Solitary Observer

The Timewatcher, the being that controls time itself, starts to panic when a man starts to survive his utopia-searching timeline resets.

In the beginning, the Timewatcher started time.
It was always interesting to see a new world being born.
It always started small. Two humans, a male and a female. But, as time progressed, mankind grew. They became a family, then a village, then a town, then a city. They started to expand, creating different settlements, organizing themselves in governments. They divided their world in kingdoms, then empires, then countries. They developed Network powers, special abilities meant to change the world. As always, they started perfect.
But they didn’t remain that way for long. Two governors had a disagreement, and the first war of mankind started. People killed each other from both sides, causing chaos and destruction.
The Timewatcher couldn’t allow that.
So he reset the timeline.
He didn’t feel guilty. After all, they were just humans. And it wasn’t as if they would suffer. One day, they’d exist, and the next, not anymore. Just like that.
Eventually, the Timewatcher would create the perfect world. A utopia. A perfect universe, made with the key factors that would perfect life itself.
A new world started anew, with a few key factors changed to prevent the war. Technology and society progressed as time went by, slightly different than before, with different inventions and different Network powers. The Timewatcher didn’t really bother with them. They’d probably get replaced in a few more centuries anyway. But a plague started, slowly consuming mankind. Humans from all around started to die, the plague’s cases exponentially increasing.
So the Timewatcher reset again.
Once again the world came into existence. Once again it failed. Once again he reset it.
And again.
And again.
And again.
After so many timelines the Timewatcher had lost count of, he noticed a certain individual. He looked pretty normal, except for the fact that he had each eye of a different color�"the right one blue and the left one brown�"and seemed ahead of his time. Literally. He wore street clothes that hadn’t been meant to appear for at least a few more millennia, and looked confused in this world. Odd. What was he doing here? Didn’t really matter anyway.
After a while�"the Timewatcher couldn’t really tell how long�"the individual disappeared. The Timewatcher ignored the event, considering it just a common anomaly. After some time, that world got ruined too, and so the Timewatcher reset.
The universe got a fresh start once more. The humans grew in every sense, growing, discovering, acquiring Network powers.
The anomaly that was the strange individual appeared again.
The Timewatcher didn’t notice him at first, as the world had been too big by then. But then he once again saw the blue and brown eyes. Frowning, he again reset the world, this time tweaking it so all humans would have both eyes of the same color, just to make sure.
But as soon as he saw those eyes again in the new world… he knew. Something was wrong.
Someone was surviving the timeline resets. A Survivor of Time.
How can this be? the Timewatcher asked himself, amused.
Just in case, he reset the timeline. Time started flowing once more, the Survivor of Time unseen.
Good.
But then he appeared again, living in the world the Timewatcher was creating. The Timewatcher frowned.
This is wrong, he thought.
So he reset the timeline again. Over and over he reset it, trying to get rid of the Survivor of Time. To no avail. Each new world started perfect, unpolluted. But each time, the Survivor of Time appeared again. He wasn’t directly damaging anything. But still, it was wrong. The Timewatcher became annoyed, then irritated. This Survivor of Time was an intruder on his world. He had no place in this new timeline. And yet here he was.
The Timewatcher hadn’t known real fear until the day the Survivor of Time appeared next to him in the Netrealm. The Timewatcher froze as the Survivor of Time inspected his own etherealness, more interested than scared.
“You shouldn’t be here,” the Timewatcher finally managed to say.
The Survivor of Time turned towards him, as if noticing him for the first time. He narrowed his eyes at the Timewatcher. “And you shouldn’t exist. Didn’t think you’d have a physical body on this side, though.”
The Survivor of Time was human. How had he gotten to the Netrealm, the realm of power? Besides, Network powers were always pretty basic. Humans shouldn’t be holding abilities like that. Then, how…?
The air around the Survivor of Time started to vibrate.
“How does it feel?” the Survivor of Time coldly asked the Timewatcher. “How does it feel to know hundreds of worlds no longer exist because of you?”
“It feels…” the Timewatcher replied, “like I’m saving them all. Answer me this: what’s better? To slowly be consumed into chaos and destruction by your own actions, or to one day just cease to exist, knowing you’ve done your part in creating a utopia?”
“It’s better to die with freedom,” the Survivor of Time replicated.
The Timewatcher and the Survivor of Time circled each other, tense.
“I hope you enjoyed playing god,” the Survivor of Time said. His blue eye flashed. “Because playtime’s over.”
The Survivor of Time extended his left arm sharply to the side, and lightning shot out, coming to a frozen halt right next to his fingertips. He then pointed his left index finger at the Timewatcher, and the lightning came down as an arching rain of electricity upon him.
The Timewatcher calmly drifted out of the way. But he was teleported back into the way of the lightning by an unseen force, and all the lightning struck him hard on the chest. He was flung backward as electricity sizzled through his whole body, leaving him stunned as he came to a stop in the air.
“Did you hold back?” the Survivor of Time shouted at him as he shot lightning after lightning at the Timewatcher’s shocked and stunned body. “Did you hold back as you deleted timeline after timeline to your liking? Did you? Neither will I.”
The lightning kept coming at the Timewatcher, pushing him farther back nonstop through the air.
I can’t allow this to happen, he thought as he was struck again and again. I can’t… allow this… to happen!
The Timewatcher regressed time on the Survivor of Time through the Meta Network. The human disappeared… only to reappear a mere five seconds later.
“You’re gonna have to try a little harder than that,” the Survivor of Time said, grinning madly.
The lightning kept coming, pushing him backward at perilous speed. The Survivor of Time opened his hand, and the Timewatcher himself shot backward, crossing whole countries as he got shot away. Unwillingly soaring through the clouds, blinded by the whiteness, he left the atmosphere. The Survivor of Time flew calmly around him, ignoring the laws of physics, grinning madly.
This power… the Timewatcher thought, terrified. This isn’t human anymore!
The Timewatcher couldn’t fight back. He was not a warrior. He was just a solitary observer. One who was about to get overthrown.
“Oh, you’re afraid?” the Survivor of Time said coldly, his grin vanishing. “Do you now know fear? Ha! Don’t you dare. You will never know what it feels like, not wanting to get attached to anything or anyone, knowing they will all one day be reset by one cocky wannabe god. They are all gone now. But they still live. Through me.”
I can’t allow this anymore, the Timewatcher told himself. I can’t!
So he used his biggest power, one that would consume him for good. A Meta Network world time regression. The whole multiverse went back in time. And then, even though he was almost dead, everything got its normality back. It was now a few centuries earlier, before all this madness. The Survivor of Time was now nowhere to be seen.
Desperately the Timewatcher approached the physical world, searching for something. Soon enough, he found it. The Survivor of Time from this timeline. Somehow, he had been alive even now. The Timewatcher hastily picked up the closest weapon he could find�"a broken glass bottle. Taking one of the glass shards, he struck at the Survivor of Time’s back.
The younger version of the Survivor of Time drifted forward, unknowingly dodging the attack.
What?! the Timewatcher thought, shocked. How-?
He tried again. Again the Survivor of Time drifted forward. And again, and again, and again.
How is this possible?
“You want to kill me that badly?” A voice from behind him made him freeze. The Survivor of Time, back from the present. He had… countered his power? How was that possible? The Timewatcher then realized. “Well, then. Keep trying,” the Survivor of Time finished. “Forever.”
The Timewatcher was being regressed in time. By the Survivor of Time. Over, and over, and over. An infinite external loop of never-ending attempts at killing his captor. He couldn’t escape. He was unable to summon up his power, not given enough time by the time regressions.
“Who would have thought?” he heard the Survivor of Time say as he slowly walked away. “The Timewatcher… ran out of time.”

---

The Survivor of Time slowly walked away from his looped opponent, unable to suppress a slight smile. He liked that name. Survivor of Time, it had an intriguing ring to it. He liked it better than his real name.
He had never really liked ‘Kayden Almerth.’
Though he didn’t have much time to think about it. He had a lot of work to do.
The Survivor of Time considered trying to extract the Timewatcher’s power. That would really make his job much easier. But then, what would he have accomplished? Would he have overthrown one dictator to become one himself? No. He would stay a solitary observer.
The Survivor of Time rose into the air, examining the world he was now in. An interesting timeline. One that would, hopefully, endure forever. This one seemed very creative, with its inhabitants constantly making new things and making their world beautiful. But so many were now gone. His homeworld, for starters. So many friends that would never return. The multiverse was devastated, having being reborn who knew how many times. So he was going to make it rise again.
But he couldn’t do it alone. If he just started a new multiverse all by himself, would he be any better than the Timewatcher he had just overthrown? No. Everyone would have a share in creating the new multiverse. A fresh, brand-new Wordverse.
So the Survivor of Time invented a new art. An art to create worlds.
He called it ‘writing.’
The Survivor of Time gifted the new art of writing upon mankind, and soon, fictional worlds started to appear. Worlds, within worlds, within worlds. And to make sure no more omnipotent dictators rose, he designated Prime Worlds, centers of the multiverse, each with a new version of himself, a new Kayden Almerth.
The Survivor of Time could also travel to those worlds himself. Entering a book, he would literally appear in a completely different universe.
He felt satisfied. Even though the Timewatcher was still looping infinitely in time. That monster deserved it. Now, he, the Survivor of Time, had given mankind many things. The ability to create worlds. The prospect of their world existing forever. But most importantly, the choice of free will. Now, humankind would finally be free, with no fear of being reset and erased for the slightest mistake.
One of those days, there he was, inspecting a certain Prime World, checking in on its Kayden. This world was pretty interesting, with multiple Network powers, races, and animals. He liked this world. That was why he had designated it a Prime World, after all.
But then, he saw him. The Survivor of Time froze. A figure in a dark green poncho, its right eye lit up with a shining red light. The figure spoke.
“Hey, you. You’re reading this, aren’t you? Well…” He pointed at the sky, and his shining red eye flashed. “Playtime’s over.”

Author's Note

Due to platform formatting, thoughts are unfortunately no longer in italics, so when the writing suddenly changes from third to first person, that's why. This was kind of an exercise in short stories. All criticism is appreciated!