A Window to the Past

by LialeeEderian

Summary:

It's Jake who travels back in time because of course he does.
And it's Rook who messed everything up in the future because of course it is.

Notes:

I decided to write a time travel AU! As usual. Man, I love time travel.

Chapter 1: Arrival

A cough racked through his body, shaking him awake, and Jake’s eyes flew open, flickering from side to side in unfocused abandon. 

“Hey, hey,” Nathan’s voice said loudly, and hands grasped his shoulders, forcing him to focus on the faces of his two best friends. “Calm down.”

“You okay, dude?” Ricardo asked, the worry obvious behind a raised eyebrow of non-concern.

Jake coughed again, pushing himself up as he frowned, his mind aching with–

“Jake, you’re our only shot!”

“I won’t leave you guys behind!”

“Yes, you  will.  Ricardo and I’ll do the distractions. We can’t let Rook get away with this - not when he’s already razed so much. Erica, you and Dr. C get the plan going. Jake, get in the machine.”

“No, don’t–”

“Sorry, man. This is for Nathan.”

Jake gasped.  “Nathan!”  He choked out.

Nathan– not his Nathan, how could it be  his  Nathan? But  Nathan  blinked and waved awkwardly in front of his eyes. “Yeah, Jake, it’s me. Everything good?”

Jake felt despair curling through his veins at that because  no,  everything was not okay! He was in the goddamn past, and he’d left– no, he’d been  forced  to leave his friends back in their time, alone and battling against impossible odds. Odds that they had had no hope of beating this time because they’d had no Wingspan, and with him gone, they had no Stretch, either.

They’d sent him back alone. 

They’d sacrificed themselves.

… Well, they thought wrong if they believed Jake would ever leave them to rot. 

He jumped up, subconsciously noting he was in the nurse’s office, and sped out, making a beeline to where he was sure Erica would be. She’d be able to fix this - if her powers could send him back in time, they could send him forward, too.

“Jake!” Nathan called out behind him, and he could hear him and Ricardo sprinting after him, but he  didn’t care.  He needed to go back— 

He skidded to a stop, almost crashing into Riya, then spun around her entirely, muttering a sorry. He wouldn’t stop, though. She was the one who made the decision to send him back, and she might stop him from returning. 

His mind rumbled again, flashing between the past and future, stretching and mutating like he always did on the field.

He had no time to waste. The longer he stayed here…

“There,” He mumbled, spotting the red of Erica’s vibrant hair as she spoke with… Gabe? Didn’t she hate the guy? He was a pretentious douchebag!

But no, that wasn’t the point. 

“Erica!” He said, almost too fast and too harsh.

She flinched.

“Please, I need your help.”

Gabe scowled. “Excuse you,  I  am the one taking to the lady, loser. Upon my–”

“Shut up,” Jake snapped. “I don’t have time for you.”

For the first time since Jake had met Gabe Bannerman, he fell silent, shocked into speechlessness. 

In fact, if Jake concentrated (though he didn’t for more than a second, for there was a ringing in his head that wouldn’t let up),  everyone  was quiet.

He didn’t bother to wonder why, knowing exactly how it looked - one of the most mild-mannered kids in school flouring rage at one of the most (ironically) popular. 

Someone whistled behind him in appreciation.

Erica, eyes still wide, nodded. “Okay,” She said, and that was all Jake needed to drag her to the nearest classroom, shutting it behind him - though not before his best friends made it inside. 

It didn’t matter. 

“I need you to use your powers,” He said immediately, one hand on his head. “Please.”

There were two sharp inhales from the other two flex fighters.

“I’m sorry?” Erica asked.

“Please,” Jake begged, voice quivering. “The technology should still be working, just- just send a pulse at me and send me forward again. I can’t leave them alone - they won’t survive this!”

Erica’s mouth fell open, and through the pain in his head, Jake was starting to get the feeling something was very, very wrong. Weren’t they…? They’d decided to position the machine to the time right before their battle with Rook - the one that started the end. That was  after  Erica’s…?

He winced again, even as one arm slung around his shoulders, Ricardo saying, “Sorry ’bout this. He’s still a little woozy after that–”

“No!” Jake protested, shrugging off Ricardo’s arm. “You have to! You- you have your powers… right?”

Erica stepped back. “Um… the only powers I know about are the Flex Fighters.”

Jake swore. His head spun. “No!” He spat. “This can’t –” His eyes widened.  “Dr. C,”  He mumbled. She was his only chance. She’d been working on time tech for a long time, and even if she didn’t have Erica for her induced powers,  maybe–

He ducked under Nathan’s reaching arm, his, Ricardo’s, and Erica’s voices muddling into a mess, and rushed out the door, looking left and right and then rushing straight to Riya, who spun immediately, then merely jerked to the right, forcing herself out of her battle instincts. “Take me to Dr. C. Rook’s already ahead.” He told her, and her eyes flared before settling into masked confusion. 

“Excuse me?”

No!  “This is even before we–?” He growled, and another pang racked through his mind, and right before he could declare he’d find her himself, he slipped back into unconsciousness.

 

---

 

“Sorry, guys!” Nathan said hurriedly as he and Ricardo rushed to where Jake was collapsed on the floor in front of a wide-eyed Riya. “Jake’s seriously ill today!”

“Yeah, he’s gone cuckoo,” Ricardo muttered, even as he picked up Jake under his arms and began to drag him away.

Nathan shot him a glare but didn’t argue because  seriously, what the hell had that been?!

“We’ll take him to the nurse,” He said loudly, just to make the crowd lose interest, and then spun around to follow Ricardo as he dragged Jake away.

“What the heck was that?” He asked in a panicked whisper as soon as the hallway cleared out a little bit the further they walked.

“How the hell should I know?” Ricardo demanded. “He went crazy, that’s what!”

“He said Erica had  powers!”

“Yeah, well, we both know no one ’cept us and those villains do, so he’s  definitely  gone crazy.”

“Ricardo!”

“What?”

Nathan groaned. “It didn’t seem like he was crazy, though. He looked… scared.”

For a moment, Ricardo was silent. “Yeah,” He said after a while. “He did. Think we should go to Rook?”

Nathan shook his head. “And tell him what? Stretch went kooky in school? He’ll figure out our identities!”

Ricardo scowled. “Here’s to hoping the dude gets fixed up before he wakes up, then. Man, I cannot deal with this thing. Did he seriously have to–?” He stopped because the door to the nurse’s office was open, and his instincts were stinging. “Wait,” He said, pushing Jake’s body at Nathan, who scrambled to catch him. Then he took one step forward, hands raised, and knocked. 

There was no reply. 

Ricardo narrowed his eyes and barrelled in, landing in a battle-ready stance–

Only to be hit on the head from behind, falling on the ground with a thump.

Nathan’s eyes widened, and he let Jake fall, rushing inside. “Ricardo!” He shouted and came face to face with Blindstrike, who swung down with a pole - no doubt what had struck Ricardo unconscious.

Nathan jumped back instantly, using the buoyancy from his powers to get that extra inch, and then grabbed the closest thing he could find. “Don’t come near, or I’ll attack with this…?” He was brandishing a paper file labeled  Keiko Freeman.  “File?”

Blindstrike shot forward, hitting him in the knees. 

Nathan buckled but immediately punched and hit sideways right after, one of his attacks hitting its mark. 

Blindstrike’s pole clattered to the ground, and they brought out their flexarium weapons instead, gleaming in the pale light of the room. 

“Oh, shit,” Nathan muttered. 

“What in the world is going on?” A new voice demanded, and Nathan turned his head to see that Erica was kneeling down in front of Jake’s body, her eyes wide as she stared at the fight in front of her. 

Nathan reached out his hand, intent on warning her away. “Eri–”

There was a thunk of something large hitting the back of his head, and his world went black.

Chapter 2: Integration

Nathan woke up almost out of breath, which was weird, since when did that ever happen? But his eyes popped wide open, and his hands attempted to reach out, do something–

And then he realized he was tied to a chair in a weird dinghy lair he didn’t recognize. “Oh man, oh man, oh man,” He muttered, worry rising way higher than it had any right to in his very unpanicked opinion.

He blinked, his eyes adjusting to the sight, and he realized right in his line of sight, Jake was lying on a table, being prodded at by…

“Dr. C?!” He exclaimed.

The woman looked up, a disinterested expression on her face, then turned away again, prodding… Jake?

Oh no.

“Relax,” Ricardo muttered, and Nathan realized he was right next to him and had woken up before he could. “She might not intend to let us go, but she isn’t hurting Jake.”

“How do you know?!” He hissed.

“Because, fortunately for you,” Dr. C said. “I do not kill children.” She shook her head. “Not that you boys have any idea what you’ve gotten into.”

“Hey, lady–” Ricardo started to say.

“Blindstrike,” The scientist snapped. “Bind him. I’ve got the tests running, and we’ll know–”

If you asked Nathan much, much later, he’d have said that the whole place stilled at that moment. Every one of them held their breath, maybe because there was such a vast silence that he practically heard it when Jake’s eyes snapped open.

The leader of the Flex Fighters jumped up, and for a moment, his eyes narrowed, his hands rising in a mockery of fight-ready. Then Blindstrike pulled out their blades and jumped at him.

Nathan almost swallowed his tongue in panic.

They’d been unable to beat Blindstrike before. Hell, they’d gotten their asses handed to them, and it had been all three of them at that point. With the enhanced complements of their incredible super suits.

So what chance did Jake have, woozy as he was from the weird headspace he’d been in (to say it politely) since that morning in class?

Nathan Park had never been as wrong in his life as he was in that specific moment.

Jake flipped out of bed and to the opposite side of Blindstrike, then lashed out, elongating his hands to knock the blades from Blindstrike’s grip. The second of dissonance that Nathan experienced was mirrored in a much shorter moment by Blindstrike, but that was all Jake seemed to need because he struck, jumping up and slamming his arms into Blindstrike’s shoulders, knocking them down. 

Blindstrike groaned.

“First time for everything,” Jake muttered, then extended a hand… to help Blindstrike up?!

Nathan gaped.

Ricardo sputtered. “The heck are you doing, man?!” He demanded. “You’ve got him at your mercy!”

Jake furrowed his brow. “‘Him’?” He asked, then stumbled back, one hand clutching his head. “No,” He said, spinning around and rushing to Dr. C, stopping a step away from her. “You have- you have to send me back!” He said, and his voice was filled to the brim with frustration. “Please.”

Dr. C crossed her arms. “... Where?”

“The future!” Jake replied immediately, and Nathan couldn’t breathe. 

Oh.

Dr. C narrowed her eyes. “Time travel doesn’t exist,” She said swiftly.

“I know you’ve been working on it for years!” Jake exploded, and there was a desperation in his voice that highlighted exactly how much he’d been keeping it in, despite his increasing levels of fanatic energy. “Please, Dr. C. I- I’ve left them all behind.” He swallowed, his eyes flickering to Blindstrike, then Nathan, and finally, Ricardo, before shifting to look at Dr. C again. “I’ve left all of you behind.”

Dr. C’s eyes widened.

Ricardo began to cough. “What the heck?” He muttered.

No one paid him any attention. 

“... I never got it to work,” Dr. C said, finally. “It’s useless without certain changes that I cannot make unless I know what is wrong in the first place.”

“I’ll help.” Jake stepped forward. “I worked with you while you were finishing it in– in my time, and I know some of the details that might help.” He looked down at his clenched fists. “We have to move fast.”

“What the heck?” Ricardo said again.

 This time, Nathan listened. “What the heck, man?” He yelped, repeating Ricardo’s stupefied words louder than he had. Jake’s head snapped up to look at him, something so soft and broken in his eyes that Nathan almost lost his nerve. Almost. “Why are you trying to make friends with her? We’ve been trying to fight them for weeks! They tried to kill–”

“We didn’t,” Dr. C cut him off. “If I wanted Blindstrike to eliminate you, child, you would have died the first moment you met.”

Jake winced but didn’t refute the statement.

“She’s still evil!” Ricardo said, backing Nathan up. “Rook said–”

The temperature practically fell ten degrees, and Jake’s eyes darkened to rabid hatred. His fists clenched, and his mouth turned down, a glare prominent in his expression. “Do not talk to me about Rook,” He snapped, and the quiet reprimand was worse than the shouting demands. “That monster deserves nothing less than having his throat slit as he watches his goddamn empire burn to ashes before his eyes. And I will be the one to do that to him.” Boodthirst dripped from him in droves, and if he squeezed even harder, Nathan was sure actual blood would drip from his palms. 

Was he even their Jake? He wondered, a shiver snaking up his spine.

Ricardo stilled.

Dr. C stepped back. 

Blindstrike tilted their head and stepped forward in a silent question Nathan couldn’t comprehend, but Jake-not-Jake unwound the slightest bit, giving the ninja-fighter a short nod. “He killed them, just like he killed–” His eyes flared as if he was physically keeping them from turning to one of the others in the room, and Nathan’s heart sank.

Because bring everything they’d just heard together, and what would you get? Jake came from a future so dystopian that Rook had gone crazy and killed him or Ricardo, and Jake had teamed up with Dr. C to invoke revenge.

Shit.

Dr. C sighed. “Even if I bring out the machine,” She said, her voice tired and not as cold as she was liable to make it. “There is no guarantee it will work, Jake. And even if it did, time is theorized to be linear. Your set path moves along a singular line. Even if you manage to go to the future…” 

“No!” Jake roared. “I need to go! They’re going to die without me! Rook’s got armies of flexarium-enhanced individuals lapping his every word, and they’re down two flex fighters! Erica’s a non-combatant, and at that point, you might be as well - that only leaves Riya and Ricardo. Rook’s got—” He shook his head. “We can’t,” He said, almost broken. “Please. I need to go back to them. Rook will kill them, and then he’s going to travel back in time to kill me.”

Dr. C’s expression hardened. “He has my machine?”

Jake laughed without mirth. “Your schematics. He built his own, and he didn’t need Erica’s powers because he has a goddamn brigade of flexarium-enhanced electricity users at his disposal.”

“Electricity users?” 

“One of the components. Please, just let me– let’s fix the machine. Please.”

Dr. C fell silent in thought.

Jake scoffed in annoyance.

Blindstrike moved towards Jake. “If your friend is dead,” They said, and Nathan realized, belatedly, that it was a she. “Why do you want to return?”

Jake flinched, and this time, he couldn’t stop looking at Nathan.

Nathan’s hopes for the future went down the drain. 

“I–” He began.

“Riya?!” Ricardo demanded, looking straight at Blindstrike.

In a corner of Nathan’s mind, he mused how ironic it was that most of the enhanced crime-fighting or crime-doing individuals in this room were teenagers.

Blindstrike twitched but didn’t take off her helmet. 

Jake huffed a small laugh.

Ricardo shook his head. “Forget that,” He said. “What the fuck is going on? What’s next, dimension travel or some shit like that? And Rook’s been super cool to us this whole time; why the hell would you think he’d do somethin’ like offing Nate? What’s Nate ever done to him?”

Also a good point, Nathan wanted to say.

But the way Jake laughed, dark and hysterical and without an ounce of real amusement, shut him up before he could even utter a word. “Nate didn’t have to do anything to him,” He said. “Jonathan Rook doesn’t need a reason to be a monster - he already is.” He exhaled sharply and raised both hands to cover his face. “And yeah, Nate’s– he’s gone in my time, but that doesn’t mean any of you are. They’re waiting there–” He swallowed. “Unless Rook already got to them.”

Dr. C pursed her lips. “I’ll help,” She said. “But it won’t do to pin all your hopes on this. If Jonathan hasn’t already noticed, it won’t be long until he does. And before I can finish building it, you might want to–”

“No!” Jake yelped. “I can’t pretend–”

“I still can’t believe you’re actually having this discussion!” Ricardo roared over everyone else. 

Nathan flinched, stared at the two people who were the closest friends he (had ever) had and despaired at how things had gone so horribly, desperately wrong. “Why?” He asked, and Jake’s face immediately swiveled to face him, pain flashing across it in a way that was impossible to fake, even if Nathan hadn’t known him for as long as he had. “Why did he kill me?”

Jake’s shoulders drooped, and he looked down, his hand rubbing the back of his neck. “We got in his way,” He admitted. “He tried the first time around when we realized he was the lizard monster–”

Ricardo and Blindstrike inhaled sharply.

“–but we got away, then. He managed to destroy our reputations, but we got away with our lives.” He laughed darkly. “Dr. C helped set us up for the next raid. Rook wasn’t done with us, not when we were the first of his experiments to have actually worked. The others just… melted or burnt out or stuff. That’s probably why he didn’t try so hard to kill us the first time around, I guess.”

“Jake…” Blindstrike said, trailing off, and for the first time, Nathan was able to reconcile with the notion that she really was Riya. 

At Nathan’s side, Ricardo bristled, but Nathan took a deep breath, elbowed him as best he could to get his attention, and shook his head. 

Ricardo scowled but didn’t interrupt. 

Jake took a deep breath. “We got too cocky, though,” He admitted. “We thought the reason we survived was because of us. But all Rook really wanted was his Flexarium army to take over the stupid city and complete whatever enhancements he was working on, and we ended up leading him to–” His eyes flickered to Blindstrike and he took a deep breath. “To the plane crash.”

Blindstrike stepped back, her hands going to her helmet and pulling it off, only to reveal their classmate staring wide-eyed at Jake. “He… really?” She asked, her voice choked. 

Jake nodded slowly. “Their research—” He shook his head. “He was able to find the secret to true flexarium-enhancement in humans,” He said. “There was some downside, but we never really figured it out, and Rook was certainly never going to tell anyone.” He chuckled, and it was completely, utterly mirthless. “Then we became useless.” He grimaced. “Nathan was the first he caught.”

“Oh,” Nathan said. “Oh.”

“No,” Ricardo insisted. “That’s not—”

“That plane crash was how my parents died,” Riya told him coldly. “They worked with Rook.”

Ricardo’s eyes widened.

“... So did I,” Dr. C said quietly. 

Jake swallowed. “He got worse, you know?” He said. “Being a lizard– being a monster corrupted his mind. He’s not whatever golden guy you used to think he was, Dr. C. You can’t–” He shook his head. “I won’t let you do nothing.” His eyes narrowed. “I won’t let him destroy everything again.”

Nathan took a deep breath. “Well,” He said, “As the person in question who died… I guess I believe you.” 

Ricardo huffed.

“Ricardo, too,” He added. “It’s just… hard.”

Jake stared at them, long and hard, and then, horrifyingly, terrifyingly, his eyes began to bubble over with tears, and he wiped away at them, looking confused. “I don’t–” He tried.

Riya sighed, walked over to free Nathan and then Ricardo, and then gestured to the still-crying boy, whose shoulders were now heaving, and his breath was catching. 

Nathan wasted no second. Because this might be Jake-not-Jake, but it was Jake , and he could never let his friend go home crying alone. Especially not when it was so obviously about him. 

“Ugh,” Ricardo mumbled, even though the anger had since fled from his voice. “Fine. I’ll help. But only till we figure out the truth.” He turned to Dr. C. “How we gon’ do this?” He asked. 

Dr. C pursed her lips and turned. “We’re going to need to build a machine and have some way to fuel it. I assume the young girl Mr. Armstrong mentioned does not have her powers yet?”

Nathan jumped. “Wait,” He exclaimed. “Erica! What happened to her?”

Riya looked uncaring. “She’s fine,” She drawled. “She’s resting in one of the rooms.” She pursed her lips. “I had to take her so she wouldn’t go the police–”

“Or Rook,” Jake added, sniffing.

“Or Rook,” Riya amended. “But Dr. C figured we could talk without her first.”

“She’s here?” Nathan asked.

“Yeah.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jake said. She didn’t get her powers until–” His eyes darkened. “It doesn’t matter,” He repeated. “But I remember the voltage and wattage required. We’ll have to fiddle with the output and the aim, but we can probably manufacture the action with grid power.”

“Good,” Dr. C said. “Better than nothing. However, the machine still has some components that don’t work. As you mentioned building it with me, please, come. Your friends must return to their school to keep up appearances.” She turned to Riya. “As must you.”

Nathan paled. “We’ve got to meet Rook after school,” He reminded them.”

Jake flinched with his entire body. 

“Well,” Ricardo said. “Better to figure out the whole damn truth. I still don’t completely believe you.”

“Don’t– don’t antagonize him,” Jake whispered. “Please.”

Nathan took a deep breath, then nodded. “It’ll be fine,” He assured his best friend. “We’ll manage, Jake. You work on this and we can meet tonight, yeah?”

He nodded slowly, Ricardo still half unconvinced, Riya still silent and glaring, Nathan still (now) terrified, horrified, daunted, and shivering all at once. 

None of them noticed the small mechanical bug flying out of the vent in the corner.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 9 of WIPs - (Where I Procrastinate)
• Part 32 of (un)Woven threads of Dimension and Time