Frozen Desire

"Damn it…" Standing face to face with his father, Alan muttered those words before lifting his blade. As he channeled his power through the sword, a soft sizzle could be heard as the chilly air from Arthur filled the room. "Why must you always get in my way?" With his blade glowing a bright orange, Alan glared at Arthur, who gave him an icy stare with his fractured dagger in hand.

"Alan," Alice called out in a relaxed tone. "It may not be the witching hour, but he is still strong. Proceed with caution. Though I would rather you run and reset."

"I'm not running away this time." Alan's voice ranged with determination. "If I run now, how would I get stronger? I need to face my challenges head-on. I cannot keep sacrificing the others just because I can."

"There will be a time you will regret those words. But I will support you to the end. I cannot allow Chronos and Loki to have their way with you."

While Alan and Arthur stared each other down, Tony and Maverick rushed to the girls' side and undid their bindings. Once freed, Renne immediately pulled out her scythe, intending to rush into the fight to help Alan fight. However, Tony placed a firm grip on her shoulder and said, "That isn't a fight that you belong in. It's their fight. Don't break the kid's motivation."

"He's just a novice." Renne tried to shake him off. "He doesn't stand a fighting chance against him."

"Even so, don't interrupt. We have enough problems as is." Tony points to the entrance of the room. The only door was sealed off in a thick wall of ice. Maverick threw a grenade at the wall, hoping it would shatter it, which it did. However, without a second of hesitation, Arthur resealed the hole.

"So yall just gonna forget that I'm here?" Jason said while sitting down cross-legged and tapping his knee irritatedly.

"But of course, you didn't fight us seriously, so I have no reason to fight you seriously. Also, your boss kinda escaped." Maverick said in response to Jason's complaint.

"How?" Without a word, Maverick pointed towards the enormous ice wall that Arthur stood in front of. Behind it was a large spiky rock that protruded from the ground. It punctured a small hole in the wall. "I see…"

~~~?~~~

While Alan and Arthur were studying each other, Professor Omega returned to his senses. The black markings on his body disappeared. As he looked at the stub of his right arm, a sudden realization of the pain hit him. He bit down on his lip to help numb the pain a little as he got up and walked down a dark hallway covered in ice. The machines' destroyed remains were scattered throughout the hall, with the frozen corpses of his employees stuck to the walls.

"Damn it.." he said to himself, "Why is that boy so strong? No, it wasn't strength that caused me to lose. It was as if someone had told him something, and he just followed their orders. But who... who could have been relaying information to him-!?" Professor Omega felt a sudden wave of pain come from his legs as he fell to the ground coughing up blood. "Damn, my body has taken too much damage during that fight." As the Professor tried to get back up, he noticed a strangely familiar pair of legs lying next to him. As the Professor looked down at his own legs, he saw that the legs that lay next to him were, in fact, his own legs. But just before he could scream in pain, a silver doll stood before him. Sudden fear overtook his mind as he tried to minimize the noise. The silver doll before him held a small dagger stained with his blood. It appeared like a small, bland doll with gears making up its joints.

"Well then, what a surprise this is." A man wearing a silver mask, similar to the one Omega had destroyed, stood before him. He wore a silver business suit with a silver briefcase in hand. "It seems like your betrayal has become your downfall. It's a shame, really. We had high hopes for you."

"UGH!!!!" The silver doll walked up to Omega and stabbed him in the heart. Coughing up blood, Omega stared at the masked man with a bewildered look. "You… just kill me…"

The masked man gave a soft chuckle. "I will in a few. Gotta let the medicine kick in. We can have you killing a quarter of the city like Masa did."

"You bastard! Show your damn face!"

"I don't feel like it, sorry." The man then gave another chuckle as the ominous sound of the briefcase latches opened. Anger and fear swirled violently in Omega's head as the case opened. Then, as Omega got a good look inside the case, an uncontrollable wave of sorrow filled his mind. The sound of chains echoed from behind the man. Within an instant, two young teens, connected by the necks with a chain, came flying over the man and ripped apart Omega's body in a flash. The twins devoured the Professor's body, leaving only his bones and implants behind.

"How horrible!" The man's tone suddenly changed. "I was told to keep him alive, and I completely forgot."

The man stared at the twins before him. They were fraternal twins, with the two of them being opposite genders. They both had crimson-colored hair, with the female twin's hair being slightly darker. The girl stood at Omega's remains with tears flowing down her face. A thick trail of blood flowed from her lips and stained her hands. The boy wore a bladed gauntlet with three sharp blades above the knuckles. He stared at the masked man with fierce eyes as the ground began to shake violently.

"Once we are free, I will kill you." The boy said as he summoned a pink mist. Within an instant, an enormous beast-like head appeared and slammed into the wall, destroying it. The boy grabbed the girl's hand and ran out of the hole.

"I look forward to that day." The man stretched and took off the mask. He then looked at his briefcase with a sorrowful look. "Damn that girl's ability to make others feel her feelings. But to think I grabbed the wrong case."

~~~0~~~

A large pillar of ice came slamming into Alan. As Alan resisted the force of the attack, he was left unguarded for the shaking that followed afterward. Unable to feel the quake, Arthur, currently airborne, launched himself towards Alan by jumping off a wall of ice he had made behind him. Alan could not balance himself because of the earthquake and froze time to escape.

"I warned you," Chronos said from the sidelines.

"For your information, I didn't fatally injure him. It seems like someone else did," Alan said while moving to a more open area.

As time unfroze, Arthur found his weapon stuck in the ground due to him missing Alan. He left it there and jumped back into the sky. An aqua-colored mist enveloped Arthur and Alan took a defensive stance, trying to predict Arthur's attack and trying to keep himself oriented during the earthquake.

"Tsk, how can that boy stand during this earthquake?" Tony said with a bit of irritation as he struggled to keep standing because of the violent earthquake.

"I don't know, but we need to take cover!" Maverick said.

"EVERYONE BY ME!" Renne shouted as a purple mist enveloped the surrounding area. Both officers looked at each other and nodded as they ran next to her. After a few seconds, the five of them were utterly weightless within a purple mist form.

"What the…?" Maverick said.

"Sorry for the inconvenience that this may cause mentally, but we can phase through objects in this form. So if any rubble were to fall, then we should be safe." Renne said.

"Wait, can't we just phase through the walls and escape?" Maria said, looking at the nearby wall.

"No...there are too many of you guys in here to move this space."

"So, if there were less than you could?" Tony asked.

"Yes, moving this space requires a lot of energy, and the more people in it, the more it costs to move it."

As the earthquake continued, the walls of the laboratory came collapsing down, with Alan and Arthur still fighting. With every enormous chunk of debris that fell, Alan froze time to stand on top of it. However, thank's to Arthur's unpredictable movements, every time resumed time, a swarm of icicles came flying at him. Alan used his fire to melt the icicles into a dense mist that hindered his vision. Arthur came flying through the mist with a dagger made from ice in his hands. Alan blocks his surprise with his blade, shattering the icy dagger. Alan manifested a fireball and shot at the ground, blasting him and Arthur apart.

As the last of the building fell to the ground, Alan barely stood up with his blade in hand. Thanks to the ongoing earthquake, the laboratory was reduced to rumble. The air was filled with smoke and ash as small fires broke out. "Heh heh heh, how long will you be able to keep this defensive stance up, young sinner?" The echoing voice of Arthur only confused Alan, as he heard his voice in every direction. "But this game of whack-a-mole is becoming boring, so let me make it more interesting." Arthur stopped attacking Alan and dashed to the ground to pick up his broken dagger. Alan was too winded to pursue him. After retrieving his dagger, he ran towards the purple mist and called forth his own mist to envelop Renne's.

"!?" Knowing that Arthur could freeze her mist, Renne dispersed her mist, forcibly dropping everyone who was inside, and pulled out her weapon. As Arthur approached Renne, his face grew a wicked grin as he aimed directly at her chest.

"Heh, so that's where it is." Arthur threw a large pillar of ice at Renne. Renne dogged the pillar. However, her movements were just as Arthur had predicted. He took his damaged-looking blade and cut her down the middle. Tony, noticing her in a tickly spot, ran up and pulled her by the back of her shirt, causing Arthur's blade to narrowly miss Renne's skin while it sliced her shirt in two, exposing her front and revealing a somewhat large scar traveling down her front. That large scar emitted a faint purple glow in a similar way that Alan's scar emitted a crimson glow. Tony and Maverick moved before the three girls to form a defensive shield to protect them from Arthur's next attack.

"Renne, are you okay?" Evangela said while checking her for any injuries.

"Yeah, I'm fine, though we won't be so fine in a few moments." Renne looked toward a fiery circle. After Renne was saved from Arthur's attack, the earthquake died down. However, the mountain of rubble wasn't the only thing that posed a threat to the group's survival chance. A black figure was seen being surrounded by a ring of fire as the figure slowly moved toward the group.

"This is bad," a familiar voice came from the top of a nearby pile of rubble. "We need to get out of here quickly." Isabelle came sliding down the rubble pile.

"AAAAARTHUUUUUUUUUR!!!!!" A loud shout came from the flaming black figure as he launched himself toward Arthur with a ring of fire wrapping around his blade. Arthur countered his advance by creating a wall of ice. However, that wall quickly turned into mist as Alan moved forward.

"So this is interesting," Chronos said to the four girls able to hear him, "normally, one wouldn't get this worked like this. Humans are weird. But his actions could be because of that…."

"Because of what?" Renne said aloud, causing the others who could not see Chronos to look at her in surprise.

"You'll find out eventually, or you could ask him yourself. I'm sure he'll tell you." Chronos faded away after saying that.

"..." Renne stared at the aqua-colored particles left behind by Chronos. "Why are you so cryptic?" She said to herself before turning her attention forwards to the fight.

"So, how the hell do we escape this place? There are still robots, and that earthquake injured all the men that came with us." Tony said while keeping a close eye on the two fighting men up ahead.

"Leave it to me. I'll disable the bots for your escape. Just give me 5 minutes." Jason, who disappeared during the quake, reappeared beside Tony and opened his holographic console.

"You're helping us?" Tony said in surprise.

"The man who hired me is dead, so why not? But do pay me afterward." Jason said with a serious expression.

"Go to hell."

"!?" Arthur had found himself to be at a complete disadvantage. He had sustained too many injuries during the short two minutes Alan had awakened his corrupted power. He had little control over his actions as Alice tried desperately to control his power. As Arthur fell to the ground in an attempt to recover his lost stamina, the corrupted Alan used this as an opportunity to close in on Arthur. However, Arthur foresaw this and immediately countered and sliced off Alan's right arm.

With soulless eyes, Alan gave no reaction as he backed off and summoned a ball of fire and placed it on his bleeding arm.

"Heh heh heh, so you can endure that much pain---ugh!" Arthur coughed up blood. His black markings were fading. "So this is how it is…." Arthur looked at his chest and noticed a large hole melted into it. "So that's what that was, so hot that I couldn't even feel it... not bad…." Arthur fell to the ground. Ice had begun to chill the air around the destroyed laboratory.

Alan finished cauterizing his wound, picked up his blade, and pointed it toward the seven people watching the fight from the sidelines. As a blizzard had formed over Arthur's body, Alan disappeared into a white blanket of wind and ice that engulfed the area.

"Look sharp, we need to get out of here, now!" Tony said while pulling out a heavy-duty flashlight to help navigate the blizzard. Pillars of snow and ice had appeared, causing the party to navigate through an unknown environment as they tried to escape the center of the blizzard. As the seven fought against the raging icy winds, Renne noticed a bloodthirsty glare coming from behind her and pulled out her scythe to match the oncoming danger.

"Renne, what's wrong?" Tony, who was acting as rearguard, asked while trying to investigate the direction where she was staring at.

"Something is coming, and it has a powerful murderous intent-"Just as Renne finished saying that, a flash of crimson came from behind the group and lunged at Renne. Renne quickly blocked the attack with her scythe. However, the attack was much more than their scythe could handle and shattered on impact. The black figure responsible for breaking the weapon quickly swung their blade again, hoping to hit their target this time. However, a pillar of ice impaled his chest before he could finish his swing.

"!?" Renne saw the face of her attacker and dropped her broken weapon. She ran up towards Alan and tried to break the ice that was slowly encasing him. As she struggled in vain, she took a heavy blow to the back of the head and fell unconscious. Tony picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

"I'm sorry for being rough with a vulnerable girl like this, but that boy is a lost cause."

"Dammit!" Maverick gritted his teeth as he continued to lead the others to safety. "This isn't how this was supposed to end."

~~~C/L~~~

The blizzard only worsened as the one who caused it was on the brink of death. Lying in a puddle of frozen blood, Arthur looked toward the impaled boy, who lay motionless in a pillar of ice. "What a father I am...to nearly kill my only son because I lost control after the death of my wife. But I won't let you die or be consumed by the corruption." Arthur used the last of his strength to completely freeze his son. "I'll preserve you until your body resets after the loop is over."

"So you found out?" An aqua spirit appeared next to the dying man.

"Yes...your invention is very flawed, you know. Forcing him to suffer this much, knowing you have the power to help him. Not to mention these false memories flowing into my mind."

"Flawed wouldn't be the right word for my artifact. His suffering only brings out the power in the pendant." Chronos looked at the blanketed sky above them. Snow fell heavily around them. The only sounds that remained were the raging winds of the blizzard. "But those memories of yours aren't fake. They are real. Once killed by the hands of my artifact, your life flashes before you, including the actions you took in an alternate timeline. Rather, that last part is a lie. The idea of multiple timelines is false. There is only one proper dimension in which we live.

"I see…"

"But before you pass on, why did you save the boy? Keeping him alive will only cause the end of the world."

"Simple. After reviewing the memories of a past me, I realize he has a chance I didn't have, a group of friends he wants to protect. A group who can save him from the same darkness I have failed to escape. He can change the hand of fate and stop those guys from playing God."

"You say that, but his event has only further the rift between everyone in that group of sinners, especially Renne. She loved you, didn't she?"

"Yes, but that wasn't a healthy love. After all, I killed her father and sister because of their relation to Professor Omega---hgf!" Arthur coughed up more blood. "Heh heh, looks like my time is up...Alan...you...better finish...this bat...t...le…." The light faded from Arthur's eyes.

Chronos walked up and placed his hand on Arthur's eyes to close them. "Looks like you have got a long road ahead of you, Alan and Alice. I hope you both are ready to lead the sinners to redemption." Chronos walked to Alan, who was currently encased in thick ice. "Good luck you two. Alan had made his choice." The pendant around Alan's neck had shone a bright crimson, ultimately easing the aqua-colored glow it once had before.

"To change the hand of fate, huh?" Loki said. "If he could end this, wouldn't that be something to behold?"

"I won't hold my breath." Chronos looked at Renne's broken weapon on the ground. "After all, Pandora is broken."

"She'll get fixed. I just hope that girl would wield her open her mind." With that, Chronos picked up the broken weapon, and it disappeared into a purple mist. "Pandora…"

"looks like we both have our issues." Chronos faked a smile before disappearing into mist.