Time Series: Complete Bundle

by Claire Davon

  It was tempting, in a way. She could go back to being Fiona, with no recollection of time travel or saving the world. She could go back to her normal life, never realizing the extraordinary. She would never have to know the pain of losing Sonder.

  That was the old Fiona, the one who didn’t want to take chances. Not the new Fiona.

  “No,” she said, glad her voice was firm. “I don’t want to lose these memories. I don’t want to forget the Guardians and Liberators existed or that the Event happened and I – we – stopped it.” I don’t want to lose Sonder.

  You won’t.

  She winced. Right. Even though she was speaking out loud, they were in her mind. She looked at the group that had gathered while she was discussing things with the one being. They all looked similar, and she couldn’t determine the sex or color of any of them. Maybe sexual differences didn’t exist in their time. Maybe race didn’t either.

  “You must be sure. You cannot return here. Once you are gone we will be as well.”

  She had so many questions, but knew she wasn’t going to get any answers. The Voice would leave her, and these people would go back to wherever and whenever they came from. It was over. They were free.

  “The bases will stay? The time devices will stay? My powers…will stay?”

  Yes. “We will still need people to watch the time stream. That was the original intention.” The person looked at her. “Humanity cannot know. It is too soon.”

  “Wouldn’t it be safer to remove it from all of us?’

  The person smiled. “But it is what happened, and therefore it is what must happen.”

  Oh lord, another paradox. So many questions. She would never again live her life sequentially, but time would always move forward.

  “Fiona, you will be returned with your memories intact. We will send you back to the proper time.” The person paused again. “You must direct and preserve the time stream. You are the Traveler. You have much to do.”

  “I don’t know if I can,” she protested.

  “You can,” the person assured her. “You have.”

  Enough. She couldn’t take any more. “Please send me back. Thank you,” she said. Her head lanced with pain and Fiona lay back.

  Thank you, Fiona Jensen.

  One of them made a gesture and she felt the nothingness grip her. Fiona surrendered to it, trusting they were good to their word. They would put her back where she belonged.

  Once again, Fiona descended into the black. She hated the black.

  #

  “She’s awake.”

  This voice Fiona knew. She thought she heard beeping. Cautiously she opened her eyes and without surprise saw she was back in the medical bay at the Guardian base. It was Illiria’s voice.

  Fiona looked around. Rogald was there, along with two people she didn’t recognize. Doctors, or whatever served for doctors among the Guardians. They were scanning her. Her vitals were registering above her head, like something out of Star Trek. It was dejà vu from the first time she’d found herself in the Guardians’ care. This time, though, there wouldn’t be any Sonder coming through the door, no discovery of their mutual dreams. That part of her life was over.

  She raised her head again and there was no pain. Whatever the people behind the Voice had done, they seemed to have cured her. They had been stranded in the black for however long it had been, if time existed there. They were whoever they were, from whenever they were, and she thought the black was second nature to them.

  “Hi,” she said. “I did it, didn’t I?”

  Illiria nodded, as did Rogald, but the doctors looked blank. They continued to examine her, but gave Illiria a look.

  “You did. We’ll explain later,” Rogald said, almost mouthing the words.

  Illiria waved the doctors away. Once they had gone, she focused on Fiona.

  “Congratulations, Traveler,” she said, and Fiona heard approval in the taciturn woman’s voice. “You did it.”

  She sank back. That much was good.

  “The doctors? They acted like they didn’t know what we were talking about.”

  Illiria shook her head. “Fiona, remember the anomalies. The ones we fixed had an overlay and they merged back into the time stream. To most people the Event never happened. You should see it, Traveler,” she said and Fiona thought that may be the first time Illiria had used that title for her. “People came from that time almost as soon as the Event vanished. It was as if they had been waiting and also like things had never been different. The world has no memory the Event ever happened. The fade is longer now. We still can’t jump as far as you can, but we can go greater time distances. We need to be careful with time, more than we ever have been.”

  She looked from one to the other. “But you guys remember? That it happened? The Event?”

  Illiria nodded. “There is a legend, something passed down to us from people in that time frame. They tell of the group who found the machines, the ones that went to Mars and back in our time. There was one who was going to open up all the portals. He swore there was another machine…but there never was. Not now, anyway. The government in that era know nothing about it; they think he is crazy. The original members of the Liberators and the Guardians are those expedition associates.”

  Paradoxes again. Fiona might get used to them, but right now she didn’t even try to sort through them. The world was safe. It would have to be enough.

  “What about the Commander’s descendent? What happened to him?”

  Illiria made a face. “He was raving when he emerged above ground. That part of San Francisco is mostly under water now, but the bunker is on a hill. He stood on the hilltop and shouted and raved until someone removed him from the area. I believe he’s been treated with mind reconditioning and is acceptable into society now.”

  Fiona shuddered. It would be easy to be thought of as crazy with a story like that. She couldn’t feel too sorry for the man. He had tried to destroy the world, thinking he was doing good. She understood. He had thought he would free humankind and make time travel possible. It made sense, when you thought about it that way. He didn’t understand the machine had malfunctioned. If only he had listened to reason. If he had, none of this would have been necessary. She existed, her time powers existed, because he was illogical. She would never have met Sonder without him. Even though she lost Sonder she would always be grateful for their time together.

  “What happens now?”

  Rogald shrugged. “There is a record of the Event in our computers. Most think it is legend. It’s like the Tunguska meteor, or any of the anomalies that were changed. Like my life. The original was overlaid with the new reality and it faded into non-existence.”

  She shivered. The time travelers were vital to preserve or fix the time stream if needed. But yet, the reason the Voice left them was because that was the way it happened, and therefore it had to stay, because that’s how it happened. But it wouldn’t have happened without the Voice and their bases…argh. She would lose her mind trying to wrap around it.

  “We know,” Fiona said. “We know it happened and I guess that will have to do.” She couldn’t bring herself to ask what had become of Sonder. She would need to know, but not yet. The idea of speaking of him in the past tense was something she couldn’t get used to.

  “It will do.” Illiria paused. “Those who are in power know, even if they don’t remember. I don’t have to tell you, Fiona, you make some people nervous.”

  Well, hell. That’s what she got for saving the world.

  “What happens now?”

  Illiria looked at her. “What do you want to happen? You can’t go back to your old life. You shouldn’t go back to Santorini. You have such power. Both bases want you. I will want to show you the timeline and how it was altered, to understand what people think happened.”

  Rogald grinned. “It’s great to see people from that time period. With our new fade limits we have met a few of them. The world is very different, but it’s the Earth a
nd it’s here.”

  “How is a Liberator on this base?”

  “We got permission for Rogald to come when you were brought in. We are all also an enigma.”

  “All?” Fiona stuttered.

  The door opened and Gire appeared. Fiona’s heart stopped and started again. Then she blinked.

  Behind him, leaning on a metal cane was Sonder. An alive, breathing Sonder. Her heart did stop then.

  “But…” she said, looking at each person in turn. “The Voice said they couldn’t bring him back. They said that was beyond their power.”

  Sonder moved slowly, his eyes fixed on her. He looked pale, as if the shot had taken the vitality out of him. It didn’t matter. He was alive.

  “There was no need to bring him back,” Illiria said, frowning. “He never died. He was badly wounded, that is true, but Sonder was already phasing out, and he didn’t take the full impact. The doctors were able to save him.”

  Any negative thoughts Fiona thought about Illiria fled in that moment. In a sudden move, she flung her arms around the woman. Sonder drew nearer. Fiona felt moisture on her face and knew she was crying. That didn’t matter either.

  She stumbled out of bed and lurched toward him. Sonder dropped the cane and met her halfway. He hugged her so close she thought she might suffocate but she didn’t care. Nothing mattered except the feel of his body. She didn’t want to let go.

  “We saw, kale mou. We saw.”

  “How…” she looked at the three. Gire bowed and vanished through the door, and it shut behind him.

  Rogald shrugged. Fiona continued to cling to Sonder, absorbing the reality of him. He was alive. That was all that mattered.

  “We were shown, and we are not sure how. But we saw. We kept the memories when they faded from everyone else.” Sonder gestured to the door. “Gire has no memory of anything called the Event. The Event no longer exists. Earth stretches into time and space, as if it was never destroyed.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief. Sonder was here, the world was safe, and everything was restored to normal.

  “What about the Commander?” she asked.

  Rogald shrugged. “Nobody knows. He is nowhere.” He looked at Fiona. “It’s hard to explain to others. How do you say he died in a world that never occurred? The Event never happened and yet the Commander died in it. That is a paradox that would send the doctors running.”

  She groaned. “I don’t think I can handle any more paradoxes.”

  “No need to, kale mou. It’s over.”

  “What about what his desendant said? That I created the Event and needed to be stopped?”

  Illiria made a motion. “I don’t have an answer for that, Fiona, other than he was determined to turn the machine on and knew you were trying to stop him. Maybe there is an alternate timeline none of us remember. Or his descendant could have been lying to get the Commander to do what he wanted him to do. I don’t know. I don’t have reassurances for you, Fiona.”

  Fiona blinked, and shuddered. The Event was over, and balance was restored to the time continuum, but there would be lots of questions. She could jump away, back to Thera perhaps, with Sonder. Fiona paused. Maybe her ability to launch through time with impunity was due to the Voice’s influence and without them she would have a limited range. She would have to find out. She wanted to know where she could take Sonder. Her alive, beloved Sonder.

  “What happens now?” she asked, pulling away from Sonder’s solid warmth. “I love you, Sonder Michan. I thought you were dead. I asked the Voice to bring you back and they said they couldn’t. I thought that meant they couldn’t change time, and I accepted that, but oh I didn’t know how I was going to do it without you. I love you so much.”

  He cupped her face, his eyes dark and gentle. “And I love you, my dearest treasure, my Traveler. I would die for you. You are my life, my everything.”

  She saw Rogald glance at Illiria out of the corner of her eye.

  “They want to question you,” Sonder said. “Both bases. Illiria has been holding them off.”

  “I’ll do it as long as you need,” she said. “I owe you that much. You did it, Fiona, and I doubted you. I’m sorry for that. You did what nobody else could do.”

  Fiona marveled at the difference in the woman. Maybe they would never be friends but they could be. Things had changed. She wondered what the other people who had come through blocked time were like. She had so many questions and no answers. She wanted to see the future world, the Earth that hadn’t existed in their time. But not yet.

  “Thank you, Illiria. I think I’m ready now. If Sonder is. I won’t do it without him.”

  He looked at the duo. “First, I have an idea. Rogald, Illiria, we need to make a side trip. Would you be willing to stand up for us as witnesses?”

  Illiria looked startled but Rogald grinned.

  “Heck yeah, Guardian. When and where?” He looked at Fiona. “You going to make an honest man out of him?”

  “Now,” Sonder said. “I am thinking Las Vegas in the 1990s. We can be married and back in under a minute. Unless you want to plan a wedding,” he said. “I want to figure out this crazy mad life and how we’re going to live it together. I proposed when I thought I was going to die, but I meant every word. I want to marry you, Fiona Jensen. I want to wake up with you wherever and whenever we are. Together. Will you?”

  She smiled at him and slipped her hand into his. Her left hand lacked a ring, but it was unimportant. Their life hadn’t been ordinary or typical in any sense, and it never would be.

  “Of course I will,” she said.

  The rest could wait. They would go and be back before the base knew they were missing.

  “Fantastic,” Sonder said, with relief in his voice. “I don’t want to wait another minute for you to be my wife. Come.” He put his arm around her and bent to pick up the cane. Fiona went down with him.

  “Together,” she said. “Now and always.”

  “Together,” he said. “Let’s go get married, my beloved kale mou.”

  Whatever they faced in the future, there would be nothing like this moment, Fiona knew. They would say their vows. She didn’t know where it would take them, but it didn’t matter. The important thing was that they were together, and nothing would change that.

  Time could wait, but love could not.

  THE END