Disclaimer: I don't own You-Know-What.
Author's Note: It took some time, but here you go - the new three chapters! Finally. I hope you'll all like this Chapter, as a lot of things appear in this chapter. Also, at the end, we finally get into the phase of not being able to return to the Trilogy world, which naturally causes a lot more hops to happen. Just some information:
1. This reality is not supposed to be depressing. I know Marty is trapped in the fifties, but everything turned out fine in the end, so it's not that depressing.
2. If you think this chapter is long, you haven't read the fourth one yet.
3. Please read all the way down to the end and then review. I appreciate 'Good story', but some more description of what exactly was good and why you thought so are nice as well. For an example, look at Bttf 4444's original review to Chapter One. If you don't have time for a long review, okay, but I would certainly like it. Thanks.
4. Now, on with the story.
Chapter Three
Saturday, April 2, 1988
5:20 P.M.
Hill Valley, California
Once the electricity vanished again and the bus almost instantly started slowing down, Marty immediately recognized his surroundings as being the same they'd departed from, both times. Wherever they were, it was another 'looks like home' reality. The teenager took a deep breath and looked at Doc. "So, what's it like, here?" he asked, curiously.
"At first sight, it appears to be rather similar to the world we're from, as well as the previous one we visited" Doc said, looking down. "Which, as I'm sure, you too have already figured out." His eyes then nearly bulged out of his head as he recognized something. "Um… correction" he whispered, pale. "This is suddenly not so much like home after all." His voice sounded shaky, and the look on his face was one as white as a sheet.
"What's it?" Marty asked, unbuckling his seatbelt as the speed had dropped to a miserable twenty, and standing next to his friend. "Is it Biff's world?" That was the only thing the teenager could've thought of as causing a similar reaction with his friend.
"No, not that – the skies would be dirtier and darker then – but judging from what I'm seeing down below, that couldn't have been much worse." He pointed down. "Look at that sign over there and tell me what you're seeing."
"The sign?" Marty asked, confused but curious. He looked down – and after a few seconds, he immediately got why Doc had been so shocked. "Holy shit!" he exclaimed, keeping to stare at the sign saying the ravine's name, hoping that it would change, but the writing did not go away. "Clayton Ravine!" He realized what this meant. "Doc, does that mean that Clara – did Clara…" He couldn't quite bring himself to say the dreaded word.
"You meant to say, she died?" Doc finished. "It's okay, Marty, you can voice your thoughts. I suppose it's only natural, considering the exact circumstances of how the saving event came to be in our world – it was very complicated. It shouldn't surprise me that Clara did meet her destined fate somewhere, but… Great Scott, this is much to take for someone unprepared."
"I understand, Doc" Marty said, sighing. He knew how much Clara meant to the scientist. Except for a few brief dates with a few girls in his very early youth, and his doomed relationship with a certain Jill Wooster in 1959, Doc had never really loved a woman like he did with her, even from the very earliest moment in 1885 on. Marty only had to imagine for a second that he would see what was practically Jennifer's tombstone, and he knew enough to know that Doc wasn't overly exaggerating what he was currently doing, and he understood exactly why his scientist friend was in the mood he was in right now. And he had to calm down the inventor. "It's okay" he told his friend, quietly. "Just… relax. It's okay, Doc."
"I suppose" the inventor sighed. "Great Scott… poor Clara…"
"Doc, maybe it was another Clayton" Marty said. "There could've been other Claytons back then – did Clara have any relatives around?"
"Nope – only in New Jersey" Doc said, sighing. "Marty, it's nice you're trying to get me optimistic, but we'll have to face reality." He grabbed his handkerchief, wiped off some tears, then kicked on the accelerator. He then chuckled. "Funny, I'm not sure to hope that my other self has found someone else, which is making him happy and me happy for him but me also feel betrayed in my feelings that Clara was the one for me – or to hope that he hasn't found someone else, which proves those previously mentioned feelings but would make him be a very unhappy version of me." He sighed. "Well, I guess we'll find out which one is true on our own, as soon as we get to his – my – house."
"You mean, we're actually going to visit the you here?" Marty asked. Doc nodded. "But I thought for sure we were going to turn around, after all you felt when you saw the ravine's name. If you felt that much at seeing the ravine's name sign, which is not a living thing… what will you feel once seeing the local you, who probably never built a time machine in the first place, so he still looks every bit of his sixty-eight years?"
"There is the possibility that he still built the machine" Doc said. "Don't make any conclusions too soon. That's partially why I, too, am interested in this reality. Even if it is bad, we might be able to learn a lesson that we can successfully put to use in our world. And at least it doesn't sound to be Biff's horrific world."
"That's right" Marty said, nodding. "So, where are we headed to now? Your mansion?"
"If you mean, the mansion I currently live in – yes, we are" the scientist said. "It was a successful place the last time, and I don't doubt that it will be again, this time around."
"You're the Doc, Doc" Marty said, nodding. "So, tell me again, what were we going to do if this is not your home? Check JFK Drive?"
"I suppose" Doc said. "The phone book is our last resort – we don't want anyone seeing me looking up my own address. Then again, we don't really want to have them see the bus either." He slapped on the dashboard with his hand, frustrated. "Next time I go to the future, I'm going to buy some kind of invisibility device. We know what Biff seeing the time machine and realizing what it was in 2015, and even if, due to the locks I've partially already set on the time machines and cellar, they can't get in, the rumours will sure increase if it's spotted. Especially in a past time, where history is still not set and can be changed, that could potentially be dangerous. We don't want the younger me to get committed, which would disable him from finishing his time machine on time, possibly causing a major time-paradox which would unravel the very fabrics of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe. Granted, that's the worst-case scenario, as the destruction might in fact be very localized, limited to merely our own galaxy." He smiled optimistically. "Still, we don't want to take any unnecessary chances that can be avoided easily."
"You're right" Marty said, head shaking from that lengthy explanation.
"But first of all, I want to check something else" Doc said. He turned backwards, and picked up some device. "Temporal Natural Flow Monitor, on" he instructed. "Display current time lapse."
"What's that?" Marty asked, going over to his friend.
"It's the Temporal Natural Flow Monitor" Doc said. "It displays the time we've been onto this. I brought it along so I could test it, too." He looked at it. "Let's see… we are currently supposed to be at 5:24 PM, and according to the time display, it's 5:23. That shouldn't be too much off. Of course, I can't really check until we get home, when we'll go back to fifteen past noon." He checked again. "We are supposed to have been doing this for 5 hours, 9 minutes and 21 seconds now. It seems this machine works as it should."
"Okay" Marty muttered. He then looked outside of the window, and noticed they were almost at what hopefully was the Brown home of this world, too. Apparently, while they were talking, Doc had been flying the time machine over to where they were going to go, now. He waited patiently as Doc turned towards the street the house was on, and then flew over to their property…
And he then gasped, as he really could not believe just what he was seeing. The house was still pretty much the same, but it looked like it had been lived in for a long time – even Marty could see that. The garden looked very beautiful, and there appeared to be buildings on the property, that weren't there in their world. Overall, it looked like this world sure was quite different from theirs.
"Oh man" Marty whispered, as he wondered what would've happened. "Did you, somehow, finish the time machine much earlier here? It looks like you've been living here for a long time."
"That doesn't explain the fact that there's no Eastwood Ravine" Doc whispered, also stunned. "I suppose my first theory, that my other self has found someone other than Clara, might held some truth. While I really feel happy for him, I just can't bear the thought that I might actually fall in love with that person – or that my feelings for Clara, even if that doesn't quite happen, will never be the same again. This just is so strange."
"I agree" Marty said, staring at the house. "So, are you going to land, now? Not to be pushing things, but I don't think we'll find out much, just hovering in the air like this… besides, I'm kind of curious to what made this change come to be… aren't you?"
"Yeah, definitely" Doc said, turning the time circuits off just in case and landing the bus a few hundred feet away from the house. "Well, I guess we'll find out now. Marty, you approach the door again – I'll wait from the same spot I was in, in the previous dimension." The teenager nodded, and they both stepped out of the bus. After locking it as tight as he could with usual keys and thumb-pad, the scientist and his assistant headed over to the big mansion that the Local Doc, too, owned.
Marty sighed, as he approached the door, after Doc had ran off to the side of the house. He felt a little nervous about doing this, but if he had to… he sighed, and rang the bell, nervously breathing and silently hoping this Emmett would take the unexpected visitors as well as the previous Emmett had done.
After a few seconds, the local inventor opened the door. Marty inspected Emmett's face carefully. The Doc from here looked… older, somehow. Not really old but more tired than the Doc Brown he was used to. Yet, Emmett had obviously had the rejuvenation and was still energetic, but most likely something had tired him a bit.
Doc – Emmett – frowned. "Calvin?" he asked, the question clearly directed to Marty. "What are you doing here? No offence, but I thought you wouldn't come over until eight PM tonight." The scientist stared at his watch for a moment. "So unless my watch has given up on me, you're early. After all, it's only 5:32 PM and 51 seconds, now."
Marty frowned, too, from what he'd heard the local inventor call him – Calvin. Had they, somehow, travelled back to the previous world? No, that couldn't be it - he remembered looking at the Destination Dimension before and after the trip, as well as the present dimension one. Either the machine or his memory had failed on him and they were back in the world in which Marty/Calvin was brought back from 2015, or something really strange was going on.
"I know you like hanging around here, but I hadn't thought you'd come early just for that" the inventor continued. "After all, this is your first night getting back to Jennifer in ages, and I know you want to continue being with her like you're supposed to be, since you are destined to marry and have kids after all. Well, not destined, but the last time we checked out the future, you two definitely were just that." He sighed. "Well, I suppose I can't blame you for anything. You can come in, Calvin – your Dad's here too, along with your uncle and aunt." He chuckled amusedly at the last part, and Marty got the feeling that this mentioned couple might not be what Emmett told it to be.
"Well, Doc," the teen started, figuring this time was as good of a time as any, "I'm not sure if I… you know… really am what you think I am."
Emmett frowned slightly. "You're not? Well, then you must be Calvin's son from the future."
This was starting to turn out to be an awful lot like the previous talk he had with the other Emmett, and Marty vowed that, next time around, he'd let Doc do the talking while he'd stand behind a corner and watch. But the next time wasn't now and the sooner they were going to get through this part, the better. "I'm not that either" he said, making sure that his alternate inventor-friend understood him and was not distracted by other things, like it sometimes happened with his Doc. "I'm not from future or past – I'm a Marty McFly from an entirely different dimension."
When the teen saw Emmett's eyebrow rise and mouth fall open in disbelief – funny, was he mistaken or had that already happened at the moment he said 'Marty McFly'? – he figured that there was one way to convince his scientific alternative friend. He turned, and called out: "Doc, you can come out now!"
Marty slightly enjoyed the shocked look at Emmett's face, as Visiting Doc came running their way. "Great Scott!" the inventor gasped, thereby reassuring Marty that, wherever they were, it was someplace quite similar to home… but maybe it was not, in some other ways. He frowned, wondering what they were going to hear from Local Emmett.
The latter had, in the meantime, come considerably close to fainting, but had apparently hesitated at the last moment, as he still stood solid on both feet, although shaking a little. "Great Scott!" he whispered, and then, the could-be-expected line they knew was gonna come all along: "You're me!"
"Not exactly" the visitor pointed out. "I am the you of another universe, like Marty has already told. I'm what you could've become, if the life you lead turned out like mine." He smiled, though even just faintly. "I am, by the way, very curious to what life you did lead, in here. I've already noticed some discrepancies, in the name of the local ravine."
"Really?" Emmett asked, frowning. "I've never known it as anything but Clayton."
"In our world, the school teacher that Clayton Ravine was named after was saved from falling in by Marty and I, back on our trip to 1885" Doc explained. "I can still remember quite clearly how I felt, when I first set my eyes on miss Clayton – Clara, that's her first name. It was almost thirteen years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. We got married within two months afterwards."
"Amazing" Emmett said. "I actually got married to a Julia Clayton – on February twentieth, 1959."
"You finished the time machine in the 1950s?!" Doc exclaimed, stunned. "In my universe, I didn't get a visit from Marty until November fifth, 1955 – and I didn't finish the time machine until thirty years later, on October 26 of 1985!"
"That sounds similar" Emmett commented.
"Then how can it be," Doc argued, "that in your world, you married your wife so early? That would screw up history for sure, and cause Marty to arrive in an entirely different 1985 from the one he left!"
Emmett frowned, then gasped, and then was about to say something when he realized his surroundings. "We should get in, so we can add the locals to our current discussion" he said. "I'm sure that they'll be quite stunned to hear about your visit. It is now clear to me that your history went entirely different from ours – and if I remember what you said correctly, I think I've got the clue to the change."
"Then you've got more than I do, because I don't have a single idea what the hell is going on here" Doc muttered, following the local inside after Marty did the same thing. "Except for, of course, the fact that you are from a universe that is clearly entirely different to ours, like you already said, but I don't know what caused the change – and I'm very interested to hear about that."
"Me too" Marty admitted. "I mean, you're from another universe – but in what ways? Why are we so different to you?" He followed the local inventor into the living room, Doc following a few feet behind because he'd been too occupied by gazing at the furniture – and suddenly slammed to a halt, eyes wide open. "Holy shit!"
There were George and Lorraine, his parents, sitting on chairs, all looking normal. There was an unfamiliar woman which had a stunning resemblance to Clara except for being thinner and having blonde hair and blue eyes and a slightly different facial shape, which Marty gathered to be the local inventor's wife. That, in fact wasn't too strange of a sight to see either – they were no doubt going to run into her sometime during their visit here. No, the real strange thing, which made Marty skid to a stop within a fraction of a second, was the fourth person, sitting on the bench and relaxing.
The person in front of him, sitting on the bench, was none else than himself, probably the local him of his reality – but he was old! Late forties, from what the teen could gather, probably closing in on fifty, and Marty could already see faint traces of wrinkles on the man's face. As Local Marty turned to him, his jaw dropped even more – the local was wearing a wedding ring. He was married. In '85. The guy looked good for his age, and Marty figured he was going to look just like this by 2018.
Old Marty then noticed the visitor, too, but remained calm, his face not showing the slightest hint of suspicion of who Visiting Marty really was. "Hi, Calvin" he said, casually. "You're early."
"Ca-Ca-Ca-Calvin?" stammered the dumb-founded Marty, still in complete shock.
Old Marty rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Calvin" he said, voice showing an obvious hint of sarcasm. "That's your name isn't it? Calvin Klein Junior? I'm your Dad, so it's logical that I know who you are. And you can't have changed it in the short time you've been away from here. I last saw you this morning, and then you still were the same person with the same name."
Marty turned as white as a sheet at these revelations. This person that was supposed to be him, thought he was Visiting Marty's father… and if he'd called Marty Calvin Klein Junior, then he himself had to be Calvin Klein Senior… Calvin Klein…
Suddenly, the whole picture formed in the confused visitor's head, and he suddenly realized just why this other, older self of his was the age he was.
This Marty McFly had never made it home from '55, that first time around due that lightning bolt. He'd been trapped there instead, and had been forced to live all the years up to his present.
That sudden information, along with exhaustion from his Dad's fiftieth birthday party for the family yesterday, as well as tiredness from studying the past few days and absorbing all those info from other dimensions, made Marty feel more exhausted than was good for him. His mind went blank, and he passed out, dropping to the ground.
* * * *
"Marty?"
The teenager faintly blinked. "Go 'way" he muttered, turning to his side.
"Marty?" the voice insisted. "It's me, it's Doc."
Marty groaned, and ignored his friend. "Leave me 'lone" he muttered.
"Marty?" the voice was even more persisting this time. "It's alone, and away. And if you don't open your eyes now, I'm going to have to take drastic actions. I know you're awake."
The only response he got was the nineteen-year-old rolling onto his other side. He could just ignore Doc – he wasn't finished sleeping yet…
And then, he suddenly smelled something salt, and very, very disgusting. The teen sneezed, moved a bit, and when the salt thing just moved along, he blinked, sneezed again and opened his eyes good, recognizing Doc above him. "All right, I'm awake" he muttered, sitting up. "What's so important that you have to wake me for?"
"The trip to the new world, or more accurately, our home" Doc said. "Although I figured that, before doing anything even remotely similar to that, I'd like to wake you up. It's been almost three hours since you collapsed in the hallway to the living room – it's eight-twelve P.M. now."
"Collapsed?" Marty felt his head ache, and rubbed for a moment. "I-I remember something… about that… I saw me as an old man…"
"Now come on, I'm not that old."
The voice of a person who was, in a way, himself, made Marty almost go through the roof in shock. "What… the… what the" he stammered, looking past Doc into his other self's eyes, and figuring that hadn't he just been out for almost three hours, he'd faint again. This Marty was one heck of a lot older than him, and not even the worst kind of youth filled with abuse could've caused it. "How… how old are you?" he managed to bring out, still gasping.
"That's a really nice question" Local Marty said, grinning. "Nice first impression to make. But, to answer your question, I'm forty-nine, soon to be fifty in June."
Marty frowned. "Does that mean that you're not born on June ninth, 1968?"
"I never said I wasn't" the forty-nine-year-old replied.
Marty frowned, then remembering his latest suspicion, the one that had triggered him into fainting. "Then, I suppose you never got home from 1955 after getting stranded there without plutonium?"
His quick reply shocked both Old Marty, Emmett and Doc. "You're getting smart, Marty" Doc commented. "I didn't figure that out until a few minutes later."
"I must be gaining intelligence by studying at college" Marty said, too shocked to really smirk. He looked at Old Marty. "So, how did you get stuck back there? And how on earth did you survive through all those years trapped in the past?"
Old Marty sighed. "It's a long story" he said. "It took a long time with your Doc – Emmett told things then, so I guess now's my turn. I'll try to keep it short – I know what I was like, back at nineteen, going on twenty… back in early 1958." He paused for a moment. "At least you don't have to tell your story – Doc, your Doc, already did just that."
"Go ahead and tell your tale" Marty said. "I'm listening."
Old Marty then started to tell the long story, from the beginning on. Apparently, on the way to the clock tower, back in '55, lightning had hit a tree next to them, and a branch of the tree broke off, like that almost-strike the second time around, the one before Doc, in the flying DeLorean, had been struck by lightning. This time, it had far worse results. The branch hit the windshield, blocking everything from young Marty's view. He'd panicked, and after a few seconds he'd managed to hit a trash can. That had made him completely go off the road, and racing through the grass field, it had been just a few seconds before the DeLorean had crashed right into the Courthouse wall, coming out of the accident total-loss.
After that, Marty had been tended to by Emmett, and had woken up on the fourteenth, finding out the truth on the fifteenth. During the first few weeks, George and Lorraine had frequently come to visit, and Emmett had worked on the yet-to-be constructed time machine, or more specifically on how the flux capacitor was going to work.
By the time it was late November, Emmett got his friend registered for High School under the name of Calvin Martin Klein, which he was going to keep for the rest of his life. After a depressive New Year, Marty had attended school from December on, and, as he worked hard realizing being a rock star was near impossible in 1955 and later 1956, he managed to graduate in June easily, and he was starting to feel more confident and happy, encouraged by his friend, and actually started enjoying things in the fifties.
"Let me get this straight" Marty interrupted, shocked. "Are you telling me that you, Marty McFly, kind of started to enjoy life in the fifties?"
"Yep."
"…Doc, what kind of weird, twisted world is this!"
Emmett, George, Lorraine, Old Marty and Doc all laughed. "It's not as bad as it seems, Marty" Old Marty said, calming his counterpart down. "I'm still you and I did have many adaptation problems. But George and Lorraine here, not knowing who I really was, grew to be my good friends soon and they helped me cheer up a bit. Yeah, that year between mid-1956 and mid-1957 was a nice, fine year. And before you ask – yeah, our teenaged mom really did something else than just hitting on me."
Lorraine snorted, a bit insulted, and Marty simply chuckled. "That's good to hear" he commented.
"Or so I thought" Old Marty said. "And now, on with the story."
Apparently, the bad times had started in July of '57, when George, having finished his first year in college, had approached Marty with the question of the teen was interested in attending college as well. Marty had approached Emmett, the inventor had told him a blunt 'no', and that was when the bigger problems started. Marty started avoiding the over-paranoid inventor, and Emmett, on his turn, tightened Marty's freedom – George and Lorraine could only come over once a month anymore, and after November twelfth, when Marty had sneaked out for a day and a night, they weren't allowed to visit at all, anymore, and Marty was kept within the house.
Over the months, Marty got to be more rebellious than ever, and he sneaked out of the house many times, with Emmett worrying about him. When it had been a year since Marty had done that day-and-night sneak-out, Emmett figured that they'd never ever be friends again.
And then, the big event had happened. One day in late November of 1958, Emmett had come home from work, and found Marty once too many sitting in front of his window and playing the guitar, enabling every fifties citizen around to hear the clearly futuristic music. Now getting over-annoyed and furious, the inventor took the instrument out of his friend's hands, hit it a few times against the wall, broke it almost in two parts and threw it out of the window.
The loud yell that had sounded through the street a moment later made it clear that this wasn't one of Emmett's brightest ideas ever. As Emmett and Marty headed down in a rush, they found out that the person who made that yell had had the guitar land on his foot, and after a trip to the hospital it turned out the man, Cedric J. Robinson, wasn't going to be let out for another three weeks. Cedric then worried about the party he was going to host the next Tuesday, December second. Emmett volunteered to host it instead, figuring that if he didn't do that, he'd change history, as Cedric had never been supposed to be hit, and also thinking that not much would happen on a party like that which would alter the universe. He couldn't have been more wrong.
On the party, Emmett had been needed to rescue a young girl who'd fallen down a cliff and was just holding onto an edge down below, as he was the host. The inventor managed to get the woman up at the last moment, and once he looked into her eyes, every hope on not skewing history was over – it was love at first sight.
The scientist could not keep his promise to himself to not change history, and figuring the woman, Julia Clayton, would've fallen down anyway, he married her on February twentieth of 1959, giving Marty freedom to go out more, since he himself was skewing history, too. Their friendship improved again, up until November twelfth of the same year, where, at a party, Marty met the cousin of Jennifer's father Robert, called Mary Parker, who looked like Jennifer. Marty wanted to marry her, and after many persuading, Emmett finally gave him a six-month-deadline – if he still loved Mary then, he could marry, if he didn't, he should let her go.
The twenty-one-year-old hit the deadline easily, and in the meantime, something else had happened. On the instant the sixties began on January first 1960, Julia had given birth to Jules Eratosthenes Brown, and on October twenty-ninth 1961 to Verne Newton Brown. On November 12, 1960, Marty and Mary had married, while on the same wedding, George had proposed to Lorraine. Both things went rather easily, and at the beginning of 1962, everything seemed perfect with the world, especially with Lorraine expecting, which was announced a few weeks into January.
But disaster hit unexpectedly. On the night of Wednesday August 1st to Thursday August the second, the Brown and Klein families were just able to escape when the mansion went up in flames due to an experiment gone wrong in the basement a day before. Emmett had been horrified, but relieved when Marty told him this was supposed to have happened anyway. Still, they didn't have a home anymore, and the inventor had figured that fitting all of them in the garage wasn't going to work. After all, there were six of them, and also Copernicus, the dog.
Doc interrupted at this point. "Copernicus died in the fire" he said. "I still remember how much I cried, then."
"This time, apparently, Marty altered things about that" Emmett said, smiling. "Actually, he was the one to drag the letter he'd written to me and Copernicus out of the house, after helping his wife, Mary, get to safety in the garage."
Old Marty then continued to tell about how he'd managed to get a smallish house in Lyon Estates, but didn't feel comfortable in it. He sold it again, lived with his teenaged parents for a while, moved into the garage again and finally, in 1965, Emmett agreed with buying their current house. He quit his work at the university in 1967, and in the year before, Jennifer Julia Klein was born to Marty and Mary. In 1968, shortly after the birth of 'new' Marty McFly, it was time for Calvin Emmett Klein to enter the world.
From then on, Marty felt himself having a pretty cool life, even if he was stranded years into the (to him) far, far past. He had a wife, and two children, and a best friend, along with the fact that he was good friends with his future parents. In October 1975, young, new Marty finally got around to meeting the older inventor, and developed a friendship, as well as with the older Marty, who, unbeknownst to him, was himself. Also, young Marty became good friends with Calvin Junior and Jennifer Klein.
In 1980, as Jules and Verne both were in college, Emmett announced some news: he was going to work on an extra time machine, the remains of the first helping with that. "This way" the inventor had said, "we'll be able to finish another time machine shortly after the first, and we'll be able to travel to the future, after all, which my original self intended to do."
Old Marty, twenty-five years after the original time machine accident that stranded him in the fifties, had been hesitant, but eventually volunteered to help. The next years were spent in the lab much, working on either of the time machines. Not one, but two DeLorean's were bought in 1981, which they could afford due Julia working as a university English teacher. The hard moment for Old Marty, however, came in 1982, when Young Marty McFly met Jennifer Parker.
The moment Marty saw his girlfriend again, memories came back of the time she was his girl, twenty-seven years earlier, and seeing his younger self so happy with her and knowing that the marriage plans they had would never came true hurt a lot, so much that the older version of the teenager almost considered turning to a councillor. Doc eventually managed to convince him not to do that, and he volunteered, however still feeling sad.
The final years of the three decades passed slowly, but finally on August twenty-third 1985, Emmett finished the first time machine. In early October, he contacted the Libyans, having bought a bullet-proof vest a long time ago, and started building on the fake bomb. Doc got the plutonium on October twenty-one, and then fled to Grass Valley for a few days, trusting Old Marty to protect the Brown family from the terrorists.
The last days were as hard as all the others, but Marty managed to keep himself calm, even after repeated visits from his younger self, who was concerned about Emmett. On October twenty-fifth, he spoke to the inventor for a few hours before the latter headed to the mall, where Marty appeared on 1:34, just in time to see the time machine and himself vanish back to 1955.
Life got better after this day. As the commotion on young Marty being 'missing' calmed down, Old Marty brought out some songs, and Calvin Junior got to be good friends with Jennifer – and more than that. On October 26 of 1986, the new time machine was finished, Emmett and Old Marty headed to the future, and found out things happened to Calvin Junior in a way they too had happened to original 2015 Marty McFly from the world the visitors were native to. Old Marty warned his son about the race with Needles, and when Emmett took Jennifer and Calvin Junior to the future during the same day, he found no wimp Calvin III who was getting in a confrontation with Griff, instead a confident Calvin III who got Griff to be arrested. Emmett then confronted his best friend about this, and after a brief chat, he finally realized that it was good this way.
In November, Old Marty and Emmett then finally told the truth to George and Lorraine, taking the McFly couple back to '56 to prove it. After a fainting scene with young Lorraine, whose memory was wiped of the incident, they headed back to 1986 with a now knowing George and Lorraine.
"… and so the story of what led up to today ends" Old Marty then finished, smiling. "Any questions will be answered as soon as they're asked."
"Is that supposed to be sarcastic?" Marty asked.
"Maybe" Old Marty said. "It's just if you consider this to be sarcastic."
"Not really" Marty muttered. He now looked at his counterpart with fascination. "I still can't believe you actually managed to survive" he said. "How did you stand being without rock and roll music and other '80s things? Or are you really that different from me that you blended in easily…"
Emmett was the one to answer this question. "Not as far as I've observed you" he said. "You look to me a lot like Marty was, when I first met up with him back in 1955. Of course, I've only seen you for twenty minutes, tops, not counting the time you were asleep, but I don't think you're so different. Marty basically burst into tears the instant I told him about his return being no more possible. I would've tried everything to get him home, hadn't the time machine been so much destroyed that there was no possibility to rebuild it anymore, not even in a decade, and that's when you ignore the still needed plutonium…"
"I see" Visiting Marty said. He looked at his counterpart. "You were lucky that you had your folks and Emmett around."
"Yup, definitely" the local said, nodding. "I would've gone mad if I'd just been stranded there without anyone familiar to help me. I managed to keep on going thanks to Mom and Dad, and Emmett, whom I've come to consider like my Dad."
"Which is a good thing" George chuckled, nodding, "as I'm definitely not feeling up to being the paternal role model of someone who's just two months younger than I! It's so weird that I saw you as a high school friend all the time, but that you really are my son. It's unbelievable." He turned to the visiting version of his youngest child. "At least you do look like Marty" he said, a trace of nostalgia and sadness in his voice. "With you here, it's like… like Marty never left…"
"Which I didn't" Old Marty interrupted. "I've been here all the time."
George shot his old son a look. "I know, but it isn't the same, you know?" he said. "You're in your late forties. You're our age. You're not as energetic and youthful as you once were. And you don't really feel like our child, anymore. Your counterpart here, however, is the correct age of missing Marty… oh man, I can't believe it's been two-and-a-half years…"
"You can always ask Do-Emmett to take you on a ride back to '58" Old Marty said. "You can see the younger me there."
"And not be able to talk to him, meet him, or even watch him from too close because it could possibly screw up history" George muttered, frustrated. "I want to see you again for real, and not just from a distance. This Marty feels more like my son than you've ever done during those thirty-three years, even including the last two in which we knew of your secret."
"Thanks, I guess" Marty muttered.
At that moment, the time travellers heard a sound coming from the back door. Within a few moments, Calvin Klein Junior entered the room – and immediately froze to a halt once he noticed that there was another person who looked like him there. "Holy shit" he whispered, barely able to breathe. "Calvin III?"
"His eyes are blue" Emmett corrected, drawing him to CJ's attention, as well as the fact that Doc was there, too. "But it's understandable that you mistook him for your future son – I did, too." He looked at Calvin. "You're early. I suppose you wanted to drop by and say hi to your Dad?"
"Yeah, how did you know?" Calvin Junior asked.
"Because that's what he figured out when Doc and I showed up at his door, before he realized who we really were – with some help from Doc showing up next to me to confirm my story" Visiting Marty said, standing up and extending his hand. "Hi, Calvin Junior, nice to meet you. I'm the Marty McFly from another dimension… one in which he did return to 1985 right away."
Calvin's mouth opened and shut again in complete disbelief. "No way" he muttered, astonished.
"I'm afraid it is happening, Calvin" Emmett said, his words reminding the visitor of what his Doc had said, back at Oak Park Cemetery in that horrific 1985 that Biff had created on their trip-gone-wrong to the future. "I'd never expected this, but it's true. It appears to be that lightning did not hit that branch, so Marty – your father's counterpart – made it home. He managed to save me, somehow, although how he did it goes beyond me, as it was your father who stopped me from throwing away those parts of the letter."
"I just got attached to it" Doc said. "I didn't want to lose one of the things that Marty, my friend-to-be, had left behind, so I couldn't just throw it away. And as the memories of that video of the first experiment kept coming to me, I finally gave in and taped it up, wondering what on earth could be wrong with my future. That it could be something like this, I'd never thought."
"I was actually there to convince him in the final timeline" Visiting Marty explained. "I mean, after we went back to get an almanac away from Biff. I told him not to throw away the letter, and almost forced him to read it." The teen blushed.
"Well, I have to thank you for that" Doc said. "If not for that, you would've never been able to save my life, and I'd have died on the parking lot of Lone Pine Mall. Now that would've altered history, and most likely caused a life-ending time paradox."
"Like usual" Marty said, smirking just a little.
"Like usual."
"So?" Emmett said. "We've compared our stories… and it's already eight-thirty. I don't want to push you into something, but you did wake up Marty saying that you were going to leave…"
"You're right" Doc said, standing up. "But before we leave… would you like to have a look at our time machine? Maybe it would inspire you, if you ever want a bigger machine besides the DeLorean…"
"For the few trips we take, the DeLorean is enough" Emmett said. "But you're right – it can come in handy if there was anyone to be trapped in the past. We know how bad that can get from Marty's own experience when being sent back to 1955."
"Which I do not want to be remembered of too much, thank you very much" the forty-nine-year-old groaned.
"Sorry" the local apologized. "Anyway, you've got a good idea, uh, Doc." Emmett smiled. "I'd love to see the time bus."
* * * *
The time travelling bus Dr. Emmett Brown, Trilogy world native, showed his counterpart was everything Emmett had expected of it and then some. He gawked at the space, and at Doc showing him how he could voice-command the time circuits easily, trying it himself, too. Apparently, their voices matched enough for it to work. After a long demonstration of how everything worked, it was almost nine when Emmett, Calvin Jr, George, Lorraine and Old Marty finally got off the bus, and watched as the bus lifted up from the street and started flying off.
"So, where are we going now?" Marty asked, once they'd flown away some distance of the locals. "Back home, to our '88?"
"I suppose so" Doc said, sighing. "You know, I would've liked to see a bit more of the other worlds that are all out there, but we can't go on forever – and it is about nine, now. We'd better return home right away, and get you home so you can eat your dinner – I'm sure that you're hungry – and spend an hour or two, maybe three, thinking this over before falling asleep."
"Are you sure Mom and Dad won't think it is strange, me going to bed so early?" Marty asked.
"I can tell them you did, fully cooperative, participate in a very exhausting lab incident" Doc said. "That should be able to cover you just fine. I'm sure that your biological clock has been out of whack more than just this at least a few times."
"Right" the teenager muttered. He whistled, looking around, as they peacefully flew over the alternative version of Hill Valley. "You know, I think I kind of liked visiting other versions of home" he said. "It gives you a whole new perspective on things. Maybe, in a few weeks, we can try this again."
"I'm sure we can" Doc said. "I'd like to put the bus to rest for a while, though. We don't want to over-use it, and actually end up in the wrong dimension."
"Is that even possible?" Marty asked, getting a little scared.
"Theoretically, yes" Doc nodded. "But I think the chance of something like that happening is really small. It could still happen, so that's why I'm taking precautions to make sure it isn't over-used."
"You're the Doc, Doc."
The inventor grinned. "You know, I've got the feeling I've heard you say that before sometime today."
"Yeah, right" the teenager muttered, yet smiling. "I suppose it was cool and all, seeing other Hill Valley's, but we do have to leave sometime." He focused on staring in front of himself, wondering if Doc was going to speed up the time machine soon.
He was. Just about then, the time machine had reached Clayton Ravine. Doc looked down for a moment. "You know, it's real sad to think that Clara died in this world, over 102 years ago." He looked down to see if he could spot his wife's skeleton, then figured out that he was thinking silly – like they had in the original timeline of his world, the body had probably been taken away and buried somewhere. He held back a sigh, then moved the train downwards.
Marty blinked, as they approached the floor of the canyon. "What are you doing?" he asked.
In response, Doc pointed at the Mr. Fusion energy chamber, which was flashing a yellow 'Near Empty' sign. "We don't have enough trash anymore" he explained. "There is some, but not enough to collect two point forty-two gigawatt's of energy from. It would get us up to zero point five, zero point six at most."
"Right" the teen said, nodding, as the bus slowly landed on the ground. Doc opened the door, then turned to his friend. "You can stay here, if you'd prefer that" he said. "This doesn't have to take more than a few minutes."
"Well, I might keep you on that offer" Marty said. "I feel up to relaxing, now, and thinking about all what we've seen. It was really cool, you know, but still scary. But I'd like to do this again."
"Precisely." The scientist exited the bus, and searched through the fields for something that he could use to fuel up the Fusion generator. After a few moments, he found some dead leaves. Holding that tight, he managed to find some grass that had died out, and – surprisingly – a rusty old beer can. Wonder if that still suits the Fusion generator after all the time it's been here? Better collect some more trash. After collecting even more dead leaves and as surprising as the beer can some paperwork, dated January 26th of 1984, the inventor headed back to the bus, and stuffed everything into the generator through the barrel, which was designed for just that purpose. Making sure it fit – the last leaves could just barely fit inside the generator – he got inside and checked the fuel chamber, which now displayed it was completely full. That was more than enough, as only an eighth of 'full' was needed for the trip to generate the necessary 2.42 gigawatt's. It was fine, now.
"You succeeded?" Marty asked, still sitting in the same spot as before.
Doc nodded. "I believe so, yes. There is more than enough to provide energy for our trip, so we should be fine. He turned to the front, and switched the flying circuits back on. The bus lifted up, and the wheels returned to 'side-mode', as the inventor jokingly called it. He then flew the bus up through the dark sky, up to above the ravine, and stopped it again for a moment to focus on the Destination only.
"Time, destination and dimensional circuits on" he instructed. "Input Destination: Saturday, April 2, 1988, let's see, not too long after our departure but not short enough to attract any unwanted attention… I really have to modify this thing so those sonic booms can be unheard and the train itself invisible… 12:25 PM, Hill Valley, California, specified location Eastwood Ravine, PF #50." He stepped back and waited for a moment for the time machine to register that information, watched as the new red destinations filled in their places in the time circuits control display.
"We're going?" Marty asked.
"Exactly" Doc confirmed, then looked at the Present. "Great Scott, it's nine-seventeen. Well, at least we had a nice day… like the computer said we would." He smirked, then looked up, now for the first time noticing how dark it had become. "Well, Marty… brace yourself for temporal displacement, as well as change from almost no light at all to a sky as bright as it was when we first left our home – maybe even a little brighter, as it could've brightened up a bit in those ten minutes. Then again, that probably wouldn't have made a noticeable difference, especially when the difference between twelve-twenty-five and the current time are far more obvious."
"Right" Marty muttered.
Doc focused on the time circuits. "All right, time circuits on, flux capacitor fluxing, let's go!" He pressed onto the gas pedal, and smiled as the bus soon started to move through the dark sky, fast. "Fifty" he reported. "Sixty, seventy, eighty… eighty-five, eighty-six, eighty-seven… eighty-eight!"
There was a bright flash of light and a sonic boom, as the bus rapidly moved through the wormhole that had been created in front of it. As the light didn't clear up, Doc blinked a few times, then slowed the vehicle down. "Home sweet home" he said, smiling at Marty and the Present displays, which now matched the Destination ones. "You know, you were right about this being really interesting. But I'm still convinced that it's good we're home now."
"I agree" Marty said. "I can't wait to have dinner."
"I bet Clara can't, either, as she must be worried again" Doc joked. "That said, we'd better turn around, before she gets really mad with me." He turned the bus around, and easily moved it through the light sky up towards their home.
It took just a few minutes for them to reach the old Brown house, which had been built there years ago but hadn't been lived in for ages. Marty relaxed a bit as he leaned backwards, fully expecting Doc to slow down and land…
But he didn't not expect a high-pitched scream, and suddenly being almost thrown forwards (he could've flown through the window if he hadn't thought to put on his seatbelt) as the bus slowed down from fifty to zero in less than a second as the inventor hit the brakes, hard. Before Marty knew it, he felt himself leaning out of his seat, breathing deep for air as the belt was almost into his stomach. "Holy shit" he breathed.
It took a few moments for Marty to crawl back to his seat – it took him almost a minute before he could say another world. "Doc!" he stammered, looking pale. "What happened!" Seeing there was no response, Marty unbuckled and, worried now, moved over to his friend, who was sitting next to him. "Doc, Doc, what's the matter!"
The scientist, who looked even whiter than Marty, pointed out of the window, down below. And when Marty saw what exactly was up, he felt like he would've done the exact same as Doc did, had he been in a similar situation.
The Brown house had simply vanished without a trace. All of the property was just empty fields, and it didn't look like anything had been there for a long time.
"Great Scott!" the teenager uttered, not caring it wasn't his usual catchphrase. Whatever this meant, it did not look good.