A/N: While I apologize for the long long wait, decided just going to go ahead and finish it. Enjoy!

Chapter 22

-Realization

Darkness, it was all solid darkness. Light crackling sounds invaded the void that captivated the owner's perception. Why couldn't he move? Nothing on his body responded, he tried to squeak, do something to see if he was even real. The memory faded, what was going on? Who was he? He just didn't remember anything.

"You surprise me, child." Came an elderly male voice in the distance.

He tried to move towards the sound, but still, this frozen realm left him reeling in confusion. What was this voice talking about?

"In all my years, I truly thought I knew you."

The voice, he finally pinpointed something, it was familiar.

Next to Chiro's lifeless body sat Mandarin, twiddling his purple claws while his tail threw another log on the fire. Red eyes reflected the dancing flames before dashing back to Chiro then back to the previous location. Confusion plastered all over his aged face, the clock of Yore blandly ticking around his neck. He ran a hand over the artifact.

Chiro finally started to come to, groaning in pain, gripping the burns on his stomach. He groaned out in pain, obviously his brain-computer starting to reboot itself.

Mandarin waited for the boy now monkey to respond, but when the minutes ticked, he sighed and made another attempt to rev up the conversation.

"You could've won this fight by letting my younger self die in that explosion. But you didn't, instead you… threw your life away for mine?"

Chiro's eyes shot open when recognizing Mandarin's older self, he tried to crawl backward, but the fresh wounds made the attempt futile. Dark hair standing on end, he drew his fangs forward in a desperate attempt to appear intimidating.

But Mandarin didn't even seem phased by the befuddled reaction.

"What… is wrong with you? I truly thought Antauri of all my brothers was the weakest one, in terms of showing mercy. But you… I just… can't understand. Why?"

Breathing in, Chiro willed himself to sit up and calm down. His enemy showed no sign of any aggression that he bore the past several weeks, so maybe it was okay. But better safe than sorry, Chiro kept a distance between them to keep a close eye on him.

"Why, well I—" Chiro paused, now stumped himself. "I have no idea why; I just knew you didn't deserve that."

Chiro glanced down to his body, the memory of hitting Shuggazoom's atmosphere in a ball of fire re-hit him. Glancing to the bandages mummifying his body, he threw a new perplexed look to Mandarin, even more, confused the longer he began to ponder the unthinkable.

"Speaking of confusion, I fell at nearly three hundred mph from space into the atmosphere, that projection speed should have killed me. Yet, here I am talking to you, mind explaining that?"

Mandarin sneered with a grumpy brow wrinkling his forehead.

"Probably the same reason you so stupidly saved me. I discovered you in the water and I just—guh, does not matter. The point being, we need to acknowledge the elephant in the room."

"Which is?"

"We ended up saving each other."

"Yea, and you suppose this could possibly mean?"

Mandarin snapped a death glare to the weak hero, shutting off any assumptions the boy might've made about him having a possible moral epiphany.

"I didn't save you to show any false sense of gratefulness, you're still a massive fool in my eyes. But this does lead to the questioning of the current situation." Grasping his clock of Yore, Mandarin darted his eyes back to Chiro's clock of Morrow.

"We still have the battle to finish."

Chiro's gut dropped as he grabbed the watch, hand rattling with intense anxiety. Mandarin rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"We both are in an awkward place, that much can be agreed upon. But do the past events that took place today, I find it only fair to allow you to return to my brothers."

"But if you're so willing to be honorable about this, why not just give me the artifacts and return us to a normal future?"

"Nice try, my hairless monkey, but as stated—we still have this to finish. So, here is how it's going to go." He got up, moving around the fire to face the chosen one more directly. "By moonrise tonight, I will allow you to return to the robot. But by dawn tomorrow our battle will continue."

"Okay…" Chiro nodded, hesitant to accept the monkey's attempt at the strange kindness. But seeing as Mandarin was willing to be reasonable, might as well take it while the opportunity was fresh.

"Deal, I guess."

"Believe me, I'm just as perplexed as you. But as soon as dawn comes around, today's events will be forgotten. This is the last chance I'm giving you, so you better brace yourself. For tomorrow, our futures' will be at stake. I'm not willing to give up my own destiny."

"Destiny?" Chiro sat up, eyes narrowing. "A destiny of destroying free will in all of Shuggazoom?"

"Yes, it is something that needs to be!"

"You call ruining the lives of everyone around you, your own family, destiny?" Tightening his fist, veins expanded around Chiro's eyes. "I swear Mandarin, the moment tomorrow begins, I'll be ready. If you think I'm going to passively let you win, you're mistaken."

"Now you show me a spine?" Mandarin laughed, wiping a tear from his eye. "Then tell me why, why did you fail to destroy me? You had two whole opportunities, one by murder and the other by simple abandonment. You tell me you're ready, but I have to ask..."

Mandarin moved around the chosen one, red eyes burning in the light of the fire. Tongue wagging eagerly behind his long-aged fangs, thirsty for a more verbal onslaught. But Chiro's blue eyes went downcast, fueling his anger even more.

"I have to ask... if you couldn't destroy me those times, what makes you think you'll stop me this time?"

A small smile crossed his burnt snout, running damaged metal fingers over his scorched helmet. Blue eyes glanced up, reflecting the angry red orbs of Mandarin's smoldering glare.

"Because I know... deep down, there is still some good in you."

Mandarin drew back at the unexpected words, eyes seeming to pop out of his face through internal befuddlement. Disbelief, anger, and shock—his look screamed all these things, Chiro couldn't figure out which was one dominant. But as quick as the shock came, it vanished behind the curtain of his usual dark scowl.

"Just get out of here, return to my brothers. Just know, I will show you no more mercy after this."

Picking up a bucket of water, Mandarin drenched the burning wood to flickering ashes. The darkness slowly climbed over him, pushing him further out of Chiro's sight. Red eyes still blaring back at those innocent blue ones, the stare with both sides on the opposite end of the extremes. One out of spite, the other out of hope.

Then as quick as it started, Mandarin vanished from sight. Leaving Chiro alone in the dark clutching the clock of Morrow, heart, and brain bantering back and forth over what to make of this turn of events. But one thing was clear, Mandarin did have some resolve, so maybe there was hope yet.

~With the Monkeys~

"Please, keep scanning," Antauri called out. His leg wrapped tightly in a cast with many medical bandages lining his head and back. Sweat poured down his sides with his lime-green eyes downcast with sheer worry.

"I'm trying my best," Otto called out while his fingers blurred over the keypads. "I can't pick up any trace of Chiro."

"I know he landed this way; I saw it," Antauri responded with a little more emotion he was willing to show.

This reaction, of course, not going unnoticed by his teammates, who were all used to his expert level of self-control. Otto nodded and ignored the fear in his second in command's voice, it was hard enough keeping himself together as worry also weighed fiercely on his heart.

Young Mandarin sat in a medical tank, neo chips and other medical handed machines operating swiftly on him. Despite the excessive damage on his chest, tail, and face; his overall health was okay. Which shocked Gibson when he examined the ship wreckage from miles away.

"No one should've survived that," Gibson whispered over and over to himself. The wreck was beyond disbelief, but Mandarin was in on Piece? He pressed a confused palm to his blue helmet. This mystery would have to be explored later. Right now, all that was on his mind was finding their young friend.

"Hey guys," Nova suddenly shouted, alerting all the males. "I got something! Right down there on the outskirts, a faded life form!"

"Head down there as quick as we can, I sense Chiro nearby," Antauri ordered with a firm hand gripping his leg cast. By the power primate… how he prayed Chiro was okay, or at the very least in one piece.

~TO BE CONTINUED