Disclaimer: I'd love to know the characters, but I don't. I'd also like to be making money off of this, but I can't, so I won't.... Le sigh.
A/N: Second last chapter!! I'm actually looking forward to the end, if only because I like the way I intend to end it... he he. Go Agent Daniels.
Icheb blinked, pausing in the middle of the lecture's sentence, as his gaze fell on the strangely empty front-row seat. Miss Henry should have been there, should have been listening to him lecture on subspace communications. No, she shouldn't. She shouldn't have ever been here- she was from the Twentieth Century, as Icheb was often forced to remind himself.
Icheb had been to the Infirmary three times since Frances' impromptu departure from the Academy. The last time had been two months ago- he stopped after the doctor had threatened to declare him a hypochondriac if he kept arriving in perfect health, claiming there was something wrong with him.
Icheb couldn't tell the doctor what was wrong with him, since he was unable to find the words to describe it. Icheb was experiencing a strange sinking feeling sporadically throughout the day, as if the contents of his chest cavity were being affected by increased gravity (he didn't know it until later, when Amanda pointed it out to him, but the 'sporadic' feelings of being pressed towards the earth all coincided with when he was thinking of Frances- a sure sign that he missed her).
It actually took four months for Agent Daniels to find where the timeline was changed, but when he came to correct the problem, he came with a bang. Literally: Icheb was just finishing the sentence that he had paused during, when a loud cracking set him covering his ears, and squeezing his eyes shut.
When he looked up, there was a young woman with blonde hair that was coiled loosely on top of her head, and a man with closely cropped brown hair, a permanent furrow to his brow, and a uniform that Lieutenant Paris would have said looked like it was made from play-dough. Q2 was standing beside Icheb, looking rather confused.
"Do you know what you've done?" The strange man said, glaring at the both of them. Q2 blinked, and the girl- Amanda- answered.
"No, of course you don't," Amanda looked angry as well. "That's what we're going to tell you. Q2, when I showed you how Frances got into the Twenty-Fourth Century, I did not mean for you to put her back into her own time!" She said, her expression hard.
"Your little crush on Icheb has caused a wide spread plague across the entire Universe!" The man proclaimed.
"You have a crush on me?" Icheb asked. How strange... well, it certainly explained some of Q2's actions. Q2 blinked at him, looking both confused and overwhelmed. And his crush should have been obvious.
Amanda put a hand on the strangers shoulder, and stepped forward. "Q2, Icheb, meet Agent Daniels. He's a Temporal Agent, as am I." Icheb shook his head, and opened his mouth to ask what the purpose of a temporal agent was, when there was the Department of Temporal Investigations, but Amanda continued before he could.
"We work to keep any one person or group from changing the past for their own benefit." She said. "We're not tied to the Federation, or anyone else, so that no one of us is tempted to do what we're protecting the universe against. We also work outside of Time, so that we know what changes have happened, no matter where or when. And you," she glared at Q2, the anger returning two fold, at least. "You just destroyed the solution to a problem it took three Agents, including myself, to find!!"
"What?" Q2 asked, and Icheb asked at the same time, "What problem?" In effect, the two questions cancelled each other out, and neither Agent Daniels, nor Amanda answered either of them. Not immediately, anyway.
"Q2," Amanda said sweetly, "You are officially the first Q to end all mortal life in the universe. Congratulations." Q2 gaped. All life? Who would he play with? How did this happen? He hadn't killed anybody! Had he?
"Of course you have." Amanda answered his thoughts. "You killed every descendant that Icheb and Frances were supposed to produce. Including the child who was to become a great scientist, and eventually discover both the cure and the vaccine for a plague that is even now destroying the future." Q2 gasped, and sat down in Frances' empty chair.
Icheb looked poleaxed. "You mean, she and I copulate?" he asked. Q2 felt like glaring. Icheb was his!! Not Frances'! Not anyone else's! His!! But then again... Icheb being his would cost the Continuum every playtoy in the universe. If he let that happen, the Continuum might really turn him into an amoeba for good.
He licked his suddenly dry lips. "All mortal life?" he asked, and Amanda nodded ruthlessly. "Then we have to bring her back!" he said, jumping to his feet. Amanda nodded benevolently, sending a thought message that said he had made the right decision.
"No, we can't." Icheb said, crossing his arms. "The Temporal Prime Directive clearly states that-"
"The Temporal Prime Directive does not apply to three out of four of us, and you, Icheb, have no say in what we do. You're only allowed to see and hear this, because you have to make sure the Department of Temporal Investigations doesn't get wind of this." Agent Daniels said, raising one strangely pale eyebrow. "We are bringing her back, Icheb." The other three nodded, and it was clear Icheb was turning that over in his mind.
"Agreed." He said finally, and Q2 felt a smile of relief break out over his features. "If it is for the Universe, then we must."
Q2 set out to bring Frances back to the Twenty-Fourth Century immediately.