A Leap Into Destiny
Trouble on the Horizon
"Know which way to get in?" asked Al.
He and Alia were at the castle where Project Chronos was set up. There was no way to get in through the front since guards were stationed there. Instead, the two of them snuck in from behind.
"There was a secret entrance back when I came here with Nathaniel," Alia told Al. "Somewhere on this wall is a stone I have to push to trigger the door."
"Guess we'll have to feel around then?" Al placed his hands on the stones that lined the castle.
"Tedious I know," Alia shook her head, "but that secret entranceway is on this side of the building somewhere."
"Yeah I just hope we can find it before any guards come around here," Al continued to push away at the stones.
Suddenly, a section of the wall opened up.
"Did you find it?" asked Alia.
"Wasn't me," Al shook his head.
To their surprise, Dr. William Oliver walked out. As soon as he saw Alia and Al, however, he stopped dead on his tracks.
"You!" Dr. Oliver gasped. "How did you get here? And more importantly, how did Alia finally return?"
"Where's Sam, slimeball?" Al demanded.
"Dead if he's lucky," Dr. Oliver shrugged. "In any case, I must be going. My time at Project Chronos has come to an end and it's time I made myself scarce."
"You're taking us to Sam right now!" Al got in front of him.
"If I go back there I'm a dead man!" Dr. Oliver grabbed Al by the collar. "Now get out of my way!"
"Not until you get us to Sam!" Al grabbed Dr. Oliver by the collar in return.
The two men struggled briefly before Dr. Oliver finally pushed Al away.
"Now, I'll be on my way," Dr. Oliver huffed.
Quickly, Alia spun around with a wheel kick that rocked the side of William Oliver's head, knocking him to the floor. Before Dr. Oliver realized fully what was happening, he saw Alia sitting on top of him with a sword across his throat.
"You're going to take us to Sam," she said to him menacingly. "Do I make myself clear?"
Dr. Oliver swallowed. "Crystal clear."
Alia got off of him and allowed the scientist to get back up.
"Lead the way," Al gestured towards the opening in the castle.
Gritting his teeth, Dr. Oliver walked past the two and back into the castle.
Al was the first to follow but before he could enter, Dr. Oliver stepped back outside with both arms raised over his head.
"I thought Alia told you to—" Al said but stopped mid-sentence after realizing what was going on.
Two armed guards with machine guns pointed at Dr. Oliver stepped outside, soon followed by Zoey.
"I would have gotten away if you two hadn't stalled me!" Dr. Oliver glared at Alia and Al.
"What a pleasant surprise!" Zoey smiled. "I came out hoping to catch Dr. Oliver and I find Albert Calavicci and Alia at my doorsteps!"
"You… you're…" Alia looked at the younger Zoey in confusion.
"That's Zoey," Al told her. "She got herself a makeover after becoming buddies with that time mage Kairos."
"Do you like the way I look?" Zoey asked Alia. "Don't I look perfectly fabulous?"
"You may look younger," Alia told her, "but you're still the same lying, manipulative scoundrel who used me and led me on to becoming your guinea pig for Project Chronos!"
"Could you blame me?" Zoey sneered. "You were absolutely devastated by the death of your beloved Nathaniel Lothoman. It was so easy to convince you to step inside the quantum accelerator in the vain hopes of going back in time to save him."
"Ahem," Dr. Oliver cleared his throat. "Zoey, since I've been gracious enough to have brought you to these two hooligans, I don't suppose I could walk off with my pride intact?"
"Given how you have embezzled money from Project Chronos, it's high time I dealt with you the way I should have the first day you arrived!" Zoey snarled. "Men, kill him!"
At once, the two guards pointed their guns at Dr. William Oliver and opened fire, gunning the scientist down on the spot in a hailstorm of bullets, much to the shock of both Al and Alia.
As Dr. Oliver's body fell to the floor, Zoey turned her attention back to the two new prisoners she had at her mercy.
"Now, as for you two, we are going to have so much fun together," she promised Al Calavicci and Alia.
oooo
Mercilessly, Lee Harvey Oswald struck Sam across the face and then yanked his hair back.
"Hear that?" Oswald growled. "Whatever they're reliving… it ain't pleasant!"
Indeed, all of the people present and hooked up to the virtual reality machines were already moaning and in some cases, screaming.
In defiance, Sam spat directly in Oswald's face. Oswald smiled as he wiped the saliva off his cheek.
"So this is how you want to play it, huh?" Oswald used the electrical baton in his hand to send several more volts through Sam's body.
"Aaaahhh!" screamed Sam.
Finally, Oswald stopped as he saw Zoey enter the room with two new prisoners.
"You've brought company," Oswald stopped what he was doing.
"Al!" Sam managed to murmur. "It's you!"
"Hang in there, Sam!" Al looked at his friend with concern. "I'll find some way to help you!"
"Please, you can't even help yourself," Zoey reminded him.
"Alia, is that you?" Sam asked.
"It is," she said. "We're here for you, Sam."
"Not for long you won't," promised Zoey.
"What will it take for you to just let them go?" demanded Sam.
"None of them will be let go," Zoey told him. "Not until you've lost everything."
"When will it be enough?" demanded Alia. "You've caused so much suffering already with Project Chronos. And for what?" Money? Power?"
"That was the initial objective," confirmed Zoey. "But now with the power of time and space at my command, those things seem so… trivial."
"Want me to litter their bodies with bullets?" offered Oswald.
"No," Zoey replied. "I imagine with the horrors they're being forced to relive, the old priest and that vagrant don't have much longer to live. Once they've expired, we will force Al Calavicci and Alia to relive their worst nightmares."
She then motioned for the guards to take away the two.
"Lock them up for now," she ordered. "I will come for them later."
oooo
Looking around his surroundings, Father Mac saw himself standing in familiar grounds.
It was the train track where Sunny had been killed. But how had he suddenly gotten here?
In the distance, he heard the rumblings of a train from far away. As soon as he turned to the other side, he saw Sunny walking on the track, skipping on it like he didn't have a care in the world.
"Sunny!" Father MacRoberts shouted. "You have to get off!"
However, Sunny did not appear to hear him.
Father Mac quickly rushed forward to try to grab the young boy. However, he phased through the boy as if he were a ghost.
"No!" shouted Father Mac.
From behind Sunny, Father Mac saw a stranger approaching. It was Tony Pronti, the young man who killed the boy.
"Get away from here!" pleaded Father Mac.
As the train got closer, Sunny seemed to notice it and got off the tracks.
In desperation, Father Mac tried to punch at Tony but was unable to connect. At once, Tony pushed Sunny down onto the tracks as the train sped closer.
Sunny hit his head and was knocked unconscious on the railroad tracks. Smiling, Tony Pronti ran away as the train closed in.
"Sunny!" screamed Father Mac. "Sunny!"
oooo
Unsure of what was going on, Katie McBain opened her eyes, only to find herself in familiar surroundings again. It was the car which belonged to Kevin Wentworth and she was sitting there in the backseat.
She was not sure why she was back here, reliving the worst night of her life, but she knew one thing. She needed to get out of there fast.
Before she could unbuckle her seatbelt, however, Kevin opened the door.
"Kevin!" Katie almost shouted.
"Katie," Kevin looked at her in surprise. "This isn't the part where you scream my name, not yet anyways."
"Kevin, I… need to leave," Katie reached for the door. "My parents are expecting me home!"
Quickly, Kevin grabbed her and held her close to him.
"Why?" he demanded. "You know you want to stay here with me."
"Stop Kevin!" Katie protested as tears began streaming down her face.
Without another word, Kevin pinned her down and began kissing her.
oooo
"Where… where am I?" Sister Angela looked down at her hands.
To her surprise, her nun robes were no longer there. She was back on the streets again.
"Excuse me, sir?" she asked a passerby.
The passerby simply ignored her and walked on.
Angela walked down an alley and looked around. On the ground was a piece of glass.
She picked it up and looked deeply into it. She was no longer a woman or a nun. Here she was, a young girl once more, living out on the streets. Not only was she wearing rags, her face was dirty from lack of proper sanitation.
"Please sir, can you help me?" she asked another man who was walking down the streets.
"Get away from me!" the man walked away from her hurriedly.
"Ma'am?" Angela turned around to a woman who was coming up from behind her.
"Don't touch me, you little urchin!" the woman drew back in scorn.
"Please, isn't there anyone who can help?" Sister Angela looked about helplessly as a throng of people surged through the streets.
oooo
Though Jimmy's mind operated on a different capacity than the other prisoners who had been plucked from their time eras, he still noticed something was wrong.
Instead of a castle, he now stood at the docks again.
"W-What?" Jimmy looked around.
"Hey, look over there!" one of the dock workers pointed at him.
It was Blue, the man who had harassed and mistreated him before. Though it was mainly Sam who had interacted with Blue, Jimmy still had some vague memories of the unpleasant encounters the leaper had with Blue.
"Well look who it is!" Blue came up to Jimmy with a few other workers. "It's the retard!"
"I'm… I'm not retarded!" Jimmy protested, reiterating the words his brother Frank had taught him.
"Yeah, you're not retarded!" Blue laughed. "And I'm the Easter Bunny!"
With that, Blue shoved Jimmy back into another dock worker who shoved Jimmy back.
Soon, everybody was shoving Jimmy back and forth.
"Stop!" Jimmy protested. "Stop!"
"Retard!" the crowd of dock workers shouted. "Retard!"
oooo
Roy Brown desperately looked around his surroundings at the Vietnam War raged on.
"Private Brown, can we depend on you?" a sergeant next to him asked.
"I, uh…" Brown stammered nervously.
At once, an explosion went off near their area.
"Damn it Brown!" the sergeant shouted. "Now's not the time to blank out!"
"You can count on me sir!" Roy finally promised.
The sergeant motioned to the ditch dug in the ground with a tunnel that led to the enemy's base.
Taking his rifle, Roy crawled in, slowly making his way towards his destination as the war continued to rage.
"I can do this," Roy told himself. "I can do this…"
Suddenly, he heard a hissing sound somewhere nearby. It took him a while before realizing that it was right in front of him.
As soon as he came close by, he saw a venomous snake baring its fangs at him.
"No… no!" shouted Roy. "Not this! Not again!"
Roy tried to back away but it was too late. The snake reared back and lunged at him.
oooo
Abigail Fuller saw that something was amiss the minute she saw the burning house. Running forward, she had a good idea of what was happening.
She was a little girl again and this was not just any night. It was the night that her father had died.
It had been a fire that Leta Aider had helped to start when she broke into the house and it was a horrific memory that Abigail had never forgotten.
Looking up, Abigail saw a man still inside the house. It was her father.
He looked like he was trying to escape but before he could, a piece of the burning building came crashing down on him and killing him.
"Daddy!" Abigail screamed in terror.
oooo
"Zoey," Kairos appeared before her as the woman lounged around in her office with a glass of wine.
"Kairos," Zoey nodded. "Is there something you want of me?"
"I have decided," Kairos told her. "The time for mine ascension is now. And I will have no more toying about with Sam Beckett."
"You mean you wish for me to kill him?" asked Zoey.
"Yes, but not here," Kairos continued, "and not now."
"Then when?" his confused apprentice asked.
"Back at the very beginning," Kairos told her.
"At the beginning?" Zoey looked at him in shock. "You mean when Sam Beckett was a… baby?"
Kairos tilted his head in a nod.
"But… just think of the disastrous consequences!" Zoey protested. "I could undo all of Project Chronos if Dr. Beckett was never born!"
"Thou art now the wearer of the hourglass," Kairos reminded her. "Thou art protected from the shifting changes in the timestream."
"But this is Sam Beckett as a bump in a woman's belly," Zoey looked torn. "I'm not sure if I could actually go back in time and—"
"Doth thou wish to keep the powers at thy disposal?" asked Kairos. "This is thy final test, Zoey. I once had to do the unthinkable. Art thou ready to do the same in order to fully ascend as a time mage who's left behind all the outdated mortal notions of right and wrong?"
"I… I…" Zoey was uncertain.
"If thou art not up to it, then perhaps there will exists another who is more worthy to be mine apprentice," Kairos turned away. "Perhaps the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald would be better suited—"
"I'll do it!" Zoey promised him, finally deciding that she wanted to keep her power more than the life of an unborn baby. "I will kill Sam Beckett in the womb. And then I will reduce his entire family to ashes!"
Kairos glanced at her face. It was as if she had just undergone a grueling mental battle in her own mind. Killing a helpless baby was no small task, even for a woman who had shown very little regard for human life in the past.
"Excellent," Kairos smiled underneath his hood. "Then go forth. Show me why I made the right choice in selecting thee as mine apprentice."
oooo
"Are the guards gone now?" asked Al.
Alia looked out through the bars of their cell.
"They are now," she finally confirmed.
"Good," Al reached inside his pocket and took out the lock pick that Wellington had given him.
He went up towards the lock at the door and began picking as Alia watched him in nervous anticipation. When he was young and out on the streets, Al had learned to pick locks in order to survive. While it had been quite some time since he had done something like this, he still remembered some of the very basics.
Finally, the lock to the door was opened.
"Got it!" Al exclaimed.
Just before Al could open the door, however, he heard a door from upstairs open up. Quickly, Al stepped away from the door and put the lock back into his own pocket.
"Whoever it is, I'll catch 'em by surprise," Al whispered to Alia.
Before long, Zoey walked down the corridor and stopped where Al Calavicci and Alia both were.
"I have good news for you," she told them. "Sam Beckett's current suffering will soon come to an end."
"And the bad news?" demanded Alia. "There's gotta be a catch to this."
"I am to return back in time to the year Nineteen Fifty Three," Zoey informed the two. "It is there that I shall kill Dr. Samuel Beckett along with his mother while he still lives within her womb."
"What?!" Al almost fell back in shock.
"It is what Kairos asked of me," Zoey said slowly. "Believe me… at first even I had my reservations about it. But Kairos told me that the powers granted to me by this hourglass were at stake. And if I were to choose between Sam Beckett and myself, I'll choose myself every single time!"
The hourglass on Zoey's necklace glowed as she summoned a portal with her right hand.
"By the time I return, you two will have no more memories of Dr. Beckett," she promised them. "Not that I promise you'll be here either by the time I come back."
"And I promise you, Zoey," Al said angrily, clenching the bars. "I won't let you within ten miles of Sam Beckett or his mother!"
With that, Al threw open the door much to Zoey's surprise and tackled the woman, sending them both flying through the time portal. Before Alia could reach the portal, it had closed up, swallowing both Al and Zoey and sending them hurtling back towards the near Sam Beckett was conceived.