From the Dig Site to... Wherever..., Saturday Afternoon

[becauseshesang.livejournal.com]

It took Elizabeth a while to rise. And yet it took her no time at all: time was relative, and only now she realized - no, again, she realized - just how relative it all was. It might as well have been an instant. It might as well have been a thousand years.

She climbed to her feet, and her self hummed with white light. She saw the story unfold before her now. The story that had been. The story that would be. The story that was.

"Lives, lived, will live," Elizabeth whispered.

She turned towards her crowd. Here. There. Anywhere. She had seen behind the doors and she knew which people had the greatest chance of success. There were variables, of course. There were always variables. But if she just plucked up enough of the right people...

When she spoke, it wasn't just here. Her self had dispersed all across the island to bring this message.

"There was a plague," she said. "A terrible plague. And Booker - he had his daughter. He didn't want to submit. So he clawed his way down into the belly of the island and found a machine that could fix it for him. But something went wrong... he lost his finger... he lost his child... everything got lost."

Elizabeth took a shuddering breath of air. "Our universe doesn't like its peas with its porridge," she droned, as if it came to her from a memory. Which maybe it did. She wasn't sure. Not anymore. "There's a piece of him... where it shouldn't belong. A piece of Booker lives in a universe with another Booker, and the multiverse won't stand for it-- not from us."

She looked puzzled, briefly, as the last few memories sank back into place. "No. No. He lost a finger?" she muttered. "No. Not the right door. I lost a finger. So I can do... I can do what he did. More than that."

She stared straight at them.

"You need to go," Elizabeth whispered. "You need to try all the doors. You need to find him. You need to stop him. He can't... he can't make it to the island, okay? If he doesn't make it to the island, then none of this could have happened. Will happen. Is happening."

She shut her eyes, shimmering a serene white. "I need you to go," she said. "I need you to try a couple of doors. They're all... possibilities. Constants. Variables. Lives. Lived. Has lived."

She opened her eyes.

She reached into a tear and dragged her candidates straight on through. Eleven of them. Enough to try all the doors. Six? Six. Six would make it through, and which ones didn't matter. Not to any conceivable extent. As long as they were one of these eleven.

"You need to find Booker," she yelled after them. "He can't make it to the island!"

The rift slammed shut, but it didn't matter. She could see them no matter where they went... and no matter how lost they got. That was the easy part.

The hard part was making sure the eleven's personal futures and pasts and presents didn't come seeping in through all the doors Elizabeth had opened. It had been far too long since she had done this, and quantum manipulation was not, in any way, like riding a bicycle.

ONE	The light faded away to offer a vision of foggy streets and lampposts in the dark. London, the 19th century, and the streets were full of rats and people scurrying to their place of work.
Jack	Jack glanced around for a moment and let out a short, barking laugh. "I can't believe it. Travel a hundred years, get thrown through space and time by a mad girl ... and I end up right where I started."
Éponine	Éponine laughed, too, the sound not much different. "Well, I always did want to visit London. What a silly roundabout way of getting there!"
Jack	"We could go for a weekend sometime," Jack suggested, as though they were having any casual conversation. "Though it's not the same these days. More automobiles and they hide the trash better."
Kathy	"You're from...? Of course you're from 19th Century London," Kathy said, shaking her head. "Why wouldn't someone be?" Let me go to boarding school, she'd said. I'll have enriching experiences that will look good on college applications, she'd said. Did traipsing about time and space with a ragtag group of mutants and time-travelers and...whatever Cecil had become count as an elective? "This is going to sound dumb, but are you an alien that travels through time and space or anything?" Look, she was just covering all her bases.
Jack	"Am I a what?" Jack said, blinking until he placed the reference. "Oh, like on that television program? No, I'm just your average friendly vampire from a hundred years ago. Perfectly mundane." His tone was so dry it might absorb the fog on its own. "But I think all of us blend next to Cecil and Jono," he added quietly.
Kathy	"Right, yeah, mundane," Kathy said, also dryly. But at least he said he was friendly? Sure, if he suddenly started mumbling about freesias, she was going to go hide behind Professor Starsmore, but for now, she figured she could take him at his word. "Since you're from around here, I think that means you get to try to explain us to any constables that come questioning," she decided. Congratulations, Jack!
Jack	"I'll try, but I think if they come around we're better off running," Jack told her. "Or I could declare we just escaped from Bedlam and see how well that goes over."
Stiles	"Will I freak the locals out if I try to take pictures?" Stiles asked. "Probably. I'll just take a mental picture."
Cecil	"Want me to hide you so you can?" Cecil offered. Because hiding behind the three-eyed guy with tentacles and moving tattoos was much more subtle, right?
Stiles	"What will scare the locals more, you or the magical picture taking technology?" he asked.
Cecil	"I'll be polite and non-threatening!" Cecil promised.
Cecil	"Is it supposed to be this...damp?" Cecil asked, squinting into the fog.
Jono	//That's generally the way of it, assuming London was what we were aiming for,// Jono replied reaching out with his senses and taking it all in. //Home sweet... well. It's a little before my time.// This was far more like the London his great-granddad would tell him stories about, really. //Don't think this is quite right.//
Cecil	"I don't see anyone breaking reality here," Cecil agreed. Mostly because he didn't have a mirror with him, but details.
Jono	//I don't know if it would be quite so obvious as that,// Jono noted. //Since I think we're supposed to be finding him before he breaks reality, and all.// He wasn't going to add that by travelling through time themselves, they were giving a pretty good go at risking causing some damage to reality, themselves. That time-travel thing was pretty sticky, really.
Cecil	"I don't see anyone that looks like those posters, either." Cecil peered around through the fog.
Jono	//Good to know,// Jono replied, heaving a psionic sigh. //I couldn't see the poster.// He could form a mental image of his surroundings using his psionic powers well enough to not trip over garbage in dark alleys and to navigate a room. Colours on paper, things without actual dimension, still tended to give him trouble, though.
Cecil	"Oh, right! Um. Hold on, I'll think of him." Cecil scrunched his face up and recalled the face on the posters with as much detail as he possibly could. "Can you see that?"
Jono	//Plain as day,// Jono replied, plucking the image from Cecil's mind. //Thank you, mate.// Being a telepath was sometimes actually fairly useful. Particularly when you were lacking, say, a head.
Cecil	"You're welcome!" Cecil answered. "Oh, and feel free to use my eyes and ears or whatever." He shrugged. "Unless it's more confusing not to."
Allie	This was...different. At least it was dark. "Where the hell are we?" Allie asked.
Kathy	"Late Victorian London," Kathy answered. "You can tell by the dresses the women are wearing. The silhouettes are a lot slimmer than early Victorian..." She trailed off. That had probably been rhetorical, hadn't it.
Allie	Mostly rhetorical. But at least now Allie could say she'd been there and done that. Maybe there was a t-shirt store around? "Early or late, still not really my style," said Allie. She mostly favored flowy black leather coats herself. "So we're just supposed to walk around until we find this guy?"
Kathy	"I guess so?" Kathy said with a shrug. "The girl with the crazy eyes wasn't really big on instructions. So, that and try not to catch typhus while we're at it?" Because, yeah. Wow. 19th Century London reeked.
Allie	Try smelling it with vampire senses. Allie's nose wrinkled in distaste. "I've heard of worse plans than "don't die", I suppose," she shrugged. "Of course that's not really a problem for me."
Kathy	You know, another day and this might have thrown Kathy a little bit. "Vampire, goddess in human guise, or just your run-of-the-mill immortal?" It was sad that she was only half-kidding. Even with her weird new fast-and-bouncy powers, Kathy was still one of the more mundane people at the school.
Allie	"Just a run of the mill vampire," Allie replied. "And no, I do not sparkle."
Raven	The fog was one of the few indications of where, exactly, they were for Raven. The rats, the buildings, the people? Those could be just about any city as far as she was concerned. She hmmphed, folding her arms. "Smells like monarchy," she said. "It pollutes the very air." Yes, she was blaming the fog on British politics.
Jack	Jack laughed again, though he knew it wasn't quite the time for it. He couldn't help it: Nerves brought his emotions close to the surface. "I've known more than a few people who would agree with that."
Raven	"Of course you do," Raven said, smiling faintly back at him. "It's the truth. This is your time?" He'd said something about being back where he started, after all. "Anything we should watch out for?"
Jack	"My time or close enough," Jack confirmed. "Could tell better if there were more people out. But it's the same things you'd worry about in any city -- thugs, pickpockets, people who will use a sad story to separate you from your purse. Don't be stupid and you'll be fine." A pause, then he thought of something else that wasn't quite like the world they'd most recently come from. "Oh, and watch where you step. Horses think the whole world's a latrine."
Raven	Raven resisted the urge to point out that all of that was what an obsession with money got you. Honestly, the USSA's New York wasn't a whole lot better; it was just all more focused on stealing food or liquor. And much fewer horses. "In my world, that'd be the dogs," she said. "What are we doing here? Did you recognize that voice?"
Jack	"We have dogs doing it, too," Jack assured her. "Horses are just bigger." He strained his memory, trying to place the voice. "I wish I did," he added, a bit sadly. "All I can think of is that whoever we're meant to find, he must be around somewhere."
Raven	Raven nodded. Honestly, she'd been sent on missions with less. "I suppose we'll have to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious. Or familiar."
Zoe	Under better circumstances, this would be kind of a quaint trip. Not knowing exactly how they'd gotten here was ruining the moment a little. "Oh yes, this was a wonderful idea," she muttered.
Kathy	You know, after the past week, getting scooped up randomly by a white-eyed stranger and sent through a rift in time and space to somewhere and somewhen else entirely was...okay, well, it was still enough to throw Kathy for a mental loop. Apparently there were some things that kicking monkey-ponies in the face did not prepare you for and adventures straight out of Mister What were one of them. The question of 'where are we?' was handily answered by the stench of the Thames and Big Ben above the skyline. The slightly more complicated 'when are we' was answered by the abundance of hansom cabs led by horses, the ladies in gowns and the gentlemen in gloves and top hats. Kathy couldn't pin down a year, but she could hazard a good guess about which monarch was sitting in Buckingham Palace and it wasn't QEII and her corgis. "Guys? I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," she mumbled. What? Someone had to say it.
Squall	"What's Kansas?" Squall asked. "I thought we were in Maryland."
Kathy	"Uhhh, it's a movie reference," Kathy said, ducking her head. "I was, err, trying to be funny." And failing. Obviously. "Right now we're in London. England. About a hundred and twenty-five years in the past."
Squall	"London. England. Not Galbadia." Squall looked around and nodded. "Okay, then." He rolled his eyes at Kathy's embarrassment. "Maybe someone who's from your world actually thought it was funny."
Squall	The city looked very Galbadian. Were they home? ...No, not likely. Squall peered into the fog warily. He didn't like low-visibility situations. "Everyone keep an eye out," he ordered. "He could be anywhere -- and the fog complicates things."
A Girl	The fog did complicate things. After all, it hid a great deal from view. But it moved, every now and again, as it moved now, parting just enough to reveal a familiar face staring out at Squall. She said nothing, didn't call out. But she was watching.
Squall	Squall stared. His memory had holes in it from the Guardian Forces, and she'd changed a lot in the decade since he'd seen her last, but... he'd recognize Sis anywhere. Well, probably. He was, if nothing else, practical. There was only a small chance it was actually her -- but he'd never forgive himself if he didn't make sure. If he lost her for good. If he was all alone. "Everyone stay here for a moment," he ordered. Not, of course, that he expected anyone to follow his orders. That was just how he talked, in times like these. "I need to go check something out."
A Girl	Perhaps it helped - or perhaps it hurt - that recognition slid over the girl's face and her eyes widened. She took one step back into the fog, unplanned, her foot shaking a little before it regained its balance.
Squall	That was all it took for Squall to start running. "Sis!" Was she in danger? Was she was just going to trip and fall under a horse? Fandom, the rifts, the Sorceress, the whole damn world and everyone in it, nothing was as important as Ellone. He'd go back to saving the world after he was sure she was okay.
Ellone	He'd have to run hard and fast, then. Ellone turned abruptly, running into the fog. The blue of her dress still shimmered through, visible to the naked eye. She could only run so fast. But some ghosts demanded nothing less. The mists closed behind Squall quietly, with impermeable certainty.
Squall	Squall could run hard, and fast, and long. He was a trained soldier with magically-enhanced abilities. She'd tire before he did. He'd catch her. If he didn't, he'd move heaven and earth to find her. Squall could care less about the mists behind him, unless there was a threat there. Someone else would deal with the fabric of reality. This was more important.
Ellone	"No," her voice rang out at last. The mists swallowed her, too. Could he chase something he couldn't see?
Squall	He could, and he would. Silly mists, for thinking Squall would ever give up on something he actually cared about. No? He'd follow Sis to the ends of the earth whether she wanted him to or not. He wouldn't, he couldn't allow her to leave him. He ran for a long time. And then he stopped to catch his breath and listened, searching for some sign of Ellone in the swirling mists. It occurred to him, finally, that maybe this had all been a trick to draw him away from the others. It didn't matter at this point. Whether Ellone had actually been here, rejecting him, or whether he'd been pulled away from his team like a green cadet, he was still stuck, abandoned, all by himself. "I'm all alone, Sis..." The mists closed in, and he sat down to mope. He stayed there for a long time. Eventually, he stood up, picked a direction, and started walking. "I'm all alone, but I can make it on my own."

TWO	Another rift opened and swallowed them whole, but only ten made it here, to the swamps. Crickets chirped and large felines prowled in the bushes. There was no safety here.
Jack	Jack took a few quick steps and turned so he had something solid at his back, and flashed his fangs every time the beasts in the shadows stirred. Other predators made him nervous, as did nights in the country.
Cecil	Cecil sighed. From damp to damper. "Next time there's a world-ending catastrophe, I'm wearing rubber boots."
Raven	"Do you expect to be forewarned?" Raven asked. "Or are you just going to wear rubber boots all the time from now on?"
Cecil	"I'm hoping for forewarned," Cecil confessed. "Though I could just start wearing them, I guess." He gave her a little grin. "We can't all be our own, unfortunately."
Raven	Raven hadn't exactly been subtle about her abilities since arriving on the island for her mission. She smiled back. "Alas. Well, you'll make quite the fashion statement, I'm sure." Not that he didn't already. What with the tentacles and such.
Cecil	"I just need to find a good color, I guess." They'd go great with his fuzzy pants!
Raven	"Blue is always nice," Raven suggested. Then, after a pause. "Or red." There was a possibility she was required by law to mention red.
Cecil	"I could do both and go for purple?" Cecil countered.
Raven	Raven wasn't sure what the State would think about purple galoshes. "Maybe," she allowed. "It is supposed to be the color of royalty, though."
Cecil	"Is it?" Cecil grinned. "Does that make it subversive if I wear it?" He didn't sound too bothered by that.
Raven	Soviet indoctrination had not prepared Raven for this conversation. "Probably not just for wearing them," she decided. "You'd probably want to use them to stomp down the gates of a palace, or something."
Cecil	"I'm not much of the stomping sort," Cecil mused. "I could jump in front of the gates?"
Raven	"I'm pretty sure you're meant to at least break something." Revolution demanded it.
Cecil	"My dignity doesn't count?" he asked cheerfully.
Raven	"No," Raven said. "But that'll probably go, too."
Cecil	"It usually does." He grinned at her. "I'm used to it."
Allie	Allie had her sword in hand, ready to strike if anything came too close.
Jono	Not even Jonothon's body language hinted at nervousness. There was very little out there that could actually kill him, after all. But he had one hand up, near his helmet, all the same. He could handle a few large cats. They tended to not enjoy being lit on fire.
Raven	Raven crouched as she took in their new surrounds, wishing she still had her hammer. She could shift to match whatever was creeping around them, but only if she could actually lay eyes on it. . . .
Stiles	Stiles really wished he was back in London. He did not want to get eaten by alligators or anything. He had his trusty bat in his hand but he didn't think it'd do much against...anything.
Zoe	Zoe headed towards the back of the group to try to keep an eye on everyone, but it was difficult to do that and watch out for whatever was making those noises at the same time. How did she not think to bring a flashlight with her everywhere these days?
Rinoa	An unconscious headcount, and something sickening occurred to Rinoa. "Where's the Lieutenant Commander?" she asked, glancing from face to face. "Did he -- why isn't he here?" They'd lost a SeeD. How could she go back home without him? SeeD would never believe it wasn't her fault, somehow. And although she barely knew him, something else was tugging at her; the idea that something very profound had been lost, with his disappearance.
Éponine	Éponine had no experience with terrain like this, and the knife she tended to keep hidden on her person at all times was (by virtue of being concealable) not going to be effective at sticking a predator of that size. She slipped it out anyway, because really, what else was she going to do? Besides size up the others and figure out which of them would be the easiest to shove at the prowling creatures while she ran for it, that was. Not that she was going to do that! Probably.
Kathy	Kathy pulled her hair up into a messy bun. It was clinging to her skin in sweaty strands and the last thing she needed in this creepy place was the sensation of something crawling on her. "Still not Kansas," she mumbled to herself. "Looks like--" She stopped and cocked her head to the side. "Did you guys hear that?" she asked. "I thought I heard someone calling."
. . .	"Kathy," a female voice shrieked, just a little louder this time.
Kathy	Kathy knew that voice. And that voice--and the person it belonged to--was supposed to be safe, at home in LA, watching TV and giggling over boys and doing things that normal fourteen year old girls did. "Sarah?" Kathy called, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. "Sarah?!"
. . .	The voice drifted in again, from her northwest, somewhere past the trees, there was a hint of something that looked like a shack, or at least a boarded-up shelter. "Kathy!"
Kathy	"Guys...guys, I think my little sister's here," Kathy said, peering through the trees. "I think..." She wasn't sure what to think. By all rights, Sarah shouldn't be here--wherever here was. But then, neither was Kathy. She took a step forward. And another. And a third and forth. "Sarah's here," she said, palms wet and not from the humid air. "She's here and she's in trouble."
. . .	The swamp almost seemed to close behind her, bushes shifting, mist lifting. A second voice joined Sarah's, then a third-- but both of them were masculine and full of malice. "Shut it," one snarled. "Or we'll shut it for you," the other snapped.
Kathy	She recognized those voices, too. They were two of the same ones that had chased her that time in LA. Seventeens. A pair--or more!--of Seventeens had her little sister. "Sarah!" she screamed and started running. Really running. The kind of running that left everyone and everything behind in a blur. She ran faster than she had even in Professor Alenko's class. In less than a minute she'd covered almost five miles--it would have been further, but the swamp made maneuvering difficult. The only thing Kathy noticed, however, was the voice that kept calling out her name and the sick twist of fear that was wrenching her stomach at the idea of her sister in danger.
. . .	Neatly, without a sound, the swamp grew shut behind her. Not that she would notice, at the speeds at which she was going.

THREE	Again, one was left behind. Again, they found themselves somewhere else. Steel walls, endless stars behind the window, and the sound of someone dragging a hammer very slowly across the floor in their direction.
Cecil	"Oo, space! Neat!" And at least it was dry. Cecil did his best to ignore the existential angst of the void while keeping a wary eye out for whatever was making that noise.
Jack	"I think this is worse for what it makes you imagine than for anything we see," Jack said, trying to convince himself. "If we don't think we'll be fine."
Cecil	"Isn't that pretty much always the case?" Cecil asked.
Jack	Jack grinned despite himself. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "Seems to me I've gotten into a whole bunch of trouble by not thinking."
Cecil	"That, too," Cecil agreed. "Ugh, existence. You just can't win."
Raven	Great. Now she really wished she'd brought that viking hammer. She kept getting distracted by the view through the window, though. "So," she said, her voice tinged with wonder. "Someone does finally make it."
Stiles	"Creepy, creeeeeepy," Stiles murmured. This was not good.
Zoe	Admittedly, the stars made for a nice view, and would have made Zoe a little homesick if there weren't bigger fish to fry. Or run from, as it were. "This is getting ridiculous," she muttered.
Rinoa	It had happened again. Each time, the count was lowered. Each time, they were losing someone. She was sure of it now. Rinoa was heartsick. This was all so wrong. Would they each be picked off, one by one, to die behind abandoned doors?
Éponine	"Well! Would you look at that!" Éponine half-exclaimed, half-whispered. She didn't seem too perturbed by the dragging noise, not when there was that expanse of stars to look at. But she wasn't so fascinated that she'd completely lost track of their surroundings, and her awed expression turned into a frown as she glanced around at the group, counting in a low, hoarse whisper. "Won't do to have us all dropping off one by one like this." How would they ever find their way back home by themselves?
Allie	"For the record, I really don't like this," Allie stated.
Jono	//From what I can see, there's nothing here to like.// Everything here felt cold and eerie and wrong. Much better at sending a shiver along Jonothon's spine than the jungle swamp had been.
Allie	"I think I liked the jungle more." At least there the threats seemed a little more straight forward. "I'm not exactly sure what you're seeing, but I've got a bad feeling about this."
. . .	She was answered by a deranged little giggle, coming from a dark little corridor just to her left. The hammer kept dragging.
Allie	At some point, when this was all over, Nick was going to have to sit Allie down for a horror movie marathon and an extended lesson in what not to do when creepy giggles come from dark hallways. But until that time the vampire was going to be dumb. Allie stepped closer to the corridor and peered into the darkness to see what she could pick out in the shadows.
. . .	"Oh, yes," the girl giggled. "I was so nice. So proud." There was a loud thunk. Suddenly a pair of lightening-fast hands shot forward and tried to yank Allie into the darkness.
Allie	Allie moved fast. But not fast enough to prevent whatever it was from grabbing her wrist and pulling her forward.
. . .	"Your friends smell good," the voice hissed.
Allie	"You stay away from them," Allie growled as her fangs appeared.
Allie	Another hiss, this time without words - and the other vampire's fangs became visible even within what little light there was. "I'm hungry."
Allie	"I can fix that." She was already reaching for her sword with her free hand.
Allie	"Out of my way," the vampire whispered. "Out of my way, out of my way, I need to drink them, need to rend them apart..." She giggled again. It wasn't pretty.
Allie	The whispers were giving a voice to the way the blood hunger made Allie feel when she hadn't eaten. Not that she'd ever admit that. "That is not going to happen." Angrily she slashed towards the voice with her sword.
Allie	The vampire had no defense against the sharp cut of the blade. Her head came off neatly and fell to the ground, rolling into the light.
Allie	Allie went perfectly still, staring in shock at what the light exposed. "It doesn't mean anything," she said to herself. Leaving the mirror image of her own face laying on the floor, Allie turned to try and make her way back to the others.
. . .	Sadly for her, they had already gone, leaving Allie to face this place alone.

[[ to be continued... ]]