Chapter Text
It has been 2 months since New Years.
Since the day Derlord sacrificed himself and died
Avery misses him. Gods… he missed him so much.
Why did Derlord have to push him off the platform? Why was he stupid enough to fall for his trick? They could have figured something out if only Derek let him help. Maybe he would have let Avery help if he was half as smart as Derek.
Avery desperately tried to rein in his thoughts, but it was too late. All the ways he had failed Derek and wasn’t enough filled his head as he just curled in bed and cried.
It seemed like the only things he could do since New Years was cry and think. Think about how he was nothing. About all the ways he could have saved Derlord if he had been enough.
His grades were nonexistent now since he never went to his classes anymore. His job had fired him after his third no show and no one had called to check on him. He really was nothing.
What was the point anyways when Derek wouldn't be able to do those things? He had told Avery to keep going forward, but how could he without him?
Eventually the pull of sleep was too much and as Avery closed his eyes, his last thoughts were ‘I wish I could have saved you. I wish you were still here, Derek.’
Awaking up after a nightmare was horrible, but common for Avery. While he couldn't remember half of them, the ones he did were usually about that platform and his fall.
He was just going to continue to rot in bed when there was knocking on his door. Probably mixed up his apartment with their friends. Avery would have just let the knocks continue, but felt something tug him out of bed.
Avery managed to get himself out of bed and opened the door. Outside was a middle-aged man in a suit.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Tanner. My name is Jeffery and I’m a part of the DMS and would appreciate if you would step out for a bit.”
Avery just stared at the man for a few seconds before closing the door. He didn't want to listen to some stupid pitch from a salesman even if it was weird that he knew his last name.
The man stopped the door with his shoe and said more quietly, “We know of a way you can save Derek.”
Avery froze at the words. A way to save Derek? Was that even possible? What if the man was lying? Was it too good to be true? More importantly, could Avery really afford not to take the risk if it meant a chance to save Derlord? All he had to do was hear the man out and just leave if the older man was really pulling his leg.
Avery slammed the door wide open and bombarded the man with questions, “How is that possible? Where ? What is DMS? How did you know my last name? Where-”
“I believe that it would be better if we had this discussion somewhere more private. Grab your laptop and follow me please,” the man interrupted before slowly walking away.
Avery quickly ran to get his laptop, slipped on his sandals, and ran to catch up to the man. They took the elevator to the ground floor and walked out to a black car with tinted windows. They entered and the car pulled into the street.
After what seemed like hours of silence with only Avery’s leg bouncing as noise, the car finally stopped and the two got out and began to walk into a warehouse with Avery following the other’s lead.
“Thank you for agreeing to come, Mr. Tanner. To answer some of your earlier questions, DMS stands for the Department of Metaphysical Science. We are a government agency assigned to research and handle entities and phenomena. We had been observing Derek and the King in Yellow for around a month or two before you got involved.”
“Call me Avery. Mr. Tanner sounds too formal,” Avery said.
Avery was trying to keep up with the older man through the many stairs and corridors when he suddenly stopped at a realization, “Wait… if you guys were watching us then you knew Derek was in trouble and did nothing! Where the hell were you when he sacrificed himself!? We needed you!”
“Please calm down, Avery. The reason there was no interference at the time was due to Derek seeming to have everything under control until around when you went looking for him. We had lost surveillance on the situation when the king appeared. By the time we were able to check back in, it was too late.”
“Oh..,” Avery let out as he felt the fight from earlier drain out of him. So he really was the problem, huh. Derlord had been handling the king perfectly until Avery came around and messed things up.
They continued to walk for a bit before stopping at a door,“ We feel since it was our negligence that led to this outcome, we should offer you the chance to use our machine that would let you go back in time. ”
Opening the door and stepping in the room, he could see scientists all around control panels while a machine stood on the other side of glass.
This was real. There was a way back. A way for Avery to fix his mistakes. A way to save Derek. Just the thought of actually getting to know more about him sent his heart fluttering.
“Really! Let's get going! I mean- what do you need me to do?,” Avery asked, trying not to sound too enthusiastic and failing.
The man grinned and answered,” You just need to wait here and listen to the scientist's instructions.” Then the man left the room
He watched the scientists work and couldn’t help but think of Derek. He would probably understand what they were talking about even without infinite knowledge. He was just smart like that.
A scientist walked up to him after a few minutes, handing him a USB to plug into his laptop and leading him to the machine. Once there, she set him up inside and instructed him to not move too much before closing the latch.
Avery kept himself perfectly still as he tried to listen out for the scientists working. He couldn't hear anything from inside the machine though and started to worry. What if it doesn’t work? What if he was falling for another trick and was just too stupid to realize?
Pain exploded in his head and everything went dark.