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Chapter Twenty-One: The City of Retroville…

Meanwhile...on the other side of town...

"I can't believe my cousin is protecting her," Eddie snapped, stamping his foot. In the two years since Sasha and Hugh had gone away and returned, he'd learned to walk quite well and dressed himself as a young entrepreneur might. He was the only Retroville three year old to wear a suit and a tie, although today he'd gone casual and only wore a white dress shirt and black slacks. His piercing brown eyes assessed the video screen and he turned away from his beloved pet, Curie. Curie was a cybernetic canine, like Goddard, except with a pink metal bow on her head, and a triangular body suited with, what he hoped, was the same amount of machinery and weaponry as his cousin. Curie seldom walked, preferring to float, and at the moment, she nudged the camera off with her snout.

"He hates her," he said. "I heard him, and I saw his reaction to her. Why should he protect her?"

"Because she carries his sister?" Curie suggested with her synthesized voice. She had stubby little legs and she folded them inside her body, whipping her tail back and forth. Eddie paid it no mind.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Eddie said. He scowled at the blank computer screen- in his lab the computer screen took up only a couple feet, not the entire wall like Jimmy's. He preferred not to lock into the Retroville surveillance cameras, since, until now, nothing had interested him. His mother said he was starting to lose touch with reality, and he didn't care. She wouldn't tell him who his father was, and she expected him to play along with her?

He depressed a button and flew up to the surface. A good walk should calm him down. Huffing, he folded his arms across his chest and started across the lawn with Curie levitating behind him. Now that Jimmy knew he was trying to kill Sasha, he'd step up his guard and attempt to protect her, unless there was a way to bring his feelings to the surface. Eddie knew Jimmy had to be conflicted about this child. If he could convince Jimmy to abandon protecting Sasha...

Ah, but then there was Cindy. Eddie gritted his teeth. Jimmy might dislike her mother, but he loved Cindy. Manipulating emotions wouldn't work unless they were clear cut. He growled.

Unless...a smile crossed his face. Through what Curie had told him of the future, there were already two time lines based upon what was going on here. Going into the future wouldn't affect the past, obviously not, but going into the past would affect the future. Yes, yes, he had it. He jumped up and down, despite Curie's strange look, and laughed. In the past, there were multiple focal points and he had but to choose one.

Of course, the existence of multiple time lines meant he might, rather than affect this one, create more alternate time lines. He'd have to be careful, or he'd splinter the time line beyond repair. Still...he rubbed his palms with glee. To be able to engender so many time lines made him feel omnipotent, truly a god, and perhaps the Grim Reaper too, should his plan work. He'd have to assess the situation better first, however, or he'd manipulate the wrong event.

Or he could go by process of elimination. He didn't know where Jimmy's father and Cindy's mother had holed himself before they'd returned to Retroville, and he'd have to prevent copulation. Unless, he prevented the catalyst event, which would prevent copulation. This would also require research, but he thought he remembered a news article about Jimmy's lab suffering a break in before the kidnapping. That'd be a decent place to start. From there, if he could pinpoint the time and date, he'd be able to stop her.

Killing her now would accomplish nothing, because Jimmy would never let him take her life. Jimmy was too moral and righteous to allow anyone to murder wantonly, and Eddie knew, despite his ambivalence, he'd take steps to protect Sasha. It was just the type of person he was. Eddie loathed that type of person immensely.

He balled his fists and returned to the lab to search through his archives. Anything pertaining to his cousin he automatically saved, though there had been markedly less in the last couple years than there had when Eddie had started his collection. Since Jimmy had spent almost the entire time locating his missing father, it was understandable, though not something Eddie would ignore should there be another family reunion. That was assuming, of course, he and his mother weren't banned from all family reunions. Hmm, Eddie could go back and remedy this if he wanted to, but no, that wasn't the task at hand. It was tempting, but another Neutron child aggravated him far more than his social standing.

He clicked on the offending article and began to scan it. There wasn't much information available, to his surprise, and it hadn't even nailed the time. Instead, it'd approximated, which wasn't close enough for Eddie's taste. It left him a wide range, between two or three hours, and he might have to camp out. Jimmy's surveillance would know for certain, and Jimmy could probably tell him, but he wouldn't. It wasn't like he only had one shot at it, but he might end up altering the wrong time line, or leaving it so he couldn't return. Growling, he threw his head back and pounded a fist on his armrest.

"Curie," he said, sighing. "Options."

"You can return to the past and hope you've timed it right," Curie said. "If you're too late, you'll have to jump back. If you're too early, you can wait."

"Next."

"You can hack into Jimmy's surveillance footage and attempt to get a better scope."

"And what's the probability of Jimmy letting me do that?" he countered.

"About twenty three thousand, seventy nine to one," she said. "You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning."

"What's the third option?"

"Eddie, I don't really feel comfortable with this idea," Curie said. "The way you propose it, if you can't destroy the time line, you want to destroy Cindy's mother. Don't lie to me. I know it'll cross your mind, if it hasn't already."

"She can't carry his child if she's not alive," Eddie said and shrugged. "Cindy wouldn't miss her, Jimmy might actually thank me-"

Curie stared at him. "Do you really believe your cousin would thank you for killing someone? You know how Jimmy is."

"I could blow up the hovercraft on their way home so they-"

Curie glared. "No, Eddie."

He sighed. Why had he created her with a conscience? Goddard didn't have one. Goddard only knew to protect and serve his human. Then again, Eddie knew he was borderline sociopath, perhaps more than borderline, and needed some sort of moral compass. Though, at the moment, her compass directions were conflicting with his map.

"What's the fourth option?" he said.

"You can cause a miscarriage," Curie said. "But that may be next to impossible, with Jimmy monitoring Sasha now."

"But you don't advocate that either," Eddie said.

"No, I don't," Curie said. "I don't think is a good idea."

"But you'll help," he said. "You have to. I programmed you to help."

"I...I don't know, Eddie. You also programmed me for moral guidance, and this situation runs against the grain of my programming."

"Then I guess we'll see," he said. In an undertone, he added, "Or I'll reprogram you."

"I am not submitting myself to a tracking device," Sasha snapped. "That's preposterous."

"In the likelihood you're attacked again, which I consider highly probable, a tracking device would best enable me to reach your location and give you aid," he said. His eyes narrowed. "Should you want it, of course."

"Why can't you talk to these people and tell them they want to kill you, not me," Sasha said. They had settled on the picnic tables outside Jimmy's kitchen and Judy, cleaning the dishes, threw Sasha very dirty looks over her shoulder. Jimmy knew she was refraining from joining the party because she could express her anger, unlike Jimmy, who was forced to repress it.

"In other words, you'd rather I died so you and my unborn sibling can live," Jimmy said.

"You're who they want," Sasha said. "I don't see the problem."

Cindy screeched. "You don't see the problem? You are such a selfish-"

Jimmy clapped a hand over her mouth. "Do you really think my death would accomplish anything? You'd still be bearing another Neutron child. They won't be happy until they've prevented the entire line from continuing."

Sasha scowled. "In other words, talking to them won't help. Reasoning with them won't help. No matter what I do, they'll continue to hunt me."

Jimmy removed his hand from Cindy's mouth in time for her to smirk and say, "That's right, Mom."

"That doesn't mean I have to submit to all your insane inventions," Sasha said.

"If you want to keep the child, you do," Jimmy said.

"I don't need your help," Sasha snapped. "I can take care of myself, regardless of who's after me."

"Not when their technology far outstrips anything you've ever seen!" Jimmy said.

"I don't need your help," she repeated. "I can handle this on my own."

"No, you can't!" he said. "I know you can't! Let me help you."

"Ugh, as much as I hate to do this, Mom, he's right," Cindy said. "Neutron's inventions could really save your life- he's gotten a lot better at it since he was eleven."

"You spend all your time arguing against them and now you have to defend them," he said in an undertone to her. She rolled her eyes and Jimmy rubbed his palm along hers under the table. She smiled, warmth flooding through her, and suppressed a temptation to kiss him on the cheek.

"I don't care," she said. "This is his fault."

"Yes," Jimmy said, finally losing his temper. "It's my fault you're pregnant, because you abused one of my inventions and now that you have the chance to protect what you pilfered, you won't. But it's perfectly all right to break into my lab, brainwash my father, and destroy our family with my invention. Just not for you to protect yourself and our unborn relative through one."

Sasha jumped to her feet and glared. "I think we're done here."

"Yes," Jimmy said, very coldly, "we are. You've made it very clear you don't want my help."

Cindy stared from her mother to her beloved and a cold sinking feeling spread along her body. "Mom, maybe..."

"Don't tell me what I should and shouldn't do, Cindy," her mother snapped. "This child already thinks he can."

"Excuse me for trying to protect you," Jimmy retorted.

"You are trying to protect your mother," Sasha snarled and spat his feet. The kitchen door slammed open and Goddard flew to Jimmy's side. Judy glared, fists balled, a dish in her hand. Her eyes blazed and Cindy swallowed.

"Get off my lawn," Judy growled. "Now."

"Goddard, send her back home," Jimmy said. His eyes blazed cold fire and Cindy flinched. Goddard grabbed Sasha none too gently with rubber hands and floated her above the ground. He flew ten feet in the air and Sasha squawked.

"Put me down, damn you!"

"Yes, Goddard," Jimmy said, so quietly Cindy had to strain to hear it, "put her down in the middle of the street."

Goddard did as he asked and she screamed, dashing across the street and clutching her stomach. She glared at Cindy.

"Get over here right now!"

"Jimmy, are you okay?" Cindy asked and touched his hand. He jerked and stared at her. The use of his first name had temporarily stunned him.

"She clouds my judgment and fuels so many dark, dangerous thoughts," he said. "I'm not myself around her."

"Jimmy, what your future self said..." Goddard said, drifting back over to his master.

"Pukin' Pluto," Jimmy said and groaned, slapping a palm to his forehead. "It can't be helped now. And I'm sure whatever it that caused the time line ripple wasn't this particular event...I hope."