Next Day

Early Morning

Theo's Room

"Do you believe in fate?" asked Juno who was sharing a bed with Theo and their two infant children who was sandwiched between them.

It was quite a tight squeeze given the miniscule size of the bed.

"In all honesty, no." replied Theo as he fixed the blanket over Eva who moved a lot in her sleep. "To me, people who believe fate are just too lazy to do something about their situation. It's better to blame the inevitable than bet on a small possibility."

"I agree. My very existence is proof that the iron grip of fate can be chopped off."

"What does that suppose to mean?"

"It means that I'm about to do a lot of explaining. We better get off the bed at least. We dont want our children getting hit by your violent reactions."

"....Is that explanation of yours that shocking?"

"Shocking is too weak of a word to describe it."

While Theo was confident that he could control himself, he decided to do as Juno asked just in case.

He got up and went to the small table near the kitchen of his one room bedroom while Juno sat on the floor beside the bed.

"Well then, let's begin. First topic: My power." said Juno without her almost perpetual smile on her face. "Do you know of the Law of Trinity?"

"Hmm.... It's not something I'm familiar of." replied Theo.

"Of course you never heard of it. I'd be shocked if anyone knows of it. The Law of Trinity is the proven version of the Brown Theory."

The Brown Theory stated that there was no such thing as the 3 branches of power (Science, Magic and Chi). All supernatural powers were a combination of these 3 with varying degrees of intensity.

For example, Theo's Midas Alchemy had this combination:

Science- rank A

Magic- rank C

Chi- rank E

While the Brown Theory was world famous, there was very little success on actually confirming it.

Thus it remained a 'Theory' even to this day.

"While we can confirm the Brown Theory as fact with the Reformants brainwashing, we've been met with failures in most of our other attempts. Are you saying that there's a way around that roadblock?" asked Theo

"Naturally. You saw how I used both Magic and Chi at the same time right?"

"Hmm... True. But how did you do that?"

"I can answer that, but I must warn you. I am a warrior to the very core. Using my brain is not my forte. I may not be able to explain it well."

"Dont worry about it. I'll fill in the blanks later. Lay it all on me."

"Very well. From what I can understand about it, the Law of Trinity states that all beings with supernatural power has 1 very specific area where they can manifest their full power. This is called a 'Forte'. You could say that this is very similar to despite being both users of Midas Alchemy, you can only make science based weapons of war while Jabir ibn Hayyan can only make magic based biological alchemy."

"Hmm... I see... But that doesnt explain how you can wield 2 of the 3 branches of power perfectly."

"It actually does. My Forte is called 'Assimilation'. As long as it can be safely created within or implanted into my body, I can use any power. While not everyone can use it, everyone naturally creates Chi within their body and everyone can inhale mana from the air. It took a bit of practice but I was eventually able to pull off a decent amount of all available moves known to man."

All it took was a little imagination for Theo to realize how excessively powerful Juno could become.

"Hold on.... You asked me to give you cybernetics before the whole Eldorado Incident.... If I did that...?"

"Then I would be able to use whatever you implanted within me with 100% mastery."

"Neptunes hairy balls! Does that mean that you can use every last power in existence?!"

"Yes and no."

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"Let's use your Midas Alchemy as an example. In order to use that, I need to implant your brain into my skull. One problem: my mind, body and soul is specialized to perform Assimilation. What do you think will happen if the tank engine of my body is replaced by a CPU used by supercomputers?"

"I see.... Incompatibility...."

"Exactly. Mind you, I can still use Midas Alchemy if we do go through with the brain transplant. My body is just that adaptive. However, wierd crap will most certainly happen. Maybe I'll grow a penis, burst into flames whenever I breath, become a hulking mass of flesh, etc. So many things will go wrong if I carelessly take in power."

Theo nodded in understanding.

History has proven time and time again that those who accumulated power too quickly were often destroyed by said power.

But at that moment, Theo realized something was off with Juno's statement.

"Hold up. How do you even know that taking in power has that effect on your body? Based on how you look and the physical exams during your pregnancy, it's clear that you havent even tried it yet."

"Hahaha! As sharp as ever my dear. Allow me to answer you with this little trivia: The Law of Trinity will be discovered 50 years from now by the leading mind in magical item creation, Nichola Rasputin. Her proof of concept was none other than me."

Theo was taken aback by what Juno said.

Time traveling was one of the most obscure branch of science. As far as he knew, no one has ever pulled it off and lived to tell about it.

But then again, no one would ever keep any record even if they did such a thing. The power to alter the course of histroy was something anyone would guard jealously.

However, this would explain Juno's mastery of nearly every form of combat. If she has lived an entire lifetime perfecting her craft before traveling back in time, then there was no problem.

This would also explain her near fanatical loyalty to him.

Something must have happened between him and her in the future.

"You told me that your power was Assimilation, were you able to assimilate someone with Time Traveling abilities?" asked Theo who was dreading the answer.

"Nope. No mortal has that type of power, so there's no way I can assimilate what doesnt exist." replied Juno, much to Theo's confusion.

"Er... Didnt you just that you're from the future?"

"Correct."

"But you said no mortal can manipulate time."

"That's also correct."

"Then how the hell did you go back in time?"

"Er... It wasnt time travel per se. It was more like changing a dream via hypnotic suggestion."

"Oooookay. Now I'm lost."

"Dont worry. The explanation is quite easy. Are you familiar with Azathoth?"

"The one from the Lovecraftian stories? Yeah, I know about that one. What about him?"

Azathoth also know as "The Blind Idiot God", the "Nuclear Chaos", the "Daemon Sultan", "The Deep Dark", and "The Cold One".

He was the primordial entity of the Lovecraftian mythos from where everything came from. It was said that all of reality was nothing more than a byproduct of one of his dreams.

If he woke up, reality would cease to exist.

This was the main reason why his supposed servants were doing their absolute best to keep him asleep.

"But isnt the whole Lovecraftian mythos nothing more than a story?" asked Theo

"H. P. Lovecraft had a weak yet very amazing power. It was tha ability to remain somewhat sane no matter what mental attack he recieved. Most who were able to percieve the outer gods and the great old ones literally went insane. Lovecraft thought it was nothing more than insparations that he used for his stories. For a normal human, that's quite a feat."

".... I understand... for now at least... but why do I have a bad feeling that things are about to go way over my head?"

"And you once said that you dont believe in 'instincts'. Yup you are correct! From here on out, please take my words literally. Common sense and logic will only make things difficult for you."

"Ugh. Fine. Let's get this over with. Tell me how you 'changed a dream through hypnotic suggestion'."

"Changing the dream was actually the simple part. All I really needed to do was assimilate a very small portion of a brain cell."

"Er.... What?"

"Azathoth is technically a living thing. He is no mortal since there is no way to kill him, at least as far as I know. All I really did was follow the instruction of a Watcher friend of mine and nibble on a very specific brain cell. And given the size of that monstrosity, my actions were so irrelevant that he didn't even feel my existence."

"Watchers? Brain cells? Monstrous existence?"

"I warned you to just take my words at face value. When dealing with galaxy ending allien entities, logic and common sense are the first ones that gets destroyed. Anyways, Watchers are immortal aliens that are obsessed with gaining knowledge through observing the universe."

"....This is making less sense as time goes on.... "

"Don't worry, I'll make it quick for the sake of your sanity. The effect of the whole brain cell thing was similar to a dream suddenly changing for no good reason. In this case, the dream just suddenly went back to a previous version of it. To Azathoth, it was probably just a very fleeting sense of deja vu. And since reality is a by product of his dream, it goes without saying that reality rewinded as far back as Azathoth's dream."

"*sigh*... Whatever. I'll just take it all in. By the way, you said that changing the dream was easy. What was the hard part?"

"Finding Azathoth of course. He is the 'dreamer', not the 'dream'. Like all the outer gods, he technically does not exist in this reality. Even with a Watcher's help, searching for the bastard felt like an eternity. There was a lot of reality warping, realm hopping, magical mumbo jumbo crap involved, but I doubt you have the patience to listen to that."

"Yeah. Let's skip that explanation. I'm not going to understand it anyway."

"Very good. Let's get back on topic. Since me and my Watcher friend were inside Azathoth when the reality rewind happened, our experiences and knowledge remained intact. When we did return to reality, our bodies reverted to a close approximate of the power level we had at that point in time. The Watcher was already all mighty way before even humans existed, so his dip in power was almost insignificant. I, on the other hand, lost all of my power and was nearly removed from existence if it wasn't for the Watcher's help."

"Removed from existence? What do you mean?"

"The reality rewind was very inaccurate. My target was our time in HAA. What happened was that reality went back to 30 years before you were born. And since I did not exist at that time, reality tried to correct my paradoxical existence by removing me from existence."

"Hold on! You're more than 30 years old?!"

"In this reality, I am approximately 45-50 years old."

"But you don't look a day over 18!"

"If you have the understanding of magic, chi and science based powers at my level, reshaping one's body is not even a challenge."

".... Holy crap...."

"Oh and I'd like to clarify my age. In this reality, I am 45-50 years old. I am mentally an enternal maiden. But if we add the time prior to the reality rewind, I am but a simple girl who has secretly been in loved you for 50000 years."

Theo's jaw hit the floor.

If he took all of Juno's words at face value, it meant that he knocked up an ancient monster.

He wasn't sure what to make of this.

He did not feel like Juno was lying, but her story was so outrageous that it was hard to believe as fact.

But if her story was true, then there was one piece of knowledge he wanted to know.

"Assuming your story is true..... What happened to me in your timeline." asked Theo who dreaded the answer.

Juno hesitated a bit. But after a sigh, she replied with a sad smile.

"You died at the age of 29 during the 3rd World War. You were completely obliterated by Mary Sue." replied Juno

Mary Sue was an S ranked magic based superhero that belonged to Theo's age group. She considered by nearly everyone as the second coming of Omegaman and was largely expected to eventually exceed him in due time.

"Mary Sue?! Really?! I haven't even talked to her!" exclaimed Theo.

"In this reality at least. In the previous timeline, you were one of her many boyfriends. And you know how it is when dealing with that bitch. If you're not singing praises on how awesome and good and stunning and brave she is, then you are evil that needs to be destroyed." replied Juno with a hint of anger in her voice

Theo nodded in agreement.

Due to Mary Sue's overwhelming power, she has solved quite a few cases often reserved for the full time superheroes.... and she often ended those battles by completely obliterating everything in sight.

Despite the massive collateral damage on both the guilty and the innocent sides, the media, the superheroes and even the governments hailed her as the greatest hero of all time.

This was a clear attempt at ass kissing. And given how powerful she would eventually become, it was wise to stay in her good side.

Theo also understood how he and Mary Sue became enemies.

Mary Sue would have probably discovered Theo's hobby of killing criminals and demanded him to stop because 'Killing is Bad'.

Theo would point out that she was worse than him because he only targeted criminals. She killed both criminals and civilians alike.

An argument soon followed with the emotion driven Mary Sue soundly being defeated by Theo's logic.

In her anger, she would lash out and obliterate him by accident.

A typical reaction for spoiled brats.

As Theo followed this line of thought, he came across an unnerving connection between Juno's outlandish story and current events.

If his hypothesis was right, then Juno has done something both amazing and terrifying to him.

"Juno.... Why did you turn back time?" asked Theo.

"Well, it was 3 days before I discovered what Mary Sue has done to you. Naturally, I tried enacting revenge but she was just too damn powerful and at the time, I had no idea I was capable of assimilation. After that painful failure, I tried to find a way to revive you. You'd be suprised how hard it is to revive someone when there's nothing left of them." replied Juno.

"Did you succeed?"

"Obviously I didnt. Hence the whole reality rewind."

"But you came close, didnt you."

With a smile filled with pride at her accomplishments, Juno replied.

"Yes. With great effort, brainwashing and religious indoctrination of countless people, I was able to anchor your soul to the realm of the living once again. Sadly, you were no longer sentient, so I considered that as a failure."

"Was I known by any fancy title back then?"

"Yes. The Machine God."

Theo began to shiver as the dots began to connect.

"What have you done to me?"

"At the present, I've been brainwashing and have been indoctrinating your Reformant units to believe that you are the Machine God." said Juno before her ever smiling face changed into a warrior with great conviction and determination. "I have laid the groundwork 30 years ago and I will continue to solidify your foundation in this world. I will NOT lose you again!"