Emotional Discharge

Alice, with Audrey on her back, followed a trail of blood that led into a small clearing that reached a residential area within the Western District. As Alice followed the trail, soft muttering was heard coming from the wounded girl dripping blood on her back.

"Useless...useless…" Audrey was muttering in a soft, self-degrading tone. "Why...why can't I do it? Why can't I protect others from them.?"

"Alan," Alice called out. "Are you still conscious?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm gonna give you partial control of your body, mainly your head."

"Okay…?" Alan said out loud as black markings receded from his face. "Oh, that was fast."

The current situation felt strange to Alan. He was just a floating head on a body that had a mind of its own.

Alan looked down at the blood trail that Alice was following and noticed that the trail had become slightly thinner with evidence of something being dragged across the ground. Alice then started to move slower.

"Why are you going so slow?" Alan asked Alice.

"She's already dead. There's too much blood here." Alice responded. "Just get information from that girl on our back."

"You and your damn information." Alan rolled his eyes in irritation as Audrey began to softly groan in pain.

Audrey opened her left eye and examined her surroundings. She then squeezed Alan's neck in pain. Alice gently tapped her arm and she released her grip.

"Man, why do you have a strong grip?!" Alan's heart was racing as he thought he was gonna be choked to death. Being unable to control his body was a stressful task for him.

"Why is such a short boy carrying me in the first place? Actually, how are you carrying me? You look weak." Alan found this conversion irritating. "But I guess I should thank you none the less." Alan turned his head slightly only to be choked out again. Alan caught the hint and turned back forward. Audrey found her situation embarrassing and had a hard time organizing her thoughts. "Umm...did I mutter anything while I was asleep?"

"Only something about being useless."

"Lair." Alice inputted.

Audrey paused for a second in slight irritation, "What was that voice?"

"!?" Alice stumbles a little. "How the heck?"

"Are you okay?" Alan then remembered the state that her body was in, "Mentally, I mean."

Alan felt her grip tighten. "Apart from this pain from my missing eye and the cuts on my arm, yes. But I heard a follow up from that voice after I said something." Her tone then deepened, "Not to mention that you staggered a little after I said something about it."

"..." Alice and Alan were both quiet, waiting for the other to speak. However, a slight death grip had appeared around his neck once more.

"Damn, for one usable arm, she is quite strong isn't she, Alan."

"This...is your damn fault to begin with. All this info collecting nonsense. We sinners have a past locked away for a reason. Stop trying to pry it out of people." While Alan and Alice were arguing internally, Audrey's death grip loosened once more as she buried her face on Alan's back.

"A locked past huh?" She muttered in a cold tone. "I guess we do have our own issues." She then bit Alan's back in an attempt for him to drop him but she then realized that Alan didn't feel it. "Huh?" She bit him again. Alan made strong attempts to show no reaction and Alice picked up on that.

"Will you stop biting my beloved." She said internally.

"Huh?"

"Who?"

Both Audrey and Alan were surprised.

"Alan, I'm taking back control."

"Go ahead. I need to scream internally." Black markings reappeared on Alan's face as he let out a loud internal scream from the pain of Audrey's bites and his right arm.

"So Audrey was it." Alice was the first to speak, "How on earth were you able to hear me from within Alan's mind?"

Audrey jolted her head back as she stared at the back of Alan's head in shock. "Heh," she soon forgot about her pain and reverted back to her normal self. "Nice try you bastard, trying to act like you have a multiple personality disorder. That's low, even for you."

"If that was true then I would feel a lot safer in the bathroom." Alan said internally, "But due to my current corruption levels, this is what I have to deal with."

"You make it sound like I'm a burden to you." Alice interrupted, "I saved your life a number of times, and gave you some eye candy."

Audrey bore a skeptical look. She didn't buy their excuse of quilting people in one body. Hearing his 'lie' Audrey's face twisted into a slightly more cold look as she sat on Alan's back, unaware that black markings had begun to form.

"Anyways," Alan's tone shifted to a more serious one, "Alice, why can she hear us?"

"The same reason that you can control time. The artifacts from the past aren't just found by accident." Alice stopped walking and proceeded to let Audrey off of her. Alice then pointed to Audrey's implant. Audrey decided to play along with this 'charade' and opened her air console and passed it to Alice.

Alice opened a drawing application, "So it's like this," Alice drew little figures as she spoke, "When you were running on the day that Evangela was murdered, you found this pendant, right?"

"Mmhmm."

"But that group of snakes has been looking for this very artifact for years and you just happen to stumble upon it by accident. So why would an item like this just be lying around out in the open where those snakes have most likely already checked thousands of times over?"

"A wish…?" Audrey said hesitantly.

"Bingo. These artifacts have souls. These souls seek those who wish for them the most. However, if it was just to wish for them, then Ouroboros would have gotten their hands on them by now. So why did the artifacts choose you?" Alice stopped and gave time for both Audrey and Alan to think.

Audrey winced in annoyance as she was hearing Alan's thoughts over hers. Alan then realized what was happening and apologized internally, which did seem to not do much to please her.

"It's because you were in a life or death situation." Alice grew tired of waiting and continued. "There are two requirements for what we call, "lost artifacts." The first is dependent on your current situation, for example, Alan nearly being arrested for a murder he didn't commit and then nearly being murder by his own father. The second is willpower, one must have the willpower to use the gift as well as completing the reason of why they receive the gift. For example, Alan's ability allows him to recall back to the stroke of midnight."

Alice froze after saying that. She carefully examined her surroundings.

"I've watched you die in a different timeline," Alan said with a sign. Time around them froze.

"So it only activates with you...I see." Alice then gave a soft sigh, "Looks like even his powers are weakening because of you."

"Hmm?" Alan was confused by her statement.

Alice ignored him and swiped the air console back to Audrey as time unfroze. The console closed and Audrey stared at her with a tilted expression as she wondered about her sudden shift in position. Alice looked towards the sky as daybreak illuminated the sky.

"Time is up."

As if on cue, a soft, calming melody echoed throughout the empty streets. Two small drones revealed themselves above Audrey and Alice. They descended from the sky playing the calming melody as a small air window appeared with a list of names.

Event Results:

Alan Macemon/ Alice Crimemila - Wounded/Alive

Isabelle Visage - Dead

Renne Norn - Alive

Sigmore Sawyer - Wounded/Alive

Evangela Seamon - Dead

Marshal Hook - Dead

Audrey Rosa - Wounded/Alive

Mary Newton - Dead

Jason Lancaster -Alive

Lucianna Penton -Alive

Experiment #7690 -Wounded/Alive

Total: 7 Alive, 4 Dead

"W...what the hell is this!?" Audrey was unable to hold back her emotions after reading the list. She turned to Alice with a disgusted look as Alice showed no emotion from looking at it.

"Just as I thought." Alice spoke to Alan, forgetting that Audrey has the ability to read minds, "They are experimenting on your ability to travel through time." Alice pointed to Evangela and Marshal's name and status, "Look, they were captured last time."

"But now they're dead," Alan added on. "Not only that, Lucianna and Boss have a different status as well."

"Well, due to your poor charisma with the rich, we didn't get the information I wanted. But we have enough to plan our next move."

"Trial and error?" Alan responded with an uneasy tone. He was starting to get used to seeing his friends die, which scared him. He didn't want to be forced to sacrifice the people around him just because he can 'undo' whatever happened to them. "Fine, but what are we gonna do about my arm? It hurts like hell-"

Suddenly Alan felt a sharp pain on his right cheek. Confused about what happened, Alice turned towards Audrey and noticed her holding her hand out with a small piece of bloodied glass embedded in her left hand. Alice gently brought her hand to her cheek and felt blood. Audrey looked at Alice with resentment as tears dripped down her eye.

"Y...y...you complete, utter bastard of a man." Audrey snapped, her tone was harsh and she gave Alice a murderous glare as blood dripped down her left arm as she gripped the broken glass shard. "You think I'm a fool don't you Alan? You think you can just say whatever the hell you want and expect me to believe it!?" Her voice gradually grew louder, "You think you can treat me like those swine did back at the orphanage!? Hehehe, I think not." The light in her eye completely faded as black markings appeared on her body. The sounds of loud crackling were heard as small holes burned through her clothing revealing more markings hidden under her clothes. Audrey then began to laugh uncontrollably as if she was a villain talking down to a defenseless, ruined hero. "I'LL KILL ALL THE MEN IN THIS WORLD!"

"..." Alice stood on guard as Audrey's clothing burned away as electric arcs formed around her. Within minutes, her body was completely covered in jet black markings as her hair, eye, and scar glowed a bright yellow.

"Alice…?" Alan was confused and frightened.

"I...I'm sorry." Alice spoke to Alan, "I forgot about her situation."

"What do you mean?"

"Simple, the Audrey you knew is barely alive. I forgot about the fact that she was bleeding out. And to top that, she was skeptical of us the whole time. She believed that you were putting on an act to deceive her."

"How did you figure that out?"

"Intuition." As the two spoke, more electricity wrapped itself around Audrey.

"I'm not buying it," Alan said sarcastically. "But at least we know what triggers her."

"Not really," Alice remained hopeless, "All we know is that she has yet to fix her past mistakes. She is not willing to overlook the actions that others have inflicted on her. Her pride is too strong to allow herself to come to terms with the faults of the world."

"Then how can we help her!?" Alan was growing ever more paranoid as Alice stood in front of Audrey, who was currently completely encased in a ball of electricity.

"We can't." A bolt of lightning struck the ground next to Alice, "At least, not us."

Then Audrey released a raging screech as a giant ball of electricity formed above her. Then within seconds the ball exploded, shutting down all power in the area and frying anything that came in contact with the stray bolts of lightning that followed. Alan used his powers to help guide Alice away from the bolts, however, due to the drug in his arm, his suffering only intensified. After an hour of gracefully dodging the bolts, Alice noticed that Audrey was dead on the ground with her black markings disappeared.

"Alan?" Alice spoke out loud. But received no response. "Damn, I must have overdone it." Alice then walked over to Audrey's lifeless, naked body and placed Alan's torn hoodie over it. She then placed her hand on her lifeless heart and spoke a prayer, "As the one responsible for your suffering, I will fix thy mistakes. May your soul find a happy ending in another timeline."

Alice turned to broken drones that were motionless on the ground with charred markings on them. "These things must be preventing us from hearing certain things." She said with a depressed tone, "Pupagenti, why… Why are you doing this to us again? Why must we suffer like this once more? WHY MUST ALAN SUFFER BECAUSE OF YOU!?" She shouted the last bit out loud hoping to hear an answer from something. Tears began to flow from her eyes, "Why...why must we repeat the same mistakes as before…? WHY DO YOU WANT TO BECOME GOD SO BADLY!?" There was no answer, there was only silence as she felt a familiar presence disappear in the distance.

After she finished yelling at nothing, the Chronos Pendant began to shine a crimson glow. Alice looked at the pendant with a disgusted look. "This is pointless." She muttered as the world around her faded to black.