The timeline. The time line. It was a self correcting, event ensuring structure. A machine with thousands of fail-safes running simultaneously due to being powered by a timeless energy. It was the work of Time, who saw his creation and was very proud. Life soon popped up, and with it came Nature. The two cosmic powers took a liking to each other, giving them the names we now know them as: Father Time and Mother Nature. Like Father Time and the time line, Mother Nature was also creating her Magnum Opus. Life that has the ability to glimpse at their beings and survive the cosmic beauty. Mother Nature didn't know what to name her Magnum Opus and asked Father Time what he thought. He told her that her life would create its own name within enough time. For you see, with time comes perfection. These creatures called themselves humans. As their technology progressed, Mother Nature was glad to see that Father Time was correct. They really were perfecting themselves! Slowly, the two began to influence the species by slowly coming down onto the planet that hosted the humans--Earth. Mother Nature didn't like how the humans called her favorite planet "just a dirt ball", but she accepted it. Father Time and Mother Nature made it apparent to the human communities that they were friendly. They were always the first ones to extend their hands in love. But, one day, a new community beat them to the punch. The couple were pleasantly surprised and gifted the community with their best gifts. The most important gift of them all that was given was Father Time's timeless energy--the same timeless energy that ensured the stability of the timeline. This energy was a powerful one. It could undo change, it could ensure change, and it was the essence of Father Time. It was an essence he gave to those whom he loved. Thousands of years later, civilizations grew beyond simple huts and river valleys, and they became big grey monoliths that were beautiful in their sense of scale. One civilization grew above the rest, and it was the same community who lent their hand to the cosmic beings who arrived just a hundred generations ago. The civilization cultivated the energy in their hands carefully. Eventually, an inventor from this civilization had an idea. He combined this energy with his theories, his knowledge, his everything, and made his Magnum Opus--a time machine. He tested it and, despite the future still remaining a fog, he was able to go back in time. He could witness the events for himself! And, he did, because that was all he could do. The time line built by Father Time had too many fail-safes for anyone to do anything *but* look back on the past. The inventor didn't think Father Time would let anyone tamper with his time line's fail-safes, especially when it was his creation, much like the time machine with the inventor. But, he had an idea for how he could nullify the time line, and contacted Mother Nature. Mother Nature was covered in timeless energy, all of which came as a gift from Father Time. This extra output of timeless energy was what the inventor seeked. He bargained with the mistress, arguing that humans should be creative and not bounded by time. Mother Nature sympathized with her creations and lended them a fraction of the timeless energy that emanated from her. With the newly acquired excess of energy, the inventor studied and worked. He worked for days, weeks, months, years, DECADES until an invention to rival the time machine was invented: The Core. The Core was the ultimate nullifier, somehow removing all of the restrictions and fail-safes brought by the time line. From there, the Split occurred. If someone were to travel to a time before the Core–before the Split–the time line and its fail-safes would work as intended. However, if one were to travel to a time after its invention, they could alter it and create a new branch of time. Father Time looked on in awe at the Core. Something made by mortals rivaled his Magnum Opus. He was angry, but he couldn’t come to revert the actions of man. His wife told him not to, after all. He soon began to see the Core as a blessing and joined the inventor in the main universe. This was the universe without any alterations caused by time travel, and it was the one where the Core remained for it was so powerful that it could not be replicated among each of the branches. Thousands of years later, when branches were tallied to an infinite amount, a tinkerer from the timeline known as 2B89-cc1 had an idea. What if he invented an anti-core and reset the multiverse back to when there was just one singular branch? And so, he worked. Through lies and deals, he soon amassed a significant backlog of timeless energy. He assembled his device, one that would remove an infinite amount of branches from the tree of time and leave only the trunk left!
But the anti-core wasn’t a clean cut. It had a messy handler, after all. And so, that day, the tinkerer ended up ending infinity + one branches that day. A traveler overheard the tinkerer’s plans for the anti-core and traveled back a hundred years. To Father Time, who was still manning the Core, he pleaded to Father Time and told him of a future that could come to pass without his help. The traveler had an idea that, if he simply created the anti-core before the tinkerer, and if he did it correctly, then the tinkerer wouldn’t need to create an anti-core in the future. Father Time agreed, and the two worked together on creating the anti-core. With the genius and experience of Father Time, the project was done in a matter of weeks. The traveler, for his efforts, was gifted with a vast amount of timeless energy as the two of them activated the anti-core. This new anti-core, due to being made from the timeless energy of Father Time directly and not by the unskilled hands of the tinkerer, instead made a second split occur–just like what the main core before it did. However, two splits cannot occur in the same multiverse, and so all of the branches regained the properties of the original time line. However, no branch was removed in this action. Each branch solidified into the unedited state that was intended for the main time line so, so far back. Father Time soon left to spend time with Mother Nature, but the traveler remained. It was all perfect to him. Now, it was guaranteed that none of the branches would end. Perfection, to him, was something that wouldn’t end. It could maybe even be immortal, perhaps. If it did end, then it wouldn’t have been perfect, right? This was the thought that formed in the traveler's mind. He needed to make everything last forever. He hid away from his former ally and started work on his most ambitious project yet: Ensuring perfection. And, to him, the only way to ensure something was to freeze it. To stop the flow of time throughout the multiverse. That was the only way to ensure that no more tinkerer’s would come along and end it. For you see, with time comes chaos and uncertainty. Mother Nature sneezed. She felt cold. How strange! The traveler went on with his plans, repeating his trials and becoming more efficient with the way he carried them out. It wasn’t long before a noticeable chunk of the multiverse was frozen. Mother Nature was sick. She could only survive if there was life left across the multiverse, and with how life was being frozen left and right, her time was in limited supply. Father Time took notice, and angrily began searching for the one foolish enough to mess with the one he called “dear”. Father Time went to his brother that he hadn’t seen since so long ago. Brother Space, he was called. He was a recluse who enjoyed spending time at the edge of the universe, expanding it by creating worlds along its edge. Father Time respected his brother’s job, but he disliked how it made him such a rare sight. Father Time pleaded for help. With Brother Space’s knowledge on everything that he’s built, he could find the perpetrator in no time! Brother Space told him of how the traveler was using his timeless energy for evil, and Father Time flew into a rage. Mortal plays god and betrays the one he called a friend? Outrageous! Eventually, Father Time caught up to the traveler. The traveler argued for his “infinite peace”, but Father Time was not having it. Once the traveler realized that the outcome would not be one akin to their earlier comradely, he swiftly fired a device at Father Time, trying to freeze him like he did to so many branches of his tree. Father Time slowed, but he powered through and grabbed the traveler. With the force of a constellation directed onto one small target, one could barely have even called the event a fight. Father Time went back to his wife, but he was too late. After so long of being used to so much life, this reverse deluge took its toll on her body. She was left frozen in an icy abyss. Father Time instantly knew what he had to do in order to save the one he loved. He had to get rid of all of these timey wimey problems, he had to reset everything. He ran to his brother and told him his plan. Brother Space, looking around at his frozen creations–worlds turned barren without any hopes of becoming better, agreed. The two then combined their powers, and everything began to glow. Time slowed and eventually catapulted backwards, crossing thousands of years in just a second. Movement halted and the universe began shrinking, halving in size each second. Eventually, the two released their energy, and everything was put into motion once again. Brother Space told his brother to stay out of the human’s path in the future when they appear again and leave to rebuild all that he lost. Father Time agreed and waited for his once beloved to bring peace to him once again.
