Chapter 31: Parallel Strings

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Chapter 31: Parallel Strings

With a sputter, the guy looked up at Alice. "Thank yo-." He began before his eyes seemed to widen in a mix of shock and fear. "y-y-you! What are you doing here!" he seemed to practically scream at her in fear, getting a rather confused look from her and causing John and Elena, who he had only just managed to convince to leave Greeny alone and help heal her, to turn towards them and come over.

"It wasn't me! All I did was take the root out of his mouth, and he seemed to be thankful till he wasn't and suddenly screamed and stuff. I didn't even touch him or anything! I promise!" Alice seemed to hastily say, practically waving her hands in front of her as she tried to defend herself, getting a skeptical look from John.

"Mhm, Elena, who exactly is this you're practically using for an H scene right now? Also, why is it you're doing so?" John asked as he turned to her, looking between her mysterious captive and her.

"We're sorry, Master. We don't really know. He showed up a few minutes before you did, and so we decided to use him to bring you to me. We originally planned to use him as a source of food," she explained innocently, showing her sense of morals truly weren't the same as a regular person, turning to face the mystery man.

"So care to shed some light on who you are, why our sweet little psychotic Alice seems to scare you so much, even when it doesn't seem like you've met before? Oh, and don't think of lying, no wait, please do. It would give me a good reason for me to have you become some plant food for my dear babies over here," John says to him in a much too calm voice that seemed to carry a feeling of cold iron-like hardness.

"Who in the hell are you? Let me go. I can't have my time wasted here! I need to go out and prepare! I need to change things and make sure things don't hit another bad end! So let me go and also let me end her as I do to help free you from her grasp, the horrors she will bring if left can rival the other evils worse than those who are playing with our world!" He said to John, panic and frustration clear in his voice and an odd tone that seemed to carry a compulsion to it.

Looking at him again, John turned to Alice and took her knife, surprising her before turning back to the guy in the vines. "Now there's just a few issues there. For starters, you haven't told me who you are. Next, she's in my grasp, so it seems you have some weird misconception there. Still waiting for you to explain how you know her, I'm really curious now about your description of her, and I'm sure as hell not about to allow you to harm her for something as stupid as what she might do when she hasn't actually done anything. And lastly, I could practically feel you trying to mess with my head, tsk tsk tsk, that's something rather stupid to try." John tells him, going in close, lightly running the blade over his throat just hard enough to break the skin and causing a small rivulet of blood to flow down him before proceeding to point the knife at his arm. Wide shocked eyes seemed to stare back with some fear and confusion.

"Now, I'd suggest you explain things better and honestly, else I can show you how very creative I can get with trying to get answers, so you're going to answer my questions now, right?" John tells him, getting a small nod.

"To tell you why I feel like I do about her." He indicates towards Alice with a head tilt, eyes glaring at her with anger and fear.

"I need to explain my chosen class. When the world changed, what I chose for mine in panic was clockwork. All I got was a pocket watch with a bunch of different hands on it. Some around me became horrid flesh puddles and deformed masses, and the rest either lost their minds, got killed, or escaped. I was one of the people who escaped. It was hard to survive, and it was mostly by luck. It took weeks before the military or what was left of it managed to intervene. They had refugee camps controlled by surviving government members. In that time, though, events happened, challenges and missions, chances to get items and coins which became the new currency. I also came to realize people no longer had any sense of empathy or remorse or humanity, even me. Taking a life became as easy as breathing and natural, probably a side effect from the class changes or to make it easier, a small mercy to help us, I guess." He gave a small chuckle at that, getting a cold look from John as he clutched the knife tighter. Alice seemed to look curiously between the two, wondering if that could be why John was acting so differently today. Elena, though, stood by John's side, not really caring much about the current conversation.

"I managed to get into a camp. Over the years, it grew into a small city, and I made my own mark there. Turns out the pocket watch let me slowly manipulate time in exchange for experience or equivalent value. I used that ability to build up a fortune and a good life in the future, money, women, and power. Then she came." He said, smiling at first before glaring at Alice. Looking confused, she pointed to herself with a head tilt.

"The mad queen Alice, she came with her twisted wonderland horrors and began twisting the entire city into her madness, claiming it fell under her territory. She was too strong to stop, so I used all my experience I had built up and the lives of everyone I could get close to me at the time to jump back to stop her from taking what I would have, and so I could do things better." He tells John, getting a nod and a sigh as he puts the knife down and passes it back to a still confused Alice.

"So you're a regressor, probably a main character of your own little story or something. I suppose that's why you want to kill my cute little Alice over here, so she can't become a thorn to you in the future." John says, shaking his head, having read enough to know this type of person either gets lost in his own power and keeps going to the end, forgetting or growing past the small figures of their past as he grows, or uses every cheat he can get for his own benefit.

"I tried that! Do you think this is my first time going back? Its not! I've tried over and over. The first time back I ended her, and things went smoothly till the burning light priestess destroyed things. I tried having Alice there as an ally, and we got pretty far and changed things before an army of monstrous beastmen ripped us apart, either alone or with others I kept going on and getting further each time, but she always leads to death and destruction if left alive!" He yells and begins to laugh, seemingly beginning to fall into a spiral, only for John to punch him across the face.

"Snap the hell out of it! You still have things to answer, besides, if you've done it so many times shouldn't you know how to get out of this? Or what, is your snap back random or something." John questions him, if he really is a regressor and had come back multiple times he would be able to help tell them what to expect and hopefully how to get stronger.

"You! I, no it isn't random, or at least it wasn't before. Every other time it's always been the day of the change and the same place right after I had made my choice, this time is different and I don't know why. Spiritual aware plants like these shouldn't even be a thing for at least a few months. The order of change goes people, monsters, and other world introduction, and then animal mutations, and lastly the plants. Sometimes they're in a different order, but plants are always last, which is why this worries me. And you, in none of the times I've been in, has Alice had a companion. Plenty of slaves for fighting or warming her bed, but never a companion or a fat guy like you. Her tastes were always athletic or sexy or generally attractive, not, well, you," he tells John with a glare, clearly mad at being hit and not able to do anything about it.

"What makes you think that would be my tastes? Or that I even know myself what I'm into! Heck, for all you know, I might be focused on making two of myself and then loving only myself! Or doing that and three-waying with John here! Yes! That is now my goal for how to seduce him!" Alice pipes up, her tone going from indignant before slowly going perverse, her face going bright red and a bit of drool seemingly hanging from the side of her lip as she seemed to lose herself in her fantasy. Sighing at this, John just shakes his head.

"And this is someone you say will become some kind of ultimate evil or whatever? I think I've seen more threatening tomatoes than her, buddy," he tells the guy, getting a confused and incredulous look.

"But, but it's true! Every time I've seen and known her, she's never been interested in fat people, torturing, or toying them to death, sure, but never romantic or stuff, never like this. She's also never seemed this dumb. What did you do? Who even are you?" He questions John, the situation seemingly greatly confusing him as his view began to break and the image he had of Alice shattering in confusion.

Rubbing his eyes, John couldn't help but think and process this, feeling he knows what's happened but not liking it.

"Okay, so what's your name, buddy, since I need something to call you as I'm not about to let you go anytime soon? You're going to be answering a lot of my questions and telling me all you know. But if you don't want to, I'll just have Alice find something to call you. Also, are you by any chance a fan of anime or games? Well, rather, do you remember either before all your jumps and stuff, I mean," John couldn't help but ask, getting a blank and somewhat confused look from the guy.

"Oooh, we can call him Green H Man!" Alice says suddenly, seeming to have snapped out of her fantasy daze, giving both of them a small surprise at her sudden outburst.

"No, no, there's no need for that. Look, my name is Dave. I think we got off on the wrong foot. Can you please let me go? What does any of that have to do with why things are so different?" The now-named Dave says, trying a new approach after realizing he wouldn't be getting free from them anytime soon and honestly confused by that question. Even Alice seemed confused but interested, as well as wondering where John was going with this. Getting a sigh and rubbing his temples to try and ward off his current headache, he looked back up with heavy eyes.

"I think I still have the anime adaptation on my PC, so I will try to get it for you later. But it involves a good explanation of string theory and the ripple effect of changes. Pretty much, he had to jump to a timeline next to his, outside of the current thread, or something like that. It's been a long time since I watched it. It's called 'Steins;Gate.' It's one of those that you either like it or not. Why it relates to you is because I think you jumped to a parallel timeline to your own. At least that's my best current guess. Elena, we're going to be going out for now. Could you bring him to the exit and slowly retract your vines as I wrap my chains around him once we're there? It would be like what I've done with Greeny," John tried to explain as best he could. This being one of the few explanations he could think of at the moment before turning to Elena, making his request.

"Only if you promise to visit often, my master. We all would be happy to help you any way we can!" She replied, getting super excited and smiling brightly as he nodded to her, signaling he would.

"I definitely will, since you all are special to me and I have a lot of things you all can help with, mostly healing stuff, my dear friends," John says to them with a soft tone and light smile as he had them head to the exit. Even while feeling a great level of pain, he couldn't help but show a brighter side to his green garden companions, feeling rather happy that they could now be interacted with far better than before.