~The games have begun.~

Tribulations

"Michael!" I called out to my fiancé as he was dusting himself off from the chains after the Fallen gave him release.

"Elise!" Helena found me different and checked me top-down.

"It's me, Helena. I'm still... me." I was reluctant to say the last word. I was no longer myself if put in my current position. I was now a Fallen soldier, a future Fallen Queen, given a grace period before fully pledging allegiance.

"Did Xandor do anything to you? Did he injure you?" Michael was busy finding stuff he could try to heal though, even when I'm perfectly fine.

"I'm fine, Michael. Stop doing this."

"No, what exactly has he done to you? You actually survived so many hours without me to be with you, my love, and he, our enemy, was who you were talking to for so long... how could I not be worried, and scared? I had to make sure you were safe - I don't want to see you leave me."

"I... I understand." I am starting to see him in a different light. I really am starting to take Xandor's words seriously...

"We need to bring you somewhere, I will be by your side - " He held onto my hand as he said that, but I felt this repulsive sensation. I flung his hand off me, overwhelmed by sudden rage.

"Don't touch me," I snapped. It was Michael's turn to be taken aback by the many other times I was, just from the few days we were together.

"He must have done something to you, you're a totally different person!"

"I... saw the other side of things. You won't understand, Michael. As much as I wish to tell you, explain to you, confide in you, seek your help and assistance, comfort and love from this, you will never forgive yourself and leave me right after I tell you what has happened. And because of that, I will not disclose any information regarding whatever happened between me and Xandor."

"All the more I need to know - and..."

"No more, Michael. I... am in a confused state. I don't know what to do, I must be alone." Knowing I was clear to transfer everyone to a better place and set them free, I brought us to a beautiful meadow still supposedly untouched in the plains. The students, including my classmates, all carefully surveyed the area. They were hesitant, frightened. To believe that such darkness could reign was almost impossible, but it was already done. If they knew I was to join the darkness as well, would they still trust me?

No, they won't. They never will - and I should never place hope on it... And because of that, I can never let them know - including Michael.

And that's why the darkness will always resonate with you. You unknowingly tell lies, you commit sins, and eventually, you'll be swarmed with desires of greed and power.

Go away! Get out of my head!

You have to accept this fate, Ophelia.

Ophelia?! What are you even talking about?!

You'll know in due course... You will come to me. Remember... your parents are in my hands...

"Hey... hey. You still on earth?" Michael brought me back from my thoughts, the battle within my mind. However, I wasn't looking or even thinking of him. I was brought back to the fact my parents had sacrificed themselves for me... as much as they were alive.

"I'm... I'm done. With everything. Give me some personal space." I sternly tried to cut off this conversation.

"I... okay. Just call me if you need anything..." He was pushing my limits too far now...

"Go away, Michael." I finally snapped. Michael, taken aback, decides to leave.

"You can manifest yourself now... the voice within me... that's you, Xandor."

"So smart. It seems I did not choose the wrong candidate." Coming out from shadows in his all black robe with hood, Xandor had shown me, that he had been near me all along when he invaded my mind.

"You know, I can't live without you. I want everything that's yours - since you're the polar opposite of what my life was supposed to be. Guess what? The thought of it feels like a joke." His black fingernails seemed to grow even sharper than the last time I saw him - just a few hours ago.

Grazing my neck and gazing upon my face, masked, he slowly removed it.

"No... you... stop!" He was smiling.

"You hate to show your dark side... but you're so dark in nature. You're hiding something."

"I've committed a sin, a mistake. I swore never to commit sins again. I told myself that would be the only one I would make."

"And I see what it was. Your mind is so open, Elise. And I don't see you differently - I even want to respect you."

"You are a psychopath... You're crazy when you're Xandor. Where's Xavier? Bring him back."

"Oh, Xavier? I sent him into stasis in his dream world. He'll not come back... at least not until you come to me." His hand moved to my face.

"Stop touching me." I pushed his hand away.

"It won't hurt... besides, I see your relationship with Michael has started to become sour. I'm enjoying the show, you know. It's like a movie unfolding itself, every piece is now seeming to fit together."

"And I thought you promised you won't disturb me again."

"You didn't say I couldn't see you, or invade your mind again."

"Yeah, that indirectly caused my relationship to be sour. You ruined a couple's future. My future with Michael. You can give yourself yet another reason to be killed by me now." My hand stretched out to wrench his heart from its place. I got there, but I couldn't penetrate his skin.

"Too naïve." My guard was down. My other hand was not defending. His red eyes glowed brighter as they seemed to make me immobile, his hand now stabbing into my heart.

It felt like hell. I had a glimpse of blurred memories - not mine. Others. I heard cries for help, pleads for escaping death. Psychotic laughing, the change from light to darkness. The fall of someone.

It felt like my experiences, but they were not my memories. Whose memories were those? The pain receded as Xandor's hand left my body.

"That's Xavier's memories. I showed him darkness. It wasn't easy to show him why he should be the new leader, but pain and death indeed worked. It will work again. And this time, it will be you."

"You're seriously funny."

"How about we throw you into a hypothetical scenario and work it out yourself? I believe you might soon understand and even beg me to throw you into the pit." Xandor then "poofed". What?

I didn't care about that. I took a deep breath, steadying my nerves. I took the first step, leaving my room.

Oh, what happened next? I thought I would see nothing but Hell.

"SHE'S ESCAPED! RECAPTURE HER! STOP HER!" A familiar voice. Michael!

"He-" No spells. Michael wasn't summoning anything. Just gunfire. At me. What happened to his powers?

"Kill the Fallen!" A student shouted. The rest chanted after, "To regain what is ours!"

"Halt!" Michael now in Knight form, held his new weapon in his arm, a longsword. Ah, he hasn't lost it yet. Thank God.

"Regardless of your background, whoever you are... you're a Fallen. The Fallen have destroyed this world, and as one of them, you must pay for the sins your race has committed." He doesn't know who I am...

"Sorry?" I asked. I realised what Xandor had meant. This was a warped world, a vision of what the world would become. Except... I was experiencing it.

"Don't act innocent. All Fallen do that." He never hesitated when he said that sentence.

The onslaught of students charged towards me.

Either I fight, control, or surrender.

I didn't want to fight. Those were my friends, in front of me. But at the same time, these friends of mine were trying to kill me! I want to live - I need to live.

So I chose to fight. A surge of energy escaped me, the collapsed fallen bodies of the students in a heap.

I had killed them. By a single decision.

"And that's why the Fallen are never right." Michael was about to plunge his longsword into my chest.

"But the Protectors don't see what's coming in the future." Xandor?

"You have caused suffering to those who shouldn't fight. You led them to us. In fact, I should thank you."

"Y..you! Go away! You're like a curse!"

"Oh, I am a curse, and this Fallen here will be your next. Ophelia..." He held his hand out to me.

"Lord Xandor..." I quietly complied. Michael in this world will not remember my name.

"Show him." Indirectly, he meant, killing Michael, by taking his soul and inheriting everything that is his and convert it to darkness.

That's worse than a sin, you ass!

"Elise..." He... what?!

"ELISE?!" Michael gaped in horror. He backed away, realising what he had caused.

I felt like I was simply reciting what I had rehearsed in a script, just that I did not even do it, to begin with, the pain welling up in my throat as I let out the words that followed, "You abandoned me, Michael. Xandor saved me. He showed me what love is... while you only exercised cowardice."

"Very good... you passed." The warped world faded back to the room I was in.

"Are you intending to give me round two? Tribulations can't possibly come once."

"Maybe... maybe not. I want to have my own Never After - why would I hurt my lover to the point of her death? But maybe after 'death', you might realise the only way for a Fallen to love, is to face pain and suffering."

"Why do you want to hurt me at every single wound spot from before that I try to hide? All I wanted was a normal life - but it happened to fall into your perfect plan. Now you've got me. What else do you want? We've experienced this conversation over and over..." He pulled me closer, our lips close from touching each other.

"Love. Show it to me."

"You won't." Michael's voice interrupted the conversation.

"Mi-Michael, you gotta help me." I threw my hands up in surrender.

"Why is he here?!" His finger pointed to Xandor, who replied with the middle finger.

I couldn't find the words. I wanted to answer so bad, but there simply wasn't anything I could find to explain.

"I will find out your hostility towards this gentleman turned hostile by a single dark soul and tragedy."

"You will not."

"Then I take it that all your care and love towards me was fake. No ring, no proposal, no nothing... still. We were only just friends, weren't we?" I didn't know what went through me, but that's all I felt from him. All I wanted was an understanding. I'm the one making the decisions here!

"It was all tribulations we simply needed to go through, to make our relationship stronger. They were unexpected, but they strengthened our bond. How did we deteriorate over a few days? Why only after you disappeared to be with him?" His voice was breaking, something I couldn't fathom would happen.

"I am sorry. Maybe its the conflict a moderator like me should face."

"It's not a conflict, it's choosing your path. One of utmost importance, that would dictate your fate, whether you live or die." Xandor was sitting leisurely as he let out the words, a sense of pride added to them.

"Somehow, as I hear you more, you sound like a lost friend of mine, turned evil. You can't be him... can you?" Michael lurched forward, moving towards Xandor, attempting to remove his mask-

"Really, Jackson?" A blade held to Michael's neck, almost digging into his skin to draw blood.

"Are you Xavier?" I covered my mouth and thought of how he knew that. I shook my head, thinking it was impossible. But as I went back to see the two, Wayne and Varus had come.

"Are we late to the party?" Blood stains on the mouth, red eyes shining brightly, Wayne seemed to be hungry for blood.

"Varus..." Michael started blankly at his previous friend as if lost all purpose.

"You will not hurt these two unless I say so, Wayne. They are my toys to play with." Toys? Did he call me a TOY?

"I didn't know I ranked so low in your mind, Xandor," I folded my arms as anger washed over me, a hidden dagger unsheathed as I left a wound on him.

"Good, but you brought the wrong weapon. Since we can't make a compromise here... I will see you again soon." Still hiding behind the hood, he threw a smoke bomb and disappeared with Wayne and Varus.

"Oh, so they're gone... again..." But I did not feel relief. In fact, I was dragged away, into a room fully empty, the four walls so near each other. Such a torture room...

"I can't... let you roam free. I don't know whether he will invade your mind, intercept our conversation. You will have to stay here..." Michael removed my mask, and my Fallen form surfaced.

"See, your form can't be controlled... How am I supposed to believe you aren't Fallen? I... I wish it didn't come to this." Michael was filled with doubt. Fear. Confusion. I need to tell him otherwise.

"Michael! You have to believe me. This is what they call sowing discord between us! That's what they want! You will be next!"

"You will stay here.... and..."

He leaves me no choice, Ophelia. I must awaken the other side of you.

I was warped into a dark, soulless world. Raging desires arose within me, and I could not fight them off.

A human passed by. The landscape developed into an empty alley. Hunger. I could not resist it. I was actually drooling at the fact that this human's soul was delicious if I took it.

He turned around and saw me. My red eyes were burning, shown in the reflection of his timid and horrified eyes. He did not know I would freeze him in his tracks. Claws outstretched, I held onto his neck, a soul emerging from his throat, sucked into my body.

I felt amazingly refreshed. For some reason, I could not hear his voice. I saw the lifeless body, and I realised what I had done.

I had killed another person... but I have warped back to reality again, and found myself almost doing the same thing to Michael.

"This is the only way..." A deeper voice. Coming from me.

"If you must do this..." Elemental form surfacing, Michael burned the hands holding him. I screamed in pain, the hands regrowing at a fast rate.

"Michael! You are hurting me!"

"You're lying!"

"I am not kidding you! Look deep into my eyes!" I dived for my mask and held it in my right hand while I stared at him hard. Panting, I held out my mask to him, saying, "You don't trust me? You no longer trust me, do you? Let me ask you. Was our love a lie?"

"It wasn't a lie! You just think I'm controlling you!" Anger towards Michael. The fear of dying. Why do these two emotions reign over me?

"Y... you utterly disappoint me, Michael..." Since Michael was staring into space, although at me, to be exact, I took the chance to slip away, the mask still in my hands. Passing through rooms surprisingly supposed to be noisy, they were all silent. My friends, all looking at me as if they saw a stranger. I wiped a tear from my eye, never looking back again as I ran out into the night.

Author's Note

Depression. I believe I have symptoms of it that are intermittent... but they will always be somewhere inside me, waiting for the right time to strike at my worst.

It's surprisingly the driving factor to let me complete this chapter...

I've got nothing else to say, but if you really enjoyed please give a vote, as it would really improve my spirits and see that my work is acknowledged.