Chapter 12 - Encounter of the Fate Changer

I am not sure if I am dreaming, or this is the reality I am seeing. Light purple sky and dandelion field, this is what I am seeing. For now, I am fine. My injuries are missing, my suit is intact. Am I in heaven, or in between or worse. I kept looking around for clues, and I feel like I remember this place. Searching through my memories won't do any good as it is painful to do so. Perhaps my head injury that Arcadia gifted to me can still be felt.

"I guess that prick really did you that bad, huh?"

A voice called out to me from behind. Unknowingly, a man stood behind me with his golden armour. Why does he need armour in an empty place?

"Where am I? What is this place? Who the hell are you?"

The man approached me and started explaining things.

"You are in a soul realm. As for who I am, I go by many names. But people constantly called me Fate Changer."

Fate Changer isn't all that bad of a name. But what led to his name being Fate Changer.

"My memories are vague. I feel like I recognize this place, but not really."

"I prayed hard so that you won't end up here again. But you did. After I gave you that Light Transformer, I expect you would get the two weapons back. But here you are."

As I expected, Fate Changer belongs to the LIGHT member, perhaps being the leader.

"I did not expect myself to be dead and ended up here. I have failed you once again. What happened to Raz and the others?"

Fate Changer proceeds to wave his hand and a screen appears in front of me. From what O saw, James is trying his best to track down Arcadia. Raz on the other hand stares outside from his office in total sadness. Kyro gets some fresh air outside of Base Zero HQ. Vulcan on the other hand is hospitalised.

"As you can see, your friends are in despair. They lost you. They lost an important asset. No one has amazing deduction skills other than you. They trusted you. But Arcadia took your life and everything just became ashes."

"There must be a reason why I am here, right?"

Fate Changer stares at me for a while and proceeds to talk once again.

"I only come to those who have the heart of a hero. You do. That is why you could see me. And all I could do is to change the storyline on your consent. I hereby would like to offer you three options. Each has their own consequences."

Fate Changer then proceeds to show me three coloured lights each being red, blue and yellow.

"The red light is to allow me to change the story and make it even better for you to finish the job. The blue light is to allow you to go back to your current storyline and go on with an unchanged storyline. The yellow light allows you to remain here forever. The choice is yours. And you can only make one choice. You have twenty two hours left to make your choice."

Truth be told, I am not sure what this Fate Changer is capable of. He constantly mentions storyline. Does he have the ability to change the storyline?

"One question. Is there anyone else in here that is killed by Arcadia?"

"I knew you would ask that."

Fate Changer then proceeds to show me another screen with a certain someone fighting against Arcadia.

"Kyro???!!! And who is that?"

"Years ago, Kyro fought alongside on his own will with the love of his life, Judy. Both of them are Dark Arts warriors. They are trying to stop the current Arcadia from launching the rocket."

From what I saw on the screen, Kyro and Judy are fighting with all their knowledge on the Dark Arts. Seconds later, Arcadia managed to pin down Judy and chopped off Judy's right arm. Kyro then screams in anguish and fights back with all his might by constantly clashing his blades with the axe wielded by Arcadia. Judy then ends up in this realm and is confronted by Fate Changer. She took the red light and held it tight which transported her back to where she was. But then her right arm remains intact and all her injuries are all gone. Judy then proceeds to fight back with some sort of an enhanced form of Dark Arts allowing her to project the holy sword, Elita. She fought back with all her might alongside Kyro. As they managed to pin down Arcadia, Arcadia pushed the button to launch the rocket on a one minute timer. Judy instructed Kyro to find a way to halt the rocket. Kyro objects but is later forced to do so. Judy fought with Elita and managed to land a few cuts on Arcadia. But Arcadia grew stronger and agile, forcing her with no other way but to sacrifice. She channelled all her rage and strength to the sword and proceeded to strike Arcadia. With all her energy, she summons as many swords as possible towards Arcadia stabbing him as much as possible. With one final blow, Judy with all her final strength to Elita manages to slice Arcadia into half, killing him instantly. But what makes it even worse is that the rocket cannot be stopped due to a complex security system.

"Judy took the red light. And still died by the sword. Kyro went depressed after that. She died in his arms and Kyro cannot do anything about it. The rocket then landed on you, killing everyone but you, Rilles. But that is not all."

Fate Changer then proceeds to show another screen. This time it is Xavier.

"Xavier took the blue light. I did not do anything. But what he did is beyond my knowledge. He just strikes Arcadia with his final strength. Giving a chance for Raz to shoot him down."

Judy died shortly after getting help from Fate Changer. Xavier died even if he did not take Fate Changer's advice.

"So in other words, if I were to meet you, then the fate of death is inevitable?"

"That is why I gave you that Light Transformer to survive longer, and enhance your ability to manipulate time. By the way, you can not only stop time."

So the premonition I had about Vulcan is my ability being evolved. Interesting.

"What good is there if I take the red light and blue light?

"At least you got another chance to change everything, at least a little."

A female voice called out to me suddenly.

"You could achieve your objective just by changing a little. That may be small, but the impact is large enough for others to understand."

A male voice suddenly spoke. What is going on? I turn behind to find out what is all that voice about. Turns out it is Judy and Xavier behind me.

"I brought them here. Perhaps these two can make you come to a decision."

"Rilles, I suggest you take the red light. You will return with your body intact and your strength restored."

"But in exchange, no one had any memory of what had happened. No one knows you are dead. Fate Changer will sort the timeline for you."

"If you take the blue, just like I do, everything will proceed normally."

"Then I will just take the blue then."

"But Rilles, do you want to see your friends suffer? Raz, Kyro and James have their own guilt. They are suffering, and you want them to suffer again seeing you have no strength to fight Arcadia? You want Azalea City to be conquered? You are seriously injured and your Metavoid is the only one capable of fighting Arcadia. Going back with a current storyline pains them even more."

Fate Changer does have a point there. Going with the current storyline by taking the blue light only makes things even more painful and worse. Staying here forever doesn't do any good either and my motive to fight will be gone by then.

"Still, Rilles. I took the blue and nothing changed. But I managed to give an opportunity to Raz and he did it. But..."

Xavier paused for a moment.

"...he couldn't go on with his life normally carrying the guilt of bringing his friends to death. And losing his childhood friend."

"Yes....Rilles."

"And you Judy, you can't help it, but to sacrifice yourself to protect Azalea City. And Kyro suffers by seeing everything fall apart after the rocket launch."

"Yes. But the guilt never left me. I regret sacrificing my life for a city that knows nothing about me. And Kyro. How is Kyro, Rilles?"

"Kyro started of cold when I first met him. Arrogant. He is kinda stoic. When I asked about him, he just simply ignored me. And I finally know the story thanks to you both."

After all, everyone has their regrets. All of this time, Kyro's attitude towards newbies is simply not to have anyone else getting killed. That is why he prefers to be a lone soldier. He had enough of losing a partner and decided not to attach himself to anyone else after Judy. But currently, he is depressed. I guess it is kinda my fault.

"I think I know my decision, Fate Changer. Still, I am concerned about your ability to do so."

Fate Changer then approaches me and puts his hand on my right shoulder.

"You will see it, once you choose it. But my ability is beyond comprehension. If you try to understand my ability, you will die. Because you simply can't and I can make you cannot remember me or my ability. But I have a special surprise especially for you."

Fate Changer then takes my Light Transformer and touches it as if he is implanting something. Then the Light Transformer glows brightly as if something had made its way inside. He then returns it back to me with confidence that this is the final resort.

"You are ready to evolve your Metavoid. But I have to warn you. This is your last chance. If you die, you die. Depending on how you die will determine whether you will be spawned here or not."

"Then I have made my decision. And I shall go with it."

"Confidence is what I want."

All of the sudden, everything just went black. I have fainted. Maybe it is a good thing. All I hope is that I picked the right choice and made the right move to fight against Arcadia once again. I have no other choice but to trust this Fate Changer to change everything.

As I opened my eyes, a memorable scene caught my attention. The white light on the ceiling and the blurry vision became clearer. As I look at myself I am perfectly fine. I am in the training room. Looks like I am sent back into this training room to train Vulcan.

"Rilles, Rilles. Something is ringing in your pocket for a while. Are you okay?"

My pager sounded. That means this is after I trained Vulcan. So everything is still here and I am still alive. I wonder what happened to that timeline.

"Yes. My...pager is ringing. Well that is all for training today and go back to your room....I guess."

Vulcan abided by my orders as usual and made his way to the room. I guess James is about to brief me once again to fight against Nathan. Wait... That means, all of my effort fighting Nathan is all gone??? No, no. I can't think of that now. Focus and don't make any mistakes. I began to make my way to James after calming myself down. This time, I am not going to go and decided to argue with James. I opened the door to the meeting room and was immediately greeted by the same scene.

"I believe it has been awhile since we met, Rilles."

Not again.....

"Yes.....James.....It is indeed a while."

This is awkward. Meeting him once again after I am dead is technically the worst thing to ever happen.

"Are you okay, Rilles? You seemed a bit... Out of shape. Perhaps I could issue it to someone else."

Not this time

"No. Please don't."

The silent room suddenly became noisy with whispers from the board of directors. I have made a fuss indeed. Suddenly one of the members decided to question me.

"Rilles, was it? I believe you need to know that the situation is indeed urgent and is in need of a certain someone to investigate."

"Rilles. What the hell is going on with you? You don't seem to be you today. General spoke well about you. But I don't see the positive points that General mentioned."

I had to do this. I had to tell everyone that no one is allowed to go. But I need to know what has changed. So I asked James to present his material so that I could get the context.

"James, what is the discussion about?"

"So apparently there is an invasion at the research centre, again. And a bunch of CCTV captures the entrance of a certain being which is searching for something."

"Nathan, he is back."

I mean, of course since this is a repeated scene with a totally different dialogue as far as I remember. Now I know the context and I know just what needs to be done.

"James, with all due respect. Allow me to take control of this discussion and let me make the decision."

"Something IS wrong with you. Fine, whatever it is. If it sounds good then go with it."

I then make my way to the front and present my ideas.

"So, here is my idea. James, your plan is to send me in to investigate. That won't do. Arcadia is going to be there waiting somewhere. And the General is going to be pissed. I need DGU units securing the perimeter of the research centre. Equip them all with rubber armour. The weak spot of Nathan is simple. Direct attack, get together and shoot the hell out of him before he charges electricity."

"But rubber armour has not been used for quite awhile. Are you sure this is effective?"

"Nathan is an electrical Metavoid. Nothing can pierce rubber. Nathan needs to be fought together. Remember don't destroy the head. The CPU is important. We need to track Arcadia's lair with that."

"So how are we doing this?"

"Simple. But I need your help, James."

I have one shot at this. I know what I am doing, but I am not sure if I am capable of this. My ability has evolved, so I kinda have the guts to do this.

"James and I will be at the scene to assist in any way possible. James, you could lead them right? You are experienced in commanding soldiers while you are still in the army."

"Fine, but don't blame me if all hell goes loose."

We chuckled, but not for long as we both are dragging ourselves into this hell thinking we will be fine. We proceeded to get equipped and prepare for this fight. Just you wait, Arcadia. I will make sure your motive will fail.