We got back to the warehouse around 10am. I was sure it would be bussling with activity by now, except for the fact that so much had been destroyed and people would be trying to make sense of it all.
"Maybe we could have come back sooner," I said.
"And do what?" Jason asked.
"Explain to them what's going on."
Jason looked at me skeptically. "You mean tell them that you destroyed their jobs?"
I sighed. "Okay, maybe not that," I admitted. "But Maria is gone and we don't know where. But we do know that she was using this place for her own person agenda and experiments, and I don't think other people knew that. The woman I encountered last night, she didn't even know I had been held captive, but she did seem to think Maria favored me."
"Yeah, unless she was one of Maria's spies or something," Jason noted.
I shook my head. "I saw the fear and confusion on people's faces in the future. I don't think they knew."
"So what do you propose?" Jason asked.
"I go in there, again," I said. "Except this time, instead of confronting Maria, I address the rest of the agency."
"And what if they are on her side?" Jason asked.
"Well, in that case, maybe they do deserve the destruction I saw in the future."
"Are you telling me you do want to release that video if you don't come out this time?"
I sighed. "I don't know," I said. "I wonder..." I turned and looked at him. "You should come with me."
He chuckled. "I wanted to come with you the first time, to confront Maria," he said. "What good would I do now."
"You could tell your story," I said. I looked towards the warehouse. "Those aren't bad people in there," I said. "I have to believe that. Maria was always the one in charge. Now that Maria is gone to who knows where, we have to tell them, show them, that she's been after her own agenda this whole time." I looked back at Jason. "And you're an important part of that."
"But they won't even remember me," he said. "Why would they believe me?"
"You don't know they won't remember you," I said. "Would Maria really wipe everyone?"
"It's the people she didn't wipe that I'd be worried about," Jason said.
"Why?" I asked. "Because you think not being wiped means they're on her side? She didn't wipe your parents. She just lied to them. And they certainly aren't on her side."
Jason sighed. "I suppose that's true," he admitted. "But still, what do you really hope to accomplish?"
I paused for a moment, collecting my thoughts, and said, "Well, we tried telling the world the truth, or a limited version of it, and though you haven't seen the results, I can tell you that didn't work out so well. I tried hiding, destroying the truth, and that's what got us into this situation where I don't know what to do about all the other people who work at the agency. I think the best thing to do now is tell the truth to the rest of the people who work there, the people who already know the truth about time travel and deserve to know the truth about Maria."
"And what about the truth about what you did to all the time travel lotion?" Jason asked.
I sighed. "I'm not sure," I said. "I'm tempted to lie about that and say Maria herself destroyed it all, but... can I really come in saying I'm going to tell the truth and then lie about that?"
"Probably not," Jason said.
I took another deep breath and let it out slowly. "I think I'm just going to have to come clean on everything and hope people understand."
Jason reached over and squeezed my hand. "I think that's the real reason you want me in there with you," he said, "so that you aren't alone in this."
I looked over at him and allowed myself a small smile. "I suppose there is some truth to that," I said.
"But don't get me wrong," Jason said. "I'm still happy to just stand by and let you do all the talking."
I laughed. I actually laughed. "Well you'll probably have to do a little bit of talking."
Jason sighed, sounding exasperated, but smiling. "I suppose I can do that if I have to."
"They might hate us," I said. "They might destroy us."
"But they also might trust and believe us," Jason said.
"We can only hope," I said. I gave Jason a nod and then a reassuring hand squeeze. "Okay, are you ready?"
"No," he said, "but let's do it anyway."
As I walked into the warehouse with Jason following close behind me, it seemed at first the usual empty looking front that it was, but as we got deeper into where the real action happened, I saw real confusion, too. People were milling about in the halls whispering, clearly unsure what to do.
I recognized a fellow time traveler who seemed to recognize me. "Anna!" she exclaimed. She came over and gave me a hug, even though we didn't know each other all that well. Then she pulled back and sadly asked, "Did you hear what happened? All the destruction? And Maria is missing!"
I sighed and I felt Jason's hand reassuringly on my back. "Yes, I have heard," I said, "and I want to talk about it. Do you think you could gather some people into the cafeteria for a meeting?"
The woman, whose name I think was Clara, looked a bit confused, but said, "Okay, Anna. With Maria not around, I don't know who is really in charge, but that seems like a good idea."
She turned back to the person she had been talking to and after exchanging a nod, the two of them set off presumably to gather up others for this little meeting. Jason and I continued down the hall, towards the source of my double's destruction of the science lab.
Even I let out a little gasp at the source of destruction. "I hadn't seen it before," I whispered to Jason. "The other me did this."
"Well, she did a pretty thorough job," Jason whispered back.
As we stepped into the lab, I stepped on a bit of broken glass and the crunching noise seemed to attract the attention of the lab personnel who were trying in vain to clean up the mess. "Uh, we're having a meeting in the cafeteria," I said.
The people in the lab seemed to respond well. A few of them nodded, a few others whispered to one another, but all of them moved towards the door and followed me and Jason out.
I was starting to feel a bit optimistic. Maybe these people would listen to me. Maybe would I would be able to pull this off after all. In retrospect, I probably got a bit too optimistic too soon. It was as we approached the weapons locker when we finally encountered someone who was not quite so happy to see me.
We noticed people gathering some weapons, but seemingly not quite sure what they were planning to do, when one of the men there caught my gaze, looked a bit surprised, and the allowed a look of pure anger to wash over his face. "That's her!" he shouted. "She's the one! She escaped! She must have done it!"
Those were by far the most words my prison guard had said in the entire times (both of them) that he had watched over me. Fortunately for me, the others with him were holding him back as he lunged at me and one of them asked him, "What are you talking about?"
"Maria told me she was dangerous," he said. "That's why I was watching her. But she escaped somehow."
"Wait a minute," a woman's voice said. I saw the woman who had caught me breaking into the grenade case. "That's Anna. She was here last night, but she was here for Maria. Or that's what she said." She looked at me carefully and then looked back at the guard skeptically. "Are you telling me that Maria's top time traveler agent was actually being held captive by Maria herself?"
The guard suddenly looked a bit unsure, but then he looked back at me, still simmering but at least not outright raging, and said, "I don't really know who she is. I just knew that Maria had her locked in the dungeon."
"What dungeon?" I heard someone ask. That at least gave me hope. I wasn't the only one from whom Maria had been keeping secrets.
"I don't know about a dungeon either," the woman I had seen the night before said, much to my relief, "but I do know that Anna was always one of Maria's favorites. It was clear whatever was in that storage room was blown up by grenades, and I did she Anna getting them, but still, none of this make any sense."
The crowd was starting to grumble a bit now, and I wasn't so sure it was in my favor, so I just held out my hands and said, "Listen, I know you all have questions, but I promise, I have at least some answers. We're meeting in the cafeteria, if you want to listen to what I have to say."
"Why should we listen to you?" the guard asked again.
"Because she's the only one who can explain what happened last night," Jason said stepping forward.
"And who on earth are you?" the guard sneered.
"My name is Jason," Jason said. "And I used to work here."
"I don't remember you," the woman who had been somewhat defending me said.
"I do," another voice said. A man I didn't recognize stepped forward and said, "You were one of my trainees. Maria told me you died on a mission and that I shouldn't talk about it to anyone." He looked at me and added, "Especially you. The two of you were dating and Maria said you would be heartbroken."
"Angry is more like it," I said.
He looked concerned. "Is that why you torched this place?" he asked. Then he started to look a little more concerned. "What did you do to Maria? Where is she?"
The crowd started to grumble again, but I wasn't sure what to say. Thankfully, Jason stepped in again. "We don't know where Maria is," he said honestly. "Please, just give us a chance to explain. Or at least, give Anna a chance to explain."
"Why should we trust her?" the guard asked.
"Well," Jason said, "she could have killed you, right? But she didn't."
"That doesn't count for much," the guard said.
"It has to count for something," Jason said.
The guard and the rest of the crowd looked at Jason, looked at me, looked at each other, and then I started to see nods of agreement. "Well, okay," the guard said. "I'll hear what you have to say, but don't think I'll believe too much of it."
And with that not so enthusiastic agreement, but still agreement, we led the last of the crowd off to the cafeteria.
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