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Till swung his feet over the ledge of his hiding spot like he always did on nights like these.
On nights the sky burned red, and meteors came raining down like they were shooting stars that had long given up on their dream of being wished on.
That said, Till found himself wishing on them anyway.
They might have given up on ever being something special, but to Till, they were incredibly important.
There was a lot of Ivan that was left in this world. Tattered magazines with his face plastered on the covers were still relatively common to find crumpled and torn on the streets of the slums, and his photos hung proudly in the Alien Stage museum.
Even a child with his eyes wandered around the rebels camp.
These red skies were the only thing that Till got to himself. The only memory that no one else had of his love, far away from the camera's that covered the garden.
That night that Till ruined everything that could have been.
Till kicked his legs mindlessly, letting his eyes follow the falling rocks until he spotted an unusually large one. He wasn't sure why he always tried to spot the biggest, maybe because they reminded him of Ivan.
Bigger and brighter than Till would ever dream to be.
Not that Till dreamed of outshining Ivan, not anymore. His existence dedicated to making sure Ivan continued to shine brighter than any star remaining in this cruel world.
Till's eyes followed the meteor, and he whispered out his stupid, selfish, nonsensical wish. He knew it would never come true, but ever since that drunken night he found himself pleading it to the skies a couple years ago, he found some sort of strange peace in it.
"I wish… for the chance to give Ivan the love I was too stupid to give him."
A moment of silence passed, and even though he'd made this wish who knows how many times now, he felt his cheeks flush hot in embarrassment. He was 28 and still making preposterous wishes on wanna-be stars. It was a little embarrassing. He wouldn't ever hear the end of it if one of the kids heard him.
'That's enough for tonight," Till thought to himself and pushed himself up off the ledge of the roof, to crawl his way back inside without disturbing the children.
It wasn't long after Till wrapped himself tight in his blanket that sleep over took him. Tonight, however, he found himself trapped in a much stranger dream than usual.
His nights usually surrounded either him dreaming of nothing at all, or being tormented by all the things that happened before his rescue.
That wasn't the case for tonight.
He found himself in a dark oasis, and a little too aware of the nothing going on around him.
Till jumped at the sound of a loud, yet kind, voice that didn't seem to have any proper direction for where it was coming from.
"My child, you have wished for nothing but the same gift on one hundred stars."
Till's eyebrows scrunched together, nothing short of confused. Same wish on one hundred stars? Are they talking about his wish about Ivan?
Silence filled the abyss, and Till found it hard to speak. A dense, suffocating pressure surrounded him on all sides, and for some reason he knew he was in no position to ask questions.
What a weird dream.
Eventually, the voice spoke again, "Do you truly cherish this lost man as much as you say you do?"
The answer left him before he even had a chance to think about it. Questioning how much Ivan meant to him was akin to questioning core parts of Till's being.
"Yes."
The pressure around him changed, instead of suffocating him, it felt like he was being wrapped in a warm hug meant to soothe.
"My child, who has been through lifetimes worth of pain. I will give you the opportunity to make your wish come true."
Confusion swirled through his brain at what this dream might mean, but the abyss around him melted away before he was given a chance to speak again.
Till blinked open his eyes to a room that was not his own. Not even a room that belonged to the rebel base.
It was a room he hadn't seen in a very, very long time.
The last time he saw this room was a couple hours before round two. When he bolted out of the room they'd locked him in and attempted to hide before he was sent on stage.
Till rushed to his feet, looking around desperately for some kind of answer. Why would he be here? In a place that was blown up years ago?
A soft blink was heard above him, and he whipped his head in the direction it came from. A small screen floated there, and he had to read over the text a couple times to fully understand what was being told to him.
[ MISSION : SAVE "IVAN" FROM HIS IMMINENT DEATH IN THIS TIMELINE.
REQUIREMENTS : BRING "IVAN" TO THE DESIGNATED "TRANSPORT ZONE" : "STORAGE ROOM D4"
REWARD : "IVAN" WILL BE BROUGHT TO YOUR TIMELINE.
TIME FRAME : ONE HOUR. ]
"What the fuck?" Till muttered, struggling to wrap his mind around what in the world was in front of him.
Save Ivan?
His mind shot back to his bizarre dream, and the voice promising to grant him a chance to make his wish come true.
Is he really being given the opportunity to save Ivan?
Before he was given a chance to think anymore, the screen flashed, and a new message appeared.
[ IF YOU DO NOT RETURN TO THE "TRANSPORT ZONE" WITHIN THE DESIGNATED TIME FRAME, THIS TIMELINE WILL VIEW YOU AS AN ANOMALY AND TAKE MEASURES TO CORRECT ITSELF. ]
Anomaly?
Till wasn't dumb enough to not know what that meant. He would die.
This... timeline would kill him.
"Wait…" Till hesitated.
If he was seen as an anomaly because he wasn't from this… timeline or whatever, what would happen to Ivan if Till stole him from this one? Wouldn't he die for the same reason?
The screen flashed again.
[ YOU ARE AN ANOMALY BECAUSE THERE IS ALREADY ONE VERSION OF YOU HERE. YOUR LOVER- HOWEVER- NO LONGER EXISTS IN YOUR TIMELINE. WITHOUT THE EXISTENCE OF A DUPLICATE, THERE IS NO ANOMALY. ]
For some reason, reading those words hurt.
Till knew very well that Ivan was dead, but somewhere along the line he tried to comfort himself that maybe Ivan was watching over him in death.
Having it confirmed by someone- something- that felt like it really knew that for sure, twisted a part of his chest and made it hard to breathe.
But Till couldn't afford to dwell on it. Not as the screen flashed one final time.
[ 59 : 59 ]
Till wasn't sure how much he felt like he believed anything happening around him. Who was the voice? What were these ominous screens?
Was this all some twisted dream?
Maybe.
But so what if it was?
Till breathed heavily in his mask. He was going to need to need to be quick, he already wasted too much time waiting for a guard to pass by the storage room. The timer ticked away behind him-
[ 38 : 47 ]
There was no way that he could even try to make this a successful mission if he wasn't undercover. Rushing to the room Ivan was being kept in dressed in his regular clothes would only get him shot down before he could even get within a few feet of the door at best.
So, he was forced to wait for one to walk by the storage room to drag inside and strip down for their gear.
Twenty two minutes already lost in the process.
Shockingly, the halls weren't as full of guards as he expected them to be. If this were a normal mission in any kind of normal circumstance, it would be a bad sign. It would mean he was running out of time, since they were stationed elsewhere preparing for a round to start.
But it wasn't like Till had all the time in the world either.
[ 33 : 19 ]
Till had wondered about exactly what round it was, but he already saw the discarded posters in the storage room.
Round 6.
The day he was saved, and the day he lost what was most important.
Till kept his pace even, doing his best to keep his hand off his gun as he made his way through the halls. Till made sure to be aware of each camera he spotted as he wandered, and he had to fight the urge to pull the gun and shoot them now, but it would only draw suspicion sooner.
He had no idea how many people or aliens might be in the security office, or what the camera blind spots looked like. How many guards would be coming after him once they figured out what was happening?
There was too little Till knew about this building. Sure, he had countless missions under his belt, but this building had been reduced to rubble and forgotten for quite a while before he'd even been set out on his first.
The odds were far from being in his favor.
If he was lucky, a third of their manpower was split between guarding the stage and the audience, and then half of what remained camped the exits.
His best bet was taking out camera's as he ran with Ivan, but then he'd need to juggle keeping Ivan safe, taking out camera's, and shooting down however many guards came after them.
Not to forget the fact he had to make it back before the timer ran out.
"Four hallways between here and the storage room. I only need to get him down four hallways," Till reminded himself as he finally turned the corner and spotted the plaque that hung off one of the doors.
Till paused outside the door, staring at the expensive metal plaque that hung there, his lovers name spelt in silver. Unsha was known for flaunting his money, but to think he'd spend this much on a name tag alone.
[ 29 : 03 ]
The minute he touched the door handle, he knew he was going to have to work fast.
Who knew how long it would be before someone noticed a guard slipped into a contestants room, though since he wasn't a real guard, it would only be an issue if he was spotted sneaking in or if someone noticed the guard he'd taken care of went missing.
All of those factors were up in the air, and he might just get lucky. The real problem would start once they noticed Ivan leave the room.
Till sucked in a shaky breath. He didn't have the privilege of thinking about how ready he was to see Ivan again.
He turned the handle quickly, opening the door just enough to slip inside.
"Ah," a quiet, reserved voice came from the one seat in the otherwise empty room, "Is it time?"
Till looked up and there he was.
The man he'd seen in nothing but carefully uncrumpled magazine cut outs that hung off his walls or that cruel hallucination that still haunted him when it rained.
[ 27 : 42 ]
If not for the timer ticking away in the corner of his eye, he would have thought that time hd stopped.
Till took a small step forward, "Ivan?"
Ivan blinked, clearly confused as to why a guard was calling his name so softly, "…Yes?"
Till's body moved without him the moment Ivan answered, rushing towards the other like a magnet that had finally been placed near it's other half.
His heart twisted bitterly as Ivan flinched back as he did, but it was a given that he would. A strange man- guard was running up to him with a fever.
"I'm sorry, I'm scaring you, aren't I? I'm not a guard," the explanation fell out of his mouth as he reached up and yanked his helmet off, letting it crash down on the ground next to him.
Ivan's eyebrows screwed together as he tried to process Till's words, but before he had the chance to open his mouth to say anything else, Till was falling to his knees and reaching for Ivan's hands.
Till's hands shook as his fingers brushed the backs of Ivan's that were sitting on his lap, and his lip quivered as he felt their warmth through his gloves.
"You're warm," Till murmured, greedily taking Ivan's hands in his and bringing them to his face.
He didn't know why Ivan let him take his hands and bury his face into them, pressing gentle kisses to his palms. He smelled of weird perfume that he hadn't smelled on the stage that day. The artificial rain much have washed it away.
"Baby- Ivan baby. My love. My dearest. My world, Ivan-" Till blurted the messy slur of names as he cried pitifully into his hands, scooting himself close enough so his torso pressed up against Ivan's calves.
"Who are you," Ivan demanded, though his tone was quiet.
"Do you not recognize me?" Till inquired, looking up at Ivan to find him staring down at him with a look of bewilderment that he'd never seen him sport before.
Ivan didn't answer, and Till muttered apologies, "I understand, of course you wouldn't. I'm not the scrawny boy you knew, I'm a lot bigger now and I've got all these scars-"
"Till?"
Till's breath hitched as Ivan called his name, and he had to fight the ball in his throat that urged him to cry harder while a sad smile crossed his lips, "Yeah, it's me, baby."
Ivan shook his head slightly, "No, you're not Till."
"I'm not the one you know. I'm the one that got my head out of my ass," Till agreed, pausing a moment before confessing, "I'm the one that lost you."
[ 21 : 55 ]
"Lost me? What are you talking about?" Ivan questioned, and Till hated the way he looked at him like he understood nothing.
He hated that Ivan didn't get it.
He hated himself for letting Ivan die like this. Letting him die without knowing how much he cared, for being too stuck in himself for not putting things together when he had a chance.
Till's eyes glanced at the clock, and his stomach twisted.
[ 20 : 01 ]
"I don't have time to explain," Till breathed, forcing himself to rise to his feet, "We have to go."
"Go?" Ivan echoed.
Till looked down at Ivan's hands, moving his gently to link his fingers with Ivan's, "I'm taking you out of here."
Ivan's mouth fell open, his expression looking something close to stunned, but it washed away almost as quickly as it had come.
"I-"
Till bent down, letting go of Ivan's hands and grabbing his face instead. He forced Ivan to look at him as he spoke. He hated using the tone he used with the kids when they were misbehaving, but as the clock ticked away, the last thing he had was time to coax him along.
He could drown Ivan in apologies once they made it back.
If they made it back.
"You are going to die if you stay here. I'm not going to let that happen," Till assured.
Till watched a hint of fear grew in his eyes, and Ivan pursed his lips. He'd spent years reflecting on how blind he had been, but recognizing all of these things with Ivan right in front of him… it felt like just another slap to the face.
How could he not hate himself when he did this to them both?
"Why do you even care so much?" Ivan spoke, his tone heavy and it made Till want to hurl.
Till rubbed his thumbs along Ivan's cheekbones, and tried to blink away any of the tears that threatened to fall. He'd just barely gotten himself to quit crying, his anxiety quieting that part of himself.
"Because I love you. I love you more than anything, I love you more than myself," Till confessed bitterly, "I was given a chance to fix everything, and by god, Ivan, I am going to take it."
Ivan looked away, and Till noticed the way he clenched his jaw.
[ 17 : 15 ]
Ivan mumbled, "What will happen to…the other Till?"
Till grimaced, and a flare of jealously sprung through his chest. Of course Ivan was thinking of him. Still, he hated that even now, Ivan was thinking of him.
Till sighed, and stroked Ivan's cheeks reassuringly, "He's going to live. Without you here, he'll automatically win round 6. After that, he's going to be rescued by the rebellion. You'll have to just trust me on that, the only proof I have is that I wouldn't be standing here if that wasn't the future for him."
Ivan swallowed, turning his face back to Till, and it felt like his chest was being ripped apart as he noticed a wet shine to his eyes.
"And I'm going to die before then, aren't I?"
Till shook his head, "No, you won't."
"Because you're going to take me out of here?"
[ 14 : 28 ]
He nodded, "We have to hurry."
Ivan hesitated, turning his eyes to the floor.
Till felt anxiety start to crawl up his back as he watched Ivan stay seated in his chair.
Fourteen minutes.
That's how long he had until his death, and who knew how long Ivan would have until his own afterward.
"Please, take me out of here," Ivan whispered, as if he was ashamed of asking for salvation.
Till wasted no time in grabbing the helmet off the floor and shoving it back on head. He pulled his gun out of the holster on his belt, looking down to double check that the safety was off, "We might need to run. I'm only one person and I can't risk getting surrounded. Stay behind me, and stick close."
Ivan nodded slowly to show he was listening, and Till grabbed his wrist, placing Ivan's hand on his shoulder, "Hold onto me here, at all times. I'm going to need to use both hands, so I can't hold onto you."
"Okay…" Ivan answered, and Till felt reassured as he felt the soft press of Ivan's fingers digging into his shoulder.
Till reached up and brushed his fingers against Ivan's face one last time, "I'm going to get you out of here, baby."
He didn't wait to see Ivan's expression, before he was turning away and gripping the door handle.
[ 11 : 00 ]
Fuck, it was going to be close.
Till swung the door open, and surprisingly, there wasn't a single guard in the hallway just yet.
Guess he did manage to get lucky.
Till peeked out of the door frame, and pointed the gun up to the first two camera's at the end of the hallway.
They exploded with a loud BANG! as Till shot them both, and bolted down the hall.
"Three more halls," Till informed, once again not waiting for a reply as he peered around the corner and aimed for the next two.
[ 09 : 18 ]
He managed the first camera closest to them, but missed the mark on one of the two at the end of the hall.
"Fuck," Till cursed, sucking in a deep breath before making his way slowly down the hall, trying his best to hug the wall he could only pray was now a blind spot.
Honestly, taking out the camera's wasn't going to do them much, but it'd spare them a few extra seconds with forcing temporary blind spots. If guards were running up a separate hall, at least they wouldn't know their exact location of the hall they waited in.
Still, it wasn't going to take much for them to realize their route.
It already took Till nine minutes to get from the storage room to the room Ivan was in, and they still had three more halls to clear.
That said, Till walked slow to avoid suspicion last time, and now they were running.
They were going to need to avoid confrontation for as long as possible.
Till bit his lip, trying to think.
[ 07 : 37 ]
The timer only added to his anxiety.
"Till?" Ivan whispered, and his racing thoughts quieted as he felt Ivan's body press against his back.
Till sighed, dropping one of his hands off the gun and grabbing Ivan's hand off his shoulder.
"Screw the cams, we don't have time," He stated decisively, "We're just going to make a run for it."
"What-" Ivan started to question, but Till's feet hit the ground hard and Ivan had no choice but to follow as he yanked him along.
[ 06 : 29 ]
Till debated pausing and peeking around the corner to be safe as they met the end of the third hallway, but didn't allow himself the moment to truly consider as he rushed around the corner. The last thing they had time for was overthinking, and peeking corners would do nothing but give the guards more time to catch up with camera's on them.
He did his best to listen as they ran down the hall, but the sound of their feet slamming against the tile floor was almost too loud for him to hear with his stupid helmet on.
[ 04 : 54 ]
"One more after this one," Till instructed, as they whipped around another corner.
"Are we not going to check if-"
Till cut him off quickly, "We don't have time."
[ 03 : 41 ]
The hallway seemed impossibly long, and Till heard it.
The sound of feet running towards them.
Maybe five? Or more, too many stamping sounds overlapped and Till couldn't make it out.
Till sucked in a deep breath, trying to steal himself for whatever they may face when they turn down the final hall.
"Till, I hear-"
"I know, keep running."
With that, they turned over the last corner and Till spotted the storage room.
"That door," Till stated, "Do you see it?"
[ 02 : 00 ]
Ivan panted behind him, and Till couldn't tell if he was truly out of breath or if it was out of fear, "Yes."
"That's where we're going."
They made it another few feet before Till saw the first guard turn the corner at the other end of the hall.
"Till-"
"Almost there, baby."
'We're going to make it first. They still don't know we're aiming for the storage room, not the exit," Till reassured himself.
[ 01 : 12 ]
Till watched as more guards swung the corner, and he fought his body's will to stop as they raised their guns.
[ 00 : 50 ]
He slammed his body against the storage room door, and the latch broke as he did.
[ 00 : 39 ]
Till pulled his arm in close to himself causing Ivan to trip over his feet and fall into Till.
[ 00 : 31 ]
A pained grunt left Till as his shoulder smacked the floor, and he held Ivan close. He kicked hard against the tile, crawling his way until both of them were completely in the room.
[ 00 : 09 ]
Till watched in horror as two guards stopped in front of the open storage door, and pointed their guns at them both.
[ 00 : 04 ]
At least they'd get to die together this time. Maybe that would be good enough-
[ MISSION COMPLETE. ]
Till barely got a chance to read the screen flashing in front of his face as he pulled Ivan in closer, tucking his head into his chest before the world went black.
Sun filtered in through the barred window, and Till felt the not-so-unfamiliar feeling of warmth curled up next to him.
Ever since he rescued the children, it became normal for one, or more, to crawl their way into bed with him, as much as he tried to get them to stay in their room. As much as he complained, he really didn't mind it. But his bed wasn't big enough for all six of them together, and they were going to need to learn some independence. Even if it just came in the form of them sleeping in their own beds at night.
"Which one of you didn't listen this time?" Till grumbled as he blinked his eyes open to see which child he had snuggling with him.
But when he opened his eyes, he wasn't met with any of his kids.
Instead, his lover.
Sleeping soundly, his hot breath sticking against Till's neck as his sucked in steady, calm breaths.
Till nearly shot up in shock, but stopped himself as to not disturb him.
"He's real?" Till wondered to himself, reaching out a hand to trace his face.
He was warm under his hand, his skin impossibly soft.
He still wore his clothes from round 6, he didn't appear any older either.
Till really stole him from his timeline and drug him to his own.
This was going to be a real pain to explain to everyone else, wasn't it?
"Ivan," Till called in a whisper, running his hand through his styled hair, ruffling it to mess up the wax.
A quiet groan left the sleeping man, and Ivan blinked open his eyes.
Ivan's eyes met his, and any signs of sleep left them quickly as he sprung up in bed. Till couldn't help but let out a light laugh and pushed himself in a sitting position next to him.
"Where am I?" Ivan wondered, looking around the room.
"My room," Till answered easily, running a hand down the nape of Ivan's neck and tracing small circles there.
Ivan was quiet for a while, before, "That all was real."
Till hummed, "I guess it was."
Ivan turned back to him, and Till half-expected him to comment on all the pictures and drawings of that hung on the walls, but he didn't.
"What happens now?"
Till smiled, pulling Ivan in by the back of his neck, and rubbed the tip of his nose against Ivan's.
Ivan stiffened, and Till soaked in every small reaction that came from the other.
He was here.
Real, and warm under his hands.
Till scooted in closer, moving his other hand to link his fingers with Ivan's, "You let me love you."
Ivan's face screwed up with yet another emotion he'd never had the opportunity to see. His lip quivered and his eyebrows scrunched together, and it was the most lost he had ever seen him before.
"You don't need to say anything. It's okay. Just stay here with me," Till requested.
After another moment of hesitation, he got a small nod in reply, "Alright."
A soft blink could be heard behind Ivan, and Till glanced over at the small screen patiently waiting there.
[ CHERISH HIM AS MUCH AS YOU PROMISED. ]
Ivan let out a quiet gasp as Till wrapped his arm around his waist, flopping them both back onto the bed.
"Thank you."