CHRONONAUT | Honkai Impact

Chapter Two: Ghosts of the Past

(A/N): Honkai lore is very convoluted, even after playing through the game and checking a couple of wiki pages I still don't have full confidence to reproduce an accurate story set in the past. Anyways, thank you for guys for 100 reads. 

Formatting:

"Speaking"

'Thoughts'

"Herrscher of the Void Speaking"

'Herrscher of the Void Thoughts'

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The Herrscher of the Void found herself somewhere she considered nostalgic. Peeking through the trees, she saw a simple cabin in the woods. From the outside, no one would have thought that Siegfried Kaslana would be living in such a place.

The moon was hanging on the sky, and the flames of a candle could be seen from inside the house. Others might think that it was just a primitive form of lighting for a house that seemed borderline primitive from the outside, but the Herrscher knew better.

The candle was undoubtedly a birthday candle. Every year on this day she would celebrate this insignificant human holiday. Despite that, she wasn't here to see her former self in all of her confused, content, but lonely glory. 

Instead, moving to the other side of the house, she looked through the window from afar into her so called father's room. 

It was also today that she saw the few moments of weakness her caretaker revealed, as he would just sit and cry for hours about Cecilia and Kiana. It was also today that gave the past her a large portion of doubt about her own identity.

After all, she was foolish back then, thinking herself to be Kiana. 

Suddenly, the Herrscher teleported a few kilometers away, as Siegfried, who had previously been weeping sadly, suddenly look up in the direction that the Herrscher was standing at previously. 

'I swear...' The man thought to himself, blinking a few times in confusion.

Now on the other side of the house, the Herrscher breathed a sigh of relief. Having someone see her was still a unknown variable in time travel, especially someone like Siegfried that may have recognized her with just a look.

'Now comes the part where I figure out how to get back.'

Thinking about going back to the Herrscher of Thunder's apartment, she suddenly feels a tug, like something hinting at her. As her desire to return increased, the tug got stronger, until she was dragged back into a familiar apartment room. The timeline glowed like nothing had happened and she found herself standing, rather levitating, in front of it. 

'How convenient.'

The Herrscher of the Void turn to another image, almost involuntarily, reaching out to touch it. Feeling the now familiar tug on her, she allowed herself to be transported.

This time, she found herself levitating a good deal away from the scene, but her superior eyesight saw it all the same. The ground was scorched, and a familiar man stood over her past self. 

"Why do you fight?" her past self asked.

"because I am Kaslana" was the simple response. "I fight for all that is beautiful in this world."

Helping the girl up Siegfried said,

"And you are too, Kiana Kaslana."

The Herrscher remained silent, looking at this exchange. She felt like laughing at the notion of her protecting anything, but she couldn't as a foreign emotion invaded her.

'It's funny isn't it' 

Another voice inside her head.

'Protecting all that is beautiful?'

'You are just a vessel built for destruction, carrying out your destiny as the world's reckoning is your mission'

Gritting her teeth, she shook the voice out of her head, it was just mere whispers in her mind. Doubt? She never felt any, although...

'This new feeling, could it be?' 

Transporting herself back to the timeline, the voices in her head seemed to be gaining momentum. Criticizing, taunting her. However, she also couldn't find any faults in them.

'A monster built for destruction'

'Why should you have a second chance after destroying the lives of so many?'

'Do you honestly think that feeling remorse now means anything?'

It became unbearable, and in her inward battle with these whispers, she seemed to lose all control over her body, reaching out and transporting herself to a vary familiar scene. 

The ground was ingulfed in flames as mechs and honkai beasts tore each other apart, and standing on top of it all was her, staring down upon the destruction.

'And you loved it, the feeling of being in control'

'Stop it...'

Her own thoughts now felt weak, and she barely managed to bring herself back into the space between time.

'Fraud!'

'Fraud!'

'Fraud!'

'You weren't meant to be saved, your life is here because of the sacrifice of another, the original'. 

It was no stretch to say that they were getting louder and louder, as the Herrscher lashed out at seemingly nothing, splitting a chair into two with her lances, stumbling, her hand reached out involuntarily again, bringing her to another scene she hadn't wished to see.

Her mentor, Himeko, as she desperately rushed towards another version of her. Everyone, at that moment, whether it be herself, her past self, or her mentor, knew that someone was going to die. Yet she, who could make a change right not, cannot do anything but watch as the taunting grew to an unbearable level.

'A worthless sacrifice'

'In the end she saved no one'

"ENOUGH!" the Herrscher screamed, out of desperation or pain even she herself wasn't sure, her eyes shut from the excruciating pain.

This seemed to reduce the voices into nothingness, but something else was also wrong. Opening her eyes, she only found the reflection of clouds across a vast body of water that she currently sat in.

"Took you long enough to get here!" a familiar, overly cheerful voice greeted her from behind. She turned to see, well, herself, both of them in fact.

Sirin and Kiana stood side by side, the core of flames also rested comfortably next to them, as if listening in on the conversation.

"What...?"

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(A/N): And that concludes the Void Queen's one chapter long mental breakdown. Hopefully it wasn't too awkward to read.

 Also, on a side note, if it shows that I updated without any new chapters, I likely either made a mistake or I went back to correct some stuff from previous chapters.