Read Online Renegade Reborn by J. C. Fiske - Free Book Online

others don’t have to.
    We need you. This world needs you. This island? It will be your therapy. This is how you’ll come back. Holding all that anger, all that guilt, all that pressure? This place will help get rid of it, give you some breathing room. What you’ve seen has changed you. Talking it out won’t help you right now, later maybe, but not now. You need action, you need to cut loose, and luckily there are plenty of things here ready to take it, and no innocents for miles around. To kill these Drakelings, these once former people, would be a mercy. They’ll thank you in the afterlife.
    It’s time to face what you’ve become, and to leave this island, it will require not some of what you are, not most of what you are . . . it will require all that you are . . .” Jackobi said.
    “Please, just one drink? One drink before . . .” Gisbo begged.
    “The drink, or the dream? You’ve lost your dream, so, you replaced it with drink. The answer is no. Good luck, Gisbo. Here’s a parting gift. You can make it up to me later.” Jackobi said, and with a thrown, sharpened star, one of the ropes snapped and left Gisbo swinging only by his left arm.
    “Whoa! Whoa! Hold on you guys! Rake, Rake buddy! Please, come on, you’re gonna let him do this to me?” Gisbo asked.
    “He’s your Sentry right? Guardian knows best.” Rake said, turning around for one last look.
    “We can’t force you to get better, Gisbo. Only you can do that. I’m a naturalist. Only the strong survive. You’re now a part of this island’s eco-system. Only the environment can save you now.” Jackobi said.
    “Save me!? It’s going to kill me!” Gisbo screamed.
    “Only if you let it. If you can survive this, face what Drakearon did to you, then Gisbo? There’s nothing on Thera that will be able to stop you, except, of course, me.” Jackobi said with a cocky wink.
    And with that, the two Shininjas left a cursing Gisbo, hanging and swinging like a morsel of meat, a treat, for the malformed, hungry offspring of Drakearon below.
     
    “Are you sure this is the right thing to do?” Rake asked Jackobi as they arrived on the shore of the beach, trying to ignore the terrifying chitters and chatters, and shrieks and roars behind them.
    “Right? There’s nothing right about this, but I have my orders from something, something I both understand, and don’t understand. It seems, my role of Sentry, is not yet over . . .” Jackobi said.
    “Whose orders?” Rake asked.
    “Someone I can’t not listen too. The Drakes aren’t the only things on this island. Something else is here, something, Gisbo needs, something only he can use.” Jackobi said.
    “Really?” Rake asked.
    “Something that will finally allow him to use the powers of the Phoenix, and become who he was born to be.” Jackobi said.
    “And how is he going to learn to use such power? Who’s going to teach him?” Rake asked. Jackobi only smiled and looked up into the sky.
    “We’ll have to wait and see,” Jack said. “Ready?”
    “Why did we walk all the way out here? We could have teleported an hour ago.” Rake said.
    “Now we can, we’re far enough, but if we did while still on the island, it would have given the Drakelings another trail of power to pursue besides Gisbo’s. No, my authority won’t let me. It wants the whole island after him.” Jackobi said.
    “Seriously? I’m all for tough love, but . . .” Rake started.
    “This authority, it knows him better than I do. It knows what he can take,” Jackobi said.
    “Why do I feel as if you’re not going to mention anything more?” Rake asked.
    “Because, you’re right,” Jackobi said, and with that, they both vanished leaving a black, webbed crater in their absence.

 
    Chapter Three: Natural Selection
     
    Gisbo continued to hang from his sole suspended rope, not even bothering to shake himself free. The skin on his left hand had begun to heal over the frayed rope. Any more shaking and it would rip free