Wu shook his head, those vivid images playing back inside of his head like living nightmares.
"This isn't right." Wu ground his teeth together and stared forward.
"It's only inevitable." The remnant said, pressure strapping against Wu's entire body.
"That's not how time works." Wu said, "And even if it is, whether it's determinism or free will, it will not change what I'll do. As long as you have a way forward, and a goal to strive towards, then it's something that's worth trying."
"How.....how can you be so sure that you won't fail, like you did time and time again in the future?" The remnant asked.
"I am not." Wu lets out a sigh, "It's not about being 100% sure of the future. It never is."
"Then what it is......" The remnant lowered his head, "If you don't fight to secure your future, why fight at all?"
"It's because it's better than giving up." Wu said, his eyes sharp, "It looked to me that you have already given up, right?"
"Nonsense!" The remnant was clearly shaken, and he blasted Wu backward until he rolled back onto his hands, "that......is not true!"
However, Wu's words clearly shook the remnant to his core, touching the deeper parts of his mind than he anticipated. Then, from the darkness within, two entities were born.
Maybe...just maybe...somebody will understand...
NO! HOW IS SOMEONE THAT'S NOT EVEN FROM THIS WORLD GOING TO...
But what if it's possible...
NO WAY! NO WAY!!!
The world around Wu changed, and he found himself sitting right by the dinner table. A small boy sat and ate alone as the front door's kept open, and rain poured down outside.
"Is this...you?" Wu asked, and the small boy that sat right across from him simply looked at him. That was when Wu realized he was looking past him and into the rain outside.
The remnant was a boy born hundreds of years ago, and by then, the world was still recovering from the aftermaths of the War of the Third Millennium. His father was never known, and his mother was also nowhere to be found after she left the dinner cooking over the stovetop.
That night, the rainstorm was so loud that he felt as if the entire house was shaking.
Perhaps it was a result of his personality, or it was just what his natural talent was. He had been getting flashes of visions of the future ever since he was little, and worse yet, nobody around him believed him. However, those visions came and go with no control and no meaning.
Soon, the handful of kids that used to play with him became less and less, and it wasn't long until he's the only one sitting alone by the steps, waiting for the next flash of the future to return.
However, ever since his mother disappeared, the lingering visions stopped. They never came back, until years later when he managed to get himself into a small local Wave research institute, and he learned of others that are as obsessed with the future as he is.
"Those that lack control of the present hoped for a better future. They are the same people then hope to control the present, through the future." As his mind was pulled deeper and deeper into the forbidden texts describing those that sought to look forward in time, those visions returned.
Like self-fulfilling prophecies, he found himself standing in front of sets of stones carved out specifically for the creation of the forbidden Structure Cast days after seeing it in his visions, and soon, he tried to extend his reach towards the future for the first time.
He saw his wife and kids. And in exchange for that, he lost his left arm.
"Those that are willing to sacrifice everything, are the ones to have access to anything in the future." Reciting the texts, he moved forward.
She's a baker from the shop that he goes to every morning, and as he appeared at the door with a batch of flowers the next day, she cracked a smile and reached her hand towards him.
Life was good, and the remnant enjoyed years of his family life. Much to his surprise, those visions never returned, until they did.
Their eldest daughter had grown sick, and she had been coughing non-stop for days on end. There was no hope of recovery, and the local doctors and Casters all had clues of what could have been done, yet none was able to do much. He looked in the direction of his daughter's bedroom, and all that was left there was the depths of despair.
He wondered...if the future will be in his favor? If his daughter will be all right? What about the rest of his years? What about the generation after his daughters?
Returning to the stones that now had overgrowths of sunflowers all around them, the remnant held his hand over the stones and tried to peek into the future one more time.
As the price of looking that far into the future was presented in front of him, he hesitated. Gripping his hands, he found himself unable to look away from the eyes of the devil himself.
"Those who are willing to sacrifice everything are the ones that have access to anything in the future." He murmured and dived straight in, "This is for you all. My love."
Then, and there, in exchange for his entire body, he saw everything. With the last ounce of his will, he forced himself to linger around the last moments of his final vision, the vision of a far future with a world completely destroyed, and he used it as his own eternity.
By taking away his physical form, the Structure Cast absorbed him to become a part of itself, and he forged himself into a remnant of his time. His daughter will be fine, his wife will be devastated, but eventually find a different man.
Then, years later, he knew that his daughter will marry, and forever wonder where her dad went.
But that's okay. Because he knew that she has a future that is good.
Then, it will continue for many and many generations, they will move around from place to place.....until the War of the Fourth Millennium began. That was the beginning of the hell.
Having lived the nightmares at the deepest part of hell time and time again, he will do anything and everything to prevent it from happening.
Growing and expanding into the ground underneath the Structure Cast, the remnant continued his preparations, and he waited. Combining with the Structure Cast itself, he also gained the ability to inflict flashes and visions onto others through hallucinogens and psychological manipulation.
As the environments changed, and the grass patch was turned into forests, the stones themselves are also covered under layers of mud. However, by this time, the Structure Cast had already far outgrown its original version thanks to the work of the Remnant.
Then, setting things in motion by projecting visions into the minds of many, the most recent one being the Dweller's chief as they migrated here, the remnant was able to bring Wu and Lera here, just as one of his visions predicted.
"That's insanity..." Wu said slowly before thinking about how he will be tended if he is given the chance to know what the future entails, "You'd rather know what happens next than to live through the present?! What about your wife! Your daughter?! Did you not think about them?"
"They are fine, and I know that to be true. That's because I saw the vision. Their future is secured, and the fruits of my labour are right above me. The Dwellers." The remnant said before he pointed outwards, "With you dead, I will have secured all of the incoming futures. The world will be perfect at last, as it should be."
"If it truly is perfect, then why did you bring her here." Wu asked, " Why did you separate the daughter from the village chief? Forcing him to abandon her the same way that you did your very own?"
"That's so that they will sacrifice you the moment you appeared, and they..."
"Bullshit." Wu said quickly, "You could have just told the old man that we will be here. Show him the visions only when needed. No. You are alone. You have been alone. You are also afraid, regretful, and scared like you have always been. You thought, maybe by treating her nicely, you can gain some sense of redemption. All because you couldn't face your own choices in the past."
"No...that's not true!"
"Future is not something to be controlled......" Wu said, 'It's something to fight for, and something that you have to make happen by yourself."
"I did fight! I did do all that I needed!" The remnant replied sharply, "I made sure that they have a future right now!"
"Not like that!" Wu immediately shut that idea down, "Not like that! You cheated! You took the easy way out, cause you can't live through the present! You surrendered to your cowardice, and now you tried to impose that weakness onto me!"
"How.....can you be certain that the future will be different then?" The remnant asked, his voice shaking and the bind on Wu loosening.
"Because...I was just like you, just to a much smaller degree." Wu said, "I once thought my future was set in stone, and that there was nothing I could do. Unlike you that tried to do sacrifice all that you were to make sure a future comes, I...did give up."
"Then what gives you the right to..."
"I gave up then. But...a beautiful girl with black and silver hair brought me to this world and showed me a different future. A future full of unknowns, challenges, and as you said...failures." Wu said, a smile floating up his face, "She, and the Portal gave me a chance to live out my life the way I wanted to, and even someone like me knows to take a hint when the universe bends to that degree. And honestly, things couldn't really get worse to start. I have absolutely no power, I am weak, and I have to toss away my phone."
"Why are you smiling then?! Have you lost your-"
"But that's exactly why I am more excited than ever. "
Wu stared into the remnant as blue-toned dimension around to crack.
"Regrets are for the past, and fears are for the future. Living is for the present. In your pursuit of the future, you have crippled yourself with regret, and trapped yourself with fear." Wu said.
"No! SHUT UP!" The remnant shouted angrily, but Wu's right.
He had given up on everything and just hoped to skip until the end of the story. However, in doing so, how many chapters did he leave behind in the middle?
"It's going to be okay..." Wu said, breaking free from the strands of light and marching forward towards the figure that is the remnant. Then, he wrapped his hands around and hugged it close, "You don't have to face the future alone anymore. I will carve out a path that you have never seen before, starting by saving one of your descendants here and freeing them from your shackles."
An earthquaking vibration came from near the surface, and the body of the remnant flickered, "Ha, so your friend did free herself in the end."
"Then it is over." Wu said, "Just let it go."
"But," The remnant hesitated when another massive shake came through, "Shit...The integrity of the Cast...it's about to be destroyed. No!"
His body was shattered, and Wu caught onto a single piece. It felt heavy like a stone in his hands.
"The future...the future..." The remnant said, "You must...save it! SAVE IT! FOR THEM!"
"All I have is a promise for you. A promise to always keep fighting, and to always push forward." Wu said, taking a step back though still holding onto a piece of the remnant's body, "Will you accept it?"
"...I will be watching your future, and if you give up, I will kill you." The remnant said, his voice becoming lighter, "Tell the Dwellers...I am sorry. I didn't mean to drag them into our business..."
Wu closed his eyes, and he felt the pressure in his hands lighten, and all the blue lights retracted back to a single piece of stone in the ground from all of his surroundings.
"Why don't you go tell them yourself." Wu spoke lightly as everything went quiet. He reached forward and picked up the piece of stone before putting it in his backpack.
The price to pay for learning about the future is high, and for everybody else, all that they can do is to live through the present, charging relentlessly forward. The remnant may not have accepted Wu's will and belief at the end, but it doesn't matter.
"Thank you for telling me your story......" Wu murmured as he navigated back towards Lera and the Dweller chief's daughter, "I will live without fear and regrets and carve out a future for all of us."
This is more than a second chance for Wu. This is also a second chance for all those futures that didn't work out in the end. Now, Wu wondered how the hell he's going to explain it all to Lera a little later.