FOURTEEN


"It's not supposed to happen. You said this wouldn't happen."

"Shut up."

Richard glared at the redhead before gazing to the third person occupying the dimly lit room. She was quiet, too calm for his liking. He grunted.

"Satisfied?"

"No. It's not good enough."

"All the bells and whistles, and still it's not enough. What do you want?"

"Question is. What do you want, Dr Townhouse?"

"No-no, I distinctly remember my expertise forfeiting the day you walked into this facility. This is your brainchild. Do something. Anything."

"You volunteered, I liked the concept, and now it's spiralling out of your control."

"We did just blow their only mode of transport to pieces. Not to mention more than half of their forces are either dead or barely breathing." Emma smiled wickedly. "They are trapped here."

"What about Flynn?" The woman asked, ignoring the smugness on the redhead's face. "Any news on our saboteur? They didn't gain valuable information by stumbling onto our location. They got to the next best thing. He betrayed you, Dr Townhouse."

"It was full proof."

"So full proof indeed, they knew exactly where to go and what to do in order to permanently cripple not only our Base of operations but also our life's work."

"No, you don't understand, Director. There was no margin for error. He showed no signs of manipulation. And I made sure his mind was so scrambled he couldn't be subject to influence."

"The perfect killing machine?" She mocked.

"Y-y-yes."

"No."

Richard bit his bottom lip. Emma smirked, enjoying the squirming effect the Director had on the scientist.

He observed the screens, frowned deeply before looking over his shoulder. The Director crossed her arms, scrunching her white blouse and taught blazer. The thinking lines upon her forehead were deeply furrowed. She was worried, not due to the failure of their mission, but for the subject. For her to have crawled from the recesses of her confined office, meant this man, this test subject and his success meant a great deal. A lot more than Emma let on, and a lot more than he'd bargained for.

Placing a fist to his lips, Richard cleared his throat. He lowered the hand, with both ladies watching him carefully.

"We could reset it. Start over." None said a word. He added, cautiously. "We have the technology, the data and errors. None would be the wiser. We could erase everything; begin a time loop of our own."

"This whole experiment is based upon cancelling their time loop. To begin again, only proves her point that the timeline, any timeline is malleable and subject to human error that can be revised."

"Time traveling's based upon subtle changes."

"It's subject to whoever owns the right to change it. I want to eliminate the possibility. For life to take its natural course without interference by a secondary party. Any person for that matter."

"To guarantee that such a timeline exists, we will need to continue eliminating the possibility. Don't you see? Already we have initiated a loop of our own. And if you want this technology to be non-existent, we would have to keep it around to stop any other person from creating it."

"He has a point." Emma agreed. "This attack by the Resistance proves we've created one more Catch-22. Another good versus bad scenario. People fighting, again, for what they think should be history and a possible future."

"It's all hypothetical." The Director reminded them. "Just another theory gone wrong."

"Which only proves the point, Lucy." Emma stressed. "Nothing we've done works."

"Simulation after simulation equals to a sole conclusion." Richard explained. "As long as time travel exists, there will be someone or something that resists the current administration. So to speak. We keep knocking our heads against the same wall. With no positive results."

"You guaranteed, with this system, that we could test all theories, to find the needle in the haystack. I even supplied you with a willing participant. We were all in. You said this would work. But it always concludes with a rogue element either catching on to our plans, or finding and successfully infiltrating our Base."

"And we keep arguing in circles after each failed simulation. Face it. I keep ending up on the losing side. Pack it up and let yourself continue reinstating the same boring loop. You win in the end. I say it's a victory."

"Not for the one who loses his life to save me."

Emma laughed. "Your team – you mean."

Lucy scowled her displeasure.

Richard rubbed his hands together, then held them spread-eagle in front of him and shrugged. "An A for effort."

Stroking her eyes between thumb and index finger, Lucy breathed a tiresome sigh. "What happens after the attack?"

"Excuse me?"

Emma grabbed her shoulder. "No, come on, Lucy. What's done is done."

"Not until I say so." Lucy shrugged the redhead's hand away and looked to Richard. "Answer the question, Dr Townhouse. What happens after our attack?"

"We've never really taken the aftermath into account, Director. We always stopped after their breach of our facility."

"Let it pan out."

"What, no."

"It's the sole option we haven't tried."

"With the same result."

"Exactly." The redhead agreed.

"Replies based upon assumptions." Lucy shoved her hand at the flat screen monitor. "Garcia and Lucy are alive in this scenario. Give them an opportunity to regroup, and let's see where they go from here."

"Assuming none survived the attack."

"We're not assuming anything, Doctor. We are seeing this simulation through to the end."

"And what about Flynn? He's in possession of a Mothership."

"And they are under the impression that he betrayed them."

"They still will have a ship at their disposal."

"You can't know for sure what they'll do with it."

"But every Garcia and every Lucy up to now revived the loop."

Emma gazed at the monitor as well, noting what Lucy saw minutes before. "Not in this simulation. Remember, when Flynn gets back and they eliminate him from the equation, they are the only ones left. There are no other timelines, except for theirs. It falls to them now. They are the original timeline."

"So we hope." Richard said with disbelief. "Flynn's resilient. Our dear Director chose a tough opponent."

"This Garcia trapped with this Lucy – he's not taken by Flynn. To him, this older version of himself is just as dangerous as Rittenhouse was. And Rittenhouse he defeats with ease. He will have no problem eliminating Flynn."

"And you're okay with it?" The scientist asked of Lucy. "Flynn comes from our timeline. When this simulation is successful, in real life you will have to forfeit whatever connection you share with him. Since essentially, he is a part of you."

Richard and Emma watched the confusion crease her brow for a few moments before she turned and walked for the door.

"I lost that part of me a long time ago."

"Is that a go-ahead?" He asked when she crossed the threshold.

"It's the sacrifice of a time traveller."