Maylin reviewed footage from surveillance cameras overlooking The Gate. If her theory was right, and she didn't stop Tamjin from altering events of the past, the ripples of that change could drastically affect the present, so much so that The Gate may not exist. The world as she knew it may not exist.

The Gate was her responsibility, as were the staff entrusted to help with her research. Having one of her handpicked team disobey the primary rule meant it was her head on the chopping block when the Council got wind of the time breech. It wasn't a matter of if they found out, with eyes and ears that defied their own privacy laws, the Council were most likely already aware and sharpening the axe in preparation. Maylin had no choice but to follow him.

Tamjin's cloaked attire struck her as odd at first, but when Intel showed he'd spent years researching his ancestry, going back as far as a nobleman, killed during the Mongol's invasion of the Jin empire, she reconsidered the time they spent together. He spoke of being destined for great things, asked too many what if questions. Putting two and two together, she realised his recent questioning about how the gate worked had more to do with his desire to reinstate what he felt was his by birthright rather than a shared enthusiasm for the technological discovery. On hindsight, she wanted to kick herself for not picking up on it sooner.

As long as she didn't touch the dials, reactivating The Gate would take her to the same date and place as that of Tamjin's jump, only the hours would match that of the present. Maylin glanced at her watch, Tamjin had four and a half hours head start.

Having gathered everything she might need and taking one final glance at her present surroundings, Maylin shrugged the dark, woollen hood over her head and stepped into the shimmering void knowing she had no way to return and no other choice than to jump.

Dizziness overwhelmed her. Maylin fell to her hands and knees, retching bile. After a few minutes, her stomach muscles cramped in protest and broke the retching cycle, allowing her to take a much needed breath. She rolled onto her back, welcoming the musty scent of decaying vegetation while she recovered her bearings.

~*~

According to her data pad, she currently stood - her implant represented by a green dot - in the exact spot The Gate occupied more than one thousand years in the future. Tamjin's red dot travelled North, towards the Khentii mountains.

Several hours of walking later, Maylin reviewed the area from her vantage point atop a steep hill and marvelled at the natural beauty of Mongolia without the Council sanctioned development of the Khan Reserve that produced choking smog and foul smelling waste.

"Such a pity to lose something so beautiful for the sake of enterprise," she said aloud.

Falling rocks drew her attention to a worn trail not far beneath her. A young man tugged fruitlessly on a rope, attempting to manoeuvre his horse and cart around a boulder blocking one side of the trail. She could tell just by looking that the cart wouldn't fit. The horse knew it too, and fearing a tumble down a steep bank, it reared, almost catching the young man on the side of the head.

Maylin hurried to help. "Stand back," she instructed, removing a laser stick from a hidden pocket in her cloak. "I have no idea what will happen. The rock may splinter."

The young man frowned, but did as she asked, straining to see around her when she turned her back to him. He gasped and hid on the other side of the horse as a red streak of light shot out from her stick, sizzling and creating plumes of smoke where the light touched the ground and sliced the boulder in two like a hot knife through butter. By the time Maylin finished cutting the rock into pieces they could move, the young man had retreated beneath the cart.

"You can come out now," Maylin called.

He shook his head, huddling further from view.

Maylin closed her eyes and swore, realising what she'd done and how it must appear to him that she was some sort of magic wand-wielding demon. She crouched at the side of the cart, bringing herself to the same eye level. "I'm not going to hurt you. I was trying to help," she said soothingly.

"I didn't ask for help, so I won't pay your price." He refused to make eye contact, looking anywhere but directly at her.

"My price? I gave my help because I wanted to, not because I had expectations of payment." This stopped him fidgeting. "If you like, you could help me in return? I'm looking for someone."

Deciding to trust her word, he crawled out, but kept his distance. "Who?"

"He would have been dressed like me and passed this way around midday."

"There is a stranger in the village. He said the tribe must prepare for a great battle and he would help us defeat the demon who possesses their leader.  I didn't trust him or his warning, but here you are, a demon in the flesh."

"That sounds like Tamjin," she agreed. "But I'm not a demon. Will you take me to the villlage?"

The young man shook his head. "I'm to deliver this and warn the Taichi's about the raids. Follow the trail, you'll reach the village by nightfall," he said, pointing the way he came.

Having managed to persuade him to give her some food, Maylin set off in search of the village, wondering if Tamjin's warning was enough to alter history. The only war she knew of in Mongolia involved Genghis Khan.

He wouldn't try to kill Khan, would he?

Wondering if she could go through with silencing Tamjin if it came down to it, she checked her laser's power levels. If she got the chance, she had a few seconds at most. Had her decision to save the young man from certain death cost her the one chance she had to stop Tamjin? Was she the one to alter history by saving the traveller, allowing him to warn neighbouring villages?

Acrid smoke plumed against an orange glow tainting the darkening sky, rousing her from her musings. It was too bright and the smoke too thick to be a campfire. As she hurried closer, war cries and screams grew in intensity.

Stopping at the edge of a clearing, Maylin hid behind a large tree trunk as men on horseback plundered the village, thundering hooves shaking the ground. They slaughtered everything that moved. Women and children fell along with the men trying to defend them.

From the corner of her eye, Maylin caught sight of a small girl scrambling to hide behind a wall surrounding a sheep pen. 

Maylin wasn't the only one to see her.

A horseman, clad in leather body armour, spurred his steed to turn. Maylin's heartbeat echoed the hoof falls as she thoughtlessly raced from her own hiding spot, stumbling and fumbling to retrieve the laser from her pocket as she ran.

Standing over the decapitated body, her spiked, vibrant-red hair freed from the confines of the hood, cries of war changed tone, becoming fearful. Fearful of her.

"Demon!" the riders called in warning to their comrades. "Khan is dead!"

___________

An entry for @LayethTheSmackDown 

Alternate history round involving Genghis Khan

Word count on completion: 1256