Tord woke up to the sounds of an argument.

"-could've at least said something before you just took off!"

"We were in a hurry! I-"

"I'm sure you could've spared two minutes!"

Naturally this only made the painful throbbing in his skull even worse than it already was. He opened his eyes blearily, frowning in confusion. This wasn't his base. It wasn't the cell either. The argument got louder and he winced.

"Urgh, please shut up..." his voice came out breathy and raspy but apparently he'd been loud enough for them to heed his request.

Ah, blessed silence.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." Was that... Edd?

"How do you feel?" said a strangely familiar voice. He directed his eyes to it and they met with a green, virtual display. The last twenty-four hours came crashing back to him at the sight of the older Tom-lookalike. Wait, no, this was Tom's future self.

Holy shit, what the hell kind of trouble had his old friends managed to pull off this time?

"Like shit." he answered belatedly and heard a snort from behind Thomas, where Tom stood.

"You look like it too." he bit out, and Paul beside him seemed to agree wholeheartedly.

"Fuck you." was Tord's eloquent reply. He then looked back at Thomas and took a deep breath, "So, now that my wounds are treated and I've woken up from apparently passing out, what the hell is going on?"

He saw Matthew giving him a strange look that he couldn't quite decipher and stored that away for later examination. Thomas sighed, "Well, for one, we broke you out of prison after you pulled some stupi- some very ill-advised decisions." Thomas backtracked with a small wince. What was that about?

Tord clicked his tongue in annoyance, "I know that. Just... why? And why exactly are there even... what, future versions of Matt and Tom? Am I missing something? Is there a future me here too?"

Matthew had opened his mouth to interject into his tirade, but he flinched almost violently at the last question. Thomas also seemed to suddenly tense. "...no. There is no future version of you here." he clarified, voice slightly strained.

Tord found himself both disappointed and relieved. He honestly didn't know how he'd even deal with an older him. This was probably for the best. "And the rest?"

Thomas seemed to struggle with words and Matthew scratched at the skin above his metal chin (what. the fuck.) nervously, "It's... something of a long story?"

Tord stared at him and waited until it became clear that Matthew wasn't going to elaborate. He frowned, "I've got time." Sadly so, now that his budding revolution had been dismantled.

It wasn't either of them who answered his question, though, but Edd. "A bit over a week ago, Edward, future me, came back in time to try and kill me."

Tord honestly found it hard to look Edd straight in the eye, but he really couldn't help but stare at that bizarre opening, "What." it was less of a question and more of a flat declaration of utter confusion.

Edd huffed from his seat on the armchair, "Yeah, well. He didn't manage it. Then these two showed up. And then Matt broke their time machines, so we let them all stay here until the can find a way back."

Tord blinked. Well then, that made total sense. Probably. Maybe.

"And now that you're caught up." Edd continued, shooting him a beatific smile that had a chill running down Tord's spine, "I hope you're aware that you owe us a few explanations, Tord."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Paul exit the room into the hallway, already pulling out a cigarette. Distantly, he heard the backdoor open and close. Edd was still staring at him, his gaze darkening steadily.

There was a strange pressure in the room, every pair of eyes was on him. Matt, Matthew and Thomas looked uneasy while Tom, unsurprisingly, was almost glaring at him. His gaze slid to the last remaining person in the room – he knew he was stalling but for the life of him he could not bring himself to look at Edd right now, so instead he looked at a different Edd.

A different Edd who was holding himself apart from everyone else. A different Edd who wore exhaustion and apathy just as well as a strangely familiar leather duster. A different Edd who was staring right back at him.

Something snapped when their eyes met.

Edward's lips pulled back into a snarl as his eyes first flashed, then outright glowed a bright, fluorescent green. His tight fists were trembling as he took a step forward. The moment he moved, however, Thomas was suddenly standing in front of Tord, gun drawn. Tord stared at the unfolding confrontation in wide-eyed, slightly horrified shock, much like everyone else.

"Get out of my way, Thomas." Edward growled and his voice was rough and choked up with absolute, all-consuming fury in a way he had never heard from Edd before.

Thomas shook his head, "I can't do that, Edward. Please calm down."

"Calm down?" Edward said in a low voice, "You want me to calm down? Fine. I'll calm down when he's dead."

Tord's world tilted sideways for a moment, suddenly everything was just a bit off. He couldn't have heard right, no, that was-

Why would Edward want to kill him?!

Everything was static, he could barely hear the rest of the exchange past the deafening rush of blood in his ears.

"Don't make me shoot you." came Thomas' mostly steady reply.

Edward barked out a harsh, ugly laugh, "Oh, now you hesitate to pull the trigger? That's just rich. You know what he's done, Thomas. Why did you think bringing him here was a good idea?"

Thomas gritted his teeth, "He hasn't done anything. And we rescued him from prison, where else was I supposed to bring him?"

"Well, he must've been there for a reason!" Edward snapped.

"He was wounded-"

"THEN LET HIM BLEED OUT AND SPARE THE WORLD THE SUFFERING!"

"You know I can't do that!"

"DO I? Because from this angle it looks like you've been able to slip out of you leash for years! But you chose to stay with Red! Tell me one good reason why I shouldn't just shoot him in the head and be done with all this!"

It wasn't Thomas who answered but Matthew, looking torn and pained, "Edward, please..."

Edward stared into an apprehensive but borderline pleading eye, still as big and blue as he remembered. He could feel his teeth grinding as his jaw creaked. He took a step, forward, the another, fists still clenched in shaking fury.

Thomas tensed, the finger on the trigger shifted. But-

Edward stepped closer still.

But-

Only a meter between them.

But he couldn't shoot.

Icy terror burned through his veins at the realization, freezing him in place. Edward's fiery glare blazed a whole through him. One step, another-

And Edward walked by him, by the sofa, by everyone, towards the front door.

"I refuse to stay under the same roof as him." he gritted out.

The door slammed shut behind him.

AN:

...welp
tord must be pretty confused and overwhelmed

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