Sunset Lake

She had finally found it.  From what her sources had gathered, this location in spacetime was extremely important.  She stared at the map, at the deep valley amidst an ancient forest, and Lake Tanganyika.  20,000 years, give or take.  That was how far back she would need to go to be present for the event.  What was the event?  She had no idea.  All she knew was that his trail had gone cold, this time travelling mystery man.  He was all over recent history until about 6 months ago, and then he was just gone.  On his last appearance he had left a clue written in blood.  His own blood mind you, uncharacteristically he cut himself on some broken glass when shattering the windows of a front for human trafficking that had been hiding under everyone's noses for decades.  It was the single biggest takedown in law enforcement history, not entirely out of character for him since he had discovered his powers.  The blood was different though, it was thought that he could not be harmed, that he had become invincible in his transition, but apparently that was a matter of choice rather than intrinsic design.  His blood had revealed he had a long dead virus.  Fairly innocuous, but it did mean he had traveled back in time millennia, twenty to be precise.  Only she and her top advisers knew of the contents of his blood, and only she had discovered precisely what it meant.  Also contained within the blood was the key to time travel, a protein that would cause quantum effects on the entire body, matched with a nearly unique gene which activated a relatively unused part of the brain.  She discovered that she too had this gene, and despite millions of samples studied, no one else did.  The protein was easy enough to determine in origin, especially after the seemingly random stunt he had pulled a year prior where millions of gallons of "harmless" gas had been sprayed into the atmosphere across Africa.  It all made sense now, the protein was generated by exposure to another virus held in the gas, engineered to be harmless otherwise.  Only he would have had the reason or ability to engineer that virus.  She had looked back even further and discovered that he had coordinated the planting of each of the canisters, the larger pattern seeming to spiral from Lake Tanganyika.  Like running lights they seemed to indicate a place, and the ancient virus, a time.

After exposing unnecessarily harsh working conditions, nearly bankrupting the world's largest corporations, and upending the labor market and economy as a whole, he had written what became known as The Second Magna Carta, proposing an improved set of human rights including the right to peace, wellness, and the availability of resources, both mental and physical, to pursue one's contribution to society.  Thought to have been impossible at the time, in the 5 years since they have become adopted worldwide, with many countries aiding other less developed countries in their development, as technology has sprouted up all over the world toward that end.  It is impossible to tell if he personally had a hand in these developments, or if the idea and initial spark he provided was all it took for the world to begin becoming a Utopia.  Some technologies seemed suspicious though, like a longevity serum derived from organisms that only lived at the bottom of the deepest lakes in the world, the methodology to build a boat that could seat up to four in just a couple of hours by oneself with nothing but what could be found in a forest, and fireworks that could be made from a combination of plants and mosses.  They seemed too obscure in a world where dreams of all kinds were becoming a reality.  She had intended to ask him what it all meant at the first opportunity, but for a man who was quite often seen in several places at once (he had discarded the veil of secrecy about his time travel a decade prior), he had quite conspicuously disappeared.

So she resolved to make the journey to hopefully find him.  First to Africa in order to contract the virus, then to the lake to poke around a little, and then hopefully to 20,000 years ago.  She wondered how difficult it would be to master time travel, it seemed to take him quite a few months, not counting all the time he spent elsewhen which could have been staggering.

As soon as she stepped foot in Tanzania, she felt an electricity in the air.  Not from excitement, she was used to that, but this was something else.  It was as if the world had become somewhat malleable as she walked, the far edges of her vision shifting slightly with each step.  Something was off, but not in a bad way, more like a touch of magic had been added to a familiar world.  The feeling intensified as she approached the lake, and by the time she reached the shore, she knew it was the effects of the virus.  She stared out at the lake at sunset, the colors seeming to shine off the clouds, streaming like the Aurora Borealis.  It was overwhelmingly beautiful.  She felt herself unable to do anything but savor the moment, a peaceful moment that felt eternal as the streams of color got longer and brighter.  A seeping realization hit her, he must have felt like this at some point, just before travelling for the first time.  She knew she had been guided here, perhaps because the moment truly seemed to take days now, and a part of her was unsettled by how this must have felt in any other environment.  Here, though, it was pure magic.  She felt simultaneously peaceful and more aware than ever before.  As her entire field of vision was engulfed in streams of color, she felt a darkness closing from both above and below.  This encroaching darkness frightened her, could something have gone wrong??  What seemed like hours passed as the darkness closed until she noticed black silhouettes sprouting from its edges.  She was blinking!  She felt a complete disconnect from her body, only realizing the sensation as she recognized her eyelashes closing inward.  She relished the time before the darkness came now, and as soon as they shut completely she opened them again with a start, and she was back to reality.  Her car was gone, she was still wearing the same outfit but her pockets were empty (both an answer to one question and a strange new puzzle presented) and the lake and forest looked somehow different.  The sun was high in the sky, she knew she had time traveled, but to when?  She hoped for the best, and began building a boat, now seeing the humorous utility of such an invention in a situation such as this.

She set off in mid afternoon, paddling out into the unknown.  She felt nervous and exhilarated all at once.  It was possible she had conjured the string of clues entirely in her mind, weaving a tapestry of shadows with no truth to it.  Doubts crept in, despite all the indications that she was on the right track.  The lake was so large, finding him here would be like finding a needle in a haystack, but she felt like she had to try, and had every inborn right to succeed.  Hours passed and evening approached, she could not even see the shore.  Sunset was upon her once more, as was the familiar sight of shimmering lights.  She felt herself being pulled into the cosmic fabric again, less severely than "last night" but in the same fashion.  As she laid back and entered what felt like a waking dream, he materialized in front of her.

"Hi, have you been waiting long?"  He gave a sheepish smile, apparently expecting any answer.

She beamed at him "Just eternity and a day, but it was worth the trip."

His expression brightened.  "I'm so glad you came."

"I wouldn't have missed it for the world, but I think you knew that."

"Yeah, we're cut from the same cloth, can't resist an adventure."

She paused for a moment before asking "Why here?  Why now?"

"Well, Baikal would have been way too cold."  He grinned at his little inside joke as she gave a puzzled frown.  "Sorry, what I mean is that I've found freshwater amplifies the effects of time travel, an amplification that only increases with each subsequent journey.  I both wanted you to have the idyllic first journey that I could not, and I wanted to ensure we'd have a little time to ourselves."

"To ourselves?"

"Yes, while you were meant to be the only one that could have made it here first, the world is about to change.  Soon, relatively speaking, everyone will be able to go wherever and whenever they'd like.  I've been keeping tabs as of late, and while I can't guarantee it, I think we are ready, and I'm ready to be normal again, even if it meant changing how normal was defined."

"Time travel?  For everyone?"

"Yes.  In time, that is.  But as you and I have been on this boat for several minutes now, and my last move before coming here was to spread the genes necessary for time travel to be prevalent at large, I imagine we'll have company in no time."

She could not help but look disappointed at his comment about "spreading the genes necessary."

"Oh don't worry I donated.  I hope that soon I'll figure out which virus changed my genetic code to begin with so that anyone's children will be able to have the same traits, but alas, there is still much to be done."

"That's amazing, truly.  It would have been so easy to have had anything you wanted and keep it all to yourself."

"Well, that is pretty close to what I've done.  The problem is that what I want, by its very nature, cannot be taken, it can only be given to me."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I've got these cool fireworks that I made from moss and plants!  Took years to figure this one out, I call them Wishworks!  I basically only invented this and the boat thing haha, the rest was everyone else."

"Oh... yeah, I know about those, that's pretty coo-"

"I'm totally kidding."  Then he got visibly nervous, something she was not expecting, and struggled to speak for several seconds before finally managing "I don't want to see one more sunset like this without you.  Will you marry me?"

Her jaw dropped.  She had managed to fall in love with him from a distance through all his puzzles and riddles presented on a worldwide scale, but only now did she realize he had done it all for her benefit.  "Yes."

He rushed in for a kiss, and while still embracing, set off the wishworks he stealthily pulled from his pocket behind her back.  She jumped at the sound and then laughed, smacking his chest.  Then, from a short distance away, another one went off, illuminating a smiling couple on a boat.  Then dozens more all around.

They both stood in awe for what seemed like an eternity, as the fireworks expanded in the sky more and more slowly until all at once they were gone.  He looked up and pointed at the moon and stars "Looks like we're back."

"Wait, what?  How can you tell??"

"Don't worry, I'll show you how.  We've got plenty of time now."

He reached down and grabbed a blanket and pillow.  "I came prepared, or would that be left?  Anyway, it's late, what all would you like to know?"