Loop V
"What did I tell you in the last time loop?" The professor asked Dante and Rhea, as they walked in the Pulsar Labs building again.
"You told us your theory that space and time should not be meddled with, then you said it was the broken record effect. After that, you showed Rhea and I the device you had made just in case something like this happened. Then you warned us about space rips right before the teleporter was turned on. And just to prove I'm not lying I saw three of the books on your shelf in the last time loop. One was Einstein's book on relativity, the middle one the bible, and the third was Euclid's Element's." Dante spoke quickly.
"Good," Professor Amos replied as he put the combination into a safe that was hidden behind a framed artwork named "Another World" by M. C. Escher. He then handed the icosahedron shaped device into Rhea's hands, and looked at the two, "This is going to be harder than it looks. Godspeed."
Dante and Rhea ran outside, about two hundred yards away was the teleporter and the group of scientist that stood round it. On both sides of the stage were several police officers. A few peppered the back of the stage too.
They weren't there before.
"Let's go." Rhea gestured to Dante as they bravely made their way toward the teleporter which was to be turned on in a few minutes. Then suddenly, there was a strange sound that almost sounded like something was ripping right in front of them. A bright light flashed for a second then what literally looked like a hole in space its self, was at a forty-five-degree angle to the ground in midair.
Rhea, alarmed at this, stopped abruptly and grabbed a hold of Dante quickly who she accidentally made trip forward toward the space rip, "Dante!"
Dante instantly backed away from the space rip, and looked at Rhea, "Thank you."
Rhea only nodded, a slight smile played on her lips, "We need to go, we only have one minute."
"Right," replied Dante then they ran towards the teleporter. Just as he threw the device towards the teleporter when it was turning on two police had spotted them and fired.
--
Loop VIII
"What did I tell you in the last time loop?" Professor Amos asked Dante and Rhea, as they swiftly made their way towards Pulsar Labs.
Dante then speedily relayed what the professor had told them previously, and then what happened in the last three time loops.
All unsuccessful.
The professor frowned after hearing this, "You both need to be more careful," he chided, "You two don't have all the time in the world. From what I heard from you, it seems that the space rips are doubling every time; I estimate that space will be too distorted by the sixteenth time loop to even save our world."
As soon as they were in Professor Amos's office he opened the safe behind the M. C. Escher artwork and took out the device, and gave it to Rhea, "Before you go, I am reminded of a latin phrase. Rursus ea, which means, relive it. You two have had the chance to relive an experience, use what you remember from other time loops to succeed. Now go."
Dante and Rhea ran out of the building, they both quickly sidestepped a space rip that appeared in the middle of the hallway to the door leading outside.
"The professor is right," Dante began as they made their way towards the teleporter, "The space rips are the only thing that isn't the exact same in every time loop. But still, they seem to follow a rule, a pattern of sorts maybe."
"Yes, the space rips tend to appear in places where there isn't something within a five to three feet radius. Open spaces are a common place for them to appear." Rhea replied.
Dante paused next to a maple tree and looked at Rhea. In the distance, they could see the back of the teleporter and the stage it was on, "That's the problem, between the back of the teleporter, and the pulsar labs building is a field, an open space. Then if we went in the crowd and stayed there until the teleporter turned on we wouldn't make it to the back in time. The police would see us coming from the side and easily catch us."
Rhea agreed, "Exactly, our only bet is the field behind the teleporter. I noticed that the police pay more attention in front of them than behind them, except when the teleporter is about to be turned on, then they seem to be looking all around more."
"So what do you suggest we do?"
Rhea continued, "This is going to sound crazy of me Dante, but hear me out. The space rips have one thing in common with us humans and that's unpredictability. But we have our human intuition, we can anticipate what's going to happen next. Relying on our intuition and limited knowledge is the only thing we can do now Dante."
"I see," Then Date looked at his watch, "one minute until the teleporter is turned on."
"Now we make our move."
As if on cue, Dante started running with Rhea close behind. He heard a ripping sound and dodged to the left, he kept a tight hold on the device the professor had made. He got a feeling another space rip would appear and moved to the right.
One did.
"Duck!" Dante heard Rhea shout from behind, and he did just as a police officer shoot at the two. Dante was thankful she remembered the police officer from last time.
The world seemed to move in slow motion.
Dante threw the icosahedron into the back of the teleporter as soon as it turned on.
The two watched as time slowed down to a stop, then they both saw time rewind, and play back differently, but before they could see the rest the world went black.
--
"Have you been to Java Junction before?"
Dante looked up from his cup of coffee at Rhea, then he looked back at the waiter, "Is the teleporter turning on today at three o' clock?"
The waiter frowned, "Teleporter? What are you talking about?"
Dante was quiet for a minute before replying, "Nevermind sir, I'll take a refill for seventy-five cents."
He looked at Rhea as she scooted her chair closer to his, they both knew what the professor meant now when he said the universe would fix everything else, "History has been rewritten hasn't it?"
Rhea nodded, "Yes Dante, it has."
