I came back to myself––my present moment. I was lying on the floor of the bathroom. My head was turned enough that I saw a puddle of blood growing in size beside me. Its bright color a contrast against the white stone floor. I knew it was my blood. My god, there was so much of it. Must be why I felt like I was dying. But a part of me didn’t seem to care. A part of me still wanted to fight back.

My mind was brimming with the new memories. They felt like pieces of the puzzle that had been missing for far too long. More importantly, I remembered the training, the lessons my dad had given me. They are telling me not only to fight back, but I could fight back. Not just for him and to honor all that he had done for me, but for me and the life I still wanted to live.

My attacker had a tight hold on the towel around my neck. He was saying something, but I couldn’t hear it. The loud thundering of my heart too loud. Besides, I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. More threats no doubt. I’d make sure he choked on them.

I gathered myself as I determined the best way to extract myself from him. But it was like I didn’t even need to think, the movements just happened like they were part of me. The muscle memory from our special sessions had taken over. In one moment, the Protector had the upper hand, and the next he was staggering off me holding the side of his neck.

He stared at me in disbelief. I wasn’t sure if it was disbelief that I had found a way out of the killing hold he had on me, or because it was from delivering a series of moves I knew he knew I shouldn’t know. I was finally on even footing with this man, or mostly. He could still use his Dome-ni on me, so I knew I had to finish this fast.

His shock had given me the time I needed to pull my body from the floor. I vaguely recognized the fact I was in an immense amount of pain, but one of the other things dad had taught me in those special sessions was how to tune it out.

I did that now, and I placed all my focus on my opponent. I knew he would get over his shock soon, so I didn’t waste any time on my next set of moves.

Either he didn’t see it coming, wasn’t expecting it, or both. The side of my palm came up against his right temple. Hame stumbled back, which left an opening for me to come around to give him a forward thrust with the tips of my fingers that sunk right into his diaphragm.

I heard the sharp in take of his breath. And I knew it would take him at least a few seconds to recoup, but it wasn’t enough, so I brought another side palm to the side of his throat. Then followed that up with an open palm thrust to the center of his chest.

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It was too much too fast, and the mountain of muscle went down hard. I watched as Captain Hame toppled backwards and crashed into the floor.

I didn’t do a victory dance yet. He could still recover and he had his Telekinetic Dome-ni, which so far, he’d been too disoriented to use. That wouldn’t last long.

I heard dad’s words come to me from my released memories. “Only a small percentage of those with Dome-ni have what you would consider aggressive talents. Most are passive, but it’s the aggressive that is the most difficult to deal with. The only way to get the upper hand is to be brutal. If you can’t or won’t kill them, then keep them off balanced and knock them out.”

I stood over the prone form of the Protector. I could see it in his eyes as we locked gazes for a brief moment. There was murder in them. If he had another chance, he would most definitely kill me. So without waiting a second longer, I pressed two fingers to each side of his neck, finding the spots my dad had shown me, and pressed––hard.

It was the equivalent of doing a choke hold without the choke hold. And it was a bit faster. In four seconds, Captain Hame’s eyes rolled back into his head. He was out. I kicked him in the side just to be sure. He didn’t react.

I sighed in relief as I stood up. I was breathing hard and the room started spinning all of a sudden. I put a hand up to the wall to steady myself. That’s when I noticed the blood on my hand and arms. I looked down and most of me was covered in dark crimson. Where was it all coming from?

Sharp pain made me look downward. That’s when I saw the gash in my side and a piece of glass sticking out. I remembered the shattered shower. A piece of it now sticking out of me.

I needed to get help and fast. The amount of blood told me I didn’t have much time. But my knees were weak and refused to hold my weight any more. I tried to walk forward, but I only found myself falling to the floor. Dammit. Anger rushed through me at my own body rebelling against me.

“Highness!” I heard someone exclaim.

I looked up to see Dur-rele at the bathroom door. He looked utterly dumbfounded and in shock as he looked to Hame, and then to me. “What happened?”

My mouth opened to answer, but no words came. All I could do was lay on the floor and bleed out. My body shivering on the cold floor, but I was pretty sure the shivering wasn’t from the coldness of the stone I was laying on. I was going into shock. It wouldn’t be long now. I could feel a shadow reach out to claim me.

It was strange. I should have been upset that I was dying. But right now, all I could feel was relief that it was all over, that maybe I could finally just relax and let everything go.

This time I had given it my all, and I had done it for the right reasons. I had done it for me. I had done it for dad. A part of me was sad I wouldn’t see him again, or the rest of my family, but at least if I was dead, no one would have a reason to go after my family or Earth. They would be safe.

It was what I held onto as the blackness came to claim me. It was okay that I was dying, if that meant everyone else would be safe. So I let the darkness take me and I did not fight it. And as the black consumed me, for the first time in a long time I felt completely at peace.