Prince of Persia: The Old Man and Fate

by Majic 7 P-o-P

The period between The Sands of Time, and Warrior Within are a mystery to most gamers who have played, what led the Prince to the warriors path, that once he had shunned. Well the anwsers to me have always seemed obvious, this is my version derived from f

Words of the prince to the most trusted of his men.

"Every Action has consequence. This truth was apparent in my fight against the evil Vizier. My struggle against the horror I created because of my trusting ignorant nature as a child, has left me with a very important lesson of life. Death is sudden, quick, uncontrollable, but time. Time is predictable, easily manipulated. Completely and utterly controllable, and yet the two work together in painful unison. This is truth that holds what I thought would lead to the answer to all of life riddles, and yet by the sight of the old man I know now my fate, my death.

So death has caught up with me! It is written that my life must end death is after me. Well, death will have to keep up! It has lost an ally and gained and enemy, for time is mine!"

My life after my deadly encounter with the sands of time has left my psyche in shambles. Yes, once I drove the dagger into the top of the hourglass I gained back all I had lost and set right all the wrongs. Yet that fact didn't quell my nightmares, or dim the screams in my head. I had seen things no other had and only I had memory of it. Men turning to monstrosities, my father, all those women, children, and in my struggle I struck them all down. Mercilessly, disintegrating them to the dust they had become.

Battle was never good for the mind of a man. This is a lesson I learned from the start. I see it in my father's soldiers, the nervous glances and shaking hands. Yet mine seems much worse, the nightmares are almost real.

As I awoke in the night, shaking in sweat soaked sheets, I felt as if I should be dead, as if I should have died long ago. So it is that I have spent many nights awake pondering over the decisions in my life. The stupidity of my childhood, the trusting nature I had so eagerly embraced, and all the while vowing to never be that naive again.

It was then that the beast came, a dark shadow that loomed over me, as if death itself sought to be by my side. My late night walks took my mind and spirit to places to dark for even a killer imagine. I felt the beast stalking just out of the corner of my eye its great bulking mass taunted my every waking hour.

So I began my training as a means of occupying my time, a way to hide. All the while growing stronger, faster, deadlier. Wars and battles claimed my innocence. Time passed and the shadow became my obsession coxing me to train harder to learn not the art of a warrior, but death. Strange sensations flowed though out my increasingly tortured soul, and I felt weakened.

Then one night as I lay in bed searching the shadows outward of my balcony. Strange news came to my father, news of the Old Man. I could not believe he was still alive after all these years. The last I or my father had heard of him, "was… was before we took that faithless trip to Azad!" I knew then that I had to see the Old Man there was a bond between him, my fate, and Allah help me, the death shroud I felt breathing down my neck. All three intertwined forming into some great web.

I pondered the rest of that night of what I would find in the middle of the great web that was my life. Several times I decided to go to the old man and several more I decided not to. In the end just as I lay down to try and find a moment of peaceful slumber I found that my life had been wrought with danger, "what could an old man do that the sands of time could not?" It was because I could not find an answer to this question that I set of to find the old man and get the answer from him….

Blood flew in the air like a flock of birds spooked from their perches. Men surrounded me in all quarters protecting me from what lie just feet away, on the stern of the ship its great mass rising, death reborn. Tearing my fellow shipmates to pieces! In my younger days the mangled mass of broken and bloodied corpse might have made my stomach turn and caused my heart to race but now they affected me no more than broken branches that crossed my path. A cool chill ran the length of my spine, a twinge a tingle, the chill of fearlessness. The night was hot, and humid on the cool seawater. Clouds covered the sky, no rain fell but lightning ripped through. Flashing the creature's featureless face in the dark. Giving the men glimpses into their own deaths every time the booming sound of thunder rang in their ears.

I on the other hand was ecstatic! The shadow that had loomed over my head for years, that tortured my mind from the inside out. Lay just but a few feet in front of me. It possessed the power of death, but I had complete control of time. "Time to rid myself of this skulking beast!" My feet knew no equal in speed this night. I leapt into the air using the backs of my men as platforms to catapult myself even higher, low rigging of the ships sails came close, and I grabbed on tight to the tense rope. A half spin and my sword cut though the begging ropes weave, and all at once the dropping of the furthermost sail propelled me forward! The air whipped past, and I slammed into my stalker! Sword held straight out I thrust it forward, and I felt the sliding of my blade as it delved deep into the shadows flesh. I laughed in ecstasy. Then caught myself. "Too easy." I leapt back just as a massive head slammed down into the deck shattering the wood into chips, leaving my sword deep in the shadows chest. The force of the quake took my sure feet for a spin, but they found themselves and in turn a sword. The shadows arm swung out swiping for my head, I ducked then with a snap of my ankle and kick of my leg the sword at my feet shot up and sliced all the way through the shadows wrist. Light reflected off the tip of the blade where the blood had flowed down off the metal, but the rest of the blade was an unnoticeable shadow, covered in blood. I gripped the blade and ripped it from the shadows arm, then spun out of the way as another massive hand flew towards me and gripped my other sword, dug deep in its chest. I ripped them out with the ferocity of a tiger that had not been fed for weeks. A smile crossed my lips. I felt the shadows pain as they exited his a cursed body. The arm was wide but I managed to swing myself into a standing position on its shoulders. I brought my blades down with the fury of twenty men, slashing and stabbing at every limb in sight, arms neck, head, chest, back! In moments I tore the shadow down! The men on the ship stood still, mouths gaping as my blood soaked armor glinted just faintly under the moon of the night. Cheers arouse, course and frightened. I turned thinking to take a good look at my stalker to finally give the shadow a face. I turned and the gasps from the men were so sharp and full of fear I felt them stab into my back like daggers. A mighty grip tightened on my throat. The shadow was alive, and it had me. I fought ferociously for what seemed a long time. Kicking, slashing, doing anything I could to free myself. Until I could feel my limbs no longer, they became numb and useless. I had a moment then when my thoughts finally became my only defense of the shadows monstrous grip. My mind the only thing keeping me alive. Somewhere in my random thought bursts, and lapses. My men came to mind. The men I so trusted. The closest of my friends had not lifted a finger to help me. I called to them cursing their names, and it was with a gut wrenching horror that I realized they were all dead, no longer recognizable. The pieces of their bodies were spread everywhere. The despair I had hidden from, the pain I felt deep in my soul, no doubt a pain that was put there by the shadow that now gripped me in its unrelenting grasp. Sprung forward, and hit me with a pain that any experience of death could never bring. I felt my mind slipping. I gave in, and death took me.

I awoke from my dreams.

Oh, did I say dreams. Sorry, I meant from my nightmares in the death of night, shaking, spooked. Every sound wrenched at my ears until I was ready to pull them off. Every shadow leapt from the wall and it was all I could do not to leap from my bed and slash at everything in sight. I walked the halls of my quarters for the remainder of the night, looking out my high windows every time I passed. Looking to the heavens for an answer. Morning came but an answer did not. "What could an old man do that the sands of time could not?" I hesitated for only a moment my night getting the best of me, but in the end I knew the outcome would not be as it had in my dreams. For I was the son of a mighty king of Persia, with the ability to control time itself. I had defied fate once already in my struggles against the Vizier. I would do the same now, just as before. I marched into my father's quarters, and requested a ship be made ready to make voyage. My father was skeptical at first. "I go to see the Old Man." And that was all it took. My ship would be ready by morning…

"It is written that my life must end." Said the prince with a sharp twinkle in his eye. "Death is after me." His friends fear stricken face glanced only for a moment and found the prince's quick smirk. Then watched as fear in all its forms was ripped from the prince's bright blue eyes. "Well, death will have to keep up. It has lost an ally and gained an enemy, for time is mine!"