9 July 2012
"Ugh...Mmm... Oww, man..." It took him a few moments for his eyes to open, and then a few more to understand where he was.
It seemed that Alex was inside a wooden hut of some sorts. There wasn't a lot of furniture, just the bed he was laying on, a desk and a chair fashioned out of tightly bound bamboo-sticks.
"Ahh, Master, you're awake!" said the voice of a woman, but the voice didn't seem it belonged to a young girl. Despite Alex's head saying she was forty, when he turned his head, he was surprised to see a young woman approaching him. With her looks, and body development, she was at least eighteen, possibly nineteen.
Alex held his head in his hand. "Who... Who are you?"
The young woman bowed to him politely. "Miss Katerina Elenore Ffiona Train, the second. People tend to call me Kate, but you may call me however you wish."
Alex looked confused. "...Let's just stick with Kate." he then tried to understand what had happened, with little luck. So he asked Kate.
"Ahh, sir. It is a delicate matter."
"Just explain it," Alex said, his voice showing annoyance.
Kate looked flustered. "Yes, master. You unfortunately have awakened your gift. A gift," she added with Alex's questioning look, "that your whole family have. It is a supernatural power. A power of manipulation. That means you can change the form of any matter within the world, change the memory and emotion of any living creature, change the way time flows and how the world lives."
Alex looked amused. "Essentially, I have the power to basically rule the world?"
Kate nodded. "Yes, in the basic terms. But do not go thinking you can change the past, master. Whilst you may be able to revert the timeline of the world, you cannot change the path the river of time flows. Everything that once was, will always be so."
"What has been written cannot be undone?" Alex looked solemn. The mention of time change had given him hope. He could go back, save Chloe... He could...
He fell to his knees, saddened and overtaken by grief. "Oh... Chloe..." He sobbed into his hands, his heart broken at the memory of her being murdered in front of him.
Kate hugged his shoulders lightly. "We can't bring her back. Not anymore."
Alex's eyes darkened. "But we can get the fucker who killed her," he growled, wiping his tears away. "We can get him, and destroy him." He grinned in a dark manner. Nothing would stop in his way to exact his revenge.
Alex got up, rising to his feet a man with a steeled heart. "Ok then, Kate, let's see how this works, shall we?"
Kate smiled. "My thoughts exactly, master. ------------------------ Kate lead her master down into an empty area of grassland. Her new master now, she supposed. After almost a hundred years, she had returned to serve the Corrinham family. It had certainly surprised her when she was called, and to serve a seventeen year old, no less. It was probably the first time that the bloodline of Train servants was to not serve an adult. It also surprised her then for her to revert back to her seventeen year old frame (all Train servants are put to their master's age at their time of calling for better synchronisation with the called master). However, rather than resenting it, she relished it. She had been watching Master for his whole life, and had insisted that she was to be chosen for his calling. But such a young age? The Train family would certainly look into this.
"So, Kate," said Alex as he approached a tree, and put his palm against the bark, "who else knows that I have this power?"
Kate turned to him for a moment, before continuing on. Alex jogged to catch up as she answered, "Of course, the Train family of servants know. And your family will know, too."
Alex suddenly remembered about his own parents. "Wait, what about mum and dad?!"
"Do not worry yourself, master. Your family have been contacted. They know of your situation at the moment. Please, master, we must continue if we are to get everything done by sunset. We have to leave, after all."
"What, why?"
Kate looked at him sadly. "You've been blamed for miss Chloe Denviere's death, master."
Alex looked crestfallen at Kate's words, but then he laughed. "Kehahaha! Of course they would. Blame the guy who exploded! Yeah, course I killed her. So, what? We're on the run?"
Kara grinned. "The Corrinham family have never really been recorded in history as the good guys."
"History is written by the victors," Alex muttered, hopping over a log. Kate nodded at that, but then looked solemn as she turned to him a few metres.
"Ok Alex, this should be fine. This is where we're gonna let you practise and-"
From out of nowhere, a couple appeared. It was, to Alex's complete shock and confusion, himself and another Kate. Both Kate's nodded at each other, then the original Kate spoke to Alex. "Don't mind them, they're just us from about a minute in the future. We'll be doing the same now, so don't worry."
"Uh... Ok," said both Alex's, who then looked at each other in one of the most weird moments of Alex's life.
"Alex, if you please?" said Kate. "Let's do time travel first. Ignore the two that appear, and let's carry on as normal, ok?"
Alex nodded. "You got it. So, how does this work?"
Kate held onto Alex's arm tightly. "As long as you know what time period, and where you want to be, you can move to that time. It's essentially willing it to happen."
Alex nodded. "Hold on."
In that instant, Alex activated the first of his powers; time control. It was one of the most unpleasant feelings, as if he was squeezed through a hole the size of a nostril. And for that matter, that was never meant to be nice.
Alex coughed as he landed onto the grass. It worked, it seemed. Because right there was the Alex from his past.
"Don't mind them, they're just us from about a minute in the future. We'll be doing the same now, so don't worry."
That was the other Kate. It was the exact wording, to the letter. This was seriously weird.
"Man, did we just do that?" Alex muttered to his Kate. The... present Kate.
"Yes. Just say Ok. Now."
"Uh... OK," said both Alex's at the same time, who then looked at each other. Then Alex realised why Kate wanted him to say that. As it had happened in HIS past, the same must therefore occur. Otherwise it'll mess up the timeline...
This was getting far too extraordinary for his liking.
At that, the past Alex and Kate disappeared into their past, therefore repeating the same actions. "C'mon, let's go. We must move onto the next power: thought manipulation. This can range from merely tapping into the thoughts of a living thing, to completely rewriting their memory and shaping them into another person! For now, let's just try reading thoughts. Now, to access the thought processor, it is widely regarded by your family was to imagine yourself in a corridor with many doors. Each door is labelled with a name. When you open one of these doors, you are granted access into that person's thoughts. Now, try it on me. I'll think of a number, and then you must give me the number that you see. Wanna give it a shot?"
Alex shrugged. "Might as well give it a shot." He let his mind go blank, and tried to imagine what Kate had suggested. But he couldn't get it. No matter how hard he tried... his mind wouldn't open.
"Master, it is tough thing to do at first, I know. But just clear your mind. Don't try to make your brain think of it, just..."
"...do it?"
Kate nodded with a small smile.
"Great." Alex let out a sigh, and tried again. Nothing seemed to come into his mind. But then...
A single door seemed to appear within his thoughts. A door labelled 'Kate Train - 4th reincarnation'. Alex approached the door, and opened it. Inside, he could see a light purple haze, filled with many images of Kate, both as an old woman and within her mid twenties. But there wasn't many of her as a teenager. He could also hear faint whispers, in Kate's voice.
"Twenty three thousand, four hundred and eleven, twenty three thousand, four hundred and eleven, twenty three thousand, four hundred and eleven..." It was the same number, repeated over and over.
23, 411.
Alex suddenly opened his eyes in shock. "Man... What in the world was that?"
"Purple haze, a heck-load of images, and you saw me in my late forties?" Kate asked, both embarrassed and bored. It was obvious that the purple haze wasn't something new to her.
"Yeah..."
"So, the number, Alex?"
"Twenty three thousand, four hundred and eleven, Kate," Alex answered immediately.
Kate seemed happy with that answer. "Ok, that's good enough for now. I'll show you how to change memory at another time. The memories in here are far too important to lose," she added, tapping the side of her head. Alex laughed.
"Ok, what's next?"
Kate looked up at the sky. "We should get moving. Time is moving faster than I thought."
"Why don't we just move back in time?" Alex asked.
"Seen another one of you yet?"
Alex shook his head.
"There's your answer. We can't do it because it won't happen. If we tried to go back now, it'll be impossible for the timeline to continue."
"Everything that once was must stay so," Alex said darkly.
"Indeed. So I think we'll leave the final part of your training for tomorrow. But for now... We should start to get going. Now."
"Lead the way, Kate!"
Change, Part 2 - I Have The Power! (No I Don't...) • Opuss № I