“THE YEAR 2045, BEFORE ANNA WENT TO

P: V01D”

The clock reads 5:00 A.M. and the alarm starts blaring but Mary shuts it quickly. Her eyes show that she didn’t sleep last night. Yesterday was a very tough day for her and she still couldn’t believe what her son had been doing for the past 2 years. Her father’s dying words echoed through her ears causing her more distress. She wanted to stop Reed but she couldn’t risk him speeding up his endeavors and causing even more damage to other universes, so she decided not to confront him directly. Rather she tried to slow him down while she figures out a way to stop him completely.

She had no clue where to start and then she remembered something, “Mark! He lied to me when I went to meet him, I have to go back to him and find out more about Reed and his meetings. I want to know why he helped Reed and if there is a way to undo what he has done.”

She gets up from her bed and looks at Peter sleeping peacefully, “Oh Peter! I wish I had spent more time with you in those days instead of working on time travel. I wish I had failed and given up, I wish things were different today!” she whispers quietly as she gets up and gets ready to meet with her old colleague.

Just as she is about to leave Anna sees her mother exiting the house and gets curious. “She isn’t going to the office, she told me she will be working from home for a bit, then why did she leave so early?” she shrugs her shoulders and goes back to her room and her computer says, “A new voice note has been successfully recreated”

She quickly goes to the holo-screen to take a look at it. This voice note is a relatively newer one when she compares the date of the first voice note. Before she decides to listen to it she remembers the promise she made to her mother. She was to leave her old research alone and focus on her own new projects, but her curiosity gets the best of her and she presses the play button.

The voice of her mother is in no way like it was in the first voice note, she was determined and motivated even excited in the first voice note but now she sounded tired, afraid and sad.

“This is the last audio log...and…what an experience this has been...when I started I had no idea of the things this research would make me do...so many lives lost...many good friends sacrificed. Just so I could achieve what I desperately wanted. As promised I myself time traveled to different universes...yes...we can travel in time! I...I saw dad...and...this time I was...beside him.”

“He didn’t have a lot of things to say...he warned me...that what I have achieved is dangerous...a slight ripple of a single mistake in the past...and this ripple becomes a drowning wave for someone in the future. He asked me to scrap it all, “We must not fuck with the flow of time” he told me. So here I am...I have achieved my goal...at what cost?”

“I think I’ll give all my time to my family now...I’m sorry to everyone and I thank you dad...for opening my eyes to the dangers of time travel...time to shut down....I thank everyone who gave their all to this project...and I am sincerely sorry that I am going to scrap the project and cut your careers short at MSAT!”

As soon as the voice note ended Anna felt all the emotions of her mother. She felt the burden her mother had on her shoulders as she took those dramatic steps to ensure no one would find out about this. A feeling of fear and excitement took hold of Anna. Her lips trembled as she said, “Holy Shit! Look at all these dead people. I have to find out more from her...but how should I approach her? She already told me to stay away from her old files...shit!”

Mary stops her car in front of Mark’s house and without thinking much goes to the front door; before she could touch the bell Mark opens the door and says, “I knew you would come here, come inside we have much to discuss!”

Mary looks at Mark with sheer anger as she enters his house. Mark had cleaned his house and had set up a table for them. It felt like he knew that Mary was coming, but she didn’t notice this because she had too many questions of her own.

He poured coffee in her cup and for himself too. Looking at the coffee she asked, “Why Mark? Why did you lie to me?” He looked at her and replied, “I know we all have lost a lot before or while we were working on that project, and you must also know that not everyone approved when you decided to scrap off the project. I for one was furious, you know why? Because I lost all I had, we are people of science knowing many complexities of life and yet we fall victim to the most primitive thing...emotions.”

“We are humans in the end aren’t we? I thought after we figure out time travel you will embrace it and eventually a day would come when people could go back and fix their lives. But look at what you did...you became scared and you let go the power to become your own God...your own master.”

“You are weak Mary, and you shouldn’t have been given this gift from the start. Look at Reed! He handles it all pretty well. He has changed many universes and look at his face, no sign of regret or sorrow. He does what needs to be done. He has surpassed the needs for human emotions unlike us.”

“THAT is what it means to be a God. Reed promised me he would give me a chance to see them, to live with them if I helped him. He promised and I believed and soon I’ll be able to see them, Clara and Carol. I won’t leave them this time. I’ll stay with them and never look anywhere else.”

Mary had heard enough, she had a little sympathy for Mark because she knew she had done wrong to him and many other members of the research team, but right now she didn’t have the strength to console him and put all he has done behind her back.

“I met my father didn’t I, when I time traveled? I could have traveled back and changed the outcome of his fate, I could have saved him from his death but did I? It was when I met him that I came to know that this power was something which humans can’t have...we shouldn’t have it at all.”

“I was blinded all those years when we searched for the answers. It was all my fault and I have nothing to give to you or anyone else effected by me and my project, but look what you have done Mark! By giving Reed the knowledge of time travel you have ruined the lives of countless others, even if they do not belong to this world...they are still people...they still have family and friends...they still deserve their own fates...who are we to decide what should happen to them?”

“Please Mark...help me fix this mess...tell me how to stop this...tell me what universe Reed is going to fuck up next...please!”

Mark had a changed face now, somewhere inside him the words of Mary had caused some disturbance and he was starting to question his decision of helping Reed set up project Annex. Still he had some boundaries which he decided not to cross and all he said in an answer was, “Reed is going to P: V01D...I think he has started...started it all already...the evaluation...the execution and in the end annexation.”

“This is how he works! I will tell you nothing else Mary and I am not sorry for the things I have done. I think I deserve a little happiness. I think I deserve to go back and write my own fate, and the day is drawing near when I will!”

Mary listens to him and decides to leave his house, as she goes towards the front door she looks at Mark one last time and says, “I hope you do Mark, before time runs out, because we all know that time is cruel and we can never be its masters, we can never be more cruel than time!”

He sees her sit in the car and leave. He shuts the door and sits on his sofa.

He takes out a locket from his pocket and opens it to see the photo of his wife and daughter, after reminiscing on old memories he closes his eyes and keeps the locket near his heart. He feels a sudden vibration and opens his eyes lazily. He sees a man in all black clothes sitting at the table. He glances at him and immediately opens his eyes wide open, fear takes hold of him.

“What...how...who the hell are you? What are you doing here?” he says as he shudders and moves closer to him. The man in black says, “Dr. Mark...thank you for giving her a hint...thank you for changing it a little bit this time...as big of a loser you are...you actually did something important this time!”

The strange man takes a device out of his pocket and points it towards Mark. He looks at the device and says, “No! What do you think you are doing?”

The man in black presses a button, suddenly Mark cannot move or say anything. He is frozen and looks at the man helplessly “I’m afraid you have done all that you were supposed to, and I’m sorry to tell you that Reed is never going to fulfill his promise. You will never see them both again.”

“Looking back at your life I can only feel sad and the best I can do to help you is to kill you!” he then presses a button on the device and releases Mark. He falls down to the ground and watches the man vanish in thin air. Mark gets up and starts trembling, as his chronotons start to destabilize he sees flashes of his life.

His childhood, his youth, and the moment he kissed Carol the first time. When he held Clara in his arms, he smiled as he saw those moments and then came misery and despair. He lost Clara and then Carol, in the end he was all alone, “What a miserable way to die...well at least I saw them one last time...even a glimpse is enough!” he says as death slowly grabbed him and he closed his eyes.