Restoration

Sasha held up her hand, stopping the retelling of my story. "Is all of this necessary? Sleeping with elves, my dialog, the battles I took part in?"

We were sitting in her quarters. I snuck into the Preservers base, and before deciding what she would do with me, I convinced her to hear me out. "Yes, it is. Just because you appear at a point in the story doesn't mean all the events before and after don't matter."

Sasha rolls her eyes and waves her hand, "Fine, fine, continue."

"Thank you. After returning to the city, I held Bryanna until her breathing was normal. She was crying; I couldn't tell from fear or out of shock.

"That was her? She's even stronger than you."

"Yes, I was ignorant; I should have suspected that others could gain power as quickly as I did."

"What was she talking about? Timelines and Preservers? Did you understand any of it?"

"I have a general idea, but I must track her down to learn more."

"You can't be serious." Bryanna looked at me, terrified, with tears in her eyes.

I give her another embrace and a small kiss before nodding. "We came from the same world, and she understands much more than I could comprehend. She was so quick to kill both of us. In our world, we worked together to benefit lives, or at least we hoped our technology would be able to."

"You aren't making sense."

"I know, I'm sorry." I sigh. "I am not from this world and have never had amnesia." Once I started talking, I couldn't stop myself. I explained everything I could to her, including what I remembered about the wormhole, waking up in a new world, and why I suspected you were in that world. She listened intently, but I don't know if she understood anything I was saying.

"So, are you going after her?"

"I have to. She is all that remains between my old world and me. I have loved being in this world but don't belong here."

Bryanna angrily turned around. "So what? Will you just leave me? I thought we belonged together."

I stared at her back, trying to think of something to say. "I will come back, and we can figure something out once I have more answers." I reach out and put my hand on her shoulder. She slaps it away.

"Then go."

I stood there for a few seconds, hoping she would look at me. When I realized she wasn't going to, I left, heading back into the forest. I turned around one last time, but she still wasn't looking my way. I wiped some tears from my eyes and kept going.

I could still feel my magic on the clothes of the Preservers I had killed and the ones I didn't. I decided to take a chance and teleport to one of the still-alive Preservers. I concealed my presence and took the plunge. To my surprise, I was in a locker. I forcefully pushed the door open into an empty locker room. I inspected the room to ensure I was alone before coming up with my next plan. On the wall was an abundance of sleek black uniforms in various sizes. None had nametags or any logo, noting if only someone specific could wear it. 

I grabbed one of the uniforms and changed the appearance of my face, just in case. I left the locker room and witnessed a massive facility. Thousands of people were walking and chatting, most of them in too much of a hurry to notice me. I didn't see any maps and, more importantly, no guards. It seemed that the Preservers didn't expect unwanted guests. Almost every pathway converged to a central platform resembling a war or control room. Either way, that was my best bet for getting some answers. 

I quickly and confidently made my way to the central room. I looked around, marveling at the architecture and the otherworldly technology. Luckily, I saw a beautiful girl with red hair and two people matching her pace hurrying to where I was headed. I picked up the pace and kept them in sight. 

I saw many people working at individual stations when I entered the room. None of the workstations looked marked or reserved, so I followed in line and sat at an available desk when it was my turn. I quickly turned on the computer, which looked familiar to the ones I was used to. Even though the letters on the screen and keyboard differed from anything I had seen, I could read them, just like the books I read at the 5th Legion's library. 

I looked around, and I saw you talking to a weird-looking man. He looked both fifty and twenty at the same time. I enhanced the magic in my senses to try to hear or read the lips of the conversation. There wasn't much I could make out, but the name "Tyrallia" had come up a few times. The conversation ended, and I decided to look up Tyrallia.

Tyrallia was the name of the world I landed on. It had one timeline with a branch. Looking at the naming system, I could tell it was the name of the planet, followed by the timeline number and then which branch of the timeline. The Tyrallia I was in was Tyrallia-1-1'. I frowned. The prime was interesting. Was that an indication that the world was at risk? You had mentioned that before. A loud alarm rang over the speakers, and a message appeared on the screen. Facility Breach: Fugitive at Large.

I decided it was time to go. I went to teleport back to Bryanna, but my magic connected to her was gone. I couldn't feel any of the magic I left behind. Then I saw you leave the room alone. I chased after you, and now I'm here."

Sasha was no longer looking at me. There was pain or maybe sadness in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Alex. Once an anomaly is removed, the protocol is to restore the timeline immediately."

"That's okay; that's a good thing, correct?"

"Yes," She answered very quickly. "Well, or so I thought."

"You should probably just explain your side now."

Sasha told me it had been fifty-one years for her since the explosion. During that time, she could practice magic and fell in love with blood magic. With just one cut of her scythe, she could drain the blood of her victim in seconds. She didn't chase after me because she had no blood to recharge her stamina, and using the blood of her fallen friends was usually a last resort. 

When she reported the events to her superior, he informed her that I had been removed. Sasha knew she hadn't killed me, so I must be in the facility. This was the first time someone had broken into the base. She was promised a promotion, which was now unlikely since she failed to kill me and let me enter the headquarters. She took a deep breath.

"The Preservers use nicer words to describe some of the awful things we must do for the sake of the multiverse. An incorrect branching could lead to the end of all life. We find what is causing the anomaly and remove it, which usually means killing or destroying. After confirming that the dangerous person or object is gone, we restore the timeline, erasing the branched timeline from existence."

I collapse onto the floor, feeling the weight of what she just told me.

"I'm so sorry, but the world and the," she paused, "Bryanna you knew are gone."

"Is there anyone else from our world? Or were they killed too?"

"Everyone who escaped our world and Earth itself is gone. We are all that is left."

I couldn't move. I shouldn't have left Bryanna behind. What have I done? What has Sasha done?! Billions, no trillions, of lives were lost because of a teleportation device on an insignificant planet. My emotions overpowered me; I felt my mind was going to explode. My vision went black. I felt my body hit the ground hard, and someone very far away called my name.