MEETING AT THE RIVER

I widened my eyes, tears welling up. Then I asked urgently"Was she alive? Was she okay?"

"Yes and no...son, she's gone mad."

I burst into tears, hating myself for what I had done to her.

If I had just listened to her, none of this will have happened.

My dad had not only felt all my mom's emotions in those five minutes, but had also seen all her memories and felt through her senses.

We had no idea how this happened as he wasn't a Braid(controls the nervous system).

But then I realized, Braids had an involuntary skill called Forget Me Not.

It happened when a very precious person to themselves went through an emotional moment and the Braid will feel all their emotions, sense all their stimuli and see all their thoughts and memories, it was a very strong connection between them that was needed to give them this skill.

My dad knew how to control minds using water but I couldn't so that was possibly why it happened to him but not to me.

We had to hurry up.

We arrived in Paris and I activated an illusion to show us where Francois lived.

He lived in a relatively big house and had gotten married.

His daughter crawled to me even when I was outside the house and squealed.

I sensed her mom call her name and knocked the door.

She came out and looked at my dad and me then asked something in French and my dad replied.

"I didn't know you could speak French."I said.

"I can't, I just made her understand the gibberish I was saying by controlling her mind."

I shrugged my shoulders in agreement and walked in as she had allowed us in.

She said her husband wasn't around and we knew exactly why.

He already knew we were coming.

I sensed a bullet coming my way the moment I sensed someone appear, but it wasn't of rubber, rather, of steel.

I wasn't prepared for it as the person appeared barely a meter away from me.

The bullet flew towards my forehead but was sliced into two just in time.

My dad blasted water in the direction of the person but he disappeared.

Just then, he shouted for the woman to go down then made a hemisphere of ice around the four of us as bullets rained out from the outside.

He looked at me and I heard his thoughts, I knew exactly what to do.

The men were shooting at the ball of white ice and it was breaking but refreezing.

One of them started using a machine gun then a swirling sphere of water enveloped the ice, then exploded in a thick, opaque plume of vapour.

They couldn't see a thing but continued shooting, then a blast of water appeared from some of the vapour and started attacking them from behind, but none of them could make a sound, even when they yelled.

When they were all wet and unconscious, the ball of ice sublimed then we got out.

The woman was really scared but my dad promised to take care of her, then he came back to me and said,"I read their minds, they were sent to kill Francois, not us, someone really doesn't want him to talk."

"That's why he left, so neither we nor they will get him, killing two birds with one stone."

"But despite how guilty he is, his family is innocent and they can't be caught in the cross fires."He said, looking at the woman and her baby.

It was midnight and a tall man and a tall teenager, both with crystal blue eyes and incredibly attractive features, each wearing a black leather trench coat, walked onto the shore of the Rhine river with a woman holding her baby behind her.

They each took a step forward and immediately, a layer of frost formed and thickened instantly to be able to support their weight.

Another man looked at them from the opposite side then did the same.

We met in the middle and stopped moving, our ice making a pathway wide enough for both of us to walk on it comfortably, but his spreading all over a large rectangular area of the river he had crossed. I knew how he did that trick now.

He simply brought the future to the present. Making time speed up so an event which was supposed to happen in the future happens in the present, without any butterfly effect.

That skill was called Reverse Time Jump and was the same skill he used when we had our duel. The problem with this powerful skill is that its effect could only be noticed in a circular area, the higher the Chromosapien's level, the wider the area.

Another problem was that, the further into the future one went, the harder it was and there was a limit to how far a Chromosapien can go, depending on their level, but the most useful events usually happened in the more distant future.

We hadn't arranged a meeting, we simply went to the river at the time we wanted, after making a plan which was in his favour. When he looked in the future, he saw the outcome and considered the consequences and agreed, but if the consequences were bad, he wouldn't have come, so it was a long shot of a plan.

He first looked at me, then at my dad, then finally, at his wife and daughter.

He then asked,"Can I be sure that if I tell you what you need to know, you will keep me and my family safe?"

"You have my word."My dad said.

He was quiet for a few seconds, as if considering something, then said,"There's something I have to show you first."

He held our hands then flashes appeared in my mind.

A man was standing behind my mom then stabbed her in the back.

Just then, my dad yelled in pain and held his abdomen.

He fell on his knees and started breathing heavily.

I tried to help him but he collapsed on his side.

Some of his long hair fell into the still flowing river then he came to his senses then looked at me, seeing the pain in my eyes. Then Francois said,"That's what will happen if you go to save her now."

We couldn't risk it. I looked at him, wanting my mom and true love back dearly and tried to compromise by asking,"But what about the butterfly effect? That is just one possible outcome, there are infinite possible outcomes, depending on the decisions we make, maybe you could tell us what to do so that won't happen."

He shook his head then said,"I'm sorry, but I can't do that yet, I can only see the most probable outcome of any decision or situation."

I yelled and fell on my knees, then a huge shockwave shot through the water and made a wall of water to each side of the ice bridge.

My dad yelled my name then stretched both of his arms then the waves disappeared.

I yelled,"It's all my fault!"

He said,"No it's not."

"Yes it is! Anneliese wouldn't be in danger if I hadn't been so stubborn and just listened to her, and mom wouldn't have been kidnapped if I didn't let my emotions get the best of me! Stop trying to make me feel better and just let me bear the consequences of my actions alone!"

He looked at me then hugged me gently and said,"I'm sorry, but I can't do that."

I looked at him and the glow in my eyes dimmed then the whirlwind which was around us dissipated.

Francois then said,"They're keeping them in this location, I'll send it to your phones, but you decide whether to lose a loved one or not."

I knew his light couldn't lie, he couldn't simply make an illusion, it was the cold, hard, truth...