Well here's the next chapter but, c'mon, you can do better with the reviews! I only got a few and I was a little disheartened. Maybe the chapter was just rubbish but if that was the case I want to know! Please leave a REVIEW! X

Changing the Future

Okay, now I'm just confused... I could have sworn that the imposters were here to either kill me or stop me from pursuing O'Neil but they seem to be just letting me get on with things, which is weird seeing as it's been a weeks now. As much as I hate to admit it, I've been letting my guard down around them. They're too good at acting like my family that I sometime forget that it's not them. Which just makes me even madder. I want them gone. Now.

I mostly spent my time with fake-Derek. We acted like the real Derek and I used to. Laughing, holding hands and a few kisses here and there, always wishing it was the real Derek I was holding hands with and laughing with and kissing. I constantly had a fake smile plastered on my face, always had a fake laugh when fake-Simon told one of his jokes. It was like they wanted to be my family, acting like them so well it was believable.

I don't get. Why won't they attack? I would feel better if they attacked me rather than them being all fake smiles and fake laughs. The faster they attack the faster we can get rid of them. Whenever Rae was around them she always had a wary look on her face. I pretended not to notice for the sake of pretences but she did it so much it was hard to pretend not to notice. Younger Derek, Tori, Simon and Me always had an awkward look on their faces and looked like they didn't know what to do. I didn't blame them. I don't know what to do. Do I make the first move and confront them or do I wait for them to make the first move. Either is dangerous.

Fortunately my answer came one lovely sunny day. It was breakfast and we all squeezed into the kitchen to eat, the blinds were drawn and when the younger Simon got up to open the blinds, bright rays of sun shine filtered through the horizontal gaps from the window and cast a sunny glow on the faces of Tori, Kit and Lauren. It happened just for a moment but when the sun hit their face the appearances faltered and their real looks showed, if only for a moment. They were getting weaker and eventually their fake looks will fade.

I sat up in surprise but quickly covered it by reaching for another slice of toast I didn't really want. I thanked my lucky stars that only Rae and I noticed. We shared a secret smirk across the table and we both knew that they won't be here for long.

If their appearances were fading, so were there stolen powers and memories. I decided to test my theory on fake-Lauren.

"Aunt Lauren?" I asked sweetly. I kept my tone conversational so I didn't sound like I was interrogating her, just bringing back old memories. She looked up from her food and smiled in a motherly way. "Do you remember that time, when you took me to a fun fair and I kept wanting to go on the spinning swings that went up high in the air?"

She paused for a moment but then smiled. "Of course, you wanted to go on that ride over and over and the whole time you were on it, you just giggled all the time. Why?"

"Just that it's one of my favourite memories of you and me; I wanted to make sure you remembered it too." I suspected only Rae got my hidden meaning. "And at the end of the day you bought me a hot dog but I dropped it in your car and the ketchup and mustard stained the seat so there was always a reminder for that day," I laughed in a reminiscent way and fake-Lauren joined in.

I saw my younger self frowning. I didn't drop a hot dog, I dropped a blue slushy. My aunt and I always laughed about it because the bright blue stain contrasted badly with the beige of the seats. The fact that she didn't correct me means my suspicion is true. They were weaker.

Later, after breakfast and a little before lunch, the fakes disappeared off somewhere in the house. It happened every now and then and it worried me. They've probably just gone off to figure out the best way to kill me. On that happy note Rae and the others walk in. Simon and Tori lounge on the sofa, Derek and Chloe share an armchair and Rae pulls up a table chair seeing as I'm sitting in the other arm chair.

"Did you see that? In the kitchen? Their faces? They're getting weaker! We can get rid of them! Finally!" Rae let in a rush.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Tori said sitting up. "What's this about faces and finally getting rid of them?"

"When Simon opened the blinds this morning—" I began.

"The light landed on their faces—" Rae cut in.

"And their fake appearances faded a little—"

"Meaning that they're weakening –"

"Meaning that we can get rid of them somehow—"

"Meaning that—"

"Will you stop that? It's annoying me now," I glared at Rae.

Rae raised her eyebrows. "Alright touchy, I was just trying to help you explain. Anyway, I say we make a plan now, before they come back from planning our deaths or whatever it is they do up there. In fact I say we get rid of them today, before they realise they are getting weaker."

"I agree," Simon put in. "I hate how they're pretending to be us. Pretending to care but actually planning to kill us. And I hate the guy that's pretending to be Derek—."

"Why?" Tori interrupted.

"Because... because...I don't like the way he touches Chloe!"

"Bro, why don't you just let me worry about that one? Seeing as it's actually me he's pretending to be?"

"Well are you worrying about it? She's your future girlfriend and you don't seem to care!"

"Care! Of course I care! I don't like it anymore than you do—."

"Hold it! Hold it!" Young Me and me said at the same time. "Excuse me?" We both lifted an eyebrow but I carried on, on my own this time. "Even if you did do something about it, I wouldn't want you to. You would give away that we know who they are. And it's not like I like kissing someone who isn't Derek but I will if it keeps us alive."

At my words Derek and Chloe blushed, Simon fidgeted in his seat and Tori and Rae sniggered. "So," Rae said, bringing us out of the awkward second. "Do we get rid of them today? Or are we waiting?"

The truth was I wasn't sure. If we do it today we have about twenty minutes to plan. But I didn't want them around anymore. I want to finish this. "Today. We're getting rid of them today."

A smile spread across Rae's face. "Good, because I have a plan and today is the perfect time to put it in motion."

Once we talked through our plan and had it memorised by heart, which was easy seeing as the plan was quite easy. We walked out the room and went our separate ways to round up the fakes and herd them into the living room. Obviously everybody appointed me to get Derek and Aunt Lauren into the living room while Simon worked on Kit, Rae, her fake mother and Tori had to get Simon, which she wasn't happy about. Derek waited in the living room, waiting for everyone to arrive and play guard.

Fake-Aunt Lauren was fairly easy to find. She was in the kitchen making a sandwich. She offered me one but I declined. "Aunt Lauren, everyone is meeting in the living room. We're going to figure out a way to go home," I told her, saying the first thing that came to my head. Her eyes widened and she sandwich dropped her on the plate. She turned her body all the way around to face me. She huffed nervously. "N-now? So soon? Honey, what's the rush?"

"Well now we're all together we don't have to stay here anymore," I said, pretending to not notice her nervousness. "Everyone should be in the living room now," I lied. Her eyebrows pulled together in confusion. "I'll meet you in there," I hurried out before she could say anything.

I found Derek in the garden, just sitting there on the deck in the shade, obviously not wanting the sun to shine on him. I walked towards him cautiously and sat down beside him. He looked startled when I sat down; he must not have heard me approach. I took that as a good sign. If he was weak then a fight between him and the real Derek would be easily won. He put his arm around my back and pulled me closer to him. I tried not to stiffen but smile warmly instead. "Hey," I greeted. "What you doing out here?"

He shrugged and looked sideways at me. "The future," was his only answer.

"The future?" I repeated. "What about it? Got any plans?" Like trying to kill me?

"My only plans are you," he pulled me closer and whispered in my ear. "Wanna know a secret?" I looked up at him with questioning eyes and nodded suspiciously. He smiled and whispered, "Before this whole phiasco started I was going to ask you something."

My eyes widened and my heart thudded so fast I could swear he could hear it. "What?" I asked, realising I was whispering too and cleared my throat. "What?" I repeated louder.

He pressed his forehead to mine and closed his eyes. "I was going to ask you to marry me."

That's when my heart stopped beating for a second and it felt like the walls of my world fell away. It felt like the ground was spinning and suddenly I was really dizzy. I closed my eyes too, took a deep breath and opened my eyes again.

I don't know why but I laughed without humour. "You're—you're lying, right? Joking? It's a mean joke? Take it back." My tone took on a pleading tome now. "It's not funny."

He frowned and gave me a bemused look and a confused laugh. "Joking? Why would I joke about that? I was going to ask you to marry me."

"You?" The fact that he keeps saying 'I', like he was actually Derek, disturbed me.

He cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow. "Yes, me. You have anybody else in mind? If I asked would you have said no? You would have said no, wouldn't you? It's okay if you—."

"No, no! I would have said yes, but—."

A smile that only belonged to Derek broke out across his face and he kissed me on the lips. He wrapped his arms around me so I was even closer to him. "Yes? You would have said yes?"

"I-I—." Damn, my stutters back. I was shocked and breathless. He's acting like he really loves me. But he couldn't—he's not Derek. Derek— the Derek—loves me. Was the real Derek going to ask me to marry him or was he saying that to distract me? It's another distraction. I told myself. Just a distraction.

A cough from the door way broke me out of my confusion. I was here for a reason. Get Derek to the living room.

The younger Tori surveyed us with suspicion. Derek was wrapped around me with a goofy grin, which faded when he saw Tori, and my bright blue eyes were wide with shock. "Umm, am I interrupting something?"

"No," I said jumping up the same time fake-Derek said, "Yes."

"Everyone's in the living room now."

"We'll be right in." I said a little breathless. She gave us another look but nodded mutely and walked away. "I-I actually came out here to get you to the living room, we're having a discussion."

He lifted an eyebrow in confusion but followed me in the house anyway. He took my hand and walked with me to the living room. Rae was standing outside the door waiting for us. "About time," she huffed. Derek walked into the room first followed by me and Rae. Before we walked in, Rae discreetly handed me one of my guns.

The room was dark and eerie and all the fakes were in the centre of the room, looking relaxed but intrigued as to why they were there. "What's this about?" Kit asked. "Simon said you have something important to tell us?"

"Tori said we were having lunch early," fake-Simon stated.

"I thought we were just going to watch a movie, hence the dark room?" fake-Tori said, gesturing around the room.

"Chloe said we were talking about going home," fake-Lauren said.

"Home?" Kit said. "Simon never mentioned—."

"Actually," the younger Tori said conversationally. "We're here to get rid of you."

They all looked at her startled. "W-what do you mean," fake-Simon stuttered nervously.

"This," young Simon said. He put his hands together, like he was praying, mumbled a few words under his breath and jerked his hands away from each other and just as suddenly all the curtains in the room swung open, illuminating the room with the bright sun shining through.

The fakes all flinched as the light hit their skin. Their appearances faded in and out, one moment my family the next, plain humanoid figures. They all had translucent blond hair and skin so pale it was like snow. They eyes were silver and when you looked into them you could see your reflection.

"You knew?" The flickering figure of older Tori said. "Did Rae tell you?"

I gave them all an angry glare. "You completely underestimate me. I knew what you were the moment you came. I knew you were dangerous so I played the clueless little girl you thought I was. Fake laughs, fake smiles and you were completely fooled. You're not the only one who can pretend."

"Chloe...," fake-Derek tried to move towards me but Rae and I brought out our guns and pointed them at his chest and he stopped where he was.

"And you!" I said, suddenly angry now. "You had the biggest Job of all! Keep poor little heartbroken Chloe busy while the rest figure out a way to kill her!"

"It wasn't like that," it was like his voice was pleading.

"What was it like then?" I shouted

"Actually," it was the translucent figure of Kit that was speaking now. "We were all for getting rid of you but he—" he gestured to fake-Derek "—wouldn't let us. As shameful as it is, he's grown... attached to you."

I frowned and everyone fidgeted around me. "Attached?" I asked my voice now softer.

Fake-Derek grimaced in, what I guessed as chagrin. "His emotions for you were strong." I knew he was talking about Derek—my Derek. "Every thought, every memory, every feeling he had was reflected into me. Most of the time you can just ignore the feelings but his were too strong. I couldn't ignore them. Everything he had, I wanted. Including you and I had you and I didn't want to let you go."

The fake-Aunt Lauren made a sound of disgust in her throat. "You're weak," she hissed. Her face was almost transparent and her eyes were brighter silver than before. "We should have killed her."

Fake-Derek glared daggers at her. "I won't let you."

"Chloe," Rae said urgently. "Please, we need to end this."

I nodded and turned my attention back to the Reflectors. "Chloe don't do this, I love you" Fake-Derek said holding up his hands in surrender. I tightened my hand around my gun and my eyes narrowed. "You don't have to do this. What you're here for, it dangerous, you'll get hurt. Your family's dead, I'm sorry, but please let this go. You won't get Derek back but—."

I jerked my gun up to his head angrily. "That's where you're wrong. I will get Derek back. And you're not him."

I pulled the trigger and he shattered like glass.

That's the end of this chapter and I hope you liked it. Please give me a review, they motivate me to write and, because of the few reviews, I almost didn't want to keep writing this story, it feels like no one likes it. So, prove me wrong. As you may and may not have noticed I changed my name, I got bored with the other one, so I'll update when I can, if I do, and I hope you review!
PurpleFire...x