A Stable Loop In Time

Chapter 6

Somewhere in Gondwanaland, in the Cretaceous Period…

A herd of Brontosauruses, walking across a wide, grassy plain to get to the un-grazed trees on the other side. Then…

SNAP. FLASH. Humans.

“Xan, you gotta help me out here with Alan!” Destiny desperately pleaded.

Xan crouched over Alan and thought hard. “Okay… Let me see, his lips are turning blue and he’s twitching like crazy…”

“I know that!” Destiny yelled.

“Yes, but that means that he’s probably in the clonic stage of the seizure, which means it’s almost over. He’s going to be okay, Destiny. Calm down.”

Destiny snapped. “HOW CAN I CALM DOWN?” She screamed. “MY… FRIEND IS HAVING A SEIZURE, THERE’S A PSYCHO CREEPY DUDE CHASING US, AND TO TOP IT ALL OF, I’M IN DINOSAUR TIM-“

Xan threw his arms around Destiny, putting her into a comforting hug.

“T-times…” Destiny trailed off. She closed her eyes, panted a few times, and buried her head into Xan’s shoulder and cried. Just cried for a few minutes.

“It’s all right, Destiny,” Xan comforted. “It’s all going to be okay. Just let it out. Alan will most likely wake up in a little while. He might be a little loopy at first, but he’ll be okay after that.”

“O-okay,” Destiny managed to say.

After a few minutes, Destiny calmed down enough to wipe the tears from her eyes. “Okay… It’s okay…” She muttered. “Hey… Xan. What is that short for, anyway?”

“Alexander.”

“Alexander… Is it okay if I call you that? Alexander instead of just Xan, I mean,” Destiny asked. “It suits you better, I think.”

Xan laughed a little, and Destiny felt his sides shake. “Nobody’s really called me Alexander for years, but sure you can.” He let go of Destiny, and though she felt like hugging some more, she didn’t protest.

“Okay…  Alexander,” Destiny asked, sniffling a little bit, but smiling faintly. “I was wondering… How did get us out of that situation without having the time machine at first? That was awesome, but I didn’t understand how…”

“Ah, but I did have the time machine,” Xan/Alexander said with an all-knowing smile on his face.

Destiny pushed him lightly and smiled. “Come on, man. Be serious.”

“I am, really! I had the time machine, just not at that moment. I had it in the future. You see, I just waited until one of my other selves threw the time machine to me, and then I went back in time to right before the man went to pick up the time machine, and I hid in the forest. I jumped him, and then after we had all left, I went back in time again-“

“-And hid in the forest again the same way,” Destiny completed, smiling and understanding.

“Yeah, you got it! And then after I repeated that like a dozen times, which created all of those clones, I traveled back over to you guys and time-traveled us out of there.” Xan folded his arms and smirked in mock victoriousness.

“That was really brave,” Destiny said admiringly. “I mean, taking on an ultra-strong mystery guy who wants to kill us? That was pure awesome.” She noticed a white flower next to them, and she picked it. “Here, have this flower. It’s probably one of the first flowers ever.”

The two of them laughed, and Xan put the flower in his shirt pocket.

“Yeah, I guess that was awesome,” Xan admitted. “But you know, I was thinking, and I don’t think he’s trying to kill-“

“Hey, what’s happening?” Alan said woozily as he sat up. “WhatdidImiss? Duh…”

“Alan! You’re awake!” Destiny remarked happily, and she hugged him.

“Or, ignore me, that’s cool too…” Xan mumbled.

“Yesh… I am awake… But my tongue hurts…”  Alan slurred.

“You probably bit it during your seizure,” Xan explained. “Remember that other time you seized up? You could barely talk right because your tongue was so bruised.”

“Wait, Alan has had a seizure before?” Destiny asked.

“How did you think I knew all about seizures? I told him not to watch that episode of Pokémon…” Xan shrugged.

“Wait? I had a sheizure?” Alan asked incredulously, his eyelids fluttering a little bit.

“Yeah, dude. You basically overdosed on oxygen back in the Carboniferous period,” Destiny explained. “I was so worried…”

“Wait… We really are on an epic adventhure in time… That washn’t a dream?” Alan asked.

“Nope, afraid not,” Destiny answered. And look, we finally get to see the dinosaurs…”

Xan, or Alexander if you prefer, stood up and sort of tuned the two of them out. Not that he was mad at them, he just needed time to think.

He watched the Brontosauruses make their slow march across the plains as the warm wind blew. He didn’t really want to get closer to them, not because he was afraid they’d eat them, but because he was afraid they’d crush him accidentally. He thought about how difficult their journey had been, and how much they might lose if one of them were to be lost in the past, or killed.

“Hey, guys,” Xan started to turn around to address his friends. “I’m thinking maybe we should just go back to 2020 now. The cloaked guy will probably follow us, but then we can just give him the time machine, and he’ll leave us alone! Sounds good?”

But to his surprise, Alan and Destiny were nowhere to be found. Even Destiny’s backpack was gone.

“Um, guys?” Xan asked frantically. He whirled around, but all he saw was plants and dinosaurs. “This isn’t funny if this is some kind of joke, you hear me?”

No answer.

“GUYS!” He yelled. “WHERE ARE YOU? ALAN VENUS? DESTINY ROSE? WHERE ARE YO-“

The cloaked man put his hand over Xan’s mouth and they teleported together.