RAM WAS FLABBERGASTED.
He felt like someone with a very dark sense of humor had designed a show and put him in such a position where the top masters he had met would end up transferring their powers to him.
Is this really his fantasy? His dreams?
Did they stem from his imagination after he had been framed by others at his college? Was his anger and helplessness made him go crazy and imagine all of this?
Or had he really killed a simple old man and he became insane?
Ram pinched his cheek and winched at the pain. Just to be sure, he pinched his cheek even harder and winced even more than earlier.
The pain reminded him that this was all real.
But he was still finding it difficult to believe all that had happened.
He stared at Elder of Water.
Elder of Water sighed. "You are not ready?" he asked.
Ram shook his head.
"You don't believe anything that I am saying?"
Another shake of his head.
"What is wrong with you the?"
"I don't know. Can you slap me?" Ram asked.
"What?"
"Slap me? I keep thinking that all of this is not real. That it was my imagination?"
"Why do you think so?"
"Because, when the Old Man got stabbed my me, instead of being angry at me like any sane man would be, he smiled at me in relief as if I were his savior, transferred his powers and made me Elder of Time, which the others didn't even know now.
"After I went through all the trouble of discovering my powers, unable to control myself and kissing Sandhya which eventually led to a trial at Justice Hall, learning about Aunt El and how she masked my memories to save me, her older sister and how their supposed to monitor and torture me as a guise to train me. All of this felt too good to be true.
"Then their training plan was actually to torture me. Use their powers to beat the crap out of me to vent their anger. On top of all that, I realized that I could be hypnotized, monitored and even got my assistant, no, my friend Em to shut down.
"That lead me to your hypnosis session, where you are willing to break the promise you made to Aunt El and Elder of Air earlier by wanting to teach me everything you know about hypnosis, even including on how to use it. Isn't it what they prevented you from doing so? On the top of all that, you are also going to transfer your Powers of Water as well? Don't you see why I don't believe you or even everything that was happening to me?" Ram asked.
Elder of Water listened to Ram patiently, and once it was over, he sighed. "I know what I am telling you didn't make any sense. But trust me. The only way you are able to come out of hypnosis is if you know how to perform one. The reason your Aunt El and Elder of Air easily came out of hypnosis and not prone to anymore was because I taught them painstakingly over the years.
"That is how your Aunt El had hypnotized you to erase your memories and keep you safe. They don't know how this whole thing works. The Old Man asked me to keep this as a secret from them and I did. And now, it was going to help us. What do you think? Are you ready to accept my memories as well as my powers?" Elder of Water asked.
Ram didn't want to.
This was too overwhelming for him. He needed time to process what had happened, get into lengthy discussion before arriving at a conclusion.
"We don't have much time?" Ram asked.
Elder of Water nodded. "The enemy is making their movies in the background. As I have already said, they are working overtime to bring your trial faster," he said.
"Why me? Why are they doing this to me? I hadn't done anything to any of them," Ram said.
Elder of Water sighed. "I don't know much about it. If only the transfer of powers from the Old Man to you was smooth one, you would have all the Old Man's memories and his powers at your disposal. That was why I was hesitating to do the transfer. I want you to have all my memories and powers to combat what was about to come," he said.
Ram was interested. "You meant say the Old Man might have known why it was me that everyone were focusing about?" he asked.
"Yes, he knew, which was buried deep inside of you. But I can tell you something though. It was related to your parents. The reason why you survived The Forces of Darkness when they experimented on you when you were a kid was also for the same reason. I know it is much to ask, but you have to accept the transfer completely, both my memories as well as my powers," Elder of Water said.
Ram realized that he had to do it. But he wanted to know one thing before making his decision. "What will happen to you after the transfer, Will you be fine?" he asked.
Elder of Water nodded. "You don't have to worry about me. This is another sort of transfer that they recently discovered, the ones where I have a copy of my memories and powers within me, even after I transfer them to you. After all, I have much work to do at The Institute, I also wanted to protect the daughters of the woman I loved. You don't have to worry about me. I promise that I would be alive and well at the end of the transfer, that is only if you wanted me to be alive," he said.
If Elder of Water was going to be safe, Ram didn't have any other option to delay.
He agreed to it.
Elder of Water put his forehead to Ram's, he felt his forehead prickle and his mind's eye was filled with countless images, appearing in such quick manner that all of it was a blur to Ram.
It was too overwhelming and Ram was lost in the sea of rapidly changing images.
It was purely insane.
Ram didn't know how long it took, but when the transfer was complete, Ram slumped to the ground, twitching with foam at the corner of his mouth.
He was still able to see the blurry image of Elder of Water, who patted his shoulder shakily and said the transfer was done and collapsed before him.