User blog:Seieireppa/God Eater: The Butterfly Effect, chapter 4: Asgard

Asgard.

According to the organization’s public information, the name was an acronym. Applied Sciences for Generated Alternate Reality Detection. Under the guidance of one Silas Smith, this group had succeeded in overcoming massive hurdles with regards to research and development of technologies to detect and interface with the past directly.

From the files that had been dug up in the past four or five centuries, the people of the new golden age had learned of the world that had come before—of humanity’s struggle against the Aragami, of Fenrir, of the God Eaters, and of the efforts of one Willard Knox in revitalizing the planet, breathing life into an Earth ravaged beyond repair by a threat beyond human comprehension.

And now, that very same Willard Knox stood in Asgard’s headquarters, in the wing devoted to the group’s Renewal Project.

He had been called here from the future by Silas Smith, called by memories he didn’t know he had. But one way or another, as these things tend to go, here he was, and here too was Silas, and everything was about to come to light.

“Before we begin,” spoke Silas, dusting himself off and extending a hand, “let me just say thank you. On behalf of every human being alive today, thank you. We know not how you did it, but you gave humanity, you gave this entire planet, a second chance.”

Will merely stood there, unsure how to react. To him, this was just another place, another time. The fact that it was through his own actions that this world even came to be was, well, more than a bit difficult to wrap his head around.

“You’re welcome… I suppose?”  Will’s response was unsteady and hesitant as he returned Silas’ handshake. “But… I don’t suppose you could tell me what’s going on here?”

“Gladly,” came Silas’ reply as he brought up a floating holographic display with a flick of his hand. “I’m sure you’re more than familiar with this man, correct?”

On the display was the face of an individual Will knew all too well. A man he had worked together with a multitude of others in order to defeat, in order to save his future, all futures, from certain destruction.

“Isaac Feldman…” Will began, clenching his fists.

Silas grinned an assured grin, pushing up his glasses. “I see that that’s a ‘yes,’ then,” he mused, flipping the display to one that displayed a number of branching parallel lines. “Through our own research and investigation of the past at Asgard, we’ve discovered evidence of Feldman’s existence in every single timeline we’ve come across… every single one, that is, except for one.”

Silas tapped the floating display and pinched outwards, causing it to zoom in on a particular line and single it out from the rest.

“In this timeline,” Silas continued, “Isaac Feldman does not exist… and it is this timeline that prompted me to call you here. Tell me, Willard—“

“—Just ‘Will’ is fine.”  Will’s response was short and to the point.

“… very well, Will. Tell me, what do you notice about this timeline?”

Will looked the display over, scanning it back and forth until he noticed a particular something out of place.

“This line…” Will began, his gaze fixated on the display. “This one line, it just stops. Right there, it stops entirely all of a sudden.”

“Correct,” came Silas’ reply. “In the timeline where Isaac Feldman does not exist, time itself comes to a sudden and abrupt halt on January 29th, 2183. As though reaching the end of a video file, nothing more can be seen after that point… as though the flow of time simply ceased to exist.”

Instantly, Will leapt to attention. “January 29th? But… that’s my 23rd birthday! That’s the day I made my last recording! What could that…!?”

“Ah yes, the recordings.”  Silas gave another smirk as he switched the display to an index of audio files. “Rest assured that we have gone over the Knox Archives in great, great detail. They were the only things that survived from that time period that we were able to find for a very long time, so it was thanks to your diligent efforts that we were able to piece together what happened in humanity’s final days before the inception of Operation Looking Glass.”

Silas cast his eyes towards the ground. “Although… I’m sorry about what happened to your mother. It must have been hard, ending her life with your own—”

Silas’ words were instantly cut off by Will’s fist impacting his face, sending him sprawling across the floor and smashing into a shelf, knocking loose a collection of files that proceeded to land directly on his head.

“Don’t you…” Will began, his face a countenance of rage. “Don’t you EVER speak of my mother with your tactless fucking mouth! I won’t have you staining the name of… wait, that’s weird… why can’t I…?”

“Why can’t you… what?”  Silas was puzzled by Will’s reaction. Why couldn’t he what, exactly?”

“My mother…” came the voice of Will, who now clutched at his head in confusion. “My… what…? Who is… she…?”

Silas scratched at his scalp. “Well,” he began, “the Knox Archives are still intact, so we can look there for answers—”

“Don’t bother. I never mentioned their names… I remember that much, at least.”  Will stood up straight and dusted himself off.

“‘Their’ names?” Silas inquired. “Do you mean…?”

“Yeah,” Will responded. “My father… the details are fuzzy, but for some reason, his image is clear in my mind, even if his name isn’t. Brown skin, silver hair, brilliant red eyes… I remember him clear as day.”

“Hmm…”  Silas mumbled to himself as he entered the information into a database. “No one matching that description exists in our database. You sure about that memory of yours?”

Will nodded. “I couldn’t be more sure.”

“In that case…”  Silas trailed off, before remembering something else. “That technique I passed onto you… did you master it?”

Will gave a confident smirk in response. “How do you think I got here?”

At this, Silas let out a small chuckle. “Haha… true enough, I suppose. Anyway, let’s lay out the plan of action.”

“The plan?”

“Of course there’s a plan!” exclaimed Silas, indignant. “What do you think I’ve been doing all this time?!”

“I dunno… scratching your ass?”  Will suppressed a snicker, but Silas was having none of it. He lashed out at Will with his fist, only to have the latter dodge out of the way and grab Silas’ fist as if it were as slow as a turtle.

“Listen, Mr. Scientist,” spoke Will, a threatening tone tingeing his voice. “You want me to help you or not? You stuck this stuff into my brain and told me to come here, to this time, right when I was ready to settle down and start a new life for myself. So either you keep yourself in line or I’m out. Got it?”

Silas kept a stone-faced expression, but a subtle nod was all he had to give in response. He knew when he had met his match.

“So anyway… what’s this plan of yours?”  Will spoke these words calmly, taking a deep breath as he released Silas’ fist from his grasp.

“The plan,” spoke Silas, straightening himself out, “is as follows. We use your technique I passed onto you to take us to a number of key dates throughout history. Our principal goal, of course, is to find out why history seems to stop altogether in the one timeline where Isaac Feldman does not exist, and subsequently why it is that Isaac Feldman does not exist in that one timeline. To this end, we will first travel to the year 2045, to a certain town on the western edge of the continent formerly known as North America, in the country of the United States. It was there, and then, that Isaac Feldman was born.”

“But you know all that already!” came Will’s response. “That’s what your files are for, right? They’ve already told you all of that! So why—”

“—Let me finish.”  Silas cut Will off swiftly and succinctly. “You are correct in that, Will… but that’s not why we’re doing this. Since there is one timeline in which Isaac Feldman does not exist… something must have happened instead. Someone must have been born in Feldman’s place… and it’s this person who has to be the key to all of this.”

Will was still skeptical. “What makes you think that it’s this person who has to be the key? What’s to say that it wasn’t any other given difference in the timelines?”

“Have you forgotten Operation Looking Glass?” retorted Silas. “We’ve analyzed the divergence factor between the different timelines countless times… and in this one timeline, Isaac Feldman’s nonexistence is the only difference that effects a large enough divergence factor to influence any major changes. So our first stop will be there… in World Line Prime, at the moment of ‘Isaac Feldman’s’ birth.”

“Alright,” responded Will, “so when do we leave?”

Silas smiled a mischievous grin.

“Right now.”

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