The hands that took her life.

I woke up as if I were suffocating through metal. It was the smell more than the taste—a smell of dried blood and heat that filled my nose. It wasn't only a disaster; it felt like a disturbing painting. Edward's body lay among neat piles of blood, rather than blood splattered everywhere. Seeing the dead body before me brought back a memory I couldn't really explain.

His abdomen had a knife sticking into it. That wasn't an ordinary knife; you might have mistaken it for a prop from a fantasy world. Its sharpness was so severe that its bright blade could unfold light. What happened seemed impossible for humans to make and I knew the dream had to be different from any I'd ever had.

As I got closer, I felt like I couldn't feel anything at all. Gradually, I brought the knife up out of his side. There weren't any sounds from Edward as his nose was pressed inside. His wound wasn't giving off new blood; it had dried, turning into a dark, artistic symbol around his body. No matter what, it occurred some time ago.

Could I have made this difference? I could see the slashes in my arm and the ribbons of skin that were pulled back. It didn't happen by chance; it looked to me like something I remembered. My pulse didn't pick up speed. It felt as if a clock were really winding down inside my chest.

"Why me?" I spoke softly and holding the knife, it began to twist and shape itself until it no longer looked how it had. After being a weapon, it now looked like an antique pocket watch, with the needle moving backwards strangely. The moment I looked at it, everything made sense, yet it still left me wondering. I knew what was driving all the turmoil.

Just going back five hours on the dial made the world grow very loud. Everything unfolded so fast right in front of me—time zoomed backwards for me there. Blood replaced the green goo and Edward came alive, screaming silently with his mouth wide open. And that's when I realized something else was above him, a creature I'd never seen before.

There was nothing actually human about it. The face was there, but no true emotion showed. Drops of liquid mercury could be seen in its eyes and it appeared to be made of shifting energy through its body. "Get off of him damn, beast!" I began to quickly raise my voice. My voice disturbed the quiet just as much as a piece of glass cracking the moment it hits the ground. Still, the creature didn't listen; it just tilted its head very slowly, as if it didn't remember I was near.

I reached toward my side using my left hand, holding my Katana ready and certain it was an extension of both my desire and memory. The shock collar kept making a strange hum. As soon as the creature sneezed and headed toward Edward, I felt myself panicking. I didn't have time to react.

It cruised past me without difficulty, thrusting the knife yet again into the same spot on Edward. Within seconds, it felt like I was turned back and I felt I had failed. Being fast wasn't enough for me. Something more powerful was necessary—like if I had a sixth sense pointing the way for me in this day.

After that, the strange being just vanished. As if the air around us crashed, leaving a coldness in the room. Edward's moving blood remained on the floor, though his scream didn't echo. "Shun!" a voice said high into the sky, "Are you nearby? I lost it! The beast just vanished!"

Someone answered in a relaxed voice, "I'm here. You should find out more information. Find it before it can make its way to the heart of the Multiverse or it could be a disaster."

"Got it. I felt something strange happening near Timeline 76. Maybe that's the location of the security vulnerability. It's possible that somebody is trying to interfere with the rifts." For a moment, nothing happened and then the hologram said, "I detect something as well. But the most important thing is capturing the beast."

I was having a hard time keeping their words in order. Did the same creature come back for Edward again and again? What truly woke my heart was wondering if the Looper was in fact me. My vision went blank.

"Good day!"

The voice sounded like a hymn: full but also rather gentle. When I finally woke up, there was no kindness in the world I saw.

An overwhelming amount of them.

Puppets.

All students in lines, motionless, looking like a group of people at a theatre that no longer knew what laughter was. The look in their eyes was dead, but I knew what they were thinking. It was stuck all over me, like static.

"What... this?" I whispered.

I couldn't do anything. The rope burning me was painful on top of the skin just exposed by the flogging. I attempted to phys out, slipping away from the material, just as I did all the time. Nothing. Not the slightest hint of power could be seen. I felt as if I was separated from myself.

The voice spoke again, this time sounding much more nearby.

I glanced above me.

Out of the center of the puppet army, the figure appeared neither as a man nor as a god. Something else. Wearing a human mask like you'd expect a monster to wear it.

He looked at me and asked, "You don't recall being here before?" His eyes looked like miniature black suns. "You should. You've always arrived here when you missed your goal. You have failed many times."

He put his hand up.

The puppets all stood up at the same time, moving forcefully en masse. They touched their heads forward, making no sound, as if silently agreeing.

"You've completely failed, Theresa. Every loop. Every choice. Every death." He sounded just as casual as if he was reading a weather broadcast. "Have you ever thought about the many lives you've taken because of your weak attempts at saving? It's sickening."

My hands sank into her skin and each dream became as hard as glass to dig through.

I held my jaw tightly together, but the tears kept falling.

"You mention willingness to do things. About determination. What has this process delivered for you? Every last one of your friends is gone by now. All of life as you knew it is gone. Everyone sees you as a curse. I'm asking you this—I truly want your honest reply—do you deserve the authority that comes with fate?"

He moved closer and I caught sight of myself in his eyes.

My fear made me start to shake.

"I... I don't want this."

I lost my voice for a moment.

"I didn't ask to remember every time they died... to live every moment again only to fail all over. I didn't want to be this—thing—this failed puppet in someone else's game."

They made the atmosphere thick with tension, and my vision blurred with a sudden rush of unshed tears. My heart plummeted within my chest, feeling heavier than it had ever been.

"Every time I come back here, it's like a cruel reminder that I'm insufficient. Like I never really belonged. When someone leaves us, the emptiness feels like it takes me in. It feels like the scar of their absence is getting worse and won't go away. This cycle of pain might not have happened if I had never been born. I wish I could have been enough to stop this pain from coming into our lives."My voice cracked with the weight of my words.

"If I were to vanish, if my existence could just cease to be... wouldn't their suffering come to an end? The endless cycle of torment would break, wouldn't it? Maybe then, finally, peace could flourish in their hearts without the shadow of my presence..."

The room was suffocating in its quietude.

He responded with a chuckle, gentle at first, then spiraling into something more sinister, a twisted echo of mirth.

"Ah, the games, my dear." You can't end them. You and Isaac are like puppets; we pull the strings and you dance. You two are a perfect match, so connected in this dance of desperation. We made this tragic play with great care, so think of it as our grand design. And you, my dear, are just a part of our story. You can't change the last act. His laughter broke the silence, a haunting reminder of how helpless I was.

"You bastard!" I shrieked, anger and despair intertwining in a fiery tornado within my chest. "How could you?! You can't make him go through this hellish cycle with me!"

He only looked at me without blinking.

"But weren't you the one who begged for oblivion, Theresa?" He spoke in a calm voice that made my skin crawl. "Weren't you the one who said you wanted to disappear?"

He leaned back, a lock of his dark hair slipping over one eye as his hand swept through the air with a casual wave.

"I can fulfill your wish. You can be removed from the fabric of reality by me. No more interminable repetitions. No more suffering. Nobody will ever remember your tortured life."

I hesitated as a storm of uncertainty and suffering raged inside of me. I didn't want to die for that reason. However, a part of me believed it might be the solution. Maybe I should. As I stared at him, the marionettes began their eerie chant once more.

Theresa. Theresa. Theresa.

Their strings dancing in a silent symphony of accusation, their eyes, vacant yet haunting, bore into my soul.

"Do it," he urged, his tone a serpent's hiss. "Just say the word, and it's all over. No more suffering. No more being the harbinger of doom."

The words were heavy and stuck in my throat.

Then there was a weak murmur, a statement from the bottom of my broken heart.

"I can't."

It reverberated through the atmosphere, a spectral admission of hope amid despair:

"Because I should be the one to carry the curse if I am one. If I am the reason they are all condemned to die, then let my memory be the shrine to their lives. This pain must be endured by someone. And if it must be me, then so be it. I will not allow their tales to be forgotten and unremembered as I pass away!"

His sly smile faltered.

He spat, "You think that's heroic?" "No," I muttered, lifting my chin with an unexpected burst of resolve.

"I think that's all that's left of me." The puppets fell silent, seemingly in shock, and the surrounding light faltered. And the monster's expression changed from arrogant to unsure for the first time. The internal conflict continued, but I had already made up my mind. I wouldn't be lost. I wouldn't leave them in the depths of my memory loss. I was their observer, their lamenter, and maybe their ray of hope.

"I can tell you this now. You will suffer more than you will live." the monster said. And with that the meeting concluded.

The world blurred and my vision returned. I was back at square one. The Fate God was really something else.

I had a strong grip on the katana, noticing the cold against my palms from everything I didn't save. I gave it the name Goddess's Sword of Divine Providence when I thought she was with me. The blade was supposed to be able to cut both the flesh of a body and the delicate ties holding fate together, all because it was made of Ritheum. Still, now that she wasn't there to support me, I felt like being crushed by all that grief.

I looked over at the bed that was by me. Edward lay there with barely any breaths, as his body moved only very slightly. I couldn't let it happen this way again. I made sure it didn't happen. I closed my eyes and searched inside, feeling my Godsense, trying to overcome my damaging fear. All of a sudden, I could see something high in the air. Something that seemed to be on fire, twisted and shifting through a blur of bright colors. Everything came apart in my hands and in a fast, soundless moment, the hose broke, like a quick explosion.

This was happening now.

At that moment, a deadly claw dropped on me, its serrations making it like shattered glass. I cut the monster with my katana and everything screamed out as it tore the flesh from the beast. The strike pushed me across the floor, but it also cracked a claw as it happened. The monster hissed and mouth-opening showed the rows of sharp teeth inside. In an instant, it climbed, scratching the wall. I couldn't catch sight of it as it flew right by, like a pinball.

Track the number of bounces in your mind, I thought to myself. One. Two. Six. Twelve. It was just like that—twenty-four and the next second, it was headed downwards in a sharp, straight line, much more like a bullet.

I dodged and blocked the attack just when I had to. When we collided, it sent vibrations through me, though I felt something unusual. Shock overtook me when I spotted how horrid things looked on the ground. Bodies—everywhere. Twisted and mangled, faces were barely recognizable. As if bending in ways they shouldn't, their limbs showed all their inner parts. The body's face looked ripped open, with both of its eyes dug out and dark tears shedding uncontrollably.

I could only smell the awful air at the moment—there was blood, sick bile and another rotten thing that made me retch. The whole nightmare had been planned by it from the start. With an enemy faster than the speed of light, who could possibly win?

Yet, I was not allowed to grieve. Not now. I let out a weak sigh and said quietly, "I'll take your blood."

The beast tucked itself down, ready for an attack. Language remained the same as before. After that, I suddenly felt something like a chill that told me to be careful. My gut told me that something was wrong. I saw him but it was already too late. A burning diagonal wound to my chest brought on a sudden, intense pain. I suddenly jumped, but kept my balance. The wound from my chest caused blood to gush out, leaving the floor dyed in red pain.

I fell backwards, short of breath, dropping my sword which fell to the floor as I said, "No." This isn't how I wanted this to end. It felt like gravity joked around and things moved without my touch. The world changed shape around me and both my Godsense and the giant flickered in and out—everything seemed to confuse me.

I could then hear the sound. Edward quietly broke through the noise with the smoothness of a whisper. "Theresa… run."

Hope broke the paralysis from inside me. I picked up the katana once more as blood seeped down along my side. As soon as the pain cleared my mind, I felt like the blade was charged by electricity as I started to swing it.

The creature leaped again and I cried out in pain as we smashed into each other with our swords. I used the knife to open its mouth wide, then quickly shifted the knife so that the tip went into its throat as its tongue came forward. Black blood flew all around me, completely soaking me, as the beast hissed like a broken radio.

It stumbled, then slid through a gap in the wall as it faded away.

I could hardly breathe and dropped to my knees. There was red everywhere and I could see the dead bodies around me. Yes, I was alive, but that didn't feel like winning yet.

I realized this was only a minor battle following many others and the enemy relished every failure I experienced.

The world seemed to come into shape again, slowly, like when someone slowly wakes up. I didn't run into any monsters; just a strange question kept repeating in my mind, one I wasn't sure what to answer yet.

You surpassed my expectations for this," the voice arrived, soothing and effortless, like something sliding over glass. Yet, how are you going to handle what will come next in your life?

I turned slowly and there he was, the god of fate. His eyes were quite special. They were ancient and kept staring, seeming bigger than anything you could see with one glance. All I felt from it was coldness—nothing like warmth or emotion—from something tough enough to witness the rise and fall of entire worlds, unaffected.

Something seemed fishy to me, so I held the script tight. I saw the words on the page move, with the characters intertwining in a fashion I couldn't put into words. I seemed to glimpse a true sight, but for only a moment. It might have been the memory of another or even a version of me instead. In the moment, I simply ripped the script down the middle.

I felt the world shaking next to me.

And after – from all those torn pages – he finally emerged.

He was a tall figure who looked completely relaxed the moment he popped out of the paper. You could see everything on his body and steam rose from him, much like the last few drops of warmth left on a cold stone after it rains.

He asked me, "What's this place?" while sounding a bit confused, but it was also clear he was thinking about something.

Although I wanted to keep looking away, my eyes couldn't help staring and for an instant, I saw how beautiful he was—maybe almost more than I should have. I turned quickly, covering up my face as it began to glow with embarrassment.

"Get something to put on," I managed to say. "There's an extra uniform waiting for you in that corner. Make sure you don't make a mistake."

He looked at me, understood I was telling him something and gave me a knowing smile. "Does this bother you, miss?"

"Of course," she replied. I tried to respond in a strong way. "Don't try to fool me or joke around."

He gave me another smirk. "Wow... you seem to prefer guys who are younger than you."

I said simply, "Kids aren't for me," while trying to appear less nervous. However, his movements and how he looked at me somehow gave me a chill. It seemed that he was greater than a normal person.

That smooth appearance didn't hide the complexity of her character.

His curiosity was briefly noticeable on his face. "Why did you tear up the script?"

I said, "I didn't realize I had done it." It occurred all by chance. Even though I spoke those words, I knew they weren't true. I didn't mean to, but I wanted whatever we had to feel different somehow.

"That blade ripped it open?" he asked with a cold tone. "No god made that weapon. You created it, didn't you?"

I couldn't breathe for a moment. I said, "Yeah," feeling my emotions stir subtlety inside me. "What is the point of considering all of this?"

He got nearer and I became increasingly nervous.

"Calm down," he added, pulling a loose strand of hair behind my ear in a soft way I never would have guessed from his large, solid figure.

This is not me trying to hurt you. For now, it's not my place.

You could tell there was a threat in his words, resting quietly like a snake.

I felt like running but couldn't move my body. I could smell the ink from his tattoos almost touching me and something that felt like disjointed time. He seemed strange to me, but it could be that something was wrong with me instead.

"So, Miss…" He paused deeply with my name, appreciating it as if he hadn't heard it before. While I was gone, what have things been like on Earth?

He felt for his jacket sitting on the chair and it sent a shiver of anxiety through me.

Don't touch that! I yelled.

But what he did came too late. With my black vibrator in his hand.

There was a thick hush before anyone spoke.

He tilted his head like an animal and asked me, "What is this?"

"You don't need to know!" I took it from him as my cheeks warmed. "That's private!"

He didn't make jokes about or laugh at me when I was speaking. The only thing he did was face me and not speak.

His expression was hard as he asked me, "What is sex?" I think it is a difficult idea to fully know.

I let out a breath because I was certain he wouldn't get it. He was already there in the script. How was he able to know if his emotions were right or if he was actually sick?

That's when I explained everything. I tried to explain myself as well as I could, but by the end of each few minutes, he would suddenly ask questions, some kind but some that felt rude and invasive.

Those polished-stone eyes stayed on me all the while I was there. Not because of wanting, but because of wanting to know—a predator collecting details.

Next, peace came and it was cold.

"I remember the moment I passed away," he said all of a sudden. "Burning. Screaming. And a laugh being the last thing I heard as I went. Why don't you tell me? How can you grieve over a side of you that never existed?"

The question was not only worth reflecting on. I saw it as a silly challenge.

I stood frozen, one hand still awkwardly clutching the now forgotten device, my breath feeling shallow and strained.

"I'm not sure," I admitted in the end. It's possible that fate causes us to grieve lost love, so we can't see that we're the ones who stay and haunt it.

The air sounded like thin glass breaking as we drove by.

At the same time, things were happening in the dark.

**Aries' Foresight** Rujierd's search…

"It's done," Rujierd whispered weakly. He was slouched over a stylish table, rubbing his wiry hair with one hand and dragging his other through the water in his partially full glass. There was no way that anyone could track down the looper. "Theresa's gone."

The air grew heavy in silence as the fan back and forth above was the only sound remaining after another unsuccessful plan. Seers, watchers and mystics in the room seemed to look at nothing. Everyone stayed quiet, not wanting to speak. All of them knew of her ability to make loops within loops and cut through timelines like there was no tomorrow.

"We need somebody…" he added, now mostly talking to himself. Someone who has the ability to look across all dimensions. An individual able to recognize and face the lies of different historical periods. Yet, I got no response from anyone.

"Godsight…" Breathing through his mouth, Rujierd spoke as if he was overcome with sadness. But only one person can feel the weight of it—

He allowed the unfinished thought to stay where it was.

"I got it!" he suddenly yelled out. Councilors were startled by the way his hand slammed the table. He stood up suddenly and his chair fell over.

Aries. The God of War. No one else had kept as steady as he had when everything around them was chaotic. Still, going to Aries would take him into a domain abandoned by reason a long while ago. Not only did he turn down the invites, he also burned them.

Still, if there was any chance Theresa was still alive, this moved beyond just being polite.

I could smell sulfur and a lingering odor of blood outside.

Aries moved through the abandonment and ash, leaving only silence and nothing where he had been.

At this point, he didn't wear armor; it wasn't necessary anymore. He built his muscles in constant fights and his whole being seemed to be a place free from any feeling.

Whispers about the chaos between timelines would reach him, occasionally letting names slip into his dreams. Theresa. The looper. The person who fooled the gods and avoided fate, eluding them again and again.

He knew what trouble she left in her wake. Lives were destroyed at an incredible speed. Many relationships ended with friends turning against each other without real cause. The kindness I had did not last much longer. I lost track of time and everything got confused.

Now, it sounded as though the council expected him to find and capture her. Not at all, they wanted them to explore her first to see what she was about. That seemed fitting for this area, he thought. He didn't have to get involved; all he had to do was stop her from getting ahead.

But he agreed to meet with Ruijerd. Perhaps he hoped someone could repair this endless loop so he wouldn't have to start a war that could destroy all time.

Ruijerd was found quietly sipping black tea as though everything were peaceful in the oracle's sanctum. My brother stared at me and it struck me that his look was both clear and filled with madness.

"I know what she can do, because I've witnessed her in action," Aries said. I have seen destruction—the remains of cities, no one to be seen. There is only a faint memory left now. When she is undoing something, she'll take anything down along the way.

"Are you afraid of her?" It was impossible for Rujierd not to look pleased.

"She's not like the others," Rujierd said in a steady voice. "Theresa. She's unraveling. Not just time, but herself. Every loop strips away her humanity bit by bit."

Aries responded, "I don't fear her," and moved deeper into the space.

"I'm afraid of what I could turn into if I have to kill her."

There was a quiet linger between them after this momentarily confused Rujierd.

Aries nodded at last.

"I'll assist you in finding her. I see a way—a pause, where you decide to prioritize her over the mission."

"I don't hesitate," Aries said firmly, his voice colder than before.

"You will. You should not portray her as a villain. The girl lost behind the loops is evident in her eyes. And when that occurs... You'll have to figure out if showing mercy is a flaw or just another kind of battle," said Aries, leaning closer and speaking almost in a whisper.

Aries remained silent. He simply gripped his weapon tighter. Brief glimpses of her, trembling in forgotten timelines, her screams drowned out by the static, started to flood his mind, dying as she held onto the bodies of those she was unable to save.

A looper with too much emotion. She was more dangerous than anything else he had ever pursued because of that.