Alt+Control Chapter 44

“Get out of my head!” roars a voice. Ah, it’s Lukas. “What are you doing?!” Those scenes from before flash by again, but I can feel their emotions this time. The colours in the scenes are more vivid.

I feel another roar of pain. So it seems he’s trying to kick me out. Not letting that happen. “I’m trying to show you why this is a mistake! Why you have to stop doing this!” I shout back at him.

“What, let go of this power? Let this hard work all go to waste? How is this a mistake? I’m finally powerful and almost ready to show myself to the world!” The scenes flash by again, and I nearly drop from the emotions that come with it. Agony, betrayal, sorrow and anger all flow through me, and nearly shake me out of my fragile concentration.  

“Hold on!” says Chimera. “Don’t get distracted!”

What’s making all these images go by? Do you have any idea? It seems when his emotions flare up, all these images and their connotations come up stronger and stronger.

Another flash of images goes by. It’s getting harder and harder to focus on staying here. “It seems that every time he uses Chronos, the emotions flare up,” says Chimera.  

So you mean…another wave of images flow by, and knocks me down, leaving me breathless. Damn it, I can barely concentrate on staying put!

“Why won’t you get out?!” howls Lukas. More images pummel me, so I just crouch down and think about staying here.

The images cease their barrage, and I can hear Lukas’s tired pants. I guess it’s now or never.

“Lukas,” I shout. “You have to stop using Chronos! I think it feeds off—“  

“No! Don’t you realize you’re throwing away your opportunity for fame and glory too?”

I’m taken a back. “How so?”

“We’d make the most interesting rulers. One is the tyrannical one that rules with fear, and one rules with gentleness. You’d be the saint, the martyr of this generation! But it’ll only work if Chimera and Chronos are working.”

I shake my head. “Lukas, every time you use Chronos, you’re just picking at emotional and mental scars. Chronos feeds off of your negative feelings, and that’s how you’ve made it work. Eventually—“

“Shut up! You don’t know anything!”

“—you’re only going to end up hurting yourself!” I continue. “The hate, the anger—“

Lukas starts humming to drown me out. I just make my voice louder and louder. “—the pain, the sadness, the hopelessness…none of that is going to go away if Chronos is using those negative feelings to function!”

“Shut up! No one will ever understand me, not you or Marc or anyone else! Only Chronos ever will.”

“Kaya, he’s going to start using Chronos again soon…I can tell he’s powering up. We have to go now,” warns Chimera.

I take a deep breath in. Ok, let’s go meet Chronos before it’s too late. I will myself to go wherever Chronos is.

It seems like we’re in the same place as before, but a little boy is standing in front of me and our surroundings are lighter. He’s wearing a plain black t-shirt and jeans.

“What are you doing?” asks the boy in a strange, singsong childish voice. He tilts his head, and I see that it’s the younger version of Lukas. “This is my private domain.”

“Hello, brother,” says Chimera. Its voice seems to be coming not from my head, but right beside me. I look, and I see a young girl wearing a white t-shirt and jeans. “So nice to meet you face-to-face.”

Chimera turns around, and I’m shocked to see that her face eerily replicates a younger version of mine. “We take the form of our companion,” it…no, she explains. “Now, please stay out of this.”

“Chimera…” This wasn’t part of the plan at all!

“Don’t worry about me, ok? I’ll be fine. Besides, I knew this was going to happen at some point or another.” She turns back and faces Chronos. “Now, can we start?”

Without another word, black wisps materializes out of Chronos, and then speed towards Chimera. Chimera stops it with a shield of white wisps, and the black objects fall to the ground. I pick up one of them, and drop it in surprise when I feel it cut into my skin. They aren’t wisps at all! They’re solid…and lethal.

They continue jabbing and parrying, but not much effort is put into this. They circle each other, wary.

One of Chimera’s daggers towards Chronos, but he doesn’t dodge it quite on time. It nicks his cheek, barely grazing the skin. No blood came out…instead, there was a glimmer of silver beneath.

Chronos’s eyes flash, and he suddenly launches into an all-out attack. She managed to dodge or deflect many of the missiles, but a few lodge themselves into her arms. She yanks them out, and sends a barrage towards Chronos. He barely moves out of the way, and none of them hit him. He then advances towards Chimera.

It hits me. We’re going to lose.