Next chapter! I believe you know who the next shadow rider is going to be now XD Though, there will be more buildup to this one and you can guess why. This is when things start getting interesting. Review please!
Jaylin sat in her desk studying. She had been slowly beginning to study after school often lately. It was mainly due to falling slightly behind and the fact she had been growing more tired during class time. For some reason, Professor Banner was been growing less strict on Jaylin than usual, not that she cared. He seemed to focus on giving Jaylin more time to study when she wasn't training or practicing with her Dance Team.
This was a better way for Jaylin to study, being that she wasn't as distracted by her fellow peers and didn't feel as tired when the teachings were personal. This was the kind of learning Jaylin was used to, being that she often was taught or tutored by a single person, whether it was her father, Tea or Grandparent. It was not as boring and Jaylin never fell asleep once during her study times.
"Professor Banner!" Jaylin called out, being that she was alone in the classroom and didn't have to raise her hand or anything.
"Yes?" Professor Banner asked, taking his eyes off the papers he was grading.
"I understand how the atom works, but why is it that this text book uses this model when you said that this isn't what the atom looks like?" Jaylin asked, showing the model of an atom, which showed the basic Neutrons and Protons in circles bunched in the middle with the Electron circles circling them in hoops.
Professor Banner chuckled, replying, "we could ask the same question of our world map. The world isn't flat, is it? Isn't a very accurate depiction of our round world, yet we use it to measure distance and know the geography of our world."
"It's still hard to memorize the numbers of electrons in each orbit. I can only go as far as 2, 8, 8, 18, 18, 18-"
"It's 32 on the sixth orbit."
"See what I mean?"
"Try using the Periodic Table."
"How does that help?"
"You notice how the number of elements on each row are the same number of electrons on each orbit?"
"Shit!" Jaylin gasped, looking at the very back of her book where her Periodic Table was. "Why didn't I notice that earlier!?"
"Because you're too absorbed in your sleep," Professor Banner chuckled, continuing on grading papers.
"Thanks! You're the best!"
While Jaylin wasn't very good at paying attention or keeping herself from nodding off in class, she was excellent when it came to personal study. It was probably why she was able to still obtain high grades. Though, she slept, she took her time to study and worked as hard on studying as she did on training. Though, Professor Banner wondered how Jaylin would do with a teacher that required participation as part of her grade.
Professor Banner remembered when he used participation grading. This year, he decided to slow down a bit, take it easy on the strictness. He had a lot to do and it wasn't just teaching or helping Jaylin and her friends train. Of course, he kept that job a secret from anyone on the island. It was part of his duty.
Thinking about that side job made Professor Banner's stomach turn slightly. It wasn't enough for him to make him sick or keep him from acting normal, but it didn't go unnoticed for him. There had been things on Professor Banner's mind lately. The professor wasn't sure how this started coming about. He was still thinking hard on it.
"DONE!" Jaylin cried out, now quickly packing her bags to start planning on some sort of relaxation time.
"Good to hear!" Professor Banner replied, smiling.
"Yep! I think I'll go fishing or see if anyone is up for a duel."
"Actually..." Professor Banner said as Jaylin turned her head, eyes curious and blinking. The professor smiled, getting up from his desk and stacking the papers he was grading together. "I was about to go for coffee in the Teacher's Lounge. Didn't you say you wanted to try out the coffee machine?"
"Seriously!?"
"Seriously."
Jaylin grinned and was guided to the Teacher's Lounge by Professor Banner. She went first, placing in her yen in the coffee vending machine. Then, she pressed the button to decide what kind of coffee she wanted. A small cup appeared on the bottom opening, her coffee instantly pouring inside before she took it. She went to the area where the sugar and cream were, and placed the amount she wanted.
"Thanks!" Jaylin thanked.
"Call this a reward for your hard studying. You won't get this everyday," Professor Banner replied, placing his yen in the machine and buttons to what coffee he wanted.
"That's one of the things I like about you. You're strict when you want to and easygoing when you want to without going overboard. Then, you become seriously unpredictable."
"Actually, I was more strict when I first came to this school."
"Really? When did you become more easygoing?" Jaylin asked curiously.
"Hm..." Professor Banner said, trying to think of how to answer that question. "I suppose when it became more stressful?"
"Oh..." Jaylin replied in a sympathetic tone. She never really knew how stressful being a teacher could be, but she never doubted that it was as stressful as any other job.
"But, I love my job. I wouldn't trade it for the world," Professor Banner assured with his usual smile, but there was some lying behind that answer. Jaylin suspected it, but never questioned it. What did she know about the life of an adult, especially one that lost his job at Industrial Illusions due to unfortunate circumstances? Nothing. "So, have you found this traitor spy yet?"
"Not yet. There's also the fact we've faced seven of Nightshroud's puppets and I'm still clueless about why he's just letting us take the Shadow Charms."
"Have you tried making a connection to the Shadow Charms and your Ka?"
"Not really? Why?"
"There could be a connection. Didn't the millennium items have some sort of evil in them that drove possessors into madness unless controlled by the real possessor?"
"Yeah... I suppose, but Jezerel should've had some training, right?"
"Hm..." Professor Banner hummed doubtfully. "She was the Queen of Persia, not Egypt. She was not trained from the mind to possess such items. She was also not raised in the same culture as Egypt."
"What do you mean?" Jaylin asked, confused.
"In Egypt, women being respected and gaining some form of leadership was part of their culture. In most cultures of the time, women were considered lowly. They could not own property and were considered property in some. It was common for women to go into harlotry, because they could not survive on their own or lived on the streets. Jezerel lived in that kind of culture."
"So, basically, Jezerel was raised to be one of those quiet and obedient little wives that had to kiss her husband's feet or take to the streets?"
"That is basically it."
"Good thing I didn't live at the time."
"You'd turn out like Jezerel, I'd imagine. According to the records, there wasn't much to say about her, until after she gained her powers. Then, they were uncontrollable and she caused destruction. It wasn't until she became queen that she was highly respected and feared."
"Syrus said when he had a Diaha with Nightshroud, controlling Titan, he saw a vision of Jezerel, but she looked so scared of everything. She wasn't anything like the Jezerel he saw talking to Tania. I wonder what changed?"
Jaylin wondered this as she stared out the window of the Teacher's Lounge, which was empty besides her and her teacher. Professor Banner stared hard at Jaylin. She was staring out the window, almost glaring at it, with such black darkness in her eyes. Suddenly, she popped a bright grin back on her face.
"Who knows? I suppose people change as they grow, huh? You feel like going outside?"
"Yes, very much," Professor Banner replied as him and Jaylin left the room.
The teacher and student took a walk in the courtyard, then sat across from each other on a small table under the sun. It was already Spring and the weather felt nice. Jaylin could already feel the cooling breeze that wasn't too cold, but not too warm. It was just the right temperature it needed to be. This alone made her smile as she sipped her coffee.
"Dark thoughts ease your mind yet?" Professor Banner asked casually.
"A bit. With me, it's hard to tell," Jaylin grinned.
"We are dark users, so those thoughts are a given. Though, they can be overwhelming at times. Sitting here does help calm the darkness."
"My dad told me that most people find it hard to find any gentleness beyond the darkness, but it's always there."
"It is. It is the darkness that helps us go to sleep at night, helps calm us down, and the light warms us like the sun today."
"Have you met any light users before?" Jaylin asked curiously.
"A few. Just like dark users, light users have a destructive side to them. More than that, they can be dangerous for dark users like us. They can rather calm your darkness or burn you alive. The same can be said vice versa. Your darkness can comfort them or poison them. Jezerel has history of defending her country against the army of destructive light when her kingdom almost fell. It is the very reason she has such a high reputation."
"Whoa! I bet that was an awesome sight!"
"Perhaps, depending on whose point of view you're talking about."
"I never could get it. Our dark emotions include anger, lust and sadness. Light emotions include love and happiness."
"Destruction as well. Both can have a good and bad side to each of those emotions. For instance, being angry at someone for doing wrong against your father or a child is a normal reaction. Where the good and bad come is how you react to that anger. The same can be said for lust and sadness as well. You can direct your lust toward your spouse instead of power or chaos. You can also direct your sadness toward a loss of a loved one or loved ones. You can say the same for love, happiness and destruction.
"You can use love to show kindness toward others instead of greed. You can use happiness to make someone else happy instead of yourself, which leads to selfishness. You can use destruction to bring justice instead of injustice. Just like us, the light users can direct their light emotions toward things that are good or evil."
"I never really thought about that, honestly. I always thought light users had the good emotions."
"There are two sides to the coin, depending on what the light user chooses. The greater the light, the greater the emotions will show both for good and evil. It is no different than for dark users."
"You think I'm gentle?" Jaylin asked, smiling brightly.
"Very. It is why your friends stick with you, Jaylin. You are good company, wonderful to be around and a comforting friend. Though, you carry great anger, sorrow and lust toward wrong things as well. I sense it inside you every single day."
Jaylin felt a slight discomfort, knowing Professor Banner was right. While she did direct her anger and sadness toward those she should, much of her anger, sorrow and especially lust were directed toward things that are bad. She couldn't lie to herself that she felt such satisfaction when she watched Titan being burned alive. She had tried excusing it with the fact she was killing someone evil, but Titan was an innocent civilian, who was being controlled by someone else and watching him suffer was more than a normal person could bare. She still remembered hearing his ear-piercing scream in the middle of the night when Syrus defeated Nightshroud. She went outside and felt no guilt to what she did to him.
"How do you know?" Jaylin asked quietly.
"They are emotions I see in myself as well. I am quite familiar with your gestures and smiles you use to cover them," Professor Banner admitted, his smile beginning to sadden slightly. Jaylin was finally seeing that the usual smile her teacher always used was no different than how she always smiled and grinned to make her friends' days better, while she lived in great darkness.
"It's hard to not linger in dark emotions. They're part of who I am. Even if my parents weren't the worst in existence, I would find something to feel these toward."
"I'm sure Ronda has found hers as well," Professor Banner said as Jaylin remembered Ronda mentioning that she moved to Duel Academy, because being with her family was too overwhelming for her. Maybe the sorrow and anger had grown inside her, when living there, and had not realized it was from her darkness. She had also felt greatly sorrowful when her grandmother died. "She is the one person that will understand your emotions. You don't need to place a mask around her, especially me. We both feel it as much as you do."
"I suppose, though I feel mine might be greater, because my powers are so strong."
"It is arrogance, if you think that way. If you cannot trust your friends, then why have them at all? They're with you for a reason and the less you trust them the farther they'll be from you. In the end, when the time comes, your family and friends might be the only ones you'll have. Your trust will decide if your friends will be in that group of those that are the only ones you have."
"I suppose..." Jaylin muttered.
"Think on it. I will be here, if you need someone to talk to you."
"Thanks. It means a lot," Jaylin said, her smile being barely there this time.
Jaylin finished her coffee, then threw the cup out, being it was disposable. She walked to her friends, feeling as if much of the darkness had been vented. It was a relaxing feeling, just like watching the beauty of the night sky. Was this what Professor Banner meant by the darkness also being comforting? Jaylin began pondering for a long while.
That night, Professor Banner began walking up to the Abandoned Dorm. He used the dark matter around him to instantly unlock the lock of the gate to enter through before walking up the steps, and through the door. He walked down the hallway, into the middle where a fountain stood. Now, it was filled with dust, cracks and cobwebs. There was a pool of dirty water at the base of the fountain, surrounding a sculpture of a Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
Professor Banner walked up to the fountain, then the dirty water of the fountain began glowing a dark purple light. Just then, a reflection appeared n the water iof Professor Banner, only his hair was grayed out and his skin began turning dry and scaly, as if about to fall from his skin. His eyes glowed a bright crimson red as a smile appeared upon his lips, only it was very lustful and matched the one Jaylin used when she burned Titan alive.
