Travelling Through Dimensions

by EmmettMcFly55

Doc and Marty are hopping through worlds that are not theirs. Will they ever come home? Will they ever settle somewhere, or will the time machine stop eventually and will they be lost... forever? Please read and review! Finished at last!

4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: See Chapter Three.

Author's Note: This is a long one. Well, they all are long, but once you've read this one, you most likely won't have the energy to read Chapter Five anymore. Hopefully, you do have the energy to review, which I would really appreciate. I didn't type over 18000 words for nothing.

Well, as I said most of the things in Chapter Three, let's get on with the story. Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter Four

Saturday, April 2, 1988
12:43 P.M.
Hill Valley, California

"Doc, what the heck is this?"

Doc looked at Marty, breathed for a few seconds deep, then spoke for the very first time after his shock had happened, the instant he recognized his surroundings. "This… this is a field, Marty."

"I know that" Marty muttered. "What I want to know is why there is no house on it."

"That's what I am wondering, myself" Doc said, making sure he'd gotten the wrong house and was not mistaken. Nope – this was the place his house was on all right. The surroundings were all right. That, however, meant they were not home.

"And you've got any idea, already?" Marty asked. "About why that house is not there?"

Doc didn't. "No" he admitted. "It should work – we're in the right dimension now. All that I can think of is that I typed something the wrong way… no, then the dimensional circuits simply wouldn't have it go through." He stared at the circuitry intensely, then at the DFSCUPCIF, and then back at the dimension circuits. "It could be a glitch, of course…" He looked up. "Security monitors, test internal and external functions. Sections: All. Style of process: Really carefully." He looked at it. "Should be ready in just a few minutes. This style of process takes longer than the other one, just carefully, but this one is far more efficient. We'll just have to wait a while."

Marty sighed, but did as Doc said and waited a while. After about three and a half minutes, the system beeped, and showed green screens everywhere. "Everything all right, as previous" the computer announced. "No glitches found. Have a nice day Doctor Brown."

"I wish I could have a nice day" Doc said, a bit sarcastically, looking down once again. "There's got to be something wrong with that thing. Where can we be?"

"April 2, 1988, 12:47 P.M., Hill Valley, California, PF #50" the computer announced. Being a machine, it had of course not realized it was not the thing Doc was talking to. "Otherwise known as 'Current settled time, place, and dimension'. Off by only eight hours and fifty-three minutes."

"I know that" the inventor growled. "The question is, how did we come here, and more importantly, how do we get out of here!"

"Maybe it was just a once in a time error" Marty said, still hoping for the best. "Everything was green, right? Then it's fine now. Maybe if you try to time travel again, we'd end up home."

Doc pondered that for a moment. "That might work. Computer, change time displays to April 2, 1988, 12:50 PM. Check Destination Dimension as PF #50." He then turned to the front, and hit the gas.

"We're going now, and here?" Marty asked, as the speed rapidly climbed. "I thought you didn't want to time travel in populated areas like this?"

"Not really, but we'll have to" Doc said, sighing. "I refuse to go through anything near that annoying trip from home to ravine to home again, while in fear if this will go right. If we're not home, I want to see that, right away, and not have to be worrying about that."

Marty could understand that, so he just leaned back as the bus accelerated up to 88, there was a flash of light, and then the vehicle lowered again. Doc looked out of the window, and could just stop himself from sighing. The house was back, but it looked just like it had before it had been bought by himself and Clara, back in '86. They still weren't home, yet.

"We didn't make it, did we?" Marty said, as a statement, not a question – it was obvious from the look on the older man's face. He slammed on the seat in frustration. "This is just so heavy… what the heck is going on?"

"To be honest, I don't know" Doc said. "But if this trip failed, it means that the diagnosis the computer made is obviously incorrect. So we'll have to see what exactly went wrong." He turned back to the computer. "Security monitors, test internal and external functions again. Make sure nothing is forgotten. Sections: All. Style of process: The most carefully you can do."

As the computer went to work, Marty looked at his friend, confused. "Why are ya doing that? You told me yourself you knew the diagnosis was incorrect."

"Maybe it will be correct now" Doc said, not giving the matter much chance himself, but at the same time not wanting to get Marty's hopes down.

It turned out that he had already. "Doc, you said yourself that you knew it couldn't be a once-in-a-time error!"

"It could be" Doc insisted, although he sincerely doubted that. "Just wait and see what the diagnosis of the functions are this time."

"Probably nothing real good" Marty muttered, leaning back. He knew that with Doc, that chance was really little when inspecting one of the time machines on a trip that had obviously gone wrong… again.

And he was proven right. Doc tested the time machine up to four times, but still got the annoying message that everything was okay. Finally, as he slammed his fist to the dashboard, Marty, having been rudely woken after dozing off for a moment, stepped up and walked to the inventor, who was just speaking in the information for a fifth test. "Doc" Marty whispered, quietly, but loud enough for the inventor to hear.

"Marty?" he asked, confused. "I thought you'd fallen asleep…"

"I had" the teenager simply said. "But I woke up again." He sighed. "Doc, this ain't going to make progress for us at all! You've been testing that stupid thing five times, including the one time in the previous world, and if nothing has showed up now, it means it ain't gonna show up, Doc!"

The inventor sighed. "Marty…"

"You know it's the truth, Doc."

"Don't jump into any conclusions…"

"I'm not jumping into any conclusions" Marty said. "I'm just stating facts." He held out his left arm and watch for Doc to see. "See, Doc? Tell me, what time should we be at?"

"Ten-o-two P.M., Saturday, April second, 1988" Doc read aloud. "Why?"

Marty sighed. "I'm hungry, Doc. And I don't doubt you are, too. And since I told you this checking the functions is not going to help us at all, we'd better do something useful with our time, and go eat a bit." He anxiously rubbed his stomach, knowing that it was near-empty and desperate for food. "Doc, the bus won't go away, neither will our chances to get home shrink by doing this. If you really insist on keeping to do this, fine, but let's eat first. You can't work hard when distracted by an empty stomach, anyway."

"Actually, I hadn't noticed my hungry feelings, yet" Doc said. "But you do bring up a very good point. Also, if this is not going to help, we can get my local counterpart to maybe examine the time machine. If he knows something I don't… well, if it's going to take a long time to repair the bus, we need some place to stay, and to park the bus. I think my local counterpart's home might qualify fine."

"If he knows about how the DF-thing works" Marty reminded his friend.

"DFSCUPCIF" Doc corrected. "Yeah, that's a good point. We'll have to let my counterpart examine it, first – and if he knows how to fix it, and has the tools to do that, we'll stay. After all, I picked up at least seventy percent of the technology in the DFSCUPCIF that differs from the flux capacitor in the future. If my counterpart doesn't have a time machine, and a trip with this machine would transport us to a different dimension, we can't stay, as the local me would not have any means to fix the machine properly."

"That is a very good point" Marty admitted. "So I guess that, if the local you can't help fix the bus, we'll have to leave after dinner?"

"That's correct" Doc said. "I'd like to visit as many dimensions as we can, so that once we settle down for the night, it will hopefully be in a dimension in which the bus can actually be fixed. I don't think this will be a 24-hour-job, really. Do you?"

"Nope" Marty muttered, a bit stressed. "Have you got any idea when we will get home again?"

"I don't know" Doc said, sighing deeply. He stared in front of himself. "We'll have to find my other self – in order for any possibilities to be opened in that direction. That said, it's better not to hang out here any longer, and just head over to the Burger King. It's a food restaurant, after all, and my garage is right next to it. And if the restaurant isn't there, we'd see my mansion, which also should be lived in. Either way, it should give us a chance to get some food, as well as getting help to get back home again."

"That is a very good point" Marty said, nodding. "So, we'll swing over by the garage now?"

Doc simply nodded, and started accelerating. Marty sat backwards quietly, and didn't say anything as the bus headed over to the semi-house Doc had lived in for over two decades, while building his time machine from the leftovers of his electronics after the fire. Neither of them said a word as they drove – not flew, it would be too conspicuous – over to the place of the former Riverside Drive, now John F. Kennedy Drive. Doc pleasantly noticed the street was still called that way – something that made him more sure this was home, and at least assured him of the fact that this wasn't Biff's horrifying world. After all, the street was called 'Tannen Drive' in that world, named after Biff, for a reason that Biff had supposedly 'improved the world' with his nuclear waste dumps, something that completely went past the inventor, but he figured that was the way the people in that sick, twisted world reasoned, because A – denying that would mean execution for them by Biff's gang, or in special cases by Biff himself, or B – the waste in the air had already practically poisoned their brains. Neither of those scenarios was one that Doc could say he was really fond of.

As the inventor arrived next to his old home, he frowned. "Great Scott, that's weird" he muttered. "Marty, look. There's a 'FOR SALE' sign in front of the house. Seems to have been put there just recently."

Marty frowned. "But we sold the garage in '86… and you didn't live in the other house…"

"Maybe something has inspired me to live in a third, entirely different house, maybe I didn't invent time travel until 1987, or maybe I didn't invent time travel in the first place…" Doc thought the longest over the last possibility, then spoke. "Display map of Hill Valley, California, United States of America – current time. Kind of map: Detailed." He leaned back, as a map appeared on the screen above the time circuits display.

Marty looked astonished. "How'd you do that?" he asked. "I mean, we're in another dimension… aren't you supposed to not have that info available? We've never been in this world before!"

Doc smirked. "That's absolutely right" he said. "But this device has computer technology inside from the 2020s that don't need to care for the year. Once they hear 'current time' they'll pick up information from the nearest television satellite, use it to view the area, and display the info here in just matters of seconds. And don't stare at me with your mouth open, your tongue hanging out in a similar fashion, and your eyes looking like they can fall out any second."

"Um… sorry, Doc" Marty muttered. "Holy shit. This is heavy."

"I know it is for you" Doc said. "But in forty years… heck, most of it in twenty… this will be very, very common for all of Hill Valley. Anyway…" He turned back to the screen, and smiled. "This is what I was looking for. The locations." He tapped on the screen a few times, zoomed in on something by pressing a few buttons, then frowned. "Eastwood Ravine?" he asked, staring at the evidence the map gave, marking the bridge as 'Eastwood Ravine Bridge'. "Well, that writes off our last possibility. Still… even in that universe where we initially never got past that first trip, I bought that very house, so it's weird I didn't buy it here. We'll have to remember to ask about that, when… if we bump into ourselves." He looked to the left. "Well, let's grab a snack, first. After that, we can start worrying about the garage. Maybe we could get in, somehow… didn't you always continue to leave the key under the mat, even after I told you it might be a few months 'till I got back? Maybe it's still there." Those last two sentences were directed to Marty, who was staring at the map of Hill Valley with fascination, moving his eyes over the display rapidly as he absorbed all the familiar information.

The teen then blinked, as if just realizing he'd been spoken to. "Uh, yeah" he said. "I wanted to not lose the familiarity with being around you for those months, knowing you'd be back soon, so I kept the key there. When I picked it up, I always felt like you still lived in the garage, instead of being in 1894. When I entered, though, it hit me hard that you were not there." He winced, thinking back to that time.

Doc patted his friend's back. "It's okay, Marty" he said. "I'm here now, right?" He chuckled a bit. "Great Scott, I can't believe I ever considered staying in the past, or not moving until 1994… early 1995. Not only would the former possibly bring disastrous consequences to the space-time continuum, both of the options would leave you unhappy here, without me." He paused for a moment. "I suppose this must sound terribly selfish…"

"Not too much" Marty assured him. "And – heck, you're right. I did need you in my life – you've been my best friend since I was seven. I'd have gone mad if you hadn't been around." He then unbuckled his seatbelt, and pointed at the restaurant at the opposite side of the street. "Shall we, now?"

Doc frowned a little, then chuckled, smiled and nodded. "We shall" he said. He switched the time circuits off, then headed into the back. Before Marty thought to respond, he returned with the familiar briefcase from that second trip to 1955, in that first weekend. He then opened the case, and after allowing Marty to gawk at the inside for a moment, he picked a stack of billets labelled '1984' out of it, checked the amount, and stuffed nine/tenth of it back. "Thirty dollars" he said, proudly. "This will do. We're not in 2015 yet, so we won't have to deal with any inflation.

Marty had to suppress a smirk. "Doc, do you actually use that briefcase while visiting places in the Present Time?"

"Why not?" Doc asked, chuckling. "It deletes the need of a wallet."

Although Marty had to admit that part, he still found it to be strange. But he ignored that as Doc locked the briefcase, stuffed it back into the back of the bus, then came into the front again, exited together with the teen, and locked the door tightly. After doing that, they headed over to the Burger King, and entered the familiar restaurant.

Marty smiled a little, as he looked around. He hadn't been here for a while anymore, and saw that, in this universe, everything looked like he remembered it from his world. He followed Doc through the restaurant, and finally sat down on a few seats somewhere in the back, from where Doc had a wonderful view of the time bus. Intelligent, Marty figured. If it was about to get stolen, they could see it and most likely be there on time before the thief even figured out how to get the locks open.

As Doc went off to order their dinner, Marty thought back on all what had happened, and what they'd seen. There was a nice long rest in the morning, then waking up at 10:00 at Huey Lewis and the News singing through the radio. He'd gone down to eat breakfast, and had thought a little of what to do with the day, until Doc had called around 11am, and instructed him to come and see him within fifty minutes, as he had 'something interesting that you might want to see' in the lab. Marty had taken a shower, written a bit in his diary about going to see Doc, wrote a note to his folks, who were late to be back from tennis as Dave and Linda were out to their work/boyfriend, and around 11:20, he was on his way to the Brown house, which was five miles away.

Marty closed his eyes, as he remembered what had followed. Arriving in the lab to see Doc with his crazy new time bus… being showed the DFSCUPCIF, as he now remembered the thing's name was… and then, travelling to another world, a world in which Doc and Clara had gone right along with them, a world in which the ravine was called Brown Ravine and in which he had his future son for a twin to live with him. It had been a mad world to visit, but it was kind of interesting, still, and around that time, he'd kind of enjoyed himself, and considered it as exciting and fun to visit other dimensions as time travelling was – and most likely, this time around, they weren't able to alter anything either as they travelled to the present… another version of their present, of course, but still, it was their present.

Fun had ceased to be the description that very moment they had entered the second new world. Doc finding out his beloved wife had still fallen into the ravine and met that horrific fate, Marty finding out he'd been trapped in the fifties that first time around and had been forced to live all those years all over again… and sure, it wasn't him who he was seeing, and everything had turned out all right in the end, but the whole idea seemed horrifying to Marty… being trapped, a thirty years away from home… the explanations he'd been given still didn't make it clear to him how that his other self had actually survived in that world, and the thought of him marrying someone else than Jennifer, even if it was somewhat of a second cousin who looked alike, was enough to make him feel sick and request entry, not really feeling up to staring at his other self for too long.

He sighed. Things had really gotten even worse than they already were once it had happened, and they'd been stranded in this, this weird other world, while Doc had tapped in the right coordinates. This shouldn't have happened, Doc had told him, and whatever it meant, it probably meant that they were trapped to travel through dimensions for all eternity. And that was not a good foresight, so Marty did all he could to ignore those thoughts and focus on a positive one – that of finding a local Doc who could help them get out of this mess that they had apparently created, on a way none of them knew.

As Marty felt himself about to doze off, he looked at his watch and finding that he should be right to do just that, considering the time he was supposed to be in. It was ten-twenty P.M. now, and while normally, he wasn't that tired around a similar time, he did feel exhausted now, after all what had happened. "Why did you have to invent that stupid machine, Doc" he quietly muttered, more feeling frustrated than being really angry with his best friend. Time travelling was pretty much all right now – if they ended up being trapped, all they had to do was wait 'till Clara came with the other machine to get them as they'd turned up missing. But this was different. Travelling through other worlds was putting a whole new perspective to things – neither the DeLorean or the train were converted for dimensional travelling purposes, and even if Jules or Clara managed to fix that problem, they could end up as stuck between worlds as the inventor and teen themselves were. They had to keep on hopping 'till they'd hit the jackpot, the right version of Doc with the right set of tools to help them fix this stupid mess they'd gotten into.

And, to the then very-exhausted and hungry nineteen-year-and-almost-ten-months-old, that moment could better come sooner than later.

As he was pondering those thoughts, Doc showed up, carrying a plate with what resembled chips dinner with some snacks. The scientist set the plate down without speaking a word, passed the parts the teenager was supposed to eat to Marty, and then sat down himself and started eating, chewing the bits of food quietly. After a few moments of staring at his friend, Marty decided to do the same, and soon, both of them were busy eating and apparently didn't care to talk or do anything else. What was there to talk, anyway? Marty figured that, 'till the moment they would meet the Doc-who-could-help-them, they wouldn't get anywhere, and if they weren't meeting that guy now, why waste time by not eating? That's what, apparently, both of them figured, and so, they quietly continued eating for about twenty minutes, just sitting there, and continuing to ponder the things they had already seen, the things they saw, or, which was supposed to be very interesting, the things they had yet to see.

As for Marty, he hoped that what they were going to see next was just one thing – or, more accurately, one person – Doc, an alternate yet familiar Doc, one who knew enough about time travel and other dimensions and technology for visiting those to match his counterpart's intelligence in those subjects, or, which was even better, outnumber that. A Doc who could figure out just how the time machine had gone haywire, and, more important, how it was going to be fixed. A Doc who could get them home, and, preferably, could get them home fast.

For Docs, things were laying different. Sure, the inventor wanted to get home, to see Clara, Jules, Verne and little Martin again, at the exact ages they were supposed to be. He didn't want to be stuck travelling through other, unfamiliar worlds forever, and he didn't want to be going in a path that seemed to bring them further away from home every time. The first reality had still included almost all of the events in that first weekend, except for the fact that MJ was with them and they'd travelled to 1985 right away with the DeLorean. The second reality had gone on a different path, with Marty's return to 1985 on that very first trip failing and stranding them in the past. In this reality, their house wasn't even being lived in. If every hop through worlds was bringing them farther and farther away from home, why should he even go on with this any longer? Why should he even like the experience, at all?

Yet, he was sort of enjoying the sensation. Because there was still a tiny little part in the scientist that continued to be fascinated by these things. Doctor Emmett Brown was pushing eighty – his actual age was somewhere around seventy-eight, a decade older than the rest of the world thought, who figured he'd just turned 68 last month… ten days ago, actually – but he still was up to date, ahead of his time actually, and he would be even without that rejuvenation he got two-and-a-half years ago… (or was it twelve-and-a-half years? Who knew…) and somewhat frequent visits to the future, which was, while not exactly accurate because of it being in flux, pretty reassuring. The future wasn't set in stone, but it was a pretty good drawing of what the future was going to be, and, for him, that meant he wasn't going to stop being like this anytime soon. While not looking up details about his own personal life, he'd found himself in January 2053 a few months ago his time, and, upon closer investigation, the local was, however in his early hundred-and-forties, still alive and well, and didn't appear to be going to die any time soon. Local Emmett had been retired, apparently, and lived in a huge mansion off an amount of money he'd apparently gained sometime between 1988 and 2053… 2012, actually, which was the time Future Doc had stopped working – a few years past his official ninetieth, and his actual hundredth birthday, which almost matched now. Anyway, his future self was still happy and energetic, and so was he. And that was the reason he could still produce the excitement after finding out about yourself in other worlds. Sure, they weren't all perfect, but they didn't have to be. Just the excitement of a dimensional trip made him feel happy, and he soon slightly punished himself internally for hoping that, however not forever, these trips were going to go on for some more time, so that he could visit more worlds.

As they continued thinking like that, the meal was quickly finished. It was around one-fifty-nine P.M. – local time – when they finished up everything. As Marty felt satisfied and was about to relax, it happened.

As Doc and Marty were about to sit up, they suddenly saw a light lighting up the sky, brighter than the daylight, simultaneously with a loud sonic boom which almost made their hair rise up right, even though they were inside. Another flash of light and a sonic boom followed within seconds afterwards. As, after a similar time span, a third sonic boom sounded with it's flash of light, Doc and Marty just opened the door to exit, having figured out what it was, and being thankful to themselves for having already paid for the meal a minute earlier, so they could be the first ones out to see the arrival.

A train emerged from the interdimensional hole, one that Doc immediately recognized as his own – or at least, it looked like that when first spotting it. When he paid more attention, however, the scientist could clearly see sun panels on top of it, and there seemed to be something off with the gas pipe. Still, it looked pretty much the same, and the inventor gestured for Marty to run after the train as it moved down to the ground to land.

Doc found himself being able to go faster than Marty soon. While he pretty much kept up with the train, which was rapidly slowing down and moved downwards to the land behind the garage, which previously was owned by the inventor as it was part of the land his mansion stood on – he'd kept some of the ground, at least – Marty didn't keep up with it, and soon was behind. So, it was Doc who was the first one to approach the train as it had landed, then stopped about a dozen feet away from it, watching the vehicle to see what was going to happen.

As Doc watched, the train cab doors opened, to reveal his interdimensional counterpart – local Doc. The local inventor looked around curiously, then got back into the cab, calling out something Doc wasn't able to hear because by then, Marty caught up with him, puffing loudly. The scientist ignored Marty, and looked at the train, and, more specifically, at his other self, who now returned, along with…

Doc gasped and took a deep breath, as he easily recognized the person who accompanied the local Emmett Brown. The man was apparently late-thirties, but looked like he was a few years younger. His clothing was some kind of a 1920s/futuristic mix-up, combining some parts of the Prohibition period with the things Doc himself had seen in the future, and appeared to be 'in' around the time in the future Doc had last visited, 2053, however the style was around that time starting to get old already. Also, the person was wearing a 1950s cap, as well as a scientific white cape. But the face, that faintly remembered Doc of Clara with the eyes, but otherwise completely of himself, made it crystal clear who this was – Doc remembered him, having seen the local, or at least his counterpart, on his visit to 2017, which had taken place somewhere in '87. This person was none other than his very own son, Jules Eratosthenes Brown!

"Jules!" Doc whispered, completely stunned. What on earth was Jules doing in 1988? He was supposed to be no older than ten during this year, going on eleven! How on earth could he be thirty-nine?

Immediately, Doc scolded himself for being so irrationally. It was obvious – Jules had come on a time trip, most likely from the future, judging from the local's clothes. But why was he here now? Curious to find out, Doc continued to hide as the locals walked up to the garage-that-was-supposed-to-be-plowed-down-in-1986, and then tapped on Marty's shoulder in order to get the teen's attention.

"I'll go see what they're going to do" he whispered, increasing the volume of his voice at the end as he realized that the need to whisper had just gone inside. "I'll knock on the door this time – even if my counterpart faints, this Jules shouldn't. If he's as old as I think he is, and if he's going for the same scientific career as in our world, he should be able to tell us what this world is like, and maybe entertain us 'till the other him wakes up with his stories, from which we should be able to judge if other me is capable of helping us fix the bus."

Marty nodded. "What if they both faint?" he asked. "I mean, what if this is Local Jules' first time trip and he has never seen you on two places before? We're gonna be in serious trouble then, as well, having to wait 'till they wake up."

Doc wasn't thrown off his course that easy. "If this universe is anything like ours, I still have smelling salts around in the garage" he simply said. "They should be able to wake up one of them easily, if not both. Or else, we'll just throw water over their faces. That should be able to do the trick as well."

Marty still wasn't feeling entirely convinced. "Why should we risk that?" he said, his voice making clear that he wanted to do anything if it would get them home sooner. "Why can't I go? It went fine the last times, so why shouldn't it now?"

Doc shrugged. "Well, I've never tried this before" he simply said. "I think it's time for a change. You follow me, though – if either of us faints, you can catch him. I shouldn't faint, I've seen myself before, but I suppose it would be interesting to see my other, local self's reaction to this phenomenon. If he's more prone to fainting because he has seen few counterparts before, I could maybe take that as help in order to draw some kind of fainting scale, with me establishing how many encounters are needed and what kind to completely remove any reactions to the system upon seeing another version of yourself." He whistled, fascinated. "But now, I'm off. You go after me and catch Other Me if Jules isn't able to." He ran off without saying another word to his friend.

Marty sighed deeply, considered his options, and finally decided to run after his friend after all. Within a few moments, they'd reached the door, and, as Marty had slid into position a few feet from the door, Doc firmly knocked on it, stepped back so his other self wouldn't smack the door into his face, and waited.

The first thing Marty was able to see from Emmett was the frown he obviously carried. That frown, however, turned into a huge gasp as he saw who was standing in front of the doorway. There was a soft "Great Scott" and Marty recognized his cue as the local's eyes started to shake a bit and the inventor leaned backwards. The teen ran over to his other-friend, and caught him from the back. "Doc" he said, not wanting to surprise the inventor even more than his Doc already had by making the scientist think there was a stranger helping him. "Doc, it's me." He paused a moment, wondering what he should say, then figuring he'd better be honest – that was his intention for starting this semi-conversation anyway. "Marty" he said, making sure that his words were caught and understood by Emmett.

Luckily, Emmett did not faint, instead turned around, and started to shift his eyes from Marty to Doc and back so fast that Marty was feeling like he was about to faint. Finally, Emmett focused on Doc. "You're me!" he said, repeating the things that his previous selves had already said in the other dimensions.

Marty sighed, wondering if this was ever going to end. "No, he's not" he simply stated. "He's you all right, but he's from another universe."

While Doc winced at his friend's not-so-comforting straight-to-the-point approach, Emmett frowned. "Another universe?" he asked, confused. "I've heard of them, but… are you telling me that you really are from one, and that you somehow managed to rig up your own system in order to get here?" As Doc nodded, his counterpart whistled. "Amazing."

"More to the point, horrifying" Marty put in. "We've been stuck hopping through worlds for a long time now. You know that yours is actually the fourth dimension we visit?" He chuckled a bit, realizing the connection with the actual four dimensions that were known to him prior to today. "For the first two, we hopped intentionally, but when we tried to get back home an hour and a half ago, things went wrong. And before we knew it, we were trapped in another world, and Doc ran four tests on his computer in the time machine… it's a new one, a bus that he apparently converted into a time machine for this purpose… but, anyway, after Doc ran those tests, the computer still said we were all right, which we obviously aren't, as you are here, and Doc's house, which is out in the fields, you know, that old house five miles outta town in the middle of the Hill Valley Forest Preservation, is abandoned."

"Marty" Doc warned, finding his younger friend to be more annoying than helpful this dimension. They needed help all right, but Marty was a bit too straight-to-the-point.

Marty looked at his friend with a look that made clear that he didn't care whatever the inventor's reasons were for stopping him. "What?" he called out. "We need to go home Doc, and if this you can help us, I'd rather find out sooner than later, and the only way to do that is actually telling him what is going on."

"Yeah, but that doesn't have to be that immediate" Doc protested. "You should've given him time to calm down and accept the fact that we're here in the first place first, and then, we can tell him our problem."

Emmett, in the meantime, had thought over the words that the visiting Marty had said. "You mean," he finally said, interrupting the conversation between his other self and Marty, "that you," that was directed at Doc, "are living here in 1988?"

"In the other 1988, yes" Doc said, nodding. "Aren't you?"

Emmett didn't answer, just looked at Doc intensively. When he did open his mouth and spoke, it was a question, not an answer. "How old are you?"

Doc, a bit startled, did a step back. "Um… seventy-seven, most likely closer to seventy-eight" he said. "Moved from 1985 to 1885, and then from 1895 to 1986… why are you looking at me so strangely?"

"Because that never happened" Emmett said. "Not here, anyway. I did go to 1885 and spent nine years building the time train, but then I-"

And that was just how far he came. At that moment, Jules, who'd been inside all the time, dared a peek outside, and gasped at the alternate versions of his father and Marty. "Great Scott!" he gasped, his voice sounding almost exactly like his Dad's. "Father, what happened? How can these people be here?"

It was just one tiny little word, but Doc picked it up right away. Father. This version of Jules didn't call the scientist 'Dad', like, after their time trip to 2019 and 1985, Doc had taught him to do, telling him that it was common for all kids of Jules' age in the future – and in 1894 actually as well, which by that time still was their present. But here he still said father. Why would Emmett have neglected to change that little detail when it was going to be needed to change upon their move to the future?

Doc ignored his own thoughts, instead focused on the very confused version of Doctor Emmett Brown. "Well," Emmett said, his voice making clear he was unsure how to bring this, "these people are Marty and I from some other world. In their time machine, they've apparently added the ability to bring them from world to world like we can hop from time to time. My other self and Marty are apparently here to request my help with fixing their time machine."

Jules frowned. "They're from 1988?" he asked, curiously. "From now?"

Emmett nodded. "Yes, it certainly appears to be so. We shall go into further details later." He turned to the visitors. "You can come in, if you like. It's not much of a home, but it is something. Marty – my Marty – has not sold it yet, as he's going to do this summer."

Marty frowned, wondering how the local knew that particular piece of information was going to happen, then shrugged it off and followed Emmett into the garage, causing himself to gasp at the familiar surroundings. It had been some time, after all, since he'd seen the garage – the place was currently in their world being turned into an apartment. It'd been two years since the garage was destroyed, and Marty gasped at seeing it back in original shape.

"Wow" he muttered, as he and Doc were led to sit down on the chairs. "This is heavy…"

Jules gave an expected reaction. "Heavy?" he asked, obviously confused. "There is no reason for you to assume that your chair is in any way heavier than the others. It should be equal in weight and things like that. Do you want me to test it by lifting both of them and compare their weights?"

Both inventor's laughed, and Emmett explained to Jules that Marty had not quite meant this literally. "Although, what's so 'heavy' in this situation goes beyond me" the local concluded.

"That's why I wanted to talk to you" Doc said. "We need to compare our worlds if we want to find out what exactly made your world be different from mine."

"Go ahead" Emmett said, graciously.

His offer was accepted, and Doc was just about to say something when they heard something at the door. As everyone looked at it, Marty sighed. "I'll go get it" he said, figuring he didn't have anything better to do anyway. He stood up and walked to the door to open it, wondering who might be wanting to enter the inventor's home, forgetting for a moment that if this was an ordinary native, he or she would be very surprised to see both Doc and Emmett being there.

But it was not, because as Marty opened the door, he stared into a face that was undoubtedly his own. "Holy shit!" he breathed, staring at his counterpart.

Local Marty's eyes went wide in the same recognition and surprise. For a moment, Visiting Marty saw him shake again and, figuring he'd be early to prevent this repetition of what almost went wrong last time, he reached out and caught, well, himself, grabbing his counterpart tight by the back and shoulders.

The feeling of being touched by himself sent shivers through Local Marty's stomach that brought him back to the land of the living after being near-unconscious for a moment, although Visiting Marty could hear his other self's heartbeat was very, very fast. "Holy shit!" the local repeated, and stared at his own blue eyes in a way of both recognition and terror at the phenomenon he was seeing.

"Hi" the visitor simply said, figuring he should say something. "I'm you. Nice to meet you." He figured those words were stupid words to tell, but, still, he was very new to this kind of situation. It wasn't like he'd met an interdimensional version of himself many times before – and it looked like this him hadn't, at all.

"Um… hi me" the local said, only then noticing Doc was there, too – two of him, actually. "Doc?" he asked, confused. "You're back?"

Emmett sighed, uncomfortably. "No" he admitted. "Marty, you should never have seen this – my intention was just to clean up the garage, not let you see me. That way, you should continue to live your life the way I saw you living it in the future, which is my current home."

"You live in the future?" both Doc and the Marty's asked, simultaneously. Then, Doc said: "How did that come to be?"

"Perhaps you could tell me how you came to be first" Local Marty said. "I'm very curious to the story that my Doc has to tell, but I want to know where you're from, first. To have another you here… well, it's certainly weird."

"I completely sympathise" Doc said. "It's been weird for me, too, seeing the other versions of myself. It's very unnerving, but still astonishingly interesting." He paused for a moment, then continued. "Well, I shall get to the point now. My Marty and I came from another reality, another dimension – one in which I am living right here and now in 1988 Hill Valley, which my counterpart apparently isn't, and one in which Jules is just eleven years old!"

Local Marty stared at the aforementioned, as if just becoming aware of the guy's presence. "He's Jules?" he asked, softly.

Emmett nodded. "Jules Eratosthenes Brown, born 1886 – or, according to my newly made-up timeline sequence of events, born in the one of the early years of the Twenty-First Century." As the others except Jules frowned, he said: "All right, I'll explain things. But Marty, don't get angry with me. Just know that everything will turn out all right in the end."

Local Marty nodded, still confused. "Yeah, right" he said. "Just go ahead and tell, Doc. I'm waiting."

Emmett sighed, as he went off to tell his tale. Of how he, after successfully building a time machine out of a train, had thought about ways to return to his present for months. How he eventually gave up in January 1896, and focused on not creating alternate history in the past by excluding himself from the society. He did allow Jules and Verne to have a good education, though, but once Jules had graduated early at age 16 in 1902, he moved them to a part of land out of town, where he himself taught Verne information about things he needed to know, now and in the future, as the train was still around and the family still occasionally travelled ahead and backwards, if even just to visit the Marty of the '80s and '90s, and sometimes, the one of the late 2010s.

Then, in 1905, Jules and Verne had apparently taken a joyride trip to 1935, which had caused them to end up in a 1905-A and back in 1885 to fix the mess. After that, Jules had backed down from time travel a bit, but Verne had concentrated on the future, and had wanted to go there even more than before.

Finally, in 1910, Verne had told his parents that he couldn't take it any longer. He wanted to go to the future, and he wanted it now. Doc and Clara had put up a discussion with him about it, but Verne was stubborn, and finally, they allowed him to depart for 2020. A few minutes later, the train returned, empty, as Verne had gone to live in the future.

Doc, Clara and Jules then continued to live the next years in the past, very careful not to disrupt anything and possibly end the world-as-they-knew-it. The 1910s had come and passed, and then, the 1920s had arrived, with the arrival to the world of a certain Emmett Lathrop Brown, born to Friedrich von Braun and Sarah Lathrop. Doc and Clara had carefully avoided any contact with the inventor's younger self, and apparently, they'd succeeded, as Emmett had grown up to be more or less the same way he had before – a promising young inventor.

Here was it that Doc interrupted. "So, if you lived up until the 1920s all right, why are you moving to the future now? Did something go wrong in the past that made you decide that you hadn't made the right decision after all?"

Emmett smiled a bit. "Something like that" he said. "Because it's here that we will skip ahead, and the next portion of the story is one that Marty knows better – or at least, his future self. Some parts of that history have already happened, are slowly making the fundaments for the history of 2045 as I learnt it from your older self, Local Marty."

"And that is?" the teenager asked, suddenly even more interested.

Emmett continued his story, and told what had happened to the local Marty after October twenty-seventh, 1985. Marty had continued his life, and kept an eye on the garage from time to time, hoping that the inventor would move back eventually. Around March 1988, now a month ago, he'd finally given up all hope, and had looked for people to buy the place, which had occurred in July 1988. He'd gotten a nice amount of money for it, and had stored that for less good times, and partly in the hope that Doc would ever come to collect it. In the 1990s, he'd started a career in music, which Emmett didn't want to tell his friend about in fear it'd ruin that particular future, and he'd managed to finish that good in the latter years of the first decade of the Twenty-First Century, retiring in a house at the outskirts of Hill Valley with a wife and two wonderful kids.

But, apparently, a happy life hadn't been for this Marty. In this universe, Griff had been more than a little annoyed at 'Marty Junior' getting him to jail, and later beating him up as he'd tried to escape, with which he managed to get the heart of Griff's girl, Suzy MacArthur. He'd broken into the laboratory in 2045, where it had been restored to original shape as some kind of museum, in Marty's property, and got the blueprints for the time machine. Building a working time vehicle had cost him fifteen years, but finally, after stealing a DeLorean and various equipment pieces, he was finished on New Years Eve 2060, had travelled back to 2015, gave himself a nice almanac, and had changed the history of Hill Valley in a drastic way.

"Hell Valley Two" Local Marty muttered, grasping the whole situation and turning whiter than anyone could've imagined him doing.

"Correct" Emmett nodded, sighing. "Griff did as best of a job to ruin the world as he could. He bailed himself out of jail in '21 after hitting it big at a sports events that had been arranged there, and developed an empire within just three years. He took over major parts of Hill Valley, and built sex clubs in the Square. He married a Grass Valley native in 2026, got his son Xiff with her, and divorced her again in '29. Marty Junior tried to fight against 'GriffCo', which was murdering many people with it's toxic waste, but as the thirties arrived, everything was as horrible as it could've ever been. And that was before Griff finally got sick of his lifelong enemy trying to stop him and killed your son on March fifteenth, 2032 on a side road, not even thirty-four years old."

Both Marty's gasped. "Oh no" Local Marty groaned. "Poor Junior…" Even though the last time he'd seen his son was in 2015, for just a few minutes on that trip two-and-a-half years into the future, he could feel a bit of how it must feel to lose your child, and it didn't sound good at all.

"Your older self was horrified by that incident' Emmett continued. "He tried to get himself to calm down, and succeeded, but Jennifer didn't. She was just too unhappy, living in that great, big house where the family had lived in prior to the incident. Suzy, MJ's wife, cried every moment of the day, and finally, Jennifer gave into it all. On September seventeenth, her sixty-fourth birthday, she jumped off the roof and did not survive the crash."

"Holy shit" Visiting Marty muttered, shivering at the mere thought of something like that happening to his girlfriend. "Do-Emmett, can't you stop? This is so horrible…"

"Sorry, but it isn't over yet" Emmett said. "Your future self had began to build a time machine, together with Verne. Apparently, Griff had somehow suspected something was going on, as he had taken away your property and almost all of your money in June of that year. You and Jennifer, who was still alive at that time moved into a shelter out of town with Verne, while Suzy and her kids moved into an apartment uptown. She hoped that things would be going better there, but they didn't. Finally, she'd married Griff in August, thinking things would go better that way. Marty, you were horrified, but couldn't do anything."

"One heck of a nice future" the local teen quipped, sarcastically.

Emmett nodded, however fully aware of the sarcastic undertone. "You then continued building the time machine with Verne all through 2033, and tried to visit your grandkids sometimes, in order for them not to lose all faith. In December of that year, however, Griff had you be committed into the local asylum. Verne worked on, but was killed in April of '34. The only one aware of time travel at that point was his six-year-old daughter, Sarah Jennifer Brown. She was the one that was brought up by her unknowing mother during the next eight years, but left alone after her Mom's tragic death in 2042. In 2045, after three tragic lonely years, she finally decided enough was enough, and figured she'd go uptown for help from the only two people that were left behind to be able to do that; the last McFly's, Jennifer Junior and Marty III McFly, the adopted stepchildren of Griff and Suzy, the kids of Marty Junior."

"What was my grandson like?" Local Marty asked, somewhat curious.

"At first?" Emmett asked. "A wimp. Being pushed around by Tannen and his gang from before he'd even turned four, he was a wimp, did not want anyone to approach him closely before being good friends, and he acted wimpier than your fifties Dad – unless they really angered him. But under that wimpy shell was an intense rage against Griff Tannen, one that made him decide that he'd be willing to do anything up until a suicide action to somehow get revenge for Griff killing his father."

"You mean, that fact was well-known?" Doc asked, horrified. He'd been quiet throughout the first parts of the conversation, but he now spoke up.

To his relief – what kind of a horrid world would that be, if people actually knew that but didn't convict Griff for it – Emmett shook his head. "No, many people suspected that Marty Senior himself was the fault, having gone nuts in his elder years." Local Marty looked like he was about to faint, and the visitor didn't look too good himself. "But Marty the third had always suspected something, and inside, he just knew that it was Griff who had killed his father, and not his supposedly insane Granddad."

Doc nodded silently, and held quiet as Emmett continued his story. About what had happened with Sarah, once she'd gone into town and had spoken to Marty III. About them busting out Marty Senior a few days later, and working on the time machine hard during the month afterwards. And finally, on November twenty-fifth, they'd finished and tested the machine and were about ready to go to the past when Griff showed up. Emmett told about how they'd been able to escape, and even managed to get the exact date of Griff getting the almanac out of him – October 21, 2015, which was where they'd travelled to and vanished from the alternate 2045.

In 2015, Marty III had followed younger Griff around town, and Sarah had done the same with older Griff. Marty had been knocked out, once, and had ended up in his grandmother's bedroom, who lucky enough did not hit on him. Afterwards, he got through a few experiences with Griff and giving the almanac to his father, which turned out all wrong, but finally, he did get the book back, and after being picked up on a rope by Marty Senior and Sarah, they flew over to the football field behind the Courthouse.

"And there, my grandkid burned the almanac?" Local Marty asked, hoping this would finally put an end to the mess he was apparently going to end up in.

Unfortunately, Emmett shook his head. "I'm afraid not" he said. "Once Marty had settled down and lit a match to burn the almanac, there was a huge wind that blew it out at once. Marty just looked up in time to shout to his friends to watch out for the winds when the same blow caught the DeLorean and steered it towards a nearby telephone cable. The hook that was still on it, apparently your older self had kept it as a memory to that first incident, caught grip on the cable, and it electrocuted all over and zapped you back in time to midnight on July 1st, 1925."

Doc whistled. "Fascinating" he muttered. "So, Marty Senior ended up in a near similar position to ourselves?"

Emmett nodded. "He and Sarah were trapped in 1925, as again, the time circuits control microchip had broken from the impact of the lightning. Marty told me he tried to do everything to repair it, but after a month's work, they were just as far as when they started, and Marty decided that he should settle down in 1925, as he was hoping that I was still around and could help them get back to the moment after he left, so he went searching all over town for me – quite useless, as I'd moved out twenty-three years earlier, to settle a few miles out of town, which was right where Marty was not looking for me."

"Talk about bad luck" Local Marty muttered. "So, once this rolls around naturally, what do you expect me to do? Pretend to look for you while I know where you are? That's not going to be easy for me if I'm trapped and I know how to get out of there but I also know I am not allowed to do just that."

"It wasn't you, it was the you of a Griff-horrific reality, which is supposed to be erased in 2015, so you'll be fine" Emmett promised. "Well, anyway, in November, after Marty had searched for me for three months, he got into bigger trouble. Apparently, Buford Tannen had noticed that 'Clint' was back in town, and he wanted revenge, so he simply kidnapped Sarah and left a ransom note; he wanted Clint to meet him in less than a week, on November twelfth, 1925. That was when Marty decided that he had to send a letter to his grandson, which he did, and he buried the DeLorean in a nearby mine. That letter survived the next ninety years and safely arrived with Marty III the minute after he'd seen his grandpa and friend vanish back in time. So, Marty III read the first lines of the letter, realized where his grandfather was and that he apparently could not get out, which meant there was a time machine that had to be fixed. And who better to get help from than the inventor of the thing? So, Marty III headed to Hilldale, where he could catch up with the 47-year-old version of his Grandfather." He looked at Local Marty. "And this is where you might want to leave – it's not like this news is going to be terrible, but I don't want you to hear too much about your future. I've been forced to tell you too much already so that you wouldn't be too freaked out by my sudden reappearance and then disappearance again."

"What do I have to do, then?" the local said, disappointed. "Go out?"

"You can stay in the bathroom to relax for a bit if you like" Emmett said. "It should be closed there. I know you'll probably don't like it, but it's the best I can offer you. This is not the biggest house around, and in the bathroom, you won't hear much."

Local Marty groaned, but accepted the explanation, and headed off. As he was sure the teen was gone, Emmett turned back to his guests. "Shall I go on, now?"

"No need – let me guess this" the visiting teenager said, with a faint trace of a smirk. "I fainted at the sight of him, confusing him with… my younger self, I guess. He simply tried to wake me again, then gave up and moved him to my house. The next day, I accepted his appearance, and I fixed his time machine over the next few days before sending him back to 1925 on… the twenty-fifth?"

"That was very well-calculated, Marty" Emmett complimented. "Yeah, the twenty-fifth it was. On Thursday, October twenty-second, the DeLorean got out of the mine. Then, your counterpart, his son and his grandson visited the cemetery on the twenty-third, and over the next two days, they worked on the time machine. Marty III actually was sent back to November eighth, 1925, at the evening of October twenty-fifth, at the site of Lone Pine Mall. He had the bad luck, however, to be sent off with the hover conversion on."

"In which way is that bad?" Visiting Marty asked, confused. "It can't be dangerous to be high up in the sky…"

"He ran – or better, flew – right into a lot of birds."

"…but I think I see your point, Emmett. So, what happened then?" the nineteen-year-old asked. "What did those birds do? They shouldn't be too much of a danger."

"In normal situations, they wouldn't" Emmett said. "But, seeing as Marty had appeared right in the middle of them – luckily not in the middle of one of the birds, that is what the sonic booms took care of – those birds saw him as a danger and started to attack him – or, actually, the flying circuits."

"You don't mean…"

"Yup, they were totally destroyed." Emmett paused for a second, then continued. "Marty practically crash-landed."

"How did he get out?" the teenager wanted to know, having turned pale from being upset at the fate of his counterpart's grandson-to-be. "Or didn't he?"

To his immense relief, Emmett didn't answer 'yes' to that last question. "He did get out all right, thanks to the hoverboard, which worked as an airbag when Marty jumped out of the DeLorean at an altitude of, well, it can't have been less than ten, fifteen feet. However a little shaken, he got out all right, luckily, and your older self was kind of confused about that. No, the real problem was the DeLorean. Your older self from 2015 had… well, let's just say he had kind of made some unhandy modifications to the car."

"Like what?" Visiting Marty wanted to know.

"He'd put an amount of gas in the tank with spare tanks that were set on fire when the DeLorean hit the ground" Emmett said. Within seconds, the whole car went up in flames."

Both Doc and Marty gasped. "So, he was stuck in 1925?" Doc asked, suddenly concerned.

Emmett shook his head. "No, but we'll get to that. Anyway, Marty crashed the DeLorean. He tried to salvage it, but, thanks to a lack of technical knowledge and the fact the thing was so trashed that even a century work wouldn't improve it's quality unless he wanted to build it from scratch, he unfortunately was unable to do that, gave up on it and headed uptown, leaving the burning wreck out in the open." He frowned, obviously disapproving of that.

"Then, Marty headed uptown, and into the Café. Unfortunately, he met up with Driff Tannen there, who was doing his illegal alcohol dealing. Driff got mad at Marty, and they fought their conflict outside. Driff was trying to shoot Marty, when Marty Senior showed up – with a rifle."

Marty whistled. "Way to go me! This really is starting to sound just like that scene with Buford, Doc and I in 1885, when Buford tried to hang me."

"It certainly does appear to be so, doesn't it?" Emmett said, smirking. "Yeah, it was a lot like that. Only, with Buford, I just concentrated on rescuing the other you. This time around, Marty Senior too confronted Driff about Sarah."

Marty nodded silently, and Emmett told the story. After Driff had backed off, there had been another scene with the whole "who dressed you up" thing, in which it appeared to be that Marty '15 knew a lot more about his favourite time period than Doc '55 did, probably due to the fact that he was an official ex-time traveller and had researched the period more thoroughly. After that, Marty and Marty Senior had headed over to the latter's shop, where Marty had gawked at his grandpa's inventions.

After speaking with each other, Marty III had been embarrassed to tell his grandpa about the DeLorean's unfortunate end, after which he ex-musician had realized that if they wouldn't find Doc soon, they were in trouble. So, they'd gone off to check the local archives the next day, Monday – November ninth. And, after a morning of searching intensively, the result had still been nothing, except for Marty mistaking the address of Doc's parents for the inventor's, which he was very embarrassed about later on. After all, the young Emmett Brown that lived at his parent's house at 1640 Riverside Drive was only five years old, and therefore he wouldn't really be much of a help for them.

Finally, at the beginning of that afternoon, Marty had gone out to the Café, stood up for his teen great-great-grandpa, Arthur, thereby unwillingly angering Hill Valley's local bully, one Miff Tannen. Borrowing a 'wheel board' from Young Emmett, who had been pretending it was a horse in the park in front of the Courthouse, Marty fled, and one more chase scene had began.

Marty III had found himself in much more trouble controlling the board than his teen grandfather in 1955, which was only natural due to the fact that he was used to riding hoverboards and not to riding skateboards. He narrowly managed to avoid Miff hitting him with a wooden plank, and randomly skated through the street, as Miff started to chase him in his car. Finally, as Marty was just getting used to the skateboard and was able to get faster, which was pretty necessary as Miff was just about ten feet behind him, Marty slipped over a banana peel, lost control, got thrown backwards and landed right on the front of the car Miff was driving, blocking the latter's ability of looking through the windshield.

Marty then somehow had managed to get back on his skateboard, just in time for Miff to open his mouth, wide, as he saw he was approaching a still standing manure truck. Moments later, he hit it, and manure fell on Miff, causing him to groan in frustration and exclaim that he hated manure.

Marty had then returned, happily, to give back the board to the younger version of the person that they were looking for, Emmett Brown. At that, Marty was approached by a shy but thankful Arthur McFly, who asked Marty and his grandpa to join them at dinner that evening, suggesting that Seamus and Marty Senior 'Clint' could perhaps talk a bit more about the way life in town had gone since forty years ago, and their common friend, the blacksmith, Emmett Brown.

It was here that Marty interrupted. "Didn't my other self apparently 'die'?" he asked. "I mean, they named the ravine after him here too. He couldn't just show up out of nowhere and hope no one would notice him appearing forty years after his supposed death." He frowned. "At age seventy-seven, while he's supposed to be late fifties…"

Emmett smiled. "He'd had a rejuvenation done in the year 2025, reducing his age a thirty years" he explained to a confused Marty. "He had aged faster when in the mental hospital, however, putting him a decade ahead of what he would've been if he had aged naturally after the rejuvenation. So, seventy-seven, subtract thirty and add ten, what's that?"

"Fifty-seven" Marty admitted, nodding. "The age he was supposed to be by 1925, if he'd naturally lived there from 1885 on. I think I do get your point, now…" Something then occurred to him. "What about the other thing? About him being supposed to have died in that train wreckage and all?"

"We'll get to that" Emmett promised. "They just decided to keep the ravine's name the same way, as the townsfolk was used to the name by then. But we'll get to the cover story your counterpart faked later on. Let me go on, first."

"Go ahead" Marty offered.

Emmett did. Marty III had apparently gone home, excitedly, and Marty Senior had been excited too to hear about the things that had apparently happened to led up to this event, feeling proud of his grandson avoiding being beaten up by a Tannen, and rescuing Arthur. He'd agreed with going to dinner that evening, hoping to find information on his friend, enough to find him and, hopefully, persuade him to at least let them borrow the train, and, perhaps, go along with them.

That night, that had indeed happened. Seamus had asked Marty Senior the question that was burning on everyone's mind: how did he survive the train wreckage? The nervous inventor had finally settled on a fake story about how he'd managed to jump off just in time, but had hit his head against a rock. When he woke up, about twenty-two hours later in the early morning of Tuesday, the eighth of September, he had amnesia and failed to remember his true identity. He'd wandered off to out of town, and had finally found a home in Grass Valley. He'd married a local girl and fathered Clint Junior in late 1886. Clint Jr on his turn had fathered Marty, who was supposed to be called 'Steven Spielberg Eastwood', and had died in 1912, which was a reference to what really happened to Marty Junior in the alternate world.

Before that, Marty Senior had confronted his ancestor with the question that he wanted to know the answer to: Where was Doc? Seamus had told him about Doc moving away, and Marty Senior had gone to visit his friend the next day. Emmett had naturally freaked out at first, but eventually he had managed to stay calm, not faint and he focused on the task at hand. They'd exchanged stories and visited the DeLorean wreck, taking it inside Emmett's house. Emmett revealed that the train's flying and driving circuits were busted, and explained their plan to them for going to Sacramento to push the train off a hill so it would get up to 88, and have sun panels to catch the electricity in the 2045 air. Emmett volunteered to come along the next day, with Clara and Jules, and they started their plan, Doc showing he had a cool airplane to pull the train over to the hill.

The next day, November eleven, Emmett had showed them a model for getting back home, made of a fake hill and a toy train. He also told Marty more about their plans for the next day – the big one.

Then, there was the big day. November twelfth, 1925. Or rather, the big evening. That night, Marty Senior had showed up at the manure pile just on time. Buford had shot Marty, but when trying to do the same to Sarah, Marty III showed up. As Buford tried to shot them both, Marty Senior showed up in ghost-form. The gang fled, but Buford didn't, and discovered the fake wound was nothing more than a small bag of tomato sauce, which had also caught the bullet. At that moment, he was tripped by none else than Doc Brown, whom he tried to shoot as well. This time, it was Marty III who prevented it, and knocked Tannen unconscious. They had succeeded, and Doc, Marty Senior, Marty and a dumbfounded Sarah then made their way to the airplane, and to Sacramento.

The plane crash-landed at the mountain at around 9:56, and after short introductions everyone quickly went to work. Emmett headed inside to set the Destination Time, and after making sure everyone was inside, he pulled the lever that would push them off the hill and onto the path that led them downwards. That was quickly done, and the train started to move downwards at a speed that soon went faster. As they were around fifty, Emmett announced he had to get out to pull some more levers, and he got out of the cab, moving along the edge of the train. As he was relieved to be done at around sixty, however, and was about to go back, he was stopped doing that by one Driff Tannen, who was holding a beer bottle and a gun, and had apparently come out here to get revenge for his Dad's failure to beat 'Eastwood'.

Luckily, Driff was too distracted to shoot the inventor right away, which he would've easily been able to do, having inherited his father's talents in that, and lack of intelligence in many other area's, which once more came to Emmett's advantage. He managed to convince Driff he was an alien by using the walkie-talkie, and in Driff's confusion, Marty Senior headed out of the cab, just moments before the speed hit seventy, and at sixty-nine, Driff finally appeared to realize their surroundings – the fact that they were on a moving train which was going at almost seventy miles per hour and was about to fall off a hill.

Just moments later, that event indeed did happen, and they were suddenly falling down at seventy miles per hour in the middle of air. Driff had a hard time hanging onto the machine, holding his gun and his beer bottle, and that was the chance Marty Senior saw. Without any warning, he threw his walkie-talkie against Driff's left wrist, which was the only one still holding onto the train, albeit loosely.

That did the trick. Driff released, if only for a moment, and after that moment, there was nothing to hold anymore as he lost his balance and fell down with a scream, luckily not getting killed twenty-two years before his actual death in a car accident, together with son Miff, that would leave Young Biff and his old saddened grandma behind together. Anyway, in 1925, Marty Senior had a sigh of relief, then motioned for Emmett to come over, as the time machine was going at around seventy-five miles per hour and the common early symptoms of temporal displacement – electricity forming, parts lighting up – were just a few miles away from kicking in.

They did at around the moment Emmett reached the time machine, which had just hit eighty miles an hour and was now almost vertically falling down, no matter how hard Jules twisted the steering wheel backwards. The inventor got in, sat down, and hold on to the wall tight as he felt gravity pushing him forwards into the front of the train, like everyone felt that.

Jules tried a final tug, then gulped as he saw the fishing pole that he had once made, twenty-eight years ago, rapidly approaching as the point where death would be their sakes. But, just then, they had hit eighty-eight with a bright flash of light and they saw the darkness around them change into even greater darkness, and suddenly, the time machine stopped slowing down, and Jules had tugged once more on the steering wheel, causing the machine to climb up to the skyway and fly it's way to the McFly house of this new 2045. Marty III was dropped off, and inside discovered a new family, a living father and an alternate counterpart. Stories were told, and by the next day, he met up with Sarah again, saw Griff-the-servant in action, and met his grandpa and Doc, who had picked up Future Griff's time machine and were now off to travel through time.

"So Marty and I travelled around a little bit, and we picked up some parts for the train" Emmett said. "And finally, in mid-November, about three weeks after we arrived, I realized that I needed some things out of my old garage and wanted to make sure everything valuable was out of there, and Jules decided to join me on a trip backwards. We accelerated up over the street, deciding a few months before the building was sold would be best. We then arrived right on schedule in 1988… but encountering you two and the Local Marty was certainly not what I'd expected."

"An interesting story" Doc said, smiling a bit. "It does remind me a bit of the adventures Marty and I went through in the alternate 1985 and the Old West, all right. I'm glad that everything turned out fine, and that you managed to return to 2045 all right. I would tell you my story, but the only way in which it differs from yours is that we moved back to 1986, bought a house, and we're still living there." He grinned. "Jules and Verne are ten and eight in our world, now, and will turn eleven and nine in respectively September and October. And Martin…"

"Who's Martin?" Emmett interrupted, his face showing that he honestly had no idea what his counterpart was talking about.

"Martin Socrates Brown, born November twelfth, 1986" Doc prompted. "Clara and my third son. Born right at 10:04 P.M, the thirty-one year anniversary of lightning striking the clock tower." He grinned, obviously proud of that fact. "Named after Marty – he's almost seventeen months old, now." As he noticed the blank look on Emmett's face, he asked: "You really don't know him?"

"No, and unless I'm going through a period of serious amnesia, which the previous story should've proved I'm not, he never existed either" Emmett said. "There was no Martin born on what should be… November twelve, 1895, and he never existed. Jules and Verne were the only two children that Clara and I ever had. We might've wanted more, but it never happened."

"I still can't believe you never moved back to 1985" Visiting Marty said. "I mean, you know your Marty missed you…"

"A little" Emmett protested. "He did not tell me all that much in 2019."

Doc now frowned. "I assume Marty is talking about our trip to 1994" he said.

The look on the local inventor's face was near priceless. "Which trip to 1994?" he asked, obviously confused.

"Well, just the trip we made from December twenty-fourth 1894 to the same date in 1994, in order to visit Marty from then and his family… you really have not experienced that?"

Emmett shook his head. "I intended to visit the McFly's, but Clara reminded me that we'd better go to her parents. I figured there was always a next year and agreed. The next year, however, we were visited by her parents, and in 1896 we had an accident with the train just before we were supposed to go. When I departed in 1897 together with the whole family, 1997 Marty was a happy guy who had just gotten his first child. I didn't really get the impression that he missed me so much, so I gave up on the idea I had toyed around with a bit, moving to the future, mostly because I also really couldn't find a way to fit in my kids. We'd have to pretend to be married in '73 around that time already, and we would have to have had Jules and Verne in '74 and '76. Clara and I being that long out of contact was no one going to believe, so we gave up on the plan. Too bad, I would've liked moving back. Well, that finally happened twenty-eight years later, though… so it isn't like we never moved."

"And because of the fact Martin was not there, for one reason or another, you never got the huge urge to move back" Doc finished, somewhat shocked. "After all, when Clara discovered she was pregnant in March of the year we were moving back from, I really did not want the kid to be born in 1895. That was one of our major reasons to hurry up and go back home. We wanted the baby-that-would-be-Martin to be safe and sound in the 1980s, and not have another baby be born in the bad condition of the 1890s. Even though we could've always gone to a futuristic hospital in the 2040s or something like that, I preferred that Martin would be born in the place and time where we actually lived, as it would also raise less suspicion."

"Good point" Emmett said, nodding. "That's probably what I would've done in such a situation, too. Great Scott, a third additional child…"

Their conversation was interrupted by someone knocking on a door. Marty recognized Local Marty's voice immediately as his own. "Hello? Can I come out, now?"

"Um, yes, we're done" Emmett called back. "I'm sorry, I forgot to alert you of the fact that we were done discussing your future… it was just interesting to discuss things with another version of myself." He looked at Doc, a faint smile on his face. "You know, I believe this is the last time I've seen another version of myself since that encounter in 1955 – and then, I didn't really look face-to-face at, well, me. If your Marty hadn't helped me, I think I would've fainted. It really is amazing to see you and realize that you are in a way me, but in another way you aren't. Isn't it stunning?"

"Definitely" Local Marty agreed, coming out into the garage. "So, you're from another dimension?" He chuckled. "This is just way weird. I don't believe I've ever imagined something like this before."

"I would've sincerely doubted it if you said you had" Emmett said, laughing.

Local Marty looked at him, somewhat of a smile on his face. Finally, he asked: "Doc…"

"Emmett" the local inventor corrected. "They are apparently in a habit to call themselves 'Doc' and 'Visiting Marty' and the locals 'Emmett' and 'Local Marty', and who am I to break with that tradition?"

"Yeah, right" Local Marty said, disinterested. "Emmett – boy, that sounds odd, calling you on a first-name base – does this whole thing mean you're moving back? Are you visiting to move back to the future? I've been considering giving up waiting, since you've been away for two-and-a-half years now…"

Emmett sighed, and shook his head. "I've already moved back" he said. "To the future, to a time that can not yet be known to you. Let's just say it's after 2015. The far future. I'm just here to pack my stuff that I want to keep, actually, and bring it over to my current future home."

The look of disappointment on Marty's face was obvious to everyone with a little amount of brains. "But Doc, you're supposed to be my friend! Why aren't you moving back right away!"

The inventor sighed. "Marty, in case you haven't noticed yet, I'm from the year 1925. That's a full forty years after you last saw me. I can't move back with sons of thirty-nine and thirty-seven, whom I've apparently lived away from for four decades. Do you think anyone is going to believe Jules here is a year and a half old? And Verne is supposed to be just an embryo, developing to become a child no earlier than October this year! Verne is thirty-seven now!" He sighed. "Just concentrate on your career, Marty, and everything will be fine. You can become the rock star of your dreams, if you just want to and focus on it, not be sad because I'm in the past… or in the future, now. You just have to remember what I've always taught you, that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. Anything at all, if you just want to and put all your effort into it, and you will succeed. I have confidence in you, Marty McFly."

The local smiled, faintly. "Thanks, Doc" he said. "I mean, Emmett. Boy, I haven't concentrated on my future too much have I? Yeah, you're right. I should push myself to be somebody. It's like that old saying goes: we must learn from the past, plan for the future, but live for today. And that's right what I'm going to do."

"That's the spirit" Emmett applauded.

"Thanks" Local Marty said. Then, realizing something, he said: "Say, Doc, now you've told me all this, won't this alter the very future you come from? I mean, you're changing history by giving me motivation to go on with my career and all…"

"You're starting to get good at thinking fourth-dimensionally" Emmett complimented. "But, no, everything will be fine. In the original history, you figured this out on your own just a few months after this. If you wanna know, though, you did sign up for college there, so you better do so now as well. I'm not telling you to give up your rock career, but I'm encouraging you to continue your education so that you have a spare career to pursue. Also, you never know when that knowledge will come in handy."

"Is that a hint to my future?" Local Marty teased.

"That's a question for you and knowledge to me, Future Boy" Emmett teased back. "But one thing is sure – the future is whatever you make of it, and I'll hope you make it a good one in the next fifty-s… in the next years that I'm not going to be here."

Local Marty didn't appear to have heard the slip, and if he did, he didn't show it. "Thanks, D-Emmett" he said. "I'm definitely going to do that, as I told you two-and-a-half years ago. If Jen and I can make our future a happy one, I'm going to do everything I can to get there."

"Yeah" Visiting Marty said, nodding. "That goes for me, too. I don't have any intention of becoming the loser Old Biff said I was. I sincerely believe that what you said is true, uh, Emmett, and I'm going to try to make it that way." He then high-fived with Local Marty, grinning happily at the idea of a nice future.

"Thanks" Emmett said, smiling a little. He then turned to Doc. "Now that we've told our stories, I assume you want me to take a look at your time vehicle? After all, you, or actually, your Marty, said it was broken, and if you want me to repair it, I'll have to take a look at it first. What's it current condition?"

"If the internal system is to believe, perfectly fine" Doc said, sighing. "But I know it isn't like that. We would be back home if it was. Something must be going wrong, but I haven't got the slightest idea how to figure out just what happened if that stupid thing keeps telling us everything is all right!" He slammed his fist on the table, startling everyone, and then blushed. "Sorry for getting angry like that. It's just that we – we've been at this for hours. It's somewhere around eleven-thirty P.M. in our home dimension, and I feel tired, but above all I'm frustrated at that stupid device!"

"Me too" Visiting Marty agreed, joining Doc on the matter. "I still can't believe how that stupid system can say that everything is all right, while it obviously isn't! I know it doesn't have brains, but it's very purpose is to find info on the fact if everything is right or if it isn't! So why did it fail to do that now? How can it even suggest that everything is all right, while the thing itself is already completely screwed up!"

"I don't know, Marty" Doc said, sighing. "It should work normally – there's no reason to believe it shouldn't. The question of why it isn't is just as confusing to answer for me as it is for you."

"If that's the case, I think I could at least try to have a look" Emmett said. "You are another version of myself, after all, so I wouldn't want to have you leave this world before I'm positive that I can do nothing for you – which I am not, right now. After all, I've had seventy years life since I came up with the flux capacitor. You had about forty-two or forty-three, if I remember correctly. I've got a lot more experience, if you put it at that."

"True" Doc said, nodding with a smile. "I guess you might be able to try something, then. I suppose it's wishful thinking that we get home at the first dimension in which we really tried to repair the system, but I wouldn't really mind if we would. I like seeing other worlds, but right now, all I want is to get home to Clara and the boys. I have to just think of being trapped dimension-hopping forever and I'll shudder violently. The thought of leaving little Martin alone, without a father, at seventeen months old… and Jules and Verne, of course, and the one I'll miss most of all, my dear beloved Clara…"

Emmett patted him on the back. "I know the feeling" he said, sympathetically. "Losing Clara and my sons would be one of the worst things that could ever happen to me. I love them with my entire heart, and the thought of losing them upsets me more than the thought of Biff restoring his horrifying world… or Griff doing that, for that matter. It's terrible to think of losing the ones I love, even if I still have Marty. I gained so much when I went to 1885, losing it all would be too much for me to take. Great Scott, I think I'd rather kill myself than live further without Clara and my kids…"

"I understand" Doc said. "But, luckily, it isn't that way yet. Even if I have to hop through dimensions with Marty for years, we'll always be able to return to the exact moment we left. Clara won't have to miss me, I'm sure. But I'll miss her… anyway, I don't think that will happen. We'll be fine, and I'm sure that, within a few hours, perhaps days of hopping, we'll either hit the jackpot and get home or find a dimension with a me to fix this mess – perhaps that's even yours already, but I don't want to get Marty's and my hopes up – in case we won't be able to go back to our 1988. And in the meantime, I'm sure that there will be other versions of Clara out there to hang around with while waiting before we hit the right dimension that brings us home. And that might take some time, but I'll do everything I can do to hit that dimension soon!"

"That's what I would do too, if I was in your situation" Emmett agreed. "And while I'm not, I think I can at least try to help you. Are we going to your time machine… Marty said it was a bus if I'm not mistaken… now?"

Doc nodded. "Yeah, I suppose we should go. No use in hanging around here for longer than necessary." He turned to Visiting Marty. "It might take some while for me to finish this business with my counterpart, especially if he can figure out what's wrong with the thing…"

"It's fine, Doc" the visitor assured him. "For all I care, you can stay away for a day. I just want the time machine to be fixed, and that ain't going to happen if you do a rush job 'cause you don't want to keep me waiting. I'll go talk with my counterpart a bit, or maybe I can read some old books of yours, or actually, of your counterpart… I won't be bored, trust me. You just go check the time machine and everything's fine."

Doc apparently doubted that, judging from the somewhat concerned look on his face, but he said nothing as he headed off to go check on the time machine. As he and Emmett had exited, Visiting Marty stared after them, distracted in his thoughts. He probably would have continued to be that had Local Marty's voice not broken through the silence.

"What's your life with Doc?"

Visiting Marty turned towards his other self, clearly puzzled at what the guy could mean. "Huh?" he said, feeling stupid and curious at the same time.

"How are you doing, living in a 1988 with Doc around?" the local clarified. "I just wanna know what it's like to have Doc around to get help from and drop by if something isn't going all right and it concerns history or science…"

"It's… pretty fine, I guess" the teen muttered. "I mean, I always had him be around ever since he returned to 1986, which is in a month from now almost two years ago. But if you really wanna know what you missed, I guess I can't exactly tell you the details, as it's been just two years. So, if you want to know details, know how it's like to live with Doc and all, why don't you ask him?" That question was accompanied by the visitor pointing at Jules, who was sitting there and reading in another copy of 'Twenty-Thousand Miles Under The Sea'. "He lives with his Dad. He knows what being with Doc is like for real, as he grew up with his father helping him out with things and all, back in the late Nineteenth, early Twentieth Century."

"I suppose" Local Marty muttered, staring at his counterpart with envy. Visiting Marty could clearly see the look on his face: 'I wish I was as lucky as you are'. Then, Local Marty stood up, and made his way over to Jules.

The alternate version of Doc's oldest son was apparently not too deep into his book, having read it millions of time, as he looked up, somewhat startled, when he heard Marty approaching. "What's the matter?" he asked, a little confused.

"How's your life like?" Local Marty asked. "You're living with Doc, in the Twenty-First Century… right?" Jules nodded. "What was it like to grow up with a scientific Dad and an astronomic-fascinated Mom?"

Jules chuckled. "Not as bad as you apparently think" he said, grinning. "I am actually somewhat of a science buff too, so my father often helped me out in the rare times I did not figure out how to do my homework, and helped me understand it easily. I graduated in 1901 from High School, and in 1906 from college. In 1907 I officially reached my PhD in physics. I was twenty-one back then."

Well, that sounded like a kind of boring life, except for a real science fan. Local Marty decided to get another approach. "How about Verne, your brother?" he asked. "Was he a science fan too?"

Again, Jules laughed. "No" he said. "Verne was always focused on his free time. He liked science, but wasn't really into it as much as I was. Finally, he decided to go for a career as a sports teacher on a school. He graduated on the more official time in 1905, just one year off, and he did get through college in the same time as is normal, graduating in 1910. That same year, however, he decided to move to the future – 2020. Apparently, he changed career there, having started to like the music you play."

Local Marty whistled with a smile. "Really? That's cool. I wish I could somehow get in contact with him."

"I don't want to upset you, but I'm afraid you have to wait quite some years for that to happen" Jules said, with a sigh. "Verne is years away from now, so you will just have to wait for contact with him to show up naturally. If you put your mind to it, you'll accomplish anything, and 2020 will be there before you know it."

"It's thirty-two years away" Local Marty argued. "That's a long time."

"Just focus on other things and the time will fly by" Jules said, smiling. "I know, I've experienced waiting before. Focus on working through and graduating from college in a few years, your music, your wife, and eventually, your kids. Having kids in the house can apparently be a major distraction from waiting, too, or so I've heard from Father, who had to wait for a few years to finish the time train, and for thirty to finish the DeLorean. But the years with having you around, the last decade, flew by for him because you were there." He smiled at his father's old friend. "Not that I know from experience, I never had any kids or felt like someone was my kid, but it apparently is so."

Local Marty frowned at Jules. "You're single?" he asked. "Couldn't you find anyone to marry in the past?"

Jules sighed. "That's correct, I'm afraid" he muttered, moving his left hand through his hair in frustration. "Most likely, I was too scientific for the local girls to like. Verne was more popular, but he didn't really have a true girlfriend either. Which was just as well, as any social interaction with a female unit in a time that was still in a state of uncertainty if it would turn out to be the way Father grew up in could possibly have had disastrous consequences to the entire space-time continuum. All things considered, I suppose it was just as well." He looked towards the roof of the garage, obviously envying his father and Marty, who both had a mate to share life with. "Well, maybe I will meet my wife-to-be someday. Father was sixty-five when he met Mother after all, and I haven't even turned forty yet. At my age, Father was a bachelor in the year 1959, who was focusing on his future invention, the time machine."

Local Marty nodded thoughtfully, then came with a rather unexpected question. "If I may ask, why do you keep calling Doc 'Father'? Why not Dad, or even Daddy or something like that?"

Jules blinked in surprise. "Well, I suppose I did that out of politeness" he said. "I don't really feel like I should call Father like that. Verne always did, but I never felt the urge to say something like that." He turned to Visiting Marty. "Does your dimension's version of me call his father 'Dad'?"

"Yeah" Visiting Marty said, but then admitting: "According to Doc, he did use to call him Father, but changed that after Doc corrected him once they got back to 1894 after visiting the future and Jen and I in '85, at the DeLorean wreckage. Jules… our world's Jules, I mean… understood that it was more common in 1985 and 1986 to call your male parent 'Dad', rather than 'Father', so he stopped doing that."

Jules nodded, thoughtfully. "I see" he said. "I probably would've done the same as my counterpart, in such a situation. Now, Other Marty, if Fa-Dad and his family moved back to the 1980s, how old would my counterpart be in your world?"

"Ten years old, since September last year" Visiting Marty said, after short thinking. "He was supposedly born on September twenty-fifth of 1977. Doc sort of had the last nine years before 1976 altered. I remember how he took me to a wedding ceremony with him and Clara on November twelfth 1976, on Christmas day of 1985 and March second 1895 for us respectively. I posed as Calvin Klein's son and was one of the witnesses. I suppose many people who heard about the fake story in '85 and '86 wondered why I, I mean the nine-year-old me, was not a witness, but I told them I was too young, and that I did attend. That was one of the lucky things of having it happen so far back – there was a good excuse for me not being a witness."

Jules whistled in amazement. "I can't believe I'm actually eleven where you came from, and that I have a third brother" he said. "What's this Martin like? More like me or more like Verne?"

Visiting Marty had to think about that for a few moments. "More like you, I suppose" he finally concluded. "Martin is only a year and a half now, not even completely, but Doc told me he's going to be a doctor of medicine in the future. He'd have to study hard if he wants to make it, and a kind of Verne-attitude isn't going to get him there. I'm sure he'll be a lot like you, Jules."

"Well, that's good to know" Jules said, smirking. He stared outside. "Say, I think Father… I mean Dad and Doc will spend some time there… mind having a book to read? You can read this copy of 20.000 Miles Under The Sea, if you like, and for your local counterpart, Dad should have Around The World In Eighty Days around. Do you want me to get that for you?"

"I suppose I don't have much else to do, right now" the Marty's answered, simultaneously, then burst out laughing. "Honestly," the local said, "I would be pretty interested. Thanks, Jules."

"You're welcome" the scientist said, as he stood up to get the book. Visiting Marty looked after him, then stared into the Twenty Thousand Miles Under The Sea copy, and started reading, wondering just how long it would take before they'd get back home. Probably, their adventures were just beginning. He sighed, and concentrated on the book.

* * * *

Doctor Emmett Lathrop Brown smiled as his counterpart's jaw dropped at the time travelling bus. "Great Scott!" the local who perhaps was not so local at all called out. "You made a time travelling bus? Just for the purpose of travelling through dimensions?"

"I thought it would be original" Doc said, shrugging. "Also, you can clearly see it fits more people than the DeLorean, or even the train. I think it's a good mode of temporal transportation, and less suspicious than a very '80s DeLorean, or a steam train from the past. Not that there's anything wrong with those, but I like the inconspicuousness of this bus."

"Yeah, I suppose so" Emmett said, still gasping at everything. He walked over to the door on the side, looked intensely at the pad next to the door, then pressed his thumb to it. There was a slight buzz, and then a green light. However, the bus did not open. Emmett frowned. "What's wrong?" he asked. "It gave a green light, so why doesn't it let me in?"

Doc smiled, and got a key out of his pocket. Before Emmett could react, he stuck the key into a hole next to the thumbpad. Recognizing the key in front of it, the hole changed to form an ordinary lock. Doc pushed the key into it, twisted it, and then, he stepped back as the key was sucked up by the machine and another thumbpad formed where the hole had been. "Confirm thumb information" it said. As Doc did so, by pressing his thumb to the plate again, it was scanned thoroughly, and then, a green light flashed and the door opened. Emmett gawked at the security methods. "Efficient" he admitted, then stepped inside.

The instant Emmett entered, his jaw dropped. He stared around at the familiar modifications, and at the length of the bus. Finally, his eye was set on the DFSCUPCIF unit. "That's your dimensional transportation device?" he guessed.

"Exactly" Doc confirmed. "The Dimensional Flux Storage Capacitor Unit as well as Purposely Creator of an Interdimensional Field, DFSCUPCIF for short. It easily creates a hole between dimensions, and sends the time machine through it. The efficient thing about this device is that it needs exactly equal energy to create a dimensional field as it needs to time travel or do both: A full 2.42 gigawatt of electricity. That's a lot, of course, but thanks to the Mr. Fusion unit that I installed on top of it, that doesn't have to be a problem. I assume that Marty from the altered future also installed that on his DeLorean, and Old Griff did, and you did on yours when travelling to 2015 that first time and discovering Marty's kids had gotten in big trouble, and their Dad even more?"

"That's right" Emmett confirmed. "I never saw Marty's unit though. His DeLorean, as I've told you, crashed to the ground on the eighth of November 1925, two days before he and Marty looked me up. That was why they needed me – now the DeLorean was destroyed, I was their only way to get back to the future. I and my train. Also, Marty Senior admitted that he missed me a lot, so I decided to come back with him, along with Jules, Clara, young Marty, him and Sarah, who was apparently my future granddaughter."

Doc sighed. "I wish I was as happy as you are, living in an advanced 2045 without worries to fix something because when you need to fix something, there will be technology around."

"Why don't you travel to the future then?" Emmett said. "You can fix things there."

"Because I need help of a me who knows about time travel, and I'm not sure if there will be me's like that in the far future" Doc said, sighing. "I'll just keep it to 1988 for now, and see what comes up."

Emmett nodded. "Can I take a closer look at the systems?" he asked. "Perhaps spot something you haven't yet?"

"Go ahead" Doc offered. "Do whatever you want. As long as this thing is fixed, I don't care if you take the whole DFSCUPCIF apart and fix it back together later. Marty and I just want to go home."

Emmett chuckled. "I don't think I'll go quite that far" he said. "But I'll do my best to help you. Now, where are the systems you spoke about?"

As Doc helpfully pointed them out, Emmett went to work, studying the various panels in the time train as the younger inventor leaned back to watch himself work. Every now and then, he helped by pointing some things out, but apparently, Emmett didn't really need that information too much. The older man studied various panels, ran a few tests on the machine, and once, he stared intensely at the flux capacitor, wondering if he should try to take the case off it or not. When it finally was somewhere around four-forty P.M., Emmett finally headed over to Doc, who was killing time by looking out of the window, and tapped the visitor on the shoulder, startling Doc for a moment. The younger man stared at his older counterpart, and wondered what was of the matter. "Yeah?" he asked.

Emmett sighed, in his face a look of both feeling sorry and apologizing. "I am sorry, but I did not find anything" he said. "I studied the DFSCUPCIF upside-down, and I ran various tests on the systems, but after almost two hours, I guess I'm just as far as I was when I started. This is a bigger problem, and I cannot grasp it at the moment. I'm sorry, I would've wanted to fix it as much as you do, since I see how bad you feel about it. But I simply can't, so I guess it's best for you and your Marty just to move on, and hope the next me will be somewhat more intelligent."

Doc sighed. "It's okay" he said, staring in front of himself as rain fell down on the windshield. "I guess it was wishful thinking to hope that everything would be fixed in the first universe in which we actively tried to do that, but I just hoped that everything would be fine and that luck might be with us…" He sighed. "It's probably going to upset Marty a lot, knowing that we have to go on for another dimension, and probably many more, but if you really can't see the problem, hanging around here will do more good than bad, and the earlier we get out of this world, the earlier our problem is fixed."

"Or so you hope" Emmett couldn't help but quip. "Sorry, that wasn't really a nice thing to say. I sincerely hope for you that the time machine will be fixed and that you could get home. I can't say I envy you right now, although having a third kid would've been nice, as well as living in the same time period as teen Marty."

"Yeah, having Martin was quite the surprise" Doc said. "Emmett, would you mind telling my Marty it's time to go? I'd like to have one more look at the systems before we leave."

The older man nodded and headed off, as Doc focused on the time machine in front of him. It looked just like it had always done when functioning, and everything was green. Then, what could possibly be going on? They had already determined that it was not a once-in-a-time error. Apparently, something was going wrong in the time machine's mechanism, most likely in the DFSCUPCIF, and there was something wrong with the computer system as well. Just what they needed – double problems. This really was not a fun day out, or at least, not to his perspective.

Doc sighed as he stared in front of himself, and turned to the systems. "Check functions" he said, figuring out this would work too, and he was not in the mood to say the long explanation. "Style: Most careful." He leaned back as the machine went to work.

The familiar green screens saying everything was okay lit up at the same time as Marty arrived, an obviously disappointed look on his face. "We failed again?" he asked, then he looked at the inventor's face and drew his own conclusions. "Shit. Something really is against us today."

"Today and yesterday" Doc corrected. "According to my watch, it's one thirty-seven A.M. on Sunday, April third now. We've been at this dimension-hopping for thirteen hours, and I still haven't figured out what the heck is wrong with this thing!"

Marty patted the older man's back, sympathetically. "I feel the same way, Doc" he said. "So I guess we'd better be on our way right now. Do you have to load the Mr. Fusion before we leave?"

Doc shook his head. "There's more than enough in it, even after we've made two trips through time and dimensions. We can go for six more trips before having to reload." He smiled as he realized that particular piece of luck, then looked outside. Emmett, Jules and Local Marty stood there, and started to wave as they saw first Doc, and later Visiting Marty appear at the window.

"Good luck!" Local Marty exclaimed. "Have a nice trip!" Doc smirked at that, realizing the only nice trip would be one back home.

"Good luck with fixing the temporal vehicle!" Jules called out.

Emmett agreed with that. "Yes, good luck, and maybe goodbye!"

Doc smirked. "Who knows" he called back, waved once more, then returned to the panels. "Flying circuits on" he said, as the train lifted up. "Destination Time… let's see, it's 1:39 AM in our dimension now, so let's make it twelve-forty. Saturday, April 2, 1988, 12:40 P.M., Hill Valley, California, PF 50." He flew the time machine through the sky as the Destination filled itself into the panels. He then turned around. "Ready to go?" he shouted to his friend.

Marty grinned. "Yeah, I'm ready" he said. "Shouldn't we move over to the ravine, though? I mean, attracting less attention and all?"

Doc sighed. "I'm not really in the mood for that" he said. "If we're in the right world, I'd like to find out right away, and it didn't really attract much attention last time."

"Your house was out in the open" Marty reminded him. "This garage is right here in the middle of East Hill Valley. We'd be more likely to get spotted here."

"Whatever" Doc said, sighing, his tone of voice proving he was getting sick of this. "Let's just go. I want to go home as much as you do, and I suppose that we'd be more lucky on that account if we accelerate right here." He then pressed the gas, and watched the speedometer as it rose up to forty and past. He then turned around at quite a distance away from the garage, above the street, and flew straight towards the garage, rapidly accelerating up to fifty, sixty, and seventy miles per hour.

The inventor just faintly registered the locals waving at them below as the time machine flew past eighty and with that past the garage, then hit eighty-eight miles per hour. Once more, the DFSCUPCIF fluxed, the electricity in front of the bus went all together and one more universe was left behind as the dimensional travellers skipped realities.