Youngblood was hiding in a closet on the first floor, hoping that the barbecue wouldn't last too long. Figment had told him that they needed a better place to hide, and he figured that this was good enough. It was dark and crowded, but at least he was safe. As long as he stayed quiet, nobody would find him here. He just didn't want to be stuck in the closet for any longer than he had to be.

As his eyes adjusted to the light, he realized what was in here. There were sketchbooks, dozens of them, stretching all the way back to when he was a teenager. Youngblood randomly picked one up, and he started flipping through it, in awe of his future self's drawing skills. There were characters that he hadn't invented, clever snippets of dialogue that he hadn't written, stories that he hadn't created yet. As he flipped through the sketchbook, he saw them coming to life before him, these comics that he hadn't written yet. For once, Youngblood was excited for the future. He couldn't wait to see what he would create someday.

All of a sudden, Youngblood heard his voice echoing throughout the house. "I can't slow down! I won't be waiting for you! I can't stop now because I'm dancing!"

Youngblood wasn't sure which of his future selves was singing, but his best guess was Poison. He wondered where the others were: the voice sounded like it was coming from upstairs, but he wasn't certain. It didn't matter though. The singing quickly stopped, and as soon as the house went silent again, he kept looking through the collection of sketchbooks.

He really couldn't believe his eyes. He found the sketchbook that he was working on back in 2002, the pages starting to yellow, but there was so much more. There was one signed by Stan Lee. There was another with a sketch of Poison's outfit. There were probably a million drawings of Frank. He was playing the guitar, playing with a puppy, singing, getting a new tattoo, smiling, holding his hand. Youngblood found a particularly detailed drawing of Frank, and he traced the lines of his face. His future self was a talented artist, but even he couldn't quite capture just how beautiful Frank was in real life. Soon, Youngblood found himself daydreaming again, imagining what it would be like to fall in love with Frank Iero.

Who was he kidding? He was already in love with him.

All of a sudden, he heard one of his future selves shouting again. "I don't care! I'll strangle you with my bare hands if I have to! Take it back!" Youngblood didn't know what was going on up there, and he didn't think he wanted to know.

He put the sketchbooks back in order, but as he carefully straightened out the shelves, he heard footsteps. Someone was here. He froze, but he heard two familiar voices, and they seemed to be coming closer.

"Frank, it's okay if you don't have it," Mikey said.

"I swear it's around here somewhere," Frank said. "I know I kept what's left of Pansy, and I'll show it to Bandit if it kills me."

Mikey sighed and said, "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," Frank said. "It's probably just buried under Gerard's comic books."

Mikey laughed and said, "Probably. He has way too many of those."

Youngblood wanted to say that there was no such thing as too many comic books, but he thought better of it and stayed quiet. He couldn't let Mikey and Frank find him.

"You know what?" Frank said. "I bet it's in the closet."

"You should have brought Gerard with you instead," Mikey said. "He might actually know where your guitar is."

"Yeah, probably," Frank said as he opened up the closet. "Okay, maybe Pansy's not in here," he said. "It's just a bunch of Gerard's sketchbooks and..."

All of a sudden, Mikey and Frank noticed Youngblood. "What the hell?" Mikey said.

Youngblood shrank away from Frank and Mikey, but it was no use. They'd already seen him. There was no going back now.

He looked at his brother and his future boyfriend for a moment. Frank was just as beautiful as he always was - he'd aged like a fine wine - but Youngblood was still getting used to the fact that Mikey, his little brother, was now much older than him. He barely recognized him with his new haircut and without his glasses. Both Mikey and Frank looked more confused than anything, and Youngblood wondered how the hell he was going to explain this to them.

"Who are you?" Frank asked Youngblood.

"I mean, he looks like Gerard, doesn't he?" Mikey said. "He even has that leather jacket that Gerard used to wear all the time."

"Yeah," Frank said. "He looks exactly like Gerard did when we started the band. When we first got together." He paused and looked at Youngblood one more time. "But that doesn't explain what he's doing in the closet."

"I don't know. Maybe it's actually a passageway to Narnia or something?" Mikey said half-jokingly.

Frank reached his hand into the closet, and to his disappointment, he did not end up in Narnia, so he turned back to Youngblood for an explanation. "Seriously, who the fuck are you?" he asked.

"I'm Gerard," Youngblood said.

"No, you're not," Frank said.

"He even sounds like Gerard," Mikey said, trying to imitate his brother's voice. "Isn't that weird, Frank?"

"You do look a lot like him," Frank said to Youngblood. "It's a little freaky, now that I think about it. I'd believe you if you said that you were Gee's long-lost brother or something, but you're obviously not him."

"I hope he's not my brother," Mikey said. "I love Gerard, but the last thing I need is another one of him."

"I'm serious," Youngblood said. "I'm Gerard. I time traveled here from 2002."

Frank and Mikey exchanged a look. Then, Mikey turned to Youngblood and said, "You're serious? This isn't some kind of elaborate prank?" Youngblood nodded, so Mikey asked, "What was my first concert?"

"The Smashing Pumpkins," Youngblood said. "You pirated Disney movies to pay for it, and somebody mistook me for Billy Corgan while we were waiting in line to get into the venue."

"What was the dumbest thing I did as a kid?"

"All the times you almost got yourself electrocuted," Youngblood said. "For the record, you still do that sometimes."

"True," Mikey admitted. "What are the lyrics to Helena?"

"Helena?" Youngblood said. "Like the Misfits song?"

"Wow, you really did time travel here," Mikey said, amazed. "That's crazy."

"I have a lot of questions," Frank said.

"Me too," Mikey said.

"Like why did you come here?" Frank said. "Does Gerard - the other Gerard, not you - does he know you're here? How does time travel work anyways?" He smiled and then said, "Tell us everything."

Youngblood hesitated, but when he saw Frank smile, he just couldn't resist.

He told them everything.

He talked for a long time, telling Frank and Mikey about how Figment showed up at the album release party, how he'd said that Frank would die in 2016 unless they saved him, how they'd gone on this whirlwind journey through time together. Mikey stood there, stone-faced, while Frank constantly interrupted Youngblood, asking him a million questions that he didn't know the answer to. Sometimes, he questioned whether he'd done the right thing, telling Frank and Mikey about this. He knew that the Watch would never allow it, and Figment would kill him if he ever found out, but it felt good to get this off of his chest. He could finally share his secret with two of his favorite people in the world.

When Youngblood was done, Frank went silent for a moment. "So I'm going to die in two years," he said.

"Yeah," Youngblood said.

Frank had a sad, faraway look on his face as he contemplated his life, a life that was soon to be cut short. Youngblood wanted nothing more than to comfort him, to reach over, give him a hug, and tell him that everything was going to be okay, even if he wasn't sure that it would be. His heart was breaking for Frank, suddenly aware of his own mortality. It was one thing to know that you would die someday, but another thing altogether to know that your days were numbered.

"Actually, I don't think that's going to happen," Mikey said suddenly.

"Mikey, did you listen to anything Gerard from 2002 said?" Frank said. "I'm going to die in a bus crash in 2016, and Gerard from 2019's trying to save me, but if that doesn't work..."

"I was listening," Mikey said. "I don't think you're going to die." He paused and then turned to Youngblood. "I'm going to be honest with you, 2002 Gerard. Something about your story doesn't add up."

"I'm confused," Youngblood said. "What are you talking about?"

"Future Gerard...you called him Figment, right?" Mikey said. Youngblood nodded. "Figment traveled back in time to save Frank, but if he succeeds, Frank will live and he will have no motivation to travel back in time. It's a classic time paradox. He has to fail and let Frank die, and it's quite possible that he was the one who caused Frank's death in the first place."

Frank shuddered and said, "I hope that's not true."

"But Gerard's too smart for that," Mikey said. "He wouldn't make a plan that will inevitably result in Frank dying. The simplest explanation is that he lied to you."

Youngblood took a moment to process this, but it didn't make any sense to him. "Why would Figment lie about something like that?" he asked.

"I don't know," Mikey said.

"And why did he travel back in time if Frank didn't die in 2016?" Youngblood asked.

"I don't know that either," Mikey said. "Maybe there's something else he wants to do in 2016. Maybe Frank lived, but he realized that the only reason that he survived was because he traveled back in time. Maybe he's just doing this for fun."

"That doesn't make sense," Frank said.

"This whole situation doesn't make sense," Mikey said. "Anyways, there are a lot of possible explanations for why Figment went back in time, but Frank, I think you're going to be okay."

All of a sudden, there was a distraught expression on Frank's face. "Oh God," he said, horrified. "I think I know what's going to happen in 2016. And it's not pretty."

"What is it?" Youngblood asked.

"You heard about the story behind Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, right?" Frank said.

"Is that the thing Revenge keeps talking about?" Youngblood asked. "The one with the man and the woman and the corpses of a thousand evil men?"

Frank nodded. "Do you know how that story ends?" he asked. Youngblood shook his head. "The man realizes that he's the thousandth evil soul, so he has to kill himself to resurrect his girlfriend."

"I'm confused," Youngblood said. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"You can't just bring someone back from the dead without any repercussions," Frank said. "I think Mikey's right. Figment's lying to you. That's why he won't tell you his plan. Because he knows that someone has to die in that crash. He's going to trade his life for mine. He's going to sacrifice himself so that I can live."

Youngblood thought about it for a minute. It explained a lot - why Figment had gone back in time without Watch approval, why he wanted to say goodbye to Frank one last time back in 2004, why he wouldn't tell his past selves what he was up to - but there were a few things that didn't add up. "But he always seems so confident that he's going to get to go home and see you," Youngblood said.

"That's just what he wants you to think," Frank said.

"And why does he need us to come along if he's just going to sacrifice himself?" Youngblood asked.

"I don't know," Frank said. All of a sudden, he started crying. "I don't know what Future Gerard's up to. I just...I just can't imagine losing him. I would rather die than go through that."

All of a sudden, Youngblood wrapped his arms around Frank and gave him a hug. A few minutes later, Mikey made it into a group hug, like the awkward third wheel that he was. "Thanks, Gee. Thanks, Mikey," Frank said. "I really needed that."

"No problem," Youngblood said as he let go of Frank.

"Can you promise me something, Gerard from 2002?" Frank asked as he wiped his tears away.

"Sure," Youngblood said.

"Promise me that if Figment tries to sacrifice himself, you're going to try to stop him," Frank said. "I don't want to die, but living without you isn't really living. So don't even think about saving me. Save yourself first."

Youngblood nodded. "I promise I'll stop him," he said.

"Thank you," Frank said. "It means a lot."

"Hey Frank, we should probably get back to the barbecue," Mikey said.

"Seriously, Mikey?" Frank said. "I just found out that Gerard can time travel, and that I have two years left to live, and you're telling me that we need to get back to the barbecue?"

"We've been in here for a while," Mikey said. "Gerard..." Youngblood perked up when he heard his name. "Not you, the other Gerard. Gerard and Ray are probably wondering where we are by now."

"Good point," Frank said. "One last thing, Gerard from 2002. I want you to know that I'm still your biggest fan, even after all these years, and even if my life's going to be short, I'm really glad that I spent it with you. I don't think I had the guts to say this in 2002, but I'll say it now. I love you, Gerard."

"I love you too, Frank," Youngblood said, surprised by how easily those words slipped off of his tongue.

"Come on, Frank," Mikey said. "Let's go."

He shut the closet door, and all of a sudden, Youngblood was alone with his sketchbooks again. His heart felt like it was going to explode, but there was a deep sorrow there too, now that he knew what Figment was up to, how sinister his plan really was.

He curled up on the ground, afraid of what could happen in 2016. He didn't want to watch Frank die. He didn't know how he would deal with the pain. He knew it was selfish, but he wanted a few extra minutes, hours, years with Frank, no matter what the cost was. He had to put Frank first though. He'd made a promise to him, promised that he'd let him die rather than put him through the heartbreak of losing Figment.

Youngblood had to stop Figment. There was no question about that. He just didn't know how he would do it.