Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies that together make up the 'Back to the Future' trilogy.

Author's Note: New chapter. A lot of things revealed, and a happy ending!

10: Chapter Ten

Marty felt confused, as he began to wake up. "Mother?" he repeated, somewhat disorientated. "Mom? Is that you? Are you there?"

"Well, calm down now" a familiar voice said. Marty presumed that it was his mother, even though the voice was a little off – too high-pitched. "Take it easy."

"I had such a horrible subconscious dreaming sequence that takes place while being in one of the various sleeping phases" Marty muttered, sighing. "It was about Biff Tannen, and about you and my father. It was factually horrible."

"Well, you're safe and sound now" the voice continued. "Back in the good old 1955."

"1955!" Marty exclaimed. "Argh!" He then opened his eyes, and recognised the teenaged versions of his parents standing over him, looking at him worried, but also somewhat disappointed. He wondered how they got here, and what had happened to make him faint. That wasn't included in the plan for tonight, after all.

Memories then filled his brain, and he remembered. He recalled Biff showing up, and taking off his mask, then kicking him into unconsciousness. A look around revealed that Biff wasn't anywhere near anymore, which was odd, since he had been on the verge of raping Lorraine when Marty passed out. He wondered how George and Lorraine had managed to get rid of Biff, but it wasn't the most important thing at the moment. He sighed, as he realised that a question about why he was dressed like this and had pretended to be an alien – and everything around it – would be inevitable. He stood up and looked at his parents, waiting for someone to break the silence.

George was the first to speak – quite surprising, as his father never took an initiative in situations like this. "Marty?" he asked, eyeing the suit nervously. "Um… what's going on?"

The teen sighed. Ever since Biff had unveiled his face to George and Lorraine, Marty had known that he couldn't get out of here. His parental figures had seen too much. They knew this couldn't be an ordinary prank. Still, he tried to avoid the unavoidable, a little hope that all might remain a secret still lingering – the mind could be foolish sometimes, pushing on against all rational considerations. "What do you mean?" he asked innocently.

Lorraine shook her head. "Don't try to fool us, Marty" she said. "I initially thought that there could be a rational explanation. After seeing what you've got here, I know there isn't." She looked at him. "Whatever you are, you can't be an alien. You act too… too human for that. Still, you aren't a normal earth boy either, with all these devices. The question is, then: who or what are you?"

Marty took a deep breath and looked at his parents. They weren't going to let him go in a million years now. Perhaps it was his hatred of lying that gave him the final urge. Perhaps it was the pressure. Marty didn't know. Either way, after a pause that seemed to last an eternity, he nodded. "Follow me" he said, softly.

The other teens nodded in return, and quietly followed Marty towards the time truck. As they arrived, Marty entered the truck and his hand moved over to the place of the knob that should end his pressure to reveal his secret from his parents, teenaged or adult. With a sigh, he put a firm hand on it, and pushed. Under gasps of surprise, the normal-looking dashboard of the truck changed into the time circuits as they turned around. The flux capacitor popped out of it's hiding place as well. Marty turned towards his parents.

"George, Lorraine, I know this is going to sound unreasonable and incredible, but really, how is that new compared to what you've watched so far? Anyway, this vehicle is a temporal field warping and transportation vehicle, a so-called 'time machine', as it is more commonly known, and the reason that I've been acting strangely around you two for the past several days is that I'm from the future, the year 1985... and that I am your future son."

oooooooo

Lorraine figured that, out of all explanations that Marty could've given her, she had expected this one the least, hands down. Therefore, her initial reaction was a natural disbelief.

"Time travel?" she repeated. "Marty, are you out of your mind? Time travel is impossible. It's a subject right out of science fiction stories. You don't seriously think that we'd believe that, do you? And especially not the part about you being our future son!"

"Yeah" George added. "Granted, this whole night with me punching Biff out is kind of incredible, but time travel is a wholly different matter altogether. You can't be serious about this."

"I am serious" Marty said, somehow managing to remain firm – maybe he had really gone mad tonight? "How much proof do you two need? I've already shown you my temporal field warping and displacement machine, and I'm willing to show you more." He switched the displays in the front to life. "These are the time circuits" he explained, as Lorraine noticed that the bottom display did say 1985 – October 26th, to be exact. "Look, you can just tap in a date and it'll reset to that as a destination." Marty put in 'April 18th, 1955', allowing Lorraine to see that indeed, the information was put in the keypad. "This here is the flux capacitor, which makes time travel possible and requires 1.21 gigawatt's of electricity. The whole time machine needs to get up to 88 miles per hour in order to travel through the space-time continuum." He smirked. "Still thinking I made this all up, just for a joke?"

"I don't know" George said. "I have to admit that I still prefer the alien explanation."

"Hey, I never wanted to tell you!" Marty said, clearly getting angry. "You guys pressured me to give an explanation! Don't believe me! I don't mind!" Then, calmer, he added: "But since there is no structure which automobiles can drive on back now, and you weren't going to let me go, I'll have to use my final method to convince you." He took his wallet, selected a photograph out of it, and handed it to Lorraine, who, realising that she was in fact kind of curious, took a look at it.

In the middle of the picture, she clearly recognised Marty. On the left, she saw an older man who resembled an older version of George. And on the right… on the right she saw herself. Decades older, fatter and exhausted by life, but it was her nonetheless. Lorraine could barely conceal a gasp and had a hard time remaining steady. As she flipped the picture around, unable to look at her own reflection which was so recognizable and yet so different any longer, the back of the photograph read, in her own handwriting: 'George, Lorraine and Marty: July 27th, 1984'. She failed to stop a second gasp and dropped the photograph, allowing George to pick it up. He gave it a look, and gasped as well.

"You're… you're telling the truth" Lorraine whispered, rapidly turning pale. "You're from the future." She tried to keep herself calm, letting it all sink in and now no longer as a tale but as the truth. "You're my son. Our son. It's all true."

"That's what I've been telling you" Marty remarked.

Lorraine tried to come up with a response, but failed. After all, what should one say when facing his or her future child? One which she had been on a date with less than half an hour ago, no less? Quite surprisingly, though, George did have something to say. "But if you're saying that you're our son," he started, "then that must mean that Lorraine and I… that we end up…" He was too stunned to finish his sentence.

"…engaging in a formal but happy ceremonial event sealing a special bond between a male and a female human individual that takes place at either the local Courthouse or at a church or both?" Marty finished. "Concluded correctly, father. That was exactly what will be the case in the future and that is why I, in my guise as an extra-terrestrial, insisted on it."

Lorraine shook her head, being as astonished as George was. She didn't dislike George McFly – she barely knew him now and hadn't known him at all before her father hit him with the car, and after he had rescued her from Biff, she had to admit that she had taken a bit of a liking to him. But marrying someone you had only known for a week was not something that she was waiting for. "Marrying!" she exclaimed. "You can't be serious! No offence to you, George, but…"

"You're hesitant about engaging in a... getting married to someone you just met?" Marty guessed. "It's all right. You don't have to marry within one week after all. Your eventual marriage date is still years away."

"I suppose so" Lorraine nodded, beginning to calm down from the initial shock. "Still, knowing that I'll have to marry George or you won't exist will put a huge burden on both of our shoulders." She gave George a loving smile, figuring that she'd better get used to that in the future, and then turned back to face her future son. "But I guess you're right – with a little persistence, we'll be able to overcome that. Don't worry Marty, we will... hey, what's the matter with you?"

When Lorraine was talking about 'not existing', Marty had taken out a picture of something. Right now, though, he was staring at it, horrified. Surprised, Lorraine held out her hand, prompting Marty to hand it over so she could have a look at it. It was a photograph of Marty, and Lorraine couldn't spot anything strange on it. "What's wrong?" she asked, confused.

Marty sighed. "At the beginning of this week, this was a photograph of my two older siblings and I" he explained. "After I interfered with the direct events following George getting hit by the automobile of your paternal ancestor one generation removed, my siblings started to vanish from the photograph. Since I have ensured your romantic infatuation with each other tonight, with some unwilling help from Biff Tannen, and you are now fully aware of and willing to participate in this, they should re-appear. Since they haven't, I can only conclude that my task isn't finished yet, and unless I do finish it, I shall suffer the same fate that my siblings have already suffered."

"You'll vanish too" Lorraine said, understanding what he meant.

"Exactly" Marty confirmed.

"Then what should we do?" George said, panicking a little – his old self clearly hadn't vanished completely just yet. "I don't want you to disappear, and I'm sure Lorraine doesn't want that either. His new girlfriend nodded approvingly.

"There is only one solution for this" Marty said, thoughtfully. "The events of the original timeline will have to be duplicated – meaning that you, George and Lorraine, will have to go out to the dance floor and kiss for the first time and recreate history – for the future's sake."

oooooooo

George sighed, as he walked towards the dance floor, holding the arm of his new girlfriend. While Lorraine was the best person he could ever imagine going to a dance with, he had to admit that he was still very reluctant about this whole thing. He wasn't sure whether Lorraine already liked him or not, and he was nervous. What if Biff showed up again? He wasn't sure whether he could punch the bully out again, especially considering Biff would now be prepared. And of course, there was the information that Marty had given him about the future, which didn't exactly help him calm down either.

"Are you okay, George?" Lorraine asked. "No offence, but you're so quiet. Are you all right?"

"Not entirely" George admitted, as he slowly began to dance with Lorraine. "I suspect that might partly be from what Marty told us, though."

Lorraine nodded, understanding. "Yeah, that was pretty weird" she said. 'I can't imagine it either, that it's actually true. But it is true, and that is partly why what we're doing here is so important."

George nodded, glad he wasn't alone in worrying, and looked over Lorraine's shoulder towards the side of the dance floor, where Marty was standing. He waved to his friend and future son, who waved back. George smiled, then frowned. Marty looked kind of pale. If that was why he thought it was, he'd better hurry up.

"George?" Lorraine asked, her charming voice breaking through his thoughts easily. "Aren't you supposed to kiss me now?"

George blushed. "I know" he muttered, shy as usual. "I know I should do this, but I'm not sure if I can, because..."

What he wanted to say would never be known, as at that moment, he was pushed out of the way by Mark Dixon, one of his most annoying classmates, who then took Lorraine's arm.

"What are you trying to do?" Lorraine whispered, clearly furious.

"Dancing with you, of course" Dixon said. "Get out of here, McFly."

George sighed, as Dixon began to dance with an unwilling Lorraine. He walked away, realising that he couldn't save his new girlfriend. He was too much of a coward for that.

Trying to distract himself from his misery, he looked around, and his eyes met Marty's. And what he saw then gave him quite a shock. For though he saw Marty, he saw the table behind him as well. And that could only mean one thing (unless his eyesight had failed on him years ahead of schedule, of course).

Marty was fading out.

oooooooo

"Why was I ever so stupid to invent temporal travelling?"

Marty groaned, as he clutched his chest. However he'd speculated a lot the past few days about what actual erasure would be like, he'd never imagined it to hurt this much. It was unbelievable.

Even though his eyesight was weakening with the moment, as all his other senses were, Marty could clearly recognise the cause of his current misery. George McFly stood there helpless, as a red-haired boy was dancing – well, if you could call it that – with Lorraine. Marty sighed. Why did his father's confidence have to vanish at such an important moment? "George..." he whispered.

George's eyes met his for a moment, and Marty look at his father as helpless as he could, trying to make his point: the time to wait was over. The time of Marty's advice was over.

George would have to do this on his own now.

oooooooo

George sighed, looking at his son. The message was clear. He had to do this, and soon, or Marty would be history. But as always, he didn't dare. He just couldn't do it, because...

Why couldn't he do it?

The seventeen-year-old frowned. He didn't have any reason not to do this, actually. After all, he had just managed to punch out Biff, and Dixon might be annoying, but he was by far no Biff.

With new courage, he looked up to the place where Dixon was still 'dancing' with Lorraine. What was there to it, anyway? He could do it, he knew that now. It was like Marty had said – what was it again? Oh yeah. If you put your internal functions to it, you could accomplish anything. It had been true with Biff, there was no reason it wouldn't be with Dixon.

Taking a deep breath, George walked up to his enemy. The red-haired boy smirked and clearly wanted to say something sarcastic, but George didn't give him the chance – instead, the bully got a firm push into his stomach, almost causing him to fall – which he did anyway, as he tripped over the foot of someone who hadn't been able to get out of the way in time. Dixon fell to the ground. Embarrassed at everyone having seen his defeat at the hands of the supposedly weakest boy in school, he stumbled back to his feet and rapidly got out of there.

Having defeated his enemy, George turned back to Lorraine. With his confidence about beating Biff Tannen and Mark Dixon fresh in his mind, and feeling impressed by how incredibly beautiful his girlfriend was, George didn't need much encouragement to pull her close to him, and, after ensuring himself that he was capable of doing this – he had never done anything like this with a girl before, after all – to kiss her.