I slipped in and out of consciousness, sometimes seeing my old girlfriend's face and sometimes I found myself falling through an empty void. "Jason! Stay with me, we're gonna get you out of here..keep pressure on his wound!" I was being carried away on a stretcher, except the only thing I heard was the whirring of plane engines. Falling. That's what I was at again, I was helplessly at the mercy of gravity again with no ground in sight. Then my sense of reality shifted.

I'm in the ruins of a city, Rico runs past me. He stops in front of me, his eyes distant and sad.
"How ya doin One-hit?" He gave me a hug and I felt as if my world came crashing down. I fell to my knees. "I-I'm doing alright..I'm so sorry I couldn't save any of you.." His eyebrows furrowed and he gripped my shoulder and looked into my eyes.

"That's insulting man, don't apologize just because you don't know what "could" happen. We died so you could live! We knew you are to be the one man!... To save the world, so we agreed to protect your ass..don't apologize and make our sacrifice count.." Then he vibrated then left a cloud of dust where he was. Then the place changed, like a mirage.

I was in burning meadows, everything was ashen and deprived of life, the fire was red and slowly consumed everything in its path. "This..is inevitable.." Trinity emerged from the flames and walked to me, her eyes were full of sorrow but they were also filled with hatred.

"You are watching a memory, my village..burning down." I watched in horror as men and women dressed in heavy armor suits torched everything with Molotov's and flamethrowers. Houses made off log suddenly were set aflame with families inside.

The Republic..

This was a Gifted settlement and they were burning it down.

Hypocrites.

"We were hiding human prisoners, we found them with cuts and bruises and took them in, not thinking what would befall us." A girl stumbled out of the flames and started to throw fire at her attackers, she hit their gas tanks then everything went white, the only sound was an explosion.

"This will continue to happen unless someone who is powerful beyond belief, rises from the ashes. You are the one, Jason..don't let me die in vain.." She kissed my cheek and then her image disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

The scene changed to a city with bodies that littered the streets, one in particular stood up and looked over a mother and daughter, they held on to each other. "They were buying the father a card and some champagne for his return from Iraq.." It was James, he flicked a card to me.

"Your return has come at last
Soon your pain and heartache will come to pass, for Mommy and I are here
You won't have to cry rivers of tears because we know that you're to stay here."

I wiped my eyes and saw that James was standing in front of me, his face an inch from mine. "We came not only to tell you to tell you to save the world but to also say not to let us die in vain..promise me brother.."
We shook hands, my eyes wanted to flood my dream with tears but I tried to be strong..for them.

"Your girlfriend wants you.." That's when he raised a fist then punched my jaw and I woke up to a girl with crimson hair sleeping on my shoulder, her eyes had dark rings under them and were puffy as if she were crying. I nudged her and she lifted her head to face me.

We were in a very luxurious private jet, I was on one of two black leather couches that sat on opposite sides of a black wooden table. There was a miniature kitchen and a door that probably led to a private bar.

"Jason? Oh my gosh you're ok!" The girl who I presumed was Alice knocked me over with a hug. I held her there while she sobbed into my shirt and smiled in relief that she was the one to find me. I held her in silence and smile. She looked up and smiled at me, her eyes sparkled like the night sky and she smelled like she walked through a forest of cherry blossom trees, I was almost in a trance.

"Its been what? Five, six years? Look at you! So beautiful and you look so different but the same." She smiled and held my hand. "You kept your ring, throughout all these years I have watched it and always hoped that one day I could find you again. When I heard it was you, I immediately begged for the assignment! Oh my gosh where are my priorities!" We sat up and she just stared at me, like I was a ghost.

"Are you alright? You seem out of it.." Her smile hadn't left her face yet and it shrank only a but when I asked about her well being. "You've been out for a day, I've been awake for a day..watching you. I'm making sure you recover and..well I was a bit worried you wouldn't make it, the pilot had to perform first aid on you. He found a nail that was solid as bone and sharp as a sword embedded in your abdomen, he removed it and then bandaged you up but.. we were afraid you lost too much blood." I felt around my stomach and instantly regretted it, a flash of pain hit me. Her smile faded into concern.

"I'm fine, thanks Alice.."She smirked and then grabbed some papers. "Well with that out of the way..I need to verify that you are in no shape or form with The Republic. I know you aren't but I have to ask specific questions." I grinned and winked at her. "Shoot those bad boys at me then." She giggled and flicked her hair.

"What's your opinion on the human race?" I shrugged and relaxed. "While we have been at odds sometimes, I honestly don't think of them as a race, nor do I believe we can also a label on metahumans. I think we are two of the same species, just different breeds." She jotted down what I had said and smiled at me.

"You passed that question, next one: How do you perceive the Gifted?" I sighed heavily and sat up. "Misunderstood, easily swayed, mistreated. We have tried to live in harmony with humanity but any chance at peace was destroyed when the government had to put chains on us. We are but evolved humans..not an unknown. I do not blame our race for retaliation but I do condemn The Republic, violence is never the answer but its a last resort and The Republic love to use it as a first." Alice nodded in approval then sighed heavily, putting the clipboard down and then stretching out on me.

"What? All of a sudden I'm a pillow?" She poked my nose and then smiled.  "I missed you, I was so scared you had died or was brainwashed." Her smile faded and relief and sadness took its place. I took her hand and sighed. "Don't you want to still be together? I mean I never dated anyone else because of you.." Her eyes furrowed and that wonderful smile had disappeared. I blushed and turned quickly.

"D-Don't be so ridiculous, of course I do...Its just been awhile since we were together, plus we were kids then.." She sat up and leaned in closer.

"I still love you the same",She pressed me into the couch and placed her forehead on mine, "Do you still love me?" I winked at her then grabbed her waist and pulled her to me as I filled the gap between our lips.

We only let each other have a second to breath before pressing our lips together again, my hands moving up and down her back and her lifting up my shirt.

"We..should..stop." She pulled back and smiled sheepishly at me, she ran one finger down the middle of my body and then rolled off to the side. I stared at her with a smile and she did the same.

"Uh..want a drink?" She awkwardly asked. I nodded and then looked away out the window, my lips still buzzed from her's. I rubbed my neck, now feeling awkward. I heard the clinking of bottles in the small kitchen of the private jet.

"So uh what was the last five years like for you?" She looked down at the ground while bringing the drinks and rubbed her arms.

"Uh, lonely really..as soon as you disappeared I was sent away to an academy. It's fine I guess, but..I was picked on," She pulled her skirt and sleeves down, "the other girls bullied me, hit me, insulted me...all I thought about to stop from running away was the hope that they found you." I held her hand and slipped up her sleeve, revealing dark bruises and scars on her wrists. She pointed out at her wrists. I ran my fingers down them gently, they were scars from deep cuts.

"They did that to make me look suicidal and depressed, they held me down and whipped a knife across my arms.." Her smile seemed joyful but her eyes were sad, tortured. She turned red then closed her eyes as she lifted her skirt a little bit to show whip marks on her thighs, I could tell they reached farther than what I saw. I enfolded my arms around her and held her."No longer.." She exhaled and brought her arms around my neck.

"Its not even close to what happened to you.." I sighed and felt my smile falter as images replayed in my head.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean for you to remember.." I pulled away my jacket, exposing my neck and the brand. She gasped and slowly went to touch the mark, as if performing a dangerous task. When she finally touched it, I whimpered and pulled away; remembering the intense heat used to make the mark and the horrible process of it.

"Sorry!" She scooted next to me and squeezed my hand but I just exhaled and held up my hand, standing up.

"Don't be, you weren't the cause of it..or any of the scars." She gasped as I took off my shirt, I was covered in scars. Burn marks, claw marks, Cuts, whip markings and a whole slew of others. I was practically forty percent scar tissue.

"J-J-Jason?" She ran her hands down each and every scar, her hands were shaky as if she were scared of breaking glass or if I was labelled as fragile. She stood up and then grabbed a hand.

"Those monsters, what did they do? I'm so sorry, for what happened to you..Are you alright?" I smiled and shrugged.

"I..still have nightmares about that place and I don't sleep good. But other than that I'm still me, still the same guy you met when we were ten." She smiled, then kissed my cheek.

"I see that but..", I placed my finger on her lips, "No buts here...unless its yours." She laughed hysterically then punched my shoulder.

"Jasooon! Ugh you haven't changed." I winked at her then sat back down.

"I guess now would be a good time to discuss this "academy" ."

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Thanks for reading and all the support and love guys! I hope you enjoyed this and please vote.

Shout out to Sunsetdancer28 for being a good friend and awesome author!

Another shout out to PrairieCreek!

Xoxo Peter