Renan nodded, confirming.
For a mont, there was silence.
The revelation hung in the air.
Randy and Renatta stared at him. Neither of them moved nor spoke. The silence stretched out long enough that Renan began to wonder if they’d simply stopped functioning.
It made sense that they had frozen. What exactly were they supposed to say?
Nothing about today had made any sense.
Nothing.
They had found Renan had collapsed out of nowhere, rushed him to the hospital, and then he dragged his mother into a bathroom to bend coins and cast spells with a toilet paper roll. Now he was standing in their living room telling them he was a ti traveler.
Nothing had made sense, and yet all of it had happened anyway.
And if one supernatural event had occurred, then they might as well trust Renan when he speaks of other supernatural events. There was no reason to doubt him, or assu he was lying. Ti travel? Sure, why not.
Randy was the first to find his voice, though what ca out wasn’t particularly coherent. "That... that ans..." He stopped, choking on his own saliva. After coughing, he started again. "So you’re saying that you..." He stopped again.
Renatta said nothing. She was staring at her son with a very contemplative expression.
"You changed," she started talking, quietly. "You changed before Masteria Online even ca out."
Randy blinked, looking at her. "What? Renan did?"
"Think about it." Though she was responding to Randy, she didn’t look away from Renan. "Before any of this started. Before that ga pod, before any of it. Renan changed. Completely."
Randy’s mouth opened slowly as the implication landed on him.
Renatta continued, growing more confident in herself as she spoke. "The Renan I raised spent every day in his room. For years, all he did was play gas and voice chat with friends. He never went out unless he had to. He never talked to strangers. He never drove anywhere unless I asked him to."
She paused, letting the words sink in. She continued. "Then one day, completely out of nowhere, he sells everything. Every account, every item, years of progress, all of it. Gone. For money to spend on a new ga he’d never played. The boy I knew would never do that. He had spent years playing those gas!"
"He started going outside on his own. Went to an out of town library to et a stranger." Her voice tightened slightly. "I rationalized it by thinking he grew up. I see now what happened."
A long silence followed that. Randy slowly looked at Renan. "So when you started acting differently... that was because you already rembered everything."
"Yes." Renan said simply. "It was a couple days before the supposed ga was announced."
Randy sat down heavily on the couch, running both hands through his hair. Renatta stayed standing, but her expression was rapidly changing.
Then panic hit them both at almost exactly the sa ti. There was a crucial piece of information that Renan had given them.
"Billions." Randy said, his voice going strangely high pitched. "You said billions died."
Renan gave a short nod.
"Earth gets invaded."
Renan nodded once more.
"And the world..." Randy pursed his lips. "Gets... destroyed? What exactly does that even an...?"
Renatta’s composure cracked. "Is there a way to stop it? That’s why you’re here, that’s why you went back, right? You’re going to stop it?"
"That’s the plan." Renan responded.
"Okay." She nodded rapidly as her heart raced. "Okay, good, so it’s fine. You went back, so it’s fine. You know everything that’s going to happen, so you can stop it."
She was reassuring herself more than asking him. No one wanted to believe they would have to suffer a mass invasion where BILLIONS would die. Renan let her finish before he responded.
"I’m going to do everything I can," Renan spoke gravely. "But I have to be honest with you both. I don’t actually know how or why I was sent back."
Her expression of relief stopped in its tracks. "What do you an?"
Renan began explaining, keeping his tone neutral to avoid anyone from panicking. "I didn’t send myself back. I don’t know anyone who did it. I don’t even know of anyone with the power to do sothing like that. The Goddess of Ti existed in Masteria. She had that kind of power, but she was killed by the Dark One years ago."
"Then who did it?" Renatta asked.
Renan sighed. "I don’t know."
He explained. "My best guess is that it was a contingency plan. Likely, it was sothing the Goddess of Ti arranged before she died, set to trigger under certain conditions as a last resort. But that’s just a guess. I can’t confirm it."
The room went quiet again. It was possibly the tenth ti today.
He watched them sit with it.
They had to process the cold reality that the world’s survival rested on their son, and that even their son didn’t fully understand why he was here or who had put him here.
He didn’t go back in ti with a plan in mind. A god didn’t do it. There was no promise that it would work out. Just Renan, with his mories and whatever he could do with them.
Randy stared at the floor. Renatta stared at nothing.
"That’s terrifying." Randy said at last.
"Yes." Renan agreed. There was no point in softening the blow. They could handle the truth. Even considering the years Renan had spent in his past life, he was still younger than even Randy. After all, the world ended a re four years after the ga was released.
Renatta collected herself again, focusing on recent events? "Then what happened today in Masteria?" She looked at him carefully. "According to what you said, your soul was transferred to a body over there. That ans your body here was fine. So why did you collapse?"
"Because my soul was damaged." Renan answered. "An enemy attacked it directly."
For perhaps the eleventh ti today, there was another silence. It was unavoidable. Every single thing he said was too much to take in quickly. There was no softer way to deliver any of it.
"Your... soul...?" Renatta slowly repeated. "Oh. Oh no." She grew grim, thinking of the implications.
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