Genus Terras

The Monster Within

***SKYLER'S POV***

(Starts at Skyler's talk with Owen)

I am having a huge rush of adrenaline in the training room. I am kicking and punching and slashing with my staff. This whole thing isn't fair. I start to see red again, and I stop before Lily can see my eyes flash black. I don't want to end up killing her, and everyone else in that training room. I calm myself down, and start on a punching bag, getting all riled up again. I am so wrapped up in my own fighting that I don't notice Owen in the room until he comes and steadies the punching bag I am currently beating the crap out of. 

"Woah tiger," he says, smiling. 

"What do you want?" I ask, breathing heavily. I blow some hair out of my face that must have come out of my fishtail. 

"I need to talk to you," he says, a serious look on his face. 

"About what?" I answer, continuing to work on my punching technique. I throw a hard punch at the bag, and Owen staggers back, smiling.

"Josh," he says, still smirking, but there's something else behind it.  I stop hitting the bag and look up at him. 

"There's more," I say, breathing heavily. "But, fine. Let's go," I tell Lily that I'm going to talk to Owen, but she is too busy fighting to care. And she said she didn' want to fight. I lead Owen out of the training room and down the hall to a little common room. "What's up?" I ask casually, throwing my feet up on the table.

"Sky, this is serious," he says, sitting down beside me. "Leo told me why you won't trust anyone but Lily, and now I finally understand the deal about why you won't trust Josh, or Mom and Dad." He looks at me. I can't believe Leo told him. Suddenly, a thought goes through my head. What if he told Josh? I ball up my fists. "Sky, hold on, don't get mad just yet. No, he didn't tell Josh, although I think you should," he says.

I mutter, "Damn mind-reading," and motion for him to continue.

"Anyway, Leo told me because he believes it could be a valuable piece of information in this whole thing with Miles and this new breed of rogues. You said that in your visions, he called you and Lily 'experiments'? Well, I think that's just what you are. I think that in breeding this new form of rogues, he wanted to test out his serum on the two princesses. My theory is that he snuck into the castle, and injected this serum into Mom and Queen Daisy while they were in their early stages of pregnancy. This made you what you are, it gave you both the ability to control both types of elements. But, like any experiment, there was a flaw. He wanted to make this breed of Rogue Terras that had more power than any other, but hidden inside this prototype of his, there was a monster. He then got the idea to just make these monsters, and forget about the power. Thus, the grotesque things that you saw in your vision. But, this means that there is also a monster deep inside you, and Lily. And, if you're not careful, it will surface, and possibly take over you. I believe that from your past experience at school, this monster surfaces when you feel betrayed, resulting in terrible anger, and, in some cases, can kill anyone in your path," he finishes. I can't think clearly.

"So, I'm a monster?" I ask, astonished. 

"No, Sky, that's not what I said. There is a monster deep inside you, and if you're not careful, it could take over you. And Lily. All I'm saying is that you need to be careful with your emotions," he says, looking at me.

'This is why I have trust issues. I don't want to form a bond with someone I barely know, learn to love them, then learning that they are a traitor and killing them and anything else. What if I get in this state, and I can't get out of it? What if I stay like that forever?" I ask, my hands shaking.