Oh no! Eva Bell aka Tempus groans as she finds herself in a prehistoric jungle. She screams when a dinosaur is about to attack and creates a time bubble around the thunder lizard that freezes it in time. She is single-minded about getting back to her family in the future, but doesn’t know how.
Suddenly, the frozen dinosaur is hit and killed by a green energy blast. Hello? Eva calls out carefully. Good, English, a voice replies. She has no idea how long she has missed the language of speech. How did she find herself here?
Eva begins to babble about this being a mistake. Her speech slurs and the other person realizes that, despite her protestations, Eva is hurt. She can get home, Eva slurs before fainting. If she can get home, the other person muses, that is very good news for both of them…
Eva’s Dream:
In an apartment, Eva puts her young daughter to bed. The child asks what Eva wanted to be when she was growing up. Eva reminds her it’s bedtime and tells her she is always stalling her with questions. The child really wants to know. Eva reveals she wanted to be a geologist. A scientist of rocks. The child is doubtful. Eva points out you can learn about the whole world from rocks.
What does she want to be when she grows up? First she wants to marry a man with a lot of money, the child announces. Where is this coming from? Eva asks. She would like a lot of money, the child explains. Eva suggests she can earn the money herself. Not from the beach she is sitting on, the child replies. Eva assures her she is smart and powerful. She is going to use that to make the world better. Smart people have to make the world better. It doesn’t matter either way, the child replies. Because she’s dead. Eva got lost and now she’s dead. Forever! Her eyes begin to bleed and Eva stumbles away.
Reality:
Eva awakes with a scream. She finds herself in a bed in a medieval style chamber. Is she all right? a voice asks. Where is she? Eva demands. The voice corrects her, the question would be when is she? She has answers to both.
A brunette in a low-cut green dress enters the room She is trapped her at the dawn of man like her. They are going to help each other. Her name is Morgana le Fay.
Eva begins to activate her power and orders her to stay away. Amused, Morgana points out that they are the only two evolved language-speaking people in the world. They are both stuck here. They can help each other. There is no need to panic or threaten.
Eva stammers that she has to get back to her family. Morgana points out this is probably the last thing she needs to hear right now, but she doesn’t think that’s entirely possible. How can she say that? Eva demands angrily. She doesn’t know anything about Eva or her family!
Morgana coolly corrects her. While Eva was recuperating thanks to Morgana’s healing spells, she found out everything there is to know about Eva. She knows how she got here. She knows she is lost. She got the knowledge from a lock of hair and a drop of blood. She shows her the spell, images of Eva’s life flowing in the air.
Morgana explains she was betrayed and was stuck here and Eva is lost. Morgana can point her in the right direction and Eva can carry them out.
Eva repeats she needs to get back to her family. What does she mean, that won’t be possible? Morgana explains her family probably no longer exists. Nothing from there does. What does that mean?! Eva shouts, upset. Time is not linear, Morgana continues. She exists in a time. That’s where she belongs. But Eva travelled to a future that she didn’t belong in. Now once she left that future, it probably ceased to exist. The longer Eva stays here, the more true that becomes. The future is for everyone a blank canvas. That time in her life no longer exists anywhere but in her mind’s eye. Morgana has suffered this punishing loss as well. She knows this is hard to hear.
Eva shouts at her to stop right now. She’s going home! She’s leaving here and— Suddenly, something burning is thrown through the window.
The locals, Morgana states grimly, referring to the Stone Age people outside. Every time they stumble across fire, they use it to attack her home. Why? Eva wonders. Because they attack what they don’t understand. That seems to be a constant, no matter what time the live in.
Morgana casts a spell and easily kills the attackers with a blast. Horrified, Eva freezes her in a time bubble. Morgana le Fay, she sighs. Does she not know there are books written about her? Sure, let’s be best friends, crazy evil sorceress. She has to get out of here, she decides and thinks of her daughter. She gives herself a pep talk. She can do it. Get home! Eva closes her eyes and focuses… and nothing happens. Why can’t she do this? she cries. This can’t be her life now!
That moment, Morgana frees herself with a spell. Eva panics and time freezes the magical energy. No one has ever done that before, Morgana admits and apologizes for underestimating her. She fires another magical blast at her.
Eva panics and begins to move through time. She moves forward and urges herself to keep going, as she comes closer to the present. She pushes herself further, admonishing herself not to interact with anything. Finally, she arrives around 2099 and recognizes the time. She’s home.
She runs through the rain to her home and knocks on the door. An unfamiliar woman answers the door and asks if she can help her. Surprised, Eva stammers this is her home. He husband and child. The woman tells her she lives alone. Eva continues, his name is Danny Warburton. He’s lived here for— The woman interrupts her she has the wrong address. She is about to leave anyway. Eva asks if she can look inside. The woman assures her there is no man or child in there. Is she going to be okay? Is there someone she can call? Eva looks at her broken-hearted then runs toward Magik’s home, praying.
When she knocks, Wagner appears and she hugs him in relief. He teleports out of her embrace and tells her no touching. Please tell her he knows who she is and he is just being a pill, she begs. He’s sure he’d remember that tacky haircut, he replies snottily. Whatever she’s selling, they’re not buying. Eva tries to get into the Sanctum, shouting she needs to see the doctor. She needs her right now! Wagner is surprised at the pronoun ‘her.’ He suggests she leave.
She timefreezes him and enters the Sanctum to find the sorcerer supreme… a black-haired bearded man in a suit of armor.
Dr. Strange? she stammers. That is a name he hasn’t heard in a long time. It is also a name that is not his. His name is Doctor Anthony Stark. But he is the sorcerer supreme. Can he help her? Crying, Eva sinks down on her knees. Her baby…
Later, Stark hands her a hot beverage. She thanks him for listening and believing. No one has lied to him and gotten away with it in a very long time, he replies. He believes every word. And he sympathizes. First of all, he wants to tell her that keeping that evil bitch Morgana trapped back where she is was the most heroic thing Eva has ever done and will probably ever do. Let her rot there. Know that the journey was worth it if only for that. He knows it’s easier for him to say that than for her to believe it.
What happened to her family? Eva pleads. There’s no record of them. It’s like they never existed. Stark admits the evil witch was right. The butterfly effect is real. Eva is not where she belongs. She has not been for quite some time… so she can actually feel the butterfly effect. She’s been bouncing around time and who knows what little thing she did here and there. Everything they do affects everything around them, he lectures. Millions and billions of interconnecting fates every second of every day. It is the butterfly effect building to the billiard ball effect. Everybody does it every day. Eva is just aware of the outcome because she has traveled further than anybody else ever will. And this outcome affects her directly, so it hurts.
He’s talking about her daughter! Eva shouts. Her husband! He is sorry about them and sorry she has been through all this. She can’t get her back because she no longer exists and trying will only make things worse. And it doesn’t take a scientist or sorcerer to know that, if Eva keeps trying, she will lose herself. She is still young and still has a long way to go on her journey. In her own time. The whole story of Eva Bell has not been told yet. It’s time to go home. It’s time to back where she came from, with full comprehension of her power and responsibility.
Tabula Rasa appears around them. Are they back in her time? Eva asks. No, he can’t do that. She is amazed it’s still here. People are still scared of it, he replies. No one comes here. This is where Eva’s journey began and where it must end. Can he help her back? she asks. He replies: No. What if she can’t do it herself? She can, he promises. If and when they meet again, be nice to him. He believes where she comes from he is about to go through one of the most heart-rending existential crises of his life. Or maybe not. He disappears.
‘I’m sorry, baby, I’m so sorry!’ Eva sobs. She concentrates. Please, she pleads and open her eyes to find her power has taken her back.
What happened to her? Ben Deeds asks. Eva hugs him. The others gather. Eva takes Celeste aside. She knows Celeste can read her mind. She knows she knows where Eva has been. Please don’t tell anyone!
Where did she go? a worried Goldballs asks. Didn’t she hear him calling? She kisses him on the forehead and apologizes. Noticing Eva’s poor shape, Christopher offers to heal her. She shouts at him not to touch her, then assures everybody she’s fine.
