I don't own this Mirai Nikki/Future Diary but I do own the forgetful brain that neglected to remember to add this disclaimer in.

Hey! First official story. I actually have a few story in the works, but I've been rereading Mirai Nikki recently and decided to do what more or less amounts to a Peggy Sue story. Guess which got finished first?

Anyway, Yuki is such a wimp so why not make him go through the story a little tougher, a little wiser, a little smarter?

Why not make him go through the story of Mirai Nikki knowing and understanding the people he is going to be forced to kill? Won't that be fun?

I apologize if THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER IS NOTHING BUT A 5K LONG SUMMARY OF THE MANGA. I am writing that in all caps so people are less likely to miss that bit of information. I needed set-up and a way to gauge how my writing is going while also sowing some character development and foreshadowing. It was a blast, at least for me. Anyway, I hope you, the reader, enjoy!

P.S. I am well versed in English and can proofread my own work to an extent, but I can and will miss some grammatical/spelling errors. It's pure statistics that I can't be 100% accurate no matter how hard I try, so if you see any mistakes, shoot me a message. I hate it when a spelling/grammatical error ruins a good read.

April 22nd

4: 40 (MY ROOM)

I have a... dream? Nightmare? A premonition?

I wake up crying.

"It's a [DIARY] that tells the [FUTURE]." His 'imaginary' companion Deus bellowed.

He was there and not there at the same time. Yukiteru Amano felt like he was an outside observer as he always was, an bystander simply watching the world pass him by but at the same time he could feel the intensity and fear and confusion of his counterpart.

Almost as if he was there.

His mind wandering, the self-proclaimed God of Time and Space answered question that he had dismissed in his inattention. "If I am a God, don't you think it is possible for me to live within your imagination?"

It was just a dream, but he could feel his blood run cold.

"This is my [FUTURE DIARY]." The girl from his class, Yuno Gasai smiled as she showed her phone to him... he meant the other Yuki, looking incredibly happy at their proximity. He noticed that every entry was about him.

"Wait! Why are they all about me!?" Though truth be told, he fancied the idea of the school idol secretly having a crush on him.

The thought however jumped back to disquieting with the girl's next statements. "That's because mine is the [Yukiteru DIARY]. It will show me Yukiteru's future in every 10 minutes! My [FUTURE DIARY] of love."

She leaned in close to him, his doppelganger. "This means Yuki's future belongs to Yuno." The same thought crossed both he and his look-alike. The uneasy notion that she had recorded his every action. That the school idol was a crazed stalker, specifically his crazed stalker.

Before his other self could react, Yuno pressed the elevator's control panel to send them to the 17th floor.

He and Yuno had formulated a plan to take down the local serial killer, the Third [DIARY] holder and soon-to-be killer of the First, Yukiteru Amano.

Not if they had anything to say about that, though.

He had to hit the phone at the exact moment that the Third looked to check for his location on hid [DIARY]. And he had to hit it so quickly that the Third would have no chance to block the attack. It was a split second action, and any margin of error would see him dead. The shot had to be absolutely perfect.

"That brat! Where did he go!?" The voice seemed vaguely familiar, even through the killer's heavy mask.

He threw the dart just a second before he saw the man's eyes widen at their unexpected appearance, never getting a chance to check his diary or block the shot.

A hole appeared in the Third's chest before his body collapsed itself into nothing.

He was running through a minefield. He was running through a minefield.

It was insane.

He took an abrupt step to the left as he ran. The terrorist in the maid's outfit, the Ninth, Uryuu Minene, seemed flabbergasted.

"Eyes can speak as much as the mouth, right?" What was his other self talking about? "It was so obvious!"

His other self pulled out a dart from his jacket aimed directly at the mad bomber's [DIARY].

"First!" "Yuki!"

He hadn't hit home, but he hit quite close. Way too close in fact. To her eye. Specifically the cornea.

He was going to be sick.

He felt sick at what he was about to watch.

His classmate... stalker was about to be raped right in front of him to protect him.

A part of him felt like running. Another part felt horrified that he even considered abandoning the girl who had stayed by his side.

He couldn't help but cheer for himself a little as he jumped into the fray, though he acknowledged he did look a little pathetic in the process.

The girl or rather the Sixth, Tsubaki Kasugano, smiled cruelly. "You really came... First."

Yuno blushed, though knowing her it was less because she was half-naked, and more that he had arrived to save her. While half-naked.

"Do you plan to destroy me diary? Impossible. Appearing before me and my worshipppers. My clairvoyant diary could kill you at any time."The Sixth gave a nervous chuckle. Why was she nervous? "Before my worshippers there is nothing you could do!"

"That's right. That's what my diary predicts too." His doppelganger paused and looked at their... his enemy straight in the eye. "But the [DEAD END] flag has not yet been raised. This means I can depend on my ability to change the future!"

The two girls stared at him as he covered the still indecent Yuno with his jacket. "And I chose Yuno. I chose Yuno and we will continue living."

He broke into a sprint as the child cult leader screamed. "FIRST!"

He threw his dart at the girl with his left, non-dominant hand.

Wait, what?

He stared at the object sail through the air. A handball floating tossed nowhere in particular.

When he finally realized what was happening a dart had pierced the scroll in the shrine maiden's hand.

The ball that had been thrown stopped a short distance from the cult priestess.

"Why?" The girl's voice cracked at the sight of the toy. Tears began falling from her eyes though for reasons he did not know, she seemed to care more for the fact that he had used the ball against her than for her imminent demise. "Why right now?" An entire section of her shoulder disappeared as she too began to disappear. "Why did this return now?"

The air grew still for all but a whisper of a voice. A whisper whose meaning neither he nor his other self understood.

"It's too late now."

What the hell? What the honest to goodness, hell?

Yuno snuck into his house.

Yuno. Snuck. Into. His. House.

She snuck into his bedroom, doing heaven knows what in the intervening time, to meet his mom. He found her cleaning the room such that it sparkled. Literally sparkled. Even the bedsheets.

She had that manic grin she had only around him when he found her.

His thoughts were broken by the sounds of footsteps on the floor as he instinctively knew who was coming up. "Uhm... Yuki? There's a pot on the stove."

He shunted Yuno into the closet just in the nick of time as his mom entered the room. "What are you doing?"

He had to lean on the closet to prevent Yuno from getting out. "Uh... Uhm... I forgot about the pot."

He was practically yelling at his other self at this point. Don't chuckle nervously. It's suspicious as hell.

If she didn't notice, or just didn't care, his mom did not show a bit of concern, more preoccupied with the state of the room. "Ah you're cleaning?"

The closet opened just a slight bit to reveal the still smiling Yuno. "Yuki?"

"Hmm?" His mom turned around. "Did you just hear a girl's voice just now?"

"M...m...must have been your imagination." He wanted to slap his other self at this point. Don't stammer either.

"Yuki?"

His mother, who thanks to his excellent acting skills was for some reason about to leave, turned around again, finally piecing together the situation. "Yuki? Why have you been holding down the closet door this whole time?"

"W...what are you talking about? I'm just leaning on it." She wasn't buying it. Not one bit.

"Yuki." She began with an amused huff. "If it's really like that." She slowly approached him slowly. "Isn't that really called holding down the door?"

"So, Yuki." His mother put her arms on his should in a manner that was anything but affectionate. "Did you bring a girlfriend home!?"

Both Yuno and his other self's mother, seeing an opportunity, began pushing and pulling on him, respectively.

In his panic, he, honest to god, spun his mother out of the room.

His mother had brought along a poor orphan with her.

The poor orphan turned out to be one of the [DIARY] holders. A fact that he had found out firsthand after inhaling a mouthful of poison gas.

He was currently vomiting violently in the bathroom, utterly useless.

He hated how he needed Yuno to do anything right. Both he and his doppelganger.

He saw himself stand up, wobbling and weary, claiming he would check outside before taking a peek at his [DIARY]. He repeated this four times.

The fifth time, his eyes grew wide as he took a mouthful of air and ran outside.

He arrived at the stairs as the kid was about to stick some electric device on to the soaking floor. His sudden arrival shocked the two as he pushed the girl back and grabbed Yuno into a kiss.

He only had enough time to notice the blush on the pink haired stalker's face before blacking out.

Yuno was about to kill Hinata.

Yuno was about to kill their classmate.

He couldn't fathom why. "Why do you stop me from making friends?"

"Because..." Yuno stammered as she slowly dug the razor in their classmate's neck. "Because if Yuki becomes friends her, then Yuki might fall in love with her."

Her voice gave away her worsening composure and growing insanity. "I've got to kill her!"

He took a moment to turn to the others beside him. "I won't let anyone get close to Yuki! I'll kill anyone that does!" She shifted her gaze fromYuki to the people behind him. "You're all trying to steal Yuki from me, aren't you!"

A look of understanding flashed both his and his other's face, though while his other self's face grew into that of an exasperated sigh, his turned into an uneasy frown.

Just how crazy for him was Yuno?

"You only need me as a friend, right, Yuki?" She stated desperatly at this point.

Without missing a beat, his other self answered in a calm and controlled voice. "You're not my friend!"

Almost immediately, the girl broke. "YUKI!"

"Just listen to me, Yuno! You are not my friend." He paused before continuing. "Hinata. Akise. And even Kousaka." He turned to face each one, though he didn't dare take his eyes off Yuno. "I'll introduce everyone here to you."

He gave a smile as he waved his hand toward the crazed girl. "This is my girlfriend, Yuno Gasai."

The response was as, once again, Yuno broke.

This time in a good way.

Kurusu had betrayed him.

Yuno was going to die.

He was going to die.

It was a [DEAD END].

And still his other self refused to give up.

"I'll make you happy, Yuno." He was shaking as he held a gun up to his former ally. "We'll go back together! Even if you give up, Yuno, I won't give up!"

Static filled the air as Kurusu spoke. "Don't push it, Yukiteru. Don't you care what happens to Gasai?"

"I won't give up, see?" He took a deep breath. "Because... I love you too, Yuno!"

A shot rang out as Kurusu fell backwards.

He was strapped to a chair with Kousaka, a scantily clad Yuno holding a crossbow. Across him were a pair of skulls.

Yuno shot a crossbow bolt at Kousaka's arm.

Kousaka fell to the ground, shrieking."You're still not used to battle against those with foresight." Yuno set her sights on Kousaka with the same manic look she had when she nearly killed Hinata. "Well, release Yuki, like your prediction says, and afterwards, I'll kill you."

He needed to get out. He needed to get out fast. He only had his feet to reach but it'd have to do.

She stepped towards him as she continued. "The main thing is your diary isn't very strong. Since you are the sole target of its predictions, you can't see any of your surroundings." She flipped open her phone to check for any more surprises. "To tear Yuki and I with that."

Her eyes widened as she turned to look at the now empty chair.

A hand forced the crossbow out of her hands as it spoke. "It's the same for you too, right?

The pair stared at one another for what felt like an eternity before he slapped his psychotic stalker in the face.

He was wrapped up in a blanket, staring blankly at a photo as incense burned in front of it.

He had beaten Marco and Ai, the Seventh duo and saved his father's life.

And all it cost was the life of his mother.

Her life taken at the hands of his father.

After he betrayed his only son.

And now he was confronting his father over his mother's murder.

"Yuki?" He turned to face his son's angered call. "How did you get here?"

Noticing the bag at his father's side, he snatched it from him and ripped it open. "This evidence shows that you stabbed mother!"

He opened the bag to reveal a telescope. An older model, he mused to himself, but one that he remembered wanting when he was younger. "A telescope?"

He turned to face his father. "How is this evidence?"

His father turned away, refusing to meet his gaze. "I never said it was." Seeing his son return the telescope into its bag, he grabbed the device and held it close to his chest, as if at any second it could disappear. "This is the telescope we bought to look at the stars together. I was keeping it."

Pausing for a moment, he neatly put the telescope back in its bag as he continued. "Haha... I know it too. The police will get me soon." He had never seen his father so vulnerable before. "That's why I wanted some time... to compose myself."

He looked up in a daze. "I lit a stick of incense for your mother and went to get back the telescope that I was forced to pawn for money."

"Then..."

"I don't have any regrets now."

He paused, unsure of what he was about to say and slightly terrified of the answer his father would give him. "You were planning to turn yourself in from the beginning?"

He could now see his father had tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Yuki. I'm sorry about what I did to your mother."

…

The pair strolled past the shrine, reconciled and... family... once again. "In festival season, this place will be full of stores. This time, let's visit this place together," His father turned towards him with a bittersweet smile on his face, "when my sentence is over."

He paused for a moment to wipe the tears from his eyes. "Yeah." A ring from his pocket caught his attention. "Hey, um... dad?"

A muffled cry drew his attention from his pocket as he noticed a jogger pass by.

And a knife in his father's chest.

"First target eliminated. Moving on to second target."

He stood next to Yuno by a car, his machinations towards the senseless slaughter of the Eigth's flock against the Eleventh successful, as Uryuu and Akise stopped in front of them with a motorcycle.

Akise seemed all too pleased with himself, as if he figured out something worthwhile. Knowing Akise, he probably did. "Gasai, I have the DNA analysis of the third corpse." The budding detective raised a small metal container. "This."

Akise threw the box towards him. "Yukiteru, show this to Gasai."

He paused, more than a little lost at the influx of sudden developments. "Huh?"

His eyes locked on the box. "Try looking inside."

Yuno looked absolutely terrified at the box's contents. He, meanwhile, seemed even more lost than before. "What is this?"

His white haired friend smirked. "It's something Gasai left at the children's home she lived in when she was young. It is Gasai Yuno's umbilical cord."

Yuno's eyes widened at the revelation. " I comared the DNA from this umbilical cord with the DNA found from the third corpse at the Gasai residence."

Akise continued. "And from that, I found out that the third corpse had the exact same DNA as the one found in the umbilical cord."

Yuno burst into action. "That's a lie! Don't listen to him, Yuki!"

He, meanwhile, pondered the implications of the new information. "The... exact same?"

"It means that they belonged to the same person." He spoke with a tone of finality, that his next statement the final thread in a web of lies. "In other words, the 3rd corpse is none other than Gasai Yuno. Which means that the real Gasai Yuno is long dead."

The revelation hit him like a ton of bricks. "B-but... Yuno is-"

"Yukiteru," Akise interrupted, "I'm telling you, the girl standing next to you is an impostor pretending to be Gasai Yuno."

He was currently hiding in an office complex, checking the time carefully.

Fifteen minutes. He just had to hold out for fifteen minutes for Yuno to come get him.

The plan had failed. He had been so close.

Uryuu was now gunning for his life, struck with grief over the policeman Nishijima's death.

The officer had promised her a home, a friend, a future...

Love. Happiness. Life. A life with a man she loved.

And in her eyes, he was the source of his death. He hadn't pulled the trigger, but he might as well have left the man she loved bleeding out at the wayside. He could have saved him. He should have saved him.

But he didn't. She felt he had taken something from her. She wanted something in return. An eye for an eye; a life for a life.

Beyond his terror at his imminent death, strangely dulled at how often he received messages of his imminent death, beyond even his fervent desire to see his parents again, stretching into the cold calculating mind that had been trained, time and time again, to plot and plan to ensure his survival, a tiny voice in the back of his mind asked a simple question.

Did Nishijima have to die?

Why had he let Nishijima die while trying to save the Ninth? He lied when he had said that it took time for he and Yuno to gather weapons. That much was obvious. He and Yuno had all the time in the world to gather whatever they needed. And with their [DIARIES], it was virtually impossible for him not to have gathered the weapons and arrive on time.

He had one of the most powerful [DIARIES] in the game, and with Yuno, his foresight was almost unmatched. He must have known this would have happened.

So why didn't he?

The question was answered in the same mental voice he had coolly assessed the situation with many times before. He was a name to him at this point. A name to recall, a name to revive. Nothing more, nothing less. When he won, he'd use his powers to revive him, and he'd be back, good as new; no harm, no foul.

He hadn't saved him because he was more useful dead than alive. He would have taken bullets meant for Uryuu, for him, for Yuno. In the grand scheme of things, his death was a pittance, and weighed against the prospects of someone like the Eleventh winning the mantle of God, he had made a worthy sacrifice.

A sacrifice he had knowingly led the unsuspecting policeman into.

What happened to him?

The slow footsteps from outside drew his attention as a tired and grief-stricken voice called out to him. "Come out Yukiteru. I've lost too much blood. It's taking all of my strength just to kill you."

He heard the clack of a gun being reloaded. "And you... and you wish to bring your parents back to life?" He could imagine the smile now plastered on her face as she spoke, the last click of the gun's cartridge alerting him that he could no longer hope that she would run out of bullets any time soon. "That's just mere selfishness!"

He had to force down a shudder as he slowly listened in on her approaching him. "If that's your logic of why you should win, then children all around the world should also become Gods!"

Uryuu was uncomfortably close to his hiding spot at that point. "Heh... Have you... have you heard of my childhood?" She rambled as her voice grew nostalgic. "All the way over in the Middle East where I couldn't even understand the language..." She paused as he imagined her smiling for some reason.

"I lost my parents."

He paused, his mind had been trying to process why exactly was she bothering to monologue to him about her life. It was a piece of information he could use to draw their confrontation out, and he needed every second he could scrape together.

In hearing her out, for the first time in his life, he felt sympathy for the mad terrorist.

She continued to speak, wasting another breath she could have used towards looking for him to tell her story. "And everyday since then, I had to risk my life just to steal one loaf of bread." She paused. "There were many who failed... and died."

Her footsteps died suddenly as her voice quieted down. "To be honest... I kind of like you. When I saw you running through a minefield. Or collapsing from poison gas. And looking at the frantic expression as you lost you parents..."

She gave a weak and hollow laugh. "Yeah... you so pathetically resembled me."

"So let me tell you!" She suddenly screamed, an abrupt change in demeanor that snapped him out of a trance he hadn't even realized he had fallen under. "Your wish won't come true. It won't!"

She paused, waiting for an answer or some sound to give him away. Instead, his eyes wandered towards a small notepad at his side as a plan came together.

For the brief seconds in which the Eighth realized she was about to die, she looked directly at him and spoke. "Create a new world where children can live without worries, Amano."

A moment later, Yuno had plunged her knife straight into her heart, ending her life quickly and painlessly.

Quickly and painlessly. Quickly. And. Painlessly.

...

Oh God.

Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod.

He'd killed them. Oh god, he killed them.

He killed Hinata.

Mao despises him.

He killed Kousaka.

How did this happen? Why?

Was it really worth it?

He turned his eyes towards the one person he had left. The girl whom he loved and fought and killed for.

He killed his friends for her.

And he thought she was the psycho.

He heard the sound of dripping blood and forced footsteps behind him. Akise had somehow gotten to his position with a severed jugular and a hole in his stomach.

The dying detective tried to speak but it came out as a bloody gurgle.

Instantly, Yuno was upon him, blade in hand. "Yuno! There's no reason to hurt anyone anymore!"

He could only watch helplessly as Yuno's blade severed his last friend's neck.

"A-Akise..." His friend's headless body lingered for a moment, phone in hand as if he desperately wanted to tell him something as words slowly typed themselves on the screen. A remnant of his Detective Diary, he supposed.

He had only a moment to digest what Akise had shown him before Yuno split his phone in two.

Yukiteru, this world is already on its second run. Yuno Gasai already became God once before and has now leapt back in time.

Yuno, their Yuno, the true Yuno laid in a pool of her own blood.

Beside her, another pink-haired girl, weilding a bloody axe.

Akise was right. There were two Yunos.

And his Yuno had killed the real Yuno. And then she tried to kill him.

He turned towards the brown creature that brought him there, looking all to pleased with herself. Why was Murumuru showing him this?

A tiny, forced whisper caught his attention. "I can hear Amano's voice."

Yuno was still alive.

"What!?" Murumuru yelled from beside him and he saw Yuno's shaking hand reach for the wall. "That can't be!"

"H...He...Help...Me..." Yuno spoke the words she had written in her own blood on the wall. "Help me... Amano."

Her hand fell, limp, as the rest of her lay still.

He stared at the girl who promised to become his wife.

He had tears in his eyes. When did he start crying? The more pressing question however, was if and when he would stop crying? His voice rose far louder than it had been since he could speak as his voice shook every fiber of his being.

"YUNO!"

Why was he fighting for her? Why was he fighting so hard to keep her?

She tried to kill him, he was another expendable pawn to her.

So why? She had loved him, yes, but she had made it clear she would find another Yuki, in another game, in another time, in another universe.

His only other option was to kill her. An option that, even now as she had tried repeatedly to do away with him, he had viewed as unthinkable.

She was all that he had left. She had fought for him time and time again, with the singleminded determination of someone who cared for nothing but his safety and affection. She loved him.

From day one. From the very start, she had been there for him. Looking back on himself, he had been pathetic, absolutely pitiful. He would've been the first casualty of the [SURVIVAL GAME] had it not been for Yuno. Without Yuno, he would've likely died a hundred times over.

He couldn't count the number of times Yuno had saved his life. The number of times she'd gotten hurt protecting him. The number of times he'd nearly gotten his crazed stalker killed protecting him.

He owed everything to his obsessed stalker. When he was weak and defenseless, she'd been there to protect him. When he had lost his parents to the [SURVIVAL GAME], she'd been there.

She was insane. She was absolutely crazy, but she was his crazy.

She was his crazy.

She was all he had left.

She was all he had left. He was all she had left. He understood that her insane plot was the product of losing the one person she had left in the world. He himself had hatched an almost equally insane scheme to take down the Eleventh, after all. He killed his friends in his desire to revive and restore the world.

There was no turning back. They had stood by one another and now there was no turning back. They had burned all their bridges together and now there was nowhere to go but forward.

That was why he had to stop her.

She was going to kill everyone. She was going to kill everyone to grant her wish. She was going to kill everyone for a wish that would never come true.

She was making all the same mistakes he made. Someone had to stop her.

He was the only person who could. She had to stop running. So did he.

"Yuno, just stab me as I am now." He held Yuno in a tight embrace. "And... return to the 2nd world and become God."

For all he had done and for all she had done for him, she was the one who deserved to live. She deserved the power to recreate and change the world far more than he.

He held the girl he loved tighter. "You already know, don't you?" He gave a pause to look her in the eye. "That this place isn't the place for you to be."

He closed his eyes as he slackened his grip on Yuno. "That's why... I'll die to create a place for you."

"Okay... If that's what Yuki wishes..." He could not feel her right hand on him. She sounded happy.

"You're such a dummy, Yuki! I'm going to stay here, in the 3rd world!" He opened his eyes as he felt her arm snap back. "Goodbye!"

"Ah... Why?" He staggered back. "YUNO!"

The knife was lodged in her chest. She had stabbed herself.

She gave her one last smile. A smile that told of better times. Of dreams, of happiness, of a future together. He remembered that smile on a photo taken only as a favor to appease the manic girl.

"I can't kill you... I can't stab you." The life faded from her eyes quickly, but she still found the power to look straight into his eyes and speak. "That's the kind of future it'll be."

He wanted to apologize. He wanted to tell her how much he loved her. How much he owed to his crazy stalker girlfriend. To the girl that time and again sacrificed everything for him. All he could muster was a strangled cry as he silently broke down in tears.

"Yuki, please." This was her last request. She was using her last, pained breaths to speak to him. "Kiss me goodbye."

He kissed her for what felt like only a moment. Too short a moment.

She spoke in a whisper. "You've gotten good at kissing...Yu...ki..."

She staggered back, her legs giving out from beneath her. He moved to catch her. "Yuno?"

Her eyes were closed, and she was no longer breathing.

The girl whom he loved had died in his embrance.

The last vision he saw was of himself, or of himself looking broken and old in a tattered cloak. He hadn't aged a day physically, but even he could tell that the person was no longer Yukiteru Amano.

The broken image of himself stared at a phone in front of him, the screen never changing from its last content.

The silence, and the dream, ended with the black world surrounding his doppelganger cracking and shattering.

In the waking world, ironically filled with the sleeping, at least one dozen phones buzzed into life as their contents spontaneously changed.

Deus, the Lord of Time and Space pondered the sudden development.

"Che?" Murumuru gazed up from her manga. "Is something wrong Deus?"

Someone had changed fate, near irrevocably in the dead of night. To him there was neither day or night, but to those whose lives he governed, it was near midnight.

And none of the participants were awake at the moment. How odd.

He traced the source of the anomaly to the sleeping figure of one Yukiteru Amano, the child who thought him a figment of his imagination. He seemed to be crying in his sleep.

Odder and odder, it seemed. The child was truly something.

He attempted to peer into the First's dream, only to be rebuffed.

Something else was at work here, making it was impossible at the moment to peer into the First's mind, hmm?

As suspicious as he was, he turned his attention to the task at hand, that of finding his successor.

The things a being such as he could not do were impossible for a reason, and in the millenia he had existed he had learned not to delve to deeply into what he can and cannot do.

He turned his gaze towards 'his' helper beside him. He had a hunch someone else had found a way to 'cheat' in the game he was about to start. How such events could have transpired under his watch was unimaginable but he couldn't help but feel threatened by 'his' helper.

He had favored the First, though he had expected him to fall quickly in the game he had planned. Maybe with this he would stand a chance?

He couldn't hide the amusement in his voice as he finally answered 'his' helper. "Nothing at all."