Come Back to Me

34

"You realize what you're asking, don't you?" Roy asked, rubbing his fingers over his eyes. "Please tell me you're joking right now."

Vanessa shook her head. "I'm serious."

Roy turned to look at his partner, the confusion apparent on both their faces.

"She literally went back to save him and now she's wanting to go back and undo it? Tell me I'm hearing this right!"

Spencer sighed and shook his head. "No, you're hearing it right, but I don't think that's really what she wants to have happen. Vanessa, tell us exactly what caused you to be sent back. From everything I've heard and seen it seems like you never intended to come back."

She huffed out a breath. "It's so stupid. I had been talking to Euro...I mean Øystein, about marrying Pelle in Transylvania like he always wanted. It was supposed to be a secret and Pelle had overheard some of the conversation and took it to mean that I was having a secret affair with Øystein. None of us could get him to listen, he went to stay with his family, we went to try and talk to him, and now here we are. I don't think he meant to send me back, tensions were high and so many things were said."

Roy shook his head. "So because of a miscommunication your plan was ruined?"

"Pretty much. So to put it bluntly, no, I don't want to undo everything, but I don't want him suffering. I don't know what else to do. That whole conversation went horribly wrong. Øystein had talked about how he never got a chance to marry his girlfriend and that I shouldn't keep it a secret and then..."

"What happened with his girlfriend?" Spencer cut her off.

"She died when someone lost control of their car. Øystein said he had been knocked out for a week and she had passed while he was unconscious."

"Interesting. Now, how long between her death and Pelle joining Mayhem?"

Vanessa thought for a moment, trying to recall a conversation where Euronymous may have mentioned it.

"I think around four years," she finally said. "I remember him saying she died in '84. Why?"

Leaning back in his seat, Spencer looked at her with a small smirk. "This is going to go against everything that's in place right now, but it might be your best chance. If it's only a four-year gap, you could go back and save this girl instead. Think about it. You save her, the two of them can happily continue their relationship, you insert yourself into the friend group, and when Pelle finally comes around, you'll be right there. There won't be any room for him to doubt what you're talking about, and you'll have already established trust in the group."

"Woah, woah, woah!" Roy cut in. "Are you serious right now? We can't go against the ban it'll end both our careers and who knows what else."

"It could in theory be done. Only one small detail in the original timeline would be changed, not counting the prevention of Pelle and Øystein's death, but it would be small enough to still keep things similar enough to the original timeline. If anything, it would be like entering a new timeline, but creating an effect that people still remember the original event."

"A Mandela effect."

"Exactly."

"Wait, those are created by doing things like this?" The shock in Vanessa's voice apparent.

Spencer shook his head. "Not always, but there are quite a few that have been products of this sort of thing. Like I said, small, but annoying to those who remember it."

"What about my family?"

"Let me see if I can word this simply so you have a better understanding. I'd say no confusion but there's always going to be at least a little bit. When the version of you now goes back to save this girl, that will make a new timeline, one that will run parallel to the original timeline where she died. Then it will blend together once the past version of you leaves. You will still be born, everything that's happened will still be remembered by the people affected. Does any of that make sense?"

Vanessa sat there silently, taking in everything Spencer had just said. She would have been lying if she said her head wasn't throbbing just thinking about it. Still, it sounded like it made enough sense to work things out.

Do I tell Pelle?

No.

If she tried to talk to him about it now there was a greater chance of him thinking she was leaving him for good or sending him back to die. She couldn't risk another misunderstanding.

"It does," she finally managed. "What about the age gap? If I'm going back as I am now, that puts me as the oldest in the relationship and comes off a little strange to put it mildly. Some people would get the wrong impression."

"I think in this case there aren't a lot of options. You can't exactly go back to yourself before you originally left."

Roy turned his head. "What if someone else told her to go to the alternate date? Think about it, if she was the only one in her apartment that day, there wouldn't be anything stopping someone from going over there or even calling her to explain the situation. The goals she's trying to achieve would still happen."

"In theory, yes, but we don't know if explaining it to her would get the message across fully. At least if she establishes trust early on in the group it makes it easier for him to open up to her. And they don't have to just automatically jump into a relationship this time, she can become his friend until he's ready for that next step."

"I can see her point through, people will talk about how odd it is."

"I'm not saying you're wrong, but there's a difference between how you're thinking about it and doing it for the sake of someone's life. Surely that means something. Besides, I didn't see too many people talking when they went public with their relationship now. This sort of thing has been done for so long that unless it's something drastic, people don't tend to ask too many questions. Most of the lines have been blurred with some obvious exceptions. I think this course of action is her best chance without really messing up the timelines. With this path, they can merge almost seamlessly. Isn't that what we want in these cases?"

"I don't know. I just find it..."

"I know how you find it, believe me, but we need to look at the bigger picture. And at least doing things this way we have a chance of doing it the right way. We can set all the documentation up for her, supply what she's going to need, and even provide the resources to get her into a job no problem. She's already said she had a job at a local store, we can get her back in there no problem."

Vanessa looked over at the two, confusion written across her face. "What do you mean you can supply me with documents?"

Roy rolled his eyes. "Had you come to us before we could have gone through essentially what is an orientation. When people go through to another time, we have certain resources that can be useful in the time period they are traveling to. Things like passports, social security and birth certificates."

"In some cases even currency to make the transition a bit smoother," Spencer added. "Like I said before, we have protocols in place for things like this."

Vanessa could feel her face warming from embarrassment. "Oh. I thought...I mean I didn't..."

Roy cocked an eyebrow at her. "A lot more to it than you thought?"

She only nodded in response.

Spencer couldn't help but laugh.

"When can you send me back?"

"Well," started Roy. "It would be best to go through the orientation with you first, get the documents in order. After that, we can do it immediately."

"What about the ban? Won't somebody know what's going on?"

"Let us worry about that. In the meantime, go and pack, talk to who you need, and get ready. You're leaving in two days."