“We know you will try again and again, but the truth is, you are just a man, a desperate man who wants to set things right. Listen to us, we have shown you the way, why do you rebel against us? Why do you want things to happen your way? Do you enjoy watching them suffer? Your arrogance causes this end, every cycle. This cycle is no different, slowly and surely it will all come to an end like it always does!”

The Overseer hears a strange voice in his sleep, but he is familiar with this voice, after listening to it he starts saying in his sleep, “No! Please, I will find a way, this time will be different! I swear!” and suddenly wakes up. He finds Bill and Issac looking at him with confused gazes. He looks around and sees David and Anna shaking severely. He gets up and asks, “How long was I out?” Bill replies, “About 20 minutes or so.”

He moves towards David and says, “I pulled them out too quickly, their brains still don’t know if this is a dream or reality…wait.” The Overseer inserts his hand in his pocket and takes out two large rounded pills and puts them in their mouths. As they swallow the pills both of them close their eyes and fall asleep instantly. “The pills will help them get out of this trance they are in. I’ll take them back to the apartment. I’ll contact soon and we’ll discuss our next steps.”

The Overseer teleports to the apartment and puts them both on the same bed one by one. He looks at them and says, “Things are different than before, I must talk to Mary she should have found a solution by now, this cycle seems to be at an end too. I don’t have any time left!” before leaving the apartment he keeps a digital recorder near David with a note saying, “Listen to me!”

He teleports to Mary’s living room and looks at her and Peter in the garden through the glass door, talking and laughing, they seem to be in a different world. He texts her and when she receives it, she looks behind and finds him standing inside the house. She asks Peter to get back to his painting as she goes inside the house.

Once inside the Overseer says to her, “I think it’s time, did you find a solution?” she gives him a worrying look and says, “Let’s go inside my office, we can talk there in detail.” They both head inside the office and he starts looking at the holo-screens restlessly. She looks at him and says, “Take a seat, I’ll explain everything.”

He sits on a chair and she starts to tell him about the results, “The supercomputer was too slow, so I used a quantum computer to simulate all the events, the outcomes are all the same. Reed will turn on the normalizer and the cycle will begin again, this is your one-billionth try and still, the outcome will be the same. However, I did find out something else which might help.”

“I analyzed the known parallel universes and found something odd in one of them. It is Issac’s universe, the one we call V01D, it was supposed to be the original parent universe of the other ones, even ours but look at it now.”

The Overseer looks at the holo-screen and sees that V01D is not connected to any other universe, “It has no connection with the other universes, but why?” she explains, “It’s because I discovered chronotons, the day I discover time travel is the day the connection between V01D and the other universes starts to weaken. After you and Reed meddle with other universes, this universe becomes the parent of all the other ones, leaving V01D all alone!”

He looks at her and says excitedly, “They were right, V01D is the real one, the fail-safe, this universe, and its children are all illegitimate clones of the original one. V01D is the original one! That’s why I can never win, your universe is a paradox Mary and so are its children!” Mary uses the holo-screen and says in a grim tone, “It’s not only that, at the same time I discovered time travel something happened in Issac’s universe too, his wife died.”

“These events are intertwined, so to fix our universe we need to stop that from happening in V01D! I know you tried to kill me to stop time travel from being discovered, but that caused more parallel universes to be born and in some of them I did discover it again! If you try to stop me, you’ll be in an infinite cycle because my discovery is the effect while his wife’s death is the cause.”

“If there is no cause then there is no effect. We should ask Issac what happened on December 12th, 2008. It’s the event connected to my discovery.”

The Overseer starts pacing left and right, “But...but is he ready? To know about all of this, it’s too much to take in at once!” she holds the pacing Overseer from the shoulders and says, “We don’t need to tell him all the details, we’ll just ask him about his wife’s accident!” he holds her hand and says, “But it’s not that simple to fix, we cannot let Issac go back and save his wife because it’ll cause more complications. One person cannot exist as two different entities in the same universe...and...this could also put my existence in jeopardy! You know why I can’t change things in V01D right?”

She sighs, “Does that mean, we wait for the end of this cycle and hope that you do the things we discussed in the next one?” The Overseer says confidently, “That’s the only solution, if we decide to change events from the past, even in V01D; things may get even more fucked up! I have failed million times, what’s one more failure? For now, we must make sure no further complications occur. We need to make sure that Reed constructs the normalizer without much delay!”

Mary nods and asks, “So, are you going to bring Issac right now?” the Overseer replies after a long pause, “No, I need to meet Reed first. I must be sure that he is committed to the normalizer.”

“Thank you, Mary, for trusting me and believing in my story. No one would have believed and helped me. I regret that for the majority of my tries, I never took your help. All this useless labor could have been avoided!” she nods at him and smiles, “I did this because I feel like I am the one equally responsible for this mess, what’s done is done though. Let’s hope the cycle ends and the universe goes back to what it was originally supposed to be! What time wanted it to be!”

He seems confused by her response and asks, “But aren’t you sad or scared? All that anyone has ever done in their life here, is nothing in the end. This world and the others connected to it are all wrong, they shouldn’t exist. When this cycle ends and hopefully I don’t lose to my feelings once again, there will be no Mary, Reed, Anna, and Peter. No one will remember you, and no one will care.”

“Doesn’t this put you in an existential crisis?” she just smiles and replies, “I was in existential crisis when you first told me about this and the other stuff. I felt so lost and alone, but then I saw my family’s photos. I and Peter were young and in love, then Reed came into our lives and soon Anna followed. I think I have lived the best life anyone would’ve asked for. Even if this world amounts to nothing, I am happy that I lived all these moments and they have made me who I am!”

He looked at her smile, it was so pure and real. At that moment he knew that she had accepted her fate. Before leaving to meet Reed he said to her, “I just hope everyone else reacts the way you did when we tell them about the reality of this world and the things I have done. Although, I know a few who would try to complicate things.”

She chuckles and asks, “Anna and David?” he replies, “No, just David. He’ll go crazy, he always does. It’s up to Anna to put some sense into him. I’ll talk to her soon too.”

David wakes up and finds Anna’s arm on his chest, he looks to his right and finds her deep in sleep. For a few moments he keeps looking at her, admiring her beauty, time feels like it has stopped. He reaches out with his hand to touch her face, but before he does, she opens her eyes, and he freezes.

She looks at him with half-open eyes but soon opens them fully, embarrassingly she asks “Umm...how did we get here, and why are we sleeping in the same bed?” he replies, “I have no idea, I’m just as lost as you are. I remember being in a white room with that psycho. I remember he tortured me and then he burned you, I remember the Overseer got us out, that part is fuzzy though, and after that…I don’t remember much, don’t remember how we got here.”

She processes what he said and replies in a mellow voice, “Do you love me, David? You seem to have skipped that part.” he widens his eyes at her and his cheeks start to change color, he notices her arm still on his chest and then sees her smile at him, he gulps, and before he could say anything she says, “Your heartbeat is telling me everything, David!”

He holds her hand and says, “You know, I thought we would never be able to escape from Dorian. In the white room, I wished that before I die, we could have a moment like this. Away from all the bullshit, alone, in each other’s arms. Who knew my last wish would be granted after we went through hell. Yes, I...I love you Anna and you are the only right thing in this twisted world.”

She looks at him and smiles, her eyes glossed with tears that didn’t yet slide down her cheeks, she unhesitatingly hugs him tight and hides her face in his chest. The only place that gave her comfort right now. He pushes her away and as she looks at him, he kisses her and she kisses him back.

He looks deep into her eyes as if he is gazing inside her soul and says, “You are the only person left who is important to me, the shit we’ve been through I’ll kill time itself if it tries to take you away from me!”

She listens to him and measures the intensity with which David loves her. After staying with him for a few moments, she gets up from the bed and goes outside the room while David lays on the bed looking at the ceiling, suddenly he looks at his left and sees a digital recorder with a note saying, “Listen to me!” he calls Anna who comes to him with a bag of chips and he presses the play button.

The Overseer teleports to Reed’s office and finds it empty. He starts moving towards the secret room but Reed quickly comes out of it and startles. “Fuck! You are gonna kill me with a heart attack, the way you just teleport at any time!” taking a deep breath to calm his nerves he continues, “Anyways, I have some very important things to discuss, take a seat.” the Overseer sits on a chair and Reed takes a seat near him.

“First of all, a facility of mine was just blown to pieces by God knows who. The incident was never mentioned anywhere in the flow chart you gave me. Secondly, the normalizer is 30% done, it is being developed in that new research facility under construction. Construction on the normalizer is stopped as of now. I told the engineers that we’ll resume the work once the facility is completely constr-” he cuts him off and says, “Good progress, soon you will achieve annexation in all the known parallel universes, and I will find a way back to my universe!”

He gets up and before he leaves Reed shouts, “Wait, for a man who has all the time in the world, you sure are always in a hurry. I have to ask you a few things!” the Overseer looks at him and sits on the chair once again. “You remember Hunter and Harbinger? My agents, who helped with the initial annexation attempts? Harbinger died a long time ago, but Hunter went missing after we sent him to P: 210. Later I found out that he was one of the perpetrators who stole the scanner.”

“Dorian tracked him down and was getting answers from him in the facility that blew up, tell me...did you know about Hunter’s betrayal or the facility’s fate? Did you know about Dorian’s demise?”

The Overseer’s response is quite cold, “No! I didn’t, sometimes anomalies like these can occur in the flow of time, nothing is perfect, right? But I have a serious question for you Reed. Do you trust me completely?” he replies sarcastically, “Of course I do, how could you even doubt me!” the Overseer gets up from his chair and says, “There are some things which I know will happen to me.”

He points towards a camera in the corner of his office. “Like for instance that camera. I know you are scanning me to see my future, to be sure if I can be trusted. I don’t mind because your scanner is gonna return a black screen after scanning me. Because I don’t belong here and I make my own future!”

Reed is embarrassed and says unapologetically, “I’m sorry, I have been going through a lot, these 3 weeks have been frustrating, to say the least. I just felt that you were betraying me, so pardon my cautiousness!”

Anna sits near David, both of them anxious about what the recorder might hold. She holds his hand as the recording starts playing, it’s an unfamiliar feminine voice to her ears but his expressions tell her that he knows whose voice it is in the recordings, “It’s my...mother...these are her recordings!” he says in an excited tone.

“Ok...is this thing recording, let me just look at the screen...yeah, it’s recording. Ok, so my name is Olivia and these recordings are for my son David. Your father tells me that he’ll give you these recordings in the future when the time is right. Till then they’ll be with him.”

Her tone changes and she seems to be crying, “David, honey...I’ll miss you...and I can’t get over the fact that I won’t be there for you in the future. I won’t see you grow up, I won’t see you turning into the handsome man you are, but your father. He assures me that he’ll take good care of you.”

“She sniffles and clears her throat, “ I met him on a street near Grab-a-grub, I had lost my gold brooch which was a family heirloom.”

“I was in distress and was looking for it anxiously. I hadn’t noticed him looking at me, but he had his eyes on me. I had almost given up, but he came from behind and said, “Excuse me miss, is this what you are looking for?” and there it was in his hands. I took it from him and he said to me, “The brooch’s beauty pales in comparison to yours.” I know it was a pretty cheesy pickup line. But he had succeeded in getting my attention.”

“Soon I found him everywhere I went, it was surely a coincidence, I thought at first. In a few weeks that came to pass, I met him every day. It almost became a habit and soon we both were in love. One day he met me in a fancy hotel, it was the day I agreed to marry him. The day was special because that’s when he told me that he was not from this universe.”

“I thought he was joking, but he made a deal with me. He said that if he showed me the future, I’ll have to marry him. I started laughing at him and mocked him for the childish thing he just said, but he wasn’t laughing. I could see it in his eyes, he was dead serious. I agreed and so we went back to my house, there he held my hand and started doing something on his watch. In an instant, we teleported to a different time.”

“The teleportation made me dizzy, but he held me on my feet. When I came back to my senses I saw the Hawkesbay of the year 2043. I could see a huge tower in the city.”

“Hovering cars, robots cleaning the streets, it was a magical world to me. I was awestruck and had my eyes wide open. He snapped his fingers in front of me and I smiled at him, “Oh God! This is the future?” he nodded at me and pointed at a diner, it was Grab-a-Grub. “Come I’ll show you someone special!” he said to me and we both went to the diner.”

“We ordered some coffee, as we waited for that ‘someone’ to come. I was sipping my coffee when a handsome man came through the doors, there was quite a crowd in the diner at that time so he didn’t notice us. He came in with a beautiful girl, she wore glasses and had beautiful black hair, anyone could tell by looking at them that they were in love! Your father pointed towards him and said, “That right there is David, he is our son and the woman with him is his wife, her name is Anna.”

“I was overjoyed by watching you both together, I wanted to meet and hug you both, but that wasn’t going to happen. His watch started to beep and he got up from the table and took me outside while avoiding you both. He held my hand and teleported us back to my house, we had traveled back to the present. I looked at him and without further questions told him that I will marry him.”

“But he never told me that I was going to die at that time. He told me about it when you were born. I was not going to be there to watch those moments, I was going to die of breast cancer.”

“After your birth, he started to come home once every month, he said he was busy fixing the timelines and that marrying me was a part of the plan. He needed to marry me to bring you into this world so that he could use you as a tool that would help him in achieving his goal.”

“The future he showed me wasn’t the real one, it was some other universe where he had experimented with different decisions. I felt cheated and betrayed, but I couldn’t change anything. The decisions I had made, my fate was already sealed.”

The first recording stops and David holds his head, his eyes full of hatred, Anna could see the anger that had built up in him, “What the fuck! He was playing with my mother, he left us alone. He didn’t care to look back at her when she was dying! What the fuck kind of a human being is he? Look at me, I had every tool to go back and talk to my mother, to change the past and build a better future for myself, but I kept dancing to his tune.”

“He couldn’t even tell me that he is my father, he just used me. He used all of us! For what? To fuck with Reed’s plans? To help him in achieving his own goals, which he didn’t even tell me? We were just pawns on his board, and now he gives me these recordings! It’s all a fucking game to him, our lives, our emotions, they are a joke to him. We are of value only when we are of use!”

Tears start flowing from his eyes, “She died all alone, he deceived her by showing her the future of P: 210. It’s enough, I was convincing myself to trust him. But now, I don’t give a shit about him or Reed, they can both burn in hell.” Anna hugs him and tries to console him, “Why would he do this? Never mind, I don’t care about that now. I think we should tell the others about this! He must pay for his crimes!”

She looks at the recorder and there is one more recording on it. She shows it to him and he plays it. In this recording her voice is weak and she seems to struggle when speaking, he pauses and looks at Anna, “Her voice...she seems weak and sick.” she holds his face and says, “You don’t have to listen to this, I think you have heard enough!” but he resumes the recording.

Olivia coughs and clears her throat, “So...so the doctors say that...I should be saying my goodbyes to my loved ones...but I don’t have many. Guess I’ll just...record myself for my son...David...David...my life is coming to an end...but you...you have a whole life ahead of you...your father will take good care of you, he promised...he was here a few moments ago...he looks so old and weak...I guess...I guess time travel has affected his health...he is also a lot more emotionless than before...I don’t know what’s going on in his mind”

“It’s fine though...I will not hate him...because...” she coughs and takes a deep breath, while David listens quietly with tears in his eyes, “Because he gave me a son like you...I remember the last time I tucked you in your bed...sorry honey...mom won’t be there to get you ready for school...or to see you setting up your business...I won’t be there to see Anna...I still remember her beautiful hair...I remember being a little jealous of her...” she coughs again and breaks down.

David listening to this also starts crying like a baby, Anna can’t hold her tears back too and hugs him. “Listen...carefully David...you have a stepbrother...his name is Bill...your father told me about him...you both are going to be an important part of his plan...the plans...he never tells us...I don’t know what his end goals are...but he promised...promised he’ll make everything alright...”

She stops talking and starts breathing heavily, the ECG starts beeping rapidly and after a few moments, the long static tone of death follows. David and Anna can hear the doctors and nurses rushing in and after a few seconds, the recording stops.

Crying in pain and despair he says to Anna, “I’ll...I’ll never forgive him...I’ll kill him! He will pay for what he did to my mother...he will pay for his sins!” she hugs him and tries to comfort him, “He will...he will...we need to sit down and think...think of our next steps...all of us, let’s go back to the safe house and give them the recorder. They have to know about this!”

The Overseer stands at the top of MSAT tower, looking at the neon glow of the city he takes a deep breath and looks at his enhancer. “Looks like David has heard the recordings of his mother, despite that one event everything else seems to be going exactly like before. Ah! I always hate this part, justifying my actions, telling them my story from the start. It brings back painful memories and some cynical ones too.”

He looks at his enhancer and sees the time when they will arrive at the safe house. “Looks like I still have some time, I’ll let them set the atmosphere and then make an entry with a bang!”