Chapter I
Olivia knew what the sound of the gunshot meant without needing to run to the balcony. She knew she had just lost her daughter for the second time, merely moments after finding her again. Her heart flew to her throat as if launched from the same gun the Observer held in his outstretched hand. Her breath caught in her chest and she was frozen to the spot, only vaguely aware of movement around her. Peter was already running down to Etta's side, Walter hot on his heels. Peter was saying something over and over but Olivia didn't have the capacity to understand.
As soon as the Bishop's left the room, a spark of life kick started Olivia's brain again, pushing her forward to join her disappearing family.
Peter was already cradling Etta by the time she rounded the corner and faced her daughter; a dark red stain growing larger on the front of her shirt. Walter sat a few paces back clearly already in the throes of grief. Olivia momentarily thought about the pain for Walter; having to watch his own son die and now the same of his granddaughter.
Her attention was brought back to her own pain as Peter's voice was rising with every "Etta!" Olivia covered the last of the distance in a few paces and joined him. Etta looked at her and … smiled. Olivia placed her hand on Etta's cheek and brushed the hair out of her eyes at the same moment the light left them. She fell backward and slumped unceremoniously against the steps she had just descended. Peter held Etta as if through sheer will, he could summon their daughter's soul back to them. The tears were flowing freely from Walter's puckered eyes.
Time meant nothing now, Olivia couldn't hazard a guess as to how long they sat there but if pain was any measure it had been at least a lifetime. Nothing short of that could possibly be enough time to experience the layers of grief, not just of losing her daughter again but of the raw, unhindered grief of those still remaining in her heart. Olivia could feel herself sinking lower and lower, or was it floating higher and higher? She couldn't tell; all she knew was that she was leaving; the strength she was so known for had finally failed her. She was ready to go, not wanting nor willing to live in a world like this - so painful; so empty; so alien.
A wave of darkness was washing over her and she was less and less aware of her surroundings, the grief-stricken, Bishops, even her own pain had dulled ever so slightly. But one thing she could not shake was a tiny little flicker; like a flame that was on its last legs but refused to give up entirely. A flame that kept sending out its own thoughts; maybe it didn't have to be this way; there was still a chance to change the past, change the future, and change our fate.
Olivia squashed it back down. This is no time for thoughts like that. This is how the universes were broken in the first place. Have we not learned that yet? But still the thought was there. Nagging.
Nagging. Niggling. Demanding so much attention that finally Olivia actually had to force herself to think of something else, and with a dramatic gesture she jumped up and grabbed Walter's arm.
"Come on Peter we have to leave. The Observers are coming; they'll be here any minute." She had no idea what made her say that but it felt true. Hauling Walter to his feet, she moved around him and placed her hands on Peter's shoulders.
"We have to go."
"But what about Etta? We can't leave her here for them." Peter choked out.
"We don't have a choice. She's gone Peter and now we have to go. There isn't much time."
Finally with agonizing slowness Peter got to his feet and nodded. Walter took his arm and guided him around to the closest exit. Olivia was just about to follow them when a thought struck her; a memory really, of the talisman Etta always wore to remember them. Olivia bent down and unclasped the chain from around her neck: 'the bullet that saved the world'. Fastening it around her own neck, Olivia took one last look at her little girl and ran after the others; mere moments before 4 police cars of both Observers and Loyalists stormed the warehouse.
Chapter II
Walter stormed back and forth in the lab, resembling more and more the man who could experiment on children and destroy universes but in this instance there was also a little of the Walter just after he left St Claire's; an absolutely brilliant mind, wracked with doubt, which manifested in the form of aggression. None of this was lost on the others, Peter stepped forward, placed his hands on Walter's shoulders, cajoling him.
"You don't understand Peter. The boy is gone! He is crucial to the plan and without him the plan is useless!"
"I understand Walter. But Donald left the boy there 26 years ago, we already saw what's left of the building and that man wandering inside the pocket universe for as many years. Donald probably didn't plan for that, realised the boy wasn't safe anymore and moved him somewhere else."
"And he left us this radio." Astrid piped in. "That must mean something, right?"
"Astrid's right. We just have to keep working through the tapes until we find the boy, or Donald."
Walter nodded his face relaxing. The tension in the room dropped a fraction, although no-one could deny what Walter was afraid of.
Olivia sat in silence as this confrontation took place; her default - whenever something was too much for her to handle she would throw herself into her work. Ordinarily she would have more than enough Fringe cases, FBI cases and paperwork to keep her busy long after she had worked through her pain but not now. Now her brain shut off in between jobs; she felt like a computer on standby but at the mention of that name she awoke. Donald. A name she had never heard, a man she had never met, and yet a not entirely unfamiliar person.
The air was not still, creaks and rustles broke the silence inside the room, emanating from a spot nearby. Peter couldn't sleep again. Olivia turned asked if he was ok and got the same reply she always did, "I'm fine." She was just about to say something else when Astrid burst in the door.
"Oh, Sorry. Ah... The radio's working." She said disappearing into the lab again. Peter and Olivia shared a look then followed her.
Peter still suffered, he hadn't slept a wink since Etta died, at least now he was no longer on a crusade of vengeance against Windmark. But that wasn't much of an improvement, he was angry and under the same cloud Olivia was under.
Miraculously she had actually been feeling a little better. Ever since she had seen the video of the Observer Child in one of Walter's video tapes, she missed him; it had hurt a lot letting him leave the lab with the nurse. She wondered if they still had the same empathic connection, if that was the reason why she felt... happier. But that was in another timeline.
Walter sat in his nightgown staring absently out at them. A strange rhythmical sound was coming from the radio sat on the bench.
"We think it's in some kind of code." Astrid explained.
"Walter do you know what this means?" Peter asked.
"It's in E minor." Walter said smiling after a long pause.
"Walter, are you alright?"
"I've taken acid - black blotter. It was in the lab"
"Why would you do that?"
"Because it was an excellent batch."
The corner of Olivia's mouth raised slightly in amusement. Walter and Peter continued talking; Peter trying to get Walter to focus on the signal; Walter apologetic about taking the Black Blotter at the very time they received a signal and apparently shouting at a third person in the conversation that no-one else could see.
Olivia turned her attention back to the signal, somehow familiar, she focused on the individual sounds, blocking out everything else. A familiar sense of awareness came to Olivia, almost like the feeling she had while using Cortexifan but Walter assured her there was no more of the drug in her system.
But this feeling was different still, rather than the world in front of her changing, like it did with Cortexifan, she could have sworn she could see a picture inside her head. She didn't recognize it; a well furnished house, from the look of it she was in the living room. Outside the window she could see a wooden white paneled porch jutting into a large lush green grass.
Olivia was jerked out of her reverie by a loud crash. her head shot up, searching for the noise, her hand automatically going to the gun strapped to her hip, but it was only Walter slamming his hand on the bench. Olivia relaxed while Astrid took Walter away, soothing him with his grape flavoured vines.
"Can we trace this?"Olivia asked.
"What?" Came Astrid's voice from across the room.
"This signal has to be broadcasting from somewhere right?"
"Yeah, I can try. Give me a minute." Astrid walked over to the computer and started typing. "I've got it, the signal is being broadcast from this location, looks like it's a few miles from the road. I've sent the location to your comm. Olivia..."
"Thanks Astrid." Said Olivia as she and Peter left the lab.
Chapter III
The excitement rose in Olivia as she, Walter, Peter and Astrid stood outside the house, the same house that she had seen when the signal came through on the radio. The boy stepped out from behind, what Olivia could only assume as being his foster-father. The smile that spread across his face as he saw Olivia was unmistakable, he remembered her, more than that, they still had a connection. Olivia had to fight the instinct to run to him but the man holding the shotgun pointed at them gave her pause.
"Black Umbrella!" Burst Walter.
The man lowered the shotgun and the four of them slowly moved toward the house. She stopped when she reached the boy, knelt down and folded her arms around him. The dark cloud that had been hanging over Olivia vanished, leaving no trace that it was ever there. A simple joy, so familiar to Olivia, however dormant it may have been came back to her now. No words needed to be said, the bond between them was clear. It was like being reunited with an old friend Of course Olivia knew that this boy wasn't hers and definitely wasn't Etta but that connection was the same; she knew she would do anything to protect him, to make him happy.
Olivia pulled back from the boy, her smile mirroring his.
"Come inside." Richard cleared his throat and slipped into the house with his wife Carolyn.
Olivia stood and took the boy's hand as Peter, Walter and Astrid joined them on the porch.
The car ride back to the lab was a bit of a blur. Olivia and the boy, the foster parents had named Michael, spent the trip sharing memories, non-verbally of course, since they last met. They showed each other images both from this timeline and from the timeline in which they met. It was difficult for Olivia to think about the pain she felt, she did her best to hide it but the bond told her she didn't do a very good job. Instead he started thinking of Walter's little dance in the lab when he was trying to soothe the boy. They were laughing before he even finished the thought.
Grateful for the happy memory, Olivia was a little taken aback by the next memory he chose to share. It must have been shortly after he left Walter's lab, sitting in the back seat of the nurse's car on his way to his new family when a familiar sense of recognition came to him. Craning his neck to look out the back window, a wave of intense emotion spread through him, almost like he was acknowledging kin. She was surprised to see September standing there, watching the boy pass with an equally strange expression on his face.
Olivia was jerked back to reality by Peter bringing the car to a stop. Everyone jumped out the car and made their way down to the lab.
Deja vu Olivia couldn't help but think as they all took up positions in the lab. Almost immediately Walter started asking the boy about Donald; about the plan; about how he was important, but the boy didn't respond in any way. Olivia felt she had to intercede when Walter became that man again, the very man he was trying so fiercely not to become.
Whether it was her concern for Walter's state of mind or if perhaps the boy retained some similar but less intense bond with Walter she couldn't say but Walter got what he wanted. Silently the boy stood and placed his little hand on Walter's cheek, Olivia could feel the rush of images and emotions but was not able to clearly identify them, possibly because they were not meant for her.
"I know who Donald is." Walter finally said as the stream of information ceased. "Donald is September." A small smile spread across Walter's face.
"What?" Peter exclaimed.
"But he doesn't look anything like he used to... He has hair!"
It was clear everyone in the lab was surprised by this revelation apart from the boy of course, but to Olivia it wasn't entirely unexpected. Why she had no idea, probably over the years of working Fringe cases she had learned to accept strange and unexpected things, she half laughed.
"Do you know where he is?" Peter asked.
"For that I will need to go into the tank!" Walter replied, getting to his feet.
Chapter IV
The others, Peter in particular, still doubted that Donald was still alive let alone still lived in the same place after so many years in an Observer controlled world. Olivia had no such doubts, aside from her own senses, the same recognition the boy showed her was alive now and getting stronger. Olivia was looking forward to seeing September or Donald again, like the boy she really hadn't known him for any time at all before he started to mean something to her. Exactly what does time mean anymore? Olivia almost chuckled to herself again. Truthfully she hadn't known that she felt protective for him until he was shot and could easily be shot again.
Walter knocked on the door, and so began the awkward waiting around in the hall for the door to open. A few seconds later the door swung open and there stood Donald, true enough, with a full head of hair, still smartly dressed but minus the suit and hat. A relieved smile broke across Donald's face
"Walter Bishop; I never thought I'd see any of you again." The smile grew wider.
The four gathered in the house; Walter and Olivia sharing the couch, Peter and Donald taking opposite chairs. The boy, still holding Olivia's hand sat half on Olivia, half on the arm next to Donald. Olivia put her arm around him to steady him while Donald took them through time; to the past where his chip was removed and then forward in time to the Observer origins.
"The boy has the emotions that the scientists deemed 'messy distractions'." Donald explained.
"He's a hybrid." Walter added.
"Yes, they are proof that you don't need to sacrifice emotions for intelligence."
"Wait! What?! What do you mean 'they'" Peter leaned forward.
Donald hesitated. "Yes, during my time as an Observer, myself and the other eleven were sent to the previous timeline to Observe you all; to make sure you… we corrected the mistake I made when I distracted Walter from creating the cure in the other universe."
"Yeah, we know that. What does that have to do with it?" Peter asked, a little impatient. Olivia gave him a look.
"Well, that is what we thought our parameters were… until we got here. We discovered that one of you displayed… characteristics of an Observer. And I think you know which one it is." Donald began to look a little awkwardly among them.
Olivia looked him dead in the eye and without saying a word, she knew it was true. The others turned to stare at her.
"That's impossible! How can Olivia be part Observer? Don't you think we would have noticed?" Peter piped in again, getting angry.
"But you did notice." Donald countered. "You all commented on how Olivia was always the strongest in the Cortexifan trials, that she had an innate ability to work Fringe cases, faster than anyone else could. Even now you are using your abilities but without your conscious mind being aware of it. The unconscious part of your mind is 'keeping track' of where the other Observers are, often before they are there so that you can avoid capture. You would call it intuition but it is more that that. Even your connection to the boy is partly based on that."
Peter and Walter shared a look of stunned surprise, where as with every word Donald spoke Olivia began to understand; her connection to the boy, the strange nervous anxious feeling she had whenever an Observer was nearby.
"But how am I keeping track of the Observers?"
"Your mind recognises theirs as being something familiar; you are able to access their minds and locate where and when they are."
"Can I do more?" Peter and Olivia asked simultaneously.
"It is possible that with practice you will be able to consciously read their minds, yes."
Olivia sank back into the chair, deep in thought, the others did the same.
"So why have we been collecting the things from the tape? Can't Olivia travel through time like you used to?" Walter finally spoke up.
Donald hesitated. "I don't know. Without examining her brain there is no way to tell exactly what she can do."
Both the boy and Olivia tensed at the same moment. That familiar gut wrenching anxiety climbed up from the bottom of her stomach.
"They're coming." She said, getting to her feet.
"What?" Peter asked, also rising up from the chair.
"Windmark and the other Observers are coming here, we have to leave now!"
With that everyone stood and raced to the door. They were in the station wagon and around the corner when Donald's comm. Beeped. He turned it around to show Windmark and another Observer standing in the room they just vacated.
Chapter V
Despite driving further from Windmark, Olivia's anxiety was not going away, in fact it was getting stronger.
"Stop the car!" She suddenly shouted. Peter, startled, immediately brought the car to a stop at the side of the road. Everyone looked at her. Olivia took a deep breath and explored this anxious knotting in the pit of her stomach; where did it come from? What was it trying to tell her? She expanded her senses out from her, like she used to do when she still had Cortexifan in her system.
With no warning, little lights began to come into focus. Only they were lights, they were minds; living changing minds; Observer minds. One by one they became available to her, she picked one at random and concentrated on it. She could feel a slight rushing feeling and muffled words came to the back of her mind, she couldn't make it out. She concentrated harder.
"They were just here."
"They will not get out, we have them surrounded."
Olivia slammed back to the station wagon, everyone in the car staring at her. "The Observers have us surrounded!"
"We have to abandon the car." Peter said, already getting out. "Come on, there has to be a way around this perimeter."
"I cannot go with you." Donald said to Peter's back. "I have something I need to do, this may be my only chance."
Olivia nodded. "Be careful"
"I'll meet you all back at the lab." Donald knelt down in front of the boy and pressed his hand against the boy's.
Several seconds passed before Donald stood, nodded to them all and turned to leave. Peter, Walter, Olivia and the boy moved to the end of the street to get a view of the Observer perimeter.
"There's no way we're all getting through there, we'll have to split up." Peter deduced.
"Alright, I'll take the boy; a mother and child shouldn't be too suspicious." Said Olivia.
"Alright, we'll be right along behind you. Head for the train station." Olivia nodded, took the boy's hand and moved as fast as she could past the Loyalists without raising suspicion. They were allowed through unhindered, Olivia breathed a sigh of relief.
Just as they agreed, Olivia led the boy down the long flight of stairs to the busy train station when her comm. buzzed; it was Peter.
"We're right behind you." Peter said when Olivia picked up the comm. The anxious feeling was still with her so she explored it again, just to confirm that they had made their escape. Her heart fell when she sensed four Observers walking down the stairs just a few feet from Peter and Walter.
"The Observers are coming down behind you." Olivia saw the open door to the carriage and reacted. "Peter get on the train!"
Olivia moved into the large group of people by the door and hugged the pole, the boy still close at her side.
"Alright, we're on the train. Where are the Observers?" This time Olivia didn't need to extend her senses, she could see them walking past the window, getting closer to the door of their carriage.
"They're about to inspect this carriage." Backed against the wall, a thought stuck Olivia "Peter, when I tell you, get off the train." Olivia gripped the boy's hand tighter and moved with purpose to the next carriage, keeping her face covered as she passed the doors. Clearing her mind, Olivia accessed a part of her mind she hadn't been to in a long time, just as she got to the door of the carriage the Observers stepped onto the train.
"Alright Peter, get off the train!" She and the boy jumped of the train and landed in a completely deserted platform, in a completely different universe. She smiled, pleased that her long shot had worked; wasting no time in this now unfamiliar universe, she ran to where she guessed the door of Peter's carriage would be and slipped back into her universe. There they were, just outside of arms reach. She raced forward and grabbed Walter's hand, motioning for Peter to do the same.
Olivia cleared her mind again and this time, all four of them were taken to the other side.
Walter turned to Olivia. "How is this possible? You shouldn't have been able to cross over without Cortexifan."
"But Walter didn't you say that Cortexifan was only supposed to limit the limitations we develop as we become adults?" Olivia answered after a moment's thought.
"Well yes, but…"
"But, I've already done that. My mind knows I can travel between universes so shouldn't that mean I don't need the drug to do it anymore?"
Walter paused in thought. "Well yes I suppose you're right. Well done Olivia." Walter smiled, whether from Olivia's keenly deduced conclusion or from pride that his experiment worked far better than he ever anticipated, Olivia could not say.
Sirens sounded just outside the station, a wave of panic washed over Olivia, what if this universe had already been taken over by Observers and she had just led them into an ever worse trap than in their own. She briefly considered shifting back to their universe and hopefully slipping into the crowd again. But her instincts told her to wait.
Her gamble paid off, rounding the pillars and the bottom of the steps were two familiar faces; her own and that of her friend Lincoln Lee. Alternate Olivia lowered her gun, a look of bewilderment on her face. She stopped as she got nearer and looked them over.
"We were trapped in amber for 21 years, which is why we still look the same." Olivia asked her double's unasked question.
"Ahh." A smile replaced Alternate Olivia's look of confusion. "It's good to see you again, Olivia."
"You too." She nodded to Lincoln as well.
"So what are you doing here?" Lincoln asked.
"We might need your help. Our universe has been invaded by Observers; they're slowly taking over. We're trying to stop them but we might need to cross over here in order to do it."
"What do you mean?" Alternate Olivia looked confused again.
"It's easier for me to move in this universe and then cross back over at the same point in our universe. I understand your concern." Olivia addressed the creases forming on her duplicate's face. "But I'll only cross over when I am sure the Observers are never going to see me do it, and even then it will only be in an emergency situation."
Alternate Olivia shared a look with Lincoln. "Alright, if you come with us we'll give you a communicator so you can let us know that it's you, just in case the Observers do come through."
"Sure." Olivia handed over her Observer gun. "Specially designed to kill Observers." Alternate Olivia accepted the gun graciously.
"Come, we have a lot of catching up to do." Alternate Olivia said smiling, holding her arm out.
Chapter VI
Back in the lab in the Observer universe, Donald was already hard at work building the device that was going to take the boy to the future, or at least he had built as much as he could for now. The part he had taken from the future and stored away had lost its charge and since he no longer had the ability to travel through time himself he contacted the only one he trusted that could.
"You contacted another Observer?" Walter asked Donald.
"One I trust." He nodded. "But one of you will have to retrieve it."
Walter, Peter and Donald began explaining specifics of how the plan will be implemented, but Olivia was only half listening, she could tell that the boy wanted to tell her something.
"What about Michael? How will he know who he's meeting with?"
"There will be someone there to… guide him." Donald replied but something in his tone of voice had Olivia on edge.
She turned to the boy, kneeling in front of him. He placed his hand on Olivia's cheek. Images began to swim before her eyes; Donald kneeling before the device, the beacon launched through the open wormhole, Windmark going after the boy, Donald running with him to the wormhole. Olivia's heart stopped, Donald fell and didn't get back up. The boy watched him die. Olivia's heart sank even further as she saw Walter take the boy's hand and lead him through the wormhole.
The boy dropped his hand and she was back in the lab. "Olivia?" Peter asked.
Wiping the tear from her eye she stood to face him and froze. Yet again she found herself somewhere else. This time she was in an office talking to Windmark.
"September has made contact with December; one of the original 12 scientists sent to observe the fugitives. Your decision to have them all monitored was wise. He will be returning to apartment 513 soon, we will be waiting for him there."
"Olivia?" Peter said again placing his hands on her arms.
"I'm fine, I have to go!" Olivia crossed over to the other universe and immediately ran out of the lab to a car Alternate Olivia had left for her. She drove straight to December's apartment as fast as she could, abandoning the car as soon as she got there. She raced across the road, smashed through the doors and punched the elevator button. A second later she punched it again and again, the wait was agonising. She turned to look at the stairs, tempted to take them but knew the lift would be quicker. At last the beep signalling the lift had reached her floor sounded and she squeezed through the doors before they had even fully opened. Jamming her finger into the number 5 button several times, she started another agonising wait. Olivia searched through her senses trying to see into her universe again, she saw exactly what she saw in this universe; an empty elevator. Relieved she crossed back over.
The door to the apartment was unlocked, not feeling any tell-tale signs that Observers were nearby. She hoped she'd simply arrived before they had and had not missed them. Either way she bashed through the door and looked around. No-one, but more importantly, no body.
Before Olivia could even breathe a sigh of relief she sensed an Observer coming, spinning around and whipping her gun out in one fluid motion she was brought face to face with December.
"Thank God! We need to get out of here! Windmark is coming! Do you have the part?" Olivia burst out in rapid succession.
"Yes, I have it." December replied as dead pan as ever. He took hold of her arm and they disappeared, reappearing in a clearing, the trees around them so thick Olivia doubted she would be able to see through them even if it was daylight.
December let go of her arm. "We can talk here." He said.
"Where are we?"
"We are in the past, it does not matter. We have something we must discuss."
Olivia stepped back and looked at him, her breath forming in front of her mouth. "What?"
"I sense that you know as I do; the fate of September should he remain on this path." He said it with no change in his tone, yet Olivia knew he cared a great deal for September's safety.
"Yes, the boy showed me. Wait, you said 'as long as he stays on this path' is there a way to save him? To stop Walter from taking the boy away?"
"I believe there is, but I will require your help. No doubt by now September has told you of our true purpose in watching you?"
"Yes, he said that I am at least part Observer."
"Yes, you are not of the same scale as us but you can still prove useful. You have seen how events unfold before September is killed and Walter takes the boy, you must take the boy through yourself. No other can do it."
Olivia's breath caught. "You mean in order to save September and Walter, the boy and I have to live in the future?" She asked incredulous, not believing that after everything she had been through she still would not see her daughter again.
"Yes."
"I don't think I can do that! I have been going through all of this so I can see my daughter again and now you're asking me to give it all up again! I can't do it!" Olivia was almost crying now, the pain in her chest returning in force.
"It may be possible for you to take the boy back yourself but when the timeline is reset September and Walter will cease to exist. They will be anomalies."
"Can't we just…" She broke off not daring to hope.
"What?"
"Can't we ask them to let us live, all of us, together? Can't we ask them to show compassion?"
December paused a long moment. "They don't feel compassion."
"Can I persuade them with logic?"
"It may be possible." He paused. "But there will be a price. Destiny cannot be changed without sacrifice."
"Haven't we already paid enough?"
"Not them, it is you asking for such a gift. It is you that will have to pay the price."
"And I don't suppose you have any idea what that price will be?"
"No. How high a price would you be willing to pay for their lives and your daughter?"
Anything Olivia thought.
"We must return to your time." He said taking hold of her arm again. "Take this to September, it the Initiation Reactor he needs to complete the device."
Olivia nodded. Her vision went black again for the few seconds in took to travel who knows how many years.
She felt December let go of her arm as they reached their destination and instantly disappear again. Gripping the case tighter in her hand she climbed down through the vents into Walter's lab.
Chapter VII
They had decided to put their plan into action first thing the next morning while the Observers were busy crowded around a shipping lane in New York. The device wasn't easy to transport but with the help of Anil they managed to get it loaded onto the truck and on the move, in the opposite direction to the shipping lane.
Olivia was faced with a familiar sight; Donald kneeling at the device, Walter firing the beacon through the wormhole but this time, there were no Observers and the boy stood right next to her ready to run at a moments notice.
The shimmering wormhole stabilised seconds after the beacon went through. It's time Olivia thought, the inoculation she sneaked from Walter's lab had already spread through her system. The boy was already tensed to run, before anyone could say another word Olivia and the boy were through the wormhole, their vision gone, a strange pulling sensation almost bending them over, Olivia almost screamed when the sensation abated and she found herself standing in a totally unfamiliar world. All technology and machinery, a uniform greyish green colour, Olivia already felt claustrophobic. Now what? She thought.
She didn't have to wonder long, mere moments later several hovercraft cars flew up and came to a stop as soon as they appeared. Unconsciously she pushed the boy further behind her and placed her arms in the air.
"I've come from the past, I have some information for your superiors." Three men stepped out of the hover craft but and gave her that black stare she had come to know well from Observers.
"Who are you?" One of them asked.
"My name is Olivia. December sent me here, this boy is important, please take me to someone in charge." They exchanged looks and finally agreed. The one closest to her motioned for them to get into the craft.
Olivia was surprised at the speed of the craft. It took her through an enormous city that looked exactly the same from every angle you looked at; only one building was different from the others. A long thin spire of a building that came to a very sharp point towered over everything else. That was where they were headed.
Upon closer look Olivia could see the building wasn't entirely smooth at all, in fact it had platforms sticking out every few floors. The hovercraft landed on of near the top. Everyone stepped out, one of the Observers waited for her and the boy to join them while another typed in a code by the large glass doors across the platform.
They were lead down long empty blindingly white corridors, so many that Olivia couldn't have hoped to find her way back out in a hurry. She was almost convinced that they were leading her in circles when finally they stopped. An Observer pressed his thumb against a pad on the wall to the left of the frosted glass doors and waited. Olivia opened her mouth to ask what they were waiting on when a beep sounded from the pad and an unmistakable sound of a lock disengaging filled the still corridor. The doors swung open of their own accord and there sat a face she thought she knew. He was an Observer, dressed in their trademark suit but Olivia knew she had never seen him with her own eyes, she would have remembered that.
"Commander, this woman claims to have been sent by December and that she has important information for you."
The commander nodded. "You are dismissed." The three filed out of the room without another word.
"You are one of the fugitives Captain Windmark is consumed with." It was a statement of fact, not a question. "And you are anomaly XB-6783746."
Now Olivia knew who this man was; she had hear Windmark requesting permission to kill them but the commander refused. A slight flicker of hope cracked through Olivia's doubts, at least this Observer didn't want them dead.
"The boy and I are proof that it's not necessary to sacrifice emotion for intelligence. His intelligence exceeds your own and his emotions are stronger than that of any human."
"He is an anomaly, nothing more."
"But he doesn't have to be. Your technology has blinded you to the importance of emotion, logic without emotion is not enough. Surely you've seen that how the more of your kind you send to my time, the more come back showing signs of emotion. Logic alone is not enough." The commander stood and walked around his desk, standing tall before them. "All those you sent to my time; Windmark, September, December, August, they can't all be anomalies can they? Surely there comes a point when you have to look at all you know and question it?"
Olivia had no idea if she was getting through to the commander but on the boy's empathic insistence she carried on. "Take a scan of this boy's brain, you will see that with the emotions he has, he is capable of far more than anything your kind have ever achieved. If his maturation wasn't halted, he could be the start of an ever higher example of human evolution, a stepping stone to a time that even you have been to yet." That did it. Olivia could tell he was intrigued now.
"Very well, I will do as you ask." The commander walked back around the desk and pressed a green button on the desk. Observers, the same three that brought them here came through the doors again. "Take this anomaly and the fugitive, run a brain scan on both then report back."
"Wait!" Olivia shouted as the Observers began moving. The commander turned to look at her. "I think I should get something in return for this information."
The commander looked interested again. "You wish to bargain with me? Very well, what is it that you want?"
"I want myself, the boy, 'the fugitives' as you call them, September and Etta to be sent back to before your kind invaded my time."
"Impossible, there are too many anomalies in this new timeline."
"But with your technology, surely you can find a way."
The commander considered that for a moment. "It may be possible but will take much calculation. Why should I do this?"
Olivia knelt down as she sensed the commander's hidden message. "I wouldn't." She told the Observers behind her, planning on taking them to the labs by force. She placed her head right next to the boys and brought out an Observer gun. "If you don't give me what I want, there won't be anything left of our brains for you to scan!"
The commander waved the others back. "You are willing to sacrifice yourself and this boy for the fugitives?"
"Yes." Emotion flooded Olivia's voice.
"Why? Your actions are illogical."
"Our lives aren't worth living without the others."
The commander paused again weighing up the situation. "Very well. I will honour your request and have the timeline reset with September, Etta and the anomaly written in."
Olivia almost slumped to the floor in relief. "I have your word?"
"You have my word. But in exchange, you will do something for me."
"This information isn't enough for you?"
"No."
Olivia sighed, she knew this was coming. "What do you want me to do?"
"Submit yourself for scientific study after your death."
"If I'm dead how can I submit myself?"
"We have… methods. Do you consent?"
Olivia hesitated, bile rising in her throat. "The only way I get to live the life I want is if I agree to be your lab rat when I'm dead?"
"We require an active and functioning brain in order to conduct our tests but yes, you will be allowed to die in your timeline."
She could feel the boy's apprehension, even fear but she had to do it. No matter how horrible her death might be, she would get to have the life she wanted. She took a deep breath. "I consent."
"Very well." The commander looked to the Observers by the door. "Take them to be scanned, gather samples then send them back and reset the timeline."
The pulling sensation was back but this time she was not able to remain on her feet. Weakened by the transitions, she fell to the floor, the boy kneeling beside her. She could feel grass beneath her face; she opened her eyes and saw the park where she had last seen a 6 year old Etta. She propped herself up on her elbows and looked around, Walter, Astrid and Donald were looking around bewildered, Peter completely distracted by the little blond girl running towards him.
Pure joy and relief erupted within Olivia at the sight of her little girl running and playing in the park. She would have a lot of explaining to do but any doubts she had about the decision she made were gone. No matter the price, it was worth it.
The End.