The moment Tyson reached the bottom with his head still slightly smoking, he was met with a stern look from Anastasia that left no room for nonsense.

"What is going on?" Anastasia asked while Alexei joined Marcus in his usual food quest. "I asked that dummy, and he stuttered and spattered so much that I understood absolutely nothing. Also, why don't I feel like I am speaking Russian?"

"Because you are not. You are speaking English, perfect English, if I might add," Tyson said, scratching his chin as he thought through this new piece of the puzzle. "That's interesting. I didn't know that could happen. But then again, you shouldn't have been able to piggyback on our ride either."

"Piggyback? Ride? What are you talking about?" Anastasia asked, her voice rising with each syllable.

"Shh, you need to be quieter. I know this place seems safe, but that's not always the case," Tyson said. "Marcus, did you check the place out. No traces of the others?"

"No, all good," Marcus barely managed to say through a mouthful of food that he was eagerly chewing at the other end of the dim-lit room.

Tyson could see that Marcus used his cellphone's torch as light and couldn't help but wonder how long the battery would last, wishing there was a way to recharge it. Still, he decided to put that thought aside, as well as his suspicions about Marcus's ability to check the place. Instead, he focused on the angry teenager in front of him.

"So?" Anastasia whispered, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Alright, let's sit down, my head is a bit singed, and it hurts so much," Tyson said.

As they settled down, Tyson wondered where to start because even after all the days they had spent in the time maze, all the weeks, he still didn't fully understand where or when they were. How was he supposed to explain it to anyone?

"Alright, so we are...Well, we are from the future," Tyson said as he took a piece of gauze that he saw on the nearby shelf and pressed it to his head. It hurt, but it also helped him focus on what he was supposed to say. "We somehow ended up in this time maze thing. One moment we are in these underground tunnels chased by that thing, the other we are roaming through the past."

Seeing how Anastasia didn't say anything, Tyson stopped talking and looked at her. Her eyes were wide open, and her hand covered her mouth. It was as if it was all that held her from screaming out in shock.

"You are from the future?" Anastasia said once everything he said settled in.

She chose to focus on that part which didn't sit well with Tyson as he could see the next question forming in her eyes. It was the question that he really didn't want to answer. Yet, he knew it was the one she had to ask. So, he just nodded his head in confirmation waiting for the query that would break the girl's heart.

"What happened to our family?" Anastasia asked.

"Well, they ahem..." Tyson said, looking to check if Alexei was listening. He didn't know the boy well enough to guess if he could handle the truth the way he thought Anastasia could.

"They died?" Anastasia whispered, the words leaving her mouth as barely a whisper.

"Yes, they were all killed by the Bolsheviks to eradicate the Romanov line," Tyson said carefully, his voice just loud enough for her to hear. "History believes that both you and your brother died with them as well."

Anastasia quickly brushed off her tears as Alexei joined them, offering some food to his sister.

"Are you okay?" he asked with far more concern than Tyson expected from a boy of his age.

"I am fine. Just a bit overwhelmed as Tyson was telling me that we have traveled through space and time," Anastasia said, offering a small smile to her brother.

"Really? That's so cool," Alexei said, smiling broadly as he found the idea fascinating.

"What was that thing after us?" Alexei asked Tyson.

"A robot of sorts," Tyson said.

"Cool," Alexei said as his eyes lit up with the curiosity of it all.

"Are you okay, Alexei? You didn't hurt yourself?" Anastasia asked, realizing that what felt like a small tumble to her could have caused harm to Alexei because of his hemophilia.

"Yeah, yeah, no scratches, don't worry," Alexei said dismissively, still fascinated by the idea of traveling through time and space by what appeared to him as a magical passage.

Looking at her little brother's fascinated face, Anastasia didn't have the heart to tell him the heartbreaking truth. So, she chose to focus on other issues they were faced with.

"We seem to be in some kind of maze that's difficult to leave," Anastasia said.

"Oh, what are we going to do about it?" Alexei asked, moving around the room, impatient for new discoveries.

Before Anastasia could think of the best answer, a scraping sound was approaching from the hole they went through.

"Incoming," Marcus said unnecessarily, moving closer to Marcus's side.

Tyson looked around for a weapon. However, unable to find any, he held his breath, hoping that the person coming in was not about to attack them. Or that at least a portal would appear and take them away just in the right moment like it happened the last time.

"When I heard that two idiots took Anastasia and Alexei Romanov from the timeline, I should have known it was you two," Sybil said. Her voice reached Tyson before he could process that the long shadow that stood in front of them was her.

"Sybil? Thank God! We thought we were in trouble," Tyson said as he breathed a sigh of relief.

"You are! What did you think when you decided to take them out? Did you even think?" Sybil said, clearly annoyed beyond measure.

"We didn't exactly take them. They tagged along," Tyson said.

"And how would that have been possible if you didn't do something you weren't supposed to do, and that's interfering?" Sybil asked sternly.

Tyson lowered his gaze and fixed it on the floor as if he was trying to see the most complex picture on the dirt-covered ground.

"I just didn't want anyone else to go through the same pain," Tyson mumbled with sadness in his voice.

"Listen, I am sure you did what you did out of best intentions. But you can't just take two people, especially two people as important as Romanovs, and drag them into the time maze," Sybil said.

Still, her voice got milder upon sensing the pain in Tyson's voice.

"Look, it just happened! Okay?" Marcus said, defending his friend. "I am sure there is something we can do about that."

"Well, we can't go back to their timeline, but maybe we can drop them off close enough for it to not mess up the history too much," Sybil said, already used to thinking on her feet.

"Excuse me, but don't we get any say into what happens with our own lives?" Anastasia said impetuously.

"Yeah, what she said," Alexei said, trying to sound stern but being too confused to pull it off.

"I am afraid you two are way out of your depth. For that matter, so are we, but at least we have some idea of how important it is for history to stay the way it is?" Sybil tried to explain.

"You keep worrying about history, but what you call history are our lives, our present. Shouldn't we be consulted on how we wish for it to proceed?" Anastasia said with stubborn persistence.

After all, she was not only fighting for her own right but those of Alexei as well.

"She does have a point, Sybil," Tyson said.

He had to be careful not to antagonize their only ally. Yet, he also wished to ensure a better life for the two siblings.

"Ah, you sure have to make everything far more complicated than necessary," Sybil said, sighing deeply. "Fine, where do you want to go?"

"Can you really take them anywhere? I thought we could only go where the next portal leads us?" Tyson asked, his curiosity at the highest level.

"A lot has happened since the last time I saw you. We managed to figure out how to manipulate some of the settings on this thing," Sybil said, pointing at the familiar device that used to open only one portal. "Now our choices have slightly increased, but it still doesn't give us a way out of this maze. That's something we still have to figure out."

"Still, I think we should take them somewhere remote where they can't affect history and still live their lives," Sybil added.

"Please stop talking about us as if we weren't here," Anastasia said, annoyed. "Can you take us close to our year and anywhere but home?"

She had to think about her brother's safety, and at the moment, their homeland was anything but safe for them. Still, if ever the chance arose for them to go back, she was willing to do it.

"Hm, I think so. Let me check the years in the settings that we managed to visit so far and the places. Then, we'll see," Sybil said as she opened a virtual keyboard with a sweep of her hand that startled the Romanovs and impressed Marcus and Tyson.

"Alright, let's see. Yes, this one should be good. Are you ready to go?" Sybil asked Anastasia.