We found out that I was different the night before I developed my first legacy, nearly six months after Five became a human torch to defend me. Soundly sleeping in my bed, I was awoken by Five's painful scream, his loud voice bouncing off the wall, piercing my eardrums. Tossing my blankets aside, I leaped out of bed, crossing the small room to where he was.
"Five," I placed my hand on his shoulder, trying to steady his shaking. "What's wrong?" Dripping in sweat, I could see tears streaming down his face as he tried to muffle his wails. A bright light was illuminated under his blanket, but I couldn't see what it was. Is he developing a new legacy? Is this how it happens?
"You don't feel it?" He blinked back the tears as the light slowly faded away. I felt a cold shiver down my spine. "I don't understand. I thought you," he trailed off, breathing heavily.
"Feel what?" I asked him. He stared at me, bewildered as he wiped away his tears. Tossing back the blanket, he swung his legs over the side of his bed, revealing a charred pant leg on his ankle. Slowly, he lifted up the charred mess where there were odd symbols carved into his skin. There was one scar that seemed to have healed over time, and just above it, there was a freshly carved scar that seemed to have been the cause of his wails.
"I don't understand," Five repeated. "I thought you were Number Two."
"What do these scars mean?" I frowned.
"I got this scar when they killed Number One," Five told me, pointing to the scar closest to his heel. "I don't know much about her, but she was doomed from the start. The charm didn't protect her at all; just linked her to the rest of us. And this one," His voice trailed off as he stared at the one that had just arrived.
"Number Two." I finished. It was strange how something like that could just appear out of nowhere. "But I thought you said that I was Number Two."
"I thought you were." He said quietly. "But Two is dead now. This doesn't make sense. You feel pain when I hurt you. If you were one of the other numbers, then the charm should protect you." He frowned, still staring at his ankle. "The charm," he muttered softly. "You aren't part of it; otherwise you would have gotten a scar just like I did. Which means that you can't be one of the Garde,"
"What?" My head was spinning. Though I hadn't been here for very long, I had grown to accept my new fate as one of his kind, a loric garde.
"Your pendant lights up when you wear it, and you do have the speed and strength of a garde, so I know that you are loric." He told me. "But if you aren't linked to us, and the Mogs didn't know about you, then where the hell did you come from?" He stared at me, eyeing me down closely.
"I don't know," I stammered, shaking my head. "But I'm here now. Should we tell them that I'm not who they think I am?"
"No," He shakes his head. "Absolutely not. They will kill you if they don't think you have purpose, so we just won't tell them. Not even Ethan. Let's just go back to sleep and hope they weren't listening, okay? " He collapses into his bed and turns away from me, burying himself in his covers. I have no choice but to go back to my own bed.
I'm awoken when Five is shuffling around throughout the room, making a lot of noise that makes it nearly impossible to sleep. I open my eyes and sit up, watching him fidget.
"What's wrong?" I ask him.
"Ethan told me that they captured another Garde." He shudders.
"Do they know which Number?" He nods when I ask this, clenching his fists.
"Number Nine." Five tell me, showing me a folder. "You know what they told me? This kid is an arrogant prick. Out of all of us, he gets the last number, which means that in order for him to die, we all must die. What an asshole." He paces back and forth as he speaks.
"What makes this kid an asshole?" I frowned, rubbing my eyes with my knuckles while still half asleep.
"Him and his cepan believed that since he has the highest number, he's the strongest. They believe that the lower numbers are weak, I mean can you believe that?" He hissed angrily. "I'm not weak."
"Have you seen him?" Looking up when I say this, he nods his head.
"I didn't actually talk to him, he was behind a glass wall that he couldn't see through. I'm told that he just stabbed his cepan in the throat," Five shuddered.
"He killed his cepan?" My eyes widened in shock. "Why would he do that?"
"I have no clue." Five shook his head. " I mean, sure, I didn't exactly get along with Rey all the time but I couldn't possibly imagine taking his life, not even when he was on his deathbed. Nine's one of the resistant ones that I told you about," his voice trailed off. I knew what he meant by that. He's going to have to die.
"What a shame." I shrugged. "It would have been cool to have another person like us." He shot me a look that I tried to ignore. I wanted to keep up the ruse that I was like him, that I was special. If the others found out, I would be destroyed both physically and emotionally.
"Commander Deltoch was there when I saw Number Nine." He told me, crossing the room to his bed where he finally took a seat. "He told me that when the time comes, once they figure out a way to break the charm, to prove my loyalty, I'm gonna have to kill Nine."
"If he's an ignorant prick, then why feel remorse?" I shrugged, thinking about Evan, and Derek, and Holly, and Sabrina, and basically all of the other garde that were being trained here. Their torments had gotten worse the longer I didn't have a legacy, and it really pissed me off. I wanted them to feel all the pain that they made me feel, and more.
Sometimes I had thoughts of seeing them writhing in pain, helpless against my power, begging for my mercy. It felt nice to dream about it, which was happening more often lately. It gave me motivation. I wasn't the same helpless kid I was when I had first gotten here; Five had seen to that.
While I didn't have any legacies, my speed and my muscle strength had improved greatly, as I had tested on combating vatborn Mogs that I could now turn to dust with my fists. However that wasn't enough against the garde, who had developed legacies like fireballs, teleportation, ice crystals, and various other things that they threw at me on a daily basis.
"Trust me," Five scoffed, snapping my mind back to him and away from my tormentors. "I won't feel remorse. He's going to regret disrespecting the Garde with lower numbers." He took a photo out of the folder that was sitting on his bed, sticking the photo to the wall. "If I look at his photo everyday until I kill him, I won't feel bad when I look into his eyes. I'll be prepared." He explained when he caught my gaze. Ethan burst into the room right after the words escaped his mouth.
"Five, you are wanted by Commander Deltoch." He told him. "Andy, you can go and join the others with training." I shot Five a look of dread before heading for the door before him. I hated these days; when Five was taken to do something else so I was stuck with others, basically without protection. I hated being so vulnerable. I didn't speak as we went our separate ways.
When I arrived at the training room, all my energy drained from me; I didn't want to open the door. When I could stall no longer, I pushed it open. A fireball came flying towards me, nearly hitting me in the head.
"Oops." Derek chuckled from where he was standing. Evan and Holly snickered while Sabrina just grinned wildly from ear to ear. Scowling, I wandered into the room, my gaze shifting around to all the garde who were now staring at me.
"You going to shoot a fireball Andy?" Evan laughed.
"Maybe move some things around with your mind?" Sabrina interjected. They all started shouting out random legacies, all of which they knew that I couldn't do.
"Why are you even still here?" Harley retorted. "I'm surprised your ass hasn't been terminated. The Mogs haven't seen how utterly useless you are yet?" The others interjected with some insults of their own, each one like a dagger piercing through my skin.
Rage started to build up inside me, like a balloon with too much air, I felt like I was going to explode. I hate them. I scowled to myself angrily as I glared at them, trying to drown out their torments with my own thoughts. I want them all to suffer. I want them all to feel pain.
"Ah!" Derek shrieked, gripping his head. It was as if something were clawing his brains out. He thrashed around, causing the others to avert their attention to him.
"What's happening to him?" Sabrina gasped, trying to calm him down but failing. Derek was wailing, gripping his hair so tightly that it looked like he might rip it all out. My eyes rested on him, and not a second later, his wails intensified. The more I focused on him, the louder he shrieked. Am I doing this to him? I shifted my stare onto Evan, who, just like Derek before him, immediately dropped to his knees.
"It hurts!" Evan cried out in agony. "Stop! Please!" The sound was glorious.
"Andy?" Harley whimpered. They were all staring at me now; Evan's wails bouncing off walls. The Mogs watched in amusement, eagerly jotting things down on their clipboards. Derek had tears in his eyes as he struggled to regain himself. "Are you doing this?"
"Let's find out." I grinned, glaring at him intensely. At first, nothing happened. Pain. I willed, just like before. I recalled Five telling me that sometimes when legacies first start out, they require some sort of trigger. I want him to feel Pain.
"Andy, stop it!" Holly growled when Harley collapsed to the floor. His screams were even worse than the last two.
The sound of them screaming was like music to my ears. For so long I had wanted them to suffer the way that they had made me suffer, and now it was finally happening.
"I want you all to feel pain!" I screamed, holding out my hands as if it would help my legacy's range reach farther. I grinned when one by one, they all fell, writhing and screaming in agony.
You have to really focus, Five had told me once. The more you focus, the bigger it will be. I put all my focus into hurting them, making them suffer.
I could almost feel a connection with each one of them as I thought of the worst pain imaginable to bestow onto them. Some tried to retaliate by sending blasts of energy in my direction but with my legacy holding them down, it destroyed their focus and they were unable to aim properly.
"What's going on?" I heard Five say as the door opened. He flew to my side, hovering just above me as he eyed down my victims. "Dude, holy shit." He punched me in the arm, making me lose concentration.
My connection with all of them broke, releasing them from my hold. I gasped for breath, nearly choking on the air. I had been holding my breath almost the whole time.
"I got my first legacy," I smiled. I could feel blood dripping from my nose, a sign that I had overexerted my legacy. I don't care. I thought as I watched the garde collect themselves.
They shot me various looks filled with hatred, but also something else. Some of them had genuine fear in their eyes. They should be right to fear me. For over a year, they tortured and tormented me, made me feel weak and helpless. With this new legacy, no one will ever make me feel like that ever again.
