No Going Back

March 22, 2022

It was a beautiful picnic on a beautiful day. Everything was perfect. The sun was shining but not too bright. The warm breeze of the spring flowing over them, the food tasted perfect, they took pictures and watched the sunset. They made out, they went hiking, they engraved their names on a tree. Evan got a tick bite. Claudia struggled to pick it off of his calf. Then they made out some more, stargazed over his truck’s bed, Then accidentally fell asleep.

When they woke up, they noticed a creepy figure stalking them, from the looks of it he wanted to approach them, but they ignored him, although Evan felt the need to go talk to him or understand why he’s stalking them.

As the couple spent their morning outside, they drove to a fast-food restaurant, got breakfast sandwiches, and went home. He was still standing there when Evan dropped Claudia off at her house, but they didn’t notice him. The figure was still standing there when later that night Evan came to her house again and he heard quarrelling inside.

September 3, 2356

“We were so close to getting him.” The captain yelled at his crew. “How many times do I have to tell you he always takes 3 rights and then a left turn when he’s running, that’s what part of him is programmed to do. Gosh, even my robot is smarter than all of you combined” as a robot—about 6 feet tall, painted in blue and white, square face with round, dark eyes—approaches him with a cup of coffee.

The captain takes his helmet off and takes a sip of the coffee. “You got the creamer right this time. repeat the same sequence when preparing coffee.” Evan tells the robot. 

“Copy that, captain.” The robot replies in a feminine, a bit dark-pitched voice, as it walks away.

“What do we do now, sir?” one of his crewmates, a bulky blonde says as he takes his helmet off.

“For now, just take a breather, we’ll keep scanning for him.” Evan replies.

“But he could be anywhere, or more importantly, anytime.” Another crewmate takes their helmet off, revealing pink in blue hair, the same color as their helmet.

“And that’s why I told you to remember his technique so we don’t get stuck in this cycle like that again: Locate him, fight him, he escapes, repeat.” Evan turns around, looking at the screen. “Just go take a break right now, because the next time we see him, it’s all hands on deck. Dismissed!”

The crew scatters around the ship, everyone goes to either their room, the kitchen, or argue on who uses the bathroom first.

Evan takes a small picture out of his pocket. It’s a picture of Claudia. “I’ll find you.” He says as he looks outside of his cockpit, floating in the middle of the world between an infinity of stars scattered across the universe.

September 6, 2356

The crew were out in Las Vegas’s biggest casino ever, Sinner’s Gamble. It was a party. Barker, one of the crewmates, had already made $5 Million from the game Devil’s Mania. Created in 2200, both players pick a color, either black or red, then they have to call out for a demon in latin, and then the card on the table is flipped. The color revealed indicates the winner and they take the money on the table, it is said that the demon sees potential in the winner it chose to do his bidding, but people take that as a joke, they just take the money won out of it. 

At the bar, Xalloma orders a raven’s cocktail, as someone else interrupts them while they’re ordering, “Can I please have a mojito with the special snake’s venom?” he says.

“Excuse me,” Xalloma exclaims, “You can wait until I’m done.” 

The guy touches their blue and pink afro-styled hair, “I’ll buy you a drink too, sweetheart.”

“I’m not into guys, sorry.” 

“I’m not just any guy.” He smirks at them, touching their shoulder.

Xalloma grabs his wrist that’s on their shoulder and twists his arm, so fast, it makes a cracking noise loud enough to make the people around them pause their conversations and look towards X and the guy. “You’re the reason I’m not into guys like you.” As They dig their knee between his legs. 

The guy quickly melts onto the floor, groaning as he mutters something, probably cursing her out.

Xalloma squats down, “If I see you again you’ll wish you weren’t a guy.” They say as he quickly tries to get up and run away.

Glady, another crew member, runs toward the eye-grabbing scene, “What the heck, X?” she grabs them as they both go somewhere more secluded. 

“What did I tell you about avoiding any attention?” She interrogates them.

“You know how I feel about pervs like him, I couldn’t bear another second breathing the same air as him.” Xalloma complains.

“Ok, we don’t need any more of that irrelevant attention seeking, for the sake of the mission, X” Glady looked “old-fashioned” for someone that lives in the 24th Century. Natural Blonde hair, regular, white crop-tops, her makeup is limited to foundation and eye shadow. Lipstick during big events. She still drinks hot coffee. Only other person who still does that is Evan, which isn’t really from the 24th century.

***

“Sir, we have detected irregular seismic movement in 2105” The robot, Xello, informs the captain.

“Is it him?” Evan asks

“There’s a 71.92% chance it is.” She replies.

“Set a course for Serbia 2105, then, and inform the rest of the crew to come back.”

“Right away, captain.”

As the rest of the crew comes back. Evan briefs them on the details of the mission. And as the ship prepares for launch, the crew buckles up, passes around the cup of Tikeredomium, the element discovered in the 23rd century that counters the side-effects of Promidomium, the element that is released from the time-layers when time-travelling occurs.

January 29, 2105

The timeship flew from the no-time dimension into the air, hovering over Siberia. “Welcome to Siberia 2105, gang.” Blond says.

“Best way to hide our tracks is to land on the mountain over there and take the hoverbikes into the city.” Evan tells them.

“Roger that!” The whole crew says in unity as they put on their helmets: Blond, Barker, Xalloma, Gladys, and Eliette.

As the ship lands, Xello monitors the ship on the mountain as the rest of the crew rides into the 22nd century. The 24th century hoverbikes may look more modern compared to the ones used in the 22nd but it’s not going to raise any suspicions. Evan always wonders how people from his time would think if they saw a hoverbike: No wheels, the bike hovers over the floor using strong heat engines.

The crew visit the source of the seismic activity, down at the southern region of Siberia, which is now a part of China. In the middle of the snow, They come across a huge area of pure destruction. Houses turned into ashes, debris in the air, dark smoke polluting the air, making everyone that comes near cough, bones scattered, and there’s a huge hole in the center of the place.

As everyone coughs for a while while approaching the scene, Barker takes off his helmet, takes out a cigarette and lights it up. “That’s not really the best place to do it?” Eliette says. black hair, rosy cheekbones, gothic makeup.

“Wait, they still have these things?” Blond points at the cigarette, coughing harder.

“Hang on, is this supposed to be here?” Xalloma asks.

“If it was, I would have remembered it from history class” Barker comments.

“No you wouldn’t.” Gladys says.

Evan scratches his beard, “Could this be nuclear?”

Barker hits his cigarette as everyone else waits for the answer. “I dunno, could it?”

“Well tell us.” Evan says, unamused.

Barker hits his cigarette again, as he gets interrupted by X, pulling it out of his mouth “The Geiger counter, stupid.”

“Oh, right.” He lets the smoke out of his mouth as he throws the cigarette away. He pulls out the Geiger counter and scas for radiation. as the finds no signs of radiation. “Nope, we’re clear!” He pushes the glasses up his nose.

Part-relieved, part-worried, Evan approaches the hole dug into the ground, he sees claw prints on the ashes in that hole, claws he would always recognize. “Well, it’s Sphinx alright, we can’t miss him this time.”

“Wait, so why exactly is this seismic activity considered ‘irregular’?” Eliette asks.

“So irregular activity is mostly a result of time travel,” Blond starts, “It’s irregular because it changed the timeline in a way, since it wasn’t going to happen if a time traveler didn’t interfere. Don’t try it at home.”

As Eliette begins to respond, the floor starts shaking, interrupting her. 

“Guys” Gladys says

Evan stands still.

“Guys...” Gladys repeats herself.

“We need to get out of here.” Barker says

“No, he’s finally here.” Evan says.

“I’ve been here” The voice is metallic, you can feel it vibrating through the floor, rushing everywhere. You don’t know where it’s coming from.

“Show yourself!” Evan shouts at the cyborg.

A figure comes out of the ground covered in ash, right from under Baker, punching his jaw as it goes up, flying in the air, as it lands on the ground facing Evan.

Oh no. It's him. They’ve been terrified to face him, they all took a step away from him, but not Evan. He was standing still even though the cyborg was closer to him than anyone else. 

Sphinx was a half-man, half-robot that lost many of his limbs, internal organs, and the bottom part of his spine, as well as the part in his brain that supports vision, the occipital lobe at the back of his head, due to an accident in the lab he worked at in the 32nd century that worked on elements similar to Tikeredomium and Promidomium that is associated with time travel. Fortunately for Sphinx, his boss was a top-world surgeon that reconstructed him with robot technology, prosthetics, even adding a chip in his brain that acts as an alternative to the occipital lobes that programmed vision into him. Unfortunate for Sphinx, and the rest of the world, the time-travel elements were fused onto him, allowing him to travel anytime and anywhere, along with his enhanced strengths from the surgery, he was unstoppable, he didn’t care about the effects of time travel, he’ll go anywhere and wreak havoc as he pleases. That’s how he earned his nickname, the Sphinx. Just like how the Egyptian Sphinx was a hybrid creature, a half-man and a half-lion, so was the cyborg Sphinx.

“Way out of your time zone, Sphinx.” Evan speaks quietly

“I could tell you the same thing.” The Sphinx replies quietly too, with a raspy, metallic voice, and a mask covering his throat and mouth.

“What do you want from 2105?”

“I want to rule the world.” The cyborg raises his hands. “And you’ll all belong to me.” 

This was the first time they had a sincere conversation that didn’t start with a fight. “You think you can rule the world just because you can travel through time?” Evan says.

“If I go back to the right time, I can make everyone there bow to me, and then they’ll continue in all timelines. And I’ll visit all years to ensure I’m still the leader and I’ll be the only leader whom nations still bow down to for hundreds of years.”

“You know you just sound stupid right now, don’t you?” Baker says from behind Evan.

Sphinx shoots a laser bullet at Baker before he could even add the question mark to his sentence. “You missed,” Baker says.

“I know, I won’t next time”. Sphinx respond

Evan quickly takes a sword covered with electricity out of his pocket, launching an attack before Sphinx could focus on him again. Sphinx blocks the attack with his metallic hand as he absorbs the electricity. “I know who you are, Evan.” He tells him as Evan steps back from surprise.

“How do you know?” Evan says, shocked.

“We fought before. But you don’t know it.”

“What, how?” Gladys exclaims from behind.

“I fought you after I killed all your petty friends,” he looks at Eliette through her helmet, “and your pretty ones, too. Your future is my past, Evan.”

“Oh, he knows us alright.” Baker comments at the compliment.

“I won’t fight you again, Evan. You already caused me great harm last time, this time, I’ll end you before your career starts.”

Sphinx vanishes from their eyes. “He’s gone.” X says as they all feel slightly relieved. But Evan feels far away from that now.

Evan pushes the button at his ear, “Xello,” he calls the robot, “look for signs of Sphinx now.”

“Copy that.” Xello responds as Evan gets on the Motorbike. Everyone else follows him.

Back on the ship, Evan sits in the cockpit as Blond joins him. “What’s on your mind, boss?” He says, checking on him.

“I’m worried. He traveled back in time, he could’ve done anything that affected me now.” Evan says, concerned.

“Well, you’re still here, boss.” If he killed you the Domino effect would’ve caught up and removed you from here.

”Well, then he’s about to do something that will stop me from ever being a time traveler.”

“What was the point in your life that changed you, that made you join us?” Blond tries to make him reflect back on any events that formed his decision.

Evan reached into his pocket, taking out the picture of his ex-girlfriend. “Her name was Claudia...” Evan sniffles, “she, uh, was the love of my life back in 2020...”

March 23, 2022

“There’s no way you can go out and party whenever you want with your friends but you won’t let me spend the night with my boys.” I was fed up with her. “You come back drunk and high and I have no idea what you did behind my back, and I had to clean up and take care of your crap!”

“I never said you can’t hangout with your ‘boys,’” She was yelling back, “I just wanted you to cancel your little date with them because I feel sick and I don’t wanna spend the rest of the night alone.”

“Yeah? Well what about last time, hm? Were you also sick when you told me not to go? Or the time before, where I had to leave them for an ‘emergency’ only to come back to find you with your friends, snorting coke, with a guy stripper, in my house.”

“I didn’t want anything to do with him anyways, we were just having fun.”

“Well go have fun with your friends, I’m done with keeping up with you.” I was at my max, I still regret letting myself do it, I’d never laid my hands on her before, but I’ve never felt this angry. I slapped her, the sound of the slap echoing, as she quietly told me to get out of her house. 

I never came back, didn’t text or call. I guess both of us were waiting for the other to make a move, but slowly, I lost hope of getting anything from her. I tried my best to do anything to move on. A couple months later, when I was attacked by a 25th century pirate that traveled through time to rob people, I was saved by Xalloma and Gladys, and welcomed me into their business. I finally felt like I have a purpose, like I can move on from what broke me the most. Eventually I rose up through the ranks and became the squad leader, that was after the old captain was killed by Sphinx, the day we saved you, Blond. 

January 30, 2105

“Have you ever reached out to Claudia again?” Blond asked Evan.

“I tried, but when I came back, she didn’t live in her house anymore, I couldn’t trace her at all, anywhere.” Evan told him

“Well we have technology from eras up to the 40th century, we can use them to find her, boss.”

“Me and Xello have been working on finding her, we never found any records of her DNA anywhere or anytime. I need to fix things with her, Blond, I have to.”

“Just don’t do anything you’ll regret, Evan, don’t change your past no matter what or you’ll mess everything up.” Blond pats his shoulder. “There’s no going back now”

Xello interrupts their conversation, “Captain Evan?” she asks him over the speaker.

“Oh speak of the Devil” Blond says.

“Yes, Xello.” Evan responds

“It appears I’ve located Sphinx’s DNA in 2069. In Wisconsin. It appears I have also located DNA coded XYZ.”

“No you did not,” Evan mutters, “Well, what are you waiting for?”  He shouts at the robot on the speaker.

December 5, 2069

As they land in an abandoned forest near the DNA signatures, Evan takes his hoverbike and rushes through the trees, toward the location. No comments, no orders given. Filled with rage, Evan quickly goes for the kill.

“What’s he doing?” Eliette asks, as if anyone knows.

“He’s going to do something reckless, that’s what he’s doing.” Blond says. “Let’s go, what are y'all waiting for.” Everyone gets on their bike and goes after the DNA signature, they’re not going to arrive in time to save Evan, though.

Evan gets to the house, as he gets inside, he hears Sphinx talking. “He’s on his fantasy time-traveling voyage, he forgot about you… When he gets here I’ll be sure he watches me kill you… ”

His heart racing, his grip on his sword tight and his palms sweaty. Evan walks up the stairs slowly as the metallic shouting gets louder. He follows the source of sound.

“P-please, let me go, I didn’t do anything to you.” A second voice comes out of the room, the sound of an old woman.

Evan, then, speeds up his movement, reaching the room. He stands there, in shock.

It’s her. She looks completely different than she did 50 years ago. Claudia.

Claudia…

“Claudia!” Evan shudders, the sweat dripping from his palms.

Sphinx turns around, “Ah, he’s finally arrived. Took you so long.”

“Don’t you dare touch her!” Evan screams at him.

Sphinx glides his sharp, metallic fingers across Claudia’s stomach, slicing it as she starts bleeding out. “Too late.” He chuckles maniacally, vanishing out of time again, leaving Evan and Claudia alone.

“Claudia,” Evan runs towards her, applying pressure on her waist. “No, no, no.” Claudia doesn’t say a word. “Please,” Evan starts, “I never meant for it to be this way. I’ve always been looking for you. I did all of this time-travel crap to find you. I’m sorry I couldn’t reach out to you earlier, but I’ve tried, me and my robot have worked so hard to find you since you left your house. I didn’t know I made him find you, I’m so sorry. Say something. Please forgive me. I love you.” Evan starts crying, admiring her, her wrinkles, her white hair, holding her one last time.

Claudia reaches her hand to grab his face, running her hand over his beard, it wasn’t there the last time she saw him. “My beautiful boy.” She says as he sobs loudly. “I don’t know how long it has been for you, but even 50 years later I never forgot you. I thought about you every day, I couldn’t bear coming back to you, I thought you hated me.”

“But I love you, always have, always will.” He hugs her dying body.

“Remember that I’ll always love you, my beautiful boy, you're destined for great things with that magical gift of yours. You can finally move on now sweetheart. Because I forgive you.” As she wraps her arms around him, without saying another word, for good. While he’s crying nonstop.

***

Evan leaves her body on the bed as he leaves the house, the rest of the crew were waiting for him outside. “Blond explained everything.” Eliette says, as she runs to hug him. Everyone follows, “He didn’t let us go inside.”

Evan looks at Blond, broken “I couldn’t save her,” he says as he cries. “I have to save her. I need to go back.” He takes his hoverbike, rushing back to the ship as he goes back to the day where it all began.

March 22, 2022

Wearing a helmet and a mask, Evan stalks his past-self in the picnic. He waits for the right moment to interfere with them and stop the upcoming argument and breakup, without revealing himself or messing up time.

As the night passes, he still can’t find the right time. While seeming creepy to them, he was filled with despair on the inside, uncertain.

When past-Evan goes to Claudia’s house, the stalker stands still. He kept waiting and waiting until it was too late. He already started to hear them quarreling as he decides to go interfere. 

But he remembered all the risks. If I change all of this right now, I’ll never be in despair and then never join the time travellers. He thinks to himself. I can’t change what happened. It’s too risky. Evan gets flashbacks of all the successful missions where they took down the worst time criminals, the memories of meeting each one of his crewmates. The memories of being a literal time traveler. There’s no going back now.

He takes the ship back to 2069 to pick up his friends, full of regret, despair, and depression.

December 5, 2069

To the crew, the ship came back the second it left time. But to Evan, it felt like an eternity of hell. “You were right.” He told Blond.

“Hey, It’s okay!” Blond assures him.

“I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t save her.” He sobs in Blond’s arms, as they all come around to hug him.

“She didn’t need saving,” Gladys tells him, “You just needed this to finally move on.”

Their moment was interrupted by Xello in their earpiece announcing: “Sphinx’s DNA signature has been located in 2860.”

“To him, your career started in the future when you become the strongest traveler ever.” Xalloma tells him, “What he tried to do was to change his past, not yours. He wanted to make you weak now so you never take away what he lost from the battle you’ll fight in your future.”

Baker lets go of the hug as he tells the squad, “well, what are you guys waiting for, let’s go catch us a Cyborg!”