Notes: This chapter has Luke as the apprentice of Clive Dove. Set at the beginning of an alternate Lost Future, but still very spoiler-heavy for PL3, despite being an AU.


Luke knew that he wasn't allowed to be nervous, which only resulted in magnifying his nerves tenfold.

It wasn't even really as if he was even acting at all, right?

The Professor was a nice person and they were friends, he just wasn't being entirely honest about the reason behind their friendship. Clive had always insisted that Layton wasn't the person they should hate and that was good, because Luke didn't think that he could hate this man if he tried. But all the same, lying to him made Luke feel ill.

It had been easier at first – when all Clive wanted him to do was build up a bond with Layton. Professor and apprentice had travelled together, uncovering the truths behind the various strange events that life threw at them. It had all been natural and actually kind of fun.

Today, however, would be neither of those things.

It would actually matter if Luke made mistakes. Even if it should have been impossible to make mistakes, seeing as his whole role in the plan was to just be Luke, the apprentice of Hershel Layton. Someone Layton would trust. So that when Clive came along as Future Luke, Layton would trust him by extension.

But what if he slipped up and Layton found out that he was all part of this… this scheme that Clive had assured him was for the best?

What if after finding out, Layton would hate Luke forever because he'd been lying to him?

What if Layton would then tell the police and… and Luke would get arrested (he wasn't sure if someone his age could be arrested; that didn't stop him from worrying, though), even if it should be those men who killed all those people who got arrested instead?

What if…

What if he voiced his concerns to Clive for the millionth time, just to be told dismissively that everything would be all right once again?

He kind of hated Clive for that reason. Anything he told Luke seemed to largely depend on his mood at the time. Like when they'd first met, after getting over the initial shock of how similar they looked, Clive had pretty much told Luke everything. Or at least, at first Luke had assumed it was everything. The more they got to know each other, the more Luke doubted he'd ever get the full story until a long time after this plan was over. However, he'd been told enough. The tales of how Clive's parents had been killed in an attempt to build a time machine, only for one of the men responsible to go on to become the Prime Minister and the other one to carry on with his work despite the death, had been enough back then. Young and idealistic, Luke had agreed to help Clive get those evil people put behind bars.

As time went on, Clive had been less open about what he intended to do. What Luke was told was only what he needed to know – like how he had to make Layton trust them, because apparently Layton could help. He was never told the reasons why Clive felt that Layton could help, and if that was the case why they couldn't just talk to him directly about it, just that Clive had total certainty that this was the case.

The one time that Luke had asked more than he'd needed to know had been when Clive had enlisted the help of Dimitri Allen, one of the men behind the time machine. He'd been horrified. Surely, Dimitri was someone who shouldn't be trusted after all that he'd done.

So Clive had promised him that he didn't trust Dimitri. That Dimitri was only there because he needed to be kept close for when the time of his use came. Then he would be exposed and arrested. Put simply, he was just a pawn in their plans.

Beyond that, Luke had been told very little about Dimitri, except that it was probably in his best interests to stay away from him. Something that he was happy to oblige to do.

Today, though, that was not strictly possible, as Dr. Alain Stahngun took to the stage, ready to unveil his time machine. He never once looked over in Luke's direction, which was for the best, as Luke felt he might have cracked under pressure if he had done.

It was already hard enough to feign ignorance to Layton in regards to why they were here.

"It does seem rather odd that people like Inspector Chelmey, Barton and ourselves would be invited to such an event," mused Layton, from where he sat next to Luke.

"I… I have no idea why we would be," Luke lied, trying to keep his voice from displaying too much hesitation.

Lying to the Professor was just too hard.

But then… wasn't that what he'd been doing this whole time anyway?

From upon the stage, Dimitri's voice echoed, "Without further ado, I give you my time machine!"

It starts.