Take your time or I'll take your Heart

Chapter 18

~A/N: Joker is released into Smash Bros today! This is a special release for this chapter to celebrate him joining the roster! I hope you all enjoy!

"You haven't even said the rules," I said.

"You're right, but why bother? I'm the ruler here. I might as well change them if I please. But I will keep a rule the same throughout this game. No teaming up and regrouping. If so, you lose," said the shadow.

"What's with the maze?" Ann asked.

"I'm glad you asked. The maze represents how life can be. It can turn one way, another, stop and have a dead end and you have to retrace your steps. Now, on the other side of this maze you can find me. And I am the final boss. That is, if you can get there." The shadow laughed and disappeared.

"Alright guys, we'll hope to see you on the other side. We can't fight that shadow alone. It seems like its a powerful one," I said.

"Alright. Hopefully we don't run into many obstacles on the way there," Ryuji said.

"See you on the other side," I said and ran into the maze with Morgana, Futaba, and Ann. Ryuji had Yusuke, Makato, and Haru. We were not allowed to find each other and regroup. This was going to be a hard task.

"Do you have an idea where the end is, Morgana?" I asked.

"I have an idea, follow me," he said and we followed him. We ended up running down a lot of pathways. We did end up getting stumped a few times as we ran into some dead ends. We found some treasure along the way and we had to fight through some people. The shadows that were in the mazes resembled a lot of the people who was in her life. But I knew it wasn't the real people who we were fighting. There was even a few mini bosses. A few of them were mythical creatures she had come to like. Such as a few from Greek mythology and Norse mythology. They were pretty hard to defeat, but we managed to make it past them.

"Wonder how the rest are doing," I said as we finished beating a shadow.

"They're with Ryuji, I think they're not doing so well," Futaba said.

"I'm with Futaba on this one," Ann said.

"How's everyone holding up?" I asked.

"Good. If only there was a safe room where we can sit and take a break. With a maze, we're kind of sitting ducks here," Ann said.

"We've just got to keep moving onward. I need to make sure Y/N is in a safe place before we defeat this shadow," I said.

"Where is she now?"

"She was going to see her parents," I said.

"If we stop her shadow now while she's at her parents, then if something does happen, she'll be in good hands," Futaba said.

"True, but they don't know about the metaverse. They don't really know what I did before I came back. They don't know what I really did while I was gone."

"That's a fair point, but come on. I think there might be something over here," Morgana said.

"I just don't want to be the reason I caused her harm. I made a promise that I wouldn't hurt her," I said as I followed Morgana.

We walked around aimlessly. There was no end to this maze at all. It felt like we were walking in circles. It was getting a little out of hand when we ran into three dead ends in a row.

"Is this some kind of joke?" I yelled into nothing.

"Only if you want it to be," said the shadow.

"How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?"

"It's a maze based off of life, right?"

"I guess."

"You have a negative outlook on life right now. Change how you see life and maybe the maze will change," the shadow said as it disappeared.

"That's pretty clever," Morgana said. "I thought you would have picked up on it."

"My thoughts are clouded right now."

"Look, we understand you want to help Y/N, but we need to focus on what's important right now. And that's getting out of this damn maze," Futaba said.

"Let's go," I said. "I think we all need to see this differently.

We all thought about the maze as a different way of life. That life was unexpected in terms of direction. You could go down this path that could lead you to a good life. We just had to think positive. It was working and we finally got out of the maze. We looked around and saw Yusuke was walking out.

"Ah, there you are. I found them guys!"

Ryuji, Makoto, and Haru came running out of the maze and met up with us.

"That maze was so damn long," Ryuji said.

"Did you have a positive outlook?" I asked.

"What? No."

"That's probably why it took you a bit long. The shadow helped us a bit," I said.

"I didn't really think it was helpful," Futaba said.

"So, you've made it past my game. My game of life. Congrats. Now, you get to go up against the final boss. ME!"

The shadow turned into this ugly beast. It was what we expected coming from a palace. It looked like a mix between a hydra and the three headed dog that guarded the underworld.

"Do you see a weakness, Morgana?" I asked.

"No. There doesn't seem to be one."

"Great," Ryuji muttered.

"Just attack as much as you can," I said.

I attacked first and shot it with my gun. It dodged most of it. It seems like it was more of a close-range enemy.

"Fight close range! Don't waste your bullets on it!"

"Got it!" Ryuji said as he attacked with his close-range weapon.

Next was Ann. She attacked and after Ann attacked, the shadow attacked. It swept its claws at Yusuke and Morgana. Morgana dodged, but Yusuke got caught in the attack. It went back and forth until we were able to knock it down to a little bit of health.

"ALL OUT!" I yelled.

We performed our all out attack. Once it was over, the shadow had dissipated.

"Now what?" Ryuji asked.

The floor started to crumble beneath us. The ceiling had dust coming down as it started to crack. The walls of the maze were crumbling as well.

"RUN!" Morgana said.

We ran into the maze together and avoided being hit by the falling walls. We made it out of the maze and Ryuji kicked open the door. We ran out and was back in the real world. When we exited the metaverse, our clothes didn't change back for some reason. I looked around and saw that her house was still intact. I sighed in relief, but my phone went off. I reached into my pocket and saw it was her mom calling me.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Ren, hi it's Mrs. L/N."

"Hi. What's up?"

"It's Y/N. She's in the hospital."

"I'll be on my way," I said. I hung up and fell onto my knees.