"You owe me a fucking explanation," Gerard said as he approached the mysterious man. He still had no idea what the mysterious man was doing here, where he had been for the last ten years, or if he was even real, but Gerard was about to find out. He'd get some answers out of the mysterious man if it killed him.

The mysterious man paused and took a sip of his coffee. "You're right," he said. "I'll answer your questions, but I can't do it here. Why don't we head outside for a little bit?"

The mysterious man gestured toward the door, and Gerard followed him out of the house. They wandered through the neighborhood, going down all of the side streets and passing by all of the little shops and houses. The mysterious man didn't say a word, but Gerard didn't mind the silence. It was peaceful, listening to the birds and crickets in the distance. It took his mind off of everything that had happened so far that night.

They were about a block away from the house where the album release party was presumably still going on when Gerard finally asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm you from the future," the mysterious man answered.

"Yeah, right," Gerard said. "You're saying that just to mess with me."

"I'm serious," the mysterious man said.

"That's not possible," Gerard said. "Time travel isn't real."

The mysterious man sighed, exasperated. "I don't want to argue over this," he said. "Just humor me, okay?"

"Fine," Gerard said. To be fair, if the mysterious man really was a time traveler from the future, it would explain a lot: why he'd said that he was in the wrong year, how he was seemingly able to vanish into thin air, why he and Gerard looked so much alike. He just couldn't bring himself to believe it. "What year are you from?"

"2019," the mysterious man answered.

"Wow, that's pretty far away," Gerard said. "How old will I be in 2019? Forty-five, right?"

"I'm forty-two, actually," the mysterious man said.

"Either I've gotten a lot better at math, or you're not really me."

"Trust me, I haven't gotten any better at math since I was your age. I still can't add most of the time."

Gerard paused and then asked, "So if you're from the future, then what are you doing here?"

The mysterious man thought about it for a while, trying to find the right words. Meanwhile, Gerard stared off into space. "Frank dies," he finally said.

"Everyone dies eventually."

"That's not what I meant." He paused again and then said, "Three years ago, Frank was on tour with his solo project..."

"Three years ago? Like, when I was in college?"

"Sorry, I meant three years ago relative to my time," the mysterious man said. "You know, time travel is just so confusing. The Watch has a whole handbook on situations like this, but who the fuck wants to conjugate verbs in the Future Semi-Conditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional?"

"Whatever, Figment," Gerard said.

"What did you just call me?"

"Figment. Because you're not real. You're a figment of my imagination."

"I swear I'm real, but honestly, that's not a bad nickname," Figment said. "I should give you one too. What do you want me to call you?"

"Gerard is fine."

"Yeah, but that's my name!" Figment insisted. He thought about it and then said, "How about Youngblood? Because you're younger than me."

"That's probably the least creative nickname you could have possibly come up with, but I guess it works," Youngblood said.

"Figment isn't much better."

"Whatever. This is all probably just some weird dream anyways."

"So where was I?" Figment asked.

"You were saying something about Frank..."

"Right. In 2016, Frank's van got hit by a bus, and he...he didn't make it. Nobody did. The doctors said he died instantly, that he wasn't in any pain, but he's still gone, and I miss him. I miss him so, so much..."

The whole scene played through Youngblood's mind. He imagined the crash: the broken glass, the sound of the cars colliding, the screams, the blood, the dead bodies. He saw Frank among them, his unblinking eyes frozen in place. He thought about life afterwards, all of those lonely years. He could barely handle two months away from Frank, and even then, he'd known that Frank would come back. How had Figment made it through three years? He saw the pain and sorrow in his eyes, and instantly, he understood.

"But we can save him," Figment said. "We can stop the crash from happening. I have a plan, but it's going to need a lot of people, so I need your help." He paused and then asked, "Will you do it? Will you help me save Frank?"

Youngblood's first instinct was to say yes. He liked Frank a lot, and even if they could never be together, he couldn't bear the thought of his life being cut short. There was something more important to do first though. He had to make sure that he wasn't going insane. "Prove that you're real, and then I'll help you."

"Not this again," Figment said. He reached into his pocket and then asked, "Will it help at all if I show you my time travel license?"

"Maybe," Youngblood said.

Figment handed Youngblood a card, and Youngblood read it over. There was a strange logo and a photo of a bored-looking Figment on it, along with some information.

Full Name of Traveler: Gerard Arthur Way

Date of Birth: 4/9/1977

Issue Date: 7/11/2017

License Number: 41089042

License Type: Research Class C

License Sponsor: Netflix

"Netflix?" Youngblood said, confused. "Like the DVD rental service?"

"They've changed their business model quite a bit," Figment explained. "In my time, they stream TV shows, and they make original content too. They made an adaptation of my comic..."

"Is it the vampire one I'm working on?" Youngblood interrupted.

"No."

"Do I ever finish that?"

"Also no."

Youngblood cursed loudly, and Figment continued on, ignoring his younger self. "Anyways, they made my comic into a TV show, and they got research-grade time machines for a lot of the people working on the show, including me."

Youngblood shrugged and handed the license back to Figment, who stuffed it back into his pocket. "I don't believe you," Youngblood said. "You could have faked this. I don't know why you'd go to that much trouble though."

"So what will convince you?"

"Maybe you should tell me more about the future."

"What do you want to know?"

"I don't know. Who's the President of the United States?"

"Donald Trump."

"The billionaire?" Youngblood said, laughing. "Now I know you're just messing with me!"

"I wish I was, but I'm dead serious," Figment said.

"Yeah, right," Youngblood said. "So when does time travel get invented?"

"Time travel was invented in every time, in every place, simultaneously," Figment said. "That's what the Watch said during orientation."

"You've mentioned the Watch a few times," Youngblood said. "Who are they?"

"They're the organization that regulates time travel."

"Oh, okay," Youngblood said. "I guess it doesn't matter though. Clearly, I just have an overactive imagination, like always..."

"Wait, I've got it," Figment said. "Ask me some questions about yourself. That should prove that I'm you."

"Sure. Uhh...where was I born?"

"Summit, New Jersey."

"What's my mother's maiden name?"

"Rush."

"What musical was I in when I was in fourth grade?"

"Peter Pan," Figment said. "You suck at this, by the way. I could have answered any of those just by going on Wikipedia."

"What's a Wikipedia?"

"Never mind."

"You know what?" Youngblood said. "I'm done with this. I'm just going to walk back to the party, drive home, and forget any of this ever happened."

He started to walk away, and to his surprise, Figment didn't try to follow him. As he wandered down the street, he wondered what he was going to do about the fact that he was losing his mind. With hallucinations like these, he was clearly turning into a basket case. Then again, he had bigger problems on his hands, like whether or not Frank was still at the party. He wasn't sure what he would do if he was. What could they possibly say to each other after everything that had just happened?

All of a sudden, he heard Figment say, in a voice that sounded exactly like his own, "You know, things need not have happened to be true."

Youngblood turned around suddenly. "Holy shit," he said as he faced his older self. "You are real."

Figment laughed. "That's what convinced you? A quote from Sandman?"

"Nobody I know has read that comic!" Youngblood exclaimed. "Not even Mikey!"

"I am pretty bad at convincing other people to read comics I like..."

"I feel kind of bad for calling you Figment now."

"Whatever, Youngblood," Figment said as he sipped his coffee. "So are you going to help me save Frank or not?"

"Yeah, I'll help you," Youngblood said. "So what do we do now? Are we just going to time travel to 2016 or whatever?"

"Not quite," Figment said. "We have a few stops to make before we can stop the accident from happening, and besides, I need to tell you a few things before we go anywhere."

"What is it?" Youngblood asked.

"It's about the Watch," Figment said. "When it comes to time travel, they make the rules. All of them. They're the ones who manufacture the machines and they're the ones who decide who can travel. They have spies all over the place, and they can arrest you for traveling without a license, violating your license restrictions, or telling someone about time travel who doesn't already know. I've heard that their spies are crazy powerful: apparently they have some device that can force you to time travel, and they can even stop time. Actually, I'm pretty sure that somebody from The Umbrella Academy is in the Watch. I'm 80% sure it's Ellen Page, but I could be wrong."

"Who's Ellen Page?"

"It's not important," Figment said. "The Watch has all kinds of restrictions. There are plenty of places and times that they've banned people from going to, like all active war zones, any time that has the Black Plague, and the entire year of 2007."

"Why can't I go to 2007?" Youngblood asked.

"It's for your own good," Figment answered, which, like many of the things Figment had already said that night, didn't help at all.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Youngblood asked. "Does it really matter what the Watch thinks?"

Figment paused for a moment. "The Watch says that the timeline is inevitable. Any repercussions of travel to the past are already being felt in the present," he explained. "I don't believe that's true, but the Watch would never have let me go back and save Frank, not when they think that it's doomed to fail anyways. If they find out what we're doing, they could arrest both of us. I could even get arrested just for telling you all of this." He looked straight at Youngblood as he said, "You have to promise me that you won't let them take you alive."

"I promise," Youngblood said. "So when are we going to go save Frank?"

"After I finish my coffee," Figment said.

"Seriously?" Youngblood said. "Frank's life is in danger..."

"Will be in danger," Figment corrected.

"...and you care more about your coffee!"

"So? I like coffee."

"So do I, but this is taking it too far."

"It won't take long," Figment assured his younger self. "So is there anything else you want to know before we leave?"

"I don't know. What's the future like?"

"You already asked me that."

"Yeah, but I want to know more about what happens to me. What happens to us."

Figment thought about it for a while before responding. "All of your wildest dreams will come true," he said, "but so will all of your worst nightmares." He took one last sip of his coffee and then said, "Okay, I'm done."

Youngblood watched as Figment pushed a button on the handle of his coffee mug, and to his amazement, the mug reassembled itself into a watch, the same one that he saw him wearing the last time they'd met. Figment then put the watch on his wrist, and he started typing something into it. "How does it all work?" Youngblood asked, still in awe.

"The wristwatch is calibrated to my brain waves," Figment explained. "All I have to do is input the number of travelers, the place, and the year, and it will take me to the exact right moment in spacetime."

As he spoke, Youngblood watched him type "2," "Kentucky," and "2004," into the watch. "Close your eyes and just focus," Figment said. "If you want to come, the time machine should find you and take you with me."

Youngblood shut his eyes, and he thought about everything that had already happened that night. It had been a wild ride already, and no matter what happened after this, he knew that this was only the beginning. He thought of Frank, the words he'd said, the moments they'd shared together, the way he looked in the moonlight. He would do anything for him, to make him happy, to give him the life that he deserved. He knew that Frank would have done the same for him.

One moment, Figment and Youngblood were standing on the sidewalk in a small town in New Jersey, and the next, they were gone. They'd vanished into thin air.