Chapter. 62

Vincent woke up surrounded by darkness raising his hand to his head he saw it were covered in blood. Vincent stood up to find he was standing a pool of blood, Vincent backed away from it but the pool grew larger and deeper. In the blink of an eye the blood was everywhere and rise to his ankles.

"What is this?"

"What I want. What you used to want."

Vincent looked around for the voice. "You're that voice. Who are you?"

"You know, so why ask?"

"If I did, I wouldn't be asking. Now talk."

"Who were you before?"

"What? Ahhh!" Vincent dropped to his knees and held his head.

"YOU KNOW WHAT! BEFORE IT ALL HAPPENED!"

"Before... Brain Burst?" Vincent's head stopped hurting.

"Yes. Who were you before?"

"I don't understand the question."

In the darkness an image appear of Vincent sitting at his deck studying, the clock beside him read two in the morning. "You were motivated." Another appeared of Vincent practicing with his fencing sword, sweat running down his face and hands. "You were driven." A final image appeared of Vincent striking down someone on the fencing team. "You had a goal. To be better then everyone else. To let no one stand in your way to the top."

Vincent turned away from the images. "I was also alone."

"Being alone is the price of being the best. It's what you want, or you used to want." An image in the blood showed Vincent his friends. "They made you weak."

Vincent kicked the blood to dissipate the image. "Where are you Catherine! What is this? Some program to fuck with me?"

"No. No Catherine. No one else. Just us." A pillar of blood rose from the pool then fell back down, revealing Vincent's avatar. "You and me."

"What are you?"

"I'm you."

"Bullshit."

"I'm the real you. The one before Brain Burst. The one with drive." The avatar held up its blast and pointed it at Vincent. "The one willing to fight!" Vincent dove into the blood to evade a laser bolt. "The one willing to kill!" Vincent pushed himself back up and ran to dodge more lasers. "I'm the one you tried to forget!"

"Stop shooting at me and tell me what you want!"

"I want my life back!" The avatar drew its sword. "Before Brain Burst, before you took associating with parasites!"

"Those parasites are my friends!"

"Those parasites are making you weak, deep down you know it too." The avatar held up its sword at Vincent. "How much have you been studying since they came into your world, taking your time. You only train at practice, what happened to the man who trained until his arms burned, then kept going?"

"I got a life!"

"You became just like everyone else!" The avatar ran towards Vincent and swung its sword. Vincent ducked under the sword and dove away. "A parasite. Lyle, he tells you to control your anger, letting people walk all over you. Look at him, he let's Corina control him. Now Rebecca is going to do the same to you. She'll control you, make you weaker, use you up then leave you."

"So what do you want? Me to go back to who I was? That asshole snapping at everyone? I'm not going back to that." Vincent stood up and placed his hand on his chest. "I feel better now. I'm not always angry, my head doesn't hurt all the time. I have friends with me now, people I'm willing to fight for." Vincent stepped back and put up his fist. "And if you want to take that away from me then you're gonna have to fight for it."

"That's the idea."

The avatar swung its sword, Vincent ducked under the blade and punched the avatar in the chest. "AH!" Vincent stepped back covering his fist.

The avatar grabbed Vincent by his neck. "Did you really think you could punch metal?"

Vincent slammed his arm on the avatar's elbow to bend its arm. When the avatar let go Vincent gabbed its arm and placed it over his shoulder to threw it into the ground. The avatar dropped its sword and Vincent scooped up. "Now what dickhead?"

The pushed itself up. "You're strong, but you can still be stronger." Vincent kept his sword pointed at the avatar. "When you get angry you start to give into the incarnate system. It let's you bend the world to your will, it's the power of a god."

"You're starting to sound like Catherine."

"Because she's right. Deep down you know it. But to be truly strong we have to cut away the parasites, only when we threw away everything are we really free to do anything."

"That's not true. It can't be."

"If it wasn't then why am I here telling it to you?"

"Because you're the 'what if' everything thinks about. What if I did that or what if I said this. Dwelling on the past won't get me anywhere."

"But it's reflecting on the past that guides our future. When you fought Onyx, couldn't you feel it? You were growing stronger because you were losing yourself to the incarnate system. Negative emotions are stronger then positive. Look at yourself, Every time you try to use positive emotions it's not strong enough so you go back to the negative." The avatar steps closer to Vincent. "So why fight it? Just fully give in to it. The only reason you won't isn't because you truly think positive is better, you're doing it just to spite Catherine. You just don't want to give her the satisfaction that she's right-"

"SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Vincent swung his sword at the avatar who blocked with its blaster. "I'm trying, alright! You're not me, you're just some ugly thoughts from some dark corner of my mind! I don't want power just to have it, what's the point then? Just to get more?"

"You're just saying that because you've scared. Scared of what you've tasted." The avatar shoved Vincent away. "Let me show you." Blood swirled around the avatar then rose up as a pillar. The blood spun around the avatar then shattered.

Vincent rised his arm to block the blood from getting in his eyes, then he saw it. The avatar grew twice as big and stood hunched over, its left arm became a greatsword and its blaster fused with its right arm to become a large cannon. The avatar swung its greatsword at Vincent.

Vincent held up his sword to block but the force still knocked him down, Vincent stayed down to evade the laser flying over him. "This is it! This is real power!"

Vincent pushed himself up. "You've become a monster!"

"If that's what it takes to be strong." The avatar plunged its sword into Vincent's chest. The avatar lifted Vincent up and pulled him closer. "I'm the anger that drives you. Anytime you fight, anytime you want use the incarnate system, I'll be there to take the lead."

"You're strong, but not... Smart." Vincent thrusted his sword into the avatar's head. "Get out of my head. I'm not that person anymore."

Vincent and the avatar fell to their knees and dropped into the blood pool, their own becoming apart of it.

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