Year: 3205
The Military Academy
Blaze:
At this point, I don't know what I'm supposed to say, think or feel. The only thing I seem to know for sure is that I'm standing on my own. The only person I can truly rely on is myself because honestly, I don't see who's going to have my back when I need them to. It won't be the person I thought.
He's become so secretive these past couple of months. He hasn't let me in on anything inside his head. The only reasonable explanation is that he knows something that he keeps away from me. Sometimes I get so frustrated that I want to torture him to death and have him tell me, but I know that's not the right way. The Grand Master probably would've, but I'm not him and I don't intend on becoming him either. I just...I don't know a damn thing anymore. I don't know who I can trust, who I can rely on. I mean, I talk to Ember and actually fine, but it's not the same. She doesn't know any of the things that Breeze and I were discussing before even coming here.
The time wandering through the maze of thoughts inside my head has led me to walk down this corridor that I don't even know. The second thing that I notice is that my hands are on fire. The frustration is pretty expressive to say the least. I look around me making sure there's no one around me before I just burst out my flames at the wall on my right.
When I stop, I'm hoping that that overwhelmed feeling is gone. I expect to feel lighter from all of the thoughts dominating my mind. I expect to feel a little less weighed down than what I was when I saw Breeze and his precious 'new partner'. Except I don't. When I take that deep breath and expect to feel lighter, I don't. Nothing changes. I'm still feeling the heaviness, fear and anger that I did before.
I stare at the wall for a moment before I back slightly off until I hit the wall on the other side and slide down until I hit the floor. I place my hands on my lap in front of me and look at them for a moment. It's almost like I don't recognize them. It feels like I'm looking at someone else's hands and not mine, but it doesn't make any freaking sense! Why am I feeling this way?! Of course these are my hands. They're attached to my freaking body.
I know something's going on with me. I remember the first time I met the Grand Master. I felt like he was already trying to do something with me and during these past two months, I've felt different than I've ever been. The Grand Master tried to get inside my head and I'm pretty sure I denied him access for good back then...at least I think I did. If there's one person I actually should be mentioning this to, it's Breeze. The thing is though, I don't know if I can trust him.
On the wall opposite to me, I see this big, black mark. I just sit here staring at it. It feels so familiar for some reason...as if it symbolizes something. I sense in my chest that my element wants to burst out at something or anything that tries to disturb the silence. However, I want this silence to be broken. I don't want to spend so much time inside my head. This maze inside my head is just a real pain because every time I wander around in there, I don't seem to know what to do, to think or to say. I need distractions...
"Hey, is there anywhere down there?" I suddenly hear as my eyes burst open. A slight shiver runs down my spine as I move slightly towards the edge of the wall as I see a flashlight turning back and forth, from left to right, right to left. There's no point in wondering who he's looking for. It's me. I almost contemplate on running away, but I'm too guttered to get up on my feet even when the light finally hits me. I can't be bothered any less as I turn my eyes up towards the Senior that stands in front of me.
"Elemental...you're not supposed to be at this part of the Academy. Especially not at this hour..." He says before he turns his light towards the other side and sees what I've done on the wall. "Enjoying the work?" I ask sarcastically and I don't even know why. It's like it's not even me that's saying that. "Did you do this?" He turns back towards me. I get up on my feet after a while, but I don't answer him. "Elemental, you have an obligation to answer me..." He lets out in a warning tone as I cross my arms in front of him. "Shouting at me right now isn't the way to go. You should take my advice and stay off of me..."
It's like there's someone else in the controls. I would never be this way around a Senior. I mean, I know I used to be, but honestly, I don't have a reason other than wanting to be left alone. "I am the Senior here, Elemental. You don't get to play out demands to me. You will learn your place. Now tell me, did you do this?" He goes on. I don't look up at him. Right now I don't even want to. It's like I know that if I do, I'll do something that'll land me in a cell instead of the field...if I'm honest though, I don't know which is worse. "Elemental..." He keeps pushing and I sense my patience reaching the edge.
"Yes, okay, fine! I did it. Are you happy now?" I ask throwing my hands out in the air. I look up at him and I think he can even see the anger in my eyes. "What are you going to do about it?" ...suddenly falls out of my mouth. I'm just making this much worse, aren't I? I decide to try to sneak out of this situation, but as I try to make my way past him, he grabs my arm and looks down on me. "Hey, where do you think you're going? I'm not done with you..." He goes on. "But I'm done with you..."
Next thing I know, my other arm comes up and brings this immense heat of flames towards him. As he lets go, my other hand joins in too and pours flames on him so bad that he collapses. I manage to stop it eventually and I look down to see that I've burned him to death. If things weren't bad with me already, they're definitely worse with me now. My hands are shaking. I look on them as I realize what I've actually done. I gulp rather loudly as I slowly walk towards the Senior and see if I can shake him awake. "Sir...Senior?" I let out, but I can immediately tell that it won't matter what I do. He's dead.
I sense my breath is becoming more and more shaky as I crawl backwards against the wall. I immediately pull my knees closer to my chest. My entire body is shaking like a leaf and I don't really know what to do with myself. I know someone's going to come look for this guy eventually. Someone's gonna come and when they do, they're gonna find me just sitting here, unable to move.
I have no idea what's going on with me. Even at my worst in the past, I always controlled myself, but now I just freaking killed a Senior over nothing. Why?
Breeze:
"Blaze?...hey, Blaze!" I keep calling out as I try to figure out where she took off to earlier. I stop for a moment, taking a deep breath as I'm starting to lose faith that I will find her. Aqú certainly didn't help me out arriving at the timing that he did. I have to make this right. Despite of the Grand Master being in her head and very possibly controlling her, she is still my partner. I need to make sure that she turns out alright in the end. She's not gonna stay his pawn forever. She doesn't deserve that.
I will tell her all about what's been going on when the time is right, but right now, I need to make her believe that I haven't replaced her in any way. I fear she believes I have and that's not the case. "Come on, Blaze, where are you..." I let out to myself as I continue to walk in one random direction that for some reason seems like the right one. All of these corridors over here are unfamiliar to me. I've never been here before, although it strikes me as the perfect place to get some space. I can only assume that Blaze did walk down here considering the mood she was in when she left.
The corridor just keeps on getting darker and darker the further away I get from the area I'm familiar with. More and more I'm coming to believe that she's nowhere near here. I would've seen a light by now if she was. I stop for a moment and I'm about to turn around and give up when I see a flash of red in a corner to my right. That red flash looks all too familiar to me as I immediately start jogging towards it.
Once I reach the corner, I see Blaze is sitting against the wall, rocking back and forth like a zombie as I turn my gaze further to the left, seeing someone lying on the ground. "Blaze?" I let out carefully as she barely manages to turn her head against me. I get over to the person, who I now see is a Senior and check his pulse. "He's d-dead...isn't he...?" Blaze lets out so sudden that I almost flinch. I nod weakly. "I-I killed him...in blind, uncontrollable rage, but I...I killed him..." She lets out in a shivering voice as I retract from him and immediately get over to her.
"Blaze, what happened? Did he attack you?" I ask. She barely shakes her head. "I-I don't know what's h-happening to me..." She answers. I sit down on one knee in front of her. "Blaze, look at me..." I then say as she manages to turn her eyes on me. "I don't know who I am anymore..." She goes on confused, lost and God knows what else. Instinctively I place my hand on her shoulder and she turns to look at it before turning her attention back on my eyes.
"You are Blaze, my partner. You are the one that's gonna keep me out of trouble the same way that I'm gonna keep you out of trouble..." I answer. She looks away for a moment. It doesn't look like she believes me. "Hey, you're not replaced by anyone, you hear me? You're my partner, that's never going to change for as long as we both live..." I go on. "...and I intend on living for quite some time too so..." I try to convince her, but her mind is at a completely different place. I can't get to her.
"I signed my life away killing him like I did, Breeze. I had no reason to kill him..." She says, the fear apparent in her voice. "No, you didn't...not if I can help it." I let out. "You have no idea what happened, Breeze! I-I got angry and I couldn't control myself..." She answers back even more scared than I've ever seen her before. "Look, you're right, okay? I don't know what happened here, but I do know you..." I point out.
I can tell that her hands are slightly warm and burned. As much as her element of fire is her best friend, it can also be her enemy. Sometimes not even she can handle the heat. I grab her hands after a moment. "Come on, let's get your hands treated..." I let out as I try to pull her up and she lets me, but she's still hesitant. "What about the Senior?" I look down on him as I hear a deep sigh from Blaze. "I don't know what to do..." She goes on. To be honest, neither do I. Obviously we can't just walk away from this, but at the same time, we can't just leave him here like this.
"I'll find a way to handle it. Right now, let's just get out of here and treat your hands." I answer before I turn my head towards her again. "And then you can start believing me when I say that we're still partners. There's no one that can take your place..." I'm trying to encourage her by saying that, but she doesn't look convinced. It seems like I can't quite reach her with those words. Those words used to be enough. When it was just the two of us against the Grand Master, words were enough...
Something's different about her. It's not about the subconsciousness hiding underneath the surface of her personality that's causing it. I used to believe that it was, perhaps I even hid behind that excuse because I didn't want to believe anything else, but I can see that it isn't. She doesn't believe me. She doesn't believe a single word that I'm saying right now. She retracts her hands back to herself immediately after standing on her own two feet.
"It seems to me though that someone already has..." She finally lets out. "It doesn't matter how many times you try to convince me, it doesn't matter how many times you tell me that you trust me with your life because I don't believe it. I used to, but I don't anymore. I don't know why, but I don't." I take a deep breath and gulp silently to myself as I look down on my feet for a moment. This is even harder than I thought it would be. I know I am partly the reason why things are this way, but I still need her to believe me.
"And what if I told you one of the things I haven't told you? Would that make you trust me, if only just a little bit?" I then ask as I look up at her. Her eyes light up slightly. "That depends..." She answers briefly, but I'll take it. "I talk a lot with Senior Fall because he and Senior Pool were...they are good friends. He knows things about Senior Pool and the Grand Master..." I let out as I turn slightly nervous all of a sudden. "Why didn't you just tell me that?" She asks me confused.
"...tell you what?" We both suddenly hear behind me as I turn my body around to face Master Elemental Storm.