A/N: There ain't nuttin' much else to say other than please R/R, and enjoy. So please do so!

         Jimmy looked up in shock. "You're… me?" he asked, pointing at himself.

         The older Jimmy nodded. "I'm the 23-year-old version. Nice to meet you again," he laughed.

         Jimmy looked down. "How- how did this happen?" he asked no one in particular.

         "I can't give you a direct answer. All I can say is that you're gonna be living here for the next week and a half or so until you go back to your own time."

         Cindy just stood there. Taking a seat on a cot, she remained silent. But inside, she couldn't keep quiet. A week and a half in some South American no-man's-land, ten years away from home? How could this be happening to her? I should never have listened to Neutron. Whenever something goes wrong, it's always his fault… And yet, when she tried to be mad at him, she couldn't. Why not? She'd been angry with him for much less, so why was she so passive right now? Her thoughts were interrupted by the tent flap opening.

         "Hey Jim, what's up?" a young man entered, and the older Jimmy gave him a high-five. He looked to be about the same age, but his blond hair was gelled and sleeked back. He was also dressed in fatigues, with a rifle strapped on his back.

         "Hey Sven," he replied. "I'd like you to meet, well, me."

         Sven bowed his head and extended a hand, which Jimmy slowly acknowledged and shook. "Nice to meet you, past Jim. Now how am I gonna tell you two apart?"

         "Didn't we already talk about that? I'm Jim, and he's Jimmy from now on."

         Jimmy looked at them both. "You mean… you knew about us coming?"

         Jim laughed. "Of course. Same thing happened to me when I was your age, remember? I just told Sven here."

         Sven then looked over in Cindy's direction and smiled. "And this must be Cin," he said with a smile.

         Cindy nodded distantly. She was still in her own world, and she didn't notice Sven as he continued to stare at her for another couple seconds. Just as she looked up, he shook his head and turned away. Jimmy, however, was paying more attention to Sven's behavior, although he said nothing.

         "Anyways," Jim began. "If you two need a place to sleep for a little bit, I made up a room in one of the old buildings out there. I have a couple extra sleeping bags too."

         Cindy and Jimmy looked at each other. Cindy shrugged. "I… guess…" she trailed off.

         Jim slapped his hands together and stood, making his way to the opening in the tent, being careful not to step on any of his inventions. "I knew you would; I didn't even have to ask," he muttered to himself. He held the tent flap open for the kids to get out. "C'mon, I'll show you where it is."

         Sven spoke up. "So- you're not gonna be here tonight?"

         Jim shook his head. "No, I should stay with them at least for the night."

         "Whatever." Sven shrugged and turned away.

NvEoUrTtReOxN

         "So who was that guy?"

         "He's a friend of mine… or rather, ours. You'll meet him in high school." Jim walked the two into the burned-looking town. The black houses were almost invisible on the moonless night, which also made the jagged, rocky ground a little hazardous to walk across. They had no trouble however coming to a fairly decent building (although all they could see was the outline of the house).

         Cindy turned at looked at it. "You're not saying…"

         Jim just looked up. "Yep. This is your home for four days. And yes, you have to stay here. We have a government that's not too happy with our being here, and so you can't risk sleeping outside in this town."

         Cindy looked up in awe. "How… did you-"

         "Know what you were gonna say? I've seen this scene before. In fact, I can tell you guys all about how you're lives will turn out until you're 23."

         Jimmy donned a hopeful look. "You can?"

         "Well, I can, but I'm not going to reveal much. Just what you need to know."

         The kids nodded as they made their way into the house.

NvEoUrTtReOxN

         "Well, here ya go," Jim tossed the two sleeping bags on the ground and slowly made his way to a corner.

         The two shrugged as they slowly bent down to grab their bags. But the room seemed almost pitch-black, and unbeknownst to them, they had clutched the same one. They both tried to pull it in opposite directions, but soon realized that it was getting nowhere.

         "Let go Neutron! This one's mine." Cindy grumbled.

         "Hey, I saw it first Vortex."

         Cindy stuck her forefinger out in front of her face and waved it around, although Jimmy didn't see it in the darkness.

         "You're the one that got us stranded out here. You can get that one. I call this one!"

         Invisible in the dark corner, Jim held his hand out in front of him and moved his thumb and fingers apart, mocking the two in their argument. He soon grew tired of his childish antics however, and sat down with his arms crossed, resting his chin against his chest.

         "Well, if we're gonna be stuck here for the next week or so, then why not make the best of it!"

         "That's right," Jim muttered to himself. "And it would be best for you if you gave that to me and took the other one."

         "That's right! And it would be best for you if you gave that one to me and took the other one!" Cindy fumed.

         "That's not what I meant Vortex," Jim smiled.

         "That's not what I meant Vortex."

         Cindy put her hand to her forehead and sighed. "Look Jimmy. I don't really want to argue, so let's just do this another way."

         "Like how?" Jimmy crossed his arms, letting go of the bag.

         Jim stood up and walked over to Jimmy. "Don't worry about it. C'mon, you two are fighting over sleeping bags. Doesn't that just seem a little immature to you?"

         Jimmy and Cindy looked down, but once again, it couldn't be seen in the darkness. "I'm right, as usual." The boy muttered. "You can have this."

         Jim put his hand to his forehead. "Geez, here's where it gets rough." He muttered incoherently.

         "No, you can have it…"

         "Vortex, I just said you could use it! I'm just trying to be nice, that's all!"

         "So am I! I just-"

         "I need some aspirin." Jim walked out of the room, getting away from their bickering.

NvEoUrTtReOxN

         Early morning sunshine filtered through the windows, once again harassing the sleeping Cindy. She turned away and curled up in a ball, trying to get away from the sunbeams. She looked up slowly, seeing the sleeping form of Jimmy a few feet in front of her. He looks so innocent when he's sleeping…

         She turned around, noticing the empty corner that Jim had slept in the night before. Standing and stretching, she made her way to the door, careful not to disturb Jimmy from his sleep.

         Stepping outside, she blocked the bright sun with her hand and looked around. The wasteland looked even more desolate and war-ravaged in the morning light. She bent over and scooped up a handful of dust, noticing the trace amounts of gunpowder Jimmy had mentioned the day before.

         "I lost a good friend where you're standing." Cindy whipped around, dropping the soil. Jim leaned against the wall of the house she had just emerged from, hands in his pockets. "About a week ago now… we were ambushed by the Kokator tribe. We were able to regroup and drive them back, but…" he stood and looked up at the sky. Cindy thought she saw his blue eyes go misty. "My friend Drake was killed."

         Cindy looked down. "What do you mean… you were ambushed?"

         "The Kokator tribe lives not to far from here. They say we're incarnations of demons."

         "Why?"

         Jim looked down at her. "Because… because we're here to steal something of theirs. So they view us as unholy."

         Cindy nodded. "And you fight them."

         "I don't like too… that's not what I was hired to do."

         "Hired? You mean you're-"

         "A mercenary." Cindy nodded again. "General Abercrombie hired me to locate the tomb of King Alazraqui [A/N: for those who don't know, Carlos Alazraqui voices Sheen's dad… so I just pulled that name for the sake of my horrible imagination at the moment X_X No offense is meant to him in any way]."

         "Abercrombie?"

         "Not the Abercrombie you're familiar with. This is his son, Sven's uncle. That's how I got hired… because I knew Sven."

         "So… what are you trying to steal from these people?"

         Jim shook his head. "Alazraqui was said to be buried with tons of gold and treasures. We have to find it, and so I'm in charge of creating new technology to do so. But some people don't want us to disturb the tomb, namely the tribe and the government."

         "Well, if you were here in the past, when you were our age, don't you already know where it is?" Cindy asked questionably.

         Jim nodded. "I'm stalling. Trying to draw out time. But mostly, I was waiting for you two to show up." he walked back toward the building and pounded on the wall with one fist. "Jimmy, come on. We know you're listening. We have to leave in a minute."

         Jimmy popped his head out the door, slowly withdrawing from the shelter. "Where?"

         "The General knows you're here. I have direct orders to bring you two to him."

I'm sorry if the Jim/Jimmy thing gets a little confusing… and reading it over, the writing seemed slightly sub-par to me (due to the deep nostalgic mood I'm in right now…) so I am most likely going to do a re-write in the not-so-distant future, but I'll see who likes it as it is… so please give me your input! Thanks!