Chapter 23

Ms Y leaps out of her chair then approaches Leon who is standing still in the middle of the room.

"I asked you, are you gonna just stand there and stare or are you gonna fight me?" She paces around, circling the boy with her blade pointed down towards him.

"Too bad mommy and daddy are not here to save you this time…" she strikes first, dashing her blade forward towards his stomach. Leon judges her timing well where he ducks then rolls out of the way, causing Ms Y to hit her sword hard on one of the metallic statues behind him. This only infuriates her more.

She then dashes forward at full speed towards him on the diagonal, not holding a single joule of energy back with her sword aimed straight towards the boy's chest.

"Kikousho!" He retaliates by projecting an electrical orb towards her body which catches her off guard, causing her to stumble back. Leon then jumps and kicks as high as he can, catching her in the ribs with his right foot. But she doesn't give up.

Just as the boy lands on his feet, Ms Y jumps to the side then stabs her sword forward, cutting him across the stomach. He stumbles back in shock, then he does everything possible to block further fast attacks from her. Leon holds up his fists to protect his face, feeling the punishing stings from her sword that repeatedly cut his arms.

"Your times up kid…" Ms Y smirks as she backs him up into a corner. She grabs him around the neck, either about to stab him from behind or slash his throat. In that moment of uncertainty, without a second thought, Leon relies on his own instincts and training. Like his father showed him, he presses his thumb hard into one of the groves of Ms Y's knuckles, attacking a central nerve. It immediately shocks her into loosening her grip around his neck. He then delivers a punishing dragon wing, filled with fire and electric sparks that forces her sword to fly out of her hand.

For a moment, Leon decides to run now that he has the opportunity to free himself. However, he suddenly has a change of heart. He decides to turn around, delivering a series of upper cuts to her ribs followed by a powerful roundhouse kick to the face then an elbow strike that results in Ms Y falling to the ground out of breath. She holds onto her ribs, struggling to breathe whilst feeling surprised that her 10 year old opponent, 2 feet shorter, currently has the upper hand.

She crawls backwards on her side in agony, raising one palm out in front of her to signal that she is done fighting. "Don't take it personally kid, you've proven yourself to be a good fighter. But you should understand that I grew up as an orphan because of your parents. Don't become like them, please show me mercy! They killed my father in cold blood. He was not perfect, but he didn't deserve to die that way. Now you're repeating history…." She begs for her life on the ground, noticing one fireball and one electrical orb rotating underneath each of his palms. "Don't become like them, Leon…"

She then points one finger up to the ceiling at the painting of Mr X. "Use your powers, you'll see what they did to him. They could have arrested him, he was defenceless…!"

Leon stares up at the ceiling as the orbs under his palms start to circle faster. He barely blinks and his eyes turn paler whilst Ms Y stares back at him in awe. "Can you see what they did?" She asks, slowly crawling back towards her sword whilst he is distracted.

Clear visions of the night Mr X died start to appear in his head the longer Leon stares up at the painting. He witnesses Mr X's hands tied to a pipe above his head, badly beaten and already bleeding.

"They could have arrested my father and given him a fair trial!... You can see it, can't you?" Ms Y shouts.

Just like a dream, Leon remains in a state of daze as visions of Mr X dying flash in front of him. Fire and electricity strike his body over and over again. His parents don't stop until the man they are punishing takes his final breath.

Once Leon has seen enough, he returns to a normal state then he cuts out his chi. By now, Ms Y has continued to crawl back away from him until she is within close proximity of her fallen sword.

"Unlike your parents, thank you for showing me mercy…"

Just as she reaches for the handle, a fast bolt of electricity burns her hand and prevents her from picking up the sword. She shrieks on the ground in pain as Leon grabs the handle.

"Get up, and show me the way out of this place!" He orders.

Ms Y complies without question, standing up to her feet before walking towards the far corner of the room.

"Try anything this time and I will use more power on you" the boy threatens, pointing the sword at her back. She carefully selects then pushes four bricks back that are embedded into the wall. This causes a secret door to open, leading to a dark path and an archway at the top of an old staircase.

"Down those stairs is the way out of this shit hole!" Ms Y remarks, peering down into the darkness.

"What are you waiting for then…?" Leon replies. He takes her backpack at the side of the entrance then throws it at her. She stands under the arch, taking one glance back at him before pulling a lever on the side of the wall that forces the secret door shut in order to make her escape.

Leon stands still for a moment in the middle of the room bruised and bleeding from his arms and stomach. But that isn't what disturbs him the most.

Steffan's words about his father start to play on his mind again and again. Mercy is a powerful thing, even against a sworn enemy. Leon had the chance to kill Ms Y but he just couldn't bring himself to do it when she was defenceless. He grips onto the handle of her sword with his hands trembling. He didn't listen. He had the chance to run, but he decided to turn around and fight. Then he witnessed the reality of events that once took place. A bitter truth that is hard to swallow. His father, who was once his hero, the person Leon wanted to grow up and be like, is quickly becoming somebody he doesn't even recognise anymore.

"What are you doing here? Where is Leon?" Blaze wakes up panicking when she finds herself in another room lying in another bed with her arm connected to a drip.

"Stay back!" She threatens, holding out her palm as Steffan approaches her.

"You've been passed out for the last two hours. If I wanted to hurt you I would have already tried" he replies, carefully removing the needle from her arm.

"Where's my son?"

"He's downstairs getting to know the place… it is his home now after all."

"I want him back here now!" Blaze demands, attempting to get out of the bed.

"You should really quit worrying, it's no good for the baby. Dinner is in half an hour, you need to eat something".

"I'm not hungry!" She snaps back, "oww…" Blaze quietly complains, clutching in pain onto the side of her stomach.

"Turmeric with warm milk is the best thing for that. It will stop the burning that the baby is causing," Steffan casually replies. "Grace, would you please bring in that drink I told you about?" He taps onto his ear piece.

"You wouldn't understand the first thing about how I'm feeling so save your pregnancy advice for someone who cares" Blaze pessimistically replies.

"Do you have to be so stubborn? I'm just trying to help!"

"Well you're not helping by locking us up here as prisoners and taking our powers!"

"Well, I have some news you might be interested in. My team has now located most of the plane wreckage from this morning. They're assisting any survivors whilst trying to identify the bodies that were on board as well as the black box. It's gonna take a few more hours but we will know more for sure after dinner".

"Was Axel and the others….?" Blaze anxiously asks.

"No. There's no sign of your friends yet or him amongst the wreckage. We believe that Mr Y is responsible for crashing his own plane though. As soon as I hear anything and once we finalise who exactly was on board, I will let you know".

"Ok," she nervously nods with hope in her eyes.

"Sir, here is the warm milk and turmeric you requested," a female member of staff from the kitchen walks in.

"Thank you Grace".

She places down a small silver tray on the bedside table next to Blaze with a large white mug and saucer.

"Drink up, then we can find Leon before they serve dinner…"

Blaze starts to slowly take a sip as Grace exits towards the door.

Steffan taps onto his ear piece once more, this time communicating with someone else. "Ralphy, ask the others to bring Leon up here. The boy must be hungry by now and his mother is worried… better?" He asks, turning back to Blaze.

"Yeah," she quietly nods, taking another gulp of the drink.

"Amber used to have the same problem when she was pregnant with Axel. Every night she would complain about the burning on the same side of her stomach."

"I thought you had nothing to do with them?" Blaze queries.

"I wanted to be there and I was ready to bring up my son, even if his mother didn't want me in her life anymore. But things were complicated. I was leading the highest criminal organisation in the city and I had many enemies. She begged me to leave that life behind and start over, even if that meant divorcing her husband. But I couldn't give it up. It was only years later when I spent time with him as an adult that I realized I had made a huge mistake. Until I told Axel the truth, those years we were in Asia together were the best years of my life."

"Why didn't you reach out to him sooner?"

"His parents, especially his mother, wouldn't allow it. She was afraid of his power and the last thing she ever wanted was for him to turn out like me. I can't count the number of times I waited outside his school or watched his fighting tournaments. I saw my son growing up over the years from a distance but he never knew I existed. Leon looks just like him!" He smiles. "Now I have a second chance of making things right and doing good in this world before I die…"

"What does that mean?" Blaze cautiously asks.

"You wait until you see what the new plans are for Wood Oak City, it's gonna be a much better place than it ever was. Axel might have burnt his bridges with me, but I got big plans for Leon and your little girl on the way" he enthusiastically answers.

"I won't let you take them away from me!" Blaze argues.

"You can stay here with them as long as you want. Besides, any child needs their mother and now we're family. You're practically the closest person I'd ever have as a daughter!" He laughs.

"You're deluded…"

"You know, it broke me up inside that night my own son tried to kill me" Steffan admits. "I laid all of my cards on the table, I mentored him for over 3 years until I was ready to tell him the truth but he was ready to end my life without a second thought."

"What did you expect? You murdered his mother!"

Her words make him pause and contemplate for a moment.

"She betrayed me as did Sarah. I had no choice! Sooner or later you will discover that loyalty is the most important thing in this life. Without it, the closest person you treasure most in the world could stab you in the back at any moment."

"I'm guessing you killed her too then back at the hospital…"

"I had no choice!" He reiterates.

"People make mistakes and bad decisions that they think are right. It doesn't mean they deserve to die" Blaze argues.

"And what do you think Axel will do once he knows you willingly gave your own and Leon's power to us without a fight? Don't be naive not to think for a second that he isn't capable of killing you either…"

"Axel is nothing like you!" Blaze squares up to him.

"Are you sure about that?"

Suddenly two of the guards escort Leon into the room, interrupting their tense conversation.

"What happened to you? Are you ok?" Blaze frantically rushes over to him concerned as soon as she sees the blood stains on his clothes and cuts across his face.

"I'm ok mom," he nods.

"Oh my God…!" She panics when she spots the sword that the guard is holding.

"It's ok. Ms Y is gone now, I won the fight against her…"

"You fought Ms Y?!" Blaze looks down at him in disbelief.

"She was still here?!" Steffan urgently paces around the room, sending his guards on full alert.

"What happened? You must have been so scared. I'm sorry you had to go through that I should have been there…" Blaze says, wrapping her arms around Leon.

"I told you I'm ok mom, I promise…. I know an escape route now" he whispers in her ear, resting his head on her shoulder.

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up" she sits him down on the bed.

"Check every corner of this place and leave no stone unturned!" Steffan orders his remaining guards.

"Thank God you're ok…" Blaze says to Leon, tightly hugging him again.

"Come downstairs with me, I'll make sure the place is fully checked over and secured again from any imposters." Steffan says to them.

"We're leaving now!" Blaze replies.

"It's ok mom, Ms Y won't be coming back. I made sure of it…." Leon answers, taking hold of the sword.

"Give me that!" She snatches it away from him. "I specifically told you to run!" Blaze angrily tells him off.

"I'm sorry…" Leon looks up at her with guilt. She immediately tosses the sword on the ground behind them.

"It's ok, I'm sorry you had to fight her…"

"In my opinion, I think it was good for you, Leon."

"Nobody asked for your opinion!" Blaze hatefully responds.

"You should be proud of your boy here. That bitch we've been searching for got past most of our guards but he found her. Fighting an adult and defending your territory isn't easy at your age, Leon. You could have run away or even escaped. But you stayed, faced your fears and never abandoned your mom and unborn sister. Well done" Steffan smirks at the boy.

"I'll see the two of you downstairs in 15 minutes for dinner". He walks out of the door with arrogance in his step as Blaze stares back at him feeling angry.