***Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction based on the show Timeless. I do not own the show Timeless (shout-out to the creators). I only claim my character Eve, her words and actions. I imagine her looking like Daniela Ruah.***
Chapter 1: Pilot
On a regular night I found out the impossible is possible. Time travel does exist. You must be thinking, ‘well, how does she know?’ ‘How is she so sure that this improbable thing is real?’ I know because I went back in time. The story starts on an average night, one that wouldn’t seem anything but ordinary at first glance but soon it would become extraordinary.
Mason Industries, known for making everything from computers to toasters. First commissioned by Connor Mason himself, the Bill Gates of 2017. A service van pulled up outside the gate of one of their warehouses and a tall, dark-haired man punched in a security code. Just as they were rolling inside two security guards stopped them to see some ID. Two gunshots rang through the air and the van continued inside.
A gunshot sounded and everyone inside the building looked towards the sound. Bang, Bang, Bang! People ran, screaming for cover and they were pushed under their desks by very bad men in very ugly blue workman’s overalls. Bang, Bang! The tall man held a gun to an older gentleman’s head and forced him inside a giant, white, metal sphere with two rotating rings around it. The door to the hatch closed and the rings started rotating. Faster and faster and faster until they were moving so fast the sphere just vanished.
Eve’s POV
“Last Call!” I yelled from my place behind the bar. A few grumbles could be heard from the regulars but it was nothing new. Andy, my coworker, was at the sink washing the last of the glasses. Mikey, the bouncer, was directing everyone to the waiting cabs outside. “Everyone get in the back seat safe?” I asked.
“Yep, all the keys are here?” Mikey asked walking in from the front door.
“All here. Think you can be by early tomorrow so the regulars can come get them?”
“Sure thing.”
“Great then I will see you tomorrow, Andy and I can finish up here.”
“How come he gets to go?” Andy whined as he collected the last of the dishes.
I laughed at his pouty face, “because he is coming in early tomorrow. And no I don’t need two of ya here early. That would be a recipe for disaster.”
A sharp knock sounded at the front door. I walked over to see lots of men in tacky suits standing outside. I opened the door and said, “Can I help you?”
“Are you Eve? Eve Grey?” an older gentleman asked.
“That depends on who’s askin’. What can I do for ya?”
“I’m Agent Kondo with Homeland Security. You need to come with us,” he said. The rest of the men stood at attention, all eyes trained on me.
“Hey Andy, you’re right, let’s go home early. I’ll come by tomorrow and finish up,” I said grabbing my coat from behind the bar. “If I’m not back here tomorrow morning at eight am report me missing,” I whispered to Andy. He gave the barest of head nods before grabbing his coat as well.
I got in the backseat of a black, four-door, sedan and they drove off. The windows were tinted too dark for me to see outside but judging by the clock on the dashboard we were driving just under an hour. They pulled up outside a giant warehouse and I was shuffled inside before I could get a good look. They kept shoving me down random hallways until we reached a room. There was a man sleeping in a very uncomfortable looking chair. Moments later we were joined by a female with short brown hair.
“Are you asleep?” the female asked the man.
“No ma’am,” he answered not opening his eyes.
“Oh. Okay, good. This is Connor Mason’s company?”
“Good deduction,” I muttered.
“Well, do you know why we’re here?”
“No. But soldier boy over here has been like that for the past thirty minutes and I am starving-”
The door opened and a middle-aged woman with short dark hair stepped into the room. “Lucy Preston?” She questioned. The younger woman, Lucy, stood up to shake her hand. “Agent Denise Christopher, Homeland Security. You’ve got a hell of a reputation. History, anthropology. You’re world-class.”
“I’m just a teacher. My mother is world-class,” Lucy replied quite bashfully if I do say so myself.
“I’ve read all of her books. I’m sorry to hear she’s sick.” Agent Christopher moved on to the ‘sleeping’ man in the corner. “Master Sergeant Wyatt Logan. Delta Force?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Wyatt answered shaking her hand.
“Boy. Speaking of reputations I’d like you all to meet Eve Grey-”
“I can handle my own intro thanks,” I interrupted. “I’m your basic wild card. I have several degrees all by my twenty-first birthday, I can bartend pretty well, and I kick ass on occasion. So why did you drag us here?” I asked Agent Christopher.
“Follow me.” We walked out of the room and into a different room. This time it was made of all glass, overlooking a giant room with a bunch of computers and an empty space toward the far wall. “Garcia Flynn, ex-NSA asset in Eastern Europe.”
“Ex since when?” Wyatt asked.
“Since he killed his wife and child and went off the grid. That was a year ago. We thought he was holed up in Chechnya, but apparently not.”
“Why’s he taking the Star Tours ride?”
On a TV we were watching security footage of early that night. A tall man with dark brown hair got into a white sphere and seconds after the door closed it vanished. Wyatt and Lucy both gaped in shock while I still wondered what it had to do with us.
“What the hell was that?” Lucy asked.
“Some sort of special effect?” Wyatt asked.
“Do you really think the government would have us here for special effects?” I remarked.
The door opened and closed once more. We were joined by a tall, bald, African American man, Connor Mason. “Ever heard of a closed timelike curve?”
“Wait, you don’t mean…?” I asked thinking that what he was saying was impossible.
“You’re Connor Mason,” Wyatt said with a fangirl smile. “My buddy as one of your cars.”
“Excuse me, a closed timelike what?” Lucy asked.
“May I?” I asked gesturing to a piece of paper.
“Be my guest,” Mr. Mason said moving out of the way.
I grabbed a piece of paper and began my speech. “Okay, so this is the fabric of space-time. Now, if you get a powerful enough gravitational field, you could actually bend it back on itself, creating a kind of loop that would allow you to cross over to an earlier point.”
“An-an earlier point in time, you mean?” Lucy asked.
“Theoretically yes.” I turned towards Mr. Mason. “You built it didn’t you. You actually built a time machine.”
“Yes, Mr. Mason invented a time machine and chose not to tell the government about it until it was stolen by terrorists,” Agent Christopher said.
“Right, ‘cause the federal government never screws up anything and can always keep a secret,” Mr. Mason said.
“You’re asking for our help now.”
“Uh-wait, hold on. This is a joke, right?” Wyatt asked. “I mean, some-some psych test the government came up with?”
“I mean this-this can’t be possible, right?” Lucy said. I could tell that she and Wyatt were freaking out at the possibility of this being real.
“So when do we get to see it?” I asked further shocking everyone in the room. “I mean the one Flynn stole can’t be your prototype so when do we get to see it.”
We walked down a set of stairs to the computer hub as they lowered the time machine to the ground. They called it the ‘Lifeboat’, said they kept incase the Mothership ever needed a rescue. Mason said that the CPUs of the two machines are linked but they only tell us when in time the Mothership is not where.
“Naturally. Only tells you when. Time machine problems,” Wyatt joked.
I let out a loud laugh, “I like you,” I said between my giggles.
Agent Christopher brought over something from the dead shooters pocket, an address in Manchester, New Jersey. Lucy told us that it was the ‘Hindenburg,’ four hours until it crashed. Lucy had another freakout and Mason didn’t help her any by putting more pressure on her to keep history intact.
“There’s room in there for four passengers,” Agent Christopher said bringing my attention back to the matter at hand.
“To do what? Go after him?” Lucy asked.
“Why else would they bring us here?” I quipped. “I’m in, at least it will be one hell of a story when it’s all said and done.”
Lucy stormed out of the building while Wyatt and I went to get changed. An attendant handed me a blue, knee-length skirt with a black blouse and a tweed jacket. I was also given stockings and pinchy shoes. A few minutes later Lucy joined us and she got dressed, then she started to complain about the fabric and the unauthenticity of the whole outfit. We were each given some money and Lucy was given the address of the tavern.
We all climbed into the time machine to find a man already sitting inside. He introduced himself as Rufus, the pilot. Wyatt and Lucy sat across from each other and I sat with my back to the door. Rufus shut the door as we got our seat belts on, all five of them. Lucy asked in they were necessary and Rufus assured that she would need them.
“Might want to hold on,” Rufus warned.
I reached over and grabbed Lucy’s hand and gave her a reassuring look when she glanced at me. The machine started to rock in place and I could tell it was rings spinning around. The rocking turned into slight bouncing turned into jerky movements. Then it stopped.
The door opened and I slowly climbed out.
“Are you okay?” I heard Lucy ask Wyatt. Sure enough, he was a green color.
“You guys should really see this,” I said. Off in the distance, I could see the Hindenburg getting ready to land. Wyatt, Lucy, and Rufus all climbed out and were hunched over looking like they could puke. “If you guys puke I’m leaving you here,” I warned.
Once they felt well enough to walk that is what we did. Thankfully we found an actual rode amongst the sea of trees. “Okay, just one thing that I don’t get,” Wyatt said. Apparently, this time machine works. So why don’t we just go back five minutes before Flynn stormed in and then shoot him in the face?”
“You can’t go back to any time where you already exist, where you might meet a double of yourself,” Rufus explained. “It is bad for the fabric of reality.”
“Define ‘bad’.”
“We tried it once. The pilot came back, but not all of him.”
“What?” Lucy asked.
I heard a motor following us so I turned around to see a bus heading in our direction. I started waving my hand, signaling to pull over and thankfully the driver did. The bus took us to the big city where it dropped us off.
We started our journey to the tavern. On the way, Lucy explained what exactly happened to the Hindenburg. She said that due to a series of turns static electricity build-up and at exactly 7:25 pm the mooring ropes will descend to the ground. The ropes are then soaked due to the rains grounding the plane. A spark then ignites a leaking hydrogen balloon and the plane goes up in flames killing 36 people. Rufus asks why Flynn would come back here and Lucy suggested that Flynn could be trying to make a bad thing worse.
We reached the tavern but Rufus wasn’t exactly welcome, so I decided to wait with him outside while Lucy and Wyatt got the information we needed. They emerged a few minutes later stating that Flynn was working as ground crew at the airfield. Lucy revealed that Kate Drummond, a writer who gave them the tip, would be standing under the Hindenburg as it crashed. Wyatt sounded shocked that Lucy wouldn’t mention anything about her upcoming death.
As soon as we saw the airfield we took off running. I started looking through the crowd to see who didn’t belong, no way did Flynn come alone. Once I finished my sweep I saw Wyatt, Lucy, and Rufus talking to Commander Rosendahl, a decorated commander of the US Navy. Whatever they said must have done the trick because Commander Rosendahl ordered his men to find Flynn.
The aircraft started it’s descent and the ropes were tossed to the ground. Something didn’t feel right. I walked closer to the plane and noticed that the ropes never touched the ground. I looked around for Lucy but I couldn’t see her, then I looked for Wyatt but he was too busy, distracted by Kate Drummond. The plane floated gracefully to the ground and they opened the doors to let the passengers out.
“Um?” Rufus questions. “That’s not supposed to happen, right?”
“No. Definitely not,” I replied. “Guys where’s Lucy?”
I noticed a woman with short dark hair and a white hat heading into a hanger. I motioned to the girl and the three of us took off in her direction. Thankfully it was Lucy. She was being attacked by one of Flynn’s guys. I recognized him from the security footage. Wyatt easily took care of him and got him away from Lucy but he had to shoot him. Not exactly ideal since we had no way to find Flynn.
“You okay?” I asked Lucy. We were looking outside to see the passengers exiting the plane. This was going to monumentally affect the timeline as well as the cosmic order.
“Flynn just saved the ‘Hindenburg.’ So no, I am definitely not okay,” she answered.
We hid in the hanger until it got dark and all the people left. Wyatt asked why it was so bad that the original people survived. Lucy told him that it could affect our present time in ways we can’t even think of.
“How’d Flynn even do it?” Wyatt asked, referencing what happened hours earlier.
“The ropes,” I said.
“I don’t get it.”
“She’s right,” Rufus said backing me up. “I saw crewmen; they didn’t let the ropes touch the wet grass. They wrapped them up.”
“No wet ropes, the ship didn’t ground, no boom,” I said in a morbid voice. “How long have we been here?”
“A few hours why?” Lucy asked.
“No reason.”
Rufus found a walkie talkie in the dead guy’s pocket. He said that he would rewire it to find the matching walkie. So Wyatt gave him the go-ahead. He sat down at a desk, conveniently located in the back of the hanger. Wyatt stood patrol and watched for any unwanted guests. I noticed Lucy and Wyatt arguing over his stupid gun. She was mad that he brought it because it wasn’t historically accurate and he just didn’t seem to care about how much the timeline could change if something happened to it and it stayed in 1937.
“Hey, guys?!” Rufus called out to us. “Turns out I can’t track Flynn. Because this isn’t actually a walkie. At least, not anymore.”
“What do you mean?” I asked looking at the inside of the device.
“Someone soldered the lead wires. And then there’s this thing.” Rufus moved to poke the mystery object but I grabbed his hand before he could.
“Don’t touch that. That is a blasting cap and this is a detonator.”
“For a-a bomb?” Lucy asked scared. “Wait. Kate’s column. Listen. ‘The ‘Hindenburg’ will welcome many luminaries aboard its return trip to Europe for the king’s coronation. John D. Rockefeller Jr., Omar Bradley, Igor Sikorsky…”
“I don’t follow,” Wyatt said confused.
“Rockefeller’s gonna build the United Nations, Bradley’s crucial to planning D-Day, and Sikorsky invented the damn helicopter. Each a critical part of American History,” I said.
“What if that’s why Flynn saved the ‘Hindenburg’?” Lucy questioned. “What if he didn’t want to blow it up on the way in because he wants to blow it up on the way out? If these people die, the-the damage to the timeline it’s-it’s catastrophic-”
“Hands up!” a very deep, very male voice yelled.
We looked over to the door to see the boys in blue joining the party. They cuffed us before tossing us in the back seat of their cars. It was a fairly short drive to the police station. Lucy tried to get them to call the airfield to save the Hindenburg but nobody listened to her.
“Piece of crap old lock,” Wyatt muttered.
“Can you open it?” Lucy asked.
“Oh, yeah. Easy with a hairpin, which I’m guessing you don’t have.”
“No. I don’t. What about you, Eve?”
“Sorry, no can do,” I muttered leaning up against the back wall.
“How soon ‘til the ‘Hindenburg’ leaves?” Wyatt questioned.
Lucy answered as she laid down on the bottom bunk bed, “Just before dawn, so pretty soon.”
“Great, we just rot in here while all those people die. While-”
“Kate dies? Okay. So, what is it about her?”
“Nothing.”
“You know how when a girl says that it’s nothing it’s usually a big something,” I added. “Well, this is a big something. So big it distracted you and I can tell that you’re not easily rattled.”
“Kate reminds me of my wife.”
“I’m sorry to hear she passed.”
“How did you-”
“You have a tan line on your left ring finger but I can tell that you recently took it off. I didn’t guess divorce because your eyes darkened ever so slightly when you said wife, that means that she didn’t leave voluntary. I notice a lot more that people think because they brush me off as weird so they pay no attention.”
“It was my fault that she died. If I could just change that one…”
“We all have things that we regret. And if they never happened how would we grow as a person. It tears you apart to lose someone who you love with all your heart but I can promise that over time it does get easier to go on. I had a daughter. I was working on my second Ph.D. when I got drunk at a stupid frat party. About a week later I went to the hospital and they confirmed that I was pregnant. I was walking home a few months later when a car hit a patch of black ice. I was the only survivor. So I understand having regrets but I also believe in fate. It wasn’t my time to have a baby but one day I will. Besides I was only twenty-one at the time, still have my whole life ahead of me. I’m a genius.”
It was quiet for what felt like hours. I started to pace the cell. My hand started to shake but I just tucked in under my other arm in hopes that no one would see. Wyatt’s eyes seemed to spark ever so slightly, indicating that he had an idea. After whispering to both Lucy and Rufus, Rufus started a very long monologue about the race problem in America. He told the racist guard that he wished that he could see all the great Michaels that were yet to be born, Mike Tyson, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson. By the time he finished his speech, the guard was going to get his friends to beat the shit out of Rufus.
Wyatt told Lucy to take off her modern bra with underwire. She did and he took it out so he could pick the lock. The guards just came back as the lock clicked signaling it was open. Wyatt took on one guard while Rufus got the knight stick and hit the other guard in the back of the head.
“Very impressive,” I told Rufus as I grabbed the keys to lock the guards inside his cell. Wyatt grabbed his gun and we ran out of the building.
We managed to sneak back on to the airfield and inside the ‘Hindenburg.’ Along the way, we ran into Kate but Wyatt was able to convince her to help us instead of turning us in. She directed us to the kitchen. We began our search looking under tables, inside bins, behind the food.
“Found it!” I called out pulling it out from under a serving cart. I set it on a cutting board and went in search of a pair of scissors or a small knife.
“We got to get this off the ship now,” Wyatt said.
“Uh… about that,” Rufus said a quiver in his voice. We looked out the window and sure enough, we were off the ground.
“You’ve defused a bomb before, right?” Lucy asked Wyatt.
“I’ve seen it done,” he answered.
“And you’re about to again, now move,” I said budging him out of the way.
“So now you’re a bomb expert?” Rufus asked.
“No. I have an eidetic memory. Trust me you want me to defuse this bomb because I’ve seen how it was built so I know how to disarm it. I need you two to get this plane on the ground,” I said motioning to Lucy and Rufus, “and I need you two to keep talking. I can’t do this in quiet.”
I turned my attention back to the bomb. Wyatt and Kate talked about where the bomb actually came from. Wyatt made a terrible joke and then we were attacked. Wyatt did an excellent job keeping the guy from attacking me but just as I was about to cut the last wire I was knocked to the ground. I grabbed the closest skillet pan and I whacked the bad guy over the head with it. I cut the last wire with ten seconds to go. The bad guy brought out a gun and he pointed it at Wyatt. Kate managed to get his arm up in the air as the gun fired. I could faintly hear the bullet ricochet before flames engulfed the back half of the ship.
We ran from the kitchen until Wyatt found a window big enough for us to escape in. We jumped out of the plane as the bad guy disappeared in the flames. We were met with screaming people, some on fire, some just covered in soot. There was a little girl just standing in the middle of the field holding her teddy bear. I quickly grabbed her and pulled her away from the fire.
“It’s time we talked,” a deep voice said from behind.
I turned around to come face to face with, “Garcia Flynn. Ex-NSA officer accused of murdering his family. What’s the real story?” I asked.
“What do you know?”
“I know your wife and daughter are dead and I know that you didn’t do it. So tell me who did?”
“Just ask them why they chose you for this mission and ask them who Rittenhouse really is.”
“How do you know that I won’t turn you over to Wyatt?”
“I know everything about you.”
“How?”
He showed me a journal. He opened it up to an entry and I saw my own handwriting reflected back at me. “I didn’t write that.”
“Not yet but you will. And we will do great things together.”
His arm suddenly shot out and wrapped around my shoulders as he pulled me against him. A gun was rested against my temple. “I know for a fact that you’re not gonna shoot,” Flynn said.
I elbowed him in the gut and threw my body weight forward. Bang. Bang. I looked up to see Kate falling down. I rushed to her side. Wyatt took off after Flynn. Lucy and Rufus joined me as Wyatt returned. We all watched as Kate took her last breath. More and more sirens could be heard in the distance so we knew that we had to run. We made it to the ‘Lifeboat’ before jumping back to 2017.
“The ‘Hindenburg’ exploded early morning May the 7th, 1937,” Mason explained. “It was bombed by the Anarchist Black Cross. There were only two casualties. Journalist Kate Drummond and the man whose body was unable to be identified.”
“Okay, so-so to you, this is what’s in the books? This is how it went down?” Wyatt asked.
“Of course.”
“And the anarchist group? Four suspects, who escaped from jail and vanished without a trace?” Lucy asked.
“Yes?”
“That was us,” I admitted. “Flynn originally wanted to blow up the plane on the return trip with several influential men, all critical to history. We stopped but in our reality, the ‘Hindenburg’ blew up May 6th as it was landing. Like it or not, history has changed.”
“Did you see Flynn?” Agent Christopher asked.
“I spoke to him.”
“Really? What did he say?”
“He wanted me to ask you why you chose me, a wild card, to save all of history and he wanted me to ask what Rittenhouse means?”
“I have no idea what he’s talking about.” I gave her the ‘seriously’ look. “I don’t know,” she insisted.
“Rufus, where’s Flynn now?” Mason asked.
Rufus clicked a few keys and said, “Uh, the ‘Lifeboat’s’ CPU says that he’s back in present-day, but who knows where.”
“So we can’t go back to ‘37?” Wyatt asked. “Give it another shot?”
“No. Remember, we can’t double-back to any place where we meet ourselves. There are no do-overs.”
“So what is Flynn after?” Mason asked.
“I have a theory,” Lucy said. “Any anti-government wack-job can get a few barrels of fertilizer and blow up a federal building. It’s not going to really change anything. Our institutions are too established, but in the past, things were a lot more fragile. I… I think Flynn is trying to kill America in the crib. Rewrite history before it’s even written.”
“None of you are to say a word about any of this, under penalty of treason,” Agent Christopher said. “If we need you, we’ll call you.”
Lucy and Rufus put up a fight. Apparently they thought this was a one-time thing. I knew we were doing this until Flynn was dead or arrested. I just ignored them and walked back to the dressing rooms and changed out of the dirty 30’s garb.
I managed to catch Wyatt on the way out. “I know you were asking Rufus about going back to your own timeline to change what happened to your wife. I would give anything to hold my little girl just once but I believe in fate. There is always a reason that things happen like people dying and the ‘Hindenburg’ exploding. Please just be careful. We are messing with something that nobody can fully comprehend.”
“I’ll be alright, ma’am,” Wyatt said with a playful smirk.
“And don’t call me ma’am.” I got into one of the dark SUV’s and they drove me back to the bar. I dug around my pocket for the keys and thankfully found them. I finished doing the dishes before locking back up and driving home.
“Honey, I’m home!” I yelled out to an empty room. A gorgeous cocker spaniel trotted into the room and I reached down to pick her up. “Did you miss me?” I asked Honey. “Let’s get you some food.” I bent over to put her down before getting her a cup of dog food.
I walked over to the fridge to find it full. I didn’t remember going shopping earlier this week. I grabbed a bottle of wine and a glass before making myself some pasta. It didn’t take long and dinner was done. I had moved everything to the living room when the front door opened. I grabbed the nearest heavy object, which happened to be an elephant paperweight. I hid next to the opening between the kitchen and living room and I waited. I raised my arm before I saw Andy’s face.
“God. I could have killed you,” I said setting the paperweight down. “What are you doing here?”
“We live together,” he said in a confused voice.
“What happened to Clara? I thought you two were an item?”
“Who’s Clara?”
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