(Originally posted 2/5/20, reposted 3/19/20)

Chapter 2, let's do.

Big thanks to those of you who have been supporting the story, it really means a lot.

Also big thanks to chaosphoenix123 for basically beta-ing this chapter and giving me some ideas for it. If you haven't already, please go check out his stuff once you're done reading this.

And with that out of the way, I hope you enjoy!

A Fall Through Memory Chasm

Traveling through time was a much different experience than what Romeo expected.

He thought it would've been more of a "blip" type deal, you know? In the year x790 in one second, in x784 the next! In the blink of an eye, time travel! He wouldn't feel anything. He wouldn't see anything. All he'd do was close his eyes to the present and open them to the past.

Yet it wasn't like that at all. Maybe Romeo should've expected that. Things never run smoothly for his guild, so why should things be any different with him?

Because why would he expect a blip when he could get a thousand-mile horizontal freefall instead?

Because that's precisely what he's getting. Hurtling horizontally at what must've been near-terminal velocity at this point. Razor-sharp crystal spikes lined up the rock walls on either side of him, ready to shred him to pieces if he even looked at them funny. His eyes widened as he tucked in all of his limbs, attempting to make himself as small as possible to avoid the spiky death-rocks.

His only safety came in the form of a little string of light emerging from the circle on his chest. If his theories were correct, which they often are, this string was tethering him to and pulling him towards the other side of his Gate. All he had to do was lay back and let it pull him to safety. But that was easier said than done with a bunch of murder rocks on all sides, so he tried to focus his mind on other things.

Like where the fuck he even was!

He knew it wasn't Eathland. Not only was this planet far smaller than Earthland, but its gravity also appeared to be in a sideways curve. Both of these could easily be told by the way the edges of the cliffs "above" him curved outwards at a constant rate.

It was impossible to see the curvature of Earthland's surface with the naked eye. No matter how far you looked, the planet would always appear "flat" from your perspective. This is because the planet is simply too massive for any curve to be seen.

Here, however, while the cliffs' edges did curve subtly, Romeo could still clearly see it if he looked for it. And given how that curve appeared to be continuous, interrupted only by a few large rocks or the occasional hill, he felt safe in saying that what he saw was the curve of the planet's surface. Which meant that whatever world he was on was likely smaller than even Earthland's moon.

And he knew gravity was going sideways by the way his fall appeared to follow this curve. At no point in his descent did he get closer or further from the top of the cliffs. The planet's surface remained the same exact distance from himself, as did the bottom of the—what he could now safely call a—ravine.

Had gravity been any semblance of normal, then he would've either splattered against the bottom of the ravine or gotten launched out of it. But it wasn't. It was like whoever was steering gravity got shitfaced drunk and flipped the whole thing upside down and into the neighbor's swimming pool. If Romeo wanted to, and if he hadn't been surrounded by a bunch of pointy stabby-stones, he probably could've pointed his arms outwards and pretended to fly like a superhero.

So he knew he wasn't on Earthland anymore, but that still begged the question of what rabbit hole he was currently falling down. He wished he could've seen Earthland or anything in the planet's sky, but there was nothing; not even a star, just the eternal black void of space. He almost thought he saw a person looking down on him from the cliffs, but quickly dismissed the thought. The lack of anything in the sky told him he must've been pretty far away from Earthland.

"No shit," he answered it back.

Looking down didn't present him with any answers, either. Instead, it only gave him more questions.

For what he saw below him was something that he could only describe as a living star. It was bright, burning, and brilliant in the eyes of the boy. Energy, unlike anything he'd ever felt, before pulsed out like a heartbeat. Whispers shouted out from the center like it was thinking—like it was imagining every thought that was ever and will ever be conceived. It sparked such awe and terror in the boy that he wondered if this was what Chelia meant when she spoke of "true love."

However, despite this feeling, it still didn't tell the boy where he was. But there was something that could give him a hint. In addition to the large stabby crystals lining the ravine's walls, there were also many flat ones, ones that reminded Romeo of mirrors.

Yet what he saw in those mirrors wasn't quite him.

They were pretty close, but there was always something off. The wrong outfit, slightly messier hair, no tattoos, too short, too tall…

Too young and too old!

The answer hit him like a punch in the face. It was so obvious! It was what he was going for this whole time!

He was in the Ravines of Time!

He had always believed they were just a concept: a simple method of understanding the intricate, non-linear flow of time. Yet here they were as real as he was! A physical place where time and space were bent and twisted!

He'd have to study everything! He can't allow himself to forget a single detail of the Ravines! What this could mean for the magic world could be astonishing!

A planet that contained the whole of time… Romeo could feel it, pulsing, breathing as though it were a living creature. And for all he knew, it was!

Oh, he needed more time here. He wished he could come back and—

'Oh… right..' Melancholy swept over him as he remembered. 'I won't be coming back… not after this.' A frown formed on the boy's face. He'd spent so much time hoping his plan would work, it almost slipped his mind what his plan working meant specifically for him.

A tricky part of time travel, one that he didn't like to think about too much, was that time would likely end up… correcting itself once everything was said and done. It was a part of Zeref's theories that any alterations to the past would end up overwriting the original timeline with the altered one. It was a sound theory as far as Romeo was concerned, but it created a small problem for him:

He was a part of that old timeline.

If time was changed, he'd undoubtedly end up being erased; wiped from existence like a snowflake landing on your finger. There would be no memory of him, not even be a memory of a memory. Technically speaking, a version of him would still exist, but it wouldn't really be him. He'd perish, and some new Romeo would go sauntering off in his place.

But that was the point, he supposed. He wasn't the one meant to enjoy this. It was all for the next Romeo to carry on to a better, brighter future. It had been that way from the beginning.

Even still, he wished he could see it.

He looked over to the crystals on the right side of the wall, the ones that all seemed to contain older versions of himself. His possible futures, he presumed. There were quite a few of them: ones where he won various magical awards, a few where he became S-Class, a few where he was marrying Chelia…

He looked away from them. His future had already been decided, so there was no point in trying to dwell on it. He knew he was right; he could see it in the corners of his eye. The further he went, the more he saw crystals on the right wall fading, becoming empty as their vibrancy vanished into a dull void. Time itself was being erased.

There was no future for him anymore, and that was by his choice.

This was his destiny.

So he looked to the left wall. There he saw younger versions of himself, his past self. Memories good and bad lined up the Ravine's stone surface in reverse-chronological order. Or rather, the crystals went in chronological order, and it was just him who was moving backward relative to them.

Romeo glanced into one of them. Judging from what the crystal showed him, the images he was seeing were from this morning.

Throbbing pain overtook the boy's head. Pins and needles invaded each of his limbs, pulling them into numbness. His vision turned to static until the Ravines of Time faded from sight completely.

Then suddenly, he was back in his lab, staring at his miniature Eclipse Gate.

"What the fuck!?" he screamed, throwing his hands in the air before using them to pull at his hair. Why was he back here?! How was he back here?! He was in the Ravines! He should've been well on his way to the year x784, not back here! What went wrong?!

It irritated the boy to no end to be back in these caverns, and this time it wasn't just because of the few dim candle lights scattered about the dark, forgotten classroom. He just wanted to use his fire magic to wreck this ancient school even more than he and time already had—

'That's right,' he suddenly realized, 'I used my Acid Flames to blow a hole in the roof… but…' He looked up to the part of the ceiling right above his Eclipse Gate. He had to blow a hole in it so the light from the lunar eclipse would activate the Gate, and yet…

… There was no hole. The only damage done to the ceiling was that done by the cold, meticulous hands of time. There was no sign of the damage he caused.

"Ah, fucking hell," Romeo's voice said, but strangely enough, it didn't come from his body. Confused, he turned around.

And saw himself.

The other Romeo literally walked straight through him. It was like he was a ghost, meant to view…

Meant to view his past memories!

Of course! He's so unbelievably stupid!

He smacked himself on the head. His Gate didn't fail! He was still in the Ravines of Time, looking through the crystals! Crystals that contain pieces of his past! He is quite literally observing his own history!

That was incredible. Sure, Romeo was still a ways off from his real goal, but this in itself was astounding!

He continued to observe the other Romeo, who he decided needed a special designation so things wouldn't get confusing. 'Past-Romeo...? Proto-Romeo...?' He snapped his fingers as a lightbulb went off.

'Promeo.'

Romeo watched Promeo trudge across the darkly lit classroom. He appeared to be in distress about something, and Romeo remembered what.

"That stupid girl," Promeo rasped, marching towards his workbench. It was just a simple wooden desk, yet it was also the very same desk that Zeref himself once used, given how it was here that Romeo found his research notes. The only thing on the bench beside his notes and other random scribbles was a framed picture displaying the family that he had lost.

Romeo's face softened as he looked at it. 'Just you wait, guys… this is all for you…'

His eyes continued around the room, deciding to take it all in one last time. The walls were all lined with different research notes—some Zeref's, some his— connected by threads of yarn. Papers full of diagrams, equations, and magic circles were littered about everywhere. The only breaks from this chaos were the calendar with 'December 16, x784' violently circled and one of those motivational cat posters. The poster would have displayed a pair of cats sitting in a box with some type of inspirational text accompanying them, had it not been for the fact that he tripped while bringing it down into the ruins, staining the text with mud and ripping a hole through the cat on the left.

It annoyed him when it first happened, but now he thought it was pretty funny. Especially given how he was too stubborn to buy another one.

Finally, his attention was brought back to Promeo, who was in the process of furiously pulling out some notes from his desk drawer. "She just had to drag me out to that stupid arcade on the night of a fucking eclipse! Setting me back another-" One of the drawers in his desk got stuck. "-five-" He yanked on it. "-fucking-" He yanked again. "-months!" He pulled one final time, ripping the drawer clean off its hinges and scattering paper everywhere.

Romeo cringed at his past self's actions. He hoped he wouldn't have to view them for much longer.

Promeo released a heavy sigh akin to dragons' breath. Leaning down, he began to pick up the scattered research. "Well, I won't miss this one. I refuse to delay any longer." He couldn't delay any longer; his deadlines were already fast approaching. He lifted the notes back up, placing them neatly on top of his desk.

The boy turned to face his creation. Determination sparked in his eyes. "Tonight is the night." He glanced at a nearby picture frame. "For you guys."

Romeo leaned in towards the desk. On top of the notes pile was his research on Living Body Links. At the very top of the paper was a circle containing an inverted triangle with a line through it. His eyes skimmed the first two paragraphs of the notes.

The circle represents Spirit, or the soul, and appears to be the base for all magic circles. Perhaps magic and the soul are directly linked? Still, there's no definitive evidence that souls even exist, nor have I found any way to access my own soul, let alone other people's. I guess I'll have to create the link using our magic containers instead.

The inverted triangle with the line meanwhile represents Earth, or the body. By combining the two and imprinting them into my own skin, I should be able to create a secure Link to anyone I choose. Which is good, since I'm choosing one of the most stubborn jackasses I know.

Romeo nodded. 'Most stubborn jackass indeed,' he thought, before looking to his counterpart and seeing him tracing celestial signs on his skin. He gulped when he realized what would be coming next. His body still stung from the needle of the cheap, knock-off tattoo device he'd purchased a few months back. He wanted to tell his past self, "It'll be worth it," but didn't, partly because he knew it wouldn't work, and partly because he was afraid it actually would.

Static suddenly invaded Romeo's vision. His body went numb. All he could feel was the string of light on his chest, pulling him further into his own past.

When it faded, he found he was in his General Magic Studies class at Fiore Academy. The teacher appeared to be in the middle of passing out papers to the room. A wide variety of expressions crossed the students' faces, all ranging from joy to anxiety to despair.

Glancing at one of the papers, Romeo saw that it was a test on the properties of magic containers that he'd taken a while back. Big, red numbers were at the top of every paper, indicating that the teacher was handing back the graded versions.

Going off that, Romeo guessed that he was somewhere (somewhen? Nah, that's lame…) in early June, only a few weeks prior to him going through the Gate.

As far as he could tell, this was only a random memory. Just a random piece of his timeline to experience all over again. It made sense for it to be that way; did he honestly expect this little journey to have a theme?

He sighed, leaning against the classroom's back wall and scanning for his past self, who he decided to continue calling "Promeo" for the time being. He was, of course, sitting at the very front of the class, waiting impatiently for his test to be handed back.

Promeo's leg bounced anxiously, but not for the reason everyone else was anxious. His eyes kept diverting themselves back to the clock, watching the little hand tick-tick-tick away precious seconds that could be used to work on his Eclipse Gate. All he had to do was wait for his test to be handed back, then he could leave the class as usual.

Not soon enough, the teacher finally came his way and placed a packet upside-down on his test. Promeo didn't care much for the grade. It was hardly like it mattered. The only reason he was even in school at all was that he couldn't risk being kicked out. All of his hard work rested a mere fifty feet under the establishment; being kicked out would mean losing all of it.

Still, mild curiosity begged for him to at least look at what he got. He'd bothered to answer all the test's questions, it might as well answer back. His fingers traced the edges of the paper, lifting up the edges before swiftly pulling them to the opposite side of his desk in a satisfying fwip! With the paper turned over, he could now see the numbers marked in red ink;

42

'Ouch,' Promeo winced, 'I was curious, but that's one shitty answer.' He glanced over to the empty seat next to him and frowned. His head then turned to a few rows back, where a reddish-pink haired girl was celebrating what was no doubt another perfect score. It made him smile briefly until the two ended up locking eyes. Her icy glare was enough to freeze even a fire mage like him.

He quickly brought his head back around to the front of the room. A breath of air left his lungs. Some feeling that was almost foreign to him ripped away at his insides. His head hung when he realized what that feeling was:

Shame.

Promeo shook his head. There wasn't time for shame! An eclipse was approaching soon, and he needed to be ready for it! He will not miss his opportunity a second time!

He raised his hand into the air. The teacher didn't even look at it before going, "Yes, Romeo, you can be excused."

A smirk crossed his face. He stood up, made his way to the door, then stopped. An invisible force kept him from moving. And it wasn't the whole "self-guilt-tripping-no-you-should-go-back" type of invisible force, either. No, there was an actual invisible wall right in front of him.

Well, almost invisible. Upon further inspection, Promeo saw little black swirls holding together the air around him, compressing it into an almost solid mass.

He glanced back over at Chelia. Her eyes pleaded with him, begging him not to walk out.

"Romeo? I thought you were leaving?" the teacher asked.

"Huh?" He turned around. "Oh, uh, yeah…" Sparing one last glance at Chelia, he answered, "Yeah, I am."

Chelia's closed her eyes, her face falling in defeat. A whoosh could be heard as she released the wall of wind blocking Promeo's path.

Romeo wondered what would've happened if he had stayed. He'd have lost a few hours to work on the Eclipse Gate, but in retrospect, that might've been fine. He did end up being ready a few days ahead of schedule, only needing to put on a few last-minute touches (his skin burned) on the final day.

Maybe one last evening with Chelia would've been lovely. Or maybe it would've caused him to never leave.

But he supposed that was a question that would never be answered. So instead, he relinquished himself to watching his past self walk down the hallway, checking his phone and ignoring the twelve total missed calls from his dad and Totomaru.

The static returned as Romeo watched himself leave. This time when he emerged, he ended up in an arcade in downtown Crocus. He stopped coming to the place a few months ago, but before that, it had been one of his favorite places to hang out. He and Chelia would have fun getting the high score on every single machine in the building; he'd beat her in Road Battlers, she'd whoop his ass in Maria Kart, he'd retaliate in Dance Dance Revelation, and so on and so forth. The memories brought a bittersweet smile to his face. He hoped he was witnessing one of those times.

Unfortunately, it seemed that wish would not be granted.

Instead, he found Chelia playing alone, her only company being the crowd she gathered as she decimated the old high score in Snacc-Boi with what was nearly a very nice score of 69,414. Romeo knew precisely what she was trying to go for and that she easily could've gotten those last six points, but her concentration seemed to be elsewhere. A frown and messy mascara were reflected in the machine's death screen, and her eyes kept diverting to other parts of the arcade.

Romeo didn't entirely remember this bit from the first time around, but he now realized that she seemed to be entirely too well dressed for a place like this. She'd let her hair down, and her usual dress had been replaced by a lovely sky blue sundress that he doesn't remember ever seeing her in before. And now that he was looking, he realized that she was wearing more makeup than usual as well...

A pit formed in the boy's stomach. He didn't pay much attention to it before, mainly because he had far more important things on his mind, but now he understood. Which only caused him to feel more guilty since he knew what was coming next.

Hindsight may be twenty-twenty, but it's also a real bitch.

Without saying a word, Chelia left the arcade machine. The crowd moved parted for her, all expressing joy and congratulations on her getting the new high score. A few of the braver boys and girls even asked her for her number.

But Chelia ignored them. She was making a beeline for the arcade's food court, and Romeo followed her. Blue and black eyes searched for the boy's past counterpart. It took Chelia a few minutes to find him, but Romeo knew precisely where he was.

The boy in question was sitting by himself in a booth by a window, staring out into the night sky. Promeo watched as the final moments of the lunar eclipse passed by, ending his wish of activating his Gate that night. Even after the eclipse had faded, his vacant eyes remained glued to the window. A cold, untouched slice of pizza sat in front of him.

"Hey," Chelia softly called out to him, "Are you alright?" If you're not having fun, we can go somewhere else." Her soft blue eyes filled with concern as he still didn't look at her.

"You missed the award ceremony, you know," she changed topics, "Gran Doma was there. He gave me this cool book, with all sorts of neat magic ... told me I could sign up for a special tutoring program with the Council..." Still, he didn't respond. "He said there was something for you, too..."

She whimpered. "Y'know, maybe this arcade is getting a little boring. There's plenty of fun places around Crocus, so maybe we could try somewhere else?" Chelia insisted, "Or if not, we could…" Her voice quivered, and her hands began to shake. He had hardly talked—let alone looked—at her the entire night. They might as well have been on different planets.

Promeo groaned, then yawned lightly. "Nah. I think I'd rather head turn in for the night, get some sleep. Might as well do something useful." He mumbled the last part, not caring if Chelia heard it.

And she did. Her fake smile began to falter.

Romeo felt a pang of guilt in his heart.

Finally, Promeo turned around, but it was only so he could get out of his seat. He patted the girl on the shoulder and said, "I'll see you in class tomorrow," as he started walking towards the door.

Chelia's head drooped. She took a deep breath, then exhaled, clenching her fists. "Wait!" she shouted, catching him just before she left the building.

"Look, I'm…" She gulped. "I'm sorry I made you come here, alright?" Her hands were fidgeting, and she could just barely meet his gaze. "It's just… I'm worried about you. You've been skipping class, your grades are dropping, you haven't been talking to your dad or Totomaru…" Finally, she locked eyes with him for the first time that night. "We haven't even hung out for weeks," she breathed.

Her hands reached out and grabbed his, holding them firmly. "If there's something you need to talk about, I'm here for you. Please…" Tears welled in her eyes. "... Don't shut me out."

Confusion spread across Promeo's face. "What?" He shook his head. "Chelia, no. Look, you… you just don't get it." His hands pulled themselves away from hers, leaving her fingers grasping at nothing. "What I'm doing, it's way more important than any of that." With a stone-cold expression, he said, "Compared to what I'm going to do, none of this-" He gestured to everything around him. "-even matters. Literally."

"How could you say that?!" Chelia's voice cracked. "So what, now your grades don't matter?! Your family doesn't matter?!

"What about us?" she gasped. "Are you saying that we don't matter?"

"'Us?'" Romeo raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by 'us?'"

Chelia felt her heart breaking. "I thought you… I thought we..." she sobbed, letting her head droop, "...nevermind..." Putting on a false smile, she said, "I hope whatever you're doing… I hope it works out how you want it to." And with that, she started walking back into the arcade.

Then she turned around and walked back, grabbing the door handle. "The exit's here," she whispered.

Romeo watched the two walk out the door, then go their separate ways in the parking lot. Promeo didn't even turn back to look at Chelia, which was best for him, because if he had, he would've seen Chelia breaking down into tears as she called for a ride home. Romeo, however, had a front-row seat to the girl's breakdown, which made him wonder... if he had seen this, would he have turned around? And if he had turned around, would they have still been friends?

It was strange. Romeo knew he was doing the right thing! He knew what he was doing would be better for everyone!

So why did he feel like this? What was this strange sorrow?

He wasn't able to find an answer. Once again, the static rolled into his vision, and the scenery around him faded into nothing. Romeo didn't know which of his memories he was about to face next, but whatever it was, he wasn't prepared for it.

In a shocking turn of events, time travel is actually very complicated. Who could have taught us that? Romeo really could've used that information on his little Trek through time. Maybe he'll use that information if he ever tries to get Back to the Future. Men in Black 3.

And yeah, Romeo and Chelia had a thing in this timeline. It was never an official thing, but it was definitely a thing. That thing will get explored more in the next chapter.

Also, for anyone who is confused, each time the "static" appears, it's the Ravines of Time showing Romeo a previous memory of his, and all of these memories are going in reverse order. So for this chapter, the scene where he's in his "lab" is the latest memory, and the scene in the arcade is the earliest. Please do tell me if it's confusing or if you think I should put some kind of break between each scene to show that it's transitioning to a different memory.

Please be sure to follow, favorite, and definitely comment. The support you all show is great, and it's what motivates me to make more of these, so thank you for that.

Omake: Super Snacc-Boi Adventures

"C'mon! C'mon! You can do it!" Romeo cheered. A brand new arcade machine called Snacc-boi had just been added to Chelia's and his favorite arcade and, like with every other arcade machine, the two needed to make sure they were the ones dominating the top of the leaderboards.

The amaranth-haired girl groaned. "It's not as easy as it looks, you know. Her right hand moved the joystick so fast it was hard to believe it didn't fall off, while the left wore down on brand new buttons. Blue eyes narrowed on the yellow circle, narrowly avoiding another phantom and collecting even more white dots. "Just wait 'till you get up here, love."

The boy smirked. "You mean when I go up and turn your score to dust?" He didn't want to admit that he was getting a little nervous. It was still her first attempt, and Chelia was already on level 83 with no sign of stopping. Under normal circumstances, Romeo would've been fine with that. He liked watching her eyes narrow and her brow scrunch up in what he thought was the cutest way whenever she was decimating opponents, real or digital. But unfortunately, right now they had their "usual bet" going.

"Loser's buying the winner lunch, right?" Chelia laughed, and Romeo nodded. "Good." She leaned in.

Romeo gulped. He didn't know how, but he knew the girl was able to eat twice her own weight in food. He wasn't even sure where it went! His guess was to the two new bumps on her chest that have been the bane of his existence for the last couple of months. So while feeding her may not go without perks, it'll still cost him an arm and a leg.

"You know, I'm really liking this game. Maybe we can play it again sometime," she mused happily, knowing victory was all but certain. But alas, sweaty palms, weak knees, and heavy arms would say otherwise as her hand slipped from the joystick. She watched in horror as Snacc-boi was gobbled up by the multi-colored specters. The "Game Over" screen flashed before her eyes:

"Hnnnnggghhh, Player. I tried to collect the pellets, but I'm dummy thicc, and the clap of my pixels alerted the Phantoms."

The young tweens cringed.

"...Or not..."

Outdated memes, anyone?