TWELVE


The wild, Wild West.

It was hot, the village even hotter, and the town's folks unamused with the line of strangers who entered their town. It would be the perfect showdown, to disrupt their mission before it began, but it seemed redundant and overkill, to stop this team from achieving success.

Did he want them to succeed? It was the obvious question.

Was he supposed to let them live? An even better question.

Would he have had enjoyed the exchange between his former-self and Lucy outside of town? Not a clue.

He did however understand the import of his own mission. Whether he killed them or not, a couple would survive this killing jaunt of his.

He needed to have a report for his superior, lie if needed, that the last of the branching timelines no longer existed.

Success?

So they would be led to believe.

Or not.

Flynn scratched at his chin.

He was making this job way too complicated. Infiltrate and then vanish, leaving the original timeline in the hands of those living in the zone which didn't exist. Easy.

They would take charge, while he took charge of things back home. Richard would never see the deceit coming and neither would Emma. He would eliminate the threat. The older Lucy and her compadres would certify everything worked out as planned according to the original Lucy's plan. And once it happened, his deranged timeline would disappear. All would be well again, as if his relentless assassinations never happened.

Everything seemed redundant.

All the effort appeared redundant, but Lucy 2.0 assured his meaningless existence had merit. Taking care of his and her twins, leaving the rest of the team unscathed, it guaranteed no other duplicate interfered with ground zero. It guaranteed no interference period. Still made no sense, but to the one who understood, he was grateful she was in charge.

He tugged at the rim of the black hat. He always wanted to be a cowboy.

Flynn smiled.

He'd been cowboy a few times in the last several months.

He gaged the ladies of the group emerge in their newly exchanged attire, to appear like one of the boys. He tugged the reins in the opposite direction, urging the black stallion towards the location the team were destined to use as a respite.


"It's a bad plan."

"It's a good plan."

"It's sad."

"It's logical."

"Radical."

"Desperate."

"Erratic."

"But possible."

"All I'm saying. For the record." Garcia raised his hands, stemming any attempt at disapproval by the others, then circled the rickety table for a third time. "We need to consider that this might backfire. He's not stable." He pointed at the older Lucy illumined by the single light fixture inside the dark, stale room. "You let loose a wolf without a leash. He needs one."

She glared at him from across the table. "A distraction. This is what we agreed upon."

"By making him think his killing spree is right and not wrong and immoral."

"To be frank." Wyatt intervened. "He's a killer in every timeline."

"I am yes. Can also mean there's one where it's the exception."

"You think his timeline was the exception?" Rufus asked, placing his feet upon the edge of the table. He leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms.

"Yes, I do."

"No, a person doesn't start off innocently. Killing without a real purpose, it's even more absurd than believing everything will return to normal after eliminating the same target repeatedly. He's the worst of the lot."

"This is me you're discussing." Garcia eyed Wyatt. "Insulting."

"You made him believe, no, you convinced him. You convinced him his mission was and always has been destiny. I think, no, I know there's a better way. A humane way. If Lucy. If I could convince him."

"We've been the problem so far, honey." Older Lucy stipulated. "We gave him a reason to avenge his family. We used his hurt to unleash a chain of events we sadly must keep repeating. If it means this particular Flynn needs to kill us, then so be it."

"Okay. Hang on." Wyatt came about, taking position next to his Lucy. "I thought we decided the blame game wasn't an option."

"Exactly." Garcia seconded. "One bad apple doesn't, well you know, make a harvest."

"Sounded better in your head, didn't it?" Rufus smiled wryly, then nodded knowingly after Garcia glared at him. "Yeah it did."

"He's out there, right now, contemplating taking the shot. The final timeline, we allowed the final timeline to be determined by a deranged assassin who thinks what he's doing is justice. Justice . . . not murder and base, but certifiably correct and humane."

"A Flynn with a moral compass." Wyatt scoffed. "Awesome. You're ten years too late, pal."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"This is not why we retrieved this Garcia Flynn."

"And please do remind me, Lu, why did we retrieve him again? Huh?"

"Technically, we didn't." Rufus pointed a finger at the man in question. "He did."

"I don't care, Rufus."

"And you're not supposed to care, Wyatt."

"Thank you."

"And you're the reason he doesn't care." Older Lucy reprimanded Garcia. He shook his head in disdain.

"I wonder if he's completed his mission." Younger Lucy mused.

The group gazed at her in unison.

"What? I've never been in this situation before."

"You have, twenty-seven times. Give or take. I lost track around the ninth timeline."

"Comforting." Garcia jested.

Younger Lucy looked to her. "Then how do you know when . . . when he's done?"

"The future becomes clearer with every Lucy he takes off the map." She looked to Garcia. "And with every Flynn he eliminates, makes your destiny that much more set in stone."

"The One." Rufus announced theatrically.

"The Jet Li movie?" Wyatt asked intrigued. The geek nodded. "Sweet."

"Boys."

"He got stronger, right?"

"Uh-huh." Rufus concurred with a huge smile.

"I don't feel stronger."

"Yeah, neither do I."

"Time theories. They are indeed whacko."

"I don't think it's a geeky term, Rufus."

The geek glared disapprovingly. Wyatt smiled wickedly.

"Am I the only one who thinks this is a waste of time?"

As one, the group looked to Garcia.

"Whatever happens to him? Did any of you consider the after? He's dangerous, yes. He's unpredictable, no question. His reality is his reality, his perspective. If you know what I mean. What will happen if all's said and done? He can't be kept as a consolation prize."

"So he's a liability?" Lucy asked her Garcia. "What do you want?"

"I don't have a say. It's what they want, no?" He looked at the three remaining members. "They have the numbers. We are merely the additives to their story."

"True." She agreed.

"Perhaps." Wyatt shrugged half-heartedly.

"See? He's not fully committed. Bad for a grunt. Bad for us."

"Wyatt." Older Lucy scowled, confused by his reluctance.

"Dude."

The soldier turned towards his friend. "I said perhaps."

"Yeah, it means you're considering considering bypassing the plan."

"Not entirely, no. He got me thinking is all."

"You're agreeing with Garcia?"

"Again, not entirely."

"But you're sitting on the fence, dude. Not cool."

"Okay." Older Lucy sat down, stroking her forehead in bitter frustration. "Either you're in all the way, Wyatt, or you have to step aside. I can't have my military commander with toes dipped. For this to work we need everyone in or we're completely screwed."

"Whoa, hang on, who said . . ."

"You said." Garcia interrupted with a wayward smile.

Logan slammed the table. "No!"

Its surface split in half, crumbling to pieces amidst them.

"Wyatt, c'mon dude. Our only table in this god-forsaken place. Not nice."

"He's irritating you."

"Yeah and he's doing a damn good job at being killed."

The smile on Garcia's lips grew, observing the soldier glare at him, enraged and more than ready for a fight. "There are cracks. I'm merely drawing your attention to what they are."

"No commitment?" Older Lucy asked as she stepped in between the men.

The giant looked down at her. "No conviction."

"And you have cause?"

"He does." Lucy came about and stood next to her Garcia. "Plenty of it."

"I've heard plenty of yammering but no real direction. And your plan hinges on a deranged man whose reality has been affected by one sole purpose. Retaliation. Death. Murder. Whatever cause he had, he lost it a long time ago."

"And what makes you different?"

"At least I know what I'm fighting for. Do you?"

She stared at him, the corner of her lips curling ever so slightly. "I know you don't." She backed up towards Logan who caught the sly tone in her voice. "The fight's been ongoing and you've barely joined. Ten years versus an hour doesn't make you an expert on time. It makes you impulsive and reckless, diving into something you hardly understand."

She motioned a hand at the younger Lucy. "She's no different."

"Hey."

"He's poking the nest, to see and to evaluate if our cause is worth the trouble. It's understandable."

"I'm glad we agree." Garcia mocked.

"And when you've been at this for as long as we have, cracks are inevitable. Conviction, conviction and hope reduces to paper thin, what lays behind it is easily recognizable. Especially when a group lives and operates outside of time, reality automatically splits and provokes fear and doubt. We have no control, whatsoever, because the endgame shifts in and out according to what is happening within the various timelines. Which means, nothing is set. Until now."

"Your destiny has always hinged on Flynn's actions." The younger Lucy surmised.

"Yes."

"So you deliberately sowed doubt." Garcia assumed.

"Yes."

"To make him question his plan and the plan of his puppet master."

Rufus nodded. "Yeah."

"To guarantee that he would bring you what you needed."

"Which is the two of us."

Garcia looked to his Lucy, and then frowned. "To do what?"