Chapter 101: The Magnum War Part 1: Residual Anguish

Romaine's POV

Waking up in the Realm of the Grid once again, I was experiencing a strong sense of delirium.

"Ah, so you're finally here." A posh voice spoke from behind me

Turning around to brace my greeter, I caught sight of the doomsday clock; which now read 23:50.

"I'm running out of time." I noted out loud

"More so we, are running out of time." He responded

I finally turned to face him, watching as he stood on his glowing green coordinate.

"Prince." I muttered

"Fancy seeing you here too." He responded, "It's a shame we had to meet here in this fashion. I was unaware that you had already connected to the Grid. That would explain the miraculous return of your speed earlier."

"Well, yeah. But, why are you here?"

"Use your head lad. The clock is foretelling an increasingly near apocalypse. We were summoned here to stop it."

"We?" I half questioned

Looking around, I noticed 4 other coordinates glowing. I remembered some of these from my vision of my Time Remnant's memories. Yellow and Violet, the Coordinates of Hope and Vision respectively. And those chosen by the coordinates were Alisa and Kloe, just like in the future I saw.

"Romaine?" Alisa questioned, "What's happening here?"

"I'd like to know the same thing." Kloe concurred

"Look I'm not exactly sure about this myself either alright." I admitted, "I kind of have limited knowledge about this place."

But what was really surprising to me was actually the other two coordinates I saw; residing somewhere outside of the standard circular rainbow made up of our coordinates, were two other non-traditional colors.

"Wait." I stated, "There are only supposed to be 7 coordinates. How's this possible."

"There are seven fundamental coordinates," The Prince corrected, "though there are others which you can say serve more of a supplementary purpose to the seven fundamentals. As you can see, two of our dear friends have been chosen to bear the mantles of coordinates."

Staring at the glowing coordinates outside of the circle, I was left speechless, not knowing how to even react.

"Cassandra Bolt. The current Coordinate of Courage. And Taylor Hart. Now the Coordinate of Versatility." The Prince announced

I didn't even know what to say, it was pretty surprising to even think that Cas would also be chosen as a Coordinate.

"So you're saying that the six of us were chosen to stop an impending apocalypse, Prince?" Cas refocused to the conversation they had prior to me arriving

"Yes, and that apocalypse is most definitely caused by Black Zero." he responded

"Dondre.." I muttered to myself, clenching my fist

"If the Grid's summoned all of us, then it must mean that all of us are required to stop Zero. Though the underlying problem is how Mistresses Kloe and Alisa will come to our universe."

"It's been quite some time since Convergence..." Cas spoke up, "But I think I may still be able to access remnants of the radiation residing where the rifts to their worlds are. By simply ecstaticizing the energy I might be able to reform another temporal rift, though there aren't any guarantees."

"Well it's the best plan we have to go by right now." I backed her up

"It's unsettling to even think of what Zero has planned." The Prince commented

Knowing Zero, and having my Time Remnant's memories of the War, I had a strong feeling I knew what he was planning.

~~~~~~~

Once the Grid had hurled us all back to our respective worlds, I found myself alone in the medical room with Cas.

"I did warn you not to use the technique again, didn't I?" She disappointed scolded, not even wanting to look at me

"I'm sorry Cas, in the moment I thought it was do or die." I explained

"Well in your case, it's 'Die or Die'."

"It doesn't matter to me if I die, as long as Dondre's dead."

"Well then maybe think about how those around you feel, and not just yourself."

"I'm sorry Cas. I know I've been selfish."

"We can talk about it later. Right now we should focus on stopping the end of the world."

Checking the time, I realized it was actually very early, a mere hour past midnight.

That did in fact explain why the environment was so droopy, though it also hinted to me that Cas must've been by my bedside for quite a while.

"Where are the others?" I questioned her

"The Prince should be working on finding out where Zero went, along with the League of Villains. As for the siblings, they didn't take the news about Dondre so well, so they left a long while ago."

The situation's worse than I imagined it would've been. I'm not even sure what to do at this point. I should probably go after them.

"You're gonna go out there aren't you?" She accused, likely using her future sight

"Yeah. I kinda have to."

"Your body needs more rest, you can't go pressuring it again."

"Cas, there's a war coming. And it'll be happening with or without me. I need to give it my all if we want to stand a chance against Zero."

"Well if you die then it can't be said that I didn't warn you."

Cassandra abruptly stood up from her seat and marched out of the room.

If there will be 6 coordinates out on the battle field, then just how big is this war going to be?

~~~~~~~

Getting out of the hospital bed, I changed into appropriate attire and left the lab. Cas never mentioned where the siblings were, but I took a wild guess. With the location in mind, I quickly zipped over there with relative haste.

Walking up to the dedicated gravestone, I saw them kneeling before it just as expected.

"She never did get a proper burial." I half-heartedly commented

Once the two were now aware of my presence, they kept their glances fixated on their mother's grave, not wanting to look me in the eyes.

"Go away." Shante muttered

"Guys it's kinda late." I pointed out, "I don't really think it's a good idea to be out here alone."

"We don't want you here. Just leave."

"Look guys, I know it's a lot to take in-"

"I said leave."

"She's right." Donte agreed, "You should go."

"I don't get it. Why is it me you're mad at? He's the one who took your mother from you."

"Because you lied to us!" Shante burst into tears, facing me to display her hatred, "You knew all this time and you never said anything to us! He killed our mother! How could you just let him live after that!"

"I'm sorry. I really am. But you gotta understand, I wasn't completely sure about who it was until then."

"Lies. All lies!"

"This hatred that you're feeling, it's misdirected. And it's exactly what he wants. You can't let him win Shante."

Taking a glance at Donte, I could tell that he was also experiencing the same pain, though chose to keep quiet.

"Guys, I know how you feel."

"No you're wrong! You'll never know how we feel!" In a surge of anger, Shante pulsated with red lightning and charged towards me

Toppling me over to the ground, she then went on to repeatedly punch me in the face while screaming.

"Why! Why! WHY! It's no fair! Why'd he have to take her from us!"

Refusing to harm her or fight back, I submitted myself to it, allowing her to take out all her emotions on me.

Noticing the severe harm she was doing to me, Donte guiltily came over and gently took her off me.

"Shante..I think he's had enough.." He whispered

"But it's no fair..." She sobbed, slowly coming off me, "He took our mother.."

Helping myself to sit up, I wiped the blood off the bruises on my face.

"He killed my mother too..." I whispered, "And I can guarantee that I, out of everyone else, hate Black Zero the most. And I promise, I won't stop until I make him pay for what he did."

Watching as Black Zero's impact brought two children to such levels of pain and resentment, I made up in my mind that there was no going back. There's nothing in this world that could possibly make me forgive him.