OCS: The Ghost of Christmas Past, part IV [T]

[lt_indigo]

Fandom:
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons

Title:
The Ghost of Christmas Past, part IV: Christmas Revisited

Author:
lt_indigo

Warning(s):
canon character suicide

Word count:
8,293

Part I

Part II

Part III



Major Scarlet was careful not to attract anyone's attention as he moved through the corridors of Starbase and moved into those of Cloudbase, heading towards the very quarters that Vermilion had found Indigo in the day before. After the horribly brief conversation with his daughter during which she had destroyed what was left of his spirit, he wanted to be alone, and these rooms were the best ones on Starbase for that purpose. No one came down here any more; no one had any reason to, except him and his daughter. His mind automatically steered him to the door he wanted, and he punched in the security code without looking at the panel.

It took him a while to realise that he wasn't alone. From an armchair that inexplicably still furnished the room, two circles of green light shone into the darkness. Even as he saw this, he felt a wave of nausea rise in his stomach. Despite his attack of the blues, so to speak, he quickly put two and two together. The presence of a Mysteron on the base pushed all other concerns from his mind, and he reached for his gun, only to find that it wasn't in its holster. Why should it be, on Starbase?

"I'm glad you came here," the Mysteron said conversationally, her voice devastatingly recognisable. "It was a toss-up between here and next door, and I would have hated to have to come looking for you, especially considering what I've just done to you upstairs."

"What do you want?" Scarlet demanded wearily. "There's been no threat announced yet."

"Threat?"

As the Mysteron spoke, Scarlet's mind suddenly clicked that he had just seen his daughter, not ten minutes ago, alive and well. Unless the Mysterons had changed their modus operandi…

He felt, belatedly, the Mysteron probing at his mind, and he pushed her away. It occurred to him as he did so that a) he wouldn't have been able to block her out if she really wanted to stay, and b) that gentle touch was definitely that of his daughter, and although there was something different about it, there was none of the malevolence present that he would expect from a Mysteron Agent.

"It's not what you think," Indigo said quickly. "This might be a little hard to swallow, but I'm from the future."

"You're a Mysteron," he said weakly, still reeling from the reaction of his inbuilt detector.

"No… oh, I know what it is," she said with dawning comprehension. For a moment, she grew very still, then, before Scarlet's eyes, a phosphorescent green haze seemed to seep from the pores of her skin, coalescing into a free form hanging in midair as it moved away from her. The dizziness ceased immediately.

"I hitched a lift with Opal here, so that I could get on board Starbase without question," Indigo explained, waving a hand towards the green haze. "I thought that there might be a few too many questions if I tried to come in through a more conventional route."

Although she was making no further attempts to probe his thoughts, Indigo had completely lowered her shields and opened her mind for his scrutiny.

"I'm from the future," she repeated. "Thirty-six years from now, in fact."

Scarlet knew that she was speaking the truth. There was no way that she could lie to him whilst she was so unguarded. "Why?" he asked simply.

Indigo stood. The full foot separating their heights meant that she had to look a long way up into his face, but she did so without complaint and took both of his hands in hers.

"I have to repair a mistake I made," she whispered, a smile playing at her lips. "Happy birthday."

Scarlet's eyes widened. "You don't mean…?"

The smile broadened, and her bright eyes sparkled in the dark room. "Yes, I do," she said simply. "C'mon, we'd best be somewhere less remote, just in case it all goes wrong."

.oOo.

Having relocated to Scarlet's current quarters, they sat side by side on the settee in the living area.

"Opal will keep an eye on us whilst we are linked," Indigo told him. "It'll raise the alarm if we get into trouble, but I don't think we will."

'It never hurts to be cautious,' Opal said, a note of humour in its thought.

"Opal?" Scarlet queried the name. "I thought that Mysterons didn't have names."

"It's a colour code," Indigo said, rolling her eyes. "This is Lieutenant Opal. It's the navigation officer on the Endeavour." When Scarlet didn't say anything in return, Indigo continued, "Opal's mother saved my life in New York, that time when I was a kid. It protected Captain Black from the other Mysterons whilst he handed me over to Spectrum."

Scarlet only nodded. Unlike Indigo, who embraced the Mysteron part of her heritage now that the conflict was over and the peaceful faction was in control on Mars, he preferred to distance himself from the Mysterons as much as possible, and still struggled with the fact that their two races were now at peace with each other. In his eyes, the Mysterons were, and always would be enemies, but this new information did not sit well with his stereotype of the race.

Indigo could see that he was struggling to assimilate the information. "Don't worry too much about it just now," she advised. "Just relax."

She reached out and gently laid her hands on either side of his face. Her eyes closed, and for a moment Scarlet studied her tranquil expression; felt her at peace with herself, as she had not been for many years. Within seconds, though, her features took on a worried look, although Scarlet barely had time to notice before something happened. Fire raced along every nerve in his body, searing pain lancing though him, and he could not prevent a cry escaping him, a cry echoed by his daughter. Her hands felt like branding irons against his face, her presence like wires in his brain. Surely this was wrong - this couldn't be what she had intended to do to him…

As suddenly as it had started, everything stopped. An icy chill was left where there had only been flame, so cold…

.oOo.

Lieutenant Opal turned to the only person it knew who could help its friend. Unfortunately, when it found her, she seemed to be rather upset, and Opal hesitated. She had always appeared so strong, that it had trouble associating the hunched-up figure that was sobbing into a cushion, with Major Indigo. At first it wondered, absurdly, if it had the wrong room, as if that could be anyone other than Rose Metcalfe, but the bubbling fish tank in the corner of the room satisfied it that this was the correct place.

"Major Indigo?" It intruded quietly into her mind, so as not to disturb her.

"Go 'way," she said aloud, indistinctly, her words muffled by the cushion.

"Major, I need your help," Opal insisted, slightly more urgently. "Your father needs your help."

That got her attention. Opal felt her reach out towards her father, and realise that something had happened.

"What…?"

Opal explained everything in a telepathic burst of images and memories, rather than in the words that Indigo generally preferred. She was already on her feet and out of the door before it had finished. She turned from her door to Scarlet's in a practiced move, unlocking the door using telekinesis rather than typing the code in manually.

Indigo did a slight double take when she saw herself and her father on the sofa, both unconscious. Despite Opal's information, she had not quite been prepared to see her own face.

"Indigo to Sickbay," she called out, activating the comm. system by vocal command. "Medical emergency in Major Scarlet's quarters. Two teams required on the double!"

"What seems to be the problem, Major?" Doctor Mint's voice sounded throughout the room.

"No time to explain, it's a long story," she said frantically, checking both casualties for life signs. "Just get the teams here."

The med-techs arrived in no time, carrying two gurneys between them. Indigo stepped back, allowing two of them to lift Scarlet effortlessly onto one of the gurneys whilst the other two did the same with the unconscious Indigo.

"'Ere, what's goin' on?" one of the techs blurted when he saw the patient, whose eyes fluttered slightly. Indigo stepped up to the side of the gurney, and shielded her eyes from the bright lights above. A hand reached out to grasp hers as her double's eyes finally opened, struggling against oblivion. Bright blue eyes.

"Did it work?" she whispered urgently.

"Yes, it did," Indigo answered reassuringly, knowing instinctively that she was telling the truth.

.oOo.

Doctor Verdant hurried over to assist his colleague as the orderlies wheeled Scarlet and Indigo into Sickbay. Mint barely afforded him a glance before turning his attention to his hand-held medical scanner, which was currently pointed at Scarlet. The device whistled alarmingly and Mint hit the side of it in irritation at the obviously incorrect reading and rescanned his patient.

Verdant pointed his own scanner at Indigo the moment she entered Sickbay, and in his hurry to check his patient, he never noticed the officer who accompanied the unconscious pair. The scanner let out a piercing whistle, matching that of Mint's instrument.

"That can't be right," Verdant said, studying the readout.

"No retrometabolism?" the visitor remarked. "It's exactly right."

Both Mint and Verdant looked up sharply at the familiar voice. Major Indigo was standing in the doorway, out of the way of the two doctors. Verdant looked back at his patient, then back at the figure in the doorway in disbelief.

"Quarantine them!" Mint shouted, coming to his senses first. "If their retrometabolism has shut down, they're susceptible to infection."

The med-techs obediently whisked the two patients to one of the quarantine suites. Both doctors wheeled on Indigo.

"Would you mind explaining?" Verdant demanded, arms folded.

.oOo.

"General Claret?"

"What is it, Blue?" Claret snapped at her aide. She had been in a foul temper ever since Major Indigo had taken off without authorisation four days ago, and there seemed little chance of it abating in the near future.

"Doctor Mint reports that Majors Scarlet and Indigo have been discovered unconscious in Major Scarlet's quarters," Lieutenant Blue reported timidly. "He also says that you should get down to Sickbay as soon as possible. He doesn't want to speculate until you've 'seen for yourself', he says. Something about Indigo."

"Nothing more?" Claret growled. "Very well, I'll meet him there in five minutes."

"SIG," Blue said, moving to restore the audio connection to Sickbay when another light flashed on his board.

"General, we're being hailed by the… the S.S. Endeavour," Blue advised, reading his display. "It's showing a Spectrum registry, but there's no record of it in the computer. I'm interfacing with their computer for the registry details. They've only just crossed the sensor horizon, but it's close enough."

There was a slight pause, then: "That can't be right!" Blue exclaimed, his dark eyes wide with astonishment. "General, the registry is showing a launch date of July 10th, 2367!"

Claret frowned. "The tri-centenary? That's not for another thirty-one years! Who's commanding, dare I ask?"

Blue touched a few controls. The poor young man looked utterly confused. "Colonel… Vermilion."

"'Something about Indigo'," Claret repeated softly. "Things are starting to fall into place. And, of course, you never get one without the other. Well, put him on, Lieutenant."

Claret turned to the vidscreen, which promptly came to life, displaying the familiar countenance of Vermilion, aged by many years but still very recognisable.

"Welcome to 2336, Colonel Vermilion," Claret greeted him as her suspicions were confirmed.

"Thank you, General," Vermilion replied with a smile after only a slight hesitation, caught out by Claret's salutation. "I'm sorry if we surprised you."

"That's certainly one way to put it," Claret said dryly. "Is your First Officer aboard Starbase, by any chance?"

A fleeting expression of concern passed over Vermilion's face, quickly suppressed. "Yes, ma'am, she is. I apologise for her intruding, but we thought it best if she completed her mission before we revealed ourselves."

"'Her mission'? Is there any chance you might enlighten me as to what's going on?" she asked acerbically.

"I'll gladly explain as much as possible, General," Vermilion said. "Our SIF suffered some damage during the trip, and we can't return until it's fixed. Could we dock at Starbase to make repairs?"

Claret nodded. Making any kind of trip with a malfunctioning SIF was dangerous. "We have some space available. I'll get Lieutenant Blue to send details to your helmsman."

"Thank you, ma'am," Vermilion said politely. "I'll see you when we dock."

"SIG. Starbase out."

The screen winked off and Claret turned to Blue. "I want them in quarantine," she ordered. "They can borrow engineers if necessary, but no one from the junior staff - colour-coded engineers only. I only want Colonel Vermilion to leave the ship, none of the rest of his crew."

"SIG," Blue acknowledged, keying instructions into his console, thoroughly confused.

.oOo.

Vermilion practically ran to Sickbay, the moment that Security released him following a short discussion on the ground rules with Claret, rules he had agreed to in an instant. The nurse that he almost ploughed into did a double take before pointing him towards one of the isolation rooms furthest from the main entrance and wards. The windows of the ward were blacked out, but the door to the atrium was not locked, as it would be if there were quarantine patients in there. The door opened obediently as he approached, revealing Doctors Mint and Verdant deep in conversation, their backs turned to the observation window so that the occupants could not lip-read what they were saying. They looked up, startled.

"Colonel Vermilion, I presume?" Verdant asked smoothly, taking in the newcomer with apparent ease. "We were told to expect you."

"How are they?" Vermilion asked. Scarlet and Indigo appeared fine, to his eyes, both reclining on beds and chatting to each other.

"They are in perfect health," Mint answered, stealing a glance at his colleague. "Fortunately, their immune systems appear to be functional against current diseases, otherwise they would be facing a difficult time over the next few months. If it had not been," he continued, seeing Vermilion's blank look, "they would have no defences against any disease that has developed over the last three centuries. They would be facing an intense regime of immunisations and supplementary medication until their systems caught up, otherwise."

"It worked then?" Vermilion pressed. "They're both normal now?"

Any reply was drowned out by an alarm shrieking from the console behind the doctors. Indigo had leaped from her bed upon seeing Vermilion, and was now standing at the door separating the quarantine ward from this small room. Her absence from the sensors had set the alarm off. With a sigh, Verdant silenced the alarm and opened the door.

"Jack!" Indigo cried, rushing towards him, her blue eyes shining with joy. "Jack, it's worked. Everything's going to be all right."

Vermilion lifted her off her feet as she approached him and spun her around. "I knew you could do it," he said as he set her back down again. He swept a piece of her dark hair away from her eyes gently, and he saw clearly for the first time, that she was very comfortable in his arms. Suddenly, without conscious thought, their mouths met in a tender kiss that seemed to last eternity.

They broke apart at the sound of a slight cough. Scarlet was also up, leaning casually against the frame of the open door.

"I thought you said you weren't with anyone?" he said mildly.

Indigo turned, still in Vermilion's arms. She had the good grace to look slightly embarrassed, with a delicate blush highlighting her youthful features.

"I er… I wasn't," she replied.

"Paul!" Vermilion exclaimed, his face alight with happiness at seeing his friend alive and well. "You don't seem surprised."

Scarlet shrugged. "I'm not," he said. "It's obvious to anyone with eyes that the two of you are crazy about each other, even now, in your counterparts."

"And I thought I was hiding it so well," Vermilion said ruefully. "You sure were," he added, giving Indigo a little squeeze.

"I thought I was," she commented. "Maybe not, though."

"Not to me, my love," Scarlet told her affectionately. "You should have learned by now that you can't hide anything from your daddy."

"Don't tell them - us," Indigo said, horrified suddenly. She looked around Vermilion to ensure that the doctors realised that they were included in the request.

"They slipped out whilst you were otherwise occupied," Scarlet said. "Don't worry - I've kept my silence this long. I knew you'd figure it out eventually. Now, if you really don't want them to find you out, I suggest that you separate."

Something in the tone of Scarlet's voice made the couple spring apart, just moments before the main doors opened to admit General Claret, followed by Major Indigo and a young Captain Vermilion. Claret seemed to take in the presence of the duplicates with relative ease, compared to Captain Vermilion, who flanked his Commanding Officer protectively whilst staring at his older self.

"Majors, I am told that you are both in perfect health and can be released from Sickbay," Claret said, with what looked suspiciously like a smile. "Obviously, however, I can't allow you, the 'older' Major Indigo, nor Colonel Vermilion, to freely walk the base. There would be too many questions asked."

"I understand," Colonel Vermilion replied. "We will confine ourselves to the Endeavour whilst the SIF repairs are carried out."

"We need not be quite that drastic," Claret said. "I realise that there are things that need to be said between the five of you, especially considering that there has been quite a dramatic turning point in your lives. I would ask that you restrict yourselves to the Endeavour, your quarters here on Starbase and the corridors in between - no further."

"Of course," Colonel Vermilion responded.

"Also," Claret continued, "I would like to be fully briefed, as much as possible, on what has occurred. I am, therefore, calling a meeting tomorrow at oh-eight hundred hours in the main Conference room. You may all consider yourselves invited. Major Scarlet, Majors Indigo, you are all off duty until then. Colonel Vermilion, please co-ordinate your repairs with my engineers, according to the rules laid down earlier."

"SIG." The reluctant response was uttered in chorus by the five officers, with the two pairs of counterparts speaking in synch.

"Actually, I've had an idea," Claret said with a slight smile. "I know how much you like going back to your old Cloudbase quarters, Major Indigo. I think that all those rooms are still connected to the main systems, and lighting two of them wouldn't cause my engineers a problem. That solution will keep you on Starbase and away from most of the crew. There's even the old conference room down there that we could use."

The elder Vermilion looked at his first officer, seeing her shining eyes pleading with him to agree. He had to admit that he liked the idea of using those old rooms himself.

"It would be an honour, ma'am," he replied graciously.

Claret nodded briskly. "I'll make the arrangements and send an escort for you when the quarters are ready." She spun smartly on her heel and left the room.

"I think we need to get some names sorted, if you're staying for a while," Scarlet said, slouching back on the doorframe. "We could just about cope with these two," he indicated to the two Vermilions, "Captain and Colonel, but you two are going to be more difficult."

"My rank isn't worth much here, Paul," Colonel Vermilion said. "I'm quite happy to drop my colour-code for the time being."

"As am I," the blue-eyed Indigo agreed. "That is, if you two don't mind."

"If it makes life easier," the green-eyed Indigo replied, "I don't mind."

"Sure," Captain Vermilion shrugged.

.oOo.

Rose woke to find the room shaking. Roused from her sleep, it took her a moment to realise that it wasn't the room at all, but her that was moving.

"I'm awake," she mumbled as she turned to see Jack.

Jack released Rose and helped her to sit up. "Hurry up, Rose, or we'll be late."

Rose frowned. "Late? What time is it?"

"07:50," Jack replied urgently.

Rose leaped out of bed and pulled the spare uniform she had brought from the Endeavour out of her closet. "Why did you let me sleep so late?" she demanded as she stripped off her nightie.

Jack averted his eyes politely. "I thought you'd be awake," he said. "You're normally the first up."

"You're right. Why… oh - Jack, don't be so ridiculous. You're going to be seeing me like this a lot more."

Jack shook his head, still not looking at her. "I can't," he said quietly. "You deserve a young man, someone around the age you look."

Jack turned as he felt Rose's hand on his cheek. "I want you," she told him gently, but firmly. She stood on tiptoes and kissed him gently before resuming dressing at top speed. There was a delicate blush on her cheeks, and she looked slightly annoyed as her hear popped out of her polo-neck.

"I didn't think about sleep," she berated herself. "I should have remembered that I would need to sleep more now."

"Let me guess," Jack said, handing her a uniform tunic. "You went to sleep at around three or four, same as normal?"

"Yes," she growled, sitting down to pull on her socks and boots. "There's so much I'll have to get used to."

"Welcome to mortality," Jack said teasingly, handing her a hairbrush.

Indigo pulled the brush quickly through her short hair, before discarding the brush on the bed and standing. She rubbed her eyes to get rid of the sleep deposits and glanced in the mirror.

"It'll have to do, I suppose," she moaned.

"You look perfect," Vermilion told her, pulling her towards him and kissing her. He pulled away after only a few seconds and placed her cap on her dark head.

"Now, we need to go, or we really won't get there on time."

.oOo.

Rose and Jack met up with Major Scarlet just outside the Conference Room. Dark stubble shadowed his cheeks and his vest wasn't yet done up, and he was, like them, a minute late.

"Look at you, you're a mess!" she scolded affectionately, reaching to fasten the zipper on his vest, allowing him time to straighten his cap, which was currently at a very precarious angle. "Did you oversleep, by any chance?"

"You too, eh?" he replied with a smile, before stifling a yawn and rubbing at the bristles on his chin.

"Shall we go and bite the bullet, Colonel Svenson?" Scarlet said, opening the door and allowing the American to pass ahead of him.

Major Indigo and Captain Vermilion were already seated around the table, along with Doctor Verdant and General Claret, sitting in the centre, as the three older officers entered. The general gave them a very stern look that reminded Scarlet sharply of Colonel White. Despite the fact that Claret was a petite, purple woman, she possessed that same authoritative persona that brought grown men to heel with ease.

Swiftly, Scarlet came to attention, an action mirrored by the two temporally displaced officers at his side.

"Please accept our apologies for our tardiness," Jack began when it was clear that he had drawn the short straw by virtue of holding the higher rank. "Majors Scarlet and Metcalfe have experienced some difficulties in adjusting to their new circumstances."

Claret's keen eyes studied the errant trio carefully before questioning the use of name. "Major Metcalfe?"

"Yes, ma'am," Vermilion continued. "The major and I have decided to adopt our given names for the time being, to avoid confusion between us and our younger counterparts."

"I see," Claret mused. "Well, sit down, Colonel, Majors. We're already late."

Meekly, Jack, Rose and Scarlet took vacant seats around the perimeter of the table.

Claret fixed each officer in turn with a stern glare as her chair rotated slowly in the centre of the circular table.

"I have called this meeting in order to clarify the events of yesterday," she said authoritatively. "I, for one, am not quite sure I understand what occurred, nor what would cause two senior Spectrum officers to break the most important of the Temporal Orders so seriously. I trust that there was a good reason, Colonel Svenson?"

"Yes, ma'am," Jack replied briskly. "Without going into too much detail, without Major Metcalfe's intervention, a chain of events would be set up that would lead to the eventual extinction of life on Earth."

Claret looked deeply unimpressed. "You'll excuse me if I need a little more convincing, Colonel. Whilst you are here, you are subject to my command, no matter who might be the head of Spectrum in your time."

"It's still you, ma'am," Jack said. "However, the actual events that were to happen are not important. As long as they do not occur, then we are justified in our actions."

'Rosie, what did I do to make you come back and change me?'

The projected thought caught Rose off guard. She hadn't tested her telepathy since she had lost her retrometabolism, had thought that it would have been lost along with her indestructibility. Obviously, however, she had been wrong. If Scarlet could still project, then the odds were that she could too.

She steadfastly looked at Claret. 'What makes you think that it was anything you did?' she projected back, ensuring that the thought was shielded from Claret.

'There must have been something.' The extra shielding hadn't taken into account the other telepath in the conference room. Claret and Jack were still politely arguing, heedless of the fact that the three Metcalfes were engaged in a telepathic conversation of their own.

'I wouldn't have altered causality without a damn good reason,' the younger Indigo continued.

Rose shifted uncomfortably in her seat and stared at her hands, which were clasped on the tabletop. 'I'd rather not say,' she thought to them.

Both Scarlet and her younger self pressed the question, and under their joint scrutiny, Rose relented. She doubted that she would have held up if Indigo really tried to get an answer from her.

'You committed suicide on Christmas Eve,' she told Scarlet, still not meeting his gaze. 'Your death precipitated a civil war on Mars, which then led to the start of the second War of Nerves.'

The whole room fell silent. Scarlet and Indigo were staring at Rose, who had her head bowed and her eyes closed, looking very small and delicate next to Jack. Claret had stopped speaking and looked very unimpressed at the three Metcalfes. Following Claret's lead, Jack had also stopped speaking.

"When you three have quite finished," Claret said icily, "I couldn't quite catch what you were saying, and I am certain that Captain Vermilion and Colonel Svenson didn't, either. You all know the rules regarding conversation in staff meetings: no telepathy."

"Yes, ma'am," Rose said, her voice thick with emotion. Yesterday, she had been able to shut off her memories, seeing her father alive again had made everything that had occurred seem so very distant, but now it was catching up to her. That awful night seemed like only yesterday, the pain still fresh and raw.

Claret could not fail to notice. "I think we need to know," she said, more gently.

"I know why you were keeping your silence, Rose," Scarlet said, sounding shaken but assertive. "I don't mind if you tell General Claret and Captain Vermilion."

"I… I can't believe it," Indigo said quietly. "I don't believe that you would ever do something like that, Dad."

"I can," Scarlet admitted in a hoarse voice.

Rose looked up and met Scarlet's eyes. Her eyes were brimming with tears, but he could also see comprehension there. She understood now what had led to the events of Christmas Eve, what had driven his counterpart to take his own life.

"Perhaps I should begin?" Scarlet offered. "I know the beginning of the story."

"Thank you," Rose said softly.

"As you may have realised, I haven't been myself recently," Scarlet began, sounding slightly ashamed of his melancholy. "I have never been comfortable with the idea of immortality, and with my three hundredth birthday approaching, all I could think of was the fact that I wanted to be able to see an end to my life. Five days ago, I asked Rose to reverse the effects of my Mysteronisation and shut down my retrometabolism."

"That was why I left Starbase," Indigo interrupted softly. "I had to get out of here."

Claret nodded her understanding.

"I wish I hadn't done that," Rose said. "I just needed some time away to sort my thoughts out."

"It didn't help," Indigo admitted. "I just felt more hurt and confused than ever."

Rose nodded. "The fact that it was bloody freezing didn't help," she said with a small smile.

"This is weird," Indigo said. "I know you're me, but…"

Rose grinned. "Yeah, I know."

"Ladies?"

"Sorry, General," the two Indigos said in unison.

"I did a lot of soul-searching, trying to put my fears at rest, but when Dad came to me yesterday, I couldn't go through with it. I've never known how I stop the retrometabolism when I free Mysteron agents, and I've never been able to do that in replicants over a month or so old. The few times I've tried, I came out of it so weak, without actually achieving anything."

"Over the next week, Paul got progressively more and more withdrawn." Jack took over the story from Indigo. "Depressed, wouldn't speak to anyone, spending all his off duty time locked up in his quarters."

"On Christmas Eve, Jack and I had drawn the night watch together," Rose said, her eyes unfocussed as she remembered. "Just before midnight, I sensed what Dad was about to do. He was in the core, standing next to the generator. I got there just in time to see…" She broke off, unable to form the words.

"The worst of it was," Jack picked up the tale again after a moment of shocked silence, "we had only just been talking about the reversal, and Rose had decided that she was going to do it after all, for Christmas instead of Paul's birthday."

"We buried you in Winchester, next to Grandma and Granddad," Rose continued, tears flowing freely down her cheeks."Everything was arranged very quickly; we had a private funeral on the twenty-seventh, with a memorial planned for the New Year.

"On New Year's Eve, I was on Mars with the First Minister when the government was overrun by the war supporters, seeing opportunity now that one of their biggest problems was out of the way and the other was… distracted. They started a very vicious civil war. Mysterons can do a whole host of very nasty things to each other when they want to, and it wasn't exactly a walk in the park for me, either. By New Year's Day, most of the ruling body was dead, and the peace supporters folded. I barely managed to escape with my life. Lieutenant Opal distracted the new leaders of the group mind whilst I fired up the engines of the Angel I'd borrowed for the trip - legitimately, this time. Opal came back to Earth with me, just in time for us to hear the Voice of the Mysterons declaring war again." Rose shuddered at the memory.

"The war has been going on ever since then," Jack said. "The Mysterons are managing to complete their threats more often than not. There is no way we're going to win this time."

"Opal and I saw the end, using that precognition sense- what would happen if we didn't manage to stop the war," Rose added, sounding much stronger now, secure in her conviction that what she had done was right. "Within a month, the Mysterons were going to set off a nuclear bomb, big enough to irradiate the whole Earth. Those who weren't lucky enough to be killed in the initial explosion would have been living on a dead world - crops would have failed, food stocks rapidly diminish, people fighting each other to feed their families. But even if they managed to feed themselves, they would have died of radiation sickness within a year. By New Year, 2374, the Earth will be nothing but a ball of dirt, with dead plants and animals lying everywhere, with no bacteria left to rot them.

"The only way to stop it happening was to prevent the war from starting in the first place; by stopping you from dying, Dad." Rose smiled faintly. "After that vision, causality didn't seem to matter that much."

There was silence. Then: "You never told me that," Jack said weakly. "Never said how it would happen."

"I can see why," Vermilion said dryly. "It's not a pretty picture second-hand."

"No, it's not," Claret agreed, licking her lips nervously. "Are you certain that it has been averted? Couldn't the fact that Major Scarlet is no longer indestructible still cause the uprising on Mars?"

"We considered it," Rose said. "One of the factors in the uprising was the fact that Dad had committed suicide. Opal and I, along with a few other Mysteron refugees, think that even the violent factions will respect the fact that Dad has renounced what they still see as a 'gift', in order to live a peaceful life. They don't understand that the human mind is not designed to cope with living for hundreds of years, so they couldn't understand why he did what he did - they just saw it as more violence."

Indigo had her eyes closed. Her older counterpart knew that she was searching for an answer beyond the senses of her peers, seeing things that the human mind was not meant to see; exhibiting a difference that most people could not accept about her.

"I can't see the civil war," she said eventually, with a smile. "The peace will continue. Nothing that you described will happen."

Everyone knew better than to ask how she knew. It was just one of those things that they had to put down to bizarre Mysteron abilities. The clairvoyance was one of the spookier powers, though, and Indigo tended to keep very quiet about anything she managed to perceive through it, unless it was important. She knew it unnerved her friends, and for her, it brought a whole new meaning to the phrase 'déjà vu'. She didn't like using that particular aspect of her powers - she preferred to find things out when they happened, and not before.

"Well, thank God for that," Rose said, laughing softly. "I'd have been really annoyed if we'd done all this for nothing."

Claret sighed and turned to Dr. Verdant, who had remained silent throughout the relating of the events leading up to Rose and Jack returning to this time.

"Doctor, I know you have spoken to Major Scarlet and Major Metcalfe already, but I would be grateful if you could brief the rest of us on the practical aspects of their altered condition."

Verdant stood up and glanced at both officers for a final confirmation of their consent before beginning.

"Well, General, as you know, Major Metcalfe's actions yesterday disabled the retrometabolic process in both her and Major Scarlet. Whether this is a permanent state of affairs or not remains to be seen, considering that Major Indigo has already regained her retrometabolism before - after it apparently stopped in 2090."

Both versions of Vermilion stared at their respective Indigos, and even Claret seemed taken aback by the remark.

"I was electrocuted," the Indigos explained simultaneously, then flashed matching mischievous grins at each other.

"This feels different," Rose said to the doctor. "This feels permanent. Then again, I thought it would be permanent then, too."

"Only time will tell," Verdant said, trying to get back on track. "For the time being, both Major Scarlet and Major Metcalfe seem to be almost completely normal Humans. Their immune systems seem to be coping with the change well, although I'm scheduling several shots to ensure that they both remain healthy. I have already sent a list to Doctor Chartreuse, so there is absolutely no chance of you getting out of it, Major Metcalfe."

"Damn," Rose swore playfully. Verdant was reminding her forcibly of Doctor Fawn, in anticipating her trying to avoid Sickbay for as long as they were on Starbase.

"Both of you are physically fit," Verdant continued, "and as far as I can tell, Majors, you will both age normally now. Again, though, only time will tell whether this is actually the case. Of course, there are certain limitations now that you are not indestructible, sleep being one of these. You must remember that you need more sleep now, not just a couple of hours a night. Naturally, there will be a period of adjustment whilst you get used to a new routine, but I can see no reason not to release you both onto active duty. Only," Verdant added, with a twinkle in his eye, "no stepping in front of bullets."

"Well, I can't promise that," Scarlet said.

"Me neither," Rose added.

Claret sighed in dismay at the irrepressible pair.

"There is one matter that we need to discuss, General," Rose said more seriously as Verdant sat back down.

"What is that?"

"Unless we keep the chain going, we'll have a paradox - a true paradox - on our hands. I - Indigo, I mean - will have to go to go back in time thirty-six years from now and do what I've done, and explain this over - to keep the timeline going, so that Dad is always alive, and the events that lead to what created my timeline can't happen again."

"I know," Indigo said quietly. "I can do it."

"I don't think I can really refuse, can I?" Claret said with a sigh. "Knowing what will happen without your intervention, I can condone the breach of regulations. Now, are there any more issues to discuss?"

At the negative responses around the table, Claret called an end to the meeting. Doctor Verdant caught Major Metcalfe before she left and they headed out together, with Rose waving a dismissive hand at Colonel Svenson, which amused Claret greatly.

He's still crazy about her, even after all that time, she thought as she left the centre of the table and walked around the perimeter.

Major Indigo and Captain Vermilion were ahead of the others, talking in low voices, and they missed the exchange. Major Scarlet, however, saw.

'When will they work it out?' Claret asked with a tolerant smile, watching Jack walk forlornly back to the Endeavour.

'Yesterday', Scarlet replied, perching on the edge of the next to where Claret was standing.

'Yesterday?' she reflected back at him.

Scarlet nodded. 'In Sickbay, just before you arrived with our versions of them. I was beginning to lose hope.' They lapsed into silence, contemplating what had been revealed during the briefing.

"Paul, were you really that unhappy?" Claret's voice was tinged with sadness.

Scarlet stopped slouching on the table and stood before her, his head bowed. "Yes, I was," he admitted in a low voice. "I thought about going down to the generator last night and doing exactly what… what I did do in their alternate timeline."

Claret took his hands in hers. "I knew something was wrong, but I never thought for a moment that it was that bad."

Scarlet raised his gaze slightly, from the floor to the hands that were holding his. "I tried to hide it, for Rose's sake, but I just didn't want to go on living like that, with no end in sight. Now though… Now I know that I will die, one day; that I'm not going to live forever…" He smiled shyly at her. "I think I can live with that."

.oOo.

"Now, don't forget that you have to come back and do this yourself in thirty-six years time," Rose reminded her counterpart as they stood at the airlock linking Starbase to the Endeavour, five days later. "Otherwise, the chain will be broken and we'll have a true paradox. Plus, I won't have a job to go back to."

"I won't," Indigo laughed. "Are you sure you won't stay a bit longer?"

"I'm sure," her future self replied. "We need to be getting back to our time. Look after Dad for me, will you? I want to see him there when I get back."

"No problem," Indigo assured her. "Make sure you look after yourself. Remember that you're not indestructible any more."

"I know." Without a further word, the older Indigo turned and stepped through the airlock.

Vermilion approached Indigo as the airlock cycled shut behind her, closing the ship off from Starbase.

"How do you feel?" he asked her, noting the thoughtful expression on her face.

She gazed up at him, making no attempt to hide the affection in her blue eyes. "Good," she replied. "Everything's worked out well."

"Better that I hoped," Vermilion commented, taking the tiny woman in his arms tenderly. "I just wish I'd had the courage to do this forty years ago."

"Forty years ago, I'd have run a mile," she responded sorrowfully. "I've always been afraid of getting too close."

"And now?" Vermilion asked playfully.

"Well, I've changed since then," she replied, equally playfully as he bent to kiss her.

"How long is it to that black hole?" Vermilion asked when they broke apart.

"Twelve hours," Indigo replied. "We're travelling directly this time, instead of avoiding the traffic."

"That still leaves us plenty of time," Vermilion said cryptically. "Cerulean," he continued into his comm., "set a course back to the black hole at cruising speed, and take us out."

"SIG," the scientist replied.

There was a slight tremor beneath their feet as the starship's engines eased them away from Starbase.

Vermilion extended his arm courteously to Indigo. "Would you care to join me in my quarters for a meal, Major?" he asked, all innocence.

"Why, yes, Colonel," she replied, taking his arm. "That sounds delightful."

.oOo.

Vermilion was rudely awoken by Lieutenant Periwinkle's voice sounding over the comm. Rousing from a dream, he was slightly disorientated for a moment, until the sound of gentle breathing and the warmth of another body in his bed reminded him pleasantly of the past few hours.

Careful not to wake Indigo, he slid from the bed and pulled on a robe before answering the screen on his desk.

"Yes, Lieutenant?" he said.

"I'm sorry to have woken you, sir," Periwinkle said apologetically, her lavender eyes taking his rumpled appearance. "We have arrived at the singularity."

A noise across the room distracted Vermilion for a moment before he answered. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes, Lieutenant. Keep us at a safe distance from the event horizon until then."

"SIG," Periwinkle replied as the screen winked off.

Vermilion stood up and walked back towards the bed. Indigo was already up, and the light from the stars in his window backlit her slender figure perfectly.

"Did you hear?" he asked her as she picked their uniforms up from the floor.

"Yes," she replied. "Nearly home."

"Do you want to take a shower first?" Vermilion asked her.

"You mean I have to go alone?" she shot back playfully, heading towards the bathroom door and grabbing his hand on the way. "It'll be much more fun together."

Exactly fourteen and a half minutes after speaking with Periwinkle, Colonel Vermilion and Major Indigo arrived on the bridge. It was the middle of ship's night, and consequently, there were only three officers on the bridge. Periwinkle was in command as the senior lieutenant, as well as performing the science officer's duties, and she was accompanied by Lieutenant Sable of Engineering and Cadet Cinnabar at the helm. Vermilion felt rather outnumbered; in an organisation that still primarily human, despite the fact that their General was not, he was used to seeing at least two Humans in a bridge crew at any time, and suddenly found that he was the only full human present amongst this all-Centauran shift. Consequently, the bridge was very quiet when he and Indigo entered. He exchanged a glance with her, and could see that she too was amused, although not surprised. The silence didn't seem to bother her much, either, although it unnerved him.

"Can you still hear them?" he whispered, not wanting to disturb the three officers whilst he and Indigo remained unseen from the three occupied stations.

"Yes," Indigo whispered back. "I've not lost everything, you know. It's just a normal conversation, though - nothing exciting. Oh, but that is…"

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," Indigo said with a little wave of her hand. "Girl stuff."

Vermilion decided to make his presence known, and strode purposefully towards his vacant chair. Indigo followed close behind and took the seat to Vermilion's right. It was, technically, hers, as the First Officer, but as she had been acting as helmsman for a majority of the mission because of her unique abilities, she had not yet had the chance to test it out. It was quite satisfactory, she determined after an experimental shuffle around, comfortable, yet not so soft that she would want to fall asleep in it. Just right for a peacetime military ship.

"Lieutenant Periwinkle, report please," Vermilion asked the scientist.

"We arrived at the vicinity of the singularity fifteen minutes ago, sir," Periwinkle responded at once. "The ship is at full stop, awaiting the execution of the slingshot manoeuvre to return us to our proper time. The singularity does not show any signs of dangerous fluctuation, and Lieutenant Sable advises that the SIF is at full power. There should be no problems for the temporal journey."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Vermilion said. Before he could give any orders, Indigo stood, almost in unison with Cadet Cinnabar, and they traded positions, Indigo sliding easily into the helmsman's seat whilst Cinnabar stood off to one side. As they passed each other, Vermilion was amused by the fact that Indigo, who was small for a human, was a full head taller than the Centauran female.

"Come and sit down, Cadet," he invited her, indicating to Indigo's vacated chair. "You don't want to miss the show."

"Thank you, Colonel," Cinnabar said graciously, crossing the bridge and hopping up onto the seat. Her legs didn't reach the ground when she sat back, but the minor inconvenience did not seem to bother her that much. Vermilion was reminded that she was still an adolescent, although already over thirty Earth years old. She would not reach full height for another year or so, round about the same time as her shock of white hair darkened.

"Ready to implement slingshot," Indigo stated, bringing Vermilion's thoughts back to the present.

"Very well, Major. Execute." Vermilion still had some reservations about this return trip, but Indigo had spent the last week convincing him that going forward was much easier than going back, and she didn't need the enhanced senses that Opal had given her to perform the return trip. What worried him was that she wouldn't say whether or not she still had any kind of temporal sense now that she had lost her retrometabolism.

Too late now, he told himself as her nimble fingers danced over the helm, taking them into a fast, low orbit around the black hole. He was sincerely glad that the Centaurans could not hear his thoughts as they could each other's. No sense in worrying them over this.

Colours swirled around the ship as they picked up speed courtesy of the singularity, faster than the engines of the ship could propel them. Breaking the temporal barrier seemed to go far more smoothly on this occasion than the last. Only the slight shudder of the inertial dampeners gave any indication that anything unusual had occurred; there was none of the distortion that had disorientated him on the last trip.

"Did we make it?" he asked as the Endeavour came to a stop a few light hours from the singularity.

"Planetary alignment seems to indicate that we have arrived at a similar time to the one we left," Periwinkle said, studying her instruments.

"Indigo?"

"December 2372, definitely," she replied, sounding a lot less certain than she had when giving the date and time on the previous trip. "Sixteenth or seventeenth, I think."

"'You think'?" Vermilion teased. "Not very precise, is it?"

"Sorry, Colonel," she said, not sounding in the least bit apologetic.

"December sixteenth," Periwinkle supplied. "Twenty-hundred fourteen hours."

"In that case, set course for Earth," Vermilion said. "Best possible speed. We don't want to be late."

"Aye, sir," Indigo acknowledged, sounding grateful. "ETA Starbase, oh-two hundred hours at top speed."

There was a small reception committee gathered at the airlock when it was finally opened. Vermilion and Indigo stepped out onto Starbase to be greeted by a very familiar face, although it was older than either of them remembered. Once jet-black hair had become distinguished silver, and laughter lines now creased the corners of bright blue eyes. Indigo stopped, almost disbelieving despite the events of the past week. Tears of joy welled up in her eyes as she ran forward, into her father's arms.

"Hush, my little Angel," Scarlet said softly, stroking her hair as he had when she was a child, whilst she sobbed into his chest. "Everything's going to be all right."

Part V: Christmas Yet to Come