World of Unknown Consequence

The Way That Fate Is Twisted

     "Wait, over in your world we're already dead? Since when?" Kyle asked, shocked. Eins and Blair exchanged looks at one another for a moment. Then, Blair walked past me and shut down the terminal, heading straight out of the door. Eins followed soon after, beckoning us to follow. We were led up to the main terminal and noticed a bunch of new articles on screen. I didn't even notice that these files existed before. 

     "We kept these hidden away so that you guys wouldn't have to see it, but I guess that's not going to help us now, is it?" Blair said aloud. She enlarged one of the many articles and left me shocked at what was shone before me. The first thing that I recognized was five banners, each one with a picture of each of our faces on them. Underneath each banner was a gravestone left unmarked or inscribed. Above the picture in its entirety was the headline that read: "Five Heroes Fall in Latest Fight Against Nightmares." We were already dead in Eins and Blair's world. We had worked hard and fought with all we had and still fell in a battle against Nightmares. It was the weirdest feeling to know that those who were mentioned in the articles were none other than a future version of me and my friends. The fact that those future selves were dead made things a little worse. It would have been fine if we had been at least disabled, but to hear that we were dead was unsettling, to say the least. 

     "I... I see," Anna could only mutter, "I guess that means that fitting into our timeline shouldn't be too hard. Plus, there won't be that much confusion in the general public knowing that... well..." After that was yet another long silence. Blair and Eins looked as though they felt extremely guilty for even mentioning this to us, which they shouldn't. Although I can understand their way of thinking just a little, no one wants to hear about their death in the near future - not even if the timeline had changed a little to warrant a chance of it not happening. 

     "Let's put that behind us right now. I mean, this is our timeline, and we got a head start on the fight by a good few years," Maya suddenly started talking, scanning over me and everyone else, "I mean, according to the articles, we were already in our mid-twenties when we started learning to fight against the Nightmares. Now look at us! We're still just teenagers in high school and we've already taken down a few Nightmares ourselves. The 'us' in those articles isn't the same 'us' that's still alive and breathing right here and right now!" Her eyes looked sharp and determined, as though she was telling herself that she wasn't going to die so easily. In a way, it was pretty inspiring. I can see how she eventually would go to form the Roseheart Militia.

     "I'll go and get the remainder of my family then," Blair said, walking towards the Warper room, "Eins, help me maintain order over here, will you? I'll need you here to explain everything when they come through." Eins gave a swift nod and began to follow after her. "It's definitely going to be weird to found the two groups, I guess," Kyle said absentmindedly, "I mean, Eins was one of my soldiers and Blair was one of yours, right Maya?" 

     "Are you going to ignore the fact she's sort of my mother-in-law here?" Blair commented offhandedly, albeit ignored completely.

     "Even so, it would be nice for them to fight in their respective groups here," Maya entertained the thought, "After all, they have the most combat experience out of all of us, and they were the ones that helped us become the fighters we are right now. It would be pointless for them to stay out of the fight once their groups are founded again." Anna and I merely exchanged looks of concern as the two continued to talk about their futures. I didn't even notice that Mattie was staring at his phone, his face paler than a ghost.

     "H-hey guys?" Mattie's shaking voice caught our attention, "Come look at this, and please tell me if you've seen it before on the terminal." Confusion and concern both came to me all at once as I watched Anna walk over and take a look at what Mattie was looking at. Within seconds, even she turned pale, lips quivering as though she were freezing in a snowstorm. Nothing but inaudible mumbles left their mouths, and eventually Kyle looked the same. Maya and I looked at each other and went over to see what was going on. I could understand their fear as I read the article displayed on Mattie's phone: "Nightmare Attack in Russia - No Heroes to the Rescue".