It's About Time

[clockwork_doc]

It's been months and months of hard work and reconfiguring according to any regular calendar. Even according to their messed-up flow of time (where days repeat endlessly and weeks crawl along), it's been a good long while. But then, what Doc's been planning is not something you want to mess up.

Especially not when you know what happened the last time.

Yup, Doc is attempting time travel again. This time, of course, he has a potent ally in the form of Dee. After all, she's a living time machine -- one that's able to help direct him both in getting her time travel-worthy and in figuring out a way to travel through time safely. (Apparently she's got a bit of an internal time sense -- she says their world feels a bit like molasses when she's in DeLorean form.) Of course, the stakes have also been raised this time around. Now he knows that trying to time travel in this dimension means a risk of being thrown into another world entirely. That's how they got Dee. And if this goes wrong, she could be stranded -- temporarily or permanently -- in another world.

Which is exactly why he's going with her.

He takes a deep breath and heads out onto the street. Time to make history -- or pray they end up in a world where their PINpoints work.

Comments

[deadgirlsliekme.livejournal.com]

"Good luck," Victor says, unable to stop himself from grabbing onto his tie. "I really hope it works. Or, if it doesn't, I really hope you stay in this world." He does not like the idea of one of his closest friends -- the man that's almost like a father to him at times -- just disappearing into the ether, even for a short while.

[save-us-alice.livejournal.com]

"I second this request," Alice says, putting an arm around her boyfriend. "Both of you are to come back in one piece, understand? Or, at the very least, if you go to another world, have it be my Wonderland. I'll be able to fetch you back very easily if the PINpoints don't work." She's half-teasing to try and lessen the tension, but she actually sort of means that. Wonderland would be a far better place to go then half the worlds she can think of.

[museicalmarty.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Marty nods, before going over and giving Doc a hug. "Just -- stay safe. Both of you," he adds, patting the DeLorean's hood. He doesn't want to lose either of them. He thought he'd lost Doc for sure once -- he cannot go through that again.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Doc returns Marty's hug, then smiles reassuringly at the others. "We'll be fine. And we've got both my PINpoint and her dashboard-mounted model. If worst comes to worst, we should be able to warp right back." He gives them a salute. "I'm setting the circuits for five minutes from point of departure, which should be a minute and half from now. If we;re not back by then, either via time travel or PINpoint, ask around for us in the Nexus."

[museicalmarty.livejournal.com]

"Will do, Doc," Marty promises. "Good luck." Victor and Alice echo the sentiment.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

"Thank you," Doc says. "See you in five, hopefully."

With that, he slips into the driver's seat of the DeLorean and closes the door. He consults his watch. "5:43 P.M.," he murmurs. "So we should shoot for 5:50 P.M., right Dee?"

[dee-lorean81.livejournal.com]

Dee honks her horn in agreement. There's a general sense of trembling anticipation from all over the car. Come on, Daddy, she wants to go!

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Doc grins, and sets the time circuits appropriately. He also double-checks that her PINpoint is functioning correctly -- yup, no problems there. Nodding to himself, he starts up the car and drives down the street a bit, making a U-turn at the end of the road. Yes, he could have technically accelerated to 88 miles per hour going this way, but he wants his friends to have a good view of the time travel -- if that's what it will be. Oh, he so hopes so. . .

He swallows, then revs the engine. "Here we go," he whispers, then floors the gas.

[dee-lorean81.livejournal.com]

Dee leaps forward, zipping through the lower numbers without missing a beat. She's going 65 by the time they pass the others, and still going strong. The numbers on the gauge keep climbing -- 70. . .75. . .80. . .85. . .

88. . .

The wormhole opens and envelops them in a bright flash -- but then there's an odd sense of straining against something, like they're trying to drive through a huge rubber band. Dee honks in annoyance and adds more of her own efforts to Doc's. Come on, come on, they're almost there --

Then the resistance snaps, and there's a sense of a shockwave in their wake -- but there's no time to dwell on it, as a split-second later they're racing down the street again.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Doc feels a thrill of excitement as the wormhole opens and engulfs them -- but there's no words to accurately describe how he feels in that brief time when they're pushing against that invisible barrier. It's like his senses have suddenly gone haywire for a moment -- he swears he can taste blue and hear the feel of the steering wheel in his hand. And there's this definite sense that he's experiencing something human's shouldn't. . .

But then it's over, and they're back on the street. Doc quickly applies the break as they reach the end of the road. "Dee? Are you all right?" he asks, concerned.

[dee-lorean81.livejournal.com]

Dee revs her engine to try and reassure him, but to be honest, she's feeling a little weird. Something's happened to the flow of time here, something that occurred when they broke through the resistance. She goes ahead and turns them around so they can go back to their friends. She doesn't feel like they ended up anywhere different -- but she wants to make sure of it.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Doc bites his lip in nervous anticipation as Dee brings them back around to the house. Did they do it? Are they still in their home time universe? That resistance wasn't them trying to get into another world, was it?

As they pull up to the house, Doc is relieved to see his friends standing right where they were before, shocked looks on their faces. However, that relief is tempered when he sees something else. Before, when he and Dee were leaving, it had just started to turn to winter weather in their little pocket universe, the season finally creeping up on them as the days wore on.

Now, though, it's distinctly fall. In fact, he'd venture it feels Octobery to him. He opens the door and gets out. "Marty? Victor? Alice?"

[museicalmarty.livejournal.com]

"Okay, Doc, I'm not entirely sure what happened here," Marty says, eying a nearby tree suspiciously. "I mean, you left at 5:45, and it's 5:50 now, so that part worked -- but around 5:48 something --" He waves a hand, trying to get the words he wants.

[save-us-alice.livejournal.com]

"It was like something broke and came back together," Alice supplies, one arm tightly around Victor. "And then out of nowhere it was like the weather played itself backwards in a sense. It only happened for a split-second, but. . ." She frowns. "I'd say time rewound itself somehow, but you clearly managed to skip over those five minutes you wanted to. . ."

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Doc frowns and scratches his head. "I confess, I don't know what happened myself," he admits. "When Dee and I attempted time travel, we were met with a rather massive amount of resistance at first. Then that resistance broke, and we subsequently broke through the time barrier. I really don't think that's how time travel is supposed to work, however -- it certainly never worked that way in the movies." He grimaces. "It wasn't exactly a pleasant moment, either. Human minds are not designed to properly accept timeless space, or whatever it was we hit."

[deadgirlsliekme.livejournal.com]

"Are you all right?" Victor asks, ever the concerned one. "Should we bring you in to lie down? Or get you anything?"

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

"No, I think I'm fine -- I'm wondering if being part-cyborg actually helped in that instance," Doc says, as steam obligingly hisses from his elbows. "I think it'll just result in some odd dreams for a while. . ." He glances at the DeLorean. "Dee? How about you?"

[dee-lorean81.livejournal.com]

Dee transforms into her girl form again, a frown on her face. "I'm okay, mostly. . . You're right, Dad, it's not supposed to work like that. You're supposed to just zip right through. Felt like the flow of time itself was fighting us. . ." She closes her eyes and concentrates for a second, feeling the temporal currents around them.

And then she opens them with an excited laugh. "Oh!"

[deadgirlsliekme.livejournal.com]

"What? What?" Victor asks, grabbing his tie again. He can't help it -- yes, she looks happy, but he's in a mood conducive to panic right at the moment.

[dee-lorean81.livejournal.com]

Dee grins at him. "Oh, it's nothing bad! We actually fixed things!"

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

"What?" Doc shares a puzzled look with his compatriots. "Dee, I think you'll have to explain things a bit better. We're all rather lost."

[dee-lorean81.livejournal.com]

"You remember how I said that time feels like molasses here to me? Well, now it doesn't! When we tried to go through time, we ran into the slowed-down timeflow -- that was the resistance! And when we broke through, we basically reset it! We broke it, and it promptly fixed itself -- and it reset to a normal flow of time!"

[museicalmarty.livejournal.com]

The humans of the group try to puzzle this out. "So," Marty says after a moment, "we've got -- normal time here now? No more of this weird repeating days stuff?"

[dee-lorean81.livejournal.com]

"Nope!" Dee confirms with a happy nod. "Now it's gonna act like time should! In fact, I bet it used the date on my PINpoint to reset itself! October 12th, right?"

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Doc can't help feeling a thrill of excitement. Sure, the strange passage of time was never really a problem to them. . .but it would be nice to have the weather and seasons work as they should. "Yes -- I know the Nexus doesn't really have a proper flow of time of its own, but my PINpoint there always seemed to give the time and date it should have been in here. . ." He strides purposefully toward the house. "There's one way to check for sure!"

Inside, he heads straight for the TV in the living room. It's off, as usual -- they don't watch it often because the repeating days thing meant that the programs all repeated. He switches it on and flips around, looking for a news station as the others crowd around him.

He finds one. And the date in the corner is indeed October 12th. Doc grins brightly. "Will you look at that!"

[museicalmarty.livejournal.com]

Marty claps his best friend on the back, smiling. "Okay, Doc -- not only have you time traveled, you've also managed to fix a whole timeline! That's freaking awesome!" He glances at the TV. "Man, it'll be nice being able to watch different stuff each day. And actually celebrate holidays when they're supposed to be celebrated."

[deadgirlsliekme.livejournal.com]

"I know!" Victor agrees, just as excited. "New cartoons every day, weather as it should be. . . This is wonderful!"

[save-us-alice.livejournal.com]

"It is," Alice nods, smiling at her friends. "Excellent work, Doc and Dee."

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

"Thank you," Doc says, scooping Dee up in a hug. "An auspicious occasion indeed! I say we go find something fancy. Like a really good chocolate cake. This deserves to be celebrated!" He'd suggest champagne, but Dee wouldn't be able to have any, and he wants her to be able to share in the fun. After all, without her there'd be nothing to celebrate!

He grins around at his group of friends, feeling prouder of himself and Dee than he ever has before. Successful time travel, and a successful reset of the flow of time! Which means they should be able to time-travel whenever they want now! How amazing is that?

He is so going to brag about this later.