(Author's Note: I've decided to make this a series of short stories / one-shot pieces inspired by the movie. Some will be direct continuations or add-ons to the story, some will be AU stuff, and some will be just totally out there (like this one). Still... I hope you enjoy.)


Fate was horrified.

"Erl… what do you think you're doing?" she cried. "Look what you've done – oh no, you've made such a mess. Those two lines are hopelessly tangled."

Erl looked up at her sheepishly. At the loom, two of the timelines were twisted together, dreadfully. Fate leaned in closer to examine her apprentice's handiwork. "Oh, goodness," she said. "Look at this! They're switching consciousness, and they're three years and countless miles apart! And – heavens, no! Erl, you've put a boy in a girl's body!" She glared at him. "What were you thinking?"

"They wanted to be together," Erl said. He was looking at his own hands, as if berating them. "I couldn't help it. I tried to keep them apart but they were connected. And they fit together so perfectly."

"Of course they were connected," Fate snapped. "In parallel, though, not intertwined! Did you forget that? A double helix, Erl, forever running side by side, never to intersect! I'm just glad I caught you before you damaged the whole pattern. For goodness sake, Erl, we're supposed to be professionals."

Carefully, Fate finished untwining the two rogue strings. Delicately, she curled them back into their proper, original positions. She waited a second, with bated breath. Thankfully, blessedly, they did not twist back together.

"Thank heavens. No permanent damage."

She gave him a wearisome look. "Erl, you must be more careful in the future. Timelines are very delicate, and when we're working on something as important as this comet pattern, you must be very precise, okay?"

"Okay," Erl said. "I'm sorry." He looked down, clearly ashamed.

Fate felt a slight tinge of remorse. It was her apprentice's first mistake, ever. He was a quite gifted student. "It's all right," she said. "I know you didn't mean it. Just be extra cautious, from now on."

"I will, I promise."

"Good."


"Erl, NO!" Her voice was a high-pitched shriek. "It's even worse than last time!"

The lines were tangled everywhere. The two same timelines were roped together, as before, but this time they spread outwards, too, curling up and down across other lines, running in circles and shapes she knew would not fit the pattern.

"Oh goodness," she whispered to herself, rushing forward. "The whole design, it's – "

Above her, the starry timelines forming the comet were the only thing fully intact. "Erl, hand me the small scissors," she said.

Erl passed them to her. "I'm so sorry," he said. "I wasn't trying to, but… something was… they just kept coming together, no matter what I did… they were tied together."

Fate was too worried to be angry. If she didn't work fast, everything could be ruined. The boy was in the girl's body, and the girl was in the boy's body, even though they were three years apart – shouldn't even be possible – and they were, oh lord they were interacting with each other's friends, communicating with each other, going on dates

"Just feel lucky," she said, in a hoarse voice. "He didn't find out about the town's name. If he had put the pieces together… told her about the comet… the whole pattern could have been ruined." With a final snip, she severed the last of the should-not-be time strands.

In a gruff voice, next to her, Earl said, "I don't see why this comet pattern's so important, anyway."

Fate felt a white-hot rage in her gut. She whirled on her apprentice. "Everything depends on this pattern, Erl. Everything!"

"Really?" he said. The tone of his voice would not do at all. "I don't get what's so beautiful about it. It's just a whole lot of townspeople dying, while a boy goes about his business in Tokyo."

"The boy, the girl, the town... they're not important! None of them are important," Fate said. "I thought I taught you better, Erl. It's the whole pattern that matters. The beauty comes from order. Everything in its place. No two strings are special enough to get their own spotlight. You have the preserve the structure of the piece. And what you did?" She gestured at the loom. "Switching bodies? Time skips? Letting them communicate? It's breaking the rules, Erl."

She looked at him, staring him down.

Let him challenge me, Fate thought. Give me one excuse, and I'll throw him out.

He said nothing.

She turned back to the loom, and snipped two more threads. Erl let out a muffled gasp.

"There," she said, holding out the two broken strings. "Here are their memories of each other. Throw them in the trash. It damages the pattern, now, but it's worth it, to keep you out of any more trouble."

Erl took the two strings. "Okay," he said, in a small voice.

"One more chance," she told him. "If you screw up one more time, you're done."


This time, her met her at the door. She could tell, by the look in his eyes.

"What am I going to see, when I walk in there?" she asked.

He said nothing.

"Eros!" she cried, addressing him by his real name. "I asked you a question. Answer me! What did you do this time?"

"Promise me you'll look at it," he said. "Give it an actual chance, before you – "

She pushed past him. Throwing the door open, she walked in, and stared at the pattern. She was trembling. "Oh, no, no… heavens, no…"

"Fate, please, just look closer," she heard Erl beg, but she rushed forward, her hands reaching instinctively for the scissors. "No, no, you've ruined it all!" she cried. The townspeople were evacuating, the whole town was saved, impossible, impossible… This is all wrong!"

She was about to rip the whole thing down, when something caught her eye.

There was something strange about part of the pattern.

"Those colors. I've never seen colors like these before."

Behind her, Erl spoke. "I told you," he said. "They wanted to be together."

She leaned in for a closer look. She caught her breath. "It's them. Their memories… they… they grew back?" She traced the strands with her fingers. "These colors, like violet and crimson, but not quite either. I've never seen anything like this. I didn't know these colors existed."

After a moment, she regained her composure. She leaned back to survey the whole work.

"Well, it doesn't quite make perfect sense," she concluded. "But I guess it's beautiful. And that's what matters."

She and Erl stood in silence for a moment. "I really am sorry," Erl said. "I understand if you want to fire me. I didn't mean to, I swear. It just… happened."

"No, it's okay." Fate said. "I think this is better than what I had in mind, anyway. I… I shouldn't have doubted you."

Her design had been something structured, circular, orderly. This piece was… well it was all tangled together, looping in on itself, little pirouettes and spirals. But somehow, it worked. She knew then, that Erl would make a good master of the loom someday.

She took one last, long gaze at it, then turned to go. But she hesitated, in the doorway. "Still, after we show it to the Big Guy, make sure to unravel those two timelines. We can't just let memories connect people across the years like that. It's unprofessional."

"I will." Erl said, striding back to his place by the strands of time. "But somehow, I get the feeling, even if we unravel them… in the end, somehow, they'll find each other."

"Hm. Maybe." Fate said, not truly listening to him. Those colors, she thought to herself, as she left. I've never seen those colors before.