Was it all a dream? Or a rebirth?

Looking up at the sky as a single snowflake landed on the tip of his nose, Mathias gave a small smirk; behind him, the bodies of several men lay strewn about the frosty ground. "In all my fifty years uh livin', I ain't never seen a more pathetic war than this." Pulling a cigarette out of his suit jacket, he gave it light with the flick of his lighter before turning to look at the defeated party. "So, who's gon' tell me where Ophelia is and who's gon' pay the price?"

As soon as he spoke, Mathias pulled out a hatchet from his black jacket, giving a huff. It was at that moment that someone with enough strength to speak did so, albeit reluctantly. "A-At the Clatycos."

"Hm, that didn't take long." Taking another look at his prey, Mathias couldn't help but give a shake of his head, returning his hatchet back to its chambers. "Too old to be bothered with this; consider yourselves lucky." Strolling from the alley, Matthias took a puff of his cig and looked in the direction of the Clatycos. "It's time to end this foolishness...tonight."

Before long, a brown-skinned man, rubbing his hands through his neatly trimmed grey hair, could be eyeing a tall, lit, building up and down; the top of the building seemingly stretching into the sky like an extravagant lighthouse surrounded by a sea of smaller buildings.

"Let's see, let's see." Moving his hand from his hair to his chin, Matthias entered the building. Once he did, a bell-hop of sorts was there to meet him. "Ophelia?" Asking with a gruff voice, the bell-hop merely gave a bow and began to walk, Matthias in tow as he trailed not too far behind.

Once the bel-hop stopped, his hand gestured towards the elevator door before him. "one, two, one, three, seven, seven, seven." Speaking with a monotone voice, the bel-hop turned to leave before turning back due to the sound of an attention-getting cough coming from his rear. "Sir?"

"You don't think I'm gonna have to put these old bones to work, do you?" With a raised eyebrow, Matthias turned his head to the side and looked towards the leaving hop.

"...More than likely. The number of member entrances has significantly increased in the past twenty-four hours; good luck." With that, the servant left to take his post back at the entrance.

"Great...Just great." With a shake of his head, the old man entered the opening elevator and pushed in the aforementioned numbers. Suddenly, the elevator descended. As it did so, Mathias took off his black jacket, fully revealing his white buttoned-up dress shirt; he made sure to remove both hatchets, holding them at his sides as the elevator came to a stop. Once the doors opened, what felt like a sea of yellow and black greeted Mathias. "Well, let's get started, huh?" With those words, the sea converged on the elevator.

One hour

Two hours

Three hours

Thirty minutes

Three hours and thirty minutes had passed, the sound of heavy breathing filling a heavily lit hallway with walls dyed red. "This..", taking his hatchet, Matthias swung it at the head of the last remaining grunt blocking his path, watching him crumple to the floor, "...is really starting to get old."

Taking back his last hatchet, the other having been lost in the new floor pattern, Mathias slowly stumbled his way to the black doors at the end of the hall.

"Can we call this quits?" bursting the doors open, the old man swayed his way over to a black leather seat in front of a large wooden desk; the back of a tall leather chair just opposite of him.

"There are no 'quits', you know that." The chair turned around, a woman with greyish blonde hair greeting Mathias with a smile that could melt glaciers. "This doesn't end until one of us does. That's the way our wa-"

"Yeah, yeah. I know; a closed mouth doesn't get feed though, figured I'd give it a shot."

"You always do."

"Heh." The man pulled out a cigar, lighting at a snail's pace, clearly depleted from the journey to the room.

"Must be a special occasion, hm?"

"Of course, I haven't seen you in how many years?"

"Twelve"

"Heh, twelve. Right. How's she?"

"Fine. With her grandparents in Akinabi."

"Ah, that's good. That's good...I miss you two."

"That can't be helped. I've missed you too, but there's no helping what's happened. Decisions have been made, lines have been drawn, and now we're both sitting on two opposite sides of a table figuring out how best to kill each other without the other retaliating or feeling a thing." The woman gave a small chuckle, her purple eyes filled with a glint of happiness that broke through the glaze of sorrow and pain.

"Ha, you've sure come to know the game well."

"I don't, I just know my husband better than anyone else."

"I see, that makes sense. In that case, humor me. Do you think things would have been different if-"

"If you actually didn't get it handed to you by that pretty boy?"

"Eh, yeah."

"Haha, still holding on to old wounds; I'll bite. Sure, if you actually avoided that little taunt and play that game, it may have changed things, I doubt it though." Raising from the chair and walking around the large table, she stood in front of the old man Mathias, arms crossed over her chest. "But eventually, you would have run into someone that'd put you in your place. You were no good at basketball and the man before me was always in you, it just never had a reason to show; that is until you lost your last true interest and had reality hit you in the face."

"Nooo, no. I think what you needed is to be actually good at basketball in the first place; the game, no matter when or where would have made a difference."

"Hm," standing up, Mathias gave a grunt, "I suppose you're right. Though I wouldn't have met you had I, not give it a shot."

"You mean I wouldn't have been one of the millions of people that saw you get drug through the dirt on Myscreen live? Oh wow."

"Hah, shut up." Pulling closer to the girl, Mathias embraced her for a kiss when he suddenly felt a cold pain pierce his side; he smiled, then coughed blood. "Figures. I saw that coming a mile away, Ophelia." Falling back into the chair, he looked up at the woman who was tottering back and forth, a smile on her face and tears falling from her eyes.

"So...did I." Tumbling forward into Mathias' embrace, the handle of his hatchet could be seen protruding out of the pink-skinned woman's back.

"There, there." Rubbing her back, Mathias pulled the hatchet out and tossed it to the side, heaving a blood-filled cough. "Maybe, once we pass on, there'll be a heaven for us."

"Don't...be ridiculous. We have...blood on our hands. The only heaven we'd get...is one we make...for ourselves."

"Mm, if only...I knew that then...if only...I had...ano-"

Matthias body de-inflating has he gave his last breath, the two died in each other grasp; smiling as tears rolled down their face.

Then a quiet whisper echoed through the dead man's fading soul.

"Through every timeline, every life, all I feel from you is regret. You truly are doomed to never live fulfilled. As a repaying of my debt, I shall wipe away these lives and start each one anew. How they proceed is up to their consciousness and how well they utilize my gift; thus the contra-"

The voice faded into the void as Mathias' soul seemingly slipped from existence.

Then he awoke, bright luminescent lights obscuring his vision.

"Wh-", the sound of a baby cry, " Wh-", the sound came again. "Wh-, will someone shut th-!" Every time Mathias attempted to open his mouth, the sound of a newborn would rattle his ears..

"My baby, my sweet sweet child", a familiar voice soon caressed his ears that put him to silence.

"Do you have a name for him, Mrs. Elizabeth."

"Of course, " the woman spoke, her sweet smile stretching from ear to ear, "His name is Mathias. Mathias Derukin."