Time Bound (TomTord Fanfic)

-:\THIRTEEN/:-

Tord had just stepped into the confines of the base with the stolen uniform and a slightly-too-large helmet to try and hide his identity a bit more. The guy's name was apparently "Raj" as that's what it said on the name tag. He also had the soldier's gun strapped to his back so it didn't look odd for him to not have it.

So now that he was inside.., where does Tord start looking? All he knew of this place was that it was a huge maze. He figured he'd have to try and find the floors where the soldiers actually stayed; the residential floors.

Luckily, no one questioned what he was doing as he entered the ground floor of the base. He remembered going left and down a long hall where at the end was one of the hopefully many elevators.

Inside the elevator, he was the only one. There was only three floors above the ground floor, and then six below. He assumes the floors he's looking for are below the ground floor.

He tries the next floor, labeled floor -1; the one he was already at was labeled floor 0.

The elevator door opened on the next floor, and Tord saw a bunch of soldiers going back and forth, not thinking anything about him showing up in the floor.

Walking a little ways from the elevator and peering down the halls, Tord assumes this was some kind of battlements that was below the above ground ones. Briefly looking through a window that went between the hall and another room, it confirmed his suspicion with the sight of an unbelievable amount of firearms lined all over the room, "Damn..," Tord murmured to himself. Just how big was this Red Army his parents had started?

Going back to the elevator, he tried each floor until he found the floor he was looking for, finally. Floor -4 was the first he found that was where the soldiers stayed. Thinking about it a bit more, Tord decided where ever the hell the Red Leader's own room was was probably near Pau's; if he was here.

Taking a deep breath, he turns to the closest soldier and asks them a question, trying to hide his nervousness, "Hey, umm, excuse me.., do you know where the Red Leader's room is? I've been sent to deliver something there, but I'm new here and don't really know where anything is..?"

They seemed to think about it for a split second before shrugging and going back to what they were doing as they responded, "Red Leader's room is on the bottom floor. Can't miss it. Good luck to you if he's actually in there, though." They say.

"Right.., thank you!" Tord says, quickly walking back to the elevator and going to the -6th floor. He hadn't really thought of that; what if he ran straight into his future self? Would he be recognized, or not? Too late to worry about that now; the elevator was opening again and Tord stepped out into the bottom-most floor. It was absolutely freezing down here, and the floor had gone from some kind of weird tiles to cold, flat stone. Strange place for an army's leader to stay at.

There were considerably less people wandering around here; in fact he could count the amount of people on both hands. They all briefly glanced at him before returning to whatever they were doing when he showed up. Most of them were scientists in light blue lab coats, the red sweater beneath it; and the rest were normal soldiers.

He was about to look for the Red Leader's room to see if there was any way to find out where Pau was from there, but he stopped dead when he saw another person appear from around a corner. He stared wide eyed at him, and they gave him a strange look as they walked by, lighting a cigar. Tord stupidly stood in place, eyes following the soldier, and then they were out of sight around the corner Tord had gone around.

"W-Wait!" He called, spinning around abruptly and calling to them. 

They stopped and glanced at him, "Is there something wrong with you?" They say rudely.

"You're-" Tord had found Pau and he couldn't actually believe he had done it, "You're Pau!" He says stupidly.

"...Yes?"

"Wait, no- I need to talk to you about something!" Tord says nervously, nearly in a panic at Pau's reluctance.

"Listen kid, I don't know who you are, or why you're down here, but I've got better things to do." Pau says starting to turn away. Tord's fists clenched as he made a rash and horrible decision he'd probably regret. Like the gate guard, he jumped at Pau and quickly dragged him around to an empty room before he had really been able to react. Pau gave him probably the scariest look he'd ever seen him make.

"The hell was that about!?" Pau starts angrily, looking like he was about to knock the daylights out of Tord.

"W-Wait! Uh- Here..!" Tord fumbles over his words as he drops the hat on the floor, it making a large clatter as it fell, and he had his hands up as if he were surrendering, "I-I'm Tord?" Saying it as a question didn't really improve his chances here.

Pau gave him a deeply confused, almost disgusted, face as he stepped back slightly and his eyes narrowed, "..What the hell? Who are you?"

"TORD." Tord says through gritted teeth, "I've come to find you, didn't think I would but here you are; I need your help with something, but I don't know if you can help me, or if you even would. Knowing you, you won't believe anything I say." Tord explains.

"How can you be Tord? I was just speaking to him before I ran into you." Pau points out.

"I'm Tord, too! What's something only I would know? Uhh.., Pat is- ..was your husband, and you two fought constantly and it was ridiculous." Tord says, not too sure that would really prove much.

"Don't talk about Pat." Pau says, starting to get angry again.

"R-Right, sure! Then how about.., I think I was eight? You, Pat, and I went to the local fair with Edd, Matt, and Tom; I distinctly remember Edd spilling soda on Matt. I'd say that's something only I would know." It'd be quite odd if anyone else knew about that, anyways.

Pau silently stared at him for a moment. His face dropped any sign of anger, but now he just looked sad, "I remember that. There weren't any problems back then." He lamented, "So it really is you..? How?"

"Tom- No, future Tom brought me here to do something, but I still don't know what it is. The, uh, Red Leader killed him instead and now I'm stuck here with no idea what's going on really..." Tord recalls, feeling sick with himself at what had happened with Tom.

"Time traveling again?" Pau says, not even commenting about Tom, "That's killed a lot of people, until he had exterminated everyone having anything to do with it, pretty much. I don't have any idea how it works, so I don't think I can really help you get back."

"That's what I thought..," Tord trails off, thinking. "Is there anyone alive who did have something to do with it?" Tord tries.

"I think the inventor of it hasn't been found yet; you knew Bingham, right?" Pau supplies.

Tord's eyes lit up at the familiar name, "Oh, yeah! I know him! I'm assuming you don't know where he is if he hasn't been killed, right?"

"That assumption would be correct."

"Great. I somehow found you, now I have to somehow find him to go back home." Tord says mostly to himself. Home.., to a Pau unaffected by his own son's destruction of the world, and to a Pat who hadn't died so the Red Leader could. "What did..- What did Pat think of me around the time he was shot?" Tord says after a moment of silence between them.

Pau became visibly uncomfortable, "Well, I don't really know. I know that he wanted you to find purpose in your life no matter what, though."

"How did I treat him? The last time I saw you two in my present, I completely ignored both of you, and wasn't very nice to him.., I'd just like to think somehow that this Red Leader guy was better than I was at that kind of thing at least." Tord mumbles, starting to leave the room after picking the hat back up.

"I don't know for sure," Pau starts, staring at Tord, "But I'm almost one hundred percent sure that by that point he only saw us as his most trustworthy soldiers instead of the parents that raised him."

Tord stops for a second, "That's what I'm supposed to be. I guess I'll see you in several years." Tord says, leaving Pau behind in the room just as he had to he and Pat when he went to Matt's party.