It might work--she could discern good and evil in these creatures, just as she could in humans.

Raising her arms, she waved one hand at Portinari, and the other at the members of the Time Council. "You must do right," she commanded. "You cannot do wrong. You will give me the time reverser and return me to Earth." Everything seemed right; the good within the alien souls was dominating the evil.

Yet their expressions, if they could be called such, did not change. "That would be a violation of the laws of the Alliance," said Portinari flatly.

"Saving lives is not against the law!" shrieked Augusta in despair. "What's the matter with you aliens?"

The Time Enforcer seemed slightly moved by her display of anger and sorrow. "If it makes you feel better," he offered, "we can establish a communications link between the council chamber and Earth, so you can give comfort to your young friends in their last moments."

Augusta rubbed the tears from her eyes and wondered how the privilege of watching April, George, Fern, and Alan die violently would console her.

Finally she said, "Go ahead. It's better than nothing."

The chief alien council member raised a tentacle, and one of the metallic walls instantaneously transformed into a sort of video screen. The scene was of an Elwood City street in chaos; about a dozen brutal fights were taking place, and an occasional gunshot was audible. In the middle of it all, Alan, Fern, and George were looking around in terror, while two men and two women with crazed expressions and shrunken pupils were being smacked around by an invisible karate fighter.

The three kids were shocked by the sudden appearance of a floating screen, which showed them an alien council in front of which Augusta and Portinari stood. "It's them!" Alan cried out.

"Come back!" Fern pleaded. "Come back or we're all dead!" A bleeding cut was visible on her right temple.

"I can't," said Augusta, stepping closer to the Kron end of the screen. "The aliens won't let me."

"Aliens!" gloated George. "I knew it all along!" Behind him, April briefly reappeared after felling her attackers, only to be confronted by five more bloodthirsty residents.

"They won't let me use the time reverser," Augusta explained to them. "They say it has a one in ten million chance of destroying the space-time continuum."

"We have a one in one chance of being destroyed if you don't use it!" Alan retorted.

"Did you try using your powers to make them good?" Fern asked her.

"Yes," answered Augusta. "That only made them more determined to uphold their laws."

"Then try using your powers to make them evil," Fern suggested.

"That's crazy! They'll start killing each other!"

"Not if they're like the Glinkons," George chimed in.

"The what?" Augusta looked at him quizzically through the video screen.

"Aliens on Star Trek," George explained. "They're genetically incapable of violence. They can't hurt others, even to save their own lives."

There was a cry of pain, and April became visible as she toppled to the asphalt. The invisibility stone dropped from her hand, rolled into the gutter, and disappeared through a grating.

"April!" cried Alan, bending down to examine the deep gash in the unconscious girl's chest.

As Augusta watched helplessly, four townspeople with murder in their eyes surrounded Alan, Fern, and George. The three children had no more defenses.

"Turn it off!" she exclaimed in horror.

The video transmission on the wall of the alien chamber faded and vanished.

April was dead. It was too much to endure. Augusta broke down and wept.

Now more sympathetic, Portinari embraced her and allowed her tears to flow down his shirt. "We can do nothing," he said quietly. "We must do nothing. It is the law. I wish you could understand."

She had never believed she could suffer so much. Millions would die, and she was the cause, and these alien meddlers would not allow her to become the solution. Her life, her dreams, everything she had experienced...it was all meaningless.

Then, from the depths, she heard an echo of what George had told her.

She pushed Portinari away, wiped the tears from her cheeks, and straightened her unruly hair. "Is it true?" she asked the Time Enforcer. "Is your race incapable of violence?"

"Yes," came his reply. "We eliminated aggressive tendencies from our species forty million years ago."

"I see," said Augusta, her sorrow turning into confidence. "So if one of you were to give in to your baser nature, you wouldn't act in a violent way, just a selfish, short-sighted way."

"True."

She now knew what she needed to do.

Waving her hands at Portinari and the Time Council, she intoned, "You are now evil. You will act selfishly, with no regard for the law."

Portinari's stoic demeanor gave way to a wicked sneer. Tightening his grip on the time reverser with one hand, he used his other to take Augusta by the shoulder and draw her to his chest.

"To blazes with the law," he exclaimed in a spirited tone. "I'm going back to Earth with the woman I love!"

The aliens in the Council looked at each other and murmured.

"Sure, whatever," said one of them.

"It's none of our business," said another.

And in a flash, Augusta and Portinari were on their way back.

----

"You have nothing to fear," said April. "Once Augusta activates the time reverser, our timeline will cease to exist. None of what is about to happen will have happened."

"That sounds bad," Fern muttered to Alan.

"We have to stop her somehow," Alan replied. "I have some coins in my pocket I can throw at her."

Then the Los Cactos crystal started to glow...

"Stop!" came a woman's voice.

Relieved at the sound, Augusta lowered the crystal. April returned the case to her, and she placed the object inside and closed it.

Alan, Fern, and George discovered that they could move their legs. To their astonishment, a man and woman who exactly resembled Portinari and Augusta were strolling through the grass and weeds in their direction. In one hand the Portinari double held a second time reverser.

Augusta examined her own double and Portinari's with concern. "You brought Rick with you," she observed. "And you don't have the crystal. Something's gone wrong."

"You said it, sister," replied the Augusta double.

Before anyone had a chance to comment on the oddness of the situation, a large video screen appeared in the air. The image was of the Time Council in its chamber.

"Time Enforcer Grobblitz," proclaimed the foremost alien, "you have openly violated the laws of the Alliance by using a forbidden time device. The punishment is eternal exile from Kron, and the destruction of your device."

The Portinari double squeezed the time reverser in his hand until it burst into useless chunks. "Done, and done."

Augusta looked down at the original time reverser she held, then turned to Portinari. "Rick, what's a Time Enforcer?"

"You're looking at one," the psychiatrist replied. "No, you're looking at two."

Augusta lowered her head thoughtfully. "From the sound of it, I'm not going to get away with this." She handed the time reverser to Portinari, who crushed and dropped it as April watched in dismay.

"Wow," George marveled. "Dr. Portinari really is an alien."

"But I'm a friendly alien," said the two Portinaris in unison.

April confronted Augusta angrily. "You let him destroy the time reverser," she protested. "Our plans are ruined."

Augusta looked over at her double. "Would you like to field this one, Augusta?" she asked.

"Certainly, Augusta," answered the double. "You see, April, Rick is a member of an alien race that polices time travel experiments. He stopped me from using the time reverser, and transported me to his planet. I had to make his evil side take over to get him to bring me back, and now he's been kicked out of his planet."

April turned to the Augusta double and pondered for a moment. "All right," she said, "we'll come up with another plan. One that doesn't involve time travel."

"I'm afraid not," was the double's response.

April gaped in disbelief.

"I've made contact with an alien race," the Augusta double went on. "I've learned that there are millions of inhabited worlds, and many of them are much older and more civilized than ours. Before long Earth will join the Alliance, and pattern its society after the more advanced races. Creating a perfect world is no longer a job for witches, April."

The cat girl's face fell. "So...that's it," she muttered. "You're giving up."

"I wouldn't call it giving up," the double replied. "We all contribute to a perfect world in our own little way, you know."

Visibly disgusted, April turned back to the original Augusta and snatched the case containing the crystal from her hands. After gazing dejectedly at the woman's face for a few seconds, she said, "Goodbye, Augusta."

Alan, Fern, and George stepped closer, thinking they were witnessing a bitter farewell.

"Where are you going?" asked Augusta.

"There are things I need to do," April replied sadly. "And the last thing on my list is to return the crystal to Los Cactos...and turn myself in to the authorities."

Everyone else present--Fern, Alan, George, the Augustas, the Portinaris--was filled with sorrow at the prospect of April departing forever, and possibly spending time in prison.

April, her eyes moist, stood in front of Alan, George, and Fern. "It's been fun, guys," she told them. "I'm glad I was able to come back for a little while. I hope you find a new saxophonist for the quartet."

"Will we see you again?" Fern wanted to know.

"It's hard to say," was the best response April could provide.

After she had exchanged hugs with her three young friends, April Murphy, still carrying the crystal case, wandered away from the orchard and down the sidewalk, vanishing behind a house.

The two Augustas faced each other, as well as the two Portinaris. "What do we do now?" wondered the original Augusta. "There's two of each of us."

"I can never go back to Kron after what I did," said the Portinari double. "I will remain on Earth with the woman I love." He laid an arm around the shoulders of the Augusta double.

The original Portinari turned to the original Augusta. "I've committed no crimes, so I can return to Kron if I want. Would you like to visit? It's a beautiful planet."

"I'd love to," answered the original Augusta.

Fern, George, and Alan grinned as they watched the two Augusta-Portinari couples kiss fondly.

----

Monday started out like any other school day. Only Alan, Fern, and George knew that their quick thinking under pressure had saved a large portion of the world from chaos and destruction.

Mavis and Mickie were once again talking about their conflict over the Spongebrain cartoons. "I think you're right after all," Mickie acknowledged. If I use stale ideas, people will realize it sooner or later. If I can't fool you, who can I fool?"

"So you'll withdraw your copyright application?" said Mavis hopefully.

"No way," replied Mickie. "I'll just hire you on as a writer."

As the two girls exchanged barbs, they walked past a bench where Muffy sat studying furiously, trying to prepare for the imminent equivalency test.

In another part of the school, Francine was wishing Van the best for his upcoming operation. "I've had three surgeries like this one before," the duck boy assured her. "I don't think anything will go wrong."

"I'll be praying for you, just in case," said Francine. Glancing around, she added, "Now where did I leave my backpack? Oh, right. The art room."

Taking leave of Van, she hurried toward the art classroom, hoping to retrieve her pack in time for the beginning of the next period.

The door had been left open, and the room was semi-dark. As Francine squeezed through the easels toward the table where she had left her pack, she heard a sound like heavy breathing from one corner.

Curious, she turned...and saw Arthur and Beat on their knees, kissing.

"Arthur! NO!"

----

On another street, in another town, in another state, April Murphy stepped out of a taxi and onto the sidewalk. Her bandages had been removed, and the scars on her right arm and left temple were quite visible. She strapped onto her back a bag that carried all of her worldly possessions.

She had seen the little pastel-green house before--indeed, she had lived in it before.

She rang the doorbell, and shortly was greeted by Daisy Armstrong. Daisy's nine-year-old daughter Sue Ellen stood behind her, and they both gasped at the sight of the amazingly familiar-looking visitor.

"Can I come in?" asked April. "I need to talk to you about something very important."

A block away, another pair of eyes watched through binoculars while Mrs. Armstrong allowed April to enter and closed the door. The eyes belonged to an aardvark man with a moustache and a dark blue suit and tie, who sat in the driver's seat of a yellow Camaro.

The man sneered. "Good girl," he muttered with pleasure. "You led me right to them."

THE END