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Or in terms of a human mind's understanding, perpetuity. Endless and absolute, infinite and without direction. This was the heart of nothing, of endings without subjectivity of consciousness. This was what happened when the world was divided by zero. This is what happened when reality broke down to nothing and then went into something where the concept of nothing became something subjective.
The Paradox ripped through a cosmos, but it never happened because the universe never existed in the first place so nobody could have seen it. Nothing existed.
The enemy had 'won'... it had always won, and is still winning. Such was their existence that this was a perfectly reasonable state to exist in, without concern of form.
All had become as it was... as it is... and as it was once more. Nothing could 'harm', nothing could 'end', nothing could be 'something'....
"Where am I?" asked Jeff as he floated in the strange sea of endless night. He didn't know what he was standing on, but it didn't feel like there was anything around him. He was just trying to follow the angel girl and ended up here.
Nowhere
"Why am I here?" asked Jeff.
Because you never existed. Logical assessments, everything was still fine.
Jeff glanced down at his body, floating in a curious nothingness. "But if I never existed... why am I here?"
. . . Why...?
The question stretched out as nothingness coalesced around the strange 'one.', stretching into spaces, which was 'real' space, not 'nothing zero space'.
0 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 0
Just like that, the universe seemed to explode again. The very concept of Jeff's presence baffled existence. how could 'one' thing exist, where nothing else existed if it never existed in the first place?
Haru was seeing strange images again, as she spoke to Britany. They had taken cover in the girl's toilets, to speak quietly. The door behind them was sealed up.
"What do you see Lady Haru?" Asked the ghost girl.
"I- I don't know." She was getting such a jumble of images and very little of it made any sense. She tensed a little as she saw a clock on the wall. It was not a normal clock, the face only went up to ten. But the numbers on it were taken up with a picture.... the first four seemed to be of four little girls. It was very strange. Then she saw the rest of the numbers, the tenth of which was Jeff himself at the top. The one after that his father... his great grandmother... and each time, she found herself going back another face, another time- the clock itself splitting into a multitude of people, hundreds, with thousands of pendulums, swinging, hitting each other in chaotic ways.
... until she saw it. One person... just one person in the past...
... though she looked human, Haru could see elements of pointy ears, and something not completely human in her eyes. The shadow of a large man was behind her.
"Of no woman borne..." Haru spoke seeming without meaning to.
"Maybe we should tell Jon. The Earth stone might be in danger." said Brittany worried.
"Could this be why everyone is changing? I thought Jon's stone was the cause." Haru asked thoughtfully. This was all so weird!
"It might have been the match that lit a gas that was already there..." said Brittany thinking.
"What about Jeff?" Haru had heard he did not end up in the heaven cafe. They didn't know where he was. The universe probably didn't know what to do with him when he went through the strange reality portals.
Suddenly the stall in the bathroom opened, and Jeff stood there. He was staring like he had seen a ghost. "Jon..." he repeated. "Jon... is responsible for all this?" He heard everything. He heard what Haru said.
"Jeff!" Haru said. Oh hell! How did he get in the bathroom?! The doors were all closed.
Jeff himself wasn't sure how he got here either, but he heard voices and was listening to the conversation. "You knew! you told nobody and you know who did all this?!"
"It's complicated," Said Brittany. "Please calm down."
Jeff however did not seem to hear her. He was mad and angry at Haru. "Let me guess. You got strange powers from your change, and you are quite happy to be living as some kind of freak while the rest of us might become God damn monsters!"
Haru took a step back. She still couldn't believe Jeff was in the girl's bathroom! Of all the places to end up! Why here and now?! "It's not like that," said the small girl. "You have to get out of here before someone sees you."
"Oh I'm going alright. I'm going to Jon Madison and I'm going to kick his ass!"
"She-"
"She?! Oh whatever. I'm going to go and kick 'her' ass!" Jeff then ran out of the bathroom with just one thing on his mind. This was it. He had done it. He now knew who was responsible. He now knew it was Jon, and he was going to do what they should have done ages ago.
He sent a quick text message to Belle and Ricky. I'm sorry everyone. I know I screwed up, but I now know why this happened.
Jeff didn't know what the time was outside, only that it was still dark. Still night, but the sun might come up soon. He didn't care. He only had once chance.
He was nearly to Jon's place- when suddenly a large bolt of light came down upon him. Magic Girl Three was guarding the street... "I can't let you go no further Jeff," said Becca solemnly. The magic girl wasn't quite sure how she sensed it... but Jeff was moving like he was going to kill someone, and right towards Jon's house. Her senses picked it up straight away.
"Who are you?" Asked Jeff. "Jon's personal guard?"
"Somethin' like that," said Becca. "I dunno how you found out but I can't let you hurt Jon."
"He screwed up my life, my girlfriends life, my only friend's life! Your life!" he shouted in the end. "How can you possibly protect such a vile thing that did this to us for God only knows why!"
Becca tensed as she readied her weapon. Jeff was just a human, so a warning shot would do. Trident suggested, they might be able to erase Jeff's memory after this once he's down. The little girl aimed her strange weapon, and fired it at the boy...
... and the bolt passed right through him.
Both looked stunned but Jeff recovered quickly from the mere light show. "You... have magic too? Urgh... no wonder you're all protecting him!" He lurched forward, with Jon still in his mind. He didn't want to fight a little girl.
Becca was still stunned that her magic didn't even touch Jeff. She tried once more at a slightly higher power, but to no effect. Everything she tried, just went right through Jeff as if he wasn't there.
"Why aint this workin' trident?" asked Becca.
The little doll in her pocket was equally perplexed. "Maybe it's because he's not exposed to the sunlight. Your magic may not work on normal people. We've never tried before."
Without her power, Becca was just a little girl to Jeff...
"THAT'S FAR ENOUGH!" Said a voice from above. A strange light, sword in hand, as the angel of vengeance floated down in a blaze of glorious light.
Becca and Jeff looked upward stunned once more.
The beautiful angel girl looked quite ticked off, but in a sort of mellow kind of way too. "Jeff Aurelius eh? Doing impossible things... that ain't right you know. Only I'm supposed to do that!" she said with a smirk as she held her sword to him.
Jeff was trying hard to keep up as surreality was creeping up on him. It was not unexpected that the person might have guards... powerful guardians at that. "So what are you? Another of Jon's guardians?"
"Her best guardian. Becca, please step away. Jeff's not a normal sort of thing to deal with."
The girl complied. This really was odd.
Jeff shook his head. "Heh... all your powers and you can't beat a normal human?" Actually this was very strange. He didn't know why, he kind of hoped it was because someone was looking out for him today. Whatever was going on, he was not going to turn it away.
Lucas shrugged. "From what I've seen, no force on Earth can stop you... except me. IF I wanted to."
Jeff looked oddly. "I'm going to go see Jon. I'm going to get him to change us all back. That's all I want. Please, I beg you..." The teen still imagined his girlfriend, locked in that horrible form... her whole life... just because of... one... bastard!
"That isn't what a lot of us want..." Lucas said calmly. "I don't want to hurt you Jeff. If I do, things get messy and I'll have to deal with even more problems. You're the immovable object, I'm the irresitable force. Do you really want to see what would happen?"
"I just want this to end!" Jeff said angrily. "I've got nothing any more! Nothing! Nobody!"
"Yes yes boo hoo. You're the only one responsible for any of that, not Jon."
"Fine you know what? Judge me. Just me and condemn me. But I know I'm right. Every right thinking person knows I'm right." Jeff started to move forwards, and Lucas... just placed her sword, touching him. It was without much force, but Jeff suddenly found incredible resistance in trying to move passed it. He felt like he could try to move the sword, but... strange 'holes' in reality started to appear. Becca could sense the enemy behind them and was now very worried.
Jeff took a step back, and the holes disappeared. "What's... going on?" he asked more worried then anything else.
Lucas placed her sword away. "You're going on. That's whats going on. Look I sympathise, really I do. So I am going to tell you the secret...what if I told you, that what happens to the universe is completely up to you?"
"W-What?!"
"Yep. Well- nothing you do affects me of course. But everyone else, sure. What if... you could undo everything Jon did? By doing absolutely nothing."
Jeff wondered if this was some kind of weird double talk. "Well I think that's exactly what I would do."
"Okay game on then. Trust me. If you go home, right now... and get home and do absolutely nothing else from this point to the point you get home... none of this will have happened."
"No weird monsters?"
Lucas growled just a little. "No strange transformations. Just go home. I swear to you on my word, that I tell the truth. You'll know I was telling the truth..."
Jeff wondered if this was some kind of trick. He glanced at a curious signpost just ahead- that strange watchmaker from his dream, it had a curious slogan now saying 'Trust us!' This.. was getting really weird now. "...Fine. But if things still are as they are tomorrow, I'm coming after Jon."
"Ha! Just follow my instructions. Remember, go home. Do nothing else. ABSOLUTELY nothing else."
With that Jeff turned to leave. Just go back home and do nothing else? Well... that's easy enough to do. He was eager too. If this never happened, Belle and him would still be together... and he could even be nicer to Ricky now that he knew how cool a friend he could be. The teen ran home as quickly as he could hoping his girlfriend would be there, and all will be as it should be.
Becca looked at Lucas as Jeff departed. "Whats goin' on?"
Lucas shook her head. "Don't worry Becca. That's just history in the making. Jeff's a weird one and I rather have a universe then not have one to play with."
"Is he a changed?" asked Becca. "Some sorta magic-boy?"
Lucas giggled a little at that. "Nah, just some time travel. His entire family is descended from a changed that lived in the past. He's mostly human... 'mostly'.... as are the rest of his family. Course, he's the one at the center of all this paradox... there are massive time loops in his life he has to fulfil. I'll have to keep an eye on it. Complicated space time-event stuff. I just hope he isn't his own grandfather, though that would probably be easier to deal with."
"is he why the enemy exists?"
"mmm... I don't think so. Seems to me, the universe likes existing, and will find any loophole to make it continue. Even our own lives."
