At Time's End

Chapter 20 - The End, Except Not For Everything

"Eterna?" I called out.

"Yeah?" I heard a response.

"...Why'd you come back here?" She descended down the stairs. A sight I had seen many, many times. "And why now?"

"...I... got homesick."

"So RS 1453 isn't home enough?"

"It's not that it's not home, it's just that here is home as well, for me." I left this unsaid to not cause an argument, but for me, this wasn't home. This was hell, after all we've experienced here. Right now, stripped of all its furniture, it looked especially similar ot the Waiting Room. I think that doubled down on its effect.

"I guess." She seemed tired... "I guess we should talk."

"Yeah, I guess. I... don't think we should stay in this relationship-"

"About that, actually. I... It's just... I feel like.."

"It's about Karmella, isn't it?"

"...Am I that see-through?"

"At times, yes. I know you that well."

"...Well, I guess you already figured it out. You were saying something."

"I was saying that I don't think we should stay in this relationship anymore." This time it was me who sighed. "Like, you're a great person, a great friend, and all that, but... I just... don't feel like it anymore. Like, it's not you it's me, which is so cliche it hurts, but-"

"I get that."

"...thanks. So, it's over?"

"Wait, let me go get something." I heard her opening some kitchen cabinets. "Here." It was the other mug from the trip to Venus. "I get it was expensive to go there and buy this mug, but..." The next thing I heard was glass shattering. "It's over." I looked down to where the mug landed. The small shards of glass coated the floor. It truly was over... my head spun, but I didn't know what for - happiness or sadness.

"I guess we just head back, then?" I managed to spit out.

"Yeah, I guess." We cleaned up the mug, and go tin the trave.

The ride back home was quiet. I don't think a word was said during that time. The only sound was the whirring of the trave itself and the radio. There wasn't anything new, I think I might've heard 'Alice Hawks' in there a couple times, but based on what I heard they just found some evidence linking her to another politician's unnatural death.

When we finally got back to RS 1453, Karmella was waiting in the living room. I looked across the room at her. She seemed to understand immediately. I left the two alone with each other, perhaps a bad choice, and left the room, into my own study. To think or to just be alone, I didn't know.

In the end, I guess I went there to think. I guess now that Eterna is "out of the way" - goodness, it felt horrible to say it that way - there's nothing stopping me anymore. I could just go to Lucy and die a happy person, while she lives on to see the end of the world and dies herself.

But I won't. I won't do that. I don't know why I don't just do that, but I feel drawn to finish this mission. Maybe it's just typical me to see a project to its end, but I think it's just... having grown attached to these idiots - "EXCUSE YOU KARMELLA, WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL M-" - life has thrown on my path.

I guess the reason why I'm here isn't important. Just that I finish this project.

Eterna and Karmella were arguing again, like they usually do - Eterna yells, Karmella provokes. This time, however, it didn't sound very serious - the yelling was still on the same level, however. Have they finally made up? And if they did, does the yelling ever end? Asking for a friend, namely my ears.

Usually, people are sad after they break up. I'm not. Some would say I have a reason to be happy that we broke up - Lucy - but I'm not really happy either. Perhaps it's the looming task of researching the Cure or talking to Eterna during that time that's bringing me down. Perhaps I'm just tired, exhausted from finally ending it.

The thing that caught me off guard - Eterna isn't sad either. She's laughing just the same downstairs. Maybe she's laughing because we ended it. Maybe she's laughing to hide the sadness. I couldn't know, and I certainly couldn't ask either.

I wanted to turn back time to the days before 2728. It was possible for me. Yet I still didn't do it. It's known that time travelers cannot travel very easily to before traumatic events, but I felt something, something deeper than just the trauma of having a patient die.

At the same time, I wanted to turn back time and never go back. Maybe it's just wondering what life would be like had the circumstances changed. I guess we would have been happier if we could have avoided 2728. I could do that, I could turn the watch, but... I'm afraid of that time. 

This story centers on time, and my ability to manipulate it to my will. Usually, this leads to a strong character, who can always travel back and avoid the bad parts of life, but that's not what happens in real life. In real life, you can always travel back - that hasn't changed. Nothing is stopping you... except yourself.

I guess you could always be that superhero character, always removing the bad parts - one by one. But there's something always stopping you from doing that. Fear. Fear of not being able to change things, and having to experience it all over again. And again. And again. And again. It's strange how everyone seems to have this fear, and at the same time, understandable. 

I opened Ignus' computer - my computer. I opened a new file in the software. I deleted it before writing anything. I searched up the previous file for the Immortality Project.

"Ignus Engarde, researcher"

"Ignus Engarde, researcher"

", researcher"

"Jaiden Hawks, researcher"

"Jaiden Hawks, res"

"Jai"

" "

"Ignus Engarde, former researcher

Project taken over by Jaiden Hawks, researcher"

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AN:  a short chapter that i wanted to be longer but it just decided to end where it did and refused to let me do anything about it (i did manage to get it to 1k words though :D)