Gah! Sorry for taking over a month to update! I have suddenly become obsessed with an Anime, and School started. I also got two Border Collie puppies, and they're both taking a lot of my time, so please forgive me! I have changed my style slightly, due to getting a new English teacher and I'm trying to mature my work, since my English level is my weakest out of Maths, Science and English, so, I hope I have improved! Enjoy!

Clive POV- 23 Years Old

As I stood the supply room, which was derelict and worn down, I stared at the two of them, who were studying the room. Most likely, looking for a hidden puzzle, because this is Professor Layton and his assistant Luke.

"Professor Layton, Luke, welcome to London of the future." I said, my voice emotionless.

"Hmm." The Professor said softly.

"Still not convinced?" I asked. "You met with Dr. Schrader, didn't you?" I had been informed of the exact actions that had happened to the two of them since they had been sent the letter, so I wasn't clueless. "What did you think after seeing him? I'm sure you noticed the toll that time has taken on the good doctor."

"Yes, that seemed to be the case." The Professor mused.

"And what of fair London herself?" I asked, due to knowing how patriotic the Professor was. In my opinion, London was run down and full of people who had ambitions to become abnormally successful. "You've walked around enough now to see how it's transformed. Can you imagine a 24-hour casino in this sleepy part of town ten years ago?" I asked. I knew for a fact that there was a bakery in the same plot of land just above us, which used to give free bread to the orphanage every Sunday, freshly baked. Back to the conversation.

"Everything's changed so much. What happened to this city?" Luke asked.

"A genius appeared." I stated. "An evil genius who turned the city on its ear."

"Oh, I know where this is going." Luke said, his eyebrows burrowed. Are you sure? Don Paolo took over the city, didn't he!" Wrong.

"Don Paolo? Oh, no, I'm talking about a truly brilliant man. Someone the three of us all know quite well."

"Well," Luke started. "If it's not Don Paolo, then who is it?"

"Hmm…what do you think, Professor?" I asked, trying to keep him in the conversation, so he didn't pick up on anything too bad.

"…I'm not sure."

"I thought you'd say that." I said.

"Who is it? I've got to know." Luke said. I could see him trying to think of all the possibilities, but he'd never get it correct. Well, not for now, atleast.

"His Name is Hershel Layton." I stated simply. "That evil genius is you, Professor."

"WHAAAAT?!" Luke said in a sudden outrage.

"I was afraid you'd say that." The Professor said, his face showing no emotion. Please don't be getting on to something.

"That can't possibly be right!" Luke shouted.

"I'm sad to say that there's no mistake here. They call him the devil in the top hat, and he rules London from the shadows. This is common knowledge to everyone in London." I informed them, Luke's face in a 'o' shape in shock, the Professor's arms folded, his face expressionless.

"Tell me more, Luke." The Professor said.

"More, I don't know any more than you do, Professor." Luke said. He fell for it again?

"No, I'm referring to the other Luke." The Professor said simply. "…Goodness, this is getting rather complicated, isn't it? Tell me, Luke—how did I rise to rule over all London?"

"Where to begin…" I said. "Here, Professor, surely you remember this?" I said, pulling out something the two of them gasped over.

The newspaper about the explosion.

"Of course. This is an article about the incident that happened just the other day." Luke said.

"Ha ha ha! Yes, to you two, I suppose it was just the other day. However, he it's been a full ten years since that fateful day."

"Who" Luke said.

"It was a dark period for London." I said, trying to look like I was completely devastated. I think I pulled it off well enough. "You see, the Prime Minister vanished, leaving Parliament in utter chaos."

"Yeah, everyone in Parliament is in a state of panic." Luke said. The Professor had fallen silent yet again. "Um, in our time, I mean" he added.

"Professor," I said, trying to bring back the top hatted man into the conversation. "You yourself witnessed the accident that changed London forever. The demonstration was a total failure."

"Yes, both the Prime Minister and that scientist-"

"You mean Dr. Stahngun?" Luke asked. Or Dimitri Allen.

"Yes, that's right" The Professor answered. "Several people, including those two, disappeared in the blast. It seems likely the force of the explosion killed them."

"Didn't the paper say that a few of Dr. Stahngun's assistants vanished in the blast aswell?" Luke asked. I had decided to keep quiet as the two of them conversed, but spoke up.

"That's the story in the papers." I said. "But what would you say if I told you Stahngun was alive?"

"I'd say it's impossible." Because he never existed in the first place.

"Well, then you'd be wrong." I stated. Dr. Stahngun escaped the blast, but he decided to go into hiding to avoid fallout from the experiment."

"Well, the man was responsible for the loss of our national leader." Layton said, after falling silent yet again.

"Desperate for a place to lay low, the doctor was given shelter from an unlikely person." Here comes the story part. "You, Professor."

"Me? Why would I aid a man responsible for this pandemonium?"

"My question exactly." I sighed, and started telling the story that Dimitri and I had taken weeks to make believable. Since I was a journalist, it had been easier due to adding facts to make it balance out enough for them to fall for it:

"In the months that followed the explosion, you slowly grew distant from me. Before long, you began fraternizing with key figures of the criminal underworld."

"The Professor? Never!"

"Don't be so sure. Time has a way of changing people, Luke. It was clear that something about Stahngun's research captivated you, Professor. You couldn't stop talking about time travel. You seemed possessed by the idea of changing the past."

"Changing the past?" The Professor muttered to himself.

Dr. Stahngun was very interested in continuing his research, but he needed financial backing to do it. So you used your superior intellect to assume control of London's underworld."

"No way…" Luke breathed.

"Of course," I started. "There were those who tried to stop you. But no one was a match for your smarts. Before long, you were raking in the pounds from all sorts of dirty business. With all the funding he needed, it wasn't long before Stahngun completed his work."

"Completed it, you say?"

"That's right. He built the time machine in the Midland Road clock shop. Though I suppose 'completed' is an odd choice of words…as the machine was far from complete."

"How so?"

"It doesn't allow users to select their destination. Nor where they will reappear in the flow of time. It simply opens a hole of sorts in between two areas of time."

"You mean a wormhole!" Luke shouted.

"Precisely" I said. "And by sheer chance…the machine opened a wormhole in the clock shop that spans the ten years between our two times. This gives us the ability to move back and forth between your present and mine."

"So, you used the wormhole to get the message to us and bring us here." Layton summed up. "But one thing is bothering me. This wormhole was obviously very important to my future self. Surely the Layton of this era must keep a close eye on the place. How did you gain access to it?" he asked.

"I'll get to that, but right now there's more pressing business I'd like to attend to." I said.

"Go on then. Tell us why you called us here."

"Always one step ahead of me." I said. "You haven't lost your touch, Professor. I wish to enlist your help stopping the future Hershel Layton."

"You want me to stop myself?" Layton asked. Not necessarily.

"Even as we speak, future Layton is racing to complete a fully operational time machine." I said. "He's been ducking back into the past to gather every bright scientist working in time travel."

"But why bother going back through time to find scientists? There must be plenty here." Luke asked.

"Actually," I started. "Many of the experts in the field were lost when Stahngun's demonstration went awry. Therefore, Layton had no choice but to travel back to before the blast in order to gather talent."

"Hmm…" Don't get suspicious, please don't get suspicious!

"Things are bad already…" I started. "But if Layton managed to build a working time machine, there's no telling what could happen. Someone has to stop him from completing his scheme. But the only person up to the challenge-"

"Is me." The Professor finished. "That is what you were going to say, isn't it?"

"Exactly. We have to fight fire with fire. No one else stands a chance against him."

"But how? I'm unfamiliar with my current surroundings, and I have no clue where to find the man."

"That's one obstacle we'll have to overcome together." I said. "Layton's actions are shrouded in secrecy. But his base of operations is well known. We can start our search for him there."

"You mean this casino isn't the future professor's headquarters?"

"No, this facility is just one of the many ways he makes money. His actual headquarters is in the heart of Chinatown."

"Let's visit the place and see if we can't learn something more." Layton said.

"Just so you know, Luke, there's still quite a bit that I find dubious about this situation." Damn. "Much is still unclear. But the only way to get to the bottom of this is to meet the man claiming to be me."

I had to think of a comeback. "Somehow I figured my brief explanation wouldn't be enough to convince you, Professor. Ha ha ha!" I think that one worked, for now.

"Don't forget me! I'm coming too."

"Of course you are. If I can't count on myself for help, who can I count on?"

"Thinking about what you just said makes me feel kind of…dizzy." Luke whined. Because it's all one big joke.

"Ha ha! Well, I hope you get used to it soon. I'm going to need your help getting to the bottom of all this." I said, remembering something important. "Oh yes, and there's more interesting fact you should know about, Professor."

"Yes?"

"There's no record of a scientist matching Dr. Stahngun's name and description. The name's a fake."

"Really now?" Yes, it's true.

"Whoever he was, he made an effort to hide his real identity from the people at the demonstration."

"Now that you mention it, few people at the demonstration seemed to know the man." Layton noted.

"What would motivate Stahngun to use a false name? Just what was he planning?"

"Another interesting question we'll hopefully answer along the way" I said, knowing the answer already.

"It doesn't make any sense." Layton said, closing his eyes to think. Luke looked slightly troubled aswell. "Hmm."

"What are you thinking, Professor?" Luke asked the Professor, who was still deeply in thought.

"We can talk more as we go. For now, we need to head back to Flatstone Street." I said.

And that chapter is done. Thanks for waiting, and I near enough doubled the length as a gift for saying sorry. I also had today off even though it's Tuesday as my school closed to the British Teacher strike XD Thanks for reading!