First Mission 2 (Oxymoron I know)

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Derek was sitting in a lounge chair in the front room of the manor. He was reading another large book. "When will the thread unravel again?" he muttered to himself, "I need to train the rest of the newbies." he said. He decided that the next mission he went on would be with the two girls that were related. Hopefully their mission would be easier than the last. The room he was in was getting stuffy, so he used his magic to create a breeze. When the wind picked up there was a smell of coconut in the air.

OoC: Both of you can either be in the manor still, or you can be arriving. It has been one day since they all first arrived and since the first mission with Zash and Ant

Derek saw Jo rush towards the forming crowd. He then used some of his magic and forced her to a stop. He then pulled her back to him and grabbed his arm, "Stop it," he said, "There's nothing you can do. This is the true past... which means whatever happens, is supposed to happen. There's nothing we can change here." he said.

Riley flinched as the girl screamed and thrashed about. She squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed Jo's wrist. "C'mon," She murmured, pulling her relative backwards to where they had stood before. "We can't do anything to help her anyway." She then turned to Derek. "Is this how it's going to be every time? We just sit by helplessly while horrors unfold?" Her eyes were wild and defiant as she confronted the more experienced coworker.

"What?!" exclaimed Josephine as both Derek and Riley held her back, "You can't seriously expect me to just stand here and watch that poor girl get her legs mangled!"
Jo's voice held a tone of almost desperation as her panic filled blue eyes flicked from Derek to the injured girl and then back again. Riley had begun to gradually pull her back to where they had been standing before.

"It might be hard," Derek said, "But it's part of the job. We only can observe the correct past. It might be hard, but it's necessary."

Josephine frowned, still not happy with just leaving the girl like that but she didn't protest any more. Instead she fell silent and just didn't watch as the events of the accident unravelled.

After a moment, Riley opened her eyes once more and went back to her organized watching. She still flinched every time the girl let out a scream, but she did her best to continue her duty. "So... How do we know when to take action?" She asked, voice monotone.

Derek looked at his watch, just then the whole scene was masked in a white light. When the light vanished, they were back in the position they were when they first entered the factory. "That's how we know," he said, "Now what we need to do is look for what's different from before," he said, "Lets go back to where we were standing so that we can see everything the same way." he said as he made his way back to where they were standing before.

Josephine reluctantly returned to the place she had been stood in the previous time. She contemplated trying to avoid watching the girl injure herself again but then realised she might end up missing something stupid if she did.

Riley was intrigued as she nodded and returned to the spot she had occupied previously. So, once more, she divided the area into sections and followed the movements of the workers very carefully. "Something different..." She murmured, eyebrows furrowing as she concentrated hard on the happenings of the factory. Suddenly, a horrible thought struck her. What if this time the girl didn't lose her legs and that was the something different? They would be forced to fix things by... Riley ended the thought there with a shudder. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and prayed it didn't come to that.

Derek just waited for something to happen in silence. He knew the girls wouldn't like this mission, but they would just have to deal with it. He checked his watch, the time was getting close to when the girl would get her leg caught in the machine. All of the sudden the time came but nothing happened. He sighed and put his pocket watch away, "Sorry girls, but I the worst that could happen, happened." he said.

Josephine frowned as she realised the girl hadn't had her leg torn to pieces yet. She looked at Derek who commented on something about the worst that could happen. Did they really have to kill this innocent girl?
Jo couldn't form the words to even ask whether her thoughts were true.

Riley turned to Derek, eyes wide and pleading. "But...That..That can't be right! What's so wrong with letting her keep her legs! How could that possibly be a problem! This isn't fair." Riley began yelling weakly, her usual eagerness and courage dimmed by the deed that must be done. "Why can't we just let her be happy?"

"Because it's not supposed to happen that way," Derek said, "Chance was not on her side this day, and it's not on ours today. Now that we know what we must do, we must wait for the next reset. If you two don't want to watch you don't have too, but either way, I will be making sure that girl losses her leg." he said, he had a stone cold expression on his face.

Josephine just stayed silent. She didn't want to watch it. She wanted the image of the happy, uninjured version of this girl to stick in her mind, not the version with the mangled leg. But already, the previous version stuck in her head. It was a horrifying accident. One that Jo certainly did not want to see again.

Riley turned her back on Derek, half way between whimpering and spitting at him. "Whatever. Do what you need to do," she snarled, stalking a few meters away and sitting down. She pulled her knees up against her chest and buried her head into her knees, trying to erase the image of the poor girl from her mind.

Derek just waited calmly for the restart, the scene then flashed again. Taking the team back to where they started. "You guys wait here," he said, "Once I am done we can return to the manor." he said. He then went over to the machine that the girl would fall into, he pulled out his watch and watched for the time when the girl should fall in.

Josephine deliberately turned away, attempting to think of anything but the soon-to-be horrifically torn apart limb of the girl.

Riley shuddered once more and curled back up in the same position, shoving her hands against her ears. The girls screams soon started up again and Riley simply sat and plugged her ears, singing a soft lullaby to drown out the horrific sounds.

After Derek had pushed the girl with his wind magic, he sighed and let his hand down. He looked at his pocket watch and went back to the girls. "Now we just need to wait for when the reset will happen," he said, "And we will end up back in our own time."

Josephine looked up, her bright blue eyes focusing on Derek's grey(?) ones.
"How can you do something like that so calmly?" she asked, her own voice stony cold. Jo was attempting to mentally block out the girl's screams as the other workers attempted to help her once more.

"You think that was easy?" Derek asked, "Something like that is never easy... but it's much easier then having to kill someone..." he said. After a pause he said, "And it's much easier then having to kill a friend..."

Riley stood up shakily. She disregarded Derek completely and instead turned to Jo. "Let's go back already." She said, voice devoid of most feeling. She led the way this time, hurrying towards the gates they had come through. Hopefully this was the way back.

Josephine blinked, staring at Derek. Something told her that he was speaking from personal experience.... and that actually kind of disturbed her. However she soon turned to follow Riley, the screams of the Lowell girl still echoing in her mind.

Derek followed the girls silently back through the gate. He knew what he said was extreme, but it needed to be said. When he walked through the gate he looked at the girls, "You did good," he said, "You guys can leave the manor if you want. But expect a call when the rest of the team has gone on their missions."

OoC: THIS THREAD IS COMPLETE