In Another World With Chaos

Chapter 12: In Love There Is Chaos

"Jared, I need to know," I stepped forward. "Why does Chaos care so much that she'd do something this awful?"
We were all gathered here to the rocky clearing. Daniel's body resting at the far edge of the clearing underneath all the rocks, and Jared standing on the opposite side, using remnants of reality to draw out a smiley face. On opposite sides, multiple Ageloids gathered around, socializing with one another, each one talking about something different, or just catching up. Behind Jared, Chaos stood still crying.
"I can accommodate you, but in return you must promise me this."
"What?"
"If I am ever taken prisoner by Allistar, you will fight to protect Earth, no matter the odds."
I looked him dead in the eyes, cracking a small smile and then spoke with confidence.
"As much as I hate to admit, there are some things I wish to protect on this Earth."
"Then let me tell you, the Origins of Chaos."
"Reality itself is a fickle thing. Greed is a powerful thing. Humanity desires both. That was the first thing the girl was told in life. Once she had a mother. Once she had a father. Now she has neither. The city she lived in, a glorious capital filled with colors and lights, was now nothing more than some sharp rubble that gleamed in the everbeating sun. Chaos was the first thing she knew." Jared began.
We look back to see a booming city, large skyscrapers clouding the sky, and beautiful fluffy clouds flying across the city. 
So how did her life change? It all started 3 years prior. Cracks began to form in the sky, scientists declared it a phenomenon of the ages, but couldn't understand what it was that caused such cracks to occur. Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, the cracks grew ever slowly. Soon the Earth appeared as if it were a faulty snowglobe ready to burst. And burst it did. Paracausal foes began to appear as the sky of cracks slowly fell to reveal entirely different shapes and entirely different faces. Entire worlds collided with each other, and no one knew why. Violence ensued, and soon there was nothing left. Every world that had found itself on Earth's doorstep had essentially crumbled, leaving nothing behind.
She didn't have a name. After losing both her parents when she was 3, her name was an afterthought to survival. By day she scouted, attempting to find food, and by night she hid. That was her life. Her fingers were dirty from digging and hiding, her feet were cut from stepping across rubble, and her clothes were tattered and torn. Nothing remained of her past life, but in her mind, this was all she knew. That was until...
"A girl?" A figure from a far whispered to himself.
The little girl saw his presence as a threat, quickly sprinting off in the distance. With almost inhuman speed, the figure slowly closed the gap between the pair. Seeing his superior terrain scaling prowess, the girl switched tactics, sliding in and out of the numerous holes the city had to offer, attempting to confuse the figure.
"Kid, stop running, I just want to ask you a question," The figure mused to the girl.
Knowing better than to respond, the girl just kept running, desperately avoiding the strange person- no, thing that wished to talk to her. She stepped softly to cover up all the noise she may inevitably make, and she switched to breathing out of her nose, in order to cloak the audio from her inhales. Still, she crept from corner to corner, and wall to wall, desperately trying to avoid the unknown being.
Slowly, she stepped up and up a former skyscraper, putting forth maximum effort to dodge the figure. She crept up to the top of the building, ducking in and out of doors and rooms attempting to find a spot to hide, hoping her pursuer would give up. She could hear his pradling footsteps, and could see the excess of dust he would kick up from his walking.
She had gotten close to the top of the building's remains, and formulated to herself a plan. She would find a place to hide, and while the figure has his back turned, she would run. It was fight or flight, and she knew that she couldn't fight. She quietly reached the top step to the final floor, and hid behind a nearby chair. She silenced her breathing, going so far as to hold in her exhale so as not to cast attention on herself, and slowly she waited. The figure quickly followed suit, rushing up the stairs to try to find the girl. She didn't know what he wanted with her, but if her previous experiences with others were to guide her, it was nothing good.
Step. Step. Step. The figure paced, looking behind him every few seconds. Strange blue pulsing was eminent from his strange clothing, and a quiet beeping was audible, repeating at every interval at a set time. Slowly, he circled the floor, the beeping slowing down, until he focused himself on the chair the girl had hid behind. The beeping intensified, and the girl felt herself needing air. Slowly his steps made their way to where she was, and in a single motion, the girl felt herself plucked from the safety of her hideaway.
"There you are," he smiled, "you gave me quite a workout." He said laughing.
The girl looked at him confused. This man caught her, but didn't seem to care much about it. Why?
"How long have you been here?" The man asked the girl.
She hadn't spoken in a long time, she attempted to think, attempted to reason, but each time she tried to sound the word out, she failed. She was inaudible, and to any untrained ear, her attempts to speak were almost uncontrolled grunts. But to the figure, this was a start.
"How about this, nod your head up and down if you've lived here long, nod it side to side if you haven't." He spoke, still smiling.
This was simple, the girl quickly tilted her head upward, then downward once again, to signify that her time here was arduous.
"Now we're getting somewhere," He smiled, "Do you have family here?"
The girl tilted her head to the side and back.
"You've been out here alone?" He asked, concerned for her sake.
The girl once again tilted her head up and down.
The man, feeling pity, quickly took off his shoes and gave them to the girl.
"There, now you can walk without getting hurt." He said smiling.
The girl clutched the blue shoes to her chest, not knowing what to do. She slowly put them on, expecting it to full well be a trap, but to her surprise, nothing happened, and she was free to run around. Quickly she stepped off of the chair he sat her on, and walked around with the oversized pair of shoes. With each step, a resounding clack echoed through the room, but the man was right, she didn't feel pain where she stepped.
From afar, a blue pillar of light erupted from the ground, and quickly the man turned to face it. Almost instantaneously, his hand clasped a pulsing blue object attached to his clothing, as he muttered foreign words. The girl looked curiously at his demeanor, adopting a more serious tone, and while strange, she could pick up some parts of his dialogue.
"Lambda," He said quickly. "Area Hotel, paracausal spike there."
A new voice chimed in from the strange blue object he held, this one sounding much more feminine compared to the man's current voice.
"Understood, I'll finish up here, and then meet you at Hotel. In the meantime see what you can do without me for now." The strange voice uttered.
"Since when were you the boss?" The man laughed to himself before putting away the strange blue tool, and unsheathing a blue sword.
"Stay put for now," He said to the girl, "I'll go finish this up, and then come back for you."
Quickly she saw him jump down the nearly 10 flight stairwell, and sprint off in the direction of the light pillar. From afar, she could see the emergence of several figures from the light, all of which were quickly dispersed by the blade of the strange man. Despite his orders, she wanted to get closer to see what he was doing. She sprinted across the jagged road, and crawled over tall mounds of dirt, and soon she was face to face with the conflict. Strange cloaked crusaders emerged from the beam of light, only to fall down one after the other from the blue sword the man used. Conversely, the boy jumped around happily, chopping away with the blade, giving no care in the world for the carnage he committed. From across the city, another beam of red light emerged, and the girl wondered to herself if that was the same thing.
Before she could react, one of the strange entities from the light quickly grabbed her and held her up facing the strange man.
"Move and I kill the girl!" He shouted at the man in blue.
Quickly the man turned to face her and the strange entity, and quickly sheathed his sword.
"Alright I give," The man relented, his blue blade now sheathed at his hip.
Instantly he was crowded by almost a dozen of the strange entities. But just as the first one was about to make contact with the man, his armor pulsed a single time, and he disappeared. Almost immediately after however, he reappeared behind the entity that held the girl, and in a single motion, he separated the arm that clasped the girl, from its socket on his shoulder. Quickly he dove, and collected the girl, before disappearing yet again, this time into the cluster of entities. In a second, he let off another pulse, setting all of them ablaze, and then he plunged the blade into the blue pillar of light, cutting it off from the view of the city.
"My apologies kid," The man smiled, setting the girl down, "I didn't mean for things to get so chaotic there."
"Cha-" The girl began to speak.
"What was that?" The man asked, running a hand through his white hair to clean it out.
"Cha-os," the girl again whispered to herself.
"Great job!" The man smiled, "my name is Delta, can you say that?"
"Del-ta," the girl sounded out.
The man smiled, silently cheering to himself as he saw the progress he had made with the girl. Quickly, he pulled out a piece of bread, and split it up with himself and the girl.
"Bread," Delta cheerfully said, handing her a piece.
"Bread," The girl responded, mimicking his tone of voice.
Quickly the pair consumed their food, before Delta stood back up, stretching.
"Y'know, this place is nowhere for someone like you, how about you join me on my quest?" He motioned, holding out his hand for her to take.
Excitedly she grasped his hand, quite unsure about the future she would find on her journey with him, but glad to finally know someone.
"Oh right, before we go, you need a name," Delta chuckled to himself.
"Name?" The girl inquired.
"Yeah, I'm thinking something like "Chaos," it sounds cool, and you seemed to know it when I said it," he reasoned, "So why don't I just call you that from now on?"
Clearly ecstatic at the notion of being called something, she nodded her head happily. Saying her name over and over. In the meanwhile, another figure approached the pair.
This one was female, having blonde locks winding down from her hair. A mix between cosmic colors, and medieval knightware was attached to her limbs, and a purple-pin starry robe ran took place as the main attraction for her armor.
"Delta, you ready to leave?" She asked the man.
"Yeah, in a sec, but can you take us to homebase first?" Delta replied.
"What for?" The girl looked puzzled.
He quickly picked up Chaos and hoisted her in the air.
"I found a new member of the team," he smiled.
"For the love of..."
Jared took a moment to pause from the tale, taking a few deep breaths before continuing.
She was taken back to the world in between, much to my partners dismay, she was instantly accepted as my new teammate. Quickly, she took to the boy, Delta, and became his closest ally. He was like her brother, and she, his sister. The two had a special bond. Born with the Yin, Delta would be more powerful when she, the Yang perished. Similarly, she, the Yang, would become much more powerful when he, the Yin perished.
They were inseparable, they trained together, fought together, ate together, they truly shared a bond stronger than life still, something was missing from her life, friends. Something else to latch onto. She needed something to keep her focused on more than just her brother. However, Chaos didn't care for anything other than him. She became obsessed, only desiring the attention of the one who saved her life. When he'd try to go out, she insisted he take her with, and when he'd have people at his share of the barracks, she'd only socialize with him, nobody else.
Naturally, Delta didn't mind, he found it adorable, but his carefree attitude is what would cause catastrophe after catastrophe. Delta died a lot. His entire life he knew the smell, the taste, the feel of death. He knew it felt awful, however when it happened, he accepted death with open arms. Being cursed by the red phoenix from birth, the logic that "the phoenix rises from its ashes to become even more powerful," hit his mind hard. Every time Delta would die, he'd come back infinitely stronger. Quickly, he made his way up the ranks of Ageloids, from Stalker class to Origin class. Each time he'd die, Chaos would become more and more unruly. She had nothing else but him. Her only wishes were him, her only cares were him, and her only desire was to spend time with him. She was his sister, and He was her brother. She only cared about their bond, and no one else's.
Of all the Ageloids, Lambda was the most jealous. She and Delta had a powerful bond, even if it didn't seem like it. They were partners at a time, and now he had moved onto Epsilon, while she was placed with Beta. Granted, as a Finalizer Class Ageloid, she was glad she indeed was paired up with an Origin class, but she still hated that Chaos had taken her position in his life.
But then one night, the night in hell, everything changed for Chaos. Her brother wasn't Delta anymore, he was Jared. His father wasn't their leader, he was their enemy. Allies spun on heads while enemy's piled up. The old friends they had made along the way became new enemies. But Chaos didn't care. When Jared left the world in between, he took her with him. Chaos was in utter bliss as they became the protectors of Earth. Along the way, Ageloid after Ageloid defected to his side. Chaos didn't care about the lesser people that had come to their cause, much rather she cared solely for Jared.
Unfortunately for her, the pair became distant. Jared was a political leader, attempting to avenge the girl he so dearly cared for, and Chaos was his alternative half, wishing only to use her power in order to do the darker things for him. She didn't mind, her ideal life was receiving praise from him, but soon the pair would only see one another every so often. Days turned to weeks, weeks changed to months, and months sadly ended up as years. Regardless, Chaos was still abhorrently excited when she would be allowed to see her brother, and Jared was excited when he could see his sister. But now, after she had ruined his entire plan to kill Allistar. He wasn't happy. He never could be happy with her, because of what he lost that day.
Jared stopped his narration, transitioning into a simple explanation.
"My power grants me extra strength when I'm revived on my own. Mio's plan was to have me stack up revivals and then fight Allistar when my power had grown exponentially. Using the Remnant of Reality, I could put up a barrier around Taejichi city, where I could freely revive again and again without worrying about Allistar. Meanwhile, my allies would scatter throughout the universe, the multiverse, the paraverse, and find more allies to aid us in the coming war, all using my name, Jared. Since Chaos revived me manually, I don't have access to that extra power, in fact, I can't use my full strength because my body is still incorporating itself back into the world."
"So that's all?" I responded to him.
"The entire gist, from when I first found her to now."
"Who's this Mio girl?"
"The most important person I think I've ever known. Allistar killed her and in return I swore vengeance on everything he had."
"Damn, who knew an idiot like you had such... powerful lore."
We were interrupted by a large ship crashing down behind us. Achos jumped from the debris, and landed in the smiley face Jared had carefully drawn with the Remnant of Reality. With a frown, Jared asked him if he was ready, to which Achos simply nodded. Jared looked at me, and with a smile, he asked me if I was ready for some last second training.
"Why? What's the point of last second training?"
"Because, in just about 15 minutes, Allistar will be here, and it's up to us to stop him."
Reluctantly I agreed, causing Jared to lead me off to the forest. From there he formed a green string from thin air, and told me to attempt to create one as well. I formed a blue string from ice, but Jared instantly pulled it apart, instructing me that he wanted the string to use a different form of energy.
I closed my eyes, reached my hand out, attempted to grasp onto something, and my hand came back empty.
"Why the hell do I need to learn this green power when I already have my ki and my ice?"
"Because Strand is incredibly powerful and can be implemented in everything you do. Just think about it like this, when you use your ice, you don't create Ice, you cause it to grow from already existing substances. The same thing goes for Strand. All around us, everything is connected. These strings are from a different level of consciousness. Just look within, and grasp onto one of those strings."
I followed his advice, closing my eyes, and grasping onto a tight substance. I ripped it, and instantly, a green string lined my hand.
"Amazing..." Jared excitedly spoke, "I've never seen anyone learn strand this fast."
Jared turned around to walk back to the clearing, but before he could escape, I caught him in a green rope.
"I want retribution, Chaos killed Miku, I want your sister dead."
"I will give you what you desire in due time," Jared said, "Your retribution will come soon, should you choose to take it, that's up to you." He smiled, tearing apart the rope.
We walked back to the camp in silence. Jared never letting his smile fade. When we got there, everyone was already looking at us as Jared slowly walked into the circle he had created with the remnant of reality.
"I thank you all for coming here, this is going to be the final battle. Whether or not we win, that's all up to you. Allistar is coming with numerous Ageloids, and we are limited in number, or lack of number I should say. It's all up to this. You've all learned and communed with power that makes you special, use that to your advantage, if we lose here, the entire multiverse, paraverse, ultrimiteverse, you name it, it's gone. So fight with everything you have. Fists, blades, guns, brains, heads, legs, anything that helps you win, do it, don't hold back for a second, kill as soon as you can, and most importantly... don't get killed yourself. If we lose today because you almost died and had to escape, I'd be glad for the fight you put up. I'd lose a million times more than to let those I care about perish completely."
A large purple wormhole opened up as a man with white hair and a golden crown stepped out.
"Now without further adieu," Jared began, "Let me introduce the man of the hour... ALLISTAR AIKEN!"