Chapter Text
Lucy had been out for a while now. She had told Wyatt that she would be back in one hour, but that hour had passed and he started to worry. He tried reaching her, but she was not answering. He began pacing, trying to calm himself. Wyatt needed to see her. There was too much unspoken between them. He felt trapped in a blur, between his grief for his fiancée and what he seemed to feel for Lucy without really understanding what it was. He was sure of one thing: they needed to talk. So, where the hell was she?
At that moment, Rufus came back from the hospital. Seeing Wyatt, he went straight to him.
“Hey man!” Rufus’s face lit up when he saw his teammate.
“Rufus, thank God you’re here,” Wyatt exhaled.
“Yes, sorry man, I was with Jiya at the hospital,” he explained.
“How is she?”
“Fine, doctors said that she was highly dehydrated and needed to rest. No more time jumps for her.” He tried to laugh but his tone was more worried than he wanted it to seem. “By the way, where is Lucy?”
“I don’t know, she left and said that she was coming back in an hour, but she didn’t and now she doesn’t respond to my calls or texts, I’m starting to worry.” He was looking at the main entrance hoping to see Lucy coming in.
“That’s weird, but I’m sure she’s fine, now everything will be alright, right? Rittenhouse is dead,” Rufus stated.
Rufus tried to smile, but Wyatt’s face said it all.
“I’m going after her,” he said.
“I’ll come with you; do you know where she went?”
“No idea.”
Rufus started thinking and then he turned around.
“I know how to find her, follow me!” he said.
Rufus started running to the computer behind the protective glass. He then sat down and began typing at high speed. Wyatt waited a bit, without understanding how Rufus could tell where Lucy was, but he trusted him. After everything they had gone through, he was sure that he could find her. Rufus was his best choice and the best engineer in the area. He would miss the time team when they would finish their last mission, and he would have to go back to his military life.
“What are you doing?” Wyatt asked, a bit confused.
“Since Rittenhouse gave Mason access to the NSA data, we can find anyone, anywhere, so let me cook,” he explained.
Wyatt smiled and looked outside. A lot of guards were still in the facility. Even though he knew they were not Rittenhouse anymore, they were on the same team, still he didn’t feel relaxed. Something felt off. He had the sensation that they had missed something, a critical point. He was afraid that it was something worse than he anticipated.
“Ah ha! I have it, she’s home, at her mother’s house.” Rufus was quite proud of himself.
Wyatt knew the address, so he just gave Rufus a tap on the shoulder and made him stand up.
“Come on!” Wyatt exclaimed.
They went straight to the exit door, without noticing the guards who had already blocked the way.
“Stop right there!” one of the guards shouted.
It shocked Wyatt and Rufus.
“Name and position,” he continued.
“What the fuck? What do you mean name and position? You know who we are, we’re working here, well working, more like traveling,” Wyatt spoke in a hurry.
“Name and position.” The guard didn’t pay attention to the impatience behind Wyatt’s words.
“Wyatt Logan.”
“Rufus Carlin.”
The guard didn’t move or respond. It was complicated to say if he had heard their names. Rufus tried:
“Maybe he’s waiting for the position?” he coughed. “We are the… time travellers? I worked on the machine before using it. We want to find our teammate Lucy Preston, we have a-”
He couldn’t finish because as soon as the guards heard Lucy’s name they raised their guns, pointing them at the boys.
“You cannot leave the facility.” There was no other possibility in the voice of the man standing in front of them with a dangerous look.
“What? What do you mean? We totally can, we’re not prisoners, we work here.”
“You CANNOT leave, is that clear? Get back to your desk and wait for further instructions.” The guards stepped toward them, guns raised.
“I’m not waiting for anything.” In one second, Wyatt reacted instantly and started fighting the two men. He grabbed the first one’s gun and hit the other’s head with it. The soldier tried to strike him back, but Wyatt had anticipated the move and ducked to tackle him to the ground, grabbing him at the waist. They fell to the ground with a loud thud. Wyatt lifted his torso and punched the soldier’s face. He was knocked out after only two punches. Wyatt was experienced and strong; they had no chance, but trying gave Wyatt a reason to hit harder.
The second soldier tried to go after Rufus, but Wyatt pulled him back by grabbing his foot. The soldier fell violently on his nose which broke. He turned around and delivered a kick to Wyatt who took the hit. Wyatt followed by jumping onto his opponent, preparing an elbow strike to the stomach which he delivered with all the weight of his body. It knocked the air out of the guard. Wyatt stood up and locked his enemy’s neck under his elbow until he was unconscious. He stood up and looked at Rufus who was still standing in the same spot with a horrified look but a certain pride in his eyes.
“See, we can leave now,” Wyatt said to Rufus with a smirk.
Rufus was impressed as always when Wyatt demonstrated his talents. He thought Wyatt was incredibly cool; he wished he were as strong and skilled as Wyatt.
They passed through the door and went to Rufus’s car. Wyatt was driving, being the one not afraid of high speed.
“What was that? Why did they want to keep us in here? What is happening?” Rufus started panicking.
“I don’t know. We need Lucy to figure this out. I have a weird feeling about her. I hope she’s alright.” Wyatt pressed hard on the gas, his jaw tight.
“She is at her mother’s house; she should be okay I think.” Rufus was trying to reassure himself.
“I don’t know. Why did the guards only react when they heard her name? Why are we not allowed to go find her? Are they with Rittenhouse? Maybe her dad prepared something before going to jail.” Wyatt’s mind was racing.
“We ended Rittenhouse, right?”
Wyatt didn’t respond; he couldn’t think straight, he was overwhelmed by the situation.
“Wyatt! Right?” Rufus was panicking.
“I don’t know, Rufus, I hope so.” He ended the conversation.
For the rest of the ride, they stayed silent, too afraid of the conclusions they might reach if they started talking about Rittenhouse, everything they had known about it, and the hypothesis that maybe they should have let Flynn blow up everyone in 1954.
𖥔 ݁ ˖.𖥔 ݁ ˖.𖥔 ݁ ˖.𖥔
Even at high speed, Lucy’s house was far away from Mason’s Industries. They arrived fifteen minutes later and parked not far from the house but stayed a few meters away to avoid being spotted. There was no light coming from the house, no movement, everything seemed too calm. That’s what Wyatt thought first. But he tried to remain calm; as a soldier he had learned not to give in to pressure.
“Okay, I don’t trust this silence, we’ll go around the back, we’ll keep a low profile.” Wyatt said.
“Can’t we just knock on the door?” Rufus asked innocently.
Wyatt shot a determined look at Rufus.
“Okay! I didn’t say anything.” He stepped back immediately.
“We don’t know what to expect so we might as well prepare for the worst. I only have my gun, so we’ll have to spare the bullets and switch to hand-to-hand combat.” He exhaled. “Do you feel capable?”
“It’s not my first rescue mission, soldier.” He chuckled.
They got out of the car and went straight into the yard, avoiding making noise and being spotted as much as possible. Once at the back of the house, Wyatt tested the doors and windows until he found the pantry door open. He made signs to Rufus that only another soldier would have understood. Rufus looked at him completely confused. Wyatt sighed and pulled him inside the pantry.
“I’m going up to look in the bedrooms; you do the ground floor. Good luck.” Wyatt whispered.
It was his way of cheering up his mate on a mission, a bit sarcastic.
Rufus was no longer surprised and headed first toward the living room. Since the lights were off, he preferred to turn them on for better visibility. The living room was large and cozy, nothing seemed unusual. That quick glance reassured him; Lucy was probably spending time with her mother upstairs, nothing alarming. He continued to search the ground floor while discovering the house. Wyatt came back a few minutes later.
“Nothing, she’s not here.” He explained.
“That’s impossible, the position was right here, the algorithm can’t lie.” Rufus had a weird impression.
“Maybe she moved before we arrived.”
“To go where? We didn’t pass anyone coming here.” Something felt off to Rufus.
“I don’t know. Did you finish this floor?”
“Not quite, I was heading to this door.” He pointed to the door.
They moved closer and Rufus forced the door open to find a staircase leading down to the basement. They exchanged a look and Wyatt went first. The basement of the house was dark and no switch was visible. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, Wyatt saw light behind a door that led to the garage. He approached and stood on one side of the door, signalling Rufus to stand on the other side.
“On three you open the door and I rush in. One, two, three!”
Rufus opened the door wide and Wyatt entered. In the center of the room was Lucy, sitting with her back to them on a chair. Wyatt stepped forward, relieved to see her.
“Lucy! You’re here! I was so worri- wait.” Wyatt stopped. He walked around and discovered with dismay that the woman sitting there was much older than Lucy, though with similar features.
“Hello, Mister Logan.” She looked him straight in the eyes. She stood up and removed the wig she was wearing.
“I am Lucy’s mother. Delighted to finally meet you. You may come closer, Mister Carlin.”
Rufus entered the room with his hands in the air. Wyatt threw him a confused look before seeing soldiers behind him pointing their guns at him. He didn’t understand. What was happening? Where was Lucy?
“I understand that lost look, soldier. I regret to inform you that Lucy is not here. She left this place a good hour ago. You are late.” Carolyn smiled.
“No, that’s impossible, the location data was clear, she is here. It’s top-of-the-line tech; they can’t be wrong.”
“But who gave you access to the data, Mister Carlin?” She asked, a hint of amusement in her eyes.
Part of their questions had just been answered. Rittenhouse was still involved. Nothing was over. They had failed. But they were not yet aware of the extent of their mistake.
“Where is Lucy?” Wyatt was only interested in finding her as soon as possible.
“Safe, don’t worry, Rittenhouse takes good care of its heiress.”
Wyatt shot a cold look at the mother.
“You are part of Rittenhouse.” It was so clear now.
“That’s correct, just like my daughter.”
“She has nothing to do with you; she won’t help you.” he exclaimed in defense of his partner.
“Maybe not now, but she will one day. But don’t worry, you will join her very soon. Rittenhouse isn’t finished with you.” She signaled to the soldiers that she was done.
Wyatt wanted to protest but the soldiers beside Rufus aimed their guns at him and handcuffed Rufus. The situation was too complex; he could no longer think clearly. They needed to see Lucy, to make sure she was okay. This woman said they would be taken to their partner, so why not let it happen and follow her? They would have time to find a solution once their team was reunited. Wyatt resigned himself and let two soldiers remove the gun from his hands and handcuff him, not without struggling a little. They left the house and headed toward a van that hadn’t been there earlier. They had fallen into this trap so easily it was laughable. Everything had been planned. Rittenhouse was still pulling the strings.
They were placed in the van facing each other. Rufus had a devastated look on his face. He was thinking about Jiya, hoping nothing bad would happen to her. He had promised to stop by and see her after the rescue mission for Lucy’s sister, but in the end, he wouldn’t be able to keep his promise. She would surely worry herself sick about him and he would have no way to reassure her or warn her about the danger still hanging over their heads. After months of stress, perilous adventures, increasingly unnatural time travel, the weight of the past months crashed down on the two time travellers. They were exhausted; they wished everything would just stop, that they would be left alone.
The outcome of these past months was grim: Wyatt had failed to save his fiancée, Rufus had put Jiya in danger by bringing her on adventures with them and had thought he lost her, Lucy had lost her sister, and her entire life had been turned upside down by Rittenhouse. In the end they had not stopped this organization, they had not been able to help Garcia, and the world would suffer even more because of them. History had already been changed and was about to be violently rewritten. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. It was hopeless. Rufus and Wyatt knew that more than ever their lives were in danger and for the first time they could not imagine an escape plan or a counterattack. The situation felt more hopeless than the Alamo. The van started and they were taken to an unknown place.