A fire's shadow

The past is behind you, the future is yet to come

A/N Heads up! In this chapter, I had to write someone who's supposed to sound wise. I'm not sure if I did a good job at it so be prepared.

Grass. He smelled grass in this darkness.

The sound of a bird made his eyes shoot open as he bolted into a sitting position.

He scanned around the place where he was. He was sitting on the ground in a forest. Not too far from his feet was a small lake with crystal blue water.

Slowly standing up, he scanned around the glade. "Where am I?"

"In your consciousness."

Shadow looked around but saw no one, "Who's there?!"

"I am no one important."

"Okay.." Shadow said unsurely. "Why am I here?"

"Because you're in a coma, Shadow. And you have to wake up."

"I'm in a what!?"

"A coma."

Shadow held his head as he tried to grip what the voice was saying. "How did this happen?"

"You were weak and exhausted. But you still used your elemental powers and your special abilities to save two people. Your brother, and a stranger."

"Kai.....and Shade....." Shadow whispered to himself. "I remember now. I freed myself from the chains and then when I found out Shade was trapped in the fire. I used my abilities to save him."

"Correct. And after that, you were completely drained. If Kai would have gotten you to the hospital a few minutes later, you wouldn't have survived."

"But if I'm still alive. How come I can't wake up?"

"Look at your reflection in the water."

Shadow frowned, "Why?"

"You'll see."

The teen made his way to the lake and looked at his reflection. He noticed his eye.

"My.....My eye is red. Why is it red? And why just one?"

"It represents the control that the old you have over your mind."

"But I killed him! He's gone!"

"No, he's not. You can't kill him. He is, what you was. And the past can not be altered, only learned from."

"I don't get it. What am I supposed to learn from my past self?"

"Let me show you something."

The forest around Shadow changed to a memory. The memory of the fight where Kai defeated him.

Shadow watched as the old him hurt his friends, and as Kai and he fought. "Why are you showing me this?!"

"Look closely at you. Back then you had no mercy in your mind. But when your brother defeated you..."

Shadow saw as Kai walked closer to his old self. His past self backed away from Kai like a frightened child and begged for him to stay away.

"I.....I forgot about that.....I was so afraid that if I hurt him again, the pain in my chest would grow. The pain was guilt.....I felt guilty about what I had done.....And then I went back to who I was before the defeat."

"And ran away."

"....Yeah....."

The memory faded and Shadow was back in the forest.

"I don't get it. Why did you show me that?"

"You said it yourself. You felt guilty about what you had done and for a moment, you wanted nothing more than to make up for what you had done. And as time passed, you became more and more human. You were no longer that monster that hurt your friends. And you never will be again."