Hiya!

I'm sorry for not holding the deadline! Gah, I should've posted last week but then real life got in the way. Plus the lovely Tweaks gave me an idea that was perfect as a 2

One month earlier:

Caleb watched as green lightening started to surround Ruby. After a few moments, she had disappeared and the time portal had shut down. Caleb sighed deeply as he realized that he was now going to be alone again. It was going to be strange for the first few days, but he was pretty sure that he would be able to settle into his usual routine again. After all, all those Bio-rods weren't going to gathered themselves.

Caleb sat down in his chair and looked out over the decks of FutureGate, he had to admit to himself that it was a pretty satisfying sight to see all those Roboidz slumped over and deactivated. He allowed himself a satisfied smile as he jumped out of his seat, his energy renewed at the prospect of gathering all those Bio-rods.

As Caleb did this, something clattered to the ground and he span around to locate the source of it. As it turned out it was a disk. He knew that it had fallen out of his pocket as he had felt Ruby slipping something into it but he hadn't bothered to check it yet. He crouched down and picked up the disk to find that there was a black leather string attached to it and at the end of it was a silver pendant with a wolf engraved into it.

Something stirred in the back of his mind, like a distant memory. For some reason Caleb got the idea that Ruby had given this pendant to him before, but he couldn't put his finger on it if the memory actually happened or not. The memory was gone as quickly as it had come and he focused his attention back to the disk in his hands. It didn't say what it was about, but he did know that Ruby had left a computer in the Lair that he would be able to use to play the disk.

He started walking the all too familiar route to the lair and when he got there he sat down behind the computer that Ruby had fixed for him. After starting it up, he put the disk in the CD player and watched as a screen appeared on the computer. He could see that it was a video message as there was the small arrow in the middle of Ruby's face indicating that he had to press it for the video message to play out. He resisted the urge to tap the screen to make the message start playing like he normally did to start recording his video diary. Instead he reached for the thing with buttons that Ruby had called a mouse and used it to make the message start playing. Like he had expected, the video message was indeed from Ruby, but he could tell that there was something wrong with Ruby, she looked sad.

"Hey Caleb." she started. "By the time you're watching this, I'll be back in my time frame. I'm so, so terribly sorry about this, but I couldn't bring myself to do this face to face."

Caleb stared at the screen as Ruby sighed deeply and ran her hands over her face. He didn't think that it was possible for her to look sadder than she was doing when she did the video.

"For these past weeks, I've been lying to you, Caleb." Ruby said. "My name isn't Ruby. It's Ember Tennant. Everything you remember about me helping you defeat Arkon and Neuros, it's all true, I twisted some of the details around so it would make sense to you why I would still be on FutureGate after defeating them. The truth of the matter is that a week after defeating them, I went home to 2010. We kept in touch during the three months that I was in my own time, but I came back here after you told me something weird was going on. We didn't know it at first, but we found out that it was all because of an Alien, Upa Gup. I told you about him, he deactivated your cybernetics and this activated the sickness inside you, the one you were diagnosed with when you were 17. This wasn't the only thing that happened, because of the sickness, you lost your memories. Your memories of me."

Ruby sighed again and flicked her bangs from her face. He watched in silence as she glanced back at the door behind her, the door to the sleeping quarters and he realized that she must've recorded this message when he was asleep.

"We're more than just friends, Caleb." Ruby continued. "In the future, well, your past, I'm going to give birth to your father, Simeon Lansing, so basically I'll become your grandmother... we're family, Caleb. I wish I could've told you before, but I made an agreement not to do so, so my departure wouldn't hurt again. I'm so so very sorry I didn't tell you this before. I felt that this was for the best, but I realize not that I don't have the right to keep this all from you. You're a grown man now; you're perfectly capable of making your own choices."

In the video, ruby removed her headset and the transmission box, the same ones that were lying beside the computer at that moment.

"If you need help, use this to contact Tweaks. She's willing to help you." Ruby said before putting the headset aside. "I'll set it to the right channel for you. All you need to do is pressed the black button and the headset will activate, it'll connect to Tweaks' headset automatically. By now, you'll probably be wondering what the necklace that was hanging off the disk is. It's yours, Caleb. It used to be mine, until I gave it to you when I went home the first time. I told you that it brought me luck on more than one occasion; I still hope it'll do the same for you... I'm so sorry about all of this, Caleb. I hope that one day you can forgive me."

With that the message stopped and Caleb stared at the screen. He didn't even know what he was supposed to be feeling about all of this. But he did know one thing, he was confused, hurt and at that moment he hated Ruby for lying to him. How could one person possibly keep all of that a secret and for over 3 weeks too! As he thought about everything that Ruby, or should he be calling her Ember now, had said in the message, he found that memories were slowly starting to return. It was almost like a wall in his mind had been broken down and it now allowed memories to return, like the message had triggered it all. Caleb grabbed his head as it was starting to hurt badly with the rush of all the memories coming back. It only took a moment, and the headache started to dissipate, but things were becoming a lot clearer now. He could remember everything again, from the moment that Ember had first set foot on FutureGate to the moment that he was starting to get sick and everything in between.

He stared at the necklace lying beside the keyboard and slowly picked it up. He could see the memory playing out like a movie. He remembered what Ember had said about it, it had been her originally and she'd given it to him in the hopes that it would bring him the same luck that it had brought her. For a moment he debated whether he should be wearing it again, but in the end he figured that he should, it was his now, despite its connection to Ember. He looped the cord over his head and let it fall in place on his chest.

The one thing he couldn't understand about all this was that Ember wouldn't tell him all that face to face. He couldn't put into words how angry he was, but he could put it into actions. With a sweep of his arm and an angry cry, Caleb swept everything that was on the table to the ground. It gave him a satisfied feeling for a moment to do that, but it wasn't enough, he had to know why the hell Ember hadn't told him all this to his face and what else she'd been hiding from him.

A memory sprang to mind like a flashing beacon and Caleb jumped to his feet, snatching up the headset and its transmission box from the ground and started running back to the command deck. As soon as he got there, he started to access the time link so he could send Ember a message. Before he could even start trying, he found that the time link was deactivated. No matter what he tried, he couldn't get it to start up again but as soon as he ran a diagnostic of the system, he found that there was a virus in the systems that made sure that the time link couldn't be started up again. When he saw the name of the virus, he knew that Ember had something to do with it as it was labelled 'I'm sorry, Caleb'.

Caleb sat back on the ground and ran his hands through his hair for a moment. He didn't even know how he was going to fix all of this, he had to get answers from Ember, but she'd wrecked the time portal, meaning that it was impossible for him to get the answers he wanted. She was smart; she had made sure that there was no easy way to fix the time portal. It would take weeks for the time portal to be fixed; Ember had made sure of that. He sighed again when he looked down at the headset he was still holding in his hand. There was just one thing for it, he needed help fixing this. He knew that Tweaks would be willing to help him, but he didn't know if he could actually ask her for help, after all, he had been a prisoner in the Wolf Faction compound.

He couldn't help the shudder that passed over his spine at the memory of this; that had been one moment that he really didn't want to remember at all. It was one of the most terrifying situations he'd ever been in. He hadn't meant to start crying as soon as he'd seen Ember, but he was just so scared and sore. He didn't let on then so he could retain some dignity, but the beatings were worse than what Ember could see. It wasn't just his face the Wolf guards had been beating, it was the rest of his body too, his clothes had covered the remainder of the bruises. But the pain of the bruises were nothing compared to fear he'd felt when he was standing up on the execution platform and watching the black hooded man notching the arrow that was meant to kill him on the bowstring. Another shudder passed over his spine and he quickly shook the thought off. As he thought about the battle that followed, the way that Ember had snatched up a sword and started to fight Orion so Tweaks could get her father to safety. He couldn't understand then why Ember had done that, he had to admit that he still didn't really understand Ember's reason for fighting Orion, but he did know that she had to have done that for a good reason. He knew that Ember and Tweaks had an understanding, but he hadn't known that it had involved Ember putting herself in danger to safe a stranger. He had acted on instinct as soon as Ember was distracting Orion and had helped Tweaks. Looking back at that memory now, he didn't even know why he had helped out; after all, it was Quinn who had ordered his death.

But then Ember got hurt, as soon as he'd heard her scream, fear took over all his other senses and he had grabbed sword of the ground and run Orion through. He had never known he was capable of doing something like that, but that proved it all. He could kill if the situation called for it, but that didn't mean that he liked it. The idea of taking someone's life made him sick, that was the reason why he had fought the Roboidz for so long. It was because of them that millions, maybe even billions of people got killed.

Still, it was because of Tweaks that he and Ember had been able to escape during the revolt. If she hadn't been there, he and Ember probably hadn't been able to get out during the confusion of it all. she didn't have a reason to help them, he still didn't know why Tweaks had helped them out, but she did, plus Ember had gone back to ask Tweaks for help when he had run away, that had to mean that she could be trusted, right? Caleb heaved a sigh as he stared at the headset in his hands, if Ember had gone to Tweaks for help, then so could he. It would take some effort to put his trust in Tweaks, but she had been nothing but kind to him while they had been travelling back to the Hippocrates base and the Wolf base. She could be trusted. It was a huge step, but it had to be made. Caleb slowly lifted the headset to his ear and put it in as he flicked the button to activate the headset.

"Caleb calling Tweaks." Caleb said, his voice slightly unsure as he spoke the words. "Come in."

Caleb listened to the static for a few moments until a voice started to come through.

"This is Tweaks." Tweaks' voice said. "Go ahead, Caleb, I'm listening."

"I need your help." Caleb stated.

Tweaks sighed as she went over the reports of what needed to be fixed after Orion's revolt. It had been almost 2 weeks since and they were nowhere near finishing the repairs. Thankfully the revolt hadn't cost a lot of lives; they had Ember and Caleb to thank for it. They had been the ones who had stopped him, as soon as Orion was dead, word spread out amongst his troops and they ran like the cowards they were. They all knew what mutiny meant, it would mean banishment and if they came back, they would be executed.

She couldn't help but think of the moment that Ember had convinced her to help her and Caleb escape. She didn't know why she'd done it, but she did know that her father had made a mistake in Caleb's case. He was the saviour of mankind; it was thanks to him that the Roboidz were gone. He was a hero; there was no other word for it. True to her gut instinct, he wasn't a bad person; on the contrary, he had to be the kindest person that she'd ever met. After all, it was her father that had ordered the execution and when she'd shown up with Ember and Rory to find him, he'd been nothing but kind. She couldn't help but admire this feat in him, it couldn't have been easy to ignore that she was there.

When Ember had asked her to be on standby so that Caleb could ask someone for help, she couldn't help but admit that she was glad of it. She didn't know why, but for some reason she hadn't liked the idea of never seeing Caleb again. It had been a few days since she'd said goodbye to him and Ember, she didn't know how long it took to get back to FutureGate but she caught herself waiting for the message to come that Caleb needed help. She knew that it was bad of her to hope this, but she couldn't help it, she just had the feeling that she wanted to see Caleb again. Tweaks heaved another sigh as she leaned back against the chair of her dad's desk. Her father was still healing from the attack and it would be some time before he was able to run the faction again, until that time she was in charge. This didn't really matter though; she had already arranged with her father that when the call came, Fix would be able to run the faction until her father was well enough to lead himself.

Tweaks sat up ramrod straight when she heard her headset crackling with static. She knew of only 2 people who had access to this radio frequency. She listened as the static started to clear up.

"Caleb calling Tweaks." Caleb's voice said. "Come in."

Despite the fact that this was probably a bad sign that Caleb was calling in help, Tweaks couldn't help herself as a small smile spread out over her lips when she heard Caleb's voice.

"This is Tweaks." Tweaks replied. "Go ahead, Caleb, I'm listening."

"I need your help." Caleb stated.

"I'm on my way." Tweaks replied as she jumped to her feet.

So this is it for this chapter.

Sorry about the lack of action, i still hope that this was enjoyable though!

I'm going to post the next chapter tomorrow to make up for the lack of posting last week!

X Abby