Prologue:

Chapter 8:

The Truth, the Lies, and the Betrayal

As we closed upon Allen’s house, I thought I could hear far in the distance sirens. I knew that if it wasn’t my imagination, the cops were probably talking to a few people and, knowing our luck, someone saw us. Along with that, I’m sure my apartment being destroyed didn’t look that good either, and I’m pretty sure that Heather and I had left some type of evidence behind (fingerprints or at least a hair with our DNA, maybe even some blood). And I knew now, that my earlier smart-ass comments to the detective was probably going to come back and bite me in the ass soon; none the less, our first priority was to find out about Allen, why he was back here already, and why we didn’t notice him coming back or staying here.

When we did arrive at Allen’s we saw him and a man beside him, both in front of Allen’s house. The man was probably in his late 40s, about 6’2”, had short fire red hair, cold blue eyes, had an average build, and was dressed in a black trench coat (buttoned down), black undershirt, black pants, and black shoes. Allen was dressed in his usual clothes.

Allen standing with this other Protector had just confirmed what both Heather and I had feared, Allen indeed had betrayed us. Along with that, I knew that Allen’s most likely hadn’t gone to see his family, and if he did, it wasn’t the family he told us about. Allen most likely hid some place where neither I nor Heather could sense his presence, or he could hide his presence for awhile, like Heather could now.

“I see that you two have come,” the man in black said, “but I have a feeling you aren’t here to join us.”

“Alle…” was all I could get before I was interrupted.

“Allen, are you actually going along with this?” Heather asked, but to only have Allen look away from her.

“He did try to protect you,” the man said dictating towards Heather, “from the Protectors at least. It’s just too late in our plan for you to not be with us, so that’s why he decided to give you the choice now.”

“But why?”

“Easy, most Protectors get tired of protecting those weak and insignificant humans. After a few years, they believe they should be over these humans because they are more powerful, and thus, better. However, no matter what, in the human world, we, the Protectors usually are at the bottom of the food chain when we help the humans. So we, along with many Protectors across the world, have decided to prove that we are the superior race.”

“A Protector is still technically a human, but just with powers,” I said. “And Allen, you taught both Heather and me how to protect the normal humans, why are you siding with them?”

“I…” was all he could utter, still facing away from us.

“Heh, it’s because he feels some pity and remorse for those humans,” the man said. “He decided to teach you to protect them to make himself feel a little better.”

“Then if you feel bad, why are you with them?” Heather asked.

“Heather,” Allen said, finally facing us, “the way the world is now, we can’t survive while trying to protect the humans. While protecting them, we are considered criminals, lose our jobs, or we are outcast because of our powers. I taught you both how to protect humans, so that you would see how they would treat you unless we make a change. If we make a charge, we can gain respect while protecting them; this is the most logical approach if we want everything to be even.”

“And you’ll kill people to gain that!” I yelled.

“Aren’t you willing to do the same, but against your Protector brothers and sisters? We’re going to change the world for the better.”

“Better for who, Protectors or humans? All I’ve heard is about the Protectors, but not much about humans.”

A silence fell over all of us, as none of us knew anything to say. Heather and I were easily angered over what was happening, the betrayal. Allen was slightly angry, obviously at us not willing to join their rebellion. Then there was the other man, he was calm with just a smile on his face.

“I guess you two aren’t willing to join us then,” said the man.

“Hell no,” I said.

“No way,” Heather said.

“Then we’re past the point of using words, now aren’t we?” he said. “I suppose I’ll leave the girl to you, Allen.”

Part of me thought about stepping in on that and taking on Allen myself, but I knew Heather wouldn’t want that. Allen had become like a father figure to Heather, and I knew that if one of us was to go against him and was to kill him, she wanted it to be herself over me. Even if I did try to fight him instead of her, she would quickly step in.

I turned my attention to the man dressed in black and got in a fighting position. Though he had more or less told us that he wanted to fight he wasn’t in a fighting position, unlike me. Apparently I was the only one to be in a fighting position.

“Perhaps, boy, we should leave these two to fight alone,” the man said.

“Fine,” I said to him, but turning to Heather afterwards. “Take care, and don’t be afraid to run if need be.”

“You too,” Heather said while mainly focusing on Allen.

I turned to face the man in black and followed him. He went to an area that was about 100 meters or so behind the house. The area was an open ended area, with a few trees around us, and luckily little light.

“Allen’s told me quite a lot about you,” the man said as he turned to face me, “and I’ve even seen you fight a Protector. I must admit, you appear to be the better Protector; then again, the way I see it, you are only better because you can disappear into the darkness. Without that power, you are nothing compared to her.”

“Nice to know,” I said as I got in my fighting position and materializing a sword in my right hand. “How about we start this before I’m your age?”

Before he could say anything I charged straight for him. The man jumped high into the air before I could get off an attack. I projected my slash at him as he reached the height of his jump. The man brought up his shields with his left hand, blocking my attack, and started to create a huge fireball after my attack with his right hand.

“Rain down,” the man said as he threw the giant fireball at me.

I brought up my shield with both hands in attempt to block the attack; however, it was unsuccessful, causing my shield to break. Before the fireball could hit me, I jumped backwards to avoid it. The shockwave of the blast knocked me back a few more meters, and it also left a small crater in the middle of the area.

As I steadied myself after the blast, the man landed, materialized a fire sword himself, and charged straight for me. I made several of my spears appear from the darkness as he charged, but he was able to dodge them as he continued his forward charge till he was within striking distance. He swung his sword at me as I brought mine up to block his.

“Do you actually believe you can beat like that?” the man said to me.

“I still have some stuff to show,” I said as I pulled both of us into the shadow realm. “How about into the shadow realm?”

I jumped backwards, and as I did, I forced into his mind an image of me running right. He followed the fake me, which meant that my illusion was working; however, everything wouldn’t go so easy.

“Do you think I don’t know this trick Dark boy?” he said as he raised both hands while still following the fake me. “Flare.”

Several bright fireballs appeared in the area after he said that, and as he did, the entire area became engulfed in blinding light. It was more and more obvious that this man knew all of the skills I possessed and possibly even the ones I couldn’t do yet. And because of his “flare” trick, my wonderful dark, shadow realm had become ruined by the light. I had only one choice left, return to the normal world.

The world came back into view and I could once again clearly see the man. As my eyes quickly adjusted to the dark once again, I saw the man laughing as his fireballs slowly died down.

“Is that all you have?” he asked. “I thought you would be better than that, but I suppose I can’t expect too much from a Protector like you.”

This just infuriated me and I charged at him. As I got in striking range, I did a powerful downward slash, which he easily evaded.

“You lose,” I heard him say.

Before I could do anything I felt a painful, burning pain go through the left side of my torso. I looked down to see the man’s sword sticking out of me, before he quickly drew it back. I coughed up some blood as I fell to the ground, dropping my sword beside me.

“Damn it!” I yelled as I was on the ground, unable to run, unable to get up.

“Don’t feel bad,” the man said. “I’m sure that your little girlfriend will be joining you soon enough. At least then you won’t die alone.”

No person ever wants to die, but what could I do: I was bleeding from a stab wound, my body seemed to be paralyzed, and even if I could, how could I beat him? He was quicker, stronger, and all around better than me; along with that, anything I did, he seemed to know a way to counter it with a move of his. This feeling of being overpowered and being helpless: now I knew how my opponents felt before they died.

The man slowly started to walk away from me and head towards the area that Heather was at. With each step he took, I knew I couldn’t let him get any closer to Heather.

“Stop, don’t walk away,” was all that I could figure out to say.

My words didn’t stop him nor did he seem to even hear me, not like I expected it to. As he continued to get further from me, images started to appear in my head: images of Heather dead. I could feel the anger filling up, giving energy to me, as I was finally able to stand once again. When I was finally able to stand fully upright, the man turned around to face me.

“So you can still stand,” he said. “I was hoping you would just lye there and die. Just give up and it’ll be easier for you, and a lot less painful.”

“I… I won’t let you… win,” I was able to stammer out through heavy breathing. “I can’t… let you… two… kill humanity.”

“Weren’t you listening earlier? We aren’t the only Protectors planning this revolution. Even if you kill us, this plan will still go on.”

“Granted… but you two… you two are the main threats now. And I can’t let you win.”

After saying that I started to realize that the darkness around me was starting to move, move as if it was circling around me. Along with that, my wound no longer hurt, it still existed, and I felt completely rejuvenated, if not better than before.

“No matter what you do, it won’t help,” the man said. “I guess it’s best to make sure you are no longer a nuisance.”

He charged at me with his fire sword in hand. As he was coming towards me, his movements looked slower, perhaps brought upon by adrenaline or maybe he had slowed down. He slashed at me several times, opening himself completely open after I dodged the last in his chain. I generated an energy ball in each of my hands, and threw them at the man, hitting him and sending him flying backwards, causing him to drop his sword as well.

I materialized another sword as the man started to get up. I ran towards the man when he had finally gotten up. As I approached, the man threw a giant fireball at me, similar to the previous. Learning from my previous encounter with this attack, I went to the shadow realm and decided to deal with it that way.

Upon entering the shadow realm I was blinded by the light of the fireball, but I charged straight ahead and went through it. After passing through it, I continued towards the man till I was almost in front of him. When I was almost there, I returned to the physical realm, and quickly plunged my blade to the hilt into the middle of his chest before he could react. I drew my sword out of his chest and hoped backwards a few meters.

“Damn it,” he said as he spat up some blood. “How’d you get better so quickly?”

I knew the truth of how I became better was unknown to me as well. I just now that it all started when the darkness started to move around me.

“It’s too late to matter now,” I replied. “When is this Protector revolt going to start?”

“Heh, that’s for me to know, and for you and the other humans to find out.”

With that being said, he started to laugh and created a fireball in each of his hands. I readied myself to be able to dodge his attack in case he planned on throwing them; however, there was another reason for it. Shortly after creating the fireballs, both of them exploded with approximate blast area of five meters. The blast completely swallowed the unknown man, but knocked me back about ten meters onto the ground.

As I got up from the blast, I saw that the darkness had slowly stopped moving around me, till it finally stopped. The pain from my wound slowly came back as well.

“Guess that couldn’t last forever,” I murmured aloud as I slowly hobbled towards where Heather was at. “I hope Heather is doing better than me.”