Not long after Darryl confronted the members of Eclipse, a massive battle unfolded right before Arthur´s eyes. He was worried, if his asumption was correct, Mary was in that van.
If a stray attack were to hit her, with all the strenght of any member of these powerful gangs, then Mary would be in great danger too. It´s not like he could run past the fight and rescue Mary either.
Maybe he could slow time to get close to her, but he exhausted all of his stamina only to catch up, even if he were to use his power, the maximum would be around one or two seconds of slowed time, not nearly enough.
"Damn it! Why am I so weak?"
A loud explosion resonated through the street, Arthur saw some people that were sent flying over him.
"If only I knew someone that could also control time... Wait..."
He looked over the fence and set his gaze over his father, that was shooting his time bullets from a distance.
Would his father even help him? Arthur wasn't entirely sure, but it was the only way to help Mary. He hated having to rely on his father, but he swallowed his pride in order to save Mary.
To get his attention, he used all of his remaining stamina to slow down time. As a time user, Arthur's father wasn't affected and looked around until he saw Arthur waving his hand and signaling at the van and a pocket clock that he was carrying.
Arthur's father gave him a complicated look before activating his power, his mastery was leagues above of Arthur's, so time slowed even more. Arthur knew he had around ten seconds to get to Mary, so he ran as fast as he could towards the van.
There he saw a sleeping Mary, relatively unharmed except for a few scratches in her body. He quickly picked her up and left the van, he ran to the fence again but the effect of slowed time passed and he found himself in the middle of the battlefield.
Everything happened so fast, a projectile came his way and he shielded Mary with his own body, it hit him in the back, leaving him unable to stand up anymore.
It hurt like hell and Mary slipped from his arms to the floor, he crawled on the floor to get to her but more projectiles came his way.
'Are you kidding me?'
He braced for impact, covering his head with his arms, but the pain never came. Confused, he looked behind him just to see that his father, the one who he hated so much, had stopped the projectiles with his body.
"...Dad?"
His father fell to the floor without answer, the next second more police sirens could be heard in the distance, it seems reinforcements had come.
Darryl clicked his tongue and then he saw Arthur's father, William, laying on the floor. His wounds were deadly and with remorse in his gaze, he shouted:
"Everyone, retreat!"
The Eclipse members also finally began retreating until they saw Mary out of the van. One member ran to pick her up and Arthur grabbed onto his leg.
"You won't take her!"
"Stupid kid!"
The member kicked Arthur several times but he wouldn't let go, so the member aimed his palm in Arthur's direction and a big explosion engulfed Arthur's figure.
The Eclipse member took Mary to the van again and closed the doors.
"No..."
A severely burned Arthur crawled once again to the van, that was already speeding down the street.
"Don't take her..."
His eyes filled with tears and was about to pass out until he felt a hand on his head. It was his father's, a moment later his body started healing, there were some bruises but the worse ones had dissapeared.
"How...?"
"I...reversed your time..."
Arthur's father had partially reversed the time of his body to heal the worse injuries, he could have healed his wounds but he chose to heal Arthur.
"I'm...very sorry...for everything"
He continued speaking after some agonizing moments.
"I should have been a more...reliable presence in your life...this is all I can do to atone now..."
Arthur watched in shock as his father's breathing became slower and slower, until he ultimately stopped breathing.
"Fuck..."
More tears filled his eyes as he furiously hit the floor with his hands.
"Atone?! You should have stayed alive then! That's the only way you could have possibly atone!"
He cried and cried until he started to lost consciousness again, the world became blurry and foggy...
'Wait...fog?'
The fog dispersed and Arthur was standing where he was before that memory played before him, a tear ran down his cheek and stumbled a little, but quickly he wiped it away and regained his footing.
He looked at the guy that conjured the fog, his expression turning colder with each second.
"That was a low blow, you know?"
"Hiek!"
The guy tried to run but Arthur caught him by the hair and smashed his face against the floor, knocking him out, resulting in all the fog dissapearing.
"This guy had no attack power, but what a hell of a power. He was probably stalling until his brother came to save him, but Jenny has probably taken care of that already"
Arthur didn't like that experience, he was forced to relive one of the most traumatic events in his childhood. To this day, he hasn't found a trace of Mary, no matter where he looked, it was almost as she had vanished from the face of the earth.
Not to mention his father's death, it was a memory that he had pushed to the back of his head in order to not feel any empathy towards his father, but that was simply not possible now.
"Maybe I should take those... I think it's about time I moved on"
He tied the weird guy's hands and dragged him across the hall, where he met Jenny, that was running towards him.
"Are you done already?"
"Yes, the last step is to call the police and get this place closed"
Jenny agreed and called the police from a hidden number, since the actions that they performed weren't exactly legal.
They left shortly before the police arrived and arrested the brothers, they found innumerable clues of their illegal acts, and they were taken to jail.
Arthur contacted the client, he was extremely satisfied and Arthur received the payment not long after, he splitted it with Jenny and headed towards Arthur's home, tired after a productive day.