Preceding Atlantis Complex; slight spoilers.

Brave by Leona Lewis: http:/www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=s-azEnpB8Dw

Angels lift you

Off the ground

I've got shadows

Weighing me down

Somehow the fact my father was trying so hard to get our family to revert to the "light side" made me retreat to the "dark side" further. Like an extremely cliched saying, you don't appreciate what you have until it's gone. Everyone around me is a good influence; kind, caring, supportive. I knew it was always teasingly easier to be the protagonist, as well. They win. We lose.

Still you believe,

You believe in me

I wish I could feel that way

You can trust

So easily

I can't give you

All of me

If this was a story, movie, book, something written by a hand that wanted to show children a moral in a story, then I would have numerous flashbacks to quotes, looks, adventures, experiences. I'd see them all pass, then jump up from my seat crying, "Eureka!" And I'd know that this was right, and I was meant to be good.

Sometimes I wished real decisions could be so easy.

Along with the fact the protagonists enjoyed victory, they also had a fair share of losses. They were usually underdogs, so witnesses could witness just how great their heroes were. Take Harry Potter, for example. Orphan. Unwanted. Only exceptional in classes, and excelled only in Defense. You can see why I didn't hurry to change my ways.

Still you're holding on

When you should be gone

I wish I was that

Brave

Captain Sh- no, Holly, had been doing her best. She stopped by almost daily, and I knew that Kelp probably killed her each time she arrived underground a couple of minutes late. I could never understand how she could be so… strong to stand up for her beliefs.

You go to fight for love

Like a soldier

I wanna run away

You're never scared

To walk through the fire

I wish I had your faith

I turn away

Knowing my heart could break

I'm so afraid to fall and surrender

I'm not

Brave

I'm not

Brave

Maybe it was time to give up, I mused, and just do something nice for the world. My thoughts were interrupted by the fairy com-link, and I instinctively steeled my voice before answering.

"Yes, Captain?" I intoned, ignoring my strange new personality that insisted on calling her Holly. This new person beat itself around in my body, as if I were only a hollow shell, a prison for it. I'd suspected illness, though doctors claimed I was going through a "phase" that was commonplace for a young teenage boy and his "raging hormones" during a stage in puberty. Blasted puberty. Furthermore, I couldn't find much information for my impulses in fairy databases either, besides a few similar symptoms residing with one Atlantis Complex. Granted, its effect on a human would be different, but I'd brushed off the matter.

Keep my guard up

Constantly

Stop this pain from

Piercing me

Now I don't know how

How to put it down

I wish I was that

Brave

"You don't have to address me by my title, Arty. Mis," she added hastily. "I was just checking up on you. My mission's in Latin America, so no hope of seeing you today. How're things?"

"Fine, you?" I replied stiffly. My newfound inner "friend" was demanding to say something too affectionate for my taste.

You go to fight for love

Like a soldier

I wanna run away

You're never scared

To walk through the fire

I wish I had your faith

I turn away

Knowing my heart could break

I'm so afraid to fall and surrender

I'm not

Brave

I'm not

Brave

"Just bored to death, is all. Any new inventions?" Holly asked absentmindedly, in a tone that showed she'd had this sort of conversation with Foaly many times. I had a feeling she was just trying to keep me talking, and thereby avoiding something else.

"No, I've been lazy recently. Why are you so hesitant?"

"You're one to talk." That sentence unsettled me for some reason. "I just feel awkward speaking to Public Enemy #1."

That's right, the hatchet wasn't exactly buried between the People and I. Should I make peace, do it? At least just for now, I amended in a nauseatingly cowardly fashion. I also took note that the thought was awkwardly worded, but satisfied me because fives were safe. Fives were safe.

I'm not

I'm not

Brave

Still you believe

You believe in me

I wish I was that

Brave

You go to fight for love

Like a soldier

I wanna run away

You're never scared

To walk through the fire

I wish I had your faith

I needed more time to think about this. Me and my ambivalent mind.

"I have to go," I muttered, then closed off the link.

I turn away

Knowing my heart could break

I'm so afraid to fall and surrender

I'm not

Brave

I'm not

Brave

I'm not

Brave

I had many good influences.

The choice was obvious. It should have been obvious.

I still had a reputation to think of.

I jolted my computer awake, and conducted a research on the polar ice caps. Two equations later, I was done.

It was so simple.

Just this once – no profit.

I cupped my chin in my hands.

I'd consider it during the rest of my day.

I'm not

Brave