List of Music :
Élan - Nightwish
Deja vu - Iron Maiden
Edge of the Blade - Epica
Chapter 12
"Make every hour of your life wonderful.
The slightest gesture you do is a future memory. "
Claude Aveline
If you asked someone to explain how a metalhead/nerd cosplaying Neo with a manga-style haircut and a pentacle was in the bedroom, with a Disney's Princess delighted to see him, the reaction of the interviewee would certainly be a long silence, frozen on the spot, before getting up from his chair to leave the room, throwing a last worried look behind him to be sure he wasn't followed.
But for Steven's mind, the exit door was simply non-existent. He was obliged to accept this situation, as impossible and ridiculous as it was.
After remaining a long moment with a frozen face of beatitude, the princess with reddish quilts, more and more intrigued before this statue to madness, finally cautiously ask her.
"Are you okay?"
These anxious words pushed the Reset button the brain of the Otaku, who stammered, a little lost.
"Uh ... Yeah ... I'm okay ... I think."
Anna smiled again and stared at the geek, eager to find out how he would react. The young man with the long coat took a moment to think carefully about his next words.
"Oooook ... he ends up trying. Even if it always seems a little odd, we'll assume that this story, which would have been perfect for a Terry Pratchett's book, is true and that I actually lost the memory of the time passed here.
The girl widen her smile on hearing these words. The geek added.
"So if I understood correctly, we played a lot together?"
"That's it! She confirmed. You've told me all the middle earth's stories, from the Silmarillion to the Lord of the Rings, we did Roleplaying Games, and you taught me this song and even helped me to talk again with Elsa, my sister. "
'Elsa? Thought the geek. Isn't it the name of the girl who controls the ice which all the six-year-old girls cosplay? '
Anna continued.
"So she and I were waiting for your return with impatience."
The face of the young girl seemed gradually marked by melancholy.
"But you never came back, we waited for you saying every day there was a chance for you to come and see us tomorrow... But the more time went by ... and the more we despaired."
Anna's annoyed voice sadden Steven. Not because she seemed familiar. But because he could see that what she remembered saddened her enormously. His disappearance had deeply overshadowed her.
"I kept hope as long as possible ... But Elsa eventually declared that she had to think about something else and ... and even say you abandoned us and ..."
The geek felt worse by seeing her. He wanted to stop her but she added with a sigh, her eyes low and hands stroking her pentacle with sky-blue stones.
"We even got into a bit of a fight because we did not talk to each other for a while, we ended up talking again, but it became rarer. As if ... we had come back to how we were before you arrived ... In a sense ... As if you had never existed, that all this had been a dream. "
These words would have seemed deeply ironic to the geek if the weight on his heart was not as unbearable. Despite his doubts, he felt ill hearing this. He felt deeply responsible.
Seeing the low face of the princess, the geek did not know what to do. He tried, with a voice crushed by an unknown remorse.
"Listen ... I ... I really do not remember what you're talking about but ... If it was really me then ... I'm really sorry."
The girl emerged from her obscure thoughts, looking up at Steven, who in turn seemed to be plunged into deep torments.
"Maybe I had a valid reason for not coming back but ... even that I do not remember, and it does not change anything you've experienced ... So ... For what it's worth ... I'm really , really sorry. "
Anna was surprised to see her guardian angel like this. But she felt a strange form of relief, and even gratitude, hearing these words. Even though he did not remember anything, Steven did not like the thought of hurting her. For Anna, it was something very precious. As before, she felt in his voice how sincere he was. It was enough for her.
Without warning, she hugged the geek, which stretched itself with surprise and confusion. That was the last thing he expected.
Anna said with a soft voice.
"I forgive you. You came back."
The geek did not know how to react. He remained still while the eccentric princess remained hugging him like a little girl with a giant teddy bear. But the longer it lasted, the more it bothered him. He then declared with embarrassment.
"Well ... At least that explains why you know Élan."
This time, it was the redhead with white stroke that was confused. She released the metalhead and pronounced, not understanding anything.
"What?"
"What what ? "
"What is Élan?"
Steven passed in the blink of an eye from confusion to dismay.
"It's the song you sang before."
Anna seemed even more lost.
"Well, I didn't know."
"What?"
"You never told me its name. You just made me listen it and I learned it by heart."
"How can I have taught you a Nightwish's song without telling you it's name ?!"
"Who?"
Steven seemed even more bewildered than before, as if he had discovered the most supernatural thing in his life, stranger than discovering himself in a Disney's castle or able to teleport himself.
"Wait...That you're not used to this kind of music, I can understand, but now you're dragging your foot!"
"Hey, you never told me its name!"
"It would surprise me, unless if I had a very good reason, like a big hard drive bug, that's the kind of detail we give at least out of respect for the band, maybe you need repairs."
"And I tell you you never told me that." Insisted the redhead with a white strand, badly irritated.
Steven realized she was a little nervous. After what she had told him, and considering the situation, he thought that getting angry for this kind of detail was useless. What was the point of envenoming their supposed reunion?
"Okay," said the geek, "I never told you these details."
Anna ended up relaxing. Steven then added, poking a pocket of his jeans.
"But in that case, we must correct this immediately."
He then pulled out a rectangular gadget wrapped in white cables, which suddenly surprised the girl before a memory sprang from the depths of her memory in a burst of happiness. She was exultant.
"It's your weird device to listen to music?!"
"Yeah, that's my MusicPlayer-3."
The metalhead unrolled the headphones of his MP-3 while explaining to his (probably) new knowledge.
"The song I apparently made you listen is named 'Élan'. It was composed by a band called Nightwish, with their third singer: Floor Jansen."
He gave the headphones to the princess and asked her.
"If you like this band, I can make you discover some other songs. Do you want to?"
Anna was so delighted when she heard this proposal that she did not realize at all how much what she was going to say could have led to confusion.
"Yes, I do!"
"Well, in that case, put on these headphones."
Fortunately for them, Anna was with the most professional nerd-metalhead in history. He had not even paid attention to what she had just said.
"I'm going to put the most famous ones, starting from the Tarja years, but luckily I loaded my MP-3 before going to bed, but learning them is probably for the next time, if there's a next time. As I do not have Electro's powers, I'll have to manage my battery properly."
Even though she couldn't understand what he was talking about, the girl tried to be sociable by asking.
"Um ... You think you will be able to do it?"
Steven smirked.
"Anna, I correctly managed my stamina on all the Dark Souls, so this..."
The princess contented herself with accepting this incomprehensible reply. She reminded herself that it was better not to try to understand all that was saying the nerd, or she would spend half of the day listening to explanations which would itself requires explanations. But while the teenager with the pentacle was looking carefully on the screen of his gadget, Anna remembered another detail that had brought her much happiness in the past. She questioned the metalhead with enthusiasm.
"If we have time, will you tell me one of your stories?"
The geek froze again by lack of understanding and looked up at the princess.
"My what?"
"You often told me stories when I was a kid, I loved them, will you tell me one?"
Steven hesitated for a long moment. He used to do this with the younger ones in the world where he currently resid, but to do it with a teenager from a Disney world ... This made the situation even more bizarre than it was.
'If it goes on like that,' he thought, 'the only one who will be able to write my biography will be Douglas Adams.'
He eventually told himself that it was better to accept the situation. It would be just another strangeness on the list. And he was used to this kind of activity with the little blonde he was helping.
"Ooook, he hesitated, but which one?"
"Anyone, one full of adventures, mysteries and magic."
"You do not even suppress half of my list with these criteria. It's can be Baldur's Gate or Eternal Darkness with these."
"What's the Baldur's Gate?"
One would have thought that the geek would have become accustomed to the ignorance of the redhead. But, obviously, she was not ready to stop stunning him.
"Okay, I think we found what I'm going to tell you between two songs, because for somebody who pretends to be a role player, I think it's dramatic."
Thus, began for the youngest Princess of Arendelle a morning that seemed to him to be already her best moment since so many years.
Arendelle's sun was much more brilliant than one could imagines in the early afternoon. Scandinavian freshness was present, but it did not affect the beauty of the forests of the region. And a certain annoying young man was going to discover it when he and his friend, far from nature, heard someone knock at the door. The anxiety to be spotted was strong enough to frighten the geek, who found himself in the blinking of an eye in the middle of the forest to enjoy the pure air and perfumed pine of the kingdom.
The metalhead stood stupidly among the trees. It took him a moment to grasp why he had passed from Anna's laughter to the bird's chirpings. When he remembered his new teleportation ability, he pronounced.
"If it wasn't so awesome, I would have thought it's annoying. It's clearly the fastest Quick Travel function in history ... well, at least there's no loading time."
Steven looked around but noticed nothing resembling as a part of the castle. He remembered leaving the princess alone and prayed that the person who had knocked at the door of her room would not have heard them. Otherwise, she would surely have to give explanations.
"I hope she has a good level of bluff," the role player said.
"You're not welcome here!" Grumbled a threatening voice that startled the geek.
By a newly acquired reflex, the young man swiveled rapidly, taking from under his coat a brilliant Colt Python which he pointed in the direction of the voice. The teenager with the black coat had use a good amount of self-control to not shoot when his gun was two centimeters from the face of a tall man in navy blue tie-costume. He would have sworn he was not there the second before.
Steven kept his head irritated by this stranger and questioned him in a suspicious voice.
"Who are you?"
"Lower that weapon," the stranger said. "It is useless."
"Sorry but I'm suspicious of people who look like the cancer man, and your well-trimmed mustache will not change anything."
Then Steven collected the strange pieces of the puzzle facing him with his current environment. Where another would have shouted at incoherence and delirium, the armed geek believed who he was in front of him.
"Wait ... Clothes that have nothing to do with those of this world ... A sudden apparition without explanation ... And you tell me that my gun is useless ... You are a Narrator, isn't it?"
Without showing any astonishment, the man in costar confirmed with a nod of his head marked by a mute anger.
Steven put his Colt Python in the holster under his jacket. If it was indeed a Narrator, like the one he had met in the world of Naruto, then indeed it was useless to threaten him with this weapon. He was not a real person. There was no body in front of him. Only an image. An avatar of an omniscient being with unknown abilities.
The young man was, however, certain of one thing: The presence of a narrator was always the announcer of big problems. He pronounced with sarcasm.
"I guess you're not here to play a co-op game with me, do you?"
"I'm not here to joke, kiddo."
"Definitely, lack of humor seems to be a common thing to those of your kind. So, what's the problem?"
"The problem is your presence in this world, again."
"Okay, I've got it, and you're going to say that I've been here before, even though I do not remember. "
"Unfortunately, you have already come into this universe." Said the ghost.
Steven did not need to think long enough to understand that this strange man hated him.
"Okay, I ... decided to believe that, the geek explained, but I don't know why you seem to hate me as much as if I had suppressed your Rainbow Six game?"
The narrator's reply, though he did not raise his voice, was full of venomous hatred.
"Because your presence is and has always been a threat to this universe. I took risks to get rid of you definitely, but you still came back."
"Hey, Steven snarled, Keep calm G-man, if you want me to understand what you're telling me, I'll need some explanations. I do not know how I could be a danger to this world. Umbrella Corp., Hyperion or even Columbia I could understand, and yet I have nothing against this place, I have never even asked to come here.
"As you used to, you came and went despite the fact that you were gradually destroying the borders of this world. As soon as the first symptoms of collapsing appeared, I acted to take you away and make sure that this story continue. "
"Wait, the geek interrupted, are you trying to tell me that I would have almost destroyed this universe by my presence?"
The narrator took a moment to explain to the metalhead how his adventures in this universe caused the appearance of tears in the dimensional frontier of this world, and that it could lead to its total dislocation.
It was indeed the only positive point that the otaku found to people like him: Their almost-divine nature made them give many information nonchalantly. Of course, because they had no reason to lie while their universe was going to disappear. And perhaps also because the only ones which they would agree to appear were those capable of restoring the order of things ... or those responsible of their problems.
When he finished his explanations, the geek took a moment to think. He was suspicious of the words of this protective specter, for he knew from experience that people like him could be very deceitful or manipulative when they wished to. However, he also knew that they were doing this to ensure the survival of their stories, and therefore their universe, whether he likes it or not. So, if what he said was true, Steven had to admit that there was indeed a problem.
The geek tried to calm the situation.
"Listen ... I really didn't choose to come here, and if it's really going to happen again, I do not know how to stop, if you know, I'm ready to talk about it."
He really meant it. Even if the metalhead had to admit having spent a very pleasant time with the princess. But it would be dramatic if it led to her disappearance.
The Narrator did not seem to relax.
"I've already used the only way I've found so you do not show up anymore, but I made a mistake and I cannot use it now."
"What are you talking about?"
"As a Narrator, I have certain powers over this world ..."
The nerd interrupted the well-dressed phantom without shame.
"But only capacities that do not attract the attention of the characters to avoid influencing them and risking modifications of their history, I am aware of that, your Otaku colleague already explained this to me. You used it this time? "
There, on the other hand, the immortal in costar seemed to get angry. His fists made the geek hope that he was not imagining himself strangling the geek and being reassured that he had no real physical form. Obviously, Steven thought, this avatar easily raged.
This one, however, replied.
"Through observations, I finally realized that if your Being is right here, it is not the case of your body."
Steven's mind hesitated between raising his eyebrows with astonishment or frowning them with confusion. Not knowing how to handle this bug, the face of the geek remained frozen with perplexity and contented himself with swallowing the words of the holographic god in Metal Gear mode, as it would obviously be a bit long and complicated.
"The reason you appear and disappear is that only your Being comes into this universe You can call it your mind or your soul I do not care. I noticed that there is always a part of your strange energy when you leave, even if it is infinitesimal, and I remembered having already felt it weakly before your first coming. For a reason that I do not know, a part of your energy has been projected into this universe and remains imprisoned here. Your Being was one day brought here and connected to this spark of energy, and when they meet, the memory of your physical form permeates your energy which attracts atoms reforming a complete body. They unpack as soon as your Being changes place. Without a real body, this one can go anywhere by dragging your energy in its train.
"Uh ... Ok. We'll say it explains my arrival and teleportation, hardly accepted the geek."
He thought inwardly.
'It's weird but ... Could it be because of the Pandora?'
Then he questioned the guardian of this world.
"But what did you do then? You were talking about a mistake, isn't it?"
"I understood that you came back often because your soul was attracted by your energy like a magnet, but it was not enough to explain that you came back so often. I assumed that you probably had other parts of your energy in other universes and I thought it was your bond with the princesses that created a connection. And by cutting it I thought that your Being would go into another universe and establish a new bond with other characters. So I used all my power to change the frequency of this universe. I have modified its location in the multiverse somehow. It does not change anything for the inhabitants of this world. Your mind would no longer knows where we are and would not come back again, but I made a mistaken on one point: your Being does not just create a bond with a world and is confined to it. You go to one world or another by chance, like an iron ball in the midst of an infinity of magnets. A simple detail can bring you to one world or another. You have fallen by chance into this universe, but because the frequency is different, the body that you have reformed is not the same and your energy has been disturbed, which explains your total and definitive loss of memory.
Steven made an effort to accept all this and asked with suspicion.
"So, you hoped that someone else would have your problem?"
"I did what I had to do for the survival of this story."
"This is also what another Narrator thinks. You have no qualms about endangering another universe, since I imagine that the rules are the same for all."
"I do what I have to do. It's up to them to do the same."
These cold reactions, devoid of any form of empathy, forced the young man to pronounce bitterly.
"The more I stay with people like you, the more I have the impression to see machines rather than anything else ... With your little tricks, your semi-truths and your habit to always appear in my back like Sam Fisher ..."
The metalhead remained fixing the giant in costar for a moment, which gave him a very aggressive look. But it was more because of the teenager's behavior than his words. The latter finally sighs, pronouncing, calmer and tired.
"Well, I suppose you cannot do anything about it if you were created like that."
Steven thought he heard a sound that made him turn his head behind him for a moment. When he looked back at the Narrator, he had disappeared. Before he could make a remark about this start as impolite as a disconnection in the middle of an online game, Steven perceived more precisely the sound that had attracted his attention. It was a voice. He realized that the local Narrator, not wanting to be seen by the people of his own history, was obviously leaving because of the person who was coming.
Not wanting to stand idly in the middle of nowhere, Steven decided to walk among the trees, bushes and ferns to the origin of the voice. It was a complicated march considering the thickness of the vegetation. Steven, who could see no farther than the tip of his nose, growled at each twig as he caught it in the face and grumbled.
"Raaaah ... I start to think they were right trying to destroy everything in Avatar."
He stumbled on a root and groaned in frustration. He took a deep breath before saying to himself.
"As long as I do not meet a group of gnolls or darkspawn, I will consider myself lucky."
As he got up, he was face to face with a creature with a prominent muzzle and slender horns.
The astonishment made the Gamer jump backwards, and he found himself lying on the ground. He tried to draw his colt, but before he did, he realized that the creature in question was nothing but a reindeer with a puzzled look.
The geek sighed in relief and explained with amusement to the intrigued animal.
"Do not you ever do this to someone who finished Doom 3. Old habits die hard..."
Steven stood up and saw the voice of a close-up guy.
"Ho! Sven, you were there, what are you ..."
The origin of the voice interrupted, with a surprised face, by discovering the stranger in the black mantle. Steven was not really surprised to discover a great man in black clothes and furs. It was the least bizarre thing he'd seen since he came here.
Steven was suspicious of all the strangers he usually met. He was all the more intrigued when he realized that he was less interested in seeing this reindeer's trainer. The geek tried to be polite.
"Uh ... Hello."
The newcomer replied with perplexity.
"Hello…"
Steven's attempt was a semi-failure. Neither of them seemed to know what to say. One had a strange person in black in front of him and the other faced a character so weird with his long coat that he quite wanted to take an ice pick to protect himself and bring him to the guards. And between the two, a reindeer passed his confused look from one to the other without knowing what was going to happen.
But Sven finally noticed something intriguing. His eyes fixed the hairs of the stranger because it seemed very familiar to him. The animal approached the geek, slightly intimidated, and sniffed at his head without embarrassment. The great fellow finally reacted by holding his companion and exclaiming.
"Sven, I already told you it was rude to sniff people. I'm sorry, he's nice but he does what he wants sometimes."
Steven answered, a little perturbed.
"It's okay. My felyne does the same thing when I chase the yian garuga."
"Excuse me?"
It is at this moment that the reindeer's mind combines the unlikely hairstyle of the stranger, his pentacle collar with red stones and his completely incomprehensible sentence. This mixture brought him back old memories which he appreciated very much. Time had gone by, but he finally recognized his old playmate Steven Ryan without the least bit of doubt.
The animal jumped with joy around the geek, more and more worried, under the lost gaze of his trainer.
The Otaku could not resist to panic when the reindeer tried to stroke his arm. Then his trainer reacted by grasping the two arms by the flange.
"Sven! Enough! the big fellow said, I swear I do not understand, he's like that with the people he normally knows."
Steven replied with a tinge of weariness.
"At this point, I would not be surprised."
"What do you mean?"
Steven, without believing it for a second, asked.
"By chance, do you know someone called Steven Ryan?"
The two locals took notice of this. The trainer exclaimed with astonishment.
"Steven?!"
It was the turn of the geek to be stunned. He did not expect a reaction actually.
The look and words of the geek returned to the memory of the great man just as they had done to Sven. A smile appeared on his face before to declare.
"Steven, I can't believe it, I've not seen you for so long."
Steven hurried to interrupt him.
"Stop right now! For some reason I need proof that I already know you."
"What? What do you mean? It's me: Kristoff. Did you forgot all this time we spent together?"
Steven sighed deeply and explained exhaustively to the man named Kristoff that he was apparently suffering from a form of amnesia that had made him forget several years of his life. It was the most credible lie he could find in such a short time.
It took a while for the geek to convince Kristoff of his sincerity, and another for the latter to remind him of some of their wanderings, such as their visit to the trolls or the day when Steven had told him the odyssey of adventurers Of the Icewind Dale.
After that, the three characters had the feeling they had returned to square one. A new embarrassed silence imposed. Not wanting to let it last forever, Steven tried something.
"Well, seems I made sure my company was nice to you."
"Pretty good, except the day you got so crazy when you talked about your strange musicians."
"Of what?"
"I said something, I do not remember what, about all these musicians doing 'Metal' as you say and you spent the afternoon making me listen to dozens of bizarre music of all kinds Well, it was not bad at all, I admit, especially this group ... Iron something, but I'm glad that we never did lesson two, you gave me such ridiculous names like Alestorm or Stone Sour ..."
"Ridiculous?"
"It's the least we can say…."
Kristoff hardly had time to finish his sentence when he found himself seated by force on a stone without being able to resist. He then discovered Steven with a lugubrious and imposing look at which even his ton of muscle could not resist.
Under the anxious gaze of Sven, the metalhead declared with an anguishing resentment.
"Ridiculous, huh? Well you're gonna have your lesson two."
Kristoff found himself in a second with headphones in his ears and the realization that he had made a horrible mistake.
'Oh no ...' he thought. 'Not again.'
Steven pressed the Random Play button on his MusicPlayer-3 and found a music he found very ironic.
When you see familiar faces
But you don't remember where they're from
Could you be wrong?
When you've been particular places
That you know you've never been before
Can you be sure?
'Cause you know this has happened before
And you know that this moment in time is for real
And you know when you feel deja-vu
Why did it have to happen? Why do things always get more complicated than necessary?
It was the kind of thoughts that troubled the second princess of Arendelle. She had been locked in her room for many years and had become accustomed to calm and solitude. It had been difficult to learn to ignore her little sister's pleas. But she did it in the end. She had managed to pursue her life after the departure of the one she had considered her best friend.
And now she learned by her sister that this stranger had returned. And amnesic by the way. Elsa at first thought it was a bad joke, but she would never have thought her sister would make such a dubious joke, especially with the playful tone she had.
Since that revelation, the snow princess could not help turning in her room, the mind filled with fear and anger. That could not be true. It had to be a nightmare.
It was then that she heard from behind her, near her bed, the cry of pain of a young man on the ground.
"When I said that I would like a good bed, I thought I would arrive ON the bed! What is this shitty bug?! "
Elsa looked horrified as she looked in the direction of the voice. She was not afraid of this arrival; her memories had reminded her of this mysterious detail. It was the person that appeared she feared to see.
He stood up, rubbing the back of his skull. She did not doubt for a moment. True, it was a long time ago, but she immediately recognized these brown hairs with a crazy strand. Although time did its work, she also recognized that thin face that seemed annoyed by the mere fact of existing. The pentacle was the icing on the cake. No doubt possible: it was Steven Ryan.
Then he discovered with a half surprise a girl in a dark blue dress with blond hair tied in a bun. After such a day, almost nothing could surprise him now. On the other hand, the anxious look of the young lady, and her stretched gloved hands, were not to reassure him. Fearing she would scream for help, he tried to calm her down quickly.
"I'm not here to murder you or something like that ... Well, I guess using the word murder does not help, even Ezio do not use it ..."
The trembling voice of the princess interrupted her as if she had not listened to him.
"Steven?"
The geek froze on the spot, then exclaimed with amazement as the girl slowly approached him.
"What? You know me? You too? That's not coincidences now. It's a Call of Duty campaign…"
He did not have time to finish his sentence because, at this moment, the princess stopped in front of him and swung a deafening slap that almost made him fall.
He turned to her with incomprehension and questioned her.
"What was that for? Did I deleted your back up or..."
Another slap sounded in the room, as did the tense voice of the princess.
"How dare you reappear?"
Steven definitely did not understand. But that did not prevent Elsa from pursuing, as the air became cooler.
"You're going to pretend you do not know who I am anymore, do you?"
"Uh ... yes I do."
A new slap and a reprimand of the blonde.
"Liar!"
"Err ... Okay, I do not."
She slapped him again. And this time it was Steven who shouted.
"What was I supposed to say?!"
"Nothing! Nothing at all, you should not even be there!" Cried the princess, with clenched fists.
"W... What?"
"I waited for you to come back for months. Every night I hoped you would be there the next day, and every night I was rehearsing the legends of Middle Earth with your voice as a narrator ..."
Steven was lost. But what this young girl was saying, with her face so angry, made him feel more than fear. He had to admit that she reminded him of someone now. But he did not have time to think, not only did she kept yelling at him, but the geek was subdued by something else that made him look wide at the ground.
"All the time you told Anna and I that you always keep your promises, was it lies?! Or do you ... What? What are you looking at?"
"Actually: the stuff that's forming around your feet."
Elsa looked in her turn and found that ice was starting to appear near her shoes. A little panicked, she hurried away from the geek and began to take great inspiration to calm down.
Steven could not help contemplating the icy strokes with a glance between wonder and dismay. When he understood what it meant, he said.
"You have magical powers related to ice ... Waw! That's…"
"SHUT UP!" Shouted the magician, spreading a gigantic aura of frost.
Steven did not know what to do. He had the impression that whatever he would do or say, the girl was going to react badly. He had to admit it, he was a little scared. Then the princess continued speaking, as though exhausted.
"Look what you make me do ... Why did you have to come back? Without you, I was finally mastering these damned powers."
If there was one thing that had not changed with Steven, it was his ability to talk before thinking. A characteristic that usually caused wounds and remorses. But that did not stop him from continuing.
"Excuse me for correcting you but if you really controlled them my presence would not change anything."
"What do you know about it? You were not there, and anyway, you do not remember anything, neither the stories you told me, nor the course I gave you about the runes, Nor even your promise to make me listen to your music, nor even when you told me you were not afraid by me..."
The princess stopped and turned her back to the stranger. She felt like she had said too much. But actually, it was enough for Steven to collect some puzzle pieces and understand what was going on. He understood who the girl in front of him was, which surprised him greatly because he expected to see her with a very different dress. But he thought to understand why she seemed to hate him.
He looked down, full of confusion as he had the impression that it was due to someone other than himself. But he recovered himself and pronounced with sadness the same words as Anna, but with much more emotion.
"I am sorry."
The blonde girl looked at the geek with incomprehension. She seemed to relax unconsciously as he continued talking.
"I know it does not change all the pain you've had, but I have nothing better to offer. It's true, I've forgotten all the moments we spent together... and even I find it hard to imagine what you must have felt when you thought the only person who had accepted you abandoned you, but if I can do anything to apologize, say it and I will do my best."
Elsa remained silent. She could not believe what she saw. It was not so much the words in themselves that surprised her. It was that this person, despite the amnesia, despite the time, had held the same kind of speech to her that every time they had a hang. Whenever he had done something that had saddened her, Steven had made a sincere apology full of remorse. It was strangely difficult to see this for the Princess, for it meant something that some of her refused to believe that he had not changed. That it was the same Steven Ryan who had regrets every time he hurts her. And that perhaps he was not really responsible of his absence, which she had felt as an abandonment, otherwise he would never have seemed so desolate.
Steven stood low as Elsa did not know what to think. She was on the verge of shedding a tear. But she was too strong to let this happen. She remained without saying a word. She did not know what to say about all this. The grief was still too strong, but a part of herself wanted to act as if nothing had happened, just like her sister. But she could not.
Steven could not guess it all from the back. There was a limit to his deduction capabilities. But he did not want to remain silent without doing anything. He then remembered something she had said and thought it was a good idea. He searched in the pocket of his jeans under the three chains and checked whether he still some battery.
'It's in the red but it should be okay for a few minutes. I used much more than what I thought with Kristoff. '
He gently held out his hand holding his MusicPlayer-3 near the princess. She notices the object in question and turns towards the metalhead with surprise.
"Elsa, this is it? tried the Otaku. I promised you some music so ... if you're always interested ..."
The magician did not know what to say. Her emotions were a real chaos. Perhaps that was why she was satisfied with the most simple and honest reaction she could have. She had waited that moment for so long. She was so happy, in fact, that her only friend had finally returned, that she allowed herself to form a little smile and approve with a little nod.
They sit down quietly and Steven choose for her a music he hoped she would like.
It was hard to say what she had in mind, but Steven considered her smile and calm as a success. And they spent a good hour listening to the same song. Until the forced departure of the metalhead.
Elsa was scared enough when it happened. She wondered if he would come back this time. But she had chosen to hope again. His reunion gave her hope and confidence. She was just waiting and hoping that her friend would come back. By then, she contented herself with rehearsing in her head the surprising and even very destabilizing song which she discovered thanks to Steven.
Edge of the blade
Time to break through the anger
Hunt down the remnants of the everlasting myth
Incinerating hands that touched your graceful face
In their mysterious ways
The scorching scars have left an everlasting visual trace
Now they're blinding, and rewinding
Edge of the blade
Time to break through the anger
Hunt down the remnants of the everlasting myth
Cherish your hunger for resentment and dismay
And then come out to play
Cascading colors, meticulously all washed away
Time for choosing not for losing
Defying the fire reviving within
Time to break through
Your walls are soaring high
They are disarranging
The surface on which we build our own lie
List of References:
Matrix, Discworld, Lord of the rings, Spiderman, Dark Souls, The Hitchiker's guide to the galaxy, Baldur's Gate, Eternal Darkness, X-files, Rainbow Six, Half-Life, Resident Evil, Borderlands, Bioshock Infinite, Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell, Doom 3, Monster Hunter, Icewind Dale, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty