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

Author's Note: So I got a kind review today, which inspired me to upload new chapters! I hope you'll like them. The first is a bit shorter than the average, but it resolves the cliffhanger from last chapter, so... yeah. Also, fun newspaper-change time! It looks like the story is wrapping up.

Chapter Twenty-One

Wednesday, March 24, 1920
09:35 AM PDT
Hill Valley, California

Never before in his whole adult life had Emmett Brown been a coward. Well, he'd had his moments, but he had never really thought about running away when there was another option. He didn't like the idea of being shot in the back, like the tombstone in one of the previous timelines had told him he had once been, and preferred to face his fate rather than perishing as … well, as a chicken, never mind what problems Marty might have with that that Doc preferred to avoid. No, when there was no other option but to die, Doc Brown would not go fleeing and screaming.

It was therefore an oddity that when he saw Biff Tannen coming up in the elevator holding a gun, that his first instinct was to do just that – flee, and duck in order to take cover. Lucky for him, Biff wasn't a great shot, and the ducking worked. The bullet just narrowly missed him. Doc let out a "Great Scott!" and fled out of the house. He ran out of the door and tried to dodge the bullets that were sent his way, but he knew he couldn't go on long.

Luckily, Biff was distracted for a moment, as he saw the time train there. Cursing at the fact that his prisoners had clearly escaped, he began to shoot at the machine. The bullets ricocheted on the frame of the train, which had been designed to be safe from such things (even though the goal had been easing time travel, not preparing for gunfire). This delay gave Doc a few seconds to think, and he used them.

The inventor ran around the house, with Biff resuming his chase after giving up on the train. However, Doc had gained an advantage, and when he reached the train again, he headed straight towards the elevator. Biff arrived a few seconds later, and after seeing where his adversary had gone, ran towards the elevator inside the house as well. He dove into it, and arrived at the bottom floor… where Doc was facing him, holding a gun of his own.

The shock of it made Biff drop his own gun on the floor in front of Doc, but he had the presence of mind to press the knob just before the inventor could take advantage of his own position. Biff headed up again in the elevator, and Doc felt torn on chasing after him or taking care of Marty, who was smiling at him. Eventually, he decided to go for the latter first. He wasn't that good with confronting people with weapons anyway, even if the weapons were on his side – not that Biff needed to know that.

Marty grinned broadly as Doc untied him. "I'm happy to see you showed up after all, Doc" he told his friend. "I was hoping you would, but I really didn't know whether you would get here in time."

"Well, I did, and I guess I happened to have ideal timing" Doc replied. "It looks like fortune favors us for a change. Now, let's get upstairs to see that Biff hasn't kidnapped my family again."

"You didn't lock the door?" Marty asked, as they walked up to the elevator.

"I couldn't" Doc said. "Biff has arranged it so that he has himself cleared and me no longer cleared – it would have taken me too long to resolve the situation, so I left it that way for the time being. Therefore, Clara closed the door from the inside, which means I'll have to ask her to let me in. Biff, on the other hand, can get in whenever he wants, but Clara and the boys probably won't let him get much further than the doorstep."

Marty stared at his friend. "I'm not sure what you're talking about here, Doc" he admitted.

"I was afraid of that" Doc replied, bemused. Marty not understanding his overly complex explanations… ah, that brought back memories. "Don't worry. Everything will turn out fine, I'm confident." He nodded as he stepped out of the elevator. "See? Biff's gone."

Marty nodded, and they walked over to the train. His eyes widened a bit as the door was opened. "Oh yeah, you haven't seen them yet" Doc remembered. "You know Clara, right?"

"Um, yeah" Marty said, staring at the woman who was standing in the doorway. "Though the last time I saw you, you were just dancing together at the town festival. To think you're actually married…" He shook his head. "I don't know what to say."

Clara frowned. "But you saw us again, didn't you?" she asked, puzzled. "In 1985. When you got back to the future."

"I'm afraid that's still in this Marty's future, Clara dear" Doc said. "I would explain, but I'm afraid it would cause your head to start hurting unless I told it really slowly, for which we don't have time right now." Clara smirked. "However, there is another issue I would like to attend to before anything else."

"Which is?" Marty asked.

"The newspaper" Doc responded as they both walked into the train, Marty looking around at the kids whom he didn't know but who vaguely knew him. "You've still got it on you, haven't you?"

Marty nodded. He pulled out the paper and looked at the picture of his other, older self, wearing a uniform. "Nothing's changed!" he exclaimed, frowning.

"Same here!" Doc said, frowning. "That's strange… wait!"

"What?" Marty asked, peeking into Doc's newspaper. Clara did the same, and even the boys approached to have a look.

"The letters are altering!" Doc whispered. "And so is the picture! Great Scott! This is the same process we've observed in 2015 and in 1955!"

And indeed it was. Where the headline had once read:

EMMETT TANNEN AWARDED
Local Inventor Receives Award For Human Mind Studies

It now read:

EMMETT BROWN FIRED
Local Teacher/Inventor Expelled Over High School Fire

"You were fired for, uh, starting a fire?" Marty asked.

"It was an out-of-control accident" Doc said, sighing. "It got me fired from my job at Hill Valley High School back in 1953. For an aspiring inventor like me the news was a disaster as it cut away my income. Of course, when my parents died, I had the family fortune to live off, and I managed to get new occasional jobs later, but of course I would've preferred for my parents to live."

"Of course" Marty muttered. His eyes widened. "Uh, Doc? I think my newspaper's altering as well…"

"The ripple effect must have caught up to the 1990s" Doc whispered. "The picture and text are changing!" He smiled. "That's the kind of sight that will never cease to baffle me."

Where the paper had once read:

MARTIN TANNEN APPOINTED HEAD OF POLICE FORCE
Leader's Second Son Officially Promoted

It now read:

MARTIN MCFLY APPOINTED 'ROCKER OF THE YEAR'
Local Musician Gets Honorary Title

Doc smiled with relief, just barely noticing how Marty was staring strangely at the picture in the new version of the newspaper but dismissing it. "Well, I guess that solves the matter" he said cheerfully. "Now all we have to do is capture Biff… and make sure Driff won't remember this incident. I saw him on the floor, lying unconscious… Marty, how much information did Biff give him before he was knocked out?"

"Not much" Marty replied, trying to think hard. "Uh, I remember hearing them talk about Biff being from the future… but that's probably all he could have picked up. Immediately after that, I made that racket by going into the cellar, Driff followed me and I managed to knock him out. Then Biff showed up and tied me up, and… well, you know what happened next."

"I suppose I do" Doc replied, sighing. "Well, it is clear that Driff won't remember anything – not enough to make himself powerful – or those newspapers wouldn't have altered. Of course, we can't possibly get a view of the future by means of using two simple papers, but I have the feeling that the self-preservation effect of the space-time continuum would produce a similar paper in any timeline on an important date that would indicate just what has been altered and give a good view of the events of that world."

"Whatever you say, Doc" Marty said. "So, the other me is definitely gone now?"

Doc sighed. "He should be" he replied, thinking back of all the time he had spent with other-Marty. "A good thing we didn't take him along to 1920 – wouldn't have wanted Jules and Verne to watch his painful erasure."

Marty gulped, clearly remembering his own near-erasure from existence. "Yeah, that wouldn't have been fun" he muttered. "Not for him of course, and not for the kids either. But it does sound sad, you know. That a version of me is now gone forever."

"Marty, he wasn't you" Doc said, putting an arm around the teen's shoulder. "He was the son of Biff and your mother, so one might say that he was a completely different person who happed to have the same name, a similar appearance, and the same mother."

"Yeah, right" Marty muttered.

Doc sighed. "I don't like it either" he said. "But there was no way around it, and I suppose he might – mind you, might – live on in some other world." He shook his head. "Well, no use wallowing about that now. Let's go put Driff on his bed – like with Jennifer, the disorientation should help convince him it was all a dream – and then track down Biff."

Marty stood upright. "That's right!" he called out. "Where do you think he might have gone?"

"I don't know" Doc replied. "Perhaps we will receive a hint from these newspapers, but I'm not going to wait for him to actually change history again." He shook his head. "Come on, we've got work to do."