Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"Is healing a superpower?" demanded Bin An Sha as he turned around to look at Wang Chao.

"Yes," replied the other man, his face impassive.

"Good," grunted Bin An Sha as he turned his attention back inside of himself and the voice in his head. 'Tell me what to do.'

'I already did,' answered the voice. 'Reach down inside, grip the green flame, and let it completely engulf you.'

'If I do that, will it hurt Li Dai Lu?' asked Bin An Sha, more than a little worried about the woman slumped in his arms right now. He looked at Liu Wei, who was holding the lower half of her body, and the other man just nodded at him.

"You do what you need to do to help her," said Liu Wei. He tried to bring the upper portion of Li Dai Lu's body back onto his chest to give Bin An Sha the ability to do what he needed to do, but the other man didn't like the empty feeling of her not being on top of him.

"I got her, don't worry," growled Bin An Sha as he took her back into his arms. He would allow the other man to hold onto her waist and legs.

"You are going to need to learn how to share," said the giant of a man from over Bin An Sha's shoulder.

"I don't share well," he sneered, looking at the giant. He looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before.

"Learn, or you won't like the consequences."  Ignoring the other man's statement, Bin An Sha concentrated on the green flame inside of him.

'Don't worry, this flame is also one of the Queen's, just a long lost one,' said the voice inside of him. With that reassurance, Bin An Sha gripped the fire in both hands and brought it up to his chest in a hug.

The pain was absolutely excruciating. It felt like there were millions of fire ants crawling all over his body, biting their way into his bloodstream.

'Hurts, doesn't it?' demanded a female voice from inside his head. Bin An Sha opened his eyes only to see a beautiful throne room with a long red carpet leading to two thrones. The largest one looked to be made of ice, while the second one was made of swords.

'I honestly didn't think I would see you in this life,' chuckled the voice, and a beautiful woman in a blood-red dress appeared on the second throne. 'It's been centuries. What name do you go by now?'

'I am Bin An Sha,' he replied, gritting his teeth as the flames continued to tear through him.

'Refined Assassin?' the woman stood up and started to walk towards him. With each step she took, his heart began to beat faster until it was practically hammering out of his chest when she came to a stop right in front of him. She let out a scoffing sound as she studied him. 'I remember you when you were nothing more than a mama's boy.'

'I don't know my mother,' growled Bin An Sha, more than proud to wear the mantle of an orphan. Everything he had in this life, he took with his own two hands. And he would take the woman in front of him with that same determination.

'Make no mistake, I might look like her, but I am not Li Dai Lu,' sneered the woman as she turned around with a swirl of red. 'You can call me Violence like the rest of them do.'

'Hello, Violence,' said the voice from inside Bin An Sha, surprising the other two people.

'Ah, the crybaby can talk, how cute,' replied Violence as she went to sit back down on the throne of swords.

'It has been a few centuries. A lot of things have changed,' replied the voice as sweat started to appear on Bin An Sha's face. He felt like he was being completely destroyed from the inside out, and yet here were two voices having a very pleasant conversation.

'Maybe we can do this another time, War,' growled Bin An Sha as he went weak in the knees, dropping to the ground in front of the thrones.

'War? He has convinced you that he is War?' the woman, Violence, burst out laughing, her head flung back, completely unable to contain her mirth. 'You were always jealous of War.'

'If that voice is not War inside of me, then who is it?' growled Bin An Sha, not at all impressed. If it was War, then he could simply kill Wang Chao and take his place. But if he wasn't War…

What place was there for him?

'Yeah, you always wanted to know that, never happy with the place that you had,' sneered Violence.

'Then you know who I am?' demanded Bin An Sha as his vision started to waver.

'Of course, I know who you are. But like the rest of you, that revelation will come when it comes. Have fun! Oh, and stop crying to Mommy. It really isn't an attractive trait in a grown man,' said Violence as she waved her hand at the man.

'I told you, I don't have a mother!' yelled Bin An Sha as his vision turned green and the throne room vanished.

-----

I woke up slowly, the best way possible to wake up. Not bothering to open my eyes, I stretched my arms up over the top of my head and felt the pops in my spine. I moaned in happiness as I then wiggled myself even further under the pump covers and pulled them back over my head.

"I can only assume that this means you don't want coffee?" came a low, deep voice beside me. I turned around and saw Wang Chao sitting in the bed beside me, his back resting against the headboard.

"I always want coffee," I replied, not mentioning the fact that he had left me. At least now he was back, and, with the way he was being, hopefully without the extra soul.

"War is gone," he said reassuringly as he gently reached down and tried to smooth out my unruly bedhead. Ah, the man who read my mind every minute of every day was back. How nice.