ballies | ACE

[ this is the wrong face but i gotta ]

A month?! It hasn't even been a day!

That’s why I asked!!

[ help her weird timelines. ]

Okay... so they what, messed with your memories?

Yeah. I had a mix of memories from here and ones for wherever we ended up. Like a crossover of the two.

I didn’t forget who I was, but I had another life as well.

That's... weird. So what happened in that other life?

I was someone who could see the future but most of the outcomes I saw weren’t exactly nice ones. Axel and I were together for most of the time — I’m not actually sure where Saya and Sigrun were, we split up at the very start.

We had to save a teacher from being killed, stop a bomb from detonating in a shopping mall and finally stop Axel’s own death.

So... you foresaw his death? Could he see the future too?

[ ? ?? ??? ????? ]

Kinda? He could take pictures and they’d show snapshots of things to come. Or something like that. That’s how we knew roughly when and how he was slated to die—

It didn’t quite work out like that — [ because they stopped it and changed the entire scenario ]— but it gave us a warning.

[ … ]

Honestly, it was kind of stressful. It wasn’t like we were guaranteed to succeed or anything like that.

I'd bet. Knowing what could happen in the future but not exactly how or how to stop it...

[ well it is technically sort of like them knowing someone is dying tonight but let's not go there ]

When'd you meet up with Saya and Sigrun?

It’s… probably embarrassing the amount of running around we did. We didn’t even save everyone— even if we did manage to save Axel.

[ haha yeah, wild. if ace is dead i’ll materialise in your living room. ]

Uh. At the end, I think. When we came out of the booths…? [ although she looks like something might be occurring to her? she’s uncertain. ]

[ ace does not say "if it helps axel was probably the only real person in the room" but he thinks it ]

... You don't look so sure?

[ they saved the one that matters! go team. ]

…

I feel like I saw them earlier but I can’t really place it? It was definitely just Axel and me for a long time.

Maybe you guys started off together for a second?

Well, yeah. We were together at the very beginning, but after that—

[ hm. ]

I feel like I did see them again, but I have no clue where.

... In the crowds, maybe...?

[ he wasn't there he cannot help ]

[ he is trying very hard and she appreciates that. ]

... Who knows. They made it back with us though, so that's the main thing!

Yeah. And all four of you seemed well enough, at least.

... Yeah. I've heard a bit about Nico, Will and Reigen. It was bad, wasn't it?

... Yeah. They got pretty messed up.

How messed up, Ace? People just keep saying it was bad. And I don't want to barge into Fox's dorm and disturb the boys while they're resting.

[ hopefully resting. but they're both Terrible Children who Do Not Do As They Are Told. ]

People shoved enough healing at them it's not so bad, but... Reigen's arm is broken and he's the least worst off. Nico and Will were bleeding pretty badly. [ he shakes his head ] The place messed with their minds and they thought Nimona was with them, too. She wasn't.

[ ... oh she does not like that. ]

So it wasn't just physical injury, whatever happened to them was trying to mess with them psychologically as well.

Yeah. [ he's not going into details he's not doxxing children trauma but ] I think that part was a lot worse than any injuries they got.

[ the kid's trauma... ]

... You can put a band-aid on a physical injury. But mental ones dig in and linger for a long time, and it's a long harder to treat what you can't see.

Yeah. [ just. angy. ] This place gets worse every week.

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