"Sharpedon Gaze of Lightless and Marx Magma of Midnight, I'm waiting for you two inside my office. Right now and it's not a question it's an order."
Well, fuck you too.
Crescent, just don't. It's not worth it. Oh, shit. Do you think he figured out that we were the ones who destroyed his arena?
Dude, he's an asshole, not smart. Or not that smart, so no, he didn't.
I sighed and headed towards his office.
For the past weeks, sighing became the only thing I'm good at. This whole situations is tiring me out and after all of this I need a vacation, doesn't matter where it could be even at the North-Wait.
We already are at the North Pole, genius.
We are at the South Pole, not the North Pole.
Same thing and by the way, you don't want to go at the North Pole because there's nothing there except some water, water, water and guess what else?
Are we really doing this?
Yup.
Fine. And more water.
Wrooong. And ice. It's sea ice and it's constantly moving around so you can't build anything there, nor live there even if you are a Water Elementar.
You are so damn annoying. I'm wondering if Red is stuck with someone as annoying as you, but I don't think that it could be a persons, or voice more frustrating than you.
Oh, yeah? What about that hybrid dude? What was his name? Pink? Brown?
Black. His name is Black and he's not frustrating, he's just a pain in the ass and very stupid, but he can be easily ignored, unlikely you. I can't just block you out.
Wait. Is that dude still alive?
I think so. When we found him he was still pretty much breathing. He was wheezing and his face was turning blue, but he was alive. I heard he was in critical state when we brought him here, but that's all I know. But I think that if he would have died, I would've heard from someone.
You didn't ask about his health?? What kind of friend are you??
We're not friends. Never had, never will.
Rudee. You only care about your girlfriend. What would you do if something would happen to me? Would you even care?
I'm begging you, please, don't start teasing me about Shadow again, please. I already accepted my huge crush on her, so stop. And of course I care about what happens with you because what affects you, it also affects me.
Hmm. Let's say that I believe you this time.
I rolled my eyes and entered Midnight's office without knocking. I only knock if I'm coming to see Blast, but since I'm not, I decided to leave my manners at home.
Midnight glared at me with his pure black orbs. "Where are your manners mister Lightless?"
They disappeared along with your brain.
I masked my urge to laugh with a cough and took a seat across from him. "I dunno."
"Whatever. At least you came on time, unlikely other persons." as soon as he finished his phrase I heard the door open and close.
"Oh, get over it Midnight. You're saying it like I'm always late. And that's so not cool." a new feminine voice said and the owner took a seat next to me.
It was her turn to receive THE GLARE. "That's because you always are miss Midnight and you know too damn well what I think about-"
"No, I actually don't because I usually stop listening when you start complaining about 'how unmannered you are'. I'm only listening when we have important, vital information involved." she said as she crossed her legs with a devilish smirk.
Reminds you of someone? I looks like all females leaders are mental, violent, have a feisty attitude and take shit from no one.
I turned my head to look at her as I repeated inside my head what I knew about her in an attempt to connect her face with her characteristics.
Her bloody red hair is definitely matching her element, the psychopathic smile says it all, he said her name was indeed one of a royal and the end. That's Marx. I'm 100% sure.
Of course she's Marx you genius. I wasn't trying to see if she's Marx. I was trying to match the face with the name. And I must say that she was indeed screaming Fire Dark with the dark red hair, dark brown eyes and evil smile, but besides that she's kind of pretty. Her fringe was ending right above her red thick eyebrows and her cheeks were dusted with freckles. By the way her legs look, she must be slim and tall, but she must be fit even though I can't see any muscles behind her oversized black hoodie.
She whistled making me to move my eyes back to her smirking face. "Honey, my eyes are up here."
I simply ignored her comment and turned to face Midnight. "Can you please why are we here when we should be holding the rankings?"
"Pretty boy, are you living under a rock? Some smart ass snuck in and wrecked the whole arena. I want to find the genius and shake his hand because that's a piece of art." Marx said and Midnight glared even harder if that's even possible.
"That's not 'awesome' or what other positive attribute you want to match with what happened because having a destroyed arena only means that I have to reschedule this day for tomorrow, if we finish repairing the arena until then. I don't know what psychopath blew 2 walls, broke all our monitors and cracked the other 2 walls with a hammer I think. I don't know who did this blasphemy, but I will find that person and he or she will have to clean all the bathrooms from this whole academy and they will be excluded for all teams." he complained with such passion that his face turned red, even his ears turned red.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes when he said 'blasphemy'. We only destroyed an arena, we didn't kill you family or something.
"Yeah, yeah, we get it, you ego is bruised, but why are we here?" Marx asked and crossed her arms.
He cleared her throat and rearranged his black slick black hair. "I want you and your teams to guard the arena before and after the matches. Zeus, you're guarding today while we rebuild everything in case that moron decides to pull a stunt again, while Apocalypse you're guarding overnight and so on until Saturday night when I'll ask the future Hades to guard since you'll have to rest."
Marx scoffed. "What about no? We have to practice too, don't you think? Why would I waste my time guarding for something that it won't probably happen again since no one is stupid enough to pull the same shit twice. Psychopaths are very smart and I'm talking from experience, so he or she or whoever the fuck did that, won't act again. I think this was just a manifestation of someone's disagreement with the way you want to rank the teams and I also think that it was only a one time thing."
Red hair, you couldn't be more wrong.
When Midnight frowned ready to argue I spoke up. "I agree with her. If they blew up 2 walls, this means that they are at least a bit powerful, and if they're powerful, they're also smart and doing the same thing twice in a row isn't a smart thing."
He closed his mouth, but kept frowning. "Fine. Go and train, I don't need your help. I'll find whoever did this and guard the place myself if I have to. You're free to go." he snapped and opened his computer to work on something.
I got up and exited his office faster that I could ever exit a room and headed towards the gym since it's already 12 o'clock and that's our training hour, thanks to Midnight's program of course. I have to train from 12 to 4 without a lunch break, because I can live by eating ear and maybe some parts of the gym's flooring.
"Hey! You Apocalypse's leader! Wait!"
I turned around to see Marx stopping besides me and extending her hand. "I'm Marx Magma of Midnight and I'm the leader of Team Zeus." she leaned closer and whispered "and I know that someone from your team did that." But I won't say shit because that was cool and I know why you did it." she smiled for the first time that day "And that's what a true leader does and I'll try to drag the event as much as I can because I know that your friend is strong and I want to fight against her when she's prepared."
I pulled myself together after my heart almost stopped beating. "I'm Sharpedon Gaze of Lightless and the leader of Team Apocalypse for know, but I see that you already know who's the true leader." I leaned and whispered "Thank you for your help. You're nicer than you look."
She chuckled. "I've been told before. People usually think that I'm some crazy bitch that goes around punching and kicking people only because I have a mental problem, but I like to think that I'm better than that."
I patted her shoulder with a knowing smile as I walked passed her. "I know you're better than that." I know you're better than that because Shadow is better than all people think too. I saw her saving lifes, giving advices and helping people more than I saw a 'healthy' person ever doing.
Judging people by the way they look or by the illness they're suffering of is plain stupid and sometimes this 'sick' persons are the kindest persons I have ever meet.
I stepped inside the gym and watched as my black jeans and dark green hoodie turned into a pairs of black gym short and a dark blue t-shirt. I hate with a burning passion the color dark blue even if my element is Water and I'm a dark. Many people think that we, Elementars, love the color of our element, but I honestly hate it. Or at least I hate wearing it.
"Took you long enough, Gaze." Iron said as he moved his hand in a circle motion telling me to start running around the gym. "I'll let you off the hook this time only because that asshole wanted to talk with you. So, the usual, 10 laps around the gym and then we're sparring.
"Okay mister trainer." I said and took off at a slow pace.
The gyms are another thing I hate here. The walls are black with white, while the flooring is red with the usual lines of a basketball field and running tracks around the field, but at least this gym is larger than a normal basketball field which I'm thankful for.
"Come on, Lightless! Move your ass faster! We aren't going to wait for your royal ass all day!" Ash yelled after me and I started to run faster even thought I have zero motivation to get over this 4 hours practice.
"Hey, guys! Where's my other idiotic half?" Flame asked looking around.
Shadow's P.O.V.
"Oh, come on Doc! I'm already awake since yesterday and you said it yourself, there's nothing wrong with me anymore! I'm all healed and ready to kick some asses!" I said with pleading eyes, but Snow was having none of it.
"I'm sorry, but I never said that you are fully healed. Physical you are indeed fully healed, but I'm 80% sure that your mental isn't fully recovered." he said as he checked my vitals for the fifth time today.
"What I need to do to prove you that I'm fine? I feel fantastic! Like a newborn baby! I feel like I can beat the whole D.A and build this place again from 0 and all of this on my own, so how the fuck can't I be fine?" I kept whining with puppy eyes.
He closed his clipboard and looked at me with a pointed look. "That's exactly what I said miss. Physical you are fully healed and you feel like a 'newborn' because most of your old cells were literally fried, so more than half of your body cells are truly newborn, but your mental is still instable and the analysis are the prove. By the way they look, your brain is healed, but there is this 80% chance that you won't be able to use your element for a while and no, this isn't something that you can really control."
I frowned. "I don't think that I understand. If my brain is healed, with wouldn't I be able to use my power?"
"Have you ever heard of PTSD?" he asked as he took a seat at the bottom of my bed.
"Post-traumatic stress disorder?" I asked with raised eyebrows.
He nodded his head. "Your brain is, let's say tensed. This means that he keeps inside all the energy and tension, and by energy and tension I mean your element. In order to use your element you need to let your brain 'relax' in order to let all the energy get out, but after your incident, your brain 'tensed' in order to prevent another similar incident."
"But keeping all that energy in, doesn't mean that it will get fried again?" I asked confused out of my mind.
"No, because your brain got fried because you let the energy out and it came bouncing back full force." he tapped my head. "Your brain thinks that if it let's go of all that energy like the last time, it will bounce back again, but that won't happen, I can assure you. The toxic is long out of your body."
I bailed my fists under the sheets while fighting back tears of frustration. "So, will I ever be able to ever use my element again?"
He patted my foot with a soft smile. "Yes, but I don't know when. It all depends of your brain. Your power comes back when your brain stops being in alert because right now it's in full alert, trying to prevent from happening another similar event."
"And I can't do anything to help my brain fucking stop being in alert or relax?" I asked trying to fight back a sob.
"I'm sorry, but no. Trying to use your element won't help with anything, it will probably tense your brain even more. Anything can make your brain relax, it can be an event, an object, a feeling and it can happen at anytime. I'm sorry, but I don't know what would help you get your power back. All I can tell you is to be patient with yourself. You need to give yourself time. What happened with your brother can also be a factor for your element block, so you need time to heal."
I nodded my head and said with a shaky voice "Okay. Thank you for everything Doc. You did everything in your power and thank you for saving my life again."
He smiled and straightened his white lab coat. "You don't have to thank me, I'm just doing my job, I'm saving people." he almost walked out of the room before he turned around "Oh, and you can leave the hospital wing. Changing your environment can help you with your tension, but don't remember to start taking your old medication and be patient. Maybe start a new hobby or something. Take care miss Moonlight!"
"I will." I replayed weakly as I covered my face with my hands.
What's an Elementar with its power? It's like a fish without its gills. It's like summer without hot day and like winter without snow.
How can I be a leader now without my power?
What can I do now? I'm useless. My power was my everything and without it, I'm back to being that useless human who can throw a good punch. I can even fight in battles now because I'll be killed in record time.
Who am I without my power? I was my power, my and my power were one, what am I without it?
Hey! Remember what Doc said! It will come back, we just have to be patient. We need time.
Do you think that we have that time? Does it looks like we live in a peaceful worldwhere you can go to bed without worrying that overnight Calamity and his army won't come and kill everything in their way?
And you think that I don't know all of those? I fucking know, but worrying and stressing about it won't do us any good! The war will be there tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next week and next month so you need to calm down and think about us for once. You can't save everyone and sometimes you have to be your own hero, so pull your shit together, to find our team and loosen up. We didn't come back after getting half or our brain fried just to get stuck with a stubborn brain. We did harder things than this. We will be fine and you know why?
I wiped my tears away. Why?
Because we're always fine and because we need to be fine. I'm fine and you, missy, you need to be fine too, so wipe those tears and get your butt out of that bed.
But what if-
NO. I don't want to hear it. From now on our middle name will be Positive instead of Thunder. No what if's or but's. Everything will be fine, we will be fine.
I slowly nodded my head. You're right, Bolt. You're right and I'm sorry and I also want to thank you.
Meh. It's nothing I only did it to save my own ass.
I chuckled as I moved at the edge of the bed. Shut up, I know that you love me just as much as I love you.
Whateveeeer.
I slowly got up on my own two feet. "Oh, shit!" I clenched my hand around the IV holder as I used it as a support until my legs stop feeling like jelly.
"I'm going to kill the idiot who dressed me in these pink pajamas." I said as I look down at my pink pajamas and the unicorns pattern didn't help either.
Suddenly, I heard the door being open. "I see that someone is already up and ready to go, huh?"
I looked at the owner of the shaky voice to see a teary River. "Hi, River."
He slowly made his was towards me and gave me one of his soft bear hugs. "You have no idea how worried I was about you. I was seriously thinking that you won't make it this time, but I'm so fucking happy that you did."
I gasped and pulled away. "River said a bad word!! The River said a bad word!"
He chuckled softly and hugged me again. "Yes because you made me that worried."
"I'm sorry. For everything. For making you worry about my sorry ass and for not saving Lincoln. I am truly sorry." I said as I buried my face in the crook of his neck the realization of Lincoln's death hitting me full force.
He died because of me. Because I wasn't powerful and smart enough to save him. It's my fault because I let him go out there when I felt that something was wrong.
"It's okay and you know why? Because it's not your fault. You did everything you could and I am, no, we all are very proud of you. You saved all of us when you ran away with those Darks after you instead of gong with us through the portal. You can't save everyone, Shadow, and that's fine. Feeling guilty won't help you with anything." he said as he rubbed my back in a soothing way while I was full sobbing.
After I calmed down he pulled back and wiped my tears. "You need to get one thing inside this little head of yours." he said tapping my head "No one is blaming you for anything. No one is mad at you and no you is damning you. You being here is enough for us. We don't need anything else, okay?"
I nodded my head and looked at him still sniffing from so much crying. "Okay."
He handed me a black plastic bag with a soft smile. "I packed some clothes for you since I figured that you won't like to leave this room dressed in those cute pyjamas."
I scrunched up my nose as he chuckled. "It looks like an unicorn vomited on this pjs, so no I really don't want to leave this room dressed like this. Thanks."
"It's okay. I'll wait for you outside while you change. If you need help or if you get dizzy just scream and I'll be here in a second." he said as closed the door behind him.
I sighed as I pulled out a black oversized hoodie, a pair of black trousers and some comfy running shoes.
God, please bless River's soul for bringing me the right clothes. I don't know what I would've done if it was anything pink or any other color. Some people calm me crazy for saying this, but I feel comfortable wearing this color if that even makes sense.
I slowly undressed myself and flinched at what I saw, scars, and all of them caused by my own element. They went over my torso all the way to my back and a little over my upper arm and thighs. At the beginning, according to what Snow said, they were all over my body including my face, but he said that with time they'll fade even though a few of them will still remain.
I looked into the mirror and bite my lip. They look so different from the usual kind of scar, cause by a bullet or blade and even from the one caused by fire. They somehow looked like the design made by ice on the windows in the winter, but this ones hurt. It hurts me to look at them because they remind me in what situation I was and in what situation I'm currently in.
I shook my head and got dressed as quickly as I could making sure that the collar of the hoodie was hiding the scars from my collar bone.
I hate lots of things, but my body wasn't one of them until now.
Don't be like that. Snow said that they will fade with time.
Yes, but not all of them.
I tied my shoes and walked out of the door without looking back.
"You ready?" River asked and placed his arm over my shoulder after I nodded.
"Good. Now I'll give you a short resume of everything that took place since you were out oh, and the guys don't know that you're awake. Snow said that this surprise can lift their mood up since everyone very stressed." he said as he guided me through mazes of corridors.
Why aren't any windows?
"River why I didn't see any windows since we left the hospital wing?" I asked as I glanced at him.
He grimaced and started to explain me everything from the location of this place, to the annoying as fuck director and his stupid rankings.
"And that's everything you missed."
I don't know if I should be pissed, worried, angry or all of the above.
"You do realise how reckless and irresponsible was what you all just did??" I asked as I stared at him in disbelief.
River glared at me for the first time since I know him. "And do you think that we were stupid enough to leave everything like this? We did it for you because we care about you and your health! Yes, it was reckless, but I, we would gladly do it again because you are one of us and we are a family."
I chuckled. "I was truly mad at you. I understand what you did and why you did it and I'm in no place to judge you when I would have done exactly the same, if not worst. And I really appreciate what you did. What all of you did." I said as I hugged him.
"Good and now you have the occasion to tell all of us how grateful you are since behind this door our dear mates are training for the rankings." he said and pointed at a orange coloured door.
My lips stretched into a wide grin. "I go first or you go first?"
He opened the door and motioned for me to go. "Ladies first."
I bowed my head and stepped in. All of then were gathered in a circle chatting and doing some warmups.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING THERE? WHY I FIND YOU CHATTING LIKE SOME TEENAGE GIRLS INSTEAD OF TRAINING?" I yelled at them trying to sound mad, but my stupid smile was giving me away.
All the chatter stopped and all of them raised their heads to stare at me with different types of expression: disbelief, I-just-saw-a-ghost face, blank face, confusion and happiness.
Leaf and Hazel were the first to react as they sprinted towards me and crushed me in their hug.
"I'M SO HAPPY THAT I'M NOT THE ONLY SEXY AND SMART ONE ANYMORE" "MY HOMIE IS BACK BITCHES" both of them yelled at the same time and I couldn't help but laugh.
"Are you really here?" a small voice asked and I pulled away from them only to see Sky looking at me with teary eyes.
I smiled softly at him. "Yes. I'm here and I'm here to stay."
He squeezed his eyes shut as he started to cry while hugging me with a strength I didn't know he possessed.
After a minute the rest of them started to cheer as they run to us sandwich-ing me and Sky in a group hug.
I smiled at them brighter than I ever had in my whole life.
Maybe I don't know what I'm going to do with the rankings and everything, but as long as I have my friends, no, my family with me, I'll be just fine.
~☆~
Hello there, my dear chocolate biscuits💙🍪. I'm back with another chapter and as you already saw, one of the new characters appeared and our dear Shadow is up and ready to kick some asses. Things will start to get moving starting with the next chapter and even I am excited to write what is next to come.
Small spoiler: When I created the new characters, I fell in love with one of them and I love that character with my whole cookie-lover heart. (I'm not sure even if it's healthy to love your own character so much, buuuut).
I will try to post one chapter per week if I won't get caught with school, with I hate with my whole heart especially when it's that wonderful time when you have final exams.
Now I want to hear what questions you have about this story or about the characters.
Yup, really. I will answer all of them as long as they don't sound like 'What's going to happen next?' because I'm giving you no spoilers. After all the new characters appear, you'll be able to ask them questions, but for know we stick with our old but good heroes.
Random question: What piece of clothing fits you the most as in represents you?
I always loved my leather jackets and hoodies and this two are my 2 representatives piece of clothing. Those and probably sunglasses because I usually don't leave my house without them.
It's a goodbye for now, my biscuits, but I'll be back before you know it.
Your one and only,
-The_cookies_lover 💙🍪.