Late Awakening

Back in the Eastern district, on top of a rooftop that overlooked the well-lit city streets, sat an aqua-colored spirit looking down at a particular boy roaming the city streets with a dead look on his face. The boy wore a torn black hoodie as he staggered weakly through the streets with no signs of life anywhere in sight.

"..." Chronos sat and watched as Alan fell to the ground.

"Hey, Chronos?" Loki asked. "Shouldn't we at least help?"

"No, that's Alice's job. Alan made his choice, so he'll have to live with it." Chronos said with no sympathy, "Besides, he won't die so easily."

"I hope so, cause if he dies then we die."

"Yeah...I know...." Chronos sighed, we'll just have to see how far he goes. If he comes close to dying, then I'll freeze time in exchange for a year off his life." Chronos flashed a playful grin, "But just know something Loki, I will succeed in extracting Alice's soul from his," he then pointed at Alan with finger guns, "Even if it means I have resort to...unpleasant means."

"Heh," Loki gave a slight chuckle, "You should know that Alice will stop you no matter what you try."

"I know, that's why I've been letting her fight Alan's corruption solo and posing as a mystic entity. This way I can easily do what I need to do under her nose while she falls to despair.

"Hehe… and here I thought I was the evil side," Loki said with a surprised tone.

"Evil is necessary, after all, we aren't heroes. We caused these events to happen, so we have to fix them. Only we can fix our sins, the new generation doesn't need to be involved in this."

"So you're saying you'll end this 2,000-year-old war?" Loki mockingly said, "Even I know how foolish that ideology is."

Chronos had a small grin on his face as Loki expressed his disapproval, "Foolish, maybe, but I will bring our war to an end. The war we waged against God only to fight one another. I shall be the one who finishes this war."

"Whatever~" Loki sighed, "Men with large egos hurt to watch you know. But one last thing, don't you think you're being hypocritical? I mean you are THE one who started this war."

"..." Chronos said nothing as he began to fade into the night sky in a glistening spectacle as the lights from the buildings below illuminated the lifeless night.

As the aqua spirit drifted away into the depths of the night, Alan looked up at the building he was once perched on with black markings covering his face. His face showed a mixed state of pain and regret as he stared off at the building.

"Happy now Chronos?" He said, "This war you waged has lasted thousands of years and is about to claim the lives of millions. Alan then staggered to a nearby wall that was illuminated by a large advertisement featuring two virtual avatars twins. "Chronos...I swear... as the Crimson Princess...I will kill you…" Alan then fell motionless on the wall as the black markings began to fade away.

~~~0~~~

Three hours have passed since Alan fell unconscious. Alan groaned and moaned as he began to wake up from his slumber. He looked around in a daze with a pounding headache as he tried to remember what happened.

"Ngh...damn...." He used the wall to help him get up, "Where am I?" Alan then looked at the night sky and immediately reached for his phone. "Huh?" He checked all his pockets and patted himself down but couldn't find it anywhere. He eventually gave up and went to check his watch only to find out that it too was missing. "...okay…" He then made his way towards a dark alley and called out to Alice. "Hey...Alice…" He got no response. Growing ever more impatient and confused, he continued to call her, "Alice...is this how you treat your allies. You take control of their bodies and then dump them someplace unrecognizable without anything on hand to get help!"

"..." There was still no response. Alan just gritted his teeth in frustration as made his way towards the exit of the alley. But just before he walked out, a soft scared voice echoed in his head. "I'm...sorry." Alice finally spoke to him. "I had to, the government can't be trusted. Something fishy is currently happening and I have a gut feeling that two parties are involved."

"What do you mean?" Alan asked out loud after walking back deeper into the alley.

"You don't need to hide in the alley to talk to me."

"Yeah, I know. But I have a blistering headache so I can't hear myself think."

"That's not what I meant. What I mean is that there are no signs of life anywhere on the streets. I took control of your body from 11 pm to 1 am and after the midnight bell echoed, everyone seemed to mindlessly walk inside of the buildings."

"What midnight bell?" Alan was confused by the information Alice had given him. He had lived in this city for his whole life and there was never a midnight bell that chimes through the night.

"Your pendant…" She spoke this line with disgust.

Alan was confused for a second but then realized that the pendant had once belonged to Chronos, a man she knew while she was alive. Alan didn't know much about their relationship, but due to the nature of Chronos' tone around her, he assumes that they were once lovers of some sort. However, Alan wasn't too interested in those details. As Alan looked down at his pendent, it glowed a crimson that gave off a small amount of light that reflected off the metal.

"What...why is it glowing crimson?"

"That pendant must be fully bound to you…" Alice spoke in a tone that suggested that she was actively trying to analyze the situation. "Hey, Alan?" Alice said with a serious tone, "Has there been any other souls other than Chronos and myself?"

Alan shook his head no, "Not to my knowledge."

"Tch!"

"!?" Alan was taken by surprise. "Sorry…?"

"Not you, we were played." She spoke angrily, "Chronos is just like me, a soul trapped in an artifact of the past."

Alan paused to think and after a few moments, a memory of the past came back to him. When Alan had confronted Chronos about the pendant's powers, Chronos said that the pendant had a mind of its own that seems to disobey his orders.

"So in other words, Loki was in control at first then Chronos took back over after escaping the pendant." Alan managed to summarize the events that best fit the narrative in his head.

"No…," Alice disagreed with an uncertain tone. "Rather, I believe that Loki only had control whenever Chronos had to do something in relation to controlling time, meaning that you're not really cursed-"

"I'm just being held hostage for Chronos' plans." Alan finished Alice's statement.

"Mmhmm."

"..." Alan said nothing as he glanced back at the pendant around his neck. "So that's how it is, he only activates the pendent when he knows someone important to his plan will die." Then suddenly had a bad feeling and took off running towards his apartment building, disregarding the injuries he had from earlier.

"Where are you going?"

"To check on Isabelle. If my thoughts are correct, then Chronos will not turn back time on those unrelated to his plan. So if I manage to save-" Alan approached an interaction and used a pole to make a sharp left turn. "-everyone important to his plan first try, then if anyone else dies it's pointless."

"Sloth…" Alice muttered. "I can see this actually being a part of his plan. After all, there are two answers: the first being sloth, taking no action to save everyone and only saving those needed; or defying fate and denying your sin."

"Either outcome is shitty. But I'd rather sacrifice my own sanity than to allow those around me to die when I have the power to save them."

"...Dumbass." Alice said softly, "Don't be a hero."

Alan didn't respond to her statement as he continued to run towards his apartment. He ran for 30 minutes before finally reaching the stairs that lead up to his place. But before he went up the stairs, he stood at the bottom of the steps trying to regain his breath. He then looked towards the sky and noticed a strange anomaly in the sky just above the apartment complex.

"Alice?"

"I don't know," She quickly resounded as if she knew he was gonna ask, "But I don't know if we should worry ourselves about that for now. Chronos is watching nearby."

"So he's here too?" Alan looked around but found no traces of him. "Something is very wrong here…" Alan pulled out the Crimson Princess and pointed it towards a black car that was parked nearby. "Come out," Alan yelled at the car.

"You're getting sharper," Alice commented.

After a short pause, two figures connected by a chain collar walked out wearing a silver masquerade mask. One of the figures wore a silver tuxedo with short white hair gelled back. The other wore a long silver dress with white hair flowing down to her butt. Alan didn't know who these two were, but the only thing he could figure out is that they were forced into whatever role they were about to play. The female masked figure had bruises and scars on her arm, she also bore a depressing smile as she looked at Alan. It was as if she was mentally asking him to kill her. The male figure had an emotionless face as he walked up to Alan, tugging the chain to have the girl follow. Once they got closer they both stopped and looked Alan straight in the eyes.

"Welcome-"

"Alan and Alice-" They spoke alternately in a harsh cold tone that seemed to hide their actual voices.

"To the-"

"Silver Moonlight Masquerade."

They then paused for a brief minute and then spoke in unison, "Please enjoy yourselves." As they finished, a pink mist spun itself around the two and after a short while, they both disappeared.

Alan blankly looked at the empty space that they were once at, with his jaw wide open.

"What?" He said in shock. "What...was...that... about…?" Alan lowered his weapon and waited for Alice to say something.

"..." Alice said nothing.

Alan noticed her silence and thought that she was hiding something, though he didn't bother with it as he proceeded to walk up the stairs.

"The Silver Moonlight Masquerade…" He spoke aloud as he walked, "Alice, does that sound familiar to you?"

"..."

"Alice, now is not the time to hide something from me."

"I'm not hiding something." Her silence ended, "It's just…" She went quiet again.

"A-L-I-C-E," Alan said with a slow, threatening tone.

"I-I don't want to relay the wrong information to you. There's just too much that doesn't make sense right now." Her voice then began to dampen as if she was lost in a train of thought, forgetting that she was speaking directly to Alan. "That woman, there's no way she's still alive...there's no way. We destroyed that plan...so how did she finish it?"

"..." Alan was bothered by Alice's muttering but he said nothing in the hope she may say something else important by accident. He then reached his door and noticed that there was a light on. He gripped his sword, fearing the worst, and placed his hand on the doorknob. "!?" He noticed that the door was unlocked and quickly opened the door.

"ISABELLE-" He yelled as he opened the door. Though the scene that he walked onto was not one he had imagined. In the middle of the room stood Isabelle, half-naked, trying to put on clothes. She quietly stared at Alan, then after an awkward few seconds Isabelle had a devilish smile and Alan's face shifted from surprise to annoyance.

"Like what you see?" She said while posing herself so that Alan could see her breasts easily.

"..." Alan didn't respond as black markings began to slowly show on him.

"...Um… Alan?" Isabelle now began to feel embarrassed, "You know that it's rude to just stare and not say anything right?"

"Prohibere tempus." Time around Alan froze as he walked over to the bathroom and entered. As time unfroze, he slammed the bathroom door shut and his black marking disappeared. Isabelle, confused by what happened, finished changing her clothes and walked over to the bathroom door, and gently knocked on it.

"Sorry…" She said in a quiet voice. Alan slowly opened the door and noticed that she was wearing one of his hoodies.

"Those girls sure do love your hoodies," Alice said to Alan.

"Ahem," Alan cleared his throat as Alice chuckled, "What are you doing at 4 in the morning?"

Isabelle pulled out her air console and showed it to Alan. There was an image with two figures connected by a chain by the neck entering the apartment. "These two walked in here a few hours ago and blabbered about something that bothered me." She then told Alan the same information that the others received.

"What!?" Alice's sudden outburst startled Alan. "That's not what those twins told us."

"Yeah…" Alan spoke directly to Alice, "But I'm the guest of honor, meaning that this whole event is to get at me."

"But why-" Alice then went silent as she figured out the reason why.

Alan noticed that she was once again hiding something but decided to give up on trying to pry it from her as he had more pressing matters to attend to. Black markings slowly appeared on Alan as he turned to face Isabelle, who was still talking about what happened and grabbed her wrist.

"Huh, wait!" Alan forced her out of the apartment with him as they made their way outside. "Alan, stop being so forceful." Alan then realized what he was doing and quickly released her.

"What the hell?" He said to himself, hoping Alice would respond back, "Why did I do that?"

"Because I'm here," Alice responded in a despairing tone as if she had just accepted a terrible fate.

"Alice, what the hell is happening?"

"You'll die…" She said slowly with no emotion. "There's nothing we can do. Your corruption will worsen after this fight."

"!?" Just as she said that a small spike ball connected to a silver chain appeared from the depths of the shadows and impaled Isabelle straight through the heart. Isabelle fell swiftly to the ground within an instant in a puddle of her blood as her lifeless eyes stared straight at Alan. Then a large man wearing a silver mask walked out of the shadows and spoke in a distorted voice.

"Alan Macemon, you disappoint me." The figure then spun its flail and a silver mist came pouring out of the chains, "Now release her! You are not worthy!"