SEVEN


Down below, approximately three blocks away and straight ahead, Ms Preston and Mr Flynn met another atop a platform surrounded by several staircases.

If his counterpart where any the wiser, he would've known empty surroundings represented surveillance. And surveillance led to one thing – capture. But the man trusted her. Why shouldn't he? She saved him.

Flynn adjusted the scope's crosshairs, making sure to keep the wind's bearing in mind, as well as the distance he was sniping from and the velocity the bullet would be traveling at. It had to enter Garcia's heart right at the top, to make sure it went through her heart.

Clean through without fault, and only once. Once was enough.

The moment presented itself, with Garcia carefully taking hold of the journal concealed at his lower back. He handed it over, Ms Preston looking on surprised. Or was it impartial? He couldn't quite tell from this distance, but what did it matter anyway.

He pulled the trigger.

In front of him, the rifle recoiled on the table's wooden surface. His targets toppled over one by one, and he retracted the weapon's stand, folded its butt end towards the grip and magazine. It slid into the duffel bag, when turning to leave he stopped abruptly, with one hand up in surrender.

"You have to stop this."

"How did you-"

"You need to stop this, Flynn."

Titling his head, he noticed the wrinkles around her eyes, the pistol and its silencer, along with the fierce determination upon her face.

"Stop what?" His question imploded in the midst of them.

It scared her but not completely. Lucy took a step closer. "Your mission objective, consider it, thoroughly. If you don't stop this."

"I can't. Can't you see? I am outside of time, to get everything in line."

"No, you've become numb and mindless. You can't discern right from wrong. If you did, you would."

"Stop this! I know. I heard you the first time."

He stepped towards her, daring her to show her hand. Surprisingly she didn't waver. The safety clicked off. He smirked waywardly.

"Why are you here, Lucy? It only means I missed a step somewhere along the line. I will course correct. This assignment will be successful."

"You don't even know what you're fighting for, Flynn!"

"What are you fighting for? A lost cause? Pain and more pain! That's a lost cause. It has no meaning, just like a cycle has no beginning or end."

"And yours do? Mindlessly killing yourself time after time? Only you can see the irrational purpose. What does it result in? Does it alleviate the deep wound festering in your heart?"

"You have no idea, do you? You know nothing! You're simply another traveller outside of time. My time!"

Flynn growled, moving to grab his pistol from its holster. Lucy fired off a warning shot, stopping him before he could carry out his feat.

"I am the truth, and you are the lie."

"In this, I am the light."

"Your light is darkness."

Her statement exploded inside his mind, eliciting confusion and a terrible headache. He held a hand to his head. His time was running out, which meant so did hers. The question was. Who had the bravado to hold out 'till the last hour? For it wasn't his first trip, a thought that barely registered, but was it hers?

"What are you doing here, Lucy?"

"Nothing prevents me from ending this pursuit of yours."

The blatant declaration caught him off guard. Flynn glared at her, trying to discern the bluff from reality. Her eyes showed none, nor did her posture reveal doubt or any remorse towards the proposed threat. She had nothing to lose. Sadly though, he had everything to lose and it scared him, since Lucy Preston had finally surpassed a threshold he seemed to justify repeatedly.

"You're bluffing."

Lucy aimed at his feet. A shot rang out, missing them by fractions. He gaped at her, shocked. "A warning." She whispered.

"What do you want me to say? You're prolonging."

"I'm giving you the opportunity to dig deep inside your mind, to try and remember who the real enemy is. I'm trying-"

"And failing to get your message across, because you don't really know what it is I'm doing. Is not saving lives, but taking them for the sake of restoring time and space back to its original state."

"By killing us!"

"By ending us!"

Flynn and Lucy's breathing echoed loudly within the empty room.

Tears filled her eyes. His were teary as well.

She paced within the doorway, with pistol hanging by her side and one hand stroking her forehead. He watched her, too tired and in agony, to make a move now that she was vulnerable.

"It doesn't make sense, Flynn. None of it does." She said after a while. "You don't just agree-"

"As I recall, it didn't take much to go back in time, and rid the world of Rittenhouse. With all said and done, it took all I had to get here. And I'm not gonna allow you to put an end to it." Lucy stopped pacing and focussed on him just as he aimed his pistol at her. "Not when I'm so close."

"I am the last!" She yelled out before he could shoot. "Killing me will make your mission null and void."

Flynn shook his head, not believing her plea.

"You can't, Flynn. The more of me you kill, the more aware I become of my destiny."

"It's a trick."

"Why do you think your headaches are intensifying? The branching timelines are lessening, putting a strain on the original timeline."

"You're lying."

"Garcia's experiencing the same thing."

"Stop it!" Flynn growled at her.

The duffle bag fell from his fingers as he grabbed his head with both hands. His thoughts blurred, blinked out for a few seconds before they became coherent again. "They will know. You have to stop!"

"They?"

"No."

"Flynn!"

"No! I can't. I don't want to lose them."

"Lose who?"

"My memories." He fell to his knees, groaning in sorrow. "Lorena, Iris. I don't want to lose them. I can't lose them."

The defining moment presented itself, and Lucy stepped up to him and placed the pistol against his forehead she knew ached in pain. Hers, too, throbbed profusely, but this – it had to be done. She couldn't allow him to carry on with this ridiculous ploy and then survive with so much agony and confusion. It wasn't a life worth living. No one deserved such a terrible life.

"You can't. Not even now. Not even after so many years of chasing Rittenhouse, can you eliminate a threat to your timeline. It's all that I am. A threat. A bug in the system you have to squash." He grabbed hold of her wrist. "Why can't you squash me, Lucy? Is it your humanity? Your love, compassion, and mercy? What is it that hesitates? Your mind or your heart? There's nothing that binds you to me. End it!"

She startled at his fierce command.

"Or I will." He concluded in a low tone, stood, still holding her wrist, then redirected the pistol to his heart.

Lucy gazed at him with shock and tears in her eyes, looking on helplessly as Flynn ripped the weapon from her hand with his free hand.

"See? Words are words waiting to become a reality. Your words are simply empty promises. A means to an end. With no action to back them up. Therefore you can't follow through on your mission, because your mind and your heart's in the way. Not I."

"You've stripped your memories?"

He nodded.

"You don't feel."

Flynn shook his head.

"Your mission is all that counts. No thought. No memory. No remorse. The perfect drone."

Fire lit up his green eyes. She recoiled, though he kept her close to him. "Now you're catching up, my dear Lucy."

She gave him an intense glare, closing the small gap between them, and then narrowed her eyes. He swallowed profoundly, knowing she noticed the slight waver in his eyes.

"One problem though." Lucy whispered. "Why do your family still exist within your heart and mind? I think it's to remind you of what it is that makes you human. And the one person who understood your weakness and vulnerability, you've extracted from your memory, to hide their importance. Otherwise, this senseless killing couldn't be possible. Your destiny couldn't be possible. Why?"

She smiled cunningly. He managed a half-hearted one.

"You have no destiny."

A long, thin blade pierced Flynn's side. He gasped, recoiling against the sharp shrill pain as it dug deeper into his body.


- END OF PART ONE -