Disclaimer: I don't own Back to the Future. Which is probably for the best.

Author's Note: Two chapters at once on this sunny day in July, for you to enjoy in your summer. Details with Marty and Doc coming closer to a mutual understanding. Doc is referred to as 'Emmett' throughout because it's from Marty's perspective, and 'our' Marty probably only started calling his friend Doc because they were too far apart in age to be on an actual first-name basis (and of course, later the nickname just stuck). This Marty, being 47 and deeming himself to be in charge of Doc Brown as his prisoner, has no such issues.

Chapter Nine

Tuesday, June 7, 2016
2:30 PM PDT
Tannen Valley, California

Early that morning, Marty Tannen had thought that his short lapse of judgment regarding prisoner Brown had been a mistake. Certainly, the guy did have a pretty interesting set of arguments for his case, but the whole story of time travel was just impossible. It couldn't be done. And the idea of being a McFly… that this whole town was messed up supposedly because of his family, his great family, doing things wrong… it just didn't fit in with the things Marty had known for a fact for his entire life.

However, as time passed, Marty had gotten deeper into examining the items he had retrieved from the house. There were a lot of documents he could not do much with, as they detailed the functions of a time machine, but he got the feeling that they were what they claimed to be. Those documents which he could understand were also clearly not the writings of a madman. Diary notes about Emmett's adventures in the Old West. Information about him, too – or rather, the other him, with a characterization of him that was both alien and shockingly familiar. Odd little snippets of adventures Emmett and other-him had supposedly gone through. It was all very interesting and… realistic.

Lunch time came and went, and at 2 PM, Marty knew that for some reason he was actually beginning to believe Emmett. However, there was also one of the big dilemmas of the day – if he believed that what Emmett was saying was true, then he had just condemned an innocent man to an execution the next dawn. Tannen justice did not work in complicated ways – Marty had simply gotten the sentence written down and signed his autograph underneath.

He did not want to admit that he had just sentenced a man to death whose only wish was to get back to his own reality, and as a result, he'd tried to convince himself that everything he saw in front of him was foolishness. Lunacy. Clever lunacy, even coherent lunacy, but it was still insane. It couldn't be true. But he also knew that he didn't know that. And the only way to find out was to go over to Emmett's cell in person once more… and ask. Ask all he needed to know, and this time listen patiently instead of calling prisoner Brown a liar from the start.

That was why he had once again descended down the muddy stairs, this time in a different direction – the death cells were another matter entirely compared to the 'regular' cells. Marty frowned as he headed through the small, confined hallways and past the darkened cells. Surprised prisoners tried to look up at the noise, but Marty didn't pay them much attention. He supposed that he should, though. After all, didn't he have a bit of a duty to these people? It was his task to provide the system with good laws and with good prisons. These prisons were more like old-fashioned dungeons, though.

The forty-seven-year-old shook his head. All of this was Cliff's doing anyway. His brother had the tendency to take jobs from him of which he knew perfectly well that they should be conducted by Marty, according to their various agreements on power control in Tannen Valley. Marty didn't hate his brother, far from it, but he sometimes wished that Cliff could be less… controlling. Of course, it wasn't like he didn't do that too often, as well. Lashing out at his subordinates… sometimes firing them for petty little things…

Marty shook his head. No time worrying about this, he had a mission to conduct. He stopped in front of prisoner Brown's cell and entered it. The man who claimed to be his friend from another world was currently asleep, which allowed Marty the chance to examine his living conditions for a moment. They weren't exactly the best. The situation in a death cell was even worse than in a regular cell, after all. They were covered with all sorts of disgusting crap and Marty knew that the prisoners did not get a chance to go to the toilet in here either. He made a face at the smell, which was worse here than anywhere else in the prison system. "To think you could sleep with that" he muttered, quietly.

"It's not easy, I assure you" Emmett's voice sounded. Marty looked up, startled, to see Emmett smile at him. "I'd noticed you were here, but I had kept quiet for a few moments. Didn't want to deny you the chance to look around."

"Thank you, I suppose" Marty muttered. "That's very… nice. Of you."

"Oh, you're welcome" Emmett replied in the same absurdly polite tone. "So, if I may ask, sir, what are your intentions for coming here?"

Marty let out a sigh. "I found something I wanted to show you" he said. "Something… in the old shack you and the rebels were in."

"Interesting" Emmett responded. "Any reason you didn't take that to your brother or anyone else in the Tannen hierarchy who would be interested in it?"

"Because it concerns you" Marty simply replied. He took the photograph out of his pocket and was about to hand it over, along with some of the more important files, when he realized Emmett was still tied up. "Let me just undo that" he muttered.

He unchained the inventor's arms, and Emmett sat up, staring at Marty. "What have you got for me, then?"

"I was actually hoping you had something for me" Marty replied, smirking. "An explanation. An explanation for these things." He held out the documents he had taken from the place Emmett claimed to have lived in, and handed over the photograph that had first caught his eye. It was one of many.

The older man looked at the picture, intensely. "I know that picture" he whispered, softly. "It was in the safe, wasn't it? I had been trying to find it, but I couldn't. The house had changed too much for it."

"I found it" Marty replied. "The gunshots unearthed one of the wooden boards." He stared at Emmett. "Why? Why is there a picture of… me… on there?"

Emmett smiled faintly. "Because you were with me. In 1885."

"I don't remember any of that."

"That's because it didn't happen to you" Emmett replied. "My trip to 2016 has created a different timeline, one with a divergence point that lies presumably in the early Twentieth Century, most likely at the time of my birth. I think I was swapped with another baby in this timeline, which caused my alternate self to grow up as a Tannen. The Tannens convinced alternate me to invent for them, and he managed to perfect something that turned this town into their own playground."

"Playground?" Marty said, frowning. "That's quite the insult you're throwing at my family there. Remember, you're still going to get shot tomorrow at dawn." He looked at him. "I would tone down those exclamations if I were you."

"If I'm going to die anyway, does it matter?" Emmett replied.

Marty hesitated, but nodded slowly. "Yes" he whispered. "It does. Because if what I'm thinking is true and you are, somehow, I can't believe how or why but somehow, you're telling the truth… then I'll do whatever I can to get you out of there." He looked Emmett in the face. "But go on with your explanation."

Emmett frowned, and continued. "Anyway, as a result of the extensive changes the Tannens made, your current father was able to get married to your mother, and you were born in the new timeline… but you're not the same you, not the you that existed in the old timeline. You have a different father, just like Cliff has a different mother. The you that was in 1885 was a version of you that had George McFly as a father."

Marty frowned. "That doesn't make sense, does it?" he asked. "If I was born differently, how come that other me is still in those pictures?"

"Apparently, the changes made in 1920 do not affect 1885, because that was thirty-five years before that date" Emmett replied. "That would make sense, since despite the changes to the world I was still stranded in 1885 and spent ten years stuck there. Those photographs aren't erasing… but this reality might."

"What do you mean?" Marty asked.

"As a result of your father's other self journeying to the past, the cause of his journey has been made impossible" Emmett explained. "In this universe, there was no time machine around on June 5th, 2016, which Biff Tannen could have stolen and brought to the past. As a result, this reality should be erased since it has no reason to exist… but then it would exist, since if the old timeline was restored, then the time machine would be there again."

"So it's a loop?" Marty asked.

"Not quite" Emmett said. "Since this is time we're talking about, it really can't loop around and change from reality to reality like that. Because I'm out of my own time, I would also know if something like that happened, and I haven't seen the world change back to what I define as normal once during the time I was imprisoned here. No, what should happen, at least according to my theories, is that the continuum eventually can't bear the strain anymore. Then, it should theoretically collapse."

Marty gasped. "Wait – are you saying the universe would collapse? All because of some silly time travel not taking place?"

"Oh, no" Emmett assured him. "The paradox might be limited to our own galaxy, perhaps a few surrounding galaxies… it's all theories."

"Well that's a relief" Marty muttered.

Emmett smirked. "You're just like my Marty. He reacted the exact same way when I explained my theories to him on our visit to 2015."

"Your visit to…" Marty shook his head. "I can't believe I'm even listening to this. It's all nonsense. Fantasy! Balderdash!"

"You were the one to get down here" Emmett pointed out.

"Yeah, but I think I should be leaving again" Marty muttered. "It's just… I look at the photograph and I see those documents and I know somewhere that it's got to be true, but… it can't." He shook his head. "Time travel? Other realities? Me as a McFly?!"

"Is that really so horrifying for you?" Emmett asked.

"As a matter of fact, yeah" Marty said. "I've been raised to be proud of being a Tannen. Our family is the most influential one in Tannen Valley. We rule this town, and we rule it fair and right!"

Emmett frowned. "Now, that last part is just nonsense and you know it" he said. "Look at this prison. Look at the resistance movements that have cropped up against the regime of your family. Do you really think any of that would happen if your rule was fair?"

Marty glared at him. "My father's a hero. He built the Tannen Empire which gave jobs to thousands of Tannen Valley citizens. He built our magnificent casino. He was a visionary, a genius, one of the greatest sons this town has ever had. Even Cliff doesn't dare to touch his legacy because he means everything to our citizens."

"Perhaps to some" Emmett said. "But to the majority?" He stared at Marty. "And if you don't believe me, why don't you go look it up?"

"Where?" Marty argued. "You're acting like it's some kind of family secret!"

"That's because it is" Emmett responded. "Look around. Your brother arrested me on the day you were away, just barely a few minutes after I arrived in this timeline, and for nonsensical reasons. Even you, an insider to the regime, were appalled by this. I doubt this was done at random. I was arrested at that moment because Cliff knew from old Biff who I was and didn't want me to end his regime. And since Cliff wasn't alive yet in 1920, your father must have also known. And his father, and his father. The entire family must have known the secret… all except you, apparently."

"That's enough!" Marty exclaimed. "I can't believe you're actually saying this!"

"I'm saying it because it's true, 'Mister' Tannen!"

Marty stared at him. "All right" he said, redoing Emmett's chains. The surprised inventor barely resisted. "I'll go look for information and see if you can prove me wrong. But if I can't find anything, if there's nothing around…" He made a 'dead' motion with his hand. "Then I'm afraid things won't end so well for you."

Emmett stared at him, then nodded slowly. "Fine" he said. "But if you genuinely want to go look for evidence, then don't forget the old saying while you're at it."

Marty frowned. "What old saying?"

Emmett smiled. "Don't forget to look at what's right under your nose, Marty" he simply said. "No one looks there. But when they do… you'd be surprised what you could find."

Marty nodded slowly. "Fine" he muttered. "I'll have a look around. But if I don't find anything, this is the last conversation we'll have. Fare well, Emmett Brown."

He left the cell without saying another word.