"One day, not one hour more"
Ortega's words had come to put a definitive end to his time with Sada. In the hours while he waited for her to wake up and her wound to heal completely, he had nervously expected Moreau to come marching in at every moment, asking about their missed jumps. While it hadn't happened -yet-, everyone present knew that Sada had to leave as soon as possible. Getting her admitted to the hospital without an ID or any other form of identification had been complicated enough; he was pretty sure that it had only been possible because Ortega had pulled some strings in the background, convincing the doctors to not ask too many questions and pretend to not have seen anything, from having no previous medical records of past treatments or any kind of medical history at all. Treating her had fortunately been their priority.
After a bit, they had allowed the three of them inside. He had kept vigil by the side of her bed -was this the first real bed she had ever slept in? The first and last?-, anxiously watching for any sign of trouble. His paranoia had been in full overdrive: maybe something they used was actually harmful to people of the past. Maybe they were missing some crucial antibody that everyone in his time had instead.
When he had suddenly seen her after she had woken up, he could barely believe his eyes: it was still so surreal for him to see Sada in his time, wearing a hospital gown of all things. He took her in his arms and held her tight, hoping against all reason to never have to let go. But of course, reality was not so kind. Twenty four hours. Twenty four short, precious hours to spend here together with Sada.
He had walked her back to her room almost in a daze, at least until Vega had pretty much pushed him to wait outside as she got changed. And when he had seen her after coming back in... wearing one of Vega's bodysuits and looking almost like she could have been any passerby he could cross while walking down the street... it hurt so much. A part of him had been happy, the other... had just been angry. Why couldn't she...? Why couldn't she simply have been born in the same time period as him?
Twenty four hours.
No time to think about it. It's not like he wouldn't have more than enough time to lament the fact after those twenty four hours...
After finishing all final medical check ups, Turo led her outside: he was so used to being the one following her, walking after her and trying not to embarrass himself by stumbling too much and falling flat on his face that suddenly doing the opposite was particularly strange. It just made him all the more conscious of the situation they were in; she had showed him so much in the months they had spent together and known each other, while he... he only had-
Twenty three hours.
Turo stopped and turned around when he suddenly felt Sada not following him anymore, to find her standing almost paralyzed just outside the hospital entrance. Her eyes were unfocused, staring at the skyscrapers and multitude of people all around her, and her chest was rising and falling quickly. With a little surge of panic, he stopped in front of her.
« Hey » he raised both hands to gently hold her. Was she feeling ill? Maybe the wound hadn't closed up completely? But the doctor had reassured him that she was perfectly okay... then he saw her eyes dart frantically left and right, and suddenly understood. All these people, all this strange sights... she was completely overwhelmed. When the most number of people you had ever seen together in your life barely reached the triple digits, no wonder she had gone in complete shock. The culture shock had to be incredible. Even if traveling so far back had been a surprise to him, he had at least a general idea of how things were at the time. Preconceptions. Stereotypes, even, from the typical representation of the era done in media and pop culture. As wrong as some of them were, he at least had something to refer to. Sada had nothing of the sort, and nothing could have prepared her to suddenly finding herself at the opposite end of human civilization.
He stood in front of her, holding her close so she could focus on him completely, one thing at a time.
He glared at the well-meaning people that had gotten close, knowing that they would just involuntarily make it worse.
« She's fine, just a little overwhelmed, kindly give us some space-» he muttered before going back to focus on her. She slowly resumed breathing, and after a moment, they started walking again. He threw a sideways look at Sada that was following along, almost curled up against him, looking around with little glances. He smiled a bit sadly. She was so brave. Even in a place that may as well be completely alien to her, she was already examining her surroundings one thing at a time.
He headed for a little café; maybe a more enclosed space would be better to get used to things little by little. And... He wanted to have her try some good food for once. Something that she wouldn't really be able to get in her time, and he figured that sweet things were the best choice; people had treasured sugar and honey for most of human history for a good reason, after all. It was a precious source of energy, tasted amazing and made you crave more exactly because it had been so scarce to find for most of civilization.
Turo led her inside, watching as her eyes lit up at the unfamiliar space and kept darting around, trying to take in everything at once.
He was content to simply... Watch her as she tried waffles and even then kept asking questions. He would miss these moments. As Sada was busy finishing the waffles he briefly put his left hand into his lab coat pocket; maybe Ortega had a point in saying he liked to wear it where it had no business being, but it was occasionally... Convenient. The one thing his bodysuit lacked were pockets; because of course, he barely had any necessity for the classic things you would have used them for. Wallet, cards, house keys? All digital now and linked to his ID anyway, all accessible at a swipe of his fingers. Miraidon was almost always out of his Ball, so even that was out. Really the most use he had got out of them had been in the past. But now he touched a little square box in it, debating taking it out as he threw a glance at Sada by his side. No... Better wait.
She was too perceptive. He didn't want to ruin the rest of the day by having her notice what was going on.
Twenty two and a half hours.
---
As soon as they got out of the cafe, he took Sada's hand again and headed for the nearest teleporter. Since last time she had been unconscious, this would be her first time actually seeing one in use, and he tried to think of a way on how to explain what was going to happen to her... but since she had technically already used a time-anchor, it wouldn't be that different if he put it in those terms.
Looking to his side, he saw that she was still walking with her nose in the air, staring incredulously at the moon.
« Are we... really going there? It's not a... joke? One night you said... it's so far away you can't fly there.»
... on second thought, maybe using a teleporter would barely be worth mentioning.
« Only if you fly on a creature. We are using... something more powerful.» he answered with a smile, and could pretty much see the gears in her head start turning as she tried to picture it.
Turo made sure that she was holding on tight as they stepped into the teleporter - since she didn't have an ID, she pretty much couldn't directly interact with most of the technology anyway- and headed for the nearest spaceport where the shuttle would depart from. The fact that he had to waste six precious hours total for the trip pained him, but... there wasn't much he could do about it. He would try to make the most out of them in some way.
He got ready for departure and did the same for Sada, who was too busy examining every inch of their seat to notice some curious stares at her reaction. Her gaze focused on the monitors that appeared over their seat, and once again she tried to touch it to interact with it, her eyes going wide at seeing the little snippets of ads about various facilities on the moon.
« There are... people there?» she whispered, amazed. Turo couldn't help a little chuckle.
« Yes, people live there.» there was a little pause, as he offered his hand for her to hold and use it to interact with the screens.
« ... I lived there.» he confessed after a moment with a little grin, waiting for her reaction. She looked at him with wide eyes, not saying anything.
« When I was a child, for... four warm and four cold seasons. Then I left.» and he didn't exactly like the Moon much after leaving it, for... various reasons.
« How... is it there? Are there different creatures?» she whispered, and he smiled.
« You'll see.» he simply answered. She snuggled up against his chest as the engines quietly started up, idly swiping through promotional images, eyes shining, and he slowly put his chin on her head, wrapping one arm around her to hold her close.
---
They docked exactly three hours later -nineteen hours left-, and he helped her get up and approach the exit.
« This will be... A bit strange. Follow me.» he tried to warn her with a little smile as he jumped out and Sada stared at him in confusion, not really understanding what he meant as she copied him. The girl yelped when the jump made her fly farther than she expected, thrown off by the lower gravity . Even as he wasn't faring that much better, he caught her in midair by the arm and laughed as they landed back on the ground together. She was staring at the ground in total amazement, mouth hanging half open.
« W-what...? H-how...» she tried to jump again, and laughed in delight when she slowly floated back to the ground instead of dropping like normal.
« You... you can fly here?!» she exclaimed, totally fascinated as she tried to copy a couple of passerby and hop forward, dragging him with her. Turo simply followed, smiling.
« Is the Moon... all like this?» she asked, turning back to look at him, eyes shining.
« Yes. Umm... it's called "gravity".» he wondered how to explain it to someone lacking the basics of physics. Not that he was exactly an expert himself, not really his field and all...
« It...changes how heavy something is. Every... "world" has different "gravity"... so on the Moon, things are not so heavy.»
He saw it in her eyes, how they widened as she took in his words and, as usual, her wonderful, bright mind already started racing ahead with all its implications.
« So... "Earth" is one world... where me and you live... and the "Moon" is another... and... you said every star in the sky is like a sun, and every sun has their own worlds... where "gravity" and everything is different...» she took a long, heavy breath.
« There is... so much out there... and you can go to all these worlds?» she whispered, and he had to smile a bit.
« ... no. My people have found three different worlds. The others are far, far away...» she looked astonished at hearing that not even they could go to these far away planets, and looked away for a bit, mulling it over as they walked - more like half hopped, half flotated- their way towards the city center. He wanted to bring her towards a little plaza, where an observation deck was set up, looking out directly on the Moon's surface, with Earth visible right behind it.
Meanwhile, Sada was looking all around, taking in the sights of people who lived here.
The shops, the restaurants, the cramped little apartments, even the Pokémon walking around.
He quietly wondered what she was thinking about: how was that sentence from that ancient sci-fi author? "Any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic."
When everything around you was so removed from your understanding of the world that it may as well be a different reality... what did that feel like?
Was it exciting? Was it scary? Overwhelming?
As soon as they reached the observation deck, Sada gasped and ran up (more like shot forward) to the thick transparent panel that divided the moon base from the cold space outside, almost pressing her face to it.
« The sky is so dark! But it's still day... we didn't fly for long.» she noted, and he had to be impressed with her internal clock not getting messed up.
« The sky is always dark out here. It's... err, difficult to explain.» he noted as he walked up behind her. He pointed at something a bit far away.
« That is Earth. We flew all the way from there.» he said, prompting her to look at it and suddenly become very still. After a couple of long seconds, she simply quietly wrapped her arms around him and put her head on his shoulder.
« It's... it's so small. Is that really... Earth? The whole world?» she whispered, and now she sounded almost... scared. He could understand why. It looked so... lonely in a sense. This blue sphere suspended in a sea of cold black. He had only vague memories of being a toddler and having that single image as his only idea of Earth for the first four years of his life. It was so far away you couldn't even see the various landmasses... just blue and the clouds. Yet down there were entire continents, and civilizations, and hundreds of Pokémons that had risen and fallen out of memory... all in that little blue sphere hanging on the horizon, small enough he could cover it with one hand.
« ... are you afraid? » he asked after a moment with a small frown. Maybe... it had been too much to show her? It was sometimes difficult for him to wrap his mind around it, he couldn't even begin to imagine what it was like for her. Sada shook her head, tingling his neck with her hair.
« No, it's... I don't know the word.» she confessed.
« It's... so small and so big. Together. So many... places, and people, and creatures.... all over there. I... I want to see them. Even more.» she said after a moment. Now her eyes were shining again, and she looked at Earth with so much eagerness and wonder that it just broke his heart.
« You... you will.» Turo whispered and she smiled when he planted a soft kiss on her hair. They stood there for a long while, side by side, looking at Earth, a single moment in time where they would be looking at the same exact planet, the same scenery... and then it was gone.
« ... come. Let's go eat something.» he said eventually, taking her hand and leading her further into the Moon base. There was still so much to show her.
---
By the time the shuttle descended back to Earth, it was evening. After the first hour of flight, Sada had fallen asleep propped up against him, her head on his shoulder, and he tried to move as little as possible to not wake her.
Something so mundane for him, that he even found kind of annoying (he still hated the Moon) would be the experience of a lifetime for her, something she would probably look back on for the rest of her life... he tucked back a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her face, then quietly took a picture of her sleeping, saving it with one gesture to his account. He then stopped, suddenly struck by a thought. Was this why... He would block his account to be accessed in the future? Those couple of months ago during his trip to the future thirty years from now, if he had accidentally opened it and saw a picture of Sada unmistakably in his time... Or even simply noticed that a picture of her existed at all, not a pen sketch he had done in his notebook... He would have freaked out big time.
He let out an exhausted sigh, pinching his nose with his free hand. The wonders of time travel... He looked back down to Sada and smiled softly.
... Just twelve hours left.
As they got down from the shuttle, Sada immediately looked up, and he knew that she was looking for the moon they had just left. And there, for the first time in hours, he saw her smile disappear. Her eyes widened and flicked around.
« Where... Where are the stars...?» she whispered with a trace of fear, huddling close as she followed him. He followed her gaze, taking a moment to notice what she meant.
« There is too much light, so you can't see them.» he explained after a moment. Light pollution was way too high to see the stars in the vicinity of pretty much any major city. Sada frowned, lowering her eyes and seeming to think for a moment, before shaking her head.
« I don't... like it. It feels wrong.» she sounded almost guilty in saying it.
« Why do you need so much light? It's night.»
Turo could see why she would think that, it was probably unnatural to her. He looked back to the towering skyscrapers with their bright lights all around them, trying to think of an appropriate answer as they slowly walked towards a teleporter to get to his apartment.
« Because... We can do more things at night this way.» he tried after a moment. Sada didn't look convinced even as she followed. He noticed that it looked like she was trying to avoid glancing upwards too much, like not seeing the stars made her uncomfortable.
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« Why? Don't you sleep at night?»
Turo gave her a somewhat embarrassed smile.
« Not... Not every night. I sleep when I... can.» his sleep schedule had been an absolute mess even before he started time traveling, but by now after having to get used to landing in different times of the day as when he departed, it couldn't even be called a "schedule" anymore. It was pretty much "sleep when you collapse from exhaustion and that's it".
Sada frowned again, looking equal parts confused and somewhat disappointed.
« So... There is no difference from day to night? It's all the same?» she asked after a moment, and he had to nod after a second.
« That's... Strange.»
When day and night were pretty much the only form of establishing a routine you had, it probably was.
« It's... A different life.» he commented.
As they stepped into a teleporter, holding her close to allow her to use his ID, Turo marveled at how quickly Sada had seemed to adapt to... Everything. She obviously wouldn't know what it was, or how it worked, or how exactly it did something... But those were all questions she could file away for later in her mind, and she knew how to use something in the meantime. She was probably used to thinking in those terms for pretty much everything in her life. And there were so many questions she would never get the occasion to see answered. Could he try to answer all her questions about how the teleporter, and the shuttle, and gravity worked? Yes, he had tried to... But a part of him now wondered if maybe it wasn't a bit... Cruel. To give her just one taste, one brief glimpse of there being so so many things in the world... And then... Taking it all away.
But Sada was... Strong. He believed in her. He knew that she wouldn't think it frustrating. It would just give her an even bigger incentive to... Explore, and experiment, and discover, in her own time.
Maybe she would straight up go and invent the wheel or something equally ludicrous millennia before first traces were found of it, he thought with a little amused huff as they stepped outside the teleporter. Sada raised one eyebrow.
« Why are you laughing?»
« Ah... Nothing.»
She pouted, obviously not believing him.
« You are thinking of something stupid when you do that.» her reply just made him snort again. He would miss this so much. And now that he thought about it... If she got inspired by looking at Winged King, he wouldn't put it past her to figure out the wheel much earlier than when it started becoming common. Turo could already picture her building a little wagon out of wood and attaching a saddle and harness to the dragon to transport supplies.
He was shaken out of his half daydream by the sound of his apartment door opening... And Miraidon barreling towards him to greet him. The Pokémon drew a surprised shout from Sada, who went to push him aside without hesitation... Probably by pure habit by now.
« No, it's fine! He's Miraidon! » Turo hurried to explain, causing both to stop. Sada still with one hand with a death grip on his shoulder, and Miraidon by having skidded to a stop in front of them to study the unknown person.
« Gyaa?»
« Mirai... don...?» Sada was staring at the purple dragon, shocked, and Turo could perfectly imagine what she was thinking about. The weird familiarity of the two Pokémon looking so similar in many ways, yet completely different at the same time was quite jarring.
« This is Miraidon?» she repeated, cautiously moving a step towards it as the purple dragon tasted the air with his tongue before approaching. She wasn't wearing her usual clothes, but maybe there were still traces of Winged King's smell on her?
Turo stroked the Pokémon's neck as the two seemed to examine each other, and the dragon let out one of his low chirps, nuzzling him. Sada slowly moved one hand to copy him, smiling a bit as soon as she touched the dragon's plating.
« The scales are so... Smooth. Just like your clothes. You two look good together!» she laughed and Miraidon growled happily, opening his mouth to lick her.
« Mirai come on, don't do that-» he tried to stop the lizard, but Sada didn't seem to mind, now stroking the Pokémon's rigid antennae and examining them with wide eyes, probably already comparing them to Winged King's feathers.
« He feels... colder than Winged King. And this sound...» she stopped for a moment to lean her ear against the dragon's throat, to better hear the low buzzing sound emanating from his body.
« ... it's like Fluffyhead when he throws thunder. Does he have the same power?» she asked, completely intrigued.
« He does!» he looked between the Pokémon and the girl, smiling a bit. Never would he have imagined to see them stand side by side in front of his apartment. On the spur of the moment, he turned towards the dragon.
« Buddy... how do you feel about giving Sada here a tour of the city?» he proposed. The dragon's happy roar at the prospect of going riding couldn't help but make him grin in excitement. Sada looked at them both, not quite sure of what he had said.
« What...?» she asked.
« Wait here with him. I'm going to get something.» he said, enjoying her little puzzled expression as he disappeared into the apartment.
He should have a spare helmet and riding gear somewhere...
---
Sada had looked puzzled when he had told her to wear the helmet to protect herself.
« But... we ride Winged King without wearing anything.»
Yes, and he had found it a bit terrifying. He had gotten used to it by now, and honestly had gone on his fair share of dumb helmet-less rides in his teenager years, or when they just needed to glide a short distance. But the helmet was also useful for not getting easily identified if he... uh... kind of, sort of broke the law a tad bit by riding Miraidon in his battle form. Which is what they were doing now.
Sada had laughed as the Pokémon had jumped into the air directly from his apartment's balcony, first gliding until they reached the street and then riding briefly until they were out of town. There, it had shifted forms, and now they were blitzing over Mesagoza again as the Pokémon flew at full speed, watching the lights of the city pass under them like a sea of fallen stars. Turo felt Sada's arms wrapped around his waist relax a bit as she leaned against his back, and he wished against all reason for this moment to last forever.
With a sigh trapped by the helmet's visor, he tapped Miraidon's neck with one hand and pointed out a place where he could land. The great, imposing wall of complete black that towered over the northern part of the city and that run around the entire central part of the region of Paldea. The Great Crater of Paldea was visible from almost any point in the region, a reminder of it's long and bloddy history. They landed on the edge of the crater, facing the city and looking at the spectactle of Mesagoza at night. The warm glow of all the city lights, the Academy right underneat them, the University that had been built near that... but as soon as she removed her helmet Sada still looked up, and frowned at the black sky. Compared to what she was used to seeing, it looked almost empty.
Turo smiled a bit sadly.
« ... You don't like it here.» it wasn't a question. He sat down on the cold ground, and Sada followed. Miraidon sat on his haunches a couple of meters behind them, on guard against wild Pokémon from around the crater.
Sada took a moment to answer.
« I... I like all the things your people have built. You... don't have to worry about food. Hunting. The cold. You live with creatures, explore... new worlds. It's... amazing. But... I think you also have... lost something. You... live alone? Only with Miraidon?» she asked, picking up a couple of pebbles and turning them around in her hands, head low.
« You showed me so many things... but I still don't know anything about your people. Vega and... that other man, Ortega... are they part of your family? Your... "tribe"? I don't know.» she asked looking back up at him, and he felt like a small knife had just been twisted in his gut. He... well, of course he couldn't exactly show her around like she had done with him. He would have loved to, to spend more days with her, weeks, months, but... it just couldn't happen. She wasn't even supposed to be here. Vega and Ortega were probably busy covering for him so he didn't completely lose his job. And... he couldn't exactly show up to his old parents's house in Medali and go "This is the woman I love. She's from the Late Paleolithic. Yeah, she's a hunter-gatherer in the Last Ice Age. Cool, huh?"
They... they didn't have enough time.
« Things are... different, here.» he tried to say, and Sada simply nodded. He put his hand into his pocket, touching the little package that had sat in it since he had bought it. Should he... give it to her now? Or... tomorrow morning... not even twelve hours left.
Maybe he should...
« What is that? It's so big...» he jerked in surprise as Sada turned around, pointing at something at his back. He turned... only to find himself staring at the black, featureless abyss that was the inside of the Crater at night.
« That's Area Zero.» he said, voice neutral. « There's nothing there. Only wild Pokémon... um, creatures.» he watched as Sada threw one of the pebbles down the edge, and it was immediately swallowed by the darkness as it rolled down. The sound of it falling down took a bit more to disappear, until it also was gone.
« Can we go there...? » she was already getting up, and he stopped her by putting one hand on her shoulder.
« No... no one can go. In the past... many people went inside. They were convinced there was treasure-»
« What is a treasure?»
Turo hesitated, caught by surprise by the way the conversation was going.
« It's... something... you want. Something... important to you. More than anything in the world. I guess...» he added, confused. Well, for the people of the past he was thinking of, it was probably treasure in a more literal sense, but how could he start to explain gold and riches or whatever to Sada when they didn't even have the concept of money?
« Anyway... many people went inside, many times. They all died. Then, my people finally also went inside the crater, after a lot of time.»
Sada was listening with fascination.
« And what was there...?»
Turo just shrugged.
« Nothing. Nothing special. If there was something special there in the past... some "treasure"... it's not there anymore.»
Sada pouted, disappointed, and he couldn't help but smile a little at her face. She sat back down and put her head on his shoulder.
« If there is nothing there... here. In this time... we can go see in my time.» she proposed after a moment with a smile. He looked down at her, stunned, the smile disappearing from his face.
« Maybe the treasure is there.»
« Area Zero is... very far away from your village.» he murmured trying to dissuade her. Or Kalos in general, actually. The last thing he wanted was to leave her knowing she would depart on some grand journey in her time just to die looking for Area Zero. Maybe the first of the many explorers that had met their end in their quest for the Crater during the ages.
Was that why her spot in the cave painting was empty...? Because she left...? What about the rest of her tribe?
Did Area Zero even exist in her time...? He had no idea.
« ... please don't go there. It's dangerous.» he added, suddenly desperate. Sada looked at him, confused. Of course she was. Everywhere was dangerous in her time, you idiot. But he... needed this. He needed at least this small reassurance.
« ... what...?»
« Please never go there. Promise me. Please.»
She must have felt the sudden desperation in his voice, because she slowly nodded, then turned around to wrap both arms around him, her head now on his rapidly rising and falling chest.
« ... all right. I promise.»
He sighed in relief, copying her in wrapping his arms around her and holding her close, as the hours of the night trickled past.
---
« Mirai, we're leaving. » he said to the dragon, who looked up from his breakfast and bumped his hand with his snout, hissing softly.
It was morning. They had spent the night, or what little was left of it after coming back from their late night trip, at his apartment.
Now his twenty four hours were up. Ortega had already called him at dawn to urge him to get there as fast as possible for a last minute, non-scheduled jump to bring Sada back.
He smiled and stroked the dragon on the nose.
« ... I'll be back in a moment.» he whispered, and let Sada also caress and coddle the dragon for a moment before closing the door of his apartment behind him.
Walking back into the TTDL together with Sada felt like a surreal dream. The first time, he had been way too terrified of her dying to pay much attention to what was happening. He had given her back her usual clothes, which he had washed and kept at his apartment while she was in the hospital. She had looked at him oddly when he had put on only his usual suit and lab coat, and not the clothes she had made for him.
Well, even if she found it strange... it didn't matter now.
The plan was for them to sneak in, pretend that Sada was another researcher here for a short joint collaboration if anybody saw her, and leave as fast as possible.
Ortega would keep Moreau busy in his office with some long winded proposal for his next research project.
Trying to stay calm, he led her from the elevator to the room where the protection serum was kept.
« This is so... you don't die when you jump...?» Sada asked as he shakily nodded, injecting her with the serum before doing it on himself.
They both exited the room... and he stopped, face going white at seeing Moreau turn around the corner, Ortega hot on his heels.
« I- I actually have another idea that could-» his colleague stopped at seeing them both, eyes widening.
« Dr. Turo » Moreau's voice was ice cold as his eyes landed on Sada, who simply held his gaze.
« ... I heard nothing about your new charming colleague here. With who do I have the pleasure to speak, Miss...?» the man turned towards Sada, waiting for an answer. Sada looked... lost, probably confused by his way of speaking.
« Um...» she looked at him, unsure on what to say.
« Your name.» he prompted her again, his eyes examining every inch of her clothes, and Turo realized with a jolt of panic that Moreau was only putting up a polite front.
He knew her name, he had been the only one to actually remember it from his reports.. and of course he would recognize Sada's clothes as authentic. He had probably realized what was going on the instant he had laid eyes on her.
« ...Sada.» she innocently answered - and what else could she do?-
Ortega winced as an icy silence fell between them all for a long moment.
« ... Come to my office, Dr. Turo. As soon as you're finished escorting Miss Sada, of course. » Moreau slowly said with one last polite smile, before walking away.
« ... I'm sorry Turo. He just shot down my proposal before I could even finish, I tried to buy more time but-»
« Don't worry. It's not your fault.» he replied, voice carefully neutral.
He was... he was probably done working here.
« See you later.» he said, taking Sada's - poor confused Sada, who just looked between them with no idea of what had just happened, except that it wasn't good- hand and leading her towards the time machine room.
« Y-yeah. Later.»
The usual routine of confirming Porygon's coordinates was done passively, like he was just an external observer, at least until they stepped inside the time machine. Sada looked completely fascinated, but frowned as she looked at his wrist.
« Umm... the bracelet. I.. don't have one.» she pointed out, and it took him a long moment to answer.
« The bracelet... is only to jump back here.» he said after a moment... and saw in the way her eyes lit up that she understood. Hers was a one way trip after all.
He held her close as the machine spun to life and closed his eyes, opening them back up to the familiar sight of the clearing they had used as a meeting spot all those months.
He would... miss this place, all things considered. He looked at Sada, and didn't miss the way her eyes had started to shine as soon as she had realized that she really was back home, in her time. Turo looked to the sky, and frowned when he saw that it was cloudy. Of course... they had landed the day after Sada had gotten injured, so that pretty much the same amount of time would have passed both for her and the people of her tribe not having seen her. He had decided to not subject her to the strange time travelling problems of coming back the instant you had left.
« Let's... walk a bit.» he proposed. She had become suspiciously silent since Moreau had showed up. Of course she was. She wasn't stupid, she knew something had happened.
They walked in silence, Turo finding himself checking his time-anchor's batteries every couple of steps, watching the percentage climb up until he could go back to his time for the last time. 98%... 99%... 100%.
He stopped, and so did Sada.
« I have to go.» he murmured, and she nodded. He took the little box out from his pocket and opened it up, offering it to Sada.
« I-I... you gave me the necklace. So I... wanted you to have something from me.» he forced the words out one after the other. She opened it up, curious, and her eyes widened when she took out a bright red bracelet made of what looked like polished stone. She slipped it on her left hand, smiling. As he had hoped, it looked good on her. Most importantly, not too out of place.
« This rock... in my time it's called "Scarletite".» from the mythical metal of the past. They had simply been called "star pieces" in other times, and were particularly rare for... obvious reasons.
« It's... it comes from a star, far away.» he forced a little smile when she looked back up at him, stunned into silence.
« Thank you. It's... it's beautiful.» she said eventually. Turo drew a long breath and cupped her face with both hands and slowly, quietly drew her face near, for once not to kiss her but simply to touch her forehead with his.
« ... promise me one last thing.» he whispered closing his eyes, and felt her freeze suddenly under his touch.
« ... don't change. Keep... exploring. And discovering. Stay exactly like you are.» he pleaded as he let her go, and opened his eyes to find Sada trembling slightly, eyes wide.
« ... when are you coming back?» she asked.
There was a long moment of silence. He looked away.
« Romero-» she tried again, with his first name now, the one he had revealed to her one night months ago, and she had never used until now because "why have two names, it's stupid, you are Turo for me".
« ... you are coming back... right?»
He couldn't speak, so he simply shook his head.
Her eyes widened even more, and now she looked like she was also struggling to speak.
« ...w-why...?»
« They are taking my... bracelet. I can never come back here.» he took a couple of steps back, one finger on his time anchor. He had to... he had to just go. There was no easy way to do this. He had to... leave. Leave this place, leave her, once and for all... every second he looked at her tear stricken face was pure torture.
He didn't want this to be his last memory of her.
He turned his back to her to start running away, like their very first meeting.
And then, right as he pressed the button that would bring him back to his time-
-something tugged at his lab coat and jerked him back.
Sada, holding on to his arm, her own eyes widening in horror and understanding when she saw his finger already on the time-anchor.
That split second before he felt the familiar pull of being dragged back through time seemed to last an eternity.
---
Time anchor ID 9537 had departed successfully 3879 seconds ago. As usual, Porygon 568 checked the time machine's operational parameters as they waited for Doctor Romero Turo to jump back. Everything was operating correctly. Connected as they were to the time machine, they felt the familiar tug of a time-anchor returning and prepared to assist in the landing. Familiar. A strange word humans used, they mused. What constituted something as familiar? Definition specified it as a feeling of recognizing something that had happened an X number of times, where X > 1. X seemed to be arbitrary and prone to change from individual to individual. Applying that definition, their working of the time machine day by day was "familiar".
Checking time-anchor's space-time departure coordinates... complete.
Calibrating energy required to the time machine to bring back one human... compl- ERROR.
« Connection lost to time anchor ID 9537.» they said to the empty room, and simultaneously logged it in their system.
Porygon 568 didn't panic. They couldn't.
They simply did what any computer would do, and followed their programming.
« Retracing time-space coordinates of time anchor ID 9537. Executing emergency assisted return jump.» they said, before compiling themself into their purest form and diving inside the time machine. Now completely fused to it, inextricably connected, time presented to them as a flaming multicolored river, they dived inside, searching for the familiar ping of the time anchor.. and there it was, swirling in the depths of the stream. Porygon 568 reached for the device; they tugged and pulled, gently guiding it into the correct direction, up, up, up, slowly and patiently.
Then they felt it again.
That "familiar" something from months ago. A great, brutal pull, a swirling vortex opening up in the time stream, a maelstrom of multiple colors, each color a different time - and then time anchor with ID 9537, belonging to Doctor Romero Turo, was brutally ripped away.
Porygon 568 didn't panic. They couldn't.
They simply did what any computer would do, and tried again.
« Error. Connection lost to time anchor ID 9537. Retrying...»
...
« Error. Connection lost to time anchor ID 9537. Retrying...»
...
« Error. Connection lost to time anchor ID 9537. Retrying...»
...
...
« Error. Connection lost to time anchor ID 9537. Retrying...»
...
...
...
...
---
« ... don't leave...»
Leave...? But he had... he didn't want to, but he had to leave...
« ...ke up. Turo, wake up, please... »
Turo slowly opened his eyes, blinking at the blinding, piercing light that hit them. He was laying on the ground. It was cold, and hard. Someone was holding his left hand, squeezing it. His head felt light. Damp. Something was dribbling from it. He raised his right arm to shield his eyes from the light, and felt that it was strangely light. He blinked again, his eyes slowly focusing on it. The time anchor... was hanging on by a thread.
Shattered.
Panic.
He suddenly remembered. The jump, the feeling of being slowed down, dragged down as he traveled back... then someone else helping. Pulling him along, pulling them both along, and then... what then?
He couldn't remember.
Sada. Where was Sada?
He looked around, and felt a wave of relief hit him as she was right next to him, doing her best to probably break every bone in his left hand by how hard she was squeezing.
« ... m fine.» he managed to mumble and the pressure released a tiny bit.
« Your "bodysuit"... the lights were off... I was so scared you were...» Sada whispered as he hugged her.
« Where...?» he asked, and Sada simply bit her lip and looked away.
Turo slowly took in his surroundings. He looked to the sky and was left puzzled for a couple of long moments, not sure of what he was looking at.
Best way he could describe it was that the light was... dusty. Milky white, it took him a long moment to realize that he was actually looking at clouds. The very air felt heavy, and as he slowly sat up with Sada's help, something like a crystallized snowflake drifted past his eyes even with total absence of wind, reflecting the strange light.
Strangest of all was the towering rock face that covered the horizon, stretching for his entire field of vision. He tried to follow it with his eyes, to see where the cliff ended, and it slowly, slowly dawned on him where they were only when he kept going round and round, and was forced to stumble to his feet to spin completely around, trembling.
The cliff was everywhere. It surrounded them completely, on all sides. He felt his legs give out under him and Sada hold him up as it hit him where they were. There was only place he could think of that would look like that.
« A... Area Zero...»