Shoutout to Imaginos1892 for bringing several aspects of the Vandread world to my attention. Thank you for your help.

"The fixer." I say. "Well, I'm not betting on any horses with you around."

He laughs, a deep, booming sound. "Not that kind of fixer, my boy. No, I fix universes."

"Yeah?" My mind is racing. "Well, you seem to have screwed up at least one."

"No, I don't think I have." He turns his back and calls over his shoulder, utterly unconcerned I have a laser pointed at his back. "Follow me for a moment, and I'll show you something that you'll find interesting."

Reluctantly, I follow him, never letting my guard down. The environment is completely white, and while it feels like I'm walking on tile, I can't see anything to actually show that I'm moving aside from the fact that if I stop Fixer gets farther away.

Eventually, he stops and points to the ground off to the side. I follow his pointer finger to see a hole in space, and a familiar picture can be seen through the hole.

My room, back home. My room, and me, slumped over my desk. White, tubular pills are spilled across the desk, the bottle that was supposed to contain them on its side on the floor.

I don't remember having that bottle of sleeping pills, so this isn't a real image.

"What is this, the ghost of Christmas future?" I ask sarcastically.

"Unfortunately, no. This is you, as you are back in your world."

"I think I'd remember attempting to OD on sleeping pills. Again."

"Not if I split you off from that you before you overdosed." The Fixer responds with an arched eyebrow. "You've played SOMA, I know you know how mind scans were used in that game."

"Oh, so I'm a brain scan then?"

"No, but I thought it would be a good enough analogy to get you through the following conversation." The hole shrinks to nothing and he starts walking forwards. "My organization is in charge of making sure every universe gets it's happy ending." He says, turning and continuing to walk down the blank white world. "We take copies of people, for lack of a better term, and put them into other universes to solve the problems the other universes have."

I keep my mouth shut. It seems like I'll be getting at least some answers, so better not distract him.

"Usually, we take a hero from one universe where he succeeded and transplant him to another universe. This works remarkably well: most universes achieve the best outcome this way. However, U-39728, which you know as the world of Vandread, is a special case."

He falls silent, and afraid he'll stop talking completely, I prompt him. "Special in what way?"

"Most universes come to a bad conclusion unless left alone, but U-39728 would reach an ideal ending even without our interference. We decided not to interfere with it."

"Then, why the hell am I there?" I snarl. "I didn't ask to be shoved into that setting."

"Indeed." If he's perturbed by my harsh tone, he doesn't show it. "Which is why, when we found out that someone had been placed into that universe, we were concerned. It seems that one of our own has gone rogue."

He stops in front of another hole, and I peek through it. I can see a gravestone with my real name, not my internet pseudonym, and my mother crying in front of it. Dad is also there, staring blankly at the ground at his feet. I can't see my sister, which isn't that odd to be honest.

I look from the scene back to The Fixer and then back to the graveyard. "What does that have to do with me dying?"

"Whoever went rogue took you to universe U-39728, with the intent to screw it up. From our calculation made after we learned of your existence, we have determined that you are probably the worst thing that can happen to that universe."

I stare at the gray man. "What?"

He traces his finger through the air and a door appears. "You will be familiar with the concept of fate. Every universe, save for three, have a certain amount of fate. The more fate one has, the easier it is for the correct ending to happen. U-39728 had an extraordinary amount of fate. Good fate even. Usually, fate isn't enough to drive any individual event to a good ending, but U-39728 was, again, extraordinary."

"And I am the worst thing that can happen to that universe." It's not a question. He's already stated it, and for some reason I'm not doubting his words. I really should, but I can't bring myself to question what he says.

"Indeed. You are just the right combination of mentally ill, intelligent, and suicidal to ruin even the fate of that universe. I thought it would last a bit longer than it did, but it finally broke. That is why I summoned you here."

"I don't recall being summoned." I state.

"Of course not. If you could detect that we were influencing your actions, you would try to resist us."

I can't exactly say he's wrong.

"In any case, things finally got so bad we decided to stage an intervention." He open another hole, this one into the interior of the Nirvana, specifically the Paksis' room. "The Paksis is not one of us, though it is congenial to our cause. It roams some universes near to U-39728 and provides help. It's what told us of your presence in the first place."

"Okay." I sigh. "So, can you reset U-397... whatever to what it was before I got there?"

The Fixer turns to me with an eyebrow raised. "No, we cannot. We are constrained by the flow of time just as you are."

"Damn. Can you put the real Hibiki back in?"

"Even if we could, they wouldn't trust him. Your actions have sent U-39728 into a bad ending, and running from it isn't going to make it better. Besides, why would we let you run away from your actions? You must atone for your sins, whether the situation was your fault or not."

"...So, I used up all the fate by not being Hibiki, and yet you want to send me back in to further fuck up what I've already ruined."

"No, we want you to fix it. It's an unprecedented situation, having someone actively destructive being imported. All of our calculation show that if we meddle, the chances of the universe heading for a good resolution grow worse. Our only recourse is to have you fix what you have broken."

"Okay, yeah, sure. Why do you keep saying universe though? Maybe I'll be saving a galaxy, but not the entire universe."

"Universes are incidents. Events. Without these, there wouldn't be." The gray man says cryptically. "Stories from your universe tend to outline other universes, leading some among my brethren to figure your universe is one of the most important. Your fiction more or less describes the billions of worlds out here, and as more are created, more works spring forth into your universe."

"Don't I feel special." I deadpan. "So, what Universe is mine?"

"One of the fateless ones, U-3."

"Three, huh. What are one and two?"

"Two is where I and my brethren come from. Nobody knows what U-1 holds, as it's secrets are locked from us."

He patiently waits as I sort through my thoughts. "So... The reason everything was going the way it went in the show was fate, and I just broke that."

The Fixer nods, his congenial smile never leaving his face.

"So, from now on, things can go very, very wrong."

"Not can. Will, if you don't make efforts to fix everything."

"...Look, you said it yourself. I'm mentally ill and suicidal. Why would I even care if this universe dies?"

"Why did you save the others on the planet of sand? Why do you fly through space attempting to save those around you? It's because of the one good trait you have, the one thing that makes U-39728 not a lost cause."

"And what would that be?"

"You help people without thinking. Your body moves to aid others on instinct, and only conscious effort overrides that. When you give no thought to an action, you save. When you think long and hard, you try to cause pain." The Fixer chuckles. "All in all, you are pretty entertaining at least in an academic sense."

...They've done their research, at least. I've noticed that about myself before, my tendency to reach out to people. If anyone wants help, they got it if I was at all capable. I never figured out why I do it, I just do. Was never happy about it though.

"So, I get dumped back out where I was, and I have to figure out a way to make everything better before they kill me for attacking their third in command." I state. "Then I need to bring everyone back on the right track to defeating Earth."

The Fixer continues to smile at me.

"What happens at the end? If I die, or if I somehow succeed?"

"We can only guess." The Fixer shakes his head. "The future isn't set in stone."

"Can I refuse?"

"You can. It won't do you a lot of good, since you have nowhere else to go, but you can if you fancy wandering these blank wastes until you die of dehydration." He doesn't lose the smile even while telling me of my fate.

My mind balks at the proposition. Looks like I'm not even willing to consider staying here. "Okay, one last question before I go back."

"Go ahead, and it doesn't even have to be your last."

"Can you give me super powers or guns or something to make my life easier?"

"Of course not. That would be interfering."

"Fine." I wave my hand loosely in his direction. "Send me to face the firing squad."

The hole through which I could see the Paksis grows larger, large enough for me to be able to comfortably step through. Before I can cross the threshold, The Fixer stops me with a hand on my shoulder. "Oh, and don't tell anyone else about us, or your origin. That tends to consume fate quickly and send things towards bad ends. It's impossible for anyone to actually figure it out without you explicitly saying it, so you don't have to worry about that. Only Meia knows, and the other won't figure it out if you don't tell them. Off you go!"

He places his gray shoe on my back and shoves me through, sending me head over heals back into the Nirvana.

Hard landing. I'm fairly sure I didn't beak anything, but my right arm hurts like a sumbitch. Voices come from all three of the entrances.

Okay, now to survive the next few minutes, then I can figure out how to survive past that.

First order of business: discard the weapon. i toss the laser far away from me, then lie face down on the floor, hands over my head. I've never been arrested, but this is how those cops chases always end. Hopefully, the security will realize I'm surrendering.

There I lie, waiting as they slowly approach me from all three directions, cautious and waiting for me to make a move. When the eventually reach me, I get dog piles and handcuffed in a blink, then hauled to my feet and dragged not to my cell, but up to the bridge. After I'm sat down, they leave and it's at least an hour before anyone comes back.

The audience consists of Magno, BC, the bridge crew, Meia, Dita, Jura, and Gascogne. Bart is also here, nervously peeking over the rim of his command module.

Meia has her arm in a sling and is glaring furiously at me. Dita refuses to look in my general direction, and Jura looks mad but slightly confused.

Magno looks serene as usual. "John, is it?"

I remain silent.

"Meia has told me she figured you out, and when she did you became hostile. Is this true?"

I continue to remain silent.

"Have anything to say for yourself?"

I shake my head.

Magno turns to Meia. "Meia, as the person wronged, you may determine his fate."

My eyes slide over to Meia, who is still shaking visibly from fury. She takes a few breaths to compose herself. "Lock him up, and take all of his belongings away."

Yay. What I consider the worst punishment, boredom. Pain is better than nothing at all, am I right?

They threw me into my cell, stripped bare of everything but the toilet and the metal shelf I've been using as a bed, all sheets removed. I lie down and close my eyes. If I go to sleep, I can stave off boredom for longer. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people who can just fall asleep on command. Instead, I stare at the ceiling.

I wonder where Duelo and Bart are? I doubt they'll want to stay in the same area as me, especially after what I've done.

Hell. I'm just thirty kinds of screwed. Instead of moping, let's see some plans to fix everything.

What's next up? Either Rabat or that space station. I can't remember the order. Of course fate has now officially broken, so maybe those won't happen. Not sure exactly how that is supposed to work. Anyway, the best outcome is making sure Rabat doesn't fuck with our systems. Also, making sure nobody else gets locked up, and nobody gets blown up.

What's the best way to affect Rabat? I don't have any influence on this ship at all if I can't talk to anyone. My best chance is when they feed me... If they feed me. No guarantees. If they don't, I'll have to bang on things... no, that won't work, this area is really soundproof. The sound barely carries as far as the hall. I have to hope someone comes down.

So when someone comes down, what should I do? Explicitly say not to attach any funny devices to the Paksis? Tell them he's a thief? They're more likely to trust him either way. Actually, in the original story, Rabat swindled a little bit, and got away with it. The crew of the Nirvana came out behind in all respects. So, how can this go wrong?

Problem solving is about asking the right question. "What could go worse this time?" is actually a pretty good question to ask.

Rabat could kill or injure some of the crew. He could seriously damage the Nirvana, rather than just disabling the engine temporarily. He could steal one of the Dreads or the Vanguards. His monkey could steal Pyoro.

Okay, that last one would be put under the improvement category, but I digress.

His ship isn't big enough to fight us, and his firepower capabilities is definitely below ours, so I doubt he'll try to fight us. Unless he's sure he can get away, there's little chance he'll try to kill any of us. Of course, these two thoughts only apply if he's a rational person. If he's let's himself get carried away...

He's not really the type to get carried away, though. He's generally kind of holier-than-thou, but he's a decent person inside, and makes smart decisions. Ah, he's psychic, isn't he? If Rabat and I are in the same room, that would be pretty bad.

Footsteps approach, rapid and angry. I sit upright and lock my spine up straight, freezing my face into a neutral expression.

"What did you do to me?" Meia hisses.

Not what I expected her to say, to be honest. "I broke your elbow joint and kicked you in the stomach."

"Not that. Why can't I tell the others about you?"

"Multiuniverse conspiracy. I only learned about it today." I say.

"Don't lie to me." She growls.

"I'm not. Apparently, I was sent here to fuck this entire universe up by someone as sadistic as I am. Someone else is making sure nobody but you and I know the secret. You can't tell anyone about it, I guess."

"You're serious." Her anger deflates slightly, probably due to exasperation.

"Yes, I'm serious." I continue to stare straight ahead at the wall opposite my bed. I can barely see Meia out of the corner of my left eye. "And believe me, I wish I wasn't."

"Because...?"

"Because it means someone is manipulating me. I really, really hate that." I takes a lot of effort not to growl there.

"You seem fine with doing it yourself." She snips.

"Yes, well, it's how I make it through the day. The same way you disguise your emotions with a layer of professionalism to keep people from getting too close." A cheap shot at an open wound, but effective.

"I do not-"

"Oh, grow up." I cut her off. "I already told you, I know a lot more than I should about you. You keep people at a distance to avoid hurting yourself. You dislike birthdays. You were put on a pedestal as a kid and treated like a star, only to fall with your family."

"I... I... I'm older than you!" Meia protests. "You grow up!"

"Oh, please. I'm older than I look. If I had to guess, I'd say you're in your late teens, twenty at the most. I'm twenty three, though stuck in a sixteen year old's body." At least mostly. I still have my face, which is admittedly kind of boyish anyway.

Her eye twitches. "Why should I believe you? Maybe you're actually just ten and you're actually a lot younger. You certainly don't act like an adult!"

"Really? Because I think I act like an adult."

"What about Dita? You're pretending she's invisible!"

"...Actually, you got me there. I probably could have handled that one better." I sigh and fold over a bit. "I don't handle girls who like me well."

"I'll say. You ignore them, treat them like they're inconsequential, beat them up-" She huffs.

"How did you know that?" I cut her off again. "Did the Paksis share my thoughts?" I belatedly note that I've lost my rigid posture and am now standing as close to the bars of energy as I can without singing myself. "How much did it show you?" Meia falls silent under my intensity, and I finally calm myself down enough to back up and sit back down on the bed.

"The Paksis didn't show me anything about you." She finally says.

"Then how...?" Oh. Ohhhhh. "Dammit."

Meia's cheeks color slightly, only noticeable because of how pale her skin is.

"Look, let me just state right here that I don't like or love you or anyone else on this ship." I decide to forestall any further developments right now. "Also, I'm pretty much the scum of the Earth. Right now, you don't see how many good men are out there. With a reference pool of only three, I look a lot better than I am." I raise my hands in a defensive manner. "Please don't think most guys are like me. Most of them are decent, just like most women are decent."

She narrows her eyes, the flush gone from her face. "And you think you know women from just a ship full of pirates?"

I shake my head. "Where I come from, men and women get along a lot better. You may not believe me, but we're technically the same species. Both humans." I lean back against the wall.

"That's absurd."

I shrug. "I don't care if you trust me or not. There's planets we'll come across where boys and girls get along."

Suddenly, Meia's attitude changes, like she's remembered something. She speaks slowly, picking her words carefully as she continues. "I supposed you would know better than I would. It would be nice to know what we're facing, and what's coming up. That way, we can prepare better."

That wasn't exactly subtle. "Eh, the multidimensional being told me I broke fate. From now on, my future predicting powers won't work so well." Which, in retrospect, means all my earlier planning was for naught. If he doesn't show up at all... would that screw us over? He's important for later events, but mostly for the planet of psychics, and I'm pretty sure I can't learn that even if they were willing to teach me.

Meia glares at me. "Then tell me what was supposed to happen."

I look at her face thoughtfully. She's glaring at me, which means she's irritated. However, she's only irritated, and not hysterical like... well, like I'd imagined anyone would be if they learned they were fictional characters. Meia's either accepted it, or is so far in denial that she's not really registering what I say. "The Nirvana gets to a space station called a mission."

"Vague. Is there anyone on the station?" Meia prods at me for more.

I hesitate. Rabat's psychic. If I tell her about him, it's just as bad as if I went near him. What should I say? "One person."

"Hib- John, give me more details."

"I can't" I set my eyelids at half level. "There's a good reason, I swear, but if I tell you it'll get bad."

"If you want, I can order the food staff not to feed you." She threatens.

"Or you could just space me and be done with it. I'm sure everyone else on the ship would like to see me did, after what I did to you." I let a lazy smirk cross my face. "Actually, you could just poison my food. Starvation's an option, but I'm not sure if the softer crew members would go along with-"

"They don't know." Meia says.

"...Pardon?"

"The captain covered it up. Everyone knows I was injured by you, but we're treating it like an accident. We decided to say that you panicked and took my laser, which is why you're locked up, for your own safety as well."

"That's awfully generous of you. That's twice the captains saved my reputation."

"She did it for the good of the Nirvana, not for you."

"Yes, I get the whole 'keeping up morale' thing, but doesn't allowing a psychopath to remain on-board kind of a really bad idea?"

"Nobody's said that you're a psychopath." Meia says.

"Please. I know I'm how fucked in the head, I just try to hide it most of the time. Pretend to be a happy, friendly guy, and you get a good reputation. People trust you, help you. It's a lot better than letting myself do what I want, since I'd be in jail in hours." I chuckle.

"Unrepentant, I see."

"If you want to hit someone, but don't, you're said to have the quality of restraint. I've done my best to be a model human back home. It fell apart eventually, but I was seen as a good person until... well, right before I turned twenty three." I look straight into her blue eyes. "I never saw a reason to hate myself for what I am. I like to hurt people. I make plans to screw people over for fun. I revel in other's pain. I stuffed it down for as long as possible so that nobody would lock me up or drug me. It worked for twenty two years."

Meia breaks the stare first. "You're surprisingly up front about it."

I smile, all teeth. "No point in hiding it. You've already seen enough that you could draw this conclusion on your own."

She shakes her head. "Maybe. I'll need to keep an eye-"

The loudspeakers crackle to life. "Meia, report to the bridge." Comes BC's voice.

I lie down in my bunk. "We can talk more later, if you want." I say in a sing-song. "I've got nothing but time, after all."

When Meia arrived at the bridge, she's greeted by the sight of what looks like a hunk of space junk on the big screens that make up the bridge's walls. It's roughly circular, with lots of antennae and other prongs poking out of it at all angles. From the lack of lights, it looks like it's been abandoned.

"Ah, Meia." Magno greets the new arrival warmly. "We're just about to start."

Meia joins the rest of the crew, but keeps her eyes trained on the image on the screen.

"That is a station." Magno begins. "It's not responding to hails, so we're going to board it and see if we can get any decent supplies out of it." The captain looks curiously at Meia, who seems to have frozen up slightly, but continues nonetheless. "Meia, you're in charge of choosing who is going to be part of the boarding party."

Meia recovers enough to glance around at all of the expectant faces now pointed in her direction. "How many people do we need to send down?"

Magno rubs her chin thoughtfully. "I'd say about five. We're not scouring the thing yet, just checking for supplies."

Meia takes a breath to center herself. "Okay, this is who is going down-"

...Someone get me a leather mask, I'm turning into Hannibal Lector. Next chapter, less narcissism and more of the characters you actually like.

Actually, wait, no. MORE NARCISSISM!