This is something entirely different just so you know.

E & J Prologue

"So you're telling me we have to go back in time and stop Cristiana's dad from killing himself?"

"Pretty much. You in?"

"No. What the hell does this have to do with me?"

"You do care about saving the world don't you?"

"I do, but I care more about possibly stopping myself from ever being born. Or killing my toddler self."

Elias was not on board with the plan. He was no sci-fi nerd or anything but he knew messing with the past wasn't as simple as everyone said. They could do something as simple as spill someone's coffee and manage fuck things up so everything ends up ten times worse than it already was. Not to mention a few other good reasons.

"So are you coming or not?" Cristiana demanded crossing her arms.

Elias scratched at his forearm, a nervous tic he had picked up from somewhere, and his eyes flickered at the others of what remained of the "group". "Fine, but not for any of you. If I stay here I'll be killed if I'm on my own. At least if I never existed at all I won't feel the pain of having my heart pulled from my chest." He ignored their stares as he stood. "I'll pack a bag."

He quickly left the room and made his way toward the shared bedroom. His bunk was toward the end of the room away from the others. He opened the  trunk which sat at the foot of his bed and stared into it wondering what the hell one was supposed to pack when going eighteen years back in time.

With a sigh he pulled out his backpack and began shoving clothes into it.

"Eli."

Elias didn't look over at the sound of the voice, nor did he when he felt the cold chill come closer to him.

"I'm talking to you."

"And I'm busy not listening," Elias replied putting another shirt in his backpack. "Because I can't stop them."

"You need to."

"How? I've known you longer than I've known your daughter and if she's anywhere as stubborn as you I won't get far in trying to convince her."

Elias' eyes flickered toward the young man as he sighed and took to laying on Elias' bunk. He watched Elias with a blank expression as he spoke, "You still need to try. If you can't convince them now, when you go back there you can't let me live by any means."

"Why are you so worried?" Elias questioned. "You've told me for a long time that you've made peace with what you did. That you had no other option. If that is true this plan will fail either way won't it?"

"Not exactly." He didn't elaborate, but at this point Elias had grown used to nature of the spirit.

Elias sighed and changed the subject, "What was the fashion sense back then?"

He cracked a smile, "I'm not gonna make this easy on you."

Elias rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to respond, but quickly shut it hearing footsteps and voices coming closer.

The others walked into the room talking to each other loudly as they most likely discussed their upcoming mission. He ignored them and continued with what he had been doing.

"I can't live Eli," the spirit told him.

"Shut up Jack," Elias muttered under his breath as he zipped up his bag and set it beside his bunk. He stood up and crossed the room to where the others were. All of them stared up at him as if he had invaded, if anything they were the invaders not him. His eyes focused on Cristiana, and he could feel Jack's eyes watching his back, boring holes into him. Elias opened his mouth once then closed it again, "Are you sure about this?" He asked finally. "Time isn't as simple as you seem to think."

"This is our only option," Cristiana replied without hesitation.

"Our only option or the only one you're willing to entertain? The only option you even want to think is possible?"

She narrowed his eyes at him and stood up from her bunk to look him in the eye. Her left gloved hand grabbed her right, a silent threat that she would take them off. Her drones around her tensed, but Elias didn't bat an eye. "You dare-"

"I do. I am the highest ranking officer here regardless of these drones which worship the ground you walk on. I will go with you on this suicide mission so I can ensure you don't ruin everything. But I at least want to know you are doing this for the right reason."

"I am, trust me. Do you have any better ideas?"

"Many actually," Elias replied crossing his arms to stop himself from trying to scratch one. "But what does it matter? You'll do whatever you want, because you think you're special."

"She is more than you'll ever be!" One of the drones shouted, Elias didn't care enough to look at which it was. They weren't important, only Cristiana was, and she only was because of her connection to Jack. In the back of his mind, not for the first time, Elias debated the pros and cons of killing the girl.

"I can fight my own battles Marie," Cristiana told the drone without breaking eye contact with Elias. "We leave at sunrise," she told him.

Elias nodded slowly and turned and walked back to his bunk which he laid on ignoring the cold chill, and Jack's shout of protest. He turned away from the others and closed his eyes wishing for sleep.

~~~~

As had become custom for him, he woke in a cold sweat, his hands shaking. He clamped his hands together trying to force himself to calm down. He took deep breaths and ignored Jack's passive look. It took a few minutes for him to feel "normal" and when he did he turned and looked to Cristiana and the others, all of which were still sleeping.

"Have you figured out what you are going to do?" Jack asked him.

Elias shook his head then spoke quietly, "Not yet, but I'll kill you if it comes down to it."

Jack nodded sharply, "That is all I wanted to know."

"If I do would you stop haunting me?"

Jack gave a long laugh as he leaned against the wall. "Definitely not."

~~~~

At least an hour passed before the others woke up. By then Elias had double checked his bag to be sure he had everything he needed, put on fresh clothes, and packed himself some food and money.

"You're gonna need to slip away from them when we get there and I can give you some sort of direction, but not much," Jack told him as Elias watched the sluggish sorry excuse for mutants get themselves ready to go. He nodded subtly to show Jack he understood, but didn't speak not wanting them to see him do it.

When they were all finally up and ready to go, it was long past sunrise, and Elias was far from surprised. What did surprise him though was their method of time travel. One of Cristiana's puppets. This one did had minimal control over time, but Elias had seen him pass out after aging a plant a few months so it yielded fruit. "How is he supposed to bring this many people back in time eighteen years?" Elias demanded.

"He can do it," Cristiana responded. "I know he can."

"I don't want your hollow opinion I want to know if I'm gonna be lost or stuck in the past."

"Why do you always go against me!" She shouted stamping her foot like a child, Elias had the urge to break it. "I am the one the futurists spoke of!"

"Too bad they didn't say you were such a brat," Elias snapped, he was about to speak again when he saw Jack's disapproving look. "Let's just go already."

Cristiana nodded pleased as she took off her glove and carefully laid her on her drone's arm and took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She kept them closed and gave a silent nod and Elias grabbed the drone's arm and as he closed his eyes he gave a silent prayer to anyone who was capable of hearing him that things would go well.

At first he felt nothing.

Then he felt cold. So cold and numb, that he wondered if he had once again lost control of his own body. But then he felt searing pain and he knew he was still the pilot. He felt himself being shaken and jostled and he nearly lost his grip on the boy who was taking him deep into the past. Elias ignored the screams and shouts of those around him as he kept his eyes tightly shut not wanting to know what was going on around him.

Suddenly everything came to an abrupt stop, and Elias found himself crashing to the ground under another's weight. He shoved the person off of him and felt hard and heavy rain fall down on him as he tried to stand. He felt himself immediately drenched as he tried to take in his surroundings. They stood in what looked like a construction area, apparently the building they had been living in was not built yet.

"We shouldn't stay here," a drone shouted over the rain. "Let's get to shelter!"

Elias didn't argue as the group hurriedly made their way toward the fence and it's door. It was locked from the outside, but once Elias reached out to touch the door, the metal responded to him and the door unlocked itself letting them out. Once all out he quickly locked the door and followed the group down the street. Cars drove by quickly splashing up more water as they did. They walked quickly until they came to a coffee shop and slipped inside. Elias hurriedly collapsed into a chair and began to attempt to dry himself off with the tables' napkins.

The others began to talk quietly amongst themselves not trying to draw attention, but as they were group of soaking teenagers they drew attention.

"Where would he be?" Elias heard one of Cristiana's drones ask.

He didn't hear her response as Jack's words caught his ear, "What the fuck?"

Elias slowly looked over to the spirit who stared at the TV which was on showing a few talking news anchors. Jack moved closer to the TV and pointed at the date at the bottom of the screen which showed the date. "This says April," Jack stated looking back to to Elias. "But it happened in June."

"What the hell?" The words escaped Elias' lips before he could stop them causing the group's eyes to land on him. Playing it off he looked at the drone who had brought them here- he still breathed heavily and barely seemed conscious but nonetheless Elias gave him a glare. "Her dad died in the summer. It's spring."

The others looked to each other worriedly before all of them looked to Cristiana.

"We'll have to make do," she declared drumming her fingers on the table. "Mark's clearly not able to take us anywhere. So we make do for the next two months. She gave a frustrated sigh, "This is gonna be difficult."

~~~~

"You need to find me," Jack told Elias later that night when the group had found a house to sleep in, he was not exactly interested in how they were able to sleep there though, he didn't want to think about how badly they were screwing up the future- their present.

"I know," Elias said under his breath. "I find and kill you."

"No," Jack disagreed his translucent body moving to stare out the window at the rain. "You can't kill me ahead of time. Things will change too much. I need to die on June 17th at 11:09 PM and not before. But I still need you to find me, in order to keep them away from me."

Elias nodded slightly, "Understood."

"Good, leave tonight when they are asleep, and- and I'm not what you'd expect at this point. Before my suicide I was just another Association Hitman enjoying the freedom and life I had been granted. Nothing close to what everyone is looking for."

"Hiding in plain sight."

Jack nodded and turned to face Elias, "So, have you ever been to Vegas?"