The kids turned to see that Millie had been just to their right the whole time. She seemed a little more composed and stable than the last time they saw her, but still…

           “You jerk!” Laurie snapped. “How could you just leave us stranded here? You were the adult! If your teenage self wasn’t nice enough to let us stay over, we’d have been…” She took a breath to calm down. “Jace was right… You aren’t the same Millie.”

           “He’s a quick one,” Millie sighed. “It’s true. Apparently, there’s some evil version of myself running around. I don’t know when or where she came from, but Wes and his buds had a run-in with her at my place in 2022. Jared was taken by the cops, but Nyra here assured us that we can bail him out. First, though, we’ll get you two home.”

           Jace looked at Colin and Arthur and asked, “How come you’re both… okay?”

           “Uh, well, I guess we didn’t have any memories to… remember,” Colin guessed.

           And Arthur added, “Millie says we were also time travelers at some point, but we don’t seem to remember any of that. We’ve only been reunited for, like, five minutes our time, so she hasn’t really had a chance to explain what’s going on with that just yet.”

           Millie slouched against the fuselage with crossed arms. “Not much to say, really.”

           “Tell us anyway,” Wes, still in recovery, groaned. “I don’t remember that, either.”

           “All I got is a secondhand account from Jace, since he told me everything about a big event before he forgot it. That timeline doesn’t exist anymore, which, Nyra’s told me, happens often. But if you travel and make a big change that affects enough people, whether purposefully or not, then you do risk creating a true, stable, branching reality.”

           “Those are code red incidents for the bureau,” Nyra said. “But there isn’t really much we can do after a solid branch is created. It’s an ethics issue, because when you start talking about changing fortunes en masse and kids getting born that wouldn’t have come along in the original line… At that point, can you say that mending or deleting that branch is the right thing to do? There’s an ongoing debate about it a century old.”

           “Which is about as old as time travel itself,” Millie noted. “Other than André’s fluke discovery-slash-accident, in the 2040s. Well. A time cop with a vendetta caught up to Wes, but Jace got the gang together in 2020 to save him and Warren in ’96—keeping it from actually happening. So, yeah, technically all of Wes’ old friends except Ash and Zach have time traveled. It’s just that in this reality, causality was voided, as they put it.”

           “Man, that’s a lot to take in,” Arthur mumbled, scratching his thinker. “No one remembers that timeline? You only know because Jace told you about it?”

           “We have quantum supercomputers that can record voided lines,” Nyra said. “I personally studied the events as part of my investigation, after a certain hot-headed TMB police captain was dragged into one of our time daemon chambers. The reason he went rogue at all is still canon, but we kept him from going after you a second time, Wes.”

           “Geez, Wes, what’d you do to piss off a cyborg officer that much?” Colin asked.

           Wes murmured, “I can think of one thing… But I don’t remember why I did said thing… The memories get fuzzy. Maybe I just need time to resolve all this in my head.”

           “No idea what a time daemon is, but Nyra, the future sounds freakin’ awesome,” Laurie exclaimed. “Jace! You want to see it, too, don’t you? After everything you and your uncle did in your epic adventure… It’ll, like, give you more closure going there.”

           Jace replied, “I’m… not sure. What if it’s dangerous for us, for a lot of reasons?”

           Nyra grinned. “I wouldn’t even consider it if you didn’t have me as an escort. I’ll give your unk time to think it over. But first… Jared can wait a little longer. Mill,” she turned to her friend, “I don’t want to miss this chance. C’mon. Let’s have a 90s day.”

           The gear extended, and the shuttle made a soft landing. Everyone got out of the invisible aircraft, with only Nyra seeming to consider this not at all strange, especially while a bad Millie was out there and Jared was in time jail. But here they were anyway, parked at one of the distant and neglected corners of the mall’s large lot of cars.

           “Nyra…” Jace grumbled. “I don’t really want to say this because everything else is so cool, but I was just here yesterday. Why’d we skip ahead to Sunday afternoon for this? And I know no one’s parked near us, yet, but what if someone smashes into your ship?”

           “You worry a lot, don’t you?” she laughed. “I figured you wouldn’t otherwise still be in ’98 today, so I thought we’d go back to tomorrow and let you say bye to the gang. Good-byes are important. As for keeping the Seagull safe, I have a ‘high-tech’ solution.” She tapped her holo-bracelet that must’ve also acted as a key fob for the old bird, and eight safety cones deployed from invisible chutes along the hull. “Nothing like some classic reliable bright orange cones to tell everyone else to stay back. We use ‘em a lot. And if we get found out? I mean… Time travel. Go back, hide better, try day again.”

           “Low-tech solutions, still getting it done,” Colin said. “So… you like malls?”

           “I like them from this era. My modern ones are too flashy. Even on the moon.”

           “She knows I don’t care for them,” Millie remarked. “Please. No Hot Topic.”

           “We are definitely going to Hot Topic,” Nyra giddily affirmed and led the way.

           “Wow,” Wes said to Jace quietly as they began walking. “Is that how I was when we started out? That first time we went here together in ’95 feels so long ago.”

           “She does seem way too excited,” Jace replied. “I bet she sees you as a relic.”

           This made Wes feel a little self-conscious, but he tried to stow his lingering issues so that he could enjoy a surprise trip to the mall of the past, likely for the last time.

           Nyra was becoming more of a mystery to him by the minute. On one hand, she was a skilled time-pilot and professional agent. On the other one… she was proving her fanaticism for the 1990s. He, and the other adults, could barely keep up with her and her whirlwind tour of Royal Valley’s skylight temple to consumerism. Whether she was strolling through the arcade and watching teens at play with eyes aglow, trying free samples in the food court, browsing edgy clothing and fan merch, visiting a photo booth with Millie, or treating the Sears like a museum and its appliances as priceless artifacts, her boundless energy and enthusiasm had worn out the others after an hour.

           “Nyra, you’re not, like, augmented with cyberware, right?” Wes eventually asked.

           “Not outside the basic neural-netchips and bionic eyes. Why?” she wondered.

           “No reason. Maybe you just have a futuristic gym membership.”

           She chortled. “You don’t need to add ‘futuristic’ to everything. I know it’s a little mind-boggling to think about people eight centuries away, but we’re not so different.”

           “Hey, Wes,” Jace suddenly spoke up upon noticing their current location. “Maybe we shouldn’t be going to this side of the mall. I saw someone at a stall yesterday that—”

           “Nick?” Eddie’s voice burst out from his stand of new and used ‘legit’ watches. He shifted his attention away from a potential customer to approach a startled Wes, and put on his best cigar-chewing grin despite not having one. “Nick Deckard, that is you! Oh, wow. This some kind of family and friend reunion visit to the mall or what?”

           “Uh. Hey, Eddie,” Wes replied meekly. “I… didn’t think I’d see you again. I’m guessing you’re mad at me for the whole prison thing, but I had nothing to do with that.”

           “Oh, no worries. My fault, really. I can’t manage finances anymore, but it’s okay. I met some standup guys in the clink, and now we have a totally above board business enterprise. It’s starting small, sure, but there’s room to grow.” He patted Wes’ shoulder, which made him uncomfortable, and turned to the others. “I tell ya, this guy was a sage with the market. We made it big together, for a bit. I never learned his secrets, and all he tells me is…” he snorted, “that he’s a time traveler. Heh… Hoo… Take it easy, Nick.”

           “… Isn’t that Willa’s grandpa?” Arthur said as Eddie returned to his stall-tending.

           “W-wait a minute. Nick Deckard? Wasn’t he…” Colin looked back and forth at Jace and Wes, and fumbled with his glasses. “Wes! Holy crap! You were Jason Connor’s dad! A-and Jace—you’re Jason! Huh… I guess I forgot to put the pieces together.”

           “You’re just now getting that, Colin?” Arthur replied.

           “Look, Arty, I was too overwhelmed by the whole time travel revelation to think straight about anything else. I don’t have your cool-under-pressure togetherness.”

           “Okay, we saw the mall, can we go back to yesterday and get going?” Millie asked.

           “I dunno, Millie,” Laurie said cheekily. “I think Nyra’s having more fun than she’s had in a long time. Maybe we should see a movie… and go to King Arcade.”

           “Of course!” Nyra blurted. “I still haven’t seen your theme park! Too bad the 2035 earthquake takes it out. Oh. Oops… spoilers,” she told a wide-eyed Laurie. “Sorry.”

           The rest of the afternoon was spent checking out most of King Arcade’s rides, including the Red Demon rollercoaster, twice. Nyra had become like a kid in a video game store, and while Millie remained more reserved, Wes, Colin, and Arthur all enjoyed themselves and their visit to a special place in its golden age.

           “Figures she’d kick our asses at the games,” Arthur said as they left the Galaxy Hub arcade. “Probably VR trained for the agency she works for or something.”

           “Are you sure she’s a government agent?” Wes asked Millie. “She’s so…”

           “I know,” she huffed. “Her every new experience is always too exciting.”

           Towards the end of the day, everyone went to see the critically disliked 1998 Godzilla, America’s first attempt at bringing the giant lizard to the screen, with the kaiju attempting to nest in cold and urban New York City for some reason. The destruction scenes were fine, but everything else brought out groans from everyone. Except Nyra.

           “I looove ancient 2-D movies, the more practical effects the better,” Nyra told the group once they returned to the lobby. “They’re still made, sort of, but as a whole mind experience that puts you in their universe. No one’s made a Godzilla title since 2796.”

           “Your movies are cool, Nyra, “Millie replied. “But Jared is waiting.”

           “Don’t we have all the time in the world to bust him out?” Laurie wondered.

           “Well… Not exactly,” Nyra said. “Time is complicated.”

           After returning to the invisible shuttle that had been parked in the back of the theater parking lot and taking to the skies again, Nyra four-dimensionally piloted her passengers to Castle Hill Overlook at sunset, the day before. It was then and there that Jace had made plans to hang out with the gang one last time during his short return.

           The adults hung back on the dusty yet popular old vista as Jace and Laurie got to chat and joke with the other teens by the guardrail—the younger Millie giving her adult counterpart plenty of glances as she mostly just listened to the boisterous chatter.

           “Look at her…” the older Millie said, hands in her jacket pockets as she leaned against a phone booth at the opposite end of the sight-seeing area. “Still wearing those dorky glasses she’s had since third grade, still awkward around the other kids who are trying to include her out of politeness… And I feel like we’re still stuck together.”

           “Mill, you let loose and open up on our excursions all the time,” Nyra argued.

           “Because I always feel obligated to show I’m having fun when I’m with friends. Truth is, though, I’m usually content with just staying inside all day, doing whatever.”

           “See, I don’t believe that. I’m an introvert, too, believe it or not, but that doesn’t just make you an antisocial shut-in. It means you place more value on the friends you do have and the experiences you share. I think you’re scared of something, and that’s saying a lot when you’ve been to the moon, Mars, and the one big city on Callisto.”

           Colin spit out some of the slushie he had been slurping on, and after suffering a coughing fit as well, burst, “Wait, seriously? Millie! You’ve been all the way to Jupiter?!”

           “Well, yeah.” She kicked at dirt. “I’ve been in an era of routine space tourism and fusion rockets. We did a long starliner tour in a third-class cabin with planetside ferries. Being to space and bouncing in low gravity as a gas giant hangs over a dark icy horizon do change your perspective, but are eventually just more experiences you pack away.”

           “That’s still nuts that one of us has been to space, Mill! Oh, man, you gotta tell me all about that. Ugh, advancements have been so slow in our present.”

           “Routine, but still dangerous and for the brave,” Nyra noted.

           “You just must know everything about me, don’t you…?” Millie asked flatly.

           “… I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner. But you were so diligent in chronicling the events that resulted from the temporal incidents related to Mr. Corathine and Wes’ Time Lab. Yes, you provided invaluable documentation for a big investigation, but the more I read your journals and thoughts, the more I connected with you.”

           “Going through private memories isn’t how you should ‘connect’ with someone.”

           Taking a chance to break the tension, Wes turned to the sunset over the city and murmured, “It really is a nice view. I wouldn’t have wanted to grow up anywhere else.”

           With twilight on the way, the kids said their final goodbyes to Wessy and the others, with Zach striking a pose for the two visitors. As the gang broke up to return to their parents’ waiting cars, Jace and Laurie headed over… with Teen Millie in tow.

           “I was wondering how you got here without a car,” Millie remarked, her eyes on her older self. “I got Jace and Laurie to tell me everything. And I’m coming with you.”

           “Well, no use arguing with me. I would know,” Adult Millie grumbled. “Nyra might have a little space left in the cargo hold, so who else are we inviting on this trip?”

           Jace replied reluctantly, “Be sarcastic, but there is someone else we should bring.”