Beams of radioactive light collided with elemental blasts and magic spells. Super-serum empowered monsters tore at mutants with their claws and were slammed away by giant green radioactive fists. The ILS and AVS joined forces and went to war with the Atomic Cult, both sides fighting to the end to protect their reality. The battle quickly devolved into a chaotic brawl as the supers began to duel.
All around, mutants, monsters, villains, and heroes were crying out and fading away.
For in this battle, death was not the end.
This was the space between time, with both timelines attempting to repair themselves. Dying here did not kill the body, but rather made a small hole in the timeline, a tiny gap in one of the two rivers of light. The hole would be repaired after a while, the individual returning to the fight once it did, but if the damage reached critical mass the timeline in question would reach an unrecoverable state and permanently vanish. If it was the new timeline that survived, the Temporal Arbiter could do a brute force patch job to hold it in place, as the universe wouldn’t have any alternatives. Then, with a sufficiently stabilized timeline, he could hunt down Elise and banish her from time as well, removing the main cause of the new timeline’s destabilization and making it possible to manually piece the new timeline back together.
In other words…
The battle was a tug of war with the fate of the universe at stake. A battle to death between two entire realities.
And so the prominent and powerful individuals began to confront their alternates.
Runes and black bone spears collided mid air as two Otter Kings each tried to protect their reality.
Councilwoman Dayal frowned at a haggard woman screeching at her, two patches of Earth underneath each of their feet. One, vibrant and green. The other, black and decayed.
“You poor thing. I’m sorry, but all I can do for you is put you to rest. Please take solace. The Earth can be saved.”
Black and rotting branches shot towards Councilwoman Dayal. Councilwoman Dayal clasped her hands, a sad smile on her face, and green and vibrant branches rushed past her. The branches collided, twisting around each other. Black branches spread sickly green decay across the brown and green, healthy branches filled the black with healing life, causing them to crumble away.
In the area above the timelines, a mighty battle raged. Huge blasts of plasma and laser beams pierced through shields and armored hulls.
The Vophae fleets tore themselves apart.
The nature of the Vophae meant they need not fight at all. Once a Vophae made physical contact with their alternate, they would merge together into one being as the two identical colonies fused into one supercolony. It took but a moment for the two High Admiral Siendir’s to decide which reality to support and bring their joint fleet together.
But that only applied to the Vophae themselves.
The auxiliaries, on the other hand, had caught glimpses of another reality. A reality where the High Admiral and his fleet had been defeated. What few auxiliaries had managed to escape the Battle for Earth confirmed that the entire Vophae Imperium had been defeated. They brought memories of the Galactic Revolution, where all the races of the galaxy freed themselves from the yoke of the Vophae.
It did not take them long to decide which reality they preferred.
So the auxiliaries turned on their masters. The Vophae’s personal might and psionic technology kept most of the large battleships under their command, but the escort and support ships were crewed entirely by auxiliaries. These turned on their masters.
They couldn’t win.
But they knew now there was someone who could.
So they rose up, fighting for the fate of the galaxy and their entire races, striking a blow at their conquerors for as long as they could.
But not everyone necessarily wanted to defeat their own alternates….
Londyn charged and fired another singularity bolt from her grav-cannon, pulling together a group of mutants. Linda stood by her side, firing a gun to cover Londyn’s back.
Just then something big landed behind the two.
Londyn turned around and cursed.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
A giant zombie dragon had landed behind her. The Necrosaurus leapt off its neck, landing in front of her. Londyn hoisted her grav-cannon, charging it up as quickly as she could.
“Look I know you have reason to hate me but can you at least wait for us to preserve our entire reality?”
The Necrosaurus took a step forward.
“You must be the Director of that ‘League of Superheroes’ or something, right?”
Londyn blinked.
“Um…oh. Great, just great. So they have one of you too.”
She took aim…
And then gasped, her eyes widening.
Icy Falcon leapt off the back of the dragon, landing at the Necrosaurus’s side. Along with Dr. Iwalani, Admiral Faulkner, Master Elegant Katana, the Gentle Gloom, Gabriel Le Blank, and countless other familiar faces.
“W-What’s going on? Falcon…how could you work with him?”
The Necrosaurus and Icy Falcon looked at each other and shrugged.
“Guess we weren’t friends in that timeline.”
“Guess not.”
Londyn kept blinking as the two talked. But she shook her head, gritting her teeth as she prepared to fire her cannon.
“I’m sorry, Falcon, but I won’t let my world fall. Not even for yours.”
The Necrosaurus lifted his staff and a wave of bone spears fired out.
Flying past Londyn, hitting an incoming group of mutants behind her.
“You are mistaken, Director. We are not here to fight you.”
Londyn’s eyes went wide once more. The Necrosaurus grinned at her.
“This is my Resistance! And we’re here to stop the Day of Sorrow, whatever it takes. What better way to restore the glories of the past than to change it entirely? Let the True Jurassic Revolution commence!”
“Kiyosuke! Let’s play!”
“Ugh, you again?”
Kiyosuke just sighed as Kiyoatsu appeared behind him again.
Kiyoatsu swung his sword.
CLANG!
Another blade parried his blow.
“Resolute Statement: You will not harm my brother.”
Kiyosuke smiled and nodded at 12NS, who nodded back.
And so Amano Kiyoatsu and 12NS began a phantom duel.
But not an equal one.
One Kiyoatsu had been broken, shattering under the weight of the trauma he was subjected to and destroying that which he once cared for most.
The other Kiyoatsu had been remade, accepting what had happened to him thanks to the aid of the girl who came before him, and reuniting with his family.
One Kiyoatsu hated the very techniques he used, that subtle reminder at the edge of his perception of all that he had lost, all he had become.
The other Kiyoatsu had been upgraded. AI-assisted chakra forming allowed him to conduct his techniques without hand signs, advanced sensors helped him see through the illusions, predictive simulations and combat protocols told him where his opportunities and vulnerabilities would lie.
It was not long before the machine stood over the man, his sword piercing his alternate’s heart.
“Oh my, how unsightly.”
“Come my Brothers and Sisters, protect the Sacred Light!”
Arachnalich led the AVS, standing before an army of monsters and villainous supers. As the majority of the AVS didn’t even exist in the altered timeline, all of them were firmly on the side of the original.
And across from them…
Two Atomic Heralds stood at the head of the Atomic Cult. The Atomic Herald would do anything to see his New Dawn. So he firmly sided with the version of himself who had succeeded.
And so the monster and the mutant went to war.
Beams of light and atomic blasts tore through fur and scale and chitin. Gigantic claws and terrible fangs ripped through tumors and flesh.
And then, explosions started to ring out across the battlefield.
Cyborgs and warbots flew in the air…on the side of the AVS.
“Rallying Cheer: For the Liberator!”
Fight alongside their arch-enemies for the reality where they had lost everything?
Or fight against said enemies to restore their Liberator’s reality and undo the devastation of the Day of Sorrow?
For the NSLICE units, there was no question at all.
And so an army of monsters and an army of killer robots fought together to defeat the mutant cult.
An army of undead dinosaurs tore at one another. T-Rexes bit each other’s necks, triceratops collided with a crash, raptors packs pounced on one another, flyers dueled in the skies.
“You foolish imbecile! You dare stand against the Jurassic Cemetery?!”
“You dare stand against the Jurassic Revolution?!”
Two Necrosauruses faced off.
“Idiot! I’m trying to save your Jurassic Revolution!”
“And I’m trying to save your Jurassic Cemetery!”
For…each other’s timeline?
“You absolute imbecile, we die in my timeline!”
“You’re the imbecile, everyone dies in my timeline!”
“Better them than us! We’re necromancers! What does it matter if our subjects are living or dead so long as we rule?”
The alternate Necrosaurus groaned.
“Other me is such a jerk.”
“Unfortunately, sir, it’s not just him.”
Both Necromancers shouted as one.
““SHUT UP, CARL!””
Two Dr. Iwalanis faced off with one another.
“Hoh, so you tink you one with da ocean?”
“Hoh, you betta believe it! You tink you one with da ocean?”
“You know I am, yeah.”
Huge waves of glowing water rose, carrying the two woman. They slowly surged forward until they were right in front of each other, both glaring in each other’s eyes.
And then…
They wrapped each other in a hug.
“So like, we go save da ocean, yeah?”
“Shoots!”
Arvid frowned. His alternate was kneeling on the ground, staring blankly at the sword in front of him. His hair was wild and disheveled, he had a long beard reaching to the ground. He wore bare rags, his skin was taught over his saga-empowered muscles.
“What happened to you?”
The alternate heaved a sigh.
“What happened because of me?”
He stared at the sword.
“I fled. I was weak. I couldn’t handle it, so I ran. And because I ran…everyone…everything died. I failed my destiny. I was supposed to stop them and I wasn’t there. I let the world be destroyed. I put my own selfishness over my duty and everyone paid the price.”
He looked up with a sad smile.
“Please…kill me. Maybe if my death can save your world, then at least I’ll have been good for something. Save your world.”
Arvid sighed and took up his blade. He began walking forward. His alternate closed his eyes and bowed his head, holding his sides.
And then…
Alternate Arvid gasped.
“What are you…”
Original Arvid had wrapped him in a hug.
“It’s been hard, has it not?”
“What…”
“Look into my saga. Witness the truth. The disaster that befell the world, was not your fault. None of it was. Our mistake was not that we ran. Our mistake was that we let everyone else tell us who we are, and we did not cherish those we cared about.”
Arvid leaned back so he could look his alternate in the eye, with both hands still on his shoulders. He spoke softly, in almost a whisper.
“We never got the chance to say goodbye, to mourn for our friend, did we? Go ahead, I already know. It is not weakness to lament.”
The alternate Arvid’s eyes trembled, and then began to well with tears. Original Arvid’s did the same.
The two men began to wail, and hug one another.
After a bit they separated. Original Arvid picked up the alternate blade with his left hand and walked back over to alternate Arvid.
“Do you know what I’ve realized?”
“...what?”
“A hero is not someone who saves the day. A hero is not someone who achieves great victories and glorious purpose.”
He grinned.
“A hero is just someone who does what they can. And not what they can do with their body, but with their heart. Sometimes that’s a lot. Sometimes that’s a little. Whatever you can do, that’s enough. If you can’t be a hero, if you can’t take up the blade, then don’t.”
He extended his right hand.
“But whatever you can do, to help your friends, to cherish those you care about, do that. That’s all it takes. That is all the saga ever asked of us. It is OUR saga, only we have the right to decide what it shall be.”
Alternate Arvid looked at his other self. His smiling, grinning, confident self. The man who had gone through his same pains and found a way forward.
His heart started to beat again with warmth, for the first time in a long, long time.
He slowly clasped the extended hand.
Original Arvid nodded and slowly held up the blade. Alternate Arvid’s eyes trembled slightly.
“Fear not. I have learned that the blade does not require anything of you. It cares not what you use it for, it only wishes to remain at your side. It chose you because it wanted to. You need not earn its support.”
Alternate Arvid took a deep breath and slowly reached out. His hand curled around the blade.
He gasped.
The blade began to glow, bathing him in warm light.
Tears welled up in his eyes.
Original Arvid patted him on the shoulder and took a step back. He turned and leapt off, rejoining the battle.
Alternate Arvid took a deep breath.
“...just whatever I can…huh?”
The blade pulsed with light.
“...ok…”
And he took off, following the original Arvid’s path at a more measured pace.
And so the chosen hero took up his sword, one last time.
