Shadow of Time

As the fighting outside raged on, Omega stood inside the safety of his lab. He stared at his holographic monitor with despair. Behind him was Jason, who casually smiled at him. Omega noticed his gaze and took a deep breath. The last thing he wanted was for Jason to belittle him about his plan. He turned around a faced Jason, who, in return, exchanged the first words.

"Well then, ain't this a situation?" Jason said. "Not only do we have to deal with the EDPD, but it appears that Arthur is also on the move." His smile grew more prominent. "How will ya respond?"

Falling for his taunt, Omega rolled his eyes and spoke in an emotion-filled tone. "Arthur's involvement is something that will be fatal for either side. His corruption is way stronger than I had predicted-" a loud siren screeched, followed by an automated message that warned them of an intruder. Omega then summoned his mist and pulled out his blade. "Hopefully, we can capture the boy before moving to fight Arthur." He then flashed a glaze toward Jason.

"Ugh, I better get paid overtime for this," Jason said as he pulled out a large sniper stowed away on his back.

The two men stood guard in the center of the room, aiming their attention at the room's only entrance. One by one, the robotic armies belonging to the Professor fell. "Their attack is too coordinated; it's as if they were planning this for a while." Omega glanced between the door and his console.

"Maybe the rumors are true," Jason said.

"If so, then this is the sin I must bear," Omega said with a distant look. Of all the people in the city who could have thought of an attack such as this was one man who he had once kept at his side. The man who gave birth to the one he had once loved. "The day she died was the day I that I wore both those masks."

"Both?"

"The silver mask and the mask of a villain."

"Ya sayin that you weren't purposely actin' this deranged?" Jason asked with widened eyes.

"After I had learned that the experiment was doomed to fail, I tried to stop it. But the woman in silver approached me and handed me that mask. She said if you stop now, who will help change the world? Who will free the people of the endless cycle of suffering caused by the one who created us? Even if she dies, I swear she will be with you again once this is all over. Falling for that false hope, I continued the experiment. I watched as my fiance died and did nothing to stop it from happening. Afterward, I posed as a villain to push others away so that I conduct my research in secret. The higher-ups have too many eyes in this damn city built on the graves I caused." As he spoke, the sounds of gunfire ceased. Jason aimed at the door as the collective sounds of heavy steps echoed through the halls. "Masa, I know I am the last person to say this, but I need your power. I have to see this through and repent for my sins."

Omega reached into his pocket and pulled out a small syringe. Without hesitation, he injected the contents into his heart and collapsed to the ground. He weakly stood back up and pulled another item from his pocket. This time it was a small implant that seemed to have an unrefined appearance compared to the others. It was bulky, with a brown glow. He reached for a pistol and loaded the implant inside the chamber. He aimed for his chest and pulled the trigger. Afterward, the pistol fell to the ground, and black markings covered Omega's body. From those black markings were small stone spikes that quickly grew to a thick layer of rocky armor.

"You dumbass…" Jason looked at Professor Omega with disappointment.

"To repent for your sins, you commit the same one as her." Omega turned around and saw Chronos staring at him next to the girls. With soulless eyes, Omega turned back towards the door. "Woman in silver. To think she was still alive." The girls turned towards Chronos as he spoke to himself.

"It makes sense, doesn't it?" Chronos' tone shifted. "Throughout the endless cycles of suffering, we have never seen a reincarnation of Greed."

"Even so, she hasn't changed. Following the commands of her master like a dog." Chronos then glared at Omega. "Creating human weapons for the sake of killing God. Heh, so he is here." Chronos then lowered his voice so that only the girls could hear him. "I will bless you three for this fight only. Tempus Resistere." Just as he said that time around, four of them froze.

~~0~~

Alan came rushing into the room within twelve seconds with his blade swinging toward Omega. As time unfroze, Alan's blade bounced off his stone armor, barely leaving a dent.

"6 O'CLOCK!" A man shouted from across the room.

*BANG*

"!?" Alan quickly turned around to block the oncoming bullet with his blade.

"Tsk, such fast reflexes. Makes me wonder how ya keep losing your fights." As Jason said that, Alan felt a decisive blow hit him in the back, which caused him to become airborne, only to be slammed down by a large mechanical blade.

"ALAN!" Two officers entered the room and ran straight toward the sniper and the three girls.

Alan slowly got back onto his feet and looked at his opponent. What he saw was no longer the enemy he originally came here to defeat but rather a pitiful man slowly becoming consumed by the same power he wished to control. Professor Omega had a dead look in his eyes as the black markings thickened, causing more rock armor to appear on his body. He made no effort to speak as he slowly walked closer to Alan. Alan took a defensive stance, knowing there was no way to get through that thick armor without some explosive weapon. As the Professor got closer, he halted, then vanished.

The ground rumbled, causing Alan to lose balance. "!?" Alan quickly looked around the room to find him, but it was too late. The Professor had landed another attack on Alan, this time causing him to get sent flying into a wall. Before Alan could get the chance to recover, the ground shook once more. This time large spikes protruded from the ground.

"Prohibere Tempus." A familiar voice had said, causing time to freeze. Alan turned to look where the voice came from and noticed a familiar aqua-colored spirit and three girls who seemed unaffected by the time freeze. "It's been a while, boy, since we had a wonderful talk." Chronos flashed a crooked smile.

Alan saw him and tried to get up, only to realize that his body wouldn't move. He then turned to look at Chronos, "What is your aim…?" With a glare full of bloodthirsty, Alan struggled to move while killing his eyes locked on Chronos. Black markings covered his body from head to toe, burning holes through his clothing.

"Ohhh, a scary face. It would be best if you weren't mad at me. I only stopped you from being able to move because that would unbalance fate itself-"

"So why did you interrupt?" A naked girl with silver hair appeared next to Alan with black markings covering her important parts as she gave Chronos a menacing look.

"Alice...I see." Chronos gave a disappointed look. "You triggered your corruption to break into this space. How disappointing, and I really wanted to see you too. Just not with those black markings, if you catch my drift." He gave Alice a flirtatious wink.

"Heh, sorry, but I only show my body to the men I like. And since I am not showing it to you, I HATE you, Chronos, or Loki."

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Chronos gave a creepy laugh that made the three girls next to him cringe in discomfort. "As expected from the Crimson Princess. But you are half correct and half wrong. As you see, Chronos and I share the body rather than me just taking it from him. We both control our sides of the playing field."

"So that's why you seemed so two-faced," Alan growled.

"Yup!" Chronos walked closer to Alan, but Alice moved to block him from getting closer. Chronos saw this and shook his head, "Such a child. Anyway, Chronos takes control wherever it comes to completing his 'duty,' whatever that is, and I take control when it's time you make you suffer. I enjoy that."

"If you don't mind, just who are you, Loki?" Alan asked.

"Hmm…just know me as the shadow that seeks to end it all." He turned towards Alice. "You have no memories of that faithful day she turned against us. But as that guy over there, we play the villain to get what we want. We have fought to end her plans throughout the endless cycles of suffering, but you seek to destroy our efforts. Alice, whose side are you on? You being here only further temps this boy's heart. He needs to learn through suffering. Loss, guilt, pain; these are necessary for him to control that damn pendant." Loki shrugged, "But I forget, you despise the man you once loved. You hate him for killing you, and you hate him for using you to kill-"

"Shut up already," a more serious voice ended Loki's monologue.

"Booo, whatever, Chronos."

"Anyway, I froze time to warn you of one thing. If you value the progress you made, don't kill that Professor."

"Why?" Alan asked.

"Simple. You saw what happened when Arthur died, right?" Alan nodded. "Killing the Professor will cause a similar thing to happen, but judging by the earth elemental corruption he has, it would mostly cause a second quake that will level the city again."

As the information left Chronos' lips, the black markings slightly receded from Alan's body. Speechless, Alan took a deep breath to rid himself of his anger. His original plan was to use the corruption to his advantage to kill the Professor. With that plan ruined, Alan was at a loss. He turned towards Alice for guidance. However, she had a sour look as she stared at her hands. Chronos then snapped his fingers to grab their attention.

"As much as I hate to agree with that guy, he has a point. That pendant around your neck only grows in power as your heart sinks deeper and deeper into despair. But like I mentioned before, this is your path to follow. I will only induce suffering while she mends your heart and looks for an alternative path to ending this nightmare." Without another word, Chronos snapped his fingers, and time resumed.

The large stone spikes from before launched toward Alan. Thanks to time being frozen for a while, Alan used his fire and threw several fireballs toward the spikes. Once they were destroyed, Alan returned to his feet and stared Professor in the eyes, "So we just need to incapacitate him...this will be hard."

"Not completely," Alice said, "all you need to do is chop off his limbs at the joints, as the rock armor seems to be the weakest there."

"Won't he bleed out?"

"No, channel your nanomasses into my blade, and you should be able to superheat the blade and cauterize the wounds as you slice him."

"Hmmm...I guess I'll trust that logic of yours. But that's as far as my trust goes at the moment. Alice sighed. She knew that there was nothing she could say are do, given what had just happened.

Alan channeled the nearby nanomasses into his blade, causing his sword to emit an orange-colored glow. Alan switched to an offensive stance and launched himself at the Professor. Professor Omega, believing that he could reflect the blade with his arm, moved his right arm in the boy's path. Alan saw this as an opportunity to test Alice's logic. As Alan ran at the Professor, he brought his blade over his head and swung down with all his strength. This caused a hissing sound to be heard as the blade went straight through the Professor's right arm and cauterized the open wound to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately for Alan, his blade went straight into the floor because of the amount of force he added to the swing. Professor Omega noticed his missing arm as he leaped back to give Alan a menacing stare. Alan saw this and tried to pull his blade from the ground but failed to.

"DUMBASS!!!" Alice yelled at him, "I told you not to swing with your full strength."

"Well...he was heavily armored, so I put more force into my swing," Alan said while trying to pull his blade from the ground.

"And I also told you that his joints are weaker. Man you don't listen."

Professor Omega walked towards Alan with his mechanical blade in his left arm. Once he saw that Alan was struggling to pull his blade from the ground, he charged at him. Alan still struggled to pull his blade out of the ground. As the Professor rapidly closed the gap between him and Alan, a small grenade rolled in front of Alan's blade.

The rolling grenade shocked both Alan and the Professor. Professor Omega was moving too fast to stop his engagement towards Alan and Alan took cover behind his blade as the grenade exploded. The explosion sent Professor Omega flying while Alan got blasted back with his sword free from the ground. Alan got up and coughed, "Damn...Tony, what the hell!?" Staggering, he turned to look at the man who tossed the grenade.

"What, it worked didn't it?" He deadpanned.

"ALAN!" Alice shouted to Alan, and he then turned to look at the Professor. Professor Omega was currently sitting in some rubble, coughing up blood. Alan picked up his blade and charged at the Professor, hoping to remove his other arm. As Alan rushed at him, a wall of ice appeared, stopping him from proceeding forward.

"!?" Alan turned to look at the source of the ice and saw a man in a torn aqua-colored outfit with ice protruding from the black markings on his body.

"Heh heh heh," Arthur gave Alan a dry laugh, "Well then, sinner, I hope you are ready to die."