by Jill Cooper
I’ve never been allowed to the restricted side of the compound and like a good soldier I never tried. Didn’t walk past. Didn’t ask questions.
Now I’m running past, alongside these large, curved windows that look into the bay of a technological hub. There are wires, tubes, and technicians everywhere.
Inside, I see Lara and Daniels. He’s standing too close to her, a smug look on his face. He’s won. I can’t see Lara’s face, but her posture is hunched and her hand is pressed on some sort of glass pane. Whatever’s going on I need to get in there.
Stop it.
But the door is locked and it won’t budge. My ID won’t get me in there. I sigh and tap my hand on the glass to get one of the technician’s attention. There is a row of computer terminals and men in all white uniforms are sitting, studying the data.
One of them looks up. A young guy with blond hair. I rap my knuckles on the door again, this time more urgently. I push my badge against the glass.
He gets up but stops short of opening the door. “You can’t come in here. It’s restricted.”
I guess that’s why they call it the restricted zone. “I need to talk to Daniels. His life is in trouble. Open this door now.”
The boy glances over his shoulder. “He doesn’t look in trouble and I can barely hear you.”
“Open the door then. A crack. So, you can hear me.”
With a sigh, he scans his badge on the inside and the door magnetically opens. The boy catches it and not allowing it to swing open too far. “Now what’s this about? How can Daniels be in trouble? He’s in here with us.”
“Someone is going to murder him. I need to get him to safety right away. Move away from the door.”
He hesitates. “I’ll get Daniels and you can talk to him yourself.”
“Move!” I scream louder and the boy shudders and backs out of the way. I step inside and hold the door open. “Everyone needs to clear out of this room now.”
“Ma’am, officer, we can’t do that…”
Sighing, the anger surging, I holster my baton and retrieve the pistol from the back of my jeans. It’s been hidden, tucked into my jacket for what feels like hours. I aim it at the technician. “Anyone who argues with me gets an old-fashioned bullet to the head. So I’m going to ask again nicely…move out of this room and head to the lobby. Now.”
My eyes flash with defiance and slowly the six technicians rise to their feet. They hurry out the door and when they do, I use my baton against the keypad to render it useless.
I lower my arms and hold the pistol close to my body just as they do in all those super classic movies I grew up watching with Granny. Tiptoeing through the corridors, I follow the voices. I hear the rumbles of an old man and the faint voice of Lara. It’s small, little. Not the powerful voice I’d heard from her just last night..
Where was that Montgomery defiance we’re so famous for?
Then I see them. They’re standing next to a glass cage. I see a pair of feet inside of it, but I don’t want to look up. I can’t afford to be distracted.
They can’t see me yet, but I can hear their voices.
Daniels starts toward Lara, his hand’s gripping at the air. “And I must have you.”
What a creepy little man he is. Lara backs away. There’s genuine fear in her eyes.
I release the safety on the gun and Daniel’s head jerks in my direction.
“Move,” I snarl, “and I blow your head off.”
Daniels raises his arms. “How did…How did you get in here?”
Lara makes a fist and nails him right between the eyes.
I catch him as he slumps forward. “You ready?”
But all Lara can do is shake her head and gaze at the glass boxes. Abruptly, in a pained voice, she grinds out, “Plan’s changed.” I can see her decision is firmly resolute, based on the clenching of her jaw.
Plans changed? How could the plans change? Her eyes gaze upward, sweeping over the boxes.
I follow her eyes and I can’t believe what I’m seeing. The rows of glass canisters are filled with Laras. A dozen, maybe more, Laras as far as my eyes can see.
There are tears in Lara’s eyes and mine moisten to join her. “Then we free them. We level this place clean so you don’t need to endure anymore. You’re suffering is over, Lara or my name isn’t Cassidy Winters.”
18: Lara
There’s one technician left and Cassidy uses his fear of death to get him to open the boxes. Cassidy locks Daniels in a private room off to the side, but alarms blare into overdrive with red, flashing lights. Soon Rewind will be on us. We don’t have much time.
All I want is for these versions of me to have some peace. They should have freedom without pain. The moments have been fleeting, but they have been wonderful and those are the moments we strive for. Not perfection, but freedom. To be happy, safe. Comfortable, but most of all, free.
I focus on the box with the elder Lara. She’s disconnected and her body goes limp in my arms as I drag her out. Her body is thin and frail beneath her white nightgown. Her eyes closed I study the wrinkles of her face, the long silver curls of her hair. She’s been alive a long time like this and I don’t know how long she’ll survive now that she’s free.
But she deserves to die free. Not as nothing, hooked up to a machine, treated like a piece of property.
Turning over her wrist, I see there’s a barcode stamped on her skin. The words ‘Property of Rewind’ right beneath it. My insides turn black with anger and I stroke her hair. We’re collapsed together on the floor as all around us everything glows red.
But I don’t care. I don’t care if the building blows with me inside it because this is where I’m meant to be. With her. Toppling Rewind one final time.
“We’re no one’s property. I don’t care what they put on you.” I whisper.
And then she smiles. The smallest and prettiest of smiles I’ve ever seen. She answers me without opening her eyes. “We’re Lara Crane.”
A tear spills from my cheek and I think I might lose it completely. Behind me, I hear Cassidy coming. Her voice is loud and in charge. She’s not just holding it together; she’s the super glue of this entire operation. “The captain’s dispatched the police, but there’s still Rewind agents in here that are loyal to Daniels. I don’t know how long we have before they break in here.”
“Thanks,” I whisper, but can’t keep my eyes off the elder version of Lara in my lap. I stroke her hair as if she’s a baby and she touches my cheek.
“I remember.” She says softly, hoarse and strokes my chin. “When I was so young.”
“I got you out of the cage. Got us all out of the cages.” I push my lips together and feel stupid. As if, it would matter to her. She spent all her life here in a glass box without enough room to stretch her arms.
But her face glows with pure happiness and there’s a laugh in her voice. “Good. Good. Now you go back, you stop Daniels from ever making this place.”
“I need to stay here.” My eyes grow wide. “Free all of you.”
“You already have. Now you have to go back. To the time before this was all build. Fold it like a house made of cards. The timelines will dissolve into each other until there is only one. The right one.”
Lara grips my chin hard and I’m surprised she has that much strength left. “Your timeline, Lara. Daniels was telling the truth when he said you were first. You were special. You’re the one that must survive.”
“How?” My chin quivers. “I can’t even travel in time now if I wanted to.”
Lara nods toward Cassidy. “Her baton can break the restraint harness they placed on all of us. Yours hasn’t been perfected yet. It’s weak. Enough electrical charge…”
I glance at Cassidy to see if that’s true. She’s already freed her baton from her hip and is holding it tightly in her hands. “It’s going to hurt.”
Hurt? I’ve experienced enough pain to last me a lifetime, but I know I can endure more. That’s the truth about life, there’s alway
s more, but I’m ready for it.
I place Lara down on the ground delicately and fold her hands on her chest. I don’t know if it’s good-bye, but it feels like it.
Cassidy is waiting, her lips drawn together. There’s a serious pinch in her eyebrows. “We might be running short on time here.”
Nerves bubble in my stomach so I lay on the ground in a fetal position. I pull my hair off my neck so she can see the device edging out of my skull. Squeezing my eyes as tight as possible, I grit my teeth and grip my hair like a lifeline.
I’m as ready as I’m going to get.
My restraint is nudged and Cassidy starts counting. “On three…”
“Just do it.” I bark out, but I’m not ready for the electrical current that charges through the restraint device and surges through my brain. It travels through my skull and my teeth tingle. Makes my feet quiver.
But my brain is the same. Mostly. I haven’t been freed.
“Again,” I order Cassidy. “Hold it longer this time.”
“Lara…” her voice is pained with warning.
“I said again,” I grumble the words and cast her a look over my shoulder.
“You’re eyes.” Cassidy’s mouth drops open. I don’t know what’s wrong with my eyes and don’t have time to ask. She thrusts her baton again and I’m not ready for the surge of power.
I can’t breathe as the charge rockets up and down my body repeatedly. The baton is still against my device and the tingling builds to a scream. My limbs shake and all I can do is keep my eyes shut, my jaw clenched, and try to ride through it like a roller coaster.
But I can’t keep my body still as the pain intermingles with the smell of singed flesh. My head rears back even though the baton is no longer against me. My body quakes, my limbs thrash and my tongue folds back into my mouth.
I’m having a seizure.
“Lara!” Cassidy screams and falls beside me. She applies pressure to my body to hold me still. “Hang in there. Damn it, Lara!” She caresses my face and holds me close. But I can’t see her. I’m drifting away.
Bucking back and forth, I can’t keep my eyes closed. I can’t keep them open. I’m flipping back and forth.
The future.
The past.
The present.
All at once, I’m everywhere. As I’ve feared, I no longer exist in one time. I exist in all of them at once. That knowledge cripples me.
My mother grown old, mourning a daughter lost. Jax never giving up the fight to find me.
Mike lost at sea, drowning his sorrows in booze and woman at the ripe old age of eighteen.
Molly, marries and has children, but can never have the man she truly loves. Because he’s still in love with me. A ghost.
Donovan and Molly?
That truth hits me hard and I travel through time at a whirlwind speed. Through the city of Boston, I move as if I’m the wind. Super fast, super strong. Nothing stops me until I see the inside of an elevator.
A middle-aged man is crying in the corner. Whimpering and sobbing as if his life is being taken from him. Stripped away and when he looks up, I see the face and I know it.
I love it.
But he’s not alone. Xavier is there with a gun. He’s going to kill Donovan. Yet another thing he’s taken from me. One more thing he can’t just leave alone.
Not today, though.
They can’t see me yet, but now they will.
My body puts itself back together one cell at a time. To them, it appears as if I step straight out of the metal of the elevator. My hair is still intertwined with the call buttons as my face snaps into place. one strand at a time.
Xavier sees me first and his eyes go wide with fright. He lifts his gun to fire a shot off and I twist his wrist until he screams. He drops the gun and time slows down enough so I can catch it. With the butt of the gun, I bash him against the temple.
He moans and I squeeze his throat with my free hand. I shove him against the elevator wall. My lips pull together and I sneer. Daniels has taken everything from me. Now that I can see all the timelines at once, I know everything this monster has done.
It needs to end.
Time is my friend. It is my ally.
Xavier gasps for breath and tries to pry away my fingers. His lips turn blue and when he goes slack, I let him fall.
With a deep breath, I turn. Donovan is staring up at me with a wet face; he’s still crumpled in the corner of the elevator. His mouth is open and his eyes widen with disbelief.
I go down in front of him even though I know I’m needed elsewhere. I need to do something else, but I also need to give this to him. This version of Donovan needs to see me one last time before I change it all.
Doesn’t he deserve at least that?
But I don’t need to say anything. Donovan touches my face with shaking hands. “Lara? Is that really…?” He doesn’t finish his statement as he grips my hair.
Happiness rolls in on his face and he starts to sob.
My heartbreaks and I take him into my arms. I hold the crumbled man at the bottom of the elevator and stroke his back.
“I tried to keep hope that I’d see you one more time. Lara?” Donovan whispers and his lips kiss me gently. I think he’s trying to test me. See if I’m real. He’s old now. Maybe it should be creepy, but it isn’t.
Why? Because he’s still Donovan. Still, the man I love.
“I’m going to fix all this, Don.” I rest my forehead against his. “So you never have to feel this. Never have lived any of this.”
“How?” Donovan chokes on his words, but I don’t have an answer.
All that I know is I can. All I know is that I will. “Just trust me. You’ve always trusted me, even when I gave you no reason.”
“You’ve always given me a reason to, Montgomery.” He smiles wide as if he’d thought he’d never say that again. “Will I remember seeing you? Being here with you like this?”
“I hope you won’t have to. I hope you won’t remember living like this.” I stroke his hand, so much older, but still mine to hold. “But I’ll remember. I always remember.”
His eyes darken. “How can you be so strong? How?”
There’s no real answer other than I have no choice, but that seems too depressing to say. So I shrug and say. “I’m Lara Crane.”
Donovan laughs while he cries.
I cradle him close. “You didn’t even ask me where I’ve been all this time.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Donovan shakes his head. “All that matters is you’re here. You came back.”
“I’ll always come back for you,” I whisper and I tilt his head toward mine so I can kiss his forehead. “Now close your eyes.”
He does it without asking why. I give him a good-bye kiss on his cheek and then I’m gone.
Rocketing through time.
Straight into the past.
****
I flip through timelines.
Through all the questions. All the what ifs.
There’s only one answer and that answer leads me back further in time than I’ve ever been. I’m not even in Boston anymore, but back in California where my target was born and raised. Right now he’s sitting on a bench, reading a science journal.
He’s young then, a year younger than I am, and I can’t believe such an innocent looking kid turns into the monster, Xavier Daniels, but it’s he. The one that will grow to rule Rewind and the world with an iron, deadly fist. His glasses and sweater vest disarm me even as I take physical form on the grass.
The crazy thing is, what I’m about to do I’d never be able to stomach if it wasn’t for Rex and his teachings. He hardened me and taught me so much about death, doing what needs to be done. I don’t know if that’s the lesson he meant me to take away from everything.
But it’s the only one I learned.
I’d do anything for family.
I step toward him as my hair finishes materializing and I take a seat next to him on the bench. Leaning my arm on the
back of the bench, I smile at him.
Flirty, seductive. I’m ready to end it for good.
Glancing up, he starts. He stutters at me. “H—Hello.”
“Hi,” It’s simple enough of a greeting. “You know, I’ve been all over.”
“Have you?” He slips the journal closed.
I nod that I have indeed. “Yup, I’ve been through time. Scoured all the facts, all the pages of information that you’d probably find fascinating. You’d love to probe my mind. Pretty sure of it. In fact, I know you would because you have and if I don’t change things, you will again.”
He scowls but leans his arm back on the bench and shifts to face me. Xavier probably thinks I’m fascinating. Probably even thinking I’m flirting.
Time to slide into home.
“You know what I’ve found? Of all the timelines. Of all the alternate versions of what you’re doing right now, no one will ever miss you.”
Xavier’s face falls and I let my words sink in. I let them hurt him.
“You do nothing, ever, that endears you to another human being. You’re washed up, a loser, evil. That’s never going to change. Never does. And it never will because now I can get rid of you.”
I take a deep breath. “No one will ever miss you.”
His mouth opens, and then it closes as if he changed his mind. When he starts to get up from the bench, presumably to get away from the crazy wacko sputtering beside him, I touch his forehead and he freezes in place.
Not frozen, but in pain. He can’t move. Only his eyes widen and they glance at me. His mouth turns down, and he moans a scream. The only one he can.
Before he vanishes with a surge of golden light.
Gone. But not just gone here. Gone everywhere. Ripped from the timeline, the multiple timelines, as if he was never born in the first place.
An older woman rushes toward me. She’s in a long skirt and a loose shirt. Her face is lined with the horror only a mother could wear. “What did you do to my son? Police! Help!”
And then with a flash of blue lightning and wind, I’m gone.
19: Lara Crane
