Time Travel
Or How Nathan Harlow Changed Everything (for a while)

On 14 December 2000 the mid-west evidence response team began work on case 0015-GCF. A portal through time had been created in the basement of the Los Angeles Central Library. The west coast team had successfully sent a St. Bernard into 1941. According to the archangel, Gabe, the portal was an anathema to God and must be closed. It could only be closed by equalising the mass on both sides of the portal. If something went through something of the same mass would have to come back. This did not have to be the same "something".

The presence of a time portal raised some fundamental questions that science fiction writers had been wrestling with for a lifetime. Would it be possible to return to 1941 and stop the attack on Pearl Harbour? Would anything time travellers did in the past have any effect on the present, or would the timeline diverge into a parallel world? If this was the case, could there be an endless number of parallel worlds, each only subtlety different to the last?

When Nathan Harlow stepped through the time portal the mass was equalised and the portal was closed. Nathan should have died, but he made a deal with Lillian Winter to remain in 1941. The presence of Nathan Harlow in 1941 altered the timeline and suddenly time travel was no longer theoretical. This caused various changes to the timeline, most of which were subsequently rectified by the actions of Agents Ecks and O'Connell. This section hopes to make sense of the changes and revisions of the time-line, including the team's subsequent dabblings with time travel in May 2001.

How Time Travel Works

Some science fiction writers maintain that altering the past directly effects the present, while other say that this is rubbish - after all if you went back in time and killed your own father how would you be born to go back in time and kill your own father? The only logical explanation is that changing even the smallest thing in the past would have no effect on the present and instead it would create a divergent reality. Through use of the latest theories and (miraculously) empirical evidence the Midwest team seem to have an answer. The truth lies somewhere in-between.

Using layman's terms (because I have no others) the fabric of reality is lazy. It can diverge into alternative realities, but it doesn't really like to. Think of the timeline as a sausage of modelling clay running from point A to point B. If it can, the timeline will change, bend and contort itself so that it still gets from point A to B. The timeline always prefers to adapt to accommodate the activities of time travellers than split. Of course, it all depends upon the size of the change that is made in the past. If a time traveller went back in time and killed his own father, or stopped the attack on Pearl Harbour, then this would be a major change to history. No matter how the timeline bent or twisted itself it couldn't accommodate both versions of events. It would snap and create another reality. However, if the time traveller went back in time and stole somebody's laundry from their washing line then this would be such a small change that the timeline would bend and change with it. The timeline would still be the same timeline, but as far as anyone was concerned the clothes from the washing line had always been stolen. The only person who would think otherwise would be the time traveller.

When Nathan Harlow found himself in 1941 he made a point of not making any major changes to history. He kept a low profile and did not draw attention to himself. Yes, he made some changes which changed the future, but these were relatively minor. Although the timeline bent itself ragged accommodating them it did accommodate them and did not break. When Ecks and O'Connell went back in time they went to undo Nathan's handiwork; again they did not split the timeline. Therefore, the timeline Nathan lived through form 1941 to 2000 and the timeline Ecks fixed is the same timeline that has existed through this campaign, and not an alternative reality.

Nathan's Changes to the Timeline

With the exception of the Bradley Ecks and Todd O'Connell no human being on Earth noticed the changes to the timeline. When the timeline adapted to changes in the past the memories of everyone who did not exist in the fourth dimension was also changed. It's a bit like the introduction of Dawn in the fifth series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer only these memories are of events that really happened. Ecks wasn't effected because he was too close to the portal in the first instance, and effected the change in the second. Todd wasn't effected because.... well, no-one is entirely sure why Todd wasn't effected. Was it predestination (as he maintains) or is there something more to Special Agent O'Connell? As a scion of Winterset, Todd's DNA is subetly different than that of a normal human being.

The rest of evidence response (particularly Jane Munroe) have had this entire sad series of events related to them. They therefore know what happened in all the various permutations of the timeline even if they cannot remember living through them. The Timeline of Events faithfully records what happened in the sessions, but to make things slightly clearer events that eventually turned out not to have happened are highlighted in blue text. Because Ecks very helpfully corrected the timeline by killing Nathan no changes in the timeline effected the course of events already documented in the Timeline or Casefiles prior to 16 December 2000. This is something of a relief to me especially.

Four Versions of One Timeline

Before the status quo finally returned, the agents lived through four different versions of the same timeline. I very briefly summarise what these versions were below, and then proceed to break down the major changes thematically. I realise that many of these changes have little bearing on current events but they did happen (however briefly) and therefore should be recorded.

Version One: This is the original time-line. No time travel occured in this timeline. Everything happened as documented on this site right up to the point when Harlow is raised from the dead by Jane Munroe on 15 December 2000 and steps through the time portal the following day to avoid an internal investigation.

Version Two: As soon as Harlow steps through the portal, version two of the timeline is created. In this version, Harlow makes a deal with Lillian Winter to survive, live until 2065 in a state of youth and vitality, be taken off the Joker's hit list, gain full control of the jade pendant of Talent and place a bug in the Carnivore Diagnostic Tool Unit's computer so that he is not detected hacking into Vitrano's files. This costs him 75% of this soul. Nathan now enters the world of 1941 and lives through the intervening years. He makes some wise investments and does a lot of sight-seeing, but does nothing that will cause the timeline to split. To prevent there being two Nathan Harlows in evidence response he kills his infant self. This does not cause a divergent timeline, however. The timeline adapts to this seemingly monumental change and Nathan progresses to the present. He joins the FBI, the Carnivore Diagnostic Tool Unit and eventually evidence response along with Henry Devries (see below). However, the Joker still needs to kill someone in new Orleans on 18 October 2000 and so Henry Devries is chosen as a scapegoat. Anything good that happened to Nathan Harlow in version one of the timeline still happened, but anything bad happened to Henry Devries. Nathan realises that the pendant can't be used to revive Henry Devries so he takes it with him and returns through the portal on 16 December.

Version Three: Nathan stepping through the portal creates the third version of the timeline. The timeline is rewritten again, but the only major difference between version two and version three is that Harlow now possesses two amulets and not one. Because Nathan already stole the second pendant in version two of the timeline, the timeline has adapted and he doesn't need to do it again. It is in this version of the timeline that Jane confronts Nathan and persuades him to have the pendant removed. Nathan murders Jane and Burchill and is eventually gunned down by Ecks and O'Connell. Ecks and O'Connell decide to go back to 1941 and kill Nathan when he arrives there, in order to put the timeline right.

Version Four: The final version of the timeline. Ecks and O'Connell arrive in 1941 and lie in wait for Harlow. He appears in 1941 after making the deal with Lillian Winter, therefore he has received all of the advantages he bargained for in version two of the timeline. Ecks and O'Connell kill Harlow, remove his hands, take the pendants and return to the present. The presence of Harlow's body in the sewer leads to the creation of case SF221 which did not exist in version one of the timeline. Because the time travelling Nathan died, the infant Nathan grew up normally and joined evidence response so Nathan Harlow's history and all the cases and inter-relationships of the mid-west team are unchanged from timeline version one. The last thing Jane and the others remember was Nathan stepping through the portal none of the subsequent changes took place with one exception: because Nathan's deal to prevent himself being noticed by the Carnivore Diagnostic Tool Unit was made before Ecks killed him, that change still stands. The inspection division never came to the west coast HQ as they did in version one of the timeline. The Joker really did kill Harlow on the 18th October and 14th December because Harlow was only taken off the Joker's hitlist after that point.

The above four versions of the timeline cover the salient points and differences that time travel brought about. However, I am now going to look at some of the changes thematically, as hopefully this will make a few things clearer.

The Jade Pendant(s) of Talent

As part of the deal with Lillian Winter Harlow gained full control of the jade pendant of talent created by Mao Sei Ben. This greatly augmented Nathan's physical attributes and turned him into a martial arts expert in versions two, three and four of the timeline (although only very briefly in version four). But because Harlow went back to the past with the pendant more than once, several copies of this item were created. Here's how it all works (with each pendant helpfully numbered):

Version One (One Pendant): The pendant (1) is created by Mao Sei Ben in 500 BC. At some point between then and 1900 he loses track of it. It turns up in an emporium in San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1950s, and is found by the west coast team in 1995. After the Joker kills Nathan on 14 December 2000, Jane uses the pendant (1) to revive Nathan. Two days later Nathan goes back in time with this pendant (1) in his chest.

Version Two (Two Pendants): The pendant (2) is created by Mao Sei Ben in 500 BC. At some point between then and 1900 he loses track of it. In 1941 Nathan arrives with pendant (1). Meanwhile pendant (2) turns up in an emporium in San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1950s, and is found by the west coast team in 1995. On 14 December 2000 Henry Devries is killed by the Joker. Nathan steels pendant (2) from the west coast vault so he now possesses pendants (1) and (2). He then returns to the past.

Version Three (Three Pendants): The pendant (3) is created by Mao Sei Ben in 500 BC. At some point between then and 1900 he loses track of it. In 1941 Nathan arrives with pendants (1) embedded in his gut and carrying pendant (2). In the 1950s Nathan arranges for pendant (2) to end up in the emporium in Chinatown where it is found by the west coast time in 1995. On 14 December 2000, the Joker kills Henry Devries. Nathan steels pendant (2) from the west coast vault so he once again possesses pendants (1) and (2). Nathan goes on a killing spree, but it killed by Ecks and O'Connell who go to 1941 to thwart him.

Version Four (Three Pendants): The pendant (3) is created by Mao Sei Ben in 500 BC. At some point between then and 1900 he loses track of it. In 1941 Nathan arrives with pendants (1) embedded in his gut and carrying pendant (2). He is killed by Ecks and O'Connell. They take the pendant that was in Nathan (1) back to the present and leave pendant (2) to be discovered by persons unknown. Pendant (2) finds its way into a Chinese emporium, where the west coast team discover it in 1995. On 14 December Nathan is killed by the Joker, Jane resurrects him with the pendant and then Nathan returns to the past. Because of the woolly nature of the timeline evidence response still have two pendants (1) and (2) in the present.

In Marc's own words: "Now it is possible that pendant (3) is pendant (2), and Mao Sei Ben's loss of the pendant simply was the fact that matter cannot exist simulaneously in the same state, and that chronologically Natha's was the most recent pendant and therefore the valid pendant. And therefore there are only two pendant, but that cannot currently be proved by the team. Thus, the net effect of this entire effort was the aquisition of an inert pendant and Nathan being gunned down in the past."

Henry Devries: Scapegoat

One of the things Harlow asked Lillian Winter for was to be taken off the Joker's hit list. Winter wilfully twisted this request so that Nathan was never attacked by the Joker in the first place, although he retained all the trauma of being attacked. Of course, if Nathan wasn't attacked then somebody else must have been: enter Henry Devries. The timeline must have tied itself in a knot accommodating this change without breaking. Here are how things played out:

In version one (and, thankfully, version four) of the timeline Henry Devries was an FBI agent who worked with Harlow in the Carnivore Diagnostic Tool Unit. When that unit was reassigned Devries was assigned somewhere else. In versions two and three of the timeline Henry Devries was assigned to the Midwest evidence response team with Nathan. Obviously this change greatly surprised Nathan, but he couldn't say anything without changing the timeline.

From the formation of the team on 26 September 2000 until 17 October 2000, Nathan repeated all the activities he had done in the original timeline. He started the Birmingham race riot and he accompanied Jane to the Prentice farm where they were attacked by brain bugs. Henry Devries was relatively ineffectual and didn't seem to do much. Then on 18 October everything change. Devries went with Nathan and Artemis Black to New Orleans and it was Henry Devries who was killed by the Joker!

This obviously came as a great shock to Nathan, but he couldn't do anything about it until he caught up with the "present" for fear of creating a divergent timeline. The truth was that Henry Devries had died because of Harlow's actions. However, just like the original Nathan Harlow, Devries's soul could not rest and reappeared as a ghost. Jane Munroe conspired to bring Henry Devries back to life, and it was Henry Devries who occupied the body of the cahuna Lehoaoah. It was Henry Devries who became Michael Hunt. It was Henry Devries who was with Jane in the crash of flight FB104. And it was Henry Devries who was murdered again by the Joker when the supernatural fiend attacked the West Coast HQ on 14 December 2000.

Nathan realised that he had to take the jade pendant with him back to the past (timeline version two), and so he persuaded Jane not to use it on the body of Henry Devries. This was a change Nathan was obliged to make to stop the timeline from diverging. However, it was a deliberate decision to leave the soul of Henry Devries trapped in Hell.

The Rise and Rise of Nathan Harlow

A large number of small alterations in versions two and three of the timeline made Nathan very wealthy indeed. He made sure to invest money in Microsoft and Apple back when the companies were starting up. By the time he caught up with the present in the year 2000, Harlow was worth in excess of $40 million and has his own private island and fleet of sportscars. He has used his martial arts prowess to earn money and got a place in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney which is where he met Jane for the first time. However, Nathan had to keep a low profile. He couldn't flaunt his wealth, and he couldn't actually win the Olympics. However, once he lived past the point he originally went into the past all bets were off and he planned to use his money and powers for good.

The Grassy Knoll and Other Historical Events

On 22 November 1961 John F Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president of the United States was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. In versions two and three of the timeline Harlow was there when it happened and saw who killed Kennedy. Of course, he isn't telling, but Nathan was responsible for the forty years of conspiracy. Nathan was also present at the most famous speech of Martin Luther King. It impressed him so much that he determined to stay around for the centenary.

Carnivore Diagnostic Tool Unit

The main reason that Harlow went back to the past so precipitously was because he had triggered an alert when he was looking at the files of agents Vitrano and Lavin. One of the small changes to the timeline Nathan made was to build a small fault into the system during his time in the Carnivore Diagnostic Tool unit so that the alert failed at the precise moment he was trying to access the information on 16 December 2000. This is one of the few changes that survived through to version four of the timeline.

Nathan Harlow and Jane Munroe

Okay, Jane is my character and this is my site so I'm going to indulge myself here. These changes in versions two and three of the timeline altered the relationship between Nathan and Jane in interesting ways. These merit recording. In timeline version one Jane was very fond of Nathan. She opened up to him at the Prentice farm and counted him a friend. When he was murdered at the hands of the Joker she did all she could to try and save his soul from Hell. She acted rashly and unwisely bringing him back from the dead twice. Jane felt the need to look out for Nathan, she saw him as a little brother. Someone who needed her to protect him.

In versions two/three all that has changed. These feelings of sisterly affection were largely transferred to Henry Devries. After all, Devries was the one killed by the Joker, and Devries was the one that needed Jane's help. Nathan was completely different. Rather than a short, podgy computer jockey with a pornography fixation he had become this tall, athletic martial artist with a pornography fixation. Nathan had also been to the Olympic Games. Rather than doting on Nathan, in versiosn two/three Jane really respected Nathan and admired him. She may have even entertained romantic feelings toward Nathan had she not been so emotionally crippled by Apache Joe.

In discovering the truth about Nathan's time travelling in version three of the timeline, Jane realises that she never really knew Nathan at all. She did not feel betrayed so much as bitterly disappointed in him. She certainly didn't trust him anymore, and whether Nathan could have ever regained that trust is debatable. She was mourning the death of Henry Devries, but that really confused her as Henry and Nathan became blurred concepts in her mind.

With version four of the timeline, Jane's attitude to Nathan returned to what it had always been. However, it is still coloured by the knowledge of what he did in all the versions of the timeline. She may not have the memory of Nathan's betrayal of himself, but she knows the facts. She is in mourning for him, but this is tinged with regret that Nathan didn't have it within him to save himself when it mattered. She is devastated that Nathan's soul is knowing eternal torment in Hell, but she realises that there is nothing she can do about it. Unless something remarkable happens to change her mind, Jane believes that Nathan is beyond saving.

Alex Drake's Changes to the Timeline

Evidence response never learns for its mistakes. On 23 May 2001 the time-traveller Alan Hamblin III visited the mid-west HQ. Jane Munroe followed Hamblin when he departed and inadvertantly found herself transported back to 26 July 2000. She decided not to change anything, but she ran into that era's Alex Drake and was forced to change the way in which he joined evidence response in order to restore the timeline and be sent back to the present by the Archangel Raphael.

However, Alex Drake didn't like the way Jane had changed the timeline. Before he had ben deliberately moved to evidence response to protect himself from the mafia. Now he was an incompetent who blew up gas stations and let criminals slip through his fingers. Although Drake couldn't remember the original timeline he sensed that he had been shafted. When it became clear that the reality Jane had created would be responsible for him being the victim of an internal investigation (and shafted still further) he decided to use time travel to fix the situation.

Alex used Hamblin's time door (badly) to return to the 26 July 2000 just before Jane appeared. He explained to Jane that she shouldn't interfere with his life and she agreed to this. However, the time door Alex had created was so unstable that it drew the attention Archangel Gabe. Gabe sent Jane and Alex back to the present with a flea in their ears and smoothed out the timeline.

Although not as fundamental (or as self-destructive) as the changes that Harlow made, Drake's jaunt through time did create a few separate realities. These are documented as follows:

Three Versions of One Timeline

Version One: This is the original version of Alex Drake's background before Jane messed with it. Alex was a very successful agent (top of his class) and he worked in undercover operations. After a successful deep-cover assignment in the Chicago Mafia Drake went on holiday - a road trip across the mid-west. He stopped for gas in Wichita in the morning on 26 July 2000. Unfortunately, Drake's FBI bosses feared for Alex's safety. He had been too successful, made too many enemies. With Alex's consent they planted narcotics in his car, and used that as an excuse to move him into evidence response. The plan was Alex would lay low in evidence response for a few years before being promoted and returning to him previous career. He was briefly assigned to help out the mid-west team on 26 September 2000, but was reassigned to another position in evidence response on 28 September, before being assigned as a full-time member of the team on 9 December 2000. The timeline then continues as documented up to the point when Jane travels back in time on 23 May 2001, creating a modified timeline (version two).

Version Two: The timeline is the same up to the point where the Jane from the future meets with Alex when he stops at gas station in Wichita on 26 July. She steals his car, forcing Alex to pursue her, which inadvertantly results in the destruction of the gas station and an enormous blot of Drake's record. Drake tracks down Jane and she is forced to tell him the truth of who she is and what she is doing. Jane knows that Raphael will be in Texas on 3 August and convinced Drake to smuggle her over there. Drake agrees. Drake's FBI superiors do not enact their plan with the narcotics. They are wondering why Drake destroyed a gas station and didn't report it to them. Drake and Jane meet Raphael who says that the time line has been altered and Drake won't be moved to evidence response unless something is done to screw his career over some more. Jane suggests that he lets the 'criminal' Raphael escape. They do this. Jane is returned to her own time, and Drake is moved to evidence response. Only this time he is not there for his owen safety but because he genuinely screwed up. His FBI superiors have no intention of letting him out in a few years. The timeline and all the team's adventures continue normally, up to the point where Jane returns from the past on 23 May and Drake remembers meeting her - remembers that his life used to be better than this. Then he hears of the internal investigation regarding the escape of Raphael that seems intent on lynching him.

Version Three: On 24 May 2001, Drake escapes Benedict by shooting him and travels back in time to set things right. He wants to erase his dodgy past to prevent the internal investigation. He travels back to an hour before the time-travelling Jane arrives the Wichita HQ on 26 July 2000. He tells her not to meet or talk to the Alex Drake of this era. Jane agrees. But the time door Drake used collapses and they are in danger of creating a dangerous time loop. This is prevented by Archangel Gabe who returns Jane and Alex to the preseent (the evening on 24 May 2001). The version of the timeline created here is almost exactly the same as Verson One (above), and everything is back to normal. The main difference is that Alex and Jane have residual memories of the world from Version Two of the timeline, and written notes to back these up.

In Conclusion

Thus ends two particularly confusion chapters in the history of evidence response. Unfortunately, although Alan Hamblin III is long dead from a chronological perspective, he still has more than ten years of subjective time to live through. It is very likely that evidence response have not seem the last of him, and are therefore not completely done with time travel. I am holding out hope that I'm wrong and the team can put all this behind them. In short:

Let us never speak of this again.