Through Time Again

Ch.26 Further

Thomas swore upon entering the future. Steadies himself. Catching his breath as the electrical tingling subsides.

"Tom Graft?"

"I know, you were probably expecting—holy shit!"

The Olivier standing before him is much older than he'd been just awhile ago.

"How far in the future did I go?" He looks around seeing he's back in the secret cellar where Ross had given him Anet's watch.

"Quite further than your last trip. Welcome to the year 2023."

Thomas swears.

"You're here because of what happened to Anet in 1933. We have the article downloaded from the public archives."

"You said that that wasn't going to happen when you went further back to save her!" He tries to maintain his calm. "But it's Jake! I figured it all out in two hours. You went back and got her didn't you?"

"We did."

"Then you sent her back to 1933."

"I did."

"The Anet you saw die in '33 wasn't Anet in her first merry-go-round with time. You got her out of 1928. And the Anet you saw was Anet on her second merry-go-round."

"That's the conclusion we came to when we saw the article."

"So why haven't you done anything about it these past 12 years!?"

"Look, son. Anet had me destroy the time machine when she went through to '32. We weren't to rebuild 'til the heat was off us. Jacob Maggio is the cause of all this future mess, he tried to stop her. There's not exactly a factory that spits out time machines! This isn't easy work we're doing! If Jacob found out, he'd be all over it! We literally just fired it up moments ago. Anet's Anchor came on with it."

"Jacob Maggio is descended from Lorenzo's kids." Thomas sorts, "He's Anet's Lost Boy—her fiancé I mean." The thought that Anet has always been mixed up with the Maggios, long before she went through time... he swears. "Well, I'm here now because I've figured one more thing. This isn't Anet's last merry-go-round."

"What do you mean?"

"Somehow we are going to rescue her from that event on Independence Day '33 for good! It's about to happen—it has happened— whatever! All I know is, she goes back, once more at the very least."

"What makes you so certain?"

"Because, she doesn't remember the things that happened before the burning of L'Angela. She said she remembers getting engaged to Vic, but that was June 8, 1928."

"That's when we found her, and brought her back."

"But she was still there! She was there until that night L'Angela was destroyed."

"You think she went back-or goes back."

"Absolutely."

"So we save her, then send her back to another death?"

"I don't believe she dies in that fire. Her remains were never recovered. I spent five years thinking she had, but I didn't know about any of this. Maybe her trip to '33 might've turned out different if I had."

Olivier seems to ponder all this.

"Look, I don't know everything happening that she felt she needed to cuff herself to Vic to make better. But obviously everyone will get wise and realize what she really needed to fix was back in 1928!"

"...I believe you're right, Mr. Graft." He steps toward the book case. Grabs a small device.

"What's that?"