Old Me is holding onto my shoulder as we run through Clyde's apartment avoiding his chomping. I make it to his bedroom and close the door, locking the knob and the deadbolt on top. Clyde bangs on the door with intense aggression, the wood is already splinting.
"Gramps, your hand! Can you still use your rejuvenation?"
"No! Ack, this hurts! The conduit needs to be this hand. I'm going to create a synthetic one for me to use, just hold off that beast until it's ready." I watch as the inside of his severed wrist begins to expel what looks like metal threading. It creates the skeleton of a hand, but now it needs to fill in all the details of a real hand.
I notice Clyde's closet door is slightly open, The Character peeks around with one eye. "If every bad guy you've met was bested by your skills, then it's only right to assume another Ispio agent is what it takes to confirm your death. What's impressive is all I did was give Clyde a bigger mouth and made him aggressive. I didn't increase his strength or speed, he simply is just that powerful all by himself. I'm impressed."
"How's the ribcage? Still broken? Interesting that you seem to keep the damages you sustain instead of fixing them. Maybe you haven't reached that level of control yet. Sucks for you, because I'm going to keep adding injuries until you can't move."
He steps back into the closet to where I can't see him. "It's not me you need to worry about. You look tired, and Clyde's bed sure looks like a comfortable place to take a nap. Don't you think?"
I turn around and yell at Old Me sitting on the bed. "Gramps, get off the bed!"
The covers come to life and try to smother Old Me sitting at the foot. I drive into the blanket and get swallowed instead. I'm forced into a ball, and the heat inside is rising faster than normal. I wiggle around and try to find a way to break out, but I'm really stuck like this. The temperature increases to a point that I've never felt under a blanket before. It's like an oven. It's trying to cook me!
"Help! I'm burning up!"
I feel tugging, but nothing changes. "I can't get it off! I can't snap it back to threading either!"
"The closet! The one The Character was hiding in! Clyde keeps fabric softener there!"
I hear Old Me running to the closet, and I still hear the door slowly being broken down. By the sound of the splints, I can guess we've got maybe another minute before it comes down. I feel the fabric softener splashing the outside of the blanket, instantly cooling me and also freeing me from its death grip.
"Thanks!"
"We've still got Big-Tooth Clyde to worry about."
"Your hand?"
"Almost done."
I flip the mattress off its frame and slam it against the door. Then I shove the dresser in front of it and push against both of them with my body. Clyde seems to notice the new barricade and starts hitting the door with big shoulder tackles. Each one pops me off the door, and I have to scurry back to brace again.
"It's finished! It's all chrome for now, but I'll add the color later."
Clyde's final tackle busts the door down, knocks the dresser to the floor and pushes the mattress all the way to the other wall with me being squished behind it. I hear a snap, the mattress falls on the floor, and I see a baby Clyde sitting on the floor in just a diaper.
"He's cuter this way anyhow," Old Me says.
I kneel down in front of baby Clyde and take off the safety pin keeping his diaper on. It unfurls and he starts to crawl around naked. I use it to make a slit in the mattress big enough for my claws to fit in and tear open the hole wider. I reach in and pull out Clyde's backup gun, Generous. Not his favorite like Conviction, but a strong gun nonetheless.
It's loaded.
"Now that's a sight I haven't seen in a while," Old Me says.
"What, this gun?"
"Nope. Look at where we are now."
We're not in Clyde's apartment anymore. We're in the Hartford headquarters of Ispio. Nobody is here, just us.
"This is a big place, how are we going to find The Character now?"
I get up and conceal the gun. "Actually, I have a strong feeling I know where he's going."
Old Me looks a little confused, but then it clicks in his mind. "Right. Let's corner him."
We sprint down the hall and find Adams' office. He snaps the door into planks and lets them fall down. The Character sits in Adams' chair scrolling through her computer. Then he swivels the monitor to show us the screen. It has my portfolio on it.
"I always thought something was off about you, Agent Hearth."
"What can I say, we all keep our secrets."
"This whole time, organizations have fallen victim to your charms and disguises, but I assumed it was because you just knew your way around manipulation and reading people. This, however, on your file, is something I never would've guessed. Tell me, was this a gift from Ispio, or perhaps your very experimental father?"
"Daddy was working on chemical manipulations for hormones, and guess who forgot to seal away the highly reactive serum? Little me got into it, and a week later, I discovered people would do as I say if I bat my eyes and shake my tail."
"Genetically modified pheromones. It's quite fitting. The master of charisma was cheating all along. Did you manipulate Clyde into falling in love with you as well?"
"Interview is over. Let's cut the camera on this one."
The glass vase sitting on Carlotta's desk shakes violently, the flowers inside shoot out and try to absorb our bodies with sped-up photosynthesis. My skin becomes luminescent, and particles of it are being sucked in by the pile of flowers.
Old Me rejuvenates the flowers back into seeds. The Character stands up and kicks the glass vase at us. I catch it and throw it back at his face. Old Me snaps the vase back into sand, and it blinds The Character as it splashes into his eyes. I draw Generous and shoot three bullets into his chest.
Gun smoke fills the room, but then it spreads out as the enclosed office transforms back into the original room we started in with the set of stairs and the glass case. The Character lies on his back, blood pumping through the holes in his body. He breathes weakly, and he gurgles occasionally as blood fills his mouth. The Animatrix rests only a few feet away from him. It doesn't matter, he never built up the talent to fix his injuries, and it's useless to him now.
The Character sputters as he talks, blood spitting from behind his teeth. "I was too slow. I was supposed to be stronger before Ispio found out about The Key. How did this happen? The reality was supposed to be that you were too late."
Old Me stands over him. "You only saw the reality in which you're present. You couldn't predict a different reality further in the future coming here and adding an anomaly. As much as fate exists, bizarre things can still happen."
The Character draws his last breath and the light in his eyes fades away. "Grab the Animatrix!" I shout at Old Me. He completely ignores it and starts climbing the stairs where the laser security is keeping the glass case safe.
"What are you doing?"
He kneels down at one of the tiny mirrors bouncing the laser off. The laser grid is interrupted, but no alarm sounds as he removes the mirror and puts it in his pocket.
"I didn't come here for the relic. I came for this particular mirror in this particular room on this particular laser security grid."
"What? Why?"
"Because I miss Clyde. This mirror is all it takes to make sure he lives a long life by my side."
"Wait, what about the Animatrix? You're just going to let it be here where anyone can use this for world domination?"
Old Me descends the stairs. "The way I see it, I never knew The Character. With him dead, there must not be another living being that is able to control the relic the way he did. Sure, he mentioned something about people being able to use random abilities with it, but nothing so dangerous as to end the world as he planned. Let the Key have it, they can't do anything with it now."
I glance at the relic glowing ominously on the floor. Just let the Key have it? If future me isn't worried about it, then I guess there's a point to be made here. "This is by far the weirdest mission I've ever been on. Technically I did it solo since you're me and all."
"Stay breathing, beautiful, things only get odder from here. I'm leaving back to save Clyde in my time. I'll rejuvenate your molecules back to liquid. You'll be carried to your home through condensation."
"That's how you've been getting around town without a vehicle?"
"Cool, huh?"
"One last thing. In that weird script dimension we were in, the text called your rejuvenation a superpower. That rejuvenation ability. Is that technology…or is it something else?"
"Expecting to get superpowers in the future?" He pauses, his eyes wandering the ceiling before smirking and looking back at me. "Technology is great, I can't get enough of it, but your blood is special. One day, you'll notice something different about yourself, something strange about the way your body feels, and you won't know what until much later. Good luck, and have faith."
With a snap of his fingers, I'm turned into water molecules and fly through the air that seems to take me straight back home. The effect dissipates, my body turns back to normal, and I'm laying in the grass of my front yard. A car pulls up into my driveway and parks behind my car. Clyde exits the vehicle looking like his usual self. He's stunned to see me sprawled out in the grass.
"You're in the grass," he says.
"Yes, I am."
"Is the reason that you are in the grass something I should know about?"
"I guess not."
"You look very pretty today."
"I missed you. I love you."
"I love you too. Can we talk again?"
"Talk?"
"As in, see other again? I miss you too."
"I would love that."