Chapter 13: Time Doesn't Stop
A weary chuckle elicits from Bastion's mouth as my question registers in his mind. The aged face of my best friend stares down at the foot of my bed for several moments, before finally he speaks again.
"How did I get so old? It should be me asking how you stayed so young," he says, raising his eyes to look at me, favoring me with a sad smile. "You may not realize this, Ben, but it's been seventy years since the last time you said my name."
It's a good thing that I'm seated in my bed, because that statement would have driven me to the floor, and probably through it.
"S-seventy years," I repeat, my eyes scanning his, hoping to see some glimmer of playfulness in there, something that would say he was merely joking.
But how could he be? I can see the years that have passed on him; the wispy clouds covering his head, once darker than my hair but now white as snow; intelligent eyes that now are full of the sort of wisdom one can only gain from experience; and beneath it all, a sort of sorrow that can only be found from a lifetime of loss. This is a face that I had seen practically every day for most of my young life, and yet, as familiar as it should be, it can only seem a stranger.
I run my hand along his cheek lightly, my fingers seeking for some sort of rubber or latex material that could suggest a mask. I know I won't find one, but I can't stop myself. The skin is old, and wrinkled, and thin, like the pages of a centuries-old book. Part of me worries that he'll crack and crumble away, or even tear if I touch the wrong spots.
"I've been gone for seventy years," I say, trying to reckon this new idea with myself. My brain doesn't seem to want to simply take Bastion's word for it, and I can't blame it; if I weren't seeing this with my own eyes, feeling him with my own hands, I'd have a tough time believing it myself. I am having a tough time believing it myself. "Where… where did I go? What happened to me?"
Mr. M—which I now stupidly realize stood for Misawa—purses his lips. "You haven't remembered that then," he says.
"No, tell me, please—do you know?" Pressing my fists down into the bed, I push myself up onto my knees, hunched over like a gorilla. I crawl across the bed to sit down in front of him, Dr. Pepper between us.
Every move causes twinges of pain to stab through my body at several different points; this must show, as he leans forward and puts both hands on my shoulders to keep me still. "Calm down, Ben," he says in a soothing voice.
Attempting to calm me only seems to give the opposite effect. Being told to calm down… I know that he doesn't want me to hurt myself by moving too much, and that he simply wants me to stay still, but I can only hear it as insisting I stop my questioning, and that makes my blood boil.
"Calm down?" I say, my voice rising before I can stop myself. I stand, pain shooting up my legs in searing waves; I have to bite my tongue to prevent from yelling in pain. "Calm down? This whole time I've been wandering around with barely even the slightest bit of memory, and when I'm able to recognize my best friend, he tells me that I've been gone for SEVENTY. FUCKING. YEARS… AND THEN HE TELLS ME TO CALM DOWN!"
"Sit down, Ben." The tone he uses does not leave room for debate. Mere moments after I stand, so does he, rising to his full height to look me square in the eyes. His voice is low, his eyes stern and hard.
After a moment of standing nearly nose-to-nose like this, I'm able to say in a soft voice, "…This is how you used to get me to study."
"Yes, it is," Bastion replies quietly.
I begin to sit down, but before I do, I feel a pair of arms wrap around me, pulling me into the old man's chest in a tight hug. He seems to be holding onto me for dear life, and as I realize that he's hugging me, I return it, though not quite so hard.
"I'm so glad you're back," he says after we've stood in this embrace for several minutes, none of us speaking. "I… was worried that I'd lost you forever. My best friend."
In response, I can only be silent. What am I supposed to say? That I was worried I'd never see him again? He knows that up until a few days ago, I didn't even know who he was. There's nothing I can say to reassure him, so I only hug him a bit tighter.
After a bit longer, he releases me. "I hope you'll forgive an old man's sorrows. When you've outlived as many loved ones as I have…" he swallows, his voice shaking just slightly. "Well… you learn to appreciate the ones you still have."
This strikes a chord deep within me. I hadn't thought of that—that while I've found Bastion again, there's a countless number of nameless, faceless others who I'll never see again.
My thoughts immediately drift to our parents—mine, and his. I don't recall much of anything about either pair, aside from that briefest of memories where Bastion's parents had made us a cake for our shared birthday.
Even though I know the answer, I ask in a hesitant voice, "Our parents…?"
He looks away, and I immediately feel a pang of guilt. No matter how many years ago it may have been, losing a parent has to hurt.
"I-I'm sorry," I say quickly. "I should have known better…"
"No, it's fine," he speaks slowly. "Yes. They're gone… some forty years ago, at least."
I feel hot tears stinging at the corners of my eyes. Despite not remembering them, I know there has to have been so many good memories, and the sudden hollow feeling in my chest lends credence to that theory as I begin to miss people whose faces I don't even remember.
Bastion takes a step back, and places his wrinkled old hands on my cheeks, looking into my eyes. He wants to cry too, I can tell, but he's holding it a lot better than me. A watery smile crosses his face. "She'd be so happy to see you again."
"She?"
The smile drops quickly, as if he realized what he had said. "Er… your mother. She'd be overjoyed to see you again, I know it. My mother too," he stammers. "But… no more of this sad talk. You must be starving."
There's something that nags at me about how he changed the subject on the topic of this 'her,' but the rumbling of my stomach prevents me from inquiring further. It's apparently rather loud, as it causes him to chuckle, albeit a bit nervously. His hands drop from my face, one taking hold of my arm gently, and he guides me out of the bedroom, Dr. Pepper moseying along behind us.
Sitting in the kitchen as he makes us a late dinner of vegetarian tacos, Bastion begins telling me of his life after my disappearance, though he's careful not to use too many names.
He married a classmate of ours, who he never really spoke too much until after my disappearance. She was a friend of someone who was apparently a very close friend of mine, but she didn't interact very much with us on a day-to-day basis.
Mrs. M would go on to become a teacher at an elementary school for young Duelists—which is apparently a thing, much to my surprise. As for Mr. M, he went on to become a respected scientist, often working side-by-side with Professor Eisenstein, whom he was very delighted to find out I recalled. He apparently even helped in the development of an energy source known as Ener-D, which powered much of New Domino.
As you can imagine, this made him very, very wealthy.
Bastion and his wife had three children, two boys and a girl. One of the boys is named Ben, the other Kai—short for Kaiser—and the girl is called Rose. Kaiser, however, has apparently passed on, though Bastion refused to say why. They have a few grandchildren as well, but because Ben and Rose do not live within the limits of New Domino City, it's very rare when he sees them.
My next big mistake comes after our tacos have finished cooking, and we're eating. Before I can even think to stop myself, I ask why I haven't seen his wife around here.
His face darkens, and at once I know the answer. I curse mentally, annoyed that I could be so stupid. Immediately I begin to apologize, and change the subject.
"So, um… while I was out… I had a few more dreams. Well, I'm not so sure they were dreams. They were memories, I guess," I explain a bit awkwardly.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Well, part of it had to be a dream. There was this guy there… he called himself Magure," I say, trying to describe this mysterious man. "He had an eyepatch… and a scorpion tattoo on his arm."
"Yes… I do believe I've seen someone like that before," Bastion replies. For a moment, I could almost swear that he's looking right at Dr. Pepper.
"Well, um… he took me through two memories. One's from when we were kids, I guess. We were watching X-Men," I say, smiling a bit at the thought. Bastion starts to smile too. "And… I brought out this drawing I did of Morph. It made me realize… I created Shapeshift, didn't I?"
"Indeed you did, old friend." He pauses for a moment, then explains, "I doubt you remember this, but my father worked at Industrial Illusions. For our birthday when we were thirteen, he took your fanart, touched it up a bit, and turned it into the Shapeshift you use so well."
Remembering an exchange that I had with Magure, I blurt, "Could I really not read when we were seven?"
He starts to chuckle… and that chuckle soon evolves into full blown laughter. The sadness seems to have melted away. "Ben… you couldn't properly read until we were eleven. Even at seventeen you still couldn't pronounce some words larger than three syllables."
My mouth opens and closes like a fish as I try to figure out how to respond to that. With such an intelligent friend, how is it possible that I was that stupid?
"Well, um… the other memory… was on our birthday. I guess probably our thirteenth. We were up in your room, and you were studying. And berating me, too, because I never took studying for the Academy seriously…"
He smiles fondly again. "Ah yes… that was before I was as tall as you. I couldn't stare you in the eyes and make you study back then."
A silence settles between us again. When those memories came back to me, it seemed like they took up so much time to relive, but explaining them to Bastion… took only a few minutes. We haven't even finished our tacos yet.
But I also wasn't expecting such muted responses from him. I was hoping that he'd at least tell me something more about my past, or explain some sort of background to it all, or better yet just tell me the story of my whole life. He's lived for almost ninety years, and it seems at least ten of those were spent with me at his side…
Finally, I have to say, "There's… gotta be so much more you're not telling me. Why?"
He pauses mid-chew and sets his taco down on the plate. He chews a few more times, slowly, ponderously, and then swallows. He takes another bite and again chews it down at an agonizingly slow pace.
"Ben… there's a lot that you don't remember. Those two you recovered are but raindrops in an ocean when compared to what is still missing," Bastion says. "You've lost just about everything from your seventeen years. There is quite a bit that I can give back to you, yes, but for it all to return at once… well, your mind would probably explode. Figuratively, of course. I think."
I hate how much sense he's making. A big part of me doesn't care what could happen, now that I've dipped my toes into the well, I need to know more!
But he won't budge. There's only one more thing that he's willing to tell me about our past—our birthday. "The twelfth of April," he states, "two weeks from today. Almost exactly three hours apart, though I'm actually older than you."
We finish our meal quietly, with him refusing to say anything further about the history of my world, and we head up to our bedrooms. The sun had gone down some time early in our conversation, and now the sky was pitch dark and the big grandfather clock in the hallway read "XI." I'm not quite sure what that means, or how to pronounce it; maybe it means, 'eXcItingly late' or something of that sort?
Before we part ways for the night, he turns to me and says, "Try not to stay up too late, Ben. I know that you'll probably have a lot on your mind, but we're going to be doing a bit of babysitting tomorrow. I'm going to get you up early."
This causes me to tilt my head slightly. "Babysitting? An old man and an equally old man who looks like a teenager?"
"Indeed." Bastion replies, as if there's nothing odd about that premise at all. "We'll be babysitting the children of one of Kai's friends. I watch them every now and again, very good kids. Twins, as a matter of fact."
Dr. Pepper eases on up between us and then into my room. We watch him as he disappears through the doorway, and then turn back to face one another.
Bastion's expression softens a bit. "I promise I'll tell you more soon. But for now, just get some sleep. This could help you more than you think." He pauses, and then says, "Sometimes… the best way to solve your own problems is to help others. Good night, Ben."
And with that, he slips into his bedroom and closes the door with a soft click, leaving me alone in the hallway.
I sidle on up to the window, staring out at the moonlit lawn. The silver light casts a pale blanket across the beautifully maintained grounds, weaving between the ornamental hedges, ducking behind statues and hiding beneath the amazing, leafy plants that fill his garden. I haven't been out there yet, but it's all so beautiful, I can't wait to see it in person.
At the edge of the lawn, a bit of movement captures my attention. My eyes flit toward it, and for the briefest of moments I see a black figure outlined against the pearly grounds. It's human in shape, but before I can discern too much a cloud passes in front of the moon, and when it moves away again the figure is gone. I don't know why, but the sight of it turns my insides cold, so I hurry into my room, flick off the hall lights, and hop into bed beside Dr. Pepper.
"Don't suppose you're going to tell me anything about my past, eh, doc?" I ask, affectionately running my hand over the bumpy shell of my reptilian friend.
From the various things that Bastion has mentioned about him, part of me expects him to respond, but he doesn't; a good thing too, as I'd probably make a bit of a mess in the bed if he did.
I lay my head down against the pillow and sigh, reaching over to turn out the lamp. "Damn… seventy years…" I sigh again, staring up at the dark ceiling and tugging the blankets up to my chin. In lieu of counting sheep, I begin to make a checklist of everything I know about my past.
"My name is Ben. Don't know what Ben is short for. Partial check. I'm seventeen… er, eighty-seven, I guess. Check. My birthday is April 12th, which is in two weeks. Check." I turn over onto my right, looking down at Dr. Pepper on his little bed. "I named Dr. Pepper, which means he's old as hell too. Check. My parents, and Bastion's parents, are no longer with us. Check."
My eyes start to droop. I hadn't really planned on falling asleep from doing this, or else those dreams, or whatever they were, actually left me exhausted. Whatever the case, I find myself losing the fight against slumber, and while I intended to hit the hay nonetheless, the hay hits back.
AND THAT'S WHERE WE'RE GOING TO END IT TODAY! Apologies about the length of time between updates, and the lesser length of this chapter. To address the update time, I've been put on night shift for the last month and I'm still in the process of trying to work out some sort of structure for my daily life. To address the length of the chapter, I'll be honest—I was able to cover everything I wanted to in this many words, and also I just wanted to make sure you guys didn't think I just dropped off. We'll be moving on with the actual plot of 5Ds in the next chapter or two I think.
Anyway, I'm really glad you guys liked the little plot twist! I was worried it would go over a lot worse than it did, but the responses have been amazing! You guys really are the best readers an author like me could ask for. I hope I'll be able to answer all your questions!
So, because I feel like I've taken up too much time with this A/N, I'll go ahead and end things out. But before I do, I've just got one question for you guys—what do you guys want to see from this, now that we know more about Ben's backstory? (Also, how do you guys feel about Ben actually being slightly illiterate? It's mostly for comedic purposes, but I can easily fix it if you guys don't enjoy it.)
ANYWAAAY, as always, take care, brrrrush yo hair, I'll see ya when I see ya, PEACE~!
~Chase