Save State Hero 2 -ch 12- (Patreon)

Edmund froze.

“Oz,” he said as his brain wildly began spinning outward. Running down the loose and stupid thought.

“Yes, Edmund?”

“This ball of light. You told me what it was once. What is it, again?”

“An echo in reality. It is a non-presence that isn’t alive,” Oz said aloud. The way he said it made Edmund feel weird for some reason. “These occur from time to time. There are a great many more of them since the reality shifting event. They tend to vanish when Edmund performs a load on a Save-state.

“Edmund need not fear them, though their increase in numbers is disconcerting. It would be advised to not get near them, as they cause instability.”

“Did they occur before the reality shifting event?” Edmund asked.

“Yes,” Oz confirmed.

“Did this one occur before the reality shifting event?” he clarified, pointing at the light. It’d trailed closer to him again and was hovering around him.

“I don’t understand,” Oz said.

“You said they’re an echo in reality. That they vanish as well. You said ‘tend to’ though. Not always. Did that ‘tend to’ become a thing after the thing Felix did?”

“Yes. Prior to that it was always.”

“Is this echo… Andrea?” Edmund inquired, pointing at it still. “Because it’s somewhere it really shouldn’t be. Investigating Save-states, no less. In fact, I’d hazard a guess it even has imprints of multiple save-states on it.

“Dorothy made it seem like it was singular. Even Ryker had apparently seen it and treated it as a one-off without realizing it was important.

“Everyone set it aside with what’d happened with Felix.”

Even as he spoke, Edmund was feeling more and more certain of his words as he went. That this was indeed Andrea. That it couldn’t be anything else, in fact.

It matched with everything he thought, knew, and had learned of what Andrea was, where she had gone, and what she had been doing.

Even the time-lines of when people had seen it matched up.

“I am currently researching this. Given what you have said, what I know, and what we have witnessed, your illogical conclusion, seems to be accurate and correct,” Oz stated.

For some reason, Edmund got the feeling that Oz was rather frustrated. That this “illogical conclusion” of Edmund’s annoyed the man.

“Don’t be mad, Oz. It’s definitely illogical, but in the same breath, how the fuck is it here?” Edmund demanded. “It’s here, in save-states, that it has no business being in. Did the previous ‘echoes’ that you noted behave like this?”

“No. No they did not,” Oz ground out.

Edmund reached out to the light and held his palm out flat to it. Holding his hand there.

“Hey there, Andrea. How about you come with me?” he tried. “We can make pancakes when you get back. Maybe we can even talk Felix into it.

“In fact, I know for a fact that we can go visit him after we get you settled back in, and he’ll drown you in pancakes and affection.”

As if understanding part of what he said, the odd light slowly fluttered toward his hand. Quivering as it drew ever nearer to him.

Then, all at once, it collapsed into his palm in a weird way. As if no longer able to keep itself up right.

It felt warm and heavy in his hand.

“Hey there, Andrea. You’ve worked hard. Haven’t you?” Edmund murmured. “I bet Felix will give you so much attention that you won’t even know what to do with it.

“Maybe even lock you in a room for a few days. Didn’t you say you wanted him to do that once?”

The strange light faded to a light pink color.

It is Andrea!

There’s no fucking doubt about it.

I’d tell Alina I’d rather fuck a rotweiler than her before I believe this isn’t Andrea.

“You done confirming this is Andrea?” Edmund demanded.

“I cannot confirm your theory. It seems likely as well as plausible, but I genuinely have no way of confirming it,” answered Oz.

“Well, how do I get this soul out of here then. Because once we figure that part out, I can just load into the moment she died. Red border, blue border, or gold, it won’t matter,” Edmund declared. “Once I put her back, she’ll be back in all save-states. Right?”

“That is correct. We would need to return to the moment that she lost her soul and I do have several save-states we can use,” Oz offered.

A second later several different Save-states appeared.

One of them he knew personally.

A shifting save-state that went from red, blue, and gold, as it shifted about.

It was from Edmund’s point of view as he was staring at Andrea.

“Which… save-state is this from?” he asked. “Which timeline, I guess, might be a better way to say it?”

“Slightly askew from your original one, but all the highlights are the same,” Oz stated. “The differences are minimal. This is the one that puts you closest to Andrea as this is the mili-second after she was struck.”

“After? After would work. It’d be the moment she died. Her soul was lost. If I can just… pop it back in, it’d be like nothing happened,” Edmund murmured with a small nod of his head. “How do we get Andrea out? The right save-state is moot unless I can get her out.”

“Honestly, I don’t know. There’s a lot of latent magic that’s been put in you that realistically warps everything you touch or interact with,” Oz said with what felt like caution. “Every single instance that we go into, I note a distinct change in Dorothy, Claire, and Aenor Yew.

“They seem to be very aware that you’ve entered the Save-state and change. Often ending whatever task they were working on and begin working on something different.

“Claire almost always immediately reaches out to me to ascertain the current situation. Asking directly about Ryker’s well being.”

“Fuck,” hissed Edmund. “How bad is Aenor’s and Dot’s?”

“Dorothy seems to be aware that things are different but doesn’t alter what she’s doing too much,” Oz stated.

“And Aenor?” Edmund pressed.

“She is Aenor.”

“Yes, but what about her.”

“She is Aenor Yew.”

“Yes, but how is she reacting to me going into a save-state. You wouldn’t have brought her up without her being noteworthy.”

“Her response is in line with Aenor Yew’s historical responses. Her seed is well aware of every change of course.”

Er… ah.

Oz can’t see her seed as something else other than her.

I suppose that’s fair.

It is her in many ways.

“Fine, whatever. So you have no idea how to yank Andrea with me?” Edmund asked.

“I do not. I brought up your current changes as I cannot guarantee that you could not just bring her with you by holding onto her,” Oz stated. “Assuming it really is Andrea that is. I have no way of disputing your statement, but it still feels very hard to fathom it.”

“It’s Andrea,” Edmund declared. “Andrea… we’re going to head back now. To home. Or… errr… my home, not your home.

“Though, I do hope you view it as your home. Maybe we can make a trip to figure out what the recipe was for those pancakes and remake’em.

“But… we’re gonna go now. It’ll probably hurt and be weird… but… just… trust me. Okay? Trust me.

“We’re going back to Felix and pancakes. You’re two favorite things. Miu and syrup, too?”

A pulse rippled across the light at his statement. He assumed it was an agreement, but he would never have a way of knowing.

“Okay, we’re ready then,” Edmund muttered, more to himself than anyone else. He was terribly nervous and worried about what he was about to do.

If this worked, then he would have managed to solve one of the biggest hurdles. Everything else could start moving forward.

“If this works, which way should we go next, Oz?” stalled Edmund.

“I don’t know, Edmund. I think your original plan was to work the route with Dorothy and her plan to join Zeus’ forces,” Oz reminded him.

“Errr… yeah. I suppose that’s right. To save Dot I’ll have to figure out why she’s doing what she’s doing or just preventing Ryker’s death outright.

“She didn’t seem too particularly messed up when I told her about Ryker’s death, did she?” Edmund mused. Suddenly wondering if there was something else going on with what happened to her.

“That is accurate, Edmund. Her responses to his death definitely felt like they held grief in them, but not to the same level that would cause her to join the other side.”

Edmund grunted at that.

“Then maybe that’s what we do. Run it through again, go with Dot and watch. By go with her, I mean, hand on her ass, watch her through the entire fight, and monitor for anything going weird,” Edmund stated. “Though, do you think Claire’s attacks will make the world weird again?”

“If she attacks in the same way, yes. It’ll cause a disturbance once again. Though I don’t think she would. Her communications to me since putting that spell upon you speak more to an awareness of things.

“I think all I would need to do is warn her about what to do and she would be fine.”

“Right,” Edmund said in a flat tone.

Then activated the save-state as it turned golden.

He clenched his had around the light at the exact same time. Demanding that it travel with him and working at utilizing the spell Dot had spun up for him.

To chase and trail Andrea.

Because she wouldn’t have given him the spell by itself he reasoned. It likely would contain a value that would let him bring the soul back with him.

At this time he was certain that this light was Andrea’s soul.

“Edm— there i— somet—” came Oz’s voice from a great distance. As if he were shouting at him through a tunnel.

It echoed horribly and made it impossible to understand anything of what was being said.

“E—destabilizing,” was the final word Edmund heard before the world came into view around him.

Then probably tore itself apart.

Hundreds of iterations of the world playing out wildly all around him.

Perhaps even thousands with small insignificant changes that one would barely be able to notice.

There were even those that were running in reverse.

Walking the whole thing backward at the exact same time.

It left Edmund feeling as if his very mind was being pulled apart one grey-wrinkle at a time. The entirety of the universe unraveling like a sweater caught on a nail unknowingly.

A trail of material leading ever backward from the point of origin.

Gritting his teeth, or at least trying to, Edmund worked at stabilizing his thoughts and mind. To bring everything back to order and organize a defense at whatever this was.

Only to realize it was his own mind.

His mind was attacking itself in wild abandon. As if he himself were the enemy to himself.

With a groan, Edmund wanted to collapse to the ground, crawl up into a fetal position, and put his hands to his head.

Or maybe beat at his head with his hands. Beat whatever was going inside of his skull and force it to stop.

To make everything come to a halt.

Knock out whatever it was that was tearing his very pscyhe apart.

In a single moment after that thought he knew why he was his own enemy.

Because it wasn’t him at all.

His echoes had all risen up to fight him.

To battle Edmund for control of Edmund. All of them terrified of their existences truly ending along with their save-states.

Because the moment he returned Andrea to her body, all of their save-states would forever be unusable.

Forever unusable, as Andrea’s death would be permanently undone in a way that would likely scramble all of creation.

Just as Felix had done.

Will I ever be able to get back to Alina though?

Damn.

I might lose the connection to that world with her.

How would I even get it to come back?

Could I somehow manage to make everything happen in the same way?

Would I be able to really fight Skipper just as I had done last time, without error?

Fuck.

Fuck!

I’m going to lose that world with Alina.

Even as he had the thought, he realized why all the Edmund’s were battling him. In existing with him they were still alive.

Still a part of who and what Edmund was.

The moment he cleared this Andrea hurdle, they would cease to exist.

Just as Erma had pointed out.

A dream doesn’t remember itself.

Only the dreamer remains.

“I’m— the— dreamer!” growled Edmund as he clutched at Aenor’s seed inside him. His rock that certified him as the one and only Edmund.

Everyone else was an echo, a shadow, a time-lost memory.

As he had previously told Nadine, a time-capsule.

Holding tight to that seed, to Claire’s magical construct, and Dot’s addition, Edmund forcefully pushed himself up.

Or at least, mentally.

He held himself against the desperate attacks from what was essentially other versions of himself.

All of them terrified to truly be dead.

To lose their life and no longer be alive in any way.

In a way that he could identify with as he himself would more than likely have the same fear.

“It’s for Felix!” he shouted at them. “For Felix, Dot, and Alina! Even Romina! None of them do well without Andrea being here.

“I have to restore Andrea. I have to make this happen and put it all back to rights!

“If I don’t, what have we gained? Nothing. Everyone we care for and love suffer. They suffer because we’re not willing to put the world back into the way it was meant to be.

“Even Ryker said the world wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Runner said it as well. Without Andrea, it isn’t as it should be! She is the literal key to everything else. To everyone else.

“That means that the dreamer must awaken! I have to cast off all these shadows, these echoes, all of you, to bring the world back into reality.

“Would you deny Felix this!? Deny Alina, Aenor, Dot, or Romina any of this? You scramble and scream for your own existences, but what about them?

“You’re but echoes! I will carry your memories forward as memories. I will carry your sacrifice forward. I’ll shoulder it all.

“But to do that I have to put Andrea back where she belongs. Can you truly say that Legion was the same without her afterward? You all lived in that world.”

By the time he had finished speaking, a great many of the echoes had given up in their last ditch effort to claim ownership of the mind they all inhabited.

There were only a few left making an effort, and even those, seemed to be half hearted.

One by one, as if realizing they were truly in the wrong, even those ceased in their efforts.

“I’ll carry you all forward. It’s time to stop living in the past though, isn’t it?” Edmund offered with a small shake of his head. “It’s time to push on and get this whole thing back on track.

“Starting with Andrea. She needs to be back in place. And now. Don’t stop me. This has to be done.”

Rather than stop him, the echoes seemingly propelled him.

Edmund was violently ejected from wherever it was he had been.

And found himself standing next to Andrea even as she began to fall. The light of her life extinguished from her eyes.

Edmund immediately snatched out at her, holding tight to what he believed was her soul, trusting that it was still there in his hand.

That it had come with him and was here at this very moment.

Grabbing her shoulder he held on tightly to her.

There was a soft clicking noise inside his head, the sky above flickered from every possible color imaginable as everyone, and everything, around him became someone or something else.

Cycling wildly and endlessly in a way that made him feel disgusting and disoriented. That he wanted to throw up immediately and then fall into a bed to go to sleep.

Only for it to all come to a sudden stop as Andrea stood straight up. Her body trembling slightly as if she’d been struck violently.

Then she turned, looked right at him, and grinned.

“Ooooooooi, thanks! That one hurt, haha,” Andrea said with a laugh. “We really need to get you set up with a Beastkin.

“I know met this wonderful little Weasel the other day and she was just delightful! I bet you and her would get along smashingly.

“Oh, oh, oh, I… I need to… I need to go find Felix. I don’t know why but I really need to go find him now.”

Andrea had said the last while suddenly reaching up and patting at tears that were suddenly sliding down her face.

“I need to find Felix and make him eat pancakes with me,” she said with a sudden sob. “I don’t know why I feel so weird. I-I-I… I need to go. Thanks, Edmund. Thank you. You, me, Beastgirl, Felix, double-date. Soon. Don’t hide. I’ll run you down.”

Andrea turned and sprinted away. Heading in what was likely a bee-line for Felix.

“Well,” Edmund said with a small catch in his throat.

Looking around he saw more than a few large groups of Andrea’s rampaging wildly around the area.

Driving vehicles they got from somewhere, wielding weapons, and in some situations, clubbing people to death with what looked like rocks and sticks.

They were on a true rampage.

“It would seem we were successful,” Oz stated. “Congratulations, Edmund. I would—”

Ellie was in front of him in a flash. Both of her hands pressed to his face and staring into his eyes. Gazing at him with extreme worry.

At the back of his mind he wondered if she was aware of it all.

He suddenly was very suspicious of the way Oz had spoken and how often Ellie seemed to know more than she let on.

That she was aware of him slipping through save-states and actively seemed to know everything that was going on.

“You know,” he said accusingly.

“Yes,” she confirmed, still gazing into his face. “I do. I’ve never faulted you for anything you’ve done, by the way. So don’t feel guilty.

“I thought your relationship with Alina was quite wholesome in a way and I approved of it.”

He felt the seed in his chest lurch at the words.

In what he could only describe as pain.

She was lying to him for his own emotional security.

Ellie winced as soon as her seed did.

“Okay, well, maybe I was a little jealous and envious,” she admitted with a grimace. “A lot. Okay? I’m not… I… we’ll talk later. We should see where this goes, shouldn’t we? This is the first time pass this.”

Well… I… well, at least I have someone to talk to now other than Oz.

That’s nice.

Someone who can go through this all with me.

She can even afford to die and she’ll just come right back.

This should be a lot better.

Edmund’s thoughts solidified around the idea of Alina and the strange relationship he’d had with her.

He didn’t have to look to confirm that the save-state was no longer something he could reach out to.

When it fractured and became red the second Andrea returned to life, he had known it.

It was broken to the point that it wouldn’t be usable for any reason.

He had lost the save-state that he had made in the tunnel of save-states where he had been living with her.