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| WARNING: PROFANITY FOLLOWS |
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| Episode G-1 | |
| Air date | 11/21/20 |
| Written by | CaT |
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Project Deca Gaiden: Star Spirit is a short story taking place in Earth-83. It follows up on what happened to Theo-4 after the events of the series.
Episode[]
Waiting out there, somewhere, was a place he could call home.
That's certainly what he'd like to think, anyway.
In reality, Theo-4, formerly known as Aeron and Ego, had been stranded in a universe that had left him behind. The power of the Celestial Clock had erased and rewritten around a decade of reality, with ripple effects from the reset stretching out across Earth-83. All in all, the change hadn't been too drastic in the wider scheme of things, but it had directly affected the time period he was from, which was...problematic.
Positive point: Timeline-4, his place of origin, had been reset so his previous persona's rampage of destruction never happened, saving untold lives.
Negative point: He had ventured outside of Earth-83 prior to that, irreversibly turning him into a multiversal object that was not affected by said reset.
So, really, where was he supposed to go? He wandered aimlessly between timelines, never having any true destination in mind. Sometimes he found himself wishing that he could be split apart again, just to have a companion on these lonely journeys, but he always pushed the thought away quite determinedly. The fission accident that created Aeron and Ego had turned him into a dangerous psychopath who killed simply for the enjoyment of it. The last thing he wanted was to go back to that.
Besides that occasional intrusive thought, his mind often drifted back to Nova. He had Aeron's memories, including one particularly rare moment of clarity for the violent personality that had spawned from his cracked mind.
“Look at me. I’m still acting like you’re the same person I grew up with.” Aeron let out a tired scoff. “But you’re not. My Nova died a long time ago.”
There were another few moments of silence.
“It took me a bit to work out that people are never the same across timelines.” Aeron continued. “Nobody’s the same, and nobody’s replaceable, but god dammit...” Aeron looked Nova in the eyes. “You’re so much like her that it hurts.”
In a way, it made sense; Aeron embodied the Id, the part of the mind driven by pure instinctual impulse. He had to have experienced something other than anger at some point, and unlike in other timelines, Theo-4's relationship with his version of Nova had leaned to the side of romance. Her death during a mission for the Plumbers is likely what had created the rage that would end up fueling Aeron after the split.
To put it bluntly, he had baggage.
Eventually, he came across the idea of returning to Timeline-4. Sure, he probably couldn't just slide right back into his original life, but in theory, it was still the same timeline he had hailed from, so maybe there was something there for him.
Without giving himself enough time to overthink the situation and end up stuck, he summoned Clockwork and had it transport him to Timeline-4. He had his eyes closed during the trip, and when he opened them, he expected to find either a desolate wasteland identical to the one he had left behind or a perfectly normal timeline where the fission incident had never occurred.
What he had not expected to find was the top half of a skyscraper falling towards him from above.
"Clockwork!" Theo-4 yelled, prompting the AI-driven Projection Transformation into action.
Clockwork stopped time, allowing Theo-4 to run out from under the skyscraper's debris, only to discover a city under a heavy downpour that was halfway through being torn to pieces.
His heart sank. Had the fission accident really happened here too? He panicked for a moment before realizing something. If he really had arrived in the middle of Aeron's initial rampage, he actually had a chance to stop...well, himself, he guessed, before the rampage turned apocalyptically destructive.
He jogged to a clear intersection and dispelled Clockwork, allowing time to resume and giving him the ability to use a different alien. As he raised the InverTrix on his wrist, however, he suddenly found himself blindsided by someone in a black trenchcoat moving too fast for him to identify. The unknown individual tackled him to the ground and placed a golden arm blade construct up to his throat.
"Aeron, you son of a bitch!" The figure growled. "What the hell do you think you're doing now?!"
Theo-4 gave no response. He finally managed to catch a glimpse of their face.
It was Nova.
Her clothing was uncharacteristically dark and her signature visor was fashioned in the shape of a bat for whatever reason, but it was undoubtedly her.
"N-Nova?" He muttered cautiously.
"Hello, deary, I think you're looking for me!" A strange voice sounded from up the road.
Nova stood up and whirled around to face the voice, arm blade at the ready. Theo-4 followed her line of sight and managed to see...
Aeron?
...Maybe?
If this was the new Aeron, it was a significantly different version from the one he had turned into. Its appearance was asymmetrical, having half a head of black hair with a red eye and half a head of white hair with a blue eye. The left arm and right leg of his outfit were white, contrasting the black covering most of it, and on top of this base set of clothing he wore what seemed like a red suit coat.
He looked like a goddamn fashion guru, what the fuck?
"Nice job assaulting a random civilian, though, jackass." The Aeron mocked with a sneer. "Kill enough random people and one of them might eventually be me."
"Hang on a second, then who are you?" Nova glanced back at Theo-4. "Why do you look exactly like Theo?"
"...Timeline shenanigans." Theo-4 decided to just summarize the situation like that for now.
"Well, shit, my bad." Nova reached down and helped him to his feet. "What timeline are you from, then?"
"This one."
"What?"
Their conversation was interrupted by a kitchen knife flying between their heads, cutting off some stray hairs as it passed by.
"Still here, by the way." Aeron grunted, flipping around another kitchen knife in his right hand. "You know, I didn't expect another version of your little friend to show up, but evidently neither did you, so I'd say we're still roughly on the same playing field."
"Alright, that does it, who are you supposed to be?" Theo-4 glared at him. "You look like a Theo, but you definitely don't act like the one you're supposed to be. Trust me, I would know."
"Ooh, vague and potentially ominous statements, delightful." Aeron smirked. "But ultimately they only serve to prove your ignorance. I may have taken control of Theodore Logical's body, but I am my own person. A person named 'Aeron', by the way, do try to remember that moniker if you get asked who killed you when you make it to the afterlife."
"I am very lost right now, please explain." Theo-4 looked at Nova, pointing over at Aeron.
"He's an Ectonurite who took over Theo's body to get the InverTrix." Nova's eyes narrowed as she kept an eye on Aeron. "Now he's using it to kill people at complete random."
"It's not 'random', it's when I get bored." Aeron corrected with a huff. "And for the record, I took over his corpse. Very important difference there."
"Corpse?" Theo-4 looked at Nova again, hoping for another explanation.
"...My Theo died on a mission we were doing for the Plumbers." Nova answered quietly. "I...don't really want to talk about it beyond that."
"Okay then, I'll do it for you." Aeron said, having evidently heard every word. "The idiot didn't pay any attention to who was where. Ended up getting shot right through the forehead before he got the chance to transform. Some of the brain juice even wound up on Nova over here. Funniest shit I've ever seen."
Nova clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white.
Something suddenly clicked inside Theo-4's brain (which was fortunately still intact).
That was the exact series of events that had killed Nova in the original version of Earth-83. Somehow, one of the ripples of the reset had reversed their roles in the situation, killing this version of him while leaving Nova alive; evidently, this had also ended up enabling a villain he had never even encountered before, seemingly as the universe's way of filling the role of "Aeron" with Theo-4's absence from the reset's effects.
His head was starting to hurt, but he was pretty sure he got the gist of it.
"All that aside, I do so ever enjoy our little encounters, deary, but if I'm being honest, it's getting a bit passe." Aeron sighed, speaking to Nova. "I've been trying to play nice, but this little game of ours must end at some point, and I'd like for that point to be, oh...right about now, if you don't mind."
"Are you shitting me?" Nova growled. "You really expect me to just give up? After all the people you've killed? After you took Theo's body?!"
"Okay, seriously, you're always on about the body thing, and it's starting to weird me out." Aeron huffed. "What on Earth is your problem with me using it? It's not like he was going to need it anymore."
"I loved him, you son of a bitch!" Nova snarled.
"Well, good for you, but he's not here anymore, so I don't see what that has to do with me." Aeron snorted.
Nova lunged at Aeron with her arm blade extended and glowing with the purple light of Void Energy. Aeron simply turned intangible and phased through the attack, floating over to her side and kicking her in the ribs, knocking the wind out of her.
"Yes, attack the Ectonurite with sharp objects, it hasn't worked any of the other million times you've tried it, but surely this time it'll do the trick." Aeron rolled his eyes. "Honestly, I'm a little sad I have to kill you. You've provided me with so much entertainment."
As Aeron wound up the final blow, he was suddenly interrupted by his own kitchen knife piercing his shoulder. Swearing under his breath, he temporarily turned intangible again and retreated.
"Are you okay?" Theo-4 ran over to Nova as she pulled herself to her feet. "I haven't thrown a knife in a while, so I wasn't sure I'd hit him, but I guess it worked out."
"I'm..." Nova sighed, pausing for a moment before continuing. "Actually, no, I'm not fine. This kind of thing keeps happening and happening over and over again, and I am really getting sick of it. I don't even know what I was trying to do there. It's just so...frustrating."
"I guess I can relate to that."
"So, what's your deal, anyway?" Nova asked. "You said you were this timeline's version of Theo. What gives?"
"Long story short, universe got a soft reset not too long ago." Theo-4 replied. "From my perspective, at least. Most people's lives changed along with their timeline's, but since I've visited other universes, I ended up being left out of the reset."
"Wait, so would that mean that the original version of Nova from your timeline ended up turning into me?" Nova blinked. "That's heavy, dude."
"Actually, in the original version of events, you were the one that died on that mission, not me." Theo-4 said. "There was never any Ectonurites involved either."
"So there wasn't an Aeron?"
"No, there was still an Aeron." Theo-4 sighed. "It was me."
"...You wanna elaborate on that?"
"Not long after you died, I was caught in a fission accident." Theo-4 explained. "It literally broke apart my mind, trapping my reasonable half in the InverTrix and my violent, impulsive half in my body. Things, uh...didn't go well from there."
"I can imagine." Nova whistled. "How'd you get it fixed?"
"Long story involving a mask, an Anodite, and a cranky German dude." Theo-4 shrugged. "I only have memories of it from Aeron and Ego's perspectives, so it's kind of fuzzy."
"Ego?" Nova tilted her head inquisitively.
"Oh, right, he's what I named the reasonable half of my personality." Theo-4 said. "Freudian ego/id/superego theory and all that."
"Huh." Nova stared off into blank space. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."
The two stood around in an awkward silence for a while.
"So, uh..." Nova cleared her throat. "Should we address the elephant in the room, or...?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if the main difference between the version of the timeline you're from and the version of the timeline I'm from is which one of us died during a specific incident..." Nova waved her hand around, trying to think of how to put this. "Does that mean everything about our relationship until then would be pretty much the same?"
"...I didn't think about that, actually." Theo-4 blinked. "I mean...yeah, I guess so."
The awkward silence returned.
"God, this is such a weird situation." Nova broke the silence with a quiet chuckle. "I mean, where do we even go from here?"
"I guess the best idea is to just wait and see." Theo-4 replied. "...That said, I wouldn't mind helping you fight the new Aeron in the meantime. If that's cool with you, I mean."
"Oh, please." Nova snorted, folding her arms. "You know damn well I'm not gonna say no to that."
"Just wanted to check." Theo-4 said. "You know what they say about assumptions."
"Yeah, that they're major timesavers." Nova thumped on his chest a couple times. "Come on, let's get going."
"Going where?" Theo-4 asked as Nova began walking.
"Wherever that slimy bastard slipped off to, obviously." Nova paused and flashed him a grin. "How else are we gonna kick his ass?"
"...You raise a fair point."
Theo-4 walked over to Nova, and after a quick exchanged fist bump, the two set off through the streets even as rain still showered the city.
Major Events[]
- Theo-4 returns home.
Characters[]
Protagonists[]
- Theodore Logical (Timeline-4)
- Nova Eldridge (Timeline-4)
Antagonists[]
- Aeron (Imaginate)
Forms Used[]
By Theo-4[]
- Clockwork
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This minisode was made for and released on the wiki's 11th anniversary.
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.5: PD 12.5: Project Deca |
.5: N/A |