Stands Within: Fate Of Time

Chapter 3: A Stand Plan

Once everyone left the room, Keith sat down on the bench at the back of the room. He thought for a while, before facepalming and thinking, "Ah, f***. I keep forgetting about some stuff. Time and things really do pass by fast when someone is fighting for their life against time-breaking people."

Somewhere from outside, he heard a faint sound of someone. He couldn't make out what they were saying because the voice was soft, but he heard a few words, "Time... War... End..."

It wasn't much, but he could tell that Noah was preparing to wage war on time itself, hoping to bring it to an end. He sweated a bit before testing his Darkheart: Nightmares Of Heaven's reality-altering powers. He made a Stand arrow, and then decided to take the rest of the day off when Sofie, his friend, came into the room. She looked at Keith, and the first thing she asked was, "What's that you're holding?"

"A Stand arrow. Basically, it gives you a Stand. Very simple."

"How do I use it?"

"You stab yourself with the arrow. It'll hurt for a bit but the pain will subside once you get your Stand, that is, if you survive."

"Sounds scary..."

"Don't worry, hopefully it won't kill you or anything."

"I can't believe your words. This is dangerous if it has a mortality rate."

"Well I don't mean to be evil and such but why not trying it for yourself?"

She took the arrow in her hands and suddenly dropped it. It went down with a force enough to scratch her leg. A drop of blood came out, and as Sofie was in a state of shock, Keith looked with happiness and said, "Congratulations, Sofie. You now have a Stand."

Just as he finished, a pair of glasses appeared on Sofie's head, as if they were invisible until Keith said those words. As he picked the arrow up, she took her Stand off and inspected it. It looked no more than a regular pair of glasses, but when she put them on and looked at Keith, a spectacle of words appeared beside his body. She quickly called back her stand with a small gasp as Keith looked and said, "Anything wrong?"

"N-Nothing."

"Try using your Stand again. Focus, and something might happen."

She did so, and multiple words came out in her sight.

"Name: Keith Kawali
Age: 13
Stand: Darkheart"

"Did you do it?" Keith asked, not hearing a sound from her.

She nodded, and Keith decided to think again before saying, "Now, try scanning someone from behind that wall." He pointed to the wall separating his classroom and a grade 7 class, and as she focused, the stats came up.

"Name: Jordan Nan
Age: 13
Stand: Raging Temper"

"It works." She said.

"Perfect. Now, let me use Darkheart's Night Sense to find that b****..."

Within a few seconds, he pointed in a direction and said, "Scan there."

She did, and the following message popped up.

"Name: Noah
Age: 14
Stand: Sunlighting Solarity"

Sofie relayed all this data to Keith, who then used Soul Sight to look deeper. He came out moments later, and said, "So it's the same type of Stand as Darkheart."

"Same type?"

"All its stats are A, except for the range, which is C. The only difference is in the power. I'm guessing it has something to do with light and time, since that time I met him there was a lot of light coming from him and there were also students frozen in time."

"Is that so?"

They both were about to start discussing when a knife suddenly struck the wall behind Keith. He looked to see Steve, who said, "That's what you get for forgetting me earlier."

"Oh. Sorry about that, Steve."

"Nah, it's already done now so let's move on. Any information on that f***er?"

"My friend here," he said, mentioning Sofie, "has gathered a bit of information on that dude. First of all, his Stand is Sunlighting Solarity."

"Based on the name alone, it sounds powerful."

"Secondly, its the same type of Stand as Darkheart."

"That can't be good."

"That's right. I've looked further into it, and found out that its only the first of 3 evolutions to come." Sofie said, peeking further into Noah.

"Meaning if this keeps up, we're all going to die. We have to find him, right now." Steve said.

"Let's not be rash and go out now. I wanna hold a meeting in the sports hall." Keith said.

"Alright. I'll rally the others and get them up."

"Sure thing."

Steve left the room as Keith turned to Sofie and asked, "That was well for a first-time Stand user."

"I don't think it's anything. I just need to get used to it."

"Exactly."

"By the way, I counted over 50 Stand users in this school. One of them is the supposedly Standless guy, Kenntaro."

"Oh? He has a Stand as well? That explains why he was about to see Darkheart although he didn't have any Stand."

"Well, we better get going now." Sofie called back her Stand, and the both of them headed for the sports hall.

In the sports hall, every Stand user whom Keith had called before in the classroom was gathered. He started, "First, let me introduce you to the concept of Stands. You may be confused with what this thing is, but don't worry, it's very simple. A Stand is a physical manifestation of your fighting spirit, and they all come in different types. For example, Vanetta has Silver Chariot, a humanoid Stand, while Sofie has... err... damn, she hasn't named her Stand yet, but its in the form of a pair of glasses."

A few voices were heard, before Keith continued, "Each Stand has different abilities, which can range from long-ranged teleportation to close-range beatdowns to time stops. The only downside about these Stands is that all damage done to the Stand will be also seen on the user. Meaning, if your Stand's hand is chopped off, you will lose your hand."

Again, a few voices were heard, this time with a bit of worry. "Don't worry, don't worry. The reason I got everyone here is because there is someone on the loose. This someone isn't a normal person, it's someone who can easily kill. Not only that, but he has waged war on time itself, and we all have to work together to kill him, because, well, going against him alone in this state is basically just suicide, isn't it?"

"So you're waging war on me, huh?" a loud voice boomed.

Keith recognized the owner of that voice, and said, "F***."