''I was far enough away to escape the blast when you and your friends destroyed the Occulus.'' There was more than a touch of hostility in her voice as Eve Baxter told her story - being a Time Master had been her life after all.
They had moved into Rip's kitchen to have this talk. Sitting across the table from her, Rip glanced down at the cup of tea that he had barely touched.
''I went back to see if there was anyone I could save. There wasn't.'' She took a long sip of her own drink. When she spoke again, the hostility had gone from her voice. ''Then Morris - my AI - began to pick up energy readings that didn't fit any known pattern. After that he completely malfunctioned. It took weeks to get him even halfway functional.'' She paused. 'Caspar and Dronon.''
The names were those of two other Time Master Captains, two whom - to be honest - he'd never really liked, even when they were on the same side. You're taking her seriously, the fantasy author part of his mind told him - are you sure this isn't some kind of mind-control, brainwashing or hallucination?
''What about them?''
''They're changed the timeline - hence the difference between your old memories and the life you have now'' again she paused.''They used Holaristan technology to do it.''
His face must have shown his shock, if not his disbelief, for she nodded.
''Of course, there was only a certain amount they could do - if they'd restored the Time Masters and the Vanishing Point -''
''Then they would have been executed for treason'' he finished for her. Even though their lives had been given back to them, the Time Council could never have excused using the black technology of an evil race.
''They restored Vandal Savage and changed your lifepath. In the new reality you never became a Time Master and you never recruited people to help you take on Savage.''
He was silent for a moment, thinking things through. ''What do they have?''
''Caspar and Dronon have a Time Master mothership. Savage has a small group of allies. We need help. Your Legends are alive, living much as they did before you recruited them. We need people who know what we're up against. We have to locate them and restore their memories too.''
''You didn't know them very well, did you?'' He remembered how they'd reacted the first-time round. Restore their memories of what had happened to them on that mission and well - he dreaded to think of their reactions.
''We can't deal with this on our own'' she pointed out. 'Who else is there?''
He sighed. ''No one.''
