A/N: Thanks to Smallfri, Kate and Xanthiae for reviewing. I know this chapter is following on quite quickly from the last one, but that's because I want to get this finished before I go on holiday on Friday. Penultimate chapter now. I hope you like it, but do feel free to throw things at me. Well, virtual things anyway...

Chapter 18

Connor couldn't stop grinning. It had taken a month, a whole month, before the doctors had finally declared Abby and Cutter clear to leave the isolation ward. They were still keeping an eye on Abby, but at least she was now in more comfortable little room on her own with curtains and armchairs and a bathroom and a cinema system. Admittedly he'd spent longer playing with the last one than he had admiring the curtains or anything. There was even a lock on the door and a privacy switch for the camera monitoring the room. That had come in useful, even if they had been told off by her doctor later that day

Now, however, he was supposed to be being serious. The doctors had told Abby she was well enough to leave when she chose. He had broken the news to Cutter about the origin of his other self, not to mention the help Helen had given him in putting together the anomaly controllers. Cutter had been less than pleased at the time. Now he just seemed edgy. He was sat opposite Connor, an oval table separating them as Connor went over every detail of his life since moving to Darwin House. It was only fair that he let both Cutter and Abby know what had been going on, but it would also help them work out where to go from here. If there was even the slightest chance of Helen double crossing them again, they would need everyone in full possession of the facts.

"And you're sure there was a connection between the messages and the anomaly?" Cutter asked. "The future one, anyway?"

"Not a hundred percent, no," Connor replied. "But the last ones definitely came through when the future anomaly was open, so I'm thinking it's a safe bet the rest did too. That's why they seemed so random. They might not even have been in the right order!"

"And you can't work out the text in them?"

"No, it's like passing through the anomaly has garbled it somehow."

"Surely Helen would know that you hadn't got them, though, if you've been working with her for months?"

"No, Helen didn't send them," Doctor Nick cut in. "At least not while I was with her. And we watched some of those messages arrive. We were in the same time. They can't have come from her."

"Then who?" Cutter shrugged.

"The twins, maybe?" Nick mimicked Cutter's gesture.

"Who?"

Everyone was now looking at Doctor Nick Cutter, their faces showing a bizarre mixture of confusion and amusement.

"The two women she's holding in the caves," Nick said. "I think she said their names were Jenny and Claudia."

XXXX

"Remote test activated. Scanning for anomaly initiation."

Helen held her breath and watched the engineer operating the remote version of Connor's anomaly controlling device. If this test worked, she would be able to open an anomaly to any time period from any point on the globe without leaving the relative safety of the caves, or wherever else she chose to be. She would have complete control over anomalies. A more commercially minded person might have been planning the downfall of the major transport industries at this point. Helen, on the other hand, had more scientific goals to aim for.

"Anomaly detected," the engineer called out.

"Report!" Helen ordered.

"Positional vectors X and Z accurate. Y vector causing problems."

"Explain!" Helen stalked over to the engineer's console. This was an unexpected error that could lose them valuable time.

"The anomaly has opened up under the water, milady," Cai cut in from Helen's side. "It seems the Atlantic trench has deepened considerably since it was last surveyed."

"How far under the surface?"

"About five hundred metres."

"Status?"

"Temperature and pressure surrounding the anomaly are higher than usual for that depth."

Helen peered at the readings on the screen. They certainly were higher than they should be. She sighed. Few things could cause a difference like that. Either they had opened the anomaly to the wrong place in space time, or they had opened it directly above a hydrothermal vent of some form.

"What information do we have for the destination?" Helen asked an engineer at another nearby console.

"Pressure difference is causing one-way traffic outward," the engineer replied. "Preliminary data suggests destination target accurate, but no samples available for backup testing."

"Where did you aim for?" Cai asked Helen.

"My own time," Helen replied. "I set the date for the middle of the year two thousand and seven. Roughly the first or second of June."

"You are flooding your own time, then."

"I know," Helen raised her head from the console and called over to another of the engineering team. "Initiate remote anomaly shutdown sequence."

"Sequence initiated."

"Luckily," said Helen, turning back to Cai, "I've already lived through the consequences of this error. I just didn't realise at the time that I was the cause of it."

XXXX

"Mr Temple! Mr Temple! You should see this!"

The messenger had arrived in the ARC conference room waving a computer printout like it was a declaration of war. It still bugged Connor that they headed straight for him and not for either of the Nick Cutters, but at least they'd stopped calling him "Professor". That had been just a little too freaky.

The paper turned out to be a scan of an artefact dug up an hour previously in an archaeological dig in Kent. It showed the interior and contents of a thick, metal box. The message below the picture described the box as being thick, pig iron lined inside and out with lead and hammered shut. It had remained intact and watertight ever since. What had puzzled the archaeologists was not so much the box itself as its relation to its contents. Carbon dating confirmed the box was approximately one thousand, seven hundred and fifty years old, give or take ten years. The contents declared they were from the year 1292, making them exactly one thousand, seven hundred and fifty four years old. The contents also included a digital watch and an ARC issued handgun.

It had taken just twenty minutes to clear an area in the main hangar of the 31st century ARC. Now Connor stood in front of a shimmering anomaly that he was hoping would lead them through to the exact location of the time capsule, one day after the date given on the message enclosed in it. He took a hesitant step forward and collided with a small boy in medieval clothing coming the other way at top speed.

"Professor Cutter," the boy cried, ignoring Connor, who was now doubled up in pain, and running past him to stop short at the sight of the two Cutters.

"You're John Lester," said Abby, hurrying forward and scooping the child into her arms. "John, how did you end up through there? Where's everyone else? Are Becker and Kate with you?"

John nodded and wrapped his arms around Abby's neck, smirking down at a glowering Connor.

Connor's attention was taken away from the smug child by the emergence of another shape through the anomaly. One by one, Captain Becker, Kate, Elizabeth and the five remaining soldiers made their way through to the 31st century. Kate's look of surprise at her new surroundings was matched only by the look of intense amusement on Connor and Cutter's faces at the sight of six modern soldiers in full medieval dress, not to mention the presence of the unknown Elizabeth. Connor opened his mouth to make a remark, but caught a glare from Becker and closed it again.

"I take it this is the future, since you seem now able to send an anomaly straight to our front door as it were," Becker drawled, helping Connor to his feet. "Please tell me they have somewhere where we can get changed back into our own clothes!"

"They have," Doctor Nick replied. "I'll take you there. I'll bring you up to speed on things as we go."

"Oh good," Becker sighed. "What's happened now?"

XXXX

"Anomaly closed. No residual disruption to the magnetic field."

Two days. Two days! Helen shook her head. Of course, she'd realised as soon as the anomaly had opened that it would take that long to close it, but still! All the same, at least they'd ironed out the problems and perfected the apparatus now. Sighing, she made her way to the barracks. The two guards let her pass without question, opening the door to let the low hum of machinery and voices escape into the corridor. The door closed behind Helen, shutting the noise in with her once more. She walked over to one of her clones who sat scrutinising a computer screen.

"What have we got?"

"Bases set up at all major extinction points, ma'am," the clone replied. "Primary anomaly ready to be activated on your signal."

"Open it," she said. "Bring him through."

A second later, a bright white anomaly burst into being in the middle of the barracks. Helen raised a hand to shield her eyes from the glare: the inter-dimensional ones were always brighter than the normal ones. The glare dimmed as a figure walked through, silhouetted against the bright background.

"Close it," the newcomer ordered. The anomaly winked out of existence behind him.

Helen lowered her eyes and smiled at the man in front of her.

"Nice to have you back, Stephen."