3 YEARS LATER…
"Damn," I said quietly to myself. "I'm so tired."
"Rocky!" Slade yelled. "Stop playing around and fight me!"
I ran from my hiding spot and leapt at Slade's back. I was too loud and he kicked me in the stomach, making me fly back and hit the wall.
Slade advanced.
"Okay," I said. "I totally need a break dad. We've been training since 6 o'clock this morning and I haven't had a break. Can we stop for the night?"
"Why should I do that?" Slade asked.
"Because you love me," I said giving him the puppy-dog pout.
Slade sighed.
"Now how can anyone ignore the puppy-dog pout," Slade said. "Fine. Dinner time."
We left the training room and went to the kitchen.
"Do you remember what tomorrow is?" I asked.
"No, what?" Slade asked.
"The day mom died," I said. "The day you took me in."
"Right," Slade said. "Eat up and go to bed."
I ate my food and walked towards my room.
"Good night dad," I said.
I got into bed and looked out my window. I stared at the moon for several minutes thinking. Maybe I wouldn't cry tomorrow, even though I cried the last few years.
Slade, my adoptive father, was the type of man who would scold his children for showing signs of weakness, but my dad loves me. He knows what its like to lose someone they love.
I curled up in a protective ball on my soft bed. I fell asleep in ten minutes, somewhat dreading tomorrow.
"Is that all you got!" I yelled. "Your about to get your metal butt kicked!"
The Slade-bot ran at me and I avoided it easily. I jumped at the robot's head and broke it clean off.
Four down, one to go.
Someone grabbed my tail and threw me across the room, into the wall.
"Dammit," I said angrily as I stood up. "What did I do wrong this time?"
"Your time is up."
"What are you talking about dad?"
"Your newest time record had to be less than five minutes," Slade said. "It's been five minutes and thirty seconds, and you still have one robot left."
"You said nothing about a time limit," I said.
"You should know by now that I'm always timing you," Slade said. "You know the consequences for disobeying me."
"Yeah, time to get my butt kicked," I said. "But I won't hold back this time."
"Neither will I," Slade said.
Before I could move, dad made a swift kick to my head. I went sprawling across the ground, but recovered quickly and ran to the door. Unfortunately, dad was way faster and he tackled me to the ground. He pulled me up around the middle and threw me over his head. I rolled across the ground and jumped to my paws. Dad jumped at me, but I evaded him as he landed right where I had been seconds ago. I jumped at his vulnerable back and held on.
"Works on you every time," I said cockily.
"So does this."
Slade grabbed my back and threw me over his head... right into the thirty degree pool.
Splash!
The water was freezing, but Slade jumped in after me. I broke the surface taking in a lot of air. Then dad grabbed my back paw and pulled me back under. I broke free from his grip and turned, facing him. He punched me in the nose, giving me a nosebleed. Blood poured from my nose into the water and to make it worse, I let water into my mouth. I started chocking. I was crying because of the pain, but my dad didn't notice since we were under water. He swam up and grabbed me around the middle, swimming up to the surface. He pushed me out of the water onto the edge of the pool. He pulled himself out of the water and examined my nose. The blood stopped flowing, but my nose still hurt.
"Hold still," Slade warned. "This might... hurt." He used two of his fingers to move my nose, popping it. I yelped. "Sorry."
Slade wiped the tears from my eyes. He lay on his side to pet my head and scratch behind my ears.
"That really hurt," I said. "I can't breath through my nose."
"That can last for a couple of hours," Slade said. "Come on, I'm not going to carry you upstairs to your room. You've earned a break. You did well today."
Dad stood up and helped me to my paws. We headed for the training room door.
I climbed the stairs into the hall with Slade coming behind me. I went into my room and went to my bed, getting up onto it. I felt better as I lay down on my bed, but something didn't feel right.
"I'll be back in a couple of hours," Slade said. "I have a job to do. Try getting some rest."
He left closing the door. I looked out my window at the sky. My nose started to burn, but not from any form of pain...
...From the tears that started leaking from my eyes.
I tried sniffing in, but it hurt to do so. I tried to sleep, but couldn't. I continued to cry for a couple of hours.
The door opened.
"Rocky? Why are you crying?"
"I'm not crying."
I felt my bed shift as Slade sat down.
"You always were a bad liar," Slade said, petting my side. "Now I'll ask you again; why are you crying?"
"Because bad stuff always happens on this day," I said. "I couldn't defeat those robots under your time limit, you almost broke my nose, and it's hard for me to train on a day with so much damn pain involved. Something bad happened to you today, too, didn't it?"
Slade sighed.
"You're right. My plan backfired today and seeing you cry makes it ten times worse. I think you should try to forget about this day in the future and forget what you saw three years ago. I'm not telling you to forget about your mother, but forget about what happened to her." Then he said more sternly, "I forbid you to talk about that wizard. Do I make myself clear?"
I turned to face my dad and looked into his one eye.
I sighed.
"I'll try dad," I said. "I'll try."
"That's my boy," Slade said, scratching behind my ears. He got up and headed for the door. "Starting tomorrow, we'll have... someone else… living with us. I'll be training him the same way I did you. Don't be in bed too much longer."
He walked out the door.
I looked outside where the moon was shining.
I'll never completely forget you Mom. And I don't want you to forget about me. I'll never cry for you again.
Disclaimer: ((See Chapter 1))