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The first ripple comes while she’s making her cucumber sandwiches. The internal sense that something is very, very wrong. But she’s not quite sure what could be causing the dread — she spreads mayonnaise on bread and seasons it, and she places the cucumbers on top, sandwiches it, and cuts it into quarters.
Ah, they’re back. Flora recites the lecture she had prepared for them while they were out.
“You two have got some nerve leaving me again while you go off on another investigation!” she says. “I don’t want to just sit here and wait for you. You said you wouldn’t be gone long.”
“Something urgent came up while we were investigating,” the Professor says. “I promise you that had it not been extremely urgent, we would have returned much earlier for you.”
“...alright,” she says. “Have some tea. I’m sure the two of you are tired after your harrowing adventure.” She sets down the platter. “I also made you some cucumber sandwiches.” She smiles upon seeing Luke’s barely-there gulp of fear. “I’ll go grab them right now!”
When she comes back, they’re already gone.
Typical.
She sets about tracking them down.
“Rosetta,” she says, “did you see where the Professor went?”
“Him and the kid got on a bus,” Rosetta Stone answers. “Think the bus is heading to the other side of town. You better go fast if you wanna catch up to them. Or just wait for the next bus. Us girls have to stick together, yeah?”
“If you say so,” Flora says. Rosetta Stone does make her a little uncomfortable, if Flora’s being honest with herself. “Um. I’ll be off now. Thank you, though.”
“Of course,” Rosetta Stone answers.
Flora gets to Scotland Yard to find Chelmey and Barton.
“We need to find Layton,” Chelmey tells Barton. “He’s chasing down something bigger than him, and I need to know what sort of mystery that is before it becomes something bigger than us.”
“Yessir!” Barton chirps.
“Can I come with you?” Flora asks. “I’m trying to find him too.”
“You’re…that young girl that got kidnapped, aren’t you?” Chelmey says.
She sighs. “Unfortunately. But I’d be safer with him than I am on my own.”
“Well…” He hesitates.
“We can take the car,” Barton suggests. “Come on, miss.”
“...alright, alright,” Chelmey says. “We’ve got a lead on where they’re headed.”
They arrive at a clock shop on Midland Road, and as Flora looks up at the giant clock on the exterior, she can’t help but feel a sense of dread.
“This is where they went?” she asks.
“This is where the time machine is, according to them,” Chelmey grumbles. “A time machine! What kind of idiot do they think I am?”
Flora thinks to herself that if the Professor knew what the time machine really was, he would have just said it, rather than prevaricating. Or perhaps he would have made a dramatic reveal of it.
“I don’t think you’re a fool, sir,” Barton says. Flora hangs back and just observes.
“Police,” Chelmey says. “We’ve received a lead about the Prime Minister’s disappearance…?”
“Huh?” the shopkeeper says, an elderly woman. “What? You can’t just come on private property, you need a warrant, I know my rights—”
Chelmey just barges past her. She’s a small elderly woman, so she is fairly easy to barge past.
“Are you okay?” Flora asks hurriedly. She dashes past the woman before she can hear the answer, though.
“What’s Inspector Chelmey doing here?” Luke asks.
“Ah. I see you’ve tailed us, Inspector,” the Professor says. “In any case, that was rather impolite of you to just stomp on by as you did. Thank you, Flora, for checking up on her.”
She very briefly preens at that before remembering the situation they’re in. “I cannot believe you had the audacity to leave me again, right after I said all that,” she says, overlapping with Inspector Chelmey’s words—
“Our Prime Minister is missing, Layton! You’d have to be barking to think I wouldn’t chase down any lead I could get.”
“Of course, of course.”
“Flora, we just don’t want you to get hurt,” Luke says. Easy for him to say, when he’s five years younger than her and has nearly died more often than she has.
“You don’t get to decide that for me,” she says. “What am I supposed to do when you just disappear on me? Just sit around and wait for you to come back? I don’t really have any close friends here.”
“There’s plenty—”
“I think the young lady is right, Layton.”
Oh, thank goodness for Inspector Chelmey. Someone who’s willing to fight alongside her for her place here.
“You might be concerned for her, but that doesn’t help if it just makes her upset,” Chelmey continues.
“We have to go soon,” the old man operating the machine warns.
“The matter at hand is not relevant to everyone here,” the Professor says.
Flora thinks back to the feeling of dread she felt while making the sandwiches, and thinks that maybe he’s wrong about that. At least when it comes to her.
“Sorry, but we’ve got to go. Hold on!” the man says.
The ground shivers, and then Flora feels the sensation of plummeting as the machine travels into the future.
The clock shop is the same outside, except the old lady isn’t at the front desk.
Flora places her hand against the wall and takes a few moments to breathe, focusing on herself more than the people around her.
“Are you alright, Flora?” Luke asks.
“I’m alright,” she answers. “Just…a bit queasy from the ride. I’ve never felt anything quite like that before.”
“Yes, time travel can be rather disorienting,” Luke answers. Matter-of-fact. Like he’s trying to be better than her. “Come on, you’ve got to meet my future self.”
“Your…future self?” she asks.
“He’s so cool,” Luke says. “It…makes me happy to know I’m going to be like him someday.”
“Have you seen anyone else?” she asks.
“Apparently there’s a future version of the Professor, too, but he’s evil.” Luke frowns. “I can’t even begin to imagine what could make him turn evil, but apparently…he’s completely willing to accept that his future self is evil!”
“I don’t know,” Flora says. “He could be. I don’t know what’s going on in his brain.”
“I don’t think he ever would,” Luke answers. “Not after everything.”
“Nothing’s set in stone yet,” she says. “What about me?”
Luke thinks. “I haven’t seen you yet.”
That makes sense. She can’t really imagine the woman she’ll be in ten years, but she can’t imagine she’ll still be in London, working with the Professor and Luke. Maybe she’ll have crawled back to St Mystere, looking for someone new to give her a home, somewhere to belong.
“Luke! Flora!” the Professor calls. “Come on!”
“Where did the officers go?” Flora asks.
“They’ve gone to investigate the Prime Minister’s disappearance,” he answers. “As they should. But that is not what we are here to uncover. We must find your future self again, Luke.”
“But he never said a meeting place,” Luke says. “Where are we supposed to go?”
“I suppose we’ll have to ask Shipley,” he answers.
Future Luke is charming and sweet, but there’s something off about him, like he’s waiting for something. She’s not sure what, but it puts her on edge. Just like earlier when there was nothing to be afraid of with the cucumber sandwiches.
They get the parrot to tell the guards to get lost, and then they enter Chinatown.
She looks up at the Towering Pagoda and is reminded of home.
“You know, the floor looks like a giant sliding block puzzle,” she says to herself as she looks at the chasm in front of them.
“It does,” the Professor remarks. “Why don’t you give it a go, Flora?”
“How?” she asks.
“I found a mechanism,” Future Luke says. “Come over here.”
Flora guides the pieces into place, one block at a time, and finally feels good about something in this place.
It’s Don Paolo.
That makes…remarkable sense, actually. Once she thinks about it. Maybe he does have a heart, and his treatment is trying to make up for the fact that he kidnapped her in the past.
That doesn’t really matter, though, because she’s alone with Future Luke, and can finally confront the disconcerting feeling that sits in her chest whenever she’s with him.
“There’s been something bugging me,” she says. “About you.”
He freezes. “Is there? I don’t understand what there would be to…be bothered about.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” she says. “But I just want to know…this is real, right?”
“...yes,” he answers. “It is.”
It’s not satisfying enough, but she has to leave the conversation be.
And then that feeling envelops her again. Like there’s something missing. Or maybe something extra — a piece that isn’t meant to fit here but to go somewhere else.
“Do you ever get the feeling that something’s missing? Like something’s…not there when it should be?”
“I don’t,” Future Luke answers, to the point. “We should be going, Flora.”
The Professor and Luke find her at the hotel again.
“Where’d he go?” Luke asks.
“He said he had some important business,” Flora answers. “I didn’t question what it was. I assume it’s important, though.”
“We need to investigate that facility,” the Professor says. “I…”
“Professor, are you sure you’re okay?” Luke asks.
“Did something happen?” Flora asks.
“Don Paolo was trying to tell us something, but the words weren’t coming out of his mouth,” he answers. “He was trying to talk about why him and the Professor are rivals in the first place. But nothing was happening. We all were just standing there.”
So something is missing. But why is Flora the only one who knows?
The question plagues her mind as they head for the research facility. Don Paolo has beaten them there, from the note on the door. And they head further in.
They are cornered by the Family, about to run out of places to move. Flora knows that something is supposed to happen here — someone is supposed to come. She knows it. But no one comes. They all just stand there, waiting for a confrontation to arise. They’re…frozen in place.
But she isn’t. She can move.
She opens a door. “Through here!”
“Flora?” Luke asks. “What are you doing over there?”
“Don’t ask questions,” she says. “We don’t have much time. We have to go.”
They dart into the room and through a couple hallways around the facility. Flora doesn’t know where she’s going, but somehow, they end up in a broom closet.
“Flora,” the Professor asks, “how were you able to get us out?”
“I don’t know,” she answers. “Everything just sort of…froze for a moment. But I could move.”
He hums, but doesn’t say anything. “I do believe it will be safe to proceed now. We should have successfully shaken off our pursuers.”
“Okay,” Flora says.
“Here we go,” Luke says.
“Oh, there you three are,” Future Luke says. “I’ve been looking for you three — where were you?”
“In the research facility. We’ve learned quite a few enlightening things, but I would like to gather all those of importance inside the Thames Arms.”
“Alright,” Future Luke says. “If you must.”
And inside the Thames Arms, the Professor takes apart the entire mystery. Future Luke is actually named Clive, and right now, he has Flora grabbed by the wrist.
“You’re an anomaly,” Clive says. “You were never supposed to be here. You’ve thrown wrench after wrench into my plans.”
“I believed you,” she says.
“And now you’re going to go the same way she did,” Clive says. He pulls out something that looks like it doesn’t belong, drags around a couple items on the screen, and all of a sudden, she’s gone.
“Where am I?” Flora asks.
“I’m not sure,” the stranger answers. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
And yet, despite being a stranger, it feels more right to see her here than it does to see anyone else.
“I think you’re what’s been missing,” Flora says. “Sorry. I’m Flora. Who are you?”
“I’m—” She cuts herself off. “I’m sorry. Flora…?”
“Right. You wouldn’t know me.” She lowers her head. “I’m Professor Layton’s…um, protege.”
“How long has it been?” the woman asks. “I…barely got to hear an explanation beyond the fact that I was in the future before I ended up here.”
“You’re from the past?” Flora asks. “So there was real time travel?”
“Yes. My name’s Claire. And…I think I’m supposed to be dead right now or something. Is this the afterlife? This has fascinating scientific implications.”
“Um. I sincerely doubt Clive killed me…”
“Oh, so that’s who that man was,” Claire says. “I turned up and he told me that I wasn’t supposed to be here and that I was supposed to be dead. And then he had a strange device.”
“That’s what happened to me,” Flora says, “except he told me that I was never supposed to be there. In his version of London.”
“Tell me about what happened,” she says. “It looks like we have all the time in the world here.”
“Clive built a version of London underneath the true London,” Flora explains, “and he was planning to kidnap the Prime Minister and destroy London. I don’t know how you would interfere with that, but there have been a couple times today where I’ve felt your lack of presence.” The cucumber sandwiches. The escape with Clive. The facility.
“Do you ever get the feeling that something’s missing? Like something’s…not there when it should be?”
“I don’t.”
Because Clive had fully intended for that to be missing. Clive meant for Claire not to be here — and for Flora to be out of the way too.
She wasn’t supposed to be in London. She wasn’t supposed to be a part of this. Just like the Professor and Luke didn’t want her here. If she hadn’t pushed back, where would she be? She would be back in the office, with her cucumber sandwiches and her tea, hopelessly bored.
“And…how did you feel it?” Claire asks.
“It was a sense that something should have been there wasn’t,” Flora answers. “But we have to figure out how to get you out of here. I think things will get worse if you’re not there. And they were already pretty bad.”
“Where exactly is here?”
“I don’t know,” Flora says. “It’s like…I was zapped into his device. So we’re inside the device he was using. We just have to find a way to get out of it.”
“I can do that,” Claire says. “How do we do it?”
Flora hears a distant yelling. “Where did you put her, you monster?”
Luke. Luke is looking for her. Luke wants her to still be there.
“I can still hear them when they’re talking about me,” Flora says. “I just need you to follow me.” She needs the trust of a stranger.
But once upon a time, she had trusted a pair of strangers too. Surely someone can trust her, just this once?
Claire looks at her. “It’s not as though I have any other possibility of getting out.”
“She was unnecessary,” Clive says. “So I removed her. I’m surprised you can still tell that I removed her. Perhaps I just need to restart…”
“I don’t believe you’d be capable of killing her,” the Professor says, which is nice, but Flora’s pretty sure what’s happened to her is worse than dying.
“She’s…not really dead, no,” Clive responds. “What I’ve done to her is perhaps worse, though. And all I need to do is reset, and you’ll never know she existed.”
Oh. That must be what happened to Claire. He…reset, or whatever, and now Claire’s not present in the world. For some reason.
Flora climbs up. It feels like one of those fences she can’t remember the name of. Not barbed-wire…
But the voices are coming from above.
“Of course we’d know she existed!”
“She wasn’t meant to be in this story, and you know it,” Clive says. “Or shall I tell you what you said to her earlier? I know exactly what you both told her. You didn’t want her to be here. And if she hadn’t been — well, she would be a formidable opponent if she knew what she was doing. She’s the only one I’ve seen that knows what I’ve done.”
Flora honestly has no clue what Clive did to her or to Claire. But…if it’s a story…then how were they written out of it?
“Take me instead of her, if you must have someone,” the Professor says.
No. Flora can’t let that happen.
“She’s inessential — unlike you, Professor. She doesn’t have a part to play in this story. What does she do besides provide a few lines here and there about her naivete? You, unlike her, carry the story.” And then Clive’s words fade away.
They care about her. Enough to be here, rescuing her.
“I’ll get rid of her just like I got rid of—”
Just like he got rid of Claire, presumably. Does getting rid of Claire mean that Clive can’t speak of her anymore, either? Then how is Flora still like this? Is it just that Flora’s special, or is it that she used to be in the story and was taken out without resetting?
“How much further?” Claire asks.
“I don’t know,” Flora answers, just telling the truth. But then she peeks out over the edge of whatever they had been in. “I think we’re out, though.”
“You can say goodbye to her — because you’ll never remember her again,” Clive threatens.
“We’re not done yet, actually,” Flora corrects.
There’s a bunch of files in front of them. One is labelled Professor Layton and the Unwound Future.
Flora grabs it. A device like the one Clive was holding falls out.
“Oh,” she says. “I think I know how we can get back in.”
She flips open the device. It turns on before her eyes.
“Let me?” Claire asks. “I’d like to think I’m good with technology.”
Flora passes Claire the device, and looks over her shoulder as Claire taps at buttons.
“We’re…inside a game, it seems like,” Claire says. “And Clive removed us from it. The only reason you’re not fully gone yet is that he didn’t restart the game. But since we got out of the trash…all we need to do is start a new game. Would you do the honours, Flora?”
“Alright,” Flora says. She hits New Game.
All of a sudden, she’s back in the office again, waiting for Luke and the Professor to come in for tea and cucumber sandwiches.
They won’t stay, she knows. But the story will still play out — and she will still stay in it.