Chapter 30: Out of Time

April 8th, 2017

The week had been pretty calm and comfortable compared to what Cadi and Rick had been used to. Sure there were a lot of people from the press that kept trying to get in talk to them, and they had to talk to about a billion different policemen and investigators about some of the events that had taken place, but all that mattered, was that the two of them were free now. They were back with their family.

Rick felt like he was never going to take anything for granted ever again. They had finally taken out the tubes and the needles, and he and his sister had been cleared to go home in the morning.

They were going home.

And now Rick was sleeping comfortably, finally able to move around without being plugged into a bunch of machines or things with fluids. But despite being insanely comfortable, he found himself waking up in the middle of the night.  Groggily, he sat up and rubbed his eyes, wondering why he was now awake. He looked over to the clock to see that it was 1:32 in the morning. He yawned, and was about to go back to sleep when he noticed that the bed next to him was empty.

Rick jolted up, his heart pounding, his mouth dry.

Wait.

Maybe she was just using the bathroom? He bit his lip, and glanced around, waiting for her to come back or…

And then he realized how quiet everything was.

A horrible thought came to his mind.

He looked around to see that all the equipment in the room still seemed to be on, but they were no longer making any sounds.  

Slowly, he looked over to the clock.

It was still 1:32.

Time was stopped.

Rick jumped out of bed, a sense of dread wash over him. It had also suddenly occurred to him that with the change of time, it was now April 9th.

“CADI!!” he yelled, running out into the hallway. He paused, and tried to listen.

That’s when he noticed there was a strange flashing light coming from one of the windows. He ran to it and shoved it open, the cold night air blowing through him.

It was coming from the roof.

Rick ran down the hallway, wanting to cry, feeling even more scared about what was happening now than everything they had been through. He ran to an elevator and slammed the button multiple times.

“Please… please no Cadi… You can make it… Just wait for me to get there… Pleeease.” he sobbed.

The elevator was taking too long, so he bolted over to the stairwell and started sprinting up the many stairs. He didn’t care that his lungs were about to burst. He didn’t care that he still felt a little weak. He had to get to Cadi!!

Finally, he got to a door that said “Roof Access”, and he barreled through.

He was met with something that could have been from a science fiction film.

It looked like Harry and Emille had completed their machine. On one part of the roof, there was a huge circle made out of metal standing upright, with several other smaller circles around it. Coming from the base, were many tubes and wires, as if they were the tentacles of some metal monster. The wires connected to some other machinery, which was all up and running. There were some weird white lights coming from the middle of the smaller circles, almost as if it was lightning.

Harry was standing behind a large dashboard with a few dials, levers, and buttons, and Emille was standing in front of the machine, the cold wind blowing through her blonde hair and lab coat. Cadi was standing on a circular pad off to the side in her hospital gown, clutching her arms and shivering. They all looked over to him.

“Glad you could join us Rick.” Emille smirked.

Rick closed his eyes and reached for the feeling of unpausing time. He had to make sure that others could see this and help. He couldn’t do this on his own. When he knew that time was going again, he glared at the machine and concentrated.

For some reason, it wouldn’t fast forward. Emille laughed.

“Sorry. But that little trick isn’t going to work this time.”

Then, she pulled out what looked like a little gun, and before he could react, she had fired it. But instead of any bullets, Rick felt himself pushed back as if by some kind of forcefield, and soon he was flying through the air. He hit an air vent hard and fell to the ground, the breath knocked out of him.

Wincing, he shakily pushed himself up, trying to figure out what to do.

Was that gun one of those weapons he had heard them talking about? He looked up to see that she was pointing it at him again. Quickly, he looked down at the ground where she was standing and fast forwarded time, causing the cement to disintegrate. She jumped out of the way just in time, giving him enough cover to duck behind another vent.

Then, he peeked around the corner and quickly rewound time on the part she was currently standing on. It turned into wet cement, which she sunk in, and then as fast as he could, he fast forwarded it to when it would be dry.

She was now stuck in the ground.

Ignoring her angry roar, he made a break for Cadi.

He could see Harry running at him out of the corner of his eye, and before he could react, the man tackled him. Rick punched and dodged, trying to fight him off. He tried pausing him or slowing him down, or something, but nothing seemed to be affecting him. Rick felt the man’s hands around his neck, and in a final desperate attempt, he threw a punch.

For some reason, it was a really fast punch, which caught Harry off guard. Rick gasped and crawled away from him, putting a hand to his throat. It was weird. It had almost felt like he had fast forwarded the movement in his own arm… He looked up as Harry was coming for him again, and Rick willed everything into doing what he had just done with his arm. Luckily, it worked, and it sent Harry flying back.

Unfortunately, this had now made Rick feel pretty dizzy. He could tell this new ability was still difficult for him, and if he did it again, he would probably be out for the count.

“Cadi!! Come on!” he yelled, making his way over to her.

“I-I can’t!!” she sobbed, trying to pry her feet from off the glowing pad she was standing on. “I’m stuck!!”

“What do you mean-.”

VSHOOO!

Rick felt himself flying through the air again from Emille’s little force field gun. He hit the cement barrier surrounding the roof, and then he was falling.

“RICK!!!” Cadi screamed. Desperately, Rick reached for anything as he was falling off the building, and hastily grabbed onto a little ledge. He could hear sirens off in the distance, and someone down below screamed. Rick held on with all his might, not wanting to look down, for fear that he would fall.

“Come on…” he growled to himself, trying to use his feet to find something to give him leverage. He tried to figure out if there was something he could do with his powers to help him get up. The wind blew through him, and for a moment, he was terrified that he was going to fall. He looked up as the lights on the roof started to really pick up. He could hear Cadi crying… What could he do?!

Then, as he felt the wind, he remembered that environment mattered. And it was windy. He was holding onto a stone building… What did wind do to stone over time? Rick concentrated on a very specific part of the wall near his foot, trying his best to ignore the drop below him. Then he tried to think of how the wind could erode through it, create a hole…

Slowly, the stone gave way into a hole.

He started to climb back up.

Finally, he reached up to the top ledge and got an arm over it. Then, he swung over a leg and collapsed back on the roof. Out of breath, he looked over to Cadi as the pad she was standing on got brighter.

“Cadi!!” he exclaimed, ignoring anything else that might have been happening. Lightning flashed from the circular machinery, and Rick dove for his sister on the pad.

As soon as he was on the pad, he realized that something was wrong.

When his sister had told him that she was stuck, he hadn’t understood what she meant. But now, his feet felt glued to the platform, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not get off of it. The machine started to whirr, and more lightning spurted out of the smaller circles as they started to spin.

The platform the two siblings were standing on seemed to be pulling the two of them down even more. Rick and Cadi were pulled to the ground as the machine a few feet away went crazy. Rick tried to move, his body felt very heavy. Straining, he reached out for Cadi, who was also struggling. He grabbed her hand and squeezed.

“It’s working!!” Harry exclaimed over all of the noise. He ran out to stand next to his fiance in awe as the large circle started to have some sort of light appear in the center of it as the lightning weaved itself together. The lightning started to spin, and a vortex appeared in the large circle. The noise that was going died down till it left them with only a soft hum.

With the appearance of the vortex, the platform that was holding them down turned off, leaving the two siblings laying there with bloody noses.

“C-Cadi-are-are you ok?” Rick managed, dragging himself over to her.

“Y-yeah…” she said weakly, pushing herself off the ground. Rick pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly, feeling exhausted and scared about what was coming. He and Cadi looked ahead fearfully at whatever was going to happen next.

“The time stream… It’s beautiful…” Emille breathed, her eyes wide. Harry also stared with his mouth dropped open. Their awe was cut short however, when a figure started to appear in the middle of the vortex they had opened. Rick gasped.

Out of the vortex, came Mary, her expression cold. Harry and Emille immediately pointed their weapons at her. Emille with her little gun, and Harry with one that was much bigger.

“Ha! So we finally drew you out!!” Emille exclaimed. “It’s time you gave us some answers!!” Mary rolled her eyes.

“You really think those piddly little things are going to be able to stop me?” she sneered. “You have no idea who I even am or what you’re dealing with.”

Harry and Emille glared at the woman.

“Then why don’t you enlighten us?” Harry seethed. “Who are you? What are you doing in the time stream? And why have you been trying to stop us?”

Mary smirked.

“I am Time. I live in the time stream. I am the time stream. All of it exists within me, and I can see all of existence.”

Harry and Emille regarded her with confusion.

“That makes no sense…” Harry murmured.

“That’s because you’re an ignorant mortal.” Time laughed.

“Wait-Time is-a person?!” Cadi whispered. Rick’s mouth dropped open.

T…

T stood for Time.

Time?!

Mary sure had a lot of explaining to do.

“Well-we-we’ve got you trapped!” Emille yelled, her voice faltering. Time glanced over at where Rick and Cadi were staring.

“And you have been treating my Time Agents very poorly.” she said, starting to sound angry. “Besides, somehow, I think you know what I’m here to do.”

“No! I won’t let you!” Emille said shrilly. “Now Harry!!”

Harry and Emille fired their guns, but Time moved faster than the eye could see. She was soon standing in front of Harry. Emille tried to fire her gun again, but Time put a hand up, and the gun backfired, sending Emille flying through the air. She skidded along the ground, scraping part of her face and bloodying up her arm.

Harry held up his gun to Time’s face, but she simply put her hand on it, and it quickly disintegrated. Then she grabbed him by the face.

“HARRY! NOOO!” Emille screamed, reaching out to him, tears in her eyes.

“Don’t worry. This’ll be quick.” Time said icily to him as he stood there petrified.

Then, almost instantaneously, she fast forwarded him through time. It all only happened in about the span of three seconds, but it was still terrifying to watch. Within a few seconds, Harry withered away into dust and blew away in the wind.

Cadi shrank back, horrified, and Rick, held her closer to him. Emille screamed.

“Harry!! Harry! No…. no…” she sobbed, sinking to the ground. Time slowly walked up to her.

“I’m sorry Emille. But if Harry were to live, he’d bring a future where he would hurt a lot of people. I can’t let him start a war.”

Emille looked up at her, shooting darts of hatred with her eyes, which were now bloodshot. Blood ran down one side of her face from where she skid, and she clutched her arm.

“You… killed him…” she whispered. “I’m going to make you… p-pay.”

Time cocked her head.

“It’s kind of weird actually. For some reason, I can’t tell what your future holds.”

Emille suddenly drew out her force field gun and tried to shoot the woman standing over her, but she must have forgotten that it had malfunctioned. Emille was catapulted backwards, and with a scream, she was sucked into the very vortex that she had created. Time stood there for a moment, and then waved her hand in front of her, causing the machine to disintegrate. Then she walked over to where Rick and Cadi were sitting.

The two of them shrank back from her, terrified of her sheer power and supposed lack of sympathy towards the two scientists she had just destroyed. But now, her face looked kind, and she was holding a hand out to them.

“I know you probably both don’t like me anymore…” she started almost apologetically. “But trust me. If you could see the future Harry would have brought… all the pain and suffering that would have come from him… you wouldn’t have hesitated either.”

Rick stared at her, and then with a deep breath, took her hand. After all, this whole time, she had done nothing but help them, which made it apparent that for whatever reason, she was on their side.

“W-what did you mean by Time agents?” Cadi blurted. Time laughed.

“You two… kind of help me out with some things in the future… There’s others that have powers like yours you know. You’ll meet them in time.”

“There’s so many things I want to ask you…” Rick murmured. Time put a hand on his shoulder.

“Save it. You’ll find out everything soon enough. Now, I think there are some people who’ll be up here any second so…”

No sooner had she said that, then the door to the roof access burst open, and several policemen came rushing through, guns at the ready. Cadi grabbed onto Rick’s leg as a reaction. Behind the police, were their parents.

“Cadi! Rick! Are you ok?!” their father asked in his panic.

“I’ll see you guys in a few years ok?” Time winked. When Rick turned back to her, she had already disappeared.

So instead of worrying about where Time went, he and Cadi ran to their parents, and they all held each other tightly as a family.