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"Well, obviously," Leonard preened. His voice dripped with the same bloated ego and vacuous arrogance that had defined his younger years. Mitchell felt the sharp, familiar impulse to hit him. "I am the protagonist of this era," Leonard continued, oblivious. "It’s only natural that I’d reach this level of power."
Mr Fool let out a little snort at those words and the rest of the Blackthorn security company all seemed amused at the antics of his younger self, long used to his delusions of grandeur but Mitchell could not take it any longer. He had tried to hold in his contempt and disgust till now, primarily so at to not to disgrace himself in front of Mr Fool, but enough was enough.
"You know nothing!" he snarled slamming his hand onto the table in front of his younger self, letting go of his iron tight control on his spirituality, startling everyone in the room. "Leonard." he heard Mr Fool warn softly, but Mitchell couldn't help but disregard it to continue staring down at this pathetic creature he used to be. He had to make Leonard understand—completely and utterly understand— just exactly how useless he actually was. How his stupid, repulsive, egotistical, lazy behavior had lead to the loss of literally everything he had ever loved.
"Do you know?" he said leaning in close to his past self. Leonard eyes were wide and he seemed to be shaking under the effects of Mitchell's aura. In fact everyone there seemed to be affected, with the sole exception of Mr Fool of course. "That old Neil dies in less than a month?" He could hear gasps from someone else but he ignored them. "And Kenley dies right after that too, his heart exploding out of his chest because of a curse from a demoness, something you are aware of how to deal with. And it was just when he got engaged to his fiance too. Give it less than a month after THAT and you’ll be standing in the smoking ruins of Blackthorn Security, the only 'lucky' soul left breathing. You’ll be staring at the bodies of your captain and your partner, realizing the truth: that you are completely, utterly, fucking useless.". Leonard finally unleashed all the poison and loathing he had been suppressing since he had been thrown into the idyllic past and saw his accursed past self just strutting around without a care in the world.
His words had reduced his younger self to tears, a sight Mitchell noted with satisfaction. Good. Maybe this will make him understand faster.
"But of course you might be thinking, those are just the hurdles that a protagonist needs in his life to get stronger aren't they? Surely after that you becomes stronger and better right?" He said in an almost loving tone, caressing Leonard's cheeks with his finger softly. The man under him gave a hiccuping sob. "But no, somehow you still manage to remain so very useless. You aren't the one to get revenge for the Captain and Klein against Levanus no, in fact you never even meet the guy before his death! The red gloves didn't accept your application sooner because you hadn't yet advanced to sequence 8, all because you thought you had aalll the time in the world. And Ince Zangwill." Mitchell spat out that accursed name. "When we try to get revenge against him then well," Mitchell let out a cruel laugh. "You could do nothing expect beg the old man and any higher beings in the sky for help. Hell, Miss Daly sacrificed herself to save your sorry ass and you could do nothing except sit and watch. Just like you always do."
"Is this the grand and magnificent future you imagined for yourself Mr Protagonist of the era?"
By the end of Mitchell's lambaste, Leonard seemed to have collapsed into himself in grief and horror. Staring at that broken man Mitchell couldn't even find it in himself to feel any sort of satisfaction. Perhaps now he would actually do something and not be so useless when these events occurred to him.
Just as he was about to start telling Leonard more of what exactly he thought of him he felt a hand gently but forcibly push him back.
"Enough" Klein said firmly, staring at him sternly with those wide brown eyes. Mitchell felt himself jolt back into reality. Looking around him he saw his past colleagues all staring at him with varying expressions of grief, fear and horror. Rosanna was clutching Old Neil, both of them leaning on each other as if they were the only reason that the both of them hadn't fallen into the floor as well. Frye and Seeka's usually impassive faces were twisted in uncharacteristic expressions of horror and grief while Captain Dunn was staring at him with his usual calm expression but Mitchell could see horror and disbelief in his grey eyes. The only person who seemed relatively normal was Mr Fool, who was still seated calmly, though his usual ever present smile was no where to be found. To the average observer, he appeared perfectly composed. But Mitchell—who had obsessively cataloged every micro-expression and shift in his former colleague’s temperament, especially since their reunion—knew better. To him, it was glaringly obvious, Mr Fool was displeased.
Mitchell felt his heart drop at that. Even though he knew that Mr Fool would never do anything to ever hurt any of them he still hated making his friend displeased.
"Mitchell, what do you mean that Old Neil, Kenley and the Captain die?!?!" Rossanne asked, her voice shaky.
"I— uh, I don't know if I should be telling you any of this." Mitchell said uncertainly. He wasn't sure exactly how much he could tell them and how much of the past he could change. Mr Fool seemed to be content in continuing his charade as a sequence 6 beyonder of the seer pathway and offered no response or help and merely just continued staring at him. Mitchell could see Klein giving his future self a weird look.
Seeing Mitchell's hesitation to speak captain Dun addressed him directly
"Leonard" the captain said, his tone exactly the same as it had always been as when he used to advise him, "If you still have even an ounce of respect for your old captain I beg that you please tell us what exactly you meant by everything you just said. How does that all happen? What exactly is going to happen?"
There was no way that Mitchell was going to be able to refuse the captain, especially not when he was talking like that! Given that Mr Fool hadn't given any indication of protest perhaps it would be all right for Mitchell to tell them what they wanted to know?(and who knows, maybe this time would be different, maybe they would all actually be able to live)
Making up his mind Mitchell started speaking. "Old Neil" he said, directing his words to the person in question "has been being influenced by the Hidden Sage for sometime now. I had seen eyes behind his spirituality but ignored it under the assumption that that was just something that mystery prayers had."
"No!" Old Neil protested immediately "that's no- I've not been hearing the-" he stopped for a second as if something had suddenly clicked in his head "Oh.."
"Yes" Mitchell nodded sympathetically, he knew better than anyone what the hope of the possibility of having a dead loved one back did to a person. "You loose control while attempting your experiment and the captain had to subdue you. Kenley was killed during a mission to capture Madam Sharron, who was revealed to be a demoness. The captain he uh—" at that Mitchell hesitated a bit unsure of what exactly he could say. There were a lot of things that cumulated together into the events leading up to the captain and Klein's death. But if he had to stick to the important bits—
"Megose, Levanus' fiance, is actually pregnant with the spawn of the falle— sorry true creator" he said, ignoring the gasps of horror that accompanied that information. "She arrives in Blackthorn right when she's about to give birth. We attempt to subdue her with Saint Selena's ashes and the captain loses his life in the process. The whole company is destroyed. Turns out that the whole thing was a plot by Ince and sealed artifact 008 to help him gain access to the ashes and ascend to seq 4 of the death pathway. I—" Mitchell's voice broke "Everything that happened was all because Ince Zangwill." the name was spat out with a type of bone deep all consuming hatred that even divinity hadn't been able to douse. "All that suffering just because he—"
"That won't happen." The captain cut him off, placing a warm hand on Mitchell's shoulder. He looked up to see warm dependable grey eyes staring at him. "The future you're talking about will not happen here Leonard."
"Yeah" Klein said with determination "Now that you've warned us we can be prepared for everything." Everyone else nodded in agreement. The mood of the room seemed to be shifting from its previous desolate shock to kind of renewed optimism.
"That's incorrect." came a calm voice, cutting through the hopeful atmosphere. Everyone turned to look at Mr Fool who had been silent the whole time Mitchell had been explaining the future events.
"What do you mean that that's incorrect Moretti?" Klein asked, his voice taking a hostile tone upon seeing his future self's relaxed expression. Mr Fool elegantly put the tea cup he had been drinking from down and looked at all of them.
"I said that it's incorrect to assume that you'll be able to change any of the events Leonard just described."
"And why is that?!?" Leonard spoke up. He seemed to have finally pulled himself out of his shocked daze, Mitchell thought with a sneer.
Mr Fool tilted his head slightly, his expression amused as if he were explaining something to a bunch of curious toddlers. "Because you won't remember that this even ever happened of course."
'Ah' Mitchell realised, 'so that's why he hadn't spoken up till now.' He had never planned on letting any of them keep their memories in the first place.
"Why do you think that we wouldn't remember this?!?" Klein asked indignantly. Somehow none of the other people in the room seemed to want to question his future self's weird behavior.
"Why?" He repeated with a benevolent smile. "Because I will be stealing this whole event from all of your memories of course." Everyone seemed taken aback at that response.
"Why would you do that?" Rosanne gasped softly. The other beyonders expressions all hardened at Mr Fool's statement
"That's not something a sequence 6 seer can do" Leonard said with certainty, stating the obvious as usual.
Mr Fool just smiled wider at everyone's questions. Mitchell was conflicted about what was happening but didn't say anything in protest.
"While the deaths that occurred in the past were regrettable." He explained calmly, completely disregarding Leonard's statement, "They were all essential for the proceedings of the future. If we were to attempt to change anything it is unknown how exactly certain events would progress."
"Klein," Mitchell gasped in protest "surely we can at least save some of them? Is it really necessary-" his mouth clicked shut, silenced by a sharp look that was thrown his way. He knew that it was a long shot but wouldn't it be worth an attempt? Wouldn't it be wonderful if all their comrades at least could be spared from at least some of the sorrow they would go through.
"Do you wish to go against the mechanisms engineered by Amanaises and Adam THEMSEVLES, Mr Star?" Mr Fool said coldly, addressing him by his code name for emphasis "What exactly do you think that a few low sequence beyonders would be able to do against the mechanisms engineered by a True God and a Sequence one owner of a safirah. Besides— considering all the delicate plans and mechanisms that went into preventing the apocalypse— would endangering our future, the world and all the people in it, really be a price that you are willing to accept?"
Mitchell hung his head in repentance."No Mr Fool." he whispered.
Ah, as usual the Lord of Space time had considered things that Mitchell hadn't even thought of, too caught up had he been at the idea of maybe being able to fix something. To endanger the safety of the future that they had all worked to hard to create over misplaced sentimentally was the heights of foolishness. And that's not even considering the sheer blasphemy of going against the Goddess herself. Mr Fool's eyes softened at Mitchell's obvious distress.
Mitchell felt a wave a blind stupidity effect everyone else in the room. He could see Klein's shock as he slowly realised what exactly Mitchell had called his future self but everyone else were just staring at the two time travelers with unnaturally stupid expressions on their faces.
Mr Fool's face started to squirm and re arrange itself into his preferred features as the Fool, a perfect blend of Kleins Moretti and Zhou Mingrui with heterochromatous gold and black eyes. Mitchell tracked the small tear drop like marking on the right side of his face.
Taking a performative look at a pocket watch that he had pulled out of nowhere Mr Fool bowed to all their past colleagues "While it was a pleasure to see you all again," he said his mouth curved into a warm smile, eyes cold like the night sky in winter, but Mitchell could make out the faintest hints of sadness and regret in them, "It's time for us to bid you adieu."
And with those parting words he grabbed Mitchell's arm, opened an illusory door that gleamed with light and stepped into it, back to the future.
The last thing Mitchell saw before the doors shut on the past were the faces of everyone he lost staring at him with betrayed and lost expressions.
The door deposited Leonard and Klein landed in the Moretti family living room. All around them the walls were lined with pictures of Melissa, Benson, Klein, Lucy and Alice. There were even a few pictures of the tarot club members scattered around.
Klein, now back to having only Klein Moretti's features, looked at Leonard with worry.
"Are you ok?" He asked, his voice sounding almost anxious, his brows crinkled in concern. Leonard would usually take delight in any of Klein's expressions, the years of watching him overuse clown leading to Leonard appreciating the moments when he let down his mask completely even more but this time he just waves him off silently. He didn't trust himself to be able to talk right now. His lack of response seemed to worry Klein even more.
"I couldn't let the future change." Klein explained almost desperately, as if he were looking for reassurance, for Leonard to tell him that what he did was ok. "I….. if nothing else I couldn't endanger Ali—"
"UNCLE KLEIN!!! UNCLE LEONARD!!!" With a yell Alice Moretti, Klein's niece came barreling into him like a canon. With a theatrical sound of discomfort Klein caught her and pulled her into a bear hug. "Hello Princess." he said softly, his eyes shining with affection " What's up?"
As Leonard watched Alice chatter her head off to an indulgent and fond Klein, he couldn't help but smile.
Yeah, he decided, the future was worth it.