14: harder better faster stronger (oh god i'm so scared)

The pink unicorn reached out its long, fluffy neck towards Edward, and he stroked its mane.

The chosen one is god, it told him.

"Leffa?" he asked it.

No, the chosen one, it said.

"Leffa's the chosen one," he told it.

You are very smart, it said.

"Um... thanks."

Then Edward woke up, and he was quite sick of these annoying dreams about pink unicorns. Looking around, he panicked. He wasn't in his bed at the Academy! He was in a strange room with no windows, and a blue carpet and gray walls, and...

Oh, right, it was just the room he was given to sleep in at the HQ. This was the second time in a row this had happened, except yesterday it had been considerably worse due to Edward being not even in a bed at all, and just lying down in a forest. Now he was at the most-likely-trustworthy Organization for Divine Change. Ryu was right. It really was a bad name. It rolled off the tongue like one of those pieces of corn that sticks in between your teeth and you can't get it out as hard as you try.

Speaking of Ryu, he was still fast asleep in the bed next to Edward's, snoring a little too loudly for Edward's taste. Edward looked at the clock radio on the stand in between the two beds and saw that it was just before eight o' clock, about the time that Rogem recommended that the visitors came downstairs. So Edward attempted to wake Ryu up, and after about two minutes of violent shaking, the other boy was awake.

"Uggh... that was the first time I've slept not on the grass for years," Ryu commented. "Just let me sleep in... a little..."

Edward obeyed and instead left the quest room and instead followed a series of hallways down to a fairly generic chamber with white walls and blue carpet where it was agreed that they would meet. Sure enough, when the boy got down, Jetx, Leffa, Shynki, her pet solotot, Rogem, and a man Edward vaguely recognized from the photo were already waiting for him. The red animal barked eagerly when Edward came in, and Shynki laughed. "I think Sombo likes you." She picked the animal up and cradled him in her arms.

"Ryu still lying around in bed?" Jetx asked Edward.

"He sad that he wanted to stay, due to him having not been in an actual bed for a while," replied Edward.

"He's so lazy," Jetx informed Edward. "Anyway, we're waiting for everyone to get here, so just kind of stand around."

But before Edward could do anything else, the man Edward vaguely remembered, who had short blue hair, grasped the boy's hand tightly. "Welcome to the ODC," he told Edward. "I'm Pheonix, and I trust you already know about this whole 'chosen one' business."

Edward nodded.

"Well, guess what?" asked Phoenix, releasing his iron grip on Edward's hand. "You're involved in it too. I don't know if you don't know this, but you have a gift. You are very, very smart. In fact, that's why you were brought here, if you haven't been told already. You're here you came close to realizing great truths about life, at your young age. We need you to help Leffa. Some say that destiny requires it. Me? I don't believe in destiny, but you do have a duty, now that she trusts you and you would be of immeasurable help to her. Same with Jarex, except it's his strength and fighting skills we need.

"Hopefully, we don't need you guys, because our organization should be able to grab the remaining pieces of the Puzzle with relative ease. I mean, the only people we're up against are a bunch of religious fundamentalist freaks, right?"

Edward highly doubted that would happen, given the way this adventure was playing out so far.

"In case we do need you, you are going to go through rigorous training to become a fighter," said Rogem seriously. "It is unlikely that we'll have to rely on several teenagers to get a job done that an organization of highly trained professionals can do, but remember, we're talking about twenty-five billion people possibly dying. If something happens to us, you need to be trained as a fighter too."

"Yeah, he's right," confirmed Phoenix. "Anyway, I'm going to cook breakfast for all of you, so just get the other three people to get down here too, and we'll have some food before we start training."

"Do I have to go through training?" asked Leffa softly.

"Well, yes," said Phoenix. "Naturally. You're the Chosen One, and if anything would ever happen to you, that means that automatically, everyone dies. There is no new god. The Quadraterracel is screwed. Whenever you leave this building, you'll have to be accompanied by bodyguards, but just in case, you'll be learning mostly self-defense. Also, I don't know if Rogem told you, but that... stuff that came out of your chest? If you learn to control it, you can easily beat a more powerful foe. I don't mean to frighten you, but if you die, then twenty-five billion people may very well also die. We're not going to let that happen, because by the time you're done with your training, you'll be a lot stronger than you were before."

Leffa bit her lip. "Okay... so I have to do training... to be a goddess."

"I'm really sorry, Leffa," said Phoenix, and you could tell by his eyes that he meant it. "Yes, you do."

"Okay then," Leffa began tentatively. "If it will save people... if it will save billions of people... I'm not scared. I... think I can do it." Phoenix smiled at her, and a determined expression came upon her face. "Yeah. I'll do this. I'm the Chosen One! Those Four Gods people aren't going to destroy the world, because I'm the Chosen One and they're not going to stop me!"

Pheonix laughed and clapped loudly. "That's the spirit. Anyway, could you four go wake up the other three? We kind of need them now."

Soon, everyone was down, Ryu and Jarex still both looking half asleep and with hair messed up. "Alright, everybody," Phoenix started telling them. "Leffa, you have no choice but to help us, as you know."

Leffa smiled and raised her fist. "Yes! I will help you."

"Right. Now, Jarex and Edward, I'm sorry if you don't want to, but you're going to help too."

While Edward was excited at the prospect of an adventure, Jarex still looked dubious. "I don't. Want to. And I don't have to," he defiantly said, looking straight into Phoenix's eyes.

"Yes you do, Jarex," Rogem said. "You have the potential to be incredibly strong. You do know, that's why we brought you here, right? The Quadeitia brings most of the students to the Academy, but some of our people are among their ranks. We were the ones that managed to get Leffa here, and also you. We needed someone strong. And we found you."

"Whatever," Jarex gave in. "Sure. I'll help you. I don't have a choice, do I?"

"Smart boy," said Rogem. "And Edward, you too?"

"Yes, I'll help Leffa." He gave her a quick smile, but she was too busy looking straight into Phoenix's eyes with her newfound determination.

"But... the rest of you," continued Rogem, "You have a choice. You can continue to live a normal life, not helping the Organization for Divine Change, or you can assist us and Leffa. Of course, if you choose to assist us, you'll have to go through the same training, but you might, you know, be able to fight a battle or two, for the good of all the planets in the Quadraterracel."

"I think you should help!" Leffa told them excitedly. "It'll be fun! We'll be heroes! And I'll be a goddess! If you help, I'll let all you guys go to heaven and stuff!"

"Do... uh... what was I going to say... uh... oh, yeah, do you know where that one guy Chronon is?" Ryu groggily asked, rubbing his eyes as he said it.

"Your friends were just asking me that," said Phoenix brightly. "Anyway, I told them that the last time we saw Chronon was roughly six months ago. He has been sent to the Northern kingdom, along with about a hundred other people, where we suspect that at least one of the pieces of the Puzzle is. He hasn't e-mailed us for a very long time, which is probably because he's in the northernmost tip of the Kingdom of Doom, which is icy wilderness and has no internet access, obviously. But if you want to find him, we're probably going to go up there once we find the piece of the Puzzle that's somewhere around here."

"I don't know about you guys," Ryu started to persuade his friends, "but I think that we need to find Chronon again. Seriously, if we're going to settle down and actually have a life or something NOT in the middle of the woods, we need to find Chronon. It's always been the five of us. It can't be the four of us."

"Fair enough," agreed Lukas, "but what if one of us dies fighting? That might put an end to the whole 'five of us' idea."

"I agree with Lukas," said Shynki. "I think that Chronon was pretty nice, but obviously he didn't want to be with us anymore or he would never have left."

"I'm not going," declared Jarex.

"Please shut up, Jarex," snapped Rogem.

"I'll help you," offered Jetx.

"Why?" asked Shynki. "What's the point?"

"What's the point in anything? It's better than sitting around. Also, you know, while Ryu is obsessing over Chronon, there are kind of some planets that might explode."

"I'm not obsessing," Ryu defended. "I'm just saying, if we're going to think about what we're going to do now that we've left the woods for good, it would be better to have Chronon than no Chronon."

"Okay, Phoenix, Ryu and I are doing it, Shynki and Lukas are obviously too scared, so start the training, please," Jetx told Pheonix quickly, trying to get things moving.

"Yes! You're helping!" celebrated Leffa, and proceeded to give Ryu and Jetx both spontaneous, rib-crushing hugs. Edward couldn't help feeling a little jealous.

"Shynki and Lukas, are you sure that you don't want to help out?" asked Phoenix. "We'd love to have you."

"I'm sure," said Lukas, and Shynki nodded.

"Alright then. The rest of you, you REALLY need to take showers, so I'll show you the way there, and then we'll have breakfast, and it'll be time to crack down and train."

* * * * *

Edward was the last to take a shower, and he was more than happy to get out of the clothes that he had been wearing for two days and two nights, which were caked with mud from sleeping on the grass. He received an all black outfit, with black mesh shorts and a tight-fitting black shirt. In about the same place that it was on Leffa's chest, there was a tiny white x-on-a-pole symbol on his top.

The breakfast they had was okay, and then Rogem led Edward, Ryu, and Jetx down a long, long hallway and up a flight of stairs, to where Edward's surprise, they came out in a vast grassy field, surrounded entirely by brick walls that were easily fifteen feet tall.

"Alright," Rogem began. "First. Run a 5K. The perimeter of this field is about a kilometer, so just run five times. Without stopping at all. Go. Now."

Edward couldn't run three miles without stopping. He wasn't even sure if he could run one. There was no way he could run around this field five times. And he told Rogem so.

"Well, I'm sorry, because you're going to have to. Now go. Don't waste my time," was the man's response.

So Edward started to jog. Maybe if he took this slow, then it would be easier. He had to pace himself, because he had to run all the way around this expanse five times. So he jogged along slowly, his breath growing heavier by the second.

"Run faster! If you ran like that in a battle, you'd get killed!" yelled Rogem.

Edward reluctantly sped up, but as little as he possibly could while still putting on speed. Ryu and Jetx were steadily gaining ahead of him, but Edward was already tired. He hadn't even run a whole side of the field yet, and his legs were starting to get sore. This wouldn't do.

"Run faster, boys!" roared Rogem.

Ryu and Jetx both put on a huge burst of speed ahead of him, and Edward had no idea how they could. He tried to run faster, but it hurt. His right ankle was starting to cause him pain. Every time he took a step, a shot of pain ran up his leg. He wished he could stop to catch his breath, because his lungs were starting to draw less and less oxygen with each gasp. But Rogem had made it clear that there was to be no running, as desperately as Edward wanted to stop.

All he could focus on was the task at hand. There was nothing really to think about, except one more side of the field, and I'll almost have done a kilometer, and now I have less than 4K to go and I'm a quarter of the way done... that means I'm almost halfway done once I do a couple more sides of the square and etc.

Only about a kilometer and a half in, he got a major stitch in his side. Every step hurt, he felt like clutching the side of his stomach but he knew he couldn't because he had to keep pumping his arms. The sweat poured down his cheeks. He was horribly tired, and he wasn't even halfway done.

You have to finish, Edward. Or at least try.

That's what he kept thinking, but he wanted to stop so desperately. He wanted the pain in his ankle, his thighs, his side, his lungs, everything to stop. He wanted it to just end. But he had only just run about a mile, and he couldn't stop. He wanted to do anything else but keep running, but he had to. Ryu and Jetx were about to lap him, and he didn't want that to happen. He had to prove that he wasn't weak. He wasn't that weak. Running was hard. He'd never done it before. He wasn't THAT weak. Right.

He slowed to the slowest jog he could, anything to keep from stopping. But still he gasped for breath and every part of his body was screaming. He tried to speed back up, but it was impossible, that just hurt more. How much had he run? He wasn't even halfway done, and he was exhausted. He just needed it to stop soon, but it wouldn't. Everything hurt. It would stop if only he could quit running... if only...

He stopped.

"What do you think you're doing, Edward?" Rogem screamed. "I told you not to stop! Now you have to start over, and this time, don't stop!"

Edward crouched down with his hands on his knees, sweat pouring down from his face, soaking his black shirt, making his eyes sting. He didn't want to keep running.

"Edward! Show some discipline! Keep running! Actually do the 5K this time!"

Edward had no choice but to start up again, even though every inch of his body hated him for it, and he was soaked with sweat. He had no choice but to try again, already exhausted.

And so, that was how the day's training went. Rogem refused to let Edward train with Ryu and Jetx until he completed an entire 5K without stopping, and while the other boys learned fighting moves and did other exercises, the most Edward made it to was three kilometers.

Pitiful.

* * * * *

The next day, Rogem made them all run a 5K again. Edward made it to four kilometers. It was better, but the coach still wouldn't accept it. The boy was exhausted by the time he started the second effort, so he only made about two and a half, but then he stretched and tried again. By the end of the day, finally, he had made 5K. And so, the coach made Edward join Ryu and Jetx in their cooldown, which was, guess what, a light jog for two kilometers. Edward managed to do it, but he collapsed in exhaustion by the end.

The third day, Rogem made them run a 5K for a warmup. Again. Edward knew he could make it. But he didn't. To be fair, he hadn't had a good sleep the night before. But the second time, he managed to just make it over the edge. He was treated to a day of painful, rigorous exercise, involving having to spar Rogem, swimming through frigid water, sprinting back and forth for half an hour, and doing a truly painful drill where they run around the perimeter of the field, and whenever Rogem blows his whistle, they drop to the ground in push-up position and do a push-up. It was exhausting, especially because they never got a lunch break. Edward was determined not to let his tiredness show, but he was always lagging a little behind the other two boys.

And so, training continued. If this was a movie, and not written word, there would be a training montage here, where Edward runs a lot, does a lot of pushups, beats up a punching bag, swims, spars with Ryu and Jetx (who always beat him), sweats, lift weights, and gets yelled at by Rogem. This isn't a movie, so sorry, but there's no training montage here. If you want, you may imagine the training montage yourself.

Edward didn't feel like he was getting any `stronger over the week. Ryu and Jetx were aeons ahead of him, as far as he could see. Every day, Edward exerted himself as much as he could, and every day he went to bed with his limbs aching and he woke up still tired. It was a vicious cycle of sweat and pain. Edward was starting to wish he had never met Greto and gotten brought to the Kingdom of Doom, or better, he had never met Leffa and helped her escape from the men in robes. He wouldn't have to go through what he suspected was just a plot to make him miserable. Ryu and Jetx seemed to be doing fine. Why couldn't he?

* * * * *

"It's official," announced Phoenix as he walked into the room where the seven children and the solotot were eating, brandishing a thick stack of paper. "The Puzzle piece of earth is in definitely confirmed to be in a sanctuary in the Western Kingdom Palace."

"I thought you knew that already?" recalled Shynki.

"We knew that a Puzzle piece was hidden in a sanctuary in either the Western Kingdom Palace, which is way downtown and where the royal family lives and the government does business, or the Grand Cathedral, which is where the Emperor of Light lives and the Quadeitia does business. But now we know where and which one, and we can try to get it. Magical barriers keep out most every person from the sanctuary, but the Chosen One is one of the few that can enter. That's precisely why we need you now, Leffa. And Jarex. You're going to be fighting in a real combat system, as I think that's one of the ways we can most hone your skills. The rest of you can just continue with your training."

"That's not fair!" complained Jetx. "Can't we fight the battles too? What's all this training for?"

"Later, you can," reassured Phoenix, "but this battle is one we can't afford to lose, and we need professionals for this one. Sorry."

Edward wished he could be a part of it too, but he decided not to complain. Maybe he would get a shot of the action. It didn't matter. He was pretty useless. Could hardly run a 5K.

When Phoenix left, leaving the others to eat their dinner, Lukas decided to speak up. "So how's your training going, everyone?" he asked.

"It's HARD," Ryu whined. "We have to do all this stuff where we walk with heavy packs on our back and then once he made us squat and stay there for FORTY-FIVE minutes it was insane. Oh yeah, and then he told us 'sprint until I blow my whistle' but he didn't blow it for like a minute and a half. He hardly ever teaches us any fighting moves or anything. And our WARMUP is a 5K. It is so impossible. I hate Rogem."

"Stop complaining, Ryu," ordered Jetx. "At least you might get stronger."

"I'm glad I decided not to do it," Lukas gloated. "It sounds hard."

"It IS," yelled Ryu, and then he fell silent.

"It's not nearly as hard as what I have to do," said Jarex bitterly.

"Why?" Ryu asked. "You're training with Phoenix, aren't you? He probably gives you food the whole time."

"No he doesn't," Jarex complained, as he ate a bite of some sort of alien meat. "He makes me fight him. All day. That's all we ever fucking do, he fights me over and over, and I always lose, obviously, because he can pretty much beat anyone up, and he knows MAGIC, and we do that over and over and sometimes he tells me 'try using the sword on my left side, not my right' but that's it."

"He knows MAGIC?" Edward gasped, even though he had a large piece of bread in his mouth.

"Yeah, and it fucking sucks. He says 'it takes a lifetime to learn' and that it's way more efficient just to use swords or something. But he can make it so that fire pours down from the sky if he wants. Seriously."

"My training isn't actually that bad," commented Leffa. "I'm with this one guy who never takes his hood off, and-"

"I don't see the point in not taking your hood off," observed Jetx. "I mean, it just makes you look creepy."

"Hey! Don't interrupt me!" Leffa reprimanded. "Anyway, as I was saying, it's not that bad. All he ever does is teaches me moves and tells me to use them against him. Sometimes he tells me to control my emotions or something. It's hard, but it's not that hard."

"You're so lucky," Ryu moaned.


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