TIME & TIED: DESTRUCTION

ARC 3.2 - With The Group

PART 53b: MENTAL STRAIN 2

Clarke watched Julie go before turning back to look at the others. "You know, I wish you'd talked this over with me first," he sighed.

“I guess we should have," Carrie admitted, her eyes still on the doorway. "Julie's never seemed that... passionate about anything though. Not lately anyway. She's been pretty quiet at school."

“Her former followers, which is to say half the school, are out to get her when Corry’s back is turned,” Clarke countered. “The other half, Corry’s original camp, give her the silent treatment - wouldn’t you keep to yourself? Don't forget, her family situation has been kept out of the public eye. Heck, even though WE have the information... have you ever truly forgiven Julie yourself, Carrie?"

"Of course! She only pulled that trigger because she was being influenced by a crazy man from the future."

“Not merely the shooting. Julie did some other cruel things to you.”

He saw Carrie shift her weight back and forth uncomfortably. She had to be recalling the betrayal which had involved drugs in her locker and two weeks of detention. “Yeah. I know she was under some personal pressures then too," Carrie yielded. “I do TRY not to hold such things against her.”

“So, if you've forgiven her, why don't you spend more time with her?" Clarke asked.

Carrie shrugged. "I guess I never thought about it. I've had more than a few issues of my own to deal with these last few months, you know.”

“Okay Clarke, let’s get your input now,” Luci broke in. Having resumed her seat, she leaned forwards in her chair. “Quickly, before Julie returns. Do you think she can handle a time trip?”

"I... maybe?" Clarke said. "I must admit, I didn't know she felt this strongly about it myself. But I see where she's coming from. Part of her wants to forget about that trip, but if she does that, she'll lose this connection she has to all of you. And I don't think Julie wants to do that, not now that she's finally beginning to understand things like love, friendship and self sacrifice."

"We've made a bit of a mess of it today then," Frank realized, also resuming his seat. "Perhaps we should call the whole thing off."

Clarke reached back to rub the back of his neck. “Maybe? But don’t do that for good, or you could break Julie's heart. Appearances aside, she is in a fragile state. You can't set her up and then drop her. Her feelings, when she expresses them now, they tend to go all out."

"What would you suggest then?" Carrie asked.

"Continue to involve her," Clarke decided, after a moment's thought. “Meaning using this place as a base isn't a bad idea. Even a time trip has possibilities. But not solo. And not now. Make sure not to bring her along too fast, and don't take her condition for granted. Julie isn't the same person she was last year."

"Who am I supposed to be then?" Julie asked as she reentered the room.

Clarke flinched, not having heard her approach. "I was telling them how far you've come in terms of your therapy,” he said quickly. "Since the last time you time traveled."

"Oh,” Julie nodded. "Is it okay for me to go on the next trip then?"

“Actually,” Luci said. “We’ll need to hold off on trips for a while yet. We don’t have that many present day coins. The issue today was more having a fixed point in time when we all knew what was going on. Right?”

“Right,” Frank agreed. “We’ll need to keep an eye out for more coins minted in our current year before taking any trips.”

Clarke took a half step back, firing off a quick smile to them from behind Julie.

Julie pursed her lips. “Why wait? If this is now a fixed point in time, someone could simply time travel back TO now, from some point later, once they've already got more coins. At which point our future selves can simply hand the money over to our present day selves.”

“Huh,” Frank mused. He glanced to Carrie.

The blonde shook her head. "Sorry, we can't, because we won't," she rejected. "It’s not that it’s a bad idea, and it's hard for me to explain exactly, but since we apparently haven’t done that, we’re not going to either. It’s like... our present is already their past. Makes us the responsible ones. Who knows what will happen in two months time? Maybe we'll forget, maybe the machine will break down..."

"Couldn't you foresee those sorts of events though?" Clarke wondered.

Carrie began to look uneasy. "Maybe. Chartreuse thinks so. But I'm not keen on testing it.”

“You know what though? We might be able to generate more coins via causal loops,” Frank realized. “Carrie has done it before with information. Telling herself something, then going back in time and saying it again, for the first time, as the only source. She even generated an apple out of nowhere last September. Couldn't we do the same thing with coins?"

Carrie began to rub her temples again. “That’s not the best plan. For one, I'm still not clear about how I managed the apple. For another, using the machine would burn up the coin we get, meaning it can’t be used elsewhere anyway.”

“So use two coins," Luci countered. “We’ll put them onto a table in the morning. That evening, someone can use one one coin to travel back in time five minutes, picking up both coins. Then use one of THOSE to travel back a further five minutes, again picking up both coins. We keep repeating the process, getting an extra coin each time until finally--"

"My head explodes," Carrie interrupted, shifting from having her fingers on her temples to pressing her palms there. "Guys, entertaining that thought physically HURTS. Much more than the usual background static.”

She shook her head. “After all, Luci, that's not how time travel works. If it's my destiny to pick up the coins thirty minutes ago, I won't be able to pick them up five minutes ago. They'll be gone! Besides, I think that temporal random variance thing would have a thing or two to say about the attempt."

"It IS an interesting new paradox though," Frank reflected. "If we use a coin to time travel, and then on that trip we take the coin away before it's used, could we actually go on the trip?"

"Frank... not helping with the headache," Carrie said, gritting her teeth.

Frank frowned. “You’re not about to make things fly through the air, are you?"

"Shall I get an aspirin?" Julie offered.

"I doubt aspirin would do much," Carrie sighed, after shooting Frank a look. "I have had pains like this before. I think when my powers awoke, they gave me some sort of temporal conscience. That's part of the reason I’ve avoided discussing time travel philosophy with people this year.”

“Really?” Luci asked. "I thought the issue was that you had trouble making sense out of it."

"That too," Carrie yielded. "Though I have tried to do more research. Being tied to a destiny and all.”

“Well, if time trickery is out, we could simply get more money,” Julie decided. “Given that some percentage of all money out there has current year coins, more money leads to more useful coins. In fact, by knowing the future, you can win money at anything from lottery numbers to betting on sporting events.”

Carrie began to rock back and forth. “Wait.”

Frank snapped his fingers. “Or there's the stock market. With the time machine we could invest today in something that we know will rise substantially over the next week and--"

"SHUT UP!" Carrie shrieked, collapsing back onto the couch.

Everyone turned to stare. The blonde took a few slow breaths, her eyes closed and her palms against her head. It took at least ten seconds, but finally one blue eye reopened. "For crying out loud people, were you SERIOUSLY trying to make my head explode there??”

“Carrie, a lottery wouldn’t need to involve you at all," Luci pointed out. “We’d make the trip ourselv--"

“STOP.” Carrie drew in her next breath through clenched teeth. “Look. News flash. Apparently it doesn’t matter whether you do it, whether I do it, or whether the neighbour’s cat does it. Playing with the normal flow of time that way? It’s like an ice pick, right here!” She jabbed her finger at the side of her head. “Though, Gods, mere TALK has never done this to me before... why now, all of a sudden?"

"We've never talked about it seriously before," Frank speculated. “This is the first time we’ve brought it up with an intent to actually follow through.”

"Lovely," Carrie said, dropping her head between her knees. “You know what? I’d better have some damn good mental shields in place before these time machine devices actually get invented. If not, idle chatter like that is liable to make me lose my friggin’ mind and go on a homicidal rampage as a preemptive strike.”

Frank visibly flinched, but only Clarke and Luci noticed.

"You know," Clarke offered. "You're all missing the obvious. If it's merely more money you need... Julie already has money. Quite a bit. She can withdraw a bunch of rolled coins and search for more of the type you need.”

Luci frowned. “Seriously? I figured Julie’s parents would have cut her off.”

Julie nodded slowly. “True, they did, but I have my own account," she admitted. “I’m not stupid, I made sure there was one they couldn’t touch. Plus there’s still a few electronic tidbits lying around, which I bought to help with taking over the school, and they have value. Even without access to my parents' funds, I'm probably better off than ninety percent of this town's population.”

"Plus you could always travel back a year or two and sneak out extra funds then," Frank mused. His gaze jerked back to Carrie. "Or would that be another temporal violation?"

"It's hard to tell, I'm still throbbing from the lottery remarks,” Carrie grumbled without looking up.

“There may have been a couple of times when funds went missing," Julie granted. "Though I'd have to think about it. In the meantime, I can withdraw $100 in coins... but sifting through them will take time.”

“We are in no rush,” Clarke assured.

"That's actually a really good plan," Frank agreed. “It wouldn't involve wasting what few coins we have now on any attempts to get more.”

"Great," Carrie said. "Because I think my head has had more than enough of talking about time travel for today."

"You sure you don't want some aspirin?" Julie asked. Carrie gestured vaguely in response. "I'll get some," the brunette decided, hurrying from the room again.

Clarke watched her go before turning back to the others. "Thanks guys," he said sincerely. "Helping this way, it will mean a lot to Julie. While keeping her safely in the present.”

"Least we can do, after neglecting her this long," Frank reflected. “Somehow I never thought we'd be of much help during Julie’s therapy."

"A person always needs friends," Clarke countered. “And it's not like she can spill our whole story to her psychologist.”

"Here's the last big question then," Luci stated. “Is it truly safe for us to leave the time machine here? Where Julie can access it?”

Clarke furrowed his brow. "Um. That is a good question," he acknowledged. He thought about it. “Maybe not, but if we--"

He was interrupted by the sound of a loud scream from down the hall. Julie’s scream.