Four.

Awake.

Again.

The soft buzzing of his alarm clock was something that he’d almost become numb to. Of course, there were a lot of things you could become numb to, given enough time. But he wouldn’t give up. Not like this.

He could formulate another plan, try again, save her life. There was some way to do it, there had to be. He would try until he saved her.

Luke Thomas would save her.

So he began again, deciding to take it the same, but to try and take her out of town. Everything happened in the same order, though he felt like he was becoming numb to the shock of getting robbed by Crash. Hell, he could even remember some of the symbols in his product number. One one one six? Yeah [email protected] He wrote it out just in case he forgot and stuck the paper in his shirt. Maybe it would help him at some point.

He didn’t want to be late to his appointment. Which was of course, killing himself.

He jumped without a second thought, knowing he would be saved by Lexa. He then allowed himself to get outfitted with the bracelets, all the while spouting off exactly what he knew to say. During this time, the only thing he could think about was what he would do differently this time though, and when he got to Mr. Setsuna, he engaged his plan.

After the pleasantries about his family and the advice, he asked Mr. Setsuna for his favor.

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know a good way out of town, would you?”

“Outta town? Where ya goin’?

“I want to take Lexa somewhere. She tells me she’s never seen wide open grassy fields before, so I thought that would be a great place!”

“Playin’ the romantic, huh? Alright alright, I can drive ya myself!”

“You have a vehicle?”

“Yeah! It’s a bit of a junker, but it should get us out to the sides uh town fairly easy. You in?”

“Sure! Let’s go say… tomorrow at noon?”

“Tomorrow at noon, sounds great kid.”

Thus, the next day at noon, Mr. Setsuna fired up his old vehicle. Luke had never seen it before, and for good reason, since it was below a large pile of junk and crates. The wheels were large, and the front had a grill wide enough to lay on, but there it was.

“Now let’s see if’n the old girl’ll start up…”

He put an old key in the ignition, and sure enough, it clunked to life. It didn’t sound like something he would have wanted to drive all that badly, but if it got them out of the city he couldn’t be more grateful. Lexa stood there, somewhat surprised that Luke had wanted to go on an excursion outside the city. She’d said something about how it was weird that he wanted to do something new for once, which only angered him a little bit. He was on a mission, her teases wouldn’t stop him.

It was relatively quiet inside the car, and after twenty minutes they passed the highway stop. Usually the guards were skeptical if you were walking outside, but if you had a car they gave you a ticket with a bored expression. It wasn’t as if you couldn’t leave the city without a car, but it was sure as hell easier. Luke looked in the backseat at Lexa, who waved at him a little ponderously. She wasn’t sure what was going on, and that was just fine with him. After a few more minutes, Mr. Setsuna started a conversation.

“Y’know, this is the car that I came to town with.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yep, old bird hasn’t failed me yet. Bit surprised it started up n’ all though.”

“Was that after…”

“Right after it actually, but what ‘bout you two? Skippin’ town?”

“No! Just following up on something.”

“Ahh, well will here work then?”

They had turned onto a dirt road and after going a few miles, Setsuna stopped. It wasn’t the prettiest place, but it was safe. There was almost nothing for miles but grass. Any trees had been cut down by the inhabitants of the city long ago, and if anything popped up you could be sure that someone would be there to cut it down as well.

Setsuna tipped his hat and leaned down back into his car.

“Don’t get inta trouble you two. Call me if ya need a right back Luke.”

“Sounds good, and thanks Mr. Setsuna.”

“The things I do fur my customers!”

He smiled and closed the door, the ancient car clinking away in the dust. Lexa sat down on a rock and looked up at him.

“So, you still don’t feel inclined to tell me why we’re here?”

“...”

“Don’t you trust me yet?”

He didn’t want to tell her. He didn’t want to put her through that. But it was something he hadn’t tried yet. If he told her what was happening… maybe, just maybe, he could prevent her death.

“Lexa. I-”

His voice caught in his throat and he put his hand out toward her. Noticing his tension, she stood up and walked over to him.

“What’s wrong?”

He would tell her.

“Y-you died.”

“What?”

“I’ve watched you die three times now. You were hit by a mining car, you fell where I should have killed myself, and you were shot by Crash.”

“Crash?”

“The bot that robbed me, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that these bracelets are sending me back in time. I think. That, or this is all just one big dream after I actually succeeded in killing myself.”

“What? Slow down! You’ve seen me die?”

“Yes. I’m trying to save you. I-I need you.”

“Why?”

“I love you alright! I honestly don’t know how I can live without you anymore, sound surprising?!”

He threw his hands up in the air. It wasn’t that he was getting angry with her, but when she asked him for a reason that he was trying to save her it seemed almost too obvious. Even if he didn’t feel that way he would try to save a friend from a… from many terrible deaths.

“Let me get this straight. You dragged me outside the city to tell me you’ve seen me die a few times, then you tell me you love me practically in the same breath? Luke… how am I supposed to take that?”

“I don’t know… well? If you don’t you might die!”

“You’re saying that the stupid bracelets a broken robot like Z-mo gave you actually harbor the power to go back in time?”

“Right to the moment that I wake up on the day I try to kill myself.”

She put her hand to her face and breathed heavily into it.

“Let’s get one thing straight. Did I confess or did you?”

He wasn’t all that sure why it mattered, but if she got angry and stormed off that may as well be a death sentence.

“We both did. So far I took you on a date twice, and you took me on one once. The first time. You went to the markets up in town and bought some things. Then we went up a little hill and sat at a picnic table and…”

Her eyebrow shot up.

“We kissed and confessed to each other. Then we came down the hill and you… you got hit by the mining car.”

“That was the first time?”

“Yes.”

She sighed heavily.

“You know about a place that I haven’t brought you to yet, so honestly I can only think that you’re telling the truth. I wanted to take you there after offering you a job at Z-mo’s actually.”

“That’s why we go!”

“Oh really. Well. That kind of ruins it, doesn’t it? So if we’re careful we should be alright then, right?”

Luke’s eyes widened and he took hold of her arm.

“We can’t go back to town.”

“What?! How do you expect to survive! Sleep on the ground, eat worms?”

“If we have to, yes.”

“That’s insane. You can’t just hide from your problems.”

With that she began to storm back towards the city. He was losing her, and if she made it back to the city there was no telling what would happen to her. Death was at the top of the list, but what else could happen before that? Broken neck due to some freak accident, then death after terrible amounts of pain in an old understaffed hospital? The only way he could protect her was by keeping her here.

“You can’t go! I can’t see you die again! I’ll break!”

She wrenched her hand free of his grip and took both his shoulders, looking deep into his eyes.

“You’re the one that loves me. Right?”

“...”

“Well?”

“Yes, I love you.”

“Then save me. If you can’t live without me, then save me. Telling me to stay out here forever is as bad a suicide as staying in the city, we’ll simply starve out here in days. If we don’t go back I have a zero percent chance of staying alive, if we do maybe that goes up to one percent. If that not better than having no chance at saving me?”

She took his phone from his pocket and put it in both his hands, cupping hers behind them.

“Call Mr. Setsuna. You can save me, and your sanity.”

She winked, and he began to dial. After a while Mr. Setsuna was back in the clunker, it turns out he simply drove back to the main road and read a book while he waited. Setsuna full expected them to come back didn’t he…

“Not skippin town t’day huh? That’s fine, maybe next time!”

He drove back with a smile, and Lexa massaged a mute Luke’s sore shoulders from the back seat. Seeing this, Setsuna decided to pitch in a comment.

“You two do it in public out there then?”

This was enough to bring both of them back to sanity.

“What!? No!”

“Public sex is gross you old man!”

“Hahaha! Well yous was zonin’ out! Had to getcha back some way!”

He flashed his ticket to the guard, but it was denied. The burly man stood up and took his ticket in both hands. Next, he hit a button and a red light started flashing. Surprised, Mr. Setsuna turned his car off.

“You three! Get out of the car!”

They followed the man’s instructions and he approached them with a scanbot. For some reason the color drained from Setsuna’s face, but he still followed the orders. Pinned against the car, they were scanned one by one by the droid until it stopped on the old man. An X flashed across its face and the burly man walked up once again.

“Myon Sayuri! You are under arrest for creation and disbursement of chemical weapons!”

The old man looked down, saddened. Luke looked at him then back up to the burly man, whose face was raging. Setsuna, or Sayori as the man called him, then walked up to the burly guard, who attempted to put cuffs on him. At that moment, Setsuna smashed both of his hands into a fist and brought it down upon the guard’s head. He yelled at them to run away, it seemed he was trying to give them a chance to escape, but it was already too late. The guard shot Setsuna, who was not finished yet. Bleeding, the old man body slammed the guard, smashing his head against the concrete. The guard stopped moving, and the guard bots began to open fire. This was Luke’s worst nightmare incarnate. He was barely able to open the door to the car before Lexa was hit twice. Shoving her inside, he cursed his bad luck at not being hit by any as the bullets continued to rain upon the junker car.

There was a hole on one of her thighs and one in her stomach. Luke held them to stop the bleeding, but it seemed there was nothing he could do. It was his fate to always fail. He would never save her. He would never save her. He would never-

“Luke. D-don’t give up. Y-you’ll save me! I love you! I really do… ever since the- the first time I saw you trying to kill yourself. You’ll do it! I trust you, no matter how many times you do it over and over and over. Y-you’ll save me, because I’m oh so important, aren’t I?”

She attempted to chuckle, but coughed up blood instead. Luke was stunned into silence. He couldn’t… but no. He could and he would. One last squeeze to his hand a smile reminded him of her first death, but he stayed strong. His body slowly lifted to the ceiling of the car, and in moments it was done.

“She trusts me!”