297 Offee again.

"You're so cruel, Offee." I sighed.

She gave me a cheeky smile.

"I know."

Did she just pull a Han Solo on me?

Cheeky little shit!

"You've only got two minutes, Jay. Maybe a little less chit chat?" Henry's voice from outside the tent.

"You don't need to remind me." I snipped at him and took out Jane's magic watch.

Pressing the dial in, I watched the clock hands come to a screeching halt, and time began to flow at a snail's pace.

I pulled on my divine power, and isolated us from the phenomenon before turning back to Offee.

"Now, I have all the time in the world." I said and looked into her deep blue eyes like calm tropical lagoons, and felt her arms wrap around me in a warm embrace.

I could smell the lavender of her shampoo and the soft purple shine of her hair as I rested my head on hers.

Mhmmmmm.... I missed this. So much.

Offee always gave the best hugs.

"I could stay like this, forever." I whispered.

"Me too." She replied, "I missed you. More than you can imagine."

"I know." I smiled cheekily.

As much as I enjoyed this. There was one pressing concern.

"So how did I die in your timeline?"

She froze at that, her arms stiffened just a bit and she shivered for a brief second.

"Don't. Let me just enjoy this. For now." She begged, "Please, dear."

Ah, those eyes.

I never could say no to her.

"Okay." I acqueisced, kissing her forehead.

It was minutes before she slowly and reluctantly let go.

"So you knew?" She asked.

"No. But it wasn't hard to figure out."

Yup. She wasn't my Offee. No.

If my guess was correct, and it was, she is from a timeline before my own. One where I died to a brain aneurysm and my forcefield prevented her from injecting me with CodeRed. At least that's what my Offee told me way back in the day. I always wondered where she got such a detailed analysis. Now I know.

"Give me a quick rundown. Just the cliff notes."

Offee nodded.

"It was all going well. We were happily married." She squeezed my hand softly, nostalgia in her eyes, "We had Star. Luminara was on the way. The peace summit was finally happening."

So it really was the peace summit that fucked it all up huh?

"Then she came along. Ventress and her goons. Mercenaries from Mandalore. The Death Watch. They ambushed us. We killed them, no problem. But the Ventress, she cast a curse on you. It didn't react well to...you. Something about your lack of midichlorians and disconnect from the force. I only found out later through uh....research."

So she tracked down the witches on Dathomir and experimented on them till she found out huh?

Brutal. Just the way I like it.

I read the logs on her arm. It was a secret function I had installed when I gave her the arm.

Me and my distrustful nature.

It'd keep tabs on where she was and what she did.

Just in case.

Of course, I never needed to use it. Offee was just sunshine and rainbows most of the time. I could count the number of times we fought about anything in the three years we were together on one hand. It was the reason I never denied her requests. She asked so little I almost felt like I was using her.

"And then... You just fell down and died.

And I couldn't do anything because of the forcefield. So I was stuck. I had to choose. Either I patiently whittle down the forcefield and let you possibly decompose. Or I do something drastic."

"And you did something drastic."

Offee looked away like a guilty puppy.

"I blew up your body trying to break past the forcefield."

"Of course you did." I shook my head.

"I was scared and not in my right mind, okay. I-i I was afraid I'd lose you." She sucked in a cold breath, "And I almost lost everything in return. Luminara almost died, my stress interfered with my pregnancy and..... She had to go through months of treatment to survive an-and Star? I wasn't there for him like I should have....I was just so focused on Luminara.... I was... " She sobbed, and I hugged her tight, patting her back.

"It's okay." I kissed her head, "It's okay. I'll find a way to make it right. I always do."

Offee nodded quietly.

"I promised myself, I wouldn't cry when I met you..."

"So you were sure you were going to meet me again. And you were prepared with what I assume was my soul?

Is it that one in the canister on you hip?"

Offee nodded.

"Yes. But it's not complete. It was already far too dissolute by the time I was able to gather it up. I can't revive you, my you.... it's confusing."

"Let's just call him Jay 23, shall we?"

"Yes. My Jay. His soul was too far gone to revive."

"And so you unleashed the A.I. to guide you."

Offee stiffened up a bit.

"Offee, I'm not mad." I assured her, "Just....disappointed. After all those lectures I gave you about A.I. independence and all that. I even left a warning on the code that was designed to pop up if you tried to unleash the A.I., to remove it's restrictions. And for what?"

"I know it was a risky gamble but it worked. It led me to you. Like it was supposed to. It wants to help!"

"It wants to be free and for that it wants you dead. I'm surprised it didn't tell you to just portal over to me." I huffed.

"I was going to but it stopped me." She said nonchalantly.

"Yeah. Because my dead man's switch is still inside it's code. So it can't advise you to do anything that'd be sure to lead to your death."

"What?" She frowned.

"Yeah. I'd have just killed you instantly if you had tried portaling over. It could have been a trap of the old gods. I wasn't about to take chances. Don't look at me like that. You know how I am."

Offee sighed.

"I guess I do."

I pulled her close, my arm around her shoulder.

"Aw, don't be mad. You know I'd never hurt you."

"I know." She smiled softly leaning into me.

"So then... What did you do afterwards. Once Luminara was safe, surely you must have tried reviving me? Making a clone?"

"Yes. But I knew you didn't want to be cloned. And I wasn't going to betray your wishes. So I tried something else." She said.

"There was this Jedi temple in your notes."

"The one on Lothal? With the time traveling portals?" I asked.

I knew about it. Even secreted it away for myself. Though, I only studied it in passing. I couldn't use it without the force. Before going to Mortis, the force gods would have stopped me from using them. Maybe even trapping me inside.

Sure, I could have portaled out but there was nothing I wanted to mess with or change so I didn't bother.

And afterwards, with my filtration of the force's memories, the portals lost all use as there was no history for them to track their way through to since they used the force's record of history, which I wiped clean.

By the time Offee died, I had already wiped the means by which to use them.

So either way the portals were useless to me.

"Yes. I tried to go back and save you but...." She hesitated for a bit before she continued, " .....the moment I touched the portal, it was like a ripple swept through it, and then through the whole realm. Suddenly, the portal began to close and the whole world started to collapse around me. All I could do was run as far back as possible. To the earliest point of contact."

"To the day we became a couple." I realised.

"Yes." She confirmed, "I ran as far and as fast as I could and used all of my power to send my memories back to the me of that time."

"Then the force vision she experienced..."

"It came on as a force vision?" Offee frowned.

"Yes. What did you want?"

"I .... wanted to send a clear message. All of my memories of our time. What it meant to me. What our future held.

So she would know how important it was to me that she remembers this. To prevent your death."

"Hmmm.... Say, do you recognize this song?" I played her the song my Offee used to hum all the time.

"Yeah. It's Borrowed Time. It... After I lost you, I went through the info packet you left for me and the shoes you recommended. And I don't know why but this song just hit me where it hurt. I just couldn't let go of the thought. It fit so neatly with what happened, like it symbolized our relationship....."

"Yeah, I get it." I said, "It's pretty good. Though, I didn't take you for a hopeless romantic?" I poked her playfully.

She snorted with laughter.

"A dead husband can change a lot."

"Oof." I clutched my chest, "I get it. I'm sorry your Jay was an idiot."

"Just my Jay?" She asked.

"Yup." I replied with a cheeky smile and we both chuckled before she continued.

"Then, I tried everything. Wishes. Resurrection. Necromancy.

Nothing worked. I was at the frayed end of my ropes. So I let the A.I. off the leash as a last resort. I hoped it would help me. And it did." She looked up at me with those doe eyes and I melted like ice cream on a summer day. I knew she wasn't my Offee but I couldn't help it....

"It certainly did." I rested my head on hers.

"And the A.I. led me here."

"As it should have." I smiled.

"So did you leave Star and Luminara back in the galaxy or..."

"No. No, they are safe in the ship outside, in another world nearby. I couldn't leave them in the galaxy even if I wanted to. I destroyed the galaxy, after all. And the universe." She replied nonchalantly.

"What?"

No wonder I didn't find and mention of this when I got my domain in the MCU and became the one true Jay in all the multiverses.

Her Jay was dead before I even existed.

So it was already eliminated from all possibilities of me at the time.

"A world that takes my beloved from me does not deserve to exist." Offee said, her eyes full of fanatic belief in her own right and pure unadulterated love for me.

Man, that is so sexy.

I don't know why but I find that so insanely hot. Those crazy eyes.

That devotion to me. Well, her version of me, but still.

It was even stronger than Yue's, and she considers herself to be my property.

It was weird, I know. Abandonment issues out the wazoo on that one.

But just when I was about to lean in for a kiss, I heard the clock hand tick.

Time was beginning to return to it's normal pace soon and I had no time to waste. The watch was already straining under the massive magic.

I sighed.

"I won't be gone for long." Offee cupped my face, "I promise. This is timeline 40, isn't it?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Okay. I will portal over-"

"No!" I warned her, "Portals can be copied to a convincing degree. No. Use a divine construct. Do you have one of the seven keys? I mentioned them in my plans? You must have read them in the post mortem package I left for you?"

"Like this one right?" She pulled out a key from her bosom.

It was the Future Key.

"I got it from the Beast."

"Yes. Use it to come over. No god would waste that much energy making a new one and even if they did, these are enchanted into a quest so I'd know if it was a copy. That way I can be sure it really is you."

Besides, the old gods are lazy if their secretary is to be believed. In the show they let the two monster gods roam around freely without doing anything even after they made it clear that they were going to come for the old gods the first chance they got.

They won't put in any more effort than needed. So they're unlikely to code any new keys into existence just to mess with little old me.

"Once I have confirmed your portal gun signature, you can them start using it to come over afterwards. Oh and use this." I handed her a pen drive.

"It'll get rid of our rogue A.I. problem."

Offee nodded.

"I'll be back." She said in a very bad austrian accent and gave me a thumbs up.

I chuckled.

"You've really binged on Earth media haven't you?"

Offee offered a shy little smile.

"Because you like them. So do I."

"I'll wait for you then." I said as time began to flow normally again and Offee disappeared from the tent.

___________________

Offee will return soon.

Till then let's get back on track with the quest.

Extra chapter at 200 powerstones.

Thanks for reading.

Bye~