Other Side

Perhaps he had gone too far.

But she was worth saving.

Against hope, logic, paradox and reason – he went back for her. To save her from herself. From her loneliness. From her depression. From her own mind tearing itself apart like his did.

But going back and saving her was his only purpose, the reason for him to live. Once she was safe, what of him? There would always be two choices, he did – or he didn't.

In his mind, there never was a choice. He would always do it. Yet somehow he knew that there had to be a version of him that saw the bad ending.

What could he do for him? Would the universe mend itself? What would 'other him' experience?

He knew it was him that saved her. He sacrificed his sanity for the greater good. He had the motivation to do the impossible and be the spark that brought her back, when other him didn't know the danger.

What had the universe left him? Awash in the wake of such an impossibility, he must have been overstimulated in temporal energy.

Maybe that's what crackled the computers and drove them to improbable pages.

The day her Memorial page showed up again. They day her personal page was clear of almost all messages, save his. Ones he didn't remember writing.

He realized that it was a message. That he was the shadow, and that he would fade out when the time-lines righted themselves.

That would be his gift to her. Sacrificing himself as the other her did for him. Yet it would be at a time of greatest need. When there was no other way to bring the worlds together.

She might forget that version of him then. Start anew. Start again with the one that brought the hope. Yet still retain some memory of their time together, the troubled courtship, the obstacles, the hurdles.

In her most brilliant of nights she saw him. Not me. He was the one yet in the 'future'.

Maybe that's why she was so on edge. She already knew what awaited him.