Retro-cognition

Chapter 3 - The Other Side of Sion

Sion snorted. "I didn't endanger anyone."

She found it hard to believe her own ears. Feeling speechless, she gawked at him. Was he for real?

"Don't look at me like that," he said. His hands were stuffed deep in his pockets, and he leaned against a brick wall. Unique hadn't noticed their location, but now she recognized the view as an alley. Garbage containers reeked beside them, and she could still hear the commotion from the crowd in the distance.

"Excuse me? Did you not see the violence that happened back there?" She struggled to stand up.

"Pffft. That was nothing. I only added a dash of passion, the rest of it the humans took care of themselves."

"Wait. You just added 'a dash of passion'? How in any way can you justify that—you know darned well that they would not have acted on their feelings if you hadn't tampered with them."

He shrugged. "It was fun."

Unique had to fight to keep a level head. She was about to launch an attack on him once more. With regret, she recalled how her last rash decision caused them to fall in disgrace. There wasn't any need to worsen their case.

"You have to remove their passion again, Sion. It's not right for you to—“

"I don't know how," he interrupted.

"What?"

"I don't know how to remove passion again." He looked down at the ground, scraping his foot against the pavement.

"Why would you use your powers then?" She groaned. "You have got to be the most irresponsible, sadistic, idiotic and brainless God ever!"

Silence fell after that. Unique couldn’t think of anything to say, and Sion wasn’t uttering a sound either. She tried to think of something to counterattack his affinity with, anything that could reverse the effect.

“Do you know wherein your power lies?” she asked.

Sion raised his head and met her eyes. “I’m not sure what you mean?”

“As in…” she searched for the right words. “Can you make them feel something that they don’t already have within them?”

“No. I can’t tamper with free will—none of us can.”

“So, in theory, it should be possible to make them recall their reasons not to act on their desires?”

“I would think so, yes. However, it’s not something I can do.”

Unique smiled. “No, but I can.”

“So, let me get this straight… You are gonna waltz out there, in the middle of the human crowd, to touch all the naked people, risk getting stabbed in the process, and mess up your hair?” He widened his eyes for a moment, then flashed a broad grin. “Sounds good to me.”

“Are you for real?” She shot him a look.

“And the best part is that I don’t even have to do anything.” He chuckled. “That’s what I call a solid, bullet proof plan.”

Unique rolled her eyes. She wasn’t even going to respond to that. Such an idiot. She turned on her heel and marched towards the exit of the alley. The sight that met her made her stop in her tracks. 

People had mingled now, and rather than stay away from each other, they were now fighting for which passion to follow. That escalated quickly.

Sion came up beside her and grinned.

“Don’t even start…” she warned. Peering back to the square, she inhaled deeply. Right. This shouldn’t be too hard, right? Just focus on a rational part in their life.

Unique dived into the crowd, and in an instant, the memories hit her. Lust and Revenge was everywhere. She focused on the being rational. She needed rational thoughts to complete this task.

The girl stared at her mother in defiance. This was unbelievable. How hadn’t she noticed this before? It didn’t matter what the girls at school thought. She was a woman the moment she behaved like it—not because she gave up her flower to the first she encountered.

“I’m sorry, Ma.”

Unique checked to see if it worked. It pleased her to see that it did.

It was tiring to see all these memories, for every happy and tender moment she saw, there were also different memories involving sadness and pain.

He looked upon her cold hard face. The things he would do for her—he was angry, yes. But he loved her more. He should forgive her for the pain she brought him. Besides, it was her fault she cheated, right?

The visions hurt Unique to watch. She wanted to shake the man to awareness, and she hated that she caused him to plunge back into the despair.

With every memory, it seemed to become easier. The progress was slow, but the crowd dissolved, and with fewer people to get hyped about, others snapped out of it. Passion was a fleeting emotion for humans, and Unique sent  silent thanks to the goddess of Life for that. It was a shrewd move as far as she was concerned.

When the square was finally empty, she sank down to her knees. Her own breathing echoed loud and clear inside her head. Fatigue filled her, and she wanted to lie down. The aftermaths of hours spent in the minds of the human kind had taken its toll on her.

“Are you going to sit there all day?” Sion asked.

Unique didn’t have the strength to answer. She was exhausted, and she needed to rest.

“Crap.” Sion’s arms wrapped around her waist before her face collided with the pavement. “Don’t pass out on me now.”

Her cheek stung when he slapped her to make here open her eyes. She stared into his brown eyes. Did she detect concern? She wanted to laugh at her own stupidity. But her exhaustion prevented her from moving.

Her mouth formed words that she couldn't speak, and it wasn't before her feet left the ground that she realized Sion was carrying her.

Inconvenient. Unique had wanted to fix this on her own. She had hoped that she would be allowed to gloat and revel in the fact that she was able to use her powers—although, allowed might be the wrong word in this case. It was more a case of her father not being here to prevent her than it was her own doing.

She was far away from being conscious when registered Sion laying her down on the ground. It wasn’t uncomfortable at all.

“Are you hurt?” he asked.

She shook her head once. 

“Alright. Rest a bit, and I’ll keep an eye on things.”

Unique wanted to say that she didn’t trust him with that—she had no reason to. She didn’t have much of a choice though. For every thought she had, the darkness advanced further, and it didn’t take long before everything around her was dark.