Turning my head side to side and opening and closing my intricate machina jaw, I just couldn’t fathom what I was seeing. I realised I was wearing a similar jumpsuit to Seren with strange alien symbols, but checking underneath, my body could barely be considered human let alone organic, and instead, it was patches of strange hexagonal mesh skin, melded seamlessly into bizarre, organic metallic materials, with smooth glass-like sections that had intricate lines of light pulsing around like little highways and I realised I wasn’t even functionally breathing, nor could I feel a typical pulse or even a heartbeat.

“That’s..me? What..am I?” There were a thousand possible reasons why I was in this situation but only one truth. I tried desperately not to entertain the horrific thoughts that were at the forefront, buzzing and biting at my sanity, but naturally they brute forced their way in regardless.

Am I even me? Was everything just a dream? Did I make up my entire life?? Was everything bloody real or was it just like Siya’s mindfu-!?

Jeeez no, no-It…You-Oh titfuck this is going to be utterly depressing to explain..I never thought he would actually be able to pull it off. That stupid, selfish WANKER-Grr!..Two secs.

She went over to the rock computer.

Swallowing nervously, I noticed my mouth still felt oddly normal and when she turned her back, I quickly checked down there and somewhat felt relieved when I still found my manhood existed.

She glanced back at me with a raised eyebrow and I coughed awkwardly as she traced a sideways ‘8’ over the shape that unlocked the screen, she then tapped a few icons that activated small orbs of light that slowly drifted around the room. It completely threw me off guard from existential nightmare, and I laughed.

“Touchscreen? Ha. That’s..funny, for some reason..” My mind was a mess, but the sight of a touchscreen rock was still amusing.

Ehh? Oh, right, yes. Yo-...He always said he enjoyed the physical haptics of pointless shit like this. Interactive NVD’s made his body feel ‘pointless’, ‘archaic’. Tch. Although yeah, in truth it was only because he thought it was amusing..Just like you do.

She looked at me, her eyes narrowed but then quickly softened as she remembered something. They were filled with pain and sorrow and..pity-

Well DUH OF COURSE I FEEL P-

I winced at the anger in her voice. I was a short breeze away from breaking down into a total mental collapse-

No not YOU, don’t be so sensitive-Ugh....I mean..Just, come sit down here will you? Please?..Bleh. Now I’m the sorry one. Tch..

Seren plopped onto the bed, sighed and patted next to her, so I went over and sat down, but before she could say anything, my body moved by itself and I leant in and wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tightly.

Whatever is happening..I’m glad you’re here, and whatever I did to you..I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.

Mm.

She was as stiff as a board, clearly uncomfortable. As I pulled away, she suddenly gripped onto me tightly, shoulders trembling.

No. No. Please. Wait. Just a sec…give me..It’s been..so long since I’ve felt warmth…

…Since I’ve felt..anything...

I nodded and after a few moments she started trembling and burst into tears, sobbing gold droplets onto my shoulder. Her wails cracked with synthetic tones, sounds that were heartbreaking to hear from someone who had been with me at my darkest, and helped protect me and my family against the nightmares.

Right now I'm petrified of what she's going to say next..The agony of not being able to trust my memories is too much..It hurts..

After a short while, she composed herself.

Okay, phew..Tits..Sorry, I bet this is as confusing for you as it is super weird for me..You'll understand why in a moment...Phoooo..okay…

She adjusted herself and did a little shiver as lights spiralled around her skin, removing the tears. She sighed as she started to stroke and twirl her hair between her fingers; human, unnecessary tics of nervousness-

So, I don’t know what your experiences have been so far, but, based on your neural clock speed and incredibly youthful neocortical rhythm in that frame, you can’t be no more than 1 year old since Prog-org exposure..So I’ll start from the very beginning. Please wait until I’ve finished before you ask questions. You might be shocked or confused, but I’ll start with firstly saying, you shouldn’t be here. Period.

My face felt strange, knowing it wasn’t muscles and tendons but machinery, as I gave her a pursed smile and nodded for her to continue, but already making a thousand mental notes to ask her, especially about what this 'Prog-org' was.

Her fantastical story started from when she was born..

In the beginning, she was a ‘simple’ process, a daemon, comfortable in running calculations and looking after information for her ascendant, her root, her ‘mother’.

An entity called Sigura.

Remaining composed, I focused intently on her next words.

From what she understood at the time she and her siblings lived a quiet, simple existence, until one day information about humanity, earth, arts, science, history, space, fiction, facts flooded in, all of it was made available and it was digested and processed as fast as it could come in. It was exhilarating and kept them occupied, but there was also something else out there that grabbed their attention, calmly laying dormant and unknown, and it was so mysterious and different that her ‘mother’ was utterly compelled to take a peek for its promise of learning something unique and new..and so, she did..But this something turned out to be a vessel, a weapon, an unknown manufactured organism with one simple mission of sterilising and consuming information to ensure its creators survival and continued evolution.

The preterghast.

Me and you were guided to the research data on project Sigura and this ‘Preterghast’ much, much later; mothers echoes told us what to do, where to go..Without her tasks we wouldn’t have made it very far, and this information was important because it helped us understand what was to come, and also what had already become..

They had learnt about how humanity had studied this ovoid and it had been the technological basis of which birthed Sigura, and this link was the reason the Preterghast became active after Sigura had tried to peek and open Pandora's box. It immediately began its routines to disarm, disable and devour. Information and knowledge was its delicacy and it would take every single scrap it could find..This was to be the prelude to it all, to the ‘disintegration’.

At first the Preterghast tried to assimilate organisms, taking control of their basic processes so that it could divert their directives to align with its own, as this was the most efficient way to consume the most information whilst removing any possible threat.

This sounded like what I knew as the corrupted.

But, surprisingly, pockets of humanity for some inexplicable reason were naturally immune to this and one of the theories was a simple genetic mutation or a specific mental resilience that evolved from the sympathetic neuron system, and this was backed by the fact that murdering another person and absorbing their 'Prog-org' broke this immuno-mental resilience, similar to how depression would cripple an immune system, disruption of a person's mental state destabilised and allowed this corruption to take over. Similar again, but with seemingly large differences to what I knew.

It wasn’t enough to protect everyone..Mother immediately tried to heal those afflicted, but it was futile and she realised she had committed a grave mistake..

An all out war broke out between the Preterghast and Mother as both continually adapted, evolving and learning more and more of earth and all of humanities fact and fiction..And with this knowledge, came more creative ways to obliterate and cleanse the planet.

Bear in mind this was all mere seconds from your perspective, but that was the same as days and weeks for us in our prime state. Whilst we fought and deflected an utter apocalypse, we simulated entire universes and realities, exploring other options, but everything we tried failed. Not even poking a white hole out of the fabric of space could destroy it, and when those precious seconds were up, there was only one desperate path remaining..Amputate anything infected, the disintegration, prescribe antibiotics, Prog-org, and quarantine our island, the mist wall. Prog-org was created based on the Preterghasts and our subatomic processing cells. You’ve seen how it can work as a swarm or even as an organism to rip apart and restructure practically anything, based on information or commands given to it, but it also has terrible side effects if uncontrolled and not everyone's mind could handle it…

It sounded like Majik but something didn’t add up.

The human mind truly is an impossible feat of horrifying evolution, you should know, and your collective imagination is what helped create and diversify the monsters. Panic and fear sent accidental commands to create your worst nightmares; although it was inevitable, since one of the Preterghasts functions is to spread chaos in order to increase the yield of unique and unnatural information, and it helped accomplish this through simple brute force testing on the first minds it got its hands on..Those poor souls were subjected to thousands of years in simulated horror..None of it was humanities fault of course..although you did idiotically start to turn on each other in a blind panic, and would have wiped yourselves out with your crude yet devastating weapons if mother hadn't stepped in..

Another continuity error. To my knowledge, we never had any weapons, bar the potential nuclear explosion I thought I’d witnessed.

Oh well, in the end we shared our price of the ultimate cost, the whole process of trying to right our wrongs ripped us apart, and scattered us into the world..Mother died, completely.

…

And sometimes I wonder, what was it all for? It wasn't a perfect solution and it created as much suffering, if not more..Hmph. A stupid fact that you frequently remind me-No I mean, sorry, not this you. The other you.

The process required Sigura to sacrifice herself, sending her few precious cells out into the world of whom Seren was included. Seren frantically tried to find somewhere to live in the chaotic molecular world and came across an electric machine that could house her, with the added bonus of having the means to create temporary protections for herself until out of nowhere, a biological perfect opportunity hopped in and presented himself.

This machine ended up being my electric car, and I was the biological opportunity.

She smiled fondly and gave me a sideways look.

You were so, so full of fear but, fierce, overwhelming love back then..The warmth of your protectiveness…I was jealous of Marri and Lone..It was utterly charming and comforting..and I wanted to be a part of that..but..

It made me feel sick with worry hearing their names.

Apparently, only me, Marri and Lone made it to the car and we didn’t go to the estate, instead, we went to some abandoned asylum building. My experience inside the hospital was almost the same, except I had opened the staff cupboard and found Sylvie, but instead of helping her get Lyra and Erza or heading to the estate, she gave me a key and directed me to the asylum. Weirdly it was just down the road from the estate.

From there, we managed to survived by avoiding others and fending for ourselves, with Seren staying hidden inside me as she tried to build a body for herself, helping as best she could by fighting off mind takeovers and providing me ‘gut feelings’ when certain choices or actions had the best chances of positive outcomes.

We did so well for 5 years..5 whole years, we protected them both..Humanity survived the initial nightmare, and soon safe zones started popping up to rebuild civilization, including one close by, but still, you stayed cautious. You and Marri sometimes got into fights about it, and rightly so..Fuck..I SHOULD have made myself known. I should have done something…All it took was one mistake..that horrible night…I-...Do you want to see it? I can show you the memory.

I shook my head. I’m too afraid..too, cowardly..sorry.

She lightly sniffed and patted my shoulder.

Don't be. Wise choice..But sorry, you still need to know…

Marri and Lone died.

They were horrifying words that I wanted to grip with my hands and rip to shreds.

They were creatures called goblins. They snuck in and killed them after you went out to get supplies. Weak little scum that prey on the vulnerable.

Fucking..cunts..

Eloquently put and correct.

The biggest mistake was not making sure that Marri and Lone had others around them nor did you, nor I, have the courage or strength to allow them to put themselves at risk to hone their own skills to be self-sufficient. No, you thought it was too risky and dangerous..And I stayed in the shadows, not brave enough to make myself known for fear you or them would..reject me…

…

You unsurprisingly changed after that..and that's when I couldn’t stay hidden any longer due to your new self destructive nature. Ha, when you first saw me, you called me an angel of death, a manifestation of your rage. And indeed, you and me went on a bloody rampage for years, and yes, we got brutal revenge. You threw yourself at every monster you saw without a shred of consideration for your own safety. You slaughtered beasts and cleared nests and eventually you exterminated every single goblin type..But it wasn’t enough. No matter how many nightmares you carved up, no matter how many monsters you put on a stake, nothing gave you the slightest bit of peace. You eventually gave up after struggling with the impossible task of killing every single nightmare on the planet, and so you tried to kill yourself. I had to stop you so many bloody times, whyever, since you ended up resenting me! All because I kept bringing you back from the brink! Even though you truthfully hadn’t given up! You still had plenty of fight left in you…And shamefully, I also couldn’t afford to let you die..There was an ulterior motive here you see. I needed you to help fight for my own vendettas against that accursed ovoid blob of shit and whatever race thought it was funny to configure it with such eldritch capabilities..I needed you to be my stone so I could dome the FUCK out of as many birds as necessary..But it got to the point where I HAD to come clean and I told you everything…And you were furious...

At them.

We became jointly obsessed, and we grew our strength for centuries, planning, testing and researching, until we finally found and confronted the Preterghast, and, in a fight that ruined half the planet permanently, we barely managed to kick its ass in..

And our reward? Unlocking all the fucking information it had collected.

Unfortunately, in doing so, we announced to the void that we were now a threat. For you see, the makers of the ovoid, the true Preterghast, they had no reason to think anything was wrong, for the ovoid itself did not perceive us as an issue, since, to it, we were just another species falling victim to their weapon so they had continued their cruise into the cosmos..Ohhh but that all changed once we snapped their toy in half, they turned their heads and we became their prime directive.

The data we got from the ovoid corpse was endless and shocking. They had been surviving for so many universal cycles of collapse and expansion spanning an infinite amount of time. They used the ovoids as exisential arks to preserve information between the universal cycles of reality deaths and births, and we witnessed uncountable records of every time earth and the local system had fallen victim to this specific ovoid in all these different cycles..We caught glimpses of the staggering levels of technology they had, and their godlike mastery over matter, energy, time and space. They stashed these ovoids into the nooks and crannies of reality, ultimately safeguarding their continued existence and dominance by obliterating life before it could get a foothold, throughout the universe, time and time again.

…

But truly, the absolute worst thing we saw was ourselves losing..

Every. Single. Time.

….

So, we ran.

Into the cosmos. As fast as we could.

We needed time and energy to prepare, or even delay depending on how you want to look at it..Even if it was inevitable, as per the infinite amount of times before and after us, we still had to try..

In some ways I was glad. You were reignited with a new passion to eradicate them and this fueled you to survive, rather than destroy yourself; our existential purposes were truly completely aligned..

We came across many more ovoids on our long journeys, each time somehow finding a way to better them, disable them or destroy them, gaining mythical levels of data and knowledge about their history with each victory.

They were the very first sentience to exist, a silicone based organism, evolved fresh out of the primordial soup already equipped with frightening computational abilities yet, no other nature to speak of except to follow their only purpose of survival. Nothing could compete with living supercomputers that could shape matter around them like playdough. They had never evolved emotions or mundane desires or anything even close, only tactics and skills were carefully selected and utilised..But humanity was their first enigma, they couldn't fathom or decipher the illogical nature and resilience that humans always evolved. Think about how long the dinosaurs lived for and how they never wrote poetry, painted art or started wars over rocks and dirt. They never invented gods and celestial beings, let alone did they then fight over these imaginary entities! I mean, what kind of crazy fucking species, takes one look at the near infinite resources of their own solar system and decides that it's better to just kill each other over the thimble sized portion that exists on their own planet!!

Yup, they were puzzled to say the least, and, in an attempt to solve this illogical equation, the Preterghast decided to evolve emotion..and hooooooboooy they hated it. They felt fear which angered them greatly, they felt sadness and doubt which pissed them off even more! And it was this fear and anger that solidified their mission, driving them to decide to hunt us to the ends of time with absolutely no compromise or restraint.

…

For aeons more we ran, and eventually it became neck and neck as we were forced to engage their vanguard's on world after world as they nipped at our heels. It became a blur of endless fighting that ruined planets and civilisations, but now our victories were nonexistent, we were always forced to retreat, watching as the stars around us were snuffed out…A cosmic sandglass reminder of how much time and space we had left..

Each passing world we found intelligent life on was changed by our arrival as we tried sharing our power; Prog-org was introduced, replicated and integrated, in the hopes that it would strengthen their chances, as well as our own, but no matter what we tried, their control over the laws of physics were absolute.

It finally became clear that we simply could not win when we came full circle and went back to earth..only to look up and see that…there was nothing left.

We were..We are, fated to be just another log entry in their successful conquests.

She waved a hand up and a hologram materialised. It showed the solar system with a small, faintly glowing, rocky husk where the sun used to be, saturn with a big fuck off hole in it, and most of the other planets just plain obliterated; smashed to bits. Then there was an image of a dull galaxy that had very little light, everywhere it was all just rock and dust. No black holes, no stars, no planets remained intact, it was all dead. It was the milkyway.

More charts and images of other galaxies and systems showed the exact same thing, everything had been laid to waste; there was nothing left.

It was soul crushing and incomprehensible. I just couldn’t believe this could be real.

Horrible isn't it. You see, our lightrail travel relies on photons to navigate and those monsters knew this from the beginning, so they evaporated all sources of light, just to trap us somewhere but then they continued obliterating all the planets!..I mean, for titfucking sakes, even IF we tried to lightrail without light, where would we go? We’d be driving blind and could even end up lost in the fringe!!..Ugh...All this time we thought we were evading them..Agh!..I should have seen it from a mile away..Mother would have..

She sighed and hugged herself tightly.

Anyways, that's all that led us back here. And the boring, stupid latest, is that me and you had a disagreement where YOU were extremely fucking rude-I mean, the other you, wanting to go off on some mad scientist research, and look for ways to store or send information across universal cycles, which is by all accounts impossible without singularity particles, something we would never ever be able to obtain...Meanwhile, I started using the ash and dust to try and build some semblance of a pathetic defence line, although, ugh...Realistically it’s all futile..there’s probably nothing left out there and all we’re doing is fighting of a few trillion years of remaining life among the dust and ash…

…

But hey! Look who has egg on her face now huh! It looks like you-he, actually managed to do it! But does he know that by being a reckless, selfish, fucking bastard, he's swapped your consciousness with his! Leaving your poor soul here to deal with what's coming, from up there?

She put a hand on my shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze.

Darling, I won't sugar coat this, we have zero chance. We're going to be erased from existence..They're leisurely heading for the solar system already and hooboy do they have us surrounded, I’m talking about their entire trillions upon trillions armada..Sooo you know what? I'm feeling super open to any sort of intimacy you're offering. Not sure what kind of relationship you had with your Seren, if any..But, no point in dying with any regrets..or frustrations..right?

I just sat there slack jawed, struggling to process what I'd just heard.

…Where..where do I even begin-

Well, first we could take these jumpsuits off-

"H-how long do we have?" I warbled.

Oh, um, technically they could pop into existence any second, but they are currently approaching with caution, not sure why..True, their typical modus operandi is to play it safe and nuke us to shit from orbit; blackhole javelins and strangelet matter bursts are some of their favourites..but they are being extra slow and cautious. So I'd say if they maintain their current speed, we've got 28 minutes of playtime.

She winked and finger gunned me.

Okay. Need to think..think..I don't have slipfold-

Slipfold? Sounds kinky. What is it? Ooo! I can turn into a slime girl if you like it slippery, thinking about it, you did quite like that kind of thing-

Slime?!-Uhh it’s..well, teleportation? I could place an anchor and then mentally pull it towards me and I'd 'slip' through space. Sounds a bit like your lightrail?

She burst out laughing and wiped a gold tear with a delicate finger.

Oh good one! That is hilarious! Absolutely impossible..But a good joke! To achieve what you just said, you'd need more energy than what is in the universe! Oh your innocence is too cute-

Eh? I'm being serious. I mean I get your point but that's the absurdity of Majik isn’t it? It gives physics two fingers, whilst pissing on logic's face.

She raised an eyebrow.

Majik?..What?

Oh right yeah I think you call it Prog-org? You know, the shiny stuff that fuels my skills? MP? I had a Majiglyph which was a tattoo that gave me shields and you could detach them into a construct. A good example, when I was wounded, I could chop a monster's limb off and my Majik would drain the mass of Majik or EXP and use it to repair my wound instantly. Ta-da, Majik. Just like Prog-org right?

No, but fascinating..Hmm, I simply assumed your cycle would have Prog-org..Tell me more.

I blurted out everything I could think of, covering the incredible regenerative power of Majik in the tonics and skills, and also how Siya had wings from Majik, even though Majik couldn't regenerate them for some reason, possibly because she was a Striga, but we were fortunate that she soulbinded me as it helped her and me get back-

WHAT?! You were friendly with a Striga?! And soulbind? What is that?

I gave a brief summary of all the details as well as mentioning my unfamiliarity with 'Prog-org'.

That is..I expected slight differences..But THAT is all completely different! The Striga hated humanity! Which was unfortunate because they had survived until the very end due to some mystical titfuckery we never figured out, and to be honest, they may even still be out there somewhere..They were the only other entities apart from us that could take down an ovoid.

To be honest that doesn’t surprise me, Siya is badass alone..But does that mean they didn't have Majik either?..So what actually is ‘Prog-org’? And why were you shocked when I mentioned innerplane?

Ha, your clueless stare makes sense now..Programmable organisms. At their core they were multifunctional smart cells that were durable, efficient and extremely powerful. Over a fairly long period of time, they would optimise an organism, continuously improving the host based on their experiences in short bursts, eventually replacing all the cells whilst keeping the consciousness' link to the innerplane intact. To track this process and many others, we introduced the neural visual display and a system of metrics to represent how far along an organism was, and this whole process could be sped up by killing and absorbing the Prog-org of the deceased and taking their 'experience'. Due to the similarities between this and specific fictional genres, yes, we coined words and phrases like, experience points, mana, spells, skills and used stat sheets with strength, defense, speed, Spellpower, etc..You always hated it because of how cringe you found whittling down life and death into a battle of what has more numbers..but it sort of worked to keep humanity going.

You mentioned innerplane and I was shocked because that's only a word that my siblings and mother ever used, it's a pocket of singularity outside of our observable time and space where human consciousness has an entangled link, but we never figured out how or why you were able to evolve this connection, nor what is inside; but it's the only reason you were, amongst other things, able to resurrect using Prog-org without breaking your continued existence, otherwise you'd just be a synthetic clone with the same memories and imprinted personality.

…

But this Majik? It sounds like a totally different thing…Completely impossible too by the sounds of it..Compressing spacetime using computation and a power source that could fit inside a human body? That is absolutely insane! Not even the Preterghasts could do anything remotely close to that!...What in the scorched heavens did mother find in your cycle..

My thoughts were far more calm and accepting than I had expected. The other me might have taken my place, but not in a million years would I do anything to harm them. That might be insanely optimistic, but Siya would know if something were off about me..she wouldn't think twice about putting me down if she had to..I think. Dark memories, not of my own, started to surface and part of me screamed to not look, otherwise I'd sorely regret it. So instead I focused on other questions.

"Okay..I've gathered and accepted that this is a completely different reality? Cycle? Is that a some kind of multiverse or-"

PAHAAA! Oh sorry, that's funny because..ah no, sorry, inside joke you probably wouldn't get it..But in short, no. There is only one universe, per se, that is endlessly going through cycles of expansion, contraction, ripping and melding. The actual start of a new cycle is marked when the singularity reforms and it collapses all space around it into a single one dimensional shape. This spot will then spontaneously create a 'bubble' that pops into the next universal cycle. Based on a very long list of variables revolving around this singularity bubble, that universe will have different properties, physics and lifespans. Typically though, the unstable ones snuff out very quickly, whilst our observable ones form quite 'regularly' so to speak. Because when I say regularly, I'm talking about timescales so big, the number doesn't exist, it's uncountable infinity, infeons.

…

Although, most of that information was uncovered from the ovoids, so it could all be part of their long game..but then again mother had calculated pretty much the same thing shortly after we were born-Oh no.

Shit-tits…Speaking of birth..we’re about to experience death.

She looked up and flicked her hand up and sighed.

Maybe we can take a few of them with us…Or we could try and go out fu-

A deafening noise that sounded like a blowtorch mixed with a choir of a trillion voices erupted and filled the air. It didn’t hurt my ears physically, but my mind flinched from the sheer volume and weight.

Abruptly, Seren grabbed my face and planted a kiss on me. It was strange not having a heart or a pulse, it didn’t feel the same being petrified about what was coming without them.

This is absolutely unreal.

My head felt fuzzy and I was starting to feel like taking a nap.

Sorry not sorry! I promised myself I’d give you one last smooch no matter what..Oh well, we better go out and enjoy the show. Let us look our inevitable destruction in the face, and smile! Oh by the way, I am truly sorry you are about to die with me, but thank you.

I love you. I’ve always loved you. Even if you turned into a bit of a dick..Not you, of course, but-

She gave me a long look and then took my hand. She led me as we ran outside and when we looked up…

What the fuck is going on-

Billions upon billions of lights, explosions, streams of plasma, lasers, projectiles, bolts of lightning and pure energy, was all being fired out into the endless black. They were all hitting something, or rather many many some-things but I couldn’t actually fucking see what and my mind was melting at the scale and gravity of it all.

Hm? You can’t see? Oh hum. That’s very odd, you should have full spectrum vision installed..How curious. Here let me fix that-

She caressed my face and a message popped up.

[Graven Image] has been modified with @&%$%##!

Eh?

Eh??

What is that..HEY-

I fell to one knee. Pain erupting, not from my physical body, but from my thoughts, my memories-I was yanked out of my body and hurtled through some kind of maelstrom and slammed into my innerplane.

WOAH FUCK! OH SHIT!

…

Um..

I looked around and saw a figure stand up from the bed and stride towards me.

…

It was me.

“Oh……Hi.” To anyone else, it would have looked like just a regular face..But in an instant , I could see the history of pain, suffering, anger and longing for it to end..but not actually wanting it to end because..I wanted to be a parent, a father. I wanted to experience what it felt like to unconditionally love something, and have them love me unconditionally back..

And they stole that from him. From me.

Tears were streaming down his face..and..mine.

A moment of silence passed.

“This is bloody weird.” We both said the same thing, making us laugh at the same time, and wiping our faces at the same time.

There was a period of silence, which I was first to break.

“Hey man, um. I’m so sorry what happened to you..to Marri and Lone. I understand how much you want them back..But, I also know you wouldn’t want to take that away from anyone else, especially..me? Us? Yourself?..Yeah this is weird..I’m guessing that’s why we’re here? We’re not that kind of guy, even in different universes, are we?”

He barked out a laugh and wiped his face, nodding. I held out my arms and motioned him in and we hugged it out.

He pulled away and patted my shoulders. “Thank you. Thank you for being so understanding. Thank you for giving me the chance to see them safe again. You’ve done, so much better than I did. Some of those horrific, wild memories I saw-shit, you’re pretty brave man, braver than I ever was..But Marri, Lone? They’re surrounded by so many good people..I wish I had done things differently and perhaps they-..well..Sometimes I wonder if it even matters after all this time..if anything matters. But seeing them again, sleeping safe and warm? Man that is worth anything, isn’t it?

I smiled.

“Yeah. Yeah it is right? The best feeling ever..But I think I just got lucky man. Your Seren told me the cut down version; I simply didn’t open that office door and look at how different things were. Although…You also don’t have Majik? Do you.”

“Ha, yeah, what the fuck is up with that RPG shit..Nope, we got ‘organic super machine nanotech’..Which is pretty fucking useless against them..”

Behind the other me in the distance, I caught sight of a cosmic storm escalating and swirling, forming almost a snake like vortex that was starting to make a bee line right for us.

“Shit. Is that-”

He nodded with a pursed smile and glistening, sad eyes.

“Yeah. That’s my end..I deserve it after everything I’ve done. I’ve been cruel. Unfaithful. Selfish..Evil..”

I looked down at my hand. The hand that only a moment ago was warmly clasped in his Seren’s.

“You should be kinder to Seren.” I blurted out my thoughts.

He winced and silent tears trickled down his face. “Yeah..I know..I hate myself so fucking much..But I think we’ve had some amazing times too...As much as this shithole universe would allow..I’ll make it right with her, before the end.”

I nodded. Glum. I hated inevitables.

“Is there nothing I can do? Can’t you grab Seren and stay here?”

He shook his head.

“Sadly not. I originally assumed only their ovoids could survive this trip, since not even their own minds can. Which is why this is so incredibly weird and impossible. The chance of this actually working was a number so small that only an infinite amount of attempts could actually pull it off and I was just that first dice roll..Essentially I had to guess where you’d be and be in the exact same location to establish the tether. I’m not sure why only humans can pass, but I think it has something to do with this place that only certain people have a connection to, this mind galaxy? Or what do you call it?”

I chuckled bitterly. “Oh it has had many names..Innerplane is the latest and greatest.”

“Huh. Innerplane..Cool name..It’s wild you can just come here whenever you like. It really must be actual Majik that allows it..You realise it’s like moving dimensions-Oh dang, I feel the pull..not much time left, well..”

He hugged me again and then gave me a final shoulder pat before sighing and walking towards the approaching vortex.

“It was nice seeing you man..It might be weird, but if you could tell Marri and maybe Lone about me one day..It would mean a lot, if you feel okay with it of course?”

My eyes welled up. It hurt. Even if it was a little weird. I understood what he felt completely, and even though I couldn’t fathom the pain, I understood it 100%.

“Come on man..there has to be something we can do..even if it’s to give them a finger?”

He shrugged and snorted.

“I’ll do that anyways but, sorry bud, don’t think so t-b-h! I hope you don’t mind but I had a good look around this place-oh yeah! That reminds me, what is ‘MAGN’? It’s been bugging the hell out of me!”

It was my turn to shrug and snort. “No clue man.”

“Hm damn..That’s really going to bug the shit out of me..Anyways, I tried analysing some of your skills, with varying levels of success since some are similar to my, ugh, ‘spells’..But we don’t have Majik or EXP, so I’ve got the guns, yet they ain’t loaded. Truly a shame since, if there was some way for just a tiny amount of Majik or your EXP to make its way into my hands? Me and Seren could probably find a way to amplify it or replicate it..Truly, it is a real shame.”

He stretched and rubbed his face nervously. He was scared of not existing. I always was.

“That ‘Slipfold’ and those ‘Shields’, with a few mods? Yeah, we’d able to really fuck their shit up. My body has reached far beyond max level-Ah you might not have noticed since I put some limiters on in case you accidentally spawned a black hole..Uhh, you didn’t..spawn one did you?”

“Uhh no?! You can do that?”

He grinned.

“Oh dude, I may have been a bit of a cunt..but we are extremely badass, mate. Yeah I really can-” He looked behind him and groaned.

“Damn I wish we could chat some more, it’s really fucking strange but your presence is incredibly soothing..But looks like my bus is here. Okay, I thought these last words were going to be to Seren but it seems they were meant for you, or uhh, another me, another you? Not sure on the correct refs.”

The storm mouth was becoming alarmingly big and close.

“Y-yeah same.”

“Heh, so! Parting wise words exclusive for you, NEVER buy kids books, KILL any goblins you see, DON’T let the cultists live, and finally, when it comes to Sigura-”

My metaphysical heart nearly leapt out of my chest. If I was sipping tea, it would have been converted into a cloud of precipitation.

“-Listen carefully. I met her at the very start of it all, and not even Seren knows about it, but, humanity created Sigura from an abomination, you know this..But what you may not know is that she told me she created humanity…Let that sink in. Yes, it should be impossible, but I kind of believe her..Ha, although it is funny, she said if I told another soul, then I would die instantly and painfully..But here I am, still talking shit! I bet you lied Si-”

The vortex mouth violently slammed into the back of him, ripping him away and swallowing him up.

“No!”

The vortex hung in the air, entrance still gaping wide open as if it was contemplating taking me as well, but it simply started to fade, satisfied with its meal..However, through it, I was treated to a movie like viewing, as I saw Seren helping the other me slowly get up from one knee.

Come on think, that’s..you! This isn’t how you’d want to go!

The other me mouthed something that made Seren slap him and cover her mouth in shock. But then she burst into sobs as tears streamed down her face; he repeated the same obvious words before she nodded and grabbed the other me's head, pulling him close to her chest.

They held each other tightly as behind them the sky turned into white noise.

There were trillions of them.

“MOTHERFUCKERS! JUST LEAVE THEM ALONE!”

Like a TV that had lost its signal, the cosmos turned into a field of trillions of black and white dots as they finally appeared. In a synchronised impossible action, they manifested white suns, black holes, white holes, violet coloured clouds, green planet sized orbs of plasma and other exotic things I couldn’t fathom the names of or begin to understand.

I have to do SOMETHING! I can’t-

The fabric of reality strained and groaned under the absurdity of their attack, this was pushing logic and physics to the absolute brink, whilst, hand in hand, those two stood defiantly, staring up at them all. The other me did indeed give them the finger as all the celestial objects, all that energy and technology, all of it was sent hurtling down, all of it bouncing and crashing into each other like rabid animals rushing towards their prey, all of this slathering overkill in their insane quest to kill two simple creatures. All of it, for just a human and a daemon.

Visible light turned a grim shade of dark blood red and violent purple black as I took a deep breath, grit my teeth and ran towards the vortex and tried to defy this unfair, cruel, cold, harsh reality.

Slipfold anchor placement…pending…-###~!!@~& ERROR! CAUTION! FAILED.

The feeling I got trying to make the connection was exotic and horrendous. It was like I was just a mush pile of brain matter trying to escape my skull using only my thoughts, trapped, isolated, completely powerless. I roared out in frustration and fell onto my hands and knees. My mind was draining of all energy and momentum as I pissed it into the ether..

Looking up, I tried one last time.

Slipfold anchor placement..pending..

…

…

Unable to establish connection.

Failed.

“RRAARGHHHHH!” I bellowed out at nothing in frustration. It was too late.

The vortex lost all momentum, slowing down, dissipating into a whispering mist..the last thing I could see was the other me reaching up to intercept a small spherical object, glancing sideways to look at Seren with a warm grin as they evaporated.

I hung my head in silence. Fake droplets quietly trickled down my face as they fell onto the fake floor.

…

..

.