"This can't be happening!" cried Cody.
"No, we're not Mr. Forrester. This is all apparently real. We were chosen to defeat or be defeated. Those are our only two choices," Nick told him.
Cody looked away from them, taking this all in at once.
"Alright. Frank is one of three men who have to save a lot of people today and in the future," Cody finally said in acceptance.
Michelle and Nick nodded as they looked at each other.
Frank paced back and forth in the waiting room. He couldn't believe what he was hearing and he was certain the rest of his team wasn't either. He put a hand over his mouth and thought about all that had been said to him and the others. Monica walked up to him.
"Frank, I know this is a lot to take in since it's been such a short time," she told him.
Frank nodded his head as he gazed over to Cody's room. He was walking out with Michelle and Nick. Cody looked between Nick, Frank and Ardeth, amazement in his eyes.
"I see and it and I still don't believe it! Are you three sure you're not brothers?" he asked them.
"We have never met before now," Nick replied as he stood beside Frank.
Cody looked between the three until he got a headache. He put his good hand on his forehead. Michelle put her hand on his shoulder.
As this was happening, Ardeth and Harriet began to help Catlanda down to her room.
"What will happen now?" Rae wondered as she walked up to them.
No one answered because noone knew what to say just yet. Everybody watched as Frank decided to go down the hallway in the same direction as Ardeth, Catlanda and Harriet before stopping a few feet away.
"What was wrong with her?" wondered Frank.
His team nodded in agreement as the doctors, Rick and Evie all looked at each.
"We're really not the ones to tell you that. They are. If you want to find out, then you'd have to ask them about it. Heck, we don't even know the entire story," Evie replied as she stepped towards Frank.
00000
The Time Traveller soon reached the year of 2004. He stared at the scene before him. It was of a hospital and three men could be seen in the picture amongst a large group. He snickered as he looked at this scene.
"This is too easy. The three of them all in one spot so I can take them out all at once. Their children will be destroyed as well. The sweet part is so will one unborn grandchild," he quietly told himself with a smile.
He walked into the picture and looked around the place before he turned down a corridor. He passed people along the way. They barely took notice of his presence as he did so, causing him to laugh quietly.
'Fools, none of you know the danger you're in. This world will be soon finished, slowly and methodically, once I finish with these three men here. They are the one thing standing in my way of ultimate victory,' he thought to himself as he stared at each and every face that he passed him.
He turned the corner to see Catlanda leaning against the wall, breathing heavily.
'This is the one who carries the child. She carries the grandchild of one of the three men,' he said to himself. 'I can sense a great power surrounding her. What is it? I know it. Can't place it.'
It dawned on him as Ardeth helped her walk down the hall, and he carried the Spire.
"She carries the Spire! She and him both will know who I am! I must leave before they spot me. They must not know I'm here yet," he quietly said.
He walked away from them and walked down another corridor as Ardeth helped Catlanda to the room she was staying in and into a chair.
"You should be up walking around Cat. This child can come at any moment and you are doing more that what you need to," Ardeth told her as he knelt before her.
"Father, our lives are at stake here. Your life most of all. If I do not do anything, this child might not have a man to call their grandfather or a woman to call mother. If I do nothing, this child might be born at all and I want it to be," she told him. "I want you to be this child's father figure, just like what you've done for me. I am no different except this child will have their mother at least."
Ardeth gazed at the sad look on her face.
"Come here," he told her as he reached out for her.
He put his arms around her as she held onto his arms. It was a bit awkward with her large stomach. Neither one of them noticed Frank standing outside the doorway, looking inside. He thought about Michelle, what he would do without her. He wondered what type of man he would be today without her around. He began to wonder what Nick or Ardeth would be without the people they called their 'children.' He bit his lip as he thought about what he had heard about Catlanda's delicate condition.
The Time Traveller walked down the hallway and into the waiting room, where he came across the strange looking group filled with doctors, Federal Agents and friends. He looked around at them and soon came to Nick, who was kneeling before Sarah. He was talking to her in Greek and she was nodding.
The Time Traveller smiled as he walked over to them.
"Hello, how is everything?" he asked them.
The group solemnly looked at the man standing before them. Nick couldn't help but stare at the man. He asked Sarah and Patrick something to which they said no. They asked why but he didn't answer as he climbed to his feet. The Time Traveller smiled as he looked at Nick.
"I believe we have met before Dr. Kokoris," he said as the smile turned into an evil one. "Now you will die along with all the people you ever knew."
Nick gasped as the man pulled out two swords. He lunged at the group, who just managed to get out of the way. Rae and Evie hurried in one direction as Jake and Rick went in another. Cody leaned against the wall as Michelle, Sarah and Patrick stood nearby. Letty, Monica and Alex were in another position.
It was then that Jackie, Matt, Harriet and Jules walked onto the scene. They stared at the man wielding the swords.
"What is going on here?" wondered Jackie as worry crept into her voice.
No one answered her before the man now wielded guns.
"Fear me for I am the Time Traveller!" he cried with a menacing laugh.
"The Time Traveller? He's here!" cried Evie as they all backed away from him.
The guns fired in two different directions before the man threw them to the floor and lunged at Nick. He pinned the man against the wall and began to punch him in the face repeatedly. Nick tried to free himself from his captor's grasp but couldn't. The Time Traveller saw this and laughed again.
"You will never get from me. I am too strong for anyone to defeat me," he laughed as another sword appeared in his hand.
Nick gasped as he stared at it through his eye that wasn't so swollen.
Ardeth heard the commotion from down the hall in Catlanda's room. He hurried from her side and out the door to see Frank standing there, looking down the hall. Harriet hurried along side them, looking in the same direction.
"What do you suppose is going on?" she wondered as the three stared at each other.
"I am not sure but we go and find out. They might need our help. Watch Catlanda for me please?" Ardeth asked of Harriet. "She should not be part of this."
She nodded before he and Frank hurried down the hallway to be greeted by the scene before them. They were surprised at this. Sarah was screaming, trying to break free of Jake's grasp. The man strangling Nick turned to look at them, the same evil smile on his face.
"Well, what do you know? The party's all here!" he said, laughter written all over his voice.
He let go of Nick, who slid down the wall. Jules and Letty hurried up to him as he coughed a few times. The two women looked up at the menacing man to see he was headed over to Ardeth and Frank, who were slowly backing away.
"We have to lead him away from all these people!" Ardeth told Frank, who nodded.
"We can't having him hurt innocent people," Frank said.
They hurried away and soon split into two different corridors. The Time Traveller looked down both of them before going after Frank.
Frank looked behind him to see the man was after him.
"Oh great," he said as he headed towards the stairs.
He opened the door and started to walk down them. The Time Traveller watched him do so before stepping away from the door.
Frank glanced up to see the man wasn't following him.
"Great. Just what I need. Someone who doesn't go after their intended target," he mumbled.
"Oh I go after my intended target Mr. Donovan. I just go about it differently than what everybody else does," came a voice.
Frank turned back around to see the man who was following him was now standing before him. Frank backed away as the man walked towards him.
"They haven't told you much about me if you didn't realize that I can travel through time," the man said with a snicker.
He punched Frank in the stomach and he doubled over in pain. He squinted his eyes as he backed against the wall.
"You will have never felt pain like what I'm about to give you or the other two men," the Time Traveller snickered as he lifted up his arm, his hand balled in a fist.
The hand came down across Frank's jaw. Frank thought he heard a crack but he wasn't exactly sure. Before he could register anything else, his arms were grabbed and roughly pushed onto the wall. Frank knew he heard a crack then in his right wrist. He tried to hide the pain from appearing on his face but couldn't help it as he hissed in pain.
"You will all DIE!!" cried the man as the man held onto Frank's arms tighter against the wall.
Frank thought he could feel more bones on the verge of breaking when Ardeth ran through the door, sword in hand.
"Leave him alone!" Ardeth called to him as he started down the stairs.
The man let Frank go and headed towards the Medjai chief.
"A man from the late 1930's challenges me? I have seen the future. I know what will happen," he snickered, holding out his arms.
"You only know what you are intending to do the world. All the disasters that have occured and will occur have been your own doing," Ardeth told him.
"But you are facing me, of all people, in a time that is beyond your comprehension," the Time Traveller told him as Ardeth began to back away from him.
Frank tried to yell out a warning but couldn't because of the pain his jaw was in. He was breathing heavily as he stared up at Ardeth. The two locked eyes and Ardeth seemed to know what Frank wanted him to know. A sword appeared in his hand and the two faced off in a sword fight. Ardeth knew right away that the moves he was performing were simliar to the ones he did when facing off against Lock-nah. How he remebered, he wasn't entirely sure.
Suddenly, he failed to block one of the man's punches and it connected with his nose. Ardeth dropped the sword and his hand went up to his face. He stared at the man looming over him. Ardeth grabbed the sword from off the floor but the Time Traveller was prepared. He had grabbed the fire extinguisher from off of the wall and aimed it right at Ardeth. The contents of the canister soon emptied onto Ardeth, who sputtered and tried to block the oncoming cloud.
Soon, the extunguisher was empty and it was thrown onto the ground next to the coughing Ardeth. He had collapsed onto this knees.
"You are no match for me," the man who towered above him said. "Now I will go after that precious daughter of yours. I will kill her, thus killing her baby. Then there will be no heir to the Medjai leadership, whether it be your 'daughter' or her child."
At that moment, he felt a strong buzzing in his ears. He covered his ears and looked to its origin. Catlanda was walking towards them, Spire in hand.
"You will not win this battle Traveller," she called to him.
"Too late Keeper, I've already won," he yelled back at her before disappearing into thin air.
She hurried up to Ardeth, who was now leaning against the wall. His eyes were shut tightly as a hand covered his face. She looked down at Frank to see he was in no better condition. Matt, Harriet and Rae hurried to the door to see the extent of the two men. They were surprised to see them in such condition. Matt went to Frank's side as Rae went to Ardeth. Harriet helped Catlanda get out of the way.
TBC...