TBATE - Not Bound By Fate

Part 5

Arthur

"Wait, send you back like me? Tess, did you time travel?" How did she do it? Was there another staff? What about Cecilia? Was she the only one who came back with me or were there more people as well? If there were more, who were they?

My mind was overrun with thoughts like these, trying to figure out what Tess just said implied and how it would affect my plans until I heard her calling for me while shaking my body back and forth.

"Stop getting lost in thought you dummy. And yes, I did time travel thanks to someone called the Archivist."

"Are you okay now? What about Cecilia?" I couldn't help but worry.

"I'm fine and Cecilia is gone. I don't know how but the Archivist got rid of her." Immediately relief washed over me as she answered.

"That's good. What about your core and beast will? Did this Archivist send you back with them?" I asked, knowing we would have to find a way to deal with the corruption if that was the case.

"No, he only sent my soul and memories back." Maybe that's for the best since now I can look for a different will for Tess, one that wasn't touched by Agrona.

"I see. I'm glad you're here with me, I don't know if I could handle the waiting."

"Is that so? Maybe I should make you wait for me this time." She said in a teasing tone but continued before I could respond.

"Jokes aside, I know why it took you so long to confess. So much of what you did makes sense to me now. But it changes nothing between us, you're still the boy who saved without asking for nothing in return, the boy who was my first friend and was always there for me when I needed. For me you always were and always will be Arthur Leywin." She finished while bringing me into a hug.

I couldn't help but to start crying at her words. I knew I would have to tell her about my reincarnation some day, and the thought of her reacting like mom and dad terrified me. I wouldn't be able to keep going if that was the case, and lucky for me, it wasn't. I stayed crying in her arms for a while until I composed myself. I've been crying a lot these past few days.

"How did you find out about it? About Grey?" I asked as I pulled away from the hug.

"There really wasn't a lot for me to do other than to look at Cecilia's memories. But I only have her side of the story. I want to hear yours as well."

"Alright, you deserve to know and I was going to tell you someday. But that can wait until morning, it's pretty late and you're gonna need all the sleep you can get until we arrive in Zestier."

"Right, I guess I can wait a few more hours and I'm pretty tired still. Good night Art."

"Good night Tess." With that she immediately fell asleep next to me and I decided to get some sleep shut eye as well. I can experiment with my core later, right now I just want to enjoy moments like these while I can.

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As the morning arrived, Tess and I stayed outside the tent eating some of the rations that were left in my dimensional rune and I prepared myself to tell her what my life as Grey was like.

And so I began, from my earliest memories with headmaster Willbeck to the moment Nico arrived in the orphanage. I told her about how we used to rob rich houses to help the headmaster financially. The day Cecilia arrived, her outburst of ki, how we got close after I saved her. The day we were attacked and some men tried to kidnap Cecilia and how I killed one of them and how we saw the headmaster being carried away dead from the burning orphanage. At this point, tears started flowing from Tess's eyes.