Chapter 10: Chance's Vision (written from June 28, 2015 to June 29, 2015)
That night, seemingly like any other night was quite different to the Alpha known as Chance. In his dreams, devastation plagued his mind like an addiction. Everywhere, his father's legacy was profoundly torturing him, conveying thoughts of perhaps illogical justification. Stone was in him; in his blood. He was unsure if what he was doing was avenging his father or solely fulfilling his inherited aspiration to grab power over others. But again... What did he know about anything?
"Oh, Chance... You are something..." The echoing voice in his head grew louder as it became more familiar. The rented den he was sleeping began to feel disturbing as if he felt that something or someone was entering as an apparition. Sure enough, the ghost revealed himself. To Chance, it was unsurprising. He practically expected who it was to come to him in this way. But the ghost was unhappy of being foreseen, so he represented an extremely darker image that the Alpha feared.
"Oh, Chance... Why do you fight me? Am I not your father?" he asked after grabbing his son's muzzle with his ghostly right front paw.
"You are," answered Chance, his body sweating in impossible places.
"You are right to fear my presence," his father replied. "You know I'm not dead; that I am more alive than I have ever been. My physical body may have ceased, but my blood; my mind; my legacy lives in you. Isn't that why you find it kind of haunting? Well, maybe Sarah can lighten the mood. Sarah?" he called out across the den. The other entity appeared to his left, opposite of Sarah. She too grabbed his muzzle.
"Hello handsome," she flirted. "Aww, isn't he cute Stone? His heart rate increased even more as soon as he knew it was me." She came closer. "So predictable and pathetic. It's ironic how vulnerable you become once your weaknesses are into play."
"W-w-weaknesses?" Chance was starting to realize it.
"Oh, yes." His father nodded. "Everyone has a weakness. It's how complex societies to individuals like me eventually fall. And that is why me and Sarah are here. To rid your weaknesses, so you can finish what I have started. You are are smarter than most. You won't necessarily make the same mistakes as I and Rhys have. And it is that very reason why me and Sarah must exploit and kill every single last distracting urge in your body."
"How do I know you're not one of the distracting urges?" Sarah slightly bit Chance in the neck, causing a slew of different types of pain shoved up his spine.
"Fool! It took a distracting urge to ask me that stupid question! Now you face the consequences!" The Alpha screamed of agonizing, mind-destroying pain; not just physical but emotional pain too. The cave disappeared from under his paws and it appeared that Stone and Sarah were taking a tour through Chance's memories to remind him of examples of pain from the past To justify the reason to wage war on the United Regions for his son to do his revenge, Stone was using the age-old tool of making so-called reasonable excuses to persuade him, sometimes even stretching the truth if needed. Extremism ran through his veins and its overcoming factor dominated his personal goals. There was nothing he could do now. Stone was in control despite Chance 's other half continuing to fight on. But that was why Stone was in his mind, to destroy his other half, his passionate side, his mercy, his conscience. That was all he wanted. And that was all it would take to be unstoppable.
Sarah was the ghostly Stone's creation. She was female for a reason. She was made as substitute to keep Chance satisfied with his most enduring of biological urges; the desire to mate, especially at this age. Like Sarah had demonstrated, love was the only thing that had a real possibility of getting in the way of Chance's mission. But it was just one of the many things "Stone" had to keep in the check in order to stay in control. In reality, it wasn't actually Stone at all.
Essentially, what was happening was that the legacy and inherited traits of Stone in Chance was resulting in his mind being self-manipulated to where Stone's extremism and justification to get immense power even if needed by means of stopping anyone in his way was dominating his true personality. Believe or not, Chance did have the qualities of a loving and kind wolf. They were just not being expressed. His younger siblings, Kris and Jane had the same issue, however they did after awhile come to their senses, somehow able to counteract Stone's inherited qualities. But how is that possible if all pups get an equal share of their parents' traits? The answer lies in Chance's puppyhood. He was the first-born of the litter, coming into the world not breathing for almost a few minutes, close to death and had a deformity where he was missing his left dewclaw, a small unnecessary digit whose only known purpose is to assist with digging. As first-born with all these setbacks, training under his father was more intense than his only Alpha brother, Kris even though Kris was missing an eye. Things heated up even more after their first hunt where Chance suffered a major injury to his upper jaw and was selected by Stone as the successor to his pack. These things were probably the reason why Chance couldn't fight his Stone-influenced mind like his siblings; he was just exposed to his father too much. And as a direct result, he is where he is at tonight; vulnerable to his father's lies which now have manifested into his ghostly vision.
"I'm sorry, father," Chance whispered unintentionally. He felt so weak. Or at least a certain side of him did. The personal battle in his mind had ended with his father on top.
"It's okay, son. I'm only doing this because I love you, and I want what's best for you." Stone came and hugged him. His son hugged back. "I want to you live in my world but with the Grand Pack there, it is impossible to be happy, especially with what they did to us." Stone showed Chance the memories of the Grand Pack attacking Stone's Pack like the Battle of the Strip and the Battle of Truth. What he did not show which was intentional was all the many times Stone had his sons and assassins raid the Grand Pack, stealing their food and killing important Alphas which would justify why the Grand Pack and her ally, the Southern Alliance was attacking them. "Son, you know I'd never lie to you, right?"
"You never have, now that I think of it."
"Right. So don't lie to me when I ask: do you want to conquer Jasper? To have it all at your paws? To have a family line where you and them can live forever in peace and in doing so avenging your old wolf so I may not die in vain?"
"Yes...Yes, of course!"
"I knew you wouldn't let me down, son," he snickered. "Tell me: what exactly do you plan to carry it out?"
"Well, father. I thought I would try to destroy the pack from the inside out. You know, kind of like what you were doing, stealing their food and killing there citizens one by one. Afterwards, I would gain control by force and unify all the Regions under me. So far, I've been improvising.
"No, no, no, son. You need to stop."
"What?"
"Yes! If there's anything I've learned from my death, it's that you should learn from your mistakes. If raiding the pack didn't work for me, chances are it's not going to work for you."
"What do you want me to do then?"
"Something kind of different, but more effective. I do like your idea of killing the pack from the inside out and unifying all packs, but instead of doing it by primarily killing wolves, do it... politically..."
"Huh? I don't follow?"
"It's simple. All you need to do is convince the pack that you are better than the current pack leader. If you remember from the history I have taught you, the highest political body in the United Regions is the Constitutional Committee at the Central Region whose main job is to make sure unrest and political instability is eradicated; basically they try to make everyone happy while also keeping old wolf traditions and hierarchies alive even if it's supported or not. That is why they were created at the end of the War of the Divide. And the way they work sometimes is democratically; if a lot of wolves, like a lot feel that something needs to be changed, something will in this case a pack leader. Now, they have never kicked a pack leader out before but what I'm saying is it's possible."
"I think I get it. You want me to get the support of the pack's citizens over the current pack leader so that the Constitutional Committee would have no choice but to give me the position to sustain peace. At that point, I could do almost whatever I want. But it would still be next to impossible to convince the other packs to unify with me."
"Ahh, Chance. This is why you need stronger allies," said Sarah. "Let's face it, that squirrel of yours isn't going to be much of a help in conquering the Regions."
"Well, there's not many wolves that are strong enough to infiltrate the Grand Pack. They are extremely advanced for a pack."
"Think about it, genius." She sat next to him. "Remember what you told me during that super-real dream many days ago before you decided to come back to Jasper? You told me that in Banff there was a notorious all-Alpha pack that share a common enemy with you and Stone."
"The King Pack?"
"Yes," agreed his father. "After you come into power, ally yourself with King from Banff. His all-Alpha will protect you and enforce anything you or him may want. From there, you can use his strong Alphas to kill the Constitutional Committee and leave the United Regions in chaos. And just like how you used popular demand to get into power, you use it again to drive the other packs like the Southerners and the Northerners into your jurisdiction. If they refuse, show them the consequences of their actions. Then, finally we have our dream pack; a large unified state in the valley which will be the strongest pack in possibly the whole world. We could have the power do whatever we want, and nobody could stand in our way."
"Wow... You mean it?"
"Of course, of course, son. It will be glorious. We should be happy that we live in this pivotal moment in the history of our species!"
"You're right! But it won't be easy. I won't be surprised if I meet a few bumps in the trail."
"Yes. Very true. Speaking of a few bumps, I must tell you something..."
"What is it?"
"Do you truly want to make me proud?"
"Yes! Certainly!"
"Well... to do so all you have to do is do a few errands for me."
"Which are...?"
"Once you get into power and have the other packs pouring into your jurisdiction, I want you to go to the Southern Alliance and kill anyone who is related or helping my number one enemy, Stormfast... including your mother..."
"My mother? Isn't she pregnant?"
"Yes, but she has betrayed us all and deserves to perish. Do not hesitate..."
"I understand..."
"Once you're done with that, kill Stormfast at all costs... His death will finally bring me out of vain. Do not fail my son... or a million Hells await you..."
"Yes, sir... I will kill Stormfast... at the first chance I get..." Stone snickered again.
"That's my son..."
Next: Chapter 11: Wolves and Bears