RAM WAS SCARED.
He was so scared that the whole time the guards were pushing him rashly along the way, all that Ram felt and saw was his doom that was about to come.
And who was responsible for it.
Veera.
Veera was the one that the whole Institute worried and feared the most. Who was he?
Ram tried to remember everything that he had known about The Institute.
There was the Being Darkness that was dead opposite of The Institute. Much Like The Institute created it's own force, with Elders, Elites and Guards alike, the Darkness also created The Forces of Darkness.
Ram hadn't heard anyone informing him about the hierarchy of Forces of Darkness, but what he knew for sure was that there was The First Elder that The Institute had created and he had the powers to Reverse The Flow of Time.
They were scared of Ram because he had Reversed the Flow of Time, the same way that The First Elder did.
First Elder was the one who was trusted by The Institute when he created him. But as the First Elder grew more powerful, he became corrupt. He invited the darkness and since then they hadn't seen one with such powers. But now, Ram was displaying at least one such powers. It indicated that he was probably a descendant of The First Elder or even The First Elder himself.
Ram knew for sure that he was not the First Elder. He was raised by Aunt El. He had his memories from his childhood as a proof.
But there might be a chance that all of those memories were implanted in him by himself as well as to others beside him to infiltrate them.
Could it be the case?
Ram thought about it hard.
Very, very hard.
If that were the case, then they had every right to be afraid of him.
After god known how long the time had passed, Ram discarded the thought.
No.
He was not the First Elder in disguise.
Deep down, Ram knew that he was not First Elder and his memories with Aunt El were genuine.
He believed that even Veera was not The First Elder. Even though he has the powers of time that can affect others as well as for himself, he was not as powerful as the First Elder had been. In fact he was nothing when compared to The First Elder.
But what if Veera was doing it on purpose, hiding his real abilities?
What if he really were the First Elder and could even Time Travel, not just reversing the Flow of Time for couple of moments?
He would like to take down The Institute once and for all. To do that, he might've visited past or future, assess when The Institute was at it's weakest and chosen then to attack it.
And right now, when Ram's arrival had created chaos amidst of the divided Institute, without it's Leader, The Institute who had been in trap, it might be at it's weakest.
That was the reason why Veera had chosen to attack at this very moment.
Ram groaned.
All this stuff was too complex and his head started to ache so badly that he wished to sleep it off. But he knew he couldn't.
He decided to follow his gut and right now, it was telling him that Veera was not the First Elder.
All he knows was how to use Powers of Time and create havoc all over the Institute and also made himself stay at the same age.
But the question still remained. Who was Veera? Why was he doing all of this?
Ram didn't know.
What should he do now?
He can't approach others, as Veera has 'Evidence' that could prove Ram was dangerous. Even if that was not the case, no one was going to believe him other than Aunt El, Proxy Elder and Elder of Air. Who were being monitored by lackeys of Veera, which was like almost all of The Institute.
And another one who could believe him was Elder of Water. But he was incapacitated at this moment.
Rest of The Institute was not going to believe him.
Even Sandhya and Chandra, who looked like they hadn't learned hypnosis.
They are under Veera's control.
Whom should he approach? Who can help him coming out of this mess? Who were the unknown variables in all of this?
Ram thought hard. Really, really hard about this.
And when it felt like his head was about to explode, he got it.
The unknown Variables.
He had not only got one, but three.
Two of them were The Crazy Twins, Rita and Nano.
The last one was the Crazy device that they had implanted in him.
What does it do?
Who were they?
Where are they?
How can he contact them?
Ram had many questions and Ram believed that he know they were monitoring him just like others.
After all, they had taken a huge risk to disguise themselves as the scientists of The Institute and met him, inserted their device in him.
Till now, Veera hadn't gotten a clue about The Twins as he would've already asked Ram about them.
For all he knew right now, they might be with around him right now.
Ram hoped they were with him.
He stared all around him, hoping he would spot the residue of using The Obscurer.
He didn—
Ram felt something strange for a moment. He felt as if..
—'t find any residue of them using The Obscurer.
He wanted to shout at them to come out. But he wanted to do it when they were alone.
If they were his saviors, as they claimed they were, then he shouldn't create more problems for them.
He will call for them once he was alone.
Ram had to wait for a long time before even was alone though.
And crazy shit happened during that time. He personally got to witness just how savage and scary Veera could get during that time.
***
Ram was scared as hell when they stepped out of Elder of Air's section of The Institute.
It was filled by a crowd of angry Elites and guards and their families, who were screaming at him, some even holding signs depicting that he was a devil and he should be killed.
It reminded him of the scene he had watched in 2012. The end of the world. It has signs depicting the people blaming the government for hiding the truth. He had watched it many times, again and again when they started showing it in the T.V. and those were the good old days.
Anyways, right now, the signposts they were holding him depicted him as a devil with horns and tails.
If it were cartoon drawings, he wouldn't have been this worried.
They were illusions drawn on small screens, depicting his death in brutal and gruesome manner that felt so real that Ram almost shit in his pants.
After all, he had been a loner and teenager all his life.
All he had before the memory alterations were him with Aunt El. She home schooled him.
But seeing this crowd for the second time, this time an angrier version equipped with strong realistic illusions, really scared the hell out of him.
The guards were doing their duty, displaying him as if he were some dangerous criminal and at some point of time, they had pushed him forward so that he was not surrounded by them.
So that if anyone from the crowd could attack him if they wished.
But none did.
They continued to pray for his demise, their signposts depicting his death and their angry glares and shouts.
By the time the crowd disappeared, Ram was soaked in his own sweat. His throat felt dried and his lips parched as if he were in desert for a month.
In fact, he could sense that Veera was using the Powers of Time right now to torture him.
Next they pushed him inside a new room which felt cold. It was so cold that Ram wished he were still in the desert.
The next moment, he was surrounded by flames so hot that …
Ram woke up to find himself in a strange room all alone.
The walls were glowing in a pattern with crazy rainbow colored bars of light which was very disorienting to look at.
It felt as if someone were preparing Ram to be hypnotized.
What had happened?
He remembered the crazy events before he lost consciousness and realized that right from the moment he stepped out of Elder of Water's section of The Institute, everything was an illusion along with a dash of hypnosis.
He stared at the room to see if he were truly alone.
No.
He was not.
Veera and the guards were waiting for him outside of the room.
One moment, there was no door, but the next moment, there was.
It was opened and Ram had very clear view of them.
Veera gave him a creepy smile and his stomach was sucked in.
Ram watched himself as he repeated what happened before he entered the room, but in reverse.
Just as his back touched the guards hands, the Flow of Time returned to normal for everyone and Ram was grateful for a moment.
Only for a moment.
Veera instantly gave him another creepy smile. "Why are you so gentle with him all along the way? Show him the treatment we will be giving to the criminals," he said.
The guards did as Veera asked them.
They pushed him roughly into the room and started to kick him in his stomach.
Ram curled himself into fetal position so that he could protect his stomach form their kicks.
It infuriated them so much so that one of the guards came forward and untangle him. He pushed him up to his feet and nodded at another guard and both of them held Ram while the third guard punched him in the face.
For the next couple of minutes, the guards took turn and used him as a punching bag.
Before Ram collapsed on the ground, Ram found himself suddenly on the initial position where they were about to push him into the room.
Veera instantly gave him another creepy smile. "Why are you so gentle with him all along the way? Show him the treatment we will be giving to the criminals," he said.
The guards obliged him and his earlier situation repeated again.
Them using him as a punching bag.
It stopped when he was delivered a blow and was about to collapse again and suddenly he found himself when he were about to be pushed by the guards.
Ram didn't know how he remembered all the variations of Looping of Time that Veera was performing, but he remembered every single one of them.
He could remember the feeling from every single one of them.
Even though at the start of the Loop Ram would not have any wounds on his body other than the bruise where the guards held him, he would still have memories and trauma from the beatings in the loop.
Ram stopped counting the number of times he was in this Torture Loop when it was the tenth time.
It all became blurry after that. He could only feel pain. Endless pain all around him.
If it continues, he was going to die.