The Concept of Volatile Time

Part Three: Skuld "What Will Be"

"Is there any way of avoiding this?" Alver said, tapping his foot.

Rose shook her head, "Probably not."

"Well how bad could it be? You've all made it here." Dan spoke like he was trying to change what was really going on by saying something else.

Collins looked at him straight-on, unmoving. "If you haven't noticed, I'm paralyzed. Rose is covered in blood, and Charlie's got some weird thing. What was it again?"

"I'm half-blind from tear gas overexposure," Charlie supplied. Collins nodded,

"Yeah, that." Charlie stepped forward, holding his hands out in a gesture to show peace. "I'm sorry to say that war has broken out all over. It isn't just little things now, there are uprisings in every state, almost daily. It's like someone's set a barrel of fireworks aflame, and we're scattering, trying to find out which ones are duds and which ones are going to blow our hands off."  With this, Amara was on the verge of succumbing to her nerves again, and she  desperately felt in her pockets for a paper clip, loose string, anything to toy with to distract her.

 You stopped the Stock Market Crash, you caused the beginning of a violent violent violent war, you made a brand new timeline that couldn't even live past a century. You huge, tremendous, colossal failure.  She caught hold of a dime and ran in assiduously between her fingers, burning her stress and heating the surface of the coin with fevered friction. It seemed to distract her from what her mind was saying, Find an action, and repeat it until you've forgotten whatever was bothering you, Alver had said to her during an attack once. She drew the dime out of her pocket and looked at it. It glinted in the light, free of tarnish and warm in her hand. Focus. She tuned back in to what they were saying, which turned out to be a conversation between Dan and Professor Alver.

Dan was talking with his hands and speaking quickly, explaining the nature of their mission. Alver seemed amused. "So what you're saying," he interrupted, "is that the reason of the mission was to research the different time progression theories, and you came here with your multiverse, and it's still relevant research. That's definitely fitting."

Dan looked as anxious as Amara had been feeling. "It is, Sir, but we do need to think about what's going on, with the war and all that." Haru and Emma were talking to Rose, who had sat down on the armrest of a chair to think about the situation.  Alver seemed to consider what Dan was saying.

"I don't want to spread myself too thin, but I think we can solve this easily." The man is a genius, after all. "Yes, quite a simple problem, looking at the big picture. The easiest answer is for you four just to go back in this timeline."

The people in the room, from both the future and alternate present turned towards him. Like moths to flame, their attention was solely on the Professor and his answer to their problems.

Amara understood his reasoning. If they went back farther, past 1929, the offshoot and the original would connect into a single timeline. They would go back to 1929, avoid running into themselves, and travel forward before the stock request was sent. It was simple."So we just hit reverse and when we're back far enough, we'll switch into the other lane?" Dan asked, giving an apt metaphor.     

"Essentially, yes," Alver said. "You'll go back, making sure to avoid the other versions of yourselves, lest a paradox, and from there, you're free to go back into your timeline." Emma seemed satisfied with his explanation.

"So will we depart now, or tomorrow?" she asked.

Darwin Alver shrugged. "You may want to get some rest, it's imperative that you don't make any mistakes." He looked at Amara. "You and your friends may go back to the barracks if you want. If not, the common room should be open by now."