Chapter 56: Heartfelt Talk (1/2)

For a long moment, Ryan didn’t say a single word.

He had put his mask on a side of the table, near the chessboard, and kept looking at his steaming coffee cup. The courier could lose himself in the bitter darkness of the soft, delightful drink.

Anything to alleviate the tension in the room.

“Your cup is not poisoned,” Livia said before clearing her throat. She wore a black turtleneck, classy, but casual. “If I wanted you dead, you would be.”

“Poison wouldn’t work anyway.” Ryan shrugged, before grabbing the cookies and drenching them in the coffee. “But there are still two hitmen right outside the door, and people call this place Deathland Motel. Now that I think of it, it kinda sounds like a horror theme park...”

“It’s for my safety.” Livia put her hands around her coffee cup, to better feel the warmth on her fingers. “My previous self seems to have perished abruptly, from what I can gather.”

“It wasn’t me,” Ryan protested.

“How can I be sure?” She asked with a frown on her face. “I know you lied about your ability to my old self. You told her that you could jump through alternate realities, when you could actually go back in time.”

“It was metaphorically true,” Ryan deadpanned before eating the cookie. It was quite sweet, but not all that good.

“Which is another way to say you lied,” Livia replied, unflappable. “I would have brought Crypto to this gathering if I could, but he had a hockey-related accident. I presume you were behind it?”

“I warned him!” Ryan protested. “I warned Luigi that if he kept ruining my runs, things wouldn’t go well between us!”

The courier had made it a point to target the truth-teller in every loop, even those where he didn’t join the Augusti. If anything, Ryan considered it preemptive self-defense.

“Which confirms my worries,” Livia said with a frown, looking into his eyes. “You don’t want your secret getting out, and will use violence to cover it up if needed.”

“Speak for yourself, Miss Two Powers.”

She flinched. “I… I don’t see what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, right,” Ryan said, truly tempted to leave the table anyway, consequences be damned. “Look, can you tell me what you want exactly? Or else I will take the door.”

“If you try to leave this room now, I will have no choice but hunt you down,” Livia declared, her eyes full of iron. “Your power is too great to be ignored, and I’m not sure you won’t be a threat to my family in the future.”

The courier glared at her, but she stood her ground.

“Ryan, the only reason I haven’t gone to my father yet with my suspicions, is that my previous self seemed to appreciate you,” she warned him. “I even called off Vulcan when she wanted to track you down. Don’t waste this opportunity.”

Ryan tried to figure how to deal with this. She didn’t remember loops but seemed capable of transferring information from one to the other, which made her incredibly dangerous.

Could he negate her advantage by canceling her power? He could always try to get Cancel to turn against her employer, but it seemed far-stretched and difficult. If Augustus’ daughter could truly interact with alternate universes beyond his reach, then even death wouldn’t solve the problem permanently. She would get right back to hunting him in the next run, and that wasn’t without considering whatever contingencies she put in place.

That wasn’t a worst-case scenario, but it was pretty damn close.

“I’ll ask again then,” Ryan said. He didn’t want to sound frustrated, but the whole situation made him incredibly uneasy. “What do you want?”

Livia inhaled, gathering her bearing. ”I want the truth.”

“The truth?” Ryan repeated the word, as the weight of countless years fell on his shoulders. “The truth caused me so much heartbreak, I guess I gave up on it. Some didn’t believe me. Some did, and went mad. Some went as far as trying to destroy me, because they didn’t want to forget. And some…”

The courier’s thoughts turned to Jasmine.

“Some did believe me, and tried to help. And yet, I kept dying, and they forgot. Over, and over, and over again.” Ryan let out a heavy sigh. “Those are the worst, because I never get used to them.”

Livia’s gaze betrayed a hint of compassion, but she regained her icy demeanor. “I think I understand,” she said. “I cannot say I can fully comprehend what you went through, but I think I see your point.”

“No, you can’t. And be thankful for it.” Ryan grabbed his own coffee cup. “You haven’t told your father, but have you told anyone else?”

“Why?” Her tone turned defensive. “Do you want to silence me?”

“No.” Ryan couldn’t even if he wanted to. “But more than half your ‘Olympians’ are murderous assholes. I don’t want any of them to know my true power.”

“If you don’t plan to move against them, then you should have nothing to fear.”

“Oh really?” Ryan deadpanned. “Your father personally tracks down everyone he remotely suspects of being a threat to him. What do you think Lightning Butt will do if he learns I can time-travel?”

“I…” His argument seemed to have hit the mark. “I could talk him out of this.”

“I don’t believe you,” Ryan replied dryly. “And let’s not talk about Bliss.”

“This has nothing to do with our conversation,” Livia argued, her body tensing. “Don’t try to change the subject.”

“It has everything to do with it,” Ryan insisted, sipping his coffee. “Bliss causes sterility in unpowered humans. I used to think Genomes were spared from that nasty side-effect thanks to their enhanced metabolism, but not anymore. Narcinia can create life as she wishes, so there’s no way she doesn’t know, and she’s way too nice not to have corrected that problem already. Hence, it’s not a bug; it’s a feature.”

Livia’s fingers trembled around her cup, her facial features crinkled.

“Why would a cartel make most of its customers sterile? It made no sense to me, until I saw your father and his crew. People like Mars look down on normal humans, like cattle.” Ryan snorted. “Your father wants to kill normies. Bliss isn’t a product, it’s a weapon.”

“You think I wanted this?!”

The sudden outburst made Ryan recoil in his chair, as anger broke through Livia’s mask.

“You don’t think I already tried to change that?!” Now it was her turn to snarl at him, bottled up anger rising to the surface. “You don’t think I tried to close that death lab a thousand times? You think I want people to associate my family’s name with a drug that kills thousands each year? You think I want this?”

Ryan said nothing, astonished, as Livia put her hands on her face.

She… she seemed to fight back tears.

“My father won’t budge,” she said, her voice weak. “He will listen to me on almost everything, but Bliss… it’s his favorite project. His legacy. Narcinia… that girl could make the world so much better. She’s a miracle. But father… father doesn’t want to save anyone. He would rather be king of a cemetery.”

Livia no longer looked like the regal, confident daughter of Augustus. The mask had fallen, and beneath, Ryan only saw a young woman with far too much pressure and unwanted expectations thrown on her shoulders.

At this moment, she looked so vulnerable that Ryan’s anger vanished. “Livia, you don’t have to do this, if you don’t want to,” he said, taking her hand in his own. Her fingers felt so cold to the touch. “Even if they’re your family. You have the right to leave.”

“I have to,” she replied, pushing away his hand and wiping away tears. “Someone worse will take over the organization otherwise.”

Livia took a few seconds to recover her composure, breathing in and out while Ryan watched.

“I just want to protect my family, Ryan,” she said. “If… whatever they are, they are still my family. My father… my father is what he is, but he is still my father at the end of the day. Do you understand?”

These words made Ryan flinch, as they brought him back to the darkest days of his childhood.

“I don’t want them to die,” Livia said with a sigh. “That’s all I ask. I want to protect them. From Dynamis, from the Meta. From you, if necessary.”

“You won’t be able to shield them from the consequences of their actions.” The Carnival’s threat already loomed over Augustus’ empire.

“I know, but I still have to try and protect them. If…” She struggled to find her words, her eyebrows narrowing in bottled-up frustration. “I just want to know you won’t threaten them. That you aren’t out to kill us. If you can guarantee that, then… then I will keep your secrets, and let you be. That’s all.”

Ryan opened his mouth, closed it, and then finally decided to reassure her. “I don’t want to kill you or your family, Livia.”

Now that the courier thought it, wasn’t that what he had always wanted? Somebody capable of remembering him? His first instinct was paranoia, yet she had been nothing but helpful in the previous loop. Lightning Dad was a colossal asshole, but his daughter seemed… nice, for a lack of a better term?

“Thing is, I…” Ryan said, trying to find his words. “I always hoped something like this would happen. That someone like you would come along, and remember me. But now that it finally happened, I have no idea how to deal with this. It’s…”

“New?” she suggested with a sigh.

“Yes,” he said and nodded. “And not in a funny way. I’ve grown used to controlling everything in a loop, and now, you’re threatening to take all my progress away.”

“I understand,” Livia replied, with a forced smile. “I feel the same way about you. I never met someone immune to my power before. It’s… a little scary, and disturbing. I don’t know what to expect.”

They were both afraid of the other.

Hedgehog’s dilemma hit again!

Eventually, after a long minute of thinking, Ryan reached a decision. It was a very risky move, but he had pushed his chips on the table a long time ago. He might as well see the river.

“Alright, if you want the full truth about my power, then I will give it.” He would be as honest with her as he had been with Len and Jasmine. “But trust is a two-way street.”

She considered his proposal for a while, her face thoughtful. “What do you want in return?”

“I want the truth too.”

“How can I know that you won’t take any information I gave, and then use it against me in your next attempt?”

“What guarantee do I have that you won’t send your army of Genomes after my hide?” Ryan let out a shrug. “Thing is, if neither of us is willing to take a risk, then there’s only one way it will end between us. And...”

He looked at this woman, who reminded him so much of someone else.

“And I don’t want to go there.”

Augustus’ daughter said nothing, mulling it over as she sipped her coffee. Eventually, she reached a decision.

“Fine,” Livia declared, putting down her cup on the table. “I accept your terms.”

“First question then,” Ryan asked, glancing at the walls. “Why this motel?”

It made her chuckle a little, releasing some of the tension in the room. “That is the first thing you wish to know?”

“It’s cozy but I’m not fond of the wall paint. You should try purple, it goes well with everything.”

“Felix and I used it as our ‘hideout,’ of a sort,” Livia admitted, glancing at the chessboard. “It was a private refuge we used when we wanted to get away from our families. It’s discreet, and the few who know about it keep their mouth shut. Since you’ve joined Il Migliore, I thought it would be a good neutral ground.”

Ryan scoffed. “I will scold the kitten for his lack of taste then.”

“How is he?” she asked, her tone soft as if afraid of the answer. “Felix?”

“Shouldn’t you know with your power?” Ryan asked, before answering truthfully. “He’s fine, if disappointed. Il Migliore isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but he will recover. I don’t think he will be coming back though.”

“No, he won’t,” Livia agreed with a sigh. “His parents believe he will ‘wise up’ and return to the fold, but I know better. He was always too stubborn for his own good.”

After a short silence, Ryan decided to address the elephant in the room. “How did you remember?”

“You first, Ryan,” she asked, looking into his eyes. “You first.”

“You want the short or the long version?”

“The long one,” she said firmly.

Ryan strongly considered lying to her anyway, but decided against it. Odd as it may be, the courier fulfilled his promises, even if he was the only one who remembered them.

So he told her, without omission.

Livia listened to his explanations with an unreadable face, until he reached the end of his tale. He would have given everything to know what she thought, but her poker face was almost as good as Ryan’s own.

“I see,” is all she said, once he finished his tale.

“If you want to have me killed, now is the time,” Ryan replied. “Or at least, you can try.”

“I…”

Livia stopped, and the courier was certain she considered lying to him too.

“You are right, Ryan. I have two powers. Not just one.”

But in the end, she was an honorable woman.

“You drank two Elixirs,” Ryan said. “Like your father.”

“I was the one to do it first,” she admitted. “I drank a Blue Elixir, which granted me the ability to see parallel timelines. And with that power, I realized both my father and I could wield up to two powers with no ill side-effects in alternate realities.”

“A genetic quirk?” Ryan asked, the princess nodding in confirmation. “What about your uncle and aunt?”

“They didn’t inherit the necessary genes. In the realities where they drank a second Elixir, they always went Psycho. And even in my case, a third Elixir would have turned me into a monster.”

Livia cleared her throat and adjusted her hair, like a teacher preparing a lecture. “Anyway, my power allows me to see and hear through the senses of alternate mes. A limited number.”

“How limited?” Ryan asked, as he stole a second cookie.

“Six,” the princess said, her eyes squinting. “If you want a metaphor, I can watch up to six plasma screens at once. I can switch the channels, but I cannot turn them off. My power is always active.”

“And you realized I could go back in time by talking with these alternate selves?”