Author’s Note: Everyone has questions for Cress. Not even he has the answers, though.

“So… level with me. How good are you?”

Cress looked over at the fire elemental, shrugging. “Good is a matter of definition, and in most cases, I’d say it doesn’t apply to me. I am by no means perfect. I have a greater deal of control over my element than most. I think that is the most accurate assessment of what I am.”

“Yeah, but they tell me that your parents were behind a lot of… manipulation, and that they might even have been working for Aether. What do you think they were trying to do?”

Cress pulled himself to his feet. “I don’t pretend to know what went on inside their heads. Even their emotions were usually kept from me. A few occasions were clear and sharp and still sting—like when they found out I’d broken a mirror their excitement was almost overwhelming, especially since that was the first time I knew I had any sort of… talent for that. At least… it was the first time I recognized it for what it was. I’d been terrified by what happened and my hand wouldn’t stop bleeding, but they were ready to start jumping up and down and cheering. Sickening, really, when I think about it, so I try not to. They did put on a good show for a long time. The older we got, the less they seemed like loving parents and more like dictators, and signs of it were showing outside the walls of our house. Not all of it was clear, though. Most of that comes from hindsight. That is, as they say, a bitch.”

“I should take offense to that,” Moira said, and Cress laughed. He’d never have called her that, even as tough as she was. She was not one of those women it was easy to know, even having been her neighbor and leader for years and despite his empathic gifts, but he knew that description didn’t fit.

“No, you shouldn’t.”

Her lips curved into a smile, and Sherwin frowned. “You two better not be flirting.”

Cress gave Moira a look, and she obliged, sending a gust of wind to her brother that knocked him on his butt. Sometimes, Sherwin was the biggest idiot Cress had ever known. A part of him was tempted to keep up the “flirting” with Moira just to piss him off, but Cress had never been that type of person. He couldn’t pull it off for long enough, anyway. Moira was a good friend, she supported him and shouldered a lot of the burden of leadership, but that was all they shared.

It might have been easier if Cress was interested in her that way.

“Better your parents would have had something to say about that,” the fire rogue said, and Cress frowned as he looked back at him. “Well, your sister says you’re purebred water. Can’t imagine that they’d like the idea of you taking up with air.”

“They made it quite clear that I was only supposed to be interested in someone who was water, yes. The same went for just about everyone—they expected us to stick to our element. More purebreds. Not sure why, though. They didn’t exactly explain. They just ordered.”

“And they could order you around?”

“I could have killed them. I’m not a killer.”

“You didn’t leave, either.”

“And let Occie or any of the others deal with it without me? None of us were old enough to be without a legal guardian, and since everyone else’s parents were conveniently dead, ours had custody of everyone. Considering what they wanted to do to Enya, leaving was out of the question.” Cress rubbed the back of his neck. “If I had more resources at the time, I might have tried to get us all organized to leave, but we’d been fractured badly after Enya’s family died. Some of us were… scared of what she could do and wouldn’t have gone with her—and she was one who could not have been left behind. There were a few other rifts, too, though that was the main one.”

“Other rifts?”

“Stone and I had a huge fight, Terra wouldn’t speak to me because I’d hurt him, and it even got to be a bit of a division between him and Cress. It…” Occie shrugged. “It was a long time ago.”

“Right.”

Occie rolled her eyes. “If you must know, Mr. Nosy, Stone was in love with me. Always had been. He wanted to be involved with me, too. I… He was—It wasn’t possible, and I let him know that in no uncertain terms. Terra didn’t forgive me for that for a long time.”

Terra looked down at her hands. “One thing you never said in that whole tirade was that your parents had gone and betrothed you to someone else.”

“It wasn’t like I was going to marry the man my parents picked out for me. Ever. I didn’t need to mention that part.”

The firebug looked around at them. “Okay, since clearly no one’s going to go into the other division, I’m going for the elephant in the room… what did your parents want done to Enya?”

“She was never supposed to have survived that fire,” Cress said. “They were not interested in another generation of purebred fire elementals, and don’t ask me why because I don’t know.”

“You don’t.”

The words were almost an accusation, and Cress wanted to hurt the other man for his apparent perception. He’d grasped the concept that Sherwin still couldn’t seem to get—bastard—and understood. He knew exactly how things were.

“No. I don’t. Now if you excuse me, I have to go find some water and drown myself in it for a while. I suppose I’m stuck with the rain…”

“Not such a good idea. They can track that. I have.”

Cress grimaced. He turned to Moira. “Where are we? Anything nearby? It doesn’t have to be a lake. A river, a stream…”

“Give us a minute to find you something.”

“Guppy.”

Cress shook his head. “So help me, Enya, if you call me a fish again—”

“You promise to prove you’re not again?”

He frowned, not sure why she’d bring that memory of any of them up, and shook his head. “Just remember that I was always good at putting out your fires and ruining your day. I’m going to walk around and see if I feel anything outside.”

“I’ll come with you,” Occie said, coming to his side. He saw the worry in her eyes, wishing he could take it away, wishing Stone had listened to him when he told him to go and take her with him. She took his hand, and he forced a smile for her. “You know you shouldn’t even be on your feet after yesterday.”

“I’m fine. Or I will be once I’ve dunked myself in water for a while.”

“Liar.”

Author’s Note: Since the last installment, Disquiet, might have been seen before, I went ahead and posted two for this one today.

“No.”

Funny how that word was simple and yet so complicated, with so many different emotions behind it at any given time. Cress would know what they were even without the tone of voice, but no one knew when they were coming from him. Maybe Occie, but that was hard to say. Terra did not know. She never knew much of anything. She’d always had her head in the sand, Stone would say, and she wanted him to do it. All of this would be so much easier if he were here.

“You planning on waking him any time soon?” The fire rogue said as he watched Cress tossing in his sleep. “You said you wouldn’t discuss anything else while he was asleep, that he was the one that knew the most about what his parents had done to you and their connection to Aether, that we should all try and get some rest. I didn’t figure any of us would, but I’d swear I haven’t slept that good since before Maggie died. Since you don’t trust me and I’m not sure what to make of you, that… It’s…”

“We were all in the same room as Cress,” Enya said. “You’d be amazed how you feel after spending time around him. Another night without a nightmare. I should be happy about that, but… I’m going to end up killing him someday.”

“At the risk of setting you off again, I still think I could help. If waterboy over there gets back on his feet, maybe you could consider some training. Between me and him, we could probably get you past the worst of it.”

She shook her head. “No.”

Terra frowned. Maybe it was worth it, worth risking, but she didn’t know that Enya would ever accept that. She’d lost so much before, and Terra didn’t know that she’d want to use her abilities if she’d caused Stone’s death. In a way, she had, but not by what she’d done with her element. He’d moved to help her, and the agents had fired. She hadn’t gotten up a wall to stop the bullets, and he had been too distracted…

He was alive. She had to hold onto that. She could make up for her mistake once they had him back. She put a hand to her head. She shouldn’t have a second chance, and she didn’t deserve it. Not that she wanted her brother dead, but that wasn’t something that usually got “do-overs.” She shouldn’t have made any mistakes. She couldn’t afford to do that, couldn’t afford to lose anyone or give the agency a chance at them.

Cress grunted, and Terra looked over at him, watching him drag himself up so that he could lean against the wall. “Why does it always feel like I’ve got the worst hangover ever?”

“You know, even with the shirt, I wouldn’t have figured you for someone who drank a lot.”

Cress smiled. “What, you never celebrated anything in your life? We all turned twenty-one around the same time, and it was our first ‘legal’ drink that turned into… a few too many and some things done with the elements that should never be done again.”

Sherwin laughed. “Oh, some of them need to be done again.”

Moira shook her head. “The hell with that. That’s the one and only time I let you talk me into trying to cover up with the wind.”

“The guys reneged, too. Don’t forget that.”

“I didn’t,” Sherwin said. “I wasn’t a coward like someone I might mention.”

Cress rolled his eyes. “Do have any idea how hard it was to talk a very drunk Stone out of killing you for even thinking of looking at his sister or mine naked? I don’t think anything good came out of you trying talk us all into streaking that night.”

“Besides, it was cold.”

“Like Sherwin would have cared. He generates plenty of hot air.”

“You weren’t even there, Enya.”

Flint looked at them. “You’re all playing a prank on me, aren’t you?”

“Maybe.”

Author’s Note: Time for some of Flint’s thoughts.

Go with them? They were all suicidal as hell, and Flint wasn’t that stupid, not most of the time. True, he’d never seen anyone do what their water elemental could do, and that one had stood toe-to-toe against that bastard who killed Maggie and survived—more than once—but that didn’t mean that they would live through this.

Then again… They were the best shot he had at avenging his sister or making any kind of dent in the man’s organization. Hell, just the one would have been enough. Flint’s eyes went back to Washburne, asleep in his sister’s arms. When he first ran into them, the woman was the unquestioned leader, but then when Washburne got back to them, they seemed to share that role, and Flint understood that. They all said that the water was the most powerful one of their lot.

Hell, probably out of hundreds of lots. No one else Flint had run into over the years could pull off the kind of stuff he did, but then there was the woman.

Enya. Little fire. She could be just as talented, if she was willing to try for control. She had to be. Flint had faced off against plenty of fire elementals, and even though Maggie had always been more talented than him, he could counter everything she did to where it was a stalemate. The fact that Enya had killed what, three other fire elementals? All at once? No, she had a power the likes of which had to rival the water elemental’s. She just feared it more than he did.

If, though, he was able to work on moods and Flint could get her to work with him on control, they’d have more than a match for anything the head of Aether threw at them.

“I might be interested, but I’ve been tracking this bastard for a long time now. It’s not going to be simple, and you’re going to need a lot more than him,” Flint said, pointing to Washburne. “He’s good, but he’s not enough, not even with most of you to back him up.”

“What, you want to start recruiting all the rogues in the world against him?”

Weatherly snorted. “Yeah, ’cause that’s a good idea. We spent the better part of the last twelve years pissing them off when we made it so they stopped messing with the normals.”

“You never do anything to normals?”

“We have a few tricks we play, but we’re not killers. We don’t screw with normals just because we can. Sometimes Sherwin and I do a ‘magic’ show and some ‘levitation,’ but most of the time we leave that alone. Terra and Stone could make impressive carvings. Stone was better at it.”

“Don’t say was. He’s not dead.”

Flint frowned, wondering why that had come from the other water elemental and not the earth one. Of course, the earth one was still kind of… out of it. Flint knew how that went. His first month or so after Maggie’s death was a complete blur, a fog he didn’t want to remember.

“No bottling pure artisan water or anything?”

“We could have made a fortune doing that, I suppose, and a few times during a natural disaster, Cress and I helped purify the drinking water for people, but it can be taxing, and since he runs on a low battery in the first place—the empathic thing never shuts off—I refused to let him do it.”

“And he takes orders from you?”

“Cress might be more powerful than most of us, but he also took his responsibility for our safety seriously. He had a few decisions we disagreed with over the years, but on the whole, he did right by us. As much as he could, at least.”

“Except, of course, that we could probably have settled down years ago and might not have gotten noticed by Aether. Oh, and Enya wouldn’t have been exiled for twelve years.”

“Sherwin—”

“Actually, if he kept you together, he probably saved all of your lives,” Flint told them, getting plenty of frowns. “Aether seems to be finding more and more ‘rogues.’ That bastard is out to control all of us. Some of us he wants dead, some he apparently takes, and some he keeps hunting. Maggie and I were good enough to evade the troops for a while before he started coming after us. If we’d had a team, we might have held out longer. The fact that this water elemental crossed paths with yours when yours was still a kid means he’s known about him for a long time, and if he knew about him, there’s a good chance he knew about the rest of you. If you’d gone your separate ways, Aether could have picked you off one by one—or two by two. Same principle.”

“Or we were just the shield that kept him from getting to Cress all this time,” the earth elemental said, her eyes closed. “Not that Cress would have known that. His parents told him the bastard was dead.”

“They lie to spare his feelings?”

Oceana laughed, a sick sort of bitter half-strangled noise. “You’ve got to be kidding. How Cress felt never meant a thing to them. They didn’t do anything about the kids bullying him at school because they were waiting for him to break a mirror and free his abilities. Even before he did that, he knew when it would rain or snow, could always tell. Greedy bastards. They let him get hurt so that he’d feel like he needed what he could do with the water. They set us all up from the beginning, but he got the worst of it.”

“Damn,” Flint said. “You actually think your parents were working with Aether, don’t you?”

Author’s Note: Finally managed to get the name in there. 🙂

“I think that was everyone,” Moira said, rubbing her neck and hoping they’d managed to find everyone in the town that the water elemental had frozen. The locals were starting to stir, and a lot of suspicion would fall on them as soon as the denizens were over the shock. “We need to get a move on.”

Occie blinked, and Sherwin took hold of her arm, propping her up. She gave him a bit of a smile, too exhausted to do more. Moira had never seen her like this, not even after the hurricane, but she knew that this couldn’t happen again. “Not without Cress, and we still don’t know where he is.”

Sherwin nodded. “We also need to make a decision about what to do with… him.”

The rogue grimaced. “Thanks. A lot. I mean, I know I can’t stand against all of you, but I do have a name and a right to go where I please.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. We still haven’t figured out what you’re doing here or if you’ve been a part of any of this. You come warning us that Cress was in trouble, but what did you gain from it? Were you working with them?”

The firebug glared at her. “I might not be one of you, might be what you call a rogue, but I’ve got a conscience. I may want the other one dead, but I know I can’t accomplish that alone. Your water elemental might be able to, but I know I’m not that powerful. I’ve got limits. Besides, he killed my sister, and she was the stronger of the two of us.”

Moira let out a breath. “I’ve never seen anyone as strong as that bastard is. Cress probably comes the closest to him, but even he’s got limits.”

The rogue nodded. “He’s something else. Only other one I’ve seen who can mess with the rain. Managed to put out my lighter. Quite the trick. He’s not… I don’t know… related to the other bastard, is he? Because if he is—”

“Our parents were both water. I believe our grandparents were, too. We may be as much as fourth or fifth generation purebred water. Of course, he’s better at controlling it than I am. He’s not—” Oceana broke off, turning around. Had she more energy, she would have run toward the figure at the end of the street. Instead, she smiled, relief giving her more stamina. “Not dead, thank goodness.”

“Let’s get going,” Sherwin said. “We can grab him at the end of the road.”

Terra shook her head. “We haven’t decided what to do with him, remember?”

“Damn it, the name is Flint,” the rogue said, grimacing as he did. “Flint Astin, actually.”

Moira found herself smiling, shaking her head. She wasn’t the only one. He frowned, looking around at them. “Okay, that’s not usually the reaction the name gets. They like to laugh when they hear I’ve got a name that matches up with my element.”

“This is one of those moments where I get to say join the club,” Terra said, laughing. He continued to frown, and she just grinned wider. “I’m Terra Landon. Moira and Sherwin Weatherly. Enya Royston. Oceana Washburne and you’ve met her brother Cress.”

Flint shook his head. “Nice to know I’m not the only one who got cursed like that. Maggie, she had a normal name, nothing to do with her element, and she loved to rub it in my face that I got one that might as well have been a pun.”

“Thought you people knew when to run. Why are we standing around chatting?” Cress asked, and Sherwin moved from supporting Occie to her brother. Cress managed a smile, but Moira didn’t like the look of him, not at the moment.

“Waiting for you, for one thing. What happened?”

“To make a long story kind of short… we argued, I got mad, and when he wasn’t inclined to let me leave, I retaliated. His was worse, and I couldn’t counter the freeze on everyone, so I decided to take the civilians out of the equation. Storms make nice wild goose chases, don’t you think?” Cress stumbled, and Occie went to hold up his other side. “Tired. Going to be very incoherent soon.”

“I know. I’m surprised you’re on your feet. Or almost on your feet.”

He shrugged. “May have passed out for a while. Can’t remember.”

“Let’s get you in the car.”

“One… more… thing. Emotions… seem… genuine.”

Moira nodded. She didn’t know that they could afford to leave Flint behind, not now. “All right. Everyone in the car. We need to get moving. Cress bought us a bit of time, but not much.”

“You letting me go? No trapping me in the ground this time?”

“No, Flint. You don’t get to go free. We’re going to keep an eye on you for a while. You can either get in the car or get dragged after us by the wind. Choice is yours.”