Let the Games Begin

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Chapter 29 - KNOWING NEXT TO NOTHING

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Much to Jess's relief, this time, as Becker shut the office door, Matt got straight to the point.

"After convergence," Matt began, "after Phillip, I got a message telling me I had to go back."

"Back where?" Abby asked.

Emily looked confused as well. "Back to the future?"

Connor snickered at the unintended reference, though Becker's glare seemed to silence him.

Matt, however, merely shook his head. "I don't know."

"But we stopped Phillip! We saved the future!" Becker roared before adding a tentative, "Didn't we?"

Matt shrugged.. "I don't know. I think so - or at least the future I knew."

Connor prompted, "But...?"

"But...maybe we messed up something in the process."

"Like what?" Abby asked.

Matt shook his head. "I don't know."

Lester gave a frustrated sigh. "It seems you don't know much."

"Look," Matt said, "I'm telling you everything I know. But...yeah, it's not much."

"But why only now?" Emily asked. "Why not simply tell us at the time?"

"Because...," Matt said, turning and looking meaningfully at Emily, "I guess...I didn't want it to be true. We'd just stopped Phillip - I wanted that to be it. I didn't want to think about leaving. So...I didn't. I tried to put it out of my head, to just celebrate what we'd managed to achieve. And then, as more time passed, the less real it all became, like it was just some bad dream. Things were good here, so I let myself become..."

"Distracted," Emily finished for him matter-of-factly.

Yet despite the lack of bitterness in her voice, Matt still looked pained. He took Emily's hand, pleading, "I'm sorry, yeah? I never should've said that. I just... it was easier to blame you than myself, I guess.

Emily nodded. "I understand." She then took what appeared to be a steeling breath before asking, "So...what is to be done now?"

Matt shrugged. "I don't know. Part of how I rationalised putting it on the back burner was that there didn't seem to be anything TO do. I couldn't very well go back until an anomaly opened up."

"So that's why you were so upset the other day," Becker said, stating aloud the same conclusion the others were all drawing.

Matt nodded. "When I learnt I hadn't been informed, I was gutted. It could've been my one chance, and I'd missed it. Luckily that wasn't the case, but it WAS just the wake-up call I needed. It made me realise I hadn't been vigilant enough, that I couldn't afford to miss any opportunity to fix things."

"But you haven't, yeah?" Abby asked. "Not yet, anyway. There haven't been any anomalies to the future that you missed."

"There haven't been any anomalies to the future, full stop," Connor pointed out. "Not since convergence, anyway."

Lester looked to him, asking, "So what do you think that means?"

Connor shrugged. "Beats me. Hadn't given it much thought, to be honest. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, I'd just as soon NEVER come face to face with another future predator if I don't have to."

"I won't argue that," Lester agreed.

A chill went down Jess's spine at the thought. She'd said nothing so far, merely sitting quietly and letting the others talk. She couldn't believe what Matt was telling them - and what he WASN'T telling them - and she wondered why no one else seemed curious about that.

"So where does that leave us?" Becker asked impatiently, obviously anxious to do something rather than continue to sit around.

"Waiting, I guess," Matt said with a shrug. "I mean, I don't know what else can be done."

"I suppose you're right, Matt," Lester said. "But listen, you mustn't forget that we are a team. Whatever you have to face, you won't have to face it alone. If an anomaly opens, we'll do whatever you need us to do."

Becker nodded. "Even if it means going back with you."

Jess was shocked by this sudden about-face regarding the anomalies, and obviously so was Abby, for she blurted out, "But Becker, what about the Rules?"

Jess could see the conflict on the soldier's face. She knew how much the Rules meant to him - and why they'd been instituted in the first place. But she also knew he would much rather do something than stand idly by waiting. He seemed at war with himself over this issue as he struggled to come up with a reply. Jess hated to see him suffer, so she decided to come to his rescue by changing the subject.

"So I have a question," she began, mystified as to why no one had yet asked it. "What EXACTLY was the message?"

Becker rolled his eyes and Lester gave a frustrated sigh as Matt turned to her, explaining, "I told you - I'm supposed to go back."

"Yes, I get that," Jess said before quickly clarifying, "But what I mean is how did you receive this message? By phone? Email? Letter?"

"Carrier Iberomesornis?" Connor joked.

Ignoring him, Jess continued, "How can you even be sure the messenger was telling you the truth?"

"He was," Matt said simply, "because...he was me."

After a brief, confused silence, Emily asked, "Pardon?" clearly speaking for everyone in the room.

"I got the message from me," Matt repeated, which was hardly edifying.

"You mean, like, in a dream or something?" Abby asked.

Matt shook his head. "No. I... HE was here - another me, here in the ARC, right after convergence - and he told me I had to go back."

Of all the possibilities, Jess had not even imagined that one. And she could tell the others were just as surprised, for the room sank into a stunned silence.

Connor, it seemed, was the first to recover. "That...is so freaking cool!"

Abby rolled her eyes. "Connor."

"No, I mean it. Just think about it. We've been dealing with doorways in time for, what, years now? Yet none of us has ever run into ourselves from another time before."

"I did not know that was even possible," Emily said.

"Neither did I," Matt admitted. "But it is, because that's what I saw."

"So where is he?" Becker demanded. "This...other you? Where'd he go? Did he, what, simply give you the message and conveniently disappear?"

Matt shook his head. "I'm afraid it's more like I disappeared." After everyone's confused looks, he explained, "There was that anomaly - the train at King's Cross - so I couldn't stay and find out more. And by the time we got back, he was gone."

"He was here, you say?" Lester asked. "In the ARC?" Matt nodded, and their boss continued, "But how did he-?" before waving it aside. "Don't tell me - you don't know."

Matt simply nodded. And hearing Becker give a frustrated sigh, Jess felt like heaving one of her own.

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Becker didn't know how the hell he was supposed to concentrate on writing his incident report about the morning's incursion when all he could think about was Matt's bombshell. What did it all mean? And why wasn't anyone stating the obvious? Unfortunately, Matt hadn't even been around most of the afternoon for Becker to try to get additional information out of him. The only good thing was that, with his mind so occupied, the afternoon flew by, and before Becker knew it, he was back in Jess's car, heading to the restaurant to retrieve his.

"So how was your afternoon?" Jess asked as the car crawled along at a snail's pace.

"How do you think it was?" he snapped impatiently before realising that he shouldn't take his grumpy mood out on her.

But instead of getting upset with him, she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's been worrying about it."

"Of course you're not. How can anyone not worry when there may be another of Helen's clones out there?"

Jess turned and gave him a blank stare. "Helen? I was talking about Matt."

"Yeah, so was I."

After a pause, Jess said, "Oh. So you think what Matt saw wasn't really him but a clone that Helen made?"

Becker nodded. "Isn't EVERYONE thinking that?"

Jess shook her head. "That hadn't even occurred to me."

Becker gave a frustrated sigh. And the fact that he could probably run faster than Jess was driving wasn't exactly improving his mood. "So then what are YOU worried about?"

"He - this...other Matt - was in the ARC, right after convergence. How did he get there? I can only imagine that he came through the anomaly with the predators, but then he must've been there when Lester and I were..." Jess shivered, clearly disturbed by the idea. "It creeps me out that someone else might've been there yet didn't do anything to help us."

"Exactly," Becker said. "So it can't have been Matt. No matter the ass he's been acting the last few days, he wouldn't do that, wouldn't just sit by and do nothing when there were predators."

"Unless he couldn't," Jess suggested. "Unless, being from the future, he knew he couldn't change anything in our time without messing up his."

"So then why give Matt the message at all? And if his time's so awful anyway, why NOT change ours? It couldn't hurt, right?"

Becker felt the most disturbing part of all this, besides the idea that Helen was once again still plotting from beyond the grave, was that, if the message WERE true, then they HADN'T fixed the future. And they'd fought so hard to do so. So what had gone wrong? Was the future still terrible the way it had been, or terrible in a NEW way? And how were they to know if what they were doing now wouldn't make it worse?

Jess gave a frustrated sigh. "All this is making my head hurt." She then frowned, turning to Becker. "Speaking of, how's yours? Did you ever get your scratches disinfected?"

"I'll be fine, Jess," he said, not wanting her to worry by telling her the truth, that he'd been so consumed with this Matt business, not to mention his incident report, that he'd never made it to medical. But what difference would a few hours make, since he'd take care of his wounds as soon as they got back to Jess's flat?

IF they ever got back.

"Jess, you do know the accelerator is on the right, yes?" he said, his nerves on edge from all this business with Matt.

"The speed limit's 20," she snapped back, clearly out of sorts as well.

"So why are you going 8?" Becker asked sarcastically.

"If you must know, I'm going 24! Which, technically, is breaking the law, so stop giving me grief!"

Becker was convinced this snail's pace couldn't possibly be over 20, so he leant over to take a look at the speedometer.

"You don't believe me?" Jess asked, clearly upset.

Of course he hadn't, and of course he'd just now confirmed to himself that she was actually going closer to 26. So he said the only thing he COULD say. "Of course I believed you."

She gave him a look, clearly not believing him. "Uh-huh," she replied sarcastically. "Sure."

"I did," he insisted, realising he must try to make it up to her later.

...

to be continued