Chapter 5

Thoughts swirled through her mind. The temptation to have the artifact manipulate her cell again was more present than she liked. Jewel hadn't seen her family in weeks, and the sun was even longer.

Human contact was limited to personal necessity. Only one person was given access to her even during this time, and he was standing on the other side of the glass.

"You haven't tried to escape ever since I cut off all contact," Stark noted.

"Oh, I've thought about it, but following through wouldn't help my end of our deal, not that you've kept yours," Jewel replied. "What do you want?"

"I think you already know. The artifact seems to be telling you what I want," he stated.

"Do you know why the artifact felt free to speak with me all these years? I wasn't trying to study it. All it wants is a friend, but it kills anyone who comes in contact with it. This is usually within a couple of years, maybe less," Jewel explained.

"And how long has it been in your life?"

Jewel shrugged. "I don't know, but I was in preschool the first time I built the model reactor that's in your hand. That model is the third one I've ever built."

Stark looked down and realized there was indeed a reactor in his hands.

"If you're wondering how that got from my desk to your hands, the artifact manipulated the door's molecules," Jewel continued. "You want the power of the artifact."

"Talk to him," she thought. "I'll be your translator for anyone else."

"Tell him what you want. You must speak for me. I don't have a mental connection with him," The artifact said.

"I'll never get used to someone reading my mind," Stark said as he gazed at the reactor.

"And how long have you known Dr. Blake? Because she clearly reads your mind," Jewel retorted.

Stark saw that he wasn't going to get anywhere with Jewel for the time being, so he made an opening and left without looking back.

"Would you like me to lock him in?"

"No. I'd rather he not be here while we look into the future."

"Are you sure? The last time this happened, you-"

"Became a lab rat? I'm aware of that. Just open the portal, please."

A portal opened for her to walk through. She was inside the lab of a Doctor Carl Carlson whose future was about to be immensely different than he would have thought.

Jewel watched as the man's cell regenerated.

"Why are you showing him to me?" she asked the artifact.

"He'll be exposed," it answered. "He is not long for this timeline."

"Timeline?"

"In another timeline, he has run a warehouse of endless wonder for thirty-five years."

"A warehouse?" Jewel asked.

"When the time comes for Eureka to move, you will likely be brought to the warehouse."

"What do you mean by 'likely'? I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a warehouse. Let alone, this place, which might as well be a warehouse. How could you keep my potential future from me?" She said.

"There were two futures that laid before you. A life in Eureka if their agents caught up with you, or a life on the run."

"You said he wasn't long for this timeline. What did you mean by that?"

By this time tomorrow, there will be an explosion in his lab. The explosion won't kill him. Though unlike the company he will invite to witness his breakthrough, he will walk away without a scratch.

"If he isn't long for this timeline, where will he go?"

"He will be sent to the Warehouse timeline."

"And you plan on taking me there to show me his future? Will he remember anything about Eureka?"

"Yes, he will. But he won't know why he remembers you. You will also see your life as it is there."

"Will the me in that timeline still have a connection to you?" She asked.

"You are the artifact in the timelines you are about to see."

Another portal opened for Jewel to walk through. As she came out the other side, she saw millions upon millions of antiques with digital labels stating what the item was and the powers it held, both good and evil.

"You know, if these things were labeled only with the bad, and the good was either nonexistent or kept in a vault, no one would try to use these things unless their goal was mass destruction. They seem gruesomely deadly once you read their details," Jewel spoke aloud.

"I wouldn't recommend such a thing to Mrs. Frederick," a man who looked and sounded exactly like Carl Carlson said as he came from her left.

"You say that at least once a week," a familiar voice said from another isle. The only thing Jewel could have concluded was that this conversation happened quite often.

"They can hear me?"

"Yes."

The two voices continued speaking as if the time traveling Jewel had never said a word.

"But how? I'm not from this timeline."

"You are the warehouse's power source no matter the timeline you are located. Any time something happens to you, physically or emotionally, it upsets the warehouse."

"Then the warehouse is going to be upset for a long time. Do they know about me?"

"No. Not even the caretaker, Mrs. Frederick."

"And she knows everything about this place?"

"Almost everything. All they know about you is that you radiate power."

The next thing Jewel knew, she was surrounded by bronze statues.

"What is this place?"

"This room is called the Bronze Sector."

And you're showing me this because...

"This is where you would have been stored had the chamber worked on you."

"Where do they keep me now?"

"You are free to roam the Warehouse. No timeline has been able to contain you."

"If that's true, then why does it only take four floors of concrete to contain you?"

"That only contains my radiation levels, not my power."

"Right, otherwise you wouldn't be able to speak with me."

Jewel took a moment to look at the bronzed statues of people she'd only read about in school. She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know just who was bronzed, but with all the artifact had told her, she had a feeling the knowledge was already there.

In the blink of an eye, the endless wonder of the warehouse faded from Jewel's view and was replaced by her boring cell walls. It felt like she was there only a few minutes though her return proved to be a day.

There was no time to warn anyone. A wave a nausea fell over her as a lab four floors up shook.