If Is All I Need
One second Garrett was fifty feet away, the next he was right in front of Cait, fists swinging. Cait stepped to the side, allowing Fate to swing his Miao Dao at the old man.
"Your fight's with me," Fate said as his sword arced in the air. He blinked as he hit nothing, finding himself back in the corridor, looking in at the squat room.
Cait was next to him, just as confused as him. Fate sighed, bracing himself for an extremely annoying and tedious battle, and charged back into the room, swinging once more for Garrett's head.
Garrett flickered, disappearing, and Fate felt a fist collide with the small of his back. He shot forward, skipping across the ground and rolling to a stop. He was pushing himself to his feet as Garrett appeared over him, aiming a kick at his jaw.
Fate used his Manifest Power to let it pass right through him, the man's momentum carrying him forward and tripping him up. A second before he was about to land on his back, he disappeared once more, now right back in the center of the room.
Fate got to his feet as the man appeared abruptly before him once more, performing a roundhouse kick aimed at Fate's head. Fate ducked with ease, straightening to find another roundhouse kick coming at him from the same angle. Without the time to dodge, the kick collided, sending him flying through the air once more as a crack resounded. He grimaced. 'I think he broke my jaw.'
As soon as his back collided with the ground, his view twisted and he was suddenly standing again, another kick on its way. On instinct, he shoved himself out of the way with his Divine Grasp, lunging to the side and chopping his sword at the man's leg. Another twist, and he was standing straight once more, a kick flying toward him. It collided, sending him flying through the air.
'Are you fucking kidding me?' Fate thought exasperatedly. 'Time loops? Really?'
He hit the ground, then his world jerked. He was straight once more and another kick coming his way. He used his Manifest Power, giving up on dodging. The kick went through him, then a sputter as the scenario repeated once more. He used his Manifest Power but his perception lurched just as the kick was about to make contact.
He soared through the air once more.
'…'
He hit the ground, feeling a rib crack, his jaw having broken all over again. His view turned.
*SMACK!*
*Whooooooosh*
*SMACK!*
*Whooooooosh*
*SMACK!*
*Whooooooosh*
After a final SMACK, he hit the ground again, grateful that he wasn't rewound again. He stood, covered in sweat as he yanked his mask off, taking deep breaths.
"That was just the appetizer," Garrett said. He turned his gaze to Cait, stuck in her loop. She'd blink, thrust her hands forward, send her Divine Reach forward in a wave, then it and her would be returned right back to the start. Blink, thrust, repeat.
"Your Venufian girly won't be helping you, neither. I don't know how you managed to snag a Personification slave as a wee Avatar. You aren't nothing special."
"One, that's a double negative," Fate said, stowing his sword in his ring. "Two, as I told that fucker Tregenman or whatever the fuck his name is, she isn't a slave. She's family."
"Family?" Garrett squinted, scrutinizing the two. "I don't see it."
"Not by blood, obviously. And she isn't Venufian."
"Those are the only people on this planet with brown eyes, boy. The genes can't carry over, on account of a curse Ythmun cast on them thousands of years ago. Although I've never seen skin like hers. Unless… Ahh, you're off-worlders. That explains how I've never heard of that one. Venufian Embodiments are monitored thoroughly, so there's no way one would appear without me knowing them."
"And why exactly do you work for Ythmun, anyway?" Fate asked. "You don't seem the type motivated by money or fame."
"I'm getting old, brat. Someone my age needs to think about leaving a legacy behind. And with Ythmun barely a step from becoming the first Incarnation this solar system has ever seen, there's no one better to stake my claim with. Plus, them Advanced folk have promised I'll be remembered for the rest of time. All I can ask for."
"Aren't you awfully close to Leveling up too?" Fate inquired.
Garrett snorted. "It looks that way, doesn't it? But it's taken me four hundred and fifty thousand years to get to this point, and I can feel that I don't have many more years left in me."
"So, you'd throw your name away to the dogs, let the Advanced torture and murder your planet's people as you see fit?"
"What are you talking about? The Advanced aren't all that bad. Sure, they do those experiments on people, but look how far they've come! They gave me a paste that cured a rash I'd had for three thousand years. Not even a Health Avatar was able to get rid of it. Sure, people suffer, but it's for the greater good."
"The greater good, huh? I guess you are just a senile old man."
"Bah, I don't care about your opinion. I was just ranting. You'll be dead soon anyway."
"Maybe, maybe not. But first, you got to tell me… do you know what the two of us went through for their 'greater good?'"
"Why should I care?" Garrett asked, cleaning his ear with a finger.
"You care about your legacy, don't you? How would you feel if it turned out that the scientists working for the 'greater good' are nothing but selfish, megalomaniacal monsters that want to subjugate all of existence and twist life to their whims? What kind of legacy would you leave behind then, huh?"
"Hmph. I've been around the block, kid. Your lies won't work on me."
"What if I can prove it?"
The old man was silent. He crossed his arms, looking Fate up and down. "If you are right, IF… then everything I've worked toward was a lie, and I need to pound Ythmun's lying skull in. But that's a damn big 'IF.'"
"That's all I need," Fate said, turning around.