The Path of Time ★ [3] ? (EDITING)

The Time Stone

Something was fishy about her. One minute, she was taunting me that Eon was going to destroy me and those I loved. Then the next she was warning me about an impending civil war among friends. She was flip-flopping between sides, and that made her even more untrustworthy. But why? What was she trying to gain? Information from Eon? Information from me? Both?

"What do you gain from this?" I continued to back away towards the Stone, and the two in front of me forwarded. "All you're doing is causing more destruction, more death. Is that really what you want?"

"I want a life!" my live reflection snarled. "Why do you get to live and the rest of us die? What's so special about you that you're allowed to live? Why you?"

I frowned. "Trust me, I ask myself that every day."

"You can't win, Andi," Chameleon said. "I don't like this anymore than you do, but we all must do what we have to in order to achieve freedom for all."

"You mean total control." I glared at him hatefully. "He'll turn on you. You're naïve if you think that he won't." I pointed to the south. "There are innocents dying out there because of what you're doing! Astra, Jax, Sirius, Patroclus and Patronus. You're sentencing them all to a death they don't deserve! And for what? Power? Freedom you already have? What more do you want that people have to die for it?"

Chameleon clenched his teeth, the ever-changing colour of his eyes gleaming in what looked like...uncertainty? "I'm doing this to stop war."

"And by trying to achieve that, you start one? What kind of logic is that?!"

"Enough of this!" Dark Andi powered up, her hands glowing a darker gold than my own. "Your mind games will not work on us. The Time Stone will be Eon's. He will take the Shards. You will be his as I am, and you will watch this timeline shatter and the Chronos burn. You will watch us take every universe and mould it how we wish."

As if I was going to allow that to happen. I would let the Time Stone tear me apart before I allowed any of that to happen. "I'm going to have to take a rain check on that." Only a few steps away from the Stone. If I could just reach for it...

"Andromeda."

My blood ran cold. My body stood rigid as I swallowed, the air tense with evil hanging in it as much as the feel of power.

I turned, only to be staring into the red eyes of Eon. His calm rage was more terrifying than his real anger would be, and I would know. I'd seen it before. He towered over me, making me look small, like a lion over a mouse.

"That Stone is mine, my dear," Eon purred. "If time is to persist unbroken, then I must take it."

I snorted. "You know, the more bullshit you spout out, the more insane you sound." I raised an eyebrow. "And what do you really want it for? World domination? You know as well as I do the Stone belongs to no one, that it should not be in the hands of either of us."

"You are ignorant, Andromeda," he growled. "Time must be restored." He took a step forth, making me step back. "Your masters have wrecked it for too long. What is damaged must be mended."

"You're a Walker, too, Eon. They're your "masters" as well."

"They are no masters of mine!" he snarled. "They are no leaders, no saviours, of mine. They are as much tyrants as you are!"

"Tyrants?" My blood began to boil. I was tired of being linked to the Lord and Lady. I was tired of being compared to them. I was not them. I would never be them. "I am no tyrant, Eon! All that I have done has been for time itself! Not for selfish gain and control like you."