(CHAPTER 24) NOT ALONE

"Was Pain hiding something? And what's the deal with his secret power?" Thought Neon pondering on the situation. But then all of a sudden, it seemed to make sense. "Wait a minute, maybe Pains secret power is related to why I can use the same ability." Neon said to himself trying to connect the pieces of the puzzle. Neon then announced his thoughts to Kain. "Hey Kain, this secret power your talking about, does it happen do be related to why I can use the same ability Pain does." Neon asked searching for answers. "Yes, you are right about that Neon. However, your mistaken on one key detail." Said Kain still having a serious expression on his face. He paused for a moment before speaking again which made Neon more peculiar on the situation.

"You see Neon. Pain's power wasn't an ability..." Silence filled the room for a moment. Neon was confused on what was just said. He couldnt process it. All Neon was thinking was that how could someone have power, without that power being an ability. You see, when the word ability is used, it refers to someone having powers through mutation in their genes. in other words, they'd have that power since the day they were born. It also refers to someone getting their ability by consuming radiation from meteorites. But in Pain's case, he didn't have any powers when he was born. "So how did Pain get a hold off this ability? Did he consume the radiation from the meteorites" Thought Neon pressing on the matter. You see, these were the only ways most people knew of getting abilities. Or so they were aware of...

Without warning, the silence which was slowly engulfing the room, was suddenly extinguished. "The pieces of the puzzle are all coming together. It all makes sense!" Shouted FH realising the situation. "What are you talking about, what do you mean by it all makes sense?" responded Neon in a puzzled manner. "It's pretty obvious that Pain's power isn't an ability. In fact, it's so obvious we should have found this out sooner. Think about it, I can't possess any vessel which has an ability and right now, you have Pain's power but if it was an ability I would no longer be able to inhabit your body. So that fact that I'm still inhabiting your body only means..." "Pain's power wasn't an ability at all!" Neon shouted finishing off FH's sentence while also realising he had bellowed his words out loud. "Yes, Pain's power was not an ability." Kain responded repeating himself. "But how? There are only two ways to get a hold of abilities, one is through the mutations off your genes, but Pain didn't have an ability when he was born which only means he must have gotten his powers from consuming radiation." Said Neon trying to think of a logical explanation.

"Your wrong Neon, although you are right in terms of there being two ways to get abilities. However, these are the only ways to get abilities that we are aware off ; believe it or not, there are other ways to get your hands on such power. Kain said announcing something new to Neon. "What! but I thought there were only two ways." Neon said in shock. "No, there are in fact many ways to get abilities and other powers, we just aren't aware of them. You see, powers and abilities are not something new, in fact, they existed well before the Iratheons attacked humanity. "What! that's just crazy talk. How would you know anything about this." Neon protested. "It's because of Pain, he knows a lot more than he let's on. You see, his anscestors were very powerful and one of those who attained the power of the ancient arts." "The ancient arts?" Neon said curiously. "Yes, these are powers which are different to that of abilities and they have been around well before the Iratheons attack on humanity ; One of the ancient arts were attained by Pain's ancestors and have been passed down for generations until it was passed down to Pain from his father. And now Pain decided to pass that power onto you...the power of the cursed eye..."

"So your saying that abilities are powers that are associated with the radioactive meteorites. And then there's the ancient arts, which are powers which have existed for centuries! And...I have one of the powers of the ancient arts. I cant take this! it's too much to process!" Neon said in a state of shock. Until now, Neon had thought that powers had existed since the radioactive meteorites which gave people their abilities. However, these meteorites were introduced while the Iratheons attack on humanity was happening, it had only been a few decades so to Neon, these abilities were fairly new. But now he had just found out that there were powers which were called the ancient arts which existed not only before the Iratheons invasion, but for centuries.

"Neon, I am sorry. I know that this is far too much for you to process, you are being overloaded with things you didn't even know about. I understand how you feel but it is essential that you know about these things because you must take responsibility. You have the power of one of the ancient arts but ever since they were found by humanity, it's been tradition and essential for those who attained the power of the ancient arts, to pass them down to their bloodline. However this rule has been broken as the power now belongs to you, someone that's not of the bloodline of Pain. Due to this, you must not tell a single soul under any circumstance that you have the power of the cursed eye, for if this information was relayed to the bloodline fit for the cursed eye, they will surely hunt you down and possibly even kill you. "That's just great, as if being a demon wasn't dangerous enough, now I have one more thing to worry about. Damn it" Neon thought to himself annoyed about the situation.

"Neon, another thing I want you to do is not tell anyone and I mean anyone about the ancient arts. You see, there's only a select few in this world that know about the ancient arts and it should stay this way for if they were publicly known, the world would be in an unbalanced state of chaos where it would be infested with people who would do anything for power. Death would be everywhere you look if the ancient arts were known to everyone, so do not tell anyone." Said Kain making it clear that there is a line that shouldn't be crossed. Neon responded in agreement making Kain less tense than he was before. "Wait so you knew about this too Lucy?" Asked Neon turning to face towards her. "Yes, Kain and me were very close to Pain, so we were the only two that were told about this. We thought he was normal like every one of us, turns out he was the exact opposite. If it wasn't for him, we would know nothing about the ancient arts. I wonder if there's anything else we don't know about" Said Lucy wondering what else is hiding from them.

I know having this power will pose more danger for me but even so, I'm actually glad I have it." Said Neon with a smile. "Oh yeah, what makes you say that?" Responded Kain with a curious expression. "All this time, I've felt so alone because Pain is no longer around, but I couldn't be any more wrong. Pain never left to begin with, he gave me his power, which means he also gave me a part of himself to keep me company. Now that I know this, I don't feel like he's so far apart from me but instead, I feel like he's right next to me every step of the way." Spoke Neon in a soft manner, holding his hands upon his chest. "Thank you for staying by my side Pain." He whispered with a gentle smile. "Pain will always be apart of you Neon, no matter what. As long as we are alive, we will carry his memories with us so he will always live on in our hearts." Said Lucy inviting peace to their hearts.

Neon started to think about what happened at the colloseum ; then he suddenly realised something. "Lucy, I don't really remember everything that happened at the colloseum but I do remember you trying to question me when I woke up." "Oh don't worry about that, I didn't really need to interview you, I mean we already knew you were a demon but I brought you to my office because I wanted to see if you were mentally stable after what had happened. "Oh okay" responded Neon. A few seconds had passed and Neon suddenly processed the words Lucy had said. "WHAT! So you DID know that I was a demon!" Shouted Neon in a shocked manner. "Ha! I knew it!" Snapped FH boasting on the fact that his theory was correct. "Yes we knew, in fact, we knew ever since you came to the military school when you were just a baby. You see, we were aware of how you had survived an abortion procedure which was conducted three times as the shocking event was reported to the head of the first years, Mr Cardinel, who then told a select few off teachers he could trust and we were one of them. He decided to keep this confidential and not tell the whole school for two reasons. One was because he thought that you were a demon and two, if you were in fact a demon, he believed that you would be the key to ending this war. Humanities best hope was you so he decided to keep this confidential and told only a few teachers. However, this was just a lingering suspicion in our hearts but when the event in the colloseum took place. Everything changed. When you transformed Neon, it proved that you were a shifter, a person who can transform into a demon. Our suspicions became a fact in reality but now it's not only us that know. Luckily, I don't think there were any students around but there were other teachers that where there when they saw you transform. Eventually word had got out and now all the heads of the 2nd 3rd and 4th years all know about you and they've decided that they'll bring you in for questioning. We don't know when it will happen but this could potentially be dangerous so you should know the reality of the situation." Said Lucy showing signs of distress. This was an extremely treacherous situation for Neon. People that could pose a threat to him knew that he was a demon, if they decided that he was too much of a threat to humanity. who knows what they would do.....

Minutes went by and Neon made his way out the room thinking about what took place. just before Neon left, Kain reassured him that when the questioning arrives, he shouldn't be worried as he will take care of it if things went south. "What did he mean by that...I hope nothing goes wrong." Thought Neon. He couldnt rap his head around the fact that all of the heads new about his true identity. It crossed his mind that he could run away, but where would he go, no one had ever tried running away and besides, Neon didn't know a thing about the outside world. For as long as he could remember, he had been cooped up in the military school.

"Hey kid, you already know as well as I do that the situation we are in is a dire one, but looking at how things are layed out, there is only one thing we can do." "What is it." Neon said looking for guidance. "You see, we can't afford to fight because we are definitely not strong enough to take down one of the heads never mind all four, and another thing we can't afford is making enemies, especially of the humans as they are potential allies ; it's natural that people wouldn't trust us if they knew our identities, so all they want to know is if they can trust us or not ; what we will do is play the ally card, we need to show them that we are an ally of humanity and not the enemy. As for now, I need to train you every day like there's no tomorrow, your gonna need the strength for times like these, so get ready boy. Your training starts now...!" Said FH as curfew time arrived.