The traveler

Derailed

"It's been ten days now."
"I know."
"I guess he's not coming back to us."
Rechra looked outside the window of their tavern room. Pierce lay on the floor – one couldn't really tell whether he was unconscious or dead.
"Do you think he succeeded?" Merithorn asked.
"I see no other possibility. Otherwise, he would still be tormented by all this time travel."
"So you think he's in a better place?"
"Definitely one more suited to him."
They were both silent for a while.
"He deserves a proper burial," Merithorn said.
"I guess."
They both stood up and went to the local church.

"It's been seven days now."
"There must still be something you can do!"
"I'm sorry," the doctor said and left Keymard's room.
Now Tim was the only person left there. He rejoiced slightly, and thought about what this meant for him. For one thing, it's weird to have someone creep up into your room and faint; it becomes a lot more interesting when that someone is carrying technology that nobody's ever seen before. Well, except for him. He did remember what was told to him when he went back in time though: nobody in the time before time travel was invented must find out that time travel exists. Hiding all that technology and sending it back into the future was the first thing Tim had done correctly, but if Keymard would've woken up he could've still told everyone. At least that wouldn't happen anymore. Besides, if anyone else would've seen him it probably would've been seen as another alien incident, like Roswell.
On the other hand, he also felt sad. This was also Isaac: which meant one of his friends was gone. A friend who he shared many a laugh with over lunch breaks. A friend who covered up for him while he was lost in the wormhole. A friend, whom he betrayed with the time loop gun, and never would be able to apologize to for that. Not that he would've gotten forgiveness anyway.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, and left the room, knowing that by doing that Keymard had no living relatives and his body would probably be donated to science.

"It's been six days now."
"What are you getting at?"
"My life is literally six days long right now, and it's been six days of prison," Macaroni said. "Have a little mercy on me, will you?"
"I've already told you what happened, don't pretend it never did," Isaac said. "Four weeks ago, you changed my life forever. The first three of those were the weirdest of anybody's lives ..."
"Not everybody's," Zarchi interrupted.
"...of any human's life up until the time of my normal life!" Isaac shouted, whilst presenting a mean look to Zarchi.
"And on top of that, you put the lives of many innocent people at risk by using time travel so recklessly. For Pastor's sake, you sent someone back in time against his will! I don't care whether you hired him or not, that is completely unacceptable! Didn't you think about the very likely possibility of paradoxes at any time during your actions?"
"I wouldn't know," Macaroni said. "All I know is what you told me."
Deeming his case hopeless, Zarchi left the prisons, and Isaac followed.
"So what will become of me now?" he said.
"You're a free man, you can choose," Zarchi replied. "You can go back to your own time, if you can keep this all a secret – or you can stay here. I'm sure nobody will mind to have you here, especially after all we've done."
"This isn't where I belong, though," Isaac said. "It's been really great getting to know you, but I'm never going to understand any of your technology the way you do. If the Council approves, I'd like to go home."
"The Council doesn't need to know."
Isaac looked at Zarchi in bewilderment.
"They probably wouldn't let you go, Isaac, seeing as something like this is what started all this mess. But I know you now. I know that you wouldn't want anybody else to go through what you've been through, right?"
Isaac nodded.
"Then I'm pretty sure you can keep this all a secret. Just tell everyone you needed some time off and went to Hawaii or something. Maybe even post it on that website, what's it called? RaceFace?"
Isaac laughed. "FaceSpace, I think you mean. Yeah, that's a good idea. How do you even know about it anyway?"
"It's the only Earthly website that managed to get fame throughout the entire Galaxy. And I still don't get it," Zarchi said with a smile.
They were both silent for a while.
"You know, there's two things I still wonder about," Isaac said.
"Kablam," Zarchi said. Isaac looked at Zarchi in a weird way. "Is that not an expression for Humans? Oh. In that case, I meant to say: go ahead."
"Who will be the new Emperor, and what will become of the InstaCaust?"
"The Council will handle both of those," Zarchi said. There was a small indication of doubt on his face.
"You don't really trust them, do you?" Isaac asked.
"They do other things than I would. But they're always doing the right thing, I'll give them that."

NAME: Icey2718
AGE: Eternal, bitches!
SEX: No, thank you.
LOCATION: The smelliest planet, Uranus

Isaac was looking at his FaceSpace profile again, after having posted about his fabulous five-star holiday to Hawaii. It's been one day now since he came back home, and he still had some trouble giving everything that happened a rightful place. Whilst pondering his adventures, a FaceSpace message got his attention.

"1 new friend request: Hyper Heidersen"

Isaac hesitated for a while, but before he could make a decision he got a message from Tim.

HYPER: "i know things hav been ruff between us but i'd like to say sorry and start over"
HYPER: "if theres anything i can do 2 make up tell me"

Initially Isaac was angry, but after a while he thought back to all the fun times he's had with Tim.

ICEY2718: "u can pretend nothing happened, and do a good word for me with mark concerning the funds :)"

The response came almost immediately.

HYPER: "pretend what never happened? ;)"

Isaac smiled, and moved his mouse to the "Accept" button.