- PART TWO -
Down below, roughly three blocks away and straight ahead, Lucy and Garcia met another on top a platform surrounded by several staircases.
Flynn adjusted the scope's crosshairs, making sure the wind was in his favour, as well as the distance, and the velocity the bullet would be traveling at. It had to enter Garcia's heart, to ensure it went through her heart.
Clean through and only once. It was all he needed, to make this end smoothly.
Garcia grabbed the journal concealed at his lower back, then handed it over, with Lucy looking on intrigued. Or was it sceptical? He couldn't quite tell from this distance, but it didn't concern him what she felt or thought any longer. His finger curled around the trigger, began to squeeze when he felt a shrilling pain in his side. It tore over his ribcage, with instincts reminding him someone would soon appear at the doorway.
He kept his attention straight ahead, but he had missed the ideal moment.
Below, Agent Christopher's men arrested Garcia, the man showing his displeasure with low growls and threatening declarations aimed at Lucy Preston who seemed just as confused as he appeared.
Flynn slammed a fist atop the table, retracted the rifle from its perch, stowed it away within the depths of the duffel bag, but then stopped.
Something needed to happen, his heart and body discerned it, but his mind did not. Yes, he felt a definite emotion, a kink in the timeline, an anomaly he couldn't quite place.
Something had happened in this room not too long ago.
He looked to the doorway and found it empty.
Someone had ambushed him. Yes, and a heated conversation followed thereafter. This person, he or she, weren't here at the moment. He had to keep moving and find another way to fulfil the mission, even if it meant returning here, or dealing with the problem in another timeline. Perhaps even complete two in one go, but it wouldn't be possible.
Flynn walked for the door and made his way towards the elevator.
"You were distracted."
The familiar voice had echoed inside an empty room across from the elevator, causing him to scowl bewildered.
"Muscle memory works wonders." The voice said. "Phantom pains."
"Show yourself." He demanded, aiming his pistol at the empty space before the room. Damn, his head hurt. His side, too. Even his heart ached.
"Let's see." An older version of Lucy Preston stepped out into the corridor. "First it was the heart, then the head. Always the heart and the head. Such precision, to minimize the pain and effort not only for them, but for you, too." She held her index finger for him to see. "Still, one made you hesitate. Used her to find the needle in the haystack; the primary driving force behind such a heinous crime. You agree?"
Lucy faced him. Lowered her hand. Smiled gently, but it soon faded.
"But it wasn't enough." Another voice, deeper this time, said. "Reasoning with her, couldn't convince you to stop. No, you had to continue doing what you were doing. Since you were made to believe there was no other way."
"There is no other way." Flynn said weakly.
"Haa, but there is."
Lucy watched Garcia walk from the room. He stood behind her and grinned.
"You were too blind to see it." Garcia continued. "Too caught up in your grief, to see another way to solve the problem. So you went to the sole person who not only needed your expertise, but also shared the same hatred for what happened with your timeline."
"Richard." He agreed dejected.
"And Emma." Lucy said.
Flynn stroked his forehead with the pistol before dropping it to his side. "He was convinced his method of time traveling surpassed the rules and boundaries held in place by physics. And Emma, she wanted another crack at fulfilling her true role as a Rittenhouse spy. Even if it meant aligning herself with me."
"She used you as a messenger."
"While you wilfully submitted your memories for alteration." She explained. "You wanted to forget. As it was the only way you could fulfil your ultimate assignment."
"No remorse. No feeling. Everything you and I are, you deafened so that you could kill us and eliminate us from the equation."
"You didn't realize, with every time jump and murder you completed, you altered our destiny to one primary future. A definite future, where we know our end without question and without waver."
"No-no. No, for every action there is a reaction. For every decision, there are multiple opportunities that branch into four separate futures, at a minimum."
"But there will always be one journey, one destiny that goads you back to the original. The one you should've stuck by if it weren't for people, life and circumstances that forced you to veer from that destined course. They would all, like a river, drain into one large reservoir and realign you with the only other outlet available. One destiny, with a single conclusion."
"Death, which has no set time or place." Garcia clarified.
"Birth, which has no set time or place." Lucy added.
Flynn narrowed his eyes, thinking for a little bit. "And what takes place in between will always be pliable. To do with whatever we wished."
"No one can predict their lifespan from beginning to end."
"Nor can a person have a definite plan for it, and follow it precisely. There will be something or someone that influences it to change, slightly or drastically, either for good or for bad. Like any other thing, it's up for debate."
"So what I'm doing is useless?" Flynn asked of them. "It's just an endless cycle which will turn where it needs to turn and go where it needs to go. Nothing will change the proposed outcome. All I'm doing is merely stemming it while creating more possible and diverse destinies."
"Yes." They both answered.
"But I'm forcing you." With the weapon, Flynn gestured at them. "To a single conclusion in life, by eliminating the other divergent timelines from existence. You have to follow my plan and my strategy, to outlive me – together as a team – your final future, which cannot be changed. And since any other possible decision will be stripped away, you have to take my road, my path, and my journey. You have to."
"Nothing and no person can interfere with another person's walk in life."
"Because no one can guarantee a perfect life, without any complication, or even control them to follow a set outcome, as they intend them to."
"Because mankind has always had freewill, to do as they will with whatever they have in their possession."
"And neither are we God."
