A splash of cold water hits his face, he feels the coldness of the water and he whimpers as his eyes open. “Rise and shine Hunter!” Bill says with an empty red bucket in his hand. David looks at him and shakes his head. “I would like to apologize for putting you to sleep like that, but as I said I didn’t have any sleep darts left.”

David has a lot of questions on his mind, but before he could ask any his stomach grumbles from hunger and he somewhat seems embarrassed. Bill smiles and says, “I’ll bring breakfast soon.” He gets up and as he is about to leave he looks behind at David and says, “I’m not a bad man you know, let me bring you something to eat and I’ll explain everything to you!”

David looks at his wrist which was burned due to the chronoton enhancer short circuit, “How the fuck did I end up like this? Should I really trust this guy? I mean he did keep me alive but I’m so fucking confused...alright first of I need to eat something and listen to his crap. He has seen the dossier and destroyed my enhancer how the fuck am I going to time travel now. What a cluster fuck of a situation!” as he says this to himself the door opens and Bill comes inside with a tray of breakfast.

He keeps it near David and without hesitation David starts eating the breakfast. It’s French toast with honey on top and a mug of coffee, “There are also painkillers and an ointment for the burn!” Bill points out as David gobbles up the coffee and tears through the toast. “You are a very confusing man, last night you fucked me over and today you are feeding me and giving me medicine and ointment. What the fuck are you getting at?”

Hearing this Bill gets up, closes the door of the room and locks it tight. “What is happiness David? Can you tell me the last time you were happy?” he asks David. A question to which he has no answer. Bill smiles at his silence and says, “I know the things you have done for Reed and trust me I did those things too. Going to another universe, you think that it is your play ground. You kill people, change the outcomes of their lives not caring about it one bit. All this so you can please the one man who promises you happiness?”

“But the truth is you are working for someone else’s happiness. Happiness is a state of mind and it doesn’t matter if the things or people that made you happy aren’t there anymore. Life goes on and it should go on. Reed feeds on our need to go back to the things we loved. In reality we should accept time’s judgment and move on. Instead of bickering over the events and trying to change them.”

David starts to think over the things Bill has told him and after a brief pause asks him, “What is your truth? Are you still Harbinger or are you Bill Logan? What happened on the day Reed found your dead body?” Bill takes a deep breath and answers, “I knew you would ask this and I am prepared to answer. It was just a normal day for me, get my orders from Reed, teleport here and start changing things for good or bad. But in reality I had no idea that my life would be flipped. When I teleported here I was in the woods, the same place where you followed me last night.”

“I read my orders and was about to teleport to complete them when I suddenly felt the ground shake. Someone else had teleported behind me and stared at me. The person was wearing all black clothes, strange goggles, and a mask that covered the face entirely. I was confused...where the fuck did this individual came from and without thinking much I decided to run after him. He saw me coming after him and dropped a few scraps of paper and then teleported to God knows where.”

“When I read what was written on the scraps of paper I felt a chill run down my spine. The scraps had my name, my address, the name of my mother and sister, and how they died. They died in a house fire by the way. There was also a holo lens which I wore in my left eye. It showed me glimpses of a different universe. Everything there was dark and sad, people were in chains wearing some kind of device. They were docile and showed no emotions and they moved sluggishly towards MSAT.”

“Children crying for their parents, it was as if some war had taken the life of the city. The person who was making the video told me in a robotic voice that this is what happens to this universe if I change it as Reed wishes. In the end he asked me a question, “You get your happiness, but what about them?”

“I stopped the video and I don’t know why I started to cry, the faces of the children, the state of Hawkesbay, it was too much for me. All this time I did what I was told without considering the consequences, was this the price for my happiness? A world made into hell for countless people? Just so Reed could be God here? I resumed the video and found out that the person who made the video calls himself the ‘Overseer’ and he can time travel as well. The end of the video was just static and a voice note. The voice note told me what was about to happen here in the next 20 minutes.”

“A car came rushing towards me and crashed into a big tree. The driver flew through the windshield and hit his head on a large boulder. He died on the spot just as the voice note told me. I read from the scraps of paper and they ordered me to check who the driver was. I slowly moved towards the body and moved it over to see the face. It...it was me...the me of this universe.”

“I was fucking terrified at the sight of his face, I started shaking frantically. A few moments later, I calmed down and saw the scraps again. The next order was to decide if I am going to work for Reed or make my own way to my happiness. If I was to work with Reed I was to bury the body and keep on doing the things the dossier ordered me to do. If that was the case then the video shown to me was going to become a reality. If I wished to undo the future I just saw, I had to undress the dead me and take his place. It was a huge burden that choice…do I follow Reed or do I trust this ‘Overseer’ guy?”

“I took a deep breath and dressed the dead Bill Logan in my clothes and dressed myself in his clothes. The last order for me was to continue living as Bill Logan, I had a family here. A wife and three kids, this was going to be my happiness, the Overseer also told me that I was not a servant of his and that he did all this to help me break my shackles which Reed had put on me.”

“I lived for two years as Bill Logan, a simple man with nothing but happiness. I went to work every morning, told bed time stories to my kids, had romantic dinners with my wife, but it didn’t feel real at all. It was not the happiness I wanted, perhaps I didn’t deserve happiness at all. Even after trying so hard, I still felt like a stranger, and that was when I knew there was more to come.”

“I had blueprints of weapons and the chronoton enhancer and so I decided to make a modified chronoton enhancer. One not registered to MSAT, a completely independent unit. I kept it all hidden in the basement just for emergency situations. Two years passed and not a word from the Overseer, and then two weeks ago my radar beeped and I went to the woods. He warned me that a certain someone was coming to my universe and I had to stop him. He gave me your name, your height and your abilities, he also told me how to catch you and then last night I did.”

“I was also told to tell you everything about myself and the things I saw. Finally, I am to give you a choice, if you wish to keep on working for Reed...I’ll have to end your life...by any means...and if you wish to be on our side...I am to meet 3 people with you. One of whom is a very good friend of mine. Meeting with them would clear your head or would fuck with it even more. So? What is your choice David?”

Listening to his story David is shocked and silent. He seems to have lost all his senses, lost in his thoughts he doesn’t understand what the fuck is going on and what to do next. He doesn’t know who he should trust and what his next words should be. Bill had dropped too many bombs on him and he has no time to react and absorb what he is told.

Bill shakes him and David comes back to his senses. “I...I...I don’t wanna do Reed’s dirty work anymore...I want to be free.” he says in a confused manner. Bill smiles at him and removes his cuffs, “Let me get you some proper clothes, we are going to meet some friends! Get ready to be blown away even more!”