Where Helix had gone to Red, Dome had gone to Bill. Who else could He go to? If history was to repeat itself, then Bill was Dome's future, just as surely as Red was Helix's.



But Dome had suffered severe doubts over this.



Certainly, Bill was nothing but loyal at this point in the timeline. But Dome knew that would change. Shortly after the Godslayers' scheduled defeat of the Helixian court, Bill would discover that the wars between gods were creating cracks in the fabric of reality, allowing unearthly beings of incredible power and terrifying depravity to seep in and destroy the bodies and minds of mortals. And that knowledge would result in creating the greatest mortal enemy that the gods would ever face.



Helix Himself had pointed this out to Dome. DO WE REALLY WANT TO KEEP BILL ON HIS ORIGINAL PATH?



Dome didn't have an answer for that. How could He? It was Dome who had taught Bill murder, after all. It was Dome that had taught the eccentric inventor to pursue a goal so slavishly, so devotedly, that even basic moral standards took a backseat to the Plan. And then said inventor had turned on Him completely and unleashed a wave of terror on the world that would never be forgotten.



Well, it had been forgotten now. And this time, Dome was determined it would STAY forgotten.



So Dome had gone to Bill and told him everything. At first, Bill hadn't believed it. An alternate timeline in which he'd committed untold monstrosities? Another world sideways from this one, where eldritch horrors dwelt? (Dome had had to repeat vehemently that no, Bill did NOT want Dome to open up a portal into that world to prove it, because the experience had driven Bill mad the first time, and the last thing anybody wanted was a repeat of what he'd become afterwards.)



Eventually, Dome had had to resort to that one end-all statement that gods and parents alike often used to end an argument: BECAUSE I SAID SO, THAT'S WHY.



Bill still didn't seem very convinced. But he knew enough not to argue with a god.



So Bill was keeping tabs on Red's journey, using his PC system as Dome ordered to retrieve the Pokemon that Red had 'released'. Kakuna. Magikarp. Pidgey. Charmeleon. And another Kakuna, for some reason. All strangely familiar, although Bill couldn't really quite put his finger on why. Dome instructed Bill to hold on to those Pokemon until He ordered otherwise.



Although honestly, Dome wasn't sure if he'd ever order otherwise. True, He no longer demanded blood; He'd learned too much from Bill's humbling and Abe's companionship in the other timeline. But that still didn't mean He trusted Red with them. Red had broken the ancient contract by severing his bonds with his Pokemon, and that sort of wound doesn't go away very easily.



"Where's my trainer?" Churro would keep asking Bill at mealtimes. "I want Red."



And from his face, Dome could tell that even an accomplished liar like Bill couldn't think of a satisfactory answer.



---



Later that evening, the other shoe dropped. Effigy and Dr. Camden had been released.



On purpose.



Effigy, at the very least, was relieved to find all the other 'released' to be alive and well. Dr. Camden, on the other hand, couldn't stop carrying on about Red's unstable mental state and how that boy shouldn't be trusted with a Tamagotchi, yet alone a full team of Pokemon, which he wasn't likely to get because he kept throwing them into cyberspace and trying to delete them, and what was even wrong with him, anyway--



"You're the freaking DOCTOR!" Effigy snapped. "It was your job to find out what was wrong with him to begin with!"



Really, though, Effigy wondered if he should really be blaming himself. Red's Pokemon ganging up on him to force him to deposit the Helix Fossil was his idea, after all. He'd been the team leader ever since Churro was boxed.



And yet, if he could have done it any differently, what else could he have done? Red had been in a terrible state to begin with, and finding that damn fossil had only made him worse. Whatever the Helix actually was, Effigy couldn't possibly imagine it to be good. And now so many of the gang were in the care of a trainer that wasn't their trainer, one whom already had scores and scores of other Pokemon to take care of, and yet seemed to take a somewhat unhealthy interest in speaking to them, to finding out what their stories were...



For what purpose, the Fearow wondered?



Just what the hell was going on here?



---



If Effigy thought he was concerned, Lord Dome was downright frantic. Red had never released that many Pokemon this early on. Was this Helix's doing, in some mad attempt to stick closer to the script of what had gone on before? Was this the uncontrollable mania of the Voices?



Or was this all Red's idea?



And that still didn't answer the question as to why the universe had been reset to begin with. Why centuries of conflict between gods, mortals, Voices, and creatures from beyond the barriers of existence had suddenly been wiped clean, and the world returned to the Voices' starting point.



And Dome didn't believe for a moment that it had been a natural occurrence.



Perhaps this had been for the best, Dome mused. A second chance, a chance for peace. Bill for one had certainly benefited, assuming nothing traumatic happened to him and he didn't snap again. But hadn't it been Dome's idea to repeat the course of history to begin with? And why had Helix, the bastion of anarchy and freedom, agreed to continue the very bloody cycle that had led to His own death on Mt. Silver?



Had Dome been wrong to suggest this plan?



And was it already too late to stop it?