Chapter Text
He didn't know what to expect when he dropped through the portal.
Nor did he expect to open his eyes and see nothing but a vast expanse of void.
And for a moment, he panicked.
Not because he was preparing for the NULL to appear and swarm him like what they did to Jaden.
But because he couldn't see anything but himself from a distant mirror that twisted it's reflection in wrong ways.
No Eggchan, no Firestar. Nothing but the void that haunts him.
For that briefest moments, he feared the worst.
Then the numbness returned, exhaustion won.
Because suddenly he's not standing in front of thousands of players fighting him, he's not standing in the middle of the battlefield trying to fight for his life.
He's not standing behind someone who used him as a weapon, he's not standing beside someone betraying them all because one person had a leverage against him.
Because all of the sudden, he's standing in the middle of nowhere, with no one but himself with the reflection of someone wrong.
Standing in the middle of the void, with no other mask but with the one that protected him from years of bottled emotions. The mask that hid the younger version of him who's still young and fearful and still scared.
Just a child, not a lost one, but a tired, too young, too weak, soul.
A child who fought tooth and nail just to survive in a server where power is dominance, and where skills are survival.
He lowered Jaden's the weapon, a glinting trident that used to belong to someone else before him.
And he just stood, still, stiff, distrusting.
Then collapsed to the floor unceremoniously, shoulders drawn, grief spilling out in waves of distressed noices.
He wasn't fighting anymore. He wasn't risking his life to protect another. Which was worse, on itself.
Because fighting meant focusing, fighting meant a distraction to the pain that he feels. Fighting means doing something and it means he's still useful.
Not fighting means being faced by the worst things that happened during the day.
Not fighting means thinking, and thinking means remembering, and remembering means hurting.
He wasn't in a battlefield, not anymore.
He's in the void, an empty space that felt more comforting than everything else he'd ever been allowed to have.
The darkness that surrounds him, an empty void that feels less suffocating.
Nothingness pressed on, as he found himself struggling to control the rest of his emotions that actually made sense.
The silence that surrounds him wasn't peace. It was no where near it. Peace is a silence that feels free, this silence feels oppressing.
Dangerous, the kind that waits for you to break first, it's no surprise that the tears he'd tried to keep began feeling a little too much.
Since his arrival not too long ago, since another friend fell only hours prior, since the news of the possible death of his father Minutetech, since the time where Spoke had turned the tables, tears stung his eyes.
And for such a long, long time, he allowed himself to cry.
For that childish side of him to finally be released from the strict restrains he placed in order to protect himself, for the younger mind to crawl back and forget the things that hurt .
With no constant battles to distract him, the pain hit.
Then grief, then all at once.
Betrayal, anger, longing, the emotions he'd all held in since Arachnid.
Since Cindercrest, since LAW.
The kid who hid behind a mask of a soldier broke, and sobbed ugly tears to the world who listened to none of his pleas.
The void was so empty, but his thought's lingered and became louder with doubt.
The images that flashed behind his closed eyes were too clear, like he's reliving the same memory over and over. The loss, the grief, the things he hadn't processed properly all came crashing down onto him.
For the borrowed second, he was a child, tiny, alone, scared, vulnerable and utterly exhausted.
No one on that current moment was there to catch him when he fell and break, only the void. Only the pure abyss.
So..
He cried.
He cried until his eyes burn, he cried until his throat hurts, he cried until he had no tears left.
And only then, did he allowed the numbness to take control once more.
The weight that pulled on his eyelids became too strong to fight, and the exhaustion dragged until his eyes shut, body curling on itself and collapsing in a dreamless slumber.
He felt like hours had passed in the pocket dimension he had been dropped in, slowly waking up to soft humming and fingers that's carding through his hair.
For a brief second, he wondered if it was Jaden.
He always did that to wake him whenever he accidentally fell asleep back during his invis arc, and had just become a thing in the months that passed.
Then he remembered the pirate's body falling to the ground with a loud thud, skull dented and blood pooled beneath, and he stopped.
Jaden's dead. He'd been dead for as long as he's aware.
He furrowed his brows, sitting up to look at the person who seems akin to just petting his head.
Only to swore the moment he saw who it is, scrambling to back up, and rose to his foot, muscles straining in protest, to which he ignored and grabbed Gambit, the trident that sat on his inventory heavy with what had accured previously.
"Ashwag."
The man grinned, sharp canine teeth shinning, and waved. "Wemmbu! How are we?" He smiled, too bright purple eyes all too wrong.
Ashwag was always wrong in ways that's twisted. He's the living embodiment of a glitch entity, one that shouldn't even be possible to exist.
The same glitch entity who brought the Mafia to light. "What do you want?" Wemmbu spat with venom, unable to hold himself from being careless around the former Mafia leader.
The grin grew wider, and Wemmbu ignored that familiar something hidden beneath it. Something softer, something more genuine. Something that feels like a hug that wasn't reciprocated through actions.
The man hummed, "Shouldn't you be asking where we are?"
"...No." He replied, and Ashwag snorted, "Of course you wouldn't." the older entity retorted, dropping the hands that he raised when Wemmbu brought out his mace, earning a skeptical and suspicious look from the purple blob.
His eyes still heavy from the exhaustion of the past events.
"What do you really want, Ashwag?"
Wemmbu pressed on, not trusting a single ounce of tranquil actions coming from the man.
He watched when the older pointed a finger at himself, "Me? You're asking me what I want?"
Entertained and slightly bewildered, Ashwag chuckled, "Oh Wemmbu."
The enderian froze, "Stop."
"Oh? And why?" He hates it when Ashwag seems to act like he doesn't know when he knows why. What a way to rub salt on the wound that's still bleeding.
Ashwag knew damn well why he wants him to stop.
Nothing good ever comes out of the mouth the moment those two certain words were released.
"Just stop." he turned his back on the taller, not wanting to hear more nonsense.
"You don't want to hear my offer, Wemmy?" That stupid glitch and his stupid mimicker traits, does he not know how to respect someone who just died? Unbelievable. "....What offer?"
If possible, the grin grew to a sharp, toothy smile, eyes glowing brighter as a laugh bubbled from his throat. "You're really that easy to convince in changing your mind, aren't you?"
He glared, "Get straight to the point."
Ashwag's smile sharpened, the traces of vague warmth disappearing into a much more colder, calculating look. "What do you want, Wemmbu?"
Wemmbu scoffed, his turn to laugh, albeait too loud and too strained.
"What?? You're asking me what I want??? Well I want you to leave me alone and go back to whatever ditch you threw yourself in-"
"Do you want power, Wemmbu?" he calmly cut him off, words dying in his throat as Ashwag approached him like how a predator approached it's injured prey.
"What..?"
"Do you want power, Wemm?" He repeated, a strand of black hair falling on his face as the older leaned down to whisper on his ear, "The kind of power that comes with the ability to do whatever you want? The kind that proves to the people who left you that you're better?"
Wemmbu scoffed once more, "Whatever you're going to offer wont make me have a deal with you."
"Or do you want the kind of ability to go back in time?"
"...Wha.." His brain short circuited, and the glitch straightened to walk calmly behind him.
"That kind of power, Wemmbu." Ashwag hummed, a tune that felt somewhat familiar in the buzzing that he felt in his mind. "The power to go back in time where you will still have the knowledge of the future."
The ender dragon snorted, "No way, you're just bluffing. That's not real-"
"Am I really?"
For the third time, Wemmbu found himself silenced by words. There's absolutely no way it's real.
No one would ever have the ability to travel through time. And even if that was real, what's the consequences of messing up a timeline that's been written and lived through by multiple people?
"What are you trying to say, Ash?"
"What Im trying to say here is, Wemm. Is that time travel exist, and Im offering out a hand for you to choose whether or not you'll take it."
He straightened, posture calm and collected like he was simply talking about the weather and not something as absurd as the concept of traveling through time.
"You can go back, change the outcome of the future- don't you want that?? Don't you want to take that chance, change whatever that went wrong, and be free from whatever that weighs you down? You have the upperhand, you have the advantage."
The difference between the silence from before and now, was that before it was just him.
Him and his thoughts, just alone, just the thoughts that plagued him. Now it's him and Ashwag, and a ridiculous offer of traveling through a time that was lived with nothing but the hope of everything turning out fine and the foolish hope of making it out alive.
At least before made sense, now it was starting to be something stupid that feels like a mockery to the system of the anarchy world.
"No."
Ashwag paused, turning to look at the purple dragon. "No?"
"No." Wemmbu repeated, voice unwavering despite the tight coil on his stomach. "Im not accepting whatever offer you have."
"So.. you're saying no to a perfectly good oppurtunity?" The man urged, tilting his head to accommodate the confusion that bleed out on his voice. "What about the things that happened, what about the mistakes you did-"
"I already told you. No. This is stupid, Ashwag. Traveling through time is impossible on itself, what more could it be for the consequences in the long run?? Im not risking my life just so I could play your sick game, you're not going to make relive through every single trauma I have-"
"So you're not risking your life when Jaden risked his for yours?"
"...Excuse me..?"
"You're not risking your life Wemmbu, but why? When Jaden risked his own just for you, why couldn't you do the same? Wemmbu, don't you want to change that? Don't you want to be the person to help him this time? To help all of your friends and keep them safe this time?"
Don't you want to stop feeling selfish and disgusted and filthy and save them all??
He stretched out both arms, not caring about the violent shaking coming from the ender dragon's hands that are twisted into clenched fists. "Don't you want to keep Rejoice safe and alive?"
"Wha- How did- How did you know about him-" Wemmbu sputtered, cringing when his voice came out weak and strained, wincing when phantom pain spikes on his lungs from how he stopped breathing all together for a few seconds.
"I know a lot, Bu. So tell me."
He dropped his arms, voice lowered into a whisper meant for the both of them to hear, even though there was no one else there but them.
"Are you letting this opportunity pass?" He spoke quietly, "You have whatever it takes, Wemmbu."
Ashwag approached, not bothered with how the younger flinched away from him.
"You have the memories of this timeline. You have the one time chance to bring them back. You have everything laid for you, all you gotta do is accept."
He placed a hand on the rigid shoulder of the shorter, eyes still looking straight to Wemmbu's own amethyst orbs.
"Either you take it, or you live the rest of your petty life with the guilt of knowing you're never enough."
Then he dropped his hand, and walked straight the direction where a white mist formed the shape of a rusty oval, edges tethering around reality. He stopped mid step, turning his body to offer Wemmbu some final words.
"After all, what's the point of being the strongest if you can't even protect them?"
Wemmbu flinched, shoulders drawn into itself as he stared at the glitching man, who gave him a half hearted smile.
"Think about it."
"If I accept, what happens to me in this one?"
He smiled, "You die."
"What?"
Ashwag laughed, "An eye for an eye, Wemmbu. You seriously don't believe you can switch timelines to handle the other do you?"
"No.." He muttered, "But I thought-"
"You thought. Well, that won't be happening."
"So I'll just.. die? Thats- thats it?"
"Yes, and everyone who personally knows you will know."
"...."
"Don't worry about it, nothing will change even if you're practically dead."
| Wemmbu was doomed to fall
| Wemmbu left the game