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ajremixGood thing I have a stockpile of chapters, I was barely able to write all week and, as I have to turn in three midterms next week, it doesn't look like this week is going to be much better.
Once again, thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dinahqueen for the beta!
Title: The Inventor 02
Fandom: DCU
Rating: PG
Word Count: 3457
Characters: Ted, Booster, Jaime, Michelle, Skeets, Rip
Summary: Eras don’t end, they merely change. The return of Ted Kord.
Prologue
Chapter 1
It had taken the better part of a week for everyone that should be there to actually make the time to be there. As the group stood outside the privately owned warehouse, all in civilian clothing, Booster found himself not wanting at all to go inside.
Michelle wrapped her arms around his, chin resting on her brother’s shoulder. “Mikey, if you don’t want to go in, we can go ahead and you can go back to the lab or wherever.”
Oh God did Booster not want to go in. He didn’t think his heart would be able to take seeing Ted again which wasn’t the least bit fair because Booster practically made a list of things he’d be more than happy to give up to have his best friend again. “It’s fine,” his voice didn’t shake but it was thin and uncertain. “He’s my best friend and Skeets said it’s really him so it’s fine. I can do this.”
“I could go in first.” Jaime piped up. “Talk to him a bit, give you a chance to feel things out.”
Booster couldn’t help the little grateful smile. He’d known Jaime for barely a year and it felt like he owed the teen so much- for his help, for believing in him, for all the selfless little things he did without a moment’s hesitation. “Yeah, thanks. I-I’d probably need a moment.”
Jaime’s mouth curled into an easy smile. “No problem. You just don’t get to tease me about any gushing I may inadvertently do.”
“Deal. But I make no promises in using Shel as my proxy.”
On cue, Michelle gave her evil sister grin. Jaime sighed in defeat. “So not fair.”
Rip and Skeets stayed quiet in the back, both steeling themselves for the meeting and neither seeming convinced that it was nearly as simple as it seemed. Booster gave their group one last once over before taking a deep breath. “Here we go,” and, before he could back out, he entered the entry code to the warehouse.
A series of mechanisms whirled, clicked, and beeped unseen and hydraulics hissed inside the door, allowing Booster to swing it upon. “Man,” Jaime gaped, “that’s some security just for a door!”
“If you left Ted to just tinker, he’d go overboard before anyone could stop him.” At the feeling of Michelle squeezing his arm, Booster winced, realizing he referred to his friend- the person he was supposedly reuniting with -in the past tense. The meeting might end up messing with him a little more than he thought it would.
The five stepped inside, pausing just long enough for Booster to power down the security, before they made their way into the hall which soon opened up into the warehouse proper filled with all sorts of equipment, crates and Blue Beetle items. And, standing in front of it all in ill-fitting civilian clothes, was Ted.
“Hey,” he gave them a friendly smile, “welcome to my humble and hopefully temporary abode.”
At the sight of his friend, at the too familiar voice and much missed smile, Booster’s throat tightened up and he could feel a stinging in his eyes. Michelle dropped a hand to grab at Booster’s and he had to have been clinging to her too tightly, but she made no sound or movement indicating it. Ted took a step forward and Jaime was there to meet him, just as he promised. Booster really owed the kid.
“Mr. Kord,” he grinned up at the man with unabashed awe. “This... this is a real honor to actually get to meet you!”
Suitably distracted from Booster, Ted regarded the teen with pleased surprise. “Jaime? Wow, you really look different without the armor.”
“You’ve seen it? Well- I guess if you’ve seen the news, but I think I’ve only been on the local stuff...”
“Oh, right, the... forgetting thing.” At Jaime’s confused expression, Ted just smiled brightly and ruffled his dark hair. “Never mind, good to see you! And call me Ted. Mr. Kord reminds me of board meetings and that’s not something I want to associate with my successor.”
Jaime bobbed his head eagerly and, just as he predicted, proceeded to gush about all the things he’d heard about Ted and his accomplishments and how much he learned by reading Ted’s notebooks. In return, Ted laughed, deflected modestly and said ‘I knew Guy still had some of my stuff!’ Through it all, though, he kept throwing glances at Booster, trying to find a break in the conversation to include his friend or wonder why Booster was staying back, unable to really look at Ted. Michelle went up on her toes and told her brother to grab a seat by Skeets and Rip. Then she threw on a big smile, pulled Ted into a hug and chattered about how Mikey had told her all about him. Ted looked her up and down, a little shellshocked and went ‘Um... wow- so you’re Booster’s sister?’
When Booster perched himself up on a crate next to Rip, the scientist cleared his throat. Michelle and Jaime seamlessly wedged Ted between them, seating him far enough away from Booster without it being too obvious. The look they got from Ted, though, proved their subtlety failed. “Well then, Ted,” Rip said evenly, “perhaps you should explain how it is you’re still alive?”
“Yeah, sure.” He leaned back on his palms, heels drumming on the crate he and his apparent guards were perched on. “First off, tell me what happened after I died, just so I know what ended up changing.”
Looks were exchanged, Jaime and Michelle’s expressions were lost and Rip’s was carefully blank. Skeets hovered quietly and Booster, the only one that was actually there for that crisis, spoke quietly, eyes not moving from some spot on the ground. “After I got out of the hospital, Wonder Woman found me, asking if I’d heard from you. We searched all over and found absolutely no trace of you.” Booster’s hands twisted together and the muscles in his cheeks twitched but he spoke as if he were reciting from one of his history files. It was the only way he could remember that time without getting choked up, thinking it happened some hundreds of years in the past to no one he actually knew. “Someone sent Batman pieces of the Bug. Pieces he said meant it had to have been completely dismantled. We waited and we kept searching but... no one could find you anywhere. Not J’onn, not Oracle- even got Superman to fly around listening for you and Guy came back to see if his ring could pick up anything. You just vanished so completely, everyone gave you up for dead.”
“Booster...” Ted reached forward to grab his friend’s hand but Booster flinched just slightly and Michelle was suddenly at Booster’s side, making soothing sounds and petting his hair.
“It’s okay, Mikey. That’s all over with.” She pressed her head against Booster’s, hugging him tight. “Now Ted’s gonna tell us aaaaall about how he got here.” She gave Ted the kind of amiable smile edged with a warning that, until she was satisfied her brother wouldn’t get hurt, Ted was to keep his hands to himself.
Ted cleared his throat a little awkwardly. “Er, right.” In acquiescence, he sat on his hands. “I suppose I should give you a quick rundown of how it went the first time. What little I was told, anyway. Booster- the, uh, before one -didn’t really want to go into it and we pretty much landed in another crisis of our own from the get-go.
“I was supposed to have died. Shot in the head. Apparently a day or two afterward, someone sent Batman my goggles, shattered and with,” he looked at Booster briefly, trying to find the least disturbing way to say it, “gray matter on it. What I remember, though, is Booster staging a last minute rescue with the first Blue Beetle- Dan Garret -Jaime and someone claiming to be a Blue Beetle from the future who turned out to be a real jerkass.”
“Black Beetle,” Jaime agreed with a scowl. Then his brain caught up. “Hey- if I was supposed to be there, how come I don’t remember it?”
“Standard time traveling procedure,” Booster quipped, a small smirk on his lips but still not looking away from whatever far away point he stared into. “Erasing the memories of those you meet so you don’t change history.”
“What a ripoff! I’ll bet it was an awesome rescue!”
“Well, you impressed me if it’s any consolation.” Ted grinned and the teen flushed with pleasure. “Anyway, I got saved, Dan, Jaime and the imposter all went their separate ways, but when Booster and I arrived to the present, we found out Max had somehow managed to basically take over the world with OMACs. I thought the only way to fix the timeline was to go back and let Max kill me, but when the Black Beetle tried to stop me, something he said stuck in my mind. You remember, Booster? When we were all in the time sphere, he said that I was supposed to help you keep the time stream intact. He said no one should know I was alive.”
Booster nodded, stomach knotting sickly.
“So how’s no one knowing I’m alive any different from everyone believing I’m dead?”
His head shot up and, for the first time, Booster’s eyes locked onto Ted’s.
“After I booted him into the time stream,” Ted continued, eyes never leaving Booster’s, “I couldn’t stop thinking about that and I thought back to what happened when I was first rescued. I started thinking no one probably knew what I did right before I supposed to have died. Max had files on pretty much every meta-human around. Psychological profiles, powers, weaknesses- he even had Superman’s alias in there. While I was looking through the files, I patched an uplink to a satellite that could remotely transmit a virus to spread through the network by following the links of one file to another that would corrupt and wipe out everything. Before our little rescue party left Max, I remember seeing Black Beetle mess with that terminal before I had a chance to activate the virus. I figured Checkmate having those files was what caused the world to go to crap, not my death. So I went back, made sure the database was destroyed, set it up so Oracle could tell what I’d done and where I’d been, then jumped ahead two years to make certain my theory was right and,” he spread his hands with a little uncertain smile, “here I am.”
Booster looked for all the world as if he wanted nothing more than to cling to his best friend and never let him go again, but instead he dropped his gaze. “Oracle had to undergo some kind of emergency surgery almost as soon as I got out of the hospital. It was nearly a week after you disappeared before she was able to get any kind of location.”
“How’d she even know?” Jaime asked. “There’s like, hundreds of satellites up there, right? How could she tell which one you used?”
“It wasn’t just any satellite,” Ted replied, “it was a satellite she practically has sole possession of. One from LexCorp.”
There was a moment of stunned silence. “Wait, wait, wait,” Booster brought his hands up like his mind had just been completely blown. “Oracle has access to one of Lex Luthor’s satellites?”
“Twelve of them, actually.”
“Twelve? And she just told you this?”
Ted shrugged, amused grin on his lips. “Well, she had to brag to someone.”
“And giving you access to them?”
“I’m her geek buddy, why wouldn’t she? Or she did it because she hates when I grovel in public, sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. Either way, it was like an early birthday present- O’s so awesome.”
“So, uh, not to sound like I’m not happy that you’re alive and all,” Jaime said hesitantly, “but what does this mean for me? I gotta admit, I’ve gotten used to the scarab and all. What with it being attached to my spine.”
“Keep it.”
He blinked in surprise. “Really?”
“Sure. It never worked for me, so there’s no point in giving it back.” Ted shrugged easily. “Besides, I don’t think I’ll be getting back into the hero business again. Too much excitement for me.”
“But...”
“The biggest question,” Rip broke in, staring intently at Ted, “is how much your being alive will affect the time stream.”
Ted didn’t look impressed. “Oh, you mean that ‘solidified time’ bull Skeets said you’ve been throwing around?”
“It’s hardly ‘bull’.”
“Are you serious? There’s three pretty big items of evidence saying you’re wrong sitting in this room right now. Item one: Booster. If the past were so unchangeable, he wouldn’t have been able to come here to become a hero in the first place. Unless you’re saying he was supposed to go back in time and we exist in a causality loop. In which case- item two: Michelle,” Ted paused in his ticking off to tell her, “sorry to single you out.”
“Oh no, go ahead,” she replied, rather interested in watching someone throw time-speak back in Rip’s face.
“She was supposed to have died like me, but you saved her instead. You, who told Booster that the past couldn’t be changed, went back and changed it.”
Booster turned to give Rip a dark, angry look. “He’s bringing up some good points, here.”
“Item three, Rip, is yourself. You’re supposed to keep an eye on the timeline and make sure no one messes it up. If it were as solid as you say, it wouldn’t be able to change and create completely new timelines to begin with. And if time were predetermined as causality loops would require, then it would be pretty redundant for time to require someone changing the past just so someone else can change it back. So which is it?” Ted leaned forward bluntly, cupping his chin in a palm. “Is it the universe that’s unnecessarily complex or is it this solidified time of yours?”
Everyone was staring at Rip then and even Skeets managed a cold expression. Really, no matter what Rip said then it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Distrust and uncertainty was already sown into the Carter siblings’ minds and getting on Jaime’s bad side wasn’t a good idea.
That only left Rip with the truth. “Alright,” he said, “I wasn’t entirely truthful about the nature of time and the past. It’s complex and it’s not only tricky identifying which parts are solidified in time, but also what consequences your actions will take.”
Booster crossed his arms, glaring darkly. He was not at all above low blows, especially to someone who manipulated him. “So you had me watching Joker cripple Barbra to shock me into not questioning you, is that it?”
Ted gaped. “He what?” He turned furiously onto Rip. “You what?”
“And you didn’t even listen to me then!” Rip shot back, feeling the argument spiraling away from him. “How many times did you let the Joker torture you until you finally understood that some things had to happen? Were it any less a traumatic event, would you ever understand how... how aggravating our job can be because we can’t save everyone? Not even all the people close to us? Do you think I enjoyed watching you fall apart because you couldn’t rescue Ted? I tried to help, alright? I ran every simulation I could think of, I studied all records of the event I had and I couldn’t find one way to save him! Would you rather I let you try rescuing Ted over and over when I knew you’d watch him die every single time?” At some point Rip had gotten to his feet, fists trembling at his side and his throat gone tight. Then, just as abruptly as the emotions came on him, it went out all at once, making him slump back on the crate. The way Rip’s shoulder’s hunched up, how his hands twisted in his lap, for a moment Booster thought he was looking in a mirror. “I couldn’t let you break yourself like that. You don’t know how hard all of this is for me, knowing how much pain you were in, having to be the one to keep bullying you on. I never...” Rip broke off hoarsely, unable to look at anyone. “I didn’t know about the computer. I’m sorry.”
The room descended into silence and Michelle slid off her seat to give Rip a hug. The others looked away, pretending not to notice as he clutched her back, surreptitiously rubbing at his eyes as he did so.
“Perhaps,” Skeets said as diplomatically as only someone like him was capable of being, “we should conclude for now. It will give everyone time to adjust to Ted’s return. I assume, sir, that you would prefer to have a proper meal and bed to sleep in? Non-perishable foods and a cot must be getting tiring by now.” After a pause, he added, “As well as having a properly stocked shower...”
Ted lifted an arm, sniffing at himself. “I don’t smell bad! Much. How would you be able to tell anyway?”
“I am highly advanced technology.”
“That doesn’t explain how you can smell...”
“Unless there are any pressing questions or concerns?” Skeets asked, rotating to look at the humans around him. “Jaime, I know it will be difficult for you to find time to return, but I will keep you updated with the situation on a weekly basis or should anything of note come up.”
“Thanks, Skeets,” the teen said with a grin. “Appreciate it.”
“So it’s okay for Ted to come with us, Rip?” Michelle asked, rubbing lightly at his back as if the man didn’t regularly annoy her or her brother with his orders.
“At the moment,” he said, voice still a little thicker than usual, “I can’t think of a reason why he shouldn’t. I’ll need to talk to someone once we get back to the lab, then I’ll investigate if there are any unnatural ripples in the stream that was caused by Ted’s being here.”
Ted slipped off his crate, clapping his hands together with a happy grin. “Great! So whaddya say, buddy? Team Blue and Gold, ready to shake the world again?”
The grin he got in return was wavering, uncertain and, if Ted could even imagine it was possible, afraid. “Can’t wait,” Booster replied, not looking him in the eye.
~*~*~*~
It was home in the vague, undefined way a time traveler whose family could be anywhere and anywhen could have. A house in an odd state of perpetual emptiness and liveliness. It had been years since Rip had last been there, but it was just as he remembered it since, by the date, he’d left it a few days earlier. Rip stood in the hall just inside the front door and simply stared at the other man within who merely smiled patiently, waiting for the disjointed feelings of time travel to sort themselves out.
The similarities were unmistakable and that was part of the problem. It was difficult to resolve the knowledge that this man before Rip now was neither a stranger nor the one that he’d so recently left behind. Even with hair lightened with age, lines creasing the still handsome face, the glasses and time-tempered smile, it was difficult to not think of him as Booster. But the moment passed and Rip took three long strides to his father who welcomed him back with open arms that held tight and strong as Rip buried his face against a familiar shoulder and sobbed. Michael didn’t say anything, just held his boy and rubbed soothing circles along his back, rocking side to side a bit.
Eventually the tears stopped and Rip’s breathing evened out, but he didn’t let go. It was almost like being a kid again, when it seemed as if his father could solve all his problems and Rip was safe and happy just being with him. Then he thought of Booster and the anger and hurt and distrust and Rip felt his stomach bottom out. Sometimes he really hated time travel.
“Feeling any better?” Michael asked.
“Some,” came the mumbled reply. An affectionate kiss was pressed to Rip’s temple as if he were still a boy and he couldn’t help a comforted little smile that grew in response.
“C’mon,” he pulled Rip to the couch, arm looped about his shoulders, “we’ll order out some food and you can remind me what an ass I was this time.”
Once again, thanks to
dinahqueen for the beta!Title: The Inventor 02
Fandom: DCU
Rating: PG
Word Count: 3457
Characters: Ted, Booster, Jaime, Michelle, Skeets, Rip
Summary: Eras don’t end, they merely change. The return of Ted Kord.
Prologue
Chapter 1
It had taken the better part of a week for everyone that should be there to actually make the time to be there. As the group stood outside the privately owned warehouse, all in civilian clothing, Booster found himself not wanting at all to go inside.
Michelle wrapped her arms around his, chin resting on her brother’s shoulder. “Mikey, if you don’t want to go in, we can go ahead and you can go back to the lab or wherever.”
Oh God did Booster not want to go in. He didn’t think his heart would be able to take seeing Ted again which wasn’t the least bit fair because Booster practically made a list of things he’d be more than happy to give up to have his best friend again. “It’s fine,” his voice didn’t shake but it was thin and uncertain. “He’s my best friend and Skeets said it’s really him so it’s fine. I can do this.”
“I could go in first.” Jaime piped up. “Talk to him a bit, give you a chance to feel things out.”
Booster couldn’t help the little grateful smile. He’d known Jaime for barely a year and it felt like he owed the teen so much- for his help, for believing in him, for all the selfless little things he did without a moment’s hesitation. “Yeah, thanks. I-I’d probably need a moment.”
Jaime’s mouth curled into an easy smile. “No problem. You just don’t get to tease me about any gushing I may inadvertently do.”
“Deal. But I make no promises in using Shel as my proxy.”
On cue, Michelle gave her evil sister grin. Jaime sighed in defeat. “So not fair.”
Rip and Skeets stayed quiet in the back, both steeling themselves for the meeting and neither seeming convinced that it was nearly as simple as it seemed. Booster gave their group one last once over before taking a deep breath. “Here we go,” and, before he could back out, he entered the entry code to the warehouse.
A series of mechanisms whirled, clicked, and beeped unseen and hydraulics hissed inside the door, allowing Booster to swing it upon. “Man,” Jaime gaped, “that’s some security just for a door!”
“If you left Ted to just tinker, he’d go overboard before anyone could stop him.” At the feeling of Michelle squeezing his arm, Booster winced, realizing he referred to his friend- the person he was supposedly reuniting with -in the past tense. The meeting might end up messing with him a little more than he thought it would.
The five stepped inside, pausing just long enough for Booster to power down the security, before they made their way into the hall which soon opened up into the warehouse proper filled with all sorts of equipment, crates and Blue Beetle items. And, standing in front of it all in ill-fitting civilian clothes, was Ted.
“Hey,” he gave them a friendly smile, “welcome to my humble and hopefully temporary abode.”
At the sight of his friend, at the too familiar voice and much missed smile, Booster’s throat tightened up and he could feel a stinging in his eyes. Michelle dropped a hand to grab at Booster’s and he had to have been clinging to her too tightly, but she made no sound or movement indicating it. Ted took a step forward and Jaime was there to meet him, just as he promised. Booster really owed the kid.
“Mr. Kord,” he grinned up at the man with unabashed awe. “This... this is a real honor to actually get to meet you!”
Suitably distracted from Booster, Ted regarded the teen with pleased surprise. “Jaime? Wow, you really look different without the armor.”
“You’ve seen it? Well- I guess if you’ve seen the news, but I think I’ve only been on the local stuff...”
“Oh, right, the... forgetting thing.” At Jaime’s confused expression, Ted just smiled brightly and ruffled his dark hair. “Never mind, good to see you! And call me Ted. Mr. Kord reminds me of board meetings and that’s not something I want to associate with my successor.”
Jaime bobbed his head eagerly and, just as he predicted, proceeded to gush about all the things he’d heard about Ted and his accomplishments and how much he learned by reading Ted’s notebooks. In return, Ted laughed, deflected modestly and said ‘I knew Guy still had some of my stuff!’ Through it all, though, he kept throwing glances at Booster, trying to find a break in the conversation to include his friend or wonder why Booster was staying back, unable to really look at Ted. Michelle went up on her toes and told her brother to grab a seat by Skeets and Rip. Then she threw on a big smile, pulled Ted into a hug and chattered about how Mikey had told her all about him. Ted looked her up and down, a little shellshocked and went ‘Um... wow- so you’re Booster’s sister?’
When Booster perched himself up on a crate next to Rip, the scientist cleared his throat. Michelle and Jaime seamlessly wedged Ted between them, seating him far enough away from Booster without it being too obvious. The look they got from Ted, though, proved their subtlety failed. “Well then, Ted,” Rip said evenly, “perhaps you should explain how it is you’re still alive?”
“Yeah, sure.” He leaned back on his palms, heels drumming on the crate he and his apparent guards were perched on. “First off, tell me what happened after I died, just so I know what ended up changing.”
Looks were exchanged, Jaime and Michelle’s expressions were lost and Rip’s was carefully blank. Skeets hovered quietly and Booster, the only one that was actually there for that crisis, spoke quietly, eyes not moving from some spot on the ground. “After I got out of the hospital, Wonder Woman found me, asking if I’d heard from you. We searched all over and found absolutely no trace of you.” Booster’s hands twisted together and the muscles in his cheeks twitched but he spoke as if he were reciting from one of his history files. It was the only way he could remember that time without getting choked up, thinking it happened some hundreds of years in the past to no one he actually knew. “Someone sent Batman pieces of the Bug. Pieces he said meant it had to have been completely dismantled. We waited and we kept searching but... no one could find you anywhere. Not J’onn, not Oracle- even got Superman to fly around listening for you and Guy came back to see if his ring could pick up anything. You just vanished so completely, everyone gave you up for dead.”
“Booster...” Ted reached forward to grab his friend’s hand but Booster flinched just slightly and Michelle was suddenly at Booster’s side, making soothing sounds and petting his hair.
“It’s okay, Mikey. That’s all over with.” She pressed her head against Booster’s, hugging him tight. “Now Ted’s gonna tell us aaaaall about how he got here.” She gave Ted the kind of amiable smile edged with a warning that, until she was satisfied her brother wouldn’t get hurt, Ted was to keep his hands to himself.
Ted cleared his throat a little awkwardly. “Er, right.” In acquiescence, he sat on his hands. “I suppose I should give you a quick rundown of how it went the first time. What little I was told, anyway. Booster- the, uh, before one -didn’t really want to go into it and we pretty much landed in another crisis of our own from the get-go.
“I was supposed to have died. Shot in the head. Apparently a day or two afterward, someone sent Batman my goggles, shattered and with,” he looked at Booster briefly, trying to find the least disturbing way to say it, “gray matter on it. What I remember, though, is Booster staging a last minute rescue with the first Blue Beetle- Dan Garret -Jaime and someone claiming to be a Blue Beetle from the future who turned out to be a real jerkass.”
“Black Beetle,” Jaime agreed with a scowl. Then his brain caught up. “Hey- if I was supposed to be there, how come I don’t remember it?”
“Standard time traveling procedure,” Booster quipped, a small smirk on his lips but still not looking away from whatever far away point he stared into. “Erasing the memories of those you meet so you don’t change history.”
“What a ripoff! I’ll bet it was an awesome rescue!”
“Well, you impressed me if it’s any consolation.” Ted grinned and the teen flushed with pleasure. “Anyway, I got saved, Dan, Jaime and the imposter all went their separate ways, but when Booster and I arrived to the present, we found out Max had somehow managed to basically take over the world with OMACs. I thought the only way to fix the timeline was to go back and let Max kill me, but when the Black Beetle tried to stop me, something he said stuck in my mind. You remember, Booster? When we were all in the time sphere, he said that I was supposed to help you keep the time stream intact. He said no one should know I was alive.”
Booster nodded, stomach knotting sickly.
“So how’s no one knowing I’m alive any different from everyone believing I’m dead?”
His head shot up and, for the first time, Booster’s eyes locked onto Ted’s.
“After I booted him into the time stream,” Ted continued, eyes never leaving Booster’s, “I couldn’t stop thinking about that and I thought back to what happened when I was first rescued. I started thinking no one probably knew what I did right before I supposed to have died. Max had files on pretty much every meta-human around. Psychological profiles, powers, weaknesses- he even had Superman’s alias in there. While I was looking through the files, I patched an uplink to a satellite that could remotely transmit a virus to spread through the network by following the links of one file to another that would corrupt and wipe out everything. Before our little rescue party left Max, I remember seeing Black Beetle mess with that terminal before I had a chance to activate the virus. I figured Checkmate having those files was what caused the world to go to crap, not my death. So I went back, made sure the database was destroyed, set it up so Oracle could tell what I’d done and where I’d been, then jumped ahead two years to make certain my theory was right and,” he spread his hands with a little uncertain smile, “here I am.”
Booster looked for all the world as if he wanted nothing more than to cling to his best friend and never let him go again, but instead he dropped his gaze. “Oracle had to undergo some kind of emergency surgery almost as soon as I got out of the hospital. It was nearly a week after you disappeared before she was able to get any kind of location.”
“How’d she even know?” Jaime asked. “There’s like, hundreds of satellites up there, right? How could she tell which one you used?”
“It wasn’t just any satellite,” Ted replied, “it was a satellite she practically has sole possession of. One from LexCorp.”
There was a moment of stunned silence. “Wait, wait, wait,” Booster brought his hands up like his mind had just been completely blown. “Oracle has access to one of Lex Luthor’s satellites?”
“Twelve of them, actually.”
“Twelve? And she just told you this?”
Ted shrugged, amused grin on his lips. “Well, she had to brag to someone.”
“And giving you access to them?”
“I’m her geek buddy, why wouldn’t she? Or she did it because she hates when I grovel in public, sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. Either way, it was like an early birthday present- O’s so awesome.”
“So, uh, not to sound like I’m not happy that you’re alive and all,” Jaime said hesitantly, “but what does this mean for me? I gotta admit, I’ve gotten used to the scarab and all. What with it being attached to my spine.”
“Keep it.”
He blinked in surprise. “Really?”
“Sure. It never worked for me, so there’s no point in giving it back.” Ted shrugged easily. “Besides, I don’t think I’ll be getting back into the hero business again. Too much excitement for me.”
“But...”
“The biggest question,” Rip broke in, staring intently at Ted, “is how much your being alive will affect the time stream.”
Ted didn’t look impressed. “Oh, you mean that ‘solidified time’ bull Skeets said you’ve been throwing around?”
“It’s hardly ‘bull’.”
“Are you serious? There’s three pretty big items of evidence saying you’re wrong sitting in this room right now. Item one: Booster. If the past were so unchangeable, he wouldn’t have been able to come here to become a hero in the first place. Unless you’re saying he was supposed to go back in time and we exist in a causality loop. In which case- item two: Michelle,” Ted paused in his ticking off to tell her, “sorry to single you out.”
“Oh no, go ahead,” she replied, rather interested in watching someone throw time-speak back in Rip’s face.
“She was supposed to have died like me, but you saved her instead. You, who told Booster that the past couldn’t be changed, went back and changed it.”
Booster turned to give Rip a dark, angry look. “He’s bringing up some good points, here.”
“Item three, Rip, is yourself. You’re supposed to keep an eye on the timeline and make sure no one messes it up. If it were as solid as you say, it wouldn’t be able to change and create completely new timelines to begin with. And if time were predetermined as causality loops would require, then it would be pretty redundant for time to require someone changing the past just so someone else can change it back. So which is it?” Ted leaned forward bluntly, cupping his chin in a palm. “Is it the universe that’s unnecessarily complex or is it this solidified time of yours?”
Everyone was staring at Rip then and even Skeets managed a cold expression. Really, no matter what Rip said then it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Distrust and uncertainty was already sown into the Carter siblings’ minds and getting on Jaime’s bad side wasn’t a good idea.
That only left Rip with the truth. “Alright,” he said, “I wasn’t entirely truthful about the nature of time and the past. It’s complex and it’s not only tricky identifying which parts are solidified in time, but also what consequences your actions will take.”
Booster crossed his arms, glaring darkly. He was not at all above low blows, especially to someone who manipulated him. “So you had me watching Joker cripple Barbra to shock me into not questioning you, is that it?”
Ted gaped. “He what?” He turned furiously onto Rip. “You what?”
“And you didn’t even listen to me then!” Rip shot back, feeling the argument spiraling away from him. “How many times did you let the Joker torture you until you finally understood that some things had to happen? Were it any less a traumatic event, would you ever understand how... how aggravating our job can be because we can’t save everyone? Not even all the people close to us? Do you think I enjoyed watching you fall apart because you couldn’t rescue Ted? I tried to help, alright? I ran every simulation I could think of, I studied all records of the event I had and I couldn’t find one way to save him! Would you rather I let you try rescuing Ted over and over when I knew you’d watch him die every single time?” At some point Rip had gotten to his feet, fists trembling at his side and his throat gone tight. Then, just as abruptly as the emotions came on him, it went out all at once, making him slump back on the crate. The way Rip’s shoulder’s hunched up, how his hands twisted in his lap, for a moment Booster thought he was looking in a mirror. “I couldn’t let you break yourself like that. You don’t know how hard all of this is for me, knowing how much pain you were in, having to be the one to keep bullying you on. I never...” Rip broke off hoarsely, unable to look at anyone. “I didn’t know about the computer. I’m sorry.”
The room descended into silence and Michelle slid off her seat to give Rip a hug. The others looked away, pretending not to notice as he clutched her back, surreptitiously rubbing at his eyes as he did so.
“Perhaps,” Skeets said as diplomatically as only someone like him was capable of being, “we should conclude for now. It will give everyone time to adjust to Ted’s return. I assume, sir, that you would prefer to have a proper meal and bed to sleep in? Non-perishable foods and a cot must be getting tiring by now.” After a pause, he added, “As well as having a properly stocked shower...”
Ted lifted an arm, sniffing at himself. “I don’t smell bad! Much. How would you be able to tell anyway?”
“I am highly advanced technology.”
“That doesn’t explain how you can smell...”
“Unless there are any pressing questions or concerns?” Skeets asked, rotating to look at the humans around him. “Jaime, I know it will be difficult for you to find time to return, but I will keep you updated with the situation on a weekly basis or should anything of note come up.”
“Thanks, Skeets,” the teen said with a grin. “Appreciate it.”
“So it’s okay for Ted to come with us, Rip?” Michelle asked, rubbing lightly at his back as if the man didn’t regularly annoy her or her brother with his orders.
“At the moment,” he said, voice still a little thicker than usual, “I can’t think of a reason why he shouldn’t. I’ll need to talk to someone once we get back to the lab, then I’ll investigate if there are any unnatural ripples in the stream that was caused by Ted’s being here.”
Ted slipped off his crate, clapping his hands together with a happy grin. “Great! So whaddya say, buddy? Team Blue and Gold, ready to shake the world again?”
The grin he got in return was wavering, uncertain and, if Ted could even imagine it was possible, afraid. “Can’t wait,” Booster replied, not looking him in the eye.
~*~*~*~
It was home in the vague, undefined way a time traveler whose family could be anywhere and anywhen could have. A house in an odd state of perpetual emptiness and liveliness. It had been years since Rip had last been there, but it was just as he remembered it since, by the date, he’d left it a few days earlier. Rip stood in the hall just inside the front door and simply stared at the other man within who merely smiled patiently, waiting for the disjointed feelings of time travel to sort themselves out.
The similarities were unmistakable and that was part of the problem. It was difficult to resolve the knowledge that this man before Rip now was neither a stranger nor the one that he’d so recently left behind. Even with hair lightened with age, lines creasing the still handsome face, the glasses and time-tempered smile, it was difficult to not think of him as Booster. But the moment passed and Rip took three long strides to his father who welcomed him back with open arms that held tight and strong as Rip buried his face against a familiar shoulder and sobbed. Michael didn’t say anything, just held his boy and rubbed soothing circles along his back, rocking side to side a bit.
Eventually the tears stopped and Rip’s breathing evened out, but he didn’t let go. It was almost like being a kid again, when it seemed as if his father could solve all his problems and Rip was safe and happy just being with him. Then he thought of Booster and the anger and hurt and distrust and Rip felt his stomach bottom out. Sometimes he really hated time travel.
“Feeling any better?” Michael asked.
“Some,” came the mumbled reply. An affectionate kiss was pressed to Rip’s temple as if he were still a boy and he couldn’t help a comforted little smile that grew in response.
“C’mon,” he pulled Rip to the couch, arm looped about his shoulders, “we’ll order out some food and you can remind me what an ass I was this time.”
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-03-12 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-12 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-12 09:33 pm (UTC)(oh, and you might want to change the 'What a gyp' line...it's considered racist language against gypsies and there've been a few kerfuffles over it in Greater Fandom lately.)
no subject
Date: 2010-03-12 10:01 pm (UTC)I always wondered what older Booster (relative to Rip's personal timeline) is like and what he's doing.
It's nice to see Rip painted in a sympathetic light, rather than the cold, stubborn ass he's portrayed as in the books.
Nice work!
no subject
Date: 2010-03-12 10:40 pm (UTC)(oh, and you might want to change the 'What a gyp' line...it's considered racist language against gypsies
Is it? I did not know that o.o (etymology fail orz) Change as per your suggestion.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-12 10:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-13 12:20 am (UTC)Gyp from gypsy, being gypped is being cheated, if you deal with a gypsy you'll be cheated or robbed...it's not really common usage any more, but why invite the wank?
no subject
Date: 2010-03-13 03:41 am (UTC)Is it? I did not know that o.o (etymology fail orz) Change as per your suggestion.
it's more in character anyway, you just know that Mrs. Reyes has scolded him about using that term one time or another.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-13 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-13 08:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-13 08:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-13 08:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-15 06:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-09 05:40 pm (UTC)