Intern’s Log: I Once More Hear from a Very Inebriated Alien—And Learn What Bandit Released
Date: [I Need Another Drink]
Intern ID: Reynolds, J. (Oh, this is so much worse than I thought.)
The war has changed.
? The Architects retreated.
? Bandit hacked reality itself.
? Lost histories, forgotten people, and erased civilizations came back.
? The rules of existence have been completely shattered.
And me?
I’m just starting to understand what that means.
Because tonight,
I received a drunken call.
From Zil-Vatek, the most unprofessional extraterrestrial observer in history.
And the first thing he said?
"REYNOLLLLDS, YOU DUMB BASTARD, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU’VE DONE?!"
Phase One: The Incoherent Alien Rant
I was drinking whiskey.
Trying to process the sheer amount of bullshit my life had become.
And then my secure line buzzed.
I sighed.
"What do you want, Zil?"
And then—
The yelling began.
"DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF CAUSAL INERTIA?!"
"Zil, I don’t—"
"NO, YOU DON’T, BECAUSE IF YOU DID, YOU WOULDN’T HAVE LET THAT LITTLE BANDIT BREAK EVERYTHING!"
"Look, if this is about the Architects losing control—"
"IT’S NOT JUST THE ARCHITECTS, YOU MONKEY-BRAINED REALITY GRENADE! DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY CIVILIZATIONS THEY ERASED?!"
I paused.
"A lot?"
"A LOT?! TRY ENTIRE TIMELINES! TRY SPECIES THAT WERE ERASED BEFORE THEY EVEN GOT TO INVENT FIRE! TRY GODS, REYNOLDS! TRY THINGS EVEN THE ARCHITECTS COULDN’T CONTROL!"
I slowly put my glass down.
"Zil, buddy, pal… what did Bandit release?"
The line went quiet.
Then, in a soft, terrified voice,
Zil-Vatek said—
"The Forgotten."
And suddenly, I understood why the Architects ran.
Phase Two: Who—or What—Are the Forgotten?
? They are not just lost civilizations.
? They are not just deleted timelines.
? They are not just extinct species.
They are everything the Architects failed to erase.
And some of them?
Some of them were erased for a reason.
? Not all of them were good.
? Not all of them were sane.
? Not all of them should have been remembered.
And now?
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They are back.
All of them.
At once.
Phase Three: What This Means for Us
"Okay," I said, rubbing my face.
"Let’s assume for a second I believe you. What’s the damage?"
"THE DAMAGE?!" Zil shrieked. "THE DAMAGE IS THAT REALITY IS NOW A SALVAGE YARD OF BROKEN HISTORIES! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING OUT THERE?!"
? Cities that never existed are appearing in the desert.
? People are remembering ancestors that should never have been born.
? Languages that no one has spoken for ten thousand years are suddenly being written again.
? And worse—
"THEY REMEMBER WHAT WAS DONE TO THEM, REYNOLDS! DO YOU THINK EVERYONE IS HAPPY TO BE BACK?!"
And that?
That is when I realized—
This war just got so much bigger.
Phase Four: The Forgotten Are Not a Unified Force
? Some of them are confused. (People who don’t understand how they vanished.)
? Some of them are grateful. (Survivors who see us as their saviors.)
? Some of them are furious. (Things that should have stayed buried.)
And the worst ones?
? The ones that were erased for a reason.
Because not everything the Architects erased was a mistake.
Some of them were monsters even they feared.
And now?
Now they are awake again.
And they might not see us as allies.
Phase Five: What Bandit Has to Say for Himself
I stormed into his bunker.
He was drinking.
He was smoking a cigar.
He looked very pleased with himself.
"BANDIT!"
He grinned.
"Reynolds! Buddy! Ol’ pal! Did you see the fireworks?"
"Bandit, WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!"
"Oh, relax," he said, waving a paw. "We were already screwed! I just... made things more interesting."
*"You unleashed things that should have never been brought back!"
"Oh, yeah, for sure. But also? We were getting our asses kicked. Now? Not so much."
I dragged a hand down my face.
"You don’t even know what half of them are, do you?"
"Nope!"
"And you don’t care, do you?"
"Not really!"
I sat down.
I started drinking directly from the bottle.
"Bandit," I muttered. "We are so, so fucked."
"Oh yeah," he agreed, grinning wider. "But you have to admit, it’s gonna be fun."
And the worst part?
Somewhere, deep down…
I think he’s right.
Final Thoughts (This Is No Longer Just a War Against the Architects)
? The Forgotten have returned.
? Some are allies.
? Some are enemies.
? Some are things even the Architects feared.
? And we have no idea what happens next.
I don’t know if this was a mistake.
But I do know this—
The Architects are no longer the biggest problem we have.
Now, we have to deal with history itself.
End Log.
