Hi.

This fanfiction is perfectly capable to be fully understood and enjoyed on its own.

However, it is a part of the series, and in case you would want to take a look at its backstory:

Part One: /s/4609031/1/The_Monroes_Summer_Days

Part Three: /s/4627949/1/The_Monroes_Autumn_Leaves

Thanks. I now present to you The Monroe's final installation:

Part Four

Chapter One: The Seven Samurai

To Elizabeth, the seven unofficial rules of the World Temporal Corps were as followed:

1. You do not exist.

2. If Rule One cannot be followed, you exist only as a tourist.

3. If Rule Two cannot be followed, you will do your best to be written off in history as a ghost, vampire, alien, or similar supernatural being.

4. Do not speak nor touch anything more than necessary.

5. In general, spend the least amount of time in the period as possible.

6. Do not do anything unrelated to you catching the target.

7. Do not kill the target.

In reality, all these rules which she had learned really were supplements to Rule One. In her first five missions, all of these rules were carefully followed, but after the sixth, it seemed the last three begged to be broken. Not that the Corps took note to exactly what each of their officers did on a given mission.

"He was being such a trouble," she remembered her co-worker explaining, "always threatening to shoot Winston Churchill, so we kept letting him go until Ethan got sick of it and just shot him. I swear, Colonel, I swear!"

And the Colonel would always give the same response of "don't let it happen again," with a scolding look, although he knew very well that it would happen again. As long as history ran the right way and nothing was changed. If you needed to spend a few extra weeks to get the target without a fuss, so be it. Needed to rob someone of a fair trial? All in the name of the law.

"Nice of them to give us a red car," Samson leaned back into the leather upholstery with a cigarette between his lips. Although it annoyed Elizabeth to the fullest, partners were of a man and a woman, since marriage was a common theme between all time periods. Samson was not the most handsome of men, having a unshapely nose that added ten to his twenty-eight years.

Elizabeth rolled his eyes at the remark and fiddled with the radio. "But this music, God I hate the 1950s."

"Wait, look-- straight ahead with the brown coat. Even winter in San Fran is too warm for a coat like that."

She shook her head. "Report said the target's displaced 68 kilograms, that man is past that by far."

"When's they-"

"When are they," interrupted Elizabeth.

Samson scowled, "Yeah. When's they going to come up with a better way to track these people. We should at least know if they're a guy or a girl, but the amount of mass they've displaced? Might as well not tell us nothing."

"But it's more fun this way. If we knew exactly what they looked like, it would be too easy. We'd be out of our jobs." Elizabeth stopped fiddling with the radio and tried not to fiddle with her dress. "Just keep an eye out. He or she teleported right into this cinema."

For a moment, Samson didn't speak. "Wait, I'm confused," he said. "He teleported into this movie theatre an hour and twenty minutes ago. So according to you, he watched a movie, which should be an hour and twenty minutes long, so he should be leaving with the rest of the crowd."

"That is correct. Just watch, he should be coming out any minute now."

Samson looked amused. "What if he wanted to see The Ten Commandments? The top grossing movie for the year and it's more than three hours long."

"Well," Elizabeth stated plainly, "we'll just keep watching for three hours then, won't we?"

Samson rolled his eyes and got out of the car despite Elizabeth's protests. "Screw it! I could be on the Tut case right now. Let's get this over with."

"Samson Montgomery, don't you dare!"

Just as she stomped out of the car to follow him running into the theatre, the whole scene changed. Every car, every person was absolutely still, as if made of wax. She carefully parted through them, running to catch up with the only moving figure with the rough thumps of his feet trailing behind.

"I see him, Liz!" he could hear him shouting. "Hurry! Get a move on!"

She stopped where there were lights from the restrooms. "Where? I can't see a thing!"

"Follow the sound of my voice! He's getting away!"

Every time she could up enough to see her partner, he took another corner, and she lost him again. She swore, silently taking steps down the hall, to each theatre, where she poked her head in and made sure was empty of animated people.

It was fun, actually. She could never imagine paying actual money to see such low quality films, and from the stills of each of them, she could just wonder exactly what they were about. Some were quite apparent, like the screen of robed men obviously being from The Ten Commandments, but others were stills of not much at all, like shadows and shapes that would surely make sense if they were moving.

One was of a few men on horses with huts in the background, which Elizabeth found especially intriguing until she remembered that they were in the middle of the Kurosawa film era. She wondered just what kind of American was watching this film anyway, and for a moment of pure Rule Six rule-breaking, she looked out into the crowd.

It was a strange occurrence indeed, and she had to go near the man and get his face into a better light from the screen to be completely sure. Right then, right there, he was with a severely amused face half full of popcorn. She leaned in closer and closer, making her self absolutely and completely sure it was the man most commonly known as Adam Monroe, same as ever.

"Boo!"

Elizabeth screamed, spinning around to see no one. She looked around the theatre, gasped, and then yelled in outrage.

"What the hell is going on? Liz?" Samson came through the theatre entrance, nearly out of breath. "Did you get him? I saw him come into here!"

She swallowed. "No. He was right behind me, right... right here! Fuck, I could've gotten him, but now he... he got away. He's gone."

"No worries, Liz." Samson coughed, placing himself in one of the many empty seats. "I saw him; I know what he looks like. We'll get him next time."

Even with his apparent conviction, Elizabeth wasn't so convinced. She rolled her eyes at her partner and then closed them. She disappeared.

He could get the car.

A/N: The Seven Samurai was this really popular film from 1956 where this village hires these samurais to protect them from thieves. I haven't seen it, but I would imagine Adam would get a kick out of it...

Reviews and flames are greatly appreciated. Thank you.