Chapter 8 – Light vs Dark
Note: To be honest, i'm kinda tired... -,-" heheh (Lazy me)
One more chapter to go~
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'Oh no' Train's mind swindles, 'Not good.'
Train closes his eyes for a few seconds, trying to whir his brain to find the way out of this. He definitely doesn't want to get killed by his own self. 'Think, think.'
A spark of idea just hit right in his brain, telling him how to turn the situation into an advantage. His face slowly brightens.
"What is it?" asked Leonne, who notices the change in Train's expression.
'Don't tell him yet," whispered Train's instinct, 'lure some time out.'
Train relaxes his muscles, which feels really good after tensing for a long time, and pulls his gun away from the dark duplicate. But still alerting his senses. "Can I ask you why you are so determined to destroy my life? It's not that I've hurt you before or anything."
"Are you trying to take some time so that he'll disappear?" said Leonne with a small chuckle. "Don't worry. even if you waste it, you'll be dead in less than a minute, anyway."
'That's not what I meant.' Protested Train in his head.
"Why do I'm obsessed to make your life miserable? I'll tell you why." He pulls his long cloak off his body and casts it away. Revealing the sight that Train had regretted to see. Metal and flesh fused together on his arms and legs, with silver and grey wires covering them in a complicated way. His face, which always been covered by his hood, looks different. No scars like last time he saw him. It is completely different and more bizarre. His right eye is made of red, robotic-looking eyeball that looks more like a small police siren than to an eye. A part on his face, around the red eye, is not flesh. Instead it is specked with iron sheets. He looks like the Terminator when it's flesh got torn and you can see the robotic structure inside. This is when Train regretted for watching night movies with Eve too much.
"You've changed. What about your look yesterday?" Train asked.
"That face is just for show. Otherwise it wouldn't been fun at all."
Train wonders how different faces can make a death-life situation fun. It doesn't make any sense at all.
"Because of you, Black Cat, I turned to this!" he growls. Train can see he's throwing out his anger. "Just for you know, I am one of your victims when you were still in Chronos."
"What?" Train widened his eyes, and trying not to think his past victims.
"Yes, you shot me, each bullet on each of my limbs and trying to kill me with the worst suffering I've ever experienced. But luckily, I survived. I have to amputate and replace them with the help of my scientist friend. He also despise you after you've killed all the members of his family."
"No." Train is struck. His stomach's flushed and his throat is dry. All those memories that he had already forgotten are now haunting him back. 'No. Hold yourself. He's trying to break your spirit.'
"Say whatever you want." Train braved himself. "Revenge is never the answer."
"Ha!" barked Leonne, not accepting his words, "It's easy for you to say when you're not the one who felt it." He grinds his teeth. "Now you will pay."
Taking a deep, heart-calming breath, Train tries to cool himself down from the guilt in the past. 'They were criminals.' said his thought, 'They deserved death. You did the right thing.'
But still, avoiding guilt is not easy for him.
"Before we start, I want to make a deal." Said Train, "If I win by surviving my own duplicate, you stop all this nonsense and take me back to the present. But if you win," his nose grasping some air, exchanging it with a long sigh. "…I'll let you do whatever you want to do with me, but just leave my friend alone, okay?" he points at Saya who are still calming the panicked children behind her.
Leonne rubs his chin, thinking about the deal. "That sounds fair enough. It'll be easier for me to hunt you down and get over with it." He smiled faintly, "Deal."
Just after he said the word, the dark clone lunges on Train. It's black ebony eyes gleams on him, which makes him frozen in fear. On the perfect timing, Train leaps to the brick wall at his side just as dark Train smashed the solid wall behind Train. He runs along the wall, passing Leonne and jumped off from it, twisting his body in the air so that he faces Leonne's back when he touches the ground.
Both Leonne and the duplicate set their eyes on him. "Don't let your guard down." He looks Train over his shoulder, "He's three times better than I am."
Oh great. He used the word, 'better' instead of, 'stronger' or 'faster'. 'Better' means it got both of the elements improved than Leonne. He better use his thinking cap, otherwise, the no-good-eyeless clone will destroy him. And all the things that he had achieved so far will be wasted into nothingness.
'Alright, let's do this. Eight minutes left.'
In a blink, Train presences danger beside him. What makes him widens his eyes is that a piece of small, yet sharp blade was already two centimeters away from Train's neck. The clone had stayed behind Train. With the help of his adrenaline, Train reflexively pull his head to his back, which only caused the blade to put a small cut on his neck as he head-butts the clone behind.
'Stupid.' Mocks Train. Waiting at a person's back to slit his throat isn't a very bright idea.
The clone stumbles backwards. Since it's not a human (Train's assumption), he bet it didn't feel anything after the impact. It blinked a few times before setting his sight again on Train who's not ready to face it's other attacks.
'Move.' Train instinct blares, 'Now.'
And he did. Train notices that the clone had his gun out and he thought he was imagining. It's muzzle had spewed a trail of powder gun smoke. The stone walk, which Train had pulled his feet to move, is now filled with three craters from bullets.
'No way', his heart sinks, 'Did it just shoot when I move my feet?'
If his instinct didn't warn him, he might have holes in his feet.
It's not even one minute yet, and Train is scared already.
But his instinct tells him again, 'Don't panic.' as Train glances at the clone for a second. 'Focus.'
Train watches it's movements, and like waltzing, he can predict it a little bit better. Tilting his head from a flying bullet, ducks from being hit by it's gun's metal body, swipe himself to his side to avoid it's dagger to slash through, deflects a lunging blade with his gunshot and continues to block and attack with his hand-to-hand combat.
Two minutes are gone. Six minutes left.
"Hoooo… You're quite good, Heartnet." Leonne comments. The wires on his arms mangles as he shook. "Didn't expect you to last this far."
'Not helping.' Thought Train, still eyeing the clone carefully. He doesn't need his commentary. Even his instincts can do it too.
Five minutes left. And Train is draining his energy like crazy. The clone is faster than Leonne, which is the current problem. He feels his movements began to slow down as if a vampire is sucking one-third of his blood in him. Beads of sweat trickles on his vein-bulging head. His heart is racing with the clone's swift counter-attacks.
He wants a time-out. But that'll likely not happen. It'll be stupid if he asks his opponent to give him time for rest. Of course the answer is 'no'. What was he thinking?
As his thoughts streamed, the dark clone leaps on him with his arms spread out, like a tiger hunting it's prey. Train quickly takes a metal lid of a trashcan beside him as a shield before the clone makes a loud, satisfying 'thunk'. But that is not all. Train is baring the push from the clone after the lunge, which doesn't want to let him to relax his muscles for even a second. He's having a hard time to stand still from the force. The clone is jerking him a like raging mad bull.
'Lie to the ground', the instinct advised.
'What? Are you nuts? He'll crush me to a thin scrap paper!' argued Train's thoughts. Sometimes you just can't choose when you're having a war with yourself in this kind of situation.
'Trust me,' it encouraged, 'You'll figure something out from it.'
Not wanting to bare the muscle-straining push anymore, he let himself fall to the ground. The pebble-patterned walk holding his body weight. But now, he's crushed. Like a miserable cockroach.
'What now?' asked his thoughts, panicking.
'Use your gun.' Replied his instinct.
He suddenly gets the idea. Still struggling with the trash can lid in his hands, he gives out extra strength for his left arm as he takes his gun out again with his other hand. Trembling uncontrollably, he pulls the trigger when the gun muzzle touched the lid. Assuming the clone's head is still pushing on the other side. A loud bang stops the force and Train can see his foe flies away from his shield, its head bent to its back. The bullet had travelled through the metal lid and hit the clone's head. The plan worked.
With the clone still floating in mid-air, Train gives Leonne a flash smile. But instead of frowning, he stretches a wider grin on his half-steel face. His red eye brightens.
"Impressive. But it won't last long like you hoped."
Just as he said it, it happens. Train returns his vision to the clone. To his horrification, it pulls its head back to its original position. It's eyes stammering back at Train, and he notices that the hollow hole in its head sizzles to disappearance, like when Leonne healed Creed. The bullet bulges out from its forehead and falls to the ground. He is recovered before he lands.
Train grits his teeth. So his effort is wasted? All of it? How much longer can he last? Is he going to die there? In the same past when Saya was first killed?
But no. He realized that he is not craving to defeat the clone. He only has to survive it. Nothing more.
Three minutes left.
'Almost there.' Train stands up with difficulty. 'Almost there.'
