Short Stories

Betrayal

Starleaf stood no chance against Twisted. He was faster and more skilled than the young hybrid. The Nightmare ran circles around him, with impenetrable defenses and offensive capabilities beyond Starleaf's comprehension. It was at this moment that Starleaf's mind decided to drift away, wondering what had led up to this moment. How the person who had been a father figure to him days ago, was suddenly trying to kill him.

He remembered that day when he had been chased down into the hole where Darkstalker had emerged, to find this strange creature, locked in a cage. Any normal dragon, scratch that, any dragon with any common sense whatsoever would have left and never come back, but not Starleaf. He kept coming back and coming back and coming back until they grew to be inseparable friends in just a matter of weeks. At the time, it simply seemed like a miracle, how a loner like him suddenly found someone who was more than willing to be his friend and just so happened to also be the kindest, most caring, charismatic person, he'd ever met. Of course, with hindsight, now he knew that it was all manipulation; an elaborate trick that had worked up until this very moment.

"I thought you were mine," Twisted rambled as he beat Starleaf senseless. "I thought that you trusted me! That I could trust you!"

Twisted grabbed Starleaf by the head and hurled him down the steel hallway of the base. The hybrid patiently waited until he came to a stop, before drawing the energy from deep within him (just how Twisted had taught him) and blasting a beam of red light at the Nightmare, who responded by casting his own beam of energy, this one green; Twisted's beam quickly overtook Starleaf's, scorching his skin and blasting him back. The wounds quickly healed but left a burning sensation.

Twisted lumbered towards him, his eyes engulfed in malevolent green flames. "I loved you, Starleaf... I loved you as my son..."

"AND I LOVED YOU AS A FATHER!" Starleaf screamed, causing the Nightmare to take a step back with surprise. All at once tears streamed down his face and his voice broke into tiny sobs. "You were there when no one else was! You were the one I could turn to with problems I couldn't bring up to mom and dad! When you told me that sloth spit story, I believed you without questioning it because I thought 'Oh, there's no way he'd lie to me!' But I guess I was wrong!"

Twisted stood there, the flames around him slowly dying down as if he was realizing the errors in his ways. "I thought you were going to be the greatest thing that ever lived," Twisted admitted sorrowfully, the flames slowly coming back to life. "But now I realize... You're just a kid."

The flames pulsed back the life, and Twisted, with a yell of effort, sent a fireball the size of the hallway down at Starleaf. The hybrid, helpless, tearful... Powerless... It was funny. If he was to believe what Twisted told him, he had power over life and death itself... and yet he still felt powerless. He started thinking that maybe he deserved this... He had hurt so many people under this delusion that he was doing something right. The signs were all there, but he ignored them for his sensei's sake. And so, when the fireball was so close he could feel its heat scorching him without even touching it, he was ready for it.

But of course, life threw him another curveball.