Jack Joyce had seen the end of time. Both Paul and Beth had warned him about it, and he'd always thought their descriptions were an exaggeration. But now that he'd seen it for himself, he understood.

Time had stopped completely. In the short time since the fracture, Jack had adapted to - even become accustomed to - the stutters, the echoes time. But at the end of time, there was no echo. The streets were lined with cars, people, animals, all perfectly frozen in time. He had never heard such pure silence. Eerie could not even begin to describe it. It all began when Jack and Will fixed the fracture. When Jack had first returned to 2016, after watching Paul execute Beth in Will's lab, he had done what needed to be done - fixed the fracture and saved the world… or so he thought. It was naïve, he realized in hindsight, to think the fracture was fixed in 2016 when both Paul and Beth had already seen the end of time.

So Jack and Will came to the only reasonable conclusion - the fracture still existed, and could only be fixed at the end of time. It wasn't until Paul showed up at his doorstep that Jack realized the fracture wasn't the only problem that needed solving.

December 6, 2016, 3:00pm

"Jesus!" Jack shouted as he jumped back from the figure before him, nearly tripping over a chair. It was Paul Serene. The same Paul he was sure he'd killed not two months ago.

"Miss me, Jack?" Paul asked, his mouth twisting into a slight smile. Jack fumbled through the drawers of a nearby side table. Where was it? Where was the damn thing? "Jack, I'm not here to fight you. Let's call a truce."

There it was. Jack pulled a pistol out of the open drawer and leveled it at his former friend, clenching his jaw angrily as he stared at the phantom before him. "How are you here? I killed you!"

"I can't be killed," Paul told him calmly, "and neither can you, for that matter."

"Christ, Jack, is that Paul?" Will exclaimed from the nearby doorway.

Paul turned to look at the intruder. "Good, you're here." He turned his attention back to Jack. "Put the gun down so we can talk."

"Like I'd ever trust you," Jack spat back, pushing himself to his feet while keeping the gun trained on Paul. "Give me one reason I should listen to you."

"Because I was wrong," Paul admitted, "but so were you."

"What do you mean?" Will asked.

"I was wrong about the fracture," Paul continued. "You proved that when you sealed it."

"But?" Jack asked.

"But that's just it," Paul told him. "It's not sealed. Not permanently, anyway."

"You haven't explained how you're here to even make these wild claims," Jack reminded him.

Paul chuckled lightly. "Chronon syndrom."

Will narrowed his eyes. "What about it?"

"I thought the end state of chronon syndrome was a death sentence," Paul explained, "but I was wrong. We called them chronon disrupted lifeforms - shifters, if you will. Violent, aggressive things. Monsters."

"But?" Jack asked again impatiently.

"But then I found out Martin Hatch was one of them."

Jack wasn't expecting that. "You're kidding."

"Hatch was playing me from the beginning," Paul told him, his voice lined with anger. "He wasn't trying to help Monarch save the world, he was trying to end the world."

"Why would he do that?" Will asked.

"Because shifters can only thrive in stutters or the zero state."

"How do you know all this?" Jack demanded.

"Because I'm a shifter, Jack."

Jack finally lowered the gun. "Why are you here, Paul? What do you want?"

"I want what I've always wanted - to fix this."

"I thought you didn't believe the timeline could be changed."

"It can't," Paul replied, "but what I failed to realize is that the end of time is not the end of the world. The end of time is the only place we can fix the fracture for good."

"We already know that," Will told him.

"But what you don't know is what the end of time is like," Paul replied. "Only three people in this world have ever seen it, and you'll need the two who aren't trying to destroy everything to help you."

"Two...?" Jack asked. No, he couldn't mean...

"Me, and Beth Wilder."

"You killed her, remember?" Jack growled, feeling his grip on the lowered pistol tighten.

Paul laughed. "Like you killed me?"

A lump formed in Jack's throat. "Are you saying... she's alive?"

"In a sense," Paul told him. "The fascinating thing about being timeless is you truly cannot escape the march of time, one way or the other. Without the control you and I had built up, the burst of chronon radiation she absorbed was so strong it turned her almost immediately. Her existence was instantly fractured across the timelines. Killing her at Ground Zero destroyed just one instance of her being."

"Bullshit," Will shouted from the doorway.

"Jack believes me," Paul said. "He has to, to cling to that one tiny bit of hope."

"Why should I believe you?" Jack asked.

"Because I killed Martin Hatch, and that bastard is still CEO of Monarch," Paul told him. "Everything I've done was what I thought was necessary to preserve humanity. And I was wrong about everything. But now that I know the truth, we can finally fix it."

"Why do you want Beth's help?" Will asked skeptically. "You've seen the end of time. You wouldn't need her."

"That's... true," Paul agreed hesitantly. He paused for a moment, as if considering his next words - something Jack had never seen him do before in his life. "I owe it to you, Jack."

Jack took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart. He wanted to believe that everything Paul was saying was true. He wanted to believe he could save Beth, but he was afraid to believe. If Paul was lying, it would break him. But could he afford not to take the risk?

"Let's say for a moment that I believe you," Jack began, setting the gun down on the table. "What do you suggest we do next?"

"I can show you how to fix the fracture at the end of time, but without a cure for chronon syndrome, you and I will remain shifters forever."

"Me?" Jack asked. He'd almost missed it when Paul said he couldn't be killed either. "You mean I'm..."

"Going to become a mindless time-warped creature?" Paul finished for him. "Yes, eventually. And eventually you may learn to control it, as Martin and I have. Or you may not."

"Or I 'may not'?" Jack repeated. "So you're saying Beth is a shifter, but she 'may not' be able to control it?"

"Which brings me to my next point," Paul added. "We need to find a way to subdue her."

"And when you say 'we' you mean me," Will said with a sigh.

"Contact Sofia Amaral," Paul told him. "She was working on a cure when Martin cut her funding. She was close."

"Sofia and I didn't really part on the best of terms the last time we met," Jack told him.

"Tell her I sent you," Paul suggested.

"As if she'll believe that."

"She will," Paul assured him. "Trust me."

"Trust you," Jack scoffed. "Fine. But what about Beth?"

"I can find her," Paul assured him, "but until we can contain and control her, the effort would be wasted."

"I guess my work's cut out for me then," Will said.

"Paul, if you betray me again-"

"I won't this time, Jack," Paul promised. "I know my word is worthless, but... I am sorry, for everything."

"We'll see about that," Jack returned. "Let's get to work."