A thick black smudge moving alpng a thin black line could be seen below by the group. It was the train, just entering Coyote Pass, and by urging their horses over Gale Ridge, they were ahead of itt Now, ii they could just keep their horses at a gallop down the steep hill that led into the pass, they had a chance to overtake the train before it passed by the spur with the DeLorean. Doc whooped as he started Archimedes down the hill. Marty's horse leapt after Doc's lead, and a moment later, they were galloping full-speed across level ground to intercept the train. Marty's horse pulled ahead, as if the stallion knew exactly what was expected of it and was eager for the rendezvous. It occurred to Marty that if this was indeed Mad Dog Tannen's horse, it probably would be very experienced in this sort of thing. However, before the two could go any further, they began to notice something missing.
"This is it," Doc said to Marty. "But where are your friends?" he then asked once he saw that it was only Marty.
"We're coming!" Cherry called out as she and the others soon came by on the backs of Maggie, Grace, and Mrs. Calloway.
"It's been a blast, girls," said Lionel. "But we're certainly gonna miss you three when we go!"
"We'll miss you too very much." Mrs. Calloway replied.
"Have a good journey back home," Maggie added. "We'll keep you in our thoughts."
"From the hearts of our bottoms." Grace concluded.
"We still appreciate it." replied Thor warmly as he patted the cows on their heads.
The three cows smiled back warmly. The group smiled as they shared one last goodbye with the cows and soon hopped off of the train together to join Doc and Marty to get back home to the future where they belonged. Cherry jumped next and yelped as she slipped and nearly fell off the moving train until Lionel and Thor both grabbed her hands and pulled her inside to safety. But the train had reached the level ground as well, and it was gaining speed. Marty and Doc both managed to pull their horses parallel to the last passenger car, but their mounts couldn't stand this pace for much longer.
Doc reached over and grabbed the ladder on the side of the car, pulling himself off his horse. Maggie, Mrs. Calloway, and Grace soon seemed to leave the scene after Atticus, Cherry, Lionel, Mo, Sabrina, and Thor were on the train along with Doc and Marty. After steadying himself and taking a deep breath, Doc climbed to the roof of the car as Archimedes fell behind, and Marty pulled his steed alongside the car and pulled himself up the ladder as well. Once he was sure that Marty was safely on board, Doc led the way forward, running across the tops of the cars toward the locomotive.
"What's our next move, Professor?" Cherry asked Doc as she and the others followed the inventor.
"All of you cover your faces." Doc suggested as he began to do so already.
The teenagers all began to do as asked before Doc moved them along the train carts to go do what had to be done next as they covered their lower faces with their bandannas. They climbed forward over the covered half of the tender, until Marty could see into the cab at the rear of the locomotive. As they had expected, there were two men down below, the engineer and the fireman, both of them facing toward the front of the engine.
Doc drew one of the guns he had stored in Archimedes's saddlebag and jumped down behind the engineer.
"Do what I say and you won't get hurt," Doc said in his most threatening voice (which, the kids had to admit, didn't sound very threatening).
The engineer put up his hands anyway. Marty climbed down into the back of the cab to cover the fireman.
"Is this a holdup?" The engineer asked in a quavering voice.
Doc shook his head. "It's a science experiment," He waved his gun toward the front of the train. "Stop the train just before you hit that switch track up ahead."
The engineer did as Doc said, throwing on the brake so that the train squealed to a halt less than ten feet from the point where the track divided.
"Marty, throw the switch," Doc ordered, then waved his gun at the fireman. "You, uncouple the cars from the tender."
Both Marty and the fireman jumped from the cab. Marty ran forward to the long wooden pole that served as a switching mechanism. He put his back into it and yanked the track over so that the locomotive would head for the ravine. As Marty ran back to the train, he saw that the fireman had uncoupled the cars as he had been ordered. Doc was staring at the engineer as Marty approached. After a moment's pause. Doc pulled off the engineer's cap, then handed the railroad man his own broad-brimmed, black hat.
"You can get off now." Doc remarked as he put the engineer's cap on his head.
The engineer dutifully jumped off. Marty climbed back into the cab as Doc started the locomotive, and they slowly pulled away from the rest of the train as the other teenagers joined them.
Zelda urged her horse through the trees. They had been climbing for some time now. She wasn't quite sure where they were, but by keeping the sun more or less in front of her horse as she rode, she should be headed in the general direction of the ravine. The forest ended, and she found herself on a bluff overlooking what must be Coyote Pass. There, below her, was what at first she took to be the train, stopped halfway down the valley, until she realized that the train's engine was missing. Dr. Brown and the kids must have been here already and taken the locomotive. Zelda spurred her horse into a gallop, riding along the ridge parallel to the tracks. She had missed them in the pass, but she might still be able to head them off on the other side. She would find out, if it was the last thing she did in Hill Valley, exactly what Emmett L. Brown was up to.
"I can see the DeLorean coming up!" Hilda called out as she stood beside Drell while Doc and the kids did their part.
"We're almost there," Drell added. "Just nice and easy now."
They had driven the locomotive fairly slowly for the half mile or so until they reached the DeLorean. They wanted to conserve as much fuel as possible for their final run at the ravine. But Doc, apparently, didn't want to depend on wood alone. As soon as he had stopped the locomotive, he instructed Marty to climb down and hand the inventor three cylindrical, cloth-covered packages that Doc had stashed in the DeLorean the day before. Marty picked up the first of the three, wrapped in green cloth with a big number 1 printed on it. It was about a foot and a half long and 9 inches around) and was surprisingly heavy for so small a package. Marty passed the green package up to Doc, then retrieved the second, yellow-covered cylinder. Lionel gave that to Doc in turn, then picked up the last of the three, wrapped in red.
"What are these things, anyway?" Marty asked as he passed this one, too, to Doc.
"My own version of Presto Logs," The inventor replied as he stacked the red cylinder next to the other two in a comer of the cab. "Compressed wood with anthracite dust, chemically treated to bum hotter and longer. I use 'em in my forge so I don't have to stoke it," He pointed at the large number 3 on the red log. "These three in the furnace will ignite sequentially, make the fire bum hotter, kick up the boiler pressure, and make the train go faster."
"Now there's a keen idea!" Lionel remarked. "Maybe this'll get us up to 88, and we can get outta here before we crash into the ravine!"
"Precisely, my young friend, precisely!" Doc nodded at him.
Marty nodded. There was nobody else like Doc. Maybe this new plan of his would actually get the locomotive, and the DeLorean, up to eighty- eight, and they could get out of there before they crashed into the ravine.
Doc waved as Marty walked over to the DeLorean. Marty opened the car door and climbed down behind the wheel. The walkie-talkie; the same one they had used to rescue the sports book from Biff sat on the passenger seat.
"Testing, Marty!" Doc's voice crackled through the walkie-talkie's tiny speaker.
Marty picked up the two-way radio and extended the antenna. He pushed a button on the radio's side. "That's a big ten-four." he replied.
"Then let's go home." Doc's voice replied.
"Home sweet home." Atticus and Mo added before glancing at each other and then looking away since they said that at the same time and soon blushed together.
"Goodbye, Zelda..." Hilda whispered as she slowly closed her eyes emotionally. "Greendale will never be the same without you."
Drell wrapped his arm around Hilda, trying to comfort her as this was a hard time for her right now even if they would make it back home to 1985.
Sabrina then joined in the hug. "I'm gonna miss her too." she then said softly.
Marty released the emergency brake and shifted the car into neutral. "Ready to roll!" he said into the walkie-talkie. He looked in the rearview mirror as Doc tooted the train whistle. Marty could hear air hiss heavily from the cylinders behind the wheels as Doc released the locomotive's brakes.
And then the pistons started to push the wheels as Doc opened the throttle. The engine eased forward. Marty tried to keep from tensing as the locomotive rolled forward to the back of the DeLorean. Now, if the cowcatcher would just grab the back bumper of the car, and push it forward; Doc had assured Marty that the locomotive would not smash through the DeLorean, but still, Doc had been wrong before. Marty was jolted forward. He heard a crunch as the cowcatcher hit the bumper. He grabbed for the door handle, but stopped when he realized the DeLorean was moving. The locomotive was pushing the car forward!
"We're on our way, guys!" Cherry said to the others in her own excitement. "Back home to MTV, Saturday Morning Cartoons, and dancing in small mid-western towns that make a law against dancing!"
"Yee-ah-hoo!" Lionel and Thor whooped.
Zelda had reached the tracks at last. Letting her memory of the tabletop model in the blacksmith's shop guide her, she had headed for the branch line that ran to the ravine, and she had guessed correctly. There, only a few hundred feet ahead, was the locomotive, slowly pulling away. She was close enough to see what she thought was the back of Doc's head, although he no longer wore his wide-brimmed, black hat, his silver hair now falling from below a striped engineer's cap. "Emmett!" she called.
The train kept moving. Doc couldn't hear her over the locomotive engine, but Zelda was too close to stop now. She kept her horse at a gallop. She was almost there. As long as the locomotive didn't gain speed too quickly, she could overtake them in no time at all. Zelda leaned forward, kicking her mount's flanks, urging it to greater speed. She was almost to her one true love even if he was a mortal and she was a witch.
Doc thumbed the talk switch on his two-way radio. "Marty, are the time circuits on?"
There was a moment's pause, followed by Marty's voice: "Check, Doc."
"Input the destination time," Doc instructed. "October 17th, 1985. 11:00 AM."
"Check!" Marty's voice crackled back on the walkie-talkie.
"Okay, now what?" Mo wondered.
Doc picked up the green-wrapped cylinder. "I'm throwing in the Presto Logs," he announced to the walkie-talkie. "Once they get going, we'll really get going!"
"You're the doc, Doc." Thor replied.
Doc took a deep breath and threw the first of the three logs into the boiler. There was no turning back, no matter what he felt. For his sake, for the kids' sake, for the sake of the space-time continuum, it was time to go back to the future.
"Emmett! Drell! Hilda!" Zelda's voice called out.
The train kept moving as no one seemed to hear that.
"Did you hear something?" Drell asked Hilda.
"Nothing but the sound of the engine." Hilda replied.
Doc pulled the cord that blew the whistle. He had never realized, until now, how enjoyable it would be to run a locomotive.
"Having fun?" Cherry smirked.
"I've wanted to do that all my life!" Doc replied, but of course, he reminded himself, enjoyment was surely secondary in the present situation, considering the finite amount of track they had before them and the velocity they had to reach.
It was time, quite frankly, to get down to business. The train was gaining speed, but Zelda's horse was faster still. They were closing in on the tender. At a moment like this, she was certainly glad she had led an active childhood back along with Hilda and their brother and other sisters like Vesta, Sophia, and Edward with their adventures through many, many, many centuries until Hilda and Zelda were the ones trusted to take custody of Sabrina after the divorce of their older brother and his mortal wife, Diana Becker back in the 1970s when Sabrina was very young and needed new friends after moving into Greendale for the first time. She pulled the horse parallel to the ladder. She had to do it, for her future with Doc!
"What's our speed?" Marty asked Cherry who currently stood by the speedometer.
"25 miles," Cherry replied. "Still ticking at least."
Doc's voice called reassuringly over the walkie-talkie. "The first log should fire any moment now."
This was it: the big moment of their young lives. If the effects were going to be anywhere near as spectacular as Doc had described, as soon as that log caught fire, he would have to brace himself for the shock. But if the locomotive didn't explode, or lurch forward so violently that it pushed the DeLorean off the tracks, they should really be able to get some speed! Zelda reached over and firmly grasped the bottom rung of the ladder. The world exploded around her. There was a great booming roar, and the air above the locomotive was filled with green smoke and flame. With a terrible suddenness, the car jerked forward, pulling her from her horse! She managed to grab the ladder with her other hand as well, before the wind hit her, almost tearing her from her perch. The locomotive was traveling at a fantastic speed, and she could barely manage to hang on, her shoes mere inches from the ground and certain injury!
"Almost there..." Atticus said, biting his lip.
"Come on, baby! Come on!" Mo chanted for the locomotive.
"EMMETT!" Zelda called with all the strength in her, but the locomotive's engine was roaring now. There was no way anybody could hear or help. And with every passing second, it felt as if they were going faster still!
"Okay, that time I definitely heard something." Drell said as he looked around.
"Maybe it was a bird." Hilda guessed.
"This is more like it, guys," Marty grinned at the others. "We're almost there."
"36... 37... 38..." Cherry counted from the speedometer.
I'm coming aboard!" Doc's voice shouted on the walkie-talkie.
"Someone let him in." Cherry then said.
Marty reached across the DeLorean and opened the gull-wing door on the passenger side. He looked in the rearview mirror and saw Doc climb forward out of the cab onto a narrow walkway on the side of the engine. The aburn teen soon looked ahead, but still couldn't see the windmill: their fail-safe point.
"Everything's moving on schedule so far." Thor remarked.
"That's true, but guys, I can't help but shake this feeling." Marty replied.
Zelda had had to call upon reserves of strength she didn't even know she possessed, but she had pulled herself up the ladder, rung after rung, fighting the wind and the ever-increasing vibration. It was more than the fear of injury that had driven her. She felt very strongly, so strongly that it surprised her—that finding Emmett was the most important thing she might ever do. Not only was he the man for her, but she didn't always believe so strongly in those romantic notions. No, there was something very different about that man, as if he came from a different place; a place that Zelda felt she could also belong in a way she never had back in Greendale. Her commitment gave her strength, and her strength allowed her to climb up the ladder to the top of the tender. She looked down at the pile of logs below, then to the cab beyond.
The cab was deserted and Doc was no longer there! She looked beyond the cab and saw him climbing along the side of the engine, toward a strange-looking silver carriage that was running in front of the locomotive. Why would there be a carriage in front of the locomotive? She realized with every passing moment, she had less idea what her man was doing. But she was sure that, no matter what, once they could talk again, everything would be resolved.
"Emmett!" Zelda called, but he was still too far ahead to hear. Well, she would just have to go a little farther to get him, then. She climbed down gingerly onto the woodpile. Then the world exploded again, and she was falling.
The yellow log ignited, sending yellow smoke and flame high in the air. And the vibration almost knocked Doc completely off the side of the locomotive! If he hadn't grabbed a handhold at the last possible second, he would have fallen from the locomotive, and considering the speed they had now attained, he could have risked serious injury—or worse! Doc paused a moment to control his breathing. The train was going so fast now that the countryside had become a blur, and the train shook as it bounced over the track. He had to be more careful. Even with all that work they'd done rejuvenating him in the future, he still wasn't as young as he used to be. He silently swore to concentrate, to let nothing distract him, and headed once more for the DeLorean. Marty had worried there for a moment when the second log had erupted. The force of the explosion had been even greater than the first, but when he had checked the rearview mirror, he saw Doc was hanging on to a handhold on the side of the locomotive. The inventor must have actually estimated the time of the explosion and used the handhold to ensure against a possible accident. Obviously, Doc had everything under control.
"45!" Cherry called out to the others.
"I don't know why I doubt anything," Marty said, face-palming himself. "We're obviously going to make it."
"Of course we are!" Atticus replied. "Things always turn out right in the end for the heroes!"
"50!" Cherry then called out.
The woodpile had fallen with Zelda, cushioning her fall. She might have a bruise or two when this was all over, but, Lord willing, she hadn't broken anything. She climbed off the end of the woodpile and into the cab of the locomotive, and once again called Emmett's name. Doc still couldn't hear her and no one else could. Not even Drell or Hilda at that time. It was simply too noisy. She stuck her head around the side of the cab and waved, but Emmett was facing away, using all his concentration to move to the front of the locomotive. She stuck her entire upper body out of the side of the cab and screamed for all she was worthwhile waving both her arms. There was still no reaction. Emmett was too intent on climbing down on the cowcatcher to pay attention to anything as small as a feminine voice, but how was she going to get his attention?
"You okay there, Professor?" Drell asked.
"I'll take it from here, my rather large in stomach and muscle mass friend," Doc reassured the warlock as he stopped halfway down the cowcatcher. He had just heard the train whistle blow. And that meant there had to be somebody in the locomotive cab who could make that whistle blow. His mouth fell open as he turned back to the cab. "Zelda!" he called.
"Emmett!" his beloved called back. "I love you!"
"ZELDA?!" Drell and Hilda gasped once they saw who had come by them.
"I knew I heard something weird." Drell smirked smugly at Hilda.
The DeLorean was about to hit fifty-five. But where was Doc? Marty looked out the rearview mirror and saw the inventor on the cowcatcher, looking back at the locomotive.
"Ey, Doc," Atticus called into his radio. "What's happening?"
"It's Clara!" Doc's voice barked back. "She's on the train!"
"Zelda? Sabrina's other aunt! On the train? "That's impossible!" Marty called back.
"She's here!" Doc insisted. "In the cab! I've got to go back for her!"
Marty saw Doc climb back up to the top of the cowcatcher.
"What are you gonna do?" Marty asked.
"Hope there's enough time to stop the train and get her off before we hit the bridge!" Doc responded.
Marty looked out the front windshield. There, on the left, coming up fast, was the windmill, their failsafe point! Once they were past the windmill, there wouldn't be enough time to stop the train before they reached the ravine.
"Doc!" Marty shouted into the radio. "I see the windmill!" He glanced down at the speedometer. "And we're going 60! You'll never make it!" As Marty finished the sentence, he saw the windmill go past. Now there was no way to stop the train before it plunged into the ravine.
"What do we do?!" Mo yelped and whimpered nervously.
"Oh, man, this is more intense than when the characters fall off a cliff in a cartoon right before an endless amount of commercials!" Thor complained as he looked very much on the edge of his seat right now.
It only took Doc a second to make the decision. A part of him had wanted him to make this decision all along. "Are you lot pondering what I'm pondering?" he then asked Drell and Hilda.
"For once, I think I have something smart to decide," Hilda replied before she took the walkie-talkie from him. "You guys, she's coming with us!" she then shouted to the teenagers.
"Cherry, are you still at the speedometer?" Drell added and asked.
"Yes, sir!" Cherry replied.
"Good, good," Drell nodded. "Keep calling out the speed!"
"You got it, Large and in Charge!" Cherry replied with a salute.
"All right, Professor, do what you gotta do." Drell soon said to the inventor who was ironically younger than he was.
"You got it," Doc replied before he reached out his free hand to his beloved. "Zelda!" he called. "Climb out here to me!"
But the witch schoolteacher looked doubtful. "I don't know if I can."
"You can do it!" Doc shouted back enthusiastically. "Just don't look down!"
Zelda took a deep breath and climbed from the cab onto the walkway.
"65 miles an hour!" Cherry's voice called over the radio.
Doc waved Zelda forward while Drell and Hilda felt on the edge for her, trying not to meddle with magic because that might get them both in trouble, even Drell though he was Head of The Witch's Council. "Good! You're doing fine! Nice and steady!"
Zelda smiled uncertainly as she eased her feet along the narrow walkway.
"Keep coming." Doc encouraged.
"70!" Cherry's voice announced from Hilda's pocket.
They were going so fast now, a fall from the locomotive would certainly mean death. Still, Doc couldn't think of such a thing. Zelda was a surefooted woman, and there were only a few feet left between them. The third log exploded with a roar. Zelda screamed as she was thrown from the walkway.
"ZELDA!" Hilda cried out for her sister.
Drell held onto Hilda protectively, though he felt nervous about Zelda as well, but he wasn't sure what they could do without help. After all, he couldn't just snap his fingers and solve the problem right away. That would be way too easy especially since he noticed that Doc was committing an act to save Zelda's life in the name of true love. He would do the same for Hilda if he had to. As Zelda fell, she saw the sky full of smoke the color of blood. Her back banged painfully against the side of the locomotive as she swung down. But then she stopped. She realized there was a different, painful pressure on her left leg, like it was wedged against something. Her leg must have gotten caught between the engine and the walkway and kept her from falling farther. She looked beneath her and wished she hadn't. The ground rushed by less than a yard away, but, far worse than that, the pounding piston wheels were inches from her head!
"Help!" Zelda called.
"75!" Cherry continued to call out from the walkie-talkie.
Marty could see it all in the rearview mirror. Both Doc and Zelda had slipped when the third log exploded, falling down the side of the locomotive. Doc had managed to grab a handhold on the side of the train, but Zelda's leg had become wedged in some sort of metal brace along the walkway. That was the only thing still holding her on the train. If her leg somehow slipped, she would go crashing down, right into the wheels. Doc glanced over at the schoolteacher, trying to figure out some way to grab Zelda without falling off the locomotive himself. But they were going far too fast now. With the rushing air and the way the locomotive was jumping on the uneven tracks, Doc was having trouble just hanging on.
Marty looked forward to check their speed. The digital readout read 80 miles an hour.
"80," Cherry said into the walkie-talkie, and then realized, ahead of her, she could already see the half-completed bridge over the ravine. That meant there were only seconds left before the locomotive would go crashing over the edge... seconds before both Doc and Zelda would die!
"There's gotta be something we can do!" Sabrina exclaimed. "Here we are, in a car from a hundred years in the future. Isn't there something about this car, or something that we learned in our travels through time, that can save our friends?" She glanced down at the speedometer. It was up to 83.
"It looks like Doc's special Presto Logs might actually work," commented Atticus. "But how could we face 1985 again, if we knew Doc had died to get us there?"
Marty tried to think until it hit him. Ahead of them, Doc could see the ravine.
"80!" Cherry's voice announced on the walkie-talkie.
Doc turned back to his soulmate.
"I'm slipping!" Zelda screamed.
Doc saw that her leg was, indeed, working its way out of the brace. He would have to grab for her, somehow, even if it pulled him off of the locomotive, too.
"Guys, does anyone remember where we left the hoverboard?" Marty asked the others.
"I believe we had it in the DeLorean, why?" Atticus replied.
"I know what to do," Marty said before he took the walkie-talkie away from Cherry briefly. "Doc! Here! Catch!"
Doc turned back to the DeLorean curiously. Marty had opened his gull-wing door and was leaning out, the pink hoverboard in his hand. He then realized why he kept the hoverboard even all this time with time traveling. You never knew the precise tools you were going to need. Marty tossed the hoverboard straight for Doc's feet! Doc snagged it with his left foot then, balancing himself precariously on the pink, floating piece of wood, moved himself hand over hand along the locomotive toward Zelda. So far, so good. But that ravine was coming up awfully fast. Doc stared at the pink board now in his hands, wondering how to use it until he tried to get the hang of it. Zelda was sine that death was near. Her leg was slipping free of wherever it had jammed, and she Imagin ed she could feel the pistons and wheels beneath her, brushing against her hair. For some reason, she felt oddly calm.
A few days before, Doc had saved her as her wagon was about to plunge into a ravine. Now, though, she would die after all, when she had tried to talk to Doc again, on a speeding locomotive headed for that very same ravine. It was enough to make one believe in fate. Maybe, Zelda thought, there were some things that couldn't be changed, but what could she do? The Witch's Council strongly forbade witches and mortals to come together which was what made Sabrina's parents get divorced in the first place. She soon felt two strong hands grab her wrists. She looked up to see Emmett standing next to her and smiling. Wait a moment. This train was going at an incredible rate of speed. How could Doc be standing beside her? Was it probably magic brought on with the help of her plucky younger sister or teenage niece who was in training to become a full-fledged witch someday?
"Drell, you did it." Hilda whispered.
"No, that wasn't me, Hil," Drell replied. "That's the power of love."
The two then smiled at each other once it looked like that Doc and Zelda were going to be okay now. Doc pulled her to him, away from the wildly spinning wheels, as her leg came free from whatever held it. She saw, as he pulled her to him, that he was standing on some sort of oval board, painted a very bright pink, and, furthermore, that that board was just hanging in the air! Zelda thought briefly of Jules Veme. Could there have been some truth in what Emmett had told her? But then Doc hugged her to him, and she embraced him as well. There were new explosions; this time, from that strange, silver railroad car in front of the locomotive—three explosions, and three flashes of light.
And then, that strange car vanished from the tracks; just completely disappeared except for two trails of flame! But the locomotive, still beside them, roared onward, through a barrier erected across the half-built bridge, over the end of the tracks and down into the ravine. There was an explosion greater than any Zelda had heard before as the locomotive hit the rocks below. She closed her eyes, waiting for the strange board that held Doc almost like a vacuum cleaner or an old-fashioned broomstick and herself to follow the train. At least, she thought, they could die together as a witch woman in love with a mortal man. But the board had stopped moving. Zelda opened her eyes and saw that they floated near the edge of the ravine, but still over solid ground. She looked into Emmett's eyes. It was so good to see him again so then they kissed and wondered how they could have ever quarreled and parted in the first place as they now held each other. That was all that mattered. Now, they would have time for everything. Doc shifted his weight and kicked the ground beneath the floating board. Still holding each other tightly, the two of them flew, together, off into the western sky.
"Goodbye, Zelly." Hilda whispered emotionally once this looked like the last time she would ever see her sister.
"88!" Cherry exclaimed to the others. "This is it, guys!"
There were three sonic booms and three flashes of brilliant light. And the DeLorean was traveling across the bridge.
Except now the bridge was whole. Marty glanced down at the digital display and saw that the current year was 1985.
"Well, Scooby-Dooby-Doo!" exclaimed Lionel. "We're home! Back in '85!"
"Is it over?" Cherry asked.
"Yeah, Cherry, I think it's over." Thor nodded.
The kids all looked around in amazement as they made it back home to their own time period and they began to pass by a sign known as "Eastwood Ravine".
"It's nice to be home and all." Marty said softly.
"You okay, Marty?" Atticus asked. "You don't sound 100% happy."
"Well, I am happy to be home, though, and glad that Doc had rescued Clara with the hoverboard, but still, I'm a little sad underneath it all and maybe a little angry too." Marty admitted.
"That makes sense, Marty," Sabrina reassured him. "You and Doc have been through so much and we made it back home, but he stayed behind."
"Yeah..." Marty nodded. "At least Doc is probably safe back there now, what with Mad Dog Tannen arrested and all."
"Yeah, just a bittersweet ending for us all." Sabrina nodded.
"Or maybe..." Marty began to wonder.
"Uh-oh." The group murmured in concern.
"Maybe I should take the DeLorean back there one more time to pick up the Doc?" Marty suggested.
"Hmm..." The group paused as they looked unsure about that idea.
The car was coasting by the Hilldale housing development now, the place where the railroad tracks crossed the main highway. He could hear the crossing gates clanging up ahead as the barriers lowered to stop traffic. Hey! It was pretty neat the way those gates closed when even something as small as the DeLorean showed up on the tracks.
"Guys? I hate to sound negative and all, but I think we should start moving." Cherry suddenly said as she began to sound anxious.
There, directly ahead of them, was a diesel engine headed his way. With the train wheels on the DeLorean locked on the tracks, there was no way he could turn to avoid a head-on collision! The DeLorean had almost slowed to a complete stop by now, but the diesel showed no sign of changing speed. Marty threw open the gull-wing door, and he & his friends jumped out and rolled clear. He stopped himself and looked up to see the diesel engine smash into the DeLorean at sixty miles an hour or better. CRASSSSSH! The DeLorean was totaled. Bits and pieces of the time machine were sent flying everywhere. Marty ducked and covered his head with his arms to protect himself from the flying debris. The diesel didn't even stop. It just kept on going, as if the engineer hadn't even noticed the DeLorean was there. Marty uncovered his head and stood as the train sped away.
"Oh, God, no!" Marty cried. "No!"
There were twisted bits of the DeLorean everywhere. There was no way to get Doc or Zelda now; not anymore.
Marty fell to his knees. After all that had happened, this was just too much to take. "Well, Doc..." he said, once he'd gotten control of himself. "It's destroyed. Just like you wanted." He then stood up as there was no reason for them to stay there any longer.
"Welp... we best be getting home now." Lionel said sadly, bidding farewell to the destroyed DeLorean.
"Yeah... come on, guys." Sabrina added softly.
Drell and Hilda watched the teenagers go before they faced each other.
"Should we take the kids back home?" Drell asked.
"Maybe in a few minutes," Hilda suggested. "They have a lot to think about and so do I." she then added softly.
"Yes, of course," Drell nodded until he heard a beeping and took out a tiny device. "'Scuse me, I have a pager call."
"Do you have to go right now?" Hilda asked.
"I better, there's urgent Witch's Council business," Drell replied with a nod. "I'll be back eventually."
"All right then, see ya." Hilda said with a sigh.
Drell nodded at her and soon teleported away before anyone could see him as Hilda looked emotional about losing Zelda to the 1880s.
Marty trudged through the entrance to the Lyon Estates. He should be happy to see his parents, his house, his brother and sister, but somehow, there didn't seem to be any rush to get home, now that he would never see Doc again. He walked up the winding street, reaching his own driveway at last. Biff was outside, waxing Marty's father's BMW. The garage door was open, and Marty could see his black Toyota Four-By-Four inside. All in all, things looked pretty much the way he had left them. As far as Marty could tell, there were no more surprises like that Eastwood Ravine.
"Hey, buttheads!" Biff glared and called out suddenly. "Get away from-"
"Watch it, Biff!" Marty glared back sternly, knowing the bully wouldn't fight back.
"Marty! I-I didn't mean to scare ya! I didn't recognize you and your friends in those clothes!" Biff covered up nervously.
"What do you think you're doing?" Atticus demanded.
"Uh... just puttin' on the second coat now!" Biff covered up before indicating their clothes. "You goin' cowboy, huh?" he then added with a quick thumbs up.
Marty glanced down at his clothes. He was still wearing the western clothes he had used to face Mad Dog Tannen: sarape, boots, and all. "Yeah," he answered without much enthusiasm. He glanced over at the job the other Tannen was doing on the BMW. "Uh, Biff, two coats of wax, right?"
"Yep," Biff agreed amiably. "Puttin' on the second coat right now." He grabbed his cloth and got back to work.
"Sure ya are." Cherry rolled her eyes.
Marty turned up the sidewalk and walked toward the front door. His brother, Dave, dressed in a suit and tie, walked out of the house as Marty approached the steps along with his friends.
"Marty!" Dave grinned as he straightened his tie. "When did you-" He paused and frowned as he took a better look at his brother and the group who was with his brother. "Hey, who are you supposed to be? Clint Eastwood and his gang?"
Marty nodded. "Yeah." he replied. His brother had pegged him exactly.
"They've all gone cowboy." Biff explained, looking up from his waxing.
Dave grinned at that all over again. "So, Marty, when did you all get back?"
Marty stared at his brother as those words sounded both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. "Back?" Marty asked. "Back from where, Dave?"
"I thought you all and Jennifer went up to the lake." His brother explained.
"Jennifer!" Marty yelled once it all came back to him. "Oh, my God, Jennifer!"
"She's still at her house, maybe!" Sabrina replied. "Let's go find her!"
"Aw, man!" Marty hit his forehead. "With the accident with the DeLorean and all that stuff in the past, I've forgotten completely about my own girlfriend!" he then ran inside the house and grabbed the keys to his truck as the others waited outside.
Lionel looked around and soon used his powers again to change them all back into their own normal clothes. Marty's mother and father both called to him as he hurried past. Maybe it was his rush, or maybe it was his cowboy clothes, but both of them looked worried as they came to the front door, followed by Dave and Lorraine. Marty's whole family watched him back his Four-By-Four but into the street. Marty drove to Jennifer's house as quickly as he dared.
He remembered how he and Doc had left her, back in that other 1985, thinking that she would be safe. They didn't realize, then, that the world had changed because of what Biff had done with the sports almanac. By the time they had figured out she might have been in danger, it was too late to go back for her, although Doc had assured Marty that Jennifer would be fine. As long as they got the book back from Biff, the world would be the one Marty remembered, and not the twisted future Biff had created. And they had gotten the book, so everything was fine, now, right? So what was he worried about? As much as Marty hated to admit it, sometimes even Doc could be wrong. Marty pulled into Jennifer's driveway. Her house looked fine: no bars on the windows or any of the other stuff from that bad 1985. And there was the hammock, the same place they'd left Jennifer in that other world.
Marty jumped from the car and ran to the hammock. There, still asleep, was the girl he loved. "Thank God!" He shook her gently. "Jen?" he called gently. "Jennifer?"
Jennifer moaned softly in her sleep; a deep, exhausted sleep, like she'd been through a lot.
Marty realized she had; they all had. But Marty needed her to wake up. He had to talk to her, to make sure she was all right, and, he guessed, to reassure himself that he was finally back in the real 1985. He leaned down and kissed her.
Jennifer opened her eyes with a start, but when she saw him, she smiled. "Marty!" She reached her arms up to hug him. "I had a terrible nightmare."
"Yeah, me too." Marty agreed, though his nightmare was over at last.
Jennifer frowned as she looked at his hat. "Marty, what are you wearing?"
Marty shrugged. "I've gone cowboy."
"Hey, Jen, you okay?" Cherry asked as she and the group came by to see their other new friend.
"Fine, I guess, I just feel like I've been asleep for years." Jennifer replied as she got out of the hammock after Marty had woken her before she began to babble a bit.
Marty smirked as he knew what to do now. "How about we go for a ride in the truck?" he then suggested to stop her confusion.
"Hmm... moving around with the fresh air blowing in my face and maybe waking me up the rest of the way? Sure, maybe, I guess," Jennifer stopped to think about it before she looked at her boyfriend oddly. "Marty, what's going on?" she asked, shaking her head sharply. "I feel so out of it, like I don't know what day it is."
Lionel sighed. "I know the feeling."
That wasn't quite it, though, not waking up. It was more Jennifer wasn't sure when she'd been awake and when she'd been asleep. She tried to explain: "But this is more like, well, like something happened that I can't quite remember..." It was almost like she had been living in a dream. But how could she say that to Marty and make any sense? She gasped. There, outside the window, was her dream.
"What?" Cherry asked her. "What's wrong?"
Jennifer put her hand on Marty's shoulder. "Stop the truck."
Marty did as she asked. They were outside the Hilldale housing development. It wasn't finished yet. Only a few of the units were standing, and those were all covered with multicolored pennants and grand opening signs.
"Hilldale," Marty said appreciatively. "You know, this might be a pretty good place to live, huh?"
Jennifer shivered. She remembered that dream all too well. "No." she then replied firmly.
Marty looked over at her, surprised. "I meant, in the future."
Jennifer shook her head. The dream was all flooding back now, and it wasn't the way she wanted to live her life. "I never want to live here. Ever."
Marty grinned sheepishly. "Hey, okay, sorry. I just thought—"
Jennifer looked away from the development, trying to drive the dream from her head.
"You wanna get out of here?" Thor offered to Jennifer.
"Yes, please." Jennifer replied as she trembled a bit.
"Come on, Marty, take us out of here." Cherry suggested.
Marty shifted the car into first. "Jennifer, what's wrong?" he asked as they started to move.
"My dream, it was so real. About the future, about us, about our kids," Jennifer sighed. "Our kids were a mess, and you were, I don't know, you had some weird job working for Needles."
"Needles? From school?" Marty frowned. "He has a job?".
"Yeah, and you got fired," Jennifer answered. "It was terrible."
"What?" Marty stopped the truck at a traffic light. He turned to look at her. "Wait a minute. I got fired?" He was getting awfully upset about this, like he knew something about the dream, too. Was there something he wasn't telling her?
"Marty, it was just a dream, wasn't it?" Jennifer asked.
Before Marty could answer, a souped-up red racing truck pulled up next to them.
The driver gunned the engine. Jennifer looked over and saw the truck was full of guys from their high school. "Hey, the big M!" the guy in the driver's seat yelled. "How's it hangin', McFly?"
"Needles!" Marty called.
"Aw, great. This jerkass." Cherry narrowed her eyes.
Jennifer looked closer and saw Needles behind the wheel, only now he was 17 years old, not middle-aged like he had been in the dream from the future. Jennifer frowned. He was supposed to be 17 years old, wasn't he? They were all seniors in high school, weren't they? Then why did she keep seeing everybody the way they were in the dream?
Needles raced his engine again. "Nice wheels, McFly. Let's see what she can do."
Marty waved away the offer. "No thanks, Needles." He pulled his truck forward a few feet so the two vehicles were no longer lined up.
"C'mon, McFly," Needles yelled. "What's the matter... chicken?"
Marty frowned as the other guys in Needles's truck made clucking noises. His hands turned white where they gripped the wheel. Jennifer frowned as she knew how stubborn her boyfriend could be about being called a chicken.
"...here we go," groaned Mo, face-palming.
Marty backed up the truck. "Nobody calls me chicken!" he then glared at Needles as he growled while revving his engine.
Needles hit his accelerator, too.
Jennifer felt there was something terribly wrong here. She grabbed her boyfriend's elbow. "Marty. Don't-"
Marty put his hand on the stick shift. He looked up at the stoplight. Jennifer saw the light for traffic going the other way had turned from green to yellow. Needles gunned his engine again, and Marty pressed his foot down on the clutch.
Jennifer opened her mouth, but she didn't know what to say. Wasn't there any way she could stop this from happening? And all because of this "Nobody calls me chicken!" business. The light turned green. Needles's racing truck roared away from the intersection.
Marty just sat there. He turned to Jennifer, shrugged, and smiled. "And he's definitely nobody." he then said.
Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. Jennifer smiled back. Maybe, somewhere, somehow, Marty had learned something about himself, and how there might be different ways to prove who you were. She liked this Marty McFly. He was the kind of fellow she could really have a future with. A horn blared up ahead, followed by a squeal of brakes. They both looked out the windshield as Needles's track swerved, barely missing a Rolls Royce that had started out a side street.
"Jeez!" Marty yelled. "I would have hit that Rolls Royce!"
"Rolls-Royce?" Jennifer repeated until she pulled out the crumpled page and looked at the huge letters at the center: "YOU'RE FIRED". The words disappeared from the page. "It erased!" she exclaimed.
"What?" Marty asked, looking at the page over her shoulder. "What erased?"
Jennifer frowned.
"Why are you staring at a blank piece of paper?" Atticus asked.
"And why had that paper been in your pocket?" Mo added.
"I don't know." Jennifer admitted.
"Well, I hope you guys don't mind, but there's one more stop I wanna get to before we wrap up our adventures together." Marty said to Cherry and her friends.
"Sure, man." Cherry responded.
Marty pulled his truck to the side of the road, just before the railroad tracks. He had to come back here, one more time. He had been too upset when he'd left here earlier today to look through the wreckage of the DeLorean. But he had to, to find out if there was some way, any way, that he still might be able to rescue Doc.
"What are we doing here?" Jennifer called as Marty got out of the cab.
"I'll just be a minute." Marty called back.
Cherry and the others decided to join him. They may not had known Doc as long as Marty had, but he was still a good friend of theirs too. Not to mention that Zelda was gone along with him so Sabrina felt emotional about that. When that diesel had run over the DeLorean, it had done a pretty thorough job.
The wreckage was scattered all along the tracks. Marty kicked a fender with his boot. Beyond it he saw a twisted piece of metal with the words Mr. Fusion, and a bit of tom from the time displays on the dashboard: Last Time Departed. It took Marty a minute to realize he was looking right at it, a twisted bit of metal and glass beneath the time display. The glass cover had been shattered, and the inner workings were scrambled and bent. This flux capacitor would never work again. There was a piece of paper stuck to the back of the twisted capacitor. Marty peeled it free and saw it was the photograph of Doc in front of the clock in 1885.. or what was left of it. The photograph was burned through the middle, leaving Doc posing with only half a clock. Marty looked at it sadly. This was all that was left of Doc Brown. Marty sighed as he looked one more time at the total wreckage around him. He hoped Doc was happy, wherever he was. He looked up when he heard the sonic boom.
"W-What was that...?" Sabrina wondered.
Jennifer jumped from the track and ran to his side as the teenagers all stared at the steam locomotive rambling down the tracks. It looked sort of like the locomotive Marty and Doc had stolen, or borrowed, as Doc put it, to get them back to the future. Except somebody had added a few things to the locomotive's working parts, coils, tubes, even a box with a Y-shaped gizmo in it that looked a little like a flux capacitor. The whole engine looked like something out of Jules Verne as it braked to a stop beside them.
And Doc waved at him from the cab. "Marty!" the inventor called. "It runs on steam!"
Cherry removed her glasses and wiped them on her shirt before blowing on them and wiping again as she put her glasses back on, looking gobsmacked to see Doc Brown back and not only that.
"Dr. Brown?" Thor muttered in his own amazement.
Doc was wearing an engineer's cap and coveralls. And he wasn't alone. Behind him in the cab were Zelda, a couple of small boys, and a dog that looked like Einstein.
"Oh, we tied the knot!" Doc exclaimed, waving at those behind him. "Meet the family! Zelda, you know, and these are my boys, Jules and Verne!" He smiled down at his sons. "Boys, this is Marty and Jennifer."
"And this is your cousin Sabrina and her friends: Cherry, Atticus, Mo, Lionel, and Thor." Zelda added kindly as she looked the happiest, she had ever been in her whole life.
"A Time Train! Who'd have thunk it?!" Lionel laughed as he and the others waved at them.
"Doc and Zelda got married?" Atticus asked.
"Doc and Zelda have a family?" Mo added.
"And Doc and Zelda are in a steam time machine?" Sabrina added.
"I don't know what to say." Marty muttered to himself.
Zelda waved. "Hi, Marty."
Marty guessed he'd better say something. "Hi. Congratulations."
"Thank you." Zelda replied with a smile.
"Doc. It's unbelievable," Marty smiled, heading over to the locomotive once he got over the shock. "This is wonderful! And here we thought we'd never see you again!"
Doc grinned back at him. "You can't keep a good scientist down. After all, I had to come back for Einstein—and, well, we didn't want you to be worried about us," He reached for something inside the cab. "Oh, I brought you a little souvenir." He handed Marty a rectangular package, wrapped in brown paper with a red ribbon.
Marty tore the paper open. Inside was a framed photograph of Marty and Doc in front of the clock; the same photograph he'd found in the wreckage of the DeLorean, except now Marty was in the photograph! He looked up at his friend. "I love it, Doc. Thanks."
"Then it wasn't a dream." Jennifer muttered at his side.
Drell soon came out of the train next as he came to see Cherry and the others before he winked at them as he seemed to have a secret that he was keeping from them right now.
"Drell, what did you do?" Cherry asked the warlock.
"Shh~" Drell shushed her as now wasn't the time to talk about that.
Doc then looked over to see Jennifer staring intently at a crumpled piece of paper that didn't seem to have anything on it. She looked up at the inventor. "Dr. Brown, I just want to know one thing. What happens to Marty and me and the other guys in the future?"
Doc considered her question for a second before answering. "In the future? That's up to you. Your future hasn't been written—no one's has. For better or worse, your future is what you make it." He winked at all of the teenagers. "So make it a good one. All of you."
Marty put his arm around Jennifer. "We will, Doc. And what about you? Are you going—back to the future?"
The inventor shook his head. "Nope. Already been there!"
"We're off to bigger and better things." Zelda added as she wrapped her arms around Jules and Verne proudly.
Doc then pushed a lever in the locomotive's cab, and with a rush of steam, the wheels folded underneath the engine and the entire locomotive lifted off the tracks. Doc and his family all waved as the locomotive rose 20 feet into the air and then proceeded to chug off into the afternoon sky. After a moment, Marty, Jennifer, Lionel, Cherry, Mo, Atticus, Sabrina, and Thor remembered to wave back, until the locomotive was no more than a speck in the heavens.
"Well, that's the end of that I guess," Sabrina said softly as she wiped her eyes. "Goodbye, Aunt Zelda. I hope you will be well with Uncle Doc and Jules and Verne from now on."
"Aw, honey~" Hilda cooed as she hugged her niece.
Sabrina sniffled as she hugged Hilda back as this was an emotional moment for the two of them. "But I don't get it," she then said. "Aunt Zelda is a witch and Doc is a mortal. I thought they couldn't get married?"
"That's a good question, my dear." Hilda agreed.
"Yeah, how did that happen?" Cherry wondered as she put her hands on her hips.
Drell whistled innocently as he began to step away until someone would try to get his attention.
"Hey!" Thor remarked. "Uncle... did you do something?"
"Oh, hey, kids," Drell grinned innocently. "When did you get here?"
The teenagers gave him a bit of a long look as he was clearly hiding something from them.
"Oh, all right," Drell then said. "I just came back from an emergency meeting and I had to do something very important to help a witch in need outside of The Other Realm."
"What was it?" asked Sabrina.
"This witch wanted to give up her magical powers except for one connection to The Other Realm in order to marry and have a family with a mortal man she decided that she was in love with and he felt the same way, otherwise she would turn into a wax candle." Drell explained.
"Okay, so...?" Mo asked, not getting it just yet.
"Zelda was that witch and Doc Brown was that mortal man." Drell then explained.
"Ohhhh..." Everyone responded in awe.
"Yes, and she asked for a special gift to share with you guys on occasion," Drell replied before he took out a certain crystal ball. "It won't be able to be used every day, but every once in a while, Zelda will be able to call and check on you guys and you can see her too whenever you want."
"It won't be the same as having her back home." Sabrina said softly.
"I know, my dear, but that's the way it has to be for now, maybe we'll see her again for another adventure," Drell said, trying to be helpful and kind for once in his life. "After all, I feel like we might see Della again in the future if you guys are still up for going after her when I need you." he then added as he narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Well, if we gotta, then I suppose I'm in." Lionel responded.
"What the heck? I'm in too." Atticus agreed.
"Same here." Mo added.
"Only on one condition, Uncle." Thor said as he crossed his arms.
"Yes?" Drell asked with a sigh.
"You don't call on us between the hours of 8:00 AM and 12:00 noon on Saturdays," Thor smirked as he answered his uncle. "That's when Saturday Morning Cartoons are on and nothing comes between me and the GoBots."
"I think that sounds reasonable." Lionel agreed.
Drell paused before he sighed. "All right, I won't disturb you guys during Saturday Morning Cartoons." he then said.
"Then it's a deal." Atticus said as he shook hands with the warlock.
"Good," Drell nodded before smiling. "But for now, you're all free to go. This adventure took a lot out of all of us."
The group agreed as they soon parted ways away from him until further notice.
"By the way, yes." Cherry soon said to Lionel suddenly.
"...uh, yes what?" Lionel asked, confused.
"Yes, I'll join you for the evening of camping under the stars." Cherry elaborated to him.
Atticus, Mo, Sabrina, and Thor all gasped hopefully for Cherry and Lionel just then like it was an epic sitcom moment.
"Oh," responded Lionel. "...cool! I'm glad to hear that!"
"I just had to do some thinking and I've been doing a lot of that during these past adventures," Cherry said to him. "No pun intended of course, what with the time travel aspect and all."
"Right, yes." Thor nodded.
"But sure, Lionel, I'll go with you and Marty and Jennifer if they don't mind our company," Cherry then said. "I often like to look out at the stars when I just wanna sit and think and not worry about school, chores, or anything else that might be on our mind. We're only young once and we only live once, and we'll get through everything together, whether it's just the two of us our all of our friends with us."
"That movie is she referencing?" Atticus wondered.
"I don't think it's a movie reference; I think she's just speaking from her heart." Mo replied.
"Cherry has a heart?" Thor asked curiously.
"Yup," nodded Lionel. "And it's not in a jar next to her bed!"
"Thanks, guys." Cherry muttered in deadpan.
"No problem!" Her friends replied.
Cherry rolled her eyes a bit before smirking.
"Patch!" Atticus beamed.
"Salem!" Sabrina added.
The Dalmatian puppy and cursed warlock who was now a cat soon came up to the two, allowing them to properly reunite with each other.
"Yes, sir," Cherry smirked. "It looks like for all of us, we have a bright future ahead of us and remember what Doc said, 'The future is what you make it' and I think we should all make it a good one." she then suggested to the others.
"Sounds like a plan."
"I'm in if you are!"
"Ditto!"
"Aye-aye!"
"So say we all!"
"Let's make a vow for future adventures, guys," Cherry decided. "Like The Three Musketeers."
"There's more than just three of us though." Thor pointed out.
"I'm aware of that, but we're going to be close friends like those guys were and do whatever we can to help our world and anyone else who might need us for years to come!" Cherry rolled her eyes and then continued to explain what she had meant by that.
"Ohhh... that makes much more sense." Thor then admitted with a nod.
"Yeah!" Everyone exclaimed in agreement.
And so they went off, continuing to have many more adventures together with plenty of years to come.