Author's Note: New chapter. It took a little longer than last time, but, hey, it is about 5,000 words. And besides, the space between Chapter 2 and 3 was half a year... but then I was working on other stories, though.

Disclaimer: I double-checked. I still don't own BTTF! Ain't that too bad!

Chapter Twelve

Friday, December 31, 2010
07:53 AM
Courthouse Square
Hill Valley, California

"Wow."

Doc, Marty One, Marty Two, Jennifer, Susan and Ann gasped at the future version of the Courthouse Square. What once had been a peaceful town in the fifties, then a horrifying hell in the Eighties, now looked… well, like a futuristic version of the alternate Seventies. The 'War Zone' was now again a Café, called Biff's Café. The old theatre was now a new theatre called 'HoloWar'. Next to the War Zone was a shop called 'Blast From The Past', an antique store that looked like it was selling stuff from the Seventies, the Eighties and the Nineties, the time periods in which Biff's rule was on it's top according to a sign on it. And the Courthouse, well, the Courthouse…

First of all, the Pleasure Paradise was still there, but it had been reduced about ten stores, now making it 'only' about seventeen floors. On top of it was a red neon stylized 'Cliff's' and in the centre, it clearly read 'Cliff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise, for all your drinks, girls and gambling'. Cliff's face was on the whole thing, smoking what looked like a 100 dollar bill, but with '50.000' on it. Great Scott, Doc thought, staring at it with disgust. Either the Tannen empire has increased even more, or inflation has gone hard ways up until the year 2010! This sure is strange!

"I don't believe this" Marty One whispered. "It hasn't changed a thing! Sure, the Square looks newer, and everything looks more like the seventies than the eighties, but it's still horrifying. I can't believe this. Cliff is exactly like his old man."

"You bet he is" Marty Two groaned. "Oh, this is heavy…"

"What does weight have to do with our current situation?" Susan asked, curiously. Doc laughed, and they started telling the entire story again about how Marty Two's reality contained the word 'heavy' in another meaning. As they finished, they were startled by eight loud chimes. "Great Scott!" Doc whispered. "The clock is working!"

"It's working in 1985, too" Marty One reminded him. "Biff replaced it, remember?"

"Yeah… but I didn't think that your stepbrother would care very much for it" Doc muttered. "I'd figured that it might even have been removed. Seems Tannen's have some respect for history, at least… or it could just be fear of the town turning against them." He smiled at the thought of Cliff and Biff being chased out of Hill Valley. If only he could see that event happen…

"Where should Biff be in this scenario?" Susan wondered. "It looks like Cliff took over the town. Does that mean that Biff is dead… or is he just retired?" She shrugged. "That could have happened as well."

"Maybe we'll find out in there." Doc pointed to the Biff's Café. "And if not, we could have some kind of breakfast. Going of what my watch believes, it's currently 12:08AM on January 1st. Not usual breakfast time, but it'll do."

"Right," Marty One muttered. He didn't care what they'd do, actually, as long as he got to sleep a bit. He felt tired, which was starting to become logical once midnight had passed… or better, was supposed to have passed. "Let's go to the Café. I wonder if we can see something about how history has gone from 1985 on, that way."

"I suppose we can" Doc nodded. "We have to be very careful, though. We can't risk to reveal ourselves to anyone, since they might be working for the Tannen family. Understood that, all of you?"

"You're the Doc, Doc" Marty Two said, and everybody else nodded. "We won't tell anybody." He groaned. "Are we going to eat, now?"

Doc chuckled. "Come on, everyone."

The time travellers were stunned to what they saw, as they entered Biff's Café. Biff Tannen was clearly labelled a hero in here, as various pictures of him at different ages were shown, as well as some newspaper clippings. The thing that shocked all of them the most, however, was the writing above the photographs. It read: 'Biff Howard Tannen, the great ruler of Hill Valley. Born March 26th, 1937, Died August 17th, 1996.'

"He died" Marty One whispered, having a hard time to keep his joy to himself. "Biff died. He's gone, Doc. He really is dead." A smile started to form on his face, and the same thing happened with the others. Doc looked around, hoping that everyone wouldn't burst out cheering. They didn't want to get a Biff-loving crowd to chase them all through futuristic Hill Valley!

"Let's keep this to ourselves" he hissed to his friend. "We don't want everyone to get mad on us. Apparently, Biff is considered a hero in the future by most people, who most likely not know what he's done to a detail. We have to be careful. So… keep your voice as low as possible"

"Okay" Marty One replied. He was about to say something more when suddenly a half-working video waiter headed up to him with Biff's face. "Welcome to Biff's Café, where it's always being happy due the greatest ruler of all time. We got a great special from the Eighties here, Biff's Chicken burgers. The greatest chicken of Hill Valley! Dedicated to Hill Valley's number one citizen, and America's greatest dead folk hero, the one, the only, Biff Tannen! You have to buy it, or else you are a complete butthead!" Doc felt disgusted.

"They're telling people this crap in the 2010s, too?" Marty One said, too confused to keep his voice down. "Oh man, this is weird."

"I told you to keep your voice down" Doc hissed. He glanced at the video monitor, who seemed a bit puzzled by the 'crap' mention. "Um, we'd like to have the chicken burgers thank you" he decided. He didn't really want to buy something that had Biff's name on it, but he did want to get out of here as soon as possible. "Six of them, please."

"Okay" the 'Biff' monitor said. "That'll be 6022 dollars and 95 cents."

"Six thousand dollars?" Marty One exclaimed, loud enough for everyone to hear it. "Six thousand bucks?"

"I guess inflation has gone hard" Doc said, gulping. "All right… we take the Biff burgers." He grabbed his wallet, and started to get some money out of it. "This is going to be expensive…"

After a few minutes, Doc finally was able to count out 6022,95 dollars. Complaining over the price, they sat down to wait for their meal to arrive. Susan felt nervous about the whole thing. "Emmett?" she asked. "Do you think that we'd get captured, here?" She looked around at the Biff-monitor, which had flown off to serve other people.

Doc thought about it for a few moments, then shook his head. "No. I am certain that we'll turn out fine. As I said, Cliff won't suspect us being here… he barely knows us. Why don't you all stop being worried, and relax."

"Relax in a Biff-controlled world?" Marty Two asked sarcastically.

"Well, you could at least try to do so… after all, if you put your mind to it…"

"…you can accomplish anything" everyone finished. Marty One broke into a grin. "My father used to say that all the time as well, you know. Especially when he was working on his novel."

"That's only because I taught him" Marty Two told his counterpart, playfully. He happily thought back of that Wednesday afternoon in 1955. Dad, you definitely held your promise when you told me you'd never forget all my advice. I'd never thought you would be able to hold onto it for eighteen years… or wait, no, it's seventeen. Still, it's weird to think of Dad as a successful science-fiction writer instead of a wimp who can't stand up to anyone, especially Biff Tannen. The thought of Biff made Marty Two growl inside, as he really hated the man who, in this twisted reality, had married the teenager's mother, and murdered Marty One's father.

Marty One shook his head at that. "Now that's what I'd call a weird idea. You, well, me, teaching Dad how to be confident… the only memories I do have of my father are ones in which he's self-confident. I guess that is because this timeline is based on you having altered history in '55, right?"

"I suppose it is" Doc said, before Marty Two could answer. "This future is based on the 2010 of the mixture of two timelines: George McFly being successful and the mall being Lone Pine, and Biff being rich. The combination of both has caused this timeline, therefore the McFly that was shot on March 15th, 1973, was Lone Pine George McFly, not his wimpy counterpart, Twin Pines George McFly."

"Twin Pines and Lone Pine, huh?" Ann smirked. "Why call the two original timelines by those names, Dr. Brown? Why not 'Wimp George' and 'Successful George'? However calling a timeline by someone's name is a little weird as well, I admit…" She smirked slightly. "But I don't think those pines made such a large difference. Why did you do that, Doc?"

"It was just something I came up with" the inventor said, shrugging. "You can think of another name if you don't like it… but I just thought this up and stuck with it. It's not really important, anyway."

"You're right" Marty One nodded. "It's not important. What we should do, is simply just eat our-" At that moment, the door slammed open, and all music was abruptly silenced, as Marty stopped talking. "What the…"

"Hey, McFly!" a familiar voice shouted that Marty Two immediately recognized as being a Tannen's. "I thought I done telling you never to come in here again!" The figure made his way over to the Marty's seats. "Well, it's gonna cost you. How much money do you have got on you, you little wimp?"

Marty One watched the figure in disbelief. It was obviously a Tannen, one about fourteen years old (but as mean as if he was eighteen) and looked very much like Biff and Cliff, but… the noise! All kinds of weird sounds came out of his head as he walked. What's wrong with that guy? Marty wondered. Well, besides being a Tannen… and who's he after? He can't know we're here! Walking right after him was a gang, one of which also had these weird things. Marty One wondered what they were. How could electronics be in your body? That was science-fiction technology, not real-life. However, since they were a twenty-five years in the future, and flying cars had also proven to be reality there… maybe it could be, somehow… Marty groaned, and looked at what was going on. This wasn't really his day, even if it was 25 years ahead of his hometime.

The surprise was even bigger when the Tannen passed their table by a few feet, didn't even look at them, but instead headed to the table behind them. "Hey, McFly, I'm talking to you" he insisted. "You Irish bug."

Marty One looked behind his back, and his mouth opened wide from shock. The person looked just like him in 1980! Except for the futuristic clothes, brown eyes and a weird hat, Marty would've thought it was him from five years in the past instead. He looked at the kid gasping. There was no doubt for him anymore… he'd just encountered his future son. And it was very, very heavy.

'Marty' looked at the Tannen and winced. "Oh, um, hi, Griff" he muttered in a weak, wimpy voice. "How's it hanging?" Oh no, a wimp. Great, that's just what I want to have for a son. He rolled his eyes.

The Tannen – his name was Griff, wasn't it? – looked at Marty's son. "McFly?" he asked. "Yeah" the kid replied, same nervous voice. Marty Two felt uncomfortable around what most likely was his counterpart's son. This was getting way too familiar…

"McFly?" Griff repeated.

"What?" Marty's son asked, obviously getting irritated. Neither Marty could blame him, but they just wished the guy had a little more confidence…

"Your shoe's untied" Griff announced.

Marty One rolled his eyes at the old trick, figuring his child wouldn't fall for that, but Marty Two thought something else. If he's like Dad before I changed things, and Griff is asking him this the same way… please let me be proven wrong and let my counterpart's son not entirely be a George-clone…

Unfortunately, he was right. Marty's kid looked, and immediately received a hard punch on the chin that made him fall back onto the window. The gang all laughed. "Don't to be so gullible, McFly" Griff said, as a manner of fact. He glanced along Marty's clone, and suddenly grabbed the boy by the vest. "Don't you know it's polite to stand up when people are talking to you? Especially when the people in question are descendants of the great Biff Tannen?" He snorted at Marty's son, and tapped him on the head angrily. "You should have some respect for your father's step daddy, McFly. Haven't your folks taught you any manners? Figures, since they're McFly's, but you would expect something more from people who were raised by my grandpop."

The kid smiled faintly. "Um, I'll tell them to teach me manners the next time I'll see them" he said in a somewhat anxious way. Obviously, he wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, and just wanted to get rid of Griff and his gang. Please, son, Marty One thought. Whatever your name is, just say 'no' to them. They're a Tannen and his gang, means that they're just pests. Ignore them, get rid of them. Stop being such a wimp and say no, okay? He sighed, and continued to look at the 'conversation' Griff and his son were having.

"Now, McFly," Griff told the twelve-year-old, "did you finish my homework, yet?" Marty One sighed. He's doing Tannen's homework? Boy, what kind of a bully is he? I guess he was the same way against my Dad, though…

"No, I figured, it wasn't until after the Christmas vacation, so…"

"Hello?" Griff started rapping Marty's son on the head. "Hello? Anybody home?" The kid just laughed along as Griff tapped on his head. "Yeah" he muttered, obviously not trying to show what he really was – uncomfortable. He simply laughed along with Griff's talk. "Yeah" he muttered. "I'm home. Hello."

"Think, McFly!" Griff called out, sounding weirdly disappointed and angry. "Think! You know I gotta have time to type it over! You know yourself that Dad and I are leaving on Sunday evening on that great business trip. Can you imagine what'd happen if I'd deliver my homework in your handwriting? I could get kicked out of school. And of course my Dad can't take that his son gets thrown out of a simple Hill Valley school. That'd destroy his reputation. You wouldn't want to be responsible for Dad having to burn down the local school, would you?" He paused for a few seconds, and frowned as the Marty-clone didn't answer him. "WOULD YOU?"

"Um, no, Griff," the clone then wimpily muttered, "don't be silly, I wouldn't want that to happen, no."

"Good," Griff nodded.

"Now," Marty's son said. "I'll run it over for ya tonight, and I'll bring it over to your room first thing tomorrow morning." He stared at Griff, obviously hoping the older teen would agree.

"Hey," Griff corrected, "not too early I sleep in Saturdays." Marty Two rolled his eyes, having heard something similar from Biff the day before he went back in time. "See you later, butthead." He left the café along with his gang, pushing people out of his way. Doc looked at the bully heading back to the entrance towards them with disgust and hatred, and then, suddenly, it happened.

Either Marty Two had his foot too far to the left, or Griff was walking too close to him. Whatever the reason was, Griff's right foot hit Marty's left, and with loud bionic noises, he tripped and plummeted to the ground. Almost everybody in the Café gasped at what happened, especially Marty Two himself. "Oh no" he groaned, figuring that now he would've ruined the day for all of them.

Griff got to his feet again, and looked at the person who had tripped him. "You" he hissed, angrily, however then realizing that, while this person that had tripped him did resemble the young boy he'd just been bullying, it wasn't him. Glancing between a stunned version of Marty's son, and the two Marty's at the table, he exclaimed: "What the hell?"

That was the sign for Marty Two to try and leave, but he didn't get very far. The gang caught him, and turned him to Griff. "Let me go!" Marty shouted. "It-it was an accident, I swear!" However he wasn't a wimp, he didn't want to get beaten up by a Tannen. Especially when this Tannen appeared to be even stronger than his relatives… hey, what on earth…

Marty Two frowned at what he saw. Griff, who had turned to him, was growing taller by a few inches. Growing. So that was what those noises obviously meant. Great, McFly, he thought. You're going to get beaten up by a half-robot/half-human Tannen person. Just the ideal version of how I wanted to spend the day in the future. Great. He rolled his eyes.

"Now," Griff said, staring at him intensely, "whoever you are, you're not going to get away with this!" Marty Two winced, and stared at his companions, who'd been stopped of helping him by Griff's gang members. Then, he decided there was a way out of here that he knew. Hoping that Griff would be as gullible as his ancestors, he reached out his right hand and pointed.

"Hey, look!"

Griff was gullible, but as Marty Two decided to go for it and punch him, the bully's right fist immediately came in his path. Marty winced as his fist was clenched on by Griff's. Oh no, this was not good.

Deciding that his friends couldn't help him right now, and that he was on his own now without his right hand to help him, Marty Two made his decision. His right leg shot out, and he kicked Griff in the you-know-where place, where it hurt the most. Hard.

The results were immediate. Griff's fist let go, and Marty Two managed to push the bully into his gang. As he saw he succeeded, he broke his way through the crowd into the doorway, and exited Biff's Café.

The Hill Valley… Hell Valley future streets weren't that good to run on, and Marty Two just knew that Tannen and his friends would soon outrun him. They were already exiting the Café at this moment… skateboard, I need a skateboard…

Suddenly, he saw two young girls holding a bright pink thing. Another pink thing was lying on the ground, and Marty easily identified it as what he was looking for. Seeing that, as he suspected, the Tannen gang was gaining on him, he dashed for the two girls. "Hey!" he shouted. "Little girls!" The girls looked up, clearly offended. At that moment, he arrived by them. "I need to borrow one of your skateboards!" He grabbed the board, which had a disgusting 'Cliff Tannen Industries' logo on it, ran to the street, and threw it onto the ground…

…only to notice something strange. The skateboard-thing did not have any wheels on it. And now, Marty saw another logo next to the Tannen logo. "Hoverboard" he read. He reached down to see the board closer, and his suspicions were confirmed. The board remained floating.

He turned to the girl. "Where did you get a flying skateboard?" he whispered, barely able to keep his happiness behind. He loved skateboards, and a flying one was the coolest thing he could ever think of. Granted, he didn't like the fact the board was pink, but further he loved the board. I hope Doc lets me buy one of those before we go back to 1985. There's at least one thing good in a Biff-horrific world… flying skateboards.

"From the Cliff Tannen factory, silly" the girl said. "They were invented last year, in October. Hoverboarding is really cool… who needs old skateboards, when they got hoverboards?" She frowned. "And gimme my board back! Where did you need it for, anyway?"

Marty Two remembered suddenly and hopped on the board, hovering away as he saw the gang, and Griff behind them, gaining on him. He started to make his way through the Hill Valley streets. This is not good…

In the Café, the other five time travellers had gotten out to watch the chase. "Great Scott" Doc whispered. "Poor Marty… maybe we really shouldn't have gone into this Café today. It seems to have caused much more trouble than we ever could've expected. Another Tannen…"

"You couldn't have known" Susan said, patting him on the back. "I know that you wouldn't have want to put Marty… either of them… in danger. But now, I think it's better that we go look for Marty, and go back in time to 1985. We can't spend here much longer, Emmett. The future is dangerous."

"I agree" Jennifer whispered, placing an arm around Marty One in terror. "I want to get out of here as soon as possible."

"Who doesn't?" Ann sarcastically remarked. "I think the only time safe is the past. Biff might not have power anymore since he's dead, his fortune has passed to his son and grandson, obviously. And they're bullying One's kid."

"You mean Griff is" Doc murmured. "But I see your point."

"Come on" Susan said. "We want to get closer to Marty, in case he manages to escape. Then we can get out of there at that specific moment." Doc grinned at her talking similar to him, gave one last glance to Biff's Café and then headed to the other side of the street, where Marty Two was being chased by Griff Tannen and his gang. Figuring they couldn't help at the moment, the five time travellers set to watch the chase.

Marty Two, at the time, felt like he had to escape the gang. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, but how… looking around, he saw no escape options. He groaned, knowing that in just about thirty seconds from now the gang was going to catch up with him, if not earlier. That was, if he went on his fastest hover-boarding speed. And there weren't even cars around to hook on…

Wait a minute. There was one car. But it was some kind of… van? With the back opened? Marty Two blinked. The van looked an awful lot like the one Doc, his Doc used for his business. And there was a somewhat familiar man in his late forties motioning for him to go into the vehicle…

Feeling uneasy, Marty Two decided to ignore them. They were probably robbers or something, thinking that he was his counterpart's kid. He'd better focus on the road, and on the banana peel ahead of him…

Banana peel?

Marty slipped over the peel, and immediately lost control of his hoverboard. After a few moments of dizzily trying to regain control, the board hit a large rock on the side of the road, and he got thrown off it, and landed right in the van. Within moments, the van doors were closed behind him, and as Marty Two heard a key twitch the lock and the unmistakably sound of a starting motor was heard a few moments later, he knew for certain that he was locked up. Oh, great…

This is not my day.

oooooooo

"Where are we?"

Marty Two looked around himself uncomfortably. However he'd been treated well by the man and woman at the van… whose identity he hadn't recognized, yet, since their faces were masked… he'd felt uneasy from the start. The man and woman hadn't talked to him, aside from an occasional word here and there, and after a thirty-minute-ride he was finally entering some sort of underground hide-out. Must be some sort of gang. Figures I'd end up in such a thing… I hope the others come rescue me soon.

After being led through many, many doors, Marty Two finally arrived in some sort of 'main room'. There were all kinds of papers on the sides, which represented important happenings in the A-timeline: George McFly's death, Doc's commitment, Doc's escape, Biff's death. The last one shocked Marty the most. It read: 'Lorraine Tannen Executed – Merciless Murderess Electrocuted To Death.' "Oh, no" Marty Two whispered, touching the newspaper. First his father, and now… "Mom! Please no!" He sank down on his knees, weeping. "This-this can't be happening! This can't be…"

The male grabbed Marty's right arm, and dragged him along to the centre of the room. "Sit down" he gruffly ordered. "My brother wants to speak to you. He's the leader of everything here."

Marty Two frowned slightly, wondering who this 'brother' was, and looked around in the room, something he hadn't done yet because he'd been attracted to the newspaper about his Mom's death. The underground room was quite wide, and from everything he saw, he began to realize that this was the hide-out of some sort of protest group, just like he and his friends had been in the alternate '85. "I hope I'm going to be able to convince them that I'm all right" he whispered. "I want to get out of here."

"You're not the only one who wants that."

Marty Two spun around abruptly, shocked from the sudden sound, to watch a person who looked about to be his height approaching him from the back, then standing still to watch him for a moment. He was looking down, and even if he hadn't, Marty Two was unable to see his face because the lights were out in the back of the room. "Who-who are you?"

"Does it matter to you?" a strangely familiar voice replied, with an obvious smirk. "I could ask the same about you. Why did you help Martin Junior by standing up to Griff? If you're a spy for Cliff, who did that to gain our trust, I have to warn you that there are guards on the ends of the room, all determined workers for the reviving of the Non-BiffCo Group from the Seventies. You'll be dead before you can attack me."

So that's why they've brought me here – they want to know why I helped One's kid. "It wasn't on purpose" he told the man – where had he heard that face before? – with nervousness. "I accidentally had my leg too far away from the table, and Griff tripped on it. And the rest, I had to do in order to escape. And, no, I'm not a spy. I'm just visiting from out of town." It wasn't that good of an excuse, but at least it was something.

"Okay" the man said, his half-invisible head moving slightly. "I guess I can understand, that." Was there a sarcastic undertone in the voice, or did he hear that wrong? Marty Two guessed that he shouldn't care, and instead thought about the voice's familiarity. Who was this person? And why did he know him?

Suddenly, the man started moving closer towards him. The man's face pulled up instead of looking towards the ground, and after a few moments, the man had entered the light and Marty Two was able to see the guy's face. And as he saw it, he wished he hadn't, since this was too much to take.

The face was his own.

Marty Two's mouth fell open. Yeah, he'd seen his other self many times before and should be used to this by now, but this was different. This was no other version of himself, this was him. This was what he would be in twenty-five years. Marty could easily see that this wasn't the older version of Marty One, this was forty-two-year-old Marty Two. The face was lacking a scar, and the way he was walking was exactly the way the teenager himself did, instead of the faster speed Marty One used to walk at, being frightened of Biff catching him doing something he wasn't allowed to all the time. Yes, this was him all right. Him as a 42-year-old protest group member.

Marty Two had only the time for two, highly squeaked words. "I'm old!" he screamed, stunned, and too soft for anyone to hear it as he really wasn't able to get anymore volume out of his mouth.

And then, his mind went blank. A faint realizing of losing control of his feet was the last that Young Marty Two felt before he collided with the ground, and fainted.