Alright, let's solve that cliffhanger, shall we? Yep.

CHAPTER 3 – 2008

(P to Marlene) As we were about to open the crate, something made us stop. We then heard small, sad sobbing. We also heard a voice coming from the crate. "Why? Why did I have to be transferred from home?" the voice asked. This all seemed too familiar.

The voice continued. "Why was I split up from my family? I wanted to be with them, not split apart. I might never see them again. I want to be back home with my parents and my little sister Emily," the voice said. On that, Emily and I looked at each other.

This situation was now instantly familiar to me. This was the day I had been transferred away from Monterey. Our husbands seemed to recognize that as well, because they led us out of the zoo while everyone else followed

"Marlene. That was you in there, wasn't it?" Matthew asked me. "I think so," I answered honestly. "Why are we back in 2008?" Emily asked us. "Kowalski?" Annabelle asked him. "I'm not entirely sure. But we need to not change anything," Kowalski said.

"We also cannot let you guys run into your other selves," Matthew said, speaking of those of us who were here in 2008. We all shivered with the thought of the universe being ripped to shreds because of ourselves.

(P to me) "What's our plan Dad?" Sam asked Skipper. "We don't have access to the zoo, since we would definitely run into ourselves, some of us aren't supposed to be here yet, or don't exist yet," he answered.

"We also can't run into either our friends or enemies from outside the zoo, so we will have to keep a very low profile," Skipper answered. "Rico, what do we have for supplies?" Kowalski asked him. Rico released a few smoke bombs, stink bombs, his flamethrower, a few knockout bombs, a few walkie-talkies, unlit dynamite, and a few grappling guns.

"Well, we've got some supplies at least," Anna said. "Kowalski, how long would it take you to make a Chronotron so we can get home?" Julia asked him. "With the right equipment we can get from the midtown lab, it should not take me more than a few hours," Kowalski said.

Upon that, we were relieved that our problem would only last a few hours. But until then, we would have to hide very well. "Skipper, do you remember doing any missions that involved going out of the zoo back here?" I asked him. "Actually, we didn't run many missions back all in 2008," he answered.

"The first mission we had in awhile was actually when you Marlene, stumbled into the HQ," Skipper continued. The two then sighed longingly, remembering that day. And that was potentially the day we were stuck in or a few away.

"Mom, can we see that memory when we get home?" Anna asked Marlene. She smiled. "Absolutely sweetie. I remember it as if it were yesterday," she said happily. We started heading to the sewer, where we would use it to travel quietly to the lab.

"I'm glad we now know where you went sis. It hurt me, when you were, as we now know, forcibly transferred away," Emily said to her. "As you heard, it hurt me too, to be taken away from you and Mom and Dad," Marlene replied. They shared a hug, so happy to have been with each other again for over a year now.

We opened the manhole and after making sure there were no rats around, jumped into the sewer. We all hated the smell we came upon it, but without gas masks, we had to deal with it. "How long were you crying for?" I asked Marlene delicately. "Well, at least a few hours," Marlene answered.

"I was really sad, but then I suddenly got the urge to explore," Marlene said. We chuckled. "Your curiosity got the better of you, didn't it Mom?" Sam asked her. Marlene chuckled as well. "Yes, it did. I don't exactly remember why I got curious all of a sudden, but I did," she answered.

"Well, when we get home and I can change things again, I'll restore that to your mind," I said to Marlene. She smiled. "Thank you. Because I've always tried to remember why, but I just can't," she said blushing. "At least you did see me again," Emily said happily to her sister.

"Yes, we finally reunited after over 6 years," Marlene said happily. * "And look at what happened to both of us. We became married and have children," Emily said happily. The two sisters hugged yet again, so happy.

Our families then got into a hug before we went on our way again. Both of them were right. Whatever had made Marlene curious had made her wind up in the Penguin habitat, it had caused all of this. After we would get home, I would definitely restore Marlene's memory so we could know what it was.

After slowly and carefully walking through the sewers and keeping a watchful eye out for the rats, we arrived in midtown. After making sure no one would see us, especially X, wherever he was, we started heading to the lab.

We waited for someone to open the door to the building and then went inside. We used the grappling guns to get into the air ducts. Looking down, no humans spotted or heard us, which meant we really were good at our training lately.

Finally, we reached the lab we were looking for and left the air duct. Unfortunately, one of the scientists was working, so we had to temporarily knock him out. There was a whiteboard behind him saying no accidents occurred in 200 days, but as he fell, the scientist wiped that away. I chuckled silently, remembering that from the show so many years ago. ** Well, technically a few years in the future, as of this exact moment in time.

We all then dropped onto the floor. "So what do we need Kowalski?" Dylan asked him. "We need…" Kowalski said before stopping. "Yes Kowalski?" Julia asked him. "Hmm. Anyone else feel tingly?" he asked us. We answered that, no, we didn't feel tingly.

"Strange. Maybe it's a side affect of the time travel," Kowalski said. "Maybe, but we need to focus Kowalski," Skipper said to him, trying to get him to refocus on our task of getting home.

"Right Skipper. Sorry about that," Kowalski said. "Now I shall try to ignore this tingly feeling. Now as I was trying to say before, we need…" Kowalski said before suddenly vanishing.

Ooh, another cliffhanger! Gotta love them. So did you like this chapter? Please review it. I have two notes today.

* The show started in March 2009. Marlene was probably transferred at least a few months earlier, so most likely in October or November 2008.

** Referencing "Out Of Time" at the same lab with the slapping the doctor scene.