Disclaimer: I don't own Back to the Future.

Author's Note: And here's the second update. It sends us off to a new time period! Two of them, in fact, and this is the start of what I'll call the second segment of the story, with the first being in 2016. As for what happens next, you'll just have to wait and see. And read, of course. Hm, I sound rather lackluster, don't I? I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what else to say. Read and review, people! It's very much appreciated!

Chapter Sixteen

Monday, September 7, 1885
06:25 AM PDT
A few miles outside of
Hill Valley, California

"Marty?"

"Hmm…"

"Marty? Wake up."

The teen groaned and rolled over to his side. Why did Doc have to wake him now? He opened his left eye halfway and winced. It was barely dawn. Couldn't he just have a little more time to rest? Today was gonna be hard enough without getting up early…

"Marty, please," the inventor insisted. "If you don't wake up now, I'm afraid I'm going to have to resort to more drastic measures. Such as emptying a water bucket over your head."

That got Marty's attention. The seventeen-year-old groaned and sat up, sighing as he stared at Doc… and then blinked. The scientist was dressed in completely different attire than the sort Marty had last seen him in. Just yesterday, he had worn a long 19th Century coat and a hat, but now, he was dressed in a strange combination of sparkling clothes that could only be from the future. "What's the matter, Doc?" he asked. "Where did you get those clothes from? We're going back to 1985, not twenty-eighty-five."

"I know the clothes are inaccurate" Doc said. "I just didn't remember to change because I was so excited the time machine worked. I've got proper Prohibition Era clothes in the back of the DeLorean, though."

"Prohibition era?" Marty repeated, scrambling to his feet. "What's going on here? Did you lose your mind?"

Doc sighed. "If only that were it" he muttered. "Marty, I'm not sure how to tell you, but I'm not the Emmett Brown you know. That man is still in the Palace Saloon, miles away from here."

"The saloon?" Marty said, dazed. He took his gun belt from the ground and looked at the campsite, which still appeared to be the same as yesterday. "What on earth would you be doing there?"

"Long story" Doc said. "I'll explain it once we get to 1920."

"1920?" Marty protested. "But what would we want to do there?"

"We need to stop Biff Tannen" Doc replied. "Listen, Marty. I'm from the future. I was on a trip to the further future which I'll explain to you later when Biff stole my time machine and altered history from 1920 on. This was the only place I could go to in order to get the Marty McFly I knew to assist me."

Marty stared at him. "I'm not sure I understand."

"We'll solve that problem later" Doc said, smiling broadly. "For now, we'll just have to get to 1920. We need to leave early so that I can return you after we left, but in time for you to participate in the events of today."

Marty frowned, once more taking in Doc's futuristic attire. "What events?"

"You'll find out" Doc said. "Anyway, you need to come with me now. I'll explain everything once we are in 1920."

"One more question, though" Marty interrupted. "You're saying we need to go to 1920… but how do we get there? I thought you wanted to destroy the time machine after we got back home, so if you're really from the future…"

"It's complicated" Doc said. "But that, too, is a matter I'll explain to you later. Come on, we've got a mission to accomplish!"

oooooooo

After his short explanation, Marty hadn't asked any more questions while they walked to the car, which allowed Doc to focus on his task. He knew that they needed to eliminate Biff as a threat and rescue Clara and the boys, and preferably simultaneously, because he knew Biff wouldn't like it if they thwarted his plans and might take out his aggression on his hostages. They needed a plan.

The inventor continued to speculate about his ideas as he took the time machine up in the sky and accelerated to eighty-eight miles per hour. Once again, the DeLorean broke the time barrier swiftly and they entered Prohibition Era Hill Valley. Doc carefully inspected the time machine from within to ensure that it wasn't fading because of his abduction of Marty, and then landed it in the Hill Valley Park.

"So, this is 1920?" Marty asked, putting on the 1920s clothes Doc had given him. He had been quiet the entire ride, but now that his friend wasn't focused on driving anymore, it looked like his array of questions was about to explode.

"March 24th, 1920" Doc confirmed. "7:30 AM."

"Interesting" Marty muttered. "Wasn't this the year you were born? March 23rd, right? That should be… yesterday." He leaned back, shaking his head as it sank in. "Doc, what the hell are we doing here?"

"We're here to stop Biff Tannen" Doc said. "Listen, Marty, I know you can't do anything without an explanation, but I can't tell you too much about the future. No man should know too much about his own destiny, after all."

Marty snorted. "I doubt it's possible not to give anything away, Doc" he said. "And you've already given me some hints anyway – your strange clothes, that Last Time Departed saying July 2016 – if you don't tell me anything I'm only going to keep pressing you until you do. Now, what is going on here and what does Biff have to do with it?"

Doc sighed. "Marty, I don't know how to tell you this, but our… quest to return to the future tomorrow… or rather, tomorrow in the time period I took you from… will not turn out quite the way you and I expected it to."

"What?" Marty interrupted. "Why?"

"You know how I feel about Clara?" Doc asked. Marty nodded. "Well, when you fell asleep last night, I went over to Clara's cabin and blurted out the truth. She didn't believe me and broke up with me. Naturally, I was devastated."

"I understand" Marty said. "But wouldn't that be helpful in getting back to the future? There is nothing left for you in 1885, right?"

"That's true" Doc agreed. "But once we got on the train and started accelerating it after an incident with Buford Tannen in the Square… long story… Clara showed up. She had changed her mind and told me she loved me. I ended up having to go back for her, we had a couple of accidents…" He shrugged. "You were able to save us from falling to our deaths, but you had to go to the future alone."

"That's awful" Marty muttered. "But what does that have to do with all this?"

"In the time period that followed, Clara and I got married" Doc said. "We had two sons – Jules and Verne – and I built a time travelling train to get us out of the Old West."

"You had kids?" Marty let out a half-hearted laugh. "That's… odd."

"Think about how it felt for me!" Doc said, smirking. "Anyway. I finished the train in 1894 – as a result, I'm over nine years older than the Doc Brown you know – and Clara and I used it various times. When we travelled to 2016, however, Biff Tannen showed up." He sighed and shook his head. "I never should have left him be after that almanac incident. He knew about the time machine, and must have wanted revenge."

"What did he do?" Marty asked.

"He kidnapped Clara and the boys and took the time machine back to the past" Doc replied. "I was testing this DeLorean at the time – it had been a birthday present for me."

"Quite a present" Marty said, whistling.

"Indeed" Doc replied. "To make a long story short, I ended up in a reality where I had been abducted as a baby, replaced by an unknown baby that subsequently became Emmett Brown, and raised by the Tannens. The other me had built inventions for them and as a result, the Tannen family could take over Hill Valley. Biff even managed to meet your mother the same way your mother and father met in the old timeline."

Marty gasped. "So… I didn't exist?" he asked, weakly.

"Oh, you did exist" Doc said. "Or rather, a Tannen version of you. I know what you're going to say – if Biff and your mother could end up together, why was it so vital to get George and her back together in 1955?" Marty nodded. "Well, though this Tannen was you in many ways, he was not you in terms of DNA, and it might very well have been possible that even if your actions in 1955, heaven forbid, had caused Biff to end up with your mother and a Marty Tannen had been born, you'd still be erased, because this person might look like you, but he wasn't you. In fact, if you wanted to ensure your own birth, it might be better for a close relative, who would naturally share your father's genes to some extent, to end up with your mother than a random person like Biff. Perhaps Lorraine's romantic interest in you was even aided by the self-preservation effect of the space-time continuum to ensure that someone having McFly genes would still end up with her, seeing that you, after your father, would be the best bet genetically for courting your mother and producing you… never mind the fact that you had little interest in that."

"Heavy" Marty muttered, making a face.

"Indeed" Doc responded. "So anyway, I managed to befriend your sort-of-counterpart and he gave me the tools to build a time machine out of my DeLorean. I finished it after six weeks, and took it back to 1885 to fetch you. Since this time period was before 1920, I knew you should still be there in the circumstances that I remembered because Biff's actions in 1920 could not have influenced what happened before that. Your other self advised me to take you along, because I couldn't stop Biff alone."

Marty nodded, taking it all in. "So basically, we're here to stop Biff Tannen from kidnapping your younger self?" he asked.

"And preventing him from giving the Tannens of this time period future information, and rescuing my family" Doc summed up. "But yes, the first thing we need to do is prevent that kidnapping. I was thinking you might be good for that task."

"Why me?" Marty called out.

"Because I'm going to look for the train" Doc explained. "I know what it looks like, after all – though I suppose it would be easy enough to describe, it's not exactly conventional. Anyway, I've got some walkie-talkies with me, so you can contact me if you need me."

Marty nodded again. "Heavy" he muttered. "So, when's this crazy stunt going to start?"

Doc opened the gull-wing door on his side of the DeLorean. "Immediately after we park this thing and lock it tight, then disguise is as well as we can" he replied. "The information I got from the alternate future tells me Biff showed up at nine AM at the Tannen house, carrying the younger version of me."

Marty blinked. "But wouldn't it be easier for me to head there instead?" he asked. "That way, we know for sure Biff's been past already. If your parents didn't notice you were different, how could I know?"

"Because it should be easier for you to get into a hospital than to lurk around the Tannen house for some time and not get caught" Doc replied. "Besides, at the hospital, there are liable to be many people, so if Biff finds you, he won't dare to do anything against you."

"You think he would otherwise?" Marty asked, gulping.

Doc sighed. "This Biff has failed on one mission to the past already. He's desperate, and we can't know what he will or won't do. But considering the information he gave his family about me, I wouldn't put it past him to try to kill you."

Marty shook his head. "This is nuts" he muttered. "And that's our world's Biff, right?"

"Right" Doc agreed, sighing. "Once we get this reality back to the world we remember it, I'm going to have a serious look at what to do with Biff. He's too dangerous to be left in possession of such information."

"Tell me about it" Marty muttered.

Doc then drove the car over to a tree. They got out, and started collecting tree branches for the work on covering the time machine. Marty soon found some, and though they had to take off a few branches from the trees themselves as well, the park's flora and fauna were still mostly undisturbed once the time machine was safely hidden.

"Good thing you didn't forget to take out the stuff you needed first" Marty quipped. "Otherwise, we'd have to dig the car up again."

"Well, I'm not that stupid" Doc said. "Here's your walkie-talkie, a description of how to get to the hospital, and a newspaper from the other world."

"'Martin Tannen Appointed Head of Police Force'?" Marty read. "Holy shit, is that… me?"

"The other you, yes" Doc said. "It's a paper from 1994. Your other self collected it for me. It's going to be your check to see if the timeline's changing."

"What's yours?" Marty questioned.

In response, Doc held up a paper dated February 11th, 1953. The heading was 'Emmett Tannen Awarded' and the subtitle read 'Local Inventor Receives Award For Human Mind Studies'. "It's about my other self's award for his mind influencer" Doc said. "Though at that time, the researchers were only aware of its ability to read minds rather than influence them, my local counterpart was awarded for it nevertheless."

"Cool" Marty muttered. "Although I guess it wasn't really, considering what came of it…"

"Indeed" Doc said. "And that's why we've got to fix history whatever the cost might be." He patted his friend on the shoulder. "We must succeed. Remember that. We can't leave the Tannens in control of Hill Valley!"

"Exactly" Marty said. He smiled at Doc and walked off, in the direction of the hospital. Doc stared after his friend and sighed, then took off to do his own part of the job.