I awoke with a startle, hearing the loud banging  on my door.

"Hey! JJ, you're still asleep?  Get up!" I heard Wulf's voice behind the door.

I grumbled, and stood up from bed, checking the time on my wall clock.

"What!" I screamed.

"I am late, oh no."

Jumping out of bed, I ran as fast as possible to the bathroom. Brushed my teeth, washed my face, did all the doable in record time.

I quickly changed to a neat uniform. And was ready to go.

I went to the mirror to give myself a quick pep talk for the day.

"JJ,  today is a new day. You have held on for a long time, and you won't give up today, or any other day." I smiled to my reflection and turned to go when a voice stopped me.

"Hello, Redder, Nice pep talk."

I screamed as loud as I could, stumbling and falling on my butt.

D-did I just h-hear a voice in my head.

"I believe so."

"Oh, my God!! Who are you. Why are you talking in my head?"

"Hey, give up screaming. And, I'm not in your head. I'm in you."

Oh, no no no, I am running mad. No, I am already mad. A lunatic, a psycho. I hear voices in my head.

"Hey, Redder, calm down, if you keep talking like that you will genuinely become a lunatic."

"Please who are  you, what are you." I replied almost in tears.

"My name is Cicero, and I'm you. Or I'm part of you now."

"What the heck do you mean by you are me?"

"Hey, no cursing, in this body."

Oh my goodness! What was happening to me? I needed to tell someone.

"You don't get it, do you? Okay, you can't tell anyone about this.  You will not only be in trouble, but you will also be in danger."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh my, I can't believe I actually share a brain with you. Do you think it's innate to have someone like me inside you?"

"Someone, like you? I don't even know who you are."

" Yeah, good point.  But when I told you I am you, I wasn't kidding.  I only know what you know, the limit to your dumb brain is unfortunately mine also."

"What the hell! Then why do you think it's not natural to have you in me."

" Why, Oh deity, why did you have to stick me with this girl?  Why? There are so many brilliant people around, but you chose her?"

I didn't understand anything, apart from the fact that this Cicero person annoyed the heck out of me.

"What the... Okay, please who are you really, and why are you in me?"

"I told you, I'm Cicero, and I have been here all along, we just couldn't communicate like this. Until now, which I don't even know how."

"You mean you have been inside me?"

"Redder, let's get something straight here. I am not different from you. Well, I am the smarter part of you. But I am not inside you, I'm you."

" Why do you call me Redder? Thinking of that, I remember the horse yesterday calling me Redder."

   "That wasn't a horse, its a Pegasus. An ancient beast that Valkyries ride to war. And I call you Redder, because that is who you are."

"What! This is insane."

"The only thing insane here, is you. Because, in less than 5 minutes you will be punished for being late."

Oh no. I was already late. I stood up from the floor and was out of the door, running downstairs within a second.

I reached the dining to see that it was empty except for a slice of bread which I took with a bottle of water and took to a sprint to class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All classes passed by in a blur, and before I knew it, we were in the cafeteria.

As expected, Cicero, frustrated me to no end with unnecessary comments in my head. At a point I actually screamed in class, and earned myself an extra round on the field.

I was seated with Tay, Blue, Dell and  Sammy as usual. And they discussed about the tournament.

There were many things I needed to understand which I didn't so I decided to ask.

"Hey, Tay. I always heard you all, talking about troops and all, what's it about?"

"In the tournament, we would be divided into groups of eight. Because we are new students, we don't have a group yet. But others higher than our unit do." Tay, answered.

"And each group is called a troop and is headed my a captain.  There are eight groups.  We have, V, A, L, K, Y, R, I, and E troops. As you can see it spelled Valkyrie."  Blue explained and I nodded in understanding.  

V troop is headed my the top student in the academy. Which is the prince.

No one, had ever beaten him before. The reason for that is his power. It's like no other. He is the most powerful Valkyrie this kingdom has  ever seen, that is why he is our guardian." Taylor sighed out loud with a wide smile on her face.

I noticed that as she spoke all of them on the table had their right hands on their chest and their heads were bowed slightly with different smiles on their faces.

"Your guardian?"

"Yes, he is our protector. Chosen by the Deity himself. He is the only Valkyrie that has been granted a double gift. Sometimes his gift becomes too strong that he has to be locked up in..." Taylor didn't get to complete her statement because of the wild looks of terror Blue threw her, and the elbow she received on her side from Sammy.

I wanted to know, locked up? Wow! He was really powerful then. And the fact no one had beaten him before, gave me confidence that he could train me.

"So you said he was chosen?"

Blue cleared her throat before speaking.

"Yes, when a Valkyrie is born, they have a birth mark just on top of their navel which indicates what star they belong to.

And before you ask what a star is, it is  like, how do I explain it?"

Before she could come up with something, Sammy spoke.

"Warrior, is and example of a star. Then there is the healers star, Seers star, Transporter's star, Farmers star, Inventing star.

But our Guardian had none of those stars. What he had, which was later foretold by a Seer, was a guardian star.

"Is that why you call him prince?"

"No, not at all. He is actually the first born son to the king of the biggest dynasty. The North."

"He really is powerful." I said silently, while they all bowed their heads again.

"Seems like we got ourself a powerful trainer."

I almost fell off my seat on hearing Cicero's voice once again. While my friends looked at me weirdly.

I couldn't reply her, or I would be called a psycho for talking to myself.

"You do know, that you can talk to me through your mind right?"

I sighed, exasperated. She was killing my brain cells.

"As if you had any to begin with."

"I thought you said we were the same, so you don't have brain cells then?" I replied  her, making a very irritated growl to resound in my head.
 
Good, at least I could annoy her as much as she did me.

"The A troop is headed my the second best. Captain Meg. She is the one and only the Channeler in the whole of the Academy excluding the headmaster. But that is not what makes her great.

It is her intelligence. Captain Meg is someone we describe as a know it all. Nothing gets past her. She even reads minds to make it worst. She fights with calculation. That is what makes her dangerous, her intelligence knows no bounds.

L troop is lead by Captain Ro," Blue said with a blush. While Tay and even Dell had a look of content on their faces.

Wow, he was well loved, by girls, I mean.

Sammy rolled his eyes and continued. " He is the golden boy of the school as you can see. "

He doesn't even need to fight, just a flash of his dimple makes girls faint.

But do not be deceived, he is as dangerous as the air. For he wields the power of the air."

"Huh?"

"He controls the air. Wind, hurricane, you know, air bender."

"Oh, I get it."

He mastered his gift at a very young age, when most of us were still bed wetting." He said giving Tay a look.

"Oh come on! You can't just use that against me all the time." She cried out, while we laughed.

"And he is the closest friend to the prince, you can't find the Prince without Captain Ro.

"The head of the K troop is  Captain Wulf. She is the scariest of them all. Just a glance from her can make anyone wet their pants. Even though the Prince also has a powerful Teek power. His, Teek is not as strong as hers.

She was always hard on herself even when she was little. She is the first as last person to lift up a whole city with just her mind. I honestly fear her strength."

"And so do I."

"Next is the Y troop. Headed by Captain Thazar. He is the only Captain that knows how to communicate to hundreds of people without Speaking. I wonder how he does it.

He controls, plants. It takes a whole lot of practice and power, to be able to generate a type of plant out of thin air. Not to talk of generating many types.

But our dear captain, grew a whole garden in a second with just a flick of his wrist. He can produce and grow any type of plant that has ever taking a breath in the world."  Tay completed

Next is the R troop," Blue started.

"It is headed by Captain Jody. The one and only sweetheart of the academy.  She is kindest of them all, and loves to play around with her best friend Jobber.

But as playful as she is, she doesn't play on the battlefield. She turns into a monster when she fights. Sometimes I think she has two person's in her."

That statement made me remember Cicero, and I asked.
"But is it possible?  You know,  to have someone in you. Like to have someone living in your head?"

But they all burst out laughing. "JJ, we are Valkyries not witches,  even witches don't have that." Tay replied.

I sighed out, damn it, I thought.

"So, as I was saying. She is the only Transmitter that has ever, rejected the star of a Transporter and instead, worked hard to be a warrior.  Most or almost all warriors are born warriors, but not her. She worked hard to be here, and is the first Transmitter to become a warrior, worst, a captain.

Next is the schools favorite, Captain Jobber, captain of the I troop. Just like his best friend Jody,  he is someone, not to be underestimated. As playful and joyful as he is, he scares the shit out of me on a battlefield.

He controls ice. He has mastered the gift so well that he can also manipulate water."

"Wait, but water and ice are the same right?"

"No, water elementals produce water out of thin air, and can bend any liquid to their will. While ice needs to be close enough to a source of liquid to use their ice power.

Jobber is one of the few that have mastered the gift of ice, and can also control water, but not necessarily generating it."

"Wow!"

"Yeah, Captain Enga, is the youngest captain ever. At the age of 17, he gained his title. And he is a water elemental.

This was a lot of information,  but I was glad to learn more about the captains.

"Redder, I guess it's time for my favorite part of the day. It's time for training."

I heard a very irritating voice shout in my head.

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A very long chapter. But I hope you enjoyed it.

Please vote and comment.

What do you feel about Cicero.

Signing out
Marvel.