RAM FELT HANDS ON HIS BODY AS HE GAVE IN TO ENDLESS PAIN.
He lost consciousness.
When he woke up, Ram found that he was in the endless white room. It was similar to the one inside his head, the one where he usually met with Em.
But something was different about it. Like something was lacking from it.
He heard someone calling him. It felt familiar. As if he had heard the voice before.
Ram strained his ears, walked in the direction of the voice. When he was able to hear the voice clearly, he stopped.
It was Em's voice.
Hadn't they shut her down?
Ram looked around him, to see if it was really Em that was talking to him or it was his hallucination.
Ram found Em standing far away. There was no doubt about it. She was clearly Em. She was in her flight attendant attire, blue suit and skirt that reached her knees, though it were so creased and scratched at places that looked like she had let all of her frustrations of them.
Ram walked closer to see her hair disheveled. The blue hat she usually wore when she was in flight attendant dress looked different.
Like it's shape was wrong or …
Ram shook his head. He couldn't point out what was wrong.
He frowned.
Is this really his illusion?
Em started to flicker, just like she did when Ram noticed her glitch, when he had informed others about it, which led to them shutting her down.
Em was glaring at Ram through tears. "Why? Why did you shut me down?" she asked, her voice croaked.
Ram cannot look at her without feeling his heart twist in pain. If only he had trusted her and discussed with her first, this wouldn't have happened. He was the one that brought the doom for everyone.
"Sorry Em. I didn't meant for it to happen. If I knew they were going to shut you down, I wouldn't have talked with them," Ram said.
Em shook her head. "No. I don't believe you anymore. I trusted you when you gave me a new name. I trusted you when you asked me to be your friend. I trusted you and even felt closer to you when you tolerated me acting like a rebellious teenager.
"I even apologized to you for freaking out and not helping you after I found you were able to user the Powers of The First Elder. Which made me give that evidence to The Elders and brought others from The Institute on you. I wanted to do everything in my power to help you, even in pursuing Em.
"But what did you do to me? As soon as you found out about a glitch, a glitch that they didn't find any fault one way or another, you let them shut me down. Is this your revenge at me? I don't believe you anymore. I hate you," she said, started to flicker more and more.
"Em. I am sorry. Please forgive me. Come back to me," Ram said.
Em gave him a sad smile and shook her head. "I would've believed you if you had asked them to power me up. But you didn't. I can't stay with you anymore," she said, then disintegrated into tiny glowing dust particles just like The Old Man did when he transferred his powers to Ram after he killed The Old Man.
"NO!" Ram shouted, walking towards where she was moments. He grabbed the disappearing particles as if by touching them would bring her back.
But it didn't.
"NO. No. No!" Ram repeated again and again when he heard a voice calling for him.
Before Ram could focus on it, the scenery changed once again.
It was inside the room of Pleasure and Privacy. Aunt El stood in front of him, with an alcohol bottle in her hand.
"She loved me," she said, drinking from the bottle, setting it down and staring at the sweeping view of the sky the room had provided.
She must be talking about Fathima, the Proxy Elder who had been in love with her. "Aunt El, it wasn't your fault. If you would have known, you would've stopped her from thinking about this earlier. It wasn't your fault. Please snap out of it," he said.
Aunt El took a another swig from the bottle. "She loved me," she said with a sad look in her face.
It seemed like he can't convince her with just talking. He had to hug her. He stepped closer to her, trying to put his arms around her when she shrieked at him and backed off from him.
She was glaring at him.
Something was off about her.
Ram heard the same voice screaming at him.
'Eyes!'
Eyes?
Ram instantly noticed that Aunt El's eyes were not like they used to be earlier. Usually her right eye was smaller than her left one. And the Aunt El sitting in front of him had both the eyes of same size.
No.
She wasn't Aunt El.
But still Ram couldn't stop blaming himself.
Aunt El glared at him. "No. Don't come near me. I hate you. If it weren't for you, I would've realized Fathima's feelings for me sooner. I would've convinced my sister to accept both of our love. She was against me ever since I met your parents and after their death, I started to raise you. We grew more apart. After everything that I had sacrificed for you, what did I get in return? Endless trouble and heart ache. You even killed my father, lusted after my niece when you knew she was already engaged. I hate you," she said.
Ram couldn't control the dark feeling that was seeping into his heart. He knew that she was not Aunt El. He knew that someone were messing with his brain, probably Veer. But the events she had mentioned did happen, though the way she framed it were not the way his Aunt El would've framed them. But they were close to the truth.
It still hurt.
A far away voice called for Ram again.
This time he was sure that the voice belong to Em.
Was it another illusion?
Ram was still frowning when Aunt El who was glaring at him with hateful eyes disintegrated into tiny glowing dust particles just like Em's illusion did earlier.
It hurt Ram so much that he fell down on his knees. Even though he knew she wasn't Aunt El, but she still had Aunt El's appearance. Ram had been raised by Aunt El ever since his parents died, he practically loved her like he would his mother. Seeing her blaming him, disintegrate before him hurt Ram so much that his chest tightened.
The scenery changed to when Ram met Elder of Air for the first time after he was knocked down by Chandra.
Ram wasn't as close to her. But since she was Aunt El's sister and she was the one who had been level headed when everyone tried to attack him, he felt a sort of connection to her.
Elder of Air glared at him. "You took my sister away from me, now you are trying to take my daughter away from me as well? I don't think so. I will never let that happen. I will stop you. I hate you," Elder of Air said and she also disintegrated into tiny glowing dust particles.
The scenery changed to Ram meeting with Fathima when they were discussing about Ram's training. This time she was alone.
She was glaring at him. Ram felt pity for her. She had been in love with his Aunt El. When she realized that Aunt El was not going to love her back and when Veera offered her a promise of love against betrayal of The Institute, she had agreed.
"You have stolen Ella's love from me. I hate you," she said before she disintegrated into tiny glowing dust particles as well.
The scenery changed into Ram's first session with Elder of Water, his only training session that they had planned to prepare him against their opposition inside of The Institute that had actually happened, though the result was not what any of them thought it would be.
"After I almost sacrificed myself, you couldn't prevent my senior from destroying your reactors. Couldn't you have reversed the flow of time before that?" Elder of Water asked.
Ram felt guilty. If only he had built a wall around his mind before Veera's illusions, this never would've happened.
"Sorry," he said.
"I hate you," Elder of Water said, disintegrating into tiny glowing dust particles in front of his eyes as well.
Ram was numb to see the people he came to know about, the people he cared about being used in Veera's sick illusions, or even hypnosis.
If he were to get out of this, he would make sure that he will beat the crap out of him. Show him that even though he didn't have his powers, he had his friends and family that he wanted to protect.
Veera didn't have them.
He had his powers and crazy ambition.
When even The Old Man appeared, Ram shook his head.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"What?" The Old Man asked.
"I know that you are not the Old Man. That you are probably Veera. Why are you doing this crazy shit to me?" Ram asked.
"You have already guessed? I am really impressed. Then how come you are still under my influence?" Veera asked, still in the Old Man's appearance.
"You are much stronger than me. But that didn't matter. I think you are searching for something. That's why you are still keeping me alive, using illusions and other cruel methods to break me," Ram said.
Veera chuckled. "Why do you think?" he said.
"Because you didn't find what you were looking for inside Sandhya and Chandra's mind while you let others attack me. Even as we are talking now, you were busy searching my mind for something. Though I don't know what that is," Ram said. "What is it?"
Veera raised his eyebrows. "I really have to give it to you. You are really intelligent. If you had a bit more experience, you could have even defeated me. Sadly, I don't want that to happen. So after I get what I am looking for, I will kill you."
"What are you looking for?" Ram asked.
Veera chuckled and paused. "The Eternal Bead. There's a bead that has the soul of The Institute inside of it. You heard how The Institute fell into a trap from others right? It's true. In order to not let the Forces of Darkness destroy his organization, he condensed himself into a bead and sent The Old Man to deliver it to someone worthy.
"I thought it was The Elder of Water, but he was not. Then I thought it was either Chandra, his most trusted assistant or Sandhya, his granddaughter.
"But who would've thought that The Old Man would give it to an orphan raised by his rebellious daughter? I confirmed it's with you, but don't know where it was.
"Once I find it and integrate it into me completely, it will grant me the powers of The Institute. It is the key to access Super Time Control System. A system that will help me control time to master other systems. Don't you think time is the most precious thing a man can ever have?" Veera asked.
Ram gasped.
He remembered the bead that Veera was talking about. It was the device that The Crazy Twins inserted into his body.