SPOILERS FOR STAR WARS: RISE OF SKYWALKER! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Resistance Base, Ajan Kloss
02:56

"They said anything yet?" Poe called as he quickly approached the holding cells. Finn looked up from his datapad and nudged Rose's shoulder to get her attention. Two hours ago, a distress signal was sent to them from an outpost on Jakku, saying that they'd been attacked by two individuals with advanced weapon capabilities. Poe had dispatched a squadron of X-Wings to retrieve the targets, not expecting them to neutralize half of the entire squadron with nothing more than blaster charge packs and plasma cores.

"I mean, yeah," Rose replied, approaching the cell door, "If you count absolute bantha-fodder as something." The shorter woman punched in the clearance code, standing back as the door swung open, revealing two people. The one on the left looked to be in his late forties to early fifties, while the one on the right seemed about the same age as Rey. Force, where was she when they needed her?

Poe clenched his teeth and walked into the room, Finn and Rose behind him as the door shut behind them, "Okay, my first question is where you did you get that jacket?" The older one asked him.

The younger one seemed to kick him under the table, but Poe paid no attention to it, "Alright morons, I have two questions for you," The pilot began, taking a seat across from the two prisoners, "Who are you, and why shouldn't I have one of these guys throw you into a Sarlaac Pit?"

"You have a Sarlaac Pit here?"

"That's not what I asked." Poe snapped.

The eldest man groaned, hanging his head, "My name is Tony Stark, and this is Peter Parker," Stark said, giving Poe a rather annoyed look, "I've answered that question about a hundred times already, don't you guys have E-Mail?" Okay, this guy was speaking in bantha-fodder. The newfound general of the Resistance scanned over the prisoners' clothing- one wore a black shirt with blue cloth pants, and the other was wearing some kind of chromium armor that seemed to have the emblem of a Spider on it.

"And you're from a world called... Earth?" Finn asked, reading off of the datapad in his hand.

"See? You know all this already." Tony shot back. The pilot narrowed his eyes at the two prisoners- they were both unusual kinds of people, you didn't run across too many nut jobs these days.

"This Earth you talk about isn't on any of our star charts. It doesn't exist," Rose sneered, "You'd better start giving us some answers- real ones- or this won't go over well for either of you."

"Y'know, you remind me of my wife," Tony mused, pointing at the shorter woman, "If she had black hair, was angry all the time, and was four-foot-two." Poe made a noise in the back of his throat, choking down a laugh. Finn seemed like he was doing the same, the both of them being the obnoxious "cretins"- as Rey called them- that they were.

Tony seemed very pleased with himself at this reaction, but his younger companion still looked a little apprehensive, "Earth doesn't exist?" The boy asked.

"Unless someone out there has made yet another planet-killer, no," Rose replied, providing both Finn and Poe her signature stink eye, "So your really from..." She looked at them expectantly.

The two prisoners looked at each other again, "Uh... Alderaan?" The younger one said.

Poe turned and looked at his two friends, all three of them sharing the same thoughts, "You're not from Alderaan," He said, turning back around, "And you've got a sick sense of humor, kid."

"So this is after you blew up the Death Star?" Tony asked. In the name the force. Poe thought, I need a vacation. The pilot sighed, then stood from his chair in frustration. There was only so much a guy could take, let alone the leader of The Resistance, "Wait isn't there... a Jedi we could talk to?" Poe stopped in his tracks, turning to face them.

"There is," He said, the door opening, "But I sincerely doubt she'd want to to talk to you."

As the three leaders left the cell, the two prisoners looked at each other in confusion, "She?!" And then the door slammed shut.

When the cell door was secure, Poe sighed and looked at Rose and Finn, "We're taking them to her anyway?"

"We're taking them to her anyway."

Gila Flats, Arizona
October 14th, 1985
1:45 AM, MST

Steve was confused. Like, more than usual. His eyes flicked from Adrian, to Dan, and then to the man who'd come up to them- the former two looking like they'd seen a ghost, "Er..." Adrian mumbled quietly, "A- as a matter of fact, yes. We could use some help, doctor..."

"Osterman," The brown-haired man replied, "Dr. Jon Osterman, pleased to meet you." Oh, shit... Steve thought, realization crashing down on him, This was the guy they were so afraid of? He seemed so... normal.

The teen poked Dan's shoulder, "Uh... isn't that... y'know, the guy?" It took a moment for the older man to respond, but he nodded all the same. This was wrong, why hadn't they brought the tachyon gun? We hadn't Osterman vaporized them or something? Why was... oh, right. He quickly realized that this wasn't Adrian and Dan's Jon Osterman, but Steve's. In this universe, the accident must've never happened, and he'd gone on to live his life as he was meant to. And to reinforce that theory, Steve was fairly sure he never heard of a blue god single-handedly winning the Vietnam War, either.

"Yes, well you see, Dr. Osterman, we're still trying to find our way around this place and... well, we can't find the archives." Adrian offered, his voice not shaking, not even for a second.

"Of course!" The not-Doctor Manhattan spoke, "Follow me, as you can see I get places where I probably shouldn't be anyways."

"Ha! You have no idea." Dan nervously laughed, as they followed Jon down the hallways, under the lights, and passing the clocks.

Little Italy, New York
October 14th, 1985
3:45 AM, EST

A-T-A-R-L. No, that wasn't right. A-T-A-R-J. Nope, not that either, "Jane, can you hold still?" Joyce hissed, tugging the young girl's head upright as she neatly tied it into a pony tail, "Are you sure about this?" Despite the prior warning, Jane nodded her head, ignoring the slight jolt of pain that shot through the skin on her head. The man named Eddie groaned in what sounded like a mix of boredom and disgust, his bind ropes now being replaced with duct tape. Eleven did her best to ignore him, instead focusing on the strange rectangular-shaped object that sat idle next to the TV.

"Oh, for the love of Jesus," The so-called "Comedian" mumbled, "Just gimme my guns so I can kill myself while you two play dress-up." That was of course sarcasm, but the idea didn't seem too bad to her. Joyce finished with Eleven's hair, and grabbed a black rag that rested on the table next to her.

A-I-A-R... no that wasn't it either, "Quiet." Joyce snapped at the crazy cynic.

"Or what?"

"Or I'll spray some more pepper spray in your face," El's surrogate mother shot back, "As much of a toughie as you are, pepper spray's still pepper spray." That seemed to shut him up. El smiled in amusement as she felt the rag stretch out and become taught around her face, sitting just above her eyes and tied around the back of her head.

A-T-A-R... what was that last letter? "I... think we should start." Eleven spoke.

Mars,
4:00 AM EST, Earth Time

"...moment you were born." I say to... no. No, that's later. This is now.

"Who are you talking to now?" Jim. Jim Hopper. Yes, that's right. We're on Mars, seven years after November 2nd, 1985. Or... no... currently it is October 14th, 1985 on Earth. On his Earth, anyways. In my own universe, it's January, 1993. I stand on the same golden palace that I had kept on the Mars of my universe, now it is on Jim's Mars. One object existing in two places at once without duplicating itself. It's fascinating how human beings seem incapable of even beginning to comprehend this.

"You're daughter." I tell him plainly. I watch as the police chief's eyes light up, his pupils dilating and his skin sweating.

"What?" He asks, shocked, "You know where she is?"

"Not yet," I answer, "But in six minutes and seven seconds, she will inform me that she is in Little Italy, New York."

"So you do know?" He asks again.

"No. I will not know until six minutes and four seconds from now." I watch him roll his eyes in annoyance, just like Laurie. I frown, he clearly does not understand what I am trying to express to him.

Clearly she did not understand what she was trying to tell her, "No, it has to be on the snow," Eleven groaned as Joyce turned the dial aimlessly- she was still trying to understand how the systems on the television worked, "It won't work if it's not on the snow!" The girl had done this several times before, from visiting Mike to venturing into the upside-down, but she had never tried to find something that she wasn't sure was even there to begin with.

"I know, I know, I'm trying!" The older woman grumbled, The "Comedian" sitting quietly in his chair, "I don't usually use the TV like this!"

"Yeah, sorry, but I don't usually think about time like that," Hopper tells me, two minutes until I meet her for the first time. "In fact, I don't think anyone can see the future... so can you speak in English, please?"

"I am speaking in English," I tell him, confused. I watch him open his mouth, but shut it quickly and glare at me, "Ah, a joke. That's funny." I say, attempting to feign human reactions, but I do not laugh. I laugh for the last time just as I leave Wally and Janey to get my watch from the Intrinsic Field Generator in Gila Flats, New Mexico. I understand that he doesn't get it.

"I got it!" Joyce shouted excitedly, as the sound of buzzing and static radio signals cut into Eleven's ears.

One minute.

A-T-A-R...

Forty-five seconds.

T-A-R... what was that last letter?

Thirty-seconds.

A-T-A-R...

Twenty-seconds

A-T-A-R... I! Atari!

Ten seconds.

That's what it was, an Atari 3000!

Five seconds.

Feeling satisfied, Eleven reached out her hand, feeling the all-to familiar tingle run down her spine.

Four seconds.

The sounds of the apartment and the rest of the world began to fade away.

Three...

The floor slowly vanished, and she felt nothing but air.

"I understand that you do not... oh..." I trail off. It's time.

She opened her eyes.

"Time? Time for wha-" Two...

Eleven looked around, finding herself in pure and utter blackness, until... "Hello."

One.

Then all at once he was standing there so sure of himself his head in the air
My heart was breaking which one would it be
Then you turned around and walked away with me

-Roy Orbison

And the clock hits midnight. And speaking of midnight, happy '20! But don't worry, to the people who've read Watchmen, this story will pass midnight at least three more times before it's over. I also have decided to introduce a new fandom in the coming chapters, one that will be instantly recognizable to a lot of you, but with a new twist on it since this is dealing with Doctor Manhattan and timestreams. Until next time!

-MB