Running through the facility with great speed, I was absolutely breathless. "Help! We need help! Shadow's hurt! We need a Cura! Please, Curas help!," I screamed down the hallway, pacing down it. Lily came out into the hallway in a panic, tired bags under her eyes.

            " What's wrong? What happened?" She asked, her eyes widening in nervousness.

            Running back to her door, I leaned against the doorframe, and held out a finger to her as I tried to catch my breath." In the lab room!"

           " I'm getting Nox and I'll be there asap," she said, zooming out of her room.

            " Alright. Please hurry," I screamed down the hallway, taking off again.

            After what seemed like years, I reached the end of all of the halls. Looking at a nearby clock, I realized that only five minutes had passed since I had found Lily. I wanted to go to help Shadow, but there were way too many emotions flowing through me right now to try to be emotionally stable. The last thing I needed was for the others to get stressed out because of my anxiousness.

My mind just couldn't seem to wrap around the whole situation. Why did that lady attack him? What was she talking about when she said that he has secrets or when she said that he was betraying us? Could it be that the things that she was saying true? I just couldn't bear to think that they were. I yelled in frustration, punching my fist furiously against the wall. For the time that Shadow is out, he's left me in charge, which means that I have no choice other than to step up as a leader. This was excess stress on me because I didn't know if I was capable of stepping up and taking charge. What if I'm not good enough to lead the organization? Or even worse, what if Shadow never wakes up?

            Nothing was adding up at all! I just couldn't see Shadow hiding things from us, especially from me. He's known me since I was a toddler, and he was the man that raised me. He was the man that I looked up to as a father figure and a role model, and now he just thinks it's okay to have a bunch of secrets that could put the rest of us in danger? I just couldn't believe that he would jeopardize all of our safety like that. Yet, he was acting pretty strange lately and a lot of his stories weren't adding up.Whatever that was going on, I was going to get to the bottom of it.

            Curiosity took the best of me when I charged downstairs and down the hallway. Luckily, Shadow's office door was cracked open. Did someone come in here before, or did he leave it like this? I felt as though I should just close the door and leave his life in peace, but I felt that if I didn't get answers for myself, he would never bother to tell any of us what was really going on. I looked around to make sure that the coast was clear, and entered his room.

Making sure that the door was closed behind me, I flipped on the lights and did a quick scan of the floor. It happened to be spotless except for a scabbard lying there. It looked as though he had been in a rush to get it out, and so I examined it. There was no blood on it, so he wasn't being attacked in here. Looking at his desk chair, it was faced towards the direction of where the sword holder had been laid on the floor. This didn't really give me much information though. Moving over to his desk, I noticed that his laptop was open. I clicked on some keys to see if I could get in, but it was asking for a fingerprint. Great, just great. My anger instantaneously flared up, and I furiously punched his desk. I noticed that my emotions were starting to work up again and suddenly I felt a mixture of anger and sadness at the same time. Anger because there was no way for me to find out if there was information that he was hiding in his laptop. Sadness because in a way, I did feel betrayed from his actions. He put me in charge if something were to happen to him, and then this happened. I felt like this was no coincidence.

            Suddenly, my head jerked up to the sound of a jingling doorknob. My heartbeat paced as I stared at the door in shock. There was nowhere around here to hide! As the door slowly swung open, I felt a knot of nervousness form in my stomach. To my relief, a pair of amber eyes peeked up at me.

            " Oh, it's just you KL," I said, letting out a sigh of relief.

            " Yeah. You okay? You look upset," she asked.

            " How can I not be upset? This is total chaos."

           " Well, at least you feel some sort of emotion right now," she said smiling.

            I disregarded what she said. " How is he?" I asked.

            "They're trying to get his pulse back right now, so he's definitely not in great condition. But those healer people came in and are helping Raine tend to his wound."

           " The Curas?" I asked.

            " Is that what they're called?" she asked, curiously.

            "Yeah. The Curas have curing powers, hence their name," I replied.

            " Oh okay." Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Kratos, can I ask you something?"

           " Uh, okay."

           " Why are you in here?"

           " I'm trying to find answers."

           " Answer to what exactly?" She asked, putting a hand on her hip.

            " To what's going on. To what that woman said."

           " Kratos, don't fall for her lies. She's been trying to kill us and she manipulated Jagger. What makes you think that she is actually going to tell the truth?"

           " I don't know. But I just want to be certain. I want to know what the truth is. I want to know why she targeted Shadow."

           " Well I mean, if you take out the leader it would weaken the way that the whole team works," she said matter-of-factly.

            " I mean, that could be it. But I don't think she would go through all of this trouble just to weaken us," I replied.

           " If she weakens the team leader, she weakens the team. Which means that her next attack on us could take us down," KL said, her amber eyes staring seriously at my face.

            " Well..that sort of makes sense, but I'm here now so I might as well finish what I came for," I said.

            She smiled at me to which I returned. Standing here with an awkward silence lingering in the atmosphere, I sighed. " I can't believe that he lied to us. To me."

           "You don't know if he's lying or not. You can't jump to conclusions."

            "I know. But he's been acting kind of strange lately."

    "But you don't have any evidence that he's done anything wrong, Kratos," KL said.

    "You wouldn't get it!" I snapped. I sighed, looking away from her in shame. It was not my intent to snap at her, but she wouldn't understand what I was feeling right now. She hadn't known Shadow for as long as I have, and to see him act the way he has been lately was just odd.

    "You haven't known Shadow for as long as I have," I nearly whispered. "You wouldn't know what it's like for him to act abnormally-which he has been doing a lot of lately. It's just...odd to watch your parent be in such a life or death situation."

    "You know, you have some real nerve saying that I wouldn't get it. At least there's a possibility that you can save Shadow. How do you think I feel knowing that my parents had no chance of being saved? How do you think I feel being sucked into a whirlwind of crazy events while everyone that you've ever know is dead? Mom, dad, Seth, everyone is gone!" She was angry now, tears streaming down her face. What made me feel even worse was that I knew that I had a chance to save them, but I couldn't. "Right now, your priority should be saving him, not snooping on him!"

           I sighed, " I know KL, but something has just been off lately. I need to do this. And I'm sorry that you've had to experience so much loss, but if there's one thing I could tell you, it's that they loved you very, very much."

           " But do you understand what it's like to have something there for your whole life and just have it disappear like that? There's no more laughs, no more hugs, no more holidays or anything!" She said, wiping her tears away.

            " No. No, I don't actually. You should be lucky that you can say that you got to do those things with your parents."

           " Why? I won't be able to ever do them again."

           " Because KL," I said. " Some people never even got the chance to do those things and wish that they did have the chance."

           She looked up at me, " You aren't....referring to you, are you?"

           " Actually, yeah. I am," I confessed. A weight seemed to be lifted off of my chest as I said those words.

            " I'm...I'm so sorry Kratos," she said, looking at me with sympathy.

            " It's fine. No big deal. It's just dumb anyways."

           " Why?"

           As I looked intently at her, hesitation washed over me. Was it too early to tell this girl my horrid history? She looked at me in anticipation, waiting for me to see what I had to say and so I knew that it was already decided for me. I was going to reveal my past to her. " You see, when I was little my parents loved me. I remember them loving me to death. But as I started to grow, they began to treat me differently. This was because I was born with the powers that I possess now. As I started to get older, my powers started to show and they began to avoid me like the plague. They would call me so many names, say so many horrible things to me, that eventually I began to hate myself for not being able to make them happy. As a child, the only thing you want is to be loved and cared for by your parents. All you want to do is do things to please them and I, I was the exact opposite. I could never make them happy. All I could provide was disappointment and shame.

I remember being isolated to an empty room in my own house. They left me in this room all day and had me eat leftover food and water out of a dog bowl that they would bring to me twice a day. It was pretty horrible. I remember just sitting alone in the middle of my room, crying and wondering what was wrong with me, what made me incapable of receiving the love of my parents. Then one day, I realized why. I heard them having a conversation in the hallway right outside of my room. I heard them screaming about how abnormal I was. But the one thing that stuck in my mind the most was when my father said, 'The boy is nothing but an abomination! A freak of nature!" Then after that, I remembered what my mother- my sweet,sweet mother who I had actually had some good memories with- said. It was the most hurtful thing that I have ever heard in my whole life. You know what she said? She saw me peek through my door and into the hallway. She stared dead at me and said, "Get back in your room. You're too dangerous. You are a monster, something that no one would ever accept." From that time on, I never saw them again. I closed my door and began to throw items around my room out of anger. Then I opened the window, and found a way out. I lived on the street and ate out of garbage cans for the time being. There was no difference between the scraps and the type of food that I was being fed at home anyway. And everyday, I'd find a park bench to sleep on and would be lucky if a kind stranger ever brought me a cup of hot cocoa on a chilly night.

Eventually, I met a boy a decent age older than me. His name was Shadow. He had his own story, but was living on the streets as well. Young Shadow was a man filled with ambition, and so he used it to create this building and eventually gave me a real place to call home. If it weren't for him, I'd most likely be dead right now."

           " I'm so sorry Kratos. I didn't know that you had to go through so much."

           " It's fine," I said wiping a tear that fell from my eye. Suddenly, I felt her arms wrap around my back. Though my initial reaction was to push her away, I let her hold me there in my state of vulnerability. She held me for a little while, trying to console me and as she eventually released the hug, I glanced over at her.

            " I am so sorry for dropping that all on you. That definitely wasn't my intention."

"I don't mi-"

"And I'm sorry about everything that you've had to go through. Just know that if you even need someone to talk to, I'm always here for you."

           " I know Kratos. It-it just hurts. I'm not sure that the pain will ever fully go away," she said as a tear rolled down her cheek. Moving my hand slowly toward her face, I took my thumb and brushed her tear away. Looking up at me with sadness in her eyes, there was a specific twinkle in them that made my heart stop. She bit her lip and shyly looked toward the floor, and I all the while just wanted to hold her in my arms and console her.

            Picking up her chin slowly, her amber eyes connected with mine. " I will always be here for you KL Kiyano. I promise you."

    She let out a stuffy giggle through her tears and wrapped her arms around me, her head on my chest. "Thank you."

    I took my arms and wrapped them around her.

" We're all dealing with a lot right now. I mean, now I don't know if I can even count on Shadow. To be honest, I feel like you're the only person I actually trust right now. I just told you something that was really personal to me and you didn't even judge me."

           " Why would I?" She asked.

            " I don't know. I just guess since those things were implemented in my head, I always just assumed that everyone thought about me the same way that my parents did."

           " Well I don't, so don't ever think that Kratos. You're my friend, I would never judge you because of your past. I'd like to think that it's up to us to choose our own futures, so get your head out of the past," she said as she bopped my head.

            I felt a smile form on my face.

    Looking up at me, she smiled. "I think now would be a good time to leave here."

           "Wait, wait, wait," I said, breaking off the hug and holding up my hand. "Do you think that you could maybe help me with something first?"

           She squinted in suspicion as her eyebrow questionably cocked upward." What exactly are you asking for help with?"

           " I'm trying to get into Shadow's laptop and I need his fingerprint," I said bluntly.

            " How am I supposed to help with that?"

           " I thought that maybe you found out how to do something with your powers to get mini security breached like this," I smirked.

            " No, but this tape might help," she said smiling and ripping off a piece of tape off of the tape dispenser. "Kratos, give me something he uses often," she said.

            I looked around his room and found a glass cup lying on a shelf. It had a little bit of water in it. I grabbed the bottom of the cup and brought it over to Shadow's desk.

            KL looked at the glass and put the piece of tape on it.  She peeled off a fingerprint, to which I could see through the tape. She placed the sticky part of the tape face down on the finger scanner and pressed her finger on the tape to trick the computer into thinking it had pressure on it. Suddenly, the computer unlocked..

            " Yes! It read!" I exclaimed in excitement. I gave her a high five as we laughed about our accomplishment. As soon as Shadow's computer came on, a message popped in a white text box on the screen.

It read:

The package has been spotted.

Underneath it was a link. I clicked on it and it showed a six second, low quality video of some people walking. Underneath the video link, the message read.

This is all that I've collected so far.

Underneath that was another link. Curiously clicking on it, a file opened up. The main title of the file was Mercurius. Underneath the title were tabs that contained general information about a person, such as gender, hair color, eye color, weight, height, and a few other things. Only a few of these categories were actually filled out with information.

" What is this?" KL asked, turning to face me.

" I have absolutely no idea," I responded, trying to search through more of the information. What in the world was this?

" More importantly, who is sending him this information?" She asked, looking over at me. As she nervously bit her lip, she looked deep in thought.

" I don't know. I just want to know what Mercurius is. From the looks of it, it looks like a project.".

"Or a person's name,"she added.

" This is not adding up!" I said, frustrated. At this point in time, I had felt so betrayed. I could not believe that the man who raised me was hiding things from the whole organization.

" It's really not," KL agreed, her eyebrows going down in confusion.

I looked up at her. "Let's get out of here," I said.

" Why?" She asked.

" Because we need to revive him. Only then will we get the answers we need."

I returned the laptop to the way it was before, and walked down with KL to the lab room. Shadow was a man with many secrets. Secrets that were soon to be put into the light.

©Lightning_Stryker 2016