Rewind

Disappointment

Chapter 5

"GEMPA!"

Blaze shot up his bed, hands outstretched, eyes wide in horror. The remnants of his dream- his memory, still fresh from his mind. Then his head gave a painful throb, making him groan and curl forward as he clutched it in pain.

He then realized his head was wrapped in bandages and sighed.

Blaze always hated waking up like this- confused, in pain and always panicked. Was this going to be an everyday thing?

He took deep breaths trying to relax through the pounding of his head, getting worked up while injured never worked in anyone's favor.

Though, he was still trying to remember how—

Adudu.

Probe.

Kidnapping.

Bomb.

Ah, he remembered now.

He took another deep breath and tried to look around his surroundings with squinted eyes.

He was back in his room, alone. And everything was dark and quiet.

He couldn't tell what time it was and he really couldn't find it in him to care when he realized that his friends and brothers had been in the same room during that explosion.

And Gempa had been the forefront of it all.

"Gempa!" He exclaimed in realization and hastily kicked the blankets off of him, guilt consuming him with his flashback of a dream only amplifying it.

Grabbing his cap by his bed side, he went for the door only to stop in his tracks when it opened to reveal Solar. He looked surprised to see Blaze up and about.

"You're finally awake." He said, looking relieved.

"Solar! How's the others?! Did anyone get hurt?" Blaze grabbed him by the arms while shaking his brother slightly. Solar broke free from his hold and instead maneuvered him back to the bed.

"Hey! I was—"

"They're fine. Both Gempa and Fang's shield protected all of us from further injuries."

"Further?! So there were others who got hurt!"

Solar sighed as he pushed him back to bed and pulled up his right glove to reveal bandages, "Yeah... but not as bad as you... and maybe... Gempa. He's still knocked out."

"WHAT-"

"But, the medics already checked on him and they said he'll be just fine and that he will be awake soon enough." His brother assured as he sat next to him, "You need to rest more. You've got a concussion."

Blaze wanted to snap at him and just storm out to go see Gempa and make sure he was alright, but instead he finds himself looking down, eyes welling up with frustrated tears, "This is all my fault..."

"What are you talking about? You didn't throw that bomb—"

"I know! But if only I managed to fight off Adudu then this wouldn't have happened! I could've also controlled that explosion!"

"Okay, first off—you really didn't have a choice since you're still recovering and your powers are disabled. And second—since when can you control explosions?" Solar turned to him, bewildered.

"What are you talking about? You're the one who told me I could do that and tried teaching me with these boring presentations and theories." Blaze remembered that moment as clear as day, and couldn't help but feel smug when Solar had totally been dumbfounded when he managed to perfectly control an experimental explosion in one try.