The Adventures of the Twins

Ah, yes, my very first completed project. Finishing this for my cousin’s birthday was one of two or three big moments that led to my writing career. Completing TAotT helped me realize that finishing something was possible.
–Reagan Larsen

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Part One
Of Three

Realization & Departure

Prologue

The Discussion

“What are we going to tell them?” she asked.

“Not what, but how! We know what, but it will come as such a shock to them. Well, they have already joked about it and so it won’t be too much. Yet so many things could happen. Bad things. Also, we should think about when… Ugh! These things never go well in the movies.” the other lady replied in a tired tone.

Both of them were discussing how to tell their children a secret that was very close and hard to even think about. They both knew about it and kept it to themselves for almost 14 years. It was something that most parents if the need ever arose, told their kids around this age. Of course most people would tell them much younger, however, they must have simply forgotten to tell them. It felt so weird to them!

The women went silent as they peered into the room across the hallway. A whole bunch of small children was sleeping in one room. Two of the kids stood out among the others and easily recognized as Dean and Anne. They were both 14 years old. It was kind of like a family reunion, even though it was only four out of seven families present.

The ladies sat back down and continued wrapping presents. “Santa” hadn’t come yet, so the adults were wrapping the presents that they had gotten for everybody. Even though Ol’ Kriss hadn’t come yet, The eight-foot tree didn’t have any room left underneath it, or even around it for that matter! Even though it was Christmas Eve, the air in the room had a dark and unnerving feel to it. The current conversation was a depressing one.

The two women had only talked about this two other times, each one on separate holidays. They had never planned for this to be the nighttime topic; it just came up when one of the other families said that they had special news. The should be happy and be celebrating the Eve of Jesus’ birth. They tried to keep their minds off of the secret, but couldn’t help but glance at all of the children again one more time. As if to make sure that none of their discussion could be heard by waking ears.

Chapter One

Homecoming

“I like cheese…” Dean said at the most random time possible.

“What?” Anne asked.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

Anne and Dean were both talking in the car. It was for the long ride home. Nobody knew why they had their Christmas spent in Michigan, only one of their family members lived there, and everybody else lived in either Idaho or Utah and one in California. It was fun anyway since they got to do things they normally wouldn’t. It was a good time for everybody in Michigan. The cars were packed twice as much as they had been because everybody got so many presents. The families had considered a bus on the way there and home, but nobody was willing to chip in on the expensive round trip.

The best thing they could do was to pack lightly and share cars to make it more fun. Nobody wanted to be with Dean and Anne, (mostly due to age) which was fine with them, but they had to use a different car so it wouldn’t be a waste of seats.

They were bored and it had already been three days in the car. All of the things they could use in the car had gotten boring. Even the dumb childish cartoon that they couldn’t tear their eyes away from got dull. The cat gets the mouse, the mouse gets the cat and lots of explosions. They would be arriving in about two hours, and they couldn’t wait. After all, they would have another couple of days to play with all of their presents.

“So, Dean, what are you going to use first when you get home?” Melanie asked.

“Oh yeah! My robot most definitely. That will be fun.” Dean replied. Of the many gifts, he had received, of his more favorite was a robot kit. It was one you could either build your own or use one of the many different designs that it comes with. He was also excited about the instruction manual because it also had an intro to computer programming. Anne was excited as well. Mostly to see what it could do and what it can destroy. All robots have lasers, right?

The trip home was basically that, just a whole bunch of pointless conversations. The rest of the drive took less time than expected and was such a relief to everybody. They all got out of the cars, stretched, and jumped with joy. At least until the adults reminded them that they had to unpack.

. . .

“Dean, Dean. Dean! DEAN! Wake up! Ugh. Dean, cheese.” As soon as Anne said ‘cheese,’ Dean immediately sat bolt upright on the couch. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes, then checked his watch. It was 7:24. Now that couldn’t be right, it was still dark outside the window. Then he remembered that they had passed through several time zones. That he hadn’t changed his watch’s time. It was really 5:24.

“Why!” Dean groaned. Leave it to Anne to wake up early and not be tired.

“Don’t you want to use your stuff? Come on!”

Dean grudgingly got up from the couch. They were in Anne’s house and everything had already been unpacked. It took Dean a minute to get up, but when he did, there was no going back. They ran to their stashes and got out some of their things. It was like this for the next few days, but it wouldn’t be the last.

Chapter Two

The Un-Surprising Secret

“It’s a sweater!” Anne called out. “Oh thank you!” It was March and Anne was opening her birthday presents. It had been a really fun day, and now it was present time. She had already opened all but one of her presents. She set her rainbow sweater aside and began opening her last present. It was fairly small, but it was from Dean so she knew it was going to be awesome. She paused for pictures to be taken, even though they would be the first things to be deleted in case somebody’s phone ran out of storage bytes.

The present was somewhat of a rectangular shape and flexible. She started opening it but had to stop because one of her aunts had forgotten to take a picture. After an annoying second, she continued to unwrap it. When it was opened she took a good look at it.

“A whole bunch of blank pieces of paper. Uhh, thanks, Dean?” Anne asked in confusion.

“Turn it over,” Dean excitedly answered.

“Oh.” Anne turned it over. “Oooh! It’s a book! Thank you, Dean! Did you write this yourself?”

“Yeah. It is what I envision happening if we really were twins like everybody claims.” Dean said. That got a response from the adults.

Both Alicia and Melanie started laughing, but in a way that seemed that seemed it wasn’t really “cute” or “funny.” The laughing stopped quickly. Anne gave out more thank yous and got more pictures. After that, cake and ice cream were handed out. The cake was amazing because Dean’s mother made it, and all of her cakes are custom and special. A movie was watched in the dark and soon people started leaving and going to bed. Dean, Anne, Carol, and Paul were sleeping in the little downstairs area in the house.

The movie finished and Carol and Paul fell asleep. Dean and Anne were still talking silently. They would tell each other interesting facts such as: “Did you know that black holes emit the lowest sound wave possible?” Or “In Connecticut in order for a pickle to be legally called a pickle, it must bounce,” and stuff like that. It was hard to tell who was nerdier in their useless facts, but they were fairly even.

Alicia and Melanie entered the room. “Are Carol and Paul asleep?” Alicia asked. She checked to make sure that they were. “Ok, Dean and Anne. We have something very important to discuss with you.”

Melanie added, “We do not know how you will take this information. You are both almost 15 years old, and we think you are now old enough.”

Anne asked sarcastically, “Umm, my birthday was today. In case you hadn’t noticed. Dean is the only one who still hasn’t had his birthday yet. His is in three days.”

“That is what we are trying to convey to you. Or at least part of it. Melanie has agreed to do the talking, and I will answer as many questions at the end as I possibly can.” Alicia told the kids.

Melanie began talking. “We know that this can be very hard on some people, but we know you are strong. You both talk martial arts for Heaven’s sake! Well, here it is… When I said that neither of you were 15 yet, I meant that your birthdays were tomorrow. The first day in between your birthdays.”

Anne asked a question early. “So our birthdays are actually on the same day tomorrow?”

“Correct. But that is only part of it… Well. Here we go. You are not adopted, but neither of us are your real parents. You two are biological twins.” Melanie paused for her words to take effect. She looked at both Dean and Anne, wondering what they might be thinking. Their faces didn’t match what she had thought, but they still looked surprised. 

Dean spoke first. “So… We are twins born to one mother who is not either of you. Who are our mom and dad?”

Anne continued with, “Wait, what? Okay… You can’t be serious. Then how did we end up with you guys?”

“So how do you feel about this? Just out of curiosity.” Alicia asked, kind of quickly. Dean and Anne looked at each other, nodded, then at the same time said:

“Shocked, but not surprised.”

Alicia and Melanie looked like something big had happened and they only saw the very ending. “You mean you knew? Or was it just that obvious?”

Dean and Anne explained to their parents, or now their “guardians” that they had always suspected it but never knew exactly. Dean even wrote a story about what would happen if they were twins! Throughout all of their years together, everybody had claimed that they were probably twins in disguise, but never had been completely serious. They looked almost exactly the same. Sure Dean was male and Anne was female, but gender didn’t matter with twins. They weren’t really shocked or anything but did have a small feeling of betrayal inside of them.

Knowing the fact that they had been birthed by somebody other than who they had lived with for 15, well, almost 15 years. Dean and Anne didn’t really know what to do. Despite this, they weren’t very surprised. It had always been something they had felt deep down inside of them. For now, to take it all in, they just wanted to sleep, but how could they?

Chapter Three

Questions

The kids were all awake and finishing breakfast. Instead of waking up earlier than usual, Dean and Anne woke up at 10:30 am. Even though they got extra sleep, they were still exhausted. Dean didn’t remember why. He had gotten much more sleep than usual. Well, at least when with Anne. He got off of the couch, dragged himself over to the kitchen table, and started fixing himself some french toast. He was excited about breakfast as it had always given Dean a purpose in life.

Anne was still asleep, which was a surprise. She had always been the first person to wake up. Weird, especially after her birthday. But then he remembered. Dean groaned as the memory of the conversation flooded into him. Of course, he and Anne were twins, but who were their parents? Were they adopted? Did they just show up in a box on the doorstep? Or had something different happened?

The day went on almost normally. A little after lunch all of the adults said that they were going somewhere special. Alicia told Dean and Anne to hold off. They both knew what that meant. All of the younger kids got ready and headed off to the cars. Melanie and her sisters drove off to some dinosaur museum that Anne and Dean had already been to multiple times. Since Dean’s mom had said she would answer questions but hadn’t been able to last night, she would stay and answer them.

They walked upstairs to Anne’s room where the questioning and answering would commence. They sat down, got comfortable, and paused. Anne spoke first.

“Ok, start from the beginning. I want to know who our parents are, how we got here, why we are separated, and, and… Just start from the beginning please.”

Alicia started. “Your mother and father were good people. They met in high school, went to college together, and got married. Your mother’s name was Megan, and your father’s name was Dan. Dan served a mission in Italy and came back to marry Megan. They both got Masters degrees at BYU and Dan found a job. They were lucky enough and Megan didn’t need to work. They decided to start a family. When Megan was eight months pregnant when Dan got promoted. They started making around $800,000 annually. That is a lot of money if you know what I mean. They were considered the ‘rich kids’ in the town.

“Unfortunately, word got out to the wrong people. There was one man who we call Octavius Fudge. That is not his real birth name, but he changed it when something traumatic happened in his childhood. This man is considered one of the most dangerous men on the planet. He has a several PhDs and graduated from MIT. The first time he killed somebody, the cameras caught him laughing hysterically. He knows how to slip in places unnoticed, and leave without a trace. For all of his cases, he leaves behind a chocolate octopus. People started calling him Choctopus. He didn’t like it so he left a note behind on the ruins of the Twin Towers saying that said his name was Octavius Fudge.

“Well, Octavius Fudge happened to be in town when he heard of Megan and Dan. You two had just been born. They were so happy to have twins. A boy and a girl. Dan’s job gave him a 4% bonus to his pay for his kids. Sadly Megan got badly sick. Melanie and I had promised to take care of you. We took you to our house for a while to…”

Alicia started tearing up. Dean and Anne had listened contently the whole time. They looked at each other, half knowing what Alicia was going to say next. They both knew what probably did happen, but they didn’t say anything.

She continued. “We got back, sniff, and the house was gone. Sniff! Just a big pile of smoldering rubble. And a chocolate octopus! That is what happened! Sniff! Octavius Fudge killed them and hacked their bank account! He could have taken anybody’s, and richer people and hacked theirs, but he had to destroy the upper end of the middle class.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. She gave it to them. Anne reached out and grabbed it. It was a picture of two people who looked almost exactly like Dean and Anne. The picture of their parents was crease damaged, but they still were able to get their every feature. Dean and Anne got teary eyed. Dean felt a sudden feeling he had never felt before. True hatred. He hated the man who killed his parents. Forget that Alicia called their real parents middle class and then gave a number that was much higher, and that there was no obvious reason as to why they were killed. He hated whatever college had given him the brains to do what he did. (Although he admired it internally because it must be a good college). Anne just felt sad. She didn’t want any of this to happen. It wasn’t her parent’s fault!

Dean’s mom continued, “Well. The police were already there. They asked us a few questions, we answered as truthfully as we could. Sniff! They took the chocolate fudge octopus and left. Well, we did everything we could. We worked with lawyers, and here you are! Our legal children. Is there more you want to know?”

They all took a silent moment together. She had answered everything necessary. It was a lot to take in for both of them. They asked a few more clarifying questions. By the time they were done, the kids had all gotten back. This is going to be a long day, the twins thought. For now, they were content with what they had; but it was all going to change the morning they found the note with a chocolate octopus attached… 

Chapter Four

A Life’s Ransom

Everybody was gone. When the Twins (now dubbing themselves as Deanne) woke up it was quiet as usual, but nobody was there. No cousins, no parents, nobody. When Anne called Dean over, he knew that something was wrong. On the table in the very center was an envelope. It was a pretty normal looking envelope, except that there was a piece of fudge in the shape of an octopus on top of it. They suddenly grew pale. Without saying a word, Anne picked up the envelope and started to open it.

Dean interrupted and said, “Wait! Don’t do that! What if it has a bomb in it or something? Shouldn’t we call 911?”

Anne shakily replied with, “Well, nobody is here, so why take them out just to blow us up? Besides, don’t you want to see what is in it?”

“No. But nevertheless, this could all just be a prank on us. This could all be made up?”

“That is the thing, I did some internet digging and found that there really is an Octavius Fudge and he did blow up somebody’s house and take their money. This is real.”

They ended up opening the letter. In small typed letters it read:

Dearest Anne and Dean,

By now you have figured out somewhat of your identities and somewhat of who I am. You have noticed the disappearance of your loved ones and that they are no longer here in the current building that you are in. It is not riches that I want. I have prepared a set of trials for you two to embark upon. That is if you don’t want to see your loved ones hanging over your beds when you wake up. Don’t bother calling those law enforcers you call the police. They have tried and failed to find me, even if you give them the coordinates that I have provided you. Only you two could even have a fraction of a chance to get to me.

Below are the coordinates that you two must come to at the specific and exact time of my choosing. I have included all that is necessary to get you there. All you have to bring are yourselves and clothes if you wish. I would recommend only one extra pair.

3°N 62°E exactly. Nothing more, nothing less. It must be EXACTLY there. Make sure to BE there on the 5th of April, 2:43 pm. Alone.

–Octavius Fudge

P.S. You should drop the paper now…

They looked confused at the postscript but immediately dropped the paper just as it caught fire on the top and bottom. They both cried out in fear that the last paragraph would burn because they hadn’t memorized the time and coordinates. But the fire died, leaving what they feared would burn unharmed.

3°N 62°E exactly. Nothing more, nothing less. It must be EXACTLY there. Make sure to BE there on the 5th of April, 2:43 pm. Alone.

“I don’t care what he said, I am calling 911,” Dean hastily grabbed for the phone.

“Agreed.” 

911 was called, but they didn’t answer. The ringing noise went on for about a minute, but then someone answered and said Hello. Dean started talking but was interrupted by the voice continuing by saying, “We are so terribly sorry, but super geniuses don’t like it when you disobey their ransom notes, so your call couldn’t be processed. We are also terribly sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused. Please leave your name, number, and message after the tone. BEEP!” A chorus of creepy sounding children started screaming and crying while another deep voice was laughing hysterically. Dean put the phone down. Even after the phone was hung up the noises still started playing, only louder.

“I don’t like this,” the two said simultaneously.

They covered the phone with a pillow and went to the computer. Luckily that wasn’t hijacked and they were able to successfully put in the coordinates. Confusion passed through the two of them as the coordinates showed nothing but ocean. It was near the Maldives south of India and Sri Lanka, so there was probably a small island right there.

Anne went over to the envelope again, tipped it upside down and out dropped a huge bundle of money, passports, and what appeared to be fake IDs. Her eyes widened and she said, “Dean, come check this out! Look at all of this.” She started counting the money. It consisted entirely of one hundred dollar bills and a note saying how much was in there. There were five thousand of them.

Chapter Five

First Class

The twins were having a discussion in the back of a taxi cab. At first, it was a cool thing for them since neither one had ridden in a taxi like in the movies before. But that wasn’t enough for them, they were talking about airplanes.

“The money is probably stolen you know,” Anne was explaining to Dean. “I mean, from what little we know of him we already know he is evil.” At that moment the cab driver leaned his head a little closer to them. It was a reminder that most people don’t have their family ransomed by a serial killer on an island in the middle of the ocean.

Dean saw this and quickly stated, “I mean, I have already leveled up enough that I could probably beat him, but the question is whether or not we want to. Do we have much of a choice or will it force us to fight him?”

Anne whispered, “Nice save. Unfortunately, I think he has everything covered. Obviously, he isn’t out for money since he is literally paying us to do his ransom. Wait a minute, how do we even know it is a he? It could be some crazy lady on meth who likes murdering people.”

“That is one possibility. I highly doubt it but it could be what is happening. Anyway, I do think that we have to do as he or she says. Who knows what he is capable of and what he will do. This isn’t something that most people have to worry about.”

The two talked over what might happen and what they would possibly have to do for the next half hour of the car trip. They arrived at the airport and went in only to be immediately greeted by a nice looking young man in a suit who couldn’t have been too much older than them. At first, the two thought he was just a person to greet people until he started following them.

As they were walking up to the front desk we whispered down to them so quiet that only they might be able to hear him. He whispered, “Just act natural. I will be your guide for the most part since you are both not yet old enough to pass on your own. You will be able to ride without me, but I am here for your… safety.” And with that, he stood back up as if nothing had happened. The way he talked was strange, almost as if he was straining to speak, unnatural pauses and enunciations, and some of the syllables sounded strange and almost choppy, unlike any accent they had heard before. He didn’t look foreign which was strange.

Anne looked over at Dean with a confused look and he just shrugged. The airplane law was that one had to be 16 to ride alone, 12-15 year-olds could ride alone, but had to have a parent sign a paper for them the day of the flight. Anybody younger must ride with somebody 16 or older.

The two kids didn’t know who this man was or if he worked for Fudge or not. They could only guess. Next thing they knew they were on the plane and headed for who knows where. The man whispered something to the lady in the chair that made her smile and that ended up getting them on a plane all alone. The man made the kids pay though, but only for the price of two tickets. The flight and the plane were nice. It was very long and they stopped counting after hour 15.

They landed somewhere called Male in a giant archipelago called the Maldives. They got off of the plane only to be greeted by the same man in the suit as earlier. “Hello, children. Sorry for my quietness earlier, I didn’t have much time for introductions. My name is Daniel Evers, please refer to me as Mr. Evers. Thanks for your cooperation back at the airport.”

Anne started, “How did you…”

“I was instructed to take you two out to a specific location, correct?”

Dean answered, “Yes, that is correct, but–”

“I will take you most of the way, then I will drop you off. I was told all of this.”

“By whom might I ask? It is kind of–”

“Come along! I will take you to the boat.”

As Anne, Dean, and Mr. Evers went out of the airport and in a very exotic location, Dean whispered to Anne, “I wish he would not cut us off like that.”

“My apologies Dean,” Mr. Evers replied, his accent as evident as ever, startling the Twins as Dean had said what he did very quietly. “I am a very busy man and I do not have time for questions. Besides, you have a deadline. We all have deadlines…”

Chapter Six

Transportation

The boat was much nicer and larger than either Dean or Anne had imagined. They both admitted that they had initially thought that it would be more like a rowboat made of wood like they had seen in old paintings. Instead, it was a luxury edition that had its own kitchen, gourmet chef, pool, entertainment room, and much more. The twins had to pay for it of course, but when somebody just gives you the average man’s annual salary, it doesn’t matter too much. Of course, when they heard that the trip would take a few days, they were much more thankful that it wasn’t a rowboat.

Mr. Evers kept to himself, in fact, the twins rarely saw him. They would watch him pass by in the halls, only to slow his pace and walk into another room below deck. Each time he would be listening to loud music through some headphones. Dean listened closely to the few seconds he heard but he didn’t recognize any of it and it sounded strange and unlike any genre he had ever heard. The twins did, however, make friends with the crew. Most of them were foreign, but the captain appeared to be British. The captain, Bruce Brown, was their favorite. He had a bit of a sense of humor (though sometimes dirty) which cheered the two up every now and then.

“Oh yes,” the captain would say whenever they would mention more or less anything about themselves. “When I was your age, I would travel all over the place I did! Course it was in my backyard, but I would run away from home all the time I did. Sometimes I would even hide in a tree and entertain myself if you know what I mean I did. I had a few sisters and I would throw pinecones at them I did.” And he would continue on like this.

The trip continued on for a few days. The two would swim or play in the game room. It was a very relaxed setting. In total it took about four days and was very luxurious. But when they thought about what they would have to possibly do and where their family went, it got them depressed. They didn’t discuss it very often, but they had a few conversations each consisting of a question, no answer, and regret.

“Where do you think they went?” Anne would say.

“I don’t know. Is all we have to do is show up? Slave labor? Sacrifice? Tell a joke? Who knows?” Dean would reply.

    It was a very depressing subject in itself. It really made one appreciate their family more. They would remember everything good that had happened to them and thought about how previously the worst thing that they had to worry about was when they hadn’t studied enough for a test. Good times.

     “HEELLP!”

    The cry came suddenly. It didn’t sound too urgent, just loud. The twins ran to the side of the boat that the plea came from.  One of the crew members had fallen overboard. Another man from the crew, Dean thought his name was Aisar, was already throwing in a life preserver. Another man was shouting something to the one who had fallen off in another language. Dean saw that it was actually Sadha, the crew’s only female. 

    Anne saw something in the water that didn’t make her feel good. She shouted and a man responded to her in poor English, “Don’t not worry. Is only dolphin. Will protect from shark!” Suddenly, the dolphin jumped out of the water, still a few yards from Sadha, and revealed its true identity as a Leopard Shark. Grey and spotted, Dean wondered why it had been confused with a dolphin in the first place as it, and its dorsal fin looked nothing like that of a dolphin. “Nevermind! Is not Dolphin!” He shouted something to one of his mates. Then to Sadha.

    The captain had grabbed a speargun from somewhere. He ran to the side and was carefully aiming. Down in the water, Sadha was hanging off of the life preserver. Suddenly, the shark came up. She hit it and it shook around, causing her to lose her grip. The shark thrashed, and jumped, this time with a big fish in its mouth. It ate it, and then swam away.

    They finally dragged Sadha up and took her inside. The captain started telling everybody to get back to work. Anne asked him,”You didn’t seem worried. Why?”

    “Eh.  Sharks don’t typically go after people, they don’t.  They sometimes do, but not really. You can never to be sure. Anyway. I have some good news. We are an hour out.”

Chapter Seven

Arrival

When the captain had said that they had arrived, he really meant that they were still an hour away. Even still, that meant that they had to pack up all of their stuff.

    There was a strange silence between Anne and Dean. It didn’t take them too long to pack everything as they didn’t take much. They did bring extra clothing despite what the letter had said. It was all in their school backpacks. Not the best for travel, but it worked.

    They finally landed, and sure enough, there was a small island right where they were supposed to be. The only problem was that it was only about the size of a house with a few trees in the middle and a few rocks. They checked the note again, then the GPS.

    “Are you sure?” Dean asked.

    “Positive, I am. This is where you told us to go. I am assuming you will have some sort of transportation for your way back?” The captain asked.

    “Oh… I hadn’t thought of that. We have been so focused on getting here that we forgot how to get back. Anne?”

    “You know, I could wait here for you guys. We have plenty of provisions and stuff. And because I like you, it won’t cost anything extra.”

    Anne replied with, “Really?! Thank you! That will be very nice.”

    “No problem. And be careful out there. Okay?”

    “We will.” The twins said at the same time. 

    They stepped off of the boat. The explored the island a little bit. There wasn’t much to explore. They climbed one of the trees and looked around. The boat was floating away, and then it stopped and dropped an anchor.

    Eventually, at the top of one of the trees they found an electronic speaker. It was wired, and they followed the wire all the way down to the very center of the island. It was half buried at some points and really blended in. The wire eventually took a sudden turn down. The twins looked at each other and started digging.

    About six inches deep Anne asked, “Hey, where was Mr. Evers?” At that moment the ship out in the distance exploded.

Part Two
Of Three

Trial & Tribulation

Chapter Eight

The Can

The initial shock from what had happened was enough to throw the two of them to the ground. Then the shock of what had happened left them speechless. Anne covered her mouth with a sharp gasp. Suddenly the speaker started blaring with a disguised voice angrily shouting, “HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY TWO OF MY INSTRUCTIONS?! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO COME ALONE AND YOU SHOWED UP AN HOUR AND SEVEN MINUTES EARLY!!! Nevertheless, what is done is done. Welcome. You have arrived at the correct place. If you will go down the chute, please. I will guide you from there.”

The two looked at each other, tears filling their eyes. Underneath their feet, something started moving. The two stepped away as sand shook and fell down as if in an hourglass revealing a rectangular hole with a ladder going down. It looked to be in total darkness. Dean started descending first, with Anne trailing behind quickly. The ladder went on and on. They took breaks periodically, feeling the need to communicate as they couldn’t see anything. After about five or so minutes, the ladder came to an end.

“Stop!” Dean shouted to Anne, who stopped suddenly, hand in the air staying completely still. Of course, Dean didn’t see that she had frozen. “The ladder comes to an end, and I can’t feel the bottom.” He tried to lower himself until he got to the very last bar, and his legs still couldn’t touch. “I am going to try and just fall. I don’t think he would want to kill or hurt us, else why go through all of that trouble.”

“No Dean, don’t!”

“What else?” He jumped. He heard Anne scream and then jump too, or perhaps it was more of a slip and fall due to the surprise.

The two kept falling and falling. They fell farther and farther. Faster and faster. The wind was brushing their shirts causing them to shiver and shake violently. Their hearts beat upon their chests like drums as the adrenaline pumped in their ears and neck. The room was still free of light and the fear of the unknown was very prominent. They might have been yelling but the wind drowned everything that could have been there. Images seemingly at random flew through their minds. Their birthdays, special awards, family, friends, school, and even moments that they didn’t remember anymore.

After a few more minutes, their minds began to clear. Anne began to realize something. The wind, the feeling, and the darkness didn’t feel right. “Wait a minute,” she began, “We aren’t falling. We aren’t falling!” Dean thought he heard her and she continued to shout that they aren’t falling. Once he heard what she had said he noticed it as well. Even if they had fallen from the most elevated airplane it would take them about four or five minutes for them to reach the ground. Even if they were falling through the earth’s crust the pressure would likely have killed them by now, at least he thought it might.

Only moments upon realization there was a bright flash in their eyes as a great and spacious room was lit. The twins were still suspended in the air, but as they looked down they saw a plethora of fans underneath a grate, blowing so hard it held them in the air. They began to power down and they slowly fell to the ground, feeling nauseated. Laying there on their front, Dean and Anne began to laugh.

Anne spoke first. “How old do you think this guy is?”

Dean replied with, “I have no idea. All I know is that we are going up against an evil genius with a twisted sense of humor. I remember him saying something about trials that we must go on. Will it be like this? Was this the first trial?”

“Oh yeah. But aside from that, where are we?” They got up and looked around the room. They were in a sort of metal cylinder that had a radius of about five feet. The ladder ended just at the hole, but they could see out as it had no top that they were in a much larger room with yellow and brown rock walls with the ladder protruding from a hole in the ceiling. The walls encasing them, however, were slick, metallic, and at least ten feet tall. 

“Umm. How do we get out?” Dean asked, spinning in a circle looking at the exit.

“Ooh! I got it! Since you are the stronger of us two… Well, ish. Oh, don’t give me that look! Anyway, you could get on my shoulders then I will stand up-”

“And then I will reach up and grab the outside, pulling myself up and then you will jump up and I will pull you. Got it!” Dean finished. Anne bent down and Dean got on her shoulders. She stood up, struggling to lift her biological counterpart. Once she had stood up, she gave Dean the okay. He reached up, then grabbed the outside only to yelp and collapse on top of Anne.

“What happened? Are you okay?” Anne asked. She had only fallen a few feet, but Dean had landed on his back on her from the height he was at. His shouts of pain were echoing throughout the cylinder, almost hurting Anne’s ears. Dean had never been very tolerant of pain, and so he was never taken too seriously whenever he was “hurt.” This hadn’t helped him the time he had broken his arm because nobody believed that he was really hurting.

Anne rolled him over, only to find blood on her hands and his shirt. She shrieked as she saw the huge cuts across Dean’s palms. Once he had calmed down he moaned, “We are in a giant can… The edges are razor sharp. I won’t be able to pull you up.” Anne sat down, thinking. Dean heard her muttering, but couldn’t decipher any of it. He sat up, still clutching his hands; applying pressure to the wound to stop bleeding. After a few minutes, he spoke, “I have an idea, but you may or may not like it. I don’t know. If you don’t like it we can find something else. Do you want to hear it?”

“I don’t understand why not, but go ahead.”

“Alright. We know we can’t put our hands or even our skin on that edge with any sort of pressure. We aren’t tall enough or strong enough to toss the other person over. We could try to knock this thing over, but I am sure it weighs at least a ton. I was able to look over the edge for a few brief moments, and I am sure that I saw big thick spikes sticking out that we could use like a ladder. The only problem is getting over there. What we need is padding. We are both wearing fairly durable clothing save our shirts. My jacket would also work. So…” He waited for her to either finish or contribute her thoughts. When they didn’t come he continued telling her his plan. “So we could use our clothes as pads. I could get on them, slide myself over, then take them all and make a clothing rope. I could then throw that over, and you could climb up, then down. Sound good?”

There was a short silence until Anne broke it asking “Isn’t there anything else we could do? Like, couldn’t we just use our shoes instead?”

“That might help with cutting up our clothes, but we run the risk of cutting our shoes a bit. Then how will I make the rope?”

“Ooh! I think I got it! Okay. We have to get over the fact that we will be using each other’s clothing, but this is survival. I don’t think that Fudge will turn the fan below us back on pushing us up. Anyway. You wrap your hands in shirts. Those are the easiest to use and they will stop the bleeding. You climb onto my shoulders again, climb over and lower yourself down. Then you make your rope, tie it to one of those spikes you say you saw then, throw the other side to me.”

“I might have to use a shoe to brace it. We don’t want our clothes being cut in half.”

“Yes, do that. I will then climb up while you are looking the other way. I can untie the rope, then get dressed. You should too. Sound like a plan?”

“Yeah! Let’s do it!”

The two got to work. With Dean facing the other way, he used the shirts as a glove substitute, wrapping them around the cut leaving his fingers open. He would have to be careful around those. Anne instructed, “Alright, now you climb up on my shoulders.”

Dean began to turn around, but then Anne started freaking out! “But how will I get on your shoulders if I can’t see?”

“Just! Well… Here, turn around with your eyes closed. Step your left foot up and I will get underneath it. Then your right foot on my shoulder. Please don’t kick me. You can open your eyes then. Just don’t look down.” They did so. It was rather awkward, at least for Dean. Both of them were red in the face but sweat was pouring out of Dean’s body. He didn’t know what would be worse. Seeing his cousin, er, sister in underclothing or her finding out about it. He tried his hardest not to think, but instead to do.

Dean got on Anne’s shoulders, reached up and tested the makeshift gloves. “They work,” he called down, not looking. He brought his leg up, careful to only let his shoes touch the edge. He could see the sharp edge beginning to dig into the shoes, but the rubber was holding. For now. He stepped over onto one of the spikes. The spikes were very slick, and he risked falling. He made sure to grab on tightly with his hands. About halfway down he slipped and fell down, his left thigh hitting the edge of a spike, bruising it. He landed with an audible THUD! and the wind was knocked out of him for a few moments. He was fine, mostly surprised that this has happened twice now. At least I am free, he thought.

He looked around. He didn’t pay much attention to the spaciousness of the room and the rocky ceiling. It was a concrete floor, and the walls split evenly along the height of the can. The wall was a light grey stucco. Every thirty feet or so along the circumference of the wall was a small square mirror, about one foot in length. Dean suspected that there was more to the mirrors than met the eye and since it was a mirror that might be literal. The room was pretty empty save the giant silver spiked can in the middle of the room. On the other side of where he landed there was a long hallway with a pedestal holding something colorful at the entrance. Before he could investigate he heard, “Are you down yet?”

“Oh, yeah.” He called. “I am. Toss them down!” He began to take his pants and jacket off as another pair of jeans fell down on top of him. Oh, this is so weird, and almost cliche. He was thinking back to several cartoons where people had escaped using their clothing. It was where he got the idea in the first place. It had always seemed so, well, comical. But in the real world, the idea almost made him sick. He still thought it was awesome that it actually worked. He had yet to get Anne free so he wasn’t thinking of himself as a hero quite yet. He began to tie the clothes together. He attached his shoe using the laces to tie it on to act as the brace between the clothes and the edge of the can. Once finished he called, “Here they come!”

He tossed the clothes completely over into the can. He heard a shuffle and then a “Dean, you idiot!”

“What?” He asked, then realizing that he had tossed the entire clothing rope in he slapped his forehead then asked for them to be handed back. He tried again, but this time tying the end to one of the top spikes. It was difficult as he had to push with his arms to keep him from slipping and falling again. Once he had that done he tossed the other end in and waited. A few seconds later a hand appeared and grabbed the shoe. Anne began to pull herself up. “Come on! You got this!” Dean called up to her. As Dean was beginning to turn around he saw her hand slip over the edge, she landed on her bar arm on the edge.

Dean began to shout NO! but something happened. He didn’t know what it was or what was happening but both he, Anne, and the giant spiked can were lifted up into the air as if something suddenly pulled all of them up, but nothing was there. A sound rang, but it was so low that human ears couldn’t comprehend it, but the vibration still shook Dean to his very core. Anne popped up over the top of the can and floated over to the side. It all happened in just a few seconds, perhaps not even that. Yet just as quickly as they were suspended in the air they fell back again as if gravity was delayed in grabbing them.

Dean landed as he had only been a few inches above ground without much stagger. Before he had time to think he ran over underneath where Anne was falling. He arrived just in time for her to land in his arms. There was a moment where their eyes met, showing joy and confusion all at the same time. It all ended when Anne shrieked and Dean dropped her.
“Don’t look at me!” She began to get dressed again. Once she and Dean were fully clothed again, the two came together and discussed. “What was that?!” She asked.

“I don’t know!” Dean replied, exasperated, “It was like something pulled me up, but there wasn’t anything!” 

“Oh well. We can’t worry about it now. Probably another one of Fudge’s tricks. Now how do we get out of here?”

“I saw something over on the other side of the can, a hallway I think.” They went over to the hallway that Dean saw. It was about the length of a couple football fields with something that could be a door at the very end. At the foot of the hallway was an unsolved Rubik’s cube on a pedestal. After further investigation, the cube appeared to have something written each face but was unreadable because it was unsolved. “Do we have to solve this to get through?”

“I guess. What else could it mean? But why the long hallway?”

Dean looked. The hallway was fairly large. Large enough to fit the can, he thought. “Wait. From what I know from Indiana Jones if we take this cube off the can might chase us down. Do we take the risk?”

“I mean, why not? We have gotten this far. But it will have to be you. You are the most experienced with these sorts of things. Your choice.”

“Oh, it has been a long time. I am not sure I even remember how to do it anymore. How about before we do anything we check out the other end maybe that is a door at the end. See if we even have to solve it at all.”

“Good idea.”

The twins began to walk down the hallway. They didn’t get very far when Anne stopped, thinking. “Wait, something is wrong,” she tried to say but was too late. Dean took another step and immediately began to sink into a pressure plate. “You have got to be kidding me.” They turned to witness a giant hammer-like thing swing from the ceiling and knock the can over onto its side. The ringing hurt their ears it was so loud and high pitched. The can fell, but since it was in the middle it wasn’t lined up correctly. Neither Dean nor Anne breathed for a few moments until enough time had passed. They breathed too soon. 

There was a loud, mechanical sound of grinding gears. The entire room outside of the hallway began to shift and rotate. The ceiling became the floor, the walls moved so all of the mirrors were on the opposite side, the floor changed in strange and bizarre patterns, moving the can along with it. The hallway and the cube remained untouched, but for how long the twins didn’t know. Suddenly, the giant hammer swung in the opposite direction, straight for the mirrors, shattering them. The fan, which was now at the foot of the wall, began to blow all of the glass in their direction.

“Get down!” They both shouted at the same time. They crouched down and got as low as they could, covering their necks as the glass blew all around them. They did get cut on the underside of their arms, but luckily it wasn’t very bad at all. Anne looked up just in time to see the Rubik’s cube sliding and tumbling past her. She reached out to grab it, receiving a large gash just below the elbow in return but grabbed it before it blew away. The fan stopped after a minute of blowing. Most of the glass lay at the end of the hallway, but there was still plenty littering the ground all along the hallway. It was quiet for a while until there was more grinding and the can was moved into position at the beginning of the hallway, not ten feet from where they were standing. Then the ground began to shake.

“Take this,” Anne handed the cube to Dean. “Run!” They began to run as the floor began to tilt in such a way, causing the can to slowly begin to roll towards them. The room behind continued to move in its strange patterns. They farther down the hallway the can got it would only speed up, faster and faster until it was stopped or slowed down by some outside force. Dean began to solve the cube.

They ran, the can getting ever faster as it approached them. The incline was not great enough to make it difficult to run, but glass also began to slip down. Dean continued to run and solve the cube. Anne was giving words of encouragement to Dean for a short time, all of which was unheard, overpowered by the clanking of the can’s spikes hitting and scraping the ground.

WHITE.

BOTTOM LAYER.

MIDDLE LAYER.

They reached the end of the hallway. Even with the spikes of adrenaline, they both felt exhausted. Dean was almost done with the cube, working his way with it. Twisting and changing the colors ever so quickly, until he stopped. “I can’t remember how to do this last part! I have tried all of the algorithms I know but none of them are working!” Dean let out a frightened moan. Anne went pale and almost collapsed. The can was about three-quarters of the way to them, and gaining speed. Dean looked at their impending doom, and then beyond it. The room behind was still spinning and rotating. Though hard to see, the rotations of the room looked familiar to him.

As if a light went off in his head, Dean remembered how to finish the cube. “He is showing me how to do it!” He exclaimed, quickly finishing the cube. Anne gave him a quizzical look. “Done. DONE!” They looked at the keypad next to the door. It had six diodes in order from left to right: WHITE, RED, YELLOW, WHITE, BLUE, ORANGE. The cube had obvious numbers on each of the sides. Strangely they were all correctly shaped. Normally it would have the correct number, but some of the little squares would be rotated in different ways. Dean shouted the passcode to Anne who punched in the numbers. “Six, one, four, six, five, nine.”

“It’s not working!” Anne yelled back. The can was too close. “I have an idea!” She tried again, but this time she translated all of the sixes and nines into the other. The door slid open into the ceiling. They two ran inside and the door closed behind them. They held their breath for just a second when suddenly the can slammed into the opposite end of the wall, warping it so the wall dented where the spikes would be. A naughty word may have escaped Dean’s mouth at the same time as the loud boom. After a little while to make sure that nothing else was going to happen they sat down with their backs up against the flatter part of the wall. Their laugh was short-lived, but it was very refreshing for the adrenaline to die down. Still sitting, the two gazed upon the fiery lake that awaited them.

Chapter Nine

The Fire

The room was very hot. That was the first thing that struck the twins first. The lava (or magma since they are underground) was noticed second. The entire room, about the height of a two-story house, had on overall feel of red. They were standing on a small, concrete platform looking out to the maze of which they saw before them. The sides of the walls had three vents, each spewing forth more magma from their mouths. Several concrete slabs were placed in the magma at different points as to obstruct the other side of the room. On the opposite end of the platform the two were standing on was a pair of strange looking metal backpacks with long tubes protruding from their backs.

“Jetpacks?” Anne asked.

“It looks like it. I actually looks to be one of those water jet pack things that spray water enough to propel you upwards. But he wants us to do it with lava?” Dean began walking towards one. As he got over to the edge, his foot caught on something and he tripped forward.

“Dean!” Anne shouted and ran towards him, but she was too late. Dean had slipped and fallen forward. His head hit the magma first and his body followed, splashing right into it. Splashes? Anne thought. Magma doesn’t ‘splash’ like that. Just then Dean’s head popped out again with a gasp. “Dean! Are you okay?” She asked as she pulled him back up and laid him on his back. 

Dean coughed, then sat up saying, “It’s just water! Cough!  It is just warm colored water! We can swim across!”

“What! No way. Why would he do that?”

“My guess is that he wants us to stay alive. He is testing us for something I am sure. What on the other hand I do not know.”

“Should we still use those… Water jets?”

“I’m not. I have never used one of those and I don’t want to crack my head or something on those walls out there in that maze.”

“Well from experience they are probably just rubber. Was the Can fake too?”

“I doubt it. I also wouldn’t call that past experience. I think he knows what we can or can’t do. He knew that I would forget that last part of the cube and he helped me do it. The lava is fake because he knew that either I would fall in or something would happen. Wait a minute, why has it been all me so far?”

“So we are dealing with a genius of some sort then?”

Before Dean could answer, there was a big rumble inside of them and out. The water and the twins were momentarily lifted up off of the air. The same thing that happened early that lifted the can into the air was happening again. Before they knew it it was gone and everything was back on the ground.

“Okay, we need to finish this before that thing happens again. I don’t know what it is or why it is here or if it is even related but we must get through this quickly. Let’s swim!” Anne quickly dove into the colored water. Dean was about to tell her that it was still pretty warm and stung his skin a bit, but when she resurfaced and began swimming he shrugged and dove in after her.

The two swam together, taking breaks every few minutes. Swimming around the walls only to find more walls blocking their path. They were both thinking they should have used the water jets but it was too late then. They would pass hanging skulls and rusty weapons hanging from string to the ceiling. The ceiling was made of some shiny metal, but neither of them cared. They were both too tired. Adrenaline did not help them this time. After twenty minutes of swimming, Dean gasped “I can’t go on! Go ahead and I will catch up.”

“No Dean! We are almost there, I can feel it!”

“That’s what you said ten minutes ago.”

“Yes, but…” Once again they were interrupted by the deep noise and vibration enigma. Perhaps it was simply an enigma. Only this time they all flew much higher and the deep vibration lasted much longer. They floated high enough to grab onto the edge of one of the walls. The water fell down taking Anne with it. Dean pulled himself up to the top of the wall. The wall’s top was two feet wide, but he could still stand.

“Are you okay?” Dean called down. The wall was roughly ten feet high, but it still felt much higher. “I can see the end! It isn’t far actually, just around the next two walls.”

“Yeah, I am fine.” Anne breathed deeply, trying to catch her breath from the rumbling. She started swimming and reached the end quickly. It was shaped exactly like the other end, only this time there was no door, only an octogonal hole big enough for one person at a time to climb through. Dean walked along the top of the wall, leaped to the next wall, took a deep breath then jumped down onto the edge. Anne looked over and saw him jump down and was about to say something to him but was too tired to speak.

“Alright, here we are. What do you think is next?” Dean let Anne breathe for a bit until she said, “hopefully the end. I am tired and I want this to be over.”

“You realize that this was only the second trial, right?”

“What do you mean, the second trial? This isn’t some sort of video game Dean! This is a monster who kidnapped our family and now we have to go through this, these, trials and then see what happens! Either way, we have to press forward.”

They nodded and Dean offered to go first, but Anne protested and shoved her way into the small portal. The crawl was short, only about ten feet, and once they got to the other side they both gasped at what lay before them. After a long rope bridge, there was a huge rocket standing up in a large shaft with a hole going up to give a view to the stars up above. The rocket looked like any that could be seen at NASA or in a movie. The two looked at each other and then at the rope bridge that led to a doorway in the rocket. Along the sides were iron bars holding up the rope from the platform that they now stood on all the way to the door. Everything else on the bridge was rope including the thin bottom line. On the platform, there were two metal posts holding the bridge and the guide bars on the side. On each one was a device that looked like it held a match and a blowtorch. Next to it the rope was an ever so slightly darker color, then it lightened and stayed the same hue the rest of the way. Dean looked at it and discovered that if any pressure was put on the bridge the rope would slide down, pressing the handle on the blowtorch thus lighting the matches, giving the twins only a few seconds of travel time before the match’s fire reached the bottom and started burning the rope. It wouldn’t collapse immediately thanks to the iron bars but would burn quickly.

“Anne, we have a problem!” Dean smirked and Anne sighed at the horrible joke, also seeing the contraption.

“What do we do,” Anne asked. As if on cue, a slightly distressed and agitated voice on an intercom answered, “You get on the rocket. Now. Hurry up, you don’t have much time! You have too-” The familiar voice was cut off by a shrill scream, a bumping noise, and another, soft voice speaking but not through the intercom yet echoing all throughout the big room, “Oh dear protagonists, I patiently await your arrival down below, please come and meet me when you are ready. You only have a few months so hurry up.” The voice still echoed in the large chamber as the twins listened.

“What the heck was that?” Anne asked. “Who are you?! Where is our family?!”

“I am more concerned with what just happened. Did Mr. Intercom just die or pull a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? That second person definitely did something and I don’t like it.”

“And what did he mean by meeting him in a few months? How long are we going to be gone? And was one of those two Fudge? Are we going on a mission in that?” Anne gestured to the rocket. “Who is this and why does he want to meet us?”

“I don’t know any more than you do. I am sure that meeting would be to get our family back. Why else would we have to come here? But one thing is for sure, (I think I already said this) we need to get on that. Ladies first?”

Anne shrugged and then got in a ready position. “Alright. As soon as I step on this you need to get on as well. We need to work quickly. Fire burns quickly as well but not blazing fast so I think we will be fine. Let’s just hope that the match takes a while to burn. Ready? Set… Go!” Anne began running if it could be called running with the stumbling and bouncing, and Dean followed. He looked back and saw that the blowtorches were running and the matches were burning. He stumbled along as quickly as he could. Only a few seconds in Dean looked back again and noticed that a match had stopped burning.

“Hey Anne, one of them was a dud! How funny is-” At that there was a loud crack and the two fell down as the bridge had snapped. As it turned out the ropes were not secured to the iron bars. Anne outstretched her arms and caught herself. Dean was not so fortunate. He fell down only to bump his head on the bar and fall down spinning and spinning with his shoe caught on the rope.

“Dean!” Anne called out, still holding onto the rope. Dean fell and slammed his head onto the side of the rocket and slipped out onto the concrete floor. The bridge was still burning and as much as Anne wanted to jump down and help she simply would have only injured herself. She continued climbing with tears streaming down her face. She looked down again only to find that the fire had caught up with her, giving her just enough adrenaline to climb up into the doorway in the rocket with the flame crackling a few feet behind her. She turned, leaning her head out the door to see Dean far below sprawled on the ground, unmoving, unconscious.

Anne called out once more to Dean, but his only response was silence. She turned around and sat down and looked around at her surroundings. She was surprised to see a game room setting with green carpet, a pool table, ping pong, and several arcade games and sofas. She was confused and about to turn around but found the door closed. Must be automatic, she thought. An intercom bell sounded followed by a voice. She feared that it would be that second voice again, but it was a robotic woman saying, “Welcome to Fudge Spacelines! We hope you enjoy your stay in our deluxe family fun center complete with all the fun you need to keep you occupied on our Adventure! Thanks to our special Inertia-Resistant Technology invented by Dr. Octavius Fudge himself you and all your little ones can enjoy an acceleration free trip without any bumps in the road. Have fun and make sure to be safe you two!”

Anne was beginning to feel confusion at the tone the voice was making, however, understanding came over her in the last sentence. Just another trick, she grumbled in her head. Walking over to the pool table she noticed a covered bowl on top of a small centerpiece table. On the wall was a strange looking space suit hanging on a hook. She sat down next to the centerpiece and reached for the bowl. She opened it and found wrapped pieces of octopus-shaped chocolates. Suddenly filled with rage she grabbed the table and flipped it over, spilling the contents of the bowl all over the floor. She turned away and saw another door, one that looked like it belonged in a house instead of a rocket ship, and opened it.

Inside was a hallway that only had one other identical door at the end. She walked over and opened it to find a horrifying sight: a dead man collapsed on the wall with blood dripping from his chest, fingers, and a message on the wall in blood saying, “beware the eclips” with half of an e and a blood streak leading to his fingers on the floor.

Part Three
Of Three

The Time Matrix

Chapter Ten

Octavius Fudge

Dean woke up on a couch completely refreshed. He sat up, stretched, and yawned, scratching behind his ear. He stopped suddenly and then felt his head for the gash that he remembered getting just before he blacked out. There was nothing there but his hair and his head. At least he thought he got a gash, perhaps not. He looked down and felt that his clothes were dry and that the cuts in his hands were also gone. No, they weren’t his clothes, somebody else’s clothes that fit him. He whirled his head around and found that he was outside on a house’s front porch. Next to him in a lawn chair was a man sipping from a Cherry Cola.

The man looked to be about middle-aged with jet black hair combed nicely back, perfectly matching his almost inappropriate-for-the-setting three-piece tuxedo. He had a very nice looking watch and sunglasses that also looked expensive. Everything about the man screamed money and power. Dean felt as though he ought to bow to the power being emanated by the man. He didn’t of course, but he did ask who the man was and where he was.

“To answer the latter, we are outside of my vacation house in the Maldives.” The man replied, giving Dean enough time to look at his surroundings. Indeed there was a beach just a few feet from the porch, but the water seemed to be missing no matter how far out he looked. It was like it all dried up suddenly. Dead fish, shells, rocks, and everything one would find at the bottom of an ocean were there except water. He looked up to see the sky. There were no birds, and the sun shone very brightly just above the horizon breaking into a beautiful dawn. The air was much less humid that he thought it should be, but that didn’t bother him. What did take his attention is how there was almost a pattern in the sky. He looked closer and saw that there were hundreds of octagon shaped pieces everywhere he looked. Dean realized that he was in a very large dome seemingly extending for miles both up and out.

“Where are we!” It was more of a shout than a question to the man.

“I already answered that. I thought you would be thanking me for healing your wounds. Especially for how well I did it. Of course, it was a simple medicine of mine that I-”

“I asked you where we are, not what is going on or anything like that. Who are you and where is Anne?” Suddenly remembering his sister he stood up and yelled right at the man. He didn’t know why he was filled with such rage but it was there and he used its adrenaline. At that moment there was a loud noise and a rumbling. Not like the vibrations that happened earlier, but something powerful moving the earth. Sand, dust, and smoke blew out over the house and the noise only got louder. He went to cover his ears but found a sort of earbud already in them. The noise must have been much louder and the man knew that it would be happening so he had put them in while Dean was still asleep. The sand was still blowing over the house making it dangerous to run out of the protection of the house. The man just stood there calmly and reached down to press a button. A shade moved to reveal a window along the wall and roof that showed a rocket blasting off in the distance. Shortly after, a hole opened up in the “dome” letting the rocket fly out, also revealing stars and darkness, then closing as soon as the rocket left.

“Is Anne up there?” Dean’s legs began shaking.

“Yes, she is. That is the rocket that you were about to get into. I had planned on both of you going on, but as my father always said, ‘Always have a full alphabet of plans.’ You never know what might-”

“Where is she going and how do I get there?”

“That rocket will reach space in just a few seconds, however, Anne will be coming down to us shortly. You will have to catch her. There is a motorcycle on the other side of the house in a shed that you should use to catch her. Don’t worry, I have provided a way for you to safely get her. Should you do that your family will be returned to you. Now go. Oh, and one more thing…” The man stood up and turned to face Dean. He pulled down his sunglasses to reveal bright blue eyes. “I am not the man you think I am. I don’t have much time left and you two are our last hope. I, am Dr. Octavius Fudge.”

. . .

Anne turned to see a man standing in a doorway. The man was wearing dark clothing that appeared to be an armor that could have come out of a fantasy story. On his chest, he had an insignia of a dark circle surrounded by shimmering light. There was a glow to it that almost reminded her of a solar eclipse. This must be what the warning in blood was talking about. The most striking feature of the man’s apparel was his cape. It wasn’t like anything she had ever seen before. It was a black so deep that it absorbed all light that came to it making it look like a black nothingness changing shape and jerking around in space. It seemed to pulse every few seconds in a gentle wave from that blackness to a very dark gray to the point of being black. When it did that it would appear to be tattered around the edges and well worn. Then the tears would quickly mend themselves and the cape would turn to the deepest black again, and start the cycle over. At the bottom where the cape was only a few inches from the ground, it released particles of blackness that quickly shrank out of sight. The other strange thing about the cape was that it was constantly flowing about one to two feet from his feet always. There was no breeze in that room but the cape still moved as if there was a wind flowing towards the man.

“Hello, protagonist.” The man thrust power in every direction. Anne began to cower down onto her knees. She realized what she was doing and quickly stood up.

“Is that you? Are you Octavius Fudge?” Anne asked with her voice shaking.

The man simply answered, “No, I am not.” He stepped forward, his boots making a prominent sound on the floor. Anne thought he recognized him, then suddenly his identity flashed into her mind.

“Mr. Evers?” She cried out. “Wha- who- why, what are you doing here?”

Mr. Evers replied, “In a way. Daniel Evers is the name that was given to me. I am merely a follower. I will not bother to take time for your questions,” Mr. Evers continued, “Yes, I did kill that man over their, who is not Octavius. He is the one responsible for the death of your parents.”

“What are you talking about?”

Daniel continued as if nothing had happened. “I was sent by the real Dr. Octavius to retrieve you. You left your brother back on the planet. Now please, change into those clothes over there.” He pointed to the suit hanging on the wall. Anne turned to look at the clothes, then turned back to question why only to find that Daniel was gone. She heard a whisper that sounded almost like somebody said, “Sith chaw,” which she didn’t know if that was a sort of chew tobacco used by the bad guys in Star Wars or a sneeze. As she began to get dressed she wondered who Daniel was following and why he was dressed like a medieval warlord with a strange cape. She thought that it must have been Fiber optic cables or a color shifting sheet or something like that. She finished and moved her arms up then done while saying, “All done.” As soon as she said that the floor disappeared from underneath her, sinking into the walls.

She fell through quickly as the rocket continued upwards. Her scream echoed inside the helmet, hurting her ears. She looked as she screamed and found herself hurtling back towards Earth, a giant sphere down below her with stars in every direction. At some point the rocket had stopped propulsion so she didn’t burn up immediately from its flames. She felt very hot and began to sweat bullets the size of the giant dome she saw. As she fell she felt her suit push her somewhat. She guessed that there must have been some jets along the back of the air tank she wore. The closer and closer she got to the giant dome she realized that it was right over the area where they went through those trials and entered the rocket. All that had happened was that somebody wanted her to go up quickly then come back down.

. . .

Dean was racing towards the hole that had opened up in the dome again. That must be where Anne would fall through. He had no idea how either of them would survive if she came crashing down on top of him. Unless she had grabbed a parachute before she jumped out she would be falling at very dangerous speeds. He recalled the time only a few hours ago that they had been falling but only in pretense. This was real. What if she wasn’t even coming down at all and Fudge simply wanted him gone? This had to have been the final trial.

Without warning, both he and the bike were lifted up into the air with that deep vibration ripping through them. He cursed in his head as he grabbed at the gas again and tried to land, which he did with a slight bounce thanks to the suspension. In his helmet he heard Fudge’s voice through the same earbud he was wearing, “I forgot to mention the magnetic pulses. Don’t worry too much over those, the machine that I created is going through some tests. It is also how you two will survive, as long as I timed things right, which I did according to Alturaz. You wouldn’t know him.” So that is what those were. Dean didn’t have time to think about what this “machine” might be or its purpose. The pulses began happening again but only seconds apart this time. He got used to them and was able to accurately guess when the next one would happen.

He looked up and saw a body fall through the big hole which quickly closed up. He revved the engine again to make sure he was going as fast as possible. Suddenly the ground underneath him cracked and began to break apart. Large chunks of rock were quickly thrown up into the air with the pulses. Dean let out a quick shout as he swerved to avoid being hit. Again he looked to find the body, who he guessed was Anne, still flailing around as she fell through the air. It seemed strange the way she was falling, it was almost too slow to be real. The pulses were slowing her down, which Dean thought they must slow her down enough for him to catch her.

The bike jerked, but not from the pulses. An enormous explosion of sand right in front of him made him lose his balance and fall off as another pulse ran through him. That helped slow his crash but not enough to avoid sustaining damage. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as he got back up. His arms were covered in scratches and cuts, all filled with sand. No time for pain he shouted in his mind as he grunted to get up. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the bike fly up into the air and collide with another large rock that was thrown from somewhere and explode. Dean shielded his eyes with his already bloody arm to protect them from sand, rock, and metal. He turned to look and Anne was still falling. He had to appreciate how large the dome was and the pulses slowing her down. He started sprinting over rocks and jumping heights of over ten feet with the pulsing. Anne was getting closer and closer to the ground.

He was about 50 yards from her when the ground underneath him was lifted up into the air. There was already enough sand in the are but this made it almost impossible to see. The ground angled upwards, then broke off into smaller boulders, each the size of a car. He ran, jumped from boulder to boulder, when at last there was a final pulse and Dean leaped forward with arms outstretched to catch Anne who was only feet away. Time slowed down, the falling rocks spun slowly and the sand in the air fell like a slow rain. That fraction of a second gave Anne enough time to arch her back to allow Dean’s arms to go underneath it and grab her. She looked much larger in the space suit he realized she was wearing. The pulse stopped, Dean and Anne touched, there was a flash of light so bright as to blind everything with white, then Anne disappeared and Dean fell.

Chapter Eleven

sdrawkcaB

Anne opened her eyes. The bright flash disappeared and Dean was nowhere to be found. She was floating in the air with her head facing the sky. There was quiet for only a few moments. She looked around and saw boulders floating and sand stuck in midair. Noise began to rush into her ears and she was flung upwards as if she were falling towards the roof of the dome. She found it rather easy to right herself up, wind rushing all around her suit and flapping it around. The sound she heard was very similar to the loud drumming of stones falling on other stone and sand flying everywhere. She let out a yell as she continued upwards. She thought she should be slowing down but instead all that happened was that she sped upwards. She looked behind herself and the jets on her back were pushing her up as hard as they could, doing the opposite of the strange sucking they were doing earlier. Everything was strange and almost new as if her brain couldn’t fully understand what was happening.

She continued to fly all the way back up to the rocket. The rest was a blur as she gave trying to make sense of what was happening. Not quite four minutes later she was back up on the ship which was falling down to meet her. She rolled over on the floor, dizzy, and looked at where she was. She ripped her helmet off of her head and tossed it aside. She sat up then began to crawl to the wall. Looking around she found the table that she had flipped over exactly as she had left it. Anne stood up slowly, wondering at why she was back up on the rocket.

“Welcome!” She spun around to see Daniel Evers in the hallway. “I guess you could say that we meet again. However, I am unfamiliar with who you are, and this is the first time that I have met you, but you have met me before. What is your name?”

She automatically replied with, “Anne” before she thought about what just happened or why Mr. Evers was acting so strangely. Well, he was pretty strange before, but this seemed different to her. His accent was gone and he now sounded like any other American. He still had that strange outfit on and the cape was a strange as ever.

“You are likely wondering what is going on right now, yes? Well, you and I are now both prisoners to time. Not in the way you might think however. We are actually travelling the opposite direction through time as everybody else. One could say that we are moving in reverse, backwards. That loud drumming that I am sure that you experienced was a machine invented by the brilliant and damning Dr. Octavius Fudge. However, he learned from his mistakes and was able to create something even more extraordinary than before. A machine that would only create a temporary restoration. That machine, impacted, YOU.” He emphasized “you” to the point of being almost accusatory. “We don’t have much time…” He walked over to the doorway, and Anne found that she had walked into the hallway as well. He turned to look at her, “Watch this.” Anne peered into the room and gasped.

Inside of the room that she was in was, herself, taking the suit off and putting it back up on the wall. That was when the Anne inside the room started walking backwards, then turned to see Daniel. Daniel began speaking in a language and syntax she didn’t recognize, “Wreth revwoh stholc soeth ootnay jnash seelp wan. Tahnelp uth naw cab rutharb roy tifell wee. Wee veershteer oot seeviatchaw ritchod leer uth ieb tness saw I.” That was the best she could understand. She sat back down and listened to these strange words, until she began to hear herself speak in almost the same way, but different. It dawned on her that she was listening to them speak in reverse, and that she really was going back in time. Unless this was some strange Virtual Reality room she was living in. She rubbed at her temples to see if there was some device attached to her head that she couldn’t see or feel, but nothing changed. That was why Mr. Evers (she didn’t know why she still referred to him as that title) spoke so strangely with his accent was because he was speaking backwards!

Their conversation finished and Anne watched herself walk backwards out of the room and back onto the rope. She heard herself scream for Dean, and she suddenly remembered her brother amidst all the excitement. Daniel came back into the room and told her, “That man in the other room will come back soon. He is a bad guy who was planning on sabotaging you two.”

“Wait, how does that work, if we are going back in time, then how are you or I able to interact with different things?” That question boggled her mind as she tried to make sense of it. She came up with some ideas but it was Daniel who answered it in a way that was able to put her mind at rest.

“We don’t have much time before he gets back up, but this is how it seems to work. If I kill a person who was alive, all memory I had of them up till that point goes away because I lived in their future. All I know now is their past, which is now my future. Whenever things in time stop existing for whatever reason, it is not some huge or miraculous event. All that happens is that it disappears out of existence up till that point.” He made a popping noise with his mouth. “I trusted myself enough to know that if somebody is dead now, and I know I did it, that I had reason to kill them. Right now, that man is still alive as if he had never died, but when I kill him it will be like you knew it as with him dead before you ever saw him. Now if somebody were to kill me, it would be exactly the same, just the opposite. Say your brother kills me. Suddenly, I will disappear out of his future that I am living and have lived and only what I did after he kills me he would remember.  And then, of course, if I get hurt it would be the same, me not being hurt would disappear or if I break something its fixed state would disappear.”

Anne paused for a moment, thinking about what had just been said to her and how it made her look upon her reality in a different way. “What happens if you or I do something to each other? How does that work?”

“Hold on a moment, there is something I must do.” Daniel briskly turned and walked into the room where Anne had found the dead body. Instead, there was no body or writing on the wall but that same man, looking alive and well, standing in the room working on a laptop. There was a setup with some papers and a microphone that he was speaking into. He turned to look and see Daniel with wide eyes and began shouting in that backwards speech that Anne didn’t understand. She watched Daniel unsheathe a knife from a belt hidden behind his cape, and stab the man through the chest.

Suddenly, there was not exactly a flash, but Anne was looking at something different. The man was erasing, well, writing backwards, the message on the wall. Daniel said something into the microphone stood back up and left the room. The man finished, got up, then sat back down at the laptop and spoke some more words into the microphone.. Anne knew he was dead, and yet he was alive right there in front of him and there was nothing she could do. She couldn’t speak backwards and couldn’t learn in time. Daniel closed the door with the man still oblivious to his imminent demise.

Chapter Twelve

The Time Matrix

Dean got up, dusted off his bloody hands, then looked up at the sky. “Don’t worry about Anne. She will be alright. The test was a success.” The voice in his head angered him. Who was he to separate them and create these elaborate tests? Granted none of them killed them or hurt them too badly, however they were still capable of killing.

Dean shouted into the air. Maybe the voice could hear him but he didn’t care. “WHY!?” He began to cry. He didn’t know what for more. The fact that this was all happening so fast and only a few hours ago he and Anne arrived at a strange island and witnessed the death of new found friends, that he lost Anne and failed to catch her, or for his family which has gone missing. He looked around. The rocks had settled but still looked very out of place. There was so much dust and sand floating in the air that it made it difficult to see and breathe, but he was able to make out the direction he came from.

He heard the voice again from his right earbud, the left one was broken and the sound was distorted, “Come on back. Now we will have time to chat about things. Your sister is safe and you will see her yet. There is a threat far greater than you can imagine, and another one even worse and you two will help to stop it.” Dean’s tears were replaced by rage. Who was this man so bold as to emotionally scar two children, drag them halfway across the planet to play his games, then tell them to do his work? Too weak to run, Dean walked across the rocky field, surprised to find that he was generally okay physically.

He made it back to the strange house which looked different to him even though it was unaffected by what happened. He sat back down on the couch, Fudge still in his lawn chair.  He would have had a perfect view of the great events happening at a distance. Dean didn’t know how far it was, the ride there and the walk back were all a blur, only what happened at the end was as crisp an eventful memory as any. There was silence for a few minutes. Fudge was obviously waiting for him to speak. When he didn’t it was the Doctor that broke the silence.

“I am not the one who killed your parents.”

More silence.

“Do you wish to know where your family is?”

Dean looked up red-eyed then nodded, holding back more tears.

“They are inside right now, talking with one another and ignorant of where they really are.” Dean stood up, but sat back down when Fudge raised his hand. “You cannot see them just yet. We still have one more thing to do. Now, let us have a conversation with each other!” Dean wanted to see his family. He didn’t know why he sat back down rather than walk in. Maybe it was because his better conscious told him that it was a lie.

“Where is Anne?” Dean began.

“Hold on there! There is plenty more that you need to know first! So I will begin. First of all, I am not the one who killed your parents. I brought you here to save them. Let me explain. I am a being that has always been fascinated with reaching higher dimensions. The one we live in now contains three spatial dimensions. My work is to create machines within that dimension to make not just a gateway, but a bridge to that dimension. Such a machine would not exist as its functions would break the laws of physics. However, using my genius I have been able to create those that do break such laws. This does involve you two.

“Call it selfish, but I have become very attached to my life as it means that I can continue my work and research. I used other people to test on before I eventually test on myself. How this concerns you is a little more complex as obviously you did not volunteer to do this and I typically do not force this on other people. Unfortunately while experimenting with a backup plan in case I did perish, I used a man by the name of Daniel Evers to test my hypothesis how how to do something over again. I will spare you all of the details as you will not understand them.

“What I did was create a sort of loop on his lifeline so when he dies, his consciousness and existence will begin moving the opposite of the norm. What this means is that he is moving backwards in time, getting younger instead of older and speaking backwards. He is able to move outside of our time-”

“Wait wait wait!” Dean interrupted. “What? Daniel? The guy who took us to the airplane and brought us here on that boat? Him? So he was working for you… How are you able to do that and why him? I really know that I shouldn’t believe this but I will humor you. And what does this have to do with us?”

Fudge continued, “He is able to move outside of our time which can severely mess things up. Like I said, I will spare you the details. The reason why him is because he was a volunteer for my tests. He knew all of the risks involved and what I would do to him. I did this as a test for myself, the only problem is is that there is no way for him to get back. When he gets young enough he will simply stop existing. I do not know if he will die or his life will start over again all to have the same things happen over and over again. However there is one thing for sure, at some point in his future but our past he will kill your parents.”

“Why.” It was no longer a question.

“Because you two, if your parents were alive, would become the successful tests and be able to return to your normal, forward facing, time. He got angry that I failed him and succeeded with you so in an act of anger he will kill your parents. He will succeed, however he will not stop there. There are many others that he prevented that put a huge hindrance on my work.”

“But how do you know this? It seems like it hasn’t happened and if things changed the way you are saying how would you know about the changes?”

“I don’t. However using my genius I understand who and what he is, who you are, and with other tests and experiments I have a 98.% certainty that that is what happened, or will happen. And I need you two to stop him.” Dean was silent. “He is a preventable threat. There are many different ways that I could end him right now, but with your help you two will come out stronger and more knowledgeable than ever. You two will be given the opportunity to achieve greatness.”

“I don’t want greatness, I want my family. How do I get them back?”

“Follow me.”

. . .

Anne screamed at him. “Why would you do that!?” She had never seen anything like that before. She had seen movies before and that was all acting, however this was one where she watched someone die before they ever lived.

Daniel opened his mouth but before he spoke there was a huge jerk that threw them both off of their feet. The rocket was shaking violently and both Daniel and Anne felt their stomachs churn in the same way they would feel when riding a roller coaster. Anne fell over and began to tumble towards a wall and Daniel quickly staggered to the door and grabbed the handle for stability. He shook and the door opened, swinging him with it. The man inside was no longer there and the computer had fallen off of the desk. The shaking and turning suddenly stopped. Daniel looked over at her.

“What is this?” His voice was sharp and spiteful and in reply Anne frowned and shrugged, having temporarily forgotten about the murder she had just witnessed and concerned for her life.

As soon as the shaking stopped, there was a massive level of vibration and the walls around them began to crumble. Anne sought shelter and dove underneath the table that she had not too recently flipped over in anger (which was now upright, somehow surviving the previous shaking). She closed her eyes and held the back of her neck with her hands preparing for something hitting her. Nothing did. When the vibration stopped she crawled out from under the table and vomited. Standing up she looked around. The entire rocket was gone and instead they were now in a large white dome.

Not just a dome but more of a large hollow egg shape, there were strange things all over the floor and the walls that looked like white light bulbs. The room was somewhat dim and there was an atmosphere that smelled of iron and burning copper. A closer look under a microscope would have revealed that they were instead complicated machines the size of a computer pixel clustered into a light bulb size. She looked to her right and found Daniel (whose cape had disappeared) looking around, then finally asking, “What is this?” for the second time. She looked to her left and at the opposite end of her was Dean, sitting down in evident exhaustion. There was some slight microphone interference, then a voice came from invisible speakers.

“Welcome Anne and Daniel! I now present to you your final test. The victor of this contest will be granted a return to normal time and continue their ordinary lives. You have all given me the data that I need and your service is no longer necessary. The rules are simple: down the other person for ten seconds and you win. Daniel versus Anne and Dean. Daniel, you only have to keep one of the two on the floor for ten seconds. That isn’t as unfair as you think since you have half as many to win, twice as many chances, and Dean and Anne have twice as much power. I would call that roughly even. Oh, and no weapons.”

There was a strange feeling in the air as knifes and a gun and bullets all tore themselves out from Daniel’s belt and fell up to the ceiling and stayed there. There must have been extremely powerful electromagnets up there Anne thought. Suddenly the room was lit and Anne was immediately dizzy. All around them were streaks of Dean all around the room floating in the air. It was like somebody took every frame of a high speed video and overlaid them.

“Welcome, to the Time Matrix. You are sure to find out how it works. Everything that happens in this room at any point it is turned on will be projected at every point in time at every moment at once. Of course, it isn’t actually happening as there are hologram projectors and cameras all over this room. Those are only holograms, but they will change with every event that happens when you change your decision. Anything that happens in this room in the future you can see. Anything that happens in this room in the past you can see. Now, fight!”

Dean stood up and began moving backwards along his projections. Daniel turned to Anne and spoke, “I am not losing. I am sorry. I thought I could take you in as an apprentice. I’m sorry.”

Coldy recognizing his motives and intentions now, Anne turned back to Daniel and loudly whispered, “No you’re not.” And she charged.

. . .

Dean entered the room and looked around. He heard Fudge’s voice from a speaker, “Now Dean, all you have to do is help Anne and you two can go home. Things may change and you will get a headache but just ignore it. Now, remember your karate training and go after him.” Dean and Anne had both taken different martial arts styles for many years prior. She took Taekwondo and he took Karate. Dean always wanted to use his skills for something real, but he had always set his sights low on drunk people and muggers, never a real bad guy. “Begin.”

The room brightened and he felt a little strange in his stomach. He saw Anne and Mr. Evers in a strange black armor type suit. The infinite number of projections shown surrounded and dizzied him. He saw himself going into the battle, fighting and eventually falling to the wall and sit. Dean bounced up and down and shook his hands. His eyes darted the massive room for Mr. Evers, the real Mr. Evers. It was strange to make it out but along some of the streaks some of them looked almost fuller than the others. He ran and shouted and through out a straight punch. While practicing Karate he discovered that the moves weren’t fancy or anything and they were all straight and to the point.

Daniel looked back just in time to get punched in the face. Dean felt the connection and it felt both good and strange. This was quite different from hitting a still bag, but not too much. The room changed again and the streaks moved around more. Dean quickly looked behind him and found that whatever he did was now a projection. There were no projections of him in front, only behind. Daniel got back up and said something strange that Dean couldn’t understand. Then the fight was really on. He looked to his left and Anne was there, also fighting but from another angle. Something looked strange about their movements because they looked choppy and what would surely be difficult to do normally. Dean knew that they were moving backwards, but it still felt strange to him. They fought and Daniel looked tired and his movements looked in vain. When Dean saw an opening he ran in with a kick and a punch and another punch and another until Anne dive tackled him to the ground. Dean jumped on too. Daniel struggled and it was very difficult to keep him there.

In her time, Anne threw a punch and they entered into a spar. The both kicked and blocked and punched. Daniel obviously wasn’t really trained, yet he was able to hold his ground well enough which surprised Anne. Dean was sitting down again. Apparently he had sat down, got up dizzy only to sit again. The streaks of Dean flickered and changed with each of their movements, dizzying both Daniel and Anne. Behind them whatever they did was now a collection of projections so Anne could see where she started running towards Daniel. She made sure to keep pressure on him to eventually tire him out, hoping that Dean and her would be able to stop him. Anne made the mistake of reeling a punch back and Daniel easily sidestepped it and kicked her in the thigh, pushing her to the ground. She tried to get back up but Daniel already put a boot onto her back.

She rolled and smacked at his leg, only hoping that she could get free. She couldn’t lose now to this monster! The next thing she knew Daniel was off of her and she sprang back up to her feet only to see Dean, the thicker projection that he looked, sitting on him and hitting the back of his head with his fists. Daniel rolled out from under him and ran to the other side of the room, the entire time the projections continued to flash and change. They were now all fighting each other. Dean looked strange and the way he moved looked weird. It was backwards but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t dangerous to Daniel. They fought, each exchanging punches and Dean made strange reactions before things even hit him. Dean’s projections moved and shifted with every blow dealt regardless who it was from and who it hit or missed.

All three of them were tired but the adrenaline in their veins helped them to perceiver. All of them determined to win. The fight dragged on until Daniel collapsed with Dean on him. They held him down for five seconds and they heard, “Time!” come from everywhere. Anne got off  but ready to still fight. Dean looked like he used his hands to jump backwards off of Daniel. Daniel stood up, looking defeated but still angry and tried to fight Dean some more. Dean punched him then ran back to the beginning then started bouncing. The fight was over.

“Over already?” Dean said. He had only held him for five seconds and Fudge called time. It was halfway between ten and zero so that made sense when he thought about it hard enough. However for him their projection streaks continued to morph and he remembered that he still had to fight to get it to the point where he could take him down. He ran over to where he saw that they were fighting and joined. Excitement filled him as he knew that they had beaten him. Dean was hit and fell over. Daniel jumped backwards over him away from Anne. He got up and saw them come together again, this time his foot was on top of Anne.

In his mind he panicked and wondered if they had actually lost and he had continued to fight. He chased after him and tackled him. Daniel threw himself up, still backwards, and they continued to attack. It was quite a repetitive process but the excitement still filled him. Daniel suddenly stopped and the projection changes slowed their blurring movements. Dean concluded that they had won and threw his fist into the air, ran over to where he was before, and sat down. He looked and saw Anne running away from Daniel. Dean tried to stand back up again but didn’t get very far as his headache hurt him too much so he sat back down and all went black.

Chapter Thirteen

An End

The twins walked together down the street of Anne’s home. “They still don’t believe us?” Dean asked.

Anne shrugged and answered, “I guess not. They all think that it is in that book that you wrote for me a while back.”

“I suppose they wouldn’t. They were all drugged and kidnapped then transported halfway across the globe. I still don’t know how, but how could they believe that?”

“I wouldn’t. Oh, and what do you think he meant by ‘a greater threat to come’ or whatever he said after that?”

“I don’t know or really care too much. I am just glad to be home. Wait, didn’t we already go over this on the plane back?”

“Yeah, but I think it is good. And hey, let’s be honest. Dr. Fudge was right. We did come out more knowledgeable and we now have a story to tell our kids when we have them.”

“If we have them. You will have to find a husband first. And yes, he was right. Poor Daniel though. I do feel bad for him.”

“There was nothing we could do.”

After being forced into that situation and losing, Daniel continued on in his backwards time and Anne was restored. Neither of them knew how Fudge did it since Anne entered the Time Matrix long before Dean ever did but they were still able to interact. It was incredible and both Anne and Dean understood that he was a genius. Fudge had to explain that he put the fudge octopuses on sites like 9/11 because he wanted to give people a scapegoat for everything. He made up the videos of him killing people to get the Twins and many others in the right mindset for when they meet him. 

Daniel would continue and out of anger kill their parents, but that didn’t bother either of them too much now. The family they had now was great enough, and change would only make differences too different to handle properly. It was tough coming to that choice. Anne had even thought of sacrificing herself so that Daniel would be restored and their parents would be saved. But if what Daniel told her one time was that his case was permanent, and that meant that Fudge meant for the Twins to win all along.

Anne spoke again, “But one thing is for certain, we have forever changed and learned things about both ourselves and an important lesson about family.”

Jokingly, Dean said, “I guess. But the fight was pretty cool. And the giant can thing.”

Anne smirked. They both continued walking until they got back to her house. It was time for Dean and his family to leave. They all waved goodbye to each other, then the car door was shut and they drove away.

Epilogue

Experiment #256 Test #83 Status: SUCCESS

Fudge smiled as he looked at his computer screen. His work here was almost complete. Soon he would leave and likely never return. He was so close and couldn’t afford any losses. This small side project of his was finished quicker than he expected it too. The two kids he had found did an outstanding job making sure that Daniel didn’t interfere with anything. This side project of his was simply a backdoor in case something happened to him so he could prevent whatever would happen to him, if anything. The likelihood of that was almost 80% in the next year he calculated. Daniel did give him cause for concern, especially his outfit. Daniel’s brother, Richard, obviously had some part in that. He chuckled for only a moment as he pondered what Richard would do when he found out what he was going to do to him. “I really should be more concerned about his father.” Fudge spoke out loud. He made sure to have thought of almost every possible outcome of this experiment. He covered 99.3% of everything that could go wrong. Everything else was broken up into much, much smaller percentages. If this worked he could finally complete his work in peace.

“Oh Richard, prepare yourself.” And he pressed the button.

The End

Thanks for your patience and Happy Birthday!