The burn on my thigh hurts more than anything I've ever experienced. I slowly touch the seared skin and have to bite down on my lip to keep myself from screaming. I lean against an old supporting wall in the abandoned building and try to inhale something other than the stench of my own burning flesh. I risk a glance down at the seared chunk of flesh in my leg. I dive onto a bed of glass shards to escape another fireball that sizzles past my face. I scream in pain as the shards of broken glass stab into my hand and add more pain to my exhausted body. Blood from tiny glass cuts drips down my face as I pick up my head and stare at the man in front of me. He's on fire now, literally.
   I put my hands up and send a few measly volts of electricity flying into his chest. He doesn't even flinch. So much for a fair fight. I pick myself up off the glass shards and ignore the red liquid that seeps out of my hands and the wounds all over my body. I can't fight him; I can't fight the most powerful Guardian and win. I am just a weak Guardian who doesn't know the full extent of his own powers. This man has been trained in battle and his reflexes are as sharp as the butcher's knife.
   It seems so petty for us to be fighting. We're supposed to be out there in capes and spandex tights fighting crime. We're supposed to be fighting the bad guys, not each other. We're supposed to be the Guardians, protectors of Earth. Besides I didn't betray them, I don't have the energy to betray them to the villains. I wouldn't have done it because I would've ended up right back in this situation.
   I lash out with my fists and barely hit him in the chest. My hands burn as the top of my sleeve catches on fire. I desperately flap my arms around like a seal until the flames extinguish. I reach into my pocket and try to draw strength from somewhere deep inside of me. Come on, you can do it, dig deeper and find your strength.
   The man sends another fireball rushing towards my head. I sidestep to avoid frying myself. The man just laughs and kicks me in the stomach. I fall against a crispy wall and slide around on blood slicked glass shards. I struggle to get up.
   I am hurting all over now as I raise my hands and try to defend myself with my chosen gift of electricity. The man just smiles and sidesteps my small attack. He taught me how to fight so he knows my technique like the back of his hand. He is going to crush me like a bug.
   I reach into my other pocket and run my hand along the side of a flimsy little pocket knife. Maybe I can distract him and run or at least not die. I open the blade in my pocket and without warning sling it over my shoulder and at the man. It nicks his face, and creates a small cut above his eyebrow. He snarls angrily at me and wipes away blood from his eyes.
   I look up in fear at the man on fire. His skin is red and orange and flickers like a campfire, his eyes are black like charcoal, and he is uninjured except for the small cut above his left eye. It was only a fluke that I injured him that much; my knife caught him off guard. He never knew that I could throw knives. Quite frankly, neither did I.
   His hands burn into my throat as he lifts me up by my neck. He lets his fire extinguish and I finally see him for what he really is. My friend, my mentor, and now my killer.
   His dark eyes glare into mine and his hands tighten around my throat. I can't breathe! I need to breathe! I claw at his hands but his grip is like a vise. His voice is deep and steady with an undeniable hatred. He smiles at me, "are you ready to die student?"
   I shake my head and choke out a sentence. "No, no you don't understand! You can't do this without hearing my side of the story! I was framed, framed I tell you!" I know it's a waste of precious oxygen but I continue explaining my innocence. His grip tightens on my throat again; one sudden twist of his hands could snap my trachea and kill me. That death would be too easy and painless.
   "I don't think you understand Coda. You have made me angry and now you're going to pay. Do you understand? I am not happy about this, you have betrayed me. After all I did for you too; I can't believe my own student would do such a thing. You actually had potential too. It's too bad that you wasted it all for the other side. The other side that actually wants me dead, that wants our whole kind dead."
   "I didn't do it, Magnus. I swear I didn't betray you. You're my friend and I couldn't betray you!" His anger appears as a small fire that dances along at the corners of his eyes. "Please, you have to believe me." I feel his hands around my throat begin to heat up like the hot plates in my old science lab. So he isn't going to strangle me to death, he's going to make me burn alive. That's more like it, that's the painful death I was expecting from my old teacher. Hold nothing back when it comes to the bad guys, he always said, give them no mercy.
   "Coda, you brought this on yourself. You made me kill you." His hands fire up all the way and sear into my neck. I scream in pain but there will be nobody to hear me. I don't feel the pain anymore, just an uneasy sick feeling in my gut. I stare into his eyes and see his remorse for killing me. Suddenly, his eyes go wide and his grip around my throat loosens.
   A figure behind him appears, a bloody pocket knife clenched angrily in her hand.  She wipes the blood nonchalantly off her knife and turns to me with angry eyes. She didn't even bother to look at the body of her fallen mentor. "So what the others said was true. You're the one who betrayed us. You're the one who caused the downfall of the Guardians. I should've let Magnus kill you for what you've done to us."
   I brush my fingers against the deep burn on my thigh and grimace in terrible pain. "But you didn't let me die, that can only mean one thing.  Katrina what do you want from me?"
   Katrina frowns at me, "I had to see if the rumors were true. Apparently they are. I couldn't watch you die so helplessly because you're my friend. You're not one of us anymore, you've turned dark. Now that I know the rumors are true, I'm going to have to kill you. This time it'll be a fair fight. Your abilities versus my abilities. If you win I'll die, but if I win you die a horribly painful death."
   They think I'm the bad guy. Nothing I say will change their mind. I smile savagely; perhaps being the bad guy won't be that bad after all.