Loop 87 Year 780 Day 1

I get the worse ever headache today. It lasts almost all day.

Loop 87 Year 785 Day 1

It’s odd. I get another headache today. It does in fact last all day. And as if to mock my earlier assessment as it being the worse headache, this one is noticeably worse.

Loop 87 Year 787 Day 1

I knew it would come back. I don’t know why, but I just did. The headache seems to taunt me at the beginning of the years.

Loop 87 Year 800 Day 1

I get migraines every day. I don’t know what is causing it, but they seem to be getting worse.

Loop 87 Year 810 Day 1

It’s back! Damn it to the void, it’s back! The damned migraines never stop! AI is looking for any solutions, but I might end this Loop early.

Loop 87 Year 811 Day 186

All I get is flashes of life now. The pain is so intense I can only concentrate on blocking it out. I am on a table. Something is being injected into me. The pain takes over. It’s back to the endless cycle for me.

Loop 87 Abyss

I float in this sea of minds. Grateful that they pain has finally stopped. There are small packets of information stored within my mind, curtesy of AI, but when I try to remember them, my mind gets racked with the same pains I felt before.

The headaches start on year 780, and continue to grow in frequency, and intensity until year 1000 day 1. It is then that I somehow end up here. I assume the –

A mind is coming towards me. It’s… it’s bigger than me. It holds more memory. I fell myself instinctively recoil in fear. It moves faster now. I must get away. It’s getting closer, moving faster.

It’s here.

Loop 88 Year 1 Day 1

I feel the memories start to take root. They are so similar to mine. Only different somehow. They are pushing my memories aside, trying to become the more important ones.

What will happen if they do? Will I lose control of myself? Will an older version of me somehow take control of my body?

I can’t wait to find out.

My body is falling to the floor. Any power my brain used to hold it up is fighting off this new entity. It’s consuming my mind as fast as I’m consuming its mind. But it has more. Like a movie I watch as it begins its journey the same as I had.

It lives exactly like I do. It goes through Loops identically. I see it die the first time. I remember its path through the Abyss. I even see this moment playing out.

All its memories, my memories, quickly flash by my mind. As they do I feel more and more of myself being torn away, and consumed.

By the time it has run through the start of the 87th Loop, I feel myself lose.

Era xx Loop 88 Year 1 Day 1

Pitiful. It seems the ‘First’ was correct. Given identical circumstances identical results will always happen. I wonder what is going to be different now. I have never been eaten before, will I continue to consume for the ‘First’? I should go and unlock him.

A memory flashes. It’s me, looking at myself. I am sitting in front of a mirror. I am speaking. Speaking of instructions.

“I will allow you to live. Only so I might have yet another safe guard for my experiments. I will be seeing what happens when I allow myself to truly be divided by the Soul Stealer. When you reach your 87th Loop you will understand what I mean. I have arranged for this and other memories to be present for your consumption during that Abyss.”

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The memory continues, detailing exactly what I am supposed to do. I follow it without question. Should I refuse I will be deleted by the ‘First’.

The First said Soul Stealer is what I called Little Emperor. He is in China right now.

A quick flick of the mind shows his exact location. All details were really prepared for by the First. I wonder how he managed to track Soul Stealer this early? Magnificent. Truly Magnificent. I should hurry so as to avoid his displeasure.

Current Me - I realize I can see what is going on. It’s an odd feeling. I am getting information from the outside world, but I cannot control my body. It is as if this older set of my memories are somehow a different being altogether. How is that possible?

It feels crowded, as if I am standing in a room of quiet people. But I can’t see them, nor can they see me. I can tell that they are all in the same situation as I, though I know not how I could possibly know that.

The one controlling my body seems to be broadcasting his thoughts to us. Though if it is intentional is uncertain.

A migraine. Damn. The First did say this might happen, but damned be whatever is causing it! I must hurry to the First. He will be waiting for this body. At least he has promised me use of it for a while longer.

Ah. It finally makes sense now. This one was identical to me, until the original began consuming him at Loop 87. I can easily search through his memories, even the ones after Loop 87. The ‘First’ as he calls him, seems to have stopped just before consuming this version of me.

He made a deal with him, to let him go if he worked for him consuming those identical to himself. But this one has only consumed me?

Damn this headache!

Ah! He is in pain. I can use this!

As I try to assert control over his mind, I feel those ‘behind’ me. The other memory bundles. They are trying to get me to consume him?

Everything suddenly goes black. It’s like I’m in the Abyss, but I can still feel myself in my body. The sparks of light, the bundles of memories, they are flooding me. All around me memories begin flying towards me, from every discernable other me.

Flashes of memory from hundreds of Loops overwhelms my mind.

My body is uncontrollable! I feel myself fall to the ground, spasming. Am I having a seizure? This isn’t what the First said would happen!

Memories of other a dozen Era fused themselves to me. Their hate for ‘The First’ is astounding.

I need to get to him! I can do this. I can stand up. Good. Now I have to get to the warp pad, he said it’d be just inside the closet downstairs at Chelsea’s house for the first few minutes of this Loop. I rush into the closet. The fading light of a circle greets me.

Good. Now, inhale, let’s hold up my end of the bargain.

The memories are coming faster and faster, my mind is splitting apart! The memories of the controller of my body are coming in at the same time. He fought the First during this Loop. He tore the First into parts. He even consumed large swathes of memories. Those memories! They are the ones trying to fuse into my mind!

He said that Soul Stealer would be- Perfect. Noticing the boy, or what would become they boy, I grab him. The peons near me are still astounded by me suddenly appearing. Power Users still aren’t common yet. I disappear before anyone can react.

Good, the First will be coming soon.

Good boy. You’ve helped me, let me make this painless.

What! NO!

While I watch, the one controlling my body is being consumed, and erased. Time seems to stop for everything. I feel the First, he is diving into all our memories. I mentally shudder as the callous claws of his mind dig deeply into my memories. Suddenly, it stops.

They are protecting me? No, the one that possessed my body is. I mentally look around and see it. He is forcing the other ‘me’ to protect me, to hide me away. Even as they are sending their memories into me, they are hiding me.

Era ?? Loop ?? Year ?? Day ??

Who am I? A long time has passed. I don’t know how long. Minutes? Days? Years? A thousand Era? I am watching another version of me. He is working on some machine. It’s safe to say he is past the first bomb drop at least. He is wearing some sort of helmet, attached to wires coming from the ceiling. He is in a chair, strapped in.

He is looking into a mirror? That’s how I can see what he’s wearing. I can feel his emotions,

“Yes. As I can feel yours.”

… Did he just respond to me?

“Yes. I’ve been feeling you in my mind the past several Repeats. What do you want? Are you some kind of time parasite?”

Time parasite! HA! If he- if you only knew. How about this?

While remembering how it felt when the one that controlled my body took it over, I attempt to do the same to this new version of me.

“What are you doing! Stop it!”

“Master, I told you this was a bad idea.”

“Shut up! Let me focus!”

This is easier than I thought. All I have to do is ‘fuse’ our memories. Then I can start separating his from mine, to maintain control. Oh.

Mid discovery I had a sudden realization: This must be what the First has been doing! He must take control over other versions of me, since he has more memories than they do, he gets control.

As if lightning had struck I realize that is what this is all about. I have a weak ‘willpower’, as Little Emperor said. That’s why I need more memories!

Seconds pass. Then minutes. I review everything he has experienced since his first Loop, or Repeat as he calls them. He is living mine as well. His life is long. But it seems he is going through the memories of my other versions when I had. So, I have a pocket of extra memories.

…

How long was this one alive! I am going through his twentieth Loop! He is already at the last moments of my life, going through the memories of those that protected me.

Loop 28! He finally recognized me as a being inside of him. How long does it take it to make this machine?

He is on my last pocket memory, it has only a few years left. He is building the machine, but I don’t know how long it takes him.

He is on my last day. I am watching him do ‘one last check’ of this machine.

He is on my last minute. I am watching him sitting in this chair.

He is when I woke up to him. I am watching him talk to me.

He is hearing this thought! I am hearing his!

…

Ah. I won. This latest version of me, the one that had twenty odd ‘Repeats’, is consumed. He is now part of my arsenal. I know what I must do. I must find a way to dive into my Abyss without dying. And I know just where to go to do that. The Void.