Life in the Loop: Life #57 – starting anew?
Disclaimer: see the previous chapters.
14-1a
…As the dinosaur fell, Evan and Dylan fled through the time anomaly, with the only thought being in Dylan's head – 'please don't let it bite us in the arse': apparently, hanging around with Evan turned her into the responsible one, somehow…
14-1b
…As the time anomaly faded behind them, Evan and Dylan collapsed on the floor, which changed again – this time to smooth faux-wood floorboards. "Ouch!" Evan said noncommittally. "My nose!"
"Ouch! My face!" Dylan echoed. "What is going on here? Where are we?"
"Ah! Mr. Cross! Ms.-Weir, correct?" Lt. Leeds said brightly as he seemingly appeared out of nowhere, flanked by some other military personnel. "You're alive, aren't you?"
"Let's go with that, shall we?" Evan muttered as he eyed the new arrivals. "Leeds, I know you, but I don't know your companion, and what are you doing here, and what is here, anyhow?"
There was a pause, not unlike the ones that would manifest after the other rumblings of Evan, but this one was somehow different.
"So, sir, he knows you but is confused about everything and everyone else?" the good lieutenant's companion asked the man rather wryly. "Just what did you try to do to him?"
"Nothing! I haven't met him at all!" Leeds proclaimed, before catching himself. "I mean, I sort of did, but-" he trailed away, looking confused, (not an unusual look for him, admittedly)…
"Right, before this gets any more confusing, let's start clearing the air," Dylan broke the silence this time. "Why is the military here?"
There was another pause, as Leeds' companion glared at him. "I didn't tell them anything, and was actually very, very subtle," the height-challenged person shot back, causing everyone to facepalm.
"Right, this answers my question," the woman muttered to no one in particular. "Mr. Cross, Ms. Weir, I'm corporal Merriweather and you've already met my superior, lieutenant Leeds. We are here because of Cross Photonics-"
"Should we call Angelika Finch?" Dylan asked quickly. "She knows Cross Photonics better than I do, for one thing-"
"We're already in contact with her, but we're here for you for a different reason," Corporal Merriweather replied equally fast. Upon seeing Dylan's rather sceptical face, she added, just as fast: "Actually, it's better if you'd come with us, or we all be in trouble."
"With your superiors?" Evan grunted.
"…Yes, but also with the police."
…And the 'police' was the magical word that caused Evan to comply.
14-1c
Contrary to corporal Merriweather's proclamations about the police and her superiors, she and Lieutenant Leeds took Evan and Dylan not to a police station, but to the local military HQ, complete with Colonel Hall in charge. Upon seeing the older man, Evan grimaced and opened his mouth, but Dylan quickly stepped on his foot, so a confrontation with delayed, however slightly.
"Well, I'll be! Ms. Weir and Mr. Cross!" Hall exclaimed, sounding, admittedly, less comfortable and familiar than how he did before. "You're alive!" he paused, using the advantage of having Evan and Dylan stunned into silence via the sheer surprise, to ask Leeds and Merriweather. "They're them? They're alive?"
"Yes!" both couples replied simultaneously, before Dylan asked, rather testily: "And what is your business with us, here?"
"…That's a good question," the colonel looked away for the first time, "and one that will be answered later…"
"Should we call our lawyers, or did Angelika Finch do that already?" Dylan did not relent.
"That's another good question, so why don't you go with us and talk to your – to Mr. Cross' – wife first?"
"Brooke's here?" Evan proclaimed and almost fainted. The others just looked around awkwardly.
14-1d
A brief time later Evan and Dylan were escorted, or rather guided, to another room in the military complex. Evan's wife – or whatever she was, since her status was quite complex due to the entire time travel trouble – Brooke Cross was sitting there already, looking clearly cross and annoyed already…or at least she did, before she saw Evan and Dylan, after which she promptly had a mental breakdown, shrieking very, very loudly:
"No, no, this is impossible, I've killed you and your whore, and I did!"
"You did? Why?" Evan instinctively snapped before his brain and ears synchronized and he almost fainted again.
"Because I am amazing, because I am unstoppable, because I am a goddess!" Brooke's shrieks almost broke the sound barrier, let alone the range of human hearing. "You all shall love me and despair!"
Medical personnel rushed in to pacify Brooke and to escort Evan and Dylan out…
14-1e
The next room that Evan and Dylan were deposited in was much nicer and certainly did not have that cell-like look that Brooke's current domicile had, but what, or rather whom it did have, were several people that both Dylan and Evan knew quite well.
"Angelika!" the man in question proclaimed. "What is going on?"
"Good question," Cross Photonics' CFO agreed with a suspicious ease that caused Dylan's hackles to rise in suspicion. "We got called here because Brooke has supposedly killed you and your mistress-"
"Hey!" Dylan proclaimed, but was ignored-
"-while Cross Photonics have accidentally managed to achieve some sort of a technological breakthrough that our local military wants to have their hands on before the top brass in Ottawa, let alone overseas, does."
"Then let's give it to them – better the devil that we know that we don't know, right?" Evan suggested brightly. Practically everyone else stared at him as if he was insane, (which he possibly was, actually).
"Right, let's start from the top," Angelika turned to Ange in a manner that made Dylan wonder as to what was going on with her: "We're here because we're your friends and coworkers – well, Evan's friends and coworkers, primarily, but still – and earlier tonight we got calls that Brooke finally caught you two and killed you herself – and here you are, both of you, alive and – relatively well. What's going on?"
There was a pause as Dylan and Evan blinked and looked – first at each other, then at Ange, who was more comfortable with Toby, (who was rather heavier than when they last saw her), then at Mac and Sam, (whose own state of existence was kind of doubtful), and finally at each other.
"You know, people, it's complex, and we don't even know everything ourselves," Dylan finally made a choice, "but for me and Evan? It was all about time travel and dinosaurs."
There was yet another pause in the night.
"Eh, it makes about as much sense as whatever the duo of Leeds and Merriweather rumbled about all night before your arrival," Angelika muttered. "Fine, please elaborate."
"Ange," Evan spoke with an edge in his voice – apparently, he had enough of Ange's attitude (on top of everything else).
"Evan," Angelika matched his voice tone for tone. "Listen. I was always more of Brooke's friend than of yours, but Brooke herself has clearly went insane or worse, and now the fate of CP hangs in the balance, and so far the only way out are you and Ranger Weir over here. Therefore, let's stop digressing and figure out what to do next, where to go next, and how to fix everything!"
Dylan frowned. There was something not quite off about Angelika, (and not her non-relationship with Toby Nance either), but still… Then again, beggars couldn't be choosers, right? And as such, she kept quiet as Evan Cross spilled the beans on everything…
The end?