2015
Connor Temple used to be a genius. He used to be intelligent. He used to be remotely smart. He used to be…well, not a total idiot.
Yet here he was, staring in the faces of about a half-dozen or so future predators. It was about the stupidest thing he'd done in his life, and yet he'd walked into it so easily, so fearlessly. This the thirteenth time of being a total idiot. He really wished he was smart rather than brave.
It was easier now than the last twelve times, easier now that he was less desperate for the cash, and could think more clearly.
Yes, he was fighting future predators for money. He never thought he'd wish for his job at the ARC, but the odds of dying were lessened there by the fact that thousands of people were not then watching the scene eagerly from the stands of an arena, waiting for the predators to kill him.
He breathed slowly. In his left hand he held a machete; on his back, a machine gun was held in an armored pack. He knew, at least, that if a predator jumped him from behind, his back was secure.
He recalled with no fondness the first time he'd been here. He'd had two machetes then, and nothing but the basic training he'd been offered moments before entering the arena. Then, the desperation for cash was what kept him alive against the two predators he'd faced, but today, it would cloud his mind.
Two predators leapt at him. In one motion he sliced the first one's head in half, a sight that would've terrified him years ago, and kicked the second one away. The crowd cheered. He supposed by now, they were on his side. He'd proven his mettle.
All morals inside of him had died with Abby. His heart, his soul, and his mind crashed into oblivion when he'd seen her torn to pieces by the predators, back before they were caught and bred in captivity for the fighting.
He brought down his machete on the neck of the predator he'd kicked, and its blood sprayed out onto the dusty ground. Connor didn't have time to enjoy the death; he had more predators on him.
Sweat was pouring from his scalp like droplets of blood in the moment that he paused, staring at the approaching predators. He raised his already blood-soaked machete and paused before running into death's mouth.
It was a blur; all he acknowledged were predators swarming and his machete twirling. By the time he stood in the center of a mass of dead predators, he was drenched through all his clothes with perspiration and his machete was dripping blood. Several people came out onto the field; among them he knew only one.
Drake Hansen was Connor's manager. Since his third fight, he'd become something of a celebrity, making life outside of the arena on occasion more dangerous than inside. Drake was a godsend; he kept paparazzi away and arranged for press meetings.
He knew television screens across the country, across the world, would be displaying a live picture of him walking away, back into the safe room fighters entered after matches. From there, he knew he would be taken in an armored truck to his now permanent residence: the ARC.
Jenny greeted him with a winning smile and a kiss on the cheek as he arrived in a safe room. "Good job," she said calmly. "A little longer than the last time."
"Would you rather I take less time and get myself killed, darling?" he asked. She shrugged, looking thoughtful, then shook her head.
"No. I wouldn't want Abigail and Nicholas to have to grow up without their daddy."
Connor just smiled, dropping his eyes to her stretched belly. "I think their mommy would remarry in ten seconds."
Jenny shook her head, putting a hand about his waist. "No, I don't think she would." She put her other hand on his other side and facing him. "Hm. You're a little sweaty."
"Can I take a rain check on that kiss?" Connor asked as she pulled away. "Jenny?"
When he was with Jenny, even so soon after all the bloodshed and horror, he was most like he used to be. His eyes softened until they were almost as carefree as they were all those years ago. There were still scars, however, that Jenny knew she couldn't heal. She still bore scars that Connor couldn't heal. That was why they fit so well together. They were caught in a world where fighting the apocalypse was no longer the issue; what mattered was how the apocalypse could benefit them. So far, it was working pretty well.
His personal assistants removed the armor from him and then unbuttoned and removed his shirt. He was all too used to the procedures after a fight: wires were attached to his chest, making sure his heart rate and blood pressure were fairly normal. Normal for him, anyway. When he had decided to fight predators, Jenny set the money on the table to give him muscular enhancements, a greater cardiac capacity, faster reflexes--Connor wasn't sure all of what they did to him, but they made him as strong and quick as any future predator, with human instinct and the ability for absolute animalistic rage.
Jenny pulled Connor off the table when the doctors were done with him and led him to the back of the armored truck. It was part of a convoy, each central truck holding a fighter and their family, the outer ones holding soldiers armed to the teeth. They sat side by side, holding the other's hands and smiling like children with their crush.
With their new, spontaneous lifestyle and children on the way they decided to live every moment together like it was their last, because for all they knew it could very well be. They never spoke of Nick or Abby, although naming their firstborn children after their first true loves wasn't even discussed; it just was.
They didn't mention anything or anyone from their old life. They never discussed Stephen's death or the loss of Danny at Site 333. They never even mentioned Becker or Sarah, who'd disappeared just as the end was beginning. They never thought about Lester and his eternal demands of them or of the final days that Jenny had worked with them at the ARC, and how both of them had almost froze to death.
Jenny caressed his chest gently, and he sighed at her touch.
"You're beautiful, Jennifer," he said, lifting a hand to curl a strand of her hair about his fingers. "Have I told you that…a hundred times today, yet?"
"Not yet," she replied, "but you should make up for lost time."
"When we get home," he said after a moment's consideration. He lowered his hand to her belly, brushing his fingers across where his children lay inside of her. "Hey there, kiddies. Daddy's here."
The armored truck stopped and they stood. The door opened, and they stepped out to meet Drake.
"Beautiful fight, Temple," he said easily. "People were on the edge of their seats."
"Next month's fight should draw twice the crowd," Jenny said confidently, and Connor nodded.
"If you don't mind," he said, "the missus and I should like to have a little time in the privacy of our home."
"'Course, man." Drake shut the door of the truck after them and walked back around the convoy to enter the front of a truck. Jenny and Connor looked at one another happily before sighing and entering the ARC.
Connor went first to his old--Nick's old--office. He used to pause in this room, but over the years, he'd learned not to be too sentimental. Now, it was just his closet.
His morals, everything that was human inside of him, had died with Abby.
He opened his drawer and pulled out a shirt. It would do until he got a shower. Perhaps he'd share one with Jenny later. Then he changed his pants for good measure. The ARC used to seem empty without all the workers bustling around. Now, it was just home. He'd lived there before, but he didn't have the run of the house then.
He returned to the hub, pausing a moment to look at the ADD. His proudest creation, he supposed. The detector had been offline for years; he'd never needed it on. Jenny said she used to turn it on once in a while, but to no avail. Connor knew what she searched for. A way back. A way to change the present. He supposed now, she decided to settle for him; despite what she said, he knew she was still in love with Nick. Perhaps she loved him now--she did, he knew that for sure--but she was Nick's woman. Connor's wife, Nick's woman.
He stepped over to the ADD, his old chair. He sat himself down in it, sighing. Life had been simpler when he sat in this chair, Abby breathing her cool breath onto his neck. He shook his head. Fighting was getting to him.
He heard footsteps and looked up to see Jenny smiling ruefully over at him. Her eyes were full of love and admiration, and sadness. Sadness that they both forced themselves to carry their burdens alone. Well, Connor could carry his burden fine.
He left the hub tiredly and stepped into the rec room. He spied the weights where he'd left them and got down onto the bench-press. He lifted the weight without much effort, so he added a hundred pounds to either side. That did the trick--there was effort exerted now, and Jenny often reminded him that to maintain his thick muscles, he'd have to keep lifting heavier weights. His muscles were thicker than he could've ever imagined years ago. He'd been slim, lanky, and awkward then. Jenny found him a boy and made him a man, in more ways than one. He wasn't just stronger, he'd have to learn to be more responsible. He was going to be a father.
After several sets of lifting, he climbed out of the bench-press and sighed. He only just realized how tired he was. He took a shower alone as much to wash the stench of the fight from him as to clear his head.
He still hadn't wrapped his head around the concept of being a father. There was no woman alive he'd rather have than Jenny, and the thought of raising children with her was exhilarating, but with only the fighting to support them he wasn't sure how well he could function within a family unit.
After stepping from the shower he stepped out and grabbed his bathrobe, slipping his arms through the sleeves and tying the belt about his waist before stepping out and finding his way to their bedroom.
Jenny wasn't in bed yet. Connor wasn't surprised; she still expressed sentimentality to their dead colleagues. She was probably in her old office, saying goodnight to the shrine she'd set up to the members of the team. Stephen--dead. Cutter--dead. Danny--missing. Abby--dead. Becker--missing. Sarah--missing. Lester--missing. Connor ticked them off in his mind. The only favorable thought he had was that Helen Cutter was probably dead.
He closed his eyes, drifting into dreams. He saw Jenny's face, smiling at him. He saw the predators swarming around him--he squirmed. His mind drifted back years, when he'd thrown himself before a predator the first time, to protect Abby and Danny. It was closing in on him, he looked to his left--where was Becker, there to shoot the predator? Why didn't he shoot? Ah, there it was.
It was a year after that. Abby was screaming. It curdled his blood, her screams, but it was the sight of her that was the worst, and knowing he couldn't save her. She was on her stomach lying there, and he had been too far away to reach her before the predators. Becker was holding him back, and so he had to watch as the predator pushed Abby over, first slicing at her sides and then snapping its mouth down on her lower leg. It set a claw on her foot and yanked its mouth up, taking a chunk of Abby's leg with it. Abby's screams grew worse and held a single word. "CONNOR! CONNOR!" she had cried desperately, but more predators converged onto her. It was as though they were slowly taking her apart, piece by piece, to horrify him. He was sobbing, ripping at Becker's resolute arms to get him to allow him forward, to try futilely to rescue Abby. Then it wasn't just Becker, Sarah had begun to pull him back, telling him that Abby was lost--as though that would make him feel better. He knew they were trying to help him but he didn't give in until Becker knocked him out and took him on his shoulder from the danger zone.
He woke suddenly. He hadn't slept in ages, no wonder he had REM rebound--then he noticed the flashing lights and the siren.
He leaped out of bed and called out for his wife.
"Connor, get out here!"
So she wasn't in her old office…he followed her voice into the hub, where she was standing in shock, pointing at the ADD. He didn't bother asking.
"Where?" he demanded quickly, not caring that he was in only his bathrobe.
"The--Forest of Dean," she squeaked.
Connor gritted his teeth. "I'll be at the van in two minutes," he promised, offering her a small smile. She looked as though a small bit of her burden was lifted as he turned around and bolded to his old office.
He yanked on clothes, then paused a moment before grabbing his old bowler hat from a rack and tentatively placing it upon his head.
Yes, that felt right.
He then grabbed up a piece of equipment so antediluvian it surprised him to think about how excited he'd been back when it was new. He blew the dust off it and smiled before coughing. His engineering hadn't made him any less susceptible to dust.
He sat himself in the driver's seat after placing the closing device in the back and glanced at Jenny nervously. "We're off?" he asked.
"Nice hat," she replied.
He started the van hesitantly, then slammed town on the gas.
He was weaving and dodging his way through traffic, biting down hard on his lip. Jenny offered him a sympathetic glance.
"Connor, you're a terrible driver."
He seemed to relax at that; a little healthy teasing was what he needed and Jenny knew it. "You want to drive, Jen?"
Jenny blushed whenever he called her that. "Darling, I'm preggers and I think I could be a better driver."
Connor smiled thinly. "I haven't driven in a few years, yeah? I'm thirty-one. I can drive. You concentrate on--" Jenny grabbed one of his hands and began to massage his fingers. "Mm. Yeah, that."
She took his hand and leaned slightly so that she could run his fingers over her belly. His face broke into a smile as one of the children kicked.
"Did I feel a kick?"
"Yes, sweetie." Jenny kept his fingers on her belly. "Do you think it was Nick, or Gail?"
"I don't know, Jen." He turned the hand she held to that he could gently squeeze her fingers. "Here's the forest."
He didn't bother mentioning the forest's significance. Jenny didn't inquire, she knew. He grabbed the sealing device and took her hand, and they stepped into the forest.
"If you have to stop, stop," Connor urged her. "Your safety is about--a hundred and two times as important as some stupid anomaly."
Jenny looked at him carefully. "Connor, if this is the anomaly--"
"Jen. No." He refused to go there, refused to think about it. "It's not the anomaly, Jenny. It can't be. It's just an anomaly, one we should close as Good Samaritans."
Jenny nodded. Their entire relationship was founded on the basis that they do not think about how much happier they would be with their first true love.
They reached the anomaly. Connor wasn't surprised to find it in the same spot as it had been before, but the sight of it terrified him like twenty predators could not compare. The shards of lights spinning about the central star-like nucleus. He stared at it, as though it offended him, and yet he was dying to enter.
"Maybe we could leave it open a spell," Jenny suggested, knowing her husband so well. Connor nodded.
"Yeah…wouldn't be right, you know, to just lock it up wantonly."
He put a hand around his wife's waist, smiling at her like she was the sun itself. "You're beautiful, Jennifer Lewis, and I think I love you."
"Same," Jenny replied, and Connor melted with affection.
He hadn't been able to imagine existence without her for the past few years. His glorious ex-public servant. Now, he refused to think that this would be the anomaly. Just for a few moments, he wanted to be the only light in his wife's life. He'd occasionally think this, then admit to himself that he was still in love with Abby. Perhaps he still held a little morality, in the same way that he could never forget Abigail Maitland. But he could get over her, couldn't he?
Jenny leaned over to plant a kiss on his cheek. He turned his head just in time to catch her on the lips, and she smiled before grabbing his jaw and pressing his lips into hers forcefully.
Just as she opened her mouth, and he sighed with passion, they heard a voice from the anomaly.
"Oi!" Abby Maitland exclaimed, her eyes flicking between the two of them. "What's going on?"
Connor quickly pushed away from Jenny. Abby stared at them in horror, stepping forward. "Connor--Jenny?" Her confused tone as she said Jenny's name indicated that she had come from some time after Jenny left. Her eyes grew wide on the bulge on Jenny's stomach. "Connor, you and Jenny?" she asked weakly. She now looked disgusted. "What the hell?"
Connor's eyes were wide as he ran his eyes over every inch of Abby. "Abby--oh, Abby!"
He ran up and embraced the girl, breathing in her scent, before she shook him off.
"Abby, you have no idea how much I've missed you." He desperately wanted to press his face into her hair, to smell that floral scent just once again. He felt years of repressed emotions pop up. "Abby--" He locked his eyes on her legs, which were bare. It must've been summer, on the other side of the anomaly. Her legs. He shuddered, remembering that the last time he'd seen them…
"Why you looking at me like that?" Abby snapped, looking upset. Jenny took a step forward to grab her husband's wrist.
"Because the last time he saw you, predators were licking up the blood that your beating heart was still pumping," she said, feeling the words come out more spitefully than she'd intended them. Abby's eyes widened in shock and she opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Finally Connor filled the silence, still too lost in Abby to notice his wife.
"Never mind, Abby--what year is it, on that side?"
"2010," she said, looking uneasy. "Connor, do I die? Am I dead?!"
Connor's face contorted into a look of horror. "Abby, where is Helen?"
Jenny looked at Connor, biting her lip. Abby looked between the two of them again before answering. "We don't know," she answered quietly.
"What was the last anomaly alert you checked on?"
"Connor, you're scaring me!" She narrowed her eyes at him. "What year is it, here?"
"Doesn't matter," he replied. "Answer the question, Abby. Lives could be on the line."
"The one to the future," Abby answered. "Jack was trapped. We got him out. I kissed you," she added, her eyes flicking to Jenny darkly.
"That's…okay, Abby. Jenny." Connor turned to his wife. "Jen, this is it. This is the anomaly."
Jenny's eyes flicked to her swollen belly. "Connor--Nicholas and Abigail," she whispered. Connor froze--for all of his deliberation, he had refused to add his children into the equation.
"We might still go on," he offered. "We don't know. Maybe more than one timeline can exist at once."
Jenny thought about this, then shook her head. "Connor, I love you," she said, "but I hope this timeline is destroyed. I--I don't want you fighting anymore, I don't want our children to grow up in this world."
"Your children?" Abby asked. The scorn was gone from her voice as she saw the looks in the eyes of the pair.
"Nicholas and Abigail Temple," Jenny said, turning to look at Abby with desperation. "Abby, if you do exactly what Connor tells you, you can survive, and you can save the lives of everyone."
Abby looked shocked. "The anomaly's stable," she said slowly. "I have time. Tell me everything."
Connor sighed, squeezing his wife's hand for strength. "Back when…I still had the strength to grieve," he began, "I thought a lot, too. I figured out when our trouble began, and it begins a little after you get back.
"Abby, Danny will find a mysterious woman, he saw her in the future anomaly. You have to shoot her."
"Connor--what?"
"She's Helen," Connor interjected. "Once you kill her, smash that necklace she's got. It's a hologram emitter, and you'll be able to see her real face underneath it."
"Connor, if I just shoot this woman the team'll think I'm crazy."
Connor rolled his eyes--he hadn't remembered Abby being naïve. "Tell the team first, yeah?" he smiled. He recalled that in her time, Abby was twenty-four. He'd always been older, but not by seven years. He could see, suddenly, how she was beautiful, outside of his obvious infatuation with her. Suddenly he saw her solely with sheer admiration.
Abby sighed, shaking her head. "Sorry, I'm just--shaken up. I mean, I just found out that I have to kill someone."
"Abby." Connor stepped forward. "This is bigger than any of us."
"I know," Abby said after a moment. She breathed slowly before nodding.
"Okay. I'm ready."
"Abby?" Jenny stepped forward. Abby nodded. "Abby, do Connor and me a favor. Tell him--" she raised her eyebrows at Connor "--that he's a tosser and he should stop dancing around you like a fool. And…tell Danny--" Jenny winked "--to call me up."
"I--I thought you guys were--" Abby sputtered. Connor smiled.
"Abby, all I used to want was you. If time hadn't gone all to hell, I would've pined for you silently forever. I was a tosser, Abbs."
Abby looked back to the anomaly.
"Am I on the other side?" Connor asked. She nodded. "I'd kiss you goodbye," he said, blushing, "but I think past me needs it more."
"I guess I'll see you…immediately," she said with a slight smile, watching the both of them with sad eyes as she stepped through the anomaly and it closed behind her. She turned around to face the empty forest behind her, mouth hanging open slightly.
***
2010
"Abby, are you alright?" Connor rushed forward, looking her up and down. "You look okay--darn awesome, if you ask me, but still…" He looked at her as though he was afraid he'd gone too far. She just smiled, leaned up onto her tiptoes, and began to kiss him. While he and the others were in shock, she pressed her lips up harder into Connor's, and finally he caught on and realized she was kissing him. He began to kiss her as well, though he was still confused.
"Never change," she whispered.
The End (or is it the beginning?)