A True Hero

  There are many amazing things happening around us. We try to understand them, but we fail. One of these things is that earth is the sight of meeting of two different worlds. The first contains life as we know it, but the other one is hidden away from our sites, but it really exists and we can't feel it or sense it, neither they. However, in order to maintain balance, some specific people in both worlds should know.
  In the other world, most of the kids who are born carry a special gift; they carry inside them an extraordinary power. However, they can only use this power when its source is outside their body, and the source of this amazing power is the birthstone of the kid; not any birthstone; it carries the symbol of the power held by the person. Nevertheless, the appearance of the stone put his owner in a great risk 'cause if the stone is destroyed, so is his owner. The people of this world are called Makeyans, and their world is called Makey.
  Makey was facing many conflicts; a Makeyan called Ozai was trying to conquer this world by driving all Makeyans to obey him, and be, in his mind, the greatest king ever who was able to unite all Makeyans, but with what prize?
  After years of destruction and poverty, the poor obedient Makeyans finally retrieved hope by the newborn. When this kid was born, the sun disappeared and the baby's hand was glowing like fire. This kid was called Nero. Ozai knew something has happened because his powers were gone in the moment the sun disappeared. His power, power of the ancients, was a great power to handle and it was difficult for him to understand why it disappeared those moments. Then, Lord Ozai remembered that he dreamt the previous night that he was sitting on the throne, and all of a sudden, he saw a woman giving birth to a baby. When the opened his eyes, his crown disappeared from his head and reappeared on the baby's and a flame- a large flame- burned him alive.
  Ozai was frightened, so he sent his soldiers to kill any newly born baby, or any pregnant woman. And, so they did, his soldiers made a great massacre and left neither new baby nor a pregnant woman alive. However, one had an invisibility power, so she used it even though it was forbidden for anyone to use his powers. The woman was called Kikyo, and she was the one who gave birth that night to the amazing baby Nero who had the power of the Phoenix and Dragon combined. The crazy thing is that Nero was holding his birthstone in his hand with the clear image of the Phoenix in the middle surrounded by a Dragon.
  Kikyo thought a lot, "What is the place that Lord Ozai won't think about at all?" After a long and deep thinking, she opened the gate that connected the two worlds and jumped through. She knew this secret because her father was one of the people who knew about the other world, and he taught her just in case. When she entered, she saw how beautiful it was and how great her son will be raised in this world.
  Passengers to the other world will obtain the gift of sensing things. This was what happened to Kikyo, who sensed that Lord Ozai was searching for every woman written on the list of citizens, so she had to go back to make sure that he won't look for little Nero. She started searching for a nice family to put her son in, and then she found two couples who seemed so nice. Therefore, she waited for the night and put Nero in a basket in front the door. She hided his stone beneath him and wrote the following letter:
    Dear Nero,
Hi son. I'm so sorry that I left you. You know, I had to do so to protect you from the evil Lord Ozai who is searching the entire world to find you and kill you. I hope you don't judge me badly. I love you very much and I'll be watching you grow all the time.
P.S. Don't leave your stone unprotected, or go anywhere without it.
                                                                            Your  mother,
                                                                                                                                                                           Kikyo
  Then she put the letter next to Nero, and knocked the door, and then she disappeared. A woman opened the door and found little Nero in front of her.
She yelled, "Dante, come here quickly..."
  Her husband came in a rush and asked anxiously, "what happened? Are you all right?" but he saw Ashanti looking in surprise downward, and when he looked, he saw the baby.
  Ashanti begged him, "can we keep him, my dear. Please…" Dante saw how much Ashanti loved the kid and her soul attached to him from the first look, so he agreed, "It's a great responsibility you know, and you'll be the greatest mother ever."
  Ashanti looked at him with her eyes full of tears, and she hugged him and thanked him, "thank you, Dante. You'll be a great father. I know you would."
  The couple entered with the new member of the family to the house. When they took him out of the basket, they noticed the letter. Dante took it and read it, so he knew this kid was special and must have a great destiny, so they decided to take extra care of him.
The years came by and the baby Nero became a student in 7th grade. It has been a tradition to take Nero to school in the first day by his mom. When the couple arrived, Nero wanted to step out of the car when his mom stopped him, held him by the hand, and said, "Do you have your stone with you?"
  "Yes mom," Nero said, "But why do I have to carry this stone with me all the time?"
"Only then I can be sure you're all right."
  Nero knew his mom was hiding something from him, but he didn't give it that attention or care; he stepped out of the car looking forward for his new first day at school.
Nero met his best friend Kosha right in front the school gate.
"Did you enjoy your summer vacation, Kosha?" Nero asked.
Kosha turned and said, "Hi Nero. Yes I did. What about you?"
"You bet I did."
'Rnnnnnnnnn…' the bell rang announcing the beginning of a new day. Then the couple headed to their classes hoping for a nice new day.
  When the bell rang for the recess, Nero and Kosha went to the playground. While they were walking together, they saw the biggest bully in school, Okotashi, hitting a poor little boy who refused to give him his lunch.
  Nero felt so angry; he felt a wave of anger agitating in his body waiting to be burst out and burn everything. All of a sudden, Nero's eyes became red, and he felt heat released out of his body. Then just to be surprised, Okotashi started to burn from head to foot. Only when Nero calmed down, the flames did. However, Okotashi was sent to the hospital as an emergency.
  Kosha was frightened, "What happened to you out there? I saw your eyes becoming red."
Nero didn't know what to say; he just didn't have the right answers. All what he came up with was, "I don't know."
  That night, Nero went home angry and confused; he didn't have any clue of what happened to him there. He was afraid to tell anyone, especially his beloved parents.
At dinnertime, Ashanti felt something wrong happened to her young Nero, so she asked, "How was your first day at school, dear? Did you make any new friends?"
  "Well, not really. I didn't make any new friends, and my only friend is frightened to talk to me or even get close to me."
  "Why is that? I thought you two were best friends and couldn't be separated. What happened today?"
  "I don't really know what happened to me during recess. When I saw Okotashi hitting that boy, I felt so angry. My eyes became red, and all my anger turned into fire at him."
Ashanti knew it was time to tell Nero the truth, so she turned to her husband and said, "Baby, it's time."
  Dante knew what she was talking about, so he went to their bedroom, opened the closet, and brought the basket and the letter.
  Ashanti looked at Nero a look full of love and said, "Nero, the day we found you, we found the stone and this letter with you. Please read it. It will explain a lot and answer most of your questions."
  Nero looked at both of them and couldn't believe what he has just heard. He started to walk back slowly until he hit the wall.
  "What do you mean 'when you found me'? Aren't you my parents?" Nero asked.
Ashanti looked at him and cried, "Sorry, honey, I'm not your real mother, but I took care of you like a real son."
  Nero was so frustrated; he felt he was no body, and his all life was a complete lie, so he shouted, "I hate you. I hate you both."
  Then he threw all the dishes off the table and broke them. Then he ran towards his bedroom and slept crying. What should he do next? Where should he go? Those questions were controlling his thoughts. He felt he was a total freak.
  The next morning, Nero woke up early. He saw that the letter was still in his hand, so he took a look at it. When he was through with reading, the shape of a phoenix was burned on one of his hands, and on the other one, it was the shape of a dragon. Then suddenly, a shadow started to appear out of nowhere. At first, Nero didn't know what it was, but when it talked, he jumped off the bed and wanted to run out of the room. However, the shadow stopped him and said, "Don't be afraid, dear. It's me, your mom, Kikyo."
Nero was astonished. He found it hard to believe, but then he collected some of his strength and courage, and asked, " My mother is a shadow?!"
  "No Nero. It's just a way to communicate." Then she added, "Today you're 12 years old, and thus you're more capable of controlling your powers; the power of the phoenix and the dragon. Today you'll see the world with different eyes."
"What do you mean, mom? I don't understand." However, the shadow's only words were, "Take care of yourself, dear, and trust nobody. Your adventure is about to begin," while she was fading away.
  Nero didn't understand what she meant, so he went downstairs, hoping to get some useful answers. When he reached the kitchen, he saw Ashanti washing the dishes. He apologized and asked for forgiveness, but she took the knife, and tried to kill him.
  "What are you doing? Why are you trying to kill me? Nero cried.
  "You must die," said the mother, and then she threw the knife towards him, but Nero quickly avoided it and ran. Then he saw Dante in the living room, beside the chimney. When he complained his mother's acts, Dante took the gun and shoot Nero. Then, his hand started to bleed. Nero didn't know what to do, he started to think, "What did I do to make them that angry? Even if I drove them angry, how can a mother and a father kill their own son? But I'm not their son, so that makes it easier. Oh, I hate them, I hate them both. Why did they take care of me if they don't love me?"
  Then the parents said together, "We tried to kill you last night when you were asleep, but a force protected you. I think it's gone now. Hahahahahaha," they laughed.
Nero quickly ran to the basement and locked the door, hoping this would stop them. However, they ran after him, and when he closed the door they said, "You can't stay there forever, and if you don't come out, we're coming in." Then they laughed their evil laugh, "Hahahahahaha", and walked away for sometime.
  Nero was frightened. How should he act in such situation? And what made the place unbearable, was the nasty smell spreading in the whole place. He thought it was a gas leaking, so he didn't gave the matter that importance. However, the smell became stronger and stronger that he couldn't ignore it anymore. He tried to find its source, and he followed it till he reached a large closet. When he opened it, his parents fell in front of him; they were murdered by a cold blooded person.
  Nero was shocked. He sat on the ground and started to cry a lot. Then he raised his head toward the sky and shouted, "Nooooooooooooo." At that moment, fire came out of him, burnt the entire house, and killed the fake parents. After that, Nero fainted beside his dead parents with his tears streaming down from his eyes.