His assessment of Aria, Jacob chuckled as he thought. It used to be his favorite past-time, but he had been doing it less and less ever since he came to the academy.
"Jacob?!?! Are you even listening?" Aria called out. She looked quite irritated. Another one of his favorite past-times, irritating Aria. Jacob chuckled as he said, "Sorry, I zoned out. You were saying?"
Aria shook her head in exasperation. "I wasn't saying anything. You had said an earth-shattering thing, which was the reason why I jumped up." she said, remembering the recent disaster and hoping she hadn't done anything to set her recovery back.
"Oh yeah." Jacob said, remembering what he had been talking about. It was weird. He hadn't been able to think of anything other than that night and the following morning for the past week, but the time he had spent with Aria in the past two days. He kept remembering happy times whenever he was around her. Jacob pulled himself out of his thoughts and said, "Yes. As I told you, I tried really hard to lose myself to rage during that fight."
"Why on earth would you ever want that!!! Do you know that you could have seriously hurt Helen if you actually did lose control that night. And it would have been next to impossible to get you back." Aria exclaimed, infuriated with Jacob for wanting that.
Jacob nodded and said, "I know. I know all that. It's just . . . . when I saw all of them rush out from the shadows and exclaim, 'There!! It must be her! She's wearing pants.' I tried to protect Helen." Aria's breath hitched. Pants?!? But she didn't say anything and let him talk on, "I had no idea what was happening or who these people were. But I knew one thing, that Helen was in danger. And I fought! Oh Aria. I fought tooth and nail to make sure they would never reach Helen. But it barely took two of them to take me down. I saw someone knock Helen out and heard her scream as I went down. And I was so angry!! So so angry!!! I tried, I tried so hard for my rage to take control. But it never did."
Jacob seemed to deflate as he added, "And do you know what I thought as I hit the ground and darkness washed over me? I thought, that this would have never happened if it had been either you or Scott there with Helen." Aria widened her eyes and Jacob nodded, "You guys are the best bendors in the academy. Either of you would have been easily able to protect Helen from them. Hell Aria, I'm willing to wager you actually did defeat them."
There was silence in the ward for a few minutes. Realizing that Jacob was waiting for her to say something, Aria opened her mouth. But what she thought of, didn't seem like what Jacob wanted to hear at that moment. But not being able to think of anything else, she went ahead. "Never ever wish that. Neither for yourself or the people you love, and not even for your worst enemy." she said.
Jacob looked up surprised. Aria shook her head and said, "Letting rage take control of yourself is not a fighting tactic."