Anna waits for her mother to arrive; she anxiously walks around her room with a heart full of worry. As soon as she hears the garage door open she rushes downstairs and goes to the garage, seeing her mother exit the car she hugs her tightly. Mary finds it strange that Anna isn’t at MSAT at this time and asks, “Anna honey, what’s the matter? Why are you hugging me so tightly?”

Anna looks at her and takes a deep breath, “Come inside, I need to show you something.” Anna takes her to her room and turns on the television. Mary reads the headline which says, “Ex- MSAT employee found dead in residence, early medical report suggests a heart attack.” Mary looks at the house and recognizes it, its Mark’s house. Mary closes her eyes and says, “Oh Mark! I’m so sorry for all the things I did to you people!” she breaks down and starts crying.

Anna gives her mother some room and she sits on her bed, after a few moments she goes to her mother and says, “I saw his name mom...I saw the people who died and the people who worked on the project. I just want to ask you one thing mom, was it really worth it? Traveling in time?”

Anna expected her mother to be furious with her but Mary’s reaction to this is quite normal. “No! Anna, it was the biggest mistake of my life. Now you know that your mother is not a saint, she is just as wicked as any other human being.”

“All these years working to give the people comfort and trying to make Hawkesbay a better place and now you know that it was all being done to find some comfort for the lives I had destroyed! Mark was a victim like many others and the worst thing is...your brother...he is on the same road I had been on.”

“I went to meet Mark...he told your brother everything and now Reed is sending teams to other universes and altering events to achieve a delusional dream of something he calls ‘Annexation’ he has altered some universes and has sent a team to P: V01D and I don’t know how to stop him!”

Anna feels the hopelessness and sadness her mother is going through and tries to console her, “Don’t be sad mom, I’ll talk to Reed and I’ll make him stop! This is outrageous and unethical, just why would he do something so evil?”

She looks at Anna and says, “The lust for power Anna, it is something which exists in all of us, some of us have control over it while some let it drive their lives. When I see your brother, I see a man who wants to take control one way or the other, that is how he has always been. He has been a leader...but even leaders turn into tyrants when they are shown a door to unprecedented power.”

“We cannot just go to him with a straight face and ask him to stop. This will only push him to move forward more rapidly...give me a few days and I will figure something out. In the mean time I want you to act normal in front of everyone and keep this a secret between us!” saying this she gets up from the bed and goes to her room leaving Anna in her own thoughts.

Anna feels a burden of some sort, she had always been a positive and confident young girl but now she had doubts and a lot of questions.

Mary enters her room and sees Peter reading a book, he looks at Mary and says, “I saw the news...must be really hard for you.” he sees her red eyes and knows exactly how she is feeling and without any delay he gets up from the bed and puts his book aside.

He hugs her tightly and Mary sobs before finally letting her tears flow again, “Now...now....I got you, it will all be fine...he is in a better place now...you don’t have to be sad!” she listens to him and says, “I ruined his life...how can I forgive myself...he was all alone in the end...and I was to blame and now it has started again and I don’t know how to stop it!”

Peter consoles her and takes her to the sofa. He removes her shoes and orders Chef-20X to make coffee and bring some marshmallows. He sits near her and tries to get her mind off Mark, he talks about the first dates they had and the day he proposed to her.

“I’m really thankful to you Mary! You have given me so much happiness and a wonderful family. I love you so much! Whatever problems you are in...I know you will find a way out” his love and motivation was what she needed to feel a little comfort in this time of crisis.

She dozed off slowly on the sofa holding his hands. He held her in his arms and placed her slowly on the bed. He kissed her right cheek and swiped his hand to the left in air; and the lights turned off.

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Mary opens her eyes and finds herself in a dark room. She looks left and right, it is too dark. She looks in front of her and sees her old workbench, the workbench where she first designed the chronoton enhancer. She takes slow and steady steps towards it and sees her old team members appear in front of her one by one warning her not to do it, not to time travel repeatedly.

She starts getting scared; slowly she closes her eyes and puts her hand on her ears. “Stop it...stop it all of you!” she screams. She hears a shrill noise and opens her eyes, it was all a nightmare, she touches her mobile to get some light and sits on the sofa with 10% room brightness and pours herself some water.

After drinking two glasses of water and taking deep breaths she decides to go back to sleep. Before she could lie down on her bed, her phone buzzes and she sees a message from an unknown number. The message reads, “I know what your son is planning, I know about the nightmare you saw. I am waiting for you at the Ridge-side motel a few kilometers outside Hawkesbay, you HAVE to meet me. I know you will come so grab your beige colored purse and come quickly.”

Mary feels absurd and replies, “Who are you? And how do you know about my nightmare? Is this a prank of some sort?” and within a second a reply comes, “P: V01D, I know how to save it!” reading the first word of the reply her eyes open wide and she gasps. “I’m coming, don’t go anywhere!” she sends a text back and gets up from her bed.

She drives to the motel and texts to the unknown number telling the person that she has arrived. After sending the text she quickly looks at all the doors and finds a door on the second floor open.

The motel shines in bright neon lights and the walls are dirty with random graffiti. She moves upstairs towards the room, and starts feeling nervous. When she stands in front of the door, a man wearing all black clothes with a strange mask covering his face welcomes her. At first she hesitates by looking at him but he says in a robotic voice, “Come on in Mary, you are safe with me. I won’t harm you.”

She replies, “How can I trust you...I mean how do you know about P: V01D?” the man looks at her and says, “You’ll have to take a leap of faith here Mary. You can walk away if you want but it won’t help you a bit. I can tell you everything if you only come inside!”

She takes a deep breath and decides to go inside the room. She looks around the room and it is clean, TOO clean. It seems like the man just moved in and hadn’t really used the room at all. She sits on a chair in the room and looks anxiously at the man. To her surprise the man doesn’t remove his mask and brings her a bar of her favorite chocolate, “Just as you like 60% dark, 40% milk chocolate and hazelnuts.” he says.

Mary gets intrigued by this and says, “Do I know you?” to which he replies, “Not yet but you will soon, here take a look at this video it’s from a future that was averted.”

She plays the video and sees Mark visiting Reed in his office. He tells Reed that Mary knows about Project Annex and is planning on stopping him. Reed gets furious and throws the whisky bottle in his office in frustration. After a few moments he calms down and tells Mark to arrange a meeting with Mary again, to which Mark agrees.

The man then fast forwards the video and plays it on the scene when she goes to meet Mark again. “What does this mean and when did this happen? I don’t recall wearing this dress when meeting Mark.”

The man slowly replies, “It’s from the future...a future that was averted!” Mary is confused and asks, “What future? What are you talking about?” the man points to the video and she plays it again.

Now she goes to meet Mark and he pours her some coffee, after a while someone comes to his door and he opens it. It’s Reed, he comes and sits in front of Mary and starts screaming, “You think you can stop me? I won’t let you...there is too much to gain and too much to lose as well. I will not give up the opportunity to be a God! I am not weak like you mom. I’m sorry mom you’ll have to die!” saying this Reed takes out a device and points it towards her.

Watching this happen before her eyes Mary is in shock. She stops the video and looks at the man, “He has it…the destabilizer? But it was just a blueprint...we never made it...it was too dangerous!” the man nods and says, “Watch the end Mary!”

She resumes the video and within a few seconds after Reed points the device towards her. She starts screaming and falls down to the ground while both Reed and Mark stand in front of her watching her die. Reed looks at Mark and says, “Call an ambulance...she had a stroke and died...that’s what you tell them...alright?” Mark nods and Reed leaves his house.

Mary stops the video and throws her head down, a few tears escape her eyes and she says, “He would even kill his mother to achieve his goals.” The man takes his phone from her and says, “Don’t worry I made sure this never happens. I...I am the one who killed Mark! I am someone not from this universe...I am from a different world...you can say that I have studied your world and I have seen the future many times...I know what will happen and when it will happen. I am the Overseer!”

Mary looks at him in disbelief and says, “So this is what would have happened if you didn’t kill Mark?” the Overseer nods and shows her another video saying, “This is from P: V01D...a team of scientists is working to find events to alter...I want you to stop them...because I will be busy elsewhere...all the players must be on the board!”

Mary doesn’t seem to understand the last part and replies, “How can I travel in time...I am too old…my chronotons are too weak!” He looks at her and says, “Yes...I want you to send Anna...she is your only hope! We must work together to stop Reed!”

At first she denies him and says that she won’t put Anna in danger, but he tells her that he knows what happens in the future. He tells her that willingly or unwillingly it will always be Anna who travels to P: V01D. After minutes of arguing with him, Mary gives up and agrees to send Anna to P: V01D.

The Overseer gives her a different kind of chronoton enhancer, black clothes, a mask and a few gadgets and says, “Tell her to teleport to 6 June 2010, the watch has the location of the 1st scientist. Tell her to look up Issac Wolfe and get into touch with him any way she can. He can help her find the rest of them indirectly, and remember Mary...she has to kill them all...that is the only way...or we risk losing our cover and please don’t tell her or anyone else about me. I’ll introduce myself when necessary!”

Mary nods at his instructions and before leaving the room says, “Do you think we can stop Reed? I mean you...you do know about our future.” the Overseer nods his head and replies, “Yes we will...I know we can!”