You are now Cherry. You have arrived back in the dream bubbles, but in a memory you haven't seen before.

You walk along an empty road with bright city lights far down the path. You look over the right side to see the shore, framed by the vast, endless ocean. You look over to the left and see trees brimmed with beautiful white and pink flowers. Cherry blossoms. As you look up the path again you see something in the tree-line up ahead.

As as you get closer you see a crater rimmed by scorched flowers. You look down the large dent in the earth and see a man standing at the bottom looking at the rock that caused the impact.

"Stay back!" He calls up to you without turning around.

"It looks perfectly safe." You respond, a little confused by this stranger's cause for concern.

"It's not a safety issue."

"Then what's so wrong with me getting a better look at the meteor?"

"Just...just go away!"

"Is this a memory you don't want others in. If so I can leave."

"I'm perfectly fine with others in this memory. I don't want you in this memory."

"What quarrel do I have with you?"

"Just leave!"

"No! I'm going down there!"

"Go away, Sakura!"

That word hits you like a ton of bricks. "Dad?" You ask.

"Damn!" You hear him mutter under his breath.

"Dad! Is that you?"

"Just leave me be! I'm not your father!"

"But dad...it's me...it's Cherry!"

"I know who you are! I don't want to see you!"

"How can you say that to your own daughter!?"

"If I wanted to talk to you, I'd have contacted you already!"

"What's wrong with you?! I came all the way out here after you left me all those messages about where to find you! I flew through the furthest ring to get here, and this is how we are reunited as a family?!"

"Don't you get it? I wasn't sending you to find me! Was sending you to the session you're going to!"

"Oh! The session full of assholes and liars!"

"They're not like that!"

"Yes they are! They're probably all like that Brandon guy!"

"Don't you talk about your father like that!"

"Father...wait...what? You're my father."

"Shit! Fine, I'll tell you. That's because Brandon and I are the same person."

"What, like he grows up to be you?"

"No," he turns around and looks at you to show you his blank, lifeless eyes. "I'm him from a doomed timeline. A timeline where we needed to scratch the session."

"There's no way! You aren't like that asshole, and...you...you can't be...you can't be dead." At this point it's too much and you can't help but cry.

"I am, and I am. The session I came from scratched and created you and your friend's session. I told you to go to the session you're headed to to save you."

"You want me to go to that shithole and then say it's for my safety!?"

"Sakura, think abou-"

"No! You don't call me that name! I've always hated it!"

"I am your father and you will listen!"

"No! You're not my dad! You're a liar wearing the mask of an honest man!"

"And I'm also the man who saved you and your friends from imminent death! By making you part of the alpha timeline you are now essential to its stability!"

"What if I wanted to die?"

"I know full well that you don't!"

"You don't know me! You act like you do, but you never did!"

"You're wrong. I have the memories of two lives where I knew you. One where you were my mother, and the other where you were my daughter."

"And with all that time you learned nothing about what I want!"

"You want your friends to survive. Especially Will."

"You...that's wrong!"

"No, it's completely accurate. You couldn't bare the idea of harm coming to him. Just imagine it now. Imagine all the timelines where he died. Imagine all of the world's that died because he got reckless."

Images fill your head of Will either in horrible pain or torn apart beyond recognition. "Stop! Stop making me see these things!"

"No, this is what I was protecting you from! You chose to stay in this memory, so you choose to face what horrors come with it!"

"So you show me images of my boyfriend dying?"

"I show you what your fate was! I show you what I killed all of my friends and family for! So you wouldn't have to actually live through this! And how do you repay me?!"

"I don't owe you anything! You think I owe you for deciding my fate for me?!"

"That is a parent's job!"

"No! It's a parent's job to teach their child! To let them decide their own future!"

"You actually believe that crap?"

"It's not crap!"

"I know it is! I can see the fate of one of your party members being decided by their parent."

"Which one?"

"If I were to tell you then this would not become their fate, and you wouldn't learn a lesson."

"Still trying to teach me lessons? Like I want to learn anything from you!"

"I am your father and it is my job!"

"I already told you! You're not my father!"

"So you will accept my brother as your father then? Good. He's a much more suited parent."

"I bet he is."

"And to think that my wife and I were so happy when I brought you home."

"Are you trying to pull a sob story out of a hat?"

"To think that I even gave you the name of a flower as beautiful as the cherry blossom. In truth you are nothing but a fly trap. You lure in others and lead then to their demise."

"I am not like that!"

"Wrong! It runs in the family. I did it. Your brother has done it. You already have done it!"

"What do you mean?"

"The session you are headed to. It will spell out demise for some, and happiness for others."

"Then I'll turn the ship around!"

"Your team will think you're crazy, they'll never do it. Even if you do, then they'll all die."

Your mind is filled with more images of your friends dying.

"Stop! I'll go to the session!"

"That's a good girl."

"Bastard!"

"As evil as you think I am, you still haven't noticed what memory I wish to relive."

"Fine then! Humor me! What memory is this?"

"This is when I found you."

"So you like to remember the times when I couldn't speak?"

"Don't be rude. I'm trying to be nice."

"Why should I? You're an asshole!"

"I know that. I also know that you will later come to accept some form of me as family."

"How can you know that? Do you believe in fairy tales?"

"You are forgiving, and too caring. I know you believe that all hearts harbor hidden kindness."

"So what if I do?"

"You need to face this isn't the truth."

"Why? Because of people like you?"

"No, because of people who you will come to later meet."

"So some of the assholes from your session?"

"My session was filled with good people, and so is the version of it you are headed to."

"If they're such good people then why did you fail where they succeeded? What difference was between your two sessions that would make them more suited to victory other than them being more ruthless?"

"We failed because I have only one brother. The session you are headed to is one where I had a half brother born of the ones I grew up knowing as my parents."

"So, technically that would make him my son?"

"Genetically, yes. His name is Duncan and he is the one reason why they lived and I died in a doomed world."

"Is he that strong?"

"I'd say that he is stronger than a denizen, even without god-tiering."

"I can see how he keeps them alive."

"It's not just that. He is an important person to the progression of them as people. He is the reason why their version of me has the ability to see losses. He wished for the power to avoid another defeat at the hands of his brother. All a matter of sibling rivalry."

"So because you didn't have the drive to win, you developed different powers."

"Yes, because I didn't have a goal, an objective, I lost sight of what was important."

"Which was?"

"Proctecting my friends. He learned to hate defeat and grow bitter at experience of it. He hates to lose. Because of his hatred for defeat he fights so fiercely to avoid it."

"So all he wants to do is win."

"Yes. However this is not the only change led on by Duncan's existence. At our time of need our leader couldn't step up to the plate, in the other session Duncan slapped some sense into him. Where Duncan sees weakness he exposes it and destroys it. Being a heart player he saw weakness in our leader's heart and got him to realize what was at stake."

"Then I guess I stand corrected, maybe they aren't all assholes."

"No. Duncan's a huge asshole."

"Why did I think he wouldn't be?"

"The only difference is that calling him out on it would be like asking an elephant to step on your ribcage."

"So this guy with monster strength is the only reason why they lived?"

"Absolutely."

"So they're not only all assholes, but they're all assholes who can't fight."

"Ah, yes, because I see that healing people killed off so many enemies on your planet."

"Shut up! We're still stronger than them!"

"Yeah, I mean you don't need an incredibly overpowered rage player with a healer that can reverse death like its no big deal to win a fight."

"Fine! I see your point! Still, I have one question."

"What?"

"Why would sending us to the alpha timeline make us survive? Wouldn't that just make another doomed timeline?"

"Normally it would, but my friends and I are not a group to underestimate. It was a simple task really. Mind player creates plan. Doom player prevents the group from finding their deaths in the furthest ring. Space player plots course to right place. Time player stabilizes the timeline."

"That's all I wanted to know."

"What? Leaving already? I thought you wanted to stay in this memory and speak to dear old dad."

"As I already said, you're not my father."

"Fine then, if I'm not your dad, then you can call me Grimm."

END OF CHAPTER 27