The Changeling stares at his hand in shock, and then reaches for Steel. Steel blocks him with a chair, and part of the chair disappears, reverted. Steel takes cover behind a couch, but the Changeling reduces that to its component parts as well. As he goes out the door, Steel tells Sapphire to get the Changeling to follow her so he can get behind him. Sapphire lures the Changeling toward it with baby's music, and Steel comes up behind him and prepares to kill the creature. However, Sapphire mentally says that he can't kill it.
The Time Source talks to the Changeling, who screams in defiance and pulls his hand back. He refuses to kill the two agents, and the Time Source disappears. As the Changeling leaves, the agents realize that the Changeling is resisting the Time Force. Sapphire figures that the Changeling is a substitute child except he's from 30 years in his own future and has been substituted for himself. She suggests that when the Changeling touched Silver, it sent him back to his beginnings.
The Changeling crouches down by its previous self's crib. Sapphire turns on the music player in the crib, then turns off the lights and leaves with Sapphire. Steel figures that they need Silver to get out of the capsule, and wonders if Sapphire is going to get Silver back. They go into the bedroom and Sapphire suggests that the Changeling sent one of its parents to the past and one to the future, with different hands. Steel goes to look for the machinery powering the capsule, and enters the communication room. He sits on the chair and the screen activates. Sapphire follows him in and says that they can't send the capsule back without its crew. Steel tells her to get Silver back, and Sapphire reminds him about the Time Source. Her agent agrees with her that they got in too easily, and tells Sapphire to go to the living room and take back time to when they were all three there.
Sapphire goes out into the hallway and remembers earlier when she disappeared from the roof. She goes into the nursery and checks on the Changeling, who is still crouched before the crib. Sapphire goes into the living room and the couch that was destroyed earlier returns to its original form. She rewinds time and watches as Rothwyn comes in and makes a journal entry to the recording device. The Time Force talks and Sapphire hears it but Rothwyn doesn't. Rothwyn's image disappears and the Time Force continues talking about time. Silver's past image appears briefly, and Sapphire turns to find the Changeling there. He smiles at her and Sapphire leaves the room.
Steel comes out and finds Sapphire in the hallway. She says that the capsule is alive with time and set up a barrier, making her unable to take time back. Steel can't take the capsule back without the crew, and they've lost their technician. He admits that Silver is a useful kind of person, and Sapphire says that she misses him.
The two agents go into living room and Steel tells Sapphire to think taking time back and returning Silver. The couch restores itself again and she finds herself on the roof but can't tell if she's in the past and the future. Steel says that she should take time back to when the three of the emerged from the screen room. Sapphire does so, and they Eldred and Rothwyn discuss ending their signal to the future. The agents check the monitor that the couple used, and Steel wonders if there needs to be something tangible.
As Sapphire walks to a hallway wall, it hums briefly and she realizes that the machinery is there. She was in line with it on the roof as well when she first sensed it, and tells Steel that it's powerful and can do anything. Steels picks up a sculpture, and then the table it was resting on. He checks the wall, and Sapphire moans in pain and clutches at herself. Steel tells her to get hold of herself and goes to the kitchen, and the glowing spot appears on the wall he was checking.
In the kitchen, Steel finds a knife. He comes out and sees the spot, and Sapphire says that it moved. Steel cuts away the wallpaper, revealing the synthetic wall beneath. She says that Silver could get at the machinery, and touches the wall. Her hand comes back covered in blood, and the agents wonder what the future people use as the power source.
Steel goes to the Changeling despite the danger, asking what its name is. The Changeling doesn't know, and Steel says that they want to give it back the things that it needs: sleep, warmth, food, and love. Steel lowers the side of the crib, takes out the music maker, and says that they're going to help the Changeling get those things back and send him back where he belongs. He takes the unresisting Changeling's wrists and tries to touch h is hands to each other. The Time Force tells the Changeling to stop, and the Changeling reaches for Steel. The agent tries to hold the Changeling's hands away, and Sapphire sees them and gets the knife. She cuts her hand smears it on the machinery, and the Changeling stops struggling.
Steel pushes the Changeling's hands together, and everything in the apartment reverts to what it was before the Changeling touched it. Silver appears, and Steel finds himself holding the baby. Eldred comes in, sees the agents, calls to Rothwyn, and slams the door. Sapphire says that they're in the present, and Eldred and Rothwyn come in. Eldred tells his wife to not to talk to the agents, and figures that they're imagining the agents. Rothwyn says they're real and Sapphire agrees.
Rothwyn gives their names--names from the past--and Steel confirms that they're from the future. Steel walks out, and Eldred insists that no one from the time period can get into the capsule. Sapphire goes out into the hallway, and Steel motions her to the wall where they both listen.
Written by Gadfly on Feb 11, 2019