Saving Will Byers

Wisps of feathery ash yielded before us, repelled by a pair of gems I had altered to shield both Archer and me from the inhospitable environment. Their usage would inevitably lead to their corrosion and ultimate destruction, yet, for the time being, they were our protection—an elegant alternative to the crude pragmatism of hazmat suits.

 We rode the motorbike through the ruined landscape, flanked on both sides by neverborn trees, their gnarled forms ensnared by alien vines. I tightened my grip, pressing myself against Archer's solid back as he skillfully manoeuvred the bike along the overgrown road. The road bore the marks of years of neglect.

Assuming elf bodies served a dual purpose: they were a disguise and offered a resilience far beyond our human forms, a necessary safeguard should the gems fail us.

A peculiar thing caught my attention. Generally, I found Jay and his brethren physically attractive—they were designed to be so. But in my elf form, their allure faded into a mere aesthetic appreciation, like watching a sunset. Yet, Archer—and only Archer—still made my heart pound with anticipation. The sight of his long red hair, in particular, kindled a fiery desire within me.

The temptation to let my hands wander was strong, simply to secure a better grip. The ride was a bit rough after all. However, my elf form lent me superior self-control.

Out of the blue, he asked, "Did you know we have a spaceship?" His voice was a bit muffled due to the noise of the motorbike and my position behind his back, but my elfin ears picked up every word clearly.

"What do you mean?" I shot back, my curiosity piqued.

"I discovered one in drydock when I fetched my bike from the garage," he tossed over his shoulder, adeptly swerving the motorbike to the left.

Must have been another hole in the road. In the Upside Down, roads blanketed with moss and sinister alien vines bore evidence of the foreign flora's relentless advance, as it consumed parts of the asphalt and littered the path with potholes that Archer skillfully manoeuvred around. The ride was less than smooth.

"Does it work?" I asked, my memory sparked by the random items Cid mentioned - a broken dwarfen mine cart, a rusted automobile that had seemingly taken a dive off a bridge into a river and left to decay for years. The most recent reports stated that the service androids were busily trying to repair them, along with the rest of the broken artefacts we had stored.

"Cid said it's operational. It just needs a crew," Archer supplied.

"I hope it's small then."

"No such luck. It's the size of an average city. Cid said it's named Gotterdammerung."

"German for 'Twilight of the Gods'," I sighed. "How theatrical."

"Considering it's armed with dual ultra-heavy relativistic kinetic nuclear howitzers as its primary weapon, the name Gotterdammerung seems somewhat apt," Archer responded. "At least it gives us some insurance against the predicted alien invasion."

"I doubt it'll be enough. They managed to take over the world in just seven hours."

"Better than nothing." He stopped. "We're here."

Fort Byers was just as it appeared in Will's dream, right down to the signs smothered in an unhealthy-looking moss. We dismounted the bike and ventured into the overgrown childhood fort. The interior was crammed with quilts, pillows, and surprisingly skilled crayon drawings, all teetering on the brink of decay.

"I see nothing here," Archer said, sniffing the makeshift bed. "But I can detect the same scent that lingered around Will; it's faint, though."

"There's something here. I can sense it, a splinter lodged in the fabric of time. Prepare yourself; I'm about to carve a path."

He drew the Elven bow, nocked an arrow, and muttered a brief incantation. I could sense the magical energy emanating from the arrow.

I nodded, initiating the transformation sequence. The secret fire ignited within my heart, spreading and purifying until an Elven prince radiated like a star against the clouded sky.

Strength surged through my limbs, and my senses honed to a razor edge. The anomaly too became more acute. I could nearly taste the sickening puss of the corruption bred by revisionist history.

"Retrace," I incanted, tearing reality apart along the preexisting fracture.

Through the rough-edged portal, the interior was identical, save for the presence of two boys on the bed. One was Will. The other was larger, older—about fifteen or sixteen—and stark naked. From my vantage point, he almost entirely obscured Will. I could barely make out Will by his protruding arms and legs, mostly recognizable from his dream.

"Shoot the naked boy!" I shouted.

Archer was already in motion. His arrow flew, swift but not swift enough. The naked boy's head swivelled while his body remained still, an eerie echo of that scene from The Exorcist. Yet what truly unsettled me were the eyes in the boy's head—completely black, faceted like an insect's. They were absolutely non-human.

An unseen force halted the arrow mid-flight. The twisted boy's lips peeled back in a predatory grin that was unsettlingly misshapen. Murmuring an incantation, Archer caused the arrow to explode, propelling the naked boy-thing violently through the wall.

I rushed to Will's side, leaving Archer to chase after the predator. Will looked at me, his eyes dull and pupils alarmingly dilated, as if swallowing his irises. Remarkably, he appeared unhurt by the explosion—a testament to Archer's precision.

"What?" he moaned, his voice drowsy and confused. "Pretty." He raised his left hand towards my cheek.

"Shh," I murmured, gently touching his brow while purposefully overlooking the state of his lowered pants and underwear. "I'm here to help."

In the meantime, Archer had taken his pursuit of the naked boy-thing outside. The distant sound of more explosions reached my ears, and though I yearned to join him, I had a duty to attend to Will first.

We were in the past, yet not. It's hard to articulate—it felt as if we stood right beside a specific moment in the past, but slightly offset. And it seemed this 'off' moment was vying to supersede the original.

Each event was meticulously chronicled in the Akashic Records. It felt akin to a forged document attempting to supersede the original record. It was not time travel as a human would understand it, not that humans truly comprehended such a concept. It was perhaps better to describe it as a form of time manipulation, a variant that defied even the most imaginative human perceptions.

Undoing this event was feasible, yet with potential repercussions that might harm Will in the present. For now, I needed to prioritize his well-being. I had faith in Archer's combat abilities—he could hold his own against the predatory entity.

Will's condition was reminiscent of his post-dream state, albeit less severe, likely due to our interruption of the entity's feeding process. A simple quartz shard couldn't mend this. I selected one of the few remaining gems. I was painfully aware of the need to prepare more, yet time was a scarce commodity.

 A soft incantation transformed the ruby in my hand into a viscous, blood-like fluid. It seeped into Will as I dripped it onto him. The procedure, having been repeated several times before, was familiar and straightforward, even without the use of my Stone Grail amplifying Mystic Code.

Almost immediately, Will's pupils returned to their normal size and his gaze focused. His hands flew down to cover his nudity as his confusion gave way to embarrassment, and a faint trace of fear.

"Don't look!" he cried, just as an explosion made the makeshift fort shudder. Archer was in his element. The boy gestured wildly, shouting, "What is that?" before realizing his exposure and hurriedly covering himself.

Although the situation could be deemed cute in a different context, the seriousness of the circumstances tempered such thoughts. The boy had clearly experienced something traumatic, the extent of which I had yet to ascertain. Frequently, predators of this type would seduce their prey, cocooning them in a seductive haze as they were gradually devoured. Some, however, relished pain and fear. The boy's age added another layer of complexity. He was in the throes of puberty, but it was unclear if he fully grasped what was transpiring.

"You're safe now," I reassured him softly, striving for calm. "My friend is handling your attacker."

"Attacker?" he queried, confusion furrowing his brow, "I don't remember being attacked. Did the monster return?"

His barrage of questions remained unanswered as the logs forming the fort's walls splintered spectacularly. With no time for an aria, I relied on a spell embedded in my Magic Crest, hurling an emerald towards the avalanche of debris. The emerald simultaneously expanded and turned translucent, morphing into a spectral, man-sized shield that hovered protectively in front of us. The onslaught of splinters, torn paper, quilts, and other debris slammed into the shield and was effectively deflected, although the resulting cracks in the giant emerald suggested its limited durability.

Once the debris cloud settled, the scope of the destruction became apparent. The wooden fort was completely annihilated, and the surrounding trees were reduced to mere stumps. Will and I now stood in a suddenly formed clearing, eerily illuminated by a glowing blue mist.

High above, the naked boy hovered in the sky with a disturbingly lofty air. Wiping blood from my face, I scanned the scene for Archer. He was unscathed, safeguarded by the projection of Rho Aias.

"Two!" Will's sudden outcry drew my attention.

Narrowing my gaze, I scrutinized the airborne boy's hands. He was distant, but not too far for elven eyes. And there it was. Imprinted onto the boy's skin in the same location Eleven had hers, was a number - Two.

If Eleven existed, it was logical that at least ten others preceded her. However, my knowledge on the subject was limited. The me who had watched this as a Netflix show had only seen three seasons before merging with Rin and finding myself in an exorcist summer camp. Kali was the only other psychic child mentioned in those seasons.

 "As I pray... Unlimited Blade Works!" Archer's chant resounded through the clearing, signalling the activation of his Reality Marble. Why? Was this naked boy really that threatening?

I gripped Will's shirt as he attempted to sprint towards Two. Was the encounter that compelling? And why was I plagued by so many questions?

The answer to Archer's escalation unfolded as the transformational fire ceased mid-way. I'd experienced this phenomenon before - several times, in fact. While Reality Marbles were rare, they were slightly more prevalent amongst Servants. I'd witnessed two different Marbles clashing before; the spectacle was unmistakable.

But this was the first time I'd encountered a Reality Marble manifesting in the past, rather than the present.

The world seemed to split in two. On one side lay a wasteland of swords and gears, on the other, a clearing enveloped by a glowing blue mist. A stark division marked where black iron sand transitioned into the decaying soil.

The colossal gears rotated, and an innumerable amount of swords levitated. For a moment, they hovered as if part of an eerie procession. Then, without any discernible cue, the swords lunged forward like a swarm of lethal birds, converging on the naked boy floating in the sky.

But Two was not without defences, even against a tide of steel. A pulse of pure force emanated from the frail naked body and scattered the sword barrage.

And went crashing into the transparent emerald that shielded me and Will. The cracks spread. One more strike like that and the spell would fail. Leaving us exposed. I had brought two gems if it came to that. But I was running out. 

I looked and I saw that Archer had managed to shield himself with a wall of swords.

But I was not sure how much longer he could perform at this level. Archer may have Magic Core and with it an enormous amount of Od, but there was a limit to how much he could use within a set time period. And in this World, it was much lower. Nosebleed, then a headache, and finally fainting.

That would leave him defenceless.

But I had an idea.

"Stay put," I sternly commanded Will.

"Why are you trying to kill Two!?" but screamed at me. His fists clenched he looked as if he was ready to fight me.

"He draining your life," I simply explained. There was no time for elaboration. But this was enough.

Will gulped. "Like succubus?"

"Incubus," I corrected. 

I joined my fingers together, forming the sign that was the aria for Cat's Cradle. The Bounded Field rose around me and Will, separating our space from the unknown Reality Marble projected by Two.

"The unveiling of the company of heaven," I chanted. Casting two spells simultaneously was challenging, but not unfeasible. The trickling of blood became a torrent.

As I spoke, my fingers danced, twisting and reshaping the Bounded Field across more than three dimensions. "Every man and every woman is a star."

When Archer and I faced the Nine in Arda, some of the swords in Archer's Reality Marble were damaged during the encounter. To repair them, I had integrated an Elven forge into the Unlimited Blade Works by interlacing the Reality Marble with a Bounded Field surrounding the forge. This had caused some peculiar side effects, but one of those could be useful here.

"Every number is infinite; there is no difference." Maintaining two trains of thought was arduous. One needed perfect visualization while the other needed a geometric transformative algorithm in over three dimensions.

Luckily, I had some help. "Come forth, o children, under the stars."

Diamond next, then Candle, Boaz silently added, helping with calculations.

"And take your fill of love!"

While I was engrossed in my ritual, neither Two nor Archer remained idle.

"I am above you and in you."

The swords once again collided with pulses of force. It was another deadlock, but my protective gem was barely holding up. By all rights, it should have shattered. Perhaps it was the ongoing transformation sequence keeping it together.

"My ecstasy is in yours."

The final form was complete, and there it was. A small, spherical patch of the Bounded Field extended just behind Two's back.

"My joy is to see your joy," and with those final words, I could feel Archer within me. The sensation was somewhat more intimate than mere sex.

The wooden floor beneath my feet transformed into iron sand. I had no simple way to communicate my plan to Archer, but it wasn't needed.

He could undoubtedly feel the expansion of his Reality Marble.

And he did.

Suddenly, a sword impaled the airborne boy from behind, a spray of blood bursting from his bare chest. 

And then everything dissipated like a dream. I found myself back at the deserted and still intact Fort Byers, alone. Will was gone, hopefully back to his bed in the Enrichment Center. The question was, would he remember this? And if so, how much of it?

At least part of it was simple to check, if only my head wasn't throbbing so terribly. It felt as if someone was hammering nails into my forehead.

I allowed the transformation sequence to recede. The pain in my head didn't lessen, but at least it stopped escalating.

Wait. I still had a few pieces of chocolate. The bars were now appearing on the altar beneath Aperture, but I had instructed the Service Androids to periodically collect and store them in the warehouse.

Biting into a bar, I ventured outside. I spotted Archer lying flat on the ground, a pool of blood forming under his head.

I rushed to his side. It appeared that he had just overused his powers.

With that settled for the moment, I checked on Will through the karmic link. The boy was still dressed in the Five Colored Slime, disguised as a hospital gown.

"Seven," I heard Mike's voice over the karmic link, "You failed the save. Roll for full damage."

It seemed they were back to playing their favourite game. It was a pity they were missing the other two, but Eleven and sometimes Jonathan joined them.

With the situation resolved, I no longer needed to keep surveillance on Will, and I could use my most competent familiar with me.

 "Recall," I intoned, and the child-sized hospital gown materialized on the ground.

 I was forgetting something.

You've just stripped Will naked in front of his friends, Leo commented quietly.

So, nothing of import.

With a mental nudge, the hospital gown dissolved into a multi-colored puddle and flowed towards Archer to cleanse the blood.

I sat on the ground beside my partner, gently laying his head on my lap. Idly, I played with his hair while waiting for him to wake up.

I was cross-referencing notes on what had transpired with Leo, Arnold, and Boaz. Observations made during the battle, potential aspects of Two...

Intruders incoming, Arnold suddenly warned, Ten o'clock.

I could hear, then see them. A small pack of around five hairless, doglike creatures was rushing towards me.

"Attack," I commanded the Five Colored Slime. The verbal order was unnecessary, but it felt fitting.

Swiftly, the slime crawled over the ground, intercepting the four-legged monsters. The beasts either failed to perceive the slime or chose to ignore it.

The first canine creature simply stepped on the slime. It proved to be its last action.

Its paws were stuck, ensnared by my creation. The slime crawled upwards, engulfing the unfortunate monster in a fraction of a second.

This swift death halted the other four in their tracks. They encircled the Five Colored Slime as it devoured its victim. Like grotesque flowers, their heads opened, revealing fleshy petals lined with teeth. The four monsters roared in unison.

The slime didn't hesitate. It launched itself into the open maw of one of the monsters, disappearing down its throat, leaving the half-consumed corpse behind. All of its skin was gone, most of the muscles as well, even some bones were half melted.

The remaining monsters stood in confusion for a moment, then they all began to whimper in pain. Something seemed to writhe beneath the skin of the one that had swallowed the slime. One by one, multicolored dots appeared on the pale white skin of that monster.

It was being devoured from within. I could sense it through the karmic link. It was a peculiar sensation.

"What did I miss?" Archer's voice broke the silence. He had awoken.

The remaining three monsters charged the afflicted one, which exploded suddenly. Tendrils erupted from its body, impaling the attacking monsters.

"Nothing of importance," I responded casually. The monsters twitched for a few moments, then lay still.

"If that creature is here, I assume Will is safe."

"For now. But we should investigate the origin of that Reality Marble. I'm not sure if you noticed it, but while Two may have been the keystone maintaining the Reality Marble, he wasn't the creator. He was just a shadow. The real Two is still out here."

"Two?" That was all he asked, but I knew him well enough to realize he was relieved that the boy he had killed wasn't real.

"You missed that. Will gave me his name. He also has that number tattooed on his wrist. The responsible thing to do would be to find him. He may pose a danger to others, or he could be in danger himself."

Even if I wasn't the proper authority, I didn't think there was one. Something had to be done about this.

"I'm glad you care. I was worried you were straying onto a dark path."

"You're not going to call me foolish?"

"It's wisdom I knew as a child but later forgot. It's better to be a fool than a monster."

"Honestly, I'm intrigued by that Reality Marble. It represents a rather novel approach to manipulating time."

And perhaps it was the final piece I needed to finally unlock the secrets of time travel.

"Where should we begin our search?"

"A feral psychic child with a number on him? It's clear where we should go. We need to visit the reflection of Brenner's lab next."