Black, that's what he saw when Andrew looked at the younger version of himself. Black eyes, no distinct features, eyes that appeared to be completely void of anything, as the red strings attached to the sound child's body seemingly pulled him back to what he was previously doing. Andrew watched as this younger version of himself, carefully picked up a pencil and went back to seemingly drawing something.
As he continued to observe his younger form, Andrew's eyes found the imperceptible strings that appeared to be attached to the boy. Each limb and joint when observed closely possessed a barely perceptible colorless string. Each string attached to a section of the boy floated upwards into nothing as if they had a will of their own.
Among the strings, one string stood out, more obvious than the rest, a golden string that seemed to be connected to the top of the boy's head. Andrew felt drawn in and interested by this golden string that stood out among the others as he lifted his hand and touched the string. At the moment this had happened, the boy who had appeared as a younger version of himself stilled.
The sound of pencil on paper stopped instantly, as the room grew eerily soft, only the sound of his breath echoed through the white room. In an instant, the golden string which he had touched snapped, and the rest of the colorless strings fell limp as if they were no longer held up by anything. His younger self fell limp along with the strings as the boy's head slammed onto the table as if he had passed out.
Andrew instantly grew anxious, he barely understood what was happening, as the room started to shake. Cracks started to appear among the walls, growing in size, crawling and consuming the entire room. The anxiety in Andrew's heart grew as he slammed his eyes shut to brace for whatever was about to happen next.
In a moment, the entire room seemed to shatter. As all that was left in this dark void was Andrew. His past child and his current adult form, floating and facing each other within this void.
Andrew opened his eyes within the void and looked around, the vast expanse of emptiness that seemed to stare back at him. An endless abyss, where he felt so cold, so vulnerable, so alone. As he turned his head towards his younger form, he felt the air surrounding his younger form change.
The black faded from the young Andrew's eyes, and a gasp echoed out as the younger child's body seemed to convulse and take in a deep breath. Young Andrew stopped and lifted his head to face his older form. At that moment both their eyes made contact and grey met grey, the younger Andrew's faced his elder form as he spoke, his voice eerie and cold.
"Do you regret it"
Confused Andrew responded
"Regret what?"
"Everything"
"I…"
Unable to respond his younger counterpart continued to speak.
"Did you want to change it?"
Silence rang through the void for what seemed to be forever, before Andrew replied.
"Yes"
"What would you do."
"Anything, Everything"
The void itself seemed to vibrate around Andrew as everything seemed to shatter. As his younger counterpart now seemingly slowly faded to dust. Andrew felt a heavy pressure start to weigh on him. A voice then echoed as the void fell apart around him, like a declaration that could never be forgotten.
"What once was shackled has now been freed."
In an instant, Andrew woke up gasping and panting as he sat up from his bed. Andrew paused and stilled as he realized something wrong. The last time he had checked he never had a bed. When the earth was overrun, Andrew spent a large amount of time running from place to place, the closest thing he had to a bed was a bunch of leaves or a sturdy rock for the last five years.
As he looked around Andrew realized where he was, a room he hadn't seen in 30 years, his own bedroom. White walls, blue sheets, posters of past singers, a messy desk filled with sketches, and a decent-sized wardrobe.
Trying to get his bearings he stood up and walked towards the mirror.
What he saw made him shudder. His face which had been aged by stress, by war, by loss was nowhere to be seen. The muscles and scars which he gained from fighting for decades on end were gone. What stood in front of him was the young visage of a 25-year-old half-Asian man with jet-black hair and grey eyes.
"Impossible, no this must be an illusion"
Unwilling to be trapped, Andrew tried to dispel whatever illusion that seemingly kept him here. However, there was an issue, he could no longer feel any Aether. The energy that once allowed him to go toe to toe with beings of myth no longer existed in his body.
Feeling a panic start to settle within him, he immediately walked towards his bedroom door, he didn't know who had brought him but they had better be ready to fight. As he slowly opened the bedroom door, his eye immediately widened and his heart shook. Sitting in the middle of the living room were his parents, smiling, chatting, laughing, and watching TV.
Impossible.
His mind ran through every scenario to try to rationalize what was happening. Believing the illusion to be stronger than he thought, Andrew quickly went back into his room.
He sat down cross-legged and this time attempted to try once more to connect to the Aether and dispel this illusion. He closed his eyes as he tried to feel the Aether surrounding him and searched for the sensation of Aether within his body.
As time passed he was unsure how long he had sat there.
Until Andrew felt something, a thin trace of Aether within his body so minuscule, he might have missed it if he wasn't concentrating. Latching onto that sliver of Aether as hard as could, he tried to utilize and mold it in such a way that it dispels the surrounding illusions.
Immediately a faint wave of Aether burst from his body. As Andrew opened his eyes he realized something was wrong. The illusion hadn't been dispelled, or maybe this wasn't an illusion at all.
Realizing what could have been, Andrew quickly reached his old phone near his bed to check the date.
[2023, February 20]
He had traveled about 30 years into the past 2 months before the Alaskan dungeon collapse. Two months before the earth began the march to destruction. Turning on the camera on his phone, Andrew observed himself once more, his features reflected in his phone, black hair a generally shaggy appearance and striking grey eyes.
As his mind began to comprehend his situation, Andrew, placed his phone back down on his side and laid back down on his bed looking up in a daze to the roof of his room.
What did it mean, how was he able to travel back in time, these were thoughts and questions that flew through his mind. Immediately his eyes grew cold, he had heard of powerful abilities before, rumors of various "blessed" around the world with abilities beyond the norm going as far to affect space and time itself. The cause for his jump back in time couldn't be any pure accident. Someone was either messing with him or he had been given a second chance. Despite that, he knew he couldn't afford to waste this chance. If it turned out that someone was attempting to use him as a pawn for their plans, then once he found them there would be nowhere in existence for them to hide.
Overall, the future would be bleak that is for sure, but he would try to change it. However this wasn't out of some sense of justice and atonement no, he knew he wasn't a savior nor was he a hero, but he would do anything in this life to keep his family safe.
He would survive.
As he laid back down on his bed he looked up and remembered the final words that he had heard within the void.
In a dazed mutter, Andrew spoke.
"I am free"