps?

Oh well - on the bright side, he hadn’t seen the Theresa version of Mindylenopia on the monitors yet. And surely he and Carrie could take care of the rest of those idiotic teenage Mundanes by themselves.

A groaning noise brought his attention back to the fifty year old blonde woman, laid out on the floor nearby. He turned away from the computer systems, crouching next to her. “Carrie? Are you conscious yet?”

“What. The. Actual. F–"

“Somehow, Frank managed to get here ahead of us,” Glen interrupted. “With some sort of energy weapon. He hit you with it. Are you okay?”

Carrie blinked her blue eyes open. “No,” she snarled. “No, I am NOT ‘okay’. Somehow I’ve been cut off from the time streams.”

Glen frowned. “Seriously?”

“You think I’m lying? I can’t–" She broke off, as an attempt to push herself up merely made her eyelids flutter. She nearly hit her head as she crashed back down onto the ground.

“Maybe you should take it easy for a bit,” Glen suggested. “Frank and the others from your past, they’re not going far, not with a lockdown in place.”

“I will NOT take it easy,” Carrie snapped. “Not so long as my younger self is out there, running around my present and screwing up my history.”

“Carrie, it never goes well when you lose control of your emotions,” Glen soothed. “Besides, if the video image I pulled up is any indication, so far the only thing your prior self has done is pull in the rest of her prior time travelling companions - minus Mindylenopia. And with the lockdown, the dampening field will make any further attempts like that difficult for her at best.”

“Peachy.” Carrie took a few deep breaths. “But you’re not wrong. Okay, finding my zen.” She blinked a few times, then smiled. “There we go - I AM still attached to the time streams, it’s only that my senses have been… somehow numbed. Temporarily.”

“See?” Glen remarked. “So we get you back to full strength, trap the other time travellers in a room somewhere, and then you can send them all back to their–"

“Back to the Stone Age,” Carrie growled.

Glen frowned. “Er, really? Because even if you never directly interacted with those ones after we left town, surely they’re still a part of your past. I’m not sure you can simply–"

“I’m Goddamn Carrie Elizabeth Waterson, Temporal Queen!” Carrie spat out, her anger bubbling up again. “If Mindylenopia can mess with my past, I sure as hell can do whatever I want with it too. Yeah?”

“O-kay then.” Glen cleared his throat. “Except you can’t banish your younger self to the Stone Age. Can you?”

“No,” Carrie yielded. Her lips tightened. “No, but I have other plans for her.” Her eyes focussed on his face. “She will become me. Make no mistake.”

“I’m n-not sure how to charge the gun back up,” Anthony admitted. “That is, I c-can see how, based on our version, but I have n-no idea what sort of outlet or b-battery it plugs into. That part’s different.”

The four of them had retreated to a janitor’s closet. Bernard knew about it, because it’s where Mindylenopia had stashed their third security guard. Curiously enough, the room was now empty, containing only cleaning supplies. He decided it was a Timeline Three versus Four thing.

“Pity we don’t have a way of using Julie’s tracking device,” Bernard mused. “We might use it to pinpoint Glen’s location, and thereby trap the two of them, the way they just tried to trap us. Except I left the main assembly back in the time car.” He turned. “Elizabeth, do you think you could jump there and get it?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “I haven’t ever seen that car, not really, and I don’t think anyone I know would be around it now either. Moreover, it feels like that lockdown triggered some kind of temporal dampening field. Becoming Buffy and warning you about the knockout gas, it required more concentration than I would have expected.”

“Then you’re saying we can’t get out to Luci or the resistance either,” Amelia sighed.

Elizabeth swallowed. “Know what? I hate to say it, but maybe we should simply surrender.”

Bernard turned again, from where he’d resumed examining the janitorial chemical bottles. “You can’t be serious.”

Elizabeth looped a strand of hair around her fingers, tugging on it. “Yes, I can be. Because the longer I think about this? The more doomed I feel I am. No matter how good my time travel skills are, hers are better. That’s the way it works. A more experienced me will always be better, that’s got to be why Carrie always avoided a “Liz”-style conflict.”

“No,” Amelia said softly. She stood straighter. “I don’t know if my motivational speeches have improved since the hospital over a year ago, but Elizabeth? You CANNOT tell me that the Carrie out there is a better person than you are. No way. You… you’ve always been my mentor.”

Elizabeth looked at her. “Amelia, seriously? Me a mentor?”

The redhead nodded. “So I have faith that you can fix this. Because we never know what we’re capable of until we’re forced into a corner, which is what’s happening to you here. So don’t surrender to the evil Carrie, okay?”

Elizabeth swallowed. “Thanks Amelia, I… I’m flattered. And frankly undeserving, given my attitude towards you and so many others throughout the majority of our time in high school together. But even if I can say I’m a better person now, we’re not fighting a battle of ethics here. We’re fighting a battle of inevitability.”

The blonde cheerleader sighed. ”Meaning if I turn myself in, maybe the future Carrie will respect that. And sure, my OWN future will suck, but I can accept that if at least the rest of you can go on with your lives. Because when I left you behind in the present, that’s all I really wanted.”

“I d-don’t think that’ll happen,” Anthony protested. “I mean, b-based on what Future Luci said to us? Our future lives will suck for as long as you’re w-working with the Temporals. In any timeline.”

“We’re also not leaving without you,” Amelia insisted.

Elizabeth yanked on her hair hard enough that she winced. She pulled her fingers free. “Look, I’m still open to other alternatives - but really, what can we DO? We don’t even have a Temporal to consult for advice, and Carrie’s got Glen on her side.” She frowned. “Speaking of, what happened to Mindylenopia, or Theresa, or whatever you decided to call her? I didn’t spot her when I was looking for people who’d recently experienced a massive temporal displacement.”

Bernard put a bottle of bleach back on the shelf, letting out a sigh. “She didn’t make it, Elizabeth. Back in Miami, Mindylenopia drew Carrie’s attention away from us, to a decoy car, and it exploded.”

“W-Wait, no,” Anthony said, pushing himself off the wall. “I saw Theresa. Like, an old Theresa, way older than she had b-been in Miami. She was w-working with the resistance in this timeline.”

“What?” Amelia gasped. “But we saw Mindy die. Didn’t we?”

Bernard frowned. “So… maybe what I told her in Timeline Three bled through, and she lived? Except if that’s true, why would we still remember the explosion…”

“Agh, it’s just more questions without answers,” Elizabeth groaned.

The door to the janitor’s closet swung open. Bernard reached back for the bottle of bleach, Anthony grabbed a mop, and Amelia dropped into an approximation of a fighting stance. But it was only Buffy standing in the doorway, smiling wryly. She then tossed an apple at her past self, Elizabeth catching it by reflex.

“There you go,” Buffy remarked. “There’s our biggest unanswered question.”

Elizabeth looked down at the apple, then back up at herself. Her eyes went wide. “Oh, Buffy. We cannot be serious,” she gasped.

NEXT: Endgame

ASIDE: The last time we saw Buffy was way back in Part 48, when Carrie tripled herself. The apple is an even older reference. Two weeks left. Hope you’re enjoying. Care to vote for T&T at TWF?

PREVIOUSLY: Much Elder Carrie (Liz) sabotaged her own Timeline Three, leading to Elder Carrie abducting her teenaged self from the past.

PART 94a: REALIGNMENT

Carrie’s fingers curled around the crystal object, aware that more tears were coming. Because here she was, at the mercy of her Future Self, being time shifted into Her Future… a future where Carrie would never see her parents, her friends, or that one ray of sunshine - her once possible girlfriend - ever again.

“CARRIE!”

Oh no, now she was imagining Chartreuse’s voice in her head.

“Carrie, are you there?! We don’t, like, have much time, but PLEASE hear me, there’s something you’ve gotta do!”

Okay, this was becoming surprisingly vivid for a delusion.

“Chartreuse?” Carrie whimpered.

“Carrie!” the voice came again. “Yesssss! Ohhh, I really hope you’re, you know, the right one. Look, we’re not giving up on you. The others, they’re gonna follow you, they’re following you even now - but you’ve gotta, like, hide them from the other you. Okay?”

Carrie blinked. What the hell did that mean?

“I mean you’ve gotta, like, spot their time car, and nudge it. Nudge it ahead, into, you know, the other timeline. Temporarily. Hurry!”

Oh sure, right, piece of cake, just do the thing she had no idea how to do, while her Elder Self was busy keeping her powers in check.

“If anyone can do it, you can! Please Carrie, PLEASE, otherwise… otherwise, you know, I think you’ll be lost to us forever.”

The meditation crystal dug into her palm so hard it hurt. No. She wasn’t going to lose Chartreuse forever. Hell, nothing in life had been easy to this point, right? Why assume that knowing the truth about her mama would have made things any easier?

So, as she was towed along in the wake of her Future Self, Carrie cautiously extended her senses, looking for the ‘time car’ that kept getting referenced. At the same time, she became aware of a wake, like what existed behind a boat, that was rippling out around them… could she somehow nudge a time traveller out of it’s path, and ahead of them? Even preserve it in some sort of time bubble?

She spotted the vehicle right before her Future Self emerged into The Future, wincing as her ‘nudge’ ended up being more like a powerful ‘bump’, and what little temporal energy she had left completely ebbed away at the act.

Frank stared. Both Carries had disappeared. At this point, neither the old-old Carrie who had been reaching for the activation panel, nor the old Carrie who had been arguing with her, were present. Instead, Frank saw that Walter had somehow set his chair back up, and was reaching in for the activation panel himself.

Frank looked around the room, feeling like he’d missed something. He leaned back in towards the observation windows, catching sight of Mindylenopia down in the displacement room - she was standing and waving. Not on the floor, defeated. Then there was a bright flash of light, forcing him to look away, and when he turned back, the displacement room was empty.

Walter jerked his hand back from the panel. “What did I just do?”

Frank reached out to tap at the desk. It felt solid now.

Walter spun to face him. “Where did you just come from?”

“Oh, I’m Chronologic Patrol.” Frank fumbled in Mindy’s handbag for the temporal gun, pulling it out and pointing it Walter’s way. “Just stay calm, I don’t want any trouble.”

Then there was another flash, and three more individuals appeared in the room. The Older Carrie was back! Along with Glen, and a blonde teenager in a blue business suit… but that had to be his Carrie. Could it be that, somehow, he was here at the end of their journey from the airport? Frank quickly reached down, flicking the switch on the gun over to “Carrie” mode, and he fired at the Elder Version.

At the pulse of high energy, the old Carrie collapsed down onto the ground, even as the recoil sent Frank flying back into the wall, hard enough to leave a crack. He groaned, feeling dazed. His version of Carrie didn’t look that much better off, having slumped to the floor after their arrival.

“I’m OUT,” Walter shrieked, running for the door. “You don’t pay me enough for this!”

As such, the only person in the room retaining full command of their faculties ended up being Glinephanis, aka Glen Oaks. And after taking in the situation, and snarling, “You Mundane morons,” his next move was to drag the unconscious Elder Carrie towards the door, following after Walter.

“Glen, wait,” Frank protested. He took a couple of shaky steps, then decided it might be better to check on the status of his own Carrie instead.

She looked up at him as he touched her shoulder. “I’m still here,” she murmured, dazed. “So did that time bump on your car work? Did it hide you from my older self? Have we won?”

Frank crouched down. “We haven’t won yet.” He glanced at the door through which Glen and Elder Carrie had exited. “But we may have bought ourselves some time.”

“Peachy.” She shook her head. “Okay, the freeze effect is wearing off. I feel like I’ll be able to do time stuff again soon. For my next trick, I shall attempt to not become the Carrie who kidnaps mama, and her unborn child.”

“Er, great. How will you do that?”

“No idea. Help me up.” She blinked at him. “Actually, correction. Take off your stupid wig while I remove this jacket, and then help me up.”

Frank straightened, tugging off the disguise he’d been wearing. Meanwhile, Carrie tossed aside her flight hat, allowing her long blonde hair to flow down her back again, and she shrugged off the jacket part of the business suit.

He reached a hand down. Carrie clasped it, and he pulled her onto her feet. “Do we have a plan?” he asked.

“Good question.” Carrie looked around. “Where are we?”

“A stationary temporal generator on the day of your fiftieth birthday. Mindylenopia was just sent back in time, into our past.”

“Oh. Okay, sure.” Carrie moved to look through the observation windows. “Why are we here? Didn’t you arrive in a time car?”

“We did,” Frank admitted. “The circuits were fried. Luci impounded it yesterday, sort of. I’m not sure where it is now.”

Carrie shook her head. “Wait, what? You didn’t mention Luci had come to Miami with you.”

“Er, no, not Luci from our Present. This time’s Luci, a Future Luci.”

“Ah. That’s going to get confusing, isn’t it,” Carrie sighed.

“Well, not necessarily. I died in the past, so if anyone says Frank, it’s probably me,” he said, trying to make a joke of it. He frowned. “Then again, I used the name Bernard with Mindylenopia…"

Carrie shook her head. “You’re not dead, Frank, don’t say that. It’s Timeline THREE where you died, and that’s gotta be where I ended up hip-checking your car, to keep you safe. When I left you in the airport, a few minutes ago, you were raving about us being in ‘Timeline Four’. So that should still be where we’re at now - er, unless you’re saying you later died in ‘Timeline Four’ too?”

“I… I don’t know. Wait, you did what to our vehicle?”

“You were constantly a few seconds ahead of the temporal wave created by Mindy’s arrival in the past, until right before my arrival here. It was Chartreuse’s idea.”

“Okay then. Er, which Chartreuse?”

Carrie smacked her palm against her face and dragged it down until it slid off her chin. “I don’t know, one of ‘em. Look, for my own sanity, as of RIGHT now, everyone who’s temporally displaced? Meaning not part of this future? Meaning us? Middle names. Understood?”

Bernard nodded. “Sure. Except I… I don’t actually know the middle names for Tim or Laurie.”

Elizabeth exhaled. “I will make them up if I have to. Where are they, anyway?”

“They’re still out with the resistance forces. Actually, I need to get them a message,” Bernard realized. “With Future Mindylenopia back in our past, and Carrie temporarily down, Luci and the rest of them need to know that it’s time to storm in and take this building.”

“Thrilling. Meanwhile, I kind of want all of us middle namers together, so let’s see if I can’t kill two birds with one jump. Give me a moment, knowing how to centre on people is fresh in my head.” Elizabeth closed her eyes. Moments later, she disappeared.

“Freeze!”

Tim jerked his hands into the air. “Whoa, whoa, J-Julie, it’s me.” He turned to Lee, only to see that the operations co-ordinator had also drawn a weapon. Though unlike Julie, he wasn’t pointing it at Tim. Yet.

“How did the kid get in here?” Lee demanded.

Julie shook her head. “I don’t know. I turned around, and there he was.”

Lee turned his head. “Theresa, did you see where he came from?”

“Theresa?” Tim blurted. “Wh-What happened to Megan??”

“Hold on,” the red haired woman said, over the video link. “It IS possible that things get a little weird now…”

Which was when seventeen year old Elizabeth popped into the room. “Hi!” she chirped at Lee. “Resistance, yes? Start the attack. I need to borrow… Tim, what’s your middle name?”

“Um, Anthony?”

“To borrow Anthony. Correction, I’m taking him, because he’s from the past, and as such, probably not coming back here. Thank you, have a nice day.”

Anthony shook his head. “Carrie, what–"

“Elizabeth,” she corrected, before grasping his shoulder and time jumping.

Laurie did a double take. One moment, Luci had been walking ahead of her, leading her to the car - and in the next moment, the asian woman was gone. Except, turning around, Laurie discovered that Luci was now approaching her from behind. “Luci?” she asked.

“Okay, where did you come from?” Luci demanded.

Laurie blinked, and pointed over Luci’s shoulder. “Back there?”

“No, I mean one moment I was alone out here, and now I’m not,” Luci insisted. “How did you do that? And how do you know me?”

“What?” Laurie protested. “Okay, no, see, one moment you were up there, and now you’re back here.” She continued to point for emphasis.

Luci shook her head. “You’re not making sense - but you do look familiar. Are you one of the guests from Carrie’s party, perhaps?”

Laurie stared. And then Elizabeth appeared beside her. “Found you,” the blonde said. “Why are you here with - ooh, hold up, you’re Luci, right?”

Luci nodded, now looking concerned.

“Luci, can you make a point of locking down the time car that must have recently appeared? I can’t grab it yet, but I sure as heck don’t need the extra aggravation of worrying about it while I fight myself.”

Luci gaped. Elizabeth then turned to Laurie. “I think your middle name is Amelia?”

Amelia blinked. “Yeah - y-you know about that?”

“I must have looked it up at some point. Come along, Amelia.” Elizabeth reached out her hand. Amelia took it, and then the both of them disappeared off the street corner.

“This is incredible,” Anthony said, as Elizabeth and Amelia appeared in the generator control room next to him and Bernard. “Carr– um, Elizabeth, could you, like, pop the entire resistance invasion force into this room by doing that?”

“No,” Elizabeth said, letting out a slow breath. “Because first, it would have to be one at a time, second, I only made it back here by centring on Bernard, and finally, those couple trips took a LOT out of me.” She released Amelia. “But I wanted us all here because I need your input. Given how I think I’ll now need to defeat… me. Future Carrie.”

“You… you’re okay with doing that?” Amelia wondered.

Elizabeth shook her head. “No. Not really. Because I don’t see how it’s even possible. Carrie knows my every move, not merely because she’s particularly canny, well educated, or - let’s toss this in for laughs - hauntingly good looking, but because she WAS ONCE ME. Meaning the Elder Carrie HAS TO KNOW whatever it is I’m going to try next.” The blonde bit down on her lower lip. “As such, whatever I think of is a bad idea. So I’m kind of open to suggestions?”

At first, no one spoke.

ASIDE: The stage is set, the Liz & Mindy pieces will be explained shortly. What might you suggest to Elizabeth?

Incidentally, Tartra wrote a WFG review on Saturday, then we set a new all time high pageview count on Sunday, shattering our ceiling of 113. Hello to the person who apparently read the archive? (With the Part A&B thing, T&T is now 128 posts long.) Tartra writes “The Other Kind of Roommate” if anyone’s looking for more reading material.

PREVIOUSLY: Frank, Laurie and Tim ended up in the future of “Timeline Three”. A timeline where Mindy never travelled back. But then Carrie got herself to destroy “Timeline Three”…

PART 93b: TIMELINE FOUR REDUX

Luci had just arrived at home when when she received the call. She pulled the device out of her pocket, blinking at the display. “Answer,” she told it. The call connected. “Phil? Something wrong?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know,” he said, his holographic face looking very frustrated.

Luci tossed her key fob on the side table and shut her front door. “How was the visit? Is Laurie okay?”

“Laurie’s fine. Luci, I’ve pulled my tow truck over to the side of the road.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. But I feel like maybe it’s bleedthrough?”

She peered at his expression. He seemed sincere. “Can’t be. There’s no major operations planned in the area that would attract attention.”

“Luci, I’ve pulled over to the side of the road, and for no particular reason, I’m remembering that time I worked on a Chevy in… I think it was senior auto shop class.”

“Phil, I swear, we’re not up to anything.” Luci chewed her lower lip. “Want to meet though? At the small cafe on the outskirts of town?”

“Yeah. Yeah, for some reason you saying that makes me feel better.”

“Okay, good. See you there in an hour.” Luci hung up the phone, reaching back for her key fob, as well as the medical device she used to identify people in the database after swabbing them for DNA.

She stared at it. Why on earth had she picked that up?

“Luci, what in the hell are you idiots doing?”

Luci sat back on her couch, staring blankly at the angry holographic face of Julie LaMille. She was beginning to feel overwhelmed. “You too?”

“What do you mean me too?”

Luci shook her head. “Bleedthrough.”

“I know,” Julie snapped. “For some reason, I’ve been expecting you to call me for the last half hour. What operation are you people–”

“No operation. Julie, you don’t understand,” Luci insisted. “This is crazy, for some reason we’re experiencing bleedthrough on a massive scale, the likes of which we’ve never seen before. I’ve got techs talking about a car that isn’t there, an operative who says Mindylenopia contacted us out of the blue looking for help with her suicide mission, and plus I made way too much toast for breakfast this morning. NONE of which is connected to ANYTHING!”

Julie frowned. “Back up to the suicide mission thing.”

Luci sighed. “That’s just Mindy fulfilling her destiny. She’ll go back in time today, then get banished by Carrie. It never changed anything, remember? In the end, Glen still managed to snare Carrie, spiriting her out of town.”

There was the sound of Julie drumming her fingers on a desk. “So are your people helping Mindylenopia go back?”

“No. We explored the possibilities weeks ago, and couldn’t find a new lynchpin. Don’t spread it around, but the whole mission was deemed a predestined lost cause.” She grimaced. “We were WAY too cunning in our youth.”

“Is there a rogue faction within your ranks plotting something then?”

“Julie…"

“Look, I’m serious. The phone call I was expecting? I feel like you wanted me to get you things.”

“‘Things’? What ‘things’?”

“Oh, well, let’s see. It was either party favours for Carrie’s birthday, or ‘things’ that could help Mindylenopia get access to the stationary generator.”

“Ha ha.” Luci shook her head. “Look, according to our intelligence, Carrie made a call yesterday demanding a DECREASE of security at the generator this evening. So Mindylenopia doesn’t need us anyway, it should be no problem for her to… to… wait. WAIT.” She seized the edge of the couch. “Julie, why would Carrie do that?”

Julie rolled her eyes. “You’re asking me? I presume it was to make sure Mindylenopia succeeds in taking the trip, predestiny and all.”

“No, no, there’s no need to make SURE she succeeds, we KNOW she succeeds,” Luci protested. “She’s in our past. That’s not a change Carrie has to make. So why are we feeling the effects of bleedthrough here? The only way it makes sense is if… oh no. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but could Mindylenopia have once FAILED to make it back? Are we now overwriting a timeline where she FAILED?”

“Luci, that would mean Carrie wanted someone to mess with her past. Worse, the implication is that, to fix things, we have to stop Mindylenopia from going on her trip.”

“I know.” If she’d felt overwhelmed before, now she felt positively adrift. “So… I guess we better keep our options open. Julie, if you wouldn’t mind, please get us your ‘things’? Meanwhile, I’m going to organize an emergency strike force to take on the generator station… having them ready might mean we can stop Mindylenopia. If we have to. Hell, we might even manage a foothold, given the lower security - though I’m hoping it’s not a trap we’re falling for here either.”

Carrie glared at her reflection. She didn’t enjoying seeing the lines on her face, the hints of grey in her hair, or even the bright yellow gown that she had chosen for her birthday celebration. But her displeasure went deeper than that. “At least it’s almost over."

“What is, my love?”

Carrie didn’t bother to turn to face the woman who had spoken, continuing to glare at her reflection. “This damn headache. Which a future me in a horrible sweater indirectly inflicted, for absolutely no good reason. I’ve spent the better part of a day looking into things, and the only conclusion I can draw from my latest experience is that I hate myself. A lot.”

“Is there anything I can do to make you feel better? A mass–"

“No,” Carrie snorted. “It doesn’t matter. Liz won’t be back, not in this timeline. Also, tomorrow, I want you to give me the name of that forum where they were talking about visions. I want it shut down.”

“Y-Yes, my love… I meant no disrespect…"

“Fine, good.” Carrie finally turned to regard the woman sitting on the edge of her bed, the one dressed in the elaborate purple gown. And Chartreuse’s eyes were cast down towards the floor. As it should be.

“It’s time I got out there,” Carrie decided. “Moreover, if you perform well tonight as my pretty Canadian eye candy, I’ll allow you to give me a special birthday gift after everybody has left.” She grinned. “Would you like that?”

Her companion swallowed. “My love, I d-don’t want to go out there…"

Carrie tensed. “What?”

“Because if I do… I feel that… that I might be hurt…"

“You want to defy me, on my fiftieth birthday?”

Chartreuse shrank back, curling into a ball. “My love…"

“Well, you can stay in here then. With your pretty dress and your stupid visions!”

Raising a palm and twisting it in against her pounding head, Carrie stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

“Lee? What’s wrong?”

He turned to look over his shoulder at Julie. “The bleedthrough, I guess?” he admitted. “I’m starting to feel dumb about sending Luci out to Carrie’s property. Yet I still feel like someone’s supposed to be stationed there, and reporting in.”

“Right.” Julie ran her fingers back through her hair. “Well, if there’s something to find, Luci can find it.”

Lee chuckled. “Kind words you have for the same woman who, just last month, you referred to as a–"

“We reached an understanding earlier today,” Julie interrupted. She furrowed her brow. “For some reason, it felt right.”

Lee raised his hands in the air. “Hey, I’m happy for you both.” He looked back at his monitors. “What I’m not happy about is the fact that I’m running out of time to pull the trigger on our forces at the generator. Do we storm in, or not? We still have NO intelligence on whether we can allow Mindylenopia go back in time.”

“We should let her go.”

Lee turned to the side monitor to look at Megan. Then he mentally checked himself - Megan wasn’t his redundancy for tonight’s mission. Theresa was. One of the oldest members of the resistance. “But Theresa, how can you be sure?” he protested.

She smiled quietly back at him. He was reminded of the knowing looks she’d had before, way back when she had been a simple waitress in their hometown cafe. “You’ll simply have to trust me,” Theresa said.

One moment, Carrie was reaching for an hors d’oeuvre. The next moment, she was on the ground, screaming. Her past - it was completely breaking apart. Carrie dropped her mental shields into place, and tried to pinpoint how things could possibly be going so very, very wrong.

She had never thought her temporal pain could be any worse than an ice pick to the skull - and yet now, on top of that, it was like her head was simultaneously in a vice, making the misery so much worse, even through the shielding. Making things hard to track.

The issue, it seemed, was that hadn’t left town with Glinephanis? Except she damn well HAD left! But no, she hadn’t. For some reason, it now looked like she had still been in town for Christmas during her senior year of high school. Then… wait, where the hell had her past self ended up? And how had Young Carrie become so… so BROKEN?

Carrie’s eyes widened, as she deciphered the key moment. In a time period when she should have been three years old.

Pushing herself back to her feet, and ignoring the concerned mutterings of all the people around her, Carrie tore open a rip in the fabric of space-time, and stepped through it. Into the lounge of a Miami airport.

Elder Carrie glared at him for a moment, then shook her head, brushing her hair off her shoulder. “Oh, it wasn’t your fault,” she assured Glinephanis. “You did your best. I know who’s really to blame - it’s these stupid Mundanes and that damnable Mindylenopia! They’re all dooming my childhood.” She peered at him. “Perhaps you can still be a bright spot in my younger self’s life though? Will you come with me now? Some of my memories could remain valid, not be inserted by force.”

Glinephanis nodded slowly. “I’m with you to the end. But Carrie, there are more time travellers here in Miami. Mindylenopia and a number of your old classmates. We all came in a time car. They might still try something.”

She growled. Cleaning up her history was going to be a real pain, huh? She hoped she wouldn’t need to mess with too many memories. “Fine, I will deal with them as soon as I get my younger self here restrained back in my present. Grab hold, we’re leaving.”

She grabbed her teenaged self by the collar. Apparently, that Carrie had dressed herself up in a blue business suit, almost like she was pretending to be their mama. Good grief, how had she EVER been so STUPID? Glinephanis took her by the arm, and she pulled them back towards the rip… with her younger self still trying to break free of the freezing. Apparently, this was going to be a long trip home.

The lounge door burst open. “Carrie!” Laurie shrieked.

“Carrie, fight it,” Tim called out. “Whatever is going on, fight!”

Frank charged in between the two of them.

“Frank, don’t get close!” Mindylenopia shouted, grabbing onto him by the waist, slowing him down. Not that it mattered.

“Carrie, FUTURE Carrie, it doesn’t have to be this way!” Frank shouted, looking right at her for a change, rather than at her broken teenaged variant. “You don’t have to do this, not to yourself…"

Carrie did her very best to ignore them all, busy concentrating on getting a foothold on the time streams, without losing her mental hold on the Younger Carrie. It was surprisingly difficult. It occurred to her that maybe that’s why the old “Liz” version she had encountered in the generator hadn’t tried this genre of persuasion? Preferring to snare herself in the “Mindylenopia Catch-22 scenario” instead? Which had, she now realized, somehow precipitated this entire situation.

Well, she would soon set everything right. Young Carrie was weak, and no match for her.

Pulling Glinephanis and her younger self forwards into the time streams, Carrie soon realized that the time trip, which should have taken seconds, would instead drag on for close to a minute. Because Young Carrie continued to wriggle against her hold, at one point whimpering out, “Chartreuse?”.

Carrie decided that her best plan would be to arrive in the future at the stationary temporal generator outside Ottawa. There were dampening fields in the displacement room which she could activate, ones which might help her to control her younger self long enough for a memory implantation, or removal, or whatever else she’d be forced to do to get history back on track.

As such, they emerged from the time streams in the main control room of the Ottawa generator facility.

Where a teenaged Frank Dijora immediately shot her with a prototype for a temporal gun.

NEXT: Realignment.

ASIDE: If it all makes sense, please vote for T&T at Top WebFiction. If it doesn’t make sense, drop a comment before the vote for T&T. Three weeks left.

PREVIOUSLY: As the time group got ready to send Mindylenopia back, Carrie realized something was happening at the temporal generator.

PART 93a: NOWHERE TO RUN

“What’s taking so long?” Mindylenopia demanded. Carrie had to be onto them by now.

The primary tech, a man named Walter, looked up at her. “Well, actually,” he began, “the temporal generator has no geo-temporal records to draw on, for a time from before it was built. And while we do have the material on site that can localize earlier times, the system still has to compensate geographically, ensuring that a traveller doesn’t end up floating in space or buried in the ground or something.”

The redhead sighed. “Yes. I’m Temporal, I know that. You wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for your authorization codes. But look, the specific day in October doesn’t matter, I picked it randomly. So if that’s the problem, I can…”

She stopped, as the slight rumbling noise in the control room ceased, followed by a chirp from the computer terminal. The main panel changed to green, and Walter turned back to his old style physical keyboard. “There we go," he remarked. “Year is encoded. Your date… locked in place. Displacement room is set for a thirty-three year trip to the past. Satisfied?”

“No,” Mindy stated. “Not yet.” She looked through the large glass observation windows of the control room, down to the displacement room below. It was large, the size of a small theatre, capable of sending back a hundred people at once, if necessary. “I’m going down there to uncouple the wall circuits. When I wave my hand at you, you will activate the displacement.”

Walter looked uneasy. “I wouldn’t advise that.”

“It won’t send me back, not with the wall circuits cut. That’s the failsafe.”

“Yeah, uh… we’ve been having some… glitches in the system this evening.”

Mindylenopia turned to Bernard, who had been quietly observing the last several minutes from the doorway. “Make a note. Safety at this site has been compromised.”

“No!” Walter protested. “It’s only that, if something went wrong, you’d have no way of getting back, and there’s so much paperwork…”

Oh brother. She couldn’t play along with this any more - they were out of time. Mindylenopia stared Walter in the face. “Listen. When I wave my hand at you, you will activate the displacement.”

“When you wave your hand, I will activate the displacement.”

“Good man.” Mindylenopia tossed her handbag in Bernard’s direction, and he fumbled to catch it. “The rest is your problem.” She sprinted for the stairs leading down to the temporal displacement room.

“She’s active! All units, please acknowledge, Carrie is active and using super speed to bear down on the generator.”

Luci reached up to touch her earpiece. “Acknowledged.” She didn’t question how Lee was aware of that fact. In a way, this was actually a good sign. It meant that Carrie wasn’t using any finesse - which in turn implied that their blonde nemesis was worried. Were they about to pull this off?

She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind as young Laurie Veniti ran up to her, gasping for breath, and grasping her by the shoulders. “Luci!” Laurie squealed. “Luci, I… ohmigod, I did it. A creepy guy was about to sexually molest a version of Chartreuse, and so I did it, I kicked him real hard in the… the…"

“Good for you, Laurie,” Luci said, giving the redheaded girl a hug. “Good for you.” She squeezed once. “But we have to get back to the car now, okay?”

Laurie looked up at her, nodding wordlessly.

Frank walked closer to the large glass windows. There was the sound of what he assumed to be a door sliding open and closed, and moments later, Mindy strode into the room. She looked up at them, and waved. Walter reached out for the panel…

And then everything started to move as if in slow motion.

Frank didn’t clue in right away. It merely looked like the tech’s hand was meeting incredible air resistance, or like he was trying to resist Mindylenopia’s mental command. But then Frank realized that Walter’s eyes were squinting, and closing, and gradually opening… as if in a protracted blink. What?

Now the tech’s hand was an inch away from the panel - and that’s when she appeared.

The blonde woman was drawing in great lungfuls of air, her face was drenched in sweat, and the yellow dress she was wearing had been torn in two places… but she was there. Holding Walter’s hand back, preventing the final activation. Then she pulled him bodily back from the main board, shoving his chair to the side, causing the tech to collapse onto the floor.

“Good,” the Elder Carrie said, her chest heaving. She slammed both hands down onto the edge of the desk that ran the length of the room, under the observation windows. Seemingly trying to prevent her legs from collapsing out from under her. “SO GOOD. But. You. Were. Not. Good. Enough.”

She reached out to smack a button, drew in a huge breath, then leaned down to yell into the nearby microphone. “Mindylenopia! I see you down there. This was the last straw, you understand? You’re finished! You hear me? FIN-ISHED.”

Though the observation window, Frank saw the redhead’s hazel eyes widen in horror - and then she collapsed down onto the floor, like all the fight had gone out of her. Which was when Frank finally realized that Elder Carrie was paying absolutely no attention to him. The time dilation hadn’t even affected him, had it? How else could he have registered what was going on? Did Carrie not care about him, could it be that only Walter’s palm could activate the time jump?

He had to try. He stepped in, reaching around Carrie to bring his palm down on the necessary panel.

Except his hand passed right through. Then it continued down, right through the desk, and Frank stumbled forwards as there seemed to be no solid objects around him to arrest his motion. With mounting horror, he realized that even the floor felt weirdly spongy. Frank brought his hand back out of the desk and up to his face. He could see right through it.

Well, of course he could. Because if Mindylenopia didn’t travel back, he didn’t exist. Right? Numbly, Frank wondered why time was pulling a slow fade on him, like Marty McFly in “Back to the Future”, rather than simply winking him out of existence. Did that mean that there was still a chance? That he was somehow neither alive, nor dead? But what chance did they have if he couldn’t TOUCH anything?

“I win again,” Carrie said triumphantly.

“Sorry, no,” Carrie answered herself.

Carrie spun, reaching up to wipe the sweat out of her eyes. She felt her mouth forming an ‘o’ of surprise. Because yes, somehow, it was her who had spoken. An older her. Had to be older, the lines in the face were still there, and the blonde hair looked even more grey… except at what point would she think a sweater like that would be a good fashion statement?

“You… you can’t be here,” fifty old Carrie choked out. “Why would I want to change THIS?”

“Funny thing that,” even-older Carrie chuckled. “Let’s just say that the future isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And this, in a sense, this was the major turning point. This lynchpin moment.”

“But you… I… how… why…”

Sweater-wearing Carrie, whom Carrie decided to dub “Sweater Liz” in her own mind for the sake of convenience, gave her a pitying look. “Really? My fiftieth birthday, and I’m still that stupid?”

Carrie clenched her jaw. She snapped her gaze towards the observation windows and then back to Sweater Liz. “Mindylenopia’s really working for me somehow? Is that it?”

Sweater Liz seemed to ponder that. “I suppose that’s a good an answer as any.”

“Meaning that’s NOT an answer.”

Sweater Liz sighed. “Fine. You’re making my point for me here, you know. We’ve never been good at these sorts of interactions.”

“Oh, I’ve learned how to handle Future Me,” Carrie retorted.

“I know,” came the retort. “I’m you. Your plan is to rewrite your history to eliminate the need for me to even be here. Works great in the short term. What about the long term?”

“I never travel back long term. Never erase that much of myself.”

Sweater Liz gestured. “Mindylenopia’s going back long term.”

Again, Carrie’s gaze drifted to the windows and back. “It’s not like she can change me. Not that much. Not with Glinephanis back… wait, how far forwards in my timeline are you?”

“Do you want to find out?” Sweater Liz crossed her arms. “Because here’s the thing, Paradox Woman. I’m going to trigger that panel. Which both sends Mindylenopia back AND locks you into being me, and oooh, we both know how much I HATE that. Right? Being locked into a destiny? Your only alternative would be to rewrite the last few minutes, perhaps days, to keep me from ever being here… but guess what. In that timeline, Mindylenopia MUST go back too. Otherwise I’ll still be here to see to it.”

“That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard,” Carrie snarled. She wished she wan’t so tired and dripping sweat everywhere, not to mention partially propping herself up using the desk. It felt like that took some of the bite out of her words.

Liz chuckled. “Maybe. Maybe not. Have you ever wondered, whether there might be a better way for us to deal with our future selves?”

“No.”

“Well, I’ve started wondering. About that, and more.” She rubbed her chin. “In particular, I wonder… when is it that we stopped being curious about what we could do?”

Liz smiled. And Carrie realized that her Future Self really was going to do it. At some point in the future, she was going to go crazy in the head, and come back to give herself this asinine choice, this ultimatum… and Carrie was forced to admit that, truly, she now had no idea how to stop herself.

Which meant there was no way to prevent Mindylenopia from going back. Even beating up Liz here only meant that she’d get beat up by herself in the future. And as Liz had said, there was only one sure fire way she knew about to avoid becoming a future incarnation.

“I HATE YOU!” Carrie screamed.

“I know,” Liz said.

Liz reached out for the panel.

Carrie flashed back in time a day and a half.

Everything changed.

NEXT: Timeline Four Redux

ASIDE: Carrie herself destroys Timeline Three. What does that mean? As always, feel free to speculate. Also, did you catch last weekend’s Commentary post?

PREVIOUSLY: One of the security people is immune to Mindy’s mental power. Elsewhere, Laurie hears sounds of a struggle.

PART 92b: VENI, VIDI, VENITI

“Tim, I can hear someone nearby who’s in trouble,” Laurie said.

“On or off the property?”

“On,” Laurie answered. The sounds of a struggle were coming from within the small grove of trees, where there seemed to be a gazebo.

“Okay, well, HQ here assures me that it’s not safe to approach,” Tim stated. “Double back, and meet up with Luci.”

Laurie felt torn. Given the trees, she might be able to approach the gazebo unseen. But Tim was right - what if she was caught? And what if being identified screwed up everything? Worse, what if she somehow messed up their timelines for good? Besides, what could she even do to stop whatever was going on?

“Please,” came a female voice. “Please, stop.”

Laurie made a fist. No. She had already been taken advantage of so much in her life - she wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone else. More to the point, her standing up to Frank about Mindylenopia this morning? It would mean nothing if she couldn’t follow through on her own principles now.

“Tim, I’m going in anyway,” she asserted. Drawing on her cheerleading abilities, Laurie jumped over the fence.

“Good evening… how exactly do you have authorization to be here?”

The brown haired security woman stared levelly at Frank and Mindylenopia. Almost before Frank had registered the movement, her weapon was out, and pointing their way.

“We need to run a systems check,” Mindylenopia said casually. “Call down a tech who can set the controls for a thirty year time jump, okay?”

The woman lifted an eyebrow. “That’s back to before this facility was even built. I’ll have to phone up the chain for confirmation.”

“No, you won’t,” Mindylenopia countered, putting emphasis on the words. She took a step closer.

The security guard’s head shook. “No, I really will. Also, I think you should put that handbag on the ground before you come any closer?”

Mindylenopia looked sidelong at Frank. It was as she had feared - her mind power was ineffective against this person. So it was up to Frank to come up with a better plan, before Mindylenopia was forced to provide the necessary incentive by firing off her ‘temporal gun’ at people. Shots which would render the thing less effective against Carrie herself. Fortunately, he had the hints of an idea.

“Wait,” Frank began. “The two of us, we’re with the… Chronologic Patrol. It’s a new unit - we conduct safety inspections. We need to see how well the system aligns for a time jump of that magnitude. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re activating anything tonight."

The security woman shook her head. “A new unit, where the dress code is casual? Including bad wigs? And why haven’t I heard of you?"

“The Patrol works under the radar,” Mindy continued smoothly. “Undercover. Moreover, there’s reason to suspect one of your technicians here is violating safety standards, hence our turning up unannounced. We have clearance though. How else could we be this deep in the facility?”

The security woman stepped a little closer. “I don’t know,” she answered, gun still up. “How else COULD you be this deep?”

That’s when Frank spotted the ID badge at the woman’s hip. And the first name on it: Faye. That name, coupled with the woman’s apparent immunity to Mindylenopia’s mind control - it triggered a memory. A memory of Lee’s sister, who in grade nine, had come close to beating up a boy to get a book back for her younger sibling. Could this be her? Was there a way to use that knowledge?

“Question for you, Faye,” Frank blurted. “If you had to choose between your job and your family, which of them would you pick?”

Her gun swung to point only at him. “No contest. Do you think I’d even be working in here if it didn’t help me keep my family safe?!”

Frank realized he had hit a nerve, and so chose his next words carefully. “Here’s the thing, Faye. Maybe, after our inspection, you won’t need this job to ensure your loved ones are safe.”

Her arm shook slightly. “What, are you talking promotion? Or are you part of some military coup?”

Frank glanced at Mindylenopia, wondering whether they should admit to one of those. Her ‘what the hell are you doing’ face made him realize he was now in this on his own. “I’m saying we’re the Chronologic Patrol,” he said, turning back to face Lee’s sister. “We’re conducting safety inspections.”

Faye stared. She seemed to be thinking hard. Then the gun barrel swung down, and she presented the hilt of the weapon towards them. Mindylenopia quickly stepped close enough to grab it away from her. “It is now possible,” Faye remarked. “That I did this under duress. To help my family.”

She marched back towards the communications link at her station. “Priority request,” she said, thumbing the button. “Send a tech. A couple of inspectors have turned up down here.”

Laurie was close enough to the gazebo to hear everything now. It sounded like a man and a woman arguing. And the female voice sounded somehow familiar, the same way Clarke’s voice had sounded familiar to her the previous evening.

“What?” the male was saying. “I heard you go both ways. Am I not good enough for you? Or is it that you only give it up for the lady with the golden eyes?”

“Her name is Carrie,” came the quiet response. “And we’re in love.”

“Hah! That’s rich. She’s got girls in every country. Probably guys too. And if ‘your Carrie’ really loved you, she would’ve kept you close tonight. Or at least had someone stop me when I dragged you out here. No, Chartreuse, she expects you to give influential people like me a good time tonight, in exchange for receiving favours later. Yeah?”

Laurie’s breath caught in her throat at the name.

“Just… stop. PLEASE stop,” Chartreuse begged.

“Stop what? Telling you the truth? Or stop doing things like this to you?”

Chartreuse whimpered.

The firework was arcing over the gazebo before Laurie even stopped to think about it. It exploded with a bang, lighting up the area, and causing the two figures to separate.

“Kick him and run, Chartreuse!” Laurie shouted immediately after, pressing herself up against yet another tree trunk. Her heart was beating so fast, she was worried it would burst out of her chest. “Kick him and run, and, like, keep on running!”

“Who the hell is out there?” the assailant snarled. In the brief light of the firework, he’d looked at least forty, and a bit out of shape.

“Someone who, like, believes people like you can get away with stuff too often, you know?” Laurie wasn’t entirely sure why she’d decided to spout ‘valley girl’ talk. She supposed it was in the hope that it would trigger something in her old friend. “And someone who is finally, like, taking a stand!”

“Oh yeah? Well, news flash. I’m smarter than my father. I won’t get caught the way he was. So you better run along now before you become a victim too!”

Laurie looked to the heavens and crossed herself. “No. You leave Chartreuse alone!”

“Oh, you’re gonna get it now…"

Laurie heard the sound of someone being shoved to the ground, but from the measured steps in her direction, it didn’t sound like the person approaching was Chartreuse. It occurred to her that the only advantage she had was the fact that the guy didn’t seem light on his feet.

“Stand back up and kick him down, Chartreuse,” Laurie pleaded. She began to backpedal from tree to tree as he came closer. “Take a, you know, stand! You’ve gotta do it, if not for yourself, then for, like, me, and people like me, otherwise he’s gonna keep doing it, or maybe he’ll get a firework in the face next, because I, you know, didn’t think this through, and don’t know what else to do, and golly, now I could be screwing up the timelines, um, please, Tim any suggestions…?"

She then realized that in her haste to get away, she’d started back-pedalling towards the house. Perfect.

“Laurie,” came Tim’s calm, measured voice. “Try to hide. Luci’s on her way.”

People were going to have to bail her out. Again. The same way her brother always did. Her brother, who didn’t even exist in this timeline. Laurie felt like crying. As she’d feared, she was ruining everything. What more could possibly go wrong now? Could this get any worse?

No, she realized. Things couldn’t get any worse. She had hit rock bottom, she was at the point where she had nothing left to lose.

“When I get my hands on you,” the man growled, “you’re gonna wish you’d minded your own…"

Laurie knew that a red dress wasn’t the best outfit to be wearing when performing a back handspring. But in retrospect, that’s probably what made the guy freeze in place, allowing the cheerleader to complete her maneuver by planting her hands and kicking back and up with her legs. It was a solid hit, right where she’d intended. The predatory man crumpled to the ground with a high pitched whine.

Nothing left to lose. Had she seriously just done that?

Laurie grabbed her handbag back off the ground and charged back towards the fence, leaving the man laid out in the dirt. She only paused long enough to catch her breath, upon registering the fact that the fifty year old version of Chartreuse was now standing by the gazebo, her mouth open wide. “D-Did you just flatten Councillor Linford?” Chartreuse gasped.

Laurie shrugged. “Your turn next time,” she declared. “Also, you look good. The red hair works. It’s never too late to find a nice man or woman who truly loves you. Okay?”

Not waiting for a response, Laurie sprinted off the property.

One moment, Carrie was reaching for an hors d’oeuvre. The next moment, she was on the ground, her palm against her forehead.

Someone was going to time travel. And they were going to do it with intent - and more importantly, with a plan - for changing history. Who was it? Some fool with a homemade machine in their basement, and lottery numbers in hand? Carrie dropped her mental shields into place, and tried to localize the disturbance.

It was North America. It was Ontario. It was… in town? Ridiculous. In that case, she wouldn’t even have to warn a prior self. She could get there in person. Was the person so clueless?

A shiver ran down her back, as she focussed in… and realized that it wasn’t some crazy person in a basement. The stationary temporal generator to the south was powering up. Impossible. How could anyone have gained access, much less someone who might change history?!

Carrie turned her attention to the time streams, looking for the warning signs, looking for something to nudge. But she couldn’t track back mentally - there was now a waterfall in the way. The anomaly she’d sensed. Well, that was a problem.

She could still deal with this though.

Pushing herself back to her feet, and ignoring the concerned mutterings of all the people around her, Carrie began to speed up time for herself, relative to her surroundings.

NEXT: Nowhere to Run

ASIDE: I kind of love today’s title. Did you spot all the callbacks, like Faye, Linford and the “Chronologic Patrol”? Only four more episodes/weeks to go now! Another Commentary this weekend, before we’re into the home stretch. Everything changes next week, but it all makes sense as far as Miami is concerned… care to do that T&T vote thing?

PREVIOUSLY: Laurie’s mission is to make people believe Mindy is outside Carrie’s party, as Frank and Mindy barge into the stationary temporal generator.

PART 92a: STORMING THE CASTLE

When Julie had said she was taking him to the mission hub, Tim hadn’t been sure what to expect. In retrospect, he’d expected something more impressive than the back room of a music store. “R-Really? Um, operations are r-run out of a place like this?”

“Operations are mobile, the sites change,” Julie answered. “So they can’t be pinned down. Or that’s how it worked before I cut my ties.”

“Still works that way,” came a voice from behind a piano.

Julie and Tim rounded the corner to see an older man in a faded sport jacket with unruly hair. He was sitting on the ground in front of a set of holographically projected keyboards and video monitors. Julie clucked her tongue. “Lee. Surprised to see you’re here.” Tim’s eyes widened in recognition.

“Likewise,” Lee said, glancing over his shoulder.

“Conflict of interest much?” Julie pressed.

Lee shrugged. “Luci felt my personal investment in this particular target would prevent any rash actions on their part,” he explained. “Also, I was available on short notice. Don’t worry, we still have redundancy, Megan’s observing my every move, ready to jump in.” He gestured at a monitor off to the side.

“For we walk by faith, not by sight,” came the voice of the dark haired woman pictured there.

“Luci’s approaching the spot for Laurie’s retrieval,” Lee continued. “The men on site have eyes on the door with no sign of Mindylenopia, but it’s not quite ten o’clock yet. No abort has been given.”

“All right. I’ll stick around until I know Laurie’s safe,” Julie decided. She sat herself down on the piano bench.

Lee shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He turned to Tim. “Your communications are working?”

Tim jolted out of his reverie. He reached up to touch his earpiece. “Ah, y-yes. Laurie’s already checked in twice since we dropped her off. She’s w-walking the perimeter.”

“Okay then. We’re a go in six minutes and ten seconds. Mark.” He then lay back on the ground, clasping his hands behind his head.

“One question though?” Tim ventured.

“Ayup?” Lee asked, tilting his head a bit.

“It’s just… I mean, I know my confidence is better of late, but am I r-really the best person to be doing this? The translation, and the prompting? Surely, in the future, your r-resistance has other people capable of speaking Temporal…"

“Ayup,” Lee repeated. “But first of all, their temperaments might stress out your Laurie. Second, again, short notice. With Carrie in town, Ottawa was kind of the last choice for running a major operation - our best linguist is currently in Australia, where Carrie’s right hand man, Glinephanis, is busy stirring up trouble. And third…” He flashed a smile. “Call me crazy, but I think you’re a good guy to have around in a pinch.”

“Oh. Okay, thanks,” Tim acknowledged.

Megan cleared her throat. “You know, you could simply tell Tim that he’s the younger variant of that agent in Australia.”

Lee shook his head. “I don’t care what Luci says, Megan, I don’t want to accidentally impact our past.” He glanced at Tim. “Australia’s still got dangerous snakes, y’see. Given a choice, I might’ve picked the assignment in Europe.”

Mindylenopia checked her watch. “Okay, the front guard’s going to check in at 10:04pm. We move in right after that, gives us a full fifteen minutes to get to the displacement room before their next check.”

Frank nodded. “Right…" He eyed the shed-like structure. “And how many people are in there?”

“Night like this? Couple dozen. We should be able to avoid most of them though,” Mindylenopia said. She peered closer at him. “You DO realize the majority of the structure is underground, yes?”

Frank blinked. “Right,” he repeated. Now that she said it, he remembered Luci remarking on how the nature of the place made aerial assaults impossible.

“Also, for when you use it…" Mindylenopia reached into the handbag she held, pulling out what looked a bit like a cross between a pistol and a fancy corkscrew. “My %temporal gun%.” Frank was taken aback by the smaller size, before remembering that not only was it a prototype, it was also made with more futuristic materials.

She pointed at a switch. “Two settings. Carrie, and Not-Carrie. Every time you stun someone with the latter, you use up power that could have been used for the former. So don’t go crazy with it.”

Frank frowned. “Meaning a Carrie shot drains the batteries?”

“Right. But it should temporarily drain hers as well, and the more juice you have, the longer that lasts. That said, the recoil will be proportional to the strength of the shot, watch for that. And don’t bother with the Not-Carrie setting on Carrie. She’ll be able to shake off such a mild freezing effect.”

“So you’re saying it’s all or nothing with her? No middle settings?”

Mindylenopia snorted. “I’ll consider more settings for my next upgrade.” She shoved the gun back into her bag and looked at her watch again. “Okay. Get ready. It’s almost time.”

Laurie began to fidget. She wasn’t sure if that was something Mindylenopia would normally do, but she couldn’t help it. Pacing around the block and ducking behind cars and trees, it might have been fun under other circumstances. But she was pretending to be a Temporal double agent or whatever Mindy was, while eyeing a property that was easily twice the size of the LaMille mansion back in town.

She would do this though. She would get through it, to restore their timeline. And in doing so, she would restore her brother. That’s the way these things worked, right?

Laurie forced herself to stop playing with the skirt on her red dress. Trouble was, it didn’t fit quite right, hugging her body in the wrong ways… but it was supposedly a double for the one Mindylenopia was wearing. And the voice modulator taped at her throat would make her voice sound the same too. All part of the plan.

“L-Laurie? It’s time,” Tim said. “Are you in position?”

She closed her eyes briefly, then reached up to tap at her earring. “Right. I’m here.”

Laurie reached for her handbag, pulling out the first cartridge. Her hand shook slightly as she tapped the button, but she steadied her nerves in order to throw the object high into the air. The firework exploded several metres up, and Laurie ran quickly to her next location.

Mindylenopia marched up to the building as if she owned it. Frank found he could only follow along, attempting to project the same confidence. “Names?” said the bored looking woman at the front door.

She looked very young, and seemed to have red hair. Frank wondered if she was a Temporal - then felt ashamed at that prejudicial thought. Hadn’t taken long to become suspicious of gingers, had it! Still, it made some sense to have your main guard be someone who couldn’t be mentally influenced, and who was definitely on your side.

“We’re Smith and Jones," Mindy said, flashing a smile.

The guard looked closer. “Who?”

“He’s Smith, I’m Jones, we’re expected,” she continued easily. “I have the data key with the orders on it right here.”

“Wait, aren’t you–"

Mindylenopia, having reached into her handbag, now pulled out a perfume bottle. She sprayed it into the guard’s face. The redhead on duty only had the time to fumble for the gun on her belt before crashing to the ground unconscious. Mindylenopia dropped the bottle back into her purse.

“Smith?” Frank asked.

She reached for the guard, grabbing a swipe card, then pressing the woman’s hand up to a sensor by the door. “I spent some time watching old time travel shows. To better fit into the past,” she explained.

There was a click as the door unlocked.

“One down, three to go,” Mindylenopia sighed.

Laurie peered around the tree trunk. The person advancing on her position from the house was getting closer. Feeling glad that there was not only a tree, but also a fence between them - even if it was only a four foot high fence - she reached up to tap a few times at her earring.

“Tim? You still there?” Laurie breathed.

“Y-Yeah. How many security people coming?”

“Just the one.”

“Well, that’s good. If he speaks loudly, I s-should hear, s-so long as you’re still w-wearing the brooch. S-Simply repeat what I s-say.”

“Right.” Laurie reached down to adjust the brooch ornament even as she tried to make herself blend into the tree trunk even more. She reminded herself that things were going according to plan.

“Mindylenopia?” came the male voice. “%Is that you setting off those fireworks?%”

“%Happy five zero!%” Laurie blurted, off Tim’s prompting.

The guy sighed. “%Don’t be so juvenile. Why not come inside, with the rest of us?%”

“%Here I like being!%” Laurie retorted. “%You, you can go have some fungus, you who keep believing life is happy. Fun, some fun,%” she amended, off Tim’s pronunciation tip.

The young man didn’t answer. Laurie edged partway around the tree, to take a peek, and saw that his hand had gone to his gun. Oh no. Had she muffed it up? She pulled back again.

“Some of the others say you’re a traitor,” the Temporal continued after a moment, using English. “I don’t want to believe that. But this may be your last chance to prove yourself. Please, join us inside.”

Laurie licked her lips.

“Don’t use English!” Tim whispered, causing the ‘no’ to catch in her throat before she could speak. “Say this…”

“%I am not the one here speeching like them do%,” Laurie fired off. “%Maybe you be the alien instead%.”

“%Funny.%” There was another moment of silence. “%It’s your funeral. No more fireworks, okay?%”

“%You throw boring parties%.”

The security man snorted and moved off, saying something into his own communications device. Once he was out of earshot, she repeated it to Tim.

“They’re standing down,” he sighed. “That guy even told you no more fireworks. So make one last circuit, then meet Luci for the pickup.”

Laurie felt weak in the knees. “Okay.” She moved off in the opposite direction to where the security man had gone.

Moments later, she heard the sounds of a struggle.

Frank had once been inside the Diefenbunker, outside of Ottawa, on an educational trip. He found that the stationary temporal generator building was vaguely similar on the inside; there had even been a long corridor behind the first door requiring Mindylenopia to babble all the way down, to mentally influence the guard at the end before he could react. Since then, they had made it down three levels.

“We may have a problem,” his redheaded companion remarked, as she dumped the latest security guard into a janitor’s closet and shut the door.

“They know something’s going on?” Frank wondered.

Mindylenopia made yet another derisive noise. “Bernard, they’ve known something’s up since I jabbed that datalink into the panel inside the entrance,” she acknowledged. “It’s scrambling their feeds. But they won’t interrupt up the chain unless they’re sure they won’t get a dressing down for being incompetent about a minor glitch, so it’s fine. No, the trouble is, we can’t knock out the last guard. I’ll need that person conscious, to summon a tech to the displacement control centre.”

“So, you use your mind power on them?”

“That’s the thing,” Mindylenopia sighed. “One of the security people who work here is immune. And I haven’t seen her yet. So, if it turns out she’s the one we need awake…”

“Ah. Then we have a problem,” Frank affirmed. He hoped they could also think up a solution.

NEXT: Veni, Vidi, Veniti

ASIDE: It’s my birthday later this week! So if you didn’t vote for T&T on Friday, maybe do it today, tell your friends there’s this cool time travel story out there, that sort of thing… I need to stop looking at stats.

PREVIOUSLY: They need what Julie has, to help Mindy travel back. But Luci tried to throw Julie out, after some uncomfortable truths were revealed.

PART 91b: REWRITE THE FUTURE

Julie had pulled her glasses back out. The way she tapped at the arms and blinked very deliberately helped Frank realize that they were some sort of technological device; maybe she was using them to read the daily news. Or to communicate with someone?

Then again, Luci didn’t seem to be concerned by Julie’s actions. The asian woman merely glared at her house guest from across the dining room table, as Julie continued to stare at her lenses. Deliberately ignoring everyone present. With a sigh, Frank made sure Tim and Laurie were okay on the sofa, the blonde boy doing his best to console their redheaded friend, then he returned to the table.

“Okay,” Frank sighed. “Julie. Here’s the thing. What you’ve got? Luci thought it would make this mission safe for us. Or safer, at least. Knowing that, why would you willingly take those items away, increasing the danger?”

“Because obviously Luci doesn’t need them after all,” Julie said dryly. “Besides, if she truly cared about safety then her resistance friends wouldn’t be–"

“I have been trying to FIX that, Julie! I was making an effort, and I’ve redoubled my efforts since losing–”

“Oh, I’m sorry, you want points for better late than nev–"

“Okay, stop,” Frank said, cutting between them. He drew in a long breath. “Look. I obviously don’t know the whole history here. But I DO know you two - or knew you - when you were my age. Back when Julie tended to work on her projects all by herself, while Luci had a habit of speaking her mind regardless of the consequences. Back when, despite those differences, you both cared. About each other, and about what was going on around you. So, know what? I think that means you still care. Both of you. Somehow, you’ve simply blinded yourselves to that reality over the last thirty years.”

Julie’s posture went rigid, and she reached up to pull her glasses back off. Luci bit down on her lower lip, turning away from Julie to face the wall. For a moment, neither spoke.

“People are dying, Frank,” Luci whispered at least. “You of all people MUST realize that. And when you care too much, and then people die, it hurts that much more.”

“I’m not about to die,” Julie muttered. “Your resistance could at least care a little bit about how much I stick my neck out.”

“You questioned what we were doing,” Luci said, turning back and smacking her palm against the table. “ALL the damn time.”

“Because you were blinded by vengeance. Sorry,” Julie immediately amended. “I don’t mean you, Luci. Some of your group were though. Still are. I couldn’t be a party to that.”

“Oh, why, because you’re such a saint?” Luci sniped.

“No, precisely because I’m NOT a saint,” Julie said. “And what I didn’t enjoy seeing was my darker places reflected in your resistance group. Hence, my trying to clean them up for you - leading to my getting attacked for those efforts. Damn it Luci, if you’d only listened to me back then, then maybe…" Her voice trailed off.

Luci sat back, looking tired. “Corry wasn’t my call. You know that.”

“I know, I just…" Julie shook her head, staring at the ceiling. “I don’t know. Maybe Frank has a point. Maybe, in the end, I was looking for a reason to wash my hands of the whole thing. And I finally got it.”

“And maybe I didn’t like you showing us what we were becoming,” Luci admitted. “I won’t deny my ethics have become… flexible these days.”

Julie rubbed her forehead. “Tell you what.” Her gaze swung towards the couch. “I’ll stick with you for this one, if you’ll have me. Because I want to guarantee young Laurie’s safety.”

Luci nodded. “You have that guarantee. And your acquired immunity to mind control makes you a useful asset for us. Not that I only see you as an asset here,” she amended. “I do care. At least a little.”

Julie chuckled. “So, suddenly friends again?”

“I wouldn’t say that. But I’d say we’re not adversaries.” Luci shook her head. “We never should have let that happen.” She hesitated, then stretched her arm across the table. Julie regarded the hand, then reached out to shake it.

“Thank goodness,” Frank sighed. He winced as both ladies turned to look at him - he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “Um, yeah, so what’s the plan then?”

Luci dropped Julie’s hand, standing back up. “The plan? Is to follow Mindylenopia’s plan, until she travels back. At which point we storm the stationary generator, so that the Temporals are facing chaos both inside and out. That gives us our best chance ever to obtain time travel… as long as Carrie doesn’t rewrite everything. That’s the key. We cannot attempt this without that piece in place.”

“Right. Well, we should have a few tricks in store for Carrie,” Frank said, glancing back towards Tim and Laurie. “Mindylenopia’s weapon will help.”

“Hold on,” Julie said. “What’s going to stop Temporals from using the stationary temporal generator in the States next week? Or the one in Japan, or Ireland, or any of the other sites around the world? They could travel back from then to yesterday, and be here to mess with Canada now. After all, they’ve already got their representatives in town for Carrie’s birthday celebration.”

Luci shook her head. “Temporals may have the better grasp on time travel theory, but without Carrie, they’re as locked into predestination as we are.” She grinned. “Meaning we long as we can take the building in the present, we’ll HAVE it.”

“Just one loose end remains,” Frank said. “What did Mindy say, when you told her she could be tortured and killed on her mission to our past?”

He shifted his attention back to Luci, only to see that she was frowning. “Frank, I mentioned she calls us, we don’t call her, yeah? Well, we know where you and Laurie need to be positioned - but when you meet her? I’m afraid you’ll have to give Mindylenopia that information yourself. At which point… well, yeah, I guess she could abort the whole thing.”

Frank stood by the side of Highway 19 that night, south of Ottawa. Luci had dropped him off there, before driving back in to monitor Laurie; Julie had offered to take Laurie and Tim to their necessary locations in advance. Frank took a moment to mentally review what he knew of that part of the mission.

Carrie apparently had residences in many capital cities around the world - but she preferred Canada, where she had grown up. So her fiftieth birthday was being held locally. And Mindylenopia had been invited. Luci had hypothesized that the invitation was a test of the redhead’s fuzzy allegiances, or simply a way to keep an eye on her… either way, Mindylenopia had RVSPed. To the tune of ‘I’ll stick to lurking outside, not unlike the spy you take me for’.

So Laurie would lurk in her place. And as long as the Temporals thought Mindylenopia was there, they wouldn’t be looking for her to storm the building housing the stationary time machine. The building that Frank and Mindylenopia would soon be inside, so that he could get the prototype temporal gun… and then, assuming sending a message was possible, he would cue the resistance to storm in. Piece of cake.

Assuming Mindylenopia had no problem with dying in Miami, years later down her timeline.

He checked his watch - almost nine thirty.

“Bernard, why are you wearing that ridiculous disguise?” came a voice from the darkness.

Frank jumped, absently reaching up to touch the blonde moustache and wig he’d put on. “Uh, I thought it would help fool the video cameras.”

“Right. Because they only use video to identify people,” Mindylenopia said, coming close enough for Frank to see her rolling her eyes. “Oh well, it’s low tech, so it can’t hurt. Maybe you’ll buy yourself time because they’ll be so busy laughing. Come on.”

“Mindy. Mindylenopia, wait,” Frank said. “You have to know something first. About what’s liable to happen to you if you succeed in going back. I promised someone I would tell you.”

“Uh huh, sure. I already checked the history books, there’s no record of me,” she objected.

“Right, true enough.” Frank drew in a shaky breath. “Thing is? I’ve got very good reason to believe that you’ll end up temporally banished by the Carrie you meet in the past. And that, although you’ll survive, and rebuild many of your memories, you won’t survive what comes after that.”

“Speak the truth, please,” Mindylenopia grumbled.

“I did,” Frank said, speaking automatically.

In the process of turning away, Mindylenopia froze. She slowly swivelled her head back. “Are you one of those vision mystics?”

“No.”

“But you’ve spoken with one.”

“Not as such.”

“Yet somehow, you think past Carrie knows that I’m coming for her?”

“Not that either.” Frank shook his head. He sighed. “It’s complicated,” he yielded, using the word Chartreuse had with Tim.

She stared at him. “Part of me wants you to spill everything now.” She licked her lips. “But the sensible part of me only wants to know one thing. This future for me, which you seem to be forecasting - will that Mindylenopia change things? Will her ripples eventually kick this timeline in the teeth, or preferably somewhere even more painful?”

“I’m going to go with yes,” Frank said. After all, how could he even be here otherwise?

Mindylenopia considered that. “Good. Come on.”

Frank hesitated. “Mindylenopia - are you sure?”

She looked over her shoulder again. “No, of course not. Where’s the fun in being sure? Even with the effects of time travel being globally predestined, nothing’s ever sure, not really, not until it’s happened. So, since I’m not in the history books, I’m banking on your predicted past future being flexible. Heck, this mission to get me back could still fail somehow.”

“But if it succeeds, and it leads to banishment and death…"

“Everybody dies, Bernard,” Mindylenopia observed. “The question is what sort of footprint you want to leave behind. Sounds like I’ll go out making an impact.”

She began to stride away. “Look, I appreciate the warning, but don’t bring it up again. Because even if we assume a Carrie-esque banishment leads to me forgetting about this conversation? No one should really know too much about their own destiny. Otherwise, there’s a chance it’ll become someone else’s.”

Frank felt a tension in his shoulders relax. He felt like he’d legitimately held up his end of things, and their plans hadn’t been aborted. “Okay then. I’m right behind you.”

Carrie glared at her reflection. She didn’t enjoying seeing the lines on her face, the hints of grey in her hair, or even the bright yellow gown that she had chosen for her birthday celebration. But her displeasure went deeper than that. “There is an anomaly.”

“There is? What is it, my love?”

Carrie didn’t bother to turn to face the woman who had spoken. She continued to glare at her reflection, her eyes flickering from blue to gold and back, hoping to pinpoint the problem. Annoyingly, if there was a source behind things feeling not-quite-right, it remained elusive. “I don’t know,” she said at last, spitting the words out. That was a three word chain she spoke very infrequently. “Probably just a sign that I’m going to need to rewrite the timelines, and go through this day again with a massive headache. Stupid Mundanes, don’t they know that messing with today will simply make me ANGRY?”

“Is there anything I can do to make you feel better? A massage? Bring you some chocolate? Do a vis– I mean, a massage?”

Carrie snorted. “No.” She pushed herself away from the vanity, clenching her hands into fists. “Wait, were you about to say vision quest? Did you get back into those while I was out of town?! I thought we’d cured you of all that mystic nonsense, along with that silly accent!”

“N-No, I m-mean yes, I mean… my love, I only stumbled into an online forum where they were discussing it…”

“Stay off that forum. Better yet, tell me about it tomorrow, we’ll shut it down.” Carrie felt her fingernails digging into her palms. “I’m the one and only authority on what DOES or DOES NOT happen within the time streams. Is that understood?”

“Y-Yes, my love… I meant no disrespect…"

“Fine, good.” Carrie finally turned to regard the woman sitting on the edge of her bed. Like Carrie, she was dressed in an elaborate gown. However, her’s was purple, to complement her hair, which had for years now been dyed a bright red. When in Rome, and all that. Carrie smiled, seeing that the woman’s eyes remained cast down, towards the floor. In obedience. As it should be.

“It’s time I got out there,” Carrie decided. “Moreover, if you perform well tonight as my pretty Canadian eye candy, I’ll allow you to give me a special birthday gift after everybody has left.” She grinned. “Would you like that?”

Her companion swallowed. “Oh yes, my love,” the woman repeated. She started to look up.

“Excellent. Eyes down. Remember your place.”

Carrie’s first ever female paramour immediately complied. Honestly, there were times when Carrie wondered why she had even bothered to track down and recruit Chartreuse. But the girl had been so fond of her in high school… and then so malleable because of their history together. Even now, Chartreuse still had her uses, for instance in identifying illicit online message forums.

Snapping her fingers at her old high school friend, and with the hints of an anomaly still tickling at her senses, Carrie strode out to meet her birthday guests.

NEXT: Storming the Castle

ASIDE: Remember the April Fools entry? “Elder Carrie” is back, and meaner than ever. Meanwhile, the fourth person in that Tuesday graphic… will be Chartreuse. She turns up everywhere. If you’re enjoying, take 5 seconds to vote for T&T?

PREVIOUSLY: Luci explained about the future. To help Mindy, she’ll now need to contact Julie.

PART 91a: REUNITE THE FUTURE

For a while, no one spoke in Luci’s dining room. The forty seven year old version of Luci had left minutes ago, disappearing into the other room, claiming she needed to make some phone calls. Frank knew that his own silence was rooted in a sensation that there was too much to say, with no idea of where to start. Tim became the first to speak up.

“Here’s w-what I don’t get,” he ventured. “If Carrie’s been thwarting every m-move of this resistance - w-why did they send Shady back to activate her early? W-Weren’t things better for them in timeline two?”

“Predestination,” Laurie said glumly. “They had to do it.”

“Yes and no,” Frank said, as he reflected on it. “Yes in that it happened, so they had to have done it. Even knowing that the result wouldn’t be quite what they wanted, they had to… assuming they were even consciously aware of the final result. But no, in that the first time it happened - if we can even call it a first time, when that’s been overwritten - they probably weren’t much better off.”

“B-But Carrie wasn’t active in the prior timeline,” Tim protested.

“Not as a teenager. But I imagine the Temporals recruited her as soon as this alien artifact incident caught up with them,” Frank explained. “The difference being, in that timeline two, she was working for them, whereas now… well, I wonder if the Temporals are working for her.”

“NONE of it is our timeline though, right Frank? Right?” Laurie pleaded. “It can’t be!”

Frank ran his hands back through his hair. “I don’t know, Laurie. I truly don’t. Even if their Elder Carrie wins, and implants memories into Our Carrie to force her down this path… I’d still be alive. I think. Unless telling Mindylenopia is what changes that.”

“Frank, we CAN’T send her back blind,” Laurie insisted, standing up. “It’s not right! Now more than ever, I see that using her to our benefit, it would mean we’re no better than these resistance people!”

Frank nodded. “I agree.”

“And since I won’t be her double unless we tell her the truth, it means we don’t have a… a…" Laurie blinked. “You agree?”

“Yeah.” He exhaled. “Laurie, I’ll tell Mindylenopia about her possible future. I admit, to this point, I was looking at this whole situation as being a broken timeline for us to fix. But Luci’s made it feel… real. With real people. Like Mindylenopia.”

“Oh.” She swallowed. “Which means I’ll get to be the bait. For her.”

“No.” Frank shook his head. “Not unless we can guarantee your safety. Including a complete two way communications link back to Tim, so that he can interject with Temporal linguistic information as needed.” He grimaced. “I probably overestimated whatever Mindylenopia was hoping for.”

“S-Sounds like Luci was keen on s-safety though,” Tim noted. “So even that s-should work out.”

“But can I act like Mindylenopia?” Laurie said, wringing her hands. “She was always so… so… together. So self-assured.”

“She seems more impatient these days,” Frank remarked.

Tim smiled. “Laurie, I w-wouldn’t worry. The w-way you stood up for your beliefs just now? It’s the most self-assured I’ve ever s-seen you.”

The redhead’s cheeks bloomed a bit brighter. “Oh? Golly.”

Tim turned his attention away, and towards the adjacent room containing Luci. “Here’s m-my other wonder. Will we soon m-meet Future Julie?”

Frank followed Tim’s gaze. “Given our own Julie’s paranoid streak concerning Glen and Mindy? I’d be surprised if she simply took any requests made by Luci on faith alone.”

The trio of time travellers spent the day inside Luci’s home - with strict orders not to depart. On the one hand, that suited Tim just fine; he understood Luci’s concerns about making changes, or seeing things they weren’t meant to see. As well as her own need to leave and go to work, to keep up appearances and to make a few “in person” requests. She had even left them with some holo-game devices (which Laurie had gravitated towards for the animations), a pad of stories locked into the ‘classics’, some music discs that weren’t “discs” at all (but Tim supposed the name had stuck), and some technical odds and ends (which had interested Frank).

On the other hand, Tim felt like it was tough to simply bide your time when you were in a foreign environment with a dangerous mission ahead. He had managed to interest Laurie in learning a few typical Temporal phrases - while hoping he was getting the pronunciation correct. He had also figured out the remote for the microwave, and been able to make their late lunch a hot one. But it was hard to concentrate for any length of time.

All things considered, it was a relief when the doorbell rang early that evening. The relief lasted until Tim looked at the video monitor, and realized that the person at the door wasn’t Luci. Well, that made sense - why ring the doorbell of your own house?

“Frank! Laurie!” he called out to them.

Frank was already approaching, and Laurie joined them moments later. They all looked at the image of the brunette woman with long, wavy brown hair, which seemed to be partially greying. She wore a professional looking suit, had a pair of glasses perched on her nose, and carried a tote bag.

Laurie gasped. “Is… is that…"

“Gotta be,” Tim affirmed. “D-Do we let Julie in?”

Their visitor reached out to press the doorbell again, then peered in the direction of the camera, her lips moving. Tim reached out to tap at the volume control.

“…so I know you’re in there. Let me in, or the deal’s off,” came the curt voice of the elder Julie LaMille.

“I’ll let her in,” Frank decided. “You two wait in the other room. Just in case.”

Tim nodded, retreating out of sight. He heard the front door open… and silence. Then Julie’s voice again. “So she wasn’t lying. It really is you. Before you died. Bloody hell.”

“Uh, technically it’s me after I died… er, you want to come in?” Frank asked.

Her tongue clucked. “If I do, will my DNA trigger some kind of home defence system that fires lasers at me?”

“I… don’t… think so?”

“Hmph.” Tim heard the older Julie stride into the house. “I suppose even Luci wouldn’t be stupid enough to incinerate a member of Parliament.”

Frank closed the front door. “Okay! So you’re in the government. That’s… neat.”

“What other job would I have here? Ottawa is still the capital of Canada,” Julie noted. She dropped her tote bag on the floor. “I’ve got your supplies. Guessing Luci’s not here yet?”

Tim decided it was safe to emerge from the other room. He saw Julie was now removing her glasses, smirking a bit as she tapped something on the side of them. The lenses seemed to dim. “That’s the c-communications equipment for me and Laurie?” Tim asked, gesturing at the bag.

She looked his way. “That, plus a voice modulator, some bulletproof laser vests…” Her features seemed to soften as Laurie came out beside Tim. “I am so sorry she got you mixed up in all of this.”

“We kind of mixed ourselves up in it,” Frank admitted. “Did Luci mention how your Carrie abducted our Carrie?”

“No,” Julie said, eyeing him as she tucked her glasses away. “Merely that your being here means we have a chance at taking down Carrie, and subsequently acquiring the local stationary temporal generator. I guess anything more than THAT was on a ‘need to know’ basis. And since I do my OWN thing, which pisses off her little resistance to no end, I didn’t ‘need to know’.”

Tim frowned. “Wait, you’re able to do your own thing? With a war going on?”

“Cold war,” Julie corrected, crossing her arms as she leaned back against the wall. “And yes. Because I have an acquired immunity to the Temporal mind power. Which comes from being told as a teenager to shoot my former best friend, which in turn made me want to shoot my unborn self. That sort of trauma? It makes a girl throw up mental guards to prevent similar incidents from ever happening again. To prevent her from becoming anybody’s puppet. Surely you remember all that better than me.”

“Well, that’s good,” Frank remarked. “Oh, not the trauma!” he amended, as Julie glared at him. “More it’s good that it’s possible for some to resist the influence. The way Lee seemed to be able to do it.”

Julie’s eyes narrowed. “Luci hasn’t even told you about THAT, has she. Typical.”

“Told us what?” Laurie wondered, fidgeting in her hands with the holo-game cube she’d been playing.

The corners of Julie’s mouth curled up. “About what her little group of medical resistance fighters have been working on all these years. I mean, has it slipped your teenage minds that the one who went back, the one who had me shoot Carrie, was a Mundane? Not a Temporal at all?”

Tim felt his stomach drop. “Y-You’re saying that she… that Luci is trying to unlock the Temporal ability…"

“Fun fact,” Julie said. “Her friends haven’t figured out a way of turning the Temporal power of suggestion off, or even suppressing it, as with Lee. But, in certain cases, they’re able to turn a rudimentary version of it ON. In non-redheads.”

“Oh no,” Frank said, slumping against the wall. “That’s why you two don’t get along. Because Luci’s the indirect cause of the trauma you experienced as a teenager.”

“Oh no,” Julie said, shaking her head. “No, my parents caused most of the trauma I experienced back then. I don’t get along with Luci because of how her resistance killed Corry Veniti.”

The holo-game cube dropped to the floor. “What?” Laurie rasped.

“See, these resistance people, they’re not very big on ethics,” Julie said. “Granted, being a politician, it’s a bit of the pot calling the kettle black, but at least I’m aware of my duplicity.” She nodded towards Laurie. “It’s okay, I made sure your future self was set up somewhere safe outside of town. Phil Clarke still visits on occasion.”

Tim reached out to support Laurie, as it looked like her knees were about to give out. “It’s okay Laurie,” he soothed. “It’s l-like you said, this is n-not our timeline. It’s not.”

“Julie,” Frank whispered. “Did you REALLY have to say that?”

She eyed him. “Yes. Because if you truly are from a divergent timeline… you can’t fix the things you don’t even know about. Right?”

“JULIE,” The scream was accompanied by the sound of the front door banging open. “Julie, you came EARLY you good-for-nothing…" Luci turned to Frank, her eyes blazing with anger. Based on the medical looking cloak she wore, and how out of breath she seemed, Tim wagered Luci had hurried home as fast as she could. “What did she say? How much has she already said?!”

“I knew she’d have a DNA notification coded into her place,” Julie muttered, barely audible.

“Luci, Julie merely… well, she told us about your medical research,” Frank admitted. “And about Corry.”

“Of course she did. Of COURSE.” Luci stomped over to the brunette, and pointed back to the door. “Get OUT of my HOUSE! NOW.”

“If I do, I take my government issue communications tools and other gear with me,” Julie shot back. “I thought your people needed it?”

“We’ll find another way.”

“Oh, good luck with that.” Julie reached down and grabbed the bag.

“Julie, wait,” Tim pleaded, looking up from where he was holding Laurie around the shoulders.

“Don’t anyone stop her,” Luci said, glaring his way.

“It’s fine,” Julie said. “Her resistance idiots can just keep on firing blindly, enraging Carrie and the Temporals to the point where they completely wipe us out…"

“At least we’re TRYING SOMETHING.”

“And some of us wish you’d STOP.”

Julie stepped towards the front door. Frank moved to bar the way. “No. Please, Julie, you can’t go. Luci, we need what she’s got, you said as much this morning.”

“Frank, DAMN it!”

“Besides Julie, you need us,” he continued, looking back at the brunette. “Because you can’t just march in here, tell us all that, and hope we’ll fix all of time for you. That’s not how it works.”

The side of Julie’s mouth twitched. “What then?”

“I’m not exactly sure, but…" Frank let out a breath. “We are going to sit down at the table and talk this out.”

NEXT: Rewrite the Future

ASIDE: So “Timeline Three” is a bit of a mess. Do you see “Timeline Four” as being any better? Will there even BE a “Four”, or is Mindy going nowhere?

PREVIOUSLY: Frank wants to help Mindy, to get her prototype temporal gun. Luci says it’s not that simple, and claims they’re in timeline 47.

PART 90b: INSIGHT THE FUTURE

Frank reached for the napkin holder on the table, but Luci waved him off. “Don’t, I’ve got it, don’t do that,” she sighed, standing and moving to a cupboard. She pulled out a cloth which she used to mop up the coffee she had spilled.

He stood, uncertainly holding a napkin in his hand. “I guess I could keep apologizing,” Frank said. “Except I’ve found that can be bothersome to people if I do it too much.” He glanced towards Laurie.

Luci tossed the cloth towards her sink, resting both hands on the edge of the table. “Here’s the thing you don’t seem to have realized,” she stated. “Namely that, while the rest of us have to hunt for lynchpin moments to divert the time stream, Carrie isn’t bound by that rule. She can change time on a whim. She doesn’t do it indiscriminately, granted, mainly because making changes seems to leave her with a hell of a headache. But that power? It means that she can thwart us every time we try to move against her. Or by extension, the Temporals.”

Tim cleared his throat uncertainly. “And s-so forty-six times…"

“I made up that number,” Luci sighed. “There’s really no way to track it. We only know it’s happening, not how often she’s triggered it. But that’s not the worst of it.” She pushed off from the table. “The worst part is all the prejudice that’s resulted.”

“Prejudice?” Frank looked over at Tim, then Laurie, then back to Luci. “Can you give us ANY more context?”

Luci regarded him, then looked up at the ceiling. “In for a penny, in for a pound. Fine. I suppose if giving you knowledge changes bits of this in your new timeline, it would be for the best anyway. Plus we might be able to make you forget, if absolutely necessary. You won’t get many specifics though.” She pointed at him as if to emphasize that, then walked towards the kitchen. “It all starts with the alien artifact. I’m going to make toast, anyone want buttered toast to go with your fruit?”

Frank blinked at the non sequitur. “No, thanks.”

“I’ll have some,” Laurie said, lifting her index finger.

“S-Sure,” Tim said, uncertainly.

Luci pulled the loaf out of the breadbox device where she stored it. “The artifact turned up… let’s say many years ago. The information it provided was completely unintelligible, for the most part.”

“When you say alien, did the artifact come from space?” Frank wondered.

Luci waggled her finger. “No specifics. Now, I never worked on it, and accounts differ… but it either contained genetic material, or had information about rewriting our own genetic code. At the time, the thought was, if we used the information, or spliced the material into us, whichever, we’d be able to understand the rest of whatever the artifact was trying to communicate. See where I’m going with this?”

Luci hit the plunger on the toaster. For whatever reason, among the various high-tech items Frank had seen in Luci’s residence, the toaster had at least retained it’s familiar functionality.

“I-Is it that gene stuff which m-made Temporals?” Tim asked.

Luci nodded. “Bingo. But more than that, it turned out that the gene sequencing or whatever they did only worked for one percent of the world’s population. A slice of the population who share a trait that makes them stand out in a crowd, so to speak.”

“Red hair,” Frank gasped, recalling what Mindylenopia had said to Julie right before they’d left the mansion in the time car. “All Temporals have red hair.”

Luci’s eyebrow arced. “Your new timeline is just FULL of surprises, huh? Fine, yes, red hair. The genetics worked on them. You can see how a racial-style divide might start forming.”

Laurie looked up from eyeing a lock of her hair. “Gingerism. Oh no.”

Tim looked over at her, frowning. “Prejudice based on red hair? That’s a thing?”

Laurie chewed on her lower lip. “Kick a Ginger Day, Kiss a Ginger Day, it’s kinda hard to miss such things when you are one. No one’s ever tried doing those things to me though. Possibly because of Corry.”

“Yeah, you are NOT going to like where this is going,” Luci sighed. She shook her head. “Moreover, full disclosure here, we don’t know why red hair is a trigger. It’s even possible the first scientists screwed something up, and locked it in. There’s been some incidental research into finding lynchpin moments around the time of the first Temporals, but Carrie was deemed the bigger threat.”

The toast popped up out of the toaster. Luci pulled it onto a plate with a pair of tongs, and reached for the loaf of bread again.

“Hold on,” Frank said. “When you first mentioned the artifact last night, you associated it with timeline one. If this is timeline three, or forty-seven, or whatever…"

“The artifact itself is what you might call a fixed point,” Luci yielded. She dropped more bread into the toaster, plunged it down, then reached for the butter dish. “It must exist in all changed timelines, because it’s what leads to time travel in the first place.”

“Oh! Then that’s what the artifact was c-communicating,” Tim realized. “The stuff you couldn’t f-figure out was the time machine knowledge. Which eventually only r-redheaded Temporals were able to understand?”

“Yes, but time travel is only one of the things the artifact provided,” Luci said. She slowly turned the butter knife around in her hands. “Again, not giving specifics, but the first Temporals? They still linked themselves to us “Mundanes”. The ‘pure’ Temporals, who came a bit later? They rejected last names entirely, started using the Temporal language to communicate cross-culturally, and basically see themselves as the next stage of evolution.” Luci grimaced. “Even though that’s not how evolution WORKS, you stupid, self-aggrandizing…" She stopped herself, letting out a slow breath before slicing her knife into the butter. “Sorry.”

“So you’re saying there was more information about genetics in the alien artifact’s translations too,” Frank said, hoping to pull the conversation back on track.

Luci sighed. “Yes. Tough to say if that’s where their mind manipulation power comes from, or if it was baked into the initial genes. It could even be that ‘pure’ Temporals like Mindylenopia are from actual parents, and not a result of genetic engineering - they simply reject their families. I’ve seen medical scans, and I can’t tell either way. All we know for sure is that there was SOMETHING more in the artifact, because of how Carrie was created.”

“Meaning they did something to her mother?” Tim gasped. “Before sending her back?”

“Maybe that’s how they did it.” Luci shrugged. “Look, I don’t have all the answers there, we should go back to the stuff I’m clear on.”

“Yeah, um… is your society in the midst of some ‘redheads versus the world’ thing?” Laurie said tentatively. “Should I even go outside?”

Luci finished spreading butter, and brought the plate of toast to the table before answering. “Let me put it this way. If you were a redhead when the news broke, you became associated with the artifact. Followed by being linked to genetic engineering, mind manipulation, knowledge of time travel - even if you had no flipping CLUE about ANY of that stuff. Meanwhile, some countries with very few - even no - redheads cried conspiracy. They demanded the real truth, wanted a piece of the action, and so forth.”

Frank winced, finally getting a sense of why Mindylenopia might have had trouble recruiting a redhead to pose as her double. And what Luci had meant by them being in over their heads.

Which was when the forty-seven year old asian looked at Laurie. “And then Carrie made it so much worse for all of you.”

It wasn’t her Carrie. Luci didn’t mean her Carrie, because this wasn’t her future. Not really. Laurie felt like she had to believe that, to cling to that tenuous fact, lest she lose her grip on reality itself. She swallowed, but before she could ask whether she wanted to know what Luci meant, Tim spoke.

“H-How do you make that situation worse?”

Luci turned away, heading back for the toaster. “To understand THAT, you need to know how Carrie operates. Let’s say we need to kidnap someone, to isolate them for a couple of days so that they’re freed of a mental suggestion they’ve been given.”

“You kidnap people?” Laurie gasped.

Luci reached for the tongs as the next set of toast popped up. She continued on as if she hadn’t heard Laurie’s outburst. “Carrie’s got a few options. The first is to ignore us, and let it happen; maybe she decides that the Temporal goal isn’t so hot after all, or there’s some other way to accomplish it without this person.”

“So Carrie does have a conscience?” Frank asked.

Again, Luci ignored the interjection. “Her second option is to tweak the past, jumping us into timeline twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two… we’re now aware of when this happens, simply because details don’t match up. The route our target was supposed to take, it’s suddenly different. Or our lookout, he’s delayed getting into position, because of a flash mob, or a car accident. Little things. The sort of thing you’d chalk up to bad luck - except, digging deeper, we realize Carrie had been involved. Directly or otherwise.”

Tim looked up from his toast. “Maybe that’s l-like when she destroyed the chip,” he offered. “Right Frank? Back when I was going to give the time chip to L-Lee, and instead, Carrie destroyed it. Except, aside from that, the week p-played out kind of the same.”

Frank simply nodded back at him. Laurie belatedly reached out for her slice of buttered toast too.

“Carrie’s final option,” Luci said, gesturing with the butter knife, “is a complete rewrite. Where, ironically, victory is ours - but it’s a Pyrrhic victory. We win, but we’ve lost. For instance, same scenario, but we’ve planned more. Plotted out the other probable routes, and we get a dozen lookouts, with two possible vans to make our escape, and then only identify the safe house to the driver after the target’s acquired… we build in SO much redundancy that Carrie can’t stop us, not with a minor alteration. So she doesn’t.”

Luci crunched down on her toast, as if waiting for them to draw the necessary conclusion. Laurie looked at Tim and Frank, gratified to find that they looked as confused as she felt. But they seemed equally as hesitant about admitting to it. “So you win - but lose how?” Laurie asked.

Luci swallowed her bite. “First, it means we’ve committed so many resources to that project that we need to lay low for a while. But second, more importantly, it turns out that our target was a patsy - and “had been all along”,” she said, dropping her toast to make air quotes. “Meaning all the intelligence we’d gathered which pointed to that guy - was false. Which I don’t believe for a second. No, what that TRULY means is Carrie sent information back, telling her Temporal friends to not give this guy the swing vote after all. To have it be someone else… and yet to keep on him, as planned, so that we’d THINK we were getting the right guy.”

Frank let out a low whistle. “Hello paranoia city.”

“Such beliefs are not completely unfounded,” Luci said, retrieving her toast from the plate. “There’s a thing we’ve dubbed the ‘bleedthrough effect’. Curious actions on our part, which make more sense once we assume there’s a timeline being overwritten.”

“H-How does that make it worse for redheads though?” Tim asked.

“Because,” Luci sighed. “When Carrie makes the changes I mentioned, minor or rewritten? If she can, she targets the gingers. Every. Single. Time. It helps sow the seeds of suspicion and discontent within us. Makes us think they might be agents.”

“That’s terrible… but also a weakness,” Frank realized. “Since if you KNOW Carrie operates by targeting the redheads, that means you can foil her by using… them… as… crud.”

Luci nodded. “Now you see it.”

“We’re bait,” Laurie concluded. “You’re saying redheads in the future are either genetically modified people who feel they’re superior, bait for Carrie within your resistance, or stuck somewhere in between. Seen alternately as villains or heroes by society at large.” With her stomach in knots, she dropped her half eaten toast onto the table, looking towards Frank. “I want to go back home now, okay?”

Luci moved back in, resting a hand gently on Laurie’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. Maybe I should have said nothing.” She looked back at Frank. “But do you understand now? What you’re truly getting yourself mixed up in?”

Frank nodded. “Yeah.” He ran his hands back through his hair. “Here’s the thing though. Based on what you said, there IS still a weakness. Because Carrie operates by tweaking your past, right?”

“Yes,” Luci said, patiently.

Frank pointed at the rest of them. “We’re not part of that past. Well, not your local past. Your Carrie can’t account for us! Or even if she can, we’ve got a Carrie from our time who can run interference. Maybe she’s doing that even now! As such, we might be your best shot at finally taking your Carrie out of the equation. Particularly if we get our hands on a certain weapon that Mindylenopia can give to us. That is, assuming we go along with her plans as I outlined.”

Luci stared. Laurie felt the older woman’s grip on her shoulder tighten slightly, before releasing. “You’re… not wrong,” Luci realized. “Except we’d have less than a day to pull together some kind of… then again, working so fast, it would be equally unexpected. Can we do something?” Her teeth ground together. “Unfortunately, I think our only shot at managing this SAFELY means I call in… well, hell, no one would expect me to do that either.”

“Expect you to do what?” Frank asked.

Luci spun on her heel, stalking towards an adjacent room. “Would expect me to call on Julie LaMille for help.”

NEXT: Reunite the Future

ASIDE: So that’s the explanation of everything! (At least in “Timeline Three”.) If part of it is inconsistent, or doesn’t make sense, let me know, I’ll try to fix it. Then consider the usual vote for T&T? Thanks.

PREVIOUSLY: Stuck in the wrong future, Frank and Tim meet Mindylenopia - because Future Mindy in their past will have suggested it.

PART 90a: FIGHT THE FUTURE

She came around the side of the building moments after Frank and Tim sat down on the bench. Frank hoped his initial shock didn’t show on his face. After all, Mindylenopia looked so much younger, having reverted back to being the teenage-looking version who had driven the van into their school. With shorter hair and everything. And despite the chill March air, she had her jacket open, revealing a tight red blouse, which matched her knee length skirt. Hoping to distract them, maybe?

Frank started to rise, only to have her gesture for him to sit. The redheaded Temporal then sat down next to him, peering out at the landscape. “So, are you simply Mundanes trying to speak our language?” Mindylenopia asked, without turning. “Or are you under someone else’s control, trying to determine my true allegiances?”

“The former,” Frank answered, before he could stop himself. Perhaps she’d exerted her power. “We…”

“If you’re able to run interference for me tomorrow night, keep talking, if not, I have no use for you.”

“We want to make sure you succeed in your…”

“Great, then can you find a redhead who could double for me, and who also speaks your rudimentary Temporal?”

It occurred to him that Laurie kind of fit that description. “Maybe, but Mindylenopia, can I finish a…”

“No. Concerning the redhead, switch to a definite yes or no, otherwise I’m out.”

Frank let out an exasperated sigh, as he realized Mindy’s future incarnation was at least ten times less patient than Theresa had ever been, even on a bad day. “Yes, PROVIDED,” he added quickly, “that I come with you.”

Mindylenopia frowned and finally turned to look at him. “%You want to go on a suicide mission?%”

Tim flinched. “S-She says you could get killed.”

“Will,” Mindylenopia corrected. “Will get killed. Because I’m the only one travelling back, and as such, anyone else still in the compound after I leave? Has no chance.”

“Why, are you planning to blow it up?” Frank said, eyes widening.

The redhead rolled her eyes. “Oh, don’t be stupid. I’m not a killer. But I can only delay Carrie for so long, and scrubbing the video footage isn’t on my agenda.”

“Ah. Well, here’s the thing,” Frank continued. “Mindy, er, Lenopia, we got your number from… from someone who knew we’d be fighting against that Elder Carrie. Can you think of why she would want us to talk to you first, before you left?”

“So I could tell you that you’re morons? You can’t get close to her. Don’t worry, I’ll keep past Carrie away from whoever drags her out of town. We’re pretty sure it was Glinephanis.”

“Okay but, hypothetically speaking,” Frank pressed, “if even after your mission, there was still the need for someone to attack Elder Carrie, why would someone like you send us here to talk to, ah, you?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Who did you say you were?”

Frank swallowed. “Call me Bernard.”

“Mmmmm. People who want my missions to fail say ‘Quack!’.”

Frank blinked, glancing sidelong at Tim, who shrugged.

Mindy rubbed her chin. “Pity, it’s funny when conspirators do that. Okay, fine. So I’ve been constructing a prototype weapon, something I loosely refer to as a %temporal gun%. It’s my ace in the hole, but it’s non-lethal, and has never been tested.”

Tim poked Frank. “Bernard - we may need that.”

“If I accompany you, can I get your %musical gun%?” Frank asked.

Tim winced. “Uh, she used a longer ’t’ sound…”

“Are you going to get me a redheaded double who speaks Temporal before you commit suicide?” Mindylenopia reiterated.

“I can do that,” Frank said. “And I’m not planning to commit…"

“Then yes, I’ll let you come along, and once I’m gone, you can have the gun. I figure bringing back future tech is only asking for trouble, particularly when it might not even work. But you are on your OWN once I leave, yeah?”

“I can live with that,” Frank concluded.

“Oh, I very much doubt it,” Mindylenopia snorted. “But it’s not MY funeral.” She rose. “I’ll be in touch through regular channels about where to put my double, and where you’ll meet me. You won’t be able to use that old phone number again. Don’t follow me, or the deal’s off.” She then marched off the way she had come, muttering, “%I must be out of my mind%.”

Frank remained seated until she was out of earshot before looking at Tim. “So that object she spoke of was…"

“The temporal gun,” Tim affirmed. “The one we don’t have.”

“Right.” Frank adjusted his glasses. “Remind me again of why I gave our most powerful temporal weapon to Chartreuse.”

Tim shook his head. “She didn’t tell me why.”

“Okay, well… maybe you’d better run through the whole conversation Chartreuse had with you? Since part of it could be relevant now, and once we’re back with Luci, we can’t talk about it. Not with that gun not existing in her past, the past of Timeline Three.”

Tim sighed. “I’ll try to remember.”

Chartreuse had turned up at his house the morning of December 30th, an hour after breakfast. Asking to speak to him in private. Having sensed it would be about the time travel group, he’d taken her up to his room.

The mystic girl hadn’t disappointed, or indeed wasted any time, sitting with him on the bed and reaching out to grasp him by the hands. “Okay, so, like, here’s the thing. We need your help. Are you able to help out the group?”

Tim swallowed. “I… y-yeah. If I can actually b-be helpful. Instead of b-being the guy that causes Glen to mind manipulate people, or the one M-Mindy uses to learn everything about everyone, or the f-friend who has no technical skills to help Clarke with whatever he’s…"

“Aw, Tim. Don’t get like that.” She squeezed his hands. “You’re the linguist! Like that person in the ‘Arrival’ movie, you’re handling the thing most of us are hopeless at doing. Which is why we need you now. See, Luci’s not gonna be able to go back with Frank. I saw that. But he’ll still, you know, need someone who can speak Temporal with him while in the future.”

“You m-mean the past,” Tim corrected.

She smiled. “Right, the past, totally tensed up there.”

He shook it off. “S-So wait, you think that I can…"

“I KNOW that you can. Because here’s the other thing, Tim. Laurie, my dear, sweet Laurie, when she leaves, having been recruited to be the Miami signpost? She’s gonna be on her first time trip. With the guy who’s been time tripping since the start, plus two Temporals, and that’s GOTTA be intimidating. Even I’m intimidated, and I’m staying here! Whereas you, you’ll be, you know, in the same boat as her, kinda.”

Tim sighed. “Meaning clueless.”

“No, meaning inexperienced!” Chartreuse protested. “But Tim, you’d be gaining experience, while translating Temporal, and making sure Laurie doesn’t have a panic attack when things, you know, inevitably go south! I swear, the both of you, you’re stronger than you think, yeah? And hey, I’ll need someone to remind Laurie, in case if she ever wishes Corry was there instead, that she’s, like, more connected to Carrie than her brother could ever hope to be! Okay?”

Tim dropped his gaze to the bedspread. “You r-really think I’m the p-person who can do this?”

She released his hands, reaching up to tilt at his chin, making him look back at her. “Totally do. Don’t you think so?”

There was no sarcasm in her voice, and nothing but sincerity in her expression. It was now or never, wasn’t it. The same way it had been with Julie and the chip - was he in, or was he out? Tim straightened his posture. “Okay. When do we leave?”

Chartreuse beamed, and for a moment it looked like she would hug him. But instead, she pushed herself off the bed, glancing at her watch. “At the library, in about half an hour. Bring four days worth of your meds, just in case.”

A shiver ran up Tim’s back. “That’s soon. Exactly what did your future vision show you?”

“I can’t really explain what I experienced, it became… kinda vision plus,” Chartreuse admitted. “Oh! And that reminds me. In case I don’t get to tell him while he’s rescuing Beth, when you go back to pick up Laurie, and get supplies? You need to tell Frank to give the temporal gun to me. Like, past me. Instead of taking it along on your trip.”

Tim flinched. “What?”

“I mean, he’s gonna do it, because I have the gun, and I think that’s how, like, time travel works. But trust me, we’ll need it here, the timing is real important. Frank can hand it off to me between our big meeting, and when the bunch of us gather to tell Mr. Waterson the truth about Carrie. Got that?”

“Wait, h-how does this fit into everything else?”

Chartreuse chewed on her lip. “It’s complicated. Even I don’t know everything, not yet.” She pulled a meditation crystal out of a pocket on her dress, staring at it as she rolled it around between her fingers. “Not yet. But soon.”

She continued to stare for a moment, finally slipping the crystal back into her pocket and meeting his gaze. “That’s all, like, my problem though. Not yours. Are you, you know, okay to get to the library and such?”

Tim nodded. “Y-Yeah. I can do this. I can.” For that matter, if they didn’t need the gun, what was the worst thing that could happen while in the past?

“Complicated,” Frank repeated back. “And at the time, I thought it was related to the people who would be chasing down Beth when we left. I never imagined… this scenario.”

“M-Maybe there’s a thing where we’ll need that temporal gun in the present, and another here in the future?” Tim suggested.

“Except Mindylenopia wouldn’t know whatever Chartreuse knew, would she?” Frank protested. “Only that we didn’t have the gun. Hence the phone number left for us, it must mean she’d hoped we’d use her first gun for an assault on Elder Carrie, right?”

“D-Dunno.” Tim shook his head. “It’s f-funny, I always f-figured I didn’t get what you guys meant because I was out of the l-loop. But there really is no l-loop, huh? None of us knows what’s going on.”

“Nope,” Frank affirmed. He rubbed his arms, becoming aware of the chill. “For now, let’s get back to Luci, and find somewhere warm. And get some sleep. I’ll see if I can convince Laurie to act as Mindylenopia’s double tomorrow.”

“I won’t do it,” Laurie asserted. “Not unless you tell Mindylenopia what’s going to happen to her.”

“But if she knows, that might change everything!” Frank protested.

They had all slept the night at Luci’s place. Frank and Tim had given Laurie the bed-in-a-wall, grabbing some blankets to sleep on the floor. Frank had elected not to bring up the content of his conversation with Mindylenopia until breakfast, after everyone had been able to shower and get a change of clothing… more or less. Laurie had used her suitcase, and her T-Shirt and track pants worked for Tim, while Frank had managed with some male items that Luci had found in the back of her closet. He decided not to ask why they’d been there.

“Might change everything for the better,” Laurie countered.

“Or might mean we don’t end up here at all!” Frank said. “I mean Laurie, think about it. What if… what if something we say to Mindylenopia now means she doesn’t talk to Carrie back then, meaning I die in the past after all?”

“No, no, everyone says time travel is predestined,” Laurie insisted.

“But not in this case! Right Luci?” Frank turned to where she was sipping on a mug of coffee.

“Oh, we are SO off the map with this one, I can’t even,” Luci declared. “I’ve already told our people to lock down your time car and not let anyone near it until this situation has been worked out.”

“D-Do you think Laurie should do it then?” Tim asked her. “Be Mindylenopia’s double?”

“I think you’re in over your heads,” Luci remarked. “Worse, you’re dragging the rest of us under the water with you. Related, please stop talking about Mindylenopia’s possible future in front of me. It freaks me out more than a little bit.”

Frank sighed. “Fine. If Laurie’s unwilling, is there someone else in the resistance who resembles Mindylenopia who would be willing?”

Luci’s grip on her mug tightened. “Over. Your. Heads.”

Frank leaned on the table. “So help us. Please.”

“I can’t. Not the way you want me to.”

“Then at least help us understand why you can’t!” Frank pleaded.

Luci brought her mug down hard on the table, sloshing coffee everywhere. “Because! This isn’t Timeline Three, okay?! It’s more like Timeline Forty-Seven.”

NEXT: Insight the Future (aka InfoDump)

ASIDE: This past weekend I got 5 coins from 2017. (Two quarters, three nickels.) Let the time travel commence!

PREVIOUSLY: Frank has realized they are in the future of “Timeline Three”, where he died, and Carrie left town with Glen.

PART 89b: TIMELINE THREE

“You’re wrong,” Luci said dismissively.

“But it’s the only thing that makes sense,” Frank protested. “We have to help Mindylenopia get back in time. That’s what restores our timeline!”

“No! If you remember her being there, Mindylenopia will go back without your help,” Luci reiterated, with exaggerated patience. “The same way she must have managed it before your arrival in this future.”

Tim glanced back and forth between the seventeen year old Frank Dijora and the forty seven year old Luci Primrose. He and Laurie had tacitly decided to keep out of the conversation during the time it had taken to order, and then receive their food at the cafe - but the two of them had been at an impasse for some time now. He decided had to say something, otherwise they’d have no idea where in the future to go next.

“R-Run through it for me,” he suggested to Luci. “However they teach it in schools these days. Explain to m-me why Frank’s wrong.”

Luci looked at him, then set her meal aside and flipped over her paper placemat, reaching for the small container of crayons next to the ketchup bottle. “We don’t teach this in schools. But here.” She drew a long yellow line, the length of the page. “Timeline one, with the alien artifact. Damn it!”

The asian woman tapped the end of her crayon against the side of her head. “Look, forget I mentioned that last bit. Either way, that timeline’s gone.” She dropped the yellow crayon, picking up the red, and drawing overtop of the majority of the line she’d already placed there. “Instead, timeline two, where Carrie exists as the ultimate temporal weapon. Able to end it all, unless the Temporals get what they want.”

“We knew this much already, Luci,” Frank said. “Carrie once explained it to Chartreuse, after which it was explained to us.” Tim noticed Frank was using the same tone of exaggerated patience that Luci had used.

“Fine! Gone,” Luci said, glaring at him as she dropped the red crayon and grabbed a black. She drew overtop of the last part of the red line, and just as the red had obscured the yellow beneath it, the black obscured the red. “Timeline three. Came into existence when we sent back– what did our younger selves call him?”

“Shady?” Tim offered.

“Shady, right, with a mission of activating Carrie when she might be a little more reasonable. Or, well, destroying her if it turned out she was not. A mission which succeeded, when Shady managed to hit on a lynchpin point.” She intentionally met Frank’s gaze. “And for what it’s worth, I spoke out against the latter option. But we’re fighting a war here. Trying to save as many lives as we can.”

“How do you know it was you who spoke out?” Frank countered. He pointed at the placemat. “Before Shady went back, the timeline was red. How do we know it was you who said something in that timeline two, versus the black timeline we seem to be in now?”

Luci leaned back. “Hmph. Excellent question, actually,” she yielded. “On the one hand, there is no red timeline any more - aside from here, between Elaine Waterson’s appearance in the past, and the lynchpin at Shady’s alterations,” she noted, tapping the line where the red was visible. “So your question is irrelevant. On the other hand… yes, it’s theoretically possible that it wasn’t me. That it was someone else. Individuals still have the free will to screw things up locally, as the Temporals sometimes put it. Still, safe bet someone did it. Might as well say it was me, since I’m the one who has a memory of doing it. Okay?”

“And so now, with M-Mindy?” Tim asked, before the two of them could start arguing again.

Luci dropped the black crayon onto the table with a shrug. “Given how Shady’s mission failed to fix things in our favour, Mindylenopia’s said she intends to go back next. I don’t know much more than that. As an apparent Temporal defector, she tends to keep to herself. Our resistance movement doesn’t call her, she calls us, that sort of thing. Which suits us fine, as the less she knows, the less likely any of us will be in trouble if she switches sides again.”

“But now we have to help Mindy get back,” Frank insisted. “To restore our timeline, where Carrie seeks us out as friends. Where I don’t die.”

“No!” Luci jabbed her finger at the black line. “You. Do. Not. Exist. Yet.”

“Then who. Are you. Arguing with?” Frank challenged.

“Agh! I am not having this conversation. Literally, not having it, because look, once Mindylenopia goes back, you… damn it, I shouldn’t have used the black there…" Luci began to colour over the black with a blue, pressing hard, trying to make the black vanish beneath it. “You WILL come into existence in this blue ‘timeline four’. But that will only happen if you lie low now, and don’t screw up our timeline three!”

“That doesn’t explain how we can be here now,” Frank insisted. “The only way we’re here is if it’s to create the blue timeline four in the first place!”

“STOP that!” Luci threw the blue crayon at him. “DAMN it Frank, I have thirty years of temporal theory behind me here, whereas you’re a bunch of teenagers who don’t even know how to access a present day restaurant menu. Why, why are you doing this to me? Why can’t you simply allow me to be happy that you’re alive again, after all this time?!”

A tear blinked out of the corner of Luci’s eye, causing a hush to fall over the table.

“I’m sorry,” Frank apologized. “I wasn’t thinking about that.”

“Obviously.” Luci swallowed. “You know what, Frank? You’re part of why I went into the medical profession. Because of how I couldn’t save you. Back when Carrie insisted that you rewire the time machine for an unmanned jump… and it all blew up in your face. And I couldn’t save you.”

“Oh, Luci… don’t be like that. I’m sure it wasn’t your fault.” Frank winced. “I guess we were even going out at the time?”

“More or less. Damn it, Frank…” Luci repeated. She drew in a shaky breath, then grabbed a napkin, using it to blow her nose. “And I SWORE I wasn’t going to do this…"

“Luci, Gods, I’m truly sorry, I didn’t mean to spark the memories you must be experiencing." He reached out for her. She waved him off, but then seemed to reconsider, grasping his hand.

“It’s fine,” Luci said. “Besides, I doubt this conversation will have gone this way once Mindylenopia goes back. Understand? It’s like you said, regarding my memory of objecting to Shady’s final option. Once this weird anomaly resolves itself, we’ll remember having discussed the weather, or how to rescue your Carrie, or something else. So it’s fine.”

“Except…" Tim kind of hated to break up their moment, but he couldn’t help but notice what Luci had done. He reached out to tap at the coloured timelines. “L-L-Look. Our blue timeline four exists, and yet so does your future black timeline three.”

Luci looked down. “Only because I didn’t get a chance to colour in all the way to the end.”

“Right. Something stopped you.” Tim looked sidelong at Frank. “D-Didn’t something like this h-happen with Julie?”

Frank eyed the placemat. “You mean when she sort of killed herself, except how she didn’t because of how I went back with Clarke and Corry? I’m not sure it’s quite the same thing… but you might be onto something. Luci?”

Luci started to look vaguely ill. “No. Oh no.” She released Frank’s hand. “The temporal waveforms in the past. If they haven’t reached us yet… but no, how could they NOT reach us? The only person who could prevent this temporal system from collapsing down into a single time frame by now would be…" Her voice trailed off.

“Carrie Waterson?” Frank speculated.

Luci nodded mutely.

“S-So which Carrie is m-mixing us up?” Tim asked. “Our Timeline Four Carrie, or your Timeline Three Carrie?”

“They’re SUPPOSED to be the same Carrie,” Luci said bitterly. “Damn her ability to paradox. If she’s directly involved, that changes everything.”

Frank tapped his finger on the timelines. “More to the point then, is this being done so that we can get Mindylenopia back to our present year, setting all of this in motion… or is it being done so that we’ll screw up Mindy’s ability to leave on schedule, which might make us disappear?”

Luci shook her head. “There’s no way of knowing. None.”

A clattering sound brought Tim’s attention away from Luci and Frank, and back towards the fourth person at their table. Laurie had dropped her fork down into her empty plate. Her head was bowed, forcing the redhead to look slightly upwards to stare at them. “You all talk and talk and talk - but you haven’t even touched on the most important thing yet,” she murmured.

“What’s that, Laurie?” Tim asked gently.

Her shoulders tightened. “If Mindy gets sent back… she’s going to be banished by Carrie. Meaning she’ll lose her mind, screw with Linquist and Julie, indirectly put that girl Beth in danger, and then finally get herself killed on our last trip.” She shook her head, and her gaze lifted. “So you’re talking about sending someone on a trip to be tortured, and then to die, merely for our own benefit! How can you even be saying that’s an option?!”

No one at the table seemed to have an answer for her.

They went out to meet Mindylenopia. Partly it was from a hope that she would know why her future self had given them the phone number, but mostly, Frank had argued that doing so would maximize their options. Because if they were, indeed, supposed to help Mindy get back in time, there was no way they could do it without being close to her.

“She had to mean the Fallowfield train station,” Luci said, as she drove. Or rather, as the car drove itself according to her instructions. Frank had given up on understanding all the future technology. “We’ve used it as a transfer point before. Mindylenopia must have avoided being specific with you on the phone in order to be sure that she was getting someone with true connections to our resistance. Versus random loons or some kind of sting operation.”

“How m-many people know about the whole resistance thing?” Tim asked.

“Not many,” Luci admitted. “Granted, we like to believe that it’s bigger than we think. After all, it’s not like we can have regular meetings. Since Temporals could force out any information about when they might be, using their mental powers, and thus catch lots of us at once.”

“Why did your group decide to trust Mindy then?” Laurie wondered.

“Ohh, we didn’t. Not at first. Even now, we’re not sure if she’s a plant, gathering intelligence. But she’s too good of a technical asset to pass up. She can also obtain things, like the present day coin we gave to Shady - that’s the one you ended up with, I guess. There’s not a lot of coin currency around at all now, let alone this early on in the year.”

“Speaking of coins, do you know anything more about how Mindylenopia will get back?” Frank asked.

Luci paused. “Okay, yeah, I guess you need to know that too. Portable time machines? They’re dangerous and geographically unstable, not to mention hard to obtain covertly, so unless she’s managed to secure parts to make her own, we figured Mindylenopia was angling for the stationary temporal station in town. Those can target their own building on the jump, instead of DNA, but they’re highly fortified structures. I’d call that a suicide mission most days of the year, except tomorrow is Carrie’s birthday, so…” She shrugged.

“Wait, how d-do stationary temporal stations work?” Tim asked.

“Very well, thank you,” Luci said dryly. “Next question?”

She refused to give them any further information about futuristic technology, or her own personal life, reasoning that it could become a problem once they, presumably, became able to travel back to their present. So, as with Clarke, the trip lapsed into an uncertain silence.

They reached the train station with ten minutes to spare.

“I probably shouldn’t get out,” Luci remarked. “After all, I wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you. You should be the only variables.”

“I don’t want to go either,” Laurie admitted. “Not if it means I end up helping to cause what we know happens to Mindy.”

Frank nodded. “I can respect that. Tim?”

“I’m still in. For now. You might need a t-translation.”

“True.” He looked out the car windshield. “Here goes nothing then.”

Frank emerged from the car, followed by the shorter blonde boy, and the two of them walked over to the seemingly deserted train station.

NEXT: Fight the Future

ASIDE: That ends ARC 4.3 (“Complicated”), moving us into the final Arc for the entire story (“Terminated”). Hope you’re enjoying! More future versions of the characters will appear, feel free to speculate on that or the plot - and maybe vote for T&T?

PREVIOUSLY: Frank, Laurie and Tim have chased after Carrie into the future, where they’ve encountered a very worried Elder Clarke - and Mindylenopia’s on the phone?!

PART 89a: IDENTITY CRISIS

“%You have five seconds to explain how you know me, after which this phone will be permanently deactivated. Five… four…%”

Frank looked up expectantly, and Tim realized that his friend was anticipating a translation. But Mindylenopia was counting down! By the time he’d explained that she wanted an explanation, they’d be out of time!

“%Three… two…%"

The only thing he could think of to do that might keep Mindy on the line long enough might get them in trouble instead. But he’d made a number of gambles for their temporal group already. At this point, what was one more? He summoned his resolve.

“%One…%"

“%We is be friends!%” Tim said, leaning in closer to the device. "%We want with, uh…%" He snapped his fingers twice, unable to think of the word for help. “%We serve you and be happy future!%"

For a moment, there was silence on the line, Frank simply looking at Tim in surprise. Then there was the sound of muffled laughter. “Okay,” came Mindylenopia’s voice in English. “You’re either the smartest espionage team ever, certified loons, or people who may actually be of service to me. I can spare some time to find out. 10pm, at the train station."

Before either of them could speak, the ensuing dial tone indicated that Mindylenopia had hung up.

Frank reached out to tap at the holo-button that would cut off the call. “Uh, thanks Tim,” he acknowledged. “I didn’t realize you and Luci could speak Temporal as well as understand it.”

“We can’t," Tim sighed. “I may have just told her that we were friendly, and want be her future slaves. But she was counting down to cutting us off for good, and there was no way I could sum up our situation in five seconds, so I thought I’d better try something unexpected.”

“Oh. Well… assuming we can find her train station, that means we still have a shot at figuring out why Mindy gave us her own phone number. So again, thanks.”

Tim shook his head. “How could that even BE Mindy? She… well…”

“This must be before she travels back,” Frank reasoned. “For some reason, when Mindylenopia sent us forward to the future - it was also into her own past.”

“So did she KNOW?” Tim wondered. “The whole time she was Theresa, in our present, did she know we’d eventually meet her, in her past?!”

“That might depend on what we end up saying to her.” Frank sighed. “My new worry is that we might do something that prevents her from going back in the first place.”

“Oh. OH.” Tim’s eyes widened. “I feel like that would be BAD.”

Frank nodded. “For now, let’s get the car into town and meet with Clarke’s contact. Maybe they can provide us with some much needed future context.”

Apparently, Clarke hadn’t ever played professional basketball, had become a mechanic and tow truck driver about ten years ago with the intention of helping people, and had not married Julie. At least, he’d admitted to the first two, and Laurie was pretty sure that his body language had answered that last question, not to mention his changing of the subject. Unless they were divorced? She worked with him for another few minutes in silence.

“How’s your sister?” Laurie asked at last, again seeking some common ground with the Clarke she knew.

He shook his head, looping the length of chain around the front of the Chevrolet to secure it. “Another thing we probably shouldn’t talk about.”

Laurie slumped her shoulders. “Really? We’re stuck with favourite foods and recent movies from my time that are being remade yet again in this future?”

“Sorry, Laurie,” Clarke apologized. “I don’t want to risk changing anything about my past.”

“I don’t think you can,” Laurie assured. “Most of the talk I’ve heard surrounds all time travel being predestined.”

“Yeah. That’s what I thought too.” She fancied then that his gaze drifted to Frank, but maybe he was simply looking back at the tow truck. “I sure hope Luce can sort all of this out.”

“Luce… do you mean Luci?” Laurie ventured. “Wait, Cl– Phil, are we going to see Luci??”

“Crud. Yeah,” Clarke admitted. “And I am seriously going to stop talking now. Otherwise I might let slip about more things. Like that huge ban Canada has on Japanese anime art.”

“WHAT?” Laurie practically shrieked. “The future has banned… okay, NO, don’t even kid about that! Seriously!”

Clarke’s smile widened. “Sorry again. Bad joke, but I couldn’t remember what your other teenage passions were. My point being, sometimes the truth isn’t something you want to know, yeah? And now I truly am done talking.” He hit the lever to pull the front wheels of the Chevy up.

Laurie fired off a look that she hoped was an angry pout. Yet at the same time, she suppressed her desire to ask any further questions.

The trip into Ottawa took less than twenty minutes, but since no one was talking, it felt longer to Frank. They pulled up to the parking lot of a small cafe, on what seemed to be the outskirts of town - and she was there in the parking lot, waiting for them.

Frank felt a lump in his throat, looking at the older version of Luci. It reminded him more of her twenty-year-old artificially aged version than the one they’d left back in the present. Perhaps because the normally so omnipresent little ponytails she sported were gone, in favour of longer hair. It fact, it seemed like Luci had aged well, even though her figure was largely covered up by a long coat. Could she have been his wife, if the two of them had decided not to break up? He shoved those thoughts aside as they all piled out of the tow truck.

Lucille Primrose was all business, her first words to Laurie being “open your mouth”, the asian woman holding out a Q-tip. When Laurie obeyed, Luci swabbed inside, then dropped the Q-tip into a small device she was holding. She peered at it for several seconds, then repeated the process for Tim, and again for Frank. A “ping” came from her device at the end of his analysis, and she looked uneasy.

“Are they the real deal?” Clarke murmured.

Luci didn’t acknowledge the question, instead looking to Frank. “How did you get here?” she demanded.

Frank pointed to the Chevy. “Time car. The circuits burned out on arrival.”

Luci peered at everyone with her heterochromatic eyes, then finally addressed Frank again. “Show me.”

He went back to show her the setup. Her apparent skepticism gradually began to shift into a mix of confusion… with hints of fear. “This is impossible,” she said, echoing Clarke. “How would you even have the means to come this far forwards?”

Frank decided to hedge. “The one who went back to activate Carrie’s powers? He had a coin,” he said, cutting out the Mindy-Linquist part of Tim’s revelation.

“Damn.” Luci rubbed her forehead. “Better question then, WHY make this trip? What could you possibly hope to gain by it?”

Frank again wondered if it was prudent to bring up Mindylenopia.

“Your Future Carrie abducted our Carrie,” Laurie offered. “We want ours back.”

Luci snapped her gaze over towards the redhead. “Impossible.”

“You keep using that word,” Tim quipped. “I d-do not think it means what you think it means.”

Luci regarded them each in turn once again. She seemed to come to a decision. “We’ll need to compare histories. Could take a while. Do you want to freshen up first?”

“We shouldn’t, we kind of have a deadline,” Frank said, thinking of Mindy’s meeting at 10pm.

“But we haven’t had a proper meal in a couple days,” Laurie noted, looking towards the nearby cafe.

Luci followed her gaze, and a smile flickered over her face. “You look like it. Okay, don’t go nuts in there, but I can credit you a meal as we talk.” She turned to Clarke. “You in, or should I recap later?”

“You know I hate getting mixed up in your extracurricular activities, Luce,” Clarke answered, adjusting his glasses. “Plus I’ll never be able to follow your temporal talk. Call me once you know for sure.” He turned to Frank, hesitated, then extended his palm to shake. “I know I ended up acting pretty weird here, but… it was good to see you again. Really.”

“Right,” Frank said, shaking back, even as he wondered as to Clarke’s wistful tone of voice.

He watched as the tall blonde moved to start uncoupling their Chevy from his truck. “Actually, Phil,” Luci broke in, “since you’re set up, could you tow that over to the warehouse? I can give these three a lift to wherever they want after we eat.”

Clarke turned. “Luce…"

“You don’t mind do you?” Luci said, eyeing Frank. “It’ll stand out like a sore thumb in this time period, and maybe our techs can fix it.”

“Techs?” Frank wondered.

A smile tugged at the older Luci’s face. “I’m connected.”

Frank wished he knew more about this future. “You can take it on condition that no one messes with it unless me, Tim or Laurie are present. If our histories have diverged, it could contain information you’re not ready for yet.”

She thought on that for a moment. “Fair. Phil?”

“I can take it over, but then I wash my hands of the whole deal. Except for the phone call you owe me.”

“Also fair,” Luci agreed. “In fact, I’ll owe you a favour too.”

Clarke chuckled. “Fine. I’ll call it in next time I need medical assistance.”

Tim turned to Luci. “Oh, are you a doctor? Because I might need some medication.”

She nodded back. “I have a day job. For now, let’s go talk.”

Laurie raised her hand. “Can I get my suitcase of clothing and art supplies out of the Chevy’s trunk first?”

Luci, as it turned out, couldn’t remember a whole lot about high school. The major events had stuck with her over time, and seemed to have transpired the same way Frank knew them - namely Carrie getting them involved in time travel, Corry’s flyer about Julie’s past prompting the theft of the time machine, and Glen showing up in their senior year. But when they delved a bit deeper, the inconsistencies surfaced.

“I was never artificially aged,” Luci asserted. “And Linquist didn’t hide out, when he sold the mansion it was to live in a smaller house in town instead. One that most people avoided.”

“But if that’s so, then when did you tell me you, uh, had feelings for me?” Frank pressed.

Luci swallowed. “After Carrie got shot by Julie,” she admitted. “It helped me realize how little time all of us have.” She bit down on her lip. The way she was reacting towards him… Frank shook it off.

“So that’s a change of maybe two weeks,” Frank decided. “What else happened around that time… the drugs in Carrie’s locker?”

“Oh right,” Luci recalled. “Yeah, that set up the whole Carrie-Chartreuse dynamic, since they both got detentions.”

“Wait, so they started dating then?”

Luci laughed. “WOW, no. But Carrie did do some strong-arming, and Chartreuse eventually fell for her in a Stockholm Syndrome kind of way.”

“Okay, that might be a parallel…" Frank let out a breath, glancing towards Tim and Laurie.

Tim shrugged. “You’re kinda before my involvement. I’ll shout if I hear something wrong.”

Laurie looked up from the menu, which Luci had downloaded into her device upon entry, and had then offered to share around the table. “Ditto. And what are ‘spam tacos’?”

“Like fish tacos, but vegetarian,” Luci said absently. “Frank, are you trying to pin down a specific event in Carrie’s past?”

“Yes, and I kind of think I know what it is now,” he admitted. “As much as I don’t want to admit it. Luci, after the locker drugs, do you know if Carrie came to see me? If she ended up apologizing to me for everything, and crying on my shoulder in the park?”

Luci flinched back. “Big no, unless that’s something you never told me about. Rather, she cut off everybody, and practically blackmailed the both of us into fixing the time machine. With the intent to, as I later learned, go after her mother. Probably would have done it too, if she hadn’t been shot first.”

“So it’s Theresa,” Frank sighed. Carrie had said something to him in the days following their park encounter, about having had a talk with Theresa. Who was Mindylenopia. Except, she wouldn’t be.

“Who’s Theresa?” Luci questioned, as if to verify his fears.

He might as well just ask. “Luci, in this future… did I die? Back in the past? And is that when Carrie and Glen left town?”

Luci bit down on her lip again. “Yeah,” she admitted, her voice suddenly quiet. “Over a month before you claim to have travelled here. Hence our skepticism and whole ‘this is impossible’ angle.”

Frank slumped down in his chair. That explained it.

Somehow, they had ended up in the future of “Timeline Three”.

NEXT: Timeline Three

ASIDE: How about them apples, huh? Now you have to wait until Friday for a new post. Feel free to comment in the meantime.

PREVIOUSLY: A fifty-year old Carrie has abducted her teenaged self. Characters have pursued her from their past… to the uncertain future.

PART 88b: FUTURE IMPERFECT

And Carrie felt the time streams pulling at them, and there was nothing her friends could do, she was being pulled away, pulled off into the future, down a path that had no turns…

Wait, could she move? Was Elder Carrie losing her grip? Her fingers twitched, but no, that wasn’t enough, she was unable to pull away… a single tear trickled out of the corner of her eye, as Carrie Waterson, the future Temporal Weapon, surrendered herself to the inevitable. Her hands slipping into her jacket pockets.

Which was where she felt a hard object. Of course - it was the meditation crystal. The one Chartreuse had given her yesterday, or rather the day of the talent show. Carrie had brought it along with her, feeling like it might help her to feel connected to Chartreuse… and by extension all of the other people she had been hoping to protect. But she had failed them. She had failed them all. Even her parents.

Carrie’s fingers curled around the crystal object, aware that more tears were coming. Because here she was, at the mercy of her Future Self, being time shifted into Her Future… a future where Carrie would never see her parents, her friends, or that one ray of sunshine - her once possible girlfriend - ever again.

“CARRIE!”

Oh no, now she was imagining Chartreuse’s voice in her head.

“Carrie, are you there?! We don’t, like, have much time, but PLEASE hear me, there’s something you’ve gotta do!”

Frank gently tapped at Laurie’s face until she murmured and her eyes blinked open. She immediately sat up, seemingly registering how he’d taken her out of the time car, to be laid in a field. “What happened?” the redhead gasped. “Did it work? Are we in the future?”

Frank nodded. “We… think so. The time circuits shorted out.” He looked towards Tim, who was pacing around the car. It sat a short distance away, in the same field. “Anything?”

Tim shook his head. “No sign that we were hit. But you’re right, the trip didn’t feel like the previous ones, and I thought I saw sparks through the windshield before I blacked out.”

Laurie looked back and forth between them. “What? Problem with the length of the jump? The fact that it was trying to orient on a future me? Something else?”

“No idea,” Frank said. “We’ve done even crazier things than what you’ve described, and never experienced a jolt like that. So I can’t explain it.”

Laurie shivered. “There’s patches of snow out here,” she realized. “This weather is is a far cry from Miami.” She peered through the dusk towards a nearby rural road. “But at the same time, it all seems weirdly normal, huh?”

Frank reached out a hand to help Laurie to her feet, which she accepted. “I’m guessing we’re back in Ontario,” he observed. “But there’s no way to be sure.”

Laurie began to brush herself off. “No, I meant, if this is the future that Glen and Mindy were talking about, the one with the temporal war, it looks normal instead of more… more… golly, I don’t know.”

“Post-apocalyptic?” Tim suggested, approaching.

“Different,” Laurie decided.

Tim chuckled. “W-Well, we have yet to look around. Though after four time trips, I see the car still hasn’t managed to arrive on a road… boy, s-so much for the practical aspects of a time machine vehicle, huh?”

Laurie smiled back. “We’re in the future. Maybe we can get a hover conversion, like in the movies.”

“Hah!” Frank said, smiling too. “I’ve never seen the sense in flying cars. Unless you’ve got something like an airport control tower, there’s no practical way to avoid mid-air collisions.” He turned back to the road, spotting a vehicle turning the corner. It was going to drive right past them. “Uh oh. I hope that’s not a future version of us.”

“H-Hide?” Tim asked. “Or ask for h-help?”

Laurie scrambled to get over to the side of the road. “Oh, they’re gonna see the car anyway.” She waved. “And I think that’s a tow truck!”

“Help then,” Tim concluded. He looked at Frank. “Because I d-don’t think we want to split ourselves up OR leave the time machine alone in the middle of this field.”

“Still…“ Frank grimaced, then sighed. “Okay, I yield. Let’s flag it down.”

They stood by the side of the road, the tow truck slowing as it approached. It probably would have stopped even if Laurie hadn’t been jumping up and down with her arms in the air. Frank barely had a chance to register the logo for ‘Sam & Al’s Garage’ on the door before it opened and a blonde haired man in his late forties or early fifties jumped down out of the cab.

“Hey,” the guy said with a wave, slamming the door behind him. He pushed a pair of glasses up higher on his nose and adjusted his cap. “Lucky break for you guys that I was driving by. What’s the… trouble… damn. Is that an old Chevy?!”

“Yeah. We’re not from around here,” Frank said. He wondered why the blonde guy’s voice sounded familiar. “Plus our vehicle might have sustained damage, so I’m nervous about starting it up. Could you maybe give it a quick once over?”

“Amazing. I haven’t worked on one of these since my senior year of high school,” the blonde said, letting out a low whistle. He walked over to run his fingers over the hood. “How did a bunch of teenagers get their hands on…" He paused, looking at them a bit more closely. His eyes gradually widened. “No. No, it can’t be you. This is impossible.”

“Clarke?” Laurie ventured. “Clarke, is that you?”

That’s when Frank caught the resemblance. Laurie was right. This man could definitely be Phil Clarke, over thirty years later.

“Laurie? Tim?!” The tow truck operator looked from the both of them over to Frank, and then took a couple steps backwards. “No! How can you all be here - looking like THAT? None of you ever… we never… what date are you all FROM?!”

Frank looked over at his companions. Could they trust this version of Clarke? Then again, did they have much of a choice at this point? “December,” he offered. He provided the year, and when it looked like Clarke was trying to do mental math, he added, “Your aforementioned senior year of high school.”

Clarke shook his head. “Impossible. That’s impossible. That’s…" He stepped forward, and reached out to poke at Frank’s shoulder, tentatively, as if wondering if his hand would go right through. When they made contact, Clarke recoiled, then turned and headed back for the truck.

“W-Wait,” Tim protested. “Clarke, we’ve landed in an unknown future, we need a hand here!”

“I have to make a phone call first,” he shouted back. The cab door slammed shut. Moments later, it lit up inside, as if Clarke had a very bright phone engaged where he was hunched over.

“Are we in trouble?” Laurie wondered.

“Clarke’s m-my friend,” Tim insisted. “Whatever he’s doing, it will help us.”

Frank was getting an uneasy feeling. “I hate to say it but… based on that reaction… maybe we don’t end up returning to our present? Or at least, not to our home town?”

“Why wouldn’t we go back home?” Laurie demanded.

Tim flinched. ”Because Clarke’s acting like he hasn’t seen us in thirty years,” he deduced. “Oh no. Does the present think we died?”

“Then again,” Frank continued, “maybe Clarke’s shock is simply the result of some Temporal wiping our memories. Meaning we’ll be unable to tell the present about this trip, and as such, we’re very unexpected.”

“So we CAN get home?” Laurie asked, wringing her hands.

“I thought a Temporal’s m-mental influence faded over time,” Tim objected. “Unless we WANT to f-forget, like Clarke’s sister. S-So why would we want to f-forget this?”

Frank winced. “I don’t know. Though Carrie’s memory wiping? That would last, from what we know of her impact on Shady.”

Tim frowned. “S-So you’re s-saying Carrie might end up tampering with our…"

“Know what?” Laurie interrupted. “Maybe we simply NEVER talk about this to anyone. Because all your talky alternatives sound awful.”

Frank exhaled. “Maybe that.”

Clarke looked out at them from behind the tow truck’s windshield, shook his head, and a moment later, the glow surrounding him disappeared. He reopened the door, adjusting his hat again. “Okay guys. Let’s have a look at that Chevy.”

“I-Is everything okay, Clarke?” Tim asked.

The blonde hesitated, then nodded. “It will be. And hey, call me Phil, all right?” He gave the group a tentative smile.

“So this car… it’s your time machine?”

“Yeah,” Frank affirmed. “Do you see anything wrong with it?”

Clarke poked his head back under the hood. Tim felt worried - based on Clarke’s reactions to this point, Frank’s theories about memory manipulation seemed valid. Because while Clarke remembered the Chevy, he didn’t seem to remember converting it into a time machine.

Then again, maybe when you got old, you forgot about a lot of childhood stuff? Except their temporal activities seemed like the sort of thing you’d remember. Unless Clarke hadn’t helped with the time machine car in their present after all… but then, what else could he have been doing at Julie’s for most of December? With a sigh, Tim decided to stop speculating.

“I don’t think the car’s about to explode when you start it up,” Clarke concluded. He straightened, and dropped the hood back in place. “Man, I miss having them this easy to diagnose. These days, cars mostly drive themselves, to the point where you have no idea what the issue is if they grind to a stop.” He pulled a rag out of his pocket to clean his hands. “Granted, as far the time machine pieces go, that’s beyond my understanding.”

“But don’t time machines exist now?” Laurie wondered.

Clarke shrugged. “Not in cars. And there’s no ‘For Dummies’ books about them. The technology is highly regulated, and to handle security leaks, the ‘net was flooded with misinformation, things designed to blow you up before you could ever manage to create a time distortion.”

“So time travel isn’t d-done by the general public?” Tim mused.

“Nope,” Clarke affirmed. “Not since… well… yeah, I probably shouldn’t be giving out future information. Even if…“ He glanced at Frank. “Damn, I am SO out of my depth here. But if you’re willing, I had hoped to bring you to someone who could help. She’s the person I phoned when I first realized who you were.”

“Oh! Is it Carrie?” Laurie asked.

Clarke visibly shuddered. “Hell no, not her. Not Carrie. You will know this person though. I think. Which is probably all I should say until we’re there.” He glanced at the Chevy. “You want to try driving it and follow me? Or shall I tow? I’d recommend the latter, since there’s room for everyone in the truck, and I wager this thing’s still running on regular unleaded gasoline. No point draining the tank.”

Frank rubbed his neck. “Tow then, I guess. Except where is this person you’d be taking us to? For that matter, where are we now?”

Clarke thought for a moment. “You’d realize soon enough. We’re a little ways outside Ottawa. That’s where we’re headed.”

Laurie did a double take. “Wow. Is Ottawa still the capital of Canada?”

Clarke nodded. “Yeah.”

“Hold on.” Frank pulled Mindy’s piece of paper back out of his pocket and looked at it. “That means we’re in the 613 area code. This string of ten digits… it could be a phone number.”

“Ten digits… an old school phone number?” Clarke said. “You’re just full of surprises. I mean, the system’s backwards compatible, so whatever you have should still work, but who are you planning to contact thirty years out of date?”

“I won’t know until I try it,” Frank admitted. “Can we use your phone?”

Clarke tugged on the brim of his hat. “Depends,” he said. “Will it get me in trouble?”

“I’ll hang up if it’s someone problematic,” Frank assured him. He looked to Tim. “But there’s a chance I’ll need your linguistic expertise.”

Tim nodded, closing the distance between them.

Clarke frowned, but reached into his pocket to pull out a small device. “All right. Phone,” he said. The bright light from earlier returned, and this time Tim saw that a holographic keyboard had been illuminated in the air. Clarke moved his fingers around the virtual image. “I’m keying in audio only, anonymous guest, location tracking off,” he noted. “Keep the call short. Not because I don’t have the bandwidth, but because I feel like we don’t want to be noticed.”

Clarke swiped left, and the keyboard image resolved itself into that of a virtual numerical pad instead. It included buttons to dial and hang up. “There.” He placed the small device into Frank’s palm, then turned. “I don’t even want to know what you say, so Laurie, care to help me position things for the tow?”

As Clarke went to join the redheaded girl, Tim looked down at the device, then up at Frank. “Who do you think will answer?” he murmured.

Frank eyed Mindy’s note. “I figure maybe it’s whomever helped Mindylenopia get back to the past in the first place. And maybe that person has information we need about Carrie - except maybe they only speak Temporal.”

“L-Lots of maybes,” Tim observed.

Frank nodded. “Translate if you can?”

Tim nodded back, and Frank reached up to tap experimentally at the holographic keypad, keying in the ten digits. After a series of clicks, there was a buzzing noise that Frank took to be equivalent to a ring. Almost immediately, a familiar sounding female voice came on the line, demanding, “Who is this and how in hell did you get the number?!”

They both recognized the voice, Frank’s eyes going wide. “Mindylenopia?!” he blurted out.

NEXT: Identity Crisis

ASIDE: In case you missed it, there was an amusing ‘April Fool Update’ yesterday, written by Michael F. Read that to get a sense of why Clarke wouldn’t want to contact Carrie here (even though his story is not in continuity, it’s semi-accurate). Commentary coming tomorrow, regular schedule resumes Tuesday, want to vote for T&T?

PREVIOUSLY: A fifty-year old Carrie has abducted her teenaged self. Characters have pursued her from their past… to the uncertain future.

PART 88b: A FUTURE DARKLY

Elder Carrie bit her lower lip in amusement as the Temporal in front of her was fidgeting in his seat. It was clear that Glen was nervous, his body language was broadcasting it aggressively. Elder Carrie took a moment to appreciate that, this was not a side of Glen that she had seen often, but it had confirmed the change of roles in their relationship: Carrie was in control. Carrie was in charge. The best part of this is that Glen knew he was in trouble.

Elder Carrie locked eyes with Glen as she removed her coat, without blinking she hung it on her new “coat rack” and watched as Glen flinched.

“Is this making you uncomfortable?” Elder Carrie asked, motioning to the “coat rack”.

“I don’t think it is tasteful,” Glen responded, avoiding further eye contact. “I think it’s a little cruel,” he continued.

“Cruel?” replied the Elder Carrie. “Coming from YOU that’s a laugh. Cruel was you changing my childhood, cruel was you letting my past self know about about my sibling prematurely!” Her voice cracked with emotion. “What is ‘cruel’, Glinephanis, is that we got here because I trusted you, and you proved to be incompetent.”

An awkward silence fell on the two time travelers. As Glen looked down on the floor in guilt, abandoning his usual confidant demeanor, Elder Carrie poured herself another glass of wine and let her arm fall on the “coat rack” showily. She let the rack hold her weight and leaned on it as she swirled the wine in her glass playfully.

“This,” she said motioning to the “coat rack” once again, “is nothing compared to the trouble you have put me in.”

Glen could no longer avoid her gaze and finally yielded. He gazed up to see that right next to the mirthful and half drunk smile of Elder Carrie was the horrified and painful face of her younger counterpart. Carrie Waterson, the young Carrie Waterson, was frozen in place, trapped in time by her future self. The once powerful, albeit naive teen was powerless in the face of an older version of herself that had both more experience, and better control of her powers. She was now frozen in place, being forced to act as a makeshift coat rack. Glen could see the plea in her eyes.

“It is still pretty distasteful,” the Temporal finally managed. “How much longer are we going to have to keep her like this?”

The Elder Carrie stopped swirling her wine and looked at her younger self contemplatively. In a swift motion she grabbed a hat off of the sofa Glen was sitting on and rested it on the younger Carrie’s outreached hand, then took a step back and admired her work. “I’m not sure,” she replied, “call me an egotist but I am growing quite fond of myself as a coat rack.” The Elder Carrie took a sip of wine. “I really do just tie the room together.”

The Elder Carrie was taken aback now as the tone in Glen’s voice changed to annoyance. “I think you have misunderstood me, when I said it was not tasteful or cruel I was not talking about her treatment…”

“Go on”, said the Elder Carrie.

“I was talking about her style. The airport uniform she is wearing, it just does not go properly with the drapes,” continued Glen.

The Elder Carrie had not expected this, and was earnestly offended by Glen’s assault on her interior decorating skills. “What are you talking about?!” she snarled.

“The drapes Carrie, they clash with her navy blue, black and yellow vertical stripes just do not mesh well, either change her clothes or change the drapes.”

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to change the clothing of someone frozen this stiff?!” The Elder Carrie countered.

“Fine, then change the drapes, I said you could do one or the other!” Glen retorted.

She winced. “No. NO! I stand by those drapes, they are little unconventional–”

“A little unconventional?” Glen interrupted “They have black and yellow vertical stripes, Carrie! You might as well have lined your living room with ‘caution tape’ because that’s what it looks like!” The Temporal was out of breath.

She finished her glass of wine in protest and pointed at the drapes in fury. “They were CHEAP Glen, I am not spending a fortune on something that just blocks out light!”

“Well that’s the problem, isn’t it Carrie? Everything has got to be cheap with you! You can’t spend the extra money to get some drapes that aren’t an eyesore and you can’t even spend some money on a real coat rack. A coat rack left out on the street would be a better option if you are being so frugal!”

“WHAT?!” she screamed, “and get bed bugs? You know how dangerous discarded furniture is, Glen! At least I know where this one has been.”

In her fury, Elder Carrie lost concentration on her younger counterpart, giving her just a moment to plea, “Help me Glen please!” before being frozen back into place.

“Stay out of this,” The Elder Carrie sneered.

Glen looked on Carrie with exasperation and said: “Thank you, she wasn’t even contributing to the conversation!”

“I know right?” replied The Elder Carrie. “She just rudely interrupted us without saying a thing about the drapes!”

Glen frowned. “Why do we fight like this? It’s just furniture.”

“I don’t know, Glinephanis,” Elder Carrie sighed. “I guess the drapes are really not all that important. I’m sorry. We can replace them with the bright red ones with the paisleys you liked.”

“Those paisleys are going to clash too,” said Glen with his arms crossed.

“WILL NOTHING PLEASE YOU?!” the Elder Carrie shouted.

“A basic sense of décor will! A simple and basic sense of décor! Why is that so hard to ask for?!” countered Glen.

A single solitary tear ran down the frozen Carrie’s eye.

“Look, she’s crying, now she is far less appealing as a coat rack!” said Glen impatiently.

The Elder Carrie opened her mouth as if to say something when she was suddenly hit with an epiphany. Running over to the nearest lamp, the Elder Carrie removed the lamp shade and placed in on her younger self’s head, obscuring her tears and horrified expression. “What do you think Glen?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Glen said positively. “Yeah! I think that works! She is much better looking as a lamp, plus that black lamp shade actually goes well with the drapes!”

“And you doubted my sense of décor!” the Elder Carrie said playfully. Glen smiled back at her and poured a glass of wine for himself and for Elder Carrie. They clinked their glasses together as the tension between them softened. “You know,” said Glen, “if you can keep her like this I can glue a light fixture to her head and then she would be a functioning lamp.”

“There is no need Glen, my past self was always pretty bright…”

^.- APRIL FOOL. ^.-

Gregory Taylor, who normally writes this story, has today created their own entry for Unice5656 who normally writes “Fantasia”, so you can go check that out next. (I’ll post a direct link to my post there once I’m awake.)

For a full list of all six April Fool’s Swappers and their stories, as well as dozens of other serial novels that you might enjoy, check out the Web Fiction Guide Forums.

Thanks for reading, and remember, the best way to support your favourite serial novelist is to tell all your friends about them!

NEXT: The real 88b, “Future Imperfect”, posts TOMORROW. Then a Commentary Post on Monday!

ASIDE: Hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I did. With no prompting, Michael actually nailed some elements of Future Carrie’s personality pretty well… I’ll leave it to you to decide which ones, as before we officially meet the older Carrie again, we’ll get some future context. Oh, care to vote for T&T at TWF?

PREVIOUSLY: An older Carrie abducted her teenaged self, took Glen, and killed Mindy. Leaving Frank, Laurie and Tim stuck in the past.

PART 88a: GETAWAY

Laurie felt like she had become the most stable person of their tiny time group. That in itself was freaking her out, and yet in the same way that Tim had said that focussing on her had helped him, it was by focussing on Tim and Frank that she seemed to be able to quell any panic attacks over Carrie’s abduction and Mindy’s apparent demise.

They had made tracks after the car explosion. Found their way to a Miami hostel, pooled their money (admittedly Canadian funds, with only some of it valid in this time) and pleaded their case. Anne, the desk clerk, had taken pity on them, and given them some beds.

Laurie had heard Frank crying for the first time that night. He’d kept quiet about it the following day, but it seemed to her that he was becoming emotionally unstable. Pinning all his hopes on whatever note Mindy had given him, though as per her instructions, he was waiting the requisite two days before looking at it. To honour what may have been the Temporal’s last request.

By contrast, Tim was shutting down. Resigning himself to the fact that they were trapped out of their time. He had initially brought along enough of his medications to last four days, yet he was now looking into ways of getting those over-the-counter drugs while stuck in the past. Along with investigating how they might find jobs. His practicality was becoming a counterpoint to Frank’s desperation.

Laurie felt stuck somewhere between them. She had to believe there was a way out - she HAD to! - because time travel existed. She couldn’t even completely accept Mindy’s death, because again, time travel. Yet at the same time, Laurie was reluctant to place all of her faith on Mindy’s note.

To that end, on the morning of the second day, Laurie travelled back to her old house. It occurred to her that, if she could somehow send a message forwards using her younger self, at least Luci or one of the others would eventually know about the situation. How would that help? She wasn’t sure. In fact, in the end, she hadn’t been sure how to manage it.

“So what d-did you d-do?” Tim asked her.

Laurie finished chewing her half of the granola bar, which was effectively their dinner, and swallowed. “Nothing,” she answered. “I stared at our Miami house, then walked away.” She looked across the street, to where Frank was staring into space. “I’m telling you because, well, maybe suggesting it to Frank is an option? Tomorrow morning, after whatever fallout he feels from that note?”

“C-Could do,” Tim yielded. “Might help keep him going. Yeah, that’s a good idea, Laurie.”

Laurie bit down on her lower lip. “I mean, I’m not delusional, am I? There… there IS a way out of this, right?”

Tim sighed. “I don’t know. I haven’t felt this messed up since Julie sprang her whole ‘get the chip’ mission on me.” Tim reached out to pat her knee. “But know what, Laurie? I’m glad you’ve got a plan. Your hope helps give me hope.”

Laurie felt a smile flicker across her face. “I just want to get home.” She squirmed. “Or failing that, at least get into a change of clothes. These ones are getting gross.”

Tim nodded. “I hear that. Pity our car blew up. You were the most prepared of any of us, what with having a whole art camp bag packed.”

Laurie slumped. “And now I’m gonna need to buy new coloured pencils when we get home. The good ones aren’t cheap.”

“Right. Sorry for bringing that up.” Tim withdrew his palm.

“No, it’s fine,” Laurie said, reaching back to grasp his hand. “Speak your mind. Be true to yourself! That’s what I’m trying to do here.” She forced a smile back out. “It’s only, the thing that’s making this all feel so weird? Is that you’re the ones who came into the past to recruit me. So I feel like you should kinda be the smarter ones in terms of figuring out how to resolve this kind of situation. You know?”

Tim shook his head. “Intelligence and wisdom are two different things. You are wise, Laurie, in your own way. Seeing the best in people and situations. In fact, your optimism reminds me of Clarke’s… except it’s somehow a lot more infectious than it is with him.”

Laurie nodded, then as an afterthought squeezed Tim’s hand, until he smiled back at her. The both of them then turned their attention back to Frank, who remained staring at the darkening sky.

“It’s time,” Frank said. He looked away from his watch, which synched to local time now read 11:30pm, and towards his two time travel companions instead. Their faces were partially illuminated by the streetlight above. “I… I just want to say, if this note thing doesn’t work out, I really am SO sorry to have dragged you both into–"

“Frank, stop.”

He blinked at Laurie. “I’m sorry?”

“And AGAIN you’re sorry,” she pointed out. She stepped closer. “Stop saying that. It’s actually beginning to bug me! You’ve been like this for the last 48 hours, talking to us like we didn’t want to be here. Sure, it’s not what we expected, but golly, no one ever held a gun to my head. We came here for Carrie. We did our best. This trip is what it is, Frank, and if you apologize again for something so obviously outside of your control, I’m gonna… gonna slap sense into you. So help me, I will!”

Frank gaped at her for a second, not sure how to respond. He looked over towards Tim, who smiled and shrugged back. “Her Veniti attitude is coming through, Frank. She’ll do it.”

“Um. Well, okay then. No apologies. Only this note.” He thrust his hand into his pocket. He felt the paper there, hesitated, then slowly drew it out. He fingered the edge of the sheet. “Dammit, I feel like this is Mindy’s last will and testament or something…"

“So let’s see what she wanted us to have,” Tim soothed.

Frank nodded. Carefully, he unfolded the page and smoothed it out on his leg. The other two leaned in to see. The scrawled handwriting read: ‘Tim has the coin. Laurie has the key. Frank, set March 25, 7pm.' It was followed by a string of ten digits.

They stared for a moment.

“The coin?” Frank murmured, looking to Tim.

Tim stared back, then reached for his back pocket. “I r-remember what Mindy said to me now!” he gasped.

“Tim, come with me, stammer a lot and make writing motions. We’ll ask that businessman to lend us his pad.”

“B-B-But,” Tim began again.

“Good, like that,” Mindy asserted. “Frank, wait here a moment with Laurie,” she added, practically dragging Tim towards the guy in the suit who was scribbling something in a book as he talked on his cell phone.

As she did so, she leaned down to whisper to him. “I have something for you.” She pressed the coin into Tim’s hand. He blinked in surprise, looking down at it. “Put that in your back pocket,” Mindy continued. “Do NOT spend it. In fact, forget all about it until Frank mentions it. Our survival may depend on it.”

Tim shook his head. “Mindy, HOW? This c-coin is from–”

“Shhhh!” Mindy cut in. “I know. Fun fact, the guy you call Shady, the one who activated Carrie’s powers? I managed to steal his future currency. And for over three years now, I’ve kept that coin on my person - now you must do so in my place. Okay?"

“Um, okay…?”

“Now seriously, stammer something."

“B-B-B-But,” Tim began anew, that request becoming a tired refrain.

They had reached the businessman, and Mindy quickly negotiated for some sheets of paper and a spare pen from his pocket. She began to scribble on the sheet as she walked back. “Hey, I thought the kid needed it to communicate!” the businessman protested, before giving up and returning to his phone call.

Frank felt his heart rate quicken as Tim explained. “So when Mindy says the key,” Frank decided as Tim finished, “did she mean a literal…”

He turned to look at Laurie, only to see that she was staring at him, a surprised expression on her face, and a car key dangling from a loop of wire in her fingers.

Mindy grabbed Laurie by the arm, maneuvering her out of the room, leaving Tim to deal with Frank kneeling on the ground.

“Laurie, I’m giving you something very important right now,” Mindy said, pressing the object into her hands. “Don’t look at it, simply carry it with you. Secretly. You’ll know when to bring it back out. In the meantime, you’ll have to be strong - but I know you can be. And no matter what anyone says, for the next couple days, you will never lose hope. You understand me?”

“Ah, s-sure,” Laurie said, taken aback by the urgency of Mindy’s tone. “But Mindy, it feels like you handed over–"

“Shhhh!” Mindy smiled. “Turns out it’s a good thing I swapped licence plates to throw Glen off our trail. Now, forget for two days, since as of right now, we’ve got to move.”

Frank and Tim quickly caught up to the two of them in the corridor.

Laurie gasped. “That’s why it felt wrong. When Mindy was going for the car. Because back then, I was the one with…"

“Don’t say it,” Frank broke in. “Not out loud. Objects back in pockets.” He shoved the paper back into his own pants. “We play it casual, like Mindy wanted. We can check this out tomorrow.”

“What? Frank, why wait??” Tim protested.

“We might only have one shot at this,” Frank explained, forcing his mind to shift back into gear. “And even if Mindy drew Elder Carrie’s attention, maybe the future is still tracking us. Expecting something like this, something to be triggered two days later. So we don’t let it play out tonight. We can’t make this easy for those future trackers.”

Laurie nibbled on her lower lip uncertainly, exchanging a glance with Tim, who shrugged. “He’s the time expert,” the blonde boy yielded.

They made their way back to the Miami airport the following afternoon, all of them hungry and tired. “Mindy’s choice of a Chevy was fortunate,” Frank murmured as they regarded the parking lot. “There were a bunch of them in the States around this time. I only hope we haven’t been towed."

It took about ten minutes of searching, but a shout by Tim brought them running. The Ontario plates had been swapped out for Florida ones - of course, since it had been an Ontario registration that had blown up over two days ago now - but through the driver’s side window, the interior looked just as they remembered it. The time machine was intact.

The trio stood there for a moment, letting it sink in. Frank slowly exhaled. “I guess it could be booby trapped, but there’s no point leaving it here. If you want, you two can head back to a safe distance while I start the car up.”

“Don’t start it,” Laurie suggested. “Use my key to unlock, you set the date, drop Tim’s coin in, and we go.”

Frank blinked. “Good point.”

Tim fished Mindy’s coin back out of his pocket. “Do we really use this though? Our stuff must still be in the trunk, including our coins. We could use one of them to return to the present. To recruit more help.”

Frank shook his head. “If Elder Carrie is the one gaining control over things, the only hope we have against her is OUR Carrie. And in order to get to that Carrie before the older version can solidify her position, I think we go straight to the date Mindy’s provided. No side trips.”

“Right.” Tim rubbed his forehead. “At l-least Chartreuse saying I’d be using Temporal in the future m-makes sense now.”

“Frank, how can you be so sure OUR Carrie will be at that date?” Laurie pressed.

Frank exhaled. “I can’t be. But the date Mindy said to set? Coupled with the coin, it’s the night before Carrie’s fiftieth birthday. That can’t be coincidence.” He turned. “If you’d prefer to wait here though…"

Laurie shook her head. “I didn’t say that.”

“L-Let’s do this,” Tim agreed.

Carefully, the three of them piled into the time machine. Laurie in the driver’s seat, Frank tapping in the coordinates from the passenger side, and Tim in the back. They dropped in the future coin. Then they all eyed the DNA pad. Frank cleared his throat. “So, which one of us…"

Laurie reached out, pressing her thumb against it. “Like riding a bicycle,” she breathed.

Three seconds later, there was a popping sound, the car vanished… and it immediately spun, as if it the front had been struck by a heavy object. Frank grabbed for the dashboard, despite that not making sense, because he couldn’t move, couldn’t grab, they were being dematerialized in a wormhole, and how could they even be in a car accident there?

He opened his mouth to shout, but he couldn’t do that either, and for the first time in over a year, Frank felt himself losing consciousness on account of a time journey.

NEXT: A Future Darkly

ASIDE: Hope that didn’t feel like a cheat - you knew as much as the characters did. Now, to the future…

PREVIOUSLY: Frank caught Carrie up on everything. Then Glen told Carrie why she can’t save her mother.

PART 87b: TRAPPED

She had allowed the time stream to coalesce about her, had been about to pinpoint her mother and jump to her, which was when…

“Carrie, when your mother was taken, she was pregnant.”

The water became deathly cold. Cracks formed in the scene around her, and then the image shattered, leaving Carrie standing back in the small airport lounge, staring at Glen. With a twisting in her gut. “No,” she whispered. A reflex word, because deep down, she knew it to be the truth.

Things were starting to make sense.

“I’m sorry,” Glen said. He looked around. “Carrie, maybe we can still run away together."

That time in the hospital, when she had felt like she and her mother couldn’t both exist, because of a strain on the time streams… it had actually been because she and a sibling couldn’t both exist. One person with temporal powers was bad enough, to have two?! Insanity. Why had nobody ever told her this?

“My Dad… did he…"

Glen shook his head. “He didn’t know. Elaine was barely a month along, I’m not sure if she even suspected.” He continued to look around nervously. “Carrie, please, we need to get out of here.”

The repercussions continued to wash over her. If she saved her mother, all she was doing was pushing her fate onto her unborn brother or sister. Removing herself from the timeline as a child wouldn’t fix things either. The future could simply try again, with someone else. How could she do that? How could she make someone else suffer in the same way that she was suffering here? How could she make a SIBLING suffer that way? Was the path forwards with Glen truly the only one?

Glen pulled at her arm. “Carrie…"

She ignored him. There was something more to this. Why hadn’t she been able to pinpoint where her mother had gone, that time she had first tried to figure it out? Why hadn’t she ever been able to learn the fate of Elaine Waterson? The only one who might have been able to stop her would be someone with similar powers…

A rip began to form in the fabric of space-time.

“I did it to myself,” Carrie realized. “I can’t save my mama, because I’m the one who’s going to abduct her. Along with my unborn sibling, in order to stabilize the timelines. I do it because… because I was always predestined to do it. I’m the Chosen One, the ONLY one with the power to do it and hide the truth, so it has to be me.”

“Bloody hell,” Glen gasped.

A fifty year old Carrie Waterson stepped through the rip in space-time, dressed in a bright yellow gown, and looking royally pissed off.

“Glen’s up here,” Frank asserted, looking down at the tracking device as he ran. “In a room, it’s probably some lounge area.”

“Stop,” Mindy asserted, reaching out to grasp him by the shoulder.

Frank shrugged her off. But when he turned to look at the redhead, his feet stumbled to a stop, not having expected the look of horror on Mindy’s face. Tim and Laurie stopped also, looking back and forth between them.

“What?” Frank asked. “What, are we too late?”

“Maybe,” Mindy said. “Let’s approach cautiously, okay? Listen at the door first. There’s…" She shook her head. “You ever get the feeling that your past has finally caught up with you? Even if that past is the future?”

Carrie couldn’t move. She wanted to scream, wanted to run, wanted to lash out at the older version of herself - and she couldn’t. She was trapped. But then, in a way, they were both trapped, trapped by time, by fate, by the cosmic forces that refused to cut her a break. Insanely, the thought that popped to the forefront of her mind was how at least her present day three-year-old self was tucked away safely in bed - so which of them here in Miami should be adopting the middle-name tradition of becoming Elizabeth?

“You have irrevocably screwed up my past!” Elder Carrie said, glaring at Glen. “That’s NOT why I sent you back, Glinephanis!”

He winced. “You, that is, she– Carrie, your younger self was about to time slip, and mess with your mother. Telling her the truth, it was our last chance.”

“She wasn’t jaded enough for that knowledge. Not as this teenager! Even now, she’s trying to figure out a way out of this one.”

Glen swallowed. “Which you know, because you were once her?”

“Which I know because it’s taking considerable effort to keep myself temporally numb. Plus yes, it’s what I would be thinking in her position.” Elder Carrie bared her teeth. “You broke her, Glinephanis. Broke ME. She will still have been me though. I’ll now have to see to it personally.”

“I’m sorry,” Glen apologized.

Elder Carrie glared at him for a moment, then shook her head, brushing her hair off her shoulder. “Oh, it wasn’t your fault. You did your best. I know who’s really to blame - it’s these stupid Mundanes and that damnable Mindylenopia! They’re all dooming my childhood.” She peered at him. “Perhaps you can still be a bright spot in my younger self’s life though? Will you come with me now? Some of my memories could remain valid, not be inserted by force.”

Glen nodded slowly. “I’m with you to the end. But Carrie, there are more time travellers here in Miami. Mindylenopia and a number of your old classmates. We all came in a time car. They might still try something.”

A growl came from the Elder Carrie’s throat. “Fine, I will deal with them as soon as I get my younger self here restrained back in my present. Grab hold, we’re leaving.”

Carrie felt her future self (or alternate future self, maybe, somehow? Oh God… so trapped…) grab her by the collar. And Glen latched onto Elder Carrie’s arm, and then they were all being pulled back towards the rip in space-time…

Which was when the door burst open. “Carrie!” Laurie shrieked.

“Carrie, fight it,” Tim called out. “Whatever is going on, fight!”

Frank charged in between the two of them.

“Frank, don’t get close!” Mindy shouted, grabbing onto him by the waist, slowing him down. Not that it mattered.

“Carrie, FUTURE Carrie, it doesn’t have to be this way!” Frank shouted, looking from her to her Elder Self. “You don’t have to do this, not to yourself…"

And Carrie felt the time streams pulling at them, and there was nothing her friends could do, she was being pulled away, pulled off into the future, down a path that had no turns…

Wait, could she move? Was Elder Carrie losing her grip? Carrie twitched her fingers, but no, that wasn’t enough, she was unable to pull away… a single tear trickled out of the corner of her eye, as Carrie Waterson, the future Temporal Weapon, surrendered herself to the inevitable.

Frank pounded the floor where they had disappeared.

“This is bad,” Mindy murmured, her face pale. “She’ll be monitoring us from this point on… oh no, no, no. Tim, get Frank. Laurie, you’re with me. We’re heading back to the Chevrolet. NOW.”

“B-But…” Tim began. However, Mindy had already grabbed Laurie by the arm, and was maneuvering her out of the room. So Tim looked towards Frank, who was now kneeling on the ground and looking like he’d just lost his best friend. Which, Tim supposed, might not be far from the truth.

“Frank,” he ventured, moving to touch his companion’s shoulder. “We’ve gotta go.”

“I shouldn’t have waited,” Frank said numbly. “We should have tracked Glen right away. We could have stopped this.”

“Maybe, maybe not. Frank, Mindy needs us back at the Chevy,” he said, tugging on the other boy’s arm.

“And what did the older Carrie even mean?” Frank said, turning his head. “The bit we heard, about Glen having broken her… damn it, what were they even talking about before that?!”

“Frank, time machine. We still have a chance to do something. Come ON,” Tim said, surprised at the force of his own voice.

Frank swallowed. “Right.” He scrambled to his feet. “Right. And we still have Mindy, she might tell us more now. Let’s go."

The two of them quickly caught up to Mindy and Laurie in the corridor. They all hurried out through the arrivals section, pausing only when Mindy started snapping her fingers. “Paper, I’ll need paper… Tim, come with me, stammer a lot and make writing motions. We’ll ask that businessman to lend us his pad.”

“B-B-But,” Tim began again.

“Good, like that,” Mindy asserted. “Frank, wait here a moment with Laurie,” she added, practically dragging Tim towards the guy in the suit who was scribbling something in a book as he talked on his cell phone.

“She’s scared,” Laurie said to Frank, as they watched. “She’s trying to act in control but… but in seeing that future Carrie… golly, it really freaked Mindy out.” She shook her head. “That… it IS what we saw, right? That was a future Carrie abducting… herself?”

“I think so,” Frank answered. “But we’re not finished yet. We can’t be. Mindy must know somewhen we can go. Or have some future knowledge we can use.”

“You think?”

“Yes.”

Laurie shifted her weight back and forth. “Really? Or are you only hoping that, because we’re kinda out of other options.”

Frank didn’t answer, which Laurie supposed was answer enough. Mindy strode back towards them then, scribbling something on her newly acquired piece of paper. The man briefly called something out to them before getting pulled back into his phone conversation.

“All right,” Mindy concluded, folding up the sheet. “This is for you, Frank. Put it in your pocket, and wait two days before looking at it, all right?”

He blinked as he took it from her. “Um, okay, but why…”

“We’re going to hang around Miami for at least two days, acting normal, see?” Mindy continued. “Blending in. Acting passive. We time jump, we enter her domain, whereas so long as we’re here, she probably won’t bother to trace us closely. Not for any length of time. She’ll jump ahead instead, and if she focusses on anyone, it’ll be me. If we get separated, remember, she can use time as a weapon, but she’s not omniscient. She can miss things. Details. Be covert.”

Laurie didn’t like the resignation in Mindy’s tone. When her brother planned things, he never sounded like that. “You’re talking as if we’ve already lost,” she murmured.

Mindy grimaced. “Now that Carrie’s Future Self is involved? I guess I am. But there’s still a chance. Maybe. To that end, you might as well know the truth about why Carrie couldn’t succeed with her mother - I’m pretty sure Glen spilling the beans is what created this mess. But if I tell you, it’s on condition that you all agree to let things play out normally for two days. No matter what! You all cross-your-hearts promise that?”

“Of course!” Frank blurted.

“O-Okay, if it helps Carrie,” Tim said.

“Are you sure we can handle it?” Laurie squeaked.

Mindy flashed her a smile. “Oh, Laurie. Don’t worry, a lot of my earlier reluctance was a fear that one of you would tell Carrie. Which, if she already knows, is no longer an issue. But know what? On your few visits to the cafe this past year, I’ve seen you really coming into yourself. Emerging from the shadow of your brother. Yes, I believe you can handle this.”

Laurie nodded back, feeling a newfound confidence. “Okay then.”

So Mindy told them. And while the thought of Carrie, faced with the choice of either inflicting her own destiny onto a sibling, versus one day removing her own mother from the timelines, made Laurie feel sick to her stomach… she wagered the temporal truth of the situation was even worse, given the way Frank reeled.

“So there’s no way to get Carrie’s attention through her mother,” Frank said. “When Elaine’s plane leaves the airport shortly…”

“Oh, Gods, do NOT mess with that,” Mindy said, eyes widening. “Remember, you do NOT want Carrie’s attention. Not the one who’ll be looking now. Rather, we need to do everything we can to AVOID her attention.” She glanced around. “We’ve spent too much time talking in one place. Wait out front, I’ll go get the time car, we can take it to a hostel for the night.”

Mindy began to stride for the exit, the teenagers hurrying to catch up. “Wait, Mindy,” Laurie protested. “Why take the car?” Something about that felt wrong.

“Glen’s still with HER,” Mindy said. “Since Glen knows about it, we can’t hide it, but we CAN make her think it’s broken or something. So stay back, okay? Also, two days, acting normal, no matter what. You all promised!”

“Sure,” Frank said, exchanging a glance with Tim.

“Good.” She paused, a ghost of a smile flickering over her face. “One last thing. If this all goes south as fast as I think it will - in the end, know that I’m glad I could make an impact.”

Mindy ran off. The knot in Laurie’s stomach tightened. “Frank, no. Something’s wrong. I wonder… I wonder if this is maybe how Chartreuse feels sometimes?”

“F-Frank, she’s right, we’re missing something,” Tim said. “Was Mindy maybe mentally influencing us? She wouldn’t try to time travel without us, would she?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Frank said. He blinked. “But we did miss something. Mindy moved the car. Glen wouldn’t know where it was, not right away. All she’s doing here is leading him and that Future Carrie right back to it. Why?”

“So that Future Carrie’s not watching us?” Laurie whispered.

“But if she’s watching Mindy instead…” Tim murmured.

They all exchanged glances, then Frank took off at a run. He’d barely made it outside before there was the sound of loud explosion from out in the parking lot. By the time the teenagers got there, they were unable to even approach the flaming, burning wreckage of the Chevrolet Cavalier. Or it’s lone occupant.

NEXT: Getaway

ASIDE: That went to hell pretty quick, hm? Any feelings about it, or what’s next? There’s also that vote for T&T, perhaps.

PREVIOUSLY: Carrie went back in time to save her mother. Frank has caught up to her at the Miami airport.

PART 87a: THE PLAIN TRUTH

Frank ignored everyone else in the Miami airport, devoting all his attention to not losing sight of Carrie. After all, this might be their only chance - and she was angling for an ‘Employees Only’ door. He shoved the walkie-talkie back in his pocket and got a grip on the belt of his slightly-too-large pants as he ran. He pushed past someone, mumbling an apology.

The door Carrie was aiming for seemed to open in front of her as she arrived, and she charged through it at full sprint. Frank tried to sprint himself, reaching out and catching the door before it could swing shut. He burst through, spotting Carrie down the passageway.

“Carrie!” he called out, risking the shout now that they were out of the main area. “Carrie, wait, we’re in another timeline!”

“Frank, stop,” Carrie said.

Except she hadn’t said it - the voice had come from behind him. He spun as the door closed, revealing… Carrie. Another Carrie. Except this one was dressed differently. She was wearing a white blouse with a blue business suit, her hair having been gathered up underneath a flight hat. Which made her look much like Elaine Waterson had, moments ago. “Carrie, what–"

Frank stopped, for as he turned back to look at the prior Carrie, she disappeared. One second she was there, then there was a flash of light which made him blink, and then… nothing. Empty hallway. Of course, Frank realized - she’d escaped through time, to become the Carrie in the business suit, who was here now. Frank turned back to her. “Carrie?”

“You couldn’t stop her,” Carrie observed. “Maybe you can’t stop me either. But I have questions. So many questions.”

“H-How far back did you just go?”

“No, Frank. I get the first question. Namely, how in hell did you get back here?! I destroyed… at least, I thought I’d destroyed…"

“The chip?” Frank finished, as her voice caught in confusion or possibly frustration. “You did, but you didn’t. It’s complicated.” He reached into his pocket to shut off the muffled noises coming from the walkie-talkie.

“That’s not an answer,” Carrie countered. “I need more.”

Frank rubbed his forehead. “Well, what we all thought was the chip wasn’t really the chip. So we were able to reconstruct the time machine after all. Which we did because we had to get a message to you. And it all took weeks, Carrie - weeks where we never saw you. Or your mother.”

She flinched at that.

“We figured out what you were planning,” Frank continued. “At least in as much as saving your mom - and with you dressed like that, is it your intention to take her place? To vanish instead?”

Carrie’s mouth twitched. “That other me jumped back a day and a half,” she said after a moment. “To give herself time to prepare for this event. I’d rather not time slip again, but I will if I have to. If you make it necessary.”

It took a second for Frank to realize that she had answered his initial question, about how long she’d been in town. “So what about your intentions here?”

She stared. “Was it you who brought Glen back in time?”

It was Frank’s turn to flinch. Had she been watching them? Well, there was no point denying it. “Yes,” he admitted. “Which goes to show that he doesn’t want you to do this either, Carrie.” A thought occurred. “Wait, have you already spoken with Glen?”

Carrie crossed her arms. “My intention is to bring my mom back into our present. To give her back to Dad. Admittedly, she’ll be almost fifteen years out of time synch, but saving her in the ‘now’, and having her around while I grow up - I already know that’s not a possibility. Her absence made me too much of who I am. It brought me to this point. If I try to paradox my way out of that, it’s liable to render the younger me comatose. So, this is the best alternative I could think of. A parting gift, as I return to this airport and vanish in her place.”

Frank shook his head. “Except Elaine was never in our present. So I’m afraid your plan won’t work.”

Her jaw clenched. “Maybe it will work if you tell me the date when you left.”

Frank exhaled. “But Glen also thinks this event is something you can’t affect. He wouldn’t tell us why.”

Carrie frowned. “Well, if that’s truly the case, I have a backup plan.”

“What is it?”

She shook her head. “You’re a couple questions deeper than me now. And here I thought I was the curious one.”

“Carrie…"

She pulled her hat down tighter against her head. “Did Char– or rather, who all is actually here with you and Glen?”

So she hadn’t been watching them after all. “Laurie is, that helped us get to Miami. And Tim, to translate any Temporal talk. And, ah, well, Mindy.”

Carrie’s posture became rigid. “Mindylenopia?!”

“Is that another question?” Frank said, seizing the opportunity.

“No!” Carrie countered, her face a flurry of emotions. “Except how is that possible, she… I banished…"

He wanted to spill, to tell her about Mindy/Theresa and Chartreuse’s conclusions about Timeline Four, but at this point, he also desperately wanted to know what her next plans were. He had to be assertive, the way he had been that day in the hospital over a year ago. Well, over a year, relatively speaking. “I’ll explain it all, but first it’s your turn to answer a question,” he insisted.

Her hands curled then uncurled. “Glen spoke to me earlier,” she admitted. “He must have spotted me as I was checking out security at the airport. I didn’t want to speak with him, but he pursued me, blocks away. Tried to offer up an alternative plan, said that we could leave here and still relocate somewhere, somewhen.”

“Carrie, even though he came here with us, his plans aren’t the same as ours,” Frank insisted.

She shrugged. “It’s fine, I wouldn’t let him finish. I knew I had to be here to open the door for myself, and to delay you.” Her lips pursed. “But I did say that I would meet him again, after this conversation.”

So she was going to Glen next. Frank swallowed. “Okay, well, here’s the thing. Our whole worldview is ‘Timeline Four’, Carrie! Not Glen’s ‘Timeline Three’, not the one that Chartreuse told us about. Because, thing is, when you banished Mindylenopia… she became Theresa. The waitress in the cafe.”

Carrie’s eyes went wide, and she took a step back. Frank charged on. “See, in our past, Mindy influenced Linquist, who created that temporal gun, and he in turn influenced us, and Theresa influenced us, and then Mindy’s the one who fixed our time machine, and so it’s all so interwoven at this point that ‘Timeline Three’ can go to hell! We want you back, Carrie. Everyone wants you back in the present, and maybe that can be a thing in this New Timeline.”

Aside from biting down on her lip, Carrie hadn’t displayed any other outward signs of emotion. She seemed to be processing the information. So Frank gave her the time. “I’m not good for you, not good for any of you,” she said at last.

“Chartreuse would dispute that,” Frank objected. “And maybe it’s egotistical, but I think we’re better for you than Glen. And better than you being by yourself. Actually, there’s been talk of a rather nasty ‘Future You’, which is what Mindy had initially been trying to change… and it’s not too late to change that future. I’m sure it’s not.”

She stared at him, then slowly shook her head. “Going back to the present to fix my future, I don’t see that as an option.” She drew in a sharp breath. “Thing is, if all else fails, there was a first timeline. The one where I was never here, where you all led perfectly good Carrie-free lives. That’s what I was angling for by doing this, and if I can’t manage it by disappearing in your present…”

She let her voice trail off, giving Frank a pointed look. It took a second, but the piece snapped into place - oh no, was she referring to her ‘backup plan’? “Carrie, no,” he gasped. “You can’t… look at what happened when Julie tried to erase herself!”

“I’m not Julie,” Carrie said quietly. “I’m Temporal Paradox Girl.” She tugged on her hat again. “I’m going to leave you now, Frank. Don’t follow, or I’ll be forced to temporally freeze you in place, and I’m not sure I have the skills yet to put a short time frame on that effect.”

“Carrie, we came here from December 30th,” Frank blurted. “We had a stand-in for you at school, so your absence wasn’t missed. Your Dad knows about you, and he’s okay with it. Please, don’t throw all that away. Look into all the options before you do something rash!”

She back-pedalled away from him, down the hall. “No, no, stop making everything harder for me,” she pleaded. “Stop talking! Don’t follow!”

“Carrie…"

She turned and ran. Frank clenched his fists, but as requested, he didn’t follow. After all, he had to tell the others everything, and if she ended up temporally freezing him, the truth might come out too late.

“I told her everything,” Frank said. As soon as Carrie had vanished from view, he’d radioed the others, and everyone had converged at the ‘Employees Only’ door. “I… I don’t think she took it well,” he admitted. “She seems determined to disappear, whether she can rescue her mother here or not. And she said she’d freeze me in time if I followed her.”

“A-Are we letting that stop us?” Tim asked.

Frank shook his head. “No. But you’ve got to understand her state of mind before we pursue. She doesn’t seem to want to accept any alternatives…" He shook his head. “Yet I can’t think of how to convince her to find another path forwards! Damn it, what other arguments can we make??”

Mindy sighed. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe Carrie has to know.”

Frank turned. “Know WHAT?”

“The reason she can’t save her mother. The reason she shouldn’t destroy herself. Trouble is, I have no idea what that knowledge will do to her. She might give up and shut down entirely.”

“Carrie’s not the sort of person to give up,” Laurie asserted. “And we have to do something.”

“We are running out of options,” Frank agreed. “Mindy, if revealing your secrets will help…"

Mindy grimaced. “Oh, I’m not telling YOU. I’m not even sure I’m telling her. First, I’ll try speaking to Carrie as I used to as Theresa, maybe that passive assistance I gave to her counts for something. We’re going to lose her trail though, if we stand around here much longer!”

“Maybe not. She went to meet Glen,” Frank said. As Mindy’s eyes widened, he added, “so that’s how we’ll find her. Based on what Carrie was saying, I don’t think Glen found our tracking device after all.”

Carrie ran into the small lounge room, wanting to get away - only to find that he was already there, waiting for her. Of course. He would have had to use his mental abilities to clear the room out of other people. Besides, what other events would be on his schedule for the evening?

Carrie sagged back against the door as it closed behind her. “We’ve never been in Timeline Three,” she accused.

“So you did speak with Frank,” Glen remarked. “Pity. But whatever this timeline is, it doesn’t change anything.”

Carrie used her palm to wipe away any tears that might have escaped after her prior conversation. “If that’s so, then you’re not stopping me any more than Frank was. This attempt, it’s my true ‘swan song’, alright? My parting gift. At least give me that."

Glen stared at her for a moment. “I’m sorry, Carrie. So sorry. But you can’t save your mother. Just… let’s run away together. Then we can zap the time machine into oblivion, after Mindy and the others return to the present, okay?”

“WHY? Why can’t I do this? Because you should know that, if I truly can’t do this, I’ll be heading back to make myself disappear before mom even gets to Miami instead!”

“That would have… similar repercussions. If you stop and think about it, I don’t think you’ll really want to do either of those things.”

Carrie strode over to grab Glen by the front of his shirt. “WHY?” she shrieked again. “Why can’t I actually do the ONE thing that I want to do with these temporal powers of mine?”

“You’re not old enough to know that yet.”

She shoved him back, making him stumble. “Wrong! If I can mentally project myself around the present, temporally banish someone, and find people up and down my own timeline, I’m damn well old enough!”

He grabbed a chair for balance. “Carrie, no! This isn’t how things are supposed to play out…”

“Because I change things! I’m Paradox Girl, that’s what I do, right?! You’re just bitter because of how I got you got in trouble for losing me at the talent show, huh?”

“Carrie, please, you need to calm down. I want you to experience us being together, I don’t want to see you to be captured and spoon-fed those memories, but the longer this conversation goes on, the more likely that outcome is becoming…”

“Then I’ll leave,” Carrie asserted. “Leave this conversation, this room, this time. Unless you tell me right the hell now, I’m time jumping, and no one will find me ever again! Not you, not Chartreuse, not Frank, not anyone!”

“Carrie…”

“Bye, Glen.”

“Carrie, when your mother was taken, she was pregnant.”

NEXT: Trapped

ASIDE: Is it falling into place yet? Oh, and don’t confuse this part with “The Plane Truth”, when we first learned about Elaine’s fate.

PREVIOUSLY: To figure out the Miami International Airport, the time group split up - Laurie, Tim and Mindy in one group, Frank and Glen in the other.

M.I.A. (in 2014)

PART 86b: M.I.A.

“I don’t think we’re getting a boarding pass unless someone buys a ticket,” Laurie sighed, watching Mindy talk to the airline receptionist.

Tim poked her arm. “Or maybe it’s only…" He used both hands to slip on the sunglasses he was holding. “A matter of ‘time’. Yeeeeaaaaaahhhh?”

Laurie slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. “Tim! Ohmigod, no, we have to stay serious. Also, I hated that CSI show. The original was better.”

Tim pulled the shades back off. “S-Sorry, couldn’t resist. And you seemed really tense.” He glanced over towards Mindy, then back to Laurie. “Tense is not good. Understandable, b-but maybe you need to try to relax?”

Laurie pulled her hands back to her sides, her eyes again on Mindy. “No. Carrie’s in trouble. Frank’s trusted us to keep track of Mindy. I can’t screw that up. I can’t relax.” Her fingers curled.

Tim shook his head. “Laurie, if you wind yourself up too tight, you’ll crash, like you–" He winced, but couldn’t think of another way to end the sentence. “Well, like Chartreuse said you have before. I’m sure you’ll d-do your best, we all will, but if the unexpected happens… d-don’t beat yourself up, okay? If there’s one thing I’ve found out about our time group, it’s that n-nothing really goes according to plan.”

The redhead nibbled on her lower lip. “Right.”

“You’re d-doing good here,” Tim assured her. “Give yourself permission to smile at my lousy j-jokes.”

The corner of Laurie’s mouth twitched up. Which was when the walkie talkie she was holding crackled to life. Her arm jerked up. “Yes?” she gasped, mashing the talk button.

“Get everyone back to the car,” came Frank’s voice.

“Frank, what’s the problem, what happ–" She caught Tim’s look and checked herself. “Okay. We’re meeting at the car.” She released the talk button. “Tim, go get Mindy, okay?”

He nodded back, hoping for the best but fearing the worst.

“You let Glen get AWAY?” Mindy said, slamming her hands down on the car hood.

“I didn’t let him get away,” Frank countered, equal parts anger and sadness gnawing away at him. “Glen told me that if I didn’t let him leave, he’d tell security that I was some sort of terrorist. And with his power, they’d probably believe him. Pop the trunk, we need to get Julie’s tracking stuff back out.”

“Fine. Mess with her devices while I move the car,” Mindy sighed. “Glen knows where we parked, we don’t want him escaping with the time machine.”

“Y-You’re saying you put Beth’s tracking device on Glen?” Tim asked.

“Kinda,” Frank admitted. “The one Julie got off that hairband over fifty years later, at any rate. So, not ideal, but she’d charged it up and tested it. And since I kind of suspected Glen would try something like this, I slipped it in his pocket while we were moving the car off the beach.” Mindy handed the central device over to him. “I’ll just need to retune all this so that it reads Miami, at this point it’ll likely show Glen as being in our town library…"

“Why would Glen run away now?” Laurie piped up.

“What?” Frank asked, already messing with Julie’s device.

“Why do it now, while there’s still time for you to react?” Laurie pressed. “And not later, like when Carrie’s mom is about to land?”

Tim’s hand reached out to cover the display, forcing Frank to look up at him, then over to Laurie. She was biting down uncertainly on her lower lip.

“That’s… a good question,” Frank yielded. “Glen must have figured now was his best chance. What with being away from Mindy, who might otherwise advocate on our behalf. I shouldn’t have split us up.”

“It’s fine that you did, the decision seemed sound,” Tim assured. “But Laurie makes a good point - are you sure nothing happened right before Glen left?”

Frank thought back, slowly shaking his head. “We were looking for ways around security while you were checking out the boarding pass angle. We’d just agreed that even security outfits might not be enough to do it when Glen leaned in and told me he was leaving. He…" Frank frowned. “He did seem to be looking at something over my shoulder. I glanced that way, but I don’t know what he saw.”

“Something temporal,” Laurie concluded. “It had to be.”

Frank shrugged. “Maybe. Let’s see if we can figure out where he went before speculating.” It took almost thirty minutes to recalibrate the machine, by which point Mindy had walked back from re-parking the car. She glared at him.

“Is it a good time to point out that I never wanted Glen along in the first place?” she asked.

“No,” Frank grumbled. “Here’s the weird thing though. Unless I’ve done something wrong here, it looks to me like Glen’s left the airport entirely.”

“That is weird,” Tim agreed.

“So Glen knew you were bugging him, and thus put the tracker on someone else,” Mindy suggested.

Frank winced. “Possible.” He frowned, then finally directed his attention back to the three of them. “Okay, well, I think Glen’s already told us all he was going to about the limits of Carrie’s abilities. Is it practical to still chase him down? Or do we resume our efforts inside?”

Their eventual consensus was to make sure they had an airport plan before getting sidetracked looking for Glen. Laurie even pointed out that if things went badly that evening, they could time travel back to now, so that they could follow Glen instead… which Frank suspected would cause larger issues, but he made a note of how Laurie’s simpler way of looking at time travel might prove useful later on.

“I think Frank sees me as a nuisance,” Laurie sighed. “I was the wrong person to come. It should have been my brother.”

Tim shook his head. “D-Don’t say that. From what Clarke told me, when Frank was with Clarke and Corry back in the past, your brother was a bigger n-nuisance than you could ever be.”

She frowned. “Except my brother saved Julie!”

“Just as you’re helping to save Carrie.”

Laurie poked her fingers together. “But I can’t understand things, not the way Corry can! I’m only here because it’s Miami. So Frank’s been dismissive, and I’ll probably end up tensing up like you said, and then we’ll all have to try again somehow, which we wouldn’t need to with Corry and what if in the end I’ll have spoiled our only chance to save–"

“Laurie,” Tim broke in, stepping closer to meet her gaze. “Breathe. First, Frank’s not being dismissive, he gets p-preoccupied by technology. P-Plus he’s concerned about Glen, and he’s f-focussed on Carrie.” The blond boy smiled at her. “Second, being aware of tensing up means you’re less likely to do it. And f-finally, you’re more connected to Carrie than Corry could ever hope to be. Don’t lose sight of that.”

Laurie swallowed. “Chartreuse tell you to say some of that?”

“That last bit,” Tim admitted. “Honestly though, I’m making up a lot of this as I go along. In f-fact, focussing on you is kinda helping me not f-freak out myself. So thanks for that.”

The corners of Laurie’s mouth twitched up again. “You’re welcome.” She took in a long, slow breath. “I wish this wasn’t a life or death situation for the girl I idolize.”

“It’s not. Not yet, at least,” Tim said.

“Hey,” Frank said, approaching them with Mindy trailing along behind. “So, we’ve now got clothes that can have me pass for an airport worker. Don’t ask. I figure we grab some dinner, then have Mindy liberate us some boarding passes.”

Laurie’s partial smile faded. “We’re sticking with that plan then?”

“Unless you’ve come up with a better one.”

Laurie dropped her gaze to the ground. Corry would have come up with a good plan, she reasoned. She wasn’t the planning type. “No. But try and make sure you don’t disrupt anyone’s vacation, okay?” she murmured.

“Being choosy about our targets would draw more attention to us,” Mindy countered. “And time will smooth out minor changes.”

“Laurie’s right though, individuals are still important,” Tim put in. “Don’t you agree, Frank?”

“Yeah,” Frank agreed. “Yeah, let’s be choosy on the passes we grab. Thanks guys, keep acting as my conscience check whenever I lose perspective.”

Mindy let out a noise of exasperation, which made Laurie want to cringe. But then she felt Tim nudge her arm, and she looked up in time to catch Frank’s grateful smile towards her.

They had all been through security now. Mindy had ‘convinced’ the ‘donors’ of their boarding passes to stay in the main airport until after 11pm. Which wasn’t too much of a stretch, since Frank and the rest of them had gone through security at only half past ten. Frank glanced at his watch. Elaine Waterson’s plane would be on the ground by now.

“Check, check… we set? Over.” Frank clicked the button on his walkie-talkie.

“Clear at customs,” came Mindy’s voice.

“Um, all good here!” Laurie reported, situated at the entrance to the baggage claim area.

“N-Nothing on my end,” Tim reported. “And no way to tell who might be here to pick up Mrs. W for her transfer.”

“All right. From this point on, report on any sighting of Glen, Carrie, or Elaine,” Frank concluded. While the others were stationed at points that Mrs. Waterson would logically have to pass, he was mobile, able to go wherever he was needed. For now, he paced around the baggage area, pretending to look for misplaced luggage.

Slipping his walkie talkie away for the moment, Frank reached down to adjust his belt. Pity that the room Mindy had located hadn’t had any pants in his size. But he wasn’t going to quibble over something that helped him to blend into the background.

“Excuse me, sir?”

Frank whirled. “Could you tell me where the washrooms… oh, never mind, I see the sign,” the woman in the purple dress finished. She smiled at Frank. “Thanks anyway!”

“Ma’am,” Frank said, nodding as she sauntered off. He quickly made for an area with fewer people, deciding there probably was no such thing as a perfect disguise.

Ten minutes later Mindy made the first report. “W’s clearing customs,” she reported. A pause. “She’s through, and heading for a red haired man who went through right ahead of her. They seem to know each other.”

“Is he from her company? Or a Temporal agent?” Frank asked.

“How should I know?” Mindy said crossly. “I’ll follow in a moment. No sign of Carrie or Glen.”

The seconds seemed to stretch out longer than before, until Laurie’s frantic voice came onto the channel. “Ohmigod. That’s my DAD, guys! Carrie’s mom, she’s with my dad, and they’re coming this way, do I run and hide?!”

“What?” Frank nearly dropped the walkie talkie.

“He must have been on the plane! What if I’m somewhere else in the airport too? Or what if I’m not, but something happens here with my dad that screws up my future?!”

“You won’t, it’s all predestined,” Mindy broke in.

“Laurie, you’ve got this,” Tim added right after.

Frank was busy making for Laurie’s position. A couple paces away he was brought up short at the sight of Elaine Waterson. Looking eerily the same as she had during Frank’s first time trip, right down to her clothing. Which made sense. Oh no, she wouldn’t recognize him from that encounter, would she?

Realizing that Laurie had turned away, inspecting the wall, Frank turned too, so that he was only seeing Elaine out of the corner of his eye.

“Hello?” Mindy said over the system. “Update?”

Frank brought the walkie-talkie back up but Laurie’s voice came over the channel first. “I tried to look casual - they walked right by me! Saying something about town. Because, golly, it makes sense, Dad’s older brother lived there. That’s how we ended up - will end up - moving.”

Frank frowned. “Was your uncle friends with the Watersons?”

“Um… I dunno. Our families don’t mingle these days,” Laurie said.

“M-Maybe they m-met on the plane,” Tim suggested. “Sitting next to each other.”

“Focus!” Mindy said sharply. “Carrie. Glen. Anywhere?”

Damn it. Frank angled his way back towards Mrs. Waterson and Mr. Veniti, looking around for any trace of the other time travellers. “Not yet,” he reported. “Laurie?”

“I didn’t see either of them,” Laurie said.

“Nor me, and I’ve been scanning en route,” Mindy said. “Could Carrie have arrived earlier, outside the airplane from Ontario or something?”

“I hope not,” Frank sighed. He approached Carrie’s mother, trying to keep his back to her. She was still talking to Mr. Veniti, saying something along the lines of ‘good luck on your genetics project’.

“Nothing my end yet,” Tim offered.

“We’ll be headed your way soon, Tim,” Frank muttered into the walkie-talkie. “If we have to, we can regroup and…”

He almost missed her.

Something told Frank to look left; maybe it was intuition, or perhaps there had been a flash of light out of the corner of his eye. But when he looked, there she was. Carrie Waterson, dressed the same way she had been the night of the talent show. Gripping a photograph. She looked around, seemingly disoriented - and their gazes met. And her eyes widened, briefly flickering back to gold.

Then she turned and ran, shoving her way back through a few people.

“Frank? You trailed off,” Mindy pointed out.

“We’ve found Carrie,” he gasped. “I’m in pursuit.”

NEXT: The Plain Truth

ASIDE: It took six parts (weeks) but we’ve caught up to Carrie. Any speculations on why she can’t save her mother before the big reveal? There was some interesting talk in last week’s comments about genetics. And any desire to vote for T&T?

PREVIOUSLY: Carrie went back in time to save her mother. Glen and Mindy said that wouldn’t work, and a group of Carrie’s friends have gone back to find her.

PART 86a: MIAMI IS NICE

The waves lapped quietly against the shoreline until shortly after midnight. At which point the waves found themselves lapping up against a set of car tires as well. Inside the car, the redhead who had her thumb on the dashboard slumped forwards unconscious. Another redhead, in the driver’s seat, winced as she looked through the windshield.

“Brilliant, Mindylenopia,” came Glen’s voice from the back. “Hey, let’s make the time machine into a car! Then you can ride in it! Except you can’t drive on water!”

“Shut up, Glinephanis,” sighed Mindy. She put the car into reverse and eased backwards towards a beachside boardwalk on the compacted sand.

Next to Glen, Frank turned to regard Tim, who had also fallen unconscious. It would probably be one of the last times Tim would succumb; this arrival in Miami marked his third time trip. Frank thought back to the first time the blond boy had regained consciousness after time travel, back in the 1950s.

Tim had seemed nervous, so Frank had brought him along as they had gone to track Beth, leaving Mindy alone with… well, Beth. To make their Carrie stand-in think that her prior weeks in the future had been a dream of sorts.

“Sorry we didn’t get a chance to talk before leaving,” Frank apologized. He attempted to split his attention between Tim, and the tuning of Julie’s tracking device. It was hard to be sure which building on this block contained Beth. “It all happened so fast. Are you sure you’re okay with this, Tim? I mean, what did Chartreuse say to you?”

“She s-spoke to me about how Laurie would end up going to Miami,” Tim answered, trying not to fidget. “And she s-said that her friend might feel better having someone along who also had little actual time travel experience. Even if I’d only be g-guarding the car when you and Mindy go off to convince her.”

“Ahhh.” Frank frowned. “You’re not saying Chartreuse coerced you?”

“Oh no!” Tim assured. “I’d already s-said I wanted to help. That is, actually help for once, s-since keeping myself at a distance has only allowed me to b-be manipulated by Glen and Mindy. And here, I can keep them from chatting in s-secret in front of you! Finally do my part, s-since I do understand Temporal better than Luci. Um, no offence to her.”

“No offence assumed.” Frank started walking, eyeing his screen. “Though, Tim? You said some of that as if you were still trying to convince yourself."

“I…” From the corner of his eye, Frank saw Tim rub his forehead. “M-Maybe. It’s a lot to take in. But I care about Julie and Carrie and all Clarke’s other friends too, so… yeah. I’m committed. Really.” He swallowed. “One other thing though… there was a point when Chartreuse said my language skills would be needed in the future. Not the past. The future. Do you know what that meant?”

“Likely your personal future, no matter how the timeline wraps.”

Tim frowned. “Maybe. But it didn’t seem like that. She back-pedalled, said her tenses were all wrong.”

Frank eyed Tim uncertainly, then shrugged. “Well, the furthest we can go with the coins we have is back to our present - plus a day, to the 31st - so I’m not sure what Chartreuse meant by that.” He smacked the side of the tracking device. “Huh, that’s better. Okay, I’m going in. Tim, maybe you could look over that list of things we figured we’d need, for when we bring Beth back to our present year? We were thinking big, like the temporal gun, but maybe you’ll spot something more, I don’t know, linguistic.”

Tim nodded. “S-Sure. Uh, and actually Chartreuse s-said something about the gun too… ah, you don’t need a hand with Beth in there?”

Frank shook his head. “Not initially - Beth knows me, not you.” He looked up at the front of the apartment building. “I really hope this meeting goes well.”

Frank was pulled out of the memory as the rear wheels of the time vehicle sank in the sand, accompanied by the sound of spinning car tires. “Damn!” Mindy cursed. She tried to edge forward and back, to no avail. “Uh, so,” she concluded, turning to the back with a smile, “good thing we included a shovel and a couple planks of wood with the rest of our supplies, huh?”

It took them an hour to get the car back to a roadway. Laurie then suggested they drive a short distance away to park, because they were close to her old house, which was a little unsettling for her. And then Frank suggested they catch some sleep in shifts; for him, Tim and Mindy, it had been the equivalent of a whole day already.

By the time they got together for their breakfast (dinner?) in a park, it was nine o’clock in the morning. Laurie handed out the sandwiches, which had been packed in her present. Frank unwrapped his, finding his thoughts wandering yet again. They had made it, and the reality of the situation was fully dawning on him.

“We’re back on the date of my first ever time trip,” he remarked aloud. “I suppose I always knew I’d return here, given Carrie’s insistence… but thought it would be under different circumstances."

“Y-You were here before?” Tim asked.

“Oh, not in Miami,” Frank clarified. “In Ontario. Carrie tried to keep her mother from boarding her first plane, to come down here. Which reminds me, if we end up talking to Elaine? We’ll want to make sure she doesn’t think we’re part of a setup by her coworker… uh, oh damn, I forget the name. It was either Bob or Doug.”

“How can you be so sure we needed to travel to Miami then?” Laurie asked. “I mean, Miami is nice, but what’s to keep Carrie from picking up in Ontario, wherever she left off last time?”

“She has a better understanding of how to handle the timelines now,” Mindy asserted, swallowing her bite of sandwich. “Carrie’s own personal history is based on Elaine Waterson disappearing after being in Miami at this time. The closer she can get to that event, the easier it will be to leverage without causing headaches or something worse.” She frowned. “That said, I suppose Carrie could decide to arrive even later. On Elaine’s plane, after it leaves the airport…"

“No,” Glen offered. “Young Carrie is neither experienced enough, nor disciplined enough to be able to hit a moving target like that.”

“The Earth itself is a moving target,” Frank reminded him.

“Pedantic much?” Glen said, annoyed. “I mean moving relative to the Earth. Besides, Carrie can’t risk popping into existence right beside her mother, and scaring the hell out of everyone around. She’ll need space, a geographic margin of error.”

“So she’ll appear at the Miami airport,” Tim concluded. “Tonight.”

Frank nodded. “Seems likely. Elaine reaches Miami around 11pm. She’ll then switch to a smaller corporate plane to take her the rest of the way to Bermuda. That’s the window of time where Carrie’s liable to turn up, and thus why we brought along those relevant maps.”

“So, what do we do?” Laurie asked, wringing her hands. “I mean, Carrie’s never talked about specifics of where her mother was - has she?”

“No. I did speak with Mr. Waterson,” Frank admitted. “During those few weeks when the time machine was being reconstructed. But he couldn’t add much. It doesn’t seem like there was any layover to check out the plane, as Carrie had suggested on our first Ontario trip, but her father didn’t know if that was because a request was denied, or was never made. Elaine meets someone from her company after getting her bags, that’s all we have.” He looked to the two Temporals. “I don’t suppose you two can add anything about ‘the dangerous true circumstances’?”

Mindy pursed her lips. “Let’s just say we know Carrie won’t be changing anything here and leave it at that.”

“%They wouldn’t understand the ramifications even if we told them.%”

“Hey!” Tim protested, looking to Glen. “Frank, Julie, Chartreuse… they’ve all f-figured out a lot already!”

Glen sighed and rolled his eyes. “Oh, right, that one vaguely understands us. I hate you all.”

“Okay, well, when we’re done eating, let’s pick out key locations in the Miami airport where Carrie is liable to appear,” Frank concluded. “Then see how hard it is to gain access to those spots. Presumably we can do it by obtaining disguises or allies, which is part of the reason we aimed to give ourselves the whole day here, rather than only a few hours.”

Glen nodded. “So, we drive to the airport and then split up?”

Frank shook his head. “We shouldn’t split up. For one thing, we’re not all seasoned time travellers.”

Laurie looked briefly chagrined, until Tim reached over and touched her arm. The both of them shared a quick smile.

“For another, you don’t trust us Temporals,” Mindy added.

Frank frowned, then nodded. “True. But if you were me, would you?”

“No. That’s why I said it,” Mindy chuckled.

“Okay, except the five of us wandering around together? That’s going to stick out like a sore thumb,” Glen complained, rolling his eyes. “We need to be sneaky, we need to gain access to restricted areas, and we need to talk our way out of situations. Easy enough for me and Mindy, damned impossible with you Mundanes cramping our style.”

Frank rubbed his forehead. “Two groups then,” he decided. “With regular check-ins via our walkie-talkies. Me and Glen will be one group, the rest of you can be another.”

After all, Mindy had been nice enough to this point - Glen was the bigger problem. Right? Frank frowned. Unless his personal feelings about Glen’s motivations were clouding things?

He looked around at the others, who either nodded or shrugged in response to the assertion. Glen added a snort of derision, but also didn’t complain. Frank looked back at his sandwich. They were certainly an eclectic group. He hoped he wasn’t making a big mistake here.

Glen got away from him later that afternoon.

NEXT: M.I.A.  (Pun! Get it?)

ASIDE: I wrote an article yesterday for the “time2timetravel” website, where Paul talks about methodologies and does book reviews. Check it out: Models of Time and Fate explores various fictional models and their impact on free will. (Can you spot this story’s model?)

PREVIOUSLY: The time machine has been rebuilt into a car. We know events will send Frank (et al) back in time to pick up Laurie.

PART 85b: CLOSING THE LOOP

“Coin goes in here,” Julie said, indicating the slot on the Cavalier’s dash, where a radio might once have been. “The silver box thing from the old machine - which was a pain to install, by the way, but is one of the few items we can’t reproduce yet - is back there. It’ll auto-set the year and ultimately flash fry the currency. Keypad here is for entering the other coordinates, namely month, day, and time.”

“So you’ve fixed that random variance thing?” Corry mused.

Julie shook her head. “Nope, still a factor. If you arrive an hour or even a month off from the time you input? Don’t blame me. Now, when you hit the hashtag, or rather pound key, it routes the entry through the assembly on the floor of the passenger side. Including Luci’s old modified circuits, meaning the pocketwatch you see here should also display your actual time of arrival.”

“Wait, you kept the pocketwatch?” Luci asked, reaching to tap where it had been mounted in the dash. “Why not use the digital time display from the car itself? Still an overheating problem?”

“Because the watch belonged to Carrie," Mindy interjected. “Or rather her mother. From when she was left at the orphanage. Right?”

“I think so,” Frank agreed. “It never actually kept time, but in Luci’s first reparations over a year ago, Carrie insisted on trying to hook it in. So we did, to humour her - and it’s somehow synched up accurately upon arrival.”

“Mmm hmm. Thought so,” was Mindy’s final word about it.

“As to the DNA,” Julie continued, undaunted, “this blank looking panel here is actually a thumbpatch. It will pinpoint your geographic location. Hold part of your body there - presumably your thumb - for three seconds with the switch in the ‘on’ position. That’s the signal for the time jump to activate. Have two people press against it if you’re going for a point between them.”

“What about rematerializing ten feet in the air?” Corry demanded. “I still remember that from my first trip.”

“It… shouldn’t do that,” Clarke offered, hesitantly. “That’s part of the new stuff we’ve been hooking into the undercarriage. But it’s also one of the things we wouldn’t mind having a fresh set of eyes on.”

“The licence plate and registration are also for Ontario, and next year,” Luci pointed out. “How will that play out in the past?”

“Look, I’d be much happier with hologram technology and three years to perfect this," Mindy admitted. “But you play with the cards you’re dealt, okay?”

“Just show us the schematics then,” Frank stated. “We’ll see if we can offer any input.”

“Well, show those two tech wizards anyway - why did you want ME here so early?” Corry wondered.

Julie opened the car door. “So that you’d know how close we were to bringing your sister home, partner.” She smiled. “Oh, also I need your help hauling the briefcase of coins up from Linquist’s lab. It’s damn heavy.”

“So I’m like the hired help. Fun,” Corry grunted.

“You know,” Corry mused, as he closed the secret passage behind the china cabinet. “Since my ankle’s healed, what’s to stop me going back with Frank and Mindy so that they don’t need Laurie?"

Julie shrugged. “The fact that you didn’t do it, so you can’t?"

“Yeah, I’ve always hated that logic. What’s the REAL reason?” He hefted the briefcase, and the two of them headed for the hallway.

“I guess it has something to do with the future situation…" She paused as Jeeves strode towards them, looking worried. “That’s about to happen?”

“Mr. Waterson called for that waitress, Theresa,” he stated. “She’s on the phone with him now, and she sounds agitated.”

Julie dropped the electronics she was carrying, hurrying towards the phone in time to hear Mindy say, “Sir, this is important, did either of the two have red hair?” A pause, then, “Don’t worry. I was expecting this. We’re on it.”

“What?” Julie asked as Mindy hung up the phone.

“Two suspicious people at the Waterson house looking for Carrie,” Mindy replied curtly, already heading for the front door. “They held Hank at gunpoint and searched the place. Beth wasn’t home, perhaps fortunately, however she forgot to bring Carrie’s cell phone along. Hank told me - and them - that ‘Carrie’ had gone to the public library."

“The public… Lee’s working there today,” Julie said. As Mindy strode out, Julie doubled back. “Call the library. Ask to speak to Lee,” she asked Jeeves. “Tell him to keep an eye on Beth, and anyone looking for her. That is, for Carrie. Oh, he’ll know what I mean.”

“Certainly,” the butler responded, heading back for the phone.

“Bad?” Corry asked.

“Is it ever good? We’ve got the coins and the electronics for tracking the hairband, let’s at least load those up while Mindy explains more precisely what it is that she was ‘expecting’.”

“We’ve reached a temporal crossroads,” Mindy stated, after getting everyone into the garage. “Today is the last day ‘Carrie’, aka Beth, will be seen in the present before ‘Future Carrie’ abducts her from the past.”

“But we’re going to recover Carrie and prevent that act!” Clarke protested.

“If we do, today becomes the last day me and Glen remain in this time,” Mindy countered. “Because I still hope to get him away from Carrie. It all paints a target on December 30th.” She shook her head. “I had hoped that the future war would leave our departure day alone, but it IS a potential kick they’ll have at averting a predestined outcome. At actually affecting the timelines. Must have been too tempting of a target.”

“Why not travel back sooner, and stop us then?” Corry wondered, as he loaded the trunk of the Cavalier.

“If they had, this day might not have occurred,” Frank reasoned. “Ripple effect.”

“Also, the fact that I kept things so quiet and controlled would cancel any earlier advantage,” Mindy added. “Acting before now, they’d merely have a greater risk of my snaring them into our predestined outcome.” She jerked her thumb at the car. “Frank, get in, we’re off to the library to get Beth.”

“Wait,” Julie protested. “What was the deal with red hair?”

“No time.” Mindy opened the driver’s side door.

Julie kicked it shut. “Make time. What if those two come here next, after you’re gone?”

Mindy muttered under her breath.

“Rude,” Luci observed. “Also, not yet in our Temporal dictionary.”

“All Temporals have red hair,” Mindy confessed. “It’s genetic. The two who pulled apart the Waterson house? Were blonds. So either they were Mundanes, or they were of your time, being influenced by a Temporal. Happy?” She yanked the car door open again. “Either way, if they do come here, lay low. My best guess is that the future travellers want to abduct Carrie or Glen for themselves; they shouldn’t do more than injure you. Luci, get out of the car.”

“Oh no, I’m going back with you and Frank,” Luci asserted.

“Oh, for… we’ll argue on the way,” Mindy groaned.

They reached the library in record time. “Okay,” Frank wheezed, as he released his fingers from their grip on the back seat. “I see now why your limit is five people - there’s only five seat belts. Mindy, do they relax some traffic laws in the future?”

“I’m not letting over a decade of time stuck here in the past come to naught!” Mindy snapped. “Which may be the case if we can’t shake these time travellers and restore Beth to our past, when she’s supposed to be. Now, any way to tell if that girl’s still inside? Or her pursuers?”

“I’ll send Lee a message,” Luci said.

Frank pulled out his phone as it buzzed. “I’ve got a message from Chartreuse. She’s on her way - one of the others must have called her.”

“Yeah, hey, NO phones on once we’re out of the present!” Mindy reminded, eyeing the two of them. “Also, your argument for bringing Luci was unconvincing. I can translate whatever Glen says.”

“But will you do it accurately?” Luci questioned.

“I don’t like your tone.”

Which was when the gunshot rang out.

“Okay, those are NEVER good,” Luci noted, her door open before she had finished speaking. Frank ran out after her, despite Mindy’s protests. They were met at the steps up to the library doors by a number of panic stricken people running out.

“Lee says go ‘round back,” Luci said, eyeing the message on her phone. They rounded the building. There was a small theatre entrance there, as part of the structure also housed a small stage for local plays. Frank reached the door first, only to find it was locked.

“Now what?” he asked.

Luci eyed the keyhole. “Now… we need lockpicks?”

The door opened out unexpectedly, causing Luci to stumble back and fall on the ground. This left Frank staring at Lee, who was dragging after him a very scared looking blonde. “I’m sorry!” Beth was wailing. “I know I shouldn’t have been looking up my own past, I couldn’t help it, please PLEASE don’t let them kill me!”

“Math whiz, take her!” Lee said. He shoved Beth towards Frank. “I clubbed the guy who had the gun with a set piece shaped like shrubbery, but there’s another dude here somewhere. Go do whatever you’re supposed to do to prevent this from ever happening, I’ll keep them–”

“Lee!” Luci shouted in warning. Barely on her feet, she jumped past him, tackling the blond man who had been about to swing the piece of wood. The two of them fell to the floor as Lee spun back around.

“Luci!” he shouted, moving to help.

“Wait!” Frank cried, stepping around Beth - too late to reach the door before it swung shut again. After verifying that it remained locked on this side, he lifted his palm to pound on the metal.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” came Beth’s tearful voice.

“It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s, you know, not your fault,” came another voice, making Frank turn. It was Chartreuse, looking winded as she ran up carrying a trombone case. She fired off a weak smile at him, before hugging Beth close. “It’ll be okay, our wonderful Carrie stand-in. As long as you, like, go NOW,” she emphasized. The last sentence seemingly meant more for Frank.

“But Luci’s in there…”

“I, you know, saw bits of this,” the pink haired girl assured. “Tim’s with Mindy back at the time machine. We’ve spoken, and he’s good to go instead. Oh, speaking of, cool car!" She gave a quick thumbs up. “Too bad I’ll never get to ride in it.”

“Tim?? But…”

“Frank, PLEASE, those guys are gonna charge out in less than four minutes!” Chartreuse said, finally releasing Beth. “Go! Go, go! Give Laurie my best."

The door banged as if something heavy had hit it, but it failed to re-open. Frank hesitated only a moment more before grabbing Beth’s hand and heading back for the library parking lot. “Is this why you didn’t mind me knowing about the future?” Beth asked tearfully. “Is it because I’m going to die now?”

“Not if we have anything to say about it,” Frank answered. “You’ll only forget a few things.” He saw Mindy already had the car running, and Frank noticed Tim in the front seat. He helped Beth into the back, then ran to the trunk, slapping his hand on it.

“What are you doing? Get in!” Mindy said, poking her head out of the window.

“We need a coin,” Frank said. “Pop the trunk!”

“Let’s get to safety first, then… oh fine,” Mindy sighed, sensing Frank wasn’t going to budge. She hit the release, and with some effort, he pulled out the briefcase. The second shot rang out as he was climbing into the back seat again.

Mindy ceased her mumbling – it was English, so Frank caught something along the lines of “create a fully mobile time machine and they all just stand around it” – in order to step on the gas.

“S-S-Seatbelts?” Tim suggested.

Frank tried to ignore the effects of acceleration long enough to peer out the back window. A man was running down the front steps of the library. He waved his gun at another car that had been about to pull out, forcing it to stop. Oh no, he hoped this wasn’t going to become a car chase.

“Coin?” Mindy said pointedly.

“Oh, uh…” Frank fumbled with the briefcase, only to slide into Beth’s lap as Mindy turned another corner. “Can we slow?”

“No. I’m busy being ticked off about your group substituting Tim for Luci.” With one hand on the steering wheel, Mindy moved her other to hover over the keypad. “What date shall I set?”

Tim flinched. “I thought we’d be going three weeks back…”

“We have to drop off Beth first,” Frank said, managing to get his hands on the coin changer for the 1950s. “Not to mention pick her up. Hey, maybe that works as one trip - Beth, on what day did we find you?”

“I… uh… I…” the blonde stammered, gripping the seat in front of her, tears in the corners of her eyes. Then her eyes closed and she began to whisper a prayer.

Frank sighed. “Well, for continuity, use the same date as her arrival in our present,” he decided. He was reminded of what Clarke had said - this Beth would need to bury her blue hairband somewhere in the forest, so that no one would be able to track her down again.

Mindy’s fingers flew over the keypad, as Frank handed Tim the necessary coin. “Drop it in that slot,” he advised. Tim did so - after which Mindy flipped the time switch and reached out for the DNA trigger.

“Mindy!”

“I didn’t exist then,” she assured him. “My failsafe should ensure that we end up in roughly the same spatial–”

“Mindy, we’re in MOTION,” Frank insisted. “What if we appear in front of a wall back then?!”

The redhead spun the wheel one handed, throwing Frank into Beth as the car swerved into an alleyway. She immediately stomped on the brake, thumb on the pad. “I was ABOUT to get us out of the–”

There was a bright light and a popping noise as the car disappeared.

NEXT: Miami is Nice

ASIDE: The next scene? You already saw in Part 84a (picking up Beth), followed by Part 83b (picking up Laurie). Which brings us to shortly after Part 4 (Elaine at the airport). You follow? How about a vote for T&T?

PREVIOUSLY: Megan is suspicious of Carrie’s behaviour - not knowing that the person is really Beth, who is substituting until the time machine is rebuilt.

PART 85a: POWERING UP

Beth Parker wasn’t stupid. Naive, she would grant - and could hardly deny after how she’d been duped by Ms. Peabody - but stupid? No. She had kept some savings back then. And this time, it had taken her less than a day to realize that the ‘astral plane’ of her ‘angels’ was the very same town where she lived, somehow decades in the future. The dates she put on Carrie’s class notes merely confirmed it. It explained a lot.

At the same time, she wasn’t about to let on about what she knew.

Oh, surely Carrie’s friends had to be aware of her suspicions; Hank Waterson most of all. In a way, Beth’s heart went out to the poor man, who’d had to put his faith in a bunch of teenagers, a waitress… and herself. An aspiring singer who had, thanks to a twist of fate, been sent back into high school. To learn about her future in a history class.

But there was no point in inviting trouble, and that seemed inevitable were she to treat this experience as anything other than an ‘astral plane’. Besides, she had wanted to help her ‘angels’, and now, at last, she was. It was a pity they hadn’t told her what to do about this girl Megan though.

Beth regarded the junior student in the crisp white blouse and dark skirt who was glaring up at her, and she responded the only way she felt she could. “Judge not, Megan, lest you be judged.”

“Nice try, Waterson,” Megan fired back. “Can you even name the origin of your mangled quotation?”

“Matthew 7. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” Beth countered.

Megan took a half step back. “Huh. Okay. So you’ve seen the musical ‘Godspell’, good job. Doesn’t mean you found God.” She seemed rattled though.

Beth slipped her hands behind her back, hoping she looked disarming. “Listen, Megan. While I’m not going to outright claim to you that Carrie Waterson has become religious, or that your demands on me are hypocritical, any truth I speak here? Would be rather subjective. And you know as well as I do that such truths would not set you free. So, what’s the real issue behind cornering me here?”

Megan pursed her lips. “Okay. Okay, I guess I want to know what Corry’s up to. Is he getting you to read up on scripture in order to attack me on my home turf?”

“I think Corry’s too worried about his sister right now for such planning.” A thought struck Beth. “Is this about Claude?”

This time, instead of backing up, Megan reached out to grab the front of her shirt. “Who have you been talking to?!”

Beth eyed Megan’s hand. “Um, no one, outside of the few close friends I have here. But I notice things. Like how you were lurking around the music room last week, at the same time as me and Julie were there. Watching Corry’s band rehearse for the Christmas assembly.”

“I’m taking music. I was wondering if Mrs. Willis was around.”

“At first, maybe? But you were there for quite a while. And your attention wasn’t on Lee or Tim. Now, I suppose it could have been directed at Corry, except didn’t I hear that you were the one who got Claude into that band in the first place?”

Megan’s grip relaxed somewhat. “I may have insisted, yes. Because Claude knew the music, and while he’s not the best bass guitarist, he’s a lot nicer than that jerk Tommy.”

“Nicer? You knew Claude personally?”

“Not really. Not then. But he didn’t snark back at me that Friday when I said maybe he shouldn’t disrupt the talent show. In fact he–" Megan stopped herself, using her hand to push Beth away. “How dare you? Have your talks with Chartreuse been about how to handle me?!”

Beth regained her footing and shook her head. “Um, again, no. Your religious nature might have come up in conversation - not that I couldn’t spot it - but no, Megan, Chartreuse didn’t say anything about handling you. Or Claude. Do you fancy the guy, is that it?”

“No!” Megan sized her up, then blurted, “B-But he did ask me out.”

“Okay. So did you reject him, is that the trouble?”

“I… I didn’t. Not outright. Except it wouldn’t be appropriate, me dating Claude! Not with me and Corry being rivals. The poor guy might then become a lever that Corry could use against me, and moreover it’s a clear conflict of interest.”

Beth shook her head. “Corry wouldn’t use Claude against you.”

Megan scoffed. “Just when I thought you were making sense.”

“Really, he wouldn’t. His friends wouldn’t let him do that,” Beth insisted. “Haven’t you noticed how they act as his conscience? Are you sure you’re not using Corry as an excuse?”

Megan visibly flinched. “I’m not scared of a relationship. I’m strong, I wouldn’t be tempted into sin.”

“Great! So what’s the real problem?”

Megan’s lips pursed again. It took a moment, but finally she answered again. “The problem? Is it’s a man’s world out there, Waterson. Consider Corry. Mister Hunt. Even God, if you buy into the personal pronouns. Women like us? We have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously. I don’t want to lose it all by dating Claude.”

That one forced Beth to stop and think. Since Megan wasn’t wrong. In fact, Beth had been surprised by how much certain things had changed in the intervening decades - and by how much some other things, which she might have expected to change, had not. “Valid point,” she granted. “You said Claude was nice though. Do you think he would take control away from you?”

“Not intentionally.”

Beth mused again. “Well, it’s a risk then. Though I don’t think anyone would accuse you of being weak simply on account of a relationship. Not if they’re smart, anyway. And regret? That’s a terrible thing. So if it were me? I think I would go for it.”

Megan’s eyes narrowed. “Did Corry tell you to say those words?”

Beth sighed. “No - and why would it matter if he had? In the end, you’ve got to do what’s right for you. Seems like Corry is the plank in your eye. Try to remove him.”

Megan flinched, frowned, and then let out a long breath. “Damn. That’s the second time your little inner circle of seniors has surprised me. Maybe Chartreuse really was onto something with her talk back in the woods.”

Not sure how to respond to that, Beth simply stood quietly. Megan fingered the cross on her necklace as she came to a decision. “Okay Wat– Carrie. You can go. Maybe I’ll even loosen the screws I’ve got on Corry, and focus more on my own grade level. Provided the rest of you can keep him in check.”

Beth nodded, but couldn’t help but ask before she left, “And… Claude?”

A hint of colour crept into Megan’s cheeks. “Time will tell.”

Word had spread of her budding relationship with Claude even before classes ended for the December holiday break.

“Megan emailed me yesterday,” Corry remarked, walking behind Luci and Frank, his hands clasped behind his head. “Told me not to let my guard down in the new year. Said that she’d resume demands if I tried to hurt her through Claude. Even included a picture of Sarah Michelle Gellar holding a cross out. Can you believe that? What, does she think I’m a vampire?”

“Just don’t antagonize her any more,” Luci sighed, boots crunching through the light snow on the sidewalk. The three of them had agreed to meet at the last intersection and walk to Julie’s together. “Considering what Beth told us about their conversation in the library, we dodged a bullet back then.”

“Hey, how is it vampires are still a thing anyway?” Frank asked. “Like, I’ve found that they’ve been in pop culture for our entire life - either of you seen that ‘Forever Knight’ show from the late 90s?”

Luci turned, raising her eyebrow.

Frank held his hands out. “Look, you said not to obsess over time travel. I thought I’d ease into the horror genre.”

Corry face palmed. “You’re both missing my point. This means me and Julie did the right thing, by staying out of it. We’ve got control back! But don’t worry, we’ll take care not to abuse our power. I’ve learned my lesson.”

“Peachy,” Luci stated. “I’m a bit more focussed on the fact that it’s December 30th, and after what felt like the most subdued Christmas ever, we’re finally getting to see what Mindy and the others have put together to fix this whole temporal mess.”

Corry reached out to grab Luci by the arm, but at the last second, seemed to think better of it. He jammed his hands into his jacket pockets instead. “Luci, you’re talking to the guy who’s spent all month without his TWIN SISTER. And I’ve had to call Mindy three times in the past week to maintain the charade with my parents. So don’t you DARE lecture me about how hard it’s been, or how relieved you are for things to be over. Because that all goes double for me.”

“Right. Sorry,” Luci apologized, wincing.

“Look at the bright side,” Frank offered. “In a way, the extra time has given Beth a chance to be changed back. Me and Carrie, we apparently turned her religious on our first trip. Now? Well, she’s considering expanding beyond mere gospel singing.”

“Okay, sure, but don’t forget that Mindy’s going to have to excise parts of Beth’s memory,” Corry pointed out. “Unless you want her becoming some kind of future prophet.”

“Right.” Luci tugged on her hat. “I hate that. We were on such a high horse when Mindy first revealed her mind manipulations, telling her off… and now? We’re becoming just as guilty.”

“Do you see an alternative?” Frank asked. “We know she’s worked it out.”

“No. But I still hate it.”

They reached the LaMille mansion’s front door and Luci rang the bell. To their collective surprise, Jeeves directed the teenagers around towards the garage.

“They did recruit Clarke,” Frank pointed out as they approached. “Maybe they’ve got a DeLorean in there.”

“Chevy, actually,” Mindy said, walking out of the garage while wiping her hands with a rag.

Frank froze, and Luci almost plowed right into his back.

“Of course,” Mindy continued, “my original designs were for something more environmental, maybe a smart car. But I quickly realized the space in one of those is roughly equivalent to a phone booth. For this mission? We might need extra space. Besides, we can always pull the time interface and plug it into another vehicle later. Well, maybe. Kind of.”

“I was joking,” Frank murmured.

Clarke poked his head out from around the opening to the garage. “At last! Guys, you’ve GOT to check this out… it’s pretty cool!”

After exchanging glances, the three of them filed in. “It’s… a Cavalier,” Luci said, nonplussed.

“I got a good deal,” Mindy asserted. “The guy was half ready to donate it to your high school, for their shop class to disassemble.”

“Huh. Well, I have always said that you were supposed to be able to ride around inside a time machine,” Corry yielded.

“It’s more impressive than it first appears,” came Julie’s tired voice. She poked her head out the driver’s side window. “And we’ve still got a couple adjustments to make, but at this point, a second - fourth? - opinion might be of benefit. Plus it means someone other than me can pass the information on to the others.”

Luci was the first to stride over. “I don’t have a driver’s licence!” she protested. “Nor do some of the people in our time group who ARE of age, seeing as we live in a small town and can bike most anywhere. Why make the time machine a CAR?!”

“Safety,” Clarke said. “From what I understand, having an enclosed object means everyone’s sure to be pulled through the vortex.”

“Right,” Mindy concurred, giving up on cleaning her hands and throwing aside the rag she was holding. “The old cash register version? It sucked through whatever was touching the handle, or more dangerously, whatever was touching people touching the handle. Here, you get the whole car, a metallic enclosure, and thus we won’t have to worry about leaving anyone behind. Just, you know, make sure you’re inside. Not touching the doors. Definitely not hanging onto the hood. Okay, so it’s not that much safer.” She smirked. “Still, I always SAID it could be done, but noooo, they were fine with using their stationary temporal generators instead.”

“Could be worse,” Frank decided. “Could’ve been a fridge, we wouldn’t want anyone trapped in one of those. And this means there’s a built in age requirement to get a time travel licence.”

“Actually, the car doesn’t need to be in drive,” Mindy countered. “In fact, probably better that it’s not. Unless you know you’ve got plenty of runoff room at your destination time.”

“Does the DNA sensor track everyone in the car then?” Luci said. “How does it know where to put you spatially?”

“Hi! If you’ll let me EXPLAIN,” Julie said, motioning again in obvious exasperation. She waited until they were peering in the car windows at her, then she pointed to the modified dashboard.

NEXT: Closing the Loop

ASIDE: If I mangled religion somewhere in there, let me know, so I can fix it. Not my forte. Also, time car! Why a Chevy? Well, I used to own one.

PREVIOUSLY: Beth is replacing Carrie in the present, as a time machine is rebuilt. Laurie was taken on a time trip.

PART 84b: CROSSING PATHS

“Should we really let Chartreuse spend so much time with her?”

At Frank’s remark, Luci looked up at him, then followed his gaze towards Beth. Their stand-in for Carrie was back at school this Friday, after two days out “sick”. Beth seemed to be adjusting surprisingly well to the present, all things considered. She had just stopped en route to their table in the cafeteria, in order to talk with the pink haired mystic. Luci considered that fact - it wasn’t the first time the two had spoken. “Why not?” she answered him.

Frank frowned. “People might start to talk. And if Carrie’s not actually here to defend herself against rumours…"

“Defend herself against what? A relationship that we’re pretty sure was forming anyway? For all we know, us being here together, there’s rumours concerning our old relationship too. Besides, before Glen, Carrie used to spend time with both us and Chartreuse. So, since he’s gone, why wouldn’t ‘Carrie’ resume talking to our group again?”

“Okay, well, that’s another thing. Did Glen really leave?” Frank countered. “I got an email from him yesterday.”

Luci pursed her lips. “Yeah. I got one this morning. Vague ‘watching you’ stuff though, and according to the school, his ‘parents’ pulled him out - I think he must have timed those emails to send off in advance. Before he left with our future travellers last Sunday. To keep up appearances.”

“Or Glen could be hiding out in town,” Frank countered. “And covering it up with his powers.”

Luci shrugged. “Maybe. So what if he is? Frank, at this point, I’m done with my second guessing. It’s given me nothing but grief. We have to trust our future selves.” She glanced back at Beth. “As to Chartreuse, look at it from her point of view. In the span of a weekend, she lost her potential girlfriend, and Laurie, her best friend. If hanging with Beth is her way of coping, I don’t think we can fault that.”

“Right… right,” Frank sighed. He ran his fingers back through his hair. “And the busier Beth is, the less she might be prone to exploring our ‘astral plane’ too much. Which is good. I’m just worried that we’ll end up missing something.”

“You need to take a break from time travel analysis for once,” Luci decided. “Don’t follow anyone. Don’t look up articles about Mindy in old newspapers. Don’t watch temporal television. Just relax.”

Luci tapped a finger against the cafeteria table. No one was paying attention to them, and Chartreuse seemed to be in the process of passing a crystal around Beth’s head, so maybe now was as good a time as any to bring it up. “Besides, when the time machine’s done, I plan to go back with you. So you’ll have extra support there.”

Frank flinched. “What?”

“The later time trip will include Mindy, and possibly Glen, yeah? The only way you’ll catch everything is if you have someone with you who can speak Temporal. Now, me and Tim have been putting together a rudimentary dictionary, but in a pinch it makes more sense to have one of us there in person. We’re also the experts in the temporal gun, as Carrie herself pointed out in her letter.”

“But Mindy said only four people could go…"

“Or five.”

“And your double wasn’t there at Julie’s!”

“Meaning I was off guarding the new time machine. Frank, the only people who we can be sure WON’T travel back are Glen and the Venitis."

“But…”

Luci reached out to touch Frank’s palm. “Look, it’s an option we should consider. Okay? Not worry about! Only consider. And, ah, by the way, my intention to go is based on a concerned about all our futures thing, not a romantic thing.”

Frank blinked. “Sure. Er, did I give off a romantic signal?”

Luci shook her head. “No. I’m hoping I didn’t, by touching your hand here.”

“I didn’t clue in. You’re the observant one, not me.”

“Right.” Luci exhaled, pulling her arm back. “Okay, last card on the table. I’ve now been wondering if I broke up with you in part because you died in an alternate timeline. I… I feel kinda bad about that.”

“Oh?” Frank half smiled. “Well, don’t. I mean, so what if you did? In this timeline we had a good run, we both had issues to deal with, and in the end, we’re still able to talk about it like we are now. I think, if we couldn’t, that would somehow be the worst thing.”

Luci nodded, and found she could smile back. “Okay then. End of the second guessing - and of the obsessive temporal stuff, yeah?”

Frank hesitated, but finally nodded in reply.

“Heya Frank, Luci,” Beth chirped as she joined them. “I don’t care what Chartreuse says - have either of you tried adding ketchup to this poutine stuff they serve here? It tastes really good that way!”

Luci’s smile faded. She wondered whether they could truly steer Beth through another couple weeks of approximating Carrie… and despite her own assurances to Frank, whether a failure to do so correctly would result in temporal issues before the trip back in time became possible.

Corry watched as Beth joined Frank and Luci, then resumed poking at his cold pasta with a fork. “Anything?” he asked absently, when he sensed the person sitting down across from him.

“No,” Julie answered. “Megan’s a cipher.”

He made a face. “Yeah.” Corry tossed his fork aside. “We should have anticipated that Megan would blame me for Laurie vanishing to attend that ‘camp’. There was no advance warning.”

“We had bigger concerns. Amusingly enough, Megan’s suspicions are not wholly unjustified.”

“Yeah, funny!” Corry said bitterly. “Trouble is, it means my telling Megan to ‘go for it’ might have screwed things over, rather than fix them. She doesn’t trust that I’m passing on Laurie’s true message. I should have pressed my sister for more information.”

Julie shrugged. “Might be nothing to it. ’Go for it’, could simply refer to a new story Megan’s writing.”

“Yeah, or it could be a plot to mess up the school. One that Laurie hadn’t clued into.” Corry picked up his fork, only to drop it again. “Geez, how could my sister think anyone but her would be a good choice for encouraging Megan? Laurie’s the one who should be here now. Not me. Why did I let her go?! I mean, she’s so naive, so innocent, so… so…”

“Corry,” Julie said quietly, reaching out to take his hand. “Laurie’s fine.”

“I know that! You think I don’t know that? Of course I know that. Who do you think I am?” He tried to pull away but Julie held fast.

“You’re someone who cares about his sister, and who’s realized in the last couple days that he’s no longer there to protect her. But part of you knows your sister had to one day be free to make her own decisions, right? For good or bad.”

Corry opened then closed his mouth. “Goddamn it,” he grumbled at last. “We should have at least sent someone aside from Frank. Like Clarke. Sure, she’s over him, and I wouldn’t want to mess that up, but he does think a bit like her. And he’s more streetwise.”

“Corry.” She squeezed his palm. “Me and Mindy are working as fast as we can… and as soon as the time machine is completed and activated, Laurie will be back.”

The redhead sighed and kicked his foot out at a table leg. “I know. You don’t have to remind me.”

“Don’t I?” She smiled. “Look on the bright side. You’re starting to appreciate your sister’s ability to connect with people on a level that you can’t.”

“Hey, I never said Laurie didn’t have good qualities.” He briefly squeezed Julie’s hand back before pulling his arm away. “I guess there’s also a part of me wondering how I would be treating her running off if I were on the outside. Like Megan is.” He shook his head. “Do you think that sometimes, there’s stuff going on that truly is none of our business?”

Julie lifted her eyebrow and gave him a pointed look. It served to remind Corry about his flyer about her from last year, not to mention her own hushed up parental situation.

“Ah. Dumb question,” he answered himself. “Better question - what about this ‘go for it’ thing with Megan? Should we keep prying, or is THAT none of our business?”

“I think we should monitor, in case it becomes our business… but you’re not wrong. Inserting ourselves into it can only make the situation worse.”

“Mmm. I guess you’re right.” Corry toyed with his fork for a moment, then finally had some pasta. “Okay then, to change the subject, Carrie’s double, this Beth… how will Frank and the others locate her in the past? Is your team working on that, as well as fixing the machine?”

Julie’s brow creased. “Actually, that’s kind of another funny thing… we don’t have to work on it. You remember how Frank gave us a rundown on his first encounter with Beth? And how she and Carrie traded clothes?” Corry nodded. “Well, soon after that, Phil wondered if I hadn’t left a small tracking device on what became Beth’s hairband over fifty years ago…”

Clarke walked into the central cafe and hesitated, not sure if he should find a table or simply wait to chat with Theresa/Mindy. He decided to do the former. She brought him a hot chocolate moments later, then waived him off as he pulled out his wallet. “On the house. My shift’s done in ten minutes, see you outside.”

Although the first snowfall of December hadn’t stayed on the ground, it was cold enough that the hot chocolate was appreciated. At the same time, Clarke made sure not to leave Mindy waiting outside, heading out as soon as he saw her. She immediately set out for the LaMille mansion, jamming her hands into the pockets of her jacket.

“So… what did you want to talk to me about?” Clarke asked, after a few minutes of walking.

Mindy chuckled. “I’ve acquired the necessary parts for retrofitting the time machine. I had to tell Julie about it, since we’re storing it all at her place - and she insisted I tell you too. Funny enough, I agreed. Not merely because of your potential expertise, but because I think it will be educational.”

There was a playfulness to her tone that Clarke couldn’t figure out. “Educational? How so?”

“In that you’ll finally have a secret you can’t talk to the others about. Since Frank and the rest of them can’t know. Not yet. The more people who know, the more temporal danger there is.”

“Theresa… Mindy… really? More secrets?”

She stopped walking and turned to him. “Yes, really,” Mindy asserted. “Because first, Glen might still be in town. I want to make it difficult for him to prepare counter-measures. But more than that, the only thing I can think of that would send us back to ourselves unprepared? Is a future incursion. And the fewer people such an incursion can target for information about what’s going on, the better.”

“What happened to time travel is predestined?”

“Oh, I’m sure we’re going back,” Mindy said. “The question is what wreckage we leave in the present - what we leave for Carrie to have to fix. I figure we should minimize that. That said, if you’re not willing to help? I’ll understand. This will ultimately be your decision.”

Clarke sighed. “I guess I’m willing, but why did Julie even think I could help? I’m not so technically minded.”

“To answer that, I need a more firm commitment. In now? Or not until the end?”

Clarke looked up the street towards the LaMille mansion. He couldn’t turn away, not if Julie was offering this olive branch. “I’m in now.”

Mindy’s smile returned. “That’s good. Because you’ve taken tech classes, including auto shop, right?”

Megan Falls wasn’t sure exactly what was going on with the seniors. She only knew that Carrie Waterson was somehow at the centre of it. The blonde had been acting flighty ever since the talent show, and Glen’s subsequent disappearance. It was like she was a changed person - yet also someone reverting to old habits, by hanging around those other students of her clique again. Who were, Megan decided, sheltering her. Even Carrie’s father had rebuffed her when she’d tried to drop by cheerleader’s house.

Megan was having no more of that.

On the Tuesday of the last week of classes before the winter break, she got some of her associates to corner the rest of Carrie’s entourage, ensuring her meeting wouldn’t be interrupted. Then she got Kim to personally escort the blonde to the library.

“All right, Waterson,” Megan began, after waving Kim off. “I want to know what’s going on. The truth.”

Carrie glanced left and right, as if looking for an exit. “We’re talking in the library?” she offered.

Megan glared. “Don’t give me that. You know what I mean - it’s your whole ‘changed person’ routine over the last few weeks. The prevailing rumour is that you ‘found God’! Well, as an authority in this school on God, I don’t buy it. At all. So either you tell me the truth, right here, right now, or I’m going to make things VERY unpleasant for the rest of your friends.” She smiled, placing her hands on her hips. “Starting with Chartreuse. So what’ll it be, Carrie? As always, the choice is yours.”

NEXT: Powering Up

ASIDE: Care to indulge in the weekly vote? Or idle speculation?

PREVIOUSLY: Recreating a time machine will take weeks. Future incarnations have appeared, with a plan for making Carrie appear to still be in town.

PART 84a: ADJUSTMENTS

“Saints alive!” Beth Parker crossed herself and fell to her knees at her apartment door. “Is it really you?”

“Yeah, uh… look, get up.” Frank pocketed the radio transmitter with one hand, the other rubbing his forehead. Damn Carrie and her whole divine intervention story the first time they’d encountered Beth. “Truth be told, I was never actually an angel, and I - we - kinda need your help.”

“I always wanted to thank you properly. I’d hoped you’d return to me,” Beth said breathlessly as she scrambled to her feet. “I’ve become very religious in the last year, did you know that? What am I saying, of course you know. And my part time work at the Clayton hotel has almost earned me enough to get professional singing lessons! I plan to do gospel. Are you pleased? Am I on the right path?"

“Beth, please, I’ll explain everything.” Frank paused. “Okay, no… that would confuse you. But I’ll hit the highlights, so long as you come with me now. To the, um, oh heck with it, to an Astral Plane.”

Beth peered out into the hall. “Why now? And where is your partner? The one who looked like me, the one named Carrie?”

“That,” Frank concluded, “would be why we need your help."

“We’ll pull a girl out of the past,” Luci whispered to Frank. “Is that ethical? That can’t be ethical.”

Frank eyed the blonde girl who was currently gaping at all the television channels and other technology Julie was demonstrating. “We have to assume our future selves know what they’re doing,” he muttered back. “And I mean, we’re right - while Beth is a couple years older, with a little makeup and Mindy providing an external boost on any naysayers? She could pass as Carrie at school. At least in the few weeks we need leading up to Christmas vacation.”

“And EVERYONE on your astral plane has these ‘sell phones’?” Beth gasped. She looked up at Julie. “But why even call them phones if they do other things? Are you sure they’re not demonic devices?”

“Oh yeah,” Luci said dryly. “It’s like she and Carrie are the same person.”

Frank sighed. “We’ll need to monitor her. The bigger question is Laurie. Can we really hold that situation together for upwards of three weeks?”

“No, nO, NO, no, and, oh wait, how about a side dish of NO!”

“You know, Corry,” Mindylenopia observed. “We’re telling you as a courtesy more than anything else."

“I’m trying to say ‘no’ in a courteous manner. You’re not listening.”

The former waitress sighed, and looked to Frank. Or Bernard, Corry supposed, what with those two apparently being time displaced. Bernard was rubbing his forehead again. “Look, Corry - we can, and in fact did convince your family that Laurie’s away at an art camp. That she was recruited after someone saw that drawing that Megan published for her back in October. All we need is for you to warn Mindy if your parents seem about to–”

“What about the school Laurie would be missing?” Corry challenged. “Not to mention potentially Christmas! You think my family will buy her being away for something like that?!”

“I’m in the room,” Laurie said, quietly.

Both Venitis had been called and asked to come to the mansion a little earlier than everyone else. Corry turned to her on the sofa. “I know. Sorry Laurie, but based on your reaction, I figured I should advocate on your behalf.”

Laurie’s hands tightened where they held her skirt. “When they said what this trip would mean, I was shocked. I needed a moment. But there really isn’t an alternative, right?”

“I’m the alternative,” Corry asserted, waving off Mindylenopia before she could speak. “My ankle’s not that bad, and–"

“No, Corry.” Laurie stood up and turned to face him, her fingers releasing her skirt, in favour of twisting together. “You’re always jumping in, trying to protect me, and while I appreciate it - we’re seniors now. It’s like Megan says, I gotta do more on my own. Besides, my memory is still shaky, but I think maybe we’ve had this discussion before? When you volunteered for time travel a year ago, to go after Julie? And I don’t think I liked that. Even this year, when you and Frank were gone for two days after the van crash, I could barely handle it - no way can I bluff mom and dad for weeks! Whereas you can.”

Laurie pulled her hands apart, forcing her arms to her sides. “I’ll do extra studying, plus I’m taking History, and this is history. And Dad was away for the holidays two years ago, for work, so it’s not that weird. I can even record a message now for you to use, saying my plane home was cancelled or the camp was extended or something. Because bottom line, the time group needs me, so I’m going to go.”

“C’mon little sis, you can’t really…”

“Two minutes!” she reminded her brother, pointing at him. “Not THAT little. In fact I’m not only doing this for them, it’s for me too.” She paused for a breath. “Because here’s the thing, Corry! I admire Carrie. I have for a long while. I admire all things she can do so much better than me, even including her power of time travel. But know what I’ve learned? She can’t do everything. Not on her own. She needs people like us. So I’m stepping up. Last week with cheerleading, and now with this.”

She then crossed her arms, imitating the posture Corry so often made - with only a slight shiver betraying her nervousness. “Corry, I care about this group and what they’re doing a lot more than some stuffy classes,” she continued. “Except maybe art class, because here’s ANOTHER thing, I also want to be a professional animator. And this cover story will make my parents see that maybe, I’m just that good. So… so there. Deal with it, bro. I’m going.”

Corry opened his mouth to protest… and found he couldn’t. Not after a speech like that. For some reason, he was reminded of something Chartreuse had said to him, back when Julie had time travelled: ‘If Laurie wants to help someone, she’s going to do it. No matter what EITHER of us has to say.’ After a few moments of standing with his mouth open, he finally found enough of a voice to say, “Damnit Laurie, of all the times to make me proud, you just have to do it when there’s a chance of mortal danger, don’t you?!”

Laurie blushed faintly, smiling back at him. She then nibbled on her lower lip and let her arms fall back to her sides as she looked back to Bernard. “Golly, there won’t be MORTAL danger, will there?”

“Look at it this way,” Bernard offered. “Things go screwy for us in your future, our present. So maybe the safest place for you to be is with us, in the past.”

Corry didn’t feel entirely reassured, but he decided pushing the point would only make things worse for Laurie.

“Okay,” Laurie sighed. “So how many days do I need to pack for?”

“In theory, none,” Mindylenopia pointed out. “We won’t stay long in the past, then we’ll simply be returning to your future. In practice, of course, whatever an art camp would need.”

“Okay,” she repeated. “Though before I do that, I’ll need to teach this Beth girl our cheerleadering routines.”

“Heck. That’s a good point,” Bernard realized. “Let’s go see if Julie and the others are done with their technology primer.”

Laurie nodded, then looked back to Corry. “And one last thing? Since I’m not going to be here, please, tell Megan to go for it. Okay?”

Corry lifted an eyebrow. “Go for it?”

“Yeah, I think she’ll need extra encouragement. You can say I asked you to pass it along. Thanks Corry!”

Corry was tempted to ask what his sister meant by that, but she seemed to have a lot to worry about already. Besides, he reasoned, it couldn’t be too hard to figure out whatever Laurie was referring to.

The whole group met, and everyone was brought up to speed. Only Glen wasn’t there, having said he’d render his decision about leaving or not once Mindylenopia and Bernard came by the hotel with Laurie.

They’d then determined that the people to tell Mr. Waterson the truth about Carrie would be: Frank and Luci, as two of the originals, Mindy, as the adult, plus she’d been to his house yesterday, and Chartreuse, who knew of mystical powers.

Hank took it well, all things considered.

“So you’re saying that, ever since she was shot, Carrie - my daughter - has been a time traveler?”

Frank glanced over at Luci, then back to Hank Waterson. “Right.”

“I’ve been helping Carrie come to grips with it,” Chartreuse offered. “There are, you know, strange things in this world that at least 99.9% of the general population isn’t aware of.”

“Thing is,” Luci finished, “until we can get Carrie back, we’ll need a girl named Beth to act like her double in the present. Because as long as the future thinks Carrie’s still here, there won’t be repercussions.”

“Time travel,” Hank reiterated. He moved to sit down in one of the living room chairs. “This is like something out of a bad novel.”

“It’s really happening though,” Mindy (or to Hank, Theresa) observed. “Now, if you like, I can essentially hypnotize you into being okay with everything. It’s simply better for everybody if you’re dealing with Beth of your own volition instead, should any issues come up that I cannot foresee. Also, it avoids me needing to reiterate that ‘everything’s fine’ every few days, as you start to feel like it’s not.”

“We do have things more or less worked out,” Frank added. “Beth will need to be in school Monday and Tuesday, for continuity, then you can take her out for some sick days as we regroup. Her being sick will also help explain away any odd behaviour. From there, we’ll play it by ear.”

“How long will this go on for?” he asked.

“At least three weeks. Maybe to the end of December,” Mindy stated.

“Three WEEKS?!”

“Mr. Waterson,” Chartreuse said, reaching out for his hand. “Listen, there’s no way I can, you know, fully understand what you’re going through. Because you’ve gotta take a lot more here on faith than I do. But PLEASE sir, know that I, like, get some of it. Because Carrie and me, we’ve been, you know, pretty close lately. Like, extremely close, actually. So know that I’m scared for her, and that large parts of me now want to scream, or sob uncontrollably, or lash out at Theresa here… except I know those things won’t help. This thing with Beth? It will.”

He searched her expression. “How can you be sure?”

She swallowed. “I… I can’t. Not entirely. But we’ve met future counterparts, and they say this is our best shot, so I figure it’s gotta help. Please, sir, if nothing else, please trust that we all want the same thing here. We all want - no, we NEED - to, like, bring Carrie back to the present. To have her here with us again, all safe and sound.”

Hank realized that Chartreuse was trying hard not to cry. His grip on her hand tightened, and his expression settled into one of resolve. If Carrie’s friends could manage? Then he would as well. “All right then,” he said. “Tell me more about this Beth, and what I have to do to bring our Carrie back home.”

On the bright side, the first week was only mildly problematic.

NEXT: Crossing Paths

PREVIOUSLY: Glen and Mindy explained temporal theory - and said that Carrie would never be able to save her mother in the past.

PART 83b: DOUBLE TROUBLE

“Wait, stop,” Laurie protested. “How can there BE this ‘Future Carrie’? Isn’t she from that old timeline three? Chartreuse said it’s gone!”

“Not entirely,” Mindy said, looking uncomfortable. “In a sense, timeline three is a few milliseconds in our future. We’re constantly in the process of overwriting it. So Future Carrie’s still a threat.”

Frank shook his head. “I don’t see it. After all the changes, why isn’t ‘Future Carrie’ destined to be from our timeline now?”

“She may be, but as we Temporals know, perception is everything,” Mindy sighed. “Did your Carrie grow up alongside Glen? That’s timeline three. Or did she grow up in a mental hospital being spoon fed memories of growing up alongside Glen? Because that could be our path now. They both lead to Future Carrie.”

“What? No!” Chartreuse gasped.

“Then we’ll finish our time machine and go after our Carrie,” Julie asserted. “It’s time travel, we can get to her in the past before that future happens. We’ll tell Carrie that she’s been living timeline four, to give her another path forwards.”

“Won’t work,” Glen asserted. “Unless you leave soon, Future Carrie will easily spot when her past self ceased influencing your present, and she’ll tie up the loose ends to preserve her own timeline. Even if it means the mental hospital in her past. Soon enough, you’ll all be adjusted to think your version moved away or something. I warned you, didn’t I? But oh no, nobody listens to–"

“Oh, stay shutted up,” Mindy interrupted. “Know what, Julie? Yes. Doing that is better than doing nothing. Possibly better that Carrie end up with Glinephanis here versus… yeah.”

“Meaning we’ll need to temporally hide out until until the machine is complete,” Luci realized. “To avoid this Future Carrie’s interference. How do we do that? What do we tell the rest of the school? What do we tell Carrie’s father?”

“Look. All you’ll need to do, is make everyone in the present think Carrie’s still here,” Glen admitted to them. “It won’t matter if she really is or not, her history is now in quantum flux. Basically, her future self can’t be allowed to perceive a lengthy discontinuity.”

Mindy rubbed her forehead. “I’ll go to Carrie’s father. We can stall a missing persons report.”

“Oh! More ‘minor changes’ to us?” Julie asked, her tone sarcastic.

“Julie’s right,” Clarke agreed. “Mr. Waterson should be told everything. Not have his mind adjusted.”

“Right, since giving the whole story worked SO well with your sister, Mary,” Glen reminded him.

“Yet you two Temporals have limits to your mind powers, yeah?” Lee noted. “Can’t change the whole school, not if there’s more people like me. And how long is this time machine rebuilding going to take?”

“Days,” Mindy sighed. “Okay, fine. For now I’ll set things up to stall another twenty four hours.” She glanced at Julie. “Let’s have a meeting of all technical minded people, right here, first thing tomorrow morning. That will tell us how long our stalling needs to be maintained.”

She’d asked him to stay behind. So Clarke decided to give Julie the first words. It took about two minutes of her staring into the china cabinet before she spoke.

“We have a problem here, Clarke. Phil.” Julie turned. “Damn it, I’m sorry, how do you want me to refer to you?”

“Let’s go with Phil,” Clarke suggested. “Against all odds, I spent four straight years at our school. So I’ve been wondering about using my first name more with everyone in post-secondary.”

“Phil then,” she said, smiling. “Here’s the thing. I tore myself away from whatever we had because I thought it was for the greater good. And maybe it kind of was, even if I went about it badly. Not to mention how it ended up being a trick by Mindy.” She raked her hands back through her hair. “So yes, I know I shouldn’t have unilaterally decided to keep you out without giving you any options. Thing is, Phil, I can’t promise that sort of thing won’t happen again. Like how it did today, with Glen at the park. And you don’t deserve that.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Julie. Jewels.”

“I’ll try not to be - but you can’t be so easy on me. I’m not healthy for you, Phil. You must realize that.”

“I should get a say in that, yeah?”

Julie moved closer. “Yeah. But PLEASE, you need to see where I’m coming from here. Logically, not emotionally. Phil, I did these things to you even after you saved my life last year. Do you understand?”

Clarke shook his head. “I can’t ignore my feelings…”

“I’m not saying you have to! However, you always seem to think more with your heart than your head. While I’m the reverse, hyper analytical. And while my emotions are pulling me back towards you here, the rest of me is… worried. Because while I may have been acting more hesitant for the better part of this year, as I rebuilt my life, underneath it all? It turns out I’m assertive to a fault. I could easily end up crushing you. Again. Please, if we’re going forward, I want you to recognize that, and have a contingency plan.”

“You mean I’ve got a blind spot when it comes to that part of you,” Clarke realized. He forced himself to consider that. “Maybe you’re right,” he granted. “But maybe you’re also scared to be losing your objectivity. You’re scared to give yourself over to your feelings.”

“Ohh, you’re not wrong.” Julie held his gaze. “Thing is, where does that leave us? Friends? More than friends? Something else?”

“Our relationship has always defied description,” Clarke said wryly. He reached out his hand. “How about we start again here, as a couple, and see where that takes us.”

Julie reached out, fingers twitching a little until their palms met. She was moving into the embrace almost before Clarke could pull her in. She drew in a long breath. After a moment, her shoulders began to shake - was she sobbing? Was she giddy with relief? When Clarke pulled back a little to try and see, she released his hand and held him tighter, burying her face in the crook of his neck.

So he simply held her back. It was enough, he decided. They could rebuild from this.

Sunday morning found all the technical specialists reunited in the LaMille sitting room: Julie, Frank, Luci, Mindy… and Glen. For while Glen was more of an expert on the theory than the hardware, Glen had refused to allow Mindy to be present without him.

It meant that arguments between Mindy and Glen were not infrequent. But with arbitration by Luci, progress on the actual circuitry was made too. Slow progress. It was close to noon when Julie threw her pencil down onto the table in disgust.

“Mindy, you’ve made this MORE complicated, not LESS. It’s going to take WEEKS, not days.”

“I thought you agreed with me that we cannot fit the circuits back into that black box chassis,” Mindy countered.

“We’re still on a deadline here! Stop adding stuff!”

“There’s no need to sacrifice safety. The only hard deadline is the end of December, and that’s only because once when we get into January there’s no coins to return to your present.”

“You’re forgetting the smokescreen,” Luci said. “The longer we obfuscate on where our Carrie is and what she’s doing, the greater the chance that we’ll be found out. At this rate, we could have this work cut off by outside forces from the future before we can finish.”

Mindy shook her head. “Once I saw this would take more than a few days - one week or three weeks, that won’t make a huge difference. Trust me.”

“What IS the new framework you’re aiming for?” Frank asked.

Mindy looked from Frank to Glen. “I’d rather not say.”

“What, worried I’ll take a sledgehammer to it before you’re done?” Glen asked, smirking. “You forget, I want Carrie back too.”

“Yeah, so you can get her closer to your ‘timeline three’, versus letting us explore other options,” Mindy pointed out. She then looked to Frank, perhaps to pull herself back from a new argument. “Though I admit, I’m also holding back to avoid giving out more information about future technology than I have to.”

“Mindy, that’s making it IMPOSSIBLE for us to–”

“Maybe it’s time for a lunch break," Luci said, cutting Julie off. “Was Mimi making sandwiches?”

“I think something was left in the kitchen, yes,” Frank agreed, as Luci shot him a look he interpreted as pleading for assistance. “Why don’t we adjourn there?”

After a few assorted mumblings, it was agreed that food might be in order. Luci interposed herself between the two Temporals as they changed locations, and as such was able to hear Frank’s next question to them. “So Mindy, with this ‘new design’, how many people are we going to be able to bring along? I mean, we’ll need to track Carrie down once we’ve arrived in the past, and the more people we have there, the easier that could be.”

Mindy grimaced. “No more than five.”

“Right. And I’ll be one of those five,” Mindylenopia clarified.

Luci managed to sidestep Julie, who had stopped in front of her, practically blocking the entranceway to the kitchen. They then understood why Julie had frozen in place. The kitchen was already occupied by a number of seated individuals: Mindy (or rather, Mindylenopia, who had spoken), Frank (or rather, Bernard), and also…

“Carrie??” Julie gasped. In two strides she was at the other girl’s side, leaning down to look into her eyes. The blonde was dressed curiously, sporting a very out-of-fashion blouse with a long skirt, and she was wearing a cross on a necklace. Only her blue hairband was familiar. “How are you feeling, are you… no. You’re not Carrie. Who are you?”

The blonde haired girl faltered. “Um, I… I…” She turned to look at the time travellers. “Frank, help…?”

“I’m Bernard now,” Bernard sighed back. He looked up at the rest of them. “Everybody? This is Beth Parker. Beth, that’s Julie, Luci, Glen, and, um, other ‘us’es you already know. It’s an Astral Plane thing.” Beth raised her hand, giving a tentative wave.

Frank slowly shook his head. “Beth Parker… I know that name. Why do I know that name?”

“This town,” Bernard offered. “Decades ago. Carrie’s lookalike, the Clayton Hotel, Mrs. Peabody…” Frank flinched as the memory came to him.

“Oh, this is rich,” Glen said. “You honestly think a body double is going to work?”

Mindylenopia rose to her feet. “It will for a while, yup. Until things go south. We’re not merely here to drop Beth off, we also need supplies before our trip back to the airport in Florida. Didn’t have time to load up before coming back.”

“Why not?” Luci asked.

Bernard adjusted his glasses. “We can’t say. At present, there’s a certain stability involved in our predestined time travel. We don’t want to risk it teetering into an even worse future.”

“You didn’t tell us when you were me, so you won’t tell us now,” Frank summarized. Bernard shrugged.

Julie turned to eye the current Glen and Mindy. “Could this be a trick?”

“I wouldn’t put anything past Mindylenopia,” Glen grunted.

Mindy finally spoke. “Honestly? I’d hoped we’d experience something like this. It means my machine will work. Awesomeness.”

“But there’s going to be sacrifices,” Mindylenopia countered. She jerked her thumb at Beth. “First, we’ve gotta acclimate her to this situation as fast as possible. And…" She exhaled. “Play it straight with Carrie’s dad.”

“That’s a terrible plan,” Glen and Mindy chorused. As they had the previous day, they then glared at each other.

“Second,” Mindylenopia continued, “Glinephanis, if we DO run into Carrie’s future self back there? You’re one of the few people she might listen to. So we’re willing to bring you along with us.”

Glen folded his arms. “So you can leave me stranded somewhere? No way!"

“Sweet.” Mindylenopia turned to Bernard. “We tried, he’s not coming."

“Wait,” Bernard protested, standing also. “Glen, we wouldn’t strand you. As much as I hate to admit it, you also know more about our own Carrie’s emotional state leading up to her departure, and her capabilities. We need that information, that… expertise.” He let out a quick breath. “Plus, causally speaking, the fact that you didn’t time travel back here with us? Implies that you’re stuck in our present. Would you rather be there? Or keeping an eye on what it is we’re about to do?”

Glen’s eyes narrowed. “You neglect to point out that, if I come with you now, I won’t get to see what it is you’re planning through the month of December.”

“I’m hoping we can lock you in a basement for the next few weeks to achieve the same result,” present Mindy muttered under her breath. Glen shot her a look, which she ignored.

“Anyway, you’re not the only person from this time that we need to recruit,” Mindylenopia finished.

Julie frowned. “Why?”

“Welllll,” Bernard began slowly, after exchanging a glance with his companion. “As you know, our destination is Elaine Waterson. Last seen for sure in Miami, Florida. And we’ll need to time shift reasonably close to that position, both to minimize our temporal impact and to eliminate the possibility of unforeseen travel delays. So… we need someone who was in Miami that year.”

“Someone to pull the handle,” Luci reasoned.

“One of the Venitis,” Frank realized.

“And Corry has his twisted ankle,” Julie observed.

“Yeah. We’re here for Laurie,” Mindylenopia confirmed. “We need to pull her out of your time for this mission.”

A hush fell over the room. It was broken when Beth swallowed her mouthful of sandwich, and gestured at the tray. “Anyone else want one? They’re very tasty.”

NEXT: Adjustments

ASIDE: The dominos set up in Book 1 (Beth) and Book 2 (Miami) continue to fall. ARC 2 is done, so we’re halfway through Book 4. New commentary Sunday. How about that weekly T&T vote? I’ve also started posting to “Royal Road Legends”, if you want to start over.

PREVIOUSLY: Julie decided the best plan was to bring Glen (who wants to preserve the future) and Mindy (who wants to change the future), together.

PART 83a: TEMPORAL ALIGNMENT

“Oh, what’s Theresa doing… here…" Glen’s voice trailed off as the two redheads locked eyes. Despite everyone now being present in the LaMille sitting room, an unsettling silence fell. It lasted precisely five seconds.

“You scared Carrie off, this isn’t on me,” Mindy accused, quickly rising to her feet. “I’ve been passively watching, and only occasionally slowing down your orders at the cafe.”

Glen shot a glare at Clarke before turning back to her. “%You expect me to take YOUR word, you traitor?!%” he hissed back in Temporal. “%I’d be gone with Carrie by now if not for your interference.%”

“%Preserving a terrible future! Who wants that?%” Mindy argued. She looked to Julie. “This might have gone better if you’d said he was coming.”

“This might have gone better if you’d been more up front with us from the start,” Julie reminded her.

“Move away,” Glen said to Luci, Lee and Chartreuse, who were between him and Mindy. The two girls automatically took a step to the side, but Lee remained where he was.

“Dude, we might as well hear her side before the hurling of more garbled profanities or potentially heavy objects,” he remarked. Glen edged to the side, but Lee matched his movement, keeping the two Temporals apart. “Look, I don’t like getting physical, but I will if I have to.”

“That person is a traitor to everything a Temporal stands for,” Glen seethed, pointing past Lee, towards Mindy. “I’d banish her again myself if I could!”

“Glinephanis, our stance shouldn’t be that every Mundane is the enemy,” Mindy shot back. “%Remember, they created us.%”

“%Yes, and we are superior,%” Glen reminded. “%Until they learn to accept that…%”

“%They’re not servants. Not slaves.%”

“%No, but they are SO helpless,%” Glen scoffed. “%Playing around with technologies that they don’t understand, it’s not unlike giving teenagers a time machine. Let it continue, and everyone will be killed.%”

“%No, it’s sweeping generalizations like that which will kill everyone,%” Mindy responded. “%Don’t conveniently forget, fundamentally we remain human ourselves.%”

“What gibberi–” Corry began, only to be quickly silenced by a motion from Luci, who had been exchanging glances with Tim.

“%Temporals are the next generation of humans,%” Glen continued, ignoring Corry’s outburst. “%Imagine what we could accomplish without the petty restrictions of their society.%”

“%We could turn more innocent girls into weapons?%”

Glen managed to step around Lee, who had become distracted by Corry’s outburst. Showing no finesse, his fist went flying for Mindy’s face. Reacting quickly, Mindy stepped to the side and reached for Glen’s arm. As she tried to pull him off balance though, he twisted out of her grip, and the two of them faced off, eye to eye. Lee circled around, reaching out for Glen’s shoulder from behind, only to hesitate as the redhead simply resumed talking.

“%I’m not the one who woke her powers early,%” Glen seethed. “%That was a Mundane! I’m trying to HELP her.%”

“%Future her. Not the her of this time!%”

“%They are the SAME.%”

“%Not now. Not according to this one,%” Mindy asserted, pointing at Chartreuse.

“%That harlot?%”

“Whoa,” Tim gasped. Glen turned to stare, and the blonde boy slapped his hand over this mouth. Glen narrowed his eyes as he looked back at Mindy. “Oh no. No, this is unbelievable, did you teach all these Mundanes how to understand TEMPORAL?”

“No,” Mindy protested. “Though, okay, apparently they did find one of Linquist’s logbooks in our language…"

“Meaning you taught HIM? Oh, I’m out.” Glen’s posture relaxed then - as did Lee’s. “Future Carrie can destroy your lives as she likes,” Glen decided. He turned away from the group.

“Glen, wait," Frank objected. “Truthfully, most of us have no idea what happened and would like to get caught up.”

“Yeah, um, what were they, like, saying about me?” Chartreuse asked.

Glen paused, looking from Frank to Mindy to Tim. Mindy simply clasped her hands behind her back, adopting a neutral expression. Tim looked towards Luci. Luci seemed about to speak, then thought better of it and gestured back his way. “I caught words. You’re the linguist, Tim, you probably have a better idea of how it all fit together.”

Tim exhaled slowly. “Oh. Okay. Um. S-Something about them - as Temporals - being superior, and how our ignorance could kill us… though at a fundamental level we’re all the same? Except Glen didn’t buy that. Then they were arguing about Carrie’s powers, the use of her as a weapon, some garbling of tenses - hey, using a future imperfect tense almost makes sense now - and then on to Chartreuse. Which, ah, there’s a particular page where Linquist was spouting off about aliens, and he used what seemed to be cursing, so while I’m not entirely sure of the specific word…” He hesitated.

Mindy cleared her throat. “That ass called you a–"

“Never mind,” Chartreuse interrupted, her hands making fists. “I can guess.”

“Right, talk as if I’M the ass,” Glen said, his gaze settling back on Mindy. “Passively watching us, were you? If Carrie’s different, you’re the one who changed this past without considering the consequences!”

“I had no MEMORY when I met Linquist,” Mindy countered, jabbing her finger at her head. “Because of what YOU made Carrie do. So don’t you DARE lecture me, that man was like a father to me, he–“

“The change to Carrie’s timeline had to be more recent, traitor. You couldn’t have simply left town, noooo, you had to stay here and–"

“Yes, I had to TRY to create a better future, because it’s not like anyone else knew–"

“What gave YOU the right to decide–"

“Okay, this was funnier when I didn’t know what they were saying,” Corry grumbled.

Glen took a step back towards Mindy, only to have Lee again step between them. Then Julie clapped her hands twice, drawing everyone’s attention. “HEY! Temporals. Laying blame isn’t going to help bring Carrie back. So how about we all shut up and listen to each other until we’re on the same temporal page, allowing us to actually find a path forward through all this mess. Okay?”

Glen and Mindy glared back at each other. Then Glen rolled his eyes. “Fine. Feels like that’s the only way I’ll find out where the present day Carrie is.” He marched over to sit himself in a chair.

“Fine,” Mindy agreed. “Most of my cards are on the table already.” She sat back down on the couch.

“Lovely.” Julie put her hands on her hips. “Chartreuse, since you’re the one who understands Carrie’s timelines best, how about you guide us through the discussion?”

Chartreuse ceased her fumbling with the crystal around her neck, pursed her lips, then slowly nodded.

Frank found that the various timelines made sense. Mostly. There was one notable issue. “Here’s the thing,” he said once Chartreuse was done, which took some time given the questions of others along the way. “When ‘Shady’ initiated timeline three, that was a change. But Glen came back within that timeline - it was predestined. Mindy then initiated timeline four. That was a change. In fact, the very change that put us in this situation. So why the differences? What makes time travel predestined or not?”

“All time travel is predestined,” Glen grunted.

“Until it’s not,” Mindy added, with an impish smile. Frank frowned.

“That’s not an acceptable answer,” Luci protested.

The two Temporals exchanged glances. “You want to waste your time on this?” Glen said, gesturing.

Mindy raked her fingers through her hair. “Oh, sure, let’s give it a whirl.” She looked to Frank. “Say you burn your dinner. You’re bummed out. You travel back a half hour through time, to remind yourself to take it out of the oven. Meaning you don’t burn your dinner. Awesome. So why even take the time trip? Things worked out fine!”

“Because you’re predestined?” Frank ventured.

“Exactly,” Mindy concluded. “On an unconscious level, you need to go. For consistency, and so that your time travelling version has somewhere to return to. Perhaps the trip even avoids you being stuck in some sort of infinite time loop.”

“Wait. So did that dinner EVER get burned?” Laurie asked.

Mindy smiled. “Nope.”

“Unless dinner’s connected to paradox inducing Carrie Waterson,” Glen added, rising to his feet and wandering over to the china cabinet.

Lee scratched his head. “So time travel has become a way to remind yourself to do stuff that’s gonna happen ANYWAY?”

Mindy’s smile widened. “Yup.”

“Hence, all time travel is predestined,” Clarke echoed. He looked to Glen. “Except possibly when Carrie’s involved.”

“What’s the damn point to doing it then?” Corry asked.

“Funny you should say that, we keep telling the Mundanes as much…"

“Oh, Glen, lighten up,” Mindy said. “Thing is, even setting aside having actual motivation via one’s relative present being affected by a predestined trip, there are exception cases outside of Carrie too. It’s a matter of getting your time trip to knock the prior timeline completely out of alignment, such that it starts getting overwritten with your new one. To do that, you need to aim for a lynchpin moment. Which, alas, are almost impossible to spot, even in retrospect. So sometimes a Mundane tries anyway, hoping to get lucky.”

“For instance, instead of going back in time to warn about dinner, you go back in time, disabling your time machine,” Frank offered. “Lynchpin, and new timeline.”

Mindy shook her head. “Actually, that can be predestined. You might think you’re disabling it, when in fact you’ve enabled something that will force the trip.”

“Then the usual paradox of going back to kill your grandfather is a lynchpin,” Luci stated.

“Predestined,” Glen countered, now leaning against the wall. “You never take the shot. Or he survives. Or it’s a case of mistaken genetic identity. Time is more of an active force in this than you realize.”

“Okay, I know going back to try and kill YOURSELF does something,” Julie declared. “All I’m missing is the T-Shirt.”

“That can set up temporal waveforms,” Mindy acknowledged. “Are you alive? Are you dead? Even are you both at once, that’s a messy quantum possibility. But ultimately the timeline will collapse down into the most stable configuration… which is usually one of predestination.”

“Kinda hating the, you know, lack of free will here,” Chartreuse observed.

“You have free will in your actions,” Mindy noted. “And in your perceptions, which honestly is the most important thing. After all, two people can see a single event very differently.”

Chartreuse grimaced, as Mindy’s remark reminded her of the incident at school with the broken violin.

Mindy looked around at the others. “So yes, you get less free will about the final destination, but that’s all. To be blunt, everyone dies, the question is how did they live their lives.”

“Then you’re s-saying global warming was always going to happen,” Tim said.

“No,” Glen sighed. “She’s saying something was always going to happen. Free will and general human stupidity meant that the something became global warming. And now we’re kind of stuck with it, along with a host of other somethings… Mundanes really screwed over the Earth we’re trying to inherit.”

“But Mindy, doesn’t this temporal inertia mean your mission to separate Carrie and Glen was always doomed to failure?” Frank protested.

Mindy nodded. “Maybe. But there’s also early nudges on timeline alignment which can help knock it out when the lynchpin arrives, and with Carrie involved here, that was my goal. For while a mission to prevent Carrie’s departure entirely would likely have failed, mine was to prevent her from going with Glen. Which, frankly, seems to have worked.”

“Temporarily,” Glen grumbled. “Look, lecture over. Have we reached the point where you’ll all tell me when Carrie took her time trip to yet?”

Frank looked around the room at the others, seeing varied levels of confusion but no real argument. “They might as well know. Chartreuse? Feels like you should do the honours again.”

The pink haired girl nodded, again touching the crystal around her neck. She drew in a deep breath. “We’re almost certain that Carrie went back in time to get her mom. So that Hank Waterson would have someone here with him, after losing his daughter.”

“Oh, well, that won’t work,” Glen and Mindy chorused. They turned to glare at each other, as if irritated to be so in synch.

“Why not?” Luci demanded, perching herself on the couch again. “Carrie’s involved. Can’t she change things?”

Glen lifted an eyebrow. “Ooh. Gonna tell them all about it, ‘Mindy’?”

“Shut up, Glinephanis. I’m trying to work through the repercussions of that.”

“What repercussions?” Corry asked. “What’s the problem?”

“Sorry,” Mindy sighed. “I can’t. This goes beyond temporal theory, it’s need to know information only.”

“She’s my girlfriend!” Chartreuse insisted. “I need to know!”

Mindy merely pursed her lips.

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Glen said. “If your Carrie went back to that time? My Future Carrie will pull herself out of there. Probably has already.” He smirked. “There’s nothing we can do about it here in the present. You’re screwed.”

NEXT: Double Trouble

ASIDE: A couple weeks ago, I submitted a serial profile to the “Serial Fiction Digest” FB group. Check it out if you want to know how I get in the minds of my characters, and check out @SerFicDigest on twitter.

PREVIOUSLY: Mindylenopia is at the LaMille mansion, as others prepare to meet Glen in Willowdale Park.

PART 82b: AFTER EFFECTS

“So why are you the official substitute for Frank?” Luci asked.

Corry carefully lowered himself down into the park swing. “Damned if I know.” He used his cane to brace the swing and arrest it’s motion. “Might as well focus on Glen. What did you turn up?”

In the swing next to him, Lee grinned. “Luci, show him the article about–"

“Hold that thought,” Clarke interrupted, looking towards the tree line. “Let’s tell them both at once.” Luci turned to see that Glen had emerged, and was approaching them, looking around warily.

“You’re short a few people,” the redhead pointed out, stopping at least three metres away.

“Research is ongoing,” Lee countered, before Clarke could speak. “You didn’t specify we all had to be here.”

“Right. Look, if your plan is for the others to knock us all out, then ply me for secrets about my abilities? Save your time, I won’t talk.”

“Oh, shut it,” Corry barked. “As if locking you in a box somewhere would be of any use. Me, I’m interested in what’s been discovered so far. Up to you if you want to listen too.”

Glen glared, but did close the distance between them. “Do you actually have documented evidence that Mindy has been hiding out in the town’s past?”

Luci glanced at Clarke, who nodded. She pulled a page out of the folder she held. “To start, an article from ten years ago. Talking about Linquist’s research taking a bizarre turn ‘since taking in that street girl’.”

Glen motioned with his hand, and after a momentary hesitation, Luci handed over the page. The redhead scanned it. “There’s nothing conclusive in this,” he objected. “No mention of who that ‘street girl’ was.”

“But notice the bizarre turn,” Clarke said, pointing. “Linquist publishing a paper about relativity. Wormholes. Surely that points to an influence by Mindy.”

Glen shook his head. “No, it proves the opposite!” he said scornfully. “I guess Carrie never said? Mindy’s memories of such things would have been scrambled by the temporal banishing. Linquist would have needed something in his own background to put her pieces together this way, yet you’ve now said this was a bizarre detour for him. You’re wasting my time.”

“Except we also have some later news articles!” Luci protested. She pulled out another page. “Including this one, where an interviewer says Linquist believed that aliens were feeding him information. If he started to think that Mindy was–"

“Luci, wait,” Clarke interrupted again. “Glen, you say Mindy’s memories would have been affected?” When Glen nodded, Clarke turned to look at Lee. “The stuff Linquist was doing before that bizarre turn, wasn’t it about memories?”

“Thought experiments, yeah,” Lee agreed. “Including recollection under hypnosis. It was good enough to get that minor award.”

Corry leaned forwards. “Maybe that’s the real proof then. Linquist got access to the wormhole stuff by fixing Mindy’s mind.”

Glen’s eyebrow twitched. “Show me the rest of your articles.”

“My original mission was to get ‘Glen’ away from Carrie, using any means possible,” Mindy answered Frank.

“How does a time machine help you do that now?” Frank asked.

Mindy shrugged. “It could have let me reason with one of them, away from the other. Worst case scenario, it creates the option of travelling back and planting as many subconscious triggers for Carrie as I could. Anyone spot that poetry I submitted some five years back?”

“So you again admit you’re trying to manipulate us,” Julie noted.

Mindy sighed. “Seriously? My poem was minor. Calling you last weekend, so you wouldn’t lose hope, was minor. I haven’t done anything major.”

“You crashed a van into our school library,” Frank reminded.

“Anything lately! Though short term damage like that is also minor,” Mindy said dismissively. “Time recovers. Also, I was younger and more impulsive then, stop trying to corner me.”

“What about the note you wrote me in Carrie’s handwriting?” Julie accused. “It was you, right? ‘Rebuild it, in secret,’ et cetera?”

Mindy shifted uncomfortably. “Right. Kind of minor? To be honest, I tapped Carrie to write that note herself, but it was years ago, back before her powers awoke. Kept it vague, removed the memory… I mean, it stood to reason that Glen would have her destroy the machine, after the stunt you all pulled on me with it. I just had to figure out who would be the best person to give that note to afterwards.”

“SIX WEEKS of my LIFE, Mindy!”

Mindy ran her fingers back through her hair. “Okay. Okay, sorry. That was a bit more long term - but come on, less than 12% of a year? It’s not as bad as it could have been. Not as bad as what happened to Linquist.”

“Why, what happened to him?” Laurie asked, biting her lip.

Mindy exhaled. “Euh. Well, I mentioned I had language trouble after the banishment, right? Truth is, we Temporals have our own language, and what with switching back and forth due to my memory blanks, Linquist kinda figured it out.”

“Hold on,” Tim said. “You mean, the language in his logbooks…?"

“%That little witch%…”

Luci jerked her gaze from Clarke back to Glen. “What??”

Glen waved dismissively. “Mumbling gibberish, never mind.”

Luci frowned, trying to peg why the strange words felt familiar, but Glen was already addressing them again. “Okay. It’s not a strong case, but it’s more of a case than I thought you’d pull together. For the moment, I’m on board with your suspicions.”

“Okay,” Luci said, temporarily setting aside his mutterings. “So, do you have any idea where Linquist and Mindy could be hiding out?”

Glen handed the sheets over to Corry. “No. In fact I may have run into them a dozen times and not known; Mindylenopia would have been on her guard for me, while I can’t say the same. That witch would even slip past Carrie’s headaches now, given how Carrie was the one who sent her back for those fifteen years or so.”

“So you’re not much help, is what you’re saying,” Lee remarked.

“I’m saying I’ll be looking now. You want a suggestion? Let’s talk with the guy Carrie referred to as ’Shady’.”

“Him? But he’s in jail somewhere,” Clarke protested.

Glen waved his hand in the air. “Hi, I have mental powers. Plus Tim’s father is a lawyer, right? The combination should be sufficient.”

“But how does getting to that guy help?” Luci asked.

“Simple. ‘Mindy’ would have known ‘Shady’ was coming,” Glen countered. “To awaken Carrie. More, that he had a time machine. Excellent opportunity for our nemesis to refresh her own knowledge, and perhaps obtain anything else he’d brought along, before mentally adjusting him and leaving.”

Luci and Clarke exchanged glances again. “So, that’s a scary thought,” Luci admitted. “Still, if Shady got adjusted to forget, what’s the point in us seeing him now?”

“Because wherever ‘Shady’ was staying in town back then could be a good place for Mindy to stay now,” Corry concluded, looking up from the articles. “Besides, it’s the only temporal lead we have, right?”

Glen crossed his arms. “Unless your missing friends have a better plan?”

“I’ve give Julie a call,” Clarke decided. “Wait here.”

“So, is that it, Mindy?” Julie said, her hands tightening on the back of the couch. “Is that all your manipulations?”

“Yes,” Mindy said. Then, glancing sidelong at Tim, she sighed. “No.”

“What else?” Frank asked, rubbing his forehead.

“It’s okay, you’ll like this one,” Mindy assured. “The time travel chip? The one that you had Tim bring here last week? It survived.”

Tim nearly fell forwards off his chair. “What? But I SAW Carrie destroy it!”

“She destroyed something, sure. You’re forgetting that I was paying attention to the time machine situation, thus had prepared a worthless dummy chip of my own. Just in case. And when Tim came to the cafe before heading out on the mission? I saw my chance.”

“You had him pull your dummy chip out of his pocket to give to Lee instead,” Julie reasoned, working to rein in her anger.

“Oh, I couldn’t be sure exactly what would happen, but I left Tim with the suggestion to hide the original once he was alone, and to use mine in all interactions,” Mindy admitted. “He brought the correct one to me the next day. He didn’t know at the time. It was to keep him safe.”

“I feel so used,” Tim said, biting his lip.

“Mindy, honestly? With all those manipulations, you’re not sounding much better than Glen,” Frank said.

“Rude! I’m on your side. The temporal gun? For helping Carrie with her temporal self? My doing. You’re welcome.”

“It was hidden in a safe,” Julie reminded. “Was that done by manipulating Linquist?”

“Okay, a bit, yes!” Mindy said, becoming visibly exasperated. “But I couldn’t fix him, or do anything that might prevent Carrie from actually banishing me after my first trip into your time. So I made the best of a bad situation. It’s all worked out to this point, what’s your problem?”

“You were, like, silent too long.”

Everyone turned to regard Chartreuse, standing in the doorway. Julie glanced reflexively at the china cabinet; Chartreuse must have come up through the pantry access. She wondered how long the mystic had been listening.

“What do you mean, Chartreuse?” Laurie asked, standing and moving closer to her.

Chartreuse took a deep breath. “Carrie’s WHOLE deal was in how she’d ended up, you know, destroying timeline three. The one Glen and ‘Future Carrie’ wanted. Except she hadn’t.” Chartreuse advanced into the room, ignoring Laurie’s outstretched hand. “You beat her to it, Theresa.”

“Very flattering, but Linquist’s knowledge was not a direct–”

“Not merely due to Linquist. It was through your cafe interactions with us. Both the, like, covert, in convincing us to be part of Carrie’s life, or, you know, the more overt, creating that fire to split Carrie and Glen apart on their first date. We’re in YOUR timeline now. We have been since the beginning.”

Mindy shook her head. “Minor, minor, all minor, major events would still happ–”

“Minor stuff ADDS UP,” Chartreuse interrupted again. “Before this? I could still kinda make it work. Now? No way. There is NO way the Carrie in ‘timeline three’, the one who once left with Glen, has ever been my– been our Carrie. Except our Carrie never, like, knew that before she ran away! And if she’d known, maybe she could’ve stayed, could’ve figured something out!”

Mindy leaned forwards. “Even IF Carrie is now different, Glen still has the power to steer her back. Remember, he’s the villain here, not me. I came to you today of my own free will.”

“Free will?” Julie cut in. “Or did you come here because talking with Tim made you realize we’d soon have Glen identify you?” Mindy shot her a look. And Julie jumped as her phone rang again. She glanced at it, and upon seeing Clarke’s name, excused herself from the room.

“So, Glen’s talking about breaking us into a jail, how are you doing?”

“We’re with Mindy. She’s been rewriting time,” came the response.

Clarke nearly dropped his phone. “What? A-Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine. We’re all fine, but in her own way, this woman’s been as manipulative as Glen. It’s annoying.”

“So… um, what do we tell Glen…?"

“Nothing. Simply bring him here. I think these two Temporals need to talk it out.”

Clarke blinked, sure he’d misheard. “Bring him? Julie… Jewels, those two hate each other.”

“Right,” she agreed. “But Mindy needs someone to take her down a peg, and we can’t keep this from Glen for long. Besides, it might be the only way to figure out whether all their plots are because of their time war… or whether one of them truly has Carrie’s best interests at heart.”

Clarke glanced towards the others. From the way their voices had begun carrying, it sounded like an argument had arisen about whether Linquist could have learned the power of mental manipulation. “Okay. We’ll be there in less than half an hour.”

NEXT: Temporal Alignment

ASIDE: That’s Mindy’s history for you. I think the only missing piece at this point is how timelines work in the “Time & Tied” universe; that’s coming next. Are you enjoying? Care to vote or recommend?

PREVIOUSLY: The group considered help from Glen towards getting Carrie back. Mindylenopia’s present day identity was revealed.

PART 82a: REMAKING HISTORY

The door to Linquist’s hidden laboratory was ajar, so Tim simply pushed it open. But the words he had been about to speak died on his lips at what he saw.

Papers had been taped up along one full wall, over the cabinets. The haphazard array was at least 20 sheets long and 4 sheets down; occasionally a section was missing, or another had been laid overtop. And the majority of the pages had been scribbled on with marker, seemingly random sequences of numbers and words. In front of it all was Chartreuse, on her hands and knees, perched in the middle of the central table, staring.

Tim turned his attention to Laurie, who was standing off to the side, her hands clasped behind her back. “W-What… what are you…"

“Chartreuse is trying to understand her girlfriend,” Laurie explained softly. “Or at least her girlfriend’s timeline theories.”

Tim blinked. “Her… girlfriend?”

“Oh, golly, I forgot you weren’t there when Chartreuse was outed by Glen… she and Carrie are an item.”

“Oh. Okay.” Tim looked from Laurie back to Chartreuse and the wall of pages. He saw it then - the numbers weren’t random, they were years, running chronologically, with months/days spliced in. Marked with events like ‘LaMilles Here’ and ‘Broken Swan’. “Why now?”

“The Mindy being with Linquist thing,” Laurie whispered. “Remember how Chartreuse said it couldn’t be? She feels like it’s actually not possible, given what Carrie told her about timelines. She’s tried to explain, and I don’t get it, but her attempts to do so seem to help clarify it in her own mind.”

The mention of Mindy reminded Tim of why he’d come down. “Well, we need you b-both upstairs now. Mindy, she’s here. And she’s Theresa! I left Julie alone with her, but we’ve gotta figure this out before meeting Glen!”

Laurie blinked. “What? Wait, Tim, you’re saying that you and Luci discovered Mindy’s identity?”

“N-Not even,” Tim sighed. “We didn’t get much of anywhere with Linquist’s notes, so Luci finally went to join the others at the library. I s-stopped at the cafe before coming here. The n-next thing I knew, Theresa was telling me she had the rest of the afternoon off and was coming to the mansion with me. It wasn’t until then that I… I realized…”

“Mindy’s Theresa? Theresa’s Mindy? Like, cafe Theresa? Ohmigod, are you SERIOUS?”

Tim looked over towards Chartreuse, taking a physical step back at the manic look she was now giving him. “Uhm, yes? Unless real Mindy pulled a Jedi trick on Theresa or something…"

“But that changes EVERYTHING!” With surprising grace, Chartreuse shifted her weight to her hands, kicking her feet around to jump off the front of the table. She grabbed a marker, pulling the cap off with her mouth as she ran to the right, scribbling ‘Theresa?’ underneath the words ’She’s GONE’.

Chartreuse then ran the length of the room, past word clusters reading ‘Glen Here’, ‘Session #1’, ‘Shady Jail’, ‘Julie Trip’, ’Luci DNA’, ‘Trip #1’, ‘Algonq Park’… and even more items within that, which Tim saw more as a jumble. When Chartreuse reached the end, denoted ‘Mindy Arrival??’, the mystic also scribbled ‘Theresa?’.

Chartreuse spat the marker cap out of her mouth. “Ohh, three CAN’T survive that. Can it? It, like, totally can’t. Can it?”

Tim turned his attention back to Laurie. “So, um, J-Julie needs us back upstairs.”

Laurie nodded. “Chartreuse, we need to go.”

Chartreuse shook her head, not even turning. “No no. I gotta see if that piece can fit in, Laurie. I gotta. I’ll, you know, be up once I’m sure. Don’t leave without me.” She charged over to the other side of the room again, now writing ‘Cafe Fire’ above and between ‘Glen Here’ and what Tim now realized was ‘Dance <3’.

Laurie looked at Tim uncertainly, as if wondering if that was okay. Or maybe wondering whether Chartreuse would be okay. Off his shrug, Laurie squared her shoulders and nodded. “Okay Tim, let’s go up and help Julie.”

“Hey, I just met you… this is crazy… here’s my number…"

“Julie, honestly, you don’t have to bury your thoughts under pop music,” Mindy/Theresa assured, a bemused smile on her face. “I’m not a mind reader. Besides, you know me, I’ve been working in that cafe since before you even moved to town.”

“No way,” Julie shot back. “You already admitted to nudging me away from seeing the truth. I don’t know you at all any more. Now stop talking.”

Mindy shrugged and leaned back against the wall in the mansion entranceway, hooking her thumbs into the belt loops of her pants. While still mumbling the song lyrics, Julie resumed her considerations of whether they needed Glen here ASAP. He’d been her first thought, upon the revelation, but now? Well, Mindy was acting a LOT less hostile than anticipated. So, if Mindy was willing to help them whereas Glen wasn’t… but what if that was her angle? Glen had also seemed nice enough, initially.

“This - is - cray - zee -“ Julie emphasized in the refrain. “So - call - me -“

Her phone rang. She jumped, and looked down to see that it was Clarke. Clarke. She’d even changed her phone to not use ‘Phil’. What had she been thinking? Would they ever be together again?

Tim and Laurie walked out of the sitting room then, allowing Julie to relax a bit. In part because she remembered now what Tim had said - he and Mindy had come right from the cafe. No one else knew yet. Pointing to the former waitress and giving the arrivals a curt, “I’ll be back, don’t let her talk to you,” Julie ran down the hall, accepting the call after the fourth ring.

“Clarke?”

“Glen said the location will be Willowdale Park. Can you get everyone else there in twenty minutes?”

“Ohhh, not really, no.”

She could practically hear the frown in his voice. “Why not? If we don’t do this, we may never get Glen to hear us out again.”

“Yeah. Thing is, we’re onto something here… it won’t wait. Did you find enough data to convince Glen without us?”

“I… we hope so. Lee helped us find this article that–"

“Okay, great.” She was realizing there was a way to maximize their options. “We’re going to need either Frank or Luci back here, they’re the best at temporal mechanics. Actually, make it Frank, you might need the Linquist angle and we’ve already got Tim with us.”

“Julie, what is going ON?”

“I don’t quite know. I only know that you can’t know yet. Oh, I’ll send you Corry in exchange for Frank, how about that? Between him and Lee, you should be able to handle Glen. Okay?”

Clarke didn’t reply. Which is when Julie realized how it must look to him.

“Oh no. Clarke, no… Phil, please, no, I’m not trying to shut you out again. It’s only, if I tell you, then Glen might…" The same old excuse. She clutched her phone, desperation returning. “That is, it’s not about the time machine, not completely, but if I say, then Glen will see it in your face, meanwhile out of all of us Glen might only listen to you, so if we end up needing him, taking you away now means we’ll have blown it there. Clarke, Phil, it’s fine, I’ll have people here with me, but if you think this means we can never be a thing again, please tell me and I’ll try to think of another–"

“Julie? Stop,” Clarke interrupted. “You sound like Laurie on a bad day.”

Julie swallowed. “Sorry.”

“You’ll tell me all about this afterwards?”

“For sure.”

“Until then, the plan is for Jeeves to get Corry to the park, where he’ll pick up Frank?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay then. We’ll tell Glen the rest of you are tracking a lead. Just assure me that this isn’t old habits…?”

Julie exhaled. “God no. I actually cannot think of how this situation could be any more screwed up than it already is.”

“Talk to you later then. About everything.”

“For sure,” Julie repeated.

Clarke hung up, and Julie leaned back against the wall. Only to hear a car door slam. She raced back through the hall and out the front door, needing to get Jeeves and Corry back in the car before they could get inside and see Mindy.

“Mindy? Theresa is Mindy?” Frank questioned.

“Keep your voice down.” Julie peered up the stairway, but it seemed like Jeeves was already out of earshot. “Yes, Theresa is Mindy and she’s in the living room with Tim and Laurie; Chartreuse is still down in the lab doing who knows what. We need you to assess whether what Mindy tells us makes ANY temporal sense, to know whether she’s sincere. If so, maybe we won’t need Glen, but we CANNOT let her pull the rug out from under us."

“Theresa? The red haired waitress from the cafe?”

Julie snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Frank, please, focus. She has mental abilities, like Glen. You need to approach this situation with confidence, don’t give her a foothold.”

“Er, right…” His posture straightened. “Let’s do this.”

Giving him a hesitant look, Julie nodded, and the both of them went into the living room. Mindy was sitting quietly on the couch, with Tim and Laurie in nearby chairs. The redhead looked at them with that hint of amusement in her expression, but continued to say nothing.

“So you’ve grown your hair long since the first time,” Frank observed, a mite redundantly. He folded his arms. “Theresa, just how old are you?”

Julie was unable to suppress an eye roll as Mindy’s smile widened. “Starting with the more personal questions?” she remarked.

“Err…"

“I’m about 32? Though I look younger,” Mindy answered. “We Temporals don’t quite age like you. Actually, I’m now the oldest Temporal ever.”

“And you’ve spent how much of that time in our past?”

“At least 12 years since the temporal banishment… and here’s a key thing I’m realizing you don’t know. Said banishment? It wipes the memory of the affected person. After all, it wouldn’t be good to have someone from the future using their knowledge in the past, right?”

Laurie gasped. “So… so when you got blasted back…"

“All gone,” Mindy sighed, her smile disappearing as she snapped her fingers in the air. “That is, beyond the most mundane things like a name, how to dress myself, and so forth. So I can’t give firm dates. In fact, I was homeless, I stayed at the shelter in town, tried to find work. Kept screwing up my languages, people thought I didn’t know proper English. Time lost it’s meaning for me.” She tapped at her head. “Underneath it though? Still a technical genius. Which was finally realized by one man in particular.”

“Linquist,” Tim concluded.

Mindy pointed at him. “Bingo. Last week, Tim, you asked me if I’d ever found myself not knowing who to trust? That was me every day, back when I had no memory. Linquist was the man who helped me through it. Saw something in me, that day outside the computer store when I was muttering about computer programming. Which is when things finally started going right for me - and wrong for him.”

“Why? What did you do to him?” Julie demanded.

“I… opened up a world of possibilities that he wasn’t quite ready for. If my memory had been intact, I never would have done it. But he’s the one who helped me put those memories back together!” Mindy shook her head. “It was as I finally began to remember who I was, and realize what I was doing, that I tried to minimize my impact on your timeline. Pull away from Linquist. Find myself my own place, adopt the name Theresa, and get some less conspicuous employment. Something to keep me in the background, while still letting me see everything that was going on.”

“As a waitress,” Frank said.

Mindy shrugged. “Worked out pretty well, all things considered.”

“Yes, it let you manipulate us very nicely,” Julie remarked.

Mindy shook her head. “Julie, I have made no alterations to you or your friends beyond what was necessary to maintain my hidden identity. Guiding you away from making any connections, like that time Phil Clarke seemed to recognize my voice the day after my younger self was here.”

Julie glared. “What about having us make you a time machine?”

Mindy’s partial smile returned. “Ah, right. That. Well, I was originally sent back here on a mission, right? Those memories came back along with everything else.”

They couldn’t trust her. Could they? Julie glanced at her watch, noticing that it was the time when the others would be meeting with Glen. She wondered whether they were having any better luck.

NEXT: After Effects

ASIDE: Happy Valentine’s Day… a day with Clarke and Julie still having romance issues… well, this is post #200 for the blog, so that’s some good news?

WARNING! MASSIVE REVELATIONS INCOMING. YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO READ PRIOR PARTS THE SAME WAY AFTER THIS. ARE YOU CAUGHT UP?

PREVIOUSLY: Did Carrie go back in time to find her mother? Is Mindy somehow pulling strings in the present?

PART 81b: DO YOU MINDY?

“No, that feels wrong,” Clarke objected. “Glen wanted Julie’s time machine destroyed. Why would ‘Future Carrie’ want it restored? Why work against the person she sent back? We’re missing something.”

Luci frowned, but apparently couldn’t think of an immediate defence for her position. After a troubled glance in Frank’s direction, she resumed her pacing.

“Let’s all back up,” Lee suggested. “Consider ways our rich witch’s note COULD have been written by our version of the track tease. For example, maybe it was dropped off after destroying the chip, but before she went after her mom? Thinking it was possible for us to make another chip or something.”

Julie shook her head. “Doubtful. Carrie’s started using new stationery in the last couple months. My note was on plain paper. Why the difference?”

“Also, Carrie was pretty adamant about not invoking more time travel,” Chartreuse added. “Problem is, I’m not sure I, like, buy Luci’s theory either. After all, the mystery note’s basically led to all of us, you know, being here and theorizing about time travel. Which is, like, exactly what ‘Future Carrie’ would want to avoid, yeah?”

“We weren’t always working together,” Clarke pointed out.

Julie winced. “Yeah, look, about that… Clarke, I…"

He flashed her a tired smile. “We’ll talk later.”

“Know what? We’re putting a lot of faith in handwriting here,” Corry decided. “And handwriting can be forged. Moreover, Julie, the note never referred to you by name, did it?”

“No,” she admitted. “You think it was a setup by someone else? But who outside of our group would know enough to be able to pull it off?”

Corry pointed his cane at her. “Mindy.”

“But that… actually fits,” Frank realized. “Mindy did have a couple hours in our time. She could have devised backup plans, gone to Carrie’s house, planted notes…"

“Mindy DID go to Carrie’s,” Clarke recalled, leaning forwards. “The day after the banishment, when I was with Carrie? She mentioned a letter by Mindy that had been left with her father.”

Luci leaned forwards against the back of the couch. “So Julie’s been working for MINDY all this time? Why? Surely if Mindy had enough knowledge to build a time machine, she’d have hired a reputable scientist rather than work to dupe a bunch of teen… she’d hire a…"

She snapped her gaze over to Tim at the same time as he turned to look at her. “L-Luci, the person in L-Linquist’s notes. Who might have been a relative, or associate…"

“No way. No WAY!”

“It would explain why that associate came up with the idea for the %gun of temporal freezing%.”

“Okay! Context for those of us out of the loop, please?” Lee requested, waving his hand.

As Luci seemed too stunned to speak, Tim turned to address them. “Linquist’s work on time travel. F-From once sensing the problem in Luci’s DNA to creating the t-temporal gun we found in the safe. What if all of his recent work was due to Mindy?”

“Linquist used to be a more reputable scientist,” Frank agreed. “Even won a local award once. When did that change?”

“When Mindy arrived,” Julie concluded, smacking the back of the chair. “After her banishment. She’s been working with him this whole time.”

“That can’t be,” Chartreuse gasped. Laurie reached out to again grasp her friend by the hand.

“But if that’s true,” Luci finally vocalized. “Mindy’s temporal banishment was, what, back fifteen years MAX?”

“That girl was Carrie’s first ever banishing attempt, right?” Corry remarked. “Maybe she didn’t do that great of a job.”

“Unless Mindy moved away and then came back into town,” Clarke countered.

“Well hey, why not look for evidence?” Lee suggested. “I’m working some hours in the library this afternoon. Now that you know what to look for, why not come with me and see if there’s something tying that Mindy to this Linquist? Maybe we can even figure out where they are now.”

“Wait, that plan, um, it doesn’t seem to help us get a time machine to pursue Carrie,” Laurie pointed out, waving one hand in the air as she continued to hold Chartreuse with the other. “Since even if present Mindy is tracked down, it still leaves us at the mercy of her, um, mental powers, right?”

“Lee’s immune, and I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve,” Julie said.

“No, Laurie right,” Frank sighed. “Without Mindy’s help, we have no time machine, and we need one. So Mindy can demand stuff, and we’ll have no choice. Worse, I don’t think she’ll have wanted a time machine so that we could all save Carrie.”

“Threaten Mindy with that gun maybe?” Corry suggested.

“Not if she h-helped to invent the thing,” Tim reminded. “Wouldn’t she know h-how to defend against it?”

Clarke sighed. “How about using Glen?”

Chartreuse jerked out of her thoughts. “Clarke, seriously? HIM?!”

“Maybe Mindy’s been warning us away from him because he’s the one guy who can take her down,” Clarke said, shrugging.

“Maybe we, you know, WANT her to take him down.”

“The devil we know, or the devil we don’t,” Julie muttered. “It’s like choosing Corry instead of Megan all over again. But in that respect, Clarke’s right - at least with Glen, we know what we’re getting.”

“Megan was merely misunderstood,” Chartreuse said.

“Maybe Glen is misunderstood too,” Clarke insisted.

Luci came around the couch to step between them. “Here’s the thing though. If Glen’s goal is to get Carrie back, and our goal is the same… I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe Clarke’s right. Maybe we should at least ask Glen if he wants to help retrieve Carrie?”

Everyone in the room exchanged uncomfortable looks.

Glen stared back at Clarke and Lee, an expression of disbelief on his face. “You’re serious, aren’t you.”

“Hey, I’m inclined to ask that question of their group quite a bit lately,” Lee put in, before Clarke had a chance to respond. “But instead I roll with it. Turns out anything that doesn’t make sense either eventually does, or doesn’t matter.”

“Ha!” the redhead scoffed, turning away from the two other boys. He leaned against the window frame of his hotel room, staring outside, trying to find the flaw in their reasoning. It wasn’t coming to him. “So you expect me to believe that Mindylenopia has been in town for years? That she somehow remembered enough to be behind Julie’s time machine? And that getting the machine away from Mindy is our only chance to help Carrie?”

“Right, though Mindy doesn’t have it yet,” Clarke noted. “We only know that she told Julie it could be rebuilt with her help. So we can’t simply take Mindy out pre-emptively. Unless you can make us a time machine as well…"

“I’m not a technical guy,” Glen grunted. “I only know the theory. Mindylenopia was a full-on tech, that’s why it was a big deal when she supposedly joined the idiot Mundanes in the resistance.” He shook his head. “She shouldn’t have been capable of introducing such technology into the past though. Not to mention the issues with causality… unless she figured it was less of a deal to tell all of you, since you knew already?”

He began to tap his fingers on the windowsill. Mindylenopia. Was it true? How much might she remember? Was this a game changer? Did he want to work with Carrie’s so-called friends?

Clarke cleared his throat, as if he was going to speak again. Out of the corner of his eye, Glen saw Lee signal him to stay silent. Yeah, of course they would have sent along the guy who couldn’t be influenced. They didn’t trust him - nor did they have any reason to. So was this a trap, or were things just that serious? Glen grimaced, continuing to tap his fingers for another minute or two, before turning around again.

“When did Carrie travel to?”

“We’re not sure,” Clarke answered.

“But you must suspect. Hence wanting the machine.”

When Clarke hesitated, Lee spoke up instead. “That information isn’t on the table here, dude. If you agree to help, and to never again pull any sort of stunt like you did with that chip, then maybe. BIG maybe.”

Glen narrowed his eyes. “And how do I know Julie didn’t create two chips? Or maybe once you have the time machine, your whole plan is to return to yesterday and take Carrie away for yourselves!"

Clarke’s jaw dropped, a sign that either those weren’t, in fact, possibilities, or that the guy was a better actor than Glen gave him credit for. The latter seemed unlikely, as the blonde only pulled himself together when Lee’s hand fell on his shoulder. Then again, maybe the others simply hadn’t told Clarke the true plan.

“High guy. We’re getting nowhere. We should go."

“I guess,” Clarke said. “Unless… Glen, is there’s anything that might convince you that Mindy’s the real enemy here?”

Glen rubbed his chin. “Proof might. Yes, proof of actual scheming by Mindylenopia over the last ten years.”

Clarke nodded. “Okay, well, Tim and Luci are looking back over their notes, and Frank is already at the library, which is where we’re headed. So by tomorrow, we should–"

“Nope, by 5pm today.”

“What? Glen, that’s less than six hours away! And there’s so much data we’ll have to sift through!”

“Well, I can hardly give you the time to come up with a grand song and dance number for me, can I?”

Lee shook his head. “Paranoid much, red barren? You could use your mental gifts to see if anyone is trying to trick you.”

Glen shrugged. “Maybe your plan would be to try and figure out how I use that power, in order to turn it against me. No, I think if you’re really serious, you’ll put the effort into making my deadline. Oh, and I choose our meeting site, which won’t be the LaMille mansion, so don’t even bother.”

“Okay,” Clarke sighed. “Okay, fine. We’ll have something for you. And then you’ll see, Glen. You’ll see that we’re on the same side here!”

Julie had a sip of her tea as she sat in the kitchen, peering at her laptop. She, like Corry, had opted to do some searching online, rather than get in the way at the library records room. Besides, with Chartreuse and Laurie down in Linquist’s lab doing… whatever Chartreuse had insisted on doing, it had made sense for her to stay at home with them anyway. Unfortunately, the internet wasn’t providing much aside from a couple of references to Linquist’s jargon filled papers.

Julie glanced towards the pantry, which held the access down towards the hidden room. It was already past 4pm. What was going on down there? Chartreuse had said something about mapping timelines, and Laurie was popping up every so often to ask Julie about a specific date, plus there had been that one time for sandwiches… should she disturb them?

Julie shrugged. One of the library group was due to phone her soon, giving them the location where Glen wanted to meet. If the mystic and her friend hadn’t materialized by then, then she’d go down and see what was happening for herself.

The doorbell rang as she finished her tea. Jeeves would have already left to pick up Corry by car, what with that turned ankle, so Julie closed her laptop and rose to answer the front door herself. Maybe Clarke had come back to share some information in person?

Except it wasn’t any of the library people - when Julie opened the door, she found Tim standing with a rather more unexpected visitor. “Theresa?” the brunette questioned Tim’s companion. “What’s going on? We don’t usually see you out of the cafe."

The waitress half smiled. She wasn’t even wearing her cafe outfit, instead she wore a red blouse and dark pants. “Yes, well, I was talking to Tim here and realized that the time had come to explain certain things.”

Julie frowned. “What things? What do you…" She stopped. Noticing Tim’s worried expression, she looked a bit more closely at Theresa. And at her red hair.

“You know what things,” Theresa said. “In fact, you came damn close to figuring me out once before. Don’t worry, I won’t mentally guide you away this time.”

It hit with such force that Julie felt like she’d been punched in the gut. She grabbed for the doorframe. “No. It can’t be. You mean you… you’re…"

“Yes, Julie.” The seemingly twenty-something cafe waitress stretched her arms out to the sides. “I was once known as Mindylenopia."

NEXT: Remaking History

ASIDE: Anyone seen my microphone? I seem to have dropped it. Feel free to speculate on the repercussions of this part in the comments. Oh, and vote for T&T, maybe even encourage friends to read?

PREVIOUSLY: Carrie vanished during the school talent show. Everyone has parts of the puzzle…

PART 81a: MUM’S THE WORD

Hank Waterson opened his front door almost before his visitor had a chance to knock. “I’m sorry to have called you so early,” he apologized, opting to get straight to the point. “But I couldn’t sleep. I don’t know what to think about this, but her note mentions you, so I thought you might have more information. I don’t want to leave the house either, lest she come home…”

“It’s fine,” Luci assured him. “But like I said, I’ll need to see what Carrie wrote for myself.” She gestured to her companion. “And I hope you don’t mind, but I brought Julie along. She, um, specializes in cryptic Carrie notes.”

Julie gave him a quiet wave.

“That’s fine,” Hank said, beckoning them both inside. “At this point, I’ll take all the help I can get. From what I can gather, Carrie was last seen at the talent show? Is that why she insisted to me that I not be there? How far in advance had she planned her trip? Why didn’t she tell me about it, and when is she coming back?”

The two teenagers exchanged a glance, Julie offering Luci a small shrug.

“We’re not sure about any of that stuff,” Luci hedged. “Aside from yeah, she was last seen at the talent show. Maybe we don’t know that much more than you. Can we see the note?”

Unable to get any sort of read on their expressions, he nodded. “It’s upstairs, in her room. I left everything the way it was. I’d appreciate if you’d do the same, in case we need to open any sort of police investigation into her disappearance.”

“Why, do you think Carrie was coerced into writing whatever it was?” Luci wondered, as they ascended the stairs.

“I don’t know what to think,” Hank admitted. He let them into her room, gesturing at Carrie’s desk, over by the window.

Both Luci and Julie walked over, peering down at the note. Almost immediately, Julie turned to speak for the first time. “How long has Carrie been using this stationery? With the little pocketwatch in the corner?”

Hank shrugged. “I don’t know. I think maybe she bought it a couple of months ago?”

As the brunette considered that, there came a knock at the front door. Hank turned and ran back down the stairs, but instead of seeing Carrie when he opened it, he saw Chartreuse instead. She had a redheaded girl with her, whom he belatedly identified as Laurie.

“H-Hi, sir,” the pink haired teenager said nervously. “Sorry if we’re, like, disturbing you…”

“Did Luci tell you about the note as well?”

Chartreuse tilted her head to the side. “Note?”

Dear Dad, (it read)

  Some things have been happening in my life recently that I… I can’t deal with. So I have to disappear. Please know that this isn’t because of anything you’ve done, or didn’t do - I like how things have been getting better between us. I really do. But I don’t think I can go on, not with the path that’s been laid out for me. That said, my leaving? It means she can return. All the best to both of you,

Carrie

PS- Luci, if things DO go horribly wrong, do NOT hesitate to use the item that you found in that safe!

Julie crossed her arms. “It’s Carrie’s handwriting,” she confirmed for Luci. “And the ‘disappear’ remark would seem to confirm what Chartreuse said.”

“While the postscript obviously refers to the gun. But what about ‘she can return’? Surely that doesn’t mean…” Luci’s voice trailed off as footsteps approached, and moments later, Mr. Waterson was showing Chartreuse and Laurie into Carrie’s bedroom as well.

Chartreuse looked better than she had the previous night. Of course, Julie reflected, it would have been difficult to look worse. After Carrie’s girlfriend (should she now think of Chartreuse that way?) had run off, the rest of them - minus Glen, obviously - had waited around in the hall, making awkward small talk.

Eventually, they had gone back into the auditorium. No one had seemed to know what to say, Julie least of all, given how little she’d spoken to any of them of late. Chartreuse and Laurie hadn’t returned. They’d all left separately, and Julie probably wouldn’t have made any efforts to talk with them today if Luci hadn’t called her.

Julie watched silently as Chartreuse and Laurie read over the note, emitting twin gasps as they got close to the bottom. With Chartreuse though, there seemed to be a dawning realization, if not yet a complete understanding.

“Mr. Waterson?” Luci was speaking again, and pointing to Carrie’s dresser. “That empty picture frame. Do you know what picture used to be in there?”

He turned to look. “Yes, of course. It was Carrie’s mother. My wife, Elaine.”

Chartreuse’s eyes got even bigger than they had the previous night. “Oh my GOD,” she gasped. “She was trying to–"

“Mr. Waterson,” Julie said, cutting off Chartreuse. “We’re developing a working theory here. If you can give us a little time to network with the rest of our friends, we might be able to provide you with some answers by –" She looked from Luci, to Laurie, to Chartreuse, and then back to him. Based on their expressions, this wasn’t going to be straightforward. “The end of the weekend.”

Carrie’s father shook his head. “I can’t wait that long. If my daughter is out there, in trouble…"

“We’ll talk to you sooner if we can, but here’s the thing.” Julie rubbed her forehead. “Did it occur to you that Carrie’s letter might have been referring to the return of your wife?”

“It sort of did,” Mr. Waterson admitted. “But that’s ridiculous, since Elaine disappeared back when Carrie was only three years old.”

Julie nodded slowly. “Thing is? Rather a lot of ridiculous stuff happens at our school. And it’s going to take us some time to figure out where that possibility ranks on our events scale of ‘pop quiz’ to ‘van totalling the library’.”

Lee was the last person to arrive at the LaMille mansion. Julie couldn’t think of a time when they had all been together - herself, Frank, Luci, Clarke, Corry, Laurie, Tim, Chartreuse, and now Lee. Of course, there was one notable missing person.

She fingered the small jade figurine in her hands before placing it carefully back onto the table. At least this time, they knew Carrie couldn’t arrive and object to their gathering.

Julie cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “Okay. We all have various pieces of the puzzle, but I don’t think any one person knows everything, so we’re going to have to tackle this in pieces until we’re all up to speed. Make sense?”

Corry looked like he might want to say something, fidgeting with the cane he was using owing to his twisted ankle, but he kept silent.

“Okay,” Julie concluded. She sat down in the last available chair and pointed to Luci, perched on the arm of the couch. “Carrie’s letter to her Dad. Go for it.”

Luci outlined what had been in the message that had been left at Carrie’s house, adding that the photo of Carrie’s mother had been missing from her bedroom.

“Meanwhile,” Chartreuse piped up, “I, you know, saw Carrie with a photo as Glen was putting her into that trunk. And Tim saw her with a photo the night she, like, destroyed the chip.”

“You mean Carrie was using her mom’s photo as a focus,” Laurie reasoned. “To strengthen her resolve.”

Frank drew his gaze up from the floor. “There’s another link. That time, in the hospital, with Shady? When Carrie first went a bit crazy? She told me that the presence of her mother had been a strain on the timeline. That, after giving birth, her mom had to disappear, that she and Carrie couldn’t co-exist.”

“Whacky,” Lee mused. “But no more so than the rest of it, I guess. So when did her mom end up instead?”

Frank shrugged. “Carrie couldn’t see it. All we know for sure is that Elaine Waterson disappeared 14 years ago, on a flight from Miami to Bermuda, in the so-called Bermuda triangle.”

“So last night, Carrie went back to get her,” Clarke concluded.

“It would TOTALLY explain why she was so scared,” Chartreuse agreed. “On top of the, you know, issue of seeing her missing mom again, she would also have had to deal with airports or airplanes. She hates those.”

“She managed it not TOO terribly on one of our first time trips,” Frank admitted. “But yeah, point granted.”

“And since neither Carrie, nor her mom, are currently back in the present,” Luci remarked. “The trip can’t have gone well.” Frank nodded, and resumed looking at his shoes.

“Can I say something as the designated jerk in the room?” Corry remarked, waving his cane in the air.

Julie half smiled. “Please do, I rather like that you’re offering to take that title before I end up claiming it.”

“What’s the damn point in knowing when Carrie went? We don’t have a time machine to chase after her.”

“D-Don’t we?” Tim spoke up. As his gaze went to Julie, many of the others looked to her as well.

Julie let out a long breath. “Yeah, not presently. But Tim’s right, in that maybe we could.” She grimaced. “With Mindylenopia’s help.”

“Mindy?” Laurie gasped. “But she’s the one who crashed that van at school! She made Corry and Frank miss two days back in October and she… didn’t Carrie, um…"

“Mindy was banished through time,” Clarke finished. He looked curiously at Julie. “Right?”

“Here’s where it gets fuzzy again,” Luci said. She hopped down from her sofa perch and began to pace. “Frank found an article in the local paper five years ago, a poem simply signed ‘Mindy’, which told us not to trust Glen. Good advice, all things considered.”

Frank picked up the tale. “Then last weekend, Julie got a call from someone claiming to be Mindy. They said that they could help with rebuilding the time machine. But it was a ‘don’t call me, I’ll call you’ thing, and she hasn’t called back - has she?” Julie shook her head.

“Soooo, this is a Mindy with a time machine then?” Lee asked.

“Unlikely,” Luci said. “Our current theory is that she’s the same banished person, who has been in town for the last fifty years or less. Possibly waiting for the chance to get her hands on a time machine again.”

“But then how did Mindy find out about Julie’s work?” Tim protested.

Julie threw up her hands. “However Glen found out, maybe? I swear, I should have taken out a billboard for all the good my secrecy did. But Carrie’s letter TOLD me that I was to–"

“What did THAT letter say?” Corry interrupted. “Do you have it?”

Julie sighed. “No, sorry. I ripped it up. Then burned it. It said I should do that. But give me a second, I’ll see if I can remember…" She closed her eyes trying to see the words again. Recalling the last time she’d looked at them, on that day, before taking off her rose brooch… damn, at this point, she really should get that back out of her drawer.

“Okay, it said, ummm, ‘Please help. It has to be you. You need to watch me now, and when I dispose of the time machine, save the key pieces. Then rebuild it. In secret. Please. Now destroy this note. Yours, Carrie.’”

“Kinda vague then,” Lee remarked.

“And that, like, makes no sense!” Chartreuse asserted. It was chiefly the tone of her voice that drew Julie’s attention - along with that of most of the others. Chartreuse winced under the scrutiny, and began fiddling with a crystal in her hands.

“Chartreuse, why does it make that much of a lack of sense?” Laurie asked, resting her hand on Chartreuse’s leg.

Chartreuse sighed. “It’s… oh boy. See, in timeline three? The one where the old time machine was, you know, still around? Um, Frank died.”

Frank’s posture straightened as he gave up on the plan of mostly staring at his shoes. Luci froze in her pacing. Many of the others present either inhaled or exhaled sharply.

“When?” Tim gasped.

“That time when Carrie was in hospital,” Frank realized. “Oh, geez, it had to be. Since that’s when she destroyed it.”

Julie rose to her feet again. “But my note WAS written by Carrie! Why would she want me to restore a timeline where one of you DIED?”

“Ohh. Oh no. I have a really bad thought,” Luci said. She waited until all eyes were on her before continuing. “What if Julie’s note was written by Glen’s ‘Future Carrie’? The one who wanted our Carrie to run off with him, and who would be extremely annoyed otherwise? Maybe she was trying to restore her timeline.”

NEXT: Do You Mindy?

ASIDE: Last chance to speculate before some massive revelations. Also, consider TWF voting if you didn’t on Friday?

PREVIOUSLY: Glen gave mental suggestions to others, hoping to destroy Julie’s temporal chip. Carrie told Chartreuse she was leaving, and then vanished during the school talent show.

PART 80b: NOT FORGOTTEN

“What’s up, Chartreuse?” Frank asked as the group of them exited the school auditorium. “Do we need to head backstage to meet Carrie when she returns or something?”

The pink haired girl let out a sigh. “Carrie’s not coming back.”

Laurie flinched. “What?”

Chartreuse turned to look at all of them, though Frank felt she was addressing him and Julie more specifically. “She’s not coming back, and I, like, desperately need some time to process that myself, except I’m pretty sure Glen’s not gonna, you know, give me that time. He might even come after any of you too. So, um, like, heads up on that.”

Frank noticed Julie turn to Clarke and mutter something, gesturing back at the auditorium. The tall blonde nodded and headed back inside. Frank wondered idly whether the two of them were on speaking terms again, or if Julie had simply chosen the closest person.

“Hold on, Chartreuse,” Luci was saying. “You can’t drop a bombshell on us like that without SOME explanation. Where is she? WHEN is she?”

“I don’t know that stuff,” Chartreuse said, looking pained. “I can, like, give you this much though. According to Carrie, we’re currently in timeline five. She’s had to do some, you know, temporal housekeeping, what with Glen and Mindy coming back. I think her leaving fixes things for good.”

“Five?” Frank said, stunned. “Are they running in parallel, or in a destined to go back kind of way?”

Chartreuse looked at him like he’d asked her to give him the 47th digit of pi. “I don’t know about temporal mechanics, Frank, only Carrie. She did, you know, mention overwriting, if that helps.”

“So was timeline four - sorry, one more question if I could,” Julie amended, seeing Chartreuse’s expression. The mystic girl gave a resigned shrug. “Was timeline four one in which Lee actually held onto my chip? Instead of it being destroyed?”

“I think so.”

“So timeline five only now came into existence,” Luci concluded. “Even though it’s been running since last weekend.”

Frank frowned. “But that doesn’t make sense. Carrie went back in time during the show because she knew that she already had. That’s a destiny thing, not an overwrite. How could there even be a timeline where Lee had the chip?”

Luci crossed her arms. “Maybe we’re too deep inside to see it? Thing is, an overwrite would explain why Carrie was taking headache meds this week. When it’s destiny, she doesn’t need them. Er, does she?”

“Frank,” Laurie put in. “If, as you say, Carrie was going to go back because she already had, then why did you even try to prevent it?”

“I…" Frank grimaced as he realized how his actions didn’t match his explanation. “Well, I was hoping that this wasn’t really when she left. Or, in a best case scenario, that talking to her might even change her mind, which might retroactively alter our memories and bring the chip back? Assuming history can even be changed in that way…"

“It might be instead that you, like, originally protested some intention to take the chip from Lee in timeline four,” Chartreuse offered. “And with this timeline being similar, there was no way to, you know, stop yourself from protesting during the show again.”

“All of which brings us dangerously close to a time loop,” Luci mused. “One where we convince Carrie not to go back, restoring timeline four, and then she learns Lee has the chip and goes back, restoring timeline five, the one wherein we convinced her not to go back, restoring…"

“Guys, stop, you’re going to give ME a headache,” Julie groaned.

Frank let out a breath. “If we’re having trouble, I can only imagine how bad it was getting from Carrie’s point of view.”

Clarke pushed open the auditorium doors and rejoined the group. “Glen’s done. When Carrie didn’t reappear in the trunk, or backstage, he claimed she was getting back at him for missing a date. Said she’d likely left and gone home. It actually sounded pretty plausible, so maybe he was using some of his mind control there? He definitely used that power to improvise a new grand finale.”

“A finale?” Laurie wondered.

Clarke smiled wryly. “Yeah, Glen got Mr. Fisk up on stage and used his ‘magic’ to make our dance-hating science teacher cluck like a chicken.”

It didn’t make sense. Or if it did, Glen couldn’t figure it out. Why wouldn’t Carrie have come back? Returning at some later date would simply embarrass the both of them. Had she really been more nervous around crowds than he’d thought?

Glen decided that he should have insisted to Carrie that she simply time jump to earlier in the day. Not back to Lee, the night the chip had been destroyed; it had overcomplicated things. Carrie had insisted on figuring out how to target a person with a time jump though. She’d been working hard on it all week.

Had her vanishing act been due to something her classmates had said? If so, it was liable to have been that Chartreuse girl. She had gone from giving Carrie a good power basis to being a bad influence, and Glen decided it was high time to corner Chartreuse, to learn exactly what was going on between her and Carrie.

Finding her turned out to be easy - she was waiting outside the drama room as he emerged, after putting away his trunk. Cornering her didn’t seem to be an option though - she was accompanied by the others. Frank, Luci, Julie, Clarke, even Laurie Veniti. At least that explained a few things.

“Okay, so, this was all about getting back at me for the minor mental suggestions I gave you last weekend,” he realized. “Grudge much? I mean come on, you’re all free and clear now. If the trigger event, namely waylaying a package destined for Julie’s, doesn’t register within a day or so? The impetus goes away.”

Frank shook his head. “This isn’t about that. It’s more to make it clear to you that if you mess with one of us? You mess with all of us. So, don’t do it in the coming days. Okay?”

Glen looked a little more closely at them. Chartreuse in particular looked stricken, as if someone had kicked a puppy in front of her. He started to get a bad feeling. “Okay Mundanes. When did Carrie travel to?”

“We don’t know,” Frank asserted.

“When is she coming back?” Glen pressed.

The body language of the others seemed to defer to Chartreuse, even though it was again Frank who answered, “She might not be coming back.”

Bloody hell. “Do you have ANY idea how problematic that is? No, don’t even answer that, how could you possibly!”

“Carrie made a decision,” Julie said. “Like she did with her letter to me. You can’t force her to travel the path you want, you can’t–"

“Don’t talk about things you don’t understand,” Glen interrupted. “More to the point, when Carrie sent me back here in time for the training, she told me that it was because she had grown up with me. That I’d helped her through a difficult time in her life. Past Carrie can’t simply reject that! At best, it makes her future self a liar. At worst, it makes Future Carrie EXTREMELY pissed off right now.”

The band of idiots exchanged glances. “Well technically not RIGHT now,” Luci remarked. “What with Future Carrie being in the future.”

“Funny! When the temporal waveforms reach her, she might decide to MAKE your present into her ‘right now’,” Glen snarked. “She could even wipe this whole conversation out of existence. So, in all seriousness, what the hell was my Carrie planning on doing?”

Again, the tendency was for the group to cast sidelong glances at Chartreuse. So he directed his full attention onto her. “You will tell me the truth now,” he insisted, making it a compulsion. “What did Carrie say to you today, before she left?!”

“That she loved me too.”

Chartreuse slapped both hands to her mouth after the admission. With her wide eyes blazing in what seemed to be equal parts pain and anger, she spun on her heel and charged off down the hallway. Laurie fled after her, while the rest of the group gave Glen a mixture of irritated and shocked looks.

Glen raised his hands, palms out. “Look, in my defence, I really did NOT expect that answer.”

Laurie simply held Chartreuse as she cried. Her friend had fled to the washroom the furthest away from the school auditorium, only to find it locked. Chartreuse had then collapsed to the floor in front of the door, which was where Laurie had embraced her. Laurie now hoped the hallway would remain deserted, despite Chartreuse’s sobs. She rubbed the back of the more heavyset girl, pulling Chartreuse deeper into the crook of her neck. Her nicest purple shirt would be a mess, but she didn’t care.

It took about five minutes, but finally the sobs eased up, and a minute or so after that, Chartreuse said something. Except it was muffled. “I’m sorry, what?”

Chartreuse’s grip tightened slightly, even as she turned her head to the side. “I said they, like, know now. They all know.”

“What, that you like girls? Or that Carrie apparently also likes girls? Chartreuse, I don’t think any of our friends will care, not really. And we won’t tell on you.”

“Not that. They, like, know now that Carrie ran off after saying she loved me. That I, you know, scared her off. That I was driven to temptation, and so Carrie freaked, and so that’s why she’s never coming back.”

Laurie frowned. “What do you mean that’s why she isn’t coming back? What did Carrie say?”

“It… it’s not about what she said. Not exactly.”

“You mean you got one of your random impressions off of her?”

Chartreuse squirmed, loosening her hold. “No. But when we met after school, during our second kiss, I…"

“SECOND kiss?”

“I got overzealous. I mean, okay, I’d had it on my mind for weeks, and it’s been, you know, so long since Tope, and she was going to LEAVE, Laurie, she would leave, and it was, like, my last chance. And maybe it was the kiss, or how I grabbed her, because at first Carrie was into it. She, you know, pulled me back into the corner of the room once our lips came apart, and so I kept at it, and she reciprocated, and ohh, Laurie, that’s when I felt it inside me.”

Chartreuse looked up into Laurie’s eyes. “I truly felt our connection, Laurie, despite neither of us using our powers.” She smiled at the memory. “There was more kissing, and soon Carrie had me, you know, pinned up against the wall, and we were all over each other, and in the middle of it, I blurt out ‘I love you!’ and she, like, said it back. She said it BACK, Laurie, like automatically! For a moment, I was in Heaven. Except I think that screwed her up, because that’s when she, you know, froze, pulled her shirt back down, said she was sorry but she couldn’t, and ran out of the room.” Chartreuse swallowed. “Away from any timeline where we could be together.”

“Oh, Chartreuse,” Laurie sighed. She reached up to wipe off the eye makeup that was staining her friend’s cheeks. “You said Carrie was leaving anyway though, right? So it wasn’t you. No one will think it’s you.”

“It had to, like, be a little bit me, don’t you think?”

“All it sounds like to me, is that she was into you, and didn’t want it to be a one night stand. Geez Chartreuse, don’t tell me Carrie’s ego rubbed off on you along with the rest of her body.”

Her friend snorted, and uncurled more until the two of them were sitting side by side against the washroom door. “Okay. Okay, maybe it’s silly to blame myself. But, like, to have that be our last conversation…?" She sighed. “Oh, Laurie, I really can pick ‘em, huh? Why isn’t there a way to, you know, UNpick ‘em?”

“If you find it, let me know. Remember, you’re talking to the girl who pined after Clarke for HOW long? Even now, I can’t figure out if I’m over him or not.”

“Oooh. Point.” She shrugged. “So maybe it’s better for me this way. Not, like, constantly seeing Carrie, day after day.”

“I don’t know. I don’t think you should give up. If I were Carrie, I’d make a timeline six,” Laurie offered. “One where I swoop back in and carry you off to a majestic palace or a medieval castle or something!”

Chartreuse shook her head. “I can’t handle time travel, Laurie. It, you know, messes with my head.”

“Same as love. So what?”

“So… so yeah, I guess we still charge into that.” She smiled. “Thanks, Laurie. Thanks for helping keep hope alive.”

“You’re welcome.”

Chartreuse wiped at her eyes. “Can I ask you to come with me tomorrow morning to see Carrie’s father?”

Laurie blinked. “Sure, but… Carrie didn’t ask you to break the news to him, did she?!”

“No, no, but she did say he was the source of some insight. Maybe knowing what that is will help me too.”

Laurie reached out to grab Chartreuse tightly by the hand. “In that case, I would be happy to.”

They ended up arriving at the Waterson home shortly after Luci and Julie. It wasn’t long before all of them had seen the note.

NEXT: Mum’s The Word

ASIDE: As always, a vote for T&T would be appreciated. Feel free to swoon at the romance or speculate on the future in the comments.

PREVIOUSLY: Chartreuse knows something is up with Carrie, but not what. Carrie will have destroyed a time travel chip, and may be destined to leave town.

PART 80a: VANISHING ACT

Chartreuse entered the classroom she’d been invited to after school, to find Carrie sitting behind the teacher’s desk. She took a second to appreciate the fact that her temporal friend had asked to meet in the same room where they had ‘interfaced’ during September’s dance before closing the door and setting her books by the chalkboard. “So, is class in session?”

Carrie looked up. “I hope not. Because I don’t seem to have the right answers today.”

It was just the two of them. As Chartreuse approached, Carrie stood and walked around the desk to meet her. “Chartreuse…" Her fists clenched and she looked down at her feet. “Damn it. What I SHOULD tell you here is that I don’t care about you, and that I never have, so that you can get over your feelings. Because where I’m going, I can’t take you with me.”

“Carrie?”

“Except I can’t say that, I can’t, because I’m scared Chartreuse, I’m SO scared about how things might play out, and you’re the only one who knows about everything that I’ve seen and done and…"

She looked back up then, and she was so close to tears that Chartreuse didn’t even think about it. She reached out to grab Carrie in the biggest, tightest hug that she could manage. Carrie sobbed then, and after a moment, her hands slipped around Chartreuse’s sides to hug back.

Chartreuse closed her eyes, preferring to let her other senses capture the moment. The feel of how Carrie’s body was pressed up against her. The scent of whatever fragrance her friend was wearing. The sound of the quiet sobs of the girl she’d fallen for.

Alas, she knew the moment was bittersweet. To the point where, when Carrie finally released her, and started to draw back, Chartreuse nearly didn’t let her.

“I’m sorry, Chartreuse. I’m making everything about me again.”

Chartreuse reopened her eyes and smiled. “That’s my Carrie. At the centre of the, you know, universe.” Carrie let out a noise that seemed to be half laugh, half choke, reaching up wipe at her own cheeks. “So where are you going, and why not take me with you? Glen, like, won’t allow it?”

“Oh, I’m not going with HIM,” Carrie assured. “In fact, I fully intend to embarrass him tonight at the talent show. My raging headache isn’t the only reason I set that event as my point of departure.” She took a step back to pull a tissue from the box on the teacher’s desk, blowing her nose.

“You’re going ALONE? Carrie, no…"

“I’m going through time, Chartreuse. We’ve seen how that messes with your head. But even if that wasn’t an issue, this is something that only I can do.”

“WHY? When are you, you know, going? Aside from the obvious chip destroying side trip, that is.”

Carrie tossed her tissue into the wastebasket. “I’m sorry, I can’t. If I tell, then Glen, or someone else at some future time, they’ll try to drag it out of you. I won’t allow that. Not knowing, it keeps you safe. Besides, I’m not even sure if my plan will work. Hence the scared part.”

“But if you leave, what happens to, like, the rest of us? Your friends, your father… me…"

Carrie sighed. “In at least two alternate timelines, everyone led perfectly good lives without me around. I’m sure they can do so again. My father’s kind of a special case, but that gave me the insight into what I’m going to do, so he should be okay as well. You…" Her face crumpled again.

“Oh, God, Chartreuse, you’re the only one I still can’t figure out. I wish I could at least give you an answer here. I think I’d hoped that somehow, the two of us, in this room… and yet…"

“My feelings kinda defy all common sense, huh?”

Carrie licked her lips. “I don’t know. I’m truly sorry. I… I’ll leave it up to you as to whether you tell the others? About everything? Causality loops aside, maybe it will help them understand why I have to destroy the time machine on my way out.”

Chartreuse nodded, then closed her eyes, taking a second to call up the sensations of having Carrie in her arms moments ago. “Okay,” she decided. She turned and headed back to her books. “If you’re going for sure, like, at least take this with you.” She reached into her pencil case, pulled out a relaxation crystal and returned to press it into Carrie’s hand.

“Chartreuse?”

“Take this piece of me with you, Carrie. That way, you’ll know there are people out here who, like, care about you. People who you can turn to for help if you get stuck again. I know it’s not much, in fact it’s, you know, actually kind of a cheap parting gift, but I hate the thought that in time you might forget. Forget all about–"

Carrie’s lips pressing in against her own cut off the rest of that sentence, indeed made Chartreuse forget about whatever she’d been about to say about forgetfulness in the first place. To her chagrin, in the time it took for the kiss to fully register as being a thing, and for her body to start properly reacting, Carrie was already drawing back. Chartreuse felt like a part of her brain wanted to scream. She tried to distract it by looking into Carrie’s wide eyes. Those gorgeous, deep blue eyes.

Carrie swallowed. “Okay. So that’s a thing I actually did.”

“I-Is it a thing you might, you know, do again? I wasn’t ready.”

Carrie’s eyes darted around the room. Her fingers obtained a stranglehold on some locks of her hair. “I… oh, Chartreuse, I would. I’m still not entirely sure what this is I’m feeling, but know that I really would. Except I can’t! Not now. It’ll only make it harder for me… or rather, for the both of us, when I… I have to…"

“A proper goodbye kiss, Carrie? Please?"

Chartreuse wasn’t entirely ready the second time either, but she made sure it lasted much longer than the first.

“Corry’s band was pretty good, huh?” Laurie said brightly as the applause died down. “Even if he had to perform sitting down on account of the ankle.”

“Yeah. Claude seemed to, you know, play all the right notes,” Chartreuse murmured. She wondered whether Megan had actually spoken to the bass guitarist, or any of the others she’d attempted to influence. Well, they were only twenty minutes into a two hour event, maybe chaos would erupt later. Not that it would change anything.

“Well, sure Claude did. He had been practicing their songs since way before Glen got kicked out on Monday,” Laurie noted. “Megan wouldn’t have insisted that Corry choose him for no reason.” She tilted her head. “Chartreuse, are you okay? You shouldn’t keep worrying about what happened with you and Megan last night, yeah? Because I spoke to her, and I think she understands how you’ve been under some personal stress.”

“It’s not about Megan,” Chartreuse sighed. “Sorry, Laurie. It’s more that, the closer we get to, like, Carrie being up there, the more… conflicted I feel.”

The others, sitting around her, they would know of Carrie’s plans right away. Or at least, Julie would, as Carrie would be dressed the same as she had been that night she’d destroyed the time travel chip. Lee and Tim might suspect too, if they saw her backstage. Glen, of course, would already know - but he believed that Carrie would go back, destroy the chip, then return. Except she wouldn’t. She wasn’t coming back. Was she?

The points of the crystal Chartreuse was holding dug into her palms.

Laurie touched her shoulder. “Golly, what is it? Did Carrie finally give you an answer today, Chartreuse?”

The whimper escaped from Chartreuse’s lips before she could prevent it. “Oh, Laurie. Let’s, like, talk about it later, okay?”

Up on stage, the freshmen juggling routine finished with only a couple of objects on the ground, and they took a bow. Then Kim announced Glen’s magic act.

Chartreuse’s breath caught. Her eyes darted to the side, eyeing Frank on her right, and Luci beside him. The two of them also exchanged a glance before they all returned their attention to the stage.

Glen came out, wheeling a large trunk. He was followed by Carrie. Ignoring the light patter as Glen began to speak, Chartreuse watched as Frank’s attention shifted to Julie, who was sitting behind them. Almost imperceptibly, she nodded back. On stage, Glen produced a bouquet of flowers, which he tossed out into the crowd.

Frank shifted, like he was about to stand up. Chartreuse reached out to seize him by the leg, and he turned to her in surprise.

“Don’t,” she whispered, even as part of her said to release him, to let him try, to see whether he could succeed here, where she had failed.

“Chartreuse,” he murmured back. “Julie thinks this might be when Carrie–”

“I know. Don’t. Causality, you know.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Actually, we only have the effect. The cause could be any time Carrie looks like that. If we keep it from being right now, that gives us all more time to determine–"

“No, it’s gonna be, like, now.”

“Why? Did you have a vision?”

Chartreuse closed her eyes. “Something like that.”

“So, for this trick… I will make Carrie disappear!” Glen said, flipping open the trunk.

“Chartreuse. I still have to try.”

She counted to three in her head, then released Frank’s leg. Hearing him get to his feet, she reopened her eyes.

“Carrie! Don’t… don’t do this! Not now!” Frank called out.

Students, parents and teachers alike all turned to regard Frank; the group of them had chosen seats closer to the back. He tried his best to ignore the attention, focusing instead on the stage. Carrie also paused there, one booted leg in the trunk. She fired off a quick, resigned smile. “Frank? What, you jealous that Glen gets to work his magic on me instead of you?”

There were a couple of laughs within the crowd. “Y-You… you know what I mean,” he called back. “Me… Julie… Lee… all of us, we only have your best interests at heart!” Carrie simply looked his way for a couple more seconds, then shook her head, resuming her climb into the trunk.

“Carrie!” Julie said, joining Frank on his feet. Luci rose as well, silently.

“You’ll have to excuse them, they saw what happened when I tried to do this to a watermelon last week,” Glen quipped, spinning his wand in his hand. Another wave of laughter rippled through the crowd, drowning out the growing murmurs.

That’s when Chartreuse noticed it. The photograph that Carrie had pulled out of her jeans. She was looking at it, as Glen closed the lid of the trunk on her. That fact seemed important, because Tim had mentioned a photograph too, hadn’t he? Almost a week ago now, in what would be for Carrie, another few seconds. Had that been the same image? What was the significance?

As Glen began to spin the trunk on stage, Frank looked back at Julie, seemingly unsure as to whether they should simply take their seats or not. So Chartreuse rose with them, motioning to Frank and plucking at Laurie’s sleeve. “Come with me,” she sighed.

“Chartreuse?” Julie questioned.

Chartreuse didn’t answer, she simply edged herself into the aisle and headed for the auditorium doors. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that the others were following. And beyond them, up on stage, Glen was now opening up that trunk. That empty trunk.

Carrie Waterson was gone.

NEXT: Not Forgotten. (PREV: A commentary last Sunday)

PREVIOUSLY: Megan’s actions seem to be interfering with Chartreuse’s mystic readings. Chartreuse, Corry and Megan have gone to Linquist’s old cabin in the woods, looking for Laurie.

PART 79b: CROSS PURPOSES

“What did Corry say this was? A sonic grenade?” Megan peered at the object on the table. Corry had gone out to scout around the vicinity of Linquist’s old cabin, looking for signs of Laurie, leaving the roughly spheroid object behind. He’d said to ‘use it in case of trouble’.

Chartreuse looked over her shoulder. “Yeah, I think Frank’s been getting, like, bored this month. He also said he might try to make me a sonic lipstick, he must be watching reruns of that, you know, British TV show again.”

Megan shook her head, then looked back around the room. Aside from the table, there were a couple chairs, a small bed, some sort of cooling unit plugged into an old portable generator, and a filing cabinet that Chartreuse was revealing to be empty. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s been here in months. Why would Laurie have wanted us to come out here? Why would SHE have come out here?”

“I’m kinda thinking it was to, you know, get us to talk more,” Chartreuse offered. She closed the last cabinet. “For instance, have any of us people whom you associate with Corry ever, like, congratulated you for getting that short story published?”

Megan eyed the pink haired girl warily. “Only Laurie did. Why, did she suggest you use that as a way of getting on my good side?”

The pink haired girl sighed. “No, Megan. I’m not… or rather, I like to THINK I’m not as bad as you, like, perceive. But in thinking on it, every time we’ve crossed paths, I’ve tended to see you as an obstacle. Perhaps I should be the one taking Corry’s story to heart. I haven’t been, you know, getting the facts about you before opening my mouth.”

So this was apparently Act Two of ‘let’s get Megan to behave the way we want’? “Self awareness is nice, Chartreuse, but you have a LONG way to go if you’re aiming for redemption.”

Chartreuse sat down on the corner of the bed. “Redemption… Megan, are you Catholic?”

“Oh, the cross on my necklace tip you off?”

“Plus the story you wrote, now that I think about it. I did, like, read it, you know.”

“Of course you did. But only because of how it related to Laurie’s picture, right?”

Chartreuse pursed her lips. “Is it, you know, difficult for you? Living in a town that doesn’t have a separate Catholic high school, I mean.”

Megan sighed, gripping the edge of the table as she leaned in. “I’m not the only Catholic in the school, Chartreuse.”

“That’s not what I meant… um, wait, is religion, like, a touchy subject?”

“No. Though it sure doesn’t come up much with Corry or Julie, so you MIGHT want to stop before you dig yourself into a deep pit.”

Chartreuse sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I can’t help it, I gotta know - are my mystical ways part of the problem here? Does it offend more religious people like you?”

Megan nearly fired off a blanket ‘if that’s what you think, sure’, but something told her that Chartreuse was trying to be sincere. So she took a second to gather her thoughts, resting her elbows on the table instead of her hands.

“No,” she admitted. “Granted, I think your talk of crystals and visions is not at ALL the sort of spiritual guidance Laurie needs. But I don’t hate you for your beliefs. I try not to hate at all, frankly. You may be aware of how it’s rather against our underlying philosophy?”

“So it’s more you think I’m destined for Hell, and you don’t want me, you know, dragging Laurie down there with me.”

“Wrong again.” Megan looked up for a moment, trying to figure out how to put things in a way that Chartreuse would understand. “Chartreuse, the whole point of us being on Earth is that we have free will. No one is predestined for Heaven or Hell, and as such, what I’m trying to do at school - and with you - is better educate people about their own consciences. Granted, some of you seem beyond my ability to educate.” She eyed the door, wondering what was taking Corry so long.

“And so instead you… what? Hold such people up to your followers as, like, examples of what’s wrong in the world? Try to, you know, tempt them with evil, in the hopes that they’ll reveal that fact to everybody? What?”

“I…" Megan frowned, starting to feel a bit uneasy as she realized that Chartreuse wasn’t exactly wrong in her assessment. “I do what I can to illustrate the dangers of hubris, envy, wrath and so forth.”

“Then you do think you’re, you know, influencing people.”

“It’s more helping to illuminate the…”

“Darkness already there,” Chartreuse finished. “I got that on our way out here. But isn’t the very act of, you know, doing the illuminating having influence? Like, consider, it’s only by ignoring big problems in society, like religion, race and politics, that those things don’t, like, change. Change happens when people like you shine the light, pointing the bad stuff out.”

Megan raised her eyebrows. “Are you seriously proposing that I ignore what Corry does around the school instead? To keep the status quo?”

“No, no… it’s more about, you know, accepting responsibility. And admitting that you’re influencing things and people a lot more than you might want to take credit for.”

Megan pushed herself back from the table, equal parts fascinated and disturbed. When she’d entered into the conversation, she hadn’t thought that Chartreuse had a prayer of making any coherent arguments, but Laurie’s pink haired friend was making surprisingly good points. Granted, the girl had missed out on something rather obvious. “Chartreuse, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t take the credit. Hubris is one of the seven deadly sins.”

“Megan, you totally shouldn’t take pride in everything you’ve been doing anyway. For instance, there had to be better ways for, like, Sue Simmons to get her counselling. Right?”

Megan’s lips tightened. Now she saw where Chartreuse was steering them. “I’m still not going to issue orders about the talent show for your benefit.”

“Megan, no, this isn’t, like, about that any more!”

“No? Then what IS is about?”

“I… I don’t know!” Chartreuse flopped back completely onto the bed, a puff of dust rising around her. “But, you know, the Lord’s Prayer says ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’, and our talk is making me wonder if we’re both here now because there’s forces out there trying to, like, remind us of what that really means.”

As Megan attempted to parse the inclusion of ‘both’ of them, there came a scream from outside the cabin. Chartreuse jerked back up into a sitting position, while Megan grabbed for the ‘sonic grenade’ and ran to the doorway.

‘Oh no, not now,’ Chartreuse thought, scrambling to push herself back up onto her feet. She succeeded on the second attempt.

“Laurie? Is that you?” Megan called out. She ran out of the cabin.

“Damn,” Chartreuse cursed, fumbling in her pocket for her phone. She switched it to video recorder mode as she charged to the door after the dark haired student.

A few metres away, slumped at the base of a tree and illuminated by light from a nearby phone, was a redheaded form in a dress. “Laurie, what’s wrong?” Megan asked, hurrying over.

Chartreuse hesitated, her finger over the record button. Then, with sudden resolve, she reached up, turned her device off, and jammed it back into her pocket.

“Laurie, are you–" Megan’s voice became a high pitched shriek as a form in a lab coat jumped down out of the tree above her. She tried to backpedal, but stumbled, belatedly attempting to throw the grenade. Except she was already falling backwards by then, so the spheroid slipped out of her hands, arced behind her, and cracked the glass of one of the cabin windows where it hit.

“Don’t you come near me!” Megan yelped, sprawled on the ground. She crossed herself. “I have friends, I’ll be missed, I’ll… I’ll…" Her panicked shouts ceased as she realized that the person in the lab coat wasn’t advancing, but rather continuing to dangle in the air. Then, with the release of a rope, the “person” collapsed on the ground like a bundle of clothing. Which it was.

The redhead in the dress started to rise, leaning back against the tree. “Chartreuse, did you get it?”

Chartreuse didn’t respond. Instead, she walked over to pick up the nearby grenade. In her haste, Megan hadn’t even hit the trigger button; Chartreuse wondered idly if the device would have actually added to the confusion, or been a complete dud.

“This was a setup,” Megan gasped.

“Chartreuse, do we have Megan’s reaction on tape or not??”

Chartreuse looked back up at him. “No, Corry, we don’t.”

Corry tried to take a step closer, only to lurch back against the tree he’d used to claw himself to his feet. “Are. You. KIDDING. Me?! I twisted my ANKLE getting that rope set up!”

“You two… you LIED to me!” Megan accused, pushing herself back up into a seated position.

“A bit, but we mostly ‘suggested’,” Corry countered, raising one hand to make a set of successive air quotes. His other palm still busy acting as support against the tree trunk. “Remember, you brought yourself out here, by your own choice. Does that methodology sound familiar?”

Chartreuse sighed. “Okay, Corry? Don’t help. That won’t, you know, help.” She moved to crouch down next to Megan, wincing at the glare she was receiving. “Megan, this was, like, the nuclear option. We really were, you know, hoping that the talk on the way up here would be enough.”

“What was Laurie’s part in it?”

“Minimal. She, you know, recorded that bit of phone conversation for us. That’s it. She’s probably asleep at home right now.”

“Yeah, I would NOT have let Laurie up and run off like this,” Corry said, attempting to limp in their direction. He nearly tripped on the hem of the dress. “You really DO have a low opinion of me, huh, Megan?”

“I’d say my low opinion has been more than justified tonight.”

Chartreuse winced. “Corry, can you please let me do the, you know, talking from here? Please?”

“Oh, FINE. I’ll need to find a branch that I can use as a cane anyway.”

Chartreuse turned her full attention back on Megan as Corry moved off. “Okay. So Corry brought up the blackmail, and I went along with it, and we brought all this stuff up here in advance… but I, like, purposefully turned off my camera then. Not that I expect you to believe it, or, you know, anything I say at this point, but I did. Because I think I get it now. Like, not all of it, no way, but I get you a little better, and, you know, maybe I finally realize what the spirits have been trying to tell me too.”

The intensity of Megan’s glare seemed to subside, even if her overall expression didn’t. “That freaked me the hell out, Chartreuse. Laurie will hear about this, mark my words.”

“Oh, I know. I’ll tell her myself. I’ll even let you tell her first, if you want. Thing is, Laurie really did want us to talk, you know? That’s why she provided the recording. She’s desperate for everyone that she likes to get along, particularly now that she’s got the extra cheerleader responsibility on her mind.”

“Sounds like Laurie.” Megan looked up towards the sky. “That girl is SUCH an optimist, huh? Trouble is, me and Corry, we are NOT compatible.”

“I get that. Perhaps because he involves himself too much… while maybe you imply some of the same stuff, then don’t involve yourself?”

“Meaning?” Her glare was back.

Chartreuse nibbled on her lip. “Words can be, you know, very powerful. They spark emotions, ones which can lead to a total override of a person’s, like, higher reasoning… and while, as a writer, I’m sure you already knew that… maybe you’re not always testing what you think you’re testing in people?”

Megan eyed her, then finally lifted her shoulders in a small shrug. “Okay. Okay, maybe I talk too much. And God does not tempt us to sin, so perhaps there were times I should have been leading more by example.”

The dark haired junior started to push herself back up to her feet. Chartreuse quickly straightened up, reaching down out a hand to help her. After a hesitation, Megan accepted her help and was soon brushing herself off. “What you’re saying is about MY beliefs though,” Megan pointed out. “What about you? With that reference to ‘the spirits’ telling you things?”

“Oh. That was, um…” Chartreuse sighed as Megan looked at her expectantly. “Okay, long story condensed? Something’s gonna happen with Carrie at the talent show. But she’s being evasive with me. So I sought spiritual guidance, except instead of Carrie, I got visions of all the stuff you were stirring up. Hence me going a bit crazy this week, trying to negate your influence.” She exhaled. “Which was a mistake. Because maybe, the spirits were trying to get me to stop being tempted by their gifts. They wanted me to put my faith in Carrie instead, the same way you test the faith of the people you talk to.”

“Hmmm. Reaching a bit?”

Chartreuse shrugged. “As mere mortals, can we ever TRULY know what the cosmic forces are trying to tell us?” Chartreuse ventured a smile, and was relieved when it was reciprocated, however tentatively, by Megan.

“Got your talent show deal figured out yet?” the male Veniti twin asked, hobbling up next to them, leaning on a large branch. “Because if so, I find I’m in considerable pain and would prefer to leave these woods sooner rather than later.”

Chartreuse nodded. “I have my answers. Let’s get going.”

She received a message from Carrie later that Friday.

NEXT: Vanishing Act

ASIDE: During edits, the last two parts were completely gutted and rewritten from how they were before. Read this Sunday’s Commentary for more info. We’ve now reached the talent show; a vote for T&T is always appreciated.

PREVIOUSLY: Megan beat out Corry for control of the school. To read Carrie, Chartreuse needs Megan not to interfere with the upcoming talent show. She was told Corry’s biggest weakness was also Megan’s.

PART 79a: TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES

“Megan, I need some help? If you can, please get Chartreuse, and both of you come out here now to this cabin in the woods where I’ve –"

Laurie’s voice cut out as the line went dead. Megan frowned, punching the redial button, only to be told Laurie’s phone was off or out of service. She stood quietly in her bedroom for a moment, eyes flicking over towards her clock radio - it was almost 11:30pm - then to her bed, then to the pyjamas she’d been about to change into.

“Damn it,” she muttered. What did that poor girl’s brother have her doing now? She walked back over to her desk, opening her laptop and looking up the necessary phone number. Chartreuse picked up after the first ring.

“Like, hello?”

“Something’s up with Laurie,” Megan said. “She just called me.”

“What? You found her??”

“Found? What do you mean found?”

“Laurie ran away from home this evening. It’s, like, totally on me. I was kind of pressuring her into, well, talking to you about the talent show actually. Where is she?”

“I don’t know, but she said something about a cabin in the woods.”

“A cabin? The Veniti’s don’t own a cabin. Megan, what specifically did Laurie, you know, say?”

Megan began to fiddle with her necklace as she thought back. “Laurie wanted help. She asked me to get you, and to come to some cabin in the woods. Then her phone cut out.”

“Okay. I wonder why Laurie phoned you, and not, you know, me?”

Because I’m the better influence on her now, plus I can talk like a normal person? “Chartreuse, you JUST said you were pressuring her to do something she didn’t want to do. Why do YOU think she called me now?”

“Okay, okay. She could be in trouble though, if her phone, like, cut out. Shall we do a little, you know, search and rescue?”

“Chartreuse, it’s 11:30 at night! This is a job for the police.”

“We don’t want to get Laurie in trouble. Her parents, like, don’t know she’s gone. Corry found this note when he went to say goodnight to her, and since then we’ve, you know, both been out searching. Hoping we can work this out without causing Laurie more grief. And since she, like, called you, maybe you’re the best person to come help us investigate the woods…?”

Megan suppressed the urge to groan. “Chartreuse, what’s the point in having all of us stumble around in the woods, in the dark of night?”

“Laurie’s the point. But if you don’t want to, you know, help, it’s fine. I get that you’re tired. I think maybe I know the cabin she was talking about anyway, so, like, thanks for the tip. Should I call you in the morning?”

“Chartreuse…"

“Megan?”

You’re not better than me. “You know the cabin?”

“Maybe.”

Laurie phoned ME, not you. “Then I’ll meet you where the forest runs up against that new development north of town in half an hour.”

“Yeah? I’m not ‘demanding’ that you meet me, you know…"

“Funny! Half an hour.” Megan hung up, hesitated, then went to her laundry basket, stuffing a bunch of dirty clothes underneath her sheets in case her parents poked their heads in. They were already in their bedroom though, making it easy for Megan to sneak downstairs, grab her jacket, and leave the house.

“What is HE doing here?” Megan said, pointing.

Chartreuse looked from her, to Corry, and then back. “I said we were both out here. Come on, Megan, Laurie’s his sister. He cares about what happens to her.”

“Right. Pity Laurie didn’t think he cared, or she would have been able to talk to him for help. Instead of running away.”

Despite the darkness, the glow from the light on their phones revealed the scowl on Corry’s face. His hand clenched into a fist. “I waited for you instead of going on ahead, don’t make me regret that.”

“Oh, so you know where this cabin is as well? Then why didn’t you check there as soon as Laurie went missing?”

“It’s a place that used to, like, belong to a scientist called Linquist,” Chartreuse put in quickly. “Hardly the first place we’d think to look. Heck, it might not even be the cabin Laurie mentioned, but it’s, you know, the only one I know of that’s in the woods.”

“Linquist?” Megan blinked. “Wait, that guy who owned the mansion is still in town?”

“Maybe,” Corry said tersely. “He abducted a girl and held her in that cabin just over a year ago, so can we get a move on already to make sure he hasn’t done the same thing to Laurie by this point?”

“Yeah, it’s this way… I’m pretty sure,” Chartreuse offered, heading off onto what might pass for a trail between the trees.

Megan jammed her hands into the pockets of her coat, resigning herself to the situation and falling into step behind Chartreuse. She tried to ignore how Corry was following her. It proved difficult, as not ten seconds later, he asked, “So, Megan, do you think I’m the devil?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Megan countered, without turning.

“I was gonna say, I’m pretty sure there’s people out there who are worse than me. Linquist for one.”

“Corry, your being here doesn’t mean I have to talk to you.”

“True enough. As you seem to be listening though, let me tell you a story about Josh.”

“Please don’t.”

“You wouldn’t know him, because you were at that other middle school in town, and he moved away before high school.”

“I’m going to stop listening now.”

“Laurie came close to getting him hooked on cigarettes.”

Megan nearly tripped over a tree root. ‘He’s baiting you!’ she chided herself. ‘Don’t let him!’ She clenched her jaw, focussing on where Chartreuse was leading them, waiting for the inevitable follow-up. Yet behind her, Corry now opted to remain irritatingly silent.

Her mental resolve lasted at least a minute, but her desire to better understand whatever Laurie had to suffer through every day won out. “How does that even make sense? Laurie’s never smoked,” she pointed out.

“You’ll need the whole story. See, my hobby hasn’t always been high school domination,” Corry began. “Back in Grade 6, I was content to have a small circle of friends.”

“Oh, give me strength,” Megan sighed, clutching at her jacket, feeling for her necklace beneath it.

“There were seven… no, eight of us. I organized a game night every week or so. It was the gaming we liked most. Laurie wasn’t part of that group, of course. It’s not that we were all guys, we weren’t, but despite the two of us being twins, I’m sure you’ve seen how we run in different social circles.”

“You run in entirely different shapes.”

“At the time, I was trying to ease off and let Laurie do her own thing,” Corry continued, undaunted. “After a couple years of keeping an eye out in grade school, not letting anyone bully her, that sort of thing. I figured, time to see if she could manage on her own. That’s why Laurie wound up hanging out with Josh that year.”

Corry paused momentarily as the three of them climbed over a downed tree trunk. “Now, Josh was pretty insecure. A bit like Laurie. Problem was, Josh wanted to be popular. To be a real rebel. And Laurie encouraged that, she told him he should follow that dream, and stop being so concerned about the things it would take to achieve it. A bit like how you enjoy encouraging people to do things, Megan… without considering the consequences.”

“I don’t like where you’re going with this.”

“I’m not surprised. So yeah, it wasn’t long before Laurie suggested to Josh that he get his hands on some cigarettes, like a couple of the “cool” kids were doing. Because that was sure to help him out. And hey, if the things were TRULY that bad for you, the government would crack down on it, right? In this perfect world we live in?”

“Corry, she meant well,” came Chartreuse’s quiet voice from up ahead.

“Laurie ALWAYS means well. Except she doesn’t understand how terrible things really are! Meaning when Josh got caught with them, he was suspended, followed by Laurie too, once she tried to take the blame. Worse, that idiot Josh didn’t learn. He was caught smoking up again a month later.”

“Corry, even if he didn’t learn, your sister, you know, did. And after realizing what she’d done, she started putting more effort into her studies.”

“Thank goodness. Though she also became more prone to talking in excessively illustrative sentences, to give people extra background detail. Tradeoff.”

“Hold on,” Megan cut back in. “Corry, are you implying to me that your whole desire to control your middle school was not merely because of some craving for power, or out of some desire to save your sister from the world - but rather, you hoped to save the world from your sister?!”

“I wouldn’t have put it quite like that, but sure, it’s one interpretation.”

“Wow. Way to blame your pathological narcissism on poor Laurie.”

“In actual fact,” Chartreuse said, speaking over Corry’s growl. “I think we accept that Josh’s story is, like, only part of the puzzle. Part of Corry, you know, probably craves power too. This stuff’s not so black and white.”

“Mmmm. There were other factors,” Corry granted. “But they detract from the moral I was aiming for here.”

Megan glared over her shoulder. “What, that schools need better anti-smoking campaigns?”

She couldn’t see his face, but she suspected Corry was rolling his eyes. “Given how those campaigns are easier to put in place once you’re in control of a school, sure, I’ll grant you that too. But I think you know where I was going with this.”

“Oh, sure. The moral is that you’re a narcissist.”

“The moral is to know all the FACTS before you open your mouth!” he snapped. “And to consider the consequences of your actions before you speak!”

“My bad. It was that you’re a narcissist with rage issues.”

“Oh for… this was a bad idea. Chartreuse–"

“We’re nearly there now,” she insisted. “You can’t turn back here.”

Corry let out a rush of air. “One last try then. Megan, do you even remember how you were the one who incited things with Sue last September? How I nearly DIED because of it?”

“Corry, please. First, an attack on you was a mere suggestion, Sue’s the one who took it to extremes. And second, you weren’t fated to die that day.”

“How do you know I wasn’t??”

“Because you didn’t. Obviously.”

It sounded like he was grinding his teeth. “Oh, a perfect circle of Megan logic. Tell me, do you think Sue was always fated to need psychological counselling too?”

Sheesh, how long was Corry going to harp on her here? “Based on what happened, yes,” Megan explained. “I grant I might have accelerated the process…"

“Accelerated?!”

“But it’s just as well that I did, so that it happened in high school, while Sue was still able to get proper help. Who knows what would have happened a year later, away from home?”

“Damn. You really do have a rationalization for everything you’ve done, don’t you.”

“I merely help to illuminate the darkness that’s already there.”

He grumbled again. “Great, so what has fate decreed about the talent show tomorrow? Or rather, now that it’s after midnight, today? Still chaos?”

“Who knows? As mere mortals, we’ll only know for sure once the show itself is over.”

Corry finally fell silent, and Megan smiled to herself. He’d been sloppy at the end there, allowing her to confirm the fact that he really had sent Chartreuse after her at school. The nerve of them, trying to use Laurie’s disappearance here as an excuse to double team her! Still fixated on the school’s stupid talent show. No wonder Laurie had run off - it made Megan want to help the poor Veniti twin all the more. Maybe she could find the girl a prayer group.

“Here we are,” Chartreuse declared. They emerged from the brush in front of what seemed to be a one-room cabin structure. Strangely, the front door was hanging ajar. After exchanging a quick glance with the others, Chartreuse edged forwards and peered around the door frame, looking inside. She immediately motioned them over.

“Look,” she said, pointing.

Megan pushed the door open a bit wider, spotting Laurie’s jacket and phone on the floor right inside the doorway. But there was no sign of the young redhead anywhere.

NEXT: Cross Purposes

ASIDE: I recently gave an author interview here at Alastair Luft’s site. Consider checking it out, he has a number of other interviews there too, and a number of them have published. 

PREVIOUSLY: Someone named Mindylenopia called Julie, offering help. Chartreuse tried to get a mystic reading on Carrie, yet kept seeing Megan.

PART 78b: CONNECTING

“I suppose you’re wondering why I wanted to talk with you.” Julie ran her fingers back through her hair. “Honestly, it took a full day to decide to speak up at all. Then I had to figure out who to speak to. So, congrats Frank, you win. Namely because, since Glen thought you’d be my confidant last time, he probably won’t peg you this time around.”

“Um, Julie…" Frank glanced towards the door of the school library, then back to her. “Look, I’m afraid it’s rippled through the whole group by now. We know what you were trying to do, what Glen did to us in order to stop you, and how Carrie trumped everything. I’m not sure what more you could add, and right now I actually have a business club meet–”

“Mindylenopia’s back. She phoned me that night.”

Frank froze. “Okay, that’s new.”

“She didn’t say much aside from ‘being able to help me with the rebuilding’, and ‘not to lose hope’. And that she would be in touch.”

“Do you know where the call originated?”

“Pay phone. Frank, do you think Mindy’s truly back? Or could this be another attempt by Glen to confound me, to keep me from working on any circuit alternatives as I await a call that’s never coming?”

“Euh. Well, she could be back, in as much as might have she caught back up to us.” Seemingly reaching a decision, Frank beckoned Julie further back into the book stacks. “A couple weeks ago, I found a poem, in the local paper. It had been published five years ago, on the same date of Mindy’s arrival this year, and was signed by her. Moreover, read a certain way, it was an attempt to warn us about Glen.” He shrugged. “Naturally, after that, both me and Luci looked for more evidence. Except we didn’t find anything. So… I figured it could have been coincidence.”

“In our lives? Never.”

Frank sighed. “Did your caller sound old? Young?”

“Her voice was distorted. Frank, if Mindy’s TRULY back, and moreover if she’s influencing our lives the way Glen did… wait, do you think HE knows she’s here again?”

“I kind of doubt it, otherwise he’d be gearing Carrie up for another temporal banishment, right? They really didn’t get along. I’m more worried about the fact that ‘Mindy’ called you on that night, because it means she ALSO knew about the time machine situation. How could she?”

Julie crossed her arms. “I can say I’ve been wary of any memory gaps, given how I’ve been guarding against Glen. So I don’t think Mindy’s ever influenced me. And the original note was written by–" She stopped herself.

“Note?”

“Hell.” Julie lifted her gaze to the ceiling. “Oh well, not hard to connect the dots now. I got a note, in Carrie’s handwriting, after Mindy’s banishment. It’s why I took the parts out of Carrie’s trash, and tried to rebuild the machine in the first place. She said I was the only one who could. My question is, what’s Mindy’s angle on all this?”

Frank rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know, but… would this future Carrie have known that Mindy was back?”

Julie stared at him, then slowly nodded. “That seems likely. So, you think I should wait for another call?”

“I don’t know what else we can do. Aside from raise our alert level for redheaded women eavesdropping on us from the shadows.”

“She could get a wig or dye her hair,” Julie pointed out. “If it were me, I’d do that.”

“Right. Well, I’ll tell everyone to keep their guard up. For now, I should get to my meeting.” Frank turned away, then back towards her. “Oh, and thanks, Julie. For having the faith to approach one of us again.”

She grimaced. “It was never you that I was worried about.”

“What is it you’re worried about?” Megan asked, idly filing a nail.

“I don’t know!” Chartreuse shot back, doing her very best to rein in her exasperation. “It’s something to do with, like, the talent show. I know you’re involved.”

“Mmm hmm.” Megan blew on her finger, then replaced the file in her locker, reaching for her book bag. “Corry sent you to me, did he?”

“No, he did NOT. But I did speak with him first, and from the sounds of things, he’s been, you know, super co-operative with you all week. Putting your friend Claude in the band to replace Glen, getting Kim to be, like, the one handling the lineup for said show, and not voicing any objection to, you know, other things, like giving the junior students one of the two senior study rooms in the library… why would you even suspect him of sending me to you now?”

“Ugh. Why wouldn’t anyone suspect that guy… oh wait, you wouldn’t, because you’re part of his gang.”

“Megan…"

She closed her locker with what seemed to like deliberate slowness, then adjusted her necklace with the cross before shouldering her bag and turning away. “Chartreuse, darling, quit while you’re behind. You’re going to give me a persecution complex.”

Chartreuse hurried to block Megan’s way. “Megan, I can’t quit. Not when someone I love is in trouble, and I can’t, like, get a bead on her because of your plans. You know, it’s not a complex when you really ARE at the heart of everything!”

Megan’s eyes narrowed. “How dare you. Unlike your friend Corry, with his fingers in every event happening around us, my policy is merely to suggest. Not demand.”

“Yeah, well, some people can’t tell the difference. PLEASE Megan, call off whatever you’ll, like, be doing at the talent show!”

Megan held up both hands, palms out. “I’M not doing anything. My followers make their OWN decisions. Now get OUT of my way!”

Sensing that she wasn’t going to get anywhere productive, Chartreuse reluctantly stepped aside, slumping back against the row of lockers as Megan marched off. She moaned. Her last chance had been that direct confrontation. What was she going to do now?

“Megan’s being honest there, Chartreuse. She has no idea what will happen at the talent show.”

The mystic girl turned to see a girl with short brown hair and overlarge glasses approaching her from across the hall. “Kim? What do you, like, know?”

Kim Carpenter looked to see that Megan was really gone before answering. “I know that Megan suggested to Claude that he deliberately play the wrong chords during Corry’s favourite song. To Bill that he make fun of Mrs. Willis during his comedy routine. To Amy that Tommy’s slideshow should get put into the wrong order backstage. That someone replace the middle of Kelly’s dance number with a slow jazz track, and there’s probably even more things I don’t know about. Thing is, all of those things might happen - or none of those things might happen. Who’s to say? Certainly not Megan.”

“But that’s… she… how can Megan, you know, get anything DONE that way?!”

Kim smiled, reaching up to adjust her glasses. “Oh, Megan can get serious, if she chooses. She’s simply been more inclined to say whatever off-the-cuff remarks come into her head this week. I think partly because Corry’s been increasingly backing off.”

Chartreuse groaned. “But I, like, TOLD Corry to back off! I figured it would give me a better sense of what Megan was, you know, planning - and now you’re saying his nicer attitude has only made it worse??”

Kim nodded. “Haven’t you noticed? Megan’s philosophy is that people will eventually make the right choices by themselves. So she nudges at people - actually, sometimes shoves them with great force - to see how well they truly understand themselves, and the people around them. Not knowing how her influencing of events will pay off can be a gamble, sure, but it’s also how Megan’s been able to recruit so much support this year. And the more Corry backs off, the more she figures she can take the initiative.”

Chartreuse rubbed her forehead. “Kim, what would it take to get Megan to tell all the people she’s influenced to for sure NOT do anything at the show?”

Kim shook her head. “A miracle.” She began to move off.

Chartreuse pushed herself off the bank of lockers. “Kim, wait. Please. Megan must have, like, a weakness. Something I can, you know, leverage here.”

Kim turned back. “Chartreuse… you looked really upset. And I heard that you and Corry stood up for my chess skills that time she, uh, kind of used me without my permission in order to test you in the music room.” Her brow furrowed at the admission. “So anyway, I thought I’d cut you a break. But you have to understand, I’m with Megan now. Sure, she makes missteps, we all do, but her philosophy is the first one in this school that actually makes sense to me! Don’t you see that?”

Chartreuse swallowed. The longer the week went on, the less forthcoming Carrie was being with her. A knot was forming in her stomach, one she couldn’t get rid of, and yet couldn’t properly interpret, not with the forces fixating on Megan. “Well, you know… if people are gonna do whatever they like in the end, it doesn’t, like, matter what you tell me about Megan’s weak points. Right?” Chartreuse smiled.

“Yes, well, there’s also the philosophy ‘Stupid is as stupid does’,” Kim countered. Except she didn’t turn away, so Chartreuse clapped her hands together in a prayer pose.

Kim’s response was to roll her eyes. “Oy. Look, I’ll give you this much,” she decided, before spinning on her heel. “Corry’s biggest weakness? Is becoming Megan’s too.”

With that, the brunette strode off down the hall. Leaving Chartreuse to figure out how to use that knowledge to the best of her abilities.

NEXT: Truth and Consequences. Do you see Megan’s weakness? Remember, Voting for T&T is an option.

ASIDE: My personal blog hit 300 posts, so I wrote a short fantasy story called “A Bunny’s Tale”. Magic is weird. Feel free to check it out.

PREVIOUSLY: Glen gave mental suggestions to others, trying to do away with a chip Julie had created, meant to restore the time machine. Instead of Lee getting the chip, a future Carrie appeared to destroy it.

PART 78a: CHEER UP

There were two major announcements at school on Monday morning. The first was that Glen would no longer be the bass player for Corry’s band. While there was some confusion within the school about that, it at least made sense to Chartreuse. After all, given what Tim had said on the phone about the conflict he and Lee had experienced with the redhead on the weekend, not to mention the audacity of Glen mind controlling their friends, they could hardly keep working together in a band. Not in any amicable way.

The second announcement was that Laurie would be acting as the head cheerleader until further notice. That was the announcement that didn’t make sense to Chartreuse. Not because it was Laurie - she knew better than anyone how much her friend had been going all out this year, even sketching diagrams of possible new routines for the team that week Carrie had been in hospital - but because giving up the lead ran against Carrie’s nature. More to the point, the timing implied a temporal connection that she couldn’t see, again based on the weekend’s events.

Chartreuse knew Carrie could avoid her at the end of the school day, if she chose. Their timetables were almost a match - except last period, when Chartreuse had Physics while Carrie was in Drama. So the mystic girl made a point of standing outside the Art room at the end of lunch, before that class started, reaching out for Carrie when her friend arrived moments before the bell.

“Carrie…"

“Chartreuse, not today,” Carrie sighed, evading the outstretched arm.

“Carrie, please don’t make me do a reading. I want to help, and Laurie’s, you know, my friend too. Where is this headed?”

Carrie hesitated just inside the doorway. “I’ll call you tonight,” she yielded.

Chartreuse decided that was the best she’d get.

Carrie had opted to avoid having a major blowout with Glen at school. Yet her headache was flaring up again by the time she arrived at their training warehouse that afternoon, meaning she felt unable to project the proper amount of rage for their conversation. As such, she began quietly with, “When were you going to tell me that Lee was in possession of a microchip to resume time travel?”

Except she didn’t say that at all.

What came out instead was the more sensible, “When were you going to tell me that I had destroyed the microchip Lee had for time travel?”

“After the possible stress of our upcoming act for the school talent show was behind us,” Glen admitted. The words somehow addressed either query, regardless of the one she’d actually spoken.

Carrie pressed two fingers to her temples. “And how dare you keep things from me, like your threatening Lee using his job at the library?”

Didn’t say it. Hadn’t happened.

“And how dare you keep things from me, like the fact that I’m almost ready to make a time jump of such precision?”

“Again, I thought it prudent to wait for you to raise these subjects first,” Glen said, seating himself on the desk he’d obtained for the warehouse space. “We’re dealing with some rather dodgy timeline issues here, a fact I’m sure you’ve remarked on by now.”

Carrie grit her teeth. So were they in a new timeline now? Or rather, ANOTHER new one, again overwriting an old one, on account of her actions? And, of rather more importance, was this new ‘timeline five’ perhaps only a restoration of Glen’s ‘timeline three’?

“Yes, okay, let’s finally talk about this,” she decided. “About the timelines. About fact that you’re not simply here to train me, but rather to take me away. From this town, from my life, from everything that’s important to me!”

Glen eyed her. “Then I did tell you that, in the alternate timeline you mentioned to Mary Clarke?” He shrugged. “Carrie, that is what is meant to happen. You’ve even realized it on some level - seeing as you’ve put Laurie in charge of your squad.”

Carrie grimaced. She’d done that more to have the chance to process the temporal pain which had kicked in. After what Lee had said to her Sunday night (in either timeline), she rather hoped her headache wasn’t going to continue right through until whenever she took that trip back in time. But was Glen right, was it a sign they were again in timeline three?

“Glen, no,” she countered. “I’m not going to run away. I’m not going to let one of my… my…" She forced herself to acknowledge the truth. “One of my friends die!”

Glen leaned forwards. “I don’t think that has to happen. Not any more.”

Carrie flinched back. “What?”

“It’s as I said once to that boy Clarke - time resists universal change, but individuals still have the free will to screw things up locally. You rewrote history to save your friend? Very well, time is now attempting to compensate. To provide you with an alternative reason to leave with me. One that does not involve anything quite so drastic.”

“What reason?”

“Why, precisely the opposite to before - you must leave with me in order to keep your friends safe. After all, so long as a time machine can exist here, in this time? The danger of whatever happened on that other track you erased is all too real. Conversely, what you’re faced with now is simply the chance to remove the possibility of more time travel - and more deaths - before departing this town. Then everyone’s lives can go on as normal.”

“Except mine.”

He sighed. “Carrie, understand that I care about you when I say this? You need to accept that your life can never be normal. And the more you mess around trying to delay our destined departure, the more others might suffer.”

Carrie clenched and unclenched her hands. She began to pace, not certain if the activity was meant to help her work through the logic, to avoid meeting Glen’s gaze, or both. “Thing is, the Carrie who leaves with you? Is kind of a horrible person for running away,” she asserted. “By leaving, there’s every chance I’ll become like that too, always getting more and more bitter about my situation, leading to even greater suffering down the timeline.”

“Carrie, you must know I’ll help you out. In fact, I can’t help but notice that you’ve been rejecting all my advances as a boyfriend these last few weeks. Perhaps, if you opened yourself back up to that possibility, you would be more–”

“Ohhh, you need to shut up about that NOW.” Carrie stamped her foot as she pivoted. “Glen, you haven’t merely concealed important things from me. If what Lee told me is even partially true? You also have serious issues in terms of seeing others in this time as ‘Mundanes’ to mentally influence as you see fit. I don’t want a boyfriend like that. I’m becoming sketchy on whether I even want a trainer like that! It could colour everything about my powers, and it makes you…"

A junction point for the entire temporal war. Those words, from the letter Mindylenopia had left with her father back in October, flashed back into her mind. For an instant, Carrie froze in place. Then another pang speared through her head - would she have even had this revelation in the other timelines? - and, giving up on dealing with the constant throbbing, Carrie paced over to her school bag to grab another aspirin.

“Makes me?” Glen prompted, his tone half amused, half annoyed.

“Kind of a pain in the ass.” Carrie worked up some saliva and swallowed the pill. “Glen, I don’t believe that my only remaining choice is leaving with you. I can’t believe that. There has to be another option.”

He shrugged. “Well, we can delay for a little while yet. Resume our work on the act for the talent show, perhaps? That is why we’re here. You need to deal better with crowds, and using magic as a front for testing your powers in front of people still seems like the best plan to me.”

“Fine,” Carrie sighed. “Let’s finish going through that routine.”

It was later on, as she was walking home, her headache again submerged beneath medication, that Carrie realized something. If her ultimate decision would indeed be to destroy the time chip and then leave with Glen… she could do that at any time. At any FUTURE time. Yet she hadn’t. She’d gone back to the PAST to destroy the chip.

Why? Why do that, subjecting herself to the extra pain of this rewritten timeline? If the original path, where Lee had the chip, had truly led to someone’s death, surely she would have provided herself with a bit more information! Yet if it hadn’t, and this was all paradox, why was she making a headache part of the process?

“Because I have this perverse desire to torture myself at every opportunity,” Carrie concluded, kicking at a pop can on the sidewalk. She kicked at the can twice more, until it was close enough to someone’s recycling bin, and then dropped it in.

Except, what if this was more? Was Carrie’s rewriting of the timeline here an attempt to give herself a unwritten message? If so, what was the damn message?

“Carrie?”

“Hello, my confusing ray of sunshine.”

Chartreuse gripped her phone a bit tighter, trying to force the butterflies in her stomach to quiet down. “C-Carrie… um, ummm, maybe, like, don’t use pet names? Unless you’re calling me to… to say…"

“Damn it. I’m sorry, Chartreuse. I can’t do anything right today.”

Chartreuse expelled the butterflies with a quick breath. “Oh no! Don’t say that. You’re, like, too hard on yourself. So, what’s going on? Why are you stepping back from your, you know, cheerleading? Is it temporal?”

There was a brief silence. “Chartreuse, you remember that day in the cafe? When I explained to you about the four timelines?”

When you told me you weren’t sure if you were in love with me? Gee, Carrie, what do you think? “Of course!”

“Well, we’re in a new timeline again. Meaning what happened on that night, with Lee and the chip and everything, it’s put us into ‘overwriting’ territory, as opposed to ‘fulfilling destiny’ territory.”

“Ohmigod, you’re not, like, going back into hospital, are you?”

“What? Oh, no, no, it’s not that bad. Yet. Actually, I think I’m giving myself a message. But I’ll be damned if I know what it is, and it’s taking a toll on my head. So it’s just as well that Laurie take over for me, for a while at least. I hope she can rise to the challenge.”

“Oh, I’m sure she can!” Chartreuse assured her friend. “And thanks for telling me, it’s, you know, helping things to make more sense.” She leaned in against her desk. “See Carrie? You’re a nice person, telling me stuff and giving Laurie a chance for leadership in this timeline. Make sure you’re, you know, acknowledging your good points too, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, Dad said something similar during dinner, about good for me giving Laurie her shot, but you’d think I’d at least… I’d… oh no. Dad. Chartreuse, if I simply up and leave town with Glen, what happens to my Dad?”

Chartreuse frowned. “Well, I imagine he’d, you know, look for you. Why, what, like, happened with him in those other timelines?”

“I don’t know. I never thought about it. I’m the worst daughter ever.”

“Carrie, stop already! You’re, you know, processing a lot here. You’re thinking about him now, that’s what’s important.”

Again, a brief silence. “You’re right, Chartreuse. More to the point, this HAS to be what I was trying to tell myself. Because I see it now. How I’m going to lash back against destiny.”

“Okay, great! It is great, right?” Chartreuse pressed. Carrie really didn’t sound sure.

“It’s… complicated. I’m sorry, Chartreuse, I need to go now. There’s a bunch of stuff I’ll need to figure out before Friday’s talent show.”

“The talent show? I, like, did see that you and Glen were going to be in that, but how does it, you know, fit in?”

“Later, Chartreuse, okay? Keep being awesome.”

“Okay, but what…"

It was too late; Carrie had already hung up.

Chartreuse stared at her phone for a solid minute before shifting her attention over to the circle of crystals she’d laid out on the floor. Just in case. She bit down on her lower lip. Then, with sudden resolve, she tossed her phone aside and moved into the circle, sitting down and assuming the necessary meditative pose.

“Ohm, ohm, oh my,” she murmured. “Spirits from beyond… show me… what is to come…"

Minutes passed. Chartreuse maintained her regular breathing, waiting, pleading for guidance. At last, an image swam up before her… of Megan Falls. Chartreuse tracked with the junior student at school as she spoke with some of her friends about the talent show, but soon realized there was nothing there that would help her with Carrie.

She banished the vision. An hour later, after splashing some water on her face and getting ready for bed, she took another run at it. “Spirits from beyond,” Chartreuse chanted softly, deliberately. “Show me… what is to come… with Carrie?”

It seemed to take forever. And when the image finally coalesced, and it was Megan Falls again, Chartreuse couldn’t help but kick out at one of her crystals in frustration. How was she supposed to get a proper reading on Carrie’s situation when the spirits were obsessing over Megan?!

It didn’t occur to her until the next day that perhaps there was a very good reason for the mystical forces to be doing that.

NEXT: Connecting

PREVIOUSLY: Tim retrieved a computer chip from the train station for Julie. Clarke tried to take it from him, then Luci threw Tim’s package into the ravine.

PART 77b: TIMELINE FIVE?

As the package containing Julie’s microchip spiralled down into the darkness of the ravine, Tim’s shocked look met an identical one on Luci’s face. “What… what did I just do?” the young girl said, shifting her gaze from him to her hand to the ravine.

“You tell me!” Tim said, allowing a wave of anger to rise up to the surface.

The young girl shook her head, stupefied. “I was overcome by this strong impression that you were carrying something really dangerous.”

“Dangerous how, Luci?”

“I… I don’t know. I simply couldn’t control the impulse to…” She blinked. “I… I’m so sorry, Tim, I don’t know why…”

“I do.” Tim shook his head, turning away from her. “Never m-mind. It doesn’t m-matter right now. Go back home.”

Luci reached out to touch him on the shoulder. “Tim…”

Part of him wanted to stay with her at that. He forced himself to keep moving. “Just go home. I’ll call you later to explain.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Tim saw Luci’s hand fall back to her side, where it clenched into a fist. He fancied that he heard her mutter “Glen?” through clenched teeth. Either way, she didn’t follow him, which was good… it seemed more important than ever now that he get this chip to Julie.

The one he had removed from the package and placed in his pocket not long after leaving the train station. Good thing he’d tested Luci with the package on his own terms, rather than on hers. ‘Trust yourself,’ he repeated mentally. ‘The one person you can still trust is yourself…’

There was definitely someone following him. No matter how much he tried, Tim couldn’t shake that feeling. So as soon as he rounded the corner and got a good view of the LaMille mansion, the young boy let out a sigh of relief, sure that the crazy trip he’d been sent on this evening was almost over.

The breath caught in his throat. Glen was standing out front, leaning against a street lamp. For a second, Tim hesitated, wondering if there was somewhere else he could go… but in that moment, Glen’s eyes fell upon him, and he knew it would be futile.

He wouldn’t be able to run fast enough to get away. Besides, it’s not like he was prepared to spend the rest of the night on the run, suspecting everyone of being out to get him. So even as Glen pushed off and made to approach, Tim continued walking towards him.

The redhead stopped and stood his ground. “I must say,” Glen remarked as Tim came within earshot, “I never thought anyone would get this far. Maybe it wouldn’t have been a waste of time to give you a post-hypnotic package suggestion too. Did you honestly make it back here, with the chip, by YOURSELF?”

Tim decided not to answer. He stopped a couple of paces away, looking up and down the street again. “Where’s Julie?”

Glen shrugged. “I stopped tailing her fifteen minutes ago. I think she was headed to the post office. It felt like a setup. I was pretty sure she’d put someone else into the real danger. Wondered if it would be you, but alas, I’d put my money on Frank.” He stepped forwards. “Doesn’t matter now, of course. Hand over the package.”

Tim stepped back. “W-What package?”

“Oh, let’s not do this,” Glen sighed. “It’s been a VERY taxing weekend on my brain already. Do I really have to put the so-called whammy on you as well?”

“No, I think maybe you don’t,” came a new voice.

An angry look flashed across Glen’s face, as Julie stepped out from behind some cover across the street. “Damn it! LaMille, you are really starting to TICK ME OFF.”

“Good!” the brunette retorted as she approached them. “Because the way you’ve been interfering with my efforts over the last month has been ticking me off too!”

“Why can’t you just see reason?” Glen sighed, throwing his arms out to the side. “What you’re doing here is WRONG!”

“Hey, this wasn’t completely my idea,” Julie fired back. “If you know what I’m up to, you probably know that too. Meaning the reason behind this is that you’re going to screw something up, leading to Carrie thinking the only way forward is with us having a time…”

“Oh please!” Glen broke in. “Carrie knows what’s at stake here, there is NO way she would authorize…”

“A-HEM,” Tim cut in, now holding the chip aloft in his hands. Both Glen and Julie turned to regard him, falling silent. “Thanks.”

“Now, I didn’t want to be in this situation,” he continued. “But since I am, here’s how I see it. Glen, whatever your feud is with Julie? You’re now dragging other people into it. A-Against their will. That… that’s all kinds of wrong.” Tim shifted his attention to Julie. “While you? You’ve done the opposite. Closing everyone off. It’s making you crazy, Julie, and if you get this chip, I don’t think any of that is going to change.” He lowered his hand. “This… this situation… it can’t go on. Not like this.”

“So destroy the chip.”

“NO! Tim, you can’t believe…”

“Oh, STOP!” he shouted. “I’m not going to destroy it. But I’m not going to hand it over either. Not until the two of you work this out!”

The two teenagers turned to look at each other. “I don’t think so,” Glen said dryly, at the same time as Julie countered, “Not gonna happen.”

“Then n-neither of you gets it,” Tim said, shoving it back inside his jacket.

“But if it’s not in the mansion, what’s going to prevent Glen from using his power to obtain it through you, or anybody else?” Julie objected.

“ME? Seems YOU’VE been a lot more cunning up until this point,” Glen countered.

Tim sighed. “I’ll simply have to find s-someone else to give it to! Someone who won’t be influenced by either of you.”

“Someone like me,” Lee stated, tossing back his hood. Tim jumped, not having paid much attention to the fourth person walking up.

“Lee!” Julie said in surprise. “I thought you told me…”

“That I didn’t want to be involved this much, yeah.” Lee shook his head. “But when I turned you down for this mission, it seemed likely that you would recruit elsewhere.”

Lee turned to Tim. “I’ve been shadowing you since you left the station. Sorry, Tiny T. It wasn’t my intention to have you, or anyone else, getting into trouble in my place.” He smiled. “Also, congrats. I’ve been listening, and you’ve made some excellent points.”

“I knew it,” Glen said, clenching his jaw. “I KNEW you were involved with this time traveling group, Lee! After all, how could they possibly have passed up an asset like you?!”

Lee jerked his thumb at Glen, while looking at Julie. “And this is why I wanted to stay out of it. However, it makes sense that I keep the chip.” He turned to Tim. “I’m immune to whatever mental gifts ‘red barren’ has, and I’m not about to hand it over to our resident rich witch without a damn good reason either.”

Tim nodded slowly. “That… makes sense.”

“Unacceptable,” Julie and Glen chorused together.

“Cool, you’re both in agreement,” Lee observed with a wry smile.

“No, look,” Glen insisted. “As long as that chip exists, the chance that the time machine will be reconstructed is…”

“Remote,” Lee interrupted. “Because you need a lot more than a chip to make it work.”

“Exactly!” Julie cut in. “And if I’m not allowed to fit it properly…”

“Your work stalls,” Lee finished. “And we get as close as we can to this being a win-win situation.”

“But I was told to do this for a reason,” Julie continued doggedly. “What if an emergency situation comes up? We might not have the time we need to assemble things then!”

Lee shrugged. “If it does, we’ll simply have to deal, and trust that our redhead here knows what he’s doing with the track tease.”

A sullen silence fell over the group. “W-Well, I think it’s as close to normal as we’re going to get,” Tim piped up at last. He reached again into his pocket, pulled out the chip he found there, and handed it over to Lee. The taller boy grasped it, holding it up.

“Truce?” Lee said.

Julie’s hands closed into fists. Glen clenched his jaw.

“Fine,” the brunette said after a moment.

“Whatever,” the redhead offered up in turn.

“Good,” Lee concluded. He moved to pocket the chip, only to have a hand grab his arm.

“Mmmm, not so good.”

“C-C-C-Carrie,” Tim stammered out in shock.

There was nowhere Carrie could have come from. Somehow, she had simply been standing right next to Lee. And before Lee could react, she had plucked the chip from his hand, dropped it to the sidewalk, and crunched it underneath the heel of her boot.

For a moment, no one spoke. Tim wondered if it was because the others were realizing the same thing as he was. Namely, that Carrie’s eyes were flickering from blue to gold and back. Was this a future Carrie who had managed to balance her powers? Because she didn’t look any older than the Carrie of their time.

Glen broke the silence by clapping his hands together. “Oh, good one!” he said appreciatively. “This means you’ll be accepting–”

“Shut UP!” Carrie fired back. “I didn’t do this for you. You KEPT things from me. I am NOT pleased.”

“This… this doesn’t make sense,” Julie protested, barely audibly. “Carrie, you were the one who told me… that I… I was the only one who could…”

Carrie ignored her, having spent the last few moments pulling an object from her pocket. A photograph of some sort. As Julie’s stammers trailed off, Carrie eyed the photo, closed her eyes again, and her long blonde hair began to trail out behind her despite the lack of a strong wind. Then, with a whispered “Goodbye”, there was a flash of light. Tim blinked out of reflex, and when his eyes reopened, Carrie was gone.

However, the chip remained. Ground into the pavement.

Tim looked up towards Lee. “I-I-Is this good or bad?” he wondered, swallowing.

Julie lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling. She couldn’t sleep. She needed answers.

On the one hand, it seemed like the chip had been destroyed by a Carrie from the future, and not the one in their present… but was that Carrie even further in the future than the one who had written the note? If so, why not just stop herself from sending the damn note in the first place?

Yet, if Carrie had written the note AFTER traveling back and stopping Julie, shouldn’t she have warned Julie that this was something that would happen? It didn’t make sense! None of it made sense! Had all of her work, all of her time away from the others - had it been for nothing??

There was a part of her that wanted to scream, but Julie knew that losing control of her emotions would only make her susceptible to mind control again. As it had that time she’d broken down over her parents. More pragmatically, it wouldn’t accomplish much either. So she simply lay there, fists clenched, wracking her brain, certain she’d missed something, and wondering what it was… until her phone rang.

Julie lifted an eyebrow as she looked over at the clock - almost midnight - before stretching out to answer the mystery call.

“What?” she said sharply.

“Julie LaMille?” The voice on the other end of the phone line was distorted, making it difficult to identify, but it seemed to be female.

“Yeah?” Julie shot back. “Who’s calling?”

“Someone who might be able to help you. With what you’re trying to rebuild.”

Julie snorted. “Right. You’re a few hours too late on that.”

“Don’t be so hasty,” the unknown woman soothed.

The brunette frowned. “Seriously? Look lady, I’ve had a hell of a day, and at this point, the only way you can help me out is if you know something I don’t already know about altered timelines, or crazy future technology! Is that the case? IS it? Because I doubt it. I mean, who the hell do you think you are?!” She paused for an answer, fuming internally.

“My name is Mindylenopia. I believe you know me as Mindy.”

The phone dropped out of Julie’s hand, bouncing once on the bedspread.

NEXT: Cheer Up

ASIDE: This ends ARC 4.1 (Separated); the timelines start to get messier now. Consider the usual vote for T&T, to help attract others for analysis?

PREVIOUSLY: Julie is secretly rebuilding the time machine. She hoped Tim would pick up a microchip, to keep it away from Glen.

PART 77a: DOUBLE BLIND

“You look like someone with a problem.”

Tim looked up to see Theresa, the redheaded waitress for the cafe, next to his booth. “You c-could say that,” he said glumly.

He saw Theresa glance quickly around the area; there weren’t very many customers at the moment, which apparently convinced her to slide quickly into the seat across from him. “Seems like I’ve got a second. Want to talk about it with someone impartial? Some of your friends, Clarke in particular, have found that such conversations help.”

A smile tugged at the corners of Tim’s lips. “Better I don’t. It’s not possible to s-stay impartial on THIS subject. I know from experience.”

Theresa chuckled. “Sounds like you’re trying to assimilate something big all at once. Maybe you can break it down into more manageable portions?”

Tim fiddled absently with the straw in his milkshake for a moment, before glancing at his watch. It had been less than an hour since he’d left Julie’s; just over three hours remained before he would be making the pickup for her. As agreed.

‘Clarke wants me to help Julie,’ he thought to himself once again. ‘He’s always saying how pleased he is that I’m still able to look out for Julie on his behalf. I only hope I’m not playing into her delusions. Or setting myself up for some retaliatory action by Glen.’

The thought brought to mind an additional problem. Clarke would be expecting a call from him soon… as would Chartreuse. He couldn’t tell them the truth, not yet, not tonight. Julie had suggested deflecting, claiming to be tired, and leaving any discussions for tomorrow. But saying that was a half truth at best, and the more he thought about it, the more picking up this package all by himself made Tim uneasy.

What if Julie really had come unhinged, and had concocted this crazy plot in order to get rid of him, thereby preventing him from getting her the help she needed? Or what if she was telling the truth, except Glen knew exactly what was going on, came after him, and then completely altered his memory of events?

“H-Have you ever suddenly found yourself not knowing who to trust?” Tim finally asked of the redhead.

Theresa cocked her head to the side. “Actually…. yeah. Big time.”

Tim focused his gaze on her. “When? What did you do?”

The waitress smiled once more. “Instead of boring you with a long, complicated story, how about I just give you a few words of advice…”

Ten minutes later, Tim headed out of the cafe, a plan forming in his mind.

He was at the train station with only two minutes to spare before the train pulled in. Their small station wasn’t a major hub, it was a stop by request only. Fortunately, Julie’s description of the man with the package had been accurate, and Tim had him pegged almost immediately after he poked his head out of the train.

The guy gave him a skeptical look as he approached. “M-M-Mr. Piquaud?” Tim asked. He cleared his throat to try and remove the stutter. What was it Luci had told him on occasion which helped with that? Confidence. It made his talking more like singing. “I’m here for the item.”

“Okay, good. I was told a blonde named Tim might be the one to hand off to. Got some ID to prove that’s you?”

Tim fished quickly in his wallet for his health card. Piquaud glanced at it, nodded, then pulled a small square box from his jacket pocket. He handed it to Tim, then turned around to presumably resume his seat on the train. Tim swallowed. “That’s… it?”

“I’m not being paid to stick around,” Piquaud retorted. “You’ve got the electronics, bring ‘em to LaMille. Oh, tell her next time she makes a request of the company, none of this cloak and dagger routine, okay? Extra pay or not, it’s just stupid. Why would anyone even WANT to intercept a normal FedEx shipment of a single microchip?”

Tim puzzled over how he could answer that, but it seemed like he wouldn’t have to - the man had already boarded. Either way, it didn’t really matter… so far everything was happening just as Julie had said it would. It remained to see whether her concerns were legitimate.

As the train pulled out, Tim slipped the box into his jacket pocket and headed back for the front of the station. Which was where he spotted a familiar person waiting for him.

“Clarke!” Tim called out, hurrying to meet up with his friend.

The taller boy smiled back at Tim. “Hey there… you know, your phone call was kind of cryptic. Are you going to tell me yet what it is Julie has you doing?”

Tim paused as he got within arms reach of Clarke, glancing around for anyone who might be observing them. “N-Not yet,” he said after a moment. “Just thought it might be best to have you around as we head back to the mansion.”

Clarke nodded. “Alright. Though I can’t think Julie will be pleased to see me.”

“She might be once I tell her you helped me,” Tim assured. He glanced around the area once more, which prompted Clarke to do the same.

“Expecting someone else?” Clarke wondered. “Or just having a paranoia attack?”

“M-Maybe a bit of both,” Tim admitted. “Sorry. Let’s just go.”

“Sure,” Clarke said with a shrug. “Though if you’re real creeped out, I could carry the package for you.”

Tim froze in his tracks. “Package?”

Clarke nodded. “Yeah, the… hey, Tim, you okay?” He reached out for the other boy’s shoulder, but Tim sidestepped him.

“I never mentioned any package on the phone.” The parcel wasn’t that large either, so Clarke shouldn’t have noticed it in his pocket.

Tim’s friend frowned. “Stands to reason you have one though, right? I mean, why else would you be here?”

“Might have been to talk with someone. Or to send something off on the train. Or to look something up. Why do you think I have a package?”

“You… you just have to have one… or else… why would I know about it?”

The two blondes stared at each other quietly for a moment. Then the side of Clarke’s mouth twitched, and he extended his hand. “Give me the chip, Tim. Destroying it is the only way we can help Julie."

“That’s what Glen wants you to think,” Tim said, regarding Clarke’s outstretched palm with more than a bit of apprehension.

“Is it? Why would he lie about that?"

“Because he doesn’t really care about what Julie wants. Only stopping what she’s doing,” Tim shot back. He exhaled in relief as he saw the other person running towards them. “Now please, Clarke… if you really trust me, don’t do this. Let me get to Julie’s safely.” He tried to move around the taller boy, but Clarke blocked him.

“I… I can’t let you go,” Clarke said, a pained look crossing his face as he curled and uncurled his fingers. “Not until…” It was like he was undergoing some sort of massive inner conflict. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand why…"

“I do,” Tim whispered. He turned. “Stall Clarke,” he requested of the new arrival.

“Huh?” Chartreuse said, trying to catch her breath. “Look, sorry I’m, like, a bit late, but…”

“Keep Clarke here,” Tim reiterated, moving so that the pink haired girl was between Clarke and himself before heading away as quickly as he could. “Please, Chartreuse - I’ll explain later!”

“Eh? Uhm, ‘k,” Chartreuse said, blinking. As Clarke attempted to pursue, she threw himself onto his arm, preventing him from leaving. “So, wait, hey, do you know anything about, like, the big Julie-Glen feud??”

“I…” Clarke shook his head. As stood there in confusion, Tim hurried out of sight.

Trust yourself. That’s what Theresa had said. Put trust in your family and your friends, yes, but above all, you needed to have trust in yourself in order to accomplish something.

As Tim continued on towards the LaMille mansion, he reflected again upon those words, and how his faith in Clarke had been counterbalanced by giving the same information to Chartreuse. Allowing him to keep his promise of a call to both of them… albeit, leaving him with only himself to trust once more. He would have preferred bringing one of them along, as backup.

Oh well. He looked again at the small package before replacing it inside his pocket. It would take a while for him to walk the rest of the way to the LaMille mansion, but Julie had been wary of trusting a taxi, or even having Jeeves drive him. And, conspiracy crazy or not, it was starting to look as if at least some of her concerns had been valid. Tim took a deep breath. For a moment, he thought he saw someone following him, but when he turned around there was no one there.

For the next several blocks, Tim half expected to be accosted at any moment, but the few people he saw strolling around seemed more intent on enjoying the evening than taking notice of him. At least, that was the case until he reached the closest bridge leading over the ravine that cut through town.

“Tim!” Luci said in surprise. “What are you doing here at this hour?”

Tim smiled, feeling relieved at the familiar company. “I c-could ask the same of you,” he pointed out.

Luci glanced to the left and right, then took a couple steps closer to him. “Honestly?” she muttered. “I got this weirdo call from Chartreuse less than ten minutes ago, saying something about you walking to Julie’s from the train station.” She shrugged. “I was nearby, thought I’d see if she was being serious. Guess so - is this related to what we all talked about the other day?”

“Y-Yeah… kinda…” Tim admitted. He was starting to feel conflicted. There was really no reason to doubt Luci’s story, but if Glen WAS trying to come after him, the two best people to use would be Clarke… and Luci. The ones he talked with on a near daily basis. Could Glen have done something to not merely Clarke, but both of them?

‘Julie’s paranoia is rubbing off,’ he chided himself. ‘Careful, or you’ll turn into a recluse like her.’

“Okay,” Luci was saying, dropping into step next to him. “I’ll bite. Did Julie lock Glen up in a trunk and ship him out on the train?”

Tim shook his head. “Actually, it’s about this chip,” he said, pulling the parcel from his pocket again. “We have to make sure it–”

He never got any further.

As soon as Luci’s eyes alighted on the parcel, her hand flashed out, tore it from Tim’s grip, and she threw it off the bridge.

NEXT: Timeline Five?

ASIDE: Got a 2016 toonie in my change this past weekend. Just a bit too late!

PREVIOUSLY: Chartreuse sensed trouble between Julie and Glen. Tim said he would ask Julie about it.

PART 76b: NEW RECRUIT

Their conversation had gone surprisingly well to this point, Tim reflected. Too well, in a sense. “Y-Y-You’re being awful calm about this, Julie,” Tim murmured.

The brunette turned from her scrutiny of the swords hanging on the wall of the sitting room. “Yes, well, some other things are on my mind too,” she admitted. “I’ve heard every word though. Chartreuse getting impressions, so-called problems with Glen, whether it relates to time travel.” She regarded him silently for a moment. “Do you think there’s any truth to it? That is, you personally?”

Tim shifted uncomfortably. “I know that Clarke thinks Glen and his mind abilities is part of the reason you initially broke up. B-But then, I haven’t seen any evidence of problems between you two. Of course, you hardly speak to anyone n-now.”

A ghost of a smile flickered across Julie’s face. “Except to you.”

“Uh… yeah. I guess.”

Julie crossed her arms. “I’ve been meaning to thank you for that, Tim. At first I didn’t think it would be so bad, returning to my old reclusive ways. But the first time through, in Grade Nine, I still had people to talk to. Carrie and Clarke, from day to day. This time… this time, I couldn’t risk that.”

She turned away from him. “And yet, he found out. Damn it, I’m still not sure how.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, Tim, no worries with us, I doubt it was you. Whether Glen caught me in a moment of weakness, or had Clarke’s place bugged that time I spoke with his sister, or… something else. Point is, he knows, and more to the point, his best chance of stopping me is tonight.”

Tim blinked twice, trying to keep himself from fidgeting. “S-S-S-Stopping you…?”

Julie tucked some hair behind her ear. “Yes. Stopping me from rebuilding the time machine.”

“Chartreuse was RIGHT?!” Tim gasped.

Julie smiled, genuinely this time, turning back towards him. “Oh, yes. I honestly have been funding a sort of top secret research project. To construct a single microchip. Because while the majority of the time travel device was salvageable from Carrie’s trash, there is one particular component that has required weeks to recreate. I couldn’t even do it in town, it’s being sent in by professionals thanks to some plans I gave them. And given the friction in my family, I don’t think I’ll have the pull to get the specialists to do that again.” She exhaled. “So. If Glen gets his hands on this chip? It’s game over. That must be what Chartreuse sensed.”

Tim shook his head. “Now you’re j-just making fun of me,” he protested. “How could anyone in this era, l-let alone you, reassemble a future device l-like that?”

“Funny thing there,” Julie said idly. “Seems our present state of technology isn’t that far off from making these things. Understanding them, yes, but not physically making them. So, thanks mainly to Frank’s plans, which had been stored down in Linquist’s lab, I was able to reverse engineer the necessary component. Granted, I’m not a hundred percent sure it will all work, and there is NO way I’ll be able to fit all the reconstructed circuits back into that black box…”

She shook her head. “But that’s a problem for next week. First things first, I need that chip. And Carrie - a future Carrie, at any rate - wants me to have it too. Once it’s here, everything else should fall into place.”

“B-But… uh, if Glen doesn’t want you to have it… what will keep him from using his Jedi-like power to take it away from you?”

Julie set her jaw. “This mansion is a very secure place. Jeeves doesn’t know what I’m doing, or where I’m keeping things. And I know a few things about Glen’s mind power. Like with Shady, it works best one on one, and against the weak willed, and I’m always careful not to show weakness around him. I’ve also taken to muttering a particularly annoying pop song if we end up alone together, which I’ve discovered makes it hard for him to get a foothold. Or even want to be around me. No, once the chip is here, it will be safe, and I will have won.”

Her eyes narrowed. “And I’m sorry, Tim. Now that I’ve told you the truth… I’m going to have to kill you.” She interlaced her fingers and cracked her knuckles.

Tim’s eyes went wide, watching Julie as her eyes flicked over to the swords on the wall and back at him. It had happened. He’d pushed her, and she’d actually snapped! He had no hope of running away! How could he possibly defend himself?? He opened his mouth, his throat dry, wondering if screaming would even do any good…

Only to see the brunette collapse down to her knees in a fit of giggles. Which, in it’s own way, was almost more disturbing than the threat. In the weeks Tim had been coming here, he’d never seen such an outpouring of emotion from Julie. Certainly not laughter.

A tear started running down Julie’s cheek as she unsuccessfully clamped her hand over her mouth to stifle her uncontrolled case of the giggles. It took several long seconds of Julie fighting for breath before she could speak again.

“I’m sorry! Oh, I’m sorry,” she gasped out, biting down on her lip. “But I’ve been holding it all in for SO long, I simply couldn’t resist saying that at the end, and your expression became so damn SERIOUS, I can’t…” Julie took in another long breath, wiping off her cheek. “Gods, I haven’t been this amused since…”

And her expression immediately became more reserved. She cleared her throat. “Right. Sorry.” She pushed herself back up onto her feet. “In fact, the real reason I’ve told you everything is… Tim, I need your help."

“M-My help.” He was no longer sure how much of Julie’s ranting he could believe.

“That’s right. As I said, the chip couldn’t be made locally, it’s being brought in. Tonight. If you’re willing, I need you to meet a particular guy at the train station, get that chip, and bring it back to the mansion for me. Okay?”

Tim swallowed hard, working up the nerve for what he had to say next. “Y-You’re nuts.”

Julie blinked. “You think?”

Tim nodded wordlessly.

Julie clapped her hands. “Good on you for speaking your mind! Alas, I’m all too sane. More to the point, I think it’s finally time to speak with you about the day you crept down into Linquist’s lab, while Glen had me busy on the phone.”

Tim flinched. “What? I’ve n-n-never…"

“Of course, you don’t remember it. His mental powers seem to be able to block, perhaps even erase memories that people don’t want. And you didn’t want to remember betraying me, and by extension, Clarke.”

Tim eyed her, until Julie seemed to sense that more explanation was required. Raking her hands back through her hair, she sat down in a nearby chair. “Okay. It was during our very second meeting here. As soon as you were left alone, you went down to have a look in Linquist’s lab. I know this, because you tripped a fine string I was keeping across the entranceway. I also half suspected that’s why Glen had called me in the first place, so I let it happen. It was fine, my keeping anything vital down there would have been way too obvious, so you couldn’t have reported anything useful. Meanwhile, it gave me a chance to observe his abilities in action.”

“J-Julie, I swear, I n-never…”

“Then why are you glancing towards the china cabinet? I’ve never mentioned that the entranceway to the lab was behind it.”

Tim felt a chill run down his spine. “L-Luci. She must have mentioned it.”

“Did she? I mean, I suppose it’s possible, but DID she?”

“I… I don’t know,” Tim realized, with mounting horror.

Julie leaned forwards slightly. “Now, part of me wants to use that act of espionage then, to insist that you owe me now. But despite the corner that I’m being backed into, this really does need to be voluntary on your part. Otherwise I’m stooping to his level.”

“W-W-Why can’t you…"

“Go myself? Glen has figured out that today’s the delivery day, and so he’ll be keeping an eye on me all evening. All he’ll need is a moment of weakness on my part to grab the chip, and destroy it - and since I’ll be busy throwing up my mental guards, I’ll be physically vulnerable to exactly that.”

She smiled again. “But you? This is a normal visit on your part, it won’t arouse suspicion. And he won’t expect me to take you into my confidence, not after showing me how he can get to you. So, while I believe I have him convinced that I’ll be meeting with someone coming into town by car - you can be the real recipient. Down at the train station. Sound like a plan? Or should I settle for a Plan C, which is much less of a guarantee, but won’t involve you at all?”

Tim swallowed. “You really don’t think Glen will target me?”

Julie’s smile faltered. “I didn’t say that. He might. In fact, he could have anticipated my recruiting you. But these meetings between us? It wasn’t all about passing information to Clarke. I know you better now. I have faith in your ability to run under the radar. Only thing is, I’ll need your answer before you leave this house today. Since we can’t talk after you do.” She paused. “So, will you help me get that chip?”

Tim found he could only stare, his mind reeling with the implications of what had apparently been going on right under his nose, yet without his knowledge. Given that, did he really want to play a larger role in the midst of all this insanity?

NEXT: Double Blind. Want to vote for T&T?

PREVIOUSLY: Julie cut herself off from everyone except Tim, as she’s secretly rebuilding the time machine. Luci and Tim have been translating Linquist’s old logbook.

PART 76a: BAD SIGNS

“So. You know what I’m doing.”

“You’ve suspected as much for quite some time now,” came Glen’s easy reply. “The question is, what are you going to do about it?”

Julie clenched her fists. “I’m not going to let you win.”

Glen shook his head before smiling back. “Look, Julie… this isn’t about winning or losing. It’s about what has to be. A time machine in this era makes the timelines too unstable. You’re on borrowed time as it is. Trust me, Julie, if you persist, you will be stopped.”

“It’s been over a month,” the brunette countered. “We’re nearly into December, and you haven’t managed to stop me yet. There are forces in the future working in my favour. Why not simply concede defeat? Then we can both get back to leading a normal life.”

Glen shoved his hands into his pockets, shaking his head. “You know I won’t do that. So unless you have anything sensible to say, I guess we had nothing to discuss here after all.”

The two of them continued to stare at each other for a moment, before Julie finally clenched her jaw, spun on her heel, and left Willowdale park.

“W-What’s on your mind, Luci?” Tim wondered.

The young girl jumped, as if realizing she’d been staring off into space. “Oh, uh… nothing, nothing. You were saying something about the dictionary we’re making?”

Tim set his pencil aside. “That was f-five minutes ago. I’d moved back into the passages themselves. Luci, are you… okay?”

Luci gestured dismissively, then seemingly changed her mind and pursed her lips together. “Mostly.”

Tim leaned his elbow against the desk. “What’s the r-rest of it about? Frank again?”

She grimaced. “Okay, I’m either becoming very transparent, or very single minded.”

Tim smiled. “You two were g-going out for over half a year. It’s only natural that he’s still on your mind when this time travel comes up.”

Luci shook her head, her small ponytails whipping back and forth. “It isn’t memories this time, it’s…” She sighed. “Honestly? I had issues. Emotional ones. And I’ve been chatting with the school counsellor, so I think I’m getting sorted out. Which is fine for me, but what about him? I made him fall in love with me, dated him as long as it suited me, then dropped him like yesterday’s news! How terrible of a person does that make me?! It’s even worse than how Carrie used to be, at least she didn’t spend months playing with the emotions of the guys she one-off dated!”

Tim stared. “You… you don’t really believe all of what you’re saying do you?”

“Kinda, sorta, almost,” Luci mumbled.

“I’m p-pretty sure you can’t MAKE someone fall in love with you. And that you didn’t have an end in mind while g-going out. Besides, couples g-get together and split apart all the time - and it’s not l-like you took private pictures of Frank and threw them on the internet, or spread rumours about him n-not measuring up or something.”

She looked horrified. “Tim, I would NEVER–”

“There, see? N-Not so terrible of a person. Human, like all of us.”

Luci slumped. “Maybe. But it’s still awkward somehow, when I see him. So I was thinking - should I tell Frank we’re a couple again? I mean, just because I’m not feeling it NOW doesn’t mean I WON’T, not if we… do couplish things again. Maybe.”

“D-Do you really believe that would be best?”

“I… no. No, I guess not.” She rested her head in her hands. “Tim, don’t ever fall in love, it’s a MESS.”

He chuckled. “Seems unlikely. The only girls I spend any amount of time with are Julie, who still likes Clarke, and you.” Luci turned, and lifted an eyebrow. “O-Oh, I don’t mean to imply anything! Like, you’re very loveable, even if I don’t love you! Or don’t love you yet, which, damn it, I’m making things even more awkward…"

She smiled and reached out to pat him on the leg. “Right, let’s drop it then, okay Tim? I do thank you for being a better sounding board than my cat. Now how about we return to whatever you were saying about the passages?”

Tim let out a breath. “R-Right.” Thank goodness. He pointed to the pages of information spread out on the desk. “Look at this part, which refers to Linquist’s initial plan to create that %gun of temporal freezing%."

“Meaning gun of temporal freezing,” Luci translated, off of his attempted pronunciation of the actual phrase. “What of it?”

“He seems to credit the idea to someone else."

Luci’s eyebrows shot up. “Let me see that,” she requested, pulling their notes a bit closer.

Tim pushed back to let her scan through, though he had no doubt that he was correct. Ever since the two of them had stopped focusing on the single portion of the book that referenced the inner workings of the gun - the selfsame weapon that had been used to return Carrie to normal after the so-called “Mindy affair” - they had been able to make better progress.

That was to say, progress with Linquist’s language, despite how it seemed to be murder on the tenses. Construction of the gun itself was still something of a mystery. They still knew little beyond how to charge the weapon up.

Luci turned back to him, even as Tim heard the doorbell of his house ring. “You’re right," she agreed. “I think he’s referring to that same person we saw him mention elsewhere." She frowned, picking up another set of notes. “But it’s still not clear as to whether this other person was an associate of his, a relative, or someone he saw as a specimen.”

Luci flopped back in her chair, staring at the ceiling. “Damn! If only we could get our hands on more than the one single book…”

Tim reached out to touch Luci’s shoulder reassuringly, thought better of it, then went ahead and did it anyway. “It’s alright,” he murmured. “It’s not like we’re under a deadline.”

“Um,” came the distracted reply. “Maybe not, but when things start to happen around here? They tend to happen real fast. And unfortunately, we have no sure fire way of predicting that future.”

“Tim!” Mrs. Whitby called out from downstairs. “Friend to see you by the name of Chartreuse!”

Tim exchanged a glance of surprise with Luci. She frowned. “I said no sure fire way,” she clarified to no one in particular.

“…so, like, from that impression I got off of Julie regarding Glen, it’s obvious that their situation is going to explode,” Chartreuse said. “We’ll have to, you know, work together to make sure it won’t cause–”

“Chartreuse,” Luci interrupted. “Why are you telling us this?”

The pink haired girl eyed her. “Technically, I’m telling Tim this,” she pointed out. “But, you know, it’s great that you’re here too! It’s almost like fate in a way… the original group, the 2 DEGS, back together, one year later! A reunion tour!” She beamed.

Luci sighed. “Setting that aside, I meant why are you telling us this, and not Carrie? She still talks to you, so if the sensations you got from Julie related to a conflict with Glen, isn’t she the more logical choice?”

Chartreuse hesitated. “Well, there’s also the fact that I, like, tailed Julie after school. Which led to me, you know, eavesdropping on a conversation she had with Glen in the park. Which, while I didn’t catch everything, did have something to do with, of all things, the time machine.”

Luci sat up straighter.

“W-Wait,” Tim protested. “I thought that the machine had been destroyed. By Carrie. Over a month ago.”

“Yeah. Which is why I’m, you know, talking to you first,” Chartreuse stated. “All I can think is that Julie’s using her cash to fund some sort of top secret research project to build a new one, which Glen is now countering using an army of mind controlled people. I can’t bother Carrie with that, not without being sure! The poor girl has enough on her mind, what with juggling three different timelines.”

Luci blinked. “I’m going to pretend that made sense, and move on to asking why you think me and Tim would be able to offer anything beyond more wild speculations.”

Chartreuse pointed. “Tim spends time with Julie.”

Tim jumped. “O-Only because I’m close to Clarke!”

“But you’re also Glen close,” Chartreuse insisted. “Because of, you know, being in Corry’s band. Julie and Glen, they must have been asking about each other last week! This situation feels too big, I can’t believe it came out of nowhere.”

Tim shook his head. “They said n-nothing! Or at least, n-neither of them have said anything around me."

Chartreuse reached out to seize his hand. “Nono, seriously Tim, think harder about this! It could be, you know, critical!”

“Chartreuse,” Luci broke in, “even assuming we buy into this, if Tim says they’re not talking about each other, I’m sure he’s right. They’re both pretty cagey. Besides, are you sure you heard time machine and not, I don’t know, juice machine?”

The teen mystic cocked her head to the side, releasing Tim. “Luci, why would Julie meet with Glen in secret to, like, talk about a juice machine?"

Luci shrugged. “The… the school talent show is coming up in a week’s time. Maybe they’re putting together an act, only it’s not going so hot.” Okay, that sounded lame, even to her.

“Oh, w-we’re playing at that show,” Tim offered up, apparently seizing the change of subject. “Corry’s band I mean.”

Chartreuse rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m 90 percent sure it was time machine,” she countered. “But even if it wasn’t, strong impressions like the one I got from Julie have always, like, come true in some fashion! A fashion of the not good type! You totally have to grant me that much.”

Luci sighed. “Fine, point granted. Tim, ignoring what they’ve been actually saying, have you maybe SEEN anything weird?”

“No! Why would I even be looking for anything??”

“You’ll need to start now,” Chartreuse decided. “Maybe even fish for extra information from Julie if, you know, you can.”

“About what?? Glen? Some mystery time machine? Why would she tell me anything at all?” the blonde boy protested.

“Because!” Chartreuse began, only to allow her posture to slump slightly. “I dunno. You just seem like the best lead we’ve got. You’re SURE you haven’t, like, seen or heard ANYTHING?”

Tim shook his head, then sighed at Chartreuse’s crestfallen expression. “H-How about this though,” he suggested. “It’s almost the weekend. I’ll be meeting again with Julie. I’ll tell her you’re worried, while keeping an eye out for anything weird.”

Chartreuse grimaced. “Tip our hand? I don’t think Julie would be thrilled to know I was spying on her, you know?”

“I w-won’t mention that part,” Tim assured. “I’ll only mention your impression, and see if I can figure out w-why she’s at odds with Glen.”

“But what if she clams up?” Chartreuse objected. She began to pace. “Still, you’re right, aside from trying to sic Corry on her, I’m not sure where else to go with this. Alright, try the talking thing. Call me as soon as you get home that day to, you know, update me.”

“What about Carrie?” Luci wondered. “Do we bring her into this?”

Chartreuse began to look pained. “The way Glen sticks by her side these days? No. As much for Julie’s own safety, I think we shouldn’t approach Carrie until the point where we have some concrete proof regarding… whatever this is.”

NEXT: New Recruit

PREVIOUSLY: Julie told Clarke’s sister that she had a way to not cut herself off completely. Chartreuse struggled with how to admit her feelings to Carrie.

PART 75b: MORE QUESTIONING

Clarke followed Tim upstairs to his bedroom. “You know, we could simply talk down in the living room,” he suggested.

Tim shook his head. “All discussions with L-Luci about L-Linquist’s l-language have been in my room. M-Might as well keep the weirdness confined to that part of the house.”

Clarke frowned. “What’s Julie doing that’s weird?”

“Nothing. S-Sorry, that’s not what I m-meant…” Tim pushed open the door to his room then gestured at his desk chair, moving to sit on the edge of his bed. Clarke closed the door after them before sitting. “It’s just, everything’s kinda connected,” Tim finished. “And I don’t want m-my parents walking in at a bad time.”

“Right. Okay.” Clarke rubbed his neck. It felt like they should ease into the conversation. “So, how are your studies?”

Tim smiled. “Fine. Also, Julie appreciated your birthday card.”

Or Tim could cut to the chase for him. “She… said that?”

“Not at first,” Tim admitted. “I’m still trying to understand her m-mannerisms. Her exact words were, ‘At least he didn’t send a gift too’, but she seemed flustered. The way L-Luci gets sometimes when explaining to me about a l-linguistic time travel thing that once included Frank.”

“Ah. And her parents, did they…"

“They d-didn’t do anything. They d-didn’t even come back to town this year. Jeeves got Julie a cake, that seemed to be enough.”

“Right,” Clarke said, feeling relieved. He’d hated the idea of not being there for Julie while her parents were around. A thought occurred. “How much has she told you anyway? About her family?”

Clarke nodded. “Except she won’t tell me directly.”

He licked his lips. “I think she knows that, unlike me, you’d end up pressing her for m-more details. Or m-maybe that she’d hate herself m-more for not giving them.”

“Right. Well, what about you, are you okay with this arrangement?”

Tim uncrossed then recrossed his legs. “I was getting pulled back in anyway, through L-Luci. This is a g-good way for both you and Julie to be happy without j-jeopardizing whatever Julie’s doing. Plus I get a better idea of what’s really going on with all my f-friends.”

“That’s not exactly an answer.”

“Hm. Right.” The shorter blonde ran a hand back through his curls. “I’m okay with this,” he decided. “I mean, it’s one m-more thing on top of Corry’s band, but we’re high school seniors now. I gotta get better at r-responsibility and c-conversations and the like.”

Clarke nodded. “You will let me know if it gets uncomfortable though, yes?”

Tim smiled again. “For sure.”

After a bit more talk about Julie’s state of mind, discussion shifted to Linquist’s language, Corry’s band, and finally the courses they were taking that year. Clarke was struck by just how much Tim was becoming a part of their circle of “temporal friends”, while - like Lee - still managing to stick to the fringes of the action. He wondered how sustainable that situation was.

“What can I get you?”

Chartreuse looked up at the redheaded waitress. “A whiskey?”

Theresa lifted an eyebrow. “Unless you’ve had a few extra birthdays, I think you’ll need to try again.”

Chartreuse smiled weakly. “Right. Then, like, a water. Actually, two waters.” Just as well - she had no idea what she’d be like while drunk.

“You got it.” Theresa smiled. “And hey, whatever you’re working up the courage for? I’m sure you’ve got that too.”

As the cafe waitress moved off, the pink haired mystic turned her attention towards the cafe window beside the booth. The cold November wind was blowing leaves and scattered newspaper pages down the street outside. The pages reminded Chartreuse that midterm report cards would be out soon. Which in turn reminded her that, one year ago, Carrie had been in the hospital. Heck, about a month ago Carrie had been back in the hospital! So what if it happened again, and Chartreuse STILL hadn’t said anything? No. She wasn’t going to back off today. She couldn’t.

“Hey, Chartreuse,” Carrie said, shrugging off her jacket and hanging it on the peg by the booth before sliding in to sit across from her.

“Carrie,” Chartreuse acknowledged, watching her through the reflection in the glass of the window. She closed her eyes, counted to three, then turned to face her friend while simultaneously reaching out to grasp both Carrie’s hands.

“I’m sorry, but I gotta, like, say this now. See, you are, you know, so VERY important to me. Like, more than friends important. And, you know, it’s important for me that you know that, even if I can never, like, show you those important feelings in public.” Chartreuse swallowed. “Or maybe even in private. But I couldn’t keep holding it in, you know? So I hope you knowing about my feelings doesn’t, you know, destroy our friendship forever?”

Carrie raised her eyebrows and blinked her blue eyes, her gorgeous blue eyes. Seemingly on the verge of making a quip, with the corner of her mouth turned up, she then thought better of it, and instead said, “Actually, Chartreuse, I suspected you felt that way.”

Having not anticipated that particular response, Chartreuse wasn’t sure where to go with the conversation. She released Carrie’s hands from her grip. “You… but… h-how long?”

Carrie reached up and started to do that cute thing where she looped strands of her hair around her fingers and started tugging. “From when Clarke’s sister was in town. I got to thinking more about how you’d been reacting to me then, and as such I started paying more attention to how you were looking at me presently. To be honest, when I clued in as to your true feelings, I was squicked out. Initially.” She paused.

“Initially?” Chartreuse squeaked out, her insides feeling like they were being compressed in a vice.

Carrie sighed. “When did it start for you? Like, all summer, were you undressing me with your eyes while I was obliviously–"

“NO!” Chartreuse gasped. “It was, like, the dance, at the end of September. When we were, you know, doing that reading on Corry, and I worried I’d almost lost you. That’s when I really felt connected, when I really felt… felt us…"

Carrie let out a breath. “Okay. Okay, good, that makes me feel better about things. I think.” She yanked hard on her hair, hard enough to start grimacing. “Thing is, we BOTH know I date guys. So if that’s my preference, you know what that HAS to mean for us as a couple, right?”

Chartreuse reached into her pocket, squeezing the meditation crystal she’d placed there. Seeking a measure of tranquility in the inevitable end. “Carrie, I can’t say it. You have to, you know, say it to me.”

“Chartreuse…" Carrie’s eyes flickered all around the room, checking for anyone listening, or perhaps seeking a distraction, before finally bringing her gaze back to Chartreuse’s face. The blonde bit down on her lip. “Chartreuse, I… I… damn it, the fact is, I don’t know. I actually don’t.” She winced. “Ohh, no, please don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“That crazy hopeful look, don’t do that.”

“What look am I SUPPOSED to, like, get?!”

“Not that one.” Her already low voice became a whisper. “Chartreuse, seriously, I don’t think I like girls, not the way you do.”

Chartreuse slumped in her seat. “Carrie, you’re killing me here.”

“I don’t like girls - but honestly, with you I don’t know! So maybe you’re… different?”

“Carrie, I’m still a girl!”

“But you… go both ways.”

“That doesn’t, like, make me not a girl! Look!” Chartreuse straightened, stretching her arms out. “Girl parts. Same as you.”

“I… I know.” Was Carrie’s gaze lingering a bit on her body? Or was that wishful thinking? “Okay, let me lay it all out here,” Carrie sighed, looking out the window.

“Like I said, at first I was squicked out by the thought of the two of us. Particularly given how you’d been training me. But then I realized, the first guy I decided to really commit to, Glen? He turned out to be a trainer too! Worse, he’s mostly seeing me as Future Carrie, making him the latest in a LONG chain of guys who never did it for me emotionally. And with that realization, coupled with your apparent interest, came a questioning of my entire gender choices. Leading to me no longer being squicked, but more, uh, curious.”

She returned her gaze to Chartreuse, her cheeks colouring in a way that made Chartreuse want to hug her. “But DON’T get excited, because following that I, uh, looked up a couple stories. On the internet. And reading them didn’t turn me on. I just couldn’t picture myself doing, um, those things. In that way. So I’m pretty sure I’m straight. Except the girls in those stories weren’t like you, heck, NO ONE is like you, so… so we’re back to damn it, I don’t know. You know?”

“Not really,” Chartreuse admitted, wishing for all the world that she did. “I never, like, went through a questioning phase. My parents talked to me, I read some books, and it all kind of, you know, snapped into place.”

“Lucky you,” Carrie sighed.

“Could you two keep it down here, please? You’re bothering the other patrons.”

Chartreuse jerked her gaze over to Theresa, who was now setting a couple of water glasses on their table. She tried to keep from looking too troubled herself, figuring Carrie’s horrified, wide-eyed stare said it all.

As soon as the water glasses were down, Theresa raised both hands. “Wow, sorry! That was a joke. I don’t know what you said, you two girls have been as quiet as church mice. Quieter, even. CSIS is worried you’re planning some form of espionage. I’ll assume you need another few minutes before you order, okay?”

As Theresa moved off, Carrie let her bright red face drop down until her forehead was touching the table. Chartreuse reached over to give her friend a pat on the shoulder. “Carrie, would you like to, I don’t know, sleep with some of my crystals tonight? To, you know, relax your mind?”

The noise Carrie let out was either a laugh or a sob, it was hard to tell. Then she raised her head, and it was even harder to read her expression. “Sleep with your CRYSTALS? Oh, Chartreuse.”

“Carrie… um, look, that wasn’t, like, a euphemism…"

“I know. Oh, I know.” She reached out to grasp Chartreuse by the arm, and now her smile was genuine. “Please, keep being the random, confusing ray of sunshine in my tortured, temporal existence. Just know that, as far as any relationship goes…" Her voice trailed off.

“You’re still, you know, figuring things out?”

Carrie slowly nodded, then pulled her hand back. “I am. I will say something though. Something that’s going to break all the rules I set in place, including us not talking about powers any more. So promise not to tell Glen about this?”

Chartreuse nodded. “Of course!”

Her hair looped around her fingers again. “Okay. Here it is. I… last month, I… oh hell. I wiped an entire timeline out of existence. To save a single person.”

Carrie’s face had become neutral, but something about her eyes seemed to be asking ‘could you love a person capable of that?’. “Carrie…" Before Chartreuse could complete the thought, she was struck by a realization. “Was the person Frank?”

“Ow!” Carrie untangled her hand from her hair. “How did you know?”

“This, like, impression I had last month. When the two of us were checking on you in the hospital. In retrospect I thought I had, you know, misread his upcoming breakup with Luci, but if your condition back then was, like, linked to this wiped out timeline thing…"

“It was. And if you were that close to working it out? Maybe it explains why Glen seems to know something now too…" Carrie shook her head, then made a decision. “Chartreuse, I can’t handle this alone. After we order? No more secrets.” She smiled sadly. “I’m going to lay a timeline theory on you that will blow your mind.”

NEXT: Bad Signs. Care to cast the weekly T&T vote? At least one person found us there this month.

ASIDE: This was the first new part (separate from the original T&T writing) to be written since Part 48, and the “LoN” guest post, which started off Book 3; more Chartreuse was necessary here. New commentary coming this Sunday.

PREVIOUSLY: Glen taught Carrie how to temporally banish Mindylenopia. Frank and Luci broke up. Chartreuse fell in love with Carrie.

PART 75a: HI ANXIETY

“Hi Carrie! I’m in love with you. That’s, like, okay, right?”

Chartreuse smiled engagingly. For about five seconds. Then she knocked her fist against her forehead several times and cleared her throat. Finally, taking a quick breath, she looked back into the mirror.

“Carrie, you look so ravishing today, and you know, for the record, I’d LOVE to ravish… okay, HELL no.”

This time, the pink haired mystic paced back and forth across her bedroom floor several times, pausing twice to adjust the straps of her dress, only then resuming her position in front of the vanity.

“Carrie, here’s the thing. I feel we have a certain, you know, bond. It’s not about powers, it goes beyond that. It’s like, sometimes when I see you - particularly when you’re cheerleading - I have this, like, overwhelming desire to run over, grab you around the waist, and bury my face in your–”

“Please, I beg of you, don’t finish that sentence.”

Chartreuse yelped and spun around so fast that she nearly lost her footing. She managed to grab the edge of her desk to stay upright. “Azure! Privacy!!”

Her younger sister pointed. “Open door.”

“I thought you were, you know, out studying all this morning!”

“Faye switched it to the afternoon.”

“Well… SHOULDER, you perv! Bury my face in her, like, SHOULDER.”

“Uh huh. I would totally take you to task for that, if it weren’t for one thing.”

Chartreuse planted her hands on her hips. “What thing?”

Azure leaned back against the doorframe, shoving her hands into her jeans. “You’re obviously enough of a basket case about it already.”

“Thanks.” Chartreuse marched over to grab her bedroom door, with the intention of slamming it. Her sister reached out and slapped her palm against it before she could.

“Hold on. For serious, what’s the deal with you and Carrie?”

“There IS no deal with, you know, us.”

“I’ve noticed. What, did she find out you were a lesbian and kick your ass to the curb?”

“I’m not a lesbian.” She shoved at the door, but Azure shoved back.

“Oh, sis, really? You still talk like your last valley girl girlfriend, you CANNOT be that much in denial.”

“I’m, like, bisexual. Okay?” Giving up after a second attempt on the door, Chartreuse went over to her bed, throwing herself sideways onto it and deliberately looking at the opposite wall.

“Wow.” Azure cleared her throat. “Right, well, for the record? Mom thinks you’re a lesbian.”

“Bully for her.”

“I’m just saying. A day or so after that time I pulled you back from the brink? She sat me down and gave me the whole lecture about respecting people’s life choices. On top of the one about using our power responsibly, I might add. So if you’re going to start switch-hitting? You might want to give her the heads up.”

“It doesn’t matter, everyone’s, you know, misconceptions are safe. Carrie’s female too.”

“Okay, back to that. What, you think you’ve got a chance with that cheerleader girl?”

Chartreuse grabbed her pillow with the intention of throwing it towards Azure, but she ended up clutching it against her chest instead, not sure how to respond.

“Does Carrie know about your sexual preferences?” Azure pressed.

Chartreuse swallowed. “She’s, like, the only one who does. Aside from Laurie. And now you.”

“So you have a chance. Why’d she end your mystic sessions?”

“To be with her boyfriend.”

“So you don’t have a chance. I’m starting to see the problem.”

Chartreuse gripped the pillow tighter. “Thing is, I’m not sure Carrie can be, like, HAPPY with Glen. Especially recently, now that we know for a fact how he likes her for who she’s going to become, whereas I’M the one who, you know, likes her for who she is NOW.”

“Okay, well, you didn’t always feel that way.”

Chartreuse rolled over to eye her blue haired sister again. Azure was now leaning against the bedroom wall, hands behind her head, staring back at her. “Meaning what?” Chartreuse demanded.

“Meaning I’m not a totally insensitive jerk. I wouldn’t have teased you so much about Carrie if I’d thought you had the hots for real. You spent all summer together without wanting to jump her bones. What changed?” She paled. “Oh no, was it the teasing itself?”

“Ha ha, don’t give yourself so much credit.” Chartreuse thought back to that time at the dance, when she’d acted as Carrie’s anchor to the present. When she’d felt their hearts beating in tandem. When their powers had practically interfaced, and not only then, but the other time, days later at school.

“It was a little over a month ago that I, like, became consciously aware of something that I’d known for a while,” she concluded. “Namely that the two of us… resonate. Spiritually. Despite her, you know, fears, and her occasional bouts of bitchiness doing their best to mask it. Once I was past that, deep down… I saw we, like, resonate.”

Azure stared. “Resonate? What does THAT mean, is this some mystic family thing that I’m gonna understand when I’m older?”

“It’s, like, hard to explain, okay?” Chartreuse sighed. “It’s why I feel like I’m bisexual. I’ve tended to, you know, feel romance spiritually like that before it gets tied to gender.” She smacked herself in the face with her pillow. “A feeling which is NOW the reason I can’t quit Carrie.”

“No, you can’t quit Carrie because she hasn’t outright rejected you yet. Which, now that I understand where this came from, is because she hasn’t been given that opportunity, right? Is that what you’ve been ramping up to today, with your posturing in front of the mirror?”

“Maybe?” Chartreuse kicked herself back up into a sitting position. “I mean, part of me hopes that once she’s said ‘no’, I can, you know, get on with my life. Except, what if she says, like, ‘never come near me again’? I don’t think I could TAKE that, and we’re still sorta friends now, so maybe I should, you know, keep trying to be happy with that.”

“Mmm hmmm. What if she says ‘yes’?”

Chartreuse felt thrown off her stride. “What?”

“You’re building up this huge confession/rejection scenario in your head, and time delaying it as much as you can. Well, what if Carrie says ‘yes’ to a relationship? What if our whole school starts talking about you two as this huge lesbian couple, because they don’t understand the whole bisexual thing?”

Chartreuse bit down on her lip. “Oh, geez. I like to think I wouldn’t, like, care that much. But Carrie sure would. Which means there’s, you know, no WAY I can talk to her.”

“Oh no, you HAVE to talk to her. Otherwise you’ll go nuts. More than usual. But you also have to see the repercussions from Carrie’s point of view. Otherwise you’re not gonna be able to interpret her answer, and you’ll be back here moaning in another two weeks.”

Chartreuse shifted her gaze from Azure back to her vanity. “Huh. Meaning… when I say it… don’t, like, make it a formal declaration? Because that makes it awkward. And about me. When it’s, you know, more about me caring for her in a special way. From afar, if necessary.” She smiled. “Heck, Carrie should like me framing it as being about her, she’s got an ego.” Chartreuse drew in a deep breath. “Thanks, Azure.”

“No problem. You better now?”

Chartreuse nodded. “I think so.”

“Awesome.” Her sister pushed off from the wall. “In gratitude, you’re now covering my laundry duty for the rest of the month.”

“Wait, what??”

“Bye sis, love you,” Azure said, waving airily as she vanished into the hallway. Chartreuse finally threw the pillow at her.

Luci spotted Frank shortly after entering the library. He waved her over, then returned to scrutinizing the book he had on the table.

“Okay, I’m here, what is it you’ve found?” Luci asked, leaning in to look over his shoulder.

“It’s…" Upon turning his head and seeing how close she was, he seemed to freeze up.

Luci took a sideways step away from his chair. “Sorry. Too close?”

“No, it’s… well, maybe. I’m still processing the fact that we’re not… you know.”

“Dating?” Luci finished. She shifted her weight back and forth. “You can send me an email or something with whatever you found out, if that’s easier.”

“No, no, that’s silly… we’re still friends, and I invited you here because this is something you really do need to see in person. I’m just… still processing.”

Luci sighed. “Honestly? I kind of am too,” she admitted. She pulled out the chair next to Frank and sat down. “Not so much the physical proximity stuff, but when I’m writing in my diary, like about a movie I want to see, I’ll first think ‘I should talk to Frank about this!’. As if that wouldn’t be super awkward. So I’m glad you thought of a better reason to call me.”

He smiled wryly. “Alas, it’s just back to time travel. A little personal project I undertook, to keep busy until Carrie becomes more forthcoming.” He glanced at the book of local newspaper clippings, then met her gaze again. “In fact, context first. You know how Carrie banished Mindy to some other time?”

Luci nodded. “Tough thing to forget. Carrie almost got you too, and Julie, and me.”

“Right. And Clarke later told me that Carrie had said she didn’t know when Mindy ended up. But ignoring the ‘when’, doesn’t it stand to reason that, geographically, Mindy would still have ended up here in town?”

Luci leaned on her elbow. “I guess. Temporal Carrie sure didn’t seem to be in the mood to be doing spatial calculations. Though that means it’s equally possible Mindy found herself floating out in Earth orbit around the sun.”

“Okay, that’s a chilling thought… I prefer mine. Which led me to the idea that, what if Mindy left a footprint back in that past? Here in town? One that we might be able to locate today?”

Luci frowned. “Like what? ‘Don’t let Carrie get shot’ carved into a tree trunk 400 years ago?”

“I didn’t need to go that far back.” He pulled over the newspaper book. “What’s your opinion on this?” He tapped at the section ‘Reader Poetry’.

Luci scanned over the entry he was indicating.

‘Back through time, to this Narrow Glen,

I’ve thought within it, now and then.

Of what I did, of memories lost,

Of charging forward, no matter the cost.

Thus, when what was old, becomes new again?

Do heed these words: Don’t trust that Glen.’

It was simply signed, “Mindy”. Luci jerked her gaze up to the top of the page.

“Published five years ago,” Frank acknowledged. “On the exact date in October when Mindy first appeared, smashing into our school. That’s how I found it. I thought I’d check those anniversary newspapers first.”

Luci sat back. “Damn. I mean, we have no guarantee that this was our Mindy, but that’s a freaky coincidence. And more to the point… only five years? It means that, even if we were to assume this ‘Mindy’ was eighty years old at that point…"

He nodded. “Mindy could still exist in our present.”

NEXT: More Questioning.

ASIDE: I wrote a guest post yesterday over at “The Archive of Unusual Events”, check it out here: 13th Floor Concerns. And while there, consider exploring more of Stable’s serial - unusual things surround us! Hope your Christmases were merry.

PREVIOUSLY: A violin was broken, and Megan said she’d be blamed. She told the principal there would be repercussions if he believed the others.

PART 74b: THE MEDIANT

“Hey, Corry. Sorry, but Mrs. Willis can’t talk with you now. She had to see someone about a violin. She did mention that this was on the music podium for you though.” Megan held up the USB drive.

“Oh. I see,” Corry said, frowning.

“Though you know,” Megan continued blithely, “since I’ve been so nice to you lately, I think it’s time you did me a favour in return.”

“Depends on if I get my recordings back,” Corry said, moving towards her.

“You didn’t make a backup, did you!” Megan smirked, dodging away from him. “Come come, there’s no need to rush. Let’s talk about Kim Carpenter.”

“Okay… well, I know of her,” Corry said with a shrug - and a glare.

“Kim is in the chess club,” Megan elaborated. “They’re having a tournament next week, and I owe her for the Julie deal, so I’d like for the girl to do well. If you catch my drift.”

“That’s outrageous,” Corry protested, even as he heard his sister murmur something to Chartreuse.

“… more going on … indebted to Megan …” was all Corry could pick out of Chartreuse’s reply, seeing as Megan was continuing to speak at him.

“I’m not saying she has to win,” the dark haired girl stated. “I just want you to get her in the top three. I mean, it’s about time I flexed my authority over you - or would you prefer I demand a more humiliating action?”

“Listen Megan,” Chartreuse cut in, stepping forwards. “Corry’s right not to, you know, get involved in this stuff just now.”

“Oh come ON,” Megan fired back. “Kim deserves a shot. And we’re going to keep talking about this, so long as I’m holding this USB drive!” She held it up again for emphasis.

“Thanks, I’ll take that,” Julie remarked, plucking it from Megan’s hands as she walked into the room behind her.

Megan jumped as Julie continued past her to set a violin down on the teacher’s large central podium.  “Next person to see Mrs. Willis, could they tell her the violin’s arrived?” the long haired brunette asked. “She was supposed to be picking it up from the office but I guess she got sidetracked. So I said I could bring it here.”

“Oh, of course,” Megan retorted, folding her arms as she looked from Julie to Corry. “The two of you working together. I should have guessed.”

Julie flashed Megan what Corry interpreted to be an apologetic smile before handing his recordings back to him. Then she leaned in, in order to whisper into his ear.

“Kim would want to win on her own merits,” came Julie’s quiet advice. “I’m betting that Megan never even asked her permission.”

Megan’s attempt to interrupt Julie by saying something about Kim’s disappointment was similarly cut off by an exclamation by Chartreuse. “Betting!” the pink haired girl challenged, hands on her hips. “You’re betting on the outcome of the game!”

Megan fired a confused look back at Chartreuse. “Well, what’s wrong with some friends making a wager?” she said defensively.

This whole situation was starting to click for Corry though. Julie would, after all, know Kim’s preferences, having been a former ally of Kim herself. So Megan getting him to rig the chess tournament would only be of benefit to her and any betting friends, regardless of whether his involvement was successful, unsuccessful, or even discovered. “Let’s have this out with her then,” Corry quickly whispered to Julie in return.

Instead, Julie drew back, shaking her head. “I can’t stay,” she asserted. “It’s probably best to leave you all to your own devices.” She glanced at everyone, then as she turned away, mumbled, “No need for the voice of another, right?”

Corry opened his mouth to protest, but then thought better of it and simply pocketed his band’s recordings. Megan was the first to speak up after Julie left. “Corry, please,” she insisted. “Don’t make me break out the big guns here or anything.”

The redhead frowned, not sure if Megan was turning her gaze towards his sister or the violin, so settled for a blanket, “You wouldn’t dare,” as his reply.

However, by that point Laurie had also started into a bit of a panicky run-on sentence about the feasibility of Corry giving help to Megan. Laurie stopped only when Chartreuse interjected with, “Oh, we’re, like, total witnesses! If anything happens here, we’re, you know, on Corry’s side!”

“HEY!” Megan shouted in obvious irritation. She rounded on Chartreuse. “Does that mean you would even lie for him?” Without waiting for an answer, she began to advance on Corry. “As for you,” she started, but got no further, lurching to the side. It was a little hard to tell if the stumble was genuine or planned, but Corry moved to help her regardless.

“Yeow!” spilled from Corry’s lips instead, as he misjudged the location of the central podium, bashing his elbow hard against it. The podium vibrated, even as Megan managed to catch herself on a stand, raising a hand to halt Corry’s advance. He raised both his own hands to acknowledge he’d keep his distance - which was when things took a decidedly bizarre turn.

“Watch it, the violin, the violin!” Laurie gasped, and out of the corner of his eye Corry saw his sister charge forwards, trip, and slam into the tall podium, wrapping her hands around the musical instrument.  The podium itself, which he granted might have been unbalanced by his earlier actions, now began to tip.

Megan began to lower her arm. “Is your sister… okay?” she mused, quirking an eyebrow.

“Yeah, don’t involve me in things with my sister around!” Corry retorted, turning to try and help Laurie out. Chartreuse was able to move a little faster.

“I’ve got ya!” Laurie’s friend shouted, jumping to catch her. However, Laurie was apparently more concerned with the violin.

“Here, quick, take it!” the redheaded girl said, shoving the violin at Chartreuse.

“I’ve got it,” Chartreuse retorted, and with a finesse that managed to impress even Corry, she was able to slide the violin onto the floor while dropping down on one knee, yet still get her arms back into a position to brace Laurie.  Though with her hands free, Laurie was also able to partially break her own fall.

As the podium fully overbalanced itself, Corry turned back towards Megan to check her reaction. Only to have the dark haired girl reach out and jab him in the chest. “Now Corry, about Kim,” the girl began.

Unfortunately, the half step back that Corry had taken to try and avoid Megan’s jab caused him to knock against Chartreuse’s leg, and now he was the one off balance. He instinctively reached out for Megan, trying to keep from falling. She only stared, dumbstruck, as he grabbed her arm.

“What ARE you DOING?” Megan protested, trying to twist free by pushing at him.

“Don’t shove me!” Corry warned her simultaneously - but it was too late. He felt himself falling back, and pulling Megan along with him.

It was the feeling of landing on the violin that pained him more than the physical contact with the instrument itself. Though Megan dumping herself into his lap didn’t help the situation. Shoving her out of the way, Corry quickly rolled up onto one knee, but it was too late. It was possible that the neck of the violin had already been hit by the podium, but as to the rest… well, at this point the body of the instrument seemed beyond repair. The violin let out a feeble twang as one of it’s strings popped loose.

“Oooh, NO,” Corry sister gasped upon moving the podium aside.

“Brilliant,” Megan muttered, glaring at him.

“What do we do now?” Chartreuse wondered, also looking to the redheaded boy.

Corry fell silent after completing the story. Hunt scrutinized him briefly before speaking. “So your story is that while you were the direct cause of most of the damage, there were certain extenuating circumstances.”

Corry nodded. “Pretty much. Laurie tripping, Chartreuse’s leg, Megan being NO help… of course, I have no idea if their stories corroborate that. Laurie and Chartreuse weren’t in the best position to see, and while we were waiting outside, Megan said she’d put the worst possible spin on events unless I agreed to her terms about Kim. Needless to say, I didn’t do that.”

“Mmmm. Thing is, it seems possible that you would be accepting the bulk of the blame here simply because it helps your situation with Megan. Or alternatively, in order to avoid the breakage being blamed on your sister. What do you have to say about that?”

Corry shrugged noncommittally. “You’re certainly welcome to interpret the entire situation as you see fit. I’ll pay up, if that’s your decision.”

The principal rubbed his forehead, the whole situation abruptly reminding him of a movie he’d seen. “Rashomon,” he muttered.

“Sir?”

“Nothing.” The principal stood. “You may go. Come by the office fifteen minutes before school starts tomorrow. At that time, I’ll advise you and then the others as to my decision regarding culpability.”

Chartreuse slid into the seat next to Corry, plunking her cafeteria tray down on the table. She stared at him pointedly for a few seconds, before saying, “So??”

He looked back at her. “So?” he repeated easily.

Chartreuse sighed. “So, come on! You know, what did Hunt decide?! When I went to talk to him, he would only say it, like, wasn’t my concern any more.”

“So, maybe he’s right. Maybe it’s not.” Corry bit into his sandwich.

“Co-rry!” Chartreuse sighed in exasperation. “I’m serious! I mean, sure, Megan was at fault, but I’m worried I, like, came down too hard on her. In order to deflect away from Laurie. I’ve even, you know, started worrying that I mixed up who said what in a couple of places.”

Corry shook his head as he swallowed. “I wouldn’t worry about that. We all have selective memories to a degree. Come to think, it’s something Glen could manipulate, if we’re not careful.”

“But if I dug in too much, maybe Megan will target me - us - next or something! Aren’t you worried about her reaction at ALL?”

Corry sighed, then glanced around to see if anyone was specifically listening to their conversation. No one was. “Fine. If you must know, when Julie found out what happened, she went to see Hunt first thing this morning. And she’s using her own funds to pay for a replacement. As such, I got let off with a warning, violin case closed.”

Chartreuse blinked. “Oh!” She thought on that for a moment. “You figure Julie felt responsible, considering she, like, brought the violin into the room in the first place?”

“Beats me. Any discussions I have with Julie these days tend to be initiated on her end,” Corry said. “But it’s likely, and while her actions may consolidate our alliance, it doesn’t give Megan a reason to start a civil war. Satisfied?” He bit again into his sandwich.

“I guess.” Chartreuse looked down at her cafeteria tray. “So what are you going to do about the, you know, chess match?”

“I’m going to keep out of it and gamble that Kim’s smart enough to not need any help.”

“Ah. Makes sense.” She pushed her peas around on the plate. “So are you SURE that Megan has, like, no reason to–”

“Chartreuse, really? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you had some skeleton in your closet that you didn’t want Megan exposing.”

Chartreuse dropped her fork back onto the tray. “Right, well, that’s silly, because, you know, my default mode is weird, so what could she do to me? Thanks for the info, Corry! I’m gonna go eat with Laurie instead. To, like, reassure her.”

She stood back up and grabbed her tray, glancing briefly over her shoulder as she moved away, to see if Corry was still watching her. He wasn’t. No one was watching her. Especially not the blonde girl in the corner, talking to future-boy, about the things that THEY’D once shared together…

Chartreuse let out a breath through pursed lips. God, she had to stop obsessing. She HAD to. But thus far, every effort to distract herself from Carrie had ultimately led nowhere. Except back to her classmate. The girl she loved.

Chartreuse winced. Could it be that she had no option left aside from… confrontation?

NEXT: Hi Anxiety. You could vote at WFG with a click.

ASIDE: Anyone else know about “Rashomon”? ‘Farscape’ did something similar with their episode ‘The Ugly Truth’ - Hunt’s remark to start us off in Part 73a.

PREVIOUSLY: A violin was broken, and both Laurie and Chartreuse explained what they knew… from their perspective.

PART 74a: LEADING TONE

“Corry broke the violin,” Megan Falls said simply. She sat down, smoothing out her long skirt. “You won’t hear that from the other three of course, because they’re in their own little clique. In fact, my account is likely to be the only truly unbiased view you’re going to get… since I don’t particularly care what happens to them.”

“That strikes me as a bit pessimistic,” Mr. Hunt mused.

Megan shrugged, levelly meeting his gaze. “It’s simply the truth of the situation. Now, where did you want to start? When Julie first brought the violin in, or with Laurie’s klutz routine?”

“How about you tell me why you were in the music room in the first place,” the principal suggested.

“Oh, that? Well, I AM in the band,” Megan sighed, leaning back in her chair. “As such, I came by to talk to Mrs. Willis about one of our pieces. After classes. It was during our discussion that she was paged away, on account of the donated violin in the office. I said I’d wait around for her to come back, she agreed and added that if Corry came by, I was to let him know his USB drive was on her podium, if he needed it. That they could always talk about the contents tomorrow."

Mr. Hunt nodded. “All right. So then Corry and his friends showed up, and you said…”

“Hey, Corry. Sorry, but Mrs. Willis can’t talk with you now. She had to see someone about a violin. She did mention that this was on the music podium for you though.” Megan held up the USB drive.

Corry made some random retort, after which Megan cut to the chase by asking about a favour, but all Corry could think about was his dumb band recordings. He made a grab for the device.

“Concerned? Didn’t you make a backup?" the dark haired girl sighed, moving quickly out of his range. That made their whole situation awkward, as what she wanted to explain with regards to Kim Carpenter could look like blackmail. Nevertheless, she broached the topic, and Corry grudgingly accepted the conversational shift.

“Kim is in the chess club,” Megan continued, with exaggerated patience. “They’re having a tournament next week, and I owe her, so I’d like for Kim to do well. If you catch my drift.”

“This is outrageous,” Corry protested, as Laurie and Chartreuse began mumbling to each other.

Megan shook her head. “Look, I’m not saying she has to win. Simply hint to your people that she should be in the top three. It’s about time I flexed SOME authority, and she’s a devout follower of mine. Is this really so inconvenient?”

“Okay, like, listen Megan,” Chartreuse randomly put in, stepping forwards. “It is, you know, totally not cool for Corry to, like, do stuff like this, or some junk.”

“Oh come ON,” Megan fired back. “Kim deserves a shot. Now, how long am I going to be holding this device?”

“Thanks, I’ll take it,” Julie remarked, entering the room behind Megan and plucking the USB drive from her hands.

Megan jumped as Julie continued past her to set a violin down on the teacher’s large central podium. “Next person to see Mrs. Willis, could they tell her the violin’s arrived?” the long haired brunette asked. “She was supposed to be picking it up from the office but I guess she got sidetracked. So I said I could bring it here.”

Megan paused. “Why DID Julie end up with the violin anyway, Mr. Hunt?”

The principal interlaced his fingers. “Mrs. Willis was apparently delayed in getting to the office by a matter of some importance with a colleague. The person donating the violin had to depart, and rather than leave the instrument with the secretaries, as the office was closing soon, he preferred to give it to a reliable student who would come directly to the music room. Namely Miss LaMille.”

Megan tapped her finger against her lips. “Hm. I suppose I’d assumed it was something of that sort,” she said noncommittally. “Anyway, after JULIE got there…”

Megan looked from Julie to Corry and folded her arms. “Oh, of course. The two of you together, I should have guessed.”

She watched as Julie flashed a weak smile, handed Corry’s USB drive back to him, and then leaned in to whisper something in his ear. “Hey!” Megan shouted, hoping to break up the scheming. “Whether you have the recordings or not, Kim will be disappointed if things don’t go the way I’ve indicated!”

“Betting!” Chartreuse said, again randomly tossing in nonsense. She kept on yammering more inane stuff, and being more caught off guard by the interjection than anything else, Megan couldn’t disguise her surprise as she looked back at the pink haired girl. Were people seriously at the point of wagering on her abilities?

“Well, what’s wrong with some friends making a wager?” Megan challenged, refusing to back down. Chartreuse seemed puzzled as to how to answer, which is when Julie stepped back from Corry.

“I can’t stay, it’s probably best to leave you all to your own devices,” Corry’s partner-in-crime decided. She then turned to look at Megan. “I’m not his significant other, all right?”

Megan paused, but ultimately gave Julie a slight nod of acceptance at her desire to be seen as separate from the redhead. With that, the brunette left the room, and Megan stepped forwards.

“Corry, please,” she began. “Don’t make me break out the big guns here or anything.” She paused, realizing belatedly that she didn’t really have a big gun plan, and thus glanced quickly all about the room for inspiration.

Laurie cleared her throat. “Um, Megan, maybe Corry could help you if you call the betting off, though I can’t see how he’d be of use since he doesn’t play chess even though you’re right he must know people who do and I’m a little confused here at what you want me to do even assuming I should be helping you out now…”

“Oh, we’re, you know, totally witless!” Chartreuse cut in. “And, like, completely on, you know, Corry’s side!”

Corry had spoken also, but it was hard to hear him along with everybody else. “HEY!” Megan broke back in. As everyone quieted down, she looked to Chartreuse first. “Are you saying you would even lie for him?”

That seemed to make Chartreuse stop and think, so Megan took a few steps towards Corry. “As for you," she started - but got no further as her raised heel caught on the carpet, and she stumbled.

“Uh oh!” Corry said, reflexively moving in to catch her. He smacked his arm into the podium even as Megan grabbed a music stand for stabilization. She held up a hand to keep Corry at bay, but before she could speak again, Laurie was jumping forwards and babbling about the violin.

Megan watched in surprise as Corry’s sister literally tripped into the huge music podium, grabbing at the instrument. “Is your sister… okay?” Megan muttered.

“Yeah, don’t involve me in things with my sister around!" Corry said back to her, coldly. However, as they spoke, their eyes were on Laurie’s antics.

“I’ve so totally got ya and such!” Chartreuse was shouting, jumping to catch Laurie as the girl seemed about to pull the podium down with her, violin and all. Fortunately, Chartreuse was able to grab the violin away and set it on the ground before it got tangled up in the whole mess. She even more or less stabilized Laurie’s fall.

That’s when, hoping to regain her control of the situation, Megan took the opportunity to reach out and jab Corry lightly in the chest.

“Okay, Corry, about Kim…”

“Hey, don’t shove me!” Corry exaggerated, stepping back… falling towards the ground… and grabbing for Megan, yanking her down on top of him.

“What ARE you DOING?” Megan shrieked, trying to twist out of his grip. However, both them and the podium were on the ground before she was able to pull her arm back. Megan quickly scooted to the side, out of Corry’s lap, and Corry rolled up onto one knee… and the violin the redhead had landed on let out a feeble twang as one of it’s strings popped loose.

“Oooh, NO!” Laurie gasped as both she and Chartreuse got their first good look at the damage. The body of the instrument itself seemed beyond repair - and of course, Corry had managed to put Megan into a physical position that made her seem at fault. No doubt for the benefit of Mrs. Willis, who entered moments later.

“Brilliant,” Megan said sarcastically to Corry. “What do we do now?”

“So,” Megan concluded, leaning forwards in her chair. “Since neither Chartreuse or Laurie got a good view, I’m guessing they either blamed me, or tried to act as if it was an accident. Corry’s testimony? That’s sure to blame me too, as he’ll claim I was the one who actually landed on the violin, courtesy of his ridiculous manhandling. But really, what happens now if you go with majority rules?”

Megan smiled, hooking some hair back behind her ear. “Let me present the likely scenario. I unjustly lose face to Corry in public. My many friends urge retaliation. Things escalate, school politics erupt, and you end up with a big mess on your hands! I’m also hardly in a position to be able to afford replacing the violin all by myself, so you’d be hearing from my parents too. Now, let’s compare that to putting the blame on Corry, where it belongs. He won’t DARE retaliate against me. Trust me on that one.”

The dark haired girl brought her closed hand down on the arm of the chair. “Heck, even if you don’t blame Corry, it’s his silly friends who put the violin on the floor in the first place. So I’m not the one who’s at fault here! Surely you see that now!”

Mr. Hunt remained silent for another few moments. “Are you done?” he said at last.

He wagered it was his cold expression more than the words that helped Megan realize she had overreached. She presumably had to force herself not to flinch, making a show of smoothing her dress again. “Yes, thank you."

“Then you may go, and send in Corry,” the principal concluded. “I’ll advise you of my final decision tomorrow morning. See to it that nothing ‘escalates’ in the interim.”

“So,” Mr. Hunt began, after a few moments of meeting Corry’s gaze in silence. “Who do you believe was at fault for the property damage?”

Corry frowned, then shifted in his seat to lean against the arm of the chair. “With all due respect, sir… the fact that you don’t seem sure of my answer after three prior accounts confirm for me that this situation is, ah, complicated. In light of that, I’d prefer to tell you the story from my own point of view. After that, you can decide on the answer for yourself.”

A pause, and then the principal nodded slowly. “All right, Mr. Veniti. Begin with your arrival in the music room.”

NEXT: The Mediant; Corry wraps it up. Thoughts on Megan?

PREVIOUSLY: A violin was broken, and Laurie explained what she knew… from her perspective.

PART 73b: DOMINANT NOTE

“So that’s when Mrs. Willis came in and saw the scene," Laurie finished, blowing her nose again. “Meaning the whole thing was really just an accident, but if you have to lay blame, then… then it WAS my fault. For knocking over the podium. I’m SO sorry Mr. Hunt! I promise that if you only suspend me for a week I’ll try ever so hard to never be so clumsy again!!"

Tears sprang anew to her eyes and Mr. Hunt sighed, handing over his entire box of kleenex. “Ms. Veniti… Laurie… please calm down. If things are as you say, then I won’t be assigning you a suspension. It would be a matter of making a form of financial remuneration to the music department.”

Laurie blinked. “A… a remue-what?”

Mr. Hunt shook his head. “Never mind. You’re free to go for now, Laurie. Tell your friend Chartreuse to come in next, if you would.”

Chartreuse marched in, closed the door and leaned against the back of the chair facing Mr. Hunt’s desk. She had to start strong, right? “Okay,” she began. “I’ll remind you up front that it’s totally not my style to blame people… but that said, if anyone HAS to get blamed for this, it should be, you know, Megan!”

“Please sit down, Ms. Vermilion,” the principal said, gesturing. “Try to leave the theatrics outside.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I won’t get too dramatic,” Chartreuse assured as she came around the chair to sit down. “Still, it’s important that you, like, understand the depth of what’s really going on here. Megan’s got it in for Corry, you know!”

“I am somewhat aware of their situation,” Mr. Hunt countered. “But I will not allow my opinion to be swayed by internal politics. Let us stick to the scene at hand, and begin with what Megan said when you all first arrived in the music room.”

Chartreuse bobbed her head. “Okay then. Here’s totally how it all went down…”

“Hey, Corry. Sorry, but Mrs. Willis can’t talk with you now. She had to see someone about a violin. She did mention that this was on the music podium for you though.” Megan held up the USB drive.

Corry frowned, immediately suspicious. “Oh, I see…”

“Though you know,” Megan continued, narrowing her own eyes, “since I’ve been so nice, telling you this, and letting you call the shots since the library, I was thinking it’s about time you did me a favour.”

“It depends, now give me those recordings,” Corry countered, stepping forwards to make a grab for it.

“What concern! Didn’t you make a backup?” Megan taunted, dodging out of the way. “Come now, Corry, don’t rush me. Let’s talk about Kim Carpenter!”

“Kim who?” Corry said in irritation, glaring at her.

“Carpenter. In the chess club,” Megan elaborated. “They’re having a tournament next week, and I owe her for letting slip the news of Joe to Julie. Hence I’d like Kim to win that tournament… if you catch my drift.”

“This is outrageous,” Corry protested, even as Laurie leaned in to ask Chartreuse why Megan thought her brother played chess.

Chartreuse looked back at her friend. “Well, there’s more going on here than that,” she murmured. “That is, Corry is still indebted to Megan after she helped with your picture.”

Of course, Chartreuse had suspected that it would only be a matter of time before Megan pulled something like this. Whether the girl had been giving Corry leeway merely because of how he’d helped get her unconscious body out of the library during the incident that day, or because Megan rather liked the idea of waiting for the best chance to publicly humiliate him, it was hard to say. But since this junior class girl never seemed to think ahead to the consequences of her actions, as evidenced by speaking so blatantly to Corry of these matters while his own sister was present, it was obvious to Chartreuse that Megan couldn’t be allowed to–

“Chartreuse,” Mr. Hunt interrupted with a sigh. “We are dealing with a single incident in the music room. Let’s leave the colour commentary out of this?”

“Oh, well, I’m just, you know, explaining why I chose to speak up to Megan when I did,” Chartreuse defended herself.

“Fine,” the principal stated. “You spoke. What did you say?”

“Listen Megan, now is not the time to get Corry involved in something like this,” Chartreuse objected, stepping forwards.

“Oh come now,” the dark haired girl countered. “Kim deserves a shot. And this talk is going so well, what with me holding on to Corry’s music,” Megan added, holding the device out again.

“I’ll take that then,” Julie remarked, plucking it from Megan’s hands as she walked through the music room door behind her.

Megan jumped as Julie continued past her to set a violin down on the teacher’s large central podium. “Next person to see Mrs. Willis, could they tell her the violin’s arrived?” the long haired brunette asked. “She was supposed to be picking it up from the office but I guess she got sidetracked. So I said I could bring it here.”

“Oh, of course. The two of you, working together. I should have guessed,” Megan glowered, crossing her arms over her chest.

Julie flashed Megan a quick smile, handing the USB drive over to Corry. She then leaned in close to whisper something in the redhead’s ear. Chartreuse only caught “… would want … betting … Megan …” over Megan saying something about being disappointed, but it was enough.

“Betting!” Chartreuse challenged Megan then, hands on her hips. “You’re betting money on the outcome of the game!”

Megan glanced back at Chartreuse in shock. “How did you… well, what’s wrong with some friends making a wager??”

Even as Megan spoke, Corry was muttering back to Julie, “… have this out with her…!” But Julie drew back and shook her head.

“I can’t stay,” Julie decided. “It’s best to leave you all to your own devices.” She backed away, turning to look at Chartreuse. “Don’t act like his mother, all right?”

Taking that as a hint to back off, Chartreuse fell silent again, allowing Corry and Megan to circle each other, while Julie left the room.

“Corry, please,” Megan said after a moment. “Don’t make me break out the big guns here or anything.” She paused, then glanced over towards the violin on the podium.

Laurie tried to say something helpful, but Corry already knew where Megan was about to go with this. “You wouldn’t dare,” he challenged.

“Hey, we’re total witnesses!” Chartreuse offered, to back him up. “If anything happens here, we’re on Corry’s side!”

“Hey! Does that mean you would even lie for him?" Megan challenged back. Chartreuse merely glared, watching her closely. Which was when Megan took a few steps forwards… and jumped for the violin.

“No!” Corry said, moving to block her, hitting the podium himself.

“Watch it, the violin, the violin!” Laurie gasped, charging in from out of the blue. For a moment, Chartreuse stood frozen in shock at Laurie’s heroic actions, even as her friend tripped and slammed into the podium, simultaneously grabbing for the instrument. Corry and Megan, looking as if they’d been about to come to blows, both stopped moving, looking at Laurie in surprise, one of them muttering something inaudible to the other.

“I’ve got ya!” Chartreuse shouted, preoccupied with leaping forwards and reaching out for the redhead. It looked like the podium was going to fall, and take Laurie down with it.

“Here, quick!” Laurie said, shoving the violin at Chartreuse rather than allowing herself to be caught.

“Fine, I’ve got it,” Chartreuse said, taking the handoff only to just as quickly slide the musical instrument onto the floor, in order to properly catch her friend. Now down on one knee, she managed to keep Laurie from knocking herself on the head.

Which was when Chartreuse heard Corry’s voice from over her shoulder say, “What ARE you DOING?”, followed almost immediately by Megan’s snarky voice, “Hey, don’t shove me!”

Out of the corner of her eye, Chartreuse saw the podium hit the floor near to where she’d placed the violin. Then Megan sat herself down deliberately right on top of the instrument.

As soon as Megan scooted free, the violin let out a feeble twang, with one of it’s strings popping loose. Corry let out a gasp and fell to one knee, staring in horror at the ruined violin. Chartreuse turned to better see herself, as Laurie finished moving the podium aside in order to get a better look too.

“Oooh, NO!” Laurie gasped. The body of the instrument itself seemed beyond repair.

Chartreuse fired a glare at Megan before looking over at Corry. “What do we do now?” she wondered.

“Which is when Mrs. Willis got there and so you’ll know the rest from her,” Chartreuse concluded. “Odd set of circumstances to be sure, but, you know, it’s pretty obvious Megan is guilty!”

Mr. Hunt frowned. There were obvious differences between her account, and the one provided by her friend Laurie, but one thing in particular stood out. “It sounded like you were facing the opposite direction from the violin. Did you actually see Megan fall on it so deliberately?”

The pink haired girl hesitated. “Well, okay, didn’t see that as such,” she admitted. “But Megan was sitting right next to it afterwards, and that fakey ‘shoving’ comment was, like, pretty telling!”

Mr. Hunt steepled his fingers in front of him. “Is it possible the podium itself fell on the violin?”

Chartreuse shook her head. “That, no. I wasn’t, like, being totally stupid when I put the thing down, sir. Is that what Laurie said? She must have got it wrong because I was, you know, blocking her view.”

Mr. Hunt looked a little closer at Chartreuse, gauging her sincerity.  “Very well,” he concluded. “You may go. Tell Corry and Megan that I’ll summon the next person in momentarily.”

Chartreuse nodded, bouncing up out of her seat. “Don’t go TOO too hard on Megan, yeah?” she added as she started for the door. “It might be possible for Julie or Corry to, like, reform her!” Then she was gone.

Once the office door had closed, Dell A. Hunt grimaced and looked over towards his window. He had hoped things would be a bit more clear cut after two accounts, instead they were even less so. Had it been an accident, and was Chartreuse now covering for her friend? Or was Megan really to blame?

Neither option felt likely. While Chartreuse did have a habit of making up stories, her heart was usually in the right place - so why defend Laurie by attacking Megan in this manner? And while he had recently determined that the Falls girl was trouble, it tended to be because she was pulling the strings… not deliberately sitting on them, so to speak.

Well, perhaps the up and coming Grade 11 student herself would be the best one to clear up the mystery. Yes, she had to be the next person he would talk to. Dell rose from his desk and went to summon her inside.

NEXT: Leading Tone. Megan’s account. Want to Vote at WFG?

ASIDE: Part of the reason for the various accounts is to emphasize perception, which is a theme. Partly it’s to get into the heads of some characters, especially Megan, who’s rather new. Thoughts?

PREVIOUSLY: Megan reigns supreme among the student body, having manipulated Corry and Julie. Julie spoke with Clarke’s sister about relationships.

PART 73a: FOUR PART HARMONY

Mrs. Willis heard the raised voices while still halfway down the arts hall. It helped that the hallways were empty, school having ended over half an hour ago. In fact, the music teacher was able to identify two of the voices - those of Megan Falls and Corry Veniti - yet there seemed to be other people in the music room too.

That’s when she heard the crash. Mrs. Willis began to walk faster, as there was the sound of more talking, along with the painful sound of a musical string twanging…

She rounded the corner of the music room door to see Megan, Corry, Laurie and Chartreuse grouped around the smashed remains of a violin. The violin that had been donated to their music program today.

The normally calm teacher’s eyes widened. Chartreuse opened her mouth to speak, but Mrs. Willis raised her hand, palm out. “Not - one - word. All of you. To the office. NOW!” she demanded in cold fury.

Corry patted his sister on the shoulder. When she didn’t raise her head from where it was buried in her hands, he angled his gaze towards Megan instead.

Megan, the junior student who had a habit of sowing chaos from behind the scenes, generally with her own selfish desires at heart. The girl who had also managed to get one of Laurie’s pictures published the previous month, in conjunction with a short story she had written. Thereby ensuring that Corry couldn’t go after her. Not using any of the same methods he’d once employed against Julie, at least.

Corry had known it would only be a matter of time before Megan’s demands would begin. She’d picked a hell of a day to start.

As if sensing the scrutiny, Megan turned her head, letting go of the cross on her necklace. “I’m going to tell him what you did,” she hissed. “Unless, perhaps, you agree to help Kim, as I requested?”

“I never pegged you as a woman of conscience,” the redhead said dryly. “But if it comes down to my word against yours, are you so sure they’ll believe you over me?”

Megan opened her mouth to reply, which was when the principal’s office door opened and Mr. Hunt strode out, followed by Mrs. Willis. He nodded to the music teacher, who flashed him a grateful smile and departed. Hunt turned his attention to the four students, seated in a row.

“All right,” the principal sighed, crossing his arms. “As Mrs. Willis was not present during the incident itself, I am going to give each of you a chance to explain what happened. I expect nothing less than the ugly truth. That is, unless one of you would care to come forwards and confess right now?”

Chartreuse leaned in from behind Megan to look uncertainly at the rest of them. Corry kept his gaze on Megan; he heard Laurie sniffle quietly on his other side. “Very well,” Mr. Hunt sighed. “Laurie, in my office first please.”

“Wait, Mr. Hunt!” Chartreuse protested. “She was, you know, only there because of me and Corry. She’s not involved!”

“Then perhaps she can provide me with an initial objective viewpoint,” Mr. Hunt countered. His tone allowed for no argument.

The principal waited as the redheaded girl blew her nose and took a few deep breaths. “It… it all happened so fast,” Laurie said at last. “I don’t know what to say, I don’t know where to start, I can’t… I’m just so sorry!!”

“Please stay calm,” Dell Hunt said patiently. “At the moment, you are not in any trouble. Perhaps you could start at the beginning - why were you and the others in the music room after school in the first place?”

“Oh. Well, that’s easy,” Laurie realized. She began to speak all in a rush. “Corry’s band - you know his band right? - they’d recorded some new songs and my brother wanted Mrs. Willis' opinion of the music so he gave her the files last week and she said she’d listen, then to come by today so she could speak with him about it. And Chartreuse came too because she was going to be meeting up with Lee later - he’s the drummer and Tim’s on keyboard and Glen does bass guitar y’see but I guess you knew that too, right? - so I tagged along too and when we all got there we walked in and found that instead of Mrs. Willis it was Megan Falls who was there and she had Corry’s recordings!”

“Er, right. Okay, slow down,” Mr. Hunt requested, leaning back in his chair. “Now then, what was the first thing that Megan said to all of you?”

“Hey, Corry. Sorry, but Mrs. Willis can’t talk with you now. She had to see someone about a violin. She did mention that this was on the music podium for you though.” Megan held up the USB drive.

Corry nodded. “Oh, I see.”

“Though you know,” Megan said. “I’m doing something of a favour for you by telling you this. I was wondering if you could do something for me in return?”

“Depends what it is,” Corry said, stepping forwards.

“Wait now, back up,” Megan said, shifting sideways and backing up too. “Don’t rush me. It’s about Kim Carpenter.”

“Okay, well, I know of her,” Corry said, shrugging. “She’s in the chess club, right?”

“Exactly. In fact, they’re having a tournament next week. And since I owe her one for talking to Julie, I’d like Kim to do well in that tournament. If you catch my drift.”

Laurie’s brow furrowed and she leaned closer to Chartreuse. “My brother doesn’t play much chess,” she pointed out. “Why would Megan select him to be Kim’s coach?”

“I think there’s more going on here than that,” her pink haired friend replied. “Remember, Corry is kinda, like, indebted to Megan for her help in getting your picture published.” As Megan finished saying something else, Chartreuse took a step forwards. “Listen Megan, Corry’s right not to get involved in something like this.”

“Oh come now,” Megan said, pleading. “Kim deserves better than that. Besides, I’m still holding your recordings,” she added, holding the device up again.

“Thanks, I’ll take that,” Julie said, pulling it from Megan’s hands as she walked through the music room door behind the other girl.

Megan jumped as Julie continued past her to set a violin down on the teacher’s large central podium. “Next person to see Mrs. Willis, could they tell her the violin’s arrived?” the long haired brunette asked. “She was supposed to be picking it up from the office but I guess she got sidetracked. So I said I could bring it here.”

Megan looked from Julie to Corry. “Oh, of course. The two of you together again. I should have guessed.”

Laurie watched as Julie turned back to the dark haired girl, flashing a smile and handing the USB drive over to Corry. Julie then leaned in to give Laurie’s brother a kiss on the cheek. Laurie let out a gasp of surprise, blinking several times.

“You know,” Megan continued, pouting as she looked to Julie and Corry, “recordings or not, Kim will be very disappointed if things don’t go the way I’ve said.”

“Betting! You’re betting money on the outcome of the game!” Chartreuse spoke up. “That’s not, you know, nice!”

Megan looked back at Chartreuse, surprised. “Why? What’s wrong with making a friendly wager?”

“I can’t stay. It’s best to leave you all to your own devices,” Julie broke in, now backing away. She turned to look at Laurie. “Keep an eye on your brother, all right?”

Laurie blinked and nodded wordlessly back at the brunette, who then left the room. When she looked back at Corry, she saw he was taking a few steps backwards at the advance of Megan.

“Corry, pleeeeease,” Megan was saying. “Don’t make me break out the big guns here.” She paused, then glanced over to meet Laurie’s gaze, seemingly asking her for help.

Laurie swallowed. “Um, maybe Corry could help if you just call the betting off?” she attempted.

Corry frowned as he saw where Megan was looking. “You wouldn’t dare,” he said.

“Oh, we’re total witnesses!” Chartreuse said. “If anything happens here, we’re totally on Corry’s side, you know!”

“Hey! Does that mean you would even lie for him?” Megan protested. Chartreuse then seemed uncertain. Megan took a few more steps forwards, only to stumble and fall sideways.

“Whoa!” Corry said, moving to try and catch her - but, in so doing, his arm smacked into the central podium.

“Watch it, the violin, the violin!” Laurie gasped, charging forwards to grab at the musical instrument before it could fall. She scooped it up into her hands, but becoming unbalanced herself, fell against the heavy podium. The podium rocked and began to tip.

“I’ve got ya!” Chartreuse shouted, diving forwards to help her friend.

However, Laurie quickly realized she wasn’t going to be able to regain her balance before Chartreuse arrived, so she tried to hand off the violin. “Here, quick, catch it!” Laurie offered, holding out the instrument.

“I’ve got it!” Chartreuse said. However, she immediately moved the violin down to the floor, being more concerned for the welfare of her friend. Luckily, Laurie managed to break her own fall, while Chartreuse kept her steady.

“Wha… What are you DOING??” Megan said baffled, now trying to see past Corry’s shoulder.

“Hey, don’t shove me!” Corry protested.

The podium finished it’s crash to the floor moments later. Right on top of the violin! “Oooh, NO!” Laurie gasped. In desperation, she got to her knees and pushed past Chartreuse in order to roll the podium off of the instrument. The violin let out a feeble twang as one of it’s strings popped loose; the body of the instrument itself seemed beyond repair.

Laurie wrapped her arms around herself, looking towards Corry and Megan, who had dropped to the floor as well. “What do we do now?” she murmured.

NEXT: Dominant Note. Chartreuse’s account.

PREVIOUSLY: Julie agreed to talk to Mary Clarke. Carrie had a condition for all the interactions.

PART 72b: THAT’S A WRAP

Mary sat on the couch rubbing her temples as Julie stood over her. Like Carrie, Julie had requested a closed session. And like Carrie, Julie had wasted little time in laying out the situation, backing up Clarke’s account of the time travel incident from last November. About her self-suicide.

The accounts matched perfectly – perhaps a little too perfectly? Because as much as she loved her brother, she had to allow for the possibility that discussion with his friends could have “filled in gaps”, consciously or not, in the eleven months since then.

“I’ll be frank,” Mary said at last. “If my brother hadn’t been so adamant about this talk, I would have thought it all to be a practical joke. As it is, I’m still sorely tempted to chalk everything you’ve said up to a mass hallucination. But okay - if you did truly travel in time, and DID come close to killing your parents… well, Julie, it’s a wonder that you can stand there and speak about it so calmly.”

“I don’t allow myself to dwell too much on the past,” Julie yielded. “Memory can be deceptive. Doc Golden taught me that.” She paused, then moved to sit on the couch next to Mary. “But I won’t say that my actions back then don’t haunt me. They do. That’s why I volunteered to go on more time trips with everyone. It’s also why I’m currently…" She stopped herself. “Why I allowed myself to be put into the position that I’m currently in."

“You mean with respect to your parents?”

Julie shook her head. “No way. They’ve been a non-factor for close to a year now. And with Golden’s help, I’ve been dealing with the fact that my parents don’t love me, not to mention my little self-destructive impulses. Plus Jeeves is acting more and more like a father to me, and as long as he doesn’t outright demand custody, mom and dad are content to let sleeping dogs lie. They see it as better than a huge legal scandal. No, I meant the position with respect to my isolation.”

“Okay, so like my brother, I’ve missed the direct link. Why are you pulling away from everyone?"

Julie leaned back. “How much do you know about someone named Glen Oaks?”

Mary shrugged. “He’s the guy going out with Carrie, right?”

“He’s also from the future and he has crazy mental powers that allow him to alter the will of others.”

Again Mary found herself raking her hand back through her hair. She wondered why more psychiatrists didn’t go bald. “That’s a new one on me,” she admitted.

Julie stood up again. “See, this whole thing, it’s bigger than you, bigger than me, bigger than all of us. Clar– Phil, bless his heart, he thinks there can still be a simple answer to everything. This time, there isn’t. However… and you can tell him this if you like… I know it will all work out in the end.”

“How can you be sure?” Mary protested.

Julie looked back at her. “Because I received a letter from the future.”

It was right about then that Mary decided they were all crazy… herself included. “A letter. From the future.” Mary sighed, resting her head back on a couch pillow. She fought back the impulse to laugh out loud. “And it told you, what, that closing yourself off from people who care about you, like Phil, would ensure peace and prosperity in the world??”

“Not in so many words,” Julie replied. “But it’s the reason no one can know what I’m doing. Not Phil, not Carrie, not anybody.”

“Then no one can help you,” Mary stated flatly, professional distance be damned. She glared at Julie. “And by extension no one can help my brother either, because he refuses to stop obsessing. So how about I write you a different letter? I’ll date it from the year 3000 and everything! We can use it to get you and the rest of your band off the psychotropic drugs, ensuring that you’re living in the present for a change.”

Julie looked back at Mary reflectively, drumming her fingers on the wall. “Look, if I tell you more, do you promise not to repeat the rest of it to anybody?”

Mary was pretty sure repeating any of the last five minutes to anyone would be an exercise in futility. She made a vague waving gesture in the air. “What the hell. I’m leaving tomorrow morning anyway.”

Julie continued to regard the other girl in silence for close to a minute before speaking again. “The future letter I got was in Carrie’s handwriting. So it must be legit. It directed me to watch her, and rescue certain electronic parts from her trash. Which I did. I’m now reconstructing the time machine.”

Mary stared. “Of course you are.”

“But the others cannot know that, lest word get back to Glen,” Julie insisted. “That’s also why it had to be me. Luci and Frank, they’re the ones Glen would suspect, not me.” She frowned. “However… there is one thing that bothers me.”

“ONE thing?”

“The letter was so vague. I mean, Future Carrie must have written it in a hurry, but even so…” Julie shook her head. “No specific dates. No indication of how the parts would need to be reassembled.”

“No mention of people you could talk to,” Mary added dryly.

“I’ve never been a team player,” Julie countered. “I work best in isolation, and over the long term. And this WILL take a while, surely another reason why I was selected. It’s just, something about the situation bothers me, and I can’t pinpoint it.”

“Loverly.” Mary finally pressed both hands to her temples. ‘I’d help you out, but you broke my brain,’ is what she was inclined to add. As it was, she opted for one last shot at psychoanalysis.

“Well, your situation has no easy answer,” she stated with a calm she did not feel. “What you need to do is decide what’s more important to you. Complete secrecy over some ridiculous one-woman plan that even you apparently aren’t allowed to completely know about… or being a little more forthcoming to my brother and the people who call you a friend. Hell, more than a friend.”

Julie’s face twitched. “It’s more complicated than tha–”

“Goddamn it Julie, it’s only more complicated because you’re MAKING it more complicated!” Mary fired back, patience gone. She rose out of her seat to stare Julie right in the eyes. “Not everything in your life is a damn conspiracy! Now, are you happy about closing yourself off from my brother?! Don’t think about it, just answer!”

“No.”

“Good. Then DO something about it!” Mary concluded, slapping her hand against the wall next to the brunette’s head.

Julie jumped at the action, then frowned, seemingly mulling it over. “There… may be something I can do,” she realized. “Thank you. So much.” A pause, and then, “You know, you’re a lot more ‘in your face’ than Doc Golden ever was.”

“I’m a university student,” Mary repeated, feeling the adrenaline surge leaving her. She pulled her arm back and allowed her body fall backwards onto the couch again. “As such, I think you’d better leave now, before I add anything I shouldn’t.”

Julie nodded, heading for the stairs. “I’ll get Phil to come back down and check on you.”

“I wish we didn’t have to do this,” Clarke sighed. He leaned back against the wall and stared up at the ceiling.

“You promised,” Carrie reminded him. “This was my condition. If Mary showed ANY signs that she was having trouble dealing with what we’d told her…”

“I know! I know, I’d just hoped… well, I don’t know, that she would be able to do more. Even help us going forwards. For that matter, Julie saying she’d ‘make things up to me’ is awful vague. What if she wasn’t serious? What if she changes her mind? What if…”

“Clarke,” Carrie interrupted. “You know your sister. Do you really think Mary will be able to handle the rest of her studies after what she’s been told? That she’s not going to be constantly worried about you? That she’s not going to mention the time travel to anyone else?!”

Clarke made no reply. He knew he had to grant Carrie her points. So he merely looked over towards the door to the basement. The room where he’d left his sister, minutes ago, lying on the couch.

He couldn’t see it, but at that moment she was, in fact, looking up at the redheaded boy who had walked up to her.

“Look, if you have any problems the doctor is not ‘IN’, okay?” the blonde university student groaned. “I need a rest. A lot of rest.”

“I’m not here about my problems,” Glen responded. “I’m here about yours.”

Mary sat up slightly. “I beg your pardon?”

“You are going to do something for me now,” Glen continued calmly. “Listen carefully. You are going to lie back down and forget everything you have been told about time travel over the last few days.”

“What?” Mary protested weakly even as she lay back down. “I… I don’t…”

“Your conversations with Phil, Carrie, and everyone else had nothing to do with time travel. They were simply discussions of a personal nature. Discussions about relationships and so forth.”

“They were simply personal,” Mary repeated automatically. “But…”

“Once I have left this room,” Glen persisted, “you will not remember seeing me, and the idea of time travel will seem as ludicrous to you as it did before Phil brought it up. Any apparent gaps in your memory will be filled in by your own mind. Do you understand me, Mary Clarke?”

“I… I understand,” Mary yielded, her body relaxing.

“Good,” Glen affirmed.

He took a couple of steps towards the stairway. Then, after he had confirmed that the door at the top was still shut, he looked back towards Clarke’s sister. “One last thing,” he said, unable to keep from smiling. “Before everything is completely forgotten… you will tell me what was said to you by the following people….”

NEXT: Four Part Harmony. Voted for T&T lately?

PREVIOUSLY: Luci and Frank have each talked to Mary, Clarke’s sister. Carrie is trying to convince Mary of time travel.

PART 72a: KILLER CONVERSATION

Carrie collapsed back onto the couch, breathing hard.

When she reopened her eyes, it took a few moments for the image before her to resolve itself into the concerned and slightly confused expression of Mary. “What… what just happened?” Clarke’s sister inquired softly.

“What did you see?” Carrie said testily.

Mary hesitated. “It looked like my quarter… vanished. Only to reappear a second or two later. But it could have been a trick of the light…”

“It wasn’t the light,” Carrie said, clenching her jaw. “I moved it forward in time.” Whereas if she’d moved it back, causing coexistence instead? Boom, and no more quarter. Not only more difficult, but far too dangerous.

Mary’s pause was longer this time. “And that’s the proof,” she concluded.

“That’s it,” Carrie affirmed, finding the strength to sit up and wipe her brow. “It’s the best I can do right now, without losing complete control. I’m still in training. Hence, using a quarter, not a person.”

She held Mary’s gaze until the older girl was forced to look away, back towards the coin. “I’m not sure I’m convinced,” Mary admitted. “However… I’m no longer as skeptical either.”

“Will you at least accept that time travel may be possible for the remainder of our dialogue?” Carrie pressed.

Mary re-pocketed the quarter. “I’ll accept that there is something beyond the norm that you and your friends are experiencing. We’ll call it time travel.”

“Don’t call them my frie–” Carrie cut herself off with a wave of her hand. “Never mind. On to my more ‘personal difficulties’, as you put it earlier. Okay?”

Mary nodded. “All right…”

Carrie took in a breath. Suddenly faced with the prospect of admitting it, she was no longer sure she wanted to say it any more. But if she couldn’t tell Clarke’s sister, who else was there? “I killed Frank,” she blurted. “And I had to wipe out an entire timeline to erase that misdeed.”

At first, Mary could only stare. Her voice, when it came, was uncertain. “You killed…”

“I don’t expect you to believe it,” Carrie interrupted. “Hell, I sometimes wonder if the mind that merged with mine was outright lying - the power I would have had to tap into to accomplish what I did would be immense. But the memories were too vivid. The pain too raw. So the fact remains that, by delaying my destruction of the time machine, I killed my frie– killed someone.” She slumped back into the couch, feeling exhausted. “I can’t even tell Glen that. He thinks we’re living a whole other timeline.”

“All right,” Mary said slowly. “Then you’re telling me that you are capable of altering past events?”

Carrie couldn’t help it, she laughed. She had to check herself to avoid coming across as hysterical. “That and more. Me and my powers, we’re balanced on a knife’s edge, and if I fall off… well, I don’t know, but I suspect it would be very, very unpleasant for anyone around me.”

“That’s why you’re retreating from everybody?”

Carrie tensed. “I’m not… well, okay, I am. But I have to. It’s the only way they’ll all be safe.”

Mary pursed her lips. “Seems you and Julie could have something in common then.”

“I don’t want to hear anything about Julie.”

“No?”

“NO!” Carrie said, standing up. She had to throw her arm out for balance, as the sudden motion made her dizzy after her earlier efforts. “Look, I didn’t tell you what I did merely so that you could psychoanalyze me into inviting people back into my life!!”

“Then why did you tell me?” Mary continued patiently, rising as well.

To her surprise, Carrie found she actually had to think about that one for a moment. “Because I had to tell someone,” she said at last. “It’s been gnawing at me inside. I thought… I thought maybe talking about it with someone would help.”

“And has it?”

“I don’t know,” Carrie admitted. “Does knowing about what I did change your opinion of me?”

“I suppose it explains why you’re pushing people away. But the killing you speak of, it doesn’t sound like you did it intentionally…"

“Of COURSE not!”

“So why would it change anyone’s opinion of you?”

“Because it changed my opinion of myself.”

Mary hesitated once more, so Carrie decided to save her the trouble of answering. “Look, it’s fine, I’ve said my bit, thanks for listening. It’s time you moved on to Julie. She’s someone you might actually be able to help.”

Without waiting for another response, Carrie turned and headed for the basement stairs. She heard Clarke’s sister offer up some final platitudes about friendship, but she chose to ignore them.

“Goddamn it, stop ignoring me!” Corry shouted. She heard him thump his fist into the wall of the LaMille living room.

“I’m not ignoring you,” Julie said, still refusing to meet his gaze. “I’ve heard every word.”

“Fine. Shall I drop by tomorrow to bring you to Clarke’s house, or can you make it on your own?”

“Corry…”

“Julie, you are GOING! End of story.”

Julie finally spun. “If I’d known you were going to act like such an ass today, I would never have let you in the house!” she snapped.

“If I’d known what a selfish bitch you were becoming, I never would have offered you that partnership in running the school!” Corry shot back, meeting her gaze.

The brunette pursed her lips. “Touche,” she yielded. “But my going to see Mary… it won’t change anything!”

“Changing things is not the point!”

“What? Then what IS the point?!”

“The point is, Clarke is damn worried about you,” Corry answered. “And he’s not the only one. This closing yourself off simply because of - what is it anyway? Glen and his mental powers? Whatever your reasons, it isn’t healthy! I admit, Glen worries me too, but there’s not much we can do about him right now. Besides, he plays a good bass guitar."

Julie sighed. “It’s more complicated than you make it sound.”

“I don’t doubt that!” The redhead paused. “Thing is, if you don’t go today, Clarke’s efforts will all be for naught. Efforts with my sister, with Chartreuse, hell, he’s risking being sent to the nuthouse by his own relatives for pity’s sake! He doesn’t deserve that. So you need to talk to Mary. Doesn’t matter what you say, be it the truth, some sob story about repressed issues with your parents, or what you’ll have for breakfast in the morning. Just go see the damn shrink, okay Julie?”

The two teenagers stared unflinchingly at each other across the room. “Fine!” Julie said at last. “But don’t expect miracles.”

“I never do,” Corry retorted, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Unless, that is, they’re the type of miracle which people like us manufacture, eh?” He fired off a grin, one that Julie found she could meet with a wan smile.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Frank replied, turning his head. He moved to rise from the swing he was sitting in, only to have Luci shake her head and sit herself down in the swing that was adjacent. She looked at the ground. So Frank did too. The ensuing silence was eventually broken by the sound of laughter from across the park, where a couple of kids seemed to be playing an evening game of tag. “You wanted us to talk,” Frank said at last.

“I’m not sure I love you,” Luci countered.

He jerked his gaze back up to see her looking at him, a sad, worried expression on her face. “Oh…” was all that came to mind.

“I’m sorry,” Luci continued, speaking in a rush. “It’s NOT you. It’s me. All me. Things in my history. Things that maybe, on a subconscious level, have had me pulling away ever since that logbook turned up. Leading to some conflicted feelings, and as long as I’m busy working through those, I don’t want to be in a relationship. Not with you, not with anybody.”

Frank stared. “So… we’re breaking up then?”

She winced. “I don’t… it’s… yeah,” she whispered. “We are. I’m sorry.”

“Do I get a say in this?”

She swallowed. “I… I guess? Thing is, some of my issues are about rejection.”

Frank tried to figure out where to take that. He felt strangely numb.  “Well, for the record, what I feel for Carrie isn’t the same thing I feel for you.”

“I said it’s NOT about that!” Luci retorted, frustration creeping into her tone. “It’s about something from my past. About a time when I chose to be silent, and yet probably should have spoken up!”

“And it’s something you don’t think I can help with?”

“I didn’t say that either!” Luci countered. “Maybe you can. Actually, part of me hopes you can. But part of me also feels like it would be weird, talking to you about it as a boyfriend.” She rubbed her temples. “It’s like, when these memories charged in, it was a harbinger of the end of our relationship.”

She drew a deep breath. “Ugh, which sounds STUPID, now that I say it out loud. I don’t know, am I the only one who’s been feeling weird about events lately? Have you felt ANYTHING like this too??”

She looked so insistent that Frank felt a need to think back. And a thought did occur. “Now that you feel mention it,” he said slowly. “Shortly before Carrie woke up in the hospital last week, I felt… I can’t describe it. Adrift, somehow. Like something about my relationships with people had… changed. At the time, Chartreuse gave me a funny look. But then Carrie regained consciousness, so…” He shrugged.

“But then it’s not just me.” Luci finished. She sucked her lower lip into her mouth. “Except…” She shook her head. “Somehow, I don’t feel like that changes this. Changes us breaking up. I don’t know, I hope I can explain it better once I can process it myself. For now, know that I’m truly sorry. REALLY. For hurting you this way. It’s the last thing I… I ever wanted to…” Her voice caught.

He pulled a tissue out of his pocket and handed it over. “So we’re breaking up then,” he concluded, this time not making it a question. “I suppose it would be worse to string each other along, right?”

Luci finished blowing her nose. “I guess. Though maybe I’ve been doing some of that too, recently.”

“Or maybe it’s that I wasn’t paying attention. I’m good at that.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “There really are no easy answers, huh?”

Luci choked back a laugh. “Oh no. Did you talk to Clarke’s sister?”

“Er, maybe. That is, yeah. I hope she’ll have better luck with Julie than with us.”

Luci’s different coloured eyes shimmered slightly in the fading light as he looked at her again. “She didn’t do such a bad job with us, did she? We’re talking again.”

“Yeah,” Frank admitted. “Yeah, we are.” And despite all the confused feelings he was experiencing, when he grasped Luci by the hand, he found that he could still smile.

NEXT: That’s a Wrap

PREVIOUSLY: Clarke needs Carrie to talk to his sister Mary about time travel, to help Julie. Luci spoke to Mary about her past.

PART 71b: PSYCH DOUBT

“Carrie!”

Carrie turned away from the cheerleading discussion she was having with Steve. “Clarke? What the hell are you doing out here, you’ve got a game in under ten minutes!”

“I have to know your answer,” the blonde boy insisted. “Before the game. About whether or not you’ll talk to Mary about you-know-what. Chartreuse said you’d think about it!” he reminded as Carrie opened her mouth.

The head cheerleader paused, then flashed a smile in Steve’s direction. “Go tell the others we’ll be running routine six to start. Laurie takes point, she’s been acting like a bundle of energy all week.” Carrie’s fellow cheerleader nodded at her, then as he went to join the others, the blonde returned her attention to Clarke.

“Clarke, you HAVE to realize this is neither the time nor the place.”

“Carrie, please, YOU have to know there’s no way I can concentrate on the game, not with this foremost on my mind.”

Carrie shifted her gaze to the side, tugging on a strand of hair. When she spoke, she kept her tone carefully neutral. “Okay Clarke. Because it’s you… and because of what you’ve done for me and Julie in the past… I’ll agree this ONE time, to do what I can to convince your sister. But there’s a condition!”

Clarke regarded the index finger which she was now jabbing upwards at his chin, and at the cold intensity of her gaze. “Name it.”

Mary looked down at the phone receiver in confusion before lifting it back up to her ear. “Did you just ask me if I enjoyed your school’s first basketball game of the year?” she asked, mildly amused.

The boy on the other end of the line coughed. “Um, yeah. Kind of a redundant question, I guess… we won, yay…”

Mary chuckled. “Frank - it’s Frank, right?” She waited for the murmur of assent before continuing. “Frank, something tells me you didn’t get my brother to put me on the phone merely to ask my opinion on this evening’s sports event. Though for the record, I was suitably impressed by Phil’s extra three pointer at the buzzer. Despite the team already being up by 10 points.”

“Um, yeah,” Frank repeated. “I guess you would be.” He cleared his throat. “Look, Clarke - that is, Phil - he’s not crazy about the whole time machine thing. And I don’t mean ‘crazy’ as in ‘thrilled’, I mean ‘crazy’ as in ‘nuts’. In other words, he’s not nuts. Really.”

Mary ran her free hand back through her hair, her smile fading. “Okay, well, apparently I’m due for a visit from Carrie tomorrow after school. I’m reserving judgment until then.”

“Yeah, Clarke - Phil - mentioned that to me before giving you the phone. But I figured it couldn’t hurt to have my voice back him up.”

“Noted,” Mary yielded. “Don’t worry, my current theory leads towards something in the water here rather than the need for extensive teen psych testing.” She smiled, though when Frank remained silent, finally prompted him on with, “So what did you want to say aside from that?”

“Um, well, Phil also said you can help people with their problems?”

Mary’s brow creased. “In as much as I can as a university student,” she said warily. “One who, incidentally, is starting to think she’ll need to have a little chat with a certain family member regarding her inflated status among his peer group.”

Mary could hear a slight chuckle from Frank. “Yeah, well, still,” the boy continued. “He thinks highly of you, so I was just wondering… in all those classes you take, where they probably talk about getting patients to discuss their emotions and such… uh… do they ever talk much about… love?”

“Aw… boy,” Mary said, correcting herself from the phrase ‘Aw, for crying out loud’. She moved to sit herself down in the nearest convenient chair. Even after two years of dating Doug, she still wasn’t sure about her own thoughts on the matter.

“If not, it’s cool,” Frank added hastily. “I just have this hypothetical situation, where there’s this guy who’s going out with one girl, and he likes her, but at the same time he’s very concerned about this other girl who’s been going through a lot lately. She has this shady boyfriend to boot, and so while our hypothetical guy likes HER too, it’s not exactly the same thing… yet even with that, he’s still worried about the girl he’s going out with, because now she may be avoiding him and he’s wondering if she thinks that he doesn’t care about her any more because of that other girl. Is that, er, hypothetically speaking, a thing that’s ever come up?”

Mary pondered the multitude to ways she could approach this based on what she was growing to learn about her brother’s friends. She decided to simply be straightforward. “As a matter of fact, I was asked a very similar question recently. Let me tell you the same thing I told that person. First: Your question has no easy answer.”

“I was afraid of that.”

“Thus, secondly, what you need to do,” Mary continued, “is decide what love means for you personally. Think about it. Talk to your friends about it, if that helps. And talk with Luci too, since she may have some of the same questions.”

“Err, how did you know that I was referring to…”

“I took a shot. Relationships are tricky things, Frank. But you’re only, what, seventeen? Don’t stress out over it. Give it time. Things will work themselves out one way or another, you’ll see.”

Frank sighed. “It always comes back to TIME, doesn’t it,” he said after a moment. “One other thing then, could you… well, could you also tell me what Carrie says to you, regarding your upcoming talk about, um, you know what…?”

“Depends on what she says,” Mary replied. “I’m inclined to say that you should ask her about it yourself.”

“Yeah… yeah, okay,” Frank concluded. “Thanks, uh, Mary. Sorry if I bothered you.”

“Not at all,” Mary Clarke assured. After a couple more quick pleasantries, she hung up the phone and walked out to the front hall. “Phil!” she called. “We need to talk! Phil?”

“Your brother went out shortly after handing the phone over to you,” her mother shouted back from upstairs.

Mary rolled her eyes. “Oh, loverly. Where did he go?”

“You did very well in the game,” Laurie said, staring down at the floor. “We’ll have a good shot at the trophy this year, I guess.”

“Yeah… you were great with your cheering too,” Clarke agreed. “I think you were even out-cheering Carrie!”

“Oh. You saw that?” Laurie was unable to hold back her blush. However, when she raised her head, the smile that had begun to appear fled her face. “Except you didn’t come to my house to talk with me about any of that.”

Clarke sighed. “No. You’re right. It’s Julie. I want her to talk to my sister this Saturday about whatever it is she’s going through. But while I think Mary’s finally going to be willing, Julie’s refused to see me. She won’t return my calls, and even Jeeves said he didn’t think he could do anything to help me out. However… I know Julie is still speaking with Corry.”

“So you want me to get my brother to convince Julie to see your sister,” Laurie murmured.

Clarke spread his arms out apologetically. “I’d speak to Corry myself about it, but he’s not keen on talking to me either. Not since he discovered how I’d apparently ‘let Julie close herself off again’. As if there was anything I could have done to stop her.”

Laurie bit down hard on her lower lip. “Why should I help?”

Her words were so quiet that Clarke wondered if he hadn’t misheard. “What?”

“Why should I help?” Laurie repeated, louder. “W-Why should I be the one to fix things with you and Julie?? I mean golly, Clarke, this’ll be the second time I do it, or don’t you remember how I told you stuff about Corry’s plans before Julie’s birthday last year? Which only allowed her the chance to hurt you like this now! Gods, Clarke, I don’t like seeing you hurt, I don’t like seeing what she’s doing to you when she ignores…” The redhead forced herself to stop, swallowing hard. “Julie isn’t good for you, Clarke. Why do you keep going back to her? WHY?”

“Because,” Clarke replied, now unable to meet Laurie’s gaze. “She needs me.”

“Maybe she’s not the only one.”

Silence hung in the Veniti sitting room, neither teen able to look at the other. Laurie finally spoke again. “I’ll talk to Corry.”

“Laurie…”

“I’ll talk to Corry!” Laurie repeated. “So let me know when Julie needs to show up at your house or whatever and I’ll see if we can work it out. I’m not promising anything, but I swear I’ll try because it’s you.”

Clarke reached out to take her hand. “Thank you, Laurie. I… I owe you one. Two. Big time. I’m sorry that you had to become involved in this way. Really I am.”

Laurie met Clarke’s gaze and immediately turned away, trying not to blush again as he squeezed her hand gently. The warmth in her cheeks told her the effort was futile. Just as futile as all her efforts had been to get Clarke to notice her. Perhaps, she thought to herself, this was a sign that was truly time to move on. “It’s nothing,” she murmured. “Don’t worry about it…”

Carrie sat quietly on the couch in the Clarke’s basement, staring up at Mary. Sizing her up, as she no doubt suspected Mary was doing to her. Of course, the two of them were alone, as Carrie had requested (well, demanded) that Clarke not be present while they talked.

“So,” the elder blonde girl said to her at last. “Time travel?”

“Time travel,” Carrie repeated back, her tone even. “It’s possible. I can do it. I have done it. Nevertheless, I don’t expect you to believe a word of it.”

Mary ran a hand back through her hair before taking a seat next to Carrie. “Look, I’m not calling you, or anyone else a liar,” she assured. “But a claim like that? I need to see proof.”

‘My very EXISTENCE is the proof,’ Carrie thought to herself. But of course, she couldn’t say that. “Then I’ll give you the best demonstration I can,” she stated. “After that, if you’re willing, I would like to speak with you briefly on a related matter. Then tomorrow you can speak with Julie, or not… it’s none of my business.”

Mary offered up a partial smile. “Well, time travel or no, at the very least it looks like Phil’s friends have their share of personal difficulties.”

“Whatever petty problems anyone else has, I can top them in a heartbeat,” Carrie shot back. She felt vindicated to see the smile fade from Mary’s expression, yet at the same time, she also had a tinge of regret for being so harsh. She reached up to tug lightly on a few strands of her hair. “I’ll need a coin,” she continued before she could dwell on the matter. “A quarter or loonie would be best. One of yours, so you know it’s not a trick.”

“All right,” Mary said, reaching into her pants pocket and pulling a quarter out.

“Toss it on the coffee table there,” Carrie continued. Mary did so. “Now,” the blonde sighed, “watch the quarter closely. Please try to avoid blinking… I very much doubt I’ll be able to do this more than once without resting in between.”

Mary shot her a bit of a perplexed look before shrugging and turning her attention to the coin. As did Carrie, reaching her palm out as she concentrated on the piece of metal. Her eyes closed. With effort, she pinpointed the quarter among the infinite drops of water that were flowing through the stream that was time itself.

It wasn’t easy. It would have been simpler to touch the object, but in that case, surely Mary would cry foul. Carrie’s body shook slightly as sweat broke out on her forehead. Almost… there! She had it! Doing everything she could to avoid making her next move a conscious one, Carrie kicked at the droplet with her mind.

NEXT: Killer Conversation. Consider ye olde WFG vote.

PREVIOUSLY: In Book 3, Carrie destroyed the time machine and Julie broke up with Clarke.

PART 71a: SHRINK RAP

“Okay…” The word was hesitant, unsure. “Phil, you know what you just said, right? You’re telling me that, last November, or just under a year ago, Julie stole a time machine. Which she used to travel BACK to the year when she was born – whereby she tried to prevent her own BIRTH??"

“I know, it sounds crazy,” Clarke admitted. “And since then, Julie’s used it to stop people from the future who want to mess with our timeline. But Mary, I swear to God, it’s all true! And since Julie can’t explain any of that stuff to her regular psychologist, you’re the only one who can help her! After all, you’re studying psych in University!"

Clarke’s sister stared at him for a moment before raking her hand back through her short, dark blonde hair. “Phil… it sure sounds like someone needs counselling…”

“Not ME,” Clarke protested. “Just ask Carrie. Wait, no, she’s not talking to us - ask Frank or Luci. There really IS a time machine, and I think that’s part of why Julie has been adamant about retreating from everyone. Including me!”

Mary sighed and walked over to the window of Clarke’s bedroom, staring at the streetlights outside. She remained that way for a moment before turning back to him. “All right,” she said evenly. “All right bro, if this really IS true, what PROOF do you have?”

Clarke relaxed. “Give me a day.”

“What do you mean the time machine has been destroyed?!”

Frank reached under his glasses to press his thumb and index finger to the bridge of his nose. “If you must know, Carrie did it,” he said quietly. “She junked it after she got out of the hospital last week.”

“But… but… WHY??” Clarke asked. He realized that he’d raised his voice, and a few people in the school library were turning to stare. Quickly, he slipped into a chair next to Frank at the table. “Why?” he repeated, softer.

“I don’t know,” Frank continued, after observing the other students going back about their business. “She’s not talking to me about it. Heck, the only person she spends time with any more is Glen. My best guess is it had something to do with…”

He gestured at the far section of the library. It was still undergoing some repair after the van that had crashed into the building some three weeks earlier. When Mindy had come back from the future, only to be banished from their time by Carrie.

“But… look, Frank, I wasn’t kidding. I’ve got to convince my sister that this thing exists, so that she’ll agree to help Julie! And Mary’s only in town for the next three days, until this Sunday morning, so it has to be fast! Maybe… I don’t know, maybe somehow a message can be sent into the past, like the way we convinced Corry? Or could we convince Jeeves to get us into the mansion without Julie knowing, so that we can show Linquist’s old lab to her? Or…”

Frank slammed his textbook closed, cutting off Clarke’s voice. “Look,” he began, and for the first time Clarke noticed the pain in his friend’s voice. “The time machine is gone. The group is gone. I’ve tried speaking to Carrie, and she’s not talking. So there’s nothing short of a miracle that’s going to change her mind about things.” Frank paused. “I’m sorry, Clarke. There’s nothing I can do for you.”

Clarke clenched his hands into fists, then relaxed them. “I’ll find someone else who can help then,” he decided. “I’m not going to let this drop. I can’t! Julie deserves better.”

When Frank didn’t lift his gaze to meet Clarke’s, the tall boy stood and walked out of the library.

“Carrie, are we still talking?”

The response wasn’t immediate, and when it came, it sounded reserved. Wary, even. “Yes, but not about our powers,” Carrie said to her, without turning to meet her gaze.

Chartreuse tried not to fidget with the crystal around her neck. “Okay. It’s not about those. It’s, like, about Clarke. He wants his sister to help counsel Julie, but to do that properly he needs, you know, proof of time travel. And, well, now you’re the only one left who… who can…” Her voice faltered as Carrie finally turned to face her, with an expression that was part anger, part sadness.

“That’s about POWERS, Chartreuse!”

“Only indirectly,” Chartreuse protested. “Like, I dunno, maybe you could have Glen do something mentally for Mary instead? Please Carrie, PLEASE don’t be mad…" It felt like a hand closing around her heart.

Carrie finished pulling her gym bag out of her locker, then slammed it closed and leaned her head against it. “Chartreuse, you helped me through a REALLY difficult time. You have no idea how much I appreciate that. But if you’re going to bring this up after I expressly said to NEVER–"

“Carrie, come on, it’s Julie! Our friend! She’s, you know, closed off even worse than you, and I mean, it’s gotta be because of what we, like, all got up to together! Right?”

“That’s not my–" Carrie cut herself off. Then she muttered something, and Chartreuse wasn’t certain, but it sounded like ‘Timeline Two’. The blonde girl pushed herself away from her locker. “Tell Clarke I’ll think about it.”

“Okay,” Chartreuse said, unable to hold back her relief. Though as Carrie began to walk away, it occurred to her to add, “Are we… still good?”

“I’ll think about that too,” Carrie said, again without turning. “Right now, I need to get the cheerleaders ready for the big game.”

Chartreuse bobbed her head. “R-Right, I’ll be watching!” And trying not to picture myself in your arms, she added mentally. She shuddered, wondering just how much longer she was going to torture herself with the feelings she had… feelings that Carrie didn’t seem to return.

“Hello,” Mary Clarke said as she walked into the front foyer, drying her hands on a dish towel. “Mom said you came here looking for me…?”

“Yeah,” Luci replied. The girl hesitated. “Can we talk somewhere private? Where your parents won’t walk in on us?”

Mary hesitated, then gestured down the hall. “Basement’s as good a place as any. I’m staying down on the sofa bed this weekend; never had my own room in this house.” She glanced at the clock. “Though we’ll all be leaving to get to Phil’s basketball game shortly…”

“I won’t be long," Luci said slowly. “Thing is, if I leave… I don’t think I’ll be back."

“Let’s start a conversation then," Mary decided, venturing a smile.

The young asian girl frowned, but ultimately nodded. It took at least a minute after they proceeded downstairs for her to speak again. “Clarke tells me you’re pursuing a psychology degree,” Luci began at last. “That he wants you to counsel Julie.”

Mary nodded. “Look… Luci, is it? If this is about that time travel stuff he was telling me about last night–”

“It’s not,” Luci interrupted. “It’s personal. There’s some issues that I… I need to talk to someone about. And if Clarke has confidence in you, then I do too.”

Mary tried not to wince. She was tempted to tell this young girl that all she could realistically do would be to offer a referral, but there was something in Luci’s tone… Mary gestured to the couch instead. “Have a seat. But know that I’m only fourth year university, so if this is big stuff, I might have to bring in an actual professional.”

Luci sat on the edge of the couch. “I understand. I’ve had professional counselling before,” she asserted. “But I don’t want that, not this time. Not when… when…” Her fists clenched on her jeans, and her head bowed.

“Okay, ease up,” Mary soothed. “What’s this all about?"

Luci sat unmoving for a moment, and when she lifted her gaze again, there were tears dancing in the corners of her eyes. “I was abused by the next door neighbour as a child, which is affecting me now in ways I never thought possible.”

Mary exhaled. “Oh, loverly. You don’t pull any punches, do you."

Luci leapt to her feet. “And I know what you’re about to say," she said, pacing across the floor. “That you’re not the person to take this to. But I told you, I’ve been to the pros once before, and all that’ll do here is ensure that everyone at school gets to know I’m a head case. Again. I don’t want that! Because I don’t have psychological scars, I don’t, I dealt with it back then, I… I… damn it, the issue is, I don’t know why this memory has been emerging lately!”

Mary paused. “Don’t you?” she asked quietly.

Luci opened her mouth, then closed it, and finally threw herself back onto the couch, crossing her arms. “FINE. Maybe I do. Linford, Linquist, you don’t have to be a genius to spot the name similarity… except, transference aside, I KNOW they’re different people. And the log book didn’t trigger the crumbling memory block. So the timing is WEIRD. It’s like one evening I was simply thinking about Frank and then the images just…” She stopped, closing her eyes and thunking her head back into a pillow. “I shouldn’t have come here. I’m sorry.”

“Wait,” Mary said, raising her hand to stop Luci as the young girl moved to stand. “How is Frank involved?”

Luci paused, then settled herself back on the couch. “He hasn’t done anything to hurt me, if that’s what you’re thinking,” the young girl countered. “He’s been great, when I see him. Granted, of late I hardly see him, I’ve been more obsessed with this notebook I found because… okay, you want the Reader’s Digest version of my life?”

In for a penny, in for a pound. Mary nodded. “Might help.”

Luci took in a deep breath. “I’m adopted. No idea who my real parents were. The Primroses got me out of the orphanage when I was six. I was put into school with kids a year younger than me because I’d never applied myself in learning. There was also this neighbour, Mr. Linford, who… who took a fancy to me.”

Her jaw tightened. “I didn’t know at first. No one did. I thought he was a great guy, letting me use his pool. Then once I realized, once he started making advances… well, I liked my new parents, and my school, so I didn’t want to raise a fuss for fear of getting sent back. To the orphanage, I mean. By the time I finally told my mom about what he’d done, he’d flown the coop.”

“Is that when you got the professional counselling you mentioned?” Mary inquired as Luci took an extended pause.

“Yeah,” came the eventual answer. “I said I didn’t want any, but my parents insisted I speak with someone. After those sessions, I did feel better, I’d accepted it wasn’t my fault - and I closed it off. I thought I could shoot for happier memories. But maybe it was still hard to get close to people? I’ve chalked that up to my above average intelligence - heck, I’ve skipped three grades and I’m two years younger than my peers - but I guess it’s more. It wasn’t until I got to know Frank that I thought I could finally…” She stopped again.

Mary smiled gently. “Tell me about Frank.”

“Frank.” Luci pressed two fingers to her forehead. “Well… he’s intelligent, like me. With book smarts, that is, he’s SO clueless with people at times. He’s also… how do I put this? He likes me for who I am, and not in a bad way. Before him, I was all about growing up as fast as possible. Now I’m not so sure.”

“Is he the only one who likes you for yourself?”

Luci squirmed. “I guess not. But his opinion is the most important, since we’re kinda dating.”

“Kinda?” Mary kept her tone carefully neutral.

“Okay, we’re dating,” Luci yielded. “But we drifted over the summer. He spent more time on temporal mechanics than dating mechanics. And then when school started, he was more concerned about Carrie’s boyfriend Glen than me! Which… okay, I have to accept that in retrospect, because of who he turned out to be. But at this point, me and Frank aren’t talking any more.”

“Because he’s been brushing you off?”

“Yes! Well, okay, no. Not since I called him on it last month. Actually, he even took me to a school dance.” Luci slumped down in her seat. “Look, I see where you’re going with this. You think I should have talked to Frank instead of you. That he’d be more than willing to help me out, once I’ve confessed to him the deeper issues behind why I’ve gone all notebook vendetta on Linquist.” She thunked her head back again. “Maybe you’re even right. But there’s a bigger emotional issue at stake!”

Mary stared at the girl on her couch in mild fascination. In fact, that hadn’t been where she was going with this at all; she hadn’t even had a destination in mind. The use of questioning to allow the patient to arrive at their own conclusions… it was more effective than she’d thought. She wondered what her next question should be.

“What emotional issue is that?” Mary continued.

The silence that followed stretched long enough that she thought she’d finally said the wrong thing. But then Luci spoke again.

“It’s this," the young girl whispered. “The sense of joy and happiness I got when working on bringing down Linquist… it’s like the same feeling I got when I was going out with Frank. Which doesn’t seem right. It implies that both are simply a way I’ve been tackling that abuse from when I was young. Yet if THAT’S true then, well…" Luci looked back up at Mary, searching her expression carefully. “Mary… how does someone know if they’re truly in love?”

Mary’s eyebrow began to twitch. “Whoa boy.”

TIME & TIED

TT (Time & Tied) presents…

STORY 4: RESOLUTION

You can start reading ARC 1 below, no prior knowledge necessary! Or for added context, consider:

In BOOK 1:	In BOOK 2:	In BOOK 3:
A time machine appeared in the present.	Carrie learned she was tied to time.	Timelines were irrevocably altered.

NOW: The time machine is gone, but one huge issue remains… how can Carrie and the others in her high school fight against the future, when that future is Carrie Waterson herself?

INDEX: RESOLUTION

**CAUTION: No graphic language, but some issues involving people being psychologically abusive to minors. See T&T Cast List or WFG Listing.

ARC 1: SEPARATED

4.01: Shrink Rap + Psych Doubt

4.02: Killer Conversation + That’s a Wrap

4.03: Four Part Harmony + Dominant Note

4.04: Leading Tone + The Mediant

4.05: Hi Anxiety + More Questioning

4.06: Bad Signs + New Recruit

4.07: Double Blind + Timeline Five?

ARC 2: MOTIVATED

4.08: Cheer Up + Connecting

4.09: Truth and Consequences + Cross Purposes

4.10: Vanishing Act + Not Forgotten

4.11: Mum’s the Word + Do You Mindy?

4.12: Remaking History + After Effects

4.13: Temporal Alignment + Double Trouble

4.14: Adjustments + Crossing Paths

4.15: Powering Up + Closing The Loop

4.16: Miami is Nice + M.I.A.

4.17: The Plain Truth + Trapped

4.18: Getaway + Future Imperfect (bonus: A Future Darkly)

4.19: Identity Crisis + Timeline Three

ARC 4: TERMINATED

4.20: Fight the Future + Insight the Future

4.21: Reunite the Future + Rewrite the Future

4.22: Storming the Castle + Veni Vidi Veniti

4.23: Nowhere to Run + Timeline Four Redux

4.24: Realignment + Buffy’s Return

4.25: Endgame + Carrie Versus Herself

4.26: The Ultimate Paradox, Resolution, Respite II

Thanks for reading!