Chapter Twelve: Thirteen Years Before

Yuri woke up when someone shook his shoulder. "Young man? Young man, are you all right?"

Yuri cracked his eyes open. In the bleary light of dawn, he made out a gentleman's face. "Uh… huh?" He rubbed his eyes and sat up. Birds chirped overhead. They were on a stretch of road near the castle, and the sky was pale blue. The last thing he remembered was being at the parade, and then -

The memory hit him with the force of an arrow. Red splattered through his mind and he struggled to breathe as the shock, horror, and grief hit him all over again.

"Young man?" The person in front of him was an older man in a fine suit. Probably a resident of the royal quarter. He crouched with a concerned look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"F-flynn," Yuri breathed and tears welled up in his eyes. He didn't know where he was or how long had passed, but he knew Flynn had… Flynn was…. Maybe he'd been in so much grief, his mind wiped out the whole memory of the afternoon, although that didn't explain why he was outside now.

"Who?"

"Flynn!" How dare this man not even know who Flynn is?! No, who FLynn was. Yuri's stomach twisted in knots as he struggled to work the past tense into his vocabulary. "The c-c-commandant!" It couldn't have been more than a day. People couldn't forget him that fast. Yuri didn't want anybody to ever forget him.

"The commandant? You mean Alexei?"

Now it was Yuri's turn to look confused. "No, Flynn. Alexei is…." There was a bright light in the sky, he noticed. Yuri's eyes locked onto the glowing rings of the barrier. "Wait… is Alexei the commandant?"

The man nodded. "Yes. He has been for some time."

He was back. The blastia were still here and Alexei was the commandant. He had returned to his own time.

With this information, he tried to piece together his memory. He knew he'd seen Flynn die, and now he was back, so obviously he had run away from the future. A lump under his leg came to his attention and he picked up a package wrapped in brown paper. That's right, Rita! She'd given this to him before sending him back. These anchors helped his memory spiral outward and catch the rest of the missing pieces. Before Rita, he'd been at home with Estellise, and before that they'd sat in the audience hall with Flynn, and before that he'd cried in his room with Karol….

"Are you all right? Where are you parents?"

That question caused another throb of pain to rush through his chest. His dad was dead. Except, he wasn't. Thirteen years away - more than a lifetime from now - Flynn was gone, but here there was a perfectly alive Flynn waiting for him in the lower quarter.

Yuri jumped to his feet. "Sorry, mister! Thanks for waking me up but I gotta go home!"

"Pardon?"

Yuri had already rushed away before he could even think about answering him. Flynn was like a magnet pulling Yuri through the city at lightning speeds. It was lucky hardly anyone was on the street this early, because he would have charged through them without a thought.

In what seemed like no time at all, he'd made it to the lower quarter. The sky was bright blue by the time he ran into the Scifo house. "Hello? Flynn?!"

For a moment, he feared Flynn wouldn't be there. The horror of watching Flynn die was still emblazoned in his mind and it seemed as if Flynn could have been ripped out of all times. After all, it couldn't be this simple, right? To just jump through a magic portal and get back his lost friend?

And then he heard a door open and the patter of feet. Flynn appeared in the kitchen, bleary-eyed and wearing pyjamas. "...Yuri?"

"Flynn!" Yuri dropped his package on the table and dashed across the room. Flynn grunted as Yuri crashed into him and tackled him into a hug so ferocious it knocked them to the ground.

There were more footsteps and then Mrs. Scifo's voice said, "Yuri? Oh, thank heavens! I was worried sick about you."

"Yuri, get off." Flynn tried to wriggle out of Yuri's embrace.

Yuri finally let go, but he couldn't keep the grin off his face as he stared at Flynn. It was really him. Flynn was here, he was alive, and they were the same age again. He had never been so happy to just watch someone take a breath. "Sorry. I'm really happy to see you."

Flynn sat up and then shoved Yuri. "You're one to talk! Where were you!? I looked for you all night!"

"Flynn's right." Mrs. Scifo knelt so she could hug him as well. "Half the lower quarter was out looking for you last night. We were all quite concerned."

"Sorry." He hadn't even thought about that and raced to come up with a cover story. "I found a really good hiding spot. I waited for hours for Flynn to find me, but he never did and I guess I fell asleep. I woke up this morning and realized I'd been out all night."

"And where did you get such lovely clothing?" She ran her hands over his shirt.

"Oh. Uh… a rich guy was throwing them out because they weren't nice enough, I guess. I thought they'd fit me so I nicked them."

It wasn't the best story, but Mrs. Scifo didn't see any reason to question his clothing so didn't press the issue. "Well, Yuri, you gave all of us quite the fright last night."

"I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to."

"It's all right. It's still quite early, though. Why don't you boys go lie down for a bit and I'll get something for breakfast started?"

They nodded and hurried off to Flynn's room. After the wonderful room older-Flynn had prepared for him at the castle, the tiny room with a mattress on the floor wasn't much, but it was home. Besides, that room was in a castle that no longer held a Flynn, so it wasn't a place he wanted to live in any way.

"Flynn." Yuri shut the door behind him. "I've gotta tell you something. Last night, I wasn't really sleeping in a hiding place."

"Oh, yeah?" Flynn sat on their bed. "Where did you go?"

"Well, I went to check out the mages like you told me not to. And it turns out they were experimenting with time travel! But while I was checking it out, this evil knight caught me and the mages decided to use me as a test subject. So they threw me into this crazy portal of flashing lights." He waved his arms around and tried to simulate the sound of rushing energy. "So I came out in the future and I met up with you."

"Really?" Flynn crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "So, what was I like?"

"You were the commandant! Because it turns out Alexei was evil and there was this giant space octopus thing that came out of the sky and you and Estelle and some other people fought it and since you were such a good knight they made you commandant. Oh yeah, Estelle is Princess Estellise right now, but in the future she's the empress and you're dating her."

"So… I'm the commandant of the knights and I'm dating the empress and I fought off a giant space octopus?"

Yuri bobbed his head.

"You sure have an imagination."

Yuri dropped his arms. "I'm not imagining this!"

"Ok, Yuri. Tell me more about this future where I fought a giant octopus."

Yuri waved his hand. "You're getting caught up on the octopus. I didn't even see it, and it was called the Addy… Adego...Aphagoose… something. But I really did see you as the commandant. I was there for a whole week and a half and you were super rich and you let me live with you in the castle."

"Uh-huh. If it was so great, why did you come back?"

"Because…." He stared at Flynn. For a moment, he imagined a shaft of wood lodged in his throat, blood pouring out of the wound, the chilling gurgle of him choking on his own blood, and the terror in his eyes for the brief seconds he still had consciousness before it was snatched away in an instant. Yuri had to pull his eyes away from Flynn. "It wasn't that great," he muttered.

Flynn snorted. "Sure, Yuri. Sounds like you had quite the adventure."

"It really happened!" He stuck out his arm and showed the raised red line of the scar Herbert had inflicted. "I got this when the evil mages were experimenting on me."

"Isn't that from when you fell off a fence last week?"

"What? No."

"Yeah, you said you banged your arm."

"I didn't have this yesterday!"

Flynn shrugged. "I didn't really look close at your arm, but that definitely looks a week old at least."

"That's 'cause Estelle has magical healing powers and she closed the cut."

"Sure."

"But… but it really did happen."

Mrs. Scifo knocked and then stepped in. "Pancakes are almost ready, boys."

Flynn jumped to his feed. "Yay! Thanks, Mom."

Flynn ran out while Yuri stood still and stared at the floor. He could show Flynn Rita's letter and notes, but what would that prove? A bunch of research that neither of them could understand claiming it made time travel possible wasn't evidence that he'd done it.

Maybe it didn't matter. The important thing was that he had Flynn back, safe and sound, and if Flynn didn't believe he'd had an adventure, then whatever. Flynn didn't need to know that just over a dozen years from now, he'd be the noble and respected head of the entire Knighthood. Yuri didn't need to worry about that, either. For now, they were children together, and could concentrate on simply growing up.

For the rest of the day, Yuri and Flynn played on the streets. Yuri took pleasure in playing with a Flynn who got as invested in their games of make-believe as he did. Grown-up Flynn was fun, but knowing someone was only playing for his sake rather than really seeing the invisible marauders themselves just wasn't the same.

Yuri spent the entire day laughing and grinning every time he looked at Flynn. The same thing happened the next day. Every time he laughed at one of Flynn's jokes or felt his warmth and strength when they wrestled, the memories of Flynn dying before his eyes grew a little cloudier. Yuri missed being able to spend the hot summer days in the cool hallways of the castle, but panting and sweating with Flynn at his side was worth giving all that up and then some.

They never talked about the night Yuri disappeared. Yuri didn't bring up his trip to the future again, and it didn't take long before they'd fallen right back into their old pattern and it might as well not have happened. There was only one big change, which happened a few days after Yuri returned.

Yuri had slashed at Flynn with a stick and Flynn decided this was a good time for a dramatic death. He dropped his own stick and clutched his chest.

"Arrgh! I'm hit!" He fell to his knees and then flopped to the dry grass with a prolonged moan. "This is the end… goodbye world…."

Yuri stood motionless as he watched Flynn. They'd both done this dozens of times before, because death scenes were great fun to act out. This time, though, he wasn't seeing Flynn rolling on the grass. He saw a much larger Flynn collapsed on a stage with blood gushing from his neck. He could feel the thick, warm liquid covering his hands and subconsciously rubbed his fingers together as he remembered how long he'd had to wash them to get the feeling off.

His stick-sword fell to the grass. "I don't want to play this game anymore."

"Huh?" Flynn paused mid-convulsion and sat up. "Why not?"

"I just don't! This game is dumb. Let's play pirates instead."

Flynn sat up and dusted dry stems of grass off his shirt. "Sure, ok. You can be the evil pirate and we'll have a battle!"

Yuri shook his head. "Let's be on the same team and look for buried treasure."

"Ok, but who're we going to fight?"

Yuri stomped his foot. "We don't have to fight anyone!"

Flynn frowned. "Well, that's no fun."

"We can fight, but let's not kill each other."

"But that's the best part! What's the fun of a sword fight if you can't fall down and die?"

"It's not fun! I don't like killing."

Flynn folded his arms. "It's just a game."

It was… but also it wasn't. When someone died, an entire universe of thoughts and love and future vanished in an instant. When older-Flynn had gone away, he'd left a gaping hole in the world. Rita had said even bad guys were people, and every time someone died, it had to be just as devastating to someone. Dying was huge and scary and horrible and confusing. How could something like that be a game?

"I just… I don't like it. Let's not do it anymore, ok? Killing isn't fun and it isn't a game."

Flynn clearly didn't understand. When his dad had died, it had been so far away. The only practical effect at the time was that letters stopped coming. Flynn had been devastated when he found out, but he hadn't actually seen the way an entire life could be everything one second and nothing the next. Even though he didn't understand, he could tell that Yuri was serious, so he shrugged and said, "Ok. We don't have to if it bothers you. So, where should we dig for treasure?"

Yuri smiled. "Let's try that tree near the old blacksmith! I bet there are some old metal coins buried around there."

In time, the heated days faded into crispy autumn. A week in the future seemed lifetimes away when Yuri was crunching dry leaves beneath his feet or trying to trip Flynn into a puddle after a storm. The farther he got, the more the memories took on the fuzzy quality of a dream. He had dined with the empress, hadn't he? He remembered it… although it really did seem impossible. The only things that remained clear were the red of Flynn's blood and the sharpness of grief, but maybe that was just a nightmare.

Autumn gave way to winter, which brought snowball fights and snow angels. And then it was spring and the smell of fresh pollen filled every corner of the lower quarter. Summer came again when the sun seared his face on the year's first superheated day, it was the first time Yuri had thought about his trip to the future in weeks.

Time kept passing. When they were ten years old, Flynn's mother fell ill. Words trickled out of his blurred memories. "...my mother passed away a long time ago…. She got sick. It was a few years after you disappeared..."

He sat on the floor outside Mrs. Scifo's bedroom, listening to her console Flynn and assure him she was going to recover just fine. Yuri felt sick and he had never been more desperate to be wrong about something.

Yuri tried so hard to fix things. He scrounged money to try to afford a doctor, he had Hanks teach him how to make soup so he could bring it to her when she was hungry, he changed the damp cloth on her forehead whenever it warmed up from her fever. But in the end, none of it made a difference. Mrs. Scifo passed away, and once again a whole world of existence vanished like an extinguished flame. He couldn't save Mrs. Scifo… so what was he going to do for Flynn? If that part of his memories came true to, what could he possibly do to prevent it?

He and Flynn sat side by side in the cemetery. There had been a handful of other attendees, but they had left now so the boys were alone.

"Why did it have to happen?" Flynn mumbled while clutching his knees. "It doesn't make sense. She was perfectly fine, and then she got sick just like that. Why?"

"I don't know." Yuri had his arm around Flynn and stared sullenly at the freshly turned earth. "I don't think anyone does."

"It's not fair. I - I already lost my dad… what am I supposed to do now?"

Yuri thought about that battered package hidden under his clothes in his drawer. An elaborate scenario ran through his mind where they found a mage and gave them the information and got time travel working so they could go back in time and save Flynn's mom. But, he hadn't been able to do anything about it this time, so how would he be able to fix it next time? Besides, the Zaphias mages were scary. The only person he'd trust was Rita, but she was only four years old right now.

"I think… we just have to keep living."

"It just doesn't make sense. Why did it happen? There was no reason!"

Yuri hugged Flynn even tighter. "I don't think death has a reason. I think it just happens, and it can happen to anyone at any time. That's why it's so important to treasure people while you can."

"You're not going to leave me, too, are you?"

Yuri shook his head. "Never. We're all we have; we have to stick together."

Flynn sniffled. "Yeah."

So they grew up, side by side like they were supposed to. When the time came, Yuri followed Flynn into the Knights. That was when Repede entered their lives, and Yuri's heart nearly stopped the first time he saw him. Repede, a cunningly smart dog with blue fur. Memories swam to the forefront of his mind, chief among them the image of a great blue dog snarling and tackling Cumore to save Yuri. How could he have made that up? Even the name was right. Yuri clutched the scar on his arm and couldn't help smiling: it had been real.

"What are you so happy about?" Flynn asked from the floor as he tried to move his hands out of reach of the puppy's mouth.

Yuri looked down at his friend. If it was real, it meant that in a few short years, Flynn would be commandant. In the time he'd been in the Knights, Yuri had already grown frustrated. He'd spent many a night lying awake and wondering if he'd made the right choice and if there was any point in trying to fix the Knighthood from within. This changed everything, though. The prospect of trying to change the entire system over the course of decades of service would have been overwhelming, except he was certain that in just a few short years, Alexei would be overthrown and Flynn would take over. They really would fix things, and all he had to do was stick around and support Flynn for a few years to make sure he made it to the top.

Flynn rose through the ranks quickly. Yuri didn't, but he wasn't really trying to. Flynn made sure Yuri was always in the same brigade as him, and Yuri did everything he could to grease the wheels for Flynn from below. Every time he felt like he was wasting his life - which happened frequently after he got stationed at the castle and spent his days standing guard over nobles he hated - he reminded himself that he just had to hold out for a few more years.

And then one evening in early spring, Yuri heard a shout while he was on duty.

"I can't go back now!"

"This is for your own good, Miss, you know that," a knight said.

Yuri stopped his patrol down the hall. He'd seen Estellise around before, of course. He'd never had any reason to talk to her, but seeing her again had been one more little confirmation that he hadn't simply been a kid with an overactive imagination. They'd never met in this timeline, but Yuri always put a little extra effort in guarding when she was around.

Yuri snuck away from his post and down the hall to see what the commotion was all about.

"I have to warn Flynn!" Estellise was shouting now.

A flame of excitement lit in Yuri's heart. He'd heard this story before, twelve years ago, and this was how it began.

It was easy to kick those knights' butts. When Yuri finished, he turned to see Estellise staring at him. "Sorry to interrupt," he said with a small smile. He pulled off his helmet and shook his hair out.

"You're Yuri, aren't you?"

"Hm? That's right."

"Flynn pointed you out to me. He said you were a good friend of his. He said I could trust you."

Yuri put his hand on his hip and shook his head. "That guy needs to mind his own business."

"Why did you help me? Aren't those guys your allies?"

Yuri shrugged. "I don't ally myself with anyone who picks on young ladies. You're trying to get to Flynn, right?"

She nodded quickly. "That's right. I really need to talk to him. I'm just trying to get to his room."

"Flynn left a few days ago, actually. Some knight pilgrimage thing."

"What?" Her face fell. "Oh, no, now I'll never find him!"

"I think he was headed north, up toward Capua Nor. I can help you find him, if you want."

"Really? But won't you get in trouble? You can't just walk out on your job, can you?"

Yuri waved his hand. "Eh, it's not that important." After all, this was where it began. This quick trip to find Flynn would turn into a world-spanning adventure, and by the end of it Flynn would be commandant. At that point, either Yuri would have no need to stay in the Knights or Flynn would easily pardon is desertion.

"Well… if you're sure."

Yuri couldn't see his skin through his shirt sleeve, but his eye went to his scar anyway. It was right to help Estellise out; he owed her a favour.

If he'd had any lingering doubts that what he'd seen in the future was true, setting off on their journey eliminated them. It was conceivable that as a child he'd seen a picture of the princess before and worked her into his fantasy, but where would he have met Karol before? Karol hadn't even been born yet when Yuri went to the future, but when they met in the Quoi Woods, he was exactly like Yuri remembered him. When they reached Aspio, Yuri had to stop himself from asking Rita if she'd ever thought about time travel. He still had that package to give her, but he'd left it at home. Well, he could hand it over after they were done with the journey.

If his friends thought it suspicious that he was uncannily good at guessing where they ought to go next, they didn't mention it. He just had good hearing, he'd explained, when he alone realized Ioder was on the ship and went back for him. They'd wondered about why he never showed much support for Alexei, but after his deeds came to light they assumed Yuri was just good at reading people.

And in the end, everything worked out. In fact, Yuri thought things were even better than he remembered. He'd seen the relief on Estelle's face when Ioder became emperor instead of her, and helping Karol start a guild of their own seemed way more fun than working for Altosk. Flynn became commandant, just as Yuri always knew he would, and Yuri officially resigned from the Knights just before they left for Zaude so he could focus on his guild. When they all went to celebrate in Zaphias after the Adephagos was finally destroyed, Yuri looked up at the empty sky he'd seen in his youth. It was nice to have such concrete confirmation he wasn't crazy.

More than a year had passed since their journey ended. The summer sun blazed over Zaphias, but everyone was too caught up in festivities to worry about it. Yuri leaned against a wall with his arms crossed, staring at the crowds.

"There you are." Flynn emerged from a throng of people. "Aren't you boiling in that get up?"

Yuri tugged his dark shirt open to reveal even more of his chest. He'd abandoned the vest he tended to wear in cooler months, but he wasn't willing to admit that a black shirt with rolled up sleeves was uncomfortable. "I could say the same of you." His eyes darted over Flynn's dress uniform. For a second, he imagined it covered in blood and then quickly pushed that thought from his mind.

"I don't have a choice." Flynn tugged at the collar of his shirt. "I know I'd be in a t-shirt if I could. You're crazy."

"Sometimes we have to sacrifice for style. Not that you'd know about that." Yuri pushed off from the wall. "Want to wander around? I heard there's a juggler throwing daggers."

Flynn did most of the talking as they wandered through the streets. It had been one year since Ioder's coronation, and the whole city was out to celebrate the year of stability and progress that had followed. The whole of Zaphias was in a good mood, except for Yuri.

"What's with you today?" Flynn asked while they stood on a curb and watched a juggler. "You seem pretty morose for a man at a street festival."

Yuri's fingers rubbed on his palms. He had a lot of experience with blood and violence under his belt, but he'd always remember that he had been eight years old the day he learned how sticky blood was, and how hard it was to wash off. "I'm just having a bit of deja vu today."

"Well, put a smile on before we meet up with Estellise. You know how much she worries."

"Will do. And would you start calling her Estelle, already? You're dating the girl."

Flynn smiled a little and shrugged. "She's always been Estellise to me. Besides, her full name is pretty."

"You'll find countless excuses to justify being a stick in the mud. Hey, look," he nodded toward a child with a stick of cotton candy bigger than her head. "That looks delicious. Buy me some."

"You're fully capable of buying your own cotton candy, Yuri. Besides, you know it's basically pure sugar, right?"

Yuri couldn't help staring at the disappearing child with a tight face and a tighter heart. "Yeah," he mumbled. "That's why it's delicious."

When the bells tolled to announce the imminent beginning of the parade, Yuri's stomach sank. He'd never been less keen to watch a parade in his life.

"I need to get going," Flynn said. "I'm watching it with Estellise on the royal platform."

"Mind if I go with you?"

"Sorry, Yuri. It's for government officials only. You should go find your friends and watch it with them."

"Yeah, ok."

"See you later." Flynn smiled and walked away into the crowd.

Instead of looking for Karol or Judith, Yuri stood still for a long moment. It was possible it wouldn't happen this time, right? Things had changed. Ioder was the emperor now. Except, the assassin's problem had been with Flynn, not Estelle, and Flynn's rise to power had been nearly exactly the same. Yuri wished he'd paid more attention as a child, but he'd been so distraught he didn't even know which building the arrow had come from.

Yuri wandered through the crowds toward the covered stage where Flynn and Estelle stood to watch the parade. It had already begun by the time Yuri arrived, and the area around the stage was so packed Yuri could only see glimpses of it around people's heads. He saw a small boy being piggybacked by his dad, munching on cotton candy and waving a tiny flag. Yuri felt a pang and turned his eyes back to the buildings across the street.

The assassin had to be in one of those, but which? He couldn't just tell Flynn to dispatch knights to search every floor of every building based on nothing but a hunch. He stood through the whole parade, tense as a piano wire. When he heard the stomping feet of the regiment of knights approaching, his heart hammered harder than their drums. He couldn't fail now; this was the whole point of going back. Rita had entrusted him to save Flynn, and he had never found a good time to give her the package so if he messed up now, he had no third chance.

The knights halted before the stage and swivelled to face them. Yuri pushed onlookers out of the way to get closer. He heard the captain shout and saw the knights move out of the corner of his eye.

"You can't enter," a knight not in the parade said as Yuri shoved his way to the steps to the stage. "Imperial officials on-"

Yuri punched him in the face and he staggered away clutching his nose. Spectators nearby looked back with shock while Yuri sprinted up the wooden steps.

Flynn turned and frowned. "Yuri?"

The captain gave another shout, and the swords sliced into the sky.

Yuri threw himself at Flynn. They slammed onto the floor and he felt the rush of something moving past his neck. Someone screamed and Flynn shouted in indignation. Yuri pinned him to the floor and shielded him with his body.

"On the fourth floor!" someone shouted.

Yuri was vaguely aware of knights moving and dragging Estelle and Ioder into cover. Chaos was erupting all around him, but Yuri could focus only on one thing: Flynn beneath him, breathing heavily but warm and whole.

"You can get off me now," Flynn said.

Yuri looked across the street. Knights were storming one of the buildings and if things went as they had last time, he trusted the assassin would be caught. Slowly, he eased himself off of Flynn. "You all right?"

Flynn sat up and straightened his uniform. "Thanks to you." He looked to the side and saw the shaft of an arrow sticking out of a post right behind where he'd been standing. Flynn let out a long breath. "That was close."

Yuri's whole body still tingled with adrenaline. "Tell me about it."

It was later. Yuri sat cross-legged on the soft mattress. He and Flynn were the only people in the bedroom.

"Everything taken care of?" Yuri asked when Flynn fell backward on the bed.

"So it appears." Flynn had spent the entire afternoon regaining order. The would-be assassin had been apprehended, the citizens had been calmed, Ioder had been briefed, and finally he could relax. He lifted his head. "I didn't get a chance to properly thank you. If you hadn't tackled me at just that moment…." He trailed off with a grimace.

"Yeah, well, you'd do the same for me."

"If I could. That was amazing timing. You knew, didn't you? You couldn't have intervened fast enough if you had just spotted the archer, and it would explain why you were in such a grumpy mood all morning."

Yuri considered denying it, but Flynn would never believe Yuri had been that lucky. "Yeah, I knew."

Flynn dragged himself upright. "Why didn't you tell me? I'm thankful you saved me, but some advance notice could have prevented you from needing to."

"You wouldn't have believed me."

Flynn frowned. "Why would you say that? You know I trust you."

"I tried telling you before, and you didn't believe me that."

"Huh? When was this?"

Yuri watched his face for a moment. Flynn hadn't believed Yuri's tale of time travel when he was an impressionable child; why should he now? But, Yuri had a bit more evidence this time around. "Do you remember when we were about eight and I disappeared over night?"

Flynn nodded. "Sure. You had everyone worried."

"Do you remember the story I told you after I came back?"

Flynn frowned and tried to recall. "I don't know, Yuri, you had a lot of wild stories as a kid. Let me think, this one was about…." His eyes slowly widened. "Time travel."

Yuri just nodded.

"So… you weren't pulling that one out of your ass, then?"

Yuri punched his shoulder. "I'll have you know, most of my stories were at least partially true."

"So, you came to today?"

"This past week, yeah."

"And in that timeline… I didn't make it, did I?"

Yuri's eyes turned downcast. It had been thirteen years ago and in a different time, but that memory still gave him chills.

"When you were eight years old, you came to the future and watched me get murdered."

"That about sums it up."

Flynn sat in thought. Yui could only guess what thoughts occupied him, but he assumed Flynn was running through all the shifts in Yuri's attitude toward killing and death and how they lined up with that night he disappeared. "Actually, that explains a lot. I always wondered why you stuck with the Knights for so long. You knew I was going to be the commandant soon.'"

"Yep."

"So you knew everything. The Adephagos, Estellise, Alexei… my mom."

Yuri nodded. "I'm sorry, Flynn. I really tried to save her."

"Thank you. I know there was nothing you could have done different."

"But maybe I could have. Time travel worked once, didn't. You died, and I went back to save you. I've always wondered if I should have tried to do that again."

"Hm…" Flynn thought for a long time and when he spoke, his words came slow and carefully. "I think… we shouldn't mess with time. I already feel weird about this. I'm supposed to be dead, but I'm not. I don't think it's healthy to consistently try to rewrite the past."

"I think I know what you mean. Where would we stop?"

"Right. We shouldn't try to change the past, or we'll spend our whole lives living the same days over and over, trying to make them perfect. Instead, we should look to the future and fix the things that haven't happened yet, so that we no longer feel the need to change the past."

"Yeah. We'll keep moving forward. Although, I don't regret changing today."

Flynn smiled grimly. "Me, neither, though for obviously selfish reasons. But you were returning to your own time, not going back to muddle around, so I think it's excusable."

"I can live with that. Plus, I like this version of today so much better."

"Yeah. Me, too."

It was later still. Yuri stood in his bathroom and looked into the mirror over the sink. Aging was a funny process; you didn't notice it happening until you looked back. He'd thought he was so grown up when he was eight, but now his arguments about being fully capable of looking after himself seemed childish. No wonder Flynn had shot him down.

He looked into his eyes - adult eyes now. All things considered, he liked being a grown up. He couldn't deny that he'd felt a small surge of vengeance when he watched Cumore cower before him back at Mantaic. Being a kid sucked - you were powerless and stupid. The last time he'd lived this day, every aspect of his life had been taken care of by Flynn. It was all take and no give, and he'd been powerless to do anything but watch as that support was ripped away from him. He was glad that he had a chance for a do-over of the worst day of his life, and glad that on his second chance he was old and strong enough to fix things.

Things were better this time around. Estelle spent most of her time working on her book and visiting Rita in Halure when she wasn't cozied up with Flynn in the castle. Ioder sat on the throne, Raven had been re-accepted into their group and Karol had never been more confident as the boss of his own guild. It gave him a little thrill to think that so much was different purely because he had been present. There was no guilt about changing that past, because Yuri had always been supposed to be there. The future he and Brave Vesperia carved was the proper one. Going back in time had merely set the timeline right.

But then there was Flynn. If Yuri had never visited the future, he would have spent today goofing off with Flynn and then watching the parade with Karol and Judith. He would have watched the official stage from afar and not reached it until long after Flynn was dead.

They'd made the choice to eliminate all the blastia in the world. Now, he'd made the choice to change history and keep Flynn alive and serving as commandant. What right did he have change the course of history and affect every living creature in the world? It was one thing for the blastia, because if they hadn't done that, there would have been countless deaths. Now, it had been a purely selfish decision to save his best friend.

No one person should have the power to change the course of time. What if someone like Alexei had access to power like this and was able to keep going back over and over until Zaude worked out for him? And even though he'd justified it as simply redoing things rather than erasing entire lifetimes, what if they were wrong? What if there was a universe out there where Estelle had watched the love of her life die before her eyes and then Yuri had vanished that night?

If Rita got this working again, there was no telling when something would happen that would push him to change things again. Yuri didn't trust anyone in the world to wield this power responsibly, and that included himself. There were some things in the universe that simply shouldn't be meddled with.

With that in mind, he struck a match and tossed it in the sink. The old, dry paper package he'd held onto for thirteen years quickly went up in flames.

Karol's voice called from the street. "Yuri! Hey, Yuri!"

Yuri walked to his window and looked down. Karol and Repede stood on the road by the entrance to the Comet, waving.

"Hey, Yuri, they're gonna set off fireworks up in the public quarter. You should come!"

Yuri smiled. "I'll be there in a second, boss!" He turned back to his bathroom and scooped the ashes into a trash can. He didn't need to let his thoughts linger on the future or the past. He had the present, which contained the best friends a man could hope for, and that was more than enough for him.