Gacha God: Your own worst enemy (ch. 38) (Patreon)

No. No. No, no, nonononono. No. No fucking way. This shit is precisely why I had time travel so shit like this didn't need to happen. So it wouldn't happen. I just had to wind back the clock and snip this shit right in the bud.

"You piece of filth," I snarled at Kilgrave, kicking him in the face before I threw him right back into his own personal hell. Right from the start. I never really considered myself a malicious person, but his screams were fucking music to my ears as I ran a hand through my hair and I found myself pacing. "Fuck. Fucking fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck a fucking duck. Fuck!" I cursed, my mind racing a mile a second.

Because the situation just got a lot more complicated.

"How can Future Me not know?" I asked myself the question, and I was struggling to find an answer. The sequence of events was easy enough to puzzle out -- Future Me got dropped by a mind controlled Peter. Most likely, he pulled the same trick that I did to escape. He would then wind back the clock, pointing me in this direction… but that completely fell apart. That didn't make any sense.

I could maybe see an argument for Future Me leading me to this sequence of events if he thought it was important for Peter to know more about my true nature. Or, maybe, he wanted to drive the point home about the dangers of being a hero and biting off more than he could chew. Maybe. It was tough love, but I could see it happening in the right circumstances. But… this…

Why was I here? Why did Future Me lead me to this aquarium? Why wouldn't he warn me about Peter? Why wouldn't there be a warning about Peter's Aunt and Uncle?

If Future Me had all that information, then the current circumstances made absolutely no sense. If it was me, I would tell a Past Me the relevant information. I would instruct him to kill Kilgrave instead of bothering to restrain him while I would stop Peter from carrying out Kilgraves orders. Jessica might be pissed, but that was vastly preferable to this mess. That's what I would do, and I struggled to find a reason why a Future Me wouldn't go down that sequence of events. Why would he instead lead me into this trap?

There was only one logical answer.

Future Me was not on my side.

Future Me was my enemy.

"You fucker," I cursed, coming to a stop as Kilgrave reached the end of his life, so I threw him back at the beginning. "You got got," I realized. That was the only thing that made any sense. Future Me led me into a trap because he failed to get the better of Kilgrave before he gave an order that made him loyal. He took advantage of my trust in the messages and forced me into a situation where I would end up mind controlled. Me breaking out of it was the plan going wrong rather than it going right.

I grit my teeth. I was going to kill him. How dare he lose to trash tier mind control? He had to die as a matter of principle.

"P-please… please-" Kilgrave rasped out, reaching the present day and with a dismissive gesture, I sent him right back to the start. I was in no mood to deal with him at the moment. A big problem had just landed in my lap and I needed to take advantage of the time dilation to think of a solution, because I was one wrong move away from getting locked into the bad timeline. If Future Me really was still a puppet to Kilgrave, that meant I had to figure out his motivation and his next move.

Looking at it from the point of view that I was supposed to be enthralled by Kilgrave… what was the point? What was supposed to be accomplished?

Kilgrave getting his hands on two Audacities? Why? Future Me would have told him that wouldn't accomplish anything. My power wasn't dependent on the timeline and my items couldn't be duplicated. There was no inherent benefit of enthralling me when he already had a Future Me. So, either Kilgrave didn't listen… or…

"He's dead," I theorized, pinching my chin. It fits. "If Kilgrave said something like, 'Be absolutely loyal to me' then that would cover using the Time Turner to bring him back to life." It seemed to be the most likely, but that had some issues as well. Why bother leading me here? Why not just kill me? The Evil Me could take my place in the timeline and the sequence of events would play out however he wanted. I just didn't see what Evil Me had to gain from leading me into the trap. Why couldn't he have just approached the still living Kilgrave? It would be simpler that way.

I crossed my arms and sat on the ground, oblivious and uncaring to Kilgrave's torment. "I'm missing information," I muttered to myself. There was still a piece of the puzzle that I was missing. But, for now, I did have more immediate problems. "And I'm still under Kilgrave's control."

Here? In my illusionary world? I was in control, but Kilgrave was still in control of my body. The moment we went back to reality, I would still be under his control for another twelve hours. At best, that meant I would be standing still uselessly for another half day. Worst case scenario would be that Kilgrave puts himself together well enough that he gives another order. Given what I saw of him, he's a spiteful bitch, so he'd order me to kill myself or something.

Meaning that I needed to do one of two things -- kill him as soon as I exited the illusionary world and hoped that would relinquish his control over me… or I could mind break him into voluntarily breaking that control.

"Stop… please… just… just stop…!" Kilgrave begged as he left the spin cycle again. He was more resilient than I had expected him to be. Honestly, I figured he'd be insane by now. Instead, he was holding on by his fingernails. Though, that could just be the issue of becoming familiar with what he put other people through. You could gain a resistance to anything, including empathy.

I looked at him and considered my options. I could break him down. It might take a bit but basic logic said the longer I spent in the illusionary world, the more fucked I was going to be when I stepped out of it. My eyes bled from brief uses, and I'm guessing it was going to take an extended stay to break his mind just how I wanted. Nah… nah, it was just easier to kill him. More than that, I really wanted to kill him. Not to mention the fact that it might be enough to unfuck the situation.

If Kilgrave died, that could free Future Me.

But first…

"Fine," I told Kilgrave before I pretended to drop the illusion. We appeared back in the room with me standing directly across from him. Kilgraves eyes widened before he snarled.

"KILL YOURSELF!" Kilgrave screamed at me without any hesitation. He really was made of sterner stuff than I gave him credit for. Right back at it after an odd eighty years of being the whipping boy. However, that snarl morphed into fear when I didn't obey his commands. Instead, I simply smiled.

"Kill yourself," I returned, and Kilgrave was forced to obey and chewed off his own tongue. "I learned a lot from my old man. Though, I'm pretty sure I learned all the wrong lessons. But, he did teach me exactly how to break someone. How to see where someone is strong… where they are weak… and how to apply just enough pressure…" I trailed off, Kilgrave erupting on flames and he screamed in pure agony as his flesh burned away..

"Stop- Stop! STOP!" Kilgrave begged as I began the cycle anew. This was another approach. Flood him with so much stimulation that he would be in shock when I did finally drop the illusion. So, I started getting heavy handed with it -- fire, lightning, darkness, rupturing his eardrums with loud sounds, that sort of thing, and I just bombarded him with it over and over and over until I pretended to drop the illusion. Once again, we were in the room and I stood before him.

Kilgrave continued to howl, but he said nothing. I twisted the dial on time, letting him think it was moving a great deal faster than what it was before, letting him think that twelve hours had passed.

"God, that was boring," I said, approaching him as I summoned the totem pole-

"Kill yourself," Kilgrave whispered, almost afraid. His gaze was desperate as he looked up at me. I paused just long enough for hope to blossom in his eyes before I brought the staff down.

Thus the cycle began anew. Once. Twice. A third time. Each time Kilgrave became more and more cautious of the illusion becoming dropped, and he became his victims -- constantly looking for a way out. A slip in my control. That one golden opportunity that meant freedom, but it would require patience.

Which is why he did nothing when I did drop the illusion.

I was back being trapped in my own body and Kilgrave collapsed from everything catching up to him all at once. My eye felt like someone had shoved an ice pick in it, a trail of hot blood racing down my cheek. I glared at Kilgrave's fallen form, who simply gasped for breath -- I was honestly kind of shocked that he was still conscious. But he missed his opportunity as I felt pain in the back of my other eye. A word rose to my lips that I couldn't say.

Amaterasu

Immediately, black flames consumed Kilgrave and he didn't even scream as he was consumed. He just thought it was another trick of mine, so he burned in utter silence, not even ash remaining when the black flames eventually winked away.

I Immediately fell to my knees, my vision blurry, and feeling like a puppet that just had its strings cut. And as bad as I was, Peter was worse. I heard him take in a sharp breath, collapsing, before his breathing hitched. The command to act himself gave him a normal outward appearance, but without it, his turmoil was revealed.

"Hey, hey, Peter- it's going to be okay," I crawled over to him and Peter was a mess of red and blurs. Using those abilities shot my vision. Most of it was blood, but the sharp decrease in vision couldn't just be explained by that. I reached out to Peter and the damn broke, a sob tearing its way from his throat as he struggled to breath.

"I killed them. I killed them!" Peter was inconsolable, on the verge of hyperventilating.

"Its-"

"It can't be okay! It can't!" Peter snapped at me, smacking my hand away.

Well… I guess we were doing this the hard way. I still felt a bit bad about it when I lashed out, smacking Peter hard enough he fell to the side. That shocked him out of it, and let him hear what I had to say. "Peter, listen to me. I'm something of a time traveler. I know you're going to have a lot of questions about that, but for now, just focus on the fact that we can save your aunt and uncle." I told him, wiping the blood from my face before I pulled out the Time Turner from underneath my shirt.

Peter's eyes were wild and unfocused but he latched onto that. "That… all that stuff you said about your siblings…" That was the wrong thing to think about.

"I'm going to take care of this, Peter. But I need you to pull yourself together, alright?" I said, grabbing Peter by the shoulder before I spun the Time Turner.

And nothing happened.

"Did… we…?" Peter asked, and the semblance of hope was enough to get his emotions under control. He looked around to see any obvious changes, but my expression was answer enough.

That should have worked.

Killing Kilgrave broke his control over us. Meaning that Future Me should have been free of his control of Kilgrave did die in the other timeline. And if our Kilgrave had acted as a substitute, Future Me should still be free. The fact that I still couldn't use my Time Turner meant something was up. It meant that he was still alive.

If Future Me wasn't still being mind controlled, then he would be dead. He would have immediately self terminated out of shame and to ensure that there weren't any lingering effects.

"No… I'll speed run the rules a bit, but there can only be two of me in a timeline. My Time Turner won't work until the Future Me dies… meaning we have to kill him," I voiced, my mind racing. My eyes still hurt and I was struggling to find an answer to what was going on with Future Me. Even if Future Me was double checking to make sure I wasn't compromised, then he should be here by now to either kill me or himself.

"I… don't… I'll just take your word for it, Sebastian," Peter said, forcing himself to his feet. "How do we find him?" Peter asked and while his voice was still thick with emotion, there was an edge there. An edge that told me that Peter was willing to do whatever it takes to save his aunt and uncle. He was willing to kill. That was good. I couldn't afford him hesitating.

That was a good question. If I was a mind controlled version of me… where would I go?

The answer was obvious. "The Fortress of DOOM," I replied, my tone confident as I accepted a hand up from Peter. My vision was still tinted red, and everything was fuzzy. I might need to pop my old peepers back in. But for now, I looked to the side and a portal sprung open to the Fortress.

"If this Future You is an enemy… why wouldn't he keep us out of the Fortress?" Peter asked as I cautiously stepped into Fortress, ready with Susanoo in case it was an ambush.

A small chuckle escaped me, "Because I don't know how to change the locks." The Fortress of DOOM didn't differentiate between past and future, so both of us had unrestrained access to it. And, in theory, we could use that same access to track down Future Me. We stepped into the main rooms and I saw no sign of Future Me-

Perhaps that wasn't true. Because it was the lack of something that gave his presence away.

My heart dropped to my feet as I looked at the doorway that was supposed to house the Cave of Wonders, only to find a utility closet with the door left ajar. My Cave of Wonders. The cave that housed all of my stuff. Future Me stole it. As if I needed any more evidence that Future Me was evil to his fucking core.

"He has the Divine Water," Peter realized, looking at the closet with me. And as far as he was aware, that's all Evil Me really had. But I knew better. Evil Me knew better. We both knew exactly what was in the Cave of Wonders.

The Mind Stone. The realization hit me like a brick -- the Mind Stone had been used on Evil Me. Twisting him into this wretched creature that would not only steal my stuff… but one who would use them.

The Infinity Stones.

All the pieces clicked together in that moment, and I knew exactly what happened in that other timeline. Kilgrave either got his hands on the Mind Stone or he took a shot of Divine Water that greatly enhanced his abilities. I think the latter might be a bit more likely, but that didn't change the fact that Evil Me had the Infinity Stones. I didn't have the urge to use them as I was. But Evil Me? One who was brainwashed into being loyal to Kilgrave?

He would.

"Fuck," I breathed, realizing that we had just been played like a fiddle. "Peter, find out where the last jump was,' I said, feeling panic starting to rise up in the back of my throat. I already suspected where Evil Me went.

"He's near where we were!" Peter answered, leaning over a console as his fingers flew to lock Evil Me out of the fortress.

"I was right. He's bringing back Kilgrave, just how I thought he was," I cursed. Evil Me led me into that trap to use the time to steal the Cave of Wonders. I still don't think that I was supposed to escape the mind control, but that was a moot point. Evil Me had the means to bring Kilgrave back.

The Time Stone.

That. Fucking. Bitch.

The Ancient One had led me around the nose. She had to have known exactly what would happen when she gave me the Time Stone. Fuck, am I supposed to believe this was the good sequence of events? For me… I doubt it. For her, though, I think I saw exactly what she was doing. I replayed the conversation in my head and her plan became painfully obvious.

Evil Me wasn't acting like himself.

If I wanted to beat him, I couldn't act like myself either. I had to behave in an entirely unpredictable manner if I want to kill him and get my stuff back.

I had to ask for help.

"Peter… I'm going to send you to the Avengers," I told him, making him look sharply at me. He didn't seem surprised. I think he was already planning to do as much.

"What about you?" He asked and I swallowed a sigh.

"I need to have a talk with a demon from hell."