Chapter 192: She Is Running Out Of Time
Robin slashed the ceiling open, and unbuckled her brother from his seat. Ahead of them, a sharp turn at a cliff side had just come into view. The ocean could be seen past the cliff.
"Hiiro, what are you doing?" Her Brother yelled over the wind barrage.
"Hold your breath!" Robin called back. Before placing him in her storage bracer, and jumping out of the car, in the direction of the turn. Right before she landed, she returned to observation mode for a split-second. This removed all the momentum she had built up in the car. Then she immediately returned, landing lightly on the ground, as she pulled out her brother.
"What on earth was that!?" He yelled at her.
Robin pointed at the still airborne car shooting over the edge, down the cliff, and hitting the water.
"Saving your ass." She replied. "But we need to leave soon...they'll be here in a minute."
She pondered as she glanced at her brother, who was still quite shocked by what had happened.
"Say, do you mind getting back in my storage for a moment?" She asked.
"Storage!? That was your storage? That was a freaking rabbit hole from Alice in Wonderland, that's what it was, and now you want me to go back in there?" He asked.
"Yes. I'll take you to see Little Robin." She replied.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Her brother thumped Robin on the back as he urged her to hurry up. And with that, the both of them disappeared from that location.
As soon as Robin arrived on the roof, she brought her brother out again.
"That space....you must never show it to anyone." He said, looking clearly nauseous.
"Noted." Robin replied. "Now shall we go find Little Robin?"
They walked down the hallway to the lockers where she had been hiding.
"Little Robin, I'm back. Are you in there?" Hero Robin asked, knocking on the locker Robin had come out of earlier.
There was no reply.
"Little Robin?" She tried pulling the door open. But, she heard a familiar clicking sound, and jumped out of the way, knocking Her brother to the ground.
BAM!!! The gun trap in the locker fired, spraying buckshot into the lockers opposite it. If Robin had not dropped to the ground, she would have been peppered full of holes.
"Heheheheheheheheheh.." A slow cackling laughter echoed through the hallways.
"Oh so smart you are....but oh how foolish. If you had only left Robin's brother to die, you wouldn't have fallen into my trap."
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Skye flicked his ears and woke up from his nap, looking around. He had felt that presence again. Only, it was almost like it was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Like the buzzing of an annoying fly, he could sense its presense in the room, but couldn't see it.
He felt troubled.
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"Who are you!?" Her brother shouted. "Where's Little Robin!?"
A shadow briefly appeared at the end of the hallway, roughly shaped like a man, flitting here and there down the different hallways about them.
"No worries. Soon enough, I will be the one in control. Ah, just thinking of all that I will be able to do, and you will only be able to watch it all happen. Kekeheheheh."
The voice suddenly came from behind Robin. "And then, maybe we will see who exactly is the person behind that mask of yours, huhuhu...."
Robin spun, unsheathing her sword and cutting apart a swirling dark mist that instantly vanished.
"Ah. ah. ah! It isn't time yet for our grand fight. No need to rush into a world of suffering. But, if you wish to find me, you must be quick about it. After all, you haven't much time left...kukuku, no. You haven't much time left at all." The voice echoed about the two of them.
"Hiiro, did you recognize that voice?" Her brother asked.
Robin narrowed her eyes. She felt like she had heard it once....no more than once. Its manner of speech was similar to Mr Dawkins, but the voice seemed more similar to...
here eyes widened.
"The Trader!"
"What!?" Her brother reacted. "That Trader, really!!?"
"Yes. but, what did he mean be running out of time?" Robin felt puzzled.
"Hiiro...What does this Trader person do?" Her brother asked her, concerned.
Robin suddenly realized. He has Little Robin. Maybe.....he's trying to possess me?
"He wants to usurp little Robin." Hero Robin replied.
"What!? How are we gonna get her back?" Her brother asked.
Robin suddenly felt as if the hallway was spinning, and a huge weight had fallen upon her, as she fell to the ground.
"Hiiro! What's wrong? Did he do something to you?" Her brother asked, beginning to sound far away.
"No....I'm...waking up..." She replied.
Before her vision went fully dark, she clearly heard the cackle of the Trader. "Hurry up little Hero. You're running out of time...."
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Robin's eyes flicked open as she grabbed Chelsea's hand and sat up.
"What time is it?" Robin asked.
"Hold on there! You've slept for a week, so you'll be a bit dizzy." Chelsea warned. "Lie down and let me finish up the treatment I did to prevent the muscles from the weakness of atrophy."
Robin looked at her, slightly dazed. Had it all merely been just a dream? Then why did she feel like there wasn't much time left? She forced herself to remain calm, despite her rapid heartbeat.
"Chelsea, when this is over, please have Jasmine come see me." She said, feeling worried.
Skye's ears suddenly stood up, and swivelled about, as if listening for something. The annoying fly had gone silent. That meant, either it had left, or had quieted down.
Happy that Robin was okay, Skye nudged Robin's hand.
'It's good that you're awake.' He mewed.
When Chelsea brought Jasmine into the room, she noticed Robin was looking worried about something.
"Robin? What is the matter?" Jasmine asked.
"Jasmine, I'm going to ask you something a bit odd, but please bear with me." Robin said.
"All right, let's hear it." Jasmine said. Though she wasn't sure why, she trusted Robin wouldn't ask her to do anything foolhardy.
"I want you to cast High Heal on me." Robin said.
"Of...course...." Jasmine wasn't sure why Robin asked that, but she was happy to oblige. Light mana washed over Robin, soothing the hairs raised along the back of her neck.
There was no screaming, or pain. Robin felt completely fine. Then why...Robin's frown deepened.
"Robin..? Are you all right?" Jasmine asked her slowly, feeling Robin's behavior was odd.
Looking up at Jasmine, Robin pondered what to say, her face expressing a mixture of bewilderment, uncertainty, fear, and dread.
"I'm not entirely sure I am." She replied, frankly.
"Can you talk about it?" Jasmine asked.
"...Even if I can't, the repercussions of keeping this a secret cannot be ignored." Robin came to a decision.
"Call in the others, too. They have a right to hear about it."
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"So, what you're saying is that you met this Trader person in your dreamscape?" Christian asked. "Are you sure it wasn't just a dream?"
Robin recalled what her brother had once asked her. 'What are you afraid of? What are you running from?'
"...Let me ask you, Christian, when you fall asleep every night, do you have the same dream every time?" Robin asked.
"No? Isn't that impossible?" Christian asked.
"It's possible." Robin asserted. "Ever since five years ago, I've had the exact same dream night after night. Sometimes the middle happenings were slightly different, but it was always with a pronounced beginning and a definite end. I know that place like the back of my hand. But this time, this time the ending was much much different. And that's never happened before."
"What did you see?" Chelsea asked.
"I was wearing my mask, standing next to my younger self. Both my younger self and my brother were in horrible danger, so I saved them, but I couldn't take my mask off. Then the Trader came and kidnapped me, the younger me. He said that soon he would be in control, that...soon I would only be able to spectate. And that there wasn't much time left."
"And that's why you wanted me to cast a high heal on you?" Jasmine asked.
"That is...one of the more prevalent reasons." Robin admitted. "Honestly, I'd like to think that this was all just a bad dream, but..." She sighed.
"In that case, I think I have something here that can help you out." Christian said.
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