Going Down Memory Lane

Alex was feeling the effects of his fights so he sat down while his mother stood and looked at him. To be honest all Alex really wanted at the moment was to go to sleep, but that would be rather disrespectful and his father raised him better than that. Besides he felt she would leave faster if he let her say what it is she wanted to say.

"I didn't want to leave you, I just didn't have a choice." She said to him, with her voice being the softest he had heard so far. If he had to put a finger on it, he would say this voice was more in line with the words on the letter his father had given him, but honestly it made no difference.

"There's always a choice! And honestly if you tell me that neither you nor my father were not powerful enough, then so help me God I'm going to throw you out. Why the hell are we even talking about this anyway, it's all in the past and I really don't care what reasons you might have had that made you abandon me for 14 years of my life." This was a talk they would have had eventually, though Alex wished he would have been able to put it off until after he was done with this tournament, there was just too much angst and anger for him to deal with his mother with a clear head right now.

"I'm sure you're angry with me, I'm sure you might even hate me, and you have every reason to, however I want you to know why you have been put in a situation where you have to hate your own mother. I'm not going to ask for your forgiveness, I don't deserve it, but after your fight, all eyes are fully set upon you. So I feel it's only proper you know one of the many reasons why someone would come stick a knife in your back when you sleep."

Alex wanted to be unreasonable, he didn't want to listen to anything that she had to say, however over and over again, his mother, father, uncle, and grandfather have been telling him that his life was in danger and yes he might be really talented, but he was just as afraid to death as anybody else. And his journey here where his mom had come to keep him safe and his grandfather ruthlessly dispatched his assassins had left a mark on his mind, in one way or another, Alex was really careful when it came to his safety.

"My current husband, who like me is an elder in the Wudang sect, is the nephew to the current emperor of the heaven empire, and his father the current sect master of the Wudang sect. I was betrothed to him when I was 10 by an edict from the emperor, at that time he was already 28. I was to be his official wife among the his dozens of concubines.

That was emperor's attempt to quell the outrage within the Wudang sect as my father, your grandfather was ousted out of his position as Sect master, after he lost a fight to the current master. But it's not as simple as it seems, till date your grandfather, apart from the emperor himself is known as the strongest cultivator, your grandfather could have left for a higher plain of existence long ago, probably going to find the ancestors of the Wudang sect and Zhang clan, however he has stayed behind to keep his family safe and make sure we won't be a target by others until we're strong enough to protect ourselves.

Either way, your grandfather was poisoned the night before the fight, he lost and the emperor appointed the new sect master and gave me as a trophy to his son, as away to keep your grandfather in line.

Even at ten that was a painful experience for me, I guess in some ways that I never acknowledged, it changed me, made me cold, rigid and unfeeling. I spent the remaining hundred years training, away from the eyes of the public, and then during a journey to the Americas, I met a man.

His name was Reginald, and he was.....he was beautiful. At that moment I was all too happy to leave everything behind me, to settle down on a farm and live my life with him. He was just a normal farmer without the capabilities of cultivating, but he was intelligent and wise beyond his years, and he was very kind to me. I was three months pregnant with your sister when Red Dragon found me. Red dragon is the title of the man I was betrothed to, his real name has been all but forgotten and he only answers to his title. He strung Reginald up, and use a technique to have the cows on his farm, cows we had both raised from when they were calves, to gore and trample him to death, and he made me watch every single second of it.

Then he tried to kill your sister before she was born as a means to protect his reputation. Your grandfather saved me and even went as far as severely injuring Red dragon in the process. That year, the Wudang sect almost fell into a civil war, but the sect master apologized on the behest of the emperor, citing that Red dragon was a little heavy handed in his methods and shouldn't have tried to kill my unborn child.

As for Reginald, no one was left to remember him but me, there was no justice for him, he was just collateral damage I the political war brewing with the sect. Not too long after I had your sister, I left the sect again, to be honest motherhood was not something I was ready for, it scared me a lot, and at that time I was resigned to never opening my heart again to anyone, not even my own daughter, so that she wouldn't end up a victim of Red Dragon's wrath.

And then in the most unlikeliest of ways, I met this sect disciple who had a love for painting and could make such exquisite pieces, which were a depiction of the fundamental wisdom of the universe, the rawest essence of QI and martial arts. Benjamin had a very low cultivation base, and if he so wanted he could have achieved higher levels, but he was contented being at the peak of the true Element realm, the very cusp of the mortal gate.

He didn't have much power, but he could make paintings so powerful, even someone like my father would derive enlightenment from it and advance in level or in three separate cases, create new martial arts. Your father was....is a pioneer of cultivation and martial arts, and then one day he painted your sister. I didn't know it at the time, but the maid servant in charge of your sister was a fan of his, so she brought her along every time they went to see him, and then he painted her.

It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, it had so much power and emotion, so much loss and pain, yet so much hope. A chance for a better future nestled within her eyes. At that time she was just a year old; I had to meet him, so I invited him over and got to know him, and then one visit became two, and two became four and four eight and eight sixteen and sixteen thirty two until we both lost count and just spent our time in each other's bed."

She paused and looked me straight in the eye, we we're getting close to the part of the story where I come in and she decides to abandon me, but there was also something obvious.

"You never loved my father did you?" Alex asked her with a bland voice

"Maybe not at first Alex, I had just lost Reginald and Ben was around, he wasn't as wise, or gentle as Reginald, in fact your dad was quite rough most of the time, but he was meticulous and careful, and slow but very insightful and emotional. He had wild thoughts in his head and told me stories of his home, he wanted to change the world, and old as I was, I wanted to do so with him. So I fell in love again, and it happened so quickly I wondered if I ever even loved Reginald in the first place. But never the less Ben was a good father to your sister, hell he's only father she knows and for some reason has been unable to forget.

Few years later I got pregnant with you, something that was totally not planned and would cause no small amount of problems, not to mention the pregnancy was difficult, and a lot of doctors said I was going to lose my life.

But I didn't, and I had you, my only son.

You were beautiful, so beautiful that the thought of you being even two steps away from me was unbearable. And then news came that Red Dragon who had spent four and a half years recovering after the fight with my father was coming back.

We already had you, and if we fought hard enough, we would be able to protect your father, however I still had to stick to the agreement and marry Red Dragon. It drove your father mad, in the end he was still a man and his pride would never let him watch the woman he loves marry another man, and right in front of him. But this was the only way to keel the balance between both factions, and so your father left, taking you with him, and I let him go, because I knew growing up away from this place, away from this life of plots and deals and evil was the best thing I could do for you as a mother, at least until either your father or me got string enough to give the emperor a middle finger and have him say thanks in return rather taking our heads.

Everyone else a privy to rumors about me being a slut and that I've gone around sleeping with multiple men, while I was promised to another. It protected me, and made it so that in the twelve years that I've been officially married to Red dragon, he has not touched me even once. The rumors ruined my reputation, but I don't regret it, I just wish I had the freedom to watch you grow up. So I've told you my story, forgiveness won't come easy, you have years of issues to work through, and only you can don that for yourself. Just be strong my son, there's more storms in our future than the one's we've passed, but we have each other now, whether you agree to it or not, Family look out for each other."