Chapter 0: The End is where We Begin

"So…this is it." Lance spoke in a low and exhausted tone. His body was cold, yet at the same time cried out with bursts of explosive pain. He stared up at the smoke filled sky, with the fading sounds of explosions and combat ringing all around him.

He laid there in a crater he could barely make out, which was undoubtedly made with his own body when he was sent flying by Him. 

Everything that he had done had led to this moment. Every sacrifice, every wrong, every right. And he had still failed, and as a result of that, now he listened to everyone else continuing on with a losing battle. It didn't matter how strong they were, or how well they strategized.

They had all lost. And the planet would pay the price.

"Lance!" A deep male voice roared out as footsteps rang out from a direction the young man couldn't see. It was hard to move, even harder to breathe.

Yet, he managed to air from his lungs forcing his body to act when all it wanted to do was die. He refused, if there was an ounce of strength left in his body. He would refuse to die until the final moment. "Over here!"

It took a few moments till he heard footsteps hurrying closer, until a man wearing a brown long coat and jeans hopped over the craters edge and down into it. His long brown hair came to a rest over his shoulders as he landed near Lance. His purple eyes were full of worry, and as he looked over Lance's body as that worry turned into dread.

"We lost." He said, not out of hysteria. But out of knowing. "Again."

"We learned." Lance said, forcing himself to sit up, even in his current state. "And now, we will have to use it again."

"Do you even have enough power to pull that off?"

"Unfortunately I don't, and if Septum and Ryzen were here. It would've been okay. I'll need to borrow yours." Lance said, holding out his hand in a motion familiar to the six other times he had used this particular ability.

The Ability to rewind time to a specific point. Before he had used it the first time. He had deduced that the world could only handle a certain amount of uses before it doing so possibly destroyed the world.

That amount of uses was seven.

After this, if they failed again. Then everything they had fought for, everything that could be or had been. Would cease to exist as IT continued to ravish the world, and possibly even the universe.

There was a single downside to the ability at hand though, and that was the fact that he was the only one who could remember anything that had happened from before the reset.

It was the only burden that he alone could carry, and it was up to him to watch as things unfolded how they needed to. Changing as little as he had to, in hope to alter the future for the worst. To not Alter this moment for the worse, but for the better. If that were even possible.

He didn't know, but he would have to trust in them to do what was best. Every little choice mattered after all.

The man clasped his hand in a firm grip as his hand glowed with a spacial purple color. Lance's own glowed a bright brilliant blue in response, as he felt power flooding his body. His hair stood up as his bones seemed to vibrate from just how intense the power of space was.

This was exactly how he had done it in the past. Using both the powers of Space and Time. Only, he never told that to Archon. There was no reason to. Especially if he wasn't going to be remembering it.

"You might want to hurry and get it started." Archon said, turning his head away in time to catch sight of a massive wall of destruction that was growing and expanding right in their direction. "We don't have long."

"I'll see you all next time." Lance said as he weakly raised his other hand making a small hand sign before uttering a phrase in latin under his breath. Each word causing the mixing energies to spike and grow violently with power.

And right before the destruction could reach them. Time seemed to stop altogether as a wave of purplish blue energy radiated outwards violently, and far much quicker than the destructive wave. The blue energy washed over every inch of space and time as everything went bright before fading to black.

 Project Machina.