Time Ruins All

/Usual Warning. This is my first FanFic, so expect problems with grammar, Pacing, character personality, and more. Enjoy!\ Help, my motivation is dying. Insert crying face\

Year 3320 Jan 1

 Planet Zero

 Small flying creatures soared through the clear blue sky, ignoring the small child pursuing them.

 Said child was adorned in a dark green kimono, three strips of purple cutting through its middle, and a few bright gems lining its collar. Her wooden sandals made dull thuds as they collided with the dirt making up the garden; her breaths were quick but paced, showing she had practiced doing this.

 With a sudden burst of movement, the small girl jumped, clearing a remarkable height, yet instead of falling like you'd think one would, a sudden layer of transparent purple overtook her small form before stopping her descent and allowing her to run on air.

 A couple of feet away stood a man with raven hair and emerald eyes, a smile painting his pale face as he watched the joyful form of Clementine, hopping away.

 Yet he knew Tanya would grill him if he let her go too far, so he had to stop her chase, even if it was entertaining.

 Lifting my hand, I aimed it at Clementine, watching as her purple hue disappeared and replaced with a more vibrant green. Pulling back my hand' her hovering form turned to face me while beginning to inch closer in my direction, and I couldn't help but chuckle at her frowning face.

 "Now, now Clementine, you know the rules."

 She crossed her arms and turned away. "The rules are stupid."

 I watched her curiously before scoffing. "Damn right, they are."

 By the look on her face, she probably wasn't expecting that answer. But before she got any ideas, I continued. "However, rules are there to protect and keep us safe, and if you go around breaking these rules, not only does it defeat the purpose of having them in the first place, but it also leaves you taking risks that one would've avoided had they listened to them."

 She huffed again before speaking out. "Well, the rules only apply to the manaless, and, unlike them, I have mana, so I don't need these so-called rules to protect me when I can do it just fine myself."

 I couldn't help but gush over her, as even if it was downright deplorable to call someone manaless, her attitude was starting to take on Tanya's mentality. I could only shudder and silently apologize to her poor future mate for all the inevitable evil acts she's bound to get into with Tanya's mindset.

 A very painful bonk on the head later, and I was brought back to the conversation at hand by my loving and adorable daughter, her pissed-off face sending shivers down my spine.

 "Stupid Old man, stop ignoring me!"

 My eye twitched with vigor at her name-calling. 

 With a solid smack to her head, I shouted back. "I'm not old!"

She clutched her head while giving me the stinkeye before shouting back. "OLD OLD OLD OLD OLD! MAN!"

 That earned her another bonk on the head.

 Her forehead was tented red at this point, and a small trickle of tears formed under her eyes, yet with the resilience of a mule, she continued to mock me.

"STUPID BAKA! YOU'RE A STUPID BAKA OLD MAN!"

 My teeth were close to becoming an industrial grinder as she not only called me old, AGAIN! But she had used it with that cursed word Tanya refuses to elaborate on! What the fuck does it mean!?

 Deciding I did not want to punt my daughter to the next stratosphere, I put a hand over her mouth, stopping her from spewing any more slander.

 "Now listen here missy, if you don't stop with the slander immediately, I will make sure Tanya finds out about your little accident a few days ago!"

 I watched with some satisfaction as her face somewhat drained of color. Yet that satisfaction was dashed as I felt the snarl starting to form under my hand. So, afraid of getting my fingers bitten off, I pulled my hand away from her, involuntarily letting her voice free, and what a voice she had.

 As soon as her mouth was free, a burst of tears rushed forth, soon followed by kicking and screaming to be let free of her air imprisonment, yet, when neither worked, she resorted to the one word I wished she hadn't screamed.

"MOMMY!"

 A second later, I felt a fist connect to the back of my head, sending me spiraling into a sleep that would last at least a few hours.

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 Year 3392 October 23

Not Long After the Inns Assault  

 Not once did I let my eyes wander away from Lee as he began to explain what had happened while I was asleep and what was coming next. 

 Each of his soft words felt like a hot knife skidding across my throat as my anger began to bubble, and my shoulder started burning with unbridled red as my thoughts fell back to possible ways to end the pathetic lives of the ones who dared to commit these atrocities.

 Sadly, for both my volatile emotions and angry red mana, Lee noticed and was quick to try and calm me.

 "Clem." His hand tightly gripped the area of the butterfly, smothering its heat and light.

 "Calm down." his voice echoed.

 I coldly stared back at him, doing my damnest to smother my anger, getting mixed results for trying.

 Yet, despite my cold gaze, his soft voice never wavered, nor did his eye contact, both things I found astonishing as no one in the thousands of years of my expansive life had anyone ever had the gall to look my dead in the eyes and speak without fear.

 My head, once full of anger and rage mixed with mild curiosity, was overtaken by a mind-rending headache as memories not of my own fell into awkward places in my head, feeling as though they were corrupting and overtaking many of my memories.

 Before I could dwell on why they suddenly appeared, Lee pulled me back into focus with his worried voice and gaze.

 "Clem? What's wrong?"

 As odd as the new problem was, it had taken my mind off of the newfound rage for the scum I never even saw.

 So, with the headache and rage gone, I spoke back to Lee, trying to ease his worries. "I'm fine, just another headache."

 His questioning gaze went curious for a moment before settling on acceptance. 

 I sighed as I continued watching Lee. He may not like it, but for both our sakes, I chose not to tell him about the newest problem, as he and the rest already had to deal with where we were going next, if at all.

 Our short stare-off was cut short by Lilly and her commanding voice demanding everyone's attention, which she got. Bar Kenny as he was watching the road.

"So. Who was it...?"

 Someone scoffed at this question. The scoff was soon matched to a voice as Carley spoke up.

 "What do you mean, who was it? It's already settled, so drop it already."

 I was curious to know what she meant by 'Already settled' but chose to ignore it, more interested in listening to what they were saying.

 Lilly didn't seem too pleased with what Carley said, and both her face and voice could testify to it. "No! It's not settled! Someone in this group is a fucking traitor and has been stealing supplies to fork over to the bandits that attacked the inn!"

 Near the end of her rant, Kenny spoke up, his voice surprisingly steady and clear despite splitting his attention to both the road and the current conversation.

 "God, Lilly, we'll deal with this shit later; right now, we need to figure out what we're going to do because we can't go back to the inn."

 "No, we deal with this now."

 Through all this, I was more surprised Lee hadn't spoken up, as he was usually the one trying to break up fights, yet when I turned to look at him, his eyes were fixed on Ben, giving me the impression that either Lee knew something and was keeping silent or he suspected something and was trying to decide whether or not to speak up.

 Ignoring the ongoing argument between the others, I also shifted my attention to Ben, trying to see what Lee was seeing, and boy, did I see a lot.

 The constant twitch of his hand, the repeated glances he was throwing Lilly's way, and the far more timid attitude he bore compared to his usual skittishness. 

 Now, I was by far a good analyst, but everything he was doing screamed suspicion, and thinking of it now, maybe that was why Lee was keeping an eye on him.

 But I wasn't here to point fingers, so I promptly shook my head and returned to the argument, keen on letting Lee deal with whatever was going on with Ben. 

 Unfortunately, I wouldn't get to do that as I was torn from it by the screeching sound of tires on pavement, followed by the loud thud of something colliding with the front of the RV.

 "FUCK!" Was the only word heard as Kenny spat it with enough venom you'd think it could kill.

 "Kenny, calm down." Came the soothing voice of Katjaa as she tried to calm Kenny. However, while it was a fine effort, it ended in vain as, with a slightly less shout, Kenny continued.

 "Alright, everyone except Clementine, Katjaa, and Duck, get the fuck out; Lilly, you deal with this shit outside while I try and find out what we hit, and so help me god, if it's not settled by the time you get back on the RV then you can forget about it because I'm not listening to none of that bullshit again."

 Seeing as this was the kind of attitude that set Lilly off, I was genuinely surprised to see her nod her head and step out, soon followed by Ben, Carley, and after a lighthead pat, Lee. 

    That left only me, Katjaa, and the unconscious form of Duck as his shallow breaths filled the silence.

    Ignoring the ever-louder arguing coming from outside, I walked up to Katjaa, trying to get a better look at Duck, but what I saw was not pretty. His face, once so bright and full of life, was as pale as a ghost; deep bags sat under his eyes, making him look like he hadn't slept in months.

     Silence held as I continued staring, wondering why he looked so terrible. That was when a slight shift of movement originating from Duck's neck had me realize something I would have preferred not to learn. He'd been bit.

   Letting my eyes take in the singular second Katjaas's hand wasn't covering Duck's neck, I saw every grueling detail completing the bite, all the way down to the shallow but deep punctures and back to the individual indents looping back on itself to make a pointy oval.

   It wasn't long before her pale hand was returned to its place on his neck, blocking my view of its gruesome visage.

   Unbothered by this, I kept staring, trying to grasp the weight of this discovery, yet every time I felt myself coming close to its significance, it would suddenly vanish, leaving me feeling numb and indifferent; it was frustrating.

    Eventually, my gaze was interrupted by Katjaas slightly shaky hand re-covering the bite mark while doing her best to stem what little blood flowed out from it. Pulling my eyes from the now-covered wound, I brought them up to meet Katjaa's, her saddened eyes having already noticed me.

   With a brief stare-off, Katjaa eventually looked away, seemingly even sadder than when she hadn't noticed me. I wanted to feel bad, I wanted to feel pity, and I wanted to feel anger, but those odd memories are messing it all up.

  I don't feel sad or angry, and I can't feel even the slightest bit of pity; it's as if everything's become dull and lifeless. It's sickening.

   "Hey, Clem, I know this may seem a bit odd considering you're still a child and all, but... have you ever felt broken?"

   Katjaas's sudden, outspoken voice startled me, causing me to nod while going off of the foreign memories stuck in my head, completely disregarding my own.

     At my nod, Katjaa laughed. "Ohh Clem, you don't have to pretend to know what I'm talking about, but thanks anyway." She said with a muffled smile.

   Disregarding her blatant insult to my intelligence, I continued listening.  

    With a noticeably tired sigh, she leaned into the seat, tilting her head up before continuing.

   "Before this mess, I was a quiet and gentle person, only ever getting truly angry with rude pet owners looking to treat their animals or Kenny on bad days, hell." She looked at the gun on the dash. "I couldn't even hold a gun properly, let alone shoot one, yet here I am, a decent shot with multiple rounds fired. I hate it." Her gaze fell from the gun and onto Duck. "And this here," she said while stroking Duck's cheek, "Is my baby, my pride and joy, one of the few reasons I was trying so hard to make it through this, and yet here he is, lying half dead in my arms, barely holding onto what little life he had left."

    The short pause gave me a chance to speak. "You think it's your fault, don't you?"

   She smiled. "I don't think it's my fault; I know it's my fault; had I been more aware, the walker would have never gotten so close; had I been a bit braver, I could've taken the bite instead, but I wasn't, I wasn't more aware, and I wasn't enough, and the one to pay for both of those flaws was my little Ducky." She was chuckling at this point, tears rolling down her paler face. "What a horrible mother I am."

     Even if these foreign memories were subduing some of my emotions, none of them could keep the feeling of denial from welling up inside me, and I was going to voice my denials and tell her she was wrong about everything; that was when an ominous silence cast over the argument outside, before erupting again, but this time with the loud crack of a bullet echoing thought both the RV and most likely surrounding forest.

   Every word and denial slipped from my tongue as my ears rang with vigor unlike any before.

   Moving faster than ever before, I clutched both my ears in an attempt to stop the familiar blinding pain filling them; it didn't help. The ringing continued, and I could feel warm liquid leaking through my fingers before falling down my cheeks.

    My vision was blurred as my eyes widened to their possible limits; I could feel myself falling to the floor and pressing against anything in reach as hard as possible. My mind was a mess as I curled into a ball, squeezing my eyes shut with a force that had me seeing white. The last thing I thought of before passing out was how Ironic this was.

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"DROP THE DAMN GUN!" I shouted as I pinned her hand holding the gun.

    With slow and unsure actions, her hand slowly unclenched from its grip on the gun, letting it slide out and fall to the ground. Using my head, I gestured for Kenny to grab it, and he did it without a second thought, quickly swiping the gun from the ground and putting its safety on before uncaringly shoving it into his pocket.

   A shout from Katjaa pulled us from our stupor and gave Kenny and Ben their voices back.

"Kenny! What happened!"

  "Fuck! Keep Duck away from the window! Everybody get on; we're leaving this crazy bitch behind!"

  I wouldn't admit this to anyone, but for a very brief second, I thought the idea of leaving her behind was too much, but it was after I took another glance at the now lifeless body of Carley that I burned said thought.

   "She couldn't be trusted, Lee. I swear. Please."

Letting her go from the pin, I spoke. "You're not coming with us."

    Her face of dread wouldn't move my decision on this as she started to plead. "Please, Lee! I'll die out here!"

     Unbothered by her statement, I turned away. "I don't care."

  Kenny chose to continue from where I left off. "You're a murderer, Lilly. We can't have you with us."

   Her face became more desperate as she tried pulling a card that would have had me nervous had I not already told Kenny. "I'm a murderer!? You've had Lee here this whole time!"

   And Kenny, the good friend he was, spoke over her. "I don't care what he did before!" 

   She looked shocked to hear him say this, as she was most likely under the impression I hadn't told anyone. "You know?"

   With a less heated voice, Kenny continued. "Yeah, he told me, and I couldn't care less. But you?! If we let you stay with us, how long would it be until you came for me or Katjaa; hell, I wouldn't be surprised if you went for the kids."

    Despite her current pleading, I saw a trickle of hurt appear on her face when Kenny mentioned her going after the kids. Which, while respectable, doesn't make up for the person she just killed.

 With his final piece spoken, Kenny turned and walked away, silently indicating for us to follow suit.

    With one last cold and pitiful gaze, I turned and walked away, entering with two fewer people than we left with. It wasn't long before I heard Ben follow suit, though keeping his distance.

    Imeadietly after getting onto the RV, I scanned the room for Clem, ignoring the subtle movement made by the RV moving. It didn't take me long to find her small unconscious form lying on the floor with blood coming out of her ears.

   Obviously, this terrified me, but from the lack of reaction from Ben, I knew she had used something to make her look normal to others but either forgot to include me or didn't bother. 

   Either way, it didn't stop me from going into a panic as I quickly kneeled and scooped her into my arms, giving her a look over to see if she was hurt anywhere else; luckily, I found nothing.

         I desperately wanted to march right up to Katjaa and see if she could help, but I knew even if I tried, she would see nothing wrong with her and hand her back, not to mention she has enough to take care of with Duck.

    Grinding and clenching my teeth, I begrudgingly Scoffed and turned around before taking my seat at the back, cursing Clem and her magical nature with this constant stress she induced.

     Taking a look at her shoulder, I saw the scar was lit bright emerald green, indicating that the magical pool she talked about was doing something to help, but that was only wishful thinking, so I clenched my fist and set myself to at least take care of the blood painting her cheeks.

    With one last look at the personification of stress, I scoffed lightheartedly. "You'll be the death of me, I swear."

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 I stared out the window in mute silence, watching and doing my best to count every tree that zoomed by, even if it was impossible.

   After the thing with passing out, I felt surprisingly well; my ears didn't hurt anymore, and the odd jumble of foreign memories had fucked off somewhere, leaving me with only a slightly blurred recollection of what I remembered, a few holes attached.

   After I had woken up, I got a good thrashing from Lee, as he kept stressing that I should be more careful and how I needed to be more cautious where I practiced my mana, as he brought up the very valid point of being completely exhausted when I finished practice.

    So, not wanting to upset Lee anymore, I agreed to stop practicing until we found a safe place to stay, even if most of the incidents so far weren't my fault.

   Huffing with annoyance, I turned away from the window and looked toward the front, where Lee, Kenny, and Katjaa were talking, and from what I could hear, it was about where we were going to go.

     In an unsurprising turn of events, we were going to go with Kenny's original plan, which was going out to sea, and while it may not be the best plan, it was something, so yay use, I guess.

    In another turn of events, Katjaa told Lee about Duck a bit after I woke up, leaving Ben the only one out of the group not to know, but I had an inkling of feeling that it would be rectified sooner or later

    Going back to the window, I tuned out everyone's voices; letting myself dive back into obliviousness, conjuring up whatever my mind desired, and it wasn't until a bit later that something changed, as the once constant speed of the RV slowed to a stop before shutting off.

   Opening my eyes blinded me for a second, but they soon adjusted themselves to the lighting change, allowing me to see why we stopped in the first place.

  Sitting Dormant in the middle of the road was a train, its mass stretching possibly miles into the woods. Stretching the sleep away, I saw that everyone had already gotten off, leaving me to myself. 

    Getting up, I made my way over to the door before pushing past it. Stepping onto the gravel road gave me an odd sense of relief.

    Looking around, I could see Katjaa and Ben sitting on two conveniently placed logs, Duck still lying dormant in Katjaa's arms. With them, I saw a new person, a ragged man wearing a beanie, a torn jacket, and some fingerless gloves; he had a guitar in hand as he seemed to be playing something.

   Shaking my head, I ignored them and started looking for the other two, leading me to find Kenny close to the head of the train, Lee nowhere in sight.

 I was walking towards Kenny to ask about Lee, but Katjaa stopped me and motioned for me to come to her. So, not wanting to be rude, I did so. Switching my direction, I made my way over to Katjaa instead, but since I was still cautious of the new guy, I kept my distance, stopping a few feet away from the small group.

   However, despite my belief that Katjaa was the one trying to speak to me it was the new guy who spoke up.

    "Well, I guess I owe you an apology," he said while glancing back at Katjaa, "she is as cautious as you made her out to be."

   Confused by this, I turned to Katjaa, looking for an explanation.

    "Ohh, don't mind him, Clementine; I was just telling him about how cautious you could get." She said with what looked to be a light blush of embarrassment layering her cheeks.

  Wanting to play with her emotions a bit, I started to speak, before abruptly snapping my head back to the old man, a sudden feeling of familiarity making itself known. Ignoring the questioning gazes of Katjaa and Ben, I kept my eyes pinned on the man, going as far as to add some green mana to them to see if enhanced eyesight could pick anything up.

   Yet no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't see anything, so I let the mana slowly fall from my eyes and back into the pool, chalking it up to a fluke.

    Taking a few steps back, I decided to continue what I was originally doing. The tension my body held, slowly melted as I moved further away from the small group, indicating that something over there was triggering both my fight or flight response and both pools of colored mana, the amber pool being the only one that didn't spike in activity.

    Stepping onto the stairs leading up to the side of the train put into perspective how big it truly was, as a single stair reached up to just below my upper thigh.

   With a slight struggle, I managed to climb up to the path leading to the head of the cab, and in sight was Kenny, his back turned to me. However, as soon as I went to move forward, I heard who I was looking for appear just behind me, his stern voice responding to a rugged one.

   Turning to face Lee, I saw he was talking to the new person I tried to ignore. But it wasn't long, as the new guy said his piece and turned to walk away, throwing a wave over his shoulder.

   As I watched the new guy walk away, I got a strange feeling that he was watching me just as I was watching him. A slight shiver and a frown later, I went back to ignoring it and calling it another fluke, even if it was starting to get repetitive.

    My thoughts and focus were interrupted by Lee, his tall form climbing the stairs I previously climbed with apparent ease. 

   "Hey, Clem, done with your power nap." He said with a voice that screamed irritation, and I couldn't blame him because if I were to leave and come back to see him bloodied, I'd also be notably upset, and pissed.

  With slight hints of shame, I rubbed the back of my head and started finding great interest in the metal sheeting making up the floor. "Ya, I am."

   His scoff said a lot about how he felt about me, but I could tell it was mostly filled with relief, indirectly making me feel better knowing he still cared.

   With a sigh, he continued. "I don't know what you did to cause you to be in that state but don't do it again."

   I nearly toppled over with how bluntly he said it, and I probably would've been six feet under had I remembered it wasn't even my fault in the first place.

   With even more embarrassment I quietly uttered him a few apologies and words of promise not to do it again, whatever it was.

   Seemingly satisfied with this, he hoisted me up with a smile before making his way over to the cab door, subsequently opening it. 

   "Ok, Kenny, we're ready to go." He said with certainty. Clueless of what they were talking about, I just listened.

   Without turning to Lee, Kenny spoke. "Great, let's get everybody on board before we start moving, also if I were you, I'd go grab that handy shotgun you left unsupervised in the RV."

   It was right as Lee spoke back, that Kenny turned to face us, and for the brief second our eyes crossed, I gave him a light glare, because no one should be calling SBD a boring name like a shotgun.

    The brief second ended as his gaze fell from mine and went to Lee, who I could hear talking about getting everyone on board while getting said item.

   With nothing more to say, we turned and left the way we came, Lee shouting over to the small group, and telling them to get on before getting off himself, and of course, taking me with him.

   Seeing as I didn't need to walk, I let Lee handle getting to the RV while I kept an eye on the group, as they climbed up the stairs intending to get into the boxcar lingering behind the head.

   I specifically kept most of my focus on the new guy, whom I still hadn't gotten a name from; I ignored the nagging feeling that if I hadn't walked away earlier, I'd have a name to put to his face.

    My sight of him was cut as we entered the RV again, Lee ignoring everything else in favor of grabbing SDB and putting it on his back. Without a second thought, we left the RV and headed back to the train, intent on getting on ourselves.

     As we walked, I couldn't help but wonder what it was going to be like if we managed to find both my mom and dad. Every memory I have of them has been somewhat distorted and mangled in some way shape or form, and the nightmares I occasionally have of them serve to further that fact.

   I zoned out thinking of it, a place and time where both Mom and Dad meet Lee; would I be forced to choose? Would I get to choose? Was it bad that I'd rather choose Lee if it came down to it? My thoughts kept me ignorant as the world around me sped up.

  I don't know how long I was in thought, but it was long enough that when I eventually came back to my senses, I was greeted by the trees blitzing past me, and the new guy sitting next to me, his yellow eyes glued to the blitzing speeds.

   Instinctually, every mana pool in my body flared, turning my eyes multicolored, which was soon met with the man's bright glowing eyes, the yellow becoming near blinding.

   In a calming yet demanding voice, he spoke. "We should talk." It wasn't a suggestion.