Walking through the time travel agency compound after Jason freed me as he carried the unconscious Maria over his back was a bizarre experience. I saw people everywhere, more than I had expected to see. Some of them I recognized as fellow former employees. Some of these employees looked terrified and others looked liberated. Many, many people I didn't know were running through the halls. Fortunately, I didn't see anyone with the hand cream, but I did see plenty of people running around with the digital documents, waving them wildly over their heads.
Needless to say, this was not what I had intended. In retrospect, I shouldn't have been too surprised. I just never expected my message to have gotten this broad and to be latched onto by so many people. Some of the people were very young, like Jason's sister's age. This prompted me to ask Jason, "Is Melanie here?"
I could barely hear him over the noise of the crowds, but I noticed him shake his head. "She wanted to come, but I told her to stay at home," he said.
"That was wise," I shouted back. I wasn't sure if he heard me or not.
I overheard someone going around demanding to find Maria, asking who Maria Rodriguez was.
"Keep going," I muttered to Jason, again not sure if he could hear me. I didn't want some anarchist or thug to get a hold of my former boss. I might be angry at her, but ultimately, I didn't want her dead. This whole thing was supposed to be about saving people, not destroying them.
When we finally emerged from the chaos, my ears started ringing from the silence. I turned to Jason, and feeling a horror that must have been displayed on my face, asked him, "What have we done?"
"We've shown the world the truth," he said.
"I suppose," I admitted. "But were they really ready for it?"
He tried to shrug, but seemed to find it difficult with Maria slung over his back. "I don't know," he said. "But its too late to go back now."
I looked at him, I looked back at the door we had just emerged from. "Is it?" I asked.
"Anna, what are you...?"
"Give me the key," I demanded.
"What key?"
"The key to the cell you found me in."
"Anna, are you...?"
"Probably," I said. "Please, just trust me one more time."
"Okay..." He sounded very reluctant, but he handed the key over to me and I stuffed it in my jacket pocket. When had I gotten this jacket? I know I didn't have it in the jail cell. Had Jason given it to me? I couldn't quite remember. It didn't matter. All that mattered was that it had pockets.
"Now get Maria out of here," I ordered him. "I know what I have to do. What I really have to do." Before he had time to react, I was rushing back into the fray, the sniper rifle still flung over my back. I saw people getting into fist fights, shouting, screaming. I had thought this was a brilliant plan. I had thought this would be it. I had only now realized that this would not be it.
I knew now that I needed to protect time travel from all these people, and all these people from time travel. It had to be destroyed, but first, there was one important mission I still had to go on, and it went against absolutely everything they had ever taught me at the academy.
Now, I had already seen evidence that time travel could indeed alter the past, but I wasn't sure that what I had done previously would be quite on the same paradoxical level as what I was about to do now. But I didn't see a better way. I had made a mess, and now I needed to clean it up one last time.
I dodged the masses of humanity and made my way to my first stop at the armory where I managed to find a box of sniper rifle rounds. I loaded the one I could into my rifle and pocketed the rest, just glad that the guns were more secure than the ammo and that the rioters didn't seem to have found the heavy weaponry yet.
Next it was on to the science lab. The lab was usually secured, surprisingly more secure than the armory, but the door had been practically torn off its hinges, or so it appeared. I felt my pulse beating faster as I entered. Fortunately, there weren't a lot of people here still, and even more fortunately, I noticed the hidden panel in the wall was completely undisturbed. I walked over to it and laid my hand on it. I was a little scared Maria would have removed me from the system, but I was again fortunate to find that it still opened up. Inside this hidden safe place, I saw what I was looking for: twelve tiny vials of the time traveling hand cream. With a smile, I shoveled 11 of them into the coat that I was wearing. I wasn't quite sure where the coat had come from. Had Jason put it on me? It didn't matter. All that mattered was that it had pockets. I opened the twelfth vial, rubbed it on my hands, and closed my eyes as I focused as carefully as I could on the spot I remembered outside my jail cell that was hidden in shadow behind where the guard had sat or stood while watching me.
I felt the dizziness and nausea kick in and as I knew it was working, I hoped and prayed that Maria had gone home that night. When I opened my eyes again, there I was, standing in that corner, noticing the guard just start to turn around at the noise I must have unintentionally made while arriving here. It seemed like the world was moving in slow motion as I sprang forward and banged him over the head with the rifle before he could finish turning.
He didn't go down right away, so I had to hit him again, which I managed to do before he could grab me and I watched as he went tumbling to the ground with a clatter that I hoped only one other person could hear. When I looked up from his unconscious body, I saw that one other person: me in the jail cell, just waking up and blinking my eyes several times as I beheld the sight before me.
"What on earth are you doing?" the me from the past demanded. "This was never the plan."
"Well, plans change," I said, hurrying up to the old steel door and jamming the key into it.
"Why?" the other me asked as I started to swing the door open.
"Chaos," I said.
"We knew that was a possibility," she said.
"We didn't consider just how bad it would be," I said.
She looked worried. Her brow wrinkled. Was that really what I looked like when I was nervous and thinking about something? It wasn't that appealing. "How bad was it?" she asked. "Did people... die."
"Not yet," I said, "but they very well could."
"You mean not yet in this timeline or not yet in the one you came from?" she asked.
"Both," I said. I sighed. "I know you like to try to plan things out, but I'm telling you, we didn't think this first plan through enough. This other one, this half backed plan is much better. Now come on, follow me."
"What are we going to do?" I asked behind me.
I turned and faced me. "We thought getting the truth out there was the answer," I said. "But now I see that destroying it all... that's actually the way to go."
"And how do we stop them from just doing all this again?" the me from the past asked.
I paused at that and then shrugged. "One problem at a time," I said. "I saw what happens if I don't come back here. That's why I came back here. Now come on. It's time to cause our own organized chaos."
And with that, I opened the door to that dank dungeon and started shooting out security cameras as I crept down the hall with the other me following.
Unfortunately, I wasn't sure how many other employees or guards were around. I didn't want to have to kill anybody, but the whole reason I had brought the gun was just in case. I was hoping, too, that my other self could do better the next time through, if it worked that way. I internally shook my head as I contemplated that I really didn't know. I was in completely uncharted territory here. Time travel 101 is limit interaction with your own self. The most I had interacted with myself from another time line before now was when I had seen my baby self on my mother's hip when I went back in time to tell her to make me into a time traveler. Now, here I was running down the hallway with me, taking out cameras, navigating towards the storage areas I knew I didn't have access to, and now getting nervous not about the possibility of guards, but the lack of guards.
I had thought this was going to be harder. Why didn't we make it this easy to begin with? Wasn't it odd that now that Maria knew I was a threat, she seemed to have less security that I should have merited? Was she really that cocky as to think that I wouldn't have found some way to escape? Apparently she was since she had been surprised by my video summons in the previous time line. Maybe I shouldn't think about it too much, I decided. If I did, my head might explode.
We had just made it to the hallway that led to the prize I was after - the supply of time travel lotion - when I finally saw a guard. He was walking the hall, back and forth, but for some stupid reason, he had a sniper rifle. I looked down at the gun in my own hands. Same model. Could be a different gun. Could be the same one. Time travel was weird.
If it was the same gun I was holding, was it loaded? It hadn't been when Jason gave it to me. But why would a guard be marching around with an unloaded gun? But then again, why would he be marching around with a sniper rifle. The agency had never been this inept, had they? It was strange, but I decided not to think about it too much. I waited until the guard's back was turned and then decked him in the head just like I had the prison guard. This one went down right away.
I took the weapon off of him and checked to see if it loaded. It was after all. "Here," I said, handing the gun to my other self.
"I think you've taken out all the cameras," she said.
"I think I have, too," I said, "but you still might need this."
She looked shocked and slightly disappointed. "We aren't a killer," she said. "That's what this whole thing has been all about."
"Except for the elephant," I said.
She frowned. "Except for the elephant," she agreed. "I was thinking that," she said, "but I was hoping you wouldn't mention it. I guess I should have known better."
"Probably," I agreed. "Now let's do this."
"Destroy it all?" she asked.
I nodded. "It's amazing the difference just two days can make," I said.
"It's amazing the difference two minutes can make," she said.
I tried to open the door. It was locked. Of course it was locked. I had always been told not to go in this door, that it was only for the scientists who prepared us for the journeys, but I guess they didn't trust as all that much after all.
"See if he has a key card or something," I said, still jiggling the door pointlessly. When I turned back, it appeared I had already started doing what I had told me to do even before I suggested doing it.
The other me shook her head. "Nothing," she said.
I sighed. "I should have gotten it from the future," I said. "What was I thinking?"
"Probably that you didn't want to have to go into Maria's office," the other me said. "She's sure to have it, and she's also the last person I'd want to see right now."
"In the future, Maria was unconscious," I told me. "There's no chance I'd run into her."
"Well, I still wouldn't really want to go into her office again," past me said. "That's where she caught us before."
"And we don't want it to be where she catches us again," I said. I sighed. "Alright," I said, "the past is in the past, or the future's in the future, or whatever. We've got to go. At least there's two of us now so I can guard the door while you search."
"Or the other way around," she said.
I couldn't help but grin. "Does it really matter?" I asked.
I continued to be surprised as we made it to Maria's office without incident. Her door was locked, but I just shot out the lock.
"You should watch your ammo," past me said. "How am I going to have enough to go do this all over again."
I smiled to myself, and also at myself. "We'll get more ammo," I said. "We pretty much have to."
"Yeah," I agreed.
"Now start searching," I said.
"Okay," she agreed. "But only because you asked so nicely." And she started rummaging through drawers and cabinets and various personal effects of Maria.
"For a supreme overlord, she sure is messy," the searching me said. I shushed her and she said more quietly, "Sorry, I haven't seen the future you have yet."
"The goal is that you won't," I said.
I heard the rummaging stop for a moment. I glanced back at her as she stood looking at me, but then looked quickly back at the door. "Are you sure that won't make the world explode or something?" she asked.
"Nope," I said, "but I'm a bit worried the world was going to explode anyway. Now please keep looking."
"It's a bit ironic that we're now trying to stop the thing that Maria sent us back to stop to begin with by stopping Maria, isn't it?" the other me asked.
"Except we're trying to do it without killing anyone," I said. "Now please, keep looking."
The rummaging noises continued for a while and then I heard other me say, "Huh, that's interesting."
"What is?" I asked, turning away from the door.
"This picture," the other me said, holding up one of those digital pocket display things. I walked over to her and looked at it.
My eyes grew wide at what I saw. "That looks a lot like..."
"Maria with an older version of Jason," the other me finished. "But it isn't him. The chin is to wide, the cheek bones too prominent and the eyes are the wrong color."
"Those are all things that could be altered," I pointed out.
The original me shrugged. "I suppose," she said. "But it seems unlikely." Then she held the photo out to me. "Here," she said, "this might be useful."
"How?" I asked her.
She shrugged and set the photo down on the desk. "If you don't know then I don't know either," she said. "Why don't we keep looking?"
I was about to point out that my job was to guard the door when I realized that I was no longer doing my job and also that I heard footsteps approaching. Other me and I exchanged a glance and then she darted into the corner of the room while I stood with my rifle pointed at the door frame. It was less than two seconds later when I very shocked looking Maria barged in.
"You!" she exclaimed looking at me. "I should have known you would find a way to..."
She didn't finish her sentence as I saw her eyes roll back. She fell to the floor as other me looked triumphant. "Since I'd seen you do it to the guards, I knew I could do it to Maria," she said proudly.
"Yeah, yeah," I said. "Just close the door."
As she did so, I started looking through the stuff she had been searching and then smirked a little as I found the key cards at the bottom of the pile she had been examining when she found the photo. "Alright, I found them," I said. "Now let's get out of here." I started to move towards the door with the key cards when I stopped, took a step back and grabbed the photo.
"I think you might be right about this coming in handy," I said.
She smiled. "We're always right, aren't we?" she teased.
"Not really," I said.
She frowned at that. "No, not really," she admitted. Then she sighed and asked, "Can't I just give myself a break?"
"Not until this is done," I said. "Now come on. Let's go finish this." And with that, we left Maria lying on the ground as we hurried back towards the secret room that was supposed to hold the secret stash of all the time travel cream in existence, other than a small emergency supply of twelve emergency vials, eleven of which were in my coat and the other twelve of which were still in the lab.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Nanowrimo 2015-11-22
Well there you have it. I went from being a master of time and space to being stuck in a tiny little space of a cell and not even knowing what time it was. I mean, I could tell the rough time of day from the light coming through that tiny window way up where I couldn't reach or see. But I didn't know if I was still in my time.
At first I had assumed that they hadn't sent me back because I hadn't felt the usual nausea and temporary disorientation, but by the time I woke up in the cell, it was possible all that had passed. Then again, I have never been sent back while unconscious before, so maybe it wouldn't happen at all. I would have thought it wasn't possible to be sent back while unconscious because they always told you to focus on your destination when traveling back, but I wasn't convinced I knew anything anymore at that point. Their mind altering powers had turned out to be greater than I had thought. I was pretty sure they were hiding other things from me, too. I just hoped Jason was okay, that he could hold out until the greater help came.
Three days into my imprisonment, I was starting to get a little nervous. No one had come to talk to me. The only person I had seen was a silent guard type who brought me my food and water every day. I could not tell from his clothes, nor for the "delicacies" of bread, meat-like product, and mushy carrots that they fed me whether the year was 1950 and 2150. I tried to ask the man the date, being careful to say "date" specifically and not "year" so that if he wasn't in on the whole time travel thing he would think I just lost track of time, but he didn't say anything. Then I tried demanding legal counsel. He just smirked at that.
"At least tell me why I'm being held," I demanded, deciding to play dumb, just in case that might work.
It didn't work. He just smirked at me and said in a low, grumbly voice the only thing he ever said to me, "You know why."
That was the evening of day two that that exchange happened. I was waiting for my lunch on day three (they didn't give me breakfast), feeling nervous, when I heard the door open above me, but instead of my grumpy guard companion coming down the stairs with a tray, it was Maria. I hadn't expected to be so relieved to see her, but I was. Seeing her meant that I was in my own time, or at least that there would be a way she had to get back to my own time. He dour look on her face made me feel even greater joy. I knew it was time, past time in fact. Maybe she knew. Maybe she was scared. I did wish she looked a little more scared, but at that point, locked behind bars, I would settle for annoyance.
"Would you like to explain this to me?" she asked.
She didn't even have to flip the tablet around to show me. I already knew what she was talking about. She probably already knew that I already knew, but she flipped the tablet around anyway, and I couldn't help but smile as I saw my own face, looking serious, facing back at me. Maria pressed play and the me on the screen began to speak.
"My name is Maria Larue," the digital me began. "You might know me from school or through my parents or you might not know me at all. You're seeing this message because I'm being held hostage by a secretive agency that claims to value science and the good of the people, but in reality is run by a horrible monster named Maria Rodriguez. I know you have no reason to believe me just based on this video, so I invite you to come see for yourself. Go to building 586 in the Factory District of Old Hampton Village and you will see what appears to be an ordinary warehouse. But if Maria Rodriguez taught me anything, it's that looks can be deceiving. If you care about the truth, go find it, but be careful. Maria is not someone to be trifled with."
The playback ended and Maria sneered at me. "Not someone to be trifled with, huh?" she challenged. "If I'm not someone to be trifled with, then what the hell were you doing with that video."
"Raising an army," I said. "An army of truth seekers who aren't afraid of you."
"Only because they don't know enough to be afraid," Maria spat.
"I know enough, and I'm not afraid," I said.
"Really?" Maria challenged. Then she sighed and looked sad, almost like her old self, like the self I thought I could trust. She wore the face I had when I came back from that "failed" mission that prompted her to send me back to kill Connor/Jason. "I'm disappointed in you," Maria said quietly, almost sweetly. "Before I said I was proud of you for doing the right thing, but this? Exposing us? How can that be the right thing."
"I didn't say anything about time travel," I said. "I was going to. I thought about it. But I decided it was best to let people dig for the truth."
"Why?" Maria asked. I almost thought she was going to cry. "Why would you do this?"
I couldn't help myself. I sneered back at her. I hated Maria in that moment and I felt just a little bit evil. "If we happen to find an opportunity for an interesting side project, an experiment, of course we'll take it," I said.
Maria began to open her mouth as if she was going to say something, but a banging at the door interrupted her. "Maria, we need you up here," I heard a male voice mutter. I thought I recognized that voice, but I dared not hope.
Clearly, Maria didn't hear what I heard, which just shows how little she cares about anyone, because she called out, "Coming, coming."
I watched her climb up the stairs, but the next thing I knew she was tumbling back down them and landed at the bottom with a thud. My heart skipped a beat, fearful she might be dead, but then I saw her try to lift her head with a groan before she passed out.
My worry about Maria quickly passed as I saw who was coming down the stairs wielding a sniper rifle. I smiled at him and he smiled back. "Please tell me you have the keys," I said.
He jingled them in front of me. "It would be a pretty lame rescue attempt if I didn't," he said. "I'd have to try to shoot the lock."
"You know that's a sniper rifle, right?" I asked as he threw the gun over his shoulder on the strap and started opening the cage.
"Yeah, yeah," he said. "It doesn't even matter. It's not even loaded. I'm choosing to assume that most of the people here were just as much the victims as you and I. In fact, some of them even joined us in rushing this place."
"I am a little nervous about getting out of here," I said. "An angry mob was really supposed to be our last resort."
Jason nodded to Maria's unconscious form. "Well, she pushed us to this," he said. "If she hadn't locked you up, the video never would have gone out."
"At least she didn't lock you up," I said as the cell door swung open.
"It was a near miss," he admitted. "I saw someone coming towards my car right before you shouted for help. Driving away while you were calling out nearly killed me, but I stuck to the plan. If I was spotted outside the compound, I was supposed to run. So that's what I did. I feel awful about it, but I did it."
I smile and stroked his cheek. "My only fear was that you had stormed in on your own and gotten yourself captured, hurt, or killed," I said. "I'd much rather meet up with you again this way than have had you or your body in a cell beside me." I frowned then, finally looking at Maria again. "What should we do with her?" I asked.
Jason shrugged. "Leave her down here to rot. She is a monster and this seems like a fitting dungeon for the likes of her."
"She might be a monster," I admitted. "But she's still a human being as well, and seeing myself on that video screen... I fear I may have been a little too harsh on her."
Jason scoffed. "Too harsh? Not possible."
"Well at any rate," I said, "if we kill her, we're just doing to her what she asked me to do to you. We have to find a way to get her out safely, have her stand trial or something."
"How on earth do you stand trial for time travel crimes?" Jason rightfully wanted to know.
"I don't know," I admitted.
He sighed. "Alright," he said. "Here, you take the gun." He handed it to me. "Bullets or no bullets, you're probably better with it than I am. I'll carry her out of here like she was the held captive or something."
It was clear Jason did not like this plan any more than the plan where he had left me in this cell to rot for three days, but he trusted me, and so I smiled and said, "Thank you."
"Yeah, well, you saved me," he pointed out. "Saving you and then saving the person who imprisoned you is the least I could do."
I laughed, just a little. "Stay strong, Jason," I said, not knowing what else to say. "It will all be over soon."
At first I had assumed that they hadn't sent me back because I hadn't felt the usual nausea and temporary disorientation, but by the time I woke up in the cell, it was possible all that had passed. Then again, I have never been sent back while unconscious before, so maybe it wouldn't happen at all. I would have thought it wasn't possible to be sent back while unconscious because they always told you to focus on your destination when traveling back, but I wasn't convinced I knew anything anymore at that point. Their mind altering powers had turned out to be greater than I had thought. I was pretty sure they were hiding other things from me, too. I just hoped Jason was okay, that he could hold out until the greater help came.
Three days into my imprisonment, I was starting to get a little nervous. No one had come to talk to me. The only person I had seen was a silent guard type who brought me my food and water every day. I could not tell from his clothes, nor for the "delicacies" of bread, meat-like product, and mushy carrots that they fed me whether the year was 1950 and 2150. I tried to ask the man the date, being careful to say "date" specifically and not "year" so that if he wasn't in on the whole time travel thing he would think I just lost track of time, but he didn't say anything. Then I tried demanding legal counsel. He just smirked at that.
"At least tell me why I'm being held," I demanded, deciding to play dumb, just in case that might work.
It didn't work. He just smirked at me and said in a low, grumbly voice the only thing he ever said to me, "You know why."
That was the evening of day two that that exchange happened. I was waiting for my lunch on day three (they didn't give me breakfast), feeling nervous, when I heard the door open above me, but instead of my grumpy guard companion coming down the stairs with a tray, it was Maria. I hadn't expected to be so relieved to see her, but I was. Seeing her meant that I was in my own time, or at least that there would be a way she had to get back to my own time. He dour look on her face made me feel even greater joy. I knew it was time, past time in fact. Maybe she knew. Maybe she was scared. I did wish she looked a little more scared, but at that point, locked behind bars, I would settle for annoyance.
"Would you like to explain this to me?" she asked.
She didn't even have to flip the tablet around to show me. I already knew what she was talking about. She probably already knew that I already knew, but she flipped the tablet around anyway, and I couldn't help but smile as I saw my own face, looking serious, facing back at me. Maria pressed play and the me on the screen began to speak.
"My name is Maria Larue," the digital me began. "You might know me from school or through my parents or you might not know me at all. You're seeing this message because I'm being held hostage by a secretive agency that claims to value science and the good of the people, but in reality is run by a horrible monster named Maria Rodriguez. I know you have no reason to believe me just based on this video, so I invite you to come see for yourself. Go to building 586 in the Factory District of Old Hampton Village and you will see what appears to be an ordinary warehouse. But if Maria Rodriguez taught me anything, it's that looks can be deceiving. If you care about the truth, go find it, but be careful. Maria is not someone to be trifled with."
The playback ended and Maria sneered at me. "Not someone to be trifled with, huh?" she challenged. "If I'm not someone to be trifled with, then what the hell were you doing with that video."
"Raising an army," I said. "An army of truth seekers who aren't afraid of you."
"Only because they don't know enough to be afraid," Maria spat.
"I know enough, and I'm not afraid," I said.
"Really?" Maria challenged. Then she sighed and looked sad, almost like her old self, like the self I thought I could trust. She wore the face I had when I came back from that "failed" mission that prompted her to send me back to kill Connor/Jason. "I'm disappointed in you," Maria said quietly, almost sweetly. "Before I said I was proud of you for doing the right thing, but this? Exposing us? How can that be the right thing."
"I didn't say anything about time travel," I said. "I was going to. I thought about it. But I decided it was best to let people dig for the truth."
"Why?" Maria asked. I almost thought she was going to cry. "Why would you do this?"
I couldn't help myself. I sneered back at her. I hated Maria in that moment and I felt just a little bit evil. "If we happen to find an opportunity for an interesting side project, an experiment, of course we'll take it," I said.
Maria began to open her mouth as if she was going to say something, but a banging at the door interrupted her. "Maria, we need you up here," I heard a male voice mutter. I thought I recognized that voice, but I dared not hope.
Clearly, Maria didn't hear what I heard, which just shows how little she cares about anyone, because she called out, "Coming, coming."
I watched her climb up the stairs, but the next thing I knew she was tumbling back down them and landed at the bottom with a thud. My heart skipped a beat, fearful she might be dead, but then I saw her try to lift her head with a groan before she passed out.
My worry about Maria quickly passed as I saw who was coming down the stairs wielding a sniper rifle. I smiled at him and he smiled back. "Please tell me you have the keys," I said.
He jingled them in front of me. "It would be a pretty lame rescue attempt if I didn't," he said. "I'd have to try to shoot the lock."
"You know that's a sniper rifle, right?" I asked as he threw the gun over his shoulder on the strap and started opening the cage.
"Yeah, yeah," he said. "It doesn't even matter. It's not even loaded. I'm choosing to assume that most of the people here were just as much the victims as you and I. In fact, some of them even joined us in rushing this place."
"I am a little nervous about getting out of here," I said. "An angry mob was really supposed to be our last resort."
Jason nodded to Maria's unconscious form. "Well, she pushed us to this," he said. "If she hadn't locked you up, the video never would have gone out."
"At least she didn't lock you up," I said as the cell door swung open.
"It was a near miss," he admitted. "I saw someone coming towards my car right before you shouted for help. Driving away while you were calling out nearly killed me, but I stuck to the plan. If I was spotted outside the compound, I was supposed to run. So that's what I did. I feel awful about it, but I did it."
I smile and stroked his cheek. "My only fear was that you had stormed in on your own and gotten yourself captured, hurt, or killed," I said. "I'd much rather meet up with you again this way than have had you or your body in a cell beside me." I frowned then, finally looking at Maria again. "What should we do with her?" I asked.
Jason shrugged. "Leave her down here to rot. She is a monster and this seems like a fitting dungeon for the likes of her."
"She might be a monster," I admitted. "But she's still a human being as well, and seeing myself on that video screen... I fear I may have been a little too harsh on her."
Jason scoffed. "Too harsh? Not possible."
"Well at any rate," I said, "if we kill her, we're just doing to her what she asked me to do to you. We have to find a way to get her out safely, have her stand trial or something."
"How on earth do you stand trial for time travel crimes?" Jason rightfully wanted to know.
"I don't know," I admitted.
He sighed. "Alright," he said. "Here, you take the gun." He handed it to me. "Bullets or no bullets, you're probably better with it than I am. I'll carry her out of here like she was the held captive or something."
It was clear Jason did not like this plan any more than the plan where he had left me in this cell to rot for three days, but he trusted me, and so I smiled and said, "Thank you."
"Yeah, well, you saved me," he pointed out. "Saving you and then saving the person who imprisoned you is the least I could do."
I laughed, just a little. "Stay strong, Jason," I said, not knowing what else to say. "It will all be over soon."
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Nanowrimo 2015-11-21 B
We had a good time that evening. Over sandwiches made with fresh meats, cheeses, and breads, my parents told embarrassing stories from when I was young and I pretended to be annoyed. I don't think I pulled off my mock annoyance very well considering that I was smiling the entire time. Jason smiled and laughed and asked questions. He was especially interested in the time I brought a wounded bird in the house.
"It's such a clique story," he said, "but I can just see you actually doing that."
"I painted a picture of that bird, too," my mother said.
"It's one of my favorites," I said.
There was a pause and then my father asked, "What ever happened to that bird?"
"We set it free," my mother said. "For all I know, it's still alive and well."
"Other than the fact that it was twenty years ago and it's lifespan probably isn't longer than five," I said.
My mother smiled. "Such a downer," she teased. Then she turned to Jason and said, "I'm confident that bird lived to the ripe old age of at least six or seven."
"Do you remember what I called it, Mom?" I asked.
"I think you called it twitters," she said.
I laughed. "Yeah, twitters," I said. I turned and looked at Jason. "Wasn't there something called Twitter around in the time they sent you to?"
He laughed. "Yeah," he admitted. "But I didn't quite understand it."
"Probably because you were too far beyond it," my father said. "In the future I mean. That doesn't... well you know what I mean."
We all laughed. It was nice to be home. It was strange to think that tomorrow I'd be going right back into the lion's den, so to speak.
That thought of the danger that could potentially face me, and Jason, too, became a lot more real the next day. There was a stark contrast between our last meal the night before and the last meal we shared together before the mission. We were still sitting around the table, and still eating sandwiches, since even in the future, it's cheaper to buy things in bulk, but there was no laughter and really to conversation to speak of. When we were all done, my mom gave me a big hug and said, "Good luck, Anna. We love you."
I hugged my dad, too and then addressed both of them. "Don't worry," I said, "We'll see each other again soon." I was sure even my dad could see through my feeble confidence in that, but neither of them said anything. They just stood outside the house and waved goodbye as we drove away. I glanced back and did a long blink to snap a photo of them, a memory, of my mom and dad, scared but hopeful, wishing me luck as I returned to the place they had been training me for my entire life.
I realized as we drove that my parents thought they had been training me to be a part of this academy, but really, they had been training me to stop it from hurting people. They had thought the academy was good, but we knew, or at least suspected, now that the academy was the danger and that it, or at least the woman running it, needed to be stopped. My parents raised me to want to make a difference, to make the world a better place. I had grown up thinking I could do that by using time travel. Now, I was going to try to do it by stopping time travel. Unless Maria had a damn good explanation for everything she had done to me and Jason, she was going down.
As we drew close to the warehouse, I gave Jason's hand a squeeze and said, more to myself than to him, "Don't worry, it will all be over soon."
We parked a few blocks away and put in our ear buds. These would let Jason hear exactly what was going on inside. He had wanted to go in with me originally, but our Plan B had always been for me to claim I had completed my mission in the past and that hadn't changed. If we were lucky, Maria would believe me. I had spent that entire morning preparing for what I would say to her. We had considered me faking a limp or some other injury, but ultimately decided to just keep it simple. I have Jason a reassuring nod, paused, and then kissed him square on the lips. Then I was on my way to the warehouse.
I stormed in the front door and marched straight to Maria's office. I made as much noise as I could, hoping to draw lots of attention, hoping that the eyes of others at the agency would help my case. I threw open the door to the office and left it open as I flew in. "Well!" I exclaimed loudly. "It's done, and I hope you're happy."
Maria looked up from her desk with a pleasant smile that made me want to vomit. "What's done, dear?" she asked. I swear she batted her eyelashes at me.
"Connor," I said. "He's dead."
Maria gave a childish little laugh. It was practically a giggle. "Oh, dear," she said, "we both know that's not true." She glanced past me, must have noticed a couple of people looking into her office, then looked back at me and said, "Why don't you close the door and have a seat and we can talk about this like rational adults."
"Rational adults!" I exclaimed, doing neither of the things she requested. "What's rational about asking me to murder another human being!"
Maria shook her head. "If you really felt this way, you should have said something before I sent you back on the mission."
"How could I?" I asked. "I was trained not to question orders."
Maria nodded. "Yes you were," she said. "And so was Jason, wasn't he? It was this kind of insubordination that got him into trouble to begin with."
That made me take a stumbling step back. I hadn't expected her to be so blunt and open about the thing I was trying to trap her into talking about. He just smiled all the more as she stood up. "You see?" she said. "I knew he wasn't dead. I knew you couldn't kill him. And I'm proud of you. Now why don't you sit down and we'll talk."
I froze. I didn't know what to do. Should I protest? Should I run? In the end, I just stood there, dumbfounded, as she walked behind me and closed the door. As I heard it slam, I turned to face her. I decided the gig was up and I might as well play it straight. "How did you know I didn't kill him?" I asked.
"Oh honey," she said, shaking her head as if she was disappointed in me for not realizing this sooner. "There's very little that I don't know. How do you think I manage to run such a successful agency?"
"Successful?" I asked. "I'm no longer sure I even know what we do here anymore."
"Why, we maintain order!" She exclaimed, placing her hand on her chest and pretending to be hurt that I would even question this. Then a sly smile slide across her face and her hand slid down to her side as she approached me. I suddenly felt very scared and considered trying to bolt around her to the door. "And if we happen to find an opportunity for an interesting little side project, an experiment, if you will, why, of course we'll take it." She sighed. "Or at least I will."
I made a move to go around her but she grabbed me and was pulling me back to her desk. She was stronger than I would have ever guessed. I struggled and kicked but to no avail. "Help!" I shouted. "Help!"
"Oh sweetie," she whispered in my ear. "No one can hear you."
I smiled, realizing that she didn't know everything after all, and then I felt something cold on the back of my neck and everything went dark.
When I woke up again, I was in what appeared to be an old fashioned prison cell, like what I had seen in some old movies. It was dark, with just a little bit of light coming from a bulb outside the cell, and I was all alone. I felt my head and then my ear, discovering the ear bud was gone. I had a brief moment of panic that Mari had known it was there the whole time and had been trying to find me they already found Jason, but I pushed that possibility aside. Jason was too clever for Maria. He would get away. He would make sure the fail-safe we had talked about activated. He wouldn't rush in here all alone. These were the things I kept telling myself. I wished I could be more convincing.
"It's such a clique story," he said, "but I can just see you actually doing that."
"I painted a picture of that bird, too," my mother said.
"It's one of my favorites," I said.
There was a pause and then my father asked, "What ever happened to that bird?"
"We set it free," my mother said. "For all I know, it's still alive and well."
"Other than the fact that it was twenty years ago and it's lifespan probably isn't longer than five," I said.
My mother smiled. "Such a downer," she teased. Then she turned to Jason and said, "I'm confident that bird lived to the ripe old age of at least six or seven."
"Do you remember what I called it, Mom?" I asked.
"I think you called it twitters," she said.
I laughed. "Yeah, twitters," I said. I turned and looked at Jason. "Wasn't there something called Twitter around in the time they sent you to?"
He laughed. "Yeah," he admitted. "But I didn't quite understand it."
"Probably because you were too far beyond it," my father said. "In the future I mean. That doesn't... well you know what I mean."
We all laughed. It was nice to be home. It was strange to think that tomorrow I'd be going right back into the lion's den, so to speak.
That thought of the danger that could potentially face me, and Jason, too, became a lot more real the next day. There was a stark contrast between our last meal the night before and the last meal we shared together before the mission. We were still sitting around the table, and still eating sandwiches, since even in the future, it's cheaper to buy things in bulk, but there was no laughter and really to conversation to speak of. When we were all done, my mom gave me a big hug and said, "Good luck, Anna. We love you."
I hugged my dad, too and then addressed both of them. "Don't worry," I said, "We'll see each other again soon." I was sure even my dad could see through my feeble confidence in that, but neither of them said anything. They just stood outside the house and waved goodbye as we drove away. I glanced back and did a long blink to snap a photo of them, a memory, of my mom and dad, scared but hopeful, wishing me luck as I returned to the place they had been training me for my entire life.
I realized as we drove that my parents thought they had been training me to be a part of this academy, but really, they had been training me to stop it from hurting people. They had thought the academy was good, but we knew, or at least suspected, now that the academy was the danger and that it, or at least the woman running it, needed to be stopped. My parents raised me to want to make a difference, to make the world a better place. I had grown up thinking I could do that by using time travel. Now, I was going to try to do it by stopping time travel. Unless Maria had a damn good explanation for everything she had done to me and Jason, she was going down.
As we drew close to the warehouse, I gave Jason's hand a squeeze and said, more to myself than to him, "Don't worry, it will all be over soon."
We parked a few blocks away and put in our ear buds. These would let Jason hear exactly what was going on inside. He had wanted to go in with me originally, but our Plan B had always been for me to claim I had completed my mission in the past and that hadn't changed. If we were lucky, Maria would believe me. I had spent that entire morning preparing for what I would say to her. We had considered me faking a limp or some other injury, but ultimately decided to just keep it simple. I have Jason a reassuring nod, paused, and then kissed him square on the lips. Then I was on my way to the warehouse.
I stormed in the front door and marched straight to Maria's office. I made as much noise as I could, hoping to draw lots of attention, hoping that the eyes of others at the agency would help my case. I threw open the door to the office and left it open as I flew in. "Well!" I exclaimed loudly. "It's done, and I hope you're happy."
Maria looked up from her desk with a pleasant smile that made me want to vomit. "What's done, dear?" she asked. I swear she batted her eyelashes at me.
"Connor," I said. "He's dead."
Maria gave a childish little laugh. It was practically a giggle. "Oh, dear," she said, "we both know that's not true." She glanced past me, must have noticed a couple of people looking into her office, then looked back at me and said, "Why don't you close the door and have a seat and we can talk about this like rational adults."
"Rational adults!" I exclaimed, doing neither of the things she requested. "What's rational about asking me to murder another human being!"
Maria shook her head. "If you really felt this way, you should have said something before I sent you back on the mission."
"How could I?" I asked. "I was trained not to question orders."
Maria nodded. "Yes you were," she said. "And so was Jason, wasn't he? It was this kind of insubordination that got him into trouble to begin with."
That made me take a stumbling step back. I hadn't expected her to be so blunt and open about the thing I was trying to trap her into talking about. He just smiled all the more as she stood up. "You see?" she said. "I knew he wasn't dead. I knew you couldn't kill him. And I'm proud of you. Now why don't you sit down and we'll talk."
I froze. I didn't know what to do. Should I protest? Should I run? In the end, I just stood there, dumbfounded, as she walked behind me and closed the door. As I heard it slam, I turned to face her. I decided the gig was up and I might as well play it straight. "How did you know I didn't kill him?" I asked.
"Oh honey," she said, shaking her head as if she was disappointed in me for not realizing this sooner. "There's very little that I don't know. How do you think I manage to run such a successful agency?"
"Successful?" I asked. "I'm no longer sure I even know what we do here anymore."
"Why, we maintain order!" She exclaimed, placing her hand on her chest and pretending to be hurt that I would even question this. Then a sly smile slide across her face and her hand slid down to her side as she approached me. I suddenly felt very scared and considered trying to bolt around her to the door. "And if we happen to find an opportunity for an interesting little side project, an experiment, if you will, why, of course we'll take it." She sighed. "Or at least I will."
I made a move to go around her but she grabbed me and was pulling me back to her desk. She was stronger than I would have ever guessed. I struggled and kicked but to no avail. "Help!" I shouted. "Help!"
"Oh sweetie," she whispered in my ear. "No one can hear you."
I smiled, realizing that she didn't know everything after all, and then I felt something cold on the back of my neck and everything went dark.
When I woke up again, I was in what appeared to be an old fashioned prison cell, like what I had seen in some old movies. It was dark, with just a little bit of light coming from a bulb outside the cell, and I was all alone. I felt my head and then my ear, discovering the ear bud was gone. I had a brief moment of panic that Mari had known it was there the whole time and had been trying to find me they already found Jason, but I pushed that possibility aside. Jason was too clever for Maria. He would get away. He would make sure the fail-safe we had talked about activated. He wouldn't rush in here all alone. These were the things I kept telling myself. I wished I could be more convincing.
Nanowrimo 2015-11-21
That next day before our planned "mission", my dad went to his job, my mom took the day off and spent quite a bit of time painting, and I spent a lot of time thinking. Jason must have noticed I was a little lost in thought and sat down next to me. "Tell me what you're thinking," he said softly as he reached for my hand.
I gave him my hand, looked up at him, and smiled. "I'm thinking," I said, "that this plan we have is not a very good one."
"It does depend a lot on Maria not being a total monster," Jason admitted.
"Which might not be a safe assumption," I said.
"Well, she didn't actually kill me," he pointed out.
"No, she left that up to me," I said bitterly.
"That's part of what we're counting on," he said.
I sighed. "Yes, I know. If all goes well, she may still not even know you're alive." I looked over at him, "But what if all doesn't go well?"
"I don't know," he answered honestly.
"We need a back-up plan," I told him.
He laughed a little. "This is already a back-up plan," he pointed out. "We're basically carrying out our fail safe plan from last time but on purpose now."
"Well then we need a Plan C," I said.
"Okay," Jason agreed. "And what to you propose?"
I tilted my head slightly as I looked at him, "How many people do you think your parents know?"
He laughed a bit more at that. "You know as well as I do that I don't really know my parents all that well, but I'd imagine quite a few. Why? What are you thinking?"
I told him and he smiled. "I'd say that's a pretty good idea," he said. "I'm a bit embarrassed we didn't think of something like that sooner. It's the kind of thing we even could have done back in my time, or rather in the time Maria made me think I was from."
"So you think it will work?" I said.
"I don't know," he said, "but in my time, I think it would have blown up." Then he quickly added, "In a good way."
I smiled. "Well then let's see what we can do, and hope it doesn't come to activating."
"I'm not going to lie," Jason said, "at this point, I kind-of hope it does."
"As long as we're still alive when it happens."
Jason nodded. "Yes, as long as we're still alive."
When my dad got home from work, I asked him also how many people he thought he and mom knew, that they could contact if necessary. "A lot," he said with a chuckle. "Especially your mom with all the different things she's done over the years. I'd say over a thousand." Then he eyed me suspiciously. "What are you up to, Anna?" he asked.
"Well, I hope you never get to know," I said, "but we need a fail-safe just in case things go wrong."
He nodded. "I think I see what you're up to," he said, "and you're right, I'd much rather you be safe, but I'll help in whatever way I can."
"Good," I said, and proceeded to work on compiling lists and getting things set up for our Plan C.
We were all done with our basic prep and my dad had ordered dinner by the time my mom came into the kitchen holding a canvas that was turned so the painting was facing towards her. She looked remarkably sad. "It isn't the most skilled thing I've ever painted," she said. "I wish it could be better. But it's probably the one I'll cherish the most." And she spun the canvas around to reveal the portrait she had done of me and Jason.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that it took my breath away. It was Jason who spoke. "Mrs. Larue," he said, "I'm not that familiar with your work, at least I don't remember being familiar with it, but if that's not the greatest thing you've ever painted, then I don't know if my mind could handle seeing the greatest thing."
Though it was a "simple" portrait, my heart echoed Jason's sentiment I had seen many of my mother's paintings, perhaps all of the paintings she hadn't chosen to hide away, and this one was right up there near the top. I felt a bit selfish thinking that of a painting that had me as part of its subject matter, but I can tell you that the art that went into that painting had nothing to do with me. The background was perfect and the expressions she had captured on our faces, well, I couldn't imagine I was a complex enough person to really have such a perfectly bittersweet look on my face.
"I think it's perfect, Mom," I said
"You're perfect!" my mom burst out, "My perfect beautiful baby girl! And I don't want to lose you."
"Mom, don't cry. Please. You'll get the painting wet."
At that, my mom tossed the painting aside, thankfully not damaging it, and rushed over to embrace me. "I just can't believe we're losing you. It's going to be just like when Jason's family lost him."
"I'm coming back, Mom, I promise," I said.
She pulled back from me, "And what if you're not?"
My mom. I couldn't hide much from her. I'm sure she knew that I wasn't as confident as I was pretending to be. "Then I want you to share that painting," I nodded my head towards the painting that had landed leaning against a cabinet. "With everyone you know and tell them the full story that I've told you."
My mother looked a bit concerned. "Are you sure, sweetie?" she asked.
I smiled and nodded. "Yes, I'm sure," I said. "All this time travel stuff has been a secret for too long. If worse comes to worse, then I want to world to know the truth. And my greatest hope is that I'll be the one who tells them."
I gave him my hand, looked up at him, and smiled. "I'm thinking," I said, "that this plan we have is not a very good one."
"It does depend a lot on Maria not being a total monster," Jason admitted.
"Which might not be a safe assumption," I said.
"Well, she didn't actually kill me," he pointed out.
"No, she left that up to me," I said bitterly.
"That's part of what we're counting on," he said.
I sighed. "Yes, I know. If all goes well, she may still not even know you're alive." I looked over at him, "But what if all doesn't go well?"
"I don't know," he answered honestly.
"We need a back-up plan," I told him.
He laughed a little. "This is already a back-up plan," he pointed out. "We're basically carrying out our fail safe plan from last time but on purpose now."
"Well then we need a Plan C," I said.
"Okay," Jason agreed. "And what to you propose?"
I tilted my head slightly as I looked at him, "How many people do you think your parents know?"
He laughed a bit more at that. "You know as well as I do that I don't really know my parents all that well, but I'd imagine quite a few. Why? What are you thinking?"
I told him and he smiled. "I'd say that's a pretty good idea," he said. "I'm a bit embarrassed we didn't think of something like that sooner. It's the kind of thing we even could have done back in my time, or rather in the time Maria made me think I was from."
"So you think it will work?" I said.
"I don't know," he said, "but in my time, I think it would have blown up." Then he quickly added, "In a good way."
I smiled. "Well then let's see what we can do, and hope it doesn't come to activating."
"I'm not going to lie," Jason said, "at this point, I kind-of hope it does."
"As long as we're still alive when it happens."
Jason nodded. "Yes, as long as we're still alive."
When my dad got home from work, I asked him also how many people he thought he and mom knew, that they could contact if necessary. "A lot," he said with a chuckle. "Especially your mom with all the different things she's done over the years. I'd say over a thousand." Then he eyed me suspiciously. "What are you up to, Anna?" he asked.
"Well, I hope you never get to know," I said, "but we need a fail-safe just in case things go wrong."
He nodded. "I think I see what you're up to," he said, "and you're right, I'd much rather you be safe, but I'll help in whatever way I can."
"Good," I said, and proceeded to work on compiling lists and getting things set up for our Plan C.
We were all done with our basic prep and my dad had ordered dinner by the time my mom came into the kitchen holding a canvas that was turned so the painting was facing towards her. She looked remarkably sad. "It isn't the most skilled thing I've ever painted," she said. "I wish it could be better. But it's probably the one I'll cherish the most." And she spun the canvas around to reveal the portrait she had done of me and Jason.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that it took my breath away. It was Jason who spoke. "Mrs. Larue," he said, "I'm not that familiar with your work, at least I don't remember being familiar with it, but if that's not the greatest thing you've ever painted, then I don't know if my mind could handle seeing the greatest thing."
Though it was a "simple" portrait, my heart echoed Jason's sentiment I had seen many of my mother's paintings, perhaps all of the paintings she hadn't chosen to hide away, and this one was right up there near the top. I felt a bit selfish thinking that of a painting that had me as part of its subject matter, but I can tell you that the art that went into that painting had nothing to do with me. The background was perfect and the expressions she had captured on our faces, well, I couldn't imagine I was a complex enough person to really have such a perfectly bittersweet look on my face.
"I think it's perfect, Mom," I said
"You're perfect!" my mom burst out, "My perfect beautiful baby girl! And I don't want to lose you."
"Mom, don't cry. Please. You'll get the painting wet."
At that, my mom tossed the painting aside, thankfully not damaging it, and rushed over to embrace me. "I just can't believe we're losing you. It's going to be just like when Jason's family lost him."
"I'm coming back, Mom, I promise," I said.
She pulled back from me, "And what if you're not?"
My mom. I couldn't hide much from her. I'm sure she knew that I wasn't as confident as I was pretending to be. "Then I want you to share that painting," I nodded my head towards the painting that had landed leaning against a cabinet. "With everyone you know and tell them the full story that I've told you."
My mother looked a bit concerned. "Are you sure, sweetie?" she asked.
I smiled and nodded. "Yes, I'm sure," I said. "All this time travel stuff has been a secret for too long. If worse comes to worse, then I want to world to know the truth. And my greatest hope is that I'll be the one who tells them."
Friday, November 20, 2015
Nanowrimo 2015-11-20
For the next three days, I stayed with Jason and his family and it was bizarre yet wonderful. His brother and sister were beyond thrilled to see him again, especially his younger sister, Melanie.
It turned out that Melanie had idolized Jason, which was a detail he hadn't remembered, and wished that she could be in the time travel agency, that was until they had brought the news that her brother was dead. Now that he was back, she was thrilled, but certainly to ready to forgive them. She told us that she hoped we gave them hell.
"Melanie! Language!" her mother exclaimed, as if Melanie was a child instead of the 19 year old college student that she was.
I just gave Melanie a smile, which she noticed and returned. I liked her. She had a lot of spunk.
Jason's brother was more reserved, but he seemed to have his moments, too. He had a dry sense of humor that I appreciated and felt lightened the mood. It seemed to annoy his mother at times, but in the end it was all in good fun.
Jason's family asked a lot of questions that neither of us could answer, but some that we could. Jason told them all about his life in the past and how they were the one thing that the agency couldn't take away from him. "They took my life here, my future, my career, even my girlfriend," he said, glancing at me before he looked back at his family, "but they couldn't take all of you from me." His mother made an "ah" noise and I saw a tear in his father's eye.
We asked them questions, too. Jason wanted to try to remember what he had forgotten, but it was hard. Little bits came back, but we ultimately found that it was best to live in the moment and enjoy what we had. That was what made those three days wonderful, but then, at weekend's end, Jason shared with us all what he had decided he had to do. "This has been great," he said, "but its made me realize too how much I've missed. The agency took time and history from me and replaced it with a lie. The lie wasn't really that bad, but the truth was better, and I want to get it back." He looked at me. "I want to go back to the agency," he said, "but not to sneak in like we planned before. I want to talk to Maria. I want to confront her for what she's done and get her side of the story."
I heard his mother gasp and his brother ask, "Are you sure about that, man?"
Jason nodded, but didn't take his eyes off me. "I'm sure," he said, "but I can't do it alone."
"I'm there," I said. "You trusted me. You came with me. I'm going to see this through." Then I glanced at Melanie and with a grin said, "And maybe raise a little hell, too."
"Righteous!" Melanie exclaimed. "Can I come, too?"
"Nah, Mel," Jason said, attempting to give a lighthearted laugh. "It won't be as exciting as you think." I knew that what he really meant was it was way too dangerous.
Melanie saw through this and frowned as she said, "Well you be careful."
"Always," Jason said.
They shared a family hug and as they pulled away, I saw his mother wipe a tear from her eye.
"Are you sure about this, son?" Jason's father asked. "The last time we saw you off was the last time we saw you before... well..."
Jason put his hand on his father's shoulder. "I know, dad," he said. "I don't remember what sort of good-bye I said back then, but I'll tell you now that if anything does go wrong, and if this is another last good-bye, that I love you all and its been amazing getting to know you all over again. I know that's too simple and there's so much more I could say, and I'm going on this quest, for lack of a better word, because I want to have more to say."
That prompted another round of hugging and tears before Jason and I walked out hand in hand.
"Well," I said.
"Well," he said.
"You're sure about this?"
He smiled, probably thinking about just how many times I had asked him that over the past couple years of our time line. "I'm sure," he said. "Let's go talk to your folks and then we can go find some answers."
My parents, like Jason's, were nervous but supportive. My mother did make one request before we went. She wanted to paint a picture of me and Jason together. She wouldn't have time to make it perfect, she said, but she wanted a rough sketch. "I wish I had done this before," she said as she set up her materials, "but I didn't know that I would need to. They might be able to alter our minds, but I'm going to hide this away somewhere they'll never find. No matter what happens around us, art always lives on."
We sat for a little over an hour, hand in hand, while my mom worked on the outline and then sent us off to occupy ourselves while she worked on it. She had told me in the past that with her most heartfelt art she felt like a little piece of her soul went into what she did and she wanted to be alone when that happened. I was sure this was one of those times.
I took the opportunity to take Jason into my studio room and show off some of the art I had done. That now infamous painting of the elephant, which my mother had brought up and I had told him about shortly after we came here from the past, was not there since it was at my apartment and I wasn't about to go there for fear Maria would find me. Yet, there were plenty of other things I could show off to him. I was surprised when he said a few of them felt familiar to him, but they were the ones I had painted seven or eight years ago, so I figured I had shown them to him before, back during the time that had been altered or wiped for both of us.
"They're really beautiful," he said, looking at one I had painted of a lion licking his paw with a mouse in the foreground.
"I'm not sure I'd call that one beautiful," I said, "but there is a story behind it."
"Aesops fables," Jason said.
"Excuse me?"
He looked over at me. "The fable about the mouse helping the lion get a throne out of his paw."
I nodded. "Yeah, something like that. You said Aesop?"
Jason laughed. "Yeah, he's the one who wrote the fable, I think. You don't learn about him anymore."
"I mean, I must have," I said, "but I didn't remember the name."
"It's strange to have the common knowledge of a time before I was born," he reflected. "I wonder how they pulled that off."
I stepped up to him and slipped my hand into his. "Two more days, and we're going to find out," I said.
He simply gave a nod, and let me guide him out of the room.
It turned out that Melanie had idolized Jason, which was a detail he hadn't remembered, and wished that she could be in the time travel agency, that was until they had brought the news that her brother was dead. Now that he was back, she was thrilled, but certainly to ready to forgive them. She told us that she hoped we gave them hell.
"Melanie! Language!" her mother exclaimed, as if Melanie was a child instead of the 19 year old college student that she was.
I just gave Melanie a smile, which she noticed and returned. I liked her. She had a lot of spunk.
Jason's brother was more reserved, but he seemed to have his moments, too. He had a dry sense of humor that I appreciated and felt lightened the mood. It seemed to annoy his mother at times, but in the end it was all in good fun.
Jason's family asked a lot of questions that neither of us could answer, but some that we could. Jason told them all about his life in the past and how they were the one thing that the agency couldn't take away from him. "They took my life here, my future, my career, even my girlfriend," he said, glancing at me before he looked back at his family, "but they couldn't take all of you from me." His mother made an "ah" noise and I saw a tear in his father's eye.
We asked them questions, too. Jason wanted to try to remember what he had forgotten, but it was hard. Little bits came back, but we ultimately found that it was best to live in the moment and enjoy what we had. That was what made those three days wonderful, but then, at weekend's end, Jason shared with us all what he had decided he had to do. "This has been great," he said, "but its made me realize too how much I've missed. The agency took time and history from me and replaced it with a lie. The lie wasn't really that bad, but the truth was better, and I want to get it back." He looked at me. "I want to go back to the agency," he said, "but not to sneak in like we planned before. I want to talk to Maria. I want to confront her for what she's done and get her side of the story."
I heard his mother gasp and his brother ask, "Are you sure about that, man?"
Jason nodded, but didn't take his eyes off me. "I'm sure," he said, "but I can't do it alone."
"I'm there," I said. "You trusted me. You came with me. I'm going to see this through." Then I glanced at Melanie and with a grin said, "And maybe raise a little hell, too."
"Righteous!" Melanie exclaimed. "Can I come, too?"
"Nah, Mel," Jason said, attempting to give a lighthearted laugh. "It won't be as exciting as you think." I knew that what he really meant was it was way too dangerous.
Melanie saw through this and frowned as she said, "Well you be careful."
"Always," Jason said.
They shared a family hug and as they pulled away, I saw his mother wipe a tear from her eye.
"Are you sure about this, son?" Jason's father asked. "The last time we saw you off was the last time we saw you before... well..."
Jason put his hand on his father's shoulder. "I know, dad," he said. "I don't remember what sort of good-bye I said back then, but I'll tell you now that if anything does go wrong, and if this is another last good-bye, that I love you all and its been amazing getting to know you all over again. I know that's too simple and there's so much more I could say, and I'm going on this quest, for lack of a better word, because I want to have more to say."
That prompted another round of hugging and tears before Jason and I walked out hand in hand.
"Well," I said.
"Well," he said.
"You're sure about this?"
He smiled, probably thinking about just how many times I had asked him that over the past couple years of our time line. "I'm sure," he said. "Let's go talk to your folks and then we can go find some answers."
My parents, like Jason's, were nervous but supportive. My mother did make one request before we went. She wanted to paint a picture of me and Jason together. She wouldn't have time to make it perfect, she said, but she wanted a rough sketch. "I wish I had done this before," she said as she set up her materials, "but I didn't know that I would need to. They might be able to alter our minds, but I'm going to hide this away somewhere they'll never find. No matter what happens around us, art always lives on."
We sat for a little over an hour, hand in hand, while my mom worked on the outline and then sent us off to occupy ourselves while she worked on it. She had told me in the past that with her most heartfelt art she felt like a little piece of her soul went into what she did and she wanted to be alone when that happened. I was sure this was one of those times.
I took the opportunity to take Jason into my studio room and show off some of the art I had done. That now infamous painting of the elephant, which my mother had brought up and I had told him about shortly after we came here from the past, was not there since it was at my apartment and I wasn't about to go there for fear Maria would find me. Yet, there were plenty of other things I could show off to him. I was surprised when he said a few of them felt familiar to him, but they were the ones I had painted seven or eight years ago, so I figured I had shown them to him before, back during the time that had been altered or wiped for both of us.
"They're really beautiful," he said, looking at one I had painted of a lion licking his paw with a mouse in the foreground.
"I'm not sure I'd call that one beautiful," I said, "but there is a story behind it."
"Aesops fables," Jason said.
"Excuse me?"
He looked over at me. "The fable about the mouse helping the lion get a throne out of his paw."
I nodded. "Yeah, something like that. You said Aesop?"
Jason laughed. "Yeah, he's the one who wrote the fable, I think. You don't learn about him anymore."
"I mean, I must have," I said, "but I didn't remember the name."
"It's strange to have the common knowledge of a time before I was born," he reflected. "I wonder how they pulled that off."
I stepped up to him and slipped my hand into his. "Two more days, and we're going to find out," I said.
He simply gave a nod, and let me guide him out of the room.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Nanowrimo 2015-11-19
We sat in silence for a moment contemplating Jason's very good question until I finally said, "I guess we learn more about you."
"Yeah," my dad agreed. "They couldn't have wiped you out entirely. There have to be records from you history or something."
"And what about your parents," I pointed out.
"I remember my parents," Jason said, "but I remember the parents I had back in 2015." He paused for a moment. "Do you think they moved my parents into the past, too?"
"I don't know," I said. "Did the parents you know talk about your childhood?"
Jason paused to think. "No, not really," he said. "My parents and I didn't talk much at all, really. I remember spending time with them..."
"But I never met them," I said. "What if..."
"They weren't even real," Jason finished.
"So then where are your real parents?" my mother asked. She turned to me. "Do you think they wiped him from their memory, too?"
I shrugged. "I don't know," I said. I looked at Jason. "If you had already started working for the agency, they could have told your parents you were busy on missions."
"But you always come to visit us!" my mother exclaimed, seeming shocked that any parent could possibly be okay with not seeing their child.
"I know," I said, smiling at her, "but not everyone is as crazy as us."
My mother looked a little shocked, but then my father laughed and she smiled. Jason was smiling, too. Then Jason said, "Well, I don't know who my parents are, but I do want to find them."
"And we'll help you," my dad said.
"Yes, we will," my mom agreed.
"Okay," I said. "I guess what we do next, is gather information and try to find more of the truth."
It turned out that tracking down Jason's past wasn't really that difficult. The whole mind-altering mentality makes it easy to not find certain things out because you don't know what to look for. Once that vale is lifted, its a whole other story.
We found that Jason's story started in 2097. He was actually about six months older than me, which I found amusing considering how young I had felt he was relative to me when I first met him. We considered trying to figure out how old he was now, but since we didn't know exactly when they had sent him back since the records we had stolen didn't say anything about a specific date, we could never really know, other than we were still pretty close to the same age.
We learned also that Jason really did have a younger sister named Melanie and an older brother named Victor, just like his Connor persona had, and that his parents were very much alive. What caught us a bit off guard was that Jason supposedly was not. In conducting our research, we found his obituary dated five years prior to our current time. This made Jason question whether we should really go to his newly discovered real parents.
"They probably don't know any more than we do," he said, "and it's been five years. What if they've moved on."
Before I could answer, my mother did it for me. "I can't imagine parents would ever really move on from the death of a child. I mean if I lost, Anna..." She started to tear up.
I stepped over to my mother and put my hand on her shoulder. "You're not going to lose me, Mom," I assured her.
She shook her head. "I nearly did," she said, "and now you're going on the most dangerous mission you've gone on. I don't even know what missions you've gone on, but this is sure to be the most risky." Then she looked at Jason and said, "But it's worth it. Your parents will want to know you're alive, and even if that means putting my Anna at risk, I know its worth it. I know she's doing something very brave, and so are you. You're finding the truth. Your parents deserve that, too."
"I agree," my father chimed in from across the room, startling us because we hadn't even realized he was listening. It killed a bit of the emotion, but it broke the tension, too, and we all shared a relaxing laugh before Jason and I exchanged a look and resolved to go meet his parents.
We really weren't sure what to expect when we walked up to the last known address and knocked on the front door, but we couldn't have expected anything better than what happened. His mother answered, an older woman with short hair that was black but graying. She looked at first shocked, then confused, and then quickly overjoyed. She was laughing and crying as she hugged her son. "They told me you were dead," she sobbed. Then she pulled back and looked at him, "But you're older than then. That can't be in your future. Where have you been? I knew you couldn't really be gone. They never proved it. They never proved a thing. Oh, Jason!" She cried for nearly a minute, hugging him as he hugged her back. It seemed so genuine and sincere. It turned out it was, because in the memory he had of his mother as Connor, she looked almost exactly like his real mother. After she had calmed down a little bit, she motioned us into the house. "Well come in! Come in!" she exclaimed. "I just can't believe its really you!" Then she looked at me for the first time and seemed a bit puzzled. "Have we met?" she asked.
I couldn't help but chuckled just a little. "I honestly don't know," I said.
"Mom," Jason said, "This is Anna. She saved me."
"Anna!" his mother exclaimed. "I remember you were dating an Anna. Is this her?"
I figured it was best not to dump all of the mind-alteration stuff on her all at once and try to explain how it was kind-of me so I just said, "One and the same."
"Well come in, come in!" she said, even though we were already in the house and she was closing the door. The smile was back on her face in full. "Oh your father will be thrilled." Then she paused for a moment and seemed to get a bit puzzled again. "But does Maria know that you're alive?" she asked.
I froze. Jason's parents know Maria? My parents didn't know Maria. As far as I knew, Maria never even left the agency base. I had no idea what was going to happen next. Jason managed to broke the silence and just said, "Oh trust me, she knows."
His mother's puzzled look remained for a second longer and then she went back to being overjoyed. "Oh I'm sure there will be plenty of time for that later!" she practically sang. Then she turned back into the house and called out, "George, you'll never guess in a million years who just walked in the door!"
Jason's mother was certainly correct that George, his father, could not guess who had just walked in the door. He broke down and wept and all three of them were crying and hugging while I stood by awkwardly yet happily. When they calmed down a bit, his mother said, "I have to call your sister and your brother!"
"There will be plenty of time for that," Jason said, though I wasn't sure that was entirely honest. "First I want to know everything you were told about my..."
His mother sighed. "About your death," she said.
Jason nodded. "Yes."
She sighed again. "Well, it was late at night five years, six months," she blinked twice, to activate her current date display, I assumed, "and 13 days ago today that Maria came to our house." She frowned. "She sat right there," she gestured to where I was now sitting, which made me feel strangely uncomfortable, "and told me they had received confirmation through their monitoring that you had been killed on a mission to the past."
Jason looked puzzled. I probably did, too. "What monitoring?" he asked.
"Whatever it is they use to track you when you go into the past," his mother said.
Jason turned to me, clearing wanting me to explain this tech I had never mentioned before. "There's no monitoring that I know of," I said.
His mother looked shocked, though certainly not as shocked as when she had seen her son still alive. "Do you work for the agency, too?" she asked.
"Yes," I replied. "I take it Jason never told you that."
She shook her head. "No," she said.
"He just said he was dating a girl he met in college," his dad chimed in. "Never said anything about her being from the agency training, though I suppose he wouldn't have been allowed to anyway."
"We knew he wasn't supposed to talk about any of the people he worked with," Jason's mother continued. "It was our understanding that those people he worked with would never come to visit us, either. That's why we didn't trust this Maria at first."
"But she knew all about the agency," Jason's dad picked up. "Everything Jason had told us and even some he hadn't."
"Like about the monitoring," his mother chimed in.
George nodded. "Yes, like the monitoring," he said. Then he glanced at me, "which may or may not be a real thing."
"If Anna says it isn't, then either it isn't or Maria kept it a secret."
"So you don't know for sure?" his mother asked. "I mean, if there is monitoring, it clearly malfunctioned since you're still alive. You think Maria just got a bad reading?"
Jason frowned. "I think Maria can't be trusted," he said. "But then again, there really isn't all that much I know for sure anymore."
"What do you mean?" his father asked.
Jason sighed. "Well, I guess I might as well tell you," he said. He took a deep breath and began. "As near as we can tell, Maria stranded me in the past with my memory wiped, or at least altered. I don't remember anything about being a time traveler. I do remember the two of you, and Victor and Melanie, too, but I remember you as if we lived in the past, in the early 21st century."
"But that's absurd!" my mother exclaimed.
"How could they warp your mind like that?" his father asked. "I mean, how could they make you forget? You're a smart kid. It couldn't have been easy."
Jason shrugged. "Well time travel couldn't have been easy either, and they made that happen. But if you mean how could they do something so unethical, so immoral? Well, that's what Anna and I want to get to the bottom of."
"And we support that 100%!" his mother chimed in, "but first, can't we just spend some time as a family? We can invite your brother and sister over! It will be a couple days before they can get here, I imagine, but then we can be one big happy family!"
Jason smiled. "Yes, I'd like that," he agreed.
His father smiled, too. "I just can't believe this is happening," George said.
"Yeah," Jason agreed, "neither can I."
"Well, I should probably go then," I said, standing up.
"Oh don't be silly!" Jason's mother exclaimed, rising up to stop me. "If you saved Jason like he said, then you should be part of this celebration, too."
"Oh, Martha," George said, "Maybe the girl has somewhere to be."
Martha looked a little dejected, but she brightened up again when I smiled and said, "No, there is no where else that is more important for me to be right now."
"Oh good!" Martha exclaimed clasping her hands. Then she looked at Jason. "Now can I call your brother and sister? I have no idea what I'm going to tell them, but I'll have to come up with something."
"Yeah, Mom," Jason said with a smile. "You can call them." And as I sat back down, he reached for my hand, which I gladly gave him, and gave it a squeeze. As he looked over at me, still smiling, I smiled back, and for the first time in a long time, I had this irrational feeling that everything was going to be okay.
"Yeah," my dad agreed. "They couldn't have wiped you out entirely. There have to be records from you history or something."
"And what about your parents," I pointed out.
"I remember my parents," Jason said, "but I remember the parents I had back in 2015." He paused for a moment. "Do you think they moved my parents into the past, too?"
"I don't know," I said. "Did the parents you know talk about your childhood?"
Jason paused to think. "No, not really," he said. "My parents and I didn't talk much at all, really. I remember spending time with them..."
"But I never met them," I said. "What if..."
"They weren't even real," Jason finished.
"So then where are your real parents?" my mother asked. She turned to me. "Do you think they wiped him from their memory, too?"
I shrugged. "I don't know," I said. I looked at Jason. "If you had already started working for the agency, they could have told your parents you were busy on missions."
"But you always come to visit us!" my mother exclaimed, seeming shocked that any parent could possibly be okay with not seeing their child.
"I know," I said, smiling at her, "but not everyone is as crazy as us."
My mother looked a little shocked, but then my father laughed and she smiled. Jason was smiling, too. Then Jason said, "Well, I don't know who my parents are, but I do want to find them."
"And we'll help you," my dad said.
"Yes, we will," my mom agreed.
"Okay," I said. "I guess what we do next, is gather information and try to find more of the truth."
It turned out that tracking down Jason's past wasn't really that difficult. The whole mind-altering mentality makes it easy to not find certain things out because you don't know what to look for. Once that vale is lifted, its a whole other story.
We found that Jason's story started in 2097. He was actually about six months older than me, which I found amusing considering how young I had felt he was relative to me when I first met him. We considered trying to figure out how old he was now, but since we didn't know exactly when they had sent him back since the records we had stolen didn't say anything about a specific date, we could never really know, other than we were still pretty close to the same age.
We learned also that Jason really did have a younger sister named Melanie and an older brother named Victor, just like his Connor persona had, and that his parents were very much alive. What caught us a bit off guard was that Jason supposedly was not. In conducting our research, we found his obituary dated five years prior to our current time. This made Jason question whether we should really go to his newly discovered real parents.
"They probably don't know any more than we do," he said, "and it's been five years. What if they've moved on."
Before I could answer, my mother did it for me. "I can't imagine parents would ever really move on from the death of a child. I mean if I lost, Anna..." She started to tear up.
I stepped over to my mother and put my hand on her shoulder. "You're not going to lose me, Mom," I assured her.
She shook her head. "I nearly did," she said, "and now you're going on the most dangerous mission you've gone on. I don't even know what missions you've gone on, but this is sure to be the most risky." Then she looked at Jason and said, "But it's worth it. Your parents will want to know you're alive, and even if that means putting my Anna at risk, I know its worth it. I know she's doing something very brave, and so are you. You're finding the truth. Your parents deserve that, too."
"I agree," my father chimed in from across the room, startling us because we hadn't even realized he was listening. It killed a bit of the emotion, but it broke the tension, too, and we all shared a relaxing laugh before Jason and I exchanged a look and resolved to go meet his parents.
We really weren't sure what to expect when we walked up to the last known address and knocked on the front door, but we couldn't have expected anything better than what happened. His mother answered, an older woman with short hair that was black but graying. She looked at first shocked, then confused, and then quickly overjoyed. She was laughing and crying as she hugged her son. "They told me you were dead," she sobbed. Then she pulled back and looked at him, "But you're older than then. That can't be in your future. Where have you been? I knew you couldn't really be gone. They never proved it. They never proved a thing. Oh, Jason!" She cried for nearly a minute, hugging him as he hugged her back. It seemed so genuine and sincere. It turned out it was, because in the memory he had of his mother as Connor, she looked almost exactly like his real mother. After she had calmed down a little bit, she motioned us into the house. "Well come in! Come in!" she exclaimed. "I just can't believe its really you!" Then she looked at me for the first time and seemed a bit puzzled. "Have we met?" she asked.
I couldn't help but chuckled just a little. "I honestly don't know," I said.
"Mom," Jason said, "This is Anna. She saved me."
"Anna!" his mother exclaimed. "I remember you were dating an Anna. Is this her?"
I figured it was best not to dump all of the mind-alteration stuff on her all at once and try to explain how it was kind-of me so I just said, "One and the same."
"Well come in, come in!" she said, even though we were already in the house and she was closing the door. The smile was back on her face in full. "Oh your father will be thrilled." Then she paused for a moment and seemed to get a bit puzzled again. "But does Maria know that you're alive?" she asked.
I froze. Jason's parents know Maria? My parents didn't know Maria. As far as I knew, Maria never even left the agency base. I had no idea what was going to happen next. Jason managed to broke the silence and just said, "Oh trust me, she knows."
His mother's puzzled look remained for a second longer and then she went back to being overjoyed. "Oh I'm sure there will be plenty of time for that later!" she practically sang. Then she turned back into the house and called out, "George, you'll never guess in a million years who just walked in the door!"
Jason's mother was certainly correct that George, his father, could not guess who had just walked in the door. He broke down and wept and all three of them were crying and hugging while I stood by awkwardly yet happily. When they calmed down a bit, his mother said, "I have to call your sister and your brother!"
"There will be plenty of time for that," Jason said, though I wasn't sure that was entirely honest. "First I want to know everything you were told about my..."
His mother sighed. "About your death," she said.
Jason nodded. "Yes."
She sighed again. "Well, it was late at night five years, six months," she blinked twice, to activate her current date display, I assumed, "and 13 days ago today that Maria came to our house." She frowned. "She sat right there," she gestured to where I was now sitting, which made me feel strangely uncomfortable, "and told me they had received confirmation through their monitoring that you had been killed on a mission to the past."
Jason looked puzzled. I probably did, too. "What monitoring?" he asked.
"Whatever it is they use to track you when you go into the past," his mother said.
Jason turned to me, clearing wanting me to explain this tech I had never mentioned before. "There's no monitoring that I know of," I said.
His mother looked shocked, though certainly not as shocked as when she had seen her son still alive. "Do you work for the agency, too?" she asked.
"Yes," I replied. "I take it Jason never told you that."
She shook her head. "No," she said.
"He just said he was dating a girl he met in college," his dad chimed in. "Never said anything about her being from the agency training, though I suppose he wouldn't have been allowed to anyway."
"We knew he wasn't supposed to talk about any of the people he worked with," Jason's mother continued. "It was our understanding that those people he worked with would never come to visit us, either. That's why we didn't trust this Maria at first."
"But she knew all about the agency," Jason's dad picked up. "Everything Jason had told us and even some he hadn't."
"Like about the monitoring," his mother chimed in.
George nodded. "Yes, like the monitoring," he said. Then he glanced at me, "which may or may not be a real thing."
"If Anna says it isn't, then either it isn't or Maria kept it a secret."
"So you don't know for sure?" his mother asked. "I mean, if there is monitoring, it clearly malfunctioned since you're still alive. You think Maria just got a bad reading?"
Jason frowned. "I think Maria can't be trusted," he said. "But then again, there really isn't all that much I know for sure anymore."
"What do you mean?" his father asked.
Jason sighed. "Well, I guess I might as well tell you," he said. He took a deep breath and began. "As near as we can tell, Maria stranded me in the past with my memory wiped, or at least altered. I don't remember anything about being a time traveler. I do remember the two of you, and Victor and Melanie, too, but I remember you as if we lived in the past, in the early 21st century."
"But that's absurd!" my mother exclaimed.
"How could they warp your mind like that?" his father asked. "I mean, how could they make you forget? You're a smart kid. It couldn't have been easy."
Jason shrugged. "Well time travel couldn't have been easy either, and they made that happen. But if you mean how could they do something so unethical, so immoral? Well, that's what Anna and I want to get to the bottom of."
"And we support that 100%!" his mother chimed in, "but first, can't we just spend some time as a family? We can invite your brother and sister over! It will be a couple days before they can get here, I imagine, but then we can be one big happy family!"
Jason smiled. "Yes, I'd like that," he agreed.
His father smiled, too. "I just can't believe this is happening," George said.
"Yeah," Jason agreed, "neither can I."
"Well, I should probably go then," I said, standing up.
"Oh don't be silly!" Jason's mother exclaimed, rising up to stop me. "If you saved Jason like he said, then you should be part of this celebration, too."
"Oh, Martha," George said, "Maybe the girl has somewhere to be."
Martha looked a little dejected, but she brightened up again when I smiled and said, "No, there is no where else that is more important for me to be right now."
"Oh good!" Martha exclaimed clasping her hands. Then she looked at Jason. "Now can I call your brother and sister? I have no idea what I'm going to tell them, but I'll have to come up with something."
"Yeah, Mom," Jason said with a smile. "You can call them." And as I sat back down, he reached for my hand, which I gladly gave him, and gave it a squeeze. As he looked over at me, still smiling, I smiled back, and for the first time in a long time, I had this irrational feeling that everything was going to be okay.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Nanowrimo 2015-11-18
We stayed with my parents for nearly a week during which they tried to convince me never to go back to the agency again.
"It's too dangerous, and you might get hurt!" my mother would say.
"As much as I want to understand things, you don't have to understand everything," my father would say.
"But if they've sent me back to kill someone innocent, what if they are sending others back," I would protest. I'd look at Connor and say, "I have to stop them from hurting people who don't deserve to be hurt."
"I'll back whatever you want to do," Connor said, "but I feel ready to go."
I had anticipated this resistance from my parents. I didn't expect them to be fully on board with my plan. I just wanted them to accept that it was happening. That was part of the reason why I had brought Connor and I back a full week before I left on the mission to go kill him. It would be even less wise to go anywhere near the agency while my past self was still hanging out and training there. If I ran into myself, things could get really messed up, or if someone caught me but then ended up going after my self from the past instead. I didn't want to think about all that could go wrong with that.
I wanted to force myself to have to wait, and to have time to reassure my parents that this was the right thing to do. At the end of the week, I wasn't sure they were as accepting as I would have liked, but they at least didn't stop me and Connor from going. The part I wasn't sure about was whether Connor should go with me, but he insisted. "I want to be a part of this, too," he said. "These people wanted to murder me even though its clear now that killing was not necessary. I have the same desire you do to stop them. The only difference is that you know more about them than I do."
I reflected during the day before our mission that I wasn't entirely sure that was true. I thought I knew things about the agency, but I had told Connor basically everything I thought I knew. And I was no longer true which of those things even were true. I considered that Connor, with his outside perspective, might actually see the agency more clearly than I did, even though he had never set foot there before.
Our plan was simple, but not easy. We were going to sneak in during the night and poke around in all those places I was never allowed to go. I briefly wished I had some cream to help us get in (as the time traveling hand cream let you travel through space as well as time), but then on the other hand, they could detect time travel activity and would probably put a stop to that right away. "Breaking" in the old fashioned way would be much easier. It really helped that the agency operated more based on secrecy than on real security. Their building was an old warehouse in a completely abandoned town (abandoned around the time of the 2057 crisis because the illogical people there thought they would be more safe in a big city), and there was no visible security. They did have some more security stuff once you got inside the building, but it was a good ways in, there wasn't a guard on duty, and I would have my badge with me in the absolute worse case. I figured that if anyone did cause trouble for me, I would just tell them the partial truth: That I hadn't found it in my heart to kill Connor and had brought him here instead and it seemed to work out find since Rome and Beijing were now still in existence. I was concerned Connor would not be okay with this "Plan B", since it involved telling the people who had wanted to kill him, "Here he is!", but he told me, "Well, if it comes to that, at least it will make it really clear where they really stand."
So that night, Connor and I drove in near silence to this old abandoned town, parked a mile away from an old abandoned warehouse, and walked right in the front door of the time travel agency for which I worked. No one was there. No alarms went off. I nearly breathed a sigh of relief. And then I led Connor to the archives.
The archives were where Maria kept all the records of past missions. It was the least secure of the three stops we planned to make to gather information, the other two stops being the scientists' main office and the historians' main office. I had never been inside either of those offices and only vaguely knew where they were. At least the archives I had been to when Maria had me file my reports on my first few missions. After that, I had never been in that room again, but I certainly remembered where it was. What surprised me slightly was that the door to the room was unlocked, but I chose not to question it and motioned Connor in.
We kept the lights off as we went through the files. There weren't a lot of files, but that's because each of them contained a digital document that contained hundreds of reports. The one little bit of clever work I had done before coming here was to purchase a program that could scan through the documents for certain keywords. It wasn't perfect, and if I had been more proficient with programming, I probably would have written something more advanced, but I figured it would get the job done. What shocked me to the core was what the program found. Connor was actually the one who found it first. I heard him say, "What the hell?" which really startled me because I'd never actually heard him swear before, even that drunken New Year's Even when he found me and asked who I really was.
"What is it?" I said walking over to him.
"See for yourself," he said, clearly not sure how to describe what he had found. He flipped the document around for me to see and I audibly gasped when I saw what was displayed there. It was a picture of Connor, but with the name "Jason Andrews" below it.
"Are you sure that's you?" I asked.
"Yes I'm sure!" Connor exclaimed, a bit louder than I would have liked. "Scroll down."
I did, and I found a whole report about how Jason had been renamed Connor (the search looking for Connor's name was how he had found this document to begin with) and sent back in time due to his insubordination against the agency.
"What the hell," Connor said again.
I just had to restate what this document was saying because it sounded so bizarre. "You used to work here?" I asked.
Connor shrugged. "Apparently," he said.
"Well, did any of this feel... familiar as we walked in?"
"No," he said. "Nothing. Except..." He turned and darted out the door, leaving me no choice by to follow him. I was surprised at how he seemed to know where he was going.
"This is it," he said, stopping at the door to a sleeping quarters. "This is where I used to sleep."
I was even more shocked now. This wasn't just any sleeping quarters. "That's my room," I said.
He turned at me, startled. "What?"
"Yeah," I said. I opened the door and let him in. "See, this is my stuff. And there's a picture of my family." I pointed at the desk.
"What the?"
I shook my head. "I have no idea, but I think we need to get out of here."
"What about the other two offices?" Connor asked.
"I don't think we can afford to worry about those right now," I said. "We need to get somewhere safe and figure out what on earth is going on."
"Okay, agreed," Connor said. "Lead the way."
I looked at him. "Are you sure I have to?" I asked.
Connor frowned. "No, apparently not," he said, and he led the way straight out of the warehouse.
When I told my parents what I had found, they were equally shocked, but this didn't last long on my mom as she then exclaimed, "I knew I knew you!"
"Yeah, apparently you did," Connor agreed.
She looked at him more carefully, trying to remember. Then she shook her finger at him, seemingly in an effort to lock down the memories. "You were dating my daughter."
Connor and I both laughed. "What?" he said.
"You were," my mother insisted. "I don't know how I could forget it, but you came over for dinner. It was a big deal because you weren't supposed to, but you insisted on meeting the family. You sat right there at the table, and you told my daughter that you loved her. I couldn't have been happier."
I saw Connor frown as my heart felt like it dropped. We exchanged a look. "It wasn't a dream," I said to him.
"What wasn't a dream?" my mother asked.
"Connor, I mean Jason, and I both had a dream of what you just described," I said. "I guess it wasn't a dream after all."
"It was a memory," Jason said. Then he looked at me. "But how can any of this be possible? How can they just erase our memories like that?"
I sighed. "Well, I told you they had some mind-altering tech we were supposed to use at times," I said. "Like when I was supposed to calm your alleged grandson. It can erase certain memories, too. I just didn't know quite how advanced it apparently is." I crossed my arms and shook my head as I looked at the ground. Then I looked back up at Jason. "I'm so sorry," I said. "I'm so sorry, Jason."
He looked a little uncomfortable, but then reached out his hand to touch my shoulder. "Don't be sorry," he said. "If it weren't for you, I'd still be trapped in the past."
"Maybe," I admitted, "but I also can't help but feel that you wouldn't have been sent to the past to begin with if it wasn't for me."
"We can't worry about that now," Jason said. Then he added with a sly grin, "It's all in the past."
I couldn't help but laugh at that as I wiped some tears from my eyes. Then I turned to my parents. "Do you two remember anything else?" I asked.
My mom shook her head, "No, I don't think so. Just the dinner." She looked at Jason, "And you name."
"I just remember this feeling," my dad said. "Your mom describing the dinner brought it back. It was like I was happy for the two of you, but really scared, too."
"Do you think you knew something bad was happening?" my mother asked, turning to address my father.
He shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "If I had, I'm sure you did, too. You usually have a better sense for those things than me anyway."
There was silence for a minute and then Jason asked the billion dollar question: "So what do we do now?"
"It's too dangerous, and you might get hurt!" my mother would say.
"As much as I want to understand things, you don't have to understand everything," my father would say.
"But if they've sent me back to kill someone innocent, what if they are sending others back," I would protest. I'd look at Connor and say, "I have to stop them from hurting people who don't deserve to be hurt."
"I'll back whatever you want to do," Connor said, "but I feel ready to go."
I had anticipated this resistance from my parents. I didn't expect them to be fully on board with my plan. I just wanted them to accept that it was happening. That was part of the reason why I had brought Connor and I back a full week before I left on the mission to go kill him. It would be even less wise to go anywhere near the agency while my past self was still hanging out and training there. If I ran into myself, things could get really messed up, or if someone caught me but then ended up going after my self from the past instead. I didn't want to think about all that could go wrong with that.
I wanted to force myself to have to wait, and to have time to reassure my parents that this was the right thing to do. At the end of the week, I wasn't sure they were as accepting as I would have liked, but they at least didn't stop me and Connor from going. The part I wasn't sure about was whether Connor should go with me, but he insisted. "I want to be a part of this, too," he said. "These people wanted to murder me even though its clear now that killing was not necessary. I have the same desire you do to stop them. The only difference is that you know more about them than I do."
I reflected during the day before our mission that I wasn't entirely sure that was true. I thought I knew things about the agency, but I had told Connor basically everything I thought I knew. And I was no longer true which of those things even were true. I considered that Connor, with his outside perspective, might actually see the agency more clearly than I did, even though he had never set foot there before.
Our plan was simple, but not easy. We were going to sneak in during the night and poke around in all those places I was never allowed to go. I briefly wished I had some cream to help us get in (as the time traveling hand cream let you travel through space as well as time), but then on the other hand, they could detect time travel activity and would probably put a stop to that right away. "Breaking" in the old fashioned way would be much easier. It really helped that the agency operated more based on secrecy than on real security. Their building was an old warehouse in a completely abandoned town (abandoned around the time of the 2057 crisis because the illogical people there thought they would be more safe in a big city), and there was no visible security. They did have some more security stuff once you got inside the building, but it was a good ways in, there wasn't a guard on duty, and I would have my badge with me in the absolute worse case. I figured that if anyone did cause trouble for me, I would just tell them the partial truth: That I hadn't found it in my heart to kill Connor and had brought him here instead and it seemed to work out find since Rome and Beijing were now still in existence. I was concerned Connor would not be okay with this "Plan B", since it involved telling the people who had wanted to kill him, "Here he is!", but he told me, "Well, if it comes to that, at least it will make it really clear where they really stand."
So that night, Connor and I drove in near silence to this old abandoned town, parked a mile away from an old abandoned warehouse, and walked right in the front door of the time travel agency for which I worked. No one was there. No alarms went off. I nearly breathed a sigh of relief. And then I led Connor to the archives.
The archives were where Maria kept all the records of past missions. It was the least secure of the three stops we planned to make to gather information, the other two stops being the scientists' main office and the historians' main office. I had never been inside either of those offices and only vaguely knew where they were. At least the archives I had been to when Maria had me file my reports on my first few missions. After that, I had never been in that room again, but I certainly remembered where it was. What surprised me slightly was that the door to the room was unlocked, but I chose not to question it and motioned Connor in.
We kept the lights off as we went through the files. There weren't a lot of files, but that's because each of them contained a digital document that contained hundreds of reports. The one little bit of clever work I had done before coming here was to purchase a program that could scan through the documents for certain keywords. It wasn't perfect, and if I had been more proficient with programming, I probably would have written something more advanced, but I figured it would get the job done. What shocked me to the core was what the program found. Connor was actually the one who found it first. I heard him say, "What the hell?" which really startled me because I'd never actually heard him swear before, even that drunken New Year's Even when he found me and asked who I really was.
"What is it?" I said walking over to him.
"See for yourself," he said, clearly not sure how to describe what he had found. He flipped the document around for me to see and I audibly gasped when I saw what was displayed there. It was a picture of Connor, but with the name "Jason Andrews" below it.
"Are you sure that's you?" I asked.
"Yes I'm sure!" Connor exclaimed, a bit louder than I would have liked. "Scroll down."
I did, and I found a whole report about how Jason had been renamed Connor (the search looking for Connor's name was how he had found this document to begin with) and sent back in time due to his insubordination against the agency.
"What the hell," Connor said again.
I just had to restate what this document was saying because it sounded so bizarre. "You used to work here?" I asked.
Connor shrugged. "Apparently," he said.
"Well, did any of this feel... familiar as we walked in?"
"No," he said. "Nothing. Except..." He turned and darted out the door, leaving me no choice by to follow him. I was surprised at how he seemed to know where he was going.
"This is it," he said, stopping at the door to a sleeping quarters. "This is where I used to sleep."
I was even more shocked now. This wasn't just any sleeping quarters. "That's my room," I said.
He turned at me, startled. "What?"
"Yeah," I said. I opened the door and let him in. "See, this is my stuff. And there's a picture of my family." I pointed at the desk.
"What the?"
I shook my head. "I have no idea, but I think we need to get out of here."
"What about the other two offices?" Connor asked.
"I don't think we can afford to worry about those right now," I said. "We need to get somewhere safe and figure out what on earth is going on."
"Okay, agreed," Connor said. "Lead the way."
I looked at him. "Are you sure I have to?" I asked.
Connor frowned. "No, apparently not," he said, and he led the way straight out of the warehouse.
When I told my parents what I had found, they were equally shocked, but this didn't last long on my mom as she then exclaimed, "I knew I knew you!"
"Yeah, apparently you did," Connor agreed.
She looked at him more carefully, trying to remember. Then she shook her finger at him, seemingly in an effort to lock down the memories. "You were dating my daughter."
Connor and I both laughed. "What?" he said.
"You were," my mother insisted. "I don't know how I could forget it, but you came over for dinner. It was a big deal because you weren't supposed to, but you insisted on meeting the family. You sat right there at the table, and you told my daughter that you loved her. I couldn't have been happier."
I saw Connor frown as my heart felt like it dropped. We exchanged a look. "It wasn't a dream," I said to him.
"What wasn't a dream?" my mother asked.
"Connor, I mean Jason, and I both had a dream of what you just described," I said. "I guess it wasn't a dream after all."
"It was a memory," Jason said. Then he looked at me. "But how can any of this be possible? How can they just erase our memories like that?"
I sighed. "Well, I told you they had some mind-altering tech we were supposed to use at times," I said. "Like when I was supposed to calm your alleged grandson. It can erase certain memories, too. I just didn't know quite how advanced it apparently is." I crossed my arms and shook my head as I looked at the ground. Then I looked back up at Jason. "I'm so sorry," I said. "I'm so sorry, Jason."
He looked a little uncomfortable, but then reached out his hand to touch my shoulder. "Don't be sorry," he said. "If it weren't for you, I'd still be trapped in the past."
"Maybe," I admitted, "but I also can't help but feel that you wouldn't have been sent to the past to begin with if it wasn't for me."
"We can't worry about that now," Jason said. Then he added with a sly grin, "It's all in the past."
I couldn't help but laugh at that as I wiped some tears from my eyes. Then I turned to my parents. "Do you two remember anything else?" I asked.
My mom shook her head, "No, I don't think so. Just the dinner." She looked at Jason, "And you name."
"I just remember this feeling," my dad said. "Your mom describing the dinner brought it back. It was like I was happy for the two of you, but really scared, too."
"Do you think you knew something bad was happening?" my mother asked, turning to address my father.
He shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "If I had, I'm sure you did, too. You usually have a better sense for those things than me anyway."
There was silence for a minute and then Jason asked the billion dollar question: "So what do we do now?"
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