Chapter 51: Chapter 51: A Prologue

The tick of an alarm woke him up.

He opened his eyes, scanning the room he was in.

Memories burned and he felt something amiss.

Like a video that only had relevant parts. Each muscle memory pertaining to that memory, every action, exhaustion, remained as if engraved. A memory that the brain recalled. The rest was faded. As if it was scraped from the depths of his memory.

“You awake, Deadman?”

Robert opened his eyes to this plane of existence.

It was like he was under a starry night.

Sitting in the middle, cross-legged, was a man in a ragged black cloak. Peering upon his eyes Robert could see sigils glowing. He is power incarnated.

“Where am I? Who are you?”

“Hmm, I don't know, it's been long since I used my old name. Not that the name matters. I heard that you’re using my name, Deadman.”

“Not my choice.”

He looked deep inside Robert.

“You don’t have the seed or my fragments. Only the name. No, only a sliver it seems. This iteration is familiar… too familiar… but a city that doesn’t exist and the ebb of magic flows  in certain parts and certain people..”

“The bug ate all the magic. A hole in the sky. A familiar world with an unfamiliar flow.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t.”

“It took me a long while. I doubt your people can understand. Not that they need to understand. It worries me. How those who come to borrow my name and reach certain conditions always lose so much time…”

The being snapped his finger.

“You’re in an ice coffin. A magical weave that kept you in stasis. Really, it is saddening. Why do all those that even bear thy fate must come?”

“I don’t understand…”

“An anomaly in time and space. Nothing new, my friend. Still, you are in a limited and closed-off world. I can't weave the strings here fully. Oh, you’re not dead. Don’t worry. Folks like you are one of the few ones that gets a chance. But it is interesting that yours changes itself. I don’t know if it's for the worst or for the best.”

He snapped his fingers.

“What’s this?”

There the world was reflected.

A view from above with a watchful eye. It was like a time-lapse. His body remained asleep until they dragged him to this icy coffin. Stored away as if wondering if the man inside would remain alive.

“Did they?”

“Why not?”

“Let’s be honest. You were useful, but you were also a man that didn’t wake up. Your consent meant nothing and from the looks of it. As the millennium bug devoured the world and the balance tilted. The harsher they became and if they can't use you. They choose to ice you for their own methods. Right now they prefer to be in the shadows. The one who detonated that bomb had made a ruckus. Do you know how other nations would feel if they saw something like that? ``They might have a WMD in there” would be the common reaction. Nothing really happens, but you can guess that it got more troublesome.”

The scene changes. He can identify CASE Enforcers and Agents. Powerful people fighting the unknown. Monsters who are afraid of the passing of the weaves of magic. Madmen who wanted to die before their gifts are taken away from them.

“It can be maddening. Unable to do anything. Having abilities alone doesn’t mean that you can control every node of fate. Every action results in consequences and in this case. Even if you can help. Can a single paddle change the course of a cruiser?”

Robert stood silently. Watching the time before him passed as the millennium bug approaches. He saw the powerful men and women who wielded magic lose their power. Those who retained them ran from the light, only daring to scheme in the shadows.

“Why am I not waking up?”

“You were a sacrifice. A sacrifice that should have died. You were marked as scorned and should have become the fuel for someone's spell. But take as if your soul is shredded. It’s because you are two souls fused together that only the soul that belonged to the man you possessed was taken. You retain most his memories and experience, but you were still ‘shredded’ by that sacrificial bomb. Your body kept alive because of that formula of yours. Hmm, although if they have keener minds, they would have realized how advanced the chemicals that mutated your body. A technology a nine hundred years from the future, perfected and you used them in a time where they are purer. The difference in quality is staggering and in a way it allows you to be strong enough to even match me in my mortal days.”

“I am still lost…”

“Of course you’d be. Considering what has happened to you in the last few months of your life I say that you have the right to be confused. Even anger is acceptable. You found peace, but instead you end going back to hell. To be fair you were lucky, facing mind-breaking creatures, and going through a devil’s words. But luck is paid with equal misfortune. Your survival equaled another misfortune and in this time. You have to pay the price.”

“What price? Aren’t I already in some ice coffin?”

“I have moved you. No one knows you. But that is for the best. You remain an anomaly and in a way this is life’s way of changing the course of this world’s history back to its natural form.”

“I feel like I’m being bullied here.”

“In a way, you could say that. But the way the world corrects can be harsh and in your case. Let’s say that this was your fate the moment that mark remained on your soul.”

He held his head. Despair covered Robert as if he couldn’t understand all of this. The stress was breaking him apart inside.

The being tapped his forehead. Calm returned to Robert and he found himself staring calmly at the passing of time. Years passed. And the somewhat peaceful world he knew changed into the worst.

“I wanted to at least enjoy that time.”

“We can’t have what we want all the time. And in a way you know how to handle such a beaten and battered world.”

“Is the price of me surviving that then? Back to a world that I know and hate so much.”

“It’s not the same as your last time. As far as I know there are still traces of the old monsters and creatures hiding in the depths of the world. The Mages are around, but they are in the shadows. CASE has been dismantled. You have nothing. No advantages other than the body and the magic you retain before the millennium bug took everything away. Though limited.”

“What are you?”

“Nothing more than a ghost… a fragment. I am a silly fragment that  can’t move on.”

“That doesn’t explain much.”

“Hmm, a good Samaritan then? Truthfully, if I had not improved upon the ice coffin that they put you on. I doubt that you’d remain alive and youthful. As time passes they forget that they stored a man called Robert Oswald inside an ice coffin. I will not lie to you. You were simply forgotten. By 2050 you were nothing more than an curious ice display. A strange relic made of ice that they can’t seem to thaw out.”

Robert looked at the scenery change.

The city of Saint Lucius was an anomaly itself.

A city that shouldn't have existed.

It was changing, morphing into this strange place.

“You may ask what warped all this. You can say that someone who knows has come from a distant future as well. Motivated by something and failed. Using the future as a blueprint, this being has accelerated the technology to such a horrifying degree. Not to the extent of what you know of a sky that burns orange, but the brilliance of a crazed mind can be intimidating.”

Robert wanted to puke.

Being displaced again.

Starting from zero.

He hated it.

The thought of returning back to zero.

Having nothing again makes him want to faint.

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As if the few months was merely an illusion that lured him into this sense of belief that everything will be okay. From awakening from a pile of corpses to waking up in front of a being that seems to have helped him after his soul got shredded.

“Are you God?”

“Nope. If I was. I wouldn’t have allowed myself to become like this. To wander so many places… Hmm… I guess in a way we are all similar. Lost in time and space. But yours is simple. I assure you that nothing will harm you. Hmm, the forces here are quite hidden and although they have gotten themselves in. They won’t be a problem if you stay street-level and don’t go beyond the wall of normality.”

“Nothing of this makes sense.”

“It’s simple. You got frozen. Someone changed and accelerated the order of things. You were forgotten and abandoned. I found your body. Iced it so you are not damaged… all because you made use of a Deadman’s name.”

“So that’s that? I got lucky?”

“Would you have preferred to have been thawed as an aged senile man? No, I don’t think so. I have mixed some of my modifications into your body. It is similar to the serum, but is more on the magical side. You are lucky. I have to burn my internal organs with a land dragon’s acid to improve myself. You get the painless version.”

“What the fuck are you?”

“A tired traveler. Time’s passing by. What do you think of the world a hundred years after you slept?”

“Terrible?”

Robert stared at the skies. The familiar look made him think of his own past-future.

“At least it didn’t have the skies. No geothermal storms… for now at least.”

“Your world's iteration is not similar to this iteration of the world.”

“I was wondering… looking at what you can do. Why can’t you just wake me up?”

“Like I said. Your soul was shredded. It took time to heal and even if I was in my full power. The soul is the most complex. To tamper with it risks inviting misfortune.”

Robert looked down. Eyes losing focus.

“I can give you a choice, however.”

He stared at the being. He drew a sword from nowhere. One look at the sword and he could tell that the moment it hit something. It will simply perish.

“This sword can put you to rest if you want to. Take your life and make sure that your soul can pass on. Free from memories. Free from the burden of pain. It doesn’t work one me, but it will work for you.”

“That’s one hell of an offer.”

“If you can no longer see a road to freedom. Then you need only turn over your wrists, at least that’s what Seneca says.”

“Who's that supposed to be?”

“A stoic. It seems that his knowledge is lost? No, I doubt you’d know him even in your iteration. So… what do you want, Robert Oswald? Or are you Kato again?”

Robert stared.

“Is my body still the same?”

“It is unharmed and unaged.”

“Then I will remain as Robert. I chose that name out of respect. If I’m going to be in this body. I might as well use the same name.”

“I think so too. I was the same, at least. I take it that you do not want to sleep?”

“I just continue. It’s painful honestly. So painful that I just want to cry it out and then scream my heart out until I become numb. But, you know, I just don’t know why I want to take a step forward, knowing that it may not end well. Surviving. Living. Honestly, I just don’t know. I’m fucking zero right now. No one’s going to blame me if you push that damn sword in my chest… but I can’t give up. Don’t have any reason other than I just want to struggle. Die when I die, I guess? That make sense?”

The ragged cloaked man sheathed his sword.

“I understand the feeling. Hmm, I guess those who share this cursed name do. You will have yourself… and that is the best consolation I can give you.”

“You saw the place. What can I expect?”

“Corruption. But there are good people that remain. If you want to live a semi-normal life. I’d stay away from the deep shadows. You disappeared from records and as far as anyone knows. Robert Oswald died in 1997.”

Robert can feel heat somewhere. He looked at the being and then nodded his head.

“I don’t know why you’d even care… but thanks.”

“This is your last grace. I can’t help you beyond this, Deadman. This world is closed-off, and there are many creatures and beings still lurking in the shadows.”

Then it broke.

The world that he stood on broke.

Robert found his consciousness and found himself trapped in a container. He pushed with his palms and moved the objects blocking his way. The hideous stench assaulted his nose as he clambered up and reached the top.

Steel and glass towers.

Holograms showing advertisements.

Flying vehicles moving passing through. He was in a landfill full of appliances and thrown equipment. He leapt down and landed with a crash on top of an an old abandoned car.

“Lux City has remained as the LORES Consortium retains their dominance over our fine city. They are even planning to celebrate the old Christmas tradition as we enter the year 2098.”

Robert grimaced at the sound of the radio.

A hundred years of fucking sleep.

He sat on the plastic chair to get his bearings and then stared at the old man looking at him.

“Boy, you must be high as fuck coming to this landfill dressed like that. Oh, uh, you some escapee from a mental patient or something?”

“Not really. Is this still Saint Lucius, sir?”

The old man looked at Robert then shrugged. He sits on the plastic chair and then smokes a cigarette.

“Fuck me, haven’t heard that old name for a while. Fuckers changed it from Saint Lucius to Lux cause its inappropriate to have ‘Saint’ on the name when we have many folk from all walks of life coming to this shithole.  We need to be understanding my ass. Shit, you don’t look like a junkie. You got kidnapped or something? Don’t see any implants on you.”

“You can say that. Shit, I’m fucked.”

“Ah, you’re one of those unfortunates. Hmm, you look fucking strong enough. If you can help me around the landfill. I’d give you some dummy ID chip to get a new name or something. Everyone who gets into your kind of trouble does it anyway.”

“Not like I got anything better to do.”

The old man grinned. “Name’s Theo, I guess that solves my helper problem for now. We will start working later, for now,” Theo searched for some beer cans and threw them at Robert. “You drink up. Fucker, I know a wounded beast when I see one.”

Robert leaned forward and started drinking. The beer tasted much more artificial. The air didn’t have that pureness that he was glad to wake up to.

To think that a while ago he was enjoying the good air and eating good food. Then some magical nuke and some being appeared before him after he went into a coma from getting his soul shredded and waking up in the future.

This was the price of survival.

And it was one hell of a price.

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