Pithy Summary: Clockwork accidentally destroys a timeline. Keyword: accidentally. If only the Observants could understand that.
Warning: Abuse
Word Count: 463
"How could you have let this happen?!" screamed Erebus, his spit flying on Clockwork's face. "A Time Master, of all people, destroying a timeline! An important one at that!"
"It was an accident, I swear!" cried out Clockwork, flinching instinctively, their hands fumbling against their purple cloak. Honestly, it was a accident, but why won't Erebus see that? It's not like they wanted the timeline destroyed, killing everyone in it.
The enraged Observant turned around, staring at the darkened time screen. "How?" he spoke, his voice with a sharp and violent edge. "How did it happen Clockwork?" Erebus' single eye narrowed as the child quieted, shrinking in on themselves. Blinded by rage, he dashed towards Clockwork, pinning them up against the blank time screen. "How did it happen Clockwork?!"
Being pinned up against the wall did nothing to help Clockwork's current frenetic emotional state. They began to tremble, fingernails digging into their palms. "I don't know!"
"You don't know?!" hissed Erebus.
"I don't know!" Clockwork cried out again, their shoulders shaking in panic. "There was something faulty with the timeline and I tried to fix it," their voice broke and a strangled cry escaped them.
"And then? What happened then?" snarled Erebus, tightening his grip on Clockwork's shoulders, moving in on the Time Master's face until both ghosts were touching noses.
"When I tried to fix it, I guess it couldn't handle the temporal energy and...it collapsed." choked out Clockwork, using their hands to make constrained gestures and occasionally banging their hands on the cracked time screen.
Erebus moved back from Clockwork. The Observant abruptly let go of Clockworks, apathetically watched as they fell to the ground in a heap, staring up at him in confusion. Using his telekinesis, he lifted the abandoned time staff, and after holding it up in suspension for a few moments, plunged towards Clockwork's casing, stopping it before it speared their case. He ignored the terrified scream the child let out and begun to speak. "From my understanding and from what you've recounted," Erebus stated slowly, careful to choose his words. "that this particular incident is your fault. That you could not control the temporal energy within the timeline, causing the timeline to fall apart, thus killing everyone in it."
"It was an accident!"
"What you did was murder! There's no other way to call what you did." roared Erebus, pushing the staff against the child's casing. Clockwork whimpered at the action, they trembled even more as they felt the pressure of their conduit pressed against their case, finally crying out when their case cracked.
"Stop! Please, I'm begging you!" begged Clockwork. "It was an accident!"
Erebus disregarded Clockwork's pleading, and continuing to drive the staff into Clockwork's case. "I don't listen to murderers." he said coldly.
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