The arrow dropped to the ground.
A clang echoed around the hollowing room. It was unfazed by the stone-cold floor it had landed on. It lay still and peaceful next to his feet.
Dio panted slightly. He'd pierced the arrow directly into his neck. Precisely on the line where him and Jonathan met. At the point where their bodies collided. The wound was fresh and blood dripped through his robes and onto the welcoming floor below.
'Why there?' his thoughts taking over. 'Why the neck? I was aiming for my chest!' "I was aiming for my chest!" He growled with such frustration as he clenched his hand around the wound. It was as if his hand had been forced to stab there. Some one guiding his hands…
The wound began to heal. The bleeding ceased slowly. It stopped. He took his hand away from it and felt for any scars.
Nothing.
Only the familiar indent of his crime. The distorted lines that connected him and Jonathan. Tracing his fingers over it brought an odd yet familiar comfort. 'Is he?'
Dio looked around him. A presence. No, his presence was here. Lingering like some kind of omen, ghost even.
The curtains where grey. The floor was grey. The carpets, doors, ceiling; where all grey. The clock stopped ticking. Time stood still. Dio looked down to the arrow and picked it up.
He intended on picking it up and placing it in the table nearby. He bent down. His movements where slower than usual. He grabbed it but let it go in mid-air. It floated almost ominously; taunting him.
Time resumed. The arrow fell to the floor with a clang. Dio looked desperately around again. 'What in the-'
His thoughts adrift in his mind as he turned to face the face of a rather strange being. Dio leaned back slightly.
"Who or even what are you?" He refused to break eye contact. "You're not a stand, are you?" His eyes scanned the being up and down. He wore green hearts for knee pads and it appeared in his chin also. Yellow, green and grey.
Dio remembered the books and papers he'd read with Pucci. About stands and stand arrows. Yet now that he had gotten his hands on one and tried it out, he wasn't so sure. It looked at him up and down with red eyes and an expressionless face. Never changing.
The stand rose a little of the ground. Time stopped again. The colours greyed around them. Their bright colours penetrating the vast spectrum of greys, blacks and whites.
Dio cautiously walked towards the stand. It merely looked at him in some wonder. His face was so blank; however, it was quite hard to tell.
"You can stop time?" Dio was taking precautions. He had no idea what this thing was really like.
It picked up the arrow and let it float in the air. He resumed time again. Dio caught it before it could hit the floor again.
"So this is the power of a stand?! It can even stop time itself!" Dio looked frantically between the arrow to the stand. "This is incredible. With a power like this - " Subtle laughter seeped through his words. "I could destroy those pesky Joestars quite easily. They'd never predict something like this! Although..."
The stand merely hovered beside him. Intrigued at his new found user but something didn't sit right.
Dio caressed the stands face gently. "You belong to me. I control you." It embraced it's user fondly even giving a subtle smile. "With your help I can continue with my work, my plans."
"However, if you are to stick around, I'll need a name. Do you not have one?"
The stand shook his head, not wanting Dio to stop stroking his face.
"Then I shall call you; The World! The World is what I want and you will help me get it. You, The World, and I, Dio could -"
"Oh you like that?" Dio kept fussing the stand. But the tender touch of his stolen hands stroked his own face. He felt what The World felt. "Maybe my days won't be so lonely anymore."
Over the next few days Dio couldn't help but find a limit to his power. He mastered his stopped time ability. Though not as much as he wanted. Only being able to stop time for a measly 5 seconds or so. Though he had found his stand could pack a mean punch.
It came and went on his command. It Punched on command, stopped time on command. Having so much power over s being so powerful had brought a new life to Dio. Just by willing, wanting to do something, the stand could go and do it. He had informed Pucci of his discovery and had also pierced him. White Snake had been formed.
The two spend sleepless days testing their stands. What other things could their stands do?
Dio lay on the velvet covers, his stand lying beside him.
'This was power Jonathan could merely dream of having. But Jonathan isn't here. And yet-'
Dio looked to his stand. It stared almost happily towards the ceiling.
"You don't really look like him."
It turned to meet his master's voice.
"Yet your eyes- And your face. Of course, your body is like his." Dio pondered effortlessly. "You're his stand as well, aren't you?"
The stand nodded though as small as a nod that it was, Dio grasped it.
"I see."
The two lay in silence for a while.
The World shakily reached his hand towards his master. And caressed his face.
"Do you feel that too?"
The stand stopped.
"Do you feel your own hand on your face? Or does it only work for me?"
The World retracted his hand. He looked back to his user after a while. Dio slept peacefully. His mind drifting through time.
Yet his stand was still awake somehow.
The World smiled gently. Rather a familiar smile, if Dio could've only seen it. He leaned over and kissed his user on the cheek. A simple peck of affection. He left, leaving Dio to his memories of a better time.
"Maybe I could?" Dio pondered the books littering his corner of the world.