With all his work finally caught up on, Emmet was free to follow his regular schedule. Jasper, after his morning physiotherapy session joined him after lunch for his lab shift.Emmet wore his white lab coat, white goggles, white mask, and white gloves, all non-disposable to be washed and reused. Jasper didn't wear any of it, just simply perching on his seat in the corner of the room, back straight against the wall. His eyes were narrowed and honed in on the movements of Emmet's hands.The screen behind him lit up with the slides that Emmet placed under the electron microscope. The prepared samples from the day prior showed the buckminsterfullerenes with the antigens placed inside them. The poison had been picked, and the final review of the separate mechanisms and construction of each moving part was due by next week. After, the assembly and the assembly review, testing would formally begin.Emmet was not informed who, but he suspected any prisoners of war and p

It was an otherwise innocuous room where the time machine was kept. It was a small, quiet storage room not too far away from the lab that Emmet and Jasper were previously in. The light inside hadn't been working for months, but Emmet hadn't cared enough to change it. The light from the corridor was more than enough, no matter what Doctor Johnstone liked to say to him. He could always reply that the roof wasn't leaking and that there were no rats. He sometimes wondered what her reaction to Minnie's garage would be, with all its tiny, metal pieces strewn out on the floor, with the only organisational system present was her scratching lines into the floor, creating separate zones for separate projects, with random rocks from outside.Aunt Minnie would either be bouncing off the walls with the opportunity he had been given or would have her hands clamped around Jasper's shoulders to make sure that he wouldn't run away before she had finished interrogating him. He remembered back

"Hey Red_Two, how was your day?" Alice asked, bounding over to sit next to him, with Doctor Johnstone taking his other side.Richard was stood at the oven this time, crouched down staring into the black filtered gold light as multiple rectangle trays spun around inside. Jasper could see why the man wasn't moving his eyes away from the seen, the spinning food inside did look beautiful, and it was quite easy to get lost in the motions of their dance."It was alright," Jasper mumbled out, not wanting to look away from the entrancing food.This was actually quite enjoyable. A mealtime with colourful beanbags behind him, a glowing gold oven, all sorts of technicolour mugs in the most bizarre of patterns. Alice had chosen another neon coloured mug for herself, decorated with birthday balloons with neon coloured smiles plastered all over it, even though Jasper knew that it wasn't her birthday. He may not be sure how birthdays were celebrated in the past, but he was sur

The morning afterwards, Jasper did not get to see Emmet. Doctor Johnstone met him at breakfast, brought him to her office for his physiotherapy, and then back to his room. She did not speak to him as she ferried him back from her office.Her body was relaxed, and was unhurried, as she walked behind him back a few doors down into his room. Before she left him alone, she turned around and asked him," Would you like any books to read?"Jasper froze."Do you have any on… um, uh, colour theory," Jasper managed to get out.That was a perfectly innocent topic.She left the room as soon as that sentence left his mouth, clicking the door closed behind her.Jasper waited in silence, heart pounding. What was going on? Why was she telling him not to leave the room? Was the door going to be locked? What was happening with Emmet? What had happened while he was asleep?Nothing bad happened at breakfast. Emmet was absent, as he always was in e

The whole room flooded with burning, bright light.Jasper sealed his eyes shut away from it, and fell against the shelves, before pushing the crutches back to balance himself, skidding anyway. He whipped his head over to Emmet and saw him, stood above the man in the suit with a giant block covered over with a plastic sheet.What had Jasper done? What had he driven Emmet to do? How had he let this happen?This was his fault.He gulped and pulled himself back up to standing and watched Emmet pant and reach up to pull the time machine down. He ripped off the over and cradled it to his chest.Jasper made his way over and reached out towards the device stroking. His vision blurred and choked down a sob. The surface on the top was scratched all over, while the face remained unchanged, and the exact same, despite its delicacy.It was in Emmet's hands. Emmet, who had just battered a man for him.This was his fault.He had done this. He