I sighed and shoved myself away from the desk, leaning back in the rolling chair my butt currently parked in. The disk was fried beyond comprehension and at the moment all I had to go on was that they were alive somewhere, maybe together, though the chances of that happening was so low, that I wasn’t even going to hope for such a situation. At the moment I just needed to get the drive up and running, preferably find a way for it to be less burned, through the laws of science were definitely against me in that area.
The door opened and closed behind me as General Belva came into the room. I spun around in the chair in order to face her. “General.”
She nodded curtly and glanced at the disk on the desk before looking at the walls of the room, which currently was covered floor to ceiling in written accounts that don’t make sense in the natural course of history.
“Alec what are these supposed to be?” I blanched and looked up at her sheepishly.  
“They are things that, um, don’t make sense, in history that is.” I added hurriedly when she raised an imposing eyebrow at me, my hands gripped the arms of my chair turning white as she began to walk around the room, peering at the pictures and written accounts I had collected in the past few months since Meredith and Sebastian had disappeared. She finally got to the wall and I held a breath as I waited for her to come to a decision. When she didn’t move hope filled my chest and I opened to my mouth to explain my theory as to where they were, but before I could begin my eyes flied to her fingers as they twitched at her side and my heart dropped into my stomach.
             I watched in something akin to slow motion as she reached forwards and ripped papers off the wall, they fluttered to the ground like leaves falling off a tree as she whirled to face me, a hurricane of my own making. “This,” she hissed, pointing at the papers on the ground and then to the wall, “Is not your job. I understand your brother and your close friend went through the device, but you are being paid to get it up and running again, not looking for things that don’t make sense to you. Do your job, and our analysts will do theirs.” Her open palm came down on the table with a loud smack making me jump in my seat. She glared daggers at my before slamming the door on her way out of the room.
             My eyes drifted to the papers on the floor at stayed there as my vision became blurry. I touched my face tentatively and grimaced as I wiped off a tear that  had dared to try to fall. I got on my knees on the floor and began to pick up the papers that had drifted into piles like fresh snow. I reached for a photograph facing the floor, turning it over I froze. It was the last photo I had with both Meredith and Sebastian in it with me. The three of us were standing in front of our favorite restaurant. Sebastian was scowling like normal as Meredith and I grinned at him. It was Meredith’s 27th birthday and we had celebrated it in spectacular fashion; by getting way too drunk and kissing more than our fair share of strangers at the clubs and bars that our drunken selves had managed to stumble into. We waken up the next day at the house Sebastian and I shared, sporting matching hangovers I swear lasted for a week. I smiled slowly and gingerly put the photo aside as I picked up the rest of the papers the General had torn from the wall so I could throw them away.
             I cursed the fact that everything written or rather anything that wasn’t online had to be incinerated so no one could get their hands on things they have no business looking at, mainly because the incinerator chute was halfway across the office from where I was now and I could already feel the pitying gazes of my colleges falling upon me. I took a steadying breath and marched out of my office with my head held high, letting my actions hide the turmoil inside my head.
             “Hey,” I sickly sweet voice sounded from behind me and I stiffened, walking faster. Oh god, please just leave me alone, today is not the day, actually there is never a day I would want to talk with the annoying parasite who was attempting to catch up to me at the moment.
             “Aleeeeecccc,” She whined grabbing my arm to get me to stop, being the gentleman I am, I didn’t turn around and immediately yell in her face for touching me. Instead I turned around calmly and plastered a smile onto my face.
             “Why hello Cynthia, I didn’t see you there.” I was lying and I’m pretty sure she knew I was if the narrowing of her eyes was any indication. She looked at me for a few more seconds in suspicion, before shrugging and flicking her hair over her shoulder.
             “Me and a few of the others were planning on getting drinks later, I wanted to know if you were open to coming with us.” Cynthia looked at me with what she probably believed to be puppy dog eyes but she ended up looked more like a penguin with syphilis. I shook my head firmly and gently removed her hand from my arm setting it firmly down by her side.
             “I would love to but I’m afraid I have way too much work to do, with the device still not up and running and all.” Her expression changed in an instant as she stomped her foot on the ground in anger.
             “I believe you. You always say you have work to do, yet half the time you aren’t even doing your job, no instead you are searching through the records looking for information about your beloved missing agents. Well guess what? THEY ARE DEAD! Stop searching for people who don’t matter anymore.” As Cynthia ranted my fake smile slowly dropped off my face, the word dead stabbing me through the heart like a dull knife, pain flooding my body. But she was honestly fine until she said they didn’t matter. I was going to walk away and avoid her for the rest of eternity, until she said those words. I snapped, fear, dread, and anger filling my brain as I slammed her against the nearest wall, my fingers twisted into the collar of her shirt.
             “Don’t you ever say they don’t matter.” My voice filled the large room as I roared. “Because they matter to me. They matter to the people in their lives who were left behind when they went through that goddamn portal to hell. They matter more than an insect like you could ever possibly understand.” Hands grabbed at my body pulling me off Cynthia, I tried to fight them off screaming and yelling at them before Daniel stepped into my field of vision, so he was the only thing I could see and slapped me. My head whipped to the side as my cheek began to sting, I looked up at Daniel as I came to my senses, realizing that with the end of every sentence I had been slamming Cynthia against the wall.
I sagged against the hold of the two people restraining me, as Cynthia looked at me with fear in her hazel-blue eyes, “I’m so sorry.” I whispered as I hung my head in shame. I knew what was coming even before the General showed up at the scene.
“My office. Now.” She didn’t look at me as we walked to her office, but what hurt the most was that I knew I deserved whatever was about to happen.

“You know I don’t want to do this,” General Belva began, she looked me over judgement weighing down her gaze. “You are the only person who is qualified to use the device at the moment and this will prove to be a considerable time challenge.”
“What do you mean time challenge. It's not like they are going to forget our time if left there too long.” I frowned replying to her cryptic message with sarcasm dripping from my voice. She merely raised an eyebrow. I could feel my smile melt off my face, “You're kidding me. How long do they have before…”
“Unfortunately you are no longer privy to information of that nature Mr. Martin. You very well know all the rules around here, you also know you broke one of the few that calls for immediate termination of your service. I trust you understand you are still sworn to secrecy?”
I stared at her in disbelief, first she tells me, or rather infers, how Meredith and Sebastian are somehow forgetting about their real time, then she gives an oh so helpful reminder about just how fired I am.
I clenched my jaw shut to keep the words in my throat from bubbling up and out. What I had to say was not going to help the situation, not if I wanted to work miracles to get my job back. Despite my best intentions one word fell from my lips, “Please.” It was cracked, a window into my heart that had had too many rocks thrown at it but was still trying to stand tall.
            “Your termination papers are on the desk, sign them while security goes through your things.” Each word was another rock being thrown at the window from the outside, while a flood of despair pounded against it from the interior.
            I nodded and reached across the desk with trembling hands to grasp the heavy manila-colored folder lying there. Inside was a bleak future where before there would have been new assignments, new times to travel to, adventures now tainted around the edges by the heavy smoke left by an explosion.
            The General handed me a pen, numbly I took it, signing away my hope on the lines she pointed at. The pen dragged wherever it touched the surface of the paper, time working in slow motion. The last page loomed in front of me, hesitation stopped me just before the tip of the pen touched the dotted line that called for my name. I glanced up at the general to see her eyes narrow before she shook her head. Once, curt and  final. It was with an empty heart, and a soul that had finally shattered, that I signed my name on the paper that took away my last vestiges of hope for finding Meredith, Sebastian and everyone else who was lost.

“One vanilla creme latte macchiato for Heather.” I set the woman’s coffee down on the counter and forced a smile as the woman took her drink and let the coffee shop. Glancing at the clock, the hands seemed to haven’t moved since the last five times I looked at the stupid thing. The bell rung as a customer entered and I plastered another smile onto my face as I went to go take their order.
Three hours and countless drinks later my shift was finally over. “Thank god,” I muttered under my breath, being careful to not let the manager hear me.
“I heard that Alec,” Jonathan, the manager, breezed past me on his way to the counter, the dude has the ears of a bat, he misses nothing. “Cheer up, you have four days to yourself coming up, just one more day of work then you’re free.”
I yanked the apron off my body and shoved the awful thing into my cubby, while Jonathan chattered in the background. He loves to talk, he seriously never shuts up, it’s annoying and painful at the same time. On one hand he doesn’t seem to understand the concept of silence, on the other hand his constant chattering reminds me of Meredith’s non-stop mouth and Sebastian’s—I stopped that line of thought before I went down a rabbit hole that was still too sensitive to go near, even five years after they disappeared.
“Jonathan, please stop talking.” I raised my hand in the universal sign for stop, as he stuck his lower lip out in an exaggerated pout.
“You’re always so mean to me Alec.” He drawed out every syllable in the sentence until it sounded like gibberish. If I didn’t know him so well I wouldn't have had a clue as to what he was trying to say.
I shrugged in response and continued to finish changing, “Don't you have a counter to manage, manager?”
His eyes widened and he ran out of the room. “Thanks for the reminder Alec.” I frowned as I watched him depart, he’s such a scatterbrain, how on earth is he a manager again, considering we both started working here at the same time. Oh wait that’s an easy question, he actually cares about being nice to the customers, honestly the only reason I started to smile was so Jonathan would stop nagging me about how utterly, mind-wrackingly boring my resting face is. It worked, and so far he hasn’t picked up on how fake my smiles are, though there are a few customers who have picked up on it before, one of them being a therapist who gave me their card and said to drop by sometime. Yeah right, I could already see how well that session would go, so why are you messed up sir, well you see my best friend and my brother were sucked through a time machine when it exploded and now they have been gone for five years and have probably forgotten all about the real time they came from. I would be thrown into a psych ward faster than I could blink, either that or the military would come and do something horrible to me for violating that stupid contract, better yet the General would probably come pick me up personally.
My eyes scanned the street ahead of me as I waited for a the crosswalk to bring up the little walking man. My eyes skipped over three nondescript black vans parked on the street in front of my apartment, before wrenching my gaze back to them. Just my luck, if the military thinks they are slick then they need a heads up, because they aren’t. The sign to cross to the other side of the street came on, as I considered my options: 1. Walk the opposite way and hope they haven’t seen me already or 2. Waltz past them and head into my apartment. Neither option seemed very appealing and no matter what I did they were going to find me anyway, so I chose option 2, with one important revision that is. I walked across the street and loudly rapped on the passenger window of the first van.
It rolled down to reveal the one, the only, the great General Belva, “What do you want?” My voice came out dry and brittle, it’s been five years since she fired you, get over it already Alec, I scolded myself.
“We found them.” The world stopped turning, my heart stopped beating, for one second everything in the world was like the damn clock in the cafe.
“How? Where? When?” I tripped and stumbled over my words as I tried to catch my breath at the same time.
“Western Roman Empire, Rome, found out a week ago.” With every word my heart jumped as hope filled my body, only to deflate as a cruel thought disrupted it.
“How do I know you aren’t lying to me? And one that note I thought you fired me and I wasn’t privy to that kind of information anymore.” I turned away and began to trudge up the sidewalk into my apartment. A car door opened and closed behind me, and footsteps sounded against the sidewalk as combat boots met the concrete.
“Alec, know this, I am not going to beg. We have found the missing agents but unfortunately we cannot get them back without your help.” She folded her arms in front of her chest as I turned around to eye her.
“I don’t believe you, if you had needed me you wouldn’t have fired me cold turkey.”
She raised her signature eyebrow, and I involuntarily flinched, “You know very well as to why you were fired ‘cold turkey’ as you so elegantly put it.” My mouth opened and closed like a fish before I looked off to the side. “Are you going to come with us or not?”
I studied her and then glanced at one of the soldiers she had accompanying her, “Hey you,” I pointed at a random man, “ Is she telling the truth, and don’t lie I can tell.”
The soldier glanced at the General, who jerked her head down, to give him the go ahead before responding, “Yes sir General Belva is telling the truth, we have located the missing agents. Also, the person they brought in for your replacement almost made the device explode again.” I stared at him in disbelief before looking back at the General, who looked grumpy almost. Then I surprised everyone, including myself, as I began to laugh, doubling over in hysterics as every stared at me as if I had gone crazy.
“I—I can’t believe—Haha they almost—” I tried to compose myself as I straightened up, however when I looked at the General I burst into laughter again. “Oh my—that’s—that’s amazing.” I actually managed to calm down this time as I stood there, occasional chuckles bursting past my lips.
“Well?” Impatience colored her tone forcing me to remember why she was here.
“I’ll do it, just don’t let that imbecile anywhere near me or my equipment please.” She nodded and got into the lead van, with me following close on her heels.

The entire facility had changed since the last time I walked through those doors. Everything was modernized, sleek, clean. The power washed red-brick stone had been replaced by floor to ceiling windows, bulletproof more likely than not. Inside metal walls replaced the glass, concealing the inner workings of the facility. “You know, if you wanted me to walk into a fortress you could have just asked.”I grinned, but the General ignored me and continued into the building. It didn’t matter, nothing was going to stop the high I was riding on, my head was in the clouds and nothing was going to bring me down, they found had found Sebastian and Meredith, five years later sure, but they had found them, something he had been attempting to do without any success since they disappeared.
“Are you coming Alec?” The General’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts, as I realized I had stopped walking as she held the door open. Her eyes sparkled in amusement as if she could read my thoughts. I hurried into the building the laughs of the soldiers accompanying us trailing behind me.
“Is the,” I stopped to clear my throat, the embarrassment of being caught daydreaming lowering my tone, “Is the device still in same place? And the control room?”
The General swiped her card at the elevator bank before answering, “The device is still in the same place, but the control room has been moved so it is closer in case an accident happens again.” A memory flashed into my mindseye at her words, bloodied hands, an arm without an owner, the fear of not being able to find the people I consider to be family crashed into my again, waves that threaten to drag me down into their depths if I don’t fight them.
“Alec.” A voice called from far away. The world shook and the voice called my name again. I blinked hard and stared at the hand on my shoulder for a long second, not quite understanding what was there. Once I realized it was a hand it took me another few seconds to stave off the panic attack that was telling me that it wasn’t attached to anything was in fact wrong. I looked up to the person the arm was attached to and gave the General a  smile that didn’t quite reach my eyes. “Are you okay?” Her brows squeezed together the longer I took to answer, “You  know you don’t have to-”
I cut her off quickly before she could decide I wasn’t in a good enough place head wise to do my job, “I’m fine.” I tried to sound convincing but judging from her raised brow I fell short. “I’m the only person who can bring them back, and I’m as good as I’m going to be anytime soon so…” I trialled off and hoped she understood this was too important to me to stop now. One of the reasons they fired me was because I was trying to find the people we lost, and for 4 and a half years I was unable to do anything because I couldn’t access the historical information the program had. I marched forward, leaving everyone else behind as I walked into the control room.
Stopping short I stared at the new console, my forehead furrowed as I continued to look at it. The General stepped into my line of sight and gestured at it, silently prompting me to begin. When I didn’t move from my spot she sighed, “What’s wrong?” I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye and ran my hand over the new design. My fingers rose and fell as they followed the grooves between the buttons and ran over the switches that made up my station. Would I be able to do this? It had been a long time since I had last worked here, do I even remember the access codes that had to be entered before I could even think of bringing them back. I turned to the computer and sat down heavily. Who am I kidding of course I remembered the codes, they were one of the few things I made sure I didn’t forget. And even if my brain had forgotten them, my muscles sure hadn’t.
“Have the access codes changed since I left?” My fingers paused over the keyboard, muscle memory itching to type in the codes they had memorized. The General shook her head and a small smile crept it’s way onto my face, “That seems unlike you, leaving a potential security risk open like that.”
A hand landed heavily on my shoulder and I felt the General’s breath on the side of my face as she leaned into to speak to me, “We both know the only person who remembers all of those codes is you, and we also both know you wouldn’t jeopardize your slight chances of being allowed back here by hacking the system.” I chuckled in response, we may not always be on the best of terms but she certainly knows me and my habits. I faced the computer screen and got to work, my fingers flying over the keyboard, typing in the codes I had memorized and maintained within my head just incase this moment ever came to life.
General Belva leaned onto the hand she had placed on the desk as she watched me work. “How long do you think this will take you?”
My fingers slowed down from their blur over the keys as I thought about her question. My skills were a little rusty and it took a long time to boot up the machine and get everything ready, even if I had been doing this instead of working in a coffee shop for the past few years it would take a long time, “Two maybe three hours.” She nodded and left the room, probably to get the agents who were going to go back briefed of their mission. The room filled with silence as everyone else left, leaving me to concentrate on the task at hand, bringing our lost agents back to us. 
Half an hour later there was yelling in the hallway, startling me out of my bubble. I glanced back at the door as it opened and a loud voice filled the room, “Who are you supposed to be?” A man glared at me from the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, in anger maybe or it could be defensive, actually the answer is probably both.
I tilted my head and considered my options as I studied him, I could ignore him and go back to work, although the time for that has come and gone as I had already acknowledged him. Another option would be to push him out of the room and lock the door, General Belva’s judgemental gaze popped into my head and I decided against it, I already had enough going against me in her bad book, it was a miracle if I wasn’t at the top of the list of people she least likes but has to be cordial with. My last option was thus my only recourse and I hoped to hell and back it wouldn’t get me punched in the face, “I’m am both the person you replaced and the person who is replacing you because you are inadequate for the intricacies this job requires.” I returned my attention back to the computer, internally wincing when I recounted what I had just said, inadequate, really, you want to get punched I berated myself and hoped the man behind me wouldn’t take my words too personally, I’m much too sarcastic on the best of days, buy times like right now, when I’m stressed beyond belief I can be downright mean, it was something Meredith had been making me work on, and also something I hadn’t bothered to do since she got sucked back in time, it hurt too much to remember her or Sebastian.
I remembered the man behind me as he huffed, sounding much too like a bull getting ready to charge for my liking. Sneaking a look behind me, I noticed the slight changes in his demeanour, one such thing being the splotchy red color that was making its own sweet time up his neck and face from his chest. Why can’t I keep my mouth shut, this is why I get into fights all the time, I don’t exactly mean to pick them I just can’t stop myself.
“If I replaced you then why are you back, it's clear the one who is inadequate, is you,” the words were spit out like bullets, each of them bearing down on his target, me.
I huffed and chose to ignore him this time, if he can’t even make a good come back it isn’t worth bantering with him. I studied the code lining the computer screen and made a slight adjustment before glancing back at the man out of the corner of my eye. The color he was turning now made the previous color pale in comparison as he turned the color of deep red wine. So he doesn’t like to be ignored, I made a mental note in the corner of my mind. I breathed out heavily and took inhaled deeply before addressing him, “Look do you even actually understand what this machine does?”
“Of course I do,” he responded sharply. 
“Okay then, what does it do?” I asked.
He glared at me before speaking, “It sends people through time.”
I rubbed my eyes and leaned back into the chair, I do not have time for this, “No, I want you to tell me with specificity what this machine does. Don’t answer with it sends people through time, everyone knows that, your job is to know how it works, so what does it do specifically?” I crossed my arms mimicking the man’s stance.
He paused before answering, some of the anger from before noticeably absent from his voice, “You uh, you press this button and flick some switches and…” He trailed off and dropped his hands to his sides, the bravado fading along with his words as my eyes narrowed.
“So in other words you don’t know.” He opened his mouth to speak, before closing it again and shoving his hands into his pockets. I ran my fingers through my hair before I got out of my chair, striding over the the now sheepish man. I grabbed his arm and frog marched him out of the room. “Listen here, I don’t know you, you don’t know me, but I think we both realize I know more about this machine, the technology and the thinking behind this whole operation than you do, then you probably ever will. That is why I am replacing you, because as you oh so eloquently said, people get sent back in time here, and guess what, that is an extremely delicate process which can go wrong in a split second. If you only know how to press a bunch of buttons and flick switches,” I paused and locked eyes with him, “then you can’t fix a situation if it goes wrong, and people could be lost it time forever, or worse, they could die.” He blanched and shrunk away from my grasp at my words, it seemed the prospect of someone dying because of his actions hadn’t even occurred to him. “If you are okay with knowing that, then you are free to go back in there with me and I will explain what I am doing and why so you can replace me next time, but if you know you can’t live with someone’s death on your conscious then you need to leave and find a new job, because this is not the right place for you.” With that I turned on my heel and left him gawking at my retreating form.
I waited for a few moments once I reached my seat, to see what choice he was going to make, when no one made themselves known within the room I began to code for the location I had been given.

“Is everything ready?” General Belva asked, briskly walking into the room.
I adjusted the sensitivity of the machine slight before answering her question, “Give me a minute, I’m double checking everything.” She nodded and stood to the side as I flitted back and forth between the computer monitor and the console. After a few minutes I stood back and looked to see how everything was set up, all the cables were tucked into one corner so no one would trip on them and unplug anything, and the computer had now been moved as close to the control panel as possible so I could change the code quickly if something went wrong. Pursing my lips I turned the computer so it was facing more towards where I was going to be standing so I could monitor what was happening with the code more closely. I pushed my uneasiness aside before telling General Belva everything was set up and ready.
“Good, the agents are entering the chamber now,” she said.
We walked over to the front of the room to peer into the chamber from the viewing platform. I counted the number of agents who were being sent and recalculated how sensitive everything would have to be without compromising the integrity of the time vortex, we don’t want anyone to end up with missing limbs or ones in wrong places. I looked up at the ceiling as I walked back to the controls, then silently made the sensitivity lower, to account for the increased amount of people. “Are they ready?” I asked. She nodded and stood back from the platform.
“Send them.” I bobbed my head and lifted the clear cover off the launch button before pressing it. Inside the chamber the machine began to glow before a bright flash of light occurred and the agents were gone.
The General tilted her head forward as she listened to the agents we had sent back in time. She looked up once the connection had settled to her satisfaction. An unspoken question filled her gaze, asking me if I was okay here alone. I shrugged and gestured with my hand to the computer, all I was going to do for the next few hours was make sure everything was running smoothly so it would be easy to bring the agents back. She sat down in a chair nearby and settled in for the wait, keeping an ear on the chatter of the agents through the headpiece and another on our surroundings. While she did this I checked the run through of the code to make sure there were no errors from when the machine was activated.

General Belva shot straight up in her seat, “Alec, bring them back.” I twisted around in my seat quickly to look at her, silently asking why. “Alec, bring them back, now.” Her tone was frantic, something very unlike her. Her haste and command spurred me on as I typed in the commands that were necessary to bring the agents back from the past.
The chamber flashed brightly as they came through the vortex. Immediately groans of pain reverberated through the command center. The General was out of the room before the light had dimmed and I could dimly hear her voice as she spoke to the lead for the mission. I glanced into the room to see some of the men and women lying on the ground obviously in pain, while the  those who were less hurt were helping them out of the room. I couldn’t help but wonder if I did this, if my skills were more rusty than I had originally thought, then I remembered they had all transported safely and it had taken more than two hours for anything to go wrong. My blood ran cold as I reflected on this revelation, what if Meredith and Alec were in trouble? If the threat in the past was enough to overpower modern military agents then what was it going to do to people who had lost their memories of the present, they were just as vulnerable as any other random person in Rome during 476 CE.
From the hallway came murmurs and snippets of a conversation I was probably not supposed to be privy to but I was going to listen to anyway, especially since whomever was talking had just mentioned Sebastian's name. Sliding closer to the door I strained to listen but could still only catch parts of what they were saying. Something about germany maybe? Fall… Odac-something… trouble… invasion… It dawned on me as to what they were talking about, the fall of the Western Roman Empire, when Flavius Odoacer, a germanic invader took over Rome beginning with Italy. That knowledge by itself would have been chilling but when one also remembers that he and his army killed hundreds of civilians when invading is what made me panic. My fists clenched as I tried to calm myself down enough to hear the rest of the conversation. The voices were getting closer and with the new proximity came the ease in eavesdropping.
“We can’t send anyone back there, Odoacer is on a rampage through the city, its too dangerous,” the mission leader said.
“If we don’t send anyone then Meredith, Sebastian, Thanatos, and Ainslee will be lost forever,” the General countered.
“Well then, if you decide to send others back, you can’t force them because this is a suicide mission, Odoacer and his army will kill them if they get the chance to lay their hands on them.” With that the lead headed down the hall towards the infirmary. There was a deep sigh from the hallway before the door opened abruptly, revealing General Belva’s irritated face.
I looked up at her and didn’t even try to pretend I hadn't been listening in, “I’ll go.”
Her hand dropped from her face as she looked at me incredulously. It was a stupid idea and both of us know it, I am one of two people who can operate the machine, the only one who can do it competently, and with the ability to fix things that go wrong, yet here I am telling her I volunteer to go back into the past. If something goes wrong I’m going to be in so much trouble, but I’m going to get those agents back if it’s the last thing I do, which at this rate it is going to be.
“No,” she said firmly, “You are not.”
I frowned, “Why not?”
Her lips pursed as she chose her words carefully fully knowing how stubborn I am along with my tendency to jump for opportunities caused by poor words choices, “Because we need you here.”
“You have another technician,” I shot back. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at her, “And you need volunteers. You have one. Right here in front of you.”
She pinched her nose and groaned, “Alec-”
I cut her off quickly, “Let me do this, please.”
Her eyes flared from behind her hand, a warning I was pushing it. I honestly don’t care, I will become a headache for her and a pain in her side if we don’t get them back soon. I have already lost my job and I am not afraid to lose it again if it means everyone who had the ability to go on a mission was pushed into action.
A minute passed before I received an answer, “Fine.” My eyes widened, I didn’t think she was actually going to let me go back. “But,” her words caught my attention, “you will only be going back it there are actual agents who are willing as well. You need at least two to accompany you. I will not lose our best technician.” I nodded hurriedly and rushed out of the room, straight into Cynthia.
We both lost our balance and fell to the floor, hard. “Ow,” she said, scrambling to pick up the documents that had fluttered to the ground after we had collided. I went to help her apologizing the whole time. I grabbed the last sheet and stood up as she began to talk, “No you don’t need to be sorry, it was my fault, I wasn’t paying attention and-” She stopped speaking once she realized I was the person she had bumped into. Her face twisted into an ugly mask upon her realization, “Oh, it’s you.”
“Yeah, um, sorry again.” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. Her gaze dropped towards my hand and she stared at it pointedly. “Huh? Oh.” I lifted my arm and hurriedly gave her back the last paper. She snatched it from my hand and continued down the hallway away from me. I watched her go trying to remember what position she had, before it clicked, she was senior agent, she could help me. I called after her, “Hey, Cynthia, wait a moment, please”
She glared at me, but stopped as I had asked. It was obvious she wasn’t happy with me, though she had no reason to be after all I had taken out pretty much all of my frustration on her right before I was fired.
“What do you want?” She snapped. I know I deserve whatever she decides to do to me, but her hostility still hurt.
I shifted my weight between my feet before answering, “I- I need,” I took a deep breath, “I need your help.”
She took a step back and scowled, “And why should I help you? The last time I saw you, you tried to choke me Mr. Violent, and that was after slamming me into a wall multiple times.” Instead of waiting for a response, she turned on her heel and stomped away from me. I kept up with her as she tried to get away from me.
“I need to people to go back in time with me to get the lost agents back.” She didn’t respond and chose to walk faster. Groaning I grabbed her arm and twisted her around to face me. “Cynthia please.”
She yanked her arm out of my grasp and got in my face, “Tell me one good reason as to why I should go back with you? Just one, or do you not have anything.” She locked eyes with me and stared unblinkingly. A moment passed, and her brow arched, “Well?” Another moment went by as I struggled to find the words that would convince her to help. “That’s what I thought.”
“Cynthia,” My voice cracked on the last syllable, betraying my inner turmoil, “I know you have no reason to help me, everyone and their mother knows I was never the nicest person to you, but the people who are stuck in the past they have done nothing wrong to you.” I gestured around us as I spoke, trying to get my message past her hatred of me, “They just happen to have the misfortune of being blasted into the past, so please don’t do it for me, do it for them. Because they need to come home.” She sucked on a tooth as she considered my words. I didn’t speak as a range of emotions passed over her features, surprise, annoyance, contempt, and finally acceptance.
“Fine, when do we leave?” she said.
“We need one more person to accompany us, an agent,” I said carefully, checking her face for any second guessing on her part.
A voice spoke up from the crowd that had gathered to watch the confrontation, “I’ll go with you.” I turned to see David emerge from the throng. A look of determination covered the face of a man who I once knew to be timid, except for the one time where he slapped me.
“You don’t have to do this,” Cynthia said, stepping away from me and towards David, her voice pleading “This isn’t your fight, battle, mission thingy, you don’t have to come.”
A small smile graced his lips with her words, and he shook his head slightly, “If you’re involved then it will always be my thingy.” They both laughed softly as he came to stand beside Cynthia.
David’s reaction when I hurt Cynthia suddenly made sense as I watched them prepare for the jump. The two of them were very much in love with each other, it was in their every action, from the way they looked at each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking to the way they helped the other put on their armor and run through their covers for the past. I continued to watch them, my head tilted slightly, trying to figure out how I hadn’t noticed they were a couple at the time, and also how timid little David managed to convince Cynthia to date him. His hands stilled on her shoulder and David looked back at me, his head tilting at the same angle as mine. My spine stiffened at being caught and I turned to the side to escape his gaze, it didn’t work as I could continue to feel it on my body. Studiously ignoring David’s intense gaze was proving to be difficult, and quickly became impossible when he walked over.
When he reached me he didn’t say anything at first, just continued to study me. I focused my gaze on the spatha in my hand, attempting to fasten it onto my armor correctly, a task I had never done before and it was showing. A hand reached out and took it from my hands before expertly attaching it to my belt. The hands retreated and I cursed under my breath, I was running out of things to focus on instead of David. I reached for the scutum, but it was taken away before my fingers could wrap around the strap on the inside of it.
“Could I have that back?” I asked, holding out a hand for the shield, I really didn’t want to talk to him, I would have to say things and more than likely I would spill more than I wanted to, all because David is the type of person you just feel compelled to spill to. I’d done it more than once before and I was not planning on doing today, or at the very least not now.
He peered at me and then blinked, abruptly handing me my shield, “We are going to talk,” he warned me and then walked back over to Cynthia.
It was my turn to blink now, that was weird, and way too fast. I opened my mouth to call after him but then thought better of it, letting my jaw click shut and turning my attention to the man who had just walked into the room with us. He looked around nervously before meeting my eyes and cowering, I regret ranting at him earlier but maybe he will be careful now. “Hi,” I held out my hand for him to shake, he stared at it with wide eyes and then tentatively reached out to shake my hand, one pump and then gone. “We got off on the wrong foot earlier, and I’m sorry I didn’t mean to scare you I just… This is really important to me.” The man nodded and looked anywhere but at me, this was going to be harder than I thought. “So, what’s your name?”
He looked shocked I asked and gulped before answering, “Jordan Eadric.”
I flug an arm over his shoulder and steered him towards the control room, “How long have you been here Jordan?”
“Three years,” he responded timidly. Then he seemed to realize where we were headed. Jordan dug his heels into the ground, and I began to half drag him to the room.
“Come on cut me some slack.” At my words he went slack and slipped out of my grip like an eel, thumping to the floor. Jordan yelped and scrambled to get up before I could corner him, however as a technician he was slow, and happened to be slower than me so it was easy to get around him and block his retreat down the empty hallway. He froze like a deer in headlights, his eyes wide and chest heaving. I lifted my hands as a soothing gesture, “Jordan I’m not going to hurt you I promise, I just need you to man the console during my jump.”
Impossibly his eyes got even wider, enough so that I could see my reflection in them. “You said not to do this job if I didn’t want people's blood on my hands. And I don’t,” he sounded desperate as he spoke quickly, the words leaving his mouth rapid fire. Jordan’s eyes roamed around the hallway, searching for another escape route probably.
“Jordan I didn’t mean that,” I consoled.
“Then why would you say it?” He shot back.
I flinched, “Like I said before,” I took a slow step towards him, and when he didn’t move took another one, “This is just really important to me and my tension was  running through the roof, I didn’t really mean what I said.” His frown was evidence enough as to his disbelief. “Look I have done thousands of missions with that machine and I have never had a problem except for when some idiot got into the control room, a place he wasn’t authorized to be in in the first place, and messed with things he shouldn’t have been touching.” His stance relaxed slightly, his shoulders releasing some of the tension that had been building up there. “There is very little that can go wrong, plus I already have everything set up, all you need to do is press the start button and type in the code to bring us back.” His body tensed up again, and I hurriedly finished my sentence, “Which is written down next to the computer.” My hands finally touched his arms and when he didn’t try to bolt I stepped a slight bit closer, forcing him to look up at my to see my face, “You are going to do fine.”
He released a breath, closed his eyes and his whole body sagged into mine, I stilled for a second before wrapping my arms around his body, “Everything is going to go fine.”
He nodded and pushed away, walking into the control room like nothing had ever happened, leaving me standing there slightly confused.

I settled the earbud in my ear and established the connection, General Belva’s voice roaring to life in my ear, “Is everyone on?” Cynthia and David both turned to the window into the control room and gave her the thumbs up, I copied them though I felt a little ridiculous giving a thumbs up to a person standing behind a window that was 6 feet above my head and 10 inches thick.
Cynthia turned to me, and eyed my appearance, “I think that you are going to die in like 10 minutes of our arrival.”
“Cynthia!” David yelped, he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her aside briefly. They talked in low voices for a few minutes, their words not carrying in the bombproof room. I examined the slate gray walls and then my nails while I attempted to eavesdrop without it appearing like that was what I was doing. Unfortunately for me, they were a lot better at talking quietly than General Belva and her associates.
They separated and Cynthia looks slightly sheepish and David looked frustrated. “Okay I was wrong you wont last 10 minutes you’ll last 20,” she said. David groaned and rubbed his face before glaring at Cynthia. She shrugged, her armor jingling in the otherwise silent room.
“Why are you like this?” David nagged. She merely raised an eyebrow in response, before looking at me.
“What?”
“I don’t like you,” she said.
Well gee thanks I didn’t notice, I thought. Escaping her gaze, I walked to the machine in the center of the room. Despite it being my job to understand how the thing worked, I still don’t everything about it, for one who came up with the thing and where are they? Judging from the materials that made up the last one, it wasn’t that old. The developer should still be around to deal with maintenance and all of the code just one jump required. The metal was smooth under my hands, and still warm from the last jump.
General Belva spoke to us through the earpieces, interrupting my train of thought, “Is everyone ready?”
“Yes,” we said in unison.
A voice spoke faintly in the background, “Starting now.” Ah, Jordan, I actually do regret scaring the poor guy, though he seemed way more tough before I snapped at him. I shrugged and David took on a concerned  look on his face, while Cynthia’s eyes widened before her gaze flicked to the side and then back to me. I grimaced, that couldn’t have looked entirely sane.
A hum started up in the room as David open and shut his mouth like a fish out of water, judging from contortions of his face he was judging whether it was a good idea or not to ask what that was about. I grinned at him hoping to make him uncomfortable, and Cynthia stepped in front of him protectively. I brought my hands up in defence, trust me Cynthia I don’t want anything to do with your significant other, keep him please. Her lips curled into a snarl and I rolled my eyes.
Suddenly everything went dark, like all the light in the room had been sucked into a black hole. I tried to move my foot but it seemed to be stuck in the darkness near my feet. This is really gross actually. Just as suddenly as the dark had come on, it disappeared, I was also left floating in midair for a split second, before I splashed into the still water that had appeared beneath us.
I spluttered to the surface, and dragged myself to the shore. Jeez, why is this armor for heavy. I turned onto my back and stared up at the sky while I caught my breath. Cynthia and David both appeared in my field of vision, David looking sympathetic and Cynthia haughty.
“I forgot you were a tech for a second there, no wonder you had so much trouble swimming over here,” Cynthia said.
David winced, “I forgot too.” He reached down with a hand. I stared at it for a second trying to figure out why it was extended, before realizing it was to help me up. I grasped it and he yanked me up off the ground. I wasn’t expecting how strong her was and went flying into him, which isn’t a lovely sight let me tell you. Not when you are 6 feet tall and slam into someone who is at least three inches shorter than you are. Luckily he knew how strong he was and managed to keep us from tumbling back into the water.
Cynthia huffed and said, “Let's go, we don’t have a lot of time before Odoacer invaded Rome.” David and I nodded. Together, the three of us began to run towards the city.
The sun was setting by the time we reached the rise concealing the city. Cynthia stopped short at the sight that awaited us. Rome was on fire. Smoke acted as a curtain, concealing the light from the sun and everything was tinged in the orange light from the fire consuming the city that sprawled below it.
“S***,” I muttered under my breath.
Cynthia grimaced, “This has just become way more difficult.’
David took off his helmet and ran a hand through his helmet hair, “We obviously can’t go through the front anymore.”
“Yeah, obviously,” Cynthia said snarkily.
“Where is the other way into the city? You said you found a separate way into Rome a while ago,” David asked, bending at the waist to look past at me at her.
She shrugged, “We are going to have to find different outfits to change into, otherwise it won’t work.” There was a giant crash as a building on the outskirts of the city fell into itself, sending more debris into the air, darkening the sky a slight bit more.
“If we are going to do this, we need to do this fast,” I said.
“Yeah, come on,” she gestured for us to follow her down the hill. It seemed like she was headed to one of the few homes in the city that was still undamaged from the fire that had taken over everything else.
When we reached the house she leaned over the fence and unhooked the gate from the other side. Once it was opened she made a beeline to the clothes that had been left hanging on a branch of an olive tree. I eyed it as I was handed a tunic and leggings, how ironic, an olive branch in the middle of an invasion. It seemed to go over my companion’s head as they stripped quickly and tugged the clothes we had just stolen on.
Cynthia headed to the rear part of the city once we had all changed. The tunics we had put on fell to our knees and judging from the dull color, the people we had taken them from were no of high status, but the man of the house must have been a citizen as they didn’t feel like slave tunics.
Cynthia stopped, “Here,” she said pointing at a place where the wall had crumbled enough to allow easy access into the city, if you went one at a time. David grinned at her, prompting a smile in return. He then went through first as the person with the most hand to hand combat experience of us all. I went next and then Cynthia bringing up the rear. Inside the smoke was thicker than it was outside of the wall. Eyes watering, David pointed silently down the street, Cynthia went ahead us, glancing around the corners of buildings to make sure we didn’t run into any of Odoacer’s forces.
Yelling started up behind us. I whipped around to see, men in armor running up the street, headed straight for us. “Oh no,” I grabbed David’s hand and bolted up the street after Cynthia.
“Huh? whats all that noise,” I grabbed her hand as well as we rushed past her, “Hey let go of me!”
David spoke up, “Please for once in your life don’t fight him.”
Cynthia glared at him, but shut up until she looked at what we were running from. Her head whipped around as she screamed at me, “What did you do?!”
“I did nothing,” I yelled back, I studied the houses we were passing as we ran.
David pulled on my arm as we went across an intersection, “The safe house is this way.” We ran to the right, the angry soldiers behind us gaining ground. How are they running at so fast in this heat and smoke? With every step they got closer, each one eating up more ground than the one before. Just as I could begin to feel their breath on the back of my neck, David slammed into the door of a house with his shoulder, forcing it open, “In here.” His arm swung in a circle ushering us inside. The door slammed shut behind me. The men in the street continued to run by in a cacophony of jangling armor, slapping feet on the rough cobblestone of the street and heavy breaths.
My back hit the door in relief as the sound faded from my ears. My relief was short lived however as a sword was pointed at my neck. “Woah, woah, woah,” I attempted to scramble away from the sharp pointy object that was too close for my liking but unfortunately the door was in the way. My eyes followed the edge of the sword to see who it was attached to, this way I could at least know the face of my killer if they so decided to cut off my head.
“Oh.” The breath whooshed out of my lungs as I stared into Meredith’s face. There was soot smudging her cheekbones, and she looked like she had aged several years since the last time I had seen her but the woman standing in front of me was most definitely my best friend since childhood. My next action was purely instinct, ingrained in me because of how long I had known her. Lunging forward, I knocked the sword out of her hand and enveloped her in a hug. Meredith’s entire body stiffened and beside me Cynthia let out a small squeak.
Slowly but surely, Meredith relaxed in my arms, she didn’t go so far as to hug me back, but she also didn’t attempt to kill me again so that was something. I released her and stood and arm’s length away from her, but didn’t let go of her shoulders, too grateful to see her alive to be ready to let go just yet.
“Who are you?” Meredith asked perplexed.
My mouth opened, and then promptly closed. So she had definitely been here long enough to forget the time she was born in. I stared at a part of the wall above her head as I searched for the correct words to say, much of what I wanted to say would just freak her out with the memory she has now. I decided to settle with a question of my own, hoping she wouldn’t notice I avoided her question, “What’s your name?”
She blinked and gave a small shake of her head before answering, “Lealia Didia.”
“Okay Lealia, is there anyone in the house with you?” David cut in, he bent to pick up the sword Meredith had dropped when I rushed her.
Her nose scrunched up as she thought about the answer. After a time she said, “There are two, they refused to leave when I told all the slaves to flee.” She pouted while she spoke, causing her words to come out slightly muffled but still recognizable.
Cynthia nodded, “I’ll go find them.” She drifted down the hallway, to where house slave were normally kept.
Meredith’s head bobbed between David and me, before whispering her tone sounding awed, “You let her do whatever she wants?”
David shrugged, “More like she does whatever she wants, and damn the consequences.” Her head dropped as she considered this new information. Every now and then I would catch her glancing up at me through her lashes, when she realized I had spotted her looking at me her eyed widened and she lowered her head even further in submission. My gut twisted even as I withheld a laugh at her actions. It was both so like and unlike the Meredith I knew, that I didn't know how to react, I mean her staring at people wasn't new but she would never bow her head to anybody, she was too strong willed for that to ever happen. But here we were, with her chin dropped into her chest to avoid eye contact and any punishment that might accompany her stepping out of line.
Cynthia then chose this moment to saunter down the hallway, two men, dressed in the rough spun tunics designating them as slaves, following closely. “Here we go,” she gestured to Meredith. The men surged to her, fretting over her appearance.
“Are you okay?” One of them spoke, Thanatos, is what I think his name was, though it was a little shocking to see him with an arm missing, the tunic tied high near his shoulder to keep the material out of the way of daily life. Sebastian didn’t say anything, just let Thanatos cluck like a mother hen. He tore his gaze away from Meredith and slid it over the three of us, his gaz lingering on me.
“Do I know you?” He asked, tilting his head to look up at me properly.
I gave him a small smile but otherwise didn’t answer. “David can you tell them we are ready.”
He bobbed his head and stood a small distance away, lifting his hand to press down on the earbud, “Command? We are ready and have 3 out of four of the agents… Ainslee is no longer with them… There was a small memorial next to the lake we arrived in.”
Meredith cut in, “You speak of the drowning girl, do you not?” She looked at us curiously.
“Maybe,” David said carefully, looking to me for confirmation. I shrugged, I had just as much information as he did.
“A slave girl of mine drowned in a small water hole nearby, 5 years ago. The locals set up the honoring post so her ghost would not haunt the water.” Her voice took on a somer tone as she spoke, as if remembering an old friend or a fond memory of the girl who had drowned.
“Did you know her well?” Cynthia ventured.
“I did not but Mors did,” she gestured at Thanatos, “They were siblings, and it happened at the same time he lost his arm.”
David tilted his head and responded to command, “Yes, Anislee is dead, they have confirmed it.” He dropped he hand and addressed the room , though Cynthia and I were the only ones who understood what he was saying, “Get ready to jump.”
“Huh?” Meredith asked, “Why would we need to jump?” Cynthia snorted softly at her question. I struggled to keep a straight face at the look of confusion on her’s, my shoulder shaking from my poor efforts to keep myself from laughing loudly. David looked at the ceiling with a smile stretching across his face.
“What?” Meredith said, her eyes flying from each of our faces, trying to find out what was so funny to us.
“Nothing,” I replied once I got myself under control. Her brow furrowed, a sure sign she didn’t believe me, however she didn't get a chance to call me out on it before we jumped.
Meredith’s gasp was the first thing that registered once were we standing in the jump chamber. I looked at her as she stared through me, her eyes slightly unfocused, before they suddenly regained clarity. She squealed and ran at me, leaping into my arms, “Alec!”
I laughed and spun her around in the air before putting her back on the ground. The two of us were a laughing and sobbing mess, collapsed on the floor, together as we were supposed to be. Meredith began to talk a mile a minute, telling me rapid fire of what she still remembered of her time in the past, which was mainly the first year they had been trapped in the past, before they had forgotten their own time. I nodded and kept up only because I was used to her rapid way of speech.
Behind us someone coughed. Together we craned our heads to look up at Sebastian, he rubbed his neck harshly with his hand and looked away from us before smiling and falling into our emotional pile. I hugged him fiercely, him complaining the whole time but not doing anything to get away from my embrace. Meredith grabbed both of our faces with her hands and planted hard kisses on our cheeks.
“Ugh, Meredith that's gross,” Sebastian complained rubbing at the place she had kissed with the back of his hand.
She laughed, “Don’t you know you're just rubbing it in, I knew you loved me.” His eyes and nose scrunched up as he glanced at the back of his hand and them at Meredith.
“I hate you.” Her smile grew even wider at his words.
“No you don’t,” she teased, poking him in the side softly. He swatted at her hand halfheartedly.
Soft crying reached my ears and I tore my gaze from the two in front of me and focused on Thanatos. He was standing by himself in the corner, tears rolling down his face and soft sniffles permeating the air around him.
Extracting myself from the tangle of limbs, I walked over to him. He looked at me without a word, the tears rolling down his face providing enough of a clue into how he was feeling.
As I pulled Thanatos into a hug, he rested his head on my shoulder and buried his nose in the crook of my neck. His hand came up and gripped the back of my shirt tightly as his body began to shake. I held him tighter against me as he fell apart. I mumbled words into his ear as he grieved for his sister.
A hand landed on my shoulder softly, and Meredith stepped into my field of vision. Tears filled her eyes as spoke with a soft tone, “It’ll be okay. We’re all here for you and we won’t let you go through this alone.” She stroked his back and slowly he began to stop.
Pulling away, Thanatos rubbed his eyes to get rid of any remaining tears. They shined in the light with tears that he had yet to shed. A twisted smile fleeted across him lips before he embraced Meredith.”Thank you,” he whispered.
Always one to break tense silences, Meredith decided this was the right moment to break the ice, “You know what?”
“What?” Sebastian asked dryly from his spot on the floor.
“I don’t think I’m ever goin back in time again.”
Sebastian groaned, “I agree.” He slumped to the floor with a hand flung over his head as everyone in the chamber burst into laughter. The hand that wasn’t shielding his face. Came up and waved loosely, making everyone laugh harder.
I glanced around the room at the people I had lost for 5 long years, and relaxed for the first time since they had disappeared. They were finally back and I swear I am never going to let them out of my life ever again.