I slowly awoke to an unfamiliar environment. All around me, I saw trees. Lots of trees, leading me to believe that I was in some kind of forest. Looking down, I saw that I was lying on some kind of wood, yet it felt so nice. Imagine if there was some kind of magic that made wood feel like a bed. From the darkness, emerged a rather energetic looking Viktor.
"Morning, Jeffrey."
I sat up, rubbing the drowsiness from my eyes.
"Morning, Viktor. Mind filling me on some things?"
Viktor nodded with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. He pulled a wooden chair next to my makeshift-almost-bed and sat down with one leg crossed over the other.
"There's a lot I want to tell you. First off, how much do you remember from the Maze?"
I recalled a lot of things from the Maze. In fact, pretty much everything. I retold the story of me dying and exactly what I remembered and did each time. He nodded along, pulling out his fingers to count on every so often. When I finished with what happened before we blacked out, he nodded.
"Alright, yeah, that's pretty much everything. I think it's high time I tell you the full extent of my plan."
I nodded, my body shivering with anticipation. I could hardly keep myself contained while we prepared his next words. This was it, everything that's happened until now has led to this moment. Viktor's plan was so complicated, even I couldn't figure it out. At least, not the full scope of it, nor could I prevent even what I did know.
"You probably think it starts with the Maze. Well, it sort of does. Let me explain," He paused, then thought for a bit. I assumed it was all for revenge, but now, I don't know. I remember Viktor mentioned something about Fredrick, but we kind of had our little conversation back then cut short by mildly important actions, such as death. "So, before we first met up, I was raised in a lab. Not exactly a lab, but basically a lab. From birth, I was supposed to be made into a superhuman. A perfect human. It was me and Fredrick and several other abandoned children. Us against that place. Fredrick was always so detached, and always so perfect. No matter what I did, I couldn't live up to his image. We would be compared, constantly. I was passing the program, in fact, Fredrick and I were the only ones who did, but that wasn't good enough for them. After a while, Fredrick was reunited with his birth parents, since they gave him up for the project."
Viktor paused, then wiped some tears that were starting to form in his eyes.
"Sorry, this topic is rather emotional for me."
I nodded, patting him on the back.
"Don't worry, man. Take your time."
He nodded, then took a deep breath.
"More about the project and Arcane Syndicate as a whole will be revealed to you when you and TJ meet up. I purposely let some information slip to allow him to find what he needs to help you. But back to my story, I was miserable. From all the books I had read, the one thing characters had that I was missing was always the same. It was love. Nobody loved me. Fredrick and I cared for each other deeply, and eventually we formed a bond like one would have with a brother, but it wasn't real love. Fredrick got that. I didn't. I resented him for it, since he never appreciated it. He learned about love, but never learned to experience it himself. I wanted to change that. I had to leave. That place was doing things to me, they were trying to turn me into a monster, telling me that humans were monsters. Fredrick went along with it, he had no other intuition otherwise. I kept all those books to myself, realizing I deprecated Fredrick from these same feelings I had.
"I escaped. It took me a long time to plan out, but I escaped. There were several things I had to do before I came to Virginia. I had to find one of the magic items, this one was one of the smaller ones, one that even the Arcane Syndicate barely knew. It took me so long, probably about a year of research, planning, and searching, but I found it. More on that later, but for now, let's skip forward to when you and I met. I remembered in one of my lessons that the Watch of Eternity was located in Virginia. The only other one I knew about at the time was the Glass of Time, and my ass was not flying all the way out to Iraq alone. But when I stumbled across you, things changed. You seemed very different, you stopped. When you saw me, you stopped. And you tried to help me, although you were trying to gauge if I'd hurt you or not. Your thoughts appear quite easily on your face, by the way. That was when I changed plans, we would head to Iraq and attempt to get that hourglass together."
He paused, then looked at me.
"Tell me the truth. Why did you choose what you chose?"
I took a deep breath, then sighed.
"I told you before, I had no memories. I was placed in that room and had no idea what my name even was. The choice was obvious, I didn't know who you were, you were a stranger to that me. I chose myself, for all I knew, you could've been some serial killer that I almost killed myself for."
Viktor paused, then thought for a moment.
"...killed yourself for?"
"Did they lie about that too? It was my life or yours."
"Huh, interesting…" Viktor stood up and started pacing around. "They told me that if you chose yourself I'd die, but if you chose to save me we'd both get off without so much as a scratch. I suspected it was a lie, but I trusted you. Watching you walk away like that broke me more than anything else."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay, I've already forgiven you. Now, it's my turn to apologize for dragging you into all of this."
"It's okay, Viktor. Maybe someday after this we can go get a root beer together and laugh, looking back at all this."
Viktor looked up and gave me a sad smile.
"As fun as that sounds, it will probably never happen. Let me finish explaining the rest of my plan."
I nodded.
"So after that, I changed courses. You contradicted my view on humanity at that time. After seeing that, I went to go and study humanity for myself. I'll tell you about that another time, let's just say it didn't go well. I got myself a girlfriend, and treated her like shit to put it lightly. It was a valuable experience, though, and I hope all these pieces fall into place the way I expected them to. If not, I'll have ruined people for no reason…"
He stopped, deep in thought.
"Sorry, off-topic. Continuing on, this person is very good at probing people, she's shown me that she has a very high level of emotional intelligence. I think she'll do the job quite nicely. Now, you gave me a better idea than before. At that point in time, I decided to sacrifice myself to bring about a change in Fredrick. If I, someone who can feel remorse, could do what I did to someone, then I am terrified to see what Fredrick would do. So, I have to change him. I am going to make him human again. That's my plan. I orchestrated a large series of events in order for this to work. The person who I dated back then was perfect for this, making my life significantly easier, since it made the search for the person I would use to directly spark this change in Fredrick rather simple. During our time together, I dropped hints about the Arcane Syndicate and even put in a good word for her specifically when I learned she did actually apply to be a guard.
"After that, all my stones were set back into place. Returning to the Arcane Syndicate was easy enough, since they had sent a lot of people out to search for me, and when I returned they were mad, but I knew they wouldn't do anything to me since they needed me for their final project as much as they needed Fredrick. Before you ask, I'd love to tell you about that, but I feel like it'd be much more interesting if you were able to figure that one out on your own accord. Then, all that was left to finish my education. After that, we'd be released to search for the watch. I had faith you'd be able to find the watch before Fredrick. I knew he'd like to take his time, especially since he didn't know you were there, and I doubted he'd figure you out too easily. Turns out my profiles on you two are very accurate, since that all happened just as I had hoped. Anyway, I knew Mr. Thorne was next in line after Fredrick, since I was 'sick'. When I heard what was happening that one day, I couldn't help myself. I just had to show up and make a dramatic entrance as usual. Anyway, I'm sure you can piece together what happened after that. That guard got assigned to Fredrick's mission, this may or may not be because of me. So now she's starting to probe him, challenge his ideas of humanity. Right when the tension is thick, the worst possible thing is going to happen."
Viktor paused, then stopped and turned towards me.
"I am going to die."
I gasped.
"Holy shit…" I muttered, my hands clamping my mouth.
"You have no idea of all the effort and thought I had to put in that plan. All of that to reach this point. We're not done yet, but almost. I am going to need you to do something for me if you don't mind. First, we need to get out of here."
After the initial wave of shock left, I remembered something important.
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
Viktor paused, blanking.
"How'd you escape from the Maze of Archon, you're supposed to be dead."
"Oh yeah, easy oversight. Once you left, both Aion and that other being you see before we blacked out just now were there, ready to kill me. However, I was able to manipulate them into sparing my life, in exchange for yours. I knew that we'd return to play the Paradox Game again, and I knew it'd be after Fredrick played his match against Aion. Fredrick easily outclasses Aion, especially in situations like these, so my faith was in Fredrick. Which created our winning opportunity."
I was stunned. Viktor perfectly planned out and foresaw years worth of events.
"Impressive Viktor. You truly are amazing."
He smiled.
"Thanks. Now, for what I need you to do."
He made his way towards me.
"Once we leave this place, I am going to call Fredrick. When he picks up, I'll give you the phone. Just be silent for a bit, then I'll help you with what to do."
He then reached into his pocket, and pulled out his phone.
"Think you could do that for me?" I paused. Why should I help Fredrick? Isn't he supposed to be my enemy? Whose side was Viktor on anyway?
But all of a sudden, I had a brilliant idea.
"Yeah, I can do that."
Viktor smiled."Thanks, Jeffrey. Now, it's high time we get out of here."
I pulled myself off the fake bed and stood up.
"Yeah, I was wondering about that."
Viktor turned to the left."I know the way, follow me."
I followed through dark foliage that blocked out the light of the sun, leaving our only light the fireflies that fluttered around our eyes. The heat was impressive, leaving my shirt damp and me fanning my face.
After a few minutes, we appeared near some kind of door, in the middle of nowhere. There were vines growing on it, and trees right around it.
"This is it. When we both go through the door, we'll be back in the real world."
I frowned.
"Real world? Where are we right now, then?"
Viktor paused, leaning slightly forward. Sweat was dripping from his brow, creating a puddle around his feet.
"It's hard to explain, but basically, it's like a temporary realm. It'll fade soon, so we better get back."
I nodded, I'll have to figure out more about magic soon.
Viktor stepped forward and pushed the door open. A giant flash of light was let out. I turned to cover my eyes, but after the light faded, all I could see inside the door was a wall of light.
"Come on," Viktor said, "I'll go first."
With that, Viktor stepped through the door. I debated leaving him, but I didn't want to find out if this realm fading was a bluff or not, and also it wouldn't do me any good either way.
I stepped through the door.
When I stepped through, I was back at my house. Viktor was also here.
"Don't worry about being traced, the Arcane Syndicate cannot trace my phone."
Viktor said as he dialed a number.
This was it.
I grabbed the phone and held it out. Very soon, it picked up.
"Vik! What the fuck took you so long? I've been so worried." A shaky voice answered. I looked up at "Vik" and he held out his hand for me to wait.
Wait I shall.
The silence was deafening, to the point where I could hear my ears ringing.
Then, Fredrick broke the silence.
"Vik, come on, man! What's going on, you won, right?" My nerves were growing so much, I felt like I was about to pass out.
More silence.
"Vik, this isn't funny! Where the fuck are you?"
Vik began to start trying to sign something in sign language, but I had a good idea of what to do.
"I'm sorry, Fredrick. I have some bad news for you."
After a tense moment, Fredrick appeared to recognize me.
"Jeffrey Thompson."
"Shush, I am trying to tell you something!" I allowed myself to say in a musing tone, then looked to see how I was doing. He signed that he liked what I was doing, then told me something interesting.
I am dead.
Interesting…
"What the FUCK did you do to him?"
"Well, it seems you've figured it out…
"Viktor Hale is dead."
I said quickly and hung up the phone. Viktor clapped slowly and took his phone back.
"Admirable performance." He said dryly.
"Thanks," I grumbled out. "Now what?"
"Well, pretty obvious, right?" He said, his voice growing cocky.
Then it dawned on me.
"Fredrick is going to hunt me down now, isn't he?"
Viktor nodded.
"Here's this." He tossed me what appeared to be a small cube. There were several buttons on it, and it was fucking heavy. When I caught it, the damn thing nearly brought me to the ground.
"The fuck is this?"
"It's another magic device, although this one is minor. The people who made the 4 main magic items created small ones that aren't as strong as the others, but can still be useful. This one makes all the people in a building forget who you are. I've already used it so everyone in the school doesn't remember you. The effects will wear off after a week. So basically, you get a week to get a head start. Good luck!"
I sat there.
"So basically… I'm now essentially an escaped prisoner and Fredrick is going to hunt me down like a dog. Am I getting this right?"
Viktor paused.
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Great."
This was going to be very interesting.