Chapter 11(Lee): A Divide In Time

Every part of my body burned, my arm, my eye, my mouth, all I heard was dripping, I wasn't even in my body! I tried to stand up, but the pain was unbearable. I looked up and saw people standing in shock, but my vision was too blurry, I looked around and noticed my left arm was missing, I tried to shout but couldn't, soon my vision began to crawl back to me, and I noticed everyone, a Kenneth who looked ready to die, Nicholai, Matt, and even my wounded self who Kenneth was leaning on, the only people that weren't there was Sam, Kyle, and Kayla which meant, the body I'm in now, was one of them, but with the pink hair in my face, the only result could be Sam

I jolted up from my bed and immediately noticed someone to my left jumping back in surprise

"Who the hell are you!?" The guy stood there, he cleared his throat and answered my question

"It probably won't matter who I am, so let's just focus on what I'm doing" Hmm, I actually would prefer that "I was stabilizing you, in your sleep, your cuts reopened, you shouldn't fight for a good amount of time" I looked at myself, my hand was bandaged, as was my other wounds.

"And where are the others?" The guy ignored my question and started to walk out of the room "Hey!"

"..uhhh" He sighed "Matt...is out on a mission that Madoka asked hin to go on" He seemed defeated even though I just asked. I got up and began walking "Hold on! Where are you going!"

"You said I can't fight right? That doesn't mean I can't help" I opened the door to the room and left. I noticed that I had a message

Going on a mission
Recipients: Matt and Lee

Knowing you, you're going to try and
find me when you wake up
and so, I won't try and stop you,
I'm in sector AT1 on the mountain
it's a sniping operation, so maybe you
could be my spotter-Matt

Alright, I at least know where he is, I'm sure that I remember what mountain he's on about, and on I went, I didn't even see Madoka or Kyle on my way out.

I arrived where Matt should be, it was tiring, then again, I should still be resting. I saw him, he was laid down near the edge of the mountain with a sniper, in his off-hand, was the spotter I assume he'd give to me

"Here" Still looking through the scope, he raised his hand that held the spotter "It has a button that'll ping whatever press the button over, on my scope" I laid down next to him, and with my uninjured arm, I raised it "Over here is where we're looking at" Through my spotter, I saw a blue arrow, I looked over and it was a ping on a Reunion base, how'd I know? It had the name over it on my spotter.

"Alright, I see them" there were fifty out in the open, there were most likely more around the place. "Who're we trying to get"

"You see this guy?" one of the soldiers were surrounded by a blue outline, most likely by Matt "His armband, we're trying to take out everyone with that armband"

"Will do" I began to look around, five, five other people had that armband, well, if there are people who don't have the armband inside. I pinged the five of them, and they were outlined with a white-ish pink color.

"That should be it, tell me if anyone tries to run" I heard Matt flick off the safety and a bullet went flying, hitting one of the armband people. When the bullet hit a few of the soldiers summoned weaponry and began to look around.

"One of the armbands running to the left exit, three heading for the building, and the last heading for...something" Matt continued shooting, first the three in the building, then the guy going to the left exit, there were a few shots he missed, but most of them were good shots.

"Hold on! Don't kill the last one, I wanna know what he's doing" I heard moving, most likely Matt lowering his gun. The guard ran to a patch of grass that had a keypad near it, after they pressed a few buttons, it opened up!

"There's a secret base under that?" I already remembered the code, the spotter I had, wielded some incredible zoom power. 3378, that was the code, A part of me wondered how they thought of the code though.

"Shoot him, I got what I wanted" I heard movement again and then a bullet flyed through the air, right as it was about to hit him in the head however, one of the guards deflected it. "Damn it!" From how much they were looking in our direction, they could tell where we were "Matt, let's get going, we got most of them anyways"

"Yeah! The job was taking out a few, so it should be fine" I lowered my spotter as Matt lowered his sniper

"Watch this be a major issue" We both turned and began to walk, we were far enough to where we could walk for awhile and be fine. Matt grabbed the collar of my shirt and moved me as a sickle went flying past us.

"Damn it!" I stood straight and saw that Madoka was attacking us? No, this must be the fake one

"Matt" I began to whisper to Matt "You think I can do it?" I motioned to my headband, I had an idea, snow is water when you melt it, I have a headband that can cause electricity to spark, which means, I can shock her.

"Go for it, I'll do the melting" Madoka charged us before Matt could do anything, no, she wasn't charging the two of us, she was coming after me only! I summoned my sword, one handing it while trying to defend myself, but a bullet flew in between me and Madoka, causing her to jump back. I looked in the direction the bullet came from and saw Sam and her group walking towards us.

"Sa-" My warning to Sam about the vision, and about Madoka, I saw was cut short by Madoka striking again, Matt blocked it with his axe, he pulled the trigger that was on it, causing a shotgun-like spread to fire out of all the holes. Some of the snow was already melted, I took off my headband and put it into the water, then I slid it across the water, causing a strike of electricity to go through it, it was a small shock of course, it wasn't an active current, but it was enough to harm the fake Madoka.

"Why are you three fighting!?" Sam's crew began to run towards us, damn it, with how we look fighting an "official" DT, and how the fake Madoka won't let us speak, they may attack us

"Finally!" I heard a voice similar to Madoka's behind me, as I turned to look a flash clouded my vision, I regained my composure and looked at where it went. The real Madoka and the fake were holding each other still by clashing their sickles together, forcing both to be unable to move

"Wha-What the..." Nicholai was confused, I don't blame her, seeing two of the same person without explanation was weird.

"The hell are you doing!" The real Madoka was shouting at the fake one, the fake Madoka tried to break free from the attrition battle by pulling out a pistol, but Madoka broke out from the attrition, striking and breaking the pistol in half, then forcing the fake back into the clash

"Sam, Let me explain, the Madoka you all were with was a fake, just like how that New Min wasn't the real one!" Sam, Nicholai, and Kenneth just stood in confusion "To put it simply, that Madoka is the fake!" I pointed at the fake Madoka, everyone stood in hesitation, thinking for a bit

"Let's believe him for now, everyone support the real Madoka" I didn't expect Nicholai to be the one to agree with me, but it was good, knowing that if Nicholai of all people trusted me, then I know that the others do as well.

"Our job was is protect! Not kill!" Both Madokas separated, the fake Madoka twirled her sickle while the other readied herself. The rest of us ran to help the real Madoka "No! This is my job! Go tell New Min to cut this place off" What the? Cut off the whole area?

"What about you? You're in danger as well" Sam questioned Madoka's decision

"I was ready from the day I was born, not like I'm dying here" As Madoka finished her sentence the fake one charged her, attempting to hook onto her leg. Sam fired a shot at the fake Madoka, hitting her in the arm.

"Let's go, if Madoka wants us to leave, then we gotta leave!" Kenneth shouted at us, we all joined him in running, firing potshots at the fake Madoka before we lost sight of them.

"Let me get this straight, we were with a killer?" I didn't know what Sam was talking about, that was until I remember what Madoka said 'Our job is to protect, not kill' Which implies that the real Madoka knows the fake one...no, from what I understand that Madoka was real, so instead, I'll refer to them as Madoka P, and Madoka K, for protect and kill.

"I don't know for sure, but from what I understand, yes" Kenneth swayed his back to the front of him, opening it and taking out his drone "I'll use Dave to keep an eye on Madoka" Kenneth slowed down slightly as we kept our normal pace. The sky became darker, with purple clouds taking over the air. Without speaking, we all made an expression that showed we knew it was bad. I made the connection, the symbol on my name that showed corruption was purple, the sky was purple, there were two Madokas, so while the purple clouds could just show a storm, the coincidences were too much.

"Let's stay in here" Matt slide a bit while turning left, then going inside a cave system, on closer look, however, it seemed more like a mining system, with the railroads for minecarts and all that

"We'll wait out this if we have to" I was near the exit, Kenneth hadn't come in yet, and a purple mist had begun to set, there was no more doubt in my mind, this had to be corruption, even if i didn't understand how it worked entirely, I could make an educated guess "Where's Kenneth?" Sam and Nicholai came over to peek out with me, seeing that the mist had spread

"He couldn't be that far back, he was just behind us" Sam took a step outside looking everywhere for Kenneth with no result. two Madokas obviously from different worlds, maybe by some chance Kenneth was transported into the Madoka K's world, but that would be overkill, so I marked it off as improbable.

"...What if he passed out from the mist?" Nicholai had made me realize that Sam had backed into the cave, coughing, I had forgotten that the corrupted mist, caused corruption, me being corrupted must've canceled out any effect, but my eye started to burn a bit, it was clear that even with me being corrupted, I was on a timer.

"I'll go look for him!" I stepped outside, ignoring any warning that the others shouted at me "Kenneth! Where are you!?" I began to backtrack, it wasn't just mist, the air from the storm the clouds were brewing made it seem like I would fly away if I didn't keep my footing. After walking for a bit I stepped on a bag, I kneeled down and noticed it was Kenneth's, my eye's pain increased. I felt around looking for Kenneth, I couldn't see anything in this mist. I eventually felt something, I looked closer and noticed it was Kenneth, I grabbed him with my non-wounded arm, and began to drag him, soon I lifted him up, leaning him against me. When I reached the mining system again, my eye felt ready to explode, then I realized what was going on, Kyle, Kayla, and Madoka were missing, Kenneth was leaning against me, Sam was away from everyone, coughing, this...this was that vision, my eye wasn't hurting because of the mist, it was because the events in my vision were about to happen, I still had time, Sam was okay, but, if I dropped Kenneth now and go after Sam, he might end up getting a worse form of corruption than me, and who knows what'll happen to me, but...Sam was brutalized, then I noticed, there was another entrance to the system, and it was near where the two Madokas were fighting. I had a decision, no, I had three decisions, all were risky, all could result in pain. But, this, this was where I could change the future. This is where time and everything could split off into different timelines, this, was my break in time.

"Three choices await, three different timelines and stories await, I, shall leave it to you all"

Choice A: Let the vision play out normally

Choice B: Drop Kenneth and potentially take the blow

Choice C: Try shooting towards the entrance and preventing anyone from getting hurt