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The next morning Hava and Makhahr sat beside each other at the same long table as the night before. She held his hand in both of hers and rested it on her lap, finding comfort in him being so close to her. He had tied his hair back and wore his mask again, but now Hava found the intense, dominant effect even sexier.
"We will send the warriors back and let them deal with the rogues there."
"That is too dangerous. What if the battle is more severe than we anticipate and critical lives are lost? Ben has not been able to figure out why the people who have fallen have no hearts when he autopsies them. If we do not understand their attack methods, how are we to fight them?"
"We are running out of time. They have positioned themselves at just 24 hours from the vote. By now they have likely noticed your absence, gentlemen. It is important that you return at the proper time."
Hava listened to the men for several minutes before she realized that two were missing.
"Where are Jake and Josh?" she asked, suddenly feeling frantic.
"We unlocked a portal that opens in a different location close in time to the one you used to get here. We have returned them home."
"You sent them back? Without letting me know?"
"Would you have left?" Makhahr asked quietly and she turned to look at him.
"No," she answered truthfully, "but I would like to have said goodbye." She gazed into his eyes and something that he had said the night before flashed through her mind again, "If they were able to go back, I think I might know how to end this without losing any lives."
"What do you have in mind?" the man across the table from her asked.
"I will need to go with you when you go back to the point in time where they are."
"It is too dangerous."
"It may be the only way. Bring me with you and I will explain everything then."
Hava felt like her lungs were collapsing and she fought to breathe. The air around her burned when she drew it in and the sounds were loud enough that she felt like they were ricocheting in her head, drowning out her own thoughts. She pressed against the stone wall in the alley, focusing on the cobblestones of the street beside her so that she could force herself to acclimate.
1776 Philadelphia was louder, faster, and more aggressive than she could have imagined. She could feel the stirrings of Revolution in the air and the tension of families and friends torn apart by a singular, critical question of loyalty versus independence.
"When will the Declaration be finished?"
"Tonight. The men have all returned to their positions and will follow through with the pattern as we know it. It is our job to protect them and ensure that they get the document completed and distributed. As soon as it is read, the pattern is set and the rogues are destroyed."
"I need a piece of parchment."
Makhahr gave her a quizzical look.
"Why?"
"Please just trust me."
He nodded and they crept down the alley toward a backdoor that led them into a room near where the men were meeting. She could hear a heated argument and caught familiar phrases. They were piecing together the Declaration, stitching the words carefully to create a document that would change the course of history.
She found a piece of clean parchment and a pencil and jotted a quick note on the back. When she was finished, she handed it to Makhahr.
"Make sure that this is the piece of parchment that they have the official copy transcribed on. Meet me outside in ten minutes."
She touched a quick kiss to his lips and ducked back outside, stepping out into the oppressive heat of a July afternoon. They had told her how to recognize the rogues and she scanned the people who passed by carefully. None seemed to notice her, almost as though she were so out of place that they simply didn't register that she was there. Finally, she noticed one of the rogues and began to follow him.
Hava stepped up close behind him, letting images of Makhahr temper the fear that was building inside her, and started to murmur words just loud enough for him to hear.
"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth…"
She felt a hand grab her by the back of the neck and she suppressed a scream as the hand dragged her into another alley. The man who had been in front of her followed and as soon as they were away from the street, he pushed her up against the wall.
"How do you know those words?" he hissed, his face so close to hers that she could feel the spray of his saliva settle onto her cheek.
"I learned them in school."
"They have not finished those words yet."
"Are you sure?"
"Hava?"
She heard Makhahr's voice and she ducked suddenly, managing to slip under the man's arm and run down the alley toward him. A few people jumped out of her way, suddenly aware of her presence, but she couldn’t stop to worry about that. She could feel the rogue following her and she knew she had only a few minutes. The sun was already setting and the Founding Fathers were more vulnerable than ever.
"Bring me to the portal," she demanded when she saw Makhahr, "Do not stop the man who is following us. Just come with me."
They ran until they were back at the portal and Hava felt herself dragged into it. The feeling had become familiar to her and she didn't resist it, enabling her to land on her feet and continue running.
"I need you to get me to Washington, D.C.," she said as they ran through the building toward the original portal where she had arrived, "It doesn't matter when."
Makhahr moved levers along the wall until it shimmered and glowed in a purple so vibrant she had to squint. She reached for his hand, needing his touch to soothe her, and let the portal take her. When they landed, she looked around and realized that they were in the National Archives. She gave a sob of relief and pulled Makhahr to the side, concealing them around a corner.
Seconds later the rogue landed in a crouch beside the portal. He rose slowly to his feet and another appeared behind him. A moment later, two more appeared. Makhahr glared and began to rush toward them, but Hava held him back.
"Wait," she said.
They hesitated for a few more moments and then Hava grabbed him by his arm and started to run. Relying on her memory from fieldtrips when she was younger, she guided him, and the rogues now chasing them, through the National Archives Building until they reached the Rotunda. She sent up a prayer of thanks that the space was empty of tourists, ran up to the podium set in the center and wrapped her hands around the velvet rope blocking access to it.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident," she started to read, "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
She saw Makhahr's face brighten and heard strangled gasps behind them. She turned in time to see the rogues backing away from their, their chests collapsing in before they finally crumbled into dust. Her knees buckled and Hava lowered herself to the floor.
Makhahr dropped down beside her and gathered her into his arms.
"How did you know what to do?" he asked, pressing a kiss to her hair.
"You told me that there are moments that must always exist and that the rogues could only change the patterns of time once. I knew that the message I wrote on the back of that piece of parchment would still be there when I came back here, because I heard about it the first time I came to see this copy. If we forced them to acknowledge a future that they didn't want to see exist, they would not be able to go into the past and change it because they already changed that past simply by being there."
Makhahr tilted her back and looked at her, the expression in his eyes looking stunned but overjoyed. He drew her close and kissed her deeply.
"You are my yesterday, my today, and my tomorrow," he whispered.
Hava tucked her hand around his neck and rested her forehead against his. She finally knew what had been calling to her for her entire life. In her heart, Makhahr always was and always would be.
THE END