"Gwen, you don't have to do this." Kevin barked, his concern coming through as anger.
A scream echoed through the room as the sharp pains riddling my body intensified.
"It's too late to back out now!" I panted amongst the ever louder screams leaving my mouth.
"The contractions are coming closer together!" Verdona called over me. "This plan of yours had better work Ben!"
The plan that we had been drilling over and over the past few weeks began racing through my mind a million miles an hour. Kevin was adamantly against it and had spent every waking moment trying to convince me to stop, his pleading falling upon little more than deaf ears. Meanwhile Ben had smugly walked around, clearly pleased with himself and his victory against Kevin. The tension in the house had literally become unbearable to the point that the birth, in part, felt like an end to a long lasting war.
"Everything will be reset!" Kevin barked. "None of this will have happened and we wont remember anything! Not the kid, not each other! Nothing!"
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a grin spread across Ben's face and his hand come up to mask it as he nonchalantly rubbed his chin.
I frowned. "I know." I muttered under my breath. "But we have no choice. This is the only way we can fix it that he'll survive."
I screamed again, clutching my stomach as the contractions intensified yet again.
A flash of pain mixed with concern spread across Kevin's face as he fell silent, holding my hand as if I would disappear before his very eyes never to be seen again.
"Besides," I smiled lightly between screams. "We'll remember, I'm sure of it."
He clearly wasn't convinced, his mouth pulled down into a tight frown, his eyes practically willing me to stop. However before he could say anything further pain ripped across my body. I heard Kevin swear under his breath as I gripped his hand so hard I thought it would break. Everything was fuzzy. I could hear Verdona screaming at me to push and Kevin cursing under his breath beside me but my head felt like it was filled with lead.
In the back of my mind I could feel professor Paradox's hand resting on my shoulder but between the indescribable pain and the sudden whirlwind of colors and shapes whizzing by me I barely noticed. Ben was no longer with us, nor was the sky, the ground, or any other physical existence that abided by the laws of physics. It was simply Kevin's hand interlaced with mine and Verdona ordering me to push harder. It was an experience beyond description. As I pushed I could feel my mind slowly losing pieces of myself. Images of the apartment and Ben flashed through my mind only to disappear in an instant, leaving a gap that felt foreign and wrong. I continued to push. I continued to lose memories. With each passing moment – or I suppose rewinding moment if you asked Paradox – my mind felt more empty and more flawed. It was as if I knew I was losing my mind, knew parts were missing, but couldn't remember what or how they existed in the first place.
Finally I felt my pain ease, the baby joining us in the whirling vortex of time and space as we reversed through our lives. Suddenly my hand felt empty, the warmth of Kevin's touch vanished from my grasp. I looked to where he had been floating beside me only to find him missing. Momentarily I felt myself panic, only to find him wiped from my mind an instant later. I was alone. I was scared. I couldn't remember where I was, what I was doing or why I was doing it.
As if on cue Professor Paradox spoke. "Don't worry Gwendolyn, I'll care for young Devlin until you're ready to welcome him back into you're life."
I stared up at him. I was exhausted, though I wasn't sure why. In his arms nestled a small newborn, a little boy. He looked so utterly familiar I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. I pried into the very depths of my mind, searching for any memory involving this small babe only to come up blank. I was so confused I was getting a migraine worse than any I'd ever had. Something about the infant, his name – Devlin – his cry, his face, made me want to rip him from Paradox's arms and run away with him. A part of me wanted to have him, to hold him. A small part of me, a part growing ever smaller, knew he was somehow mine.
"Goodbye Gwendolyn," Paradox nodded at me, drawing my attention away from the tiny being resting in his arms. "Until we cross paths again."
The vortex abruptly ended, my mind felt heavier and more painful than it had ever been, and I was thrust into a blinding light.
...
I shot upright in bed, looking around frantically. Something felt wrong, something unexplainable. Nothing came to mind that fit the bill. I shook my head, dismissing my feelings as nothing more than foolishness. I was safe in my bed, safe at home, my fears were completely unfounded – I hoped.
I dressed as quickly as possible and ran down the street. In all my crazy thoughts I had completely forgotten about Karate practice.
Everything was normal.
Everything was fine.
I repeated these mantras all the way to Karate.
Practice seemed to go by in a blur, as if my body was on autopilot. Those lingering feelings of emptiness and worry from this morning just wouldn't be banished. I sighed, thankful that the workout was over and that I could go home and sleep off whatever this unpleasantness was. Then I spotted Ben.
"How's my favorite cousin," he smirked, extending his arms for a hug.
I rolled my eyes with a smile, running into his arms.
"Still undefeated," I smirked back. "Flattery, means you want something."
...
How on earth had I gotten mixed up in this again? I mean don't get me wrong, I loved Ben, but vomit spitting aliens was a bit much, and after enduring being covered by them while Ben's watch rebooted, I was beginning to question why I was helping.
After Ben had so eloquently pointed out that some of their spew was left in my hair, I tuned out his conversation with Kevin to pick it out. When I finally sure it had all been safely removed, I shuddered in disgust and tuned back in.
Kevin was looking away defiantly, Ben was looking displeased. Okay so nothing different from when I had stopped paying attention. I rolled my eyes at their behavior.
"Kevin, people could be hurt." I placed my hand gently on his shoulder.
He relaxed his tense body and shifted. His face softened from his scowl as he looked up at me. Our eyes met. My brain buzzed. Suddenly it felt as though I was missing something important, something I desperately wanted back. In the span of the moments our gazes locked, I felt a familiar warmth spread across my entire body. Shivers snuck up and down my spine and my heart felt like it would explode out of my chest. Was this really Kevin? Wasn't I supposed to hate Kevin? Didn't Kevin hate me? From the way he was gazing back into my eyes with the same intensity I was gazing into his, somehow I knew he didn't. As if my body was certain it loved him, an electric current was running between us. An electric current I knew he could also feel. My mind didn't grasp it, my body longed for it. Incredibly confused I forced myself to remove my hand from his broad shoulder. Our gazes remained locked for another moment before we forced ourselves to return from our strange connection and back to reality.
He began speaking to Ben as I replayed what had just happened in my mind. Bizarrely enough, I somehow loved Kevin. I mean really loved him. The kind of love it took a long time for someone to build. And somehow I was absolutely sure he loved me back.
Embarrassed and still extremely confused I turned away from him. As I did so I noticed small movement in the shadows near some of the containment boxes we'd been fighting between. I squinted, trying to get a better view of who was there. Although I couldn't make it out clearly, I was almost sure there was a young boy hiding in the shadows. He was familiar, though I couldn't place my finger on why. I'd never seen him before. Then it hit me, his black hair and face reminded me of a younger Kevin. Not Kevin exactly, but eerily similar to him. I squinted even harder, desperately trying to get a closer look. Before I could he disappeared, led away into a flash of bright light by an oddly familiar man in a lab coat, a big smile plastered on the young boys face as they disappeared together.
God my head hurt. Why did my feet want so desperately to run full speed over to where that little boy had been and beg for him to return? I resisted doing so with every fiber of my being and mere moments later was forced to leave any hope of finding that familiar little boy as I followed Ben away from the site of our battle and into Kevin's car. Whoever the boy was, for today I had bigger things to worry about.