Ace was still inside the building, nervous that if he left someone would sacrifice him to Deceit.

He broke off the leg of a table and used it as a replacement for his long-lost baseball bat and hid inside the dorm room he slept in earlier, furniture pushed up against the door.

Why do you use this stick instead of me, Unas whined. I am much more powerful than it.

“I am not being burned alive,” Ace screamed. “All of you are monsters!”

“That hurts,” Invictus whispered. “Don’t say that.”

Unas cackled, and the sword clattered on top of the dresser he was placed on. Ace grimaced, and then Infiniti started to laugh as well, enjoying his torment.

Let’s go back to your friend, Ace, Infiniti said. We can start our game all over again.

“What friend,” Ace screamed. “I don’t have a friend that would keep rewinding all of this stuff!”

Yes, you do, Infiniti mumbled. I would take you back to the beginning itself and you would remember everything, but that would create a paradox, and you would most likely die.

This information got Ace’s attention, and he went up to the dresser where Infiniti and Unas lay.

“How can I go back and remember everything,” Ace mumbled. “Tell me so I can stop this from ever happening.” Infiniti sighed, tired of having to repeat this same explanation for literally the 3,653rd time.

I can send you back before this all began, Infiniti explained. However, there will be two of you, and a paradox will occur.

“What… what is that,” Ace asked.

It’s when a self-contradictory event happens, warping reality and time itself, Infiniti giggled. I love what happens after it.

“What, what h-happens,” Ace stammered.

The universe will self-correct itself. One version of you will eventually die. Usually, it's the one that went back twice, and the loop repeats itself .

Ace closed his eyes and tried not to cry as the watch laughed at his misery.

“Why are you doing this? Why do you hate me?”

You stole Tyreceus from me! He should have abandoned you in the woods, but he was too much of a good man. His own strongest trait was his own demise.

“He’s my father! He’s supposed to like me best! You’re crazy!”

You are the only crazy one here, Infiniti cackled. Even the times you take the risk to go back and hope you survive the paradox, you fail.

“Shut up,” Ace barked. “Shut the hell up!

One time you managed to survive it, yet you failed to save your father anyway. You are a weak and soft man, it is horrible that the gods cursed you upon his life.

“Stop. Just stop talking.”

Why? I have never lied to you, yet you constantly ignore me.

Ace picked up the watch and spat on it. Ace felt a hot gaze from behind and turned to see him.

Infiniti was grotesque compared to the beauty of the other inhabitants of the celestial objects. While Unas was scary, and Invictus was naive, Infiniti was jaded, from years of knowledge of time and space, and his appearance reflected that.

He had four arms, and six eyes, and unlike the others, he wore no clothes. He was smooth and genderless, with pointy sharklike teeth and a hairless body. Ace screamed and slammed the watch on the dresser when he saw him.

I love scaring you.

His voice overlapped when he spoke, and it sounded like multiple people were speaking at once. Ace trembled in fear at the sight of the strange creature.

“He’s not nice like the others,” Invictus whispered.

There’s more of them, Ace thought. I can’t handle any more of this.

“No one likes him,” Invictus said. “Not even Amora.”

I don’t care if people don’t like me. I care about having fun, and watching you suffer is one of the greatest pleasures of all.

“Just tell me how to make it stop,” Ace pleaded. “I can’t do this anymore!”

Go back to The Void. There you will meet your friend, who waits for you patiently every time, a good and loyal child.

“What, what is a void?"

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Space in between. You’ve been there before!

“Since when?!"

MANY TIMES. THOUSANDS!

Ace flinched, and was disgusted as Infiniti’s skin seemed to change color depending on his mood. It was now red and bright, and his teeth seemed to get bigger.

Think of nothing, and clear your mind before you leave. That is what it is. The essence of nothing. You can easily get there with your ability.

“Wow, I can do that?”

Yes. You are the strongest of all these idiots, but you are too stupid to even realize it.

Ace glared at him and considered the many ways of destroying the watch.

The blessings of the gods are wasted upon a man-child that doesn’t even know he has them, Infiniti said. You may be stronger than them all, but you are also the stupidest of them all.

“I’m tired of everyone calling me stupid and weak,” Ace screamed. “Just because I can teleport doesn’t mean I’m weak!”

You're right, Infiniti smiled.

He turned yellow and found great joy when Ace smiled, ready to demean him once more.

Your love of men makes you weak.

“No, it doesn’t.".

Yes, it does. You think with your cock, and now your angry lover has chased you, obsessed for all of time.

“Deceit will give up eventually. She has to."

I will never understand what that little devil and the pale one see in you. Maybe all they see is a weak boy, easy to control and quick to spread his legs.

This last comment solidified Ace’s resolve.

“I will never use you ever again,” Ace said quietly. “I will spend the rest of my life trying to destroy you. ”

You are weak. You think you are Phobos, but instead, you are poor and stupid Hyacinthus, dying in the arms of your own Apollo.

Ace did not understand the insult and blinked rapidly, which just enraged Infiniti. He turned red and huffed.

Imbecile, he spat.

Infiniti disappeared, having again completed his daily torment of Ace.

Ace sat in the corner of the room, depressed and tormented by Infiniti’s words. He was still reeling from his assault, and every time he wasn’t focused on staying alive, his mind would wander back to it, unable to push it out of his mind.

He was slowly convincing himself that Infiniti was right, which just made his tormenter even happier. He then started to believe that maybe he was weaker than everyone else because of his sexuality. He wished that he could go back, and just be a different person entirely.

If I go back with the watch I could still die and none of this matters. I don’t want any of this to matter.

Levi’s words of worrying if it all mattered repeated in his head, and soon Ace had told himself another lie; that nothing truly mattered anymore.

My entire life has been controlled by monsters. Why fight this any longer?

Ace was ready to meet his end. Infiniti protested, telling him that it was all just a joke. Infiniti knew that if Ace killed himself, maybe Wrinkle wouldn’t reset it. Many times Ace had died, and Infiniti had to wait until Wrinkle noticed.

Ace thought that if he died there was no way for everything to go back, and Infiniti could no longer play his games. He didn’t know that Wrinkle would find out, and simply start all over again, the loop continuing.

Ace decided that he would take the objects with him and die in the forest, so no one could ever find them, at least for a very long time.

Do not do it, Unas pleaded. Why are you and your father so ready to meet your end?

Ace ignored him and put on the watch. He grabbed the sword and calmly walked out of the dormitory, past the sounds of bullets and the smell of rotting bodies.

Stone-faced he wandered into the nearby forest, his ears ringing from the protests of his immortal companions.

“Don’t do it, please,” Invictus cried. “We can make it out of here.”

“Even if we do, everything will be worse. My family is gone. I’m alone.”

“I’m still here,” Invictus pleaded. “I’ll always be with you.”

“I’m sorry I’ve been mean to you. You’re the only person who hasn’t hit, screamed, or tried to molest and kill me.”

Invictus was not sure this was the kind of thing to be proud of but was happy that Ace for a few seconds, was still breathing, and tried to keep talking to him to distract him from his plans.

“What do you want to do when we get out of here,” Invictus asked.

“I’m not getting out of here."

He pulled the sword out of its scabbard, and it gleamed bright, glowing a red soft glow, the symbols and runes on it emitting heat. Ace at first hesitated. He did not truly want to die, but simply wanted his misery to end. He wanted to go back to when everything was simple, to when Levi hated him, Candice adored him, and Fenton wasn’t acting like a parent instead of a best friend.

You cannot change the past. You can change the future.

“I can’t,” Ace cried.

Yes, you can, Unas insisted. Your father changed his future, had his own family and led a respectable life.

The mention of his father made Ace stop, and Unas continued, wanting to keep his promise to Tyreceus.

He was born a slave and he died a professor, a soldier, and a good man.

I didn’t know he was a slave. Why didn’t he ever tell me that?

He never told you because he was embarrassed, Unas sighed. He wanted to pretend that the past never happened, but that is impossible. His present life was only possible thanks to his past.

Ace nodded and for a few moments, his brain was not preoccupied with ending his own life. He was lost deep in his thoughts long enough that he did not notice two people walking through the trees.

It was Ibis and Amity.