Abby saw Connor, Dian and Alex disappear through the anomaly. Things were falling apart; she just had to hope that Connor could fix everything. For now, all she could do is wait… but the Prime Minister apparently wasn't waiting for anything; Lester came in the main room of the ARC, Becker, Danny, Sarah and the rest of the ARC staff following. Everyone seemed a little flustered from the anomalies opening out of nowhere just a while earlier.

Lester stood up the stairs, in front of his office, looking down at the destroyed ARC. Clearing his throat, he got everyone's attention. "The Prime Minister has become aware of our situation; future anomalies have broken out all across the world, creatures have only just begun to attack. So, he's sending in the full forces of our military all across Britain; including the ARC." He paused, seeming to be disapproving of the situation, but Abby could see he was really trying to choose his words; choose how much information to give everyone.

"For a while," he continued slowly, trying to keep confident, though he really didn't know what they were going to do. "The military will be in charge of the ARC… I am no longer the head of this operation... temporarily," he added, no doubt a lie from what Abby could tell. "When the military soldiers arrive, I am no longer in charge; you listen to them and them alone, has everybody got that?"

There was a buzz in the crowd of people; they were slightly confused as to what was actually happening… obviously none of them really knew the immensity of the situation, but Lester probably wanted it that way. He only replied simply and sharply, "Good." before walking off into his office.

Abby shoved her way through the ARC staff as they worriedly discussed the situation. Danny had tried to talk to her when she passed but she ignored him and continued to head to Lester's office; she would apologise to him later, right now she needed to figure out what was going on. When she reached Lester's office, she knocked on the glass, standing in the doorway. "Lester?"

He looked up from his desk. "Yes, what is it?"

"What's going on? …how bad is this really?" she asked hesitantly, almost fearing what the answer would be.

He cleared his throat and turned his attention back to the paperwork on his desk. "It's fine. Just go on with your job, Ms. Maitland and… do try to keep out of the soldier's way when they arrive."

"Lester!" she said sternly. She wasn't going to let him ignore the subject with her.

He looked up again, took a deep, irritated breath, and then spoke quickly. "The anomalies are out of control. The Prime Minister has been working with other countries for the past 3 weeks, trying to set up alliances. Anomalies open around the world just the same as here… turns out; there are other 'Anomaly Research Centres' all over the world, in different forms. Some, like America, use their military and governmental forces to contain and research the anomalies. Now that this… epidemic has broken out, that's the sort of thing the Prime Minister thinks the ARC needs. So, I'm out of a job and the military takes over.

And now Temple and his merry band of Parallel Universe-ies have skipped out to try and fix the whole damn mess; unsuccessfully, no doubt… now, any more questions? No? Good, leave," he finished, going back to his paperwork

Abby was about to say something, but a bustle broke out downstairs, cutting her off before she could start. Lester didn't even phase at the sounds. Abby walked out, looking down at the ARC; a ton of soldiers had flooded in, ordering people about and messing with everything. This place was going to be turned into a military base… she couldn't let this continue; she had to do something.

After fiddling with the anomaly devices, Connor was ready to give up before he made things worse… he'd already opened about 20 extra anomalies and still didn't know what he was doing. He knew this wasn't going to be easy…

Alex was getting impatient. All this was his fault, and it was getting worse and worse. If Connor couldn't fix it… then he would have to. There had to be some way for him to access the information in his head without it taking control of him. Though whoever it was that had been controlling him could probably make that an impossible task. But… they hadn't been controlling him since they sent him to that weird Reality. The least he could do was try.

"URR!" Connor yelled in frustration at the devices.

"Connor, we need to do something," Dian pleaded. "Look, let me try-"

"No! I've got this!" he half-yelled. His voice was agitated and stressed; he thought he'd be able to do this. He had to be able to do this.

Dian shook her head at him and gave up. Her eye caught Alex, he looked frozen and in pain. "Alex?" She went up to him and touched his face, after a second he snapped out of it and fell to the ground, his nose bleeding. "Alex? Are you alright?" she panicked.

He was breathing hard. "If the machine I built is destroyed, its link to the anomalies is disconnected. All the anomalies will close if that thing is destroyed," he said.

"Okay… so maybe one of the future creatures will destroy it while they're in there," she suggested.

"No… no I have to do it. I can kill those creatures and destroy the machine." Dian gave him a questioning look. Alex looked over at the Area 51 soldiers, their weapons on a cart… and a dozen TNT sticks with it.

Dian followed his gaze and immediately understood what he was wanting to do. "No! Hell no, Alex! No, no!" she yelled, outraged by the idea. "There is no way!"

"Dian!" He paused, holding her face in his hands and staring into her eyes. "I started this… I caused people to die. There's not much other choice. I started this… me and me alone… and now, I'm gonna finish it. No one else will die because of me."

She shook her head. "No, Alex… no! You can't do this! I need you," she admitted.

He smiled a half smile and laughed once. "No you don't… you need him." He pointed to Connor. "I was just what you were stuck with after you met him… you don't love me anymore. And who am I to stand in the way of you and him having your baby together? You won't miss me." He smiled. "But it's okay; at least I know you loved me… once upon a time. I'll hold on to that. But I don't have anything else to live for, so why not?"

She was stunned. "B-Because, you idiot, you can't just sacrifice yourself when we can find another way!"

Connor finally walked over to them. "What's going on?"

Alex replied before Dian could. "I'm going to take some Dynamite and blow up Area 51. It'll kill the creatures and the machine that opened all these anomalies."

"You're gonna sacrifice yourself?" Connor's eyes widen.

"No! He's not!" Dian yelled.

"Yes," Alex replied, ignoring her. "And I need you, Connor, to help me."

"What? How?"

He got up and whispered in Connor's ear. "Do this for me, Connor… please." Connor paused, thinking, then nodded, his eyes sad knowing what he was about to do. "Thank you; you're a good man." Alex turned back to Dian.

"You're not doing this, Alex. I won't let you," she stated, stubbornly.

"I know you won't, darling… you don't have to." He kissed her lips softly. "I'm so sorry… I love you, Dian."

She was confused for a moment; then she felt Connor come up behind her, grabbing her arm. Her heart beat fast as she realised that Alex was still planning to kill himself. "Alex! Don't… don't you do this!" she pleaded.

He smiled softly and grabbed the box of TNT and something to light them with, the soldiers watching without knowing what was happening. As he walked towards the building, he heard Dian's screaming; it broke his heart hearing her like that. He really wished that wasn't the last thing he'd ever hear.

When he got to the front door of the building, he looked back; Dian was trying desperately to run after him, but Connor was doing exactly what Alex had asked of him; he was keeping her from stopping him. Alex took a deep breath and turned to the big steel door, entering the code that unlocked the automatic lock-down. He heard the locks un-lock and opened the door, shutting it back as quickly as he could. There were thousands of future creatures in the building; they all slowly took notice of him, growling and clicking, and getting into hunting crouches.

Alex took out the lighters he had and dropped them into the TNT crate without hesitation…

As soon as Alex had walked away from her, Dian tried to grab him and stop him; but Connor wrapped his arms around her, restraining her from going anywhere. She tried desperately to escape his grip, but somehow he was stronger than her… though he wasn't really, it must have been that he knew what he had to do and that drove him to be stronger. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get free of Connor's grip.

She watched helplessly as Alex went into the building, crying out for him to stop. A minute after Alex had gone into the building, she stopped struggling against Connor; she waited, expecting the explosion… but it didn't come. Not as soon as she had expected… but then it came. She heard a loud explosion come from the building and it instantly caught in flames, blowing pieces of Area 51 everywhere. They all took cover until the explosions stopped and the building stopped falling.

Connor held her for a moment, then she jerked out of his grip; but she didn't run to the demolished building… she just walked away and sat down on the pavement. Tears ran down her face; she'd known Alex almost her entire life. She'd once loved him, she was going to marry him at one point. She still loved him… just not the same way she used to. Now, it really was more of a best friend sort of love she had for him… or did have… her sobbing got harder as she remembered everything they'd been through.

An hour went by before Connor finally approached Dian, placing his hand on her shoulder as she sat on the ground, but she violently shoved it away. He felt horrible… all he did was sit down next to her, just far enough so that she couldn't hit him; which was probably what she wanted to do.

He didn't know what to do for her. What was he supposed to do after letting her ex-fiancé kill himself practically in front of her? She was going to hate him now.

Connor let another hour go by before standing up and warily approaching Dian. "Dian?" She didn't react. "We have to go. We need to get back to the ARC and make sure it worked." Again, nothing. He sighed and grabbed the Anomaly opening device.

He tried to open an anomaly to get them back to the other reality… but it didn't work. "What?" he whispered to himself, trying it again and again; but nothing was working. Could anomalies not be opened anymore? Was the rift in time sealed? Whatever had happened… it was either really good… or really bad. Connor may not be able to get back home…

Abby walked through the crowd of people, she needed to do something about this chaos; she wasn't about to let the military take over the ARC. She walked up to the soldier who was obviously in charge and tapped him on the shoulder saying, "Excuse me?"

The short man turned around, his face pale and his hair bright orange. "Yes? Can I help you, Miss?" his asked with an Irish accent and a perfect, malicious smile...

TBC in Chapter 11... that's right, 11!

I'm getting my touch back, I think. I feel that this is a good chapter and I hope you guys think so too :)

Please read, then click ze button down at ze bottom of ze screen zat says "Review story", please! (yuh-huh, I turned french)

Hope you're enjoying it :)