One More Chance - A Yogscast Fanfiction

The Infinite Time

Rythian fell to his knees in that dark void, and slammed his fists onto the ground. What had he done wrong, so many times. No matter how many years passed, no matter what he did, Zoey's fate had not changed. He had tried, so many times, so many different places. He went back to the same spot so many times, but nothing would change. Even as he went back, for a hundred times over a million years, nothing changed, and nothing moved. He had tried so many times, so many time-lines.

He tried to save her. But he could not. And in the end, he was still lost. What could he had really hope to achieve, even with a million chances, an infinity plus a bit more. Rythian felt lost, so very lost and confused. He remembered the time-line where he ventured into science with Zoey, as much as he despised it he did it with her, thinking that it would change. But no matter how many times he tried, it would never change. Zoey still ran away from him, she still died. He knew that the answer lay when she ran from him, but nothing he did prevented it. From the very beginning, fate had determined that she would leave him, that he would turn dark, and then she would die. What had he truly desired to achieve, her love, or her safety? Could breaking her heart and telling her never to return saved it?

But no, he already did that. A hundred times ago, he already did that. He scared her off, but she came back. And in that, he sealed her fate. Her fate was sealed in the moment she returned, when she heard of the nuke and tried to defuse it.

Nothing would change no matter how many years passed, no matter how many times he tried to save her.

I guess... It was not meant for me to decide...

Ah... Lord Helix. What is it that I did wrong?

I could ask you the same thing.

Came the booming voice, so calm and so serene. Rythian suddenly returned to that white place, with nothing inside. Then memories flew past him, memories of over a millennium. It ran past him in a blur of white, such a pretty smile still etched in his mind. How many times had he failed? He did not know. But he knew he failed enough. Then the white figure stepped out of the white fog, with a smile as calm as he first met Rythian.

"Hello again, Rythian." He said, but this time, Rythian could not meet his golden eyes with the same response.

"I failed."

"Indeed?" The response came back as a question, and Lord Helix loped with an easy grace, standing next to Rythian, watching the memories roll past, and then he waved a hand, slowing it all down.

"So many mistakes, so many different ways that it could have been done. But the ending... Was all the same." He said, with his usual chuckle. Rythian sighed, his eyes still fixated on the image of a beautiful laugh. That shade of her flowing hair, that smile without a care.

It was likely that most of them would forget it in a heartbeat. But not Rythian, he knew. Even after a millennium and a day, he would never forget it. Those hazy days flew by, and out the pane of sky... What was it that he was waiting to be echoed back? Even though he tried, her words will pass him by.

In the end he didn't solve a thing at all!

"I suppose I have some things to explain." Helix said, and Rythian turned to him in shock.

"What do you mean?"

"I paid a great price to help you save a mortal..." He mused, and suddenly that usual calm demeanour faltered. The smile melted away, and sorrow took its place. Helix held up his palm, and summoned a memory to him. But it was not something familiar to Rythian. But there it was, in front of him.

"That's... Me..." Rythian, so full of shock, stared at the image of himself and another man, nearly identical to Helix, but darker. Black hair, red eyes. A black tunic, and dark wings. And Rythian realised, there was the same as himself. But he was the grey - and slightly older version of everything he had seen, and yet he knew that it was him. Nothing like the one he knew in the mirror, but he knew it was himself.