See part one for explanation and disclaimers. Hallmark & James Gurney still own the characters and I’m still not profiting from this. Hope you’re enjoying this. Still recommended for teens and up for action/violence and mild language.

“Are we bonding yet?”

“I can still kick your ass in this timeline, Scott.”

The waiting was aggravating, but the silence had grown intolerable. There was nothing to do in the quiet but think, and the last thing Karl wanted right now was to be left to the wanderings of his imagination. He felt like complete crap at the moment, and thinking wasn’t making him feel better.

It was only he and David Barrett in the main chamber of the Sanctuary, sitting on opposite sides of the room again, with the dino-human Sentinel monolith towering over them. The figure in black was leaning back against the wall, his eyes fixed on the ceiling as though he was mesmerized by the elaborate carvings there. Karl knew he was avoiding speaking to him: Barrett hadn’t said a word since he and Marion had returned to the Sanctuary to find Karl Scott waiting, much less since the matriarch’s daughter had left the two would-be brothers alone in the chamber. He’d listened in stony silence the entire time Karl had explained what he’d seen---Jack’s role in the switch that created this bizarre situation---to Marion and Noree.

Marion hadn’t been as surprised as Karl had expected. “Then, Jack’s the one we need to make the ritual work,” she’d surmised.

“If we switch back, Jack goes back to being a thief. How am I supposed to do that to him? He’s still my kid brother…in this reality anyway.”

Karl paced, anxiety fueling nervous energy with no outlet. There was no one to blame, no one to yell at or threaten or arrest to make this situation change. He knew as well as Marion what had to be done, but his sense of duty to Dinotopia was in conflict with his loyalty to his family…and what about that? Even Karl’s loyalty to his family was in conflict at that moment---loyalty to the family in this reality, the only reality he’d known up until yesterday, to his ‘brother’ Jack Scott and to Frank, warring with the knowledge that he was supposed to have the same loyalty to his ‘real’ brother, David Scott, who didn’t even exist in this reality…not exactly.

He studied the brooding Outsider, mentally contrasting David Barrett to the David Scott that the Tohma Faiere had shown him. Barrett was so far removed from David Scott that Karl felt as though he were staring at a completely different person. I guess I am, really. It went deeper than the superficial difference like the beard and the longer hair, the more muscular frame, the obnoxious smirk, the runaway libido, the scars….the wrong eyes. This David was almost the antithesis of the nerdling older sibling Karl ‘remembered’ through the visions, the one with the overdeveloped sense of responsibility, the nose pressed into a book, the one constantly at odds with Dad, the one who wouldn’t know what to do with a girl if one fell into his lap, the one who Karl trusted to have his back when dealing with violent Outsiders, with Karl’s own hair-brained schemes. He’d helped Karl steal a sunstone at risk to his position in the Corps. He’d gone along with Karl’s plan to break into Le Sage’s hideaway, showing trust in Karl against his own better judgment with a simple, cheerful, “What did you have in mind, Mr. Bond?” David even had Karl’s back against their own relatives if need be---even when Karl hadn’t wanted him to or appreciated the interventions…

Karl glanced at his own flightsuit. And David was the one Rosemary chose for the Skybax Corps.

Two sets of memories from two different lifetimes were vying for dominance in Karl’s mind. How was he supposed to know what to think or feel? Part of Karl was pissed as hell at Jack---Jack Barrett---for creating this mess in the first place, for screwing with his family and almost destroying it altogether. At the same time, was it fair to punish Jack Scott for what Jack Barrett did by sending him back to the pack? Karl couldn’t turn off his loyalty to his brother Jack like he was shutting off a light just because some space rock said Jack was a bad guy. The idea of packing him off for a life of crime and torment from that psycho Dane felt like betrayal.

But wasn’t Karl supposed to feel loyalty to David just as much as to Jack? David Scott hadn’t deserved to be thrust into Barrett’s pack life any more than Jack Scott deserved to be sent back to it now. David and Karl had their fights---pretty good ones at times—but they were brothers in the other reality every bit as much as Karl and Jack were now. They had just started to become friends since they were marooned on Dinotopia. Wasn’t there supposed to be a bond there, too? Karl didn’t know if he’d ever feel a bond to this self-serving, pain in the ass, and irresponsible David in this ‘reality’ at all. He didn’t see David Scott when he looked at David Barrett, and he sure as hell still didn’t trust him

“We have no choice, Karl. The Tohma Faiere’s spell has to be undone. It never should have been used in the first place,” Noree said gently.

“There has to be a choice,” he disagreed.

“We are responsible for the protection of Dinotopian and its artifacts. Our duty is clear--”

Karl whirled, staring down the saurian Keeper. “Don’t tell me ‘my duty’---”

“Noree! Karl!” Marion said sharply, before the bickering could escalate. Karl needed time to calm down…what they had to do was going to be difficult for everyone, but him most of all. Her heart broke for sympathy, made worse by knowing there was nothing she could do that would be of comfort. Noree was right---they had no choice about what was to be done. “We can’t do anything until Romana brings back Jack. Until then, this fighting won’t help. Noree, we’ll consult the scrolls again, and speak to my mother…” Marion looked at Karl. “I can’t promise Karl. We can’t force you either. This concerns your family.” She glanced sidelong at the silent Outsider, pointedly including him in the ‘family’ remark. “It would be better if you were the one to speak to Jack when he arrives. Jack can use the Tohma Faiere to see for himself. He may surprise you, Karl. We’ll wait until you call for us.”

With that, Marion had urged the saurian Keeper out of the chamber, leaving Karl and David alone. She must have assumed that, given the circumstances, the two of them would have lots to talk about. Instead, Karl had paced until his legs ached, and Barrett had stared at the ceiling.

Finally, Karl could take the silence no longer: “Is it as bad as I think it is?”

Barrett’s eyes didn’t waver from examining the ceiling. “Is what as bad as you think it is, Scott?”

Karl forced himself to stop pacing and sat down on the bench opposite Barrett. “Jack’s life. Jack Barrett’s life?”

The pack life. David didn’t know how to answer that. No, Scott, it’s probably worse than you think it is. How would that make the dino-scout feel any better? David didn’t envy the younger man’s predicament…he knew that he didn’t like the idea of sending a kid Jack’s age back to Dane’s version of ‘guidance and teaching’. David had barely survived it and he had the benefit of being years older and better prepared mentally to resist the conditioning, tormenting, and brainwashing the psychotic Outsider could inflict.

David remembered his dino-scout alternate-reality self hounding the kid in that lifetime with the same relentlessness with which Karl Scott plagued Barrett in this one. David Scott hadn’t understood how Jack could resort to stealing, how he could go along with Dane’s indiscriminate butchering of the dinosaurs, why he couldn’t just abandon the packs and turn to the Dinotopians for protection. David Barrett understood why Jack had obeyed, had been afraid to run, all too well. The idea of fixing the timeline and maybe losing eight months of bad memories with the pack didn’t hold as much appeal for Barrett if trading his memories and gaining his freedom meant sending the kid back to Dane in his place.

The whole thing sucked. Was he supposed to tell Scott that it didn’t?

Karl knew the answer without Barrett even speaking. He saw it in the scar on Barrett’s eyebrow and the subtle limp in his walk...neither of which belonged to David Scott. His brother had a few battle scars---the worst being the three white lines across his chest where a pteranodon had raked him with it’s claws---but David Barrett’s eyes and injuries bespoke months of fighting to survive human and reptilian predators. “Never mind.”

David finally looked away from the ceiling artwork to the skybax rider. “I’m not ready to give up this life of luxury anyway,” he joked feebly.

Karl felt caught between the old ‘rock and the hard place’. “What am I supposed to do? The little piker’s still my brother---in this timeline…damn, how am I supposed to figure out situations like this?! Things like this are only supposed to happen on ‘Star Trek’ or Disney channel movies!”

David shook his head. “You really are a nerd, Scott, know that?”

“Oh, I’m catching nerd-flack from Captain ‘the Obo won’t get me beat up at the school talent show’?”

Barrett winced, remembering that from the blue visions. He’d hope that particular memory had just been a dream or something. “Oh God, that really happened?”

The silence settled in again. Karl felt like he was about to jump out of his skin and before he knew it, he heard himself asking: “So, were you the one who stole Dad’s twelve-year-old Scotch and mixed it with Gatorade?”

David snorted, remembering a fragment of the vision Karl meant. “No, that would be you.”

Karl nodded, “Right---you were the one who hid copies of ‘Penthouse’ in the laundry hamper?”

“No, that was you, too,” David answered.

“What did you do, then?”

“Apparently, lots and lots of reading.”

That was certainly true, Karl had to agree. “And I mixed up those tubes in Mr. Ramos’ science class and stink-bombed the east wing of the high school, right?”

David didn’t remember it that way. “No, I think that was me…”

Karl frowned. “Why do I remember it? I didn’t go to your school, did I?”

“I think you were visiting for the summer while I took the college prep class.”

“But what was I doing in the class with the stink bomb?”

Barrett actually smiled at that. “Laughing mostly.” He covered his eyes, cringing at the memories the Tohma Faiere had conjured of his real self. “God, I’m a nerd.”

“From Clark Kent to Superman in three months,” Dad had described David in the real timeline.

“Haven’t you heard? Even in Dinotopia, nerds rule.” Karl had answered.

Dad would have got on a lot better with this David, Karl realized. Correction, Dad did get along better with this David. Karl remembered being best friends with their father, but Frank Scott and David Scott had been like oil and water, and Karl always felt like a mediator caught in the middle of their squabbles. Karl had always thought David went out of his way to be contrary with their father, that he blamed too many of his problems on their dad, that he didn’t even try to see things from their father’s point of view. Funny how living an alternate lifetime from David’s point of view, being thrust into the role of the ultra-responsible Eldest Son with Frank’s expectations to live up to, had changed Karl’s mind about that.

“What are you bitching about? I’m Dad.” Karl flinched at the truth of that remark. Nearly as unbelievable as David’s transformation into this ‘evil David’ alternate version of himself was the Karl Scott in those blue visions---the Karl with the hero worship of their father, with Dad’s knack for bouncing from girlfriend to girlfriend, with Dad’s love of the outdoors, sports, and airplanes.

“That’s not a bad thing you know. Frank---Dad---Frank…crap!” David didn’t know what to call him. He still couldn’t internalize the idea of being part of the Scott family. “The old man’s all right.”

No, Karl had to admit, it hadn’t been such a bad thing. At least, he and dad had common ground in that reality. They were friends (hard though it was to believe). In this reality, with Karl thrust into David’s place in the family…well, ‘oil and water’ was his relationship with their father now. Friendship had been lost with the involuntary switch of timelines. The thought brought a sudden ache to his throat.

Still, he couldn’t resist teasing David, “When we switch back, I’ll tell him you said so.”

David gave him a warning glare. “Oh no you will not. Did Fr—Dad ride you about the whole ‘joining the Dino-Scouts’ thing as bad as he did me?”

Karl remembered the blue visions of David and their father having quarrels almost identical to the ones he had with his father over the whole thing. “Worse…I just never paid attention to him like you did. You think I was gonna let him talk me out of----stinky dinosaur hide and bumpy flights and freezing to death and jumpsuits that ride up into the unknown and not seeing Marion for days or weeks….”

“You hate it, don’t you?”

David didn’t have to sound so gleeful about it. Karl admitted, “Yes.”

Sure enough, David was going to rub it in a bit, “After all that bugging me and nagging Rosemary to let you into the training program…”

Karl went on the defensive: “Hey, you don’t get to give me the big brother ‘I-told-you-so’, ‘serves you right’, or ‘now you know how I feel’ lectures until you’re officially my big brother again!”

So, Karl had accepted it---the whole ‘brothers in an alternate lifetime’ thing. That was great for him, but Barrett still didn’t know if he believed they were ever---or would ever be---brothers, that the ‘topians weren’t deluding themselves about what that space rock could do and working themselves up over nothing. He didn’t know if he’d believe it until he saw it. Even if the space rock worked, David wasn’t convinced that Karl was going to be able to go through with the ritual…not with little brother Jack in the middle of it. If he were in Karl’s place, David didn’t know if he’d go through with it if it meant sending his younger brother to the----

Wait a second, where had that instinct come from?

Okay, maybe some small part of him wanted to believe it, believed…in the potential powers of the space rock, but not in Karl Scott’s ability to go through with the ritual.

“Was it that you—the other you---really wanted into the skybax corps, or was he just trying to piss off David Scott?” Barrett finally asked to distract himself from those thoughts.

“Do you remember the faith stone showing you those plane rides Dad took us—them—whoever--on?” Karl asked him.

“Vividly.” David shuddered just thinking about it. Apparently, he hadn’t liked heights or flying in that lifetime anymore than he did in this one. “So, you wanted to follow in the old man’s footsteps? Cat’s in the cradle and all that stuff?”

“Guess I had a way better relationship with him in that reality. I wanted to be just like him---only you got to be the hero pilot flying in on the cool dinosaurs to save the day, and I got to be ordinary old ‘of the Earth’ Papa Scott to a dinosaur.”

Barrett heard the bitterness behind the envious words. He remembered Karl in the other timeline moaning and complaining about joining the corps, trying to get Marion to use her influence to get Rosemary to change her mind, but from David Scott’s perspective, it had been the jealous, petulant little brother trying to horn in on the one distinction his older brother had managed to achieve. Did Karl think David wouldn’t understand that just because he didn’t hero-worship their father the way his younger brother did?

Neither did David remember the younger Scott being a slouch as far as the ‘hero’ thing went. As for himself, Barrett still couldn’t imagine being a dino-scout, hero, or the likes. In this life, he was as far removed from being ‘heroic’ as could be---no, David Scott wouldn’t have liked any of the things David Barrett had done to survive on this island. A more unlikely candidate for the roll of Dinotopian dino-scout hero didn’t exist. But then again, was it so unlikely? He remembered that Freefall had been his pterosaur, or ‘saurian partner’ as the ‘topians called them, in the ‘real’ timeline. David Scott had stayed in the corps partially to make Marion happy, partially in an attempt to gain his father’s approval, partially just to prove to himself that he could do it, and partially because he felt at home there in a way he hadn’t anywhere else. But, here he was in this fractured reality, nowhere near being in the corps, and he had still ended up being Freefall’s rider---vertigo and flying aversion and all. Guess it was one of those ‘you can’t escape your destiny’ things the movies always talked about.

“Why didn’t you say so before?” David asked him.

Karl shrugged, “I don’t think we were exactly confidantes.”

“You’re sure it wasn’t just to piss me off?”

Karl smiled evilly, “Not just to piss you off…that was a bonus. Hey, do you remember what you and Marion were doing on that balcony? The night before…you know, the switch?”

Barrett returned the smile of pure evil. “Yep.” That was all he was going to tell the dino-scout. Karl had certainly tortured David Scott enough with his escapades with the matriarch’s daughter. Well, paybacks were a bitch...

Karl gave up and went back to the matter at hand. “Think there’s any way they’ll let us switch back and leave Jack one of the good guys?”

David wished he could say ‘yes’. It would have made him feel better about the idea of switching back, too. “I seriously doubt it. Like you said, it’s got to be one of those ‘contaminating the timeline’ Star Trek deals.”

“You really are a nerd, Barrett,” Karl grinned.

“I’m aware of that.”

There was the pounding of running feet and the boy in question suddenly burst into the main hall, yelling, “Karl!” Romana, Noree, and Marion were hurrying to catch up with Jack. The boy was ashen-faced and wild-eyed. Terrified.

Karl jumped to his feet at once. “Jack, what’s the matter?”

Jack was out of breath, either from running or from fear. Karl didn’t know which. “He took Dad!”

“Dad?”

Barrett got to his feet now. “Frank? I mean Dad---I mean Frank---I mean…damn it!” I’m never going to get used to this…

“Dad,” Karl reminded him.

“Don’t help, Scott.”

Karl grabbed Jack by the shoulder to try to calm him down. “It’s okay. Who took Dad?” What are you talking about?”

Jack waved his hands, as if that was going to make his words any clearer. “Big guy. He whacked Dad on the head. He tied me up.” The boy pointed a finger accusingly at Barrett, pure hatred in his eyes. “He was your friend!”

My friend? David didn’t know what the hell the kid meant by that. “That can’t be. What do you mean?” By way of answering, Romana passed the defaced playing card to the Outsider.

“Your friend said I’d better give you that if I want Dad back. That you’d know what to do,” Jack informed David.

David studied the drawing on the card and then swore under his breath. Jack hadn’t been misinformed---Barrett did know who had made the artwork and precisely what it meant. “Payden.”

Karl’s questions came, rapid-fire: “Where’s Dad? Who’s ‘Payden’? Another Outsider buddy of yours?” Anger flared, however unreasonable, at Barrett. Karl had told his father that having the Outsiders for patrons would be trouble, but Frank hadn’t listened. This was exactly what he’d been afraid would happen. “If something happened to Dad because he was your friend…”

“He wasn’t---I didn’t know----”

“What the hell does he want with Dad?! Is he a freak like Gabriel Dane?” Karl snatched the card from the Outsider’s hand and stared at it, baffled. All he could tell was it sure looked like some kind of threat. It was obvious Barrett got more from this card than he did.

David wished Karl would shut up and let him think for a second. “No, he’s not my friend. He doesn’t want anything. He only wants to kill me, what else do you think he wants? Why else would he give me this instead of you?” ‘Why’ was a very good question…why did Payden take Frank to get at David? What made them think that David would---

Then Barrett remembered: Robere and Miguel had seen him playing cards with Frank Scott. They’d seen him protect Frank from that knife. They must have figured Frank was David’s friend---a weakness---and told Dane about it. David had sent Alano and Freefall into hiding, had warned Le Sage, had thought they were the only people Gabriel could use to get to him. It hadn’t even crossed David’s mind that they’d use Frank. Robere might have been dense as a phone pole, but he’d found an Achilles Heel of Barrett’s that David himself didn’t even know he’d had. No wonder Dane acted like he’d had the upper hand at their meeting that morning: If Payden had Frank as hostage, then Gabriel did have the upper hand. One hint of betrayal from David and all Dane would have to do is reveal his ace in the hole and Barrett would have had to hand over the medallion---right before Dane stuck his dagger in David’s ribs for ‘thanks’.

Why keep Frank now? Le Sage would have found Alano and Freefall, would have the medallion. Was Dane still thinking they would double-cross him once they had the submarine?

No, that wasn’t it…there had to be something else. This card meant that Payden was keeping Frank at the pits in the hunting grounds...the same hunting grounds where Gabriel had lost most of his hand, courtesy of David Barrett. Obviously, Dane wasn’t as ready to forgive David as he’d let on at their meeting that day. Payden was luring David to the hunting grounds so he could repay Barrett in kind for the damage he’d caused---to Dane’s body and to his power among the Outsiders. Repay in kind? No, repay with interest---Payden never hunted unless he meant to kill. Gabriel had probably just been waiting until he had the medallion to spring this trap on David. “And I’d rather deal with Dane than with Payden,” David muttered.

“Why?” Karl asked, forcing himself to calm down. Blaming David wasn’t going to help. Whoever this guy was, Scott could see the Outsider was nervous now. The last time he’d seen someone scare David, it was Gabriel Dane. If this guy was worse than Dane…Karl didn’t want to think about it.

“Because if Dane decides to kill me, I can usually negotiate a way to change his mind. If Payden decides to kill me, about all I can negotiate is where and how,” David answered. “The good news---for you anyway---is that Payden isn’t quite as messed up as Dane. He’s not going to kill Frank if he gets me. There’d be no reason to. When he has me, he’ll let Frank go.”

Was that supposed to make Karl happier about the whole situation? “This ‘Payden’ has no reason to kill you, does he?”

“Dane asked him to kill me. He doesn’t need another reason,” David said flatly.

Karl stared Barrett right in the eyes. There was not a hint of lie or exaggeration in the Outsider’s face: That joker really meant to use their Dad as bait to kill David. “Jeezus, you’re serious aren’t you?”

Silent until now, Marion shuddered in revulsion. “Barbaric! Karl---”

“I’m on it.” Karl nodded to Romana. The two riders headed for the door. “I’ll get Pterra. ‘Payden’ can’t hide from the entire skybax corps. Barrett can tell us where to look…”

David whistled as loud as he could, halting everyone in place. “Whoah, kids, settle down! This is an invitation for me. Just me. FYI, anyone showing up with or instead of me is all the reason Payden will need to get rid of Frank.”

“Well, he’s not getting you!” Karl snapped. Romana and Marion nodded their agreement.

Not up to speed on the whole time-switch-lost-family thing, only Jack was unmoved. “Why not? This loser for Dad? Sounds like a fair trade to me!”

“Jack, you don’t know what you’re talking about…” Karl started.

Jack argued, “I know you’re pissed at Dad, but if it’s him or that guy---” He jerked a thumb at David.

Marion had a better idea. “No one needs to go.” All eyes looked to her, waiting. She explained: “When the timeline is reset, Frank will be fine. He won’t have been abducted to begin with...he’ll probably be returned to wherever he was when the switch took place.”

“What if he hurts Dad?” Karl asked warily.

“Ending the spell will restore the proper timeline. Physical consequences only apply to you and David and Jack. Frank should be fine.” Marion said.

“’Should’? As in you’re guessing?” Karl didn’t like taking the chance of that.

“Should. But if Payden hurts one of you---” She looked from Karl to David and back, concern for them both flooding her eyes. “—you could die and remain dead in the real timeline.”

“Is that like ‘if you die in a dream, you die in reality’, that kind of thing?” David asked.

She nodded, “Something like that.”

“Swell.”

“If you’re right about the switch that is.” David couldn’t believe they were suggesting this. “You want to bet Frank’s life on a magic rock?”

Karl pointed out, “You want to bet it on your buddy Payden’s word?”

“Not so much,” David admitted.

Jack urged, “So, do it then! If it gets Dad back, fix the timeline with the freaky space rock!”

Karl raised his voice: “Jack!” The kid quickly shut up and raised both eyebrows at his older brother. Karl felt like crap about what he had to do now. “I have to tell you something first.”

Marion removed the faith stone from her pocket and held it up: “Maybe it’s better if you show him, Karl.”

*

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