Jim awoke to the smell of eggs cooking on the campfire outside.  The candle that was lit the night before, had been snubbed out.  The sun was barely breaching the windows.  Jim rolled out of his bedroll and slowly made his way to his feet.  Groggy, Jim approached the front door and opened it slowly.  Sam was at the fire with some fresh eggs.  Jim took a step out of the cabin and a floorboard creaked under him.

"Mornin' sleepyhead." Sam greeted Jim.  "Got some fresh eggs for ya.  You're gonna need some protein today."

Jim wasn't sure what he meant, exactly, but he grabbed a plate from Sam and started eating.

"We don't want your friends where they are, any longer than they have to be." Sam took a bite.  "You're gonna show me, today, just how ready you are. If things go sideways during the jailbreak, I need to know you can handle yourself."

Jim wasn't sure he liked the sound of that.  Jim and Sam finished their breakfast.  Sam kicked some dirt into the firepit to extinguish it.

"Follow me." Sam told Jim, heading away from the direction of the river.

Jim, having no choice in the matter, had to trust Sam and followed him.

The two men walked through the forest, sounds were happening all around them. From the rustling of leaves in the wind, to little critters, hidden out of sight for their own protection.  The grass was thick under foot, the occasional twig snapping.  The sun was slowly rising in the sky, though it was only slightly above the horizon.  The rays from the sun pierced through the waving leaves.  A few miles away, a small clearing came into view.  Sam walked Jim to the  center of the clearing and turned around to look at him.

"I want you to hit me." Sam instructed, his face emotionless.

"What?" Jim asked, confused, unsure he had heard Sam correctly.

"You heard me.  Go on, take a swing, I'll give you a free shot." Sam again instructed.

Jim studied Sam carefully.  Jim knew very quickly that Sam wasn't messing around.

"I don't want to hit you." Jim said, still concerned where this situation was headed.

"Why?" Sam asked, staring him down.

"You aren't my enemy, in fact, I'm close to considering you a friend." Jim responded, hoping to defuse the situation, or change Sam's mind.

"Noble, cute.  Now hit me!" Sam was getting more aggressive.  "Right here, right side of the chin."

Jim backed up half a step.  Sam, staring him down, wild-eyed.  Sam took the same step toward Jim.

"No." Jim insisted, a mild sense of fear now coming over him.

"I said, hit me, you wuss!" Sam angrily shouted, this time pushing Jim.

"Stop pushing me, Sam!" Jim retorted, a little anger now rising in him from the physical contact.

"What are you gonna do wuss!" Sam again shouted, pushing Jim again. "There's only one way to get me to stop, captain, and you won't do it.  What are you waiting for, your friends to die, I said hit me!" Sam had reached peak shouting.

Sam had gone too far in his taunting, the thought of his friends dying because of him was too much.  Jim, being pushed and taunted again brought something out in Jim he hadn't known was there.  He pulled back his fist and swung hard, catching Sam right where he told him to.  Sam recoiled from the punch and took a moment to recover.  Sam rubbed his chin and started smiling.

"Good, now, was that so hard, Captain Jim?" Sam said, mockingly

"You don't have to call me that." insisted Jim.

"Why? It's your title isn't it? A man's gotta live up to who he is, and all I'm seeing so far is a scared little boy.  Although, I have to admit, You aren't quick to fight, you're quick to negotiate first. That's a good quality for a man to have.  But a man's also gotta know when the time for talking is over.  You should've hit me after the first shove." Sam spoke the truth.  "It's all good and fine to maintain your composure when a man's threatening you, and wait for him to make the first move, but you had no composure, I could smell the fear on ya.  I could see the fear in your eyes.  You're never gonna save your friends if you can't walk in there ready to throw down for all you're worth. Now hit me again!" Sam commanded.

"Again, really?" Jim asked, almost annoyed now.

Sam, again, pushed him.  Jim didn't hesitate this time, he pulled back his fist and took another powerful swing at Sam.  Sam dodged the punch and punched Jim in the stomach, this knocked the wind out of him.  Jim collapsed to his knees, but managed to get on one knee.

"Rule number one of fighting.  Your target can hit back, so make sure your strike counts the first time."  Sam instructed, reaching his hand out to help Jim up.

Jim grabbed his hand. Something inside him, from the same place that told him to throw the first fist, told him something else.  He took Sam's hand, and with a pivot of his bent knee, threw Sam on the ground.  In the process, Jim had returned to his feet.  He stood there, staring at Sam on the ground getting on a knee of his own.  Sam turned to look at Jim with another smile on his face.

"So, Jim, you do have a few moves in ya."  Sam said, getting to his feet.  "I'll give you another slab of that meat if you can take me down again." 

Some mysterious part of Jim gave him some strength at hearing Sam's challenge.  Jim's fists rose in the air, in a fighting stance.  Smiling, Sam raised his own fists.  The two men began circling each other.  Both Sam and Jim took turns, staring each other down, occasionally feinting an attack, triggering a defensive posture for a moment.  Jim took a swing at Sam.  Sam stepped backwards to avoid the punch.  Sam jumped back in to take a swing of his own.  Sam narrowly missed Jim's face as Jim dodged it, and came in with an uppercut that caught Sam off guard.  Connecting with the punch, Sam stumbled back a couple of feet, but didn't go down.

"Nice shot, but you're gonna have to do better than that to take me down." Sam taunted.

Jim felt a fire rising up inside of him.  He came in toward Sam and took quick strikes, left, right, then left again.  Sam dodged every one of them.  Sam stepped in and copied Jim's uppercut.  Jim stumbled and fell down, but was instantly back on his feet.  Jim felt himself growl as war started to take over his own body.  The two men continued trading jabs at each other.  Many jabs minor, causing no significant damage.  The odd stronger jab was traded, some dodged, some not.  Jim didn't let up, he continued forcing Sam to adjust his own position.  Jim saw his opportunity, there was a tree, no more than a few inches.  Jim knew Sam would find his back against the tree with nowhere to go.

Sam's back touched the tree but he showed no reaction.  Jim took his opportunity and threw his fist hard straight at Sam's face.  Sam ducked and Jim's fist hit the tree, his hand was now throbbing.  Sam went in for a punch of his own in retaliation, and Jim ducked, spinning around, and catching the back of Sam's leg, bringing him completely off of his feet.  Sam fell to the ground with a hard thud.  Jim, preparing to jump on top and continue wailing on him, stopped when Sam threw his hands away from him.

"Okay, Okay, I'm done." Sam panted.  "That was really good."

Jim could still feel the fire behind his eyes, the feeling of war still surging through his veins.  Sam could see the fire in his eyes.

"You feel that inside you?" Sam asked. "That's not something that's learned.  It's something engrained.  You've been taught how to fight.  Have you been holding out on me, or do you have some kind of memory issue?" 

This question snapped Jim out of his war-like trance.  He was back to reality and saw Sam standing there.  Jim nodded his head.

"You wanna talk about it?" Sam asked, unsure of what can of worms might be opened.

"Later." Jim responded. "Is that all we came out here for?"

"Not quite, follow me." Sam told him, motioning for him to follow.

Jim did as he was told and started following Sam out of the clearing.  The forest they were in, now seemed somehow different than before that fight.  Before, everything was kind of dull.  Now, there was a vibrance to everything around him.  The color of everything popped out more.  The grass and the leaves on the tree were more green.  The sounds of the forest became more apparent.  He could hear birds in the trees, unlike he had heard them before.  Things were somehow completely different, as if something that was once sleeping inside of him, had now awakened.  He didn't know how to feel about this, but he knew it couldn't be bad, being as aware as he was now.

"You had a fire in your eyes that I haven't seen in a good little while, Jim." Sam said, still making his way somewhere new with Jim in tow.  "It's not really a bad thing, in fact, it'll keep a man alive, so long as he knows how to control it.  I gotta be honest with you though, Jim.  Every man I've ever known who had that fire in their eyes ended up dead.  Maybe it was overconfidence, maybe it was lack of control, but none of them were what you'd call leaders.  They would've been more considered as soldiers,  trained to do one thing.  Kill.  If you're supposed to be this captain like you say you are, you're gonna have no choice but to control that fire, make it work for you, instead of you, for it." 

Jim really had nothing to say, he was still reeling back from that feeling.  The two men continued walking another mile or so before Jim could start to hear something.  Jim's ears pricked up.  He could hear flowing water nearby.  Jim looked around, but everything still looked the same, although, he did note that the temperature was getting noticeably cooler.  Sam led them to a group of thick trees.  Jim followed Sam as Sam started pushing the tree branches off to the side around them.  The sound of the flowing water became ever louder as they made their way through very thick trees.  The trees were completely surrounding them.  Jim felt very disoriented.  Sam pushed through the final set of branches, Jim right behind him.  The sound now became apparent.  They both stood on a cliff with maybe six feet of walking room in front of them.  To the left was a very large waterfall.  The waterfall was a crystal clear mixture of shades of blue and white.

"Go ahead..." Sam said. "Look over the side, I want you to see how far down this magnificent waterfall drops."

Jim looked at him with an 'Are you crazy?' look.  Sam started laughing.

"Go on." Sam again said.

Jim looked at him again, then slowly began creeping toward the edge.  Jim looked down and he noted the drop had to be at least a hundred feet, probably more.  The waterfall fed into a decent sized pond.  The water was a very dark blue.  The bottom was completely invisible.  There was no real way of knowing how deep the pond was.

"Stand on the edge, and I want you to take a very deep breath. Inhale through your nose for about seven seconds, hold it for about seven seconds, then exhale through your mouth for around seven seconds.  Just trust me here." Sam instructed.

Jim watched as Sam took his own advice, following the breathing patterns.  Jim couldn't see a reason not to.  He began breathing like Sam had told him.  Seven seconds in, seven seconds holding, and seven seconds out.  He continued to repeat this about seven more times, and he noticed his adrenaline begin to decline greatly.  As Jim focused on this breathing, he could physically feel the tension in his body begin to dissipate.  It was calming, peaceful.  It was the first real sense of peace that he'd had since the last time he was with Veronica.  He could remember himself lying in bed with Veronica, her warm body pressed against his own.  He could remember the love he felt for her in those moments.  Jim hadn't realized that Sam had stopped with the exercise and was simply staring at him, a smile on his face.

"What?" Jim asked, mildly embarrassed.

"I can tell that you've just had a spiritual moment there."  Sam's smile widened.  "It's called square breathing.  It's great for centering oneself; Feeling in tune with the world, and all of its creations.  What it does, better than anything, is remind you of what's the most important thing in your life.  You had a peaceful smile on your face.  Whatever you were thinking about, is where your true peace lies.  What's her name?"

"Veronica." Jim said.

"I'm assumin' that she's one of the captives out there.  A man is only ready to fight that strongly when it's something or someone that they truly love.  I envy you for that.  But, maybe one day, love will find me.  Until then, I do have one particular love."  Sam said, his smile turning into a daredevil of a grin.

"What's that?" Jim asked, unsure what Sam was talking about.

"This!" Sam shouted

Sam backed up a few feet to the edge of the treeline.  Sam then, full speed, ran at the edge of the cliff.

"Join me!" Sam shouted again.

Sam then took a flying leap off of the cliff and disappeared out of Jim's sight.  Absolutely stunned, Jim leaned over the edge and watched Sam as he plunged into the depths below.  He studied the water for a few seconds before Sam re-emerged.  Jim could barely hear a dull scream of joy from Sam as he gave a victory cry.  Sam cleared the hair from his face and looked up at Jim, waving for him to come down.

This man must be crazy, Jim thought to himself.  There was no possible way Jim could do that, was there?  Jim eyed the waterfall and the pond below where he could still see Sam, encouraging him to jump down.  Jim couldn't help but think he'd die if he followed him.  Then his mind went to Veronica.  What if that were Veronica down there, and she needed him.  He could take the leap then couldn't he? Surely, he could!  Jim decided that he needed to know for himself if he was capable of taking that leap.  He knew that he would go to the ends of the earth to save Veronica if he had to.  God save any man that got in his way in the attempt to save her.

Jim brushed the edge of the cliff with his foot.  Jim slowly turned around and walked over to the treeline as Sam had.  Jim turned around and eyed his situation.  He glanced over at the waterfall one final time, and pictured, in his mind, Veronica, in the pond below, desperately in need of his help.  He could feel that fire inside of him returning.  He started working himself up, thinking about Veronica in danger.  Jim then let out a primal scream unlike anything he had done before.  The scream was so loud that birds nearby were startled and flew away.  Jim started out in a dead run, the edge of the cliff a mere few feet away.  With all his strength, he kicked himself off the edge of the cliff and ‘swan dived’ off of the cliff and toward the watery depths below.