Jasper did nothing to affect Bagster Phillips’ device as he wanted Phillips free to travel at will. He wanted Phillips to find and kill Jack. In fact, Jasper was the one who had arranged for Phillips to receive the device from Vacher in the first the place.
Jasper had met Vacher in his cell in the quiet of night. Vacher was surprised and enraged at first and came at Jasper but Jasper simply disappeared and reappeared until Vacher finally calmed down. Once Vacher was compliant, Jasper gave him the device. He told Vacher that the device would help him cheat death at the guillotine. Jasper further explained that he was an angel there to deliver Vacher from the sufferings of humanity. Vacher, who actually was quite insane, believed Jasper.
It was Jasper who sent Phillips the letter that he should look into the Vacher case, knowing that Phillips would investigate thoroughly and find the time travel device. When Vacher woke and found the device missing, fear overwhelmed him and he went into a violent fit as he knew he no longer possessed the means to stop death from coming.
Everything else was real.
Jack’s conscience did come back after he killed Libby because his time travel device was disabled. Vincent and Libby were both caught in an unstable time slip and entered the lives of other people in history as those people. Jack and Vincent were drawn towards Wilson’s home during their time of need for each other (Jack’s issues when he tried to turn a direction away from Washington, D.C. were orchestrated by Jasper).
Jasper was content with what he had accomplished. He had killed Jack, as well as every other time traveler with the exception of Vincent. And now, as far as Jasper was concerned, it was in Vincent’s hands what came next for him. If Vincent chose to leave time travel behind and try to make a new life for himself in a time and place of his choosing then Jasper could leave him alone. Jasper would go on with his life and all would be well.
But, if Vincent chose not to follow that path, if Vincent decided he needed to avenge the deaths of those he had lost, then Jasper would be there. If Vincent couldn’t leave the past alone, then Jasper would make sure that Vincent was reminded that he should have made a different decision.
Vincent decided he would try to move on. But without a target in mind he had no idea where to begin. After much self-deliberation, he chose to go back to Belgium during what had formerly been his present day. He knew that Libby would be dead and that the life he had grown to love would not be there for him but it was what he knew.
He would start in Belgium and work his way across Europe. He knew it would be dangerous. He had no idea what the world would be like. When he had left, Libby had been the President and World War III was underway. Since the timeline had changed and Libby was no longer the President during that time, he was uncertain as to the landscape of warfare in the world. He had nowhere else to go.
Then, just before he was about to travel, an idea came to him. He had changed everything by killing Adolph Hitler; what if he went back and saved him? He couldn’t believe he was suggesting such an action but he was alone and desperate. He knew it was a very selfish decision. He was choosing his happiness over the happiness of millions of people who would die in camps and in combat because of the Nazi regime. I have to do something about that also, Vincent justified to himself.
He vowed he would work to stop the Holocaust at all cost (except for Libby). He had changed history once and would do it again. Only this time Libby wouldn’t die. She would live. She might never be his wife but she would be alive and that would be worth everything to him.
Once she was alive and safe, Vincent would use all of his knowledge and resources to stop the senseless killing of Jews by Nazi Germany.
Vincent had made his decision and he disappeared.
CHAPTER FORTY NINE
Passchendaele, Belgium – November 1917
Jasper had remotely downloaded a tracking application onto Vincent’s time travel device. The technology was quite complex but it worked. Jasper looked at his monitor (which to the untrained eye was a series of lines and waves) and expected to see Vincent return to his original time in Belgium. That was the safe bet for Vincent and Jasper saw no reason that Vincent would take an alternate approach.
Jasper was wrong. He looked down at his monitor and was shocked to see that Vincent had returned to the Battle of Passchendaele. He was furious.
“How dare he try to undo what I have done?” Jasper shouted to an empty sky. “So he thinks he can stop Hitler from being killed and that will change everything back?”
Jasper was tempted to laugh off the anger, considering briefly that Vincent’s actions were futile but then uncertainty entered his mind. What if stopping Hitler’s murder actually did undo everything that had happened? Jack would still be alive and would continue to murder his way through life. Phillips never would have shown up at his doorstep (in which case Jasper never would have went back in time, making arrangements for Phillips to find the time travel device in the first place).
Jasper thought on his old life. How commonplace. Deep down, there were feelings of anguish at how much he missed his wife and daughter but these emotions were masked by the rage that now consumed him. He felt the
