Dragon made his way towards the waterfall. He stripped down until he was in his barest form. He then stepped over the cold stone.

The underground waterfall was formed by the river that run through the mountains. Dragon didn’t know the source of it, but he heard that it had the same source as the lake they normally basked in. This meant that it had great healing properties within it, as well as a great source of maximising one’s own ki.

Still, Dragon didn’t intend on fixing himself at first. He wanted to go in whilst his inner ki was still shattered, this way he could improve the strength of the shattered ki, and it would translate over to when he finally fixed himself. At least, that was his theory.

He sat under the waterfall, the force is it rushing down atop his head and his shoulders. He closed his eyes and then clasped his fingers against his knees. He clutched for a moment, wincing under the force of the waterfall, before then finally relaxing. He inhaled deeply.

Every so often the water would press harder against his body, causing him to shudder, but he remained vigilant and still.

His eyes opened as he stared into his memories, watching everything burn around him. The screams, the wailing, the terror filled him. His lungs expanded wildly as he clutched onto his knees, causing his knuckles to whiten.

The rage built it within him, but he forced it out of him. Inhaling the rage, then exhaling it. Yet it kept creeping back, into him, into his heart, and then deep into his soul.

He continued to repeat the nightmare, again and again. It lasted for seconds, then minutes, then hours.

Eventually, it turned into days.

The continual assault of the nightmares caused him great distress, but that was the point. He needed to go through it, over and over, so that he could find out more about what happened at the time. Did he miss something that could tell him who the true enemy was?

He wanted to know. There was a quicker way to know, he could always stab himself to find out, but he was too weak for that at the moment. He continued to plague himself with these nightmares until he had enough. Then he tried to find that place, the same place he always went to when it was all too much, the place with no noise, only a field of flowers.

He could feel it, the petals under his bare skin, the stems that tickled his sides. The warmth of the sun against his skin, he could bask under it for an eternity. Then he snapped out of it.

No.

He had to stop thinking. Whether it be darkness, or light, he needed to stop. That’s what his brothers were doing. They needed to stop thinking to increase their strengths. So did Dragon. Yet it was tough.

Still. Just because something was hard, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

Dragon’s muscles were beaten down by the water. It continued to crash against his body, and though he could feel himself grow weaker with each passing moment, he knew Tiger would be there right at the end to save him.

Just like he had not weeks ago, and just like he always did. So Dragon stopped thinking, he stopped thinking until Tiger woke him.

Yet… every now and again, there was a ping in the back of his mind. It was a question he had asked himself for a while now.

Why did Black Calamity kill Raging Tiger?

There was one thing his mentor had told him.

It was his responsibility at the time to do so.

Would Dragon have to kill Tiger in the future?

Could Dragon kill Tiger?