Okay, first, let me say I'm really sorry it took over two months to update. That aside…

Holy crap, this story received ten reviews after my last update. Sure, one of them was for the prologue, but still! TEN reviews! I don't think my 5Ds stories have done that well EVER! (Well, except for that time when someone reviewed all forty-something chapters in one sitting, but that doesn't really count.) Thanks goes to Ulrich362, Lumos314, VCSweets, Snow-Soar, Chrissie, unicornboo, DJGirl, and the three Guests who reviewed the previous chapter (or the prologue, in that one guest's case)!

Reply time!

VCSweets: Don't worry, thanks to pretty much EVERYONE asking about Future Flora, you'll get your answers in… the next chapter (I didn't anticipate the length of which the scenes leading up to that particular memory would take). And of course Barton and Chelmey will be involved. Eventually. Thanks!

Guest who reviewed the prologue: It's funny. I usually ship Clora, but for some reason, my imagination started shipping Luke/Flora for this story. At least, FUTURE Luke and FUTURE Flora. Not sure about the past versions of them. So… probably no Clora. Sorry.

Chrissie: Like I said, what happened to Future Flora is in the next chapter.

DJGirl: Thanks for the compliment!

Guest with the glitch: Ah, that's what I thought. Still, keep on reviewing if you can! I do like all the support, regardless of whether or not it's one word or a broken sentence!

Last Guest: Glad to hear that you like my story! Thanks for the compliment!

Phew. I'm still really busy with school, but I've managed to whip up a chapter - one that I'm sure will please all of you. You get more of the troubles Future Luke has gone through… but not QUITE the Flora incident yet. Sorry about that… I kept getting distracted with ideas for later on in this story - you won't BELIEVE some of the future plot twists I'll be using involving a certain woman - and managed to get writer's block at the same time, so filler-ish stuff happened.

Just… just go along with anything I say in this. Half of the time my own logic confuses me. Just like Ace Attorney logic. And on that note… *Goes on a feels ramage over Turnabout for Tomorrow*

Aaaaaaanyways, I don't own the Professor Layton series. What a surprise. Enjoy!

Chapter 4

The beginning. That was where the Professor wanted him to start. It was hard to pin down the exact start of the troubles, although Luke eventually pinned it down: the failed time machine demonstration.

He remembered it clearly, even though it had happened nearly ten years ago - and was altered by the Layton of his time. The explosion had been rather large, and created a lot of panic among those who witnessed it.

But not the Professor. No, it had not left him scared, confused, and worried like everyone else. He had watched with fascination and, though he had still stepped in to aid the police… it had worried Luke.

The boy hadn't been able to think about it for long. Not a month later, his parents - and himself - had moved across the ocean due to his father's job. That look of sheer fascination vanished from his mind and was instead replaced by memories of high school life.

…Or so he would like to think. He still visited the Professor during the summer, and he could still tell that something was undeniably wrong. Professor Layton seemed far more distant than usual, and that conversation he'd accidentally eavesdropped on, shortly after arriving for his first-ever summer visit…

He was unpacking his clothing in the spare room - what used to be his own - when the doorbell rang. Luke would have gone to get it, because he always had as the Professor's apprentice, but the top-hat wearing gentleman beat him to it.

So Luke waited at the top of the staircase, instead. Neither his old mentor nor the visitor - a dark-skinned man in a white (or was it cream?) suit, over a red shirt and golden tie, with a tiny red hat and a dark mustache - noticed that he was there, listening to what they were saying.

"I thought I told you never to come here for meetings," the Professor said, the slightest bit of anger in his voice.

"I know Boss, but we found one o' them scientists you were looking for," the man replies.

"Hm?" His demeanor shifted; whatever hidden anger disappeared completely. "Where? And how long ago was this?"

"'E lives down by the Thames…" the man in white/cream replied. "Splinters found the place less'n an hour ago."

Though Luke had no idea what was going on, and still wanted to keep his presence hidden, he nearly blurted out, "What kind of a name is Splinters?" But he was able to catch himself, and neither adult was any the wiser.

"I trust he has the scientist under wraps?" Layton said.

The man nodded. "Though, 'e mighta roughed 'im up a bit," he added after a moment's pause.

"Yes, well…" Layton cleared his throat. "I will talk to the scientist in a few hours. Right now, I have to deal with my… apprentice."

"Ah?"

"The boy whom I told you about before. The one who moved to America," the Professor said, sighing. "Did not I tell you that he was visiting for a few weeks?"

"Right. Sorry Boss. Musta slipped my mind." His eyes dart around the house, and Luke shrinks away from view. He's almost certain that man saw him. "I'd better go before the kid sees me."

"That would be a good idea, now, wouldn't it?"

The boy in blue tried to slow his heart down. Okay, so the man hadn't seen him, but suspected that he could eavesdrop. Who was that man, though? What scientist was we talking about? Why did the Professor seem so nonchalant about the fact that this scientist had been "roughed up"?

Why was that man calling Professor Layton "Boss"?

That encounter was the second piece to the puzzle - the first being the events of the time machine demonstration. But, yet again, he refused to believe the facts. He refused to believe there was something wrong with the Professor. Even though later visits just made him seem so much farther away. Flora leaving to study abroad hadn't helped the matter at all. She was the one who kept the gap closed.

All Luke could to was try to keep up a charade of a friendship.

Until, once he graduated from high school, he moved back to London. Then, he learned the truth - behind why the Professor had seemed so distant, and behind that strange meeting he had witnessed years before.

He had been so excited to tell Professor Layton that he would be able to stay for much longer than a few weeks at a time - and also, that he had enrolled in the archaeology program at Gressenheller University. He had been more than happy to sit down for a cup of tea with his former - soon to be current, again - mentor.

But after he finished explaining why he was there, and the actual conversation started? Oh, how he wished that part hadn't happened.

Luke sat in silence as the Professor told him about how he was the Family's leader - had been for quite some time. While the mafia-like gang hadn't officially done anything worse than kidnapping since they'd changed leaders, Luke couldn't help but imagine the horrors they've unofficially caused - and on Layton's orders, no less. Layton further went on to explain that the only people he had forcibly brought to an underground research facility were scientists, specifically ones he thought could help procure a working time machine.

He had sat quietly while he listened, feigning calmness as he sipped his tea. When Layton had finished, Luke dropped his gaze and instead stared at his own lap. "Why…? Why do you need a time machine?"

The other man adjusted his top hat, and Luke could hear as a small sigh escaped his lips. "Though I wish I could say it is for the good of mankind… I must admit the reason I want a time machine so much is a personal reason. Fifteen years ago… I lost someone very dear to me."

Luke could hear the sorrow in his mentor's voice, but had no idea what the cause was. He knew about the people the Professor had lost over the years, though they had come back in one way or another. "Are you talking about Randall? Because you know as well as I do that he isn't dead." The redhead was the only one Luke came up with when thinking about a timeframe such as fifteen years ago.

Layton shook his head. "It was not Randall. That was over twenty years ago." He set his teacup down on the table and stood up, walking to his desk. Luke had seen that desk enough times to know that the spare top hat was currently his focus. "No, it was Claire that I lost."

"Claire…?" The young man in blue racked his brain, trying to come with something related to that name. Nothing came to mind; he must have never heard of her.

"She was my… girlfriend," the Professor replied. "She died… in a time machine demonstration, much like Bill Hawks and Dr. Stahngun did five years ago."

Luke flinched a little at the memory. He had to wonder, though… Was it the cause of the Professor's actions? Did that demonstration bring back the memories of losing Claire? Was that his motivation for building a time machine? "You want to save her, then. Is that why…?"

"That… is the main reason, yes…" He sat back down at his desk, and took a sip from his tea. He didn't add anything else, which made Luke believe that he was going to remain silent on the reasons other than that.

"Why are you telling me about this?" He blurted the question before he even thought about it. He really hadn't meant to, but it had been weighing on his mind since the start of the meeting. What the Professor had been doing - kidnapping scientists and forcing them to craft a time machine - was highly illegal, and he hadn't… really known about it before. There was no reason to let him know.

"I need your help."

The answer was simple. He didn't even need to think about it. "No."

To say the Professor was shocked would be an understatement. His eyes widened, and his jaw dropped slightly. He regained his composure a second later, and narrowed his eyes at his apprentice. "…No?"

"I want nothing to do with this plan of yours," Luke clarified. "Kidnapping scientists and forcing them to work on this project… and who knows what other illegal activities go on under your watch! Do you think that I would want anything to do with that?!"

"I thought you would understand… It seems I was wrong." Layton pinched the bridge of his nose, like he was trying to keep himself calm.

"There's nothing to understand here, Professor," he replied, the coldness of his voice surprising even himself. "This… this plan of yours isn't right. Can't you see that the ends don't always justify the means?"

The rest of that memory was still hazy. He didn't remember all of the details, but he did remember promising not to tell the authorities what he witnessed. Now that he knew the horrors he could have prevented had he reported the Professor, he regretted still trying to trust the man.

That had been his second greatest mistake, allowing the kidnappings - and possible torture - to go on.

His greatest… was that he had given in, several months afterwards, and joined the Family like the Professor wanted. He had truly been a fool, still wanting to believe in their sham of a friendship… And his own involvement in the matter was limited to making sure the scientists were treated properly - nothing too illegal. Those two reasons had clouded his judgement enough to overturn his own ideals.

It all changed, that day he stumbled onto a second - a working - time machine in a secret room in the warehouse they used as their hideout… and a man who should have been dead.

"Y-You…! How are you…?" Luke asked, utterly in shock.

The grey-haired man in a labcoat stared back at him. "I'm sorry? I don't believe we've met."

"Y-You're Dr. Stahngun," the young man in blue replied. "But… that's not possible! You… you died!"

The man narrowed his eyes in confusion - but that didn't make sense. "'Stahngun', you say? I haven't gone by that name in five years… and I certainly survived that failed demonstration, if you seem to think that is when I died…"

Luke pressed a hand to his temple, and blinked several times. This didn't add up; the man didn't seem to be lying, but he remembered the authorities recovering his body from the scene. Had he faked that death, he would have just told him, right? But why would he flat-out say he didn't die, like it was common knowledge?

"My apologies Dimitri," a familiar voice said from behind; the voice of Hershel Layton. "The timeline has only just been reset. I'm sure my student's memories will right themselves soon."

…Huh? "What's that supposed to mean?" Luke asked. "Resetting the timeline? My memories righting themselves? And who is this man, Professor?"

To be continued…

So, that's the first part of Future Luke's past. Yes, I had to stop at a cliffhanger, even though I've been on a hiatus for over two months. It's what I do. Yes, I had to leave some unanswered questions.

Anyways, I hope you guys are still reading this and will review again, because they always make my day! Oh, and Happy New Year, since that's in a few days.