It all started right before my sixth birthday. The day before I turned six I was excited like most kids, not because I was turning six but because I was getting more presents.
“Connor its time to go to bed.” My mom told me.
I had tried to convince her to let me stay up but I only got an hour more to stay up. “Awight, but how many presents am I going to get?” I asked even though I would get more excited than I was.
“None if you don’t hurry up and go to bed.” She told me.
Mulling over that for a few seconds I took off up the stairs toward my room. I was already in the clothes I sleep in so when I got there I dove into my bed. It wasn’t easy to sleep since I had riled myself up all day so I sat up and thought about what I might get. It was eleven before I got sleepy so I lie back down and fell asleep. It was a relatively peaceful sleep until I woke and recognized nothing. I was in my room but at the same time it wasn’t my room. I started to panic, jumped out of my bed and ran for my parent's room. Before I got to the door a woman stepped in front of me.
“Calm down child. There’s no need to panic.” She said.
“Who…are you?” I asked her.
She smiled, “You know who I am, just concentrate.”
I decided she wasn’t going to harm me and tried to remember the woman. She was right though, she did look familiar. We sat there for several minutes just staring at each other. Finally it clicked, “Mo…ther?” The memory didn’t come from anyone I’d met in the current six years I’ve lived, it was from another life.
She smiled again, “So your memories have come back to you?”
I grabbed my head and shook it, “These are not my memories. You are not my mom.” I wanted to run out of the room and into my moms, but I was too scared to go near the specter.
“You must calm your thoughts child. I know this is a lot but you must learn the truth about your life and your destiny.” She said.
I closed my eyes, “Nooo! Go away!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. When I opened my eyes again I was alone so I figured it was all just a dream. I walked over to my window, looked up, and saw a full moon. I don’t know why but I felt I had to go out there and sit. So I ran to my door, locked it then crawled out the window to sit and view the full moon. I never actually sat down and looked at the moon but tonight a little peace would be nice after what just happened.
After a few minutes I heard the specters voice again, “You must learn the truth about your past and present life and above all your destiny.”
This time I didn’t start getting scared because I could see no specter. So it wasn’t a dream. I thought to myself. “How can I find that out?” I asked.
“You must find that on your own but let Gaia guide you.”
“Who is Gaia?” I asked.
“You’ll find out soon.” She told me.
I stayed there on the roof until morning when my mom tried to come into my room and found the door locked. “Connor? Connor!?” my mom yelled trying to get my attention. She ran down the hall and got my dad. I was still in a state where I heard them but wanted to do nothing about it. My mom and dad came up down the hall and stopped at the door. After trying the doorknob my dad busted the frame of the door.
“Connor?” he asked noticing that I wasn’t there. He ran to the window, saw me and said, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” My dad was a strong man and could hold his own against a good sized group of people. He grabbed me by the shirt, lifted me into the room and began his lecture, “What were you doing out there? Don’t you know it's dangerous? You could have fallen and hurt yourself or worse get yourself killed. Well what have you got to say?”
I stood there, smiled and then walked away from him, “I was finding myself and my parents.” Had it not been for the shock of that one phrase I would have been thrown out the window but this time it wouldn’t be of my own free will.
Dad took a step toward me but mom stopped in front of him, “Pay no heed to this kind of babble. It’s only his imagination.”
I had no memories of whether the two in front of me were my real parents or not but I was going to take what the specter said into consideration.
“Boy if I ever hear you say that again or if you ever walk away from me while I’m talking to you you’ll get the beating of your life.” Dad said. He walked out while my mother stayed.
“Why do you say you’re looking for your parents?” mom asked me.
“Because I’ve got my doubts as to who my parents are.” I told her. She finally left leaving me alone to think. I’d been up since midnight so I went over to my bed and laid down. My mind was pretty clear so a lot of thoughts went through my mind. One of those thoughts was during that entire time I was out there on the roof I hadn’t gained many things except for one thing- many years of wisdom that I didn’t have the day before. I fell asleep rather fast and didn’t wake up until noon.
“Connor! Wake up!” mom yelled at me.
I didn’t hear her clearly because I was still half asleep but I soon woke up when she came in and banged on the wall. I crawled out of bed and walked downstairs. Obviously you can tell my family doesn’t treat me like a child as much as most parents do. My dad treats me like I were ten years older so in turn my mom does the same.
When I got downstairs mom asked me, “What do you want on your cake, honey?”
“It don’t matter, I guess dragons.” I told her and sat at the table while she made lunch. While we ate lunch both my parents were acting like nothing had happened earlier this morning. I decided to leave the matter alone and went outside after I finished. My house was a two-story set a good distance away from the next town over. One thing I liked about this house was that it was deep in the middle of the forest. I walked in the woods looking for the spot I usually go to. As I walked through the forest I began to notice everything, the trees, the flowers, and even the plants that snaked their way up the tree trunks. Finally I reached my tree that I sit in to relax every weekend. It was a huge oak tree with flowers growing all around it. The patch of land that it stood on was surrounded by a lake, and the only way to get across was by swinging on a vine. Ever since I found this place I never once disturbed the flowers that grew there. As far as I know no one else knows of my retreat, which is great because when I’m there it feels as though I’m in another world. Today I came so that I could try to remember. Something of what that woman said had to be true because what I knew the day before was far less than what I know now. Maybe this place will help me remember. I thought to myself. I soon drifted into a half-wake trance. I sat there for more than two hours and still remembered nothing.
My parents might not treat me like a kid but I still had to be in early since it was my birthday, so I jumped out of the tree and swung to the other side. I decided to take the long way home since I wasn’t in much of a hurry so I headed off down a different trail. On my way through the forest it seemed like every animal there wanted me to see them. Every time one animal ran by less than a minute went by before another passed. Finally after another went by I decided to follow it since they all seemed to be going in the same general direction. I wasn’t all that accustomed to running so I got tired rather quickly but I didn’t quit until I found where it was they had gone. When I stopped I saw a man sitting on a stump in the middle of all the animals.
“Good job, my boy. Even though you got tired you kept going until you found your destination. Persistence is a good quality to have.” The man said.
I was quite surprised because from where I was at his back was facing me. “How’d you know I was here?” I asked him.
“The animals were leading you and plus you make so much noise any animal within a mile could have heard you.” He said.
“This is weird, but this while days been weird. So what’s your name?” I asked even though as with the specter I recognized him.
“Why ask questions you already know the answers to? Ask the questions for which you do not know the answers and you will learn plenty more.” The man said.
“OK, fine. Who am I?” I asked.
“Your mother should have told you.” He said.
“Mom? What would she know about the things that are happening?” I asked.
“Your real mother not the one that lived in the house beyond these woods. No matter, the events that are happening today are all to get you walking down the right path, but so far you’ve refused the entire time except for earlier this morning, but during that time you were too tired to reject your memories. The only thing you’ve remembered is the wisdom that was taught to you by the elders. If you don’t get on the right path and start letting other memories to surface you will die along with several others.” He stopped talking for a little while then laughed.
I gave him a puzzled look then asked, “What’s funny?”
“I can see the child inside of you getting scared but you know there is no reason to be. Your mother told you that you would remember what you’ve forgotten right?” I nodded. “Well that approach might take too long so I intend to make you remember.” He stood up and began to walk towards me.
“How are you gonna make me?” I asked.
“You’re young yet you will still know what has been taught to you.”
The entire time the two of us were talking the animals that had gathered around this strange man never moved or tried to, they all seemed at peace where they were. I was thinking too much about the animals and didn’t see the man run at me, but before he did run into me I jumped out of the way.
“What are you tryin’ to do?” I asked.
“I told you one way or another I was going to make you remember.” The man said.
This time I paid more attention to him and watched him leap towards me, but as he got closer I seemed to lose control and my body started acting on reflexes. Before he attacked me I jumped backwards and somehow landed on a tree branch six feet in the air. I stood there amazed, but once again my reflexes took over before I could be anymore amazed. This guy that was trying to attack me had lots of endurance because we kept this game of tag going for at least fifteen minutes and each time he came at me I pulled off a flip or a roll that I never knew I could. After another few minutes I began to recognize the scenario. The memory was a little hazy but it was the same, I was fighting someone, not sure who, but I knew it was real. Little by little the memory grew clearer until finally I recognized who I was fighting right now and in my memory. I began to laugh until I was laughing rather loudly and every move I made I let flow through me instead of letting reflexes make all the moves.
“What, pray tell, might be so funny at this time?” the man asked.
“Come now Father, these are only the basics. I remember all these defensive and the offensive moves you are using. This is for beginners, come at me with all you got!” I told him.
That memory brought back all the training that I had ever received. This time when the man ran at me he seemed like he disappeared he was going so fast, but since it was him that trained me I had just as much speed and I done the same thing. When he first trained me our skills were evenly matched and that’s what I thought here too but I was wrong.
The fight went on for another half an hour and in the middle of attacking, while laughing, the man said, "When I taught you, you could have easily bested me, but you're in a different body, you must train it just as you trained your last."
"Why can't I best you now?" I asked.
"Because…" he disappeared again but this time I couldn't see where he went, "you're too slow." he appeared behind me with his arm around my neck.
We both started laughing and went to sit on a fallen tree.
"Well father it seems you have forced me to remember after all." I told him.
"Not quite. Your training was one of the things you needed to remember but you still have to remember why I forced you to remember.” he told me.
"So why don't you just tell?" I asked.
"Because you must remember on your own. Since you’ve remembered the wisdom and the training taught to you, are you ready to get on the right path?” he asked. I nodded my head. “Ok then come back here at midnight and you will learn who and why you are and where your destiny lies. Also since you’ve never trained your new body you will be extremely soar either later or tomorrow.”
I toke off towards the house in quite a hurry because it had gotten dark without me noticing it. When I got home I’d probably be in a lot of trouble. I walked through the back door and it was like earlier this morning when I was on the roof, they kept asking where I was and said I knew I was supposed to be home before nightfall. After they were done it was like it never happened we started my birthday party, which wasn’t anything but the three of us eating cake and ice cream.
After it was all over I noticed the excitement I had felt the day before had waned quite a bit, now it just felt like another day. When all the presents were opened my mom asked if there were something wrong since I wasn’t my usual excited self. I told her it was nothing and I went to my room to wait until the appointed time to go into the woods. I tried talking to my real mother but she never answered so I figured she must have already left for the woods. Since I couldn’t talk to my mother, I decided I’d meditate to pass the time, I still had four hours. I sat on my bed, closed my eyes and cleared my mind of all thoughts, which mostly consisted of the fight in the woods earlier. Immediately all sounds disappeared and the only thing left was blackness. Then the scene of me fighting my father in the forest reappeared. Even though I had let the moves flow through me and I eventually was doing them myself I was still surprised. The backyard slowly shifted from forest scenery to a room, a training room. This is the memory I remembered while fighting with Father. I thought to myself. This time the memory extended farther than what I remembered in the forest. The training session between me and my father had ended and we walked out of the room and over to a river. The water was a pale green but I didn’t know the significance of it. I didn’t know, but the me in the memory seemed to know.
“Son, you know what this is, but do you know why it is important to us?” my father asked.
“Because we protect the souls that come from it.” I answered.
“Right, and since our souls are different we stay here waiting until the soul we are supposed to protect springs forth. The one you are supposed to protect is on its way and they are important to the survival of all life. It will be your responsibility to make sure that they survive." he told me.
"Do you think I'm ready and how will I know who the soul is?" I asked.
"Your instincts will let you know who it is and I am completely confident you will succeed." he told me.
"As am I." my mother walked up behind me.
"My soul is in this body how am I supposed to follow it?" I asked.
"We'll purge your soul and that's when you'll follow your charge. Don't worry it won't hurt."
I looked back at her then I woke up in my room. I looked at the clock beside my bed and saw it was nearly midnight. I got my shoes back on and went to the window to climb out. Since it was dark, it took a long time to find the area where I saw my father before. I stopped after ten minutes of searching and finding nothing. Almost immediately a wolf walked up, circled around me and walked off but turned around and looked at me like I was supposed to follow him. It toke a while and I was beginning to wonder if I should have followed him but we finally arrived at the stump where my mother and father sat.
"Your countenance has changed since last we met my boy." my father told me.
"I've begun to allow more memories to surface."
"Your face seems to have shifted also. It looks like it's seen more than its fair share of agony and pain." my mother said.
"Well that may be because I've found the memory you were aiming to surface." I told them.
"Ah you have, have you? Tell us, what memory might that be?" Father asked.
"The one telling me that I am supposed to protect a certain soul." I told them.
"OK then your memory will slowly come back to you over the next day. I'm sure there are a few memories still to be uncovered." Mother told me.
"One thing I would like to know though is how come Mother is a spirit while you are flesh and blood, Father?" I asked.
"That we can tell you. Your father is immortal and the only way to kill an immortal is to sever their head, so that their body will shutdown without the brain. I on the other hand have always been a spirit. For the first hundred or so years of life we have a physical form but then evolve into what you see now." Mother told me.
"But you don't look any older than forty or so." I told her.
"That's because at about the age you just said our bodies begin to slow the aging process until it completely stops. The same is with your father. He aged to the peak of his strength then the aging process stops so that he can always keep his strength and never lose it when his body would usually start to deteriorate." she said.
"Well since I've remembered what I'm supposed to do what’s the point in staying out here?" I asked.
"Well there's always the choice of training."
"Sounds good to me. Let's roll." I said.
We walked on opposite sides of the stump and prepared to spar. We stared at each other and smiled then he attacked. We sparred for hours and every now and then thoughts that would have come to me before I met my real parents seeped into my mind. How can I do these things, I'm just a kid. How do I know if these people are really who they say they are? While I was in the middle of those thoughts, my father got the best of me and got a good hit in.
"You mustn't have any thoughts going through your mind. I can see the child inside you second guessing what he's learned, but look inside your soul for the calm you seek. You know all you need to complete your destiny so go home and begin the search for her." Father told me.
I turned to go but before I left my mother said, "Remember we are always here if you need guidance." After she said that I walked back home.
It's been eleven years since I found out my destiny but the only thing I have to show is my improved strength, agility, stamina, and endurance. I've been searching for her ever since I met my real parents but I've had no luck. I've gone to several different schools, four to be exact, and now I'm a junior in high school. This will be the third high school that I've been to and I intend on changing schools over and over again until I find her. I decided I'd go ahead and get down from the roof since it was nearly time to go.
When I got downstairs my mom wasn't in the best of moods, "Are you going to stay at this school this time?"
"Just like I told you at the beginning of the last school year, I won't know until after today." I told her. She wasn't exactly thrilled that I keep switching schools every year.
"You should find a group of friends to hang out with." She told me.
"I don't need friends." I told her.
Before she could say anything I went out the front door and drove to school. When I got to school it was the usual first day; the girls running up to one another telling each other about their summer, the jocks talking about the upcoming season, the computer nerds showing off their laptops and the software they installed in them and so on. There was still plenty of time before first bell rang so I decided to wander around a bit. It was a big campus which gave me a better chance of finding her, but I wasn't going to get my hopes up. Almost all the people I passed glared at me because they didn't like the way I looked or because I intimidated them. I had long, black hair that went past my shoulder blades and every visible article of clothing I was wearing was black as well. I wore these colors so that everyone would leave me alone and not bother me. Over the years I learnt how to sense emotions and while walking down the halls I didn't sense anyone whose emotions were neutral, not happy nor sad, those were the folks that could comprehend complex matters, and they had no emotion to cloud their reasoning. Right before I was about to go out in front of the school again the tattoo on my right arm started to dimly glow. After I got the tattoo I had my real mother bless it with Gaia's magic, so that it would help me find the one I'm supposed to protect. Even though my tattoo was shining, I could still sense my charges energy and knew she was nearby. I looked up and down the hall, but no one was around so I headed off to first period. When I got there no one was around so I chose the chair closest to the window in the back row and waited for class to start. I didn't have to wait long because the first bell rang soon afterwards and everybody poured into the classroom. As they all came in I sensed each one but none of them were the one I was looking for so I leaned back and meditated to pass the time.
The teacher came in as the tardy bell rang. "Ok, students I hope you had a fun summer but now its time to learn. Open to chapter one in your Algebra books and we'll begin." She said and started going over the lesson.
A few minutes after she started I sensed what I was looking for, it was weak, but it was getting stronger. I calmed my thoughts and kept meditating to try and find where she was at. The first thing that came to me were: footsteps running up the stairs and down the halls and a picture was slowly forming of the person.
Before I could see her the teacher came up and disturbed my meditation, "My teaching a little boring for ya?"
"Actually my mind heard everything, but instead of listening to you I was trying to see something." I told her.
"That's nice, but instead of watching the back of your eyelids watch the front of the class."
She turned around and walked back to the front of the room and everyone started laughing. I passed a glance to the entire class and they quit laughing just as quickly as they started.
Right as the teacher got to the front of the room a girl walked in, "Whoa, this class is bigger than last years."
I could still sense the person that was running through the halls earlier so I couldn't be sure if this girl was her or not.
"Miss, do you realize you are twenty minutes late?" the teacher asked her.
"Yeah, but my alarm clock didn't go off." she answered.
"Fine, fine, take a seat."
The girl walked to the back, but stopped halfway to talk to one of the girls in the class, "What's up with that guy, he looks weird."
The girl she was talking to turned around looked at me and said, "I don't know, he's the new kid, but you're right he is weird."
"Miss, take your seat!"
Finally she sat down and the teacher began to talk again. The rest of the period was uneventful since I paid no attention to anyone in the classroom. The bell rang and everyone left except for the girl that was late and me.
"Are you going to leave or just stay in here?" she asked. I opened my eyes and looked around to see that no one was there except the two of us. My tattoo had been glowing the entire time, but when I looked over at the girl it began to glow even brighter. The girl jumped up and fell over her desk when she tried to back away. "Wha...what the hell is up with your arm?" she asked scared to death.
I smiled then got up, "Can you seriously see the light it emits?"
"Of course, who couldn't?" she said.
"It's only a symbol and only very few can see it." I told her.
"How come it glows like that?" she asked.
"It lets me know of an occurrence, but I can't tell you what." I told her and got up to leave.
"Hey hold up. You’re going to leave without telling me your name?" the girl asked.
"Well, I usually don't let folks know my name until I see that they can be trusted, but since you can see the light from my tattoo I guess you could know. The name's Connor," I bowed, "and what might your name be?"
The girl blushed, "No one ever bowed to me when I've met them before, but my name is Krystal, nice to meet ya, I'd curtsy but I don't have a dress on."
"I bow as a show of respect, especially to women. They might not have the same strength, but man would be no where without them."
Krystal laughed and said, "Yep, you're just about weird, but at least I'm not the only one anymore."
"Yeah, I'm probably the weirdest person you'll meet but weird to people nowadays isn't always a bad thing." I said.
"It just means you have a more open mind, well in my case anyways." she said.
"Well maybe we should get to class, the bells about to ring." Right as I finished the bell went off.
"Too late. Don't worry I'm always late. What class do you have next?" Krystal asked.
"Uh, world history I believe." I replied.
"Great, we're in the same class. We could just skip that way we can get to know each other." she said.
"Hmm, interesting prospect. It sounds good to me, let's go, but I choose the spot we go to. I saw a great spot on the roof you can get to if you climb a fence and a tree. That’s if you don't mind a little difficulty." I told her.
"Face a challenge looking forward never back." she smiled and led the way out.
When we got out of that classroom I looked around because I heard footsteps running away from the room and saw a teacher trying to hide and look around the corner. I figured it was one of the newer teachers looking to get as many kids in trouble as he could so I kept walking. Krystal was leading the way while I directed her to the spot I spoke of and even though she wanted to know how high she would have to climb I wouldn't tell her so anyone could tell she was getting anxious. We arrived at the fence I told her about and she stared at me like I was stupid.
"How exactly are we supposed to climb a twenty foot fence, leap to the tree on the other side and then get on the roof?" Krystal asked.
I laughed, "You said you liked challenges. Just follow me and I'll try not to do something you can't."
"Yeah I like challenges. But this is impossible." she said.
"Ok then I'll make it simple for you, jump on my back and I'll carry you up." I told her.
"You sure about that?" she asked.
I nodded my head and she climbed up on my back. "Hold on tight."
There was a bar half way up so getting that far was easy. When I got to the bar I jumped as high as I could and used my arms to lift the two of the rest of the way. I had learned to keep my balance with a heavy load on a small surface quite well, so staying on top of the fence with Krystal on my back was a walk in the park. As soon as I found a good spot to jump to, I leapt there and ran across the branch that led on to the roof. "See now there is no way I could have done that, I'd be surprised if anybody could." Krystal said after I sat her down.
"Ah after doing things like that for years you get used to it. Well anyways here we are, a spot with a great view of the lake a few hundred yards away." I told her.
"Have you got your schedule on you? I want to see which classes we have together." Krystal said. I reached into my back pocket and handed her my schedule. She walked over to the edge of the roof, got her schedule out and sat down to compare the two. She sat there for several minutes and finally said, "Wow, what a stroke of luck, we've got every class together." She tossed my schedule back to me and asked, "So why'd you come to this school?"
"I didn't find what I was looking for at the last one." I told her.
"What were you looking for?" she asked.
"That I can't tell ya, but I can say I won't be switching schools next year."
"That’s good, maybe now I'll have someone to talk to. All these other kids around here are quite annoying." she said.
"Ah they just like the times they live in, they believe technology will never fail." I said.
"But no one should become complacent with how they live, especially not with technology. It will fail someday or it might be what kills all mankind" Krystal said.
"Nicely put, I never thought I'd meet another mind that thought the same way I do, well for the most part anyways." I told her.
"Hey this is a bit of a stupid question but what religion are you?" she asked.
I was a bit surprised when she asked it, but I figured she must have a good reason because I could feel her getting nervous. "I really don't have on but I do believe there is an entity that controls things on the planet. Gaia is that entity. Most call it mother earth or Mother Nature but I believe the planet itself, Gaia, controls what happens, but mankind seems to want to work against her which is putting strain on her." I said.
"I don't believe in any gods period. I was just wondering, cuz the Christian people don't get along very well with me." she said.
"Good enough reason for me, I usually don't talk to anyone at any of the schools, but since you’re not like most I guess I'll make an exception for you." I told her.
We sat there for the rest of the period and talked about what other schools I went to and what trouble we'd both gotten into. When I went to the ledge and looked across the grounds, I seen the same teacher I'd seen trying to snoop on me earlier so I tried to sense his emotions but the only thing I got out of him was anger. I made sure not to make direct eye contact with him and said, "Krystal come here I want to show you something."
She got up, walked over beside me and asked, "I've seen this view several times, what else is there to see?"
I turned around and had my back toward the guy watching us and said, "Alright make a passing glance at the trees down there and get a good look at that guy just don't make it obvious you see him."
She looked down at the trees, saw the man, and the before the guy noticed she saw him. Krystal started staring aimlessly around the front of the school, "Yeah, I see him, what about 'em?"
"That's the second time I've seen him spying on us, is he one of the teachers here?" I asked.
She thought for a second then said, "Oh I remember him now, he's the one that rats out all the students who break the rules. He's narc'd on more people than any of the teacher's pets. He likes to aim for the people who do the big things: graffiti, and all the other good stuff. Wanna go pay him a visit?"
I smiled then asked, "How are we supposed to get down without him seeing us?"
She pointed behind herself and said, "Every roof is connected so if we jump down about three roofs we should be low enough to jump to the ground."
We walked away from the edge and as soon as we were out of sight we ran the rest of the way. Krystal was right, after jumping three times we were close enough to jump to the ground. We ran around the school so we would end up behind the snoop. We were maybe ten feet away from him, but we couldn't move any nearer because had we stepped any farther we would have been heard for all the leaves covering the area he was at, but Krystal surprised me and leapt right behind him and put him in a chokehold. I would have done something similar, but I didn't want to surprise her too much.
"Hi narc. What's up?"
"What the... what do you think you're doing?" he asked.
I walked up to him as Krystal turned him around, "I'm wondering the same thing about you. Why have I seen you trying to spy on us twice? I haven't been here long enough for teachers to suspect me of doing something against the rules."
"I'm not saying anything." he said.
Krystal laughed, "You don't seem to realize that you're at a disadvantage."
"Never underestimate someone." he grabbed Krystal's arms, flipped her over and took off for the school.
Krystal got up and was about to chase after the guy but I jumped over her and landed in between her and the school.
"You have got to teach me how to do that." she said.
"Maybe some other day.” I looked in the direction of the school, “It took lots of training to learn to jump that high and still have distance on the jump.” I looked back at her, “He's right though, you shouldn't underestimate people and you never anticipated anything from him. Also, he's in with something other than being a narc because if I'm not mistaken he executed that move with very little effort."
"Wow, you're a bit paranoid aren't ya, but you're right his strength never faltered."
I looked around to make sure no one else was around then looked at my watch, "Well I guess we better head on to third period, the bells about to ring."
We gathered out things and walked to our next class. Meanwhile, while Krystal and I walked to class the narc was running through the halls trying to get to the principal’s office before the bell rang and he was engulfed by the student body. He finally rounded the last corner and saw the principal standing in front of his office.
"Kyle I saw your mishap in front of the school, how did you get caught, besides the fact that you were in plain sight." the principal said.
"Sorry sir I thought I was concealed by the trees, but they went around the school and got me from behind." Kyle told him.
"Was there anything you found out that was useful?"
"Yes sir. We already know he is a guardian, so when I was spying on him this morning I saw something that led me to believe he had found his charge. At the end of first period I saw his tattoo glow and the girl that took me by surprise just now saw the light coming from it. Also some of his abilities I witnessed were: he is quite strong, like myself, he's really agile, and he has impossible balance." Kyle said.
"Fool, if you saw the light from his tattoo what makes you think the girl is his charge. There are several individuals who can see the light from that tattoo. Come back when you have more proof. Now leave!” He turned around and walked into his office.
"That should have been proof enough dammit! Krystal isn't one of the people who are likely to see something like that yet she did. I'll just follow the guardian home, maybe I can find something." Kyle said and went on to class.
The rest of the day went by and nothing interesting happened. On my way out to my car I didn't feel like having that one kid that kept watching me follow me home so I looked around to make sure he wasn't around. When I saw no sign of him I got in and headed home. When I got home I ran in and just as I was about to go upstairs my mom tried to ask how my day was but I gave her no time and kept running. I got to my room, threw down my backpack and jumped out my window and headed to the forest where my real parents tend to be.
"What are we going to do?" my mom asked.
My dad starred at the woods and said, “At first I thought it was just a phase but it’s gone on far too long for it to be that. Do you think that psychiatrist we talked to a few weeks ago will make a house call?”
“I’m sure she will if we explain to her that Connor wouldn’t drive over there. I’ll go call her now and see what she’ll do.” my mom said.
Meanwhile I was running through the woods trying to find my father, he was easier to find than my mother most of the time. I had been running around for about five minutes when my father came at me with a surprise attack, but I dodged it before he hit me.
“Nice job son. At least you’re still observant. It’s been quite a while since we last seen you, have you got good news?”
My mother came out from behind a tree and was obviously waiting for my answer.
“I believe I might have found my charge. At the end of first period the girl sitting beside me saw the light coming from my tattoo.”
“Son, Gaia’s magic can be seen by anyone who is willing to see it, that is not a legitimate reason to think that.” my father said.
My mother looked at me and shook her head, “I told you that when I blessed it. It should only be useful when you can sense your charge’s energy.”
“I know, that’s why I think I found her. When I sensed her at the beginning of school I meditated during the entire first class and when I came out of my meditation I sensed her and the only one there was the girl who saw the tattoo’s light.”
“Good job now you can start being her guardian. Be watchful of people who do not seem they are who they say they are. Also never assume anything, know.” father told me.
“I meant to ask you. There’s a kid at school who is spying on me, according to Krystal, my charge, he’s just a narc but he pulled off something when I approached him that you don’t just accidentally happen across. I’m pretty sure he’s in something bigger than being a narc. Well that’s all I know about him, I just thought you’d like to know I found my charge and ask what you think I should do about the little spy.” I said.
“I’ll tell you what I think but you’ll have to decide what to do. I think you’re right, he is in alliance with another group.” he told me.
“Alright I’ll just keep my eye on him from now on.”
My mother walked over to my side and covered my tattoo with her hand, “Since you have found your charge, you no longer need this to be blessed, it draws attention of those that can see it.” she whispered something then walked over to my father’s side.
"Good luck, Connor, you've found your charge, you no longer need our guidance." My father said.
"I understand." I said.
I walked over to my mother and gave her a hug and then shook my father's hand, "Protect her well son."
I bowed to them and they walked into the forest.
When I could no longer see them, I walked toward my house thinking about what I was going to do if the narc was a part of something bigger. I had just decided that I would do whatever was necessary to protect Krystal when I arrived at the house and my mom and dad were waiting on the steps for me.
"Connor," my dad called trying to sound tough, "we need to talk."
I smiled, "Do we really?"
My mom got up and took a few steps toward me, "Connor you need help, you change schools every year because you think you're going to find something. Your attitude towards us, disregarding what we tell you, and not letting us know where you're at, we want it all to change."
I could tell she was on the verge of tears and that’s when my dad stood and said, "We called a psychiatrist and asked her to come and speak with you then make other appointments."
I laughed at their desperateness as the psychiatrist they spoke of walked out of the house to join us. "Connor, I presume," she said, "my name is Miss Mackey."
"You know what, you can hire whoever you want. This is me and nothing is going to change that. I'll talk with you tonight, but after that you won't be back for a second visit." I told her.
Miss Mackey turned to my mom and dad and said, "Shall we go inside?" We all went inside and sat down in the dining room. "Okay, I want to talk with all of you first then I'll talk with Connor alone later. Now when did you notice his behavior change?"
My dad looked at me then said, "I remember it like yesterday. On his sixth birthday when we went to wake him up, he was sitting out on top of the roof and when we asked him why he'd been up there he told us he was ‘trying to find his parents’ and it gradually got worse from there. He stopped talking to us then later stopped listening or rather didn't seem like he was listening."
Miss Mackey looked at me and asked, "Why did you say you were searching for your parents, do you not think these two people are your parents?"
"People nowadays don't listen to animal instincts so they can't realize certain things. The day I realized that animalistic instincts could help me was on my sixth birthday. I went with what my instincts told me which was: these two aren't my real parents." I told her.
My mom started to cry and asked my dad, "What did we do wrong?"
"Nothing, we did nothing wrong. Connor is just an ungrateful son. Miss Mackey I'm sorry it was a short session but I've decided to take a drastic measure. In two weeks if you don't change Connor we will send you to a juvenile detention center until we feel you have changed."
"Are you sure you want to give him an ultimatum and not just talk it out?" Miss Mackey asked.
"If he thinks he can control what he does when he isn't an adult then he's wrong and that’s it."
Through her sobs my mom thanked Miss Mackey for coming and walked into the kitchen.
"I'll come by when I can and then in between now and the two week time frame, Connor, I look forward to speaking with you." Miss Mackey said and left the house.
The only people left in the room were me and my dad who didn't look all that happy, “Connor, why do you think we aren't your parents?"
"I've done told you why, it’s because-"
Before I could finish my dad grabbed me by the front of my shirt and punched my face as hard as he could, "Bullshit! You're human, humans aren't animals and they don't have animal instincts."
I turned my head back to face my dad, grabbed his hand and twisted it so that he would let my shirt go, "If you know what's good for you you'll never hit me or grab me like you just did again. Now humans are animals, but they have become complacent with technology and their instincts have waned. Just because humans think they are better than animals doesn't mean they aren't animals themselves."
I turned to walk upstairs to my room, but my dad stepped in front of me, "That ultimatum still stands. If you don't change within two weeks you will be sent somewhere that will teach you different." He stepped aside and let me by.
I walked upstairs and went to bed. The next morning my family acted like nothing had happened last night which agitated me quite a bit. Everyone thinks that if you don't speak of distasteful events then it will go away but obviously it wouldn't. I didn't feel like another argument with them so as soon as I was dressed I left for school. When I arrived at school, Krystal was waiting on the front lawn of the school for me to arrive.
When she saw me, she ran up to me, "Hey. What's up? I wish I had a car but my parents won't get me one."
"Nothing much." I told her.
She let out a gasp, "What happened to your face?"
I reached up and touched the scratch that my dad had inflicted last night, "My dad lost his temper last night." I told her.
"What happened?"
"Ah my dad doesn't like the way I act toward him and my mom. I don't believe they are my parents and when I told him that he snapped. I don't listen to them since I believe what I believe." I said.
"If you don't mind why do you think they aren't your parents?" Krystal asked.
"Just a gut feeling and I've learned to trust my gut feelings."
As we started toward our first class the principal came over the PA system and announced an assembly in the auditorium. Everybody filed into the auditorium and sat down, not caring what the assembly was about just as long as they got out of class. The principal was up on stage waiting for everyone to sit down and be quiet. He looked around and when he had scanned the entire auditorium he turned toward Kyle, "Just as I thought, Connor will be waiting outside, make sure he won't be able to come back to school for a while, but before you go, where is Connor's supposed charge?" Kyle pointed toward the back row near the door and as soon as the principal saw her he said, "Good job." Kyle thanked him then took off toward a door leading out of the auditorium. It took a little while for everyone to get quiet, but after about five minutes not one person was talking and the principal started, "Alright, students, yesterday we did not have an assembly to talk about the rules so today we will. First of all…"
Outside, I was meditating, waiting for any sign of an attack. I started to think no one was going to come when I saw the narc in my mind, tiptoeing toward me and doing a good job of keeping quiet. He got right in front of me and swung his fist down on my head, but before he would hit me I swung my fist at his and both of our fists collided with one another. I stood up and looked at him, "Now if you don't mind I'd like to know my attacker's name."
Kyle smiled, "I won't just attack you, I'm gonna put you out of your misery, but the name's Kyle." He swung another fist at me and again I threw my first into his. Kyle jumped back and shook his fist, "What's the matter, you afraid I'll hurt ya if I hit ya?"
"Actually you are far too weak to hurt me. I've been training since the age of six and even then I was quite a fight. If you think you can hurt me then hit me." I told him and put my hands behind my back. Kyle ran at me and threw all his strength into a punch that hit me in the chest. I looked down at my chest then punched him in the chest which hurled him into the wall. "That is real strength, not training but wanting to protect someone and I believe you know what I'm talking about." He got up, ran at me and tried to kick me. I side-stepped away from his kick, jumped toward him as fast as I could and slammed my knee into his gut, knocking him back into the wall again.
"I can't lose this."
Kyle tried to get up but couldn't from the pain I inflicted on him, so I walked over beside him and asked, "Are you going to tell me what you trained for?"
"Never!" he coughed up a little blood.
"I know there's a reason why you've trained and why you want to put me out of my misery. You're obviously just a flunky since you aren't very strong. You can pull off things most people can't but I've been training my entire life so you have no chance of defeating me." Kyle obviously decided it was futile to fight back and relaxed against the wall. "Now why did you attack me?"
"To remove a complication." He tried to trip me but I jumped out of the way and that gave him just enough time to retreat, "You might have done well against me but you stand no chance against your real enemy."
Obviously the assembly was meant for Kyle to attack me so I decided to go inside and make sure Krystal was alright. I walked in and looked over to Krystal who was obviously bored so I walked over to her and sat down.
"Where you been?" Krystal asked.
"I don't like assemblies, no matter what they are for. I was hanging around outside." I told her.
"Liar, all of the people in the back heard the commotion. What the hell happened out there?" Krystal asked.
"Kyle, the guy who was spying on us decided to attack me." I said.
"Did ya win?" she asked.
"He wasn't strong or fast enough." I looked over at the principal as he was finishing up his speech and he was staring straight at me smiling. I didn’t know for sure, but I was fairly certain he had something to do with Kyle's attack. The assembly ended and everyone went to their class.
On my way to my next class Krystal stopped me and asked, "I realize we just met, but is there something you're not telling me? You act weirder than mort weird people."
I stood there and looked at her, Unfortunately Krystal you aren't ready, but when you are, I will tell you. I thought to myself. "No, I'm just another weird teenager." I told her.
She looked at me with a doubtful look then turned and walked toward class. As I followed I thought to myself, If you gain a bit more wisdom Krystal you will be ready.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful up until I got home. When I arrived, there were no vehicles so I figured no one was home, but when I walked into the house Miss Mackey was sitting on the couch waiting for me to get home.
"I hope you don't mind me coming by like this." she asked. "I just wanted to talk to you alone, so that we won't have any interruptions."
I looked at her then turned and walked toward the stairs, "I'm surprised you're back."
She got up and ran in front of me, "I want to help you realize that the two people you think aren't your parents really are."
I smiled, "You have no idea who I am so do not tell me who my parents are." I stepped to the side of her but she moved over before I could go by.
"Ok, you want to talk about that let's talk about today, why'd you beat up that kid?" she asked.
At that point I started to get angry, "I don't like being followed Miss Mackey. You'd do well to remember that." I said she'd do well to remember but no man should hit a woman so that whole was just a fluke.
"How did you knock that kid into a wall like that? That would've taken a lot of strength."
"That's none of your business." I told her.
She let out a chuckle then said, "There's no reason to hide it." she reared back and threw a punch into my chest, "I already know guardian." When her punch landed it sent me sliding backwards.
"Well, you got more strength than the flunky, but you're still not strong enough."
"You may be strong, but I doubt your friend is strong enough to withstand one of our attacks."
"If she's harmed, you will regret it."
"I have no intention of attacking her, but I can't say the same for other people around here."
I thought about that for a second then took off out the door, and went as fast as I could toward Krystal's house. She lived all the way on the other side of town, but I tried to get there as fast as I could.
Meanwhile, Krystal was sitting in her living room, watching television, waiting for something interesting to happen. Nothing good was on so she switched it to a music channel and closed her eyes, but didn’t get to listen for too long because a man dived through the window. She jumped up and tried to run to the kitchen to get out the back, but the man jumped in front of her, “Who are you?”
“I was sent to dispose of you.” the man said.
I could sense Krystal’s fear as I drove up. “I don’t think so!” I said as I dove through the window, jumped toward the guy and kicked him away from Krystal.
“Connor, how did you know I was in trouble?” Krystal asked.
“I’ll tell ya later, but for now step back and let me take care of this guy.” I told her. I turned my attention back to the man that broke in, “I know who sent you and you will live, but only to tell the person that sent you that I will not fail.”
“Good luck not failing.” The man ran at me, but right before he got to me I sidestepped, squatted down, and punched his shin, sending him flying forward. He stood and realized he was closer to Krystal and tried to attack her, but I kicked him out the window before he took two steps. I jumped out the window and stood there waiting for the man’s next move. “We will win, not even a guardian as strong as you can stop us.” he said.
“As long as I’m a guardian I will defeat you.” I told him and he ran off.
I turned around and Krystal was staring at me confused, “Um, you’re going to explain now.”
“I guess it can’t be avoided can it? Just gimme a second to get my keys out of my jeep.” I situated everything in my jeep that was thrown around on my way over to her house and walked back inside to speak with Krystal, “Alright I guess the only way to start is to say I’m not completely human. My race are the guardians. We guard almost everybody on earth; obviously we don’t protect the power hungry folks or dictators. The place where we are from has a stream running through the middle that is called the Lifestream. All the souls of the deceased reside there until they want to be reincarnated. They can either choose to sleep for eternity in the stream or be reincarnated every generation. I was chosen to protect you and I’ve been searching for you since I was six.”
“Uhm, that sounds weird, but it would explain why you’re so strong. How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“All I can do is give you my word and you have to trust me.”
Krystal was about to respond but her mom came home and yelled at the top of her lungs, “What the hell happened here?”
Krystal got up and stepped in front of me to stop her mom from thinking I was the one who caused the wreak, “Mom calm down. It wasn’t him. Some guy busted in here and before he could do anything Connor chased him off.” Her mom stared at me skeptical of what her daughter just told her.
“I assure you I had nothing to do with the man who broke in.”
“Well then what were you doing her then?” her mom asked.
“I, uh, was-" I stammered.
Krystal sensed my lack of reason so she provided an excuse, “I invited him to help me with my algebra homework.”
“Alright then. You’re father is going to flip out when he sees the window.” her mom said and left the room to go to the kitchen.
“How did you know where I lived?” Krystal asked.
“A guardian always knows where his charge lives.” I told her.
“So why is there a race of guardians?”
“Well some people have guardians because they’re meant to do great things, but other folks have guardians because there are lots of things that would happen to a person that would induce death over the course of a week were it not for their guardian to protect them.” I told her.
“So you just train until you find your charge?”
“Pretty much yeah.”
“Ok, now who was that guy who broke in earlier?”
“Who he is I don’t know, but the principal of the school sent him, just like he sent Kyle to fight me earlier today.”
“What would the principal have to do with you or your race?”
“I don’t know but I think he’s got a plan in the works. I’m not sure as to whom all is working with him but it’s got to be somewhat of a large group, at least that’s what I think.”
“Are the people you live with your real parents?” Krystal asked.
“No and when I told them that’s what I thought they just recently called a psychiatrist who inadvertently was in cohorts with the principal.”
“Wow I didn’t know so many people banded together just because of one person.”
“Well, there are a lot of secret societies out there no one knows about.”
“Do you know them?”
“No, but I know they’re out there.”
“Hey I got an idea, can you teach me to fight?” she asked really hoping that I’d say yes.
“You sure? It takes quite a bit endurance to undergo the training I do.”
“Does it have to be the training you do because you’re fast and I just want to learn how to defend myself.”
“Alright would you like to begin now?”
“Sure, let’s go do it out back.” Krystal jumped up and pretty much ran to the back door.
Her mom stopped before she got there and asked, “Where are you two going?” Krystal told her I was going to teach her to defend herself then pretty much leapt out the door. “Don’t let her hurt you.”
I laughed. “I’ll try and hold my own.” I joined Krystal in the backyard who was punching the air in an amusing manner, “You ready?”
“Let’s roll.”
I ran toward her then disappeared, or at least I did from her point of view and reappeared behind her, “First lesson, you must use all senses in a fight.”
“No fair, there’s no way to tell where you were going to end up.” Krystal said.
“Wrong, sense the wind movements as I move. No matter how fast your opponent is unless they teleport they leave a trail where they moved. Now try again.” I moved back to my original position. I ran again, but this time not just at her, I ran in all directions to see how she was doing. She sensed three of my five jumps so I decided to go at her. When I landed behind her, she had already turned around and had her arm against my neck. “Good job, but let’s see how you react to attacks.” I jumped away and came at her but instead of just stopping near her I done a sweep kick at her legs. Krystal back-flipped over my attack and when I stood she was sitting on my shoulders laughing and kicking her feet. “I figured you knew how to fight.”
“La la la la, heh heh. I knew how to fight but you taught me a new trick,: how to sense faster opponents. That was cool”
I decided to scare her a little and leapt into the air, and she freaked out and wrapped herself around me like she was clinging to a pole. “Now, now, it’s only a little height. Learn to jump this high and you’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”
“Go down, go down!”
I landed back on the ground and let her down, but she was still a bit shaken up. “So where’d you learn to fight?” I asked.
“My dad owns a dojo in town. I’m going to take over as soon as he retires and now I can bring something new to the fighting style.”
“Well, what do you want to do now?”
“We could watch movies until you have to leave.”
“Sounds good to me. Let’s go.”
We watched movies for so long we eventually fell asleep, accidentally. Her mom woke us up around midnight and amazingly she wasn’t even mad. I left and arrived home around half past midnight. My family was already asleep since they knew I came home whenever I felt like.
The next day came with a whole bag full of surprises. When I got to school the usual groups hanging out on the front noisily conversing were there now, but they were silent. “Connor!”
“Krystal, what the hell’s going on? Nobody’s making loud noises.”
“They were that way when I got here, but that’s not the only weird thing going on. Follow me.” She ran into the school so I followed until we were to the door to the teachers lounge, “Listen.”
“You people are all incompetent! You can’t even kill a little girl.”
“I could have had that taken care of had she not told Connor what was happening.” a man with a limp said pointing at Miss Mackey. They started yelling at each other trying to tell the other why it wasn’t their fault.
“Enough! The bottom line is you failed. I want this guardian and his charge killed today. Do as you wish if you see them because the students are currently frozen, so to speak, along with the rest of the town. Now go and destroy this pest. If he gets past all of you and makes it here you will die if I find you alive.”
All the teachers and flunkies turned toward the door and we were about to get caught, but I picked Krystal up and ran as fast as I could down the hall and a good distance away from the office.
I stopped when we were behind the school, set Krystal down and asked, “So do you want to stay and take care of this or leave?”
She looked around a little nervously, “I don’t know if I could do anything to help.”
“Don’t worry about it. Before yesterday you were good, but after I taught you to see opponents who are faster than you you're better. Don’t get cocky though, if you do that then you’ll surely lose. IF we do take care of this I won’t let anything happen to you. Just yell if you need help.”
“I guess we could see what we can do.”
“Alright, let’s go.” We started walking back into the school and we didn’t make it more than ten feet into the school when two teachers came barreling around a corner. I looked over at Krystal and smiled, “How many teachers are there?”
“Well I don’t think every teacher is in on this because I only counted eight people in the lounge.”
“Okie dokie, three battles until we get to the boss.”
“So now this is a game?” Krystal asked.
“It is until we get to the principal’s office.”
The two teachers finally reached us and we began fighting. Obviously they were weak compared to the both of us, but Krystal did have a little trouble with her opponent. After we finished with them we took off down the hall again. The next bunch of teachers came around after we turned two more corners. I dealt with my opponent quickly but Krystal was having trouble. Every time she tried to attack she was thrown back against a wall.
“Krystal if offense isn’t working use defense.”
“What’s the matter? Your guardian not protecting you?” her opponent said then threw a punch at her.
“You wish!” Krystal said and sidestepped to dodge his attack and slammed a combo into him: a shot to the gut, knee to his head as he doubled over, then uppercutted him. “Nice work.” I said.
She thanked me then we ran off down the hell after the next two. We had made it all the way to the principal’s office and there was no sign of anyone else but just as we were about to go in someone crashed into the lockers behind us. Both Krystal and I spun around to see what had happened.
“Connor, hurry up and deal with whoever’s in there, I’ll finish these two off.”
“Father, what are you doing here? I thought you couldn’t help?” I asked.
“I’m not helping, I’m removing an obstacle that you would just thump and they’d fall. Now go!”
Krystal smiled, “Wow, is that really your dad?”
“Yeah.”
I busted in the door to the office and the principal and Kyle were sitting there waiting for us, “You took longer than I thought you would, but no matter you’ll still lose.”
“Not likely.” I said.
Kyle was the first to attack. He leapt at me, but Krystal kicked him to the wall, “You take care of him. I want to beat the hell out of this narc.”
I smiled then leapt at the principal. Krystal’s fight was evenly matched, Krystal was blocking Kyle’s attacks and vice versa, but the principal was a bit more advanced a fighter than I thought. He was hitting me more than I was hitting him, so I jumped back to think.
“What’s the matter, can’t seem to hit me?”
“I underestimated my opponent but that won’t happen again.”
Just after I said that, Kyle’s body flew past both me and the principal and through the wall and fell three stories to his death. I looked back at Krystal who was breathing heavily and she looked a little different, almost like she had seen a good number of fights in a past-life, but that look slowly slipped away.
“That was quite a kick.”
She started getting scared then ran up to me, put her arms around me and started crying, “Is he dead?”
“Of course he’s dead, he just fell three stories.” the principal said.
Krystal continued to cry and said, “I didn’t want to kill him, I just wanted to knock him out. Something came over me that I couldn’t stop.”
“It’s all right. Don’t worry about it.”
“But I killed him!” Krystal yelled.
“You’re pathetic. Don’t you know people have to die in a way.” the principal said.
“What war? The only thing I see is a madman trying to kill a student.” I said.
“So your mother and father haven’t told you, have they?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. The principal broke out into laughter and incomprehensive mutterings. My father walked in while the principal was laughing but as soon as he saw my father he quit, “Ah, long time no see my friend.”
My father walked right past me and up to the principal and said, “Yes, it has been a while and you still haven’t succeeded.”
“Father!”
“Stop calling me that, I’m not your father.” he said.
“But my memories…they showed you…” I stammered.
“Yes, your memories are real, but me and the woman you’ve thought was your mother are not your parents. Your patents died when you were still a child.”
“And you failed to tell me?”
“It was all part of a larger plan. I knew you would have to be reminded of your past so I trained you myself when you would have been trained in a school with all the others. The others you saw in your memory were all the other guardians who helped in our cause.”
“But what about the Lifestream, there is only one of those?” I said.
“Yes you’re right, but our base was further up the stream where no one from the Council of Guardians will go.”
“Don’t forget to tell him his other past.” the principal piped in.
“Ah, yes. Before you came out of the Lifestream, you lived a life similar to this one. You protected the same person and you were also in love. Obviously, both of you remember nothing or else you would have known that it was I who killed you then. The problem I had was your soul wasn’t destroyed, but this time we have found a way to destroy the soul.”
“Why do you want to destroy us?” Krystal asked.
“My dear, you will give birth to the child that destroys all evil in the world and Connor, well aside from being the father of this child,” me and Krystal exchanged confused glances, “ha ha ha, he is the strongest guardian ever and with him fathering a normal human baby, that would mean humans could start to rival guardians.”
“I don’t care what you say, I will protect Krystal!” I told them.
“You have no chance!” the man I thought was my father said.
I grabbed Krystal and put her outside the office, ran back in, then locked the door behind me.
“Connor, let me back in! I can help you!”
“No you will only give them an advantage.” I turned toward the two enemies before me. “It’s time for you to die.” I leapt at the man I thought was my father, punched him and he just returned my blow with one of his own. We were both evenly matched so it would be hard to win.
The principal sat down at his desk and watched us fight. We were both landing blows and we got no where for ten minutes until he made a mistake and left an opening for me to do a good bit of damage. I dodged a punch from him which left him wide open, so I grabbed his arm, spun into him, elbowed him in the face, and then hurled him at the principal who didn’t have enough time to dodge the body so both of them were slammed into the wall.
“Well, I didn’t expect that to happen.” the principal said after getting up. “Ha ha ha, you do know you have no chance of destroying us?”
“Oh really and whys that?”
“Because you don’t know how to kill an immortal. With a regular human sword it’s impossible to kill us. It takes decades to learn the skill to kill an immortal.”
“Oh really, might that skill be this?” I focused my energy and a bone came out of the top of my back in the shape of a sword. I grabbed the sword and looked at it then swung it a few times, “If I’m not mistaken, this will destroy an immortal’s soul.”
“But how, I never taught you that.”
“You're right I taught myself in my life where me and Krystal were in love, but I must thank you for reminding me. When you mentioned you weren’t my father I remembered my first life and everything that happened in it, especially you stabbing me in the back like you’re doing now.”
The principal looked to the man beside him and said, “You pathetic imbecile!” As he said that he pulled the same sword I did out of his back and sliced the man’s head off, “Let’s see you come back from that.”
“You know what, I’d thank you for taking away one enemy, but to kill someone isn’t right unless you are protecting someone.”
“Less talk, more blood!” The principal lunged at me and swung the sword. We locked swords several times and no one got any attacks to land. He ran at me after several minutes, but I countered by flipping over him and slicing his back.
“Argh! It seems your attacks flow more smoothly when you have a sword in your hand.”
“You’re right it does.” I ran past him and sliced his legs, effectively slowing him down.
“I will not lose! I have waited for too long for this to fail.” He ran at me and before I could react he had already sliced at my leg and impaled my stomach. I fell to one knee and the principal laughed at me, “You think you could defeat me? Now that you are about to be disposed of I have nothing to worry about your charge.”
“Noooo!” Krystal burst into the room and kicked the principal away from his position over me.
“Krystal I thought I told you to stay outside?” I asked.
“I’m not going to just let him kill you, besides we’re supposed to eradicate all evil remember?”
I smiled at this comment since it meant that she had no problem having a child with me.
The principal had gotten up and lunged at Krystal, but I spun her to where she was away from the sword and I was impaled through the heart.
“Connor!!!” Krystal yelled, “Stop hurting Connor.” she said to the principal.
“Ohhh, what might you do if I refuse?”
I was kneeling in front of Krystal so I was wide open for an attack and Krystal was in even greater danger, “Krystal get away from here.”
“No I won’t leave you like this.”
The principal readied his sword for a horizontal slash through my neck. I was ready for the next attack, but right before it pierced skin the sword was flung back.
“I said stop!” Krystal said with her palm toward the principal.
“Impossible, a mere mortal tapping into Gaia’s power and having no training whatsoever.”
Krystal stood and stared at the principal, “You killed us once before but this time you will not do the same.”
“Everything is falling to pieced, this can’t be happening!” the principal said.
“Believe it!” I said, leapt over Krystal and sliced his head off. For a moment the electricity went crazy, but nothing exploded and it went back to normal. I dropped my sword, fell to one knee again, and tried to let the pain go away.
“Connor, please don’t die!”
I smiled, “Don’t worry; I have no intentions of dying anytime soon. Did you remember how to heal people?” I asked.
She laughed, and leaned down and kissed me. She kept her lips pressed against mine for a full minute until I was fully healed and even when I was fully healed she kept them there for a little while longer.
“You know I’ve been healed for a number of seconds don’t you?”
“Yeah I know, but I wanted to keep kissing you. I could have just healed you normally ya know?”
“Yeah I know, but I much rather prefer the kiss. So when did you remember your past-life.?”
“When I was fighting Kyle, some of my memories came then, but later they came when I threw the principal’s sword away from your neck.”
“Well, I guess I should be grateful or else I wouldn’t have a head.” We both started laughing and walked toward the halls.
"What I don't get, even though I have memories from another life is, what the hell is that sword and how can it kill immortals. Also where did it come from?"
"Let's see if I can remember. Well I'm not too sure I can remember, maybe a kiss will help." She laughed at my feeble attempt, but leaned in and kissed me. I smiled, "I do believe that brought back my memories." She hit me and even though I was a little beat up I continued without mentioning to her that that hurt, "Alright, immortals have an extra bone covering their spine which can be used as a sword or for spine protection. Like the phony bastard said it takes decades to master the technique and very few immortals ever learn the skill. The bone has some type of layering of magic that keeps the soul from moving on, effectively keeping the soul in the body and keeping the body from repairing itself. I learned it before I died in the life where we were in love and remembered how to focus my energy to the point of bringing the bone out. That is pretty much all there is to it."
"Are we in love now since we remembered our past, or what?" Krystal asked.
"I'd say so, but love works both ways, so…" Krystal leaned into me and kissed me, "So is that a yes?" She kissed me again. "That doesn't answer my question." Again she kissed me. "Ok, I'm going to take that as a yes." I wrapped my arm and her and we walked out of the room and left the school.
Everything had gone back to normal and everyone was walking through the halls not realizing the events that had occurred. No one cared that the principal and one student had disappeared. Over the years Krystal and I got closer, were soon wed and had a son together. He inherited every trait his mother and I had, so he effectively became the strongest being in this dimension. As the principal had said he destroyed all evil on earth and although Gaia kept being tarnished by human technology it wasn’t completely destroyed, although, it wasn’t exactly taken care of either.
