Chapter 89: The Great Speedster War Part 10: Conclusion

Future Romaine's POV

Though in my perspective I was only out for a second, when I was woken up by Jayden's persistent calls my body felt as if it had been under constant turmoil for hours on end; which I'm guessing was a sign of the artificial adrenaline in my veins wearing off.

"Romaine! Hey, Romaine! Wake up!" Jayden's voice echoed in my head

"I can hear you.." I mumbled, "Stop being so loud..."

"You were out for ages. Cas sent me here to get you."

Slowly attempting to sit up, I instinctively rubbed my head as a reaction to the sudden pain I felt there.

The sharp rays of sunlight blinding my eyes also pointed out to me that the dark clouds caused by Zero's presence were now gone. Speaking of Black Zero...

"Wait where's Zero?" I inquired, hastily searching around for him

"Eh, he ran off shortly before we got here. Cas said that she also wasn't able to pickup any traces of peripheral speed from him, whatever that means; so it was likely that what he used to escape with is the Philosophers' Stone."

He has no more natural speed? Was that my doing? No, that's not likely...then it must've been something to do with that weird technique he performed earlier, interesting; after all that would explain his sense of haste during our battle, the power boost must've had some sort of time limit.

"Earth to Romaine." Jayden got my attention by waving his hand in front of my eyes, "Yeah you should probably turn your comm back on. Your wife was pretty worried, and seemed kinda pissed if I'm being honest."

"Damn you're right. I forgot."

I attempted reengaging my earpiece but it turns out it was now broken.

"Damnit, it's busted."

"Well I know someone's gonna get scolded when they go back." He teased

"Not funny." I groaned

I looked around again while Jayden was communicating to someone over his comms.

"Damn. That's unbelievable." He sighed

"What is it?"

"The war's officially over; they dispatched the search and rescue department, so far they've located 15 bodies."

"15...and that's not counting the ones that had their bodies disintegrated by the storm; like Taylor."

I sat there for a while contemplating today's events. Soon after it was confirmed that we lost a total of 34 heroes.

"No.." I mumbled, "Damnit no!"

I slammed my fist onto the ground, stifling the pain I felt in my heart.

"Why was it all of you? Why did all of you have to die and not me? This is all my fault..."

"Hey Champ.." Jayden called concerningly, patting my shoulder, "I know we lost all of them, but we won...and it's all thanks to you that we~"

"No!" I belted at him, batting away his hand, "There could've been another way, I'm sure of it. We didn't have to lose all these people.."

Though contrary to the words I uttered, I knew that there's no other way that fight could've gone where it ended in our victory.

~~~~~~~

Safe to say that after that Cas really let loose on me, saying stuff like being selfish and irresponsible again. But I know that deep down she was just saying all those stuff because she was worried about me.

After that, the citizens were forced to migrate from New Montego Bay and take up residence elsewhere; and that day would forever be remembered as the day of the Great Speedster War against Black Zero.

After the war, I and some others spent time recovering whatever bodies we could, and dedicated a cemetery to all the fallen heroes; which was later named the Heroes' Memorial Cemetery.

Satori Regiment was completely shutdown, with the Portland Branch being majorly devastated by their losses. The Heroes Alliance was never the same after that; and a lot of the surviving heroes retired soon after.

As time passed, I began considering whether or not defeating Black Zero at that point in time was really my true purpose; or if all those people had to actually die. And a mere week after the war had occurred, Cas and I had already started working on our plan to send me back to the past.

We discussed it meticulously for the next year, until the day finally came when everything was ready. The plan was for me to go back in time and manipulate a predetermined list of events in very specific ways in order to prevent the war altogether; and though I did as planned despite certain bumps that came up, somewhere along the way I decided to sow the seeds for a much better timeline, a future where everyone can be happy.

Romaine's POV

I jumped out of my bed, wondering what the hell all of that was.

"Was that, a dream?" I questioned myself, "No, it was through my time remnant's perspective, it must've been a vision of some sort. But...how was I able to see it...and why was it those memories specifically?"

I sat there questioning myself on everything for a while. The Grid, Zero and my Remnant's new powers, the Heroes Alliance, the Baby???

Ok for real, that last one took me by complete surprise. Cas was pregnant at the time of the war, but an entire year passed before my Remnant came back in time, though in the few flashes of that day I saw through his eyes, there was nothing even remotely related to a baby; neither did he mention having one when he was here. I'm guessing there was a miscarriage or something...

Though I'd stay there pondering all day, there was no more time for that; today was my first day of Augendae training. And whether my vision was real or not, it served as inspiration to push me further.