The Custodes

Chapter 10 - Kayla's Reveal

Neo woke up the next day feeling more refreshed than he had in a long while. It didn't take long for his senses to awaken, and once they had he realised that there was light shining through a small gap in the curtains, signalling that it must've been around midday. Beside him on the bed Noah snored loudly into his pillow, his body sprawled out across his side of the bed. Neo realised that the boy really must love sleeping, since he's never once been the first awake out of the two of them, then smirked slightly and stood up from the bed. He stretched his arms, plucking his hoodie up off the floor before heading out of the bedroom to see if Kelsie was awake. A yawn suddenly escaped his lips as he entered the living room, drawing the attention of the blonde haired girl sat contently on the couch. "Afternoon, sleeping beauty." Kayla said as she looked at Neo with a small smile, causing a surprised look to cross his face. "You're...not who I was expecting to see here. Where's Kelsie?" Neo asked curiously, making his way over to the couch and plopping down onto it beside Kayla. "She went out to grab some food and stuff for the kitchen. I think her parents are working an extra long shift, though no doubt they'd have to since everyone that evacuated the hospital has been moved to the other one." She said with a sigh, as Neo muttered a small "Jeez." The two glanced at different spots in front of them for a second, until Neo spoke up again "Well in any case, Kelsie's out, Noah's fast asleep, and you have a promise to keep." Kayla glanced at him with sceptical curiosity, raising an eyebrow "What promise is that exactly?" "The one to tell me about your powers, obviously." He said with a small smile as realisation crossed her face. "I was half hoping you'd forget about that." She groaned, but the boy made it clear he wasn't willing to back down. Kayla bit her lip for a second while Neo watched her, then just as he was about to tell her she didn't have to tell him, she spoke "It's time, okay? That's my powers. I can basically...control time. Pause it, skip it back, whatever." She didn't look at him as she said this, meaning she couldn't see his completely dumbfounded expression as he stared at her. "You're...not serious, right? That's-...surely that isn't possible. Time can't just be controlled, that's like-...that's a whole other level to anything any of us can do. How the hell-?" "Don't ask me, okay?." She interrupted him, looking down at her hands as she tried to hide whatever emotions she was feeling "I don't know why it's so different. It showed up around the same time as everyone else's powers, and so far there hasn't been any consequences of using it." Neo continued to look at her quizzically, but slowly got his expression in check and scratched the back of his neck "That really is something else. So what type of thing do you even use it for?" A strange emotion suddenly flew through Kayla's features, but she hid it almost immediately and turned to look at Neo "Not a lot. Mainly just to test out exactly what I can do, but the drawback of pausing time is that I can only take about five steps before my own weight starts crushing down on me. I don't know what it is, but if I push myself too hard while in that state I become completely exhausted even when time is back to normal." "Jesus. Sounds pretty rough." Neo commented, looking down in thought at this new revelation he's learning about "Is there any chance-" "I've already demonstrated it. Twice, actually. Though the second one was for my own entertainment." A small smile came to Kayla's lips as Neo looked at her in shock "You did? I didn't even notice a thing." He muttered, stunned at her being able to predict what he was going to ask for. He figured that was about as close to a demonstration as he was going to get. "Of course you didn't. It's only me that can go back in time, so for everyone else life just goes on like nothing happened." Kayla said, clearly having a good understanding of how her powers worked. "That's some freaky shit. You have a lot of power in your hands." Neo said, smirking slightly as Kayla nodded in agreement "Trust me, I know. Though it...comes with downsides." Her smile faltered, then fell completely as she soon lost herself in thought. Neo wasn't quite sure what to say for a second, until he thought of something "Have you ever gone forward in time? Like, is it possible?" Kayla's snapped out of her thoughts and looked back at Neo, taking a second to process what he said "Oh, right. I can, but it uh...you know what, I'll show you. I'm gonna go forward about ten seconds, alright?" Neo nodded his head, then watched as she closed her eyes to focus. They soon opened again, though stared blankly forward at the spot she'd last looked at. Neo's brow furrowed, and he moved a little closer to Kayla to get a good look at the unseeing, emotionless eyes piercing straight ahead. It was pretty unsettling, with the rest of Kayla's body staying perfectly still exactly where it was. Neo waved a hand in front of the girl's face without getting any sort of reaction, then moved his face in front to get a better look at her. She blinked a single time, then her eyes locked on his as she let out a tiny squeak at his sudden closeness. Neo moved away quickly, flashing her an apologetic look "Oh, uh...sorry." "Don't worry about it. Did you see what happened though?" Kayla asked, with him giving a single nod of his head "You went all...hollow, almost. You were there, but it was as though you were sort of comatose or something." "Exactly. That's why it's way too dangerous to go forward in time. It's only my conscious that moves, at least I think so, which makes it instantaneous for me no matter how far ahead I go. I'm not quite sure what can happen to me during it, like if someone can damage my body or not, but I have a feeling that if I was to go years into the future or something, my body wouldn't age. Or maybe it would actually. It really hurts my head to think about, but the risks highly outweigh the positives so there is no way in hell I'm testing it anytime soon." She said firmly, shivering slightly just from thinking about all the possible outcomes. "It's so crazy. Everything that's happened to me this week and yet this feels like the most shocking thing I've heard. And to think a girl this incredible was living across the hall from me this entire time." Neo said, letting out a small laugh as he thought about it. "Alright, I think you're getting way too ahead of yourself. The others already know this, and with everything you've done for us I figured I might as well tell you about it. Plus, you're blowing it out of proportion. It's just as crazy as all the stuff you guys can do, except I'm practically useless during a fight." Kayla told him, though she couldn't help but be amused by his enthusiasm towards what she'd been telling him. "I'm sure you could put it to use during a fight." Neo said confidently, with her flashing him a doubtful look "With the pausing time thing its not like I would be able to move very far. Maybe just dodge the odd swing here and there. As for going back in time...I guess it could be used as a way to predict the opponent's move? I don't know, it wouldn't be easy to use it when I'm time constrained, but it could be possible. I'll give it a try at some point." "You should." Neo said, nodding his head as he thought about it "I think we should all go somewhere fairly isolated to train for a bit. We could spar and stuff, and try out new things with each other. Could end up being pretty useful." "The five of us sort of did something like that a few years ago. It wasn't exactly a training session, more like we wanted to mess about and try show off to each other as much as we could. I think we learned a few new tricks though, so I'm sure doing it again wouldn't hurt." Kayla told him, smiling a little as she thought back to the old days of the group's friendship. "That makes me curious. When exactly are you available? I mean you've made it clear that during the night isn't a good time, but when specifically?" Neo questioned, looking at Kayla as she visually tensed up in her seat. She took a few seconds to respond, but wouldn't meet his gaze as she did so "I'm more or less always free during the day. The time I have to be home by varies, but it's usually around ten or eleven. That's all there is to say about that." "Why is it you need to be home by then?" Neo asked, simply curious about her strange curfew "Are your parents that strict even though you're practically an adult?" Kayla grew quiet, still refusing to meet his gaze as she drew in a small breath before she turned and stared straight at him "Look Neo, I'm going to be unmistakably clear with you about this. My family life is extremely private. It is the one thing I will never discuss with you, or anyone for that matter. Do you understand?" She spoke slowly and clearly as her eyes bore into Neo's, and although she most likely was trying to do so, he couldn't help but feel like his intelligence was being insulted. He looked back at her for a second, before giving her a small nod of understanding. "Good. Now that's the last time you bring up that matter, okay?" She said, brushing a strand of hair out of her face as she slowly reverted back to her far less tense and serious persona. "Yeah, got it. Sorry, I didn't realise." Neo said to her, genuinely apologetic for him being seemingly insensitive. "Now you do." Kayla stated, sighing slightly as she looked around the room. Neo was incredibly uncertain of what to say to her after her strange outburst so ended up falling into complete silence with her. Just as the quietness in the room was starting to reach awkward levels, the front door to the apartment swung open and Kelsie entered, holding two almost full shopping bags of things she'd bought from the store "Who wants breakfast! Or er...lunch, rather." She smiled as she looked at the pair, with Neo returning the smile with a more grateful one at the fact that she'd saved him from the embarrassing silence with Kayla. She moved towards the kitchen with her bags in hand, shouting once she'd disappeared through the doorway "Kaz, come help me cook!" Kayla perked up in hearing this, like she'd been snapped out of thought, then without shooting so much as a glance in Neo's direction, got up and followed Kelsie into the kitchen. Neo let out a sigh and rubbed his forehead, closing his eyes as he lay back against the couch and listened to the two girls chat and rustle about in the kitchen.