Suicide Mission

They were supposed to kill each other.

It was a suicide mission, she knew that. The organization had wanted to get rid of her.

“Do you know why we’re here?” she asked him.

He was from their rival organization, 300 years into the future, and he laughed.

“You’re in my history books,” he said.

“What for?”

“Disobeying orders. Gross misconduct.”

“I stole something, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I know.”

He was handsome, she supposed, brown eyes gleaming in the light of the nearby sun. But she would kill him first. Then-

“I’ve never been to this planet,” he said suddenly. “Reminds me of Earth’s moon.”

It was rather small, for a planet. Ten galaxies away from home…

“Do you know why we’re here?” she repeated, annoyed.

“To die.”

“You know?”

“Of course I know,” he said. “Like I said. You’re in my history books.”

“What happened?” she asked, wondering what he’d read.

“They never found a body.”

“Of course,” she laughed. “I’m not dying out here.”

“You don’t understand,” he said. “I’m not going to kill you.”

“You’re not?” she asked. “Well, suit yourself. I have orders.”

“Yes, about that.” he said. “Does it even matter anymore? We’ll both die here anyway. If not at each other’s hands, then by the sun.”

It was much closer than it had been a moment ago.

“A supernova. I’ll be long gone from here before then.”

“Perhaps.” he said, remembering his books.

“Why are you here, then, if you’re not going to kill me?”

“Same thing as you. Insubordinate conduct. Felony.”

“Felony?” she repeated. A guy from their organization?

“Agreed to transport medicine from the future to the past. Got me on drug charges.”

“They’d kill you for that?”

“Well, I had...more than a few choice words to say to the guy that arrested me.”

It didn’t make sense.

“...who is also the head of our organization.”

Antonio Res. Of course. He’d shoot anything that looked at him the wrong way.

“I’m surprised, that’s all.” she said. “That’s hardly a death sentence.”

“Maybe I wanted to be here,” he says suddenly.

She laughs. “You think I wanted to be here? At least...I must get out alive, if they never found my body.” she says, thinking.

“Are you really going to kill me, Anastasia?”

“What’s your name?” she asked, realizing he didn’t have a name tag.

“Nathaniel.”

“Look, I’m not happy about it either, Nathaniel. But it’s my only way out of here.”

“Apparently not,” he said. “They never found my body, either.”

“You’re lying,” she said, already reaching for her gun. “You just don’t want to die.”

“We’re going to burn to death anyway! You think I wouldn’t take a mercy kill?”

Her hands curled into fists at her sides. It just didn’t make sense! How did they survive?

“Fine,” he said. “Shoot me.”

“I will,” she said, frustrated. She pulled out her gun, then. Pointed it at him.

He held his hands up in surrender, amused.

“Thanks,” he said, in a familiar drawl.

“Have we met before?” she asked suddenly.

“Once.”

It was midnight, she remembered. Last September. Well. It wasn’t really September, where she was. But she counted the days in her notebook. The small, black one, the most precious thing she’d ever owned, the only place she could put her thoughts- the real, honest ones, the ones that would get her fired in an instant if they knew- without fear of being discovered. She kept it in her pocket even now. It was the only way she could keep track of how old she was.

26. Too young to die.

“It was at the masquerade…”

He nods.

They were in Venice, Italy, the year 1771.

“You were the man in the white mask…”

“And you the girl in the blue dress.”

She had never seen his face before. Not all of it, at least.

He looked even better than she’d imagined. More handsome, albeit in a 1960s kind of way. Like the kind of man who’d be at home in an office, not traveling through time.

They’d connected, not knowing they were time travelers, neither realizing they’d each been from their rival organization. Had spoken Italian and everything.

She thought about that night a lot, since then. Had thought he was a real Venetian, until she saw him in the newspaper her organization printed. Still with the mask on, of course.

They’d captured another time traveler at that party. The one she was supposed to get.

The picture haunted her in her dreams.

“You were doing my job.”

“And you weren’t,” he says, amused.

He looks around, then, though it’s not even worth doing, barren wasteland of a planet.

Not even a space station, here…

“How are we going to get out of here?” he asks.

“I’ve been trying to figure that out all this time!” she groans.

He grins. “So we are getting out of here?”

She sighs.

“Killing you would be pointless, anyway.”

She’d gotten a $20,000 bonus unexpectedly, in space credit, of course, to spend at the organization’s headquarters. A reward for being their longest-lasting recruit without ever going rogue.

She could have gone to see the dinosaurs with that money! She berated herself. Or the all-female warrior planet. Or ancient Greece! But no, she’d spent it on going to the organization’s beginning, because she just had to steal the cortex…

It was the device that made time travel possible, a tiny cube looking thing. But she wasn’t really trying to steal the cortex, of course. She was trying to steal her life back. To be done with the organization for good. Go back to Earth, be a normal person, live a normal life…

She knew too much to retire. So, she’d work until the end of her life, or, until the end of her life, only shorter, and at the end of a gun.

It was a futile attempt at escaping her fate, and several men had appeared out of nowhere as she took it, coming from the future to arrest her.

She’d been put on a ship immediately, given her last orders- “Kill the man in front of you, or you both die”- and they’d stared at each other from their jail cells, flying towards this wretched planet.

The ship was programmed not to leave unless one of them was dead.

And it knew this because-

Our trackers, she realized.

“Give me your arm,” she said, pulling a bobby pin from her hair, the only tool they had to do this.

They were sweating, now. Droplets fell onto his palm, whether hers or his, she didn’t know.

“Do it fast,” he said, looking away.

He cursed at the pain, pulling the tracker out of his arm. He’d returned the favor, and the ship whirred to life.

They crushed the trackers with their boots, just in case, then ran to the ship.

It was headed back to Earth, in the wrong time period, she realized, not to either of their organizations. And she couldn’t change it, she thought frantically, tapping at the screen.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, tearing off his jacket to stop the bleeding.

He ripped it in half, for her.

“Here,” he said.

It was drenched in sweat, but the gesture was sweet, and she took it, wrapping it around her arm, which was dripping blood all over the console.

“Thanks.”

They looked at each other then, making real eye contact for the first time since-

Since…

There was a full moon that night, and they had walked out to the yard, talking about their families.

She was supposed to be inside, she thought to herself, but she allowed it, for once.

She had never allowed herself to enjoy this. Time travel, that is.

Work.

For a moment, she’d pretended she was just a normal girl. A real Venetian, all dressed up, at a masquerade ball.

With a kind man at her side.

It was so easy to talk to him, for some reason. They’d talked for hours, sitting outside by the fountain.

She didn’t want to go back in.

And neither did he, evidently, because he’d pulled her in and kissed her, and she’d let him, but she never did that! She never got distracted, she never-

She looked at him, then, standing next to her, staring at the console. His black hair was matted to his face from sweat, and as he tapped at the screen, arms strong and a bit veiny, she found herself wishing that he would kiss her again.

It was irrational, she told herself. Just one night of connection. It was nothing!

“I can’t change it,” he said finally. “We’re going to 2001.”

“And there’s nothing we can do about it?” she asked. Neither of their organizations even existed back then!

“Perhaps we should embrace it…”

How would they get back? She wondered. Did she even want to go back? She’d tried to destroy the cortex, after all. Never wanted to time travel again. Joining the organization had ruined her life, and now-

“Won’t they come after us?” she asked.

“You’re a famous disappearance, in my history books. They never found a body.”

A famous disappearance?

“Even this looks like a glitch,” he laughs, pointing at the year in the console. “They got the wrong century! I always wondered what happened to you.”

“So...that’s it?” she asked. “I go back in time, just live a normal life?”

“We go back in time,” he corrected. “And yes, I believe so.”

It was all she’d ever wanted, though not in the time period she would have chosen, but still.

The ship was already moving, and she found herself wondering what he’d do, when they got there. What she’d do, for that matter.

“I wasn’t joking, before.” he said.

“About what?”

“Wanting to come here.”

“...what?”

“Res would have killed me right there. I begged him to let me come here. Change history. Kill you myself, as my last job. Then I’d die here, I told him. With the death of the star.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“I lied.” he says, smirk on his face. She melted a bit at the sight.

“I wanted to know what happened to you. And-”

“And?” she asked, confused that there was more.

“I’ve thought about you. A lot. Since Venice.”

“...I’ve thought about you, too.” she admitted.

“I’d hoped so,” he said. “I didn’t know you were-”

“Me either.”

He laughed. “Thought you were just a normal girl, from the 18th century…”

She smiled.

“Found out who you were when I got back. Got briefed on your organization from one of our guys. Thought you were gorgeous, without the mask,” he admits.

She blushed a bit at that.

“I’m glad I didn’t kill you,” she says, and he laughs.

“I came here for you,” he says finally.

“What?!”

“Not just to find out what happened to you. I came...to see you again. Talk to you. Even if it would be for just one day.”

She didn’t know what to say. She’d never been able to fall in love. Not with a job like hers. But now…

Now she was just going to be a normal girl, with a normal life, in 2001.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“Tell me.”

“We-” she wasn’t sure if she should say it. But he had just admitted, that he’d come here for her, that-

“Yes?”

“We could have a normal life together. Where we’re going, I mean. Get married, have a family…”

Heat rose on her cheeks. It would make sense, she thought. They were the only people who’d understand each other, where they arrived. And they did have a connection, and...And if not, well, she’d never have to see him again.

He smiled, blushing a little.

“We could,” he agreed.

The spaceship flew amongst the stars, towards the past.

Towards their future.