Chapter 28
Pandemonium had been roaming its way across the sky for quite some time now while Rosette pulled out both of her guns and began shooting intensely at the door. "Damn it! Why can't I destroy this door?" Rosette frustratingly asked as her Gospel bullets had absolutely no effect on the door. However, Rosette had an idea, an idea that would definitely both shock and surprise Chrono at the same time. Meanwhile, Chrono was still battling the demon cells despite his injuries. "I wonder if Rosette is gone now?" Chrono curiously asked himself while he was standing on top between the demon cells. "That's right, don't worry about me Rosette!" Chrono said and he lifted his arm up. He directed his sword towards one of the demon cell's face. The demon cell began to roar as the blade had just touched its face. "Hurry, go and do what you need to do. Don't come back!" Chrono loudly told Rosette as he had a feeling that she was still behind the door. Just then, Chrono felt some light energy emerging from his body which took him by surprise. "What's happening?" Chrono confusedly asked himself since he did not know what was causing the energy to emerge from his body. The bright energy that surrounded his body glowed so bright that it repelled the demon cells. A few seconds later, Chrono had found himself transformed into his demon form which shocked him as he was looking at his hands in disbelief. "Rosette, what did you just do?" Chrono yelled at Rosette from behind the door. "There was no choice. This is the fastest way." Rosette explained to Chrono as she hinted that she released the seal on the pocket watch while leaning on the door. "You idiot! If I use any of your strength, your life will become vulnerable! Everything could be lost! This is exactly what I was trying to avoid!" Chrono explained in a horrified tone since he knew very well what will happen to Rosette if she releases the seal watch more and more. Rosette quickly became fed up with Chrono's over protectiveness of her and the fact that he constantly doesn't want her to worry about him. "Just who is the idiot?!" Rosette frustratingly yelled out. "Stop joking around. I've already suffered enough." Rosette said emotionally to Chrono and a moment later she screamed out of frustration. "You're the same as Satella! Always saying 'Don't worry about me! Hurry up and go!' What the hell! Are you two imitating one another? Do you really think this would make me happy?" Rosette angrily yelled out as she became both irritated and fed up with their attitudes towards her. "Why? Why must you be the one to endure everything?" Rosette perplexedly asked. "You guys shouldn't be so rash with your conclusions. Right now, there's still another way. There has to be another way!" Rosette said while standing up and seeing a huge group of demon cells in front of her. "It is better than sending one person with no wounds to continue forward. I would rather be with you, injured and backed into a corner, than to just keep on going by myself! If we can accomplish our goals together, I won't hesitate to offer some of my soul to a demon!" Rosette said with strong determination while she pulled out both of her guns and pointed them towards the demon cells. "Haha, it's just like that. So hurry up and break down this door." Rosette said to Chrono over confidently. "However you do it, it is fine by me." Rosette said to Chrono but just then she all of a sudden fell onto the floor and a huge thudding sound was overheard on the other side of the door. When Chrono heard the sound, he right away knew that it was Rosette who somehow fell onto the floor unconscious. He became overwhelmed with shock and grief as he was just simply standing, speechless. "Rosette! Rosette, answer me! Quickly reseal to recover! I'm coming for you." Chrono cried out in an emotionally broken tone. While gritting his teeth in despair he rushed towards the door and tried to aggressively force it open. "You really are an idiot. It doesn't matter who it is, no one can get everything they wish for. There has to be some compromise." Chrono thought to himself angrily. "Even though humanity will struggle endlessly, at least they will not complain and will try to seek out the best solution." Chrono thought to himself determinedly and after some great deal of straining, he finally managed to forcefully open the door. "Rosette!" Chrono shouted out after her but to his shocking surprise, he didn't see Rosette anywhere on the other side. "This can't be. Rosette is gone? How did this happen?" Chrono confusedly asked himself in disbelief as he was absolutely sure that Rosette was just there a few moments ago. Meanwhile the demon cells had gathered around him. "Rosette, where are you?" Chrono desperately called out for her but Rosette did not respond as she was nowhere in sight. "Rosette!" Chrono once again yelled out in despair since he still hoped that Rosette was still somewhere around. Meanwhile, Rosette was deep within her mind due to her unconscious state. She was having a dream where her body was flowing downwards like that of a river in some kind of dark, empty dimension. "That's right Chrono. The answer, there are never that many options to choose from at any one instance." Rosette thought to herself as if she was trying to tell Chrono something. Just then, Rosette's mind shifted to a hospital room where Chrono was sitting on the bed and sat on a chair beside him. "When that time comes, if I'm made a captive here, you and the others from the Order must proceed forward to Joshua's side. At that time, you must make a personal connection with him." Chrono explained to her. "How can I do that?" Rosette doubtingly and curiously asked. "Calm down and listen to me." Chrono told her. "Can you fire your gun against your own brother? Can you really pull the trigger? Can you really do it?" Chrono asked Rosette in a deadly serious tone while pointing his finger at her. "This day has finally come. My dear little brother, on that day we made an important decision." Rosette thought to herself as if she was now trying to communicate to Joshua. "Mother, Father! On the day when our ship had sunk, our parents had disappeared into the ocean, never to return." Rosette thought somberly as she was remembering the faces of her parents on the day when their huge ship had sunk. She and Joshua were one of the survivors. "We continuously waited to hear news about our parent's fate. All the grownups seemed confused. They couldn't even take a moment off. It was like we had been abandoned along the great flow of time. Soon, we started to hate waiting." Rosette once again thought somberly while remembering all what she and her brother had went through after their parent's death and at the same time recalling that both of them had felt neglected by the adults around them. It was also a time when the two siblings had enough waiting and decided on one winter day to go to the graveyard to pay their respects to their dead parents. "Joshua had always felt that adults had lied to us due to the fact that they had never found our parent's bodies. As a result, we made a promise, a promise to grow up together and to never leave each other's side!" Rosette concluded while remembering the time when they visited their parent's grave. "Our decision. I forgot what we had decided together. I remember now, Joshua!" Rosette said to herself as if she was confirming what their decision was throughout all this time. Rosette suddenly woke up and much to her surprise, she saw Joshua carrying her while he was flying with his white wings. "Joshua!" Rosette called out his name in disbelief with what she was seeing. Joshua continued flying his way through Pandemonium's hallway corridors until he had found a secure place which just so happened to be in one huge chamber. He flew towards it and softly landed on his two feet while placing Rosette on the ground. "This time, you really were in danger." Joshua said to her in an extremely friendly tone while Rosette looked at him with both suspicion and disbelief. "Don't worry, you are safe here! No one will come here. No one will bother us!" Joshua assuredly told her which made Rosette feel somewhat at ease. "Please tell me, you are my sister, right? This is the truth, is it not?" Joshua asked in a hopeful tone as he extended his arms wide out and looked at Rosette with a mesmerized smile.
Joshua flew towards Rosette and began to embrace her while she looked at him with a startled look on her face, not knowing what to think of the situation. "I've finally found you! I've missed you so much Rosette!" Joshua said in a loving tone while hugging Rosette. This brought tears into her eyes as she looked at her younger brother. "I've missed you too Joshua!" Rosette said emotionally as those were the words she wanted Joshua to say to her. "I want you to always be by my side, even if this world is destroyed and reborn!" Joshua said to Rosette. "Joshua?" Rosette said his name out of disbelief with what she just heard him say. "I won't ever let anyone get between us again. I will personally kill anyone who tries to obstruct us." Joshua explained in a possessive, creepy tone while looking at Rosette as if he was possessed by something. "That's right, that's exactly what I will do!" Joshua said decisively while Rosette looked at him shocked since she could not imagine Joshua saying such things. Rosette abruptly pushed herself away from Joshua and grabbed him by his suit while looking at him sternly. "Open your eyes and take a good look Joshua! I'm not the only one who's been waiting for you to come back! You need to quickly take off those horns and then we'll go home together, back to the orphanage where you had stopped time!" Rosette told him in a stern, mildly angry tone while thinking about everyone they knew at the orphanage. "It is because of these horns that I am able to be free! Do you really want me to go back Rosette? Do you wish for me to turn back into that weak, helpless child?" Joshua asked her defiantly while remembering the night when he was looking out from the window which was the same night when Aion came to his room. "No, of course I don't want that. But those horns aren't yours. The one who has taken your place, living with severe limitation and constant pain is Chrono!" Rosette explained to Joshua in a serious tone, hoping that her words get through to him while holding his hands. "You're not my sister! My kind and gentle sister would never say such things!" Joshua said to Rosette in a cold hearted tone. She promptly backed away from him while looking at him in shock. "Since you're not my sister, I have no need for you!" Joshua heartlessly said as he extended out his left arm while a howling wind started to form around the two siblings. "Wait!" Rosette yelled out as she then grabbed one crucifix barrier and placed it on the ground. The wind however became so strong to the point that it was creating a vortex. By the time Rosette pulled out one of her pistols, she was unable to fire it as she tried to resist the incredibly strong wind. Unfortunately, the wind blew Rosette backwards onto a window. Rosette crashed through the window and began to roll onto the floor while screaming out in pain. "Haha, are you still able to resist?" Joshua mischievously asked while looking around the room and at the broken window. "Alright, then let's play!" Joshua said in a tone that was both playful and mischievous. He pulled out a gun from the holster on his pants which happened to be Rosette's gun. Meanwhile, Rosette was in a room where she was leaning on a wall not far from the glass jars. She was grunting heavily in pain since her landing was quite rough. "In this kind of situation, can I really beat him? He shouldn't still be confused." Rosette said to herself in a weak tone. "I wonder if Joshua is in the middle of a dream?" Rosette curiously asked herself as she was speculating whether or not Joshua was still in a dreamlike state. At the same time, she was thinking about Joshua saying to her "It's nice to meet you." "I finally understand! So that's how it is! It's the horns that are distorting his mind." Rosette concluded and pulled out both of her pistols. Just then, an explosion had occurred somewhere in the room which was not far from where Rosette was at. The explosion that Rosette just saw came from her own gun which Joshua was holding. "Where are you? You can run, but you can't hide! You might as well come out!" Joshua tauntingly said to Rosette while pointing the gun forward. Rosette quickly stood up from the ground, pointed one of her pistols towards Joshua and irritatingly thought "That brat, he's even using my gun." Joshua had his arms wide open while Rosette pointed out her pistol towards him. She was torn on whether to shoot Joshua or not since he was after all her beloved brother. "Can you really fire?" Rosette remembered Chrono asking her in her dream. After a few moments of hesitating, she shot towards the ceiling which started crumbling down towards Joshua as he looked at the ceiling with an alarmed expression on his face. "You idiot! Why aren't you getting out of the way?" Rosette yelled out to him as she tried to warn him about the crumbling ceiling. Just as the collapsed ceiling parts came closer to Joshua, he straightened out his left arm upwards and much to Rosette's surprise, the crumbled ceiling parts froze in motion. "I can't believe it! He stopped time?!" Rosette asked herself in astounding disbelief. Joshua then looked towards Rosette as he once again pointed the gun towards her and said with a taunting tone "Haha, not even one hit me! Is that really the best you can do? You should try to show off a bit more!" Joshua started shooting at Rosette but she managed to evade it. As Joshua continued firing at her, Rosette began to run away from him while the room became more and more damaged from all the shooting. Rosette managed to hide behind a decorated thick poll, and lay down on the floor. She started shooting towards her younger brother again while loud banging noises filled across the room as the equipment had continued to be destroyed. Just then, an even bigger gunshot had banged its way across the room which forced Rosette to retreat. As she started to shoot towards Joshua again, he fired back with a gunshot that resulted in an explosion which sent Rosette falling down into the next room. She splashed onto what appeared to be a round circle filled with water as Joshua was witnessing it. Rosette started to gasp heavily as she tried to reach the edge of the circle. She managed to get up while still panting heavily and coughing at the same time. "That ability sure is getting annoying! Damn it, if it weren't for those stupid horns, this would have been a whole lot easier!" Rosette said in an aggravated tone and then coughed again. Once Rosette had managed to get out of the water, she desperately began to think about what Chrono had asked her in her dream. She remembered him asking "Can you really pull the trigger?" Suddenly, Joshua appeared right from behind Rosette and said with a creepily sinister tone "Shall we finish this?" Rosette was taken aback by his sudden appearance and she turned around to prepare shooting towards him while Joshua looked at her with a deranged look on his face. However, just when she was about to shoot, Joshua swiftly grabbed Rosette's gun which then shot out a bullet with a loud banging noise. Once Joshua let go of Rosette's gun, it began to slowly freeze itself into stone along with her hand. Rosette looked at it with a horrified look. "Haha, now that hand of yours is useless!" Joshua said triumphantly as he aimed his gun towards his sister. Rosette rushed to grab out a crucifix barrier from her side bag and threw it at the ground in front of Joshua since it was now the only tactic she could use against him. Just when Joshua fired his gun at Rosette, a large green laser cross appeared right in front of them and Rosette used the chance to push herself away from the crucifix barrier. Joshua suddenly stopped shooting and touched the laser cross while looking at it with a confused expression. Suddenly, the crucifix barrier had begun deteriorating which prompted Joshua to pull his hand back. The barrier exploded while making a steamy sound as the smoke was clearing itself. Such an abrupt explosion took Joshua by surprise since he didn't expect that touching the crucifix barrier would cause it to destruct itself. Once the smoke had completely cleared, Joshua looked around to see where Rosette was at. "That's strange. Where did she go?" Joshua curiously asked himself as he was sure that Rosette was just in front of him. Meanwhile, Rosette was sitting against a huge glass tank ledge while looking at the gun and her hand that was frozen in stone. "I get it! I get it already! With that gun and his speed, along with his ability to freeze anything by a mere wave of his hand, he is definitely the strongest opponent I've ever dealt with!" Rosette concluded as Joshua was walking his way towards her with a possessed look. "Joshua, you're definitely the strongest. However, I am not the enemy!" Rosette said with great amount of determination while she grabbed out three barrier crucifixes from her side bag and looked at where Joshua was heading while gritting her teeth in suspense. "That noise. It's getting louder. Don't get nervous, I've already found it!" Joshua said to himself in an unsettling tone as he then lifted his head up and looked straight at Rosette as if he was possessed. Rosette looked straight at Joshua once she stood up and she then grabbed her gun and pointed it towards him while giving him a determined look. "Didn't I already say it? No matter what you do, that hand of yours is useless." Joshua mockingly reminded Rosette while he was walking towards her as the wind continued to howl. "Forget it. Whatever you want! I still need to go and find my real sister, my gentle and sweet sister." Joshua said to Rosette while pulling out the gun and simultaneously loading it. "I'm really sorry! I hate to have to disillusion you, but it's a pity that you only have just me for a sister." Rosette said in a bitter tone since she deep down knew how hard it was for Joshua to face the truth while Joshua had just stopped walking and simply had the gun pointed at her. "You need to wake up! The time for dreaming is over!" Rosette strongly said to him as she was trying to snap some sense into Joshua.
"That gentle sister? It seems that you've been continuously trapped in a dream, and you still are! Never realizing that the dream had replaced your true self, therefore causing you to endlessly chase after that image of your sister in your dreams." Rosette explained to Joshua while he placed his hands on the horns. "However, I've been continuously chasing you too! In the midst of reality, I've also been battling!" Rosette said as she begun to raise her voice. "Based on the accumulation of everything that I've learned and experienced in these last few years, I certainly won't lose to a guy who's been doing nothing but dreaming!" Rosette said in a fiercely determined tone as she wasn't willing to give up. "Let me show you the proof!" Rosette said to Joshua and she grabbed another barrier crucifix from her side bag. She quickly clicked on the top of it and the barrier crucifix began to float and energize itself while a crack on the window had started to form. While the barrier crucifix was energizing, the glass window had continued to crack more and more until finally, the glass had shattered and huge amounts of water splashed towards Joshua, much to his startling surprise. Joshua however was able to see the water coming right at him and he tried to get himself out of the way. Unfortunately for Joshua, the water managed to reach him and amazingly the water started to freeze itself into ice. Joshua looked at the frozen water all around him with a surprised look while touching the water that had been frozen with great curiosity. Just then, Rosette came running towards Joshua as she tried to jump towards him. "Damn it! This water is really in the way!" Joshua frustratingly said and banged on the ice which then broke. This caused some of the water to flow once again and Joshua began to shoot at the rest of the frozen parts of the water to break it up. Joshua continued shooting at Rosette while she tried to use her frozen hand as a shield. "Aaaaaahhh!" Rosette screamed in frustration as she then ran towards Joshua and swiftly touched the gun in his hand while he was still shooting. "Can you really pull the trigger?" Rosette remembered Chrono asking her in her dream. The young exorcist then abruptly lifted her leg up, hit Joshua's face and grabbed the gun from his hand. Once she did that, Rosette landed back onto the ground and loaded her gun with a Gospel bullet. She aimed the gun straight at Joshua towards the horn on the left side of his body. "I can! If he really won't return to his original self, then with my own hands I shall try to aim for the horns!" Rosette remembered answering to Chrono in her dream. "At that time, aim precisely for the horn! While I'm not positive, this is the way to do it if you want him to return to his original self!" Rosette remembered Chrono telling her in her dream about how to get Joshua back to his old self. After hesitating for a while on whether to shoot at the horn or not, Rosette then decided to pull the trigger while screaming "Aaah!" Once Rosette shot at the horn on Joshua's head, the Gospel bullet made a loud banging noise. "Joshua!" Rosette said his name out loud while remembering seeing him with the horns for the first time at the orphanage. She also pictured the times when he would read a book outside while sitting on the swing and the time when they made their promise on a cold winter day. The bullet was going down and down until finally, it fell on the ground while a surge of water was still flowing. Joshua was lying on the ground unconscious from the gunshot with Rosette sitting beside him with a bloody cut on her left cheek. She was still holding the gun in her hand as she was gritting her teeth in suspense. She then lowered her gun and with an emotional tone called out "Joshua!" Joshua however did not answer. "Joshua!" Rosette yelled out his name out of immense worry that Joshua might be dead. The blood began dripping down his face as the gunshot succeeded in shooting the horn off the left side of his head. "Is it enough? Was it enough? Is he dead?" Rosette thought to herself while panicking as she began to cry out of deep sadness for she now believed that her beloved younger brother was dead. Just then, Joshua abruptly opened his eyes and began to scream uncontrollably in pain which took Rosette by surprise. While screaming in pain, Joshua put his hands on his bleeding head as the pain was insufferable for him. "Joshua! Get a hold of yourself!" Rosette yelled at him as she was trying to calm him down. "Aaaahh. My head! It hurts! I don't want to be alone! Where are you Rosette? Help me, please! I don't want to feel this pain anymore!" Joshua continued screaming helplessly while desperately pleading his younger sister to help him as she was tending to him. "Rosette!" Joshua yelled out her name which brought tears in her eyes since she realized that he really did want her to be there for him. Rosette then hugged Joshua's head and while her body continued to freeze in stone, she said in an emotional tone "I'm here for you Joshua! Didn't we already make that promise?" "I remember it now! I think I said it before 'until that time, we will always be together!' Right?" Joshua answered her as he now remembered the promise they had made while they visited their parent's grave as children. "Aaaaaahhhh! What's happening? What's going on?" Joshua once again screamed in pain and not long later, he then fell asleep. In his dream, he was at a graveyard on a cold winter day where he saw two small children standing in front of a grave stone. Joshua instantly recognized that the two blonde haired children were Rosette and himself ten years ago, after both their mother and father died in a sunken ship. "I absolutely hate waiting! No matter how long we wait, mother and father still won't come back! Those who organized this funeral are deceiving us! Who do they think they're kidding?! Adults are nothing but liars!" The young Joshua said to his older sister bitterly since he deep down knew that their parent's bodies were never found and that the grave stone they were standing in front of was simply put up as a way to make the two siblings believe that their parent's bodies had been found. "Sister. That's right. I definitely should try to comfort Rosette." Joshua thought to himself while seeing that Rosette began to have tears in her eyes out of the sad realization of the fact. "But one day, we will become adults too Joshua." Rosette told her brother. "Yes, that's right." Joshua said admittedly. "Then let's make a promise. A promise that we'll always be together and become adults together!" Rosette decisively said as she took the young Joshua's hand. "I'm still so weak. Therefore, since that day, I swore to myself that one day, I'd definitely become strong enough to be someone else's support. I want to become stronger more quickly. I don't want Rosette to continuously wait for me!" Joshua thought to himself while looking at the two younger forms of both himself and Rosette. "Until that day comes, we will always be together!" Joshua thought to himself, remembering the promise that he and Rosette made. "That's right! I can't always be dependent on something like this!" Joshua thought to himself as he concluded that he cannot be dependent on Chrono's horns while also thinking about the now frozen orphanage and all the children and supervisors that they had known there. Just then, Joshua abruptly woke up from his dream and he lifted himself up from the ground as he moved his right hand towards the other horn and pulled it out of his head. A great deal of blood started flowing out of his head. An air of silence had filled the room as Rosette was speechless about the whole situation. She placed her hands on her mouth while looking at her younger brother in disbelief. Joshua then walked towards his younger sister Rosette while holding onto his head. "I can't believe it. Joshua had actually returned back to his original self!" Rosette thought to herself in both joy and disbelief with what she was seeing. Once Joshua had reached Rosette, he then placed his left hand onto her shoulder and looked at his younger sister while tears had begun to fall down his face. "We promised to become adults together. Isn't that right Rosette?" Joshua emotionally asked while crying for joy that he had finally remembered their promise and that he is seeing his real sister face to face. He had never felt so happy in his entire life. It was as if, everything was coming back together for him and Rosette. Rosette then jumped and gave her younger brother a big hug which pushed Joshua down onto the wet ground. "I never regarded that conversation as being important, so that's why I had forgotten. I never thought your words contained such significance. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry!" Rosette said overwhelmed with emotional joy to the point that tears had too fallen down onto her face. Joshua was becoming so emotional with the situation that he could not resist crying. "Welcome back Joshua!" Rosette gladly thought to herself as she was both relieved and happy that the days of her searching for Joshua were now over!