Rewriting Time

Chapter 4

Solomon gave his son a short nod. Tobias nodded back and slowly turned the valve wheel that served as the door's lock. There was a sharp click followed by a soft hiss. Tobias pulled the hatch door open and stepped over the threshold. Goosebumps broke out on Sebastian's arms, not entirely due to the colder air wafting from inside, but also because of another attack of deja vu. He could swear that he'd been to this place multiple times before. Even the smell, which was different from the antiseptic odor of the ante-chamber, was as familiar to him as his left pinky. It was comforting. It was calming. It smelled like home, though not the one he had just left.

The subsequent minutes were a blur between flashes of images and what was really there. The room was bigger than he had expected. The walls were of the same material as the room he woke up in. Unlike those, however, this room's walls were populated by monitors of different shapes and sizes. Running alongside or above them where thick, chrome pipes that protected hundreds of cables. He couldn't tell how he knew that, he just did. And right smack in the middle of the room was a contraption that was as strange as it was familiar. It was a silver sphere, with numerous prongs and cables attached to its top. It sat on a circular dais where rows and rows of multi-colored buttons, dials, and blinking lights ran around its entire circumference. It looked like something straight from a sci-fi movie.

This couldn't be a prank, Sebastian. It's too damned elaborate!

Not for a sci-fi movie producer.

And do we know any sci-fi movie producers?

Well...

We don't, so shut up.

"This is The Machine," Solomon said, pulling Sebastian out of his internal soliloquy.

"Does it look familiar?" Tobias said, eyes narrowing at him.

He wanted to say that it did, but he didn't. Part of him was still reluctant to jump aboard the Toledano bandwagon. Instead of replying, Sebastian walked over to the machine and knelt down to inspect the dials on the dais. They weren't really dials, but more like...clocks!

"It took us five years to rebuild it. And even then, we didn't know where or when you ended up in," Solomon said.

"Rebuild it? Why did you have to rebuild...whatever this is?" Sebastian asked as he slowly rose to his feet and turned to Solomon.

"Because it was destroyed when you-"

Before Tobias could finish his sentence, he was pulled away into a corner by his father. Their voices were low, but Sebastian could still hear their conversation. Chalk it up to his strangely overdeveloped sense of hearing.

"Tobias, we're not even sure if Sebastian was the one who activated it," Solomon was saying. There was exasperation in the older man's voice.

"Who then? He's the only one who knew the code!"

"The code was compromised, Tobias. There was a breach, remember?"

"Really? Are you sure about that, Father? We only assumed that there was breach when the machine blew up!"

"We knew that the Institute had already infiltrated us. They sent people to sabotage our projects before. We knew they would try to stop the launch-"

"What if he was the one who sabotaged the launch? We shouldn't have trusted him. We should've stuck with your design!"

"His design was far more sophisticated than mine."

"But yours was working just fine! We didn't have to go forward. We were doing okay with it going to the past. Why did we have to change anything?"

"Elizabeth believed-"

"Don't bring her up, Father! I agreed to help you rebuild this thing on one condition. That we use it to find out who...who killed her," Tobias' voice broke.

Sebastian couldn't pretend not hearing anymore.

"Who's Elizabeth?" he asked.

The reaction to his words was instantaneous and not what he had expected. Tobias growled and ran for him. He moved so fast Sebastian didn't have time to sidestep the hard body that collided into him with such fury. He tasted blood the instant Tobias' fist connected with his mouth. He lifted his arms to protect his face from Tobias' pummeling hands, but the man only moved to his sides, abusing his ribs.

"Don't you dare mention her name! Don't sully her name with your filthy mouth! We should never have taken you in! We never should've trusted you! You're a curse to this family! You killed my sister!"

Sister? Elizabeth was Tobias' sister?

"Enough, Tobias! Enough!" Solomon bellowed. He was trying to pull Tobias away from Sebastian, but the younger man was too heavy for him.

Sebastian jerked his legs in an attempt to dislodge the raging Tobias from his midsection. It wasn't as forceful as he wanted but with Solomon's help, Tobias tumbled to the side, giving Sebastian the opportunity to scramble away from him. Normally, he would be kicking the man senseless by now, yet all he did was sit on his ass and swipe the blood from his throbbing lips.

"What is wrong with you?" he snarled at Tobias who was panting heavily, eyes boring holes into Sebastian's banged up face. "Do you always beat up strangers at whim?"

"Unfortunately for me, you're anything but a stranger."

"I just met you yesterday, man! Are you out of your effing mind?"

Tobias laughed bitterly. "Believe me, Chase. Yesterday wasn't the first time I'd laid eyes on your sorry face. I've known you for years."