Fire had started to eat through the tiles on the floor. I was left standing there trying to explode right then and there. Again with this lecturing. Again with everyone thinking heck I went the wrong way. In an instant I couldn’t contain it anymore and seized the wall and started melting it. The brick and rock turned to liquid in seconds. I turned and walked away. Each step I took I could feel t feet sinking into the rock I was melting. I just continued down the hall.
I don’t know how I got there but somehow I ended up in another room. My mind took in everything around me, I realized it was a reverse of “Where nothingness Gathers”…..the room was black instead of white…..everything was the opposite. I stood in this room silently. And in a split second a circle of flames surrounded me. My anger started in for the chairs.
“Now……..” Suddenly I heard a voice. I turned around sharply and saw Tanex leading Lexian and Nyx into the room. I glared. Tanex had just turned his head to catch my glare.
“Hah and well well,” Tanex started. “Didn’t think you would be on your feet so fast Pyro.”
I cocked my head to the side and stared red eyed back at Tanex.
“Tris?” Nyx started, but Tanex turned abruptly to her.
“Nyx dear,” he started. “I believe that two little girls are starting to wake up…..would you mind going and checking on them?”
Nyx looked from me to Tanex and then finally nodded worriedly. Lexian didn’t say a word. He just stood there with his arms crossed. Once Nyx was gone, Tanex gave me a chilling look. I didn’t flinch. I just stared back wanting to burn everything and anything.
“Angry Triskix?” Tanex asked.
I didn’t reply. Fire started in for the bottoms of the chairs, but Tanex didn’t seem concerned. He turned sharply to Lexian and started talking.
“Sorry Lexian, but I have somewhere to be at the moment,” Tanex said. “I just remembered something hah. Would you mind….” He moved his hand a bit towards me. “Taking care of Triskix there?”
Lexian stared back at Tanex and didn’t say anything for a moment and then finally nodded. Tanex smiled and opened a portal. As he walked through, my glare shifted to Lexian. I began to wonder if Tanex had told him too about getting XIII back. That I had taken the ‘hard road’ and that he might be lecturing me. Flames began to digest the bases of each chair and started their way up.
“Triskix calm down,” Lexian said standing straight now. His arms remained crossed, and slowly darkness began meeting the red flames.
“Don’t you even dare think about lecturing me. I am not a kid,” I glared back. I felt anger run through me like blood. They were all thinking the same thing. They were all thinking I was just making a problem. I wasn’t...I wasn’t…..
Lexian stared back, and one red eye met one black. The darkness began to crackle with the flames.
“I am not lecturing you,” Lexian asserted.
“Everyone is the same around here,” I continued. The flames began to glow white hot. “They all think that I’ve made the biggest fool out of myself for trying to do what I thought was right. I don’t need Tanex. I don’t need RaXi. I don’t need lectures I don’t need anyone to tell me what to do! I’m going to do things MY way.”
Anger was in my muscles now. I wanted to fight. I wanted to tear something apart.
“Your way?” Lexian started. “Your way or Xraktos’s way? I am not lecturing you. I haven’t said a word. Don’t put words in my mouth.”
“Don’t you talk to me like that!” I snapped. “Just because you are free doesn’t mean you can tell me what to do.”
“Tris this doesn’t even sound like you,” Lexian answered. “And I am not telling you what to do.”
“Shut up!” I yelled.
Fire began to turn the floor into a completely melted pool of lava. I hated all of them. They were mocking me for trying to get back the XIII. They all wanted to see me suffer as I tried to make amends for Axel. Anger boiled my blood.
“You just wanted to get a full hardy laugh at seeing me chained up,” I started. “RaXi won’t admit it and keeps trying to play honorable heroine. It annoys me.”
“Triskix……you’re an idiot,” Lexian started. “None of us want to see that.”
“AND NONE OF YOU GET IT!” I shouted not hearing Lexian. I cocked my head to one side and fire shifted up the walls. “NONE OF YOU GET THAT……..”
“What,” Lexian answered.
“None of you get that this is my order and my job and my responsibility,” I answered.
“Triskix!” Lexian roared. “I AM DONE WITH YOU DAM BAD ASS LONER PROBLEM! ALL WE TRY TO DO IS HELP YOU AND ALL YOU DO IS TRY AND DO EVERYTHING ON YOUR OWN!”
The room seemed to swell with the silence that erupted after.
“We’ve tried to help you,” Lexian continued. “And you keep yanking your arm off trying to do things on your own. We never knew about Tanex’s plans, and…….”
“Where we you then,” I cut him off. “Where were any of you when I was alone? I have all of you to thank for my bad ass loner problems because ever since we all split, I’ve had no one…….”
“Triskix,” Lexian started. “When we all split up, none of us could find each other…..how do you expect….how could you expect…….”
“Last I checked,” I cut in. “When we split up we had no intention of fining each other. Or don’t you remember……”
Lexian gave me a look that I couldn’t place.
“What am I saying,” I started. “It doesn’t matter anymore. None of that matters any more. The past doesn’t matter…… All that matters is getting the XIII back, and I can do that myself.”
“If the past doesn’t matter…..why are you trying to bring back the XIII?” Lexian challenged.
Lexian ran his fingers through his hair and then something shimmered and was hidden again. I kept my face straight.
“Because even though……it doesn’t matter anymore….I have to make up for Axel’s mistakes,” I answered. I felt a chill run through me. I had never said it a loud before……and the words tasted weird on my tongue. The sounds of fire crackling with darkness started to subside.
“Then what?” Lexian continued. I didn’t answer. “Then what? What? Is this all to redeem Axel……is it? Answer Triskix.”
I took in a breath. “It………………has always been. And I know you know it which is why I can say it……”
Lexian moved his head a bit and sighed.
“It was already established that you took no part in it,” Lexian said coolly.
“But he was my master,” I answered. “And I still feel it……..feel like I caused it somehow…..”
“Triskix stop,” Lexian answered. “Don’t try and change facts to fit your cause.”
I stared at Lexian silently. The flames had stopped eating at the chairs and seemed to seep into the floor.
