Chapter 1:

Timeless - One shot

Timeless

65 Million Years Ago. Late Cretaceous Period. A Primeval Forest.

The air was thick and humid, heavy with the scent of exotic, giant ferns and damp earth. The endless chorus of strange insects and distant, bellowing creatures was the only sound in a world untouched by humanity.

There were no dinosaurs here. Only predictions... and one dying man.

The sound of a man screaming:

An old man, his body wracked with pain, convulsed. His long, silver hair whipped across his face as he fell to the soft, mossy ground. A gut-wrenching scream of pure agony tore from his throat, his features contorted in unimaginable grief.

Mildred: "No, no! I need more time! I need more time to do it!"

His eyes, once full of wisdom, rolled back into his head, turning a milky, sightless white. He was seizing, his body failing him.

Mildred: "The water...!" he screamed, though no one was there to hear.

The intricate antique watch on his wrist began to spin wildly, its hands becoming a blur of frantic motion. He could feel its energy surging through him, a terrifying and unstoppable force.

Mildred: "What are you doing? I'm dying! I can't control it now!"

With the last of his strength, Mildred looked up at the strange, prehistoric sky visible through the towering canopy, his face a mask of sorrow and resignation.

Mildred: "This place... this time... Here was the signal. The beacon for life on Earth after the first family left. No one remains forever. We all leave. But please... History, I beg you... do not forget me."

He clasped his hands together in a final, desperate prayer, looking upward as if to embrace the heavens themselves. The hands on his watch spun faster, whirring like a machine pushed beyond its limits.

Mildred: "It is the eleventh hour."

A colossal, silent explosion of pure white light erupted from his body, vaporizing everything in a massive radius. A brilliant beam of energy shot up through the forest canopy, piercing the sky and echoing across the fabric of time itself.

October 28, 2021. Northampton City Museum.

The air inside the museum was cool and still, smelling of polished wood and ancient dust. Soft, respectful lighting illuminated displays of forgotten eras.

A man named David stood perfectly still before a glass display case. He was dressed in an immaculate suit and tie. Inside the case, resting on a velvet cushion, was an ancient, ornate wristwatch.

A slow, triumphant smile spread across David's face as he stared at it.

David: "We found it."

He pulled out his phone, his hands trembling slightly with excitement, and quickly dialed a number.

7:35 AM. A Suburban House.

David stood before his bedroom mirror, adjusting his tie. His reflection showed a man possessed by a singular purpose.

David: "It's been two hours since Mr. Jason took the watch. It seems... it really is the one."

His phone rang, the caller ID showing "Jason Ford." He answered immediately.

David: "It seems the time has come."

He finished dressing, a new intensity in his eyes.

An hour later. A Corporate Office.

David sat in a sleek, modern chair opposite Jason, whose face was dark with anger and frustration.

Jason: "I told you, it's practically impossible now!"

David: "But sir, we can go back! We can retrieve it!"

Jason: "I will not risk you, David, or anyone else! The last team never came back!"

David: "Then what is the solution?"

Jason: "We have to defeat them, no matter who—or what—they are."

David fell silent, the weight of the situation pressing down on him.

David: "Sir, we haven't even confirmed that the aliens are real."

Jason: "Haven't we? What about the London event? October 28, 1982. Can you explain how dozens of people spontaneously combusted in the public square, leaving behind skeletal remains that didn't even belong to them?"

David: "Sir, there must be another way. Time travel exists. We've proven it. And if the aliens exist..."

Jason: "Going back to the Cretaceous or to '82 threatens our only chance of understanding this." He pulled a yellowed, preserved newspaper from his desk drawer and slid it across the polished surface to David.

David picked it up, his eyes scanning the horrific photographs of the event.

David: "Sir... there's something different here. There's a person in this photo... he doesn't belong to that timeline."

He pointed at a figure in the crowd and handed the paper back.

Jason looked at it and nodded grimly. "You're right. That's Professor Link. He lives in Tokyo now, working on a machine for traveling through time and space."

David: "Shall we bring him in?"

Jason: "Of course. I'll give the order. He'll be here within two hours."

A back alley in Tokyo. Later that day.

A teenager with messy black hair emerged from a cramped internet cafe, blinking in the afternoon sun. A carefree smile was on his face as he walked, looking up at the sky between the towering buildings.

A quarter of an hour later, he let himself into a small, cluttered apartment.

The Boy: "I wonder what Link is doing now?"

He pushed open the door to Link's room and found a young man with striking white hair and intelligent, weary eyes standing by the balcony. He was already dressed in a crisp shirt and a bowtie, as if expecting company.

Link: "Mildred. I've been waiting for you for three hours."

Mildred sat down on the edge of the rumpled bed with a sigh.

Mildred: "I was thinking about what you told me... about my transformation."

Link: "Yes. You were the last Time Lord. I found you after you lost your memory."

Mildred: "I remember being an old man... saying goodbye to the world. But then I woke up and found myself in the Egyptian ruins at Giza."

Link: "Yes. I found you during my research trip."

Mildred: "So how am I supposed to find my watch?"

Link: "Every Time Lord had a device to help them navigate the timestream. Yours was a wristwatch. I wonder if any of them traveled using a crystal or—"

The door burst open. Four armed security men filed into the small room, followed by Jason.

Jason: "Professor Link. You're coming with us."

Link raised a single, unimpressed eyebrow.

Link: "And who are you? Police?"

Mildred: "Link, they're armed!"

Link took a step closer to Jason, his demeanor cool and utterly calm.

Link: "Of course they are, Mildred. They're only nervous because they're not actual police, are they? Which means they have no real authority here. Isn't that right, Jason?"

Mildred stared, shocked.

Mildred: "You know him, Link?"

Link: "Of course I know him. We were in the same class for a long time."

Jason: "We don't have time for this. They could appear at any moment. Months ago, we invented a device for traveling through time and space. We sent its carrier to the Cretaceous period. When he arrived, he was killed in some kind of explosion. But the device sent a signal across the entire universe. A beacon. It said, 'Come. We are here.'"

Mildred paled. The memory was a ghost in his mind. He was the cause.

Link: "And how do you plan to stop them now?"

Jason: "I'll need your expertise. One of my men will accompany you to confront the event at the source."

Link: "I agree. But Mildred comes with me."

Jason: "No problem."

9:59 AM. The Operations Room.

The room was a hub of silent tension, filled with blinking monitors and maps of space-time. Jason stood with David, Link, and Mildred.

Jason held the initiation device—a control console linked to the watch. He handed a small receiver to David.

Jason: "David will be the mission handler. He's the only one who has studied practical time travel."

Mildred: "But—"

The door hissed open. A guard rushed in, his face ashen.

Guard: "Sir! Sir!"

The guard moved to stand behind Link.

Guard: "There's an emergency!"

Jason: "What is it?"

The guard placed a hand on Link's shoulder. The moment he made contact, a strange energy field enveloped them.

Guard: "It's a time-jump abduction!"

And before anyone could react, Link and the guard flickered and vanished into thin air.

The room was dead silent for a moment, then erupted into chaos.

Mildred: "It was a Shift! A Time-Shift! That was an alien from the Shift species!"

David: "How do you know that?!"

Jason turned on Mildred, his expression a mixture of fear and sudden suspicion.

Jason: "Who are you?!"

Mildred looked back at him, his youthful face now filled with an ancient calm.

Mildred: "I am the last Time Lord. And that..." he pointed to the watch in the case, "...is my watch."

David didn't hesitate. He smashed the glass, grabbed the ancient timepiece, and thrust it into Mildred's hands.

David: "Take it. You know how to use it."

Mildred: "What year?"

David: "October 28, 1982. 7:00 PM."

David placed a firm hand on Mildred's shoulder. Mildred raised his hand, and the watch's hands began to spin at a blinding speed. The air around them warped and shimmered, and with a sound like tearing fabric, they vanished.

The Same Moment. October 28, 1982. A Hotel Corridor.

They materialized with a soft thud in a dim, carpeted hallway of an old-fashioned hotel. The air smelled of stale cigarette smoke and polish.

Mildred: "We've arrived."

David: "This is a hotel."

They began to walk cautiously down the hall, their footsteps muffled by the garish carpet.

Mildred: "There are names on all the doors."

They descended a staircase and stopped. Mildred stood frozen before a door, David beside him, his face a mirror of shock.

Mildred: "This room... it's under Link's name."

David looked around, his eyes wide. "There are two more... under our names."

A cold dread washed over Mildred. "The Shift aliens... they're moving us through the past twice. They're placing us in the locations we are meant to be, creating a fixed future we can't change."

David: "So... we die here?"

A voice, cold and emotionless, spoke from the shadows. "Yes. This is your end."

A man stepped into the dim light. He was dressed in a stark black suit and wore mirrored sunglasses that hid his eyes.

Mildred tensed, every instinct screaming.

Mildred: "No, it's not."

Doors all down the hallway creaked open. Out of each one stepped an identical copy of the man in black, their movements perfectly synchronized. An army of duplicates.

The Man: "You will go to your room."

Mildred: "David, RUN!"

They turned and sprinted back up the staircase, their hearts hammering against their ribs.

David: "What about Link?!"

Mildred: "We'll find him! The paradox will draw him to us!"

They reached the top of the stairs, shoved a door open, and slammed it shut behind them, leaning against it, gasping for air.

In the center of the room, Professor Link stood, looking at them with an expression of eerie calm.

David: "Okay..."

Mildred: "Yeah. We found him. Fast."

They almost laughed from the sheer relief, standing there panting before him.

Link: "We're surrounded."

David: "You think?!"

Mildred: "Yes. We're in a trap. We came back to the past to stop this, but we're just going to die here and complete the loop."

Link looked at David, his white hair seeming to glow in the dim light.

Link: "Tell me the real reason Jason brought me in."

David looked startled.

Link: "Go on. I know he was lying."

David: "Alright... We found you. In a photograph from the public square fire years ago—I mean, today."

Link: "Impossible."

Mildred: "That means he knew what would happen. Or this is a fixed timeline."

David: "A paradox?"

David walked to the window and looked down at the square below. Dozens of people were gathered, their hands raised to the sky in a unified, terrifying gesture. He recoiled in horror.

Link stood beside him, calm. "I understand your plan, Mildred."

David: "You mean... the very existence of the Shifters in the future is contingent on us solving the problem here? Now?"

Mildred stepped forward, a fierce light of understanding in his eyes.

Mildred: "Exactly. We have to create a paradox. We died in this year. We were supposedly captured, taken to the past, and killed. If we die here now, a paradox will occur. Everything will reset. The timeline will correct itself, and the Shifters will be returned to their point of origin, erased from our history."

David: "So... you want us to win by dying?"

Mildred: "Yes. But we won't die in our original time. We'll be returned... somewhere. Somewhere random in the timestream."

The three of them stood on the ledge of the high window, looking down at the square below. The people—the Shifters—had begun to combust, their bodies turning into pillars of fire.

David: "Alright. This is terrifying."

Link: "We have no choice."

Mildred: "It is the eleventh hour."

The three of them joined hands. A brilliant, blinding white light enveloped them, and they vanished.

The Present. A Skyscraper Office.

They reappeared with a jolt, standing in a sleek, modern office. A full glass wall behind them looked out over a cityscape, but it was not their city.

David: "We're back..."

Link: "Yes."

Mildred walked to the glass wall and looked out. David and Link joined him, and what they saw made their blood run cold.

The sky was not blue. It was filled with massive, dark, alien spacecraft.

David: "Do we have to face all of this?"

In the past, After Mildred's Explosion. The Giza Plateau.

The sand was hot underfoot, the pyramids little more than vague shapes on the horizon in the pre-dawn light. Mildred stood alone, an ancient figure in a young land.

Mildred: "Time... do not forget me."

A figure appeared on his right: David. Another on his left: Link. They looked at him not with pity, but with unwavering loyalty.

Link: "We told you before."

David: "You will never be alone."

Link: "We are your friends."

David: "We will be by your side until the very end."

Tears, finally, streamed down Mildred's face. They were tears of gratitude, not grief.

Mildred: "Thank you, my friends."

He looked up at the vast, star-filled sky and spread his arms wide, not in surrender, but in acceptance.

Mildred: "It is the eleventh hour."

The explosion began from within him, a silent, brilliant genesis.

Back in the Present. The Skyscraper.