Chapter 7

Traveler removed his hand from Smurfette's body, watching as all time and history as it revealed itself through the alternate course he chose for Smurfette rushed by him in reverse, bringing him and everyone else back to the point in actual history where it all started before Traveler had touched Smurfette.  He was lost in thought while time was still frozen.

Although there was still more to see in that alternate timeline, it is plain to see that the relationship Smurfette would have had with Papa Smurf not only would have violated the very trust every Smurf had placed in Papa Smurf, it would also have violated the very history that would have unfolded to create this one in the first place.

And yet in this timeline, there was this event where every Smurf was trapped in time, just as there was in the alternate timeline of Empath.  What could this mean?  Was this event destined to happen, even in the real history?  Or did this one's arrival in this point in time, giving Empath the knowledge he needed to know to set the events of his future -- this one's history -- in motion, somehow caused this event to happen?  If that was the case, then could this one have accidentally changed their future so that this one's history never existed?  The timestream is so full of mysteries and questions, and this one doesn’t know where to begin finding the answers.

He zoomed off into the forest and entered the timestream to ponder, allowing time to resume its natural course -- on the course it was actually set in.

Smurfette found herself staring blankly into space for a brief second, which was all the time that passed between when Traveler touched her and when he released himself from her.  She felt as if she was watching her own life flash before her eyes -- literally seeing images of a life that could have happened.

Empath noticed that Smurfette was staring off into space. "Smurfette," he called to her gently. "Are you all right? This smurf sensed something had happened."

Smurfette looked at Empath, still remembering what she had seen, though the images seemed to be fading from her memory.  "I don't know what it was, Empath," she responded. "For a brief second, I thought I smurfed myself marrying Papa Smurf of all Smurfs…it was a very strange thing, as if I never smurfed in love with you at all!"

Empath could sense Smurfette had the same experience he had himself, though he couldn't know why the images he saw of an alternate life he could have lived didn't coincide with those of what Smurfette saw.  Again, the experience left Smurfette with that same feeling of dread that it gave Empath -- as if somebody was walking over her grave.

"It's all right, Smurfette," Empath said consolingly. "What you have just seen in your mind could never actually happen.  You know how much Papa Smurf loves you."

Smurfette nodded. "Well, I think I do.  He is, after all, my father."