ChronoNicles - Stories Beyond Time

Solitude

A/N:

This story takes place in an alternate world, SHARE #5657123, simultaneously with Time Chasers chapter 1.

New York, 20XX.

The fires and the riots have stopped. For weeks no living soul dared showing their face above the ground, especially in the big cities. New York was one of the first to fall. After they blew up the Statue of Liberty we forgot what it stood for. The city swallowed by the invading army crumbled to the ground and those able to escape sought refuge elsewhere.

But I never left. Can you blame me? How could I? Everything and everyone I knew was here. Frozen or dead, but still here. And when you're pushed against the wall enough times you have only two options: give up or step up to fight. I thought I chose the former, until I met him.

Young man of average built with gorgeous dark spiky hair graciously covering half of his face. I admired him since the war went public all these years ago. I never thought I'd ever be able to see him up close, but before I knew it I was talking with him, showing him around my city and fighting side by side against the killer alien monsters.

It was like a dream come true.

But at what price? What good is a dream that cripples the world around you? What good is the passion and desire if all they bring are death and sorrow? But whenever we talked I couldn't stop smiling, no matter how bad it felt on the inside.

"Don't worry," his gentle voice was silencing all my internal screams. "I was forced to fight. I never had a choice. But somewhere along the way one person helped me realize that I was meant to fight all along. All that power I have, all the strength I can give others, it wasn't meant to stay hidden in the mundane world. And now I see the same spark I once lost fading away in your eyes. You must grab it, as tightly as you can, and own it. Make it your strength. You and those like you will change the outcome of this war."

But he was wrong. We lost. Lives were sacrificed, and for what, a few more days of struggle? I couldn't bear it, so I told them to leave. My city, my friends, I lost it all. The very next day since they left I regretted my decision. But even still I didn't go after them. I didn't go after him.

Few months later a great battle left half of the world turned completely into wastelands. Our new overlord made sure every inch of the planet was searched and anyone willing to act against him was painfully executed in public.

In about a month's time Lord Callyps of Taimu Empire established new despotic government of Earth, crushed all known insurgents and enslaved the humanity in its entirety. The war consumed 97% of our population, so he didn't have a lot of work afterwards.

I managed to hide in the sewers and underground metro lines, out of sight, occasionally going to the surface for a supply run. Food, water, change of clothes and of course the most important – information.

Last week I was in the downtown pharmacy, closed shortly before the war even began. No one even thought of looting it afterwards. Now in the ghost city that New York became I thought I was the only beating heart. I was wrong.

The man I drove away so long ago and his trusted troops somehow managed to sneak by not just half a world full of super powered aliens and monsters roaming free, but also me. Nothing happened in this city without me knowing. And he was with them.

He looked older, scarred not just physically, holding something way heavier than he could lift on his shoulders. But when I looked at him for the first time since we parted ways he seemed as gracious as I remembered him.

"It's good to see you."

I couldn't reply. I wanted to ask him so many questions. I wanted to tell him so many things. I wanted to punch him for not coming back, and for losing. I couldn't.

"I heard you're living underground, that's really smart move." I could hear tiredness in every syllable he forced through his bandaged throat. "I'm really happy you managed to survive."

He was holding onto one of his men, unable to even stand on his own, and after whispering something both men walked towards me slowly. He trembled and shook in place trying to make his legs support his weight. His body didn't change much, but he might have lost few pounds. He managed to stand on his own, his knees were slightly bent and he was slouching. He looked at me and smiled, and then he reached into his back pocket slowly putting one knee on the wet sidewalk.

"This belongs to you, General. I now return to you what you entrusted to me and therefore am relieved of my duties as the Acting General of the Western Forces."

He bowed his head and in his shaking hand was a small notebook. Dark brown leather cover was strapped with a purple ribbon and a small lock in between the covers. The keyhole didn't resemble a keyhole at all; it looked like something was melted into the metal and then pulled out, leaving an unusual mark. A shape I knew very well. I was wearing it on my neck as long as I could remember.

Now that I think about it, I don't remember much. A few clear memories, all after the War started, but the rest was either blurry or completely blank.

I took the pendant out from under my clothes and put it next to the hole in the notebook lock. It was a perfect match.

I felt a weird piercing pain in my head. I grabbed the notebook with both hands and tried to shake it off me. I dropped the notebook and the pendant on the ground, and the white rock fell perfectly into the keyhole. I dropped on my knees, still holding my head.

What's going on? What is happening to me?

The gust of wind opened the notebook and the handwritten words started to fade out of the book and floated through the air circling around me. Page after page, I felt more pain. I felt more pain and yet I was never so clear.

When the notebook was empty, all the ink  swirling in the air rushed to my head and it felt like the most intense brain freeze.

Then it was over.

I was so wrong about everything that happened. Nothing I remembered was true. Not even my own face, my own name. I was not who I thought I was, all of them weren't who I thought they were, the world wasn't how I thought it was.

How could I be so wrong about everything?

The weak man before me wasn't the person I thought he was. He wasn't talking to me back then, he didn't make me change my life and he didn't come back by accident.

The man in my memories was my own reflection.

These were my troops.

This was my war.

And it's far from over.

My name is Raymond Hall, General of the West in the War of Time. I'm not a human, I'm not an Ellementall, I'm not a Technomian. I was born on Earth, but my heritage expands thousands of millenniums ago and millions of light years away. I'm destined to keep the peace. But there can be no peace without a war. And in this War we will need all the help we can get.

I'm coming for you, Derek.

A/N:

I'll be back with this particular reality more than once, it plays a role in the main story, but these short tales aren't going to be explained anywhere in the BattleR Saga.

I'll see you all next week with something else, and maybe a new chapter of Sons of Rain.
Follow me, vote, comment and stay tuned xd