Chapter 99
It was May 8th for the seventeenth time, and Ryan Romano had died happy.
Or he could have, as he woke up in a king-sized bed and in Livia’s arms. Ryan had beat up Ghoul again in his sleep, only to
quickly snap out of this nightmare. And a nightmare it had been. The courier usually didn’t care about dying and beginning again,
even in his dreams, but now he did.
He didn’t want her to forget him.
Livia was holding him even now, her arms around his neck, her breasts on his chest, a leg over his thigh. Her hair covered her
restful face like silver strands. The seer was warm to the touch, and she lightly snored, which Ryan found cute. Still, he might
have to sleep with earplugs from now on.
Ryan Romano had been with countless people in his long life, and in his mind, lovemaking said a lot about a person’s character.
Len had been hesitant, clumsy, and vulnerable; the Doll, curious and yful; Jasmine had been wild, energetic, and liked weird
roley.
Livia though?
It had been... right. Just right. Like fitting the right key in a lock. Livia was less experienced than her partner, but she was
delicate, attentive, and considerate. And sheughed, sometimes at the most inappropriate time. Ryan couldn’t exin why, but
herughter rxed him.
For a moment, the courierpletely forgot about Psychos, Bloodstream, and the fact he just bedded Lightning Butt’s daughter
in his own house. He only cared about the lovely woman in his bed. For an instant, Livia was his world.
He wanted to wake her up, to face her, and hold her hands while they kissed. He wanted to hold her, to be one with her.
But the seer slept so soundly, and so blissfully, that Ryan couldn’t bring himself to disturb her rest. In her own dreams, Livia
looked happier than the courier had ever seen her.
Ryan was hungry though. The courier had noticed a kitchen on his way to Livia’s bedroom, so he would go prepare the
breakfast. He was sure Augustus’ daughter would love to wake up in front of pastries.
Livia wouldn’t let Ryan go though, even in her sleep. When the courier tried to sneak out of the bed, she just held him tighter. He
had to freeze time to escape her grip and put a pillow in his ce, but a frown appeared on the seer’s face as time resumed.
The sight made Ryan feel... It took him a while to figure out the right word.
Loved.This belongs to N?velDrama.Org.
Ryan felt loved. Livia wanted him at her side so much, she wouldn''t let him go even in her dreams. Once, the time-traveler would
have backed away in fear afterward; fear that he might die, and that this moment would lose its significance. Fear of the pain he
would feel, if Livia forgot him.
But now?
Now, Ryan wanted to return to her. It took all his willpower, and screaming stomach, not to slip back into the bed.
The bedsheets, no, the whole room reeked of sex, so Ryan opened the windows to let the fresh air in. The morning sun outside
blinded him and burnt his skin like a vampire, though he quickly recovered. Only redheads had to fear the morning sun, for they
lacked a soul.
Ryan thought of putting on his clothes, but they were... dirty. Instead, the naked courier explored the bedroom and found a white
bathrobe with cat motifs. The time-traveler wondered if it had once belonged to Felix, before putting it on alongside the slippers.
Before moving to the door, Ryan took a moment to examine the paintings in the bedroom. Some represented Livia as a child with
two people whom he recognized as her parents. Augustus always looked grim in reality, but his painted self smiled warmly; it
made Mob Zeus seem less like a bloodthirsty monster, and more like a human being. Most importantly, he hadn’t turned into an
ivory statue then, his hair white and his eyes blue like his daughter. As for his wife, she was a carbon copy of Livia, albeit older
and stouter.
Other pictures represented cities like New York, with one tower in ce of the World Trade Center. A painting of Paris had
zeppelins flying in the sky alongside steam-powered devices. It seemed Livia liked to paint about alternate universes in her spare
time. Or perhaps she dreamed of happier realities than her own.
In any case, Ryan silently slipped out of the bedroom, and quickly found his way to the kitchen. Unlike the straight antiquity style
of the rest of the vi, the architect designed this room to mix the old and the new. High-tech fridges and ovens faced a five-
meters long marble counter and ivory statues of Roman Deities. Venus and Mars holding hands, Jupiter triumphant, Diana and
Apollo hunting side by side. How could Ryan resist making breakfast in such divinepany?
The courier searched the room, and found a silver tter. He put it on the marble counter, and started preparing the breakfast.
Livia was quite skinny, which Ryan found unhealthy, so he prepared fried eggs, bacon, coffee, and French croissants.
The courier would make pancakes for her tomorrow.
Ryan raised his eyes to look at the statues while he prepared the breakfast. Maybe it was sleeplessness, but... the statue of
Jupiter seemed vaguely familiar.
Very familiar.
Ryan blinked, one hand holding a knife and the other a buttered toast. The Jupiter statue was a carbon copy of Augustus,
standing still while gazing at the counter.
The courier dropped everything and moved to the side, but the statue’s eyes didn’t follow. Come to think of it, Lightning Butt
always kept a shroud of lightning around his face, to intimidate others. This statue had none.
Was Mob Zeus arrogant enough to popte his own vi with statues in his likeness? Or was it something else?
Ryan knew he should take the tter and return to Livia, but he couldn’t suppress his morbid curiosity. The time-traveler moved
in front of the statue, and waved his hand before its eyes.
No reaction.
“Oh look outside, it''s a wild Hargraves!” Ryan pointed at the kitchen’s window, and the sunlight outside. “Quick, he’s getting
away!”
The statue didn’t react. It didn’t breathe, didn’t blink, didn’t do anything. Damn, Discount Zeus was arrogant enough to build
statues of himself and put them in his kitchen.
Ryan poked the ivory construct in the nose, and decided to call it quits.
This time, Augustus woke up.
The ivory statue’s eyes nced down at Ryan, blinking a few times. It reminded the terrified courier of a grandpa with
Alzheimer’s, suddenly remembering his son''s face. Was Lightning Butt sleeping with his eyes open, like a crocodile? Or did his
tumor cause him to have a brain seizure?
“Hey, what’s up?!” Ryan asked, trying to lighten up the atmosphere. He better make a good impression, as Lightning Butt
wouldn''t take anyone dating his daughter well.
“Who are you?” Augustus asked, his eyes squinting. There was no fear nor surprise in his voice, which Ryan found quite
intimidating. The tyrant was so confident in his own power, that catching an intruder in his own home didn’t even phase him.
“lm Batman,” Ryan replied, trying to sound calm. However, he couldn’t shake the ominous feeling of dread pervading the room.
“Whom?” Lightning Butt observed Ryan’s bathrobe, his eyes ring with crimson lightning upon recognizing the outfit. “This
belongs to my daughter.”
In hindsight, sleeping with Lightning Butt’s daughter beneath his own roof might not have been Ryan’s brightest idea.
“You know what, don’t mind me, I''ll take the doo—” Ryan tried to take a step back, but Augustus swiftly grabbed his shoulder with
his right hand. Lightning Butt had invaded his personal space, like Germany with Pnd.
“You are not going anywhere,” Lightning Butt said, his tone suddenly a lot more threatening. “Thief.”
Of what, a bathrobe? Ryan would have bore that badge with pride if it had been a cashmere suit, but he wouldn’t go to war for
cotton. “Nah, I’m rich.” Rich people didn’t steal, that was known. “I’m a good friend of your daughter, and she invited me for a
sleepover.”
“Lies,” Augustus replied, his grip on Ryan’s shoulder tightening. It didn’t hurt yet, but the courier could tell that the murderous
mob boss would tear him in half at the slightest provocation. “My daughter would inform me. She knows the rules. | do not know
how you bypassed the guards, but you were foolish toe here.”
“It waste, you can check the cameras or ask Livi—”
“You will not get anywhere near my blood,” Augustus interrupted him. “Now, tell the truth before | tear off your limbs.”
Damn it, that paranoid psychopath wouldn''t listen! Ryan looked into the madman’s eyes, and saw that nothing the courier could
say would change his mind. One nce, and Lightning Butt had already condemned the courier to death.
Ryan could try running back to Livia to clear this up, but Mob Zeus could move inside his time-stop and zap him with lightning;
and if the courier perished now, then Livia would forget that night. She would forget him.
The courier had to dy, and pray for Lightning Butt’s daughter to wake up.
“| will not repeat myself again,” Augustus said, tempting fate. “Where did you find—”
Ryan froze time, and didn’t move. As far as the world was concerned, he had stopped just like everything else.
“—these clothes?” Augustus blinked, nced around, and let out a sound that could pass for a sigh. He waited several seconds
for the effect to end, with a look of resigned eptance.
“I''m sorry, sir?” Ryan asked when time resumed, feigning confusion. Thankfully, he had an excellent poker face. “What did you
say?”
“| said that—” The clock stopped again, and once more Ryan feigned being paralyzed. Augustus let out a snarl of anger and
frustration, much to the courier’s deep satisfaction. The mob boss clenched his jaw, even after the flow of time resumed.
“I''m sorry, sir,” Ryan apologized, delighting at the ivory man’s frustration. After watching this selfish prick try to murder Leo
Hargraves as the world copsed around them, it felt quite good. To add insult to injury, the courier looked at Lightning Dad as if
he had gone senile. “Do you need medicine, sir?”
Augustus waited a bit longer, half-expecting time to freeze again. Finally, once he thought himself safe, he opened his mouth
again. “| said—”
Time froze again.
Instead of sighing or raging, Augustus squinted at Ryan, his expression thoughtful.
“| can see electrons move in your brain. You are not affected by this... this temporal anomaly. You are its source.” Damn,
Lightning Butt was brutal but not stupid. “Stop this at once.”
Ryan didn’t break character, even as time resumed. Augustus waited a few more seconds, his face undecipherable, before
opening his mouth again.
“As | said—"
And time stopped again!
Augustus’ hand moved from Ryan’s shoulder to his neck and lifted him above the ground.
“You dare to mock me?!” Mob Zeus snarled angrily. The courier kicked and punched the invincible man’s arm in the frozen time,
but he didn’t even notice. Unlike when Ryan struck him in the previous loop, Augustus didn’t react with shock at someone being
capable of harming him. The time-traveler’s blows couldn’t hurt him.
Damnit, as he had guessed, Ryan needed the Saturn Armor to use his ck superpower. He couldn’t damage Lightning Butt
without it!
“You would strike me? Madness.” Augustus sneered as time resumed. “This is yourst chance. Where did you find these
clothes?”
“In your daughter’s wardrobe!” The courier blurted out.
Lightning Butt noticed the sparkle in Ryan’s eyes, alongside his messy hair. The ivory man’s eyes noticed the breakfast for two,
prepared with love, and he finally understood.
The Augusti patriarch didn’t want to admit it though. His fingers tightened around the courier’s neck, squeezing the air out of him.
“What did you do?” he snarled, lifting Ryan higher until his head touched the ceiling. “What did you do to my daughter?”
Ryan wanted to say something clever, but Augustus squeezed his throat so tightly that no word came out. Lightning Butt
eventually realized the interrogation wouldn’t go anywhere like this, eased his grip enough to let the time traveler breathe, and
looked into his captive’s eyes.
“Did you sleep with my daughter?” Augustus asked, his cold fury ten times more threatening than his snarls.
Knowing nothing he said would save him, Ryan answered with the first thing that came to mind.
“YES DADDY, YES!”
Augustus brutally mmed Ryan against the counter.
Anormal human would have gone st from the impact, and the shock made the marble crack. The silver tter almost fell off
to the ground, and one of the coffee cups shattered. Ryan saw stars for a moment andnded on the ground, chest first.
Lightning Butt released his grip while his victim gasped for air.
“You will die begging,” Augustus said with cold fury, towering over the courier like the specter of death. His whole body cackled
with crimson lightning, the microwave and electrical devices in the room malfunctioning. “Like a jew on a cross.”
“And it was...” Ryan coughed, defiant. “Unprotected.”
Lightning Butt gave Ryan the Palpatine electroshock treatment, by zapping him with electricity. It was a low-current st, not
enough to kill the courier; but it hurt. It hurt like hell. A lightning bolt hit Ryan in the chest, his skin burning, the bathrobe releasing
smoke.
The courier’s body trembled, the nerves in his body stimted by the lightning. It felt as if his body had caught fire, his lungs
melting.
“Dad!”
Her shrieking voice echoed in the kitchen, but Augustus kept zapping Ryan with murder on his mind. If anything, he only
increased the voltage, even as a chi—
Time skipped forward, and when it resumed, her arms immediately seized him.
The pain in his chest remained, alongside severe burns, but no lightning coursed through Ryan’s nerves anymore. He had
crawled near the statue of Minerva, with Livia kneeling protectively at his side. She wore a ck bathrobe of her own, but no
slippers; the seer must have rushed into the kitchen the second she woke up.
Lightning Butt dropped the lightning halo surrounding his head, though rage still possessed him. Augustus sternly gazed at Livia.
“You used your power on me, daughter?”
“You were electrocuting my boyfriend!” she hissed back.
Though Lightning Butt had shrugged off Ryan’s blow, his daughter’s words made him flinch in surprise. If he still had any doubt
about what happened, her revealing dress and the intimate way she held Ryan close dispelled them. The courier could hear
Livia’s elerating heartbeat beneath the cotton.
“You willingly gave yourself to this...” Augustus red at Ryan with disgust. “This miscreant?”
“Ryan is nothing of that sort,” Livia replied with a frown. “He is a kind and noble man.”
“Conqueror... of Monaco...” Ryan rattled, his muscles still struggling to move. The crimson lightning must have messed up his
nervous system, the wrong limbs answering his mentalmands.
Augustuspletely ignored the courier, refusing to acknowledge his existence. Instead, he studied his daughter with an
imperious gaze. Yet Livia refused to back down and locked eyes with her sire.
“How long?” Lightning Butt questioned his daughter.
Livia frowned, biting her lower lips. “A little more than one week.”
That long? Ryan wondered, before realizing that she counted the previous loop. They could consider the Star Studio raid their
first date...
“Is this about Felix?” Augustus asked angrily. “Revenge for his abandonment?”
“No,” Livia replied angrily. “| chose Ryan for himself.”
“You chose wrong.” Lightning Butt’s eyes red with a burst of lightning. “Look at this clown. | have seen his kind countless
times. All he wants is your beauty, your money, your power. He is a parasite.”
“You say that about everyone, Dad.”
“Because it is true. Do you think he would be interested in you if you weren’t my daughter?”
“You don’t know him, Dad,” Livia replied, her gaze harshening. “And if you think | wouldn’t have done my research, then you
don’t truly know me either.”
Ryan almost opened his mouth, but this time wisely remained silent. One wrong move and Lightning Butt might y him before
Livia could react. The shame and the pain, he could live with. But her forgetting him would hurt far deeper than the lightning.
Augustus’ face twisted into an angry scowl. “Livia, step aside.”
She briefly hesitated, but held her ground. “No, Father.”
“Step aside, daughter.”
“No,” she repeated, the word so sweet to hear. “I won''t let you murder him like Narcinia’s parents.”
Augustus’ eyes widened in surprise, his jaw clenching. “Who told you about that? Felix?”
“Does it matter?”
“Felix,” her father said, reaching his own conclusions. “He will pay for this nder with his tongue.”
“You won''t touch his tongue, or any part of Felix,” Livia dered, grabbing Ryan’s hand. “Nor will you harm my current boyfriend.
I''m an adult, | can date whoever | want.”
m your father,” Augustus raised his tone, “and you shall obey me.”
“If you touch them, | will leave.”
These words silenced Lightning Butt, making him blink repeatedly. He looked as if he would stumble. The illusion of invincibility
was stripped away, and for a brief moment, Ryan could see the lonely, paranoid old man beneath the iron-fisted dictator.
“| will leave,” Livia said, struggling not to cry. “I will go, and | will not return. Bhus and Mars can have your rotten empire of filth
for all | care.”
“Livia.” Augustus’ tone softened a little. For the first time, Ryan heard something other than wrath and cruelty in the titan’s voice.
“You are my heir, and my daughter. But you are still a young woman, and naive. Experiencees with age, and it is my duty as
your father to protect you from threats you cannot see. Your mother...”
“| can protect myself,” Livia replied firmly. “Even from you.”
Augustus’ fists tightened, to the point that a normal person might have started bleeding. Could the superpowered tyrant cancel
his own power? Could he hurt himself?
“| could not protect your mother, but | will protect you. Felix is a shameless traitor, and this little shit...” Lightning Dad red at
the courier, with the same hatred he usually reserved for Leo Hargraves. “This man is turning you against me, your own father.”
“No, Dad,” Livia argued firmly. “You are doing that on your own.”
Augustus turned into an ivory statue, as still as stone.
“Dad, please. | want him.” Livia breathed deeply. “He is kind to me, and he makes me smile.”
Augustus’ silence stretched on for several, agonizing seconds. The air was heavy with an undercurrent of electricity, as if a
thunderstorm might explode any moment. The microwave had short-circuited. “You,” Mob Zeus red at Ryan. “What is your
name?”
By now, the courier had recovered enough to formplete sentences. “Ryan ‘Quicksave’ Romano. I’m immortal, but don’t tel
“If you disrespect my daughter,” Augustus interrupted him, his voice booming like thunder, “I will kill you.”
“Yes, Lightning Dad.”
Augustus’ eyes narrowed dangerously. He did not like the nickname. “If you break her heart, | will kill you.”
“Yes, Lightning Dad,” Ryan repeated, returning the man’s vicious gaze. By now, he understood that submission would be seen
as weakness, but open defiance wouldn’t be tolerated. He had to assert himself, without being too disrespectful.
“If you break up with her, | will kill you.”
“Yes, Lightning Dad.”
“Thank you, Father,” Livia whispered in relief, holding Ryan’s hand.
Augustus stormed out of the room, coldly furious. He didn’t spare a nce to Ryan, and did his best to ignore him. The tyrant
punched a wall on his way out, his fist going through stone like paper.
Ryan coughed. “That’s almost exactly how | expected to meet your parents.”
“Are you insane?!” Livia hissed when her father was gone. “Couldn’t you wait for me to wake up before wandering off? He could
have killed you!”
“| wanted to prepare your breakfast,” Ryan replied, pointing at the silver tter. The coffee cups were gone, but the pastries had
survived.
Livia’s anger immediately turned into a blush, and she gave him a bittersweet smile. “We''ll go to Venus and Narcinia,” she said.
“They will cure your wounds in no time.”
“It''s fine. It can wait a little.”
“Ryan, you were struck by lightning.”
“Wouldn''t be the first tine. Do you have ointment?” Livia frowned at his question, but nodded. “Good. | will put some on while
you return to bed.”
“And then what?”
“And then | will bring you breakfast properly this time.”
“You''re such a gant fool,” Livia said with a chuckle, before helping him rise back to his feet. “How did you imagine it? Me
introducing you to my father?”
“With your daddy pointing a shotgun at my back, and Bhus officiating the wedding.”
She giggled. “I wouldn’t count on it. Bhus worships a stranger god than the Catholic Church''s.” Her pale fingers brushed
against his wound. The skin hurt, but his heart was soothed. “We will still go to Venus after breakfast. | told you before, Ryan,
you don’t have to suffer anymore.”
Ryan put his hands around her waist, while she moved her hands around his neck. “And next breakfast? What will it be?”
Livia smiled, and briefly kissed him on the lips without a word.
Strawberries then.