Colin's posts

"The lab?" Azazel asked.

"Oh yeah, sure." he said.

"You already been to see Sharp?" he asked.

"I mean, he should probably know that you're here." he reasoned.

"Or... well, I can tell him for you?" he then offered.

"If you're REALLY worried about the lab." he added with a small laugh.

".....I see." Azazel replied.

"Well, whatever works for you." he said.

"Welcome back, Kiah." he then greeted her.

"....but please tell me you feel better than you LOOK." he then commented.

"Not to be rude, but... you look like shit."

"See ya." Jake responded, before she headed in.

When she did, he sighed quietly.

"Here's hoping this is for real." he mumbled.

Meanwhile, as she walked, she came across a familiar demonic face.

"Oh, hey!" Azazel said when he saw her.

"When did YOU get back?" he asked, genuinely surprised to see her.

Seeing Eke happy made Ryker happy. That was all he needed in his life right now.

And Aly was happy that Eke was happy. It made her so happy as well, and she liked it when they were all having a good time.

"Remember these times." Ryker then said.

"These are the good times." he told them.

"Precious gems of memories."

"...." again, Jake was silent, before shrugging.

"All right, if you say so." he said.

He then pressed the button to let her in, the buzzer sounding to show the door was unlocked.

"For what it's worth, welcome back." he went on.

"There's been a lotta people who've missed ya." he told her further.

"Sure thing." Ryker responded.

"Let's get a move on." he told them.

"All right." Aly agreed, getting up as well.

"Let's fly around until we start to see the sun going down." she suggested.

"Sounds like a plan." Ryker said.

Jake looked at the ID, and then to the one that had given it to him.

"Uh..." he muttered, his tongue darting out some.

"Yeah... yeah, you're legit." he said.

"And yeah, you can come in..." he told her further.

"But... you sure you want to?" he asked. "You look like death on toast, girl." he commented, looking her up and down.

"Seriously, you like hell." he said further.

"What made you come back?" he asked.

Just after Syraene vanished, Chris's body twitched again.

However, his eyes were filled with life... in the worst way possible.

They were darting about, here and there, as though they were frantically trying to find something... or escape.

He looked like he wanted to cry out for someone, but his body wouldn't do it. Not yet, anyway.

The connections in his brain were reattaching themselves... and in a very eclectic way.

One thing was for sure, he'd never be the same again.

Chronos just shrugged.

"I couldn't care less." he said.

"It's because of HIM, the Order was in the mess it was in, and I needed to take drastic measures." he continued.

"In short, he endangered the world, threatened the lives of all self-aware beings, and inconvenienced a God." he then went on.

"People have been executed for a lot less." he said.

"So if you do... you do." he told her.

"Just don't tell me you did it." he finished, before disappeared from where he was, going back to his realm to get back to work.

"Yep." Chronos replied.

"Looks like there's JUST enough dark elf in him to make it so that he survived something like that." he told her.

"However he'll be after he recovers from this, though, is up in the air." he then said.

"Anyway! I have some things to get back to." he went on.

"I was taking a small break when you came for me, but... eh, this was fun." he finished with a shrug.

"Unless you need me here for anything else?"

Just as Chris and Syraene's eyes met, he immediately felt the fear. Immense, true, and unmitigated fear. The fear of death, the fear of a dark elf, the fear of a woman scorned.

And just as that fear reached its peak, Chronos was behind him, and smacked him upside the head. The big change, however, was that on the followthrough, light blue mana streaked out from Chris's head, attached to Chronos's hand. And he continued the followthrough, before it seemed like there was a small tug at the end.

The mana was trying to hold onto the one it'd been born into.

Chronos, however, gave it a sharp snap, and it was completely severed.

"......" Chris was now silent, his eyes fading, before he collapsed to the floor in a limp heap.

"HEY! HELP!" Chris yelled out.

"SOMEONE HELP! I'M BEING ATTACKED! HELP!" he called out further.

"It's no use." Chronos replied. "I've created a bubble of dilated time around us. Your sound waves have slowed down to a mere crawl, and by the time I've filtered them, they'll be nothing more than silence." he went on.

"No! Please!" Chris begged.

"I've just regained my individuality! I'm becoming my own person!" he said.

"You'd cut me down just as it begins!?"

Chris was silent for a moment... before immediately going into a panicked defensive stance.

"AH!" he exclaimed.

"What the hell!?" he said.

"What are YOU doing here!?" he asked Syraene, before looking at Chronos.

"...wait..." he muttered.

"Wait, what...?" he started to ask, before his pupils shrank.

"Oh, no... no, no, no, no, no..." he repeated, trying to back away from them.

Chronos was silent, and took her hand with his.

"Right." he said.

"Do you want to go through the proper channels to get to him?" he asked.

"If not, just channel my mana, and go directly to him." he told her.

"So choose, and we'll do it." he said, as Syraene felt the mana from him channel into her. And she knew this would bypass Unit security.

And she could also sense Chris's EXACT location, because of Chronos's mana.