by Jill Cooper
Mike glances at me. “We’re stronger than you and Lara put together.”
My nose crinkles at him in disgust. “That’s not what it’s about. It’s not what any of it is about.”
“From here, I can shape whatever I want. I can give Mike the family he wants. I can change Mom and Dad’s mind, put them together. I can move John Crane halfway across the world. Even kill him if I desire.”
“Don’t,” I urge him. “You can’t do that. Mike,” I implore my brother standing beside me, “you can’t seriously agree with any of this!”
“I don’t want John hurt. I just want him gone. I want all this time travel business to stop.”
“And that it will.” Future Mike clasps his hands together. “I thought placing dear Molly in the hospital would be enough to keep her from interfering. See, you’re the one person I can’t change. Anything I try to do to you, just gives me a horrible nose bleed. You’re immune to all time travel ability it seems. Lara can’t freeze you and I can’t change you.”
He leans forward and sneers in my face. “Which is a problem.” Future Mike gestures to the plexi-glass cage. “This will be your home and this special cage will mute your powers. Once you’re in there, no one will be able to track you, no matter how long Cassidy searches for you on the bridge.”
Mike steps behind me and puts his arm around my shoulders and my chest. I stiffen against him as I realize what he’s going to do. “Just for now,” he promises, “until we do what we need to do to fix things.”
“There will be no fixing things, Mike. He’s lying to you! Just as Rex has lied to you!”
“Did I hear my name?” Rex says as he saunters into the room from the double wide doors ahead of us. “Oh, Molly, where’s the respect? I’m Uncle Rex to you.”
I sneer at him in response.
Rex sighs. “So much like her sister. Get her in the cage, Mike. Be a good boy.” He smiles at my brother and he tugs me toward the cage.
“It’s for the best, Molly,” Mike whispers. “Don’t you want to fix things? Don’t you wish you had a simpler life?”
I dig my heels in. “Not if it’s without Cassidy and Lara.” I grit my teeth. “What did you do to Lara!”
Rex grabs my face and squeezes my cheeks together. “She did it to herself. She couldn’t stop messing with the timeline. Over and over again, isn’t that right?”
“To fight you! To stop you!” I pull my face away from his grubby hands.
“I didn’t think she could do it,” Rex admits. “She shouldn’t have been able to get out of that timeline and onto this dark bridge. Once here, she never should’ve been able to restore your timeline, but she pushed. Harder than she ever did.”
“But it gave us a unique opportunity,” Future Mike says. “Didn’t she, Uncle?”
“Yes.” Rex smiles and it chills me to my bones.
“What did you do to her! Where is she!”
Rex gazes at me with compassion in his eyes and it frightens me. “Oh Molly, she’s nowhere. Lara, I’m afraid, no longer exists.”
****
I can’t feel my legs and I’m pretty sure I’m floating away. I try to wrap my mind around what he’s just said. “What?” I’m breathless and I sound younger than I have in a long time.
“At least not in the traditional sense. To restore the timeline, she….well, I guess you could say she ascended. Into that.” He points at the view screen.
I’m no longer trying to fight them. Now all I want to do is understand. I walk away from Mike and stand in the center of the room, studying the strands of time as they fly past. I can’t read the streams, but then a strand floats by and it looks like a strand of curly hair. The next moment, I can feel her, smell her. The essence is there, peaceful and mournful all at the same time. There’s consciousness there, she’s aware of what is going on. Aware of what will be.
Oh, Lara….I want to talk with her. Embrace her. There’s no way I can fix this.
Rex sees my sorrow and tries his best to capitalize it. “She pushed harder than she ever had to safe you and your family. To give you this chance at a normal life. When she did that, her essence separated and we contained it here. This was always Lara’s fate.”
I shake my head. “She was fine!”
Rex raises his eyebrows. “The ability to freeze time was slowly destroying her mind. Xaiver Daniels knew this. We have his notes. It’s why he put the restraining device on her in the first place, but she embraced that new power. And it grew so strong, she was able to use time to transport herself anywhere she wanted. When she did that, what do you think happened to her body?”
I can guess, but I’m unwilling to answer. I won’t accept what they’re trying to say.
“Her body ceased to exist for fractions of a second here and there, but when she restored your timeline and erased all my hard work, it was too long, Molly.” Future Mike’s voice borders on mournful. “You might think this brings me pleasure, but it doesn’t. I remember too my big sister putting a band aid on my knee. I remember the laughter.” He grits his teeth.
I glare at him and turn to my Mike. He’s gazing down at the floor and there are tears in his eyes. “You’re okay with all of this? Putting me in the cage so you can get your goal?”
“It’s only temporary,” he mutters. “So, the changes in the timeline can cement without you interfering like you did before.”
I puff out my cheeks as Rex grabs my arm. “It’s time now, come on, Molly. Don’t make this harder than it has to be. No one wants to hurt you.”
He never means what he says. There’s always a sinister smirk in the sound of his voice. He fooled Mike and turned him into this future abomination that wants to control everything, but to what end? The same end it always is, ultimate power for Rex.
As they pull me toward the cage, I cup my hand and think of Cassidy. I don’t know where she is, but I think of her and slowly, my power manifests into a glowing ball. A portal. An image flashes in my mind.
Cassidy is on the bridge and angry as she questions the imposter Lara. She wants to know where our Lara is and the Imposter is afraid and shaking because she knows the truth.
There is no more Lara. Our Lara no longer exists.
Her knowledge is absolute truth and it crushes me in the chest. I’m standing with the people who destroyed her, who forced her to do the things she needed to do.
Future Mike opens the door to the cage and stands to the side. “I’ll take good care of you, sister.”
I grab the edge of the cage and the door to keep myself from going inside. I scream. “Mike! Don’t let them do this! Please!”
Rex pulls my hair and punches me in the back, sending me into the cage. I turn and scream, wedging myself between the door as they try to force it shut. “Mike! Please!” I’m near tears as they push me back. I kick out at Rex, trying to give myself a little more room to get out.
My eyes are on my shocked brother’s face. “Help me! Don’t let them win!”
I don’t think Mike is going to do anything, but a moment later, he flashes away. Rex glances for him and in that moment, I push the door open. I force myself against Rex’s chest and use the full weight of my body to get him away from the cage.
Future Mike grabs me from behind and drags me toward the cage. I try to dig my heels into the floor. As we arrive at the cage, Future Mike screams. I peer back to see my brother in the cage. He grabs Future Mike, tosses him back. My brother and I run out of the cage and I lock the door behind him.
“I’m sorry,” Mike says as he sucks on his bottom lip like a scared little boy. “I shouldn’t have let it go that far. I never…”
“We might want to save this conversation for later.”
“No!” Rex screams and runs for the cage door. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done!”
The dark bridge starts to disappear around us. It takes piece by piece, tile after tile, but if Rex manages to let Future Mike free, we’re back to square one. “Help me stop him,” I say
.
Mike nods and lifts his hand freezing Rex and slowly rewinds him back toward us. We might be gifted, but Rex isn’t and he can’t fight against the time rewind. I lift my hand to open a portal as the view screen breaks around us and the time stream swirls inside.
I can’t talk as the air rushes out of my lungs. There’s no air, no breath. I panic as I think I’m beginning to suffocate. Grabbing my throat, I dry heavy, and I try to open the portal to the bridge, but nothing happens.
We’re all going to die.
Mike crushes me from behind and wraps his arms around me. The golden strands of the time stream wrap tight around us like a caccoon. My vision fails and I sink into a deep unconscious state.
That, or I’m dead.
Chapter Thirty-Nine: Lara Crane
I fall flight onto my stomach and cringe. Cassidy’s methods of interrogation are different than I thought they’d be. Different then I was warned against. Rex said she loved Lara and would never hurt her. The trail of blood coming out of my mouth says otherwise. I wipe it and gaze back.
Cassidy stands with a wide stance and holds a baton in each hand. When she strikes them together, electricity shoots from one baton from the other. She spins them, slaps them overhead and starts toward me.
The stone look on her face scares me. I pull myself along. “I told you, I can’t bring you to her, to Rex. To anyone. I don’t have her power.”
“Funny,” Cassidy twirls them in her hand as she approaches. “In Rewind’s tests, electricity has been proven to help unlock the brain’s capacity for time travel. Did you know that?”
My heart pounds and I scamper away, but Cassidy lunges for my foot and pulls me back. She spins me over using something more than just force. She readies the baton right above my heart and I struggle for breath.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“Until I have Lara back, I’m doing nothing but this.” She grits her teeth and she presses the baton down onto my skin.
The electricity radiates out, but it is most severer where the baton hits my flesh. My head rears back and I scream. Cassidy readies them again and a voice interrupts her. “Let me talk to her.”
Donovan. Thank God. My husband, for lack of a better word might be the only saving grace I have.
“Don, it’s hard to watch, it’s hard for me too, but—.”
“Just a second with her. Please, Cass.”
I sit up on the floor. Cassidy throws her arms up in frustration and walks away toward the computer consoles near the viewing screen. Donovan comes over and offers me a hand. “Why don’t you come off the floor now.”
I take his hand, aware my limbs are shaking. I try to cover it up by crossing my arms, but I’m trembling and afraid. Donovan wheels a chair over and gestures to it. “Need a seat?”
I shake my head and can’t stop the tears from falling. “I didn’t think it’d be this way. I thought…I thought you guys would accept me.” I chew on my bottom lip. “He made it sound so easy.”
“Rex?” Donovan asks.
I nod.
Donovan sighs and his arms relax at his side. “Level with me, okay? We can stop all this right now but I need you to answer me. Can you do that?”
I shrug. I can’t give him what he needs but I’m not ready to deal with Cassidy again. “I’ll try.”
“Where’s our Lara? Where’s my wife?”
I glance at Cassidy as she angrily types on a keyboard, her eyes transfixed on me, before I return my eyes to Donovan. He’s so hopeful. He so badly wants to know where his wife is. There’s real love there and I can’t bring myself to lie to him.
“She’s…” I squeeze my eyes shut. I don’t even know how to tell him.
“Where is she? Just tell me.”
“She’s gone. I’m all that’s left. If you love your wife….I’m all that’s left.”
Donovan’s jaw twists with anger and his eyes come alive. His arms come up offensively and grab mine. “I want to help you. I can’t help you if you aren’t honest with me.”
“She’s gone, Donovan.” I try to sound sincere instead of afraid. “Rex switched us. He pulled me onto his dark bridge when Mike put Lara into my life.”
“Dark bridge?” Cassidy mutters. “What’s the dark bridge?”
Donovan holds a finger up to her but doesn’t take his eyes off me. “And what did you see?”
“She came after Rex and Mike. I hid and she didn’t see me.” I swallow hard. “She managed to win, to get away from Mike and back to the timeline to fix it. Mike managed to pull her back before she restored time, but she wasn’t whole anymore. She was golden. She came apart, like strands of time. Her essence…it just…dissolved into the stream. Just like that one.” I nodded my head out at the viewing screen.
Donovan’s hands loosen on my arms. “There’s no way…”
He’s vulnerable and I use that to plead my case. “That’s when Rex sent me here. He told me what to do. There’s no time on the dark bridge.”
“Just like here,” Cassidy says and her eyes widen. She’s coming up with a plan but I have no idea what it might be.
“I can’t believe this. I won’t.” Donovan shakes his head as he backs away from me. His hands are on the side of his head as he paces nowhere specific. He’s losing his mind and I can’t help but feel sorry for him.
“If you had just bought that I was—.”
“Shut up,” Donovan points a finger at me but won’t look back. He’s at the viewing screen and he places his hand on it, like he expects to feel if what I’m saying is the truth or not. But he snaps it away. “Where the hell are you, Lara?”
Chapter Fourty: Molly Montgomery
Breath enters my body as we appear back on the bridge. The golden dust of the time stream places Mike and I on the ground, before it swirls above us. I slowly blink my eyes, aware Donovan and Cassidy rush toward us as the stream hovers near the ceiling, swirling in circles.
Cassidy’s face wears absolute shock as she clings to my arm. “What is that?”
The grief in my heart threatens to overtake me and I look to Donovan. He shakes his head as if he knows what I’m going to say. “Don’t say it. Just don’t.”
“There’s nothing else I can say. You know what it is. You know who it is.”
Donovan’s face breaks out into a near sob, but it keeps it in. Instead, he holds a hand over his mouth and stares up at the ceiling.
“The energy that makes Lara so special, it separated from her body when she restored the timeline. It was too much for flesh and bone. It was…stripped away.”
Grief and disppair hangs over all of us. Mike steps up closer to us. “It’s my fault. I should’ve stopped them. I should’ve told someone…”
“What did you say?” Donovan looks at Mike sharply. “You knew? You were there? I never saw you.”
I will Mike not to answer Donovan when he’s this upset, but Mike nods. “I was with Rex and Future Mike. I thought….”
Donovan charges for Mike and wraps his hands around his throat. “You killed Lara!”
Cassidy and I peel Donovan away from Mike and push him back. “Really not helping, Don,” I whisper.
His eyes are alive with fury. “What would you like me to do?”
I don’t know, that’s the problem. “I’ll use time to find….something. I’ll find her before she fixed things. I’ll….” I’m reaching for straws. No one can change time the way Lara can.
“We use the bridge,” Cassidy says. “We open at a different time. Before this all happened.”
“Then Rex and Future Mike will reset too.” I shake my head. “We’ll have to do this all over again and Lara will still have to reset the timeline. She’ll still be destroyed.”
Cassidy sighs and swears under her breath. Donovan paces. He won’t look at Mike, at any of us. From the way his fists are curled up, I’m pretty sure it’s a good thing. We’re all praying, searching, and my eyes are fixed on the golden stream above me. Give me the answer, Lara. Plea
se.
Alternate Lara just stands there gripping her hands. “I wish I could be the Lara you need me to be.”
It’s almost a good idea.
“How do we find her?” Cassidy pulls me off to the side. “How do we get her back?”
“I can do it,” Mike says. “I can put her back where she belongs.”
Everyone stops to stare at him. “How?” Donovan asks with anger simmering in his voice just beneath the tinest bit of hope.
“My power’s growing. I can rearrange time, memories. Even People. It’s how Future Mike put you two together.” He gestures to Cassidy and Donovan.
“Are you talking about just making a pretend Lara?” The idea disgusts me no matter how much I want to bring her back.
Mike shakes his head. “I can pull her essecense from the time stream. I’m pretty sure I can. She just won’t have a body. I’ll need to put her consciousness into something. We just need to find a body.”
Alternate Lara steps up. “I can do it. I can be the body.”
“You’ll cease to be who you are,” Cassidy says. “You’ll always be Lara, but a different one. You won’t have your memories. Only hers.”
Lara nods. “She’s special. She has everything I’ve always wanted and beyond that, she seems amazing. I’m…” Her lip quivers. “I’m not. I’m scared, angry, bitter. I want to do this. Please.”
I shake my head. “You’re a person, we can’t just delete you like a computer program.”
“Are you sure you can do this?” Donovan interrupts. “What if we mess this up?”
I gawk at him. He can’t possibly think this is something we can do.
“I won’t mess it up,” Mike says. “I know what I’m doing. Future Mike was training me to move people around. Change memories the way I want. It’s going to take some time, but I can do this. I promise.”
“Don—.”
“Are we really going to do this?” Cassidy asks.
Donovan only shoots her a nasty glare. “If she wants to do it, we do it. I’m not ready to give up on Lara, are you?”
