Chapter Twelve:

Let The Games Begin

Kayce Grey

Ugh… My head… Why does it feel like I was run over by a freight train repeatedly…?

"What the hell was that?" I heard Nicholas ask.

"Dunno," Trish replied, "but I have a bad feeling that it's something t' do with our good friend James Alexander."

"Please don't say that name in front of me," I grumbled, moving a hand to hold the side of my face that felt like it was burning. "I'm feeling sick enough as it is…"

"Hey! You're okay!" Vi squealed, practically jumping on top of me.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I exclaimed, attempting to get out of Vi's grasp (she was squeezing me too hard. It felt like my organs were exploding). When I finally did, I shook my head and moved my hand to my neck. "Oh. Right. That."

Trish kneeled beside me and rested a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, are you gonna be okay?"

I nodded slowly. "I'll be fine. I mean, I think whatever he did didn't work." I grinned. "It only made me unconscious. What a damn idiot!" I was the only one laughing, so I stopped after about a minute. "What?" There was a knock at the door. I looked, and saw the destruction around me. "Woah… What happened here?"

"Just what I was about to ask," Mina grumbled distastefully as she looked around. "What the hell did you guys do? This is a goddamn hospital!"

"Someone had a rough time waking up," Trish said quietly.

I glanced at her. "W-What?"

Mina frowned at me. "She's awake?"

"No shit, Sherlock," Vi mumbled darkly, standing up.

Mina ignored her comment. "Kayce, how're you feeling?"

"Well, not to complain, but I feel like someone slapped me across the face." I rubbed my cheek again and glanced at Vi, who turned crimson. "Wait a sec! You slapped me?"

"I improvised!" she replied quickly.

"Improvised? Goddammit I'm a friggin' fear Conduit! Not a psychotic, telekinetic weirdo!"

"Coulda fooled me…"

I was this close to hitting 'er. Payback and all that.

"As much as I like watching family sitcoms, I think it's about time I stepped in." Mina helped me up from the floor. It was a bit hard for me to stand, but I figured it was because of how light-headed I was feeling. "We have a war to plan."

"War?" I exclaimed.

"In case ya haven't noticed, we're in the artificial town on campus," Mina explained. Trish helped me out to walk while Mina led us through the hospital. "James attacked the dorms that had students in them that hadn't joined him. A few of us…" I followed Mina's glance into a room where some bodies were being covered. I recognized a few of the uncovered faces. "A few of us didn't make it." Mina continued to walk, so Nicholas, Vi, Trish and I followed. By then, I was feeling well enough to hold my own, so Trish just watched and helped if I stumbled. "There's no escape from here. The town has a barrier similar to the campus', but it isn't as strong. We don't know how long we'll hold out, much less the barrier. So, we're doing our best."

"Hey! I need a goddamn doctor over here!" I heard someone yell. I recognized their voice, somehow…

A few doctors rushed by us. We were in the lobby of the hospital. This was where the bodies and the wounded were most prominent. Mina was right; a lot of us didn't make it.

"Move it! C'mon, let's go!" another voice yelled. God, it was like it was the exact same voice…

There were two girls ordering the doctors around. One was wearing a black tank-top and green cargo-pants. She had guns strapped all across her body, and they all looked like something I'd seen out of a history book. They were maybe twenty-year-old guns. The other one was wearing all black, but it looked like some kind of flexible armour. Her hood was drawn back onto her shoulders, but from how pale she was, I guessed that she usually had it up. Daggers were strewn across her body, some shuriken across her chest, and there was a shotgun strapped to her back, about as old as the other girl's.

But here's the kicker; they both looked exactly like a younger, teenage/young woman version of my mom.

"Dilyn, help me out here!" darky snapped.

"I've got my hands full over here, Quinn!" cargo-shorts (Dilyn) replied.

I looked at Vi and Trish, who—in return—looked at me.

"Am I dreamin'?" I muttered.

"Please pinch me," Vi grumbled in response.

Finally, the doctors made it over to the people that Quinn and Dilyn were helping. Quinn groaned and stretched as Dilyn walked up to her.

"Fabulous place you've dropped us," she said, fake gratitude dripping from her voice. "Hard to believe that you 'n I get stuck here, when everyone else made it home! Goddammit I wanna be in my dimension already!"

"It's gonna take time for me to recharge, you idiot!" Dilyn snapped.

"Well, helping these stupid kids out ain't helping!"

Dilyn rolled her eyes. "Dammit, Quinn, you're more of a drama queen than Rhea ever was…"

"Don't compare me to that whore!"

"Why not? Technically, we're her. She's us. Just like—." Dilyn saw me then and stopped in her tracks. "Just like Kayce."

Quinn followed Dilyn's eyes. When she saw me, she smiled. "Hey! It's our psychotic, fire-bending, personality disordered counterpart!"

"… Huh?" I said. Okay, she did not just call me psychotic…

Quinn jogged over to our group and gave me a really hard slap on the back that made me fall over, face-first into the floor.

"What's up? How's the timeline been goin' for ya?" she asked with a huge grin.

As I got to my feet, Dilyn grabbed Quinn's hood and jerked her backwards. "You idiot! This isn't her!"

"What're you talkin' about? Red hair, green eyes, a dumb look on 'er face—."

"Hey!" I snapped.

"—Easily provoked; Dilyn, this is definitely her."

Dilyn cuffed Quinn on the head. "Smartass! This. Isn't. Her! Joan—!"

"Kayce!" Quinn interjected.

"Joan," Dilyn insisted, "has a giant-ass nodachi strapped to 'er back! She's got nothin'! Plus, Joan has a few scars. This kid's clean."

I lost it then. I don't like it when people talk about me right in front of me, even if it's good. "Hey! Why the hell're you talking about my mom, goddammit?"

"Mom?" Quinn thought for a moment, and then lit up like a lightbulb. "Oh, I get it now! We changed the timeline, and you dropped us in its future!"

If I looked confused, I couldn't even imagine how Mina, Trish, Vi or Nicholas looked. "Eh?"

"Sorry 'bout that," Dilyn said. "My name's Dilyn, and this is Quinn. We're from a timeline different than this. I was dropping more people like us back in their home timelines, back from killing a guy named Makarov, when I ran outta juice. We landed here, and we've been here for the past few days."

I scratched my head as it tilted in confusion. "You've gotta be kiddin' me…"

"There's no kidding here," Quinn said matter-of-factly. "Until portal-girl here gets her juice back, we're stuck in this timeline. So, we have to make do."

I groaned. "Okay then… Well, my name's Kayce. Joan's my mom." I glared at Quinn. "Her name isn't Kayce. That's mine. And this is Trish and Violet—my cousins. Mina and Nicholas're my friends."

Dilyn looked at Vi and Trish closely. "Hm… Y'know, you look a lot like Cole MacGrath… And you have some Alec Chance in ya…"

"Alec's my dad!" Vi said excitedly.

"Cole's mine," Trish admitted.

Quinn grinned. "Ha! Looks like some things didn't really change! But wait a sec, if Cole had a kid, wouldn't that make Trish your aunt, and not your cousin…?"

"What?" Vi, Trish and I exclaimed.

Dilyn brought up a fist and slammed it onto the top of Quinn's head. Quinn slammed into the floor, hard enough to daze her.

"Forgot about what that idiot said," Dilyn grumbled. "She's delusional. Taken too many hits to the head. She just wants t' get back home."

Quinn glared at her counter-part and pulled her hood up over her head. "Whatever, idiot!"

"Nice come-back." Dliyn frowned at her. "Look; let's just try t' get through this without any incidents, 'kay?"

Quinn crossed her arms and said nothing, but she seemed like she was agreeing. I shook my head. These people're crazy…

"Hey, Kayce!" Ellie waved at me from a ways away. "You're up!"

I nodded. "Y-Yeah. How're you?"

"I've been better. This definitely wasn't on my 'to-do' list." Ellie came over to us. "Unfortunately, it seems like the barrier around the town's about to be breached. I'd give it a few hours at the most, but we've gotta set up a defensive perimeter."

"I can help with that," Nicholas offered suddenly. "I've checked the area. I know where the best places would be."

"Then it's appreciated." Ellie looked to her friend. "Mina, d'you wanna help?"

She nodded. "Duh."

"What's gonna happen?" Vi asked suddenly.

We looked at her. "What d'you mean?" Mina asked.

"What if they get through? What then?"

We were all silent for a moment, but it was Ellie who spoke next. "Then it's kill or be killed."

I hoped it wouldn't come to that.