Save State Hero 3 -CH 17-

Chapter 17

Edmund took hold of the Save-state, pushed himself into it, and then found himself looking into a strange location. Especially given where it had been positioned.

What Edmund was looking at was a large room. There was a single table, a chair, and it was empty. Though to Edmund, it felt like whoever had been here, had only just left.

“Well this is weird looking,” Edmund said.

“It’s where Nicodimus was,” Adeena answered quickly. “This is likely the moment after Sameerixis, or Sam the Incubus as you know him, broke the universe and collapsed multiple planes. A moment that echoes through all of existence due to the loss of life it caused.”

“Well shit, I guess I should add this to my fucking honey-do list, eh?” Edmund asked and began pulling the Save-state backward.

An old man suddenly appeared in the chair.

He looked like something out of a fantasy novel. The top of his head was missing all its hair, while the sides were white. White and long. Hanging all the way down to his hips, in fact.

As did his beard, though his mustache was kept rather short.

His face was a crisscross of wrinkles that made him look like a piece of paper that’d been crumpled into a ball. Then unfolded, and crumpled again.

He was actively tapping away at the air as if he were working with a keyboard and mouse that only he could see. In a very similar way to how Edmund had often seen Ryker or Runner do at times, in fact.

“He’s someone who works for Ryker I take it,” Edmund said and kept moving backward. It was obvious that this was after whatever happened, happened, as the old man had been working furiously.

“Yes,” Adeena answered shortly.

Then Edmund felt it.

The point that everything went wrong.

He could see a point where Nicodimus did something that was a deliberate causality point.

Something he did caused a response elsewhere that had then gone and torn out a massive line of Save-states that Edmudn didn’t even want to look at let alone touch.

So many Save-states beyond that point that it felt as if billions of lives were being snuffed out in a flash. After this moment, they all ceased to exist.

A handful would be spared, but not many. Not many at all.

“Well shit, that really is awful,” Edmund mumbled and then hesitated at what he had originally been thinking of doing. “Is there a way to fix that or are they just… gone.”

“There’s a way to fix the universe as a whole, yes, but it won’t bring them back,” Adeena answered, sounding very strange to Edmund’s ear. “They’re all gone and won’t be returning.”

Edmund snorted at that idea, then did something he hadn’t done in a while. He set down an active Save-state right here in this moment, while looking at Save-states.

He didn’t want to lose his place so he more or less ‘bookmarked’ it in a way.

Moving away from it, he grasped at the other Save-state he’d seen. It was oddly more or less in a line with this one. Though it seemed to be at a different point of time as well as a different location entirely.

It reminded Edmund of the place that Ryker and Runner had manufactured the universe out of, but more akin to an office of a sort. The type he’d worked out of during his days in Legion.

Everything was laid out in neat, tidy sections. There were doors that led elsewhere and even several places to sit and relax.

Additionally, there was a single computer desk, with a computer sitting on it, along with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. A modern day office in nearly every regard.

Atop the single desk was a monitor that was incredibly thin. To the point that it looked a bit like a piece of paper. Additionally, there were no cords attached to it that led down to the computer sitting under the desk.

On top of that, there were no cords that ran from the computer to anywhere else. Everything looked correct, but it lacked the details to actually be correct.

Edmund rewound it slightly and found Sam at the computer. Moving it forward a touch, he vanished.

“Fascinating. Let me guess, this is place to fix it all?” Edmund asked.

“Yes,” Adeena hissed in a whisper. That one single word sounded as if it’d been drug out of her with a glowing orange steel hook jammed into her ribs.

“Right… in other words, I’ll need to hit this damn thing at some point,” Edmund mumbled and dropped down another Save-state point here. “In fact… shit, once I jam the button, I should just hook that mass of Save-states back into the universe from here and let it go. It’d be like they blinked for them. For everyone else it’d just be a gap of time.

“Eh… I’m sure there’ll be edge cases where people will get pissy at me for bringing them all back but… yeah, nah, I’d rather not be the one responsible for giving the Force PTSD. Cause that was like… a whole bunch of Alderan’s.”

“Okay,” whimpered Adeena from somewhere around him.

Edmund looked away from it and then blew out a breath. It was time to actually test his power.

Especially with Red Save-states or purples.

Flashing away from this point in time, Edmund arrived back at the point he had entered Farady’s house.

It was a purple Save-state.

He entered it and found himself walking through the door directly behind Harper with Iren’s hand on his ass. Just as it had been the first time. There wasn’t any issues at all stepping into it, it appeared.

Edmund quickly dove back into his Save-states.

Looking to the one he’d just entered, it seemed fine.

Purple, unbroken, and without a problem.

“That worked,” Edmund said as he hovered there. “Now I just need to figure out how to get to 0, 0, 0 without too much of an issue. Also need to test if I turn blue Save-states purple now that I’ve been to a Zeus world.”

Grasping the think-tank Save-state he jammed himself into it and popped into existence.

Edmund then eased back and looked to it only to find it was still blue.

“Hey everyone, new problem,” Edmund said as he came back to his current self. “Leila is more or less saved and settled. As is Vince. I more or less go tell Steve he’s really Seville and Nia would think him a villain. That her song is wrong and he should tell her the truth unless he goes and helps Vince.”

There was a strangled grunt from Steve across the table. Followed by a breathy exhale.

“Yeah, that’d do it,” he said with a shake of his head and a groan.

“I’m trying to break into Zeus vault right now,” Edmund said and looked to Ryker and Runner. The former trying to comfort Claire as she absorbed her spell work.

Realizing the moment was a bit odd, Edmund turned and looked to his companions.

Ellie, Alina, and Dot were all looking at him. Likely as they all absorbed everything that’d just happened.

Harper was taking notes on the other side of Ellie and seemed unbothered by it all.

Iren was standing over a cart of food with both hands braced to each side of it. She was shuddering from head to toe unexpectedly.

“Iren?” Edmund asked nervously.

“Everything hurts,” she grumbled. “Like my bones are breaking. Or something.”

Even as he watched her, she began growing taller.

Her horns grew, her body lengthened, her muscles became sharper, and her looks grew as well.

In seconds she became the exact same Iren he knew in the Zeus world.

Beautiful, imperious in her form and figure, and looking for all the world like a perfect version of herself.

“Ah, that’s really uncomfortable,” she whined and tore at her clothes. Stripping down to her underwear and sports bra in an instant. She’d even kicked her shoes off.

Except as she did it, Edmund realized she didn’t fit her underwear either. They looked like they were far too small for her.

“Heavens, dear,” Faith murmured, watching the whole thing happen. “Ahhh, let’s go get some clothes from Goldie. You look like about her size now.”

Faith bounced out of her seat and quickly took up the Dragon and carted her off.

“Uh?” Edmund asked, turning to look at Ryker and RUnner. “Oz? Why did Iren just go into her future self? She was only that size after way too long in Australia and then going to Zeus homeplanet.”

“The helmet, damnit,” Ryker hissed at him before Oz could answer. Claire was upright again and already biting and kissing at Ryker’s neck. She’d recovered just as quickly as ever. “The helmet protects you from shifts of the world, yeah, but only our worlds. It doesn’t work the same way for Zeus worlds.

“You brought over some changes from that were active over there. It’s not something to be too concerned about but you’ll need to be ready for changes.”

Turning his head, Edmund looked to Ellie.

“No changes for me,” Ellie whispered with a grin and held up her hands as if in surrender.

Edmund looked to Alina then Dot.

Alina only shook her head, released his wrist and licked at it twice. Then pushed it to the side, slid into his lap, and started drinking directly from his neck.

Of course. Fuck.

“I’m fine,” Dot put in quickly. “Dot-E is fine, too. She… appeared at my-our… tower. We have a small spell that lets us sync up when we rejoin a Save-state.”

“The change is because she went to a Zeus world with you,” Oz stated and Edmund could feel an ominous tone to that.

In fact, his own brain finished the part that hadn’t been said.

As had Harper.

Edmund looked to Harper who had been busily taking notes.

Only for her to stand up, give him a strange smile, then put the pad of paper down in front of Ryker.

“There’s all the notes we had about Zeus’ vault,” she said with a chuckle. “If you could help us figure out how to get there, that’d be great. He apparently has a weapon that’ll let us break into the place Nadine is.”

Ah shit she remembers what happened in the Zeus world.

This had been a run straight up to Australia, too.

That means she has more or less… the same memory everyone else does in almost every way.

Harper turned and looked at Edmund and gave him a beautiful smile.

“Oz, is it because they’re in both… variables?” Edmund asked, not really understanding how this was happening. “Also, why doesn’t Iren remember what happened, but Harper does? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Because the changes aren’t universal,” Oz answered. “On top of that, Iren went through Australia with you, Harper did not. Technically, Iren has a third variable attached to her.”

Edmund blinked at the mention of Australia.

“How long was I going through Australia to reset my life?” Edmund asked suddenly.

Ryker’s head snapped to Edmund as did Runner’s.

Even Claire ceased in her attempts to seduce Ryker out of the room ended and she looked to him.

“I clearly went through Australia over and over to reset my mind. My life. Because that’s the only way my Shadow-states exist because there’s only one of me across all the different planes, unvierses, and existences. I’ve seen them all. I know they all exist. I’ve even been to the point where the universe was created you’ll remember Oz. So… answer me, how long was I walking through Australia,” Edmund demanded.

“Thousands of years,” Oz confessed. “You attempted many things, tried many things, and experimented with many things. In the end, you asked me to stop giving you your own notes and experiment information. It was changing who you were as a person every time I did so, you reasoned.

“You asked me to act as if I didn’t know, unless you asked directly as well. This is all in line with what you asked me to do. Before you ask, you’re not immortal, you just kept living for very long periods of time with the assistance of Aenor Yew, as well as several other Dryads in various life-times. Then you would reset it with the Australia time-calamity reset and begin again.

“Aenor Yew also continued to offload her memories of these events when they concerned things that you both decided she should forget. She has kept much of the memories of your lives together, however.”

“In other words… my giving tree keeps giving despite me doing my best to stop that,” Edmund said, looking at the beautiful Dryad.

Who only grinned at him, blushed, and shrugged her shoulders.

Her eyes began to glow from the inside-out as he watched her.

“It’s Austria,” Ryker said, looking at the pad of paper Harper had put in front of him. “Under ground. There’s a mountainous region to the north and north west and a pretty ugly and wide desert to the north. The desert isn’t natural but I never figured out why it’s there.

“You’re looking at a point roughly… here. Though if it’s on Zeus homeworld as you call it, there’s a fairly massive city above that. Skipper stuck it down right atop of the vault because she got sick of going back and forth from there to elsewhere.

“That’s after Zeus left his homeworld though. He’s not fully there anymore. He’s elsewhere at the moment and will be there forever forward.”

“Alright, should be easy to find,” mumbled Edmund, thinking on what Ryker had just told him. “Any thoughts on how I could get down into the earth from there?”

“Some but they’re weird. You can’t take just anyone into that world either, by the way. The specific world you’re talking about is home to only humans and Dragons. If you try to bring someone else of a different race there, I have no idea what would happen.

“It’d most certainly get a response from Zeus though, I can tell you that. So make sure you don’t go into that particular issue.”

“Is that your way of telling me not to drag my Vampire or Dryad with me?” Edmund asked with a chuckle. He couldn’t deny he’d just been contemplating how to get everyone through the Australia portal with him. “Only Dot?”

“Yes,” Ryker confirmed with a simple nod of his head.

“Alright. Oh! So. I’m thinking of ripping all the planes that got closed because of Sam,” Edmund said and pointed at the overly handsome Incubus not far away. “And sticking them at the end of it when I go fix everything in that stupid room with the computer. Adeena said I could fix everything from that computer at the end.

“I’ll just tear out one of the Save-states that has all those planes alive and well, when whatever happened didn’t, and graft it onto the point after I fix it all. It’ll be like they blinked but to everyone else they’d have been gone for a time.

“I don’t think that Nick-o-whatever guy would even notice since he wasn’t at his chair when I looked in. He’ll just leave like normal and everything will happen as it should. Then I just plunk it back on.

“Like grafting a tree branch onto a different tree. Should be fine. That’s more or less how Harper exists. It’ll work out even better since it isn’t a change, just an addition.”

Ryker was staring at Edmudn with an open mouth. Gaping at him as if he didn’t even know what to say.

Then he let out a startled and sudden laugh.

“What… what do you have left?” he asked in an almost breathless way.

“My sister, Nadine, you, and Zeus,” Edmund said, shifting around as Alina continued to drink at his throat. Her arms wrapped around him tightly. “I think I’m supposed to save someone else as well… uh… oh… someone’s grandfather I guess? Bodil? Miles kills him. I think that’s everything.

“Runner’s got that doohicky to save your soul if I can’t manage to save you physically as well. Which is fine. Better that then losing you outright. Bianca and Dot both kinda went off the deep end with your death. A promise to bring you back would probably set Bianca into a role to help facilitate that.

“And Dot… well… she’s… no longer a concern.”

Edmund glanced at the pretty sorceress to the side. Her sense of style, makeup, and dress had changed again. She was trending ever closer to being more and more pretty and emphasizing what looks she had, rather than downplaying them.

“Claire’s spells are working great,” Dot stated with a smile. “Thank you again, Claire. I’m rather sad you weren’t there when I was a child to help Ryker and Shirley help train me.”

Claire lifted her chin, blinked several times, then smiled at the younger woman.

“It’s fine, dear. I’m here now,” Claire said with a wave of her hand. “I’m still going to try and find a woman to stuff into Edmund’s life though, even if you’re more or less my niece at this point. By the way, I really enjoyed our spellwork while Edmund was in Australia. If you get another open time frame like that, please seek me out. It was enlightening!”

Oh shit they’re spending time together and pushing their memories forward.

That can’t be good can it.

“Well, there’s one other thing you could do,” Ryker muttered and shook his head, then sighed, looking at Edmund. “Zeus homeworld is a derivative of Runner’s homeworld. As well as the world Steve is from.

“It follows many of the same rules and principles. If you’re taking Dot with you, who is… is… also… from the same homeworld as Runner… and myself… and Claire… then you could probably forcibly open a portal straight into the vault of Zeus. Providing you knew where it was and could get to a suitable location from the other world.

“Like drilling through a wall to get into another identical room. Instead of trying to go from house to house, otherwise.”

Edmund didn’t quite understand that and he held up a finger.

“In other words, if I go to that world where Nadine is, where far more of you are from than I realized, I could in theory dig down to where Zeus vault is, open a portal, and step through into his homeworld from the other, and… just appear there?”

“Once you take Dot over to Zeus homeworld, she’ll be altered by the variable,” Oz clarified. “Once that is complete, she will have access to travel to and from. Though if we’re being honest, it is unlikely that it’ll happen.

“The Skipper who had the portal open, will not let it happen a second time. She is also aware of the Save-state skips just as you are. She would not allow it to occur a second time.

“After all, the first time she attacked you with a storm that destroyed the forcibly changed the calamity. The second time she sent Dragons.”

Clicking his tongue Edmund was about to curse when his brain flicked back to Harper.

“Harper, please take Dot with you when you trip on the rug in the apartment. I’m sure Adeena will be able to shift things to accomodate two people instead of one,” Edmund stated, then smiled at her.

Adeena had indeed given him the starting point.

Now it was up to him.

I wonder what’s in Austria of Runer’s original world.

Though, I should probably still go back and get that money for Farady and Cashatok. We might need to be able to move things around on the world before we just appear in the vault after all.

With Skipper actively working to stop us, we can’t really repeat too many times.

***

Edmund was staring open mouthed at the feudal looking castle. There was an ongoing parade at the moment and a stream of people were all standing around in the large city that surrounded the castle.

All of them cheering, waving, or just standing about.

Whatever was going on, it was clearly some type of extreme holiday or gathering.

Then a giant red Dragon blasted by Edmund, causing him to duck down instinctively.

“The Randolph family returns!” shouted the Dragon as it blew past and began gliding over the city as a whole.

By the time Edmund stood up again, he saw the Dragon was standing inside what looked to be the castle itself.

It was billowing a massive gout of flame into the sky.

“Fucking hell,” Edmund muttered.

“That’s a weird Dragon,” Iren said from his left. “It’s a red but it feels a lot like a Green or a Brown. Very strange.”

“It’s huge,” Harper mumbled. “And no, Iren, do not go in with the ‘that’s what she said’ because that’d be any one of us.”

“I mean, I did say it to him the first time,” Dot put in helpfully.

“Dot!” hissed Harper, looking at the sorceress, her cheeks taking on a faint redness.

To which Dot only laughed, looking at the other two women with a grin.

Which made Iren laugh as well.

Followed by Alina pouting at him, her eyebrows drawn down low.

Ellie looked unbothered, but Edmund knew better.

“Well, let’s go see this… Randolph family,” Edmund stated as they began walking forward. “Then again, this looks like a damn holiday or something. I don’t think they’ll be opening their doors to strangers will they?”

“They might, actually,” Dot said with a laugh, putting her hands behind her back. “This is my world after all. I’ve seen a lot of the nobility of more than one kingdom. I’ve been friends with princesses and queens and all manner of nobility. For a very long time… in fact.

“If this is a corronation event, or… a coming home, type of thing, they could very well welcome well dressed, rich looking, outsiders who bring gifts. Maybe we should figure out a gift real quick?”

Edmund thought on that as they walked forward.

It wasn’t a bad idea at all.

Gifts.

Well.

Let’s go poke at the royal family, see what might be what they want, then… prepare a suitable gift.

“Skipper can’t get here, right?” Edmund asked.

“No! No, no, no. Never,” Dot said with a loud laugh. “This is… this is Runner’s homeworld. Nothing happens here that he doesn’t know about, and most especially, if anyone from Zeus’ camp ever even tried to come here.”

Then… I can do a few Save-state jumps here and be okay.

How novel since I can’t hop as much anymore.