Yue

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"That was still being sorted out when I left. You'd really have been better off kidnapping an actual Justice League member."

"Where did it come from?"

"I'm not sure. Both of the people associated with it claimed that it was built by a man who used the alias Rip Hunter, but I don't know what era or time line he came from. It came to us under the control of a man named Jason Goldstein, who stole it because he wanted to 'improve' history with his knowledge of the future."

Brainiac 5 nods. "It sounds as though he should be our target."

"Why? The League has decided not to use the time sphere, which means that Mister Hunter and Mister Goldstein are stuck where they are. There won't be any further alterations from them. And.. there's a tracking device in the time sphere that would detect you if you tried it."

"Why did they travel to your era?"

"As I said, he wanted to improve-."

"There are an almost unlimited number of points in human history where a time traveller might go to 'improve' things. The only one of them that happens in your era is the Reach conquest."

"So… The Sheeda invasion doesn't happen?"

His eyes narrow slightly. "I'm not answering your questions. I'm trying to restore a time line, not damage it further. In other circumstances I might tell you everything and let Saturn Girl erase it from your mind, but since you're resistant I can't take the risk of you going back and making things worse."

"You think it can be restored? How does that work? Mister Hunter said something about history 'knowing' the shape it should have, but that sounded.. a bit anthropomorphic to me."

"I imagine that he was dumbing it down for your benefit. The truth is considerably more complicated. My current belief is that I can restore our time line so long as I can correct the largest source of disruption." He shakes his head. "Frankly, I don't understand how this was possible in the first place. Only a colossal disruption in the time stream should have made this possible, and the only being I know capable of making such a disruption is pleading ignorance. Did any of the time travellers attempt to persuade you to take any particular course of action?"

"Truggs wanted to stop the Reach, but we-. Can I talk to him for a moment?"

"Why?"

"Truggs is working for a man named Lex Luthor, who's a member of an alliance of supervillains called 'The Light'. He told me that he was working to avoid the future he came from, where Earth gets occupied and devastated by the Reach. But according to Mister Goldstein, the Light are the ones who draw the Reach to Earth in the first place. I-" I shake my head. "-wondered why an interstellar polity from the other side of the core had any interest in Earth. I mean, it's interesting, but it's not that interesting."

"I imagine that it's due to the investment/reward ratio. Earth can be conquered relatively easily, and the potential rewards are extreme." He steps back and presses his button again. "This may prove illuminating."

"Mister Truggs?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you aware that the Light are the ones who bring the Reach to Earth in the first place?"

He's quiet for a moment. "What is this?" He sounds slightly amused.

"According to the time traveller you sent me to meet, the Light are the ones who bring the Reach to Earth."

"What? Look, Paul, we haven't.. talked for a while-" Oooooh dear. "-so maybe you've started hearin' my voice insider yer head or somethin', I don't know." Oh dear. "If I knew where another time traveller was gunna show up, I wouldn't tell you. I'd have a.. squad a' guys waitin'. Shoot em, tranq em', take their stuff…"

"You didn't tell me."

"I didn't tell yah. Wait… You think I'm the only guy who can get a hold a' you?"

"And that.. thing about Savage wanting to use your time travel device-"

"I told you, it's busted. Even if he wan'ed to use it, he couldn't."

I hold out my left hand and generate a construct of the item I picked up at 'his' behest. "Please show him this."

Cosmic Boy pulls something out his pocket, uses it to scan my construct and then holds it out in the direction of Mr Truggs.

"Huh. Looks… Kinda like my device. How'd you get it?"

"You, or.. the person posing as you directed me to an address. It was there. I asked for it because I needed a way to prevent the time sphere leaving our era."

"Hey, does that mean I have ta get outa here? I don't remember doin' this, so it's gotta be future me. Right?"

Brainiac shakes his head. "So far as I can tell: changing the past is possible, and only the one who does it is aware that anything has changed. Which means that any number of alternate versions of you could try any number of things and none of them would guarantee anything. Otherwise the past which I remember would be guaranteed to return. Tell me more about Goldstein. What exactly did he ask you to do?"

"He gave the Justice League information on a semi-defunct assassination organisation called Eliminations, Inc. Not all of it was accurate, but we were able to take a highly sophisticated gynoid and some time travelling fascists into custody. They worked for someone called Per Degaton."

"I see. Disrupting Per Degaton's reunification campaign would prevent the spread of his pan-human political philosophy. That might prevent the United Planets being formed… Still, time is usually more resilient than that. Others should have taken up the flag."

"But Per Degaton's people were time travellers too. I'm assuming that.. this.. United Planets isn't a fascist organisation?" The green skinned Coluan raises his right eyebrow. "So are you sure you're not from the time line where he didn't have resources provided to him by people from the past?"

"His rise to power was an.. anomaly, even in history as I remember it. Some historians speculated that he discovered a pre-Reach weapons cache of some kind… But he could well have been getting materials from the past. It fits the events."

"So what would you say to people from the version where-?"

"I wouldn't."

I hear Mr Truggs huff-snort. "Nice ta know I never did anything you wouldn't, Brainy. Howsabou-?"

Brainiac 5 raises the remote and presses the button, cutting him off.

Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy exchange disturbed looks. He shakes his head, then she steps towards her Coluan comrade. "Brainy, you said-."

"That there was only one 'real' time line and anything else would experience paradox collapse? I thought from the way our host laughed when I said it that it probably was an incorrect deduction. And with.. everything we now know was happening…"

"But that-."

He glares at her. "I know. Why do you think he's letting us use this place? This is his idea of a joke."

"Look, if you're just trying to spot a single key alteration, I'm happy to help. What do you n-?"

He turns away and walks towards the only visible exit, the other three falling in behind him. "I'll let you know if we decide to return to your era."