Chapter Text
Time.
Time is a wonder. A mystical cog in the wonderful workings of the universe. A power beyond mortal comprehension, defining every little thing in the universe. A force so powerful that humans have given it even further meaning by using it to measure their own existence, a shackle forever placed into our veins by our forefathers.
I always wondered, what would it be like to control time? To do what no mortal could do. An ability reserved for Gods of myths.
Then, I wondered, what if Gods weren’t myths?
That’s how it all began. My search for the only item that could allow me to control the primordial forces found in this universe.
Who knew my search would start in my own house? Notes left behind by my grandpa. Notes, searching for the possibility of the exact thing I wanted. Looks like I got it from someone. Nonetheless, the notes spoke of an older pocket watch, capable of controlling time. I needed it. But it was guarded. Guarded by a Warden.
So I just needed to avoid the Warden.
My mission was long and arduous. I’d have to follow so many paths, create and invent so many new things, and dance through time before I could ever dream of achieving my goals. It wasn’t easy. Years upon years, decades upon decades. I thought I’d never even get the preliminary research done before I’d run out of my time. Eventually, I found what I needed to do.
The Warden kept the watch safeguarded amidst the vaults of time. The only way in was through her. Except, what she didn’t realize is that she left a backdoor open. It’d be dangerous, but I could make it. Once inside, I’d have to then navigate the currents of time, between rooms of different possibilities and dangerous artifacts. Some were far too dangerous for me to mess with, while others weren’t worth my time. Especially since I knew what none of them did.
After reaching the room with the watch, I’d have to input a series of difficult codes, all by memory since I couldn’t bring anything more than a suit made specifically to allow my entry. After inputting the codes, I’d then have to do a DNA scan, and it would only accept the Warden’s DNA. That meant stealing their DNA. That had to be the single most stressful part of it all.
Of course, I did it without issue. At least, not any major ones.
After acquiring the DNA, I’d put it into the receptacle and be allowed inside. On the inside was a scanning tunnel. Only certain people were allowed in. While mulling over this part of the series, a latin friend of mine reached out to offer their help. Somehow, they were able to solve that issue for me. I didn’t ask. Not my business.
Finally, after getting through the tunnel, I’d be left with a single obstacle. A pressure plate. If I took the watch, the stand would register a weight difference, and thus the alarms would be set off. I couldn’t do anything about that, since I couldn’t bring anything with me and the technology was far too advanced for me to even dream of hacking it. I couldn’t even find a power source to shut the place down for a bit.
That was when I scratched an itch. This itch had accompanied me the whole time, but I didn’t pay it any attention. Oddly enough, it wasn’t just an itch. I opened my suit to take it out, and what do you know? My grandpa’s old pocket watch, of the same make as the Warden’s. If I had known I could stuff things inside the suit to bring with me, I wouldn’t have memorized all of those passcodes. Regardless, it was now as simple as replacing the watch with mine.
“ What are you doing? ”
I jumped and turned to find a blade perpendicular to my neck. The Warden was holding two blades in the shape of clock hands. A clock floated above her blue hair and her sapphire eyes pierced daggers through me.
I was maybe only a little excited.
“Ahem- I was just, uhh, performing maintenance. Yes ma’am.”
“Maintenance is a job given to the Kronies. How did you get in here and what timeline are you from?”
“I got in the same way you would. I also… don’t know?” I smiled, knowing that only put me into deeper shit.
“Give me the watch, Watson.”
“Wait- You know me?”
“Of course I do. Do you think you’re the first one who’s come for this watch? Your father, your father’s father, you from other timelines, their relatives. It’s always a Watson causing me headaches. No different this time.”
“Huh. Well, guess I can’t argue with that, huh?”
“No. Now the watch. Give it. To. Me.”
I sighed. “Alright, alright. Keep your panties on.” With a bit of hesitance, I handed her the watch in my hand, really not wanting to give it up. It symbolized my hopes and dreams. Everything I had ever worked towards. And now I had to give it up, just like that. Such a prized possession.
Without regard, she took the watch and looked at it, checking to make sure it was the correct one.
“Man… I wonder how upset Gramps would be if he knew I gave his only enemy and obstacle the watch he really loved.” Quickly, I turned around to snatch the watch from the stand. I hadn’t replaced it yet, she caught me before I did so. Her problem, not mine.
“Watson, NO!”
“Watson, YES!! ” Without a second thought, I clicked the crown of the watch. I could almost hear the hands of time itself click before I was rapidly warped through time.
Warping through time, I could see everything changing around me as I was sent hurtling throughout the multiverse. Dinosaurs, cavemen, modern society, utopias, timelines of black and white, vibrant happiness, animation, and all sorts of things. Different Me’s, different versions of friends, different versions of Earth. Beautiful things I could never expect to see in my universe. Disasters I prayed would never occur back home.
I could experience reality for what it truly was.
And it felt like the worst hangover I have ever had. I was throwing up horribly after the experience was over. But that wasn’t the end of it, because now I had to get back home. I was stranded in a timeline that wasn’t mine. I didn’t want that. I just needed to nap first…
Of course, she wouldn’t let me.
Following the tears I had created by flying through time, the Warden made her way to my location, coming out of the same tear in time I had come through. She held both her clock hands as she walked towards me.
“Watson…”
“Oh… it’s you…” I felt like hurling. Again.
“Give me that watch back, now. Do it without resistance and the punishment will be light. The more you resist, the worse your punishment will be.”
“Oh come oooon… Can’t a girl have some fun? I spent so much energy getting to this point. Don’t I deserve a few seconds.”
“Your previous accomplishments mean nothing to me. You’ve committed a crime amongst Gods punishable by complete erasure. Don’t let my patience run thin.”
“Ugh. Of course. Fiiiiine. Let me just make sure I didn’t smash it while traveling.”
“I’ll make sure for you, just give-”
“Oops.” Not-accidentally on accident, I clicked the crown of the watch once again. This time, however, I felt an instinctual level of control over the watch. Instead of being sent through timelines against my will, I was able to remove myself from the flow of time entirely to choose where I’d arrive.
It was like an entire new dimension. The branches of time were widespread and infinite, like being trapped between millions of giant spiderwebs. And yet, it all seemed as though it was perfectly under control. Like my intrusion into its inner-workings was completely unnatural.
Oh well. Not my problem.
Using the watch, I flowed along the branches of time to direct myself around. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular. Just cruising. That’s when I heard the crash of thunder.
“WATSON.”
She’s mad.
Knowing I would be fried if she caught me, I accelerated myself to start flying in between timelines. I followed along different branches and twigs, trying to confuse her. She was locked on like a blood cell. It was annoying. I needed to fight back. I couldn’t just keep running. So, I looked around the watch for anything to help me. There were a few things on it, not much to do. A little chain, the crown, the hands. That was it. The crown was what allowed me to travel through time. What about the hands?
I pressed my finger to the hands of the clock. Suddenly, they started to glow before summoning a set of blades, not unlike the Warden’s, but more similar to rapiers than shortswords. I could dance with these.
I hid behind a branch in wait for the Warden. As she circled around, I primed to strike her. “Watson, I know you’re over here. Stop running al-!” As she came around the side, I lunged at her with one of my clock hands, which she managed to parry. “Tsk!”
“Looks like I don’t have to run anymore!” I brought my left hand up and sent out a slash, aimed at her ribcage. She twisted her left hand to block the strike with her blade, parrying and countering with a right circle slash to my left wrist while her other hand brought it upwards. “Dangerous!” I blocked her right hand with my right hand before closing the gap between us, leaving no room to properly strike one another. With a headbutt, I knocked her back and disoriented her. Using my chance, I jumped into the nearest timeline.
“Watson-!”
Of course, she would follow me, but here, I had way more cover. Once she followed me in, I quickly met her with a slash from my right hand, which she’d expertly block and use to push me back. “Wow! You’re good!”
“Of course. I’ve been doing this for eternity.”
“I’ve never actually used a sword before, much less a rapier, even less clock hands. I wonder what they can do.” With my right hand, I flicked the hand back to circle around and cut through the ground, sending a blue crack forward in front of me. It formed under the Warden as she looked down at it. The blue crack accelerated the time of the area beneath it, causing doomsday lava to begin bubbling up much sooner than it ever should have. The Warden fell into the ravine that it formed and I thought I was good for a bit.
Nope. She can fly with the clock above her head.
“Hey, isn’t that kind of unfair?” This time, I sent another slash in her direction to create a pocket of air that would be affected by my time shenanigans. This time, time reversed at a rapid pace, soon returning that pocket of space to a point where it was nothing but void. Once it ended, the space began interacting with the space around it. Since it was a vacuum in the middle of the atmosphere, air rushed to fill it, causing a massive sonic boom. I used my right hand to accelerate myself so I could run away. That was a close one.
Not close enough, as the Warden was soon behind me, striking me down. I hit the ground with a rough impact, a bit of blood spilling from my head. Ouch. That would hurt for a while. My left hand began to shine as I picked myself back up, reorienting.
“Wow. Impressive. Any other mortal would’ve died from that one hit.”
“I am rather resilient, aren’t I?”
“Guess that means I should ramp it up.”
“ What? ”
Without warning, the Warden vanished to suddenly appear in front of me, sending a clock hand towards my face. I jumped back in surprise, making good distance between us two. My right hand began shining once again as I jumped in to start striking at her once again. Using the right hand, I speeded myself up, allowing me to fight at much faster speeds and strengths. She had the same idea, not only matching but always slightly overpowering me.
Our clashing of blades rang out through the atmosphere as we flew around our battlefield. The clashes of powers alone were enough to distort the world around us, creating fields of death and destruction, absolute chaos in our midst.
“Tsk! This is why I told you to give me the watch! We’re creating distortions!”
“You could just, I don’t know, not fight me!”
“Not a choice!”
“I’m sure it’s a big choice you have, no?”
“Shut up!”
Our clashing sent us flying around more and more, only creating more distortions around us. I didn’t mind it, but the Warden only grew more and more upset with distortion. I could feel it. Right in my gut.
Why can I feel it in my gut?
I looked down to notice a clock hand sticking through my stomach. It wasn’t very nice. She removed the hand, allowing me to fall to one knee and clutch my stomach. I was breathing heavily, trying to settle my body. I forgot I was still mortal. And she hadn’t even broken a sweat yet.
“You don’t have to die here, Watson. The damage is still irreversible. You can still hand the watch over and call it here.”
I chuckled. “And then what? Be tried for my crimes? Jailed for ten lifetimes? Go back to living life as a normie, when I could be so much greater? Not a villain, no, but something great nonetheless. What human doesn’t dream of achieving more than their mortality allows them? I’m sure you’ve seen it yourself.”
She was silent.
“Besides… I really… Really do not… Care for your rules.” I picked up my right hand and sent a slash at the Warden’s midsection, sending her back about two dozen feet. She growled.
“Watson! You’re making a mistake! If this keeps going, you’re going to destroy not only this universe, but all of them and more!”
“Nuh uh!”
“The fuck do you mean nuh uh?! I am the Warden of Time! I know what I’m talking about!”
“Then why don’t you know these hands?!”
I used Tick, the name I just gave my right hand, the hour hand, to slash at the ground and create a field of debris suspended in the air. I then brought the watch up to my mouth, using my teeth to pull the chain out of the clock. Doing so caused turquoise cracks to form in the space around the watch as time came to a slow. Though not outright stopped, everything began to move far slower than it normally did. I could count every raindrop in my vision before one hit the ground, that’s how slow it was.
Using the debris suspended in the air, I jumped over towards the Warden, using Tick to haste myself once again. I struck at her, letting Tick create pockets of altered time to further distort our battlefield. After slowing time, I started to get the jump on her, now ahead of her for the first time in our battle. She was having difficulty responding, her reactions much slower than before. I guess despite being Time’s Warden, she wasn’t perfectly immune to time-based techniques.
I had her on the defensive for a good period of time. It wasn’t my intention to kill her, I only wanted her to stop coming after me. Thus, all of my strikes were reserved, not aiming for vitals. Although I wasn’t a swordswoman, I am a Doctor, so I know a thing or two about the body. That’s how I perfectly placed the majority of my strikes. I think that made it harder for her, since deflecting in the wrong manner would turn a non-lethal attack into a lethal one.
It must have been the reason, since that’s what she ended up doing. I aimed one of my strikes to hit her in the shoulder to disarm her. Not literally cleave her arm off, but prevent her from using it until she healed. When she deflected the strike, she accidentally deflected it into her face. This startled me, as it easily could have been lethal, so I used Tick to reverse time for myself for a moment to get the blade away from her face. She understood what I was going for and took the moment to step back.
“Hey, uh, Warden. You got a little, a little something on your face-”
She raised an eyebrow before looking down at her face. It was funny to me since I had finally landed any kind of damage on the Warden, but I don’t think she found it funny. What was there was a very small scratch, but enough to be noticeable and even drip a drop of blood. I could almost feel her demeanor change entirely as a feeling in my gut warned me of something.
Guess I shouldn’t have hit her face, huh.
“My… perfect … FACE !” She raised her head as she looked at me in genuine fury, leaping at me at a speed faster than I had ever seen before. She had this much power left?! Without remorse, she sped herself up in time and began sending flurries of slashes my way, ones much harder to deflect than before. I was doing my best, but even one slip-up spelt my demise. Sucks that where I was standing was slippery, because it caused me to slip. She didn’t waste a moment to take that chance, sending a clock hand straight through my chest and out the other end. “I told you… You didn’t have to die for this…”
“Uhh, who are you talking to?”
The Warden looked up and behind her to find me standing there, perfectly fine. Only a bit of blood dripping from my head. She raised an eyebrow before looking at where I had died. I was gone. Looking back at me, her eyes focused on Tock, my left hand and the minute hand. It was glowing. She rolled her eyes. “When did you learn that it could do that?”
“I didn’t. It was an instinct.”
She sighed. In a flash, she was in front of me and my head was flying onto the ground.
“I don’t know why you’d try again.”
“It’s therapeutic.”
“Do you need a therapist?”
“No. I’m perfect as I am.” Another death.
“Can you please stop? I don’t even want to fight-” She killed me again mid-sentence. “Not cool. You’ve more than proved your strength. I can’t beat you, but I won’t die. Can’t we call it?”
“Why should we?” She was about to kill me again when I stopped her blade with my hand this time.
“Warden, I want to bargain.”
“Bargain what? What is there to bargain, Watson?”
“The watch.” She rolled her eyes before I could finish. “Let me keep it. In return, I will help you with your work. Does that not sound like a good deal?”
She sighed. “Well, admittedly, you have adapted to the watch remarkably well, as if it were just second nature for you. And work does get boring.”
She considered it.
“Whatever. Fine. I’ll have to ask the council, then.”
“Council?”
“You’ll learn.” The Warden summoned her clock hands, finally caving into my request. She looked upset about it, but deep down, I knew she was happy. Who wouldn’t be? Now you have someone to dump half your workload onto. It’s a win-win. “Now, we clean this mess up.”
The Warden picked her hand up, ready to wave it to fix the destruction we had caused. Before she could finish, a bright blue light came from the sky and tried striking me ? Of course, I just dodged backwards. Linear attacks are always easy if you see them coming.
Standing in the small crater that was created, surrounded by a small ring of rocks stuck in stasis, was… another Warden?
“What are you doing in my timeline?”
“My”? Warden responded, “Chasing that one. We were just about to-”
“Leave,” said the other Warden. Without letting her finish, they kicked “My” Warden, sending her through a crack in time.
“Watson, run-!” That was the last thing I heard from her before the rip closed. The other Warden sighed.
“Watson, what did you do this time?”
“This feels like it’s not specific to me.”
“Answer.”
“I just… ‘borrowed’ her watch.”
“So the standard, then.”
“Standard?”
“Every timeline, the clock gets stolen by some Watson. Was only a matter of time for you, really.”
“Huh. Feels much less original now.”
“You need to go home, too. Leave.”
“Why’s that?”
“You shouldn’t be here. It’s dange-” As she was speaking, a roar could be heard in the distance. The roar of some giant monster. “Shi- Leave!”
“I will, I-!” Out of nowhere, right from my blindspot, something struck me from behind and killed me. Luckily, Tock was still active, so I came back, but it still wasn’t cool. “Hey, not cool!”
Suddenly, I noticed the blue hue around Tock slowly start to dim before fizzling entirely. That wasn’t good.
“Hey, uh, does that monster by chance-”
“Yes, it disrupts time. That’s why I was trying to get you and your Kronii to leave.”
“Kronii? That’s her name, huh?”
“Not the time! Watch out!”
At her warning, a dark tendril came out of nowhere and tried striking me. On alert this time, I was able to dodge the attack. I didn’t have enough time to try striking back, though, as the tendril retreated.
“How do I get home from here?!”
“Just get far enough away!”
“On it!”
Disregarding any possibility of helping this Warden out, I began running away to somewhere else, not really caring for my direction. It didn’t seem like the monster wanted to let me run away though, as I could hear it roar before it started running after me. I dodged and ducked into a forest, running through the treeline to avoid this creature. I could hear trees crunching and breaking behind me, but I couldn’t look back. Even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to see it past the trees.
I had gotten a good distance away and could feel the hands of time return to their normal state, meaning I was out of the creature’s range. Taking this moment, I had to tinker with the watch for a moment. The reason for this was because of my usage of it during my battle with the Warden- or rather, Kronii. Using time powers so much in such a short period and slowing time like I did put a lot of strain on the watch. I just knew it to be true, regardless of the fact that I knew nothing about it.
So, I put the hands back and cracked it open. Actually opening it was like a sci-fi scene, as it was like magic inside of it. I could tell it was the same tech used to create Kronii’s vault, but this was even better than that. I just had some intrinsic understanding of it, though I don’t know why. But that didn’t mean I had the pieces. I just had to grab them.
How do I do that?
Just do it, I guess. So, I will. And I did. Using the watch, I nabbed some pieces through a complicated series of inputs. With the pieces, I was able to start putting the watch back into shape. I replaced damaged pieces, restored its energy, and fixed up pieces that needed some fixing. It was all such fine technology, I just wish I could actually study it right now.
Hey, I have it cracked open right now, so why don’t I add some improvements? On top of being a doctor of biology, I’m also a doctor of engineering. I can do this easily. I just need the right pieces, here and there, and-
Suddenly, I could hear the beast roar as I saw its area of effect drawing ever closer. I had to start moving again. I picked myself up and started running, pumping some temporary upgrades into the watch. I wasn’t able to fully finish what I wanted, but I finished enough so that it wouldn’t explode while bringing me home. Clicking the crown, the watch began the swift process of shifting me through a rip in time. It was good timing, since I was about to run into a wall. I still would’ve if I didn’t stop, so I stopped and turned to let myself fall backwards. I didn’t mind hitting the wall, but if I did so with the watch in front of me, it would’ve-
CRACK
-yeah, that. Wait, why that?
As I turned to slow myself down, I could see in front of me a single elongated tentacle. Tracing it back, it belonged to some kind of monster, some eldritch horror my brain was incapable of comprehending. I almost went insane. But that wasn’t the important part.
The watch.
While the tentacle failed to hit me, it ended up hitting the watch. The worst part was, I hadn’t closed it yet, since I physically couldn’t until I finished my upgrades. So, the tentacle struck the very inside of the watch, breaking its pieces and causing a major malfunction as I was getting ripped away. I couldn’t do anything I could only hope.
Being sent through the rip in time and back into the currents was normal. Nothing new. However, the watch was on the fritz, sparking and working incorrectly. I could no longer control my trajectory, only capable of waiting for something to happen. And it did.
BOOM.
The watch exploded. However, instead of hurting me, it enveloped me. Its power, holding the blue and green gems of all of time inside of it, encapsulated me. Around that power were dark tendrils, growing out to encase both me and the watch’s power. Both sources imploded in on me and began to embed themselves into me.
The process was painful. I could feel every atom in my body rewriting itself as the two powers fused with me. Time itself crawled around and inside me, almost like spiders. My very being was being rewritten. I could hardly explain it. And yet, the process was enlightening. As I was reconstructed. I could see everything . All the universe. All the multiverses. All the timelines. All the time trees. I could see existence itself. And I could even see the void. It peered back. I waved.
I had achieved something no other mortal could.
Absolute divinity.