"Val…." T was the one to break the silence as he finally seemed to respond to Val's inquiry.
"Yes, T…?"
But once again, there was no response. Just the distant hum of the river, the quiet static in the air that seemed to have appeared at some point.
"Alright man what the fuck do you wa—" Val broke as T's repeated silence continued to tick him off, but as he turned from the river of time to face T, he quickly went silent.
He saw T.
Laying there, unable to stand, limbs missing, but gaze locked onto nothing in particular—staring past existence itself. His irises flickered with threads of blue as electricity Lu crackled to life, flowing toward his brain, igniting his thoughts like a storm barely contained within his skull. His skin pulsed with a faint cerulean glow, an outward sign of the mental gears whirring at breakneck speed as blood slowly started to trickle out of his nose.
Val watched as T remained frozen in thought, his glow intensifying before suddenly—snuffed out. The energy dissipated, clarity returning to his eyes as his lips curled into an almost imperceptible smile that seemed as cheeky as it did resigned.
"How fucked are we Val?"
Seeing T return to his normal self Val chuckled, the sound dry and bitter. "Extraordinarly fucked." Seeing that annoying little smile on T's lips had brought some energy and maybe even humour back into him, even in the bleakness of their situation.
T exhaled through his nose, rolling his shoulders—or at least what remained of them. His left arm was gone past the shoulder, his right leg severed just below the knee, and yet he sat there like it was nothing more than an inconvenience, and for a seasoned warrior like him, it wasn't. Blood had stopped flowing long ago, the wounds eerily clean, as if time itself refused to let them fester.
"Time for Plan B, I guess," he said smoothly as a mad yet light-hearted grin appeared on his face, as if the fun had only begun.
Val blinked. His expression tightened in disbelief, then frustration. "We have a fucking Plan B?"
T stretched his remaining arm as if they weren't discussing the impossibility of their predicament. "We do now," he said smoothly. "I've extrapolated a little regarding my innate node."
Val's expression darkened, realization dawning. "You solved the time shenanigans?"
T chuckled. "'Solved' is a bit much," he admitted, his tone light—almost playful. "More like… it's infinitely more possible but still infinitely impossible."
The words should have been a contradiction, yet the way he spoke them carried a gravity that defied reason. With each syllable, reality itself seemed to lean in, listening, aligning. A strange, polarizing confidence radiated from him—an energy so tangible it sent faint vibrations through existence itself. At first, it was barely noticeable, a whisper at the edge of perception, but then came the music—a resonance so subtle only Val could hear it, threading through the fabric of the time Plane, as if existence itself was holding its breath.
Despite their resounding defeat against Wind, it was clear now that the battle hadn't been for nothing. T had taken something from it—something invaluable. And at their level, even a fraction of a percent in universal comprehension could shift the scales in ways most beings couldn't begin to fathom.
Val's eyes narrowed. Under normal circumstances, he'd have called T a show-off for summoning a background track with his universal cultivation for his big reveal—but this wasn't a normal situation.
His voice cut through the moment, sharp and urgent. "T."
A rare glimmer of hope flickered in his chest, fragile but undeniable.
"How feasible is it?"
T shrugged, clearly far less strung than Val—after all, this had been HIS Plan B, he had considered this exact situation, it had been at the back of his mind from the moment he 'gave into' Val wanting to fight the Luminae as 'they had options left'. Running a hand through his hair, his smirk made a lazy return, brimming with that infuriating mix of ease and certainty.
"Eh… feasible enough," he said, as if they weren't standing at the edge of the impossible. "I can make it work. And if it doesn't… then it doesn't." he added with a smile, but his smile lacked weight, like it made no difference to him whether they lived or died.
"And how much could you send back?" A question immediately followed.
"Enough."
Under most circumstances such dry answers would have pissed Val off, especially given the situation but with T…. "HAHAHAHA" Val's boisterous laugh echoed across the vast expanse of the Time Plane, a sharp, hoarse sound that seemed to fracture the air itself.
Collecting himself, Val tilted his head. "So, what's the plan? Do I just sit here and twiddle my thumbs, or—?" he asked, his voice with the slightest hope and enthusiasm.
"[Endless Ink]. Give it."
"Woah, someone's aggressive. So you did find a way to make it work, huh? " Val quipped as a seemingly small, plain, rectangular bottle of shimmering ink manifested in the air and flew into T's outstretched hand.
"[Neverending Romance]" T demanded again as his lips twitched at the name, but he repressed the annoyance; they had bigger problems.
Val blinked. "Yeah… about that one..." He scratched the back of his neck. "Tried enhancing it. It, uh—" He mimed an explosion with his hands. "—disagreed."
T's face froze. His brow twitched, but he said nothing at first. A long, steady exhale followed as if trying to keep a dozen cascading equations from crumbling in his head.
"…Okay," His glow dimmed briefly, like the light of a dying thought. Then flared again, eyes distant as alternate branches began calculating themselves behind the curtain of his expression.
"Plan B-prime," T muttered.
He spoke again, sharper now. "Fine. [Graceless Bottle]"
Val scratched his cheek. "Yeah, so—fun story. Tried merging it with [Call of the Chicken]. They really didn't get along."
T's right eye twitched. "Let me guess. [Call of The Chicken] is also in pieces."
Val opened his mouth—
"Don't."
Silence.
"Alright," T said through gritted teeth. "Plan B-double-prime. What's left?"
Val opened his spatial ring and browsed through it. "Let's see…"
He started pulling out items one by one, all of the highest tier in their existence. A transparent cube with a star inside, a golden pendant with a marble in the center that seemed to contain a galaxy inside, a miniature disco ball with a pin, and a bottle of perfume with sparkling hearts that appeared and disappeared inside the white gooey liquid.
"I do have those," Val said with a shrug.
T stared at the artifacts. Then at Val. Then, back at the artifacts.
His hands—well, his hand—flared outward in mock outrage "You're telling me these survived but not [Neverending Romance]?! We have a sentient shard of a dead god in here." T held up the oozing artifact between two fingers like a rotten fruit. "But [Neve—]; who even let you name these artifacts; and the second most important one, with one of the most ridiculous abilities—the one we actually needed—is dust?"
Val beamed. "Priorities. You should have seen what it would have been had the enhancement worked…"
"You're lucky my backup plans have backup plans."
"Aw, you do care." Val pressed a hand to his heart. "Where's my 'thank you for saving our asses, Val'?"
But T didn't answer. His aura flickered erratically—unstable, oscillating between too bright and too dim—as if externalizing the hundred simulations tearing through his brain. He went quiet, eyes locked to nothing, tuning theoretical frameworks in real time like a symphony conductor with a migraine and no sheet music.
Every few seconds, his glow would pulse—sharper, steadier. His voice, when it returned, was more focused. More manic.
"Shut up." T took the items, grumbling under his breath as he carefully stowed them. "If we live through this, we're cataloging your entire pocket dimension. No more 'oh yeah I made a universe-bending trinket and forgot'."
Val held up his hands. "Hey, I only forget the boring ones."
T didn't dignify that with a response.
Val's smile softened. "Well, alright." He pushed to his feet, dusting himself off. "Just make it count." He flashed T a big smile as he mimed an explosion again.
BOOM!
And in an instant, Val's form disintegrated into a blinding flash of light and fire. T's eyes widened as he saw a subtle smirk on Val's afterimage as the explosion rattled the air around him, the shockwave pushing him back, his body still battered, but now forced to confront the reality of the situation.