EnderOni

Chapter 42: The Answer (to Life)

-...-

The mansion was quite, clean, and yet untouched for years until this day. Until this day, when the man appeared within it. It, the only place he's ever known. It was so familiar and though it brought negative memories, it felt like home. He thought of It as his home. Maybe not a home he'd like to stay in forever, but at this moment in time, in an alternate dimension, where he would promise himself not to ruin things again, it was home.

"Only a monster would call this place home." He chuckled to himself, "He did call me a monster."

He walked around the halls and into the rooms, actually taking in the detail of the place. He hadn't ever noticed that there was kitchen ware in the kitchen down stairs, and that TV in the same room worked, it just didn't get any service. There was so much dust on everything too.

There was no blood though, and it would stay that way.

Well, unless you counted the blood on the fifth floor, but he didn't check to see if that was there at all. He thought it would be best to avoid the fifth floor. He had to think about his future. His future in a world that had yet to met him.

He was actually feeling pretty excited about this. He had no plan but that was okay because he felt better about himself. He knew more about himself now and he was thankful to be able to restart everything, in a way. He wasn't going to forget the terrible things he did, he didn't deserve to forget any of that, and he wasn't going to forget the Tyler whose life he ruined. He wasn't going to forget the Seto that saved him either.

It was almost selfish, but he low key hoped they wouldn't forget him either.

He wondered if Tyler had lived or died after Seto reset his world's time line. He still wondered about the journal and he wondered just how much and how long that kid, Unity, had been following him. How did he know they were the same person? How come he could never tell the kid was there? Why didn't the kid ever try to stop him in the first place?

It was around noon that day in that untouched dimension, and Onity found himself wondering around the safe room, which was just as untouched and dusty as the rest of the mansion. He remembered the room from loop one and he sighed, sitting on the edge of one of the tables. He remembered pretending to be someone he was not. He looked down at his legs and then down at his shoes as he kicked them back and forth in the air.

"If I'm going to start a new life, I should stop pretending to be other people." Onity told himself and pushed himself off the table.

He walked into the bathroom of the safe room, the door closing behind him. The room was pretty dark, there being two lights on each side of the long mirror on the other wall of the room, yet both being pretty dull. He could see himself pretty clearly in the mirror though, and for the first time in a long time he took in what he looked like. No, what someone else looked like.

"We've got to fix this mess." He sighed, leaning in real close to the mirror, looking into his own eyes. "Ugh, I do kind of like the mismatching eye color though."

He stood back again and then thought for a second, staring at his image in the mirror, and then decided on what he could do for now. He knew a few simple things that he could do.

First off, his disguise was messy. He'd been running around, covered in his own blood, and damn there was still that painful bullet in his shoulder. He gazed as his shoulder, even poking at the hole a bit, only to find the metal and shiver. He did a spell or two , which granted did take some energy, and though his shoulder still hurt, the bullet was no longer there. How the body under the disguise would still be healing from what happened, he could reset the disguise to hide them. And that's what he did.

After resetting the disguise, he didn't look messy or bloody at all. He didn't even look as worn out as he was. He still looked like someone else though. He raised out his right hand and with the motion of his wrist, something appeared into his hand. He brought back his hand and looked down to see a hair tie. He looked back up at the mirror and combed back his hair, leaving his beautiful bangs as they were before (slightly pushed out of his face, proudly showing his eyes, though some just couldn't stay off to the side and sat between his eyes), and pulled it into a ponytail.

"Hmm maybe not everyday, but I like it." Onity said, looking at it in the mirror the best he could, considering it was a short ponytail on the back of his head.

He ditched the headphones too. They were not his thing at all.

He did a spell to change the clothes as well. He wasn't entirely sure what he'd get because he wasn't used to magic like this, but he would be pretty much down for anything other what he'd been stuck in for the last few weeks. What he got was a black collared shirt with a dull purple sweater over it, and then white pants and light Grey shoes. Simple and he felt pretty lucky with what he got. It was a little warm compared to what he had on last, but he wouldn't complain.

He looked at himself in the mirror again, even posing for himself.

"It's a good start." He told himself.

He teleported back down to the first floor, thinking maybe he'd take a walk outside. Yeah, that sounded nice. He needed to listen to Seto and spend a lot more time away from this place, no matter how familiar it was to him.

"I don't see any signs around."

"Hm."

Only, when he teleported to the first floor, he found he wasn't alone.

"Maybe we need to look around for them? Like explore?"

That voice.

"I guess so."

Onity froze, unsure what to do, losing track of time, but he quickly composed himself teleporting over to them, still a few feet away from their group at the front door. His teleporting made a little bit of a zap sound, and the group of five heard him, turning to look at him, spooked.

"Welcome!" Onity smiled.

"Who are you?" The one with the red eye, Ty, asked.

"Name's Onity and this here is my mansion!" Onity made a motion towards the whole building.

"So...are you the one who sent those letters?" Sky asked. " The ones about the map?"

Onity paused. "Well, I didn't send them, but I do have a map. Sort of. It's not well constructed, you'll have to pardon me."

"We'll be the judge of that." Bashur smiled.

Onity had nothing at all and he couldn't help but despise whoever told these people his house was a god damn play thing. He'd have to roll with it though, and he was pretty creative, so he'd come up with something and hope it worked.

"So! Any questions before we being this tour?" Onity asked, leaning on the heels of his feet.

"Yeah!" Tyler spoke up. "Why do you look similar to Ty? It's in the facial features. It's kinda creepy."

"Yeah, I wondered that too." Sky pointed out.

Onity was about to speak up, but was cut off.

"I don't think I'm that ugly." Ty said.

"Ty! Don't insult our host!" Sky laughed.

"Darling, it's a small world, I'm sure you've heard of legends that claim if you run into your doppelganger that you're doomed to die." Onity laughed a bit too, and he felt a little bad for it.

"Welp, we know who is going to be sacrificed in this map, right sub?" Bashur said. Sub, who pretty much just stood there, silently judging everyone, nodded his head.

"What?! No!" Ty huffed.

"Hah, yeah, we'll sacrifice the so called darling." Tyler poked.

"Oh, if we're ranking people, he's defiantly not the darling i'd put at the top of the list." Onity replied.

"You've got a list of us already?" Ty asked. "That's pretty gay."

"Let's be honest here..." Onity sighed, pausing for effect. "I am pretty gay, and nerds are pretty hot."

"Well then, a nerd we've got for you!" Sky laughed, putting an arm around Tyler.

"H-Hey! Don't try to sell me like a product!" Tyler pushed Sky away.

"Not like we needed you anyway." Ty joked. "We'll get a new nerd."

"Aw, guys, I don't think we could replace him." Bashur frowned.

"No, pretty sure we could." Ty shrugged.

"You all are shitty friends." Tyler couldn't help but smile too.

"It's only because we know what's best for you." Sky patting his back.

"Thanks, mom." Tyler rolled his eyes.

"Anyway!" Onity spoke up, almost getting lost in seeing these people...happy and themselves. And not trying to kill him. "We've got a party to get onto!"

"What is this map even about?" Tyler asked as they began to walk down the hallway, following Onity who was walking away.

"Hell if I know, but we'll figure it out." Onity shrugged.

He'd wing it and hope it was impressive.

-...-

Another mansion in another dimension, another one that is untouched now in time, but will become touched and damaged and bloodied. Dusty, with halls that have not been walked in in years. However, no, a boy walks through them, keeping as calm as he possibly can, however failing.

He stood within the top story of the mansion, the fifth floor, in a large room that he knows, though it is empty now, It will not be for very long. He stares down at the wooden floor, trying to map out what he knows he is supposed to draw. He looks up at the loud ticking clock on the wall for reference. God, it won't shut up.

This is not the end for you, he remembered.

It felt like it though. He wasn't even sure what he was supposed to do. He thinks he's supposed to try to kill himself, and maybe in one alternative time line he did go crazy enough to try, but he wouldn't now. He felt better about himself and his future, and he had to thank Seto for most of it. All of it. Maybe he didn't meet Seto once, and that drove him to become Onity, but maybe as time worked itself into other futures, maybe he broke it by meeting Seto. He still had to become Onity though.

There was a gun on the floor, in the middle of where the clock had been mapped out in his hand.

Unity walked over, slowly, and picked it up. He could hold it with both hands, the thing heavy in his little arms. He no longer had his journal anymore, as it teleported away. He'd concluded that it had a mind of it's own. It was probably made by someone who could travel into other dimensions easily, like him, and wanted a journal that could do that as well. How this journal became somewhat sentient was amazing, and Unity wished that one day he'd learn that kind of magic. He wondered if Seto knew things like that.

He check to see if the gun was loaded. It had as many bullets as it could carry. It looked rather clean and untouched and he wondered who it belonged too. Who left it here. Was it a sentient gun too? He wondered how many things were sentient. What about his crayons? He never really took good care of those, though he did always have one or two colors with him at all times. Sometimes he had more and right now he couldn't remember where they came from.

Things were so much simpler on Yvenity.

"I don't live there anymore, though." He sighed to himself. "I live here. This mansion is my home."

He stared at the clock on the wall, the gun held tightly in his hands, his heart beat echoing in his head. He felt cold even under his cloak. No, he felt warm. No, he couldn't decide. His head was in too many places at once. He wanted to get this over with. He wanted to teleport back to Seto and ask more about his future. He wanted to hug Seto again. He didn't want to paint the ground with his blood, from inside his body, that he'd have to use the gun to get. And then he'd have to cause himself to get amnesia and black out for god knows how long.

His mom would have a heart attack if she knew about this.

She probably had a heart attack the moment she lost him though, Unity couldn't help but think about.

He had to get on with the show though. He gulped, looking back down at the gun. He'd have to draw this clock before he blacked out, that was an important thing to remember. He wondered about the places he could shot and not die or not black out right then on the spot.

There was his shoulder.

He held the gun to his left shoulder. He, a twelve year old boy, took a deep breath, trying not to shake. He tried not to twitch. He tried to be strong. He was told he was strong. He liked to believe it.

He didn't pull the trigger though.

"No more."

He dropped the gun. He got a better idea. Well, better in a sense that....he wasn't sure what sense it was. It was just better sounding to him. He kicked the gun away and moved over to the center of the circle he had mapped out in his head. He was going to use magic. Magic to do something incredibly dangerous.

He had no clue what he originally did to begin this all, but he was sure of what he was going to do this time. He held out his little claw like hands and a neon purple haze of magic appeared around them as he began to cast a spell. A teleportation spell.

There was a zap, and all of a sudden his body felt like dropping, but he was careful, and had not taken too much of his own blood out to lose himself right then and there. He found it so much harder to stand, and standing still was a challenge as well. He found himself wanting to waver to one side and then the other, as if the room was moving and he was a ball on a flat surface.

He stayed strong though, and had to complete this task. There was a circle of a good portion of his own neon purple blood being held in the air with his magic, his arms have a hard time staying up to control it. But he didn't need to control it all to much now that it was in a circle. It wasn't perfect, but he didn't care enough to make it perfect. The blood dropped down onto the wooden floors and his arms fell to his side and he found himself falling to his knees.

No, no, he had to stay awake. He had to draw those stupid numbers. There were twelve of them, right? He thinks so, but he isn't doing to well in his head department right now, you'll have to check again later. He shook his head and pushed himself up, stumbling around, using his claws to draw in the numbers around the circle before it all dried. It got harder to do so the longer he was awake, falling to the floor once or twice around drawing the numbers six and ten.

When he got finished, he stood back, standing in the middle, his vision so blurry. He yawned. He was getting so sleepy.

And then his time was out. He collapsed, laying in the middle of the clock, due to awake an unknown amount of time later with no memory at all.

-...-

He laughed, his voice weak, his laugh weak. He was weak. His mind was weak.

"I'm sorry I could not stop it. I could only make it go on. It had to go on."

After sitting on the ground for so long, so tired after performing that spell, he dropped the journal in his hands and he sat up. He walked back down the hall to stop and look down at the bodies of ten and eleven, Jason and Sub.

"It's...it's so strange to have this memories of things I didn't live." He spoke. "I remember you saying Sub's life, Jason. I also remember you dying different ways. I remember a world you didn't die, because they fixed everything."

He walked past them and down the hallway to were Sky's body lay. There was Ant too. Eight and Nine. He remembered Ant once being the first to die, but he also remembers so many other deaths. He also remembers a world he didn't die. The same goes for Sky. He remembers so much that he also didn't live.

He continued to walk. He didn't know where. He was all alone. Everyone was dead. He was sure he was going to die after casting that spell but he did not. He used the spell to ship them off on their next world to destroy, and now he sat here, dazed and he couldn't even really think properly.

"I can't believe we were just loop two." He sighed. "I can't believe I survived their path of destruction."

He sat in the middle of the clock on the fifth floor. He never got to personally know Unity, but the journal had shown him everything, and he felt as if he was the Seto that did. He sat with his knees to his chest, thinking about what the journal had shown him. He viewed it as if it were a movie in his head, and he found that constantly mixed up the memories.

He thought about how the other Seto saved his dimension. How he stopped their destruction. He thought about how he saved the life of a murderer. Part of him couldn't understand it, and all he could remember was the last moments he saw Onity in his own world. Onity reaching out trying to stop him from "resetting time".

Resetting time.

He stood back up, knowing he'd go crazy from all his knowledge if he didn't do anything about it. Luckily, he had survived, and luckily, he was a sorcerer. And luckily, there was no one alive in the mansion that could stop him from properly resetting time.

So that's what he did.

Maybe he couldn't save the loop one dimension or any of the other dimensions that Onity and Tyler killed people in, but he could save his own. And that's what he did.

And then he woke up at home, drank a small potion, went back to sleep, and woke up happier. He woke up with no memory of any mansion at all.

-...-