(MOVED TO AO3) Time Travel Trouble - An Eddsworld Fanfic

20 - First Meetings

Tord and Sophie are in shock. Even Eduardo and Mark are, even if they probably heard the story before.

In the time that had gone by since he started the story, Edd had gone through about 5 glasses of cola. Now he was leaning against the counter, head in his hands and tears running down his face.

"As you can tell, my idea of Tom and Matt having found somewhere safe to hide was completely wrong." He says, breath hitching. "Of course, I didn't know that Red Leader had them at the time. So for a few months, me and Soph stuck together and found a temporary place to stay and look out for them."

He takes another gulp of his cola before continuing.

"I really let myself go during that time. Sometimes I just stayed standing by the window of our hideout watching for any sign of them. Not eating or drinking anything. I barely slept or spoke to Soph anymore." Edd goes on. "And worst of all, I grew a beard. But as you can tell, I'm not bothered by it very much."

"Talk about being neglectful of the only friend you had left though huh." Eduardo scoffs, rolling his eyes.

Edd glares at his old neighbor, clenching the glass he was holding tighter.

"Anyway, it was 6 months after Red Leader took over the city. And that's when IT happened."

"Cola got outlawed?" Sophie guesses, to which Edd responses with a nod.

"My head wasn't in the right place that day. Soph kept worrying about me, sleep deprivation and a lack of food I was eating was getting to me, and I lashed out at her. She ended up storming out, and I was stupid and didn't go after her."

"That's what he meant by 'sent you away'." Sophie recalls from yesterday.

Edd's grip on his glass tightens again, it showing signs of cracking.

"I never saw her again after that, and never found out where she was. When December rolled around, 11 months after the takeover, I finally decided I'd had enough and...tried to...get rid of myself..."

Tord shivers a little at that.

"Some Red Army soldiers I snuck by mentioned something about a time travel wristwatch one day. So I made a plan to sneak into the main base and steal it. Somehow, it worked. And I traveled back in time to off myself in the past."

"So, if I'm getting this right, you told me, Edd, Tom and Matt that you were trying to kill your past self because cola got outlawed." Sophie speaks up. "But you never mentioned anything about what happened to the future me, Tom and Matt."

Edd grips on to his arm with his hand not holding the cracked glass.

"I didn't want you to know how much of a garbage friend I had become, leaving Tom and Matt to potentially die and pretty much abandoning you." He mutters, voice cracking.

"Then when Tom and Matt showed up to stop me, even with their cybernetic enhancements, I felt somewhat hopeful again. I thought that, despite leaving them behind, they were still my friends and came to find me."

Tord shuffles closer to Edd, a hand on his shoulder.

"I-I thought things would find a new sense of normalcy again, despite the horrible future we lived in now." He chuckles nervously, tears running down his cheeks. "But when we got back, and I tried telling them to follow me so we could look for Soph and hide from Red Leader, they acted like they hardly knew me."

"At first I thought it was just a dumb joke they were pulling on me. But I quickly found out it wasn't. They didn't even recognize me, and they didn't know who Soph was."