1901-1902
Freedom for the Sanctuary would involve some major changes to its current structure on almost every level. To make 'Project Freedom' even viably work, it would have to take place completely in the dark, almost quite literally, and not just because of time travel. To fix the 'government' issue, Helen knew it would have to include the Sanctuary not only being physically 'off' of land controlled by any governments, but also visually out of any government's eyes. Throughout Helen's experience with the Sanctuary and just daily life (especially when the internet comes around), she found anonymity to be the best option above all else. Helen needed a stable location where she could continue to conduct her work in true secret, and the Sanctuary's current standing of 'hiding in plain sight' wasn't going to be sustainable for too much longer, and she knew it.
Her solution was to take tips from Praxis. A civilization that has been completely hidden from the surface for the last eight thousand years, completely protected from outside interference. With it being its own little bubble, it was able to continue to make advancements throughout its history without something eventually coming along the way to tear it down every couple hundred years, such as what continuously plagues the surface. The technological advances they've made are mind blowing, including medical treatments, transit systems, and architecture. All things that Helen can learn from and need to help advance the Sanctuary.
History repeating itself is inevitable, especially on the surface. Scribes have recorded repeated events since the start of recording history itself. One thing that repeats more than all else are acts of humans to 'control' things, whether land, people, ideas, etc. Even in Helen's respectively short 160 years before going back in time she's seen it happen too many times over already. The leading cause she knew was simple biology. Every creature wants to feel safe and to accomplish that requires the threat, not matter how big or how small, to be dominated and assimilated or eliminated altogether. It's a major factor behind why humans as a species have become as successful as they are; enabling them to spread across the planet. For the most part, just being human is usually not enough to feel completely safe with each other. 'Sameness' is also an important factor, as people are more comfortable around others if they can relate to each other on a more personal level. However, in regards to Abnormals, being a fellow human is more than enough of a requirement. Helen, above all else, can agree to the need for Praxis and the Sanctuary to exist to help separate the two dominate groups on the planet. With a current majority population of over seven billion humans running around on the surface, she knows it's futile to try to bring the two sides together, not only because she herself has tried before, but because others have tried to do it both before and after her, and it's always failed in some way or another. With Abnormals being the more fragile minority population, anonymity is a very good thing, and Praxis (simply in its existence alone) proves that. It gives strong backing to Helen's decision to move her Network underground.
For Helen, her want for control was over her work which is the Sanctuary. She used to have full control over her work because it used to be a private endeavor that she inherited from her father, but over the years it has 'unfortunately' had to become bought and paid for by governments, something that she is directly on a path to correct at this very moment. While the financial support factor of gathering funds was considerably simple as Helen could remember specific profitable investments over the years, it was the physical location factor that was more difficult to come by. From what Helen could remember of the holographic map, she knew where she could find certain arterial passages leading to Hollow Earth that were close to the surface, but she couldn't access them. The closest one she could find was down in an underwater cave just on the coast in Peru. At some point in time there must have been geologic activity that collapsed part of the cave entrance, making the tunnel inaccessible. In order to get to the tunnel, she would have to find a way to blast the rock out of the way. The best explosive medium she could think of that was invented and procurable at this time that could accomplish the job was nitroglycerin. Unfortunately, Helen didn't know much about the controlled usage of such a substance. Also, semi-unfortunately, she knew exactly a person who did and she was kicking herself for it.
Helen cursed, because of course it just had to be one of her closest friends and colleagues and member of The Five, Nikola Tesla. At this point in time, Helen knew that Nikola was in Long Island, New York working on the Wardenclyffe Tower. She also knew that her other self was also in New York at that very same time meeting him of all people. Helen knew that this would be very dicey. She would have to try create a situation in which neither Nikola nor her other self would notice her. Even if Nikola did believe that she was her past self, she couldn't create a situation that Nikola would remember and accidentally talk with her other self about if her other self wasn't also there for it. Luckily, both Tesla and other self were pretty busy at this time traveling back and forth from place to place that if Helen requested another trip with him to go somewhere he wouldn't think much of it.
Helen decided an in-person request was best as it took out the uncertainty of the postal system. She couldn't have her past self accidentally stumble across a letter from Tesla addressed to her and in it find a message detailing events between the two of them she had no knowledge about. So, what Helen did was 'extend' her trip visiting Tesla in New York for a day to 'plant a seed' to get him involved. After past Helen got on a ship to travel back to England, future Helen 'coincidentally' ran into Tesla in town the next morning. Tesla was a bit confused at seeing her and asked why she was still here as he had thought that she had already left. She told a half truth, half white lie depending on which way you looked at it. She said that just before she boarded the ship that afternoon that she got word from a contact about another allusive and rare Abnormal in South America. She said that from the information she was given that she may need his help in capturing it, but she wouldn't know for sure until she visited in a few months after the New Year to scout out the location to confirm the information. She told him that she waited an extra day so that she could asked him in person if he'd be available to meet her there if it turned out that she required his assistance after all. Tesla didn't seem to have too much objections to the idea and agreed to the possible visit.
Once the year rolled over, Tesla expectantly received a telegram from Helen to meet him at a swanky hotel in Miraflores, Peru to discuss further specifics. During his trip down there, future Helen wined and dined him as best she could and eventually told him that she was trying to capture a species of multi-headed shark. Tesla wasn't sure how he'd be able to help until she mentioned her 'problem' in capturing it. That the sharks were located in a remote underwater cave and that she needed someone who had an expertise in using nitroglycerin to help open the cave wall up to make it more accessible to people, but also not cause it to collapse in on itself. Tesla certainly liked the challenge of using explosives and passed along the information that she needed none the wiser. He thanked her for the trip as it was a nice getaway from his current issues back in New York.
Helen made sure to quickly follow up with him not long after to inform him that while his advice had worked exactly the way it was expected to, that she had ultimately failed to capture one of the sharks all together. Helen did this intentionally as past Helen never had one of those sharks in her collection and this would prevent Tesla from further asking past Helen about the creature for some reason or another.
Now that Helen had access to the tunnel, she was free to explore it. She knew that she couldn't actually visit Praxis yet, but she could start to plan out where she'd build her new Sanctuary and how she would go about it.
Author's note: Writing this was not easy as I had to not only consider the information in the deleted scene from the end of Season 4 between Helen and Tesla in her office, but also what the real Tesla was historically doing in real life. I had some trouble in connecting New York 1901 to Miraflores 1902. Exactly which version of Helen was the actual one to wine and dine Tesla was never explicitly confirmed outside of Tesla's belief that it was Future Helen. I also don't know if the two-headed sharks were just a complete farce the entire time or not; did it actually exist in their universe or was the act of trying to find a potentially non-existent Abnormal simply a misdirect by Future Helen to coverup her actual reason for traveling to that location? This whole chapter scenario was based on several uncertainties, leading me to use my own discretion to figure it out and make it work.
