~June 18th, 1982~

~Cycle 546~

Jeremiah found himself on his normal route through the city to reach Henri. He was already armed with a mirror shard. It was what he used to kill Henri each day. But it was strange, the cycle started a little bit later than usual. Jeremiah figured that Patrice waited a moment before using the stone. Maybe to throw him off.

It wouldn't matter. Jeremiah had killed Henri more times than he'd care to count at that point. Patrice didn't have enough time to reach him before the deed was done. He couldn't stop him.

Jeremiah had seen Patrice with Henri often. The two of them were caught up in that nasty business with the 'Wolves' back in the community. He figured the two of them had to be friends. It seemed like that was the only person Patrice cared about. He treated everyone else as expendable.

If Patrice didn't care about Henri, Jeremiah likely would've been out of luck. There'd have been no reason for him to keep resetting the day, and he would've been forced to try and steal the stone back.

If killing one person each day was the cost of keeping his daughter alive, Jeremiah would do it forever.

But Jeremiah was perplexed when he reached Henri's usual spot under the bridge. He wasn't there. Nor was he on the usual path he would take towards campus. Jeremiah investigated the surrounding area for him, but there was no sign of him. Then he began to panic.

What could've happened? Why wasn't he there? Had someone interfered? Jeremiah thought that maybe Patrice found someone else who would help him, and they were able to reach Henri first.

Jeremiah's mind was racing. He had to find Henri right away. As long as he killed him before it got too late, Patrice would be forced to reset the cycle.

Jeremiah made his way around the city. He visited the campus he found them at before. He visited the chem lab and found no one. He meandered around campus, searching the various buildings but finding no one. Then gunshots started to ring out through La Ville Sans Fin. Jeremiah couldn't afford to be killed either. If he died, then there'd be absolutely no reason for Patrice to reset the cycle.

With how much time had passed, Patrice and Henri would've surely met up. Patrice would've left with his friend to keep him safe. In a city this large there was no way that Jeremiah would be able to find them before the day was over.

Jeremiah bitterly accepted that the stone, Patrice, and Henri were all lost to him. He considered trying to make a new stone. Sure, he got lucky the first time, but it was worth a shot.

Jeremiah headed home, picking up every stone he could throughout the city. He entered his modest abode. When he walked in there, there was an old portrait of him, with him carrying Chloe on his shoulders. She was healthy then and had a great big smile on her face. He had to save her.

Jeremiah headed to the garage in his backyard where he had a workbench. A good number of palm sized stones were already set on the workbench, and he set down the new ones he had gathered with them.

On the work bench was some chiseling equipment, as well as an old book propped up so he could easily view it. Each page of the book had various sigils on them. In the corner of some pages were Jeremiah's handwritten notes on what they could mean. Jeremiah began to turn through the pages.

'Heal'. 'Restore'. 'Revive'.

Those were some of the words written in the corners of pages. He kept turning through the book until he reached a page with the word 'Time' in the corner. There was a representation of the symbol that Jeremiah had carved into that stone.

Jeremiah began etching that symbol into one of the stones on the table, taking great care to match it exactly. But when it was finished, nothing happened.

Jeremiah recalled when he first got this book. Medicine hadn't done much to save his daughter, so he sought out other messages. He thought this book was nonsense at first, but he was desperate. Jeremiah spent weeks carving out the sigils from the book onto stones. But only one ever came out properly. A green glow emanated from the symbol of the successful stone.

He continued to try again on different stones, doing his best to copy the symbol exactly. But it took him weeks the first time. He had less than a day to make a new stone.

Jeremiah tried and failed on each stone he gathered, until there were none left. He stepped outside, and gathered whatever stones he could from the nearby neighborhood, hauled them into his home, and tried yet again.

He began to sob when the sun began to set. Jeremiah wasn't even sure what he did differently the first time that made the stone work. He was running out of daylight... Chloe only had so much time.

Jeremiah stood and left his home, heading for the hospital. There was a chance he wouldn't be able to save Chloe this time. He wanted to at least spend what precious little time there was left with his daughter. After she passes, he figured he could try to recreate the stone again.

The bright blue of the comet was shining overhead as he entered the hospital. He trudged through the building until he neared his daughter's room. He tried to compose himself. He didn't want his sullen attitude to worry her.

But she heard the tv playing in her room. It sounded like some sort of cowboy show. He stepped in and found his daughter watching an old show he and her used to watch back home. He looked to her in her sickbed, and the stout man in formal clothing sitting beside her. It was Patrice.

"Dad!" Chloe greeted happily.

Patrice turned in his seat while stretching his arms over his head, "Took you long enough. Don't worry, I covered for you."

Jeremiah looked at the bizarre sight and noticed a small palm sized stone sitting on the table beside her sickbed. The stone. He couldn't help but wonder why Patrice would not only come here, but with the stone.

"...What're you doing here?"

Patrice scoffed, "Don't you remember? While you were busy with work, you asked me to keep Chloe company. I guess your work took longer than expected, right?"

What game is he playing?

"...Right." Jeremiah mumbled.

Chloe did her best to sit up, "He's not as mean as you said he was dad. He used to watch this show when he was a kid too."

"Yeah." Jeremiah muttered, still eyeing the stone on the table, "Thanks Patrice."

Patrice stood, snatched the stone into his hand and asked, "Can we talk for a minute?"

Jeremiah couldn't understand what Patrice's goal was here. He answered, "Sure. I'll be right back Chloe."

"Okay, dad."

Patrice walked outside with the stone. He wasn't trying to hide it at all. Jeremiah had his questions, but Patrice spoke first.

"You were unlucky last cycle. When you went after Henri last time, he managed to kill you instead of the other way around. That's how he knew to avoid you this morning." Patrice began, "And last night, I saw your daughter pass away."

Jeremiah asked, "Why? Why did you reset the day then?"

Patrice took a breath and leaned his back against the wall, "If you went through all this trouble to save your daughter... she must be special."

"She is."

Patrice held the stone out in front of him so both he and Jeremiah could see it, "So, how does this thing work?"

"I think you should know by now. Holding your thumb over the symbol will set time back roughly 15 and a half hours. After that it needs to recharge for the same amount of time before it can be used again. It seems like only people within a certain distance of the stone remember what happened, but it covers most of the city."

"I get what it does. But HOW does it work?" Patrice asked again.

"... I'm not sure... I guess magic." Jeremiah shrugged.

Patrice rolled his eyes, "Okay, sure. Where did you get it?"

"I made it."

"You can make these?" Patrice raised an eyebrow.

"I only managed to make one. I found a stone and carved the symbol onto it. I've tried making more... never worked."

Patrice nodded, "So, what was your goal with all this? Just to prolong how much time you could spend with her?"

"No, I wanted to find a way to save her. Once I did, I'd let time go on."

"Any luck with that?"

Jeremiah sighed, "At this point I've spent a lot of time with medical research... didn't find anything useful. The doctors who were looking at her before didn't know what to do either."

Patrice casually handed the stone back to Jeremiah. He crossed his arms and asked, "...How many hours per cycle did you spend with your daughter?"

"Most of each day, why?"

"No wonder you couldn't accomplish anything in all this time!" Patrice remarked, "You were wasting all this time with her instead of looking for a way to save her."

Jeremiah's eyes widened. "I had to be there for her."

"Look, I want to help you. We'll see if we can save your daughter so everyone can move on with their lives. But if I'm going to do that, I need you to be focused. Instead of wasting all that time with her, we need to be spending that time finding a way to save her. If you can't do that, there's no point in continuing to reset the day over and over."

Jeremiah winced, "I-I can't just let her die alone."

"She won't remember anyways."

"I don't care. I can't let her go through that."

Patrice stared intently at him before asking, "What if you got to see her every night? So, you can stay with her while she passes each cycle? She won't have to die alone that way. The rest of the day, we'll spend researching ways to save her. How does that sound?"

Patrice seemed like a different person. Still a hardass, but one willing to compromise on his goals to accommodate others. Back at work, he was never like that. Jeremiah looked in the direction of his daughter's room.

He breathed out, "If I do that, we can keep resetting the day until we've found a way to save her?"

"Yes." Patrice replied simply.

Jeremiah extended his hand to Patrice. "Shake on it."

Patrice glanced down at Jeremiah's hand; his arms still crossed. There was some hesitation, but Patrice slipped out a hand and gripped Jeremiah's. That night, Patrice gave the stone back to him. After Chloe passed away, he used the stone to reset the day again.