Author's Note: I don't own Futurama or anything to do with it, and this is strictly a nonprofit only thing.
Timeline: Post-Bender's Big Score. If you haven't seen it, then stop reading because there are obviously spoilers below. Another unhappy one-shot from me, and the same warnings apply for this as for most of my other stories. Despite the title, it has nothing to do with A Second Chance whatsoever.
Sitting alone on his bed in his and Bender's apartment (for by luck, it had not been destroyed by the nudist aliens but only slightly looted), Philip J. Fry was brooding over the events of the past few months which had changed his life in more ways than one.
The revelation that Lars was in fact a version of himself, albeit older and wiser didn't surprise Fry as much as one would have thought. He had seen this before and saw it yet again recently, that Leela had fallen for someone who was so completely different from him that the real Fry no longer existed. Almost six years ago, he had eaten a sandwich full of worms that made him smarter, stronger and very much more attractive to the woman he wanted.
But it wasn't him, and he realized that and drove the worms from his body. Immediately, Leela threw him aside and wanted nothing to do with him.
Lars was no different in Fry's mind, and he didn't know what kind of life the doomed copy of himself had lived before getting together with Leela. Fry didn't care, because Lars was not him. Leela loved Lars and would never love him, that was made painfully clear even after she knew his true identity. She would glance now and again at Fry but would not speak to him outside of work, and at times he could hear her through the walls weeping softly on her bed in the captain's quarters during long deliveries.
On one such occasion hours ago, Fry decided to eavesdrop outside her door and heard two female voices speaking in low volumes to each other. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but the voices did not stay that way for long and soon boiled over into a heated argument.
"Leela, you can't really mean that!" said Amy. "You don't know what you're saying!"
"Oh, yes I do!" said Leela in a loud, sobbing voice filled with venom. "It's all his fault! I wish he was dead instead!"
Wish that who was dead? thought Fry. He didn't like the tone of Leela's voice, which stabbed at his heart like a thousand hot needles. Let me see, the Professor or Zoidberg? Well, since everyone likes Zoidberg it must mean the Professor! Oh no!
What came next was the most horrible, unforgivable thing that had ever happened to Fry. Worse than when his message in the stars was blown up, never to be seen again. Worse than when Leela lay near death after absorbing the space bee's poison. Worse than when Leela had rejected him after he had poured all his heart and soul into his opera.
"He screwed it all up Amy, don't you see! It's because of him that Lars is dead!"
Fry could hear a loud sigh from behind the door, followed by some cursing in Chinese that he couldn't understand. "He was doomed, Leela. Lars was a time-clone of Fry, and he really loved you but he knew that he would die! But Fry still loves you, anyone with two eyes can see that!" said Amy.
"I don't care! He's such an idiot! Did you know that Lars was only a duplicate because Fry was stupid enough to go back an hour in time for pizza? For pizza! If he hadn't done that and stayed in the past, then he'd probably be Lars and none of this would have happened! This is the worst thing that he's ever done, and I hate him! Why couldn't he have been the duplicate and Lars the original? I wish he was dead!" said Leela, and moments later a crash of something shattering against the wall could be heard.
Fry didn't care to hear any more, he had heard enough. At first he slumped down to the floor with his back against the door, tears running down his face and his sorrow blocking out the rest of the world around him. Not wanting Leela or Amy to find him there, he ran to the cockpit and sat in his usual seat. Burying his head in his hands, he cried for a few more minutes before all of his tears were spent.
What did I do to deserve this? Why? Am I just not good enough? Lars, if you weren't already dead I'd kill you myself you stupid jerk! I hate my life! I hate myself! Maybe Leela would actually stand to be around you if you weren't always hitting on her and acting like an idiot! he thought, noticing through a window that they were now near Earth.
Hearing the sound of a door rise behind him, Fry knew exactly who was there. He didn't turn around or even act like she was there, instead he continued to stare at the nearing sphere of his home planet as Leela sat down and prepared to land the ship. Mere moments later, she began to speak to Fry in a normal voice like nothing was wrong or bad had happened.
"Well, you're up early! Normally I'd have to shake you out of bed a few hours later!"
As Fry rose from his seat and turned to face Leela she noticed the red, puffiness of his eyes and the telltale sign of dried and not-so-dry tears in a line from under his eyes to near his chin. But that was not what shocked Leela, it was the look on his face. A look of pure despair and hopelessness mixed with what seemed like anger. Fry sniffed his nose and breathed heavily in and out of his mouth as she stood there with concern.
"Fry, what's wrong?" she asked.
"Like you don't know!" he spat. "I heard what you said and how you really feel about me, and I know that it's my fault! I know that you hate me and wish that I was dead! Oh, I heard what you said to Amy! I know now that I shouldn't have bothered with you, at least the way I did. If I could bring back Lars for you I would, but I can't! You probably don't know this, but during the time-skips years ago I did something so amazing that you'll never know about. Oh, I suffered for weeks and months after that but I was convinced that you'd eventually accept me so I kept trying harder and harder! I was a fool. I love you, but I know you'll never love me, not now. Oh, you'll love someone who might be me in some weird way, but not the real me! Leela, you're going to get your wish! You'll never see me again!"
"Fry, you don't understand!" said Leela, tears starting to pool at the bottom of her eyelid. "I didn't.."
"Goodbye, Leela." said Fry, racing from the room and down various corridors until he left the ship. He ran straight past Hermes, the Professor and Bender without even giving them a second glance and went straight out of the front doors into the night. Leela soon came down the ramp of the Planet Express ship crying, with Amy beside her. She wasn't in the mood to talk, so Amy decided to speak on her behalf.
"Where's Fry?" she said.
"Who?" said the Professor. Everyone groaned.
Indeed, none of them would ever see or know Fry again. And now we come back to Fry sitting alone, contemplating his master plan. He wasn't a genius by a longshot, but he was sure that it would work. At least he hoped so.
He had watched a few episodes of Quantum Leap before, so he had a general idea. If he could travel to a point in the past and appear exactly in the same place his past self was at the moment, they could merge and somehow be paradox-free. Even though this shouldn't make any sense and was nothing like Sam Beckett ever did (he took over people for a while, not merge with them), it clicked in Fry's mind. It would work!
Though the TimeSphere code was seemingly lost forever, Fry had copied it onto a piece of paper and stuffed it in the right pocket of his red jacket. He knew his plan: he would go back to the time-skipping period and make sure that he did not make a message in the stars for Leela. He did not want to go through that pain again. Logic wasn't a very high point in Fry's mind, and due to his despair and anger he didn't think clearly of what he was doing. He was mad at Leela, but much more so at himself. Fry figured that if he did this one thing and didn't continue to act like a lovesick fool, then Leela might notice him. If not, then at least he had the chance to relive over five years of his life. There were many mistakes he could correct, but one thing would have to remain the same.
Roswell. He would have to do that again to make sure he existed. Though he'd jump over that hurdle when it came, if this plan worked at all and he didn't end up dead. Or worse. He thought to write a sort of suicide note for his friends, but quickly realized that it wouldn't matter and abandoned the idea.
Fry made up his mind and read the TimeSphere code, and the swirling green orb of light immediately appeared. He replaced the paper back in his pocket (for he might need it later, but he hoped not), took one last look at his surroundings and then entered the portal. Before that reality ceased to exist into nothingness, a certain violet-haired cyclops held a picture of Fry close to her heart and lowered her head with eye closed.
"I'm sorry."
Almost immediately, Fry felt an almost soothing electric tingle and the urge to vomit. He kneeled down and did so, and when he came to his senses he noticed that his plan had been a complete success (a rarity for him). No extra hands, knees or spleens, and the fact that he was still alive proved it. The "Diamond Butcher" episode of Everybody Loves Hypnotoad was playing on the TV directly in front of him (his favorite episode, next to the time-travel one which was ironic considering his situation), and Fry remembered that this was around the same time that he would go into space with the Globetrotters and the others to move the stars in a failed attempt to stop the time-skips. Though he didn't remember doing so, he figured that had to be the only possible time he could have made his message.
He couldn't stay there, at least until the time-skips were over which had to be quite soon. Nobody appeared to be anywhere in the Planet Express building at that time, so he quickly sneaked away out of sight until he was gone.
Fry figured that nobody would really miss him as long as he wasn't gone for more than a week or so, and by then the whole disaster should be over with. He would be able to change things! He would grow up and be a man, instead of the pathetic excuse for one that he was. He would have a second chance.
Now where can I go to waste a week? he thought. I can't be around anybody that I know, and I need to stay in one place because of the time-skips so I don't end up doing something stupid. Wait, I know!
Fry refroze himself for what seemed like the hundredth time at Applied Cryogenics, but for only one week instead of a thousand years. When he awoke, it seemed as if he had woke from a dream but for some reason a terrible dread came upon him. He knew that something was wrong, but what or how were a mystery to him. Since it was night when he froze himself, it was still night when the time was up and he was easily able to get out of the building without someone introducing him to "The World of Tomorrow!" yet again.
With every step he took towards Planet Express, the air around him seemed to have dropped in temperature sharply and he found it hard to even walk or breathe. Something was indeed very wrong or missing. If he had paid attention, he would have noticed there was something not right about the newspapers on the stand to his left but he was too preoccupied with getting back to work. Finally reaching his destination, he entered the doors and neared the circular table where everyone normally sat. All who were seated immediately turned to face him, with jaws dropped and eyes wide. Amy bolted from her seat towards him and was hugging him before he knew what was happening.
"Fry! Oh, Fry!" she said, and Fry could see that she was crying. Her normally bright and happy eyes and face seemed to be devoid of life. "We've looked everywhere for you! Oh my god, Fry! Where were you?"
"I needed to take some time off." said Fry. It was the truth, in a sense. Not that anybody would believe his long time-travelling story anyway. Bender came beside him and placed a hand on his left shoulder, but softly. Normally he would grip Fry so hard that a sickening crunch would have been quickly heard followed by a yelp of pain, but something was different.
"Hey, Fry. I looked for ya in all the usual places: the bar, the other bar, the other other bar, the Hip Joint and Zoidberg's dumpster, but you weren't anywhere. Listen, I'm really sorry but there's nothing I could've did." he said, with a sad glint in his eyes that Fry couldn't remember seeing.
"I.. what's wrong, Bender? Why is everyone acting so weird? I was only gone for a week and it's like the world ended or something!" said Fry.
"You mean, you don't know?" asked Amy. "Oh god, Fry.. it was so horrible. I don't know how to tell you this, but.."
The words didn't leave her mouth as she wanted them to, but instead she whimpered and broke down onto the floor into a complete wreck. Bender was still beside him, and after opening his chest-door he offered Fry a beer. "It might help ya, but probably not." he said.
While taking a sip of the brew, Fry thought of what was happening around him. This didn't happen before! I must have really changed something, maybe I should ask a few questions..
"What's going on? Is the time-skipping over? And why is everyone so sad?" he asked nobody in particular. Everyone in the room (including Amy, who for the moment seemed to have stopped crying) looked at him as if he had something crawling out of his ears.
"Time-skips? Are you mad?" said the Professor. "What's wrong with you?"
"The fin-rot finally got him, yes it did." said Zoidberg. "We may have to put him down, it's usually fatal it is."
"But.. isn't it 3002?" said Fry. "The Globetrotters and all that other crap that nobody remembers?"
"No, Fry. You must be taking after me on my bad days, oh my yes." replied the Professor. "Look at this, you imbecile!"
The Professor got up from his seat and came close to Fry, holding something in his hands. Without warning, he shoved it right into his face. "What do you see?"
It appeared to be a newspaper, of the variety that Fry wasn't quite used to even after living about eight years in the future. There were moving pictures on it, like something out of Harry Potter, but that wasn't what caught Fry's attention. Something so shocking was printed upon the paper, that Fry had never hoped to see. But it was there, and it was reality.
"50 percent off Slurm sale?"
There was no answer from anyone, not even a groan or sigh as Fry was accustomed to hearing quite often. Looking further up, Fry saw the date and nearly choked as he realized what it meant.
"Oh my god, no! No no no!"
Dropping the paper on the floor in utter shock, the date and year still stared back into his eyes and soul. Though printed small, it seemed to be magnified and was the only thing on the newspaper that Fry could now see, everything else veiled around him in that moment.
3004.
If that wasn't bad enough, the date was even more terrifying. It was one week later, one week after, and a week that should have never been but now was. Amy's courage returned to her, and she finished what she was about to say earlier. "Fry, there was an accident a week ago. Leela and Bender went to collect honey, and.."
Fry knew exactly what she was going to say, and her voice fell on deaf ears. He couldn't hear her, he didn't want to hear her words. For the first time, Fry noticed that one certain person was absent from among them at their table. The dread and cold he had felt earlier was an ill omen, he realized now. Everything hit him like a ton of bricks all at once, and he fell to the floor as Amy did only moments before. He made a huge mistake. He was a murderer.
"I should have been there!" said Fry. "I could have stopped it."
Fry thought of another time which seemed so far off and long ago in which he, Leela and Bender had undertaken a very dangerous mission that had cost the lives of the entire previous crew. He had saved Leela from certain death that day, though she still nearly didn't make it. But she did, and went on living still.
But not anymore. Somehow, something went wrong and he ended up over two years off where he was supposed to be. And since he wasn't around for that mission, the space-bee had killed Leela.
"Oh my god, what have I done! I killed her! What went wrong? Why? Oh my god, why?" said Fry. He was still on the floor, but now was visibly trembling and gasping for air like he was taking his last breath. "I should've been here!"
"Yeah, you should have." said the Professor. "But you did this before, not being around for some missions. If you weren't my uncle, you'd have been fired long ago.. whoever you are!"
"It's because I'm from the future and came back in.. wait, that's it!" said Fry, suddenly jumping up with energy as if life had returned to him. "The TimeSphere!"
None knew what he was talking about, save Nibbler (who was with them, now being taken care of by Amy) who bulged his three eyes at him and gave Fry a look that seemed to be disgust crossed with astonishment. Fry didn't notice though, as he was in a frenzy searching all of his coat and jacket pockets for a precious piece of paper that would allow him to fix it all.
It was gone! Did someone steal it from him, or did he lose it? Fry didn't think so, but hope didn't quite leave him yet. He smashed the bottle that Bender had given him against the table, and pulled down his pants to try and see the reflection of the tattoo. It had to still be there, since this was about three years before Nudar and his bunch first exploited it.
It wasn't.
Fry pulled his pants back up and sank to the floor. Amy came very close and hugged him again, and Fry had to admit that it cheered him up slightly. Even though Amy herself was clearly still in anguish, she still had the ability to make others feel better.
"Fry, I don't know what that was all about.. but you're in shock so I guess I understand. I did a lot of weird things myself when Bender came back alone that night, but Kif helped me through it. He's so sweet. We're all here for you."
"Thanks.." said Fry, resting his head near her shoulder. Then, suddenly a memory was loosed in his mind: Wait, wait! Oh my god, I forgot! There's still Lars somewhere! I can save Leela!
"Listen, I have to go and do.. something for a while. I'll be back later though." said Fry. No I won't, not if I can help it.
"She's buried at Orbiting Meadows, a grave robber's dream!" said Bender. "Though I didn't take nothing from her, I think. It's hard to keep track. If you wanna go there, I'll go with ya."
She won't be buried for long.
Fry's plan was simple: find Lars, get the code from the tattoo from his ass and go back in time again. Back in time to the night where they had left to the space-bee hive to collect honey, to set things right. He was a complete fool for doing any of it in the first place, because his anger had taken hold of him and he had despised Leela for what she had said. Now that she was gone, he didn't care. Fry still loved her and would suffer everything all over again if it meant that he could see Leela again.
Fry discovered that the time he chose to go back to was not the correct time he wished to go (during the time-skips), because that certain episode of Everybody Loves Hypnotoad just happened by fate to be on a rerun that exact night two years later. Instead of the time and date, he based his time-jump on that instead which proved fatal. He would fix all of this. He would be stung again to save her.. he would die if he had to like he nearly did the first time.
The next day Fry went to the Head Museum, where Lars had once worked. The same beautiful woman was there as she once was before from Fry's timeline, and Fry couldn't help but to stare for a little bit until he came to his senses and asked her what he wanted (which was not a date):
"Excuse me, but does a Lars Fillmore work here? I'd like to talk to him."
"Lars?" she said. "There's nobody by that name here, sorry."
Maybe he doesn't work here yet, I didn't really know that much about him. thought Fry. He thanked her and left to continue on his search, but it proved to be futile. Another week passed and he had found no trace of his paradox-clone anywhere. He kept at it until his feet led him back to the building where his life had changed so many years ago: Applied Cryogenics.
Fry had been in that building so many times now that he could easily find his way around, and he was soon in the cryogenic chamber room. The "World of Tomorrow" guy and one of his colleagues were there, but they were busy and ignored Fry at first. Later, Fry inquired of them and they had never heard of anyone named Lars being unfrozen there.
It was all over. Fry had gambled and lost. There was no hope to save Leela or set things right. He walked over to the pod on the left nearest the window, where everything had began. He remembered meeting Leela here, and later Bender before they eventually came to work at Planet Express. From that first day down in the ruins of Old New York where they had bonded, Fry knew that she was special. He was doing all of this for her.
Immediately Fry went up to the pods, one by one, and opened them to search inside them. The other two men in the room tried to stop him, but Fry knocked them both aside with surprising strength that he never had until that very moment.
They have to be here somewhere, at least one of them! I froze myself for like seven years so I should be here, and so should some version of Bender that's set to explode in a few seconds after he comes out! I hope I don't find him though, because I'll be dead before I can even get the code..
He didn't find Bender, nor anyone else that he wanted to find. After searching the last pod and closing the door, he sank to his knees in final defeat. It was over. Leela was dead, and he would never see her again. The TimeSphere code was now truly lost for good.
What Fry didn't realize at the time was that when he merged with his past self, his current body overwrote the past version.. tattoo and all. Because it ceased to exist at that time, so did any other future copies of it. This included his piece of paper, Lars, another copy of himself, and a copy of Bender. They were all gone, since they never existed in the first place. He figured that the massive number of Bender copies below Planet Express were no longer there either, and on a whim he went down to the caverns and was proven correct.
For many years Fry tried to remember the code on his own, but to no avail. His only hope would be to go back in time to before the tattoo was overwritten and destroyed, but that was not likely. The only other time-travel he had experienced was the trip to Roswell, but the odds of something happening like that again was virtually nil. Fry's second chance turned out to not be one at all, but a curse that destroyed two lives.
If he would have listened to the rest of the conversation that night between Amy and Leela, he would have discovered that Amy was right. Leela had flaws just as he did and was prone to rash outbursts at times. She would have asked Fry for forgiveness, and had a long talk with and would have tried to understand him better.. but now nobody will ever know. That timeline is forever gone, with no way to repair it.
No possibility.
No second chances.
And that's all. I can't seem to write a happy Futurama story even if I wanted to, but I hope this was enjoyed.