Nothing Would've Ever Happened

Chapter 7

...ourt order will begi... in testification of Jus...nd Elaine Cortez...

Slowly, he began to wake up as he heard a booming voice come from far away. He felt himself kneeling down in the middle of the court, in front of the judge's podium. As his vision started clearing up, he noticed that he was in a courtroom with dark shadows surrounding him. He tried to move his arms, but they were handcuffed behind him. He looked to his left and found Elaine kneeling next to her, slowly waking up as well.

"Justin...?" Her voice softly called out to him as she finally gained consciousness.

"Elaine! I'm right here!" He said quietly.

"You two! Silence!" The judge called out. It was hard to see anything since the courtroom was dark and the only lights that were on was the light above them and the little lampshade the judge used above.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cortez, formally Justin and Elaine, correct?"

"Yes, your honor." Justin obeyed.

"What the hell are we here for?!" Elaine yelled. "You made W.A.T.T. agents come to his work and my house just to arrest us for no crime we committed!!"

"Elaine! Shh! Don't piss him off!" Justin shushed her.

The judge laughed, "Do you really think we're the W.A.T.T.? You must be that stupid to not realize what you've done, or maybe it's been too long for you to remember..."

"Wait a minute! What are you talking about?!" Justin yelled. "If you're not the W.A.T.T., then who are you!?"

"The question is, WHAT are we?" he replied. "We are the W.A.T.T.; the 'Worldwide Authorities for Time Travel. We are..."

"... pretty much time travel police." Justin finished.

"Impressive: disrupting the spacetime continuum didn't alter any part of your reasoning skills." he mocked.

"Hey, don't talk to him like that!" Elaine yelled.

"Wait, hold on..." Justin began to realize. "Time travel?"

"Interesting, he doesn't remember." The judge noted.

"You mean the Delorean? That was towed away years ago because of..."

"Illegal parts on a vehicle? They were legal, we just needed proof that you broke our laws."

"But I barely did anything... I didn't even get a chance to..."

"Enough!" His voice boomed. "The Council of Time had enough to discuss about this decision, and your testimony will do no effect to its sentence!"

Justin went quiet, not saying anything. He turned to Elaine, her face in complete shock with a realization of what was going on.

"Justin Mel Cortez: for your creation of the first time machine, disrupting the spacetime continuum and putting the fate of the timeline in risk, you are sentenced to a death penalty for your actions."

"What?! Are you serious?!" Justin yelled in disbelief.

"Elaine Flores Cortez: for your action of disrupting the fabric of spacetime itself, altering the timeline multiple times under a small window of time and using magic as a source for time travel without the permission of the Merlin Council beforehand will also put you to the death sentence."

"Wait! I can explain!" Elaine cried.

"...altering the space time continuum?" Justin repeated confused.

"I hereby declare this order finish. Case dismissed!"

The gavel slammed onto the sound block, echoing through the hall. Two agents forced them to their feet and dragged them to a block cell, where they were thrown into the same cell. As they fell onto the cold hard cement floor, the cell door closed, the footsteps of the agents diminishing into the distance.

They both groaned as they tried to sit up, their hands still in handcuffs. Slowly, they tried to move each other closer together, crawling towards the bed. They leaned against the bed, trying to catch their breath. Elaine turned to Justin for a few seconds to check up on him, his breathing heavy as she started to calm down.

"That doesn't make sense..." Justin pondered. "I was the only one who made the time machine and went back in time to 2004..."

He looked at Elaine, confused, "How could they even penalize you...?"

Elaine started to panic, her forehead beginning to sweat. She began to realize what happened before and what she had to do then. Justin noticed this and started to get suspicious, worried about their remaining future.

"Elaine... what happened on that day...?"

"...n-nothing baby..." she stuttered.

All of a sudden, he realized a key fact that never struck his mind before.

"...How did you end up back in 2004?"

"...R-remember I told you, before? The time machine must've sensed both of us and brought us to the same place when you went back..."

"...but that doesn't explain you disrupting the spacetime continuum and the magic thing he mentioned..."

She remained quiet, hoping that he wouldn't question what happened any further to force her to reveal what really happened. It turned out that her quick excuse of the machine picking up both of their scans worked perfectly. She never thought, however, that the timeline mix-up would actually affect them later in their lives, what more put their own lives at risk.

Justin turned to Elaine as she looked back at him. His eyes were filled with horror and fear, completely unavoidable to what he was about to ask next.

"Elaine, what happened?"

"Justin, I told you what ha..."

"Elaine! That's not what happened!" Justin yelled back.

"Please, you have to understa..."

"No! That's not what happened!! I can tell that something happened before, and I want to know what went wrong!"

The building got quiet. Justin stared at Elaine, completely furious with the missing facts that he didn't know for a long time. Elaine looked back at him, her eyes beginning to water. She looked down and began to cry, tears falling from her face. Justin then calmed down, guilty for yelling at her.

"Elaine... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to yell at you..."

She gave a little sniff in return, "I saved you."

Justin leaned in closer, unable to hear what she said, "What did you say?"

She looked at him, her eyes red and tears continuing to stream for her face, "I had no choice; you were in danger and I had to save you."

He slowly nudged himself closer to her and kissed her head in apology.

"Tell me what happened, baby." He said calmly.

Elaine took a deep breath.

"Okay..."