Iker was sure for a moment he was loading into a 21st century simulation of Las Vegas.

Actually, from the bizarre vista he was able to see for a fraction of a second, Iker was able to spot multiple simulations across a grid. However, perhaps calling them simulations was not specific enough as he spotted multiple instances of the same simulation. They were not sessions either, they seemed to be tied to time and Iker felt as if he was outside of spacetime, or at the very least was outside of it for now.

The repeating superclusters and horizons he saw for the briefest of moments were better described as fractals. Perhaps the ones that fully loaded could still be called simulations, but the buggy ones that still moved were a fraction of a simulation, hence a fractal. And the overall shape these fractals contributed to was definitely corrupted, the fully loaded simulations resembling large pieces of glass while the fractals were shards of the shape they originally came from.

The half-loaded assets on the Vegas strip, past the clipping walls Iker was in, had yet to have any of the towering cyber architecture that would host more casino floors and sliding hologram ads for the pedestrians and magnetic car drivers. However, even though they were fading in and out at first, they eventually did load in with Iker's twenty-one-year-old self.

I wonder if my age is due to living twenty-one years in this simulation... or somehow the 0 or 1 malware mixed up my age with the 21st century number, Iker thought. Or Ember could have changed my age attribute along with my memories if it helps her win.

Before a hotel room with the canine canister loaded, he saw a man with dyed blonde hair in his mid twenties sitting on a bed with his back turned to Iker, nebulae and galaxies oozing out of his scalp in slow motion like holograms of their own.

Wait... wasn't this hotel room in Fornia?

The environment crashed again. Static lines shot all around Iker while assets deleted and pixelated all around him. For a moment, he was in the middle of the night sky over the Nevadan desert while standing on an invisible floor.

Before he could finish gulping at the height with only invisible floors preventing him from falling, a public bathroom instantly loaded around him. Almost as if the reality or bigger simulation told him, you didn't see anything.

The A Big Satan Under Your Pinky Toe hologram poster on the wall indicated it was either the end of the 21st century or the beginning of the 22nd. Eve, Ace, and Isabella were dead center with time travelling portals behind them.

Iker's body glitched out for a second, then he respawned lying on the floor in an instant.

Why am I on the floor?

His eyes were glassy for some reason too.

He could not recall ever being in this bathroom in Las Vegas during the cyberpunk age.

I think this is the HALT simulation... at the very least I am in the simulation where I grew up in, and the timeline is uncertain. This is where Woo went to get Gabe and Joaquim. This is way back in the past though, way before I was born. Before Ameen jaunted here and killed everyone.

"Hey Iker?" Bastian's adult voice asked.

When he forced himself to sit up... it became apparent Iker had a drug-induced buzz. He realized he was high on r0cbytes as Bastian was holding onto used syringes, his brother's face still blurry under the florescent bathroom lights.

"Please..." Iker murmured. "Please tell me you know about the cosmic game were in..."

"Yea, I do," Bastian replied while rubbing his shoulder. "You also wanna ask me why you're crying."

Iker nodded. "Sounds like you've respawned here before."

Bastian took in a deep breath then sighed before speaking again.

"You finished telling me what happened that night in Fornia with Camilo. We agreed to commit to the save point after you told me so you don't have to retell it every time."

When Iker's eyes stopped being blurry, he was able to see that Bastian was about to cry too. Their adult appearances had almost taken on aspects of each other, as if years together had left subtle marks. Bastian's animated eyes managed to be even more sweeping, but his aura was now more down-to-Earth while Iker's gaze had more lightheartedness to them.

Except for now as the mood they were both experiencing was filling the spaces between the marble walls they were in.

"He acted the same way the priest treated him when he took you to the park. What he said about never being told no... he heard that from somewhere. I am... never going to forget that."

Iker only now wiped his damp face, he realized tears were already past his Adam's apple. "I mean... I did want it... just not as fast."

"I know," Bastian murmured as he was now starring at the floor, still keeping a warm grip on Iker. "I am only telling you this now, because for the first time in a while... we are not under a time constraint. I can explain as much as I can as we are in a Las Vegas rehab c–"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"What?"

"Three... two... one..."

"It's a long story," they both said at the same time.

Bastian gave him the coldest chuckle Iker ever heard. It startled Iker to the point that he perked up.

Bad news was on the way.

"I am sorry for telling you this now, but I'll be an asshole to not tell you this now that I know about this..."

"What is it Bastian?"

"Uzi... Uzi didn't make it."

Iker forced a smile. "I mean... I saw Mav's new form... but he is from one of the forty timelines or from some kind of session corruption right? I told Uzi ve had to win. Ve's going to spawn in here too right? You two share a lot of red pixels together."

Bastian's eyes were in shadow while he sobbed. "We're meeting a younger version of ver in the future... it's just a long goodbye."

"No... ve is going to be with us to close the loop. Whatever fucking mission will get me to go to Brennisteinn in the future."

"I am sorry Iker... but what I said is true."

As Iker joined him in his sobbing, he rested his forehead on Bastian's shoulder, both of them still laying on the bathroom floor with used syringes.

image [https://img.wattpad.com/1c9bacf67002c328e2bf4506a26819600be46693/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f47684973334c4b716463733245773d3d2d313430373639393338382e313761333633303866656237386431363538333234373935383532342e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

Hydris Lacuna, Hydris Lacuna, Calypso, Brennisteinn, South Pole Wall...

Above the ammonia lake on Hydris Lacuna before Maverick, impaled by seven arak limbs, could grab the reckoner Uzi dropped after vis defeat...

Ameen noclipped by as a glowing man and grabbed it first.

"That's... not what we agreed to," Maverick groaned through the severed arak limb through his snout. "You... have the power to modify memories too? I did not remember this happening on session sixty-three."

"It's like what Ember said. I don't shoot the shit and explain my powers to people," Ameen said. "By the way. I made an agreement with Dem1urge... not Maverick."

"You're going to play stupid with me you troll? Take that shit-eating grin off your face. I'll make you pay for this," Maverick roared.

Ameen, while still smugly smiling at him, shapeshifted into a glowing line across the cosmos, then vanished before Maverick could fuse into Dem1urge.

image [https://img.wattpad.com/1c9bacf67002c328e2bf4506a26819600be46693/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f47684973334c4b716463733245773d3d2d313430373639393338382e313761333633303866656237386431363538333234373935383532342e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

The vinyl player inside the rehab's living room had an overwhelming presence to Iker for reasons he could not know. Nothing recognizable, yet it felt so familiar. It was close to a pinball machine with rows of tables, plastic chairs, and cupboards full of plastic devices and board games for patients to entertain themselves with.

Iker dismissed the player's presence, think he was just high while he turned his head back to Bastian who was chuckling with a stupor as they walked together.

"Getting high in rehab... It seems we are still on brand... something we would totally do," Iker said.

"They allow harm reduction in here. It was illegal for a few decades to have harm reduction sites but it became legal again," Bastian explained. "You know... normies thinking societies just moves forward just because... then the half of the population that's stupid makes up a word that replaces the word woke or PC... normies are like hopes and prayers bitches... then we start the loop again."

"Oh."

"WE ARE INSIDE A HUMAN'S MIND! INSIDE A BOOK SIMULATION! LISTEN TO MY PROPHECY!"

The standing doomsayer rocking back and forth with a notebook while screaming a few feet from the vinyl player... was Ameen. His eyes were hollow from his sanity vanishing.

Doesn't seem like he's trolling.

"Shut the fuck up, we are trying to watch a movie," Feechi yelled from the back table, the one Iker and Bastian arrived to to glance at her.

"Oh my God, that's one of the inquisitors. Can't we just capture her here?" Iker whispered.

Bastian shook his head. "This is the timeline... where we were still tech guys. It'll fuck up the secret plan."

"Wait what?"

"You do know I had a lot retries–"

"Yea, but... we were in IT?"

"Yea... Iker... is your mind from far in the future? I am at around ten resets."

Iker's jaw dropped in an instant. His eyes widened, shedding their usual aloofness.

"Bastian... I found out you had around forty when you told me about your vinyl pow-"

Iker glanced at the vinyl player in the living room again.

... Was Iker losing his sanity too?

"Wow... so things become so impossible... that we have to go back in time to change what job we got into. I know I end up as a supersoldier for Byza at some point... but what else did we become?"

"Hackers... gang members... supersoldiers..."

"Iker... supersoldiers became a thing very recently. It has a high ceiling to become one... like astronauts."

"That's not the case in the future. Well... there's still few of 'em... but corporations will have platoons of them..."

Bastian was even more in awe, however, his shivering eyebrows signaled he felt more terror than anything else.

"I just feel... so tiny. It's always been my biggest fear to forget things..."

Iker mouth perked up in a faint smile.

"That's how you got your time powers! In anagami form!"

"What?"

"If your biggest fear is forgetting things... then being more involved with time travel would allow you to have the most information. Anigami is tied to placebos."

"I am totally lost," Bastian said.

"Right... people in the second dark age said supersoldiers only have superstrength... superspeed... super senses..." Iker mumbled. "You would have no idea what kaya or anagami is. You said we have time to chat right?"

"Well yes, but there is one condition where I know we have to run–"

"Where are my drones by the way?" Iker interrupted.

"Monica is 3D printing them from wherever you came from."

"Let me guess then," Iker said. "If we see Monica in here... we run."

"Bingo."

"Ember owns this place?"

"... her father does."

"Shit, he's still alive during this time."

"Iker..." Bastian said, taking his time before opening his mouth. His mouth gaped exactly the same way Bastian would do before saying something really shocking and Iker's heart sank before Bastian could move his lips again.

"I found out recently that he faked his death and went to Brennisteinn. Across many simulations and sites his avatar is... 'The Baron.' He's the biggest donor of two projects... one being Project 0 Platoon and Project Metropolis."