Darian and Erin

[Sandman XI]

"I am sure it could take us to any point in time," Darian scratches his head with the pen made of light, "but I thought you were studying current histories." He pokes the screen with the light pen again, bringing up an on screen keyboard. The scribbled 2007 disappears as he puts the light pen behind his ear and begins to type. "We could visit that era, but as the doctor said, we cannot tamper with anything." He looks to Erin apologetically, "I may have spoken too soon. This can be done, but when travelling to different times we would have to prepare for things like this. clothing and mannerisms are totally different. Please forgive me."

[Electra]

"Wait, wait, wait," Erin says, raising her hands. "We're actually going to travel in time? You can travel in time with this thing?" She stares at the machine in Quark's hands, and her expression is very hard to read. "Just like that, you can make something to take us back in time?" she asks, her voice suddenly very soft.

[Sandman XI]

Darian's heart jumps at Erin's exuberance. He too would like to jump into time and experience it first hand. A million situations run through his mind, but his heart jumps first, "Um, yes?"

[Electra]

"Can you get into other dimensions, too?" she asks, very carefully. "Like, alternate universes, the sort that you and I come from? Would your powers still work in places like that, as long as superpowers work?" She folds her hands in her lap, tightly enough that the knuckles are white. It's obvious that this is an important question to her, more important than any of her homework seems to be.

[Sandman XI]

Darian nods, "Dimensions and timelines and yes your powers would work." A look of shocked realization crosses him before a look of worry, "You want to fix your Earth's zombie problem. Listen, I will put this simply. Each timeline is it's own weavetime traveling basically pulls at the weave. You pull far back enough you could cause it be fixed, but then again, if you are not too careful it could tear the weave."poking the screen with the pen, a picture of Hitler appears, "Why do you think we are not a perfect society yet?"

[Electra]

Erin jerks back from him, clenching her hands into fists in her lap. She doesn't seem to be paying too much attention to most of his explanation. "How do you know about my world?" she demands, her voice brittle. "Nobody but the teachers is supposed to know about that, and I'm sure Alex didn't tell you. How did you find out?"

[Sandman XI]

A nervous smile crossed face as he hit a button ad time seemed to rewind. This time Quark said nothing about zombies.

Darian nods, "Dimensions and timelines and yes your powers would work." A look of worry crosses his face, "Listen, I will put this simply. Each timeline is it's own weave. Time traveling basically pulls at the weave. You pull far back enough you could cause it be fixed, but then again, if you are not too careful it could tear the weave." Poking the screen with the pen, a picture of Hitler appears, "Why do you think we are not a perfect society yet?"

[Electra]

Erin looks dazed, like she isn't even paying attention to his argument. She looks around, hunching up her shoulders as though expecting something to jump out at her, then turns her attention back to him. "God, I feel really weird," she admits, rubbing her hands along her arms. "Like... I don't know. Like everything skipped a beat. What were you saying?"

[Sandman XI]

Darian mentally breaths a sigh of relief. "I was saying that dimension travel and time travel are a many splendored thing. Both great and terrible. You can use fire to help you or you can hurt yourself with it. That said, you seemed quite pressed there for a moment. Is there anything in particular you want to do?"

[Electra]

"Yes," she says, seeming to regroup. "If you can travel between dimensions and travel through time, could you go to a dimension where everything is already ruined and fallen apart, and time travel try to fix it? I mean, what would you have to lose, right?" Erin looks at him very intently, waiting for his reply. "If you couldn't possibly screw it up any worse."

[Sandman XI]

She is right, Darian thinks, With nothing to lose it would almost be humane. He nods, "Do you have a certain place you are thinking of? There are many torn worlds out there. Could this be the one you come from?"

[Electra]

Erin hesitated, then nodded. "There's almost no one alive there now. There's no viable gene pool. All that's left is slow, miserable death. If I only knew when to go to and what to do, maybe it could all be changed." She looked at Darian, hope and helplessness warring on her face. "How do you look at the end of the whole world and figure out where it started?"

[Sandman XI]

"I am going to have to get a reading from you before we go anywhere," Darian says as he wipes Hitler off the screen and begins to type on the blue screen again. After a minute of work, he stops and makes the screen disappear the same way it appeared. He pull out a PDA and a few clicks causes a giant quicksilver portal to appear. "This is not a portal to your dimension, it is a portal to my laboratory. There we will get a dimensional reading on you then head to your dimension afterwards."

[Electra]

Erin stares at the portal for a minute, biting her lower lip as though having a hard time deciding whether she'll go through it. Finally, she unfolds herself from the ground and, leaving her pile of books behind, heads for the portal. She closes her eyes and shudders visibly, then steps through the quicksilver and into whatever lays beyond it.

[Sandman XI]

Stepping through the portal, it closes behind them and they enter a room of white nothingness. "Welcome to my laboratory, Miss White." Putting his hands together and pulling them apart, the floating holographic screen appears again. "Now to get those readings," he smiles gleefully, "Computer: Program 7X3A0L2E0C0I9." In a purple flash of light, a reflectively metallic eye, about the size of a soccer ball appears. It hums as a purple light shines on Erin. "Now," Darian says as he types on the screen, "I need you to be very still."

[Electra]

Erin is obviously very tense, but she holds stock still for the reading, only her eyes moving to take in the room. No doors and no windows in this empty place, and the portal that brought them here is closed. There's no way in or out. She's not even sure where they are. Her heartbeat begins accelerating as adrenaline flows into her blood, and some of her muscles twitch. It's for the greater good, she reminds herself, and holds still. "What are you doing?" she asks, barely moving her lips.

[Sandman XI]

"This is reading your vital statistics," He says tearing his head away from the screen to look at Erin. "You seem nervous," he sounds confused, "is there anything you want? I can get it for you."

[Electra]

"Is there a way out of here?" she asks him. "I don't like being in places where I can't see the exits. I don't even know where we are. Are we still on Earth?" Erin flexes and unflexes her hands, still looking around as though expecting someone is going to appear out of all that whiteness and jump her while she's trying to hold still.

[Sandman XI]

"No," Darian sighs, "we are not on Earth." He smiles, "But I can allay your worries! Computer: Scenario: Freedom Park." The White nothingness subtley shifts into a fully realistic scene of Freedom Park. It is light and sunny. They are underneath a tree near a park bench. The metallic eye and holographic screen are still there. "There," he nods, still smiling, "I can add music if you like."

[Electra]

Even though she knows full well that it isn't real, the illusion helps. Erin takes a few deep breaths and thinks back on her meditation lessons. "I don't need music," she tells him. "This will be fine." She runs through the meditation exercise in her head, and her heart rate begins to drop, her muscles relax. Eventually they stabilize at what appears to be a normal, if exceedingly efficient, metabolic rate.

[Sandman XI]

"Good good," Darian says going back to the screen and typing, "Vital statistics all done. Now we move on to the dimension reading." the floating eye disappears in a purple flash of light. "Put the tip of this in your mouth," he says pulling a pen made out of light out of the screen and handing to to her. "You may feel lightheaded for a moment afterwards," he explains to her, "please have a seat if you do. Once the reading is done a portal to your world will be open."

[Electra]

Erin studies the implement for a moment, turning it over in her hands. It's not much bigger than a thermometer, and looks like a laser pointer. "So this will just... open a portal? Just like that?" She thinks about making a joke about whether he sanitizes this thing between uses, but the words won't come. She's already starting to have second thoughts. Nonetheless, she puts the tip of the instrument in her mouth and waits, looking towards the place where the portal formed before.

[Sandman XI]

The pen made of light glows purple like the light from the metallic eye, and hums the same also. Erin begins to feel light headed, but due to her strong constitution it's not as bad as it could have been. Darian taps her on the shoulder and points toward the holographic screen. It is grow into a shiny quicksilver like portal. A minute later it is done and the pen made of light disappears from her mouth. "Shall we proceed," Darian asks rhetorically while making his way to the portal. "After you."

[Electra]

Erin stares into the portal as the quicksilver slides across it like water, then clears away into a window. A small, tortured noise escapes her throat as she looks through the window to see the home she hasn't seen in two and a half years. It's not in very good shape. The weeds and grass in the yard are nearly waist high, and the front door hangs open at a drunken angle. It was kicked in, she remembers, by the neighbor who raided the house for food, and discovered her father's body. At least he's not there anymore. He died before they stopped burying the dead in Seattle. Someone else was not as lucky. In the foreground of the picture there is the edge of a skull and a bony hand; remains of some poor bastard who died on the sidewalk. Even through the airtight portal, she chokes a little on the remembered stench.

"It's my house," she murmurs. "My house in Seattle." She takes a step towards the portal, then stops. Even looking through the window brings nauseating fear churning up from her stomach. It's something she hasn't felt in a very long time. All her nightmares are waiting on the other side of that portal. She escaped that world once, against all the odds, and got to a place of relative safety, relative sanity. How can she go back, even for the chance to maybe turn it all around?

As she stares into the maw of the portal, suddenly the scene changes. A shadow falls across the lawn, over the bleached skull and the long grass. It's a humanoid shadow, a large humanoid shadow. "Shut it down!" Erin tells Quark, her voice a terrified whimper. "Shut it down now!"

[Sandman XI]

Darian watches Erin as she reminisces quietly. He set the pattern to start them where her strongest memories were. Apparently home, like any other, is where the heart is. The setting was incredibly bleak as he viewed it. People say 'Real Is Brown', he thinks, they have never seen this place. When Erin gives the order, Darian quickly pulls out another holographic screen and shuts down the portal and the park scenery. "Erin, are you alright," he inquires with a crack of sadness before clearing his throat and repeating himself.