Cato Ryker

Cato is both a side character and the main villain of Part 2, Darkest Hearts. He became a vampire aboard the HMS Dawson and after a rampage across England, he separated the horrid part of himself into a different entity named The Shadow. The Shadow acts as the main villain of the part while Cato is much more a bystander.

## Appearance

Cato is tall, 6’4 and well built. He has pale skin and black shaggy hair. He usually wears plain baggy clothes. He has hazel eyes and has several scars on his body, including a large one on his chest.

## Personality

Ever since he regained control over himself, and pushed out the Shadow, Cato has been a quiet and solemn person. He is kind and cares greatly for those he is close to, but is hesitant to form meaningful relationships with new people. He struggles greatly with his past and is searching for a way to make peace with himself. He mostly keeps to himself. In conversation he can often come across as awkward and generally disinterested simply due to his lack of communication skills. In regards to his stand he hates using it, and for the most part refuses to use its illusion ability on anyone but himself, and uses its other abilities only to protect himself from sunlight, although if forced to he would utilize the combat abilities to defend himself. Overall he despises his stand, believing it belongs to the Shadow, not him. If someone shows some kind of aggression towards him, or something he personally perceives as aggression he will become very defensive, he particularly doesn’t like people touching him. He is also very hesitant to discuss anything relating to his past, his stand, or his vampiric nature, and would only ever reveal them to those he is truly close to.

As previously mentioned Cato despises the use of his stand, as it originated from the Shadow, not him. Cato will often use MTM’s illusion ability to create an illusion of his long dead sister, Ashlyn. He finds her presence calming and she serves as a sort of moral compass for him when he is questioning how to respond to difficult decisions. He almost never uses his stand, although it would be possible to force him to use it for combat, given the proper situation, though it wouldn’t be wise to do so intentionally.

Though he has escaped both the woods and his evil half Cato is not yet fully free of his pain. Often he is overcome by grief and misery from what he’s done and the time he spent in the woods of England. This is only made worse by his stand. Though he has gained control over its abilities he still refuses to fully embrace it as his own power. This causes him to often be unable to handle the darkness and negative emotions that the stand inherently generates and takes in from those around it. Because of this he is often easily overwhelmed by his emotions and by the emotions of others. Large crowds especially make him very uncomfortable.

## Stand Ability

Minutes to Midnight is centered around the darkness in people. MTM has several abilities all centered around this idea.

### **First Ability:**

The stand is able to bring out the darkness in people, allowing their hatred, anger, ect to take over. Once this effect takes over the victim will become overwhelmingly aggressive, turning against even their closest friends. The stronger someone’s will is the harder it is for this effect to take hold, but no one is completely immune. Someone can be broken out of this state by being defeated in battle or through the words of someone who knows who they truly are.

### **Second Ability:**

MTM’s second ability is to create illusions of the dead. These illusions are always created for a specific target, and the stand’s user has no control over who the illusion is of, instead the illusion is always of the person that the target regrets losing the most. Due to this the ability will not work on those who have not lost someone they cared for, or on those who have come to terms with the death of their loved ones.

### **Third Ability:**

MTM’s final use for the power it draws from people’s darkness is to use that for direct combat. MTM can create dark energy and manipulate it freely, using it for both offensive and defensive purposes, the user also has the ability to do this directly. This energy can also be used to block out sources of light such as flashlights or even the sun over a small area.

### **Usage:**

The two personalities that make up Cato both use Minutes to Midnight in different ways.

**The Shadow:** The Shadow is arguably the true user of Minutes to Midnight, as he has complete control over all of its abilities and is able to actually summon the stand. He utilizes all 3 abilities on his victims, primarily relying on illusions for non stand user victims, and direct attacks for stand users.

**Cato:** Cato, unlike the shadow, is not fully aware what a stand is, or even that he has control over it. He sees Minutes to Midnight instead as a mysterious force that binds him and the shadow, allowing both to exist at the same time. His only use for the stand is subconsciously using its illusion creation on himself, generating an illusion of his long dead sister Ashlyn, and blocking out sunlight.

### **Stand Stats:**

Power: A

Potential: B

Precision: C

Durability: D

Range: B

Speed: A

## Backstory

### **The Events of Part 2:**

Cato Ryker was born in 1890 to a poor family in rural England. He lived with his 2 parents and his sister Ashlyn, with whom he was very close. He spent his childhood helping his struggling family to make money.

While working on board the HMS Dawson, a British cargo ship carrying recently excavated artifacts back to London from Central America, in 1908 Cato was pierced by the stone mask, destroying his humanity and turning him into a vampire. While overcome with blood lust, and having lost his humanity, he slaughtered the crew of the ship, save for a single cabin boy who managed to hide from him, and fled the ship. After making his way back to London he began his reign of terror over the city, stalking the alleys at night and massacring any he came across, draining them of their blood and leaving their bodies for horrified citizens to find.

17 years later, in 1925, Cato learned of an arrow being housed in a museum, scheduled to be transferred out of the city soon, that was rumoured to grant incredible power to any pierced by it. Seeking more power Cato easily broke into the museum and pierced himself with the arrow, awakening his stand, Minutes to Midnight. Over the next few months he rapidly mastered his stand and used it to spread terror in London. However then something unexpected happened. After learning of his ability to create illusions of a target’s loved ones he decided to use it on himself, expecting to see nothing, or possibly himself. To his surprise he was faced with an illusion of his sister Ashlyn, who he had not seen/thought about since his transformation. The shock of seeing someone he had once cared so much for combined with his stand’s ability to manipulate emotions with its illusions forced too much conflict on Cato, and forced his personality to split into two. One half, Cato, was exactly as he had been when he was human. This half is gentle, polite, and cares about the lives of others. The second half, The Shadow, was what he had become after being transformed. This half is sadistic, cares for no one, and only desires power.

The two personalities live in constant conflict with each other, each trying to prevent the other from taking control. In general Cato maintains control through an illusion of Ashlyn that he creates subconsciously, while the Shadow takes over during moments of pain or sadness for Cato or those around him.

Two months before the beginning of part 2 Cato started his job as a night guard at the local museum near the woods he and the Shadow inhabit. He primarily took the job in the hopes that he would someday find a way to cure his vampirism, believing that if the cause was an ancient artifact, the cure might be as well.

The Shadow acts as a monster in the woods of England, eventually preying on members of the main group if Part 2. Eventually the group discovers that Cato and The Shadow are one and the same, and during their confrontation Jason Flats kills The Shadow, riding Cato of it.He thanks them for it and Cato is left to himself.

### **Part 3 and 2026:**

He eventually meets Amaryllis Di Rossi, and the two become romantically involved, settling down in a cottage in Italy.