Our Darkest Memories

Epilogue

So now I am standing here and telling my story to you all while I'm standing on one of the beautiful mountains of the Grand Canyon. You see, I once made a promise to someone that had grown close to me in a short amount of time. I told her that I would tell her story, and mine.

And this was it. This was her story. This was my story. This was the story of all of the children right now. This was our story.

We are all surviving on our own in a world where surviving is all you can do. No one else to help us but ourselves. Because you never know who is going to hunt you down. You never know who is putting up a mask and you never know who is going to betray you.

But sometimes, you are lucky to find the best people on the way. And you should cherish those people, as they can be hard to find. It's the reason Blaze, Raiden and I travel together now, like a small family. That's how we survive now.

After we left East River, there had been a lot of commotion. There were rumors that East River had been destroyed. That the Slip Kid, which was the nickname for Clancy, had died during a fire there. I didn't know why, but knowing Clancy, he probably found a way to escape and was now bothering other people somewhere else.

There were also rumors spreading that there was another orange, who was against him. I didn't know for sure, but if that is true, I hope that she will succeed, but I don't know how it will turn out. How the world will turn out. But that's another story. A story that is not mine to tell.

As for Blaze, Raiden, and me; we just stick together. We take care of each other. We help each other and we cherish the memories that we made together. After all, those could be gone in an instant.

Blaze is still a badass. She is trying to control her powers better and tries to stop the spastic movement that her arm makes at certain moments. She sometimes gets a little annoyed by it, but she keeps burning bright, like the flame within her. I might have called her positivity hopeless once, but I was wrong. Her positivity is what keeps her going, and I try to learn to also hang onto that.

Then there's Raiden... He felt sorry for electrocuting me, but I knew he didn't do it on purpose. After all those events, it took a little bit of time before he became his old self again. But he is happy now. We are happy now. He remained a hopeless romantic and keeps teasing me and Blaze until our ears fall off. But we enjoyed it.

As for me, I'm not the same. I'm also not who I was supposed to be. I'm just... me I guess. But different. I'm a mix of the two people I was and who I became.

I still don't know everything. I don't remember every tiny detail about my life. Sometimes that frustrates me, but then I think about all the memories that I do have. The good ones... but also the bad ones. Because that is the most important thing I have learned because of all of this. I might wish I only had the good memories, but it's not only about our amazing and bright memories that matter. It's also our darkest memories that define us.

And without those... you have already lost yourself.