Jasper had to stop Vincent. He could not let everything go back.
The ironic aspect of Jasper’s new life was his time travel device. He could have switched his newly created time travel device for one of the devices from the future that Vincent and others used. Switching devices would have regulated his personality, removing the killer. He still could have traveled through time and enjoyed the benefits of that without the added aspect of having murderous tendencies. But he didn’t and it seemed the causality paradox wasn’t finished.
He felt he could not go back and be a slave to a common, everyday way of life. But he was already a slave. Jasper didn’t know it but once his subconscious took control, there was no turning back voluntarily. His subconscious mind made Jasper powerful and his subconscious liked that self-awareness. His subconscious would not willingly give up that authority or let anything alter Jasper’s new existence – especially the removal of the device that made it all possible.
Jasper was changed. And unless someone helped him change, he would remain as he was. Controlled by emotion. Controlled by rage.
The three strongest emotions were fear, love and hate. These three mixed together, unchecked, resulted in the rage. Fear led the way. Love gave him passion for what he was doing. Hate gave him scorn for who he was and what he was doing. These raw emotions all in sundry caused him to hate everything including himself. His passion drove that hate. The fear caused the paranoia of change and was the glue that held the other emotions together.
Jasper, with his unchecked rage, thought only of stopping Vincent. With that, he also thought of Ypres, Belgium during World War I. He focused on the last days of the Battle of Passchendaele and disappeared.
Vincent, unaware that Jasper was able to track him and was on his way to Belgium, arrived at the Battle of Passchendaele. The scene before him was as atrocious as he had remembered. The death, the filth, the mud and rain – all mired by the blood that was spilled and the flesh that was burned – made those memories spring to life. He was quickly placed back into the persona of a man at war, which was good as he would need that instinct to survive.
The moments that make up life are often brief. It was in one of those short moments that the future of the entire world was altered again.
Vincent arrived in the German trench. He knew that across No Man’s Land he existed in his grandfather’s form. He knew in few moments his Other Self would be given the order to fire. His Other Self would then begin firing in short bursts spread out in predetermined areas across the battlefield. Only this time in his direction.
Vincent knew that at any moment, his Other Self would notice a familiar face move to the front line of the German forces.
Jasper arrived at that moment. He knew that his Other Self was also there. Jasper’s Other Self had attended this moment to enjoy the death of both Hitler and the bereavement of war in general.
Jasper scanned the German trench. He saw the shadowed corner where his Other Self was viewing the panorama of the war theater. He saw Jack. He saw Hitler. Then he saw someone who shouldn’t have been in the German trench with them. He saw Vincent.
Vincent saw both Jack and Hitler in the German trench. He knew it was only a matter of seconds before Vincent’s Other Self pulled the trigger, the bullet exploding Hitler’s chest and changing the world.
From the corner of his eye, Vincent saw Jasper arrive. He still didn’t know who Jasper was but recognized him from the Bagster Phillips’ office in London. He knew Jasper being here was no coincidence. He didn’t wait for Jasper to offer an explanation to his presence.
Vincent didn’t have time for that anyways. He had to react.
And so he moved.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Passchendaele, Belgium – November 1917
Jack was about ten feet away from Hitler. The British had opened fire in short, scattered bursts – just the type of gunfire that made it difficult to rise above the top of the trench and fire back effectively.
As he was listening to the bursts, he noticed a change in one of the firing patterns. The bullets that had been firing over his head in a specific pattern stopped. The gunfire around him was still occurring but the gunfire targeted to his area in the trench ceased.
Jack risked a look over the trench wall and saw a British soldier taking specific aim. He stood up. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do. The moment was very surreal and unique. In a matter of a moment, his actions would decide the history of the world. He saw Adolph Hitler next to him and saw that he was about to be killed.
Should he run to Hitler, shove him to the ground and save his life? Or should he let him die? Millions of lives hung in the balance of that moment. The thought of all of those deaths – there was nothing more fulfilling to him than genocide. But Jack had made his decision; he would let the universe sort it out. If Hitler was to die, he would not interfere.
Before Jasper could react, Vincent rose and ran at Jack. Vincent drove his shoulder into Jack’s chest and Jack was heaved into air. The collision was emotionally-charged and powerful and Jack was flung back into Hitler, knocking Hitler backwards.
Then came the grunt. And Vincent knew that grunt had changed everything. Again.
Vincent looked over at Hitler. He was stunned but very much alive. He couldn’t say the
