Yo wtf
The aftermath made it pretty clear, this was right.
Even though V took it hard, he couldn't let Daeran die, but he also couldn't hand him over to anyone else, so V was forced to think of another's life above his. The cult died before it started, Saeran grew up normal. V got healthy, it all should be all right now. I wait for Seven to take me back to our time and he finally does.... at least I thought he would. When I step through the portal what I see is the apartment, but outside the window is earth.... Not dirt but as in the actual planet, in space, in the distance.
"SEVEN!"
I slam open the only door there and I am greeted with what looks like a crude space station.
"Oh hello Vandy~"
"Seven. What in the-"
"Well I told you there'd be repercussions~"
"Why..." I take a deep breath to calm myself. "Seven.... Why are we in space?"
"We're not, I just figured that the image of earth would be less jarring."
I stalk forward to him and prepare to pull my gun. "Than?"
"Than this." He gestures back as the shutters of a huge window open revealing swirls of yellow, red, blue and green. All combining and separating, like it's being whisked with the worlds slowest mixer.
I run forward to the window and I grows bigger until I run straight into the glass, falling back and rubbing my nose to soothe the pain, I see that the glass stretches up at least 10 meters high and the worst part is that it's not a screen.
"Where the hell are we Seven?"
"Where and when, Vandy, where and when."
I can't stop myself from roaring "Where and when then?!"
"See, because you changed the timeline, we had no reason to exist, I thought this might happen so I found a pocket dimension. We are outside of time and space, we are and we aren't. Do you follow me?"
I had turned around, looking out again.
"Where's the door out?"
Seven is silent so I turn and see him pointing lazily to my right. I take a deep breath and quell the shaking in my hand as I open the door and step outside.
".... Seven?"
"Yeah?"
"WHY THE HELL AM I NOT DYING?!"
"Oh cus this is totally habitable my dude, like you didn't think I'd pick a dimension where we couldn't breathe, did you?"
I stalk up to him once again and lift him up by his shirt collar.
"How do I die?"
"What?"
"Seven my timeline is gone, I might as well be dead, how do I die?!"
"Y- you can't.... Not anymore."
"What?"
Seven sighs but looks more sad than annoyed
"We're out of the timeline, we don't exist, we won't age, we won't die."
"Then why was I able to kill Rika?"
"Because you were real then? I dunno man. It's just, this is our existence now... Probably for eternity... Didn't you notice? Your heart."
I put two fingers to my neck, where my heartbeat should be.
"Damn it! Wasn't this gonna fix everything?!"
"It did. But not for us, look."
He types something into a keyboard and gestures for me to grab a seat. I sit down begrudgingly, leaning in. On one of the monitors there's a brief timelapse, showing how everyone's life is better, even alternate version of me.
"Well.... At least one of me is happy."
"Mmm."
We sit there looking at what our lives could have been and I slam my face down into the keyboard.
"Hey! What the hell?! We got a limited supply of those Vandy!"
I see a glimmer in the screen.
"Seven?"
"Don't yell at me again!"
"No promises."
"Ugghh fine." he wheels himself back and holds up a pillow as a makeshift shield "What is it?"
"Why didn't I disappear?"
"What do you mean?"
"After I killed Rika."
"Well I assume it's cus you went through the portal right away."
"Hmmm, could you teleport me somewhere else."
"Dude no. You'd-"
"Do what?"
"I dunno, disappear or something!"
"You said I couldn't die."
"I..."
"What do we have to lose?"
"Me being alone for eternity and the world losing the greatest hackers it's ever seen." he pushes up his glasses "Alternate me got saved by V, so he barely knows what a computer is, very much into robots though."
"I saw a flicker on the screen."
"You probably broke it by smashing your face into the keyboard."
"Look at the log."
"How do you even know what a-"
"Seven."
He's glaring back at me but I feel that knot in my throat.
"Please, Seven I can't just exist forever."
His eyes shake as he sighs and checks through the log, his brows furrow deeply as he looks confused.
After an hour of typing, he finally responds. "You sure?"
I nod.
He stands up and I follow him to the teleporter.
"Where am I going?"
"Does it matter?"
"I need to know how I can help."
"It was a distress call, someone.... Someone... someone else needs to be killed."
I grin, finally something I know.... God I promised myself I'd never become like this.... Oh well. I feel the coolness of the whirls pass through me.