Run It Back

***Run It Back*** is a 2023 science-fiction screenplay. It is notable for being Ablaze's first work to feature time travel. Due to its prompt being AI-generated for a school project, and the time travel gauntlet it introduces intended to be used by the First exclusively, it currently exists in a state of canon limbo.

## Synopsis

After Tom's daughter, Sarah, is involved in a car accident, he receives divine intervention from an unknown source.

## Plot

In a universe similar to UN685, Tom Hutchins is driving his daughter, Sarah home from medical school. He curses when his work meeting is postponed to that night. Noticing her father's frustration, Sarah attempts to lighten the mood and asks if they can visit a mall near their house that opened recently. When Sarah makes her request again after he ignores her, Tom tells Sarah that he is unimpressed by her grades, and that she needs to apply herself. Sarah tells him she is trying to, and begs him not to pressure her. However, Tom presses on, claiming she will become jobless if she doesn't improve. Sarah snaps at his comment and tells him she doesn't wish to waste her time working a office job like Tom, cursing him.

Meanwhile, an unnamed driver speeds down the street, drumming his fingers to the beat of his songs. With his earphones blasting music at full volume, he's completely cut out from the outside world audio-wise. As he comes to the intersection, the driver spots Tom's car coming from his front left and jerks the car to the right, but it rams into Tom's car and damages its hood and windshield. After an airbag scares Tom awake, he sees Sarah is unconscious, and her forehead is bleeding heavily. He screams.

At a nearby hospital, Tom sits alone in the waiting room outside Sarah's ward. A young nurse with a white canister notices Tom's sullen mood and approaches him. As Nurse does this, Tom turns away quickly to blink away his tears. He notices a slight bluish tinge to Nurse's skin, but chalks it up to the hospital's bad lighting. The nurse sits next to Tom and asks if he is alright. Tom tells her about Sarah's accident and expresses distress about her condition, implying that Sarah is the only family he has left. To reassure him, the nurse informs Tom that Sarah will be fine, showing her gratitude to the advancement of medical technology.

Tom asks the nurse about how her her parents treated her as a child. She implies she disliked her father, but claims he only acted that way since he was "dealt a bad hand in life". Although they both has their struggles, she says she was "doing something she liked", while her father wasn't. The nurse proclaims her love for her father, and Tom reaches out to comfort her. However, his hand passes through the nurse, showing she is intangible. The nurse reveals she is Sarah from the future, and went back in time as a hologram to save Tom's Sarah from dying to prevent a disaster involving Tom. Although she didn't plan to meet Tom, she didn't want their relationship to end on a sour note.

Future Sarah's time-travel watch begins to beep, and she prepares to leave. She reassures Tom that she managed to heal Sarah with her white canister. Tom asks Sarah if he will see her again, but she says it will be unnecessary since he already has his daughter. Future Sarah asks Tom to take care of Sarah, before vanishing in a flash of light.

After Future Sarah leaves, Tom slumps back in the seat, and sheds a single tear. Tom approaches Sarah's ward, and as he looks at her longingly through the window, her eyes begin to twitch.

## Trivia

* *Run It Back* was written in one day.
* *Run It Back* was named after Phoenix's Ultimate from *Valorant*.