"So, I was thinking," Zia says as she, Henry and Felicia, walk. "If you were reading all of those new and old newspapers... you know... before you told me who I was..."
"Mhm?" Felicia asks.
"Well, was the intel gathering about me?" Zia asks. "Did we do something wrong? Is that why I lost my memories?"
Henry looks at Felicia, and Felicia adverts her eyes from her own husband out of guilt. "It was intel about you," Felicia finally replies. "I had thought you and your crew had done wrong before... but there were some things that changed my mind."
"If you had thought I had done something really bad, then why save me?" Zia asks.
"Well, I didn't change my mind simply because you were nice," Felicia answers. "No, I had figured out way before that the things they've been saying you and your team have done hasn't been... well, adding up."
"What did you find out that changed your mind?" Zia asks.
Felicia simply adverts her eyes again and remains silent. "What do you remember about your... incident?" Henry speaks up.
"Nothing," Zia answers. "I've had these weird nightmares, like my brain is trying to make up this crazy story to explain my injuries, but I can't remember a single thing."
"Nightmares?" Henry asks. "Nightmares of what? Of a crazy man who looks like it crawled out of hell, without arms, overflowing with endo?" Zia froze in response. "Then you slam your head against the tree somehow, and something that caused 3rd degree burns penetrated the man's torso, killing him at your feet? Those kinds of nightmares?"
"H-how... do you know that?" Zia asks.
"Because, as much as I really don't want to believe it, even to this very day... that really happened, " Henry says.
"There... there was like this... zombie, " Zia says, her eyes wide open in disbelief.
"That was real," Henry replies. "Zombie, nightmare, demon... Whatever it was, we saw the body. It looked like it used to be a man. However, many parts of the body weren't even connected anymore." Zia began throwing up as Henry continued to describe the monster that was Thomas Holland. "Endo poisoning like we've never seen before on every part of the skin that wasn't heavily decayed. As well as a hole straight through the torso, third-degree burns surrounding the hole."
"We didn't want to believe what we were seeing," Felicia says. "We knew who you were when we first saw you. At first, we wanted to apprehend and question you... but that... thing. We needed answers, and we believed you and your crew had been behind the scenes, causing a stir on purpose everywhere you went. Because you seemed to be the worst thing this planet could possibly host. We wanted to believe you were also the bad guys because if you weren't... if you weren't the worst thing out there... then that means whatever else is out there is far more scary than we imagined."
"And seeing that... thing changed your mind about us?" Zia asks, still wiping her mouth.
"Well, whatever else was out there... it was indeed much worse, " Felicia replies. "If we could've apprehended you and tortured you for answers on why you guys brought back Naris, why you invaded the Omnia military bases, why you took down the Mages... then we could've closed the book on this case."
"But that wasn't the case," Henry adds. "It became immediately apparent that you and your team were fighting something behind the scenes that the world hasn't been told about yet. Something behind the scenes, that's worse than just the dangers of outlaws creating havoc. Something you guys were trying to keep us safe from."
Zia stops to think for a second. "So then, why take me in and be nice to me?"
"We were clearly wrong." Felicia answers. "After seeing what that thing was, we knew we'd need your help getting to the bottom of this."
"We need to know what's going on," Henry says.
"What's going on is an emergency extraction." Holly says as the crew runs back the way they came through the prison with Chao.
"I mean with Hong Kong!" Chao says. "What's going on with Hong Kong?"
"A lot of people are fighting back on the streets," Siran answers. "Amidst a full-on invasion of Japan, China also seems to be under attack by citizens of Hong Kong who've had enough of China. Seems they're making an effort to once again break away from China."
"Of course they would. Xiaobai is no leader!" Chao answers.
"And that's why you fought against him?" Blake asks.
"There were a lot of reasons," Chao answers. "Brothers do not simply just try to kill each other. A lot has happened."
"Curious." Holly says. "If all of that is true, then why hasn't Ying spoken a single word about you?"
Chao looks down at his feet as they run, then looks back up. "She has her reasons, too." The crew makes it outside onto the roof and jumps off together. With the cover of the blackened skies keeping the world dark, the crew ran to the tank and began driving away before being followed. As they get in, Chao looks at Zhang Wei, who's still tied up inside of the tank. "Well, if it isn't one of Xiaobai's dogs."
"I see you're doing well." Zhang replies with sarcasm. "Looks like the prison had plenty of fun removing all of your tattoos."
"The pain was only temporary." Chao answers. "If you had wished to break my spirit for my crimes, then you should've used lethal force when I was tortured."
"Tortured?" Blake asks.
"Did you think I was in a daycare?" Chao asks. "Now, where is my daughter?"
"You'll have to ask the others." Zhang replies.
"She's currently likely in Germany." Holly answers.
"Ger-... Germany!?" Chao asks. "What the hell is she doing there? I thought when she f-... went her separate way... that she became an officer under his worthless police force!"
"She saw what was important and came to work for the side that really matters." Zhang replies. "For the country and not for the group of rebels and terrorists."
"She'd never side with Xiaobai!" Chao claims.
"Can we get some Damm quiet!?" Haru asks. The two stopped arguing and went silent. "Now, if you'd be so kind as to remain at about this volume, that would be optimal. Now, for the plan?"
"Right." Siran says. "Now that we have Chao, that's one side job done in hopes it'll help Ying when we catch up to her and the others in Europe. This is also great because Chao may be able to help us here. We need a direct route to Li Xiaobai. We're going to go there and force his attacks on Japan to come to a complete halt by any means necessary. Though this wasn't part of the plan, Chao may be able to help with that. If he knows Xiaobai personally, we may have yet have luck in stopping the attacks. Either that or cause them to be overwhelmed from within by forces from Hong Kong."
"Which brings me to my next point." Holly interrupts. "When I said that the people in Hong Kong are fighting now more than ever, I did mean this is likely a good chance for Chao. When he mentioned Xiaobai forcing Hong Kong to be part of China again, I figured that him raising a militia against his own brother a second time may be a good fallback plan. So, in this process, we can use Chao to unite Hong Kong and give them direction either to press Xiaobai into a corner or after stopping the attacks before we leave. Which brings me to you, Chao. Our planned arrangement is that we will help you with Hong Kong if you help us get close to Xiaobai. Deal?"
"You drive a hard bargain..." Chao says. "It's not that I particularly want either of those things to happen. But if the situation is really as dire as it sounds... then I may need some time to think about it."
"Take your time." Siran says. "Give us your answer when you're ready."
Zia, Felicia, and Henry all continued walking for days. Only taking breaks to rest when they all really needed it. "So... tell me, " Zia says. "If you saw that... thing where you found me, do you think you know what it was?"
"We came to the conclusion that it used to be a human male." Henry says. "Then we tried our best to find any way to identify it... but we couldn't come to any conclusive evidence. I couldn't find any forms of ID, and the body was too distorted to try and even attempt a visual identification. We simply don't have access to the technology to match any DNA either. Whatever it used to be, it certainly wasn't that anymore by the time it nearly killed you."
"Which leads me to believe in some of the rumors that have been going around, in your crew's favor." Felicia says. "About stopping Naris from coming back, rather than bringing him back. About the indiscriminate attacks. Even as of kate, the rumors that the UK has been denying so heavily on random attacks by seemingly deranged people. If that thing existed, if that thing was controlled about an outside source or turned into a monster like what we saw... then maybe those rumors aren't so crazy after all. We would like to know more. So, on that note, are any of your memories coming back?"
Zia thinks really hard, and more memories do start to come to mind. However, the memories that began to come to mind were mixed. She could remember sitting alone in a forest, and Siran lent a hand to help her. Then her next memory is of Inari, seeing Ishmael coming back from a job with her messengers, looking up at her and smiling. Her head began to hurt if she tried to make sense of it. "No, nothing yet," Zia replies to Felicia.
"That's okay." Felicia says. "If you rush it, it'll only hurt worse. We're not sure how long until the amnesia wears off, so just... bear with us until then. We'll try to help you along the way, as long as we can get answers when you're ready."
"When I'm ready..." Zia says to herself quietly. "Yeah, I'll try to help answer anything I can, Felicia. It's the least I could do."
"Maybe," Felicia adds, "with any luck... whatever Zia can tell us may help us close the lid on some mysteries we got tangled up in as well."
"We could only be so lucky." Henry replies.
"Who am I really?" Zia asks herself. "Which memories are right? I can't even seem to be sure I'm even me. The sky has been dark, the sun hasn't ever seemed to risen... yet somehow, it doesn't seem to bother them. This must really be a nightmare."
Back in Pilloa castle, Silas, Dana, and Carl train day to day with Thor and Athena. "Still no signs of Ares showing his ugly mug?" Carl asks.
"None that I've seen so far." Athena replies. "Which is good. I won't complain as long as we've got time to work on this. We still need Silas to learn sealing magic."
"I think I'm getting it, at least a little." Silas adds. "The concept it fairly simple, but the application... it takes a lot of energy and mental fortitude. I think I've just about got the technique down, I just need to be able to really... try it, y'know?"
"Try it?" Athena asks. "Like... on an endo-stream?"
"Where's the nearest one?" Thor asks.
"Probably on the other side of this country?" Athena replies.
"That's right." Dana says. "I've heard about the endo-stream in Omnium Guild. Which is on the opposite side of the country, where Naris fell."
"That's very helpful." Athena adds. "Some humans are very knowledgeable. I'm starting to like humans more."
"Maybe stepping down from that high horse of yours wouldn't hurt." Dana adds.
"And you're rapidly losing points again..." Athena scowls.
The kids, alongside Thor and Athena, travel towards Omnium Guild, where the second massive abyss Naris creates were. "I heard from Loki he visited this place alone during his expedition, years before he first met Siran." Thor says. "He surveyed the residual energy left by Naris and used that to try to track down the abnormality, which led him to Siran eventually."
"But now, it is a stream created by Ares." Athena adds. "He took advantage of the surrounding area already being inaccessible to humans as a means to hide it."
"Think you can affect the stream from here with seal magic, Silas?" Thor asks.
"I can definitely feel the source of the stream." Silas says. "If I can pinpoint the exact location, I should be able to reach it even from here. Luckily, the stream is more massive than most others. I will try my best to focus on it."
"Just remember," Thor adds, "if you feel anything going wrong, I want you to stop immediately."
"Gotcha." Silas answers. Silas began meditating and focusing. After a while, the endo from the surrounding environment began swirling around Silas. Everyone around stared at Silas with unease. What looked like the shape of a seal or charm beginning to form was being carved out of reactive endo. However, it wasn't on the stream. This symbol began to show itself on Silas's back, glowing through his shirt. Suddenly, they began to hear Silas muttering something very quickly. Too quickly to be understood.
"Um... Silas?" Dana asks.
"This is like that time, in Japan." Carl adds.
"What's going on?" Dana asks.
"I... I don't know, " Athena replies. "This isn't supposed to be happening."
"Well, stop him!" Dana yells.
"Kid!" Thor says as he grabs Silas's shoulder. Suddenly, as if all was happening in the blink of an eye, Thor suddenly retracted his hand as he screamed in pain. His fingers were all crushed and bent. Silas stood on his feet, facing Thor. His eyes open, but glowing with a faint white light. The symbol on his back formed the shape of a charm that looked like a cross with an arc above it.
"Oh no." Athena says. "I know that charm. That's Chronos's."
"The cultivation is complete." Silas says, though the voice that came out of Silas's mouth was not his own.
"What's going on?" Dana asks.
"Don't just stand there!" Carl yells. "We have to do something!"
"But what?" Dana asks. Carl then does the only thing he can think of to do in a situation this out of control. He ran up to Silas with a fist, ready to punch him in the face. However, Silas appears behind Carl as he runs. As if moving instantaneously, Silas appeared behind Carl and was ready to punch him instead. However, suddenly, Silas froze. A white light began to form under his feet as a second symbol started to appear on his chest. This time, it was a circle with a cross inside of it. Silas was suddenly frozen in a charging stance, unable to move. "Wha-... what happened?" Dana asks.
"Did... my idea work?" Carl asks. "But I didn't even hit him yet."
"Something else is going on here." Athena says as she stomps up angrily towards Silas. "That little witch! How could she do this to the poor boy?"
"Do what?" Carl asks. "Who?"
"Gaia." Athena answers. "Right now... it looks like this poor boy is stuck inside his own mind. Judging from the symbols, both Chronos and Gaia wanted something out of this boy. Now, his mind is separated."
"And that's entails... what exactly?" Dana asks.
"Right now, there are shards of both Chronos and Gaia inside of Silas." Athena says. "We already knew about Chronos, but how could Gaia hide a shard of herself inside him as well!? That's just twisted. Because of that, the two shards are at war right now inside of him. His mind is splitting apart, and it's up to him if we'll ever be able to talk to Silas again."
"So, if his mind doesn't come back together..." Carl asks, "Then, our friend is as good as dead?"
"Precisely." Athena says. "We just have to hope he's strong enough."
"What's going on inside of your head, Silas?" Dana asks with worry.
"Whatever it is, I can assure you..." Athena adds. "That it is, without a doubt, a nightmare."