Back To The Past

Part Ten: Time's Up

"I'm not budging an inch until you two tell me what's going on," threatened Jennifer, crossing her arms and taking up an imposing stance before the entrance to the Locomotive.

"For crying out loud, Jenn, we don't have time for this!" cried Marty.

"You have a time machine. You have plenty of time," she retorted. "You dragged me along the last time, then you knocked me out. I woke up in a strange house, with an older me, and you haven't even explained that yet!"

"Jennifer, please," pleaded Doc Brown. "You're risking our very future with this ploy. You have to let us board the train and stop Biff!"

"Biff? Biff Tannen? What's that creep got to do with all of this?" she demanded.

Sighing, Marty grabbed a hold of Doc and walked him a few steps away from Jennifer, just far enough to be out of earshot.

"Look, Doc, we're not going to win this one. When she gets that look in her eyes, she's determined to get her way and damn the consequences."

"Marty, we've been through this before. No one should know…"

"…too much about their future", Marty said with him. "Doc, if you hadn't known your future, then you'd be dead and buried back in eighteen-eighty-five."

"You have a point, Marty," admitted the Doc, grudgingly. "But this is an entirely different scenario. We're dealing with your past. If something should happen to Jennifer, it will alter your entire future. The life that you remember for the past seventeen years would be erased!"

"The life I remember has already been erased, Doc. That's why we're here! Come on, let's just tell her what's going on and get this over with."

"Very well, Marty. But remember, it was your choice," stressed the Doc, his voice grim and full of doom.

"Make any boyfriends, butthead?" asked young Biff, gloating as his 'older' self was released from jail.

Battered and bruised, Old Biff shook his head, grumbling, "I don't remember being that big of an asshole."

"Watch your mouth, Old Man. I posted your bail, but I can just as easily revoke it."

"What do you want?" demanded Old Biff, storming out of the police station, ignoring the disapproving looks of the few officers on duty.

"We have unsettled business. You screwed up tonight, and I'm here to make sure that you get those pieces back. Calvin Klein has screwed me out of a sure thing once already, and I…"

"McFly, you idiot," growled Old Biff, smacking his younger-self upside the head. "That kid is Marty McFly, not Calvin Klein."

"What the hell are you talking about?" shouted Young Biff, rubbing the side of his head.

"It took me thirty years to figure it out, but Marty McFly and Doc Brown went back in time, to nineteen-fifty-five. Calvin Klein is the kid of George McFly."

"That Irish bum?"

"That Irish bum knocked you out, if I remember correctly."

"Hey, I had been drinking!" protested Young Biff.

"He knocked you on your ass, then his kid stole the Sports Almanac from you. They ruined my life."

"It's my life too, Old Man. While in the hell do you think I came here? To make sure that things don't get screwed up again. Now, are you going to help me or do I go this alone?"

Old Biff mulled over things for a moment, his hatred for the McFly family growing stronger by the second. All of these years past and still he loved only Lorraine Baines, and George McFly had stolen her from him. Sure, there had been other woman since then but, in his heart, Lorraine was the only one he had ever truly loved.

He would do anything to win her, even change the past, if he could. And, just maybe, he could.

"If I help you, you have to promise me one thing."

"To get Lorraine Baines back, right?" asked Young Biff as he slid behind the wheel of the DeLorean. Then, smirking at Old Biff's astonishment, he added, "hey, I'm you. I want the same things you do. The only difference is that I intend to make it happen."

"Come on, let's get this over with then," snarled Old Biff, climbing into the DeLorean. "I want to have a good future for change."

"Wow," said Jennifer, looking out the side window of the Locomotive as Doc Brown maneuvered it over Hill Valley, heading for the police impound lot. "It looks so peaceful from up here."

"You should have seen the alternate eighty-five," commented Marty, flippantly.

"Alternate eighty-five?" wondered Jennifer, causing Marty to grimace.

"Just ask…me…about it," he said. "The me from now."

"Great Scott!" shouted the Doc, pointing towards their destination. "We're too late!"

Doc poured on the power, accelerating the Locomotive to its top speed as they watched the DeLorean rise from the police impound. The DeLorean swung about, hanging suspended for a moment as its driver spotted the Locomotive, then spun around and shot off.

"Hold on," warned the Doc, reaching for red button on the main control board. "I haven't had a chance to thoroughly test this yet."

"What is it, Doc?" asked Marty, helping Jennifer strap herself into one of the morphing chairs.

"The Flux-Accelerator!" yelled the Doc, maniacally.

"The Flux-what?" asked Mary, suddenly smashed against the rear wall of the cab as the engine blasted forward faster than he would have ever thought possible.

The ground became a patchwork blur of colors as the Locomotive rocketed after the DeLorean.

"Whoa," admonished Marty, finally able to peel himself from the wall. "Doc, this is incredible."

"Heavy, isn't it?" said the Doc, flashing Marty a quick smile.

"Hey, Doc," interrupted Jennifer, pointing towards the DeLorean. "The car's starting to glow!"

"Shit, Doc, we've got to stop them!" cried Marty.

"Already on it," countered the Doc, putting the Locomotive into a power dive that swept it across the path of the DeLorean.

Marty could have sworn he saw the eyes of both Biffs grow wide with panic as they found their route suddenly blocked, young Biff having to whip the car around, which in turn caused it to loose its built up speed.

"We can't keep this up forever," stated the Doc, banking the Locomotive around to line up his next interception run. "Eventually they'll get past us, and into the time stream."

"Doc!" yelled Marty, excitedly. "Have you still got the hover-board?"

Doc looked quizzical for a moment, and then shook his head in the negative. "No, I'm afraid not. I used several of its components when I built the Locomotive."

"Damn," cursed Marty.

"About the closest thing I have is Verne's Pitt Bull," informed Doc Brown, pointing towards a storage compartment at the side of the cab.

Marty pulled open the bin and yanked out the jet-powered hover-board, eyeing it over in appreciation. He thought briefly of his experience with the regular hover-board, and how much he would have loved to of hung onto it…back when he had still been young.

"Marty?" broached Jennifer, looking at him worriedly. "What are you thinking of doing?"

"Don't worry, Jenn," he reassured her, stepping over to the side hatch and flinging the doors open. "I can do this."

"Marty, it's way too dangerous!" lamented the Doc.

"It's our only chance, Doc," argued Marty, hanging on as Doc maneuvered the Locomotive to once again block the DeLorean from reaching eighty-eight.

Doc shot him a disbelieving look.

"Just get us over them," instructed Marty. "I'll drop down on the roof of the car, grab the parts from Biff--old Biff--and then drop from the car. The board'll slow me down enough that you can swing around under me and let me land on the train."

"Locomotive," corrected the Doc. "And the answer's no. It's insane!"

"Doc, at the worst, I'll drop the parts. They shatter and every thing goes back to normal, right? Time'll change around us, like it did with Jenn."

Everyone hung on as Doc once more whipped the Locomotive about in a tight turn that took it across the path of the DeLorean, both Biffs' mouths moving in unheard obscenities.

"Doc, we barely cut them off that time," said Marty. "You have to let me do this."

"Very well," after thinking about it for a frantic second.

"I can do this, Doc," affirmed Marty, looking the Doc right in the eye. "Trust me."

"I do, Marty," responded Doc Brown, a smile to his eyes that Marty hadn't seen in over thirty years. "I trust you with my very existence."

"Marty, be careful," said Jennifer, her face full of worry.

"Hey, don't fret," he told her. "We're going to have a long, happy time together, and I'm not ready to let it end."

"We're matching them, Marty!" called out the Doc as he brought the Locomotive directly over the DeLorean. "But they're speeding up for time displacement. It's now or never!"

With one final look to Jennifer, his eyes telling her everything that he did not have time to, Marty leapt out of the Locomotive, riding the Pitt Bull like an air-board, and screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Old Doc Brown screwed up this time," roared Young Biff, pushing the accelerator pedal to the floor. "They're not going to cut us off this time!"

"They're up to something, butthead," snapped Old Biff. "Just get us out of here before it's too late."

The DeLorean suddenly lurched slightly, a tremendous clanging sound echoing through the interior as something smashed against the roof of the car.

"They're ramming us!" screamed Young Biff, pitching the DeLorean into a dive.

"If they had rammed us then they would have torn through us like we were a piece of paper," lamented Old Biff. "They've got a freakin' Locomotive!"

"Well then, what the hell was that?"

"Me!" cried Marty, leaning in through the passenger window and grabbing the box of parts from the lap of Old Biff.

Both Biffs lunged to retrieve the box of parts from Marty, causing the DeLorean to twirl sideways, spilling Marty from the vehicle, the box still firmly in his grasp.

The DeLorean went into a wild, tumulus spin, Young Biff fighting to regain control of it.

Marty flipped himself about, achieving an upright position that once again put him riding the Pitt Bull, the board's jets and anti-grav units striving futilely to keep him air born.

"Butthead!" yelled Old Biff, slapping his younger self upside the head as he grabbed the wheel and righted the DeLorean.

Young Biff ignored his older self, thankful that the car had finally stopped spinning, and set his sights on the dwindling form of Marty.

"I've had it with this shit," cursed Young Biff. "I'm going to run that punk down if it's the last thing I do!"

Marty cast a fearful glance back at the gaining DeLorean, feeling an eerie sense of familiarity. Memories of the tunnel, with Biff chasing him as he rode the hover-board, flashed through his mind, he hoped that the Doc would be in time this time.

With the earth rushing up at him, and the DeLorean rapidly gaining on him, Marty was beginning to think that maybe this course of action hadn't been the best.

"We've got him," whooped Young Biff, excitedly. "We've got the son of a bitch this time!"

The Locomotive suddenly shot past the DeLorean, inciting a slew of curses from the two Biffs.

"Yeah, Doc!" yelled Marty as the Locomotive glided in under him, letting him land safely upon its roof.

"Doc says smash the parts!" yelled Jennifer, leaning out through the doorway of the cab. "Smash them!"

Marty took the Flux-capacitor from the cardboard box, looking at it with awe and regret.

Who would have ever thought that such an uninteresting looking piece of metal and plastic could cause so much trouble?

"Marty!" screamed Jennifer.

Marty looked up to see the DeLorean bearing down on him, Young Biff's face scrunched up in a look of sheer hatred.

The Flux-capacitor shattered into dozens of pieces as Marty slammed it against the roof of the Locomotive.

The world flashed blue.

Hill Valley, California

August 15th, 2002

1:30 PM

Marty stood at the railing of his deck, looking out over the gathering of his friends, wondering how Jennifer managed to find more people for these things every year.

"Hi, Uncle Marty," greeted a young boy, walking towards the deck, a large gift-wrapped package in his hands.

"Hey, Verne," smiled Marty, waving. "Where's your brother?"

"Right here," groaned Jules, stepping through the gate, looking none the too happy about being there.

Marty couldn't get over how the boys were only seven, even though seventeen years had passed since he had first met them. Just because a year had passed for Marty, didn't mean it had been that long for the Browns.

"It's not that hard coming to see me, now is it, Jules?" chided Marty, exaggerating a wounded sound.

"Naw, not really," conceded Jules, smiling a little. "But we were just at your last birthday yesterday."

Marty laughed at that, picking up the boy and hugging him.

"Marty," called the Doc, as he and Clara entered the backyard.

"Hey, Doc," smiled Marty. "Clara."

"Hello, Marty," greeted Clara, kissing him on the cheek.

"Hey, Doc," whispered Marty, pulling the Doc aside from the others. "I've got these…conflicting memories."

Doc smiled and patted Marty on the arm, knowing that the temporal shifts hadn't completely settled with the young man yet. With all of his constant traveling through time, Doc, and his family, had grown quite accustomed to it, but he sometimes forgot how disorienting it could be for others.

"Let's go set down and have a talk," said Doc, guiding Marty towards some lounge chairs.

END

A/N: Sorry, but don't nitpick about Marty's birthday. I don't have that little "fact" readily available, so I just picked a date.

Thanks to all of you that have read, enjoyed, AND reviewed this little fic.

Willum