Prologue

The world that was to be

It was a strange irony of fate, he thought, how so many things, over and over again, could feel like a déjà vu without being one. Not in the way that it was a reminder of your subconscious or elevated parts of your being, signaling that just this had happened or was happening in one of the countless universes, but something so eerily similar to what he had done before that it felt like a déjà vu all the stronger.

He had been in this place before. It felt so much the same, yet so utterly different. Back then, he had been grasping another boys hand, one that had been reluctant, frightened, confused and feverish, unlike Michael who was holding his hand calmly this very moment and without struggle. It had been another gate too, this one, too, ruptured into the fabric of the layers that separated the worlds, but for another purpose. Now he was overstepping boundaries again, but this time it was to set things right whereas back then, it had been his original sin. His downfall. Good intention paving the road to hell and the beginning of tearing universes apart to save the life that was dearest to him. "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." He had never been fond of this quote, but it echoed in his head all the more, becoming more and more faint in his mind with every step they took until he left it behind, casting it off like the time they were leaving. 2036.. an invaded world. Left behind as they stepped out of it, like out of a frame. "I am become death…" No, this time he he not become the destroyer. This time, he was the savior. The one that would set it right. The one that would avoid his own fall from grace from happening. Every step they took, every step that took him further away from all he knew and loved…Peter…dear Peter…took him closer to salvation.

He was taking the Child Observer into the future and here, once he had arrived, they would meet future Man, preventing that next step in evolution, preventing the rise of the species that would become the Observers. They would never come to be, he realized as they walked on, the child´s smaller hand reassuring him all the same. Never travel back through time. Never observe… and…he realized with a pang of unjustified self pity…September would never be born. He would not be there to distract Walternate … and without September Peter would survive. His father, undistracted, would find the cure and heal him. Walter himself would see this… and never tear a hole into the worlds…. He had no doubt Peter would still exist in 2015. He had existed beyond all reason before. Erased from time and called back by love. He had no doubt his son would survive another setback of time. "Now I am become death…" No more. No more.

These thoughts fluttered through his mind in mere seconds, the frantic flap of invisible butterfly wings, as if the effect he was causing with his passage was creating an audible, methaphorical echo. But of course that was mere imagination. He had always had a creative mind.

There was light around them, blinding, piercing and he assumed that this was static effect, electric currents and other things that even all his knowledge about physics he had ever studied in his life could not explain. "There are more things between the heavens and the earth…" He only noticed when Michael was turning his face up to him that he had uttered those words aloud. Nobody had ever travelled through a wormhole. At least no normal man. No homo sapien. Apparently light…blinding light like this was what it felt like.

And then it was gone. Switched off as if the world was blinking abruptly back to normal. Nothing else changed. The ground beneath their feed was solid, tarmac he guessed because the imprint on the light did not allow his retina to recover all too quickly. He blinked. Tried to get a first impression of the World that Was To Be. The future. The decisive moment they were here to alter.

They were on a parking lot, and turning around Walter could assess that it was the same place, just a different time. For a moment, as the wormhole closed with a soundless flicker, swiftly and permanently behind them, he found himself blinking at the very spot he had been looking at, giving a last glance over his shoulder before stepping into the tunnel. The very spot he was looking at…it was strange to know that Peter had been standing there a mere moment ago. No,…it was more than 100 years past now, he told himself. He tried to stop his mind from following down that inevitable road…that knowledge that Peter, his boy that he had torn the universes apart for, was dead now. Had died many years past. Hopefully at an old age, surrounded by loved ones, maybe with a smile on his lips after a long, deserved, fulfilled life. A life that had just become a possibility. A life that 2036 had not offered.

He could feel tears well up in his eyes and told himself that right now it was not the time to dig into those thoughts. What kind of scientist was he, if he still treated time like a one-way road? He should know better. Peter was out there, living the life he deserved with the ones he loved and would love. He heaved a sigh. And focused back on the World that Was To Be. A parking lot still it seemed, but the cars looked different. At first glance he would guess that fusion engines were a thing of the past. At least that was something, he thought with a wry smile. He turned slowly, taking in his surroundings. There was a whole new world to explore. He should see that as his reward, but it would be part of his mission of course. To convince. To make Peter´s happiness happen. To prevent the invasion.

A squeeze of his hand pulled him out of his thoughts and he noticed that Michael was still looking at him. When he returned the boy´s glance, for the very first time, Walter Bishoph saw something change in this child´s face. Michael was smiling. It was time to explore…time to meet their fate. Sadly, Walter smiled back, squeezed the boy´s hand a little tighter. "Good then…" he said, his own voice sounding a little shaky. "Let us see if they still make licorice in this place, shall we?"