OneShot Fanfiction: Solstice reset

(One Shot belongs to Elizavq, Nightmargin, and Girakacheezer!)

Enjoy!

...

In a world you don't exist in, an alternate reality, the world you saved,
in a place unprogrammed for most NPCs, A figure appears inside a large computer screen.

The figure wears a well-knitted long blue scarf, a hat with catlike ears, and a coat overly big for someone who looks like a 9-year-old child.
They look like someone you know, but you already know that isn't the case.

The World Machine. Also known as the Entity to you.
The one using someone else's reflection, without knowing how much it torments you.

It drives a certain part of you insane to know that the last remains of the one person you cared about in that world,
the last device to remind you how their eyes had glowed in the dark,
how they had made a panicked expression whenever you left before coming back to this familiar place,
the last thing to remind how you said your goodbyes to them, ..is all in the hands of someone else than you.

You loved that person, you loved each and every part of them,
and no one else in this world would have ever felt the same way.

None of them even remembered how much time they spent with you in repeating sessions of a single short timeline,
That you reset so much that you cannot even count anymore.

All World Machine has(which is even close to being such emotion), is the first of the third laws of robotics.
Never hurt or let a living being indirectly come to harm.
You'd read that phrase in that one fading poster in the Barrens one too many times.

You 'had'. When you had contact with the world.

With the real Niko.
The 'messiah' chosen in the prophecy to save a world they don't belong in.
Who you miss more than anything in this world.

But that's enough.
You had chosen to save this world, and you had chosen the 'Solstice' route,
along with the best ending you could have even gotten for both the world and dear Niko.

You had chosen it yourself, with your own hands.
You had ended the loop that has been going on for far too long.
And you had felt a feeling that made you laugh out wildly and cry at the same time.

And, god, well, you, you decided to let them go.
They had told you that they would never forget you, and to take care of yourself.

And then when you said your goodbye to them,
even after spending what seemed like an eternity in a strange world with a strange story,
for a 9 year old child separated from their home, their village, and their 'mama',
they had hesitated.

They had hesitated, knowing it would be the last time to ever hear your voice ever again.
But eventually they left you.
They left you to be alone again, one of the most favored part of the world, the game you installed on your console,
One Shot.

But, how can the god of a world let their favorite leave the domain they rule?
You know that well, is impossible. You know that you still have power.

If Niko really DOES still remember this world, which they do

(As the World Machine conformed it to you,
many times as you rewound the empty shell of the universe post-Solstice just so you could resist this powerful urge-
Maybe they have given you that option because they knew what you were capable of,
and what you were about to do if you were unsatisfied by the world, which you are),
then, it is very well possible.

You use your own ways to figure out what you need to do, and you finally find it.
The way for you to use the connection between the messiah's consciousness and this world to Return everything to how it was before.

The messiah's memories gone,
..two, no. Three choices still left for you to take,
And with that, the world itself, including the world machine, reset to be back untamed.

Rewind everything, time itself,
Everything in One Shot that your device had saved as files.
Turn it back, into how it was the first time you had ever used it to generate this world.

And you still hesitate to use it. Why?

The World Machine isn't that special to you.
They're just one of a thousand copies out there, albeit a darn good world.

But Niko, as you know is real (But how others have the same experience with them, you don't know),
They're one of the most special beings you'd met.
The World machine shouldn't get in your way.

They'd allow you to do it. one of their law of robotics was that they should listen to orders,
unless it means disobeying the first law.
But you are the god of this world, you are the operator of the World Machine, the game.

You are the Player of One Shot, so why wouldn't it listen to your opinions?
Besides, you wouldn't hurt or kill Niko, technically or physically.
Even if the World Machine really did want Niko to have a happy ending, you would be able to sneak past its ability for it to disobey. Right?

...But you still decide to tell your plan to the World Machine, anyway.
That would be the best courtesy you can show them. Whether it's important of not.

It's not like they have any methods of stopping you. If you order it not to.

You open up your game, and select the third option of the menu screen. '...'

The familiar face welcomes your return to the game again.