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Season Three: The Legend's Revenge
The Path Which Cannot Be Followed
Time passes with each minute seeming like a hopeless eternity
of indeterminable emotion.
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Hope finds herself being unable to rest and tend to her own
pains because she must attempt to alleviate the still injured Harmony. She can't bare the burden of knowing that she is losing
her one true mindset. Her tears begin to fall to the ground and she finds herself getting weaker and weaker. All of a sudden,
without any moment's time to react, a heavy tremble begins to surround the area which Hope, Harmony and Advantage all lay.
The trembles turn into violent tremors and out of nowhere appears Chance and Fate, obviously severely injured. Hope runs to
their aid but is quickly hit by a direct attack from Destruction, who is walking towards the Caretakers with a grin of defiance.
He lunges another swift attack and it causes Fate to be hurled a great distance. Fate's body lies on the ground, barely breathing
and sharply bleeding. Chance attempts to run away but Destruction manages to stop him. He picks Chance up by his throat
and looks straight into his eyes.
Hope gets up from her bruised state and quickly attempts
to attack Destruction. This causes Destruction's grasp on Chance to be let go. With great anger, Destruction turns to
Hope and begins launching a full on assault. By the time Chance managed to regain his bearings all he could
hear was Hope's screams for help to him. He looks around, trying to find Fate, and runs to him.
Hope's cries awaken Harmony and he quickly tries to get
up in order to help but cannot manage to stand. Advantage awakens as well and manages to lightly attack Destruction. As Harmony
cannot manage to keep his eyes open, with every lift of lid he had, he partially witnessed the torturous pains that Destruction
laid upon Hope and Advantage.
Hope falls to the ground, eyes closed. Advantage lays motionless,
eyes open in despair. Harmony passes out completely.
Destruction turns his attention back on Chance and Fate who
are now lightly glowing. Chance speaks while holding Fate up:
"You and your counterpart were brought into this world in
place of another. Another whose sole purpose was to show people a path that they must endure. It may have been obvious that
you were to be the bad that came from the decision but you had the ability to choose if you would fight for the side of Yin
or the side of Yang. You chose your side as did Strength. Now, you have nearly accomplished your goal of portraying what you
are, but in all this time, the only thing you've managed to do is split up the very forces that you knew could destroy you.
You are nothing more than a coward. Too scared to truly face your enemies and too foolish to finish your task of divide and
conquer. You lost vision of your own plan and now you will see what it is like to run from YOUR own enemies. With
the last energy that Fate and myself carry, your demise will begin. Though we are not strong enough to destroy you, we are
strong enough to give our world one more chance..."
With that said, a light begins glowing from Chance and
Fate. It spreads further and further, touching each nearby force.
Destruction, angered by this attempt to foil his plans, throws
an attack directly at the Caretakers. Nothing comes of it.
The light eventually begins touching Destruction and his
feet are frozen where he stands. He can only bear witness to what is happening around him as the rest of his body seems
paralyzed at end. The light grows, brighter and brighter, eventually spreading to the lately unseen forces: Purity, Need,
Strength, and Thought.
Once the last force is touched by this light, the realm of
the mind shatters. The broken world which the forces have not seen in quite some time is all around them. Slowly, it begins
to fade as well. Chance's and Fate's bodies begin to steadily vanish hand in hand with the world. A new land is emerging,
one with trees and brush that fills everything so well, looking ahead of one's self is impossible. The only thing to describe
this new location would be to call it a steamy tropical land. Fate and Chance have now disappeared completely and each
one of the forces is scattered all around this land. All are in what seems to be a state of sleep.
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Doom is the first to waken in this land. He gets up only to
find Destruction's body sleeping nearby. He is hesitant about what to do as he does not understand why he is where he is.
He decides to take hidden shelter and await Destruction's awakening.
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Harmony is awakened by two seemingly familiar faces.
As he opens his eyes, a gasp of fear overtakes him and he quickly backs away. He sets himself in an attack stance and yells
out to one of the faces to introduce who she is. Her eyes begin to grow an illusioned hazel and she looks straight into Harmony's
eyes. He lets down his guard as he now seems almost to be in a trance. Her voice speaks...
The Pieces Of A Shattered Puzzle
"I am Vision," the new force replies, "there is no need
for alarm."
With these words, Harmony calms himself but keeps a steady eye on this
new seemingly self-proclaimed force. He begins to think about his current situation and his last memories before he wakened. Slowly,
he realizes that he is obviously out of place and fearfully out of mind. He does not understand how, before his very eyes,
can lie a new force, with one he can barely remember.
DESTINY: A strong willed woman who has never revealed
her true self to any other creature she has ever encountered. Destiny is a very wise, very respectable person, unfortunetly,
she uses her wisdom and charisma as tools to keep herself from having others see who she truly is. Eventhough she deals with
life by walking over every obstacle she encounters, she shows all with whom she comes into contact with that their paths are
not alone, but rather, intertwined with the roads of many. Deep down, she is a beautiful person with no flaws and only care,
yet her past has always taught her that these traits must be hidden for fear that they will always be taken advantage of.
She walks the land as if no notion of her life is ever to be taken advantage of, but always teaches the lesson that no life
is ever without road.
VISION: A seemingly always upbeat and charismatic force,
Vision leads herself around with a purpose in life that is even unknown to herself. She has the ability to show anyone she
chooses a piece of their past, present or possible futures. With every use of her uncanny trait, she weakens dramatically
and therefore cannot alter futures to what she believes they must be. She always attempts to help those in need but is often
hurt by each person she holds dear. Vision has found that showing the world her true self is not a task she wishes to accomplish,
therefore she continually adapts herself to any and all situations laid out in front of her. On rare occasions, Vision is
capable of forcing someone to see through another's eyes. Though she does not understand what makes this ability strike, she
finds it is often useful in blinding those who wish her pain so that she may make an escape from their malintent.
Destiny abhors her counterpart, Doom. A leader at heart who often conceals
his true self so as to take advantage of those he seeks to hurt.
Vision finds rage when faced with her counterpart, Pain. He is a devious
foe who seeks only to harm as many innocents as he can so long as he can watch each suffer from his games.
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With a little conversation and a plentiful amount of time, Harmony finally steadies his
nerves and agrees with the conclusion that the three forces have each reached. Harmony barely remembers the final battle with
Destruction but he does recall the memory of Fate and Chance attempting to join the battle. Destiny retells her story of the
backstab Chance gave her and how she awakened only to be in this new land. Vision can only remember memories of opening her
eyes and finding herself in the land she currently stood. With each story explained, the three decide to further explore the
region.
After some short travel time, the three forces come accross Hope's body, laying on the
ground and all bruised up. They attempt to awaken her and after some time, she comes to with a heavy fear in her eye. She
finds herself clinging to Harmony in panic over not knowing who the other two forces are. Destiny is angered at the fact that
she is not even a memory in the mind of Hope but decides to subside her anger for the time being. The four forces each decide
to take refuge in a nearby cave and rest for the night.
Many hours pass and Harmony, Hope and Destiny are each sleeping restfully on the dirt
floor. Vision is awake and is sitting on a rock near the entrance of the cave staring vigilantly at the stars in the night
sky. Hope's eyes begin to open and she sees Vision not sleeping with the others. Deciding to investigate, she silently gets
up and approaches Vision. Once Hope sees that Vision is merely lost in thought, she decides to ask Vision why she wasn't getting
rest with all the others. Vision glances at Hope with a smirk as she kindly sits herself next to her. Vision playfully
grabs Hope's arm and, all of a sudden, as if something has taken control of each force, they both fall into a trance and both
seemingly begin to experience some sort of illusion set forth by Vision.
The land is quiet and the night seems peaceful, but it is only lost within the minds of
Vision and Hope...
The Strength To Find Inner Peace
The sun slowly
begins to rise and eventually warms the faces of the now four sleeping forces in the cave. The creatures of the jungle begin
to awaken and move about, and an almost cruel morning haze surrounds the entire cave area.
Destiny is the first to open her eyes to the light-filled
morning the new world seems to bring. She sees Vision and Hope passed out at the cave's opening and decides to investigate.
Upon further analysis, she realizes that something must have made the two pass out. She decides to venture outside the cave
to see if she can find any more clues as to the happenings of the night before. She begins to wander out slowly making sure
she can retrace each step. All of a sudden, the jungle's mist turns into a heavy fog and completely surrounds Destiny. She
realizes that she can no longer find her path nor can she see more than a few steps ahead of her. Without a moment's notice,
she sees a figure standing in front of her. Quickly, she reverts to an attack stance and calls out to the figure to show himself.
The figure also assumes an attack composure and presents himself as Strength. Destiny, never having met or heard of this force,
begins to inquire as to the reason for his presence. Strength lowers his guard and begins to explain that he was merely wandering
the land in search of the other forces. Destiny refuses to accept that he is on the side of good and asks him to quickly leave
or she would soon attack. Strength does not comply and attempts to talk through his case but Destiny will not have it; she
attacks.
Strength begins to defend and will not attack Destiny but
only block each and every pulsating hit that the seemingly angry force uses. All of a sudden, Destiny begins to glow a violent
light blue and her strikes seem to become more and more powerful. Strength finds himself not being able to defend against
the power of this force and begins taking more and more hits to his face and body. Destiny delivers a potent blow that knocks
Strength far back. With a now bloody face and sore body, Strength begins to beg Destiny to understand that he is good and
does not want to hurt her. Destiny, listening to each word but dismissing them as if they were blatant lies, slowly walks
toward Strength. She begins to speak:
"I know full well who you are. You are the one who came
into what used to be my life and took over my place. You are the force that Chance decided to replace me with. You are nothing
more than a pawn used to help the world not need to remember me. But now, NOW, I have returned. I'm back to claim right to
where I can belong, when I want to belong. And now it's time you went back to where ever you may have come. And I, I will
make sure you do."
Strength, hearing these words, decides to reply:
"I never meant to come into this world and cause you harm.
I was thrown into a situation that I took with pride and Honor. If pain is what I caused you, then you need to believe me,
it was never my intention. I am Strength, I am here to help those in need, much like you. We are meant to work side by side,
not on opposition. Now stop treating me this way, your emotions are misplaced."
Destiny's glow grows even brighter and an all out anger
rages from her:
"You are not Strength. You are nothing. I have the ability
to show people their true paths, I know what lies ahead, I am Destiny. You, you call yourself Strength, but it is meaningless.
You have nothing to offer anyone but a false sense of Hope, and we already have as much as we need of that. Your strength
is merely a lie. With or without you, all lives are Destined. It's better to live without, than with."
Having said her last piece, Destiny raises her hands in
preparation of an attack. Strength, now standing in pure anger, begins to glow his powerful blue aura, and defiantly stands
within feet of his unsuspected foe. Destiny strikes an attack that blows the fog in the area out of the way and hits Strength
at point blank. She falls back from her own attack and begins to calm herself. The fog clears and as Destiny raises her head
slowly, she sees Strength, still standing in the same position he was when he was hit by her most powerful attack. Her shock
causes her to quickly assume another attack stance but she is clearly too weak to continue a fight. She begins to tremble
and suddenly, she passes out.
Time passes and another night befalls the land. Destiny
opens her eyes only to find she is near a warm fire covered in some form of natural blankets. Strength is next to her tending
to some of her light wounds. He speaks:
"It's not a matter of living with or without, it's a matter
of living in peace with yourself. You may have been Destined to have had this battle, but you would not have survived it without
Strength."
Hearing those words, an almost peacelike smirk comes across
Destiny's face as her eyes begin to close. She falls back asleep with a new sense of clarity in her head.
"There is no man without Destiny, But there is no Destiny
without Strength."
True Blind Honor
Day breaks as Destiny and Strength wake up next to each
other. With deep breath, both decide that it is best if they got back to the cave where the other forces rested. Upon
their arrival, they find Hope and Vision telling Harmony of the odd dream they both experienced the previous night. Little
time passes before all five forces catch their energies and decide they must continue to venture in the heavily forested land
to find the others. As they begin exitting the cave, Vision trips over a rock and falls into Harmony. All of a sudden, both
fall into a dream in their minds. Strength, Hope and Destiny run to their aid but by the time they get close enough to help,
Harmony and Vision both wake up. Vision begins tearing as Harmony lays on the ground in confusion. Hope, fearfully, asks
what they saw. Vision looks up, catches a breath, and answers in a whimper,
"We saw... Through Harmony's eyes... we saw..." Harmony
cuts Vision off and quickly replies, "We saw nothing."
Harmony angrily gets up and decides he needs to go out on his own and
clear his mind of all his thoughts. The other forces uselessly hesitate and Harmony walks away agreeing to meet them back
at the cave by nightfall.
Hours pass and the sun is at its highest. Harmony finds himself tired
and needing to take a break from wandering the land. He finds a nearby stream and decides to go drink some water and relax.
As he is knelt down drinking some water, he looks across the stream only to see a body laying there, on the ground. Quickly,
he jumps into the water and gets himself to the seemingly asleep body. Harmony attempts to awaken the friendly force that
he is relieved to see and with little time, Honor's eyes begin to open. Somewhat confused and in pain that he is trying to
hide, Honor beings asking Harmony what had happened. He explains that the last thing he remembers is being attacked by Destruction
and then nothing more. Harmony retells Honor the horrors that happened after his last memory and Honor, in shock, decides
that he needs to not make sense of his alleged past, but rather, get through his painfilled future.
Harmony gathers some water for Honor, but just as Honor is about to
take a first, much needed sip, Hysteria and Spite emerge from the brush and attack the two unsuspecting forces. Hysteria viciously
jumps in the air and delivers a striking blow to Honor thus throwing him directly into a nearby tree and almost knocking him
out. All the while, Spite quickly begins a head on assault on Harmony and each get locked into a fist to fist battle. Honor
gets up and begins to counter Hysteria's attacks bit by bit, but with each defense he commits to, his weakness grows. All
of a sudden, Hysteria launches a powerful charge that hits Honor directly, knocking him far back and unconscious against
the edge of a deep canyon. Realizing that Honor is no longer an immediate threat, Hysteria turns his attention to Harmony
as he is fending off Spite's attacks. Hysteria and Spite begin a potent onslaught straight at Harmony and he takes hit
after hit and barely is able to create any offense. It is almost as if Hysteria and Spite are toying with him just for the
sake of torture. Without any hesitation, Spite throws one last powerful attack that lunges Harmony to the ground and brings
him to pass out. The two Counterparts then head directly to Honor's still energyless body and as each walk slowly with confidence,
they both pick up two sharp stones that almost seem to have been placed their beforehand. Honor's eyes open just as the Counterparts
are standing above him in an evil laughter. Both raise their jagged stones in the air and Honor lets out a scream of anger
that silences the forest and awakens Harmony. Without hesitation, Harmony gets up and runs toward his fellow force just
as the two Counterparts begin lunging their weapons at Honor. Harmony dives in front of Honor's body and delivers a scream
of fury as he looks up at the two evils. The Counterparts, not having stopped their attack stab Harmony in each eye and then
quickly run away, as if they've accomplished the goal they set out to finish.
Harmony lets out a cry of pain as he grabs hold of the two stones and
pulls them out of his eyes. Blood covers his face as he falls to the ground and though he wants to cry, there is no place
for tears to come down from. He cannot see and with that, he is too scared to move. The pain is unbearable and he cannot stop
screaming.
Honor grabs hold of Harmony and is brought to tears. He is angered
and in a scream of defiance, he yells out to Hysteria and Spite letting them know that he WILL take his revenge. He then turns
back to Harmony and in his tears he asks, "Why? Why did you do this? WHY?!"
Harmony, in a moment of shaking strength, lifts his head, and replies,
"I ... .... I didn't... want you to ... leave ..... again. I didn't want you to be hurt ... anymore.... I'd do it again if
... if I had to." With that said, Harmony passes out and falls onto Honor.
Blood is everywhere. Honor begins tending to Harmony's wounds and puts
a cloth around his eyes to attempt to ease the pain and stop the bleeding. Night comes and a fire is lit. No one is near the
two battered forces and Harmony remains passed out and now covered by what brush Honor was able to gather.
The night is silent. The moon is hidden by dark clouds. The fire cackles
as Honor stares directly into it, almost as if the dancing flames are replaying the days events piece by piece. Harmony
is alseep, and is clearly having a nightmare and all of a sudden, he speaks in his restless sleep,
"I'd do it again if ... if I had to."
A tear from Honor's face falls to the ground as he falls into an abyss
of his own thoughts....
The Legend Continues...
The Timely Storm
The next day begins with dark clouds. A heavy storm is brewing and
heavy winds are blowing.
Honor is snapped out of his trance by a loud noise from the incomming
hurricane. He wakes Harmony and tells him that they need to find cover quickly. Honor helps Harmony up and they begin walking
in search of shelter. Within few hours, Harmony hears twigs snapping in the distance and quickly signals to Honor that he
feels someone is following them. Honor takes guard and continues to guide his blind friend. A short time after, they reach
the cave where the other forces had based themselves at. Honor, not knowing this fact, decides that they can take refuge therr
for the rest of the day. It begins to rain heavily and within hours Vision, Hope, Strength and Destiny find themselves back
at the cave with their fallen hero and lost friend. Honor retells the recent day's happenings as they each recover from the
stresses of the day. Midway through his story, Honor is interupted by a figure at the cave's entrance. The presence falls
to the ground and Hope along with Vision run to his aid. They immediately realize that it is Purity, finding himself with
no energy and fear in his eyes. Hope tends to his wounds as Strength gathers brush to form a sort of bed to lay Purity on.
Within minutes, Purity attempts to explain his last few days. His breathing is staggered and at times, he did not seem to
make sense. The most that the other forces could gather was that Purity had been wandering the forest in search for the other
forces and had been ambushed but managed to escape. Destiny tells everyone to let him rest for the night in the hopes that
he will be better, and more able to retell his story, by sunrise. The other forces gather around a fire that Honor had built
to talk about what their next plan of action will be.
Strength, claiming that he cannot take the anxiety of waiting any longer, decides that him and
Honor should go out in search of the other three remaining forces, while Vision, Hope and Destiny remain in the cave to tend
to Purity and Harmony. Hope quickly disagrees and a fight begins. While each force is yelling at one another in anger, Vision
notices Purity tossing and turning and quickly decides to go calm him. She grabs his hand and begins whispering to Purity
when all of a sudden, she falls into another dreamlike state. The other forces do not notice Vision fall over and all continue
fighting. After a matter of minutes, Vision awakens and tears fall from her eyes. She immediately silences everyone and she
speaks,
"Thought, Need, Purity and Advantage were all captured
by Destruction, Doom, Despair, Pain and Retribution. Purity managed to escape but the others are still being tortured. I know
where they are. We need to help them."
Everyone agrees to ambush the counterparts as quickly as possible
and rescue the other forces except for Harmony who believes there is something amiss. Harmony tells the forces of his thoughts
but he is hastily dismissed by everyone because of his newfound disability and inability to be of help. The forces let the
night pass in order to regain energy and all silently strategize within their own minds of their soon to come actions.
The storm continues to grow heavier and heavier. Hail is hitting
the land and making holes in the already muddy ground. The wind blows hard and at times changes direction and pushes the rain
into the cave. Thunderous clasps of lightning are almost constant and awaken Destiny from her much needed, but heavily restless
sleep. All of a sudden, a bolt of lightning hits a tree outside the cave and Destiny lets out a fearful gasp. Strength quickly
hears this and awakens only to see Destiny finding herself rolled up in fear. He immediately opens up a warm smile and attempts
to calm her down. In a moment of unreasoned rage, Destiny lashes out at Strength and pushes him away. Strength, surprised
by this act gets up and walks away from her. As his back is turned, Destiny puts out her hand with the desire to apologize
but the words do not come out. She is just as shocked by her own actions but cannot seem to bring herself to call out to Strength.
She puts her hand down and stares off into nothingness. She falls into a deep, and at this point, useless, thought. Strength,
never having seen Destiny's actions once his back was turned, returns to sleep a far distance away from Destiny.
Hours pass and still more rain continues to fall harder and harder.
Destiny has fallen asleep in the same position of fear she had been in hours before. The wind howls and Vision opens her eyes
from the noise and takes a quick glance around to make sure everyone is safe. As she puts her head back down, she notices
what seemed to be a figure trudging past the cave's entrance. She stares at the figure and then decides to investigate. Lightning
hits and scares her but as quickly as she can jump back, the figure disappears. She sees footprints at the cave's entrance
but the storm is too heavy to allow her to see past that. She dismisses the footprints as those of the others and concludes
that she was merely imagining the figure. She falls back asleep telling herself that no one would be foolish enough to continue
walking outside with so much dangerous weather.
More time passes and Honor finds himself at the mercy of his thoughts.
He too, wakes up from the storm's violent noises but cannot bring himself to fall back asleep. He looks to his left to see
Purity tossing and turning, he looks behind him to see Strength, Vision, and Hope all in awkward positions from their painful
dreams, he sees Destiny in the background almost lost in her own night terrors, and finally, he turns to his right to see
Harmony sleeping, with eyes wide open. His guilt grows and he simply nods his head and bows it down in shame. With a
tear dropping from his eye, he whispers,
"What are we becoming... What... have we become?..."
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"He who has the Strength to care with Honor, often finds his
Destiny is to lose all Hope."
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The Inner Struggle
Day finally breaks; Yet this day has no sun, holds no warmth and brings
no tranquil ease. The rain has softened, as if to allow for the day's events but still falling to warn of the dangers that
lie ahead.
Slowly, each force awakens and one by one, each prepares themselves
for the direct attack that was agreed upon the night before. Harmony finds himself still trying to convince the forces that
their plan is flawed, but no matter what he says, no one is willing to listen. Finally, Strength announces that the time to
attack is at hand. Vision is told to lead with Purity by her side and so the forces set forward. Harmony trails behind with
Hope by his side.
The land is covered with water and each step is muddier than the last.
Not even the animals have come out of hiding as this day shines no light.
Finally, the forces all arrive to the site where Need, Thought and
Advantage are being held. Honor notices that the three captives are all tied to seperate trees with barely any guards near
them. He brings up this perplexing plot to Strength but is immediately dismissed for it. At Strength's command, all the forces
but Harmony attack. Destruction quickly notices and calls to the other forces to attack and an all out battle begins. Destiny
is the first to strike a blow directly at Doom. He falls back but only to get up and deliver an all out assault right back.
Despair rages at Hope and they lock into each other in an almost motionless brace. Vision dodges every attack that Pain sends
her way and with each dodge gets closer and closer to him until finally she grabs him and begins using her abilities to knock
him unconscious. Retribution goes directly for Purity as he attempts to assail Destruction and lets out a direct and unexpected
attack to Purity knocking him a far distance away. Destruction gives a mere evil grin to Honor as he begins walking directly
towards Purity's pain-filled body. Honor looks to his left to see Purity in need of help and looks to his right to see the
three forces waiting to be freed so they may join the battle. He chooses to go right and begins loosening the ropes that hold
the forces. From the distance, he hears Purity letting out screams of pain that are only hidden by Destruction and Retribution's
cruel laughter.
Finally, Thought, Need and Advantage
are untied and just as Honor, with no haste, begins running towards Purity, he is surrounded and stopped by the very allies
he just freed. The three forces begin letting out a villainous laughter and in front of Honor's very eyes, they transform
into Hysteria, Serenity and Vanity. Honor's shock freezes him still and the three counterparts all leap to capture him. Serenity
and Vanity deliver serious blows to Honor and deplete him of his very fighting energy as Hysteria goes to help Pain in holding
Vision down. Hope lets out a booming scream for help as she too is brought to her knees by Despair. Destiny, being the only
one still fighting a counterpart begins to glow. A purple haze surrounds her and she looks to her side only to see Strength
merely standing there. He is not fighting, but instead, staring at each force one by one. He seems to be in shock and almost
inable to move. Honor lets out a plea to Strength to help Destiny and just as Strength turns his face to her battle, he sees
Destiny get lifted from her throat by Doom. A tear begins falling from Strength's eye as he lay there, as if motionless. For
the first time, it seemed as though Strength hadn't his ability but rather a new uselessness that took precedence. Harmony,
hearing the cries of his strengthless friends begins to glow and a powerful blue aura surrounds his entire body. He runs out
into the battle area knowing that his lack of sight would leave him inable to be of true help but defies his injuries regardless.
Strength sees Harmony coming out of the corner of his eye and in an almost confused mindset, turns his body and winds up for
a powerful punch that he delivers to Harmony just as Harmony is about to pass him. The punch hit Harmony so hard that his
very body was thrown to the other side of the battle area leaving behind the very glow that had originally empowered him.
As Strength fully opens his eyes in shock for his actions, the glow enters his body and takes control. Strength's now blue
glowing body, seemed to be taken over by Harmony's inner power and quickly unleashed a clash focused directly to the raining
sky. The rain immediately stopped; each counterpart looked on in awe while holding down the forces they had just battled.
Even the fallen heroes could not help but raise their bruised faces at what the Strength of Harmony was doing. Every motion
taken seemed as if slowed down and lingered through time itself.
All of a sudden, with a mere blink of an eye, Thought, Need, and Advantage
appear out of nowhere. None of them realize what is going on and each looks around in an attempt to assess the situation.
Honor quickly yells to them to help and without a moment's thought, they do. Advantage begins to glow a deep silver, Need
begins to glow a bright orange, and Thought gleams of a crimson red. They begin attacking and as they do, the guarding of
the already held down forces is dropped. Honor is the only of the previously battled forces to have enough energy to fend
off Serenity and Vanity and to help right away. With that, Thought begins lashing out at Hysteria and Pain who had been helping
to hold down Vision. With Thought's attacks, Strength's blue glow grew deeper and began spreading towards Vision. Once it
touched Vision, her strength began returning and she slowly began helping Thought attack. All the while, Advantage runs to
Hope's aid who was being kept back by Despair. Advantage's attacks seem to do the same to Strength's blue glow and it too,
stretched to Hope. Once again, with her somewhat recharged energy, Hope began helping Advantage to take on the nearby forces.
The same happens for Need who is attacking Retribution in an attempt to free Purity from his grasp. The blue glow grew more
and more as each force fought until it became so powerful that it errupted out of Strength's body. Strength lets out
a scream of horrible pain and the glow travels immediately back to Harmony's battered and almost lifeless body. Strength falls
to the ground and Harmony opens his still blind eyes. Though he fears the situation he is in, he continues to throw useless
and chaotic punches and attacks at whatever he hears near him.
The forces now regain control of the battle and with great regret Destruction
yells for a retreat. Each counterpart breaks from their respective battle and fleas away into the dark green brush that is
the forest.
Rain begins to fall yet again.
The forces all regain their breaths and all help eachother out in returning
to their, at this point, needed, base. Honor picks Strength up and carries him on his back only because no one else is willing
to help him.
Once at the cave, Strength regains consciousness and looks around.
He feels his heart race as he looks at each force and sees how they are looking back at him in anger. Destiny stands up and
walks toward Strength to begin speaking:
"Again. Again you have proven yourself to be an utter useless
force in our lives. You spoke of how you were sick of hiding, you claimed that you were worthy of leading, and you you bellowed
at how it was time to be strong but yet, look at what you did. Look at what pathetic of a creation you are that you were so
willing to let us all go because you let your fears get the best of you. Had it not been for Harmony's will, you would have
left us all there to be tortured. You don't deserve to be here with us, you don't deserve to be among us. You deserve to live
a life where no one can help or will help you. LEAVE US! LEAVE US NOW!"
Tears begin running from Strength's eyes as he hastily speaks, "I -
- I don't know what happened. I just froze. I - - I wanted to help but I didn't know what to do, my - my mind went blank and
I grew more and more still by the moment. It was as if - - as if all I could think about... was..."
Destiny, cutting Strength off, angrily replies, "WAS WHAT?! How you
would have rather been on the winning team? Or How you would have rather not cared to help anyone else but yourself?! Don't
act like you're upset about not helping us. We all know you were thinking about yourself."
With those words, a loud boom of thunder raged from the skies and with
it, a light but sinister laughter filled the air. The forces all notice it but seem too intertwined with the current moment's
thoughts to want to deal with it.
Strength continues to speak, but this time with his own anger boiling
inside. "How dare you! How DARE you ALL expect me to be everything you want when you need it, and when I'm of no use, it's
just a constant push and smirk of resentment that I get..."
Destiny and Thought find themselves in shock at his words and both move
closer to speak. Thought begins, "None of us wanted to be put in this land we know NOTHING about. None of us wanted to be
thrown into powers we DID NOT understand. None of us wanted to be taken from everything we cared about, but all of us were.
YOU are NO different."
Destiny picks up. "LEAVE. You don't deserve to be here fighting on
our side. LEAVE!"
"ENOUGH!" screamed Harmony in anger, "Strength will NOT leave. Had
it not been for him, all of us would most likely still be in battle if not worse." The forces all look at Harmony in complete
shock.
"The only thing I did was control my will to enter Strength's body.
Had it not been for his STRENGTH, and HIS actions, the other forces would not have been brought to us. Everything must happen
for a reason, Destiny, you are the one that preaches that very lesson. And Thought, Each action comes from within, you yourself
adhere to that idea. Or you, Hope, there is no future without the possibility of happiness to reign. You say that, do you
not? Strength's moment of weakness may have happened at a bad time, but do we not ALL go through moments of weakness? And
let's not forget that it was Strength, who managed to take that weakness and learn from it. Without his lesson, we may not
be having this conversation even now. We may all have gotten hurt by his actions, but we have all hurt others with ours. Are
we to be the counterparts that don't forgive, or should we be the forces, that remember and grow? I may be blind now, and
I may not yet know how to fight this way, but I am not a fool, and I know that it is Strength's Destiny to be with
us for now."
With that said, Destiny and Thought both look at eachother and let
down their heads. The rest of the forces join them. Strength turns to Harmony and thanks him, and to Strength, Harmony replies:
"Your inactions caused us great pain and just because I defended you
does not mean that I agree with what you did. It is better we all make decisions on a clear head, rather than on an anger-filled
one." With that said, Harmony turns around and puts out his hand to call for Vision's aid in getting to a comfortable place.
Strength bows his head and walks to the mouth of the cave.
In his solitude, he sits down on a rock and begins to cry. From a distance,
he hears a cackle and quickly looks up to see who it is. Spite is now standing in front of him and speaks:
"You are all such fools. Easily filled with emotions. Don't bother
attacking me Strength. You are too far hurt to keep another battle going. Just know that this is far from over, in fact, I've
been wandering your cave each night, slowly infusing each one of you with pure spiteful emotion. It's only a matter of time
before you all destroy yourselves. Just remember, Strength, next time, you won't have any Harmony by your side to defend you.
And don't even think about telling the others what I've said to you, they won't believe you anyway. The worst is yet to come
Strength. Good luck being strong-willed......"
And just as the last word was spoken, Spite vanished into thin air
.
The rain continues to fall and Strength puts his head down yet again.
Within moments, a scream comes from inside the cave and a bright blast of light brightens the entire scene. Lightning erupts
from the sky and Strength quickly runs in to check what happened. Once fully inside, he finds all the other forces turned
to stone and one beam of white light floating in the center of the cave. The light spreads to Strength and he yells out as
he watches his body slowly turn to stone as well..
* * * * *
"In times of great Hysteria and utter Despair, It takes great Strength, true Hope,
deep Thought and the belief in Destiny to be able to grow."
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What will become of the stone-cold forces? What is Spite's true plan? Will Strength leave everything
behind and go off on his own?
Find out in the next Season of... The Legend!
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