Dysfunctional Family

Choices, Choices

Astor stood with his mouth slightly opened, trying to form words, but found he couldn't; his mind stalled as he tripped over what his reaction should have been. He was beginning to have the same doubts he once had so many years ago boil up to his surface, but this time he didn't know any solution to them.

After several minutes of struggling to come to a proper conclusion, Astor simply made the decision to head back inside. His expression remained blank as he went back into the halls of the dark castle, his train of thought not quite snagging onto just one track.

On one hand, there were his morals. Not the morals he had been taught as a child, but the kind that your heart made for you to follow. These morals were SCREAMING at him on the inside, demanding why he had the audacity to harm Dimentio before he even had the name Dimentio, especially since they were related.

But, on the other hand, there was his mind. This part of him is what he was raised up with, the rules that molded him as a child to be obedient to. This unforgiving part of his conscience was questioning why he hadn't simply killed Dimentio then, or even now.

But when these two sides met in the middle, he was torn. Astor had witnessed all of the insanity his family had to offer and still was, wondering how his lineage had been cursed to such extremities of madness.

Astor froze dead in his tracks, a thought from his mind sweeping into conscience.

"Is this madness that has tainted my bloodline like a virus only affecting everyone else..... Or is it merely subjective?" Astor questioned himself.

He paused and chuckled a little, tears dotting his eyes as reality decided to give him a clean slap to the face.

"What sick streak of madness drove me to tear my son from me?" Astor asked no one, "And was it a streak, or a permanent stain?"

Astor stared blankly down the empty halls in front of him, another thought quickly surfacing. He quickly glanced around to see if anyone was near before bolting down the hall, making a beeline straight for Dimentio's room.

Blumiere's father was able to quickly retrace his steps and soon enough found himself outside Dimentio's door. He tried the doorknob, expecting Dimentio to have locked it, but was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't. Astor slowly creaked open the door, half expecting to find Dimentio as he stepped inside, but saw nothing but blackness from absent lights.

He closed the door behind himself quietly and began to rummage through bookshelves, looking for a spellbook that would provide what he was looking for. Astor finally found a book that suited his needs when the lights snapped on. It took the man all of his nerves of steel not to yelp in surprise as he turned to see Blumiere glaring at him with red eyes.

"What do you think you're doing?" Blumiere questioned flatly.

Astor cleared his throat and regained his composure, tucking the book inconspicuously into his cloak.

"What are YOU doing, Blumiere?" Astor retorted.

"Alastor is VERY upset. Just in a passing conversation with him, he threatened suicide." Blumiere stated, "What did you do?"

Astor paled slightly at his son's harsh tone, a similar scenario to this playing in his mind. The memory was of when Astor had caught Blumiere stealing the Dark Prognosticus.

"I did a lot of things, I will admit. But time heals all wounds, and time shall be on my side." Astor simply replied.

"And what in the worlds is THAT supposed to mean?" Blumiere questioned.

Astor smirked as he looked down at his son.

"I am going to fix everything by making sure it never happens in the first place," Astor stated, "Starting with the night Timpani was banished."

Blumiere went wide-eyed before narrowing his eyes in rage, his mind already assuming the worst.

"If you think that I am just going to stand by and watch as you go back to kill Timpani and Alastor for good, YOU HAVE ANOTHER THING COMING!!!" Blumiere exclaimed.

With a yell, Blumiere tackled his father to the ground, trying to wrestle back the book Astor swapped.

"What has gotten into you?! When I say 'fix' I don't always mean it in the bad way!!!" Astor stated, "This time will be DIFFERENT!"

Blumiere let out a yelp of surprise as his father was able to levitate him and throw him against the wall with shocking ease.

"If you do this, I shall NEVER FORGIVE YOU!!!" Blumiere screamed.

Astor scoffed as he pulled back out the book he swiped from Dimentio's shelf.

"You already will never forgive me; your threat is hollow." Astor retorted, "However, you'll be lucky to even remember this interaction once I'm done."

Astor whipped out the page he was looking for and with the flick of his wrist and snapping of his fingers, he vanished into thin air.

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The landscape was barren, and dull; no color for miles in any direction save for the black outlines, white ground, and occasional grey debris. This plane was what was the Sammer Kingdom almost an hour ago; now, it was the Void.

A small distortion appeared in the air, almost like a rift, before onto the floor appeared Astor. Astor paused and glanced around, trying to get his bearings after he honestly didn't expect the spell to work. He got up and brushed himself off, humming in thought.

"The spell apparently only goes so far back in time." Astor mused, "But WHEN and WHERE am I?"

Astor kept looking around until he finally caught sight of movement, which wasn't hard in contrast to how dead everything else seemed. He started towards the movement and went wide-eyed as soon as he recognized Dimentio to be standing there! Though he looked a little off to Astor with him wearing a black and white mask, his jester attire was still distinguishable.

"What in the worlds is Alastor doing in a place like this? It couldn't have been too long ago!" Astor told himself.

Astor kept on going towards him until he saw someone else with him, forcing him to freeze as he tried to make out the figure.

"What is going on..?" Astor questioned, his eyes narrowing.

He watched Dimentio wave his hands and a transparent yellow box appeared around the other figure, who now looked frightened for their life.

"Wait one moment..." Astor murmured.

Astor gasped as soon as recollection hit him. He somewhat recognized the other man Dimentio was with; after all, Dimentio had yelled at him for touching his mementos of him. And he also remembered Dimentio telling him that this moment he was about to witness was one of Dimentio's biggest regrets.

"Well, if I'm going to mess with time, might as well start somewhere!" Astor laughed.

Without another word, Astor quickly took off sprinting towards Dimentio and who could only be Mr.L.