--7 bring him back

Your name is Dave Strider and you are formally known as the Knight of Time. This is because you once played a game. A dangerous game. A game where many lost their lives. A game called Sburb.


You are Dave Strider and you and three friends had played together, with the help of twelve trolls who had already beaten the game before.

Working together, you won the game. But not before they died.

Almost all of them had died.


You are Dave Strider and you had gotten an idea. A brilliant idea that might or might not have worked. But you were sure it would work. You are a Strider, and Striders are never wrong.

Your idea would take time. Lots of time. But time is what made you, and you had nothing left but it.

You put your plan into action.

You had used your timetables and you manipulated the time, because that wasn't your namesake for nothing.

You bent time to your will, and you saved all of your friends.

It wasn't a fast process. It was very slow. But you persevered, and you brought back all of them. Your plan had worked.


You are Dave Strider and there is still one more person that you need to save. It was a very special person. A very precious person.


You are Dave Strider and you are going to save your Bro.


You are Dave Strider and when your Bro had died, you hadn't been allowed to feel sorrow. Time had been running out and there was still so much you had left to do.

You didn't cry. Striders do not cry.

You had allowed yourself a very brief moment with his body, clutching him to you. It covered you in innocent blood and you didn't care. All around you was chaos. But the moment was serene. You felt at peace for the only time in the whole game, holding your Bro, squeezing his left hand and praying that he would just wake up and squeeze yours back. Silent tears ran down your face.

You didn't cry.


You are Dave Strider and you let time wrap around you like a tendril of string. It constricts you, tosses you around, pierces your skin. You wonder if this is what Bro felt when he was dying.

It finally spits you out and you feel weak. You're on the ground except there really is no ground. There is nothing here. There never is.

You get to your feet. You don't like coming to this place, even though you don't know what this place is. But you know you'll like what you find.

There's a wall of light behind you, you know without even looking. Ahead of you is darkness. And somewhere in between is what you came for.

You take a step forward and you see it. A splash of white against the black, reflecting the light from behind you. You take another step.

You're not sure how or when it happened, but now you're in front of it, in front of him, and your eyes sting and your cheeks feel wet.

His shades are hooked neatly over the collar of his shirt and your own glasses are clutched in your hand. You don't remember taking them off but you don't care.

His hat is askew and it makes his hair stick out more than usual but you barely notice.

His shirt is painted red in the front but you know that there's nothing except a faded scar marring his skin.

He looks so different than what you remember and yet he looks the exact same.

You want to run the small distance left between you and wrap yourself around him and live the rest of your life in his arms.

You want to hold him and you want to feel him hold you and you want to never let go.

You want to open your mouth and say something to him. You want to say everything to him.

You want to tell him how sorry you are, how much you miss him, how much you love him.

But you don't.

He already knows.

Neither of you move. You feel like you're rooted to the ground and all you can do is look at him.

His eyes are filled with emotions and you feel yourself drowning in his bright gaze and you want to laugh and tell him how stupid it is, aren't you the one who taught me emotions are useless?, but you don't, you can't.

Because you know he's seeing the exact same thing in your own eyes.

You reach out.


You are Dave Strider and you feel almost like a hero. You are in a forsaken place, somewhere between life and death, between the fabric of time and space, and you are saving your Bro.

He reaches out.


You are Dave Strider and you have seen life and death. You have done the impossible. You once saved the world and then saved your friends. Now you are saving yourself.

Your right hand meets his left hand and your fingers intertwine. You squeeze his hand, the same as you did back when he had died, and suddenly you are back, clutching his cold body to you and praying that he'll just wake up and squeeze yours back.

He does.


You are Dave Strider and you have never been happier in your life.

You take his hand and you lead him towards the light.