"My dear customer, what has been your greatest wish that you have wanted to achieve all your life?" I ask him as we stared at each other from the opposite sides of the counter.
"…. The survival of the Viltrum race and the rebirth of our empire." He says to me before crossing his arms across his chest.
"That's right, and what was the biggest event in your entire races history that decimated your kind to nothing but a fraction of your kind leading you to try and rebuild on earth?" I asked him as a clear anger and sadness could be seen in his eyes.
"The Scourge Virus, but that event happened over 1500 years ago-" But I interrupted him.
"Thragg, if I say that this shop sells everything, then I truly mean anything and allowing a customer to time travel far into the past of their universe is within my power, however to travel that far back comes at a hefty price to do so, but as the Grand Regent of the Viltrum empire you have the right to pay that price." I say to which he pauses and looks at me as I pull up the panel laying out his options.
"One option is to travel to the past and stop those events from ever happening by unleashing a much weaker version of the Scourge Virus across Viltrum before the real one appears ultimately inoculating your race from the virus and eliminating the threat, however the man known as Thaddeus, the betrayer of your race and killer of the former emperor, would discover it had no effect at all and make an even stronger one and history will ultimately repeat itself." I say to him which he gives a pensive look at that.
"Another option would be returning to the point you are crowned Regent, don't initiate the purge that you thought was a good idea to get rid of those weaker in your race and hunt down Thaddeus all while also inoculating your race and saving the Viltrum empire as a whole because I would even provide you an item to track him down so you can end him personally." I say laying out another option to him to choose.
The saying that hindsight is 20/20 and all that was clear to Thragg, if the Purge hadn't happened then there was a chance that even more viltrumites might have survived the Scourge Virus giving them a genuine shot to maybe save and revive his race.
"….. If we went with the second option, what would be the price?" He asks to which I did the math.
"Going back in time isn't an easy thing to do, hell it's easier to go forward in time than it is to go backwards in time, the cost to reverse time by 1 year alone is 100 million credits, take that times 1500 that would be 150 billion credits needed to go that far back in time." I say doing the math.
I then look at him, "But luckily for you, you actually have the materials to pay that hefty price, as I said anything can be bought and anything can be sold here, in clouding the corpses of every dead viltrumite and the remains of your destroyed planet." I say to him.
As the Viltrumites made a massive memorial of the people who died in the Scourge outbreak forming a thick ring surrounding the planet, and to do that with a planet slightly larger than earth at least 30 to 50 billion viltrumite bodies were flung into space to make that even remotely possible.
And from what the shop says a viltrumite body sells for 10 credits alone so that would equal 300 to 500 billion points at that alone and even the destroyed planet would go for 100 million for the resources alone though it would have been worth more if it was intact.
Hearing this he paused for a moment, but soon realized that if he changed the fate of his race those who died wouldn't have in the first place so he looked at me, "Deal, I will sell off the remains of all those viltrumites that have died along with the destroyed remains of my home planet." He says to me which I smile.
"Good choice." I say as the deal was made all the while the territory where Viltrum once existed suddenly vanished leaving not a single trace left in that universe.
Suddenly his amount of credits jumped up to 400.1 billion credits making him the richest customer I ever had in my shop to date and not many would come close to being as Rich as Thragg ever would be.
"Well I must say Thragg you now have the power to change your entire races fate in your hands but before we go with this I wish to say something from what I saw of your world as an outsider looking in." I said as he looked at me with a stern look set in his face at all times.
"Go on, even though your not a viltrumite and this plan does work you would not only be my benefactor but my entire races at that so speak your piece." He says to me to which I nod.
"Thragg, you have lived a long enough life to see both the benefits and downsides of your race and how you ruled your part of the galaxy." I say to him as I go on.
"The Coalition of Planets, while founded by Thaddeus and with his early death may not appear in this new time line still has the chance to appear, even if it appears hundreds of years later leading your people the same way as your previous Emperor Argall with brutality and force over any and all sentient life in the known galaxy."
"Brutality may lead to the creation of great Empires, but that same Brutality leads to its Fall, Thaddeus did what he though was right and hoped it would cause Viltrum to change its ways, but when you initiated the Great Purge and killing off a portion of your kind in a needless civil war he then saw no hope in Viltrumites anymore thus leading to him making the Scourge Virus and killing off more than 99% of your entire race as a result."
"Had Viltrum gone down a more carrot and the stick method rather conquering and enslaving all races other than your own and being brutal to yourselves, then he wouldn't have ever made the scourge virus as it would prove to him that Viltrumites can change for the better."
"That was why he did what he had to, however his plan failed and had no choice but to kill his entire race in hopes to keep the galaxy safe, he saw it as the only way and the right thing to do, even if he hated himself for having to do such a thing at that as among all that died must have been some from his line who he killed due to his actions."
"Or maybe they were all killed off in the Purge and with no family ties and only hatred in his heart he didn't think twice to destroy his own race.
"But that's the thing with time, it branches out and like poking your finger in water it has a rippling effect across one's entire race as a result."
"So after hearing this you take my words of advice, don't be an entire race of conquerors and tyrants that crush all under your boots into submission or annihilation."
"But be more diplomatic with your approach, help civilizations you find and make them willingly bend the knee to serve instead, but if they refuse leave them be and give them a way of communicating you where if they ever willingly submit to call upon your people to save them in their time of need."
"And only those wholly hostile and rebelling to you upend all they hold dear before destroying them as a result of their preconceived arrogance from your supposed generosity that some saw as weakness."
"Then you could show them while Viltrum stands at the top of the Galactic Food Chain." I said laying out everything that needed to be said to him.
He didn't say anything as if letting those words sink in while thinking about the past before looking up at me, "I will take those words to heart, but tell me before I go, what is your name?" He asks me after finalizing all of his purchases.
"You may call me Orion, the owner of this humble shop." I say to him as a vial within a canister and a hand held device appears on the table.
"The Scourge Virus, a highly diluted form, toss it into the upper atmosphere and it will break before spreading across the planet, and this device will allow you to track down Thaddeus." I say before coming around the counter as a portal opened up.
[Universe: Invincible]
[Planet: Viltrum]
[1500 Years in the Past]
[The Day of Thragg's Coronation]
[Time of Day: Morning]
Setting in all these as activating it the portal then showed Thraggs own personal quarters where he saw his younger self cleaning himself up in the mirror in preparation for what is to come.
"Now I will say when you step through this portal there won't be two of you, the you standing here and the you in the past will merge into one, but you will remember everything that happened all the way up to this point, are you okay with the fact you that is here now won't exist?" I say to him as I had to warn him.
Although those rules didn't apply in the Invincible Universe, with the Crisis of Infinite Marks events happening, here their is a clear restriction that these two can't exist at the same time.
Simply put Thraggs current timeline will cease to exist along with him but his past self will gain all his future memories along with the items he purchased here.
"It doesn't matter, the me here and the me in the past are both me, I've made my decision and will abide by it, thank you Orion for this great service to me and my entire race." He says to me as I nod before handing him a pitch black Void Orb.
"This is the key to allow you back here whenever you wish to return." I say to him which he looks at before hanging over his neck.
He looked at his past self, took a deep breath and with the items in his hands stepped on through to go and change the fate of his race and save his people from themselves.
Soon enough the portal disappeared along with him but I began shaking as I hunched over.
"Hehe…. Haha... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! IM RICH! IM FILTHY FUCKING RICH!!!" I shouted to the tops of my lungs as my eyes turned into literal dollar signs at the immense amount of credits I just earned for myself.
[Orion]
[Credits: 75,501,000,000]
********
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