So here is the third chapter, as promised! The last couple of weeks have been choc full of exam after exam after project after exam. Already writing the fourth. Hopefully it will be done faster than this one.
Huge thanks to the wonderful beta that is inheritancedrottningu! I guess I just needed someone to actually ask me where I wanted to go with the story. Thanks to you I have a plot!
Note: I decided to switch the tenses so this chapter and the rest will be written in past tense. I'll go back later and fix the ones before.
Disclaimer in the prologue.
Olivia and Peter ended up picking up a very sleepy Etta from her babysitter in the morning (or as Peter called it, "the butt crack of dawn").
None the less, the events from the last couple of hours were enough to rob them of any desire to catch up on their sleep. Trying to restore a portion of their previous normalcy to their morning routine, Peter prepared breakfast while Olivia tried to formulate a plan as to how she was going to explain everything to Broyles. Then, there was the endless list of questions she still had regarding Walter and her great-great-great-great-great granddaughter.
She could already see the chaos of her day unfolding as she sat down at the kitchen table.
"Come again?" Broyles said with genuine confusion.
Olivia gave an exasperated sigh and tried to explain again. "They showed up this morning, around 4 AM. I thought it best to not drag them into the FBI in handcuffs."
"And where are they now?" Broyles questioned, leaning forwards, elbows on his desk and hands firmly clasped together.
"Still in the lab. Despite all the info Walter gave us when we first arrived, it's obvious there's a lot more to his return that needs to be discussed."
Broyles clenched his jaw and furrowed his brow in an attempt to find a way to handle the situation. Ever since Fringe division thwarted the last attempt to end the world, all evil doings seemed to have screeched to a halt. Looking back on it now, perhaps he should have seen it as more of a warning than a blessing, like the calm before a storm where all shit goes to hell.
"Well, try to get a full explanation from them and figure out what needs to be done. If the woman is who she claims to be, she could be the key to keeping us all safe."
Olivia simply nods in understanding and gets up from her seat, "And Dunham," Broyles called.
"Yes?"
"Give Dr. Bishop my welcome."
Olivia smiled and nodded in reassurance before exiting his office and heading to the lab.
As Olivia casually walked into the lab she couldn't help but feel an odd sense of familiarity. It wasn't until Walter's return that she realized how much she missed the "mad scientist" atmosphere of the lab and how much she enjoyed its organized mess compared to her bland FBI office. The first thing she noted as she descended the steps by the door was Mystery Girl and Walter scrawling some sort of diagram onto one of the chalk boards with their backs to the lab doors. The faint sound of vinyl Bowie filled the lab like it used to, as if time had stopped and picked up where it left off.
Olivia heard them murmuring to each other, apparently pointing out flaws in the diagram and making modifications. Caught in their discourse, Elsa and Walter failed to notice the new presence in the lab; Olivia, instead of making herself known, quietly took her place behind one if the nearest tables and observed them, taking in the physical appearance of the young woman.
She was tall, much like herself, perhaps an inch shorter. She had a fair olive tone to her skin and dark hair that, at the moment, was tied up in a messy ponytail.
Lost in thought, Olivia didn't notice they had stopped drawing and were now erasing the chalkboard. They appeared satisfied that whatever they were working on was now apparently complete.
"Olivia!" Walter said, delighted, "When did you come in? I didn't see you."
Startled, Olivia moved from around the table and closer to Walter, "Ah, I just got here." She answered, briefly pointing to the doors behind her.
"Where is Peter?"
"He's in Jersey for an engineering consult." Olivia replied.
"Well I guess we'll just have to explain it to him when he gets back. Elsa and I have prepared a small simulation to better answer some of your more important questions."
"But first I need to fill you in on what you missed, or rather forgot." Elsa interjected.
"Ah, okay sure. How's it work?" Olivia nervously tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear, looking attentively at Elsa and Walter.
"All I need you to do is give me your hand." As Olivia moved to do so, Elsa pulled back, reconsidering.
"What is it?" Olivia questioned, her voice firm and fearless.
"I think it would be better if you sat down for this."
Finding her seat on a stool near a lab table, Olivia again offered her hand. Elsa sat herself opposite Olivia and hesitantly took her open hand. She looked down at the young woman's grasp, taking in the detail of Elsa's touch. Her mind scattered as she realized what the young woman actually was: her last living descendant, she came from her. Olivia zoned out, barely registering Elsa's words, "This won't hurt, but if you start to feel nauseous, squeeze my hand."
Olivia simply nodded in agreement, refocusing.
"Now close your eyes," Elsa instructed, blue eyes firmly locked onto Olivia's green stare.
Olivia inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, exhaling as her vision turned to darkness.
She felt nothing at first, except the warm touch of the young woman. Then, suddenly, there it was. Like a freshly broken dam, a wave of energy flooded over her. Her body tingled with radiating shock as she was hurled into an observational dream state. Olivia now stood firmly, watching as time moved around her in flashes and sparks. She lost touch with reality; the chair under her and the ground beneath her feet became non-existent. Her ears picked up the faintest of voices as they echoed through the expanse of her mind. Flashes of her daughter as a grown woman appeared before her. Olivia bore witness to the death of her only child, the despair she sees herself suffer in the flashes infected her, tightening her chest. Olivia's heart swelled with grief. Eyes drawn to the men in suits, grief morphed to heated anger.
The entire episode of time was overwhelming; the vastness of time and space reduced her sense of self to a mere particle of matter, occupying nothing but space.
Then it stopped. No longer overwhelmed, but relieved, the weight on her chest turned to dust as she could once again feel the stool under her. Olivia tightened her grip on the warm mass in her hand, testing its reality. After assessing her surroundings through touch, Olivia hesitantly opened her eyes only to be met with worried looks from the young woman and Walter.
"I told you to slow down, Elsa." Walter scolded.
"She's fine. See?" Eyes still locked onto Olivia, Elsa gently placed her hand on Olivia's shoulder in an attempt to draw her back to reality.
Clearing her throat, Olivia nervously looked at Walter before giving him a strained reassuring smile, "I'm fine, Walter. It was just a little...strange, is all."
"Well then we must proceed to the second part of our presentation."
As Walter made his way to the board, Elsa let go of Olivia and went to turn off the record player. The mood in the room changed profoundly the moment the music stopped. A serious tone overtook the lab, robbing it of any relaxation or joy. Olivia found Walter's gaze, no longer that of the man she last saw, and watched it turn grievous.
"Olivia," he said sternly, "the circumstances under which we came here revolve around a miscalculation." Taking hold of a piece of chalk, Walter drew a circle on the board with three stick figures inside, "The men in suits you saw in the recap of the previous timeline, three of them survived in the pocket universe Donald and I created. Now, when the timeline was reset," he drew arrows from the stickmen in the circle pointing outwards, "they were thrust from the pocket universe and scattered. One landed in 2167 around the time the Observers were created, and another, we suspect, is here. Understand, time moves slightly faster in the future. Where here it's been two years since Peter's seen me, it has been four years in the future since I have seen him."
"So one year here equals two years in the future?" Olivia asked.
"Yes, precisely." Turning back to the chalkboard, Walter wrote the number 2167 and drew one of the stick men under it, "One of Windmark's lieutenants, all of which were named after planets, was thrown into the timeline Michael and I traveled to. He is called Mars." Again Walter took his chalk and angrily scribbled the Observer's name onto the board, "He and some of the more neglected Observer prototypes with a grudge against humanity have seized control of a majority of the contiguous United States. Over the course of a few months they have accomplished what took years in the previous timeline. It's starting to look more and more like what we were supposed to prevent." he finished, dejectedly.
Still processing the information Olivia asked, "So if the problem is then, why come here now? Why come back, Walter?"
"Well, that gets even more complicated." Elsa spoke up, taking the chalk from Walter, "To the best of our knowledge, another lieutenant landed in this time and has been keeping up with the years." She wrote the number 2017 and drew another stick figure with the name Saturn next to it. "We know they managed to keep what was left of their Observer stuff with them, and among the items is that annoying little communication device that can connect an Observer here with an Observer then: Mars."
"What about the third Observer?"
"Unaccounted for, but we suspect he may be near this time. Walter estimates about twenty-five to fifty years from now." Elsa squinted her eyes at Walter, searching for reassurance.
Nodding, he continued, "Even though they were not erased when the timeline was rewritten, they were affected in some ways." Picking up a spare piece of chalk and drawing a thin oval with what looked to be a straight tail, Walter explained. "This is what makes the Observers the Observers. Within this piece of technology is a highly concentrated blue chemical known as ION6. That chemical was synthesized, in a time in which Michael and I did not appear, when scientists studied Elsa's brain after having dissected every inch of her body."
"Thank you for that pleasant image, Walter." Elsa sarcastically commented.
Well, she certainly has some of that Bishop sass, Olivia thought to herself, smirking in amusement.
"Yes, well it was unfortunate. Regardless, they still need you to repair it." Walter defended.
"So, then what's the worry? If it's damaged they can't touch us here in the present—or past—right?" Olivia asked, confused.
"Well, yes and no. They did retain the ability to move back a few years at best, although with each jump there is a refractory period. Despite this obstacle, it would be foolish of us to dismiss the possibility of them building a machine to come here. Their extensive cognitive abilities and far more advanced technology in the future would allow them to do so with ease." Walter explained.
"And, they are highly motivated to do so!" Elsa called out from one of the lab offices. Momentarily distracted, Olivia and Walter failed to notice her sneak off. Searching for the origin of her voice, they saw Elsa emerge from one of the offices carrying Walter's familiar brown leather bag. Small smudges of blood on its grip and sides reminded Olivia that Elsa had been wounded before arriving. "Before we were compromised, Walter and I stole something from them."
From within the confines of the mysterious bag, Elsa pulled out a medium sized metallic cube covered in a layer of translucent material with the Observer language engraved onto one of its faces. Complex curves and grooves decorated its sides, rightfully giving it a "futuristic tech" look.
"What is that?" Olivia asked, fearfully.
"This, my dear, is why we are here." Taking the cube in his hands, Walter held it up to the light shining from one of the dusty lab windows. The sunlight refracted through the clear portions of the cube that layered the steel frame, revealing—in rainbow colors—a familiar image onto the lab table.
"That's Peter and the machine, isn't it?" Olivia's worry failed to subside as she took in the ironically colorful image on the table. Her thoughts scattered as she tried to calm her frantic mind. That machine had robbed her of him once before; to think it could happen again was unbearable.
"They built it, the cube. Once they succeed in getting the chemical that they want from me, they plan to cross to the other universe and therefore, stay completely unaffected by yet another timeline rewrite in which you, and by extension all of your descendants, are erased." Elsa looks grimly at Olivia, allowing her to grasp the new information.
"You must have seriously pissed them off." Olivia joked, trying to lighten the thick air surrounding the situation. Her eyes stayed firmly locked onto the cube as Walter lowered it onto the table.
"Us coming here is not the first time we've interfered with their plans. Walter and I had a great deal of fun thwarting their very carefully conceived plan." Elsa and Walter both gave each other mischievous smirks as they mentally recounted their misadventures.
"Elsa's abilities not only include jumping through time, but also predicting it." Walter elaborated, suppressing a familiar shaky laugh.
"It comes and goes, and it happens on a much smaller scale, but it happens." she added.
Olivia gave a quick smile before returning her gaze to the cube. Its presence threatened everything she and Peter had built, every moment of happiness they had shared. She didn't even want to think about what would happen to their daughter. Just as she was gathering her thoughts to form another question, her cell phone rang. Hesitantly pulling it from her pocket, Olivia glanced down at the caller ID.
Peter.
Great, she thought to herself. Excusing herself from the table, Olivia answered the phone with her typical 'Dunham' and awaited Peter's warm voice on the other line.
"Hey, 'Livia, I'm on my way home. Have you eaten?" Peter asked casually.
"No, no I've been working." turning around, Olivia gave Walter and Elsa an exasperated look, "Actually Peter, Etta still has another two hours at the Daycare before they start scolding us, why don't you come down to Harvard lab? There's some things you need to know..."
Review!