Mid-West Campaign
Session Thirty-Five

Saturday, 16 December 2000 (continued)

[Editorial note: The longest day continues. Due to further investigation into the time tunnel on the door to Hamblin's office, this day is actually repeated three times. A full description of the various unstable time lines - as well as an explanation of how time travel works - can be found on the section on Time Travel. Also check here if you're wondering who the heck Henry Devries is. This section details the various permutations experienced by the players in the order they were played. Events in blue type never really happened. Only Bradley Ecks and Todd O'Connell remember all the time-lines, although the other agents have been told what transpired.]

Jack Burchill goes to the library with a member of the local FBI to supervise the digging through the floor. Back at the west HQ Ecks tries to work out exactly what Schult is, but with no great success so he starts to make plans to go back to the 1940s. In the house is $200 of period currency as well as clothes the agents can wear.

Jane is not sure that they should be doing this at the expense of case LA10749. After all they could be trapped in the past and unable to escape. Bobby the St Bernard went through the port on 10 or 11 December and was found on 20 June 1941. She faxes Eisenstein who tells them to go and "save the world". He agrees to send them contemporary identifications as well as a new ID for Nathan (again). The group try to familiarise themselves with the history of the time. Ecks is extremely excited, it's like being in an episode of Star Trek. Jane is taken very ill by Nathan's presence and goes back to bed.

Nathan tries to use his skills to hack into the FBI computer system and download the files of Vitrano and Lavin. He gains some limited information, but is nabbed by the Carnivore Diagnostic Unit and his signal traced back to the west coast HQ. Despite his efforts to modify a satellite phone and cover his tracks it is no good. He has been nabbed. Very soon agents from the Inspection Division, Cyber Crime unit will arrive and arrest him. And when they come they will find Nathan Harlow - who should be dead!

After much discussion Harlow and Ecks can only think of one way out of the situation. They'll go through the portal into the past and leave a message in the LA Times stopping Nathan from hacking the system in the first place. The plan had been to use the newspaper to leave messages for Jane - who would be too ill to accompany them. Ecks thinks that doing that would not diverge the timeline. See the section on time travel for an explanation of how Ecks thinks time travel actually works.

Nathan and Ecks head to the library shortly before Leading Agents Johnson and Smith of the Inspection Division arrive. Todd drags Jane out of her sick bed to talk to them. She didn't know what Nathan was up to and now she has to try and cover it up. She gets them to stop looking at the computer until her team has had the chance to do so. Her remit here from Eisenstein is to keep the deaths of the west coast team confidential, after all.

Jane phones Ecks who explains they are trying to jury rig the satellite phone with Burchill's help to prove Nathan's innocence. Jane says that this will not work and that the Inspection Division will not be fooled. Jane suggests they come up with a story that names Michael Hunt as a scapegoat. Nathan thinks the only way to solve it is to go through the portal. Maybe this was the "leap of faith" that Gabe was referring to. Dressed in appropriate 1940s attire Nathan steps through the portal.

Jane collapses in agony back at the headquarters. The chi link forged between her and Nathan has been broken. Her heart stops with the shock, but she is resuscitated by Todd. At the library Ecks sees Nathan step through the doorway and then the portal vanishes. The time portal has closed. Ecks is in the present, but where is Nathan?

Gabe appears as if from nowhere. He says that Nathan was doing really well, but in the end he failed to make his leap of faith. Ecks realises what happened. Items or people from the past came through into the present. Their mass was equal to a St Bernard, half a chainsaw, a library door and a Nathan Harlow - or at least part of a Nathan Harlow. Ecks believes that Nathan is dead. Gabe tells him that, sadly, this isn't the case and indicates the toilet near-by.

The door to the toilet opens and Nathan Harlow walks out. Only it's not quite the Nathan Harlow that Ecks remembers. He is tall and muscular. Ecks realises that history must have changed somehow. Because he was standing so close to the doorway when it closed he remembers the original timeline but everyone else including his team-mates will only remember the revised version.

Nathan tells Ecks that he made a deal. He has retained his life, his youth and has full control over the powers of the pendant. In exchange he has given Lillian Winter his soul. Ecks cannot quite believe it, but this Harlow is ready to carry on the investigation and heads into Hambin's office to have a poke around.

Back at the West HQ Jane is wondering what happened to Nathan since he stepped through the portal. She asks Schult if there have been any changes to the timeline. Schult says there most definitely have and sites numerous changes to the stock market and in Dallas in 1961. He also says that the most recent changes were 18 October 2000 in New Orleans and two days ago in this very house. Jane is puzzled. These were the two occasions that Henry Devries died. Why should these have been affected? She phones Ecks, but before he can reply Nathan takes the phone off him and explains that it is "all good".

In the library Ecks and Nathan have stopped the digging and began to search Hamblin's office. They see a strange occult pattern burned into the back of Hamblin's office door. Nathan takes pictures. The room is full of books but a closer inspection of them and the portal reveals nothing of note. The three agents return to HQ.

At HQ Jane asks what happened (remember time travel fans, that Jane doesn't feel ill anymore because there was never any link between her and Nathan). Ecks is desperate to get Jane alone and tell her what he knows. He very soon does this. He explains about the Nathan Harlow that he knows and his memories from the old timeline. He has no idea who Henry Devries is, never having met the man. Jane is taken about. She respects and trusts Nathan, but what Ecks has said seems to fit in with the changes to the timeline reported by Schult.

There are ways to check. They head to the vault and look for the jade pendant. It is not there. In the revised timeline it was never used to bring Devries back to life so it was replaced in the vault. It is not there, Ecks maintains, because Nathan must have taken it. They go to the morgue. Here is the corpse of Henry Devries (still in the body of Lehoaoah). Ecks explains that body should not be here. Jane doesn't know what to think. If all this is true then Nathan has allowed an innocent man (Devries) to go to Hell and be tortured in his place. She can't believe that of Nathan.

Ecks is unwilling to confront Nathan because he looks as though he could kill them all. Jane summons Burchill and Ecks tells him everything he just told Jane. Jack doesn't know what to believe, but Jane is still leading agent and he will do what she says. She tells Ecks and Burchill to grabs some tasers and follow her as she confronts Nathan.

Nathan is at the computer looking at what he successfully downloaded about Vitrano and Lavin. In this revised timeline the Inspection Division never came to investigation Nathan's ill-advised hacking. Jane immediately tells him what she knows and tells Nathan to explain himself. Nathan admits to the deal he made with Lillian Winter. He gained full control of the pendant (which is now imbedded in his gut), he has lived through the last 59 year and no longer ages, during this time he has made some very wise investments which is why he is a multi-millionaire. He has paid for these advantages with his soul and only has a quarter of his soul left at the moment. He will also die in 2065 and go to Hell.

What about Henry Devries? As part of the deal he made he got Lillian Winter to call off the Joker. He did not for second imagine that would mean someone would die in his place. But now that Nathan does know, Jane says, he must do something about it! He has to make that leap of faith that Gabe was talking about. He has to reject all the advantages of the deal he made with Lillian Winter - starting with the pendant that is fixed into his stomach. He must give it up, and Jane can perform a simple operation to help him.

This has all the makings of a defining moment between Jane and Nathan. She is bitterly disappointed with him, and he doesn't want to give up his powers. She sees that his immortal soul is on the line, and that this could be his one chance for redemption and Nathan isn't entirely convinced that is the case, even phoning Eisenstein to get him to overrule Jane. (See the Nathan Harlow and Jane Munroe casefiles for more on this).

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