Chapter 20: Let's do the Time Warp Again

"OHMYGODWHATHAPPENED?!" Josette asks the second I step into the safe house.

"Give me a second," I say as I walk over the table and grab my hidden blades. "Oh god, I missed these things far more then I should. Anyway, what's up? Why are you so upset now?"

"I heard what happened!" Josette says. "You three are wanted for trying to kill the Pope and for breaking out of jail! What happened?"

"Damn, word spreads really fast, doesn't it?" I muse as I slip the hidden blades back into their rightful place. I love these things. Real talk: If I had a choice to turn any one item into a girl that would love me forever, it would be these things. I know that that's basically cheating on Louise but come on! I don't know, these things are just sooooo cool! I mean, it's an arm guard, a knife, a gun, a zipline, it's freaking everything! It's the greatest freaking thing ever made!

"Would you stop working on your bracers and talk to me already!" Josette yells, before covering her mouth. "S-sorry. I got carried away."

"No, I'm sorry," I tell her. "I'm working through everything myself a bit. See…"

That ellipses was solely for my own benefit. That way instead of saying everything over again, I can just say that I recapped the story for Josette's benefit. That way I don't waste any time going over what we already know. It just happened, after all.

"G-genocide?" Josette asks. "The founder? B-but-"

"If it makes you feel better, I'm not sure about it yet either," I tell her. "I mean sure, the Pope confirmed it, be we've confirmed that the Pope is an asshole. I plan on doing a little research myself before we start our next move."

"What do you mean?" Josette asks.

"I'll be in my room for… probably the rest of the night," I tell her. "When Louise and Emily get back make sure to politely ask them to not bother me, okay?"

"Um… O-okay?" Josette still seems rather confused. "What should I tell them?"

"Just tell them I'm busy. Keep it simple, okay?"

"O-okay. I'll do my best."

I'd make a crack about how she's not really doing anything, but the conviction and serious she's showing is just so damn adorable. I'll let her have this moment.

"Good girl," I say, betraying my comment from seconds ago by smiling and giving her a pat on the head.

"Abuhbuhbuhbuh."

Eh? Josette's face is all red and she's apparently turned into a car engine when I wasn't looking. Did I do something wrong? Should I apologize? … I should probably leave her be.

"Good luck Josette," I tell her before slipping away into my room. "Now. Where'd I leave that thing? Ah! Here it is."

I toss the Apple of Eden onto the desk my room has before taking a seat. Welp. Really nothing to do but dive in and ask Minerva for a little advice before taking another time warp, right? Ahhhh, but I'm too damn tired to do it now! I just busted out of prison after being told that the Pope is planning genocide! Damn everything, I want to sleep on this stuff! Screw it. The sooner we get this thing wrapped up the sooner I get to go home.

I grab a hold of the Apple and let it do it's glowing thing. I blink and suddenly I'm in the loading screen room again.

"You have returned."

"Indeed I have," I tell Minerva. "Learned a bunch of interesting things since I've been gone. Before we start, mind telling me if there's any other Pieces of Eden hanging around? I'd hate to have those be hanging around as wild cards."

"Unfortunately, the Staff and the Apple are all that remain in this world," Minerva tells me. "The rest have either been destroyed or moved elsewhere."

"That elsewhere being somewhere not easily accessible, correct?" I ask.

"There is no chance of you or anyone else being able to retrieve them," Minerva says. "The only ones with the capability had no knowledge of their existence."

That's nice. Less to worry about. I'm glad this isn't going to devolve into a fetch quest to see who gets the most magic objects first. That'd be annoying.

"I suppose that the location of those will probably be in these memory things," I say with a vague gesture towards the floating glass shards hanging around. "Well, I'm going in. Wish me luck Minney!"

"My name is Minerva."

"Right. Got it Minney."

*Scene Break*

Alright, where am I now? Looks like an empty, grassy field. A rather familiar looking empty, grassy field. Isn't this where I woke up during the first time loop? Warp. Time warp. Loops are different. I think. Though now that I think about it-

"Grrrrrrrr."

"Will you shut up you stupid wolves and just let me think for once?! … Wait."

Wolves are back. Really should have seen that one coming. Four of them this time, instead of the… Three was it? I think it was three last time. I have a pretty shit memory. Guess I should probably-

*SHING*

Sit here and watch as the wolves are offed in a second by this hooded person here. Well. Okay, that's nice of you. I kind of wanted a warm up though, since I haven't done much of anything since that fight against King Joseph. Other then that I've just sort of sat on my hands, so I was worried I might be getting rusty. But that's okay, save me the trouble of the wolves and let me know that I'm nowhere near that level of swordsmanship.

"You and really need to learn to stay away from this place. Wolves flock to you amazingly quickly," the person says, sheathing their sword before turning to face me and removing her hood.

"… Sasha you grew your hair out."

Yeah, her hair used to reach maaaaybe her shoulders, but now it easily reaches her back.

"THAT's the first thing you say?" she seems offended. "Not, 'Oh thanks for the save Sasha you really helped me out,' or 'Gee, how nice to have friends like you,' or 'Sorry for leaving for so long,' or anything?! You go straight for the hair? I can't believe you!"

"Whoa!" I bend back to dodge the punch she swung at me. "Sorry?"

"Sorry doesn't cut it! You vanish for who knows how long, show up in the middle of an empty field and expect me to just save you and be okay with it?"

"… How long have I been gone? I have a horrible sense of time." Okay, so it's been a while since the thing with getting the Apple. Good to know. Wish I had known before going in so I could have prepared a story ahead of time, but this is… really bad, actually. I'd rather not find out what happens if I die in a flashback.

"A year!" she yells at me. "You mocked how we didn't know where the Valiag leader was and just vanished! Now you just act all casual about it?"

"Yes." I mean, it was only about a week ago for me, and I didn't really have any control over when the Apple decided to fast forward.

"You barbarian!" Sasha punches me in the face, and I hit the floor hard.

"Ow! That really stings you know!" I complain as I start pulling myself up.

"Don't act you haven't earned it," Sasha scoffs. "Consider yourself lucky that I'm not doing worse."

"Probably wouldn't be the worse thing I've ever been hit with," I say as I start dusting myself off.

"What are you doing out here anyway?" Sasha asks. "Don't tell me you were drugged and woke up here again."

"For better or worse, I'm here completely of my own will," I assure her. "I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by."

"And your master is where exactly?" she asks.

"Back at home being looked over by some friends. I'll bring her next time," I tell her. "Where's your… I won't ask."

The question died when I saw her expression. She looks rather hurt. Did something happen? He couldn't be dead, I think. What's going on?

"No, that's okay," she says. "I'm not currently traveling with him. We're not on speaking terms anymore."

"I missed some very important things, didn't I?" I ask, simultaneously stating the obvious.

"You could say that," Sasha says with a weak smile. "Come on, walk back with me. I could use a friendly face."

I nod my consent, and she leads the way back to… wherever the hell we're going. We were silent for a bit, me because I couldn't think of any topics and Sasha for reasons unknown. Shit, what am I even here to do? I need to learn more about the Staff, I suppose. Don't know how to do that with this set up. Sasha's not in the mood to talk, and I really don't want to milk her for information on something like that. "So Sasha, I can see you're having some hard times. How about tell me everything you know about the Staff of Eden?" That'd be a really dick move. I'm not that much of a dick.

"Hey," I start since I'm desperate for a topic. "Where we going?"

"My village," she tells me. "It's the only place I can rest easily anymore."

"How so?" I ask. "Is it like you have insomnia and can't sleep normally but they have some kind of super voodoo powers that fix that up for you?"

"Don't call my people's magic 'super voodoo powers,'" Sasha says with a displeased look on her face. "It makes us seem like necromancers and the like."

"Just saying, I knew a witch doctor once and he said he had cures for insomnia. Of course he constantly pissed his pants and called himself the chicken god, but other then that he was alright."

Sasha starts chuckling. "You sound like you know some very strange people."

"Trust me, that guy was sane compared to a few of them… I take that back, he was probably the weirdest. Dude was weird as all hell. Cool guy though. Taught me how to get out of handcuffs and other wrist bindings. Not sure why a witch doctor needs to know that, but whatever."

"It's an important skill for anyone to know," Sasha says. "You should always know how to escape should your opponent have gotten the drop on you and tied you up."

"Have you had to do that?" I ask.

"… No."

"So that's a yes."

"No, it was a no."

"A very pause filled and uncertain no."

"No still means no."

"Unless it doesn't mean no, in which case it means yes, with yes also meaning yes thus answering in the affirmative no matter the question."

"Sometimes I question if you truly are insane, or just pretend to be to throw people off."

"I'll let you know when I figure it out myself."

"Miss Sasha, you've returned!" A new voice says.

Wait, we've already arrived? We weren't walking for that long, were we? Either way, the new person seems be a much smaller version of Sasha. My god, she's adorable. I mean, being completely honest Sasha pretty cute herself, but making her into a smaller package ups the adorableness. … I need some freaking sleep, I've been feeling all sorts of off since I broke out that freaking jail. Wanting to make love to the hidden blades if they were a girl and now talking about adorable mini-Sasha. I think weird things when I'm tired, apparently.

"It's good to see you Marisa," Sasha says, kneeling down to ruffle the girl's hair. "How is everything in the village?"

"No disturbances, and no one has reported any signs of them," the little Marisa replies. "We thought they had picked up on where we were, but it seems that's not the case."

Sasha smiles. "You're such a good girl Marisa. I'm so proud of you, being able to get that kind of information yourself."

Marisa grows a huge, goofy grin. "Heheh. It's because I'm good at my job!"

"Certainly sounds like it," I remark.

Marisa's mood sours immediately. "Are you patronizing me hu… Human!"

Now she seems really scared. She reaches for her belt and pulls out a small dagger to point at me.

"D-don't make me!" she threatens, the knife point shaking as she tries to keep it centered on me. "J-just go away and forget we're here! Go away!"

"Did… Did I do something wrong?" I wonder out loud.

"Marisa, put the dagger away," Sasha says, trying to diffuse the situation. "It's alright."

"It's not alright!" Marisa says. "He's a human! He's probably going to lead the rest of them here and wipe us out!"

… Am I really that threatening?

"Marisa, he's with me," Sasha says. "He's an old friend."

"How do you know that?" Marisa exclaims.

"I think she'd know if I was an old friend. Just throwing that out there," I say dryly.

"Not what I meant! How do we know you're not a spy for them? You humans all hate elves, don't you?" Marisa accuses me.

"Marisa, it's okay, put the dagger away," Sasha says as she puts a hand on Marisa's. "It's alright. He can be trusted."

"How do you know?" Marisa asks, sounding less angry and more unsure.

"I trust him," Sasha says. "I'm sure you can too."

I feel like such shit. I've done pretty much nothing to deserve anything of that sort. We met, we chatted, we fought an army together and that's about it. The fact that she trusts me really makes me feel super shitty. But apparently it's enough for Marisa, who puts her knife away after a moment's consideration.

"I'll trust you. But only because Sasha says so," Marisa tells me.

"Thanks. I'd be stupid to expect much more."

"A-are you mocking me?" She sounds less insulted and more confused. It seems she really doesn't know if I'm mocking her or not.

"No, I'm being honest. We've never met and it sounds like there's some bad blood with the humans, so it's actually really smart of you to be suspicious of me."

"I'm smart?" I nod in response to her question. She gets that big grin again as a result. Seems she's highly susceptible to flattery. Not that that was my intention, I did genuinely agree with her.

"Okay, I'll allow you into the village this one time," Marisa tells me. "I'll go in and let every else know so that they don't start freaking out like I did."

"Thank you very much," I tell her before she runs off towards what's probably the village.

"Sweet girl," I tell Sasha. "Friend of yours?"

"Yes. I'm sorry she caused you trouble," Sasha apologizes. "I suppose I didn't think this one through."

"Hey, I never think things through, so I can't criticize you for that," I admit. "I suppose we should find a spot in the village to sit down and have a little chat?"

Sasha nods. "Yeah, that sounds good. Come on. Let's go."

*Scene Break*

"Brr."

"What's the matter?" Sasha asks. "Cold?"

"No, just creeped out. The stares were a bit much for me, you know? I mean, everyone was staring. I expected to get stabbed at any second."

"That probably wouldn't happen," Sasha assures me. "I don't think there's anyone here that suspicious of you, especially since you had Marisa vouch for you. You shouldn't have anything to worry about."

"Still makes me feel uncomfortable. What's up with the human hate? I know we're 'barbarians' and all that, but are we really that evil?"

Sasha sighs. "No, it's not anyone's fault really. We've been at war with the humans for the past few months, so we've become rather paranoid."

"War? Why? Who screwed what up?"

Sasha chuckles again. "That's a funny way of asking it. Answering honestly… I'd have to say it was me. I really do blame myself for this whole mess. I should have seen it coming, and I didn't. Now we're all in a horrible situation."

"Mind starting from the beginning?" I ask.

"I'll make it brief, since I don't like discussing it much," Sasha says. "See, we were right about the Apple being our key. With it we were able to easily defeat the leader of the Valiag and end that war. You were right when you suggested that he had a something similar to the Apple. His was a staff instead of a ball though. We were able to use the Apple to counteract the effects and take it for ourselves. Perhaps it would have been a better idea to simply destroy it and the Apple."

Would have saved me, Louise, Emily and Josette a lot of trouble, I'll say that much. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

"See, I don't know exactly what it is, but I think the staff infects the user," Sasha says. "Or something. Brimir was never like that before, but once he got the staff he started having all sorts of weird ideas. He started behaving incredibly oddly. He would start ranting about the elves, and how superior they though they were. It kept getting worse and worse. Eventually, he declared war on us. If people didn't necessarily agree with him, that didn't matter. He could simply make them listen to him."

"That's…" hard to react to since I already knew but I can't let her know that.

"Odd, I know," luckily Sasha reacts for me. "He never acted anything like that before. He hated confrontation, and tried settling things peacefully whenever possible, so how could he suddenly decide that genocide was the best option? He must be being controlled by that thing. It's the only explanation."

I'm not so sure, but I just barely found out about the Pieces of Eden and all that stuff around a week ago, I'm hardly an encyclopedia about the subject. I'm here precisely because I want to learn more and an encyclopedia isn't available.

"Hey, Josh."

"Hmmm? Yes?"

"Can I ask a big favor?"

"No."

"… Seriously?"

"You really think I'd say no?"

"You just did."

"You think I was serious about it?"

"I can never tell with you, that's what's troubling," Sasha says. "Whatever, I'm asking anyway. Can you lend us your help?"

"Sure."

"… You're not going to ask what we need your help for?"

"Dealing with Brimir, I assume," I say. "And sure, I'll gladly help. I think I've made my opinion on brainwashing very clear, and I'm rather against genocide just out of principle. I'll do whatever I can to help."

"Thank you very much," Sasha says with a smile. "There's a spare room upstairs you can use while you're here."

"Bitchin'. Guess I'll go get acquainted with my new room," I say as I head for upstairs.

"Josh."

"Yes?" I ask as I turn towards Sasha.

"Thank you. I mean it."

"Don't worry about it," I say, offering a smile. "We'll get this wrapped up as quickly as possible so no one has to worry about anything anymore. This won't take long at all."

*END OF MEMORY SEGMENT*

What an odd place to end. Still, I feel like I got a lot out of that. If nothing else, I'm now in a position to start learning more. Don't know what I'm going to do with that knowledge, but if nothing else I'm curious and it certainly can't hurt. Speaking of curiosity.

"Hey, Minerva. I sure as hell wasn't alive 6000 years ago when these events happened, so what exactly is happening when I view the memory segments?"

"The Apple allows you to interact with the memories stored within it as they were," Minerva begins. "Things may be altered depending on how far out of sync you go with the memory, but events are how they occurred."

"So, I'm basically being inserted into a position nobody filled because it didn't exist?"

"Correct."

"That's so stupid! I mean, I couldn't be taking on the role of someone who was actually there, we just have to throw me in there like an afterthought? What a ripoff!"

"I have my doubts that you would enjoy experiencing those moments as Sasha," Minerva counters.

"… Point conceded. Well, I guess that's enough memory diving for one day, I'm going to go catch up on some sleep. See you next time."

Minerva simply nods and I exit from the Apple loading screen. … Okay, it's nighttime now. At least, according to the view from my window. Time to sleep!

Author Notes:

Jocelyn: Marisa! What's she doing here?

Uncreative: Different Marisa.

Jocelyn: Aww!

Uncreative: Right, might as well start with Marisa. I don't think she'll be showing up more, but I've been wrong before. I just need a character to greet Sasha when they got to the village, and I couldn't think of a name for her. Marisa is a character in Empty Boundaries-

Jocelyn: My story! You should read it to find out all about Marisa. I like her, she's cool.

Uncreative: And the name stuck. The two have no connection, I just needed a name. Nothing else really happened, it was just a chance for a time skip of sorts to get the 6000 years ago story up to the point it needed to be, with the first crusade against the elves in full swing. I… don't know how I'm going to follow up on this.

Jocelyn: Is that anything new? It'll be fine. You just need to come up with the plot threads for two storylines now, the one involving the pope and modern day and the one with Brimir and Sasha. Shouldn't be that, they're basically the same story if you think about it.

Uncreative: Right. Well, that's all I've got. Here's to getting more done during the new year.

Jocelyn: Happy new year everyone!