-The secret-

-Knock knock-

"AQUA!!"

-Knock knock-

"AQUA!!"

-Knock knock-

"AQUA!!"

Aqua opened the door so Sage couldn't knock again.

"What?" Aqua said, clearly irritated.

"I did it! Come look!" Sage said, instantly taking Aqua's hand and leading them down the stairs, when Sage pulled back the sliding glass door that led to his backyard Aqua understood what he was talking about.

"Wait, you mean the plant from yesterday?"

"Yes, yes I got it to grow!!"

Both of them made their way to the small plant and crouched over it.

It had increased in size and also grown another set of two leaves at the top.

"Oh hey, you did make it grow!" Aqua said, feeling the slightly larger plant.

"Yeah, you were right about the whole energy thing. I'm not really sure how that works, but it did feel like giving the plant a little bit of me."

Sage looked as happy and excited as ever. "So, what's next, teach?"

Aqua's content expression fell and they suddenly looked as serious as ever.

"I...need to talk to you." Aqua said.

"Okay? You wanna go back inside?" Sage said, standing up and making his way back through the sliding glass door. Aqua followed him, nervously fiddling with something in their pocket.

Sage led Aqua back up to his room and shut the door.

"What did you wanna tell me?"

Aqua looked down and started to explain themself.

"Well...you know that 'quest' I was sent on?"

Aqua was fidgeting with something in their pocket...

"I was sent on a quest to deliver a message to you."

"Me?" Sage asked, suddenly confused why anyone would need to deliver him a message.

"You don't remember anything from your past life, right?"

Sage nodded.

"Well, you weren't just any other fairy..."

Aqua continued to fidget with an object in their pocket.

"You were...uh..."

Aqua finally looked up and met Sage's eyes.

"You were a prince."

Sage looked back at Aqua a bit confused.

"Like I was really stuck-up or something?"

"No." Just how dead serious Aqua was being was really throwing him off.

"Your mother was a queen, your father was a king-"

"And I was a prince? Me? Honey, I ate a cup of dirt when I was nine."

"Don't call me that, and stop messing around, I'm being serious!"

Aqua started to yell, irritated by Sage's denial.

"And how do you know all this, huh?"

Aqua pulled their hand out of their pocket.

"Because I have your memories!"

Aqua held a small silver ring in front of Sage's face.

"My...memories?" Sage took the small silver ring out of Aqua's hand.

"Be careful with that." Aqua warned him.

"This really ugly ring has my memories in it?" Sage asked.

"Yes."

Sage inspected it carefully, it was a very thick silver ring, with a sliver jewel in the middle and loads of strange lines carved into it.

"So if I wear this, I'll know what happened to me?" Sage asked.

"No, not exactly. If you touch the center of it to your head you'll see some of your memories, but they won't be in the right order, and it doesn't happen all at once, it happens in flashes. Like watching a movie but someone scrambled up all the scenes and they play at random times."

"Well...can I do it?" Sage asked.

"I didn't bring it here for nothing..."

Sage brought the ring closer to his head.

"But...uh...you might not like what you see..." Aqua warned.

"It's okay. I'm ready for it."

Sage touched the jewel of the ring to his forehead.

"STOP BOTHERING ME!!"

Sage saw...himself.

But he looked different, much different. He was yelling at someone... he couldn't believe he was yelling at someone, he never yelled, at least not in a serious way.

His past self raised his arm and cast a root to blast through the ground, the root pushed someone back into a tree.

There was a huge group of fairies watching the fight, Sage didn't know who he was fighting until he saw himself throw them back.

It was Aqua.

Aqua looked at his past self with eyes full of hatred.

"I didn't do anything. It's not my fault everyone hates you now." Aqua said, completely unfazed by the new cuts the tree had carved into their arms. They stood up, and only then Sage noticed the water that had been running down a nearby hill and pooling by Aqua's feet. The minute his past self raised his hands again the water came in a wave and knocked him to the ground. Past Sage used the roots to cut through the water and grab Aqua by the feet, he slammed them to the ground.

He stood up, turned away, and bumped into a tall man standing behind him.

"Sage. A school fight? I have to say I'm less disappointed in the fact you started a fight, and more so the fact you weren't going to finish it."

The tall man put a hand on Sage's shoulder and forcefully turned him back around to face Aqua. They had been trying to make their escape the minute Sage wasn't looking, but they had stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the man behind him.

"You remember what I taught you, right?" The man said, pushing Sage forward with the hand he still had on his shoulder.

"I don't want to, I didn't mean to start a fight I...I don't want to hurt anyone."

"Should've thought of that before you hit first." The man said calmly.

The roots moved forth again but this time Aqua didn't fight back.

All they did was scream.

The noise echoed through the black void as everything faded away.

Sage was lying on his bed, back at home, back in the present time.

He lifted his head from his mattress and saw that Aqua was still sitting in front of him, waiting for him to wake up.

"I'm sorry." Sage said the minute he saw Aqua.

"What? What do you mean you're sorry?" Aqua said, clearly confused.

"I don't know why but...we were fighting, and then that strange man showed up, and I think I hurt you in my past life and...I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that." Sage explained. Aqua went silent for a moment before speaking again.

"You don't recognize your dad?"

"That was my dad?!" Sage yelled, come to think of it, that man did look a lot like him. He had the same wings too, with the same swirl on them.

"And you didn't actually hurt me, you just acted like you did. I was only screaming because I was scared you would. If you would have seen the ending to it, you would have seen me thank you." Aqua explained.

"Why did my dad want me to hurt you?" Sage asked.

"Oh, you'll find out later. You'll find out everything once the flashes are over."

Something about what he saw just didn't sit right with Sage.

"Hey Aqua..."

"Yes?"

"Who told you to show me this?"