Disclaimer: I don't own Back to the Future. Man, even though I can't really come up with new disclaimers, this one is really getting old, isn't it?

Author's Note: And yes, another two-for-the-price-of-one deal here. We're on the eve of the final departure for the past, but before we can get there, Doc and Marty have a final discussion that shows that this guy, as nice as he might appear occasionally, is not really the Marty we know and love. So, please read and review! Constructive criticism is also always welcome.

Chapter Fourteen

Saturday, July 16, 2016
09:00 PM PDT
Tannen Valley, California

Over the next few weeks, Emmett found himself be amazed at the speed of the reforms that were taking place in Tannen Valley. Jennifer and her group had been reluctant to support a Tannen at first, but even to them, it became evident that this Marty was different from his family. Marty genuinely wanted change, and he got it. One bill after the other was passed. Certainly, some were passed with some hesitancy, and Marty kept holding the reins of power tight, but they were passed in the end. Political prisoners had their processes re-examined, and in many case that resulted in a release. Tannen officials were given a thorough investigation to examine whether they were fit to stay in the new regime. Freedom of speech, which had never been formally abolished, was evident in Hill Valley once more. One could now freely insult the Tannen administration and only get a reprimand and perhaps, if you went too far, a bill. And condemning Cliff and his goons was more likely to be encouraged than condemned. It still wasn't perfect, but it was a lot of difference compared to the way it was before.

As for Emmett, he was having the time of his life. The laboratory Marty had provided for him more than suited his wishes and the speed with which technology he needed could be delivered never ceased to amaze him. His friend did everything he could, which considerably sped up the process. Within a month, Emmett had turned a normal old DeLorean into a nearly functioning time machine. After finishing the time circuits and creating a Fusion reactor – that process was hardest, especially considering how some technologies in this world ran behind their counterparts in Emmetts own – the time machine was finally ready for testing by mid-July.

But Emmett and Marty hadn't only been working apart on the time machine and the reform of Tannen Valley, respectively (a bill was running to return the name to 'Hill Valley', but it hadn't been formalized yet) – they had also been working together on investigation of the Tannen family's shady past. A lot of things were brought out in the open, but matters regarding time travel could naturally not be revealed to the public. Normally, when Marty would get done with his regular work at around 10 PM, he would come to visit Emmett, and they would both go to the secret archives, hidden in the underground place Marty had found the day before he rescued Emmett from getting executed. They would spend one or two hours there before retiring for the day. Although their time was limited, the amount of knowledge they managed to uncover was more than enough.

In this world, Biff Tannen had indeed been the one to visit the Tannens of this era, back on March 24th, 1920 – the day after Emmett's birth. He had shown up with baby Emmett and had told Driff, Marty and Cliff's great-grandfather and then the head of the Tannen family, all about time travel, the Browns and the McFly's. Using that information, the Tannen family had been able to convince a reluctant Emmett to pursue a life in inventing things that would benefit his family. After years of Tannen influence, Emmett had indeed become a Tannen – although, even more so than Marty, he had kept parts of his old character – and had perfected a mind-influencing device. Using it, the Tannens were able to gradually take control of Hill Valley.

Emmett figured that Biff must have been especially regretful for the failures he made the last time, since the amount of information about the future he had conveyed to his ancestors was mind-boggling. In fact, he wondered whether they were lucky the situation hadn't gotten even worse. Biff marrying Lorraine was enough of an alteration to the time stream already, but it could have been possible that neither of them – or George – would have been born at all in the new timeline, thanks to the indirect or direct influence of the Tannen family.

While Emmett and Marty kept studying the growth of Tannen influence in times past – and Marty grew gradually more disgusted of his family's ways – that influence was being undone in the present. The Parker group was openly negotiating with Marty and fully backed his reform plans (although there were dissenting voices who didn't think the reforms were radical enough, and most of the group was skeptical). Jennifer, though, was convinced of Marty's honesty, and even convinced her husband to come out in the open again. When Emmett learned she was married to Victor McFly, the alternate son of George McFly (born out of a short fling with a girl George had never heard from again) he couldn't help but smile. Some things turned out right no matter what reality you were in. Meanwhile, present-day Biff Tannen was being kept under close guard by the very same officers he had once installed, and although the old man seemed harmless, tired and worn-out as he was after a life of decadence, Emmett knew he would be happy when he was safely out of 2016. He also knew that one of the hardest tasks for Marty was to continuously ignore the messages his mother was sending him, demanding the release of 'your father' and denouncing him for what he was doing. Occasionally, the inventor wondered whether Marty would one day cave under the pressure and turn on him again.

Today was the sixteenth of July, and Emmett was finally putting the finishing touches on his installation of the time circuit display. It looked slightly different from the old version, considering the different technology that was available in 2016, but nevertheless, it, and the entire temporal machinery in the DeLorean, was still very much like the invention he had first tested that night at Lone Pine Mall and which had sent Einstein on the first trip through time ever made (although not chronologically, since that honor went to his own arrival in 1885). Emmett was sure that this version, despite a few glitches here and there, would work. And tomorrow, he was planning to test it.

As he was musing over what other parts of the time machine he could test without actually sending it up to eighty-eight, he was startled by a knock on the door. Marty entered and smiled at him. "Evening, Emmett" he said. "Giving your work a last look?"

"Pretty much, yeah" Emmett replied. "I hope I'll get some rest tonight. After all, tomorrow, I will resume time travelling, and I'll have the task to fix what your father wrought in 1920."

Marty nodded, understanding. "A hard task indeed" he said. "Although if the time machine doesn't work, you probably won't be taking off tomorrow."

"That's true" Emmett agreed. "But I'm confident that it will. I have spent several weeks on this, checked my calculations, done tests on the individual systems… it will work. Tomorrow will be the last day – or rather, the last morning – I'll spend in 2016. This version of 2016, I mean."

"That's what I came to talk to you about" Marty said, sitting down in one of the chairs Emmett had installed. Emmett made no protest against it – after all, it wouldn't make much sense for him to expect Tannen Valley's leader to ask for a seat, and the chair had been sent here by Marty himself. "You see, I was wondering what exactly you were planning to do."

Emmett frowned at that question. "Didn't I tell you? Biff – your father – kidnapped my younger self from the hospital and exchanged him for another baby, then brought me to your great-grandfather and gave him information about the future. My plan should simply be intercepting Biff at the hospital, ensure that my younger self stays where, he is, and rescue my family."

Marty frowned. "That sounds like a hard task for just one man" he said. "Sure, there's only one person you need to watch – but if alternate Dad planned for your appearance in 2016 and passed down instructions how to act against you, you can bet on it that he's prepared for you showing up in 1920, too."

Emmett frowned. "You think?" he said. "That information he gave your family was almost foolproof. If not for your intervention, I would have been killed. And he can't have counted on the Parker resistance movement, either. He's not going to count on me coming after him."

Marty shook his head. "I get what you mean" he said. "But you can't underestimate him. His first attempt failed, and if what I heard from you is right, then he's had, what, eight months to prepare for his second?"

"More like seven months, two weeks and one day" Emmett replied. "But you've got a decent point. I've been counting on the fact that all Tannens are dumb – no offence, Marty – but the Biff we met in 2016 was actually reasonably smart. Though I wouldn't know…" He frowned, and began to smirk. "Or were you about to offer to come along with me?"

Marty grinned. "Am I that predictable?"

"Not extremely, but the way you put emphasis on the 'just one man' bit helped tip me off" Emmett replied. "I understand your feelings, Marty, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to say no. You can't come with me. It's too dangerous."

Marty's grin vanished. "What?" he exclaimed. "Why on earth would facing an alternate version of my father be dangerous? Or time travel? It's never hurt you before! That's a sloppy excuse to keep me out and you know it!"

Emmett shook his head. "I'm not trying to keep you out" he replied, softly. "If I could, I would have taken you along. But I can't. What might happen if we manage to repair the time stream? Would you be erased from existence? Or would you stay and replace your other self, meaning you might get new memories, but have old ones from this world you're stuck with forever?!"

"I could manage" Marty said. "The other me did, right? He grew up in a family that was considerably less happy than the one he eventually ended up in."

"I don't think you understand" Emmett said. "Even if you don't go through the erasure process, which I doubt since you have a different father – and it's painful, take that from your counterpart – you'll still have a drastically different life. You will have a wife and two kids, a career in rock music – do you even play the guitar?"

"No" Marty said. "But I'll have new memories, right?"

"Yes, but this is too radical a change for the new timeline to take!" Emmett exclaimed. "You are underestimating just how much will change. My Marty was able to cope because some things stayed the same: he had the same parents, though they were changed, and the same siblings, the same girlfriend, the same best friend. You would have to start from a clean slate, with two sets of memories going back longer and conflicting much more than those of my Marty did! It's just not possible for you to cope with this!"

At that, Marty stood up, and glared at Emmett menacingly in a you'll-do-what-you're-told-to-do way. "I think I can determine what I can cope with or not" he said, his tone of voice icily. "You just want to keep me out because you don't want to risk having to miss the other me! I'm just a mere error of the time stream to you, an issue that should be resolved as soon as possible!" His face was red with fury, and Emmett was nearly frightened at the temper his friend's alternate self possessed. "Emmett Lathrop Brown, as ruler of Tannen Valley I demand you to let me come along!"

"Marty…" Emmett tried.

"Don't 'Marty' me! That's Mr. Tannen to you! I understand what you're saying about living in a different timeline and maybe it would be hard, but it would be better than getting dissolved all together!"

"But that's the main point, you would be dissolved!" Emmett called out. He stared at Marty and took a deep breath. "If you stayed here, there are two options. One is that this timeline would vanish after I fix history, and you'd vanish along with it and be replaced by a new Marty, the Marty I know. You'll have never been, and thus you won't be able to experience erasure since you never existed in the first place. The second option is that this timeline lives on, so you won't get dissolved either. However, if we do it your way, you'll either get erased from existence in 1920 – which will be painful, since you were there up to that moment – or you will go along with me to 2016 and replace the other you, and get memories you don't know, with a family that you will have to get adjusted to. No one will be able to share the troubles you're going through. I can try, but I won't be of much help because I never experienced the same thing." He sighed, and placed a hand on Marty's shoulder. "Marty, this is for your own good. I don't want you to go insane."

Marty looked at Emmett, and sighed. "Perhaps you're right" he admitted, calming down. "I know you mean well, Emmett… but there's one issue you haven't addressed yet. What if I went along and we got back to the future, and there is another me already? You know, like how you haven't been erased?"

Emmett thought about that for a moment. "I've considered that matter for quite some time now" he said. "The only reason I can imagine for my non-erasure is that this reality is headed towards a paradox anyway, but that paradox should have occurred by now!"

"Perhaps you haven't been erased yet and the paradox hasn't occurred yet because God Himself knows you've got the ability to make things right" Marty commented. "I mean, what with the self-preservation effect you told me about, I don't think the universe wants to explode."

Emmett smirked. "You may have a point there" he said. "I'll have to research this some more once I get back home."

He was about to turn to the DeLorean when Marty cleared his throat. "One more question, though" he said. "I think I understand now why you can't take me along. But you still can't do this on your own, Emmett. I know you're a great inventor and capable of a lot of things, but… you wouldn't want this to fail because of your own insistence to do this alone, would you?"

Emmett shook his head. "No" he replied. "But I wouldn't know who to ask."

"Why, me of course" Marty said, grinning. "The me from the other world. You once told me that all history from 1920 has been altered and what happened before that stayed the same. That's why you had those photographs around, and why the ravine's still Eastwood though I never went back to fall in. You need that me, Emmett, the me who went back to 1885 to supposedly fall into the ravine. You'll need him to fix things."

Emmett frowned. "That might not be a bad idea" he allowed. "Although it does sound extremely dangerous. If I mess with the events from 1885…"

"Well, it was your last time trip together, wasn't it?" Marty asked. "There shouldn't be too much to mess up, and you could just tell me, uh, him, what to do when you bring him back to 1885." He stared at Emmett, then got up and walked towards the door. "I'll leave you here with your thoughts, for the time being. Good night, Emmett."

"Good night, Marty" Emmett greeted, staring after his friend as he headed off. Marty did have a point. He couldn't do this on his own. And perhaps, if he took the Marty from 1885, history could still stay more or less the same. It was the last time trip he'd made together with Marty, after all.

The last time trip…

Emmett shook his head. No time to get all nostalgic or continue speculations about alterations of history. It was time to go to bed. Tomorrow, he would finally get the chance to change history, meet Clara and the kids again, and teach Biff a lesson… but tomorrow could wait. Emmett Brown would wait for today to pass, first. Yawning, he turned off the lights in his laboratory, and walked through the hallways towards his living quarters. It was time to go to bed.