15 mins

He switched out the light and sat back on the bed, letting the darkness wash over him like a blanket, covering him completely.

Darkness was perfect, nothing to distract to him, nothing to remind him.

No one to see him.

Cody could handle the distractions, the reminders, the people, during the day, during a battle, when he had to handle it.

But nighttime was the one time he allowed himself to relax and forget.

Everyone had their own way. His was darkness. Rex was different. He couldn't handle the dark and when they shared a room Cody left the lights dim and simply shoved his head under the pillow.

Rex's method was watching videos or reading, taking him away from reality. Cody had tried it, but as soon as he stopped watching or took a break from reading, reality stormed back in.

Sketch drew, Jester cleaned, everyone had their own security blanket of sorts.

Cody's was darkness, pitch black darkness. Where he could imagine anything he wanted, make the world around him anything he wanted.

Imagination was a beautiful thing. He was glad he hadn't lost his yet.

The cloners seemed to have thought he had, the generals probably even thought that.

Brothers knew better.

Imagination was one of the few things that kept a clone sane and individual.

And Cody's worked best in the dark.

He smiled as he sat, stripping off his armour. Sometimes a helmet wasn't enough of a shield against the outside world knowing you're feelings. Sometimes you needed to make sure no one could see you at all as you let loose.

He loved it, absolutely loved it. The adrenaline rush in battle couldn't compare, nothing really could.

There was something so exhilarating about knowing no one could see you, no one could read you, and you're thoughts could be completely and utterly you're own.

He spent a few quiet moments putting his armour away before slipping into the bed, still reviling in the feeling.

Tomorrow would be another day of battle, of losing battles, of losing brothers and of winning battles at a cost.

The precious hours between now and then Cody intended to use to his advantage.

He needed as much as he could get.

So I have recently found three amazing apps, one is called werdsmith, which lets you write stories, track your progress in each chapter or story by word count, and place it in an idea category, in progress category or complete category. Another one I found to be wonderful is a novel idea, it allows me to set up novel names, ideas, characters, settings, etc and connect it to a novel. The third is one of my favourites right now, writing tips which gives tips and exercises to making a good story.

This one-shot was inspired by one of the exercises in which I had to write for 15 minutes and start the story with 'he switched out the light...'

I recommend these apps to any writers here, they are amazing.

Also, whenever I'm not updating my other stories would you guys like to see more of these exercises? Hopefully now that I can type chapters on my iPod I should be updating soon so I just thought I'd suggest it.

Thank you all so much for your support!

~CCL