by Jill Cooper
Future Mike grabs me from behind and drags me toward the cage. I try to dig my heels into the floor. No, I won’t go in! I won’t let him defeat me like this.
“You will go where I tell you!” He grabs my hair and yanks hard.
“No!” I struggle and grip onto the doorframe of the cage. I’ll die before I get in there willingly.
A moment later, Future Mike screams as he’s seized from behind. Mike has his arm wrapped around is throat, pulling him backward into the cage.
I help by elbowing Future Mike in the chest, pushing him toward my brother. I run to clear the space. Give Mike time to do what he has to do.
Mike tosses him back and as he runs from the cage, I latch the door shut. Future Mike’s collapsed against the floor, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. His eyes hold nothing but concentrated hate for the both of us.
He was evil, he hurt everyone I love, but still to see that look pains me completely.
“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 rewinding 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. I grab my throat and dry heave, 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 cocoon. My vision fails and I sink into a deep unconscious state.
Either that, or I’m dead.
Chapter Thirty-Nine: Lara Crane
I fall flat onto my stomach and cringe. Cassidy’s methods of interrogation are different than I’d thought they’d be. Different than I’d been warned against. Rex had 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, her stance wide, and she 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 stony 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 severe where the baton hits my flesh. My head rears back and I scream. Cassidy readies the batons 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—she’s typing angrily 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. He grabs my arms. “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 his conflicting emotions 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, as though 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 Forty: Molly Montgomery
Breath enters my body as we appear back on the bridge. The golden dust of the time stream places Mike and me on the ground, before it swirls above us. I slowly blink my eyes, aware of Donovan and Cassidy rushing 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 then 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 ti
meline. It was too much for flesh and bone. It was…stripped away.”
Grief and despair 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. Please.
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, anger simmering in his voice just beneath the tiniest 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 essence 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?”
I’ve never seen him so angry, or ruthless. I know how desperately he wants Lara back. I know how dark his grief would get if we didn’t get her back. There is a dark cloud of regret and desperation shadows his future and I need to stop him.
“Don, listen—”
“I want to do it.” Alternate Lara nods her head and presses her lips together. It’s a look I’ve seen a million times before. She’s made up her mind and there’s no changing it.
We’re going somewhere we’ve never gone before. Somewhere we shouldn’t.
Chapter Forty-One: Donovan James
As Mike prepares to do the impossible, I spend time with Lara. Soon, she’ll be my wife. At least that’s what I hope happens, but the idea of my wife’s consciousness being in another Lara’s body disturbs me. But there’s no other alternative. We need her back.
I need her back.
“I’m really okay with this. Really. It’ll still be me, right? I’ll still be here, even if I don’t know it. I owe her, don’t you think?”
I hand her a glass of water as I sit beside her. “I wish I could answer definitely, but I can’t. If you change your mind…I’d understand. We’re asking you to sacrifice a lot.”
Lara nods and I recognize that determination on her face. “I’m not going to change my mind.” She sips her water. “What will she say when you tell her about me?”
Truth is, I don’t know. Truth is, I’m not sure how we’ll tell her any of this.
“Tell her I wanted to do this. Tell her it’s my honor, okay?”
I nod even though it’s a lie. “I promise.”
****
Mike gets Lara ready for the transfer of consciousness. We move to one of the private rooms on the bridge and Lara lies down on the bed. She swallows nervously and I take her hand in mine.
“It’ll be okay.”
“Memory transfer is a funny thing,” Mike says. “When Future Mike did it to the altered timeline, all of you fought against it. Old memories seeped in. If given long enough, the memories would’ve been permanent, but the mind fights against it. Lara’s will too.”
“What are you saying?” I scowl.
“She can’t know. You can’t tell her or we risk losing her again.”
I gaze down at Lara’s disappointed face and I feel what she feels. I don’t want to lie to Lara, but if that’s what is needed to pull this off, I don’t see an alternative. “Still time to call this off.”
Lara shakes her head and pushes her lips together. “I want this life. This is what I want. I’m ready.” She leans her head back on the pillow and for a brief moment, I lean over and kiss her lips gently for thanks. Her sacrifice is great. Her ability to give herself to us and to the real Lara Montgomery James humbles me.
Just like my Lara. There’s a piece of her in there and that gives me comfort that this is the right thing to do.
Mike needs privacy so Molly, Cassidy, and I return to the bridge. They both look as uncomfortable as I feel. I rub my hands and pace back and forth. It’s only been a minute but I feel like it’s been hours.
How long will it take?
When will we know?
“This is a bad idea,” Cassidy whispers, letting out a sigh. “Real bad.”
“You have any other ideas? Because this is it. Other than live life with that Lara.” I point toward the double doors that lead to where she lies.
“Maybe that’s what we should do,” Cassidy says.
I can’t believe she—of all people—would say something like that.
“And if Miranda found out?” I glance at Molly. “Your mom can’t handle any other blows. You’ve seen how fragile she’s been through all this.”
Molly shakes her head. “It’s not about Mom. It’s about you. Stop making excuses.”
My jaw grates back and forth. “Fine. It’s about me.”
“Always is.” Molly sighs.
“You have something to say? Maybe you should just say it.”
“Hey.” Cassidy narrows her eyes at me. “Back off. She’s Lara’s sister. You’re not the only one who feels this, but we didn’t have a say. Did we?”
I sigh and throw my hands up in frustration. If there were any residual feelings in me for Cassidy, they dissipate in a cloud of smoke. “Emotions are tense right now. I’m sorry, all right? I’m sorry.”
The girls seem happy with my act of appeasement and it’s another moment before Cassidy
continues. “We don’t know…Lara will hate this if she ever finds out. She’ll hate all of us. She sat with me and told me how much she hated what Rex did to her. The two years in the cage. This—”
“It’s different, Cass. It’s not the same thing.”
“Trading one Lara for another? I don’t think she’d agree.” Cassidy shakes her head.
“It’s what she did when she saved her mother’s life. She erased one version of Lara when she became her,” I answer.
“A different time. She’s grown so much since then.” Cassidy sits on the edge of the console and crosses her arms. “We’re going to have to lie to her every day. Every time we see her. How can you think that’s a good idea?”
I don’t. That’s the worst part. My stomach is twisted in the worst possible way and there’s nothing I can say to convince Cassidy otherwise. But it’s the only idea. I’m not willing to live my life without my Lara and I’m pretty sure Cassidy and Molly feel the same way. We’d be lost without her.
The situation blows but it’s the one we’ve been dealt. We do what we need to, just like Lara always does.
“It’ll erode us,” Molly says, eyes wide. “I can see it. This is going to destroy us.”
“I won’t let it.” I shake my head. “This is not going to pull us apart.” To allow anything else would be so painful, but how can I live with this? How can I look in her eyes every day and pretend none of this happened?
We’re startled when Mike comes back onto the bridge. He’s wiping his hands together, proud of himself. “It’s done. She’s starting to wake up.”
I’m over to him in a few shorts steps. “Do you think it worked? Will she be all right?”
Mike grins and it alleviates my fear. “It worked. I think we should do something special for her.”
Chapter Forty-Two: Lara James
“Wake up, sleepy head,” Donovan’s voice wakes me from what feels like a really long, restful sleep.