Focus, I kept telling myself. You can do this Jagger. Using all of my inner strength, my shaky arms pushed upward until I had finally reached the targeted number of bench presses. Letting out a heavy sigh of exhaustion, beads of sweat rolled down my forehead. I managed to put the heavy weight back in its place and sat up on the bench. Hearing feminine bickering, I glanced over to where Raine was training KL. Raine had KL using much lighter weights than I was. From the look of the weights they had to be anywhere from ten to twenty five pounds.

I heard Kratos cough to get my attention. " Ahem."

Looking back at him, I sheepishly smiled. "Sorry, just wondering what they were getting so worked up about."

Shooting me a quick glare, he devilishly smirked. "Yeah, sure," he said sarcastically, insinuating that I was just trying to check them out. Averting his attention back to the workout, he continued speaking. " You did well. Much better than I expected, actually. One-hundred bench presses aren't easy to do, especially when you haven't worked out for a little while."

" Told you I was strong," I mumbled, though deep down I knew that it was definitely too difficult a task. How I had managed to pull this off, I have no clue. Internally, I was a bit irritated because I knew if the situation were the other way around, I definitely wouldn't have pushed him so hard. Tomorrow my body was going to be terribly achy.

" Shadow told me to prepare you, so that's exactly what I'm doing," He responded matter-of-factly.

Shooting him a smile, I replied, "Oh yeah, I know. Just think it was a bit much for the first day, but it's all good." Rolling my shoulder, my arm made a loud popping noise. "Oww," I whined.

Kratos crossed his arms over his chest, his biceps bulging out. "Well I guess we'll have to stick to the same routine for a while until your body gets used to it."

" Mmmhmm..." I said as I ignored what he was saying. My anxiety level was beginning to rise all of a sudden as a very bad feeling washed over me. My body began to feel uncomfortably uneasy but I just couldn't pinpoint the reason why. Looking around the room, I checked my scenery to see if anything looked or felt off.

"Jagger," Kratos said in an annoyed tone, trying to get my attention. As I glanced over at the girls again, they were just going along with their workout while Raine was shouting at KL. Everything in my surroundings seemed to be completely normal and yet I felt as though something was horribly wrong.

"Jagger," Kratos said again, this time a little more irritated and commanding than the first time. Looking over at him, I noticed how his face tensed up in anger. "What's up with you man? You aren't paying attention. Something on your mind?"

" Something's off," I bluntly responded.

" The only thing off right now is your attention span. You see those weights on the floor over there?" He asked nodding his head in the direction of the weights. " Get them and show me what your usual routine is. Then we'll modify it if we have to."

" Alright," I said. I walked over and picked up the weights and then walked back over to Kratos.

" So what's the routine that you have most difficulty with?"

" Uh...," I said, unsure of how to answer. This feeling was becoming overly nagging, to the point where you could almost call it overwhelming. Trying to ignore it, I tried to push it aside but for some reason I felt that something dangerous was approaching. Without telling my body to do so, the grip that my hands had on the weights loosened and I heard a loud, metal banging echo through the room as the weights fell to the floor. Led by intuition, my body automatically darted out of the room. I continued to run outside, where the moonlight shone down upon me. My body dashed to the trees, to which I ran through until I stopped by something that I saw on the floor.

Crouching down to get a better view of the object, I saw hair and a face.

Gasping, I uttered, "Oh my gosh."

IMy brain could not process the sight in front of me. My master laid lifeless on the floor. His jet-black hair fell around his clammy colored face, the life draining out of him quickly. I could just make out that there was a darkened spot on his cloak right by his heart. What was it? Was it...blood?

In a panic, I frantically shook his shoulders, "Master! Shadow, say something! Shadow, wake up!"

As if on cue, I was approached by a moonlit shadow standing in the middle of the darkened trees right in front of me. My initial reaction was to stand up and guard my Master. Taking in her frame I realized that I knew this familiar silhouette all too well.

" Shizuka, you monster! What did you do to him?" I screamed, demanding an answer.

She chuckled. " Just the man I was looking for," I heard the clicking sound of a reloading gun.

"Answer me!" I pressed on. My body began to shake from both anger and nervousness.

"He had it coming Jagger. Relax,"she said calm, cool, and collected.

Several pairs of footsteps could be heard running in from behind me, followed by a feminine gasp.

"Shadow!" I heard Raine's voice scream. I glanced over to see her kneel by him. Looking behind my other shoulder, I saw Kratos standing behind me and just behind him, I could make out KL's silhouette.

" No, I'm not going to relax! What is wrong with you?! You've been manipulating me this whole time, and I'm not going to let you do it to me again!"

" What are you talking about?" She turned around to look me directly in my eyes.

" Stop playing dumb, Shizuka! You know exactly what I'm talking about! I'm done with your games!" I said. " How are you going to just come and hurt an innocent man like this?"

She chuckled as if what I said was humorous. " He was a man, yes, but innocent is a different story."

" What are you talking about?" Kratos asked, moving forward a bit.

" Shadow is not as innocent as he portrays. He is betraying you. All of you. The worst part is that you are all actually falling for his lies. You're all nothing but pawns in his little game."

"And you would know this how? What gives you the right to imply anything?" Kratos hissed.

" He hides so many things from all of you. Even you,Kratos," she said, her lips curling into a smile.

" How do you know my name?" He asked, his hand forming into a fist.

" I know lots of things around here. So listen here and listen closely. He has things that he's never told anyone about. He has secrets. Big secrets that he's kept in the shadows for quite some time."

" No he doesn't! I've known him since I was a toddler! He raised me as a son! Why would he hide things from me?" Kratos asked. To me, it sounded almost like he was trying to reassure himself.

" Why don't you try asking him that?" She said smirking.

"What is he hiding?" Kratos asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

" Lots of things that I don't think you'd want to hear from me. Maybe you should try getting it from the main source," Shizuka taunted.

" How do we know to trust you? You've lied so many times already," I said jumping in the conversation.

" Go ahead then. Don't trust me. But later on don't say that I didn't tell you so," she said, flipping her long hair.

" How do you know all of these things?" asked Kratos.

" Like I said before, I know lots of things Kratos."

" Kratos, don't listen to her! She's playing tricks with your mind, like she always does," I said, eyeing her down.

" That didn't answer my question," he told her, disregarding what I had just said. He shot her a cold stare.

" Ask him. I don't want to be the one to spoil," she said sending us a wink.

A blue glow started around Kratos' hands. She must've been trying to work him up and it seemed as though she was doing a good job at it.

" So you're the Breaker that I've been looking for," Shizuka said looking in KL's direction. " You're also the one that's been ruining all my plans. I just want you to know that I don't appreciate that." With that, Shizuka vanished into thin air.

" Kratos, get KL!" I screamed. He went to turn around, but when he did, a gun was pointed at his head.

" Move and you won't live to save her. Don't even think that I'll hesitate to pull this trigger," Shizuka said to Kratos.

I saw KL running and Shizuka looked over towards her. I darted over towards KL but before I could get close, I heard gunshots go off. I looked back and noticed that Kratos wasn't there, but I saw bullets flying towards KL. Suddenly, a blue glow surrounded the bullets and they fell to the floor.

" Over here! Throw them to me!" Raine screamed, waving her hands in the air to catch our attention.

" Alright!" I heard Kratos' voice scream from a tree. The blue light surrounded the bullets and flew back to Raine. I turned around to where Shizuka was, and she was gone.

" Miss me?" I heard Shizuka ask from behind me.

My reflexes kicked in and I ran to the side, dodging her bullets. As I turned around to face her, she smiled at me. " Goodbye," she said as she pointed her gun at me. Suddenly, I saw a blade pierce straight through her stomach. Her finger touched the tip of it and she smiled. "Oh, looky here. I've been impaled." She pushed the blade out and turned around to face Kratos. I saw a hole in her stomach.

" You are a worthless fool boy," she said to Kratos. I looked at the hole in her stomach as it looked like spider webs began to form from the inside of the wound. Suddenly, there was just a rip in her white cloak and she had healed. Raine managed to make her way up a tree and began to jump from tree to tree, shooting at Shizuka. Shizuka lifted up her hand and the bullets disintegrated into dust. She laughed.

" Stop it! All of you just stop it!" I heard KL scream. Everybody looked at her as she came into our sight. Shizuka lifted her gun to KL. KL lifted out her hand and the gun fell to the floor. Shizuka went to pick it up, and managed to. She pulled the trigger right in front of KL, but no bullets came out.

"No!" Shizuka screamed. "This is impossible. I just reloaded!" Her face twisted into an expression of desperation and pain.

KL lifted up her hand and an orange glow took over the gun. The gun turned into dust and the dust swirled into an orange spiral in the air until it eventually disappeared.
"Next time you try to harm us, I suggest you bring backup," KL said, crossing her arms over her chest in a sassy manner.

Shizuka looked outrageously enraged. " You Breaker, watch your back. The day will come when I will get my revenge. Mark my word," With that, a thick fog surrounded her body and she was gone.

Simultaneously, we all ran over to Shadow.

" Check his heart!" I said.

Raine ripped open his cloak to reveal a freshly opened wound. KL and her gasped, and Kratos shook his head.

" This is ridiculous," Kratos said, obviously angry.

" This is horrible," Raine squealed, tears brimming her eyes.

KL kept her hand over her mouth in shock.

" She stabbed him through the heart," I said, cringing at the sight of the gash in his chest.

" He needs medical attention. Now," said Kratos. "Raine, KL, and Jagger bring him to the lab room. I'll see if I can get us some help."

" Okay, I got him. KL and Raine start preparing the lab table and I'll carry him inside," I said. They both nodded and ran off toward Shadow's headquarters.

I looked over at Kratos. " Alright, so while you get help, how do we tend to his heart?" I asked.

He sighed seeming somewhat upset, " You can't tend to something he never had." On that note, he ran off into the darkness. I picked up Shadow and rushed inside of headquarters and to the lab. Placing him on the cold, metal table, the girls began to clean the blood off of him. An exhausted sigh escaped my lips. This was going to be a stressful night.

©Lightning_Stryker 2016