One or two chapters to go and then it will be complete. Bitter sweet.

Hope you like it, Birgitta

Lucas:

We are thrown into the same tent together. Outside, Sixers guard us with their guns ready. Mira has the device but she still needs me to operate it. This time, she isn't taking any chances.

"Please, say something."

Her silence is slowly eating itself into my flesh like burning acid. It's painful and I want it to stop. The disgust she feels towards me radiates around her and shoots arrows my way. I can feel her slipping away, little by little. If I don't stop it, she will be lost forever and I will never get her back. I couldn't live with that. I almost died when my mother passed away. For years, I debated on suicide because existence was empty and meaningless without her. It would be the same with Skye… worse… this time, I would do it. I would kill myself. There is no doubt in my mind.

"I had to do it, Skye."

I watch her set face, her beautiful headstrong face, as she sits across from me on her cot. Those green eyes stare into mine without wavering. I have told her that I have enough crazy and power to kill myself and yet, there is no fear. Her fire and courage is what I first fell in love with. She is my partner, my soul mate, my one and only.

I will win her back.

I must.

"I did it for you."

She stands up, smoothly and swiftly, anger flooding as she glares down. "Don't you dare put this on me! We had not even met when you committed that disgusting act."

To stay in control and remain focused, I do my best to disregard the hate directed at me. I need to keep remembering that for her, there is so much to learn and that for me, there is so much to tell. Luckily, we have all night.

"I will tell you everything. Every little dirty secret that I've been hiding away and never shared with anyone."

"More people you've killed?" She spits out and sits back down.

I shut my ears to her question and I will not all other questions until she has heard it all, until she understands. Whether she will forgive… I hope… but there is no guarantee.

"When I was little…" I start, at the beginning, as I must. The past always haunt and affect the present. "… my life was unstable and filled with military hostile situations. My father wanted us close, with him, at all times. It's a decision he has learned to regret."

I hold and exhale slowly, unable to continue because of my heart pounding so hard in my chest. Not only am I about to bring forth the images of the event. I am about to share them. A long time ago, I told myself that I would never speak of my mother's passing with anyone. The memory of her was too precious and too painful. It would be a disservice to her, as well as to myself.

Skye's green eyes are watching me and in them I see a trance of compassion… it gives me the strength to continue. "It was Africa. Local guerilla movements causing havoc, killing anyone who dared to get in their way. My father was sent in to put an end to it. That's what he did; squash rebellions and eliminate threats. My father thought it safe for us to accompany him. We were to stay at the base, removed and protected from the violence. But violence always spreads, breaks through, and attack the innocent."

I need another minute and some air. At the tent opening, I place my back to Skye. If tears will begin to fall, I don't want her to see them.

"My father underestimated their numbers and firepower. To be able to defeat the invading foreign military, the different guerillas came together and combined their forces. They weren't as dumb and strategy lacking as my father believed. It all happened so fast. I was asleep when the gunshots started. My mother came rushing in, pulling me out of the bed, and into the closet. As we hid, all around us was the screams of people dying."

"Where was your father?"

She is once again speaking to me!

I would have rejoiced over her acknowledging if it wasn't for what I was about to tell her next. "He showed up just as they were lining us up. The closet only kept us safe for a short while. It was inevitable that they were going to find us. I can still remember how the gun tip felt pressed against the back of my neck and how tightly my mother held my small hand. She knew… she knew." I can't turn around. I can't show Skye my face. "Every soldier was given a choice; only one could live. My father chose me and they cut her, raped her, and butchered her while forcing us to watch. I was never the same again."

Tears are now flowing and I look up at the tent ceiling to gather strength. "I blamed him, Skye. I blamed my father… and I hated him. I hated him to the point where I wanted him ruined, destroyed… dead… and I wanted to be the one who did it."

My gaze is still at the ceiling. It helps and comforts to look at nothing. I can almost convince my brain that I am alone. To recall and reveal hurts yet she needs to know. She needs to know me, all of me, even the part of me that is damaged, twisted, and cruel.

"This is why I turned on him, betrayed him, and joined the other side."

"And then you changed your mind, because of me, because you love me."

There is vice in her voice. She distrusts me now. Every word and every act of affection is tainted, blemished. Will my confession be able to remove it all and bring back the shiny luster we not so long ago shared?

My gaze leaves the ceiling, my head drops, and I turn to face her. "Yes, you changed everything. You changed me."

She huffs but I don't give up. I can never give up. Giving up on her would mean my death.

"The first time I saw you, I didn't know. I couldn't even phantom that I, as full of hate as I was, could ever love anyone like I love you."

There's another huff and rolling of the eyes.

"Because I didn't know, because I didn't love you yet or refused to accept that I did, I made so many mistakes: I threatened the life of your mother so that you would help me with the device, I aided the Sixers and Phoenix Group with their invasion, I killed Lt. Washington, I would have killed Josh if it wasn't for you, and I hurt you physically and mentally."

"What?" She questions, giving me the look you give a rambling mad man. "What are you talking about? None of that ever happened!"

Of course she doesn't understand. There is still so much to tell.

I keep going because eventually it will all come together and make sense. "The invasion failed. Terra Nova fought back by blowing up Hope Plaza. When I tried to prevent it, stop my father, you shot me."

She shakes her head, denying involvement. To prove my claim, show physical proof, I lift my shirt to show the gunshot wounds. Her eyes widen and I can see a change. She is beginning to not just hear me but actually listen.

"You shot me but I survived. I managed to make it to the Sixer's camp in the Badlands. And, this is where we fell in love."

Skye stands up and raises her hand in protest. "Hold on! This is crazy. None of this has ever happened."

It's a lot to take in and there is still much more. "My father knew of the Badlands. I don't why, but you came along. In the middle of the night, your campsite was attacked by raptors. I saved you, I healed you back to health, and slowly we became inseparable."

"Attacked? Raptors?"

I can't stop. I have to keep going. Raptors are her greatest fear. She will want to know and know she shall. Just not now cause I have to continue while I have the momentum.

"Because of my past actions, I couldn't return to Terra Nova. You would have come with me anywhere. You would have left everything and everyone behind, even your mother. But I couldn't do that to you. I had to find a way to correct the mistakes of the past. You showed me the way."

"I still don't understand. What are..?"

"The device," I cut her off. I dare to move a little closer and I am pleased to notice that she doesn't back away. "You told me 'This is the past. We're living in the past' and you were right. Time can be manipulated. The fracture was my salvation. It could take me back in time and give me a re-start. I worked nonstop to solve the restrictions." She stares at me and I say it straight out. "I used the device and the fracture to travel back in time to the day when we met in the Sixer's camp. I needed to start over, eliminate all mistakes, so that we could have a better future together. A future where I was not hated and we could live amongst those you love, like your mother and my father."

The questions have seized to come at me. She is too shocked, too overwhelmed, so she stays quiet. I reached out my hands, hoping she will grab them. She doesn't. It's too soon. There is still the issue with my dead other self. This is what I need to explain. This is what has turned me into a monster in her eyes.

I leave my hands out, hanging in the air, hoping that soon I will be redeemed. "When I traveled back, it was within the same time line, which means there was already one of me."

"And, there can be only one," she says.

"There can be only one," I agree. It's time to explain and show that my crime was truly not horrific. "The other Lucas, the one in the grave, was angry and revengeful. He was about to make many mistakes; mistakes that ruined and took many lives."

"Lt. Washington."

I nod, remembering the last thing she said to me before I pulled the trigger and ended her life; 'You have your father's eyes.' In that moment, I had hated her as intensely as I hated my father. Killing her didn't just punish her for her insolence and silence her forever, it struck my father in the most personal way. Her death rattled and weakened him which was exactly what I wanted to do. I was cruel and hateful back then.

"I had to kill myself, Skye, and not just because there can be only one. Killing him was a service to the rest of the world. He cared nothing about others. Because of the emptiness and hate inside of him, brought on by the death of our mother, he was out to destroy anything that got in his way. He would have destroyed you if he would have known how you would impact his plans. If he would have known that you would make him human, vulnerable, and pliable, he would have killed you."

My hands are still extended, waiting empty and hopeful for hers.

"Why would I believe any of this? Where is the proof?"

"The proof is in that grave," I point out. "How else would there be two of us? How else would there be two devices? My father still has the other one at Terra Nova. How else would I be able to predict the Phoenix Group's every move? And then there's Kara."

Her reaction is immediate. "What about Kara?"

"She died in the invasion. I, the other me, personally attached a bomb to a pilgrim. It did what it was intended to do; it blew up the portal so that we could enter through the fracture closer to Terra Nova's gate. It also killed several people, one of them being Kara. After that, you and Josh grew… closer."

"That's why you were so avid about saving her and making sure she adjusted to Terra Nova."

"I'm a possessive man and I don't share," I confess. It may be considered a bad quality but I am not ashamed of it. "I'll do anything for you, Skye, to have you stay mine and for you to be happy; I'll risk my life for an annoying girl, I'll help Josh who I can't stand, I'll forgive my father who I have hated for many years, and I'll… I'll even kill myself."

I watch as her composition towards me changes. She is debating on taking my hands. They are ready for her. My whole body is ready for her.

I want her to know it all, know all of me. "It wasn't hard for me to kill him. He might have been me at one point in time but not anymore. He was a threat and just like my father, I eliminate threats… especially if they are a threat to you."

There's a soft smile playing across her lips. The first smile I have seen since she saw and since her disposition towards me turned pitch black.

She squirms and her hands fiddle at her sides. "You really traveled back in time, to this time?"

I nod, affirming.

She swallows, as one does when they are nervous. "And I really loved you… this other me… is this alternative future?"

Another nod.

Hesitation, yet she asks. "Did I know? Did I know that you were going back in time… what you would have to do?"

"Not of killing myself. I couldn't tell you. And, I tricked you. It was the only way. You didn't want me to do it but I had to. I couldn't let you give up everything for me. I love you too much to let you make such a sacrifice." I smile at her and I can feel her defenses crumbling. She is almost mine again. "It was all worth it, Skye. I've changed the future for the better."

She does not take my hands but she slides closer, close enough that my extended hands touch her waist. My heart pounds with joy, relief, excitement, and love as she lets me wrap my fingers around her mid section. I pull her to me and he doesn't protest. I sigh, my breath trembling as if escapes, as she returns my embrace.

Her heads leans against my shoulder and she whispers the words I had feared I would never hear. "I love you too."