Lo-

Escape attempt 1

“So are you real or am I just that crazy?” James queried. The wheels of his modified GTR screeched on the asphalt as he sped past the cars around him, trying to find the nearest patch of long empty road he could.

There were no passengers in the car to answer his question. Not in the physical world. But in the rearview mirror he’d tilted down there was a mirror image of James lounging in the back, watching the sights fly past with awe.

“I’d say it’s a mixture of both.”

The mirror of himself didn’t speak persay. Its voice was more like an echo in his head. A stray thought that wasn’t his own. Distinct enough that he could pick it up, but close enough to his own thoughts that the looper truly thought he might be a complete delusion. His answer didn’t make James any more sure of the answer.

Still, Fig, as he’d come to call the mirror version of himself, was rather helpful. When he wasn’t complaining about which car they were stealing.

He also knows things.

“So a Source.” James paused to weave past a car that just wouldn’t move. “It’s like a power right?”

“That’s an oversimplification.”

“But not wrong.”

James could see Fig’s face crunch in annoyance as he tried to think of a comeback. Eventually, he just relented.

“No.”

“So I’m right?”

“No, it’s more than that. It’s your potential. All of it coalesced into one fixed point. The Source of what you're capable of. A Source isn’t just power, it’s the catalyst for something greater.”

“Right,” James said, half paying attention. In his opinion, Fig put far too much importance on something as simple as this Source. He said a lot about it, without really explaining much at all. He neglected the heart of the matter which was explaining what a Source did.

The car raced up a sharp turn and skidded down the road ahead before turning into a dark, narrow country road. They were about three hours out from the city towards the west, meaning they were in the lush outback of Australia. Here they didn’t need to worry about hitting cars, but James did need to watch out for kangaroos. From experience he knew hitting one would reset this Loop early.

“So, what does this Source nonsense have to do with me escaping?” James asked, putting his foot on the gas. He had an inkling of why Fig was bringing it up, but getting the entire picture felt like it was important if he wanted to escape.

“I’ve been trying to tell you all day. If you weren’t ignoring me, you’d already know!”

James sneered, entertaining the thought of explaining to Fig just how annoying he was, before ultimately putting it to bed in favor of hearing the imaginary man out.

“To be honest I didn’t think you were real for most of today.” James lied. He’d just been ignoring Fig because he was too preoccupied with deciphering the stark change his… soul had gone through.

Do I have a soul? Is that what changed? The looper didn’t have any idea where the difference had originated. But he was sure of the change. Jake's words had awakened in him an understanding James had never truly felt before. He was the arbiter of this horrible situation. As much as the Loop took control, it could never take away James.

Because he rested at the core of the Loop.

It’s one fatal flaw.

Before he’d been completely unsure of himself. Always feeling like he was in deep waters, swallowed whole by chance. But Jake believed in James so vehemently that he’d managed to convince the looper of one thing.

That he was going to escape.

Not that he could, nor that he should, but that James’ release from this prison was certain. All that talk of belief had made him think, but it was Jake’s belief that caused a change inside him.

James could feel it even now, brimming inside him like an inferno where once only a spark had been. A line in the sand of time that marked the beginning of the end for the Loop.

Confidence thrummed through him, even as he planned exactly the best way to crash his dream car.

“I’m listening now. Tell me before I get another idea and start ignoring you again.” James said plainly. His mind was spinning with ideas of how to escape and ways to entertain them, but he recognised that maybe the mirror apparition of himself would know something about the magical Loop.

It made sense if you just didn’t think about it too deeply.

“As I was saying, a Source is a power granted by the system’s touch. It’s meant to be attached to a person, bound to their essence. It needs to be.”

“What do you mean it’s meant to be,” James asked.

And how do you know all this? He kept that thought in his back pocket. The looper knew Fig would pull back if he asked.

Fig didn’t answer his question. Instead, the figment of himself leaned forward in the mirror and countered with his own question in a subtle, deeper echo.

“Did you ever see what your Source was, James?”

No but what does…. James' mind was quick to the jump, slowly shuffling all the various theories he had of the Loop together until they fit in one neat puzzle. Suddenly he could see the why. Well a version of why the Loop existed that an imaginary voice in his head corresponded with, but still. Had to take the small wins in life.

“So, you’re saying my Source has something to do with the Loop.” That made sense to him. He had no examples of what a Source was, but he could use his imagination. Maybe his worked like some sort of seer ability that allowed him to remember the Loop when all others forgot.

That was his best guess.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

“No James, it’s not what you’re thinking. Your Source doesn’t protect you from the Loop.” Fig paused, then said in a smaller voice sounding almost terrified of retribution.

“It is the Loop.”

James slammed the brakes as a wave of shock too visceral to be mixed with confusion flooded into him. Fig’s imaginary head slammed into the passenger seat headrest and he whipped back, massaging it with a groan.

“James I’m so-”

“Shut it.” James snarled. His head turned to stare into the granite eyes same as his own, only shallower. Weaker. Gone was the placidy he’d grown so used to maintaining, replaced with the razor edge of the ancient horror known to the world as James Matthew Groves.

His brain was running a million miles an hour, but there was one thing he needed to know for certain.

“You’re not trying to pin the blame for this on me, are you?”

Fig held up his hands in surrender.

“No, no, that’s not what I was getting at.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Then explain,” James muttered putting his foot on the gas again.

“You didn’t cause the Loop. Your death did. When you died, your Source was already bloomed, but without a soul to bind to, it had nowhere to go.”

James calmed, sorting through the information Fig was feeding him. His Source had been formed? He remembered the golden words of the system saying something similar, but never considered that the power all Sparks seemed to possess had already been his. Then what was his Source? Was it some kind of time-power? Some kind of cycle?

Or is it simpler? James felt he knew the answer. It danced on the fringes of his mind.

“My Source is looping, isn’t it? You were being literal before.” James realised and Fig nodded at his assessment. “Mine is literally just forcing things into a loop.”

“Yes, but this.” Fig waved his hands all around them, emphasizing the magnitude of the Loop. “This shouldn’t be possible. Chronological tampering of the lightest kind is magically expensive and a horrible waste of Elixir. You can’t do this. You shouldn’t have been able to cause a timeline collapse of this scale. Your Source was newborn, you would’ve barely been able to loop matter, much less time.”

“Well, I’m sorry for messing with your timeline.” James scoffed in icy sarcasm. “But that doesn’t explain much, nor how it’s going to help me put an end to it all.”

Fig's face looked absolutely miffed, likely because James didn’t place nearly as much significance on his grandiose revelations as the imaginary man thought he would. It wasn’t that all this wasn’t welcome confirmations to guesses he’d already made, James just didn’t find them particularly important. The Loop was caused by his power? It was a shock for sure and for a brief moment it had stolen his composure. But it made sense, in hindsight. It was great to know but James didn't see how it helped him because if he had any control over the Loop itself, he felt like he would’ve-

Oh.

The cogs in his head sorted it together once again. Still, that didn’t explain the Loop itself, so he let Fig continue.

“What I’m saying is your Source, and this is just our- my, running theory, is that it must’ve…” Fig paused to swallow. “...Look, a Source needs to attach to something. It can’t just exist on its lonesome. I think… I think the Loop is attached to this day. It changed the very nature of today and the world that inhabits it so that it’s an endless loop. That's the only way to explain how it’s still going after so long. Your Source has Looped itself.”

James groaned. “That sounds difficult to deal with.”

“Impossible. At least it should be. But the Loop was formed from you. Considering you remember and you've…”

“Commanded it.” James finished for him.

He still felt the deep flooding of power that had surged within him inside the abyss. The absolute refusal forged over time forgotten that had managed to shake the Loop, if only for a moment. For just a moment, he’d done something he never thought for possible. Even if it was just a tiny moment. A minuscule little crack.

To James, it was proof of concept. That was enough. The rev meter on his GTR veered towards red as the looper floored it. He had done it once, he could do it again. And the next time he’d be ready. James knew if he managed to get his hands on the Loop one more time, he could end it for sure.

He had felt the thing waver at his will. Fig was right. The Loop was his. Now the looper realised that it made all of the power he felt inside the abyss make so much more sense. A part of him was bending time, resetting the day, and keeping back the system. It was his, he just had to take it back.

Do I even want a power like that?

No.

James didn’t want anything to do with the Loop after he left.

But if that’s the only way to leave? Taking it back.

He could live with that.

“I have a plan, and now I have proof it could work.”

He was testing me. He knew all this. He doesn’t want to help. The Loop ending serves him somehow.

James kept his lips sealed and eyes on the road, maintaining a perfect facade of ignorance. Only a twitch of his eye gave away how the looper truly felt. It was indignation mixed with curiosity. If Fig was willing to lie to him, to manipulate him then James didn’t like to imagine what else he might do.

Right now he couldn’t do anything. He was just a voice in James' head.

But that was right now.

What if escaping the Loop changed that?

He was reminded of just how insane he was when the thought of it excited him. Maybe Fig would be able to entertain him, maybe he would be able to end the looper. James couldn’t wait to find out.

Their car’s speed picked up till it was shooting down the empty country road well over 180 km an hour. And picking up speed.

“For what possible reason are we going this fast?” Fig asked, befuddled rather than fearful.

“I’ve got my plans for how to get out, you’ve got yours,” James said with a shrug. “Now tell me.”

“You’re not going to like it.”

“I don’t like living but I’m still here.”

“No. You’re really not going to like it.”

“Well then out with it.” James jeered him.

“Can we slow down first?” Fig asked weakly, leaning back and holding his stomach. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”

James grinned. “No can do. It’s a part of my plan.”

Fig made a weak sound and slouched onto the three back seats, lying down. He looked like he was about to empty the contents of his stomach over the leather. Which made no sense. “Which is?”

“You’re not going to like it.”

Fig made a sound like death. “Yeah, I probably deserved that.”

The car gained speed and kept gaining, shooting well past the 200 km per hour mark. They were racing past trees and shrubs and bushes and mountains on a thin road, with no one else to share it with. James lowered the windows and let the blasting wind flutter his baleful black hair.

He could see a sharp right turn ahead. The looper had no intention of heeding it. He’d tried ending loops before at high speeds hoping it would effect the tick over to the next Loop. But who was to say commandeering the Loop and rattling it didn’t have adverse longer lasting effects? Maybe it would work this time.

If I’m being honest. James thought to himself as the metal guard got closer and closer. I mainly just wanted to have fun.

Driving his favorite car as fast as he could into a metal guard rail was certainly a unique sense of fun. James prided himself on it.

“We’re not going to slow down, are we?” Fig was hugging the seat for dear life.

“No, we’re not.”

They were moments away from the guard rail and looper felt the anticipation, the thrill, building up in his hands on the wheel. But he wouldn’t change direction. He was going straight. At 234 kms an hour.

“This is going to suck-”

James felt the violent collision of his car hitting the rail and bending it forward. At the speed he was going, it sent his car flying forward to the tree ahead instead of simply stopping the at guard. He heard the crunching of metal and felt the airbags blow in his face. Blood ran down his head as they flew towards the tree from a piece of the windshield that had cut his face.

One of his hands was crumpled into the dash and felt like it was being strangled by the sun. Whenever he tried to breathe, it was always short.

Without the seat belt, he might’ve even flown through the window.

The truck of the tree was awfully closer than it was a second ago.

Then the world went dark.

Escape attempt 2

James expected to wake up in his bed, sleeping, as he had done a million times before. That's not what happened. Instead, the moment the Loop fluctuated and reset itself he was flung forward into the opposite wall of his room.

At a speed far from comfortable.

He crashed into the plaster wall and felt his back groan in agony as it twisted around a stud. Plaster and dust fell down on top of him, making it harder to breathe than it already was. His lungs clawed for breath and pain coursed from his back into the rest of his body.

He coughed and grabbed at his chest trying to not suffocate.

The pain was intense. The surprise was worse.

Well, that’s new. James thought, glancing at the fallen-over mess that was Michael. He was scrambling to his feet and tripping over himself in the process.

James would’ve laughed if his ribs weren’t broken.

“Guess…” The looper paused and spat out some blood. “...I broke the Loop, just a little.”

Fig, who was sitting on his bed opposite him in the mirror, nodding in agreement, cranked his neck as if he’d felt the crash through two Loops as well. “That’s a positive way to look at it.”

“So…” James coughed. “About this plan.”

“No, it doesn’t involve crashing cars ‘back to the future’ style.”

Good, don’t need more broken ribs. James thought as heaved. Mentally he ticked “high-speed collosion with the loop” off his list of ways to escape. While they’re conversation had rendered Fig’s motivations devious at best, he had real knowledge about the Loop. James could use that. Even if Fig wasn’t on James' side, it didn’t matter.

The imaginary version of himself underestimated the looper, or else he’d have never told him what he had.

Eager to hear Fig’s plan, and hopefully cross off a few ideas of his own James fumbled to his feet, pain dulled by the small victory that was disrupting the Loop. Even just a little.

His plan can’t be that bad. James assured himself.

He had no idea.