The buffeting from her ship's power dive into the atmosphere was unbelievable. Leela pulled up on the stick with all her strength, but the PE ship had more momentum than she'd figured. The leapt up at her, but still the ship's nose barely moved from the vertical. Then, somewhere between 'I can see my house from here' altitude and 'Oh my god we're all going to die' altitude, the air got a purchase on the ship's underbelly, generating lift. The bow came up amidst the groan of overstressed metal.

Leela looked around, trying to get her bearings. The sky was an ominous ash-grey. That was not what she remembered from the last time she'd come back in time. But then again, there hadn't been any asteroid impacts the last time.

A few familiar skyscrapers flew into view. Leela altered course slightly and descended even further. Up ahead and off to port there was a flurry of activity. The cyclops wasn't all that surprised when the computer reported a nav-beacon error a moment later. All the commotion was a horde of brainspawn chasing Leela's past self as she careened between the towers of New New York. Leela Red was here right on schedule.

Leela Blue put her ship down almost to street level, hoping the brains would be too occupied chasing their current prey to bother with her. Unfortunately, Leela Red had a lead on her. Even at top speed there was no way that Leela Blue was going to make it to Planet Express before her.

With one last gut-wrenching maneuver, Leela Red sent her ship rolling sideways through a gap between two close buildings and across the water to Planet Express. It was still intact! That meant Fry was still alive! One of the brains' greenish rays passed close by to port. Leela Red pushed the nose downward and held course for a split second more. Hoping to catch her pursuers off guard, she suddenly threw the engines into reverse, stopping the ship in midair. The brains went streaming by on all sides, not having had time to react. They'd be back soon enough. Leela Red extended the landing gear and cut the engines entirely. The ship dropped the couple of meters to the ground and landed in the middle of an empty street with a jarring thud. Having come to the decision that she didn't want the brains to get their grubby feelers on her time-amajig while she was gone, Leela Red grabbed it and rushed off the bridge. The ship's clock read 5:42.

When Leela Red got to the bottom of her ship's bow stairwell she couldn't help but pause in shock. Things were not as she'd been expecting. From what Nibbler had told her, everything should still have been relatively intact. He had said nothing about giant clouds of ash or slumping, burned out buildings. It looked oddly like New New York had suffered several recent, moderate earthquakes. During her trip through the atmosphere, she'd even seen giant impact craters to the southwest, as though huge bombs had been dropped. Then, bizarrely, Leela Red found herself practically overwhelmed by a sense of deja-vu. She had the sudden notion that, not only had she done this sometime before, but that something terrible was about to happen. The feeling was so strong that the cyclops half stumbled, leaning momentarily on the ship to keep her balance.

"What the heck is wrong with me?" She exclaimed, terrified by the overpowering emotions that were pumping through her. For a full ten seconds she stood like that, completely exposed, while she fought to regain control of herself. At last, her heartbeat finally reaching normal levels again, Leela Red straightened and began to run, pushing thoughts of doom out of her head

It was only a short run to the Planet Express building. God it was good to see it in one piece again. The sound of laser fire from somewhere inside the structure woke Leela Red from her momentary reverie. She stepped forward cautiously, waiting for the automatic door to sense her presence. The door swished open, and Leela Red rolled through the sudden opening. She took shelter for a moment behind an overturned table and waited for any sign that she had been spotted. Sure enough, a single brainspawn came floating boldly into the hall. It stopped a meter or so from her position, as if listening. Leela Red grew impatient; there wasn't enough time for stealth, damnit! She jumped from her hiding place and leveled her pistol at the giant hovering space-nerd. Unbelievably, it started to laugh at her.

Hahaha… Foolish human, did you really think you were hidden from me behind that pitiful piece of furniture? I saw you the moment you entered the building. I also see the time travel device that you are holding behind your back. You will now hand it over to me or I will reduce you to a babbling moron.

Leela Red's eye narrowed. "I don't think so, bub. If you're vision is so good then you also see the laser I have pointed at your squishy head, err, face, err whatever you call that wrinkly mess. Now shut up and tell me, where is Fry?" For some reason she felt like she already knew the answer, but that didn't make sense.

The crazy idiot with the spiky red hair? I killed him. His screams were most amusing.

Somehow, Leela Red knew it was a lie. Her eye narrowed and she fired her weapon, blowing a chunk out of the wall not six inches from the brain. "Now listen very carefully. I am not in the mood for mind games with some giant hackeysack. If you try and lie to me again I swear I'll shoot you full of holes and then beat you until you look like a wad of used chewing gum, understand? Now let's try this again. Where is Fry?"

Now there was some uncertainty in the brainspawn's voice. N-now let's not be hasty. I wasn't serious. I don't even know who you're talking about. Who's Fry? The Mighty One? Never heard of him…

Leela's finger started to depress the trigger. A tiny voice in the back of her head was screaming at her that she was out of time.

Alright, alright! He's barricaded himself in one of the rooms in the tower, but it doesn't matter. The Big Brain just sent word; its got something special planned for him. Just wait a few minutes and Fry will be easy to find. He'll be everywhere! The brain started to laugh hysterically.

It was too much for the PE captain. She screamed and fired, sending the abruptly silent brain plopping to the floor. Panic stricken, Leela ran through the halls without regard to her own safety. Fry was in the tower! She had to get there before it was too late!

A pair of brains spotted Leela as she ran through the building. They gave chase. Leela dodged them until she reached the elevator. Two quick shots from the cover of the closing elevator car dropped one brain, and then the other. There was the sensation of movement as the lift bore her upward. A few moments later the doors swished open again.

The brains floated one after the other through the smashed windows. Fry stood with his back against the iron bulk of the chimney cover, blasting away at whatever had the misfortune to blunder into his sights. The rest of the crew sat in a group at his feet. It was all Fry could do to convince his stupefied friends to keep still while he attempted to save their asses. "What a day this has been." He thought as he dodged a stray shot.

Fry saw the brain that had just tried to, well, fry him. It was still a long way off, coming in over the water. Closing one eye, the delivery boy steadied himself and took aim, slowly depressing the trigger. "Careful… Careful…" he whispered to himself. The brain floated into his crosshairs. "Almost…" The elevator door swished open.

Fry's body whirled around to meet this new threat. His finger squeezed the trigger instinctively as Leela came rushing into the room. A huge crashing noise tore through the room. Fry was knocked off his feet as his laser fired. The beam crossed the small space and buried itself in the hull of Leela Blue's Planet Express Ship, which had smashed its way into the smelloscope room. The brain that Fry had been shooting at was smeared across the bow. Fry and Leela Red stood paralyzed with shock as Leela Blue ejected one of the bridge windows and slid to the floor

Without even glancing at Fry or her other self, Leela Blue ran across the room, grabbed the barrel of antimatter, and heaved it out a hole in the wall. The barrel tumbled the few meters to the ground and exploded with a massive boom, leaving a smoking hole in the pavement 5 meters across. Part of Planet Express's lower wall was scorched, and a few car alarms went off, but the tower remained intact.

"Umm, will someone please tell me what is going on here?" Leela Red pointed a finger in her counterpart's direction. "And who the hell are you?" She demanded.

"I'm you from the future." Leela Blue said. "I'll explain later. Right now we've got to get the hell out of here. More brainspawn will be here any second."

Leela Red nodded. "Alright. If we can get out of the building we can get back to my ship. It's parked over by-"

"Yes, I know where it is." Leela Blue interrupted. "Now come on, we need to get out of here!"

Fry raised his hand. "Umm, Leelas? I don't want to spoil the moment or anything, but wasn't the universe supposed to be kerploding? I mean, I survived and I wasn't supposed to."

The two Leelas stared at Fry, one in confusion and the other in shock.

"How did you know about that?!" they both demanded simultaneously.

Fry's face went scarlet. "Well uhh, ya see, here's the thing. I kinda overheard a little of what the Professor said earlier while you were talking to him- hey Bender, stop that!"

The two Leelas turned to follow Fry's gaze. Bender was standing by the remains of the smelloscope, trying to light the wrong end of a cigar. The robot was covered in something brown; something brown that was dripping from the banged up Planet Express Ship that was wedged in the roof. Leela Red realized what was happening a split second before her counterpart did.

"Bender, no! You're covered in darkmatter oil!" Leela Red launched herself across the room and tackled Bender in midair, just as the bending robot managed to get a spark.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. While flammable vapors gracefully saturated the air, the flame slowly lit the tip of Bender's cigar. Leela Blue pulled out the time device and wrenched the knob around, having no time for such trivia as how far back she should go. Bender's cigar, saturated with highly volatile dark matter, ignited like a torch. Leela Red's tackle sent her and the robot sprawling to the floor. Leela Blue whirled, snagged Fry by the jacket, and snapped on the time-device. Fed by the vapors in the air, the flame from Bender's cigar roiled through the air as though it were alive. Then the world exploded.

Leela gasped involuntarily. Time travel was worse without the spaceship. Much worse. A final, abysmal fall into nowhere and a sudden stop signaled that the rollercoaster ride was over. Leela allowed herself to open her eye. She was still in the smelloscope room, but there were several major differences. First, there were no gaping holes in the walls. Second, and most obvious, there was no intergalactic spaceship stuck in the roof. Next to her, someone let out a loud whoop.

"Alright!" exclaimed Fry. "Let's do that again!"

Leela hurriedly clamped a hand over the delivery boy's mouth before he could say anything more.

"Shhh!" She hissed. "I don't know what time the machine sent us back to yet. We can't let anyone know we're here yet!"

Fry wilted under his Captain's glare. "S-Sorry Leela." He whispered.

Leela's face softened. Now that the adrenaline was draining away it was hard to be angry. After all, she'd just saved Fry's life, and spacetime hadn't ripped itself to shreds. Both of those were definite plusses.

A distant, ominous boom rolled through the building. Fry and Leela made their way to the window that pointed in the direction that the sound came from. Leela frowned at the sight that met her eye. The sky was ashen grey.

"Aww, that can't be good." Fry said.

Several of the nearby buildings had cracks running through them, and some of the skyscrapers across the water were burning. A pale yellow light lit the sky in the direction that the recent noise, almost certainly an asteroid impact, had come from. A few minutes later a moderate earthquake shook the building. Luckily the PE building was so overbuilt that there was no damage.

Leela finally looked at the display over the time device. The holographic screen read 'Destination Reached. Total travel time –28 minutes'.

Apparently Leela hadn't instructed the device to send them as far back in time as she'd thought. It didn't matter though. There was enough time to keep Bender from accidentally blowing up the tower if she moved fast.

She turned to face Fry. The delivery boy was watching her, apparently waiting for her to take charge. "Ok Fry, what do we have to do in order to keep that other version of yourself from ever coming into this room?"

"Uhh… " Fry thought for a moment. He was having trouble wrapping his head around the idea that another version of himself was somewhere in the building with him. It was making his brain hurt. Finally he began to speak. "Well… My plan was to get everyone out of the building and into the sewers. I thought we might be safer there."

Leela nodded her head. It was probably what she would have done, which, now that she thought about it, was a little unnerving. Either Fry was showing unusual clarity of thought, or she was starting to lose her mind.

Fry continued, slightly more confident after reading the approval in his friend's face. "We got out of the lounge and downstairs, but there were too many brains. We had to retreat back upstairs, but there were lots of brains there too. The only thing we could do was come up here."

Leela frowned, and Fry, having misunderstood her facial expression, began to apologize. "I know. I know. It was dumb idea, but I didn't know what else to do! There were too many bad guys to fight and there was nowhere else to go. The elevator to the basement is on the other side of the building and there's no exit from there…"

Leela shook her head. "No no no, I'm sorry Fry. You did the right thing. I was just trying to figure out what we should do- Hey, wait. Did you just say there were lots of brains in the lobby? That's weird. When I was just there, there was only one brain around." A little alarm bell started to go off in the back of Leela's mind.

"Yeah, there were like a kazillion of them. They must've left before you got here."

"Yeah. I guess…" Silently she added "But then where did they all go, and why did they clear out so fast?" Something didn't feel right.

"But anyway" Fry was saying, "we could go help that other me. We've both got lasers. The three of us might be able to zap enough brains to make it to the sewers. Plus you've got that time-jiggy so we could always come back and do it again if we screw up."

Leela shook her head sadly. "Sorry Fry, but the time machine won't be working again for a long while. We barely had enough power to get it working when we used it just now. If we screw up again we probably won't be able to go back in time far enough to do anything about it. This is my- I mean our- last chance."

Fry took a moment to let that sink in. "Oh. Damn. Well, at least we can still go help that other me."

Leela frowned, but nodded. "Yeah, we can probably hold off the bad guys long enough to make it underground." She agreed. "We can go take shelter with the mutants like you were planning to do." Although she was careful to keep any hint of it out of her voice, she knew full well that this would only act to buy them a little time. The Brains would still come for them, in the end.

The two of them made their way to the elevator, a bit more confident now that they had a plan. Leela pressed the call button. It didn't light up.

"What the hell?!" She exclaimed. "Why isn't this thing working?"

As an answer, the elevator doors began to glow a soft green. Fry gulped and the two of them took a few steps back. The elevator doors opened, but instead of an empty elevator car, a gigantic brain was floating in the elevator shaft. Leela whipped out her pistol and fired off a volley of shots, but the laser bolts ricocheted off the bluish energy field that surrounded the brain. In response, the brain just laughed and floated into the room.

Foolish human. Your primitive weapons are no threat to me. Two tendrils of blue energy sprang out of the brain's underside and wrapped themselves around the humans' weapons. The pistols were ripped from their grasps and went sailing into the open elevator shaft. The brain laughed again.

I command the brainspawn that are laying siege to your world. Though you fought very well this time, I am afraid that not even your knowledge of the future will save your world from its fate

Leela's eye went wide. The brain's words had hit her like an asteroid impact. She glared. "How do you know about that?!" She yelled. "Why is it that everyone seems to know about that?!"

Even though it was impossible, Leela was certain that the brain sneered at her. You fool. Did you never wonder why our stupefaction fields affected everyone else on Earth, but you somehow always managed to avoid them? Did you think yourself that elusive?

Leela blinked once. Actually, that's exactly what she had thought.

Or how about the time you were crashed on that ice moon? The Brain continued. Was it not strange that you were left completely alone?

"W-What?" Leela managed to stutter.

While you were unconscious on that moon I scanned your thoughts and learned of your trip through time. I also learned that, were I to attack Earth, I would surely win, because in the future you visited it had already happened. I quickly gathered my forces and launched an attack. I thank you for accidentally bringing me that message.

Fry chose that moment to break into the brain's monologue. "So you attacked Earth because Leela's thoughts told you that you couldn't lose?"

Correct.

"But why did you let Leela get away after she crashed, and why didn't your make-people-stupid rays work on her?"

It was necessary. When I scanned Leela's mind after the crash I learned that she was carrying the time device that my people created. We have long known that using the device was extremely dangerous, much too dangerous to ever be risked.

"Then why didn't you destroy it?" Fry asked.

Because we are giant brains. That device that Leela is planning to hit me across the frontal lobes with- Realizing she'd been caught, Leela lowered the device. It had been a stupid idea anyway. -represents twenty-five thousand years of research. We cannot destroy it. But because we could not bring ourselves to destroy it, we always ran the risk that someone else would try and use it. That is why we guard it so heavily.

"But why did you let Leela go?" Fry asked again.

I am getting to that. The brain snapped, irritated. We could not use the device because, if a mistake was made, the entire universe could be destroyed. The very existence of the universe was put in jeopardy when that foolish Nibblonian allowed Leela to use the device.

Fry spoke up. "But I thought you brains wanted to destroy the universe. I mean, you already tried to do it once."

We only wished to destroy the universe after we had gathered every piece of information that existed. In this manner, we would have been able to learn everything that there was to know. When the infosphere was destroyed, all of our data containing all of the knowledge we had gathered was destroyed with it. We cannot allow the universe to be destroyed now while there is information that we no longer have. Killing Leela would have fixed the problem of course, since she would not have had a chance to change the past, but logic told me to leave her alive until I was certain that she did not have some additional part to play. So I let her go. I allowed her to escape and told my soldiers to leave her alive, shooting at her enough to keep her from becoming suspicious. It seems I was correct. Had I killed Leela, you would never have died in that explosion and I would not have won the war.

"But he didn't die in the explosion." Leela growled. "Not this last time. And now that the past has been changed and it doesn't look like the universe is going to explode after all, you aren't going to win. We will stop you."

Indeed. I had not considered the possibility that you would somehow survive and come back in time to try again. It was only when I realized that the second ship that my forces chased through my star system was another version of you that I realized you had to be dealt with more severely. That is why I changed tactics and decided to drop asteroids on your world. Since I knew about the explosive barrel in this building from your memories, I was certain that I could take care of Fry. You were more difficult. I was hoping the asteroids would provoke you into a foolish move against me, but you remained elusive. You have proven to be most annoying. Even more annoying, you should have created a paradox that cannot be undone when you saved The Fabled One. Only two possibilities exist as to why we are all still alive. Either you will still find some way to defeat me and fix things on your own, or I will kill you both in the near future and solve the paradox myself. Since you no longer have the time device…

Another bluish energy field shot out from the brain's underside and ripped the time device from Leela's grasp. The time device flew over the brain and followed her laser pistol down the elevator shaft. A light came on in Leela's head.

As I was saying, since you no longer have the time device, it is unlikely that you will be defeating me, leaving us with only one option. Is there anything you would like to say before I scramble your brains and scatter your atoms throughout the city?

Leela looked at Fry out of the corner of her eye. She knew one way out of this, but it depended upon him. Somehow she had to tell him what to do without letting the brain know what she was up to. If the brain got wind of her plan it would surely stupefy or even shoot her on the spot.

"Wait." She said slowly. "I think we're missing something here." She put as much emphasis as she possibly could on the word 'think'.

Fry turned to her. "What are we missing?"

"Well, you know Fry. Don't you think something is missing?" Not for the first time, Leela wished that she could wink.

"Uhh, no?"

The brain cut Leela off before she could say anything else. "You forget that I can feel your attempts to think, Leela. Though I admire your attempt to remind The Fabled One about our weakness, it was a foolish move. Obviously you have come up with some sort of plan. Hold still while I read your pitiful little mind. A greenish blob of energy lashed out from the brain and surrounded Leela. Her eyes immediately glazed over.

Fry lunged at the brain and began beating at the bluish energy field that protected it. "Stop that! Let her go!" The brain laughed again, obviously enjoying its mastery of the situation. Fry backed away, realizing he wasn't doing any damage. He forced himself to think for a moment. "What did the brain mean by 'telling me about their weakness'? What was Leela trying to tell me?"

Suddenly the brain cried out. It began to squirm in midair. Stop that! It yelled, obviously in pain.

"Wait a minute... Thinking hurts them!" Fry realized as the brain moaned and sank to the florr. "I remember that from the other time the brains invaded the Earth! I wonder how I can use that? Man, what was Leela trying to tell me?"

The brain screamed and the field surrounding Leela dissipated. Suddenly she could think again. Wasting no time, Leela rolled jumped over the agonized brainspawn and hit the elevator call button. This time the button lit. By the time the elevator had reached the smelloscope room, Leela had grabbed Fry and hauled him across the room. The brain was just starting to recover when the elevator closed behind them.

The elevator doors opened onto the first floor of the Planet Express building. Fry bolted, heading for the lobby. Right before he got to the door he realized that Leela wasn't following him. He threw on the brakes and turned his body back toward the elevator. Leela was walking leisurely in his direction.

"Leela, what are you doing? Come on!" He gestured for her to hurry.

Leela shook her head. "No Fry. We're not running away this time. I've got a plan. It came to me when that big brain threw the time device down the elevator shaft. There's no time to explain, just keep the big brain occupied when he shows up. I just hope we're in the right place…" Without another word, Leela turned her back to the delivery boy and faced the elevator they had just left.

"B-But…" Fry stammered. He glanced over his shoulder at the door to the exit. Leela didn't budge. Fry started to speak a couple of times, but when nothing intelligible came out, he gave up and walked to Leela's side. He shook his head. "Leela, remind me later to tell you you're completely nuts."

Leela turned to him and smiled without humor. "If this works, you won't ever need to."

"Yeah? Well if this doesn't work I won't ever be able to. Because we'll both be dead."

Leela's smile vanished and she turned back toward the elevator. The wait was not long. There was a terrific shriek of ripping metal. The elevator doors crashed outward. The big brain hovered into the hallway.

I underestimated you two. It said. But it does not matter. Even though I did not have enough time to uncover your plan while I was reading your thoughts, you will not escape me again. I have locked the other Fry and your coworkers in the hallway above us. They will be taken care of momentarily. But now it is your time to die. The brain reared up and began to glow a soft yellow, the color of the brains' deadly psychic rays.

"Fry!" Leela yelled, jamming the delivery boy in the ribs with her elbow.

"Huh? Oh right." Fry began to think. The brain faltered.

No. It said. You- will not- defeat me again.

To Fry's horror, Leela started to walk up to the shuddering pink lump. "Leela what-" He began.

Leela spoke without turning to face the delivery boy. "Just trust me Fry, I know what I'm doing. I think." She addressed the brain, which was writhing in agony a meter or so above the floor. "Now listen to me you jerk." She put her hands on her hips. "I've gone through a lot in the last few days. I've been frozen, I've gone back in time so many times that I should probably be getting frequent flyer miles, and I've watched my best friends get blown to shreds. Twice. I'm tired, I'm sore, and I'm an emotional wreck. Now is not a good time to piss me off! But you just had to come along and do it anyway. Well not anymore. I'm done. See, you screwed up just now. I know a way out of this." She looked at her wristamajig and grinned evilly. "I'm going home, and there's not a damned thing that you can do to stop me."

There was a bright flash. Fry blinked. A small, perfectly round hole had appeared in the ceiling. A small object appeared in the hole and began to fall. Leela grabbed the time device and laughed triumphantly.

"Right on cue!" She exclaimed. "See, there's a part of my story that you apparently don't know. When the Planet Express Building exploded the first time, I was buried in the rubble. When I woke up I tried to activate the time device but I accidentally dropped it. It hit something when it fell and went back in time without me. I happened to notice the time that was displayed on it right before it vanished and I blacked out again. When you threw my time device down the elevator shaft just now I realized I could get another one if I stood in just the right place at just the right time. Oh, and don't worry. This one had a lot more time to charge than the one you just destroyed did. I'll be able to go back in time as far as I need to."

The brain struggled to speak. It- It does not matter. I w- I will stop you again. You can't win.

Leela waved the device at the brain. "Wrong-o, hackeysack! I've learned my lesson. Every time I come back here you get in the way. If I come back here again Fry will just end up dead, and I'll do it all over. Again. I'll be reliving this day for the rest of my life. So I've been thinking, how do I break the cycle? How do I stop this day from happening again? Well, I finally figured it out. To make sure this doesn't happen again I'll just have to make sure it never happened in the first place." Leela began to adjust the time device's control knob. "Sorry Mr. Brain," Leela said triumphantly, "but you lose."

Leela started to press the button to activate the device, but she hesitated. "Oh, what the hell," she said, coming to a decision. She backed up a few steps and turned to Fry. "Fry, I've wanted to do this for a long time." Then she did something Fry would never have expected in a million years. She leaned over and kissed him, hard. For a moment Fry was certain that she was going to suck the lungs right out of his chest. The delivery boy's eyes went wide; he was so shocked he didn't even return the kiss. Leela backed away and smiled at him. "Sorry Fry." She said sadly. "But that never happened." She activated the time device.

Part 6

Leela was livid. Damn Hermes and his bureaucracy. She'd been flying the company ship for years now and it was still flying. Sure, there'd been a few mishaps involving city billboards, but that was small stuff. There was no reason to send her off to do some bogus driving exam, mandated by the government or otherwise.

"I mean, it's not like Hermes hasn't ignored the rules before." She grumbled. "He just fills out one of those 'ignore the rules' forms or whatever, and the problem just goes away."

Leela reached her hovercar. Shifting her purse to her left shoulder she reached down and pressed her thumb against a small sensor on the door. The car beeped and unlocked itself. Leela climbed in. She was just about to put the key in the ignition when something caught her eye. There was a folded piece of paper sitting in the seat next to her.

"That's weird." She said aloud. She picked up the paper and unfolded it, mentally crossing her fingers that it wasn't another letter from Fry expressing his true feelings.

It did turn out to be a letter, but it wasn't in Fry's messy chicken scratch. Actually, it looked like it was her handwriting, but that didn't make sense. She hadn't left a letter there.

Curious, Leela began to read:

Dear Leela:

Look in your glove compartment. There's something in there that might help out with the driving test. It's a little present from the future. But be careful. It takes a long time to recharge and it can really screw things up if you let it. Trust me, I know. Only use it to pass the test; then put it and this note where and when you found them. And just so you don't think this is some kind of joke: Once back when you were at the orphanarium you got so mad at Warden Vogel for cancelling Double Soup Tuesday that you switched his coffee with Andarian mammary juice. You know you never told anyone that. Good luck with the test. You won't need it.

Sincerely

You

P.S.: Be nicer to Fry. You owe him one.

Leela stared at the note, not sure what to think. It couldn't be a joke. She had never told anyone about her childish revenge on the warden, the very memory of which made her shudder. The poor man had been ill for weeks. But, since no one else knew about the prank, then that meant… Leela opened her glove box. A small pistol-like device tumbled out into her hands. She regarded it for a moment, looked around her, and tucked it into her purse. Shaking her head, Leela put the key in the hovercar's ignition and pulled out of her parking spot.

Across the street, the author of the note was watching the retreating hovercar over the top of her newspaper. When the vehicle disappeared around the corner, Leela dropped the newspaper on the bench she was sitting on, stood up, and stretched. She wondered idly what would happen when her past self managed to pass the test. Once the other Leela sent the time device into the past, she, the Leela on the bench, would find herself cut off from history entirely. "Will I feel myself fade out of existence?" She wondered. It didn't matter. The universe was safe. She'd done her job.

Leela walked into the Planet Express Building just as Fry was landing the Planet Express Ship. She stood at the railing on the hangar's second floor and waved at him. The delivery boy waved back from the ship's bridge. A moment later the engine noise died away and Fry came trotting down the ship's staircase. By the time he had made it to the conference room, he was out of breath.

"So, how did the test go?" He asked between gasps. "It didn't take you very long."

Leela smiled at him and patted a bulge in her purse with her left hand. "It went fine." She said. "And you're right, it didn't take me very long. Only four tries."

"Four tries?" Fry asked, cocking his head. "You were only gone a few hours. You had enough time to take the test four times?"

"A few hours huh?" Leela smiled mysteriously. "Funny. It seemed to me like I had all the time in the world."

The End