The Reborn

Blue. Change and block.

Black. Change and block.

Blue. Change and block.

Blue. Block.

Blue. Block again.

Black. Change and block.

Black. Change and- I yelp as the sphere hit me and I fell butt first on the ground.

“And you were doing so great.” Sharpedon said as he approached me.

I was rubbing and holding my right leg which felt like it was not there. “That’s right. I was doing great until I got tired and I’m not used to all of this.”

Me and Sharp were on the training field and I was practicing changing from Elementar to Dark as fast as I could because ‘you don’t know when you’ll need it in a battle’. So I had to block his hits with the correct power or I’ll have a frozen leg. We kept doing this back and forth for 1 hour and as I said, I was pretty good at it until I got tired and I couldn’t be completely concentrated.

“You could’ve told me that you are tired and I’d have stopped. This was your first attempt and I wasn’t going to force you, but tomorrow we will do this for 2 hours. You have to get used to it because it can be very tiring and-”

“It can be very useful in battles.” I said in the same time with him and he glared at me.

“Don’t look at me that way. I already know that, but it still feels like a bitch. I can’t feel my leg yet I feel like millions of daggers and dig into my skin.” I mumbled angrily and stared at red and swollen spot on my leg.

He seat down next to me and point a finger at my leg. “Can I?” he asked softly looking right into my eyes.

I nodded a little hesitant. He placed his hand over the injured spot and at first I hissed in pain, but then I felt something cold and warm in the same time on my skin. His hand started to glow and the spot started to tingle and warm up. I stared at him with my jaw dropped as he removed his hand revealing a fully healed skin.

I closed my mouth and kept staring at him, trying to form a coherent phrase. All I managed to come with was “How?“.

He looked at me with a sheepish smile. “I’m an element of water and water has healing properties.”

“So all water Elementars have this ability?” I asked with my eyebrows furrowed since I never seen Python healing any kind of wound with his power.

He shook his head and looked at the sky with a sad smile on his face. “No. Only some of them can heal with their power. It’s like an extra ability, but not all of us have the luck to be gifted with it. My mother learnt me how to use it on other people.”

From the sad smile and the nostalgic aura covering him, I can tell that he loved his mother and he misses her deadly. “She was a water Elementar too?”

“No. She was an earth Elementar. They can do this too or some of them can talk with animals which is pretty cool if you ask me.”

I gasped. “OMG that’s so awesome! I love animals and I’d die to understand what are they saying and talk with them! Just imagine if I could understand what Ray is saying when he barks at Leaf. But to the honest, I think that he does that just because he saw how startled Leaf is every time he barks at him. Leaf has a phobia of dogs since he was little. That’s what Hazel told me and-Damn. I’m rambling again. Sorry.” I smiled sheepishly at him and he chuckled.

“It’s fine. You’re cute when you do that.”

I blushed and cleared my throat trying to save me from my own embarrassment. “You said that you want me to learn you some things. What do you want to learn?”

He furrowed his eyebrows in deep thoughts making him look so cute. “Teach me how to be like you.”

Now it’s my turn to furrow my eyebrows. “Like me? Why would you want to be like me? I’m bad and reckless and I have 0 regrets about every bad thing I did on purpose. Oh, and I’m a sarcastic bitch 99% of the times.” I’m completely and utterly confused. Why would someone want to be like me? I’m hated by half of the persons and feared by the other half.

He turned his head to me. “That’s the thing, Shadow. Everyone knows to not mess with you because you’d kill them on the spot without regretting your decision the next day while I’m regretting even when I’m choosing waffles against cereals in the morning. Everyone fears and respects you in the same time even if you hear them talking shit.”

“They respect you too, Sharp.”

“Yes, but not like they respect you. They don’t fear me and if they could, they would walk all over me. It happened before, at the base where I came from. Here I’m left alone just because I’m your leader and friend with you all.”

Now I understand what he wants to say. “That’s because you are weak. You are too soft and diplomatic. This place is like a jungle. You can be the predator or the prey. It’s simple. You have to say what you want to say and then prove your point. You have to show them that they can’t walk all over you. They can’t see you with your head down in fear. You are the lion here and they are the prey. It’s not the opposite.” I told him straight in his face because that’s the person I am. It’s useless to hide behind the bush and tell him lies to make him feel better.

He stares at me with his eyes widen in shock. He clearly wasn’t expecting me to shove the truth right in his face.

“Don’t look at me like that, Gaze. This is the truth and you have to face it. If you want me to teach you this, you have to understand first what’s wrong. You are too soft, too caring. You care about what other people think too much.” I stopped when everything finally clicked together in my mind. “You care so much about what they think that you built this golden boy facade to impress everyone, but you’re not happy with what you have become.” I said everything confidently and turned my head to look at him.

He was staring at the ground with his head hung low in shame and sadness, instantly making me feel bad for telling him the truth like this. I was too direct with him and now he hates me and he will be depressed and shut everyone out and do other stupid things and everything because of him.

I jumped in surprise when I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t feel bad for what you said. You did the right thing. I already knew what was wrong with me, but I needed someone to tell me all of this in my face to finally wake me up. To finally make me understand. And now I do understand. I’m a coward for acting like someone I’m not.” he said and his voice cracked at the end and I swear that my heart cracked too when I heard it.

I took his hand from my shoulder and squeezed it. “Hey, don’t be so harsh with yourself. You did what you thought it was good at one point. And if you ask me, to have a soft heart in this cruel and fucked up world, is courage not weakness. It’s okay to be soft with the people close to you and those in need. But it’s not okay to be soft all the time with all those idiotic hypocrites. They don’t deserve it. You just have to learn how to be a little more tougher and everything will be fine. You have to be you without give 2 royal fucks about what they think.”

He smiled a little. “Like you do?”

I chuckled. “Yes. Like I do. Do you think that if I would’ve listened to every word they spited at me, I would still be here? I’m telling ya that I would not.”

“How can you do that? How can you just ignore them and keep doing whatever the fuck you want?” he asked and I could see in his eyes that he still doesn’t believe that he can do this.

I smiled at him. “Confidence is the key. Believe in you and your cause. Believe so much in your cause that you’d die for it. You’d keep up will all their bullshit and won’t stop until you see your dream came true. And even it comes true, you’d fight for it to keep it that way.”

He shook his head. “I can’t be as confident as you.”

“It’s not that you can’t. You don’t want to.” I shouted back because he’s unbelievable. Why is so hard for him to be confident? What made him to feel so little?

“Of course I want to, but I fucking can’t Shadow. I’m not you.”

“But you want to be like me. You said it yourself.” I said and smirked when he stayed silent avoiding eye contact. “And if you start with the idea that you can’t do it, you won’t do it. Everything starts from here, Sharpedon.” I tapped his head. “What you think, you become. I don’t know what made you this insecure, but you have to get over it no matter how hard it is. I had my bad moments, when I had literally nothing, but I kept my head held high and moved on. Yes, it was hard, but my goal is more important. And you’re a royal. You have it in your blood. Imagine that you have a crown on your head and you can’t, YOU CAN’T, let it drop. So you have to held you head up.” I said and raised his head with my hands.

“Shadow, I don’t-”

“And straighten your back. Stay still, back straight, head held high, confident steps and a neutral face.” I slapped him on the back making him to straighten his back, and rubbed my finger between his furrowed eyebrows. “And if you keep worrying and furrow your eyebrows, you’ll get wrinkles and that’s ugly.” I finished and flashed him one of my rare full smiles when my teeth are on display along with my right dimple. Yes, I have a dimple, but it’s not very proeminent.

He stared at me for a moment. “Do you really think that this could work?”

“I believe in you. I’ll stop believing on you when you’ll stop believing in me, Sharp.” I told him looking straight into his eyes. I do this when I want to show the person I’m talking to how damn serious I am.

“I won’t stop believing in you Red.” he replied and stared back at me.

I smiled again. “Good. Then, I won’t stop believing in you neither. You have potential kiddo.”

He chuckled and he was back to his usual happy self. “Kiddo? I’m older than you.”

“Oh, yeah? How old are you?” I asked and crossed my arms.

He mimicked my action. “I’m 22 years old, 23 in December on 27. What about you?”

I pouted. “I’m 19, 20 in October on 31.”

“You’re born in the same day when Halloween is? That’s so cool.” he said excited and I chuckled.

“Halloween it’s my favorite holiday and autumn is my favorite season.”

He scoffed. “I’m can’t say the same thing about winter. I’m not a big fan of it. I prefer spring and autumn since it’s more windy and rainy.”

Oh, right. Water Elementar, rain. It makes sense.

Suddenly, I remembered that I have to hold a session with another revolted teen. “Fuck. It was nice to have a chit chat with you, Sharp, but I just remembered that I have to be somewhere.” I said and jumped on my feet.

“Another hour of dealing with the rebellious youth?” he chuckled when I groaned.

I rubbed my face. “Unfortunately, yes I do. And I don’t have enough time to take a shower or change and I’m gonna freeze dressed like this.” I groaned again and cursed myself. I’m wearing a sport bra and a pair of yoga pants and it’s the beginning of December.

Suddenly, everything is black. I started to panick immediately when I heard a deep chuckle.

“Dummy, you have something on your face.” he said and I can see the light again. “I threw my hoodie at you, but you were zoned out. Take it and go until you are even more later than you already are. And I’ll be fine since in going straight home.”

“Thank you so much. You saved my ass, Sharp. See ya. Oh, and feed Ray for me!!” I yelled and started to run.

“Of course I will. I’m his daddy after all. And I can be your daddy too if you want!”

I blushed and flipped him the bird without looking back. That son of a bitch. I don’t know how, but he has stuck in his head the idea that Ray is mine and his dog and we are his parents. And we both have to take care of him.

“I’m so sorry for being late. I was cached up in practice and lost track of the time. Time flies, huh?” I said as I barged into the room.

Blast lets me use Windy’s office for this occasionally therapy hours because I refused when he offered me my own office since I’m most of the times at practice or sleeping.

I dropped myself on my chair and rubbed my face. “Let’s start with the beginning. I’m Shadow and I hope that this will end fast because I really really really need a shower.” I smiled, but my face dropped when I saw the person sitting in front of me.

“Hi. I’m Shield.” she said in a small voice and waited for my reaction.

I cleared my throat trying not to yell at her. “What are you doing here? Last time I checked you thought that this is for mad people and you were completely against it.”

“I-I came here to apologize....I’m sorry. And I want to start my treatment.”

“Why the sudden change?” I asked as I crossed my arms and placed my feet on the desk.

She gulped, intimidated by my moves. “Because I realised that I really need it. It became so bad that now I don’t even know which one of us is the real me. Before, I was afraid that after I took the pills I’ll be stuck as Shield the bitch, but now I’m assuming that risk because at last I know that I’m me. And you were right. I’m worst than you all since I wasn’t just lying to you all. I was lying to myself too, but I want to get better and I want to make things right. Please, Shadow. Help me.”

I shook my head. “I can’t help you. You have to help yourself. Snow will prescribe you the right meds and as long as you keep taking them and coming at sessions with Windy, you’ll be fine. You don’t need me. You have you and you’re your own hero.” I took her file and placed a red stamp on it that says ACCEPTED.

I got up and patted her shoulder before I exited the room. “You can do it as long as you believe that you can do it. The power of autosuggestion is bigger than you could ever imagine. Just believe in yourself.”

Don’t you think that it’s about time for you to start to follow your own advice?

Yeah. I think that it’s time to have a little more faith in myself.