Alex winced as she touched her tender jaw, the feeling of his knuckles still lingering on her skin. The blood dripped down from her lip, and she swiped it away with the back of her hand. She felt a chill run through her body as she thought about how close that kick had come to her eye - not any alteration that she was ready for. Her mind repeated the mantra: one black eye at a time.
Alex gazed up at the night sky, filled with stars twinkling like tiny fireflies in the darkness. Blue light blinded her. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in an unfamiliar landscape. momentarily and when she blinked her eyes clear, the sky was different.
The sun was low on the horizon and cast its golden rays over a forest of tall but spindly pine trees. A light breeze rustled their needles, carrying with it the sweet scent of pine and a hint of humidity, but not as humid as sub-tropical New Orleans. The rustle of the pine forest reminded Alex that she had attended a Whispering Pine Lodge in the past.
Lock down any thoughts of the past. I've been Called somewhere. That's what's important.
As the faint murmuring of voices came to her ears, she glided down into a shady copse and followed the sound until she saw them. Children, but not human children: these were humanoid draconic children. Their wings were folded against their backs, gold-tinted hides and warm brown eyes, just like the brothers.
Caleb, stood with his hands on his hips and admonished the other. "Dad's gonna kill you if he finds out you took his cars, Rafe."
Rafe flicked his tongue out at him and revved the motors of one of the radio control cars. "Watch this," he said before it skidded into a frenzy of motion.
Alex watched in awe the car lurched off-course and slammed into the underbrush near her feet. She ducked down reflexively but couldn't seem to break her gaze away.
One of the little draconic children raced over and tugged at the entrapped car with all his strength. When their eyes met in mutual astonishment, Alex knew she was just as intrigued by them as they were by her.
Is this Gabe's child?
Caleb's brown eyes were wide with surprise, and his mouth gaped open in shock. He took a few steps back as he blurted out the flurry of questions. "Who are you? Who beat you up? Does it hurt? Where did you come from? No one is supposed to live around here. I shouldn't talk to strangers."
Alex smiled to show she wasn't a threat and knelt on the ground so she was eye level with him. She softened her voice, "I'm no stranger. I promise you that. Let's start with who I am. My name is Alex and I know your father. He's a friend and teammate of mine."
"Caleb! What's taking you so long?" The question was yelled from the other child walking closer.
"That's my brother Rafe. He's such a pain. Oh great, he broke Dad's car this time. We're gonna get it now," Caleb moaned.
Alex held out her hand. "Maybe I can fix it?"
Reluctantly, he passed the car to her. Alex studied it closely; it was familiar, something from the past. She recognized the model of the car she had bought for Rile what seemed like an eternity ago. Her eyes fell on the axle where a twig was jammed in tightly between two gears; with careful precision she freed it and gently shook the car back to life.
"There. The axle isn't bent, so it should be okay now." Alex handed it back.
The future? Time travel? That makes my head hurt.
"Thanks." He inspected the car.
"Caleb . . . hey!" Rafe stopped a distance away. For a moment, they made eye contact before Rafe turned and sprinted away.
"Rafe, wait! Great, he's gonna get Mom. You better go. Thanks for fixing my Dad's car."
Caleb was wrong. His brother wasn't running for their mom. Rafe went straight for the muscle: he ran to his dad and uncles.
"Dad! There's a strange lady in the woods and she has Caleb!" Rafe shrieked.
Since Alex had no intention of leaving, the brothers caught her easily. Rile tackled her to the ground, face down, before they got a good look at her, or she, at them. With arms like bands of steel, Rile pinned her body to the ground and grabbed her wrists, pulling them tight behind her back.
"Dad, it's okay. She was helping me fix your car. Dad," Caleb said, his voice tiny and desperate as he tugged at his father's pant leg.
Rile looked down at his son, then up at Alex. His voice was cold and unmoving when he spoke to Alex. "Who are you? What do you think you were doing?" Rile asked as he jerked her arm behind her back.
"Uncle Gabe, make him stop!" Caleb tugged on his uncle's pants leg and pointed to Alex who was on the ground. Her gritty face was pressed into the dirt. "She's a nice lady. She was helping me fix this." Caleb showed Gabe the car.
"Rile," Alex said, recognizing her attacker by their voice despite its mild deepening. "Please let me up. We can figure out what's going on, okay?"
There was silence before Rile spoke again. "I asked who you were. How do you know my name? Who are you with?"
Alex winced and said, "Gabe, please talk some sense into him. Don't you recognize me?"
Her skin crawled when there was silence.
Don't they recognize me? Do I not exist here? Where was here? Or when was here? That could make things difficult. And interesting. Like it isn't interesting enough.
"Let her up, Rile. Let's see her face," Gabe said.
Rile lessened his pressure, but not his grip, on Alex's arm so she could stand. Caleb looked at his father and uncles in wonderment as they all stared at Alex. Then he wriggled free of Gabe's embrace and scampered off.
Alex lifted her chin and opened her eyes wide to meet each brother's gaze in turn. She held out an open palm and pleaded, "Don't you know me?"
"What's your name?" Gabe asked, expression unreadable.
"It's Alex... ow!"
"Very funny." Rile twisted her arm behind her back, tightening her grip each time Alex winced in pain. "Now tell us the truth or we'll see how good of a contortionist you can be."
"Cale, don't you remember me? I bought you the mate to that car so you could race them with Rile." Alex said through gritted teeth.
"How did you know about those cars?" Rile replied, eye-ridges knit together in thought.
"Is everything alright?" a gentle, yet somehow imposing voice asked, its owner pulled along by an impatient Rafe.
Alex came face to face with an older version of herself.
Long minutes passed before Rafe broke the silence with an impatient, "Well?"
"She was just helping me fix the car," Caleb said in a small, shaky voice.
The older Alex looked over the group with a raised eyebrow, not needing to say anything before it was clear she meant business. In that maternal sort of way one didn't dare question, she said calmly, "Let her go, Rile. I suspect she could have blasted you a long time ago if she wanted. Honey, I'm sorry for such a rude welcome. Maybe we should all go into the house."
****
In the house, the unreality of it all sank in. She collapsed onto the couch and stared straight ahead, struggling to process the reality that was unfolding before her. Her older self moved around the room with ease, setting down drinks on the coffee table as a perfect hostess.
This is me. An older me. My head hurts even more. Fire truck time travel. I won't even read the sci-fi novels that deal with it.
Rile crossed his arms, his unsympathetic gaze sweeping over Alex's battered form. "What's your story?"
The older Alex placed a comforting hand on her younger translation's shoulder and offered her a gentle smile. "Let her pull herself together. We've all had a bit of a shock."
Caleb peered at Alex curiously. "Mom, why does she look like you?"
Rafe scowled, his fists clenching at his sides. "Who beat her up?"
Alex fought to control her trembling. "I can't believe this. One minute I'm flying back to the shelter and the next I'm thrown here." She paused for a moment, as if speaking to herself.
"What happened?" the older Alex asked.
"I was flying, enjoying the stars, when there was a flash of light. Then I landed here. I thought I was Called."
"I never heard of being Called between times." Rile shook his head and raked Alex with a disapproving gaze.
"Wouldn't I remember if I had traveled forward in time and met myself?" Alex asked, her eyes wide with worry.
Gabe glanced at Cale, one eyebrow raised. "Cale? You're the resident genius and theologian. What do you think?"
Cale shifted his weight from one foot to the other, shoving his hands into his pockets before looking up again. "Who knows? Maybe the strain of meeting yourself erases your memory of it. Maybe since it's just happening now, Alex will remember it like it happened years ago when she wakes up tomorrow."
The younger Alex threw her arms in the air, her face a mask of disbelief. "You're all discussing this so calmly!" The tension in the room was palpable as she wrung her hands together, her knuckles turning white from gripping them so tightly.
Rile pressed his lips into a thin line and drummed his claws on the hilt of his sword. "Maybe she's not from another time or place at all," he said with suspicion. "Maybe she made the whole story up. Maybe she's just some look-a-like bimbo sent by one of our many 'friends' to trap us."
Alex crossed her arms, an edge of sarcasm in her voice. "At least Rile hasn't changed, no matter where or when I am."
"But how did she know about the cars?" Cale asked incredulously. "No one could know about that - it's ancient history and so minor, I had almost forgotten about it."
Alex felt her stomach twist - this was her chance to prove herself, if only they would listen. "I even know about their new engines," she said quickly. "I had to bribe Rile with a faster car engine and then snuck a new one into Cale's so he wouldn't lose the next race."
"That's not quite how it happened, but it is close," the older Alex noted as she settled down next to her younger self on the couch. "Let's review a brief history and sort things out."
"I'm still not convinced she's you from another world or time or whatever," Rile said. He gripped the hilt of his sword and beginning to sharpen its blade with a whetstone.
The Alex-in-question then stepped forward, her hand crackling with energy. The sparks grew larger and brighter until they flew off in a thousand directions, illuminating the room with a magnificent show of electricity. "How many look-alike bimbos off the street can do that?"
Cale was awestruck and he capitulated immediately. "I'm convinced."
"May I see your back?" The younger Alex asked the older. "Please, it's important."
Maybe it will make my head stop hurting from time travel nonsense.
The older woman stared at Alex, assessing the urgency in her eyes. She rose from her seat and turned away from them, lifting the hem of her shirt to reveal a smooth expanse of unblemished skin.
As Alex reached out to touch it, she couldn't help but ask, "Have you ever had plastic surgery?'
"No, dear." The woman pulled her shirt back down and turned around to face them.
"Then that settles it," Alex declared. "If I'm from the past, it certainly isn't yours."
No time travel crap, thank the Portal Guardian.
With that, Alex lifted her own shirt, revealing a raw red burn scar still healing on her back. Rafe whistled in amazement at the intricate dragon-shaped scar.
"It looks like it hurts," Caleb observed with a grimace of sympathy.
"Pain is just weakness leaving the body," Alex responded with a faint smile before dropping her shirt and turning to the woman again. "Morgan did this. Did he exist here?"
The older Alex tapped her chin. "Morgan? Well, yes, but Rile, he executed him a long time ago. He certainly didn't do anything like that to me."
"I'll say," the younger Alex replied. She was in awe of her older counterpart's sense of serenity, how she seemed untouched by any physical or spiritual scars.
Is that what I would have been like if Gabe had killed Morgan when he had the chance?
Rafe blurted out, "Why a dragon?"
Alex answered without thinking, "He said if I wanted a dragon, I could have one for ever."
They cringed at that but Alex didn't notice. Instead she asked. "How did you manage to kill him? Morgan only ever came around when I was alone – somehow he vanished the moment anyone else showed up." Her words echoed wistfully in the air.
The older Alex paused, her voice softening to a whisper as she twined fingers with Rile and he nuzzled her neck. "It was right after I rescued Rile from Josef Hermann's thugs when we first met. Morgan came to the apartment to...well...."
The younger Alex leaned toward her. "I know. Wait a minute. It was Rile you rescued from those thugs from Hermann's lab that first night? It was Gabe in my world."
Gabe sank into his chair, his eye-ridges furrowed in thought. "I almost went out instead of Rile that night."
"You killed Morgan right from the start? You don't fool around." She looked at Rile in wonderment and more than a little respect.
Rile released Alex's hand, bent over his sword, and sharpened it. "It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what he wanted to do. The creep deserved it." Rile sounded more than a little defensive.
"Gabe just beat him up and threw him out," the younger Alex said, her gaze flickering to Gabe.
"Looks like you made a poor choice from the start. Gabe never knew when to take action," Rile said smugly, raising an eye-ridge.
"You conceited—" Gabe started to rise from his chair but was cut off by a stern look from the older Alex. "Not in front of you know who," she said firmly, jerking her head toward the two young boys who were following the exchange with wide eyes.
"This is where we get sent to bed," Rafe said sourly to his brother.
"Caleb, Rafe, why don't you two get ready for bed?" The older Alex commanded them authoritatively; this was not a request but a demand.
"How come we never get to see Dad and Uncle Gabe fight?" Rafe whined as they slowly shuffled down the hallway towards their room.
"What's with the mom and dad bit?" Alex asked after the two had left, arching her eyebrow.
The older Alex blushed deeply, her cheeks brightening and her ears reddening, much to the brothers' amusement.
"How did you get them?" the younger Alex asked, his voice laced with a hint of awe.
This may not be my future, but I'll force this part to come true if at all possible.
"I won a clutch challenge on a foreign world," the older Alex said with satisfaction.
The younger Alex stared at her in awe, as if seeing her for the first time. "You won that?"
"I take it you didn't."
"I could never beat Cla, not even once." Alex ran her hand through her hair and sighed.
"Cla? No, it was Mina."
Alex nodded. "I beat her, too. But I had to face Cla for the clutch challenge. I wasn't successful."
"He slept with her?" Gabe exploded.
"You didn't?" Alex asked, surprised.
Cale clacked his claws in anxiety. "Cla tortured my brother for refusing her."
"Leave it lie," Gabe snapped. "It's in the past."
"We'll discuss this later, alone," the older Alex whispered before resuming her normal tone. "So dear, how is life with Gabe? I imagine it's quite different."
The younger Alex looked down at her lap and clenched her hands tightly in her lap. "Gabe and I aren't together anymore. We have different goals."
The room was filled with a tense silence as Gabe and Rile both stared at her expectantly.
"Different goals?" Rile finally sneered. "What kind of different goals?"
Alex looked up slowly, her shoulders slumped. "Gabe will return home and become clan leader, have a wife, children, grandchildren, and all that. I don't fit into that picture. Maybe if I had won that clutch challenge, things would be different, but I didn't. I'm a loser." She glanced away from them as tears filled her eyes before standing up and walking to the window to stare out into the night.
"The fool," Gabe muttered under his breath.
The older Alex sighed heavily before speaking again. "You are not a loser. I have work in the morning and we all need some sleep. Let me show you to the guest room, dear."
***
A/N
Does time travel make anyone else's head hurt? Writing time travel causes all sorts of problems, even for the great J.K. Rowling, and I try to avoid it.