A Past that Haunts a Future

Chapter ??? - Inner Struggles

The realm of what looked like space above a planet revealed itself as my eyes opened.

"Welcome Shade..." My attention turns to a person standing a slight distance away, who wears the exact same armour apart from the Turquoise colouring of mine on his is Rosé, along with being generally darker. He has his mouth stitched closed but he could still speak, he has several covers covering his face and he had both of his eyes open.

"Who are you?" I asked as a sense of familiarity passed over me.

"I am you, and I am me. Consider me to be the conscious you created; with every piece of guilt you made yourself feel." I look down as I recognise what I have done.

"Why are you looking down, these events for which you blame yourself were not your fault. Theresa died to Hawk, that was not your doing. Alex was slaughter by a caster when you needed to rest after saving W; and Misha died because she chose to accept her mantle and fought for what she believed in. These events are not your fault. Yet you carry them like a coffin that only rests on your shoulders. Do you seek punishment, redemption or the truth?"

My lips remained sealed as I thought about these events that I could do nothing about. There was nothing I could do but become enraged and seek greater forms of revenge, even after my brutality against those two, I didn't feel satisfied. What an absolute joke.

"Your expression paints a picture to me, Shade, why do you simply not allow yourself to stop feeling this guilt? it's illogical-" I look up at him with anger flaring with me.

"You wouldn't understand what I've been through because you weren't there to experience it like me!" His smile drops as he walks up to me.

"You're correct, I am a subconscious part of you, meaning you would experience it; but I would also remember it." He was right but it didn't sound right for him to know how it feels.

"I failed people alright? I couldn't protect them to begin with so after they got hurt i went berserk and I didn't care what I did to me enemies, I wanted to crush them, so I did!"

"And you think you can go up to every enemy and crush them? If that's your approach, try and defeat me. I am you so I can use every ability you have access to. Also I will only defend for the beginning of the fight. You will not win this fight, Shade, if you continue your childish tantrums..."

I launched myself at my Subconscious self, I fired a barrage of punches that all were dodged. I couldn't hit him, his reactions were insane even for my abilities. So slowly I increased the speed of my flurry of attacks, and still he was dodging and then he slammed his fist into my stomach. I got sent flying backwards with the force from his punch.

"That's... quite the punch... heh, this will be harder than I thought..." I got myself up as i cough up a few drops of blood. This time, I sped up time within myself, and launched straight at my alter. This time, things were different.

"My apologies for underestimating you!" we both said in unison. I kept upping my speed boost until I reached 7 times my normal speed, and my punches met his punches in mid flurry, causing shock waves to erupt in the space we most existed within.

"It seems we are deadlocked for the time being, this is what happens when two beings compete with the same strength and abilities." I smirked

"Strategy employs itself more in our fight than you think. I have you worked out!" then we both started using a single hand to attack as I started to increase my speed more, I saw that I outpaced my alter, and used this to my advantage.

The more I overwhelmed the more i knew what he would do, as we both had our fists locked in time I knew exactly how to win. as I began to dominate I sense the time energy loosening, and moved as quickly as I could to his blind side. His time boosted punch missed me by a hair line, then I unleash mine almost instantly after his misses.

"Hah... *coughing* That hurts, but you won, against all odds... Heh heh congrats." As I pull my fist out of his chest I noticed he had no heart.

"You have no Heart, is that because your my alter?" My other self smiles.

"To have a heart is to be living. I am not a living being. but to punch through someone who is stronger than you is an achievement. That's what our mind does, me trying to out manoeuvre you and I forgot that you would be so unpredictable with your fighting style." He begins coughing up pools of blood.

"It doesn't matter, what matters is you can save those around you, you just have to stop carrying the burdens of the past-" He coughs erratically as blood starts seeping out of his mouth. A pool of blood had already formed underneath him, even though time did not flow normally here, my alters blood did.

"You must... not... blame yourself... any... more..." And with his final words, my alter died in my arms. I don't comprehend why I felt so sad, maybe it was because he gave everything to help me, I just don't know at this time.

The next few minutes felt like hours as his body slowly turns to dust, the scene fades from the space we were in as everything turns white and suddenly my eyes close, and I awake in a hospital bed.

I cough as  doctors start rushing around. "Get them in, he woke up" I heard one doctor say. Then before I know it, FrostNova, W, Crownslayer and Faust run in and over to me. As i smile at them, they all began to cry except Faust, who walks over to me and gives me a fist bump.

"Don't scare me like that again brother." I smirked

"You know me..."