Chapter 14

We went to Vero city and found their battleground and saw a group of people heading towards us and the others we were with. The leader of this group was Jatel she looked out at the danger beyond and smirked. It looked as if in her eyes the battle was already won before it started. We had a few moments before they were going to be close enough to attack and Arquis took the opportunity to drag me away from the side of the edge that I was looking at our opponents from. I looked at him acting confused as to why he was taking me somewhere else. He looked at me in the eyes and asked slowly, "Are you okay?" I looked back and in an even voice said, "Yes I'm okay." He didn't believe me and talked to me more than he used to before. "Look I know that I haven't been the nicest to you, but the way you killed that woman wasn't even human. It was effortless to you, there was no remorse or anything. I just want to know that you're not losing yourself." He said to me worriedly. It was the most concerned Arquis had ever been about me and it pulled me out of whatever state I was in and I started thinking about what life used to be like and was sad. Thoughts of when I first met Opet came to me and the memory of leaving my mom and dad and my friends at the Claret Center hit me too and it was too much to handle and I started tearing up and Arquis looked at me concerned and looked around then gave me a hug for a few minutes. While he did he tried to make me feel better about myself. "I'm sorry that I'm not the nicest person, I used to be different before I got my power." I looked at him and shook my head gently up and down knowing that it changed you for the worse in ways. he continued, "I keep the strongest presence of my spirit hidden because I'm ashamed of it. I wanted to die when I first joined the soul searchers, the strongest presence was sadness. Everyone treated me differently at first until I acted rude and harsh, then they acted the same way towards me which was better than being pitied. My parents were killed when I was younger and I woke up to see them laying in bed dead with blood dripping down the sheets. I was paralyzed with fear and depression and held onto them both for as long as I could sniffling and breathing heavily from the tears until someone came and pulled me away from the painful scene they saw. It was my grandma that took me away and held me while I mourned the loss of my parents. She took care of me and I loved her more than anyone. She passed when I was 16 and I had nothing left to lose so I went to the End Game Battlegrounds pretending to be old enough to join hoping to die. Instead Renfro was announcing as usual and called out my name and my opponents and saw me unarmed and how young I looked and stopped the match and had the guards escort me out of the battlegrounds and to him." We heard a warning shout and Arquis said, "I'll tell you the rest after we help out here." We ran out towards the edge to see over the railing and saw that there was a large group running to break the gate. We were waiting to defend the inside when suddenly Jatel launched herself headfirst over the edge cackling crazily and formed a pair of orange wings and floated on her back and rushed forward into the mob and sliced through a lot of them that were as shocked as we were. The rest charged towards her and Arquis and I shrugged at each other and did the same except Arquis had a clear purple waterfall that slowed his descent and I made a red vampire portal ring that transported me close to where Arquis landed. We ran towards Jatel and helped clear the crowd as best as we could, it was difficult because we had to deal with other spirits but eventually we did get some down and we were joined by more allies from Jatel's group and after hours of fighting we finally won and suffered just a few casualties. Jatel thanked us for our help and we were about to leave but before we did I asked Jatel, "If you don't mind me asking what's the strongest presence in your spirit?" Jatel smiled and gave a funny reply, "I thought you could tell I was crazy!" then started laughing. I laughed with her she was definitely crazy but I didn't mind; sometimes you need a little insanity in your life to make it worth living. All of this started because of a risk that could've killed me and there was nothing I could've done about it had I been in a bad position and died. Yet here I was still alive and going around place to place more than I ever had before. I wouldn't have had it any other way except to have the love of my life with me. If I had that I would be happier than ever before. We went to our car and Arquis beckoned me over, "Now that we're done I can tell you the rest." I leaned back against the hood of the red Reavamp a mix between a muscle car and a sleek sports car. "Renfro took me on a walk around their place and I didn't care for what I saw and once Renfro saw that he stopped showing me around and told me that I could tell him what happened or he would see for himself once he asked me if I accepted the binding of the soul searchers. I scoffed not believing him and agreed for fun. after I got the ability he saw everything that I went through since I agreed to it and he tried to comfort me but I let no one near me and stayed that way for years." I looked at him and asked, "What made you want to tell me the strongest part of your soul when you told me I would never know?" Arquis looked at me and said, "Despite everything I thought about you it turns out you're more like me than I cared to admit, you're the kind of friend that I never thought I'd have." I was stunned that he actually considered me his friend after all we've been through. He said, "Are you gonna get in and go with me to the next place or am I gonna go on my own while you contemplate life?" there was the good old Arquis I knew. I replied, "I think I'm gonna fly alongside you for a bit, that was a fun idea Jatel gave me. He waved his hand back and I flew alongside for a while and then hopped in the car and drove once I got tired of flying with the winged jetpack I made. Having all this potential was exhilarating and I had someone to go with me on my adventures.