The Crimson Prince： Awakening

Just the last of the conversation Will had with Michael stuck with him and opened up old wounds. She just left one day with no inclination of doing so, leaving Will and his father to worry about her. Will couldn"t help but think of her actions as selfish.

Lost in his thoughts, Will continued his walk, but didn"t know where he was going. He couldn"t go home the way he was feeling, Jonathan would see right through him. In the end, he turned back to the street in which the burned house was. Staying outside the caution tape this time, Will stared at the wreckage. "The amount of power needed to cause this much damage is crazy." He thought as he saw the slash marks on the walls.

Will was so wrapped up in his thoughts he didn"t even realize he wasn"t alone anymore. Five black cloaked figures had arrived just feet behind him. The hair on Will"s neck stood on end as he felt he was being watched. A chill set in quickly as he turned around.

All five of the swordsmen had weapons in hand, an icy aura surrounded them as though winter itself came early. Slowly they walked towards Will, each step making the chill set in even stronger. Will could almost see his breath, which was coming rapidly as he watched the approach. He wanted to run, to escape. He made an attempt to flee yet his legs wouldn"t move. Will looked down in shock, his feet felt numb, as if asleep. The pin p.r.i.c.kles stung the bottom of his feet.

"I think it"s time you stand behind me William." A familiar voice rang out from behind him. Will couldn"t turn around but he could feel Michael"s presence. A sort of heat surrounded him, giving him strength to move once again. It felt as if Will had a fire surrounding him. Looking back at Michael, he saw the usual business man. His hands were in the pockets of his long coat and when Will looked at his eyes, he saw danger.

Finally able to move, Will moved behind Michael. Feeling the pressure in which Michael was emitting, Will knew this man was no ordinary person.

Michael took one hand out of his pocket. Will could see he was holding something but couldn"t get a good look at it. Suddenly to Will"s shock the business man"s hand was engulfed in flame. It didn"t seem to bother Michael as the flame grew larger in size, forming feet in front of him.

"I a.s.sure you that you are not going crazy William," Michael said as the flame stopped growing and instead formed into a flaming blade. "This is the strength of someone from another world, now if you"ll kindly stay behind me and find cover, I"ll take care of our friends here." He said with a calm smile.

Will stared at the mans sword that had been born from flame. It had a decent length to it, nothing noteworthy besides the orange jewel at the end of the pommel, besides the fact that it had just been made of flame of course. If Will wasn"t going crazy, he wondered if Michael may have put something in his drink.

The five cloaked men stopped in front of Michael. From the look of their stance, Will had to guess they were used to taking the defensive when it came to their fights with him. Without warning, Michael launched himself into the group.

For the next few minutes, Will was staring at a blur of fire and frost, both parties were far too fast to see. The ground shook from the amount of power condensed in a single point. Will watched as the fire slowly overcame the frost before both parties were visible again.

Will stared at the drenched in sweat Michael who turned towards him. "I think it"s time to leave before our friends here get their footing back." He said as he walked over to Will. The only thing he could do was nod. They both turned away from the cloaks and ran as if the underworld was on their tail.

They ran for a good ten minutes before stopping at a park to catch their breath. Will hadn"t ran so fast since his games back in Minnesota. He had to even out his breath and get the sweat out of his eyes as he stared at Michael. Aside from the sweat from his fight, he was perfectly fine as if the run didn"t even effect him. Will had to wonder exactly what kind of training the business man could have had, not even the army could have given him that much stamina.

Will walked over to a bench at the park and sat down for a minute. "What you said about them has to be true, as well as you." He said between gasps of air. "I"ve never seen anything like that fight aside from movies." Michael just nodded to Will, he didn"t know yet what the younger man"s next move was going to be. "But you are wrong about me, you have to know that." He said, almost pleading with the older man.

"William Carter," Michael said with a smile on his face. "Your dad is Jonathan Carter and your mother is Isabelle. You are almost eighteen years old now." He continued after gauging Will"s reaction.

"That can"t be." he thought as he searched his mind just one more time for this man. How could he know so much about him and not know who he was? He couldn"t place the face, but he felt like he knew him from somewhere. "Who exactly are you Michael?" he said in a weak voice, not really trusting his strength.

"I"m your protector William, I thought I made that clear during my battle with the wraiths just a few moments ago." Michael raised an eyebrow as if everything was already obvious. "I"ve been protecting you for quite some time now, I"m really sorry I had to keep my distance, but it"s been nice seeing you grow." Will couldn"t trust what he was hearing. He had never seen this man before, he had never even heard of him. "He has to be wrong about me." he thought as he stared at his feet.

"There was another part of that dream that I didn"t tell you about," Will said slowly. Michael raised an eyebrow once again, clearly intrigued. "You were in it as well, I was telling you I wasn"t strong enough yet." Will continued, the more he said the faster it came out.

"And then I told you to get off your a.s.s and train, then I told you to wake up." Michael finished the dream only to find will staring open mouthed at him. "You don"t think I"m just protecting you in your waking hours do you?" he said with a sad smile. "They want you so badly, they would even cross into the dream realm to get to you."

"The truth is William," Michael sighed as he relaxed on the bench with Will. "You do need to get stronger, there"s something only you can do and a lot of people wanting you to do it." Folding his hands in his lap, Will saw he wasn"t done speaking yet. "I have to get you ready, to train you, and we can"t do that in this world. Don"t worry, Jonathan already knows what you have to do." He finished and waited for Will to respond.

"You want me to leave everything I know and come with you, someone I have never met before, with only your word that my father knows." Will said, clearly hoping his so called uncle knew exactly how crazy it sounded.

"You saw that fight William." he said as he reached in his pocket and summoned his sword. "You see my weapon." He quickly retracted it and put it back in his pocket. "And you understand that there are other worlds." Michael was obviously confused. "What else is there that you need to see in order to understand the situation you"re in?"

Will had to admit a lot of what Michael said was true. The fight had been crazy to watch let alone be near. His weapon truly wasn"t anything in which Will had ever seen before in his life. But the one thing that wouldn"t make sense to him was the fact that he was from another planet. Why couldn"t he defy gravity or shoot lasers from his eyes, and when Bianca pinched him it always hurt. Nothing about him was out of the ordinary to even a.s.sume he wasn"t from Earth. Will quickly shook the thought out of his mind.

"You make a very compelling argument Michael, but I can"t believe you." Will said with finality. "I only remember my life here, and even with the thought being completely awesome, I can"t be from an other world. I"ve only experienced this life." Will nodded to himself as to forcibly believe what he was saying.

"One second William," Michael said as he took a phone from his pocket. Dialing a number, Michael put the phone to his ear. "He doesn"t believe me." were his only words before hanging up the phone and replacing it in his pocket.

Moments later, Jonathan was walking across the field to the park. Will just stared, not believing his eyes. "Why would he be here?" He thought as Michael got up from the bench and put a hand on Jonathan"s shoulder. "It"s good to see you again Jonathan." was all Michael said as he went a ways away to allow the two to talk.

Sitting down on the bench, Jonathan stared straight forward with the exact expression he had on his face the moment his wife left. "Everything he has told you is true William." Jonathan said, stumbling with the last word. Will was shocked for two reasons. His dad had never once called him by his whole name, not even when Will got in trouble. The second reason was his dad just confirmed everything Michael said, which meant he knew everything from the beginning.

Will got up from the bench staring his dad in the eye the whole time. "You knew this entire time and you didn"t tell me?" Will asked, his temper rising with every word that left his mouth. "Couldn"t you have possibly told me earlier? Didn"t you even think I had a right to know?" He was over his breaking point, he could feel heat rising throughout his body.

"If I told you any of this before, would you have believed me William?" Jonathan asked as he continued staring straight forward, not daring to look at Will. "If you knew anything and actually believed it, would Michael have been able to protect you?"

"Whatever." Will sneered at Jonathan. "What"s done is done and apparently you couldn"t do better in letting your own son know what he was." Will walked over to Michael, he couldn"t hide his anger. "Fine, Michael you win, when do we leave?"

Michael stared at will for a minute, a look of disgust clearly evident on his face. "After everything that man over there has done for you, this is how you are going to leave him?" He said in a dangerous tone. "Wars were nothing compared to keeping you safe and you are just going to leave and not look back? You aren"t worthy of the name Carter." Will looked at his protector in shock, the man had been nothing but respectful up until now. When he looked back at Jonathan, the man looked utterly defeated as he walked back to his car.

All the years that Jonathan had been there for him raced to Will"s mind. Jonathan had tried his best to be both mother and father for him when Isabelle left, Will could only imagine how his father felt. He couldn"t leave things the way they were if there was even a chance he wasn"t going to see him again. Will raced to the car before Jonathan could get in it. "I know what you did and what you had to give up dad," Will said, not trusting his voice. "I just want you to know I"m glad for all of it."

Jonathan"s eyes suddenly teared up, he couldn"t speak right away. Instead he took something from around his neck and put it around Will"s. Then he took a necklace with a cross pendant and also put it around his son"s neck. "Never take these off Will," he said slowly, his voice was scratchy as he talked. "These will protect you no matter where you go." Will looked at his dad, tears flowing freely in his eyes. "Take care of yourself Will, and listen to Michael."

With those last few words, Jonathan got in his car and drove off. Will watched the car go until it turned the corner. When it was completely out of sight, Will looked down to see his father"s dog tags and the cross hanging from his neck.

On the ground was a black leather bag, much like the same material his jacket was made from. Picking it up, Will realized Jonathan had left it there for him. It didn"t surprise him seeing as though since he was a kid, he had always had a survival bag prepared by his dad as a just in case bag. It usually contained some sort of food, a change of clothes, and a toothbrush. Will held the bag, thinking of all he had said to Jonathan and hoping that it could all be forgotten.

Putting the bag on his back, Will turned to Michael. "So what"s next?" He said with a determined look.

"Now we go back to your house and from there, to your first training ground." Michael said as he started walking. Will followed behind a few feet. So much had changed within a day, it was hard for him to think straight.

Will and Michael arrived at the house in a matter of minutes. As he looked in the garage, as expected his father"s car wasn"t there. "It would have been nice to say goodbye before leaving," he thought to himself as he followed Michael downstairs. He didn"t know where his protector was planning to go seeing as though he"d already scouted out the entire house, and nothing looked like a portal to another world to him.

"We"re here," Michael said as he stopped in the middle of the hallway. Will looked in confusion as he saw the man put his hand on the wall in front of him, and orange flame erupted from it and a black obsidian looking door appeared in front of him. "No matter what you do, when you enter this door, do not look around. Just stare straight forward until you get there." Will nodded, still processing the fact that a door just appeared out of no where, he stepped forward.

As Michael opened the door, Will went through. "Best not to think about what can"t be explained at this point." He thought with a shrug as he took a plunge into the darkness.