It was nightfall by the time the bodies of the terrorists had been taken away, shell casings swept up, evidence collected, terrorist weapons confiscated and the search for Ari had been called off. The little bastard had slipped away, waiting to strike again. But NCIS would get him. They always got their man. By 10 pm, the team were exhausted and heading back.
On the way back to NCIS, something didn't sit right with Tony. Something in his gut told him something was wrong. Normally it was Gibbs with the gut feeling, but the Desert Storm veteran was silent the entire ride. He looked to his left. Kate was asleep. Tough ol' woman despite being shot twice at close range. Tony smiled, yet that feeling persisted. Something in his heart told him that something had changed. Something drastic. He could feel it.
Something had changed. What was it? The past? The future? The present? Tony knew the butterfly effect would come into play.
The butterfly effect. A tiny butterfly flapping its wings today may lead to a devastating hurricane weeks from now. Even the smallest decision can dramatically change the future. One's actions would shape how the story unfolds. Your story was one of many possibilities. One had to choose carefully.
Tony couldn't help but feel that something bad was supposed to happen today. Not just the thwarted terrorist attack. Someone was supposed to die that day. Someone of NCIS. Was it Gibbs? Himself? McGee? Or Kate... Someone was supposed to die that day. But no one Tony knew died.
Tony would give his life for his friends. He looked again to Kate. She looked majestic in her slumber. Was she the one who, if not for a change of events, would be in an eternal slumber? His gut told him it was either himself or her. But Tony made a pledge to himself. He would not let anything happen to his team...His family. Especially not Kate. Their destinies could change just as quickly as the anger in one's heart can fade. Nothing is set in stone.
"Can't sleep either, huh?" Kate said, eyes still closed.
"That noticeable, right?" Tony smirked.
"Tony, what's wrong?" she asked.
"That noticeable too?"
"Yeah. What's bothering you. Tell me."
"You're getting better at reading men, Kate," Tony sighed. He debated with himself whether he should tell her. Would it matter if he did?
"Something tells me that something was supposed to happen today," he finally said after a moment. "And I got a feeling that it wasn't good."
"You mean one of us was supposed to die?" Kate asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I don't know," Tony honestly admitted. "But something has changed. I can feel it."
"Hmmm," Kate pondered. "Do you believe in fate?"
"Kate, all I know is our destinies can change just as quickly as the anger in one's heart can fade," he told her as they pulled up into NCIS. "Nothing is set in stone."
In Washington DC, two slabs of 246 feet long gabbo walls turned into a small plaque. The tens of thousands of names on the memorial were reduced to a few hundred.
Over in the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, a man stood above two graves, both of which sat in front of a flame. The surface of both graves became distorted for a brief moment. The years of life then read 1917-2001 and 1929-2005. The man noticed the change and did nothing.
The drift of time had now been diverted. A new timeline had been created and the timeline where a narcissist became president would disappear. The fabric of time had been bent, distorted beyond its normal shape. But hopefully, this would be for the better. In American media, when a person went back in time and changed the past, it would at first appear to be for the better but eventually it would make the world worse and the character(s) would have to go back and reverse their actions. But this person was determined to not having to do so. And everything had seemed good so far.
But wouldn't there be a weird time-contimum ripple effect? Probably not. There was an infinite alternate dimensions to the one we're in now. So this man's actions back in 1963 might have just fractured the dimension, splintering it into two separate lines, one where John F. Kennedy was murdered, and the other where he lived with simply a shoulder wound. All that would happen is all the mortal humans' consciousness would be aware of the alternate path rather than the original timeline.
"Castiel, it's time to come home," a voice said from up high.
"I'm coming, Michael."
Review. BTW, I am neither Sith nor Jedi. I am much more.
I will try to post chapters by the weekends. I got work up the ass so it might take a while.
