He had finished the last line. Now they had to wait. He only wished that his plan had been the right one. If not? 'Pleas let the hell be over. I only want my normal life back.', he began to beg. Another earthquake. He looked at Kurt. This was nothing good. 'Shit, what have I've done wrong?' He looked back onto the screen. The earth didn't stop to shake. The codes on the screen got mixed. Blue, green, blue, green, as if they had united with each other. 'No, no, no! This can't be true. Damn it, what have I done wrong?' He began to think, but he was blocked. He wasn't able to think a clear though. Panic arose inside and he looked questioning at his father who held his wife in his arms, he face buried at his chest.
"Neil, what did you do?" His father asked him.
"Nothing, no at least, what I told you I wanted to do, nothing else." He felt a strong heat radiating from the server. 'Shit, something went definitely wrong, but what? Hell, I need a clear thought!' The panic inside of him grew bigger and bigger and it felt hard to maintain composure. Suddenly the server began to spark. He had to cover his eyes with his hands. He felt the spark on the back of his hands like a lot of hot needles. He turned away from it, searching for his father, his mother, for Kurt for all of them, but he couldn't see anything, he only saw an extremely bright light and there was this noise. A permanent screaming noise, which made him nearly insane. 'Fuck, what the hell is going on?' The sound became louder and louder, shriller and shriller. He wanted this to come to an end, no matter if this would mean death or not. He felt like in eddy water. He had no chance to defend against it. Something pulled him into a direction he wasn't able to tell where it was. Something tugged at his body and it began to hurt. He felt as if he was swirled through an agravic space. The sound became quiet. His ears began to relax and the pull at his body became less and less.
He had arrived somewhere.
"Neil, honey, are you alright?" He heard a warm voice. He opened his eyes and saw his mother, kneeling at his side.
"Yeah, thanks." He got up onto his feet again. They were all there. But where was this? It looked like the inside of the Seeker's spacecraft. It was bright and it was white and warm, but the floor beneath his feet was something…? Something what? He looked at Kurt and then to his father. Both beckoned him that they had no clue either. He looked at Fiona and her husband. The only two which didn't look confused, but as if they knew what was going on.
"Sorry, but what is this here?" He asked Dr. McQueans.
"We're somewhere between space and time."
"And where exactly is this?" His father asked. Sometimes he asked himself how his father had passed the NASA program with such a lack of comprehension of natural sciences.
"The room between the universes." Dr. McQueans answered. 'Wow, until now things like that only existed in theory. I never would have thought that I would see this in real.'
"And how did we get here?" His Mum asked. She looked frightened. He would have liked to tell her that she didn't need to worry. But he wasn't sure if this was any help now and on the other hand she had her husband at her side. When he had learned a lesson from his father, then that he would do everything for his wife, no matter how high the price was supposed to be.
"A wormhole." Fiona answered. 'Great, do you want her to freak out or what?'
"And how did it get there?" Kurt asked. In somehow he didn't want to know more about all this anymore. He was fed up. They told him that he had to save the earth, but nobody told him how and now they were in nowhere.
"At the location the threat had left our universe it had left a hole and through the suction we were dragged out of our universe and landed here." Dr. McQueans answered.
"What about this universe?" Chuck asked. It was the same question he was thinking about. Did he succeed or not?
"The universe survived. Your mission succeeded, unfortunately we have been too close to the epicentre, and thus we're here now." Dr. Morgan answered. 'Cool. We've saved six billion people, but what about us?' He began to feel bad. The only reason for him, trying everything to save the earth, had been his family and now? He hadn't been able to save them. Well, okay, Marc was still there, but his Mum was here with them.
"And what about us?" Angela asked. She stood close to Kurt. They both looked as if they had something going with each other. Of course they had, only nobody of them had wanted to admit it.
"This wormhole only leads to one other parallel universe to the one you have lived in before." Dr. McQueans answered. He looked at his wife. It was a sad look and he didn't understand it. Then Fiona looked at him, still with sad eyes.
"And where is the problem?" His father asked.
"The only difference will be that this universe lies nearly two years behind your former one."
"And no sentienst of course." Kurt added.
"Of course no sentients."
"So, what are we still doing here?" His father asked.
"Damn it, don't you understand? The only difference will be the time shift. You both" Fiona pointed at Kurt and Angela "You both still will be a couple and yes in a one year you will have your first baby. And Mrs. Forbes will marry her new fiancé and will found a new family with he healthy son and…"
"And Marc will stay." Chuck concluded. He was confused for the thousandth time. Fiona looked despaired. She was close to cry and his Mum looked questioning at him. He shook his head to show her that he had no clue either.
"You can go and nothing will happen, you can start a new life and try to become happy, but if he comes with you…" Fiona now started to cry, intensely looking at him. 'What's wrong with me?'
"The universe's balance isn't ready for him."
"What do you mean?" His Mum now sounded nervous.
"Your new life will start in the night of your fight. He will be on his way to Canada…" Out of a sudden he had inkling, about what this was.
"You mean this black pickup truck after I left Holly." He concluded and Fiona nodded.
"No, this can't be true. I mean the sentients won't be there this is what you've told us." 'This is not fair. Everybody shell be allowed to start a new life, despite of me?'
"This one hasn't had to do something with the sentients." Dr. McQueans answered calm. 'Wow, I'm fucked.'
"But you can't let him here. I…" His Mum began to cry as well. 'Nice, now I'm the reason for two women to cry. Hell I really start to hate being me.'
"Chuck…we can't let him here, alone." His Mum started to beg. The first time in his life he realized that his Mum really must have suffered under the year he hadn't been home and he got a bad conscience because of it.
"Is there really no other way? Can't you send us into another universe?" Kurt began to ask. He wasn't able to say anything or to think. He was…he was, nothing more.
"Unfortunately not, this universe is your only possibility."
"And what is going to happen with me?" When he wasn't able to go with the others and when there was no other universe he was able to enter, what in hell's name would happen to him?
"You're going to be a creature wandering through the universes. But you won't be a part of it. You can't until you have found a universe which owes a balance with you as a part of it." 'Shit. Nice perspective. This really sounds like fun.'
"He will have to remain here? You can't be serious." His Mum intervened.
"If you want your son to be save this is the only solution." Fiona answered.
"No! I've missed him for nearly two years and it felt like dieing. You can't take my son from me." She began to beg.
"Mrs. Taggart I can imagine how you must feel, but there is no other way. This is not easy for me as well. I would likely to take him with us, but we can't." Fiona answered.
"Is there no chance for him to remain in this universe?" His father began to ask.
"He's right. There must be a chance. There is always a negative side, things are never hundred percent for sure, even not in the natural sciences." Kurt started. Since when did someone put his shoulder to the wheel for him? Nobody ever had done so and now, his Mum and Kurt and even his Dad?
"You're right in this point, but do you really want to take this risk?"
"Yes!" He answered. This was about him, so why did Dr. McQueans ask someone else if he wanted to take the risk? This was his life, his risk, so this was his decision.
Everybody looked at him, after he had said this.
"Neil?" Fiona said stunned, "You can't do this."
"Yes I can. I don't wanna stay here. If I'm dead or if I get lost here, where is the difference? At least when I come with them, I have a little chance and I can influence it." Last thing he wanted was that he had to stay in this white what ever it was.
"Neil…" Fiona tried to change his mind, but he knew what he wanted.
"No, I don't want to stay here alone. I have been alone for so long and I can't describe how miserable you feel when you have nobody to talk to, when there is nobody you can ask for help or anything and this is not going to last any longer." There it was. He didn't want to be alone any longer. He was fed up with this. He knew that he probably couldn't count on his family, but he was ready to take his life into his hands and he was ready to navigate it into a direction he wanted it to go to. Now where their mission was over, he was the only one determining his life and he didn't want to waste this chance, but take it, although it meant that this only was going to last for a second and less.
"Neil, you're too young to understand this." Fiona went on.
"No, I think my son exactly knows what this means and he had made his decision. We'd better support him instead of trying to persuade him from something else." His father intervened. 'Since when does this man think of me as old enough?' His perspective of life got changed more and more with every second.
"Is this your last word?" Dr. McQueans asked him. He only nodded. No matter if he would die or not. This was better than being kept in nowhere alone. He always had thought that being dead was better than being alive, alone and hurt. He only had been too much of a coward to make this cut on his own.
"Then I wish you all a lucky and successful new life. May stress and strains have an end." Dr. McQueans said and then led them to their new life.