Zero.

"I knew it!"

Fantasio turned around on the dark, streetlight lit street. He saw only cars and lights on houses, despite knowing that he had heard--

"I'm up here, dummy!"

Fantasio grabbed his hat and cocked his head up at an apartment building he just stepped by. Sure enough, it was--

"Seccotine?"

The figure that had to had been at least ten stories up prepared to jump off the ledge. He blinked fast a few times, just to confirm he was not hallucinating. He indeed wasn't. The girl was about to jump. At a distance too far down for a human to survive. What the hell was she thinking?! Forget rivalry. Forget annoyance so strong it bordered on repulsion.

"No! Don't!"

Too late. Seccotine hopped down. Fantasio jumped back and positioned himself into a fighter's block, hoping that she didn't hit him on the way down. And yet, she didn't. Versus falling like a flapping rag doll and screaming her last the blonde continued down more or less straight, even elegantly rolling once before landing on her feet, much like a cat.

Incredulous Fantasio unraveled himself. "But, but--"

Seccotine clutched her head, grunted in frustration. "In the alley. Now."

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

Perched on a dumpster was the red-eyed cat creature he encountered only three days ago, trapped in a horribly mangled timeline where his best friend not only aged considerably but was married to Mister Champignac's and Zorglub's old flame. If it wasn't for that thing he would've never got there, back to his proper time and able to prevent the events from happening. He had meant to thank it, whatever its name was. Ah yes--

"Kyubey!" Seccotine snapped.

"Hello, Sophie," the creature said, never once moving its face. "Greetings, Fantasio."

Without asking or warning Seccotine grabbed Fantasio's wrist. She had done it earlier that day, during Champignac and Zorglub's double funeral while Spirou and he were over the count's casket. Like earlier, she glared at his captured hand. Then, when she was done, thrust it and him towards the white thing.

"I see you let him make a contract with you."

"I did. It was about half a week ago."

"Of all the people to choose, you thought Fantasio was the best one?"

Fantasio grunted. She must've been jealous. Whatever was going on, he was chosen and not her. No wonder she was so ticked. And then, a revelation formed. Wait...

Kyubey's tail flicked. "He had just enough potential inside him. That's extraordinarily rare for a person with his demographics."

Fantasio interrupted. "Wait, wait..." He pointed to Seccotine. "You made a contract with him too?"

Seccotine huffed. "Yeah..." She wiggled one of her hands, with a silver ring similar to his, in view. The main difference was the gem was yellow.

"I don't know what you were thinking when you contracted, but I'm pretty sure you made the worst mistake you ever will by doing so."

Fantasio gulped. His stomach knotted. He was only happy to escape at the time. What exactly did he sign up for?

Un.

Fantasio couldn't even hear the monster's hissing or the earth nearly crumbling from its massive size. All he could hear was his cousin, screaming with all he got.

He had known of witches since he was a boy. To his recollection they never looked like this. The gold and white striped rattlesnake like creature slithering quickly at Zantafio must've been at least fifteen feet tall. Fantasio didn't even bother guessing  what its actual diameter was, but it was at least as wide as a city bus. And it was chasing after Zantafio.

His main priority was saving his cousin. Seccotine's was to find the best way to defeat the monster quickly. As she was a veteran her decision overruled his. He watched from a distance inside the orange desert like barrier while the snake stopped. Its rattle resembled a lit cigarette butt. As it rattled ash rained down. Its well fatigued prey attempted to boost his speed. Hot ash, however, dropped and singed his back and hair. Zantafio dropped to the ground on his knees, frantically slapping his back and crying out in a way the seemingly macho man would never had done with people around.

His cousin was a bad man, but he was also his cousin. A lifelong friend. A big brother that he never had. For many years Zanta was all he had in companionship. The thought of Zantafio--

"Seccotine, I have to get him out of there!"

Seccotine confirmed where she could strike the creature, readied herself to pounce. "No! You're not even transformed! It'll kill both of you! Leave it to me this time. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

The snake's cotton colored mouth opened. Unlike any snake mouth Fantasio had seen sharp teeth lined it. Black tar dripped from its larger fangs. The cowering man slowly looked behind him until he moved his neck as far as he could. He shook frantically, his throat rasping. The thing was going to strike at any moment.

Seccotine was ready. So was Fantasio, and he was quicker at the trigger. He pushed Seccotine aside as he jumped off the rock formation the two magical people used as shelter and ran towards Zantafio. No, he couldn't will himself into transforming just yet, but magical person or not he was sure Zanta would appreciate his rescuing him. He smiled, showing his teeth...

...Then the snake struck towards Zantafio. The thing didn't deign his cousin a final scream. It took him longer to blink than it did to snap his cousin in two. He stood prostate, grin dissolving into disillusioned shock, as his cousin's legs twitched their last in the distance. The snake thing, once it swallowed his upper half, then snapped at the lower, piercing a leg with a tar filled fang.

He felt a presence behind him.

"What did I tell you?!" Seccotine yelled. She inhaled deeply , reclaimed a little composure. "I run like lightning; I could've saved him and killed the familiar in one fell swoop if the timing was right..."

"The familiar? I thought we were fighting--"

"Fantasio... that's a familiar."

He sniffled. "How can you tell?"

"A couple of ways. Including..."

The snake began shedding its skin into an even larger black, tar like creature. Veins constricted tighter the more the salamander like behemoth breathed. Fantasio swallowed. Seccotine dropped her head.

"...It turns into the witch it serves when it eats people."

Deux.

"Count Champignac! Zorglub! Please wake up! Don't do it!"

Fantasio knew his efforts were futile. They had been marked by the same witch whose familiar devoured Zantafio in the previous timeline.  It made perfect sense: Fantasio had fixed the timeline so that Zorglub would have to accept Miss Flanner's death. The witch's kiss would stage their deaths as suicide, the result of grief too intense for both to bear. Indeed, that's what he thought at first. Only Seccotine appeared on it, as she cut the line to check behind their necks before quickly departing with an intense aura about her.

The two were fortunate that the person tasked to pretty up their faces for casket viewing was a pro at it. From the high building the two and he were atop or near it was a miracle they didn't splat into puddles in the sidewalk below.

The friends clutched their fists tighter around each others. The count lost a shoe earlier, yet didn't care about that. Or rather, he cared about nothing else, except to end his life at that moment. He walked unevenly on the hot concrete top with Zorglub.

Fantasio cried out again. He panted, clutching the staircase handrail to keep his jellylike legs up.

"I can't let them down," he heaved and huffed. "I can't let them down like the others last time." He had failed with not just Zantafio and them, but also Seccotine and Spirou. This was his chance to make things right.

"I won't let them down," he muttered to himself, rushing through the now open door. "I won't let them down."

Fantasio hadn't mastered his time stopping skills just yet. He only reached halfway through the industrial building roof as the two free fell back to Earth.

Trois.

He still remembered Spirou's words from that day, after they had no choice but to kill the mosquito like witch that was Seccotine:

"Fantasio... If it ever happens, can you kill me before I become a witch?"

The blond grew hesitant to respond immediately. Spirou perhaps interpreted this as merely fright over the thought of killing his best friend, even if it was for mercy. That was part of it. But Fantasio also thought of the previous timelines, the previous ends for his friend. He had lost track after unlucky thirteen, but he could've sworn Spirou's witch gradually grew in height with each zip back in time. He'd never even seen the black, cagey thing's face, and for the most part he was glad of it. That was the main reason he went returned to the past so much: to avoid that from happening. Spirou was blissfully unaware, as was the former magical girl they had to purge.

Slowly he reluctantly nodded.

Right now the two had defeated Samhain by themselves. The area of Brussels the battle raged in matched their broken and damaged bodies. Unlike before the two laid beside each other, so physically weak and soul gems so dark their end surely approached soon.

"This is the first time I've actually felt pain since I contracted," Spirou gasped.

"Me too."

There was one last chance at redemption. "Do you have any grief seeds?"

Fantasio painfully nodded. Quaking fingers found their way into a pocket, wrapped around a nut with what felt like mosquito shaped wings and a crown at the top.

"I have one." He lifted it up, prepared to toss it to Spirou.

"No,"  the redhead said, "you need to use it."

"Buh--"

Spirou winced, grunted in intensifying pain. Only one speck of scarlet remained in his gem. "I need you to save yourself. I've seen your time skills. You need to go back and try to fix everything."

But that's what I've been doing, Fantasio thought. "What if I fail?"

"Just try and try again."

But I have.

"But what if I have no choice?"

Spirou now screeched in pain. "You tried your best. Please, Fantasio, please..."

The grief seed absorbed all the taint inside his azure colored soul. The normal Fantasio disappeared in place of the magical, prince like one. The distraught man inspected his shield until a voice interrupted him.

"Fanta..." The now super weak and pained Spirou said. "Do you remember..."

He clenched his teeth, tried his best not to cry. Shaking he unsheathed his sword, positioned and raised it above Spirou's hand. In the sky above them the storm that brewed Spirou's witch began.

"No! No no no no no no!" He screamed repeatedly as he struck the soul gem, and Spirou's hand enough to sever it from his arm, until it finally shattered.

The storm dissipated. All that was now left was the sound of a highly devastated middle aged man.

Quatre.

He'd done it. Everything went right this time. Pacome and Zorglub were alive and well, even giving them moral support to aid their confidence during battle. Zantafio had not been eaten in the last three timelines. Still a corrupt misfit, he anyway occasionally popped up and seemingly wanted to fix relations with his cousin the best he could. By now Seccotine had become a dear friend. The more he found out about her the more distraught he became over her seemingly inevitable death. This time however, she was alive. He had managed to stop time this once and grabbed her out of there before the church crumbled atop her. With her help they defeated Samhain in record time. And Spirou! Oh Spirou!

The three hopped and whooped in joy. Seccotine clapped her hands.

"Yes!" Fantasio yelled, hugged and kissed Spirou on the cheek. "We did it! We did it! We--"

Spirou screeched. The mood shifted abruptly. Fantasio instinctly let go. Spirou fumbled backwards, clutching his rapidly darkening soul gem. Seccotine covered her shocked face. Fantasio's breathing increased. Spirou watched in horror, his soul gem's purity depleted to near nothing.

He remembered now. Spirou still struck the final blow. The curse still passed to him. No matter what he could never get the final blow in place of his friend. The sky seemingly screamed like a woman in childbirth as the storm expanded from a tiny spiral in the sky.

Spirou could only scream now. Seccotine grabbed her fountain pen, aimed it at Spirou much like a gun. Fantasio had never seen her attack that way; it must've been a last resort tactic she learned after years in service. An ink bullet of great caliber shot through the pen smack onto the gem. Splinters of gem shattered about in a cloud near and on Spirou. A scream cut off apruptly, his mouth still contorted into one. He returned to civilian form of red shirt and blue jeans before falling onto his knees, then into a lump on the dirt. Seccotine breathed heavily, dropped the pen to the ground.

Spirou took over Fantasio's mind for a second before Seccotine replaced it. "But doesn't that mean--"

She shook her head. "No."

"I don't get it."

The clearing sky opened up. A beam of light extended from the heavens, much like in the movies when someone was going up there.

Seccotine strangely composed a face of relief, anticipation. "I don't know either. I just know it won't happen. I can feel it." She raised her arms up, as if she attempted to grab an invisible person above. A final impish grin formed on her face. "I can feel it..."

Fantasio grabbed her shoulder. As soon as he grabbed it, she vanished. He turned his palm towards himself, shaking and confused.

"But-- How--"

When Kyubey showed up, he didn't know. But he definitely needed the information. "One day the female witches disappeared without a trace. We created male witches to replace them. Attempts to reintroduce female witches have failed. A shame too, because of their exquisitely high energy quota. Even the most powerful magical boys are weaker than magical girls, as are their witches. Normally the curse would pass on to you but because of your time magic you're immune from it. For the time being Samhain, Walpurgisnacht, and the witch Spirou was about to transform into do not and cannot exist. You've effectively broken the chain of transfer."

So this world was saved, more or less. Not good enough. It was Spirou he cared most about. Without Spirou, the world was nothing to him.

Cinq.

Kyubey found him with an alternative Spirou decades older than Fantasio himself. This time, he found himself in a world where Spirou was no more. His best friend made the sacrifice to save him, and all the other magical men and boys Kyubey had saved, with a wish to the Incubator:

"I wish for all magical people to not become witches when they fall into despair, and that Fantasio and Seccotine were never magical people to begin with! I want the pain to end forever!"

By doing so he had created a paradox that erased the mortal Spirou but created a godlike Spirou in his place. He looked much the same, only somehow more handsome and mature than the baby faced one he knew so well, and a flowing white robe in place of his signature red attire.

Their time together with Spirou in this form was brief. He barely even had a chance to tell Spirou what he truly felt in his heart about him and how much he worked to save him, much less goodbye, before a similar appearing young pink haired woman materialized and motioned for the redhead to come. He attempted to run and catch Spirou much like a kid with a beloved treasure snatched from him, but it was in vain. A force pulled him back to the mortal dimension. Immediately post-return he inspected his finger. No more ring, no more blue circle inside his middle finger nail. Completely mortal again. It was over, for the most part.

Indeed Spirou was gone. Every mention of him no longer existed. The magazine they worked at, named after Spirou, had his instead. Seccotine, Pacome, Zorglub, hell Gaston, either felt Spirou's name was familiar or stared at him like he was crazy. Spip would look outside the window and hope that his master would return in vain. It appeared only the squirrel and he remembered.

"I hate to say this but I don't think he's ever coming back, buddy," Fantasio sadly declared before joined Spip at the window.

Time passed, maybe a month. All day and all night Spirou was that flashed in his mind. He felt sick, like a crazy stalker, but also like a lovesick fool. Granted, their relationship was officially friendship, but he had always wanted more. He'd tried dating Seccotine once but didn't care for it. She was a nice girl. A spunky girl, but nice. She just wasn't what he wanted in the long run.

After yet another long day of work at Fantasio Magazine he plopped onto his bed, kicked his shoes off, and sighed. A fist strangled the edge of a pillow.

"Spirou, I really wish you were here," he murmured into a pillow. "I miss you so much."

Tiny steps pattered about the room. It was far too small for a human. Yet it was also too large for Spip, at least twice his size. A familiar voice seemingly whispered in his ear, despite the source coming from across the room by the window.

"I'll make it come true, if you make a contract with me..."