Dimensions Collide: Destiny Bond

Tiring. That was the only word John could use to describe the scenario they were in.

Dozens of [Resets] later, and they were no closer to victory than they’d been before. It was looking impossible. It wasn’t that they couldn’t defeat Doctor; John had proved that this was possible from the very beginning. They simply couldn’t save everyone.

Most runs, everyone but Fate would die. Fate’s survival could only be attributed to his role as the [Protagonist], since he was usually knocked out rather than killed even though Doctor had stated that he never needed Fate. Occasionally, they’d figure out a way to save Kit, mainly by picking her up and throwing her out of the room while she was in her fox form.

Danjo, too, was possible to save, but that was a bit more finicky than everyone else’s situation. His survival relied on Olivia’s death. John had tried it without telling Prota once. Leaning over, he’d asked if Olivia was ready, and she’d nodded. John had escaped from his binds and waited until Danjo threatened to kill himself, then killed Olivia, shocking Danjo back into consciousness. However, the shock of losing Olivia was too much, so he’d died anyway.

The next run, John had gotten Danjo to run, but even then, they still had no way of saving Olivia. John wanted to leave it at that.

“Prota. Come one. She was supposed to die. Even if we didn’t intervene, she would die. I don’t think we can save her,” John pleaded.

Prota would simply refuse. John would sigh, [Reset], and they’d try again. They’d practiced the near perfect route until they could do it with their eyes closed, but in the end, they had no other way of saving Danjo.

It was looking like a “perfect” run was impossible.

I wasn’t as if they were forced to save Olivia. John could easily go on without her. And if John really wanted to, he could just threaten not to [Reset], or somehow convince Prota that it simply wasn’t possible to save her. There were options. But for some reason, he wouldn’t. Maybe it was stubbornness, maybe it was pride, but something made him decide that a “perfect” run involved saving Olivia, too.

“What kind of [Story] do you want? This world. This [Story].”

He couldn’t shake Zero’s words. He wanted to know.

Was it possible? To save someone who was meant to die? To go against the stereotypes of a [Story], to deny a form of trauma induced character development, to make a “happily ever all” ending? He didn’t know. But there was a small part of him that hoped, that wanted to find out. If he could save someone who’s fate was to traumatize someone else, then… maybe he, too, could escape such a fate.

“You’re a [Writer], aren’t you?”

He knew what Zero was getting at. It was a cheesy line. “Write your own ending.” It was, at one point, a very dramatic and epic line, but with overuse, it slowly became a cliche that John could no longer find meaning in. Stories that used the term “write your own ending” were simply using it as some kind of means to overcome adversity. If someone were to be told that line, it simply meant that their fate was to win. They weren’t defying anything. They were simply following the [Plot].

But what about John?

“John,” Prota said quietly, shaking him. He wouldn’t get up, though.

He didn’t know how many [Resets] it’d been. Prota, too, was starting to get tired. They’d occasionally take a break and go all out. Prota would sometimes run in and get herself killed, and other times, John would pull out whatever gun seemed entertaining to use and fire it, knowing that it wouldn’t do anything anyway.

At this point, they might not even be able to win anymore. John hadn’t tried it in a while, but [Determination] wasn’t active, and without it, [Infinity] wouldn’t work. He didn’t have the emotions needed for it. What if he couldn’t build the feelings needed? What if they were stuck?

“John.”

John shook his head. He wanted to lie down and sleep, even though he wasn’t tired. How? Was there a way to save Olivia? Hell, was there a way to save all of them? John didn’t want to get up, but Prota was starting to insist that he did, so with a sigh, he sat up and reached for the [Reset] button.

“...fine.”

~~~

John watched as the door was bashed down, Prota, Fate and Danjo spilling in after it.

Danjo stepped forward. “O-Olivia? Is that you-”

Fate put his arm out. “You two. Remember. This isn’t the time to act irrationally.”

That anger burned in his eyes. John still wasn’t sure why Fate was so upset. He didn’t know who Doctor was yet. And he had yet to hear anything about history between Fate and whatever this organization was. There was consistently something about Celeste, probably a [Female Lead] or a love interest, but wasn’t Fate young? Was she someone important to him? A sister, maybe?

No matter how many times John heard the conversation, he never got anything more out of it, and he’d given up trying to figure it out. He’d hear it directly from Fate once they were out of this mess.

“You! You’re the one known as Doctor, right? You’ve done way too much. It’s time to pay for your sins. There’s no one else here. Give it up.”

John snuck a glance at Prota, who was mouthing the words subconsciously. She’d managed to memorize every bit of dialogue that would come out of everyone’s mouths. John was muttering “skip” to himself, as if he were trying to skip dialogue in a game.

It didn’t work.

He closed his eyes, letting the scene before him play out. What could he do? What was there to do?

[Infinity]. For some reason, it was the only ability that worked on Doctor. He hadn’t been able to experiment, though, because he’d long since failed to activate [Determination].

“...can’t I still use it, though?”

Somehow, it only occurred to him then. That it was still possible to use [Infinity] on Doctor. It wasn’t on a scale that could handle anyone other than Danjo, but… why did that matter? Why was he only using his gun? He’d used it to escape the ropes tying him down. Why not get one good sucker punch off?

His eye lit up as he undid his binds. He hadn’t been tied up with anything other than regular rope, poorly tied at that, so at a one hundred times multiplier, something like that was easy to take care of. An escape artist would’ve been able to get out just as easily.

“You… I see you’re still the same,” Fate said. He seemed to be oblivious to everything but Doctor. “You’re still doing the same things. Doing the same sick experiments. You’re not human. You’re a monster.”

Neither Fate nor Doctor had noticed John.

“I’ll kill you. I’ll tear you to pieces, here and now.”

Fate unsheathed his sword and let out a cry, but he was too late. John grabbed Doctor by the neck and slammed him into the ground, cracking the tiles underneath.

“What the-”

Fate stared at John, who’d managed to suppress Doctor. Unfortunately for everyone, it wasn’t enough.

“You dare?!” Doctor roared, his tendrils lashing out. A few immediately pierced John’s stomach, blood and guts spilling out as he was lifted into the air.

“Dammit!” John cursed with a dying gasp. He pulled his pistol out and aimed, getting a shot off before his vision went black.

~~~

“Fuck!” John cursed, sitting up. He looked at Prota, eyes dancing wildly. There was so much unexpected life in them that Prota involuntarily flinched. He was so excited that he hadn’t even bothered to ask how she’d died.

“Why? Why did that work? His ability. [Control]. He should’ve caught me. He should be in control of the situation. So why…”

John frowned.

“Control. What is he in control of? The world? Mana? Then… is he in control of something that isn’t part of the world?”

John thought furiously. Something felt familiar about the situation. Somewhere, sometime, he’d been in a scenario where his unique energy had taken priority over the rules of the world. But where? What? And did it apply here?

“That cave,” John muttered. “That cave, it’s formed from mana, but [Deus Ex Machina] energy overtook it. It prioritized it. My energy. It reacts to this world and overwrites it. [Overwrite]. No, I’m not using that ability right now. Then what? What?”

John was pulling at his hair, furiously thinking. He was so close. So, so close. He’d just figured out something that wasn’t intended, something that wasn’t part of the fundamentals of this world. Surely it was exploitable. But he didn’t know. There was no way to tell.

John had never fought someone with [Deus Ex Machina] energy using [Deus Ex Machina] energy. Well, there had been one time, but his energy had been so insignificant that he’d simply been swamped. Here was different, though. His energy rivalled Doctor’s, potentially even overpowering it. What was the outcome then?

“Ha… haha… no, I don’t need to understand it. I can just use it. But I do. No, if I don’t understand it, then I can’t-”

John’s mumblings stopped as he felt Prota put her hand on his.

“John.”

John froze. Prota was looking deep into his eyes.

“Just… try again. We have time.”

Right. Right, he was acting as if he couldn’t just try it out. He could just experiment. Trial and error. That was what [Resets] were for, right? After all, it wasn’t as if [Resets] were going anywhere. Doctor didn’t have anything to inhibit this ability. They had as much time as they needed.

“Try… again. I- Yeah, yeah. Right. That’s right.” John nodded, taking a deep breath. He closed his eyes and reached for the [Reset] button one more time.

~~~

“This ends here!” Fate roared, blinded with rage, as he held his blade with two hands. The next strike ripped through the walls, tearing the room to shreds, yet Doctor remained unharmed.

“Ah, you’re still the same as always, Sixteen. Blind. Ambitious. Yet utterly stupid, still playing the role of the pawn in a larger game of chess.”

He grabbed Fate’s wrist as Fate swung, throwing him into the wall, shattering what tiles Fate hadn’t already destroyed. There was a crack as one of Fate’s ribs were broken, and he yelled out in pain.

“It seems a lesson is in order.”

He walked toward Fate, pulling out a scalpel. It wasn’t anything strange or violent. It was just an ordinary scalpel, same as any other scalpel. Now was the perfect time. John didn’t have [Infinity] activated. He walked up to Doctor silently, knife in hand. The objective wasn’t to kill. It was to experiment.

However, before he could get close, a tendril shot out and grabbed him, lifting him effortlessly into the air.

“You. How did you escape?” Doctor frowned, turning his head. “No matter. I am in control here. You cannot pull such foolish tricks.”

[Reset]

“You.” Doctor slowly turned to Prota. “I have yet to get to you. Honestly, after seeing Sixteen, I forgot. You’re what I need the most.”

Prota saw the look in the man’s eyes and shuddered. His gaze shook her to her core, no matter how many times she experienced it. Despite her hatred for it, she forced herself to focus on Doctor as John snuck up behind, [Infinity] activated.

“Wh- you,” Doctor growled, catching John right before he raised his knife. “How did you-”

[Reset]

Without turning his head, Doctor blocked Fate’s blade with a tendril.

“You need to learn how to stay down. Bad children don’t act unless spoken to.”

Another tendril came out of Doctor’s coat and flung Fate away, blood splattering as Fate fell once more.

Suddenly, the sound of chains clanking interrupted everyone as Danjo fiddled with Olivia’s binds. They’d fallen to the ground after coming undone, but neither Danjo nor Olivia had expected the sound to be so loud.

“Danjo, run!” Olivia yelled as her collar came off. “I’ll-”

“You. Code five.”

John ripped himself out of his binds, launching himself toward Doctor. There was no element of surprise. Doctor saw it all. With a look of confusion, he caught John and slammed him into the floor, cracks ringing out throughout the room as multiple bones snapped.

“What were you trying? No, how did you escape…? No matter.”

[Reset]

[Reset]

[Reset]

[Reset]

[Reset]

~~~

John paced back and forth in the [Reset Room]. He didn’t understand. His ability worked mildly, and the stronger his amplification was, the more it would distort Doctor’s ability to control the situation. However, it wasn’t enough. His ability alone couldn’t distort it. Even at a one thousand times multiplier, John’s absolute limit without [Determination], it was just barely off. John would get a good hit in, and then he’d die.

It was as if he were trying to reach a limit. Getting infinitely close, yet never quite reaching the value itself. As if dividing by three then multiplying by three again, getting an infinitely repeating decimal that was almost equivalent to one, and yet at the same time somehow being just off. He was doing it. He was winning.

But he was also somehow losing.

“I don’t get it. I don’t…”

John turned to Prota. There was something he hadn’t considered. An option he hadn’t thought of.

“Prota.”

How had the thought not crossed his mind?

“Can you stop Fate from coming in?”

A new angle. A new possibility. They could just avoid the fight. If they could stop Fate and Danjo from entering, then John wouldn’t have to worry about being seen. Why hadn’t he thought about this? He could…

“Olivia,” John muttered. He’d seen her die so many times that he’d forgotten she was actually alive. She was continually the number one reason they couldn’t get out of this loop. No. Stopping Fate from coming in wouldn’t stop Olivia from dying. How would he get her out?

“No, never mind,” John muttered, sitting down. “There’s no point.”

Prota sat next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. Neither of them knew what to do. There was simply no solution in sight. Was it truly impossible? John was on the verge of quitting. His pride wasn’t worth all of this. Olivia just wasn’t worth saving.

Were any of them truly worth saving? He and Prota could always walk out of this. Prota might not like it, but the only other option was to be stuck for all of eternity.

“Hey, Zero. How many times have I [Reset]?”

John’s soul popped out, checking something on a piece of paper.

“Um… five hundred sixty two so far. This is attempt five hundred sixty three, once you [Reset].”

“Six hundred [Resets]...” John muttered. “Is there a way?”

“Good question,” Zero shrugged. “You know I can’t answer that.”

“Yeah, thanks a lot.”

“Why blame me?”

“I don’t need to hear your voice right now. Can you leave before I go crazy?”

“You’re the one who called me- never mind.”

For whatever reason, Zero stopped himself. Maybe he felt pity, or maybe he understood John’s fragile state of mind, because he disappeared without another word.

“Prota,” John said quietly. “Let’s give up.”

“Give… up?”

John fell back and spread his arms wide.

“Maybe we can’t win. Sometimes… we take losses. It’s not worth it. I’m… I’m tired, Prota. Do we have to save them? What difference does it make if they live or die? Why do you want to save them so much, anyway?”

“I can’t lose.”

John laughed bitterly as he remembered the words he’d uttered so long ago. “How foolish.”

That was right. Ultimately, wasn’t he someone destined to lose people? This was a story. And, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, it wasn’t that terribly written either. He’d definitely read better, no doubt, but he’d also read worse. Besides, he’d been through one of this [Author’s] stories before. There had to be some kind of character growth. There was no way they’d make it to the end without some kind of sacrifice. Tragedy and trauma. They were essential to a story.

Why was he trying to save them so hard in the first place? There hadn’t been any reason for it. He hadn’t had a change of heart, and there hadn’t been any kind of inspiration. Fate would live. Fate was the only person he needed alive.

Why try so hard? The others didn’t matter to him. The others…

“I can’t lose.”

John let out another laugh. Maybe the others weren’t what mattered here. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he’d been through more than this. Give up now? What was the point? Six hundred [Resets]? That was nothing. Why was he so tired? He’d been through this before. No, he’d been through far worse. Where was his grit?

His [Determination]?

“Come on, Prota,” he muttered, sitting up. “You still want to save them?”

Prota nodded.

“It doesn’t really matter, but… why?”

“I… they are friends. And… Olivia. She is Danjo’s sister. She saved Danjo. Just like John saved Prota.” Prota paused, seeming to consider what to say next. “And… Prota wouldn’t want to lose John. So Danjo shouldn’t lose Olivia.”

Friends. John closed his eyes. Yeah, they were friends. What had started as a means to an end had grown into a hell of a lot more than that. John had never meant for it to come to this, but here he was.

And what Prota had said made sense. He didn’t want to think about the possibility of losing Prota. She was just a [Character]. But she was a [Character] that mattered to him. And no matter how much he wanted to deny it, if cared about a [Character], then why should he deny two other [Characters] from caring about each other?

So what if they were fake? To each other, they were real. And whether or not they knew they were fake, their emotions were as real as they were. And if John, who was also fake in a sense, had the right to care for someone himself, then would it not be cruel to deny that from someone else?

From someone he called a “friend?”

John didn’t know. Their feelings. Their emotions, their relationships. Real? Fake? At this point, what did any of that mean? Their will. Their decisions. Was any of that important? If they believed it to be real, then was it real? Did it matter? If John truly had a will, then what if their happiness was purely up to him? What if he was here to play god and decide what their fates would be?

As a [Writer], he wouldn’t have cared, probably. After all, well timed deaths made for a good story. Obviously overdoing it made it stale, but once in a while, tragedy was necessary. But he wasn’t just a [Writer]. He was a [Reader].

A [Character].

“Wanting a happy ending no matter what, wanting to save everyone, to make sure everyone got the ending they wanted. To enforce justice. To make everything right, even while knowing such a thing is impossible. That was you.”

He shook his head. If he had the energy to think about all this, he had the energy to think about what was coming next. He slapped his cheeks and got up, extending a hand to Prota.

“You good to keep going, then?”

“Nn.”

“Then let’s go.”

~~~

“No. Your tyranny ends here.”

“Will it?”

“I’ll stop you. I’ll-”

“No, you won’t. I’ll get you. Then I’ll get her. I’ll make her my doll. Your little princess was never yours to begin with.”

“You leave Celestia alone! If you put even a hand on her, I’ll-”

John watched as Olivia fell. Prota had managed to push Danjo out of the way, and he was now long gone, but Olivia’s still warm body was on the flood, blood pooling beneath it. Her eyes were still open. Staring. Looking, but not seeing.

Right at John.

“...don’t look at me like that,” John muttered. “I warned you.”

“Destiny! Are you going to give up here?!”

John’s head snapped up as Kit once again took on her human form, flames swirling around her.

“Prota!” John yelled, still bound. “Stop her!”

Prota nodded and ran toward Kit, a volley of icicles already overhead.

“What are you-”

Prota threw everything she had at Kit, forcing the Mystic to dodge. That wasn’t the end of it, though. Prota’s onslaught kept going, ensuring that Kit wouldn’t be able to attack.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Kit yelled, unsure of what to do. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t fight him!” John yelled. “You can’t win!”

“Do you know what I am?” Kit exclaimed. “How could I possibly lose?”

John cursed under his breath. In an attempt to save Olivia, Kit would remain in the room. This only led to further complications. Sometimes Kit would resist, sometimes she wouldn’t. John wasn’t sure what would influence Kit’s decision, but it was essentially a coin flip at this point. It looked like she was going to die as well.

“Prota. Give up,” John said, shaking his head.

Doctor observed the situation, clearly amused by the party's internal strife. He, too, didn’t understand why Prota was attacking Kit, but he had no reason to stop it. However, now that Prota was backing off, Kit turned her attention back to Doctor.

“Destiny! Get up!” Kit roared. “I’ll hold him off!”

She went to battle, and John just watched with a blank expression. As always, Kit was thrown into a wall. Her abdomen was pierced by a tendril, and red blood spilled out, leaking toward the ground. Exactly the same as before. No variation. No change. She’d die in the same position as always.

“You Mystics think you’re gods, but the god here is me. You’re nothing but fools,” Doctor said, slowly walking toward Kit. “I wanted your soul, but you’re too much of a risk to keep alive.”

“What the… how… did you…”

John listened to the words he knew were coming. Time stop. He’d considered it at some point, but without [Determination], he couldn’t stack [Infinity] enough to stop time. He would’ve done so otherwise. It would’ve been convenient, but that solution was no longer available.

He was starting to feel sick again. It wasn’t much of a feeling. It was just annoyance. But he was really, really annoyed. Enough so that he had to take it out somewhere.

[Determination activates!]

“...now?” John frowned. Really? Off of the minor annoyance he was feeling? And what was the point? Granted, the limit of [Infinity] had only increased by five hundred, but it didn’t matter now. Kit and Danjo were dead. What else was there to do?

John shook his head. It didn’t matter. Thinking, planning, [Resets], he didn’t care. Too much was going on. Too much was being done. He just wanted to let loose.

[Prota. We’re doing one more reset. Take a pill and leave.]

Prota’s eyes went wide as she read the message, but looked at John and nodded. She caught the pill John tossed and quietly left, unnoticed by Doctor.

“That… scared me for a second,” Doctor said, panting. “That hurt. I’m surprised.”

Fate was flung against the wall, knocking him unconscious. Now, it was just John.

“Manaless boy- wait a minute. Where did the girl go?”

“Your ability doesn’t work on her, for some reason.” John said, ripping himself out of his binds. His eye was glowing bright. “ Sorry about that. She killed herself.”

“You-”

“I’m getting really sick of losing to you. Like, literally starting to feel sick.”

John’s heartbeat started picking up as the hundreds of deaths were piling up in his mind. All that stress. All that frustration. It would end eventually. But right now, he had the opportunity to let it all out on the person responsible for all of it.

“This will be my second time killing you. Something like six hundred deaths later, I get to experience it. I guess the [Author] is giving me a little fighting. As a treat.”

John rolled his neck, stiff from being bound to the cross for so long.

“So don’t ruin this for me, ok?”

John leapt forward, Doctor’s lab coat fluttering as John came to a near halt right in front of him. Holding him by the throat, he gripped and pulled, tearing out a handful of tendrils. With a yell, he pulled harder and grabbed an even large bundle like a rope. Doctor’s body began to thrash around as John whipped the tendrils up and down, left and right, wrecking the room.

The power John was using was nowhere near what he’d been using before, but it was more than enough. He didn’t need to overpower Doctor to make a point. And if a multiplier of one thousand, was barely enough, then a thousand five hundred was more than enough to win. John didn’t know what it was, but he was winning. And he knew what he would do with that.

He just wanted the feeling of beating the living soul out of someone.

“How! Does! It! Feel!” John yelled, slamming Doctor on the ground one more time before leaping up, just to come crashing down. Black ooze splatted all over the place as Doctor’s tendrils were crushed under John’s feet.

Doctor immediately started coming back together, but didn’t have time to regain his senses as John picked him up, sending a mighty uppercut to the stomach that sent Doctor’s body flying into the ceiling. There was even more mess as John pulled a shotgun out, shoving it into Doctor’s mouth before pulling the trigger dozens of times, lighting Doctor’s body up like fireworks, causing the body to spasm and melt away.

“I’m sick of you! I’m sick of trying to save everyone! But I’m going to do it anyway. So let’s just get this over with!” John roared, a sword appearing in his hand, slicing Doctor’s head off. The sword vanished as John reached for Doctor’s decapitated head, and he crushed, black ooze splattering everywhere. It didn’t move again.

He was dead. Doctor was dead. Come to think of it, this was the first time John had killed Doctor, no? He had never finished the job the first time. How ironic. A weaker version of himself had done the deed. Well, it was good to know. That meant that he didn’t need a ridiculously high multiplier to win. Just a little bit more would do.

“Haah…” John pulled a bottle of mystery liquid out and took a swig. He slumped against some debris and closed his eyes. “I’m so tired… it’s ok. [Reset], and go back to the drawing board. That’s all, right?”

Wait. Something was here. Something strong. His eyes snapped open. The aura was enough to make the hairs on his arm stand on end. No, no, this wasn’t possible. A new factor? Even his first fight with Doctor hadn’t drawn anything nearby. Was killing Doctor the trigger for something else?

John began to calm back down. Surely he could just deal with the second threat. As long as he knew it was coming, he could plan for it. He just had to kill Doctor a few more times to see what it was. Annoying as it was, it was manageable.

At least, that’s what he thought. His mind changed when he felt [Deus Ex Machina] energy nearby. No. No, no, this wasn’t happening. This… this wasn’t possible. The worst possible outcome.

John looked up as the ceiling caved in. Purple wings, purple skin, long, silky black hair, twin horns protruding from the forehead, black armour glistening in the moonlight as a seductive figure slowly descended, a sly smile on the newcomer’s face. Beads of sweat began to pour down John’s face as he got up, his heart pounding away.

[Determination activates!]

“Found you.”