Chapter 119: Xander The Great (2)
Sora stood alone in his spell, amazed how everyone and everything looked exactly the same, just nothing ever moved. It was silent and everything looked picturesque. He decided to take a walk. He needed time to process what happened. He grabbed his cell phone to check the date.
"Holy shit. One year and four months passed?! Why the hell did I get so angry?" He screamed, tears falling from his eyes.
He channeled his anger to try to manipulate ’eye of Chronos’ spells. He wanted to turn back the time Xander lost control of. Nothing worked. He walked to where he killed Tesarion and shook his head shamefully.
"I tortured him, cut him limb by limb while tricking him into believing he was winning the war. Maybe I am capable of destroying a planet." Sora muttered to himself.
"I’m no better than Azazel, Helen or Eris. I absorbed his powerful lifeforce like they do. No wonder Xander thought I was a monster."
Sora didn’t want to see Tesarion’s rotting bones anymore, so he walked to his party to pay respect to Luna.
"They’re all praying for Luna and honoring her death while I’m torturing someone. Luna, thank you so much for saving my wife’s life. I’m sorry you passed away so young. I hope you’re resting in Paradise. You were my only friend growing up and you will be missed dearly."
He took his time walking back to his wife and child. "I knew Xander wouldn’t break out of my spell this time and I’m glad he didn’t."
Depression replaced his anger when he saw Xander’s frozen smile and Brie’s loving eyes staring at him as she went to pick him up.
’I really need to clear my head,’ he thought.
After walking about 100 feet, he turned, looked at their still bodies and smiled. He sat down, facing the opposite direction and meditated. Unfortunately, he couldn’t calm his mind.
’The Pantheon... Chronos said the Pantheon reviewed my file and needed my assistance. Why did they choose me? All I’ve done is fail repeatedly. I’ve missed obvious things and it’s cost us dearly.’ Sora thought as his depression deepened to the point where he started crying again. ’I let them power me up and told myself I’d always be in control now that I don’t have a system. What would have happened if I had the system? Would I have destroyed Exteria today?’
He put his hands in his face as he began sobbing uncontrollably. He tried to focus on taking deep breaths to calm down, but his mind spiraled. He was so lost in thought he failed to realize Xander broke free from his time stop again.
Xander approached his dad slowly and put his hand on his shoulder while infusing calming magic to try to help.
"Are you ok dada?"
"Hey buddy!" Sora said as he felt his body relaxing. "I’m so sorry Xander–"
"Dada it’s ok, I’m not scared anymore," Xander interrupted.
"Well, I’m glad you’re not scared anymore." He said, wiping his silver tears away.
"I love you and I’m very upset with myself that I acted the way I did. You shouldn’t have had to see your dada behave like that. You’re a great kid and you have a great Mother."
"I have a great dada too." Xander said cheerfully.
Sora finally smiled. "Thanks buddy. How are you doing?"
"Better. You don’t look evil anymore. You just look sad." His voice was slightly deeper and more articulate.
"Happy belated first and second birthday. I’m sorry I forced you to lose out on two years of your life trying to stop me. You’re taller, more muscular and look more like your beautiful Mama every day."
"Thanks. You owe me two presents!" Xander shrugged and smiled.
Sora laughed. "I think we all owe you a lot more than that. Now that you’re older, do you think you could try to explain how your ability to sense people’s emotions and if they are a good or bad person works?"
"I’ve always just known. Since I was a baby, I remember seeing colors inside of people." Xander said with a smile.
"You have a dark blue color swirling rapidly around your brain and a faint golden color floating around inside the rest of your body right now dada. Earlier, you had a dark red color swirling around your brain and dark purple color floating inside the rest of your body. People’s brain colors change all the time but the color in their bodies stays the same. You’re the only person whose body color switched, that’s why I said you’re a bad guy."
Sora walked up to Xander and gave him a big hug. Xander hugged him back, squeezing him tightly.
"Now your brain is green, which makes me think you’re happy. I’m not sure I have all the colors right. There’s so many and so many shades. Maybe you and mama can help me figure that out."
"I am happy Xander. I’m glad you’re able to forgive me for being a jerk. I wasn’t always a god. You should ask your mama about it, she’d be able to tell the story better," Sora said with a gentle smile.
"Now your head is pink. Does that mean you love mama?"
"That means I love both of you," Sora said and thought ’Eye of Chronos: Brie and Xander Lockheart and myself.’
"Mama!" Xander exclaimed as Brie began moving again.
"Mama’s head is orange. I don’t know what orange means."
"Orange? Sora what’s going on? Why is Xander half a foot taller and why does it feel way warmer?"
Xander interjected, "Now it’s yellow and dada’s is purple."
"We will help you buddy. Mine is purple because I’m nervous."
"Aw, sweetie, colors is how your ability works! That’s amazing! We can help you figure them out. I was surprised when you saw orange."
"Ok. Purple is nervous and orange is surprised. Go ahead dada, tell mama what happened."
"When Luna sacrificed herself, I didn’t see Luna on the sword, I saw you. I snapped after she passed away. The party started praying for her, I used my time ability to freeze time for everyone but Tesarion and myself. I forgot Xander could break free of my spell and he told me I wasn’t his dada and he lost control of time trying to help out. He said could only sense evil souls in this space." Sora sighed. "
"Time’s been frozen for a year and four months. We missed our anniversary, both of our birthdays and two of Xander’s birthdays. I’m really sorry."
Xander noticed Brie’s emotions swirling around her brain changing from red, yellow, purple, back to red, purple, yellow and it finally stopped in blue.
"Mama, I know you were mad because your head had red swirling in it, then it was yellow. It kept changing back and forth between purple yellow and red but always had blue swirling with the other colors. Now it’s just blue, which means you’re sad. Please don’t be mad at dada. You love each other too much to be mad. What else were you feeling?"
Brie stood in shock and didn’t know how to respond.
"Your head’s yellow again mama."
"I"m confused, that’s why it’s yellow. I’m not mad at your Dada, I’m sad about this entire situation and how Luna had to save me because I wasn’t paying attention to where Tesarion was. I’ll be ok sweetie, I love you!"
"Well, now you have a mix of green and pink. So does Dada. That makes me happy."
Brie and Sora smiled while they hugged Xander together.
"Well, I think it’s time we bring everyone back. We have a lot to explain." Sora said nervously.
"Xander, I’m sorry we put you through this. Maybe we should have reconsidered having you fight in the battle. We know you’re strong, but I’m worried you’ll lose control of time again. Sora, remember what Athena suggested?"
"I’m sorry babe we’re not doing that. I trust Athena, but I think we’re better off seeing other planets and ensuring Exteria remains safe."
Brie thought for a minute before she smiled.
"You’re right! That way we won’t be separated from our party all the time, either!"
"I’m sure Azazel will be back and ready for a fight. They had a two year deadline and that’s about a month away now." Sora said with worried eyes.
"Mama, Dada... I’m really tired..." Xander said as he fell to the ground sound asleep.
"Sora... what’s going on–" Brie said as she also couldn’t stay awake any longer.
Sora fought against the overwhelming sensation that tried to put him to sleep.
"What three gods are trying to meet us..." he muttered before collapsing to the ground.
The rest of the world started moving again.
